A Space Adventure Hour

Steve Martin pointed out: "Comedy is not pretty". Neither is this misbegotten Strange New Worlds segment, which begins with a quickie spoof of William Shatner in the original "Star Trek" (resembling a cross between B to Z sci-fi movies like "Queen of Outer Space" and "Plan 9 from Outer Space"), then segues to La'an starring in a very dull "holodeck prototype"spoof of B-movie murder mysteries and Hollywood exposes.

The intentionally bad acting and abysmal writing here reminded me instantly of a hundred execrable porn-parodies, only without the sex. What could be more boring and insulting to watch? It's never amusing, only infantile, a product of an era where fan fiction has proliferated like kudzu.

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.

...I enjoyed this more than the musical episode. I like sci-fi and Star Trek is one of my favorites. But I am no means a die hard fan (of any show). SNW is a nice return of the original format of episodic adventures. What I liked about the episode was seeing the cast in a different light. However, I wished it continued on the parody that it started off with. It reminded me of SUPERNATURAL which it had some episodes off the path of their norm and some being quite funny (like the one where they were thrown into another universes and were their real life selves actors in a television). That could have kept the sci-fi aspect in throughout, albeit in 60's flavor and not a murder mystery show.

Edit: almost missed the gag reel. That was hilarious.

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.

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 ^-_-^