Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.06.
Jul. 20th, 2023 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI really lked this one, which was an Uhura episode with good ensemble subplots at the same time.
You know, it did occur to me that this episode's main plot was basically the flipside of the Discovery S4 arc in miniature form, with Our Heroes as Species 10 C and this episode's aliens as Michael & friends. Also, both are structed as mysteries: Disco's "what is this destructive phenomenon?" and then, once it's clear it's not a natural one, "Why is species 10 C doing this, who are they, and can we find a way to communicate with them to make it stop?", SNW "what is happening to Uhura?" leading to "what happened with Ramon and why?" to Uhura's figuring out the mystery as a communication attempt of a very alien species who is suffering and getting killed through the Federation's mining operations. (What the 10 C were doing, not knowing how it impacted other life forms, were essentially mining operations as well.)
It was a good mystery for Uhura to solve, playing to both her professional strengths and personal qualities, and of course it has the quintessential Trekian outcome of Pike trusting her judgment and rather destroying the (evacuated) mining station than continuing, as the 10 C stop once they realise what is going on. We also hear more about something that has come up in the first season when she was introduced, the loss of her family, and if I have one complaint about the episode, then it's that the subplot about Pelia and Una (and in the first scene also between Uhura and Pelia) about how seeing Pelia as engineer sharpens the grief for Hemmer and that impacts on their interaction feels like it should have happened earlier this season, but probably couldn''t, because grief and people dealling with it, or not (Uhura, La'an, Una) is a thematic red thread through this episode.
But back to the praise again. Something else I appreciate is the consistent depiction of our heroes as compassionate people in their interactions with each other and with guest stars, and here this includes one James T. Kirk, as Kirk Prime, not one from an alternate time line, finally makes his debut on the show. I thought it wa a smart choice of not letting him interact with Spock until the very end of the episode and instead introduce SNW's Kirk Prime mainly via his interactions with Uhura, with a sideline of scenes with Sam and a perfect one with La'an, more about this in a moment. In a continued characterisation that goes back to TOS the series and not to the pop culture image, Kirk doesn't flirt with Uhura but endears himself to her and the viewer by spotting she is in trouble and helping her. In his scene with La'an, the actor and the wriiting does a nice balance of signaling this Kirk is very similar to the AU version but also not exactly the same, and his own person. And instead of trying to let the first encounter with Spock be something monumental and dramatic, the show goes for the opposite by letting Kirk observe Spock's chess playing from a distance early on, which is both a nod to the first scene they have on TOS and to Alt!Kirk's chess expertise, and letting Spock say a casual hello as the episode closes.
(IMO, AOS made a mistake by letting Spock Prime tell AOS Kirk that he and Spock ARE DESTINY in the first movie, and then expect the audience to see them as that close in the second without having done the actual work of building the relatiionship in its own right.)
Sam and Jim Kirk as somewhat competitive brothers due to surviving Dad's shadow, Sam feeling overshadowed by Jim's rapid advancement in Starfleet and Jim not taking Sam's xenoanthropology specialisation as seriously as the command track: Jean-Luc and Robert Picard feel this is strangely familiar and say hello.:) More seriously, it feels like a realistic degree of sibling rivalry without making it dysfunctional.
Chapel and Spock's conversation re: updating their relationship status, so to speak: Christine wanting to keep it private is as good an explanation as any why no one in the TOS era is aware they're exes.
In conclusion, a good episode, though it did not escape me the Gorn got referenced again, so I expect we're about get anotherrip-off homage to the Alien franchise soon.
You know, it did occur to me that this episode's main plot was basically the flipside of the Discovery S4 arc in miniature form, with Our Heroes as Species 10 C and this episode's aliens as Michael & friends. Also, both are structed as mysteries: Disco's "what is this destructive phenomenon?" and then, once it's clear it's not a natural one, "Why is species 10 C doing this, who are they, and can we find a way to communicate with them to make it stop?", SNW "what is happening to Uhura?" leading to "what happened with Ramon and why?" to Uhura's figuring out the mystery as a communication attempt of a very alien species who is suffering and getting killed through the Federation's mining operations. (What the 10 C were doing, not knowing how it impacted other life forms, were essentially mining operations as well.)
It was a good mystery for Uhura to solve, playing to both her professional strengths and personal qualities, and of course it has the quintessential Trekian outcome of Pike trusting her judgment and rather destroying the (evacuated) mining station than continuing, as the 10 C stop once they realise what is going on. We also hear more about something that has come up in the first season when she was introduced, the loss of her family, and if I have one complaint about the episode, then it's that the subplot about Pelia and Una (and in the first scene also between Uhura and Pelia) about how seeing Pelia as engineer sharpens the grief for Hemmer and that impacts on their interaction feels like it should have happened earlier this season, but probably couldn''t, because grief and people dealling with it, or not (Uhura, La'an, Una) is a thematic red thread through this episode.
But back to the praise again. Something else I appreciate is the consistent depiction of our heroes as compassionate people in their interactions with each other and with guest stars, and here this includes one James T. Kirk, as Kirk Prime, not one from an alternate time line, finally makes his debut on the show. I thought it wa a smart choice of not letting him interact with Spock until the very end of the episode and instead introduce SNW's Kirk Prime mainly via his interactions with Uhura, with a sideline of scenes with Sam and a perfect one with La'an, more about this in a moment. In a continued characterisation that goes back to TOS the series and not to the pop culture image, Kirk doesn't flirt with Uhura but endears himself to her and the viewer by spotting she is in trouble and helping her. In his scene with La'an, the actor and the wriiting does a nice balance of signaling this Kirk is very similar to the AU version but also not exactly the same, and his own person. And instead of trying to let the first encounter with Spock be something monumental and dramatic, the show goes for the opposite by letting Kirk observe Spock's chess playing from a distance early on, which is both a nod to the first scene they have on TOS and to Alt!Kirk's chess expertise, and letting Spock say a casual hello as the episode closes.
(IMO, AOS made a mistake by letting Spock Prime tell AOS Kirk that he and Spock ARE DESTINY in the first movie, and then expect the audience to see them as that close in the second without having done the actual work of building the relatiionship in its own right.)
Sam and Jim Kirk as somewhat competitive brothers due to surviving Dad's shadow, Sam feeling overshadowed by Jim's rapid advancement in Starfleet and Jim not taking Sam's xenoanthropology specialisation as seriously as the command track: Jean-Luc and Robert Picard feel this is strangely familiar and say hello.:) More seriously, it feels like a realistic degree of sibling rivalry without making it dysfunctional.
Chapel and Spock's conversation re: updating their relationship status, so to speak: Christine wanting to keep it private is as good an explanation as any why no one in the TOS era is aware they're exes.
In conclusion, a good episode, though it did not escape me the Gorn got referenced again, so I expect we're about get another
no subject
Date: 2023-07-21 09:31 pm (UTC)I don't care for the Spock/Chapel plot and I have to wonder at Spock wanting to officially declare his affair with Chapel to Starfleet when he's engaged.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-22 05:38 pm (UTC)I am shipping La'an/Kirk so hard.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-23 06:47 pm (UTC)