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

[firehawk12]

Glad the preview last year prepared us for this. Eraserhead Pike was a stupid idea, why would his hair change at all? Crawling on the floor and Pelia's high 5 were beyond awkward.
The "down low" part reminded me of that nice scene in T2 where John teaches the Terminator such tricks.
How does just showing them their katras make then human again? Or did it convince them to do the reversion procedure?
Why would "it's" be so difficult to say when they can say "it seems", same for "I've" when they can say "hive" and "five", etc.
Good things were Doug's genuine curiosity about humans (though the names were another eye-roller) and the appearance of belugas, and the dance/fight combo was creative and well performed.
But I'm more and more expecting the realization of an ENT April's fools joke where they said the next episode will feature Archer and Porthos swapping heads

Thank god they put this in:

And this should've been explored more:

If their katras weren't altered, only their bodies, wouldn't the personalities be unchanged?


They mentioned in an interview that this is cetatean ops a few weeks ago and that we will see some whales, but that they're belugas is a nice surprise. Why didn't they have uniforms though?


Ah that's why the next one gets thrown on the wall, Spock thought "not again!"



Which scenes? I wanna rewatch what people found the funniest moments.





Exactly, same here. I could tell when something was supposed to be funny, but it just wasn't funny for me. Light and disposable worked though

This makes me wonder if Khans are genetically evil and it's in their DNA to want to become dictators, based on what happened.

 

[Paul755]

yeah…that was not good. Worst of the season by a country mile. It was too much like “Charades” basically all “cliche sitcom wacky situations”.

The lone bright spots were the Una/Doug stuff and Pelia.

6/10

 

[Yoda]

It's rare that you know an episode will be terrible just by the "previously on," but here we are.

Sitcom shenanigans? Bad.

France, we come from France? Terrible as usual, Anson.

Speaking of previously on, I had memory-holed the Kirk La'an stuff thanks to the 3 years between seasons. Kirk and Spock sniffing around the same woman? Barf.

tHeY aRe pRe WaRp bUt hAvE SuPeR sCanNeRs I guess we'll just become Vulcans? Idiotic.

Speaking of Vulcans... once you get past the stupidity of a Vulcan conversion serum, that they just pop out of the womb in 'full logic' mode as if it's encoded in Vulcan DNA? Embarrassing.

But for the most part they're just played like Sheldon. There was a time when being Vulcan didn't mean "Human on Spectrum w/ OCD." Insulting.

This episode made me angry that there isn't a zero option. One of ten and may God have mercy on their souls.

 

[GothicPudding]

The forward lounge uses the wall iirc

While there were a couple of scenes in the officer’s lounge set (which used the AR wall in season 1), I still don’t think they used the AR wall in this episode. There wasn’t any shots that would require anything more than some stars on a background or a regular green screen. I’d guess they set up the portions of the set needed on another soundstage.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

I feel like 50% of SNWs entire runtime has just been the same joke about Vulcans over and over.

 

[Starflight]

The real shame is that Vulcans are really interesting and there's a lot to engage with and explore, even if (especially if?) approached from a comedy angle.

Anyway, it seems the once-per-season Vulcan """comedy""" episode is a convention now. Spock Amok was pretty good, Charades was crap, this was abominable, so on our current trajectory, season four's offering should be one for the ages.

How can the same writers who spend all day scouring Memory Alpha for the most miniscule shit to include and make flashy references to throwaway lines from sixty years ago be so crap at writing one of the main races in the whole setting.

 

[nightwind1]

Naw.

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

Tim Russ's portrayal was second only to Nimoy's.

 

[nightwind1]

Profit and Lace

Code of Honor

Shades of Gray

Threshold

This wasn't good, but there's been far worse.

Spock's Brain

And the Children Shall Lead

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Code of Honor is actually a much better episode than this. It at least has a plot and story. This is just the same joke again and again and again.

Episodes with causality loops had less repetition.

