A review of this week's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass" — with spoilers — coming up just as soon as I have secret backups of everybody's brains in the supply closet...
Alan Sepinwall
I'll be honest: "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass" is the first Strange New Worlds I was tempted to not finish watching, and then to not write a recap of once I did finish.
It's not that it's the worst episode of the series, or even the season. The puppet episode annoyed me far more, especially when we got to the "it was all a dream!" resolution. But after the incredible highs of "Off Hour" — both in its execution and in the broader feeling of reassurance that the SNW creative team still remembered how to make a classic Adventure of the Week episode — everything about this one filled me with despair, from the moment I saw the title (an homage to the opening narration of classic daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives) on through nearly every scene that followed.
How could the same group of people make "Off Hour" and then decide that they're better off going back to high-concept comedy episodes(*)? It's maddening to see Kurtzman and company so fundamentally misunderstand the appeal of their own show, constantly chasing the high of "Spock Amok," failing to recognize that the rush has become less and less potent with each new attempt.
(*) It's entirely possible, by the way, that the producers didn't look at "Off Hour" as a straightforward episode, but a high-concept 24 homage.