“The Broken Circle”

This was better than all of Season 1.

Brave choice to completely sideline Pike and Una in the season opener and not really follow-up on the cliffhanger from last season but wow, it really worked. This kind of ensemble storytelling, where all the secondary cast gets a chance to shine and a lot of development, is something that has been missing too much from Trek recently.

Interesting choice to develop M'Benga in this direction but I am here for it. His character was a bit murky last season. This has promise.

Who else is just a little bit in love with Jess Bush now?

I expect to hear a lot of groaning about Pelia and her voice in these comments but c'mon, give her half a second before rushing to judge.

Hey, I just noticed: why are Ortegas and the navigator in red? Shouldn't they be wearing gold?

An okay episode. Not great, not terrible. Certainly entertaining.

I've enjoyed Jess Bush's Nurse Chapel and Babs Olusanmokun's Dr. M'Benga from the start, and although I suppose it may be innovative to play them against character, as action heroes, that bit of the episode was not particularly interesting. Based on season previews, I was expecting not to like Carol Kane's Pelia, but, upon viewing, I came away with the exact opposite impression: she was incredibly charming. The highlights of the episode for me ultimately came with some of the 'smaller' character moments: Uhura protecting her station from interference; and Spock's interactions with Chapel. The cast as crew continues to be quite likeable (with Ortegas perhaps ... perhaps being the lone exception), and there is clear chemistry between them, which makes coming back episode after episode incredibly easy.

Anyone else disappointed this didn't focus on EXPLORATION and DISCOVERY of STRSNGE NEW WORLDS and new aliens or anomalies and instead more banal WAR and political crsp..why..the planet looked strange and fairly unique but why did it have to be klingons and the war sgsin..isn't thst trophy if not a full blown cliche??

I was not won over by S1 (which I attribute to my weariness of all things NuTrek and general glumness at the time), but the praise and near-universal acclaim the show enjoyed was irritating. Let me in on some Trek I like, already! Was I being too cynical for my own good? Was my unfavorable opinion of everything else NuTrek coloring my perceptions? Probably.

After the half-baked nonsense of Picard S3 and with SNW S2 on the horizon, I decided to approach this season with a fresh mindset - don’t bring in any baggage or hold it up to any vague, preconceived notion of the Trek I think I want. Basically, start again from zero and give it a fair go. If I like it - cool. If not - whatever.

And I really enjoyed it. It seemed a lot more assured. I love that this is an honest-to-God ensemble (with nary a mystery box in sight). I caught myself smiling several times. Compared to what we were more recently served up, this felt so much more authentic and well-realized. There is charisma and chemistry and goodness – Peck. He’s fantastic. I don’t look at him and see a pretender to Nimoy – he is making this character his own.

I might be “getting it”. It's not a 5 / 5; there were one or two things I could have done without (the magic serum fight sequence), but it was incredibly refreshing, Easy 4 / 5, I think.

And screw the canon. If writing over it serves to build a better story (ahem – Chapel / Spock) - dew it.

This was quite enjoyable … I feel it is one of the better outings of the show, with some caveats of course. I liked the plot being car­ried by Spock, Chapell, M’Benga and La’an, as I guess Una and Pike will be in the center of the court­room dra­ma epis­ode that will probably arrive next week. I like the classical Klin­gon design making a re­appear­ance in live action Trek v3. And the story was en­gag­ing and fun, not very cere­bral, though. Last but not least, I love the character of Pelia and want her to be­come the new chief engineer.

There were also several moments of cool&awesome; Spock pulling an re­ver­se Epi­meni­des was pro­bably the best of them (45:00); I love jokes that even I can under­stand. Also, we had a “ther­mal de­to­na­tor mo­ment” (25:36) and a “Pan­ora­mix moment” (29:50, the magical potion is new to the canon or do I miss some­thing?).

Factor in that nothing was screwed up or tonally off (as hap­pen­ing so com­monly in Trek v3), and I am quite hap­py with this sea­son pre­mière. Yet, the­re is a ven­ome­nous sting waiting, as re­vealed in the last se­conds. Gal­don­terre (the planet where the Albino hid in “Blood Oath”) and the Gorn. I can’t even begin to discuss why every­thing with the Gorn in this show is a dis­as­ter, so I’ll de­clare that “a tale for another time” (46:51).

Hoping to get a snippet of dialogue at some point this season about Methuselah, the Count of St. Germain, Jeanne Calment, and who knows, maybe Paul Rudd, were are secretly Lanthanites living on primitive Earth.

Personally, I thought this week's episode was good but not great. Thankfully some advanced reviews suggest that this is the weakest episode of the first six, so it's uphill from here.

There was a lot here to like. I enjoyed that not only Una, but Pike was sidelined this week, allowing for the focus of the episode to be on supporting crew. This was really a Spock/M'Benga/Chapel episode, with a somewhat lesser focus on La'an and Uhura (as is usual, Ortegas was a quippy nonentity). Spock had a complete character arc here, even if the framework of the story somewhat counters what we know from The Galileo Seven. A lot of the small character moments were great as well.

I was more mixed on the idea of M'Benga and Chapel (I think) not only being Klingon War veterans, but taking some sort of super-juice and turning into action heroes. It felt like a decision not rooted in what was established regarding their characters, but the needs of the plot and a desire to buck convention. It also made somewhat little sense to me that not a single Klingon was armed with a disruptor or anything, because that would have turned the action scenes into something much less visceral.

I also felt like some of the dialogue was just...bad here. Most of it was fine, but there were plenty of "as you know ,Bob" type lines that were clearly only there because some fact needed to be established for the audience. It's a major failing of show, not tell. Star Trek always tends towards a bit of exposition, but that's what group meetings and the like are for.

Also, the new engineer (Pelia) feels like she walked off of another show and clashes in every scene she's in (feels like a "poochie"). I don't know who instructed her to use that raspy Eastern European voice, but it sounds appropriate to play Baba Yaga, and doesn't match with the pretty understated costuming of her character. The lines as read on the page, they're fine, I just think Kane's being directed horribly in regards to how to present her character.

That said, after three paragraphs of nitpicks, this was still an entertaining hour of Trek. Just not the smartest hour.

2.5 stars.

@StarMan

I have my reservations about the “dew it”. True, Chapell was a weak charac­ter on TOS, hardly de­fined by any­thing except her hope­less pining for Spock (and a bunch of Really Stupid Com­ments™ in “What are Little Girls Made of?”). True, TOS would have been improved had more justice be done to Chapell’s character. But rewriting history is not the solution; rather we should have gotten another a better Chapell with a different name.

Take “Amok Time”, probably my favourite of all TOS episodes. The plo­meek soup scene is quite relevant for the plot in showing the fragility of Spock’s condition, but it does not work with the v3 version of Chapell. So one of the best TOS episodes is undermined by the retcon; that’s a disservice. Why not have a nurse Lapelch in SNW that is the kind of person we wish Chapell had been, but is canonically different?

(Yep, I know it’s systematic: SNW is full of implausible or impossible con­nections to TOS that break im­mer­sion: A com­plete­ly dif­fe­rent cha­rac­ter named Chapell, a de­scen­dant of Khan at the bridge, cano­ni­cal­ly im­pos­sible Gorn, T’Pring being known to all on the bridge, and I’m sure I for­got some­thing. Chapell is really only part of the problem)

An above-average action-adventure with some great character moments, the now-expected excellent space battle VFX - and also some eye-rolling cliches.

Can La'an, a small human with significantly less body mass, really drink a massive Klingon under the table without showing any effects of intoxication? Does every Starfleet doctor have access to a fast-acting super-soldier serum that not only turns you into Captain America, but also teaches you kick-ass martial arts, that apparently does not come with any detrimental side effects? Is it really that easy to just assemble a functioning lookalike Federation starship in a cave which is capable of putting a dent in the shields of the flagship? Would Spock really get off with just a warning for an act that Kirk got demoted for?

