Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03 - "Shuttle to Kenfori"

[CorporalCaptain]

OK. So.

There were a whole helluva lotta witnesses to an off-the-record interstellar treaty violation, including Ensign New Guy at navigation.

A more realistic take for the mission would have involved two or three shuttlecraft with the mothership E out of the picture altogether.

So what? There was still some fun stuff.

The scenes involving Ortegas and Number One were stellar, and I'm counting the bridge scene when Ortegas is disobeying the order to slow down, and Una's sitting in the command chair, cool as the proverbial cucumber.

 

[Noname Given]

A solid episode. Some good character stuff, and I like the M'Benga Klingon call back, but its held back by the show having literal zombies (Enterprise did it better) and Number One being a prick. Ortegas was right and is the only reason Pike/M'Benga lived, but doing so hurt Number One's ego so she goes after Ortegas. Starfleet is never about mindlessly following orders, and Number One was being negligent with the safety of the away team because she was scared of the Klingons. Ortegas did the right thing and was proven right, but Number One would prefer Pike/M'Benga being dead over being disobeyed, which makes her a moron.

7/10, wish they didn't use literal zombies or make Number One an asshole.

1) It's called Chain of Command for a reason. Una was the Captain here, Ortegas was her subordinate.

2) Ortegas detailed her plain. It was discussed and her Commanding officer decided against it.

3) Ortegas PUT THE ENTIRE SHIP AT RISK (and even the entire Federation itself) by willfully disobeying an order and flying the 1701 just fast enough so the Klingon Battlecruiser would be able to detect it - and once detected Ortegas knew it would force Una to use Ortega's plan or fight the Klingon ship and cause at best a diplomatic incident and at worst another Federation/Klingon war.

4) It's by no means certain that Ortegas actions were the only way Pike and M'Benga would have lived. The Klingon shuttle was there and they were about to board it and fly off when they were beamed up.

So no - Una wasn't reacting the way she was because her ego was bruised - Erica Ortegas knowingly disobeyed a direct order putting the entire ship and even the Federation at risk as a result. And honestly (and probably because this mission was itself illegal as well - and no records of it would exist or be reported to Star Fleet) Una's response to it was very measured and temperate.

If this had been a sanctioned mission, Ortegas ;probably could/would have found herself court martialed and in a Federation prison/rehab colony. But Una recognizes she's gealing with some trauma from her recent Gorn encounter and gave her a real break here.

 

[Rahul]

Overall a surprisingly solid "Trek" episode.

I really liked all the character drama, reveals, betrayals.

(Funny that both Pike & Ortega disobey orders, risking a whole new devastating war, for personal reasons - saving his girlfriend, or, worse, to do her fancy manover)

Surprisingly, this is one of the better Klingon stories as well, with the story of Rah's daughter.

I also liked the whole atmosphere, the scary dangerous away mission, the props & set design and lighting, the shuttles, the spaceships sneaking around eachother, the whole Star Trek thing!

However - what was already mentioned - this episode would have worked way better if it wasn't straight up "zombies", with a "no lifeforms" setup, but some other, more alien menace. Bugs. Plants "copying" the humans & Klingons. Rogue bioweapons. Robots. Just something mindless dangerous. Just... Something more sci-fi.
Pike uttering the word "Zombie" for, well, real Zombies, was really too meta & genre hinting.

There's a reason why every zombie uses the name "walkers", "infected", "wights", "undead" - but never the Z-word itself.

 

[Shon T'Hara]

Pike isn’t dying though. Just gets badly injured

Though if Batel survives, that's going to make The Menagerie a bit weird.

 

[Noname Given]

Overall a surprisingly solid "Trek" episode.

I really liked all the character drama, reveals, betrayals.

(Funny that both Pike & Ortega disobey orders, risking a while new devastating war, for personal reasons - saving his girlfriend, or, worse, to do her fancy manover)

Surprisingly, this is one of the better Klingon stories as well, with the story of Rah's daughter.

I also liked the whole atmosphere, the scary dangerous away mission, the props & set design, the shuttles, the spaceships sneaking around eachother, the whole Star Trek thing!

However - that was already mentioned - this episode would have worked away better if it wasn't straight up "zombies", with a "no lifeforms" setup, but some other, more alien menace. Bugs. Plants "copying" the humans & Klingons. Rogue bioweapons. Robots. Just something mindless dangerous. Just... Something more sci-fi.
Pike uttering the word "Zombie" for, well, real Zombies was really too meta & genre hinting, instead of just telling a scary story.

There's a reason why every zombie uses the name "walkers", "infected", "wights", "undead" - but never the Z-word itself.

Thing is - I LOVED that Pike went there and mentioned "Zombies" and Dr. M'Benga IMMEDIATELY shut him down and said "No not really and don't use the Z word here..." 10 out of 10

 

[Commander Antagony]

No.

The beep chair is waiting

Two beeps mean no. .

A must.

 

[Greg Cox]

Gene Roddenberry himself said straight out he only used Sci fiction as the backdrop to tell the type of stories he wanted

Just like Rod Serling before him.

 

[Mike Farley]

Two beeps mean no. .

A must.

I thought 2 beeps was double yes.

 

[Greg Cox]

Great episode, but, yeah, it's way past time for Pike to tell Batel that he's on borrowed time, too. Every time he got upset about Batel not telling him the full truth about her condition and "cure," I kept remembering that he still hasn't told her about his predestined appointment with some delta rays not too long from now.

