Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

[The Predaking]

I watched the second episode last night, and it was great! I loved how the admirals let her just go back to work, based on a technicality because they knew it was the right thing to do. I also don't like that they impose their genetic rules over other civilizations. Like if you want to impose that no Terrans can have genetic modifications, then fine, but these people aren't human, and that rule shouldn't apply to them.

 

[Dvandom]

I mean, security had been alerted and they weren't all shot to death, one of them would've checked on the kid before any messing about with firearms could happen.

---Dave

 

[Copper Bezel]

You know, among all the nonsense of Picard S2, it wasn't as obvious, but this adjustment to the timeline was already happening there, since Adam Soong was apparently about to resurrect "Project Khan" (simply the worst reveal ever in an episode of Star Trek) in something like 2024. Presumably the Noonien Singh Institute was always involved, because that's where Khan got his name both times. The fact that Soong was involved might also explain why a later Soong was named Noonien, perhaps in reference to whatever Noonien Singh the same institute was named after and not after Khan. Though it doesn't much explain where any of those later Soongs came from, since Adam didn't have any kids left.

Unrelated, but alternate timelines in sci-fi bug me in one awkward way. The fun of alternate timelines is to meet different versions of the characters we already know, but from a sci spec perspective, if there's been any major change to the timeline and decades or centuries of time in between, the first difference you'd expect would be that none of the same people would be around. I mean if you're conceived on a different day, half your DNA is a different random assortment from one parent than it would be, wait a month and you're as different as a full sibling, and that's assuming your parents got together at all in this version of events. Though I suppose that's not a problem if you're played by Brent Spiner and always breed true no matter how many generations.

 

[Dake]

If you ascribe to the infinite multi-verse concept, every timeline is a shadow of those to either side so they can be almost exactly the same but for small changes. But yeah, to have all the changes we see in the Mirrorverse or the Abramsverse or this latest UEverse, it's pretty unlikely anyone would be recognizable.

 

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, with infinite tries, you could find a universe where major things were different and yet all the same people hooked up and had the same kids, but that's definitely not what the Romulans were filtering those timeline simulations for.

 

[Lobjob]

You'd think these simulations would be a little too close to AI for their tastes...

 

[MrBlud]

I don’t even know why she was complaining. 92-22 isn’t even that bad a stretch.

*I* have to be here for the next thirty years which…aren’t going to be.

 

[Copper Bezel]

And she was looking great for like 60+.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

And she was looking great for like 60+.

Romulans probably have a pretty similar lifespan to Vulcans.

T'Pol was in her 60s during Enterprise.

 

[Copper Bezel]

Fair enough!

 

[Copper Bezel]

I've been a bit down on SNW this season, so I gotta say that this latest episode, I don't have an awful lot to say about it, but it was a well-executed and novel TOS plot with Discovery-era action, which is to say SNW being its very best self, and I enjoyed every second. I was just considering now how to describe what a good villain Zach made, and only now realized that you could describe his story as the revenge of a redshirt. The character portrayal and gravitas of the thing are sufficient to take a sixty-year-old joke and make genuinely engaging drama out of it.

"I'm Erica Ortegas. I fly the ship." YEEE-EAH!

 

[ChessPieceFace]

This Star Trek is the most Star Trek Star Trek since Star Trek, and this Star Trek episode is the most Star Trek this Star Trek has ever been.

New worlds and new civilizations! Deeper philosophical and societal questions about grief and class inequality and man's baser instincts explored through science fiction! Mistakes and consequences! Aliens that probably shouldn't look as human as they do! Starships zipping through asteroid belts! Hand-wavy illnesses and impossible predicaments resolved maybe a little too easily in the end! All just classic Star Trek fodder, executed pretty well, and built around specific plot elements that I don't think we've seen before. Great stuff.

 

[Dake]

Yep - this may be the most TOS-like episode of the modern era. The only thing that could've made it more so would be a few zooms on carefully lit eyes during moments of realization. I'd love to hear someone overlay some original series music on this ep.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Nothing amazing, but decent episode.

