Through the Lens of Time

What makes for a GREAT episode?

Adventure? Action? New Villains? Disastrously romp?

This one had all of that and much much MORE!! It's almost like the writers are writing FRESH after last weeks exciting show.

This episode is destined to become a classic with the crew working to figure out the clues, reunite and then get back to the USS Enterprise!

ENJOY.

So far this has been a hit or miss season. This is the best episode since the kickass premiere, and it's a visit to an actual Strange New World, which is nice for a change.

Multiple characters are put to good use in the story although I'm not warming up to Ortega's kid brother. Not that I want to see him killed off, but he needs to finish up his video project and depart. Soon.

The ensign whose name I didn't even catch had a good, meaty role. Marie's situation also got some more detail. Her storyline is one of the more interesting ones this season.

The archeology conundrum reminded me of a video game where the characters have to figure out mind-bending puzzles and take a leap of faith.

And - no spoilers - but did I detect a linkage to a DS9 plotline? Overall, good. But I'm still hoping for better.

This episode is pure boredom.

You take a setting like in 'Cube" - a group locked in a room, lethal traps and they have to find a way out.

So far so good, but if legacy characters like Spock and Uhura are part of this group, then you already know they'll survive. For me the whole plot was suspenseless and it was clear that Spock, Uhura, nurse Chapel and La'an won't happen anything. Even the situation in these ancient ruins was an all too well known trope without surprises.

The side plot on the Enterprise about Ensign Gamble and Dr. M'Benga promissed something interesting but developed into some all to well known 'alien possession' that got solved in a rush and guest character Ensign Gamble left the cast as fast as introduced in this show.

Somehow this 'adventure' episode felt like a filler, wasn't that interesting and fresh like the episodes from season 1 and season 2 and was so boring I nearly fell asleep.

Compared with episodes from season 1 and season 2 this fifth episode of season 3 was very poor.

Season one made me think this was a revival of TOS. Semi-serious show addressing adventure and real life issues through aliens. However the show has often turned goofy. Often stretching a 1 season arch into 3

The season opener which should have been last season's finale at least had promise. But then turned goofy and boring for the next few episodes. This one returns to what I would expect of a Star Trek show. It wasn't awesome ir groundbreaking but is at least what I would expect spect as the minimum offering of a quality show in sci-fi. However even sci-fi quality has a much higher bar than it did back in the day when cheesy was garanteed due to low tech attempts for special effects. But with shows like Foundation, dune, the expanse.....too many shows are giving top tier performances to tolerate gimmicky characters hat on ver this ST is.

The episode has its moments of drama that is rather boring. I think some of the problem is the writing and delivery just don't fit the content. I do not like the Ortegas character but I'm pretty certain that's by design. I'm surprised that her little brother is even more annoying, unfortunately the actor really isn't very good at the delivery.