JC's Trek Talk

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 10: A Quality of Mercy A Quality of Mercy An interesting what-if alternate timeline episode, in this episode what if...Pike never left the Enterprise and was still captain during the events of TOS Balance of Terror instead of Kirk?  Because of this much of the episode plays as a beat-for-beat, word-for-word recreation of Balance of Terror, with Ortegas in Lt. Stiles place (even given Stiles lines).  Interesting to build a little backstory for Commander Hanson at Outpost 4, also connecting him and his son to Pike's fate.  Nide touch to have Hanson wearing the outpost badge first seen on the same character in Balance of Terror (and also later seen in Arena).  And that brings me to Kirk.  James Kirk.  Here we see for the first time Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, captain of the Farragut in this timeline instead of the Enterprise.   RANT INCOMING We also see future Admiral Pike in a bad attempt at a TOS mo...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 9: All Those Who Wander All Those Who Wander Uhura finishes her training and officially becomes an Ensign.  We get to see another Starfleet ship for the first time in this series.  The USS Peregrine is a Sombra class ship, supposedly a variant of the constitution class (although it looks like a constitution class).  M'Bengas statement the the Sombra class is made from Constitution class parts is a weak handwave to be honest.  I liked Hemmer likening the cold to Andoria-nice touch.  The baddie turns out to be the Gorn, which the recap at the beginning of the episode kinda spoiled.  Also not surprising regardless.  We get some more good Uhura-Hemmer scenes, which makes the ending of the episode that much more gut wrenching.  This episode does have a lot of blood and gore for Star Trek.  La'ans past with the Gorn definitely helped in this episode, and we really got some good La'an scenes.  I'v...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 8: The Elysian Kingdom The Elysian Kingdom So we finally get the conclusion to the Dr. M'Bengas daughter storyline.  It's a fun, heartwarming storyline, but at the same time I personally am glad it ended at this point, as dragging it out further could have been a burden on the series.  So we get to see all the main cast playing alternate characters.  Trek has done this before, but never this soon in the series (see TOS Mirror, Mirror, DS9 Far Beyond The Stars and Our Man Bashir, VOY The Killing Game 1/2, et. al.)  Putting it all inside the fantasy world of the storybook M'Benga reads to his daughter is interesting.  This episode is one of the first times in the series Christina Chong really gets to flex her acting skills (and singing ability).  The somewhat cerebral nature of the plot is quite TOS at times, M'Bengas struggle with his daughter, trying to figure out (with Hemmer's help) how the ship and nebula a...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 7: The Serene Squall The Serene Squall Starting out with more Spock and T'Pring stuff.  Ok.  Gia Sandhu is pretty good as T'Pring.  And a little more Spock and Chapel.  Ok.  The pirate story is interesting, and not thing Trek as done in quite some time.  Spock's lines about his issues with hunches is similar to his making a guess in Star Trek IV.  The Enterprise being lure into the trap and captured is not the most original for trek, (see TNG Rascals, VOY Basics, among others) but still fun.  Jesse James Kaitel as Dr. Aspen/Angel is pretty good, the twist of her being the pirate captain and betraying the Enterprise crew is not wholly original.  Pike's "get the hell out of my chair" got a little chuckle from me.  Captain Angel escaped, leaving the door open for a possible return. Again, not unexpected.  Interesting including S'tonn from TOS Amok Time.  "Xaverius" being Sybok is an ...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 6: Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach A more serious episode after a light hearted episode.  The Enterprise arrives at a planet Pike previously visited 10 years ago when he was a lieutenant (before his time on the Enterprise).  That would put his visit in 2249, so Alora referring to Pike as Lieutenant (his rank at their last meeting) is a bit of a stretch.  Commander maybe?  More of M'Benga and his daughter.  The planet is called Majalis...no points for guessing the inspiration.  The floating cities on Majalis are more than a little like the floating city of Ardana in TOS The Cloudminders.  The child being the prophesized "First Servant" whether he consents or not is a bit dark.  Yes the boy tells Alora that he does it willing, but can a child that age really make that choice?  This is exactly the question of this episode.  In some ways this is reminis...