Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x03 - "Ghosts of Illyria"

Uhura was on the bridge when the lockdown was ordered but next scene she is in her quarters.
Even in the 23rd century they can’t do lockdowns correctly

 

I wondered if maybe they were testing her out as a Vulcan.

 

That too.

 

I have to rewatch, but wasn't the order for all non-essential personnel to return to quarters?

 

It was.

 

But she was on duty.

 

Perhaps her duty shift ended between the time we saw her on the bridge and the lockdown? Perhaps a ranking comms officer took over when "non-essential" personnel were ordered to quarters?

 

If they'd meant non-essential to be synonymous with off-duty, why did they not simply say off-duty? The fact that they didn't say off-duty pretty much implies that they're talking about a superset of off-duty personnel, in other words ordering non-essential on-duty personnel to confine themselves to quarters as well.

Kinda like in real life during the COVID pandemic? A lotta jobs weren't considered essential.

 

I still think she should have stayed where she was. The idea of a lockdown is to stop people interacting with each other

 

It's possible that I've been misinformed. My information comes from a 90s book called The Star Trek Compendium, which covers the entire history of TOS from the first pitches by Roddenberry to the casting and production of the series, TAS and the movies, with a short epilogue on Generations, as the movie wasn't out yet.

I've always found the book very well researched, and assumed their short description of this makeup test was accurate.

EDIT: I just rechecked and it's a single picture with the caption "An unused makeup for Number One". That was the source of my comment.

 

I agree with you. Anyone she interacted with on the way to her quarters could have been infected.

Despite these hiccups, SNW is rapidly cementing itself as (IMO, for what that is worth) the best of the nu Trek shows.

 

In 1966, this was all a call back to World War II and the Nazis who passed various genetic Purity laws, and try to legislate breading to the point that it should only produced geneticly superior Germans who will of course expand and defend the Reich. (in Germany at the time anyone who was considered to have any hereditary or genetic defect was forcibly sterilized). All this was just twenty-five or so years in the past at the time the episode originally aired.

 

I'm still a bit iffy about it. Despite the quality of the first episode, I've found that the second wasn't as good, and the third a bit disappointing. I guess one thing that bothers me is how the... logic of the events, for lack of a better word, isn't very solid. I'll have to watch it again but the explanation both for the spread of the virus and how they managed to resolve it didn't work for me.

So, surprisingly, for now Lower Decks, of all series, is the best New Trek!

 

In that case, everybody should have stayed where they were, whether on or off duty, essential or inessential, and the problem transcends Uhura.

Thanks for that.

 

Yeah, it’s good but I still think Lower Decks is the best.

 

6.5/10 (I voted 6 since there are no half-points in the poll). Wasn't super wild about this one.

The disease and working out the fate of the colonists could've been solid material for an episode all on their own. I don't feel like having the final act take the turn it did worked very well. The Illyrian background reveal from Una could have had a lot more weight, and I think the trouble is that we're told about Federation prejudice against genetic augmentation more than we're shown it; seeing it actually manifest in at least one member of the crew would have given some real teeth to the threat of prejudice (I don't feel like La'an really counts given her very specific backstory), and the long-term risk that Pike would ultimately be taking in defending her decision to hide her ancestry.

Combined with the final-act reveal of M'Benga's effective flouting of safety measures -- much as I liked seeing more of M'Benga -- we have a lot of revelations here that feel like they should be very consequential in the long term, much more so than we're seeing as yet. Maybe they're setting up a longer story there, I guess we'll see.

There was still a lot to like. The characters are all delightful (really enjoyed seeing more of Hemmer), the production values are gorgeous, the light-virus thing was campy but enjoyable... and one thing I did really like about Una's Illyrian-background reveal is the scene in her personal log where she very directly calls out the model minority syndrome that underlies Pike's ultimate decision to stand by her. The linked questions "what if I wasn't 'one of the good ones'?" and "when will it be okay to simply be me?" poignantly capture why model-minority myths are so insidious... and the fact that she deletes the log gives that material a bit of added heft.

 

Wow, this was.... not a good episode.
Incredibly mixed. The stuff I liked, I really liked. The stuff I did't like, I really didn't.

Now what I absolutely loved about this episode:
The characters. The tone. The pacing. The way the people talk, interact. How everyting looks. This show is incredible. I love the old school leather jackets. And I was really looking forward to get to know Dr. Mbenga, No. 1, Hemmer, Chapel better. These are really the ones I'm looking forward to.

Sadly, this episode's plot was very mundane. I love a good infection story. But this one doesn't add anything to the formula. My biggest issue though is - WAAAAY too many dark secrets.

The stupid "Starfleet is stupid/evil"-trope from new Trek shines through again. THe Ilyrian (sp?) "reveal" fell completely flat for me. I never liked human looking aliens, if they wanted to have a super strong woman on board - why not take La'an? And it feels this reveal doesn''t really add anything, except another layer of "Starfleet predjudiced" and "good white guys standing up to authority to make things right".

The worst part was the double-whammy with M'Benga ALSO having a dark secret (AND of course La'an...). And his whole "reveal" felt like a super rushed, worse version of ENT S4 "Daedalus".

Anyway - I gave this episode a 6/10. OTOH this is another great proof for episodic Star Trek - as I just loved the character interactions, will take the few bits of charcter continuity from this episode to the next, and forget about the plot & this episode otherwise and be happy about the other ones.
This one didn't convince me. I still think the show is fantastic though.

 

I think the biggest problem is - we get to know these dark secrets about No. 1 & Dr. Mbenga in the very first episodes focusing on them.

I think they would have had more of an impact if they came as surprises for characters we know. Instead their secret is in the very first episode we actually learn about them.

That they did that twice, to two characters in the same episode, is the most baffling part.

 

ENSIGN: Help! You materialized me aboard the alien ship from Arrival! I'm trapped! How will I get out? Wait. I know...



ENSIGN: Muad'Dib!!!



NUMBER ONE: Sheesh! Hemmer is so light...skinned...



HEMMER: I'm just about ready to inject this molten caramel into the warp core. We're going to have the sweetest ride in Starfleet!

 

Slight corrections:

La'an doesn't have a dark secret I think. It seems common knowledge.

And Number One, as far as we can tell, is not an alien. Forget the ENT Illyrians.