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Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x10 - "A Quality of Mercy"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I just re-watched the episode. It's great the second time around too.
I liked Kirk better on the rewatch.
The first time we hear Spock (right after the wedding scene) and especially when he says "Identity unknown" Peck sounded just like Nimoy. For a second I thought they may have used Nimoy's voice but that obviously doesn't make sense. Interesting that Spock referred to himself as "Number One".
I understand they wanted to have a crew member show prejudice toward Spock after seeing the Romulans, but I wish they had used a one off character like they did in TOS episode instead of a regular like Ortegas. It diminished her character.
I liked Kirk better on the rewatch.
The first time we hear Spock (right after the wedding scene) and especially when he says "Identity unknown" Peck sounded just like Nimoy. For a second I thought they may have used Nimoy's voice but that obviously doesn't make sense. Interesting that Spock referred to himself as "Number One".
I understand they wanted to have a crew member show prejudice toward Spock after seeing the Romulans, but I wish they had used a one off character like they did in TOS episode instead of a regular like Ortegas. It diminished her character.
I always wondered why we never saw anyone else wearing one (other than Kirk's green one of course).
I saw the episode again. it slipped a bit for me because I had to rewatch balance of terror along with it side to side and see the characters repeat the same line. BOT is better.
Paul Wesley came off like he is playing a stand in actor for Kirk.
It was good to see Laan looking different, she is the only character that tried or at least looked like she has grown a little older in 7 years.
Chapel still pinning over Spock has become tiring although it fits perfectly well with the TOS now.
The VFX were pretty crappy. I did not really like when Pike was walking in the medical room to see the crew who were injured and dead, I understood what the camera man was trying to do but it felt very much like a visual reality from my own audience point of view.
7/10.
Paul Wesley came off like he is playing a stand in actor for Kirk.
It was good to see Laan looking different, she is the only character that tried or at least looked like she has grown a little older in 7 years.
Chapel still pinning over Spock has become tiring although it fits perfectly well with the TOS now.
The VFX were pretty crappy. I did not really like when Pike was walking in the medical room to see the crew who were injured and dead, I understood what the camera man was trying to do but it felt very much like a visual reality from my own audience point of view.
7/10.
lol no it wasn't. It was probably the best of all the new series so far.
It was never trying to be better.
Is anyone trying to claim otherwise?
PIKE: The warp core is leaking oil again. Damn Hemmer's noble sacrifice!
PIKE: Okay. First we sauté some Horta beard clippings...
PIKE: Add one taspar egg. Wait a minute. Grabbed the wrong one. They all look alike in the fridge.
PIKE: Grind in a bit of Mugato horn...
BATEL: Chris, this shit is revolting. Wow. Illusions shattered. Even you can have an off day.
PIKE: Um, our breakfast is in the oven. This is just my hair gel. What? You never wondered about Pike's Peak? Do you think I want a shiny dome like Robau's?
Another random thought. The standoff between the Romulan fleet and the (fake) Starfleet armada reminded me a lot of that thing that happened in Picard at the end of season 1. As in, too many ships on screen at once. And the Romulan ships that showed up seemed quite overpowered, considering that the BoP that crossed the Neutral Zone was supposed to be "The Praetor's finest and proudest flagship." But I'm kind of going with the interpretation that all the events were part of Pike's "time crystal vision" and weren't necessarily literal in every detail.
Kor
Balance of Terror, actually. But the episode didn't make up the idea; that's giving Trek a little too much credit. It was just aping a notion that had already existed in the popular consciousness for some time. Just a few examples from pop culture... "The African Queen" from 1951, with its infamous line from the enemy captain: "I pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution." And the 1962 off-Broadway revival of the musical "Anything Goes" had the ship captain about to officiate a wedding before it was interrupted. The 1965 movie "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" had a marriage at sea officiated by the ship captain. Also, an episode of Gilligan's Island in 1966 had the Skipper officiating at a (re-)wedding for the Howells because they mistakenly thought their original marriage ceremony wasn't valid. In real life, in the early 20th century the US Navy established a rule that ship commanders were not permitted to perform marriage ceremonies aboard their vessels. Maybe before that some had tried to do so.
