Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x08 - "Four-And-A-Half Vulcans"

[Pauln6]

It's Star Trek. Everyone is a jack of the trade needed. I can imagine Spock, Uhura and La'An have some engineering training.

She called him and he came from where ever his was in the earlier scene.

Potato Potahto. We know the Kerkovian serum makes deep changes on the psychological and emotional level as well as the physiological level. When Spock went full human he lost all of his Vulcan training and control (He also got a hairstyle change) Kervokians move in mysterious ways.

Everyone is trained in maintenance of Starfleet Tech but this was non-Starfleet old-fashioned nuclear technology. Uhura is a technician, and it may be that her skills with electronics were what were actually needed but the fact that the engineer couldn't go just nudges my ability to suspend disbelief over the line.

Suppressing existing DNA by making epigenetic changes is silly but I can see some vague scientific basis for it. This is not the same as overwriting the DNA of one species with the DNA of another species. Vulcan's blood is copper based. Even if the serum over-writes DNA, surely they would need emergency transfusions to avoid multiple organ failure? There are just too many magically hand-waved problems for me. Sorry!

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

An utterly terrible episode.
Boring in the extreme.

 

[Trekker4747]

Why not?

Nowhere have we ever heard that Cetacean Ops was on any ship before the Galaxy class. I'll go far as to say the California class shouldn't have it because the Galaxy-class was intended for long, deep, explorative missions and Cetacean Ops helped with navigation and other mapping issues.

I'll alow for Cerritos to have it, maybe a smaller version usefulness "Second Contact" missions, but the Enterprise-Nil? I say shouldn't have Cetacean Ops because nothing ever says that it did.

But, this Enterprise is over 400m long, so...

 

[Noname Given]

Some may find this interesting. A podcast where the host is actually talking directly to the two Writers of this episode live:

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[Charles Phipps]

Jessie Gender points out in her review that we spent an entire episode with La'An with her learning that being an Augment doesn't define her or influence her behavior, she is who she is. Here being an Augment (and also part Romulan) she's inherently driven to aggression and conquering.

Which..... Umm. Okay.

Jessie seemed to have been completely unable to engage with the premise beyond its opening TBH. La'an absolutely does NOT let it define her as she chooses not to be that way.

Or to put it simply, "Spock has a half-dozen episodes and scenes where he's influenced by spores, time travel, or his biology to act non-Vulcan and we don't complain about that. La'an is under a drug that makes her vicious and manipulative but when confronted with it chooses to dance instead of kill."

 

[Romulan_spy]

What bothers me the most about this episode is that it feels like total character assassination of Spock and Vulcans. Yes, Spock is half-human, half-Vulcan. But that does not mean that he is dumb or inferior. He is a highly competent Starfleet officer and very intelligent and logical as we see in TOS.

And considering how in the last episode, Spock admits that he mutilated himself to try to excise his humanity because of how Vulcans mistreated him, it is rather uncomfortable to see his human friends turn into the worst stereotypes of Vulcans and do the exact same thing to him in this episode. They repeatedly mistreat him for being half-human at every turn in this episode and it is played as a big joke. "The away team is only 4.5 Vulcans because you are only half Vulcan, Spock, you are inferior to us and not a real Vulcan like us that took a magic serum!" Vulcans are turned into horrible stereotypes rather than the stoic, wise and highly intelligent species that they are.

 

[Charles Phipps]

What bothers me the most about this episode is that it feels like total character assassination of Spock and Vulcans. Yes, Spock is half-human, half-Vulcan. But that does not mean that he is dumb or inferior. He is a highly competent Starfleet officer and very intelligent and logical as we see in TOS.

And considering how in the last episode, Spock admits that he mutilated himself to try to excise his humanity because of how Vulcans mistreated him, it is rather uncomfortable to see his human friends turn into the worst stereotypes of Vulcans and do the exact same thing to him in this episode. They repeatedly mistreat him for being half-human at every turn in this episode and it is played as a big joke. "The away team is only 4.5 Vulcans because you are only half Vulcan, Spock, you are inferior to us and not a real Vulcan like us that took a magic serum!" Vulcans are turned into horrible stereotypes rather than the stoic, wise and highly intelligent species that they are.

I mean the episode is about how being human is not inferior to Vulcan even if they have better abilities.

