• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x07 - "The Serene Squall"

Hit it!

  • Total voters
    211
Jedi Marso said:
Obviously, we'll see Angel again as a recurring villain, in the spirit of Harry Mudd.
Click to expand...

Assuming we get enough seasons at 10 episodes per. I've felt that 10-13 episodes weren't enough for all the shows, but I'm really feeling that for SNW. Out of all of them, SNW should be at least 20 episodes per season. (leaving out Prodigy of course, but those are short episodes)

The quips this week were absolute gold. Obviously Ortegas leads the pack on those. Spock's reaction to T'Pring bringing up human sex..."What?". Pike's pirate impersonations and Una's "please stop".

Such good cast chemistry here. You don't always have that in a season 1.
 
I must admit, I'm a bit baffled by the gender identity thing with Aspen/Angel. They cast a woman who uses she/her pronouns to play a non-binary character who uses they/them? Why not hire a non-binary actor for this non-binary role? Or present the character as a transwoman once they cast this actress?

And within the plot, was the real Dr. Aspen also non-binary? Or was Captain Angel a female character assuming a non-binary cover identity?

Performance-wise, I LOVED her as Dr. Aspen and thought she was not as good as Captain Angel -- but Dr. Aspen was also written better than Captain Angel, so not really her fault.

And I still basically liked the performance -- Angel seems set up to recur and I am here for it.

I mean, the outfits alone -- A+ to costumes for everything Jesse James Keitel wore in this episode.

eschaton said:
I know there was no Hemmer or Uhura this week. Was M'Benga missing as well?
Click to expand...

No, M'Benga was there, briefly. He was in the cell with Pike, Una, La'an, and Ortegas.
 
Pros:
  • Truly awesome interaction between Aspen and Spock
  • This was my introduction to Jesse James Keitel and I was very pleasantly impressed
  • Unexpected twist!!
  • Deepening the complexity of the relationship between Chapel and Spock
    • Despite each telling the other that their honesty is a highly valued aspect of their relationship, they're both holding things back. The writers are doing a great job of adding a ton of texture here.
  • Great depth added to T'Pring
  • Very clear messaging of the episode's theme throughout without it having the feeling of hitting you over the head
  • Jefferies Tubes!!! :luvlove:
Cons:
  • Levity of the B plot with Pike felt slightly overboard
    • This is clearly intentional, but it brought me out of the A plot a bit
  • More heavy leaning on established lore (Sybok) - AKA: Tiny Universe Syndrome
The cons are pretty minor, and the interactions throughout the episode kept me having feelings and guessing what would happen next.

Overall, an excellent Spock episode.

I rate it a 9!
 
Last edited:
This one was a bit of a mixed bag for me. These villains were too toothless -- everyone on the ship was Pike was such a goony fool, and Angel allowing the whole Spock plan to play out while just commenting "you can't be serious!" from the sidelines. I wish these villains had some actual threat to them.

"Space pirates" were a banned topic for most of TNG (till they cracked in "Gambit") and this episode kind of made me see why. The styling was absurd -- the dirty faces with the carefully applied makeup.

On the plus side, Chapel remains a favorite character, and I love the way she was used here.

T'Pring and Spock are so great I'm actively shipping them at this point. This is the downside of prequels, it's sad to know how they end.

Sybok popping up was a blast.
 
Sakonna said:
I must admit, I'm a bit baffled by the gender identity thing with Aspen/Angel. They cast a woman who uses she/her pronouns to play a non-binary character who uses they/them? Why not hire a non-binary actor for
this non-binary role? Or present the character as a transwoman once they cast this actress?

And within the plot, was the real Dr. Aspen also non-binary? Or was Captain Angel a female character assuming a non-binary cover identity?

Performance-wise, I LOVED her as Dr. Aspen and thought she was not as good as Captain Angel -- but Dr. Aspen was also written better than Captain Angel, so not really her fault.

And I still basically liked the performance -- Angel seems set up to recur and I am here for it.

I mean, the outfits alone -- A+ to costumes for everything Jesse James Keitel wore in this episode.



No, M'Benga was there, briefly. He was in the cell with Pike, Una, La'an, and Ortegas.
Click to expand...

