Wedding Bell Blues

The problem I have is that episodes are finite for this series. Only a couple more seasons left at 8 episodes a season. So I get pretty annoyed when they WASTE one by rehashing an old episode. Why do they insist or repeating plots? I think it's just laziness. I've seen many good original episodes, so it's not like they can't write new stuff. We need PIKE episodes, not rehashed KIRK episodes! Sure it was well acted and "fun", but people who remember the old episodes probably figured out the plot before 5minites passed. This is a great show, with a great cast. I want all fresh episodes for out limited time left.

Oh dear. Spock is so looking forward to Nurse Chapel returning to the refitted Enterprise after three months away.

Spock has learned to dance and got a valuable gift. Only he has given her time and not been in contact with her for three months.

Anything could had happened in those three months. Nurse Chapel arrives with the renowned Dr Roger Korby and they look like an item

An emotional Spock heads to the bar. Luckily there was no queue for a drink. The new bartender (Rhys Darby) has just the tonic for Spock.

After the action packed series three opener. There was less wham bam in this one. It was more frivolous and fun. Probably original Star Trek fans will get more out of it though.

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.

OMG all I want is some fun episodic Star Trek. Why do we have yet another relationship episode when we already had one last season. Why more dancing lessons and Spock angst? Ffs can we not have some slightly original slightly interesting episodes that at least pretend to be classic trek??

I can't wait until the kurtzman era ends.