Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x10 - "A Quality of Mercy"

He's fighting the cloud monster.

Needs of the many...

I'm so incredibly impressed by the interesting perspectives presented here as Pike is demanded to challenge his accepted fate but Spock's sacrifice is applauded. The principle that Pike is demonstrating is the same as Spock's decision.

As the dearly departed Spock would say, "Fascinating. "

 

Spock's sacrifice was made in the moment, without any time to consider other plans.

 

Ok. So his sacrifice was foolish? There is no place for sacrificing oneself to save others or the future?

 

I neglected to mention this earlier, and I don't know where we are in the thread, but I wanted to say: I think the end of the episode felt very bittersweet, especially with the song at the end. It makes "The Menagerie" that much more sad than it already was.

 

Well, the robe isn't her uniform, she literally just put it on when she came out of the shower.

 

Saddle Up! about the finale is finally here!

 

Embarrassing true confession time: As kids in the mid-seventies, my little brother and I had officially licensed Star Trek pajamas. His shirt was blue and mine was yellow. The science officer pajamas had dark blue pants, collar, and cuffs. The command pajamas had dark brown pants, collar, and cuffs. Those were some comfortable pajamas. Combine it with the AMT landing party expedition equipment model kit and you had a form of junior league cosplay.

Since they didn't come in red, Scotty fans were out of luck.

 

I loved how she stepped out of the shower with high-heeled shoes.

 

Comparison between this episode and "Balance of Terror":

 

I felt like they did that on purpose: This is what people say about Captain Kirk, and this is how he really is.
Everyone knows that stereotypical Shatner impersonation cadence: "Spock! What - are - we - going - to do?" Everyone knows that image that Kirk is always looking for a girlfriend.
But in the show he often ignores the sexual antics around him. He has an addiction to being captain. He comes off confident, but he often expresses doubts about having young people counting on him for their lives and the galaxy counting on him to make big decisions.
There's a kernel of truth to the brash ladies man pop image, but the show is saying that's not what he's really like.

 

Or there is more than one side to Kirk.

 

Okay, I'm coming late to the party here, but I just saw it tonight and I can't resist weighing in. FWIW!...

I liked the effort overall. It was interesting to see an attempt to revisit such a familiar and classic story, and in many ways they did it well. Anson Mount was great, as usual. However, IMHO the episode suffered from three things:

First, the continuity just doesn't work. In TOS Pike had handed off command of the ENT and been promoted before his accident, as evidenced in "Menagerie" by Kirk's surprise on learning of the accident. If Kirk had inherited the ship from him as a result of it, he obviously would have known. This might be handwaved away as a minor glitch except that the entire plot literally hinges on Pike still being in command because of that change.

Second, the casting was disappointing. I'm just not sold on this version of Jim Kirk; he lacks both the gravitas and the charm of Shatner. And the Romulan commander, while not bad in his own right, can't compare to Mark Lenard.

Third, the episode kinda hung a lampshade on Spock being More Important than Pike, indeed literally crucial to the fate of the entire galaxy. And yeah, we know that is how things turned out in the long run, but it's an artifact of Trek being fiction and really one of the least plausible things about it when taken literally, which is why it's usually not emphasized quite so bluntly.

 

Something one has to bear in mind is how terribly plotted " The Menagerie" is. Nothing about the wrapper makes any sense, so fitting it plausibly into a larger narrative is just about impossible and not worth doing. Stick to the broad strokes.

 

Without a doubt the very best Star Trek ever since 2005. Oh it's not much good. But finally satisfying. Of course most of what is good is pilfered from a much, much better episode and series; even down to dialog.

There are only 2 cadets killed, even in the worst case, where Pike is turned into putty. so he cant even write them a letter and no one else. Mott and the other cadet HAVE TO DIE. he's basically condemning them 2 kids to DEATH even though he KNOWS how to save their lives. not very StarFleet in my opinion.

One notable exception: M'Benga's retort ''this is not a schoolyard.'' That one was brilliant, worthy of Trek. First and only good line in all of Nu-Trek since 2009. Most memorable line so far.

