Star Trek Strange New Worlds Discussion Thread (Spoiler Alert!)

[Marc_G]

OK Trek fans...

I just watched the first episode and I don't hate it. The first series in a while that felt like "Star Trek" to me.

I figured there would be interest on this forum to have a place to discuss it and ask/answer questions, speculate about what's next, and so on.

For the record, I'm not a big fan of Discovery, though I watch it. I'm not a Trek expert by any stretch and I get really bugged by violations of canon, thought I'm not a complete stickler. I can deal with the fact that computer technology's ubiquity wasn't foreseen in the '60s so it's easy to just let that go (but, so much from Discovery was radically different from canon...).

I've got a few questions:

Maybe I should just rewatch the first part of episode 1 to answer this one, but where exactly was Spock at the beginning, when he was about to get it on with T'Pring? The scenery looked like Vulcan but then he was headed up to Enterprise on Earth. Were they in some virtual environment or something?

Next, what's this about him and T'Pring about to have sex? I thought that only happened every seven years as part of Pon Farr? I haven't done the math but I'm not sure this episode tracks to 7 years before the events of Amok time. Sure, Spok is half human but he still deals with the the mating madness. So what was this about? Some sort of exception for first timers? It seems they can have sex outside the 7 year thing according the the Memory Alpha entry. Still, seems different to me.

I liked the premise of the episode and the characters seemed genuine enough for a first episode. Looking forward to the next one. I like how it was self contained like original Trek. I don't so much like the newer series that are so wrapped up in long arcs as opposed to single episode stories.

 

[Marc_G]

Back on to my "annoyed with breaking canon" jag... changing clothes as part of transporting? And precision transporting things to folks eyes? Even the time of Kirk they didn't have these capabilities (not even sure they would be able to do this in TNG). Remember, even "intra-ship beaming" was cutting edge in Kirk's TOS.

Changing the scenery is OK, changing fundamental capabilities, not so much.

 

[user 13]

I watched it and agree with what you posted.

Yah, in the TOS 3rd season episode "Day of the Dove" the intra ship beaming was very risky. The swaping out clothes during beaming was a stretch.

It's a thinly veiled morality play, but thats what TOS was. using the star trek setting to shine a mirror on our society's problems. I think it does it well.
The characters are well developed and well played. I like the sets VERY much and this Enterprise is my 2nd favorite. After the TOS Enterprise.

Pike seems a bit pensive, but he does know his future.

The story is a cross between the TOS show "A Taste of Armageddon" and The Orville "Birthday Cake" episode, but different enough to stand on its own.

Marc,

I thought Spock was on Vulcan, In this timeline(?) warp trips are more like jumps, they take much less time. So he could return to earth quickly. At least thats what I understood.

Overall I give it a 7 out of 10, It could have been better and it could have been a lot worse.
I am cautiously optimistic.

 

[Marc_G]

...

Marc,

I thought Spock was on Vulcan, In this timeline(?) warp trips are more like jumps, they take much less time. So he could return to earth quickly. At least thats what I understood.

Overall I give it a 7 out of 10, It could have been better and it could have been a lot worse.
I am cautiously optimistic.

If they are making big changes to effective speed under warp, that's not good. Admittedly, Vulcan is "close" to Earth as these things go, and warp speeds were never really codified and left to the episode writers to use their license. But, factoring routine things, Vulcan (a planet of 40-Eridani, 16.5 LY from Sol) is at least days away at reasonable warp speeds practical at the time, if not a week. Getting there in hours would be a violation. Also, the communicator at one point got put in a slot much like a phone dock (which is a reasonable tech expectation, not something to be called our as a violation), but if the communicator was being used for interstellar communication, that WOULD be a MAJOR violation of canon (this problem surfaced in I think the third JJ Abrams movie too). Communicators were short range only. Even in a dock that might tap in to more advanced tech, that's stretching it.

 

[user 13]

While I agree in principle, Starting with TMP warp drive was becoming more a "jump tech" than a warp cruise. TNG went back to the warp cruise.
The JJ universe used jumps of minutes, I believe Vulcan was 15 minutes from Earth.
It seems that Discovery and SNW falls in between.

I can live with that change. Your milage may vary.

Spock is on Vulcan with T'Pring, There is a graphic identifying it as Vulcan.

As for the communicator. Pike could have his call routed through earths subspace comm network to Vulcan and then routed to Spock's com. Just like my cell phone when I call another country. Local radio to a cell tower, routed to a call center, routed to a satellite, down to the new country, through the local call network to the closest cell tower to the cell phone.

 

[Sandy H.]

I'm a Star Trek fan, but also a cable cutter. Where is it (and other Star Trek stuff people hate) being shown?

