- Directed by Dan Liu
- Written by Bill Wolkoff
- August 27, 2026
- Paramount+
- Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Episode Cast
- Captain Christopher Pike-Anson Mount
- Commander Una Chin-Riley-Rebecca Romijn
- Lt. Spock-Ethan Peck
- Nurse Christine Chapel-Jess Bush
- Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh-Christina Chong
- Ensign Nyota Uhura-Celia Rose Gooding
- Lt. Erica Ortegas-Melissa Navia
- Dr. Joseph M’Benga-Babs Olusanmokun
- Lt. Montgomery Scott-Martin Quinn
- Dr. Philip Boyce-Brian Markinson
- Commander Pelia-Carol Kane
- Cadet A’Sha-Bianca Nugara
- USS Enterprise Computer (voice)-Alex Kapp
Enterprise is sucked into a slipstream wormhole and her crew must struggle to survive while attempting an escape.
After a run of rather weak if not downright bad episodes, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gets one that is worthwhile though flawed with the sixth episode of the fourth season called Off-Hour. It is deeper than anything else from this season with better character moments in a story of real jeopardy but only if we did not know how various characters’ lives ended.
The weekend is minutes away and Alpha Shift is excited to get their drink on and partying hard. Ortegas (Melissa Navia) speaks of this in a manner that makes me think she and others on the crew might have a substance abuse problem as she mentions by first name that her superior officer Una (Rebecca Romijn) is probably drinking all the good stuff. I am fine with a casual nature while off duty, but these are people on duty. Even in the less militaristic TOS (Khan made hierarchy in Star Trek a bit stricter). ‘Jim’ came out in the most serious moments when Spock was trying to get across/drive home a serious point. Make us believe you are on duty.
Most of the opening action is set in the sickbay with M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) revealing to Chapel (Jess Bush) that he is leaving with Dr. Philip Boyce (Brian Markinson) returning to take charge leading to a forced-feeling argument between the pair at least in its intensity. Unnecessary anger has been a fallback of the show. It just launches right into it with no real lead making it a little difficult to believe these people can remain cool under pressure.
Perhaps it’s the old Trek fan in me, but I’m bothered by the level of informality and unprofessionalism while characters are on duty. I expect my characters to have a little professionalism. It is like they are in an office and not in a military-like exploratory organization with a command structure. Between the lust for booze and two people that are supposed to be friends easily fighting it is tough to take them seriously though that improves once the threat of the episode hits.
Boyce’s portrayal here has little resemblance to the character originally played by John Hoyt. This one’s more like a jerk and less like Christopher Pike’s friend. Boyce is almost cold and certainly bitter. Did the writer watch the original pilot to help write the character or just do a Google search?
The ship gets pulled into what is called a slipstream wormhole-whatever that is. I’m not insulting anything. There are so many space phenomena that have been encountered in Star Trek, it is a bit of a joke. The wormhole causes massive malfunctions throughout the ship as it isolates the crew much like the TNG episode Disaster. At least SNW tried when coming up with a name for the episode.
Cadet A’Sha (Bianca Nugara) and Scotty (Scott-Martin) are stuck together. Scotty is the superior and more experienced officer yet gets/is given most of his ideas by A’Sha. Not sure what she does besides take direction from Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) implying that she is communications but her expertise in Off-Hour extends to engineering. He should be consulting regularly with an engineer and not her once he gets communication.
With everyone isolated, the idea rather casually is tossed out to beam Scotty into engineering. Maybe that shows how much I watched TOS but one thing they couldn’t do until TOS era was beam within a ship because until then performing an intra-ship transport was dangerous. The reason is said that a miscalculation could cause someone to materialize inside a wall, deck floor, or bulkhead. It was risky when introduced in Day of the Dove but by TNG it was common. Episode writer Bill Wolkoff did not realize that. A danger of doing a prequel series.
When dealing with Scotty, characters in Off-Hour keep dropping ‘miracle worker’ especially when he’s talking to Pelia. It gets a bit heavy handed and blunts any kind of message they are trying to make or character growth in a particular direction for him. Then again they don’t do another reference to Scotty getting caught in a transporter pattern buffer so I may be able to let this slide.
In Off-Hour there’s a theme of sacrifice and some tension once the crisis begins. This is about the crew putting their lives on the line and taking genuine risks in a serious situation that if we didn’t know their fate after the show, we would feel they were in genuine jeopardy. That’s the problem. Most casual Star Trek fans know the bulk of the characters involved make it through the finale because they show up in the original series which is where we first saw them.
There is no sense of danger. Yes, we understood that Riker or Kirk or Janeway had a level of plot armor in every episode, but when they were put in danger since we didn’t know their future we could believe that they might not survive. Here we do. Especially M’Benga who gets seriously injured because he appears twice and TOS.
He tries to let himself die in orders so Chapel will leave him to get to a level of safety with more crewmembers. He understands his diagnosis is grim. Chapel stays with him. You may disagree with making her a major character and significantly more medically involved than she was in TOS, but it is a nice display of loyalty between the pair and speaks to the relationship though again based on TOS it did seem like they barely knew each other.
Then there is Spock (Ethan Peck) who due to his partially Vulcan physiology resistant to radiation must scale the exterior of Enterprise to an ion storm pod with the dialogue implying almost certain death. There is a moment when the pod breaks off and is destroyed. We should gasp but the character eventually retires to a Vulcan colony in another reality meaning we know he lives.
I did appreciate the look at the Jeffries Tube Scotty winds up in. Perhaps the most one-to-one translation of anything they’ve done in this entire show. I understand they can’t have things look just like TOS, but nothing EVER looks like TOS. The films updated the look with the assorted shows providing an obvious connection.
Neutrinos play a big part here with the discussion on creating them appearing more to do with the limitations of modern and not Trek level technology. Detection and creation feel grounded in what we can do now and not what might be accomplished then. These people attach domed cities to space stations (something not done until the current Trek production era) which implies serious technology. Do these people not watch Star Trek?
Carole Kane-as-Pelia once again provides nothing useful to the episode. She is just the cliché of wacky space lady. Given that she’s the only character appearing in the episode completely alone in her scenes would imply that her part was filmed separately from the rest of the cast. Not uncommon to work around an actor’s schedule, but Pelia is just a useless character with her isolation making her feel more so.
Apparent references to modern technological limitations aside, the general science and problem-solving of the episode did feel closest to previous Star Trek. There was an intelligence in logic and science no matter how grounded or not it is, it felt plausible. That was perhaps one of the most thought through recent episodes.
Another plus is that it’s a group effort to solve the problem. That means the episode is not focused on one or two characters but rather the whole crew. It starts with each crew dealing individually with assorted problems with those problems slowly moving closer together as they worked to save the ship from its problem. By the end the crew is working together each contributing a little something to the solution.
One can surmise another theme of this episode is Enterprise doesn’t make it through danger because of one person but because of the group. Each character contributes to the solution. Knowledge comes from this person or that person.
The episode has many stunning visual effects but the best effects are with the group gathered in the lounge and the gravity starts to fail and not in a way where everything gets lighter. We see glass break and things pulled to the floor. In an effort to fix the problem Una is crawling to the controller and her leg breaks in half. It’s shocking!
While it gets much wrong, it gets enough right that Off-Hour is the one of the better episodes of the season. It probably should’ve been the basis for the season opener with a few tweaks here and there to align with the series status at that point. Much of the good is undone by having so many legacy characters put in danger. We all know that the bulk of them will survive. I’m a little conflicted on it, but it is an improvement over previous episodes.
Warren Watched A Movie 