Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x04 - "Among the Lotus Eaters"

[Richard S. Ta]

I twigged that it was headgear that was providing immunity at around the same time Pike was smashing rocks.

Anyone else?

Regardless, not every episode can be perfect. SNW has hit it out of the park every week before this one and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow has jumped straight into my Top 3 Star Trek episodes of all time. I suppose with such a high bar to clear, any episode would feel lacking.

Most of all, I was looking forward to seeing Ortegas doing something other than fly the ship. She is an absolutely charming, beautiful actor and I wish they'd give her more to do. As much as I love La'an, she had the lion's share last week. She didn't need the focus again so soon IMO.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I twigged that it was headgear that was providing immunity at around the same time Pike was smashing rocks.

Anyone else?

Rather than space magic or rocks, I assumed the helmets were lined with lead.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Rather than space magic or rocks, I assumed the helmets were lined with lead.

Something like that. My thought process went:

What's the difference between the slaves and the slavemasters? Helmets? Huh, what about the King? Oh yeah, he had a Crown.

Not a criticism as such. Just an observation. Usually I fail to predict anything.

 

[jackoverfull]

are we sure abou that? I remember him explaining: "this symbols on my arm are my name" and later, at his hut "those are the same symbols that are on my arm, so this means this is mine!"
that doesn' really sound like literacy to me

he knew his name…

 

[jackoverfull]

I twigged that it was headgear that was providing immunity at around the same time Pike was smashing rocks.

Anyone else?

yes, it was kinda obvious.

Rather than space magic or rocks, I assumed the helmets were lined with lead.

could be. And perhaps the meteorite fragments were green!

 

[Hythlodeus]

he knew his name…

best Bond song ever

 

[StarMan]

What possesses me to even skim these threads before I've seen the episode.

I thought it was fine. Think I preferred it over last week's, actually.

That's the beauty of the episodic format. A weaker episode (if that's how you view it) is not part of a larger train wreck in progress - we can all reset for next week. Makes for a bit more variety in discussion.

Hopefully Ortegas gets a bit more to work with than this one B-plot. Unfortunately, we're already (almost) at the halfway mark. SNW as an episodic ensemble is really getting shortchanged with a meager 10 episodes. It's fine for serialized fluff with one continuous story. More often than not - at least so far as Trek's track record - they'd benefit from fewer.

I know 26 is out of the question. How 'bout 16-20? Cancel / scrap what is required to make it happen.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Something like that. My thought process went:

What's the difference between the slaves and the slavemasters? Helmets? Huh, what about the King? Oh yeah, he had a Crown.

Not a criticism as such. Just an observation. Usually I fail to predict anything.

Just going with the idea that the solution to the magic space radiation was probably something incredibly common that a educated spacer ensign would know about.

 

[Jedman67]

I thought the Throne Room set was redressed from last seasons Ep. 6 (Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach).

Acc to M/A they filmed at Parkwood Estate; the interiors match

 

[Guy Gardener]

Did they? I don't remember that. Was his Red Angel crazy exacerbated by his dyslexia? Or was he able to survive it longer because of his dyslexia?

Ceti Alpha V.

Ceti Alpha VI.

The Science officer in charge of the cartography on that mission was Dyslexic.

Duh!

 

[1001001]

Well, I thought that was brilliant.

Well written, very clever premise. Thoroughly enjoyable.

"I fly the ship."

10

 

[Farscape One]

I really loved this one. This episode truly represents the title of the series... it was a strange new world. (Despite knowing about it all the way back to the first pilot, we still knew very little about it, so it is a new world)

This episode had shades of "THE CLOUD MINDERS" with the city and ground dwellers, and was clearly showcasing how in current society the top 1 percent control everyone else.

Excellent performances from everyone. Spock not being able to read his tablet... either english is not his inherent memory (since he was raised on Vulcan), or it was a nod to his dyslexia that was shown in DISCO. Either reason is completely believable.

As someone who has had to, on occasion, recite things a few times to keep the information in my head, I love that Ortegas was reminding herself of who she is.

I also love how that, even without our full memories, there are certain traits that just stay with you... M'Benga being a healer, Ortegas being a pilot, Pike needing to take care of his crew, etc. And what Luq was saying about the pain remaining even with no memories... he's right. Certain things like that will stay with you because when someone you love is lost, a piece of you is always missing. After losing both my grandparents, this is a truth that words can't fully express. And I would never want my memories gone in exchange for less of that pain... it's my only way of always keeping them alive. This episode pretty much exemplifies two wonderful quotes from the TOS movies, which are among my favorites.

"He's not really dead. As long as we remember him."

"I need my pain."

It was a great scifi concept filled with wonderful character beats. This episode was easily a 9 for me. Far, far superior to last week. SNW is continuing to fire on all cylinders.

 

[Tallguy]

That was both fun and actually kind of scary.

And I finally got my Ortegas episode.

 

[Jedi Marso]

This is tangential, and I know I'm basically answering my own question since it's arguably a function of Star Trek being an American produced show with a mostly English-speaking audience ... BUT ... I've always been curious how in-universe English became "standard" not only for Earth but across the Federation.

