What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
Yeah, I like the actors playing the legacy characters (though the jury is still out on Scotty 3.0). But going with so many familiar faces feels off, especially with 3 Legacy characters hard wired into the show already.
If Bush played “Andra Sutherland” instead of “Christine Chapel” would anyone have noticed.
SNW Chapel has the personality of TOS Rand. In fact, I could buy that Rand and Spock had a romantic relationship that ended amicably by the time of TOS.
Rand had a personality?
Here's my take, for good, bad or indifferent:
A prequel is something that I think should set up "Oh, I didn't realize" moments for the audience. Yes, I'm aware of the time and writing difference from show to show, but I'm ignoring that because the purpose of SNW is to give some life to characters we knew next to nothing about. @Turtletrekker already posted the video of Chapel and the 4 minutes of time she had out of the 70+ episodes of TOS that gave her something to do. She did even less in the films.
So, SNW allows me to go "Oh, wow there's a lot more history to this character than just, 'I'm sad because my fiancé died and I'll stay on this ship.'" It gives some much needed context to relationships, not the least of which is why Spock hid his mind (no katra at the time) inside Chapel when Henoch commandeered his body.
Would anyone have noticed? Probably not. But, what they are doing is extremely enjoyable. It's a reminder that characters are not just born perfect whole cloth, and remain stalwart paragons of virtue until their dying day. They are supposed to be people, living, breathing, failing and learning people.
True, but there wasn't even a hint for 2 1/2 seasons after What Are Little Girls Made Of that she would be as flirty or have close friends like SNW Chapel. She longed for Spock, but knew it was hopeless, and that was about all there was to her character.
Right, and, well, makes sense as a trauma response. Losing one's fiancé is going to mess someone up. They are not just going to go, "*shrug* Shit happens."
How much time was given to Chapel to give the hints that are being requested? More than that, what the hell did Chapel do that people actually remember?
She sure did in “Charlie X”.
And "Miri."
Sure, losing someone you love does that, for quite a while and it varies from person to person. But it would be unusual for there to be not so much as a glimmer for two and a half years.
Without getting into Jess Bush' Chapel being nothing like Barrett's or going into all wild theories about how one might devolve into the other, I have no interest in seeing the nurse of Pike's Enterprise turn into a wallflower pining for one man for the rest of her life. And if somehow a tragedy befell her that turned her personality upside down, I would wonder what was wrong with 23rd century psychiatry. she already went through war, FFS.
Clearly the 23rd century is lacking in appropriate psychiatric counseling for Starfleet officers and other starship personnel, as all the mentally disturbed and sociopathic Captains and flag officers can attest to. Ben Finney was allowed to be a boiling cauldron of resentment and jealousy for the better part of 17 years, up to the point where he faked his death to frame Kirk and then endanger more than 400 officers with death when he sabotages the Enterprise's engines.
As late as 2399 you have Starfleet officers like Raffi who just fall off the grid and suffer from narcotics abuse and psychiatric issues and Starfleet just shrugs and goes, "oh well. We tried. Or not. Not our responsibility."
As late as 2399 you have Starfleet officers like Raffi who just fall off the grid and suffer from narcotics abuse and psychiatric issues and Starfleet just shrugs and goes, "oh well. We tried. Or not. Not our responsibility."
fair point. I just equate it to having Burnham being Spock’s sister. It just wasn’t necessary, especially when the original characters like La’an, Ortegas, Hemmer, etc… have all been fine.
In the case of Spock and Chapel, I just don’t think everything needs an explanation. She pined for him in TOS, it doesn’t enhance the story for me that she aided (in an indirect way) in breaking up his arraigned marriage, knew about Sybok when Kirk and Bones didn’t and humiliatingly broke up with him via a very public song and dance number.
But to each their own. I still enjoy the show.
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None of it is necessary. TOS stands apart but it isn't because of Chapel or her stunning character development.
Dude, psychiatric care in the 23rd century was nuts, were the primary cure was meds that erased your memory.
There's a lot wrong with psychiatric care in Star Trek.
And trauma will do that to people and not all seek help.
Speaking of Ben Finney, I wonder when in the SNW timeline they'll get around to installing the button on the arm of the captain's chair that can kill a man with a single press and no confirmation.
My point is that they would need to bend over backwards to create a tragedy so traumatic to see this one character, already a survivor of several incidents capable of producing trauma, to turn her into the TOS Chapel. This version is shown to be too strong.
No, not really. It could be the last one in a long string.
I know the "Sponge Robert" thing was a joke, but it's another reminder that many writers think Spock is just some kind of robot. He calls Pike "Chris" and Kirk "Jim", so he'd be perfectly capable of using "Bob".
But that aside, I've tended to see SNW as a sister show to LDS than anything much to do with TOS.
That could be why I liked it so much at first.
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