Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x04 "Among the Lotus Eaters"

Written by Kirsten Beyer & Davy Perez

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez

LoglineReturning to a planet that dredges up tragic memories, Captain Pike and his landing party find themselves forgetting everything, including their own identities as he confronts a ghost from his past.

andrybak ,
@andrybak@startrek.website avatar

Reed Birney’s acting is great. His soft voice is very touching.

– Be in the moment with me.

– We look out for each other. Every night we have our forgetting.

– You are guided by your emotions. They are your truth. I find them convincing. The totem teaches that we live in each moment, embrace them.

Beefcyclone ,

Did anyone else just despise the noise though, loved the episode but for me that noise will make the episode un-rewatchable…

tdriley ,
@tdriley@mas.to avatar

@ValueSubtracted second best episode of S2 so far, after Ad Astra Per Aspera. The type of setup has already been done many times but there are enough new ideas to keep it interesting. The old man is a great single-episode character.

Calanon ,

It’s bugged me a little in previous episodes, but in this episode it really bugged me that the entire medical staff seems to be M’Benga and Chapel - I know it’s normal for Trek for the staffs to appear small but normally either it’s been a plot point (Voy), others mentioned if not seen (DS9) or that we occasionally see them (TNG, DIS, TOS). It’d be nice just to see a few others about.

StillPaisleyCat , (edited )
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

We saw several more staff in sickbay in season one, especially in the episode with the contagion from the former Illyrian colony.

I found it very odd that Chapel was on her own with no other medical technicians or paramedics in this episode.

sammydee ,
@sammydee@universeodon.com avatar

@StillPaisleyCat @Calanon She's a modern O'Brien, then. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time without backup. :)

reddig33 ,

To me, this felt like the first real, original, stand alone episode of this season. I didn’t care for the courtroom drama episode, or the time travel one. Those plot lines have been done on Star Trek so many times before.

Still wishing this wasn’t a series that insisted on the “previously on” intro. You never saw that on TOS or TNG unless it was a two parter.

triktrek ,

And this “Previously on” was also not actually that useful/needed.

timeisart ,

oh wow tf was that lol… didn’t know I was signing up for Strange New Worlds: Dementia Simulator…! , great episode!

CCatMan ,

Great episode. Wish there was more time to explore the planet with the away team. Also, what does Una do again? I can already see why Spock replaces her as first officer…

Azfaa ,

I have loved SNW from the get go but I think its great that to me at least every episode has been great. I don’t think I have felt meh or bummed out by any singular one so far. Comparing to TNG and DS9 who had quite a few meh episodes. That is great imo

thomasb2k ,

I agree, this show has knocked it out the park. It’s in the top 3 for me; TNG, DS9, and SNW. The order changes regularly ;)

astroturds ,

A very TOS episode that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Can we let La’an have a few happy moments in this season? That woman must be riddled with PTSD by now.

It was great to finally get Pike back! Has he ever told his girlfriend that he’s almost certainly going to be disabled? What a pickle he’s in. I think if I were in his shoes I would have let the relationship end. The guilt must be driving him insane.

I feel like they might be messing around with the timelines so that they can save Pike from his horrendous fate and just say it’s an alternate timeline compared to TOS. Normally I’d be against that, but it’s Pike and I love him so much that I almost want them to do it.

StillPaisleyCat ,
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

The nature of a time crystal is that it’s a fixed event in every timeline forward.

Once Pike drew the crystal on Borath, it was locked in.

astroturds ,

Thanks, I should know that, I’ve seen every episode!

In a kind of sad way he does have a happy ending. I just don’t want it to happen to him. Poor old Pike!

G59 ,

Can the writers stop making La’an suffer? she can’t catch a break lol

Disgustoid ,

Miles O’Brien: “First time?”

Tired8281 ,

I don’t understand that dude, needling the dude with no memory who was beating on him, then acting all surprised when that same dude puts a gun on him. Like, what was he trying to do? It seemed like he was trying to get Pike to kill him, but then he wasn’t. Wtf?

