Yeah, if they cared about canon they’d have referenced Matt Decker, the Constellation and the Metrons or something!Since when does SNW care about canon?
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x09 - "Terrarium"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
When it turned out that Erica was on a planet alone with a Gorn, I said to my wife "I hope this isn't a reboot of 'Arena'!..." JFC. It was a reboot of Arena. The episode was fun until the Metron showed up (though it was still a variant of 'Enemy Mine', which itself was based on Arena). You know, they can have some original ideas now and then. I was half hoping we'd see the Constellation and SNW's take on Matt Decker. Anyway, still enjoying the season for what it's worth, but wish there was some more 'strange new worlds'...
Just finished watching. At first, it was fine, if underwhelming. Nothing I hadn't seen before in "The Galileo Seven" and "The Enemy," although it followed those episodes a little too closely for my tastes. For crying out loud, Ortegas even signaled the Enterprise by lighting up a gigantic flare, just like Spock did at the end of "The Galileo Seven."
Then when we got the alien identifying themselves as a Metron, I actually went "Oh, LORD!" and when the Metron talked about altering people's memories because humanity and the Gorn weren't ready to meet them yet, I started swearing at my screen. What a lazy fucking way to resolve SNW's continuity discrepancies with TOS in general and "Arena" specifically. Memory erasure? JFC, why not just say it was all a dream?
So, thus far this season, we've gotten the Gorn, Roger Korby, Trelane (son of Q), a holodeck, discussion of the Romulans, mention of sehlats and Vulcan katras, and probably even more TOS firsts that I'm forgetting. If they ever do that Star Trek Year One series with Kirk taking over the Enterprise, they'll have to change the show's tagline to "To Boldly Go Where Pike's Enterprise Has Already Gone Before."
I was going to give this episode a 5 or a 6 out of 10, but the stupid Metron twist made me lower it to a 4. About the only I thing I liked was seeing the crew get frozen mid-beam out. And the mention of Captain Decker and the Constellation were a neat continuity nod. But that's about it.
Season 3 has really been disappointing for me. No truly great episodes, and a whole lot of mediocre to outright horrible ones.
Then when we got the alien identifying themselves as a Metron, I actually went "Oh, LORD!" and when the Metron talked about altering people's memories because humanity and the Gorn weren't ready to meet them yet, I started swearing at my screen. What a lazy fucking way to resolve SNW's continuity discrepancies with TOS in general and "Arena" specifically. Memory erasure? JFC, why not just say it was all a dream?
So, thus far this season, we've gotten the Gorn, Roger Korby, Trelane (son of Q), a holodeck, discussion of the Romulans, mention of sehlats and Vulcan katras, and probably even more TOS firsts that I'm forgetting. If they ever do that Star Trek Year One series with Kirk taking over the Enterprise, they'll have to change the show's tagline to "To Boldly Go Where Pike's Enterprise Has Already Gone Before."
I was going to give this episode a 5 or a 6 out of 10, but the stupid Metron twist made me lower it to a 4. About the only I thing I liked was seeing the crew get frozen mid-beam out. And the mention of Captain Decker and the Constellation were a neat continuity nod. But that's about it.
Season 3 has really been disappointing for me. No truly great episodes, and a whole lot of mediocre to outright horrible ones.
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That was such a tired trope. Why can’t the Constellation get the bloody vaccine?
Same reason the Potemkin has to make an important rendezvous with the Enterprise eight years later in 2269, as referenced in "Turnabout Intruder(TOS)." Needs of the plot.
Sigh. I made a joke about a while back about what TOS trope they would use next. I said maybe the Doomsday machine. Well we got a Decker call out and the constellation in this episode but we got our TOS trope. The metrons. Sigh. Come on. Can't these writers come up with their own stuff for 10 whole episides? Geez.
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No writers can, no matter which IP nowadays.
Everything is either a retread, or a sequel to a prequel.
Right. I guess I’m just saying why involve the Metrons at all? Just say the exhaust from the shuttles engines somehow triggered a long dormant wormhole or something.
Did I catch that right - When the Metron made Erica "forget" - he mentioned something like they "might need to make all of humanity forget the Gorn" & vice versa?
Like - are the writers building in a retcon of epic promotions, where everyone actually forgets all the intricate Gorn stories, just to have "Arena" play out with Kirk not knowing what a "Gorn" is?
