Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

Reverse Houlihan Syndrome.

I think the net was a red herring for teasers, get us thinking Tholians or something.

Aspen/Angel struck me as being a bit like Saffron-honey pot/bait.

Angel-Spock connection sets up that it is indeed Sybok. And yeah, that's how they knew.

Pretty sure CC got him with the hypospray, not a nerve pinch. I'll have to rewatch, but likely her motions were based on the 'controlled disengagements" they teach in my line of work.

Weren't they dropping subspace comm buoys all the way past the border? Again, need to rewatch but if they establish enough time in story for the original msg to have reached the last relay then perhaps responders would tune into the nearest buoy rather than the relay?

I'm not too worried about the lack of internal defense. Most of the crew aren't armed and when they were shut out of systems, weapon lockers (not too mention doors) would definitely be affected.

definitely foreshadowing... that's why we didn't get a face. Hasn't been cast yet.

Should be whoever plays Bourne next, since if you can't get Bond...

I think it worked for the character. I'd assume someone that married an anti-logic Vulcan criminal would be exactly the sort of person to embrace the intensity of their emotions and to ham it up. Like a "drama queen" but worse.

For the record, it was Dr. Aspen/Angel who said the pirates formed a tight bond. It's like saying "my crew would die for me," and knowing full well that most of them would probably get out of the way to let it happen.

I guess I enjoyed this ep more than most of you. Yes, there were some flaws and I can't disagree with anything put forth so far, but I just enjoyed it.

Pretty sure Chapel was using a small hypospray, so it wasn't always visible. Could be wrong though. But that I didn't have any issue with. The problem with Chapel is if they get this version to the very subdued nurse in TOS something horrible is going to have to happen. Not sure if that's her arc or not.

They do seem to be setting up returns to episodes quite a bit, and that I like a lot. Pretty positive we'll see the Shepherds and the Comet again too.

I did like the Sybok reveal within the constraint of the Vulcan penal colony. That makes a lot of sense. And Angel simply being a pawn of Sybok is a good angle. Clearly she had a lot of intel on Spock from him, and how to manipulate T'pring.

As to Continuity, this one blew. Quite frankly the quality of the writing dropped precipitously. Some good ideas for later eps, but the things within this episode just didn't work.

And yeah, the Net was just a character arc moment - that didn't work at all. Again, bad writing.

Which also didn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Why bring up pirates at all if you are leading them into a trap by, oh, pirates? There's other things that would get the Enterprise out to protect colonists. And of course their plan shouldn't have worked, because 400+ starfleet personnel should be able to defeat 30 pirates in a boarding action. Silly.

I appreciated it as a call forward to The Doctor's mental breakdown in Latent Image. Having to "go with his gut" nearly destroyed his program, but Spock is half human and not a machine no matter how much he might wish to be.

I personally liked the heel turn a lot. Chew that scenery, Angel! On a more serious note, I did find it interesting that a non-binary character talked with Spock about how maybe it's a false dilemma about whether he is human or Vulcan. That is a dilemma he really doesn't escape in TOS. Or he tries to for the most part by utterly denying his human side. Making Spock a metaphor for trans people may sit wrong with some, but I kind of like it.

I definitely whooped when Pike came back to say "I'm only going to tell you this once. Get out of my chair." so loud my wife had to tell me to keep it down.

Yes, you do have to turn your brain off quite a bit for this episode. If Angel's true objective was to blackmail T'Pring to let Sybok loose, she doesn't need to take the whole Enterprise. All she needs to do is abduct Spock for such a trade and not risk having the Federation flagship and its crew pull off one of the miracles they are famous for, or have the rest of the Federation seek revenge if you do overpower them. And yes, the 40 or so pirates should have been outnumbered like 10-1 on the Enterprise and had little chance to take it.

The net didn't work just meant it was time to go to Plan B.

Spock surmised Angel was working with Sybok, his half-brother and T'Pring's captive. Sybok would on his own be in a position to know about T'Pring's engagement to Spock and potentially convey that knowledge as to Angel. Or alternatively, Angel in trying to find pressure points on T'Pring would be able to find out on her own that T'Pring had been engaged from childhood to Spock and thus ID him as a target.

They showed Chapel had a hypospray up her sleeve when the bad guys first confronted her, and she stressed that she was a nurse and had no weapons...but hyposprays don't count, LOLOL.

In the fine tradition of Star Trek.

Nah, there's always some plot point why taking over the ship works, from seizing the computer systems to advanced alien powers to incorporeal possession to hostage taking.

This is the first time someone just stunned their way through a ship full of hundreds, outnumbered over 10-1.

So now you have one more reason.

One tiny thing that bugs me because it happens every episode. When the ship is hit with anything, the computer screen goes in out real quick, it’s kind of stupid because it shouldn’t work that way.

