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Jul 6, 2023 · Among the Lotus Eaters: Directed by Eduardo Sánchez. With Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong. Returning to a planet that dredges up tragic memories, Captain Pike and his landing party find themselves forgetting everything, including their own identities as he confronts a ghost from his past.
- (3.8K)
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Eduardo Sánchez
- 2023-07-06
- Overview
- Summary
- Memorable quotes
- Log entries
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Returning to a planet that dredges up tragic memories, Captain Pike and his landing party find themselves forgetting everything, including their own identities as he confronts a ghost from his past.
Teaser
"Captain's personal log, stardate 1630.1. Enterprise is currently assisting the USS Cayuga in a joint mission, charting a new binary system. Captain Batel and I are taking advantage by attempting a perilous manuever of our own: stealing a little personal time." As the USS Enterprise and the USS Cayuga conduct a survey of a binary star system, Captain Marie Batel enters Captain Pike's quarters on the Enterprise as he is busy preparing dinner; she asks if it was his mother's sauce he was preparing, and he confirms by saying anything else would be a "crime against tomatoes". Una calls from the bridge regarding the latest duty reports, and Pike makes clear that he is incommunicado outside of a red alert for the next half-hour. Batel receives a similar interruption relayed by Uhura, the Cayuga requesting a course correction, which she says can wait. Batel has a gift for Pike: An Opelian mariner's keystone she found on Galt, recalling how ancient Opelian captains used it to guide lost sailors home. Just then, Batel receives another interruption: a message from Admiral Eldon that she has been expecting. She takes it on Pike's personal station. Some time later, Batel returns to the table, looking somewhat upset. Pike can guess why: Batel's expected promotion to commodore has gone to another officer, William Geary. Pike believes that promotion should have been hers, but there were apparently "concerns". Pike wonders if it was about the two of them, and she explains that Admiral Pasalk is "punishing" her for failing to win Una's trial. Pike is worried, calling their long-distance relationship "difficult" (which Batel believes is not the same as "impossible"), and now her connection to him was putting her career at risk, which she considers an excuse. He suggests that they should "pull it back a little". Batel bitterly calls his timing "perfect", and brusquely leaves to return to her ship. Una calls again, this time bearing news from Starfleet Command regarding Rigel VII. In the ready room, Una explains that they had been to Rigel VII five years earlier on a routine exploration of a remote class M planet. Then they discovered the Kalar, a Bronze Age civilization organized in a caste system, with a formidable warrior class and a secretive ruling class. La'an is curious why the entire mission was only four hours with an emergency evacuation, and Una confirms they hadn't been able to do a proper survey because the landing party "ran into some complications". Pike clarifies that they had been ambushed and lost three people; they had to evacuate to the Vega colony before Spock's injuries made it four. Ortegas wonders why they were going back, and Una explains that scans couldn't penetrate the planet's atmosphere, which is why they weren't prepared last time; Starfleet conducted long-range photographic surveys of the planet every couple of years. They had conducted just such a survey a week before, and found the Kalar were using the Starfleet insignia as their own, which meant the original landing party had left something behind. A small strike team would have to go down to the surface to assess the level of cultural contamination, and if possible correct it. Pike remembers that they had gone down in uniform last time, and is not planning on making that mistake again; the mission will be an undercover reconnaissance operation. Once they had their intelligence, they would devise a plan to recover any Starfleet tech they could find. After the others leave, Una notes the Cayuga had left with some haste, and Pike admits he and Batel were taking time apart. Una points out the "thing" he does, panicking if people got too close to him. Pike denies it, then seems uncertain. Una thinks Batel is a good fit for him, but Pike tries to wave it off by talking about his responsibilities as a command officer. Una gently chides him, saying everyone needed some joy in their lives, even a captain. They then turn their attention to their mission, Pike wondering if he could have done something different last time, taking responsibility for the situation since he had led the landing party. Una thinks it would not be a problem if they recused themselves from the matter if it bothered him, but Pike points out that Starfleet Command gave them the mission as a courtesy, and a way to remind them of what they already knew: "Enterprise needs to clean up its own mess."
