Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x10 - "A Quality of Mercy"

[Greylock Crescent]

I've watched plenty. He was fine. Different strokes for different folks

I'm curious. Aside from the writing - which had the characters refer to him as Kirk and made him the Smartest Person On The Ship™ - what was it about his performance said to you, "Yep. That's James T. Kirk."

Was it:
A) The perpetual frown?
B) The flat line delivery?
C) The lack of charisma?
D) Or all of the above?

 

[cooleddie74]

They didn’t want a war so to speak. They just wanted to try out their new weapon(something this episode sort of forgot) and test Starfleet”s response to it.

Yep. "No Earth man has seen one of our ships in over a century. If we destroy some of their border outposts they may not even be in agreement that it was us who committed the acts. And we find out of the new weapon is effective."

 

[Ralph O Ward III]

I think Pike alluded to Klingon's hinting that Spock has something to do with that way way down the line. He'd tried dozens of times to change his fate.

Not to mention the peace treaty between the klingons and the Federation.

 

[marillion]

Watch an episode of TOS. That wasn't Jim Kirk.

The same argument can be made about Mount as Pike. It's a different take on a familiar character. Mount's performance, IMHO, has surpassed what Hunter did, if for no other reason than Hunter really only did one episode. Mount basically got to start from scratch with his portrayal.

It was a no-win situation for Wesley. Pine's portrayal of Kirk was really vastly different than Shatner's, but it was brash, brazen and full of life. So many people really liked it. Also, many didn't.

I look at Wesley's Kirk as a maturing captain. He still has a few years to go before he grows into the JTK who becomes the most famous captain in Starfleet history. I think he did fine, and given time, he'll hopefully develop his own take on Kirk that doesn't mimic Shatner or Pine, but embodies some of the characteristics we all know.

 

[DaveyNY]

Watch an episode of TOS. That wasn't Jim Kirk.

OF course it's not the Captain Kirk we know.

It's an Altered Timeline in Pikes mind, we have no idea what has happened to that Kirk in the lead up to the events portrayed.
Obviously he's going to act different since he hasn't experienced his life in the same way as in TOS.
For one thing he's not the captain of the Enterprise anymore.

 

[cooleddie74]

I guess in my mind Wesley's performance can indicate that this Kirk is still on edge about the Tycho IV attack of 2257 that killed 200 of his fellow crewmembers on the Farragut and he's been commanding a ship that he sort of sees as a flying graveyard. He's so intent on avoiding another disaster and mass casualty event that he's more of a hardass.

 

[Trekker4747]

"Guy" Kirk feels more like James Kirk than Wesley does. When Sam is talking about Kirk he's, "oh he's a pain in the ass," "likes to play by his own rules," "there's no one else like him." When we meet Kirk? It feels like Sam would've spent his free time giving little Jim swirlies.

 

[Ralph O Ward III]

Still not a fan of the time crystals. They’re a bit too comic booky for me.

Something out of the Smurfs final season

 

[cooleddie74]

Time crystals are so TOS, however. That's a concept straight out of Trek stories of the 1960s and even TAS.

 

[Jedman67]

The TMP uniforms were in use in 2273 and the Monster Maroons show up in 2278. There's not much wiggle room there so I'm guessing the Monster Maroons are still 19 years away unless the changed timeline sped up their introduction.

No reason this AT couldn't use the M&M's instead of the TMP uniforms

 

[Trekker4747]

??????

For that Era he most certainly was...

Very few of the major male TV actors coming out of the 1950's were bodybuilders (as in almost none), but all of them were considered "fit" and quite desirable.

The era of Hollywood overtly muscled beefcake didn't start till Arnold began making his movies.

Honestly, I always thought this looked like he was sucking it in.

 

[DaveyNY]

Honestly, I always thought this looked like he was sucking it in.

Overtly defined abs just wasn't a requirement for actors to be considered 'Beefcake' back then.
In fact the only one of the TOS cast who had anything close was Sulu.

Also, one can't just "suck it in" and still have the delineation of muscle...

(believe me, I've been trying to pull that off for decades)

 

[Jedman67]

His tactics was working, the Romulan was standing down but was betrayed by his officer calling the fleet. If that same officer was in the TOS episode a war might still have started, under Kirk, if he called the fleet. The young Romulan was gagging for a war, regardless of the situation.

The biggest difference is that in BoT, Kirk was perfectly willing to destroy the romulans. Only when they were crippled and out of fuel - and would otherwise die in space - did Kirk offer them a chance to surrender aboard the Enterprise. The commander chose seppuku instead; but the loss of a romulan ship to a single federation cruiser probably gave the romulans pause.

 

[Dukhat]

Wesley is playing James R. Kirk, a stack of books with legs. So his performance is just fine.

 

[Tuskin38]

"Beaten. The Praetor's newest and biggest ship beaten."

Warbirds were brand new in "Balance of Terror".

He said proudest, not biggest.

And no, the show didn't say that class of ship was new, only that his ship specifically was new.

 

[TrekTrucker]

Perfectly? Hardly.

His performance was about as milquetoast and pedestrian as you could possibly get. The only thing "Kirk" about him was that the other characters insisted on calling him by that name. Aside from being given the name, there was little-to-nothing else portrayed on screen to distinguish the character as James T. Kirk.

Well to be fair, it wasn’t. At least not the James T. Kirk we all know and (some do you anyway) idolize. That James T. Kirk was captain of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701. The Kirk we saw in this episode of Strange New Worlds was James T. Kirk Captain of the USS Farragut NCC-1647. That Kirk had different life experiences, a different ship and different crew and this was effectively an entirely different person. Similar yes, but different.

 

[DaveyNY]

He said proudest, not biggest.

And no, the show didn't say that class of ship was new, only that his ship specifically was new.

...also, it was apparently considered "new" because of the plasma weapon.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well to be fair, it wasn’t. At least not the James T. Kirk we all know and (some do you anyway) idolize. That James T. Kirk was captain of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701. The Kirk we saw in this episode of Strange New Worlds was James T. Kirk Captain of the USS Farragut NCC-1647. That Kirk had different life experiences, a different ship and different crew and this was effectively an entirely different person. Similar yes, but different.

A "different life experience" .... Of 7 years.

 

[Neopeius]

The same argument can be made about Mount as Pike. It's a different take on a familiar character. Mount's performance, IMHO, has surpassed what Hunter did, if for no other reason than Hunter really only did one episode. Mount basically got to start from scratch with his portrayal.

Nimoy once tactfully observed that Hunter "lacked the latitude of Shatner" (or as my dad would say, "he ranged the emotional gamut from "A to...B").

That said, and I've only watched the pilot and the trailer for episode 10, but Anson Mount singularly failed to impress me. In fact, in the pilot, the only character I found at all compelling was Camina Noonian Singh. It's one of the main reasons I didn't watch any further.

 

[Jadeb]

Wesley is playing James R. Kirk, a stack of books with legs. So his performance is just fine.

I think I could have bought this version of Kirk more easily if they hadn’t had Sam underscore the pop-culture image of Kirk. The dialogue and portrayal just didn’t line up. If anything, they could have used Sam’s scene to set the stage for the alternate timeline Kirk we saw — driven, businesslike and a bit demanding. Throw in that he’s a new captain trying to prove his chops or something. That I could reconcile with TOS.