Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

[Kalidor]

It seems season 1 is running the gamut of Star Trek tropes and this week is no exception with the obligatory "holodeck" episode.

Reminds me of elements from the Voyager episodes where the Hirogens took over to run Nazi simulations or DS9 where the crew's transporter patterns ended up in Doctor Bashir's spy program.

The only downside to this, as fun as it was, there weren't really any stakes or suspense. The ship wasn't really in any danger. There wasn't any time sensitive events where they had to resolve it or people would die.. No one was ever in any danger. (Redshirts getting arrowed notwithstanding)

But I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and it did have a satisfying conclusion.

I hope they're done doing wacky antics episodes though. The final two need to start being a bit more weighty to finish out. The last thing I want to end the season on is being too much like lower decks

 

[Darth_Prime]

Speaking of, when does the new season of LD start? I love that show.

 

[TheSupernova]

I don't think we have release dates yet, but it's likely either Prodigy or LD up next.

I also thought I heard a rumour that events in Picard tied into Prodigy somehow, but I could be VERY mistaken.

 

[Dake]

The only downside to this, as fun as it was, there weren't really any stakes or suspense. The ship wasn't really in any danger. There wasn't any time sensitive events where they had to resolve it or people would die.. No one was ever in any danger. (Redshirts getting arrowed notwithstanding)

Yeah, the only thing I recall was Dr M'Banga saying the entity's shenanigans were "hurting my crew" and I thought, "Not really?" If they didn't have stuff to do, seemed like a fun way to pass a Saturday.

I will say it's a little odd that only a couple episodes ago they had the race that could've healed his daughter but wouldn't (and the father even gave him the science behind the cure to get started) but then the writers opted to just turned her into a ghost instead.

 

[TheSupernova]

Even one line of dialog saying that the Majalan science was a dead end would have helped

 

[Dekafox]

I thought that was implied in the "Months became days, then hours" line, or however it was worded - he'd had her out of the buffer a lot more because he was trying it.

 

[Dake]

Ah... I missed that. That would make sense.

 

[TheSupernova]

So would stardates that could easily be followed to determine the passage of time.

(I mean, kudos for trying to make the TOS nonsense work, but at least the TNG + system has a big advantage)

 

[Dvandom]

M'Benga's arc was long enough. It caused trouble in the episode where it was introduced, it caused complications in another ep, and then it resolves. Not every subplot has to last all season.

As for "hurting my crew," eventually things were going to escalate enough for people to get killed. He couldn't know if that would be reversible, and several already had arrows in them. Plus, if nothing else, they were being hurt by being kept from their own lives. As long as they were meat puppets for the story, they were effectively if temporarily dead.

---Dave

 

[The Predaking]

I actually really enjoyed this last week's episode and I am rather surprised by that.

I will say that our 6 year old was crying by the end when his daughter left him. Not exactly the resolution I was looking for.

 

[MrBlud]

As a Dad myself that hits different than it did before I was.

I can’t imagine that. Even though it did work out.

 

[The Predaking]

IKR! that scene hit so hard, and with my 6yo crying about not wanting to leave her family and running to her mom, it definitely hit hard....

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Damn, that episode was INTENSE!

 

[Sean Whitmore]

Lotta good stuff in this episode, though I have to admit the pedant in me was being nitpicky throughout.

Spoiler

They're going awful hard on buffing up the Gorn as a threat. This episode alone gave them immunity to sensor tracking, resistance to telepathy, acid-spitting, and the ability to impregnate hosts from a distance. Plus, La'An's insistence (possibly inaccurately colored by her trauma, I understand) that an entire team of officers armed with laser guns would still be "no match" for even one adult Gorn.

Intraspecies differences aside, it can't help but strike me as silly. They understandably want the cache that comes from using a classic-series race, but that very connection just makes me think of the guy in the doofy costume slowly swinging his mitts at Captain Kirk.

 

[Dvandom]

It really felt like they were hitting an Actor Unavailability period, though. One main character ending their hitch, another on an indefinite leave of absence.

---Dave

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

Lotta good stuff in this episode, though I have to admit the pedant in me was being nitpicky throughout.

Spoiler

They're going awful hard on buffing up the Gorn as a threat. This episode alone gave them immunity to sensor tracking, resistance to telepathy, acid-spitting, and the ability to impregnate hosts from a distance. Plus, La'An's insistence (possibly inaccurately colored by her trauma, I understand) that an entire team of officers armed with laser guns would still be "no match" for even one adult Gorn.