But it kind of got overshadowed by the promise of hijinks next week…

 

[The Predaking]

So I just watched both the last two episodes last night to get caught up.

Episode 3:

Spoiler

I really felt that I wasn't going to like this episode, but I reall enjoyed it. Alternate James T. Kirk and Le'An just worked so well together and they handled the issue with money and being out of time quite well. I also liked the romance between them. Sad to see that Alt Kirk doesn't get to come back with her, but I am glad to see that the real Kirk wants to meet up with her. I loved their banter about his middle name, and how instantly James decides to help her timeline just because his brother is still alive in it. I am still hoping that these folks will remember that James T Kirk was a bit of a dork/plebe/by the book officer.

I also loved how they bring up the Temporal Cold Wars, and how that has changed the future but certain events keep happening as the timeline pushes back. (Remember the Supervisors from Picard season 2? ) Also, I was kind of hoping to see Le'An display some of her ancestor's fighting prowess. Like I know she isn't modified but its still in her DNA, so choke slam that Romulan!

Episode 4:

Spoiler

I enjoyed this episode. The whole forgetting cycle for those outside the castle or without helmets was neat and how it devolved people into their basic selves. I loved that the enemy was their forgotten Red shirt from years ago. I loved how Spock trying to make it better, actually made it worse for everyone on the ship. The native guy was great too. All in all, this was a great episode. Also digging how Pike put the asteroid back into the belt to help the local population.

 

[Copper Bezel]

So "Charades".

I did notice a flaw in a single scene, when Uhura states that the shuttle wouldn't be able to communicate more than a light year away, but in actual fact the Enterprise is within at most a few AU and that's a comparatively trivial distance.

That was the only flaw. So much carefully built tension and catharsis here, from Spock standing up for his mum to T'Pring's dad finally getting to eat some more of Pike's cooking. La'an and Uhura's "oh come on, tell the nice alien you like him!" bit was incredible. I really do love that the one thing that finally causes Spock to break from the script and risk everything after all the nasty snipes and criticism everyone endured along the way is the indirect belittling of his mother. That felt amazing.

Chapel's response to the Vulcan science institute guy in the end, too, piledriver off the ropes!

And what a fantastic alien species, too! Something wildly more advanced than any culture we know, with their own nonintervention policy for primitive cultures like the Federation, yet ultimately governed by protocols that sound like a customer service policy from your local ISP. Simultaneously making the universe a bit bigger than we might expect but with a hint of the flavor of a Hitchhiker-style satire.

So very much yeee-eah!

 

[TM2-Megatron]

I really, really feel bad for T'Prill's husband.

Good god, what a piece of work.

 

[Monique]

Fun fun fun little episode. Hated T'Prill. I know that Spock gave her a piece of his mind at the end but damn she deserved to just be dragged for what a racist ass basic bitch she was.

 

[The Predaking]

So the last two episodes, my wife didn't watch with me, as I believe she might have been burnt out on this show. This one got her hooked again and she watched it all and loved it! She was even crying at the transporter scene at the end.

Spoiler

I loved this episode. It was a great one, and I just loved it. Seeing Ethan Peck get to spread his wings was great! Him standing up for his mother is epic and pretty much a Spock staple through out the various timelines. When he tells off his Future Mother in Law epic! His montage of Emotional outbursts including his talk with La'An was perfect, and his cooking scenes made us all laugh out loud several times. The ending scene between Spock and Chapel was great! At first I thought it was cannon bending, but I think that its not, and just more reason for Chapel to be after Spock in the TOS era. I also loved how she shut down the Vulcan at the end.

And just give a shout out to the actress returning for Amanda. She does a great job here reprising her character from Discovery.

So while I am waiting for the Gorn war, I am really enjoying this season with each new episode being as good as if not better than the last.

 

[Corvus]

I really, really feel bad for T'Prill's husband.

Good god, what a piece of work.

RIGHT? I must have said "Oh, you poor man" about 4 or 5 times during the episode.