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

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This was surreally bad. Had it not been for Picard season 2, this may have been the worst episode of Star Trek ever made. I think part of the problem was that it was a comedy episode enmeshed within a serious plot. Whereas the two overtly comedic episodes from season 1 - episodes 5 & 8 - were just outright played for laughs and had relatively minor stakes. If the show cannot take itself seriously then how are viewers meant to get invested in it? This show dealt with quite possibly the most profoundly evil type of abuse of power - initiating war to stimulate economic activity - that is probably known to the general population with something that was comedic in tone. How is this even possible? How does this show get made?

It's also pretty apparent that this show does not work if Mount and Romijn aren't in it. The rest of the cast are mostly OK - and Jess Bush is exceptional imo - but the show needs mature professional characters to counterbalance the general juvenility of the rest of the crew. I've never watched anything that contained so many people make so many stupid facial expressions in my entire life. I actually feel angry at how bad this was. To be fair, most seasons of Star Trek have at least one terrible episode and hopefully SNW has its one out of the way already.
 
Pretty sure it was the latter. Nothing really about waltzing in, though.
Yeah I don't doubt it was just scraps of the old script, but nonetheless that was what was stated in the dialogue. I don't think it's logical to assume that she spent 3 years at the academy just to secure a posting on the first ship heading her way. More logical to assume she learned they were going there and did whatever she needed to do to get on board the ship, particularly when they assume it is likely she will then leave them afterwards
 
Yeah I don't doubt it was just scraps of the old script, but nonetheless that was what was stated in the dialogue. I don't think it's logical to assume that she spent 3 years at the academy just to secure a posting on the first ship heading her way. More logical to assume she learned they were going there and did whatever she needed to do to get on board the ship, particularly when they assume it is likely she will then leave them afterwards
She probably went through some training. Maybe not the same as McCoy who became an officer. All astronauts train, even the ones who aren't military.
Pretty grueling if "For All Mankind" is accurate.
 
This was surreally bad. Had it not been for Picard season 2, this may have been the worst episode of Star Trek ever made. I think part of the problem was that it was a comedy episode enmeshed within a serious plot. Whereas the two overtly comedic episodes from season 1 - episodes 5 & 8 - were just outright played for laughs and had relatively minor stakes. If the show cannot take itself seriously then how are viewers meant to get invested in it? This show dealt with quite possibly the most profoundly evil type of abuse of power - initiating war to stimulate economic activity - that is probably known to the general population with something that was comedic in tone. How is this even possible? How does this show get made?

It's also pretty apparent that this show does not work if Mount and Romijn aren't in it. The rest of the cast are mostly OK - and Jess Bush is exceptional imo - but the show needs mature professional characters to counterbalance the general juvenility of the rest of the crew. I've never watched anything that contained so many people make so many stupid facial expressions in my entire life. I actually feel angry at how bad this was. To be fair, most seasons of Star Trek have at least one terrible episode and hopefully SNW has its one out of the way already.

i am on trekmovie right now reading the reviews from viewers and one said the they don't understand why the writing and energy feels juvenile and questioned if this trek is trying hard to appeal to gen z? GEN Z? not even millennials? am I that old?

i did find it odd because i used to watch TNG as a kid and i loved the dialogue of TNG, it was mature, grounded, smart and flowed realistically. so i dont know why the creators of this show and pushing so hard with the juvenile teen bopper dialogue and premise. I think star trek discovery did not even do this. paramount still is chasing the marvel crowd.

it will be nice to see the viewership numbers, i dont think season 1 ratings were that good as paramount had to upload all the episodes for free on youtube last week to promote season 2. they would not have done that if the ratings were souring in the first season. so it means many gen z dont even know this show exists and the whole point of the show is to appeal to them.
 
Watched yesterday. Rated today.

I liked it a lot. Gave it a 9 but it was probably an 8. Only real flaws were no Klingon just shot M'benga & Chapel. Did we ever find out what the green goo is? Will it turn their brains to mush if they use it 4 times?

Having Spock have prior incidents of Enterprise pilfery was hilarious. I liked the M'benga war background stuff. Really dug the Chapel/Spock relationship stuff.

I thought it was a nice, getting the band back together episode.
 
TOS stated she was a scientist who took a posting on the ship in order to get to Exo-II and even gave her the option to leave after she had achieved that goal. Nurses in the sixties had less formal training than now so it would not have been a stretch for the writers to assume she had settled for any available post she could land at relatively short notice.

The practices of the 1960s American medical field are not in any way canonically binding and they don't mean shit in terms of what kinds of combat training it is plausible for Christine to have received.

