Oxmyx and Krako agree.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 4x01 - "Valles Marineris"
Yes, but SCIENCE AND I NEED THIS TO MAKE SENSE BECAUSE TREK IS SERIOUS BIZNESS.™.
No..
This is the way.
Great start. I love almost every minute of this episode; this kind of crazy sci-fi adventure is just fun, and the banter between Scotty and Ortegas alone makes it worthwhile, although I would prefer the show to avoid more romance stuff assuming that's what the writers are aiming at.
"The Federation have met maybe 65 different insectoid species. Of those, 17 of them don't use sonic communication, like us."
Big universe syndrome. Greatly appreciated. A shame live action doesn't lend itself to showing a lot of non-standard/ -humanoid aliens.
Poor Mars! It gets scarred, its orbit shifted, turned into a wasteland, struck with comets, bombed and burned. Trek writers hate the planet.
When Cassel confronts Pike about the fate of their civilisation, it would have been prudent to point out that actually no one knows what would eventually happen to them. Mars is devasted by the present age, but the Martians could escape to a distant part of the galaxy, beyond the galaxy or even transcend into another form of existence.
Perhaps I missed something, but the ship ending up in the Sol system of all places is beyond a stretch. I assume the course had been laid in before they get hit by the anomaly's warp field.
The ep. should have been longer in order to get the insectoids point of view. Why would they eat Mars?
Much as I enjoy the story, the Martians' decision to use the super-antimatter bomb the way they do is IDIOTIC. The plot implies they know its explosive power, so maybe, just maybe, you should run a computer simulation or two to learn about the consequences of destroying your neighbouring planet before setting it off. As anyone can guess, those might be unpleasant.
Another nitpick is Spock figuring out how to get home on the fly.
Overall still 9/10.
Subspace/ warp bubbles can contain matter. The anomaly would presumably break the ship and crew into countless small pieces and encapsulate those pieces with s. bubbles.
Alternatively, Spock may actually mean particles native to subspace, such as tetryons.
The warp drive is still mostly technobabble; it distorts spacetime with subspace (magic). If writers say it needs some sort of ignition, it does. Q magic may run on protomatter cocaine.
Is it really that hard to accept that one of ST's soft-sci-fi anomalies could penetrate solid matter with its warp fields and react with iridium? In TOS, a ship also requires iridium for repairs.
Concerning the shuttle: the dialogue heavily implies it had been damaged by the anomaly as well, but still remains somewhat operational.
The away team apparently doesn't want to operate the shuttle engines longer than necessary which would explain why simply hovering short of the ground is not an option, while the "choppy" ground makes landing difficult.
OTOH, it reminds me of, "We have jetpacks now." (Those Old Scientists)
But of course we never use equipment that would make our jobs so much easier. No jetpacks, no rocket boots, no antigrav harnesses... Basic body armour? Forget it.
No, we get a precise value of planet Dol'drm's mass:
The Moon's mass is 7.346e22 kg, so Dol'drm has about 5.4 times the mass of Earth's Moon. The asteroid belt must have lost asteroids over time.
Fifth. Humpback whales probably between Voth and humans. The system spawns species pretty much like the Xindi homeworld: humanoids, reptiloids, aquatics.
"The Federation have met maybe 65 different insectoid species. Of those, 17 of them don't use sonic communication, like us."
Big universe syndrome. Greatly appreciated. A shame live action doesn't lend itself to showing a lot of non-standard/ -humanoid aliens.
Poor Mars! It gets scarred, its orbit shifted, turned into a wasteland, struck with comets, bombed and burned. Trek writers hate the planet.
When Cassel confronts Pike about the fate of their civilisation, it would have been prudent to point out that actually no one knows what would eventually happen to them. Mars is devasted by the present age, but the Martians could escape to a distant part of the galaxy, beyond the galaxy or even transcend into another form of existence.
Perhaps I missed something, but the ship ending up in the Sol system of all places is beyond a stretch. I assume the course had been laid in before they get hit by the anomaly's warp field.
The ep. should have been longer in order to get the insectoids point of view. Why would they eat Mars?
Much as I enjoy the story, the Martians' decision to use the super-antimatter bomb the way they do is IDIOTIC. The plot implies they know its explosive power, so maybe, just maybe, you should run a computer simulation or two to learn about the consequences of destroying your neighbouring planet before setting it off. As anyone can guess, those might be unpleasant.