 

[SolarisOne]

Strange New Worlds' Scotty reminds me of early Leo Fitz from Agents of SHIELD.

Also, I feel sorry for Spock. If there's anything I don't like about the episode, it's that they treat him like crap. Racist as hell.

Also, Patton Oswalt!

This isn't the best episode of Star Trek ever, but it's far from bad. Felt more like a mid episode of Lower Decks.

 

[Mudd]

Also, I feel sorry for Spock. If there's anything I don't like about the episode, it's that they treat him like crap. Racist as hell.

Vulcans are.

 

[Eddie Roth]

For me, this episode just added to my mounting frustration with this series this year. And yes, the verb "mount" is in there for punny reasons because Anson Mount must've just delivered the worst performance of his Trek career.

Once more, the writers see fit to content themselves with a gimmick, a throwaway idea that has no substance to it. Not knowing what to actually do with it, they go for broad comedy. I wonder who in the writers room felt that the worst episode yet of the series, "Charades", needed a sequel. But someone sure did, and the result IMO is that the series has a new low now. What annoys me about this is that the setup (even setting aside the magical "science") is not taken seriously at least in the small sense of having a storytelling or character-building aim. At least in "Charades" (IIRC - I never watched it again) there was a bit of a saving grace because turning Spock into a pure human could shed some light on what exactly his Vulcan side contributes to his identity. In this case, however, being Vulcan wasn't anyone's identity to begin with - so what do we learn about the characters this way, except perhaps for some rather disturbing things, like La'An becoming warlike and violent? Or Pike pedantic? Uhura a romantic gaslighter? Are we to take away from this that

a) these are qualities which the characters possess and that will come out once the "better angels of human nature" are taken away? Why then such dark tendencies? Are we perhaps setting up an exit arc for La'An this way? (It becomes increasingly clear, by the way, that she is headed for the "Discovery is classified" destination... what with Spock bringing up Khan in conversation with her, what we see in "Space Seed" does not jibe at all with him having an ex-girlfriend related to the person they just found on the Botany Bay. But whatever...)
b) such are inherent qualities of the Vulcan species? In which case all of this is not just not funny, but also kind of racist.

Speaking of which, the plot isn't even consistent with all we have known about Vulcans and where their logic comes from - even SNW itself has often discussed "being Vulcan" as learned behavior, not a genetic disposition. If the bottom line then becomes "Vulcans are jerks", it's not just puerile, but also a declaration of absolute intellectual bankruptcy for a franchise that is otherwise so focused on deconstructing cultural stereotypes rather than perpetuating them.

Now I know already what some comments on this will be: "Don't take it so seriously", "I thought it was funny", "ST has always done comedy", "TOS also showed some inherent bias, e.g. in "Turnabout Intruder""... yes sure. But I don't mind any of this if done for a good reason. Hell, even "Threshold", which I recently rewatched, managed to do some massive character work on Tom Paris, despite all its silliness. I really wonder why SNW, at least recently, cannot manage to fill its one-liner premises with some substance. If that were so, I wouldn't even mind Carol Kane's cringeworthy scenes so much.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I mean in the episode they say Vulcans feel emotions stronger than humans.

 

[Tallguy]

I mean in the episode they say Vulcans feel emotions stronger than humans.

I'm coming to the conclusion that in this show Spock is not nearly messed up enough. One might come to the conclusion that Spock actually came out of his harrowing childhood in fairly good shape but that it will be this period of time that we are watching now that will make Spock into the angry and rather dour Spock we know from TOS. This will be the Spock who not only claims he has no emotions but is literally incapable of having them. And in, what, ten years time? will go to Vulcan to live a monastic existence eschewing all friends, family, and any connections to purge the emotions he claims he does not have.

"I am what I am Leila. And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's."

^^^ That Spock.

 

[Imrahil]

It's rare that you know an episode will be terrible just by the "previously on," but here we are.

Sitcom shenanigans? Bad.

