Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

We got a Kirk sighting

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Finds Its James T. Kirk With Paul Wesley https://t.co/5TYFp8XYMe

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 15, 2022

Okay, premiere episode today! Which I haven't seen yet but soon enough.

My natural scepticism kept me from fully enjoying the fan service bits. It was fine, I guess. Better a low-key opener that turns into something solid than an amazingly flashy and promising first episode that turns into me giving up on the show after a season and a half.

need a history of star trek sideburns

Yeah "low key opener" is a good way to describe it, it was fun and straightforward enough and got a reasonable amount of info dumping done. More than anything I absolutely think this nails the 'what if 1960s Big Ideas Optimistic Trek with 2020s production values' mode, so I'm already in for the rest of the season.

A little heavy handed toward the end but a solid B+, just happy to have a Trek episode where the survival of all existence doesn’t hinge on that 45 minutes.

ned otm

it succeeded in trying to do what TOS sometimes did, referring to current events but in a way that ~comforts~ the viewer, like trying to provide a modicum of hope as a mixer with the escapism & i appreciated the attempt because idk i kind of needed it right now? i finished the ep feeling like yes, this is how it should feel. i am a cornball though too so ymmv

it feels rooted in the past in ways that arent just fanservice so i hope that continues to pay off bc man i really love this cast

Feels good to be hyped for next week's ST episode instead of wondering which kind of terrible it will be this time.

also La’an Noonien Singh/Christina Chong is A+

total Camina Drummer from Expanse vibes, freaked out for a minute bc i thought it was the same actor lol

xpost otm

My mom texted me to ask if that was Drummer and if their alien modifications were supposed to make them look like Buffy vampires.

lol <3

there’s something about forehead appliances in effects makeup, maybe bc they often widen the space between the eyes, it is SO easy to veer into that Buffy look, it’s weirdly common like i think ppl just accept that its an ok look. i kinda wish we could get away from it myself. it even happens in cgi.

the spock/t’pring scenes were great

worried about la’an’s surname(s), because enough already

anson mount’s hair is v. tall

Hmm, could have handled this differently.

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-ukraine-protest-footage-1848888151

worried about la’an’s surname(s), because enough already

I get Noonien-Singh and Noonien-Soongh mixed up sometimes. I had to check which one this was. I do hope it's just a nod to tradition and it's not going to be A Thing.

Roffle

pic.twitter.com/0mgRGzBRSU

— joegross (@joegross) May 7, 2022

omg totally! same energy as the kids would say

Glad I'm not the only one thinking that was the Drummer actress. Was a bit surprised it wasn't when I looked at Imdb.

Quite fun 1st episode I guess.
Didn't quite get how much earlier it is.

i thought this was good and so regretfully suppose i will continue paying paramount plus their trek tax for the next couple of months

spent probably a little too much time yesterday mentally workshopping convoluted scenarios whereby chris pike might avoid his melty fate, which probably means that i like the character

omg that's my friend dan!!

i really like that they introduced it so early on in Discovery, because it allows Mount to do more acting-wise with the character imo

Yeah it has to be a given we know his fate, right? They cant fuck with that fact at least. Surely.

It’s canon a couple times over, and if they try to timey wimey it people will be pissed.

I thought this was fine and is a welcome change from Disco and Picard nonsense, but the limits of Trekian optimism butting heads with trying to comment on contemporary ills really showed some strain and the resolution felt way too easily gotten.

anson's gonna melt, but it's like a decade away

somewhat awkward in that, while he talks about foreseeing his death, the melting won't actually kill him

this has not gone over well with disabled trek fans

just hope these characters can do something/anything better than being diverse and talking a lot. already like that one officer complaining about shit happening on her watch

yeah we can only hope

i think that aspect adds dimension

ie pike seeing the future & ~interpreting~ it as his death

yet we know that isnt the case

No I think he knows its not his death! He said something like "I saw my death... well, the death of me as I know me" or similar, suggesting what was left might as well have been dead? Which I can see disabled people having an issue with tbrh

As for me, I cant get past thinking of it like this.

https://morbotron.com/meme/S04E12/541823.jpg?b64lines=IEdvIFsgQmVlcCBdIHlvdXJzZWxmLg==

This was good: https://thatshelf.com/star-trek-discoverys-depiction-of-captain-pikes-disability-is-a-betrayal-of-roddenberrys-utopian-vision

"Betrayal" is a bit strong (I'm not sure Roddenberry had significant enough morals to betray) but the piece makes some good points without falling into fannish entitlement

Oh and nu-Chapel seems great and I loved T'pring's retro-futurist makeup.

Nu-Chapel seemed very familiar but then I realized it was just the Phoebe Bridgers hair, pretty sure I've never seen her in anything else.

I mean really, someone who is so disabled they cant move or speak and have to control a wheelchair with their mind and are just basically a floating head, doesnt sound like a life, disability advocacy is one thing but cmon. This isnt "the mere act of sitting in a wheelchair".

I rather liked this new episode, had the exact setup of a classic one-off but with plenty of its own distinct touches and interactions between characters.

only 5 minutes into this new ep but just dropping in to say that Christopher Pike's high hair is doing a LOT of important work on this show

already know more about pike's bridge crew than i've learned in four seasons about discovery's

take sides: pike's hair vs. spock's sideburns

i do think it's been well done so far, but i hope the entire season/series isn't haunted by pike's ~fate~. after all, he does love this job

this show is a real pleasure so far - absolutely nailing it but in an almost understated way

yep I reckon the character work is great (especially vs Disco) - that early scene in Pike's quarters had me grinning - feels like they have uncovered some ancient wisdom from a lost civilisation that "likeable characters that you wanna spend 1hr/week with" is a good TV formula

I've found the 'haunted by future' aspect quite interesting so far - feels like they might be building it into a slow burn plot development rather than just brooding about it? as you say mookieproof, it has been done with a fairly light touch thus far - I'm sure the device must have been used before? but it definitely adds something here, and I think stops Pike from being a bit one dimensional... and dare I say even adds a touch of profundity to the whole thing?

Some very bad CGI this week, not a big deal but the Shepherd captain on the view screen looked baaaaaad.

Some very bad CGI this week, not a big deal but the Shepherd captain on the view screen looked baaaaaad.

Some very bad CGI this week, not a big deal but the Shepherd captain on the view screen looked baaaaaad.

kept getting an error in Safari, oops.

tbf he was probably actually clint howard in prosthetics

no need to bang on about it milo jeez <3

Rob Bricken with a solid rave for the show that hits a lot of good points we've mentioned in the thread and elsewhere:

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-tv-paramount-plus-pike-spo-1848923327

i just noticed spock’s sideburns have a slightly arty curve to them & i hate it

pike’s hair however is majestic & i am here for it

really enjoyed this ep,

I am hoping his hair gets higher every episode.

I kept thinking of this
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/84/67/418467cb44c622620a11d8186fa94fdb.jpg
except I was remembering it as going up wards as well as forward.

Maybe memory incorporating bits of one or both of these which are of a similar vintage I think. Certainly saw them a couple of decades back
https://cdn.onebauer.media/one/empire-tmdb/films/45145/images/tTagCxKrhFlM5N0TEHQLqrnnf7V.jpg?format=jpg&quality=80&width=960&height=540&ratio=16-9&resize=aspectfill

i just noticed spock’s sideburns have a slightly arty curve to them & i hate it

That's how he shows emotion. When pon farr hits they turn into majestic whorls.

lmao

I thought the editing was a little slack, but as stated making these characters believable people with real personalities is a welcome change of pace from Disco.

I'm warming up to Peck, I'm pretty sure that his "I apply rigorous logic to defuse tension" was meant as a joke and his little look of disappointment at Uhura not acknowledging it was a small treasure.

yeah i loved that

i think peck is great, but i was a fan from the off when he first showed up in Disco

i understand that avoiding contractions and insisting on 'the = thee' and 'a = long a' is a handy way to make him seem alien, but i don't really recall nimoy (or jolene blalock) doing that?

nimoy definitely did the sense-ors thing that lower decks made fun of tho

in any case, i think peck's pretty good

Yeah Peck's solid; it's a hell of a thing to be the actor to take on an utterly iconic role -- and the second one to do it at that -- but he seems to have it pitched just right.

yeah i think both he & quinto both have acquitted themselves really well, avoiding doing an impression but honoring what’s been established if that makes sense - a difficult balancing act to be sure

peck has a lovely sonorous tone to his voice too which i love

goddamn that was a great episode!
oldschool submarine style = my fave

agreed

points off for ‘we’ve got this’ tho

no! BONUS point for deploying it in a MISSION and not derailing the entire story to talk abt feelings in the process. Also WE vs YOU.

sorry lots of all caps, v animated

Yeah, great episode.

ah I see from up the thread, she isn't Drummer from The Expanse

Is that a conscious thing they did or is it just chance? Seems to be a widespread reaction. Is it a case of this person would have been cast if available. Is there a character type both fit or just a chance physical resemblance.

Very glad this series seems to be... ok and perhaps even good? It hasn't come to the UK channels yet though.

I am HERE for Pike and Spock's leather away mission jackets.

liked ep 4 - ep 3 clunked a bit I thought, but this was good stuff - the gr0n felt proper menacing

hijinks!

That was very enjoyable.

Excellent fun, and a perfect counterbalance to last week.

yeah i really enjoyed that one!

I didn't much care for the previous episode but HIJINKS is so good.

they really have such a good light touch with the humor - it’s not signposted as heavily as the original series but still kinda captures a bit of that feel somehow

and deadpan vulcans discussing the existence of hijinks ~during a bodyswap~ is just too good

clearly we need a spock-t'pau spin-off-off

dammit this show just keeps getting it right

I didn’t know I needed a competently made OG Trek series but I totally did

also enjoying how they’re retrofitting the chapel/spock vibe

Also Una’s rep as Fun Funeral / Where Fun Goes To Die was v good

Speaking of Una, she's got those straight Vulcan eyebrows! I wonder if that's deliberate.

This show knows how to write fun Vulcans.

