A wonderful rebound from the previous episode, "Those Old Scientists" is one of the best crossover/time travel episodes in Star Trek history. Lovingly constructed, each of the characters maintains the spirit of their own show while toning things down just enough for there to be a seamless melding of the two. Also, given the central conceit of Lower Decks constantly questioning the nature of Star Trek fandom, there were some nice meta moments where Strange New Worlds' playing around with the universe's continuity are noted. In fact, one major area of character exploration is highlighted and a clear message is given to the audience from the writers: "We know that this is way different from what has come before, but this is a 'phase' and we'll get back to the character's familiar trajectory in a little while." My only quibble with the episode is that it felt a little bit drawn out; the ending was never in doubt so the journey there felt kind of extended. There was space for there to be a much more robust examination of the time travel trope within Star Trek as a whole, as well as ideas around causality, alternate timelines, and paradoxes. Instead, the writers chose to go in a more light and airy direction- which is fine. It just felt like there was stuff left unsaid or untried, so the stakes never got that big. The episode was fun and will stand out as one of the all-time greats of its kind; it just might not stand out as one of the all-time greats.
With its first shocking episode Black Mirror makes a bold mission statement, and writer Charlie Brooker is not effing around. This disturbing parable for the then-nascent Twitter Age only had its cultural relevance amplified in the following years by the real world parallel of rumors of a modern-day British PM participating in a hazing ritual in his school days that involved an eerily similar act as depicted in this piece. Since it was a British production, the performances by the cast are all awesome. (I especially liked the subplot with the female journalist angling for a scoop.) The story's fatal flaw, however, is that the government position of not negotiating with terrorists is never explored. It's not considered. It's not dismissed. It's not even mentioned. This could be a function of cultural differences (it's an unspoken reality that governments outside of the US will pay ransoms for hostages), but the fact that it doesn't come up at all is a glaring omission that took me out of the story. Looking back from 2023: As a cultural artifact of great import I'd give this episode an "8," but as a piece of entertainment the plot gap makes it hard to go beyond a "6."
In their attempt to recreate/honor the classic "Halloween Episode" from the original series, the team behind the Quantum Leap reboot have produced a near-perfect example of how most network TV series get things so wrong. In their rush to produce as many hours of content as possible, as well as make it - as network marketing execs see it - as accessible to as broad an audience as possible, the actors' performances are stripped of anything that looks like depth or sophistication, the dialogue is interminably vapid, and the plot is as thin as can be. The repetitive lines that constantly re-explain every problem & consequence are obviously forced in so as to allow for audiences to jump in and try the series during any broadcast and "get" what's going on. It's a formulaic crutch that is not just outdated in this era of DVRs & streaming; it's downright infuriating and constantly takes you out of the story. While the original episode that this installment calls back to was capped off with a famous twist ending that had major implications for that series' mythology (even if it didn't quite make sense until the final episode), the writers here take great pains to not go down that route. I kept waiting for the Big Reveal that would portend new possibilities for the show (they even teased it with one line in the first act), but what they actually rolled out fell totally flat. And worst of all: The structure of the show that has made it even remotely watchable - the dual storylines of Ben's missions alongside the mystery within the Quantum Leap project itself - is ditched here, meaning that if you skip through the meaningless, badly-acted mystery in the past, as I often do, there's nothing else for this episode to stand on. All-in-all this felt like a wasted hour from an already barely-watchable show.
The acting, directing, and production design of this show continue to be amazing. Unfortunately, at times, including for this entire episode, the writing falls back on tired zombie apocalypse tropes to drive its story forward. Flashbacks are all well and good; they help flesh out characters and can provide nice diversions from the main storyline. But Joel's predicament in Episode 6's cliffhanger needs no diversions, and there are no surprises offered in Episode 7. (Well, maybe except for Ellie's apparent queerness, which is a definite plus, though it doesn't do much to inform, flesh out, or provide insight into anything else that we've seen so far.) From the time that the show's trailer premiered we knew that the scenes in The Mall would be coming. And anyone who has ever watched more than one episode of The Walking Dead fully expected that the person Ellie shared those happy scenes with would be a close friend, and that they would die in a heartbreaking manner. What I didn't expect - especially after the triumph of storytelling that was Episode 3 - was that the writers would spend 50+ minutes telling this tale, and/or that there would be no surprise twist. It could have been done in 10. Fleshing out Ellie's pre-Joel story could have been spread out across multiple episodes. Instead, this week's installment felt like wasted time. Even worse than time, it wasted magnificent performances from Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid on an hour of TV that I kept wanting to fast forward through.
