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Re: SNW S1: Spock Amok

I've been a long-time lurker on this page and typically agree whole-heartedly with the reviews, regrettably so in the case of Discovery and Picard, most of which I deem to be pretty bad. But I enjoyed this episode so much that I am moved to come out of the shadows and contribute!

I was expecting to hate it, especially when I saw the title which seems lazy and the fact that it is a comedy. I already find the attempts at comedy in Discovery and Picard to be irksome at best, cringe-worthy at worst. I was delighted to find that the comedy not only works here, it is for the first time rooted in science fiction conceits. I should admit that the humour actually works in most Strange New Worlds episodes because it is tonally less out-of-step with the entire show, as opposed to Discovery and Picard which take themselves altogether too seriously and bolt on quips to lighten the tone (unsuccessfully). But this was the first time that I felt it was successfully tied to science-fiction concepts: the body swap (admittedly not very original, but still an effective way to convey the theme of walking a mile in someone else's shoes) and, more impressively, the resolution to the Rongovian negotiations. This was less overt comedy but I found the Rongovians' contrarian nature, and Pike's adoption of it, quite amusing, much in the same way that I enjoyed seeing Archer insult the Tellarites in Enterprise as a way of advancing the talks.

But, more important than the humour, I felt that this was the first time an episode of Strange New Worlds (or really any Nu Trek) was resolved using a genuine science-fiction idea. Talking to the sphere in music a few episodes back struck me as neat but kind of pointless. It had no thematic weight beyond "music is nice". Why would an automatic weapon care about music? On the other hand, the Rongovians desire for empathy is a believably valid cultural approach. Naturally, they take it to an extreme, but that's what science fiction should be: take an idea that exists in our world and use the fantastical worlds that scifi provides to amplify it to the n-th degree to make a point. Many negotiations do break down because one side cannot see things from the point of view of the other. Empathy is vital. Perhaps not as vital as the Rongovians think, but we could all use a little more of it. For me, this was the first time that Strange New Worlds evoked a truly Trekkian theme in its PLOT, rather than just in its speeches. As a bonus, Pike's realisation and his execution of it was spot-on (Anson Mount is really perfect in this role). This episode is also an excellent example of integrated writing: the theme of empathy echoes across all of its subplots, from T'Pring and Spock needing to better understand each other, to Una and La'an wanting to understand why people like to have fun. For me, this is a 3.5-star episode and a really pleasant surprise.