1y ago

Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x04 "Among the Lotus Eaters"

Written by Kirsten Beyer & Davy Perez

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez

163 comments

Nothing to add pertaining to this last FANTASTIC episode; I really just wanted to say I appreciate everyone posting here. After Reddit, I thought these kind of threads were done for, but here we are. So even if no one reads this, thank you and much love 🙏
- We are reading this and I totally agree.

Annotations up at https://startrek.website/post/282663.
This was a very TOS episode yet in terms of feel.
The dialogue could easily have come from the mouths of the TOS cast, and the situation on the planet reminiscent of officers violating the Prime Directive like in TOS: “The Omega Glory” or “Bread and Circuses”. Even Mount's delivery when on the planet was Shatner-esque.
I can readily imagine Kirk, McCoy and a random redshirt or Chekov on the planet in Pike, M’Benga and La’An’s place, and Sulu pulling it together like Ortegas.
- I agree that it has a genuine TOS feel.
  Especially as it gets back to the mid 20th century thought experiments around how the mind functions, but informed my more current understanding of memory, cognitive function and emotion.
  I wasn’t quite sure the balance of the scenes was what it could have been, but it was good to see all of the main cast having their moments. I was nonetheless frustrated that Number One was quickly sidelined once again.
  Also I was uncomfortable with how far Pike was willing to go in his aggression in order to get information from Zack. I believe we’re supposed to feel that, but it did feel that it was pushed just that moment longer to drive home the point that Pike’s deep ethics are what keeps him in check, not his emotions. It also tracks with his anger and how he even used it to break the thrall of the Talosians in The Cage.
  But overall, I liked it. It’s a deeper and more challenging episode than it may seem on the surface, first watch. I suspect it will be one that stands up over a longer horizon.
  
  I felt like they were trying to show Captain Pike as going a little far when beating up Zac, but I thought he was being totally reasonable given the situation of "this guy knows how to keep your memories and you really really need to force him to hand that information over." There was no way for him to know all he had to do was wait around in the palace for a little while.
- hmm. This makes me wonder. Is there a way to link to a specific message thread, that is universal across instances?
  If not, it seems like it's a feature that is sorely needed.
- Yeah theres a sort of goofy way memory loss works and how it was still taken very seriously gave me a good old school trek vibe which I dug throughout the episode.

Wow, these SNW writers really bring it each week, don't they? Not to say every episode is perfect but I've found every single one to be very entertaining and exactly what I want out of Star Trek in 2023. The combination of standalone stories mixed with underlying character development and arcs is perfect.
As for this week, the idea of encountering a planet that could make you forget everything was weirdly creepy, if not a bit implausible. Even if this wasn't her showcase episode, I grinned at Ortega's "I AM THE PILOT!" moment. Also enjoyed the away team being out of sorts on the planet which I thought was well done and not an action overdose like the season opener.
- Wow, these SNW writers really bring it each week, don't they?
  Don't they just! Genuinely excited whenever I fire up the episodes and watch the intro everytime (love the intro music!)
  
  I know the feeling! SNW's theme and opening credits definitely bring back memories of eagerly looking forward to TNG every week. It's easily my favorite Trek theme since TNG.
- SNW really is a masterclass in balancing episodic and narrative storytelling.
  I'd love to attend a workshop/lecture with Goldsman, Myers, et al.

Memory loss is one of the scariest things in the known universe. This is a horror episode to me.
- Similar to how we refer to TOS episodes as "The Nazi Planet" and "The Gangster Planet" this one will be "The Alzheimer's Planet."

Was the high pitched ringing sound really necessary, especially for that long each time? That almost physically hurt and it scared the fsck out of my cat.
- @BorgDrone @ValueSubtracted As a person with tinnitus, it seemed important to me. Let me know exactly what was going on. It's also very common in video games, for example when someone is dazed by a nearby explosion. Again it conveyed a lot of meaning to me and helped explain what they were going through.
  
