Logline
A distress call from Lt. Noonien-Singh compels Spock to disobey orders and take the USS Enterprise and its crew into disputed space, risking renewed hostilities with the Klingons in a bid to aid their shipmate.
Written by Henry Alonso Myers & Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Chris Fisher
A note about episode discussions on startrek.website
Right now, the plan is to post the /c/startrek discussion when the episode drops on Thursdays. Once the global community has had some time to watch and digest what they’ve seen, the /c/daystrominstitute discussion will go live on Sundays for a more in-depth analysis. This is subject to change as we evaluate what works best for the community as a whole.
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- I am 100% here for the chaotic energy that Carol Kane is going to bring to this show.
- The Klingon captain had exactly the right amount of swagger and sassiness that a TOS-era Klingon captain is supposed to have. I’m glad that they’re moving on from some of the Discovery Klingon characterization while also resisting the urge to jump right to them behaving like TNG Klingons.
Hemmer was my favorite character from season one, and is very difficult to replace in my heart. But Carol Kane is one of those actors you just can’t help but love to see on screen (in any capacity). It’s going to be very hard to be upset knowing she’ll be around.
I do wish we were able to keep Hemmer around longer.
Completely agree with both points. The Klingons were altogether great - makeup and hair were perfect, and the captain at the end was the icing on the cake
I just love this show, the feeling I get when the intro rolls is the same as when I was I was 15 watching the TNG intro on TV. The characters all feel special and unique even if I’ve seen every episode of every series.
I’ve wanted a whole show about the years when Pike commanded the enterprise since I saw The Managerie as a kid. I’m so happy we’re finally getting it and it’s so good.
I loved that they gave Dr. M’Benga some screentime front and center and showed that he can throw down if necessary, even if it was with the help of some super serum stuff. And while I even loved his (and Nurse Chapel’s ) elaborate fight scene and enjoyed the way they filmed it, I’m also not sure if it quite fits with Star Trek. Just not sure yet with the excessive slow motion. The camera angles however were some great artistic choice. But overall one great start to season 2.
I thought the fight scene was kinda out-of-character for a doctor and a nurse. If anyone would have an inherent respect for life and health of other beings, you’d expect it to be medical workers: beating them up is just highly unethical. Why couldn’t they have used subterfuge to achieve the same goals?
He might be doctor, but he also served in the war and from what it looks like the front lines. Same goes for the nurse.
That confused me a bit, were M’benga and Chapel not serving in the Enterprise during its last five year mission, which we were told they were not called back from to fight?
In the season one premiere, it was clear that both M’Benga and Chapel had just rotated onto the Enterprise while she was under repair.
Pike knew M’Benga and was please to see him, but didn’t expect to find him in sickbay. Chapel was introduced to Pike as a civilian on assignment.
Fair dos, that must have slipped my memory.
I thought that too - even moreso how much it took me out of the show to see them take on three klingons per person. Still a great show and decent episode, but that bit did take me out a bit
those were klingons. they basically did them a favor, engaging in a fight
M’Benga turned out to be my favorite character from last season, and I’m glad they’ve been able to stretch his character out beyond having it centered around his daughter this season. He should have an interesting character arc from what they showed in this episode.
@Fixzylicious @aufsichtsrat I think Chapel and Spock are going on a journey together too. I ❤️ Jess Bush
He definitely is one of my favorites, too.
@aufsichtsrat @ValueSubtracted I think it was a needless cinematographic choice to use slow mo there. With the excessive cuts, it shows a lack of fight choreography (contrast with Jackie Chan movies, Kingsman, etc.)
I’m still waiting for M’Benga to slap Spock silly.
Yeah, I think I might agree, was perhaps just a tad bit too much on the slow mo. It will be interesting to see how the Dr will handle Spock once he inevitable breaks Chaple’s heart.
I thought it was highlighting the effects of the serum they had taken. To chapel/m’benga time had slowed.
I’d say it fits more with the space cowboy ethos of the TOS era (although we saw no two handed punches). If they did it in the TNG era it’d feel more out of place.
I was waiting for the double handed punch! Gutted they didn’t do it.
It’s too powerful.
Especially when they’re on whatever that green shit is!
It would have been awesome to see nurse chapel do a double handed punch to a Klingon face and their head just explodes.
Really delighted with this episode.
No complaints. Can’t really buy into the nitpicks on this one. It seemed completely Trek, and gave many of the ensemble their moments to shine. Production design gorgeous, virtual staging more seamless, costumes excellent, vfx great.
I like how M’Benga has hoarded the green vial as part of his lingering trauma. Better, we finally see a physician giving himself the juice instead of Kirk or some other command officer. In fact, one has to wonder if McCoy carried a stash provided by M’Benga.
