Star Trek: SNW 2.01. and a B5 trailer
Jun. 16th, 2023 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe first episode of the new season. My feelings about s1 of SNW are that it started strong but that I had some real problems with the second half of the season, though I liked our ensemble throughout and am wishing the show well. On to the s2 opener:
Which seems to take inspiration of the opening two eps of Discovery's third season, where in the first episode we followed Michael, and in the second the crew on separate adventures until they reunited at the end, only in this case Pike takes off early on, and I expect we'll see what he was up to in the next episode while following the rest of the crew in this opening episode. (Also who the mysteries "she" is whom he and Una talked about as the one person able to defend Number One at court. This being Star Trek, I fully expect this woman to be Una's long lost sister, cousin, clone or mother.)
For the most part, I thought this was a good adventure, giving everyone something to do and introducing a new regular at the same time - Pelia, the new chief engineer. If Hammer had to be killed off way way too soon, then replacing him with a character who isn't just old in sci fi terms (even near immortal, according to Spock) but also played by an older actress who is allowed to look physically old is a good idea. Older women who aren't one episode guest stars are sadly still a distinct minority not just in Star Trek, and I like the neat subversion of her saying what the problem with near immortality is. Openly confessing she wants on the Enterprise because that's where shenanigans are bound to happen every week: A+! I also approve of her being not fooled for a second by Spock's latest Enterprise hijacking ploy. (He really does this a lot, or will in the future...)
I'm glad the show didn't drag La'an's absence out but made reuniting with her part of the episode's plot. And hey, New Trek finally mastered decent Klingon make-up again! Plus this episode's Klingons definitely would feel at home with Martok & Co., complete with blood wine drinking competitions.
This episode establishes that unlike most of the current Enterprise crew, M'Benga and Chapel did fight in the Klingon war (from Disco's first season), i.e. weren't part of the crew yet, which I'm not sure was mentioned (or not) in the first season opener (i.e. that M'Benga and Chapel were new arrivals, like Uhura). M'Benga having war trauma could go either way, but after the arc with his daughter was wrapped up in for me an unsatisfying way last season, it's good to see the actor being given challenging material to play. Yes, there's the pledge to have STNW keeping the episodic structure, but I could see the show treating this like DS9 did O'Brien's Cardassian war trauma. When relevant, it's brought up, but not in every episode, and O'Brien had no lack of stories without it, either. In any case, the comradery between him and Christine Chapel was great throughout, and I expect we'll hear more about what the mysterioussuper soldier serum green goo is that M'Benga has for such emergencies. (Just don't do an addict arc, show. Doing one was not one of ST: Enterprise's better ideas.)
Speaking of Christine, I'm not keen on the show doing a mutual UST arc with her and Spock, though I'm also not completely surprised (not just because of the TOS Chapel's pining for Spock, but because the "fake kiss" scene last season was a pretty blatant set up). I don't hate the idea like some other viewers seem to, either; there are other pairings on any ST show I wasn't enthralled by, and I came around to some and didn't mind others, so we'll see. This version of Christine is still my favourite so far, and the episode showcased her bravery and compassion very satisfyingly.
Nostalgia factor well used without being for its own sake: Spock getting his Vulcan lyre and Uhura coming across him playing when she delivers a message. This is my kind of homage - works as a scene in its own right, gains another layer when you know their playing/singing scene from Charlie X.
Spock suffering from a hangover after all that Klingon blood wine was an amusing note to go out on, except it wasn't the very last scene, which was instead the one with Admiral April & colleague speaking about a possible Gorn war. Guys, don't. The Gorn as Alien rip-offs was one of my problems with the last season, and you marketed yourself explicitly as the fun one. This said, if you do an arc about preventing a war, that's cool, and would make the Enterprise crew managing to do just that with the Klingons in the season opener solid foreshadowing.
