September 10, 2025 • 37 mins
On "Phasers Set To Stun," we recognize the popularity of all things Star Trek, with a look at the television shows, animation, movies, and much more. On this week's episode, our crew continues their conversation about the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Join us for a recap of episode 9, Terrarium!
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For exclusive episodes and content, send some latinum to our Patreon here! You can sign up for a FREE 7-day trial, or sign up for a free membership to get limited access!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Space the Final Frontier. Join us for a bold conversation
our prime directive to recap our favorite Star Trek shows,
both new and old, to engage in debate about all
(00:23):
things Trek. Prepare to energize with Phasers Set to Stunt.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stunt.
In this ongoing series from a film by podcast, we
continue to show our love for every quadrant of the
expanding Star Trek universe by covering television, animation, movies, directors, merchandise,
and much more.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Plotting the course. As always, it's your Core Trek crew.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I'm Scott Hoffmann, I'm David Burns, and I'm Wayne White.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And in this episode, we're continuing our coverage of Strange
New Worlds Season three. Specifically, we're covering episode nine Terrarium,
written by Alan B. McElroy and directed by Andrew Kots.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think that's is that the way to say it? Coots? Sure, sure,
tell us in you're kind.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Since it's so new, we're calling for a red alert
on spoilers. If you haven't seen this latest episode, please
go and watch and come back to join us when
you're done. All right, Dave, let's break it down, tell
us what this episode is all about.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Well, first, Scott, I want to say, welcome back. I
want to know, has anyone noticed Scott isn't around when
Pellia is around, and it's vice versa.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's no, no, no, no, don't don't look at don't
look at the pelly behind the ground.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
They're never in the same room together. Something to think about. Okay,
because he's not in this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
To here, Scott, You guys did a great job of
the last episode.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
That was an amazing, amazing episode. So I'm sorry I.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Missed that, but I'm sorry you missed it because it
was a good episode.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, all right, let's dive into this.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
One, all right. The Enterprise is on a mission exploring
a part of the galaxy that has some strange phenomenon
that not even Spock can explain. Erica is put in
charge of taking a shuttle on a solo motion into
a nebula to get some readings the Enterprise can't get,
but upon doing this, a wormhole opens up and takes
Erica and the shuttle. The Enterprise desperately tries to find
(02:22):
her quickly as they are under pressure to get a
medication to some colonists. After escaping the wormhole, Erica crash
lands on a moon where her only survival is to
befriend an enemy at Gorn that she discovers has crash
landed as well. They work together against all odds that
seem almost impossible, only discover in the end that there
were nothing more than labyrats and an experiment to see
(02:44):
what would happen when two enemies are forced to help
each other, in a callback to a very famous episode
of the original Star Trek known as the Arena.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, I don't know what it is about rude aliens
kidnapping us for experiments, but it gets yeah tiresome.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
In this episode, it didn't. I'll start off with first
reactions to this episode.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
This one caught me by surprise in so many ways.
But I'm very glad that I was surprised by my
expectation that we were going to lose Erica. Every time
there's some ortagis focus, I think, oh, this is it.
They're they're building this up. But I was pleasantly surprised
by this one.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I go ahead about you.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
I was I was too to be a surprise on
this and because once I learned what was going on,
I felt like, this is going to fall into that
trope trap that you know we've we've seen this a
few other times. I know the next generation did it
with the Enemy, but it was Romulins instead of a Gorn,
and I felt like, again, let's talk about the end
of the movie Enemy mind. But you know, I really
enjoyed this episode a lot. It really shined on Eric
(03:54):
Ortegas in this episode. And another thing that I really
liked too was the Gorn. The design of the Gorn.
I swore it straight from the Dark Crystal, the way
the way they had designed the Gorn, and I love
that about it. I loved how they had to work
together to communicate with one another. I thought that was
incredibly well done. You know, agree, disagree, you know, I
(04:17):
love that about it. But no, I thought Erica was
fantastic and an episode she needed to heal, even though
the way it ended was yet another depressing ending. For
crying out loud with what happens to the Gorn. I
when she blew her lid at the ending, like that
just upset, you know, screaming. You know I was too.
(04:38):
I was like so upsets, say, oh my god, you
just killed this Gorn and you didn't need to do that.
But and she even stated at the end of the episode,
you know, you know the Gorn was my friend, Elann's
my friend. How did I process that? You know? So
I loved this episode for.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Erica, Wayne, what about you?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, this really surprised me to this is not the
direction I thought they were going to be going with
this story. First of all, I didn't think we'd ever
see the Gorn again. Actually physically I'm glad we did.
But you know, with the when they when we first
saw that or Tagus was suffering from the PTSD from
agim Andy, I just I didn't think this is the
(05:19):
way it was going to end, with her having a
completely new outlook on the Gorn, realizing that they're not
exactly the monsters you know that everyone thought they were.
I really thought it was going to be a different direction,
and I wasn't sure if she was going to survive
the season or not. To tell you the truth, it
was fifty to fifty in my opinion, because we really
(05:41):
don't know if she was coming back next season or not.
There's never been anything that's been said, but I'm glad
that they did this did it this way. I thought
it was a fantastic episode. It's definitely stories that we've
seen many many times before in Star Trek, and I'll
mention it later, but it works. It really those times
the stories work for Star Trek, you know, taking one
(06:03):
character and throwing in with the enemy on a planet.
It just seems to work all the time on the episodes.
And I'm glad that you chose or tag us for
this because I think all of us agree that we
needed an episode strictly about her. She needed something that
that centered on her, and this was perfect for her.
And that ending. It's so open ended, you know, I'm
(06:29):
worried that they're going to just forget this. I hope
they don't, but this whole I don't know that the
tension now that's going to come up between or take
us in Lawn. I hope that they explore that next
episode or at least next season, because this is something
that I think that there's a lot of dramatic possibility
(06:50):
in the storyline for this, and I'm hoping that they
don't fall into that whole Star Trek trope and just
you know, forget about it next week.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
You know, one of the things that I I really
love to I talked about Erica needed this for her healing.
Just the one scene where she falls asleep comfortably next
to the gorn. I thought that scene with perfect and
it was needed because it showed Erica was like, Okay,
you know, I've made friends with this gorn. I get
it now. Sure there's still enemies, don't get me wrong,
but you know, at that moment, you realized Erica has
(07:22):
pushed through her PTSD to a point and now she's
going to have it with Lawn but for crying out,
she just can't win.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, it's interesting that you're both wearing up with a
lot of great points. First of all, it didn't even
occur to me this is the first episode focused on Erica,
because there's so many great episodes that focus on her development.
And I'm glad that we did get an episode that's
completely focused on her because Dave, to your point, this
(07:53):
is a lot of growth. It's her getting through her PTSD.
Not to say that it's gone entirely, but it certainly
has taken a step forward. And one of the things
that it makes me think of, and I don't remember
the name of the episode, but there is the balance
of terror. Episode where Pike sees the future if he
continues to be the Captain, and Erica has a very
(08:16):
specific kind of reaction to the Romulans, which seems to
be very similar to Lan's approach to the Gorn right,
So seeing her grow in that way, I think is
very interesting. I think it's she gets the chest piece
that she keeps can remind me of the Inner Light.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
That was a nice touch.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I like that prim neish generation.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And I think it'll be interesting to see what happens
with the Gorn. You know, it's building up to something,
and I don't know if it's going to happen in
the next episode or if it's waiting until the next season,
but it'll be interesting to see how much she wants
to kind of see the Gorn in another light, or
try to reach them or try to community with them.
