Matt and Sean talk about the gimmick episode that finally lands in Star Trek SNW Season 4, Episode 7, "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass." Trelane traps the crew inside a soap opera, and only Pike knows something is wrong. Matt calls it a breath of fresh air after the puppets. Sean gives it a C plus and pitches the second draft he wishes they'd made.
Order Sean’s next book, “In the Fields We Thirst” here: https://undecided.link/in-the-fields-we-thirst
Chapters
- 00:00 - Intro
- 02:34 - Mailbag
- 05:12 - Episode Description
- 05:45 - This Time in History
- 07:51 - 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 you've already made your point. Do you want to keep belaboring it? Do you want to keep going over and over and over it again? Do you want to really, like, if you've made your point, do you want to go find a really big stick and just like beat that dead horse? Like, when you've made your point, what do you do after you've made your point? That's what we're going to talk about today on Trek in Time. Welcome everybody, to Trek in Time. This is of course, the podcast that takes a look at Star Trek in chronological stardate order. Normally we watch all of Star Trek, as I just said, in chronological stardate order. But when new programs are made available, like Strange New Worlds, we're putting a pause on that rewatch. We're going to watch season four of Strange New Worlds right now and then we're going to jump back into the chronological viewing, which will mean the last, I think, five episodes of the original series. And from there jump into the movies. Next Generation, Deep Space nine. And then 17 years from now, they'll probably make more new stuff. So we'll still be making episodes. But anyway, you're going to watch us age in real time. We're also going to talk about the world at the time original broadcast. So for today's episode, we're going to be talking about, well, basically current events. Today's episode, like Chronatons through the Hourglass, directed by Anna Dacoza, written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wilkoff. This episode dropped on September 3, 2026. So we're going to talk about that date in history, even though we can probably all look back at the calendar and remember exactly what we were doing. I know I can and I know my co host can. But first, who am I and who is my co host? Well, I'm Sean Ferrell. I'm a writer. I write some sci fi, I write some horror.
As a matter of fact, I have a new horror novel coming out in April of 2027. My God, how did we reach 2027? Yeah, that sounds remarkable. It's called in the Fields We Thirst. It's a horror novel set in World War I. I hope people will be interested in checking that out. I will be releasing more information as it becomes available. It is available for pre order now if you're interested. With me, as always, is 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. Matt, that's a lot of words out of my face. How are you today? Matt Ferrell: I'm doing just fine. Excited. Excited to talk about this episode. Sean, got many thoughts. I'm sure you do too, as you made it very clear in the opening of the episode how you feel. Did you pick up on a theme? Sean Ferrell: We'll talk about that. Matt Ferrell: Pick up on a theme there, Sean. Sean Ferrell: Picked up on a theme. Well, before we get into that discussion, we always like to visit the mailbag, hear what you've had to say about our previous episodes. There's been some weird timey wimey stuff over the past. It's been a couple of months of timey wimey stuff. Not quite sure what it is about our recording schedule that keeps hitting these gaps where we're talking, but you haven't watched the new episode yet, so we don't have comments. But because we didn't have comments last week or the week before, I think we should have comments now. What have you found for us this week, Matt? Matt Ferrell: We got comments. This was from episode 242, the Off Hour, the puppet episode. Sean Ferrell: Boy. Okay, I'm looking forward to this.
