I seriously hated it when Q forced Dr. Korby to be a bridesmaid. It's as if a woman's place is the worst place a man can be in. It's one step away from dehumanisation. In this case literally. Oh, how funny! [Sarcasm]
Do the people who wrote this episode get that this is the same understanding of masculinity were so much hate for trans people and queer men comes from?
First off, the good things.
- Yes, Pelia's line is funny. But I have thoughts about that, too, that I'll get to later.
- The show's production design, costuming, and effects continue to be gorgeous, and this time we even got a shot of the Enterprise that was halfway decently lit, instead of a "more realistic" but hard to see dark-grey-ship-on-black-space-background shot.
Unfortunately, so much in this episode didn't make sense.
- Yes, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", and yes, Trek has a long history of highly powerful noncorporeal beings of one sort or anther. But a lot of the Vezda plot seems to hang very much on magic for the sake of the plot that's had a thin veneer of technobabble spritzed on it. Beaming the Vezda into the transporter buffer and leaving it there earlier in the season I'm fine with; that's established and understandable treknobabble. But that entity somehow escaping the buffer and using the transporter to shoot itself far out of the transporter's range using "ley lines"? That's a bit far (literally and storywise) for me.
- I'm very skeptical about the "not warp capable but absolutely capable of creating gravity-defying temples" technology level of the planet of the week. Yes, giant mysteriously floating structures look cool, but again...magic.
- First, those temple guards at the doorway really need to find new jobs; they suck at their jobs. Second, how is it that nobody in the crowded marketplace or whatever that was notice these people disabling the guards and hopping into the entrance to the sacred temple? Third, from that point on, Enterprise crew just seem to be able to pop in and out of the temple on a whim, which seems unlikely.
- Amazing how the Farragut is always nearby (and that Kirk is the only Farragut crew member that the Enterprise crew ever speaks with).
- My recollection of the mind meld as originally introduced in TOS was that it (along with things like pon farr and other aspects of Vulcan mysticism) was a private thing and not generally mentioned to or performed with "outsiders", even to the extent that in later shows, it was established that Vulcans themselves stopped doing it long enough that it was considered mythical (though I may be slightly misremembering). But Trek overall has become much more lax about it over the years, to the point where now it's just casually mentioned in a bar conversation, and then performed right there in the bar?
- Additionally, if Spock and Kirk shared so much during this mind meld, wouldn't Kirk now have a lot more knowledge of Spock's family and past than he's shown to have in TOS? I just feel like this idea wasn't really thought through.
- Did the Enterprise and/or Farragut tell anyone on the planet that they were about to target one of their temples with phaser blasts? How come nobody in the temple seems at all phased (pun slightly intended) by this happening?
- The entire "false future" with Pike and Batel went on for a _really_ long time; long enough for me to start idly comparing it to both Pike's initial and later fantasy worlds with the Talosians, Kirk's experiences in the Nexus, and Picard's experience with the Kataan probe, and it ended up just being a "yes, we've seen this before and we know where it's going" situation rather than being the emotional story that the writers were probably trying for. (Though maybe having had this experience is part of why Pike eventually chooses to live out his illusory life on Talos with Vina rather than with Marie?)
- THE POWER OF LOVE SAVES THE DAY! Again.
I mean, it wasn't _bad_, but it wasn't _good_, either. Just too many plot holes and, once again, too much reliance on fanservice and touching on or rehashing things we've seen before instead of building their own story and expanding the world of Star Trek.
Guys, guys, let's split up!
Oh, this is the episode where Star Fleet didn't have protocols (which is for losers!) for exploring strange, sexy Minshara Class planets.
Coming up on the next combative episode of It's Got Star Trek, we discuss what has been called the 7th episode of #StrangeNewWorld's 3rd season: "What Is Starfleet?" Available Monday at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time - that's soon!
It’s official, folks!
My #review of the #StrangeNewWorld episode, #FourAndaHalfVulcans, is now available!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBE1Pgxpwko
I hope you enjoy it, and my other #StarTrek #reviews, and the #episode, itself.
“Four and a Half Vulcans” is funny!
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