Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

Yes indeed. She was on the planet with Spock and the cannon and had most of the dialogue in that scene, a little more on the ship but that bit stands out.

As for this episode, as a well-know self declared lover of fan service...
The fight scene music....chef's kiss even if it was the obvious thing to do.
The green shirt! (together with the teaser for next week discussing the color of the typical one)
Pike getting to do those Kirkian monologues is like a warm blanket
The whole "sort out what these inscrutable aliens are thinking" deal is an old trope but well written here.
I'm really quite surprised how much they are writing for Chapel
I liked the inference that "not every Vulcan is sold on this logic stuff"
T'Pring was really well written in this one.

My only mild lack of enthusiasm is that Young Spock seems to spend a lot of time talking about shit that TOS Spock would not have. I understand this is likely a part of the maturation process but it still seems... chatty?

Not all Vulcans embracing the teachings of Surak is probably a hold over from Enterprise.

also makes a stepping stone to Sybok...

Episode seven will have another non-binary character!!
Dr. Aspen, played by Jesse James Keitel.

https://trekmovie.com/2022/06/07/st...inary-character-played-by-jesse-james-keitel/

Cue the CHUD outrage in 5...4....3...

Oh thank god!

Well that episode was kind of meh.

Is it just me, or did we get another puzzle piece on how Pike will survive?

That they shot at Casa Loma was a bit of thematic irony

If by survive you mean heal then maybe, but I doubt Pike would want to be a part of that society. Maybe the dad doctor would be able to help him. I just don't think it's necessary change his fate.

Not sure how one of the locations for this movie

makes it ironic.

Oh, definitely "healed" as he's still going to save those cadets-and it would make for the ultimate stoicism scene as he draws that last breath before walking into fate.

now that Dr Dad is in exile, he's no longer obligated to keep the med tech all prime directived. Pike can be healed far beyond Talosian illusions.

Mostly about the decadence that is unsustainable...

Holy shit! They actually did it. What a fantastic punch right at the United States and how our society is built upon the backs of children in poverty, who suffer in the "third" world so that we may live in excess. When she said that, it had to be a direct shot at our late stage capitalist system. That message was for those of us who enjoy the fruits of that system at the cost of the labor being exploited to keep it in place. I know, I know, some folks will object to that, but I was so glad to see it. The future of Star Trek will not happen with the course the US is on right now. What they have, that society post-scarcity, humanitarian empathy reaching outward to help others, that is a future that cannot happen with the way we are now, because of the system we use now, so I am very glad the writers chose to highlight it.

That moment aside, the episode itself was solid all around.

* Gorgeous visuals.
* A "strange new world" visually and culturally.
* Strong character moments.
* Big morality and ethical lesson shot across the bow.

Flawless fucking episode, top to bottom.

I liked it. It really felt like a modern version of a TOS episode.

I also like that there's a saddle in Pike's briefing room.

I get what they were saying, but the Federation has replicators and the society is meant to be evolved way beyond ours. She asked Pike if he was sure no children were suffering under his society and I was like, "nobody can be 100% sure even in a post scarcity society, but I'm pretty sure no Federation world is actively sacrificing the kids in order to sustain their society." It's pretty smug to think her society is better because they are willing to face the child sacrifice in they eye. Sorry, but purposely sacrificing children is worse than accidentally letting them slip through the cracks. I get that it's meant to be allegorical and I'm glad that they are going for that, but some societies are just better, even if they are flawed. This is a made up future of humanity, like Blade Runner, not a documentary.

I do agree with @shootER that it did feel very much like a TOS episode that doesn't have a happy ending where the crew is laughing. It felt like the ending of "City on the Edge of Forever" where Kirk says, "let's get the hell out of here." Also, a machine that runs their society, but they don't know how it works. Kirk would have just destroyed the machine.

Oh and before people start piling on, I'm not saying I hated the episode or even disliked it, it was okay, not what I was expecting I guess.

True, about it not being a documentary, but you know as well as I do that Star Trek often took on social issues of the day, and they did it in such a way that it flew under the radar of the censors and reached the people who needed to hear it. Sometimes those truths were unpleasant, but still needed to be heard. To me, this is one of those truths.

I split off the child sacrifice tangent because I expect that the RL topics brought up will take this thread too far off topic and the tone is already more Red Room than Media Central.

Fair enough.

See, I thought that was the weak point of an otherwise solid episode. I agree with the message but it was done in such an awkward way. It wasn't really a gotcha moment for Pike because the Federation of the 23rd century is nothing like what she was describing.

She wasn't really making any kind of point because there is no poverty or suffering children on Earth or other Federation member worlds. At least that is what has been established in previous Trek shows. I think I could have rewritten that dialogue to make it more impactful within the context of the show.

There were other ways they could have written that scene. Think of any of the times Quark pointed out the flaws of Starfleet or the Federation on DS9. It was a ham-fisted way of inserting a message, although not as bad as Picard season 2 or TNG season 1. 'Drugs are bad Wesley!'

Otherwise, wow, that was a dark episode. Even though it was just fictional it was upsetting to see that kid getting strapped into the device and I was hoping Pike could have rescued him although I could see where the episode was going with the idea. Even respect for cultural differences has its limits. Something Trek has touched on multiple times.

This is the second chick we've seen Pike sleep with on the show. So at this rate he may beat Kirk's record from TOS. Kirk was definitely a ladies' man but I think there were only two episodes where it was implied or explicit that he slept with someone. 'Wink Of An Eye' was one.

And there was the awful episode where he impregnates the Native American lady who then gets stoned to death. Ugh. That shit did not age well.

Anyone else reminded of “The Cloud Minders’ with this episode?

Eh, this isn't the TNG Federation. TOS had colony world's with famines and suffering and random alien attacks.

Sure Earth and the other core Federation planets are as good as they can make them, but those frontier colonies are still frontier colonies and go through everything that is a result of that.

They aren't needed, most of the time when we're shown colonies in Trek it isn't for new opportunities or resources, but because they and the Federation want to grow and spread, seeing it as part of their purpose.

So what exactly what was the utility of hooking the child up to the machine?

So this was basically The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas?

I guess good Star Trek should do that from time to time.

They didn't really explain it.

It is explained. The child has implants that allow it to interact directly with the machine. This little fellow was hyper intelligent, likely accelerated by his implants, and so would be used as a living processor for the machine. A human brain has about a quadrillion synapse connections capable of processing data.

It didn't just seem to be a processing issue. That could be compensated for by enough computers especially if - as the ep implies - they are more advanced than the Federation (likely TNG level in the pre-TOS era).

If it IS just processing, then we just saw Spock's Brain.

It is similar to Spock's Brain, because these people don't know how their technology works. For a culture of so-called "science," they treat the ascension like a religious ceremony.

That they put a glossy quasi-religious sheen on things doesn't mean that they don't know how the underlying tech works like the people in Spock's brain. It's just a way to make the fact that they are draining the lives of children to enjoy their way of life more palatable.

I would agree, except that she states they don't know how it works.

That she herself doesn't know how it works does not mean that the society as a whole doesn't know how it works, or that at least specialists don't know how it works. As opposed to Spock's Brain, where under normal conditions, none of the people in that society knew how anything worked other than they could get a temporary boost of super-intelligence by doing X.

well, yeah...

I mean, Anson Mount makes grown men question themselves, (if only to cuddle). Not too mention, if you're fucking aliens, you're by default pan sexual...

Shatner, otoh? I'd rather kiss a Horta.