I was quite unsure what to expect about this episode as I had recently heard that it would be a comedy of sorts, a ‘hijinks’. Star Trek and comedy tend to not always mix so well, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this episode in my opinion was not actually a comedy. It failed to make me laugh at any point, it was just a more ‘light hearted’ and casual ‘filler’ type episode where the stakes were seemingly low and the crew could have a bit more fun than normal due to the fact that the Enterprise was docked at Starbase 1 for shore leave and peace negotiations with the R’ongolians.
Even though it was not a true visit to the planet Vulcan, in the opening scenes we are treated to a ‘dreamscape’ vista generated by Spock’s subconscious mind. These beauty shots of Vulcan looked exceptional… Spock definitely has a good imagination. Spock is due to meet T’Pring, his fiancée or ‘betrothed’ aboard the station as they are visiting and this encounter is obviously playing on his mind enough to give him vivid nightmares! This particular nightmare stems from Spock’s long fought internal conflict; his internal struggle between logic and his ‘humanity’… the battle between his Vulcan and Human self. This battle is combined with the resulting insecurities that he has in regards to having relationship with a ‘pure’ Vulcan - Spock has always felt that he has never truly been accepted by other Vulcan’s since childhood due to his ‘hybrid species’ nature. It becomes clear that T’Pring herself uses Spock’s humanity as a psychological weapon against him, in particular when talking about his quarters and how they look like that of a human. T’Pring says that she will not judge his quarters until he has successfully made it more Vulcan - this could be an analogy of how she wants Spock to change to become more Vulcan too. Anyway, back to the cool dream sequence… T’Pring has announced that she would like Spock to partake in Kal-If-fee, the Vulcan ritual challenge; Spock’s human side must fight his Vulcan half for T’Pring’s hand in marriage. Of course, this is still all a dream but we get a lovely new rendition of ‘Ancient Combat and the second Kroykah’ which I can not wait to listen to as part of the Star Trek Strange New World’s Soundtrack album when it is released. The Lirpa battle commences and Spock’s Vulcan half reigns supreme just in time for Him to wake up and go to meet his bride to be. Luckily you don’t need to understand anything about Vulcan culture or traditions to appreciate this scene, it’s all purely superfluous and a pure nod back (or forward?) to ‘Amok Time’. This brings to question whether this dream was a premonition of sorts, as this very nightmare will one day come in to fruition for Spock… he *will* indeed be cast out of T’Pring’s life in her preference for a *pure* bred Vulcan in the ancient rite of Kal-if-fee.
After Spock awakens from his nightmare, we hear what seems to be another Vulcan ritual greeting, though this time between lovers. It all seems so very formal and logical but obviously such greetings are reserved for Vulcan’s in this particular form of unionship. After the greeting, what can only be described as Vulcan ‘bickering’ commences. They have several issues which need clearing up in regards to their relationship but they both do it in a very controlled and logical way without resorting to any form of emotion such as frustration or annoyance. Oh to be the fly on the wall of a *real* argument between a Vulcan couple!
The B plot of the episode opens with the arrival of ‘Bob’ April, it is a pleasure to see him return. I look forward to the inevitable ‘Captain April’ Star Trek spin off series at some point over the next decade or two. We can tell that this series is somewhat aimed at people who have never watched Star Trek before as we get a very simplified ‘newbie’ explanation of what the Federation is from Pike as the R’ongolian negotiations commence. It seems a shame that the Federation only seem to want this species to join so that they do not align with the Klingon’s or Romulan’s… it would have been nice if it was more explicitly explained that the Federation seek new members for reasons such as cultural enrichment, the sharing of knowledge, ideas and principles etc. But yeah, I guess that the have to think tactically about their alliances too.
This episodes fun and frolics commence as Chapel, Ortega and M’Benga prepare for their shore leave. M’Benga looked great in his fly fishing attire and I don’t think that anybody had the right to tell him to take off his cool hat, or even to make him feel uncomfortable enough that he had to take it off. He’s on shore leave after 4 stressful episodes, let him dress however he wants. I think that he looked cool.
