In Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (S4 – EP7) Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass

Synopsis: In ‘Like Chronitons Through The Hourglass’, a temporal anomaly traps the crew in a soap-opera reality as Pike confronts a life he lost.

The Story

Trelane returns to Strange New Worlds, and once again the writers try to avoid breaching Trek canon by not having him reveal his name. But surely Pike would have documented this encounter, as well as their earlier one, in the ship’s logs? You would think something about it would eventually be taught at Starfleet Academy. But that’s just me pondering a little grey area the writers don’t seem to have caught.

Suffice it to say, Trelane returns and, for a school project for the Q Continuum, has transformed the crew of the Enterprise into the cast of a human soap opera set aboard a starship. His aim is to study human emotions through the lens of this soap, which begins with Captain Pike waking up in sickbay following a shuttle accident. He is diagnosed with amnesia and told to speak to the ship’s psychiatrist. I didn’t think counsellors aboard starships were a thing until The Next Generation, but ho hum.

Meanwhile, there is a medical emergency because Spock needs a living-heart transplant. To that end, La’An—who gets more than a little hot and bothered in this episode—breaks Spock’s half-brother Sybok out of prison. Sybok, who is also played by Ethan Peck, is essentially a sexier version of Spock and catnip for La’An. Thankfully, it doesn’t actually go there, but it is heavily implied—and it isn’t remotely funny. In fact, it is more irritating than anything else.

There are shades of the Sybok we saw in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but by the time the episode gets around to them, they feel more like an afterthought. As if that weren’t crazy enough, we also get a storyline in which Uhura claims to be Captain Pike’s long-lost daughter, while Dr M’Benga—who has been considering leaving Starfleet—self-diagnoses with “space sickness.”

All these storylines within the soap-opera world Trelane has created reflect the emotional states and journeys of the characters. Uhura, having lost her parents when she was sixteen, is searching for a familial connection through Pike. M’Benga’s space sickness represents him wrestling with his decision over whether to leave Starfleet. La’An’s imagined version of Sybok—likely influenced by her mind melds with Spock—represents her coming to terms with the end of her relationship with him.

Pike finally recognises what is happening when his imagined daughter with Captain Marie Batel appears in place of Uhura, representing the life they might have had together. Once he understands the purpose behind the various illusions, Trelane’s soap opera comes to an end. Trelane receives a solid B+ from his Q Continuum teacher, who concedes that these humans require further study.

Acting

Anson Mount puts in a solid performance throughout the episode, showing us that Pike is aware something isn’t right from the moment he comes to in sickbay. But there is more to his performance than that. In the final quarter of the episode, we see Pike’s grief over the life he never got to live with Captain Batel.

Rhys Darby once again makes a fair go of playing Trelane, but doesn’t quite pull it off with the same sense of mirth as the late William Campbell.

Overall