Logline
A time ripple damages the Enterprise, forcing young and old Uhura to cooperate and fix the timeline.
Written by: Henry Alonso Myers & Robbie Thompson
Directed by: Chris Fisher
Pray for Future La’An.
Remember, the Kirk that was talking about her like that was also the Kirk for whom Scotty had died a year ago. By changing that, it’s entirely possible that Uhura changed whatever Kirk was avoiding talking about. Therefore nothing is certain.
Oh, for sure. But we’re definitely supposed to have a sense of dread about it.
Kirk’s reaction to La’an’s name was strong enough that I feel like it’s a misdirect. They want us to think she dies to maximise the drama when she narrowly escapes whatever they have planned for her.
This was a really good finale. It was well paced, the stakes for the crew felt strong, and it was a great timey wimey time travel sci fi story.
Regarding the stakes, one of my criticisms of prequels was that, as fans, the future is fixed, but here it felt a lot more tense. Even though we know scotty doesn’t die, I was half expecting one of the Uhuras to have to sacrifice themselves to save the other, which felt a substantial risk, and it really helped sell the episode.
CRG did great acting here, and did justice to “the same character but at different points in their life” - the confidence in future!uhura stood out.
I was very confused about the black hole / white hole’s scale - I was suprised at the final act when they’re basically right up against it, and the holes turn out to be roughly the same size as the enterprise itself. I think it could have been established a little better at the beginning, but that’s a minor annoyance.
The midwife aliens are the same being as DS9 prophets, I guess, they spoke to Uhura in song because they would know she can interpret that, where they knew to speak to bajorans in poetry and scripture.
I liked the little preview of future!enterprise’s looks, especially seeing a few background characters from different species.
Overall, great finale to an okay season. I hope the final season has loads of episodes just like this one.
Yeah, I was super confused when both the drones and Uhura disappeared into that barrier only five feet off of the ship.
It’s only an idea, but I told myself that it possibly only looks like a white and black hole on the outside as some type of self defense mechanism for the baby.
Outside of that minor(hah!) gripe, I loved this episode. Past Uhura helping future Uhura was a neat idea. I found Scotty and Uhura as a couple to be cute, and felt that Scotty’s actor portrayed his attraction to Uhura very sincerely.
I loved the TAS crew members that were present the shuttle bay while they were getting ready for the mission into the black hole.
Oh wow. An absolutely amazing end to this excellent season!
Oh and fuck Paramount, we need more Trek.
Did Star Trek really just do an inverse of the Galaxy Quest “Miners, not minors!” joke?
Space baby. Hmmm… Not the jaw-dropping finale that this season needed.
What’s wrong with space baby? If we start to exclude “space baby,” we’re actually excluding a fair number of Trek episodes.
I’ve been trying to think of a word to describe the episode. Clunky seems about right. Of this season only one episode came near to not being cringe (and that was because it tried to recreate the “theme” of an old TOS episode). Production quality is exceptional; narrative just cringe and clunky.
Any good ones? 😂
Trick question - there are no good episodes of Star Trek.
Well that was a mess. Good riddance to this season.
That was amazing!
I was hoping to see in the final episode the outcome of the “invisible ship” and if the theory about the Vulcan Cadet was true, so it was dissappointing to see the episode went to a different story. Also the story was a bit boring, only interesting bits were when Uhura ask Spock and Scotty to do something, in order to get it 1 year later. Not very original, but was fun.
One season to go, for the moment my biggest regret with the show is that we are never gonna see Captain Angel from S1 comeback, and I think never will (only half season left…). One of finest evil characters ever seen on ST
the outcome of the “invisible ship”
Balance of Terror?
the theory about the Vulcan Cadet was true
Wait, is there a theory she’s a Romulan or something?
One season to go, for the moment my biggest regret with the show is that we are never gonna see Captain Angel from S1 comeback, and I think never will (only half season left…). One of finest evil characters ever seen on ST
I wish so hard for the final season to just be nothing by Sybok. I will be so livid if there is no pay off for this!
the outcome of the “invisible ship”Balance of Terror?
I think so, I consider myself a ST fan, have watched almost everything two exceptions, one is Discovery I dropped on season 2-3 don’t remember exactly that was not fun to watch, and TOS I tried to watch it, but I can’t stand it, it’s too old for me, so I know nothing of Balance of Terror, yeah, I know there are some Romulans and it’s supposed to be the invisible ship, nothing else.
the theory about the Vulcan Cadet was trueWait, is there a theory she’s a Romulan or something?
In the other threads someone suggested that the Vulcan Cadet that left Starfleet is a Romulan spy. I am all in at this moment, it could be a great AHA! moment in the future.
About Sybok, again, no TOS background here, but the story about Captain Angel, and how they trick Pike was so great… and never had a payback or a conclusion that is a shame.
go on and watch Balance of Terror, even if it’s the only TOS episode you ever watch.
i was disappointed in the Strange New Worlds remake of that episode (the S1 finale, Quality of Mercy) because it a) wrongly assumed that most of the audience had seen Balance of Terror, so it didn’t properly land with my non-Trekkie friend watching together and b) wasn’t as good as the original, and i am generally a big SNW fan.
Mark Lenard’s performance is incredible.
edit : i’m going to watch it again right now, so thanks for the prompt to do so!
edit 2: in the midst of it, it’s so good.
I thought it was a great finale. Better than last seasons finale. But still disappointed they couldn’t get Thomas Jane to do a quick cameo since we know that casting announcements and appearances haven’t lined up before.
Really enjoyed the episode, but sad that the nice moment between Pike and future Uhura was erased.
SNW was going to be cancelled at the end of this season, until the showrunner argued for another half-season to wrap things up. Which makes too much sense, since this was in many ways a shorter, breezier version of All Good Things. It even ends with a captain joining a poker game! And focussing on Uhura also works well for a pseudo-finale, since she was our focal character early in season 1 as well.
Which makes me wonder how the next season will feel. It reminds me of the Babylon 5 season 4 finale, which was written to function as the series finale when they thought they wouldn’t get renewed. And then the actual season 5 felt a little redundant. Not unwelcome, but kind of like a long addendum to the “main show”.
Regardless, an enjoyable episode. Celia Rose Gooding carried it well. They had fun with the time travel mechanics in a way that worked well enough. I think Trek relies too much on fan service, but I have to say the '60s hair tickled me, and I was delighted to see M’Ress. The Black / White Holes didn’t feel scary enough by far, but it seems like they weren’t exactly the real thing, so maybe that’s okay.
