Matt and Sean talk about one of the best Star Trek episodes in years in Star Trek SNW Season 4, Episode 6, "Off-Hour." A disaster hits the Enterprise in real time, and every crew member fights to save the ship. After a season of gimmick episodes, this one leaves them with a hard question. If the show can do this, why doesn't it do it every week?

Order Sean’s next book, “In the Fields We Thirst” here: https://undecided.link/in-the-fields-we-thirst

Chapters

  • 00:00: Intro
  • 01:46: Feedback
  • 03:56: Episode Description
  • 05:08: This Time in History
  • 10:06: Today’s Discussion

Transcript

Intro

Sean Ferrell: In today's episode of Trek in Time, we're going to talk about what to do when things start going too fast. Don't know what that feels like. Welcome, everybody, to Trek in Time, where we're watching every episode of Star Trek in chronological stardate order. And we normally do that, but lately we haven't been because, well, when a new show drops, we like to drop into that new show. So we're currently watching season four of Strange New Worlds. We will be returning to the original series in just a few weeks after we finish the Strange New Worlds watch. And then once we're past that. Yep, the movies. And then guess what? Next Generation. And I know somebody who's very excited about that. Yes, it's my brother Matt. He is that Matt behind Undecided with Matt Ferrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact on our lives. I am Sean Ferrell. I'm a writer. I wrote some science fiction. I write some horror. As a matter of fact, I have a new horror novel coming out in April of 2027. In the fields We Thirst. I hope you'll be interested in checking that out. It is available for pre order now. So what are you waiting for? Close this video and go order that book now. Don't close the video, but please do pre order the book. Matt, how are you doing today?

Matt Ferrell: I'm doing pretty well. I'm ready for the weekend, Sean. Or maybe I'm not.

Sean Ferrell: Maybe, maybe.

Matt Ferrell: We'll see.

Sean Ferrell: We'll figure that out at a later date. Thank you everybody for joining us. As you may have noticed, we have fallen a little bit behind. We are. We wanted to originally watch these basically in real time and then, well, life showed up, slapped us both in the face and then moved on. And so we're playing a little bit of catch up. But I am very excited about today's episode, Episode six of season four, off hour. We'll be getting into that in a few minutes, but before we do, we always like to visit the mailbag, see what you've had to say about our previous episodes. So, Matt, what did you find for us this week?

Feedback

Matt Ferrell: Well, because of the timey-wimey-ness of how we're releasing these, there's no new comments this week, but there is one as a recent. It's a recent comment from an older episode that somebody dropped Scooteroo. He's dropped comments before, but Scooteroo left a comment on the Paradise Syndrome, which is from the original series, the one where they went to that planet and it was the American Indians that just for some reason hadn't evolved at all. They were still American Indians like they were hundreds of years ago.

Anyway. Scooteroo wrote Matt, when you were talking about why haven't the native Indians evolved? I wanted to point out to an episode of Stargate SG1 where they meet a similar people, but they have advanced enough to use advanced technology and it's a good counter to the way that this episode has handled it. I also really appreciate the B plot with the asteroid and showing how all you need is a small deflection from far out for it to totally miss the planet. Great use of realistic physics in my opinion. Also, when are you two going to do a full watch through of the Stargate franchise and put it up on YouTube as well? Ha. I have mentioned to you before, I'm a huge Stargate fan. I've watched all the series. I love them all. You've only really watched Universe, but I have wanted you to watch SG1 for the longest time. And, and I love this comment because my wife and I are currently right now rewatching all of Stargate SG1. Like we're not doing a podcast, but we're basically doing the same thing, the two of us. And I just watched this episode about the American Indians on this other planet that are fully evolved and they've got some rudimentary technologies and they're pretty sophisticated and it's one of the funniest episodes. I think SG1 has some of the best hard sci fi concepts they tackle for the first, I don't know, four or five seasons before it kind of gets a little weird. But you need to watch it, Sean. You need to watch it.