Intraspecies differences aside, it can't help but strike me as silly. They understandably want the cache that comes from using a classic-series race, but that very connection just makes me think of the guy in the doofy costume slowly swinging his mitts at Captain Kirk.

Spoiler

I've been saying for weeks that, if the Gorn are like this, there should be no way Kirk survived Arena.

 

[Dekafox]

Spoiler

Supposedly the alien who was testing them had messed with the atmosphere(or something) to make them evenly matched, so there's that excuse, if you squint. There's still the matter of how it reconciles with the attitude of the Gorn in Arena though if they're this aggressive. And there's still the Gorn encounter in Enterprise.

 

[MrBlud]

I thought this was probably the worst written one so far

Spoiler

Pike’s plan to drop them off, deliver the power cells and pick them up on the way back was *super negligent* You have no idea what happened to the other ship but signs point to it not being good. Which turned out to be the case and you lost two redshirts and the Chief Engineer.

Hemmer’s sacrifice of falling out of the ship to spare the crew sure made a lot more sense than the Orion’s plan of…blowing himself up in Engineering?!? What the hug kind of plan was that?

So Singh knew the spit was a way of reproducing? Sure would’ve been nice to know that back when they could’ve put Hemmer in medical stasis and possibly saved him!

As has been pointed out previously, if 5-6 armed Starfleet officers are dead meat against a single Gorn there is absolutely no chance in hell Kirk takes one out with a Diamond cannon.

Super disrespectful you have a funeral for three characters and only talk about one of them.

 

[Dekafox]

I thought this was probably the worst written one so far

Spoiler

Pike’s plan to drop them off, deliver the power cells and pick them up on the way back was *super negligent* You have no idea what happened to the other ship but signs point to it not being good. Which turned out to be the case and you lost two redshirts and the Chief Engineer.

Hemmer’s sacrifice of falling out of the ship to spare the crew sure made a lot more sense than the Orion’s plan of…blowing himself up in Engineering?!? What the **** kind of plan was that?

So Singh knew the spit was a way of reproducing? Sure would’ve been nice to know that back when they could’ve put Hemmer in medical stasis and possibly saved him!

As has been pointed out previously, if 5-6 armed Starfleet officers are dead meat against a single Gorn there is absolutely no chance in hell Kirk takes one out with a Diamond cannon.

Super disrespectful you have a funeral for three characters and only talk about one of them.

Most of these didn't seem like actual problems to me.

Spoiler

Pike's Plan: Remember he knows he's got plot armor. for the rest of his choices, it seems like he took the most senior officers, who would be most apt to handle everything, and then the "fresh meat" as one last learning exercise. They knew there was something wrong with the ship, but had no reason to expect hostiles, so he felt he could "elite team" it it seems.

Hemmer's sacrifice: fair, though perhaps the Orion wanted to take the rest of the ship with him in a forced sacrifice to prevent spread - seems out of character for an Orion though in that era.

The spit: I don't think she knew beforehand, the tone of voice she used suggested to me that she JUST made that connection at that point.

Gorns being dangerous: the physical part can kinda slide like I said above, but again the Gorn's attitude at the end of Arena seems off unless that all changes in adulthood once the instincts fade some. Not sure how they'll be able to reconcile the inconsistancies with TOS and Enterprise though in this show while still respecting what they established in Arena about their interactions. Maybe they might do it through another show, like Discovery, though that wouldn't be as satisfying.

The funeral: How do we know they didn't? Everyone was already assembled when the camera arrived on scene, and Ortegas was already talking - they probably already had said their piece for the other two before we arrived. It'd also help explain how fast Spock got that pissed off, if they'd just gotten done talking about the Lt, and then Hemmer right on top of that immediately after...

 

[TheSupernova]

Spoiler

I kept wondering what problem was so bad that the Peregrine had to ditch on a planet, but was simple enough that Hemmer and Uhura could actually fix enough to make the ship spaceworthy again.

Also, I'd read an interview with Bruce Horak and the non answer he gave about being a part of the second season basically gave me the indication he wasn't going to make it out at some point. A shame, really, because Hemmer really was an enjoyable presence on the Enterprise.

Thank goodness the Gorn are so busy murdering each other, because they would overrun the galaxy otherwise with their epic epicness.

Otherwise, though, it was an intense episode, and I did enjoy it. They could have finished the season then and there and I would have been satisfied.