Which is the point.

Being smarter or stronger is not better. Because what makes a person valuable is not how efficient or powerful or strong.

Its a great anti-abelism message.

And yes, maybe I'm influenced by this as a neuroatypical person who grew up with epilepsy.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Cetacean Ops shouldn't be on this Enterprise.

There, I said it.

Unless they confirm it does, I assume this is just her hallucination of it from a space station.

 

[AntonyF]

What!? Tuvok was an awesome Vulcan.

They gave this episode 10/10. I nodded and thought well each to their own.

Then they didn't like Tuvok. That I find harder to accept.

But it proves that as fans we are on not just different wavelengths, but different planets.

You need to watch more Trek and more TV

Now there's a fun lark. This was bottom of the barrel trash so I should go and watch more TV to find something worse.

THIS. IS. LIVING. PEOPLE. And what a testament to the show's writing.

---

As an aside I watched Foundation after this. And it was like going from a child smearing shit on a plate going "I made dinner dada" to a gourmet meal. I'm so glad that sci-fi still has some life somewhere.

 

[Macintosh]

Wow. That was hot garbage. At one point I genuinely thought I wouldn't be able to finish it.

What the HELL has been going on this season!?

 

[thribs]

Now all that’s left is seeing the bowling alley and swimming pool.

 

[Trekker4747]

Jessie seemed to have been completely unable to engage with the premise beyond its opening TBH. La'an absolutely does NOT let it define her as she chooses not to be that way.

Or to put it simply, "Spock has a half-dozen episodes and scenes where he's influenced by spores, time travel, or his biology to act non-Vulcan and we don't complain about that. La'an is under a drug that makes her vicious and manipulative but when confronted with it chooses to dance instead of kill."

Being the LGBT that she is, Jessie has seen the world differently than most of us and certainly for the last few years it's been particularly hard of trans nature (or any group that's not a straight cis-white male) so I can see why the elements of it maybe stood out more.

Is saying Vulcans are naturally inherently logical and emotionless that much different than saying if you're born black you're inherently good at basketball and listen to hip-hop?

The episode kind of says these kind of things? Where do her actions come from if once a change is made in her genetics she suddenly starts acting more like a Romulan or an Augment? (Which, I believe Enterprise says or heavily implies being an Augment does up the Alpha side and makes one more aggressive and desire to conquer.) The episode doesn't give her that arc well.

Here, I'll pitch you this: Same basic premise and arcs for everyone, just changing La'an's story. She thinks the ship needs more weapons and all of that and needs to conquer, she decides to start with the planet they're at is a good place to start, she's set to fire a torpedo on the planet to start to conquer. Kirk and Scotty figure out her plan and stop her on the bridge before she can execute it she holds them off from stopping her with a phaser.

Pike, Chapel, Spock and Uhura show up and we have a stand-off, she says she'll kill anyone who tries to stop her. Pike, Chapel, Uhura and Kirk try to talk her down while Scotty walks around to disable her console or something. They manage to get through (reaching her katra) and La'An agrees to be changed back.

I assume this is what they did with Chapel, Uhura and Pike through mind melds directed/performed by Doug ((?) Patton Oswald) with help from Spock. They would just be doing it physically here.

 

[Trekker4747]

Now all that’s left is seeing the bowling alley and swimming pool.

If we get to see the bowling alley here or in "Year One" or, ever, I will have reached pure Trek joy. That is what I want most. Prime Universe, Enterprise-nil, ideally the classic Connie but will accept it here and not on the holodeck.

Show. Me. The. Bowling alley!

 

[Donald G]

In a bit of a tragedy, the implications are seemingly that Kirk and Carol are ALREADY on the outs due to the fact he seems to be on the Enterprise for a hook up with La'an. Which means that he gave up his chance with La'an for a relationship that was a complete disaster.

Where does Kirk say he's there to hook up with La'an? He says the Farragut is undergoing repairs and is still missing a nacelle and he was there to visit his brother, Sam, who had already departed the ship for his leave.

Nowhere is the prospect of hooking up with La'an in a romantic manner brought up, unless I missed a line somewhere establishing that.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Where does Kirk say he's there to hook up with La'an? He says the Farragut is undergoing repairs and is still missing a nacelle and he was there to visit his brother, Sam, who had already departed the ship for his leave.

