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sshbpodcast · 1 day ago

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Short and/or Sweet: The best and worst Short Treks

By Ames

We just wrapped season two of Discovery, which we pretty much agreed was a mixed bag, and we’re jumping headlong into also wrapping all of Short Treks. It’s a bittersweet conclusion because this collection of short outings provided an engine for Trek stories that had a lot of potential, but was somehow also a mixed bag despite only cranking out ten episodes in total over its two very quick seasons. Maybe it’ll come back one day since Trek’s overall future is still terribly unclear, but for now, this is all we’ve got.

That doesn’t mean we’re not going to do our usual Top and Bottom Three Episodes from this tiny batch! Because of that small sample size and also due to the widely varied tastes of the A Star to Steer Her By hosts, you’re going to see a comparatively large percentage of these Short Treks represented on both the good and bad lists for their own respective reasons. So grab separate bowls of Spumoni ice cream and of Tribbles cereal as you check them out below and listen to our heated debate in this week’s podcast episode (scoot scoot to 59:56 for the blogtivity). Where’s my spoon?

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Bottom Three Episodes

Interestingly, there’s only one episode from season one of Short Treks that makes the bad list, which might be more telling about the quality of season two than it is about that episode…

“Ephraim and Dot”: Caitlin While the rest of us seemed to quite enjoy how cute this little animated piece was, Caitlin didn’t quite see the point to this shallow reference-fest. Maybe it’s just that there weren’t a lot of episodes to choose from (let alone episodes that were truly deserving of the Bottoms List), but when you’re scraping for substance from a sub-ten-minute cartoon, you’re definitely not going to find it here amidst the in-jokes, bright colors, and Looney Tunes score.

“Children of Mars”: Chris The Picard lead-in short suffers a similar fate because of how generic a story it tells. While there’s a lot to appreciate about this Short Trek (you can probably tell this is another that’s going to be on both lists), there’s nothing original in watching two schoolgirls we will never hear from again having a typical tween spat. The episode is further hampered in retrospect because we just didn’t care for Picard the series in general and this started it off with promises it won’t keep.

“Ask Not”: Ames, Jake We’ve seen the “it was all a test” twist so much that this short really suffered for it. The reveal that it’s Pike being arrested for mutiny pretty much lets the cat out of the bag (or the captain out of the headsack) at the off. But then when you actually think about it, what is Sidhu’s test result really? Whenever Kirk or Picard or Janeway or whoever has disobeyed Starfleet orders to instead do what’s right, the audience has been on their side. We’ve celebrated that they could stand up for justice, and yet this bootlicker gets an overly happy ending? What’s the actual message here?

“Q&A”: Ames, Chris Here’s another example of an episode that doesn’t seem to accomplish what it set out to do. We don’t need the retcon for why Spock’s character wasn’t yet solidified in the flashback footage from “The Menagerie,” and trying to tie up that loose end only makes things messier. By the end of this short, we weren’t interested in this otherwise nice interplay between Spock and Number One. We were instead peeved at Una for basically telling Spock to be someone other than who he is. She urges him not to smile or show enthusiasm, essentially turning him into a copy of her, and that’s actually kinda sad.

“Runaway”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake The meetcute between Tilly and Queen Po is just so jarring in tone, swinging between presenting Po as a rabid animal and then as a brilliant scientist in so little time you’re not allowed to think about it. When we wrapped season 1 of Discovery, we were commending how far Tilly had come as a character, and the way she has regressed here to babbling buffoon is indicative of how annoying she’ll be in season two. And the fact that you badly need the context of this episode to understand who Po is in “Such Sweet Sorrow” is deleterious.

“The Trouble with Edward”: Ames, Caitlin, Jake The one that most (but tellingly not ALL) of our hosts agree is garbage is “The Trouble with Edward,” another origin story that we emphatically did not need. The jokes rarely land in this over-the-top ridiculous comedy script, but instead were more likely to elicit cringes and groans. Watching this actually became uncomfortable because they clearly thought this romp was going to be hilarious but instead was just stupid. And I’ll argue until I’m blue in the face that the writers misstepped by making Lucero nearly as unlikeable as Larkin in their first impressions, which taints the whole thing for me.