Mailbag
Matt Ferrell: So yeah, it was pretty universal. One of the first comments I wanted to highlight was from RH1962 hello. And in the scheme of the season, I could not watch another gimmick episode. There were a lot of comments along those lines, Sean. Yeah, and then there was Scudrew, who kind of like built on that by saying this episode was a waste of airtime and funding for the show. Like Matt says, on its own it was funny and clever and fun, but in the context of this season and series, it was just dumb. Having it all be a dream at the end just made it essentially pointless for me. It's like the clip show at the end of season two of Next Generation, Shades of Gray. I really love the Orions in this though, and I'm glad that we are seeing more and more about them. If that wasn't all made up by Spock's brain as well. Because was that a dream or was that real? And then finally also, why did everyone get their own puppet except Pelia? She looked exactly the same as she always does with a little tongue out emoji. Well done, Scooteroo. Sean Ferrell: Yeah, well done, Scooteroo. Yeah, agree with both, both of those very much. Matt Ferrell: And Pale Ghost 69 wrote, on the bright side, the episode has brought back a running bit that we dropped since Enterprise ended. Sean Ferrell: Rewrite Star Trek, sadly. Yeah, it's something that Matt and I don't clamor to do, but we sometimes fall into that trap. And yeah, this episode, this season of strange new worlds, sadly, has invited quite a bit of that.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah. And finally, wrong answers only. Mark Loveless about the episode plot of off hour. The crew gets some highly needed time off and decides to form a dance troupe and perform a dance. They use every single 90s sitcom cliche as plot points. However, at the end of the episode, Yahura wakes up because it was all a dream. She relays this dream to Chapel and Chapel responds with, well, at least everyone wasn't puppets. Sean Ferrell: I mean, Mark, sadly, in this season, that could be an episode. Yeah, okay. Matt Ferrell: Yeah, I know. Sean Ferrell: Thank you everybody for those comments. We really do appreciate it. Make sure to keep them coming. And now those flashing lights. You see the, the coughing you hear? No, that's an alert. It's the read alert. It's time for Matt to tackle the Memory Alpha description. As I've mentioned before, Memory Alpha cuts right to the chase. No fluff, no fuss. Matt Ferrell: Trelane renders Pike's World into the style of ancient soap operas, providing a therapeutic framework for reflection and self examination. Sean Ferrell: That's right folks, you heard it here first. Soap operas, finally. Matt Ferrell: So you've been claiming. Sean Ferrell: Yeah, you've been asking, you've been demanding. Well, they finally supplied it on September 3, 2026. And what was the world like at the time of that broadcast? Well, Matt, as always, I don't have to tell you what you were listening to and learning to sing by heart as well as the original artist. That's right, it was Ariana Grande's hate that I made you love me. Take it away. Matt, as always, if you close your eyes, you'd swear it was Ariana. Matt, any guesses, what was the number one box office film in the United States this week of September 3, 2026? Matt Ferrell: Probably Spider Man.
Today’s Discussion
Sean Ferrell: As a matter of fact, it was Spider man, which continued its march to becoming one of the most profitable movies that's ever been made. Brand New Day was still in the number one spot. And on television. I said it before, I'll say it again. They make finding out what's the most popular streaming show extremely difficult to find. So instead I'm just looking at, well, what sorts of programs released around now that are turning out to be popular? Well right now, one of the more popular new releases, it's season 13 of American Horror Story. The 13th season of this anthology television series for focuses on a character who suffers From. You guessed it. Let me try and say this word completely. Suffers from triskedekophobia. Triskaidekaphobia. I believe that's the pronunciation of want to guess, Matt, what's that? The fear of. Matt Ferrell: No idea. Sean Ferrell: The number 13. So a little meta humor where the character is beset upon by eerie residents in a building who are characters from the previous 12 seasons of the series. So having a little meta fun. And in the news on this Day in History, Sept. 3, 2026, front page of the New York Times included this article. The Trump administration begins blitz to find elusive voter fraud ahead of midterms. It is an ongoing pursuit of the supposed election shenanigans that took place in 2020 and 2024. Yeah. Yes, that's right. They're claiming that there were election shenanigans in an election that they won. You figure it out. So on now to our discussion about this week's episode. Like chronatons through an hourglass. Matt, question for you. Were you conscious of the title of the episode before you watched it? Matt Ferrell: Not when I. Not when I watched it.
