Wedding Bell Blues

The cast and the viewers needed a lighter episode after the 2-part "Hegemony" and Wedding Bell Blues fit the bill. While I'd love the Spock/Chapel relationship to be reconned, this episode plays it out perfectly.

It's always great to see the crew in fish out of water scenarios, whether alternate dimensions or timelines, broken holodecks, or incognito situations and this episode checked the box perfectly. I think this episode also did a great job of setting up storylines for episodes later in the season.

Everyone looked amazing and it was a wonderful introduction to the beings that will take an interest in the inhabitants of the Enterprise for the next few hundred years.

... Every single episode of TOS and TNG as well as DS9, VOY and ENT. And yes I still hated this. Please stop acting like our low ratings are because we don't get it.

You want to rank it 8+ because you love fan service, then you do you. I liked certain parts of it, and nothing wrong with some silliness (Hell, I loved the musical even) but this was bad.

This whimsical episode gives fans a chance to see the beloved crew off -duty and opening up a bit, but the screenplay by Kirsten Beyer and David Reed is a fantasy that never takes flight.

What unfolds like Spock having a dream of marrying Nurse Chapel instead plays like a weak carbon of the classic Star Trek episode "Charlie X", in which Robert Walker Junior so memorably played a child-like alien who wreaks havoc with the Enterprise performing his often violent whims as a brat with super powers. Several elements of the original are carbon copied here.

But this time it's a Wedding Planner who's the culprit, played in okay fashion by guest star Rhys Darby in a role that cries out for the comic mastery of a Nathan Lane. He creates an alternate reality that traps Spock and conveniently creates rom-com cliches as Spock vies with Chapel's new boyfriend Cillian O'Sullivan.

Spock simply is too stiff to be funny here, and the jokes and pleasures of the over-produced segment are few. A tolerable entertainment, but overall lame.

You could call it fun, you could enjoy the sweetness of whipped cream or you could enjoy the glitters on a Christmas tree or the lovely paint on a house. This was a short fun ride.

But these things don't make good stories.

Good stories have at least some depth, some frustrations between characters, dialogue and emotions. Preferably more than two.

It would also be nice to see something that resembles Trek a bit more.

You may hate it, but it's keeping up a solid tradition of silly Star Trek episodes. After the sheer horror of Hegemony, we all require a salve to heal one's wounds.

This is it.

Let it wash over you and I'm sure the hijinx will make you smile, laugh and maybe spare a sad thought for some of our heroes. Nothing here will get you out of your seat, but my word is it good to see my favourite Star Trek series up and running again and swinging for the fences!

This if you think this is terrible and "no proper Trek" I must ask you to go back through the catalogue and explore some of the frivolous episodes of series gone by.

I did call out the little twist a few times during, so I'm proud of myself also.