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

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Citiprime said:
We get a casualty/fatality number for the Federation-Klingon War of 100 million, which would put it around twice the amount of dead for World War II, which given the interstellar nature of the conflict is arguably not that bad in the bigger scheme when each sides starships arguably have the ability to glass a planet with anti-matter based weapons.

On the other hand, since the war only lasts for like a year, that number would indicate that more than a few colonies were obliterated and may have been raining blood, given that starships of the era only carry crews in the hundreds, and I don't think either side lost thousands of ships in the war in that short of a time. So gods knows how many colonies along the Klingon border are just gone.

Also, I did like the touch that for all their bluster and warrior bullshit, the Klingons may have only moved the border 3-6 light-years. It's basically the equivalent of the (space) Battle of the Somme.

That would certainly fit with Tasha Yar preaching to Wesley about drug use in TNG lol.

I have a feeling it's something that's alien which M'Benga might have discovered during the war, perhaps a secret that only Chapel and M'Benga know about, and has some nasty side-effects they haven't expanded on just yet. M'Benga and Chapel seem very reluctant to use it. And if it was standard issue, and something known and issued by the Federation, you would think they would of broke it out when they were having issues with the Gorn last season

To me, it felt like the writers couldn't reason a really good way to get Chapel and M'Benga off that ship another way, and decided to lean into well they just fight their way off. We just gotta go with that the Klingons are stupid and no one decides: "Hey, why don't we just shoot them with a disruptor?"

Although, there was an option they could have gone with and didn't. The story kinda loses track of La'an and could of just as easily set up her coming to the rescue of Chapel and M'Benga, and all of them having to find a way off the ship together, instead of going with Super-Soldier Serum.
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In the Gundam UC timeline The one year war had 5.9 billion people killed.
 
Citiprime said:
I have a feeling it's something that's alien which M'Benga might have discovered during the war, perhaps a secret that only Chapel and M'Benga know about, and has some nasty side-effects they haven't expanded on just yet. M'Benga and Chapel seem very reluctant to use it. And if it was standard issue, and something known and issued by the Federation, you would think they would of broke it out when they were having issues with the Gorn last season
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Well I can get behind some of the prequel criticism on this one beause we know at the end of the day, how bad can this steroid be if M'Benga and Chapel are doing just fine years later in TOS? Unless the nasty side effects are losing your CMO position in M'Benga's case and destroying your extroverted personality in Chapel's. :p
 
I think I might have mentioned this in another thread a while back, but has anyone noticed that modern writers are so steeped in geekdom (like the rest of us) that they can't help but 'run home to momma' when they are writing scripts for these shows?

In this episode alone, you get two examples: the first being the very 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' drinking contest between La'an and the Klingon, and the other being the 'thermal detonator' moment when La'an fakes out Jabba, aka ' that other Klingon.'

You could also bring up stealing the Enterprise AGAIN, but that's sort of internal to Trek itself. Why couldn't April have just ordered them to go, rather than having yet ANOTHER case of 'we disobeyed orders from starfleet and got away with it'? :rolleyes:
 
Jedi Marso said:
I think I might have mentioned this in another thread a while back, but has anyone noticed that modern writers are so steeped in geekdom (like the rest of us) that they can't help but 'run home to momma' when they are writing scripts for these shows?

In this episode alone, you get two examples: the first being the very 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' drinking contest between La'an and the Klingon, and the other being the 'thermal detonator' moment when La'an fakes out [-]Jabba[/-] that other Klingon.

You could also bring up stealing the Enterprise AGAIN, but that's sort of internal to Trek itself. Why couldn't April have just ordered them to go, rather than having yet ANOTHER case of 'we disobeyed orders from starfleet and got away with it.'
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This is why this episode is lesser for me. The characters are fine, but the events are annoying.

Which is why I don't want superfans running my Star Trek.
 
