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Matt and Sean talk about too much of an emotionless thing, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’, Season 3, Episode 7, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans.”
Matt and Sean talk about too much of an emotionless thing, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’, Season 3, Episode 7, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans.”
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- (07:30) - - Today's Episode
- (08:58) - - This Time in History
- (10:51) - - Episode Discussion
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Creators and Guests
What is Trek In Time?
Join Sean and Matt as they rewatch all of Star Trek in order and in historical context.
Sean Ferrell: In this episode of Trek in Time, we're talking about Doug. Welcome, everybody, to Trek in Time. This is, of course, the podcast that takes a look at Star Trek in chronological order. We are currently in season three of Strange New Worlds. This is us moving backward in time chronologically because we were partway through the second season of the original series. But when the new seasons are of new series drop and they fall within something that is technically in our past, we're going to jump back and take a look at it. So we're taking a look at episode seven, Four and a Half Vulcans, Season three of Strange New Worlds. Welcome, everybody, to Trek in Time. I'm Sean Ferrell. I'm a writer. I write some sci fi, I write some horror. I write some stuff for kids. And with me, as always, is my brother Matt. He is that Matt behind Undecided with Matt Ferrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and it's impacting our lives. Matt, how are you today?
Matt Ferrell: I'm doing good. I got to mention, Sean, I sometimes do this. There's a sci fi show I think a lot of our viewers might enjoy called the Lazarus Project on Netflix. It's a British show from sky that I think actually came out a couple years ago and there's two seasons of it on Netflix. I started watching it. It's time travel, so it's timey wimey. That's all I'll say about what the plot is. But I went in thinking, oh, this should be a light, fun show to watch. And it is. It's got action, drama. But the sci fi ness of the time travel, Sean, I think you would enjoy. It's blowing my mind because it's a very simple conceit about how the time travel works. Super simple and straightforward. But what the ramifications of what that means for people is profound. And all the different when you take it through its logical conclusion on this point of view and this point of view, it's like the show keeps blowing my mind of like, it's great. I would highly recommend watching that. So just last words.
Sean Ferrell: I will add it to the list. I will also throw out something I think you mentioned at the beginning of last week's episode, which was Alien Earth. We started watching that and we got through the first 30 minutes of the first episode, not because we didn't like it, but because we were exhausted. And my fiance, after 30 minutes, looked at me with one eye sealed shut with sleep and said, I like this, but I can't stay awake. Can we go to bed? So we will return and finish that episode soon.
But I definitely got everything you were saying about that show. It is really, really good on. Now to our discussion about this week's episode Four and a Half Vulcans. We always like to revisit the mailbag and see what you had to say about our previous episodes. So, Matt, what did you find for us this week?
Matt Ferrell: Well, from the what is Starfleet episode, there was a lot of comments that kind of agreed with us on like the documentary really kind of screwed up a really good story. Yeah, but some of the comments were like from Scooteroo. He wrote commenting before listening. So sorry if I rehash your talking points. This episode was just okay for me. If they had done a normal episode with the Jakari story as the primary plot, filmed normally, and then threw in a little bit of Betos documentary, that felt like a school project. Like the interviews and maybe some candid filming of conversations he had could have been a much, much better episode. But the pseudo documentary style with the camera angles and the security cameras, hey look, they do exist in Star Trek apparently, detracted from all the Jikaru stuff. That was really good. It also felt like there was 10 to 15 minutes of extra story that got left on the cutting room floor. And I thought that last bit, I do agree with that. It does feel like a bunch of stuff that was left out.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: And then AJ Chan wrote this is more kind of a high level commentary of the season so far. Coming off the M'Benga Klingon war storylines and the Gorn homogeny season finale of season two, I had high expectations. After two years of waiting, we got several filler episodes, Wedding, Holodeck, and what if the crew were Vulcans that can't capitalize on its own premise? They threw away the Gorn, sidestepped an assassination of a Klingon ambassador, fumbled the Ortega's ptsd, and the one story that felt like Star Trek, the Jikaru, was through the off kilter camera angles of a documentary.
Sean Ferrell: Right.
Matt Ferrell: Sean and Matt, please go back to quote, rewriting the episode for the remainder of season three.
Sean Ferrell: Oh boy.
Matt Ferrell: So sorry, AJ Chan, that you're not enjoying this season. I don't feel as harsh about it, but I totally see where AJ Chan's coming from on this.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah, it's landing in a. It's landing in an unexpected terrain right now. Yeah, it definitely is. And strangely, I think it's landing in a place very similar to the original series. Like our conversations around the original series tend to be like, wow, the last episode was terrific, but this one is kind of a. And.
