Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.10 (Season Finale)

[selenak]

Hmmmmm.



You know, they missed a trick there in not letting James Frain play the Romulan Commander. (Explanation for non-TOS watchers: Considering this is a remake/what if? AU of the TOS episode Balance of Terror which introduced the Romulans, and in which Mark Lenard, otherwise known as Original Sarek, played the the Romulan Commander. Maybe he wasn't available? Or maybe they thought new watchers would be confused and wonder what Sarek was doing there.

Aaaanyway. In terms of wrapping up Pike's development through the season, coming back to the season opener and indeed to the Discovery episode in which he first learns his fate, I have no problems with this. It makes sense that Pike, who doesn't know he's got a Star Trek continuity problem if he wants to avoid his fate, would try to figure out a way in which he can save the cadets and still avoid his own doom. On a Watsonian level, this makes sense, it fits with the "not giving up/finding a third way if two alternatives are bad" ethos and with what Una has been urging him to do. Especially if there are an additional two cadets who die (I don't think we had the information before, I thought he was saving them all?), and he'd want to save them as well. Since on a Doylist level, Pike's fate is pre-ordained, it makes also sense that the show would then come up with an explanation of why he can't do that that is within character. Pike finding out that if he avoids his fate (and saves the cadets anyway), Spock is the one ending up burned into a crisp while the Federation starts a war with the Romulans does provide such an explanation. Also Pike sacrificing himself for Spock in addition to the cadets mages The Menagerie even more poignant.

But. This whole story cames wrapped up in yet another Strange New World take on an older story, after Omelas and Aliens, in this case Balance of Terror. And now that the season is over, I think we're three for three in missing the point of the originals. Doing an Omelas story without having "our" characters actually face that dilemma. Then using the Gorn as the Aliens. As opposed to some other viewers, I don't have a problem with using the pre-TOS Gorn as opponents per se, but I was holding out for the hope the finale would provide us with a Gorn pov in which they get fleshed out beyond "Evil menace". Such a thing did not happen. So we're stuck with an episode in which the Gorn - who as by TOS lore as a sentient species, like humanity - are treated as dangerous animals. Now Ellen Ripley's Aliens may or may not have goals beyond killing and procreation, but they're the quintessential other in a horror movie and aren't in a franchise that prides itself on communication between different species. I mean, this is the year where in Star Trek: Discovery, we have had one of the best "against overwhelming odds, our heroes manage to establisih a dialogue with a truly alien species" stories of the franchise, and in Star Trek: Picard, the Borg finally evolved beyond forced assimilation through a genuine symbiosis. So reducing the Gorn to a purely kill-or-be-killed threat of beings who start their life by consuming each other if there's no other being to kill and consume, and this in the series which explicitly set itself up as being the most optimistic, felt like a truly weird storytelling choice already, before this finale, in which we get a TOS remake seemingly bent on declaring sometimes, you just need to shoot 'em up, and Pike's attempt at communication and compromise was the worse thing to do.

Which actually isn't the lesson I drew from the original TOS episode, classic cold war story that it was. The Romulan Commander telling Kirk near the end that in another life, they could have been friends, was poignant there not least because this episode, which introduced the Romulans, took care to paint them and the humans as an equal mixture of honorable and flawed. (So you didn't just have the war-hungry Decius, you also had the Spock bashing Stiles on the human side, for example.) So there was a subtext, to me, of "yes, one day, there will be a different outcome". By contrast, the Romulan Commander telling Pike the same thing in this episode doesn't have the same resonance, because he's the only Romulan thus minded, human bias against Spock does not exist (Ortegas is the only crew member talking about "the pointy-eared elephant in the room", but she does accept Spock's explanation, and no one later distrusts him for a second), and the audience goes into the story knowing how Kirk solved this scenario, and that Alt!Older!Pike already said Pike did/will do the wrong thing.

(Sidenote: at first I thought Pike's inadvertent mistake would be to get Kirk killed as a young man, thereby removing a key player form the timeline, but I do think Pike inadvertendly getting Spock burned instead is a better decision because, see above, and also Spock has meaning to Pike and vice versa. It's the "Pike starts a war by trying diplomacy in the alt!Timeline" part of the tale I have such difficulty swallowing.)

