Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay for a Friday. Today I have two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to talk about today thanks to Paramount's decision to drop the crossover episode with Lower Decks, "Those Old Scientists" early because they screened it at San Diego Comic-Con on Sunday. And because I don't have Paramount+ or Crave, I had to wait until last night to watch it, along with the second episode that CTV Sci-Fi Channel aired last night. So, as per usual there will be spoilers most likely for those of you who haven't watched the two episodes yet. Let's get into it.
If you've been reading this blog, or my previous blog, The Review Basement, or you know me in real life, you know that I'm not a fan of Star Trek: Lower Decks because the humour started to be a bit too much and I found I wasn't able to get into the stories and connect with the characters. That's a personal thing for me, and in no way reflects on the writers, animators, and voice actors who make the show. So when it was announced about six months ago that we'd be getting a Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover during season two of Strange New Worlds, I had mixed feelings on it just because, well, it's a comedy and SNW isn't. Plus crossovers can go either way as we've seen with other crossovers on television since television began in the late '40s and early '50s. Especially ones that got big like the later Arrowverse crossovers.
"Those Old Scientists" was a great episode. My biggest problem with it is that it got a bit too meta for the kind of show that Strange New Worlds usually is, but it fits right in line with what Lower Decks is. It just felt really weird to me. Same with the gag at the end where the Enterprise and her crew are in animation and they're aware of it through the Orion hurricanes that they made from the delaq that the Orion captain, Caras had given them as Mariner had tried to make the drink without the delaq earlier in the episode, using Tendi's recipe, for Uhura and Ortegas, in the officer's lounge. It was funny as hell, but it felt more like a Lower Decks gag than something we would normally see on SNW.
My favourite part is when Mariner, played by her voice actor, Tawny Newsome, arrives on the Enterprise after transporting herself through the time portal, she and Boimler, played by his regular voice actor, Jack Quaid, are standing around in Pike's office, and Mariner is like, "I'm making this 100% profesh (professional) but I was thoroughly unprepared for how hot young Spock was going to be", Boimler replies, "Yeah he's just full of surprises" and Mariner just continues with, "Like what? The body, the face, the ears, what?". It's such a Mariner thing to point out on Lower Decks and yet I'm sure some of the ladies, besides Nurse Chapel of courses, have noticed that Spock is attractive.
I also loved it when Boimler and Mariner were in the shuttle and Boimler shouts, "Holy Q!" and Mariner says, "Don't yell Q! They haven't met him yet. They had a kind of a Trelane thing going on". Lol. I laughed so hard at that, considering they were the only ones on the shuttle, though La'an was about to nab them before they could steal the shuttle.
Speaking of Mariner and Boimler, while Tawny and Jack did a wonderful job playing the characters in live action, due to the fact that they're usually animated characters, they're more subdued in terms of their movements and personalities. Jack still gets Boimler's mannerisms down perfectly, including the Boimler Run, but they aren't as animated as they usually are.
Overall, this was a fantastic episode. It's perfect for those who have never seen Lower Decks, and it's perfect for people who love Lower Decks. It was also perfect for me, as I used to love Lower Decks, but don't anymore, but am a huge SNW fan, as you know quite well by now, given that I'm reviewing the show week to week as each episode airs. Now, let's talk about season 2, episode 8 (episode 18), "Under the Cloak of War".
"Under the Cloak of War" is a title that is very reminiscent of a number of episodes from later seasons of Deep Space Nine. And it actually deals with some of the same issues that DS9 dealt with during the Dominion War arc and in the first couple of seasons of the show. Except this time it's the survivors of the skirmish on J'Gal between the Federation and the Klingons, instead of the Bajorans and Cardassians. I'm not going to make too many comparisons between this episode and those DS9 episodes because I understand that not everybody reading this post has seen DS9. I just wanted to make that observation while I was thinking of it.
One of the things that I love about this episode is that it's focused on M'Benga and Chapel, but Ortegas is involved as well being that she was a pilot during the Federation-Klingon War of 2256-2257, as presented in season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery. Because this episode makes the story about the characters rather than about the war itself, it makes the weight of what they went through so much more palpable. And because of that, it makes the story more effective than it would've otherwise.
The idea of a Klingon defector is a fascinating one because it's not something we've seen really. Especially not one who has the reputation that Ambassador Dak'Rah has in this episode. Speaking of Rah, his demeanor reminds me of a few Klingons from later in the Star Trek timeline, though he is definitely unlike any Klingon we've ever seen before.
While I feel like the flashbacks didn't really do much to add more than the expressions on M'Benga and Chapel's faces did during the dinner scene in Pike's quarters, they were interesting to see, since we didn't get much battlefield stuff in Discovery, or much of the war in general for that matter, and it was great seeing Clint Howard back. He played Commander Buck Martinez, the chief medical officer of the field hospital that Chapel and M'Benga worked at on J'Gal. Of course Clint is not only the brother of Ron Howard, but he's a veteran of over two hundred films and TV shows, and he's Star Trek royalty as he's popped in and out of franchise alot over the years, starting when he was a child, playing Balok of the First Federation in the first season of TOS back in 1966.
Of course the majority of the Enterprise crew didn't fight in the war because Starfleet had ordered Pike to stay out of the fighting in case things went south. So they don't understand what M'Benga, Chapel, and Ortegas went through during that time, or that having Rah onboard is severely affecting them mentally and emotionally.
I won't spoil the end of the episode, but it was intense and M'Benga is going to need therapy for a really long time. It's likely that this is the reason that M'Benga is replaced by Mark Piper and then Doctor McCoy in TOS.
Overall both of these episodes were fantastic. "Those Old Scientists" was my favourite of the two, but both were excellent. I was talking about it with my buddy, Aaron, and this season has had some real tonal whiplash, particularly in this back half of the season. I mean, next week's episode is called "Subspace Rhapsody", and it's a musical, which is the complete opposite of where we were with "Under the Cloak of War". So that's gonna be lots of fun.
That my friends is it for me for this week. I'll be back next week for my review of next week's musical episode of SNW, and of the next volume of the Star Wars: Dark Forces graphic novellas series. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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