Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x05 - "Spock Amok"

[DEWLine]

Comparing the chart as shown in "Spock Amok" to Star Charts pp. 62-63...Balduk's been moved anti-spinward to make "room" for R'ongovian holdings, right? Not sure that needed doing, depending upon where on the Z-axis Mandel and company decided Balduk's home-star was...?

 

[Belz...]

Comparing the chart as shown in "Spock Amok" to Star Charts pp. 62-63...Balduk's been moved anti-spinward to make "room" for R'ongovian holdings, right? Not sure that needed doing, depending upon where on the Z-axis Mandel and company decided Balduk's home-star was...?

Everyone knows that the Star Trek universe is two-dimensional. Just ask Khan Noonien Singh.

 

[arch101]

I'm watching this episode for the second time now and for some reason the first time I watched it I thought it was going to be a flop until about halfway through when I really started to appreciate it and loved it by the end. On this watching I'm catching little lines and moments I missed the first time, or hit differently, and I think I've come to the conclusion that I didn't like it was much the first time because I saw the preview of the opening with Spock fighting himself and expected a serious episode examining the two halves of Spock and I kept expecting that to develop and it never did. Going into the second viewing knowing it's a comedy, light hearted episode i really do love it even more and this may be a 10 for me by the time this episode is over. I do love these characters in a way I haven't since DS9.

See- I think that’s what’s doing it for me too. I will always love the DS9 cast best but I’m really loving these guys too. Even if we ever have a crap episode, I love the characters.

 

[NCC-73515]

Kirk being straight is most likely. But seriously, does it offend you that some people leave open the possibility that, between CANON scenes, Kirk may have once or twice considered a man attractive? Kirk was also never shown shitting on a toilet, but I think it's not outside reason that he may have taken a dump in his life. (This is hyperbole.) Straight people are not on the way out.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Am I the only one who remembers that scene from TAS where both Kirk and Spock are under the influence of that "love drug" thing?

The homoeroticism there is 100% blatant.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Just curious did anyone bring this up when ST:TMP did it at the near end of the film? In all the discussions I've ever seen about that film, (which I too saw first run in 1979); nobody had a problem with them walking on the hall to get to Vger after that space probe did effectively the same thing.

V'Ger created an atmosphere for them, that's why they could simply go out. Here they used an invisible forcefield (all other forcefields in new Trek have visible string patterns). It's also not entirely clear why they needed magnetized boots later in FC if the artificial gravity extends outside the ship. But they were walking on the ventral side of the hull, that could be why

It's not the first time the song has appeared in-universe, it was once played by a string quartet in Ten-Forward on the Enterprise-D. But very cool theme tune cameo nonetheless!

When?

Jokes aside, what I posted is an actual issue with spaceships, and the larger the ship, the bigger the problem. Sci-fi usually just ignores the problem entirely but a ship like the Enterprise-D would overheat and kill everyone onboard.

DESALLE: The temperature, sir. It keeps rising. Reading, Mister.
CHEKOV: It's up sixty degrees in the past thirty seconds. We're burning up, sir.
KIRK: DeSalle, channel bypass power into your heat dissipation units.
DESALLE [OC]: We've already done it, Captain. It had no effect. We're cooking up here.
(Catspaw)

Star Trek 6 showed us you can't vapourize someone with a phaser without setting off alarms. You can still fire phasers at lower settings without alarms.

That was years later, on a newer ship. Did an alarm go off whenever they shot someone on the ship in TOS? I always thought it's simply a new feature on the A after Sybok commandeered it

 

[Nerys Myk]

First broadcast episode of TOS. Salt Vampire goes down in a phase of glory
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=22&page=14
The Naked Time
Scotty phasers a wall.
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x04/thenakedtime233.jpg
The Changeling
Nomad vs Redshirts with phasers.
Nomad 2 Redshirts 0
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/thumbnails.php?album=40&page=39

 

[jackoverfull]

Another great episode and another 9 from me. Very TOS-like all around, pretty fun and loved seeing modern takes on the Vulcan stuff and the green uniform.

 

[Eddie Roth]

I'll chime in to say that this was the first SNW episode that I didn't like. Structurally it was so weird: maybe it was the whole point, but I couldn't make out which of the stories was supposed to be the main one. The body swap perhaps, but then it was introduced so late and resolved so early. And maybe it'll need a second viewing but I don't know what purpose it served for Spock as a character.

What I realized even more here is how much Chapel annoys me. Jess Bush does a fine job, and the character is contemporary and fun, but how is this Christine Chapel? I find everything she says just irreconcilable with the TOS character - something I have no problem doing with Pike, Una, Spock, M'Benga, Uhura - I buy them as who they are supposed to be. But her? I don't know. And that gives me pause. Maybe I'm too much of a continuity hound, but why bother bringing back a familiar character if you're going to change everything about them except the hair color? This has shades of early Discovery, and there they never managed (despite their claims that they would) to make their retcons work within the established lore. SNW: be your own thing! You're doing it so well!

 

[Weyoun 251]

Another great episode and another 9 from me. Very TOS-like all around, pretty fun and loved seeing modern takes on the Vulcan stuff and the green uniform.

So I'm rewatching TOS at the moment and I'm struggling to see the similarities between SNW and TOS in terms of story telling.