Sandy.

 

[Marc_G]

I'm a Star Trek fan, but also a cable cutter. Where is it (and other Star Trek stuff people hate) being shown?

Sandy.

Paramount+

 

[user 13]

Paramount + streaming. $4.99 a month.

 

[tammaraki]

I like it! Not a fan of Discovery, but I love Lower Decks!

 

[Marc_G]

Here's a recap with some details as well as questions.

https://trekmovie.com/2022/05/05/re...basics-in-strange-new-worlds-series-premiere/
The "how did Spock get to the Enterprise before Pike?" was among them. No explanation.

 

[BEC]

The transporter changes bugged me as well. But I will see how (much more) outrageous it gets before I complain too much.

We will have to to review Amok Time and see if we can reconcile the events there with what we just saw on SNW. I'm also a little jarred by the Pike/Talos IV time line, between the Cage, the Discovery episode in season two (If Memory Serves) where they go there, and The Menagerie — especially in light of PIke's telling Spock that what he learned about the situation that puts what's left of him in that powered wheelchair (in Discovery's Through the Valley of Shadows) is 10 years on from the events in this first SNW episode.

My college girlfriend (this was in the 1970s) used to be able to ID TOS episodes by hearing a few lines of dialog over the phone — that's how much she was/is into TOS. She (who is now my wife of nearly 44 years) liked this first episode of SNW when we watched it last night. We actually both also like Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks and even Prodigy....though Discovery, in particular, took some time to get into, as did the first "season" of Picard. [I still find it hard to refer to a run of 10 episodes as a "season".]

We are, as Mark put it, cautiously optimistic about Strange New Worlds. We will probably be watching next Thursday's episode from our motel room in Manassas, VA, as we fly out on Wednesday morning to go help with the TARC finals.

 

[cwbullet]

I really liked the pilot.

 

[user 13]

So....

There is a lot of information thrown at us so far.

Some things are forced, Like Cadet Uhura. Not bad, but forced.
We will see where They go with Lt. Sam Kirk.
The Spock/T'Pring timeline looks like it will work. Maybe.
And we see the seed of discontent planted with T'Pring.

Lots of new tech, like voice activated comms, the whole transporter thing discussed (including a transporter in sickbay). Speed of travel.
But how do we reconcile the TOS shows with modern tech being so advanced, and not advanced enough from the mid 1960s? Computer tech has leapfrogged over anything we saw in TOS, but space travel hasn't.

Things that should have happened in the TOS timeline haven't, The original series producers were just trying to get/keep a show on the air. They never expected that the show would still be around almost 60 years later. Roddenberry himself during the original run said that they will be as accurate as they can but will not let that get in the way of good story telling.
There are subtle changes between "The Cage" and "The Menagerie" And among the first 10 or so episodes of TOS filmed.

Enterprise, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds all seem consistent among themselves, to a point. I'm willing to see where we go from here.

 

[boatgeek]

I'm reasonably happy with it so far. I think the difference in tech is noticeable but fine with me. If they tried to stick with the TOS version of tech, it would look too silly for anyone who wasn't brought up in that world. From a plot standpoint, I'm a little surprised that Pike could go from hiding out in a Montana winterscape to back on the bridge of the starship in a day or two. One would think that starship captain jobs are sought after enough that a captain leaving is quickly replaced.

I do appreciate that there are callbacks through the various different series to other series and space references. One of the shuttlecraft in the SNW pilot was named for a recent series captain (I forget which), and during a stressful simulator run in Picard S2, the simulator is reporting a 1202 alarm.

 

[BEC]

Yeah, that 1202 alarm made me smile, too.

 

[Marc_G]

Loved the 1202 alarm! And the shuttle named "Stamets" as a nice cameo.

Let me clarify my comments on breaking canon and differences between new series and the old ones.

First, it's clear that it's not possible to completely remain faithful to the look and feel of the 60's Kirk-era Enterprise. With all the advances in tech that were unforeseeable at the time, it would be ridiculous for example if computing tech in SNW wasn't more advanced than what we saw in TOS. That's fine, I don't gripe about that stuff. This stuff is largely scenery.

What I do gripe about is the introduction of a technology that is more advanced in SNW than we saw in TOS, that doesn't HAVE TO BE. So, the more advanced transporters is an example of this. No change should happen in SNW that would invalidate the basic premises seen in TOS, that's my point. Lots of TOS problems could have been solved with pinpoint accuracy transporting: it's not just scenery, it's a fundamental change in the technology underpinning that has big consequences.

