Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

We got a Kirk sighting

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Finds Its James T. Kirk With Paul Wesley https://t.co/5TYFp8XYMe

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 15, 2022

Okay, premiere episode today! Which I haven't seen yet but soon enough.

My natural scepticism kept me from fully enjoying the fan service bits. It was fine, I guess. Better a low-key opener that turns into something solid than an amazingly flashy and promising first episode that turns into me giving up on the show after a season and a half.

need a history of star trek sideburns

Yeah "low key opener" is a good way to describe it, it was fun and straightforward enough and got a reasonable amount of info dumping done. More than anything I absolutely think this nails the 'what if 1960s Big Ideas Optimistic Trek with 2020s production values' mode, so I'm already in for the rest of the season.

A little heavy handed toward the end but a solid B+, just happy to have a Trek episode where the survival of all existence doesn’t hinge on that 45 minutes.

ned otm

it succeeded in trying to do what TOS sometimes did, referring to current events but in a way that ~comforts~ the viewer, like trying to provide a modicum of hope as a mixer with the escapism & i appreciated the attempt because idk i kind of needed it right now? i finished the ep feeling like yes, this is how it should feel. i am a cornball though too so ymmv

it feels rooted in the past in ways that arent just fanservice so i hope that continues to pay off bc man i really love this cast

Feels good to be hyped for next week's ST episode instead of wondering which kind of terrible it will be this time.

also La’an Noonien Singh/Christina Chong is A+

total Camina Drummer from Expanse vibes, freaked out for a minute bc i thought it was the same actor lol

xpost otm

My mom texted me to ask if that was Drummer and if their alien modifications were supposed to make them look like Buffy vampires.

lol <3

there’s something about forehead appliances in effects makeup, maybe bc they often widen the space between the eyes, it is SO easy to veer into that Buffy look, it’s weirdly common like i think ppl just accept that its an ok look. i kinda wish we could get away from it myself. it even happens in cgi.

the spock/t’pring scenes were great

worried about la’an’s surname(s), because enough already

anson mount’s hair is v. tall

Hmm, could have handled this differently.

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-ukraine-protest-footage-1848888151

worried about la’an’s surname(s), because enough already

I get Noonien-Singh and Noonien-Soongh mixed up sometimes. I had to check which one this was. I do hope it's just a nod to tradition and it's not going to be A Thing.

Roffle

pic.twitter.com/0mgRGzBRSU

— joegross (@joegross) May 7, 2022

omg totally! same energy as the kids would say

Glad I'm not the only one thinking that was the Drummer actress. Was a bit surprised it wasn't when I looked at Imdb.

Quite fun 1st episode I guess.
Didn't quite get how much earlier it is.

i thought this was good and so regretfully suppose i will continue paying paramount plus their trek tax for the next couple of months

spent probably a little too much time yesterday mentally workshopping convoluted scenarios whereby chris pike might avoid his melty fate, which probably means that i like the character

omg that's my friend dan!!

i really like that they introduced it so early on in Discovery, because it allows Mount to do more acting-wise with the character imo

Yeah it has to be a given we know his fate, right? They cant fuck with that fact at least. Surely.

It’s canon a couple times over, and if they try to timey wimey it people will be pissed.

I thought this was fine and is a welcome change from Disco and Picard nonsense, but the limits of Trekian optimism butting heads with trying to comment on contemporary ills really showed some strain and the resolution felt way too easily gotten.

anson's gonna melt, but it's like a decade away

somewhat awkward in that, while he talks about foreseeing his death, the melting won't actually kill him

this has not gone over well with disabled trek fans

just hope these characters can do something/anything better than being diverse and talking a lot. already like that one officer complaining about shit happening on her watch

yeah we can only hope

i think that aspect adds dimension

ie pike seeing the future & ~interpreting~ it as his death

yet we know that isnt the case

No I think he knows its not his death! He said something like "I saw my death... well, the death of me as I know me" or similar, suggesting what was left might as well have been dead? Which I can see disabled people having an issue with tbrh

As for me, I cant get past thinking of it like this.

https://morbotron.com/meme/S04E12/541823.jpg?b64lines=IEdvIFsgQmVlcCBdIHlvdXJzZWxmLg==

This was good: https://thatshelf.com/star-trek-discoverys-depiction-of-captain-pikes-disability-is-a-betrayal-of-roddenberrys-utopian-vision

"Betrayal" is a bit strong (I'm not sure Roddenberry had significant enough morals to betray) but the piece makes some good points without falling into fannish entitlement

Oh and nu-Chapel seems great and I loved T'pring's retro-futurist makeup.

