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...

Scale and Size: a Discussion There is quite a lot of debate and vitriol online of late regarding size and scale of starships in Star Trek.   In an attempt to quell the fan debate SNW season 3s "What Is Starfleet?" documentary establishes a length of 442.6 meters for the constitution class USS Enterprise.  This numbers fails for several reasons.  As pointed out by VenomGeekMedia on a recent video discussion about starship scale and perspective, this size fails for several reasons.  1: with a crew compliment of 203 (during Pikes time) or even 430 (in Kirk's time) the accepted 289m length (TOS era) or 305m (Movies refit) is plenty big enough for the crew.  Despite what J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman may think, 289m is actually quite large.  To  be frank J.J. Abrams blatant upscaling of the Kelvin Enterprise to around 750 meters long simply doesn't work.  For one, the bridge, with a window viewscreen through which we can see from the outside peopl...

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

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 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 Timeline The DSC/SNW/TOS Era (2245-2269) 2245 • USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is launched under the command of Robert April • Pavel Chekov is born • Michael Burnham becomes the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy • The battle of Donatu V is fought between the Federation and Klingon Empire • USS Constellation NCC-1017 is launched • Johnathan Archer dies 2246 • In response to a famine crisis Governor Kodos invokes martial law on Tarsus IV and slaughters half of the colonies population.   • Hoshi Sato dies at Tarsus IV • USS Hood NCC-1703 is launched 2247 • The Eminiar-Vendikar war begins • USS Exeter NCC-1672 is launched • Spock declines an offer to enter the Vulcan Science Academy, instead opting to join Starfleet 2248 • Starfleet loses contact with the UESPA Friendship 1 probe • USS Excalibur NCC-1664 is launched • USS Lexington NCC-1709 is launched 2249 • Michael Burnham begins serving aboard USS Shenzhou • Risa off...

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...