- Directed by Anna Dokoza
- Written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff
- September 3, 2026
- Paramount+
- A mockery of Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Episode Cast
- Captain Christopher Pike-Anson Mount
- Commander Una Chin-Riley-Rebecca Romijn
- Lt. Spock, Sybok-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
- USS Enterprise Computer (voice)-Alex Kapp
- Dr. Eleanor Chivers-Deidre Hall
- Trelane-Rhys Darby
- Proctor-Diane Johnstone as Diane L. Johnstone
- Juliet-Anna Mirodin
A higher dimensional being seeking a good grade in school traps the crew in a soap opera reality. That’s the plot.
It’s like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has asked itself how many times one bit of streaming content can jump the shark. With Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass I am left curious who this episode is for? Where is the crossover between the soap opera audience and the Star Trek audience? What do they have in common with each other that made this a logical story to do?
For show that has many soap opera aspects to do a soap opera episode seems almost like self-mockery. SNW has gratuitous bed hopping with the melodrama of relationships dominating so much screentime. The show is focused on the personal like any prime-time sudsy drama would be over the greater philosophical questions that Star Trek once pondered.
After the improvement of Off-Hour, I admit to having some hope but here we are at Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass which brings back Trelane (Rhys Darby) for yet another gimmicky episode that makes one believe those behind SNW know almost nothing about Star Trek and what they do know they hate.
One thing that jumped out at me was Pike (Anson Mount) knowing what a soap opera was and what the stereotype of them was. TV, per a statement by Data in the TNG episode The Neutral Zone, was essentially a dead form. More importantly, when was the last time you saw anybody watch TV in Star Trek? It begs the question how he even has any concept of something nobody in his time engaged in.
Trelane traps the crew in a soap to study human behavior or some crap as part of a school project because that makes sense. Pike in this episode has a level of awareness of what is going on though the rest of the crew does not. Why and how is never explained because even Trelane is baffled by it. If I followed the pattern of late, I would think this was a bit of a nod to the Deadpool character.
Anson Mount plays Pike more as a brat upset he is inconvenienced than he does as a captain facing a problem. He’s annoyed and not trying to figure this situation out. In a rare effort to maintain continuity with TOS but one that makes no sense concerning the situation, whenever Trelane tries to drop his OWN NAME Pike says he doesn’t care. In a situation with an unidentified foe that you’ve encountered before where one would undoubtedly need to make a report to Starfleet when the situation is all over, brushing aside their name which could help lead to identification of the species seems shortsighted.
Several of the characters get soap opera-inspired moments or subplots. Chapel (Jess Bush) breaks protocol and tells Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) that Pike is her father. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) reveals he has contracted space madness with Ortegas (Melissa Navia) giving him a peptalk to handle it. They are the abrupt and almost illogical turns that one would expect in a soap opera.
And that is one of the bigger hindrances this episode-it has far too many characters getting screen time. It appears to be a Pike-centric episode based on the addition of Juliet and the closing scene of the story but they needed to give others weak B-stories that go nowhere just to pad time. A focus on Pike and his feelings would have made this a fine piece of drama with an absurd premise. Did writers Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff not know how to make that happen? It’s just one more bit of comedy in a long string of comedy episodes rather than genuinely looking at grief.
What happens here is largely meant to tie back to what the characters are going through in the season but I just didn’t see the connection. Perhaps that’s why the lantern was hung upon the point of the episode by the characters discussing things in the aftermath.
Sybok returns to Star Trek played by Ethan Peck in a rather hammy soapy plot marginally connected to the rest of the episode. Spock (also Peck) needs a heart transplant to live so La’An (Christina Chong) has decided to go get a live donor meaning Sybok. Peck does little to differentiate Sybok from Spock. I understand this episode is a goof, but it still felt lazy. The pair’s interactions hint at their ended relationship that they keep bringing up.
Scotty and Pelia and even the newly added Boyce do not make an appearance. They don’t even work in a mention. Yet that new cadet gets name dropped. It’s strange that significant series characters/legacy characters are ignored in favor of a brand new minor character.
This is a bit of a sequel to the season episode New Life and New Civilizations with the appearance of Juliet (Anna Mirodin). It shifts in that all too short moment into something emotional where Anson Mount gets emotional. It is a well acted and just well done scene that is all about his grief and promised something good. Then it ends because Trelane gets a passing grade.
They never answer the question of Pike being able to understand that he was in a soap opera while others weren’t. Never an explanation was hinted at making me think the writers had no idea why. Was it because he still mourned his fake life? What exactly kept him safe from being in the spell or whatever you wanna call it? I don’t need a clear explanation but ANY viewer should get enough to create some head canon.
Deidre Hall guest stars in this episode as ship’s counselor Dr. Eleanor Chivers. What she contributes is to drive home the nature of the episode in her thinly veiled version of Marlena Evans. The ultimate point (maybe) is Pike coming to terms with his grief which is epitomized by him starting to cry.
We have a post credit scene, which I guess is supposed to emulate a soap opera followed by a commercial break, but it looks more like the Rings of Power promo video that they released for season one with a montage of the characters and it does anything from a soap opera. The accompanying ‘commercial’ was just not funny.
To further drive home that Trelane is a Q (do not get me going on why that does not work and Trelane should be a separate species) we have the Proctor (Diane Johnstone as Diane L. Johnstone) wearing a variation on the judicial robe worn by Q in Encounter at Farpoint. What the writers seem unaware of is that this was not some type of species garment but the clothing of judges worn by WWIII judges.
It is just one more bit of silliness in a series that is more comedy than drama. It is not that Star Trek having fun is bad but all it does is have fun. Every episode must go for a larf over a telling something driven by the characters. And it is all given a slick appearance by sweet production values.
Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass is another gimmick story that is more about making fun of Star Trek or soaps than it is about telling a good story. It’s just an awful episode.
Warren Watched A Movie 