A lot of this exposition all through this hour is little greater than technobabble-style gobbledygook, however it all ties in neatly with Korby’s established curiosity in molecular reminiscence and corporeal transference (foreshadowing the Star Trek: The Unique Sequence episode “What Are Little Ladies Made Of,” the place he places his consciousness in an android). Chapel will get to take level on main the touchdown get together, which is immensely satisfying for these of us who’ve been longing to see her get the prospect to do greater than be M’Benga’s assistant or Spock’s love curiosity. She and Korby are surprisingly candy collectively, and the gang virtually instantly turns up some historic ruins that promise potential history-changing discoveries forward. However what they discover there may be darker than anybody (together with us) probably anticipated. (Spoiler alert: It’s historic monsters. Or the satan. Or parasitic hitchhikers, relying on which potential translation of alien textual content you select to imagine.)
Issues virtually instantly go south: A pile of useless our bodies, a mysterious exploding orb that injures the cheerfully lovely Ensign Gamble, and a booby-trapped exit imply that all of the sudden everybody’s extra involved with survival than scientific development. The layered actuality of the ruined temple is surprisingly and superbly rendered, a captivating, shifting setting that someway resembles each a library and a jail, working on a number of dimensional planes directly and providing the crew repeated brain-bending puzzles to unravel. (Paradoxes! Inverted causality! Blood-based DNA locks! Repeated appearances of alien phrases that translate to some model of “parasitic satan monster”!) Whereas Chapel, La’an, Uhura, Spock, Korby, and Ortegas’s little brother Beto try to traverse layered realities that technically exist in the identical room, M’Benga is dealing with his personal medical impossibilty: The newly blinded Gamble is technically useless, however someway additionally seemingly very a lot alive, and presumably carrying a malevolent drive inside him.
These are all tropes we’ve seen all through sci-fi: Harmful alien parasites, unspeakable evil hidden in nightmare prisons that double as holy websites after sufficient time passes, unattainable selections about who and what to avoid wasting. But, “By the Lens of Time” refuses to supply any straightforward solutions about what the evil often called the “Vezda” actually is. That it stays distinctly and threateningly different is an enormous a part of the rationale it’s so concurrently disturbing and engaging.
We all know its actually previous—even to Pelia, whose species is extremely lengthy lived, it appears historic. It’s manipulative, purposefully merciless, and able to accessing the recollections of these it possesses/infects. Plus, regardless of the Vezda can also be undoubtedly has some form of long-standing historic beef with the Gorn, if the sudden sickbay face off between Gamble and Captain Batel is something to go by, when each people are seemingly taken over by the eldritch horrors at present sharing their our bodies.However what it desires is murkier, exterior of the liberty to destroy at its leisure.
A lot of the Unusual New Worlds crew has a point of plot armor that it may possibly generally be tough to present these tales actual stakes. We all know Pike’s future—however we additionally understand it isn’t right here but. Spock, Uhura, Scotty, and Chapel all have The Unique Sequence ready for them. Even Korby has a predetermined future meaning he’s going to get out of this mess simply advantageous. Regardless of how anxious we could really feel after we’re watching our faves face hazard, we all know that the majority of them are going to make it out of no matter scrape they’re in unscathed. On some degree, characters just like the charmingly effusive Gamble are primarily launched to be potential canon fodder. But it surely doesn’t imply that his loss of life—which is especially grisly and horrible—is any much less emotionally devastating. (It additionally doesn’t assist that M’Benga has been by it over the course of this present, and it actually appears downright imply to punish him for caring about somebody once more.)
Gamble’s loss of life feels significantly murky and uncomfortable, as a result of it’s not totally clear when it occurred. Was the bubbly younger man gone from the second the Vezda entered his physique or did some component of his consciousness stay till Pelia shot him? The tragedy of all of it is, in fact, that we’ll by no means know. (And the trace that related questions may very well be requested of Batel, who can also be carrying the same historic and malevolent drive inside her, is nearly equally unsettling, however that seems to be a narrative for an additional day.) After all, the episode additionally leaves the door open for the Vezda to return—that transporter sample buffer can certainly solely maintain a lot!
