When the Cerritos is investigating a defunct time portal device, it's accidentally reactivated and sends Boimler back in time to Captain Pike's Enterprise. As the crew tries to figure out how to send Boimler back to his own time, Boimler tries (not very successfully) to avoid leaking information about the future that might alter the timeline. Then the problems double when Mariner also arrives from the future.
Star Trek has done a few crossovers before, but nothing of this scope or effectiveness. When Julian Bashir marched into Beverly Crusher's Sickbay, it was a minor element of a fundamentally "The Next Generation" episode. When Barclay showed up in late in the run of Voyager, he so thoroughly took over that it wasn't really a Voyager episode anymore. But the real magic of "Those Old Scientists" (among many magical moments) is that it legitimately felt like an episode of both Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks. Each show and its characters got to keep true to their identities, and any failure of those two tones to blend was harnessed as a strength of the storytelling, not a weakness.
On the Lower Decks side of the equation, Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome were thrown the tremendous challenge of bringing their performances out of the voice recording booth and onto a set. Both were superb at making the same fast-talking, wild, and definitionally cartoonish antics seem realistic. Quaid in particular gave us Boimler's scream, his wild "power walk," and his manic energy. It was remarkable. But also, the episode gave us legitimate storytelling for the Lower Decks characters: Mariner only participating in this mission in the first place because she knew what it would mean to Boimler, and the bit of social justice for Tendi and her Orion heritage.
On the Strange New Worlds side of the equation, we got a story that honored multiple story threads that have been accumulating throughout the season, including La'an's time travel experience, Una's deep feelings for Starfleet (even when Starfleet doesn't feel the same about her), Uhura's workaholic mentality, and Chapel and Spock's new relationship. Each of these character touchstones (plus a newly introduced one about Pike's father) were parts of largely serious moments in the episode. Jess Bush's performance as Chapel, in the moment Boimler unknowingly devastates her, was her best work yet on the show. Anson Mount's moment of realization at the profound wisdom he's just been given by these "toddlers" was another great moment in the vast collection he's building on this series.
But yes, there were hijinks aplenty -- and there, it did help that Strange New Worlds has taken its own big comedic
swings at times, making an episode this light already within the
boundaries of what was possible. Loads of referential jokes (and even a joke about being overly referential). So many good lines that I'll have to watch again and again to catch the ones I laughed over the first time around. An absolutely "chef's kiss" opening credits sequence that added Lower Decks animation (and references) to Strange New Worlds, serving as the perfect thesis statement for what you were about to watch. An animated epilogue with the Strange New Worlds crew that was fantastic (but also perhaps containing the only part of the episode that wasn't absolutely perfect: I don't think cartoon Pike's hair was high enough).
Cast and crew pulled off nothing short of a miracle here, and Jonathan Frakes may have delivered the most towering achievement in his Star Trek directing career. If this episode had merely been "not terrible," I feel like it would have seemed great simply for the degree of difficulty here. But I found it transcendent, a grade A peak for Strange New Worlds that tells me in no uncertain terms that this show really can do anything. (And they've teased another wild swing in a couple more episodes, to test that very theory.)
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