  Sure, but there is a difference between having that sound at low volume for 2 seconds and blasting it through all 10 speakers for 20.
- Haha I kept worrying that my cats and baby would be disturbed by it but fortunately they didn't seem to react much.
- Yeah. I watched with a loved one who needs hearing aids, and I can vouch that that exact pitch plays havoc with high-tech hearing aids and apparently results in actual physical pain. We finished the episode with the sound way down, reading the captions to understand it. It’s fine for 99% of people but I would have appreciated a warning for the 1% that experienced actual pain from that.

Definitely felt like classic trek this week. Fun episode. I was really hoping we would get a more in depth episode for Ortegas' character. I did read something last year that she was getting her own episode, so im going to assume this wasn't it.
- I did let out a big guffaw when I realized their bait and switch. Started it out like it was going to be an Ortegas focused episode, and then Spock comes in and pops hers and everyone else's bubble with his Vulcan science. Loved how she put the hat back on as she was walking away, as if to say "I'm gonna wear this for a while longer because I can, dammit."
- @ieightpi
  She didn't get her own episode but at least a cool hat.😉
  @ValueSubtracted

Thoughts as I watch:
So, I'm wondering: is Cayuga a reference to Rod Serling? He named his production company that in reference to the lake in New York.
Relationships suck when you are a Starfleet captain who knows your destiny to one day be in a beepie chair.
Rigel 7, a deep cut!
We have gone (ZERO) days without some sort of Starfleet prime directive problem.
Finally, some Ortegas action!
"THE HAT IS SUPREME." I'm going to have to use that in conversation.
Oh man, at least she keeps the hat.
"Subdermal universal translators" are the new translation microbes
Oh boy, they have starfleet tech.
Ah, we've got a good old-fashioned "Federation citizen takes over a world" episode!
"This is a cage." Heh.
Forgetting is a scary side effect for a planet.
I get that they were only on there for like four hours, but shouldn't they have noticed stuff like this their last visit? Or maybe... THEY LOST
"Welcome to Memento/50 First Dates Planet"
Can still remember how to fight!
So I'm guessing Spock is probably one of the more resistant to all of this due to his Vulcan-ness.
Man, La'An is having a REALLY bad pair of weeks.
Captain Pike even without his memories is still Captain Pike. Makes sense.
Okay, I guess Spock isn't immune.
Glad to see the Connie class had GPS.
I gotta admit, I feel like Pelia would be good in this episode given just how many memories she has to lose and how many skills she has.
SHE FLIES THE SHIP
The ship's computer is great this week.
Damn, that is some tough silverware, standing up to phaser blasts.
Is it just me or is that a fresco or whatever of Alexander the Great... Zac-ized?
Okay, that logic doesn't quite seem sound, but whatever.
So, uhm, be careful about telling her about the Beepy-chair, Chris.
- “This is a cage.” Heh.
  I hope that one day Captain Pike visits a zoo and says "this is a menagerie".
- I thought it was Cuyahoga? correct me if i'm wrong pls
  
  It’s Cayuga, as per the closed captioning, and it’s likely no coincidence. As I noted in my annotations, the Cayuga first appeared in “A Quality of Mercy”, which shares a title with a 1961 Twilight Zone episode starring Leonard Nimoy. And TZ was produced by Serling’s production company, Cayuga Productions.
- The platter cracked me up.
  Ensign — “captain…sir…this directive says all away teams will be issued a Pfaltzgraff serving set for protection?”
  Pike — “trust me on that one.”

Ok, at the risk of sounding like a filthy casual, it's only now when I'm digging into Memory Alpha that I realized we're finally getting visualization of what Pike was so miserable about in TOS the Cage. I was like, why does Rigel VII sound so familiar...
This is the kind of retcon I live for!!
- I've been watching Trek since I was basically a baby but don't have anywhere near the depth of knowledge of most people posting here. We are still valid!
- I like that the original away mission failing wasn't some weird magical thing - it was just a mission that went bad in a fairly mundane way.

