Submitted 1 year ago by ValueSubtracted@startrek.website to startrek@startrek.website
An accident while investigating a time portal sends Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Bradward Boimler through time from the 24th century, and Captain Pike and his crew must get them back where they belong before they can alter the timeline.
Written by Kathryn Lyn & Bill Wolkoff
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
My expectations for this one were high, but I’m really impressed with how well they pulled it off. Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid did a great job of dialing their performances back just enough, and the SNW cast went just a little bit broader.
Boimler exclaiming “RIKER” as he hopped on the saddle had me howling. Frakes is such a sport!
I saw somewhere that the actor improved that line which means he blurted it out with Riker standing right there which feels totally in line with the tone of the episode they were shooting. It's funny to me on so many levels.
Yep, they confirm it in Ready Room. Apparently Frakes’ wife was dying from laughter watching the episode when that happened.
That honestly makes it’s so much better. I’d love to see a behind the scenes for this episode!
I cannot believe they had Boimler and Mariner move like physical cartoon characters and pulled it off that well, holy shit. We absolutely lost it when Boimler was tangled in the control panel
Frakes is, in addition to an iconic Actor, the best Trek Director of the modern age. 11/10.
Sooooo many people that never watched Lower Decks are going to be asking why there was a Kola in the opening and I’m delighted.
“Why is he smiling? What does he know?”
I watched lower decks and I’m also confused
I think it’s s1e4 of lower decks
I missed the koala! When does it show up in the intro?
Poor Christine Chapel! Now she knows what the audience has always known: her relationship with Spock is ultimately doomed. Plus a delightful mix of guilt and fear that she could unwittingly cause Spock to never measure up to the vague but crucial future that Boimler mentioned to her in the turbolift.
That suuuuuucks.
I really didn’t expected the emotional moments, but they were all done so well
So Boimler inadvertently causes Nurse Chapel to end her relationship with Spock and encourage him to go back to T’Pring?
OMG! They managed to make that scene just so hilarious and poignant at the same time. Watching her facial expressions as she realizes what Boimler is telling her made me want to just scream at him to shut the fuck up and slap the shit out of him…but he’s just being dear sweet clueless Boimey. :(
Theme-wise, I think they’re maybe setting up a comparison between Pike knowing his doom and Christine/Spock knowing their relationship is doomed. Knowing that, what do you do in the meantime?
HE DOES THE WALK
My wife went nuts when he did it and she’s not even into this like I am.
My face hurt by the end of the episode. I had no idea I was smiling the whole time. It really was that perfect mix of physical comedy but down to earth. It reminded me so much of The Orville. Definitely one of those I’ll go back to watch again.
My face hurt by the end of the episode. I had no idea I was smiling the whole time.
Is that you, Mr. Spock?
I just had a smile on my face throughout the entire thing. The intro and outro were such a nice touch!
Loved having a Sunday morning cartoon 🖖
This episode was way better than it needed to be. I was genuinely moved seeing Una’s reaction to the knowledge of her being the “poster girl”, as well as the reaction of the Orion captain at the end.
Seeing Boimler and Mariner in this context really drives home how much Lower Decks is essentially “what if Trekkies could serve in Star Fleet” and it worked so well!
Especially the poster girl part being how she (and her lawyer) presented her self in the trial in ep2
Anyone else see Boimler do the Boim-walk to get away from Una the second time with Mariner there? I did not realize human hips could move like that.
My wife was crying she was laughing so hard from that. It was perfect.
Yes! I did the Dicaprio point at my tv when he started speedwalking.
It was … the best of both worlds.
Thoughts and observations as I watched over at the “other place”, special Saturday night/early Sunday morning edition:
Of course Ransom calls Una the hottest first officer in starfleet history.
It’s because they are married in real life. Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn that is, not Ransom and Numero Una.
Oh, according to the entertainment weekly article Tawny absolutely demanded a scene with Uhura (or at least pitched it to the writers)
“WHAT THE HELL IS IN THIS THING!”
