I took it as Pike doing the whole thing kind of reluctantly when he said "okay dad, you win."
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x01 - "Hegemony, Part II"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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I took it as Pike doing the whole thing kind of reluctantly when he said "okay dad, you win."
I thought it was okay. I do hope the Gorn are gone for good though. They just can't do anything interesting with them given where they have to end up, unless they're willing to just retcon and shoehorn in something different. Like some B5 thing where Batel has to go to the Gorn planet because she has some Gorn DNA in her and is the only one that can try to talk to them ala Sinclair.
I did think it was funny that suddenly Mitchell was a character for a fleeting moment. It felt like her name was said more in this episode than the last two seasons, but I could just be forgetting. It's weird that she's there most of the time, but she's not a main character... it's the Discovery problem, although obviously not as bad.
I did think it was funny that suddenly Mitchell was a character for a fleeting moment. It felt like her name was said more in this episode than the last two seasons, but I could just be forgetting. It's weird that she's there most of the time, but she's not a main character... it's the Discovery problem, although obviously not as bad.
I gave it a 7/10.
Episode overall was good but the way they broke canon with the Gorn is really an insult to long time fans.
Episode overall was good but the way they broke canon with the Gorn is really an insult to long time fans.
See....I don't get this critique of both Mitchell and DSC's Detmer, Rhys etc. They're background characters. O'Brien didn't get a first name until Season 4 of TNG and that same show had a rotating cast of helm officers that often appeared in more than 1 episode and no one gives the show the same level of grief.
I think you solved your own mystery there.
No one complained that O'Brien felt underused because he was only really seen during the rare visits to the transporter room and his other appearances were a bonus. And the rotating cast of helm officers made it hard to remember names or even care about who was in the chair this week. So there was nothing to complain about.
Owo and Detmer were there on the bridge in all the big dramatic moments with the camera making sure to show us their reaction, and they seemed to be Burnham's friends, so it felt really weird that they were basically just extras. It was a problem that was only really fixed for me when they were replaced with different extras that I didn't know.
I think Mitchell's been used better though; she feels more included, more of a character. I want the series to use her more, but I don't feel like she's being used too little.
I'm not always a complete fan of beastly Gorn, myself...
The original Gorn were intelligent, deceptive, and somewhat relatable - well, to a point.
They were not out and out monstrous or horror-trope coded. Had advanced weapons, tech, could impersonate voices, etc.
Having different morphisms too is an interesting way to go - but it can often feel like CGI for the sake of CGI, I guess.
Still, they are pretty impressive to behold - lighting also being variable.
Why would blood plasma that's helpful for dealing with infections - something established two seasons ago - be useful for when treating a radiation injury?
Besides, who's to say that Illyrian Augment blood components from the Prime Timeline would have the healing and restorative effects that human Augment blood components from the Kelvin Timeline had? Una and Khan are from different species.
They really should stop making the pilots part of the main cast. The only one who really justified having main cast credit was Tom Paris. And even he just started off as a typical flippant flyboy who bucks authority. Even TNG learned they didn't need a pilot in the main cast after Wesley left.
Then again, Disco did leave their pilot out of the main cast, and fans are still crying over that.
I thought the operation, beginning with the simulations, to when they're getting right up to it and Christina's about to cut, and then Spock realizes a different approach, that whole sequence was outstanding, and Spock's solution—the writers' solution—that was brilliant.
By the way, gimme a break, these threads should be spoiler threads. How else is a discussion about the episodes even practical otherwise?
By the way, gimme a break, these threads should be spoiler threads. How else is a discussion about the episodes even practical otherwise?
Yes, the Our Father was excellent. It's an interesting contrast to him being forced to experience the torment of Hell at the hands of the Keeper, taken from a fable he once heard in childhood (that is yet to come for him).
It reminded me of a Lower Decks opener. Just wrap up the part 2 conveniently and move on.
The escape from the Gorn ship was far too convenient.
The escape from the Gorn ship was far too convenient.
This bugged me, too. And weren't the shields up to protect them from the super-deadly radiation? Especially since the beam out was BEFORE the Gorn departed and they were all about to fire on them?
Edit: just the shields part, they explained where the colonists were in the dialogue.
La’an sent them the shield frequencies
Well, this was satisfying enough a conclusion to the finale from last season for me, even if not perfect in all respects. I like how they managed to keep up the tension for most of the episode and how the overall theme seemed to be teamwork and figuring out stuff together.