(Daughter of Sidenote: the (James T.) Kirk characterisation was fine, though. I appreciate the episode let him come up with a bluff, and emphasized his intelligence - top of his class and all that - instead of going for an act now, think later approach. Kirk was never my TOS favourite, but I do feel for the people complaining that his current image is owed to pop culture perception of him - and the Abrams movies - , not what was actually presented on screen in TOS.)

As Una's absence in the alt!Future already augurs ill, I kind of expected the season's cliffhanger, but that was another irritation, not because a regular is put in jeapordy, but because it reminds me: we open and we close the season with Una in peril. In between, we had perhaps two episodes in which she had good character scenes which weren't about her supporting another character. She's the first officer, she was there in the original Star Trek pilot, and she's still one of the least used characters in the ensemble. It's frustrating.

Now don't get me wrong. All in all, SNW gave me a lot to like. Complaints about Una aside, it did a quicker job introducing an ensemble and making it come alive than the other more recent ST shows did in their respective seasons. I like the show's take on "classic" characters, I like the OCs like Hemmer (sob!) and Ortegas. The mixture of serious and funny episodes, overall, was a good one. But in its second half, more and more frustration crept in for me. So all in all, I feel about it the way I do about Star Trek: Picard, meaning I like but I don't love it, and am torn between enjoyment and frustration. Whereas Discovery is the current Star Trek show of my heart which pulled off its 900 years into the future gamble to present, in its third and fourth season, the first genuinely boldly going where no Trek had gone before since the 1990s.

In conclusion: for the next SNW season, I hope for no more remakes of classic stories that don't really engage with the stories they're telling, and instead building on more original stories with the very likeable ensemble of characters the show has established.

Comments

[trobadora]

a TOS remake seemingly bent on declaring sometimes, you just need to shoot 'em up, and Pike's attempt at communication and compromise was the worse thing to do

Oh no! That is truly disappointing. I haven't had much time to watch TV lately, but I was looking forward to this show a lot, and hearing this is souring me on it before I'm even starting. :(

[selenak]

In all fairness, it may have been not intended as strongly as I took it; through the season, we see Pike's approach work repeatedly on other occasions. But I did think the second half of the season was weaker than the first half, and that going AU with a classic TOS episode in this particular way for a finale wasn't a good idea.

[trobadora]

Admittedly I have much higher standards for deliberately playing with a TOS episode than I do for original plots, but fanfic has trained me to backbutton out of things that don't deal well with existing canon, I guess. *g*

[aurumcalendula]

So reducing the Gorn to a purely kill-or-be-killed threat of beings who start their life by consuming each other if there's no other being to kill and consume, and this in the series which explicitly set itself up as being the most optimistic, felt like a truly weird storytelling choice already, before this finale, in which we get a TOS remake seemingly bent on declaring sometimes, you just need to shoot 'em up, and Pike's attempt at communication and compromise was the worse thing to do.

Ugh, that's disappointing! I still plan on checking out the series, but those choices are dampening my enthusiasm.

[selenak]

In all fairness, there's a lot of good stuff to look forward to. And a lot of shows I later loved had a mixed first season.

[lightofdaye]

So is the series worth getting Paramount+ for and binging? I've got to say I've found myself struggling to muster the time and energy for it. Like you said at the start the way people hype it as return to real Trek after Disco and Picard is off putting, though not the show's fault.

[selenak]

It has a lot of charm and starts strong, but I thought had a weaker second half. If it's your sole reason for Paramount+, I wouldn't, at least not if you have to pay for a whole year. But if you can do what I do once or so a year with Disney+, pay for a month and marathon it in that time, then by all means, go for it!

[labingi]

Disclaimer: I haven't seen 1.10 yet (just letting myself be spoiled here). Re. the Omelas story, I read/saw somewhere that this was based on an unused TOS script by Roddenberry, which (if true) means it predates "The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas." That fits with your thesis, that they're reusing old stories, but I find it interesting to contemplate that Roddenberry did it before Le Guin. And I do find it frustrating that the best episode at describing a "new civilization" is, like, 55 years old. I really wish NuTrek had more intrinsic interest in exploring other cultures. (Discovery did do some of this in S4, though, in my opinion, it did it so-so well.)

