A Space Adventure Hour

Directed by Jonathan Frakes and billed as a love letter to the original Star Trek series.

It ends up as a parody, the kind you might expect from Lower Decks.

Before the Next Generation. Starfleet had the technology for a Holodeck.

La'An ias tasked to test a prototype holodeck only to find herself having to solve a murder mystery because there is a glitch.

That is causing issues for the Enterprise as power is being diverted.

It was a fun episode but it really did not work for me. I have seen many Holodeck episodes in Next Generation and Voyager and there was little new here.

Strange New Worlds has become my favourite show & this most recent episode only confirmed this.

I loved the theme, the costumes & Jess Bush (Nurse Chapel) speaking in her own Australian accent. The interaction between Uhura & Scotty was a nice touch also.

Those who criticise SNW for having fantasy/musical/retro instalments really have lost the essence of the original Star Trek spirit. (Hint: they are always men - check out the FB chat groups & Reddit pages for examples). No-one is forcing you to watch! There are many more fans than detractors 🖖

The heady playfulness of parodying TOS with a mystery essentially investigating the cancellation of TOS is brilliant. The hazy period references, the riff on the old theremin theme with a jazzy lounge singer, the Shatner/Roddenberry analogs and '60s costumes are so funny and character names are hilarious. Using this show as a vehicle to play with TOS mythology through Pike and co is a great concept.

This is a hit-or-miss "meta" episode that also explains why Kirk's Enterprise didn't have a holodeck, which is kind of a neat thing to work into canon.

The sets and costumes for the goofy show-within-a-show are fun but Paul Wesley's Shatner impression - if that's what he was doing - fell short. And it's not that hard to mimic.

On the other hand, Anson Mount is always the star of these goofy episodes, because they give him a chance to show his considerable acting chops. He did the best job with his obsequious character from fantasy medieval episode. And this time he appears to be playing a Gene Roddenberry character? Not sure if it's accurate - are people familiar with Roddenberry's mannerisms - but it's fun and it works.

To top it all off, there's a holodeck mystery whose solution is reasonably clever. Not a bad example of SNW's goofball episodes. Works better than previous ones.

There seems to be a trend these days to bash films and TV because it's not EXACTLY what the person wanted. It's not McDonalds where you get the same thing every time when you order a burger, this is a living, breathing thing that doesn't always match what people demand. I guess I've mellowed in my old age because my only expectation is to be entertained, and I'll be honest, this is what SNW does. From the very opening I was chuckling and we see a VERY on the nose reason why SNWs Jim Kirk isn't a carbon copy of TOS - Paul Wesley does a fantastic job of being "Shatner" in the episodes opening. The episode finishes with outtakes and he botches the Riker Manoeuvre badly, which really made me laugh as Jonathan Frakes directed the episode. The actors get to have fun playing characters that are not their usual roles, with Anson Mount and Jess Bush really standing out. I enjoyed this episode and the further development of Scotty coupled with the reason why holodecks aren't installed on the TOS Enterprise. My advice - kick back, relax and just enjoy the show ^-_-^