Enterprise has spent months undergoing repairs, and now Nurse Chapel is returning from her fellowship. But when she arrives with a new boyfriend, Dr. Korby, Spock is not quite able to control the resulting emotions. At one point, he makes an idle comment and suddenly, his wedding to Chapel is imminent -- without most people even realizing that reality has changed. But even when the fantasy is shattered, what can be done to stop the all-powerful alien entity who made Spock's "wish" happen?
This episode may feature Spock learning to dance, but I won't attempt to dance around spoilers -- if you haven't caught up with this episode, you might just want to skip to the final paragraph here. Because while the episode itself makes an effort never to say "Q," John de Lancie's vocal cameo at the story's climax tells longtime Trek fans exactly what's going on here.
Actually, what's going on is that the writers are finally making "canon" the lazy choice made by Gene Roddenberry back in 1987 for the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Looking for a subplot to pad out a one-hour episode into a two-hour premiere, Roddenberry lifted the idea of a powerful, playful alien -- Trelane -- from the original series, and grafted it into script. Q had massive staying power, arguably overstaying his welcome as he reappeared again and again throughout the franchise. Strange New Worlds makes Trelane and Q part of the same "family," with some hand-waving about the logistics that one is forced to allow when mixing "magic" and science fiction.
I personally feel like I did not need yet another Q story in my life. But if you're going to do it? I feel like this is how you do it. Strange New Worlds has a high hit rate with its comedic episodes, and leaning into the comedy of Trelane/Q felt to me like the right way to go for this appearance. What's more, I can't think of better casting for a comedic Trelane than Rhys Darby. He gives a pitch perfect performance that lands all the jokes, captures the moments of whiny petulance, and is tinged with just the right amount of dangerous menace.
But it's not like Darby is the only one having fun here. The show hilariously pokes fun at itself with jokes about everything from Samuel Kirk's mustache to Pike's hair style. It goes meta, with a musical score that mimics the memorable "something's sinister" music of the original Star Trek. It cuts loose, allowing music to be played at a wedding reception that isn't a string quartet from the classical era. (Admit it... Wham! was not on your Star Trek bingo card.)
Best of all, the episode isn't just about having fun. Even this lark of a story progresses the arc of Spock and Chapel, and finds room to develop story for most of the other characters too. We see a lighter side of La'An now that she isn't obsessed with the Gorn, Pike and Batel must face a crossroads in their relationship, and we meet Ortegas' brother (while seeing her mask a greater trauma by focusing on his flirtation with Uhura). There are even a couple of other new secondary characters that the writers skillfully imbue with personality in just a few well-crafted lines: the playful nurse Gamble and a new alien bartender (marking, I believe, the first appearance of the three-armed Edosians outside of an animated Star Trek, in an exceptionally well-done combination of stagecraft and camera work).
All told, "Wedding Blue Blues" isn't really an episode I would have thought I wanted... but it's still one I enjoyed reasonably well all the same. I give it a B+.
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