Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 7 - Those Old Scientists

This was a fun, non-serious episode as two ensigns, Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Bradward Boimler, from 120 years in the future return back to the time of Captain Pike and crew. They try their best to stay out of trouble, but they are basically inexperienced ensigns armed with future knowledge that can drastically change things.

As an early release cross-over for the animated series Star Trek Lower Deck, this episode had a lot of insider Trek humor and self references that reflect over the whole franchise as well as earlier in the season. On the surface, there does not appear to be a lot of contribution to an over-arching plot and presumably this is a breather before the more serious season finale episodes that will lead to a climax and cliffhanger. It does appear this is dredging up excitement for the new season of Star Trek Lower Decks which premieres on Sept 7.

The show opens with the Cerritos arriving to Krulmuth-B for a routine exam of the Krulmuth-B portal. It accidentally activates while Ensign Boimler is pining and admiring crew members of Captain Pike's Enterprise and sends him back in time, coincidentally when the crew is discovering the portal as well.

En route to deliver a shipment of specialized grain to a colony on Stlik II, the Enterprise arrives at Krulmuth-B in time to pick up the ensigns. However it does not go into reasons explaining why they stopped at Krulmuth-B. Regardless, while attempting to figure out a way to send back the two ensigns, an Orion ship arrives and it is revealed that they are a science vessel by Ensign Boimler. However The Orion ship beams up the portal technology and warps away. The Enterprise, using future technology, track down the Orion ship and bargain for the return of the portal in exchange for their specialized tritriticale grain. After realizing that this would uproot and civilization that has been there for several generations, Ensign Boimler decides to hijack a shuttle to send a message to the Orions in order to get their grain back. They were easily caught by La'an and were admonished by Captain Pike. After another bargain with the Orions, he is allowed to send home Ensign Boimler. Throughout the episode there was the question of having the required horonium to use as fuel for the time travel portal. This was solved by revealing that new ships are made with an honorary piece of the old ship 

References to other Star Treks

• Reference to Holodeck upon arriving to sick bay, trying to "end program", reference to The Next Generation
• Warf's Honor, reference to The Next Generation
• Classic TS 122 tricorder (or 120 actually)
• Captain Pike's birthday is a holiday in the future
• The Bell Riots (San Francisco), reference to Picard Season 2
• Ensign Mariner tells Ensign Boimler that Starfleet hasn't met Q yet as they have "sort of a Trelane thing going on" as a reference to Trelane from the Original Series as well as Q Who was first introduced in The Next Generation. This also references non-canon Star Trek as Trelane is theorized by some fans as being a part of the Q continuum.
  

Trivia

• Horonium mentioned for the first time in this episode.
• Nurse Chapel mentions Chroniton poisoning, uncontrollable vomiting associated with time travel, this is actually something that exists in Star Trek Lore.

Major Characters of focus in this week's episode

Captain Pike - Deals with fanboism as he tries to get the future ensigns back to their time period. He reveals he did not have a good relationship with his father is convinced to spend his birthday alone to think about his father. As father figure in this show he is shown by Ensign Boimler that he is viewed similarly by his crew and to consider the time he has left with them.
Spock - Shows he is "happy" in this episode though his facial expressions and forced smiles and jokes are entertainingly creepy and off the mark. After his talk with Ensign Boimler, he begins to act even more Vulcan than before and less human.
Una Chin-Riley, First officer - Has a poignant moment as she is told she is the poster girl for StarFleet with the words "Ad Astra Per Aspera." It is a touching moment of acceptance.
Nurse Chapel - Along with Ortegas teases Ensign Boimler.
Lt. Erica Ortegas - Along with Nurse Chapel teases Ensign Boimler. She was told she would be a great War Hero.
Lt. Nyota Uhura - Shows herself to be a workaholic.
Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh, chief of security - references her sadness again as she tells Ensign Boimler not to make any attachments.

Analysis

Time travel has been done a few times now in this show. First as a spin off from Discovery, Captain Pike is shown his future it drove the theme in the first season culminating in him reconciling and resigning to his fate Then with La'an and Kirk both attempting to fix the timeline. In this episode two episodes from the future are just trying to not change anything at all in the time line. In almost every instance, there is concern for Spock, in Season 1 Episode 10, he ended up dying so that Captain Pike can live unscathed. In Episode 3, Vulcan is eventually destroyed by the Romulans, wish Spock commanding their last fleet. In this episode he was in danger of not being Vulcan enough which is major concern to both himself and to Nurse Chapel.

Lingering Plot Lines

• The Gorn attack ship as shown in episode 1
• The time travel episode 3 seemed pretty random, will there be more to it?
• Eventually Spock and Nurse Chapel must break up
• What about Spock's half-brother, Sybok?

Links to other episodes

Season 2 Episode 1 - The Broken Circle
Season 2 Episode 2 - Ad Astra Per Astera
Season 2 Episode 3 - Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Season 2 Episode 4 - Among the Lotus Eaters
Season 2 Episode 5 - Charades
Season 2 Episode 6 - Lost in Translation
Season 2 Episode 7 - Those Old Scientists
Season 2 Episode 8 - Under the Cloak of War