(09:01):
Although the Gorn won't have any awareness of this at all,
Enterprise has the benefit.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Of knowing that there's communication, that they.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Possibly speak our language without being able to communicate that
way or at least understand. I wasn't sure if that
was just because of the communicator that she had built
for because the Gordon was like, yeah, I've been listening
to you this whole time. I just haven't been able
to reciprocate. But the Gordon will be completely unaware, whereas
Enterprise has the benefit of hearing what Erica.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Has to say.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I want to shout out to the actor stunt performer
Warren Shearer, who played the Gordon in this episode and
has apparently played the Gordon in several other episodes throughout
this series. Has a long list of credits, but I
agree Dave like the movements very reminiscent of Dark Crystal
(09:56):
and did a great job with nonverbal communication, the subtle cues.
It gave a lot of character this Gorn that I
never expected to see. And I don't know if it's
this Gordon specifically. I don't know if it's something about
the female Gorn or if it's all Gorn.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
We've just seen the ones that are geared for war.
I don't know. It's a very interesting look at them.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up too, because I'd
love to see some behind the scenes filming of this,
because it looked like they were using a practical costume
for the movie at times, and it was really really
well done. Because he is the first close up true. Look,
we got at the Gorn, and we got a lot
of flashes in the other episodes. This time we actually
got to see them, you know, on screen for a
(10:42):
long time, and it just it looked great. I actually
could see the development between this Gorn and the original
series Gorn. You know, everybody makes fun of the rubber mass,
but I can see, you can see that the connections,
the little bits that they put in there into this costume.
It was just beautiful created.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Yeah, another thing that I really liked about this. So
there's so much I liked about this episode. But one
of the things that I liked that the writers did
was the Pike stuff. I liked that, you know, A
Horror pulled a lot Erica when she fudged the numbers.
It was you know, she pushed it to six over
sixty percent, which is what it was needed before Pike said, Okay,
(11:23):
we'll do it. But Pike knew, he knew she did that.
But I like Pike's all his responses because he says,
you know, A Horror was like, I don't want to
give up. I don't want to give up. Pipe is We're
not going to give up yet, you know, we need
to bring Erica home, and he was going to bat
for one crew member, you know. And I love that
about him because I mean, obviously, you know in Una
(11:44):
was pushing we got to go because you know, we
got to go take care of these colonists. There's like
four thousand colinists who need this medication. You know, if
they don't get it, they're not going to survive. But
Pike was still like, you know, I know we got
to do that. We still got a little bit of time.
So a horror, you got this, but I got a
limited amount of time to do. That just proved to
me that you can do it. I just love how
he went to bat for Erica.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I like the way that they that they portrayed Una
in this story though. I mean she was the first officer.
That's her job to give the alternates, to try to
get tell the captain you know, hey, this is what
we got to do. You could really see the the hurt,
the you know, it was rough for her to say
that she did not want to leave her behind, but
she had to say it.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
That's her job.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, it was just interesting in that scene, like Horo
was not being subtle at.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
All, Like with her alone. She was like, sure, hold
on a second, and then come on, and you're feeling nobody.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
But yeah, his his reactions, you know, the first one
in the the meeting room where he says, hey, nobody
says her, given up on her.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, we're gonna do what we can. And then on
the bridge when he acknowledges.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Like, I know that you fudge the numbers, but it's
with in a you know, an acceptable variance or whatever,
and he was willing to let it go. But also
interesting that we don't usually see that side of a hurrah,
that she's going to you know, lie, or that she's
going to fudge in that way. In a way, it
almost shows a little bit of I think Pike could
(13:21):
see that as desperation, but he could also see that as.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
A you know, kind of a moment when she didn't.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Trust him, Like she could have said like it's at
fifty six, like can we go with that, and he'd
be like, all right, I'm willing to do fifty six,
you know. So just an interesting decision in that moment.
What I like about the writer this thesp too. And
I need to go back and watch the other seasons
to see if they did this, but they love to.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Lean on other films and stuff that they put in,
like little kidbits. One of the things that I laughed hysterically.
Clearly somebody was a fan of Castaway because when she's like,
I made water, I've made water, And it was almost
like Tom character saying I made fire, you know, celebrating.
It's what it felt like to me, And I love
(14:05):
that scene.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Well, the whole plot is kind of a blend of
enemy Mind in the Truman Show. Yeah right, yeah, but
these metrons that could have been like, you know, you
could have done this another way and accomplished this without
torturing somebody having them eat you know, centipede sushi and
killing a Gordon.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But all right, cool.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Did anybody notice that Horror did the picard? She got
she got up, she got up out of the chair
to go to Pike and she jerked her uh down
the picardy. That had to be on purpose, it had
to have been.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I I really don't envy Erica with having to eat
those centipedes.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
That was so gross.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It was absolutely disgusting, Uh, but unnecessary thing, like you know,
one of those moments where this I don't know the
the Gordon was able to eat them apparently with no problem,
but it could have added to some of the tension
if it was like, they're not really survivable.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Sustenance, but they can eat it. Yeah. Kind of an
interesting play there.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
There was a lot of good dialogue from Erica when
she was talking to the Gorn. You know, it's almost
like she was talking to herself at times, almost like
talking herself through it, even though she was communicating with
the Gorn. And this some of it was even before
she created She did that communicator so that she could
you know, translate the Gorn language to you know, a
yes or no, agree or disagree. But one of the
(15:37):
one of the lines I loved in this, and this
is going back to her healing, was she looked at
the Gorn when you know, he obviously had well she
had that you know, hurt leg and Erica knew that
she needed to help her and the Gorn you know,
didn't at first, didn't want that. And she had that
line you think you're too broken to be fixed. It
was almost like she was talking about herself too at
(15:59):
that moment, you know, And I love that line. I
really did. It stood up for the whole episode.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
To me, Yeah, that is a great line, and it's
interesting how they kind of gave them an extra thing
to connect with by making them both pilots. Yeah, and
you mentioned castaway like that makes me think of all
the different kind of trinkets. Yes, and things like when
she comes in, there's like painting on the walls and
(16:25):
there's something that looks like a memento, some kind of
a statue or whatever, something we haven't been shown from
the Gorn but shows us a little bit more depth.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
And how long has she been there if she was
able to create all that stuff? How long has that
Gorn been there exactly? You know, exactly?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
And I swear that one seemed that Gorn smiled. Oh yeah,
it was creepy. But then I like that as well.
