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ST: Strange New Worlds 3.01 and 3.02
In which it's time for the charming nostalgia show again.
I like SNW a lot, for what it is, which doesn't include trying to to be innovative or actually explore new ground in Trekdom (that was what Discovery was for). Since last season ended with a cliffhanger (some of our regulars plus engangered folk of the week kidnapped by the Gorn, Marie Patel infected a la Ripley in Alien3, Pike ordered to leave), this opener had a lot of things to resolve, and it did it adroitly, albeit with a heavy lift from, err, homage to TNG's Best of Both Worlds Part 2, to wit, where Data reached Picard in Locutus and got told about the "sleep" command which then allowed our heroes to shut down the entire Borg fleet, Pike via his valiant crew had figured out the Gorn go in hibernation now and then and figured out how to create a simulation of the conditions sending them into hibernation in the nick of time. It was a good ensemble episode, with everyone getting something to do - Chapel and Spock figured out a way to save Marie Patel, and btw, this episode had better character scenes for Christine Chapel than the next one in which you'd think she'd play a bigger role, more about this in a moment - , La'an fought against her trauma while organizing the prisoners rescueing themselves, Erica Ortega's temporary replacement, Ms Mitchell, got enoiugh heroic moments that they had me for a moment with the near-death of Ortega elsewhere, young Scotty and Pelia got some actual interaction which soothed my worries that this would be like last season's first telling us Pelia is friends with Amanda and then not giving them any scenes together. (BTW, I liked that the script gave both of them the chance to make good points, and look forward to more scenes with the two of them.)
The second episode went for comedy again, and a three months time skip, so at the start Christine returns with new boyfriend Roger Korby in tow, he who will end up building androids in TOS time, thereby crushing Spock's hope for them getting back together. The episode tries to go for comedy plus actual character stuff - for Spock. Not for Christine, who is under the influence for nearly all of the remaining episode as an entity very much signaled to be Trelane decides he wants to play with the crew. Spock, getting an altered reality in which she wants to marry him and getting shaken out of it by none other than Roger Korby who first is the sole person realising something is seriously wrong, is the one with a growth arc as he abandons the fake idyll for the messy reality in which he got dumped. I guess my issue with the episode is that what Christine is going through (everyone else, too, but to a lesser degree) is pretty much hellish - essentially, she's being mindraped by a super being who wants the humans to stage a play - and I don't think that truth works with the comedy format, hence they only briefly nodding to it by letting her make one (!) little statement about not appreciating being puppeteered at the end. I did like the unexpected Spock/Korby team-up, and the fact Korby isn't the bad guy here. (We never met the real Korby in TOS, after all.)
Not only is the actual bad guy Trelane (I mean, they never say the name in a desperate nod to continuity, but the mannerisms and behaviour all fit), but Peter David's notion from his novel Q-Squared that Trelane is in fact Q's son becomes canon the moment we hear the dulcet tones of John de Lancie in the climactic scene from an energy cloud (in another desperate nod to continuity, since the crew of the Enterprise can't meet him John de Lancie shaped or identifying himself as Q). Given the Q are able to time travel with the snap of a finger, this could even be the kid from ST: Voyager. I'm in two minds of how I feel about it, not helped by David's recent death. I mean, a few decades ago I loved Q-Squared; it and Imzadi are my favourite David novels. So on the one hand, yay? Otoh, Q Squared at the time actually did something new (and with the multiple time lines was pretty sophisticated a novel to boot), and it fully acknowledged the emotional horror of what Trelane was doing. Whereas this episode is very much in the vein of TOS's Squire of Gothos and the Charlie X episode (super powerful kid makes trouble for the crew, parents/entities which gave the kid power show up at the last moment to save the day) - a comedy, with the awfulness of what is actually happening barely acknowledged.
Ah well. Otoh, the Ortega scenes in it seem to indicate she FINALLY gets a characterisation beyond "I fly the ship" in the aftermath of her near death, and a brother who flirts with Uhura and talks in Spanish with Erica to boot. This looks promising! And dare I hope Spock will get plot lines which aren't romcom again?
