Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ‘ third season has had a bit of an awkward tone issue. Across four episodes already, we’ve switched episode-to-episode from pretty grim circumstances ( a Gorn attack here, a zombie outbreak there) to lighthearted silliness (an encounter with Trelane here, a holodeck murder mystery there). Even as those individual episodes haven’t all entirely worked to varying degrees, this back-and-forth has only really helped to make the show feel a bit aimless. So while this week’s episode is indeed another lurch from light to dark, the way it handles that darkness feels like a much keener reminder for this season: that there can be a real cost to what the crew of the Enterprise does.

Initially, “Through the Lens of Time” sets itself up almost as if it’s going t

See Full Page