If we go any more retro, I think Hulk Hogan will get to say his favorite word in front of his new friends in hell. Names close enough, we’ll start with the writing credit for Dana Horgan, who previously wrote “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” while her co-writer, Kathryn Lyn, was a major part of Lower Decks‘ 2nd season, as well as co-writer of “Those old Scientists.” Meanwhile, direction comes from a man who was in Tracy Tormé and Joseph L. Scanlan’s “The Big Goodbye,” i.e., the episode with Dixon Hill. It is, of course, the Jonathan Frakes episode.

In a system far, far away, on the USS Adventure, Captain Budget T Kirk faces off with the devious green alien that holds its eyes on tentacles with the humanoid actor’s actual hands. Ok, before I get messages from my editor or you think I’ve had too much Raktajino (I only have two cups a day), it is a holodecks story – a Holodecks detective story gone wrong. Focused around La’an and the stories she grew up on, of a 1960s detective called Amelia Moon, the Enterprise is retrofitted with one of these Recreation Rooms, or Holodecks for short. Yes, I know they were supposed to be separate, hush.

Feeding the ship’s computer all 120 Amelia Moon novels, La’an and Scotty ask it to create a whole new story in that world. If you’re one of those weirdos who hasn’t wrapped their head around why AI-generation is bad for doing this thing, in the universe, here we’re talking about the 23rd century using stories from the 20th. If the Amelia Moon stories were written by an adult in the 20th century, copyright is a lifetime plus 70 years. The writer of Amelia Moon is being drilled up by intergalactic BP now. That and the story’s AI-based generation isn’t effectively removing 3 acres of forest a minute to do anything.

Yes, it is another one of those seriously camp episodes, and means Anson gets to chew the scenery like a beaver. Of course, it also means we’ve got the crew in garish and ostentatious outfits. That isn’t what I want to talk about, though. I think maybe (and I could be wrong) Martin Quinn had a word with the writers to get a bit of Scottish comedy in this episode. After the “Previously On,” we get a scene from The Last Frontier, the in-holodeck-adventure show being shot in this Amelia Moon story that La’an is playing in.

The reason she’s playing in it is that Captain Pike needs the new holodeck stress tested on the ship, the first on-board holodeck for Starfleet. Nonetheless, she’s playing in a Cluedo-style (I’ll fight you if you say “Clue”) murder mystery of actors, producers, partners, and agents after they’ve filmed the TV series The Last Frontier. I’m getting to the Ronald Villiers-based point here in a second. The show is making fun of the 60s sci-fi adventures. Paul Wesley (our Kirk) is turning up the Shatner of it all, while the murder-mystery is very camp noir. I love how stupid it is – it is brilliant.

Nonetheless, in this opening scene with the alien, where the actor clearly holds up the tentacles with eyes on, Adelaide Shaw (our Chapel) says, “Captain, I have the Agonyan on the space phone.” There are bits of the show that have dated poorly, but in 1999, there was a Scottish sketch comedy by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill called Chewin’ the Fat. The second scene of the first episode is a Ronald Villiars sketch, and Ronald is a Thespian who’s just terrible as an actor, but in a very Scottish way.

So, this possible referenced scene that I’m talking about is that a casting director for Star Trek has come to Glasgow, looking for the next Scotty-type in a new The Next Generation film. The idea of the audition is that Picard is asking Officer Scanlan (Villiers’ possible role) for a status report, you know, simple Star Trek fare. They go through the scene a couple of times, and one of the line reads is literally, “That’s the Borg on the phone for you, Captain Picard.” The “Ahh” I had from Shaw’s phone line was a little too loud for watching “A Space Adventure Hour” at midnight.

With my reason for unfairly/very biasedly giving the episode a 10 out of 10 (probably not) out of the way, let’s actually talk about the episode. “A Space Adventure Hour” is (sort of) lampooning the eras that it is playing with, but also using the WhoDunIt mystery. Now I’m kind of glad I watched the Tim Curry film the other day, it makes this slightly under-served holo-mystery somewhat make more sense than I think it would have otherwise. Captain Pike, who’s on the phone with a flying spaghetti monster, is commanding the ship as it studies a neutron star.

As he and the main crew are going about their jobs normally, La’an is tasked with this holodeck job. An episode/some time for her to relax and effectively take time off from doing Starfleet work, by doing her normal work. Listen, I hear you, sister (never doing that again), I’m constantly relaxing from work by… doing work. Workaholics unite! However, to her, it is a bit of a game: Getting to live out a mystery from your favorite childhood books.

However, the ship’s computer and AI-generation can only work from what it has been fed, which is a lot of children’s mystery books and a database of crew members. So you have Anson Mount as a sort of Asimov-looking writer, TK Bellows; Jess Bush as a starlet and sexy young Australian woman, Adelaide Shaw; Celia Rose Gooding as their agent, Joni Gloss; Melissa Navia as supporting star and wannabe Western writer, Lee Woods; Babs as English rocker, Anthony MacBeau; and the fabulous Rebecca Romijn as a Lucille Ball-type, Sunny Lupino. Yes, the latter suggests a TOS-influence in this Hollywood-theme episode of Columbo.