Sean Ferrell: Well, I. At some point in the future maybe I will, but I can almost guarantee that I will not be part of a podcast for it. So hope you won't be too disappointed. I know you said that and I accepted it, tongue in cheek. So thank you for that comment. And now those lights you see, those alarms you hear. Yes, it's the read alert. It's time for Matt to tackle the Memory Alpha description. The thing I like about Memory Alpha mat is is sometimes I use the IMDb description, sometimes it's the Wikipedia description. I feel like those are all. I don't know, there's a certain attitude that goes into those descriptions that feels like it's meant to be public, user friendly. But Memory Alpha, well, Memory Alpha knows that it's nerds talking to nerds and so let's just cut to the chase. So take it away, Matt.

Episode Description

Matt Ferrell: Disaster Strikes enterprise resulting in a crisis to be solved by different groups of individuals collaborating in the space of an hour.

This Time in History

Sean Ferrell: Yes, it is a specific description for this episode, even though it sounds like basically a description of episodic television. This episode, Off Hour was originally released on August 27, 2026. It is directed by Dan Liu and was written by Bill Wolkoff. My brain, My brain, My brain. She's tired. So we like to take a look at the world at the time of original broadcast. So we're talking about August 27, 2026. And Matt, I know it was a big day for you and I know that on big days you like to sing big songs. So do you want to take a guess as to what big song you were singing on this day? That's right. You were singing Ella Langley's Choosing Texas Again. Take it away, Matt.

Matt Ferrell: Good.

Sean Ferrell: And at the box office there's a little game Matt and I like to play, which is Matt guesses correctly the movie that was the number one box office that week, August 27, 2026. What do you think the number one movie was, Matt?

Matt Ferrell: Spider Man.

Sean Ferrell: That's right, it was Spider Man Brand new day. And on television? Television, television, television. Rankings of television. I said this last week, I'll say it again. It's really hard to measure what is a number one program. Back when Matt and I were growing up, back last century, because we're 20th century kids. Nielsen's used to like it was public information shows would proudly were the number one program this week and all that sort of thing. Nobody does that anymore. Now Nielsen numbers are all kept quiet. I think that there's my, my understanding, my feeling is that the industry doesn't share numbers because they feel like the numbers of the contemporary setting are embarrassing when you compare it to older numbers like Mash's series finale remains, I believe, the most watched television show ever. And I don't think current television industry wants to admit that. Yeah, a show in 1982 was the most watched program ever. The viewership of shows today is paltry compared to what used to be. So when you go looking to see what was the number one show on August 27, 2026, I simply can't find that information. It's opaque. So instead what I'm doing is I'm looking at what shows are popular at the time of our recordings. So right now, amongst the most popular shows, the number one rated show according to Rotten Tomatoes is currently Lanterns, which is getting very high marks from both critics and from viewers. We've talked about that previously. A more recent show that has just entered the highly acclaimed programs that are streaming at this time is Neagly, which is part of the Jack Reacher universe. It is on Amazon Prime. It just came out. It is a spin off from Reacher, starring Maria Sten as Francis Neagly, a Chicago private investigator and former military protege of Reacher.

All eight episodes of season one dropped September 16, 2026, following the Reacher season finale for season four. And in the news, here we are in what is it now, late 2026. So yes, the newspapers are going to be full of stories like Facebook settling with 47 states in online addiction cases. So a massive, massive settlement. There's also ongoing headlines around Trump getting pushback and the changes that are going on as some of the people who are pushing back against him now are previously allies as what looks like the coalition that supported him all these years is beginning to show signs of fracture. But the headline that I wanted to talk about from this day in history, August 27, 2026, the headline that stood out to me as most important to me and I think most important to a lot of people who enjoy movies and television shows was this one. Tim Curry, star of Rocky Horror and much more, dies at 80. The actor's gift for garish eccentricity was indelibly appropriate for the outlandish cross dressing mad scientist Frank N. Furter. Yes, his passing affected me because he is a part of some of my favorite programming as I was growing up and that includes the miniseries for it, the first Stephen King adaptation of the of the novel by Stephen King. I was watching that on VCR in college when a roommate of mine walked into the room, sat down and 30 seconds later when Pennywise appeared on the screen, stood up and left. Later on I would discover that that friend of mine experienced a lifelong phobia of clowns. So yeah, when he sat down and realized clowns were going to be eating children, it wasn't his cup of tea. Also the movie clue. I mean, come on.

