Phasers Set To Stun: Strange New Worlds S4. E10 | Tomorrow's Enterprise

0:01 Space, the final frontier. Join us for a bold conversation. Our prime directive, to recap our favorite Star Trek shows, both new and old. To engage in debate about all things Trek. Prepare to energize. Welcome back to a new episode of Phaser Set to Stun, where we continue to show our love for everything Star Trek in this ongoing series from a film by podcast, which focuses on every system of the expanding Star Trek universe by covering television, movies, animation, directors, merchandise, and much, much more. plotting your course on this voyage of the USS Enterprise as your core Trek crew. I'm Wayne Whited.

1:05 I'm David Burns. And I'm Scott Hoffman. And today we're talking about the season finale of the fourth season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds, titled Tomorrow's Enterprise, which was written by Henry Alonzo Myers and Robbie Thompson and directed by Chris Fisher. So from this point forward, it's red alert. There are spoilers ahead, and by now you should have went over to Paramount Plus and watched the episode. So sit back, relax, and have a listen to what we have to say about the episode itself. David, why don't you start with our short summary of the episode? The Enterprise encounters a white hole, an extraordinary, rare cosmic phenomenon. As the crew studies it, a sudden anomaly lashes out and strikes the ship, triggering a strange auditory signal that only a whore can perceive. When she decodes it, she discovers something impossible. The signal is coming from herself one year in the future. In that future, a second Enterprise is trapped on the edge of a black hole, the opposite end of the same cosmic event. The two Ahuras establish communication across time, each experiencing fragments of the other's reality.

2:09 President De Ahuras hears Scotty's death cry even though he is alive. Future Ahura remembers Scotty living despite her crew, insisting he died a year earlier. The contradiction reveals a fractured timeline. A temporal shock then switches the two of her placing the younger version aboard Kirk's future Enterprise and the older version aboard Pike's present one. This gives each woman first insight into what went wrong. Yeah, it was quite a season finale. At least I thought it was. I really enjoyed it. I got to admit, for a season finale, I thought it was great. It stood up to many of the other three that they've done over the years. But I think I think what I like most about this is how straightforward, character-driven Star Trek this really was. It works well. The show works well when you're doing episodes like this. I think the whole idea of Yohura communicating with your future self through that white hole, I thought that was a unique twist to the whole usual time travel stories that Star Trek's done.

3:13 We've had quite a few of them in the past. I want to mention Celia Rose Gooding. She did a fantastic job this episode playing two versions. That's got to be difficult to be playing two different versions of yourself, your character in the same episode. I thought it was a very clever episode, very unique twist, and very enjoyable season ending. What did you guys think? I mean, not only was she playing herself twice, which is, you're right, is a very difficult thing. but they were noticeable differences in her performance when she was playing her a year older self. And then her one year younger self, you really could see the difference.

3:56 And I'm not talking just the hairstyle, which finally looks like a whore is hairstyle, but you could just see the difference in her, the way she, her mannerisms, the way she was presenting herself, the way she was speaking to people. You could definitely see a year was sitting on her shoulders compared to her older self. So her performance in that stuff was incredible. Um, I loved the episode. I thought it was really well done as a season finale. No, I don't, I don't think this works as a season finale. In my opinion, this felt like a, an episode that you would find in the middle of the season or, you know. Three quarters of the way through a season. Um, now I did like, we get to see, obviously she gets to see, cause she's the only one that remembers, uh, by the end of this episode, uh, she knows Kirk's going to take over the enterprise, uh, She knows McCoy's coming because obviously you heard that conversation going on that they're talking about McCoy.

4:49 And then something's happened to Leon. We don't know. When she presented asking that question where you're like, Kirk wouldn't answer because of, I guess he obviously didn't want to tell her what had happened. So obviously we knew something bad was coming with. One of these characters. We've been fearing that. Now we've kind of got a little bit of confirmation on it, yeah. We did. But overall, I really liked the episode. You're right. Celia stole the show. Clearly it's going to be all of our favorites on this one because she. Actually stole the show, no matter which way you look at it. But I loved it. Scott, what about you? Yeah, I mean, I really enjoyed it. I agree with what you're feeling there about it not quite feeling like a season finale.