Matt Ferrell: They're emulating the original series.
Sean Ferrell: They're too much like the original series. And I think I, you know, like, everything in the past ends up with a patina of nostalgia. But when you stop and like think really hard about some of the episodes of Next Generation, we're going to be rewriting some of those episodes. We're going to be like, there are going to be when we get to Voyager. I promise to our listeners, when we get to Voyager in eight years. When we get to Voyager, Sean is going to have some thoughts. And I see. I frequent the Reddit community for Star Trek and I see the general zeitgeist around Trek and the way that Voyager resonates with a big, big portion of the community as one of the best. I am not going to say it is a bad program when we get there, but I have thoughts about opportunities missed and what they could have done. So. Yeah, AJ, thank you for the comment. Completely see where you're coming from. And while we don't like to lean too hard on the. Let's rewrite the episode.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: Heard. Thank you.
Matt Ferrell: And finally, we don't have a wrong answers only, but we have one that's kind of adjacent from Dan Sims who wrote Four and a Half Vulcans. Made me think of Three and a Half Men. And what would a Charlie Sheen esque Vulcan be like?
Sean Ferrell: Oh God.
Matt Ferrell: To which PaleGhost69 wrote a Vulcan who gave up on logic and experiences constant Pon Farr syndrome.
Sean Ferrell: That's. Wow, I laughed.
Matt Ferrell: I laughed for five minutes about that one.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah, that is incredibly accurate, Jeff.
Matt Ferrell: Charlie Sheen, constant Pon Farr.
Sean Ferrell: Just seeing somebody say, like winning.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah. Oh man.
Sean Ferrell: So that noise you hear, those lights you see, that's not Matt going into Pon Farr. Although the exact same thing does happen, it is time for Matt to tackle the AI generated description. Take it away, Matt.
Matt Ferrell: In the Star Trek Strange New Worlds episode Four and a Half Vulcans, a critical mission on a pre warp on a pre war planet or to a.
Sean Ferrell: Pre war planet because on it, they're on it.
Matt Ferrell: On it. Okay. On a pre war planet requires Captain Pike, La'an, Uhura and Chapel to undergo a biological transformation to become temporary Vulcans. When the serum fails to reverse the process, the crew members remain in their new rigidly logical and arrogant states, prompting a shipwide crisis.
Sean Ferrell: This episode Four and a Half Vulcans dropped on August 28, 2025 directed by Jordan Canning, written by Dana Horgan and Henry Alonso Myers, the episode stars the usual cast and crew. Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, and Martin Quinn. Also joining the episode are Melanie Scrofano as Captain Marie Batel, Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, Carol Kane as Pelia, and Patton Oswald as Doug. Doug. Doug. What was the world like at the time of original broadcast? Well, anybody tuning in to listen to this episode in the future will wonder what it was like back in August of 2025. Well, the song we were all singing along to, and Matt's about to do an amazing rendition. I don't want to get anybody's hopes up, but it sounds just like Sabrina Carpenter. That's right. It's the song Tears from her album Man's Best Friend, which appears to be her attempting to recreate the Spinal Tap album cover from the mockumentary. Take It Away. Matt. Terrific as always. And at the movies, we've got some new films appearing in the top slots. According to Rotten Tomatoes. We have Caught Stealing. We have the Thursday Murder Club, which I happened to watch just last night. Recommend a fun film. It's a fun film. And the Roses. I will say this about Thursday Murder Club. The book is better. It is based on. It is based on the first book of a series of novels, and the book is better. But the movie is a lot of fun, and it's got a murderer's row of British actors in it. And amongst the most streamed TV shows this week, the Netflix show Hostage, the HBO Max show Peacemaker in its return, and the aforementioned Alien Earth, which Matt has recommended and which I can heartily, strongly recommend the first 30 minutes of the first episode.
And in the news New York Times talking about how Israel was able to assassinate the Iranian leaders that they were targeting. Well, it turns out they've been tracking bodyguard cell phones. Yes. Make sure you pay attention to what apps you download on. Now to our discussion about this week's episode, Four and a Half Vulcans. Matt, I think, if memory serves, and it very often doesn't, I started off the discussion last week. So do you want to take the lead on this one?