France, we come from France? Terrible as usual, Anson.

Speaking of previously on, I had memory-holed the Kirk La'an stuff thanks to the 3 years between seasons. Kirk and Spock sniffing around the same woman? Barf.

tHeY aRe pRe WaRp bUt hAvE SuPeR sCanNeRs I guess we'll just become Vulcans? Idiotic.

Speaking of Vulcans... once you get past the stupidity of a Vulcan conversion serum, that they just pop out of the womb in 'full logic' mode as if it's encoded in Vulcan DNA? Embarrassing.

But for the most part they're just played like Sheldon. There was a time when being Vulcan didn't mean "Human on Spectrum w/ OCD." Insulting.

This episode made me angry that there isn't a zero option. One of ten and may God have mercy on their souls.

It did indeed come dangerously close to hijinks.

 

[Toril Toran]

I really enjoyed this episode.

Sure, it had some plot holes, ( like the newly formed Vulcans being very logical), and Doug’s part could have been bigger, not even mentioning the way they treated Spock as a second-class Vulcan.

One of the best parts is that they have apologize to everyone for their behavior as Vulcans.

But the bit after the credits between Spock and Doug (seriously? What kind of name is that for a Vulcan?) are hilarious.
And… Spock smiles at the end


The whole show felt very tongue-in-cheek much like a few of the episodes from the original series.

 

[TRON JA307020]

I feel like 50% of SNWs entire runtime has just been the same joke about Vulcans over and over.

Quite agree. The vulcans are becoming the butt of jokes. As bad as the ferengi. Its getting tiring. Spock smiling after again at the end. Enough.

I really enjoyed this episode.

Sure, it had some plot holes, ( like the newly formed Vulcans being very logical), and Doug’s part could have been bigger, not even mentioning the way they treated Spock as a second-class Vulcan.

One of the best parts is that they have apologize to everyone for their behavior as Vulcans.

But the bit after the credits between Spock and Doug (seriously? What kind of name is that for a Vulcan?) are hilarious.
And… Spock smiles at the end


The whole show felt very tongue-in-cheek much like a few of the episodes from the original series.

TOS had some comedy but it didnt feel as farcical or exhausting as the comedy we get in SNW. Also we had 79 eps of TOS and only a couple humorous eps. We are going to get only 46 of SNW and we got three comedy episodes this season. They just feel forced and strange. Almost like they're trying too hard. We get more comedy than exploration with this show m. Also less pike. One nice thing is this show is cementing TOS as the superior trek.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Were there really THAT many comedy episodes this season..? Apart from ep 2 and 4, the rest was fairly serious was it not..? Assuming the final two episodes have a serious tone as well, I think ‘turning into a sitcom’ is overdoing

It's not the amount, it's the fact that the comedy has been cringe inducing and sitcomy. SNW has done comedy really well in the past, but this season it feels like it's dropped the ball a lot. I just feel they're trying to hard to be wacky and whimsical and it's just not working for me. Next season is supposed to have a fucking puppet episode, which was awful when the buffy spin-off, Angel did it 20 years ago and will probably be awful when SNW does it.

 

[SolarisOne]

I'm glad it's not taking itself too seriously. Basically the anti-Discovery in that sense. Is it a perfect balance? Probably not, but at least they're trying.

 

[TRON JA307020]

It's not the amount, it's the fact that the comedy has been cringe inducing and sitcomy. SNW has done comedy really well in the past, but this season it feels like it's dropped the ball a lot. I just feel they're trying to hard to be wacky and whimsical and it's just not working for me. Next season is supposed to have a fucking puppet episode, which was awful when the buffy spin-off, Angel did it 20 years ago and will probably be awful when SNW does it.

Oh my gosh. I forgot about the upcoming puppet episode. So stupid. They are starting to spend more time with stupid comedy thats been done before than solid sci-fi stories. These guys who produce this show are totally in love with the Buffy and Angel shows I guess.