100% can see the aesthetic match ups, various references (the ceremony in Spock Amok being a callback to Amok Time), but the tone and story structure just doesn't feel like it to me at all.

Now part of that is that TOS could not afford the actors or writers to have a B plot and you obviously can't hold that against it.

So much of TOS was fantasy more than sci fi and can be boiled down to Ent arrives at planet, it isn't all it seems, inappropriately young woman gets involved with Kirk, he Karate chops his way out of the problem (sometimes seducing the woman just to hit her which in 2022 is not a great look but I get that it is a product of its era), laments the problems of the world.

SNW to me actually feels kind of like the best of Ent - episodic, but with a thread running through the season, meeting new and strange aliens, being optimistic until they can't be.

 

[jackoverfull]

Well, the body swap was something that definitely happened on TOS.

 

[Weyoun 251]

Well, the body swap was something that definitely happened on TOS.

Agreed - I'd include that under references as the nature of it and the story approach is so different.

I guess I'm trying to reconcile what people mean by it being like TOS - my guess is that it is something more intangible than I am making it, possibly also impacted by the fact that I saw some TOS in the 90s but have never watched in properly until recently so I have less of an emotional or long lasting connection to it

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

‪‪I was looking at the signatures on “the scorch” this episode, and noticed a couple things. Firstly, when ‪‪I flipped the establishing shot when Una and La’an were approaching the scorch, their signatures are already there.

You can see Una’s signature clearly here right after signing was already there in the previous shot.

…as was La’an’s signature.

And what ‪‪I think is the coolest Easter egg this episode, among the many names, to the upper right of La’an’s signature, is “L. Ball.”

So ‪‪I’ll be imagining Ensigns Ball & Vance (who’s signature I’m assuming is just out of view) having had their own shenanigans when they signed the Scorch doing Enterprise BINGO, back when April was in the Captain’s seat, and wishing that we still had Short Treks and could see it onscreen.

 

[Belz...]

The body swap perhaps, but then it was introduced so late and resolved so early. And maybe it'll need a second viewing but I don't know what purpose it served for Spock as a character.

What's the purpose for your character when you stub your toe?

What I realized even more here is how much Chapel annoys me. Jess Bush does a fine job, and the character is contemporary and fun, but how is this Christine Chapel?

I really think you should let that go. She's not going to become more TOS-like as we go along.

 

[Weyoun 251]

What's the purpose for your character when you stub your toe?


I really think you should let that go. She's not going to become more TOS-like as we go along.

Bang on the money here.

The Chapel from TOS is what, 8 years (so more reserved than young Chapel) or so older, has gone through some shit, especially with her husband abandoning her.

Pretty sure that would change a person.

 

[AntonyF]

This episode could have been so bad or so good, it was on a tightrope wobbling away. Three stories smashed together. The Spock story perhaps too ludicrous this too early in the show...

And it got away with it. It gave me a warm feeling I haven't had from Trek for a long time. The Spock story was the weakest but I was expecting some boring bell tinging clap trap and it turned into an unexpected comedy. It's annoying the setup was one of a woman having to complain her man was working too hard like something from the 1950s, but they recovered it. It didn't go as far as they could have done with the format due to the three stories competing, but both actors I think did well at impersonating each other considering they themselves are so new to their roles.

I've dished all my thoughts previously on Chapel being unprofessional and annoying and she showed some better moments here, and moments of worse like something from One Tree Hill. Please please don't setup a relationship with Spock which is what they seem to be doing.

And #1 and La'an I could just watch all day. Again some absurdity in the premise - I can't believe all the ensigns are causing all this trouble and going unnoticed. Including on a military vessel DISCHARGING ARMS AT EACH OTHER..... but I don't care as I just buy into them.

And oh yeah the first contact story. Which was enjoyable enough, and some lovely visuals.

I think it's harder to attempt humour with new characters, and they somehow made this weird mixture work.

 

[Belz...]

Bang on the money here.

The Chapel from TOS is what, 8 years (so more reserved than young Chapel) or so older, has gone through some shit, especially with her husband abandoning her.

Pretty sure that would change a person.

Actually my point was more like "they're not going to care about matching her to the old version, ever."

 

[Weyoun 251]

Actually my point was more like "they're not going to care about matching her to the old version, ever."

I definitely read that as "she's going to" rather than "not going".

Fair enough that you don't think they care. I'm happy to stick with my view that it is simply her at an earlier point in life and that what happens between now and TOS changes her to become more reserved.

Bear in mind also that to portray her with the 1960s sensibilities that were a key part of her character then would also not likely be well taken so that will also be part of why there are differences.

 

[Charles Phipps]

All my military friends say Enterprise Bingo is the most realistic thing ever for Enlisted.

The unbelievable thing is the officers didn't know what it was.

Una and Laan should have sent them off to get some headlight fluid or tank grease.

 

[jackoverfull]

It's annoying the setup was one of a woman having to complain her man was working too hard like something from the 1950s

well, it is the main reason she ends up wanting divorce: Spock never being there.

 

[Mudd]

I'm looking forward to Chapel/Spock flirtation and intrigue. He is out of his depth with her.

 

[AntonyF]

well, it is the main reason she ends up wanting divorce: Spock never being there.

There's a lot of changes to the show that means it doesn't have to be so literal to the original including the era's views on relationships - but I appreciate it does setup the TOS stories.