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

hivemind ,

Frakes has directed two Orville episodes (so far), and arguably brought his experience over to SNW, as Boims and Mariner were fan[boy|girl]ing about, it had serious “Orville” vibes to it. I don’t think they could have picked a better director.

The bit where Ortegas and Uhura were gushing about the NX-01 crew and suddenly realizing that’s why their guests were gushing was priceless.

“What would come after the dash?”

And both Jack and Tawny crushed it as the live action versions of their characters. (Both were over-the-top, and that was the point).

I wonder if that “Riker!” Gag was improvised and if so, how long it had Frakes (and/or the crew) laughing.

The LD-style intro was chefs kiss perfect. The coda was, likewise, a perfect capstone.

Awa ,
@Awa@lemmy.world avatar

I didn’t realize Frakes directed two of the Orville episodes, but makes a lot of sense. He did an amazing job bringing the charm of The Orville into this episode. RE: the intro…YES!!! I was about to skip it, but so happy I watched it. I loved the space-monster sucking on the ship! It is my favorite part of the LD intro, so happy to see it here.

Jacko ,

Watch the Ready Room episode! The Riker was improvised!

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.

Maolmi ,
@Maolmi@feddit.de avatar

It was … the best of both worlds.

End0fLine ,
@End0fLine@startrek.website avatar

I just had a smile on my face throughout the entire thing. The intro and outro were such a nice touch!

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Yep. There is no critiquing this episode IMO. They nailed pure cross over fun. All smiles through the whole episode!!

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.

UESPA_Sputnik ,
@UESPA_Sputnik@lemmy.world avatar

Fun episode. I lost track of all the references but I’m particularly delighted that they brought up the NX-01 and her crew, and that the NCC-1701 crew (what even comes after the dash?) is gushing over them, like we all are gushing over all the different Trek crews.

Voyager763 ,

I deeply appreciated seeing some on-screen Enterprise love, because I feel like Enterprise gets a bum wrap.

NuPNuA ,

To be fair, since it’s been on it got an Easter egg reference in the Kelvin-verse and has been mentioned or referenced in most of the new shows from S1 of Dis on. Not only did they name drop Archer in that, they actually expanded on the MU episodes of Ent.

Emperor_Cartagia ,

And let’s not forget the NX-01 herself shows up onscreen in Picard Season 3.

NuPNuA ,

Yep, I thought they may resuse the Star Ship museum asset from Pic then realised it probably didn’t exist yet on SNW era.

koreth ,

Saw this at the Comic-Con screening and it works better than I expected, especially the physical comedy. The exaggerated cartoon antics are still there, but toned down just enough to not seem out of place in live action.

Osa-Eris-Xero512 ,

This was incredible and everything I could have hoped that it would be. 11/10, no notes.

milkisklim ,

The only thing I wished was for the Enterprise crew to have been in TAS style art animation at the end. But yeah. Great show!

Continuumguy ,

Still kind of hoping that one year they do a “Trials and Tribble-Ations” tribute episode where they go back to the Enterprise during TAS and splice in the LD guys in in the TAS style.

They could call it “Those Animated Scientists”

milkisklim ,

Perfect!

samus12345 ,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

“Animated?”

“Yeah, you know, they were kind of stiff back then, so I call them that ironically.”

Manabi ,
@Manabi@startrek.website avatar

I loved all of it! I liked how they had fun with the crew being in the 2D Lower Decks style at the end, poking fun at it with the dialogue. Then they blamed it on the drinks, so it wasn’t really a fourth wall break.

varda ,

I have only one note: no live action Tendi or Rutherford :(

Otherwise: yes, excellent.

interolivary ,
@interolivary@beehaw.org avatar

Yeah such a shame we didn’t get the whole Beta shift gang, but that’s like my absolute biggest “criticism” of the episode

adamlauver ,

“You guys look… very realistic.” I guffawed. So thrilled to be watching this episode finally!

maddy ,

The opening sequence is chef kiss

End0fLine ,
@End0fLine@startrek.website avatar

It took me longer than I’m comfortable to admit to notice it was animated and not the usual intro.

lordnikon ,

i mean they are both animated. They tried to film on location but the camera operator keeps getting burned in the nebula.

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.

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.

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.

theothersparrow ,
@theothersparrow@lemmy.one avatar

An extremely fun episode.

One thing that jumped out at me was the adjectives used: “scientists, explorers, adventurers.” The episode reinforced what Starfleet as an organization and Trek as a concept are all about.

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

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