Honestly if there wasn't a mention of Pike Peak why are we even here?
The danger with these "very special fun episodes" is that they can be confined to being just that. But what elevated this episode is how it used the time travel/crossover conceit to foreshadow, progress and pay off SNW character arcs, including Chapel and Spock's ultimately doomed relationship (something that I've previously said could be incredibly poignant, if handled right), Number One's legacy, and the way Pike confronts his fate. I hope the musical episode does the same.
They also tied in to Tendi’s story on LD (her constant reminding to people that Orions have a culture far beyond pirating), even though we didn’t see her in Live Action.
Are Orions now the designated species for calling out how essentialized Star Trek aliens tend to be? Because we have D’vana Tendi, the somewhat obscure Ensign Harral from Discovery, and now the crew of the D’var. You can argue the last one’s just an extension of Tendi’s character arc, but still, that’s three series that have touched on this.
The hidden line in the episode is that the crew knows they end up as historical icons of Starfleet and thus the line ‘I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.’ this applies to the crew now. It allows them to be more confident in their decisions and become the icons they are meant to be. This episode likely has one of the largest impacts on the character direction of the crew going forward.
They NAILED it. They, somehow, took the loving but self aware fan service of lower decks and jammed it into SNW which has been the most consistent reboot back to the core of this series. This was absolutely some of the best show writing I’ve seen in a very long time.
It really was perfectly done. I loved every minute of it.
This 1000%
This episode is one of the best episodes in the modern era of Trek, it’s lighthearted it’s funny it celebrates Trek and it’s done so tastefully that I genuinely have nothing bad to say about it.
Plus that line at the end where they tell Una ad astra per aspera and that’s why boimler joined Starfleet is just the right kind of emotions.
Honestly, they smashed it in this episode and ofc the 2d animated intro was chefs kiss.
This episode is one of the best episodes in the modern era of Trek, it’s lighthearted it’s funny it celebrates Trek and it’s done so tastefully that I genuinely have nothing bad to say about it. It reminds me of Trials and Tribble-ations.
Alex Kurtzman must have hated this episode, it is the exact opposite of what he wanted to do with Trek. Also why fans love it, because Alex was always wrong about what Trek is about and why it matters to the fans.
Why is it the exact opposite of what Alex Kurtzman wants to do?
Fun episode. I lost track of all the references but I’m particularly delighted that they brought up the NX-01 and her crew, and that the NCC-1701 crew (what even comes after the dash?) is gushing over them, like we all are gushing over all the different Trek crews.
I deeply appreciated seeing some on-screen Enterprise love, because I feel like Enterprise gets a bum wrap.
To be fair, since it’s been on it got an Easter egg reference in the Kelvin-verse and has been mentioned or referenced in most of the new shows from S1 of Dis on. Not only did they name drop Archer in that, they actually expanded on the MU episodes of Ent.
Saw this at the Comic-Con screening and it works better than I expected, especially the physical comedy. The exaggerated cartoon antics are still there, but toned down just enough to not seem out of place in live action.
Holy smokes, I can’t believe how awesome that thing was that I just watched. I’m awestruck at the talent it must have taken to pull it off so perfectly.
This was incredible and everything I could have hoped that it would be. 11/10, no notes.
The only thing I wished was for the Enterprise crew to have been in TAS style art animation at the end. But yeah. Great show!
Still kind of hoping that one year they do a “Trials and Tribble-Ations” tribute episode where they go back to the Enterprise during TAS and splice in the LD guys in in the TAS style.
They could call it “Those Animated Scientists”
I loved all of it! I liked how they had fun with the crew being in the 2D Lower Decks style at the end, poking fun at it with the dialogue. Then they blamed it on the drinks, so it wasn’t really a fourth wall break.
