STAR TREK

[HVC]

Hmm, I don't like what they done with the gorn. Basically aliens^TM with predator sight and speech impediment. Hard to imagine cannibalistic little rage monsters building up the society and technology to become space fairing.

[Syt]

Yeah, last episode had a lot of Aliens call backs (chest bursters, child survivor, the heroine who's seen it all before ...). But I guess they live up to their name now.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Gorn

[viper37]

Hmm, I don't like what they done with the gorn. Basically aliens^TM with predator sight and speech impediment. Hard to imagine cannibalistic little rage monsters building up the society and technology to become space fairing.

Only the strongest survive.  If they get 4 hatchlings out of every victims, they would reproduce way too quickly for the resources at their disposal.

[HVC]

Nice little nostalgia episode that didn't seem too forced. I mean all nostalgia trips are a bit forced, but this one did a good job of still being entertaining.

Also, today I learned that Anson  shares his name with his older brother. Poor guy got George Foremaned.

[FunkMonk]

Really solid episode of Star Trekking

I didn't believe at the start of this series that an entire season of New Trek could consist of bangers but this series was banger after banger after banger.

Need season 2 NOW. I miss 24-episode long seasons.

[FunkMonk]

Also really happy they brought back the greatest Starfleet uniforms, the maroons

[crazy canuck]

Really solid episode of Star Trekking

I didn't believe at the start of this series that an entire season of New Trek could consist of bangers but this series was banger after banger after banger.

Need season 2 NOW. I miss 24-episode long seasons.

Agreed!

[viper37]

Hmm, I don't like what they done with the gorn. Basically aliens^TM with predator sight

the predator sight was done in Enterprise, IIRC.  The episode "In a Mirror Darkly, part II".

[viper37]

Really solid episode of Star Trekking

I didn't believe at the start of this series that an entire season of New Trek could consist of bangers but this series was banger after banger after banger.

Need season 2 NOW. I miss 24-episode long seasons.

It would have been 10 great episodes interspaced with 2 average ones, 8 mediocre ones and 4 stories about a holodeck/transporter malfunction.

Better have 10 no-fillers episodes.

[FunkMonk]

That's fair 

Although I'm one of the weirdos who enjoyed the silly holodeck episodes from TNG and DS9

[Josephus]

Does anyone know which episode of the OS, this last episode was based on? I wanna watch it.

[HVC]

Does anyone know which episode of the OS, this last episode was based on? I wanna watch it.

Balance of terror. Not a real TOS fan, but it's a really good episode.

[Syt]

It's heavily inspired by "The Enemy Below" in which a US destroyer and a German submarine square off:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enemy_Below

It's in many Top 10 Best TOS Episodes lists, and with good reason.

[Syt]

I thought it was an excellent "What If" episode, capping off a very good season. Some of Trek's best episodes come from alternate scenarios and timelines (Yesterday's Enterprise, many of the Mirror Universe episodes, Trials & Tribble-ations, Year in Hell ...), and it was interesting to see Pike's "Let's seek dialogue" approach leading to catastrophe as opposed to how Kirk's more aggressive actions resolved the scenario in the prime timeline with a better long term outcome. Reminded me a bit of the dicks/pussies/assholes speech from Team America - sometimes you need a dick to fuck the assholes and put them back in their place. It also reminded me a bit of the pilot for Discovery, where Michael insisted on showing strength towards the Klingons.

The Romulans seemed a bit 2-dimensional in this, unfortunately, but it also makes sense in terms of the story. Balance of Terror was a tight cat and mouse game, between two (relatively) chivalrous opponents. Quality of Mercy's focus was about Pike's path and decisions and coming to terms with his "intended" fate. The epilogue also sets up nicely why Spock feels so strongly about getting him help once he's in the beepy chair.

When I saw Paul Wesley as Jim Kirk I was skeptical at first. But I felt he channeled Kirk's character quite well. He's more brash, impulsive and would rather take action now than sit on his butt, whereas Pike first deliberates carefully, but he's also a team player.

Some side notes.

Engineer with Scottish accent ... teaser for Season 2? The voice was credited as "Engineer" and was provided by Matthew Wolf: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0937869/?ref_=m_ttfcd_cl23

Was I the only one who thought future Pike looked a bit like George Clooney?

I also struggled to take the Romulan commander very seriously at first, because ... well ...





I was also way too happy, when this music kicked in:

Cliffhanger ending for the episode. Let's see where this goes. La'an is also gone, I guess? She brings Newt the girl from last episode home, and she signs up on the Farragut in the future, so she may not be a regular after this? Hemmer is obviously no longer around , Uhura has technically finished her tour on board for now, and we know she will return, but I guess she's back at the academy? And then there's Una who is now detained. Makes me wonder what kind of cast the next season will have.

Overall a very good first season. They managed to make the crew both very likeable and the cast worked great together.  The recasts of familiar characters all worked well for me (and it's kind of fun to see two Majel Barrett characters - Nurse Chapel and Number One - on the screen at the same time ). Firefly was another show that managed to make me care about its crew in a very limited (for the time) number of episodes. It's probably no coincidence that the tone of both shows is more humorous and lighthearted. A main cast who can have fun with each other are easier to connect with than one that's constantly serious and melodramatic (*cough* Discovery *cough*).

If I had one complaint it would be that the show plays it very safe - I'm not blaming them; they trade high on nostalgia (as does Lower Decks a lot of the time, as much as I love it), and much of the show feels like fan service after the reserved reactions to Picard and Discovery. The other shows tried something new, and the fandom was disappointed, so they take very few risks on this one.

I've been watching SNW and Orville in parallel these last few weeks. I enjoy both, but the shift in tones is weird. Orville started as "TNG but with - Seth MacFarlane's - humor", and this season so far has mostly been serving up character drama with very little humor (not complaining! well a bit: the episodes at 1h feel too stretched out and 45 min might be better; and the last few episodes were, "hey , remember the thing from S1 or 2?"). Meanwhile, SNW's tone feels more like half way between Orville S1 and 3. It's an odd juxtaposition to me.

[Josephus]

Here's something I didn't understand. Why were they all surprised to see that Romulans looked like Vulcans. I understand they haven't come across each other in 100 years but....didn't they have photography? I can spot Napoleon in a crowd, though  no one alive has actually met him.