I actually feel gentler toward the Gorn stuff than you do because I don't view this as the end of the story. This is S1 of a series they clearly hope will continue for four, five, or more years. So I just figure that seeing our (viewers') knowledge of Gorn civilization develop will be part of the longer range storytelling. It makes sense to me that La'an, who is our main POV into the Gorn, views them as monstrous Alien-esque killers, but I find that a decent setup for her eventually having to face that they are other things as well.

[selenak]

I read/saw somewhere that this was based on an unused TOS script by Roddenberry

If true, that would indeed be intriguing.

Re: the Gorn, I also thought they were setting up something long term with La'an (and the audience) learning more about them for most of the season, but if so, I would have thought there's be at least a hint before the season ending, and when it didn't come, I felt a bit let down. But if s2 brings on some new info, all the better.

[kore]

As Una's absence in the alt!Future already augurs ill, I kind of expected the season's cliffhanger, but that was another irritation, not because a regular is put in jeapordy, but because it reminds me: we open and we close the season with Una in peril. In between, we had perhaps two episodes in which she had good character scenes which weren't about her supporting another character. She's the first officer, she was there in the original Star Trek pilot, and she's still one of the least used characters in the ensemble. It's frustrating.

Man, and one of the things I was looking forward to most about this show was Number One, who I have adored ever since I first saw her as a kid.

[selenak]

Well, me too, but alas, so far she's in terms of narrative development only a minor character on the show. Ironically, the other character played by Majel Barrett in TOS, Christine Chapel, gets superb narrative attention and character development. (And a new character, La'an the female security chief, gets the kind of seasonal spotlight and arc I had expected for Number One.) Short of Rebecca Romijin maybe having only limited availability, I can't explain it as a narrative choice.

[lizbee]

Apparently Romijn had unavoidable family responsibilities in LA which reduced her availability, but nevertheless, I feel like she was mostly underused even when she was present.

[gabolange]

I have found Una's absence deeply strange, and I do sort of wonder if Rebecca Romijn has limited availability, given how little she's been in the season and how they are setting it up for her to be mostly absent from the main action next season. Which is a disappointment on many levels, as I both like the actress and was excited for the character.

Regarding Pike - I have mixed feelings but I think they are somewhat more positive than yours. I liked that it was Pike's failure that set up the terrible alt-future, if only because our captains are so often presented as infallible. I am less enamored of the shoot first lesson, but it does make sense to set up Kirk as Our Hero going forward. I also thought they were going to kill Kirk, and I was also happy they went a different route.

[selenak]

I do sort of wonder if Rebecca Romijn has limited availability

That's about the only thing which could explain the choice to make her essentially a minor character to me.

I liked that it was Pike's failure that set up the terrible alt-future, if only because our captains are so often presented as infallible

Hm, yes and no; I mean, they do get shown to make mistakes (intentionally on the part of the script, I mean) in all incarnations of Trek I can think of, but they tend to be more right than not. (Well, except for Lorca, who due to his true identity was a special case.) I may be overly down on this particular mistake because of the "shoot first" factor, I guess. Granted, there's a tragic irony in Pike creating the bad timeline not because he does something morally wrong - saving the cadets (all of them), offering dialogue and compromise to a foe, these are all good things by themselves - but because he's himself and at the wrong place in the wrong time. But I would have preferred it if the show would have ditched the Alt!Balance of Terror scenario and instead would have left it at Spock getting Pike's fate and this causing a chain ripple reaction in the timeline (both because of Spock's own actions now missing, and because Spock isn't there to balance and support Kirk) that ends up in a terrible future.

(Or maybe something like "Yesterday's Enterprise", where the timeline changed for the worse, resulting in a militaristic Federation fighting and losing a war, because the Enterprise-C was saved instead of sacrificing itself to save Klingons, which resulted in no Khitomer Accords and a renewed war instead.)