A visiting instructor arrives at the Academy and uses an unorthodox method to help our cadets process the emotions of recent trauma. At the same time, a cadet faces an unexpected challenge that will alter the trajectory of her life forever.
Written by: Gaia Violo & Jane Maggs
Directed by: Andi Armaganian
There is no spoiler protection in the episode discussion threads, and spoiler tags are not necessary!
I was not ready for the callback to “Real Life”.
I mentioned to my wife, after Sam had asked, that the Doctor had, in fact, been in love at least once, and maybe three times, but I wasn’t sure one of them counted.
Seems I was wrong. That one did count.
Well they couldn’t show anything from “Blink of an Eye”. They never showed his son.
Also, that one didn’t seem to leave any scars.
I think that refusing to hold her hand was unforgivable.
So… I cried
10/10. No notes.
In my view, perhaps the strongest episode yet.
Just goes to show that YMMV remains a truism.
I wonder why the old TOS fans like me are less impatient with fundamentals of human existence being presented through the growth of young adults?
Sincerely, resilience in the face of trauma is something many 30 and 40 year olds struggle with. I didn’t see this as sophomoric at all.
So, I wonder why episodes like this aren’t landing as well for folks 20 or even 30 years younger than I…
I don’t have any issue with seeing young adults growing and dealing with trauma. This episode has a lot of pieces working together in the overall storyline, I just don’t think it was that compelling within the episode.
The drama class half of the episode didn’t really go off. Maybe because I only know the play from what the episode told me about it, but I think it’s more like the actual growth part got cut off. We spend time with drunk Tarima (yawn) and then short cut the cadets actually performing the play with each other. That would have been the climax of that story, them getting into character, relating to it, working through it and reaching some sort of understanding or catharsis but that scene gets hand waved. Probably needed a full 45 minutes to do right too.
Or the Sam story, which was closer to the mark but still failed to create tension or consequences and ended up getting resolved neatly with a happy ending. Give Sam half an episode to be dead, for people to be sad, and the Doctor half an episode to reflect on it, resolving to do better before tying it up with a bow and it could have been great.
I love that the show isn’t constantly balls to the wall action and we’re getting a lot of character focus but the story juggling bit this episode in the ass and it isn’t the first to be trying to do too much and fumble the execution.
I only know the play from what the episode told me about it
I was unfamiliar with it too, but I feel like I got what I needed to from the description.
I unfortunately found Tarima’s messy response to her trauma very…familiar, on multiple levels.
The reactions all around were well done and in a quite relatable way. Many memories of my own youth as well.
I wonder why the old TOS fans like me are less impatient with fundamentals of human existence being presented through the growth of young adults?
I’m a TNG person myself. One thing that I very much liked about TNG, DS9, SNW, and to an extent VOY was the competency porn. (And then totally inverted in LDK)
This show doesn’t have much of that. It doesn’t even have what ENT had, which learning to be the professionals we want to see. This is still kids learning to be adults. That’s a different journey entirely.
Don’t get me wrong, I quite like it. But it has issues. But then, don’t they all?
If anyone is curious as to why the Protostar crew have only had a single mention, Aaron Waltke has clarified that PRO was being written at the same time as SFA.
I think overall a solid episode. I agree with some commentators, the SAM plot should have been the main focus (basically because that would make it a Doctor episode). The stakes were indeed low, because you know SAM won’t die. I’m also intrigued in how she’ll behave from now on.
The theatre plot, no idea. Why do they need Tilly to do it? Especially if all she does is ask “What do you think this line means?” Like a high school literature teacher. You’d think they bring her because she experienced trauma herself, but it’s not even brought up really? Anyway, their therapy consisted of reading the lines, some drunk shouting and reconciliation. Not sure this is how it works.
The previous episode is still the weakest of the season to me, by far. This one again felt like two plots that were a bit cut short. I think the idea of dealing with trauma in these young people is a good theme for an episode, but I’m not sure what the episode is trying to tell me. I think it would have been more interesting to see the War Academy’s approach to trauma therapy (I mean it’s one of their cadets that died) and compare it to SFA, and then maybe we’d get something out of this. Overall, a 7/10 for me with a tendency towards 6.
Annotations for 1x08 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/36104352
I thought it was pretty okay.
I think I might be old and grumpy but I find myself saying “just talk about your feelings!” at the TV a lot in this show. But I guess they’re all basically teenagers, so it would be unreasonable to ask a level of emotional maturity that many real life adults fail to meet.
great episode. I do wish the actress who plays Tarima was better acting. I think her scenes were the weakest
Maybe I just haven’t noticed up until this point, but this episode it was definitely noticeable.
