After three months of repairs following their run in with the Gorn, Nurse Chapel is bringing a friend home just in time for the crew to have recovered from the ships rebuild in time to celebrate Federation Day! Or maybe a wedding….?
Writers: Kirsten Beyer & David Reed
Director: Jordan Canning
It’s only episode two and we’re already hitting our now traditional ‘lets f–k with Spock’ episode. This time round, despite a warning not to from Chapel, Spock’s getting himself in the romantic spirit to woo her back. He’s got an antique book, he’s figured out how dancing works thanks to La’an, who’s just as surprised as the rest of us she can dance, and of course, it doesn’t go to plan. Mainly as after three months of studying with Roger Korby, they’ve done a wee bit more than study and now she’s bringing him to the Enterprise as her partner.
Awkwardness naturally ensues. But a drink offered form a mysterious stranger grants Spock his wish that, instead of watching her fawn over Roger’s romantic side, she was coming back from him. And one sleep later, reality’s changed and instead of Federation Day, the crew are celebrating the wedding of Spock and Chapel. The only person who remembers the truth or things is Korby himself, who has to fight against the pushy Wedding Planner to have Spock hear his story…
The episode itself is fairly light and flimsy but gets everything across it needs to. After their rift last season, and Chapel accidentally learning she’s not part of Spock’s future (thanks, Boimler!), she’s moved on to Korby; a romance that gave Chapel her one real story in the original series. The casting for that couldn’t be better. Cilian O’Sullivan brings the charm and looks to rile Spock up, and with all the emotional depth he’s just incapable of expressing. Once Spock realises reality is broken, and his Wedding Planner is responsible for the new reality, it’s all just fun and games until he breaks through to Chapel with emotion to make her remember whats real.
For a second episode following a lot of action and tension, it’s a welcome silliness. The Wedding Planner (or, Trelane as confirmed by Akiva Goldsman) is played by Rhys Darby with enough humour and childish threats to make it all work while Ethan Peck works really well with O’Sullivan and Jess Bush as the logical centre of the love triangle. The whole thing is just supreme being messing with Spock out of boredom.
Stuck in the B Roll, it’s nice to have Uhura get a little more life outside of work and some new characters to play with. Though it all going on while Ortegas quietly suffers with PTSD over the Gorn incident… I’m curious to see where they go with that hint of darkness in an otherwise fun episode.
For a silly episode that all comes down to Pike improv to pretend life isn’t weird, it does have a lot of heart. Spock trying to take the mature route, and eventually realising that he can’t give Christine everything she wants is a nice moment. We know where these two end up, so seeing it all flipped round worked well enough for a quick bit of fun.
Highlights
- The fact Wham! Is still being played in the 23rd century made me smile a bit. Even if it put Zoolander in my head.
- I already have a grudge against the new bartender. That was a poor display for a pint of Guinness.
- Even in a quick voiceover, John De Lancie makes a memorable cameo!
All Connected...
It’s all kept vague for obvious non canon shattering reasons, but John De Lancie’s cameo as a glowing orb telling off the troublesome child is a nice – and apparently very intentional – nod to the Q Squared novel by the late Peter David. The story links classic villian Trelane with the Q Continuum and while the Wedding Planner wasn’t named, it’s not exactly subtle that the episodes rather swift end was the first on screen link between the two.
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