Even as the sun with purple-colour’d face

And all I ask is one little ship and a star to steer her by.

Five years ago, a high-concept space accident shrank the crew of a shuttlecraft, who were immediately forced to thwart the takeover of their starship by a group of alien intruders. And so it’s about time exactly the same thing happened again. But we’ve learnt a lot in the interim, apparently, which means that this time the script is sharper, the effects are slicker, and the tag scene is considerably more amusing.

This week, the crew of the USS Voyager take a week off being menaced by intransigent alien antagonists to visit a weird and extensive space station and devote some time to the woke nonsense of seeking out new life and new civilisations. But among its visitors are three people from Seven’s past, all afflicted with a strange Borg-related space problem to which only Seven has the key. In the same vein, Joe manages to explore, exorcise and ultimately ruin a small cherished moment from his own past.

It’s 1966 on board Enterprise this week, with all the horrific male chauvinism that implies. So when three glamorous women beam aboard wearing fashionably asymmetrical sequinned dresses, it’s soon apparent that they have been promised rich husbands by the charmingly ridiculous Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a pantomime pirate with a gap-toothed smile, a beautifully waxed moustache and some alarmingly luxuriant chest hair. It’s kind of fun, but is the chauvinism too high a price to pay?

This week, so entranced is Nathan by the beauty of the Enterprise crew, the size and glossy finish of its sets, and the technological wonder of the effects wall that he completely fails to notice that basically nothing happens for about half an hour. Fortunately, Joe is here to help out.

This week, I refuse to put more thought into this blurb than the writers put into this episode of Voyager.

An unusual episode of Enterprise this week, with some satisfying serialisation, an inventive and inviting premise, and enough time to hang with the crew while they go exploring — all of which makes for a charming and entertaining 25 minutes. Sadly, the episode lasts 45 minutes.

– Every time I throw this ball, a hundred different things can happen in a game. He might swing and miss, he might hit it. The point is, you never know. You try to anticipate, set a strategy for all the possibilities as best you can, but in the end it comes down to throwing one pitch after another and seeing what happens. With each new consequence, the game begins to take shape.

– And you have no idea what that shape is until it is completed.

– That’s right. In fact, the game wouldn’t be worth playing if we knew what was going to happen.

It’s the first pitch of the game, and something groundbreaking and historic is about to happen. Which is why we’re still here, thirty-three years later.

This week, Wesley faces a difficult choice. Option A: to help build another fortress of impunity to defend his privileged friends from the demands of justice and kindness. Option B: to tell the truth and expose them all to the consequences of their actions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he chooses the least fashionable option.

This week, the crew of the USS Defiant deploy some exciting new digital video technology to travel back to 1967 and inveigle themselves into a beloved episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It’s a perfect thirtieth birthday present for the franchise, reminding us that Trek isn’t about nerds watching the Romulans and the Federation shoot at each other — it’s about being cool and stylish and funny. In space. With great hair.