Jesse is non-Binary.
 
Sakonna said:
I must admit, I'm a bit baffled by the gender identity thing with Aspen/Angel. They cast a woman who uses she/her pronouns to play a non-binary character who uses they/them? Why not hire a non-binary actor for this non-binary role? Or present the character as a transwoman once they cast this actress?

And within the plot, was the real Dr. Aspen also non-binary? Or was Captain Angel a female character assuming a non-binary cover identity?

Performance-wise, I LOVED her as Dr. Aspen and thought she was not as good as Captain Angel -- but Dr. Aspen was also written better than Captain Angel, so not really her fault.

And I still basically liked the performance -- Angel seems set up to recur and I am here for it.

I mean, the outfits alone -- A+ to costumes for everything Jesse James Keitel wore in this episode.



No, M'Benga was there, briefly. He was in the cell with Pike, Una, La'an, and Ortegas.
Click to expand...

I thought the actor was perfect for the role of angel. Why would a non binary actor be better? They are actors playing a role. Also I don't recall the episode saying angel was non binary.
 
Pubert said:
I thought the actor was perfect for the role of angel. Why would a non binary actor be better? They are actors playing a role. Also I don't recall the episode saying angel was non binary.
Click to expand...
During the "walk the plank" scene at the end, he says "make them walk the plank". It's subtle but it's there.

And the actor is non-binary who goes by she/her and they/them pronouns.
 
A really good episode. Ethan Peck is playing Spock really well. They haven't fallen back on giving him to many emotions like the Kelvin movies. I like the less emotional Spock that peck is giving us. The interaction with Nurse Chapel is also well done. Spock has pretty much put her in the friend category and chapel wants more. So the relationship has been established. Also we have see Stonn. They picked an actor that looks a lot like the TOS version. Nicely done. Also we get a bit of Sybok. Fun episode all the way down to Pikes terrible imitation of a pirate. Lol.
 
I'm so glad Captain Angel got away. She'd be a fun recurring antagonist. I knew something was off when she went on about kolinahr. She talked as if all Vulcans went through it. I could have sworn it was said that relatively few Vulcans did the ritual.

And the whole time, I found it weird that a Vulcan was named Xaverius. But the second T'Pring mentioned how he talked about Spock all the time, I knew it was Sybok immediately.

I really enjoyed this episode, and how they showed the relationship between Una and Pike. We never saw that with the other Caption/first officer pairs in Trek. Just different.
 
firehawk12 said:
During the "walk the plank" scene at the end, he says "make them walk the plank". It's subtle but it's there.

And the actor is non-binary who goes by she/her and they/them pronouns.
Click to expand...

I think you're reading into it more than what's there. Why is this stuff so important in every episode to find a non binary character or actor? Enjoy the adventure of each story.
 
Pubert said:
Why would a non binary actor be better?
Click to expand...
Streaming Trek has gone big on representation in their casting -- appropriately so -- so it just struck me as odd they (seemingly) made an exception in this case.

firehawk12 said:
And the actor is non-binary who goes by she/her and they/them pronouns.
Click to expand...
But this I didn't know. I have read about her in connection to "Big Sky" and "Queer As Folk" (and watched her in the latter) and only ever seen her described as a transwoman. Then I checked her IG before posting and it only listed she/her as pronouns, so I assumed she was exclusively female-identified.
 
Uhura and T'Pring always missing each other is Star Trek's version of Anakin always missing Grievous during the Clone Wars.
 
Pubert said:
I think you're reading into it more than what's there. Why is this stuff so important in every episode to find a non binary character or actor? Enjoy the adventure of each story.
Click to expand...
No, it's actually there. They talked about the character as non-binary in pre-release press and then it's they/them pronouns all the way through.

Discussing the characters identities and how that interacts with the plot is part of enjoying the adventure of the story. For me and some others, anyway. YMMV.
 
Yistaan said:
Uhura and T'Pring always missing each other is Star Trek's version of Anakin always missing Grievous during the Clone Wars.
Click to expand...

In tos we can say for a fact uhura never knew who tpring was as she said, she is lovely mr spock who is she.

for chapel it may be open to interpretation, I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top