Submitted 3 weeks ago by ValueSubtracted@startrek.website to startrek@startrek.website
Written by: Onitra Johnson & Davy Perez
Directed by: Andi Armaganian
RIP Ensign Gamble. You knew what you were getting into.
I liked this one a lot - I’m generally a fan of “ancient, unspeakable horror” stories, and this one was pretty well-told.
The Enterprise is seemingly able to declare its own red alerts - not much fun in that.
My biggest complaint is this show’s continued abuse of the transporter buffer - it should not be easy to use it as a form of stasis!
To be fair, it was used the way in the TNG Episode Relics, when Scotty spent 75 years stuck in the Jenolan’s transport buffer, so quiite a long precedent.
Sure, but “Relics” had a built-in caveat (which I think was an intentional piece of writing): it had a 50% mortality rate.
The auto-red alerts did stick out a bit, but it kind of makes sense. The computer knows where everyone is and what they usually do, and behaviour-based intrusion detection systems are starting to become normal cybersecurity concepts even today.
Soon as he picked up the artifact I knew it was bad vibes from there on out
Exactly. The moment the camera focused on the orb I knew that little twerp (RIP Gamble) would do the typical redshirt thing and pick it up.
RIP security guard.
Crosspost of what I mentioned on Reddit:
Was this a sly deep cut prequel to ‘Wolf in the Fold’ ?
Given that both episodes cover the same terrain dealing with “monstrous, terrible evil” and " immortal, non-corporeal entities" possessing people?
‘Wolf In The Fold’ also ended with the entity jumping and taking over the ship.
(‘Wolf in the Fold’ in the fold was written by Robert Bloch who also wrote ‘What Are Little Girls Made Of?’, the episode that introduced Korby and Chapel)
It totally was. It’s no coincidence that it was Scotty who caught the entity and Scotty who is taken over by it years later in Wolf in the Fold.
Robert Bloch
Who was friends with HP Lovecraft (!) and who features, as “Robert Blake”, in my favourite short story by HP, The Haunter of the Dark! This is tickling my brain in the best way <3
I would not have released Patel into Pike’s custody after how she lost control when confronted with “Gamble”. Like, clearly the being inhabiting his body was malevolent, but “the enemy of my enemy” doesn’t make it ok that she basically got taken over by a consciousness besides her own. Leaving her alone with the captain of the ship feels especially dangerous (and letting her captain her own ship again, for that matter).
Given it’s been established the only person who can really help control Batel is Spock, and he is incommunicado for the whole episode, both Batel and Gamble should have been in confinement as soon as possible.
add +2 to the “some sort/kind of” count
La’an saying “fascinating” makes me wonder if Spock is rubbing off on her.
For some reason I knew Pelia was going to say “heebie jeebies”
La’an saying “fascinating” makes me wonder if Spock is rubbing off on her.
Considering the extreme side-eye Chapel gave her, I don’t think you’re the only one.
La’an saying “fascinating” makes me wonder if Spock is rubbing off on her.
Uh, phrasing
Vulcan snicker
Just fun times.
My only complaint is that Ensign Gamble got this great episode, while Jenna Mitchell has yet to see an iota of character development and more than a few minutes of screen time away from the helm. Of course Gamble had to die for the privilege, so I guess that’s fair. Still, I think the writers owe Rong Fum some love.
Pokéball GO!
I was really worried before this episode that Gamble was not given a spoken name… AND I WAS 100% JUSTIFIED!
He’s with the Prophets now
A lot of random things that weren't explained. Chinese writing? Is there a purpose to the wrist band that was found? With the pattern buffer glitching, it feels like this is a part 1. Who were the other aliens and how did they get the visor?
I know they tried to explain it but why did the building vaporize that guy?!
Note to self, never go on a first away mission. Skip it and go on a second or third once all the kinks are worked out.
I know they tried to explain it but why did the building vaporize that guy?!
Chapel’s DNA was used to open the door to get in, and the door don’t want anyone going through without her.
It’s a shitty security. Everyone entering should’ve been scanned and provided blood. Although I’m not sure how vaporizing a body of the carrier would stop a disembodied entity from just roaming around, at least inside the building.
Didn’t we have an episode in S1 or S2 that showed the screen above a biobed glitching like this at the tail end of the episode?
Now that the gorn were swept away I think this is going to be our next big baddie. Also this was the mid season episode, I have a feeling it’ll be the focus for the season ender
The Gorn connection was an interesting one... it seemed entirely out of left field, especially since the Gorn were literally put to bed two (one?) episodes ago.
3/10: well directed horror flick, not particularly good Trek.
I’m going to have to watch the episode again to give it a fair chance, but I think I agree. The characters were acting pretty much exactly like the teenagers you see in a cliche slasher film.
I know that the episode has to happen, but discovering a facility like they did during a dig should have called for a thorough study before proceeding, but they just strolled in. Chapel even gave a sample of her blood to an unknown alien mechanism just to see if the door would open.
