Unfortunately, when the Enterprise is sent to investigate an ancient civilization who once lived on one of Vulcan’s moons, fate puts her and Spock on a shuttle together. So in the recap, we’re reminded that Chapel has applied for a two-month archeological medicine fellowship at the Vulcan Science Academy to get away from the awkwardness between her and Spock. Likewise, any annoyance you might have at Star Trek descending into a sci-fi I Love Lucy melts away when you realize what it’s been building to.

In classic Trek, when the sci-fi plot was lazily resolved using deus ex machina technobabble, it wasn’t a big fault, because the sci-fi plot was only half the story. That’s the beauty of the sci-fi/personal drama formula. Even so, the ending gut punch lands as if from nowhere, as if the preceding nonsense was all misdirection. There are plenty of big emotions in this episode, which is expected since Spock into a human. Like “The Elysian Kingdom,” “Charades” turns on a dime near the end. It’s a simple formula, but it’s the formula that made Star Trek the phenomenon that it is. It reminded me of Gene Roddenberry’s stricture that every episode should involve both a sci-fi element and a personal element. M’Benga accepting the loss of his terminally ill daughter. That episode involved a sentient spaceborne disembodied consciousness forcing the crew to act out a children’s book and ended with Dr. Strange New Worlds’ first really great episode was also its first nonsense episode: last season’s “The Elysian Kingdom.” But what elevated “The Elysian Kingdom” was that it packed a real emotional gut punch. It’s a testament to the courage of Strange New Worlds that they were willing to take a plot like this head on and spin gold from it. I’m surprised they didn’t serve steamed hams for dinner. It’s a comedic setup so hoary it would have been embarrassing in the ’60s. Nonsense has been a strength of Strange New Worlds, and another reason it feels like classic Trek.īy “nonsense,” I don’t simply mean comedic or lighthearted episodes I mean episodes where the drama comes not from a negative space wedgie, but from a negative space wedgie happening just before dinner with the battleaxe mother-in-law. Although the fandom doesn’t like to admit it, we love the nonsense. But philosophy and social commentary would get exhausting is that’s all there was, which is why a lot of Star Trek is nonsense. We say we love the philosophical sci-fi and social commentary. There’s the reasons why we say we love Star Trek, and then there’s why we really love Star Trek.

Spock says he never understood gambling