After the tension and drama on board the Miyazaki, it’s time to cool things down with some fun. Or at least try to! Following the incident and trauma from the assignment, it’s time for the jolly boys outing. Or spring holidays, whatever you want to call it. All Worlds day is what we’re calling it here, even if most of the episode is based in a less strange, more familiar world.
Writers: Alex Taub & Eric Anthony Glover
Director: Larry Teng
To set the stage, and be blunt, shit went down. The Miyakzaki exercise resulted in the death of both an instruction and a student. It’s been a month since then and nothings really changed, It’s been business as usual. Or as business as usual as it gets from the perspective of a lovestruck twenty-something who’s not sure what to say to the person who tore her brain apart to save the day who’s numb to the trauma of what happened due to his own past…
Lets put a pin in that. Kind of. In tragedy people hurt and turn to normality as much as they can. Even after a month of trying to get back to the normality, keep calm and carry on is a mantra we all know and joke about to this day and thats what everyone tries to do, clinging on to normality and find some escape in Spring Break. Or All Worlds day as they’ve decided to call it as everyone is heading back to their home world or on holiday.
Caleb, not having a homeworld, opts to stay at the Academy and take advantage of the empty halls. Genesis stays with him, cancelling her trip home last minute after Ake tells her she’s being fast tracked to a future captains training program. Antics ensue.
Meanwhile the titular storyline focuses on Darem being kidnapped while everyone else leaves campus and Jay-Den, who’s supposed to be spending his break with Kyle, tries to save the day and follow the kidnappers through a portal only to discover it’s not an act of malice; just Khonian tradition at play. He’s grown up knowing about his arranged marriage to join his worlds royal family and it’s being fast tracked. And Jay-Den’s bravery just means he’s volunteered himself to be the Ko’Zeine, or best man.
Following the tense drama or the Miyazaki, this acting as a c ool down episode works, though it does feel a bit underwhelming with not too much actually happening. Darem’s story is a bit odd. He’s not exactly made a good impression, or had many friendly chats, so finding out he’s from a high born family in a royal structure, engaged and in an arrangement to serve as the Queens consort is a bit out of left field. And there’s a lot missing here. The only thing we do know about Darem’s past is his family are the pushy, high expectations types. So them having zero lines feels a bit of a missed opportunity.
On the flip side, it does all work in a certain way as Jay-Den is the stand in for how utterly weird everything is. Instead of being a massive twat that everyone’s used to, Darem’s a completely different person at home. He’s shy, quiet, and bends over backwards to be accommodating and fulfil his duty. Jay-Den’s seen a bit of Darem’s nicer side, but having it on full display winds him up a bit as it’s just not the fella he knows, and eventually snaps and gives a speech that convinces the bride to put a stop to it all.
It’s all a bit slow and frustrating as there’s a lot of dancing around the point. In context, it makes sense as Jay-Den and Darem argue and throw tantrums at the situation, but it did feel a little slow in places. It did help though that behind the characters, Karim Diane and George Hawkins have great chemistry together,, especially with Jay-Den becoming more confident in being who he is and stepping up to be the voice of reason.
Breaking up the story is Genesis and Caleb at the Academy just doing stupid stuff like playing around in labs and getting to know each other better. Which is nice and all as she egs him ont to break onto Athena’s bridge as the whole things a plot to lure him there and change her fleet record. Much as we’re getting a peek at Darem’s own insecurities live in colour as someone sees the truth about him, we have Genesis showcasing the same. She wants the captains track, but her application was a lie. She edited all her recommendations to make herself sound good and now she’ll be under more scrutiny, she’s lost the plot a bit and uses Caleb to try and steal the files and stop it all happening.
It’s a lot of plot about nothing really as the moment is only a few minutes and consequences are given. But Caleb now being fully absorbed into having a life thats comfortable, he’;s showing himself to be the sensible rebel quite nicely while we actually get to know more about Genesis beyond her ambition. All her ego and bluster about where she came from is just, much like Darem, a mask to hide that she’s insecure being in the shadow of an Admiral.
Again paired up for their character pieces much like earlier in the season, Darem and Genesis have a bit of acceptance of themselves to help nudge them along here. It’s not a terribly exciting episode, nor does it really change the course of anything major, but for it’s place in the line up of episodes so far, it does slow things down a touch at just the right point and despite not being a thrilling episode, was still a perfectly fine hour of getting a peek behind the curtain of two of the shows biggest egos.
EPISODE DISCUSSION & SPOILERS
Highlights
- Thok only appearing as a voiceover panicking about Reno, who's guarding he campus alone and being a bit bored, was quite fun. You can sense the comedian behind the character!
- Sam spending the episode off screen at the holo tech lab to fix her glitches was an interesting note showing the progress made to 'photonics' on Earth.
- While the usual staging was a little distracting, and lack of make up odd, the Khonian costume design was very well done.
All Connected...
From the off Jay-Den has been presented as a non traditional Klingon, but we’re still seeing a lot of mirrors to Worf, the romanticised version of what Klingons are. Now confirmed as his partner, Kyle’s choice of taking Jay-Den to Ibiza felt like an obvious nod to Dax leading Worf to Risa. Right down tot he complaints about beachwear and hot weather. Though what’s more interesting is that, while Worf was always letting his romanticised view of Kilingon culture blur his judgement, Jay-Den seems more confident in seeing this clearly and being honourable in his own way following his talk with Thok.
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