Written by: Dana Horgan & Kathryn Lyn
Directed by: Jonathan Frakes
The “Riker Maneuver” blooper absolutely killed me.
Directed by Frakes too!
I enjoyed this episode much more than the previous one. It was quite fun. Sure, holodeck episodes aren’t the most original idea in Star Trek, but they’re almost always good, and I think this episode was worth the slight fudging of canon.
Also, seeing the “Last Frontier” bits and how well they captured the TOS feel makes me think, “Why do they need to make modern Trek so fancy? Why can’t we have cheap-looking sets again?” Also, I think this is one of the better Paul Wesley performances in this show.
I was relieved to find they didn’t go to far with the meta this episode. So many of the clips and dialogues of this episode I saw in the initial trailers made me worry this season was going to do a multiverse plot or venture a bit too far beyond the fourth wall.
The only thing is the Spock/La’an romance is driving me nuts. Neither is emotionally ready, and Spock STILL has a fiance. It’s painful to watch it knowing that it’s almost certainly doomed. I don’t necessarily mind them acknowledging that they have feelings to each other, but I would have thought there would be a mutual desire to keep it platonic. In the end though, at least dancing isn’t Vulcan neuropressure - as I get further into Enterprise, I kind of wonder how Rick Berman has evaded the trunk of my car for so long.
Uhura speech it was very meta and was really emotional, it was a speech straight from a ST fan, nice writing and performing there Edit: bloopers were hilarious, and with Frakes directing the blooper of “Kirk” doing the Riker manouver was so funny
It’s a classic Star Trek storyline but it still checks out. Also love seeing La’an leading the episode
Edit: on further reflection, whilst I enjoyed the episode (all the call backs to TOS vibes were great), I think this shows the weakness of having shorter seasons, in that there’s less space (pun intended) for “frivolous” capers like this.
I do love that the staff, be they actors, wardrobe, production, etc don’t have an insane routine like the old days but maintain that at least 12-15 episodes per season is a nice compromise
that is my only concern as well, in a 10 episode season if already 2 has been on the “frivolous side” there’s not much left for actual scifi-exploration stuff.
In the other tv series you had 24 episodes each season, you can go around on 2 or 3 episodes each season with silly stuff that was welcome to change the tone from the more serious episodes, here I’m worried. I liked the episode thou, so I’m complaining, but I liked it.
Couldn’t help but be skeptical about trying to solve an AI generated murder mystery. And what do you know, the actual mystery was nonsense in the end ;D Also they put a spotlight on the huge energy costs of running an AI. Which will do absolutely nothing to dissuade anyone in the real world from using AI because it’s just a silly space show and people don’t draw parallels from those to their own realities but I felt pandered to in my views, so I got that going for me which is nice.
“I am known for my … diction.” <3
Also they put a spotlight on the huge energy costs of running an AI
Plus it’s fully in keeping with canon. They mentioned several times in TNG and beyond that holodecks needed isolated power. (And obviously we know the original Enterprise didn’t have a holodeck in a few years’ time.) It’s a nice way for them to have their cake and eat too.
I hope they have another holodeck episode at some point, maybe on a space station.
I wasn’t expecting another “fun” episode. I enjoyed it. The campy awfulness of the old TV set design and costumes was spot on.
Spock-La’an works well, I want to see more of it. It’s difficult to find a lot of plot progress in comedy eps, but pushing their relationship forward a bit is nice. I really hope it goes somewhere meaningful, but this being a prequel, I guess just how far it could go is limited, unless they’re willing to diverge off canon.
Hollywood AR walls don’t hold anything against a holodeck, but we’re getting there. It’s cases like this that make me think I wouldn’t enjoy one for real though, I’d just spend all my time getting paranoid. And did La’an get permission from everyone to use their patterns?
This earlier holodeck is lacking in any kind of true failsafe and is relying on the simulation program alone to not hurt people. Later on the enterprise, they never really figured that out. Scotty should have wrote his notes on safety much bigger than footnotes.
The writing staff must have been using this episode to vent their frustrations of the TV industry. When they were writing it, I wonder if they knew yet they had a confirmed 5 seasons, or if this was written during a hiatus.
I guess the takeaway message from this episode is “you can always rely on those around you”. Except when they’re holographic murder simulations, then all bets are off.
It’s a bit anachronistic what happened with the holodeck here. It’s quite hard to believe that it took them about 100 hundred years to decide to install holodecks like the ones from this episode on starships again and they haven’t fixed any of the problems. Instead there are similar technologies in the animated series and even the holodecks on Enterprise D can’t do the same thing until the Bynars enhance them.
Nonetheless it was a solid episode and I’m glad they addressed the creeping trend in SNW for characters to do things on their own instead of relying on their colleagues…
even the holodecks on Enterprise D can’t do the same thing until the Binaries enhance them.
I think this is a little different from what the Bynars did - La’An had to wear the brain scan thingie for the day for the computer to get a sense of her personality, while the enhanced TNG holodeck was able to do it on the fly.
I’ve been thinking about this for a few days now and I think there is a big missed opportunity here. The holodeck prototype showed more of less the same errors holodecks still have 100 years later. They could have shown other faults and use that for a comment on the current AI development.
Damn. 🥵🔥
EDIT: Did someone turn the heater on. Um… it’s a bit steamy here.
I have no hope for this series but Frakes is still directing. What’s a fan to do.
Obviously continue to watch something you dislike, despite there being many other things you can do with your life.
