Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.09

[selenak]

Hemmer, nooooo!

Seriously, though, I can't recall having been hit this hard by a season 1 death in recent Trek shows. In DISCO, I saw Prime Georgiou's demise in the pilot coming (what with Jason Isaacs announced as the Captain of the season), and was indifferent to the death of the security chief three or four episodes in. In PICARD, s1, I was a bit sad about Doj and found Data's (final) death moving (also better than previous efforts in the same direction), and Bruce Maddox was a shocker duie to the manner of his demise, not for his own sake. But good lord, SNW, I did not expect you to go for the cast killing, and I sihall take the "we didn't see the dead body approach", I think, because Hemmer is used to cold temperatures, and maybe the aliens mini Gorn died within his chest of it, and we'll see him again next season.

In other news, we're not done with the sci fi (and horror) classics homages, I see, as this installment was clearly Alien-inspired. Though in a better way than the Omelas rip-off, as it offered lots of character moments. (I'm trying not to think about Gorn being born pregnant at birth, it seems, because hey, Tribbles.) Pike adds to his virtues by not only cooking for his crew but also doing the dishes afterwards (with the occasional drafting of other crew members like Spock to help). He's also demonstrating when to switch to order!mode, as when Sam Kirk is having a panic attack. If this is the end of Uhura's "do I stay or do I go?" arc, though, it feels a bit artificial to me, and also as if she was guilted into staying in Starfleet by Hemmer's sacrifice. (Though I recognize the narrative intention was for her to realize she's ready to risk forming roots again, despite the potential pain of losing new people.)

La'an taking off to find Oriana's people for her makes character sense, and I expect her to be back after a few episodes/next season. Which might offer the show the chance to finally get around to fleshing out Una some more, because as much as I like SNW, it's odd that the one regular character who so far comes across as underdeveloped is the first officer, whom they have Rebecca Romijin play. (Sidenote: I don't mean it should be an either/or between La'an and Una, I fully support the show paying attention to both, but let's face it, La'an has gotten the First Officer type of scenarios on both a Doylist and Watsonian level more than once, filling in for Una.)

Meanwhile, Christine Chapel continues to be my not so secret fave, and I appreciate the character continuity of M'Benga not suddenly being over his grief/missing of his daughter despite the more episodic format (which I like).

As for the use of the Gorn as the purely alien frightening menace, I'm still reserving judgment until the season is over, and then I'll say something about it.

Comments

[vilakins]

I found that one hard to watch, as I avoid horror anyway (and a lot of SF seems to be horror). I played a game app to distance myself. I was just thinking what a great character Hemmer was and thought the only crew to die would be the ones introduced for that purpose. Hemmer shocked me, but yes, I did think of the cold, how the Gorn hate it, and how he enjoyed it. But what will make them come back?

I have to say I'm not thrilled with the Gorn arc. I wanted, well, strange new worlds like it says on the tin. We don't need more darkness, but some lightness and hope to counteract RL, IMO anyway.

[selenak]

Well, the strength of hope as a prevailing emotion, and seeing it rewarded by the narrative, is one of the many things I love about Star Trek: Discovery, but I know you and I feel differently about said show. As for SNW, as I said, I'm waiting the season out before giving my opinion on the Gorn, because it really depends for me on whether a certain something happens or not.

[vilakins]

I'm still watching Discovery, though it's not a favourite, especially with Tilly gone. I do love Jett Reno though and hope we get more of her next season. Just the finale to go, but I've been thwarted by the sound being out of sync (due probably to our "free"-to-air embedded ads).

[reverancepavane]

Whilst I suspect the writers might have pulled the low-temperature defence out of their back pocket, it might take a bit more prestidigitation to deal with the resulting fall off the back of the ship.

I find it interesting that this is the second episode that follows the same plot idea as the roughly equivalently aired episode of The Orville, allowing a more or less direct comparison between the two shows. This time ST:SNW does it better by making the action take place in an actual haunted house starship. I do think The Orville did the "lets' hide from the enemy starship episode" a lot better though (probably from concentrating on the action and not letting the technobabble [and misuse of scientific terms] solve the problem for them). [Although I will add the caveat that it's actually not a competition between the two shows, just interesting in seeing how each showrunner handled the same general scenario.]

And yes, Christine Chapel is definitely a not so secret fave.

[selenak]

Whilst I suspect the writers might have pulled the low-temperature defence out of their back pocket, it might take a bit more prestidigitation to deal with the resulting fall off the back of the ship.

He flew like the wind? There was a lot of snow catching his fall? :)

[reverancepavane]

An awful lot of snow. =8)

[moon_custafer]

Have a cartoon to cheer you up: https://twitter.com/pencilscratchin/status/1531891960692330496?s=21

[selenak]

Aw, thank you.

[lirazel]

I am just really annoyed at Hemmer's death. It seems way too early--we didn't get to know him well enough imo. I'm frustrated by this decision!

That said, I did think it was a good episode.