Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x07 "Those Old Scientists"

LoglineAn 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

YoBuckStopsHere ,
@YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world avatar

This is my all-time favorite episode of Star Trek. Wow, wow, wow … wow.

samus12345 ,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

https://media.tenor.com/IsmD4kAOwhAAAAAC/screen-rant-wow.gif

astroturds ,

What a nice surprise after work on a Sunday!

The episode was bloody tremendous! I knew they were going to appear in SNW but somehow I didn’t think it was going to be cartoon and live action together, I thought they would just be sucked into the past and we’d see the real actors. The intro and outro were both great. It was just brilliant all round.

Corgana ,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

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!

Hogger85b ,

Especially the poster girl part being how she (and her lawyer) presented her self in the trial in ep2

Corgana ,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

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.

batmaniam ,

They NAILED it. They, somehow, took the loving but self aware fan service of lower decks and jammed it into SNW which has been the most consistent reboot back to the core of this series. This was absolutely some of the best show writing I’ve seen in a very long time.

ki77erb ,

It really was perfectly done. I loved every minute of it.

guru_meditation ,

This 1000%

HardlightCereal ,

I actually think Lower Decks is closer to the core of Star Trek than SNW. I mean, you couldn’t do a “the enterprise got pregnant” episode in SNW

SNW has been continually frustrating me by almost being great trek but continually falling short. Like, that prime directive episode on the forgetting planet was great, right up until the captain decided to flagrantly ignore the prime directive and destroy a culture’s individuality

SpacedBear ,

Anyone else see Boimler do the Boim-walk to get away from Una the second time with Mariner there? I did not realize human hips could move like that.

teft ,
@teft@lemmy.world avatar

Yes! I did the Dicaprio point at my tv when he started speedwalking.

Cantstopthesignal ,
@Cantstopthesignal@lemmynsfw.com avatar

My wife was crying she was laughing so hard from that. It was perfect.

lagomorphlecture ,

Cracked me up, I laughed so hard at that part.

triktrek ,

Or even just the way he was running to catch up with Mariner.

NuPNuA ,

That was amazing, on par with Trials and Tribble-ations for a crossover. Loved how well they integrated Boimler and Mariner without losing any of the character as LD has presented them.

ki77erb ,

So many people were ragging on this idea. I think the episode firmly shut them up. This was top notch Trek! Fantastic from start to finish. I want more! Now they’re complaining about the upcoming musical episode? Haters gonna hate I guess.

Hypersapien ,

I’m one of the people who was ragging on the idea and I was absolutely fucking right.

And yes, I’m ragging on the idea of the musical episode, too.

ki77erb ,

Well I guess not everyone is going to like every episode, or every show for that matter and that’s ok. I can’t stand Discovery. I gave up somewhere in season 2. Just couldn’t take it anymore.

michaelgemar ,
@michaelgemar@mstdn.ca avatar

@ki77erb @startrek Personally, I find SNW to be, by far, the best Trek since DS9.

The most recent episode was broad, but I still found it delightful.

ki77erb ,

Same! Great cast and great writing.

lrawsignal ,
@lrawsignal@mas.to avatar

@ki77erb @michaelgemar
I love the cast. But I love the cast of Discovery too. The writing has been better in SNW than disco, but there's still moments of awkward dialogue that feels wrong. Not as bad as discovery but still has those moments that pull me out of it.
I say that, but I also loved the hell out of the SNWxLD episode, but I loved it because I love both shows for different reasons I suppose. It's complicated.

GratefullyGodless ,
@GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world avatar

Well, you lasted wit Discovery longer than I did. I saw the first episode and the butchered Klingons, and that was as far as I made it into the series.

polymorphist_neuroid ,

I ended up being ok with the weirdly retconned Klingons - after all, Next Generation “butchered” the Klingons from TOS. The thing that kept me with Disco until season 4 was Michelle Yeoh’s character, because I fucking love her. That said, it does not really get much better than S1, and I gave up after S3.

theinspectorst ,
@theinspectorst@kbin.social avatar

I'm seeing lots of positivity here, so I'll be the boring one. I enjoyed it but they didn't quite land it for me. Things that would have been funny in an out-and-out sitcom felt wrong in the context of a 'serious' Trek show. For example, Mariner and Boimler having a really inappropriate discussion about how hot Spock was, while Spock was right there, during a senior staff meeting - it was a bit too jarring for me. You kind of got the feeling the 23rd century officers were all left wondering why 24th century Starfleet is so unprofessional. I think they got this the wrong way round by making it a SNW episode instead of a Lower Decks episode.

