The famous Comic Con took place in San Diego last weekend. Star Trek was of course also on site and had a lot to present. It was already known that the eagerly awaited crossover episode would be presented to fans at the venue. What then came as a big surprise, however, was the announcement that the release of this episode had been brought forward to all fans worldwide. So instead of the usual Thursday, the new episode was released on Sunday.
This crossover for Season 2 was announced a year ago. Star Trek – Strange New Worlds should visit two characters from the animated series Star Trek – Lower Decks receive. It’s not the first crossover in the history of Star Trekbut certainly one of the craziest.
Since this is a special episode that contains quite a few surprises and because of the surprisingly early airing, some of you probably haven’t seen the episode yet, we won’t present the plot in as much detail as usual this time.
Review of “Star Trek – Strange New Worlds” Season 2 Episode 7 – Beastly old star travelers
The Enterprise finds a time portal on a planet that suddenly activates and a human falls out of it. Upon seeing Spock, La’An, and Number One, he faints.
The time traveler is, of course, Boimler from the animated series Lower Decks. When he wakes up in the infirmary and realizes that this is all real, he finds it hard to contain his euphoria, given that he is on the famous Enterprise and surrounded, from his perspective, by legends of Starfleet. However, Pike and the others make it clear to him that under no circumstances should the timeline be violated and that Boimler must keep his knowledge of the future to himself. Easier said than done when you know Boimler.
Boimler finds it particularly difficult with Spock, who is still young from his point of view and who, due to his relationship with Chapel, has begun to imitate human traits, which sometimes shocks Boimler and even makes him believe that he is responsible for it and has thus already changed the course of history.
Since Boimler finds it noticeably difficult to keep his knowledge to himself and he behaves very clearly like a fan, I Pike tries to put him back in his time as quickly as possible. When they finally manage to activate the time portal again, the attempt fails when someone else from the future lands at their feet, Mariner.
Since the time portal then switches off again, two time travelers from the future are now stuck on the Enterprise. And suddenly it’s Boimler who worries that Mariner is somehow violating the timeline. It doesn’t help that she starts interacting with the crew, especially the very young Uhura. Meanwhile, Boimler tries to work out a solution together with Spock. Of course, Spock notices Boimler’s conspicuous behavior in his presence and also draws certain conclusions from this, which makes Boimler even more concerned that he has changed the story. But Spock can calm him down with his logic.
Finally, Boimler and Mariner have an idea how to activate the time portal again and it actually works, so that both can travel back in time.
Conclusion
We’ll split the bottom line for this episode. Because of the special nature of this episode as well as the surprisingly early release, we want to be a bit more reserved with spoilers this time, as mentioned at the beginning. We are therefore raising this for an extra one this time Spoiler conclusion on.
Spoiler-free, this was a really great and crazy episode. Star Trek has always been a rather realistic sci-fi series, which from the outside can seem rather dry to non-experts. However, what we’re overlooking here, and fans of course know this, is that Star Trek always contained a certain crazy component. As serious as everything may seem, the series never took itself too seriously and repeatedly provided humorous interludes and thus the necessary lightness. Humor and, above all, a healthy dose of self-mockery have always been an important part of Star Trek. This crossover episode is therefore in the best tradition of both humorous episodes and crossover episodes that have also existed in the past.
Jack Quaid as Boimler and Tawny Newsome as Mariner do a really good job. Of course, it’s always a bit strange when cartoon characters suddenly appear in live action, but it works. Of course, it helps that the two voice actors also go well with their roles.
Although there are benefits if you Lower Decks and knows the figures, this is not necessary here. The episode works just as well if you’ve never seen an episode of the animated series.
It was a bit of a shame that this particular episode was one of the shortest so far. On the other hand, one has to say that this is probably exactly why it works.
A memorable crossover, with a few nods and even meta-humour. This even includes the title of this episode. In German “Tierisch olle Sternenreisende” and in English “Those Old Scientists” this is an allusion to the era of Pike and Kirk, which fans refer to as TOS, which stands for “The Original Series”.
Spoiler conclusion
You could almost say that this entire episode is about fandom. Boimler can certainly be referred to as a caricature on the classic Star Trek-Fan to be seen. And that there is a Boimler in all of us is also shown by the crew of the Enterprise itself when they also come out as fans. Because another Enterprise also played a role here.
It was really nice to see Pike, Uhura and the others becoming fans themselves when it came to the Enterprise NX-01. And how nice is it that this crew and Star Trek – Enterprise receiving so much attention and love lately. Already in Star Trek – Picard their achievements were recently recognized. And now we even found out that part of the NX-01 was installed in the current Enterprise. Really nice, like here with the legacy of Star Trek was handled.
Of course there were other allusions. Even Q was mentioned once. And in a way, there was also a nod to the season five crossover of Star Trek – Deep Space Nine. Back then, Captain Sisko’s crew went back in time and landed in the “Do You Know Tribbles” episode of the classic series. Just like Mariner now, Jadzia Dax mentioned how hot young Spock is. We don’t know whether this was actually an allusion to it or whether it was pure coincidence. But it’s always funny.
It was also great that this episode started with an animated sequence and even the intro was adapted accordingly. In the end, even the crew of the Enterprise can appear as cartoon characters, for which there is also a wonderful explanation.
Of course, one wonders all the time whether the timeline will be changed, and Boimler and Mariner are not really subtle. Be it the betrayal of Pike’s future holiday, the poster for Number One, or the fact that Uhura will also become a significant figure in history. The episode manages to tell many beautiful little stories. The background of the poster with number one or again addressing Pike’s future as an example.
With the ending being that it was the Orions who discovered the time portal, the episode then makes it clear that this was a case of preordained time travel in order for things to happen as they had to happen.
The crossover episode out Star Trek – Deep Space Nine is probably hard to beat. “Beastly old star travelers” does not come close to that. Still, this episode is worth watching.
2023-07-24 19:17:37
#Review #Star #Trek #Strange #Worlds #crazy #crossover