I guess that’s a dated reference now, so it is very much a Poker Face (Columbo, but new) right down to the guest star of the week, but Spock as Spock. Not to go on too much of a tangent, but did you know Kate Mulgrew was effectively Columbo’s wife? She starred in Mrs Columbo, which only got 2 seasons, where she played Kate Columbo. I know, though, speaking of cancellations, that’s the idea of this WhoDunIt mystery on the holodecks. The TV show The Last Frontier was set to be canceled when the producer was killed, now our group of stars is being killed off too, and beyond that is a bunch of spoilers.

Personally, this latest Amelia Moon story is a bit crap, and not in a fun way. The resolution tries to be too clever and feels out of place for what the story is built up to be, and could have done something interesting with the episode. I mean, I love “A Space Adventure Hour,” I’m just saying that the holodeck-adventure’s third act is rather rushed to put the mystery to a quick end that isn’t as satisfying to me as I had the episode building up to. A bit like that Tim Curry film with the wrong name, the third act dies on its hole because it’s trying to do something smart.

Where Cluedo becomes a cult classic because it had balls to play with the medium, I think “A Space Adventure Hour” went for a safe ending to quickly wrap up. All for an endpoint of the episode as a whole that I have no interest in whatsoever. Though La’an’s whodunit isn’t the only story this week, even though it takes up the majority of the episode. As established throughout the few times he’s been here, or I’ve spoken about aggressive and artificial(/unnatural) Scottish accents where I think they don’t fit, Martin Quinn gets a proper go out as Scotty this week.

You know what, I don’t hate him. In fact, I’d say the opposite, this was the episode that made me really like and enjoy Scotty as a character. It also established Martin as this version of the character. A bit like Anson, Celia, and Jess being my versions of Pike, Uhura, and Chapel, respectively. While La’an is tasked with testing the actual holodeck itself, Scotty is the one making sure the ship can continue to operate. The point of the episode is to establish the reason holodecks don’t appear this early on ships – it’s a massive amount of power they require to sustain themselves.

I don’t mean to be the one to do it, but I said last time that all I need is a single line to clear things up sometimes, and this is a good example of it. If you’re a new fan but know TNG and DS9 had holodecks, you’re probably going to ask where they are; “We have it at Star Bases, but they drain too much power on ships” is a great solution. I don’t think it is needed three seasons in by this point, but I’m glad it is there.

Without trying to spoil too much, there is a scene later on in the third act between Scotty and Una that is something we all need to hear sometimes. That’s where I think I finally got it, I got where the show is going with him. However, that’s not the only highlight I’m going to bring up. There is a scene where La’an/Amelia Moon is questioning Joni Glass (Celia Rose Gooding), and Glass starts talking about the importance of a show like The Last Frontier (Star Trek) in this time (1969/2025 and beyond).

Not just the idea of the show’s importance to her bank balance and that of the actors, but also its cultural impact. The quote exactly: “TK wanted to give audiences a digestible reflection of their own world through the lens of fantasy. Social commentary with rubber masks and buried metaphors. You know, science fiction.” Sounds like a show you’ve maybe heard of? In a time where people will watch Star Wars and cheer on the destruction of Alderaan, The Punisher being used as a symbol of cops, and people looking at Star Trek or Doctor Who, shouting “WOKE!” Sometimes people need a reminder of what they are watching.

Is “A Space Adventure Hour” the best episode of Star Trek ever? God no. Is it really fun, knows what it is the whole time, and is willing to take a risk or two? Absolutely, and I love that. It also might have a reference to a show that, realistically, Horgan, Lyn, or anyone from the writer’s room is unlikely to know naturally. Nonetheless, intentional or not, I love that as a thing that I got a kick out of.

I know we spoke two episodes ago about Trelane and the fun of “Wedding Bell Blues,” but aside from the end of the mystery and the end of the episode, I love this as much, if not more. I’m trying not to spoil too much here or say anything beyond that Trelane bit, but these have been my two favorite episodes of the season thus far. Ok, we’re only four episodes in, but they are still fun and I quite like them even if no one else does. The more serious elements have a hit or miss line here or there, but overall, they are decent enough.

Ultimately, with Lower Decks gone, we’re playing with the 60s era of Star Trek. This was a great play on that, the WhoDunIt mystery for the most part, and being able to make me like Scotty. The mystery itself wasn’t very good, more just using the idea of it than something proper to solve, but it was fun. Its third act was rather poor, with the episode’s third act having bumps and metaphorical shark jumps that I’ll have to talk about soon too. If you hate fun, you’ll hate “A Space Adventure Hour.”

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SNW “A Space Adventure Hour”

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Holodecks gone wrong.
• Mount is chewing every bit of that scenery for all it is worth.
• "That's the [alien] on the phone for you, Captain."

Cons

• The WhoDunIt wasn't really a mystery, certainly not a great one.
• That final scene, I don't look forward to any more of this.