If aliens showed up today and surveyed Earth, the attempt to communicate with us might be in Mandarin, since it's the most spoken first language on the planet. English and French being the languages for scientific journals, air travel, the United Nations and other official functions today is due to the influence of the British Empire, the United States, and the allied victors of World War II at the time those decisions were made.

But by the 22nd century, when United Earth becomes a thing, one would think that a significant part of Asia and Africa might necessitate moving beyond just English and French. Unless World War III was far more devastating for the "Eastern Coalition" and significant parts of Asia were destroyed? Although, Picard and his family are French and are the most English French people ever depicted in a television show, so maybe in the Star Trek universe the English language conquered all of the other languages lol.

Pike makes mention of the crewmembers wearing subdermal universal translators for the away mission- I think that is the sort of thing most people (starfleet or not) would wear all the time- if not subdermally, than as a clothing item. If you could say there was a single, universally useful 'borg' implant that a human could have, that would be it. Imagine going anywhere and not having a language barrier?

It's one of those things that generally doesn't get addressed on Trek, but it's in my head-canon. Like the Last Starfighter, the characters all speak their native language or whichever one they are most comfortable with, and hear it back, but we (the audience) hear English.

 

[Jedi Marso]

What possesses me to even skim these threads before I've seen the episode.

I thought it was fine. Think I preferred it over last weeks, actually.

That's the beauty of the episodic format. A weaker episode is not part of a larger train wreck in progress - we can all reset for next week. Makes for a bit more variety in discussion.

Hopefully Ortegas gets a bit more to work with than this one B-plot. Unfortunately, we're already (almost) at the halfway mark. SNW as an episodic ensemble is really getting shortchanged with a meager 10 episodes. It's fine for serialized fluff with one continuous story; more often than not - at least so far as Trek's track record - they'd benefit from fewer.

I know 26 is out of the question - how about 16-20. Cancel / scrap what is required to make it happen.

I think this particular series is well capable of putting out 16 quality episodes per season. 10 just seems like like too few.

 

[DEWLine]

Speaking of Capt. Marie Batel:

I went and looked up Melanie Scrofano's Memory Alpha profile. She's from Ottawa. She's been involved in SF&F stuff for over a decade (which many of you already knew and pointed out her most famous prior gig, but not the Can-Con stuff she did earlier). That kid's got chops, as the musicians say.

 

[El Maestro]

This was a good and entertaining self-contained episode. I think the world definitely qualified as "strange" and it's a little bit of obnoxious nitpicking to say that it wasn't new. Who cares? A very vintage-style episode. Not a remake of a TOS episode but certainly one that replicates its sensibility. I can get down with that.

It wasn't perfect: the set up went on a little too long so the resolution was a little rushed/pat and I think they missed some opportunities with the Ortegas stuff because she was really fun to watch and I was into it. But this is a minor criticism and the more I see of this show the more I become convinced that this is the best format for Trek and the more I lament the missed opportunities in PIC, as much as I was pleased with the TNG resolution/ending it ultimately became.

 

[fireproof78]

Who cares?

*looks around the SNW subforum*

Several.

 

[Voodoowoman2]

Meh.

This episode was very TOS in the sense that it was "premise-based," while most of SNW has been character based.

What do I mean? Just that even though the episode tried to weave little character bits into the show, such as Pike's background on Rigel VII and his floundering relationship, ultimately, there was nothing in this episode that really required the SNW characters themselves to be involved. It could have just as easily been an episode of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, etc., with different characters occupying the same roles.

Which is part of why it all rings a little thin to me. I mean, they tried to have an emotional theme here, with Pike's feelings for Batel centering him and the reflection upon loss and memory by Luq at the end. But fundamentally this is just a "crew discovers negative space wedgie" episode, which we've seen plenty of before.

Also, if I were Melissa Navia, I would be pissed. She finally gets "an episode" to prove Ortegas something other than a quippy, chipper person with a high-maintenance haircut who flies the ship. We discover she's...a quippy chipper person with a high-maintenance haircut who flies the ship! Obviously, you can't plumb the depths of someone's psyche in an amnesia episode, but still, this was pretty goddamned disappointing.

Overall, very little to say here because the episode had very little to say. I honestly liked the TNG take on ship-wide amnesia better, where the crew started trying on different roles and interacting in ways we wouldn't expect rather than just stumbling around and ignoring one another, except for when the plot required it.

Sorry, but Ortegas IS a quippy, childlike, backtalking helmsperson. I've seen nothing else.

 

[Voodoowoman2]

There's probably a continuity issue here with Star Trek 5 (which SNW acknowledges as canon via Sybok). Previous non-canon material said Rigel 7 was warp capable, with the Kalar being an oppressed underclass. This is clearly not the case now. However, in Star Trek 5 Kirk talks about singing "Moon over Rigel VII" at the campfire. Considering what SNW establishes, it's practically impossible for Kirk or any other Fed member to visit Rigel 7, much less to the point that a song of its moonlight is publicly known, unless they literally develop warp capability very soon after this week's SNW episode.

It is clear to me now that the Trek Universe is a multiverse and STD (They should have considered the initials before naming the show), and SNW are in another multiverse. It's just easier in my head canon to think of it that way.