Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x04 - "Memento Mori"

So Sam Kirk has been missing for a while. Pike must've been extremely hard on his bungling on that last away mission he was on.

 

How?

 

Another unabashed 10.

I loved this one from beginning to end. All the subplots were directly related to and served the main story; and I LOVE that we're back to the TOS era of sensors NOT being perfectly and nearly and automatically always able to show everything out there. (That was something I started to dislike about TNG - the lack of any real tactics or 'fog of war' in a lot of their encounters. If a ship didn't have cloaking, the 1701-D was told everything by a scan.) By contrast, in this instance we had:

- The cargo vessel not being instantly identifiable as Federation (and it's not sending any of the regular transponder or other signals because hey, they're TRYING to hide - and no, Federation officers here aren't able recognize every type of ship on sight - IE Yes, they're actual human beings without instant of infinite recall and no, the main computer can't just instantly tell them.

- The Gorn being undetectable until La'an believed it could be them, and she recalled aspects of her encounter and gave Spock something more to try and look for.

- The improvised 'Space Sonar' and being creative with the technology they had available.

- Pike deciding to take a dangerous gamble and for once Spock can't tell them something to the effect of "Our hull should hold for 2.43 hours..." Finally something he didn't know, nor could he reliably calculate. I mean wow yes, they really have to take a risk with no real idea of the outcome.

- The Gorn having observable and consistent tactics that can be observed and countered. Loved that Pike took what La'an knew about the Gorn and was able to be shown using it against them to his advantage.

- And finally - Starfleet has EV suits stored in a location that MIGHT require their use in an emergency because it's an area routinely exposed to space. (I will say I was sad it took Pike to ask the question before they both thought - "Oh yeah, if we're wearing space suits, we can survive a decompression of the main cargo bay...")

- Also loved the small medical drama and that it ultimately resolved BECAUSE they managed to bring the medical systems back online before Una succumbed to the more major of her wounds; and I did like that she gave the Plasma they were going to use for her on someone who at that time had a more acute and critical need for it at that instant.

- LOVED the Mind Meld sequence between Spock and La'an; and that Spock is somewhat upset about La'an finding out about Spock's sister and sacrifice, including how it affected him. But it came across as a natural consequence , and Spock was quick to end the link once they had the info needed.

- Liked that the Cargo Bay 'malfunctioning device could become a bomb' wasn't overplayed in that Hemmer and Uhura were able to competently and somewhat calming keep it all under control until the end, and it wasn't (compared to everything else) all that big of an issue. I'm also happy they actually used a photon torpedo as a bomb to take out an enemy ship; and we didn't have the 'turn the malfunctioning bomb into a device that ultimately saves the day...' trope. Yes, in the end Pike timed everything to use the device to make it appear the 1701 exploded, but hey, if it had done that in the Cargo bay, that's what would have happened; so it's a good and logical ruse.

I DO hope the writers at least acknowledge the level of damage the 1701 took here and mention a repair visit to; or have the ship be shown at or leaving a Starbase in Episode 5. I like the episodic-ness, but I don't want to see a return to the 'nearly destroyed this week, but instantly back to 100% by the next episode' trope. (And yes, they did show repairs being done and a relatively clean corridor at the end, but still.)

Really happy that as far as I'm concerned SNW is 4 for 4 out of the gate. Aside from some minor nit picks here and there, all 4 to date have been GREAT Star Trek and very entertaining.

 

Sometimes the time-tested basics are best.

As for this episode, hot damn was it good! Mystery, horror, intrigue, a little lightheartedness, but mostly focused and serious without digging too deep into melodrama. The pacing on this was solid, IMO, taking us from point to point to point without really lagging much, save for a little exposition here and there. Even the mind meld scene was pretty short and to the point, which was appreciated, because La'an and Spock's shuttle was sitting very closely to two powerful predators.

Speaking of, I liked the approach to the communication puzzle, that the Gorn speak in some kind of morse code, echoed back to Una and the landing party giving hand signals in silence in order to keep their quarry from listening in so easily.