5:35 Mm-hmm. Um, although I wonder if that's kind of perfect for this season, kind of feeling like an in-between season, like it doesn't set up a big cliffhanger. It doesn't set up a big dramatic arc or anything else like that. It's just helping to kind of move some things forward. But there was part of me that kind of felt like, I don't know, it doesn't feel like the next to last season finale. That being said, I completely agree with what both of you are saying this, um, uh, Celia Rose Gooding did an amazing job as usual. as Uhura. I think I want to believe that the speech that she's having to herself at the end is in some way hopefully influenced by Nichelle having some feedback to Celia before she had passed away. I like to think that there's a little bit of any kind of passing the torch advice that Nichelle would have given to Celia it just felt like it could have been a speech that she would have written to her. I also feel like maybe it's a little bit of her kind of giving confidence to herself to say, like, you have brought this character to where it needs to be. You've done it justice.

6:50 And I appreciated that. I think the temporal mechanics of this one are fascinating. Because I'm trying to pick apart which things we could possibly rely on as truth for what it's predicting for the future right because part of me is kind of thinking well before they went on the shuttle Scotty and Captain Artagus and Uhura that everything up to then could still be seen as true timeline before anything got disrupted or whatever so for example like McCoy being part of the bridge crew next year but they don't say anything about La'an before that um And I know that there was something mentioned about how some of the things were a little messed up with the time, like Uhura then calling Pike Admiral Pike.

7:43 Yeah, that confused me. As if he hadn't had it. So I kind of feel like after the shuttle accident, things had skewed slightly. So it's wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff I'm not going to get into. But it is interesting how many kind of pseudo-teasers they had. I missed being on the last... episode. But just one thing that I was thinking of after watching this episode and hearing you two talk about it, Laan's dog I think is going to have some kind of emotional tether to her. She's come to terms with Laan, she's softened a bit, and now she has something that's going to miss her regardless if she's gone, if she leaves her behind.

8:27 And I think by exploring this episode, leaning so much into time travel and temporal whatchamacallits, it's entirely possible that La'an might be, I don't know if it's necessarily lost in time, or just heavily involved with that aspect of Starfleet, where she basically has to go away, and possibly leaving that dog behind. It just seems like there are so many little seeds that they're dropping in this, that I would be very surprised if there's not something about time travel that doesn't come up next season. Oh, yeah. Most likely Star Trek. Time travel always comes up with Star Trek. Time travel in a cave.

9:09 It's kind of funny how amusing it was that, like, Kirk was able to give her feedback on time travel. Pike was able to give her feedback on time travel. And Leon was available to give her feedback on time travel. Right. You know, one of the things that I was laughing to myself as I was watching this episode, until she finally got to this point in the story. As big as, like, just tell the damn truth of what's going on. Mm-hmm. You would get to the bottom and solve things so much faster. They're going to believe you. They will believe you, I promise. Why are you hiding the fact that. You went through the time or whatever it is? Just talk about it. Be open and honest. You will figure it out.

9:52 Instead of this Three's Company approach. It's almost like they need Mr. Roper to be part of the temporal investigations. Yeah. Because when she did finally tell the truth, well, it was uncovered, it all worked out. Kirk worked with her. Pipe worked with her. It's like, just come on, talk to your family, figure this out, quit hiding it. It would have made things a lot simpler, wouldn't it? Yes. Yeah. But, you know, the cinematography in this was incredible for one, the editing. It was. When the future of horror and the past of horror were like, you saw them on split screen and stuff. Oh, that was great. And they like. Dissolved into one another as one person. That was incredible editing and cinematography. So hats off to them for that stuff.