Nu-Chapel seemed very familiar but then I realized it was just the Phoebe Bridgers hair, pretty sure I've never seen her in anything else.

I mean really, someone who is so disabled they cant move or speak and have to control a wheelchair with their mind and are just basically a floating head, doesnt sound like a life, disability advocacy is one thing but cmon. This isnt "the mere act of sitting in a wheelchair".

I rather liked this new episode, had the exact setup of a classic one-off but with plenty of its own distinct touches and interactions between characters.

only 5 minutes into this new ep but just dropping in to say that Christopher Pike's high hair is doing a LOT of important work on this show

already know more about pike's bridge crew than i've learned in four seasons about discovery's

take sides: pike's hair vs. spock's sideburns

i do think it's been well done so far, but i hope the entire season/series isn't haunted by pike's ~fate~. after all, he does love this job

this show is a real pleasure so far - absolutely nailing it but in an almost understated way

yep I reckon the character work is great (especially vs Disco) - that early scene in Pike's quarters had me grinning - feels like they have uncovered some ancient wisdom from a lost civilisation that "likeable characters that you wanna spend 1hr/week with" is a good TV formula

I've found the 'haunted by future' aspect quite interesting so far - feels like they might be building it into a slow burn plot development rather than just brooding about it? as you say mookieproof, it has been done with a fairly light touch thus far - I'm sure the device must have been used before? but it definitely adds something here, and I think stops Pike from being a bit one dimensional... and dare I say even adds a touch of profundity to the whole thing?

Some very bad CGI this week, not a big deal but the Shepherd captain on the view screen looked baaaaaad.

Some very bad CGI this week, not a big deal but the Shepherd captain on the view screen looked baaaaaad.

Some very bad CGI this week, not a big deal but the Shepherd captain on the view screen looked baaaaaad.

kept getting an error in Safari, oops.

tbf he was probably actually clint howard in prosthetics

no need to bang on about it milo jeez <3

Rob Bricken with a solid rave for the show that hits a lot of good points we've mentioned in the thread and elsewhere:

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-tv-paramount-plus-pike-spo-1848923327

i just noticed spock’s sideburns have a slightly arty curve to them & i hate it

pike’s hair however is majestic & i am here for it

really enjoyed this ep,

I am hoping his hair gets higher every episode.

I kept thinking of this
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/84/67/418467cb44c622620a11d8186fa94fdb.jpg
except I was remembering it as going up wards as well as forward.

Maybe memory incorporating bits of one or both of these which are of a similar vintage I think. Certainly saw them a couple of decades back
https://cdn.onebauer.media/one/empire-tmdb/films/45145/images/tTagCxKrhFlM5N0TEHQLqrnnf7V.jpg?format=jpg&quality=80&width=960&height=540&ratio=16-9&resize=aspectfill

i just noticed spock’s sideburns have a slightly arty curve to them & i hate it

That's how he shows emotion. When pon farr hits they turn into majestic whorls.

lmao

I thought the editing was a little slack, but as stated making these characters believable people with real personalities is a welcome change of pace from Disco.

I'm warming up to Peck, I'm pretty sure that his "I apply rigorous logic to defuse tension" was meant as a joke and his little look of disappointment at Uhura not acknowledging it was a small treasure.

yeah i loved that

i think peck is great, but i was a fan from the off when he first showed up in Disco

Yeah 100%

Man the costume design across the board was like even more next-level than it always is. And Colby’s Maid Of Honor lavender getup & flower crown was v funny (but also like, spot on!)

The dog looked great in it too!

