A visiting instructor arrives at the Academy and uses an unorthodox method to help our cadets process the emotions of recent trauma. At the same time, a cadet faces an unexpected challenge that will alter the trajectory of her life forever.
Written by: Gaia Violo & Jane Maggs
Directed by: Andi Armaganian
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10/10. No notes.
In my view, perhaps the strongest episode yet.
Just goes to show that YMMV remains a truism.
I wonder why the old TOS fans like me are less impatient with fundamentals of human existence being presented through the growth of young adults?
Sincerely, resilience in the face of trauma is something many 30 and 40 year olds struggle with. I didn’t see this as sophomoric at all.
So, I wonder why episodes like this aren’t landing as well for folks 20 or even 30 years younger than I…
I’m a TNG person myself. One thing that I very much liked about TNG, DS9, SNW, and to an extent VOY was the competency porn. (And then totally inverted in LDK)
This show doesn’t have much of that. It doesn’t even have what ENT had, which learning to be the professionals we want to see. This is still kids learning to be adults. That’s a different journey entirely.
Don’t get me wrong, I quite like it. But it has issues. But then, don’t they all?
I don’t have any issue with seeing young adults growing and dealing with trauma. This episode has a lot of pieces working together in the overall storyline, I just don’t think it was that compelling within the episode.
The drama class half of the episode didn’t really go off. Maybe because I only know the play from what the episode told me about it, but I think it’s more like the actual growth part got cut off. We spend time with drunk Tarima (yawn) and then short cut the cadets actually performing the play with each other. That would have been the climax of that story, them getting into character, relating to it, working through it and reaching some sort of understanding or catharsis but that scene gets hand waved. Probably needed a full 45 minutes to do right too.
Or the Sam story, which was closer to the mark but still failed to create tension or consequences and ended up getting resolved neatly with a happy ending. Give Sam half an episode to be dead, for people to be sad, and the Doctor half an episode to reflect on it, resolving to do better before tying it up with a bow and it could have been great.
I love that the show isn’t constantly balls to the wall action and we’re getting a lot of character focus but the story juggling bit this episode in the ass and it isn’t the first to be trying to do too much and fumble the execution.
I was unfamiliar with it too, but I feel like I got what I needed to from the description.
I unfortunately found Tarima’s messy response to her trauma very…familiar, on multiple levels.