This episode should have started in media res, with the away team already on planet and having lost their memories. Once we got the explainer as to what was happening, then we could return to the Enterprise to show the growing crisis there, and finally wrap everything up as the episode already did.
- No.... I juste have a hate for most of the Trek episodes starting with a catastrophic situation and a blackout with a "XX hours ago..." captions...
  Top easy writing.... At least, they build the tension here
  
  I couldn't agree more. It feels like lazy storytelling, and I actually appreciated this episode for not resorting to that kind of fakery. It's setup was strong enough to be its own thing. I respect that a lot.
- Yeah, the more I think about it, I think you're right. It's possible they didn't because they wanted to bookend it with stuff about the pilot.
  The episode as well was a decent one-episode-and-done thing, with a few threads they left open to explore later. But I agree that if they'd begun with the memory loss and cages, and worked backwards from there, it would have been "cooler" and more emotionally effective.
  The episode wasn't a bad one. It wasn't a great one. It was solid. Given how many fans have said they want Trek like this, it's probably serviceable and "good enough" for the season.
  I'm looking forward to some cooler episodes, though. The first 3 spoiled me, I liked them a lot.

Really enjoyed this episode, it didn't make the most sense at times but made up for it with an extremely disturbing core concept. And there is comfort in the idea that even without a significant portion of our memories, we're still "us".
I'm confused about one thing though and maybe I just missed something so someone can enlighten me. If the palace is so well-protected that just literally being inside it for ten minutes is enough to completely reverse the memory loss, why was Pike first affected by it while standing in the palace? Is it just that they weren't in there for very long during their first encounter with Zac, and the symptoms caught up with him, or did I miss something about how that worked?
- Yeah this episode didn't make much sense. Outside of the disturbing concept and well directed drama, this episode felt pretty weak
  
  It didn't really bother me, still thought it was a very good episode, but I am glad it's not just me being stupid!

At the start of the episode, when Ortegas was getting ready for the away mission, I thought this episode would have the scene from the start of the season 2 trailer where she (gleefully) pilots a shuttle down to a planet.
At least we know she will eventually get to go on an away mission!

That’s probably one of my favorite episodes of the series as a viewing experience, it was pretty entertaining. I don’t think I quite track…the message, though? In the span of about three minutes we get explicitly told that for Pike and Ortegas the memory loss could be revealing experience that identified the core of the self, while for their friend on the planet it was an obscuring experience that robbed him of things he didn’t know were important. You can explain away the difference with plot logic pretty easily, but thematically it’s a bit weird to juxtapose them right next to each other
- I think it makes sense that a brief bout of amnesia like that could be revealing of your underlying traits and feelings, but that in the normal course of things it's very important to have your memories.

I've been waiting for the crew explore a new planet. Hoping there's more of these episodes than less

Can the writers stop making La'an suffer? she can't catch a break lol
- Miles O'Brien: "First time?"

It's a common trope that the away teams really shouldn't be landing in these planets without any idea what's down there without an alien style hazmat suit and here we go, another example :) I GUESS they get a pass because they were here before and the effects didn't happen because they were not here long enough
also really strange they don't confirm that people were dead? Or try and go back and get their bodies which might have equipment/ com badges /might even be alien (Spock was there and he bleeds green), maybe starfleet shouldn't be so careless about what they leave behind...
- No EV suit would have protected them, either - the Enterprise was affected as well.
  
  They handled that subtly - I was wondering why they didn't raise shields against the radiation, but the shimmering impact of the debris field seen when Ortegas was in her quarters showed that shields were indeed up, so that mean the radiation could get through shields. Then it was mentioned that Spock tweaked the shield harmonics at the end - I guess he didn't earlier because he was already affected.

This episode belongs together with the better episodes of TNG. I liked it a lot.

