Logline
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
L O V E I T
I’ve only seen one episode of Lower Decks (the DS9 one) and this was a pretty good crossover I must say. Now cross over Strange New Worlds with other shows and characters from the Trek legacy.
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.
I actually think Lower Decks is closer to the core of Star Trek than SNW. I mean, you couldn’t do a “the enterprise got pregnant” episode in SNW
SNW has been continually frustrating me by almost being great trek but continually falling short. Like, that prime directive episode on the forgetting planet was great, right up until the captain decided to flagrantly ignore the prime directive and destroy a culture’s individuality
It really was perfectly done. I loved every minute of it.
This 1000%
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.
I thought it was weird and a touch sleazier than we normally see from Ransom, but out of universe that is very sweet!
I did not know this!! Thank you!!
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, simply by trying to make the two of them happy.
That suuuuuucks.
So Boimler inadvertently causes Nurse Chapel to end her relationship with Spock and encourage him to go back to T’Pring?
Predestination paradox. In fact the entire thing is likely a predestinaiton paradox. “Activated 120 years ago”, which is caused by the imager at “now”; the reason why the two can go back home is because Tendi told them about the version according to Orion and mentioned her great-grandma being the discoverer, which is what let the past Orion to recognize the truth and probably themselves assigned it to Tendi’s great-grandma?
…this little bit of cooperation between the Federation and the Orions probably improves their relationship a bit, which will eventually lead to Orions joining the Federation, which is how Tendi is friends with Boimler in the first place, which is how Boimler knows that not all Orions are pirates which is why Pike tones down his hostile response which gets them to a deal with the Orions which leads to…
Tendi just said her great-grandmother was on the ship that discovered it, not that she was the discoverer.
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 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?
I really didn’t expected the emotional moments, but they were all done so well
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’m not racist, one of my friends is
BlackOrion!Small note I LOVE that they’re extending the “not all Orions are pirates” theme!!! LD did such a great job demystifying a race of people with Ensign Tendi and it only makes sense that their people have always been more than just a stereotype even during the TOS era. Was cool to see Boimler help change that perception with the Enterprise crew and confirmed when the Orion science captain saying “that’s all we wanted” about being seen as explorers just like Star Fleet!
Apparently their visit back in time was always baked into this timeline. Explains why Temporal Investigations didn’t get involved. Pretty cool that Tendi, through Boimler, had a hand in building the foundation for better relations between the Federation and Orions.
Yes! Boimler is a great example of an ally here - he tells Pike, who he spends all episode worshiping, directly and politely that his bias against Orions is wrong.
It was fantastic
Someone can explain me the halloween costume pun?
NVM found it here
deleted by creator
Yep. There is no critiquing this episode IMO. They nailed pure cross over fun. All smiles through the whole episode!!
I loved it. I was ready to be annoyed they didn’t do a LD animation style intro sequence but they nailed it; nacelle monster and all. Same for the ending; I was hopeful they would do the end scene LD style and again they just nailed it.
Oh man, I really loved this episode. Very fun. Kinda sad we didn’t get to see Tendi and Rutherford live action though. Would be great to see maybe some of the SNW crew end up on the Cerritos…
In The Break Room it is Tawny and Jack heavily suggest they hope they get to return to the set of SNW. That with Pike repeatedly like “please don’t break things” suggests the two crews will run into each other again… I’m hoping Enterprise crew accidentally find themselves on the Cerritos next time!
I hope the Enterprise crew gets to walk around yelling “Upper Decks! Upper Decks! Upper Decks!”
Also, at the end of the LD Season 4 trailer, Mariner and Boimler mentioned something about “the Pike thing we are not supposed to talk about”. Maybe there will be some more LD/SNW developments.
I haven’t gotten around to Lower Decks, but this episode was simply brilliant even for me. Just sublime all around.
Part of why this episode is so good is that Lower Decks is so good. It’s funny Trek that whole heartedly celebrates Trek while retaining the spirit of Trek. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend! Its probably a hard needle to thread, and a vibe, as it turns out, that is evidently resonant with SNW.
This mash-up/cross-over was not only inspired and well executed, but in many ways probably a fluke of this moment of Trek production which has two separate parallel series that are fun, bright spirited celebratory not-quite-sequel/prequels with their own compelling themes, stories and characters.
HE DOES THE WALK
My wife went nuts when he did it and she’s not even into this like I am.
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.
