Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread

[FederationHistorian]

It already pulls me out of the universe that Chapel, Number One, and Lwaxana all look like Majel. With all due respect to the late actress and Trek figure, I'm fine with in the Trek universe having Number One "really" look like Rebecca, Chapel "really" look like Jess Bush, and Majel being the "canonical" face of Lwaxana Troi.

And it never bothered me that Una, Chapel, and Lwaxana were played by the same person, especially since they are in different eras/centuries and never interacted with one another.

That just reduces the Chapel character to a joke (which will get tiresome very quickly, too). It's far better to make both of them fully realized independent characters so that they can be fully fleshed out without any arbitrary and stupid limitations (like never being allowed to be in the same room, or always having to explain why they look alike).

Or they could both be fleshed out regardless. And not being in the same room isn’t a limitation at all, unless you lack creativity.

It would an in-joke that’s no different than what’s on LD.

 

[Tuskin38]

Strange New Worlds is contradicting previous StarTrek, even if rationalizations can be conjured to explain said contradictions.

It isn't. Not yet.

 

[Jayson1]

They should just set it in a alternate timeline. Let's us know and then play the mystery of whether or not Pike will have the same fate as our Pike when it comes to being in the chair. He knows it's possible from his glimpse on Discovery but maybe it doesn't have to end that way for him.

 

[Mudd]

When they introduce Uhura in the video from yesterday, there's a shot of the bridge at 0:49s. On the display behind her is what appears to be something akin to the old wireframe graphic of the TOS-era Enterprise. Can anyone make out if the nacelle pylons are straight? I wonder if this modification will be made to appease the fans (since really, the whole series is for that purpose!).

 

[Mudd]

Strange New Worlds is contradicting previous StarTrek, even if rationalizations can be conjured to explain said contradictions.

Just like STD did every single week. Just like Enterprise did. And so on and so on.

It would an in-joke that’s no different than what’s on LD.

It would be stupid. There would be no point to it. These are two different characters.

Unlike Data and Lore, it is never suggested nor is it a story attribute of Chapel and Una that they resemble one another in any way.

Cast them with two actors. The end.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Or they could both be fleshed out regardless. And not being in the same room isn’t a limitation at all, unless you lack creativity.

It would an in-joke that’s no different than what’s on LD.

LDS is a comedy. Turning everything into a joke is the point. Turning a character's entire existence into an in-joke on a serious show is a terrible plan. And it absolutely would work severely to the detriment of the show's ability to flesh the character out since a large number of her scenes would be forced to continue the stupid running joke (and even if they gave up the running joke, they'd still have to deliberately structure things to avoid the possibility of new viewers confusing the two characters).

 

[Mudd]

LDS is a comedy. Turning everything into a joke is the point. Turning a character's entire existence into an in-joke on a serious show is a terrible plan. And it absolutely would work severely to the detriment of the show's ability to flesh the character out since a large number of her scenes would be forced to continue the stupid running joke (and even if they gave up the running joke, they'd still have to deliberately structure things to avoid the possibility of new viewers confusing the two characters).

It would leave anyone who's not steeped in TOS lore to wonder and pointlessly focus on what the significance of having two unrelated characters played by the same actor on SNW is.

Surely, there must be some good reason they're doing that? It must mean something?

Oops - no, it doesn't. Someone just thought it was a cute joke. They were wrong.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Indeed. Plus, people round up and down all the time; how much did Mr. Adventure really know? Memory Alpha is bound to what's on screen, not the other way around. If such irrelevant minutiae is contradicted, so what?

If Uhura is a sophomore in, let's say, 2259 (assuming a time jump for the show from 2258), then she's due to graduate in 2262. That would give her a twenty-three year career, as of Search for Spock, and would make her posting as a full Lt in 2266 more palatable after four years of service rather than just two.

 

[Caretaker]

Some of these complaints - "This has all happened before and it will happen again". Just like being back in early 2017 and before that, early 2001.

 

[fireproof78]

LDS is a comedy. Turning everything into a joke is the point. Turning a character's entire existence into an in-joke on a serious show is a terrible plan. And it absolutely would work severely to the detriment of the show's ability to flesh the character out since a large number of her scenes would be forced to continue the stupid running joke (and even if they gave up the running joke, they'd still have to deliberately structure things to avoid the possibility of new viewers confusing the two characters).