10:38 Yeah. Yeah. I got the impression that, you know, once everything after the accident is just a possible future that we, you know, we may have been thrown. Given a little bit of a side thing, none of this is what we think may really be happening because history has been changed or the future has been changed, so who knows what's really going to happen. I was very confused about some of the time travel. I suppose I will admit that. First of all, I love the little look of the Enterprise and seeing Kirk as the Enterprise, especially now since it's pretty obvious we're not going to be getting Star Trek Year One. Um, so it's kind of a, kind of a glimpse of, of what could have been kind of sad actually, because it looks like it might've been a really, really good series. Cause it was neat seeing, you know, Kirk in that chair and the familiar uniforms and, and everything that, you know, the hairstyles and it, it just, it was more than just like fan service. It really, it, it worked for me and I, I'd love to have sold a series with all them, but unfortunately we're not going to get it. And we, we, come to to understand we're not going to get that but here we are at least we got to see a little bit of.

11:51 It's heartbreaking because that show could go so far without touching og episodes you know it really could yeah and i mean you could even you could even do some fan service with it with you know not redoing the original episodes but at least touching on some of the stories of characters mentioning things that were happening that we know from the original thing so I mean, it's almost like printing money. I don't know why. I mean, I do know why. I get it. It's under new ownership. They want to go a different route, blah, blah, blah. But I mean, this is what a lot of. The fans want. This thing that they keep driving, that we need to change it, that we need to go.

12:34 A different way. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. You can still go a different way, yet give the fans what they want. It would work. You can still do your thing and still give us this series. You know, just like Star Trek Legacy is another one that we're not going to get. But, you know, we could have that. It could be done. But I don't know. None of us know exactly what the heads of Paramount are really thinking, what's going on right now for the future of Star Trek. So who knows? It's sad. But, you know, maybe they'll give us something even better that we hadn't even thought of. I don't know. I mean, I feel like it's interesting, like Dave, when you mentioned that you know, they could continue without even touching the OG. It's like a Lego narrative.

13:18 Right? Like, there's plenty of spaces in between to fill in. Easy. There is. And then when you get that, you've got something even bigger. Because you're talking about the missions in between the ones we've already seen. Exactly! And, or, you could give us some classic stories from somebody else's perspective. Like, it's limitless what they could do. They clearly have a lot of dedicated talent that has a lot of passion for this and a lot of people that are connected to it waiting in the wings like Jack Quaid, like Tawny Newsome that could do amazing things for this. And I think we're just going to be in a firefly situation where it's like, you know, this was amazing. We know it's amazing. Why doesn't it continue?

14:00 I don't know. Somebody didn't want to do it. And then everybody clamors for it to come back. I hope that's a situation we get and I think I hope that the talent that's around would be willing to come back if they did it. I highly doubt it. I feel like we have to visit the alternate reality video store to get what we want. Yeah. But here we are. And it's terrible because I know the actors would continue on. Oh, you know they would. Yeah. I know Wesley would love to play Kirk, continue to play Kirk, as the actual Kirk that we. Know, you know, in that chair and running the ship. And, you know, everybody else who goes with the OG, with the addition of McCoy and the addition of Sulu eventually, and Chekhov eventually, you know, those would be new casting.

14:42 But, I mean, that would be easy to incorporate into this series. But the people who are already established, you know, you know they would jump at new contracts to make sure that they're going to continue their story. Without question. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's really sad. I do love the fact that they were able to bridge in Boyce being on the ship. Yeah. That was cool. I feel so bad for him. I do, too. Standing there on the bridge, and it's like, hi, everybody. And it's like, Oh, sorry, buddy. Oh, does he know? I mean, he's a little bit of a jerk, but.... I mean, he wasn't as much as a jerk in this episode. No, he didn't have a chance to be. Well, right, he didn't, but... But it was neat to see him in that role, I guess, for a little bit, since we know he was there. So, I don't know.

15:28 I did like that stuff. Yeah. I wish we got more of it, which I know we're going to get a little bit more of that when. We get to the end of the next season. But it won't be enough. You know, we're going to be left with this. Oh, man, I want more. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think another thing that stood out to me is how much they're like knowing Celia's background with musical theater and stage performance and music in general, that they're making that such a part of Ohara's character. Oh, yeah. I think that's absolutely brilliant. You know, and you have to say somewhere Nichelle is looking down and just smiling at what she has done with this character. I agree. Yes.