Act One
Ortegas dresses up in Kalar clothing to join the landing party with La'an and Dr. M'Benga. La'an is incredulous that Ortegas is actually wearing the hat as well, which Ortegas considers "supreme", part of "recon 101". The doctor looks amused at the banter, as they catch up to Pike (also in Kalar garb) and Spock (who is not) in the corridor. Spock reports on the Stecora debris field they recorded on their previous visit, which appears to be descending, intersecting multiple points along the Enterprise's orbital plane. Ortegas asks what the debris is from, and Spock thinks it likely an impact between two large celestial bodies that orbited Rigel VII centuries before. La'an asks if he could have just said "two moons", and Spock replies he could have, but that would be leaping to a conclusion. As Pike hands Ortegas the PADD showing the debris field, he is apologetic, saying Ortegas will have to pilot Enterprise by hand. Ortegas reviews the data, seeing she will need make manual adjustments every twenty minutes, or "lights out, Enterprise". But if she's staying on the ship, she asks, who would pilot the shuttle? Pike raises his hand in reply, saying while he may not be Ortegas, he did used to be a test pilot, and promises Ortegas will get a spot on the next landing party. As Pike enters the shuttlebay, Ortegas glares at Spock before handing him the PADD. Spock tries to explain that he was not responsible for the data, but Ortegas shushes him, saying he needed to learn when to leave people alone. He apologizes, saying that he was working on that. Annoyed at the lost opportunity, Ortegas stalks off. Pike pilots the shuttle through the atmosphere, seeing the atmospheric disturbances caused by impacts thousands of years before. M'Benga thinks such an impact would have wiped out half the planet, and Pike agrees it probably did, but the settlement they're headed to was a hemisphere away. The doctor points out they would have to trek twenty kilometers through hostile territory, and Pike jokingly notes he had read the briefing. As he lands the shuttle, Pike also points out that they could not risk further contamination, and so would not bring any standard gear, but rather items more suitable to the Kalar's level of development, including a telescope and a compass. Pike points out that he specifically wanted La'an and M'Benga because he knew they could handle themselves in a fight, and the Kalar were fierce warriors. La'an notices M'Benga's expression, asking if he was well; he sarcastically replies that doctors enjoy getting chosen for missions for their combat skills. As she stands up straight, La'an suddenly hears a ringing in her ears that disorients her; when her head clears, she is outside, walking with Pike and M'Benga. She admits to feeling light-headed, and mentions the ringing. M'Benga believes it may be tinnitus caused by the altitude, and offers to take them back to the shuttle. La'an is surprised when Pike mentions they were six hours out from the shuttle, feeling like they had only just left. Pike asks M'Benga if he believes they should return, but M'Benga sees nothing else wrong besides the momentary confusion, and La'an concurs that they should move forward. They had to find their objective and a place to make camp before nightfall. As La'an walks ahead of them, M'Benga expresses his concern to the captain, saying she had breathed thinner air than this. As they observe the Kalar fortress, La'an spots the Starfleet delta over the main gate as well, before being disoriented again by the ringing in her ears. She assures Pike it was "just a headache", but Pike wonders if M'Benga was right and they should return to the shuttle at dawn. La'an stops him short when she spots something through the telescope, which she hands to Pike. His look is grim when he sees the two guards at the gate sporting Starfleet phasers. He recalls Spock had been bleeding out as they fought their way back to the shuttle, and admits he hadn't been keeping track of their gear at the time. M'Benga comes running a moment later, saying they had company. Six Kalar warriors approach behind him, and Pike tries a diplomatic approach first, saying they had come "far from the north" and meant no harm. The leader of the party lifts up his phaser, and tells them he knows they were Starfleet. Just then, M'Benga experiences the ringing in his ears as well, and suddenly he is disoriented as well, the confusion clearing as they are brought inside the fortress. To Pike's shock, they are brought before the Kalar leader... his former yeoman, Zac Nguyen, whom he believed killed on the landing party five years before. Nguyen accuses Pike of leaving him behind, not bothering to check back whether he was alive or not. Pike mentions seeing the Starfleet delta put up in the garden of the fortress, and Nguyen reveals he was wearing his uniform under his Kalar robe. The Kalar adopted the Starfleet delta as their symbol and he became their king, "High Lord Zacarias". Pike knows he is upset about the circumstances, but points out he managed to survive. Nguyen, however, tells him that Rigel VII was not a "normal planet", asking if they had realized how hard it was to think, and mentions the ringing in the ears, getting