When asked in an interview for an upcoming documentary, was there ever anybody that he had worked with the love that had gotten away? He responded deadpan, Miss Piggy, and then commented further, once you've gone pork, you never go back. So on now to our discussion of this episode off hour Matt we've had. I want to preface our conversation by picking up some threads of our most recent episode where we talked about a dissatisfaction with gimmick episodes, the over reliance on gimmick episodes, and we speculated about some of the causes of this gimmick heavy season and you said at one point last week, it feels like the people making the program were just like, well, let's do what feels fun. And we in the audience just don't seem to be having as much fun. After you said that, I came across two different articles. One was an interview with Rebecca Romijn, and one was an interview with Alex Kurtzman. They were not together in these interviews. They were completely separate from each other, but both of them effectively said, yeah, this season we decided to do anything that we thought would be fun. So first of all, hat tip to you for reading those tea leaves and getting it so accurate. And then for myself, I just wanted to throw in this comment before we move on to the discussion about the the new episode. It occurred to me after our discussion that if you are making a program and you're doing things within an existing fan base, but you're leaning heavily into, but we're going to do what we think is fun, you're effectively making fan fiction. And fan fiction is fine. Fan fiction has its place. Fan fiction can lead to really great things and has in the past and will continue to be an important part of keeping fandoms alive. But you can't do that and then expect the fandom to follow you like a Pied Piper.

Today’s Discussion

And that's where I find myself landing with a lot of the episodes this season. So when I was preparing to watch this episode, as I had not yet seen off hour, I was happy to receive a message from you on my phone that said, hey, this one isn't a gimmick episode. And I thought, well, that's good news. So I sat down to watch it, and I found myself similar to the Griffin Incident episode. I. I found myself thinking, if I could collectively shake the shoulders of the people making this show and say, if you can do this, they appear to be able to. They appear to be able to do this at will. And yet, yes, they keep doing that instead. And I find myself just like, are you. Are you kidding me? Like the Griffin incident. As I'm watching this one, I found myself thinking, is it just me, or is this already one of my favorite Trek episodes? Of any Trek? Because I found myself, again, like the Griffin Incident. How many storylines are in this episode? At least three. Any one of which could be considered an A plot. Any one of which, in a different era of Star Trek, would have been the only major storyline, and anything else would have been a very brief secondary thing. This one has three major plot lines, all of which alternate with competing as this is the one that's really at the heart of this. They all connect in critical ways. So they inform each other, but they don't distract from each other. You forget you're watching something. That's. What is it? 44 minutes long. And at the end of it I'm like, they moved all of this through character. It was all characterization. Last week you and I spoke about when you lean in a gimmick and you. The gimmick exists without the characters having to be involved. You don't actually have a story. And this is the solution to that. In this one, you end up with Spock climbing on the outside of the ship and frying himself to the point where you.

He cannot speak, but he can mind meld. You end up with the doctor and the nurse having a full blown. They look like they are never going to speak to each other again. At a certain point in the beginning of this so that you can build this sequence of bridge building and understanding and compassion and empathy for one another. That ends up turning the question of how is Nurse Chapel still on this ship in the original series, given what she's demonstrating so far? And it becomes a major character turn for her. And you're watching Scotty go through paraxisms of I so desperately want to do things and to make this ship work. Why won't the ship help me being convinced? No, you gotta have faith in the ship because she's on your side. To the point where we get our first reference of Miracle Worker. We get him putting his hand on the side of the vessel. The visual effects of showing a light bloom behind his head is so on the nose. But I loved it. I found myself by the end of this.

Just like if you can do this, what have you.

Matt Ferrell: What.

Sean Ferrell: Why are we. What's the point of the Muppet episode if you could do this? And I'm not asking for every episode to be this. I understand you're making a program and you want to have fun when you're doing it. And I do get it. But you only got 10 episodes. You only got 10. You only had 10.