Spock’s unresolved feelings for Chapel are well crafted and mirror the lingering pain we see her left with in TOS. It makes those scenes with Chapel in TOS comprehensible instead of cringe-inducing.
Ortegas inverted her controller settings as everyone should 🎮
Honestly Inverted Stick for Flight controls makes so much more sense on controller because that’s what you would do with an actual flight stick
Being a ship already, wouldn’t the Ent already be inverted and she’s just changed it back?
My gut feeling is that with a couple changes this episode would have hung together better-
- Have them take a shuttle instead of the Enterprise. This lowers the stakes for our command crew and simply makes more sense than half the crew (that wasn’t on leave) agreeing to steal a ship. It also means they need to figure out a different way to deal with the fake Federation ship at the end of the episode is some way other than ‘shoot it with bigger guns’
- Have Chapel and M’Benga do something within their character strengths to escape instead of magic drug that lets them hand-to-hand fight their way through a dozen or more Klingons.
That said, there were a lot of things I DID like about the episode, including the Klingon Captain at the end and the new Chief Engineer.
@StreetcornPips @startrek I like the shuttle idea. I almost stopped watching when Spock said, “steal the ship,” and then again when everyone said “Hunh. Okay!” It always kills me when a story revolves around an organization as large and powerful as the Federation allowing stuff like this (or the myriad of examples of rule breaking, insubordination, etc.) to happen.
If there’s one thing that is consistent about the Federation show-to-show and season-to-season is that they pretty much always allow officers to break literally any of the rules as long as the outcome is good. How many times has a ship been stolen for a rescue mission, orders been ignored, senior officers been bamboozled and sidelined, and it’s almost always totally forgiven because it turned out OK in the end. Hell, Janeway straight-up murdered Tuvix as he begged for his life and everyone was like “oh, um, fine?”
I used to think it was lazy writing, but now I think it’s actually just the way the Federation is characterized. The Federation being theoretically utopian and egalitarian but functionally utilitarian makes things like Section 31 make sense, the same way that TNG Klingons claim to be about honor but really they’re treacherous schemers no better than any other species.
That was a purdy opening sequence with the shuttle/drones zooming past the starbase. Good open.
I’m loving the scale they’re using with the ships/bases. Some ships look tiny, and other times you get a sense of how massive some of these structures are. It’s an artistic choice that’s well executed.
I can’t quite tell you why but I like April so far too. Just seems well acted I guess. Not a lot to go on yet ofc.
I’m liking the recurring villain of “the Gorn” popping up; weaving between the episodic stories. I hope, and suspect, that they’re going to continue that trend well. I don’t want them to lean one way or the other too far. So far I like the balance. I like the mystique and menace they’ve orchestrated too.
“…and we’re going to find a way to win, because it’s what’s right.” Anson Mount sells ‘boyscout’ so well. Man deserves his own show or something…
Pike, “did you manage to even talk to her?”
#1, “she won’t respond.”
Pike, “she won’t take my calls either.”I get the feeling the lawyer Pike is going to get isn’t “refusing to return their calls” so much as is probably “in trouble waiting to be rescued.” My guess is next ep Pike rescues her. Maybe that ep or the ep after she’ll help Una?
I loved the Vulcan lute accompanying Spock’s frustrations throughout the episode.
door chime
Spock misses a note
Pelia’s entertaining, nice addition. Adds a fun PoV and the actress is giving the role a lot. (RiP Hemmer.)
“You do know I teach a course on warp core breaches at the Academy, yes?”
You know who she reminds me of? Grand Nagus Zekky. (Not Zek, Zekky, specifically when he’s all lovey-dovey around Moogie.)
Ortegas had a couple good moments. Her questioning Pelia, and I loved the look on her face after she evades a bunch of incoming fire. I’m sure I’ve had that exact look when I get away with crap I shouldn’t in a game. Particularly PvP games.
Her confidence when hiding from the Klingons too. ("Over"confidence?)
Welp, this isn’t the worst look Klingons have had.
That blood wine actually looks like blood. I am impressed, whoever is responsible for that did a great job.
La’an channeling some Princess-Leia-conning-Jabba energy with that Antimatter Detonation Switch ruse on the Klingon buyer.
Chapel/M’Benga, that was quite the ride.
Will say I’m curious what/if any side-effects or drawbacks are with that serum. I’m wondering if maybe there’s an ingredient that’s impossible to synthesize and difficult to procure. (Ie. from an endangered animal/plant.) Ergo why it’s not equipped by everyone in Starfleet security.
M’Benga has some interesting demons in his past.
Finally, noticed something overarching this episode.
There’s some measure of failure in almost all the major plot-lines.
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Pike/Una can’t contact this Lawyer they apparently need.
