Star Trek: Strange new worlds

[Al-1701]

Or maybe they're not actual Gorn but some kind of animal from the Gorn homeworld.

And reptiles do give us some interesting breeding tactics. Such as, in monitors lizards, having unalike sex chromosomes result in female instead of male. So, a female can lay eggs without having bred with a male, the male eggs hatching. She then breeds with her sons to lay eggs that can be both male and female. What if a female Gorn could do the same thing?

I know I keep comparing Gorn to monitor lizards, but they are perhaps the best thing to look to for inspiration. They're relatively intelligent, powerful, many are primary carnivorous.

[Madner Kami]

You can do a lot of "out there" aka alien things with a lizard-species. In fact, you should. What we got instead were natural monsters who can only survive by eating you alive, starting with your toes, which it feeds to it's babies in front of your eyes, but not before pulling each toe-nail out, while they're still attached to your feet. It's lazy writing. It's stupid writing. It's copy-cat writing. It's canon-disrupting writing. It's just overall complete and utter retarded bullshit being smeared all over the walls and your face gets slammed into it, being rubbed all over the soggy, brown and quite distinctively smelling woodchip wallpaper.

[Thebestoftherest]

At least they aren't doing that with real life people.

[Mabus]

Season 1 finale:
Alright, so let's just say that it's actually a good episode. And I don't mean compared to the previous ones. I mean on its own, compared to all the episodes from this season, which is a rarity in NuTrek. Pike was for once not acting like an imbecile and behaved like a competent adult and officer. As he should. What I like mostly is the dialogue, for once, it's not bad or cringe and actually feels decent, with the characters actually talking like humans as opposed to some caricatures. I liked the Romulan captain, and couldn't care less about his idiot XO or the pointless Praetor. So it's nice that this season, after taking a nosedive in quality, ends on a higher note.

However, there are a couple of issues that, IMO, drag the episode down:
-The new Kirk. Sorry, but this has to be one of the worst casting I've ever seen in Trek. This guy is not Kirk. He doesn't look remotely like Kirk. He doesn't talk like Kirk. He lacks any of his mannerisms. He sounds absolutely nothing like S1 TOS Kirk. Not even close. The actor's performance is very wooden, no passion no anything, it's like the actor prepared for a generic Starfleet officer role, and then in the last minute the producers decided to make him Kirk. And I don't buy the excuse of "he's different because different timeline", since it's only been a few years and Kirk is already a captain, albeit on a different ship, very little changed up until this point, which was the entire point of the episode, that this is the turning point in history. I don't know what they were thinking, but the new Kirk in this episode stands out like a sore thumb.
-Likewise the audio Scotty also felt like cheap fan service, I don't know who voiced him or if they used old audio of James Doohan, but it's just there for the sake of memberberries. And it's kind of odd that only Scotty joined the ship in this new mini-timeline, where are Bones, Sulu, Chekov?
-The show seems to be more preoccupied with copying OldTrek rather than using it as a starting point for new stories. This time they're copying "Balance of Terror" a bit too much, and while I understand that the point of this episode was to be a new version of that incident, the fact that this isn't the first time it happened, it just feels repetitive. And speaking of repetitive...
-Yet again we have two faceless fleets facing each other and yet again firing at each other in the season finale of the show. And before the standoff, there was a pretty sweet chase of the BoP, which at least it was engaging, while the standoff was just dull and unimaginative. Oh look, more ships I don't know and don't care get blown up by other ships I don't care about. Yawn.
-So they're arresting Una and don't interrogate anyone else? Cause she herself told Pike that Starfleet would come after him too, which makes sense, Starfleet has to know if anyone else on the ship knew about her secret. They even made a big deal that anyone covering for her is committing complicity (obviously) and would get into legal trouble. And now that the timeline has been restored, it's clear that no one will arrest Pike or Chapel or M'Benga and only Una will be punished, so what was the point of all this? Just to get rid of her character?

So I'll give the episode a 7/10, it's not bad, but it relied a bit too much on nostalgia and repetition to be an excellent episode.

[CharlesPhipps]

So they're arresting Una and don't interrogate anyone else? Cause she herself told Pike that Starfleet would come after him too, which makes sense, Starfleet has to know if anyone else on the ship knew about her secret. They even made a big deal that anyone covering for her is committing complicity (obviously) and would get into legal trouble. And now that the timeline has been restored, it's clear that no one will arrest Pike or Chapel or M'Benga and only Una will be punished, so what was the point of all this? Just to get rid of her character?

I mean, if you've seen a single episode of Star Trek, you know how this is going to play out.

* Court martial
* Nasty prosecutor
* Big speech
* Validating decision or tragic one.

"Why should we hold Una's parents decision against her?"

"Because she lied under oath!"

"Because she wanted to see the Stars! Are we not seeking new life! IS IT NOT HOT AND MYSTIQUE!?"

[clearspira]

Season 1 finale:
Alright, so let's just say that it's actually a good episode. And I don't mean compared to the previous ones. I mean on its own, compared to all the episodes from this season, which is a rarity in NuTrek. Pike was for once not acting like an imbecile and behaved like a competent adult and officer. As he should. What I like mostly is the dialogue, for once, it's not bad or cringe and actually feels decent, with the characters actually talking like humans as opposed to some caricatures. I liked the Romulan captain, and couldn't care less about his idiot XO or the pointless Praetor. So it's nice that this season, after taking a nosedive in quality, ends on a higher note.

