JC's Trek Talk

Strange New Worlds Season 3 Season Review Overall Impressions Uneven would be one word to describe this season, especially the first half, with a serious episode, followed by a lighthearted episode, followed by a serious episode, followed by a lighthearted episode, followed by a serious episode.  The back half of the season is more consistently serious (except of course for the Vulcan episode).  On the whole though, some pretty decent trek.  This season seemingly ended the Spock-Chapel arc and replaced it with the Spock-La'An arc, mainly to put Chapel with Roger Korby (originally established in TOS "What are Little Girls Made of". the season also expanded on and eventually wrapped up the Pike-Batel arc by adding a Batel-Gorn subplot first established in season 2's finale Hegemony, in this seasons finale New Life and New Civilizations.  As an audience member and having seen TOS, the foreknowledge that Pike will end up with Vina in TOS "The Menagerie part 2" m...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 10 New Life and New Civilizations The season 3 finale.  We finally get the see the end of Captain Batels story.  Scotty gets "pranked" into dressing in dress uniform and kilt much like how Uhura got pranked in Children of the Comet.  I'm really liking the characterization of Scotty here and in recent episodes.  I'm liking seeing more Sam Kirk.  The eye stabbing out thing was a bit much.  Batels eyes lighting up looked a little like the Zetarian from TOS "The Lights of Zetar".  Also cool seeing more Kirk and Spock working together.  Spock calls Kirk "Jim" for first time.  The mind meld to allow the two ships to work together in perfect synchronicity was a pretty cool idea.  The Pike-Batel alternate future together, alternate timeline, at different stages, different time, seeing Pike and Batel's daughter growing up scene was definitely inspired by TNG's The Inner Light.  Also the...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds  Season 3 Reaction: Episode 9 Terrarium An Ortegas episode.  We haven't really had one of these in a while.  The storyline of a crewman on a shuttle crashing and getting the stranded and following them as well as the ship trying to rescue them is very classic Star Trek, while also being a refreshing change at this point in the series.  Love seeing the crew working together, WITHOUT conflict and bickering-something that series like Discovery and Picard had too much of.  Also really liking the idea of Erica after all of her pervious trauma in Hegemony working together and forging an understanding with a Gorn.  Reminds me a little of DS9s "Duet" with Kira and the Cardassian, or TNGs "The Enemy" with Geordi and the Romulan.  The episode definitely gives some real depth to the episode and the character of Ortegas.  Interesting change to see Spock in the captains chair and Pike at the helm.  The twist at the end with th...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 8 Four and a Half Vulcans So...another "Vulcan hijinks" episode.  And more of the La'an-Spock relationship.  Still not sure about this one.  The story line about the mission to the planet undercover as Vulcans is interesting.  Not sure about the choice of music for the corridor scene.  I got a giggle at Pike doing the "Space the final frontier" speech as a Vulcan.  Honestly I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of the mission down to the planet, but I'm guessing story and probably budget considerations said otherwise.  The human characters acting "super Vulcan" comes off as a bit campy and stilted.  Also: contrary to the writers belief Vulcans can use contractions.  The twist of "we've fixed the problem but we don't want to use it" is cliche at this point and over used.  Honestly the "humans being over-done Vulcans" gag wears thin fast.  The Vulcan with a human...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 7 What is Starfleet? I love the documentary announcement at the beginning of the episode.  The documentary as a framing device for the episodes primary story is an interesting and refreshing change.  It also gave a lot of opportunities introspective moments for the crew.  Storywise, it's a nice standard Star Trek Mission complete with moral quandary and debate between the crew, very much giving TOS and cold war vibes.  It was nice to see the shuttlecraft, albeit briefly.  We haven't seen it in a bit.  Also the reveal through the "telepathic connection" with Uhura that the creature  wants to die and the plan that the crew device is very TNG in many ways.  Putting the credits and title as an ending instead of the normal title sequence was a nice touch to not break up or take away from the documentary style of the episode. Observations:  The on-screen specs of the Enterprise stating the shi...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 6 The Sehlat Who Ate It's Tail So we start onboard the Farragut.  We finally get to see the real James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) which is cool at this point.  It's fun to see Enterprise and another ship working together.  The away team beaming into the corridor of the damaged USS Farragut (including Scotty talking about the damage and heading to engineering) really reminds me of the Enterprise away team beaming into the corridor of the severely damaged USS Constellation in TOS "The Doomsday Machine".  Paul Wesley does a pretty good job as "TOS Kirk": his mannerisms, delivery, without being over the top.  As one who was hitherto skeptical of Paul Wesley as "new Kirk", I was pleasantly surprised, and dare I say, I would like to see more.  The phone thing is kinda funny, especially with the triple split screen.  The twist at the end was cool, with the "scavengers" being the descendants of h...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 5   Through the Lens of Time I like the log entries/POV at he beginning from a junior officer's perspective.  We haven't seen something like that in trek for quite some time (Lower Decks notwithstanding).  An away team going down to archaeological dig and actually discovering stuff is a refreshing change at this point in the series.  It's episodes like this where the show actually lives up to it's name, showing the ship and crew exploring Strange New Worlds.  Sadly, such episodes are becoming too rare at this point in the series.  The away team getting trapped/separating and having to science their way out or their predicament is also very classic trek.  The fight in sickbay between possessed Ensign Gamble and possessed Batel definitely gives me vibes of DS9's "The Reckoning" with prophet-possessed Kira and Pah Wraith possessed Jake Sisko.  Sad that in the end they had to kill the nurse/ensig...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 4 A Space Adventure Hour The music in the opening is very TOS-esqe.  Also the alternate opening us obviously based on TOS famous opening.  Star Trek Discovery played around with holographic technologies (waaay before they should have existed in the Star Trek Universe...), and yes, The Animated Series had one episode with a "recreation room" that was essentially a proto-holodeck.  The yellow empty holodeck grid is a nice callback to TNG's holodeck (the actual first holodeck), as is characters becoming trapped in the holodeck and out of communication with the ship (TNG's "The Big Goodbye" and "Ship in a Bottle".  Creating a holodeck mystery based on a period novel is very much derivative of TNG's "Elementary, Dear Data" (my all-time favorite holodeck episode BTW).  Also, using the main actors to play alternate characters as well as their own characters (partly as a  cost-cutting me...

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Reaction: Episode 3 Shuttle to Kenfori The whole concept of the captain taking on a personal "off the books" mission to obtain thing needed to save someone close to them is very classic Star Trek.  It was also nice to see some more Pike/M'Benga scenes, as well as some background on M'Benga.  The zombies elements is a bit cliche at this point, but it serves to plot fine.  It was a fun twist that the female Klingon leading the "hunting party" was the daughter of Dak'Rah from season 2's "Under the Cloak of War".  Also Klingon discommendation is a nice lore reference callback to TNG and Worf's discommendation to protect the house of Duras.  I have to say, I thought the scene at the end with Una dressing down Ortegas could have been better, especially seeing as the timing of their arrival at the planet was actually critical in getting Pike and M'Benga out.  Also, if the mission to Kenfori was off the...

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 me...