According to the script, the answer to all of those things is simply "yes", even as our critical brains know that these questions deserve answers with more depth. Fortunately, it also sprinkles in *a lot* of strong character moments which distract from the logical nitpicking, and that's ultimate what rescues it from the trash heap of Trek's lesser action-adventure tales, from Disco's "Scavengers" to "Insurrection" to "Dragon's Teeth".

I was particularly interested with the looks into M'Benga's wartime history. With the storyline about his daughter having been resolved last season, he'll need some new dimensions to explore this year, and this is an interesting direction to go for the CMO character on a Trek show.

2.5 - 3 stars, methinks. Welcome back, SNW!

Starman, the glumness all the time is a you problem. You are the problem.

Stop watching Star Trek.

@Mal01

He doesn’t need to “stop watching Star Trek.” He left an honest review and explanation on his stance with the current state of Trek, and enjoyed the episode.

@Leif

No, I was not disappointed that this episode did not have a new anomaly or anomalies. The “anomaly of the week” is itself a trope, and at any rate, an episode’s using tropes makes that episode neither good nor bad. It is how effectively the trope is deployed that makes an episode good or bad.

TNG season 5 had an episode where the crew explored a “strange new world” - a genetically engineered society whose existence was imperiled by an anomaly, broadly defined (in this case a comet that threatened to destroy q planet). The episode was dull and tiresome-but this was so because the writing and characterization were lazy, not because of the presence or absence of an anomaly

There were some REALLY bad sequences in this episode. Some were groan-inducingly cheesy (pretty much everything on that fake ship), while others were just boring and felt interminable. But it contains the bones of a good half-hour episode. It's too bad no one ever seems to use the freedom of streaming to cut things down to their optimal, "lean and mean" length. It always seems to go the other way, toward bloat (as much as I like "The Orville", they have been guilty of this as well since the move to Hulu).

Is this really established canon, that Vulcans cannot lie? Haven't we seen them engage in undercover missions before? This seems like a huge weakness for a military officer.

I'll go 2.5 stars, but that's not the reflection of an episode that was "meh" overall but one that was very uneven.

I'm anticipating people being particularly outraged by the use of 21st century slang on this one, but I don't mind that at all. I just think of it the same way as the tech that looks more advanced than what we saw on TOS: it's all being run through a kind of "universal translator" to make it best fit what we in 2023 can best understand.

@Jeffrey's Tube: "This was better than all of Season 1."

Wow, really? I would rank it considerably higher than "All Those Who Wander" and especially "The Elysian Kingdom", and about on par with "Ghosts of Illyria", but lower than the rest of S1.

"I expect to hear a lot of groaning about Pelia and her voice in these comments but c'mon, give her half a second before rushing to judge."

I'm not mad at having her on the show. I've always liked Carol Kane.

Looks like I'm not the only one who disliked what @StarMan aptly called the "magic serum fight sequence". Let's have much less of that kind of thing in the future, please.

@Karl Zimmerman: "Thankfully some advanced reviews suggest that this is the weakest episode of the first six, so it's uphill from here."

Glad to hear it!

Thank god they’re back. I CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE.

@Slackerinc

Yes, the Vulcan aversion to lying and reputation for candor and truth telling are VERY well established in the cannon. Arguably, it is likely what made it so easy for Tuvok to infiltrate Chakotay's Maquis cell. No one in the 24th century would suspect a Vulcan of being a spy. The only exception to this portrayal occurs in Enterprise, e.g. in the incident at the monastery at P'jem, where the Vulcans are depicted as duplicitous and dissembling. And fans HATED that depiction at the time and argued that it violated the Canon of the series. Spock prime in the Kelvin timeline even balks at Kelvin Spock's assertion that he had lied to Kelvin Kirk "I implied" he says.

I saw in a line in a Trek book once that was something like:

"Vulcans never lie?"
"Never!" Spock lied.

Sums it up pretty well. 😎

Was the superhero fight sequence from the green serum written by a 12 year old Marvel fan?

Why is the bridge (after the inspection) ALL women except for Spock? What happened to "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations"? Diversity includes everyone, including men.

The unblinking staring contest M'Benga and Chapel seemed to have made me uncomfortable. Maybe an effect of the drugs?

Why was Spock doing CPR on Chapel when they have access to advanced medical technology? They didn't have a medkit nearby (or could transport one?)
Is he supposed to be the next George Clooney from ER?
Also, Chapel's "Why did you have to be so rough" made me cringe.

The slang, unprofessional and puerile behavior of the Starfleet officers is getting annoying.

This is more like Marvel meets Star Wars than Star Trek.
It's a shame because I really liked season 1 and the characters but they all seemed so different in this episode. And not in a good way. 1 star.

It looked fantastic though and I liked how they brought the Klingon look back.

"This is more like Marvel meets Star Wars than Star Trek."

Maybe "Babylon 5: The Road Home", although animated, and action heavy, will be better, more intellectual...

@KoostAmmonia
I watched Babylon 5 this year for the first time and loved it (except season 1) but never heard of "The Road Home".

So, watch the trailer on Warner Bros. Entertainment YouTube channell. It was premiered three hours before this season of SNW.

A decent season 2 opener that definitely had some good moments in it. Obviously this is a lot of setup for the season, and I like that it was an ensemble performance that kept Una and Pike on the sidelines for the moment. The fight scenes where M'Benga and Chapel are all pumped up on 23rd century steroids were a bit uneven and not very well directed. But for what she was given, I thought Jess Bush acted it quite well (really starting to like her a lot). Still not sold on Uhura, seems like they are making her a bit too snarky... Special effects looked amazing, as always. Seems like the clues pointing to a rekindling of another war with the Klingons might be misleading with the appearance of a Gorn attack ship right at the end. Has me intrigued.

Crazy that the year I finished watching Babylon 5 (just remembered I started it last year in the winter) is the same year a new Babylon 5 film is coming out with some of the remaining cast (most of them have sadly passed). I didn't watch any of the movies, just the entire show. What a wild ride. Straczynski is a genius.

You know that Straczynski is also Star Trek one-time author (TOS' comic book "Worldsinger"), early proponent of ST reBook idea (before Abrams), and would-be ENT showrunner (after hard negotiations with B&B he declined, and Manny Coto was hired).

Frustrating episode for me -- more of what I didn't like about SNW S1 here with a pretty thin plot, more character assassination for Spock and removing a couple of the strong points of the series in Pike/Una. Not a fan of this Pelia character and overall found it very hard to take this makeshift Enterprise crew seriously. The terrible one-line-machine Ortegas is super-annoying. But at least we got La'an -- super cute and one of the better actors one the show.

In terms of canon, I think one can take issue here as this would seem to be Spock's "first command" instead of "The Galileo Seven." SNW seems to want Spock to go through the emotional roller-coaster again and again (so that presumably by the time of TOS, he's more stable?) And they really are taking any Chapel relationship from TOS to the nth degree. I think Spock's unilateral decision to steal the Enterprise may have some basis from "The Menagerie" but it seemed too pat here.

That Pelia is just seeking a way out of boredom and helps Spock steal the Enterprise...she's an engineering teacher who is some kind of alien that's been living among humans for centuries...too much nonsense for me.

The La'an out-drinking a Klingon reminded me too much of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" -- does SNW really need to do this? And the magic potion that Chapel and M'Benga drink so they can kick a ton of Klingon ass was so fucking stupid. Does that have any precedent in canon (past or future)?

I also suppose the captured Federation ship was somehow triggered to take off and fire at the Enterprise while navigating an asteroid field? A one-liner explanation or something would have gone a long way here.

The ending of the episode would seem to have sewn a promising seed between the Federation and the Klingons (thanks to Spock's drinking) but that can't last for long. And unfortunately it would seem like SNW is not done with the Gorn...