However, there are a couple of issues that, IMO, drag the episode down:
-The new Kirk. Sorry, but this has to be one of the worst casting I've ever seen in Trek. This guy is not Kirk. He doesn't look remotely like Kirk. He doesn't talk like Kirk. He lacks any of his mannerisms. He sounds absolutely nothing like S1 TOS Kirk. Not even close. The actor's performance is very wooden, no passion no anything, it's like the actor prepared for a generic Starfleet officer role, and then in the last minute the producers decided to make him Kirk. And I don't buy the excuse of "he's different because different timeline", since it's only been a few years and Kirk is already a captain, albeit on a different ship, very little changed up until this point, which was the entire point of the episode, that this is the turning point in history. I don't know what they were thinking, but the new Kirk in this episode stands out like a sore thumb.
-Likewise the audio Scotty also felt like cheap fan service, I don't know who voiced him or if they used old audio of James Doohan, but it's just there for the sake of memberberries. And it's kind of odd that only Scotty joined the ship in this new mini-timeline, where are Bones, Sulu, Chekov?
-The show seems to be more preoccupied with copying OldTrek rather than using it as a starting point for new stories. This time they're copying "Balance of Terror" a bit too much, and while I understand that the point of this episode was to be a new version of that incident, the fact that this isn't the first time it happened, it just feels repetitive. And speaking of repetitive...
-Yet again we have two faceless fleets facing each other and yet again firing at each other in the season finale of the show. And before the standoff, there was a pretty sweet chase of the BoP, which at least it was engaging, while the standoff was just dull and unimaginative. Oh look, more ships I don't know and don't care get blown up by other ships I don't care about. Yawn.
-So they're arresting Una and don't interrogate anyone else? Cause she herself told Pike that Starfleet would come after him too, which makes sense, Starfleet has to know if anyone else on the ship knew about her secret. They even made a big deal that anyone covering for her is committing complicity (obviously) and would get into legal trouble. And now that the timeline has been restored, it's clear that no one will arrest Pike or Chapel or M'Benga and only Una will be punished, so what was the point of all this? Just to get rid of her character?

So I'll give the episode a 7/10, it's not bad, but it relied a bit too much on nostalgia and repetition to be an excellent episode.

I think its time we all admit something: William Shatner, at his best, was a brilliant actor. Yes he often fell into cheese. But the point remains is that whenever they try to recast Kirk, they create someone who is either ''a prick'' in the case of Chris Pine or ''just some guy'' in the case of this ''just some guy'' we have in Strange New Worlds. Kirk wasn't just some headstrong idiot who boned everyone in sight.
He was a man who wanted a family but could never have one and thus was ultimately very lonely. He could stare down death and make it go ''boo'' but was also contemplative and unsure of his abilities in private. He was a professional but also red-blooded which led to mistakes. He was tempered by flaws that he tried to keep in check. He was ready with his fists but also ready to make peace.

Kirk is a far more nuanced character than people give him credit for and Shatner often had the acting chops to show us this man in all of his glory.

Leonard Nimoy's Spock too whilst we are on the subject. It takes great skill to play an emotionless character and this chump in Strange New Worlds hasn't got it.

[Frustration]

At least they aren't doing that with real life people.

So THIS is what Star Trek has come to? We're supposed to be grateful that they're not making a real ethnic group out to be inhuman monsters?

[Thebestoftherest]

Code of honor anyone.

[Mabus]

I mean, if you've seen a single episode of Star Trek, you know how this is going to play out.

* Court martial
* Nasty prosecutor
* Big speech
* Validating decision or tragic one.

"Why should we hold Una's parents decision against her?"

"Because she lied under oath!"

"Because she wanted to see the Stars! Are we not seeking new life! IS IT NOT HOT AND MYSTIQUE!?"

Well, thing is, Una clearly told Pike that if she's found out, Starfleet will also question Pike because, I mean, he's her superior officer, and there's a chance he might have known, or at the very least he's responsible for her regardless if he knew her secret or not. Even worse with the doctor and the nurse, since they do medical checkups on anyone, meaning they must have found out about her secret at one point.

And yet, in the final scene of the episode, Starfleet somehow only arrests her, and that's it? No "Captain Pike, as Una's superior officer, you will too be under investigation, as will the ship's doctor and nurse(s)"? I guess they're saving that for the S2 premiere.

It's just that the final scene feels so rushed, it feels like they just needed a cliffhanger to get people hooked up for the next season, regardless if it made sense or not. Kind of S1 ending of Discovery.

[CharlesPhipps]

Well, thing is, Una clearly told Pike that if she's found out, Starfleet will also question Pike because, I mean, he's her superior officer, and there's a chance he might have known, or at the very least he's responsible for her regardless if he knew her secret or not. Even worse with the doctor and the nurse, since they do medical checkups on anyone, meaning they must have found out about her secret at one point.

And yet, in the final scene of the episode, Starfleet somehow only arrests her, and that's it? No "Captain Pike, as Una's superior officer, you will too be under investigation, as will the ship's doctor and nurse(s)"? I guess they're saving that for the S2 premiere.

It's just that the final scene feels so rushed, it feels like they just needed a cliffhanger to get people hooked up for the next season, regardless if it made sense or not. Kind of S1 ending of Discovery.

Pike also said that he's perfectly willing to defend himself and her with welcoming that fight.

And given Pike is stated to be the most decorated captain in Starfleet, arresting him is a bit more of a deal than I think Una realizes.