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Spock can’t con Pelia, particularly due to his inability to lie.
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Chapel/M’Benga wander off to go do something noble but to the viewer, obviously ill-conceived. The girl shouts their names, and shortly after they’re, unsurprisingly, dragged off at gunpoint.
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They could’ve wrapped up the whole episode with the Klingon ship never finding out. They didn’t end it that way. The false-flag ship makes it out, the Klingons see.
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Bit of a stretch so it’s last and not a hill I’m dying on, but the admiralty seem to have had a failure to predict or even understand the Gorn. Not really a failure in the way the others were, but still a failure of-sorts.
Overall I loved it, couple missteps and a joke or two that didn’t land, but no dealbreakers and just lots of great entertainment.
Looking forward to more.
@Dalakaar @ValueSubtracted I’m definitely wondering what the angle is with the Klingons and their look. We even got Discovery footage in the recap
It’ll be particularly interesting to see what they do if we meet any Klingons who were also in TOS.
Will they show them as Augment Klingons, as they did in TOS? Or will they ignore it completely?
@dan I’m holding out hope that they’ll do a recast of Kor, Kang, and/or Koloth and show them with flat foreheads, and then have L’Rell show up with the s2 Discovery look.
I would love that so much. I really want to see a scene with various kinds of Klingons.
Kor is related to Kol, from Disco S1. Not sure how closely related, but they’re both of the house of Kor. With Kol being the head of the house when he died, and Kor being the last member of the house in DS9, maybe there’s some opportunity there to connect the stories.
Maybe Kor wants vengeance for his cousin’s death, and since the Discovery is now gone, he just goes after the Federation’s flagship.
My headcanon is that Rynar, Kor’s father, is a brother of Kol-sha, the father of Kol.
We are years away from “The Incident” that caused most of the Klingon population to lose their forehead ridges. Of course Klingons don’t discuss the issue with outsiders.
But Strange New Worlds takes place 100 years after it. It’s less than a decade before TOS.
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Pelia is like “I have been alive for hundreds of years and I’m going to make that everyone else’s problem.”
Blowing up a Crossfield class in an episode with real Klingons weeks after we learned of Discovery’s cancellation feels quite loaded with subtext. Reminds me of DS9 blowing up a Galaxy class on screen within a week of TNG ending.
I must have really zoned out toward the end of Discovery because I thought it was over long ago.
Discovery has been cancelled!? I must have missed that somehow 😢, was still hoping for a season 6.
Good, I did not like Disco. Cinematography, characters, plotlines, all of it.
Well, not good because some of us did like it ;-). Oh well, on to the next one - I wonder how long SNW will last. I kind of like it so I hope it gets at least up to season 5.
Season 5 was in advanced post production when the announcement was made that it would be the final season. The announcement included information that there would be additional content added to wrap the show.
Three additional shooting days happened in Toronto just before the strike. So it doesn’t sound like an additional episode was added but rather some scenes.
Fortunately, it looks like the new show Starfleet Academy will be in the 32nd century which offers opportunities for Discovery characters to appear as guests.
Not sure if’s actually a Crossfield, though. It looks different even if the transponder identified it as one. It was basically a kitbash.
The Galaxy class in that DS9 episode had an entirely different bridge. Just because it had a different module installed, the frame was still Crossfield.
As someone who was once banned from the “subreddit” because I disagreed with the style choices of the STD Klingons, I finally feel vindicated.
I’m so happy to have SNW back. Whoever decided to put Carol Kane in the show needs to get a raise; she is absolutely spectacular. I’m very curious to see where her character goes.
I enjoy the idea of Spock being more emotional it really puts it into perspective that Vulcans have emotions they just try to keep them under lock and key and Spock being half human is having a harder time with that compared to most Vulcans is… relatable.
I did not like weird green super power drug that Chapel and M’Benga took to fight the the Klingons. It came from no where, the shot on the eyes right out of Dread made me think it was literally Slo-Mo from that movie. It really wasn’t necessary, they could have just grabbed phasers somewhere instead.
I’m not realy sure how I feel about them using the term false flag in Star Trek. The plot makes sense but still it’s a very charged term today.
Yes, what was up with the green stuff?? I thought maybe I missed something from last season and kept watching thinking I’d remember but… Nope. I was half expecting them to get time-accelerated like in TOST Wink of an Eye episode, so they could just zip past all the Klingons.
Yeah, the drug scene didn’t feel great to me, they literally could have just found phasers or found a cleverer way around it.
I was wondering if you could explain the issue with the term ‘false flag?’ As far as I was aware, it’s when party A carries out an action and tries to frame party B for it - which was exactly what was happening here.