Frakes has directed two Orville episodes (so far), and arguably brought his experience over to SNW, as Boims and Mariner were fan[boy|girl]ing about, it had serious “Orville” vibes to it. I don’t think they could have picked a better director.
The bit where Ortegas and Uhura were gushing about the NX-01 crew and suddenly realizing that’s why their guests were gushing was priceless.
“What would come after the dash?”
And both Jack and Tawny crushed it as the live action versions of their characters. (Both were over-the-top, and that was the point).
I wonder if that “Riker!” Gag was improvised and if so, how long it had Frakes (and/or the crew) laughing.
The LD-style intro was chefs kiss perfect. The coda was, likewise, a perfect capstone.
I didn’t realize Frakes directed two of the Orville episodes, but makes a lot of sense. He did an amazing job bringing the charm of The Orville into this episode. RE: the intro…YES!!! I was about to skip it, but so happy I watched it. I loved the space-monster sucking on the ship! It is my favorite part of the LD intro, so happy to see it here.
Watch the Ready Room episode! The Riker was improvised!
That was amazing, on par with Trials and Tribble-ations for a crossover. Loved how well they integrated Boimler and Mariner without losing any of the character as LD has presented them.
I’m not racist, one of my friends is Black Orion!
The opening sequence is chef kiss
It took my longer than I’m comfortable to admit to notice it was animated and not the usual intro.
i mean they are both animated. They tried to film on location but the camera operator keeps getting burned in the nebula.
I'm seeing lots of positivity here, so I'll be the boring one. I enjoyed it but they didn't quite land it for me. Things that would have been funny in an out-and-out sitcom felt wrong in the context of a 'serious' Trek show. For example, Mariner and Boimler having a really inappropriate discussion about how hot Spock was, while Spock was right there, during a senior staff meeting - it was a bit too jarring for me. You kind of got the feeling the 23rd century officers were all left wondering why 24th century Starfleet is so unprofessional. I think they got this the wrong way round by making it a SNW episode instead of a Lower Decks episode.
Separately though, given that we know Spock and Chapel don't make it, I like that in the two episodes since they got together they have hinted at two separate reasons why they might split up: first the possiblity it's triggered by them having different attitudes to reporting the relationship to Starfleet, and now Chapel's Boimler-induced insecurities about whether she might hold Spock back from doing something great with his life.
I think Mariner was just in true form. Nonchalant and flippant. The cultural differences are huge especially the technology they’ve deployed 130 years since the NCC-1701. The way Mariner casually suggests just making more of the element like it’s getting a glass of water from the replicator and Boimler gives her a hard side-eye gives you an idea just how different their day to day lives are. Boimler was able to reconfigure the ship and navigate it on his own because the Enterprise is just so archaic by comparison to the Cerritos.
Best episode ever. 11/10, I’m still coming down off the high. Right up there with the LD DS9 ep and the last couple episodes of Picard. Peak modern Trek.
I can confirm that this episode is live on Crave, as well as Paramount+ in the relevant regions.
What is up with that? It’s not supposed to be out until Thursday. That’s a heck of a release date slippage.
They released earlier to coincide with screening it at SDCC.
We were able to watch and record the ‘Special Presentation’ on CTV Sci-fi channel. It did however make us watch every single ad, with a ‘skip is not available for this episode’ message.
Always good to get the full television experience.
I enjoyed it, fun and different and the ending did make me laugh with Spock’s arm. I found I was less invested in the story as I was focused on the character interactions. Overall, I’m fine with it and it didn’t have to be anything that is not trying to be.
Wyrm@startrek.website 1 year ago
My favourite line in the whole thing is right at the end when Commander Jack Ransom (played by Jerry O’Connell) walks past the poster of Lieutenant commander Una Chin-Riley (played by Rebecca Romjin) and calls her “The hottest first officer in Starfleet history.”
For those who don’t know, the Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romjin are married to each other.
eva_sieve@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I thought it was weird and a touch sleazier than we normally see from Ransom, but out of universe that is very sweet!