Chapel & Spock chat was the first time two Star Trek characters have seemed like they actually want to fuck.

Ive only seen Chapel in TOS in Amok Time, and she seemed pretty hot for Spock there too but that also just seened like Majel, like I couldnt unsee Lwaxanna when I watched it.

Wasn't that a well-known TOS subplot? Although I haven't thought about it in ages.

Loved "Sneak a Tribble into the Transporter Buffer" on the bingo card

xp yeah my memory is that Chapel having unrequited Spock vibes was part of TOS lore m, but I can’t remember how much it features onscreen in the series and how much of it is from extended universe stuff that I may or may not admit to having read in my early teens

Will they attempt to explain what happens to Federation leadership between SNW and TOS that results in most women being pulled out of leadership positions and put into mini skirts? Also LOL at Nurse Chapel's alien DNA mods wearing off and revealing Spock's ears - years later in TOS, they finally figured out that the Spock's best disguise is simply wearing a hat.

Roffle.

On it. Renegotiating for a development deal. https://t.co/3SpmZhhu49

— Anson Mount (@ansonmount) June 10, 2022

Anyway, new episode maybe too short given everything they were trying to pack in but still pretty good in a 'holy shit they went there' way.

haha mr veg & i were joking that his hair seemed bigger this wk

i really like that it started out on a lighter note & went full dark with the conclusion - AND they left off summing everything up at the end with crew or whatevee, just despondent Pike thinking baout things & drinking heavily

and both the kid actors were really good too, i thought! no trace of dead-behind-the-eyes you saw in a lot of the kids on TOS or TNG

started thinking about this guy yesterday
https://mediaproxy.tvtropes.org/width/350/https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thegumbmeister.jpg

& this though on closer look its just not enough of the hair. needs to be a bit more solid like
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/660611/theres-something-about-mary.jpg" class="noborder">

probably my least favorite so far, but not terrible

the arc was pretty well telegraphed and i didn't think the main guest star was great. but yeah the little boy actor was fantastic

https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Theres-Something-About-Mary-featured-image.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=960&h=500&dpr=1.5 " class="noborder">
not finding links that work

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_social_share_1024x768_scale,f_auto,q_auto:best/streams/2013/November/131105/8C9596541-SS_movies_best_roi_somethingmary.jpg

hair is a bit ridiculous. is that a conscious trope, like presume original look wasn't much like that
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Christopher_pike.jpg

Kirk's wasn't very vertical either, thought that might be it for a moment
[img]https://www.startrek.com/sites/default/files/styles/content_full/public/images/2019-07/89abe98de6071178edb1b28901a8f459.jpg?itok=UEwq0IRl[/img}

Anson Mount got a secret history as a psychobilly or something.
or is it more New Romantic?

stevo what on earth are you doing

in a general sense, not even star trek

i mean you read a bunch of cool stuff, but it seems to wash off you. can't even tell if you read the responses to any of your posts.

my suspicion is that you utterly rule but in like a kelpian way that we can't quite understand

anyway your latest messages are too arcane; please try again

Trying to work out why Pike's hair is so raised, vertical in places like. Can't see earlier influences. thought that was clear.

There are people on the board that I would rather ignore because of past comments from them. I'm unlikely to take somebody else's opinion as verbatim fact when i can see flaws in what they are saying. There are a few people who I just do not want to engage with whatsoever. I have wondered if I should spend time pointing out why I am thinking things, where I have heard information being discussed. Or whether i should just be ignoring somebody I am just thinking is trolling because they like chestbeating. I think I have been tending to the latter recently.
& there does seem to be at least one person on the chatlist who thinks that if they say something to me I should just view it as the only way to see things. So I just ignore them and maybe other people see that as me refusing to capitulate to vital correct information that I am just seeing not to be the complete picture, and don't really want to engage with them because they are overbearing and not somebody I want to be spending my time on.

Reading washes off , gosh how judgmental. A bit projected peut etre?

& if the images yesterday needed further explanation green guy is Gumby who i had seen on early morning tv in the States when I was there.
Pike's hair is on the wrong side but I did think the effect was similar. There was a black hairstyle a decade or so ago that really reminded me of him too. Angled natural haircut, may still be around.
https://menhairstylist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/10_Asymmetrical-High-Top-Haircut.jpg
is a more stylised version

Was there a close up of the front of Pike's hair in this week's show cos if so my first visual response was that bit of Something About Mary . Would think that might be a cliche comparison by now so a little surprised that needed explanation . But may be I'm making visual connections that aren't that possibly aren't taht immediate to everyone. Frame of reference etc.

I thought visual reference with hair may be something to do with the original character and can't see any cues that would lead to an exaggeration/charicaturisation like that, I didn't look at his hair when he had been stuck in the mobile chair thing after crashing on the planet. I can't see a hint of verticality in Kirk's hair either which would be another potential reference. kirk's doesn't seem to rise at all. Just look a bit greasy.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/johnnybravo/images/b/bb/Johnnyb001.gif/revision/latest?cb=20190421193227
is another possibly obvious comparison

last image was Johnny Bravo btw.

Not sure what source of hairdo is , seems like it may be one of the stylists used by the show. Apparently Anson Mount is not an aesthete when it comes to personal styling.

lol his hair IS kinda Johnny Bravo tho so i def see that lol

Finally saw the first episode, it was corny and delightful, but I’m glad to hear it gets better. I kind of want them to wear new DNA disguises every week and turn the show into a space procedural.

Hot Spock seems to have gotten even hotter since Discovery, it’s almost distracting. Anyway he’s a huge improvement on Z Quinto’s Angry Spock.

https://i.imgur.com/gnSYUtu.jpg

lol

Did anyone else feel like the plot of the First Servant and how each of them ends up was reminiscent of the endstory in NK Jemesin's Broken Earth novels? they had a whole society held together and powered on basically the bodies/corpses of one of their races, buried into a giant tree or something.

There's an episode review over at Fanbyte that takes issue with the "do you SEE?!" ending. I get the non-interventionism and frustrations of Pike trying to argue against his hot alien lover lady, but the Federation is literally built on an ethos that's against exploitation and is posed as a post-scarcity society! These people can lord over the doctor with their superior technology, etc. but does all of that evaporate if they decide not to plug another kid into the child-wrecking machine?

I am also one of the people who immediately texted a friend, "Is it just me or does Pike's hair get bigger every episode?"

fwiw if you search for (white) men's hairstyles, these ridiculous pompadours come up all the time. I think it's definitely the dream of a certain type of hairstylist to see how big they can get that style and SNW's on-set talent are living their best professional life

can't find a photo of Chikabuma.

Chikabuma has a haircut Pike would die for like.

yeah i thought of the link to 'the broken earth' too, but apparently the episode owes even more to an ursula le guin story (that i haven't read)

Ah, yes I'd heard there was a LeGuin ref - thats almost a complete rip!

Oh Le Guin was the first person I thought of; having said that, what I liked about it is that it took the basic premise and twisted it just enough in different directions.

It was very well placed in the running order to be shocking, too. After last week's hijinks, with so many fun OST tropes in it, to have an episode that seemed like it was going to be a "what is kissing, Kirk?" style sort-of fun episode that went so very dark was jarring in a good way.

Adam & Ben on the Greatest Discovery pod very early on hit upon a good neologism for the hair: “Pike-o-billy”

As opposed to the times when he’s just rocking the regular “Business Pike”

The higher the hair, the hornier he is?

absolutely ridiculous episode this week in so many ways

5/5

Loving the guy from Banagher playing the main pirate. Fair play.

Yeah this was top flight. And that little ending kick! Last bit of OG lore I EVER expected them to embrace but here we are.

could tell it was going to be an intense show when Pike's quiff shell got disarrayed. This after it seemed to be one solid wave all the way to the back of his head.

Jesse James Keitel was quite fun .
& I'm iuntrigued by prior history suggested by Una's response to Pike's attempting to put a plan into place.

Last bit of OG lore I EVER expected them to embrace but here we are.

I was surprised that I didn't remember anything about this, but once I looked it up, it all made sense. Star Trek V isn't exactly on regular rotation in our household.

a very silly episode! stylistically felt almost like OG Battlestar Galactica at times, or maybe 1980s Buck Rogers - the catsuit woman and the space pirates

Genuine lol at the end reveal - but shit, why not - have fun with it

Truly enjoying the Spock/Chapel slash backstory vibes

Number One pretty epically under-utilised thus far

Already a bit preemptively sad about this season ending - and TBH I have some reservations about Kirk joining the show, I hope he is kept firmly on the sidelines - honestly I'm having so much fun with this crew/cast, really not super interested in a hot-headed alpha male stinking up the bridge (even if the show ends up critiquing the alpha male's hot-headedness)

Delightfully fun. More campy space pirates, please.

I'd watch a spin-off series about any of the main characters, such a wild change of pace vs. Discovery where I'd rather have my nails ripped out with pliers than watch a Suru series.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7z8a/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-is-the-best-of-what-television-used-to-be

Thought this was pretty good and accurate.

mr veg was mad (“of all the things to revist! UGH”) Star Trek V is def lame, i dont disagree but i am kind of excite?

oh and I loved when Pike was being beaten up & negotiates to cook for them - the way he looks up & just cheerfullt says “Kitchen?” -
felt a bit Shatner-esque, love his calm cockiness

*cheerfully

I’m expecting this will get me put in the village stockade, but my explanation for the casting of Number One (“Una”? really?) is that she was the only actor they could find who was as irritating as Jonathan Frakes.

SUGGEST BAN hdu

The show is goofy cool though, and I am a fan of the Pike Soufflé

also Ethan Peck gives me strong Kevin Spacey vibes but I expect that will earn a volley of FPs as well

that’s it i’m calling the cops

also Ethan Peck gives me strong Kevin Spacey vibes but I expect that will earn a volley of FPs as well

Yep, me too. I hate it, because before I noticed it I was really, really enjoying him, and now I'm not. I think I can push through, though, with a few more hijinks.

I think he transcends Spacey - I’m back to enjoying him now!