Jedi Marso said:
You could also bring up stealing the Enterprise AGAIN, but that's sort of internal to Trek itself. Why couldn't April have just ordered them to go, rather than having yet ANOTHER case of 'we disobeyed orders from starfleet and got away with it'? :rolleyes:
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April's an Admiral who has to be more responsible than, "Yeah! Go ahead! Go on this rescue mission that might risk another war with the Klingons!" The weird thing would've been if he gave the okay, not the other way around.
 
Lord Garth said:
April's an Admiral who has to be more responsible than, "Yeah! Go ahead! Go on this rescue mission that might risk another war with the Klingons!" The weird thing would've been if he gave the okay, not the other way around.
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Then write the episode so that the ship isn't in the yard, Pike takes off for a few days leaving Spock in command, and he takes the Enterprise on the mission on his own authority without violating starfleet orders. See how easy that was? Again, why the pretend drama of disobeying and stealing the Enterprise when you know it's a whitewash with no consequences at the end? Just makes the show seem silly.
 
Jedi Marso said:
Then write the episode so that the ship isn't in the yard, Pike takes off for a few days leaving Spock in command, and he takes the Enterprise on the mission on his own authority without violating starfleet orders. See how easy that was? Again, why the pretend drama of disobeying and stealing the Enterprise when you know it's a whitewash with no consequences at the end? Just makes the show seem silly.
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You're talking to the wrong person. This episode is silly and too light-weighted for my tastes but, in the story as it is, April's decision makes sense.

Welcome to talking to someone who's "in the middle". Some stuff I agree with in the episode, some stuff I don't. April's part of it, I do agree with.
 
Jedi Marso said:
Then write the episode so that the ship isn't in the yard, Pike takes off for a few days leaving Spock in command, and he takes the Enterprise on the mission on his own authority without violating starfleet orders. See how easy that was? Again, why the pretend drama of disobeying and stealing the Enterprise when you know it's a whitewash with no consequences at the end? Just makes the show seem silly.
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It is silly. That's what makes it so TOS.
 
Jedi Marso said:
I think I might have mentioned this in another thread a while back, but has anyone noticed that modern writers are so steeped in geekdom (like the rest of us) that they can't help but 'run home to momma' when they are writing scripts for these shows?
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That's also why you end up with stuff like the latest Trek making a big deal out of captain catchphrases, or Ghostbusters: Afterlife fetishizing the car and proton packs and other technology from the original. Fannish reverence for the iconography of these franchises bleeds backwards into their fictional universes, generally (IMO) to the detriment of the product.

I didn't love lightsabers as a kid because Star Wars treated them as some fetish object (seriously, The Last Jedi has more closeups of lightsaber hilts than the entire OT and PT trilogies combined, no exaggeration), I loved them because the characters treated the coolest things I'd ever seen as if they were no big deal. It's all gotten flipped around backwards in these franchise revivals and extensions.
 
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Gul Sengosts said:
It's also very unoriginal. Which makes it unlike TOS.
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Because Trek must be like Trek, not original. When it tries to he original it gets accused of being "not Trek." When it changes something it's "disrespect." When it takes inspiration from other media it's a "rip off."

Star Trek is in a no-win scenario. I would say it's a Kobyashi Maru situation but that would be too derivative.
 
It lost me when they took some type of steroids (???) and it just turned into an overly long, boring and uninteresting fight. Klingons getting their ass whooped by a Doctor and dainty little nurse looked stupid. And Pike is barely in it.

I'll try to finish the episode tomorrow.
 
Phily B said:
It lost me when they took some type of steroids (???) and it just turned into an overly long, boring and uninteresting fight. Klingons getting their ass whooped by a Doctor and dainty little nurse looked stupid. And Pike is barely in it.

I'll try to finish the episode tomorrow.
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I'm guessing they just wanted an episode where Babs Olusanmokun (M'Benga's actor) can showcase his real life martial arts skills (he's a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu I read). That's probably why the scene feels so forced and out of place.

Plus the camera work and choreography was all over the place, I'm sure Babs is a killer fighter in real life but in a filmed work it's all about the presentation. Basically, I don't think Jet Li or Jackie Chan are going to lose any sleep over this episode. :p
 
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