Also, big big big applause for the visuals team this week, I mean holy shit, we got a brown dwarf, a black hole, the sets being absolutely pummeled, some real beauty shots of the Enterprise, and her poor beleaguered, battered self at the end, and it was just well done and believable for me at every turn.

The theme of life and death continues, and clearly it will be the running theme this season, and maybe for the ship's run. I loved Hemmer and Uhura's interactions. One minute she's the prodigy, self-confident, clever, intuitive, the next minute she's scared she's about to die, which sounds like what a cadet fresh out of the academy might feel when put to the test so thoroughly as she has. I think Celia does a magnificent job embodying the best of Nichols' Uhura while updating for the 21st century. Hemmer, of course, is absolutely cool as hell, I don't even need to really say it.

All in all, this was a terrific episode. I just love this series, and Pike is quickly becoming one of my favorite captains all around. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

 

Link please. I tried a search and couldn't find it

 

Did anyone else notice that Peck is deliberately saying "Sen-SORs"?

 

Sen-SORS. Deflector screens. It's deliciously throwback and straight out of TOS.

 

That is certainly not what I tried to imply, but your point is well taken, and thank you for all that effort.

 

But goddammit - he used "Away Team" instead of "Landing Party" too!

 

ENT did that, too. At least they used Landing Party in the episode, too.

 

Was the “Gorn communicate with light” new to this episode? That doesn’t seem terribly practical, does it?

 

We know that eventually a dialogue will open up between the Feds and the Gorn, after Kirk shows his Gorn opponent mercy in TOS. But right now, we're looking at these early encounters as being problematic, not helped by La'an's description of the Gorn, based on a child's perspective that is rooted in tragedy. Clearly, there are other space faring species that are equally aggressive, like the Klingons, but to La'an, this is personal (hence Pike's concern for La'an). No different when Kyle Reese's description of the Terminator in, well, THE TERMINATOR (before the idea of a Terminator is able to surpass its original programming).

 

If I had my druthers, each new ST series would've taken place after the previous one. Just like how TNG was after TOS. No prequel series. Maybe a prequel miniseries or special or something. But basically keep moving forward. There can be jumps in time to shake things up and force to learn the new state of play. That way we just watch the history of StarFleet unfold. We don't have to worry about shoehorning series in. Etc.

 

And broadcasting tight beams of radiation is?

 

Starfleet: We design ships to have redundant systems with backups of backups. Safety is of paramount concern to us.

Also Starfleet: If this air purifier breaks it becomes a nuke lol

 

Tell that to Species 10-C!

 

I gave this one an 8, but it was a strong 8. Really enjoyed it.

The trap that the Gorn laid was creative. Although, they should've been able to turn the shields on even while connected. It might snap the tunnel but who cares. Or there'd be a tunnel emergency release.

Were all the colonists holograms? That seems unlikely that they wouldn't notice! And the polarized light that was the source of the holograms couldn't reach inside the Enterprise. And some of the colonists provide information that allowed La'an to identify the Gorn, which was counter productive from the Gorn's point of view.

I loved the idea of using holograms to trick the crew. It's totally consistent with the methods in Arena where they faked communications. But I didn't totally buy the execution. Or maybe there were survivors? That part of the episode wasn't clear to me.

After that it was fairly straightforward action piece. Nicely done and I have no complaints, but there was nothing worthy of being a "near classic," which is what it takes for me to give a 9.

The light communication was a bit weird. Even if they used light in person, surely they'd use some form of transmission that could be converted to light at the receiver, just like television does. Or, use tight laser connections for line of sight communications. Those couldn't be intercepted.

SNW continues to satisfy. I'd say this episode was the strongest of the first four. But I've enjoyed them all greatly.

 

Plenty of present/modern-day institutions communicate through forms of light.

 

It really was. I'm not a stickler for that, but that was clearly the intention of the dialog.

However, I'm fine with Kirk appearing. Although, if he becomes a member of the Enterprise crew in the 2nd season, that's a bridge too far!

 

I happened to see the original Gorn costume on display in LA a bit ago, along with other ST items. Very cool!

I thought it was a fairly well done for a creature costume of that era. Those were hard to get right. The episode is itself was great!