FelipeFelop ,
@FelipeFelop@feddit.uk avatar

It was implied that the trauma of being left behind, the things that happened to him when he lost his memory, the memory of those things when he entered the castle and the things he did to become ruler caused to him to become insane.

crazycanadianloon ,

The way I read the scene was that he was so high off his power that he thought with the tables turned and Pike having no power that he would have the upper hand. But Pike managed to subdue him and High Lord Zacarias was all of a sudden staring down the barrel of a phaser rifle and all of a sudden wasn’t so confident that the Pike he knew, who would lower the weapon once the combatant was subdued, was still there. I think the sudden switch was just an “OH shit, what have I done?” moment.

tdriley ,
@tdriley@mas.to avatar

@Tired8281 @crazycanadianloon yeh that’s my interpretation. For a moment it looks like Pike has not recovered enough to remember he shouldn’t kill someone when he has the upper hand. Zac suddenly changes demeanor when he realises Pike might not show any mercy.

theinspectorst ,
@theinspectorst@kbin.social avatar

At the start of the episode, when Ortegas was getting ready for the away mission, I thought this episode would have the scene from the start of the season 2 trailer where she (gleefully) pilots a shuttle down to a planet.

At least we know she will eventually get to go on an away mission!

deepthaw ,

This episode should have started in media res, with the away team already on planet and having lost their memories. Once we got the explainer as to what was happening, then we could return to the Enterprise to show the growing crisis there, and finally wrap everything up as the episode already did.

IonAddis ,
@IonAddis@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, the more I think about it, I think you’re right. It’s possible they didn’t because they wanted to bookend it with stuff about the pilot.

The episode as well was a decent one-episode-and-done thing, with a few threads they left open to explore later. But I agree that if they’d begun with the memory loss and cages, and worked backwards from there, it would have been “cooler” and more emotionally effective.

The episode wasn’t a bad one. It wasn’t a great one. It was solid. Given how many fans have said they want Trek like this, it’s probably serviceable and “good enough” for the season.

I’m looking forward to some cooler episodes, though. The first 3 spoiled me, I liked them a lot.

bobfett ,

No.... I juste have a hate for most of the Trek episodes starting with a catastrophic situation and a blackout with a "XX hours ago..." captions...

Top easy writing.... At least, they build the tension here

Voyager763 ,

I couldn’t agree more. It feels like lazy storytelling, and I actually appreciated this episode for not resorting to that kind of fakery. It’s setup was strong enough to be its own thing. I respect that a lot.

gibberish_driftwood ,

I’ve only managed to see this episode once, but something I didn’t understand was Spock’s decision to try and hide in the debris field. At this point they believed the planet was the source of the problem, but it seemed mostly a guess that the debris field might shield them.

Wouldn’t the most logical action have been to get as far away from the planet as reasonably possible until the effects appeared to subside? I know Una made a point that they had crew down there, but it’s not as if they can’t return more cautiously and with a clearer understanding of what’s happening. You’re also helpless to help your landing party if you’re completely incapacitated yourself.

Have I missed something important?

apprehensively_human ,

I kept yelling at my TV. Leave orbit! Get out and regroup!

TeaHands ,
@TeaHands@lemmy.world avatar

That’s what I expected them to do as well, but I’m no science officer.

theothersparrow ,
@theothersparrow@lemmy.one avatar

My headcanon is that the radiation had already begun affecting his decision-making.

It’s a stretch, I know.

StillPaisleyCat ,
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

I don’t think it’s a bad headcanon.

We do know that the first landing went wildly wrong quickly. It’s possible that the judgement and short term memories of Pike and Spock of that landing were affected by more than trauma and shock.

There was individual variation in how rapidly the effects presented. We saw that La’an experienced some early tinnitus shortly after the shuttle landed.

On the ship, Spock wasn’t necessarily correct in his inference given he was already experiencing some cognitive impairment by that point.

FelipeFelop ,
@FelipeFelop@feddit.uk avatar

They could have retreated, sent shuttles on short duration missions to locate the crew but that would not have made a very interesting story.

In universe, I think they were all already affected at that point and showed poor judgement.

crazycanadianloon ,

I think it’s not just because Una pointed out there was crew down there but specifically told Spock they had to (should) stay close. He took it literally as a command whereas he really should have evaluated it for himself.

autojourno ,

He recommended to the First Officer that they retreat from the planet and she gave him an order not to do that. She went to sick bay after but I don’t think command was formally transferred to him.

So he looked for an alternative that would keep them safe while still executing a superior officer’s instructions, and he got it wrong by misunderstanding compounds in the debris that he’d never encountered before. If he’d been right about the debris it would have been a genius move. As it was, he followed orders and looked for non-suicidal way to do that.

sarcasticsunrise ,
@sarcasticsunrise@lemmy.world avatar

Nothing to add pertaining to this last FANTASTIC episode; I really just wanted to say I appreciate everyone posting here. After Reddit, I thought these kind of threads were done for, but here we are. So even if no one reads this, thank you and much love 🙏

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