Sean Ferrell: Okay. I was. And my immediate assumption was gimmick episode, where it's going to be a soap opera. I. I think I will let a certain cat out of a certain bag, and I will release said cat by asking you a question. Do you think we. We have already had a punching bag. I mean, for lack of a better metaphor, I said I was gonna let a cat out of the bag. I feel like we have been beating the crap out of a bag full of cats for weeks now as we keep going back to the gimmick episodes aren't really landing. And I think it was last week. We talked about another episode that did land well. And one of the things that came up in our discussion was if you are effectively making fan fiction, you're doing something which is potentially leaning more into the fun, gimmicky premise as opposed to something that's moving the needle on character development. Do you think that this episode, which I fully label as a gimmick episode and fully say not. If this was a rewatch, you know, suggestion for the season, this would be an episode that I would say, skip it. But do you think that this one actually moved the needle on character development a little bit? Because it doesn't feel like it did what the puppet episode did. Do you want to talk a little bit about how that. How this episode landed for you overall before we talk about any particular.
Matt Ferrell: This is 100% a gimmick episode. But unlike the Other gimmick episodes. This one still felt very Star Trek to me. It still had characters at the centerpiece. It still had some character development. Maybe not as fully fleshed out as the last episode, but it was there. There was character development happening. So for me, I think you're much. Just from your tone, sounds like you're really sour on this one. For me, I thought this episode was fine. It was fine, like middle of the road. Because what this episode reminded me of, Sean, was pick any Q episode from Next Generation. I am not a merry man. You know what I mean? It was the Robin Hood episode. It's like that was a goofball, weird Q episode that is charming and fun and it's very Star Trek. And this one is charming and fun and still feels very Star Trek. I agree with you from your opening, it beats a dead horse with the gimmick. The let's just have fun with the soap opera aspect of it with very little character development for a good 10 minutes where I'm like, can you. Could you get moving forward, please? Sean Ferrell: Yeah. Matt Ferrell: And it starts to move forward again and I'm like, here we go. Okay, here you go, guys. You're getting your traction. It's like wheels spinning out in a car. And it was a smoke billowing out for about 10 minutes and then finally the car started to slowly move forward. And I was like, thank you. Thank you. You're moving forward again. Good, good. Keep going. Sean Ferrell: Yeah. Matt Ferrell: So that's kind of my high level overview of this episode.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah. I land in similar terrain. I'm not. I'm not overly sour on it. I do think, like a. If this makes any sense, it's a good bad episode. It's an episode that you could say, like we've had with the original series in our rewatch as we entered season three. I said, these episodes are not great, but I'm amazed at how many of my favorite scenes are from some of these episodes. And I felt like this one was hitting that territory where the problems with it. And this is a weird thing about this episode in particular, it feels like some of the gimmick episodes have suffered from start to finish from one major failing they don't talk about. There's no character depth whatsoever. And it's just like, plot, plot, plot, or they wiped it all away with a dream and none of it was real. Like, one big symptom is the problem of the episode. This one suffers from a lot of little conflicting problems. Like, it feels like they reveal the solution to the dilemma in the first act. They tell us right away, oh yeah, the only way to get out of here is to actually play through the soap opera scenarios. So then we know that's, that's what they have to do. They have to play through the scenarios. They tell us right away, Trillion is just like head scratchy. I don't know why you're the only one who's not affected by my having snapped my fingers and made this reality. So. So you're gonna have to go along with the ride. And I'm like, why are they revealing these elements this way so early in the episode? Instead of using it like catnip to get us to like, get into the episode and say, like, why is he the only one who's not affected by this thing? Okay, we have this soap opera scenario the moment they've revealed, ah, Captain pike, you are the only one who is legitimately facing a challenge.
Anytime they cut away to anybody else, it feels like wasted energy because all it is then is we're supposed to enjoy the camera trickery, we're supposed to enjoy the cameo of a well known soap opera actress. We're supposed to enjoy the fuzzy focus. We're supposed to like, they, they change the aspect ratio on the screen. So it's like all these little things that are supposed to make it look and feel like a soap opera or. Well, that's not enough when I know that the only character who's legitimately facing a challenge is Captain Pike. And then despite the fact that they released too much information at the beginning, they've withheld way too much information until the end in the form of, oh, it's about his relationship to a daughter figure. And he had that entire lived experience from that one episode where it was him and his love partner having the life they would never have together. And it goes back to the same sort of alternate history we've seen from some great Trek episodes. So hearkening back to that, I was like, that's great. What a great thing to hearken back to. To hearken back to a relationship to the, the episode centered so much about his relationship to the woman he loved that the daughter who was a part of that was kind of a secondary consideration. She was just part of the set dressing to a large degree in the background behind that. To foreground that daughter in this way was really, I, I was surprised by it. I was thrilled that that's where they were headed with it. And I thought by the end of it, like, they really, they did move a needle here. They had a really nice. And for that actor, for Anson Mount to have that moment where he does go to the therapist. We've never seen the Counselor on the ship, so now they've endorsed that. That actress who's the soap opera actress is legitimately a character on the ship. I liked that. I liked him going in.
