Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x08 - "Four-And-A-Half Vulcans"

[UssGlenn]

The way they treated the Vulcan DNA is stupid as fuck, of course. Vulcans work to suppress their emotions, they aren't born as completely emotionless robots (the episode even acknowledges this by making La'an different.) Injecting "Vulcan DNA" into you wouldn't just make you turn into a perfectly logical asshole with Vulcan hair instantly. And - and I'm being too serious here I know

While acknowledging that it's just an excuse for hi-jinks, the treatment is based on an incredibly advanced technique that they can't fully understand. If that includes installing brain training (which the episode explicitly says carried over from Spock), that's within the rules they set.

There's no "dictator gene" to be passed on.

Personality traits are definitely passed down genetically in families, separate from "nurture".

 

[Dar70]

Not the best episode of the series, but nowhere near as bad as it has been made out to be.

Totally Agree. It was even worse than it was made out to be......

1/10 and that is generous (plus I can't vote lower... ..

So bad...

I have nothing to more to say about this episode..

good evening people....

 

[Nyotarules]

I don't like being negative and I've tried to accept SNW for what it is but that was probably the worst episode of Star Trek or anything else I've ever seen.

You need to watch more Trek and more TV

 

[Iamnotspock]

Naw.

That dishonor belongs either to Laurence Luckinbill as Sybok or Tim Russ as Tuvok.

 

[Captain Shaw]

I really hated this episode.
This season is very hit and miss I think they need to cut back on the jokey episodes and get back to the gorn.

 

[Pauln6]

It made me laugh quite a bit and there were some positives but I couldn't really get over the silliness of the central premise.

Since genetic manipulation is outlawed in the Federation, a drug that can instaneously re-write your DNA and blood chemistry feels like it should be illegal.

Apart from the high five, Pelia worked really well and Christina Chong clearly has a ball. Spock's screaming inside his head can almost be heard. The dinner scene was also well done.

I could have got on board if the serum had tweaked their DNA enough so that a device could be used to mask their biosignatures, accompanied by another device to suppress their emotions.

Making Vulcans so ludicrously efficient, including at engineering, despite none of the landing party actually being engineers, and Una's uncontrollable lust took the humour to Love and Thunder levels, although Romijn's performance was fun. It's also very silly to suggest that a drug can not only give someone psychic abilities but also the skill and training to use them.

I must have missed a line confirming that Korby was meeting Chapel for her shore leave because he inexplicably showed up on the ship.

I did enjoy the retrospective elements including Chapel's plomeek soup, Scotty developing his street smarts, and that this plugs a plot hole in the Enterprise Incident, since Chapel was involved in Kirk's transformation. It explains how Kirk was able to avoid detection on a Romulan ship.

So, overall enjoyable TV but too many issues for me to enjoy as Star Trek canon.

 

[Orac]

He"ll age quick is he works around the 1701's Matter-Antimatter Reactor.

His nascent alcohol habit'll accelerate aging too.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I think the episode has an interesting abelism metaphor despite the fact that rarely has been touched on since Geordi in TNG. It also was clearly a gimmick episode that existed purely to justify the cast acting like Vulcan stereotypes for an hour (and notes that the actual Vulcans are NOT caricatures--which I appreciated). It's also something I feel requires the audience to remember metaphor versus literalness in science fiction. Tolkien said this is a problem as while you can use WW2 to talk about the Lord of the Rings, you should never forget that it's not about WW2, it's about the War of the Ring. Which is to say, "Vulcans in-universe are not identical to humans."

Vulcans have copper based blood, super intellect, psychic powers, and super strength. They're not just humans because they're literally aliens. Not just metaphors for humans (which they can be). It actually is why they're good for discussing abelist issues. Khan thinks he's superior to Kirk but Spock is superior to Kirk in some categories and is still content to follow orders as a subordinate because the quality of someone's value are not measured purely by arbitrary rulers. I feel like that is brought up by this episode well. Vulcans are smarter and stronger than humans--and that doesn't make them BETTER.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Making Vulcans so ludicrously efficient, including at engineering

It's Star Trek. Everyone is a jack of the trade needed. I can imagine Spock, Uhura and La'An have some engineering training.

I must have missed a line confirming that Korby was meeting Chapel for her shore leave because he inexplicably showed up on the ship.

She called him and he came from where ever his was in the earlier scene.

I could have got on board if the serum had tweaked their DNA enough so that a device could be used to mask their biosignatures, accompanied by another device to suppress their emotions.

Potato Potahto. We know the Kerkovian serum makes deep changes on the psychological and emotional level as well as the physiological level. When Spock went full human he lost all of his Vulcan training and control (He also got a hairstyle change) Kervokians move in mysterious ways.