Matt Ferrell: This is why I said to you in the last episode when we talked about it. Star Trek Strange New Worlds is one of my favorite Star Trek series at this point. But start this season is making me question that feeling because it's been so bad overall. But it's got episodes like this, which is just. It's like the reminder of oh yeah. The team that makes this show. Not only are the actors top notch and the money is on the screen and the special effects are like big blockbuster movie quality. Cinematography is always really good. Then you've got the writing, which they're capable of. Top notch, like a list, like skill at writing episodes on display right here, this, this episode, when it started and the timer came up, I was like, oh, God, is this the 24 gimmick? Like they're just doing an episode of 24. Yeah, they were. They totally were. Didn't matter. That wasn't the gimmick. It was not a gimmick. It was just full on amazing storytelling with a plot that's just like, holy crap, this is tense. And you're in it because it's the characters. You're with the characters. You're living the characters and you're worried about them. And the Doctors basically cut in half. What the. How do you come back from this? Oh, it's competent people being competent, doing things that they're really good at to save each other. This is why I love Star Trek. And so this is like ticking all the boxes that Matt looks for when he's watching an episode of Star Trek. I'm like, got it, got it, got it, got it. I was loving this episode and. And by the end, I was like almost screaming at the screen, screw you guys. You're capable of this. You're capable of the Griffin incident and you give us fricking puppets. What is wrong with you? I understand. I said it last week. It feels like they're doing it because they just want to have fun.

It's like, well, then you're making an entire season for yourself and not for me, not for Sean, not for the millions of fans that might be wanting to watch this. Screw you guys. You guys have fumbled the ball so badly. I don't think they recognize how badly they fumbled the ball when they're capable of this. Because Sean, my God, this is one of the episodes that I will put up there with one of the best Star Trek episodes of any of the series. Yeah, it's like for me, There Are Four Lights is one of my favorites. Inner Light with Picard, Data on trial of if he's human, Measure of a Man. I love that episode.

Sean Ferrell: Best of Both Worlds one and two. Homecoming. There are so many good episodes. Yeah, this is up there with them. Yeah, this is up there with them. When you get to the sequence when the things start to fall from the ceiling and the glass shatters, just sitting on the floor and they're all looking around, the gravity plating is malfunctioning and things are going to get bad. And her leg bone comes jetting out the side of her calf, and she's still climbing to hit that button, and she is screaming. And I was like, you're the same actress who said in that interview, we wanted to have fun. So we were doing whatever we wanted to do that was fun. And I'm just like, this episode, you are literally a screaming hero. And you missed the point that the puppets wasn't going to be fun for anybody. If that's as much as the puppets were like, there is a good puppet episode, that wasn't it. It just feels like when they leaned into the fun, they thought the fun was enough. So as long as it was fun, it was going to be okay. But this is a demonstration. Like, I question, did they not have fun making an episode that was going to be this compelling? Did the actor playing Dr. M’Benga and the actress playing Nurse Chapel not recognize when they were shooting those scenes? This is going to be incredible. Like, did they not have fun shooting those scenes and telling that part of the story? Like, I've known actors, I've known. I've known people, like, the challenging stuff has a fun to it. It's fun. I write. I write horror, and I write this novel of mine and reached a point at a certain scene where I kind of turned my own stomach as I was working on this scene. And I was like, do I actually put this in the book? Because this is kind of like, this is putting something there that I'm not sure, like, a lot of people are gonna like.

But the challenge of that and thinking about that, that was fun for me as a writer. I was like. I was like. But, oh, really? I'm pushed. This character has suddenly turned a corner. I didn't expect. The challenge can be the reward, not the fun. So I find myself with this one, like some. I just keep. I basically have reached a point where all I want to do with you is recount cool scenes. There are so many cool scenes in this show.

Matt Ferrell: Let's break it up by the storylines, because the one I want to start with is the Scotty storyline. Because this is the episode that felt to me of the show strange new worlds, saying, this is how Scotty became Scotty. This episode right now. This is how he becomes the miracle worker. And this is the episode I wish they'd been. They've kind of done this in previous episodes with Pelia and Scotty because she was the teacher, she was brutal on him. He was always trying to basically get her approval, but was never matching what she was asking for. And they've kind of been hinting at this, but in this episode specifically, they came right out and Pelia is Yoda. She's freaking Yoda with Luke Skywalker. She's in a different room talking to him over comms and basically giving him. Not cryptic advice, but she's telling stories and she's giving him allegories and things like that to have him come to the conclusions on his own. And it's like, holy crap, she's a great teacher. You're watching her teach. You're watching Yoda teach Luke, you're watching Pelia teach Scotty. And you're seeing Scotty making the connections that turns him into a freaking miracle worker. And so for me, I was just like eating that up so much. I just loved that entire storyline because it was like, yes, more of this, please. And then you to just jump to the other storyline with Spock. We get a little bit of that with Spock in this. It's not to the same level, but it's like Spock is so willing to sacrifice and kill himself to save everybody. Star Trek 2 says hello. Here he is. Whoever's going out there, they're probably going to die. Spock's like, send me out, I'll go out. He goes out and does it. And like, he's barfing up green blood, not able to speak at the end. This is the Spock we know from the movies. Movie Spock. This is amazing Spock. This is the Spock I love.

