Another episode where what is supposed to be going on is hazy, reason being another trope of this show. This episode is dialogue light. I suspect this is Trumball copying the “quiet atmosphere” of 2001 but since he wasn’t the director he doesn’t get why or when atmospheric silence works. An example of another Sci-fi property that existed by this time; Star Trek TOS is a rather chatty show. Some Twilight Zones were rather dialogue heavy. “Show don’t tell” only works when you have something to show, and aside from that, it doesn’t translate exactly literally as talking bad. It means more like don’t make all dialogue exposition, which this show tends to do WHEN they bothered to write lines for their actors anyway. On a show of this budget level, they really needed story to carry the day. Yeah, Cordwainer Bird storming off in a huff was derailing, but by this time, it is time for the surviving writers to step their game up. Spoiler alert: this doesn’t happen. Why was there randomly a tornado in the hallway? Did Magnus do it? Is it just a thing that happens sometimes because the ship is in ill repair? In general, this show needed more words. I say that but when there are words it is salad. This is an episode where they lean into trying to make it “trippy”; 2001 influence again? It is a lot of the three main characters looking at stuff. Anyway, what is ultimately going on is, the place they found is a storage area for Magnus. Magnus is a sentient computer and you would think it would turn out M.A.G.N.U.S is an acronym that they find when they finally discover it is a sentient computer, but they didn't even bother with that. A big mystery is, Why Magnus was left running if everyone knew it didn’t work. Maybe for experimental reasons.
