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

[Richard S. Ta]

Just watched the episode... I was bracing myself for not liking it based on it being "the Gorn episode". Instead, it's the first time I've rated an episode of modern Trek a 10/10.

• References to real and interesting science
• Believable and meaningful human interaction
• Dealing with death in a mature and realistic manner
• Bridge crew's reaction (especially Pike) when Uhura finally responds at the end of the episode
• Some new and interesting shots of the Enterprise
• Making the enemy terrifying without showing us the enemy's face

More of this, please!

Agreed. I broadly like CBS Trek, but this episode was really something else. It felt classic and new all at the same time.

I’ve been a bit miserable these past few weeks reading everyone get so hyped over this show when I just thought it was… pretty good?

This episode though. Best Star Trek episode of the 21st century in my opinion.

 

[TRON JA307020]

And maybe Pike will talk to Spock about dipping little girl's pigtails in inkwells; and when asked about a space buoy keeping the ship held in one spot, he'll mention fly paper again.

My point? Contemporary language has always been a part of Star Trek from day one. In season 1 of TNG, Geordie once replied to Riker with: "It's beaucoup trouble if you're wrong..." - and at the time it was a phrase I hadn't heard since the 1960s.

But in Star Trek the voyage home they went on about the "colorful" language if the 28tg century. Language changes overtime. Even in a few decades. Roddenberry got it right when he left out most 20th century jargon. Imagine if Kirk on TOS said "we just finished a mission. Pretty damn cool man. " that would have sounded out of place. Niw they say things like "piss off" and "f off." Sorry but the earlier shows got it right when they changed the style of language a bit. Will it really be that way in the 23td century? Who knows but I'm a future setting story it's pretty cool when they go through the trouble to kind of address changing language.

 

[dswynne1]

You mean Ortegas?

I hear ya, bro.

She still needs to fade up her hair, IMO.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

All of this talk about language and how people would or should talk in the future reminds me how much I liked how characters talked in Firefly. People in the future likely won't talk the way we used to or the way we do now so they might as well talk in a made up way.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Sure, but I still don't think they're the real future either! Again, solid state should win out.

This small quartz disc can store 360TB of data forever

Scientists at the University of Southampton have made a major step forward in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years

https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/5d-optical-storage-500tb-data-small-glass-disc/

There's a damn good reason why Optolythic Data rods are the standard for WORM (Write-Once, Read Many) archival media for the Cardassians.

 

[Skipper]

Do you know what this episode lacked to perfectly recreate the Star Trek TOS style? A final freeze frame where the whole cast laughs coarsely after all the tragedy and carnage

 

[cooleddie74]

We might get at least one final shot where Pike and the bridge crew laugh and exchange smiles.

 

[Skipper]

We might get at least one final shot where Pike and the bridge crew laugh and exchange smiles.

Like this?

 

[Trekker4747]

All of this talk about language and how people would or should talk in the future reminds me how much I liked how characters talked in Firefly. People in the future likely won't talk the way we used to or the way we do now so they might as well talk in a made up way.

Good way to put it. Made-up slang and curses, breaks into completely different languages. I don't think Trek would handle that well, though.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Anyone who thinks prequels are a dead end for real drama either doesn't understand writing or chooses not to so that they can nitpick said prequels.

Anyone who thinks there's no tension in an episode because the ship can't be destroyed or the crew can't die doesn't understand how Star Trek works.

Principal characters almost never die in Star Trek and hero ships are almost never destroyed. It's just not that kind of show and it never has been.

Any tension comes from "how are they going to get out of this?" as opposed to "OMG! They can't get out of this!".

 

[Therin of Andor]

Ok what looks dated? We are nowhere near as advanced as TOS even today

I seem to recall print-outs on flimsies in early TOS. And "monitor screen" images with wrinkles.

Ron Howard did say that at a preview screening one of the audience card notes they got back said: "Liked the film except for the typical Hollywood ending. In real life none of those astronauts would have survived."

