I recently watched Season 3 Episode 5 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds, called Through the Lens of Time. In this episode, Nurse Chapel and her new creepy older boyfriend/her professor Dr. Korby want to open an archaeological dig on a planet to find some ancient super medicine that could lead to immortality. Initially Spock is not with them, as he “took precautions” against them needing to work together, since he and Nurse Chapel used to be romantically involved and no longer are, but within seconds this is discarded and Spock comes down to the planet with them, which of course begs the question why the idea that he might not be was even raised to begin with, but whatever. They find an alien building which implies it needs a blood sacrifice, Korby is about to cut his hand when Nurse Chapel admonishes him not to be so dramatic, then she walks forward, La’an the security chief yells No, and then Nurse Chapel jabs her finger with a convenient alien needle, providing the blood sacrifice despite La’an’s admittedly vague and confusing objection and despite the fact that Nurse Chapel herself just objected to Korby doing the exact same thing, and the alien building opens. Fairly quickly they find some dead bodies, and Spock is like, hey, its protocol when we find dead bodies to stop work for safety reasons, lets stop and re-evaluate before proceeding. Nurse Chapel is like, but pwetty pwease? And says trust is a two way street, which is relevant because Spock will say it again later (otherwise it seems completely irrelevant. I guess the idea is he needs to trust her judgment if she is to trust him? But why would she need assurances to trust him? They have a long, mostly positive relationship which was only broken because she was preyed upon by her creepy teacher.) He consults with the only person there who actually has a connection to the culture they are investigating, N’Jall, who is like, my people want to know their past - notably not what is at stake here, since this is a choice between blundering forward endangering peoples lives versus a more careful approach, and they continue to investigate.
Immediately Ensign Gamble touches an orb and has his eyes burnt straight out of his head. He is rushed to the Enterprise, where it is discovered his eyes seem unhealable. Ultimately it will be discovered that he is dead and has been dead from the moment his eyes were burnt out, his consciousness replaced by a Lovecraftian horror called a Vezda which was imprisoned in that building. Meanwhile back in the building, they discover some text in an ancient language which is a warning, and N’Jall freaks out and tries to leave, and is killed instantly, and the door to the outside closes, trapping them. Nobody inside seems all that concerned over N’Jall dying, but they are fairly concerned about being trapped. Eventually Spock says his line about trust to get Chapel to follow his plan to get out and they are free, but Gamble is dead and the Vezda within has to be trapped in the transporter buffer, a place which might sound secure except we already know from an episode last season that transdimensional beings like the Vezda can sense and snatch people out of them, because thats what happened to M’Benga’s child (the writers may not remember this, I’m not sure if it actually matters), and also, we are shown the monitors glitch out, indicating the Vezda is up to no good.
So, presumably the lesson in this episode is suppose to be about Nurse Chapel and Spock’s relationship and the importance of trust and/or rebuilding it after a tough break up. Except they were not ever really dating, and to the extent they were, Nurse Chapel broke it off, and then she moved on and Spock did not, at first, but is currently flirting with La’an a bit. So the trust thing just doesn’t make sense to me? Chapel has no reason to distrust Spock - he didn’t cheat, he didn’t betray her, hell, he isn’t really even dating anyone else, and even if he was, so what? She has moved on. Spock might have reason to distrust her - he had hoped to rekindle their romance only to find her dating her professor - which, I might add for a third time, is super creepy on his part and I feel everyone should be a lot more concerned on the show about, especially considering we know how it turns out from TOS - but honestly, she was honest about how she planned to move on before leaving and his foiled expectations are his own fault, and were largely dealt with in the prior episode. Its possible this presumed break of trust is because of that episode - where she and Spock were manipulated into a fake wedding by a Trelaine-like wedding planner - but Spock did not orchestrate that wedding, and he also is the one who broke the spell by reminding her of her love for Korby, so I just don’t see this break of trust anywhere.