FOX coverage of the Jan 6th stuff?

oh I enjoyed it! It's just that the bar on this series is so VERY high. Even the "worst" one is still fun

Me too, honestly. It was pure, campy fun, and Angel is no more over the top scene chewing than any of they counterparts from other Trek series.

One thing that took me by surprise is my enjoyment of the Spock/Chapel nd Spock/T'Pring dynamics. Chapel was very much a character who was a product of the 60s and her Spock Simping was very much in line with that. The friendship between them here feels real and earnest, and I'm here for it. Same too for what they've managed out of T'Pring, who I didn't expect to see again after the premiere but who is carrying stories in her own right. I did like her trying to "spice things up" by learning about human sexuality I'm actually a bit sad now, knowing how they will end....and that's a testiment to the great work from the writers.

Being a veteran, I can attest to good food making and breaking morale, so props to Pike for using that to start a mutiny

When did we let Dayton back in the joint?

When a navy ship gets hit does it generally effect the electronics on the ship?

I'm going to guess it's more likely than consoles exploding.

also, if F=6 and D=4
then FF=D3, non?

I'll have ask my friends who were on the Fitzgerald the night of the collision, but I'm pretty sure getting a giant ass hole in the ship and taking on water probably did a number on a lot of the electronic systems on board, yes.

There's a reason why plotting in damage control is done by hand.

Re: Trek specifically....well, it's a TV show, and some visual shortcuts for "shit is getting bad" is to be expected.

thinking that a hull breach means exposure to the elelments... for a ship, it's water which'll cause at least localized outages from shorts.
for a starship, it'd be space. So we're talking sudden exposure of circuitry to all manner of radiation.

here's where we stand on the subject after 65 years.

I also thought this was the worst episode so far.

I feel like they are focusing way too much on Spock and thats exactly what I dont want in this show.

We already know about Spock and the story of his life from literally the beginning to the end and I would prefer to focus on the ‘new’ characters or the unexplored characters like Pike and Una.

Also the Spock and Chapel dynamic does not gel AT ALL with their relationship (or lack thereof) in TOS.

This has to be an alternate universe. In TOS they were just coworkers. I think the only times when they had any sort of meaningful interactions were ‘Amok Time’ and ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’ and both of those interactions were awkward and formal.

They were never friends to this extent.

Other than that the episode was very dull and pointless. I guess its setting up Sybok? Really? I’m probably one of the few people that appreciates STV but we don’t need Sybok on this show. I did like the Aspen character until she turned evil and then it was just hammy and over the top.

They could have made her an antagonist while still showing some subtlety and nuance to the character. Or maybe make her more conflicted about what she was doing.

Also Pike seems a bit too flippant and jokey all the time. I like him as a captain but Pike in ‘The Cage’ was a lot more serious and contemplative. This doesnt seem like the same guy.

Unless my memory is faulty, I had always thought TOS made it pretty clear that Nurse Chapel had a thing for Spock.

Wow, what a bag of dumb. Sloppy writing, plotting and just plain boring. The Angel character's flip into cheesy cardboard baddy landed with a thud.

It's all a little too light and breezy for my tastes. I need something with a bit of edge. Or, if sticking to light and breezy, much better writing.

Ethan Peck's Spock would be a perfect fit in Gilmore Girls.

This can take a seat beside Stardust City Rag and The Outrageous Okona on the Rubbish Space Pirate Episode bench - at least we were spared Joe Piscapo.

Funny, I feel like the show has been showing a surprising amount of restraint in overusing the Pikachu of the Star Trek franchise this far. He's often been a background character in the other episodes where someone else was getting focus. You're not wrong that his character came fully assembled so to speak (minus his love life) but I dunno how fair it would be to Harry Kim him solely because of the six decades of history before that.

Nope, and I'm honestly okay with that, because their original dynamic was dull as dishwater.

Admittedly, much of TOS is a hard watch for me and SNW has been an facelift in the same way BMW brought the then 40 year old Mini-Morris into the 21st century when the MINI was created.

[Side note: Dr Aspen is a "them" ]

Yes, but Spock was made out to be more unaware of it. Even in The Naked Time, when Chapel outright admits she loves him, after he's infected he doesn't mention it - he's more concerned that he could never tell his mother he loved her or that he feels ashamed of his friendship with Kirk as it's "un-Vulcan".

You could suggest that Spock tries to become more Vulcan after Pike and Number One leave the ship, and his relationship with Chapel suffers for it. Certainly, he has no real "anti-Vulcan" aggressor among the SNW crew like he does with McCoy, which might be a consequence of closing himself off more (or Leonard's just THAT much of a prick)?

FTFY.