Still somewhat annoyed that there is no seat belt on the shuttle, even if it is to maintain continuity with TOS. M'Benga looked like he was going to bang his head and get a concussion when they were landing.
La'an: They won't see us coming.
Zac: We totally saw you from the other side of the planet a hemisphere away.
What was Zac trying to accomplish? He lured them there with the Starfleet Delta, but he was not going to hitch a ride home. He expected whatever ship that comes to inspect to... forget and go away, or suffer some disastrous result when the crew become unable to function? Why not just stay low and be king if he wasn't planning to leave?
- It wasn't intentional. The Starfleet Delta was something Zac's followers had done to honour him, it wasn't intended as a lure.
- Zac didn’t intend for Starfleet to notice the delta. He was content to just stay on Rigel VII as High Lord Zacarias, thinking that Starfleet would never return to the planet because of the debris field and the radiation. But then the Kalar used the delta as a symbol and it got spotted.
  PIKE: Zac. We saw your message, the, um... the Delta in the garden. It's why we came. Isn't that why you did it?
  ZAC: The people here adopted it as my symbol. I should have known better. It's all getting torn out tomorrow.
  
  Thanks. I tried to watch with subtitles off and predictably missed some of the conversation.

I'm a bit undecided about this episode.
Stuff that I liked:
a strange new(-ish) world
everyone got something to do, unlike last week
once again some funny Spock moments
the visuals on this show are stunning once again. The planet looked nice, the external VFX in the debris field of two celestial bodies that orbited Rigel VII several centuries ago looked nice, the Enterprise interiors look so nice.
Stuff that I didn't like:
I'm not a fan of forced relationship dramas. Plus, from the pilot episode I got the feeling that Pike and Batel (does she even have a first name yet?) are only friends with benefits, but now Batel storms off after Pike says he wants to take it easy? Weird.
how can a society or any sort of structure be maintained if you can't remember anything? The whole premise felt a bit off.
the writing for Ortegas was weak. Her personal log at the beginning of the episode sounded like it was written by ChatGPT. And the stuff towards the end of the episode wasn't great either. The actor did the best she could with what she was given but the writing really didn't do her any favors.
- how can a society or any sort of structure be maintained if you can’t remember anything? The whole premise felt a bit off.
  The rulers in the palace could remember, though (because of the shielding provided by some metal). And the workers/slaves remembered enough to perform their tasks.
  
  @exscape @ValueSubtracted @UESPASputnik Spoiler alert, please!
  This is one of the earliest Sci-Fi themes. See: Nightfall by Asimov (1941).
  I thought they covered it well in the ep. (Write things down, write things on YOURSELF, etc).
  
  Just among the ‘field Kalar’, how are there relationships enough to maintain a population? Unless they’re just used to reading a piece of paper “this is my spouse, this is my child” and I guess the deep emotions they talked about as persisting fill in the rest. Still, I think it would be hard to build the relationships without those deep emotions in place. Sorta sounds like “50 First Date” (never saw it but the premise).
- I like the Pike/Batel relationship dynamic. I like that they're both captains with their own responsibilities, which is new and different from what we've seen in previous iterations of Trek where one is an officer and the other is left at home or something. It doesn't feel forced to me, although the question of weren't they just FWB's is an interesting one, I'd have to go back and look at the pilot. But I'm ok with buying that they're closer than that but just can't make it work because they both have ships to captain.
  I would like to see more of her being a captain. Hopefully there's an episode in the future where we get to see her on her bridge doing her thing.
  
  I'm also in the camp that liked it, Pike since his reintroduction in Disco S2 has been one of the franchises' most emotionally open captains. Most of the time we see this as this self-assured dad energy he uses when talking to his subordinates, but I think it was good to see how he can be vulnerable but still that genuine, emotionally mature guy with someone who's on the same level as him.
  