16:08 You know, getting to see her in that new haircut that we remember from the original. Show just felt so right. It did. It felt like we're seeing old friends again, finally. Even though we've seen them, I know, over the last few years. But getting to see them in those positions with the correct hair designs and... And that establishment that we've grown up with, the reruns, of course, because we're not that old, but you know what I mean. It felt comfortable. And I tell you, when I saw her with that haircut, I had the biggest damn grin on my face because it felt like the OG again.

16:49 We knew it was coming. We just didn't expect it this soon. It just felt so good. Yeah, the hair and the costumes. Yeah, it felt right. It felt like that's what she should be wearing. You know, she she's done so her and the writers. I got to get the writers credit, obviously done so well to to not only honor the character of your her and Michelle Nichols, but to expand so much. You know, honestly, your her was no more than a secondary character in the first in the original series. She really was. She's one of those characters that never really got the time that she deserved. And now. We're getting it here. I wish we could get a lot more, but what we've got has been fantastic. And the writers have done a fantastic job of writing. Celia has done a phenomenal job honoring that part. And I'm so glad that this series was made and that she played the part and that we got to experience that.

17:45 You know, I think the writers have even recognized that, that Ahura didn't get the screen time that she deserved from the original. So they are purposely making sure that she is getting the front and center stories that she's always deserved. Well, I'm glad they did. I mean, I love the character. Even the little bits that we got. I mean, one of my favorite scenes of Yohura is... Remember the scene in Star Trek III where she holds the transporter guy by phaser? I love that. Love that. And that. The Yohura that we have here feels more like that Yohura. It does. It fits. It does. And. You know, I love that. I'm glad we're getting more of that with this series.

18:27 And Wayne. Go ahead, Scott. No, you go. No, I was going to say, and I've recognized that people are kind of throwing a fit about this relationship between Uhura and Scotty. But hello, was it Star Trek 5? It fits. Because it shows her giving that, you know, you could tell in that one scene that they are kind of flirting with one another, that they had some kind of history with one another. So back off, people who are saying that. It fits. Yeah, we noticed it back in 89 when that first came out. We noticed that and we liked it. So nothing wrong there. And when they were in the turbo lift, they were kind of making it so that they were kind of like, you know, keeping it kind of on the down low, right?

19:10 So it fits. They could have had a relationship that nobody was necessarily privy to, but everybody was like, well, we're not going to say anything because they're trying to keep it casual and respect it. I think it totally fits. I love that aspect of it. Oh, man. Oh, there was something I was going to say. Sorry, we're off track. No, no, no, not at all. Ah, forget it. I'm sure it was a good point. It's totally fine. But no, I think everybody did an amazing job here, and I'm just very happy with it. Another thing that I liked that they established a few episodes ago when Ahura thought she was Pike's daughter, remember?

19:54 In that episode. I feel like they have continued that a little bit. Remember, he kind of decided at the end of that he was going to take her under his wing and just not call him her daughter. Because in this episode, you could really feel that relationship is just growing and building between Pike and Uhura. You know, when they had that conversation that when he was at the end of the hallway and watching the future Uhura, you know, talking to Scotty and basically hanging on to him, showing that relationship, even though they really didn't have one, Pike recognized that. And that's when he finally, he approached her about it. But I love that dialogue between the two of them and that, how that is working out. He still sees himself as that fatherly figure, even though he's not.

20:38 You know, but it's a great expansion to that character. I mean, you know, with her and Kirk, it's always been more of a Captain Lieutenant's colleague thing. But with her and Pike and, you know, we never even thought it up to this series. We never really considered or even knew that she had a history with Pike. But now he's more of a mentor and a father figure. And I really like that you get the idea that she she learns a lot. of, of how she is and how she, she deals with herself from Pike. And I love that idea. Yeah. When, when she said that, you know, everything she learned was from him is because of him. And when they were basically leaving, you know, when he's saying it was an, it was an honor, my friend do that, all that dialogue or that, that relationship between the two of them was just fantastic.