Nowhere is the prospect of hooking up with La'an in a romantic manner brought up, unless I missed a line somewhere establishing that.

He mentions La'an specifically to Scotty when coming onboard and the latter has to go, "She's uh not available."

 

[DaveyNY]

No. I got that part. It is super dumb. The serum just changes genes. It can change their biology and physiology to Vulcans. Genes don't transfer perceptions of things and they can't change you into the stereotype that I have. To use my example before, if I have the stereotype that black people are good at basketball and you take a serum with my genes, you don't become a black person that is good at basketball because that is my perception.

Super Dumb describes a multitude of Star Trek plots and incidents.

As far as I'm concerned this one isn't any worse than Spock having his brain removed and then put back, so he's fully functional again.

The story was fun and entertaining, that's pretty much all I expect from a Sci-Fi TV show that I've been enjoying for almost 60 years.
I'm not looking for constant hard science in my Trek, it's occasionally interesting when it is there, but I don't have a need for it to be.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Being the LGBT that she is, Jessie has seen the world differently than most of us and certainly for the last few years it's been particularly hard of trans nature (or any group that's not a straight cis-white male) so I can see why the elements of it maybe stood out more.

Is saying Vulcans are naturally inherently logical and emotionless that much different than saying if you're born black you're inherently good at basketball and listen to hip-hop?

The episode kind of says these kind of things? Where do her actions come from if once a change is made in her genetics she suddenly starts acting more like a Romulan or an Augment? (Which, I believe Enterprise says or heavily implies being an Augment does up the Alpha side and makes one more aggressive and desire to conquer.) The episode doesn't give her that arc well.

Here, I'll pitch you this: Same basic premise and arcs for everyone, just changing La'an's story. She thinks the ship needs more weapons and all of that and needs to conquer, she decides to start with the planet they're at is a good place to start, she's set to fire a torpedo on the planet to start to conquer. Kirk and Scotty figure out her plan and stop her on the bridge before she can execute it she holds them off from stopping her with a phaser.

Pike, Chapel, Spock and Uhura show up and we have a stand-off, she says she'll kill anyone who tries to stop her. Pike, Chapel, Uhura and Kirk try to talk her down while Scotty walks around to disable her console or something. They manage to get through (reaching her katra) and La'An agrees to be changed back.

I assume this is what they did with Chapel, Uhura and Pike through mind melds directed/performed by Doug ((?) Patton Oswald) with help from Spock. They would just be doing it physically here.

Yeah, I think Jessie's perspective is perfectly valid on this as a transwoman and Trek analyst.

But for me, I felt this resonated strongly with my neuroatypical experiences. I *DO* inherently see the world differently from the mainstream and I've also suffered from the fact that I can't do things that other people can do extremely well.

I can also do other things VERY well.

Biological essentialism is what bothers her about this and this is very much, "yes, Data and I have different experiences than neuroatypical people."

So I suspect we're getting a bit of a Rorschach test.

 

[Photoman15]

No, he said he came to hang out with his brother.

And as soon as he was told he was away, which he probably already knew, the next thing he brought up was La'an.

 

[DaveyNY]

He mentions La'an specifically to Scotty when coming onboard and the latter has to go, "She's uh not available."

That was an on-the-spot backup plan, his main reason for coming aboard was to see Sam.
There's nothing in the conversation between he and Scotty that indicates that La'an was his actual intent or that he already knew Sam wasn't going to be there.
(he was after all, in the process of overseeing the refit of the Farragut which apparently hit a snag with getting replacement nacelles)

And they did already discuss the implication of them NOT getting together in an earlier episode, due to his relationship with Carol.
(though we are still not positive if it is actually her)

 

[Bgt]

Ironically I said to my uncle before this episode "It's not bad enough to give up on SNW, but I worry it's heading that way." Well, it just done a slam dunk in that regard.

I am straggling as well.
I really like the cast and they have good chemistry, plus there are some great SNW episodes (I gave The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail a 9), but having to endure so many average to bad episodes in such a short season is exhausting. Not even judging it as Star Trek or caring about canon, continuity, realism, etc etc. I just found this one bad TV, nothing was funny, writing was lame, the comedy was awful, and acting was also very weak.
ah, who am I kidding? I will keep watching...