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
I’m still giddy about this episode. Possibly the best thing I’ve ever seen.
One thing I noticed particularly in this episode is how respectful both SNW and LD are of canon and fandom in general - the bit about not all Orions being pirates, for example. I know it originates w/Tendi from Lower Decks, but just in the context of this episode they take the one-dimensional nature of the Orions from TOS, poke a little fun at it, but then make it about the bias that the Federation/Star Fleet has against a culture they really don’t understand. The SNW writers effortlessly take what could be considered a flaw or one-dimensional writing from TOS and actually use it to flesh out the ST universe, all while telling a great story.
Some Orions haven’t been pirates for 5 years!
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.
There’s also the Orion on DS9 who likes to talk big game about being a pirate, but he’s actually from Cincinnati and has never pirated anything in his life
TBH I think TNG did this very well with the Klingons (depending on who was writing the episode, of course). Like, some Klingons were Real Klingons™ but many others only gave lip service to those ideals and were actually as sneaky and cowardly as any other race. I think a lot of Worf’s inner conflict came from realizing and processing that fact.
And on the extreme end of that was the Duras family being more like the stereotypical Romulan (and even allying with them against their own people) than a Real Klingon™. It was disgusting how they managed to keep their house throughout the series, even though they were everything a Klingon wasn’t supposed to be.
The viewer naturally sympathizes with Worf and adopts his view of Klingon culture, but remember that he was raised by humans and most of his knowledge of Klingon culture came from very early childhood and books. Imagine a human child raised by another species whose knowledge of Human culture came from fairy tales and like Arthurian stories. He’d come to earth and be outraged that everyone isn’t following some virtuous code of chivalry. A politician broke his word? DUEL TO THE DEATH! That’s Worf.
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.
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.
HE DOES THE WALK
My wife went nuts when he did it and she’s not even into this like I am.
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
And him doing his walk away from Una the second time. And so many of Tawnie’s mannerisms like in the shuttle where she kinda strikes a pose before getting caught. And Quaid’s mannerisms and screaming with Spock in the lab.
Those two really worked to make realistic versions of the silliness they have in LDS and it was magnificent. I caught so much more on second watch.
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.
That honestly makes it’s so much better. I’d love to see a behind the scenes for this episode!
Definitely watch the Ready Room episode. They talk about a lot of this. I remember another interview where Tawnie Newsom, I think, talks about how Frakes, Quaid, and her just kinda took over the set because they were all nerding out, being silly, and improv-ing a bunch because that’s what they do on LDS.
Yep, they confirm it in Ready Room. Apparently Frakes’ wife was dying from laughter watching the episode when that happened.
Frakes’ wife
For a moment in my head, I was wondering why you didn’t just say Deanna.
Sooooo many people that never watched Lower Decks are going to be asking why there was a koala in the opening and I’m delighted by that.
“Why is he smiling? What does he know?”
I missed the koala! When does it show up in the intro?
Edit: found it at 6:46
I watched lower decks and I’m also confused
The universe is balanced on the back of a giant cosmic koala! WHY IS HE SMILING? WHAT DOES HE KNOW??
I think it’s s1e4 of lower decks
Thanks
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
Yes exactly! To Boimler it was a major and inspiring story out of history, but to Una it was a personal moment that happened only recently. Imagine being told something you did that you thought was relatively minor (and over) would inspire generations of people in the years to come. Her reaction was perfect.
It was fantastic
Someone can explain me the halloween costume pun?
NVM found it here
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.
Aha, makes sense! I had all but written off ComicCon because I figured the strikes would put the kibosh on most of the panels and other appearances, but I guess the studios will still roll out their stuff there. Cool beans.
Regardless if the actors or writers are present to promote, the event space is bought and paid for, contracts have been signed, etc. The event goes on with or without the talent present.
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.
There are no other windows for it showing before Thursday, but I am wondering if Bell will add it to ‘On Demand’ sneakily tomorrow.
Always good to get the full television experience.
My spouse was covering their eyes and guffawing at many of the ads. It’s been years since they’d sat through anything more than promotions for other shows. Definitely an experience.
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.
I just had a smile on my face throughout the entire thing. The intro and outro were such a nice touch!
Yep. There is no critiquing this episode IMO. They nailed pure cross over fun. All smiles through the whole episode!!
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.
This was incredible and everything I could have hoped that it would be. 11/10, no notes.
I have only one note: no live action Tendi or Rutherford :(
Otherwise: yes, excellent.
Yeah such a shame we didn’t get the whole Beta shift gang, but that’s like my absolute biggest “criticism” of the episode
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!
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.
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”
“Animated?”
“Yeah, you know, they were kind of stiff back then, so I call them that ironically.”
Perfect!
The opening sequence is chef kiss
It took me 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.
