Wedding Bell Blues

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.

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.

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.

Well, I'm only prompted to write this after seeing the terrible review submitted. They are wrong (sorry). After the trauma of Hegemony 1&2 this is a great, light hearted change of pace. There are some laugh out loud moments too. It ties nicely into two episodes of TOS (settling a long held fan theory in the process) and also rather neatly into TNG without being in your face obvious. It deals with Nurse Chapel and Dr Korby her fiance from TOS with some rather hilarious shenanigans from an unexpected source. I shan't put any spoilers here because the biggest fun of the episode is from that "No way!!!" moment when the pin drops and you realise who/what was behind it all (If you know your Trek). My advice - kick back, relax and enjoy!

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.