Yeah this week was a hoot. At first Dr. Aspen showing up in that catsuit was obviously wtf but then I persuaded myself that maybe this was an SNW retcon where all Starfleet counsellors wear catsuits as a way to explain Troi's outfits.

I am glad that she got her heel turn because she got to chew some scenery.

I'm hardly a stan of TOS or its movies but I still squealed at the Sybok reveal anyway, because why not?

Her scenery chewing once she turned was a leeeetle bit too Batman villain for my taste! But I was also bothered by her weird outfit. tooo skeeeennyyy.

okay

If the entire cast chews the scenery how do you have any left?

This looks like it should be a holiday special or something.

It was FUCKING BRILLIANT and I will not have a word said against it.

given the choice between scenery chewing and trauma bonding I will choose the former 110% of the time

if one had one word, would it be ham?

quite fun though I guess just a tad ham-y or sumfin.
Did have me wondering if the US had a special occasion at this time of year I wasn't aware of. An extra Xian festival like.

i absolutely need pike, without anyone commenting, to sport that middle part in the next episode

I mean when Christina Chong appeared in the dress that was one thing, when I realized there was the dog that was another.

I have just reached the moment with this dress and dog, and wow, that’s a lot

love Chapel’s delivery of “What are her… dopamine.. levels?”

set hair stylist did some work on Spock’s wig, I see

so two episodes left (which is absurd, but so it goes)

one absolutely must be number one-centered, right?

I’m grateful that these are self-contained and unambiguous at the end because oh boy could this one have been bad without an ending

It's been noticed that the book per its jacket is written by Benny Russell. As in...

Hemmer quickly became my new favorite character on the show.

look

roleplaying episodes are my least favorite trope in TOS & TNG & DS9 because everyone is always “ACTING!” and it cringes me no end and this was no exception

the ending helped but lord i’ll be honest early on i struggled not to just straightup nap through this to get out of watching it

costumes were **~dope as hell~** tho

Would have been better focused on 2 or 3 characters role-playing but I guess without holodecks it's harder to separate them out on a ship.

I haven't seen this yet, but I feel strangely reassured that SNW is committing to cringey bad comedy episodes, which are, after all, a fundamental of Star Trek

I love the cheese! This ep reminds me of Firefly actually.

One of the things I like about Trek is its fans' (generally) relaxed attitude towards quality control, and finding reasons to love the crap as well as the good stuff.

definitely spent about a third of this ep drifting off to check instagram - but for a type of episode i can absolutely live without, this was less dire than it might’ve been - takes balls to spend 10% of the season doing this - perhaps would’ve been wiser to wait til the third or fourth year? anyway def hit that corny old Trek Squire of Gothos vibe at the top - managed to find it almost moving at the end, kind of glad that plot thread has been switched off (albeit via very TNG benevolent magic sparkly light) - anyway I like these characters but i think i just wanna see them staying in character for now thanks

I actually though the ham could've been dialed up WAY more. Pike chewed an adequate amount of scenery and I LOL'ed when Hemmer when full wizard, and but IMO everyone else was just nibbling.

Kind of surprised at the dislike of this episode in here! Reddit Trek LOVED it. I loved it. It had that campy humour and sense of fun TOS did, Buffy/Firefly often did. When Lower Decks or Orville does this kind of humour everyone plotzes.

i don't think anyone *disliked* it apart from VG? i mean ned is willing to fite people

i thought it was okay! but learning that buffy/firefly/orville/reddit trek fans LOVED it isn't really a positive imo

the fantasy eps of TOS/TNG are my least favorite…broken holodecks & mischievous child aliums can get in the sea imo

i yam what i am

big difference from me is 1/26 goofy throwaway vs. 1/10 + hindsight - bad/less good TNG episodes blur because when I see one now it's part of a four episode block in the afternoon on BBC America

yeah no actual dislike from me - i could never stay mad at this show!

learning that buffy/firefly/orville/reddit trek fans LOVED it isn't really a positive imo

>:/

oh yeah i love the show & dont like hate the episode in a visceral way it just makes me twitchy to sit through it

I just wondered what the occasion for what seemed like a holiday episode was. Seems like the kind of thing one does for an Xmas or similar special.
Obviously gets an actual explanation as to why the crew are getting OTT. But one does have to witness coifficide for the 2nd episode in a row instead of it getting a spin off show. Tonsoricide like.

Looks like they had fun making it.& if they can get the bite marks out of the scenery they may be able to reuse it.

But theyve done stuf like this on Trek plenty of times! Think about Bride of Chaotica for example.

Loved this. Lots of fun and imagine the cast had a blast filming it.

Also great that we haven't had 5 minutes of melting face Pike flash forwards every week, which is surely what Discovery would have done.

No sighing, crying or "you got this" either for which I am greatful. I dont even need to put on the subtitles from all the mumbling.

got a little touchy-feely there for a minute, but i’ll allow it. my only complaints are that a) as soon as the other cadet and the new lieutenant were introduced, they were obviously going to die, and b) there was no cute orange cat named jonesy

nurse chappell is really good

Definitely knew all the reference points (and packed them into forty minutes or so, not bad).

Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) turned 22 on 2/22/22

Just watched the Gorn story, fucking hell what a great episode. And also beautiful - l love having all those popping pastels and primary colours back onscreen for the first time since TOS (though I think TNG was beautiful too, in its special muted way.)

xpost She also gives good Twitter

I would sooner eat a pair of jorts before I check Facebook… that place is hell fr

— celia r. gooding (@celiargooding) June 22, 2022

coiff resurrection
Hair combed at a 45 degree bias for extra sproing

Then killed again is this becoming a subtext.

& pretty decent alien take off

yeah quite enjoyable.

Of all the references crammed into this episode, I think my fave was hearing M'Benga solemnly say "It's dead Chris" a la Bones' "he's dead Jim."

Outstanding episode of an outstanding series. It's remarkable that after all these years of spin-offs and expanded cinematic universes (as with every other franchise), the best move is the Enterprise on a five year mission. The best thing I can say about it is that of all the science fiction universes out there, it's the one I'd like to live in. FWIW, SNW is great propaganda to get me to sign-up with Starfleet.

Interview with Bruce Horak who plays Hemmer. Full of spoilers.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-bruce-horak-season-lt-hemmer-1235173020/

Alien, The Thing, Predator, Jurassic Park... that was great.

"Game over, man!" - Sam Kirk

credit to sam kirk for being ~slightly~ less annoying than that one dude in The Corbomite Maneuver

but not a lot

loved this episode so much

sam kirk playing the true role of Bones in this episode ie “hey i heard you need an unhelpful jerk to stand around & make things worse”

the only thing missing was a Jonesy

I keep expecting Kirk's dad to be more like Sam Rockwell in Galaxy Quest, because of the comedy moustache.

Great episode. You know you're doing your first season right when a death is genuinely unexpected and results in the audience saying "ah, no, I really liked him!"

Looks like its James' older brother not father. I think this is like 10 years ahead of the original series so not a full generation. I thought I'd read that James himself was due to appear at some point too.

Haven't worked out exactly how this dovetails to Discovery which I'm just watching through at the moment too.

Ah ha, that makes more sense.

Chapelle and Uhura are both characters in the original series much earlier in their careers. Spock is much longer lived so might not be that much noticeably younger. Can't think if others are on the Enterprise when Kirk is captain offhand right now.

Chapelle and Uhura are both characters in the original series much earlier in their careers.

I think my problem is that I haven't seen TOS for a long time, and I can't picture Majel as anything other than maternal. I forget sometimes that she was very young in the original series (which seems obvious, but with all the reboots and recasting and re-organizing and alien DNA, it's easy to lose track of how people age).

It's remarkable that after all these years of spin-offs and expanded cinematic universes (as with every other franchise), the best move is the Enterprise on a five year mission.

Yeah, it's either going back to the old school format or veterans from TNG and DS9 that seems to lead to the good SF nowadays (FAM, Expanse).

speaking of which, this week's 'newt' is also a veteran of the expanse, because, canada

Uhura only being a lieutenant ten years in the future initially bothered me (especially since she's such a badass in SNW) but it's easier to just disregard canon clashes with Trek.

I quite like this as they are so clearly enjoying themselves

✨REGRAM! The SNW crew transform into their storybook alter egos! #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds
Source: https://t.co/Xjo5sV1muU pic.twitter.com/9E1myV4huU

— Star Trek Pike (@CaptainPikesEnt) June 30, 2022

I am very upset with the outcome of this episode. I really liked Hemmer.

aw

SAME ;_;

Oh balls I read this by mistake and haven’t seen the episode!! Wahh.

Unrelatedly I used to be in friends-of-friends circles with Bruce Horak in the 2000s (in a “I remember him but he would have no idea who I was” way) and he was a super nice guy and REALLY funny, which hasn’t come across much in this role. I think he was in Second City maybe, or his partner was. Would never have recognised him under the makeup.

I'm assuming this is going to be going onto a 2nd series so would be good if the interesting characters were kept on .
Or are we going to get a young Scotty next season

Pretty keen to explore new characters as much as possible, really wish we had got some more time without Jim Kirk.

Apart from anything else, it is good to have a certain proportion of the bridge crew where mortal danger actually feels dangerous - IMO Obi Wan show was a real lesson in how boring it can be when nothing is at stake (tho I understand everyone’s mileage varied substantially on that one).

After 20 years I need a rest from shows that use random main character deaths and the threat of ultraviolence to create tension and stakes. But yeah even in Memento Mori, the early Gorn one, there’s some diffusion of tension because you know that e.g. Spock’s gonna be fine. That’s the danger of prequels I guess - although one of the great things about this show is you forget it’s a prequel while you’re watching it

Chuck re said actor you mention: surely he’s often been hilarious! It’s a different kind of contextual hilarity I grant.

I can't imagine the chief engineer role opening up without Scotty being cast for it.

Just seeing reference to him not becoming chief engineer until 2264, wondered if there was a canonical date he joined the ship.
I am seeing the Cage was supposed to be 2254, is this sticking to that or possibly earlier still. Not sure if I've seen that beyond what was edited into the later episode The Menagerie..

