Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x01 - "The Broken Circle"

[Iamnotspock]

Given that this series hadn't been filmed yet in 1966, I don't think there would be a way for Uhura to act that way in TOS. And TOS wasn't exactly a continuity poster child to begin with. For that, I'm grateful that they were interested in story first.

I get that, and I'm not complaining; I love this show for what it is, and naming Uhura in my previous post was a bad example, but...

And they always will, the needs of the story trumps the needs of slavish devotion to continuity every time. Thankfully

...I just wonder who some of the references that sort-of-but-don't-quite tie in to TOS are for? Why does M'Benga need to be M'Benga? Why are Uhura and Chapel on the ship at this point when their characters don't need to be Uhura and Chapel? None of those things are at all necessary - so far - to Telling a Good Story. It reminds me of the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie's unnecessary "kisses to the past", or in this case, the future, that didn't quite line up anyway, but I'm eager to see what they do with the characters.

I'm all for Story First before slavish devotion to continuity, but what I'm seeing is a fair amount of slapdash devotion to continuity.

 

[Okmyx]

Space Dock 1 - awesome design.
Carol Kane - good actress, but that accent/voice? I thought I was watching Lord of the Rings.
The juiced-up fight scene was too long.
Still wiping my eyes after the final dedication to Nichelle.
Wondering who Una's lawyer is, was hoping to see a younger Samuel T Cogley argue the case.

Meant to give it a 9 but hit 10 accidentally. Fantastic episode, fantastic series. If we're only getting 10 episodes a season, I hope we get 15 seasons of this.

 

[fireproof78]

.I just wonder who some of the references that sort-of-but-don't-quite tie in to TOS are for?

Fun.

 

[Yistaan]

I get that, and I'm not complaining; I love this show for what it is, and naming Uhura in my previous post was a bad example, but...



...I just wonder who some of the references that sort-of-but-don't-quite tie in to TOS are for? Why does M'Benga need to be M'Benga? Why are Uhura and Chapel on the ship at this point when their characters don't need to be Uhura and Chapel? None of those things are at all necessary - so far - to Telling a Good Story. It reminds me of the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie's unnecessary "kisses to the past", or in this case, the future, that didn't quite line up anyway, but I'm eager to see what they do with the characters.

I'm all for Story First before slavish devotion to continuity, but what I'm seeing is a fair amount of slapdash devotion to continuity.

Uhura and M'Benga are there to provide ethnic representation and not go through the trouble of inventing a new character. Honestly as an Asian man myself, they should've called Andre Dae Kim's character Sulu and given him a bigger part, and maybe he wouldn't have left.

As for Chapel, I think they wanted someone for Spock to have hot and steamy scenes on the ship with and Chapel probably works better rather than some new woman we never heard of before banging Spock every other week which probably would've caused an uproar in fandom. As it is, fans still got upset over Spock's sister we'd never heard of before, so they probably decided to hedge their bets and just call this character Chapel.

 

[cooleddie74]

I did like the reference to Chapel entering the Archaeological Medicine program which kicks off the whole Dr. Roger Korby subplot, though he has yet to be referenced by name.

 

[Yistaan]

I did like the reference to Chapel entering the Archaeological Medicine program which kicks off the whole Dr. Roger Korby subplot, though he has yet to be referenced by name.

He will be. The showrunners said on social media they're going to get to Korby.

 

[fireproof78]

I did like the reference to Chapel entering the Archaeological Medicine program which kicks off the whole Dr. Roger Korby subplot, though he has yet to be referenced by name.

You know he's coming.

 

[Yistaan]

M'Benga: You can't kill me and you can't kill her.

Klingon: Because you hypocritical humans pumped yourselves up on steroids?

Chapel: No, because they've already released the sequel series to this tv show! And in it we both appear!

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Liquid spinach in the hypos and they turn into Popeye...

 

[Macintosh]

Liquid spinach in the hypos and they turn into Popeye...

 

[Yistaan]

Liquid spinach in the hypos and they turn into Popeye...

Prison guard: Yo "Number One", you now have a new cellmate.

Una: Joseph? You're in jail now too? What did you do this time, more shady transporter uses?

M'Benga: So the Klingons told Starfleet I was injecting myself with your augment blood to gain an unfair advantage in fights.

 

[GulBahana]

I never knew Nurse Chapel was such a good fighter.

 

[drt]

I wondered if the stuff in the hypos was supposed to be some cordrizine derivative.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Despite all the little canon irritations and continuity violations, this series and cast just works and it continues to be my favorite nu-Trek. I'm able to accept its absurdities in the same way I was with TOS but have been unable to with other shows.

Good kick-off to the new season. As others have mentioned, the show runners have really done themselves a disservice by making Uhura, Chapel, and M'Benga characters. Those actors as new characters would have been able to run free of canon issues and do even more to make the characters their own. I'm just thankful we have the actors themselves, at least.

Is the Asian gal at Checkov's station ever going to get a name? Because she had more to do in this episode than Ortegas did.

Although I loved the TOS-style resort to fisticuffs rather than technobabble, I did find it ironic that the two doing the fighting were the ship's medical staff. And that the ship's surgeon also resorted to physical torture to obtain intel before further beating the hell out of more bad guys. My respect for Klingons as a warrior race is somehow diminished after seeing a human doctor and a skinny female nurse ass-whip an entire ship full of doughty Klingons, Popeye-juice or no Popeye-juice. Oh, and the fight choreography was B.A.D.

Upside down camera shot and that vomit-inducing transporter effect. WT everloving F? Hopefully that was a bit of quirkiness from the director and nothing we see ever again.