Meanwhile, in my other favourite space franchise, there's a new B5 movie to be had, this one animated and with voice actors filling in for our dear departed actors:
Thoughts: Seems like JMS couldn't resist doing a multiverse story of his own, but hey, he did the world building to justify it with Babylon Squared and War without End. Which aren't solely about time travel. The future Sheridan experiences on Centauri Prime comes to pass, but Garibaldi's future that Sinclair sees, or the one of Ivanova's desperate last message never does, and yet that message was sent from somewhere, so it stands to reason that in the B5 verse, several timelines do exist. Since a multiverse story allows my guy Londo to show up without a Keeper (I presume) and maybe, crossing my fingers there, have some more scenes with G'Kar and Vir, I'm all for it. Also: if JMS works in a Bester cameo, that would be the icing on the cake. But even if it's simply a Sheridan centric story - I love Babylon 5, and I look forward to seeing it animated.
Which seems to take inspiration of the opening two eps of Discovery's third season, where in the first episode we followed Michael, and in the second the crew on separate adventures until they reunited at the end, only in this case Pike takes off early on, and I expect we'll see what he was up to in the next episode while following the rest of the crew in this opening episode. (Also who the mysteries "she" is whom he and Una talked about as the one person able to defend Number One at court. This being Star Trek, I fully expect this woman to be Una's long lost sister, cousin, clone or mother.)
For the most part, I thought this was a good adventure, giving everyone something to do and introducing a new regular at the same time - Pelia, the new chief engineer. If Hammer had to be killed off way way too soon, then replacing him with a character who isn't just old in sci fi terms (even near immortal, according to Spock) but also played by an older actress who is allowed to look physically old is a good idea. Older women who aren't one episode guest stars are sadly still a distinct minority not just in Star Trek, and I like the neat subversion of her saying what the problem with near immortality is. Openly confessing she wants on the Enterprise because that's where shenanigans are bound to happen every week: A+! I also approve of her being not fooled for a second by Spock's latest Enterprise hijacking ploy. (He really does this a lot, or will in the future...)
I'm glad the show didn't drag La'an's absence out but made reuniting with her part of the episode's plot. And hey, New Trek finally mastered decent Klingon make-up again! Plus this episode's Klingons definitely would feel at home with Martok & Co., complete with blood wine drinking competitions.
This episode establishes that unlike most of the current Enterprise crew, M'Benga and Chapel did fight in the Klingon war (from Disco's first season), i.e. weren't part of the crew yet, which I'm not sure was mentioned (or not) in the first season opener (i.e. that M'Benga and Chapel were new arrivals, like Uhura). M'Benga having war trauma could go either way, but after the arc with his daughter was wrapped up in for me an unsatisfying way last season, it's good to see the actor being given challenging material to play. Yes, there's the pledge to have STNW keeping the episodic structure, but I could see the show treating this like DS9 did O'Brien's Cardassian war trauma. When relevant, it's brought up, but not in every episode, and O'Brien had no lack of stories without it, either. In any case, the comradery between him and Christine Chapel was great throughout, and I expect we'll hear more about what the mysterious
Speaking of Christine, I'm not keen on the show doing a mutual UST arc with her and Spock, though I'm also not completely surprised (not just because of the TOS Chapel's pining for Spock, but because the "fake kiss" scene last season was a pretty blatant set up). I don't hate the idea like some other viewers seem to, either; there are other pairings on any ST show I wasn't enthralled by, and I came around to some and didn't mind others, so we'll see. This version of Christine is still my favourite so far, and the episode showcased her bravery and compassion very satisfyingly.
Nostalgia factor well used without being for its own sake: Spock getting his Vulcan lyre and Uhura coming across him playing when she delivers a message. This is my kind of homage - works as a scene in its own right, gains another layer when you know their playing/singing scene from Charlie X.
