[6.9/10] The punchline here is good. I like the idea of an advanced, immortal species, using our heroes as a means to experience what a taste of mortality would be like. The notion that without time as currency, existence becomes idle play, and the idea of death becomes exotic rather than chilling, is an interesting answer to the “Why?” of this episode.
At the same time, I appreciate the continuity nod of the godlike being responsible for the chicanery being from the species who advanced hundreds of years every week or so in a season 1 episode. It’s the kind of thing I thought the show would gesture toward but then totally forget. So their being the culprit makes for not only a good explanation for the “How?” of this episode, but gives us an organic follow-up to a prior story, which is a big plus.
There’s just one big problem -- a solid 80% of the episode until that point simply isn’t that interesting. The scenarios the godlike beings throw Mercer, Grayson, Malloy, Bortus, and (ostensibly) Keyali into are pretty dull, generic affairs. The gang being trapped in a high school isn’t especially weird or scary, and an attack from a giant troll is more odd than frightening. A plane with no pilot is a stock scenario. The Moclan death chamber looks more goofy than unnerving, and the corpse coming back to life is a standard horror trope. And a raft being attacked by a large sea creature isn’t much to write home about either.
The show wants to go for something of a Twilight Zone vibe with these sequences, where some of the sheer eeriness is supposed to carry the day, but it just doesn't . The direction isn’t interesting enough, and the scenarios aren’t exotic enough to really up the tension or deliver the ominous atmosphere the show’s aiming for. Maybe I’ve just watched too many of these episodes of Star Trek to be impressed by this sort of thing anymore, but I kept waiting for some escalation, some wrinkle, that would make these challenges more exciting or disturbing than the fairly generic spooks we got.
What’s more, the broad outlines of the reveal here were fairly obvious, even if the specifics weren’t. By the time we had both Gordon and Mercer experiencing the weird eye-flash thing at the moment of near-death, it seemed obvious that some alien race was trying to comprehend what that experience was like, something gestured to by the title of the episode.
I will say, I appreciated the fake out that our heroes had seemingly made it off the planet shortly before being attacked by the Kaylon. It’s a neat, plausible explanation for why this was happening -- the robotic Kaylon trying to figure out how to commit psychological warfare against their adversaries. You would totally buy it as an answer for the mystery of who was doing this and why, and setting up with Kiyali’s comments about detecting Kaylon radiation earlier is some clever story construction.
The only problem is that I was able to sniff out that the whole thing was a feint, both because it’d be in keeping with past Trek and Trek-adjacent twists-within-twists (thing TNG’s “Future Imperfect”), and because there seemed to be too much time left in the episode for that to be the real answer. But those aren’t the writers’ fault, so I’m loath to slate them for it.
Plus hey, they did surprise me with the reveal that Kiyali was a plant the whole time! It’s setup nicely with the fake Kiyali returning from vacation early, and the fact that she declares she had the same out of body experience the others did, but unlike the others, we never actually see it in her eyes. It adds up in hindsight, and I appreciate when shows like this play fair with a twist like this one.
That’s the thing. On paper this story works. There’s action, adventure, mystery, an earned twist, and a thought-provoking resolution that connects naturally to past escapades. The big problem is that for most of the episode, the whole action/adventure/mystery part just isn’t very good. The show continues to look kind of cheap in its production design and effects, which breaks immersion and dampens the ability of the episode to chill the spine. And the scenarios the demigods (read: writers) cook up to test the good guys just aren’t that interesting. The big picture ideas behind this one is cool, and the structure is sound, but on a scene-to-scene basis, there’s just not enough there to make it worth your while until the end.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-06-21T21:53:34Z
[6.9/10] The punchline here is good. I like the idea of an advanced, immortal species, using our heroes as a means to experience what a taste of mortality would be like. The notion that without time as currency, existence becomes idle play, and the idea of death becomes exotic rather than chilling, is an interesting answer to the “Why?” of this episode.
At the same time, I appreciate the continuity nod of the godlike being responsible for the chicanery being from the species who advanced hundreds of years every week or so in a season 1 episode. It’s the kind of thing I thought the show would gesture toward but then totally forget. So their being the culprit makes for not only a good explanation for the “How?” of this episode, but gives us an organic follow-up to a prior story, which is a big plus.
There’s just one big problem -- a solid 80% of the episode until that point simply isn’t that interesting. The scenarios the godlike beings throw Mercer, Grayson, Malloy, Bortus, and (ostensibly) Keyali into are pretty dull, generic affairs. The gang being trapped in a high school isn’t especially weird or scary, and an attack from a giant troll is more odd than frightening. A plane with no pilot is a stock scenario. The Moclan death chamber looks more goofy than unnerving, and the corpse coming back to life is a standard horror trope. And a raft being attacked by a large sea creature isn’t much to write home about either.
The show wants to go for something of a Twilight Zone vibe with these sequences, where some of the sheer eeriness is supposed to carry the day, but it just doesn't . The direction isn’t interesting enough, and the scenarios aren’t exotic enough to really up the tension or deliver the ominous atmosphere the show’s aiming for. Maybe I’ve just watched too many of these episodes of Star Trek to be impressed by this sort of thing anymore, but I kept waiting for some escalation, some wrinkle, that would make these challenges more exciting or disturbing than the fairly generic spooks we got.
What’s more, the broad outlines of the reveal here were fairly obvious, even if the specifics weren’t. By the time we had both Gordon and Mercer experiencing the weird eye-flash thing at the moment of near-death, it seemed obvious that some alien race was trying to comprehend what that experience was like, something gestured to by the title of the episode.
I will say, I appreciated the fake out that our heroes had seemingly made it off the planet shortly before being attacked by the Kaylon. It’s a neat, plausible explanation for why this was happening -- the robotic Kaylon trying to figure out how to commit psychological warfare against their adversaries. You would totally buy it as an answer for the mystery of who was doing this and why, and setting up with Kiyali’s comments about detecting Kaylon radiation earlier is some clever story construction.
The only problem is that I was able to sniff out that the whole thing was a feint, both because it’d be in keeping with past Trek and Trek-adjacent twists-within-twists (thing TNG’s “Future Imperfect”), and because there seemed to be too much time left in the episode for that to be the real answer. But those aren’t the writers’ fault, so I’m loath to slate them for it.
Plus hey, they did surprise me with the reveal that Kiyali was a plant the whole time! It’s setup nicely with the fake Kiyali returning from vacation early, and the fact that she declares she had the same out of body experience the others did, but unlike the others, we never actually see it in her eyes. It adds up in hindsight, and I appreciate when shows like this play fair with a twist like this one.
That’s the thing. On paper this story works. There’s action, adventure, mystery, an earned twist, and a thought-provoking resolution that connects naturally to past escapades. The big problem is that for most of the episode, the whole action/adventure/mystery part just isn’t very good. The show continues to look kind of cheap in its production design and effects, which breaks immersion and dampens the ability of the episode to chill the spine. And the scenarios the demigods (read: writers) cook up to test the good guys just aren’t that interesting. The big picture ideas behind this one is cool, and the structure is sound, but on a scene-to-scene basis, there’s just not enough there to make it worth your while until the end.