Star Trek: Strange New Worlds [SPOILERS]

Shatner!Kirk *was* a nerd in the Academy but grew to not be a full unthinking automatron about the rules a la season 1 Boimler, hope that helps.

'Member that whole episode where Riker was an entire dick to an acting captain about entirely reasonable requests like [checks notes] expanding from three to four sections (with presumably shorter shifts) and Troi wearing a proper uniform that she kept wearing without issue afterwards?

Cuz I 'member.

I also love how people who have never served in the military have the most opinions on what is and isn't "proper." There's obviously some level of "respect the ranks that applies to certain situations but we all get a sense of what kind of repartee we can have with certain senior people. Personally, I'm far more bothered by a captain who can't put aside his pride to apologize for his dog who didn't have to be on the away mission to begin with versus a quippy junior Lt. whose behavior doesn't bug the Captain but that's just me.

Yes, but what would you know about the military, having only (checks notes) been in it?

Believe me, I wish it was only jackasses who are like this, but I had has one of these types of bosses who was a rich kid prep school type whose daddy would've bought he way out of the draft who used to tell me about the chain of command.

Dude was an absolute cheapskate of a general manager who was later fired by Penske Auto Group personally after the service department unionized behind his back. I mean, do you know how hard it is for a dealership service team to unionize, even in the People's Republic of California?

So, that clip that P+ dropped today?

Looks like fun. I fully anticipate scores of fun-haters having their remain brains melt and trickle out of their ears.

Yay, Spock gets to say "fuck"

Bet it went something like this:

"Fuck," Spock said. He raised an eyebrow. "Intriguing. That was not logical."

SNW S02E05 "Charades"

What a terrific episode! I love Star Trek.

yeah, that was a lot of fun.
Liked how they did the typical in-laws to be dynamic... T'Pring's dad seems like a nice enough guy, her mum was total toxicity.

it was a fake out and he said "Frak!"?

Impossible! That’s crossing the streams into BSG territory and I think Universal holds the rights to that and not Paramount.

I was going to say, did a Basestar come into sensor range?

Sevet would be totally cool to hang out with, he seems like he would chill and have a beer with Spock... while T'pril would stand there glaring.

And we get Korby mentioned by name, so it does seem like we're going to set Korby at some point. The way this episode ended with Spock and Chapel, T'pring could back could be what makes Chapel leave for the expedition with Korby.

Did anyone else notice Pike's reaction in three background when the doors to the transporter room closed? I thought it was a small but funny detail to throw in.

When I first heard the premise of this episode, I definitely had some....concerns that this could veer into Voyager "Faces" territory.

Thankfully, this is definitely not in that category, which helps since the writer of the episode is biracial herself (Thank you SNW for continuing to have diversity behind the camera too! ). I did like the scene with Spock & Amanda when he acknowledged how much of herself his mother hid and kept quiet about as a human on Vulcan....it definitely does read like a conversation a biracial kid would have w their marginalized parent.

My hat is also tipped to the writers for giving T'Pring, who only existed for the purpose of coming between Spirk Spock and Kirk's friendship in one episode a more well rounded character in the three or four episodes she's appeared in than Mayweather, Harry Kim and the women on TNG not named Pulaski got in the full run of their respective series. You do feel bad for her in this case, being the last to know what was up and I don't blame her for taking a break.

I'm not exactly on the Spapel love train and I hope to God the next reboot of TOS will try trying to make fetch happen with Cishet Spock, but their kiss was way hotter than anything we got with Trip/T'Pol, including the whole contrived disrobing scene where TBBS was jerking it to possibly seeing Vulcan ass.

Pike in that green wrap.....hot. 10/19 no notes.

I also like Otegas and Uhura being all "Bruh" when Chapel kept pretending she ain't wanna bone Spock to those aliens.

SNW is bringing fun back to live Trek again.

^^^
All of that.

I have three minor quibbles:

1. The rage at Kirk over his crumbs was...a bit over the top? I get what they were going for but it should have been something truly rage worthy, not just being a neat freak

2. the sloppiness about distance glared in how unnecessary it was. The log clearly said the moon was in the Vulcan system and then in the next sentence she said "on the other side of the SECTOR. Then when they went back Uhura says the communication range was limited to a light year - what system is a light year across? Very easy stuff and thus annoying.