2 stars for "The Broken Circle" -- a very simple plot with a lot of padding and attempts at tugging at the emotional heart strings that didn't really work because of all the silliness one had to get through. Pretty unsatisfying and disappointing that Pike/Una were not involved. The big thing is Spock's emotional status here -- he's got a long way to go before being the TOS Spock. M'Benga also has some emotional baggage to get over (no surprise for a nu-Trek character) so he gets carried away in kicking Klingon ass -- just unimpressive on the whole.

I'm surprised that with Carol Kane's character, no one has mentioned that it is her real voice. Doesn't anyone remember The Princess Bride???

Here's betting that the mysterious lawyer Pike seeks is Areel Shaw.

Great episode, BTW. A few points that stretched credulity.

@Brandon Adams Or it could be Samuel T. Cogley!

With all the silly dialogue, Spock’s “thing” should have been: “Just go already.”

I give it 2.5 stars. Nice to see a Klingon Battlecruiser instead of the overused Bird of Prey & great seeing a return to the TNG-style Klingon make-up.

Carol Kane has always been a quirky actress who has given performances ranging from annoying to powerful, you don’t need to give her a phony accent to make her stand out. Just let her do her thing.

The super-soldier sequences was def too long ( I fast-forwarded thru it) and I don't buy surviving in space without the EV suit — it just reminded me of Carrie Fisher’s weird scene in The Last Jedi.

And we’re already stealing the Enterprise? God almighty, Starfleet personnel do like stealing ships! I hope the Gorn doesn’t turn into a Dominion style on-going battle, that will get stale pretty quick.

While watching this,I kept reflecting on how beloved each member of the original cast of TOS was, when it occurred to me that two of the characters on this show were both originally played by Majel Barrett: Number One & Nurse Chapel. Along with the computer voice & Lwaxana Troi, that’s quite the Trek legacy.

Pretty bold move to essentially write out your lead character in the opening minutes of the first episode. Still, that gave his Ethan Peck to shine by showing Spock's struggle with his growing emotions.

And though it's always fun to see the Klingons the La'an/false flag story on the dilithium planet didn't really do much for me. We've seen that before when DS9 did it in the Maquis two parter.

I like the addition of Carol Kane to the show :-) Our chief engineer is now a functionally immortal thrillseeker. Guess that'll be the explanation for commander Pelia's inevitable exit from the show. I'm still a bit on the fence on the accent. In Variety, Kane reveals she came up with it herself, saying: “I wanted her to sound like you don’t know where exactly she comes from. There is an elegance and a power to it. It’s unique on the ship — nobody else has that accent or whatever it is."

It also means that every other Lanthanite now has to sound like Carol Kane doing an accent. Good luck with that ;-) I guess she could have just as easily been an El Aurian, but do they listen? No.

The Spock/Chapel emotional beat was a bit overdone I'd say. They didn't properly establish that Spock would assume they're on the ship, he mentions it as a possibility but I don't think he'd jeopardize starting a war by stalling that long based on a "hunch" (not that that's even the hunch he brags about)

The Spock/Chapel emotional beat was a bit overdone I'd say. They didn't properly establish that Spock would assume they're on the ship, he mentions it as a possibility but I don't think he'd jeopardize starting a war by stalling that long based on a "hunch" (not that that's even the hunch he brags about)

I give most of these reviews 1.5/5

For me this was only so-so. Storyline was pretty thin and resolved in an instant: Some weapon fire from the fake ship--> a few photon torpedos from Enterprise --> BOOM, ship destroyed --> bloodwine
Also there were plenty of fillers, e.g. the overly long fighting scene.
I still have problems to take most of the characters seriously (imagining they *actually* had this job). Given their dialogue, does anybody believe e.g. Erika could really be a qualified pilot, M'Benga a good doctor?

2.5 from me. It was okay. I could've done without the extended fisticuffs between Chapel, M'Benga and the Klingons and actually fast forwarded through much of it, total turn off for me that sort of stuff.

Not keen on the emoting emotional tearful Spock, seems somewhat overdone.

I haven't decided about Carol Kane, the character is intriguing, the accent though...not so keen, and after all those centuries she's been alive wouldn't it have evened out and not be so pronounced?

My enjoyment of this show is predicated on two things.

First, I regard this not as a prequel to TOS, but as a spinoff alternate universe, where things can happen that totally contradict TOS without me worrying about it.

Second, I judge it against the quality of the other NuTrek shows, and now against those from TOS-ENT.

In that regard, I thought the first season was very good and occasionally very great. I thought this episode was solid. I'd put it in the middle of the pack in terms of SNW episodes, and therefore in the upper echelon among all of NuTrek.

Also, I may be totally off, but my prediction is that Una is not actually in trouble with Starfleet, and that this whole thing is a covert op designed to get her to infiltrate some enemy group yada yada. We'll see.

A lot of fun. I enjoyed it for the most part, and found it well-worth the wait from last season. My nitpicks: The berserker sequence on the fake Enterprise was exciting, but looooooong. Carol Kane (autocorrect won't let me write the character's name--keeps changing it to Celia) was almost too cute, and her accent was grating--she sounded like an Eastern European grandmother on amphetamines. But I am reserving judgement; it's early days yet. What really annoys me is the writers' conceit that Starfleet captains have to have some kind of catchy, unprofessional phrase to get the ship going. "Let's fly," "Hit it," and so forth. Maybe Robert April can stop this nonsense with an administrative edict from on high regarding acceptable, clear, regulation terminology.

I was half hoping Carol Kane's character would just be an exact copy of her Kimmy Schmidt character. They could even have continued the running tugboat gag!

But her character's definitely weird in an off-putting alien sort of way, which I appreciate. A lot of NuTrek aliens are just culturally American humans with various makeup and forehead ridges. I've been missing more of the totally unrelatable alien types most often featured on TNG.

I agree with the majority of posters here - mostly solid 2.5 episode with the extended super soldier serum fight scene being gratuitously overlong. They couldn't have come up with a more scientific solution on Star Trek? Seemed like a weird plot choice, especially when you keep thinking these other foes should all just be shooting at them with phasers and end it in 1 second, Raiders style.

Speaking of Indy, I also agree the blood wine drinking game was too cliched to make the final draft. Does blood wine even have alcohol in it? Is it just blood? Whose blood is it? I'm sure some random ST novel has discussed it, but has this ever been explained in any series?

As to the Spock-Chapel love angle, for some reason it really works when on paper it sounds like a terrible idea. But the actors do a phenomenal job and have great chemistry. While I don't know if ultimately shipping them is a great idea in the long run, I do agree with StarMan that I don't care if this series breaks canon at all. Can't we all just think of this as a reboot rather than a prequel? Why exactly do we need it to connect properly to TOS? Let it be its own thing.

Didn’t Pelia basically use the same trick that Thomas Riker used to steal the Defiant on DS9? Fake an imminent disaster on a docked ship to justify an emergency docking release and then warp the hell out of Dodge? Not sure if he also used the “venting plasma” thing too…

Did I find everything good and consistent with true star trek(whateer taht is?) no.

Did I enjoy it in spite of many of the objetions rised above? YES!

Except for Una and Pike everyone was involved in the story. They got a new and very surprsing character. CGI phantastic. Dresses awesom. "Village sceenes" very well conducted. M'Benga showed more personality and was more understanable. Liutenant Mitchell was althoug not listed as main cast got more lines than most of the not prime cast in DISCO.

What did I not like? The extensive fight that Chappel and Mbenga put up with. To much and not really trek. And I agree with tose missing the strange worlds.

Very good start.

@artymiss

Genuinely curious, did you fast forward through all the fisticuffs in TOS as well?

@Sony

“Was the superhero fight sequence from the green serum written by a 12 year old Marvel fan?”

Oh boy, here we go with the disingenuous ad hominem attacks to make yourself sound smarter than anyone that enjoys either Marvel or Strange New Worlds. Star Trek, the Original Series, is full of cheesy fight scenes. Many of the best episodes of all time feature them. Amok Time, Space Seed, The Doomsday Machine, etc. There being some in another recent Trek show that takes place in the same era just means the show is being true to the roots of the franchise which is a good thing. Acting like this is a negative makes one wonder if you actually even LIKE Star Trek.