Spock’s Vulcan bickering with T’Pring continues as his duty again takes him away from a planned rendezvous with his betrothed. This time though, T’Pring *really* makes him feel bad about it though as the camera pans on to a lovely romantic banquet that she had prepared for him. This relationship seems doomed to me, but who knows. After having his human like crew quarters criticised by his other half (his fiancée, I mean.. not his actual *other* Vulcan half haha!) Spock strips his room and fills it with candles and incense sticks as he prepares to conduct another ancient and very much mystical Vulcan ritual. This Katric ritual will allow Spock and T’Pring to experience each other’s Katra’s. One would think that this would be purely a sharing of thoughts and mind, but it is actually a transference of Katra or ‘spirit’ from one host to the other - Spock and T’Pring swap bodies.
Then they get stuck that way as the intergalactic winds change… luckily they were not pulling faces at the time.
Una and Ortega ship up for the C plot, yes we have an A, B and C this week! Una is feeling disassociated from the crew as a result of her command role on the ship, though the appearance of a very authentic looking Bolian and accompanying crew member who are up to no good in an airlock is the spark of what will set up the rest of Una’s journey this week. Apparently the two crewmen were playing a game called ‘Enterprise Bingo’ in which they have to attempt to complete a set of prohibited challenges which could end up getting them excommunicated from Starfleet if they were ever to be caught. More on this later, as I believe that some of the breaches of regulations in this game were quite dangerous, exposing serious security flaws aboard the Enterprise - especially if such occurrences happen as common place as we are led to believe in this episode. Una and Ortega decide to play these games in order to understand their ‘Ensign Class’ a little bit better. I didn’t know that rank accounted for a ‘class’ on a Starfleet ship? That seems a bit backwards thinking to me on a social and societal level? Whatever their motives of partaking in these games themselves… Our C plot duo go under cover!
The R’ongolian negotiations have taken a turn for the worse - they will no longer speak to anyone but Spock after Pike suddenly offends them without explanation - but guess what? Oh, and T’Pring rehabilitates Vulcan’s who do not adhere to Vulcan logic and she has a new client who only she can speak to… but guess what again? Looks like a bit of role play is about commence…
T’Pring and Spock realise that they can’t keep their secret and decide to come clean about their gender swap situation. I thought that Ethan Peck did a really good job at feminising his ‘physical character’ of Spock who was now carrying the female soul/Katra of T’Pring. Peck’s mannerisms were spot on and subtly more feminine to what we are used to from the actor. Likewise, Gia Sandhu did a very good Spock characterisation through her vocal inflexions and body language. I could perhaps see Spock being recast as a female in a Star Trek spin off reboot series one day as a result of this episode, Sandhu shows that a female Spock could actually work - the character does not need to be caged as a male role when the ‘idea’ of Spock could be represented by any gender if depicted correctly by the right actor or actress.
By being and experiencing each other, Spock and T’Pring get a better understanding of themselves and each other on a more intimate level, especially T’Pring who hears nothing but praise directed to her/Spock by people who genuinely think highly of their commander. I think that this will definitely help to shape her opinions of Spock, especially after the high praise that Pike gave about him.
If people supported ‘Chapel and Spock’ as a thing in the ‘
Who will YOU ship for thread’, then by default we get really close to a ‘Chapel and T'Pring’ ship this episode which surprisingly has only got 5.4% of the vote so far as a shipping combination. Maybe this episode will help to change that and increase this particular ‘ships’ following before it sails off on those solar high winds…
We hear a lot of subtle and not so subtle racism towards humans this week, not just from T’Pring but more notably from the Vulcan that she is rehabilitating, well, I mean that ‘Spock’ ends up rehabilitating. Barjan sounds very much to me like a throwback to the Star Trek: Enteprise Vulcan’s such as Soval - I wonder if T’Pring and others in her profession were employed to rehabilitate the types of Vulcan’s who do no adhere to Syriannite or similar interpretations of Surak’s teachings 100%, in other words rehabilitating Vulcan’s with attitudes such as that of Barjan and Soval. We also now have the question of what Vulcan’s evolved from? They obviously did not evolve from apes else this would not have been used as a derogatory insult by a Vulcan against a human. Unfortunately, there was no Vulcan aboard the Enterprise D during the episode
Genesis so I am unsure what their devolved form would look like. I am guessing that if not evolved from ape like species, they perhaps evolved from wolves? Just my personal idea there as it sounds cool - this evolution would fit both Vulcan’s and Romulan’s perfectly I think! It would also fit in well with the Romulus and Remus origin story. What do you think?