both La'an and M'Benga's attention. The radiation on the planet affected the brain, starting with the ringing, then one lost stretches of time, experienced heightened senses of fear, and then memory loss. Soon enough, they would become Kalar. Pike pleads with him to come back to the ship with them, but Nguyen feels there was no going back, given how he violated the Prime Directive by arming the locals with Starfleet tech and making himself king; plus, he adds, he would enjoy watching Pike suffer as he had suffered. Pike points out that Enterprise was in orbit and would come for them, but Nguyen counters that by tomorrow, no one would remember, including Pike. He gloats that Rigel VII changed people, and he looked forward to seeing it work its "magic" on the three of them. Pike is suddenly overcome by the ringing and disorientation, coming to in a cage with M'Benga and La'an. Pike is starting to experience the symptoms Nguyen described, though not nearly to the same degree as the others; La'an is unconscious in the corner of the cage, but when Pike moves to rouse her, she slaps him across the face, telling him to get away from her. She seems unable to even remember her own name. Pike tries to put together what he remembers, thinking the steam vents of the volcano they saw on the way in was the source of the radiation, but eventually he too is confused as to why they were there.
Act Two
Aboard the Enterprise, Uhura begins hearing the ringing as well, faintly hearing Spock going over the mineral composition of the debris field in orbit, and hears Ortegas sarcastically asking if he planned to marry the debris field, before Una asks for a report. Uhura, focusing on her station, replies that she is preparing to send the situation report to the UFP relay, but Una is confused, saying she had ordered that two hours ago. Ortegas jokes that this was what happened when one spent their nights translating Tellarite sonnets instead of sleeping. Uhura is completely lost, asking if she actually sent that report. Una orders her to report to sickbay immediately. Uhura agrees, admitting to feeling disoriented. Ortegas suggests someone should go with her to make sure she gets there, and Una agrees, sending Ortegas along. When Ortegas points out about the debris field, Una replies that she flew the Enterprise before Ortegas did. In sickbay, Uhura reports the ringing in her ears, and now a headache. Nurse Chapel looks worriedly at the scans of Uhura's brain, showing major synaptic degradation in the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. She gives Uhura a sedative and tells her to rest. Ortegas reports that half an hour earlier, Uhura was fine, but now Chapel's scans show something blocking her neural pathways. Chapel thinks it could be anything – a viral or bacterial infection, or an environmental exposure. Ortegas points out that Uhura has been at her post all day, but Chapel thinks it could be a delayed reaction, asking Uhura what she had for breakfast that morning. Uhura, feeling drowsy from the sedative, replies she'd had the same thing she always had, oatmeal. Chapel assures Ortegas that as long as it remained isolated to Uhura, they should be fine. But as Ortegas heads out, Spock calls from the bridge with a medical emergency: six crewmembers from engineering were reporting acute memory loss. "Definitely not the oatmeal," a groggy Uhura quips. In the Kalar fortress, the guards open the cage, causing La'an to huddle into the corner. The guard tells them to "move or starve", but all of them simply stare fearfully back. As the guard closes the cage, a man steps forward on their behalf, saying they had had a "rough forgetting". As they wonder why they were in a cage, the man says that they had no totem to guide them, but offers to help them re-center. M'Benga doesn't know him, or indeed any of them, but the man points out that they may have known each other their whole lives, pointing out their colors; Pike's blue clothing means he must work in the stone quarry, like him, while M'Benga's green means he was a woodcutter. He tells them to "follow along", as the Kalar guards didn't like to be kept waiting. Pike looks at the Starfleet delta on the gate as if it had some meaning to him, and asks the man how he was so calm. The man replies that he woke to his "totem" every morning, and urges the landing party to "be in the moment" with him for now. Pike and La'an are put to work in the quarry, while M'Benga cuts the wood. Pike doesn't like not knowing what was going on, while La'an protests at being forced into labor, but the man says that their work was a "blessing", giving them purpose. He says they had a hard "forgetting". Pike asks if that was sleep, but the man says that sleep was what the Kalar in the palace did; they were Kalar in the field, and they had "forgetting". They didn't forget the deeply-known things – walking, talking, other things deep inside – but they forget other things, like their identities and where they lived. Pike wonders how society could work when they forget everything every night. The man says that the Kalar in the palace didn't forget, but those in the field had "pictures" and each other to guide them. With the "fruit of the gods", they marked