Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x06 "Lost In Translation"

LoglineUhura seems to be the only one who can hear a strange sound. When the noise triggers terrifying hallucinations, she enlists an unlikely assistant to help her track down the source.

Written by Onitra Johnson & David Reed

Directed by Dan Liu

estebanknobl ,
@estebanknobl@startrek.website avatar

It was not as fun as last week’s episode, but I liked it. Great to see Bruce Horak. I felt it strange not seeing Farragut’s captain somewhere along the episode.

theothersparrow ,
@theothersparrow@lemmy.one avatar

That was the only part of the episode I found weird.

Like congrats a captain that doesn’t just leave their ship for every little thing… but not even a lil’ interaction with them? Not even a “howdy?”

GummySquirrel ,
@GummySquirrel@startrek.website avatar

New life goals - get uhura’s linen and pillow sets and start life as a space hippy 🙃

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

I thought this one was…fine. I don’t think it will go down in history as one of the more logical episodes, but it told the story it was trying to tell.

I do wish they’d given Spock an actual reason to approach Kirk and Uhura in that final scene. I get that they wanted to commit that meeting to film, but it was strange for him to just sort of…wander over.

UESPA_Sputnik ,
@UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world avatar

Spock cleaned up Sam Kirk’s mess once again. That’s why he approached the table. (and I presume that’s why that one snippet from last week was in the “previously on” segment)

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@ttrpg.network avatar

Yeah, it was an awfully specific snippet, really just shown to setup the last scene of that episode. Bit wrird but it felt nice seeing Spock, Uhura and Kirk together. I guess just a bit of fanservice.

AuroraBorealis ,
@AuroraBorealis@pawb.social avatar

I liked this episode, and Uhura’s futuristic looking pillow

Makes me nervous about the…safety of the ship if one guy who I don’t think was even supposed to be posted on the enterprise (like Ramon was part of the refinery crew before Enterprise got there) was able to cut the power (no backups?) And blow up the nacelle , maybe starfleet should review their backup and security procedures there

Lockely ,
@Lockely@pawb.social avatar

As we all know, operational security is Starfleet’s #1 priority.

I have to imagine there’s a seedy bar in San Francisco where all the Chief Security Officers meet up to bitch about how no one ever listens to their recommendations but its their asses who get chewed out when the ship gets so easily taken over on a weekly basis.

lonlazarus ,

I don’t know if it was intentional as to be a call back to TOS, but I loved the absolutely senseless way nobody secures potentially dangerous actors that are in sick bay.

XiberKernel ,

This was the weakest episode of the season so far, and I still loved it. I couldn’t get over the fact Uhura wasn’t confined to sickbay or quarters by mid episode, but the rest of it showcases why SNW is quickly becoming my favorite Trek series.

Mandolingual ,

I enjoyed the ep but I feel like lots of eps this season have followed the pattern of something messing with their heads, character development, revealing an ineffable alien thing. Which is fine from time to time, and those were good eps, but it would be nice to have more alien sociology type stuff with more humanoid species

electrorocket ,

Like last week? And the second episode?

khaosworks ,
@khaosworks@startrek.website avatar

Annotations up at: startrek.website/post/433024

erbazzone ,

So Uhura punched Kirk under hallucinations and then years after they kissed forced by telekinesis and some guy remembered me that in the prime universe when they met she thought he was hitting on her and he got punched (unrelated). In the kelvin-verse when they met he actually was hitting on her and he got punched (related).

frankPodmore ,
@frankPodmore@slrpnk.net avatar

I like that they did the Kirk/Spock meet as an almost throwaway thing, rather than trying to make it a big deal. We already know it’s a big deal, so any attempt to increase the drama would’ve made it cheesy, IMO. Plus, we’ve had lots of media about their friendship, already: we know it inside out. Instead, we got to focus on Kirk’s relationship with a different legacy character, one that hasn’t already been explored to anywhere near the same extent.

Although, on that note… was anyone else hoping the ‘doctor on the Farragut’ Kirk referred to was going to lead to a cameo from Bones? I don’t remember if they served together pre-Enterprise, so it might not have been strictly canon!

zpm ,
@zpm@lemmy.world avatar

Great episode with serious and feel good moments.

Watching Kirk and Spock meet was fun.

deweydecibel ,

I’m with the others that say it’s a really good episode, until you start picking apart some of the decisions. Pike taking the word of a person who has been suffering hallucinations, with no evidence, then preceding to destroy a massive infrastructure project with no real hesitation…it didn’t feel earned. I know he trust her, and Kirk, but damn that was an extreme leap of faith.

Benfell ,
@Benfell@hcommons.social avatar

@deweydecibel @ValueSubtracted

That's frankly what caught my attention, even as I was watching the episode. The decision turns out to have been right, but on thin-to-nonexistent justification.

Schal330 ,

I think what justifies it is the second case that they encounter. The other guy provides them with scientific evidence that Uhura was experiencing something that wasn’t unique to just her.

It was definitely a leap of faith for Pike, but his decision was bolstered by someone (Kirk) that he knows can make the right decisions too.

Benfell ,
@Benfell@hcommons.social avatar

@Schal330

This might be a case where they compressed too much for coherence.

Yeah, there was the other guy. But in my mind, not enough had apparently been done to confirm a superficial and partial similarity of symptoms.

To give an idea of the dissonance, I'm remembering somebody (I think it wasn't Miles O'Brien who got the line) encountering the Cardassian systems on Deep Space 9 and complaining that they weren't triple-redundant.

In academia, we call it parsimony in a way that doesn't quite seem to match a dictionary definition that I just dredged up on line: It's when an explanation seems straightforward and satisfactory. For me, that was missing.

I think a challenge for script writing here is keeping the story moving without dragging this too far into soap opera territory. How much do we really want get into the weeds here?

