this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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LoglineA 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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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  1. I am 100% here for the chaotic energy that Carol Kane is going to bring to this show.
  2. 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.
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I do wish we were able to keep Hemmer around longer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Pelia is like "I have been alive for hundreds of years and I'm going to make that everyone else's problem."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

My gut feeling is that with a couple changes this episode would have hung together better-

  1. 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'
  2. 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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@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.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

@triktrek Oh, boy - Can we talk about “Picard”?! Data dies in Nemesis, a great and noble sacrifice. Which is then diminished, because we brought him back for Picard! The staff didn’t think the Nemesis sacrifice was a worthy sendoff, or perhaps *they* wanted to do the sending off. So we’ll kill him again, this time with feeling! But, season three, the old gang is all getting together again. Maybe we can resurrect him one more time? (I’m aware of the supposed differences, but really. It was Data.)

And they killed off Picard! Another great and noble sacrifice! But no, not really, let’s bring him back as an android, you’ll never notice the difference! 🙄

It’s really at the point where a character's death is robbed of all drama, because there's always a way to resurrect them. It was a dream, they were in the Mirror universe, the mycelium network made a copy, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

For the love of Pete can we stop with all of the lame catch phrases and dumb jokes? Spock should have just uttered something simple suiting the Vulcan personality/character, like "proceed". But no, we have to get a lame line one step above a fart joke...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I think it would have been better as a comic moment towards the end of the episode, as they leave to come home... In the tense moment of stealing the ship and answering distress call it felt very forced.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (5 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thoughts and observations written as I watch- I'll be putting this on both Reddit and Lemmy, since infinity diversity/infinity combinations:

  • Wheeee, NCC-1701 in the Star Trek tag!

  • Previously: Last season happened.

  • Little ships flying!

  • Wonder who the lawyer that Una and Pike have tried to reach is.

  • Oh, hey, the Vulcan musical instrument whose name I can't remember!

  • “Fascinating.” “Isn't that usually his line?”

  • The fellowship on archeological medicine? Is that a reference to Dr. Korby?

  • “We must steal the Enterprise.” Buddy, if I had a nickel every time someone had to steal the Enterprise, I'd have several nickels.

  • Lt. Mitchell gunning for series regular next year with how much screen time she's had early on this episode.

  • Okay, having Carol Kane is already paying dividends.

  • And, yeah, Carol Kane doesn't need alien makeup to be an alien. She's already an alien.

  • I'm still not sure if the emphasis one the warp catch phrase is amazing or annoying, but this scene was funny.

  • KLINGON UPDATE: RIDGES!

  • So clearly La'An's augmented ancestors were genetically engineered to drink a lot. Which, y'know what? Fair.

  • Ah, the borderlands, where utopian rules go away and everyone becomes a Ferengi.

  • Congratulations to Uhura on graduating from the Academy.

  • Ah, the old "I have technology that I'm totally not making up that will blow you up" bluff!

  • New transporter chief?

  • Okay, so the angry borderlands people are trying to do some sort of false flag thing.

  • Redundant Klingon organs, the old standby.

  • Roided-up doctors can tell you what bones they broke as they break them.

  • These are obviously Discovery sets.

  • This action scene, while well-done, is way too long.

  • A D7!

  • “We've gotten out of worse.” “No, not really!”

  • “This I've got to see!”

  • I wonder if “Lanthanite” is a synonym for “El-Aurian”

  • Pelia knowing that being on the Enterprise means adventure is further proof that those ships are goddamn weirdness magnets.

  • Gorn. Yes, it stretches canon but fuck it the Gorn are awesome we'll come up with an explanation later.

  • “For Nichelle”

  • 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!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

“For Nichelle”

I cried. I also teared up a little bit when Celia briefly channeled Nichelle early on in the episode.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I mean, it was telegraphed in S1 but there are definitely going to be some Gorn retcons this season.

I'm fine with this! But it was already tough to reconcile what we saw in S1 with later crews, "attending Gorn weddings" (much harder, imo, than the more reasonable 'they have been encountered, just in a limited capacity and with few survivors) and a full on invasion plotline - featuring Spock and Uhura no less - makes Arena tough to reconcile.

Again, that's fine!

I like the current Klingon design, though I wish they had kept the double nostril from DIS. The redesign went too far but their attempt to physically show the Klingon's redundant biology was appreciated.

The actual episode's plot was...fine. A bit rushed. Felt like a Mass Effect sidequest which is fine for an ep but hopefully not the feeling of the season as a whole. Establishing the character's war experiences and generally situating the series as post-war is probably necessary for the rest of the season. I have to wonder if they went out of their way to only show Spock and Pelia with the Klingons given other crew.....probably aren't ready to split a barrel of bloodwine.

Speaking of Pelia: a race of immortals living in secret alongside humanity and now just regular, serving members of Starfleet? Identifiable by accent even? It's a BIG swing and probably the most interesting (though for now unexplored) idea in the episode.

On the Crossfield refit...presumably from the 'shell' style associated with the pre-TOS ships (as seen in DIS Binary Stars sequence) with the Enterprise's modernized plating? Probably would have been simpler to just have a new class.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

WE ARE BACK!!!! :D

I feel like I have waited so long and it was worth it, while at first I wasn't bought entirely on the action, it really came together at the end.

I loved the entire part of Spock stealing the Enterprize for the first time of many and April's unintentional implications for the future. SNW keeps proving it has the Trek energy, yes it might stumble some, I can understand questions about magic steroids (it's a bit out there even for me but I am also surprised it took this long to have it, but maybe its not meant for combat actually but some medical thing?)

But it doesn't change that the quality of this show is so high, this really manages to capture the feelings of the older series, DS9 and TNG but also with a certain high quality to it.

Loved seeing the Crossfield get another showing and how the D7 has become the mainstay. I like that we get some more traditional trek ships out there. That feel like the older ones.

Klingon blood wine drinking with Spock was amazing.

I also loved Pellia and haven't heard of the lanthenians before but something about the half crazy old lady character is just amazing.

I laughed so much, felt so much heart warming. But then also feeling my heart ripped out with the memory to Nichelle and seeing that she has passed. I remember reading it but had kinda lost track of it.

I am so looking forward to more episodes of this <3

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Ortegas inverted her controller settings as everyone should 🎮

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I must say I'm already a big fan of Pelia.

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