La'An is tasked with stress-testing a new holodeck system aboard the ship. She decides to cast herself as detective Amelia Moon, and is soon working to solve a murder behind the scenes of a 1960s science fiction TV show. But when the holodeck discontinues safety protocols, draws a crippling amount of power from Enterprise systems, and cuts off her communications with the world outside, La'An finds she must solve the mystery to save both herself and the ship.
In the chronologically ordered history of Star Trek, this episode is presenting the very first holodeck story. But in the real world, of course, The Next Generation gave us so many different malfunctioning holodeck episodes as to completely wear out the premise; later Treks would have to get increasingly clever in their narrative gymnastics to make the old feel new again.
Unfortunately, Strange New Worlds doesn't have a new take. (In fact, it's really close to "Elementary, Dear Data" in most key ways.) This episode is mostly just invoking nostalgia. There hasn't been a new holodeck episode of Star Trek in over 25 years, so you should be excited to see this one, right? (Assuming you haven't been watching old episodes -- like me and many Trekkers.)
But thankfully, there's another source of nostalgia here: for the original Star Trek series and the lofty and noble aspirations that have attached to it over the decades. La'An's holodeck excursion brings us into the world of "The Last Frontier," with a creator quite like Gene Roddenberry, a benefactor similar to Lucille Ball, a production budget befitting a 60s TV show, and a credit sequence exactly like the show that brought us all here today.
In the proud tradition of sketch comedy shows that have poked fun at Star Trek over the years, "A Space Adventure Hour" is Star Trek's chance to razz itself with hokey dialogue, exaggerated melodrama, technicolor lighting, rubber makeup, and cardboard props. Yet even as the episode has some meta fun at Star Trek's expense, it equally serves as a heartfelt love letter to some of the people who fought to keep it on the air in the beginning. Celia Rose Gooding (as Uhura, as "Joni Gloss") gets the most direct thesis statement in support of Star Trek that's ever been put into the mouth of one of its own characters. She advocates for the goodness of storytelling in the most abstract, television in general, and Star Trek in particular. I found it delightful.
So is the fun we get (as always) when the cast of a Star Trek show gets to cut loose and play other characters. Jess Bush gets to play things up in her native Australian accent. Anson Mount transforms completely into alcoholic writer "TK Bellows." Paul Wesley, who for seasons has perfectly walked the line of giving us James T. Kirk without giving us an impression of William Shatner, here gets to give us... a perfectly exaggerated impression of William Shatner. There is, in short, a lot here to love -- and likely the more minute trivia you have about the behind-the-scenes history of Star Trek, the more you'll find.
Yet even though the cast and director Jonathan Frakes inject this with every bit as much fun as last season's Lower Decks crossover, I still had a hard time getting over the "been there, done that" qualities of this being another holodeck misadventure. (And, if I may pat myself on the back for my own insightfulness, the rather easy-to-guess solution to the central mystery.) I had fun, but this was not an episode that put the "new" in Strange New Worlds. I give "A Space Adventure Hour" a B+.
No comments:
Post a Comment