Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

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