Matt Ferrell: Sure. All right. Good luck. Have fun. I'm torn on this one, Sean, because you and I have talked about how these goofy episodes, these fun, comedic ones, they're fine. They're totally fine. I don't mind them. But when your season is 10 episodes long, why are you choosing to do so many of them? So when this one started and was clearly a comedic episode, my heart kind of sank a little bit of like, oh, God, here we go again. Why are you choosing to do so many of these? But of all the ones they've done, this is the one I liked. I thought this one was incredibly funny and it had still that Star Trek ness to it. It wasn't like the wedding episode to me. It wasn't like, you know, the musical episode. Sure was not like the musical episode. This one had a point and a purpose, but just happened to be really funny. And it had me at the introduction of Patton Oswald, like his reveal when it's all about Number One's love interest. And the camera pans around and you see this dashing, good looking guy on camera and he steps out of you and there's a little Patton Oswald standing there. It was like, okay, that is the vibe of this entire show. It felt very much like a Lower Decks episode to me. Yeah, because some of the jokes were coming rapid fire and were extremely funny. Lots of sight gags, you know, all that kind of stuff. And it was done very well. The reason I'm torn is that you can very easily make the argument of that's not Star Trek. You know what I mean? It's like it didn't feel like a traditional live action version of Star Trek that we're used to. It was way more comedic than even the counselor Troi's mom coming on board the ship. It was way more hardcore comedy than those were. So it was a very different, a different phase of Trek. But like I said, it was very Lower Decks.
So if you like, if you're on the vibe of Lower Decks, I think you're gonna be on the vibe of this episode. But then when you look at this in a whole as a piece of the season of the entire show, does it, does it make sense? Like, should they have done this? And that's where I kind of like, I'm torn. I'm still not completely sure whether I think there was a good decision or not for them to do this. Even though I had a really, really good time watching it. I was laughing pretty hard. My wife was laughing pretty hard. We had a really good time. And we can talk about the specifics, but in a nutshell, that's kind of where I was landing on it.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I had a similar response. But I land a couple of steps much more firmly in the it worked for me camp.
Matt Ferrell: Okay.
Sean Ferrell: I think one of the things that I take with my response is I think you would have a different response if the other episodes that we didn't like as much hadn't been in the season.
Matt Ferrell: Yes.
Sean Ferrell: If this was. Yes. If this was the bar of here's what a comedic episode is. Like. Yes, you would be like, this was a nice, nice breath of fresh air. Because I found myself thinking, I would love this episode even more if we hadn't had the wedding episode. Those multiple moments in the season where we've been like, had they spent their time here. And this one, I was like, okay. The magic science at the beginning, which makes zero sense, was forgivable to get to the ultimate point of the episode. Because the whole, like, we're going to inject you with this thing to turn you into Vulcans. First of all, no. Second of all, none of that brings with it the emotional control. None of this makes any sense from any perspective, not even within the confines of Star Trek. But who cares? Because the point is, they begin to behave like Vulcans. And I think that there was enough Trekness for me. The Trekness appeared in Spock. You get this little moment of heartbreak every time he's insulted for being a half Vulcan, because it's the funniest running joke. They managed to have these moments where you get to see him as a Vulcan respond to not being Vulcan enough. It is effectively a story of othering. It is a story of racism. And it is a story of racism where when humans are racist towards Spock, it's in the Bones model of, like, it's an emotional outburst. Bones is cantankerous and takes it out on Spock. And that's not fair, and that's not okay. But here you have the people who are arguably saying, we morally and ethically are okay to do this. We're doing it from a defensible position. And. And it's indefensible. They are just being awful. And when. Oh, they're kind of bullies. And his response, Vulcans can be bullies. And if you know his character background, if you know the animated episode where you see him as a child, you see, like.
And Ethan Peck's acting in that moment. I see. It's really good. So subtle. And him. Basically, Vulcans can be bullies. And this whole thing of, yeah. Emotional turmoil coming to the surface for him in a very subtle way. I really liked that. I like the time he spent with Una. We haven't seen Spock and Una pair up much. I liked Una and Patton Oswald. I thought that those scenes where their inability to contain their attraction to each other were very funny and worked really well for her character to basically say she's this buttoned up figure, but there's this one person in the galaxy that when she's around this one person, she cannot help herself. And I thought, I couldn't help but think, Patton Oswald. If you could travel back in time and tell like 14 or 15 year old Patton Oswald, you're eventually going to.
Matt Ferrell: Be a Vulcan on Star Trek, you.
Sean Ferrell: Are eventually going to be a Vulcan on Star Trek. And you will ad lib a comedic moment in Parks and Rec that will then become literally turned into the opening of a Boba Fett TV series. Because I don't know if you're aware of that, but Patton Oswald had in Parks and Rec an improv moment where his character on Parks and Rec is performing a filibuster and comes up with the. The gloved hand of Boba Fett comes out of the maw of the Sarlacc pit and touches down upon the sands of Tatooine. And he goes on this whole thing. And when they were making the Boba Fett TV show, they literally referenced his depiction of that. So to travel back in time and tell little Patton Oswald, literally, little Patton Oswald, someday you're going to be doing all these things that you're geeking out about now, but you're going to actually have a career where you get to do these things professionally. I found my thinking, I'm so happy for him that he got to play Doug.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah.
