"Through the Lens of Time" was one of the silliest episodes yet [Spoilers]

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Kirk@startrek.website⁩ to ⁨startrek@startrek.website⁩

Yes I know I’m behind everyone else!

First the away team spends a long time debating if they should proceed or… step outside for five seconds to call the ship. They ultimately decide that stepping outside for five seconds is not feasible.

But then literally one minute later Ensign Gamble is somehow beamed up. Presumably they must have called the ship to do this? Did they just… leave out the part about the (now obvious and real) danger? Was there a scene where Pike said “ok yeah his eyes are gone but you can keep going”?

Then later in the episode the away team spends a long time talking about trust and friendship while debating if they should walk on an invisible walkway instead of just like, I don’t know, tapping it lightly with their toe or throwing a pebble on it first?

The Ensign Gamble B-plot was good and freaky and featured some great acting by everyone involved. But the A plot felt like it was vibe-scripted! I love SNW but come on.

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.website ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Hey I’m also behind everyone else too, I’m glad to see a chance to chime in.

I consider this to be the absolute best “red shirt” episode yet. These are my reasons.

Ensign Gamble was introduced in prior episodes; no last-minute-hey-meet-airiam contrivances.

The episode starts with Gamble reading his log, as though he is framing the entire episode and foreshadowing his survival.

The threat was menacing and inscrutable, like an Armos with better presentation. But also sad, Gamble merely picking up that orb shows how fragile life can be even in the space future. He just gets iced for no good reason like Yar, because ultimately space is scary and dangerous.

Dr MBenga suffers more trauma and loss, as he should. Every redshirt was probably somebody’s protege and certainly leaves void we rarely get to see ( eg TNG Lower Decks). Closest runner up is Trip getting all tore up over ENT casualties.

This is how to kill an away team member and have me care about it.

source
- otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  
  gets iced for no good reason like Yar
  
  Hey, now. There was a reason, it was just off-cam. 😜
  
  source
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I think “vibe scripted” is harsh. The writers were bumping against the restriction that they need ::: spoiler spoiler Chapel blood next to anybody when they enter or exit the place. That’s why the alien buys it. Scaredy pants tries to go out on his own and gets fried. They wanted to avoid another entrance/exit on screen to keep us guessing how this Star Trek Inception works. :::

It’s a version of “commander, you better take a look at this.” It keeps the suspense up for the audience as Riker saunters over, maneuvering over multiple chairs, to take a look at the corpse of the mortal enemy of the federation. In a real military, Worf would say something like “heads up, Romulan casualties on the premise, everybody be on the lookout.” That’s to prevent the commander or anybody else from getting shot by a possible half-dead Rom in the rubble. But that’s not great television. It’s just script writing 101.

source
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I liked that episode quite a lot, but it definitely coasts on pure vibes in places.

source
- lordnikon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  It was a D&D one shot strong mad mage energy.
  
  source
crazycanadianloon@startrek.website ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
What I find particularly egregious in their decision making is that after Gamble lost his eyes, Beto is still hanging around. Like, helloooo? Film making student that has 0 training in anything remotely related to this, get back onto that ship IMMEDIATELY.

source
- ILikeTraaaains@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I didn’t questioned that, I saw him like those cameramen that were tasked to document the front lines during the WWII, or the journalists that go to the current conflicts.
  
  source