Kor
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Clearly the Romulans were probing the Federation's ability and inclination to respond to an attack. But they were also taking out the Federation's eyes and ears along the Neutral Zone to obscure the strength of their fleet along the invasion route.
It's a prelude to an invasion, so it makes sense that the Romulans had an invasion fleet already to go and positioned nearby. It was all part of a unified plan to attack the Federation.
It's strange the Romulans are crossing TNZ, destroying Federation bases, killing people, with experimental equipment and the Federation was the one treading lightly snd saying "we don't want to cross The Neutral Zone, that could cause a war!"
I mean, didnt the Romulans already kind of start one? No wonder they thought the Federation was weak.
I mean, didnt the Romulans already kind of start one? No wonder they thought the Federation was weak.
The Romulans sent a single warship that was cloaked to test the Federation's ability to defend itself. In TOS-timeline, the warship never made it home despite the initial success message Decius sent. I would imagine that the Romulans must've had some probes or ships monitoring the Enterprise and the Romulan's fight but chose not to intervene despite the 9 hour standoff they had. If they were watching they would've learned that the Federation's ships had superior speed and could control the distance of the fight and negate the advantages of the plasma torpedo and that the cloaked ship was still detectable.
In SNW's Alt-timeline, the Farragut is destroyed and the Enterprise's weapons are inoperative after the comet battle so the Romulan's impression of the Federation defense is going to be fooled into thinking they were superior when the Enterprise showed no sign of trying to attack (because they couldn't
).
In SNW's Alt-timeline, the Farragut is destroyed and the Enterprise's weapons are inoperative after the comet battle so the Romulan's impression of the Federation defense is going to be fooled into thinking they were superior when the Enterprise showed no sign of trying to attack (because they couldn't
).Yeah, that was not smart. It's like Pearl Harbor but then the US being worried about starting a war. No, it's already started.
However, it is appropriate to try to find ways to de-escalate the situation. Kirk destroying the Bird of Prey did that. De-escalated things by showing the Romulans that they were going to bite off more than they can chew!
PRAETOR: Say...what happened to that cloaked Bird of Prey with the new plasma weapon we deployed along the Neutral Zone? They ever check in?
ROMULAN HIGH COMMAND: Um...nope. Doesn't look like it. No signal from their transponder, either. Must have been destroyed by asteroid debris.
PRAETOR: Hmm. Well, scrap that program. Assign dishonorable deaths among the crew. Execute their families.
ROMULAN HIGH COMMAND: But that's over half our officer pool! We can't make war we can win with such paltry numbers!
PRAETOR: True. But discipline must be observed. At all times. It is the strength of our race.
My wife and I keep hashing out our thoughts on this episode and how it compares with Balance of Terror. We also keep talking about ways Kirk could have been better played in this episode- if he would even be there at all.
It felt to me like the showrunners were trying to do too many things in tgis episode. Pike meeting himself! Flesh out outpost 4! Tecreate balance of terror! Pike makes a peace offering! The predator herself shows up! The romulan commander gives his speech to pike instead because they're men of peace.... Etc....
This episode could have used an editing pass to trim out and condense some of the plot motions to give the rest of the episode some space for polish and atmosphere. You'd kill some of the highlights, but the best SNW eps don't throw as much at you as this episode did.
What I would have done is keep the Romulan commander focused on his duty and take out the Enterprise when the repair time was up. BoT shows us that while he regrets war, he doesn't let it get in the way of performing his duty. Cripple the Enterprise and show us Pikes flaw was being too trusting of hostile enemies... And ignoring Spock's suggestions.
This way you cut out the clout and theatrics of the fleet clash and turn the episode closer to being about Pike and Less about the event. You'd still have Spock crippled, and if you still need a moment for Kirk to impress pike, let it be Kirk to go into the phaser room to drag survivors out.
