Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x08 - "The Elysian Kingdom"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' started by Commander Richard, Jun 22, 2022.

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Hit it!

  1. 10 - Excellent!

    22.3%
  2. 9

    15.3%
  3. 8

    19.5%
  4. 7

    14.0%
  5. 6

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  6. 5

    4.2%
  7. 4

    6.0%
  8. 3

    3.3%
  9. 2

    1.9%
  10. 1 - Terrible!

    3.3%
  1. Gilora

    Gilora Commander Red Shirt

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    Funny and sweet. 10.

    Favorite part: La'an playing against type.

    This is definitely the best first season of any Trek.
     
  2. Yistaan

    Yistaan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    And whose entertainment? If Rukiya was hiding in M'Benga's quarters most of the time, she may not have experienced most of the stuff to begin with.
     
  3. Awesome Possum

    Awesome Possum Moddin' Admiral

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    Anson Mount was amazing in this episode. They should give him every opportunity to play it silly or weird as they can.
     
  4. Voodoowoman2

    Voodoowoman2 Commander Red Shirt

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    It was one of the biggest roles. She obviously enjoyed it, Chapel,had zero to do. Sheesh relax!
     
  5. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I would say the only "storyline" we have seen developed so far was M'Banga and his daughter and that concluded in this episode.

    One of the things I was thinking about watching the episode was bringing back some of the things left behind by Discovery, like Ash Tyler. I wouldn't mind seeing him again on SNW.
     
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  6. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Because...it worked and Celia Rose Gooding probably wanted to play it? Sigh.
     
  7. Voodoowoman2

    Voodoowoman2 Commander Red Shirt

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    Chapel had ZERO,role in this ep. Did you actually watch it? Playing the evil queen is FUN.
     
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  8. Gilora

    Gilora Commander Red Shirt

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    I know it's not mentioned often, but One Little Ship is one of my many favorite DS9 episodes and one of those reasons is Kira making fun of the ridiculousness of the concept.

    However, with the state of M'Benga's daughter, I don't think it would have been appropriate to laugh at the situation.
     
  9. Mr Awe

    Mr Awe Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Rukiya's who had fun watching her dad. She said that she could see him. And presumably the entity's own entertainment as well.

    But it just goes to show how the entity had no real conception about humans and what was dangerous. Or was indifferent about whether the crew was safe or not.
     
  10. Gilora

    Gilora Commander Red Shirt

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    Two more favorites:

    Pike playing a weasel.
    Ortegas playing a male badass role.
     
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  11. Yistaan

    Yistaan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    For all we know the fun times that adult Rukiya was gushing about to her dad was steamrolling other planets, provoking the Borg to go assimilate another sector, and causing the Romulan supernova.
     
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  12. Charles Phipps

    Charles Phipps Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I love La'an but would not be adverse to Princess Thalia being a regular.
     
  13. Mr Awe

    Mr Awe Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I wouldn't say that. Clearly, the writers wanted to hit us over the head that it was the "correct decision" so that we wouldn't think about the suspect nature of the decision. The writers' intent is a fairytale ending.

    But M'Benga didn't know that prior to the visit and, in fact, had some evidence to the contrary. He also had evidence that the daughter's decision-making on this matter was also suspect. She thought he was having fun despite the dangers to himself and others and couldn't comprehend the actual dangers.
     
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  14. Rahul

    Rahul Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I liked the silliness of the concept, and I greatly enjoyed the actors playing against type.
    That being said - I'm pretty disappointed with Rukiya's story. That felt like a half-assed Dr. Who arc compressed into a single hour. It feels like the producers felt the secret kid in the transporter buffer was a mistake, and this episode is like a stealth-retcon of M'Benga.
    Had his daughter's arc been a real, long story, it would have made sense for M'Benga to leave Starfleet service after she's healed, and spent more time with her. Now that secret got a neat little finish with a bow tie, his daughter is gone, but everything is fine, back to normal.
    VOY reset button style.

    Fantastic set dressing, btw I feel kinda' bad for the redshirts getting hit by an arrow. I actually kinda' wished there was more meat to the fantasy story - maybe they should have used a public domain fairy tale, would have been funny to see the actors as characters we know, like King Arthur or Robin Hood.

    I feel like in the back half of the season the show is still great, but the quality of the individual stories has dipped a bit. A problem EVERY story-of-the-week Trek show dad always had. But a bit sad when we only get 10 episodes a season.

    Alas, I still very much enjoyed this episode, despite not being happy with, well, everything about Rukiyas arc.
     
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  15. Yistaan

    Yistaan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    With the Benny Russell reference maybe Rukiya became a prophet and is Ben Sisko's mother. Which means that M'Benga is his grandfather. :eek:
     
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  16. Bad Thoughts

    Bad Thoughts Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The reference was totally half assed. The book in no way reflected the literary pursuits or intellectual interests of Benny Russell. So unless they are going to do something with the reference ...
     
  17. ToddCam

    ToddCam Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It's been a long time since I watched it, but the Debra entity kind of reminded me of the Companion from "Metamorphosis" (TOS). The way it swirled around her and only became a sapient being due to its connection to her.
     
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  18. Rahul

    Rahul Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This episode was VERY TOS like. And I friggin' love Hemmer!
    Also, M'Benga's haircut has notably improved:lol:
     
  19. firehawk12

    firehawk12 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I know it's dark, but an alternate reading of the ending that would work for me is if it was a metaphor for death and processing grief. That the entire last part was also just a hallucination planted in M'Benga's head to help him deal with grief and loss and that he can only hope that his daughter is in a better place now that she's gone.

    But I know that's not how the episode is meant to be read. lol
     
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  20. brandnewfan

    brandnewfan Commander Red Shirt

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    I didn't like this one.

    Not the worst episode I've ever seen, but the worst from SNW so far. I kept thinking of Neelix telling stories to Naomi and the Borg kids. It recovered towards the end, but not really that much.
     
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