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

i thought the 'documentary' episode was fantastic, even if some of the plot details were hand-wavey. those are questions that should absolutely be asked and basically hadn't been for 60 years.

what was (erica) ortegas tinkering with, tho? a motorcycle?

Vroom vroom.

Anyway my previous comment just now was for today's episode, which, the greatness. I will add, as was noted to me just now -- there IS a post-credits scene.

the post-credits riffing was some silly fun

also re the documentary episode

has star trek previously addressed (almost certainly but i cannot recall it at the moment) the 'right' to suicide?

Cutting to an ad break and “problem mostly resolved offscreen” in voiceover was an odd choice.

what was (erica) ortegas tinkering with, tho? a motorcycle?

U know who used to tinker with an oldschool motorcycle on the spaceship, Garibaldi from babylon 5 thats who /pvmic

so that cannot possibly be anything but a(n) homage

tonight’s episode = A+ hijinks no notes

This was great fun, agreed. My only minor niggle is a small amount of the dialogue was clunky/the jokes too obvious. Like when someone said "I am a full Vulcan, so I cannot lie", like ok we don't need reminding of that, show dont tell cmon!

I will never not find Ethan Peck saying "farted" as Spock funny though (cf Very Short Treks).

Was La'an supposed to be Romulan rather than Vulcan or was it just her DNA kind of... hitlerised her for being a Khan?

i really need La’an/Spock to stop being a thing

i hate it
i don’t buy it
all they do is tango like gomez & morticia addams
its DUMB i dont LIKE it
if anything i want La’an/Kirk
but just get them both out if this lame storyline pleeeease

xp they don’t officially know at this point in the timeline that they’re both the same species, so that dialogue where they reveal they both know about that served that purpose

Yeah I'd picked that up at least, though felt like that scene mightve been done a little clunkily.

My fave bit - when we cut to a shot of the Ent and hear Una say "first officer's personal log, supplemental... Douuugggg" with this hilariously teenage girl sigh.

It is.

You might know my cousin Pete

not a fan of this one at all, except that i am compelled to appreciate the out-of-the-blue primanti bros. shout-out

if nothing else -- and there is a *lot* else, not least anson mount acting like a fucking conehead -- can we at least agree that una chin-riley should not be acting like a sex-bot programmed to love patton oswalt

it's not funny and it massively degrades her character as if she can only conceivably function in his absence

ffs

'it's okay if uhura mind-raped beto -- he was asking for it and she meant well'

terrible

(he still sucks as a character tho)

i'm not at all a canon purist but it sure feels like a shitload of rules were broken here, even before JTK magically appeared on the enterprise and somehow never considered pulling rank on la'an

(the farragut was in the area, evidently, and star trek at large could neither inform the captain nor afford to pay sam kirk's actor anything to appear)

i'm not at all a canon purist but maybe simply make an attempt?

i realize this episode was meant to be funny (from the music cues)

but it simply wasn't

tbf the spock-la'an battle/dance was absolutely lovely, but -- after *that* they need to get it on or not get it on

OK yes that is one thing I am finding a bit overdone and I never really thought about it - those "comedy" music cues! The plink-plonk keys and the bongos and sixties style sitcom stings.

I did not read Una's behaviour that way though? I saw it as a bit of a "how can THIS guy possibly have such allure" which I guess is also a bit offensive, but they were affecting each other don't forget - it wasn't just her!

if una wanted to bang the hell out of doug that's one thing

una essentially begging spock to lie for and about her because she simply can't control herself around doug is way way more fucked up

Really hoping the amount of Patton Oswalt going forward is minimal. Kind of like Mulaney on Poker Face the stunt casting is a bit OTT.

I'm with mookieproof on this one. I didn't enjoy it, and I don't know wtf Anson Mount was doing. I didn't think Vulcans were supposed to look like they were constantly in the middle of doing a stoned doubletake.

Mount’s look was familiar but I couldn’t place it - maybe a little Mars Attacks alien?

I like the idea that the whole treatment makes you even more Vulcan than Vulcans.

has star trek previously addressed (almost certainly but i cannot recall it at the moment) the 'right' to suicide?

My memory is foggy as I've not seen the episodes in years but TNG has a couple times, one where Worf is (temporarily) paralyzed, I think think another with David Ogden Stiers. I can't remember how either episode treats it, though.

Meanwhile DS9 has an episode where Worf's biological brother wants to die because their house is in disgrace but instead of honoring that wish they wipe his mind without his consent and give him a new identity.

good call

god knows klingons are eager to die at the drop of a hat -- and i blanked out the david ogden stiers episode due to excessive lwaxanna

No comment yet as its only just dropped, but awesome episode.

A bit of a headscratcher for me, honestly. (Though we were overdue more time with the lead character.)

*Well*, It did basically feel like a remake of Arena, down to the Metrons and all, but I dunno I found it quite moving. My only issue was the handwavey ending of "and you will not remember this conversation and you might even change your mind again on the Gorn!", don't know if that was neccesary.

