Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

I'm almost ready to wonder if they aren't going to at least play for a way to have him escape that fate.
They rebuilt Airiam from little more than brain chunks... surely they can heal pike a bit better than they once did.

Good point. Star Trek has shown, many times, that certain death isn't always so certain. Since Pike knows, it's possible his fate can be changed, the idea that perhaps the future isn't immutable. Should be interesting to see.

That would be a pretty big "fuck you" to TOS. I don't like the idea, anyway.

I think if they play it right, the fact that Pike knows his fate will make for some pretty great drama.

If he has to get injured, can we at least hope that he has better communications tech than Stephen Hawking did 30 years ago?

Ha, thanks Dayton

True however i think i counted 4 or 5 times where we see Pike hallucinating being all mangled and in his wheelchair, plus the couple of times he talks about it (to Spock for instance). So there’s this constant reminder we know how and when he dies

So the first time he’s in apparent danger, when he’s getting led away by the guards in the alien prime minister’s hall, I’m like “nah, he’ll be fine”. No suspense or anything

This isn’t a huge gripe by me and doesn’t ruin the show or anything but it’s just kinda strange

The show has to end with him in that situation or subvert expectations and show what happens after he gets all fucked up.

Balls. The premise of every episode of Trek since TOS is that the ship and/or crew have to be in mortal danger. Of course, by the end of the episode, the ship would be saved, and the only crew members who might have died (save Tasha Yar in TNG) were always some faceless extra. Back when TNG was in first run, and a bunch of us would gather to watch the episodes as they premiered, I'd drive everybody nuts by sarcastically going "Ooooooooooooo!" as they cut to commercial. At one point, as we watched yet another episode where the Enterprise exploded just before a commercial break, a friend said to me that seeing it really got to him, and I said, "Dafuq? They keep doing this, and by the end of the episode they manage to prevent the ship from exploding. The only time we got to see the original Enterprise destroyed was in STIII, and that has a much bigger impact." Fucking thirty years later, and despite thinking that STIII is largely unwatchable, I stand by that statement.

Good episode, good start to the series.

I'm not bothered by the fact that we know Pike, Spock, Uhura, Chapel and Kirk (and possibly Kyle, though I guess he doesn't have to be the Lieutenant Kyle from TOS) will survive whatever happens to them in the series. To use the comparison to TNG's "Cause and Effect," sure, we knew the Enterprise wouldn't stay blown up in the end, but half the fun was seeing how the situation would get resolved.

Ethan Peck is a much more convincing Spock without the weird, patchy hipster beard.

I did not expect the twist where

I wonder if there was ever a moment when the producers considered giving an additional hat-tip to TOS by having Chapel be played by Rebecca Romijn in a blonde wig.

Not sure why, but I’ve been following the lady who plays Uhura on Twitter for years now. I waspuzzled when she announced to her followers that she was cast as Uhura on this show. Like, this was a total coincidence.

You’re right. She looks and acts nothing like Nichelle Nichols, so I assume there’s something else special about her that made them cast her. Looking forward to figuring out why.

What’s really bugging me is that I can’t place the actress who plays La’an Noonien Singh. There is something eerily familiar about her voice. I thought she might have been a voice actor for a video game I liked… Mass Effect? Uncharted? But she has no credits for it in her resume… and of course, her character’s name is all too familiar to us. Will her lineage be relevant? Is she genetically modified? This happens prior to the events of Space Seed, so I guess we’ll see.

I love Spock with the weird, patchy, hipster beard.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2925304/

Finally got around to seeing this. Absolutely fantastic! See guys, that wasn't so hard. Pike got a truly moving Captain's speech right out of the gate. No I'm not bothered by using January 6th as a jumping off point for a fake future and I totally got the point they were trying to make. That's one hell of a Prime Direct... I mean general order number 1 violation though. Nice call back to Enterprise, not once, but twice. The ship in orbit was called Archer, IIRC and Pike's response to Spock reminding everyone that the Vulcans initiated First Contact diplomacy. I guess there's still a little bit of residual anger or whatnot from when Vulcans were holding humanity back. That would also explain Bones' attitude toward Spock. Speaking of Spock, Ethan Peck did a much better job this time around, I really liked him. The big E looks fantastic and I'm just going to pretend that this is how she always looked. I know I've bitched a lot, but this is a great looking ship. Captain's quarters got bigger and so did sick bay. We also saw what looks to be a mess hall or a rec room or something. I get the feeling that these are rooms we never saw on TOS, but always existed kind of like the dolphins on the Enterprise D. Solid start, one of the best if the the best episode of modern Star Trek yet. Good job. I hope they can keep it up, fingers crossed.

