Star Trek:Strange New Worlds 1.06
Jun. 9th, 2022 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOkay, that was the first episode so far which I thought wasn't that good, not because it was bad as such, but because I'd seen it several times before, in several fandoms.
I mean, as far as takes on "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" go, this one was... avarage? Maybe if I hadn't seen or read any previous take on how the state of a supposed paradisical community depended on the misery and torture of a child/space whale/other innocent being before, it would have hit me harder. They tried to make it more personal by letting Pike's old flame offer him the chance of a cure for his future condition, but there was no question of Pike even being tempted, and conversely, the First Servant's father helping M'Benga at the end came untainted because the First Servant's father had been trying to save his kid.
It reminds me a bit of the Voyager episode where the Doctor accesses the holo presentation of an evil (but competent) Cardassian doctor whose treatments were the results of unethical experiments, and there, too, I felt the episode first brought up something and then skirted away from actually dealing with it by the way the episode continued. I mean, this is a truly dark premise, and if you use it, either you face it head on, or you don't use that premise for a story.
Which isn't to say the episode had nothng to offer. Young Uhura continues to be a delight, and her having to intern with La'an made for some great scenes. And giving M'Benga some actual progress in his quest to save his daughter was also good, despite, see above. But in general, it just felt to me like this episode was below standard for this show.
I mean, as far as takes on "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" go, this one was... avarage? Maybe if I hadn't seen or read any previous take on how the state of a supposed paradisical community depended on the misery and torture of a child/space whale/other innocent being before, it would have hit me harder. They tried to make it more personal by letting Pike's old flame offer him the chance of a cure for his future condition, but there was no question of Pike even being tempted, and conversely, the First Servant's father helping M'Benga at the end came untainted because the First Servant's father had been trying to save his kid.
It reminds me a bit of the Voyager episode where the Doctor accesses the holo presentation of an evil (but competent) Cardassian doctor whose treatments were the results of unethical experiments, and there, too, I felt the episode first brought up something and then skirted away from actually dealing with it by the way the episode continued. I mean, this is a truly dark premise, and if you use it, either you face it head on, or you don't use that premise for a story.
Which isn't to say the episode had nothng to offer. Young Uhura continues to be a delight, and her having to intern with La'an made for some great scenes. And giving M'Benga some actual progress in his quest to save his daughter was also good, despite, see above. But in general, it just felt to me like this episode was below standard for this show.
no subject
Date: 2022-06-13 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-15 02:49 pm (UTC)Agreed about all of this! But hey--5 for 6 is a pretty good average!
no subject
Date: 2022-06-16 02:16 pm (UTC)