Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2.10
Aug. 10th, 2023 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which we get a cliffhanger ending, though not the one I was expecting.
SNW's take on the Gorn as the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise has been one of my less liked elements of the show so far. (it provides La'an with a traumatic backstory, buuuuuut everything else they've done with it so far, well...) Also, given that this season has build up the relationship between Pike and Marie Patel, and given that Patel evidently isn't around anymore a decade later when Spock hijacks the Enterprise to deliver a post-accident Pike to Vina and a life in his own mind, I was secretly dreading the prospect Patel might get fridged to provide Pike with anti-Gorn anger. Paradoxically, the episode starting with Pike referring to the Gorn as monsters made me slightly relax on this count, because clearly, he needs no additional anger, if anything he needs to chill and figure out a way of communication (and indeed somewhat later in the episode, this does occur to him). Plus when we saw Patel alive on the planet, I breathed a bit easier. Not for long, of course, but Patel's fate is not yet fridging - though she might literally end up in cyrosleep for a while if Christine and M'Benga can't figure out how to rid her of theAlien Gorn eggs in time. Given how much SNW has leaned into Gorn = Alien, I am eyeing the fact that in Prometheus, our heroine performs an abortion operation on herself with robotic assistance and thus saves her life and gets rid of the Gorn. Anyway, Patel: not yet fridged, and please, please, show, don't go there. She and Pike can break up some years later to explain her absence in his future, or maybe she ends up exploring another quadrant. No fridging!
Meanwhile, Christine Chapel's fate is of course TOS protected, so we all knew she couldn't be dead, as opposed to Spock, but the sequence of Christine waking up on the destroyed ship, getting in a space suit just in time and saving herself and Spock was still great. As was the fact she immediately went to medical work once back on the Enterprise.
(Mind you, there evidently was a missing scene between her and Spock between episodes where he officially broke up with her, otherwise "we argued" as he puts it to Una would not apply, nor did the wish of wanting to apologize when he thinks she might be dead, since as of the end of "Subspace Raphsody", he didn't have anything to apologize for.)
Speaking of worrying about characters, though: the moment young Scotty showed up on the planet I said "You're not killing off Pellia, show!" Is "Chief Engineer on the Enterprise" going to be the equivalent of teaching Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts? I mean, Pelia is alive and well as of the end of the season, but the show hasn't really explored her potential as a character yet, and so I really hope that she won't be killed, or transfered. A guest appeance or two by Scotty are fine, of course.
Let's see, what else: when they said the colonists styled their planet on the mid 20th century US at the start of the episode, I concluded the show needed to save the budget again, or rather, they probably blew most of it on the musical episode and didn't have enough to build a futuristic city and provide new costumes we likely won't see again.
Pike's big dilemma of the season ending cliffhanger: evidently he won't leave half the regular cast to the Gorn, but since he won't get fired or, like Michael, put on trial for mutiny and given a prison sentence, either, I expect he'll find a third way. Am still tentatively hoping some type of communication with the Gorn will take place in the next season opener and the fact that "they're not fighting for dominance" as La'an observes, surprised, will have some meaning.
All in all it was a suspenseful season finale, but honestly, my two fretting points for however long it will take (given the strike and the studio greed) to get to the next season aren't "how will Pike get out of this one" but "will the show avoid fridging Patel and Pelia?"
SNW's take on the Gorn as the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise has been one of my less liked elements of the show so far. (it provides La'an with a traumatic backstory, buuuuuut everything else they've done with it so far, well...) Also, given that this season has build up the relationship between Pike and Marie Patel, and given that Patel evidently isn't around anymore a decade later when Spock hijacks the Enterprise to deliver a post-accident Pike to Vina and a life in his own mind, I was secretly dreading the prospect Patel might get fridged to provide Pike with anti-Gorn anger. Paradoxically, the episode starting with Pike referring to the Gorn as monsters made me slightly relax on this count, because clearly, he needs no additional anger, if anything he needs to chill and figure out a way of communication (and indeed somewhat later in the episode, this does occur to him). Plus when we saw Patel alive on the planet, I breathed a bit easier. Not for long, of course, but Patel's fate is not yet fridging - though she might literally end up in cyrosleep for a while if Christine and M'Benga can't figure out how to rid her of the
Meanwhile, Christine Chapel's fate is of course TOS protected, so we all knew she couldn't be dead, as opposed to Spock, but the sequence of Christine waking up on the destroyed ship, getting in a space suit just in time and saving herself and Spock was still great. As was the fact she immediately went to medical work once back on the Enterprise.