A few more things:

Did Spock lie about not seeing T'Pring since he was a child? I suppose pon farr could mess with his memory or something.

Spock knowing what happened to Pike carries more weight with his actions in "The Menagerie". Nice touch

Ship's stores aren't a thing, instead clothes just beam directly onto you. Will they address that? The genetic modifications wearing off though would explain why Spock always covers his ears, it's just easier.

One thing I do get sick of and this isn't the first time they've done this. The moons of the planet being that close. Come on guys, we all know the moon can't be that close without having major repercussions, even Roland Emmerich knows this.

Side tangent: Didn't the 4k release of TMP show that Vulcan doesn't have a moon? So which is it, Vulcan has a moon or Vulcan doesn't have a moon?

Side tangent #2: Speaking of TMP, for all of their talk of logic and purging emotions and what not, Vulcans sure do like their rituals and symbolism.

That's not the Kirk you are looking for.

Did anyone else hear a little bit of the Enterprise/Kirk's TWOK theme when the Enterprise was leaving space dock? I could have sworn I heard it.

You heard something like it. They do the same flurry of strings we often heard in the TOS films, especially ST:II. So while it's not exactly the same, it's similar enough that I would bet on it being a callback.

I love that Pike has a television and the wood color mimics the one he had in his quarters.



He loses points with me for watching The Day the Earth Stood Still in 16:9, though.

I loved it. 5/5
Even better than I expected and I expected greatness.

Just watched it and really enjoyed it.

Huge amounts of fan service and call backs, but IMO very well done. The Jan 6th civil war motif was excellent and topical, social science fiction like Trek always delved in. Fits well with the Bell Riots that are coming up in our timeline.

The casting was good. The tech a little too good, but not horrifically so. Not sure why they made Chief Kyle asian - just invent a new character if you want representation.

The new Uhuru is not a good fit. I'm willing to give her a chance, but that's not good casting.

The new Chapel? That's like nails on a chalkboard. My wife hated it. But I'm willing to give her a chance as part of a character arc. I'm thinking there's a couple of ways we get to the Nurse Chapel we know in TOS, and tie in her unrequited love to Spock. Pretty sure that's where they are going with that.

Anson Mount is fantastic, as is Rebecca Romjin, though we didn't see much of her so far. Mbenga and Spock are both strong. Loved the callback to Admiral April, the USS Archer, which appears to be a Saladin class destroyer/scout from the Franz Joseph Star Trek Technical Manual. Also fun to see T'Pring.

And the reason for the Prime Directive while tying it to the events of Discovery? That was inspired.

As well as Pike looking at his own future and using it to understand the events in the episode, processing both his own trauma and how to perceive the negative aspects of the future. That's also pretty damn topical.

Oh, and an Andorian joining the crew? Been waiting for that for 40+ years.

Mbenga though is going to be interesting. We know in the Cage Dr Boyce is CMO. We know Mbenga is just one of the doctors in TOS. Looks like his character arc is not going to be one where he values his career, or perhaps makes a tragic mistake. I hope if the later it's a moral choice.

Overall strong start. By far the best of the new Trek IMO. We'll see if they keep it up.

I just head-canon that "The Cage" happened right at the end of one 5 year mission, and just before the start of the next, therefore why the crew got rotated, uniforms changed, tech upgraded, etc, etc.
I doesn't give me a nervous tic that the "The Cage" characters aren't all there.

Yeah, I agree, but in theory the fact that M'benga goes from CMO to losing the position to Boyce to then McCoy being CMO indicates the possibility for an interesting arc for the character. Pure speculation on my part, but if I was a writer there I'd do it that way. I'd just make the reason he loses the position be due to a moral issue that makes Starfleet better.