Sean Ferrell: And the introduction of Doug I found legitimately funny. My parents are so enamored with human culture that they named me Doug. Maybe, you know, my sister Susan or my cousin Pete, who's a vet. It was just like.
Matt Ferrell: I love the fact that there's, there's Vulcans on Vulcan walking around with human, human names.
Sean Ferrell: This is my son Doug. It was fantastic. And for anybody, Matt and I are going to talk about something now. Probably two or three minutes maybe at the most. The post credit scene. If you didn't know there was a post credit scene, I recommend you go back and watch it and go back and watch it and then come back to this or fast forward from here about two minutes when we're done talking about it so that we don't spoil anything for you. Yes, yes.
Matt Ferrell: All I can say is pull my finger.
Sean Ferrell: Yes.
Matt Ferrell: Flatulence.
Sean Ferrell: Pull my finger. Flatulence.
Matt Ferrell: The, the post credit scene. The post credits, the episode. It's a chef's kiss. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
Sean Ferrell: Ethan Peck at the very end when Patton Oswald, you know that Patton Oswald and he improv'd.
Matt Ferrell: Yes.
Sean Ferrell: And that he. Then when Patton Oswalt's response to that final moment is just to turn silently and walk away slowly. And somebody off camera was probably telling Peck, like, keep stretching it, keep stretching it. Keep stretching it until he got out of sight. And then as soon as he's done and he's like, okay, cut. Ethan Peck loses it. He's able to keep his composure, but then to see Spock laugh like that, like, that's not Spock laughing. That's Ethan Peck laughing. It's a nice moment. I loved everything about that. The. Give me five. Too slow. Why would you do that for? You are too slow. It's brilliant. It's brilliant. It is. It is.
Matt Ferrell: I'm saying it.
Sean Ferrell: But the whole. The tone of all of that worked for me. Another part of it, the trekness of it, came out of. I mean, you know, they're shoehorning him in wherever they can. But having Wesley show up as Kirk again, like, whenever he shows up, I like it. I like it when he shows up. And it was an opportunity that I didn't know I needed. Him showing up and saying, hey, Scotty. Like, he says it for the first time. Scotty, call me Jim.
Matt Ferrell: Did he call him Scotty? No, he called him Scotty in the previous episode.
Sean Ferrell: Did he call him that? I didn't recall that.
Matt Ferrell: There was one moment where he said Scotty, and I got all excited of, like, oh, my God. It's the first time it's been uttered in his, like.
Sean Ferrell: But having him say, call me Jim, yeah, I think you've earned it because you saved my life. And I'm like, this is the relationship you're seeing on the Enterprise when Scotty goes to Kirk and shows him respect, but doesn't show him rank deference. In the original series, Scotty is very willing to tell his captain, like, you're out of your mind. You can't do that. And calling him Jim occasionally, just like Spock does. But when Scotty does it, it's this weird sort of like, okay, like, he's super comfortable with this guy. And this episode, I found myself, like, this is a story I didn't know I wanted, and I got it, and it was well done. I love the whole, like, the way Scotty keeps saying, I'm terrified of La'an. She's scary, and I'm terrified of her. And Kirk's like, well, let's go figure out what's going on. And then the whole gimmicky thing of, like, press this button. And La’an gets shocked. He's like, did you set a booby trap? It's like, well, I didn't. I told you, I'm scared of her. Like, this whole thing, like, the whole setup of that I thought was. Was charming. The one element.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah. I was gonna say it was a little weird. I found that whole plotline a little weird with lan because it was like, why is she acting like a Romulan? Was the first thing that kept going through my head of she came across as Romulan. And it wasn't until the very end that they.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: Reminded us, oh, yeah, she's an Augment. She's.
Sean Ferrell: She's an Augment. Yeah. And I liked that. I like that it tapped into. She's got machinations within machinations that she's. She's going that direction I thought was really fun. Uhura basically, like, she roofies Beto effectively.
Matt Ferrell: Yeah, yeah.
Sean Ferrell: Like, consented. But it's this whole thing of like, oh, that's awful.
Matt Ferrell: It's gross.
Sean Ferrell: Chapel's like, I'm gonna sever every relationship I have because suddenly I find I can do science all the time, and that's all I care about now. And then immediately upon turning back into a human, I've got so many apologies to make. I thought all of it worked. All of it worked for me. I enjoyed all of that. And it was just the kind of awkward first few minutes of the episode where I was just like, oh, no.