And so for me, this show was just doing such a good job of doing that. And then with Christine Chapel and her plotline, like you said, how did she get to where she is? Because they've been showing her as one foot out the door. This kind of like footloose and fancy free, just kind of likes to escape. Doesn't like too much challenge. And here she is, we find her turning point of where she plants her flag and says, no, this is my home. And it's also, I just love whenever they make, they show how brilliant she is. Because the original series, 1960s, she hands McCoy.

Sean Ferrell: She hands McCoy surgery instruments. I also like the Chapel M’Benga storyline. I really liked that they were like, well, this other doctor who at one point was going to be the chief, chief of surgery. Like, they bring in this guy who's got this kind of like. I thought they were hinting like McCoy was suddenly going to show up. I was pleased that it wasn't. It was, you know, this other gentleman who shows up and he's and he's like, you cut your losses and you move to the other people you can help. And her commitment to helping somebody is something that is demonstrated in the original series with Christine Chapel, particularly when it comes to Spock. And we see that in the original series, the whole toying with their relationship to one another and her commitment to him and helping him. We see that with M’Benga, and we can realize, like, oh, her depth of character moves beyond. She's the one with a crush on Spock. It's. They've created a full character here, which is. Which is terrific. I thought they did a terrific turn with the pilot and having her in charge. She's got the con through a good portion of this because you get that moment of every panel is electrified. I love that Pike has a look on his face. I gotta do this. And I can't help but think some of the beautiful subtext of that scene is he's like, I know this won't kill me.

Matt Ferrell: Yes, yes. That was going through my head, too. It's like, he knows this is not how he dies.

Sean Ferrell: Give us a season where he knows he can do anything. Give us a season where he's willing to take those risks. And when people say, you're flying so fast and loose, how are you getting away with all this? And only one person knows is. Is because I know I'm not gonna die. Like, imagine the season of people around him saying, does he have a death wish? Like, think of an alternate season of this show where the crew begins to question, does our captain have a death wish? Why does he play things so close to the edge with a confidence? Like, he knows he's just gonna be able to do whatever he wants. And the reason is because he's like, I know I don't die yet. I know I'm not in trouble yet. And if I'm gonna get to that moment in the future, I know I can get there with all these people with me. Like, there's a kind of. Like, there was an opportunity for a story around that in which. What if there's an episode in which he's wrong? What if he loses somebody in an episode? And he was like, because I knew I could make it there, I assumed everybody I cared about could. And now I've screwed that up and I hurt somebody I loved. Like, that could have been an amazing episode. Instead, we. The gimmicky things were there. The Muppets were there. Like, that moment for me when he gets that look on his face and he turns to her and he says, you've got the comm. And then goes and electrocutes himself and is just down on the floor. The next time you see him, he's face down on the floor. And I'm just like. And she does a great job. I thought it was wonderful because Uhura is trying to do what she can, and she's sitting at the comm and she is without hesitation communicating through the one line. I just mean that she's good. She's got that ship wide thing and she's good at it, and she's communicating with everybody, and she's communicating with the first officer.

And I was just like, there's like, you called it. This is competence porn. This is people doing their jobs well, and it's great. And it really like.

Matt Ferrell: It.

Sean Ferrell: It gets you. It gets you fired up. It gets you ready for, like, this is what we need. This is what we want to watch. We want to watch people say, like, we're all in danger, but we've got each other. And that's what this felt like, as opposed to, we're not really all in danger because we're all just kind of having fun and we're gonna be fine because none of these feel like stakes.