Just like we see a Chapel that is the complete antithesis of the Chapel we see later. Either they really fucked up, or they intend to address that with her character arc on SNW. The fact she becomes more stoic like Spock, and has deep feelings for him in TOS makes for some interesting possibilities. It could even be mental health related - the current Chapel appears almost manic. Spock helping her in that manner with Vulcan discipline, perhaps even a Mind Meld, best yet if it's done without the other character's knowledge, could explain a lot of things.

Hell, that might be the issue that Mbenga resigns over.

Anyway, pure speculatin on my part. But if they do decide to address those changes there are a lot of possible stories they could do for the character's development.

Boyce is the Pulaski of TOS.
Hey...we never got closure for her character either, did we?

Piper, not Boyce.

I like where you're going, and given he appears to be from the Phlox school of medicine with his holistic approach (in the trailer there was a comment about unsanctioned treatment) it'd make sense. I'd go with offering it back to him only to be refused so he can still flex the rules.

Not sure the Chapel concerns are warranted. We've also seen more life in Number One's depiction as well than was shown in the prior portrayal... I think we can chalk it up to MBR being about as expressive as a piece of toast in both roles.

Oh, yeah, this doesn't address Boyce at all. My headcanon is that the old man simply retired. Though he clearly has a relationship with Pike in the Cage, so my guess is they will bring him on when the series is winding down, say year 4 or 5.

Of course, they could just ignore it all, but I'm hoping they do respect canon to at least an extent. It's a guide rail for the show.

Yeah, that's who I meant.

SNW Chapel is TOS Chapel possessed by Washu from Tenchi Muyo.

Has Chapel loved and lost Korby by this point? That might account for a closing-off of emotion between now and TOS.

Mbenga will be captured by aliens that erase twenty years of memories so he has to start over in the academy.

looking at memory alpha, yeah, it makes sense.

Boyce is CMO in 2254/the cage and fair sure we heard his name in the DISCO eps
M'benga just came on with this rotation-2259
Piper has the job in 2265
McCoy shows up in 2266


Really the only one who doesn't fit is Piper, who's term was quite brief Maybe the injury he sustained from Gary Mitchell forced his retirement?

Korby disappears two years from the current point in the timeline. Of course, it implies very heavily that Chapel resigned from a career in bio-engineering to search for him, and they don't find him until Kirk's run in TOS. It would make a certain amount of sense, but it also wouldn't be something they could resolve. Curious if they'll include Korby.

What might make sense is a trip to Orion. Korby is famous for archaelogical finds there that he translated which revolutionized immunization. Makes sense for Chapel to meet him there. The tie in with Pike there would be fun too.

I seriously doubt that a current HD or 4K TV will last that long. An old style CRT could last that long. It might be a reproduction though.

That was pretty good overall. It did feel more like The Orville than anything called Trek from the last two decades.

I hope it doesn't turn into a complete mess like Picard Season 2.

Probably one of the worst seasons of Trek ever. Just awful. I thought about posting a long rant in the other thread about how much the season got wrong but I don't have the time or energy for that sort of thing anymore. And, no, it had nothing to do with wokeness or SJWs or whatever other stuff Federal Farmer whines about.

What they did with the Borg was damn near criminal. They really shit on the whole Borg concept and I hope to god the Jurati-Borg don't ever show up again in Star Trek. Total garbage.

SNW is definitely more interesting so far than Discovery... a show which I couldn't even bother to keep watching. The main character was just so unlikable and I was hoping they wouldn't bring her up again in SNW.

Does SNW episode 1 have continuity errors? Yes a ton. And are they going to keep fucking up continuity? It's pretty much a guarantee. Korby? I guarantee he will never be brought up. This new Chapel is nothing like the original Chapel (who was a pretty boring character anyway) I honestly don't give a shit about that anymore.

Just tell good stories with interesting characters, AFAIK everything since the end of Voyager has been alternate universes/continuities anyway. I'll pick and choose what I accept in my head canon.

This has potential to be the best Trek since DS9 went off the air. But it has the same writing/producing team as Discovery and Picard so I am concerned. I guess we will see how it goes but episode 1 gets a thumbs up.

But why was Robert April wearing blackface? That's disrespectful, Star Trek. You are better than that. I'm just kidding, I don't care. Alternate universe I guess. Or maybe a 'Negro-plasty' as Diacanu said up thread.

Oh, I wasn't implying that it was an antique or anything, though his cabin did have some in it.