Spock and T’pring inevitably get to return to their own host bodies thanks to the wonderful intervention of M’Benga and his herbal ‘archeological’ remedies supported by Nurse Chapel. However a thought soon crossed my mind….
What if Spock and T’Pring secretly made an off screen pact to remain in each other’s bodies?
T’Pring could live a wild life in the body of the half human Spock, shedding her Vulcan inhibitions. Spock could live the logical Vulcan life of T’Pring filled with ritual and tradition without prejudice, escaping his haunted past. No one would ever know… it could be their secret! If T’Pring
really did love Spock this could have been her greatest gift to him. This would explain why the two characters never got married in
Amok Time and why T’Pring flat out refused Spock in preference to Stonn for marriage - in essence they would have been marrying themselves. It would have been like looking in to a mirror and seeing yourself instead of the person that you originally fell in love with. Would there even be a classification for this type of relationship if it were even possible? We see scenes which do contradict this theory after the two Katra’s are *allegedly* returned to their respective bodies, but this could have been purely role play between Spock and T’Pring preparing for their new lives ‘as each other’ - it could very well be a hard act to follow in the long term so they would need to get in to character quite quickly in order to trick everyone.
Negotiations with the R’ongolian’s are eventually resolved too just incase you were wondering, but I don’t like to spoil things too much so will leave this resolution for you to discover yourself. I will give you a clue though - this species like to mimic people that they interact with in order to understand them on a social level - they ‘get in to character’, so when someone mimics them in return they see this as a sign of respect and an attempt to understand them. My only problem is how does anybody know how to truly mimic the R’ongolian’s if they mimic other species themselves? What is their *true* personification and outward expression of characters and how would anybody but themselves truly know? They are like ‘social shapeshifters’. Regardless, Pike’s hunch worked out in the end.
As the Federation flag is raised on the R’ongolian solar sail ship as it departs starbase one we are treated to a beautiful rendition of the original series theme music. There are considerable nods back to Deeps Space Nine and the Bajoran solar sail ship in
Explorers, even down to the shape and golden shimmering colour of the departing R’ongolian ship. This design for solar sailing ships must be a standard ‘benchmark’ that inter planetary species develop in parallel for travel using solar winds that ‘just works’. Zephram Cochrane did not come up with this idea, but maybe Elon Musk or Richard Branson can base their next spaceship designs on this model for a trip to Mars?
Now on to my major gripe about the episode.
Una and Ortega playing ‘Enterprise Bingo’. Does anybody have a complete list of these challenges? It was hard for me to make out the text as displayed on the confiscated PADD on my iPhone screen.
The acts of disobedience committed by Una and Ortega in this episode showed
Massive flaws in the Enterprise security systems, breaches which could potentially be exploited by enemies.
- Discharging weapons on a Starfleet ship - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country shows us that this can not happen without being detected. Who disabled the Sensors and alarms? Or are they not in place yet?
- Unauthorised use of the ships transporter (this means that Lt Kyle or someone similar must be in on the ‘Enterprise Bingo’ game in order to alter transporter logs?
- Vandalisation of Starfleet property via graffiti to the Enterprise forward hull plating.
Of course, Una can authorise any of these activities being ships first officer, but how did Ensign level crew members manage to achieve these things? Were they trialling for Section 31? Is ‘Enterprise Bingo’ this beyond top secret departments entrance criteria/exam? My theory is that Una and Ortega were secretly under cover, ‘Enterprise Bingo’ is now closed down as all loop holes have been exposed by the Enteprise’s official security department to prevent further exploitation from external threats, both *internal* and external.
I rate episode five of Star Trek: Strange New World’s,
Spock Amok, 6.5/10 rounded up to 7/10 for the purposes of this threads poll.
. TV and movies are fantasy. The really, really ridiculously good looking people featured in them is part of it. Can't feel bad about noticing when something is out of the ordinary, like scars on a beautiful actress in a TV show.