I liked him breaking down. I liked him going through grief. There is a whole. A whole world of storytelling around that. And it just felt like, wow, you. You had all of that, and you kept all of that so bottled up, so withheld till the third act, that we couldn't be ready for it to really appreciate how that could hit us, because we spent so much time in the middle of this episode in scenes where pike wasn't on screen, and we knew nobody else is going through any of the challenge of having to play this part. And then it felt to me, at least a little bit of a cheat to say, but everybody remembered what had happened so that everybody was going to have to then process it. I'm like, why? Why aren't we getting the processing? Because what if this episode had been, like, you mentioned, the Q episodes, the Merry Men episode, where it's the Robin Hood fantasy? We don't know how anybody's going to get. We don't know how they're going to get through that. We don't know how they're going to solve that problem to escape this fantasy in this, we're told right out of the gate how they're going to escape it. But then we don't see any of the fallout of what it means to them beyond very brief glimpses. And I. And I found myself, like, here we are. I've just walked right into rewriting the episode. What if this episode was half as long get us to that point where pike is able to get through that moment of, like, this is about somebody who I legitimately do think was a daughter. They escape that reality, and then he finds out that everybody around him also went through things that they now have to process. And there has to be some sort of processing that's individualized amongst all these different crew members.
So that this, the third act, maybe like, two thirds of the episode being this soap opera fantasy with the captain having to pretend to get through it just because, like, I gotta save my crew. And then once he saves the crew, he and everybody else is like, but these are real feelings. And it could have, like, landed, I think, in a. In a stronger way, it could have been this. As opposed to some of the other gimmick episodes, I do think there was an episode here to tell a good story. Whereas some of the other ones, I was like, okay, the puppet should have been maybe a YouTube extra. But this feels like, oh, they could have landed something. It could have been back up into the. Yeah, I'd rewatch that notch as opposed to the. Well, I watched it, but I don't know if I'd revisit it. Matt Ferrell: Yeah, I agree with you on, on that. But I'm starting to question what, how I interpreted the episode. Because I recall them saying that whole thing about him. The reason he was out, they thought was because he had something he was just trying to work on on his own. But I didn't think that that was as clear cut as your making it sound. Because everybody's storylines as gimmicky and over the top and soap opera as they were, there were actual conflicts that they were working through. So Trelane, when he did his thing, he concocted these crazy amplified versions of what these people actually were dealing with. My favorite one of these was the Doctor. Which one? I just gotta say, I just loved the fact that every time he kept doing the takes where he would look off camera and. And Hanson Mount would be going like, what are you looking? What are you looking at? Sean Ferrell: Yeah, the humor in this one was landing perfectly.
Matt Ferrell: There was that one scene with. So it's him and Ortegus in like the dining area, in the bar area. And as she's talking to him, he says this thing about I don't feel connected to Starfleet anymore. And it's in this, it's in the soap opera. He's saying this. That is him he's talking about. I think I'm gonna leave in the previous episode. So this is where I'm like. I think I interpreted it a little different than you did. It didn't seem as black and white to me where they were. You're the only person on the ship going through something. It's more of a. His is probably so profound that something is snapping him out of it where everybody else is going through stuff and they are dealing with these things in a soap opera way. And that's what I was talking about, about the car spinning out. In the beginning, it was all fluff. It was all that, oh, look at us shoot this episode with a different lighting and oh, look at the. The goofy looking off camera and the soap opera zoom ins and all that kind of stuff where there was no meat on the bones. It was just doing the soap opera gimmick. But once we start to get about halfway into the episode, they started doing things like the Doctor saying, I don't feel like I'm connected to Starfleet anymore. And the thing with Spock on that ship, there were moments like that, too, that the subtext of what was going on was actually the relationship beneath it, even though it was this crazy, over the top storyline. So halfway in, you started to get the glimpses of what you're talking about, of like, oh, God, there's an actual episode here. This stuff should have been at the end of Act 1, not at the beginning of Act 3. And then for Anson Mallets, for the Captain's thing with the daughter, I thought it would have been stronger if. When they were in the room. I love the scene. I just love the scene where she said, you're my father.