I like SNW a lot, for what it is, which doesn't include trying to to be innovative or actually explore new ground in Trekdom (that was what Discovery was for). Since last season ended with a cliffhanger (some of our regulars plus engangered folk of the week kidnapped by the Gorn, Marie Patel infected a la Ripley in Alien3, Pike ordered to leave), this opener had a lot of things to resolve, and it did it adroitly, albeit with a heavy lift from, err, homage to TNG's Best of Both Worlds Part 2, to wit, where Data reached Picard in Locutus and got told about the "sleep" command which then allowed our heroes to shut down the entire Borg fleet, Pike via his valiant crew had figured out the Gorn go in hibernation now and then and figured out how to create a simulation of the conditions sending them into hibernation in the nick of time. It was a good ensemble episode, with everyone getting something to do - Chapel and Spock figured out a way to save Marie Patel, and btw, this episode had better character scenes for Christine Chapel than the next one in which you'd think she'd play a bigger role, more about this in a moment - , La'an fought against her trauma while organizing the prisoners rescueing themselves, Erica Ortega's temporary replacement, Ms Mitchell, got enoiugh heroic moments that they had me for a moment with the near-death of Ortega elsewhere, young Scotty and Pelia got some actual interaction which soothed my worries that this would be like last season's first telling us Pelia is friends with Amanda and then not giving them any scenes together. (BTW, I liked that the script gave both of them the chance to make good points, and look forward to more scenes with the two of them.)
The second episode went for comedy again, and a three months time skip, so at the start Christine returns with new boyfriend Roger Korby in tow, he who will end up building androids in TOS time, thereby crushing Spock's hope for them getting back together. The episode tries to go for comedy plus actual character stuff - for Spock. Not for Christine, who is under the influence for nearly all of the remaining episode as an entity very much signaled to be Trelane decides he wants to play with the crew. Spock, getting an altered reality in which she wants to marry him and getting shaken out of it by none other than Roger Korby who first is the sole person realising something is seriously wrong, is the one with a growth arc as he abandons the fake idyll for the messy reality in which he got dumped. I guess my issue with the episode is that what Christine is going through (everyone else, too, but to a lesser degree) is pretty much hellish - essentially, she's being mindraped by a super being who wants the humans to stage a play - and I don't think that truth works with the comedy format, hence they only briefly nodding to it by letting her make one (!) little statement about not appreciating being puppeteered at the end. I did like the unexpected Spock/Korby team-up, and the fact Korby isn't the bad guy here. (We never met the real Korby in TOS, after all.)
Not only is the actual bad guy Trelane (I mean, they never say the name in a desperate nod to continuity, but the mannerisms and behaviour all fit), but Peter David's notion from his novel Q-Squared that Trelane is in fact Q's son becomes canon the moment we hear the dulcet tones of John de Lancie in the climactic scene from an energy cloud (in another desperate nod to continuity, since the crew of the Enterprise can't meet him John de Lancie shaped or identifying himself as Q). Given the Q are able to time travel with the snap of a finger, this could even be the kid from ST: Voyager. I'm in two minds of how I feel about it, not helped by David's recent death. I mean, a few decades ago I loved Q-Squared; it and Imzadi are my favourite David novels. So on the one hand, yay? Otoh, Q Squared at the time actually did something new (and with the multiple time lines was pretty sophisticated a novel to boot), and it fully acknowledged the emotional horror of what Trelane was doing. Whereas this episode is very much in the vein of TOS's Squire of Gothos and the Charlie X episode (super powerful kid makes trouble for the crew, parents/entities which gave the kid power show up at the last moment to save the day) - a comedy, with the awfulness of what is actually happening barely acknowledged.
Ah well. Otoh, the Ortega scenes in it seem to indicate she FINALLY gets a characterisation beyond "I fly the ship" in the aftermath of her near death, and a brother who flirts with Uhura and talks in Spanish with Erica to boot. This looks promising! And dare I hope Spock will get plot lines which aren't romcom again?
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It's also weird it turns out the placement is only three month, I'm sure it was longer last season but haven't checked. Chapel dumped him over three months away. Though in fairness her status as commit-o-phobe was established and Spock gets to call her out in the second episode.
I found the start of the 2nd episode pretty hard to get through combination of romantic/social awkwardness, ugh, the middle of the episode with the hijinks was fine but the ending... Enterprise was raked over the coal when it did that to the Ferengi and Borg, have them met early and not say their names.
I wonder if they knew about Q-Squared the Trelane/Q thing is a popular fan theory without.
But I agree entirely it looks good they are doing something more with Ortegas and hope they'll give Spock different plots.