Sorry Chuck I should have marked that more strongly as a major spoiler!

ATTN anyone else: my hidden text is a MAJOR SPOILER DO NOT CLICK IF U HAVENT SEEN EP ETC

Same day I wonder how this ties into the Cage I get the Discovery which directly references it turning up in the sequence I'm watching that. Have read that Discovery series with Pike is 2258 and this may be 6 months later.

Not sure if Scotty rose from ranks on the Enterprise or joins as the rank he maintains through original series.

xpost Ha no it's on me, I should know better

Enjoy some Gorn

https://www.startrek.com/videos/watch-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-the-gorn-reborn

Man what a great ending for the season; that's how to fanservice in a way that leaves things interesting. This show really is something else.

Hadn't thought until I saw that episode last week that they would just excerpt the 60s pilot to show earlier behaviour by the characters played by the new cast. They don't look much alike like

Neither does the inside of the Enterprise.

i don't envy him the task, but that was an underwhelming jim kirk. lol at attack pattern tiberius etc. tho

yeah i have been intrigued re how this show was gonna handle Kirk - i guess this was an alt timeline version so perhaps shaped differently by his experiences - kinda happy that he wasn't Shatting out all over the place, and how the relationship with Pike was handled respectfully...

will be interesting to see what they do with him in S2 though - i mean, has Kirk met Pike before The Cage/The Menagerie whatever that one is called - ? this latest ep kind of implies that Kirk has stuff to learn from Pike's approach - to be honest, i was sort of thinking that maybe Kirk had served under Pike on Enterprise but I don't think that's true right? anyway i am cool with the notion of Kirk as occasional visitor rather than constant flavour!

enjoyed that last Pike/Spock scene - and the extra juice it gives the TOS ep where Spock goes rogue to help Pike

argh sorry all, i fucked up the hidden text! hopefully not too spoilery

according to the cage/menagerie james kirk had never met pike, and of course no one had seen a romulan until kirk did, which remains true as that was all in a timeline that either never happened or we are choosing to ignore

i suspect that hardcore heads are gonna be bitter that pike's very starfleety instinct to talk it out presumably led to ruin, but i guess we've already gone down this road with 'the vulcan hello'

Finally, the eyebrow quirk!

Kirk uncomfortably resembled a Bill Hader impression of Kirk.

loved the striped lighting on pike's face when he (for no good reason at all) came forward to address his (kinda underwhelming) adversary.

lol'd school shit

I suppose Anson Mount is already Shatnering pretty well, so having someone try to go toe-to-toe with him on the same level would just be unworkable.

https://scifanatic-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/tiy/kirk_welcome.jpg

the other captain/pike's girlfriend/una arrester is also a long-time recurring character on letterkenny (because canada)

and whenever she's onscreen it seems wrong if she's not muttering i just want to get into a cocksuckin' gin and tonic, that's all i'm sayin'

you guys this ruled SO MUCH

afterwards we went back & rewatched TOS “Balance of Terror” & there is SO MUCH they referenced in the new ep, like whole dialogue, camera angles, scenes, it’s wild. highly recommend going back, it’s really worth it.

also i think new-Kirk was mild on purpose because rewatching the TOS ep Pike is doing all the Shatner references! - i didnt realize at the time but it’s clever how they subbed him in directly for irl Kirk

I didn't really love this one. It was fine but Kirk was a dud - Anson Mount has been delightfully Kirking it up all season, the actual Kirk could have been named literally anything else and it wouldn't have occurred to me that he was playing ol' James T.. The bridge crew seemed weird in scenes like the ready room - they didn't read like people who had been serving together for seven years at this point.

I didn't find Kirk very Kirky but not 100% sure what that would be exactly. Does one have to up the wood or something.
& be a bit chubbbier.
Like not sure what qualities are not cospacial with being played by a mid 60s William Shatner. But just didn't come away from this guy going oh yeah that was definitely the same character if you hadn't heard the name and seen him engaging with his brother etc.

But enjoyed the episode and looking forward to the next season.
Interesting to hear the approximation of that familiar character's voice. Still wondering when he actually joined the ship and if his relationship to the ship doesn't indicate a longer term history than joining as chief engineer etc, So was he a lower rank on the same ship at an earlier stage.

Like obviously character had to be the one that Pike being there unintentionally replaced. So had to be there as the alternative perspective and an actor is only doing an interpretation of a character but like phenomenologically what makes that character that character. I don't really see that individual to have much on common with Shatner's

Did watch Balance of Terror last night which showed the story this was an alternative take on & why one needed a Kirk in there. But still not really seeing that version of a him as necessarily being a him. Do think there must be more to this character than an entity being played by William Shatner and assume the film from 13 years ago did find a way of channeling the character though they did alter a few other characters to some degree.
Also in Discovery where they used the footage from the Cage as teh Flashback to a previous visit to the planet as though they looked interchangeable which they don't. i now have the episode the Cage as part of what I grabbed to see Balance of Terror so can watch that at some point.
Anyway interesting seeing the 2 versions and seeing what else was changed. Like more integration of other ethnicities, guy being killed on screen appears to be Irish American or something in the TOS version and South Asian in the new one.
Also I take it that uniform with the turtleneck underlayer is canon now or still. Not sure if I've seen it since the original cast Movie series.

Not only was Pike's hair even taller, but he had sideburns too -- or were they not new?

the girlfriend outs herself as clearly suspect for preferring Pike w beard

wtf lady

i mean i like his beard but cmon

i enjoyed the detail that the background romulans in this ep also are wearing helmets! most of the romulans wore helmets in TOS bc makeup couldn’t afford/didnt have time to make multiple sets of ears for cast + extras so they just did a few sets and put everyone else in gold-painted uh watermelon hats

also romulan commander’s costume has a nod to the red shoulder drapery of the TOS Theiss wool costume (which itself seemed borne of being stuck w 7 rolls of ugly wool upholstery fabric & being told to “figure it out”)

srsly everyone go rewatch the TOS episode!

i mean i like his beard but cmon

fp

i've had no prior complaints about basically any of the new castings -- several of them, notably nurse chappell, are improvements

but despite it being a hypothetical future that (probably -- go rogue, pike!) won't happen, that kirk and that romulan commander left a lot to be desired imo

I didn’t necessarily agree with it, but found this negative take on the finale thought-provoking - which touches on the militarism mentioned above but also the canonical determinism involved in prequel storytelling

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-episode-10-review-a-quality-of-mercy-season-finale/amp/

I also rewatched BoT yesterday and was suprised how much was cribbed. Well, without the .. endless.... spaaaacess.... betweeen anyone.... talking...

Nu-Uhura even asked if she could have the big hair for this ep but i guess they didnt have time so she went with big nails instead <3

kirk and that romulan commander left a lot to be desired imo

I can't remember if Sarek has made it into the Ethan Peck Spockosphere yet (stopped watching Discovery). It would be neat if the Romulan commander was the same actor.
Like everyone else, we also rewatched (or, in my husband's case, watched for the first time) Balance of Terror, and watching Kirk running his fingers over the consoles in the same way that Pike does, I wondered if some of the swagger that Kirk has is to do with being captain of the Enterprise? Is there just something about being in that position, with Uhura and Spock at your back, that gives a person that heft and that's why Kirk-in-this-timeline doesn't quite have it? (I am not very serious about this.)
He did have a great mid-Sixties look about him, though. Like, he could plausibly appear in an Elvis film.

Sarek was all over the first season of Disco, and it was a different actor than the Commander.

james frain played sarek in discovery; i thought he was fine

Sarek was all over the first season of Disco, and it was a different actor than the Commander.

Jesus, my memory is terrible.

Well Disco is terrible (sorry Trayce!) so I don't blame anyone for trying to forget it.

Nice short interview with Paul Wesley

https://ew.com/tv/paul-wesley-captain-kirk-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-finale/

We've been watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and I'm having two reactions:

1. Ooh, this must be how people watching TOS felt! 😍

2. OH NO THEY'RE ALL HOT 😳 pic.twitter.com/JyQ7DQ2Z2i

— Just Very Fucking tired, Man (@jvfriedman) July 10, 2022

LOL Leee. I agree some parts of Disco were terrible, dont worry. The whole Klingon storyline/first season. All the sighing and crying and gnashing of teeth and talking when the World is Ending.

But eh its still fun. Meanwhile I'm watching DS9 with reasonable enjoyment but bitten tounge due to all the BLATANT B5 THEFT mutter.

this guy apparently fucking *hates* the show, which is semi-reasonable up until he both praises disco/picard in comparison and also concludes that nothing in this scenario can possibly be new, and therefore the attempt itself is offensive

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/star-trek-strange-new-worlds

OK I'll bite, but JMS himself has said that he doesn't believe that DS9 ripped off B5, and they're tonally pretty distinct.

3 mins into the first ep and im here to say i did not expect to be ambushed by the wait-that-can't-be of combination long hair with a centre parting and a federation uniform

why do i think this, i have no idea

Is it because you associate that hairstyle with the OPA? (Guessing you're talking about not-Drummer.)

maybe, i don't know! i will have to think abt it

Yes please!

The Enterprise just got a new senior officer. Meet Chief Engineer Pelia, played by the incomparable Carol Kane in #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds Season 2! #StarTrekDay pic.twitter.com/EEB40RYhiv

— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) September 8, 2022

Hemmers replacement is going to be Carol Kane! This is awesome!

https://intl.startrek.com/news/star-trek-day-carol-kane-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-2

Oh damit xpost hahaha

sweet!

The excellence

My screenname is not what it is for nae reason.

Carol Kane! Love it.

Finally got round to watching the season finale — enjoyed it but I hadn’t seen “Balance of Terror”, so a lot of the cheesy references from TOS went over my head and just seemed, well, cheesy.

Love this show; the only disappointment was how quickly the storyline with the doctor’s daughter got resolved — I was expecting something more epic several seasons down the line.

OK this is cute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvX8ktHtfYU

Per this post, season 2 back mid-June, and already renewed for season 3 too.

