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

[fireproof78]

Well, they were having all those obvious callbacks to BoT, this was just another one of those. So I really don't see any reason NOT to identify them...

Again, it's not relevant to the story being told. It's about Pike's efforts to avoid his fate and what that means.

on a completely unrelated matter, what the fresh hell was Admiral Pike's monster maroons made out of? It looked like a raincoat dipped in nuclear waste.

From the costuming thread. Obviously, the costume designer is wearing a mask as protection against the nuclear waste while working on the uniform.

New video on the finale uniforms, including PIke's TWOK and Uhura's dress.

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[Mudd]

Well, they were having all those obvious callbacks to BoT, this was just another one of those. So I really don't see any reason NOT to identify them...

Again, this detail wasn't relevant to their version of the story. Callbacks aren't random.

In fact, there's no reason that these two had to be the same couple as in BoT. Ortega wasn't Stiles. Did you notice that only one apparent character from TOS had joined Pike's crew?

 

[Tuskin38]

maybe they're just not ON social media?

They're both on Instagram.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Romulan Praetor wasn't the same one as in the TOS episode. Why would it have to be Tomlinson and Martine?

 

[Noname Given]

The Romulan Praetor wasn't the same one as in the TOS episode. Why would it have to be Tomlinson and Martine?

The Centurion serving the Romulan Commander aboard the Bird Of Prey was an entirely different character as well. So yeah the future history was changed in a number of respects due to Pike's acts taken to save himself from the fate of the accident.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The Romulan Praetor wasn't the same one as in the TOS episode. Why would it have to be Tomlinson and Martine?

The Enterprise looks different, Pike doesn't dislike woman on his bridge, Kyle's an Asian guy and April is black, Spock and T'Pring are a thing instead of not seeing each other since they were 7. Uhura's a linguist instead of a technician. How is this a "different Praetor" when all those are the same/don't count/whatever? All they did is ignore one single gendered reference. It's far less in the grand scheme of things.

I genuinely do not understand where the line is between acceptable retcon and must be a different character because timeline

 

[Mudd]

It's all a retcon, and it's all cool.

 

[Sci]

The Enterprise looks different, Pike doesn't dislike woman on his bridge, Kyle's an Asian guy and April is black, Spock and T'Pring are a thing instead of not seeing each other since they were 7. Uhura's a linguist instead of a technician. How is this a "different Praetor" when all those are the same/don't count/whatever? All they did is ignore one single gendered reference. It's far less in the grand scheme of things.

I genuinely do not understand where the line is between acceptable retcon and must be a different character because timeline

Totally agreed. It's not even much of a continuity problem. A very simple explanation could be that the Praetor seen in "A Quality of Mercy" prefers to use male pronouns even if she looks female. The Praetor might be transgender or genderqueer by Human standards. Or, maybe in Romulan culture, male pronouns are always used for the Praetor even if the actual person is a woman, as a holdover from an earlier era of institutional misogyny.

Or, to go an entirely different track, perhaps the Tal Shiar in the Prime Timeline was aware of Kirk's reputation and detected his promotion to captain of the Enterprise, and this helped set off some sort of political domino effect that led to the replacement of the "Quality of Mercy" Praetor with the Praetor referred to in "Balance of Terror." But in the alternate timeline of "Quality," the "Terror" Praetor never took office.

There could be plenty of explanations in-universe that don't require retcons.

 

[Tuskin38]

Pike doesn't dislike woman on his bridge,

That itself seemed contradicted by 'The Cage', there were several there.

 

[cooleddie74]

He could have meant a female yeoman. Or he was just having such a bad day after the Rigel VII mission that he was lashing out at a convenient target. He's not exactly all smiles and backslapping with Dr. Boyce in his quarters, neither.

 

[fireproof78]

The Enterprise looks different, Pike doesn't dislike woman on his bridge, Kyle's an Asian guy and April is black, Spock and T'Pring are a thing instead of not seeing each other since they were 7. Uhura's a linguist instead of a technician. How is this a "different Praetor" when all those are the same/don't count/whatever? All they did is ignore one single gendered reference. It's far less in the grand scheme of things.

I genuinely do not understand where the line is between acceptable retcon and must be a different character because timeline

The line is different for everyone. TMP is a different timeline for me because of the changes in characters. Other things are quite minor to me, like recasts.

Though, Pike's comment about a woman on the bridge is probably the least difficult to explain away because Pike is depressed after the Rigel mission. His doctor tells him as much and calls him on his bullshit.

Spock and T'PRing not seeing each other since 7 is also implied not stated outright.

 

[Nerys Myk]

He could have meant a female yeoman. Or he was just having such a bad day after the Rigel VII mission that he was lashing out at a convenient target. He's not exactly all smiles and backslapping with Dr. Boyce in his quarters, neither.

But after a few martinis...

 

[cooleddie74]

Every Starfleet Captain loosens up after a drink. Except Ron Tracey. He just gets angrier and more paranoid and sweatier.

 

[Noname Given]

Every Starfleet Captain loosens up after a drink. Except Ron Tracey. He just gets angrier and more paranoid and sweatier.

IDK if that's true, because I don't think Matt Decker would loosen up after a drink either.
^^^
(Edited to correct the name. I originally put William Decker because I mentally conflated William Windom the actor with Matt Decker the character he played.)

 

[cooleddie74]

Willard.

Don't make V'Ger join with you.

 

[jackoverfull]

Spock and T'PRing not seeing each other since 7 is also implied not stated outright.

in fact I feel that SNW showing their continuing relationship helps a lot in avoiding Vulcan to look very backwards, with arranged marriages between total strangers.

 

[fireproof78]

in fact I feel that SNW showing their continuing relationship helps a lot in avoiding Vulcan to look very backwards, with arranged marriages between total strangers.

Only a little bit, since the ritualistic material still talks about T'Pring becoming property of the victor.

 

[Sci]

Pike doesn't dislike woman on his bridge

That itself seemed contradicted by 'The Cage', there were several there.

He doesn't say he dislikes women on the bridge. The actual dialogue exchange is:

NUMBER ONE [UNA]: She's replacing your former yeoman, sir.
PIKE: She does a good job, all right. It's just that I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge. No offence, Lieutenant. You're different, of course.​

Which is, of course, an incredibly inappropriate, misogynistic thing to say.

The clear implication of the line is that women have only recently started earning senior staff positions on starships -- that Una was for a long time the only woman to hold a senior staff position and that other women are only recently earning bridge positions, recently enough that Pike still finds the situation unfamiliar.

This is, of course, completely incompatible both with the rest of ST canon and with, y'know, real life.

 

[Captain Jollydark]

Only a little bit, since the ritualistic material still talks about T'Pring becoming property of the victor.

I kind of like the way Spock was so alarmed in his dream "But that's ritual combat!" Like WTF, no one does that anymore, this is crazy. (Nightmare crazy.) But it helped put Amok Time into context for me so that I could see it as a completely archaic, antiquated custom that nobody bothered to take off the books. Who's going to call for ritual combat in this day and age seemed to be the implication behind Spock's dream reaction. It's not retcon but enriching and providing context for what we know happens in the future.

 

[Dukhat]

The Romulan Praetor wasn't the same one as in the TOS episode. Why would it have to be Tomlinson and Martine?

The Romulan Praetor was in BoT?