“Why is the bridge (after the inspection) ALL women except for Spock? What happened to "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations"? Diversity includes everyone, including men.”

This was one episode of the show, and by definition “infinite diversity in infinite combinations” could even mean a bridge crew of 100% women at some point in some place and time. Your own point goes against itself.

“The unblinking staring contest M'Benga and Chapel seemed to have made me uncomfortable. Maybe an effect of the drugs?”

This is clearly a you problem.

“Why was Spock doing CPR on Chapel when they have access to advanced medical technology? They didn't have a medkit nearby (or could transport one?)
Is he supposed to be the next George Clooney from ER?
Also, Chapel's "Why did you have to be so rough" made me cringe.”

You might not have noticed, but if you were actually intelligent and paying attention to even five seconds to the episode, these characters were the only two doctors on board and they both just came onto the enteprise from the cold vacuum of space. CPR was objectively the most logical thing to do. What? You want to rush them down to sick bay where there are NO personnel since a major plot point of the episode is that they stole the Enterprise with a skeleton crew??? She’d probably have died on the way there.

“The slang, unprofessional and puerile behavior of the Starfleet officers is getting annoying.”

Whatever man lol

“This is more like Marvel meets Star Wars than Star Trek.
It's a shame because I really liked season 1 and the characters but they all seemed so different in this episode. And not in a good way. 1 star.”

The characters were all 100% in character this episode. They acted no different at all from how they did in season 1, and yet you complained about the “unprofessional and puerile behavior” in just this episode? Ortegas was even turned down here in comparison to many episodes of season 1 where her one liners were basically after everything anyone said. As for the “1 star”, that’s just a flat out L take, and this is coming from someone that also wanted to like it more than I did.

@Tricolato

"Didn’t Pelia basically use the same trick that Thomas Riker used to steal the Defiant on DS9? "

No it was the other way around.

@Pike’s Hair
"Genuinely curious, did you fast forward through all the fisticuffs in TOS as well? "

As I also complained regarding this. Yes there wher fist fights in TOS. But I beleive slightly less in TNG. But the general idea is to have a clever non violent solution.

SNW is darker an the characteres are formed by their earlier experiences. The scene was very well made. Still, I would have prefered a more smart way to get to the comunication equipment for sending the message.

@AP: Doesn't Tuvok's infiltration demonstrate that it is untrue to say Vulcans cannot lie? That's exactly what I was saying: military officers need to engage in stealth and disinformation from time to time.

@Sony: In nuTrek, "diversity" doesn't mean diversity, it means "avoid straight cis white men at all costs, unless they are villains" (or if, as with Pike, classic continuity forces you to grudgingly include them).

I did wonder why they weren't transported directly to sickbay, but @Pike's Hair makes a valid point that they were perhaps the only medical personnel on the ship (no need to be so cranky about it though).

@Rahul: Excellent question as to why the false flag ship was firing on the Enterprise.

@Matthew L. Martin: "I regard this not as a prequel to TOS, but as a spinoff alternate universe, where things can happen that totally contradict TOS without me worrying about it."

Excellent idea, I will try to think about it that way.

Commander Pelia is giving major Guinan vibes. Older lady who’s been around forever added to give the crew insight and perspective on their situations.

Who else is feeling Pelia might very easily slip into the role of Guinan?

I for one would love that.

I can't imagine how miserly you have to be to be counting the number of men vs women on the bridge.

. . .

Vulcans lie. Culturally they avoid lying as much as they find it possible for them to, but they do lie. Spock in fact is lying, using the perception that Vulcans do not lie to avoid a resumption of the war. I found this clear to me as a longtime Star Trek viewer. I did not take it at face value, i.e. as the show proclaiming that as far as these writers are concerned, Vulcans ACTUALLY do not lie. Although I think it is fair enough for other people to interpret it this way based on how it was presented.

However, for the record, for the canon, Vulcans lie.

@Pike's Hair

'fisticuffs' - fastforwarding didn't exist back when I originally watched TOS. My attention probably wandered during any period of prolonged fighting. It's never been something I enjoy and in the case of this episode it definitely went on for too long (unless you're a fan of extended fight scenes).

Missing Transporter Chief Kyle, aka "Transporter twink". He went off to star in yet another vampire streamer, which was cancelled after only one season. André, all is forgiven- come back!

@SlackerInc

Perhaps I’m only cranky because I get sick of seeing such easily disprovable negative “opinions” on this show, and I think I speak for a lot of people across all consumers of entertainment that we are sick of hearing how “bad” Marvel is and why that supposedly affects everything else. I’m not even a Marvel fan.

And as for the point about every villain being “straight cis white men” in NuTrek, let’s look at the “villain” of every Strange New Worlds episode and see how many of them actually fall under that category.

S1-1: An alien woman
S1-2: A blue alien man
S1-3: A virus
S1-4: Gorn ships we never see inside
S1-5: A Vulcan man we know nothing about other than him being racist against humans
S1-6: An alien woman
S1-7: A non-binary person
S1-8: an entity that speaks with many voices
S1-9: Gorn babies
S1-10: A female Romulan and a Romulan man (not the Romulan captain)
S2-1: Various Klingons

So as we can see, the thing sexists are supposed to be upset about in this point, seeing themselves portrayed exclusively as villains, isn’t even happening with this show.

I had trouble discerning what story they intended to tell. This seems like a lot of agenda, with corporate 20-somethings failing to infer the target demographic or guess the ingredients needed for a TV show. Very basic writing. I'm in the middle of a rewatch of DS9, and adjusting to the drop in quality was palpable.

There must be someone on the production staff who really gets a kick out of jokey voices. The whispery doctor is bad, but I had to turn down the volume for the goofy engineering gal (another supery doopery genius!). Just why? We got to hear Scotty last season. Also the fight scenes drag on too long, and are absurdly unrealistic.

Uhura 100% works for me, I love the original character and I think this young lady totally brings it. I would without hesitation watch a show based on her.

Stealing another Enterprise? Didn't they just do this in Picard? Stealing military equipment is not respectable at all. That is a horrible message. If they're going to portray Spock as a thief and a liar, they probably should rename him.

Also this is the first time I've come across the character of Spock (or any Starfleet CO) needing to invite their 'sorority sisters' to their bedroom before making a decision. (Command and commune are quite different concepts.)

When Chapel was beamed from space and Spock started CPR, all I could think is: logically, her lungs are frozen, she doesn't need pressure on her body, and she needs a real doctor ASAP. To quote Paul Chato: "Would having some real science hurt the show?

I can't imagine tuning in for more. Everything that worked in season one is gone. Now it looks like the show is set to rip off the Alien franchise. More mimicry, and a dearth of original thought. The exact opposite of why I love Star Trek.

Surprisingly dull episode, for all the rather unconvincing action.

Utterly incredible that there was yet another scene in which the bridge crew make a huge deal about the captain's catchphrase. This is beyond cliché in NuTrek now.

Also, yet another 'jump from the ship into space' scene - another NuTrek staple.

This lack of imagination aside, there were some positives: the chemistry between M'benga and 'Chapel' was excellent, and quite touching in the moment of truth, even though we know there isn't the slightest possibility of them not surviving. It was also a relief to see that the writers and producers have toned down Ortegas' quippiness, and the greater role given to the other helm officer worked well.

It was good to see an attempt at more traditional Klingons but the make-up was still a little off.

It's so fragmentary. You waste 15 minutes on Una. Why? Why not give me a great episode like Measure of a Man - or Dr Bashir I presume. I presume that's the episode they're going to copy next.

And then you waste with Carole King and giving Spock is lute. And what's left is a lot of action and plot. It might be interesting to have an episode to explain why the Federation and the Klingons get together. It might be interesting to have an episode about drug supermen.

