Spoilers Strange New Worlds 1x01 - "Strange New Worlds"

[DaveyNY]

I hope not. That might clash a bit more with Amok Time, especially if he opens up to the crew.

I doubt he'd let just anybody onboard know about stuff like that.
It would likely just be Pike & M'Benga.
(neither of whom are around during "Amok Time")

If Chapel should become aware, it might be the reason she brings him the Plomeek soup during that episode.
Other than seeing Spock's rage, nothing more was said of that incident and Chapel would be well aware of his desire to keep his personal life private.

I don't exactly remember the timeline, but perhaps M'Benga comes back aboard the Enterprise for awhile during Kirk's Captaincy due to this incident?

 

[1001001]

I re-watched this episode yesterday.

Really good. My minor quibbles are still there, but easily overlooked because of the overall quality of the episode.

 

[jackoverfull]

*Canon.

That was the joke.

I don't exactly remember the timeline, but perhaps M'Benga comes back aboard the Enterprise for awhile during Kirk's Captaincy due to this incident?

I have no idea of the timeline, sometimes he is on board, other times he probably isn’t.

 

[cooleddie74]

He does serve a residency in a Vulcan ward at one point, giving him knowledge about Vulcan physiology that helps him save Spock's life in "A Private Little War(TOS)." That might be the perfect excuse to get him off the ship and make way for Dr. Mark Piper and then later McCoy.

 

[XCV330]

Kirk is smiling and in a good mood right after losing two of his crewmembers to a mutated 20th century Earth probe that almost destroyed all life on Earth. When he gestures to the Navigator and says: "Thataway" he's definitely not mourning Decker and Ilia.

He wouldn't even declare them dead so their family members could get some closure, death benefits and a folded up UFP flag. I wonder if they ever got taken off the MIA lists.

In that sense, it's very much like The Cage!

Chapel chasing down the poor awoken sports fan was pretty good, though.

So was Kirk at the end of TWOK. It's the nature of storytelling--the hero comes away with new insight before plunging into the darkness again.

I felt like in that situation, and possibly others, there was a bit of Survivor's high, if thats a thing, just glad to have made it through the trauma. The survivors guilt and the shakes and everything else comes later. That or McCoy just gives everyone an extremely mild dose of ketamine out of camera shot.

 

[Vince A]

I thought it was OK. Most shows get better as they go on and I imagine this one will as well.

Some general observations:

Uhuru: Celia Rose Gooding playing Uhuru pretty much nailed it. I thought I was going to have a hard time seeing someone that isn't Nichelle Nichols as the same character, but Gooding really pulled it off and came off quite likable and charming.

Spock: Can't say the same for Spock. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something isn't working with the actor’s performance or presence. He somehow doesn’t seem “Vulcan.”

Singh: Much like Tarantino’s love of feet, I guess Kurtzmans “Mean-Girl” fetish is just something that’s going to be continuously forced on the audience. I’m not trying to kink-shame the guy, but surely, he must see how this is getting in the way of good storytelling.

Robert April: I’ve seen comments on YouTube and other places complaining about the race change. I’m not sure what the big deal is. April was a cartoon character who appeared in one episode, and regardless, his character was not defined by his race. Also, the actor did a fine job and had good chemistry with Pike, I hope we see more of him.

I thought Uhuru establishing rapport with the sports fan over “tagball” so Nurse Chapel could apprehend him was brilliant and a true classic trek moment.

Overall, I felt like the main premise was inspired by TOS’s “A Piece of the Action”, where a pre-warp Earth-type society at war was contaminated by Federation Tech. “Action” seemed to handle the sociological aspects better, and SNW was far less subtle, but still it was still a pretty good update on a similar premise.

My biggest problem with the episode was how the Gorn have now been retconned as savages. This completely negates the anti-prejudice message of TOS’s Arena, and why I’m only giving this episode a 4 out of 10. This was a really, really big screw-up.

 

[kirk55555]

It's not "casual" if they are in a long term relationship! Unless you believe all sex outside of marriage is always"casual."
I do not. We view the material through our own very Earth Human cultural biases it seems.

Vulcan's do not have sex for pleasure is a hill I'm willing to die on. Its a very human idea that sex is something to do for recreation. I am not judging them by human standards, who cares what consenting adults do and marriage is just a legal status as far as I'm concerned, but Vulcan's don't do things for pure pleasure. Casual sex is as out of character for a Vulcan as opening laughing or crying would be. If they aren't trying to have a kid, I don't think a full blooded Vulcan would ever have sex outside of Pon Farr.