 

[Trekker4747]

I really hated this episode.
This season is very hit and miss I think they need to cut back on the jokey episodes and get back to the gorn.

Or do anything else they're open to do in this era.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Thinking on it, we really don't have any concrete canonical details on the the relationship between Kirk and Carol, beyond bare basic bones. When Kirk mentioned Carol in season 2, he said they were going to try and make it work. But I wonder how long that arrangement lasted? If they want to twist the knife with the audience the way they did with Spock and Christine (a relationship I was fully invested in, despite knowing it could be not last), they could make Kirk's decision to command a 5 year mission a central part of the reason it didn't work out between them.

In a bit of a tragedy, the implications are seemingly that Kirk and Carol are ALREADY on the outs due to the fact he seems to be on the Enterprise for a hook up with La'an. Which means that he gave up his chance with La'an for a relationship that was a complete disaster.

 

[Wingcommanderdarkwolf01]

6/10
I thought it was funny, but I am growing tired of gimmick episodes.
I want more serious episodes like Through the Lens of Time or The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail.
I hope Season 4 has more of them.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I love La'an's gooey interior under her hard warrior shell.

Dancing saves her.

Her "happy place" is Cetacean ops.

 

[Nerys Myk]

La'An is what Yar could have been.

 

[Trekker4747]

I must have missed a line confirming that Korby was meeting Chapel for her shore leave because he inexplicably showed up on the ship.

Keep in mind this ST universe is so small (or warp speeds so fast) that everyone is always an act break from one another unless the plot says otherwise.

I think the episode has an interesting abelism metaphor despite the fact that rarely has been touched on since Geordi in TNG. It also was clearly a gimmick episode that existed purely to justify the cast acting like Vulcan stereotypes for an hour (and notes that the actual Vulcans are NOT caricatures--which I appreciated). It's also something I feel requires the audience to remember metaphor versus literalness in science fiction. Tolkien said this is a problem as while you can use WW2 to talk about the Lord of the Rings, you should never forget that it's not about WW2, it's about the War of the Ring. Which is to say, "Vulcans in-universe are not identical to humans."

Vulcans have copper based blood, super intellect, psychic powers, and super strength. They're not just humans because they're literally aliens. Not just metaphors for humans (which they can be). It actually is why they're good for discussing abelist issues. Khan thinks he's superior to Kirk but Spock is superior to Kirk in some categories and is still content to follow orders as a subordinate because the quality of someone's value are not measured purely by arbitrary rulers. I feel like that is brought up by this episode well. Vulcans are smarter and stronger than humans--and that doesn't make them BETTER.

Jessie Gender points out in her review that we spent an entire episode with La'An with her learning that being an Augment doesn't define her or influence her behavior, she is who she is. Here being an Augment (and also part Romulan) she's inherently driven to aggression and conquering.

Which..... Umm. Okay.

 

[Trekker4747]

I love La'an's gooey interior under her hard warrior shell.

Dancing saves her.

Her "happy place" is Cetacean ops.

Cetacean Ops shouldn't be on this Enterprise.

There, I said it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Cetacean Ops shouldn't be on this Enterprise.

There, I said it.

Why not?

 

[ichab]

I enjoyed the episode myself. It was funny without being too jokey or over the top. So far there has only been one episode that I would classify as bad. With just two more to go I expect a ramp up to the season cliffhanger.

I do have one very minor nitpick. Early in the episode we see Spock handling leafy food with his hands. I thought vulcans didn't touch their food? I'm basing that premise on the Enterprise pilot where we saw Tpal use a fork and knife with breadsticks.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I think perhaps you missed the part where their 'Vulcaness'(?) was completely based on Spock's perception of his fellow Vulcans, especially after his experience of being considered less-than and being treated abysmally, due to his half-human DNA.

No. I got that part. It is super dumb. The serum just changes genes. It can change their biology and physiology to Vulcans. Genes don't transfer perceptions of things and they can't change you into the stereotype that I have. To use my example before, if I have the stereotype that black people are good at basketball and you take a serum with my genes, you don't become a black person that is good at basketball because that is my perception.

 

[Nyotarules]

I enjoyed the episode myself. It was funny without being too jokey or over the top. So far there has only been one episode that I would classify as bad. With just two more to go I expect a ramp up to the season cliffhanger.

I do have one very minor nitpick. Early in the episode we see Spock handling leafy food with his hands. I thought vulcans didn't touch their food? I'm basing that premise on the Enterprise pilot where we saw Tpal use a fork and knife with breadsticks.

100 years is two generations ago for a Vulcan