Another nitpick is Spock figuring out how to get home on the fly.
Overall still 9/10.
Subspace/ warp bubbles can contain matter. The anomaly would presumably break the ship and crew into countless small pieces and encapsulate those pieces with s. bubbles.
Alternatively, Spock may actually mean particles native to subspace, such as tetryons.
The warp drive is still mostly technobabble; it distorts spacetime with subspace (magic). If writers say it needs some sort of ignition, it does. Q magic may run on protomatter cocaine.
Is it really that hard to accept that one of ST's soft-sci-fi anomalies could penetrate solid matter with its warp fields and react with iridium? In TOS, a ship also requires iridium for repairs.
http://chakoteya.net/StarTrek/43.htm
Concerning the shuttle: the dialogue heavily implies it had been damaged by the anomaly as well, but still remains somewhat operational.
The away team apparently doesn't want to operate the shuttle engines longer than necessary which would explain why simply hovering short of the ground is not an option, while the "choppy" ground makes landing difficult.
OTOH, it reminds me of, "We have jetpacks now." (Those Old Scientists)
But of course we never use equipment that would make our jobs so much easier. No jetpacks, no rocket boots, no antigrav harnesses... Basic body armour? Forget it.
No, we get a precise value of planet Dol'drm's mass:
The Moon's mass is 7.346e22 kg, so Dol'drm has about 5.4 times the mass of Earth's Moon. The asteroid belt must have lost asteroids over time.
Fifth. Humpback whales probably between Voth and humans. The system spawns species pretty much like the Xindi homeworld: humanoids, reptiloids, aquatics.
Most of the mass was either converted to energy in the explosion or hurled away at escape velocities from the original orbital path. Spock says that the asteroid belt consists of about 4% of Doldr'm's mass. Still a little high.
This episode not only referenced Doctor Who, it felt like a Doctor Who episode. Time Travel, Dinosaurs, something changed in the past was always the right decision, the quick fix solution to get out of a mess etc.
Any other Captain (other than maybe Janeway post season 3 of Voyager) would have refused to let a planet/civilization be destroyed based on a hunch, and because of their principles. It would have sat better with me if Pike was about to order the antimatter destroyed but Spock stops him at the last second because according to his calculations that was always meant to happen. But the whole "there's no planet in the future so I guess it must get destroyed now" is... a weak guess at best and not at all a scientific one.
Any other Captain (other than maybe Janeway post season 3 of Voyager) would have refused to let a planet/civilization be destroyed based on a hunch, and because of their principles. It would have sat better with me if Pike was about to order the antimatter destroyed but Spock stops him at the last second because according to his calculations that was always meant to happen. But the whole "there's no planet in the future so I guess it must get destroyed now" is... a weak guess at best and not at all a scientific one.
I really like that they were brave enough to put the character in that position with little information and everything riding on it. That’s why he is the star and the captain.
It also directly points to his comment earlier that their decisions 65 million years in the past couldn’t possibly affect their future.
Playing hunches is very Star Trek. Even Spock does it.
Pike had to weigh the fate of billions (trillions?) against that of one world. The needs of the many...
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Two worlds. Mars and Sol V. He had to have some kind of idea the amount of chaos he was about to unleash.
The humpbacks are sentient, but not spacefaring. They never got to evolve to the stage where they could leave Earth on their own.
This is what I posted elsewhere about the episode...
I absolutely love "Valles Marineris", it was like a Gold Key comic brought to life. Just incredibly creative. If one doesn't like this one, on some level, I question their credentials as a Trek fan.
I absolutely love "Valles Marineris", it was like a Gold Key comic brought to life. Just incredibly creative. If one doesn't like this one, on some level, I question their credentials as a Trek fan.
But from a moral standpoint is it something a starfleet captain would do? Let's not even get into the prime directive argument on this one!
You mean one that is tasked with protecting the Federation and its citizens. I'm sure on an emotional level it was a hard thing to do. On an intellectual level Pike did his job.
Most Trek captains play hunches and save lives, sometimes millions or billions. Risk is their business.
But are these Captains our heroes because they did their job or because they made the choice everyone else would be terrified to.
Pike did both things at the end of the episode.
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