(Mind you, there evidently was a missing scene between her and Spock between episodes where he officially broke up with her, otherwise "we argued" as he puts it to Una would not apply, nor did the wish of wanting to apologize when he thinks she might be dead, since as of the end of "Subspace Raphsody", he didn't have anything to apologize for.)
Speaking of worrying about characters, though: the moment young Scotty showed up on the planet I said "You're not killing off Pellia, show!" Is "Chief Engineer on the Enterprise" going to be the equivalent of teaching Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts? I mean, Pelia is alive and well as of the end of the season, but the show hasn't really explored her potential as a character yet, and so I really hope that she won't be killed, or transfered. A guest appeance or two by Scotty are fine, of course.
Let's see, what else: when they said the colonists styled their planet on the mid 20th century US at the start of the episode, I concluded the show needed to save the budget again, or rather, they probably blew most of it on the musical episode and didn't have enough to build a futuristic city and provide new costumes we likely won't see again.
Pike's big dilemma of the season ending cliffhanger: evidently he won't leave half the regular cast to the Gorn, but since he won't get fired or, like Michael, put on trial for mutiny and given a prison sentence, either, I expect he'll find a third way. Am still tentatively hoping some type of communication with the Gorn will take place in the next season opener and the fact that "they're not fighting for dominance" as La'an observes, surprised, will have some meaning.
All in all it was a suspenseful season finale, but honestly, my two fretting points for however long it will take (given the strike and the studio greed) to get to the next season aren't "how will Pike get out of this one" but "will the show avoid fridging Patel and Pelia?"
no subject
Date: 2023-08-10 09:26 pm (UTC)I thought they'd been saving budget for the Gorn cgi this episode (which was impressive) but I hadn't thought of all the expenses of the musical episode.
There's quite a bit I liked about this episode the M'Benga and Ortegas/ Laan and Pike quiet scenes in the middle of the episode stand out but an equal amount I was unhappy with: Chapel the sole survivor of the Cayuga stretched credibility for me and Scotty, another TOS character and rather playing up the engineering genius side of him way too much for me.
As to that cliffhanger, two of the three characters taken aren't continuity protected. So a bit worried about La'an and Ortegas. I don't think they'll kill them off but it's not impossible.
P.S. Hope you don't mind me pointing this out but it's Batel rather than Patel.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-11 07:03 am (UTC)It belatedly occured to me that La'an's and Pike's conversation about hope was a callback to their conversation in the first Gorn episode (the submarine one), and it's a good way of showing La'an's growth.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-11 12:17 am (UTC)Yes, agreed. We didn't see enough of their relationship to understand it. How can we possibly be invested in it when we don't really know what's going on with them?
If they don't keep Pelia around, I am going to lose my mind! I adore her! I also did adore seeing Scott and the two of them meeting again was such a wonderful, fun beat in an intense episode.
when they said the colonists styled their planet on the mid 20th century US at the start of the episode, I concluded the show needed to save the budget again, or rather, they probably blew most of it on the musical episode and didn't have enough to build a futuristic city and provide new costumes we likely won't see again.
See, I didn't go there, I thought it was an intentional call-back to TOS. But there's no reason it can't be both!
Am still tentatively hoping some type of communication with the Gorn will take place in the next season opener and the fact that "they're not fighting for dominance" as La'an observes, surprised, will have some meaning.
Yes. Dismissing a species as entirely monstrous is very anti-Trek to me.
This season was simply not long enough. Ten episodes are not enough for a season of Trek, imo. But I did enjoy what we got this season!
no subject
Date: 2023-08-11 07:06 am (UTC)Perhaps I'm just being paranoid, and Scotty will be handled like Kirk was this season, as a guest star supporting the stories of the regulars, not as a replacement for Pelia, in which case, by all means! And I'll be glad for having been silly.
Dismissing a species as entirely monstrous is very anti-Trek to me.
Same here. Plus, of course, we know from Arena that this isn't the case within previously established canon.