The Trouble with Edward

Designed as a Star Trek story with a lighter tone, it instead comes across as an unpleasant take on a Starfleet that's more reflective of current day society as opposed to the idealistic future Gene Roddenberry had presented in the 1960's and again in the 1980's.

In many ways, the stumbling, awkward character presented in this story is the Reginald Barclay of his day. Unlike Barclay, however, he isn't nurtured or befriended by the crew of the Enterprise or his commanding officers at Starfleet headquarters who see that, at his core, he is a brilliant man. No, Edward's commanding officer views him as an idiot who wants him as far removed as possible without digging a little deeper into what he believes he can accomplish and his fellow crew members are as dismissive and unpleasant as she is. In the end, his ultimate fate is met with a collective shrug.

It seems unlikely that the tone of this particular short, if presented in the 1960's or 1980's, would have inspired two generations of fans to look toward a more hopeful future and to look beyond themselves.

Short Treks have been a lot of fun but this one was a big miss.

H. Jon Benjamin, the actor playing Edward Larkin, does the latest Arby's commercials. So it is sort of fitting that he's a self-proclaimed "protein expert" and pushing tribbles as a new meat source to end galactic hunger.

The conference scene alone makes this worthwhile - it made me laugh out loud several times. It serves as a neat origin story for the tribbles (at least in their troublesome form) and features a couple of great performances.

Just as funny are the reviews - never ceases to amaze me how people who bash modern Trek for getting things "wrong" are wrong themselves.

Spock is the only Vulcan in Starfleet? Er...how about the entire crew of the Intrepid for starters.

Trek humour should be restrained "by precedent"? Never seen I, Mudd or Bride of Chaotica, I take it.

Sigh.

I caught this by accident after having totally losing confidence in the Star Trek franchise with the absolutely awful Discovery, and pretty much anything the managers of the franchise touch.

I thought this episode was a parody shot on the sound stages in spare down time, and really enjoyed it for its poking fun at the franchise, except I think it was actually a legit episode, which actually does make it worse. But lets keep it at a parody.

A scientist who manipulated cute creatures to be tasty and meaty? Hilarious. A b!tch fight that goes on and on with the captain, much more entertaining than anything they've served up in real start trek lately.

The character of Edward was just so out of sorts with the Star trek world that it had to be a parody, lets pretend it was. Like a SNL wind up. Let's pretend.

I laughed my a** off. The exchange between the Captain and the, er, miscreant had me chortling out loud and rewatching the scene. It's darkish humor but played broadly enough that it is not actually disturbing.

I adore Star Trek. All of it. I love the deep conversations about ethics, about communication with very alien species a la Darmok, with debating the personhood of artificial intelligence, with the plainly written moral dilemmas the Prime Directive entails. I love the action, the swashbuckling, I love Kirk and Riker getting it on with every vaguely female entity that comes within pheromone distance.

I also love Star Trek takeoffs, whether self-generated (as this is) or coming from fandom -- a la Galaxy Quest and the Orville. Bill Shatner's storied appearance on "Saturday Night Live," where he told early Trekkers to "get. a. life!" is funny even as I see myself as one of those Trekkers. All these things can be reconciled if one is not a humorless fundamentalist.