Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reactions: Episodes 1 and 2

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds
Season 3 Reactions: Episodes 1 and 2


Hegemony Part II

Finally picking up where part 1 left off, we get some more intense action, interspersed with good character beats.  More Spock/Chapel, more Scotty!, more Pike/Batel, and (hopefully) an end to Gorn stuff for a while.  Me personally I'm kinda "meh" on the whole Gorn thing, especially knowing that TOS "first contacted" them in Arena nearly 6 years later.  Also the way they're depicted in SNW is honestly a little...flat.  Arena did a better job.  I guess I'm personally ready to be done with it.  Season 3 introduces a new title sequence with new visuals including a Klingon D7 battlecruiser AND a new name in the title credits, Martin Quinn (playing Scotty).  This is encouraging, that Scotty will be staying aboard the Enterprise for the rest of the series and presumably at some point taking the chief engineer baton from Pelia.  If anything it already feels like Pelia is mentoring Scotty to eventually take the position, not unlike how Pike is seemingly grooming Kirk to take his position some day...

Observation: In an attempt to cover up Celia Rose Gooding's longer hair she was obviously wearing a skull cap to simulate the look of her season 1/2 hair.  The red orange "isolation suits" Spock and Chapel wear during the surgery on captain Batel and definitely a callback (precursor?) to the ones from TOS "The Naked Time".


Wedding Bell Blues

After a fully action episode now a mostly character piece episode.  The tonal shift is actually kinda nice.  Honestly I'm not too sure about the casting of Cillian O'Sullivan as Roger Corby.  The series being set in the years before TOS the call back to Roger Corby and Christine Chapels past relationship from TOS "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" is not unexpected.  Honestly though, the Spock/Chapel stuff is starting to bore me a bit, especially knowing the future of the two characters.  Perhaps if I had not already seen TOS?  Also the bartender/wedding planner character (who is obviously Trelane) and who is obviously a Q *cough cough* finger snap *cough cough* "greetings and felicitations" *cough* father is voiced by John DeLance *cough* is a bit obvious.  Not sure we needed another Trelane episode, especially being as anachronistic as it is.  Honestly, at this point I'd like to see more actually exploring Strange New Worlds.

The references to Federation Day (the anniversary of the UFP's founding) puts this episode in early 2261, and thus the previous episode Hegemony II (and most or all of season 2 in 2260).  A three month time jump is established to explain the differences in actors appearances, notably Celia Rose Gooding's longer hair, and explained as the Enterprise has been at Starbase 1 undergoing repairs for three months since the events of Hegemony I/II.

Observations: during the wedding scene among the ships outside the Starbase 1 dome is a Crossfield Class ship a-la USS Discovery.  Scotty's red dress uniform shit with white and black clad kilt and grey sporran ensemble is nearly identical to that worn by Scotty in TOS.  Nice attention to detail.  The three-armed bartender is a direct reference to and the same species as Lt. Arex from TAS.  Also: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go?  Really??



Note: for the time being Star Trek Strange New Worlds reviews will be posted on Sundays after the episode releases (subject to change).  The series list page and post schedule have been updated.

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