21:19 It's probably part of my favorite of that episode. Mine too. It's, it enriches the character so much more. It gives so much nice background for, forth that, that I just, I love that part that they've added. I mean, I think, and it finally occurred to me what I was going to say, and it fits really well with what you were just saying. Um, Pike's, I think there's a lot of what Pike is able to teach her in terms of, um, strategic diplomacy, knowing when to use diplomacy. Right. And Wayne, I love the, the scene that you mentioned because I, anytime that comes in my feed, I watch it all the way through. but just thinking about the fact that she says oh don't worry I'm going to have Mr. Excitement eating out of the palm of my hand even though she forces him into a closet at gunpoint because we're seeing this Ahura able to navigate interpersonal relationships in this way not just communications she knows how to read people talk to people connect with people in a certain way sometimes strategically to get what she needs or to get certain things done or accomplish part of a mission and in other cases, a lot of cases, helping to move relationships forward for the betterment of the crew and weave the crew all together. So when we see aspects of that of her start to also grow here, I just love it. Especially the fact that she's getting better at poker.

22:39 That was kind of a nice touch. We need to see those games in the next season. It does worry me, though, her relationship with Pike being so deep That we know where his history is going. We know what's going to happen next season. And it's going to be gut-wrenching, I think, for her. Probably for us. I'm really looking... Well, actually, I should say, I'm not really sure if I'm looking forward to that episode. Because that's going to be one heck of an emotional episode, in my opinion. It is. Gosh. Wow. And I also wonder if, like something I've been wrestling with since seeing this, I wonder when we might see Pike depart. And I wonder if they would say he needs to stay all the way through the season, the series finale, or if maybe Pike departs before that.

23:31 It would be the last episode. Yeah, that's what I was assuming, the last episode. That's when we're going to see McCoy is the last episode, I guarantee it. I don't know, it's interesting because before the White Hole, Black Hole event kind of tied things together, they mentioned... Bones occasionally being there. Mbenga occasionally being there. So it almost felt like if that was like the true line that didn't diverge, then we'll see bones possibly have. I don't know. It's weird. Timey wimey. It is. I think it is. All right. And so we don't get caught in our own temporal anomaly. We're going to take a short break and then we'll be back to continue our discussion. And we're back on the bridge and ready to continue talking about this week's episode. Now that we've given our thoughts and opinions, let's take a look at the characters themselves.

24:26 Which character do you think shines the most this week, David? Well, I think we're probably all going to pick the same person here, but what, what makes, so I'm going to talk about that final moment. So that is, it's so beautiful and how intimate it is. Star Trek has done those time twisty doubles before, you know, kind of what you're talking about, Scott, But this isn't a paradox or a gimmick. It's a conversation between who she is, and that's Ahura, and who she's fighting to become. Present day Ahura is still carrying that doubt, that trauma, and the weight of being the one. Who listens to the universe. Future Ahura has already walked through that fire and come out steadier, stronger, and more self-assured. So when she tells herself, you're doing great, don't stop growing, It's almost like it's a mentor's blessing, you know, that friend reassurance and that personal victory. You know, it's the kind of scene that feels like it's speaking directly to the audience too, right?

25:29 A reminder that growth isn't loud or flashy. You know, you need someone who understands you completely to say keep going. Who doesn't need that, right? And honestly, it's one of the most heartfelt horror moments the franchise has ever given us. You know, it honors her legacy. While showing how much she still has ahead of her. I think that was the most beautiful moment, and I mentioned earlier that Nichelle has to be looking down and smiling, because in that ending scene, that was a horror, and she was without any question the character that shined the most in this episode. Yeah. Scott, what about you? That's nice and everything, but Dr. Boyce.

26:12 What? No. No, beautifully said, Dave. I cannot hope that that was perfect and I cannot hope to top it. I totally agree with everything you said. Beautifully said. I feel like the only thing that I would add to it is, and I love the fact that you're talking about that final speech and just kind of going back to what I said before, it felt like the spirit of Nichelle saying like, you have the blessing to keep moving forward. It also kind of reminds me of uh, when Christopher Eccleston was wrapping up Dr. Who and he has that moment with Rose where he says, you were fantastic. And you know what? So was I. Um, I wonder if there's a little bit of a, you know, um, the, the writers and the entire kind of production saying, we know this is coming to a close. We have done an amazing thing here. It could be beautiful. It still has a potential to be so. Um, But what we're doing here has really had a tremendous impact on the franchise.

