BOYCE: What's on your mind, Chris? The fight on Rigel IV? PIKE: No! It's...it's the women on the bridge, Phil! I-I've had it! BOYCE: To the point of taking my advice? Intensive psychiatric therapy? PIKE: To the point of considering taking up trading in the Orion colony. BOYCE: You? Dealing in slaves, green animal women...? PIKE: Sure. What part of this aren't you getting?
I think it could be fun to keep Boyce as the bartender at the Enterprise’s lounge/bar after his retirement.
I'd love to see Boyce appear on Pike's viewer in his quarters and have a talk with him about how the ship's doing and Dr. M'Benga is working out. I'd prefer it to be Jeffrey Combs as Boyce but at this point I'll be happy with an appearance period.
M'Benga: "What's on your mind sir...the bar hopping on Deneb IV?" Pike: "Shouldn't it be? My own Yeomen picked up for public intoxication and Boyce dishonorably discharged from the service for making a drunken spectacle at the Ambassadorial residence?" M'Benga: "Chris, you set designated driver standards for yourself no one could meet!" Pike: "Oh I should have smelled trouble after he had that 12th Martini..."
Yeah, that's not really what I'm getting at, though. Ever since Chris Pine and friends appeared, that seems to be the model that was established on new "starship" series for the level of maturity, character development, and crew interactions. Cocky, superficial young people with clashing and competing egos learning to adapt to one another. It's not the plot, the Episodic nature, the special effects, etc. It has to do with the maturity of the characters in TNG/DS9/Voyager, their relationships with one another, the pace of the show, and a balance between exciting action scenes and meaningful calm dialogue and life aboard the ship or station. Getting to know the crew and how they function both as a team and in their professional capacity and also their interpersonal relationships. I struggle to put into words, but that general tone and style has disappeared. Yes, some pensive dialogue was maintained in Picard, but it's also an oddball show. I don't know. I'm probably making no sense.
The crew interactions and the way they approach their jobs, the things they talk about with one another - and there is quite a bit more talking in the series than in the trailers, and less quipping - are all very, very "Star Trek." My sense was that the dialogue was all very much direct and to the point, but with emotional impact and some nuance. Think about Kirk and McCoy talking privately on TOS, but in a more modern, open and casual style. Some of these people are confidants to one another. Some are playful with one another. There's a brief scene in the second episode between Uhura and Ortegas that's very smile-worthy. I am not a fan of Akiva Goldsman - he's written some things that I liked, but seeing his name on a script is a long way from a tip-off of high quality. But I feel like he just effing nailed the first episode. I'm frankly a little bemused by the reviews suggesting that the opening episode is a little prosaic, or that the early episodes are not as strong as they might be. I think I'm just too deeply into my fan groove on this one, and I definitely don't have a detached, evenhanded perspective - everything I see and hear is wonderful right now. And I just barely remember feeling this way about Star Trek long, long ago.
Of the first five episodes of TOS counting the two pilots at least one wasn't what we'd call a top-notch story. I'm cool with some of the first season being "meh." I just want SNW "meh" to be a lot more exciting than PIC "meh" or DSC "meh." I just want my face to light up every week. That hasn't happened in a while.
I didn't see anything "meh" in either show. I never once had that "making excuses for Trek" sense, you know, where you're watching the first couple of shows and saying "well, Trek always takes a while to find its footing. TNG didn't get good until the third - " You know, that bullshit.
Funny enough both VOY and ENT(which were more or less the black sheep of the franchise for much of the 2001-2017 period) had solid stretches of good episodes during their initial weeks on the air. Both stuck their first landings well. They kept the sense of excitement and the wonder going as each got their space legs. It took a while for either - in my eyes - to drop a clunker. Which gives me hope SNW will also fly high the first handful of episodes or even season.
In the future nobody will need glasses. Well, except middle-aged Starfleet Captains who love dinner jackets.