I hope the ST: Picard people take notes, because the Strange New World's season one finale is how you do a Romulan episode. I didn't love everything about, or in, this episode, but I thought the remixing of "Balance of Terror" was pretty neat. I wasn't expecting Kirk to be in the finale, so that was a surprise, and I also didn't expect him to be in the episode as much as he was. I thought they were going to kill him off to really show how different this timeline is.
It was so neat seeing a version of the TOS movie maroon uniform, though I would've preferred just using the existing style without the SNW flourishes. I didn't think the maroon uniforms needed them, that they still hold up as futuristic enough.
I liked the Romulan commander (wish it had been James Frain though). And while I thought adding the Praetor was a bit much (that could've just been an admiral), I did like the actress. She reminded me of TNG's Romulan actress Carolyn Seymour. I also liked the design for a lot of the Romulan costumes and ships. The helmets didn't do it for me, but for the most part I enjoyed what they did with the Romulans.
I do have some quibbles. Ortegas felt too out of character for me, and I wish they had just given Mitchell those lines or brought in Stiles. I also wouldn't have minded a bit more changing of the cast here, like say having Chapel as chief medic or maybe Piper instead of M'Benga. I thought La'an was wasted. Seems like she would've been on the Enterprise bridge at least after the Farragut had been destroyed.
Wesley didn't sell me that he's Shatner's Kirk. He didn't really have the charm or swagger. And I never considered Kirk to be particularly brash or hawkish like they tell us he is in this episode. I did like though seeing his relationship with Pike, his meeting Spock, reuniting with his brother, and the tidbits we get about his history.
In a way I feel this episode undercut Pike. We see that he's not the captain that Kirk is which unfortunately messes up the geek debates about who is the best Trek captain now when it comes to Pike. While Pike is a good captain, we see that his caution would've led to millions of deaths too.
It was so neat seeing a version of the TOS movie maroon uniform, though I would've preferred just using the existing style without the SNW flourishes. I didn't think the maroon uniforms needed them, that they still hold up as futuristic enough.
I liked the Romulan commander (wish it had been James Frain though). And while I thought adding the Praetor was a bit much (that could've just been an admiral), I did like the actress. She reminded me of TNG's Romulan actress Carolyn Seymour. I also liked the design for a lot of the Romulan costumes and ships. The helmets didn't do it for me, but for the most part I enjoyed what they did with the Romulans.
I do have some quibbles. Ortegas felt too out of character for me, and I wish they had just given Mitchell those lines or brought in Stiles. I also wouldn't have minded a bit more changing of the cast here, like say having Chapel as chief medic or maybe Piper instead of M'Benga. I thought La'an was wasted. Seems like she would've been on the Enterprise bridge at least after the Farragut had been destroyed.
Wesley didn't sell me that he's Shatner's Kirk. He didn't really have the charm or swagger. And I never considered Kirk to be particularly brash or hawkish like they tell us he is in this episode. I did like though seeing his relationship with Pike, his meeting Spock, reuniting with his brother, and the tidbits we get about his history.
In a way I feel this episode undercut Pike. We see that he's not the captain that Kirk is which unfortunately messes up the geek debates about who is the best Trek captain now when it comes to Pike. While Pike is a good captain, we see that his caution would've led to millions of deaths too.