Then when they walk in the first thing they should see are a couple of corpses lying on the ground, but it takes them several minutes of wandering around the room before noticing. Scanning the bodies reveals that they died a long time ago of starvation; possibly a hint that they were trapped and sealed in maybe? At this point Spock should have deduced that the door was going to lock.
They also lost contact with the Enterprise pretty much immediately, but with the front door still wide open it doesn’t occur to them that it might be a good idea to set up a comms relay. These are 8 skilled professionals that just waltzed in here without a plan or backup, and then lost contact with their only support and chose to keep going anyway.
And then Gamble, in full view of everybody, and after just hearing the chief of security say not to touch anything, grabs the shiny glowing orange sphere of destiny and holds it up for a good last look.
From here most of the rest of the episode is actually really good. I enjoyed the puzzle of them figuring out that they’re all still in the same room.
I didn’t enjoy so much the explanation that Gamble is brain dead but is somehow still being controlled by a non-corporeal being. If his body is moving around then surely there are still signals in his brain indicating life. I suppose this could be explained by the entity taking control of his lower brain functions only.
And finally I don’t know why they made such a big deal about crossing the invisible bridge to reach the door. After taking a single step the bridge is revealed to be solid, so why couldn’t they have just stuck a toe out or thrown something to see what would happen? Or hold on to Chapel by the arms and carefully lower her down over the edge.
Just so many unnecessary risks taken again and again this entire episode.
I think the point of the invisible bridge was that you had to really believe it existed because only then you would later activate it.
But I agree: The whole logic of the place was a free pass for the writers to do what they wanted. So maybe it’s better not to look too close.
Also: Noone not even mentioning the weird background effects (they were obviously added in post so neither the writers nor the actors had the opportunity to really react to it) was big miss for me. It would have been the first thing I would try to scan with my boxy tricorder…
Annotations for 3x05 up at: startrek.website/post/27217291
Fellow Whovians may have noticed the pointed use “dancing”.
(also “exterminated” but well)
The effect on the screen at the end whispered "Borg" in my ears, am I the only one? Could this be an origin story for them?
The planet they were visiting was Vadia IX, which “Trelane” referred to as “the old homeworld” in episode two, so I’m thinking it’s an origin story for something else…
Do you think they are going for a Trelane version of the Pah-wraith? I like the episode overall but it did feel a little like the script came from a D&D session.
SpaceScotsman@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
The story is reminiscent of more classic trek - away mission, something goes wrong, and the crew have to fix it. There was a lot of classic science fantasy tropes in here - right from the start with the blood magic to open the prison up. When immortality was first mentioned, my immediate thought was that immortality would involve consciousness transfer into another being, and we kind of got that, but not from the immortal beings themselves and instead from others that snuck in through the gaps in between dimensions. I guess these creatures are some sort of lovecraftian indescribable horrors. Seeing how Pelia and Batel both reacted to them suggests there is some shared history amongst many of the species that now exist, and that they all know instinctively to fear them.
They killed off a named character (F for Gamble), which is surprising, but definitely raises the stakes for the rest of the show. I was really not expecting that, and getting such in your face gore (pardon the expression) was quite a lot to take in. The evil doesn’t really seem quite well contained in the pattern buffer, and I hope the crew notice this pretty quickly. If it’s messing with the computer system, if it can quantum phase itself around any barriers, it should be obvious fairly quickly something isn’t right. And the pattern buffer has shown that it can’t keep stuff stable forever without continually re-materialising it, which seems like a really bad idea, so that needs dealing with.
Amongst the characters, Spock really shines out here as the voice of reason. If they had listened to him in the first place this whole thing could have been avoided. While I get where the archaeologists amongst the team were coming from, they should have been overruled, and Spock’s only flaw here was not putting his foot down. As security, La’an should have pushed behind him on this, and chapel shouldn’t have let her desire to explore cloud her judgement.
On sets: Nothing beats a good quarry, love to see that. I really like the exterior and background visuals within the prison - reminds me of the videogame manifold garden (highly recommended if you like first person puzzlers). However, I did feel that the physicality of the room (or just floor) they were on made it very obvious it was a set. The background visuals felt detached from the area where the away team were standing and, backgrounds aside, was too bland for my liking. I think it is a pity we didn’t get to explore more because some parts, especially the exterior and the life form they found, had a really cool design.
The directing was good. It was tense, it captured the confusion in the prison well. The chaos on the ship was exciting and felt like there was a risk of real damage. My only major nitpick was it made it very obvious when the evil was first making it’s presence known. I don’t know if this was an attempt to capture the fact that the evil was there all along and it could choose when to appear, or if it was just trying to signal to the audience “hey, right now something’s not right”, but I would have preferred if it had been more subtle and let us try to figure out what was going on.
Great episode. With an episode like that I can see why they wanted to add some extra comedy ones around it, but I hope there are more like this. Though I could do without the eye gore, in future.