Rob Reviews Star Trek Strange New Worlds, episode 4.6 Off Hour

Just from what I’ve seen on the previews, this episode looks to be a return to form for the Star Trek franchise, much to the delight of the critics of last week’s “level five transporter accident.”

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SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t watched Season 4, Episode 6 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds yet, turn back now! This review breaks down the entire episode – all of the high-stakes drama, the tension and the usual Star Trek technobabble, – major spoilers from start to finish.

The episode begins with the Alpha shift—the main cast members comprising the senior staff—looking forward to the weekend with less than one hour remaining on their shift.

M’Benga makes a Dr. Boyce reference, a callback to “The Cage”! Apparently, he’s transferring back to the Enterprise. It sounds like M’Benga is entertaining the possibility of leaving the Enterprise, thus setting the stage for TOS. He points out that Chapel has one foot out the door all the time, and he’s right: “Whenever things get real, she runs,” M’Benga insists.
The port galley on Pike’s Enterprise makes Ten Forward look like a nursery.
The ship hits what is ultimately explained as a slipstream wormhole.
It’s funny to hear Scotty try to speak with an American accent.
M’Benga looks to get cut in half by a table that pins into a wall. Maybe I’m a little too sensitive, but was anybody else getting Anton Yelchim vibes here?
This episode feels a little bit like the TNG episode “Disaster.”
It’s cool to see Ortegas take the big chair, even temporarily.
The episode uses a neat visual trick with split panels for two-way comms—reminiscent of Ang Lee’s Hulk movie and the old TV series 24—with dynamic screens sliding on and off to mimic a graphic novel and keep the momentum flying.
Things start crushing because the gravity plating on the ship is malfunctioning. Una gets a compound fracture fixing the gravity plating in the port galley.
Dr. Boyce, in the port galley, is ordering Chapel to leave Dr. M’Benga alone in sickbay, but she is refusing to go.
The constant referrals to the ship’s internal chronometer lean hard into that 24-style real-time ticking clock.
Chapel fills M’Benga in on his situation. Interestingly enough, through the “previously on…” segment, they showed him M’Benga’s daughter. I’m wondering if they’re going to use the transporter buffer to save M’Benga, as he did for his daughter .
Now they’ve got a new problem in sickbay: there’s a hull breach.
Chapel wants to use an experimental procedure that Joseph theorized about using the safest daughter.
Spock is going to take part in a spacewalk at warp speed. He’s going to try to collect a nutrio so that they can naturally heal M’Benga but also replace the deuterium so they can fuel the ship. This is Star Trek technobabble at its best.
Pike decides to jettison the ion pod, which presumably contains Spock. The pod seemingly explodes, but again, this is a prequel, so we know Spock will somehow survive.
La’An decides to leave the ship in an EVA suit to find Spock.
Wow, Scotty is in the Jefferies tube, and Pelia gives him a pep talk, giving birth to the expression “being a miracle worker.”
Chapel is going to try an extremely dangerous attempt to collect neutrinos and use them to stitch M’Benga back together. But sickbay seems to be losing power, all the bio-beds are nonfunctional, and they’re going to lose air.
La’An finds Spock inside the pod housing. He’s alive, but looks like he’s seriously injured.
Chapel appears to be jury-rigging a bio-bed.
La’An brings Spock back into the galley. That dated ship with the readings from the pod are damaged. They’re both suffering from radiation sickness, but Spock performs a mind meld with La’An.
Scotty starts reading the data from Spock in the pod. It appears the neutrino solution is going to work, but man, they are taking this right to the very last second.
I’m still waiting for Pike to say something like, “I’m not going to die because I’ve already seen my future.”
The Enterprise breaks out of the slipstream wormhole at the last possible second. The ship and to recover, and I slowly begins to return to normal.

My take

I mentioned earlier in this post that this episode is very derivative of TNG‘s “Disaster.” However, the stakes feel much, much higher than in that episode. Even though we know this is a prequel series and that characters like Spock and Scotty will survive to the TOS era, it had me right on the edge of my seat.

In fact, the sheer tension and claustrophobic panic of it all rivals season one’s “Memento Mori,” which stands as Strange New Worlds’ finest starship-versus-submarine battle. If the writers can get a hard-core fan like me—over 40 years and counting—to completely suspend disbelief and forget about the actual fate of these characters for a few breathless minutes, they’ve done their job remarkably well.

Between shaking off the lingering complaints from last week’s transporter mishap and delivering a masterclass in high-stakes pacing, this episode is a massive win for the fanbase. It is a very typical technobabble-heavy installment where the crew basically has to think their way out of a near catastrophe.

Highly recommended. In fact, I might go as far as to say that this is probably the best episode of season four thus far.

Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.

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