And he kept trying to leave and going, nope, I don't want a part of this. That whole scene was really fricking funny. It was really well done. Anson Mount's fantastic. He's one of my favorite actors on TV right now. He's just so good. But in that scene, they could have started to drop the hints of, like, when she says, I'm your daughter, his reaction could have been like, I'm not dealing with this to a. What did you say? Like, because he's. Yeah, he is struggling with his daughter from this second life. And they could have started to drop the hints of. This is his struggle. His daughter, his daughter, his daughter. But they didn't drop it until literally, he walks in the room and there she is. And I was like, wait, why didn't you drop better hints about his struggle until now? Sean Ferrell: This is part of the problem, I think, with the episode. It goes back to what I said of. Of them struggling with both overshare and underreveal at the same time. There was a line where he says, I didn't. I don't have a daughter. And he says it with a challenged voice. He looks like he's getting ready to cry, and his voice cracks a little bit and he seems emotional, but it's not made clear enough in that moment. And to clarify something, I think there's a little bit of a miscommunication in how I presented things. What I was trying to say was this. Pike is the only one with free will in the episode. Matt Ferrell: Yes, he.
Sean Ferrell: He's. He and everybody else are going through real challenges. And Trelane makes a point of saying, I don't know why. You are the only one who is able to operate in a way outside the reality that I constructed. So I did Understand that everybody's revelations were true to their characters, but they didn't have any choice but to do what they were doing in the way that they were doing it. As opposed to pike, who had the ability to say, I'm going to try and leave the room. The fact that he wasn't able to leave the room and kept snapping back was, you know, a demonstration of. He was looking around and saying this doesn't make any sense, whereas everybody else was simply playing their part. But it was as Trelane makes the point of saying. The entire point of this was you carry around all these things but you don't talk about them. But you'd probably feel better if you did. So why don't we just surface everything? It is a meta ness to the episode where it's trying to hearken to why do we watch fictional stories about people dealing with hardship, this episode dealing with grief. Like hey, that landed with me in a very strong way right now, in a very real way. And I was like, I'm like, okay, this is landing for me in a really interesting way and a really compelling way. I go back to Next Generation in the episode where in order to defeat Sherlock Holmes, Geordi makes the misstate in the holodeck to create an opponent who could defeat Data as opposed to an opponent who could defeat Sherlock Holmes. And as a result the computer inadvertently creates an artificial intelligence that is a self aware hologram, which at the end of the episode there is a reference to perhaps we're all, what if all of us were simply ideas in a black box sitting on a shelf in somebody's room.
And of course this coming out of the voice, out of the mouth of a character in a television program, which is literally characters inside a box sitting on a shelf in your room. I as teen watching that was just like, wow, mind explosion. This is great. And I think this one was going for something similar in the. You are sitting and watching people have catharsis because you yourself need catharsis. But like real people, you don't just wear it on your sleeve. So. So all the artificialness plays a part in processing. Yeah, I get it. And like melodrama exists for a reason. If melodrama didn't play a part, we wouldn't have it anywhere. But it, we have it all over the place. Soap operas have been on television for 60 odd years and like, despite the fact that we're going through such a transition of what television looks like in what they are calling the golden age of television right now, there are still soap operas that are telling the exact same storylines that they've been telling for four decades because they play a purpose. And I don't know, this is going to be a side, you know, sidetrack. But, Matt, were you aware of any of John Oliver's I want to be in soap operas thing that he.
