It’s been a stressful few months for the Enterprise crew and they want, well, demand, shore leave. Choosing a tech-free planet with natural psychedelics in the atmosphere, the command crew take a shuttle down, take in all the wonders the world provides. And then it all goes a bit wonky…
Writers: Kathryn Lyn
Director: Yana Gorskaya
Engineers and pilots hate each other. It’s the rules. Scotty and Ortegas have been following those rules to the letter, with the bickering pair opening with a dual monologue highlighting how irritating they are to each other between Scotty setting up alerts and alarms to keep the engines in check, and Ortegas duct tapping over the console to get rid of them so she can push the limits freely.
While they’re constantly irritating each other, the rest of the Alpha shift command team are exhausted. Months of constant missions as Pike tries to keep himself occupied, and a bit of a moan as everyone else has had a break apart from them. And that sets the stage for whats very, very obviously the Hangover in space with a little bit of inspiration from original series episode Shore Leave. After watching an ad for a somewhat mental planet that gets you high as a kite as soon as you land – and also has a blanket ban on all tech – the tense crew all board a shuttle, get a huge hit of the atmosphere and then….
…skip to the end. Ortegas wakes up with her arm in a cast alongside a very drunk Scotty in a Mugato costume. While they try and figure out what happened, why they cant remember anything and how long they’ve been there for, they get a new task. A hand written letter has been delivered for Captain Pike. But no one can find him. So it’s up to Ortegas and Scotty to reluctantly team up as they hunt down the captain, give him his post, and figure out exactly what happened to them…
There’s a stupid amount of fun in this episode. The planet’s pleasures aren’t just another Risa. The intoxication each person endures is catered to each persons needs. A flimsy excuse for playing around with the characters, but as Scotty and Ortegas wandered around on a hunt for Pike, it was fun seeing little snippets of everyone’s perfect idea of relaxing.
From the lighter switches like M’Benga just relaxing as a bartender with no responsibilities (or mixology skill) and Spock seeing people exclusively as plants, to the more dramatic like Uhura letting go of all her wound up need for structure and just living the week as a party girl and Pike wrapped up in short term spur of the moment decision making without thinking of the consequences of getting a face tattoo. It’s all in good fun in small doses through the adventure.
Though very telling that, yet again, La’an submits to her need for violence yet again turning a spa into fight club. But then again, Chapel kind of did the same thanks to her being aggressively competitive at the bingo…
Plus we get Una singing Klingon Power Ballads which sounded remarkably like Bonnie Tyler…
Within all the absurd there is a plot that ties together nicely. It’s a classic comedy template at it’s heart, with two people who can’t stand each other forced into a caper as they retrace their steps, leading to a missing shuttle, setting La’an onto a group of criminals, and an escalating sense of everything going wrong as a peace mission has been bumped forward with a delegation due to arrive well before Pike stops giggling about a horse tattoo.
The ending felt a bit convoluted with Scotty and Ortegas having a heart to heart only to stumble upon a recording of themselves and realising they were trying to stop an attack but as they forgot everything, made a mess of it resulting in Scotty trapped in a shuttle holding a bomb. The peril of them racing off on a suicide run to save the ship didn’t land quite that well considering we know Scotty will be around for a generation or two. But at the same time, Martin Quinn and Melissa Navia had really great chemistry that made their rivalry turned mutual respect work incredibly well. Even if we knew the climatic moment would be a quick save.
Admittedly, within the first few minutes of kind of felt a bit let down thinking “Oh, they’re doing the Hangover….” but between the character moments, the duo at the heart of it, and – yes, it’s stupid, but Total Eclipseof the Heart IN KLINGON! – it was all just mental and absurd enough to work and played far, far better than previous attempts at off the wall humour.
There were two things that mildly bugged me. One was no Pelia. An episode with everyone high and we don’t have Pelia? Shameful. The second…. aside from hallucinating people ans pants, which gave me the most stupid laugh of the episode, he also hallucinated Jim Kirk as an annoying and intrusive best friend. Only for it to really be Kirk. While I like Paul Wesley in this era of Kirk’s life, and he works really well with Ethan Peck’s Spock…. the universe is far, far too big for them both to end up on shore leave at the same planet at the same time and at this point, the excuses to get Kirk in there are beginning to wear a bit thin.
In context, thats a minor quibble to an otherwise fun filled episode and while I can understand the dramatic theme changes may not be for everyone, thats three winners in a row which is a really good start for the season.
EPISODE DISCUSSION & SPOILERS
Highlights
- M'Benga's complete failure to be a swanky bottle spinning barman was oddly fun. Even if it gave us another retreat of 'It's Green' with Scotty.
- Scotty's Mugato costume is bizarrely a re-used prop. It was first seen in Starfleet Academy as a team mascot outfit.
- If we believe in fan action and demands, we should be demanding a full release of Rebecca Romjin singing that song. Though there is an alternative....
All Connected...
Hangover in Space is the obvious way this episode will be seen, which is fair! But wacky shore leave isn’t a new thing. In the original series, Kirk’s Enterprise crew drop into a lovely little planet for much needed shore leave (in an episode just titled Shore Leave!). But while it’s not a trippy planet that gets everyone high (that’d be The Naked Time…) it turns thoughts into reality resulting in Kirk fighting an old Academy rival, while McCoy manifests the White Rabbit from Alice and Wonderland among other completely normal things.
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