Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x06 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Not every episode is going to feed into character arcs. Sometimes a day a work is just a day a work. People move on. The world isn't a Federation world. Pike was pretty disgusted. Ramifications will be they will never become a Federation world because sacrificing a child every year or few years is not something that Federation will condone.
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I didn't enjoy it as much as last week's but it was still an 8. I felt so sorry for the fathers in the episode. A very grim ending, though I did appreciate the planet this week was very alien.
It was nice seeing M'Benga's daughter again, and it really appealed to me to see her broken out of the transport buffer by the boy to play.
I really love the ensemble feel in this series as well.
It was nice seeing M'Benga's daughter again, and it really appealed to me to see her broken out of the transport buffer by the boy to play.
I really love the ensemble feel in this series as well.
Admiral Dougherty has entered the chat.
This was a huge episode for Pike. And for M’Benga. And we got insight into La’an and Uhura. Not every episode needs to be a “centric” for it to work. Erica has gotten some great moments and I’m sure she’ll have her own story before the end of the season. Might just not be an A plot. And that’s okay.
Ok, and? That doesn't make it bad on it's own. It's how the story is retold.
Surprised by the comparatively muted response to this episode. For me, it was the best SNW so far, and I've loved them all (my weakest link was probably last week, and that was still fantastic). I thought this script was perfectly done, every actor (guest and regular) knocked it out of the park, and the ending was so disturbing, in the most compelling way. I actually wondered, is this going to haunt me in that "In The Pale Moonlight" way?
I didn't think the predictability was a liability at all -- yes, you could tell the aliens were up to something sinister from jump, but the exact details of what and why were unclear, and the unfolding was done in such a dramatically satisfying manner. I love that kind of story.
At least Lower Decks and Prodigy still carry on the title-card practice!
I didn't think the predictability was a liability at all -- yes, you could tell the aliens were up to something sinister from jump, but the exact details of what and why were unclear, and the unfolding was done in such a dramatically satisfying manner. I love that kind of story.
Why don't we rearrange our own society so that we're not sacrificing quality of life for a whole underclass of children (and adults) for the benefit of the prosperous? I thought Alora's speech at the end was brilliantly written -- you understand their justifications, and it drives home it's point in relation to our real world, without resorting to Discovery's practice of using dialogue lifted from modern tweets.
I somehow haven't consciously noticed this before, but now that you mention it it's going to drive me crazy every week.
At least Lower Decks and Prodigy still carry on the title-card practice!I wish I could find it now, but somewhere between the cast announcement and the premiere, I saw some press that listed 8 regulars and Bruce Horak as recurring. I bet you any money we're seeing the ugly hand of the Paramount+ legal affairs attorney here, Horak was probably hired on a lesser contract than everyone else, because they could get away with that with the blind guy. Then it belatedly occurred to someone how bad that looks, and his billing got bumped up to the main titles.
I don't have a clear memory of that episode, but obviously there were others similar. Like the TNG episode A Matter of Perspective (Rashomon), or the DS9 episode Our Man Bashir (James Bond) or the Magnificent Ferengi (do I even need to say?). But those were reinterpretations of film classics which I'd argue that everyone was supposed to understand from the get go. They were riffing off of something, where as this felt like lifting from a pretty obscure story outside of literary SF circles, which made me feel like maybe the authors were trying to pull a fast one.
The other thing is those examples are all using the tropes/story framing from the original story. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is really a short story just about the "twist." If you know what's coming, a lot of the dramatic impact is entirely undone.
Considering the Discovery writer's room talked about how they all loved the short story, and there is some overlap between creatives, I am 99% certain they were influenced by the story directly.
I do agree with you though that it's about execution, not about original plots. The thing is, as I said, this wasn't a character-focused episode, it was a plot-focused one. We could imagine the exact same plotline working on any earlier episodic Trek with minor reworking. The characters here largely existed to help tease apart the puzzle box of the story (Uhura's stint as security and M'Benga's drama regarding his daughter aside). So I really don't think they added too much to what the story offered, TBH.
Oh that's just nonsense you're speaking.
Does Horak have outside projects in progress?
He's done his own one-person live theatre shows on occasion, working from his own scripts.
From 2014, via CBC News Manitoba:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mani...urned-experience-into-a-fringe-show-1.2711446
He's done his own one-person live theatre shows on occasion, working from his own scripts.
From 2014, via CBC News Manitoba:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mani...urned-experience-into-a-fringe-show-1.2711446
Why?
Because you have zero evidence. Maybe the actor didn't want a full time gig, maybe the writers didn't want the chief engineer as a full time character.
There's dozens of possible reasons that aren't the higher ups being jerks.
Mulling it a bit more, it would have been so interesting if M'Benga was fully the POV character here, with the love interest his rather than Pike. He had the only significant character arc here, and if he was the primary one involved on the ground level while everyone else teased out the mystery, it would have hit harder. Particularly because they could have floated medical help for his daughter as a "reward" if he went along with them - exactly the same temptation to look away from evil that the whole damn floating settlement has.
