[SNW] Season 1, Episode 3: Ghosts of Illyria
Rating: 2
Secrets! Una gets the spotlight in the third episode, and she’s keeping something from us. So far each episode has fit into a type of Trek sub genre, but has had just enough of a twist on the familiar premise that it’s felt fresh. Ghosts of Illyria sticks with a classic trek type of episode more closely, except it mixes in some big, establishing character reveals at the end. It’s not a bad episode, but it has a few things working against it that make it not quite as entertaining as the last two. First, it’s the kind of Trek episode where a mysterious phenomena is affecting the crew, so that the structure of the story is basically a string of crew members doing odd things until an answer kinda falls on the heroes and the episode is over. It’s a tough kind of story to make work, and usually it only does if the solution to the mystery is especially clever (it rarely is) or if the individual occurrences are extra moody/weird/fun/etc. The other mild weakness is this one is centered on Una, who isn’t quite as interesting or charismatic as Uhura or La’an. It doesn’t help that it starts with Una not telling anyone that she is infected with the strange disease that is ravaging the ship – a classic but frustrating Trek trope.
Her reasons for doing so end up being understandable, and I think that some good material can come from her situation, one that hasn’t quite been done in Trek like this. If that wasn’t enough, Doctor M’Benga is also keeping a secret that puts the whole crew in danger. This secret feels like kinda standard tragic backstory for like a network procedural TV show. It fits into the plot well enough, but still seems like a bit much in an episode focused on a different character’s big secret.
Read more at Memory Alpha
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