Logline
An accident while investigating a time portal sends Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Bradward Boimler through time from the 24th century, and Captain Pike and his crew must get them back where they belong before they can alter the timeline.
Written by Kathryn Lyn & Bill Wolkoff
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
The danger with these “very special fun episodes” is that they can be confined to being just that. But what elevated this episode is how it used the time travel/crossover conceit to foreshadow, progress and pay off SNW character arcs, including Chapel and Spock’s ultimately doomed relationship (something that I’ve previously said could be incredibly poignant, if handled right), Number One’s legacy, and the way Pike confronts his fate. I hope the musical episode does the same.
They also tied in to Tendi’s story on LD (her constant reminding to people that Orions have a culture far beyond pirating), even though we didn’t see her in Live Action.
Are Orions now the designated species for calling out how essentialized Star Trek aliens tend to be? Because we have D’vana Tendi, the somewhat obscure Ensign Harral from Discovery, and now the crew of the D’var. You can argue the last one’s just an extension of Tendi’s character arc, but still, that’s three series that have touched on this.
TBH I think TNG did this very well with the Klingons (depending on who was writing the episode, of course). Like, some Klingons were Real Klingons™ but many others only gave lip service to those ideals and were actually as sneaky and cowardly as any other race. I think a lot of Worf’s inner conflict came from realizing and processing that fact.
There’s also the Orion on DS9 who likes to talk big game about being a pirate, but he’s actually from Cincinnati and has never pirated anything in his life