Spoilers Strange New Worlds 1x02 - "Children of The Comet"

10/10. Like with the pilot, it just felt like Trek to me. I can't put my finger on it but I think it's the episodic nature that I'd been missing from modern ST that makes this show feel so right. Probably also what I like about Lower Decks, too.

Speaking of LD...I love a good easter egg, but after being bombarded with them on LD and PIC it has been refreshing to see a show be Star Trek without constantly making references to previous iterations. And when it has been done, it seems to be done naturally. I give LD more of a pass because many of the references are done for a joke...but SNW seems to be willing and able to do without so many constant callbacks.

One of my favorite scenes has to be that extended shot of the Enterprise making its way through the comet fragments. They easily could have shortened that sequence to a second or two but that nice long lingering chase view shows they know we like ourselves some spaceship. It'd be great to see the Enterprise make her return as more of a character of her own as the show goes on. The "Ortegas Gamma One" shots were awesome as well.

 

Pike having a barbecue was more interesting to me than the actual plot of the episode.

Is it synthesized meat or the real deal?

What does Andorian BBQ taste like?

I regret that this Spock and Uhura never hooked up, which means they never did in canon, but that was probably always going to be the case.

 

He seems to know a lot about his future. All he needs to do on that day is pause the test and run a diagnostic and correct the error.

 

Have you forgotten Pike doesn't die but stays in a beeping wheelchair? Pike would take it easier if he outright died. A Klingon would never go for that. Worf tried to kill himself over less when he was paralyzed in that TNG episode. At least he could still talk beyond yes/no beeps.

 

Yes, a Klingon would expect Pike to commit suicide or have someone help him do it like Spock.

But there's actually a fun twist on the ableist interpretation of Pike's situation that people have criticised. Pike ends up getting the medical care (Talosian in this case) that allows him to live a perfectly fulfilling life despite being quadriplegic. Which is a message we could use more of today.

I suspect Pike knows his Greek mythology that whatever he tries to do will probably result in it happening.

Or, worse, will get those cadets killed.

Because Pike knows if he just doesn't show up that day, they'll die.

 

It was good to see an actual phaser beam but it should be blue. I suppose that’ll be an upgrade later on

 

Pike's knowledge of the cadets' outright names now puts him in place to prevent it. All he has to do is check the names of each cadet before any mission/exercise. If they match up to his vision's, he shuts everything down.

At this point I'm half expecting Number One to do something crazy like make a transporter duplicate Pike and leave him to get fried while she and the real Pike run off together.

 

Yeah, I was just happy to see a beam and not a pew pew. Besides, TOS effects were never all that consistent when it came to weapons.

 

Now that you know what may happen, Pike should be mindful to figure out ways to avoid a tragic end.

In the Kelvin-verse, that Christopher Pike ended up in a Wheelchair, but still functional for the rest of his upper body.

I'm sure with "Future Knowledge", that this Christopher Pike can figure out a better ending.

 

Eh, it's not like his canon end is that bad. He gets to retire on Talos with the girl he (inexplicably) fell in love with.

Just try not to think of what the Talosians do to the children.

 

So Uhura’s parents and brother are dead now? That’s going to annoy @Christopher. He just brought out a book about them.
At least when she forgets everything from Nomad, she doesn’t need to deal with that anymore.

 

How big is Pike's Quarter's?
It seems even larger than Captain Picard's quarters!

 

There's something glacial about this show. Had to pause the episode half way through. Bugging me. Maybe it's the style of filming? I dunno. I'm... bored? Everybody seems so... mannered?

I know it's early, but I never felt this way beginning DS9 or Voyager, let alone TOS. Once again, I'm afraid we're gonna have another recent Trek series that has more style than substance. I don't really care about any of these characters, or the story that's being teased out.

Perhaps part of it is the legacy characters? We've got Spock, Uhura, a Kirk, Chapel, a Noonian-Singh... feels like yesterday's mashed potatoes. Maybe this should have been kept to Discovery, season 2?

 

it was blue before (disco s2)

 

@Christopher is a champ. He'd probably write a Department of Temporal Investigations novel on it.

Eh, she may remember everything after that. Mind meld or something.

I always disliked the idea she didn't.

 

So next refit it’ll be back to blue.

Is Lieutenant Moustache is going to be accident prone in every episode? That would be hilarious. Could explain Why he eventually leaves Starfleet.

 

Yeah. I kept expecting there to be a staircase.

 

Watching the pre-credits bit before going to work. I'll watch the full episode this afternoon when I get home.

Not a nit just an observation, the episode starts with the stardate of 2912.4, episode 1 started with the SD of 17...something with on-screen text and ended with Pike giving the date of "2255.xx" (seeming to be using the Kelvin system of just using the Earth calendar year and a fraction.)

But with this opening it serms to be more on par with it being, like with TOS, just a number without any meaning or connection to anything, even a relationship with the other dates.

 

Evasive Pattern Ortegas-Gamma-1 seems to be a mixture of multiple manuevers:
A Vertical Loop that ends up going back towards the vector you were escaping from due to your vessel originally running away from the attacker + a Barrel Roll & Spiralling flight path around the attacker and making a run past the attacker.

I'm ALL-IN on shipping Christopher Pike x Una Chin-Riley

 

So how does Uhura know the melody to lower the shields for the comet all of a sudden?

And why does the computer know exactly which kids Pike means at the end? Some of the names were quite general and presumably thousands of kids with these names exist?