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 5: Spock Amok Spock Amok Ok.  Interesting intro with the Kal-if-fee fight from Amok Time, but as a dream for Spock, Vulcan Spock fighting Human Spock used as a metaphor for Spock's inner conflict.  Nice continuity with the Enterprise being repaired at Starbase 1 after Momento Mori.  Also more Spock-T'Pring stuff.  And Pike has a green wraparound tunic like Kirk's.  We get some shore leave for the crew and some diplomacy, overall quite TOS.  Spock references I-Chaya, his pet sehlat from TAS Yesteryear.  The body swap thing is an old trope (Turnabout Intruder anyone), although they try to keep it fresh.  The acting is good though.  The "Enterprise Bingo" thing is a bit goofy.  Overall this whole episode is a bit goofy, although a fun, light-hearted episode is not unheard of in trek (The Trouble with Tribbles for example).  The Katra transfer obviously harkens back to Star Trek II/III (Sp...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 4: Momento Mori Momento Mori Starfleet Remembrance Day is a cool idea for a Starfleet day of celebration.  Also the memorial pins worn by the crew are kinda neat.  The massacre aftermath on the planet is quite bloody, but no more graphic than other modern trek.  The Enterprise connects to the colony ship with a docking tube.  A similar one was seen in Discovery season 2.  This episode introduces the Gorn as the "big baddie" of this series, which is interesting but also questionable as far as keeping with established canon.  We get to see a lot of the Enterprise in combat in this episode, essentially for the entire episode.  Uhura and Hemmer trapped in engineering gives the opportunity for plenty of character growth for both characters.  The strategizing by the crew, the "hide and seek" submarine warfare in the gas giant and later the black hole between the Enterprise and the Gorn is reminiscent of TO...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 3: Ghosts of Illyria Ghosts of Illyria This is something we haven't seen in Trek in a looonnnggg time: a "ship is infected, the crew is incapacitated, only the medical department can save us" episode.  I am reminded of episodes like TNG "Genesis", DS9 "Babel" and Voyager "Microcosm" among others.  Also I love the building Una's background and establishing her as an Illyrian not human (beta canon sources had already gone this direction).  The Illyrians were established in an episode of Enterprise, their being genetically engineered is a nice addition and the whole being genetically engineered and genetic engineering being illegal in the Federation is call back to Khan, the Eugenics wars and also Bashir in DS9.  It's fun to see Hemmer in action for the first time.  For the first time we get to see engineering, which is part set and part AR wall.  The planetside scenes give us some good Pik...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 2: Children of the Comet Children of the Comet Interesting to start out with an Uhura log entry.  Also this episode establishes the kitchen inside Pike's enormous quarters.  Pike cooking for the crew is a fun something different for trek, although I'm not sure how exactly that fits in with what we know of him from The Cage and Discovery season 2.  Also this episode buids on characters like Ortegas and establishes the character of chief engineer Commander Hemmer, an Aenar.  The Aenar were established in the eponymous season 4 episode of Enterprise as a blind, albino subspecies of Andorians.  The actor who plays Hemmer, Bruce Horak is in fact legally blind.  Uhura being young and unsure is a cool angle to take for the episode and the character.  More references to Pike's vision of his fate (the accident).  Personally I think it is best that the series does not continue to dwell on this (especially as d...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 1: Strange New Worlds Strange New Worlds Cool intro with Number One's voiceover.  The episode also introduced Captain Batel, Pike's love interest.  Pike riding on the horse is a great callback to The Cage (Pike said to Dr. Boyce that he had two horses).  Understandable to see Pike struggling with the events of Discovery season 2 (the vision of his future, the accident 7 years from now, bein radiation burned, paralyzed in the wheelchair that can only beep once for yes and two for no), and the fact that he can't talk about it with anyone except Spock because it's all classified.  The title sequence is cool.  Prior to the series coming out Paramount released a preview of the intro sequence and theme music (with out the text or voiceover).  When the pilot released and I saw it for the first time, I was blown away by Anson Mount as Pike doing the "Space the Final Frontier" speech.  Not expecting to but glad to...

Coming Up Next: Strange New Worlds Season One Episode Reviews