Some people, I don't know how many, have seen one or more episodes of the new series.
Serious spoilers from here on out. If you want to have any sense of mystery at all about the premiere, absolutely don't look at this.
I'll put a spoiler tag around things, anyway, until Thursday.
The spoiler tags will be going away.
Pike kicks the Prime Directive to the curb in the first episode. Just flat-out says "To Hell with the Prime Directive." He's not going to let a civilization destroy itself without trying to stop them .
The crew consider that Starfleet is responsible for the locals having discovered the tech to do so.
So, at the climax, when their leader rejects his entreaties not to kill her own people to put down a rebellion by saying 'You're giving me aphorisms. Not nearly so useful as having a big stick," Pike calls Enterprise to drop into low orbit and reveal itself to the entire population. And he says to the leader, "I have the biggest stick.
The crowd at Paley went absolutely berserk at all this. Most folks were clearly thrilled and disbelieving that he'd done it.
He gets the customary TOS slap on the wrist from Starfleet for this. Dire threats are made, and no one really tries to take his command away. There is a nice little fig leaf of an explanation for this that connects the episode to the resolving events of "Such Sweet Sorrow."
Robert April and Sam Kirk appear. It's established in passing that Pike was April's first officer aboard Enterprise. Sam is on crew rotation aboard Enterprise in the sciences division. Pike seems to know him pretty well. The character recurs in "Children of The Comet."
This is the best opening episode for a Trek series since the original.
It has only a slight touch of pilot-itis, because the series opens in media res like the original. Most of the core characters have been serving aboard the ship for some time and know each other - Pike, Una, Spock, M'Benga, Ortegas.
So the story efficiently introduces one effectively new character, La'an, and "reimagines" Chapel just as economically.
Hemmer appears in one shot, I believe, and has no dialogue.
Uhura is, of course, also known to the audience and we're briefly reintroduced to her.
The producers wisely assume that nothing else about Star Trek need be explained to the audience, but do take a few moments to frame the major bit of lore (referenced in the Plot Spoiler tag, above) on which the plot turns.
Serious spoilers from here on out. If you want to have any sense of mystery at all about the premiere, absolutely don't look at this.
The spoiler tags will be going away.
Pike kicks the Prime Directive to the curb in the first episode. Just flat-out says "To Hell with the Prime Directive." He's not going to let a civilization destroy itself without trying to stop them .
The crew consider that Starfleet is responsible for the locals having discovered the tech to do so.
So, at the climax, when their leader rejects his entreaties not to kill her own people to put down a rebellion by saying 'You're giving me aphorisms. Not nearly so useful as having a big stick," Pike calls Enterprise to drop into low orbit and reveal itself to the entire population. And he says to the leader, "I have the biggest stick.
The crowd at Paley went absolutely berserk at all this. Most folks were clearly thrilled and disbelieving that he'd done it.
He gets the customary TOS slap on the wrist from Starfleet for this. Dire threats are made, and no one really tries to take his command away. There is a nice little fig leaf of an explanation for this that connects the episode to the resolving events of "Such Sweet Sorrow."
Robert April and Sam Kirk appear. It's established in passing that Pike was April's first officer aboard Enterprise. Sam is on crew rotation aboard Enterprise in the sciences division. Pike seems to know him pretty well. The character recurs in "Children of The Comet."
This is the best opening episode for a Trek series since the original.
It has only a slight touch of pilot-itis, because the series opens in media res like the original. Most of the core characters have been serving aboard the ship for some time and know each other - Pike, Una, Spock, M'Benga, Ortegas.
So the story efficiently introduces one effectively new character, La'an, and "reimagines" Chapel just as economically.
Hemmer appears in one shot, I believe, and has no dialogue.
Uhura is, of course, also known to the audience and we're briefly reintroduced to her.
The producers wisely assume that nothing else about Star Trek need be explained to the audience, but do take a few moments to frame the major bit of lore (referenced in the Plot Spoiler tag, above) on which the plot turns.
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