Buried at the end of that story was the fact that Discovery was ending with S5, which is news to me! Can't say I'm heartbroken but I did feel the tiniest twinge of some kind of human emotion.

Disco news has been out there for a few weeks now, scuttlebutt is that it's a cost cutting move.

Also Disco's set up in such a way that nothing's stopping it from dribbling on forever really (as it wont break any canon) so they might as well wind it up or it'll Simpsonsify.

Oh hell yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjWBj9CGgGI

Carol Kane better be a regular

She's the new engineer so I'm rather guessing yes.

Guess that means #1 doesn't stay in prison long.

absolutely psyched - still can’t believe they worked out how to make a good star trek - esp from this least vibey of premises - all praise to Nu-Pike for being charismatic enough to hang a TV show around

Pretty stoked for this - I really tried and like 1/2 of Disco, but Strange New Worlds first season was some fun sci fi/ Star Trek canon.

Hijinks! Lower Decks! Etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69mzZqcM0qw

Also, unexpectedly, second season Picard.

Two days to go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abwGu1vpn4E

I'm not saying it's not true, but I do love an actor saying "what I'm hearing from the fans is they want more of my character!"

Ha yeah that was great - and then the next shot is just “Ortegas does tricky manoeuvre” which feels like the most stock and one-dimensional thing to see that character doing - but maybe we all just wanna see her doing it more! Like, just a bigger section of the SNW pie-chart is that! I don’t care I love this show and am psyched to have it BACK

I'm most looking forward to the Lower Decks crossover.

I think of this as the Pike N Spock show but that video reminded me how great the rest of the cast is. Hope they bring back the space pirate, and maybe Bruce Horak in another role!

I remain surprised that they resolved the issue with the Doctor’s daughter so quickly though! Seemed like they could’ve done more with that.

Okay we are off and running! Good start there.

good lord, you start early!

This is actually later in the day than last time now that I'm doing the middle of the day at work! Last year I watched episodes at lunch at home.

hah, I was also a regular Star Trek viewer over lunch the last couple years. imo any time after the episode drops is fair game, buyer beware when clicking on threads

I apparently switched how I subscribed to Paramount between last season and this one and made it fifteen minutes into s01e01 before thinking “oh, I know why this seems familiar”

it’s been a long week

great, now there's two characters I need subtitles to understand

enjoyed this a lot, very exciting!

more hungover spock plz

xpost Roffle. (I did have to fire those up a couple of times.)

re: subtitles
for some reason the German dub hit the free streaming sites first, and those German synchers really enunciate everything -- too bad I don't know German...

Bold move to have an almost Pike-free season premiere

interesting that we’re back to the earlier klingon look

i have a dumb question

i didn’t really get the exchange btw Chapel & the Doctor before they take the serum - she kept being like, are you sure you want to do this you don’t have to do this etc etc

what did i miss/not remember about doctor’s backstory? i know he said he READ a lot about wars and stuff but i think i missed a key thing somewhere in s1 maybe

I assumed it was a secret past we’ll find out more about this season. He was Starfleet John Wick and retired to save lives instead or something.

he mentioned being on a certain moon during the klingon war, where he was seemingly the only person (or at least human) to survive

if you were there you'd be DEAD

ahhh ok good

thank u

the klingon that la'an bluffs is one of the senior hockey players from letterkenny because, of course, canada

that's to say nothing of pike's lady friend, mrs. mcmurray

Damned hosers

This was great! Wonderful little character moments, and even though you knew that no one was going to die, the episode still delivered. Seconding drunk Spock.

I kept wondering what the green juice was. Kale smoothie? Vulcan blood?

with the fullness of time i’m now somewhat miffed that i was denied a full episode of Captain Pike but i agree it was a fun episode nonetheless

glad to report that i laughed with happiness about six times during this episode, which is my regular experience of watching this show, just sheer pleasure at them doing it so right

annoyingly lower decks is only available thru amazon prime in Australia - is it worth holding my nose and throwing bezos some coin in order to prep for the crossover ep?

if you have the $ to spare , i say do it
i love lower decks so much, it’s soooo nerdy

thx! turns out i have a two week free trial so i am gonna dip a toe in and if it works i will smash through it

thx! turns out i have a two week free trial so i am gonna dip a toe in and if it works i will smash through it

go boldly!

And live a long time!

most of lower decks has been on piratebay, may still be there. Is piracy more ethical than supporting dodgy tycoons?

yep

whatever floats yr spaceship

i get a nasty but not legally threatening email whenever i download star trek in canada.

what’s canada got against so star trek

canada has legally enforced media monopolies, including bell which owns distribution of star trek.

Geez I havent seen anyone actively sending takedown notices to ISP customers in years. Maybe I just dont work in the right teams anymore (I used to see more Abuse email than I do these days).

You should of course use a VPN when sailing the seas. Have to in AU anyway - PyRat Bae doesnt work without one.

captain pike’s quiff failing to match the johnnybravian heights of s1 in this first episode of s2, smdh

I haven't been this anxious for the next episode to drop since the last season of DS9.

random insertion of lore superserum feels very akiva goldsman. want an action scene? give the characters super strength for a few minutes.

https://morbotron.com/img/S05E06/507456.jpg

re: sketchiness of torrents, there are a wide variety of sites that post links to video hosts that just stream whole seasons directly, provided you have a browser with a sturdy ad popup blocker.
and speaking of sketchy video hosts, youtube, amazon prime, etc... seem to be officially streaming all of season 1 for free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-PF7aPc7TQ

I liked S2E2 more than the premiere. Not as good as "Measure of a Man" but what is.

Same. Star Trek shouldn't be about blowing up spaceships, it should be about big unsubtle metaphors for social prejudice and earnest speeches.

Agree one hundred percent. Spent the whole episode going "hmm, not sure what they're trying to tell us here, it's so coded!" But that is what Star Trek is for.

I didn’t love that one, especially once it went into monologues-only mode in the last section — plus, the lawyer was a terrible actor. But the crew stuff was good as usual and the Spock joke (“I’m sorry you had to see that outburst”) was perfect.

This reminded me of “Measure” but I also love that Dax trial story in season 3 (?) of DS9. Like this SNW, it’s only a so-so episode, but I remember one of the monologues made me bawl unexpectedly

I'm trying to cram in s1 while it's free on yt - I had to uninstall all my t0rr3nt software recently. it's no tng so far but I'm enjoying it. Just watched ep 6, if my house required plugging a small child in to a diabolical machine in the basement to stop it falling to pieces I would simply find another house to live in.

But could you convince the rest of your family to Walk Away? It's a really nice house.

Xp
I wasn't sure if the lawyer actor was overacting or was playing a lawyer who overacted. Could have been done better either way.

idk wtf you guys are on about, lawyer wax great

was, even

this episode slapped, being hammered by unsubtle metaphors is u&k for star trek and this was a great extension of that venerable tradition

but the most important question is have we ever seen a bald vulcan before

Pretty sure we got one on Disco.

I was meh on this one, much preferred the premiere, but given that this was a courtroom drama, any actor worth their salt ought to go ham imo.

thrilled as i am to see bald representation onscreen i’m not watching disco ffs

Lol I certainly wouldn't recommend it just for that (or TBH any) reason.

Picard S3 had T'Veen, a bald female Vulcan.

also contextually i thought the defense lawyer’s vibe was in keeping with the other courtroom classics, not only measure of a man with picard’s gf but the one in TOS where kirk’s gf was the prosecutor lawyer & the rad old dude w all the books was their defense. you know, jettisoning yellow vs red escape pods etc.

I liked her initial “fuck you I’m burning everything down” vibe, I wanted her to win the case while staying in that mode, rather than getting (ugh) nicer

laughed out loud when the tellarite judge said ‘tread carefully, counselor’

i think it was his only line

apologies for s1 interruptions but a shout-out to maggie nelson's the argonauts was not on my star trek bingo card.

I liked her initial “fuck you I’m burning everything down” vibe, I wanted her to win the case while staying in that mode, rather than getting (ugh) nicer

Her initial stance was, as she herself mentioned, designed to use the platform given to argue against the Federation's hypocrisy - it was not about winning the case at all, and if she'd continued in this mode she would have lost. An interesting question for me is whether she had always envisioned this structure - go hard on the polemics on the first day, then actually focus on saving your client - or whether she had initially taken the job fully expecting to sacrifice Number One and was won over during the ep. Anyway I don't think her "niceness" in the rest of the trial was anything other than a weapon.

I was wondering when SNW would get to a time travel episode. It's a bit of a reshuffle of City on the Edge of Forever, but I thought this one was stronger - a lot of stuff crammed into this episode that was fun, silly, and awesome all at once. I heart Pelia.

Agreed on all that. A perfect whing-ding of an episode that actually lands hard and heavy at the end in the best way. Plus, Tronno itself gets canonized. (And indirect Expanse crossover! Sorta!)

(The diner featured at one point is I gather a famed city landmark -- or was, per friends.)

Ha, the only time the Lakeview gets described as a “landmark” is in newspaper articles when it closes and reopens every six years (I know this because I wrote one of them in 2008!). Under every management it’s always been a very average diner in a city full of very good diners. But, er, yeah - loved the location work and Kirk’s “this must be New York City!”.

Kirk was much better this time and I love La’an but I thought this episode was… fun but very ropey.

A very funny thing happened last night. We’ve been watching a couple eps of Strange New Worlds every night and we got up to S1E9 (the dark-ass disaster episode). My bf hadn’t ever seen TOS, and actually, neither had I, barring three “celebrated episodes” (the one with Joan Collins i.e.). I suggested we watch an old TOS episode before continuing on with Brave New Worlds.

I scanned a list of “favourite TOS episodes” and selected at random the episode “Balance Of Terror”. Romulans! We watched the episode and loved it, I was delighted to see the dude who would go on to play Sarek playing a Romulan villain.

Then we put on S1E10. Dunno if you know which episode I’m talking about, but it was completely coincidentally a total homage to the TOS episode that we’d just watched. Scenes played out line-for-line, Ortegas was taking the role of the Vulcan-bigot, it was an astounding coincidence. My bf remains unconvinced that I hadn’t selected “Balance Of Terror” intentionally but I seriously did not, I had no idea of the content of either episode, going in. Interesting, no?