27:20 I truly believe it has. It has. And I think it's a shame that it won't move forward, but I'm not going to give up on hope that it never will. So, yeah, I totally agree. It steals the show. Wayne, what about you? Oh, it's unanimous. You know, Yohura is easily the character that shines the most here. I mean, I'm basically going to repeat the things both of you guys said, because... You're absolutely 100% right. Celia Rose Gooden, she got a really good opportunity here playing Yohura at the two completely different points in her life. You can see the difference between the two, how much that character's grown. I especially like watching the younger Yohura interact with her future self.

28:06 A lot of nice contrast between the uncertain officer that we've followed over the last four years and then that confidence Starfleet officer that we get to know from the original series. It made the whole thing feel less like a gimmicky time travel episode and really more of a glimpse, a character profile, a glimpse into that person and the potential that she's got to be a lot more emotional depth than I was expecting to be given for this character. And it just made the whole episode so wonderful to watch. So, yeah, I mean, it was easy to choose our The one who shined the most here. All right. Well, if you had any choice to be any character that appeared in this episode, which one would it be and why? Scott, you begin this one.

28:53 Yeah. Again, Dr. Boyce. You know, I several reasons I'd want to be Captain Ortegas, which I loved seeing Captain Ortegas for like no notes. totally perfect lines and delivery. I love seeing where she is. I love seeing how she is, like the new hairstyle. I'm totally on board with it. Even though I love the current look, I'm totally into that. And then the jacket that she was wearing was totally giving me Wrath of Khan style vibes. And the fact that she's a teacher, the fact that she had the chance to be like you know this amazing I forget what they had said like she had the chance to do something else but she chose to teach and she's a captain and she's best pilot in Starfleet and that she's still around yeah I'm so afraid of that wall in Starfleet Academy being a you know accurate prediction of the future So I really hope if there's any, if that was a variance and it's not true timeline, that's a piece they could keep. Yes. Please let Ortega's live and be as cool as she always has been.

30:12 Amen. Dave, what about you? I'm going to go with Spock on this one because, well, he's pretty much oblivious to what is going on. Yeah. And that is exactly where I would want to be, except for hearing the words space baby. Yeah. I don't know how I'd react to it. Probably like Spock reacted to it. But, you know, but yeah, it would be Spock. Wayne, what about you? Well, I think I'll go with Captain Kirk. I mean, you know, how could I pass up being Kirk on the Enterprise? Right here at the edge of becoming what we know of in the original series here. You know, you got all that excitement. It looked like a great adventure that he was on. The strange time travel mystery. And, of course, the crew that he gets to work with.

31:01 It's just absolutely fantastic. I want to sit right there in that captain's chair and be Kirk because it's just too much fun. To pass up. I love that we each picked a different person for that. That's true. I'm surprised that nobody picked the hot guy in the background in that one scene. Oh, yeah. But I'm sure it's going to come up in Easter eggs. Of course it is. Oh, yeah. There's quite a few of them in this scene. in this episode. So why don't we just go ahead and dive deep and then see what we got. Uh, what do you guys have first? I just picked up on the Lieutenant with MRS and Ali calm from the animated series. Uh, I thought that was really well done. Uh, I, I was even shocked to see it. I'm like, Whoa, are they really doing this? And they did.

31:44 I thought that was so cool. Oh, I am so happy that we could, we finally, after all these years got to see her live action. Yeah. Great, great little, little, that was a fantastic Easter egg. Yeah, absolutely. And then of course, you know, getting to hear about Dr. McCoy, even though we don't see Dr. McCoy, you, you hear it in the dialogue. I thought that was cool. The whole setup they're doing, obviously this is a year later, so they have to kind of set a lot of this stuff up. So we're getting to see some of that stuff that's bridging the gap that we know is coming next season. Dr. Boyce, we talked about him getting to see him in that role, what little bit he has, but it's still nice. To get to see that. I believe, didn't they mention that Bingo was spending more time on Vulcan?