I've seen. Matt Ferrell: I've actually seen the episodes that he's in. Sean Ferrell: Yeah, I watched. I watched the clips, the highlight clips of him being on those programs, and it's like, yeah, they look just like they did back in the late 80s when I was in high school and going to college, and I had friends in college who watched these soap operas, and they look identical. And if you go back all the way to them being black and white, they still look the same. It's the same sort of storyline of here comes this episode of Star Trek where you've got all this stuff brought to the front. And I'm like, there is an episode here I could have really dug if it felt like they'd use the time just a little bit differently because it felt a little bit too much like treading water for the first 30 minutes. And then like, okay, now we're getting to the point. And here we go. I want to enjoy the meat as opposed to just the. The crispy skin. I want to get to like, yeah, give me the meat. Matt Ferrell: I think you and I are very close to the same page, but I think I definitely am a little more liking the episode than you did. Sean Ferrell: For me. Matt Ferrell: Like, if I was looking at, like, how we've been beating the. Beating that. Punching that bag of cats, as you said, for the best. Sean Ferrell: I think we just created a new phrase. Yeah, yeah.
Matt Ferrell: For Next Generation, you have 26 episodes or whatever it was in a season, and you'd have the Best of Both Worlds episodes, and then you'd have Deanna Troy's moms on board, or they run into the Ferengi, or they have the Robin Hood and they're trying to get away from Q. The gimmicky, goofy episodes. And so many of those were, like, low tier for me on the spectrum of, like, top tier, bottom tier. And bottom tier was still. I enjoyed it. I still enjoyed it. And I will rewatch that episode of Robin Hood. Cause I just love Worf saying, I am not a merry man. Sean Ferrell: I love it. Matt Ferrell: So it's like, there are aspects of it I enjoy, but I recognize this is not their best stuff. This is middle of the road. Problem with Strange New Worlds is we have hit rock fricking bottom where we have some of the best Star Trek that's been made in decades to some of the worst TV that's out there. Sean Ferrell: Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: And now they come in with what would traditionally be a Star Trek gimmick episode that. If this was the only one in the season, you and I would probably be glowing about the entire season. If this was, like, the low point, this would be like, oh, this reminds me of Next Generation. It's like, this is a really good season of Star Trek. But the fact that they have hit so low that this, to me is like, this was a breath of fresh air when it came out. And you're like, it could have been a better episode. And I'm like, I feel great that this was the episode because we've seen some real clunkers, and this was not a clunker. This was like. This was Danna Troy's mom being on board. So it's like, this is enjoyable. I don't know if I'd rewatch it, but I still. It still felt like Star Trek. It still felt like it belonged here. I think we're kind of having to readjust or recalibrate because of the episodes that we've been. The puppets. I mean, come on. The puppets. It's like that episode has just changed the scale on this season.
Sean Ferrell: It really. It really has. And. And to go back to, you know, what you were saying about the overall impact of the. Of the episode. I do. I do. I hear everything you're saying, and I do agree I'm. I'm landing a little bit lower on the scale. But everything I'm saying is in the line of, okay, if you were going to redo this episode, what do I think they could have done to improve it? Yeah, I wasn't gonna. I wasn't gonna go the same lengths with some of the other gimmick episodes because I don't think some of those were worth saving. Whereas this one, I'm leaning into some fixes because I'm like, there was a second draft that could have lifted some of these things. And I will also say this. Rhys Darby as the Trillane, the younger version of Trelane, who Proto Q. Them having played with that in the way that they have, I'm fine with it. I think it's like, there's an aspect to that that I'm just like, yeah, I like that. They've basically said he's our Q. Maybe he is Q, maybe he's a Q, but it doesn't really matter. He performs it well. Whereas, you know, John De Lancie leans into the. You wouldn't believe the things I know this version of the proto Trelane, where I think they've landed in an interesting characterization for him because the earlier Trelane was played as a kind of petulant man, because he was actually supposed to be childish and was, why won't you play with me? You should be having fun. You should be doing these things because this is what humanity is. And this version does to me seem like a slightly more learned version of that, where he's like, apparently in school he gets a B minus on his project. And I enjoy that for the comedic value of what it presents, but I also like it for the.