Other than those nitpicks, a lot to love here. I'm sort of 'meh' on the whole Carol Kane thing and her voice. I'm willing to let that all air a little before I decide if I like it or not. Good to see April again. The backdrops of the planet and the dilithium mine- wow! Sort of everything the old TOS matte-painting backgrounds and cheap fx aspired to be. Strange New Worlds indeed!

Don't like 'emo-Spock' in terms of the writing but I do like Peck in the role so far.

S2 is off to the races! Roll episode 2 and let's get our hot first officer outta the brig!

 

[Lord Garth]

Have you never seen her work? I loved her......but I've been a fan since Taxi....like 78-79ish.

She was in Taxi? Now I have a reason to go revisit that show. I haven't seen it since I was a kid.

Personally, I thought this week's episode was good but not great. Thankfully some advanced reviews suggest that this is the weakest episode of the first six, so it's uphill from here.

That tracks with what I figured. I wasn't expecting this episode to be a heavy-hitter. Next week, with Number One on trial, is a different matter.

 

[fireproof78]

Is the Asian gal at Checkov's station ever going to get a name?

Mitchell.

 

[tomalak301]

She was in Taxi? Now I have a reason to go revisit that show. I haven't seen it since I was a kid.


That tracks with what I figured. I wasn't expecting this episode to be a heavy-hitter. Next week, with Number One on trial, is a different matter.

Next week addresses where we left off from Season 1. If I gave this episode a 7, I'm expecting that episode to be 8 or higher. It's also the courtroom drama episode and Star Trek has done those type of episodes really really well.

 

[Wingcommanderdarkwolf01]

Despite all the little canon irritations and continuity violations, this series and cast just works and it continues to be my favorite nu-Trek. I'm able to accept its absurdities in the same way I was with TOS but have been unable to with other shows.

Good kick-off to the new season. As others have mentioned, the show runners have really done themselves a disservice by making Uhura, Chapel, and M'Benga characters. Those actors as new characters would have been able to run free of canon issues and do even more to make the characters their own. I'm just thankful we have the actors themselves, at least.

Is the Asian gal at Checkov's station ever going to get a name? Because she had more to do in this episode than Ortegas did.

Although I loved the TOS-style resort to fisticuffs rather than technobabble, I did find it ironic that the two doing the fighting were the ship's medical staff. And that the ship's surgeon also resorted to physical torture to obtain intel before further beating the hell out of more bad guys. My respect for Klingons as a warrior race is somehow diminished after seeing a human doctor and a skinny female nurse ass-whip an entire ship full of doughty Klingons, Popeye-juice or no Popeye-juice. Oh, and the fight choreography was B.A.D.

Upside down camera shot and that vomit-inducing transporter effect. WT everloving F? Hopefully that was a bit of quirkiness from the director and nothing we see ever again.

Other than those nitpicks, a lot to love here. I'm sort of 'meh' on the whole Carol Kane thing and her voice. I'm willing to let that all air a little before I decide if I like it or not. Good to see April again. The backdrops of the planet and the dilithium mine- wow! Sort of everything the old TOS matte-painting backgrounds and cheap fx aspired to be. Strange New Worlds indeed!

Don't like 'emo-Spock' in terms of the writing but I do like Peck in the role so far.

S2 is off to the races! Roll episode 2 and let's get our hot first officer outta the brig!

she did its Lieutenant Jenna Mitchell.

 

[Amaris]

Absolutely fantastic. I loved it from start to finish (and that dedication to Nichelle? Damn). This show is so much fun. I want to hang around these people, I want to be these people, I want to be a part of this crew. There's no doubt about it, Strange New Worlds is my favorite modern Star Trek.

 

[Yistaan]

Good kick-off to the new season. As others have mentioned, the show runners have really done themselves a disservice by making Uhura, Chapel, and M'Benga characters. Those actors as new characters would have been able to run free of canon issues and do even more to make the characters their own. I'm just thankful we have the actors themselves, at least.

Is the Asian gal at Checkov's station ever going to get a name? Because she had more to do in this episode than Ortegas did.

Although I loved the TOS-style resort to fisticuffs rather than technobabble, I did find it ironic that the two doing the fighting were the ship's medical staff. And that the ship's surgeon also resorted to physical torture to obtain intel before further beating the hell out of more bad guys. My respect for Klingons as a warrior race is somehow diminished after seeing a human doctor and a skinny female nurse ass-whip an entire ship full of doughty Klingons, Popeye-juice or no Popeye-juice. Oh, and the fight choreography was B.A.D.

Upside down camera shot and that vomit-inducing transporter effect. WT everloving F? Hopefully that was a bit of quirkiness from the director and nothing we see ever again.

Other than those nitpicks, a lot to love here. I'm sort of 'meh' on the whole Carol Kane thing and her voice. I'm willing to let that all air a little before I decide if I like it or not. Good to see April again. The backdrops of the planet and the dilithium mine- wow! Sort of everything the old TOS matte-painting backgrounds and cheap fx aspired to be. Strange New Worlds indeed!

The Asian officer is named Jenna Mitchell, she's had a full name for some time which is more than can be said for Uhura or Sulu in all of TOS.

Uhura, M'Benga, and Chapel aren't limited in this prequel in the way that, say, Anakin Skywalker had a set fate in Star Wars. In fact, there's plenty of room to further explore all 3 characters past TOS and in between the TOS movie period if they want.

M'Benga's actor Babs Olusanmokun is a real life Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, so although you may not like the fight choreography I'm sure he was probably putting in a few realistic moves from his own experiences into the scenes.

I'm positive the TNG writers' bible said that dilithium was now easily replicated so that writers wouldn't use it as a plot crutch. I know SNW is a prequel so a TNG bible wouldn't apply to it, but apparently the replicated dilithium never actually became canon because dilithium as a macguffin became the entire basis for a season of Discovery, which takes place after TNG. Regardless fighting over dilithium is becoming a tired plot at this point.