32:24 Yes. I believe it was. It may transfer there permanently, I think, if I remember hearing that correctly. And then, of course, the weekly poker game, which we kind of touched base on that. You know, Star Trek has a history that obviously the next generation did that a lot. Oh, yeah. With the poker game. So I thought that was pretty neat. But that's all the ones I found. I'm sure there's a lot more. Did you see any, Scott? Oh, just the animated characters. I couldn't think of anything else. Those are the biggest ones. Yeah. Yeah. Well, obviously, another big Easter egg was the scenes on the Future Enterprise. So, you know, both you and Chapel were wearing uniforms very similar to what they wore in the original series and had very similar hairstyles. So let me start off here, like talking about time. It is a time travel episode, but talking about the time frame.

33:13 All right. It was stated in this episode that the future scenes take place in 2263. This means that Kirk takes command of the U.S. Enterprise two years before his historic five-year mission that the original series takes place in, which that was established in the Star Trek Voyager episode Q2 that it had begun in 2265. That also matches the beginning date that was given in the reference book, Star Trek 2263, chronology, which is a phenomenal book when you're trying to figure things out. I use that a lot when it comes to these Easter eggs. But I'm assuming that means that when Pike has this accident that cripples him, that Kirk is immediately placed in command of the ship to replace him. Now, that's new information. We didn't know that. I always thought there would be some sort of gap in between, but apparently there's not much time for it, so it must have happened immediately afterwards. Now, Captain Kirk references Gary Mitchell, his original first officer before Spock took over that role. But this, I did not know, it was revealed that he's the stepbrother of Jenna Mitchell, and that's a character that we've seen on and off ever since the first season of this series. I spotted some Tucker tubes in the science lab. We've seen those blinky lights with those tubes in practically every Star Trek series, all the way back to Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan. And they are named after the Enterprise's Trip Tucker that was given in the Lower Decks episode, I

34:43 Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee. And as you mentioned, David, it's that Dr. Mbinga is spending time on Vulcan. It was stated in the original episode, A Private Little War, that Mbinga did internship on Vulcan, so that fits perfectly. Now, Chappell states that she dated a woman who claims to work for the Department of Temporal Investigations. Well, you know, Check out Deep Space Nine and Enterprise if you want to learn more about them. She also mentions that she still intends to marry Dr. Roger Corby. I found this reference a little odd because according to the original series episode, What Are Little Girls Made Of?, she hasn't heard from him in five years. That means that when Chappell says that in this episode... She hasn't heard anything from him for nearly two years. So I guess she's really holding on to that hope. Now, we did see quite a few alien species appear in this episode. Many of them, as we mentioned, first time in live action. I did see a bullion, which is very familiar from The Next Generation.

35:48 I saw an anixer, which I don't think I've ever seen them since the original series. There were two tellarites. You had that birdlight allurian. You saw the reptilian sword. Both of those were from the original series. And of course, the most important of all was Lieutenant Merez's first live action appearance. She was the main character during the Star Trek animated series. She was the Enterprise's operations divisions officer. Great to see her. I hope it's not the only time we see her. We'll see her a little bit next year, hopefully. And then finally, now this is mostly guesswork from me, and it's not actually confirmed in the episode or anything, but Those beings that the Enterprise are helping deliver the baby, the midwives and stuff, they sound a lot like the wormhole prophets from Deep Space Nine.

36:36 A lot. Oh, they do. So, you know, I don't know. Take it as you will. Maybe, maybe not. But that's what I'm thinking. I mean, it's an interesting theory. Like, if the birthplace is a point, is between two points, right? Like the... The ends of the black hole and the white hole being interesting. I hadn't thought of that before. If you also remember, too, there was an episode of The Next Generation. I think it was called Timescape. Timescape, yeah. Where we had some weird beings, non-corporeal beings that were giving birth in that. The only reason I lean towards the prophets is because they mention that it's non-linear. And that was a major point. part of the profits is that they were not. That's why I'm leaning more towards them than those aliens from Timescape.

37:31 That's digging deep. Yeah. All right. Now that the season has been closed out, I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on the season in whole. What was your favorite episode? What was your least favorite? And how would you rank this season compared to the other three? David, what's your opinions? So I know we've discussed a lot of the gimmick episodes that I wasn't. A huge fan of. that we were all over the map, it felt like, in this season. I don't say this is my favorite season whatsoever. I mean, they've had a few good episodes here and there. I like that we've established and moved the characters a little bit further than what we have. Beyond that, my favorite episode? I don't know, to be honest with you. I really like this last part of the horror because of the character development and the power of the way that ended. So I'll probably just go with this one, to be honest with you, as being one of my favorites.

