There was one on Voyager. We see her when Neelix passed out those isolinear chips with letters from home.
Spoilers Season 1 episode previews, trailers, and images
- Thread starter Harpsichord
- Start date
I think I believed Mitena Haro was another species. Must have been the hair and the fact Esoqq looked like a Nausicaan but wasn't.
I believe you’re right, that Mitena Haro was, like Esoqq, only taking the appearance of a Bolian.
Yes. She was the impostor…
It certainly looks like her.
Picard didn't think it odd she had hair though.
preview pictures for Episode 5
https://blog.trekcore.com/2022/05/new-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-photos-spock-amok/
https://blog.trekcore.com/2022/05/new-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-photos-spock-amok/
Looking forward to a comedy episode, but honestly not looking forward to returning to what appears to be the Amok Time arena, for a couple reasons:
- Probably a controversial view but I think Amok Time was a very weak episode. Not just from a storytelling perspective (Kirk acting like a complete dimwit so the script can contort him into a point where he's made to engage in a tedious fight with Spock), but the depiction of Vulcan society was also just awful. I never bought it. Ritual combat? T'Pring "becoming the property" of the winner, and we're meant to side against her for taking what is apparently the only legal way out of that? Load of crap. No subsequent Trek has ever done anything of interest with the concepts introduced by Amok Time, either - off the top of my head there's Voyager's Blood Fever, which is at best a reasonably interesting story about sexual consent, and that Enterprise episode where T'Pol goes into sex-mode, which was rubbish. SNW might be able to make a hasty attempt to retroactively show Vulcan society in a less pitiful light and beef up T'Pring as a character, but I'd rather they just left it alone and did something else.
But, more importantly:
- SNW is at a point now, nearly halfway through its first season, where it needs to start charting its own course. The last two episodes were great, but they were also stock plots, and leaned heavily on "The Naked Time" and "Balance of Terror", also incorporating the Gorn. To succesfully emulate past Trek series, as is its stated goal, the show needs to start coming up with its own new plots rather than regurgitating existing material. The strongest episode they've done so far, IMO, was the one where they did just that and introduced the Shepherds. Dredging up of old material is a recurring problem with so many media franchises these days, but SNW is in a uniquely advantageous position to get away from that and write, essentially, a new Star Trek series for the modern age, that recreates the sense of discovery, adventure and the unexpected that TOS had. Whether or not it'll capitalise on that chance remains to be seen.
- Probably a controversial view but I think Amok Time was a very weak episode. Not just from a storytelling perspective (Kirk acting like a complete dimwit so the script can contort him into a point where he's made to engage in a tedious fight with Spock), but the depiction of Vulcan society was also just awful. I never bought it. Ritual combat? T'Pring "becoming the property" of the winner, and we're meant to side against her for taking what is apparently the only legal way out of that? Load of crap. No subsequent Trek has ever done anything of interest with the concepts introduced by Amok Time, either - off the top of my head there's Voyager's Blood Fever, which is at best a reasonably interesting story about sexual consent, and that Enterprise episode where T'Pol goes into sex-mode, which was rubbish. SNW might be able to make a hasty attempt to retroactively show Vulcan society in a less pitiful light and beef up T'Pring as a character, but I'd rather they just left it alone and did something else.
But, more importantly:
- SNW is at a point now, nearly halfway through its first season, where it needs to start charting its own course. The last two episodes were great, but they were also stock plots, and leaned heavily on "The Naked Time" and "Balance of Terror", also incorporating the Gorn. To succesfully emulate past Trek series, as is its stated goal, the show needs to start coming up with its own new plots rather than regurgitating existing material. The strongest episode they've done so far, IMO, was the one where they did just that and introduced the Shepherds. Dredging up of old material is a recurring problem with so many media franchises these days, but SNW is in a uniquely advantageous position to get away from that and write, essentially, a new Star Trek series for the modern age, that recreates the sense of discovery, adventure and the unexpected that TOS had. Whether or not it'll capitalise on that chance remains to be seen.
Don't forget Season 4 Episode 3, where she got married. She didn't even want to, but went along with it so her Mother could get her job back.
Her husband nulled the marriage later in the season after her mother died though, as he realized she really didn't want it, and she only really married him for her mother.
Which is kinda funny, they go through all this big ceremonial betrothed as children deal and you must do it as adults, but can get divorced by just filing some paperwork. You'd think with all the effort they go through there would be another ancient Vulcan ceremony to get divorced.
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If it's based in Jewish traditions at all, which inspired Nimoy with some Vulcan cultural ideas, then it's actually quite similar.
There is
he was never a nausicaan, but a chalnoth.
Oh, I know, but on the first watch back in the day he looked like a Nausicaan. It might have been more dramatic if Picard were stuck in there with a Nausicaan.
Being a TOS tribute act can only carry you so far. There's a limit on how much material you can fall back on and how many plots you can lift.
Think about it: TNG was criticised for aping TOS too closely in its first two seasons (a criticism I think is overblown personally, but it's a common one), while also not being TOS - "where's Spock and McCoy???" etc. Pulaski, who I like, was seen as a crap McCoy substitute. It was only when it found its own storytelling style and began to flesh out its own new characters that it began to meet with more widespread acclaim, to the point where "just start with season three" is advice commonly given to new viewers
DS9 was initially bashed for being station-bound and being a Babylon 5 knockoff. I have problems with what DS9 became by the end, but it's undeniable that its attempt to break new ground often succeeded and its won its place as a well-respected entry in the franchise.
