Lamarr modifies the Aronov Device to enable a whole ship to travel in time and, also, Gordon’s sandwich. But when the Kaylon get word of this and ambush the ship, Ed orders the device destroyed. Gordon goes to do it but at the exact moment he does so, the core overloads. Then, the crew get a distress call from Gordon. Sent in 2015…

New Horizons continues its revisiting of earlier episodes and continues to do so very successfully. Here, the Aronov Device, which has been at the core or a part of countless previous episodes, is used as a lens to view Union time travel rules through and the Union does not come out well at all.

There’s some good stuff here with several characters and we’ll get to Charlie and Isaac shortly, but this is a Scott Grimes spotlight and it’s easy to see why. Grimes has always been great but he’s not always been served well and this season in particular Gordon has very much played second fiddle. That changes absolutely here and Grimes gets to play the man at three stages of his life. The amiable, gutsy helmsman we know, the panicked and relieved survivor they retrieve from 2015, and Gordon Molloy, family man.

This latter is where the meat of the episode is and it’s gutsy, fascinating stuff. When Ed and Kelly arrive, a decade late, Gordon is married to Kelly Huggins (Leighton Meester) from previous episode Lasting Impressions and they have a child. He’s happy, puttering along in a deeply average life and happily sitting out the end of his days.

But he’s from 400 years upstream and when Ed and Kelly point out that he’s contaminated the timeline in numerous ways, things take off. Their point of view is valid: Gordon is an anomaly and the ripples from that anomaly are impossible to track. Adrienne Palicki and Seth MacFarlane do a great job here of showing just how stricken Kelly and Ed are. Their friend is happy but he’s also done untold damage that they can’t quantify but also can’t ignore. It’s an impossible situation and Ed’s brutally effective decision – to pull Gordon from the timeline right after he first arrives – makes sense but sits heavily on all of them. Arguably that Gordon’s response is the most heart-breaking too; deep sympathy for his friends’ dilemma and relief they saved him. From one perspective, a Union officer. From another, a man who shares his friends’ almost dystopian fervour to preserve the timeline. There’s almost an element of cosmic horror to it, and the show does a great job of exploring how terrifying time travel is precisely because of all the unknowns.

But it’s Grimes who you remember, especially as the Gordon trapped in the past for a decade. He knows what’s coming and is so consumed with rage and grief and fear at what will happen he draws a weapon on his friends. He’s not wrong from one perspective either: a father protecting his family. From another, he’s a temporal criminal whose time is up and knows it. Neither is wrong. Neither is right enough so Ed makes the best choice he can. Like I say, the fact Gordon, when rescued, understands and even sympathizes, makes it even sadder.

Elsewhere Marc Jackson gets a week out of the Isaac suit and he and Anne Winters have a fun B plot as Isaac and Charly are sent to find the Dysonium the ship needs to jump again. I like that the show isn’t shying away from Charly’s trauma and I also like that Isaac is trying to engage with it. They’re the two spikiest characters on the show and they work oddly well together. That being said, while Charly’s sexuality is both welcome and well articulated, the show gets some serious minus points for what may be the fastest example of the Bury Your Gays trope so far this century. It’s better than this, as last week showed.

That and some fun engineering stuff for Lamarr (and a deeply cute moment with Talla) round out another really strong and very character-focused episode that also includes a brutal and epic space battle and a sense of genuine scale.

Verdict: This really is a show breaking stride and I’m honestly excited to see where it goes next. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart