That's a lot when you're young. Huge life experiences happen and we learn and develop who we are in relation to those experiences. (Or conversely, we smoke a lot of weed and stay the same forever.)
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x10 - "A Quality of Mercy"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Paul Wesley doesn't outshine Anson Mount. I think they cast someone who they knew wouldn't have the same screen presence as the star of the show. Which makes sense. Pike is the main character in this series, not Kirk.
This leads me to believe Paramount wants to stick to having Kirk be the main character in movies only. On TV, whoever they have playing Kirk is a stand-in because a given story of an episode -- like this one -- calls for having that character.
This leads me to believe Paramount wants to stick to having Kirk be the main character in movies only. On TV, whoever they have playing Kirk is a stand-in because a given story of an episode -- like this one -- calls for having that character.
This is neither a fair nor valid line of reasoning because it presupposes that I needed a performance to match the Captain James T. Kirk of the Enterprise. And I hardly was looking for a carbon-copy repeat of either Shatner or Pine. What I was looking for was enough of a performance to make me see something of James T. Kirk in the character being presented onscreen.
And that simply was not the case.
See, now, had there been a genuine similarity between the SNW Kirk and every other Kirk we've seen, that would have at least been something.
But the performance of the SNW Kirk isn't similar to James T. Kirk in any meaningful way.
This doesn't mean Wesley cannot possibly grow into the role. I certainly hope so, for his sake and ours, considering he is likely to return in S2. But this episode's performance was a clunker for the ages.
Gosh, I hope they don't incinerate her.
Agreed on both counts. And when they did have two ships in a shot the distance usually wasn't anything close - one that comes immediately to mind for me is in "The Corbomite Maneuver" when the cube is described as being 1500 meters away, then visual shows it's like 25.
Sometimes we need to remember that this is a TV show where people need to see what's going on in the story, it isn't a documentary.
Well, sure, I made the same arguments for Chapel a few episodes ago. But this is Jim Kirk, I believe he's already gone through the hardening moment in his life Tom define him (Tarsus IV) and there's just an expectation with him. With Chapel there was a lot of gray on how she is and question on if/when she went through her defining moment.
This is Kirk. There's a LOT to expect and Wesley didn't deliver.
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Hunter's Pike struck me as having a stick up his bum the width of a tree branch. Mount's Pike is overall more entertaining.
You made the mistake of watching only the premiere, making a snap judgement, not bothering to watch further, then watching a trailer for the finale, then opining from your grand perch from 55 years ago based on very incomplete information .
Now, while it is more than possible that the rest of the series wouldn't be to your taste given your predilections, I think you've missed some entertaining Star Trek.
This weeks episode opens up with a stunning CGI ‘money shot’ of a Starfleet asteroid outpost. The only significant historical event that takes place on the Georgian Callander equivalent of Stardate 1457.9 is the ‘Battle of Ujëbardha’ where one of Skanderbeg's most important victories is won against the Ottoman army. I’m still trying to find a secret code in the stardate order, as they do not seem to make any sense. Perhaps these historical earth events are connected to this episode in some way? If not, then it is always good to learn a little bit about history by accident, I definitely learnt something new even if unintentionally. 
We learn that the Enterprise is currently on the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone. We also get a reference to the Romulan War. Did you know that this war is said to have lasted 100 years? It is a shame that we did not get to see any of this conflict in the Star Trek: Enterprise series season 5 it would have given us some good *pew pew* action.
Pike is introduced again under his cooking guise, this time he is courting his girlfriend from the season premier Captain Batel, though this is not purely a pleasurable visit as they do also talk some business pertaining to the Romulan’s and the threat that they pose to outposts along the Neutral Zone. It appears that Batel believes that the Romulan’s are being used as the Federation’s ‘boogeyman’. Are the Romulan’s being used in a way to prop up the Federation’s military wing, with them being made out to be a bigger threat than they actually pose? I guess that every organisation needs some form of ‘constant’ threat or purpose in order to justify expenditure and resource allocation. I would think that Starfleet must invests more in exploration and defence rather than anything that would threaten their ‘boogeymen’ directly though? But I think that sometimes any form of perceived military or general ‘build up’ could be misunderstood by one side or the other so Starfleet must have been very careful with it’s ship deployment patterns and outpost locations along the Romulan Neutral Zone in the 23rd century in order to prevent any misunderstandings. Likewise for the Romulan’s themselves.
Pike visits the outpost and speaks to it’s Commander Salah about the current Romulan situation. During this meeting he encounters non other than his son, Maat Salah who Pike knows will one day become a cadet serving under his command on the Enterprise thanks to his encounter with a ‘fortune telling’ time crystal on the Klingon Monestary planet of Borath. Pike’s future was laid before him in this Discovery episode and he saw his own fate - Captain Pike is to be seriously injured and disfigured one day in an accident requiring his permanent use of a life support chair. This incident will occur on a mission where Pike will heroically save a group of Starfleet cadets - one of them being an older Maat Salah. This is all too much for Pike to emotionally process so he leaves the meeting quite abruptly. Luckily, his friend Spock is there to help reassure him as he wonders down the corridor yet again contemplating his terrible fate.