  I mean, we had Ben Sisko and Kassidy Yates who both were captains. But I agree with you that Pike and Batel really seem to be equals, and I really like that relationship dynamic.
  As I said, from the pilot episode I got the impression that they are friends with benefits who like to hook up when they happen to be in the same sector – no strings attached. (underlined by the fact that Pike had a fling with that lady from the child-killing planet) I think that could be an interesting relationship dynamic to explore because unlike Kirk who had a chick on every planet (with rather unequal dynamics), Pike and Batel both have found someone equal with all the limitations that the jobs brings with it.
  I just hope the writing for Batel was an exception in this week's episode because it didn't make her look good – being overly emotional and storming off after Pike just stated some facts. I don't think that's the type of female character they should be aiming for nowadays.
- Only the workers outside the castle lost their memories. The guards had helmets made of a material that protected them from the worst effects, and the palace shielded those inside.
  The end result is a caste system, where you have people who remember and give orders and people who forget and have no choice but to follow.
- Hey fellow Jammer reader!
  
  👋

I wrote this as I was watching:
Since when have Batel and Pike have a history? Was she in season 1?
I wish they had a tone warning at the beginning of the episode, also I thought the tones went for a little too long each time.
Lol this is the anti-Spock world. "Your emotions are your truth." Maybe Spock should have been on the planet surface as well.
Did Spock forget how to read?
Did the Enterprise not feel the effects in the previous mission? Did they forget to record it or make personal logs?
- If I remember correctly, the very first scene of S1E1 was Batel waking up in Pike's bed, so.. yeah :D
- Good Lord they established that Pike and Batel have a relationship in the first episode.
  
  The first scene of the first episode, even.
- @cyberic @ValueSubtracted She was in S1E1, scene 1. She was trying to get him to leave his cabin and get back to work.
  
  She was in "A Quality of Mercy" as well.
- For the last one: Spock stated that the previous mission they hadn't stayed as long as they were when the effects started happening.
- Your 2nd point is valid for Tinnitus sufferers like myself I think. I found the early moments of the episode quite uncomfortable as a result of hearing that tone amongst the already present tones in my real world!
- I think he forgot how to read English. I suspect had he remembered how to switch his padd to a Vulcan script, he would have been able to read that. Maybe.
- If I remember right, she’s in the very first scene of SNW. A bearded Pike in Alaska riding a horse to a cabin where they’re staying together. She’s gently needling him about whether he should go back to a command. I think she’s about to leave to go back to her ship after a vacation together. Something like that.
- I rewatched the beginning and around 10:17 Spock mentioned that the collision was hundreds of years ago, so they should have felt the effects on the previous mission. Then in the shuttle they mention that the meteor was already there for thousands of years.... So I'm just more confused why the memory effects weren't there before.
  
  They said in the episode that the original mission had been so short (4 hours if I recall correctly), Pike's crew had not felt the effects.
  
  They were in and out in four hours was mentioned deliberately I feel , and then the trekking for 6hours before laan started it all
- Did Spock forget how to read?
  Maybe it's a nod to Discovery establishing he had a learning disability similar to dyslexia.

I've only managed to see this episode once, but something I didn't understand was Spock's decision to try and hide in the debris field. At this point they believed the planet was the source of the problem, but it seemed mostly a guess that the debris field might shield them.
Wouldn't the most logical action have been to get as far away from the planet as reasonably possible until the effects appeared to subside? I know Una made a point that they had crew down there, but it's not as if they can't return more cautiously and with a clearer understanding of what's happening. You're also helpless to help your landing party if you're completely incapacitated yourself.
Have I missed something important?
- My headcanon is that the radiation had already begun affecting his decision-making.
  It's a stretch, I know.
  
  I don’t think it’s a bad headcanon.
  We do know that the first landing went wildly wrong quickly. It’s possible that the judgement and short term memories of Pike and Spock of that landing were affected by more than trauma and shock.
  There was individual variation in how rapidly the effects presented. We saw that La’an experienced some early tinnitus shortly after the shuttle landed.
  On the ship, Spock wasn’t necessarily correct in his inference given he was already experiencing some cognitive impairment by that point.
- I kept yelling at my TV. Leave orbit! Get out and regroup!
- That's what I expected them to do as well, but I'm no science officer.
- I think it's not just because Una pointed out there was crew down there but specifically told Spock they had to (should) stay close. He took it literally as a command whereas he really should have evaluated it for himself.
- He recommended to the First Officer that they retreat from the planet and she gave him an order not to do that. She went to sick bay after but I don’t think command was formally transferred to him.
  So he looked for an alternative that would keep them safe while still executing a superior officer’s instructions, and he got it wrong by misunderstanding compounds in the debris that he’d never encountered before. If he’d been right about the debris it would have been a genius move. As it was, he followed orders and looked for non-suicidal way to do that.

