I wonder who wanders. Spoilers.
This is a very effective, if overly trope-y, ‘Star Trek does Alien’. My main problem is that there are just too many questionable judgments to drive the plot forward. But that’s outweighed by the strength of everything else.
But, accepting that, they use the episode very effectively to push on a few characters. Nurse Chapel, Spock, La’an and Uhura all were tested by what happened. Some of these moments are bigger than others, but I felt like we learnt something about everyone, and even saw some development.
And then there’s the ending. It’s unexpected, sad, and earned. It’s very rare for Star Trek to lose a main cast character like this (the only other I can think of is Tasha Yar). From a meta perspective it’s a real loss, as his character was working well in the show, and felt like he had more to show.
This actually felt a lot like a season finale. It progressed the Gorn plot, dropped a main character, has La’an go off on a mission at the end. And we even get Uhura going to the comms station. Where are they going next week?
Quick hits:
– The log setup strongly suggests we’re going to be getting ‘why Uhura believes in Starfleet’ this episode. The spread for that farewell party is insane too.
– If this is cadet’s party, feels a bit inappropriate to throw a promotion into the mix.
– I liked the whole senior staff briefing over food.
– ‘We’ll be fine Number One” – famous last words.
– The visual effects in this series are normally great, but the landing sequence really stood out to me.
– The landing party is absolutely stacked with potential red shirts. Previously unseen newly promoted lieutenant, a cadet we’ve never seen before, and a few more unnamed characters. I hope they updated their wills.
– Strange – the ‘pull back with all the corpses’ really felt like a ‘cut to titles’ moment.
– Quite possibly the goriest episode of Trek ever? It’s certainly up there.
– Using the whole range of horror movie tricks here. Very effective direction actually.
– Quite possible the most blatant ‘Alien’ ripoff ever. Aliens bursting out of someone. A little girl traumatised by the aliens.
– Baby Born. Do do do do do do do.
– Yay, Spock said Sen-sores… 🙂
– I will point out that La’an’s plan sucks. Highly intelligent creatures will put up with heat or cold to hunt an enemy.
– LOL, password 2-4-6-8-10. Starlet clearly does not have much of a password policy.
– Two redshirts, one main cast. Big body count!
– Jess Bush continues to be absolutely spectacular as Nurse Chapel. A standout even among this stellar cast.
862 down. Finale of Season one next week, and finally a bit of a pause in non-stop Trek.