themselves, rolling up his sleeve to show the tattoos on his arm, which was how he knew his name was Luq. Pike and La'an both have no "pictures", and Pike looks at his hands, knowing they were not the hands of one who worked in a quarry. He is also wearing the Opelian mariner's keystone that Batel gave him, knowing it was a gift from someone. Luq tells him that emotions can guide them where memories could not. Pike is convinced they do not belong, and that M'Benga had come with them too; he wants to leave to find where they came from. Luq warns that they could chase that feeling and never find it, but the totem tells them to forget before and "live in the moment". The Kalar guards order them back to work. As Luq leaves, Pike points out to La'an that only two guards were left, but no one seems to want to fight back; perhaps they were conditioned. One day they fight, then they forget why, and give up. The Kalar guards tell Luq to hurry up, and Pike tries to speak on his behalf, saying he was in pain. The guard warns that "field Kalar" don't talk back, and Pike engages the man in a fistfight before knocking him out. The second guard advances, and La'an rushes to his aid with her hammer. She too knocks her opponent out, but not before the guard draws his knife and slashes her across the abdomen. M'Benga rushes to her side to put pressure on the wound. Pike recognizes that he must be a healer, a doctor, and M'Benga thinks he is right, that he knows how to ease her pain. La'an thinks they need to hide, and Luq agrees; more guards will be on their way. Pike doesn't even know where they are, but Luq offers his help, and the three of them follow him. Back on the Enterprise, Chapel reports on the symptoms to Una, who is also experiencing them herself: tinnitus, migraine, followed by memory loss. A third of the crew is already affected. Spock enters, distributing the personal files on the ship's senior officers to remind them of who they are in case their memory starts to fail. He estimates that within the next hour, they will be unable to man critical stations. Una asks for theories, and Chapel thinks it some kind of exotic radiation. Spock believes that the planet itself is the source, as the symptoms began manifesting after they arrived, and they had not been there as long on their last visit. He suggests pulling the ship away from the planet. Una – though her memory is starting to be spotty – is adamant that they not strand the landing party, and Spock assures her he does not intend to do so, but he must put the safety of the entire crew first, and asks her permission to alter course. Una agrees, but tells him to stay close: if it was affecting the crew this badly in orbit, she could only imagine how it was affecting the landing party. Returning to the bridge, Spock orders Ortegas to take them into the debris field, as its mineral composition would shield them from radioactive isotopes. Ortegas asks if this was before or after the debris pulverized them, but chides Spock for being "offensive" when he asks if she thought she couldn't pilot the ship. He then hands her her personnel file in case of forgetting. "I fly the ship," she says, repeating it like a mantra of sorts. On the surface, Luq brings the landing party to a hut with a sign matching the symbols on his arm, meaning it was his home. They lay La'an on the bed, and she asks for water. M'Benga tells Pike that her wound is deep, and "complex" to treat. Luq tells them they should "let go" and allow her last moments to be serene, earning a protest from La'an, who is not ready for her "last moments" yet. M'Benga can remember that La'an is his friend, and believes he has to try to save her. He worriedly tells them that La'an has begun running a fever. Pike tells Luq that he is not willing to let her die, but Luq calls the forgetting a "blessing", saying that they would not remember the anguish of her passing, forgetting it had happened at all – earning another protest from La'an, who has no intention of dying. Pike asks about the "totem" Luq mentioned, and Luq directs him to the pillar next to which he was standing, which told the story of the Kalar. Their gods had proclaimed there would be two types of Kalar: those who remember to plan their future and record their past, and those who forget to keep the work of the present continuing. Pike finds it "convenient" that some do all the work while others don't, but Luq defends it by saying that the palace Kalar remember so the others could be free – free of the past, no burdens. When asked how the palace Kalar remember, Luq recalls a legend that there was a casket inside the palace that helped them remember. Pike is adamant about saving La'an, who risked her life to save his, and the only way to do so was to help M'Benga recover his memories. Luq, realizing Pike is serious, agrees to help, but they must do so before the next forgetting starts. Pike wonders how he is suddenly willing to help them, and Luq replies that Pike is guided by his emotions, which are his truth. The totem taught them that they lived in each moment, embraced them. If this was Pike's moment, he would help. Pike is firm that it was his moment, and he would go back to the palace to help restore their memories.