Pike decides to write Maat Salah a letter warning him about his future fate. This triggers a temporal cascade reaction immediately, shattering known Star Trek history. Out of the shadows, a future version of Pike emerges, having travelled back in time to inform himself of the consequences of his actions. Causality is ‘complicated’ and apparently there have been terrible consequences as a result of Pike trying to alter the future. Unfortunately, the only way to repair the domino like effect to the timeline is to ride the wave of events unleashed by Pike’s letter until the bitter end…
Future Pike has avoided his terrible fate as there were no cadets for him to save, so he is not in his life support chair. Pike is wearing a very familiar piece of Star Trek apparel, a Starfleet uniform adaptation from the 1980’s movie era! It looked great, even with the subtle design modifications. I don’t actually think that they needed to modify it in anyway, but it looks cool still, definitely honouring the original design. It is from a new multiverse thread though so small design changes can easily be explained away by this. The make up department also did a really good job of making Pike look like an even older man, so kudos to both the makeup department and also the costume team yet again.
Pike insists that he would never put his fate ahead of the fate of the entire galaxy so must put right what has now gone wrong. Future Pike whisks our Pike in to the future, placing him in to a scene that should have been led by another future Captain of the Enterprise - Captain James T Kirk. In this future, Kirk never took command of the Enterprise after Pike became unable to fulfil the role due to his injuries. We learn later that James T Kirk is Captain of the USS Farragut, his first command which he has has now not left. The scene is question is taken from the original series episode ‘Balance of Terror’, a wedding is taking place but this time Pike is performing the ritual marriage practice, not Kirk. We have a subtle hint of the original ‘wedding’ music from this scene too, minus the actual traditional wedding fanfare. A touch of comedy is inserted in to this scene, with Pike obviously not knowing the names of the two crewmen he is marrying.
The wedding is cut short, saving Pike further embarrassment - the Romulan’s are attacking an outpost along the Federation border!
We get to see the future make up of Pike’s Enterprise senior staff. Uhura is back, but as a lietutenant! But hopefully not just for this flash forward episode, I am still unsure if we will see her in season 2 as a regular character but it would be great to have a scene with her and her grandmother Nichelle Nichols. We also get to see someone who I think could be Scotty later on.
Pike still trusts Spock and let’s him in on his secret, Spock thinks that Pike is mentally compromised but a mind meld quickly puts things straight. Spock see’s the timeline as it is now and how it should be via Pike’s unique perspective of temporal events garnered from his crystal exposure on Borath and his current time travel shenanigans. We have it confirmed in this episode that there is indeed a ‘prime timeline’ - it is referred to by name for the first time I think? Therefore anything not in the ‘prime timeline’ such as this episode would be considered as being ‘multi verse’, mirror or parallel. Spock’s ascertains that on this current mission, someone else must have commanded the situation other than Pike… perhaps Pike makes a mistake which leads to disaster? The only way to repair this damage is to live this ‘what if’ scenario out.
Pike and Spock are now living out a real life Kobayashi Maru scenario, they know that this situation will all end in a bad way but how will they react and what decisions will they make leading up to these catastrophic events? Could their foresight of this disastrous moment in history be used as a way of preventing it? Or is Pike fated to cause some form of galactic armageddon regardless just by the very fact that he escaped his fate? Perhaps future Pike is working with the Travellers and Supervisors in this episode? Maybe part of their job is to help iron out problems with the timeline by allowing these mistakes to unfold naturally in a ‘what if’ kind of way? Lessons could also be learnt from mistakes so that they are never repeated using this technique too, though it could be quite mentally tough for anyone having to do this job as they would see potential historical events ‘go wrong’ and other bad things which might be hard for them to forget.
The Enterprise approaches a destroyed outpost, just like it did in ‘Balance of Terror’. I can not wait to rewatch this TOS episode but I am not going to jump straight to it, I am watching all of the original series episodes in production order so I should get to see it in a few weeks.
As mentioned earlier, James T Kirk appears as the Captain of the Farragut, a welcome surprise is that he obviously picked a cool crew which includes non other than La’an Noonian Singh! At first they do not call upon the Enterprise for assistance, but Pike knows that the ship is available should they need any backup and is more than capable.
When we are finally introduced to the Farragut and her crew, Kirk is revealed. He seems confident and well cast, though the actor who portrays Kirk has not quite perfected his speech pattern. Perhaps he will be Kirk again one day in a spin off show?