Damn I love this show. I can't help but wonder if Hemmer would have been affected differently by the radiation if he wasn't a gorn egg popsicle.
- Isn't Spock usually the one to be immune? But he was affected to, so was Una. It's likely that Hemmer would have been affected as well (for plot reasons anyway).
  
  I almost thought Una's super healing ability would make her immune/resistant to the radiation damage.
  
  @UESPASputnik
  Sounds like Troi's telepathic abilities always being mysteriously blocked when the story demands it.
  @UhBell

I mean its a little far fetched a simple helmet protects the kmal yet the enterprise hull let it through no problems (until pack modulates the shield), but wont let that get in the way of a good story.
- their helmets are made of a special ore that blocks the radiation. it's a goofy explanation, but there is a reason why they act differently than the enterprise hull

A very TOS episode that I thoroughly enjoyed!
Can we let La'an have a few happy moments in this season? That woman must be riddled with PTSD by now.
It was great to finally get Pike back! Has he ever told his girlfriend that he's almost certainly going to be disabled? What a pickle he's in. I think if I were in his shoes I would have let the relationship end. The guilt must be driving him insane.
I feel like they might be messing around with the timelines so that they can save Pike from his horrendous fate and just say it's an alternate timeline compared to TOS. Normally I'd be against that, but it's Pike and I love him so much that I almost want them to do it.
- The nature of a time crystal is that it’s a fixed event in every timeline forward.
  Once Pike drew the crystal on Borath, it was locked in.
  
  Thanks, I should know that, I've seen every episode!
  In a kind of sad way he does have a happy ending. I just don't want it to happen to him. Poor old Pike!

Enjoyed this very much, the tone was very creepy. Reminded me of the psychological horror episodes only TNG really did.
- I would link it back to psychological mystery of The Cage and further to its touchstone, the MGM 50s classic Forbidden Planet.
  
  Rigel 7 is literally a callback to The Cage

Outside of Pike and Batel's relationship, are there any points in this episode that look to connect to anything else in the currently ongoing plotline in SNW? I didn't really notice anything, it seems like this might be the most standalone episode.
- Batel’s promotion was nixed by Judge Advocate Pasalk because of her conduct during Una’s trial in “Ad Astra Per Aspera”.
  M’Benga mentions that the reason he and La’An were along was because Pike needed people who could fight without phasers (as per “The Broken Circle” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).
  That’s basically it, I think.
  
  M'Benga
  You mean "Dr. Seen-Some-Shit."

I don't understand that dude, needling the dude with no memory who was beating on him, then acting all surprised when that same dude puts a gun on him. Like, what was he trying to do? It seemed like he was trying to get Pike to kill him, but then he wasn't. Wtf?
- The way I read the scene was that he was so high off his power that he thought with the tables turned and Pike having no power that he would have the upper hand. But Pike managed to subdue him and High Lord Zacarias was all of a sudden staring down the barrel of a phaser rifle and all of a sudden wasn't so confident that the Pike he knew, who would lower the weapon once the combatant was subdued, was still there. I think the sudden switch was just an "OH shit, what have I done?" moment.
  
  @Tired8281 @crazycanadianloon yeh that’s my interpretation. For a moment it looks like Pike has not recovered enough to remember he shouldn’t kill someone when he has the upper hand. Zac suddenly changes demeanor when he realises Pike might not show any mercy.

It's good to see Kirsten Beyer back in the writer's room. It could be her that this episode reminds me of Workforce from VOY where the away team forget about their identities and keep on working for the planet government.
I felt the pacing was a bit rushed at the end and the episode could have given more time to explore the Kalar man's memories and history so his arch is more earned.

