Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

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.