But taking a step back, the lesson should probably have been something else. Korby and Chapel are investigating this place pursuing immortality. We actually know Korby eventually finds a secret to immortality of a sort, and it is his downfall. The standard moral lesson for any immortality search in any media is it is a Bad Idea (tm). And indeed, it proves to be a bad idea here, too. The interdimensional evil beings, the Vezda, were let in because of this search to begin with, we find out, and now let out again due to their continued search. That lesson doesn’t hit this episode, though - its never articulated, and the consequences don’t really come home to roost yet. That’s probably the ultimate thrust here, but since SNW wants a little serialization for spice, its delayed to whenever the Vezda escapes the transporter buffer - assuming we even remember why he got out by then, we’ll see if we nail the landing. I think its also delayed because we already learned that lesson from Korby in TOS, and because SNW is a prequel, he can’t get his comeuppance yet, right? We have to see the first steps of his downfall, but he cannot fall yet. So that theme is left just sitting on the table.
But way back when at the start of the episode, Nurse Chapel asked Spock to break safety protocols to rush the excavation. Now, I want to make clear, as far as I understood the episode, Spock was not going to be cancelling the expedition, but merely slowing it by pausing it to re-evaluate. That seemed the plain meaning of what was said. However, Nurse Chapel and N’Jall acted like if they went back to the Enterprise, that would be it, no more expedition. And perhaps that is what we are supposed to have understood? It does not make any sense to me - you find dead bodies, you investigate why they died, then proceed carefully so as to not make the same mistake they did - which the episode later soft confirms was they got trapped, just like our heroes do, and starved to death, because they did not solve the puzzles like our heroes. I don’t understand why pausing - which is the actual word used if I am not mistaken - would mean stopping altogether. But regardless, proper protocol would have been to go back, and had they went back, both Gamble and N’Jall would still be alive and the Vezda never would have escaped.
It feels like there should be some consequence for that? Nobody even bats an eye when N’Jall dies, which is honestly an atrocious look for a Star Trek show about archaeology - why do these Starfleet people not give a shit when an indigenous person dies? Why aren’t N’Jall’s people in charge of this expedition? Why does he only seemingly get a say because Spock asks him? We do know this dig could only happen because his people agreed, yet they seem to exercise no actual power over it besides veto. Spock does, of course, defer to him, which leads to the bad decision, so, props to Spock for respecting the indigenous people even if he chose the worst time to do so, but it really feels to me that when this mission as over, some mention should have been made of the plainly stated fact that protocol was broken. Now, realistically, this blame should fall on Spock, as the commanding officer, but Nurse Chapel was the one in the episode actually pushing for this, so its her who I am mad at. I mean, really, I am mad at the writers for putting these words and actions in her mouth, but like, seriously? Pretty please can I risk peoples lives to get immortality? And then zero consequences, nobody cares, we move on even tho one guy was atomized and another was turned into a Lovecraftian flesh puppet? Like, people are at least upset Gamble dies, but lets at least have an inquest or something.
Honestly as a trained archaeologist (i.e., I have a Masters in archaeology but do not work as an archaeologist currently) its common in media for archaeology to be depicted in ridiculous ways and I do find it annoying, and this episode is pretty standard schlock regarding that. But a modern Star Trek show is exactly the place where I expect them to do better. Nothing about modern archaeological practices or ethics were showcased in this episode, aside from the simple fact they got permission from N’Jall’s people. Which, you know, is nice, but maybe you could have centered the episode on that issue? Instead of an imaginary trust deficit between Nurse Chapel and her former boyfriend? Or centered it on the recklessness with which they pursued this mission? Instead of ignoring that? Or centered it on the inherent selfishness and foolishness of pursuing immortality, like ever other time this theme has been brought up in Star Trek? Instead of presumably pushing that to the season closer, if we’re lucky? Honestly I thought this was gonna be a real short write up about how Nurse Chapel acted kinda dumb but now I’m considerably madder at this episode and SNW than I was at the start. Anyways I ship Spock and La’an and I hate that their relationship cannot possibly work out, tune in later for my essay on why SNW is handicapped by being a prequel.
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