If there’s one thing Star Trek fans know, it’s that if it’s a holodeck-centered episode, there’s going to be trouble. So was the case with “A Space Adventure Hour,” this week’s crazy Strange New Worlds episode that utilizes the holodeck for a story combining Knives Out with Galaxy Quest amid the usual Trek shenanigans, while also providing some surprisingly good character work amid the emergency.
From the start, we’re in for a wild ride. Rather than a standard opening, we see what looks like an ultra-cheesy retro-1960s sci-fi TV series where Kirk is the captain (Paul Wesley is doing his best cliche over the top William Shatner impression), with Ortegas, his first officer, and Chapel, a science officer, all in wildly bizarre outfits and hairdos.
They contact an alien who is clearly a puppet with very visible wires, which leads to a “battle” where all we hear are sound effects and the good old shaking camera effect. That then leads to the opening credits, which are done in the style of this show, called “The Last Frontier.”
Strap in, folks, because this is a fun episode.
We cut to “reality,” where La’an’s log relates she’s been given a special assignment: Test a brand-new method for Starfleet vessels to alleviate stress and entertain the crew via a simulator. Or, as Number One calls it, “a Holodeck.” Pike tells La’an to go ahead and “push it as hard as you can.” Famous last words…
Enter the master detective
La’an finds Spock using dance as an exercise and joins in. They banter about holodeck parameters as they tango with La’an, hitting on the idea of using an idea based on Amelia Moon, a 1960s detective series she read years back. Scotty arranges for a boost while La’an tells the computer to craft a program mystery “that can really challenge me.” In the words of Sam Beckett, "Oh boy."
La’an shows up on the holodeck in full Amelia outfit (which is quite fetching) to find Spock already there, checking the system. The holodeck fires up to create a 1960s mansion, with La’an amazed at how real it is, down to cigarette smoke. Taking on a perfect American accent, La’an finds Uhura, who identifies herself as Jodi Gloss, a producer/agent, and realizes the holodeck is using the images of crewmates for the characters.
Jodi says she found the body as the first (well, second) guest to arrive. The body is Tony Hart, a studio head, strangled in his hot tub. With old-school narration, La’an quickly brings us up to speed on who the suspects are, the cast and creators of "The Last Frontier" show: T.K. Bellows (Pike), the show’s creator; Sunny Lupino (Una), former actress turned producer; the show’s stars, Adelaide Shaw (Chapel), Maxwell Saint (Kirk) and Lee Woods (Ortegas) along with Adelaide’s boyfriend Anthony McBow (M’Benga).
La’an says the show was about to be canceled, which is a surprise to the dim-witted Max, giving everyone a clear motive. She plays the Amelia role to the hilt to cut off contact with the outside world, and that one of the guests is responsible. She first targets Anthony with a glass left at the crime scene, which also implicates Sunny. Sunny also got a loan from the mob to get the show started, putting her in debt if it was canceled. Sunny denies it, saying she paid for the show by selling her house.
Sunny claims she and Tony were making a deal, and that she should talk to Max. She suddenly starts coughing, then collapses, dead (Lee intoning “you know I’m an actor, not a doctor, right?”), which throws La’an. She contacts Scotty, who tells her that the holodeck is taking more power than expected. La’an decides she needs a fresh pair of eyes and enters Spock as her partner (who, in the book, is a bumbling idiot), with the others mocking his outfit.
In the med bay, M’Benga reports that the ship’s power is flickering just as they’re investigating a stellar anomaly. Una finds Scotty in the engine room with power overloading, thanks to the holodeck. He insists he can compensate for it despite the red alerts, as Una notes that Scotty is the failsafe to all this.
The mystery gets serious
Swift is the first one questioned as he confesses to having an affair with Hart’s secretary, who is also Hart’s girlfriend. “You work with people, things happen, you two know how it goes,” Swift notes with Spock and La’an thrown. Swift claims he and Adelaide were hooking up, with her denying it, and Sunny was the one pushing her as a star. Anthony talks of respecting Sunny promoting art, while Lee had been writing a screenplay, which Amelia recognized at the crime scene.
Bellows talks of the show with the “small but passionate audience” and knows of Lee’s screenplay, while not caring about the show being canceled as he already has another gig lined up. As La’an and Spock talk, a chandelier nearly hits them, and the fact that La’an is bleeding from it shows the holodeck’s safety protocols are off. La’an calls for the program to end, but (of course) nothing happens.
Scotty brings up the “hypothetical” to Uhura on whether he lost contact with the holodeck with Uhura realizing he is trying to tell her La’an is stuck on the holodeck and he can’t shut it off. Worse, the way it is sucking up power means shutting it down could ruin every system on the ship.
Amelia and Spock run over their problems with La’an deciding the only way to stop this is to solve the mystery. They see the cast start to tear into each other on their petty jealousies. La’an then finds Jodi standing over Lee’s dead body. She denies killing Lee or Tony but wishes she had, with a powerful speech on how “The Last Frontier” is a powerful analogy for the real world.
After Jodi leaves, La’an finds a roll of film in the fireplace. On the bridge, the ship is hit by a stellar flare with the engines and shields off, thanks to the holodeck continuing to suck up power. That leaves Ortegas to navigate the ship past the flare, with Uhura suggesting Scotty convince the holodeck he was a program too, so he can communicate with La’an.
Unmasking the killer
The film is an episode of the series, giving us another chance to laugh at the bad acting before the take is ended, while Bellows and Swift yell at each other. Bellows then gets a phone call that informs him he is being fired and marches off, threatening someone. Scotty pops up as an “assistant” to tell La’an she has to solve the mystery to save the ship.
La’an is struck by Spock being coldly logical (even for him) as she runs down who could have done this. A drunk and gun-wielding Bellows waltzes in to relate that the show wasn’t being canceled, he was being fired, and comes to beg Hart to keep him on. He accuses Amelia of being the killer, with Spock grabbing the gun as it went off.
La’an hugs Spock in relief, only for it to dawn on her that Spock is the killer. It hits her that Spock is already on the holodeck when she arrives and that he is a hologram the holodeck crafted as part of the challenge. “Spock” congratulates her as La’an happily shuts the program down, restoring power to the ship.
La’an and Scotty relate that the holodeck is a good idea; it just needs a few decades to craft a way to compensate for the power, with Pike wanting it buried. Una gently chides Scotty for doing all this on his own rather than asking for help. Scotty admits he carried the guilt of never fixing a scanner anomaly on the Stardiver, with Una saying the Gorn attack wasn’t his fault: “Knowing to ask for help isn’t a weakness; it’s a strength.”
La’an finds the real Spock for another dance lesson as she discusses the experience and the holodeck, realizing that seeing the colder hologram Spock makes her appreciate the real version. Spock returns the feelings and they kiss.
The episode ends with “outtakes” from “The Last Frontier” over the credits, closing out an inventive hour that is a combination of various homages and old-school Trek with some good character work for Spock, La’an, and Scotty to mark a fun “placeholder” episode.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.
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