Spock has discovered a way to detect Romulan ships, but it is a technique that is fans have always known about. cloaked ships ‘distort’ the stars visually as they pass another ship. Spock calls this ‘micro lensing’. Pike decides not to reveal the Fact that they have detected the Romulan’s setting a discreet parallel course instead so that their behaviour can be observed. A convenient comet is also travelling through the sector as foretold and will be good at helping to disguise any energy signatures, hiding the Enterprise from Romulan sensors.
Our crew decide to hack the Romulan communications system and internal surveillance camera’s using a security flaw on their ship in order to project one of their meetings on to the bridge view screen - this will be the first time that anybody in Starfleet has ever seen this species before unless we count the undercover Romulan’s from the Star Trek: Enterprise series, but no one knew that they were Romulan’s at the time so it doesn’t count. Spock raises an eyebrow in his trademark way as he recognises the Romulan’s as being a Vulcan like species. I guess that the Romulan exodus from Vulcan was never taught in Vulcan history lessons during the 23rd century or surely Spock would have known of this connection between their two species. We are treated to actual music from ‘The Balance of Terror’ upon the Romulan reveal to our shocked Enterprise bridge crew as they take a look in to this alien world of the Romulan’s.
Pike and Kirk team up, they decide to ghost the Romulan vessel just like in the Original Series episode that this Strange New World’s episode is retelling. Kirk thinks that the Romulan’s showed themselves on purpose to cause discord between the Vulcan’s and the Federation, causing suspicion and fear between these long time allies. I can’t remember whether he also came to this conclusion in the episode ‘Balance of Terror’.
Ortega compares the situation between the Federation and Romulan’s to that of two groups of school yard bullies confronting each other, M’Benga makes a brief appearance (one of several in this episode) to back her up and says that the situation should be treated seriously in order to stop a war possibly resulting in the loss of billions of lives. Unfortunately, Ortega seems to think that stopping a war involves killing Romulan’s. Kirk agrees with Ortega, if the Romulan’s attack and get away with it then it will embolden them to attack more. Spock also agrees that they should attack and not show any weakness. A full on attack is played down, but it is decided that they will force the Romulan ship to reveal itself by using the Farragut and the Enteprise to create a ‘pincher’ effect, drawing the Romulan ship in to the comets tail where the particles would ‘reveal’ the cloaked ship. In this alternate reality, it is hard to decide who is actually potentially going to cause this terrible war… will it be Kirk or Pike? Events have changed, so it could *really* be either of them or both?
The Romulan’s attack the Farragut.
The battle effects are fantastic, especially the space smoke that envelops the crippled Farragut as a result of the Romulan plasma torpedo. The Farragut does not survive this attack though and is destroyed! I think that most of the crew manage to evacuate though and it means that La’an is back on the Enterprise where she belongs. But where is Una during this adventure I hear you ask? We find out out that she is serving time at a Federation penal colony - her Illyrian secret had been revealed, her augmentation exposed. She did not tell Starfleet about this when she signed up so she has been struck off and punished. As I have mentioned in another thread, this is not very Star Trek like, this subject deserves a whole topic to itself especially as this plot development makes it’s way in to the cliff hanger ending to this weeks adventure. Anyway, it looks like Una might be going to Salina 6…
Pike and Kirk have a bit of a confrontation in regards to their opposing command styles, but Pike being the Captain decides to take a risk and offers a cease fire to the Romulan’s. The first ceasefire in 100 years… the Romulan’s and Human’s have been fighting a war over a ‘bill that was never paid off’ before any those alive now were even born. This is obviously an inherited war which both sides don’t even want to fight, apart from a vested few.
Just as there is much debate on the Enterprise about the Romulan’s and their agenda, the Romulan’s themselves are just as conflicted as to how to treat Starfleet and the Federation. Some Romulan’s want peace, and some Romulan’s want war. The actor in the original version of Balance of Terror was played by Mark Leonard who went on to play Spock’s father Sarek. I wonder if this Romulan Commander in this episode will go on to play Spock’s father too? He might be in the upcoming Sybok episode? But there is no need to recast Sarek again as we already have one from Discovery.
Just as the Romulan’s are squabbling over what to do, Kirk and Pike also continue their bickering. They do however hatch a plan… but it involves Kirk borrowing the Enterprises Del Taco shuttlecraft. This is also the part of the episode where we have an unnamed Scottish engineer show up who must be Mr Scotty. But it might not be, who knows?
Scotty is not the only person to show up in these pivotal scenes… the Romulan Praetor blasts in with a fleet of warbirds! This is like the Federation president arriving on the scene so it is getting *very* serious now. Things *definitely* did not escalate this badly in ‘Balance of Terror’. The tipping point of terror is obviously being reached in this scenario, the traditional ‘balance’ could soon be no more…. The Praetor wants the Enterprise to surrender or she will be destroy it in an epic space battle!
Luckily, just in time a fleet of automated freighters appears out of warp to give the Enterprise some backup. James T Kirk on his Del Taco shuttle mission had brought an entire fleet back with him. The Romulan’s *should* think that these ships are Starfleet and just as powerful as the Enterprise is. Unfortunately, this Praetor herself is portrayed in a very two dimensional way, almost like a cartoon ‘evil’ villain. She says that the Romulan’s don’t care about peace or even maintaining a status quo like has been the case for the past 100 years. I do not believe that a *real* Romulan Praetor would behave or speak in such a way, even if they did I am sure that they would *not* be speaking for their entire race but for the political elite of Romulus. This Praetor is almost like a characature of a villain, she is not stupid though. The Praetor realises that this ‘fake’ fleet of ships is weak…. She now believes that she can take on Starfleet and the Federation, however she is wrong. If the Praetor attacks the fleet she may very well destroy it, but she will be unleashing galactic Armageddon when the *real* Starfleet arrives and the true confrontation takes place. She thinks that the weak must perish just like Species 8472. Relations between the Federation and Romulus reach an all time low as a result, and it will only continue to go downhill from here.
Pike heads down to sickbay, he doesn’t know what else to do. Casualties are severe, and include his friend Spock who has been severely injured in the Romulan attack. Spock has now suffered the same terrible fate as Pike should have done. He will no longer be able to do all of the things that he was destined to do in order to keep peace throughout the galaxy such as in Unification and the JJ. Abrahams reboot. Nurse Chapel also looks on over her beloved friend Spock as he lays on the bio bed as she delivers his terrible prognosis to Pike. Pike had traded his fate for Spock’s.
Future Pike informs now Pike that no matter what, his fate can not be changed with it leading to a positive outcome, the monks at Borath have confirmed this with their time crystals. Any time that Pike’s fate is changed, karma is returned to Spock who suffers the same fate or similar instead. These two characters are intertwined in a tragic way and Pike knows that he now must live his best life and accept what is to come for the sake of his friend Spock and most importantly the future of the Federation and possibly even the galaxy itself.
James T Kirk tells Pike that maybe he should have just hunted down the Romulan ship and destroyed it at the start of the episode, then maybe non of this would have happened. Let’s watch ‘Balance of Terror’ again and find out what *really* happened….
I rate Star Trek: Strange New World’s episode 10 ‘A Quality of Mercy’ 10/10.
PS Una gets arrested at the end of this episode for lying on her Starfleet application form… and for being ‘different’. I think she might get sent to a Penal Colony unless Pike represents her *really* well next season or at least gets her someone like Samuel T. Cogley to help out. She might be up against a ‘Maddox’!
We learn that the Enterprise is currently on the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone. We also get a reference to the Romulan War. Did you know that this war is said to have lasted 100 years? It is a shame that we did not get to see any of this conflict in the Star Trek: Enterprise series season 5 it would have given us some good *pew pew* action.
Pike is introduced again under his cooking guise, this time he is courting his girlfriend from the season premier Captain Batel, though this is not purely a pleasurable visit as they do also talk some business pertaining to the Romulan’s and the threat that they pose to outposts along the Neutral Zone. It appears that Batel believes that the Romulan’s are being used as the Federation’s ‘boogeyman’. Are the Romulan’s being used in a way to prop up the Federation’s military wing, with them being made out to be a bigger threat than they actually pose? I guess that every organisation needs some form of ‘constant’ threat or purpose in order to justify expenditure and resource allocation. I would think that Starfleet must invests more in exploration and defence rather than anything that would threaten their ‘boogeymen’ directly though? But I think that sometimes any form of perceived military or general ‘build up’ could be misunderstood by one side or the other so Starfleet must have been very careful with it’s ship deployment patterns and outpost locations along the Romulan Neutral Zone in the 23rd century in order to prevent any misunderstandings. Likewise for the Romulan’s themselves.
Pike visits the outpost and speaks to it’s Commander Salah about the current Romulan situation. During this meeting he encounters non other than his son, Maat Salah who Pike knows will one day become a cadet serving under his command on the Enterprise thanks to his encounter with a ‘fortune telling’ time crystal on the Klingon Monestary planet of Borath. Pike’s future was laid before him in this Discovery episode and he saw his own fate - Captain Pike is to be seriously injured and disfigured one day in an accident requiring his permanent use of a life support chair. This incident will occur on a mission where Pike will heroically save a group of Starfleet cadets - one of them being an older Maat Salah. This is all too much for Pike to emotionally process so he leaves the meeting quite abruptly. Luckily, his friend Spock is there to help reassure him as he wonders down the corridor yet again contemplating his terrible fate.
