I had so much fun watching this episode. We don't get many comedy episodes in live-action New Trek (and the last one that I remember, "The Trouble with Edward", really did not click with me), but this was just gold. Easily my new favorite episode so far.
The opening dream sequence was already good, but then the TOS fight music started playing, at which point we got pure awesomeness.
It's nice that we're seeing T'Pring as more of a complete person than we ever saw in TOS. I have to admit that I had to take a moment and appreciate that she actually has a career of her own that we get to see some of.
While most of the crew is getting shore leave, Pike (along with Spock and Uhura) is to help with negotiating a treaty with the R'ongovians. I really liked these aliens expressing extreme empathy, and liked Pike's ultimate solution to the negotiations that we see at the end of the episode.
Speaking of Pike, he spends most of the episode wearing a version of Kirk's green wrap-around. Nice.
Number One and La'an were hilarious to watch after M'Benga accidentally lets slip that some of the crew refer to Number One as "where fun goes to die". Catching a few lower deckers playing "Enterprise Bingo", the duo decide to play the game themselves, culminating in a beautiful scene of the two of them standing on the Enterprise's saucer.
Spock and T'Pring, in order to understand each other better, undergo a Vulcan ritual to exchange katras... only to get stuck in each others' bodies. Hijinks (their words, not mine) ensue.
We get to see that Chapel is having relationship trouble, in that she doesn't want a serious relationship right now while her boyfriend does. I have to wonder if this is because she's already lost Korby or that she has yet to meet him (or that the SNW writers completely forgot about him).
Cheers for Spock in T'Pring's body punching the living daylights out of that racist Vulcan!
One of the lower deckers busted by Number One and La'an is a Bolian. Is this the first Bolian we've seen in New Trek?
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
....I think I've gotten too old for these shows. I'm trying to like it all, & I like some things, but overall none of it sits right with me. It feels like someone handed the franchise over to people making a 90s teen movie. Everyone else likes all these shows & I just feel...disappointed every time.
It's fucking disheartening.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I realize in aftereffect that the above comment comes off as disappointment in the product. It's meant more as being disheartened that I'm not enjoying it. I should be liking it, so why am I not? The only thing I can think of is that it's trying to hard to be "modern relatable", with a feel like it's done by Gen-Z Roddenberry. Every time with everything since Disco started, I feel like I'm watching Star Trek: Gilmore Girls. That bothers me, both that it seems that way & that I feel that way.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Don't know what to say to that, really. There are plenty of current shows that once upon a time would have been totally my jam, but now they just leave me cold. Certainly a lot of stuff is a non-starter if it's more teen- or twentysomething-focused; but then I'm in my fifties now. I am not the audience for these things, not anymore. I don't get this feeling form current Trek in general or this show in particular: my persistent problems with elements of current Trek is more to do with intrinsic lapses in quality of plotting, characterisation and, yes, the often-unnecessary flouting of canon.
This episode was fine. Good, well-written, well acted, it reminded me oddly of the lightness of tone that you'd often find in an episode of [I]Justified[/I. Timothy Olyphaunt would have made a good recasting for Pike; but Anson Mount is equally good - and he'd have made a good recatsing for Waylan Givens!
Speaking of Pike, it's striking that so far the show has focused on him very little; he may be the captain but he's not the focal point of the show. The only one to really centre on him at all was the premiere, and that also had a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of introducing the new cast members.
In fact early today I was wondering whether the wide range of viewpoints could occasionally detract from the show's quality - like last week's episode; were the many different storylines and viewpoints the reason that, unlike "Balance of Terror" which it sought to emulate, it was merely a good episode rather than a great one?
... But in truth there was also a lot going on in "BoT". There was the main Bridge action, the byplay between the Romulan commander and his political officer, the married (then widowed) couple, the massive-racist bell-end who was suspicious of Spock. So it's probably not that.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
I think I get what you're saying Shik. I'm 40 now, I loved my 90s high school teen movies like American Pie. I can relate to them. I recently watched a Gen Z high school movie and I couldn't relate to it at all... references to high schoolers basing popularity off of how many social media followers you have. Between my 1996-2000 high school years we didn't have that shit. If you had a phone, it was as gray scale as an original GameBoy. No camera. Texting... I mean, yeah, but have fun tapping the same number multiple times to get to your letter.
That's why I couldn't get into STD. That, to me is the Gen Z Trek. It comes off too 'woke' for my liking. Almost to the point of trying to force it. Like, "Introducing Trek's first openly gay character!" "Introducing Trek's first non-binary character!"
I love Lower Decks because it doesn't try to do that woke shit. That and it's funny. Clearly made by Trek fans for Trek fans with all its deep cuts.