But the writer's here don't seem to be interested in any of it too much. They just briefly mention these things and skip along and hope that you're here to see Spock cry.

It just seems stupid to me.

A comprehensive overview of the 'Do Vulcans lie?' issue can be found here:
https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/vulcan-lies.htm

As the post Bok’Mor pointed to shows, the phrase “lie” has no uniform definition. Hell, it doesn’t have one in America in the 21st century.

The ex Astris article mentions several lines of dialogue from Spock to Valeris.
One that stands out to me: “For 24 hours, we will agree that this conversation did not take place.” “A lie?” “An omission.” Two other conversations with Valeris ending in the same vein: “an error.” “An omission.” As long as humans debate what the word “lie” means, there will be arguments about whether Spock has ever lied

Is a lie of omission a lie? Clearly, the issue is still up for debate in the 24th century, as when Picard told Wesley, “A lie of omission is still a lie.” That omission, we saw, resulted in Wesley getting a slap on the wrist before he told Admiral Brand what really happened.

The English language has tried to sweep up so much into the word “lie” that it has become comical.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”? - sounds like it captures omissions, no?

Consider thought the case of Bronston v.U.S., a perjury case in which the court held literal truth is not perjury, even when uttered deceptively. https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2945&context=lawreview

Then for fun try to distinguish that case from a court of appeals case, DeZarn: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/157/1042/578206/

People do NOT know lies when they see them, it appears

Whether an omission is a lie depends on whether it's one that is expected to be mentioned. If you think about it, our whole society is based on omissions.

From a young age children go to schools where they don't want to be, taught by teachers who also don't want to be there, and both are expected to go through their days without mentioning it. Then as we transition to adulthood we do more things we don't want to, feeling and thinking things we don't mention.

Those aren't lies because nearly everybody does them. A lie is a deceit, something you know another person would want or need to hear.

@Tom, that's an interesting definition. Makes sense.

@Pike's Hair: "And as for the point about every villain being 'straight cis white men' in NuTrek"

I never made that point--you did not read carefully enough (or you aren't clear on the difference between the logical propositions "All men are mortal" and "All mortal creatures are men"). What I said, which might be slightly exaggerated but only slightly if at all, is that straight cis white men are allowed on nuTrek only under one of the following conditions:

--They are "grandfathered in" by continuity from earlier Trek (Picard, Riker, Pike)

OR

--They are villains.

That does not mean all the villains are straight white dudes, which is obviously untrue as you note. They just don't like to create new sympathetic characters who are straight white dudes. (Before you say it, the DISCO admiral people like to bring up as a counterexample is Syrian.)

They appeared right at the beginning of DISCO (that is, the second episode) to not be doing this, but of course it then turned out they actually were. If you look at the big gathering for the speech at Federation HQ at the end of the first season of that show, the only recognizable white guy shown is known to be a gay man. It's clearly not some random occurrence or oversight, but a very intentional move.

Two stars for me. Did anyone else wonder about the dramatic purpose of the writers making it necessary for Spock and crew to steal the Enterprise? This sort of idea used to mean something on Star Trek; here it’s treated with a movie of the week banality. And it added nothing to the story beyond a momentary echo of some (better executed) Star Trek III imagery.

This is just lazy plotting by numbers. Same thing with the odd wolverine pill that Chapel and M’Benga tags that allows them to beat up a throng of Klingons. What the heck? These are doctors? It makes me long for DeForest Kelley’s grumpy, hippie pacifism that felt well suited to a division of Starfleet dedicated to healing and not action heroics. Star Trek used to be relatable because it depicted identifiably real people in an exotic setting. This series feels a long way from that and completely inimical to the spirit of TOS that it repurposes.

I agree with the earlier post that very little new and strange is being discovered on this show. In one of my first season comments, I mentioned that I’d call it something like “boring old worlds.” This is a tired episode with nothing new to say; it’s just a forgettable political action plot without any real ideas or philosophy at the heart of it ala classic Trek.

And boo to the continuing retcon of TOS. Galileo Seven was Spock’s first command, not this. If we’re going to pretend that the Disco/SNW continuity exists in the Prime rather than the Kelvin universe, some basic effort to fit into the continuity would help. This series is just a big, overpriced nothing burger with lots of pretty visuals without a shred of originality.

@Pike's Hair
Get it, Riker, Picard and Pike are grandfathered in and therefore don't count same goes for Worf, Seven, Troi, Beverly, Wesley, Spock, Data, Chapel, Uhura, Riley, Hugh, LaForge, Soongs, Guinan, Moriarty, Tuvok, Ro, Shelby, Sarek aaaaand Q. They all don't count. In effect in season 3 of Picard 100% of roles of good guys were black bisexual(?) women aka Raffi.

Sure, now you say Shaw but he is probably gay when he is drunk and he was a little mean and if somebody wants to count him, then we can certainly come up with other reasons why he doesn't count. Then there is Kovich but he is played by a Jew which according to some here is not white. So he doesn't count either.

I think the far more interesting question you should ask is "Why does SlackInc think that they do not include white heterosexual men (apart from the dozen or so of straight white men that were included but don't count for various reasons)?"

Nice start to S2 for a fine show overall. Jammer's review hits the right notes. Peck as Spock is great!
Someone mentioned it, and I agree, I didn't understand why the federation ship was firing on the Enterprise.

As for Spock's emotional state, it's in line with the very early episodes of TOS where Spock is seen smiling and showing emotions more than once. Showrunners got this right. In the early TOS episode where he plays the lute, he is smiling all the way through the musical performance for example. This SNW version is a younger Spock who is slowly making his way to those episodes, and then later becoming the Spock that becomes emblematic in later episodes of TOS.

“They appeared right at the beginning of DISCO (that is, the second episode) to not be doing this, but of course it then turned out they actually were. If you look at the big gathering for the speech at Federation HQ at the end of the first season of that show, the only recognizable white guy shown is known to be a gay man. It's clearly not some random occurrence or oversight, but a very intentional move.”

So (and I cannot stress this enough) what?

These weird issues you have with character physical and sexual identity aren’t why Discovery is bad, and Discovery being bad has nothing to do with Strange New Worlds take on Trek.

@Booming

Excellent points, and fantastic question.

@Booming
"Get it, Riker, Picard and Pike are grandfathered in and therefore don't count same goes for Worf, Seven, Troi, Beverly, Wesley, Spock, Data, Chapel, Uhura, Riley, Hugh, LaForge, Soongs, Guinan, Moriarty, Tuvok, Ro, Shelby, Sarek aaaaand Q. They all don't count. In effect in season 3 of Picard 100% of roles of good guys were black bisexual(?) women aka Raffi."

You forgot to mention Jack Picard. Though, while we're straining the very limits of credulity here, he did play an antagonist* which is synonymous with a villain!

(*In one episode.)

@Trek fan
'Same thing with the odd wolverine pill that Chapel and M’Benga tags that allows them to beat up a throng of Klingons. What the heck? These are doctors?'

A truly bizarre and unnecessary scene in which a plotting dead end is circumvented by what seems to be the dubious message, 'Do do drugs'. 'Chapel' even blithely asks M'benga if he always carries such plot-enhancing substances. I was rather confused as this drug was portrayed in such a way that we were meant to be familiar with it already, but I can't recall having seen it before.

The action scene thereafter was particularly badly done as well - not at all convincing, yet it took itself too seriously to be camp.

There was no reason for any of it apart from the writers having plotted themselves into a corner.

These are the same writers who are clever enough and aware enough of canon to have 'Chapel' (who I like a lot, but she is not Chapel) make a reference to 'archaeological medicine'. So why in the quadrant do they fail when preparing the bigger picture?

The worst episode of SNW to date...

Stealing the Enterprise
superjuice
surviving in space
blubber spock...
no accountability
a new character that I can barely understand.

Who comes up with this crap.

Here is an easy fix that could have made this palatable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhIkeKGJHh4

1.5 stars from me.