And, honestly, I thought about this last week too, when they were discussing the future of their long-term relationship when she goes back to captaining her own ship again.

Pike may well have made his peace with his destiny, but given how serious his relationship with Batel has become, it's not fair to her to talk about their future when he knows what's coming up. She is entitled to know what she's in for as they become ever more serious about their relationship.

To be fair, I get why the writers keep ducking this. We already went through this with him and Number One back in Season One, with them wrestling with the issue of changing the future, and the show doesn't want to hit all those beats over again -- but that's a Big Secret to hide from the woman you've in love with.

 

[eschaton]

However - what was already mentioned - this episode would have worked way better if it wasn't straight up "zombies", with a "no lifeforms" setup, but some other, more alien menace. Bugs. Plants "copying" the humans & Klingons. Rogue bioweapons. Robots. Just something mindless dangerous. Just... Something more sci-fi.
Pike uttering the word "Zombie" for, well, real Zombies, was really too meta & genre hinting.

There's a reason why every zombie uses the name "walkers", "infected", "wights", "undead" - but never the Z-word itself.

Using the "Z word" doesn't bother me, because it's been well established that people in the Trekverse are fairly well versed in 20th century pop culture. Hence that's probably one of the first things that popped into his head. The technobabble (they weren't actually walking dead, but riddled with some sort of transgenic moss) was dumb, but Trek has done dumber things (like whatever happened in Sub Rosa with the corpse of Crusher's nana).

No, the bad part is, as I noted upthread, the zombies are just there because someone in the writers room thought they'd be a cool addition. The story isn't about zombies - it's about saving Betel's life, Pike's angst, M'Benga facing the consequences of earlier actions, and Ortegas fucking something up. The zombies are just "flavor" that is peppered into the show. They don't even provide an obstacle which requires Pike and M'Benga to change much regarding their plan. They just attack at three different times.

 

[Greg Cox]

It's almost like you personally have it out for him.

I like this Christopher Pike, I want a happier end for him.

Well, he gets a happy ending with Vina on Talos IV, eventually.

He just doesn't know that yet.

 

[Okmyx]

That is my thought too - and it would also explain how the Gorn in TOS S1 Arena have such in depth knowledge of Star Fleet procedures and personnel to the point the can fake the live conversation with Kirk in the Teaser of Arena.

Yup, and also why Kirk doesn't recognize the TOS Gorn as a Gorn.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I saw a comment on Reddit that suggested that her hair (and Uhura's) was like this to make it easier for production to depict the zero-G scene.

Uhura, Una and La'An all had "tight" hairstyles.

 

[NCC-73515]

Kind of a shame, they go to the effort to have Marc Okrand translate the Klingon dialogue, but the text on the screens still appears to just be English in a Klingon font


That shuttle design dates back to DSC season 1, so before the new dune movie.

But yeah the wings are based off the same concept

IIRC, they did the same in Disco and SNW before. But this time they used the other Klingon font for some reason
I'd love it if they come up with details what the difference is, like if different houses use different fonts

 

[Trekker4747]

M'Benga's not even 40 and had 4 wives? That line actually did more damage to his character than any of the Klingon angst stuff. Maybe I'll just pretend he was on Denobulus for a while or something

Why? People have failed relationships.

Ross Gellar, thoughts?

Using the "Z word" doesn't bother me, because it's been well established that people in the Trekverse are fairly well versed in 20th century pop culture. Hence that's probably one of the first things that popped into his head. The technobabble (they weren't actually walking dead, but riddled with some sort of transgenic moss) was dumb, but Trek has done dumber things (like whatever happened in Sub Rosa with the corpse of Crusher's nana).

No, the bad part is, as I noted upthread, the zombies are just there because someone in the writers room thought they'd be a cool addition. The story isn't about zombies - it's about saving Betel's life, Pike's angst, M'Benga facing the consequences of earlier actions, and Ortegas fucking something up. The zombies are just "flavor" that is peppered into the show. They don't even provide an obstacle which requires Pike and M'Benga to change much regarding their plan. They just attack at three different times.

Yeah that's where I'm at... Why zombies? Any other threat would have worked just as well.

 

[fireproof78]

Someone probably read an article on the zombie fungus.

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Crazyewok]

It's almost like you personally have it out for him.

I like this Christopher Pike, I want a happier end for him.

Beep

 

[Greg Cox]

Yeah that's where I'm at... Why zombies? Any other threat would have worked just as well.

As somebody who just had a new zombie story published in WEIRD TALES, I cannot throw stones.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Oh, I missed that, do you remember when in the episode?

On the shuttle flight to Kenifor, when M'Benga and Pike were reminiscing about a party on Zeta Borealis.

 

[eschaton]

As somebody who just had new zombie story published in WEIRD TALES, I cannot throw stones.

The thing is, if you're gonna do zombies, you should have a unique take on them of sorts. Like, 28 days later innovated with "fast zombies." And The Walking Dead and TLOU focused more on how a zombie apocalypse would impact society. Even Shaun of the Dead looked at zombies in a romantic comedy.

The unique take here is...they can't infect other people if they bite them, I guess? Which actually makes them less scary.

This episode doesn't even establish the "rules" within universe for what they can and cannot do, which makes it hard to understand the tension.