Separately though, given that we know Spock and Chapel don't make it, I like that in the two episodes since they got together they have hinted at two separate reasons why they might split up: first the possiblity it's triggered by them having different attitudes to reporting the relationship to Starfleet, and now Chapel's Boimler-induced insecurities about whether she might hold Spock back from doing something great with his life.

psychothumbs ,

In reality it’s just a factor of the difference between a comedic cartoon and live action, but I sort of love the idea of it being an actual cultural difference between the two timelines, with people in the even more utopian lower decks era having gotten looser and wackier.

HardlightCereal ,

The Cerritos is also canonically the silliest ship in Starfleet. Freeman is always struggling to be taken seriously

MaxHardwood ,

I think Mariner was just in true form. Nonchalant and flippant. The cultural differences are huge especially the technology they’ve deployed 130 years since the NCC-1701. The way Mariner casually suggests just making more of the element like it’s getting a glass of water from the replicator and Boimler gives her a hard side-eye gives you an idea just how different their day to day lives are. Boimler was able to reconfigure the ship and navigate it on his own because the Enterprise is just so archaic by comparison to the Cerritos.

triktrek ,

You kind of got the feeling the 23rd century officers were all left wondering why 24th century Starfleet is so unprofessional

I don’t think it’s the difference between 23rd vs 24th century officers, but more a difference between upper deck senior officers and lower decks ensigns.

HardlightCereal ,

Also the difference between the flagship of Starfleet and the bottom of the barrel California class. Shaxs would never get away with screaming about the warp core all the time on the Enterprise, and Freeman is constantly struggling to make the Cerritos look like a serious ship to the rest of Starfleet

zpm ,
@zpm@lemmy.world avatar

I enjoyed it, fun and different and the ending did make me laugh with Spock’s arm. I found I was less invested in the story as I was focused on the character interactions. Overall, I’m fine with it and it didn’t have to be anything that is not trying to be.

triktrek ,

I didn’t quite get the reference with Spock’s arm. Was this supposed to reference something in previous Trek?

zpm ,
@zpm@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t think so, I think it’s just a joke about him doing things as a cartoon version he couldn’t do in real life, and also him tripping balls.

Tired8281 ,

Holy smokes, I can’t believe how awesome that thing was that I just watched. I’m awestruck at the talent it must have taken to pull it off so perfectly.

guru_meditation ,

This is truly the best Star Trek episode, bar none. Hadn’t had goosebumps like this since watching “All Good Things…” back in 1994.

teft ,
@teft@startrek.website avatar

Pelia is quoting Carey Grant when she talks to Boimler. I thought that was neat.

I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.

Navi ,

What an absolutely fantastic episode. Loved every second of it! As soon as it finished I just wanted to watch the whole thing again (but couldn’t because of stupid work)

triktrek ,

Did you not learn anything from Mariner? Work is gonna be there still five 45 minutes from now.

bappity ,
@bappity@lemmy.world avatar

THAT WAS SO GOOOOOOOODDDDDD!!! Couldn’t stop smiling through that whole episode!!
They were perfect for their roles in live action as well. Love how they kept their cartoony energy.

lagomorphlecture ,

When they’re in the corridor and Boimler husslea off, and you see him walking a crazy walk in the background, that really cracked me up.

FormerGameDev ,

Section 31 speed walking!

triktrek ,

You know the way Boimler was crawling under the communications panel, with his right legs at a 90 degree angle. It was just so perfect embodiment.

Calanon ,

Oh man, I really loved this episode. Very fun. Kinda sad we didn’t get to see Tendi and Rutherford live action though. Would be great to see maybe some of the SNW crew end up on the Cerritos…

Captain_Ender ,

In The Break Room it is Tawny and Jack heavily suggest they hope they get to return to the set of SNW. That with Pike repeatedly like "please don't break things" suggests the two crews will run into each other again... I'm hoping Enterprise crew accidentally find themselves on the Cerritos next time!

triktrek ,

Also, at the end of the LD Season 4 trailer, Mariner and Boimler mentioned something about “the Pike thing we are not supposed to talk about”. Maybe there will be some more LD/SNW developments.

triktrek ,

I hope the Enterprise crew gets to walk around yelling “Upper Decks! Upper Decks! Upper Decks!”

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