Pike decides to write Maat Salah a letter warning him about his future fate. This triggers a temporal cascade reaction immediately, shattering known Star Trek history. Out of the shadows, a future version of Pike emerges, having travelled back in time to inform himself of the consequences of his actions. Causality is ‘complicated’ and apparently there have been terrible consequences as a result of Pike trying to alter the future. Unfortunately, the only way to repair the domino like effect to the timeline is to ride the wave of events unleashed by Pike’s letter until the bitter end…
Future Pike has avoided his terrible fate as there were no cadets for him to save, so he is not in his life support chair. Pike is wearing a very familiar piece of Star Trek apparel, a Starfleet uniform adaptation from the 1980’s movie era! It looked great, even with the subtle design modifications. I don’t actually think that they needed to modify it in anyway, but it looks cool still, definitely honouring the original design. It is from a new multiverse thread though so small design changes can easily be explained away by this. The make up department also did a really good job of making Pike look like an even older man, so kudos to both the makeup department and also the costume team yet again.
Pike insists that he would never put his fate ahead of the fate of the entire galaxy so must put right what has now gone wrong. Future Pike whisks our Pike in to the future, placing him in to a scene that should have been led by another future Captain of the Enterprise - Captain James T Kirk. In this future, Kirk never took command of the Enterprise after Pike became unable to fulfil the role due to his injuries. We learn later that James T Kirk is Captain of the USS Farragut, his first command which he has has now not left. The scene is question is taken from the original series episode ‘Balance of Terror’, a wedding is taking place but this time Pike is performing the ritual marriage practice, not Kirk. We have a subtle hint of the original ‘wedding’ music from this scene too, minus the actual traditional wedding fanfare. A touch of comedy is inserted in to this scene, with Pike obviously not knowing the names of the two crewmen he is marrying.
The wedding is cut short, saving Pike further embarrassment - the Romulan’s are attacking an outpost along the Federation border!
We get to see the future make up of Pike’s Enterprise senior staff. Uhura is back, but as a lietutenant! But hopefully not just for this flash forward episode, I am still unsure if we will see her in season 2 as a regular character but it would be great to have a scene with her and her grandmother Nichelle Nichols. We also get to see someone who I think could be Scotty later on.
Pike still trusts Spock and let’s him in on his secret, Spock thinks that Pike is mentally compromised but a mind meld quickly puts things straight. Spock see’s the timeline as it is now and how it should be via Pike’s unique perspective of temporal events garnered from his crystal exposure on Borath and his current time travel shenanigans. We have it confirmed in this episode that there is indeed a ‘prime timeline’ - it is referred to by name for the first time I think? Therefore anything not in the ‘prime timeline’ such as this episode would be considered as being ‘multi verse’, mirror or parallel. Spock’s ascertains that on this current mission, someone else must have commanded the situation other than Pike… perhaps Pike makes a mistake which leads to disaster? The only way to repair this damage is to live this ‘what if’ scenario out.
Pike and Spock are now living out a real life Kobayashi Maru scenario, they know that this situation will all end in a bad way but how will they react and what decisions will they make leading up to these catastrophic events? Could their foresight of this disastrous moment in history be used as a way of preventing it? Or is Pike fated to cause some form of galactic armageddon regardless just by the very fact that he escaped his fate? Perhaps future Pike is working with the Travellers and Supervisors in this episode? Maybe part of their job is to help iron out problems with the timeline by allowing these mistakes to unfold naturally in a ‘what if’ kind of way? Lessons could also be learnt from mistakes so that they are never repeated using this technique too, though it could be quite mentally tough for anyone having to do this job as they would see potential historical events ‘go wrong’ and other bad things which might be hard for them to forget.
The Enterprise approaches a destroyed outpost, just like it did in ‘Balance of Terror’. I can not wait to rewatch this TOS episode but I am not going to jump straight to it, I am watching all of the original series episodes in production order so I should get to see it in a few weeks.
As mentioned earlier, James T Kirk appears as the Captain of the Farragut, a welcome surprise is that he obviously picked a cool crew which includes non other than La’an Noonian Singh! At first they do not call upon the Enterprise for assistance, but Pike knows that the ship is available should they need any backup and is more than capable.
When we are finally introduced to the Farragut and her crew, Kirk is revealed. He seems confident and well cast, though the actor who portrays Kirk has not quite perfected his speech pattern. Perhaps he will be Kirk again one day in a spin off show?
Spock has discovered a way to detect Romulan ships, but it is a technique that is fans have always known about. cloaked ships ‘distort’ the stars visually as they pass another ship. Spock calls this ‘micro lensing’. Pike decides not to reveal the Fact that they have detected the Romulan’s setting a discreet parallel course instead so that their behaviour can be observed. A convenient comet is also travelling through the sector as foretold and will be good at helping to disguise any energy signatures, hiding the Enterprise from Romulan sensors.
Our crew decide to hack the Romulan communications system and internal surveillance camera’s using a security flaw on their ship in order to project one of their meetings on to the bridge view screen - this will be the first time that anybody in Starfleet has ever seen this species before unless we count the undercover Romulan’s from the Star Trek: Enterprise series, but no one knew that they were Romulan’s at the time so it doesn’t count. Spock raises an eyebrow in his trademark way as he recognises the Romulan’s as being a Vulcan like species. I guess that the Romulan exodus from Vulcan was never taught in Vulcan history lessons during the 23rd century or surely Spock would have known of this connection between their two species. We are treated to actual music from ‘The Balance of Terror’ upon the Romulan reveal to our shocked Enterprise bridge crew as they take a look in to this alien world of the Romulan’s.
Pike and Kirk team up, they decide to ghost the Romulan vessel just like in the Original Series episode that this Strange New World’s episode is retelling. Kirk thinks that the Romulan’s showed themselves on purpose to cause discord between the Vulcan’s and the Federation, causing suspicion and fear between these long time allies. I can’t remember whether he also came to this conclusion in the episode ‘Balance of Terror’.
Ortega compares the situation between the Federation and Romulan’s to that of two groups of school yard bullies confronting each other, M’Benga makes a brief appearance (one of several in this episode) to back her up and says that the situation should be treated seriously in order to stop a war possibly resulting in the loss of billions of lives. Unfortunately, Ortega seems to think that stopping a war involves killing Romulan’s. Kirk agrees with Ortega, if the Romulan’s attack and get away with it then it will embolden them to attack more. Spock also agrees that they should attack and not show any weakness. A full on attack is played down, but it is decided that they will force the Romulan ship to reveal itself by using the Farragut and the Enteprise to create a ‘pincher’ effect, drawing the Romulan ship in to the comets tail where the particles would ‘reveal’ the cloaked ship. In this alternate reality, it is hard to decide who is actually potentially going to cause this terrible war… will it be Kirk or Pike? Events have changed, so it could *really* be either of them or both?
The Romulan’s attack the Farragut.
The battle effects are fantastic, especially the space smoke that envelops the crippled Farragut as a result of the Romulan plasma torpedo. The Farragut does not survive this attack though and is destroyed! I think that most of the crew manage to evacuate though and it means that La’an is back on the Enterprise where she belongs. But where is Una during this adventure I hear you ask? We find out out that she is serving time at a Federation penal colony - her Illyrian secret had been revealed, her augmentation exposed. She did not tell Starfleet about this when she signed up so she has been struck off and punished. As I have mentioned in another thread, this is not very Star Trek like, this subject deserves a whole topic to itself especially as this plot development makes it’s way in to the cliff hanger ending to this weeks adventure. Anyway, it looks like Una might be going to Salina 6…
Pike and Kirk have a bit of a confrontation in regards to their opposing command styles, but Pike being the Captain decides to take a risk and offers a cease fire to the Romulan’s. The first ceasefire in 100 years… the Romulan’s and Human’s have been fighting a war over a ‘bill that was never paid off’ before any those alive now were even born. This is obviously an inherited war which both sides don’t even want to fight, apart from a vested few.
Just as there is much debate on the Enterprise about the Romulan’s and their agenda, the Romulan’s themselves are just as conflicted as to how to treat Starfleet and the Federation. Some Romulan’s want peace, and some Romulan’s want war. The actor in the original version of Balance of Terror was played by Mark Leonard who went on to play Spock’s father Sarek. I wonder if this Romulan Commander in this episode will go on to play Spock’s father too? He might be in the upcoming Sybok episode? But there is no need to recast Sarek again as we already have one from Discovery.
Just as the Romulan’s are squabbling over what to do, Kirk and Pike also continue their bickering. They do however hatch a plan… but it involves Kirk borrowing the Enterprises Del Taco shuttlecraft. This is also the part of the episode where we have an unnamed Scottish engineer show up who must be Mr Scotty. But it might not be, who knows?
Scotty is not the only person to show up in these pivotal scenes… the Romulan Praetor blasts in with a fleet of warbirds! This is like the Federation president arriving on the scene so it is getting *very* serious now. Things *definitely* did not escalate this badly in ‘Balance of Terror’. The tipping point of terror is obviously being reached in this scenario, the traditional ‘balance’ could soon be no more…. The Praetor wants the Enterprise to surrender or she will be destroy it in an epic space battle!
Luckily, just in time a fleet of automated freighters appears out of warp to give the Enterprise some backup. James T Kirk on his Del Taco shuttle mission had brought an entire fleet back with him. The Romulan’s *should* think that these ships are Starfleet and just as powerful as the Enterprise is. Unfortunately, this Praetor herself is portrayed in a very two dimensional way, almost like a cartoon ‘evil’ villain. She says that the Romulan’s don’t care about peace or even maintaining a status quo like has been the case for the past 100 years. I do not believe that a *real* Romulan Praetor would behave or speak in such a way, even if they did I am sure that they would *not* be speaking for their entire race but for the political elite of Romulus. This Praetor is almost like a characature of a villain, she is not stupid though. The Praetor realises that this ‘fake’ fleet of ships is weak…. She now believes that she can take on Starfleet and the Federation, however she is wrong. If the Praetor attacks the fleet she may very well destroy it, but she will be unleashing galactic Armageddon when the *real* Starfleet arrives and the true confrontation takes place. She thinks that the weak must perish just like Species 8472. Relations between the Federation and Romulus reach an all time low as a result, and it will only continue to go downhill from here.
Pike heads down to sickbay, he doesn’t know what else to do. Casualties are severe, and include his friend Spock who has been severely injured in the Romulan attack. Spock has now suffered the same terrible fate as Pike should have done. He will no longer be able to do all of the things that he was destined to do in order to keep peace throughout the galaxy such as in Unification and the JJ. Abrahams reboot. Nurse Chapel also looks on over her beloved friend Spock as he lays on the bio bed as she delivers his terrible prognosis to Pike. Pike had traded his fate for Spock’s.
Future Pike informs now Pike that no matter what, his fate can not be changed with it leading to a positive outcome, the monks at Borath have confirmed this with their time crystals. Any time that Pike’s fate is changed, karma is returned to Spock who suffers the same fate or similar instead. These two characters are intertwined in a tragic way and Pike knows that he now must live his best life and accept what is to come for the sake of his friend Spock and most importantly the future of the Federation and possibly even the galaxy itself.
James T Kirk tells Pike that maybe he should have just hunted down the Romulan ship and destroyed it at the start of the episode, then maybe non of this would have happened. Let’s watch ‘Balance of Terror’ again and find out what *really* happened….
I rate Star Trek: Strange New World’s episode 10 ‘A Quality of Mercy’ 10/10.
PS Una gets arrested at the end of this episode for lying on her Starfleet application form… and for being ‘different’. I think she might get sent to a Penal Colony unless Pike represents her *really* well next season or at least gets her someone like Samuel T. Cogley to help out. She might be up against a ‘Maddox’!
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So, i think this is my favorite episode of the season and the first one I rank a 10 (out of all of streaming Trek this joins "wej Duj" and "No Small Parts"). So, SNW is 9 out of 10 for good to great episodes, and the third best first season following TOS and LDS. The Elysian Kingdom was the only meh episode for me.
Loved all the call backs to BoT. Thought they were perfect in being just enough like the original, but updated, and done with a good purpose and not just for fanservice.
Unlike many, I found Wesley's portrayal to be fine. Maybe in future installments he will be able to stretch a little more, but I would put this performance in line with more of the quieter, more serious Shatner/Kirk episodes. He wasn't here to be charming in this episode, but let's hope he can be.
I think they did as well as humanly possible in balancing the two captains. If you have to include Kirk (and this show can't avoid including Kirk, even if it does make sense given his involvement in the original BoT), you don't want to have either captain looking foolish or weak. I think they perfectly balanced it that Pike was good, and all that you could want from a Starfleet captain in this moment, but he just wasn't the captain we all needed in this moment.
I can't wait for more SNW. I am looking forward to more Una - she has been sadly underused in much of the season. And I am looking forward to the promised Ortegas-centric episode.
If I could only have one wish for this show, it would be to have 15-episode seasons.
Loved all the call backs to BoT. Thought they were perfect in being just enough like the original, but updated, and done with a good purpose and not just for fanservice.
Unlike many, I found Wesley's portrayal to be fine. Maybe in future installments he will be able to stretch a little more, but I would put this performance in line with more of the quieter, more serious Shatner/Kirk episodes. He wasn't here to be charming in this episode, but let's hope he can be.
I think they did as well as humanly possible in balancing the two captains. If you have to include Kirk (and this show can't avoid including Kirk, even if it does make sense given his involvement in the original BoT), you don't want to have either captain looking foolish or weak. I think they perfectly balanced it that Pike was good, and all that you could want from a Starfleet captain in this moment, but he just wasn't the captain we all needed in this moment.
I can't wait for more SNW. I am looking forward to more Una - she has been sadly underused in much of the season. And I am looking forward to the promised Ortegas-centric episode.
If I could only have one wish for this show, it would be to have 15-episode seasons.
I think, after DIS ad PIC have experienced mixed (to say the least) receptions, both LDS and SNW have made it a point to call back to more TOS/TNG moments and characters as a way to prove their bona fides. Interesting, just the opposite track of what TNG did originally when it was trying to prove it wasn't just a rehash of TOS. LDS got more adventurous in their second season to tell their own stories, and were less dependent on really hammering home "this is what Lower Decks is" and just going for it. Hopefully, SNW will feel more of that freedom in their second season.
Using real, physical models back in TOS made it very hard to get multiple objects in the same frame with the correct sizes, etc., so they often didn't have a lot of choice. SNW has had some difficulty in prior episodes (particularly in "Children of the Comet" and a little in "Memento Mori") getting the relative distances, motions, etc. to match between the dialog and the exterior shots. Hopefully another area they can improve on in season 2.
