Jess Bush, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Jan Thijs/Paramount+
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 6 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Off-Hour.”]
Taking cues from the lighter side of the Original Series, Strange New Worlds absolutely loves hijinks. Within the first half of Season 4, we’ve already seen a Hangover -style vacation comedy and an episode where the crew transform into puppets, upping the ante after previous seasons aired a musical episode, a whodunit pastiche, a riff on the body-swap trope, and so on. These gimmick episodes are often among the show’s best, but Strange New Worlds can struggle with its more serious material, as evidenced by the politically incoherent conclusion to Season 3.
So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that Season 4’s strongest episode is, in fact, a high-stakes thriller.
One of the defining appeals of Star Trek is the competence of its main characters, with the crew of the Enterprise representing Starfleet’s highest achievers. Even during its sillier episodes, the Original Series offered a blueprint for a show about smart people solving outlandish problems, emphasizing the creativity and expertise of its heroes.
Despite its close connection to the 1960s series, this quality doesn’t always shine through in Strange New Worlds. Either for comedic purposes or otherwise, too many episodes rely on the main cast being frustratingly slow on the uptake. For instance, in this season’s haunted spaceship adventure “The Griffin Incident,” the story only works if Kirk (Paul Wesley), Spock (Ethan Peck), and La’an (Christina Chong) spontaneously forget all their strategic acumen, behaving like foolish horror movie protagonists instead of experienced Starfleet officers.
ALSO READ: The complete guide to summer TV
In Episode 6, “Off-Hour,” we finally get to see the crew stretch the limits of their capabilities, in a thriller that unfolds in real time. At the tail end of a long shift, the ship gets sucked into a wormhole tunnel, accelerating at a rate that will blow everyone to smithereens within the next 45 minutes. Basic systems like turbolifts and gravity generators begin to break down, and the command crew are trapped on different decks with little hope of reunion.
In sickbay, Dr M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) gets crushed by a medical bench: a gruesome injury that effectively cuts him in half but leaves him conscious because the bench is holding his spine and organs in place. Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) chooses to stay with him and brainstorm a solution, risking her own safety for a man who seems guaranteed to die. Meanwhile, the young and inexperienced Scotty (Martin Quinn) must solve the ship’s many engineering problems alone, Spock and La’an attempt a spacewalk amid deadly radiation, and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) is stuck in the ship’s lounge during a dangerous gravity malfunction. Every subplot is fast-paced and tailored to each character’s strengths, with Captain Pike (Anson Mount) playing a relatively minor role delegating orders from the bridge.
Babs Olusanmokun, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Jan Thijs/Paramount+
Over the past few years, I’ve often found myself thinking that The Pitt is the best Star Trek show currently on air. The E.R. is the ship’s command center, and Dr. Robby is the captain. His crew of hyper-competent doctors and nurses exhibit empathy and scientific expertise, in a setting that draws attention to important social issues. It definitely scratches the same narrative itch as Star Trek, and while The Pitt isn’t the only show to utilize a real-time storytelling format, you have to wonder if it provided some inspiration for “Off-Hour.” The most obvious similarity is the medical subplot with Chapel, who is in the middle of arguing with M’Benga about her career choices when he gets injured, adding an extra level of personal tension alongside the life-or-death stakes.
Unlike the heavily researched medical jargon of The Pitt, however, Star Trek’s technobabble is often pure fantasy, presenting a creative challenge as the show encourages us to suspend our disbelief. Nonsense like a puppet transformation episode doesn’t have to make sense, but in a more serious scenario, we need to believe that the science is real.
This week, we easily accept the dangers faced by Spock and Number One, because their storylines focus on bravery and perseverance. We don’t need to know how a gravity generator works to understand Una dragging herself across a room to save the lives of her crew. But when Chapel figures out how to save M’Benga, her solution basically amounts to magic: an experimental neutrino treatment that heals his terminal injury and conveniently provides the Enterprise with fuel to escape the wormhole.
In a weaker episode, this resolution would come across as an insultingly easy fix, but here it feels earned, arriving after we’ve witnessed every single character work furiously to defeat a cascading series of logistical challenges. We believe the urgency of the situation because the show makes us believe, shaped by the directorial choices of Dan Liu — who surely drew from his experience as a recurring director on For All Mankind, a show that specializes in technically complex sci-fi action.
Making an abrupt turn after the supreme silliness of last week’s puppet adventure, “Off-Hour” reminds us that the Enterprise crew are all at the top of their respective fields. It’s an element of vintage Trek that Strange New Worlds would benefit from remembering more often. Comedy gimmicks and nostalgic callbacks are all well and good, but Star Trek is at its best when the main characters command our respect.
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.