Annotations for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 4x07: “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass”

[khaosworks@startrek.website]

The episode title alludes to the famous opening narration of the long-running television soap opera, Days of Our Lives: "Like sands through the hourglass, so go the days of our lives." Soap operas, the subject of this episode's homage, are best known for melodrama and plot twists. Incidentally, Days is broadcast on NBC/Paramount. Chronitons are technobabble particles associated with time travel.

The bright and hazy environment is typical of the lighting in daytime soaps, which are usually shot on video. “The dreaded Abbott-Chancellor Collision” is a reference to two rival families in The Young and the Restless. The dramatic pauses, looking to the side, camera angles, music and excessive exposition are all imitative of the style of soaps.

Pike hears the dramatic music, which means it is diegetic in nature. He wonders if he’s back in the musical (SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”) or in a simulation (SNW: “A Space Adventure Hour”).

Dr Elanor Chivers is played by Deidre Hall, who has played the character of Dr Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives for 50 years. Old fogeys like me also remember her as Electra Woman on the Sid and Marty Krofft series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Chivers is described as the ship’s counselor, which is a position that until now we did not think existed on 23rd century starships but was only established in the 24th century with officers like Deanna Troi. In an early draft of TNG: “Relics”, Troi says that counselors were only assigned to starships starting in 2330. Prior to that, the role of looking after the ship’s psychological welfare seemed to come down to medical officers like McCoy. That being said, in the fan production Star Trek Continues, Kirk’s Enterprise had a ship’s counselor, Dr Elise McKenna, played by Michele Specht.

The teaser ends with the reveal that the trickster cosmic entity (unnamed but definitely Trelane from TOS: “The Squire of Gothos”) from SNW: “Wedding Bell Blues” is behind this. Sadly, they didn’t do a soap-opera remix of the theme for this.

Sybok (ST V) is the half-brother of Spock and a v’tosh ka’tur, one who rejects the denial of emotion that Vulcan society demands and embraces it. He was mentioned last in SNW: “The Serene Squall” as being imprisoned at the Ankeshtan K'Til Vulcan Rehabiltation Center on the 3rd Moon of Omicron Lyrae, where he used the alias Xaverius. Sybok was played by Laurence Luckinbill in ST V, who did not resemble Leonard Nimoy in the slightest (the role was originally written for Sean Connery) but is played by Ethan Peck here, likely because plot twists like “evil twins” are also a common soap trope, as are secret offspring.

Trelane starts to say his name but only gets as far as “Tre—“ before Pike cuts him off, preserving the idea that we don’t get his name until his proper debut in “The Squire of Gothos”.

The fact that Pike understands what a soap opera doesn’t necessarily mean the format has survived to the 23rd century (although given Ferengi television - LD: “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” - who knows?), because Pike has a fondness for classic media (SNW: “Strange New Worlds”).

Some of our younger viewers may not know that they literally did say “and now for a word from our sponsors” before ad breaks on television, much like YouTubers do nowadays.

The recipe book’s blank pages may be a reference to the days when television props weren’t as detailed as they are now because without HD television, nobody could really see it.

The robes and elaborate headdress of Trelane’s proctor resemble Q’s judge’s robes first seen in TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”.

“Vulcans can’t engage in subterfuge,” is a misconception. Vulcans (and Spock) are perfectly capable of lying (TOS: “The Enterprise Incident”, et al.). Kal-toh is a Vulcan logic puzzle game, playable solo or with an opponent. It was first seen in VOY: “Alter Ego”, several times in VOY and later on in LD and PIC. 

“Space madness”, like “cosmic amnesia” might refer to the habit of pulp science fiction to make something typical seem exotic by affixing a prefix to it. In TOS: “The Naked Time”, Spock says, “It could be some sort of space madness we’ve never heard of.”

Sybok here paraphrases his dialogue from ST V: “Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me and gain strength from it.”

The Arachnid Nebula was first mentioned in ENT: “Fusion”. There is no such nebula in real life, although the Tarantula Nebula exists in the Larger Magellanic Cloud, outside the Milky Way, some 160,000 ly from Earth.

Cadet A’Sha’s name has been in the credits when she has appeared, but this is the first mention in dialogue.

Uhura’s parents were killed, along with her older brother, in a shuttle accident a week before she was due to start at the University of Nairobi where they taught. Her grandmother, a former Starfleet officer, inspired Uhura to enlist (SNW: “Children of the Comet”).

Ortegas, together with M’Benga and others, were kidnapped aboard a Gorn ship in SNW: “Hegemony, Part I” at the end of Season 2, escaping in “Hegemony, Part II” at the start of Season 3. Ortegas says this was “last year”, which more or less jibes with my calculations that the current year is around 2262-63.

Trelane’s screens display the status: “technical difficulties” as we enter the act break. While “technical difficulties” that interrupted a broadcast did happen, there is a trope that uses it as a euphemism when there is a need to cut transmission but not reveal why to the audience, like it is here.

Spock’s heart is definitely green here, despite showing red bruises in SNW: “Off-Hour”. Having Sybok donating a cloned heart to Spock and lying next to him echoes Sarek’s cryogenic open heart procedure in TOS: “Journey to Babel” where Spock was also lying next to his father while donating blood for the operation. 

Pike dealt with time travel most recently in SNW: “Valles Marineris”, zombie Klingons in SNW: “Last Shuttle to Kenfori” and his lover Marie Batel’s ascension in SNW: “New Life and New Civilizations”. 

Juliet Pike, played by Anna Mirodin, was Pike and Batel’s daughter in the vision created by Batel in “New Life and New Civilizations”, although she was only named in the credits. Two weeks ago was Pike’s last memory, hosting a Captain’s Table, before waking up at the start of this episode, as stated earlier. This is Galor III’s first mention in lore, although the Cardassians have Galor-class cruisers (TNG: “The Wounded”), and Galor IV was the site of a Starfleet Research facility (TNG: “The Offspring”). 

The stardate is 2654.9, and it’s established that Sybok’s appearance is not the same as Spock’s. Dr Chivers is apparently real, though. In the part of the vision we saw, Juliet was engaged to Elijah April, the son of Admiral Robert April.