Why the hell do we needed the "steal the enterprise" thing? Couldn't just be that they explain the situation and StarFleet command responds "yes, but the situation on the planet is such and such, so let's proceed with caution", like reasonable adult and professional people? God, It's so annoying, why are they writing the Enterprise's crew like a lot of rebel adolescents all the time?

Well, I guess I know why, but this is not a discussion for here...

So anyways, what a pointless plot, that achieves nothing. It's like "oh, look what high stakes!" but of course it has absolutely no consequence — and we all knew, from the start, there will not be any. What a waste of time.

And let me add one more thing: M'Benga did pulled off a really smart and clever stunt, by flickering the transponder signal on morse signal. Let's apreciate this for a moment: they could've gone for a generic "I'm hacking this thing", with some generic button pressing. But instead, a thing we almost never see on tv, he actually did a real, legit and feasible hacking. But unbelievably they choose to give screen time to the remarkably boring and meaningless "magic serum fight sequence" instead of highlighting this.

Geez, what a crap episode.
0 stars for this garbage, but I'll add 0,5 stars, only because of the "I would like the ship to go. Now".

@F
'And let me add one more thing: M'Benga did pulled off a really smart and clever stunt, by flickering the transponder signal on morse signal. Let's apreciate this for a moment: they could've gone for a generic "I'm hacking this thing", with some generic button pressing. But instead, a thing we almost never see on tv, he actually did a real, legit and feasible hacking.'

Yes, I liked that low-tech solution too. I also liked that Uhura instantly recognised that it was Morse code and was able to parse it correctly. Nice to see both ingenuity and professionalism making a rare appearance in a NuTrek show.

> ...but this showcases the best way of doing it, by keeping it naturally in the mix among everything else.

In the middle of stealing a starship?

The act of stealing it, itself, a deeply questionable narrative choice. Kirk's choice to steal her in ST3 had massive gravitas behind it. This... not so much. Feels like they could have explored alternative ways to get them there without resorting to (ordinarily) career-ending theft. This is NOT a tight-knit family with decades of history...


> The extended fight sequence provides the one obvious example of excess in the episode, as it goes on and on at implausible length.

Now that we can agree on. Despite being good, it went on several scenes too long.

But, fun fact, in an interview over on The 7th Rule, the director of the episode mentioned there was a LOT more footage of that they'd filmed, and that he'd loved to have had it included. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3TC9AABHo

Take that how you will.

@Yanks: "The worst episode of SNW to date..."

C'mon, man! Worse than "Elysian Kingdom", which for my money laps every bad episode of Trek ever, making even something like "Threshold" look halfway passable by comparison? I raised my eyebrow, Spock style, at calling this one the best episode of the series, but even more at calling it the worst.

@Fortyseven: "But, fun fact, in an interview over on The 7th Rule, the director of the episode mentioned there was a LOT more footage of that they'd filmed, and that he'd loved to have had it included."

SMH

Tom said: “From a young age children go to schools where they don't want to be, taught by teachers who also don't want to be there, and both are expected to go through their days without mentioning it. Then as we transition to adulthood we do more things we don't want to, feeling and thinking things we don't mention.”

This is the truest, bleakest picture of our childhood and indoctrination I’ve encountered. And yet we wonder why our society, and our world, can’t work together.

Ah, a new Star Trek season and a new Jammer thread. Nothing like the sight of studio plant Jeffrey's Tube christening the episode thread with a glowing review. Metaphysical certitude defined. I kid, I kid.

Here's to crossing fingers for a season of less quips and finger-guns humor, and maybe even Pike will stop acting like a Wall Street CEO's trophy husband who reads motivational books to impress her friends.

Onward, gents! You too, Booming.

There's some bovine post-digestive material in this episode (e.g. the WTF super soldier stuff and doubling down on the time-warping Gorn business -- look, we can sweet-talk our way out of the "first command"/"Galileo Seven" issue if we have to but there's no way the S1 Gorn material or an actually war with the Gorn teased here can be squared with "Arena" -- but Pelia/Kane is an absolute win, compelling, charming beyond belief. We all know Scotty is coming at some point but I hope they don't piss this character away like they did Hemmer.

Below-average SNW episode. Was not impressed though some people apparently were impressed by the mere logistical handling of sticking all these disparate uninspired plot threads together in record time. But this is not a race, and I long for the days when an episode would stick to a single mood, theme and aesthetic and let things simmer. And maybe give us something meaningful to reflect upon while they're at. None of these half-baked, designed-by-committee re-threads.

Spock: "Why are you helping us?"
Carol Kane: "Sweetie, I haven't had a role this exciting in decades so we are gonna get wild like it's 1988."

@Harry Kim Eats Worms and Tom
"From a young age children go to schools where they don't want to be, taught by teachers who also don't want to be there, and both are expected to go through their days without mentioning it."
That is just not true. The vast majority of young kids enjoy going to school (70%) and only 13% say that they don't like it. 74% of teachers say that they are satisfied with their job. Maybe you are living in some nightmare country where things are different but in most countries teachers find educating kids very satisfying for obvious reasons and most children do so as well because Humans are curious and like to be with their friends.

https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/589753/umfrage/wohlbefinden-von-kindern-in-der-schule-in-deutschland/

https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1313467/umfrage/berufszufriedenheit-von-lehrkraeften-in-deutschland/

And on the topic of omission... it's too complex to even scratch the surface. I'm watching the show "Maid" which is just fantastic (apart from the soundtrack which is surprisingly bland) and that show is a masterclass in omission, especially of the gendered kind.

I'm glad Booming cited those statistics. I think that 13% tend to universalize their experience and gripe about it everywhere, while the 70% are more of a "silent majority", albeit a sizable one. But that 13% assumes they feel the same way and are just not "mentioning it". Same goes for the perception of teachers: my wife teaches high school social studies and she has her frustration like everyone else, especially toward the end of the school year, but overall she loves her job.

Getting back to the episode: DOES anyone have an explanation for why the false flag Federation ship fired on the Enterprise? Even a fanwanky one? I've racked my brain but can't think of anything (beyond the metafictional one of adding a little more "pew pew" to the third act).

@SlackerInc

"C'mon, man! Worse than "Elysian Kingdom", which for my money laps every bad episode of Trek ever, making even something like "Threshold" look halfway passable by comparison?"

I, aside from struggling to understand our doctor, thought Elysian Kingdom was enjoyable. Especially since it resulted in "a cure" for his daughter.

You didn't roll your eyes when Spock said he wanted to steal the Enterprise? ... was there even any tension during the heist?

Does super juice make our nurse and doctor Klingon-proof?

Just a horrible episode.

Threshold at least was good until the end.

A couple of simple changes make this a good episode. (see the link I provided)

I don't watch these shows...I just like reading the reviews.

Lanthanites sound like El-Aurians. Are they a notably different race in some way or did they just not want to pay to use the old one?

The super soldier drug sounds like what Clarissa Mao used in The Expanse.

@SlackerInc

“Getting back to the episode: DOES anyone have an explanation for why the false flag Federation ship fired on the Enterprise? Even a fanwanky one? I've racked my brain but can't think of anything (beyond the metafictional one of adding a little more "pew pew" to the third act).“

Two people were beating up their crew elsewhere on the ship. Despite not showing us, it’s likely they saw the Federation ship tailing them and realized someone was on to their act and trying to stop them. Firing out of desperation to stop the Enterprise from foiling their plan.

@artymiss

“(Unless you’re a fan of extended fight scenes)”

There’s some really darn good ones in The Matrix.

I’m guessing Arena isn’t one of your favorite TOS episodes.

@Yanks: Don't get me wrong, it's tied for third-worst episode of the eleven that have aired thus far. but there are two that are clearly worse IMO (the other one being "All Those Who Wander").

@Pike's Hair: Okay, but they needed to convey that--would have only taken a few seconds, but for some reason they never seemed to want to show the bridge, I guess? And where were the non-Klingons?

