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Spoilers Strange New Worlds Episode 7 - Those Old Scientists

Grade The Episode


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Well, that's arguably always been part of Trek since Day One. "The Cage" has telepathic aliens messing with Pike's psyche. "The Naked Time" laid the crew's inner longings bare. "The Enemy Within" literally split Kirk's psyche in two. Alien spores messed with Spock's brain, liberating his human emotions . . . again. Etc, etc.

And that's just the very first season of the very first STAR TREK show, plus the original pilot.
I think you can add WNMHGB to the list.
 
No matter how big or small they are, I'm sure there will magically be an inexhaustible supply for when they all crash on an alien world, get sucked into a black hole, blow up randomly, or get stolen by Q etc.
Well hey, after TOS S1 The Galileo Seven, where it was shown/clear at the end that the shuttlecraft Galileo burned up in the atmosphere; they just put two hash marks after the name 'Galileo' to make it the ' Galileo Il' (2).
 
Well, I finally got caught up with all the posts and feel ready to make my own.

I give this episode a 10! (The second one for me for SNW after "A Quality of Mercy.") Pretty much everything I wanted out of this crossover. I have watched it 3 times so far (one was a whole family viewing). A good story, funny, and so many strong character moments and character arcs. So good!

The one moment that didn't work for me was the transition from the scene where Boilmer and Spock attempt to synthesize horonium to where Boimler is standing in engineering. It was such a hard cut with no transition, that the first time through the episode I wondered if there wasn't some time travel shenanigans going on that would explain it. I think it would have been better to have a wide establishing shot of Boimler looking at the warp core and have Pella approach from a distance asking him what he is doing there. As it is, it almost seems like they are already in conversation and we are jumping in the middle. Upon a rewatch, the dialog does make it clear, but the visuals are confusing. I wonder if there just wasn't time to provide alternative coverage. Frakes is normally better than that as a director.

The other thing I wonder about is if Covid hampered their ability to have some more extras in some scenes even this late in filming season 2. Like there are plenty of other people in the bar scenes, but in the above scene in engineering it's just the two of them. Similarly for the episode "Lost in Translation", only 1 security guard shows up to help track down the hallucinating crewman from the station. Hopefully once they eventually get back around to producing season 3, they will be able to have a few more extras to properly fill out some of the scenes. Anyone know how far along they were in writing/preproduction of S3 when they shut down?

One thing this episode definitely gets me hyped for is LDS season 4! Just can't wait. Oh, by the way, for those who may not have noticed (I didn't until I read it somewhere), but Boimler's log at the start of "Those Old Scientists" puts their time travel adventure just before LDS's season 3 DS9 episode - which makes sense since Tendi is still having to deal with prejudices about Orions and her pirating past.

On a different note, I am still tickled by those fans who hate the show, hate Lower Decks, or hate some aspect of these and yet still torture themselves (and us) by watching them (hate watching?) and then coming here and just spewing drivel. I don't think I will ever understand it. Asking questions, listing problems, discussing interpretations I get, but blanketly saying its trash and then "dropping the mic" l just don't get.
 
I'm on a rewatch of TNG. Currently on season 3. 5 episodes in.

Episode 1 - Science exploration and discovery of new life form.
Episode 2. - Lost colony and new alien life form.
Episode 3 - New mysterious planet and new ancient alien.
Episode 4 - New planet and new culture.
Episode 5 - New alien life form
Interesting interpretation of those episodes. I assume when you say "new" in many of these cases you mean new for the audience? Because assuming the "new alien life form" in The Ensigns of Command you speak of is the Sheliak, than it is established the Federation had prior dealings with them, therefore they are not "new" in universe. But for the audience they're certainly new since that was the first (and only) time we've seen them. Likewise Who Watches the Watchers, while the Mintakans are new to the audience, in universe, that team of scientists had been observing them for a while.

I don't understand what you mean by "New mysterious planet" in The Survivors. That planet wasn't new or mysterious, it was the site of a colony. The only mystery is why the rest of the colony was destroyed and why there was a perfectly intact house still on the planet amidst the remains of the colony.
 
Hell, look how tiny the Defiant was in FC compared to the Enterprise-E. No way was that correct and they probably knew it even in 1996. ;)
 
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I mean, ships were blowing up everywhere in that battle. It's not unreasonable.

She's a tough ship... a pure warship, unlike other Starfleet ships. With Worf commanding her during that battle. She was fighting from the very start of that battle until the Enterprise-E showed up. No... she very rightly survived. Behr and company were right to argue for her survival.

In other words... it's unreasonable for her to not survive.

I have spoken.

(This is, of course, my opinion, as the Defiant has a special place in my heart, just like the TOS Enterprise, movie Enterprise, Enterprise-D. :) )
 
She's a tough ship... a pure warship, unlike other Starfleet ships. With Worf commanding her during that battle. She was fighting from the very start of that battle until the Enterprise-E showed up. No... she very rightly survived. Behr and company were right to argue for her survival.

In other words... it's unreasonable for her to not survive.

I have spoken.

(This is, of course, my opinion, as the Defiant has a special place in my heart, just like the TOS Enterprise, movie Enterprise, Enterprise-D. :) )
Hero armor. Got it.
 
Which.....the DS9 people went ahead and did later, right? Funny.
I think there's a difference between destroying the ship on the show that it's known for being on in a way that pushed forward the plot of the show was a much better decision than destroying the ship in a movie that had no real connection outside of one share character to the show at all.
 
I think there's a difference between destroying the ship on the show that it's known for being on in a way that pushed forward the plot of the show was a much better decision than destroying the ship in a movie that had no real connection outside of one share character to the show at all.

Exactly.

The Defiant being destroyed in "THE CHANGING FACE OF EVIL" showed the audience just how deadly the Breen are, and them joining the Dominion would be disastrous for the Federation. Watching her destroyed like that was a gut punch... which was exactly what the writers were going for.

Berman wanted to destroy it in FIRST CONTACT just... because. Even if she was destroyed in the movie, it wouldn't have had the same impact as her death on DS9.
 
Hell, look how tiny the Defiant was in FC compared to the Enterprise-E. No way was that correct and they probably knew it even in 1996. ;)
It's the nigh-irresistible urge to make your hero ship look like a Star Destroyer compared to a "smaller" craft (that isn't actually that small).

Given the size of the SNW shuttles, if they do it with those shuttles and the Enterprise it WILL be the size of a Star Destroyer.

Cocaine Behr.
THAT'S clever.
 
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