Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (SNW) Season 3 Guest Reviews
A Space Adventure Hour
Synopsis
Stardate not given: Synopsis in main SNW listing
Commentary
It's going to take a lot of self control to refrain from four letter words in this one, but WHAT THE HELL?
So, Paramount are obviously trying to get more views on SNW, because they've made this episode free on YouTube for a short time. I just had to satisfy my curiosity and find out, just how bad it really was!
Well, suffice to say, it's 45 minutes of my life I'll never get back, but at least it gives me an excuse to rant about it!
So, Holodecks... in the 23rd century? It's been repeated many times that this "alleged" era didn't have Holodecks and what holographic technology they did have was rather rudimentary and not very accurate! For example, Janeway in "Flashback" commenting that Sulu didn't look anything like his portrait at Starfleet Academy, to which Tuvok replied, "holo-imaging resolution was less accurate in the 23rd century."
NuTrek seems to really focus on revisionism! What these so called writers fail to understand is Trek has its own established universe and history, it isn't the same as our real world history, but they seem hell bent on shoehorning in current year events!
The Eugenics Wars for example, 1990s in the original, the 2020s in the new shows. Now to Memory Alpha's credit, they do have the original dates as the 1990s, and the revisionist Disco/SNW/PIC dates as a "temporal altered timeline". Problem is, the showrunners still insist that SNW is a direct prequel to TOS.
Anyway, moving on from the blaring continuity issues, this episode is basically just a bad remake of "Elementary, Dear Data". The episode is set up in a practically identical way with La'an asking the computer to create a murder mystery based on some novel character, that will really challenge her.
Now, Holodeck programs usually had to be created by someone and the participant would play through a story, much like a contemporary video game. It makes no sense that this entire scenario is all getting made up on the spot. This is something that Lower Decks actually did better in "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", where Boimler goes off-piste and the computer struggles to make up anything meaningful or that makes sense on the fly.
As for the setting; SNW is once again taking potshots at Classic Trek. "The Last Frontier", an over-the-top, badly acted and campy parody of TOS (Which could just as easily describe SNW itself tbh...) I simply don't understand why the people who make these shows think that's what TOS was like... Yes it had its lighthearted episodes that didn't take themselves too seriously. "I, Mudd" for example, but they were few and far between in a run of 79 episodes!
Paul Wesley really hamming it up in what is supposed to be Shatner was pretty cringeworthy. Obviously Anson Mount is supposed to be Gene Roddenberry, another figure that if not for him, all these people would be out of a job! I would genuinely call this episode spiteful at the very least.
The "twist" at the end is very half arsed, with "Spock" not actually being "Spock", the Computer making a holo version that's actually the "killer" to try and fool La'an, and that's it, when she calls him out, she's just able to then end the program... Very anti-climactic.
The B-plot with the neutron star doesn't even need mentioning really, as it's such a nothing burger, other than, why the hell would they be testing such a strenuous experimental technology whilst they're studying something so dangerous?
The usual excuse for breaking continuity is used at the end, "Oh, we'll just bury the technology in a vault somewhere..."
These "writers" just love to hang a lantern on shit! Seems to be all they know how to do!
So again, SNW once again jumping the shark, unable to do anything even remotely original.
Rating: 0 (Jimmer)