I just the different characterization. I like the idea that
they're exploring the Gorn further as a civilization rather than
just monsters like we've always known before.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Yeah, I know, I know. We've talked about the cgi
of this show and it is phenomenal. I got to
point out one scene that I thought was incredible, and
that's when the Enterprise was going into the wormhole for
the first time. That shot was incredible. You can see
the shields yea when it was for the wormhole, beautiful.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Shot, which brought me back to and I We'll get
to this in Easter Eggs, but it brought me right
to the episode Relics from the next generation when.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
They had to do the same trick, they get the
same yep. I love little tidbits like that. I like
that we keep seeing those happened.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
I do too.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I just thought this episode was just wonderfully written. They
had some great just some incredible scenes. You know that
that scene with the meeting where everybody's arguing. You know,
we don't see enough of that in Star Trek. We
you know, the not just the stuff on the planet,
because everything on the planet was well written. That's the
final scene with Yohura and and ortegis wonderfully written. That
(17:56):
the bridge scenes are wonderfully written. This this I'm gonna
have to reevaluate this entire season because this could possibly
be my favorite episode. I don't know, I really really
enjoyed everything about this.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah, we've got one more to go, but I'm with
you on that. I feel like, and I think I
mentioned this before, I feel like every week we're saying, man,
this is the best episode.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
But this is the best thing.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
I mean, you know, you're right. I think I need
to go back after we're done and reevaluate which one,
because this episode was written extremely well.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah, it's it's high up there on the list.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah, absolutely, And to go back to that scene where
she's flipping out. She knows somebody's watching them and she says, well,
you know, would you show yourself and just going off
on that, and then obviously they're like, we got to
beam up. So they in the middle of the beaming,
which was an incredible effect. By the way, Y frozen
in between transporting God. That was incredible. And then they
(18:48):
came out and they explained who they were and what
they were doing.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
I love that scene, which surprised me. I did not
expect them to go that direction and bring me the
Metrons back into this. You know, we other than Q,
we don't get too many of these these godlike beings
in the live action Star Trek, so seeing them again
was a real surprise. And I get the impression that
the Metron had mentioned that they were he was might
(19:13):
have to change the parameters and stuff. I'm wondering if
that could somehow connect a little bit to the look
of the Gorn and the way they acted in the
original series Arena. I'm not sure, but you know it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, it's It's also I kind of question the I
could be interested in a little bit more about that
whole kind of MindWave concept with Ericain because to uh,
I forget the next Generation episode, but where Data is
the only one who remembers what happened yep, and he
had to reset the day and he was clues Clulu,
(19:51):
thank you, because he was like, you can't do that.
You can't do that to the species and leave them
with little mysteries because they'll keep picking and keep.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
And revel it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
So I wonder if there is something where she can't
name the species, she can't say anything about it, but
she does know that it was all part of a
big experiment, because without that, it feels like that would
really torture Erica, like she wouldn't be able to let
that go. So hopefully they gave some kind of way
of tying that up for But it was a great
(20:25):
use of the the metrons. You know, that's a callback
to Arena, which I have to go back and watch
now because I didn't even remember that happened, So I'll
be interested to see how they kind of pay all
that together. All right, Well, I think we were pretty pretty.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Sure this answer which crewmember shined the most. Well, let's
go ahead and ask it anyway, Wayne, and go ahead first.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Oh, yeah, it's pretty honest. This is this is the
Ortagus episode, and she shined as she should. We all
been waiting for this episode, this time to happen. We
have been waiting for this storyline to to uh come
to frontation here it is. She's just fantastic, you know, everything,
everything about her appearance, the way she she acted, the
way she learned her the lesson with the Gorn and
(21:13):
you know, saw them more than just the enemy. Everything
everything about her shine. And I love the actress. I
think she's done a wonderful job. And finally we got
to see her her moment on the series.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Yeah, Dave, what about you, it's it's clearly uh ortegus
uh in this episode. I loved how at the beginning
of the episode she was just so happy and so
giddy to be back being able to do, you know,
a solo mission on her own, and the fact that
you know, she when she was talking about, you know,
when after she crashed landed, she was going through her mind, Okay,
(21:51):
Starfleet Academy one O one, and she was processing, you know, food, housing, water,
this is what I gotta do and you know, and
she built that. That was that condensating water condenser. Thank you.
She built that water condenser. And that's when once she
was celebrating that she had made some water. But this
is an episode that we knew was coming. We knew
(22:12):
there was an Eric episode. I didn't think they were
gonna leave it for the last episode, so we've figured
it was gonna be this one. But I love the
fact that, you know, she really to the point healed herself.
But it's not a neat bow. It's not. Because we
see what happens at the end of this episode with
her and Lawn. That's gonna cause some friction between the
two of them, especially we know how much Lawn hates
(22:35):
the Gorn and now Erica has got that. Okay, I
know they're my enemy, but I can see we can
communicate with them. We can you know, we can possibly
change the outcome of our relationship with them. So I
see the frictionary when I'm gonna go back, but you said,
I hope they don't drop this because this really causes
(22:56):
some friction on the bridge of the enterprise between these
two characters and we and I like that not everybody
can get along. Just going backing what you said about
the arguing, you know, that's the way it is. It's
nature because everybody's got ideas and they're going to you know, fight,
even though they're family, they're still going to argue a
little bit because they got to figure out what is
the best solution for these apostles that they're always in,
(23:18):
you know, and I love that so much. But Erica
just seeing her buckle down on that planet and just
become so strong. We know she's a strong pilot for
crying out loud, but getting to see her out of
a ship and being put into an environment that she's
not used to and using that training she got in
(23:39):
Star for the Academy and pulling it out with perfect
perfect Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
I mean, we're we're making her so much more than
her role, so much more than a pilot, which is
exactly what it should be. Yeah, And it's definitely you know,
we know that Erica is not going to continue to
be the Helmmelsman on the Enterprise, whether that's going so
place else or hopefully going someplace also won't finish that day,
(24:05):
but it's it's big shoes to fill for Szulu, and
I think they've done a consistently great job with this
series of doing so, you know, in engineering.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
There's still that that absence felt.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And even though we've got you know, great things coming
with Pellia and Scottie, there's still that absence. And I
love the fact that they're they're building up so much.
I love the subtle things about Erica in this one,
like folding the paper airplanes for luck, which is kind
of interesting because in the Star Trek universe I really
see paper being used for anything, right, so that's going
(24:42):
to be like going into Pellia's room and grabbing a
stack out of the old copyer or.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Something, but it probably exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
He just has a stack, Like we need a lot
of luck, So just keep it coming. I'll be interested
to see what the answer is to this question, Dave,
who would you want to be in this episode?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
You know, normally I don't want to put myself in
a position where I've got a lot of pressure on me,
but I really would like to have been Pike in
this episode, just because of him coming to bat To
wanting to find one person and instead of going straight
to say that civilization there where four thousand people were
dependent on this medication that they have. I feel like,
(25:30):
would I do the same thing if I was in
that position. Yes, I probably would because they are a family,
and I would do everything I can within a limited
amount of time, which is what he gave. We can
only do this so much and we gotta get But
just Pike's demeanor in this episode I loved and I
would just love to be in his position there because
(25:50):
it shows how much he is the father figure of
this crew. But he also cares about each one of
them individually. There's no favorites, even though thinking except a hotel,
but he's not on the crew, but you know, uh,
you know, but so yeah, it's Pike.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Wayne, what about you?
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Yeah, David pretty much said almost everything I was going
to say. But I had chose Pike too, and for
a lot of the very similar reasons. I mean, he
has what you can have to consider one of the
best crews in Star Fleets, and they all work so
incredibly well together. He knows he can trust each and
every one of them, and he's not willing to give
up on any of them. I love that, even though
(26:29):
he's the first officers telling him, we've got to do this,
we got to do this, but he's not going to
give up on Artigas. And I loved Anson Mount's performance.
I loved the decisions that the writers made with him,
and uh, yeah, I have to choose him too. It
was either that or the metrons.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
By the way, did anybody notice when Pike was flying
the ship? Did you notice that he was at the helm?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I did.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
I love that within the Captain h char did you
see it.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Looked weird, but I love that.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I love UNA's jab too. She's like, oh, you've never
mentioned that you're just as good of a pilot.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
And I love that she was in that position because
that was the position she usually set in in the
original pilot cage. She was right there that first thing
that reminded me. Yeah, I love that, and I'm glad
you brought that up. So my choice is a little weird.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
Oh yeah, Now what's interesting is some I'm calling bs
on my own choice because at first I was like, oh, Erica,
because Eric did an amazing job.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
But she also had to eat centipede. Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
But the Gordon had to do that too. The reason
I'm choosing the Gordon, I just want to know more
about what brought her there, maybe some of her backstory,
to see kind of what was on her mind and
what she was really saying to Erica. It's interesting that
we never got that. I love the kind of you know, binary,
(27:59):
you know, agreed, disagree kind of responses that we got.
