Starfleet Academy: 300th Night

I'm a bit late getting to my thoughts about last week's episode of Starfleet Academy, in part because it was a clear "part one" in need of a "part two" for full context. Ah... but if I wait to actually watch part two before I write about part one, I'll lose the purity of my current uncertainty about it. So here we go, my "still processing" thoughts about "300th Night."

As a year at the Academy winds down and cadets are bound for Betazed for the dedication of the Federation's new government seat, Caleb (with help from Sam) is finally able to retrieve coded messages from his mother, Anisha. But with her calling for a meeting outside Federation space -- whose borders are about to be closed due to a credible threat from Nus Braka -- the only way Caleb can get there is to steal a shuttlecraft. And Caleb's Academy friends aren't about to let him go it alone. As they proceed to their rendezous, Chancellor Ake takes a skeleton crew on a rescue mission. But all of them may end up on the wrong side of the border when Nus Braka springs his trap.

I think the biggest area of uncertainty for me in this story is simply that it doesn't feel like we've gotten enough Starfleet Academy yet for it to fully land. I understand that 10-episode seasons are all Star Trek in the streaming age can give us now; gone are the 20+ episode seasons of the last generation. And I'll be the first to admit that quantity over quality wasn't always a trade that worked in favor of some of those past series.

But the issue is, this episode asks us to believe in friendships that have built up over a year at school -- and it simply doesn't feel like even a fraction of that time has gone by. Sure, they've been telling us about the passage of time all season, giving us a mid-semester break, and saying very explicitly here that it's been 300 days that our cadets have been at school. But there just haven't been enough episodes to show, not tell, this passage of time. Not enough episodes that feel like they unfold over a course of weeks or months. Not enough episodes, period. So when Sam, Genesis, and (a more reluctant) Darem all throw in to help Caleb on his "mission to Mom," it's much more the performances and chemistry of the actors that sell their loyalty than the situation or script itself. 

Still... if you just get on board, the ensuing adventure is quite fun. They travel to an alien world that is rendered for the audience in rather elaborate and effective detail. And little time is wasted in finding Mom, bringing Tatiana Maslany back onto our screens. Of course, having seen Orphan Black, I'll pretty much always think that every movie or TV show she appears in is underusing her considerable talents, but she still elevates the story as she gradually realizes how her son her changed -- particularly in the past year.

It's kind of wild to me that another episode omits Lura Thok. (Is she not a main character on this show?) And I'll admit -- until we saw Darem "glitter barf" again, I wasn't entirely sure whether the first time really happened, or it was just Sam's perspective on what happened. But despite those couple of goofy choices, I found this episode overall to be a pretty rousing action-adventure.

But, like I said at the top... also an incomplete one. I'd call it a solid B. In the season one finale, I'm hoping for an episode that uses all the characters effectively in some way, like the premiere did. I'm expecting a big scene between Holly Hunter and Tatiana Maslany, and I hope it stuns me. I'm sure I'll get a big Paul Giamatti performance. But also -- with the show already set for a second season, I don't have to pin all my hopes on just the next episode to satisfy.