3. The are either going widely different than TOS on the Spock/Chapel relationship - or they are going to have to break her heart HARD at some point within the next 5-6 (in universe) years. In that respect I kinda feel like they have advanced the progress of their relationship a little too far too fast.

Still, it was a LOT of fun if you can accept how often Spock is used as the comic relief.

Yeah, I don't get the whole thing with where exactly the moon is. It's in the Vulcan system, right in the heart of explored Federation territory and in the back yard of the Federation's best scientists, and it takes the Enterprise to investigate the strange anomaly that was just detected? The Vulcans weren't all over that shit as soon as it popped up?

from Vanity Fair’s best of 2023 so far about this weeks episode

Although Trek writers' understanding of DNA has always been dubious at best, and "something fucks with a crew member's genetic makeup so that we can have a different lens for character exploration" is a well-worn trope, this was one of the better examples of it.

Indeed, it is.

I decided to watch that VOY episode "Faces" as I've seen the most comparisons to that episode and other than Roxann Dawson knocking it out of the park between both her halves, this episode is one of the clearest examples of the lack of any diversity behind the scenes. I mean, the scene of Human!Torres talking to her other half and blaming that for her temper and getting booted from Starfleet? Really?

Besides the bioessentialism this encourages, I had expected B'Elanna to come to the conclusion that she wanted to be who she was but no, bad minority Klingon!Torres dies to protect white human!Torres and the only reason she wanted the Klingon DNA back was because the Doc told her she would literally die with out it. What a shit load of fuck.

If there is one thing I have not missed in modern Trek, it's stories like this where the alien (or half-alien) has to "fight" with their culture to assimilate. For me, I absolutely felt seen with that B plot Tendi got in the DS9 episode because it acknowledges that there's no "right" way for anyone from a group to act and there's no point in being ashamed of the good things that every culture has, as one of the better example.

I am definitely glad that everyone in this episode unequivocally says that human!Spock is wrong and that everyone wanted the Spock they knew back.

I did like the episode.

However, the thing everyone has been bitching about with “new trek” and the bad writing, I’m beginning to see the issues.

First, Spock totally put a full on, breathtaking, come away with me, lip lock on Chapel like 7 episodes ago. In SNW timeframe, let’s say last week. Then he totally ghosts her for the entire next week and ignores her when he sees her in the corridor. Then when they are finally in a position to talk his response is something like “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable”. W.T.F., Spock?!?

So, that was probably the most realistic portrayal of that sort of situation - well, not her response, but his.

I was all set to praise the show when it launches into a series of scenes that are actually reminiscent of old trek - very long scenes with someone making what is supposed to be a heartfelt speech but really just makes the audience yawn. But, hey, it’s old trek now, finally. Right?

Ethan Peck acted the heck out of his abilities in this episode. Showed a significant difference between human only Spock and half human/half Vulcan Spock. I’ll be anxious to see what he can do in future roles.

Agree about T’Pring. I like the actress. I’m sure we’ll be seeing her again in the future.

Gia Sandhu...

yeah, she's going to be getting a lot of work in future given the connections she's made.

Having had the recurring character on Kim's COnvenience probably was the stepping stone to this... and having Paul Lee and Simu Liu as friends ain't going to hurt anything.

Also, I hadn't really paid attention to the Amanda actress in her DSC appearances but DAYUM!

Mia Kirshner, known for playing "Naked Mandy," one of the terrorists from the first season of 24 and Jenny on "The L Word." She's still got it!

Do shuttles have shields at this time? Not sure, but I don't think so. I liked this episode, but it did remind me of Tuvix. I'm glad they didn't try and Treknobable how the aliens changed Sspock and I'm glad it wasn't a transporter accident, we've seen enough of this.

yup
shuttles have shields

the SNW Stamets class is a step before the type F in TOS, so it's a safe bet.

One of the guys over at Trek Yards thinks that portal is how the Lower Decks crew gets through.

You mean Mia Kirshner from "Exotica" and "Not Another Teen Movie," right?

I'm hoping a GoF scenario... it'd be nice to see Karl again.

it'll probably be a holodeck thing though