The way they're doing it gives me a little bit of license as a viewer to, how am I going to interpret this? Am I supposed to interpret that literally a Q like entity is being given grades in a school? Or can you play with the idea of, yeah, in. In a human's perspective? The only way to interpret how the Q or Q like entities would be interacting with each other in these ways would be to boil it down to touch points that we could comprehend. So it's ridiculous to say he's in school and got a grade, but it is, like, in a cunous aspect. It's like, there's no other way to interpret this. Like, how do you convey this through story other than giving you, as a viewer, touch points to be able to hook into? So I'm like, it's funny to me, and it's also really smart. And apparently Rhys Darby said in an interview that they shot a bunch of fake commercials, that whenever they went to a commercial break, they actually shot a bunch of commercials that he wasn't sure if they were going to use any of them. One was included at the end of the credits.
I don't know if you saw that, Matt. Matt Ferrell: I did not.
Sean Ferrell: I'll have to go back and read that. There's one at the end of the credits where he is presented with a box of cereal. And he said, the way they did it, none of them were scripted. They just gave him objects. And they were like, create a commercial for this. So he just spontaneously would create an ad for a thing. So he creates this ad for cereal by holding up the box and talking about why it's good and why you should buy it. So I found myself after I read that, I was just like, more of that would have been. More of that would have been fun. Like that. Like giving. Giving more of the keenest to it and giving more of if this app. If this season was about us having fun as the makers of the show, then maybe a way to do that would have been to legitimately show us some more AD Libby sort of stuff that could have demonstrated the funness of it. And you have evoked some of the Next Generation tropes that. Where they would lean into this is a much lighter episode. I fully believe that there are moments during the filming of a season, especially when it used to be 26 or so episodes per season, where there would just be mental and physical exhaustion after doing a truly challenging episode where the actors, the directors, everybody would need, like, we need a gimme episode where it's a bottle episode. They're going to stay on the ship the entire time. We're going to have a limited number of the crew. Like, one of my favorite episodes is so clearly a bottle episode, where it's Picard is on the ship and everybody else leaves, and then a bunch of people jump on board the ship to steal it. And it's just Picard up against these other people. And it's like, yeah, you got nobody else on this ship except for these other actors and. And Patrick Stewart. And so it's clear that, like, everybody else had the week off.
Like, they were off shooting other shit, and they're just like, we're exhausted, so we're doing these things. And he's. He's carrying the weight this week because it's just him and these other guys. I'm fine with that. I understand that. But when you do that kind of thing, like you said, with only 10 episodes, maybe the way into that is to legitimately show fun as opposed to what this has strangely felt like, which is a lot of work to not have us have fun with you. Like, the amount of work it feels like it went into, like, the puppet episode looks like it took a lot of work to make. And then at the end of it, I was like, but am I enjoying this? It feels like. I mean, within the episode itself, they said, I'd give it a B minus. I'd give this a B minus. I would give it a C plus, B minus. It was. It was watchable and it was fine. Like I said, I don't know that I'd rewatch it, except when I go back to the abbaditas that have a scene that I really like. I liked everything that Anson Mount was doing. You made a super cut of just his scenes. I'd rewatch that probably be between 15 and 20 minutes long. And it ends with a truly wonderful piece of acting as he is saying, I didn't have a daughter, but I am mourning the daughter I lost. What a powerful moment that was. I really loved it. So yeah, yeah, Viewers, Listeners, jump into the comments. What did you think about this one? Do you agree that there were those nuggets that made it fun and enjoyable to watch, but the rest of it didn't really hold together? Or did you find that the entire soap opera setting really kind of helped you connect with an episode in a way that was deeper than what I feel like I did, and maybe closer to what Matt did, or maybe even more than Matt did? Let us know in the comments.
As always, liking subscribing, commenting, sharing with your friends, those are all very easy ways for you to support the podcast. We appreciate that support. 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 coins at our heads. And then we get down to the heavy, heavy business of beating the absolute crap out of this bag full of cats. Let's make that a phrase, everybody. Thank you so much everybody for taking the time to watch or listen, and we'll talk to you next time.
Member discussion: