Logline
Shore leave on a pleasure planet turns dangerous when the crew’s promised escape stops behaving like fun.
Written by: Kathryn Lyn
Directed by: Yana Gorskaya
Am I remembering correctly that James Doohan had a prosthetic thumb? Was the thing at the end a knod to that?
His middle finger on his right hand was amputated, but he didn’t have a prosthetic as far as I know - he just strategically positioned his hand so the camera couldn’t see it.
He did a pretty good job, but there are occasional moments where it’s noticeable.
I don’t know if the scene in this episode was an intentional nod to that, but I thought of it, as well.
Mixed bag of an episode.
I liked that we got some proper character development - Spock and Kirk coming closer together, an origin point for their friendship is good to see, and the hallucination was a useful way to explain why spock would be willing to open up to such a friendship in the first place. Ortegas and Scotty similarly got some satisfying growth, and the quite unprofessional arguing between them didn’t end drag on for too long.
I did not like the first couple of acts. I know this is meant to be a comedy episode, but none of the jokes really landed for me, it was just kind of a slog to get through. I’m not a big fan of “stoner / drunk” humour in other shows, and it’s not a whole lot better here. I am not sure if the alien host was meant to be funny or charming, but they just came across as mildly annoying. If I compare this to pleasure-planet episodes we’ve seen in other trek shows, I don’t feel the pleasure planet really added a whole lot. CG sequences aside, they were in a fancy hotel more than an actual planet.
Something that really bugged me is that despite repeated references to alternate shifts, at no point did any of the “alphas” think that maybe it might be worth handing off the negotiations or asking for help with the bomb. It speaks to a kind of arrogance that doesn’t really play well given the whole point of the episode is learning to rely on others.
The final act is again mixed. The idea of a pressure bomb, the sci fi equivalent of a landmine, is a great way of building tension, brings ortegas and scotty together fully. But that it then also provides the solution for the diplomatic problems make no sense. The aliens say that particular type of bomb is part of a peace ritual that hasn’t been seen in generations, but then why would a separatist use that for their sabotage?
Overall it was alright, but not amazing.
To be fair the alphas were still under the effects of the atmosphere so while it would make sense for them to defer duties to beta shift they werent in a headspace to do so. And definitely not delta shift those guys suuuuck.
Only thing I enjoyed of the episode is that Ortega and Scotty didn’t have any romantic involvement, and at the end it’s only a friendship thing.
Jokes were not funny, and when the peace negotiations are going down the tube, then a random thing happens and all is good and everybody are friends. Make Pike fail the peace treaty, he is stoned, sober him up and somehow make him fix it. Will be a better thing that a explosion is now a peace sign or whatever.
I agree the resolution was absurd. But that does kinda match the absurdity of the episode. And the focus of the story was not on Pike so requiring Pike to fix the thing would be a different story awkwardly stuck in there.
But that does kinda match the absurdity of the episode.
Yeah, I think it was an appropriate resolution for the genre they were playing in.
Mind you, I felt the same way last week.
It tries to be fun, but some of the jokes didn’t land. That said, I’m not going to fault them for trying “The Hangover” in Space as it feels like at least it’s something different and not so much by committee, and I still enjoyed most of the episodes. This is probably the best of the very rare “Ortegas Episodes” and I particularly liked seeing an “It’s green” scene yet again.
Naw Terrarium with Ortegas stranded with an elder Gorn at the edge of the galaxy was brilliant.