I'm not ever suggesting anyone watch STV, but if you do, and the stars align just right, you might be in for another synchronicity jawdropper.

The final shot in the latest episode is over-the-top foreboding in a way that would be super weird if there's no follow-up, and even weirder if the follow-up is inconsequential.

It is interesting how, as a teen in the 90s, I immensely preferred Picard to Kirk, and thought that the idea of “a captain who fucks” was unappealing. Now I definitely prefer a captain who fucks. I think it’s more that my pov of the Star Trek universe has changed from one in which I’m deeply immersed to one where I’m strictly watching to be entertained

Well all I'll say is that when you get around to the SNW episode that dropped yesterday you'll be glad you saw that Joan Collins episode.

this was great

although i have to ask -- is la'an's eyeliner a physical characteristic, or a tattoo, or is she just extremely dedicated about applying it

Felt a lot of parallels between what Pelia was in this epsiode, and the storyline in Picard with Guinan. I liked both the last 2 eps!

La'an/alt Kirk relaysh felt a bit rushed/forced though. I feel like I missed some back story, did we go over her angst about being a Singh before now? If she's got reviled DNA how come she isnt in trouble but No1 was?

The final shot in the latest episode is over-the-top foreboding in a way that would be super weird if there's no follow-up, and even weirder if the follow-up is inconsequential.
You mean the focus pull to the watch? That caught my eye too, what did that mean?

I took it as a sign that the Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations will be back. I had to look them up - completely forgot that both they and the Temporal Integrity Commission were already around.

Where would your base be if you were a Temporal Cop? Presumably you’d have to stay in the past so you don’t get blipped by accident. Seems like a paperwork nightmare.

No multiverses plz

Mirror Universe is already a multiverse, but yeah, I'm really tired of those.

This was fun till it got dark and serious.

(And indirect Expanse crossover! Sorta!)

IDGI -- Toronto?

As much as I love a Starfleet officer trying to navigate a revolving door, I do not fine Bernadette Peters's accent or shtick charming in this programme, so I didn't love this. I was hoping she was a bit more of an occasional guest star than a regular fixture. Oh well.

*Carol Kane.

Oh there are many of us who feel the opposite about Kane’s casting and performance :)

Didn’t think I’d dig her but she worked great in this episode.

*Carol Kane.

Yes, of course. one for the "I always get those two mixed up" thread.

Oh there are many of us who feel the opposite about Kane’s casting and performance :)

For sure, I figured I would be in the minority.

i love her but yeah i could very much do without the accent

also i believe captain kirk dropped a reference to duckduckgo?

almost makes up for the musk reference in discovery (which he may or may not have paid for?)

I choose to think the musk reference was a secret clue that that captain was from the mirror universe.
but... that also means... the mirror universe... is OUR universe...

Duckduckgo reference done to atone for the Apple store reference right before.

It is interesting how, as a teen in the 90s, I immensely preferred Picard to Kirk, and thought that the idea of “a captain who fucks” was unappealing. Now I definitely prefer a captain who fucks. I think it’s more that my pov of the Star Trek universe has changed from one in which I’m deeply immersed to one where I’m strictly watching to be entertained

Doing a big TNG rewatch and Picard actualky fucks a fair amount, more than one ep features an old flame whose heart he's broken. He's just sly about it, the little hussy.

I’m not usually a fan of the time travel episodes but this one was fun. Singh and Kirk had great chemistry and I actually believed how deeply she’d fallen for him. (If only she knew how much of a cad he was).

yeah otm

IDGI -- Toronto?

Tronno's own Allison Wilson-Forbes, working actor with a variety of screen credits including an Expanse episode, so not some big nod -- and I'm sure there have been others who have done the same at this point. But imagine if.

Brave New Worlds isn't as conspicuously "helllooooooo CANADA" as was Battlestar Galactica, but there have been a couple of "oh, look who it is" moments

I lol’d at the exchange “it looks like we’re in New York” “this is Toronto”

When the clock hands glowed and I’d seen how far they’d walked west from the ROM I said “omg the fusion reactor is at the Royal Conservatory Of Music”

TBH I spent half the episode wondering if you were going "pffft the poutine is shit at that place" while watching this.

xp if it gets renewed i demand that you get a walk-on part

surely spock needs a song for his vulcan lyre

i really loved this episode- especially seeing the addional layers to La’an

and it’s funny - i quite enjoyed her chemistry with Kirk, so much so i didn’t even consider that she ought to be warned off him; like, she’s such an interesting character that i totally supported her effect on him & vice versa

i hope she DOES get that drink w him next time <3

also he’s a v good + dashing kirk
a+ casting

Poutine is a Quebec specialty. Kirk should’ve tried a roti

In general the Toronto fan service was laid on far to thick on this ep to feel anything but extremely patronizing. Toronto works best as a setting when it just ~is~, not when every shot is shouting something out. The gratuitous Lakeview shot gets five Drakes out of five

I do like the idea tho that there’s a cold fusion reactor beneath Koerner Hall. Good place for it, great acoustics

A Romulan wouldn’t be a citizen journalist, but they’d make an excellent CBC department manager

Or bookstore owner

one of the major recurring characters is also on the main cast of letterkenny, no need to reach very far to see the cancon quotient in the show

I love that even in the Star Trek universe, a weekend in Toronto is a life altering traumatic event you can never speak of and alienates you from your peers

— jump aside (@JodiesJumpsuit) July 3, 2023

WTF at the tinnitus enhancement this week.

Gee I didn't hear a thing. *considers own light tinnitus* Oh wait. (I did hear it.) Anyway, classic Trek morals-of-things episode but an enjoyable one.

Wait, was this ep an originally scrapped Roddenberry-penned ep? Or was that another?

At any rate, yeah, this ep felt TOS as fuck and I enjoyed it.

I’m curious how many eps this season feature Babs Olusanmokun‘s real world martial arts skill

WTF at the tinnitus enhancement this week.

Yes, I wasn't sure I was going to make it through, but sticking my fingers in my ears helped.

I thought memory loss episodes were what SF/F shows did when they ran out of ideas.

Getting tired of all the slave labor quarry planets on new trek. I suppose it's relevant to the modern day with the chocolate industry and the Uyghurs in China among other things. But these shows are set in the future. Just have robots do that stuff.

Tense episode! I watched "The Cage" recently and it was a tidy homage. When Pike uses a platter as a shield for a moment I thought "there it is!"

I also found the tinnitus shrieks hard, though they were only really loud at the start of the ep. My cat HATED it and ran out of the room (he freaks at high pitched sounds like those).

I agree this ep felt really TOS in feel/concept, though Ive not seen enough of it to say, so I mightve missed some refs.

The whole idea of forgetting to cope with life is a heavy one. It touches on the idea of addiction, and of the buddhist concept of letting go of worldly desire. As someone who's had a couple of knocks to the head that resulted in momentary "where the fuck am I and what happened", it really wigged me out.

i was unaware

Prior to Discovery’s second season, we only knew of two specific missions of Captain Pike and the U.S.S. Enterprise. One was, of course, the journey to Talos IV that we saw in “The Cage” and the flashbacks in “The Menagerie.” The other, though, was the mission right before that one: a trip to Rigel VII that resulted in three people, including Pike’s yeoman, killed in action and Spock badly wounded (which is why Leonard Nimoy was seen limping in “The Cage”). One of the illusions the Talosians sent Pike and Vina to in “The Cage” was to Rigel VII, complete with castle and warrior armed with medieval weapons.

I'm not saying it's not true, but I do love an actor saying "what I'm hearing from the fans is they want more of my character!"

― trishyb, Wednesday, 14 June 2023 5:35 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ha yeah that was great - and then the next shot is just “Ortegas does tricky manoeuvre” which feels like the most stock and one-dimensional thing to see that character doing - but maybe we all just wanna see her doing it more! Like, just a bigger section of the SNW pie-chart is that! I don’t care I love this show and am psyched to have it BACK

― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Wednesday, 14 June 2023 6:10 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha and now we finally get to delve deeper into Ortegas’ psyche to discover that… she is really really into flying the ship!!

Just being a jerk, still love this show, there are always at least a couple of character interactions per ep that totally delight me.

She did look very cute in her little away team outfit, though. And I liked how she figured out that she really, really loves flying the ship. It was some high-value Ortegasing.

Yeah, The Cage is in fact a great episode! I read some “ranking all the pilot episodes” lists recently and it seems as if The Cage rates high in the ST community (alongside pilots from DS9, SNW and… Prodigy, which is an interesting thing to keep on the to-watch list)

That was why I tittered to myself when Pike 2023 suddenly is blocking phaser blasts with a round-shield shaped platter, it seemed like a small acknowledgement of the sword-and-shield fight from the 60s

Jeffrey Hunter is so dour and irritable as Pike, I think we do have to grudgingly thank JJ for making silver fox space dad Pike a viable template.
Though I would like to see Larry David as Pike for a one-off.

i really love Hunter’s Pike! he’s serious but i don’t find him dour.

Yeah I like Hunter as Pike. And Barrett as Number One! And I like that SNW is doing double-duty in tipping the hat to Barrett’s portrayals by promoting both Number One and Nurse Chapel to the main cast

My bf has been asking for guided tours through each series like “show me more Whoopi Goldberg” and “show me the one with Joan Collins” and he has been delighted to see all of Majel Barrett’s different incarnations over the years

majel is the best

As far as star trek pilot episodes go, this week's was pretty weak.

Lovely episode this week --- both hijinks and more besides -- and a tour de force by Ethan Peck in particular.

all the old mother-in-law stereotypes was a bit much, but thot was cute and let Ethan peck have some fun (just found out that he's Gregory Peck's grandson, had no idea) as well as laying some seeds for later development

fun episode. i wonder if they were trying to recreate some of tos's low budget -- it's a bottle episode where one of the characters has their makeup off. i half-suspected they would make the prosthetic ears permanent to explain why they were falling off in tos season 3.

