• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x04 - "Memento Mori"

Hit it!


  • Total voters
    219
so I noticed during the episode that Christine Chapel was wearing the USS Farragut pin for Starfleet remembrance day. Depending on when she served on that ship, she probably would've known one James T. Kirk as a young lieutenant.
 
I watched Arena a few days ago. The only thing "resolved" at the end was the dispute over the planet and destroyed colony. Kirk and Co. Realized the Federation Colony may have wrongfully been there in violation of the Gorn's borders. (And thus would have been justified in destroying the colony.)
There is not justification in destroying a colony. The Metron’s know the Gorn and their reptilian instincts which are hard wired in to their biology and psychology. Maybe reptilians are just cold blooded and lizard like no matter what? Perhaps in the distant past, the Metron’s visited an alien planet and found the Gorn running around as wild bipedal dinosaur like animals hunting squirrels and mice, but they decided to play god and give the Gorn technology and weapons as part of a social experiment to see what they would do to themselves and others as part of their first contact attempts. This explains the beautiful Gorn mothership from this weeks episode. This would be the equivalent of putting a load of books, swords and shields in to a Neolithic tribal community to see what would happen. The Metron’s thought that this gift of knowledge, technology and ‘enlightenment’ might have led to the Gorn becoming civilised and turning their species around for the better. The Metron’s had good though naive intentions as they had not encountered many races before, just ancient species such as the Preserver’s. Obviously this experiment failed and the Metron’s learnt from their mistake and vowed never to repeat it, deciding to pursue a trial by combat system of first contact so that this never happens again. The Gorn are the ultimate diplomatic challenge, almost an impossible ‘no win’ Kobayashi Maru scenario when it comes to diplomacy and inter species relations as the Metron’s found out themselves. The Metron Fellowship did not want their Gorn experiment to be a total failure, so they decided to ‘use’ the Gorn as a play thing when contacting other species in their ‘trial by combat’ first contact tests, hoping that even the Gorn themselves would one day learn to better themselves through their endless trial as part of the process. As we have seen in this weeks episode, Pike failed the Metron test. Kirk also fail’s the test in Arena, I believe that the Star Trek Lower Decks crew failed the test when they were given an alternative ‘trial by wedding’ variation. Captain Lorca in the mirror universe of Discovery failed the Metron test - he even had the audacity to take the skeleton of a Gorn back home with him as a trophy! What an impudent fool he was!

I believe that by the 25th century, perhaps in a Star Trek spin off show starring Seven of Nine, the Metron’s may decide to attempt yet another first contact with the Federation through a Gorn ‘trial by combat’. The Metron’s could wish Seven of Nine down on to a planet similar to Cestus III for combat trial, though they probably would not use Cestus III any more as it has become too commercialised and stands against everything the Metron’s believe in… though apparently it does have a good baseball team; but the Metron’s are not interested in such petty things. Anyway, Seven of Nine could fight the Gorn in much the same way as she fought Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in The Fight, (maybe this actor can come back to Star Trek and dress up as this Gorn for the action scenes if he is short of work?) but this time maybe Seven can resolve the Gorn situation in a similar way as to how Picard successfully made first contact with the Tamarians in Darmok where JL himself faced his own variation of trial by combat (with a twist) when this species beamed him down to El-Adele VI as part of their first contact rituals. Obviously it wouldn’t be the same solution for Seven of Nine, she would need to find her own way and it would be extremely hard work for her and the Enterprise crew, but I am sure that Seven would at the very least make a positive impression to the Metron’s and they would consider dropping their trial by combat trials against the Federation in order to begin opening the Gateway to pursue other diplomatic channels and more peaceful interactions. The Federation and humanity in particular might *still* not quite be fully ready for relations with the Metron’s in their overly judgmental minds and still could have quite a lot to prove to them over the decades to come. Perhaps this is the point when the Metron’s move on to ‘trial by wedding’ as depicted in the Lower Deck’s?:shrug:

Even the Vulcan’s have their own version of trial by wedding, it is called Khal-if-fee. Going from galactic history, it could be speculated that the Metron’s are using their trials not only to establish diplomatic relations with other species when they are deemed to be socially, technologically and civilised enough to be contacted, but they could also use this as an internal system, looking for their mates this way too? Perhaps the twist can be that the leader of the Metron’s is *so* impressed by Seven of Nine in particular, that he falls in love with her and wants to marry her. The Enterprise crew would then need to rescue Seven of Nine from the Metron’s who are in the process of planning the biggest wedding that the galaxy has ever seen for their new Queen! The Enterprise crew show the Metron’s that humanity and themselves are not so different after all due to their actions in trying to force a wedding, the Metron’s just did not have a concept of unrequited love which needed to be explained to them by Seven’s first officer - the Metron’s themselves had succumbed to their own morals, they failed their own ‘trial by wedding’ in the whole process. This impresses the Metron’s who return Captain Anikka Hansen to her ship and crew with a tail firmly tucked between their legs. Regardless, no harm was done and diplomatic relations and cultural relations between the Federation and Metron’s commence from thereon! :D
 
0ZHoQzC.png
 
Words should communicate meaning. Use of much jargon or made-up language defeats that purpose - a little, occasionally, for flavor or humor is okay, but too much is a nuisance.

I used to work with a magazine editor who liked to say "The 'future equivalent' of 'Fuck' is 'Fuck.'"
 
Berman Trek had almost its own dialect, esp guest stars. Might have been bc of the dialog they were give. Formal/stilted/comic bookish. Even somewhat on the vaunted ds9.

Every now and then someone sounds more naturalistic. Might just be caliber of actor. I remember Brian Keith on ds9 and he sounded like he was a . . . more real person? I'm on Voy with Lon Suder and that actor also almost sounds like he's from a different franchise.
 
That's an absurd complaint.

I never want to hear the "stilted Star Trek language," as a staff writer at TNG once called it, ever again. And the success of this show, and STD and the other modern Trek productions guarantees that we'll never have to, again.

Um, no, it’s not a perfectly legitimate complaint. You’re writing a show set hundreds of years in the future, it’s a good idea not to use colloquialisms and phrases that are too much of the moment, haven’t been around long and likely won’t be. I mean, would you like them to incorporate modern day memes into the dialogue too? It’s easily avoided, too, without being stilted. When I hear a character cry “for the win!” it drags me right out of the scene.
 
Words should communicate meaning. Use of much jargon or made-up language defeats that purpose - a little, occasionally, for flavor or humor is okay, but too much is a nuisance.
I think Firefly did this well. We can tell from context exactly what they mean but it also doesn't just sound like contemporary English.
 
I think Firefly did this well. We can tell from context exactly what they mean but it also doesn't just sound like contemporary English.

To be "fair" most of the made up slang and breaks into Cantonese was so they could cuss and use vulgar language/imagery on network TV. But, they did handle it well without making scenes and conversations hard to understand. (Like what happens in Berman Trek (esp. Late TNG and VOY) with technobabble.
 
To be "fair" most of the made up slang and breaks into Cantonese was so they could cuss and use vulgar language/imagery on network TV. But, they did handle it well without making scenes and conversations hard to understand. (Like what happens in Berman Trek (esp. Late TNG and VOY) with technobabble.
The issue with technobabble, for me, is less than it's linguistically difficult, and more than it's a cheap way to get out of a bad script situation. You can dream up any technosorcery you want to get the heroes their victory, but it isn't quite as satisfying as a human solution or -- if you want it to be within the realm of sci-fi -- a tech solution that snugly fits with the established lore. Making up new physics each episode doesn't really feel organic.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top