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

Voyager763 ,

I haven’t gotten around to Lower Decks, but this episode was simply brilliant even for me. Just sublime all around.

maegul ,

Part of why this episode is so good is that Lower Decks is so good. It’s funny Trek that whole heartedly celebrates Trek while retaining the spirit of Trek. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend! Its probably a hard needle to thread, and a vibe, as it turns out, that is evidently resonant with SNW.

This mash-up/cross-over was not only inspired and well executed, but in many ways probably a fluke of this moment of Trek production which has two separate parallel series that are fun, bright spirited celebratory not-quite-sequel/prequels with their own compelling themes, stories and characters.

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.

tarjeezy ,

I’m not racist, one of my friends is Black Orion!

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!”

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.

WrittenWeird ,

Best episode ever. 11/10, I’m still coming down off the high. Right up there with the LD DS9 ep and the last couple episodes of Picard. Peak modern Trek.

MaxHardwood ,

I loved it. I was ready to be annoyed they didn’t do a LD animation style intro sequence but they nailed it; nacelle monster and all. Same for the ending; I was hopeful they would do the end scene LD style and again they just nailed it.

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.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

I can confirm that this episode is live on Crave, as well as Paramount+ in the relevant regions.

CeruleanRuin ,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

What is up with that? It’s not supposed to be out until Thursday. That’s a heck of a release date slippage.

deepthaw ,

They released earlier to coincide with screening it at SDCC.

CeruleanRuin ,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

Aha, makes sense! I had all but written off ComicCon because I figured the strikes would put the kibosh on most of the panels and other appearances, but I guess the studios will still roll out their stuff there. Cool beans.

deweydecibel ,

Regardless if the actors or writers are present to promote, the event space is bought and paid for, contracts have been signed, etc. The event goes on with or without the talent present.

StillPaisleyCat ,
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

We were able to watch and record the ‘Special Presentation’ on CTV Sci-fi channel.

It did however make us watch every single ad, with a ‘skip is not available for this episode’ message.

There are no other windows for it showing before Thursday, but I am wondering if Bell will add it to ‘On Demand’ sneakily tomorrow.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Always good to get the full television experience.

StillPaisleyCat ,
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

My spouse was covering their eyes and guffawing at many of the ads. It’s been years since they’d sat through anything more than promotions for other shows. Definitely an experience.

Captain_Ender ,

Small note I LOVE that they're extending the "not all Orions are pirates" theme!!! LD did such a great job demystifying a race of people with Ensign Tendi and it only makes sense that their people have always been more than just a stereotype even during the TOS era. Was cool to see Boimler help change that perception with the Enterprise crew and confirmed when the Orion science captain saying "that's all we wanted" about being seen as explorers just like Star Fleet!

samus12345 ,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

Apparently their visit back in time was always baked into this timeline. Explains why Temporal Investigations didn’t get involved. Pretty cool that Tendi, through Boimler, had a hand in building the foundation for better relations between the Federation and Orions.

polymorphist_neuroid ,

Yes! Boimler is a great example of an ally here - he tells Pike, who he spends all episode worshiping, directly and politely that his bias against Orions is wrong.

khaosworks ,
@khaosworks@startrek.website avatar

Annotations up at: startrek.website/post/462450

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.

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

Awa ,
@Awa@lemmy.world avatar

Definitely one of the most enjoyable episodes of any modern Star Trek episodes if not the best. Love the calls back to the other shows and Star Trek history. I like how the Lower Decks actors played their human characters just as skillfully as they voice them. I loved their connections with the SNW crew. Just beautifully well written. Feels like that it made up for what seemed to be lacking in the previous episode.

alienamp ,

I’ve only seen the first maybe 8 episodes of Lower Decks can I watch this episode without spoiling the rest of the seasons?

milkisklim ,

Minor spoilers… there’s a Tendi reference that is somewhat important. But all the lower decks references you really need will be explained in the episode.

TotalElipse ,

Yeah you’re all good

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