Spock suffering from a hangover after all that Klingon blood wine was an amusing note to go out on, except it wasn't the very last scene, which was instead the one with Admiral April & colleague speaking about a possible Gorn war. Guys, don't. The Gorn as Alien rip-offs was one of my problems with the last season, and you marketed yourself explicitly as the fun one. This said, if you do an arc about preventing a war, that's cool, and would make the Enterprise crew managing to do just that with the Klingons in the season opener solid foreshadowing.
Meanwhile, in my other favourite space franchise, there's a new B5 movie to be had, this one animated and with voice actors filling in for our dear departed actors:
Thoughts: Seems like JMS couldn't resist doing a multiverse story of his own, but hey, he did the world building to justify it with Babylon Squared and War without End. Which aren't solely about time travel. The future Sheridan experiences on Centauri Prime comes to pass, but Garibaldi's future that Sinclair sees, or the one of Ivanova's desperate last message never does, and yet that message was sent from somewhere, so it stands to reason that in the B5 verse, several timelines do exist. Since a multiverse story allows my guy Londo to show up without a Keeper (I presume) and maybe, crossing my fingers there, have some more scenes with G'Kar and Vir, I'm all for it. Also: if JMS works in a Bester cameo, that would be the icing on the cake. But even if it's simply a Sheridan centric story - I love Babylon 5, and I look forward to seeing it animated.
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Date: 2023-06-16 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-16 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-16 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-16 02:42 pm (UTC)I basically just want more Sinclair, and am going to be *extremely* hard to displease on this.
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Date: 2023-06-16 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-16 06:57 pm (UTC)I'm hoping this may lead to a mini renaissance in fic! A lot of it happened pre-AO3 but there's actually a pretty strong fandom out there, especially for such an old show. AV Club or io9 or some site did a recap series, but they focused too much on the dated f/x blah blah. I don't know why Tor didn't do one, since they have ninety thousand recap series going, but they seem to think it kinda sucked: https://www.tor.com/2019/06/13/babylon-5-is-the-greatest-most-terrible-sf-series/
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Date: 2023-06-17 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-16 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-17 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-17 01:41 am (UTC)-
You are right it's not entirely out of the blue for b5 but i am inclined to grumpyness about yet another multiverse story. Still the concept seems to be what I thought No Way Home was going to be from the title. The hero skipping timelines sliders-style.
I didn't like the artstyle when I first saw it in still pictures but it looks better in motion.
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Date: 2023-06-21 09:50 pm (UTC)That includes the steroid abuse of M'Benga and Chapel, they're supersoldiers now? Ugh.
And of course my continuing hatred of the 'Engage' joke we saw in the trailer.
Like the actors and characters are still mostly charming, even with Pike only being in the opening scene but... a lot to worry about.
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Date: 2023-06-18 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-18 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-20 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-20 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-20 05:26 am (UTC)but is it going to have Neroon in itThis is exciting! :D I hope my boy Lennier gets to shine a bit, and I'm really interested in the plotline where the Shadows win. Though I must confess I had a hard time recognizing animated!Sheridan, who doesn't really look to me the way I remember!no subject
Date: 2023-06-20 07:26 am (UTC)The timeline where the Shadows win: what intrigues me is that Londo isn't either with them or on Centauri Prime or dead, but on Earth in time to die with the rest of the gang. Now I have a feeling JMS won't do it, not least because Andreas Katsulas is dead, but I've always wanted to know what results Morden deciding to go with G'Kar rather than Londo as his liason would have had. (Given they both replied to him.) Though I never expected the answer to be "then the Shadows win!" That would be fascinating, but like I said, I doubt JMS will go there.
Neroon (and also Lennier): I suppose it depends on how much alt!Delenn we'll see. Mind you, as was pointed out by a commenter on this very journal, the funny thing about Sheridan saying to Delenn she lost so many already and naming Neroon as one of them is that Sheridan never met Neroon (other than from a distance at the end of "Grey 17 is missing", so one wonders what she told him about Neroon and their relationship. Again, I don't think JMS will go there, but I think hilarity could be had from a timeline Sheridan visits where Delenn has ended nup with Neroon as per your story. :)