Also, the idea that she took a nurse's posting aboard a starship to search for Korby makes no sense. There's no reason to imagine a starship would be likely to find him, or that she would be in a position to persuade the commander to search for him if the ship has other duties. If she were serious about searching for her missing fiance, she would have chartered a private vessel, obtained her own vessel, or persuaded Starfleet to mount a dedicated search and rescue mission. That part of "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" should just be ignored entirely.

SNW pivoted by making her a nurse by profession prior to training as an officer for unknown reasons but possibly largely so she could be called Nurse Chapel like in TOS rather than Miss Chapel,

Who the hell still uses "Miss" as a style of address? It's the 2020s. "Miss" is already outdated in real life -- people use "Ms." There's no way they'd use "Miss" in the 2250s.

And I was never suggesting that it would be impossible for a civilian to have advanced combat training or for a nurse to have advanced scientific training but rather more that it feels to me as though Spock and Pike are being piloted masterfully towards the characters we see later on while Chapel is being steered away from that somewhat in come curious ways.

I don't think there's enough of Chapel in TOS to say she's being pivoted away from her TOS version. The TOS version is an almost entirely blank slate.

I don't think it is fair to say misogyny, since it is fair to say that society sees it differently when a woman hits a man and when a man hits her. a woman hits a man,

It's an established convention of action films and action television programs in modern media that men and women both engage in effective hand-to-hand combat with one-another and can both recover from the other's blows.

if you say it is misogyny, you can also raise a counter argument that it is also toxic -femininity.

No.

I think the scene with chapel here is more of like a poorly badly version of saldana's uhura in star trek into darkness

... no. They have almost completely different personalities and personalities.

Chapel is also a civilian, she should not be going on such dangerous task in the first place. she is there to be protected

You're not really helping yourself there, bud.

I just find it sad that there are shows and characters from the past that have lots of merit and good, but just dismiss them because they have a trait or two that doesn't fit in the current era of acceptable behavior.

I actually enjoy "The Cage." I just think the version of Pike we see in that episode is a piece of shit, and I mentally edit his dialogue and personality to make it more enjoyable.

This was surreally bad. Had it not been for Picard season 2, this may have been the worst episode of Star Trek ever made.

"The Broken Circle" was not a badly-written, badly-acted example of white supremacist propaganda like TNG's "Code of Honor," so, no, it was not the worst episode of Star Trek ever made.

I think part of the problem was that it was a comedy episode enmeshed within a serious plot.

No. It had comedic moments but it was not a comedy episode.

Whereas the two overtly comedic episodes from season 1 - episodes 5 & 8 - were just outright played for laughs and had relatively minor stakes. If the show cannot take itself seriously then how are viewers meant to get invested in it? This show dealt with quite possibly the most profoundly evil type of abuse of power - initiating war to stimulate economic activity - that is probably known to the general population with something that was comedic in tone. How is this even possible? How does this show get made?

If you object that strongly to "The Broken Circle"'s relatively minor bits of comic relief from what is otherwise an action-adventure story with moments of high drama, I suspect that Strange New Worlds may just not be the show for you. But it gets made because many artists and audience members find that having comedic moments mixed in with an overall dramatic plotline helps relieve tension and keeps the story from developing an alienating vibe of pretension.

I've never watched anything that contained so many people make so many stupid facial expressions in my entire life.

I'm sorry, but I can't take that critique seriously. These are not the words of someone engaging with the material in good faith.
 
By caring about the characters. I didn't even like this episode but the character work I enjoyed.
i think you need good stories with real substance.
am i asking for succession level? no. Andor level? Yes.

SNW may end up in the MCU ruote, they have been trying to chase the mcu for years. mcu stop taking itself seriously so fans and critics stop taking them seriously. we will not want that for star trek. ironic reviews for season 2 already seem less Steller, so i wonder what we have in store next.
 
Other the things I mentioned earlier, which I didn't like, I did enjoy the episode. For me, it was a fun average episode of Star Trek.
 
For me, it was a fun average episode of Star Trek.
I agree, it wasn't Earth shattering, but a fun romp. Solid 7 out of 10. I would like to know more about Chapel's and M'benga's participation in the war. Hopefully we might get some flashbacks. Also, what the hell kind of "Crossfield" class was that? And what drug did Chapel and M'benga inject themselves with?
 
i think you need good stories with real substance.
am i asking for succession level? no. Andor level? Yes.

SNW may end up in the MCU ruote, they have been trying to chase the mcu for years. mcu stop taking itself seriously so fans and critics stop taking them seriously. we will not want that for star trek. ironic reviews for season 2 already seem less Steller, so i wonder what we have in store next.
Most of this is so poorly written it's unintelligible.
 
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