I liked the interdimensional beings basically having government service protocol parameters. Sorry, you’re past the appeal period. Please explain your exception

Interdimensional call center

man what a delightful, multilayered episode… loved the hijinks, and the emotional mom stuff really got to me, plus the chapel spock stuff too


Peck was fantastic, the teenaged vibe was very funny. And Pike KILLING the background reactions

Pike serving "and i—OOP" in all his scenes 😂 #StrangeNewWorlds pic.twitter.com/WyzpZwMwwQ

— T’hy’Lara ✨ Spoimler Truther (@RainTuahine) July 13, 2023

Really too bad this doesn't get 26+ episode seasons like old Trek

i know right

Absolutely loved this episode. It meshed nicely with all the Hindi romances I've been watching lately, full of disapproving prospective in-laws, and also with episodes of TNG where nobody was ever good enough for Lwaxana, even though she badly wanted to see Deanna married. Everyone was on top form, and it all looked gorgeous and Sixties-inspired without being shonky. The tone of this show is so what I want these days. I only hope it survives all the strikes.

It's total bullshit that this show is shut out of the casting categories in the Emmys - even the guests of the week are perfect.

Yea this whole ep had that "disapproving Desi parents" thing going on. Loved the Dad's little hopeful interjections. Loved teenage-petulant Spock. Still feel weird about Pike's apparently giant kitchen and endless fresh food on a spaceship when eeryone else ever always ate from a replicator but... eh.

the way T’Pring’s mom tore apart Pike’s appetizer

You’d think they’d have spray-on invisible gloves for Spock’s hands during the tea ceremony.

yeah that was rough

Still feel weird about Pike's apparently giant kitchen and endless fresh food on a spaceship when eeryone else ever always ate from a replicator but.

So I was thinking about that too, also considering all the burgers the other crew were wolfing down, but then I remembered replicator technology only arrives in the TNG era. However, googling reveals that while I am right about this, food synthesizers, which are apparently s distinct thing, did already exist in the TOS era - thus Pike's "you need fresh ingredients, not synthesized", so your argument stands.

Still feel weird about Pike's apparently giant kitchen and endless fresh food on a spaceship when eeryone else ever always ate from a replicator but... eh.

Very in keeping with that 19th century navy outlook Star Trek has always cultivated in the background. The implication being that captains are expected to entertain visiting dignitaries and important passengers, so would always have had access to better food and their own cook. Pike also seems to feel that his presence in the kitchen is disarming, so it could be as much a useful diplomatic skill as a hobby.

I need a running metric of how big Pike’s hair is in each episode

Such a good episode. Hijinks.

I propose that the Spock/Chapel ship name be called Spackle.

Seeing an interview with Jess Bush and hearing her real accent is weird. Would not have guessed she wasn't Amurrican - but it's Trek, why not just let her be an Australian character?

over-intense people would have freaked out because majel barrett didn't have an aussie accent

I ship Spackle but also Spring

Last two episodes have been great. Much like season one, I thought the first few episodes were shaky, but I’m really into it now. Phew!

The cut to commercial when human Spock starts saying WTF is proof that Trek should not let itself swear.

Brilliant ep, but I am a sucker for actors having permission to ham.

I don't know if there's some bizarre meta-joke intended but Spock freaking out at Kirk being sloppy is... super sloppy!
There isn't a very good telegraphing of escalation, no slow-mo shots with crumbs flying out of Kirk's mouth with lip-smacking sounds and such.
They also show Spock (in Vulcan mode) cleaning the crumbs with his bare hands and onto the floor like a savage!
Also, shouldn't the joke be that hu-Spock is super chill and snacking on bacon at the conference table now that his burning Vulcan rage and vegetarianism is kaput? Pike is also pretty blase about not warning Spock that those sizzling strips are meat, but does seem vigilant about policing Spock's caloric intake.

re: Bush, have there ever been any Aussies shown in Starfleet? Did Khan destroy Australia?

I liked the interdimensional beings basically having government service protocol parameters. Sorry, you’re past the appeal period. Please explain your exception

This was just pure Douglas Adams for me, to where I thought I’d they had used Brit accents it would have given too much away

i liked that the two aliens were named Yellow and Blue but they were both blue.

Also this episode made me happy even with the mother-in-law sitcom-y bits that the show hasn’t don’t since the Luxana years, and Anson Mount being supporting helpful captain/buddy/comedy character

“But I have more Vulcan foods you should try!”

Also, fun match cuts with Chapel & Mbenga doing a fist dap that cuts to her punching the heavy bag that Mbenga is holding

over-intense people would have freaked out because majel barrett didn't have an aussie accent
As it is, Trekkies on Reddit are grumbling because Peck's hair is "wrong". :/

if his hair is wrong i dont want it to be right

Ethan Peck was amazing this ep but Jess Bush made me cry. Her appeal to Yellow, I just made tears and more tears, it was so silly and fun and brilliant. Amazing that such a corny premise could be pulled off so spectacularly.

if his hair is wrong i dont want it to be right

Amen.

I don't know if there's some bizarre meta-joke intended but Spock freaking out at Kirk being sloppy is... super sloppy!

Pike not warning Spock that he's about to eat meat is a bit poor, but the rest of it doesn't have to be that obvious, I don't think. The point is that hormone surges can make people act irrationally. Kirk was never actually being sloppy. Unless I am mistaking your point.

It was also very funny that non-corporeal entities from a higher dimension are still very locked into time. Sorry, all requests must be made within two days of service.

It's also firmly in the Trek tradition (preceding even Douglas Adams!) that most gods or godlike beings are assholes

I thought the implication was these are ancient Vulcans who settled on the moon and ascended but kept their bureaucratic traditions (hence parallel with Chapel's officious Vulcan dean of admissions.)

re: sloppy spocky, the entire setup for Spock's OCD trigger seems like trolly bait for/commentary on obsessive fans who can't handle a few crumbs -- maybe his hawaiian punch haircut is intentional in that context?

It's also firmly in the Trek tradition (preceding even Douglas Adams!) that most gods or godlike beings are assholes

Assholes, yes, but TOS never portrayed them as pedantic bureaucratic functionaries with a forced attempt at politeness

Good episode! Making me think of not one but two top flight (to me at least) TNG episodes is a sign of a high bar cleared.

Separately but enjoyably:

https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-is-my-nerdy-obsession-1850659104

I didn't expect to see more crumbs and crumb-shaming by two completely different characters.

Me until now: "Well that Lower Decks episode seems like it'll be the highlight of this season's hijinks whenever it drops."

Me just now: "Oh...my god."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg3-CgRitwc

And that LD crossover episode is about to hit Paramount+ in a little over ninety minutes!

wait what

No lie!

https://gizmodo.com/sdcc-2023-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-crossover-stream-1850665365

Just announced at ComicCon.

:D

I'm not enthusiastic about the musical episode. I think it might be too cutesy.

Tsk!

Anyway that said: new episode is indeed very Boimleriffic

Didn't really dig the last episode - Kirk seemed superfluous and are they going to blow up an entire refinery with zero evidence these interdimensional beings actually exist? Will the fact that Starfleet was accidentally committing genocide ever come up again? I dunno, come up with some neat plot point where your communications officer manages to break through and communicate with them in a way other people are aware of so Starfleet knows they're real.

this crossover w Lower Decks was hilarious & i loved it soooooooooo freaking much

Yeah I was bugged by the last episode as well.

- they show up to a nebula and we pan across to see a giant space-vacuum theyve built that they blithely say is for mining Deuterium.
- my first thought is "we'd have a problem with this on earth, why's it ok to go to a pristine star birth spot and just suck the life out of it?
- "funny you say that, I bet some alien life protests at them" says my bf
- nek minnit...
- On Uhura's insistence, they immediately evacute a staff of presumably dozens/hundreds, and blow the whole thing up.
- (incidentally, why wasnt that an issue all of its own, re damage to the space babies)
- this is a space mining operation that wouldve cost billions and taken god knows how long to build, and they just rock up, blow it up because Uhura decided space babies said so, and Pike is all *shrug* "well we can always build one somewhere else!"

Even for "solve it in one episode" Trek, this was just too much imo. Where was the proof aside from her speculation? In any other scenario she'd have been committed, not believed.

But! I should say that it was sweet to see Hemmer again even if only for a moment. I miss that guy.

yeah i loved that aspect too Trayce

yeah the plot was absolutely by-the-numbers trek that's been done many times before. but i liked that even as a(n) uhura episode, it kinda got everyone involved -- i mean having two minutes of spock and chappell playing 3d chess is much better than waiting however many episodes until it pops up again in a huge way

james t. just hanging out as if he didn't have duties on the farragut was silly, but you gotta do what you gotta do. and it was cool that his First Ever Meetings (In This Timeline) with all these ppl were pretty low-key

also james t. knew perfectly well that sam was waiting for him to say 'i'm proud of you too' but didn't because he's kind of a dick. which is, i think, otm

Grandmaster Kirk callback was a nice touch.

was always bs tho

the kirk brothers stare off was v funny

BUT YOU GUYS NEED WATCH THE NEE CROSSOVER EPISODE ITS ALREADY UP AAAAAAGHHH IM DYING OVER HERE

*NEW

Very de-aged Bill Hader

Easter egg breakdown of the episode here. Koalas!

I just want to dial back a bit and say I did enjoy that last episode! There was a lot important about it for one thing (Spock meeting Kirk, Kirk meeting Pike, etc). I felt a bit curmudgeonly after reading back my post.

The intro convinced me I don’t need to give Below Decks another shot. I can’t deal with that tone.

BOOOO

I just want to dial back a bit and say I did enjoy that last episode! There was a lot important about it for one thing (Spock meeting Kirk, Kirk meeting Pike, etc). I felt a bit curmudgeonly after reading back my post.

Nah, you're right though. I remember there was a TNG episode where they got trapped in some field of two-dimensional creatures that nobody could communicate with except in some odd way (I could look it up, I guess, but eh) and even there they at least explained what was going on. Of course, that was because the writers were excited that they had come up with two-dimensional creatures and were showing off a bit, I'd say.

