(courtesy IMP Awards)
One of the thing I have always loved about Star Trek is its capacity for endlessly diverse and vibrantly creative storytelling.
Much like the people and worlds that populate it, the franchise is possessed of the ability to be a searing drama in one episode, indicting a system of belief that is corrosively evil or talking truth twisted and abused power while in the next let it whimsically quirky freak flag fly, humour draped across some incisive observations in a sugar-makes-the-medicine-goes-down kind of way.
It makes for richly varied viewing and a sense that here is one show unafraid to show the full scope of what it means to be alive; sometimes we are morose and sad, other times fired up and angry, and sometimes we are just amused or out of depth and clumsily emotional.
Whatever our state of being or emotion, it’s all there in Star Trek‘s episodes, and never more so that in episodes 6 (“Lost in Translation”) and 7 (“Those Old Scientists”) where we are served, respectively, an old trope with some devastatingly intense ruminations on grief and loss but also salvation and hope, and then some future-meets-past hilarity in the crossover none of us knew we wanted but most definitely needed when Lower Decks meets Strange New Worlds.
Cheek-by-jowl you may wonder how two such different episodes can exists in the one finite 10-episode season and not feel like two quite divergent peas in the one narratively crowded pod, but the thing is, for all their difference, they feel like they belong together because they tap into something this franchise has always known intimately and expressed perfectly – what it means to be human (this is a catchphrase term for being alive) and how while we aim high, we don’t always get there, at least not straight away.
Its in “Lost in Translation” that we see the great chasm between hope and execution, and how once the great divide between the two is noticed, we can, if we are open to it, and the good people of Starfleet, especially the Enterprise, most often are, do something to bridge it and make good on our deficits.
In an Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding)-centric story, Starfleet is constructing a giant dilithium harvester in a nebula nursery on the edge of known space, a place where new stars are born and which the Federation’s explorative and military arm hopes will be a springboard for further exploration out into the vast reaches of the galaxy.
It’s a win-win all round and full of lofty ideals – the aiming high part is in gloriously stark and comforting view; that is, until evidence of sabotage and production issues abound on the harvester, uncovered by Pelia (Carol Kane) who is a joy to have around because she just tells it like it is with an impish air of authority you simply can’t deny – right, Number One (Rebecca Romijn) – and who indicates that all is not right on the good ship idealism.
Something else who knows this well is Nyota Uhura who suddenly starts hearing sounds and voices and experiencing some incredibly intense and all-too-real visions – M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) calls them hallucinations but they are much more than that with the comms savant able to touch and feel the manifestations of past pain and loss and current fear and exhaustion – all of which start when the Enterprise enters the nebula.
She’s helped through what is a very lonely quest to get to the truth by Captain Pike (Anson Mount), of course, but also by James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) who’s on his way to great things, much to brother Sam’s (Daniel Jeannotte) irked sensibilities, but also capable of great empathy and care as a distressed La’an (Christina Chong) know all too well (the brief moments these two characters spend together are agonisingly sweet but also full of something lost that sadly only La’an knows about; see episode four, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).
Granted the resolution of the episode pivots on a well-worn Star Trek trope but the writers use it well and bring something fresh and deeply affecting to a story which is not simply about weird things happening but why it is Uhura, wrapped in the grief of losing so many people dear to her, so receptive to them happening to her.
Meanwhile, Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) are propelled back into the past by a strange alien device on a rocky waste of a planet – another great Star Trek trope but again judiciously and winningly used – in an episode that begins and ends in animated vibrancy and which gives our Starfleet history worshipping nerds (Boimler obviously and Mariner far less so) the chance to meet the likes of Spock (Ethan Peck), Una Chin-Riley who’s a pin-up girl in the future for an impressively surprising reason, and Uhura, La’an and Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and to fan girl their way through every interaction.
Boimler does it with his usual comedically rich, earnest awkwardness, though he is afforded some real moments of introspection and interaction, while Mariner goes full on cocky, alcohol-laced charm offensive, both of them not really managing to adhere strictly to temporal protocols – say nothing lest the future go pear-shaped, again something La’an knows painfully all about – but somehow not destroying the future too.
A win!
“Those Old Scientists”, which plays on the The Original Series name but without going all meta because there are some things Star Trek characters simply can’t know – that they’re essentially Matrix-like characters in a TV show? Yeah, best leave that existential truth bomb alone – is a gloriously fun mix of Lower Decks hilarity (seeing Quaid and Newsome do their thing in real life is a joy!) and Strange New Worlds‘ seriousness and collective warmth, which underscores with witty dialogue, thoughtfully faithful characterisation and some nuanced storytelling just how good and narratively diverse the franchise can be.
It’s bliss bouncing between two wholly different storytelling styles and it works a treat, offering satisfying viewing and the sense that Strange New Worlds, which has a very musical episode in its very near future, can do anything it puts its very imaginative, envelope-pushing mind too.
Strange New Worlds is currently streaming on Paramount Plus.