But I just know I'd like to know a little
bit more about that, where they were, what brought them there,
you know, bot of the that's a good call.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
I agree with you to Scott, I would love to
know more, not just about her, but more about the Gorn.
But I'm I'm my feeling is this is probably the
last time we will see the Gorn in the series.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Interesting, even with what Beatella is going.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Through, well, I don't think she's going to turn in.
I'm now suspecting now that we've seen this episode and
the the metrons and stuff, I don't think she's going
to turn into a full full Gorn. My prediction is
she'll be she'll be probably saved. Okay, all right, But
but won't stay with Pike, but won't stay with Pike.
(28:46):
Something's going to happen there's she's going to decide that well,
she's going to take that promotion, and then they're going
to drift away. That's that's my prediction.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
A way. Can I go way out on a limb here, yeah,
and say that she turned into the gormt Kirk flits.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Oh god, and that's her wearing the stones casta.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
That was my original thought. That was until I saw
this episode. That was my original thought. But now I'm
thinking that that, uh, the metrons did something to change
them into looking into the rubbery going.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
With the thing on.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I don't know, Dave went there. I'll go there and
say that. One kind of off ramp that my brain
took with this one is what if the Gordon that
she meets in this episode is Bettel because the wormhole
doesn't necessarily you know, in terms of like bending time
(29:36):
and space and whatever. You know, it's somebody that has
some kind of nostalgia whatever, Like, dude, entirely possible.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
I never thought of that that would warp a man.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
That would be crazy because that some tiny, tiny, whiny
crap there.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
But yeah, it is doctor who what is this?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
But that that could that could work, I mean that
could actually fit.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Oh yeah, I'd rather think of it as like, you know,
there's a there's an offshoot of Goren that actually feels
this way that it's not just you know, it has
to have some kind of human element to it.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
But wouldn't that given even more meaning to UNA's decisions
of saying, hey, we got to go, we got to go. Yeah,
that's wow, that's crazy to think about.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Scott crazy crazy speaking are crazy. There were a lot
of Easter eggs in this one, obviously.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Well, I mean we've mentioned a lot of them, and
obviously Arena is kind of a big one because the
metrons that before I looked that up, I didn't even
realize we hadn't met them before.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, I just I guess I just assumed there were
a lot.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
But there's the only one I got was Uss Consolation
and Matt Decker I believe it was. Yeah, that's that's
the only one I got.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
We might have gotten more, not not very many more.
You just mentioned in one of them. But you know,
I wanted also, I wanted to bring up the fact
that you know, this episode, it was really, really good.
But it does use a lot of Commons Star Trek ideas.
You know, the the whole thing of the about the
hero being forced to face an enemy on a planet.
We've seen that many many times before, you know, not
(31:12):
just arena, not just the enemy. But this episode really
reminded me a lot of the card and Dharmack on
the planets, the episode Darmok. And then of course you
know the idea of the a greater power watching over them.
You know, we're very familiar with that. That probably the
most famous one would be Q but you got you know,
ne Gelam in the Next Generation where silence is least.
(31:33):
You got Apollo in the original series, the Vendorians, and
they appeared in the Lower Decks episode Caves. It's something
we see over and over again. But it just like
I said before, it seems to work very good for
Star Trek. Now, the easter eggs other than the Decker
in Constellation, which, by the way, you know, don't forget
that Decker is also the father of Commander Willard Decker
(31:56):
from Star Trek Motion Picture. But I only found really
one other. There was a mention of the Epsilon Indie system.
That system which is located in the Beta Quadrant, and
its planet's been mentioned quite a few times on the
various Star Trek series. It was mentioned there was a
(32:17):
band of marauders that ravaged the system in the original
episode series episode and the Children Shall Lead. The Terran
Empire had a shipyard in the Discovery episode Terra Firm
Apart one and the Murderer that Diana Troy sall in
Our Visions in the episode I of the Beholder, he
was from Epsilon Indy two and even Wesley Crusher mentions
(32:40):
that when he was looking out the window of ten
Ford in the Next Generation episode The Child And then
I do want to talk a little bit for those
non trekkers like us, exactly who.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Are the Metrons.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I know we mentioned him quite a lot. We mentioned
the episode they came from, which was the original episode Arena.
That's the same episode that introduced the Gorn. But they
are a higher evolved race of beings that originally inhabited
the area of the Beta Quadrant, which is part of
the United Federation of Planets. They found violence distasteful and
(33:15):
had been observing and experimenting on other races just to
see if the lesser beings can move past violence and
live peacefully together. They haven't been mentioned too many times.
This and the episode Arena are the only times we've
ever seen them in live action on the series, but
they have been mentioned once again. There was an episode
(33:36):
called The Examples on Star Trek Discovery where they believe
that the Metrons had possibly created the dark matter anomaly,
but they ended up that was dismissed that they found out.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
That that couldn't have been them.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
But however, in the IDW comic Star Trek Year four,
The Enterprise Experiment, it was revealed that the Metrons and
the Organians were the earliest creations of the Preservers. That's
the alien race that created the design of most most
beings in the universe.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
That's interesting.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
That's going deep.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Okay, yeah, that's deep.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
The only one that I caught, which was a small one.
And I don't know if this is Accurat or for
anybody else thought this, but the the chess piece that
Erica keeps seems to be in the shape of a
Gordon ship like.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's kind of a It seemed to have like a
round hub and then.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Three spikes surrounding the outside. It seemed interesting that that's
the kind of piece that she would keep that might
come back later if we do see the Gordon crop
up again.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
I could see that as being beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Kind of a gross way to keep the chess piece
because knowing that it's carved out of the bones of
the sent things.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
That the Goin has eaten, but kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, and then I had just I'll wrap it up
by saying, I was kind of sad.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
To see that this is the next to last episode
before the season finale. I'm not ready for that yet.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
But which we did get a blurb from this time.
I know they said they weren't going to give us
any but they did give us a very vague blurb,
but it says, when an ancient and evil alien force resurfaces,
Pike must make a difficult decision to stop it from spreading.
So the ancient and evil alien force has got to
(35:39):
be that I can't remember what they were called, but
those beings that would eventually evolve into the queue, or
at least few episodes ago. Yeah, it has to be them.
And we knew they were going to be coming back.
We knew that story we had to be tow to appear.
And I had a feel like it was going to
be the finale, So that's my guess, that's what they're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
So the ones that possessed gambling through the legs of time.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's them. But difficult decision. That's interesting.
I wonder what Pike's decision.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Will be that you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
We shall see.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
All right, Well, I'm looking forward to it. I'm not
looking forward to being over.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
But it's like you said, Bland, it's consistently like they
hit it out of the park every single time. So
we're bound for a great one, possibly a frustrating one
because we have to wait until the next season to
see the resolution.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
But yeah, but only be a year wait this time,
not two years.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Oh well, that's all. That's good.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
Been a great season, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I've had a blast talking with both of you, So
thank you as always for joining us and listeners. Thank you.
We'll be back next week for that episode. Remember the
healing Frequencies are always open for you to share your
thoughts and your questions on Facebook, Instagram, and your favorite
social channels. Find us online at a film by a
podcast dot com for our articles and episodes, stream for free.