I was trying to figure out how to explain it succinctly and found this link which does a way better job than I could have: https://www.adl.org/glossary/false-flag
Ah, I understand your comment better. I am still not sure it’s enough to turn it (generally) into a no-go term. Plenty of news outlets have been commenting on Russian false flags against Ukraine and that’s used more in the context of how it’s used in this episode.
Fair.
Also, doesn’t the term date back to the Age of Sail? And TOS was explicitly supposed to be Horatio Hornblower in Space. It makes sense thematically to use nautical terms.
That green drug was basically Underdog’s super energy pill. An unnecessary ‘pocket frannistan’ solution to the problem of escaping the Klingons.
I enjoyed her in Gotham & Kimmy Schmidt.
Finally had time to watch it tonight and I thought it was great.
I feel like what seemed corny or off was on purpose. Spock is on a learning curve with his emotions/duty conundrum and we certainly felt that.
Looking forward to next week!
That was my interpretation too. I’m cautiously optimistic!
I also enjoyed this week’s episode. I don’t care for how close Spock and nurse Chapel are, but ok that’s fine I guess lol
I hope to see more cooking.
Before season 1, I was sceptical about what I’d heard of the direction they were taking with Chapel, but Jess Bush’s depiction of her has been one of my favourite things about the show so far. I’m happy to see more of her and Spock working their way through this.
👍
After like the first episode with Chapel where I was a little ~~ ehh, I really do like how the character has progressed. I feel like this is the one place where I’m really liking the character changes.
Regarding Nurse Chapel almost dying - this is one of the TV/movie tropes that I think is such a cheap and terrible device and I am tired of it. Discovery was full of these scenes where they make you believe a main character really almost died, only to survive after all, and having their crew mates weep for them (I am looking at you Burnham). There are much better ways to create good drama.
Thoughts and observations written as I watch- I’ll be putting this on both Reddit and Lemmy, since infinity diversity/infinity combinations:
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Wheeee, NCC-1701 in the Star Trek tag!
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Previously: Last season happened.
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Little ships flying!
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Wonder who the lawyer that Una and Pike have tried to reach is.
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Oh, hey, the Vulcan musical instrument whose name I can’t remember!
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“Fascinating.” “Isn’t that usually his line?”
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The fellowship on archeological medicine? Is that a reference to Dr. Korby?
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“We must steal the Enterprise.” Buddy, if I had a nickel every time someone had to steal the Enterprise, I’d have several nickels.
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Lt. Mitchell gunning for series regular next year with how much screen time she’s had early on this episode.
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Okay, having Carol Kane is already paying dividends.
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And, yeah, Carol Kane doesn’t need alien makeup to be an alien. She’s already an alien.
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I’m still not sure if the emphasis one the warp catch phrase is amazing or annoying, but this scene was funny.
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KLINGON UPDATE: RIDGES!
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So clearly La’An’s augmented ancestors were genetically engineered to drink a lot. Which, y’know what? Fair.
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Ah, the borderlands, where utopian rules go away and everyone becomes a Ferengi.
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Congratulations to Uhura on graduating from the Academy.
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Ah, the old “I have technology that I’m totally not making up that will blow you up” bluff!
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New transporter chief?
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Okay, so the angry borderlands people are trying to do some sort of false flag thing.
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Redundant Klingon organs, the old standby.
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Roided-up doctors can tell you what bones they broke as they break them.
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These are obviously Discovery sets.
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This action scene, while well-done, is way too long.
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A D7!
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“We’ve gotten out of worse.” “No, not really!”
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“This I’ve got to see!”
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I wonder if “Lanthanite” is a synonym for “El-Aurian”
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Pelia knowing that being on the Enterprise means adventure is further proof that those ships are goddamn weirdness magnets.
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Gorn. Yes, it stretches canon but fuck it the Gorn are awesome we’ll come up with an explanation later.
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“For Nichelle”
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Overall, while not one of the better episodes, it still was a good start to the season. It wrapped up one of the hanging threads of last year (La’An), we continued to see some of Young Spock’s struggles with his emotions before he became the more-Vulcan Spock that Nimoy was in the main TOS series, and we got our first look at Carol Kane as the nutty new engineer. Overall, I’ll call that a win!
“For Nichelle”
I cried. I also teared up a little bit when Celia briefly channeled Nichelle early on in the episode.
Yeah that got me too.
@FormerGameDev @Continuumguy me too
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Did anyone else giggle uncontrollably at “we must steal the Enterprise”?
It’s such a great meta joke because we know he’s going to do this many more times, so it really does seem obvious for us.
Also unbeknownst to him, it would be most famously stolen to resurrect his genesis-revived corpse!
He gets good at hot wiring that ship
They need to install a lo-jack
Yup. Ethan Peck’s delivery was impeccable.
