Let’s be honest, it was a pretty run-of-the-mill Star Trek episode, but it’s the character chemistry, interactions and performances that carry it. This was Uhura’s best episode, maybe even better than “Children of the Comet.” And, I know this may be somewhat controversial, but I really love Paul Wesley as Kirk. I honestly think he captures Kirk’s somewhat reserved charm and playfulness from the first half of S1 TOS very well. He also has really good chemistry with Uhura and La’an, at lest in my opinion.
Perfectly said. This was not SNW finest
story but it was a terrific episode.
There is a meme of Shatner's Kirk "Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am." That's part one of Kirk. The other part is, like you said, there has to be a certain kind of reserve. And (just spitballing here) almost a kind of assumption on Kirk's part that everyone ELSE is as awesome as he is! Which is why he's kind of baffled by Sam. And why he connects with Uhura so quickly!
(Wow! Now I have to go back and see if that still tracks with TOS!)
I loved the scene of him talking about George SO much.
Making Pike a fleet captain felt like a canon check mark just so Kirk could be in the episode
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a last minute addition to the script after someone remembered menagerie
I go the other way. I think there has been a big sign in the writer's room that says "(We met) when he was promoted to Fleet Captain." And someone figured out a credible way to unlock that. Well done. Because there is a tiny portion of nerds (and we're ALLLL here) who the moment we heard "Fleet Captain" shouted "KIRK!"
Of course this makes Chris into Kirk's boss' boss. Which MIGHT have come up in The Menagerie. But I can live with it.
In TOS, we see her in a very limited, specific context. She's barely even a character. In Amok Time, she's come up with a plan with a specific goal, break the engagement with Spock and be with Stonn. According to Vulcan culture, there are only certain ways to do that. So, her options were extremely constrained. She might've been experiencing Ponn Farr as well.
I love how SNW have given her real characterization and motivations.
Can you imagine if we really watched X number of seasons of SNW and THEN watched TOS? How FURIOUS we would be at Amok Time? We waited a whole year to see T'Pring again and THAT is what they give us? What the hell? (And T'Pring was not going through Pon Farr. I'll die on that hill.)
I really like the idea that when realizing that their utilization of a scarce resource is causing tremendous damage to other lifeforms, Starfleet's first response is to just stop. It's a much more optimistic take than what tends to happen in analogous situations in real life today.
Well, not to fuel the "that equipment was valuable" side of the debate, we didn't see what the "cost" of this turned out to be. It comes off as rather negligible, as it should. We're not really given a comparison like "If we don't have this outpost everyone on Hoopdehoop VI will starve in six weeks, seven tops." This station is very much portrayed as "gee this will be cool to have" rather than integral and necessary.
Do we think that it was just a coincidence that Uhura just introduces herself as uhura to Kirk instead of saying Nyota Uhura or was that an intentional reference to ‘09
On the one hand, yes. On the other, who has she introduced herself to as Nyota? I think the only person who calls her that is Chris. (I've seen most of these four times, I should know. But I apparently don't.)
Ah I missed that because it is meant to be the helm that fires weapons in TOS. Nobody at the the security station ever did anything. I think the station was the other side of Spock.
The two stations to Spock's left were Assistant Navigation and then Weapons and Defense. I think La'an is sitting where the Engineering / Environmental stations will be? Of the many pieces of Star Trek minutia that I will be scrawling on the walls of the rest home, the stations on the Enterprise bridge will oddly not be one of them.