(36:56):
Email us at a film by a podcast at gmail
dot com, and if you look for more exclusive content
and swag, send some Latinum r Way through Patreon. We'll
see you next time for another episode of Phasers.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Set to Sun Agree
Space the Final Frontier. Join us for a bold conversation
our prime directive to recap our favorite Star Trek shows,
both new and old, to engage in debate about all
(00:23):
things Trek. Prepare to energize with Phasers Set to Stunt.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stunt.
In this ongoing series from a film by podcast, we
continue to show our love for every quadrant of the
expanding Star Trek universe by covering television, animation, movies, directors, merchandise,
and much more.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Plotting the course. As always, it's your Core Trek crew.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I'm Scott Hoffmann, I'm David Burns, and I'm Wayne White.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And in this episode, we're continuing our coverage of Strange
New Worlds Season three. Specifically, we're covering episode nine Terrarium,
written by Alan B. McElroy and directed by Andrew Kots.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I think that's is that the way to say it? Coots? Sure, sure,
tell us in you're kind.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Since it's so new, we're calling for a red alert
on spoilers. If you haven't seen this latest episode, please
go and watch and come back to join us when
you're done. All right, Dave, let's break it down, tell
us what this episode is all about.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Well, first, Scott, I want to say, welcome back. I
want to know, has anyone noticed Scott isn't around when
Pellia is around, and it's vice versa.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's no, no, no, no, don't don't look at don't
look at the pelly behind the ground.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
They're never in the same room together. Something to think about. Okay,
because he's not in this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
To here, Scott, You guys did a great job of
the last episode.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
That was an amazing, amazing episode. So I'm sorry I.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Missed that, but I'm sorry you missed it because it
was a good episode.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, all right, let's dive into this.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
One, all right. The Enterprise is on a mission exploring
a part of the galaxy that has some strange phenomenon
that not even Spock can explain. Erica is put in
charge of taking a shuttle on a solo motion into
a nebula to get some readings the Enterprise can't get,
but upon doing this, a wormhole opens up and takes
Erica and the shuttle. The Enterprise desperately tries to find
(02:22):
her quickly as they are under pressure to get a
medication to some colonists. After escaping the wormhole, Erica crash
lands on a moon where her only survival is to
befriend an enemy at Gorn that she discovers has crash
landed as well. They work together against all odds that
seem almost impossible, only discover in the end that there
were nothing more than labyrats and an experiment to see
(02:44):
what would happen when two enemies are forced to help
each other, in a callback to a very famous episode
of the original Star Trek known as the Arena.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, I don't know what it is about rude aliens
kidnapping us for experiments, but it gets yeah tiresome.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
In this episode, it didn't. I'll start off with first
reactions to this episode.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
This one caught me by surprise in so many ways.
But I'm very glad that I was surprised by my
expectation that we were going to lose Erica. Every time
there's some ortagis focus, I think, oh, this is it.
They're they're building this up. But I was pleasantly surprised
by this one.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I go ahead about you.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
I was I was too to be a surprise on
this and because once I learned what was going on,
I felt like, this is going to fall into that
trope trap that you know we've we've seen this a
few other times. I know the next generation did it
with the Enemy, but it was Romulins instead of a Gorn,
and I felt like, again, let's talk about the end
of the movie Enemy mind. But you know, I really
enjoyed this episode a lot. It really shined on Eric
(03:54):
Ortegas in this episode. And another thing that I really
liked too was the Gorn. The design of the Gorn.
I swore it straight from the Dark Crystal, the way
the way they had designed the Gorn, and I love
that about it. I loved how they had to work
together to communicate with one another. I thought that was
incredibly well done. You know, agree, disagree, you know, I
(04:17):
love that about it. But no, I thought Erica was
fantastic and an episode she needed to heal, even though
the way it ended was yet another depressing ending. For
crying out loud with what happens to the Gorn. I
when she blew her lid at the ending, like that
just upset, you know, screaming. You know I was too.
(04:38):
I was like so upsets, say, oh my god, you
just killed this Gorn and you didn't need to do that.
But and she even stated at the end of the episode,
you know, you know the Gorn was my friend, Elann's
my friend. How did I process that? You know? So
I loved this episode for.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Erica, Wayne, what about you?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, this really surprised me to this is not the
direction I thought they were going to be going with
this story. First of all, I didn't think we'd ever
see the Gorn again. Actually physically I'm glad we did.
But you know, with the when they when we first
saw that or Tagus was suffering from the PTSD from
agim Andy, I just I didn't think this is the
(05:19):
way it was going to end, with her having a
completely new outlook on the Gorn, realizing that they're not
exactly the monsters you know that everyone thought they were.
I really thought it was going to be a different direction,
and I wasn't sure if she was going to survive
the season or not. To tell you the truth, it
was fifty to fifty in my opinion, because we really
(05:41):
don't know if she was coming back next season or not.
There's never been anything that's been said, but I'm glad
that they did this did it this way. I thought
it was a fantastic episode. It's definitely stories that we've
seen many many times before in Star Trek, and I'll
mention it later, but it works. It really those times
the stories work for Star Trek, you know, taking one
(06:03):
character and throwing in with the enemy on a planet.
It just seems to work all the time on the episodes.
And I'm glad that you chose or tag us for
this because I think all of us agree that we
needed an episode strictly about her. She needed something that
that centered on her, and this was perfect for her.
And that ending. It's so open ended, you know, I'm
(06:29):
worried that they're going to just forget this. I hope
they don't, but this whole I don't know that the
tension now that's going to come up between or take
us in Lawn. I hope that they explore that next
episode or at least next season, because this is something
that I think that there's a lot of dramatic possibility
(06:50):
in the storyline for this, and I'm hoping that they
don't fall into that whole Star Trek trope and just
you know, forget about it next week.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
You know, one of the things that I I really
love to I talked about Erica needed this for her healing.
Just the one scene where she falls asleep comfortably next
to the gorn. I thought that scene with perfect and
it was needed because it showed Erica was like, Okay,
you know, I've made friends with this gorn. I get
it now. Sure there's still enemies, don't get me wrong,
but you know, at that moment, you realized Erica has
(07:22):
pushed through her PTSD to a point and now she's
going to have it with Lawn but for crying out,
she just can't win.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, it's interesting that you're both wearing up with a
lot of great points. First of all, it didn't even
occur to me this is the first episode focused on Erica,
because there's so many great episodes that focus on her development.
And I'm glad that we did get an episode that's
completely focused on her because Dave, to your point, this
(07:53):
is a lot of growth. It's her getting through her PTSD.
Not to say that it's gone entirely, but it certainly
has taken a step forward. And one of the things
that it makes me think of, and I don't remember
the name of the episode, but there is the balance
of terror. Episode where Pike sees the future if he
continues to be the Captain, and Erica has a very
(08:16):
specific kind of reaction to the Romulans, which seems to
be very similar to Lan's approach to the Gorn right,
So seeing her grow in that way, I think is
very interesting. I think it's she gets the chest piece
that she keeps can remind me of the Inner Light.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
That was a nice touch.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I like that prim neish generation.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And I think it'll be interesting to see what happens
with the Gorn. You know, it's building up to something,
and I don't know if it's going to happen in
the next episode or if it's waiting until the next season,
but it'll be interesting to see how much she wants
to kind of see the Gorn in another light, or
try to reach them or try to community with them.
