When Chapel and Spock are nearly killed in a shuttlecraft accident, mysterious aliens swoop in to save them. But they mistakenly "repair" Spock to be fully human -- which poses an imminent problem, as Spock's fiancée T'Pring is visiting with her parents. Spock's mother Amanda must help her son "learn to lie" so that he can complete an engagement ritual to the exacting standards of T'Pring's severe mother. Meanwhile, Chapel must confront the truth of her feelings for Spock to try to convince the aliens to reverse their mistake.
For a series that isn't primarily a comedy, Strange New Worlds really does know how to deliver the laughs. From great jokes in the script to crisp editing and (as always) razor-sharp performances from the cast, "Charades" delivers laugh out loud moments all throughout.
Ethan Peck absolutely crushes his huge opportunity here. He "acts big" without it seeming too big, nails the rare moments of physical comedy he's been given, and gives a performance that genuinely feels connected to the "Spock we know" while being quite different. While Peck's basking in the spotlight, though, don't overlook some fantastic non-verbal comedy from Anson Mount (especially during the Vulcan ritual sequence), or the women of Enterprise giving lessons on acting Vulcan, or the great work of the guest stars here -- Mia Kirshner (as Amanda) and Gia Sandhu (as T'Pring) are both returning to roles they've played before and giving us something new.
In another case of Strange New Worlds understanding just the right about of 1960s to give us, two other big guest stars serve up a Vulcan-tinged mini-episode of The Dick Van Dyke show right here in the middle of it all. T'Pring's parents, T'Pril and Sevet (played by Ellora Patnaik and Michael Benyaer), are a classic comic pairing of "impossible to please" and "eager to please (everyone)" that might come off as too broad to some. I found it just the right accent to augment the "classic Star Trek" vibes of this episode.
All that said, the real flourish here is when things get serious in the final act. The episode actually has something meaningful to say about bigotry, when Spock finally confronts his would-be mother-in-law. Best of all, his speech to her isn't centered on his own struggles, but on the greater appreciation he now has for what his mother has endured by living on Vulcan. In an episode where Spock has (explicitly, in dialogue) been reduced to the self-centeredness of a pubescent teenager, he -- again, we're talking about Spock -- arrives at a moment of profound empathy. We didn't know we were in a "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" story until it surprises us at the last moment.
And this is nearly as much a "Nurse Chapel" episode as it is a Spock episode. Chapel wrestles with guilt, overcomes her own self-doubt to confront a bigot of her own, and makes a big sacrifice for the person she loves. And with her carefully tuned performance, Jess Bush makes the "Chapel pines for Spock" story line, inherited from the original series, something actually compelling and nuanced to watch.
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