I didn't write a blog post when Season 4 of Strange New Worlds premiered, but I have been watching and reviewing the episodes as they've come up.

We are 4 episodes into the season now and there's a clear theme going, every episode is paying direct homage to movies and books of the past.

Episode 401, Valles Marineris, paid direct homage to Princess of Mars, as well as numerous stories of encountering Dinosaurs like Jurassic Park or Land of the Lost, if I were to pick one I'd probably say "Land of the Lost, but in Star Trek".

Episode 402, The Griffin Incident was all horror but particularly "Event Horizon, but in Star Trek" (I did not personally like it, but I don't like horror, I can acknowledge that the episode was very well done, I just found it very disturbing.

Episode 403, Human Best Friend was "The Hangover, but in Star Trek" with a little bit of "Dude, here's my shuttlecraft" for good measure.

And yesterday's Episode 404, A Case of Chiaroscuro was "Casablanca, but in Star Trek"

Of the 4, I feel like this week's episode was the best.

While I'd normally be very concerned that every single episode is another classic movie, they are so far pulling off the theme remarkably well, which considering the real horrible episodes of last season, is quite a pleasant surprise.

I find myself cautiously optimistic about next week's Level-Five Transporter Accident episode, which we already know continues the theme with "The Muppets, but in Star Trek" as the development team actually worked with the Jim Henson Studios to create puppet versions of the Enterprise crew.

What has me most optimistic about the episode, Is I know the episode's director, Jordan Canning, has worked with the muppets before, directing 8 episodes of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. Unfortunately she also directed what is so far the worst episode of Strange New Worlds by far with last season's Four-and-a-half Vulcans which was beyond terrible.

One thing that is concerning me about this season is that every single episode has given at least some reference to that very awful episode (mostly when dealing with La'an's storyline for the season which is repeatedly indicated as having started in that episode.

Star Trek producers, please stop pushing that objectively awful episode, it was bad then, it is bad now, please let the episode die the death of the obscurity it deserves.