(09:01):
Although the Gorn won't have any awareness of this at all,
Enterprise has the benefit.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Of knowing that there's communication, that they.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Possibly speak our language without being able to communicate that
way or at least understand. I wasn't sure if that
was just because of the communicator that she had built
for because the Gordon was like, yeah, I've been listening
to you this whole time. I just haven't been able
to reciprocate. But the Gordon will be completely unaware, whereas
Enterprise has the benefit of hearing what Erica.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Has to say.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I want to shout out to the actor stunt performer
Warren Shearer, who played the Gordon in this episode and
has apparently played the Gordon in several other episodes throughout
this series. Has a long list of credits, but I
agree Dave like the movements very reminiscent of Dark Crystal
(09:56):
and did a great job with nonverbal communication, the subtle cues.
It gave a lot of character this Gorn that I
never expected to see. And I don't know if it's
this Gordon specifically. I don't know if it's something about
the female Gorn or if it's all Gorn.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
We've just seen the ones that are geared for war.
I don't know. It's a very interesting look at them.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up too, because I'd
love to see some behind the scenes filming of this,
because it looked like they were using a practical costume
for the movie at times, and it was really really
well done. Because he is the first close up true. Look,
we got at the Gorn, and we got a lot
of flashes in the other episodes. This time we actually
got to see them, you know, on screen for a
(10:42):
long time, and it just it looked great. I actually
could see the development between this Gorn and the original
series Gorn. You know, everybody makes fun of the rubber mass,
but I can see, you can see that the connections,
the little bits that they put in there into this costume.
It was just beautiful created.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Yeah, another thing that I really liked about this. So
there's so much I liked about this episode. But one
of the things that I liked that the writers did
was the Pike stuff. I liked that, you know, A
Horror pulled a lot Erica when she fudged the numbers.
It was you know, she pushed it to six over
sixty percent, which is what it was needed before Pike said, Okay,
(11:23):
we'll do it. But Pike knew, he knew she did that.
But I like Pike's all his responses because he says,
you know, A Horror was like, I don't want to
give up. I don't want to give up. Pipe is We're
not going to give up yet, you know, we need
to bring Erica home, and he was going to bat
for one crew member, you know. And I love that
about him because I mean, obviously, you know in Una
(11:44):
was pushing we got to go because you know, we
got to go take care of these colonists. There's like
four thousand colinists who need this medication. You know, if
they don't get it, they're not going to survive. But
Pike was still like, you know, I know we got
to do that. We still got a little bit of time.
So a horror, you got this, but I got a
limited amount of time to do. That just proved to
me that you can do it. I just love how
he went to bat for Erica.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I like the way that they that they portrayed Una
in this story though. I mean she was the first officer.
That's her job to give the alternates, to try to
get tell the captain you know, hey, this is what
we got to do. You could really see the the hurt,
the you know, it was rough for her to say
that she did not want to leave her behind, but
she had to say it.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
That's her job.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, it was just interesting in that scene, like Horo
was not being subtle at.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
All, Like with her alone. She was like, sure, hold
on a second, and then come on, and you're feeling nobody.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
But yeah, his his reactions, you know, the first one
in the the meeting room where he says, hey, nobody
says her, given up on her.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, we're gonna do what we can. And then on
the bridge when he acknowledges.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Like, I know that you fudge the numbers, but it's
with in a you know, an acceptable variance or whatever,
and he was willing to let it go. But also
interesting that we don't usually see that side of a hurrah,
that she's going to you know, lie, or that she's
going to fudge in that way. In a way, it
almost shows a little bit of I think Pike could
(13:21):
see that as desperation, but he could also see that as.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
A you know, kind of a moment when she didn't.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Trust him, Like she could have said like it's at
fifty six, like can we go with that, and he'd
be like, all right, I'm willing to do fifty six,
you know. So just an interesting decision in that moment.
What I like about the writer this thesp too. And
I need to go back and watch the other seasons
to see if they did this, but they love to.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Lean on other films and stuff that they put in,
like little kidbits. One of the things that I laughed hysterically.
Clearly somebody was a fan of Castaway because when she's like,
I made water, I've made water, And it was almost
like Tom character saying I made fire, you know, celebrating.
It's what it felt like to me, And I love
(14:05):
that scene.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Well, the whole plot is kind of a blend of
enemy Mind in the Truman Show. Yeah right, yeah, but
these metrons that could have been like, you know, you
could have done this another way and accomplished this without
torturing somebody having them eat you know, centipede sushi and
killing a Gordon.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But all right, cool.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Did anybody notice that Horror did the picard? She got
she got up, she got up out of the chair
to go to Pike and she jerked her uh down
the picardy. That had to be on purpose, it had
to have been.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I I really don't envy Erica with having to eat
those centipedes.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
That was so gross.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
It was absolutely disgusting, Uh, but unnecessary thing, like you know,
one of those moments where this I don't know the
the Gordon was able to eat them apparently with no problem,
but it could have added to some of the tension
if it was like, they're not really survivable.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Sustenance, but they can eat it. Yeah. Kind of an
interesting play there.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
There was a lot of good dialogue from Erica when
she was talking to the Gorn. You know, it's almost
like she was talking to herself at times, almost like
talking herself through it, even though she was communicating with
the Gorn. And this some of it was even before
she created She did that communicator so that she could
you know, translate the Gorn language to you know, a
yes or no, agree or disagree. But one of the
(15:37):
one of the lines I loved in this, and this
is going back to her healing, was she looked at
the Gorn when you know, he obviously had well she
had that you know, hurt leg and Erica knew that
she needed to help her and the Gorn you know,
didn't at first, didn't want that. And she had that
line you think you're too broken to be fixed. It
was almost like she was talking about herself too at
(15:59):
that moment, you know, And I love that line. I
really did. It stood up for the whole episode.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
To me, Yeah, that is a great line, and it's
interesting how they kind of gave them an extra thing
to connect with by making them both pilots. Yeah, and
you mentioned castaway like that makes me think of all
the different kind of trinkets. Yes, and things like when
she comes in, there's like painting on the walls and
(16:25):
there's something that looks like a memento, some kind of
a statue or whatever, something we haven't been shown from
the Gorn but shows us a little bit more depth.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
And how long has she been there if she was
able to create all that stuff? How long has that
Gorn been there exactly? You know, exactly?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
And I swear that one seemed that Gorn smiled. Oh yeah,
it was creepy. But then I like that as well.
I just the different characterization. I like the idea that
they're exploring the Gorn further as a civilization rather than
just monsters like we've always known before.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Yeah, I know, I know. We've talked about the cgi
of this show and it is phenomenal. I got to
point out one scene that I thought was incredible, and
that's when the Enterprise was going into the wormhole for
the first time. That shot was incredible. You can see
the shields yea when it was for the wormhole, beautiful.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Shot, which brought me back to and I We'll get
to this in Easter Eggs, but it brought me right
to the episode Relics from the next generation when.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
They had to do the same trick, they get the
same yep. I love little tidbits like that. I like
that we keep seeing those happened.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
I do too.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I just thought this episode was just wonderfully written. They
had some great just some incredible scenes. You know that
that scene with the meeting where everybody's arguing. You know,
we don't see enough of that in Star Trek. We
you know, the not just the stuff on the planet,
because everything on the planet was well written. That's the
final scene with Yohura and and ortegis wonderfully written. That
(17:56):
the bridge scenes are wonderfully written. This this I'm gonna
have to reevaluate this entire season because this could possibly
be my favorite episode. I don't know, I really really
enjoyed everything about this.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah, we've got one more to go, but I'm with
you on that. I feel like, and I think I
mentioned this before, I feel like every week we're saying, man,
this is the best episode.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
But this is the best thing.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
I mean, you know, you're right. I think I need
to go back after we're done and reevaluate which one,
because this episode was written extremely well.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yeah, it's it's high up there on the list.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah, absolutely, And to go back to that scene where
she's flipping out. She knows somebody's watching them and she says, well,
you know, would you show yourself and just going off
on that, and then obviously they're like, we got to
beam up. So they in the middle of the beaming,
which was an incredible effect. By the way, Y frozen
in between transporting God. That was incredible. And then they
(18:48):
came out and they explained who they were and what
they were doing.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
I love that scene, which surprised me. I did not
expect them to go that direction and bring me the
Metrons back into this. You know, we other than Q,
we don't get too many of these these godlike beings
in the live action Star Trek, so seeing them again
was a real surprise. And I get the impression that
the Metron had mentioned that they were he was might
(19:13):
have to change the parameters and stuff. I'm wondering if
that could somehow connect a little bit to the look
of the Gorn and the way they acted in the
original series Arena. I'm not sure, but you know it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, it's It's also I kind of question the I
could be interested in a little bit more about that
whole kind of MindWave concept with Ericain because to uh,
I forget the next Generation episode, but where Data is
the only one who remembers what happened yep, and he
had to reset the day and he was clues Clulu,
(19:51):
thank you, because he was like, you can't do that.