Maybe the writers thought this was too deep in the weeds. Maybe they just ran out of episode time. Maybe we agree they didn't get the balance right here.

AnnaLogg ,

i was just thrown by the fact that nobody considered the possibility that it was a plot by Romulans or Gorn to get the Federation to self-sabotage. they stated they were at the edge of known space, so i thought a much more cautious attitude was required

Hypersapien ,

They could have fixed that by analyzing the signals in her brain in such a way that they could actually show to Pike.

Corgana ,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

This /r/Daystrom thread from last year is kinda funny, the OP correctly predicts how Pike and Kirk meet, but then he and most of the commenters dismiss it as “unlikely”.

This leads us to three possibilities

  1. Pike was promoted to Fleet Captain and Kirk took over Command from him as a result, which is where they met. Traditionally, especially in many of the novels, thats when the met before.
  2. Kirk met him on two distinct occasions, firstly when Pike became Fleet Captain and secondly, when he took over Command (its possible that the order was reversed).
  3. Kirk met him on at least two notable occasions, which he mentions.

With James T being confirmed for Season 2 and Sam being on the ship and friendly with Pike, enough to call him “Chris”, no 3 seems to be the most likely answer

It’s a fun thread to scroll through now that we know this episode.

Buziel_411 , (edited )

I liked this episode! Although one thing that irked me was “deuterium poisoning.” Deuterium is just a hydrogen isotope; is breathing it actually poisonous? It felt like the writers didn’t realize it wasn’t a fake substance like duranium.

Also I suspected the hallucinations were coming from aliens in the nebulae because the deuterium collection was harming them pretty early on. Definitely feels like a classic Trek story though!

Also, seeing Hemmer again resurfaced my disappointment that they killed him off! He was one of my favorite characters in the first season. When they showed the flashback of his death in the episode intro, I was hoping they were going to revive him somehow in this episode, haha. I’m still holding out hope that he didn’t actually die but survived the fall and has been surviving on the ice planet (since he is Aenar after all). Unfortunately, I guess they already used the “left behind a crew member assumed KIA” with Zac Nguyen so I doubt this will happen.

Hogger85b ,

Deuterium is toxic (in high concentrations) to multicell animals as it changes the angle of.the hydrogen bonds which is key to cellular replication and enzyme prodcution. However you would have to drink all d2o instead of h2o for about a week to begin to notice (need 25-50% of body water). Blocking cellular replication is similar to what chemotherapy does so would.be like bad chemo...eventually the dose is so large it is not useful Cancer drug.

There is also mentions of dizziness and impact on vestibular system (senses) but not the wiki article does not expand on this and the linked article just mentions nystagmus (involuntary eye movements)
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1974Natur.247..404M/abstract

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water

Interestingly there is also a theory it may affect circadian cycles in some insects https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC433660/ (which could impact sleep pattern in humans)

All in all it looks like the writers may have looked into it afterall.

khaosworks ,
@khaosworks@startrek.website avatar

Deuterium toxicity does exist, but you’d have to ingest a hell of a lot of it, not trace amounts via breathing. The symptoms mimic radiation poisoning, although since deuterium isn’t radioactive, it isn’t actually that.

erbazzone ,

deuterium poisoning

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water#Effect_on_biolo…

shnizmuffin ,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar

As may occur in chemotherapy, deuterium-poisoned mammals die of a failure of bone marrow (producing bleeding and infections) and of intestinal-barrier functions (producing diarrhea and loss of fluids).

Hogger85b ,

Yeah when you have "refinarey", mysterious signal, it was well hinted, then acts of sabotage it did seem that way and when the other victim was focussed on jestisoning the gas from the nacel seemed even more certain

eva_sieve ,

I mean, I think it’s just reality-adjacent technobabble and you’ve got to accept it as plausible in universe. Tritium is a real thing used in nuclear fission but it’s not so rare that you should don robotic arms and go on a crime spree to get some. On a more Star Trek adjacent topic, protostars are a real thing but (at least as far as we know) you can’t shove them in a box to travel ludicrous speed.

psistarpsiii ,
@psistarpsiii@tacobelllabs.net avatar

@ValueSubtracted @Buziel_411 D is an isotope of H, yes, but H is so light and D has twice its mass. It’s a kinetic isotope effect issue IIRC - throws off our enzymes.

reddig33 ,

Can anyone explain why a space station that seems to break down when you sneeze at it wrong, or smash one of its power conduits, requires photon torpedoes to shut it down?

electrorocket ,

First Uhura said destroy it, then she said release the deuterium, then she gave the order to fire photon torpedoes like that’s even a thing she has the authority do. Make up your minds, writers.

Hogger85b ,

Hydrogen burning would be bad too right, (the frieball seems large, how much oxygen was on the station?).but burning the D in the explosion is bad too right

cybervseas , (edited )

When I watched it, it looked like Uhura was so eager to fix the situation that she yelled to fire the torpedos, but I noticed right after she said if that Pike gave a nod to the crewman to approve the order. Uhura was just a little excited.

TeaHands ,
@TeaHands@lemmy.world avatar

One of my favourite things about the Pike-light episodes we’ve been getting is Mount’s ability to still do all the acting he needs to do just with these little background reactions. Last week was a great example, this scene was another one. Such a charismatic actor.

frankPodmore ,
@frankPodmore@slrpnk.net avatar

I thought she said to release the deuterium from the nacelles (of the Enterprise), but to destroy the mining station (as @cybervseas points out, Pike confirmed the latter order).

theothersparrow ,
@theothersparrow@lemmy.one avatar

They sneezed at it wrong… and the shutdown measures malfunctioned.

And they couldn’t very well just let the deuterium-creatures continue being butchered while they sorted it out.

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