Micheal Burnhams forgettable verbal fast talkin verbal diarrhea. Not a single memorable line The only line
i remember from STD was from 1st episode ' starfleet does not fire first' and that was by Georgiou.

Pike finally manged to shut Ortegas up after being undermined by her in the previous episodes.

But, it's full Kurtzmantrek; office workers cosplaying as Starfleet officers; including Pike shouting on the bridge. same starwarshy visuals; gore for the sake of gore; of course we must see the horribly mutilated corpse of Spock laid on a table like a piece of meat.

stupid, incompetent villains (i.e. Romulans have no sensors to detect empty robotic ships; unable to diffenciate mining ships from warships; needlessly destroy their best ship just before a battle); needless nonsense convenience (i.e. swapping Ortegas and nameless token Asian girl to play pseudo-Sulu so that she can play TOS Lieutenant Styles' role (we be too dumb to see the pilfering if she kept her station.

And why is the ''best pilot in Starfleet'' not piloting? Or has the stations swapped places?).

Memberberries (i.e. Scotty's voice); I'm wondering if they killed off Hemmer (the only good character of the show) just for this... magic as sci-fi (the infamous Klingon time crystals).

Women rule everything (of COURSE the Praetor is a woman). That being said; they didn't disfigure Kirk beyond the Nu-Trek trope of being a loose cannon (totally false in Classic Trek); but that IS a good thing in the end (see below).

The overall story is entertaining and not completely asinine. But, again, it is full ANTI-Trek; fatalistic, pessimistic, morally bankrupt. If Pike tries to change his future, he will destroy it for everyone else; accept your fate and never try to find another solution. Soooo inspirational. Soooo uplifting. Soooo Trek. Yeah...

And Romulans go from a proud, dedicated, honorable people to ruthless murdering stupid warmongers (shooting down the ship for failure instead of a self sacrifice to not fall into enemy hands).

Joining ranks with Xenomorphgorns and Klingorcs in Kurtzman's retched hive of scum and villainy.

All that being said, I was truly satisfied. Because this episode finally seals the series and all of Kurtzmantrek officially in the Kelvin Universe; The Farragu is a clear Abrams design when in Classic Trek it has always been understood as a Constitution class.

The Romulans LOOK like the aliens in Galaxy Quest and are almost comical.

Kirk is portrayed as the Kirk of Chris Pine (rogue, rebellious, impetuous); not of Bill Shatner (disciplined, steadfast, clever). But most of all; Kirk talks to Pike about his father serving on the USS Kelvin; which is NOT of Classic Trek but UNIQUELY from the Abramsverse; the very Nu Trek parallel universe was NAMED after that ship! Exactly because that ship never existed in Classic Trek. THAT more than anything else seals the deal.

Future Pike shoulda used his time crystal to go tell Michael Burnham not to jump 900 years into the future, if her mushroom motor ship was still around in Balance of Terror era she coulda solved everything by quoting Alice in Wonderland and crying.

Hence why I am so satisfied with this finale. All TOS discrepancies gone now, as this is NOT Star Trek but it's own thing. AT LAST, they stated it! It's canon! Now they can have their bi-sexual Kirk, their Gorn monsters, their nonsense TOS crew, their dark starwarshy universe of bad characters; because it's an alternate thing. We can ignore it all. True Trek is saved! Q'APLA!

 

This is Star Trek, and everyone knows it - including folks who want it not to be.

 

6.

It was okay, though Pike not ignoring Spock would’ve went a long way towards there not being a Romulan war.

Ortegas stuff was out of left field and really added nothing to the episode.

 

This is the Star Trek a lot of us wanted five years ago from a TOS Prequel set ten years earlier. If DSC Season 1 did it for you from a storytelling and creative point of view then that's great and I'm happy you got your version of 2250s Trek but this is a whole lot closer to what some of us wanted and we're eating it up.

 

This is the Star Trek I wanted starting around...1971.

 

It's been a long road...