Like - are the writers building in a retcon of epic promotions, where everyone actually forgets all the intricate Gorn stories, just to have "Arena" play out with Kirk not knowing what a "Gorn" is?
“I told you we should be using unleaded!”
Ahh but you said queer. You said it was "queer" episode with a "queer-presenting" character. And being queer is not the exclusive domain of women or yours to gatekeep.
So yes, those pesky queer men will have some opinions on queerness too.
I strongly disagree with your interpretation, but as I didn't know your gender or orientation it's irrelevant to my interpretation.
Trek fans discuss and strongly disagree on Trek. That's what we do. Some people rated Four and a Half Vulcans 10/10 for crying out loud... with that floating about in the community any opinion is possible.
I know I'm not holding a gun making a split decision and have had the benefit of watching the episode.
But they exited a pod together. Ortegas was not in distress, screaming for help or anything. The Gorn wasn't doing anything hostile.
I found it hard to accept. Perhaps contrived, but if they had the Gorn scream at the away team reflexively on in defence of Ortegas it may have given them a bit more reason. So like certain police officers they can then say they were threatened and feared for their life.
They were both coming out fast, Erica certainly not looking calm, with the Gorn right behind her. And yeah, it’s a Gorn, in a context where up to that point we’ve never seen them in any mode but instant-attack. Yes, it’s “profiling”, but in the context of (1) La’an & co have literally never seen them in any other mode, and (2) “obviously, my friend will be dead one second from now if I don’t fire!”. It’s sad and turns out to be wrong, but La’an had no way to know that this would be the first Gorn ever to not be instantly attacking.
Ditto!
I'm not sure Arena and Enemy Mine are that similar. One is a story of two enemies forced to fight mano a mano to satisfy some aliens. Enemy Mine is a story of two shipwrecked enemies who are forced to work together to survive. I don't think Arena had any influence on Enemy Mine, and of course Enemy Mine is based on a book and, though this isn't referenced in the Wiki entry for the book or the film, must have been influenced even if only subconsciously by Hell in the Pacific and even that film was influenced by an earlier one!
Hell, when it comes to Arena, while there's no indication that Gene L Coon consciously ripped off a short story from the 40s the similarities are telling.
And of course the tale of a person shipwrecked and forced to survive can be traced back to Robinson Crusoe, and had already been given the sci-fi treatment in Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Terrarium is a synonym of Cage.
Intentional?
I bugged out after 15 minutes in, scanned forward, and then went back to reruns of Stargate Atlantis.
Intentional?
I bugged out after 15 minutes in, scanned forward, and then went back to reruns of Stargate Atlantis.
I haven’t heard them, but Big Finish did a Paternoster Gang audio series:
The Paternoster Gang - Ranges - Big Finish
Award-winning, full-cast original audio dramas from the worlds of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Blake's 7, Class, Dark Shadows, The Avengers, Survivors, The Omega Factor, Star Cops, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Pathfinder Legends, The Prisoner, Adam Adamant Lives, Space 1999, Timeslip, Terrahawks...
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison predated Arena by almost 10 years, and I would suggest is the cinematic origin of this type of story: people from two different walks of life are stranded, forced to work together, eventually learning to appreciate one another. Other works took up that story, but tinkered with the formula a bit. Arena is not two people learning to survive. It is a gladiatorial battle.Ditto!
I'm not sure Arena and Enemy Mine are that similar. One is a story of two enemies forced to fight mano a mano to satisfy some aliens. Enemy Mine is a story of two shipwrecked enemies who are forced to work together to survive. I don't think Arena had any influence on Enemy Mine, and of course Enemy Mine is based on a book and, though this isn't referenced in the Wiki entry for the book or the film, must have been influenced even if only subconsciously by Hell in the Pacific and even that film was influenced by an earlier one!
Hell, when it comes to Arena, while there's no indication that Gene L Coon consciously ripped off a short story from the 40s the similarities are telling.
And of course the tale of a person shipwrecked and forced to survive can be traced back to Robinson Crusoe, and had already been given the sci-fi treatment in Robinson Crusoe on Mars
That's not what happened at all.
All he did was remove Ortegas memories about him.
Rewatch the scenes and listen more carefully to what he said. No where does he mention altering their memories about the Gorn.
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