Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

Did anyone else catch the reference to the "Riker Maneuver" when Boiler sat on the saddle and said "Riker"?

Out of all the ideas Modern Trek has had, Lower Decks should've been the one that burned on impact but it's been carrying this franchise on its back and probably the most universally liked show out of all of them.

Actually, the other thing I loved that I didn't put in this original post is that the other stories that have been ongoing like La'An's grief over Alt Kirk and the Chapel/Spock thing also get touched on, which they didn't have to do and would've been fine but that's why SNW is so beloved too.

(Take notes, Picard)

SNW S02E07 - Those Old Scientists

A flawless episode. I enjoyed every minute of it.

I refuse to get P+ so will just have to wait for the blu-ray, but I've already spoiled myself silly on this one.

Lower Decks is the Red Dwarf of Trek, showing that you can have a bunch of goofballs who haven't amounted to smeg in life but they can still be heroes and tell emotionally moving stories. Patrick Stewart famously thought RD was ripping off Trek, but after watching The Last Day saw it as so much more. And now LDS gets to enhance "proper" Trek with a bit of fun-poking and pathos-inducing.

Two great episodes in a row.

Lost in Translation: Another episode with a strong TOS vibe. (Specifically, "The Devil in the Dark.") Well told, and it was nice that it gave us an excuse to see Hemmer again.

Plus, they handled Kirk coming on board in a way that matches TOS canon (Kirk saying he met Pike "when he was promoted to Fleet Captain").

Those Old Scientists: So much fun to watch.

First, they couldn't have pulled this off if the Lower Decks team hadn't made the choice to model the characters after their voice actors. So good job, Mike McMahan. (Jack Quaid is more buff than Boimler, though.) I'm glad they gave him purple hair.

Redoing the title sequence in LD's animation style was golden.

The Chapel/Spock arc, and specifically how we get from here to TOS, is starting to make more sense. Obviously Spock will at some point decide to return to T'Pring and rededicate himself to logic, and actually SNW is starting to redeem the portrayal of TOS Chapel: without the context of SNW she came across as simpering and mooning over a hopeless crush, but it makes more sense knowing that she and Spock had a romantic relationship that he turned his back on. You could replace Majel Barrett's Chapel with Jess Bush's Chapel in some of those scenes, and while Bush would make far better acting choices, you could keep the actions and dialogue the same and it would work.

Love the quip from Boimler about Pike's "great hair," and also the "Did anyone notice that their references are weirdly specific?" And the Orion delaq making everyone feel big-eyed and weirdly two-dimensional. And the "TOS era" gag. And seeing Mariner go all fangirl.

A quibble: I wish that modern 23rd-century Trek did fewer "call-forwards." It's not quite as bad as Enterprise deciding to bring in the Ferengi, but come on -- Uhura is studying the Cardassian and Bajoran languages? Bajor will be considered way the fuck out in the boonies 100 years later, so in SNW's time it seems like first contact with Bajor and Cardassia should still be years in the future. Same goes for Setlik II, since Setlik III has to be close enough to Cardassian space for the massacre to make sense.

Why are SNW's shuttles so huge? In TOS and TNG they were not much bigger than a 15-passenger van.

Also some of the TOS shuttles were that big. It’s only on TNG that we have the really tiny ones.

TAS re-conned a whole Batcave assortment.

I figure the Setlik system is on the far edge of 23rd century Federation space, to the point that "let's just pick up more grain from the post-scarcity Federation" somehow isn't a plausible solution once the Enterprise loses the shipment intended for them.

As for Uhura looking at the Bajoran and Cardassian languages, I'm guessing she was focusing her investigation on languages local to the area, I'm guessing Federation databases have loads of information from areas of space they've never actually visited that they acquired second or thirdhand through information exchanges. It's like when the TNG crew couldn't communicate with the Tamarians, but the computer still had enough information about that sector to know who Darmok was.

The LD title sequence gags on the Enterprise were perfect

How about the grain shipment, a connection to " The Trouble With Tribbles" and 'Trials and Tribble-ations"?
I thought this episode reminded me the of "Trials and Tribble-ations" more than anything except in this Boimler can't he;p himself, where as Sisko had to be dragged by Dax to meet Kirk.

I liked that the SNW cast played the straight man and the LDS cast were the funny guys, absolutely perfect. Pike being annoyed was great, especially when Mariner came through the the portal, raises hand with communicator flipped open and we hear the communicator chirp, " Pike to Enterprise, (long pause) five to beam up." Chef's kiss.

I also agree with @Shirogayne , I like that the writers are keeping all of the character beats together with La'an and her crush on Kirk and nurse Chapel and her (weird) relationship with Spock, I guess they really are trying to tie everything together with Those Old Scientists.
I think Lower Decks is the perfect connectivity between Roddenberry/Berman/Braga Trek and Kurtzman Trek.

Lastly, I love that Enterprise gets some love, suck it, haters. I thought we were actually going to see the NX-01 with the Archer theme playing, that would have been cool, but we didn't get that, what a shame.
9.8/10 Should have shown us the NX-01. Right up there with "Trials and Trubble-ations", but I still favor DS9.

!Should have said that Lower Decks is the great link between old Trek and new Trek.

I’m with Mariner. I was completely unprepared for how hot Spock is.

Conversely, Ortegas was still cute as a cartoon.

That last scene, and the opening credits. I would watch the shit out of a SNW animated show.

Ethan Pecs

Probably a reach, but that Enterprise officer that got killed in the nebula worked in Astrometrics, and Sulu started out as an astrophysicist... Young Sulu incoming?

I haven't watched the LD crossover episode yet but the scene at the end of "Lost in Translation" where Kirk and Spock are introduced to each other make me laugh hard with the callback to Kirk's brother's messiness that pissed off human-Spock in the previous episode.

KIRK: Yeah, it's just Sam being Sam. Sometimes he can be, uh...
SPOCK: Frustrating.

Apparently that entire bit was ad libbed

Anyone notice that the Ups and Downs guy, Sean Ferrick, gave this one 80+ "ups" and zero "downs"?

He gave 1 down.

I'm behind with this show and starting to catch up. It's not blowing me away as yet but it's definitely better than Discovery.

nope.. it was a negative down as part of the "dilithium up" for the animated end cap

So, Clint Howard has now been on all 3 TOS prequels, and TOS.
And DS9 in a time travel episode, so still prequel.

If we can't win the Klingon War you can be damn sure we'll M'beng it.

Buck Martinez?

Go Jays!?

He was also in a movie with David AR White. I thought he was in a TNG episode as well, but when scrolling through his IMDB listing I spotted that, and I just couldn't go any farther.

Damn, M'benga is a bad ass and got to bitch slap Spock as well.

Definitely one of the darker episodes in Trek, and it really gives a tragic light to M'benga and Chapel.

Can't add anything about the crossover episode that hasn't already been said. Fucking perfect.

Speaking of perfect, Tawny Newsome gives Nichelle Nichols serious competition as the sexiest Trek actress IMHO. I'd like to make babies with her.

Nice reference to DS9 where people from Earth call the moon Luna and people from the moon calling it the moon. I feel like this episode needs a second part to it. Klingon blood is pink. This episode was going so well until the end, I hope there's fallout from all of this and they don't just skip over it.