As an aside the romulan commander giving his speech to pike, and the contrivances used to set it up, felt like unwarranted fanservice. The commander respects Kirk for out playing him. He should have walked all over Pikes sentiments.
We keep coming back to Kirk and comparing him to BoT Kirk, who at one point demonstrates how he recognizes the stakes and has a quiet moment of doubt with Bones. QoM Kirk seems to have just two dimensions: pushing Pike about attacking the Romlans and employing set piece tactics that felt more scripted than spontaneous.
This could have been a great character piece contrasting Kirk and Pike, but I think the rest of the episode and what they wanted to do here got in the way. Kirk could have been the devil on Pike's shoulder, coming at him not with constant pushyness, but by being the voice of doubt to Pikes certainty in his conviction to a peaceful solution. I wish they had expanded on Piles suspicions that Kirk would be the start of the war, but it was never mentioned again after it was raised.
I think this is the first time in Trek a past episode was revisited with the intent of showing another way it could have gone, and I kinda think they blew it on theatrics and a caricature of Kirk. The rest of SNW S1 was pretty tight, but this and those who wander feel like they were rushed into being without the care previous episodes received.
I gave it a 7/10, the lowest I've given a SNW episode.
It felt to me like the showrunners were trying to do too many things in tgis episode. Pike meeting himself! Flesh out outpost 4! Tecreate balance of terror! Pike makes a peace offering! The predator herself shows up! The romulan commander gives his speech to pike instead because they're men of peace.... Etc....
This episode could have used an editing pass to trim out and condense some of the plot motions to give the rest of the episode some space for polish and atmosphere. You'd kill some of the highlights, but the best SNW eps don't throw as much at you as this episode did.
What I would have done is keep the Romulan commander focused on his duty and take out the Enterprise when the repair time was up. BoT shows us that while he regrets war, he doesn't let it get in the way of performing his duty. Cripple the Enterprise and show us Pikes flaw was being too trusting of hostile enemies... And ignoring Spock's suggestions.
This way you cut out the clout and theatrics of the fleet clash and turn the episode closer to being about Pike and Less about the event. You'd still have Spock crippled, and if you still need a moment for Kirk to impress pike, let it be Kirk to go into the phaser room to drag survivors out.
As an aside the romulan commander giving his speech to pike, and the contrivances used to set it up, felt like unwarranted fanservice. The commander respects Kirk for out playing him. He should have walked all over Pikes sentiments.
We keep coming back to Kirk and comparing him to BoT Kirk, who at one point demonstrates how he recognizes the stakes and has a quiet moment of doubt with Bones. QoM Kirk seems to have just two dimensions: pushing Pike about attacking the Romlans and employing set piece tactics that felt more scripted than spontaneous.
This could have been a great character piece contrasting Kirk and Pike, but I think the rest of the episode and what they wanted to do here got in the way. Kirk could have been the devil on Pike's shoulder, coming at him not with constant pushyness, but by being the voice of doubt to Pikes certainty in his conviction to a peaceful solution. I wish they had expanded on Piles suspicions that Kirk would be the start of the war, but it was never mentioned again after it was raised.
I think this is the first time in Trek a past episode was revisited with the intent of showing another way it could have gone, and I kinda think they blew it on theatrics and a caricature of Kirk. The rest of SNW S1 was pretty tight, but this and those who wander feel like they were rushed into being without the care previous episodes received.
I gave it a 7/10, the lowest I've given a SNW episode.
I did like how Pike's dialogue establishes that the Romulans attacked Earth during the 2156-60 war. This was alluded to in "Homefront(DS9)" when Sisko and Admiral Leyton refer to the Changeling threat being the most direct threat to Earth itself since before the founding of the Federation. Up until now that could always refer to the Xindi probe attack of 2153 but now it can also mean whichever direct Romulan attack happened.