Star franchise fans are fun. Past few days have been a lot of ragging on poor Paul Wesley as Kirk. Over at that other franchise just a lot of complaints that the deepfakes feel unrealistic and jarring. I'm positive if Trek went the deepfake route the Wesley complaints would transform into deepfake complaints.
Wrath of Khan cut scene--
Scotty: Spock, nooo!!! Get out of there! Chris Pike said if you die, the galaxy as we know it will end! Take a shuttle and flee!
Spock:
Wrath of Khan cut scene--
Scotty: Spock, nooo!!! Get out of there! Chris Pike said if you die, the galaxy as we know it will end! Take a shuttle and flee!
Spock:
What a worthless and absurd question.
I just re-watched Balance of Terror and realized they cribbed a lot more dialogue from it than I originally thought. Spock's whole line about how he believes they should attack because "weakness is something we dare not show." for example. I noticed M'Benga takes on the exact same attitude as McCoy, and in comparison Ortegas is a lot less annoying (and less bigoted) than Stiles. My takeaway as far as what differed between Pike and Kirk's handling of the situation is the Kirk was pretty relentless in pursuing the BoP while Pike kind of tip toed around trying to play nice. The original BoP crew never had any reason to think Kirk was going to show mercy.
Still had to chuckle at the "we have visual from their bridge" which just so happens to be a camera that perfectly frames and zooms in on the Romulan Commander's face.
Still had to chuckle at the "we have visual from their bridge" which just so happens to be a camera that perfectly frames and zooms in on the Romulan Commander's face.
Oh dear. My memory is slipping. Don't know why I thought there was an element of newness to it.
Can you imagine the debates before scripts were widely available? You can see where "Beam me up, Scotty!" came from.
Maybe. I didn't much like the (second) pilot of TOS either.
Imagine giving so little of a damn about STar Trek that you think characters are defined by their hair.
This new Kirk would be better off playing Darrin Stephens.
This episode hit a lot of the right beats for me, or whatever the expression is.
I really enjoyed it as an alternate history (alternate future??) take on "Balance of Terror."
I actually liked the version of the Monster Maroon uniform depicted, as something coming from a more militarized galactic scene (in that way it makes more sense than in the TOS movies, IMO).
There were some oddities... I chalk it up to this whole thing being a timey-wimey alternate timeline scenario playing out in Pike's mind and not necessarily a literal depiction of every little detail of how things would go in such a timeline. That even includes certain line deliveries coming across kind of like characters "play acting," if that makes sense. And then there's Ortegas having this sudden hostility toward Spock when she's been working with him for years, presumably with trust having been built up in that time. With that kind of attitude, maybe that's why she isn't a Lt. Cmdr. yet. And although this is supposedly how Pike would act in a timeline where this actually happened, I wonder if "our" Pike was subconsciously influenced by suddenly finding himself "out of time" and maybe doing certain things slightly differently than if he would have if such a situation came up in the Prime timeline, or without the benefit of several more years of experience between the SNW years and the TOS years. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I know some viewers were skeptical of possible galaxy-shaking implications of Pike changing his destiny. But I thought it made sense with Spock turning out to be the decisive factor, since we already know he takes on a key diplomatic role later in life.
Also, I thought Kirk didn't quite have the charisma that he should have. But this was an "alternate" Kirk too.
Kor
I really enjoyed it as an alternate history (alternate future??) take on "Balance of Terror."
I actually liked the version of the Monster Maroon uniform depicted, as something coming from a more militarized galactic scene (in that way it makes more sense than in the TOS movies, IMO).
There were some oddities... I chalk it up to this whole thing being a timey-wimey alternate timeline scenario playing out in Pike's mind and not necessarily a literal depiction of every little detail of how things would go in such a timeline. That even includes certain line deliveries coming across kind of like characters "play acting," if that makes sense. And then there's Ortegas having this sudden hostility toward Spock when she's been working with him for years, presumably with trust having been built up in that time. With that kind of attitude, maybe that's why she isn't a Lt. Cmdr. yet. And although this is supposedly how Pike would act in a timeline where this actually happened, I wonder if "our" Pike was subconsciously influenced by suddenly finding himself "out of time" and maybe doing certain things slightly differently than if he would have if such a situation came up in the Prime timeline, or without the benefit of several more years of experience between the SNW years and the TOS years. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I know some viewers were skeptical of possible galaxy-shaking implications of Pike changing his destiny. But I thought it made sense with Spock turning out to be the decisive factor, since we already know he takes on a key diplomatic role later in life.
Also, I thought Kirk didn't quite have the charisma that he should have. But this was an "alternate" Kirk too.
Kor
Sam!!!!
But can it go head-to-head with Pike's hair?
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