38:29 Yeah. Scott, what about you? That is a great question. I know, right? I kind of want to go with Orders of Magnitude. Your best one? Your favorite? Yeah, I don't know. I just like the dramatic tension in that one. I just... I feel like that's going to be one that I just go back to on a regular basis now that there aren't others that weren't that. Um, and I know it's been kind of a, you know, a little bit of a, there's a lot of experimenting they've been doing with this one. Um, uh, I would say of all the experimenting ones that they've done, I would probably want to go with, um, once a lot on a time. Really? Jeff is going to say of all of them, but, As far as the ones where they did experiments, so like the black and white episode and the puppet episode and the soap opera episode, I don't know. It was just a lot of fun.

39:28 The puppets were fun. Though. You know, they were like, there's a lot of fun in a lot of them. Yeah. But just the comic relief that they had in that with them realizing that they're puppets and they had to like act like puppets in order. To get what they needed. I thought that was a blast to see, especially with them attacking on the bridge towards the end. I thought that was hysterical. And them floating in space before they became human again. Yeah, especially the Pellia. Yes, yeah. What about you, Wayne? That's one of my favorite episodes, but I don't choose it as my top favorite because it was a fun episode. But I agree with you, Scott. I think Orders of Magnitude probably is my favorite episode of the season. I just thought because it advanced the plot so much. this season that I just, I was glued to that for the whole time, but I'll tell you what my least favorite one and human's best friend. I did not find that funny at all. Um, I just found it incredibly annoying with all the, the, the drunk people running around. I, uh, yeah, I mean, it had, it wasn't the worst. It wasn't a terrible episode.

40:29 It just, I just, it found it too hard. It was trying to be funny too hard and I just didn't care much for it. But, uh, as for the whole season, I, I enjoyed this season in most part. I don't think it's one of their strongest ones. I actually still stand. I think their second season was probably their strongest so far. But there were some really good episodes this season. I'm glad that they did do some experimenting because they did have some good stuff coming out of it. I kind of wonder, like, what would the Frog Brothers recommend from The Lost Boys? What's the episode in this where it's like, hey man, watch this. If somebody is going to be sampling Star Trek, I feel like for this season it's probably orders of magnitude to say if you have any connection with the original and you're trying to see how is future Trek holding up, that feels like one of the great representations of how they can handle trauma.

41:27 Between that and this episode here, this finale, I think if you're going to if you were going to show someone that doesn't know much about Star Trek or is trying to, you know, had only watched the original or, you know, those are probably the two best episodes to show someone to, to point out and say, Hey, these are, you know, you want to watch these. Hey man, watch this. Yeah. And that's it for this week's episode of phaser set to stun, as well as the fourth season of Star Trek, strange new worlds. We'd like to open a channel to our listeners and hear just what you thought about the most recent episode and the season in general. You can email us at afilmbypodcast at gmail.com. Find us online at afilmbypodcast.com.

42:09 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and X. And if you're looking for more content, you can join our Patreon and find out what exclusive gems are hidden within. And also remember, you can find all of Afilmby's library, including Phaser Set to Stun episodes, on YouTube. So please check that out as well. A big, big thank you for my fellow Trekkers, David and Scott, for joining me and you listeners again today. for this trip into the 23rd century. Great time as always. Yeah, likewise. Thanks for taking the help. Now, there are only six more episodes left for Strange New Worlds, and we'll be back to talk about them next year when the fifth and final season begins to air. In the meantime, we're going back to the 1960s to continue our discussion on the original series episodes by episode as part of the 60th anniversary celebration. We've covered the two pilots and the first nine episodes of the first season of And next, we're talking about the two-parter, The Menagerie, along with episode 12, The Conscious of the King. So we'll be back in a couple of weeks, rested and ready to bring you more Trek Talk in the next episode of Phasers Set to Stun.