Matt Ferrell: The thing that this went through my mind. Now I know I'm just gonna tell you what went through my mind. I know this is not the case. I knew it. When I was thinking it, I was like, my God, is this the episode where they put Pike in the wheelchair? Like, yeah, because so much stuff was going wrong and people were dying and, like, getting cut in half and then the bone sticking out of the leg. And I was like, the whole, like, everybody's getting sealed into engineering. I was like, is the. Is Pike gonna do something where he. This is where it happens. Is this. Is this where it happens? But it's only episode six, so it can't be that because there's still more episodes to go. And I. We don't even know if they're gonna deal with that in this season. We don't even know if they're gonna deal with it full stop. So it's kind of like, I hope they do because I believe this is the last season of the show. So I'm hoping.

Sean Ferrell: No, there is a season five. There's a season five. It's not a full season. It's like a. It's like a truncated season. My understanding is, like, part of the leaning into, like, we wanted to have fun is because they were going to be like, we're shooting 16 episodes and I'm thinking like, there's a part of them that maybe forgot that not all the episodes would be like, it wasn't one season. So I'm like, were they all in the mindset of like, oh, we're making 16 and less than half of them are goofy? Because next season is going to be like, I think it's maybe six episodes, but it's going to be like, it's probably going to be six heavy hitting episodes leading to a big finale. So, okay, like, like there, there are, I think, like big picture contextual reasons as to why the mindset maybe wasn't quite where it could have been. In order to bring the, the best to the forefront and to go back to what you've said, yeah, the show is right up there. It's right up there. And then they have so many missteps that it's like, usually programming gets through. Like season one is usually uneven in a show. And you end up with that like, well, they'll iron out the kinks in season two and then they, if they do, you're like, oh, they're on the right trajectory. And then by the time you get to seasons three and four, you're like, wow, they're firing on all cylinders. And then you start to have the downward slide. And in the new era of how television produced with only 10 episodes or so per season, you say, well, they're not even shooting for the moon. It used to be if you made four seasons of a show, you had more than a hundred episodes. And that was the goal for syndication. Like, let's get through four seasons and we'll have that hundred and then we can make bank on syndication. That's no longer the case.

So if you're like, okay, we're getting to season three or four, you should still be firing on all cylinders with really good ideas and compelling storylines. So to have this season feel this uneven, it's really kind of like, like you said, it puts you in a position of like, do I need to rethink where this show stands? But I feel like for me, I've landed in a place of no, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to put this show in a slot based on how good it could be.

Matt Ferrell: Yeah.

Sean Ferrell: When it was firing at all cylinders. And I, and I think in terms of like, that puts it into sort of strange company. Not just with Star Trek, but with other shows, it puts it into a kind of like Stargate universe is one of those things. Where I'm just like, wow, it really kind of punched above its weight, given it didn't get that many seasons. It's just. But it really told good storyline. And Farscape is another one that I keep thinking about of, like. Farscape could be wildly uneven, but when it was good, it was great. And when it was fun, it was. It was hysterically fun. It was just like, are you. They're doing what now? Like, and doing some really wackadoo stuff. And it was full of puppets. And it was just. But it was. When it worked, it worked great. But it could be kind of like a wild ride. And I find myself surprised to say, like, is Strange New Worlds one of those shows that, like, yeah, you maybe don't rewatch every episode? Maybe, Yeah, a rewatch of Strange New Worlds is maybe a tight 20 episodes as opposed to watching all four or five seasons, because, yeah, maybe that's all you need to get the episodes that they really were like, we're telling a story here. So kind of a surprising place to land. So, viewers, listeners, what did you think about this one? Do you agree with us that this one rose to a level that you maybe weren't expecting, given some of the other ones we've been watching? Or are you like, Matt, Sean, you're absolutely bonkers. This was terrible. I love the puppets. I wish there were more like that. We really do want to hear both opinions. Please share them in the comments. As always, liking, subscribing and commenting, sharing with your friends, those are all very easy ways for you to support the podcast. We do appreciate all of those, but if you'd like to support us more directly, you can go to trekintime.Show. Click the join button there. It allows you to throw some coins at our heads. And then we get down to the heavy, heavy business of really, really being critical about a show that we really, really like. Thank you so much, everybody, for taking the time to watch or listen. We'll talk to you next time.