Alright, it does look like Pike made a mistake in the battle. He should've asked for more than 2 hours of truce as Spock and crew still were not able to repair weapons at the end of 2 hours 
Commendation to Pike to be able to convince the Romulan to stop moving though. The Enterprise had no weapons to attack with so it's likely that the Romulan would've made it over the Neutral Zone well before any weapons could be repaired in time so the stall kind of worked
Commendation to Pike to be able to convince the Romulan to stop moving though. The Enterprise had no weapons to attack with so it's likely that the Romulan would've made it over the Neutral Zone well before any weapons could be repaired in time so the stall kind of worked SPOCK: Before they cloaked, I was able to scan the Bird-of-Prey. They are trailing trilithium fragments. Their power supply is damaged. I do not believe they have enough to make it back to Romulus.
KIRK: Do we know their position?
SPOCK: Yes. On a heading for the Neutral Zone. We could overtake them.
PIKE: What is the status of our weapons?
SPOCK: Our offensive capabilities are limited. Phasers are down. And torpedo launcher tubes sustained damage in the attack.
KIRK: But the Romulans don't know that.
PIKE: They will if we pull up on their six and can't fire. Lieutenant Uhura, open a channel to the Romulan ship.
UHURA: Sir? They haven't responded to any of our hails before.
PIKE: I know. Open a channel. We're going to send them a message.
KIRK: What are you doing?
PIKE: Taking a risk. This is Captain Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise. Our two cultures have been at war for 100 years. Long enough that we don't even question it. But I believe we can make another choice. Right now. I'm offering you a temporary cease-fire, so that we can talk. For the first time in 100 years.
KIRK: Okay. That was... unexpected.
PIKE: They want to destroy us, but they also want to get home. Knowing what your opponent wants is key to a successful negotiation.
KIRK: That's assuming they can be negotiated with.
UHURA: Captain Pike. The Romulans are calling.
PIKE: Looks like we're about to find out. On screen, please, Nyota.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: Captain Pike, it is good to make your acquaintance.
PIKE: Commander. I know your ships attacked our outposts on the edge of the Neutral Zone. But I also know that our two cultures have been at war for generations without ever having been face-to-face. I don't know why your ancestors attacked Earth or what my ancestors did in retaliation. I only know that we're paying a bill that was written long before you and I were ever born. Perhaps it's time we reconsider the cost. So, we can blow each other out of the sky using what little power we have left, or we can try something different. We can explain ourselves to each other. Understand each other. Empathize. If we don't, this war between us will simply continue, unabated. And the cost for that is sure. Death. More and more death.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: Our peoples are indeed different, Captain. In our culture, your words are a show of weakness. What chance does dialogue offer, save to delay me? Why should I listen to you?
PIKE: Both our ships are damaged. Your cloak is unstable, which leaves you vulnerable to our weapons. Maybe you have enough power to attack us. Maybe you have enough power to get back to Romulus without repairs. Conversely, maybe we can marshal our weapons and destroy you before you make it to the Neutral Zone. Or perhaps we chase you across the border and destroy you and get out before anyone's the wiser.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: So what is it that you're suggesting, Captain?
PIKE: A good faith gesture. Two hours. Enough time to repair our ships and bury the dead. And maybe this bit of mercy will lead to something further and better between our two cultures.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: Two hours.
KIRK: Do we know their position?
SPOCK: Yes. On a heading for the Neutral Zone. We could overtake them.
PIKE: What is the status of our weapons?
SPOCK: Our offensive capabilities are limited. Phasers are down. And torpedo launcher tubes sustained damage in the attack.
KIRK: But the Romulans don't know that.
PIKE: They will if we pull up on their six and can't fire. Lieutenant Uhura, open a channel to the Romulan ship.
UHURA: Sir? They haven't responded to any of our hails before.
PIKE: I know. Open a channel. We're going to send them a message.
KIRK: What are you doing?