Similarly, if "practical warp speed" is suddenly 10x as fast, so that you can get from Vulcan to Earth in hours instead of days, that's not just some convenient plot device to make Spock's booty call scene fit. What it does is open up the Trek reasonable travel volume of space by 1000x, which would completely change the dynamic of our region of the galaxy. It means Romulans and Klingons are hours away from Earth at warp, rather than days or weeks. It's a different universe.

It's stuff like this that should not be monkeyed with, at peril of the show no longer making sense at a fundamental level. Also, the time spent in transit from place to place was actually useful to have plot events unfold. Nearly instantaneous travel eliminates that. And the basic premise of a 5 year mission to seek out new life forms and civilizations... well, if you can get to them overnight instead of weeks or months away due to some fancy hollywood hack writing it that way on their Macbook, it removes a lot of the allure of the mission.

That said, I really enjoyed the first episode. It's the first thing that felt like Star Trek to me since ST First contact.

 

[georgegassaway]

From a plot standpoint, I'm a little surprised that Pike could go from hiding out in a Montana winterscape to back on the bridge of the starship in a day or two. One would think that starship captain jobs are sought after enough that a captain leaving is quickly replaced.

Hours. Admiral April said by 1800 hours, that day.

Note that Enterprise got the crap blown out of it when it helped Discovery do that time jump (including the torpedo that had penetrated the hull but not gone off, yet, then finally did). It was at Space Dock for months getting repairs. The crew had down time or temporary reassignments. Number One apparently chose to do that First Contact mission.

Pike had not resigned. He was being reluctant, but it would seemed Admiral April was not going to let Pike just go that easy. And if Pike really had not wanted to be captain again, he could have continued to refuse even when April showed him it was Number One who was in trouble.

BTW - in Star Trek Canon, April was captain of the Enterprise (the first, I think), and then Pike took over (Pike was his Number one). If you ever saw the Animated Series, old April was in the episode where everyone aged backwards.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_April
I don't have any significant issues to complain about with any of the TV shows. Heck, I even saw Prodigy, and Lower Decks (which is sometimes a mockfest, and sometimes Easter Eggs Galore with all the callbacks).

Really, the thing that I was ticked off about goes back to the first Star Trek movie by Abrams (the blasted Kelvin timeline), where Vulcan was destroyed. Hell no.

As for TOS tech, we blew past "communicators" in the 1990's, with Flip Phones that could display THE INTERNET. You never saw anyone in TOS with a Communicator showing them any data, or movies, or camera capability. A "Memory Disk" was like a 3 to 4" square and 1" thick or so (Which was beaten by the 1980's 3.5" Floppy). Now we have memory cards the size of fingernails, or more conveniently Thumb Drives. And also iPads that blow past the "Padds" used in TOS.

 

[PhlAsh]

...

As for TOS tech, we blew past "communicators" in the 1990's, with Flip Phones that could display THE INTERNET. You never saw anyone in TOS with a Communicator showing them any data, or movies, or camera capability. A "Memory Disk" was like a 3 to 4" square and 1" thick or so (Which was beaten by the 1980's 3.5" Floppy). Now we have memory cards the size of fingernails, or more conveniently Thumb Drives. And also iPads that blow past the "Padds" used in TOS.

That irked me when they were doing early press for Enterprise - "well our current phones are smaller than TOS communicators"
ARE THEY F)^)^G VOICE ACTIVATED AND CAPABLE OF REACHING A STARSHIP IN HIGH ORBIT!?!?!

How many MB do you suppose one of those "Memory Disks" holds? It seems pretty silly to me that such a thing would be judged by its dimensions

 

[georgegassaway]

That irked me when they were doing early press for Enterprise - "well our current phones are smaller than TOS communicators"
ARE THEY F)^)^G VOICE ACTIVATED AND CAPABLE OF REACHING A STARSHIP IN HIGH ORBIT!?!?!

"Hey Siri, call Enterprise, I need to rent a car." (while the caller is in an area with no cell coverage, using an iPhone 5 (yes, 5) in a Satellite sleeve, using a geostationary satellite in high orbit (22,000 miles).

https://www.northernaxcess.com/thuraya-satsleeve-for-iphone-5-5s
So... yes, they F)^)^G are capable.....

 

[georgegassaway]

For those who have not seen it, "The first hit is free".

Strange New Worlds first episode is on Youtube, free, the whole thing.

Not unlike how the pilot for "Discovery" was actually broadcast on CBS.

 

[Marc_G]

For those who have not seen it, "The first hit is free".

Strange New Worlds first episode is on Youtube, free, the whole thing.

Not unlike how the pilot for "Discovery" was actually broadcast on CBS.

Broadcast?