Also, continuing the hotness theme, Christina Chong killing all around in the dance sequences, plus hilariously contrasting to Ethan Peck.

yeah she’s so fucking great

did not like the second one -- much too harsh on my boy spock. hijinks aren't enough to obscure that he had his heart broken and then toyed with. tbf sam's mustache really is awful

so in the first one when scotty said that the pseudo-star maneuver had one chance in a thousand of working . . . has pike ever come right out and said that he's basically invincible because he *has* to survive, as a starship captain, until his horrible accident? (also has he told batel about his fate? i can't remember. pretty sure he's told una)

I tried to get my 11yo son into SNW with the new season, since it is generally more episodic in nature. Of course the first episode is a “part 2” of last season’s cliffhanger. Honestly it’s been two years, I don’t even remember what the cliffhanger was or who the Gorn are. So he was baffled the whole way through (and to some extent, so was I). But I think he is game to got back to s1e1 and start from there. He’s also curious about the original series now too.

i rewatched some TOS last night <3

ethan peck is the best spock

fight me

he is very very good but not better than nimoy
i will not fight you as that is highly irrational :D

perhaps you have forgotten

that vulcans went though a period of savagery unparalleled in human history

and that spock kind of lost his shit there for a while re: the gorn until nurse chappell talked him down

and then his actor was called upon to do a whole bunch of shit that was never asked of nimoy, like dancing and singing and love and regret

i mean ethan peck is clearly playing nimoy playing spock, but he rises above imo

perhaps you have forgotten

that vulcans went though a period of savagery unparalleled in human history

been itching to say this, sorry

dancing and singing and love and regret

do not reference plato's stepchildren

nimoy’s spock is more controlled, for better or worse but I think it takes a lot of skill to play him that way? and while still conveying a kind of emotionality without giving over to doe-eyes etc

idk

peck is incredible, he has had some high wire storylines but Nimoy is the goat to me and i will not be moved

fascinating

i suppose i must 'let this slide'

(fwiw i think peck being 'less controlled' is entirely appropriate for a younger and less-experienced spock)

My take is, I think Peck's Spock is giving us backstory as to *why* Nimoy's Spock is so cold and unemotional.

And it is also *why* that episode was so sad. Chapel fuckin *broke* him. I predict that his response is gonna be to just shut down, basically.

It feels a bit egregious too when you think that in TOS Chapel was continually gnashing her teeth how she couldnt have/love him. Girl, you threw him away, thats what you get dammit!

i like that take, Trayce!

She rebounded on a thick Irish accent and it all went to hell

haphazardly watched star trek (2009) today

it was fun and absurd and while i don’t think z. quinto was *bad* as spock, peck’s version is *so* much more interesting. 2009 spock + uhura secretly making out in the turbolift was boring af, as was sarek, as was winona (rip)

also eric bana is a nearly 60yo movie star now and i’m not certain i could regularly identify him? he did a good job (and channelled angry joey votto very nicely in this) but i still have no idea what he actually looks like

also fuck you, there’s no way sulu/jon cho forgets to properly align the inertial dampers before going to warp

anyway, as ever, it’s not worth considering the features when discussing star trek; they’re entirely different even if certain things are awesome in both versions

xp trayce otm. and honestly kirk (if not necessarily the SNW kirk) needs to be emotionally crushed much more than poor spock

I tried to get my 11yo son into SNW with the new season, since it is generally more episodic in nature. Of course the first episode is a “part 2” of last season’s cliffhanger. Honestly it’s been two years, I don’t even remember what the cliffhanger was or who the Gorn are. So he was baffled the whole way through (and to some extent, so was I). But I think he is game to got back to s1e1 and start from there. He’s also curious about the original series now too.

We have since watched the first two episodes of SNW and he is game to keep watching it. He likes it - though he is very distracted by the “I can see my future death” plot line that originated in a Discovery arc. Meanwhile I have become acutely aware of how fast these characters talk and how much of it is techno-gibberish. So between these two factors I find myself pausing frequently to explain to him what’s going on.

Well THAT was a tone reversal today...

I will happily say that Quinto is bad as Spock. At the very least Angry Spock is a very boring variation of the character.

I can’t say that Peck is better than Nimoy, apples and oranges, and anyway movie Spock is very different to TOS Spock. But Peck is my favourite in the ensemble, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the best episodes are often Spock-centred.