PIKE: Taking a risk. This is Captain Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise. Our two cultures have been at war for 100 years. Long enough that we don't even question it. But I believe we can make another choice. Right now. I'm offering you a temporary cease-fire, so that we can talk. For the first time in 100 years.
KIRK: Okay. That was... unexpected.
PIKE: They want to destroy us, but they also want to get home. Knowing what your opponent wants is key to a successful negotiation.
KIRK: That's assuming they can be negotiated with.
UHURA: Captain Pike. The Romulans are calling.
PIKE: Looks like we're about to find out. On screen, please, Nyota.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: Captain Pike, it is good to make your acquaintance.
PIKE: Commander. I know your ships attacked our outposts on the edge of the Neutral Zone. But I also know that our two cultures have been at war for generations without ever having been face-to-face. I don't know why your ancestors attacked Earth or what my ancestors did in retaliation. I only know that we're paying a bill that was written long before you and I were ever born. Perhaps it's time we reconsider the cost. So, we can blow each other out of the sky using what little power we have left, or we can try something different. We can explain ourselves to each other. Understand each other. Empathize. If we don't, this war between us will simply continue, unabated. And the cost for that is sure. Death. More and more death.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: Our peoples are indeed different, Captain. In our culture, your words are a show of weakness. What chance does dialogue offer, save to delay me? Why should I listen to you?
PIKE: Both our ships are damaged. Your cloak is unstable, which leaves you vulnerable to our weapons. Maybe you have enough power to attack us. Maybe you have enough power to get back to Romulus without repairs. Conversely, maybe we can marshal our weapons and destroy you before you make it to the Neutral Zone. Or perhaps we chase you across the border and destroy you and get out before anyone's the wiser.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: So what is it that you're suggesting, Captain?
PIKE: A good faith gesture. Two hours. Enough time to repair our ships and bury the dead. And maybe this bit of mercy will lead to something further and better between our two cultures.
ROMULAN COMMANDER: Two hours.
Continuing the multiple uniforms discussion, we do of course already have the example of TNG using their S3-7 uniforms at the same time DS9 was using their S1-5 uniforms -- and GEN featured the Enterprise crew using both interchangeably. DS9 "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" later made it clear that the TNG S3-7 uniforms were still being used alongside DS9/VOY-style uniforms years after TNG ended. And it was either DS9 "Tears of the Prophets" or "What You Leave Behind, Part II" that featured TNG S3-7 uniforms being used alongside the FC-style uniforms during DS9 S6-7. So there's a lot of canonical precedent for multiple uniform designs being in service simultaneously (much as I might prefer it if it was just one design at a time).
And I could be wrong but earlier Earth Starfleet uniforms were still being used in 2161 at the time of Enterprise NX-01 being decommissioned and the Federation being founded. The senior officers wore the new jumpsuits with the epaulets, name patches and Earth Starfleet delta arrowhead but there could have been older Season 1-4 uniforms used on background extras.
Yeah...the BoP went from praetor's finest to one of the fleet pipsqueaks. BTW, that flagship is butt fugly IMHO. I'd prefer it to be a big decoy drone while the Praetor hides safely on one of those warbirds(?) with the big vertical beak - now THOSE look like rommy ships appropriate to the era.
Wish list scenario: ram that flagship with one of those funky Farragut types, preferably while in close proximity to the JJprise and all those canon kitbashes on my hit list (+ maybe the Bonaventure from TAS) A simultaneous warp core breach and quantum singularity collapse could do a lot of house cleaning.
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Yeah, those were definitely still United Earth Starfleet uniforms. I'm not sure if that counts though -- I figure the Federation Starfleet was probably founded some time after the Federation itself was because presumably the Federation Council would have had to meet and then pass a law establishing and funding the Federation Starfleet. I imagine that Act of Council would have also had to legally merge the United Earth Starfleet, Andorian Imperial Guard, and Vulcan and Tellarite space forces. So it makes sense that officers would continue to wear UESF, Andorian Imperial Guard, and Vulcan and Tellarite space force uniforms at the founding ceremony.
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