Indeed. It is a joke that is for the benefit of a small portion of the audience and is not additive to the narrative or character development.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

If Uhura is a sophomore in, let's say, 2259 (assuming a time jump for the show from 2258), then she's due to graduate in 2262. That would give her a twenty-three year career, as of Search for Spock, and would make her posting as a full Lt in 2266 more palatable after four years of service rather than just two.

Exactly. She more than likely didn't begin her career in Starfleet in 2266, as a Lieutenant, on a top of the line starship. Memory Alpha is extrapolating from the truth that Uhura was first seen by viewers on the Enterprise in 2266. We don't know her career prior. It's like saying Scotty and Sulu began their careers in Starfleet in 2265. It's just that their first filmed appearance is that time.

 

[DigificWriter]

Just like STD did every single week. Just like Enterprise did. And so on and so on.

How did ENT contradict previous Star Trek, and how has DSC contradicted previous Star Trek?

 

[cooleddie74]

Scotty served on roughly nine other ships before he ended up on the NCC-1701, one of which was a vessel that ran the asteroid mining route in the Deneva system. He said in "Relics(TNG)" he had been a Starfleet engineer for over half a century by the time he retired so that places his career as starting well over 20 years before his first actual appearance in "WNMHGB(TOS)."

 

[Tim Thomason]

Exactly. She more than likely didn't begin her career in Starfleet in 2266, as a Lieutenant, on a top of the line starship. Memory Alpha is extrapolating from the truth that Uhura was first seen by viewers on the Enterprise in 2266. We don't know her career prior. It's like saying Scotty and Sulu began their careers in Starfleet in 2265. It's just that their first filmed appearance is that time.

It's extrapolating from a line that she served "twenty years", which is fair, as it's all we ever had to go on. Now, we have reason to believe it's a few years longer, but definitely less than thirty (and probably less than twenty-five), which just puts into within a simple rounding margin from Mr. Adventure.

 

[fireproof78]

Again, it assumes a precision in language in the text of the show that isn't used always in real life.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Strange New Worlds is contradicting previous StarTrek, even if rationalizations can be conjured to explain said contradictions.

Actually, all of TOS after "Where No Man Has Gone Before" contradicts previous Trek. James T. Kirk? Starfleet instead of Earth? Puuuhllease!

 

[cooleddie74]

Starfleet was Space Central or UESPA or Space Command until "Arena" and "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" or close to those episodes in Season 1. The Federation became a thing in the Gorn episode and by late in Season 1 Starfleet Command was established as the official operating authority of the Enterprise.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

It's extrapolating from a line that she served "twenty years", which is fair, as it's all we ever had to go on. Now, we have reason to believe it's a few years longer, but definitely less than thirty (and probably less than twenty-five), which just puts into within a simple rounding margin from Mr. Adventure.

It would need to be a few years longer, assuming she was assigned a ship as a Cadet or Ensign and working her way up to Lieutenant.

And twenty years prior to TSFS would be 2264 anyway, not 2266. But like someone in this thread calculated, if SNW takes place in 2259, Uhura is probably a sophomore, assigned to Enterprise for a time as a Cadet for ship-based training credits toward graduating. She probably becomes an Ensign by the middle of Pike's five-year mission, then promoted to Lieutenant when Enterprise returns home and Kirk assumes command.

 

[Jinn]

Strange New Worlds is contradicting previous StarTrek, even if rationalizations can be conjured to explain said contradictions.

Starfleet wasn't even established until five episodes after "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". And as for Uhura, she's a cadet here. Even if Mr Adventure is a creepy stalker whose "twenty years" statement is exact that still doesn't include her tenure as a cadet, unless she just went from new recruit to Lieutenant in one year. If she's, say a first-year cadet in 2259 she graduates in 2263, so she'd be a "twenty-two year space veteran", which can reasonably be abbreviated as twenty years.

 

[cooleddie74]

ENT showed us Romulan cloaking technology and more than once, even if TOS seemed to think it was a shocking new development and nobody on Kirk's Enterprise had ever seen such an invisibility screen. There are ways both can exist and not violate canon, in part labeling the Romulan minefield of 2152 as different technology than the Bird-of-Prey cloak in 2266, even if both use roughly the same principles to achieve their intended results.