Not to mention choosing Unlucky #13 for the doomed mission.

 

[Mr. Nova]

Great episode except for two things that bothered me. One had already been established which was La'an's tragic backstory, and the other is that we suddenly had a scene of going into a character's mind to work through a trauma. I feel like I've complained too much about this trope lately but it just keeps popping up!

I'm guessing they're saving an actual Gorn appearance for later now that they've built them up as a threat. I don't care if it violates canon, I'd be happy if SNW breaks away from the Prime-timeline.


Given what we saw in this episode, the Gorn captain was probably killed for his weakness after returning to his ship.

It's been a while since I watched "Arena", but I don't remember anything in the episode that states that they made peace with the Gorn. It seems to me that they just went their separate ways afterwards, and we don't hear anything else from them. The lessons learned from the encounter were lessons for Kirk and the Federation. No indication that I can recall that the Gorn changed their attitudes in any way, except that they apparently avoided contact with the Federation after that. Again, I could be mis-remembering and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I seem to recall print-outs on flimsies in early TOS. And "monitor screen" images with wrinkles.

Don't forget computers that say "WOR-KING!" and then make a chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka noise...

 

[Trekker4747]

I watched Arena a few days ago. The only thing "resolved" at the end was the dispute over the planet and destroyed colony. Kirk and Co. Realized the Federation Colony may have wrongfully been there in violation of the Gorn's borders. (And thus would have been justified in destroying the colony.)

 

[Trekker4747]

Don't forget computers that say "WOR-KING!" and then make a chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka noise...

TNG really should have incorporated contemporary computer sounds into the show. Tell me you wouldn't have loved to see someone insert an isolinear chip into a slot and then see it light up and make a grinding sound like a 5.25" floppy drive.

 

[Mr Awe]

This small quartz disc can store 360TB of data forever


https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/5d-optical-storage-500tb-data-small-glass-disc/

There's a damn good reason why Optolythic Data rods are the standard for WORM (Write-Once, Read Many) archival media for the Cardassians.

So, not micro tapes then? Agreed!

 

[Mr Awe]

We might get at least one final shot where Pike and the bridge crew laugh and exchange smiles.

I think the next episode is the comedy one, so perhaps then?

 

[Mr Awe]

not the stuffy patois they did during the Berman period.

LOL, the former TNG apologist is no more!

 

[Mr Awe]

So, yeah, this is the future and it can be whatever we imagine, but both in terms of design, tech and world, I'd like to be sold the idea that it is actually a few centuries ahead. This includes, for me, and especially since English is actually the language they use in-universe, not using idioms that will be out-of-style in six months' time. Now, I'm essentially supporting another poster's argument, here, but I sympathise with it.

I don't know if you watched The Expanse (fantastic show!) or not, but one of the great things they did is to create essentially an entire dialect for the belters (those living in the asteroid belt). I haven't read the novels. but I've heard that the TV series created the sound of it specifically for the show, and it really makes that setting feel real. But, as far as I know, the linguistic changes aren't based on any modern Earth language--although they retain enough English for the audience to understand of course. I thought it was very effectively done (among numerous other things).

 

[Belz...]

That's not what you said. You talked about a ""particular period" as if this were something for which there was a referent - like an historicl period.

No, that's how you understood what I said. A "referent" is not required; I simply gave an example from the past. If you set your story 10 years in the future, you'll expect your world to be more like the present than if you set it 100 years or 1000 years ahead. Of course, as you said, you can basically do whatever you want. That isn't the issue. The issue is immersion, which is a subjective, personal thing, and not absurd at all.

To me, and again the dialogue in this episode didn't really bother me, although I did catch it, language in a show set in the future is the same thing as a piece of tech or design. I also understand that each viewer will have different comfort zones.

The fact that Trek people don't talk or act like contemporary people was a weakness of the shows for decades, and it's past done.

Why is it a weakness? Or did you just mean that you personally don't like it?