Those amazing bastards over there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az-cm8gmKSM

(It is indeed going to be a full collaboration episode with the Jim Henson Creature Shop.)

cannot wait

Total nerd service that I'm 100% here for

Gorn free
As free as the wind blows

SPEAKING of nerd service, this latest episode! My god! May this show somehow never end.

i fear that spock is becoming too much of a playa

enjoyed anson mount trying to channel PSH!

also liked the accents!

Hearing Jess Bush rock her natural accent was great

Yes, agreed on that.

Man I was *not* in the right frame of mind to get into this ep. Usually I'd love this kind of thing! But I wasn't feeling well, and honestly the whole standard "holodeck malfunctions/drains the ships power oops/oh no the safeties are off" thing felt very already-done, to me. Except, I did appreciate the whole explanation as to why holodecks will end up with their own power supply. And the obvious nods to Roddenberry (some on Reddit are saying he was prob a bit meant to be other scifi authors as well).

But Spock? Hrm. How fickle is this guy, jesus man. I was really feeling for him in the Q episode, and now he's suddenly fine and macking on La'an? Where t'shit did that even come from?

BTW the whole ep is on Youtube (legitimately), if anyone wants to catch it up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtdNjwBu-I0
...I wouldn't read the comments.

A lot of people are kvetching about there having been this many "silly" for want of a better word eps, when there's only 10 a season and we know there's only 5 seasons. I mean, I get it, but it also feels like the showrunners can't win. Disco was too serious, too grimdark, everyone cries all the time. Now SNW is too silly, too much fun, why isn't the story being followed bla bla bla.

And Lower Decks did stuff like this multiple times and no one cared, so I dunno, nerds, man.

I appreciated the Last Frontier more than the main story - it felt rushed and played into the worst of aspect SNW (making sure to give every single main crewmember a solo moment to shine). "Elementary, Dear Data" was 1 of 22, it didn't have to shoehorn in some plot advancement for the sake of time.

Re Trayce's (hidden) point: yeah the Roddenberry analog Pike was 'playing' felt much more Asimov to me in terms of hair/glasses/sideburns.

that was Bernie Sanders

Disco was too serious, too grimdark, everyone cries all the time.

won't claim anything about the first two, but everyone *did* cry too much in disco imo

this one wasn't right up my alley but it was fun (although the lighting on wesley (not that wesley) should have been just across his eyes; do better director william t. riker)

Discovery's problems were both the lazy reliance on pop therapy trauma workshops and that it was just a mostly uninteresting show with no one to care about by the end. The most charismatic characters were Space Hitler and Space Admiral Donitz! Which could be an interesting conundrum but maybe don't resolve it by everyone talking through their grief at no longer getting to hang with Space Hitler?

this is both correct and classic milo z

Yeah don't get me wrong, I found the overuse of crying, whispering and having pow wows about how everyone's feeling in mid-battle rankled me too. I've been rewatcing Disco recently and while some stories are better on a 2nd view with time and also being able to binge, that "we got this" Superfriends crap got no better.

Are they overcompensating with SNW? Have they seen the reaction to Lower Decks and tried to catch that zeitgeist somehow? I dunno.

there is a whiff of Whedon quippiness about SNW at times

Absolutely. Can't work out if I like that, or not.

now he's suddenly fine and macking on La'an?

tbf everyone on this show is absurdly beautiful and if you put that many fit junior officers in proximity to each other they are totally going to get after it

Spock is kind of a horny teenager in Vulcan years, isn't he?

La’an needs to get together w Kirk godammit! >:(

Anyway this ep was fun as hell and I enjoyed it. Also how come broken holodeck always = detective? lol. Not at all mad. and Last Frontier was pure magic. The door bloopers!

SOMEONE FIX THIS CHAIR

oh it was kirk failing to do the riker leg-over-the-top-into-the-chair -- in a show that frakes was directing -- that was killer

(btw who was playing the multi-armed alien in the screen?)

now shipping scotty and operations officer jenna mitchell

Ha yeah the Riker-chair thing did make me chuckle.

Apparently multi-armed alien was same actor who played 3-armed bartender?

There was some ambiguity as to whether Spock was descended from Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle from that throwaway line in STVI. They really should have kept that ambiguous!