Matt Ferrell: Oh, no.
Sean Ferrell: Like, I was holding onto my seat thinking, oh, God, not again. They're going to take us into a thing that's not going to work and it's going to be awkward. But this was the one that I was just like, God, they really should have figured this tone out and then made everything measure up to this if they were going to go for comedy, because this one is the one that's doing it. So I like this episode. I certainly wouldn't say, like, best episode of the season, but I would say best comedic episode of the season. And I found myself in a. This is what they were going for with the Trouble with Tribbles. This is that spirit. So this, to me, does feel like Trek. So I. I liked it.
Matt Ferrell: I think you hit the nail on the head for me that it's the fact that they've done this now, like, four times this season. It's like, why are you spending half of your season making jokey episodes? It's like, that should be a quarter at most of your episodes. But it doesn't detract from this being a really executed. Well executed version of this. And I wanted to double down on Ethan Peck's performance. This is why it's like Data on Next Generation. It's like when you're playing a character in Nimoy that is not supposed to have emotion, but you still convey so much emotion under the surface. Peck nailed it. Every time somebody says four and a half Vulcan beaming down or something like that, and it cuts to him.
He is keeping that Vulcan just coolness, but you can just see in his eyes that there's clearly this, like a. Like a gut punch every time somebody says that. But it's so freaking subtle and. And just well acted. Like, Ethan Peek is really, really good this episode.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: Where I was in the beginning having my oh moment was Pike's hair. And as much as I liked Pike's hair because it was a funny sight gag.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: Of how helmety and tall it was. It was when you said the injection makes no sense. It. It makes zero sense. Yeah. But to double down on that, how would it affect his hair? Like, that makes absolutely. Like, it's bonkers that it would be like that.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: And I wish they could have come up with a rationale for why that happened. Like, maybe he. In the transformation, his hair is all disheveled, but he stands up and goes like this. And his hair maybe.
Sean Ferrell: Yeah.
Matt Ferrell: I mean, yeah, they could have done something subtle, but it was just like. Yeah, it was very funny that they're mocking his crazy hair.
Sean Ferrell: I think that they could have like, doubled and tripled down on some of the comedy. Like, it would have been funny if, like, when he had initially transitioned and came back up, if M’Benga had been, like, looked at him and been like, is there something about Vulcan follicles that would do that? And having him look at Spock, and Spock just kind of, like, shrug. Like, I can't explain. Like, to play it off is just like adding a few more jokes in. Like, that. And M’Benga's response to the whole situation. Pelia's response to the whole situation. All these things work for me. And one thing that we didn't talk about, like, for me, the tone, the joke at the beginning of the episode that let me know, okay, maybe this one's gonna work. Was Spock saying, you will have a brief moment of a sensation. It will not be discomforting. Then there will be this. And he preps them all for it, and then they go through terrible agonizing pain. And I was like, this is a joke that they would have used in the original series, where it would have been Spock doing a thing and saying, I didn't find it uncomfortable. And everybody else would have been like, good Lord, like, how do you manage that? I found that joke at the very beginning. I was just like, okay, maybe this will work. Maybe this will be okay. And then thought that the episode was going to rely on like, okay, is this episode going to be about the awkwardness of the mission given Spock doesn't like being around four full Vulcans. And the moment it was just like 30 seconds in and we're done. And I was like, oh, now I see where they're going. So it was like all of that. And for the comments, this is what I want to ask people. Did you have one of the four Vulcan storylines that you thought worked the best? Jump into the comments and let us know.
Was it Pike becoming an OCD fixated clean freak? Or was it Chapel severing of all of her personal relationships? Was it Uhura manipulating a guy into becoming mind melded and brainwashed as a result? Or was it the I think I'm not a Vulcan, I may in fact be a Romulan, La’an? Let us know in the comments. Also, don't forget, when you're jumping down there, jump in with wrong answers only for the next episode, which is Terrarium. I know what my wrong answer only would be for that. I'll share it next week. Matt, is there anything else about this episode that you wanted to jump in with?
Matt Ferrell: Other than I actually hope they bring Doug back.
Sean Ferrell: I'd like to see Doug come back. Who it is, I would be surprised if we don't see Doug come back in some fashion. Yes. I also vote for his return. So thank you everybody. While you're commenting, don't forget to like, subscribe and share with your friends. Those are easy ways for you to support the program. And if you'd like to support us more directly, go to trekintime.show. Click the join button there. Allows you to throw some coins at our heads. And then we get down to the heavy, heavy business talking about Doug. Thank you everybody for taking the time to watch or listen. We'll talk to you next time.