Ah, yes, an Earth custom from the twentieth century, largely rendered obsolete in the first few decades of the twenty first century. They placed radio transmission towers on high places around cities and performed omnidirectional "broadcasting" of entertainment content instead of selective on demand delivery. Quite wasteful use of the EM spectrum.


Meanwhile, canon check: this episode is maybe 7 years before TOS. Did they even know about the Gorn then, so long before "Arena?"

 

[georgegassaway]

Meanwhile, canon check: this episode is maybe 7 years before TOS. Did they even know about the Gorn then, so long before "Arena?"

It is highly useful to check the memory-alpha website, which is the best repository for Star Trek information and canon research.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Gorn
Strange New Worlds (SNW) seems to have "retconned" the Gorn into canon in a viable way. That website has incredibly quickly already incorporated that into the site:

"Although unconfirmed at the time, the first encounter between the Humans and the Gorn occurred several years prior to 2259, when the colony ship of La'an Noonien-Singh was captured and the entire ship's complement was deposited on a "planetary nursery". According to her accounts, the Gorn would eat some of their captives alive, while the other captives would have their bodies slit open and used as "breeding sacks." In accordance with some sort of ritual, the final survivor would be spared, only to be placed in a life raft and abandoned in space. The survivor was not expected to live. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds")"

 

[PhlAsh]

"Hey Siri, call Enterprise, I need to rent a car." (while the caller is in an area with no cell coverage, using an iPhone 5 (yes, 5) in a Satellite sleeve, using a geostationary satellite in high orbit (22,000 miles).

https://www.northernaxcess.com/thuraya-satsleeve-for-iphone-5-5s
So... yes, they F)^)^G are capable.....

"Our current phones", not those using a specialty system that didn't become operational until the series had already run for 2 seasons. Yes they were testing the system a year before the premier but the interviewees weren't talking about 'on the horizon' tech, they were talking about what's readily available to the populus

 

[boatgeek]

Episode 2 was very much more old Trek. A few comments:
I don't especially like the reboot of Nurse Chapel. She seems more mean than spunky.
They seem to have decided to keep the blatant sexual harassment from TOS but turn it on the men. I would have hoped we could get past that?

 

[Huxter]

Episode 1 has some cool stuff

The Best ST Sideburns from any franchise! Ethan Peck is rockin it!




Made mention of "USS Archer"



Original Enterprise had a 10-Forward?



Now, I'm gonna hafeta get Paramount + for the next episodes!

 

[Huxter]

The first Federation Starbase was pretty impressive!

 

[georgegassaway]

I liked the 2nd episode. I figure anyone reading this thread has already watched, otherwise spoilers here.

Interesting take on Uhura, apparently fresh from the academy, her first assignment. That she's not really all that into Star Fleet. Doesn't really see herself being useful. We all know how she'll end up growing into it, and beyond. And character-wise this episode focuses on her, she finds she can be useful after all.

And thanks to Memory Alpha, as I was looking up something else, I find that some time after the events depicted in "Star Trek 6, the Undiscovered Country", that Uhura "was later promoted and given command of the USS Leondegrance, a ship she served aboard until her retirement."

While this show is intended to be episodic, I can see it is likely there's something about the origins of that "comet" that will likely come back into play by the end of the season.

On Youtube, "The Ready Room" hosted by Will Wheaton, has been around since the first season of Discovery. In the one linked below interviews Anson Mount and showrunner Akiva Goldsman about the new show. Also, a brief wrap-up of the season finale Episode of Picard., and a certain scene I won't describe for those who somehow have not seen it yet.


And the latest "The Ready Room", about the 2nd episode, with actress Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) and Executive Producer Henry Alonso Myers, and other stuff. She reveals something that is pretty much what Anson Mount revealed in his interview.

 

[Huxter]

And do we get an Aenar crewman in future episodes?

 

[georgegassaway]

And do we get an Aenar crewman in future episodes?

View attachment 518651

Ummm, you haven not seen episode 2 yet, I presume?

He's the new Chef!

Well...... I spelled it wrong....

Article about the actor - SPOILERS: https://bleedingcool.com/tv/star-trek-snw-visually-impaired-actor-bruce-horak-on-playing-hemmer/

 

[prfesser]

Just finished watching the first episode of SNW (on Pluto TV) and I agree that it has a pretty decent feel. You have to expect some disconnects between it and TOS or other series or movies. It's entertainment, not history, and IMHO it's far better entertainment than the 2009 movie (I never bothered to watch the sequels, I don't even know how many there were nor what order they're in).

But that doesn't mean I'm gonna pony up for yet another TV subscription. Plenty of free entertainment out there. I do believe I could watch the Andy Griffith episodes with Briscoe Darling and "The Boys", not to mention Ernest T. Bass, over and over again for the rest of my life.