I have loved SNW from the get go but I think its great that to me at least every episode has been great. I don't think I have felt meh or bummed out by any singular one so far. Comparing to TNG and DS9 who had quite a few meh episodes. That is great imo
- I agree, this show has knocked it out the park. It's in the top 3 for me; TNG, DS9, and SNW. The order changes regularly ;)

oh wow tf was that lol.. didn't know I was signing up for Strange New Worlds: Dementia Simulator..! , great episode!

I'm primarily curious about Batel's job responsibilities. Her main job seems to be as a JAG officer but she also has a field command on the Cayuga?
- She was in command of the Cayuga in "A Quality of Mercy" as well - it seems that's her regular gig, and she was assigned Una's prosecution because...well, that's how Starfleet rolls, I guess.
  
  I think she was asked by starfleet since she was close, then asked to do jag duty (?!) As a test of her fitness for higher command, which she should have passed.
  
  Everyone knows that ship captains are the best lawyers. That’s why starfleet keeps using them as attorneys in all their trials
- Maybe the Cayuga performs a support mission? It can do standard starship stuff but also specializes in social work, like diplomacy, legal services, law enforcement, politics, etc
  
  Even if that were the case and the Cayuga is a flying legal-aid clinic it doesn’t make much sense to put the lawyer in charge. You’d have a regular command officer trained to fly spaceships running the ship, and Batel would be like the chief counsel or whatever aboard. But they also did it weird with Crusher too when they made her the captain of a hospital ship. Again, you’d have a ship-captain-type-person flying the thing, and a doctor in charge of the doctoring

OK, can someone help me out? I had major deja-vu with the scene where Spock tells Ortegas she can't go on the ~~field trip~~ away mission. Wasn't there another episode where Ortegas was about to get to go on an away mission and got told she couldn't at the last minute? Or did I maybe see that scene in a preview or something?
- That scene was shown at one of the major conventions last year, so you may have seen it then.
- It was shared late last year as a preview. YouTube

Reed Birney's acting is great. His soft voice is very touching.
– Be in the moment with me.
– We look out for each other. Every night we have our forgetting.
– You are guided by your emotions. They are your truth. I find them convincing. The totem teaches that we live in each moment, embrace them.

To me, this felt like the first real, original, stand alone episode of this season. I didn’t care for the courtroom drama episode, or the time travel one. Those plot lines have been done on Star Trek so many times before.
Still wishing this wasn’t a series that insisted on the “previously on” intro. You never saw that on TOS or TNG unless it was a two parter.
- And this "Previously on" was also not actually that useful/needed.

Great episode. Wish there was more time to explore the planet with the away team. Also, what does Una do again? I can already see why Spock replaces her as first officer....

Was it just me, or did anyone hear bits and pieces of the score from Rura Penthe while Pike and co were breaking rocks out in the snow?

Who voiced the computer? It sounds like Kate Mulgrew
- listed as Alex Kapp https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0395088/
- Yeah I thought exactly the same!

Did anyone else just despise the noise though, loved the episode but for me that noise will make the episode un-rewatchable..

@ValueSubtracted second best episode of S2 so far, after Ad Astra Per Aspera. The type of setup has already been done many times but there are enough new ideas to keep it interesting. The old man is a great single-episode character.

It's bugged me a little in previous episodes, but in this episode it really bugged me that the entire medical staff seems to be M'Benga and Chapel - I know it's normal for Trek for the staffs to appear small but normally either it's been a plot point (Voy), others mentioned if not seen (DS9) or that we occasionally see them (TNG, DIS, TOS). It'd be nice just to see a few others about.
- We saw several more staff in sickbay in season one, especially in the episode with the contagion from the former Illyrian colony.
  I found it very odd that Chapel was on her own with no other medical technicians or paramedics in this episode.
  
  @StillPaisleyCat @Calanon She's a modern O'Brien, then. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time without backup. :)

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