@Jax

"The super soldier drug sounds like what Clarissa Mao used in The Expanse."

Thank you. I've been trying to place it since I saw this episode.

I guess the drug not only puts you in berserker mode, it also temporarily hardens your tissues. It's the poor man's version of Compound V on "The Boys".

Forgot to add, the director of the episode said the Compound V stuff is going somewhere as the season progresses. I'm not nuts about the premise, in general, but I'll hang back and see where they go with it.

There's some interesting post-Klingon War fallout this could all tie into and explore that just might be worth it.

I have never liked action hero movies going back to the Eighties, and as a result I haven't even seen any of the Mission Impossible or Fast and Furious movies, or John Wick, any of that. So I'm just not going to be thrilled by any show, Trek or not, going in that direction.

@SlackerInc
While all are action-oriented, the resemblance ends there.
Wick is its own thing, keyed to a secret society. Fast and Furious doesn't remotely approach it. Mission Impossible is of no consequence.

The dog must be avenged.

Alright...I'm gonna be a bit more longform in this case, as I've now been hanging round Jammers' for several years, and seen a bit of the new Star Trek Shows in that time (I skipped Picard S2 after Pat Benatar-Singing Borg Queen/Agnes showed up).

There is a palpable sense of "move it" in Strange New Worlds. I like 1) that the show has a tendency to keep moving, and even if it's not moving, it has something happening, somebody going somewhere, somebody DOING something, instead of just bLoOdY TaLkiNG about doing things or thinking things or feeling things.

It isn't without heavy character development moments. Poor Dr. M'Benga has PTSD from some troubles back when, it would seem. I've got to say his performance is chilling. This guy seems to have done his homework, in a way that reminds me of "The Wounded" and "Chain of Command." I believe that's Dr. M'Benga and I believe he is having a hard time. Dang.

Nurse Chapel as well is a gripping actress, and she really nails Majel Barrett's vocal delivery, while bringing something a bit more professional to the table. If TOS Chapel was the "Classic 1950's Nurse on A Spaceship," this Chapel is "Combat Medic."

(take off glasses) yKNOW

This all really does give the show a sort of TOS sheen; lots of talk was in TOS about various wars and people doing bad things to each other, even on Earth, between our present time and the time depicted in the show. And this is sometimes missing from modern Post-TNG Trek, where the threat of war is portrayed far more often and in far more detail than the actual wars themselves ever are. You notice Discovery tried to revisit this concept and we got "We Are Starfleet" from Michael Burnham at the end of it.

This is how you do it right.

I will also level this criticism at specifically this episode; it is too much like Star Wars. I'm not dumb, Paramount. (wags finger)

Yeah, it kind of has a Return of the Jedi vibe to it, what with the green planet with armies battling on it set against a conflict happening in Orbit. But that is okay; I mean, Star Wars has always owed a big debt to Trek in the first place for a lot of its conventions, if Star Trek wants to imitate Star Wars, it can. There is, of course, a point at which I "can forgive such a display only VUNCE..." and maybe a couple more times. The good news is, the episode knows when to back off of mimicking Endor, too, and the setup of the Klingons and Starfleet having treaties allowing both of them to use things is straight outta Trouble With Tribbles:

"KOLOTH: 'Captain! There's been no formal declaration of hostilities between our two peoples? So, naturally, our relationship WILL be a peaceful one.'"

...I'd give it the extra 1/2 star, myself. This is some ok TV.

Though I don't know what Miracle Max's wife is doing on the Enterprise...

...Humperdinck

I don't think anything was wrong with the fight scene, it just needed to not be slow motion and have this sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgFmLY-KI2s

"The extended fight sequence provides the one obvious example of excess in the episode, as it goes on and on at implausible length."

Only one?

Yet another unsanctioned mission.

Yet another pointless catchphrase scene, where in the middle of a crisis they literally stop the clock to ruminate about catchphrases.

Pelia overacting.

Worst of series, if you ask me. 2/10.

I find it hard to get through an episode of SNW without fast forwarding. There are always sections that drag.

@SlackerInc

Not every little thing needs to be explained to the audience. Though I’ll meet you half way and agree that they really only showed mostly Klingons as a part of this operation.

Here’s to hoping if this does get developed further as it might stated above by Fortyseven, they then show us more, otherwise as it stands it’s contradictory to tell us “humans and Klingons” but only show one of the two.

If this had been a TOS Episode and starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy then it would've been excellent.

I think there's a sort of stylistic dissonance thing going on here where we are watching what could easily pass for a TOS episode decked out in MCU production levels, and it's...

Kind of jarring? Am I on to something do you think? Maybe the two styles clash a little.

@Pike's Hair: "Not every little thing needs to be explained to the audience."

Of course, but IMO this is not a "little thing". There was a whole mini-plot about how M'Benga hid a message about the false flag craft in the transponder so the Enterprise would know it was not legit. We had dialogue on the bridge about how their transponder seemed to totally check out as Federation regulation, except for that little Morse code message he snuck in. So the idea is supposed to be that Enterprise would have treated it as a "friendly" and let it pass right on to the Klingon warship without this message. But then the fake Federation starship started firing on the Enterprise, which served up a pretty glaring clue that they weren't who they appeared to be, undercutting the importance of M'Benga's subterfuge. The people operating the false flag ship should have expected their transponder to work (since it almost did), so why mess all that up and risk being unable to complete their mission?

I find it very interesting that in the Trek universe you can ignore direct ordeers and steal a starship and face zero repurcussions. This is like the third time this has happened.

It's literally their flagship also. It would be like some acting captain taking an Aircraft Carrier for a jaunt for a few weeks around hostile countries and nothing happens. Just help yourself by all means.

@Steve the Peeve

"I find it very interesting that in the Trek universe you can ignore direct ordeers and steal a starship and face zero repurcussions. This is like the third time this has happened."

Well, Kirk was punished.

The trick is that you have to be sure doing so is going to save the world, or the universe, or whatever. If that ends up being the case, it's tough for PR reasons alone to come down too hard on the hero who saved the day.

Which doesn't really explain how Spock got away with it in the case of "The Menagerie".

I dunno, I feel like we left the Trek Universe a long time ago and have entered the realm of Trek Cosplay. It's all just for shits and giggles, man.

Not sure I can even start s2. Ortegas pisses me off too much.

@Bryan
'I feel like we left the Trek Universe a long time ago and have entered the realm of Trek Cosplay.'

Fair description. Based on the trailer we'll be seeing much more of the William H. Macy cosplay of Kirk, unfortunately.

@grey cat
'Ortegas pisses me off too much.'

I completely understand this. While Ortegas is markedly subdued in this first episode, her snark was a disappointingly large feature of the trailer so it seems she'll be reverting to type throughout the season. For some reason the writers and producers think she's brilliant, despite the negative reaction. Self-insert vibes, perhaps.

Eh, Ortegas is fine. She's not my favorite aspect of the show, but she doesn't drive me nuts the way she seems to for so many of you.

I quite like Ortegas! Not understanding the level of irritation she provokes in some here.

@SlackerInc

You don’t think the ship computer would notify them that someone screwed with their transponder? I would like to think it would. Starship computers always tell people of random stuff like that happening elsewhere on the ship in basically every episode of Trek.

Maybe. A lot of fanwanking required in any case. Just for basic narrative reasons they needed to give us a little more there.

One disappointing aspect of this episode that was brought up by A-Ron on the Bald Move podcast is that they went with the hoary old trope of people nearly instantly freezing in space, despite this being flat-out false. Too bad the show is perpetuating misinformation after other Trek series have inspired so many people to go into science. A Harvard article debunks this whole idea:

https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2013/space-human-body/
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Acute exposure to the vacuum of space: No, you won’t freeze (or explode)

One common misconception is that outer space is cold, but in truth, space itself has no temperature. In thermodynamic terms, temperature is a function of heat energy in a given amount of matter, and space by definition has no mass. Furthermore, heat transfer cannot occur the same way in space, since two of the three methods of heat transfer (conduction and convection) cannot occur without matter.