I'm also really liking SNW, which I would say is more Millennial Trek. It feels like classic Trek without trying prove how woke it is. Like, it's focusing on good storytelling without having a Mary Sue character or hitting you over the head about a non-binary's sexual prefernce since that's the only thing that defines them as a character. Also I like the humor. It's like they took a lesson from The Orville and allows characters to make jokes and be sarcastic without turning into a comedy. Which is nice... honestly, when I look back on TNG did the 24th century lose it's sense of humor?
My takes.
I loved the classic Vulcan fight music. The whole Freaky Friday thing, it worked for me. Character development wise I get the point. T'Pring being mad at Spock for putting Federation needs first... like on the one hand the needs of the many (the Federation) out weigh the needs of the one (T'Pring). However, she's still a woman in a relationship and wants to be put first, deep down, even if it goes against Vulcan logic.
Watching the Enterprise bingo scenes was nice. These suppose to be serious senior officers having fun during some down time.
And finally, the more screen time for Jess Bush the better. I think I'm in love. Don't tell the girlfriend.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Putting aside your right-wing signaling, two people in a film group I'm in over on FB hit the nail on the head. One said:
quote:For me it’s the way they talk.
Everything is snappy and “funny” (🤦🏻♂️) - people don’t talk like that in real life, it makes it very hard to relate to them.
Also - these are professional explorers, with ranks and chain of command. There is no way a ship would function with people talking to each other like that. Captain gives an order - oh, let’s have a bit of witty repartee while I’m inputting the commands in my console? Bollocks.
and the other noted that:
quote: The people who wrote the original series based life on board a starship upon life onboard a naval vessel, many of them no doubt had personal experience of it. The people who write new Trek base it upon working at Facebook or Google.
So yeah, it seems to be the lack of gravitas that's at issue for me.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: I don't get this feeling form current Trek in general or this show in particular: my persistent problems with elements of current Trek is more to do with intrinsic lapses in quality of plotting, characterisation and, yes, the often-unnecessary flouting of canon.
Yeah, that too, but I go the AU rationalization route to handle some of that.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Anyway, here's hi-res Enterprise bingo:
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Bingo has changed a lot since the last time I played it (1980s, probably).
Posted by Spike (Member # 322) on :
I think this is the first SNW episode that Spock's rank was mentioned as Lieutenant. Pike and Uhura are now the only members of the main cast wearing correct rank insignia. I honestly don't understand how the costume designer could be so sloppy.
quote:T'PRING [on viewscreen]: Spock, it is I. SPOCK: T'Pring, parted from me and never parted, never and always touching and touched. We meet at the appointed place. T'PRING [on viewscreen]: Spock, parted from me and never parted, never and always touching and touched. I await you. UHURA: She's lovely, Mister Spock. Who is she? SPOCK: She is T'Pring. My wife.
[ June 08, 2022, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Spike ]
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
quote:Originally posted by Shik: Putting aside your right-wing signaling,
Hobbes apparently never posted results on the political compass test threads (see also 1 and 2), but based on various comments I'd wager good quatloos that he's left of me . . . and I'm still right at dead center, as of two or three months ago. As of 2001, you were a third of the way further left and like halfway down, but I suspect you'd have moved still further left and upward in a retake now. And of course, this is from a test that puts Bernie Sanders near the center and virtually everyone else in US politics as far right authoritarians.
The point is, it doesn't require right-wing beliefs to find the loud "woke" tiresome, especially for "seasoned" folks like the denizens here who might tend more toward a live-and-let-live view (if for no other reason than tiredness).
Similarly, one need not be a skinhead to find Anson Mount's hair impressively altitudinous.
Anyway, that's all, so carry on.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:I think this is the first SNW episode that Spock's rank was mentioned as Lieutenant. Pike and Uhura are now the only members of the main cast wearing correct rank insignia. I honestly don't understand how the costume designer could be so sloppy.
Has it occurred to you that the ranks may not be inaccurate? After all, if we're to use the rank stripes from the latter episodes of TOS as accurate as to what SNW should be, how do we explain the rank stripes that we see in Where No Man Has Gone Before?
Gary Mitchell and Spock, both lieutenant commanders, in lieutenant stripes; Kirk, captain, in commander stripes.
Posted by Spike (Member # 322) on :
I consider "The Cage" and WNMHGB uniforms and simplified ranks retconned out of existance.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Apparently I’ve done the political compass test three times, including last year. No memory of that at all.
2009 Economic Left/Right: -6.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.97
2021 Economic Left/Right: -7.75 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.77
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Wait... what the fuck are you talking about? Are you going all politics all the sudden and calling me out? Fine a-hole, I'll play along. I enlisted in the US Navy for this country. I don't care about Republicans vs Democrats ... left vs right. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong.
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)