My only thinking on it is that we've all seen the effects before of unseen entities or weird gases that cause people to run amok and wreck their own starships, and maybe Pike is a bit more willing to act without the reams of proof that would also require more people on the ship to lose their minds. Either he blows it up in an orderly way, or the creatures are going to find a way to get SOMEONE to blow it up without the evacuation, etc.
And I guess if it's on the edge of Gorn space, you can't just leave it sitting there if you're not using it?

I may be overthinking this.

it was cool that his First Ever Meetings (In This Timeline) with all these ppl were pretty low-key

I'm such an old softie that this nearly made me cry. They did it very well. Husband was laughing at me saying "I have been, and always shall be, your friend."

OMG the crossover episode was awesome, and I havent even watched all that much of Lower Decks.

This one was good enough that I feel I should give Lower Decks another shot. I bailed after a few episodes -- it seemed too Rick and Morty.

I got halfway through that Lower Decks recap before my eyes started to glaze over and I stopped before the ending

So what did they do? They wrote an episode of animated Trek with dialogue consisting entirely of previous episode titles?

New episode was the weakest of the season for reasons already mentioned but still not-bad

Love Carol Kane and her character but less is more I think

spock's smile reminded me of the ugly sonic smile in the rescue rangers movie. i cracked up every time.

Ha yeah that was quite a terrifying rictus grin.

"Did you notice everyone speaks so slowly? And quietly!" made me lol.

i thought it balanced the tone really well with some pretty good & quite moving in-series character moments ie

- Boimler & Chapel’s scene in the turbolift where she realizes her effect on Spock will not be permanent, but also simultaneously
that she even HAS an effect at all that people would notice is difficult for her

- Pike’s scene in his quarters w Mariner & Boimler talking around his fate and how he carries that weight, Boimler trying to help him be more open to his crew’s appreciatiion of him in the moment

Ditto Mariner and Uhura's scene in her quarters!

Also spotted that the Orion leader guy is the guy who voices/plays Joseph Seed in Far Cry.

Crossover was great! Holy Q, how I miss Lower Decks.

The thing with LD is that underneath its edgelordy veneer, it's probably one of the most reverent modern Trek series.

sooo much nerdy stuff in it! we’ve been revisiting the Star Trek Animated Series and there’s heaps of references

Crossover was cute, but only underlined how I much I value the starchiness of live-action Trek as a decorous escape from animated banter

LD is like having the absolutely nerdiest people in the (galaxy) make a show because they Love Star Trek so much. like half the episode resolutions are 'we're starfleet, and starfleet intrinsically rules, so of course we can solve this!' it's cool

and i like that! but not so much the crossing over. i don't care how famous the SNW crew is, no one has that kind of insight into their 120yo heroes and i hate it.

it's absurd and awkward and i know it's an LD thing but i hate it. ensign boimler took it upon himself to tell spock to cool it? boimler/mariner trying to *comfort* pike about his doom? gtfo

it was funny, as would anything with a jack ryan scream be, but it wasn't ideal

ah well

did appreciate ransom big-upping his irl wife tho

but only underlined how I much I value the starchiness of live-action Trek as a decorous escape from animated banter

Yes, agreed. I like Lower Decks, but it's really the only one of the US animated shows I can stand anymore. They're too loud and I'm too old. Bloody kids, etc.

no one has that kind of insight into their 120yo heroes and i hate it.

This reminded me of Babylon, which I just watched the other night, and how the central sadness of that film is that all those 1920s silent stars thought they would live forever in celluloid and their exploits would be legendary, and -- spoiler alert! -- nobody remembers them now.

Speaking of legacy and name recognition in Starfleet, I'm sure someone in one of the Star Trek threads mentioned how embarrassed the writers must be now to have included a positive mention of Elon Musk.

and how the central sadness of that film is that all those 1920s silent stars thought they would live forever in celluloid and their exploits would be legendary, and -- spoiler alert! -- nobody remembers them now.

Interesting, this feels almost the opposite of what happened IRL - 1920's movie stars lived in a world without rep screenings, film preservation or home video, it was taken as granted that they'd be forgotten...and yet as recently as my childhood ppl like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were still amongst the most recognizable figures worldwide (and I'm going to assume this is still the case as obv the passage of time stops at my birth and all my subsequent experiences representative of the Present).

1920's movie stars lived in a world without rep screenings, film preservation or home video,

I think a lot of them thought the films were the preservation, for a while at least. Anyway, there is maybe a better thread for chat about cultural memory, I don't want to derail SNW chat.

I'll crosspost to the silent film thread

like half the episode resolutions are 'we're starfleet, and starfleet intrinsically rules, so of course we can solve this!' it's cool

I don't mind this, as to me it's a corrective against the "Starfleet bad" stories from Disco/Picard that are told terribly.

vibe whiplash

bunny colvin is a klingon :D

Let’s get all of them in the show over time. (Well I suppose Idris did the one film.)

started watching the episode expecting it to be the musical episode so the tonal shift i had to suddenly make was jarring 9wait are we going to get a Klingon song - oh wait doubt a 'Butcher' gonna get a song - as dont think they would do a Sweeney Todd like song, etc)

this series is the best star trek thing since ds9 and i don’t think it’s close

otm

This ep reminded me of the early bits of DS9 where Kira had to really battle with herself to be around Cardassians.

And it gives the klingon war some backstory - I always felt like it was a little thinly dealt with on Disco but have I maybe just blocked S1 out of my head?lol

Let me rephrase that because I don't say this lightly

this series is the best star trek thing since ds9 and i don’t think it’s close

i may agree!

i too am inclined to concur

Yes.

Can't knock it. The argument that there isn't enough of it compared to 'regular' seasons in the Before Days is kinda counterbalanced by the fact that 1) we're getting it to start with and 2) without pretending every moment/frame lands, the ensemble vibes ride hard throughout and it generally just looks great too.

What "minor complaint" could there have possibly been to make it policy all veterans had to hang out with the ambassador?

yeah that is a deeply weird policy
…perhaps solely designed for maximum dramatic conflict in this very episode

i suppose dude himself complained to starfleet brass

I can't believe I didnt notice it was Bunny from the Wire.

i suppose dude himself complained to starfleet brass

The most generous interpretation is yes he did this, in a bid to suss out the person who knows his secret, but the way he reacts at the end doesn't work for that I don't think.

By pure coincidence after we watched this we fired up a TNG and it turned out to be the episode about the Romulan maybe-defector. No shade to SNW but TNG def did it better, so much more psychological depth to that character.

I I think Subspace Rhapsody might be an oddity among all the Star Trek Goes Camp! episodes in that it's entirely self-referential: everyone is aware of the singing, the problem is to stop it, the method is to obey the three-act rule - the only way out is through.

If Starfleet sings showtunes and the Klingons rap, of course I wanna know what the Romulans, Gorn, Tholians, etc. all do. If I stop to reconsider this season, I feel like many of the A plots resolve with some sort of "I got this/you got this" positivism, while the B or C plots have been more interesting. La'an is great. I wish the season was longer too. Now that the experimental stuff is out of the way, we can get on with some basic Five Year Mission action... for one more episode.

I just...WHAT an episode.

the B or C plots have been more interesting. La'an is great. I wish the season was longer too.

All true. Making this episode an actual big multi-arc resolver that worked in context was a real stroke of genius; if this had been a random one-off, it would still have been a treat but this was something else.

I have bunnies thoughts!

Not one but two Buffy refs in this, which made me laugh heartily ("will we pouf into bunnies" and "I have a theory" said a bit later).
Ethan Peck's mellifluous low voice. Yum.

But oh dear GOD, most of those songs were dreadful, and a lot of the lyrics, which I get the neccesary exposition, did so in a terribly slow repeaty manner at times which got me frustrated. "I'm the ex" I found especially clunky a line. The ones I did like was the first one - sounded like a Gotye song - and the "finale" which was joy. But the rest were terrible X Factor type autotunes and really Not My Taste.

But yeh overall it was lightweight fun.

I doubt we will be bunnies.

I do wish they’d referenced like Les Miz for this instead of Wicked

But it was fun! La’an’s song ruled

The Klingons bursting into K-Pop was fucking hilarious

this was Not My Taste either but at least there was good character stuff for la’an/spock/chapell/wristwatch

however, being sent off on a priority one mission just before what almost has to be a gorn episode does not bode well for captain batel and the cayuga

chapell/wristwatch

Hahaha!

Lmao

Did kirk's very presence on the enterprise cause the female crew to start wearing skirts or am I imagining that?

Nope, never ever watching that again.

It always walks a fine line of being too Whedony, this blew right past that.

There was definite fealty to the Whedonverse crowd, I do think. Which I personally don't mind, but I get why others would.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Once More With Feeling, and I love some musicals, but this was not for me. I found the whole thing cringey.

I was cracking up at one scene with Carol Kane because she was doing the “I am in a musical singing my ass off on stage” face

you know, the one where you’ve spent years hearing about how you have to really project your voice on stage

oh ffs, stopped watching after 5 mins

*looks up from listening to the soundtrack* Sorry, you all say something?

i'm with Ned, this was hugely entertaining, some songs were better than others but fun and a la Once More With Feeling used the musical to do a lot of character and plot advancement

I would really have loved a Gilbert& Sullivan-esque bit. I thought one was upcoming when there was a scene where Uhura and/or Spock rattled off a ton of rapid technobabble... imagine that in a G&S showtune! That would have been the tits. But no, we had to have 4 versions of "let it go" instead.

it was fun but it’s nowhere close to what Once More W Feeling did as far as songcraft. not to be a snob about it but i maybe set the bar too high expecting something like that.
i mean I listened to that OMWF soundtrack for ~years~. But this, i didn’t find v many of these songs enjoyable as songs in their own right at all, they felt too over crammed w info, sort of over-wordy idk.

but i loved uhura’z song & laans song and i did really enjoy the episode overall

love that we got more Laan & Kirk, that was really well done & v moving