You can't do that to the species and leave them
with little mysteries because they'll keep picking and keep.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
And revel it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
So I wonder if there is something where she can't
name the species, she can't say anything about it, but
she does know that it was all part of a
big experiment, because without that, it feels like that would
really torture Erica, like she wouldn't be able to let
that go. So hopefully they gave some kind of way
of tying that up for But it was a great
(20:25):
use of the the metrons. You know, that's a callback
to Arena, which I have to go back and watch
now because I didn't even remember that happened, So I'll
be interested to see how they kind of pay all
that together. All right, Well, I think we were pretty pretty.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Sure this answer which crewmember shined the most. Well, let's
go ahead and ask it anyway, Wayne, and go ahead first.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Oh, yeah, it's pretty honest. This is this is the
Ortagus episode, and she shined as she should. We all
been waiting for this episode, this time to happen. We
have been waiting for this storyline to to uh come
to frontation here it is. She's just fantastic, you know, everything,
everything about her appearance, the way she she acted, the
way she learned her the lesson with the Gorn and
(21:13):
you know, saw them more than just the enemy. Everything
everything about her shine. And I love the actress. I
think she's done a wonderful job. And finally we got
to see her her moment on the series.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Yeah, Dave, what about you, it's it's clearly uh ortegus
uh in this episode. I loved how at the beginning
of the episode she was just so happy and so
giddy to be back being able to do, you know,
a solo mission on her own, and the fact that
you know, she when she was talking about, you know,
when after she crashed landed, she was going through her mind, Okay,
(21:51):
Starfleet Academy one O one, and she was processing, you know, food, housing, water,
this is what I gotta do and you know, and
she built that. That was that condensating water condenser. Thank you.
She built that water condenser. And that's when once she
was celebrating that she had made some water. But this
is an episode that we knew was coming. We knew
(22:12):
there was an Eric episode. I didn't think they were
gonna leave it for the last episode, so we've figured
it was gonna be this one. But I love the
fact that, you know, she really to the point healed herself.
But it's not a neat bow. It's not. Because we
see what happens at the end of this episode with
her and Lawn. That's gonna cause some friction between the
two of them, especially we know how much Lawn hates
(22:35):
the Gorn and now Erica has got that. Okay, I
know they're my enemy, but I can see we can
communicate with them. We can you know, we can possibly
change the outcome of our relationship with them. So I
see the frictionary when I'm gonna go back, but you said,
I hope they don't drop this because this really causes
(22:56):
some friction on the bridge of the enterprise between these
two characters and we and I like that not everybody
can get along. Just going backing what you said about
the arguing, you know, that's the way it is. It's
nature because everybody's got ideas and they're going to you know, fight,
even though they're family, they're still going to argue a
little bit because they got to figure out what is
the best solution for these apostles that they're always in,
(23:18):
you know, and I love that so much. But Erica
just seeing her buckle down on that planet and just
become so strong. We know she's a strong pilot for
crying out loud, but getting to see her out of
a ship and being put into an environment that she's
not used to and using that training she got in
(23:39):
Star for the Academy and pulling it out with perfect
perfect Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
I mean, we're we're making her so much more than
her role, so much more than a pilot, which is
exactly what it should be. Yeah, And it's definitely you know,
we know that Erica is not going to continue to
be the Helmmelsman on the Enterprise, whether that's going so
place else or hopefully going someplace also won't finish that day,
(24:05):
but it's it's big shoes to fill for Szulu, and
I think they've done a consistently great job with this
series of doing so, you know, in engineering.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
There's still that that absence felt.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And even though we've got you know, great things coming
with Pellia and Scottie, there's still that absence. And I
love the fact that they're they're building up so much.
I love the subtle things about Erica in this one,
like folding the paper airplanes for luck, which is kind
of interesting because in the Star Trek universe I really
see paper being used for anything, right, so that's going
(24:42):
to be like going into Pellia's room and grabbing a
stack out of the old copyer or.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Something, but it probably exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
He just has a stack, Like we need a lot
of luck, So just keep it coming. I'll be interested
to see what the answer is to this question, Dave,
who would you want to be in this episode?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
You know, normally I don't want to put myself in
a position where I've got a lot of pressure on me,
but I really would like to have been Pike in
this episode, just because of him coming to bat To
wanting to find one person and instead of going straight
to say that civilization there where four thousand people were
dependent on this medication that they have. I feel like,
(25:30):
would I do the same thing if I was in
that position. Yes, I probably would because they are a family,
and I would do everything I can within a limited
amount of time, which is what he gave. We can
only do this so much and we gotta get But
just Pike's demeanor in this episode I loved and I
would just love to be in his position there because
(25:50):
it shows how much he is the father figure of
this crew. But he also cares about each one of
them individually. There's no favorites, even though thinking except a hotel,
but he's not on the crew, but you know, uh,
you know, but so yeah, it's Pike.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Wayne, what about you?
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Yeah, David pretty much said almost everything I was going
to say. But I had chose Pike too, and for
a lot of the very similar reasons. I mean, he
has what you can have to consider one of the
best crews in Star Fleets, and they all work so
incredibly well together. He knows he can trust each and
every one of them, and he's not willing to give
up on any of them. I love that, even though
(26:29):
he's the first officers telling him, we've got to do this,
we got to do this, but he's not going to
give up on Artigas. And I loved Anson Mount's performance.
I loved the decisions that the writers made with him,
and uh, yeah, I have to choose him too. It
was either that or the metrons.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
By the way, did anybody notice when Pike was flying
the ship? Did you notice that he was at the helm?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I did.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
I love that within the Captain h char did you
see it.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Looked weird, but I love that.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I love UNA's jab too. She's like, oh, you've never
mentioned that you're just as good of a pilot.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
And I love that she was in that position because
that was the position she usually set in in the
original pilot cage. She was right there that first thing
that reminded me. Yeah, I love that, and I'm glad
you brought that up. So my choice is a little weird.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
Oh yeah, Now what's interesting is some I'm calling bs
on my own choice because at first I was like, oh, Erica,
because Eric did an amazing job.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
But she also had to eat centipede. Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
But the Gordon had to do that too. The reason
I'm choosing the Gordon, I just want to know more
about what brought her there, maybe some of her backstory,
to see kind of what was on her mind and
what she was really saying to Erica. It's interesting that
we never got that. I love the kind of you know, binary,
(27:59):
you know, agreed, disagree kind of responses that we got.