What does this mean for a person in space without a spacesuit? Because thermal radiation (the heat of the stove that you can feel from a distance, or from the Sun’s rays) becomes the predominant process for heat transfer, one might feel slightly warm if directly exposed to the Sun’s radiation, or slightly cool if shaded from sunlight, where the person’s own body will radiate away heat. Even if you were dropped off in deep space where a thermometer might read 2.7 Kelvin (-455°F, the temperature of the “cosmic microwave background” leftover from the Big Bang that permeates the Universe), you would not instantly freeze because heat transfer cannot occur as rapidly by radiation alone.

Pro:
- you genuinely care about all these people
- humour where it is right to have it
- CGI and visuals are marvellous
- single-episodes are the BEST

Con:
- absolutely non-sensical marvel/matrix style scene
- again new klingons....

The problem with Ortegas is not that she is snarky, but constantly snarky and wrong. To jump ahead one episode, she is 100% incorrect in her assessment of a Spock conversation, while also being super snarky. A bad combination. Oh, and she calls him a "bro" ... just yikes. In 20 years, re-run viewers will watch this and slap their heads at the 2020ishness of that, just as we wince as some of the Nineties stuff in Next Gen. Don't, writers. Just don't.

So yeah, her character needs to be rewritten.

But in fairness, that's really just a side complaint. Anson Mount is sometimes too cosplayish with his line delivery, and Ortegas needs work, but the rest of the characters in this show are well done. I strongly prefer them to the ones in the other NuTrek shows.

This episode didn't do it for me, and felt fairly weak as a kick-off to a new season. M'Benga and Chapel take some Marvel-esque serum and start fighting like Wolverine, dialogue is decidedly early-21st-century, and Pelia sounds so much like Gollum that I almost started laughing unintentionally (but did an eye roll instead). The story has some interesting parts (such as the Klingons making a "fake" Starfleet vessel), but ultimately I didn't feel this outing could overcome its own clunkiness.

I finally got around to watching the first episodes of S2. I quite enjoyed the majority of s1. But perhaps it was because I was fresh of the dire DSC S3 onwards and by comparison it seemed at least decent.

I feel like all the horrible writers from DSC came over and joined the staff for S2.

Pike and Una were good as usual but unfortunately they were only on the screen for 2 minutes.

Spock and La'an did a decent job with some clunky dialogue I guess.

But, my god and I mean MY GOD there were some cringe scenes in this episode.

The whole "what's you 'go' phrase?" thing from irritating helmsman being the worst offender.

Stealing the Enterprise was done far more creatively and meaningfully in the ST3. This just seemed like a bit of a lark. An April almost confirmed as much at the end by saying pretty much "ahhh it's ok you disobeyed my direct order and stole the flagship, put lives at stake. It turned out ok. Your punishment is a hangover. Nice one! Carry on."

The amount of eye-rolling the bridge crew do is utterly ridiculous. They realise they're in the military right? SOME orders can just be obeyed without and eye-roll.

And why only 4 people on the bridge? Was this filmed with covid precautions?

My god this was bad. I'll get back to this if I run out of good shows to watch.

Hopefully an entirely new creative team will reboot Star Trek again a few year into something remotely intelligent, thought provoking or at least not utter garbage. Hopefully some people who know and love Star Trek (Terry Matalas etc).

0 stars.

I agree with Trek Fan; it's better to see this show as a reimagining of TOS characters than as a canonical show set in the "Prime" universe. Otherwise the inconsistencies would break my brain.

Although I prefer the mostly episodic structure of SNW to the endless protracted 10-hour movies of Discovery and Picard, I found this episode overstuffed.

There is almost nothing fresh or original here; La'an outdrinking the Klingons was reminiscent of "Apocalypse Rising" (and I assume she also took something to counteract the wine's effects, even though it wasn't mentioned). The incompetent Starfleet Brass ordering Spock not to go on the mission, and then handing down zero (0) consequences when he disobeyed orders and went on the mission anyway, was reminiscent of "The Die Is Cast", among others. Stealing the Enterprise, of course, was reminiscent of Search for Spock, and so on.

The serum M'Benga and Chapel take is the most problematic. How many times in TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY would this have been useful? And the Klingon extremists are pretty stupid to not search their prisoners. If M'Benga was going to hide something, it could have been a site-to-sitre transporter. Not more plausible, but at least it would have saved us 10 minutes of endless "stylized" action.

What keeps me going is the actors. They fit so nicely into their roles (as long as I keep in mind that these are different characters from TOS) and do remarkably well with ordinary material. Except for Carol King; she was terrible. I hope to never see her again.

2.5 stars is the highest I would go.

Just seen it, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The only real weak spot was Dr M'Benga's Super Soldier Serum that turns you into Captain America... really?

They wade through the ship of Humans/Klingons (who conveniently don't have any projectile weapons) displaying bad elbowing technique, (sorry Jess Bush) in bad fight choreography... well. It would have made a bit more sense (at least to me) if the serum increased their speed and strength to the point that they *ran* through the ship shoving people aside like freight trains, too fast to shoot etc, only when the serum runs out does the situation become desperate and M'Benga shows off his darker side.

But I forgot, people aren't allowed to run on Star Trek.

Oh. And all the comments about La'an Noonien Singh being able to outdrink a Klingon pirate twice her size?

Clues in her name... she's an Augment. She probably CAN'T get drunk.

A perfect episode. Great start to S2.

I love Pelia - so funny.

M'Benga and Chapel as KWar Vets with emergency frenzon? Hell yeah.

(Sadly - more Gorn on the horizon. Could have been good. But is just a badly designed CGI toy. Shudda ripped off some HR Giger)

LOL

Having a read through some comments here, it appears that Star Trek is more fun for the casual viewer than for anyone concerned with “canon” and continuity.

Also - there’s been a few chubby SF cadets & officers on the show, so it’s nice to see that the writers aren’t “fatphobic” LOLZ

Didn't we see the lute on Spock's wall in a season 1 episode though?

Glad we finally know who invented the ear slapping move used by Kirk against the Gorn (the doctor used it while fighting the Klingons just before reaching the airlock).

This one was ok. Wanted to like it more.

I groaned at Spock's, "I would like the ship to go, now." line. C'mon. This is something Data would say. Not Spock. Honestly he should have just made some dry Vulcan comment about how absurd it is to have a catchphrase...Illogical. The women were all casually looking away waiting for something impressive. Teen drama worthy. On that note, Ortega really dances the line of comic relief and a supposed professional. Her lines in this outing just seemed so forced. Can you just do your job occasionally Ortega without some random quip after every order?

The Klingons were nice to see back in a good form. I still enjoy the production values. Bloodwine really looks like BLOODwine. The camera angles did get a bit much, especially watching on 100" projection.

Still I have to say it again, Nutrek seems to want to de-amplify anything masculine. A trend these days. Pike is much less of a leader than Kirk / Picard / or Sisko (but still enjoyable). Soong can out drink the male Klingon twice his size. Chapel is probably a better Dr. than the Dr, certainly seems more confident. Ortega talks back to the Captain and gets away with it every time. This episode, Spock is diminished with his inability to have a catch phrase. M'Benga is so soft and muted all the time, one wonders if he is capable of anger (I think it happened once last season.) And the engineer from last season was killed off.

I like these characters, but I also want real drama. Real drama is not denying how people might actually interact. Pike should be getting tired of Ortega's banter. Spock shouldn't be so tempted to be "cool" on the bridge. Soong shouldn't be able to outdrink a Klingon. Even Marion in Indiana Jones when she drank, got a bit drunk too in the process.

Some of this is minor, I like the characters, but don't hold back SNW for the fear of having the male characters show some teeth. Otherwise this may turn into Star Trek: DEI rather than SNW.