But I found the end quite sad. Even though I saw the ending coming a mile off.

Good points all! I found myself thinking of Enemy Mine a bit too.

Yeah the bf said same. There's def been other episodes with the same concept too like the one with Geordie and the romulan.

Another one of their “TOS episode, but from a different angle” takes imo

a bit gentler than making Kirk fight a Gorn to the death

i really liked this one until the very end reveal

always happy for an Ortegas episode!

OK this may be the first *dramatic* SNW ep that I genuinely enjoyed (I'm absolutely pissed at Laan rn), but this brings an in-universe problem that I had with the season 2 finale, where IIRC they killed a Gorn hatchling without any compunction or reflection. Maaaybe this episode is commenting on that as a way to complicate things, but it felt wrong then and obvs feels wronger now.

La’an Noonien Singh, space cop

fwiw when i was a teen my entire school was once sent to the auditorium to watch 'enemy mine'. confusing, but much less so than the *other* time we were made to watch 'ferris bueller's day off' (??)

thought this was pretty weak tbh. and i don't even care about the metrons or the bizarre retconning.

apart from being yet another 'enemy mine' rehash -- basically every trek series has already had one -- all the info on the moon involved ortegas 'thinking out loud' and the absurdity of a gorn pilot understanding english (and being entirely unlike every other gorn we've encountered in this series). uhura fudging the data was completely fucked up! as was pike knowing she did so and letting her off the hook!

putting the entire ship and its crew in danger -- and risking the vaccine needed on random colony -- runs entirely against 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or one)'

i guess it meant well but pretty hackneyed imo

And third season done. More later but I did appreciate this wasn't a cliffhanger, not everything has to be.

That was a boring, insulting episode of a lacklustre season. I was furious by the time it was over. It seemed to go on forever, and its overly complicated, dull mythology reminded me of bad Doctor Who (and I hated the shout-out within the episode, too). Jesus.

And I don't give a shit about the normie life you could've had with your wife who we barely know! You're not Captain Picard; you haven't earned this over seven years of twenty-two episodes a year!

Anyway, I think overall I agree with Tom & Lorenzo, that this is an unusual Star Trek series because it got worse in season three.

I dunno, I thought it was sweet, if a little saccharine. A lot of callbacks of course - Inner Light the obvious one, but also I presume this is meant to set up why Kirk and Spock were such good friends? But they werent like actually telepathically linked in TOS so... hm? I sarcastically said "oh, love conquers all" just before she defeated NoEyes, and then she actually basically said it, which was a bit GAH. But hey! M83 was neat.

I do agree with you trishy that the life story was a bit unearned because we don't really know Batel. But tbh don't forget after Picard went thru the same thing it more or less handwaved away after that aside from his one dalliance with the flexikeyboard thingy.

Oh and that WAS a Dr Who shout out wasn't it? Why!? I know about the TARDIS easter egg earlier but wtf is with that? Stop crossing the streams!

Hundo p. Couldn't agree more.

The setting up of the Kirk/Spock friendship also sat badly with me. Like, I have never, in all my years, wondered what the inciting incident for their closeness could have been. I was not only fine with not having that filled in for me, but I sort of felt that Strange New Worlds hasn't earned that either.

Some of it is disappointment because I really liked this show in the beginning, and the new characters it introduced were largely great. And it always looks gorgeous. But I guess the modern IP-farming approach to science-fiction storytelling is just not for me. Always be backfilling, leave absolutely nothing to the viewer to speculate on, make sure every minute of every major character's backstory is accounted for. I don't enjoy it. Ah well.

Thing about that Dr. Who shoutout-as-such was: there have BEEN enough time travellers and the like and Temporal War stuff that I just read it as 'oh this is probably something along those lines.' I should double check the exact lines.

i kinda liked this one - the villain stuff was a bit undercooked & not super engaging but i loved Pike/Batel even if its like full corny The Notebook - they’re both great & have good chemistry & the way Pike looked so haunted & hollowed out on the bridge at the end was to me A+ acting from Mount

and I liked the Spock/Kirk setup even if it was shorthand

i feel very good about this show still

Thing about that Dr. Who shoutout-as-such was: there have BEEN enough time travellers and the like and Temporal War stuff that I just read it as 'oh this is probably something along those lines.'
I'dve agreed if he only talked about timetravs - mightve even thought it was a nice nod to Daniels! - but the emphasis on him being a doctor was also made.

I mean, unless that was a weird nod to the EMH somehow.

Anyway I did enjoy the season but I'll share this:

https://trekmovie.com/2025/09/13/exclusive-strange-new-worlds-eps-on-why-s4-will-be-better-and-which-star-trek-character-not-to-expect/

Another Easter egg in the latest episode: Batel and Pike Xmas gift giving (“It’s tradition”) certainly calls out a Letterkinney Xmas episode. Don’t think we saw Melanie Scrofano scarf down a G&T, though.

Was it Christmas? I thought it was anniversary