Also, if a Vulcan regularly has sex, why would they even undergo Pon Farr? Honestly, making Vulcan's basically go into heat is a pretty weird idea, but it made sense if Vulcans don't usually have sex willingly, meaning that the Pon Farr was an evolutionary thing to insure the population stays stable in a world where most people aren't doing emotional or pleasurable things. If the majority of Vulcan's are just casually screwing, then there was no reason for them to apparently evolve to become like dogs in heat on a cycle. Romulans don't seem to have Pon Farr, and I've always assumed that they don't because they don't suppress their emotions, so they never needed the biological push to keep their population stable.

Again, this is just a bad, but small, subplot in an excellent episode of TV. At worst, if it gets to bad I can skip the subplot if it shows up again, its not effecting my enjoyment of the show, I just think its a bit of modern Trek stupidity sneaking into the show.

 

[jackoverfull]

Vulcan's do not have sex for pleasure is a hill I'm willing to die on. Its a very human idea that sex is something to do for recreation. I am not judging them by human standards, who cares what consenting adults do and marriage is just a legal status as far as I'm concerned, but Vulcan's don't do things for pure pleasure

Vulcans do a lot of things for pleasure, especially intellectual. And there are plenty of ways to justify sharing a deeper bond if you want to avoid the "pleasure" term.

Casual sex is as out of character for a Vulcan as opening laughing or crying would be. If they aren't trying to have a kid, I don't think a full blooded Vulcan would ever have sex outside of Pon Farr.

T'Pol would disagree.

Also, if a Vulcan regularly has sex, why would they even undergo Pon Farr?

Evolution is rarely logical. Also, do you realise that many animal species that go trough heat, such as dogs, can and do mate even when not in heat (but can't usually get pregnant then)?

 

[Belz...]

Kahn: Much like Tarantino’s love of feet, I guess Kurtzmans “Mean-Girl” fetish is just something that’s going to be continuously forced on the audience. I’m not trying to kink-shame the guy, but surely, he must see how this is getting in the way of good storytelling.

What mean girl? La'an? She's not mean.

My biggest problem with the episode was how the Gorn have now been retconned as savages.

They weren't.

 

[Mudd]

The Gorn are being established here as lacking empathy and having a very alien reproductive cycle and sense of values. All of that is completely consistent with their appearance in "Arena."

 

[Belz...]

Vulcan's do not have sex for pleasure is a hill I'm willing to die on.

Based on what? You've made it up.

Casual sex is as out of character for a Vulcan as opening laughing or crying would be.

Are you just flat out ignoring counter-arguments? I've already addressed that.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Gorn were one of the most alien and mysterious cultures encountered in TOS, up there with the Melkotians and the Zetarians in terms of how eerie or even menacing their first appearance was depicted. Nothing hinted at in SNW contradicts that.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

How many times have we encountered the Gorn in canon?

I don't remember much other than the infamous Kirk vs Gorn Captain fight on the surface of the planet and Kirk making a improvised Black Powder Canon.

 

[fireproof78]

Can't say the same for Spock. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something isn't working with the actor’s performance or presence. He somehow doesn’t seem “Vulcan.”

He's not Vulcan. He's half-Vulcan, per the Cage.

My biggest problem with the episode was how the Gorn have now been retconned as savages

How so? What information in Arena is contradicted here? How much information about the Gorn do we have in the shows?

What I am seeing, by and large, is that what is being contradicted is fan assumption not actual statements made in the shows.

 

[cooleddie74]

TOS was the first official face-to-face between a Starfleet officer and a Gorn. But the Gorn were known of as early as Archer in 2155 and La'an's experiences nearly a century later show that the Gorn were operating on the periphery of known space around 2240.

 

[DaveyNY]

Vulcan's do not have sex for pleasure is a hill I'm willing to die on.

That whole premise dies in the face of T'Pring having been fooling around with Stonn in Spock's absence.
They were not betrothed to each other and it's pretty obvious they had been planning to eliminate Spock with the Kal-if-fee.

 

[jackoverfull]

How many times have we encountered the Gorn in canon?

I don't remember much other than the infamous Kirk vs Gorn Captain fight on the surface of the planet and Kirk making a improvised Black Powder Canon.

One appeared in the Mirror episode of Enterprise, also.

 

[Vince A]

What mean girl? La'an? She's not mean.


They weren't.

Yes La'an. (Sorry I meant Singh not Kahn lol. I edited my OP)

Maybe "mean" isn't the right word, (Cranky?) but at least based on this episode, La'an is another Burnham/Raffi-type who continually pop up in Kurtzman productions, even his non-trek related ones.

 

[fireproof78]

Yes La'an. (Sorry I meant Singh not Kahn lol. I edited my OP)

Maybe "mean" isn't the right word, but at least based on this episode, La'an is another Burnham/Raffi-type insubordinate type who continually pop up in Kurtzman productions, even his non-trek related ones.

Opinionated people are not a bad thing.

 

[Mudd]

There's nothing mean about La'an. She's just a determined security type - they pop up in lots of popular fiction, especially these days, and there's no way to sort her out as a special affectation of Kurtzman's.