But I just know I'd like to know a little
bit more about that, where they were, what brought them there,
you know, bot of the that's a good call.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
I agree with you to Scott, I would love to
know more, not just about her, but more about the Gorn.
But I'm I'm my feeling is this is probably the
last time we will see the Gorn in the series.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Interesting, even with what Beatella is going.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Through, well, I don't think she's going to turn in.
I'm now suspecting now that we've seen this episode and
the the metrons and stuff, I don't think she's going
to turn into a full full Gorn. My prediction is
she'll be she'll be probably saved. Okay, all right, But
but won't stay with Pike, but won't stay with Pike.
(28:46):
Something's going to happen there's she's going to decide that well,
she's going to take that promotion, and then they're going
to drift away. That's that's my prediction.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
A way. Can I go way out on a limb here, yeah,
and say that she turned into the gormt Kirk flits.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Oh god, and that's her wearing the stones casta.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
That was my original thought. That was until I saw
this episode. That was my original thought. But now I'm
thinking that that, uh, the metrons did something to change
them into looking into the rubbery going.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
With the thing on.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
I don't know, Dave went there. I'll go there and
say that. One kind of off ramp that my brain
took with this one is what if the Gordon that
she meets in this episode is Bettel because the wormhole
doesn't necessarily you know, in terms of like bending time
(29:36):
and space and whatever. You know, it's somebody that has
some kind of nostalgia whatever, Like, dude, entirely possible.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
I never thought of that that would warp a man.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
That would be crazy because that some tiny, tiny, whiny
crap there.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
But yeah, it is doctor who what is this?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
But that that could that could work, I mean that
could actually fit.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Oh yeah, I'd rather think of it as like, you know,
there's a there's an offshoot of Goren that actually feels
this way that it's not just you know, it has
to have some kind of human element to it.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
But wouldn't that given even more meaning to UNA's decisions
of saying, hey, we got to go, we got to go. Yeah,
that's wow, that's crazy to think about.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Scott crazy crazy speaking are crazy. There were a lot
of Easter eggs in this one, obviously.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Well, I mean we've mentioned a lot of them, and
obviously Arena is kind of a big one because the
metrons that before I looked that up, I didn't even
realize we hadn't met them before.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, I just I guess I just assumed there were
a lot.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
But there's the only one I got was Uss Consolation
and Matt Decker I believe it was. Yeah, that's that's
the only one I got.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
We might have gotten more, not not very many more.
You just mentioned in one of them. But you know,
I wanted also, I wanted to bring up the fact
that you know, this episode, it was really, really good.
But it does use a lot of Commons Star Trek ideas.
You know, the the whole thing of the about the
hero being forced to face an enemy on a planet.
We've seen that many many times before, you know, not
(31:12):
just arena, not just the enemy. But this episode really
reminded me a lot of the card and Dharmack on
the planets, the episode Darmok. And then of course you
know the idea of the a greater power watching over them.
You know, we're very familiar with that. That probably the
most famous one would be Q but you got you know,
ne Gelam in the Next Generation where silence is least.
(31:33):
You got Apollo in the original series, the Vendorians, and
they appeared in the Lower Decks episode Caves. It's something
we see over and over again. But it just like
I said before, it seems to work very good for
Star Trek. Now, the easter eggs other than the Decker
in Constellation, which, by the way, you know, don't forget
that Decker is also the father of Commander Willard Decker
(31:56):
from Star Trek Motion Picture. But I only found really
one other. There was a mention of the Epsilon Indie system.
That system which is located in the Beta Quadrant, and
its planet's been mentioned quite a few times on the
various Star Trek series. It was mentioned there was a
(32:17):
band of marauders that ravaged the system in the original
episode series episode and the Children Shall Lead. The Terran
Empire had a shipyard in the Discovery episode Terra Firm
Apart one and the Murderer that Diana Troy sall in
Our Visions in the episode I of the Beholder, he
was from Epsilon Indy two and even Wesley Crusher mentions
(32:40):
that when he was looking out the window of ten
Ford in the Next Generation episode The Child And then
I do want to talk a little bit for those
non trekkers like us, exactly who.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Are the Metrons.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I know we mentioned him quite a lot. We mentioned
the episode they came from, which was the original episode Arena.
That's the same episode that introduced the Gorn. But they
are a higher evolved race of beings that originally inhabited
the area of the Beta Quadrant, which is part of
the United Federation of Planets. They found violence distasteful and
(33:15):
had been observing and experimenting on other races just to
see if the lesser beings can move past violence and
live peacefully together. They haven't been mentioned too many times.
This and the episode Arena are the only times we've
ever seen them in live action on the series, but
they have been mentioned once again. There was an episode
(33:36):
called The Examples on Star Trek Discovery where they believe
that the Metrons had possibly created the dark matter anomaly,
but they ended up that was dismissed that they found out.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
That that couldn't have been them.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
But however, in the IDW comic Star Trek Year four,
The Enterprise Experiment, it was revealed that the Metrons and
the Organians were the earliest creations of the Preservers. That's
the alien race that created the design of most most
beings in the universe.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
That's interesting.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
That's going deep.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Okay, yeah, that's deep.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
The only one that I caught, which was a small one.
And I don't know if this is Accurat or for
anybody else thought this, but the the chess piece that
Erica keeps seems to be in the shape of a
Gordon ship like.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It's kind of a It seemed to have like a
round hub and then.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Three spikes surrounding the outside. It seemed interesting that that's
the kind of piece that she would keep that might
come back later if we do see the Gordon crop
up again.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
I could see that as being beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Kind of a gross way to keep the chess piece
because knowing that it's carved out of the bones of
the sent things.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
That the Goin has eaten, but kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, and then I had just I'll wrap it up
by saying, I was kind of sad.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
To see that this is the next to last episode
before the season finale. I'm not ready for that yet.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
But which we did get a blurb from this time.
I know they said they weren't going to give us
any but they did give us a very vague blurb,
but it says, when an ancient and evil alien force resurfaces,
Pike must make a difficult decision to stop it from spreading.
So the ancient and evil alien force has got to
(35:39):
be that I can't remember what they were called, but
those beings that would eventually evolve into the queue, or
at least few episodes ago. Yeah, it has to be them.
And we knew they were going to be coming back.
We knew that story we had to be tow to appear.
And I had a feel like it was going to
be the finale, So that's my guess, that's what they're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
So the ones that possessed gambling through the legs of time.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's them. But difficult decision. That's interesting.
I wonder what Pike's decision.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Will be that you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
We shall see.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
All right, Well, I'm looking forward to it. I'm not
looking forward to being over.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
But it's like you said, Bland, it's consistently like they
hit it out of the park every single time. So
we're bound for a great one, possibly a frustrating one
because we have to wait until the next season to
see the resolution.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
But yeah, but only be a year wait this time,
not two years.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Oh well, that's all. That's good.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
Been a great season, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I've had a blast talking with both of you, So
thank you as always for joining us and listeners. Thank you.
We'll be back next week for that episode. Remember the
healing Frequencies are always open for you to share your
thoughts and your questions on Facebook, Instagram, and your favorite
social channels. Find us online at a film by a
podcast dot com for our articles and episodes, stream for free.
(36:56):
Email us at a film by a podcast at gmail
dot com, and if you look for more exclusive content
and swag, send some Latinum r Way through Patreon. We'll
see you next time for another episode of Phasers.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
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