Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 6 Review — Off Hour

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 6.

The countdown to the weekend turns disastrous on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in a tension-filled hour that threatens the crew with certain death, slowly begins to shift the pieces into place for the show’s conclusion, and reminds us all why we care about these people so much in the first place.

One of the more interesting things about Strange New Worlds is that, for the most part, we know how it ends. Pike will be promoted to Fleet Captain and turn over the U.S.S. Enterprise to James Kirk. (He’ll also end up horribly disabled and disfigured, but let’s all agree to just not think about that.) M’Benga is no longer chief medical officer. Scotty is chief engineer, with an almost preternatural connection to the ship he serves. Una, presumably, moves on. (And one hopes Ortegas, La’an, and Pelia do too.) This week, we see the beginning of that process, as both M’Benga and Chapel contemplate their professional futures, and Scotty learns to trust both his instincts and his ship.

(The episode also introduces Star Trek: The Original Series character Dr. Philip Boyce (Brian Markinson), though beyond being kind of a jerk who really doesn’t seem to like Chapel, it doesn’t actually go anywhere. Maybe next week!)

“Off Hour” is, on the surface, the story of a terrifying accident, as the Enterprise is suddenly yanked into a slipstream wormhole and badly damaged. With the show’s primary cast split into four separate locations and barely able to communicate, all face seemingly insurmountable challenges and outright deadly threats as conditions steadily worsen. The episode’s pacing is relentless throughout, a ticking clock repeatedly appearing onscreen to count down the minutes until the ship passes the warp threshold and Enterprise essentially disintegrates.

A high-stakes, surprisingly dark story, multiple characters are badly injured, put in life-threatening situations, and forced to make split-second choices with their crewmates’ lives in the balance. Given how many Strange New Worlds characters must survive this episode simply because The Original Series exists, it’s remarkable how genuinely tense almost everything about this hour feels. Sure, we all know that M’Benga is going to somehow make it through after being literally cut in half by a lab table. But there’s more than one moment when it seems almost certain that Strange New Worlds is going to throw canon out the window. It’s a testament to the strong writing of this particular installment that things we know to be impossible, narratively speaking, feel more than a little bit likely.

Smartly, “Off Hour” makes up for the plot armor of it all by upping the story’s emotional stakes and grounding its more outlandish moments in the relationships between its characters. Putting M’Benga and Chapel at odds—they argued about the possibility of his leaving the Enterprise—adds palpable desperation to her desire to save his life, and her refusal to give up on him is a reminder that perhaps he’s not as alone as he thought. It’s a lovely bit of emotional catharsis, and a nice callback to the way they’ve always had one another’s backs in the past.

The relationship between M’Benga and Chapel is one of Strange New Worlds’ most interesting—but not in the way most of us probably expected. The two are not only colleagues, but they’re also genuine friends, trauma-bonded war veterans who served together and know each other better than almost anyone else on the ship. (The only relationship that likely rivals theirs in terms of depth and longevity is Pike and Una’s.) Of course she’s going to defy all logic, good sense, and a direct order from a superior officer to try to save him, or die alongside him in the process. Babs Olusanmokun and Jess Bush have never been better, often conveying their shared fear and determination to be brave for one another through little more than subtle facial expressions.

Comparatively speaking, we aren’t nearly as familiar with Scotty and Pelia’s relationship. They have a shared history and a clear mentor-student dynamic, but their bond is as much about what they do as who they are. They love starships, the Enterprise in particular, and sometimes that love requires as much of a leap of faith as any of the choices being made by Chapel and M’Benga in sick bay. Strange New Worlds gets a lot of mileage out of Carol Kane being funny; this week it finally remembers to let her be heartfelt, and the idea that Scotty’s reputation as a miracle worker technically begins with Pelia reminding him to see the immense possibility in their relationships with these machines is, well. It’s genuinely lovely. (Or maybe I just like the idea that this framing means that a little piece of Pelia stays with the Enterprise for decades after she’s left it.)

Not everything about this episode is perfect. M’Benga’s horrific injury has a whiff of Grey’s Anatomy about it, as a magnetic lab table essentially holds the two halves of his severed torso together, keeps his major organs in place, and prevents him from bleeding out. (Is this possible? Maybe, but I certainly didn’t want to Google it.) The ultimate fix for the ship’s seemingly certain doom is pretty ridiculous—theoretical ghost particles known as “strong force neutrinos” are not only in the wormhole all around them, they can somehow heal M’Benga and provide the Enterprise with the power it so desperately needs.

If this sounds completely made up, that’s because it generally is. “You’re saying that strong force neutrinos can heal M’Benga and make fuel?” Pike asks incredulously at one point, speaking for us all. “Almost sounds too good to be true, I know,” Scotty says, and at least this iteration of Star Trek is sly enough to openly lampshade its nonsensical technobabble rather than expecting any of us to really follow it. It knows that’s not what we’re really here for, anyway.

No, what we’re interested in is these people, who come together in a variety of collaborative, supportive, sacrificial, and occasionally physics-defying ways when they need it most. While Strange New Worlds has become known for its big narrative swings and boundary-pushing framings, sometimes it’s nice to be reminded they aren’t what makes this show so special. And it’s the quiet moments—M’Benga finishing his lame joke, Chapel requesting to be officially assigned to the Enterprise, Pelia and Scotty pressing their palms in tandem to the walls of the ship—that stay with us, long after the flashy wormholes are gone.

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premiere Thursdays on Paramount+, culminating with the finale on September 24.

The post Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 6 Review — Off Hour appeared first on Den of Geek.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 6 Review — Off Hour

Related News & Content

Abercrombie raises full-year forecasts on robust apparel demand, shares jump