Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

God that was fun.

That was a killer episode, holy shit! Not only was it a shore leave episode which I love, but also a Freaky Friday episode, but not too many high jinks. This episode had a nice balance of humor, science fiction, diplomacy, character developement and good old fashioned fun along with some ship porn and fan service. I loved it. I like the new take on Kirk's wrap around tunic, but I've never really liked that tunic. I loved the sailing ship which is interesting because this episode reminded me a lot of DS9 and Pike seemed to be channeling Sisko during those negotiations. The TOS fight music was awesome, I wasn't sure they'd actually play it, but they did. I think there might been a few other TOS musical cues sprinkled in there as well. Enterprise bingo was fun and the last scene with Number one and La'an on the saucer of the Enterprise was so good. Excellent episode.

This whole plot seems tailor-made for Lower Decks, to be honest, but yet I can see it working with almost any crew as long as you can technobabble an alternative to a meld for the mindswap. Imagine it on DS9 with Odo and Quark being flipped and make the negotiation a vital "dodgy deal" with the Dosi during the Dominion War.

mark this day as I couldn't agree more. Although I did kinda figure out the aliens they were signing the treaty with's thing about switching demeanors by the end of their meeting with Pike and April
the only thing missing was Pike's signature on the whatsis plate (it was about 430 am here when i watched...).

Noticed that during Chapel and Ortegas' banter about her love'em and leave'em experiences there's a casual allusion to her being bi/pan.

Nitpick: M'Benga goes fly fishing, has a fly rod, uses plug lures...

I noticed those lures too, I'm just glad they didn't go with the doctor goes golfing trope. I hope we see that plate some time in the future with Kirk, Spock and McCoy's signatures on it because I hope it didn't get destroyed when Kirk blew up the Enterprise or lost during the refit. Yeah they alluded to Chapel having a short fling with a chick. It was the equivalent of "I had a gay phase in college", I'm assuming.

Majel was bi, and her and Gene had threesomes, so...

You realize actors are not the same as the characters they play, right? Sulu is not gay just because Takei is.

tribute to Henry Blake?

Na... Chapel fell off the poly wagon and fell in love was the discussion...
also noted on Trek Culture the other week that the presenter specifically referred to Uhura/CRG in non binary terms, but nobody else. Wondering if that's about the actor or the character's future developments?

No, but writers can sneak that stuff in there.
JJ-verse Sulu is gay now, even though Takei didn't like it.

precisely... a pan sexual future was a DEFINiTE part of "Gene's vision (TM)"

I'm still kinda miffed about the lure thing.

This show is produced in Ontario for fuck sake. Half the production crew own or have been to a cottage and half of them had to have experienced the basics of fishing at some point.
His hat is covered in them!!!

My mind immediately went to MASH when I saw that hat. If it is a tribute to Henry then that makes the episode so much better.
As for Chapel and relationships, we know that at some point she has to fall in love with the guy from "What Little Girls Are Made of" so hopefully they're keeping that in mind and will set that up soon. As for Spock and relationships, we know T'Pring has to have a reason to break off the engagement at some point, so I'm guessing they're slowly setting that up.

Agreed.

The TCW connection was a last minute thing added at the end of the Xindi arc because Paramount had finally dropped the studio mandate about keeping a way to stick other Trek cameos if they needed to boost ratings in the later seasons when it was assumed it would run till 2008 time travel on the table. No one wanted that shit, least of all Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. And when the fanbase and Bermaga are on the same wavelength about an idea sucking ass, ya done goofed.

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Trek episode this much. I was smiling from start to finish.

The fishing lure thing bothered me a little bit, too, but I'm with @Federal Farmer and hoping that it was a tribute to Henry Blake.

My wife has a passing familiarity with Firefly and when she saw Gia Sandhu as T'Pring for the first time tonight commented that she'd make a great Inara in the Firefly reboot.

I think this may be one, if not my favorite all time episode of Star Trek.

Every minute of this episode was enjoyable. From the classic fight music to the way the episode ended.

I mentioned this after the episode, we see Chapel as a fun, sarcastic, full of life character on SNW, and then as serious, but the book character on TOS. I'm guessing that meeting and losing Roger Korby is what changes her, and makes this episode a sad chapter for her. Ortegas' advice may be what causes her to meet and fall in love with Korby, and then changes her from the character she is now to what she becomes.

A nice call back was Pike wearing the wrap around tunic we saw Kirk wearing. And damn, every episode just makes me like Pike more and more, he's pretty much becoming my favorite captain really fast. He can go from being just one of the guys to a serious no bullshit immediately and when needed.

Also loved seeing Una and L'an having fun, letting go of their serious side for a bit. And yeah, phaser stun duel looks like a lot of fun.

Even T'Pring have us another look into Vulcans, as much as one of them most steadfast and Vulcan, Vulcan that T'Pring is, she still showed that Vulcans still have a sense of humor with "Having met him, that is logical.".

I also think that this is the first episode we've seen without any of Pike's knowledge of what will ultimately happen to him not being shown. Which also makes me wonder if this series will bring him to that point.

hey, the Henry Blake thing was my observance

I'm half wondering half worrying they're setting up to redo TOS with all these legacies and free themselves from the limitations of canon... at least the ones like Chapel has to be wooden because Majel couldn't act much more beyond sad eyes back then.


Forgive the FF channeling, but the Youtuber I watch said that she'd always be Lwaxanna, and he's right. She was marvelous in that part and should be remembered for it. Her Chapel or Number One? not so much... (did she even speak in the cage???)

He also pointed out that April, T'Pring, and Number One have now all been portrayed by the new actors more than the originals and are now therefore the definitive canonical versions.

If it eases your conscience, Majel hated her Chapel too.
Her favorites were Lwaxanna, and (strangely) M'Ress.

I'm pretty high right now, so...

That woman is gorgeous.

Fun episode. Although I didn't watch Discovery, I am liking Ethan Peck as Spock.

I think he's playing the role better than Zachary Quinto.

That version of Spock was close to unlikable and didn't really remind me of Nimoy at all.

The Enterprise Bingo was an interesting idea. Trek has done some great comedy episodes before and I thought this was nice addition.

I'm glad they didn't go too over the top with it and hopefully this will be the only one of the season.

DS9 had a lot of great comedy moments but also some awful ones.

I think they went a little overboard at times. Especially with the Ferengi episodes and the Holodeck episodes.

Over memorial day weekend Pluto TV had Star Trek (09) marathon on and I hadn’t seen that one in a long time, but I thought Quinto was pretty close to Nimoy in scene where he wasn’t being a douche. Peck is pretty good though.

Between the fishing lures and Spock's interpretation of music theory, I'm beginning to suspect that we're being trolled.

I'm fine with this.

trolling, you'll do better with a spinner...

No.

Holy fucking fuckballs that was a stupid episode.

And I absolutely loved every minute of it.

I honestly can't remember the last time I watched Trek and pretty much had a grin on my face the whole time.

"Enterprise bingo"

That was fun. Trek doesn't always do comic episodes well, but this was well done.

The body swap did throw me at first, though, until I got a little further in and realized "oh, it's that kind of episode."

I liked Number One and La'an bonding.

I assume Jess Bush's Chapel being canonically bi will spawn a whole bunch of fanfic ...

Spock body swapping is probably why he believed Lester-Kirk in "Turnabout Intruder".

Good enough for me.

The actor. I've seen that reported elsewhere.