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Top Three Episodes

You’re gonna see half the good list is composed of episodes that were already on the bad list. And the other half (the better half) is all episodes from season one. The second batch of Short Treks was definitely quantity over quality, it would seem.

“The Trouble with Edward”: Chris You probably noticed that Chris was the one host that didn’t include “The Trouble with Edward” in his Bottoms List because he loves this kind of schlock. He’s done this kind of shit before, like when he listed “Time’s Arrow,” “Ferengi Love Songs,” and “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” among his favorites, and I’ve picked on him every time for it. In this instance, at least you can still appreciate some humorous work from H. Jon Benjamin, without whom this episode would probably be unwatchable. And even I’ll admit that the cereal commercial after the end credits is an absolute delight.

“Ephraim and Dot”: Chris Caitlin may not have cared for this one, but the rest of us sure found it adorable! The design and characterization for Ephraim the tardigrade is cute in a boot! How can you not fall in love with her immediately? And then the rest of the animated short is an assemblage of loving references to The Original Series and the films that feels like the kind of homage as something like “Trials and Tribble-ations” and not just the kind of fanservice we’d expect out of Lower Decks or Star Wars. Or maybe it just worked on us too well; who can say?

“Children of Mars”: Ames One more that’s on both lists, and I’ll stand up and defend this one as a former tween in a Catholic school uniform who can relate to these two misunderstood, bullied girls. It’s in the way this story is told that I really found it most successful—I do love me some minimal-dialogue techniques. The editing, acting, and simplicity of this story were all points in its favor. But the thing I like most is how perfectly it sets up the initial premise for season one of Picard without being required context like some of the season one Short Treks were for Discovery. Ya know, like “Runaway” above.

“The Brightest Star”: Caitlin, Jake The rest of the tops list is all going to be from the first season of Short Treks, which generally dominated this category. First off is the fascinating backstory of the Kelpiens that we get in “The Brightest Star.” While this episode provides the foundation for a lot of the Kelpien plots in Discovery, the context is more smoothly integrated than it was for “Runaway.” Doug Jones is also always just a pleasure to watch, therefore a few more minutes of him, his amazingly interesting society on Caminar, and even a quick glimpse of Phillipa Georgiou are definitely welcome.

“Calypso”: Ames, Caitlin, Jake Though I definitely didn’t need to see what later seasons of Discovery did to this little short, “Calypso” on its own is still a work of art. Even with characters we’ve never met in a time period divorced from any Trek we’ve ever seen, this episode shines in its clever writing, its humanizing premise, some stellar acting, a perfectly edited little montage to show the passing of time, and the best button we’ve seen in a while. The story of Zora and Funny Face, despite getting very little screen time, is exactly what science fiction is all about.

“The Escape Artist”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake Finally, one that we all agree on! While most of us thought the comedy in “The Trouble with Edward” didn’t land, the comedy in “The Escape Artist” was spot on! Clearly director Rainn Wilson got a great performance out of Rainn Wilson because he respects him so much. He has really embraced what Harcourt Fenton Mudd is all about: Sliminess! The cutaway scenes are all good gags (even if they go on a little long at times). The tertiary characters are well done. And the ending gag with the rooms full of Mudd androids! We laughed out loud! Just some great work there.

The only installment that didn’t make either list was “The Girl Who Made the Stars,” which was so middling that none of us thought to bring it up anywhere. Perhaps it’s also because none of us feel we can speak to the cultural element because we’re all so very white, so let’s sum it up quickly by saying this: Depicting the /Xam Abathwa origin story for the stars was a nice touch but it wasn’t very sci-fi-y and most of us entirely missed the fact that it tied directly to Michael Burnham’s character, so that probably could have been established better. Cute tardigrade plushie though.

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We’ve already covered all the Short Treks title cards, and with this post under our belts as well, that’s all we’ve got to say about them unless they ever make more! Which we wouldn’t be opposed to! C’mon, Paramount, stop cancelling Trek shows and experiment more in this low-stakes format. What have you got to lose?

And what do the rest of y’all have to lose by giving this blog a follow, joining us on our Trek rewatch over on SoundCloud (or wherever you podcast), hanging out with us on Facebook and Bluesky, and digging into some tribbles! They’re pregnant with flavor!