Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x05 - "Spock Amok"

Chapel is such an odd character to single out for this though. She’s not written as the “edgy rebel” or “badass” - she’s just written as being confident and competent. Honestly she comes across as such a natural character. All of them do in this show.

 

Just finished the episode. I liked it. Pikes speech at the end was my favorite part. Very much in the spirit if classic trek. The revelation that Nurse Chapel is a bisexual was a bit of a surprise. I never thought of her that way in TOS but we never did get much screen time for her character. But overall a good episode. A bit of humor but not so much where the episode was ridiculously silly. Still wish the wardrobe dept would fashion the civilian clothes to look more 23rd century.

 

You missed my edit where she also expressed issues with Raffi and Seven at Picard, but only last night she kind of detailed her overall complaints about these characters. Basically acting like jerks or aggressively and that being portrayed positively (her opinion again, and I agree that even that misses some context but I sort of get where she's coming from)

Same also she said about La'an.

 

I kinda believe (and truly hope) that by the 23rd Century, almost everybody would be confident enough in their own sexuality to be open to experimenting, without the current societal stigmas attached to their choices.

 

Chapel doesn’t have any of these characteristics though. The slap isn’t even really a slap.

 

Well it really depends what is meant by experimenting. Not everything is okay.

 

I'm going to put a little of my own opinion here and just disagree on that one. I certainly don't categorize slaps into "really a slap" and "not a slap". I don't slap my coworkers over discussions, male or female, and would file a complaint if anyone of either gender did the same to me.

In retrospect I didn't have much opinion of this slap at airing but I think it's important for all of us to remember that this is fiction and we wouldn't condone even Chapel's "not really a slap" in a real workplace environment. For what it's worth I had the same issue with Leia and Poe over at Star Wars.

 

I would call this episode a somewhat misfire, but I was still thoroughly entertained by it. I love the basic idea behind it, always love a good low-stakes character episode, and it got a TON of great creative ideas, but I think the execution was lacking a bit in most of them:

• The body-swap happened halfway through the episode & was resolved at the 3/4-mark. So hardly a "body-swap-episode" if it's such a small part of it - everyone had basically only 1 seperate conversation on one situation as the other, and then it was resolved. And it wasn't even a surprise swap-back in a stressful situation - just going to the doctor, having a procedure, and then done. No surprises.
• The treaty negotiations were pretty fun too, but also were over before we got to know the aliens even a tiny bit more. Wish we would have gotten more Tellarite, also would like to know what "offended" them before by Pike
• La'an & Una #1 (fucking LOVED that!) go "having fun" was also a great idea - but IMO there wasn't really a conclusion to the storyline, and the different "Bingo-ideas" didn't really grab me
• I didn't really get Chapels story...? I think I had a cultural/language barrier there and missed a lot of subtext.

Overall - it was 4 fantastic story ideas for two great episodes mashed into a single hour.

IMO it would have been better as two episodes - if SNW had 20 episodes per season instead of just 10. As such, I liked everything, but also felt everything was pretty rushed and under-explored.

I gave it a 7/10, because nevertheless I was genuinely entertained by the whole thing. There was nothing bad in there. I just wanted more of it. Usually a good sign for the show in general.

 

One would hope that ones moral judgement for almost everybody by then, would include not doing things that even today are considered overtly objectionable and detrimental to non-consenting individuals.

 

Honestly I am so far fine with all the SNW characters. I would like to see Ortega developed a bit.

Nurse Chapel is a bit jarring because she is nothing like the character in ToS but taken in isolation she is believable.

A far cry from the Discovery and Picard shows where many characters seemed more like caricatures wit over the top emotion, aggression, edginess you name it.

 

They were talking outside of work as friends. The comfort level between them is probably higher than two coworkers who don’t know each other socially. You know when your friend lightly jabs you in the arm to get your attention because you’re being distracted or not paying attention? This was the same thing.

I’m not sure how you can read what happened as Chapel being aggressive.

 

Heh ... you're reading much more into the scene than was obviously intended.
And yes, I've been smacked along the side of the head by a fellow co-worker (a lady) with whom I'd known and worked with for years.
I understood immediately that she was pointing out that I was being an idiot at that moment and took it as a friendly reminder to stop.

 

Yes it very much depends on the personal comfort level. Perhaps a minor criticism could be that prior to this particular scene there was not much to suggest they enjoyed a great personal rapport, but definitely not something that absolutely doesn't happen in real life.

 

Heh ... I did actually get somewhat even later on, by asking her to empty a really stinky bedpan that I was too busy to get to.

 

Off-topic a bit, but yeah:

Pike, Spock & No.1 feel like new interpretations of the original characters.

But Chapel & Uhura - feel like completely different characters. They have great characterisation, and the acting is also great! But it's just so different.

Esp. Uhura feels more like a more nuanced version of Hoshi Sato, and nothing like Nichelle Nicols' version. IMO Zoe Saldana was a " better" Uhura, even though I enjoy this new Uhura much more. Argh. She should have just been a new character!

 

I loved it. This was a wonderful episode and probably my favourite one of the modern era.

 

If I'd known you were coming early, I would have cooked you an Earth specialty...

Perhaps a cake? Now THAT is a really old reference!

 

April: Chris your sushi gave the last guests we met with food poisoning and they went straight to the Klingons and their gagh.

Pike:

 

Right. Since Nurse Chapel is officially bisexual that wouldn't be included. That just breaks canon. I was as you said thinking more about things that are obviously objectionable to reasonable people. There are a lot of people out there that do dangerous things which I wouldn't consider experimenting. I would consider it stupid.

 

True, and it was avoidable. There was nothing to suggest Chapel and Uhura were part of Pike's Enterprise crew. So instead of putting them in as I suspect familiar characters that fans would relate with, and then turning those characters on their head, they could have introduced fresh characters with the same attributes and I think everyone would have accepted them. Literally nobody was crying out for a Uhura or Chapel reboot.