He also works full time a professional painter, so he might not have wanted that level of time commitment.
I was not familiar with the Le Guin story this derives from, so I missed that sense of plagiarism that so many of you obviously felt and resented.
I loved this episode.
1. I was hoping they could actually cure M'Benga's daughter, get her out of the transporter, and be done with that bit of unlikeliness. Guess not.
2. Had a sense that it was going to end badly for the child, but not how badly. Pretty horrific, there.
3. You knew it was coming but it was well played anyway: When La'an and Uhura present their evidence to the captain, you can see Pike going right into denial and rationalization mode at the implication Alora is a bad guy. This carries through right up until the moment of truth. Alora is interesting also because she clearly doesn't believe she is the villain in her own story- which makes for a far more realistic villain than the mustache twirling kind. She fully embraces the ideal of the First Servant.
4. I loved that the ascension was completed, and the good guys essentially lost, here. Nobody brought up the Prime Directive or any principle of non-interference; technically it probably doesn't apply, but Alora was right about one thing: the Federation and Starfleet had no jurisdiction on that planet. That was always one of the points that bothered me about Kirk's interference on Eminiar VII in TOS: the Enterprise was explicitly directed to stay away, they ignored it, and then wound up directly interfering in the affairs of two sovereign non-Federation members.
5. Loved those weapons the guardians used. Shortened halberds, with a disintegrate function, and could be used as a polearm, a spear, a short staff, or a ranged weapon. I was salivating thinking about the martial art you could develop around that weapon. When the one guard broke rank, my first impulse was to yell "GET HIM!" at Pike. In the next moment, the renegade fuckin' disintegrates another guardsman and I was yelling "JEE-SUS! TAKE COVER!" Alora stepping straight into Pike's line of fire right after he announced the phaser 'was not set on stun' was one of THE dumbest moves ever. And Pike let it go, instead of immediately displacing to correct it. Send him to La'an for refresher training!
6. I like the way Cadet Uhura is cycling through the various departments getting OJT. Very true to life vis-a-vis summer midshipman cruises in the USN. (And probably other navies)
7. Finally, it all seemed to have that TOS vibe that I love. MOAR!
I loved this episode.
1. I was hoping they could actually cure M'Benga's daughter, get her out of the transporter, and be done with that bit of unlikeliness. Guess not.
2. Had a sense that it was going to end badly for the child, but not how badly. Pretty horrific, there.
3. You knew it was coming but it was well played anyway: When La'an and Uhura present their evidence to the captain, you can see Pike going right into denial and rationalization mode at the implication Alora is a bad guy. This carries through right up until the moment of truth. Alora is interesting also because she clearly doesn't believe she is the villain in her own story- which makes for a far more realistic villain than the mustache twirling kind. She fully embraces the ideal of the First Servant.
4. I loved that the ascension was completed, and the good guys essentially lost, here. Nobody brought up the Prime Directive or any principle of non-interference; technically it probably doesn't apply, but Alora was right about one thing: the Federation and Starfleet had no jurisdiction on that planet. That was always one of the points that bothered me about Kirk's interference on Eminiar VII in TOS: the Enterprise was explicitly directed to stay away, they ignored it, and then wound up directly interfering in the affairs of two sovereign non-Federation members.
5. Loved those weapons the guardians used. Shortened halberds, with a disintegrate function, and could be used as a polearm, a spear, a short staff, or a ranged weapon. I was salivating thinking about the martial art you could develop around that weapon. When the one guard broke rank, my first impulse was to yell "GET HIM!" at Pike. In the next moment, the renegade fuckin' disintegrates another guardsman and I was yelling "JEE-SUS! TAKE COVER!" Alora stepping straight into Pike's line of fire right after he announced the phaser 'was not set on stun' was one of THE dumbest moves ever. And Pike let it go, instead of immediately displacing to correct it. Send him to La'an for refresher training!
6. I like the way Cadet Uhura is cycling through the various departments getting OJT. Very true to life vis-a-vis summer midshipman cruises in the USN. (And probably other navies)
7. Finally, it all seemed to have that TOS vibe that I love. MOAR!
Rukiya: Dad, I don't want to live in a transporter anymore. I don't like kid suffering any more than you do but what's done is done. Beam me down to the Majalan planet and I'll live with them to be cured.
M'Benga:
For what it's worth, they were very vague but mentioned that Pike would have to "join" their society to be cured. Presumably the reason why M'Benga doesn't just drop Rukiya off for a cure for a few days then flee the planet afterwards.
It was like 2 people.
M'Benga continues to impress. Now we just need more Hemmer.
This episode was missing Big Hemmer Energy.
This episode was missing Big Hemmer Energy.
Maybe the kid can't scream when hooked up.