"Mmm, is that your mother's sauce?"
"Anything else would be a crime against tomatoes."
- Batel, seeing Pike making dinner in his quarters
"You did that thing you do."
"What thing?"
"That thing when someone gets too close, it's tough, so you panic, find reasons to push 'em away…"
•Captain's personal log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
•Pilot's personal log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Title
•29 June 2023: Title publicly revealed by Wil Wheaton on TRR: "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" •The title is a reference to The Odyssey, in which characters eat lotus flowers and forget they wish to go home. •This is the second of two episodes that derives its name from the Odyssey, the other being ST: "Calypso".
Production
•Scenes in the castle were filmed in the Mount Community Centre in Peterborough, Ontario.
Cast and characters
•Regarding Pike's uncharacteristic behavior during his confrontation with Nguyen, director Eduardo Sánchez recalled: ""The first time I met with Anson, that was the first thing he brought up. It was definitely a complex episode and you have to figure out the different personalities and what you remember, what you don't remember, and how you react. It's heavy lifting for all the actors, and especially for Anson. We talked about the brutality of it because Pike at that moment is going to kill him and then that bit of humanity enters him. He was really worried about that moment. I told him to just do it as he did in rehearsal, and I'll do a little [camera] move into your face, and it'll be very clear that the old Pike is back. It was a big place to go, especially for Anson, who has been playing this character for a while. I don't think you have seen Pike this out of control and violent and barbaric. It was a big deal for him and we worked on it a lot ... And he has a long monologue there and we didn't want to burn him out. But he is a professional and he knows his lines and in the end, it went very smoothly."
Starring
•Anson Mount as Christopher Pike •Ethan Peck as Spock •Jess Bush as Christine Chapel •Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh •Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura •Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas •Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga And •Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley
Guest starring
•Reed Birney as Luq •David Huynh as Zac Nguyen •Melanie Scrofano as Marie Batel
Co-starring
•Trevor Coll as Afraid Crewmember •Tarek Gader as Shirtless Crewmember •Alex Kapp as USS Enterprise Computer •Noah Lamanna as Chief Jay •Emeka Menakaya as Tiko •Simon Northwood as Rak
Jul 7, 2023 · In "Among the Lotus Eaters," returning to a planet that dredges up tragic memories, Captain Pike and his landing party find themselves forgetting everything, including their own identities as he confronts a ghost from his past.
Jul 6, 2023 · “Among the Lotus Eaters” Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 4 – Debuted Thursday, July 6, 2023. Written by Kirsten Beyer & Davy Perez. Directed by Eduardo Sanchez.
Jul 6, 2023 · In "Among the Lotus Eaters," returning to a planet that dredges up tragic memories, Captain Pike and his landing party find themselves forgetting everything, including their own identities as he confronts a ghost from his past.
Jul 6, 2023 · “Among the Lotus Eaters” revolves around perhaps the most specifically weird hook between Strange New Worlds and the original Star Trek the show could possibly imagine, which is saying...
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Jul 6, 2023 · “Among the Lotus Eaters” has some interesting ideas, and the concept of a caste society built around memory is unique and intriguing. It’s well acted, certainly, and Mount makes the most of his first big episode of the season, but the plot is somewhat lacking.