However, some things felt really rushed and kind of out of the blue. I think I'll have to rewatch the episode, because I didn’t understand at all what the solution was to the baby Gorn inside Batel and what the binary stars had to do with the Gorn homeworld and why at the end the Gorn ships just seemed to disappear into the Enterprise. Was that a portal between those two stars? Why didn’t the Enterprise disappear in it? They mentioned something about “natural hologram” or some such, but how does that fit together with the Gorn ship shrinking inside the Enterprise? Also, that one large ship and all those tiny ships were the entire Gorn fleet?
Maybe I’m getting old, stupid or both, but the whole thing went by so quickly and I feel like I didn’t get half of it.
Regarding Ortegas: I see some people mentioning her losing some of her fingers, but is that really what they were trying to portray? I tried rewatching the close-up of her hand, and it doesn’t seem super clear to me if her fingers are supposed to be missing or just bloody. And then later when she’s piloting the Gorn ship it seems like we can see her “missing” fingers in some of the shots. So I’m confused about what the intention was supposed to be there.
However, some things felt really rushed and kind of out of the blue. I think I'll have to rewatch the episode, because I didn’t understand at all what the solution was to the baby Gorn inside Batel and what the binary stars had to do with the Gorn homeworld and why at the end the Gorn ships just seemed to disappear into the Enterprise. Was that a portal between those two stars? Why didn’t the Enterprise disappear in it? They mentioned something about “natural hologram” or some such, but how does that fit together with the Gorn ship shrinking inside the Enterprise? Also, that one large ship and all those tiny ships were the entire Gorn fleet?
Maybe I’m getting old, stupid or both, but the whole thing went by so quickly and I feel like I didn’t get half of it.
Agreed. I too assumed they were aiming for revealing something more interesting about the Gorn, and I feel like in past interviews the writers really did make it seem like this is where they were heading. But no, in this they still seem just like instinct-driven animals. Which is fine, obviously, if a bit unimaginative and expected.
Yes, that’s how I felt as well. The way it was filmed and edited made it really confusing what it is they did and accomplished. So, is Batel completely cured now, or is there still a Gorn baby inside her somehow?
Regarding Ortegas: I see some people mentioning her losing some of her fingers, but is that really what they were trying to portray? I tried rewatching the close-up of her hand, and it doesn’t seem super clear to me if her fingers are supposed to be missing or just bloody. And then later when she’s piloting the Gorn ship it seems like we can see her “missing” fingers in some of the shots. So I’m confused about what the intention was supposed to be there.
True. I guess Chapel didn't learn it. Also the emergency medical transporter could have been offline. That whole transporter procedure has bothered me since M’Benga did it. Scotty supposedly came up with it but M’Benga did it 35 years or so earlier.
Una's blood helps fight infections, Pike does not have an infection, he has severe radiation poisoning. That problem is an order of magnitude higher.
And, at least as I read it, Una's blood did not cure Batel either. It just helped buoy her immune system so that the real treatment (feeding the Gorn so they reintegrate rather than emerge) could win the day and/or get her to the point where they could be removed safely.
Though that last part is a little fuzzy.
No, you misunderstand. They transported in through Enterprise's shields. They had to be up to protect from radiation & Gorn weapons.
Indeed, yes.
There's this weird idea that being on the bridge equals main character and that just isn't the case in Trek.
They pay scale for regulars vs returning extras is different. Detmer had her PTSD journey in S3. Owo had "New Eden," but thatcwas about it.
Uhura, Sulu, Scotty, and Chapel rarely, if ever, had episodes centered on them. Chekov either.
The 26 episode Trek did more character development. They had more episodes and every week wasn't some galaxy level threat plot driven serialized mystery that everything is in service to.
SNW has done a better job than most new Trek in doing this. They had opening with different characters doing the log virtually every episode in S2. Episodic helps. Lower stakes helps.
But having said that, Trek is usually a big 3 and everyone else kinda fits in around that. TOS was obviously Kirk/Spock/McCoy. ENT was Archer/T'Pol/Trip. TNG was more of a big 2 with Picard/Data. DS9 was more ensemble, but I'd still go Sisko/Kira/Odo. VOY was Jameway/Seven after S3, though The Doctor has a good case for the 3rd. DISCO was Burnham/Saru/Georgiou.
A quibble here and there is fair. But that is how it just is. SNW is gonna center on Pike/Spock/Una. They, and the other legacy characters (Mbenga, Chapel, Uhura, Kirk, Scotty) are the focus. The only real new characters are La'an, Ortegas, Hemmer, and Pelia.
La'an has gotten the lion's share of development here. She has a bond with Una, and the Gorn, and a thing for Kirk via Tomorrow. Hemmer got his stuff with Uhura and the big sendoff.
In Lotus Eaters they did, seemingly give a nod to Ortegas never going on away missions. But this show is gonna center on Pike/Spock/Una. I get wanting a bit more of Ortegas, but at least she is there every ep. Scotty & Sulu were not.
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