Voyager was initially bashed for being reheated TNG plots. After working on building its own characters up - namely Janeway, the EMH, sort of B'Elanna and obviously later adding Seven - and also finding its stride with more pulpy and metafictional plots of the type that TNG would never touch, it became its own thing.
SNW is successfully feeling like an extended TOS tribute so far, but I wonder if that's an identity it will be able to sustain for several seasons, and one that will have people coming back to watch it in a couple decades the way people do with the Berman era shows today. How many characters, locations, plots and species can they lift before the well runs dry? We just fought the Gorn, we've got Sam Kirk aboard the ship with James Kirk set to appear later on, and now we're off to the Amok Time battleground with T'Pring. Are we gonna end up watching young Ron Tracey if this gets to season five? Are we going to end up with a two parter about Matt Decker where he sees the planet killer in a dream caused by prophetic Klingon orbs?
What's the limit?
This is always a curiosity of mine when I am thinking about franchises and how to sustain them. To me, TOS is a lot of untapped potential because so much of it was built both with being new and the idea that there is this long history with the characters, i.e. Kirk knowing various commanders, the uniqueness of his command.
Has SNW relied totally on TOS or are the characters different enough that the only touchstones are the setting?
I agree there's a lot of potential in the TOS era. The issue I have is that if the show becomes an exercise in connecting the dots on specific pre-existing stuff, a la Enterprise season four (which I hate, though I know it has many fans), it'll start to run dry - there's 79 episodes to do tribute acts to, and the show's already taken specific material from around ten of them, and done plots so close to two others that they almost feel like remakes. I feel like there's a danger that it could become a show that consists of "which TOS concept will we revisit this week" - SNW is nowhere near that point yet, but its something that concerns me in the future. Across the internet I'm already seeing the reuse of existing material being raised as one of people's main criticisms of the show, from people who otherwise are really happy with it.
La'an is a good example of my concern though. Here, we have a potentially great new character, a security officer who feels in the tradition of Worf, Tuvok and Reed but still very distinct from them. But her backstory revolves around two TOS episodes, "Space Seed" and "Arena", which seems to needlessly strangulate the possibilities for the character's development (though skilful writing can avert that). It gives writers the chance to colour in a bit more of what we already know about the setting (by adding Gorn Breeding Planets, apparently) but it prevents them - at least in the show's initial stages - from giving us some entirely new material to flesh out the 23rd century.
It also makes it feel increasingly like the entire universe revolves entirely around James Kirk and things that he's seen, which is something I really hate, though I suppose that's a matter of personal taste. Worst case scenario, the protagonist of our new series is a personal friend of Kirk, his crew are mostly people Kirk later meets (plus Kirk's brother), his adventures take him to places Kirk visited and he encounters people Kirk met and faces enemies that Kirk battled. Again, I don't feel like the show has stumbled in this way just yet, but it's something I worry about going forwards, especially when we've just fought the Gorn after they've destroyed a colony in an identical way to "Arena", and now one episode later we're going to what appears to be (I hope I'm wrong) the exact same Vulcan arena Kirk fought Spock in, with T'Pring present again.
I think the main cast are solid - Pike's essentially an all-new character given how little he resembles the Pike from "The Cage". Same for Chapel and Uhura, who have gotten more material in four episodes than TOS gave them in over seventy. I don't mind Spock's presence since Peck's portrayal is so strong and the character does feel notably distinct from the TOS version. The rest of the cast are fine, either because they're new or were already blank slates. The presence of Sam Kirk baffles me, but so far his main contribution has been to die, something he's famous for doing again later on.
La'an is a good example of my concern though. Here, we have a potentially great new character, a security officer who feels in the tradition of Worf, Tuvok and Reed but still very distinct from them. But her backstory revolves around two TOS episodes, "Space Seed" and "Arena", which seems to needlessly strangulate the possibilities for the character's development (though skilful writing can avert that). It gives writers the chance to colour in a bit more of what we already know about the setting (by adding Gorn Breeding Planets, apparently) but it prevents them - at least in the show's initial stages - from giving us some entirely new material to flesh out the 23rd century.
It also makes it feel increasingly like the entire universe revolves entirely around James Kirk and things that he's seen, which is something I really hate, though I suppose that's a matter of personal taste. Worst case scenario, the protagonist of our new series is a personal friend of Kirk, his crew are mostly people Kirk later meets (plus Kirk's brother), his adventures take him to places Kirk visited and he encounters people Kirk met and faces enemies that Kirk battled. Again, I don't feel like the show has stumbled in this way just yet, but it's something I worry about going forwards, especially when we've just fought the Gorn after they've destroyed a colony in an identical way to "Arena", and now one episode later we're going to what appears to be (I hope I'm wrong) the exact same Vulcan arena Kirk fought Spock in, with T'Pring present again.
If you have watched the preview clips you will know the arena is not necessarily happening in real life.
Curious. I would imagine identifying the limits of the 23rd century and fleshing out previously mentioned species and ideas would actually be a positive. It allows them to fill in the details of the 23rd century rather than just skipping over these events and moving on to the next planet of the week.
Sam Kirk is a good example. There's nothing about him other than his relationship to Captain Kirk in "Operation: Annihilate." Now, he's an actual person with personal relationships outside just his brother. That's where a prequel shines is giving light and life to previously thin characters.
If that's what you see, I guess that's unfortunate. They're doing a really good TV series right now. But I don't suppose we'll run out of series development experts online anytime soon.