Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x07 - "What Is Starfleet?"

[Roald]

Wow, really loved this one..! After my wife and I bingewatched most of The Rookie, I was actually not looking foreward to a 'documentary style' episode (which The Rookie has done in more than one way multiple times), but I was sincerely impressed by the great story and the documentary style actually fit this episode perfectly. I'm a sucker for 'misunderstood creatures' episodes; I loved 'Devil In The Dark', and the Tardigrade storyline at the beginning of Discovery's season 1, and this one felt along those lines. It really was so fitting that both Spock and Uhura were the ones stepping up for this creature. All in all, lovely episode..!

 

[Lakenheath 72]

I am 11 minutes into this episode, and I am getting nauseous from the jiggly camera work. Does it get any better?

 

[NCC-73515]

At least they don't shake it while nothing is happening, like some earlier episodes and many recent movies did

 

[gweeps]

The pace of the cutting in the final edit is distractingly fast this week.

Short, too.

 

[Harpsichord]

The Jikaru looked a lot like Dark Soul's Moonlight Butterfly. I guess since Jikaru means "starlight" in the Lutani language this one is the Starlight Butterfly

"Esper" mention!!!

hah when the FOIA disclaimer popped up at the beginning I was waiting for the [Redactions]. Very interesting to put all of M'Benga's sins out in the open like this wonder where it goes.

So they flat out mention the Gorn Hegemony in a publicly released documentary? Guess Kirk never caught this one. M'Benga must've told him to skip it.

In-ship security cameras!? OK the 'SNW isn't canon' people might have a point!

Uhura looked so hurt in that scene with Beto-- I think I hate him now.

I feel like every time we see a shuttle in SNW it's the Galileo.

I guess everyone forgives Beto-- not me though.

Good ending, good episode. "The difference between a starship and a warship is its people" is a great message and I think it's a good answer to the "is Starfleet a military" question.

 

[SolarisOne]

Starfleet is a military. It's a very different kind of military from modern ones, but it is a military, nonetheless. This isn't inherently bad. The Federation is definitely NOT militaristic (though there are always a handful of people in-universe who want it to be).

 

[gweeps]

They missed an opportunity interviewing others, especially Pelia, to see what they thought of Starfleet. 37 minutes is too short. Budgetary reasons?

 

[Tosk]

I liked the actual storyline of this episode, but I'm not convinced the framing device really added much beyond some easy dialogue for the confessionals and another gimmick to try out. (And a smattering of clumsy exposition in some of the "secretly filming" bits.)

To be clear, this gimmick was arguably more justified than some of the ones they've done but if the story could be told exactly the same without it... Though it was probably too thin to support a 'normal' episode without additional material. The ep was so short as it was.

TL;DR Thumbs up with some reservations.

 

[Campe]

Another great episode!

 

[Gul Re'jal]

I found it very frustrating at first. This is so typical of our times to "I have an agenda, and now I'll prove it" approach to a "documentary". But I won't hold it against the episode, because I'm sure that was the point.

I knew how this approach would end, and it ended exactly as I expected.

And the story under the documentary was very Trek.

My fave episode this season. I gave it 10.

 

[thribs]

Like hell the Discoprise is 400 meters long.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'll give it an 8. I didn't quite dig the "pretentious student filmmaker with an agenda" angle but it seems he learned something by the end. The nerd 8n he liked seeing things like the security camera names and things.

Um... Was the creature very large or the star very small?

Overall an 8, though. I did like it.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Here we have some answers that still don't solve the eternal question:

Primarily explorers...


...but with military protocols

I don't know why this answer is unsatisfactory. Do people expect a black and white answer where Starfleet is either 100% military in which case it is always an armed ship that goes around blasting stuff or it is 100% an explorer in which case it is always an unarmed science vessel? Can't it be a little of both? I think it makes sense for the answer to be more grey, that Starfleet is primarily explorers but that they also have weapons and military rules because space is dangerous and it would be naive to think you can explore without the ability to fight sometimes. The reality is that starfleet serves a dual function, to both explore and defend. And defending starfleet's interests will have a necessary military component. But warfare is not what starfleet prefers.

I do not like this episode. It's probably better than the Holodeck episode, but this episode would have been a lot more interesting without the documentary format, and I just got to the part about Starfleet being colonizers and I just have to roll my eyes. This is probably getting a 4 or 5 unless the back half makes up for this somehow.

I feel like they did the documentary format because so many others show feel like it is a "cool" format to do an episode. It is a way to present a story in a different way. And when you are trying to pose a question and provide a "message", it can be effective.

Yeah, the colonizer line really stood out to me. It felt like the writer injecting some modern politics into the episode. I do think the ending does redeem the episode somewhat. Obviously, the documentary concludes that starfleet is not evil. Although, I feel like the message that it is the people who make starfleet good to be a bit simplistic and corny. A lot of the episode felt like a US military recruitment ad with messages about being a family, serving a greater cause and finding purpose.

 

[HotRod]

Like hell the Discoprise is 400 meters long.

442m actually. It's been written on the Dedication Plaque since the first episode.