Star Trek General Discussion

[G.B.Blackrock]

Well, until Nemesis decided she DID have full abilities so we can hate the bad guy by having his Reman predator help Shinzon mind rape her and be the deus ex machina to save the day.

I'm not at all sure what you're claiming here, but if it's what I think it is, this is factually incorrect.

Troi was always an empath in the series. Not a telepath except with other Betazoids (and with Riker, although that showed up once and was then forgotten).

 

[Axaday]

I didn't really like the SNW premiere. A little too ambitious and WAY too pat.

 

[The Predaking]

New SNW episodes! Woot!

 

[Fero McPigletron]

The ep is very classic narrative. Don't think too hard about it and let yourself enjoy.

When I see how the bridge crew gets crummy with each other at the end (telling the story), I wonder how their Lower Decks people are like, haha.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Thoughts on Strange New Worlds s4 ep2 The Griffin Incident.

Another classic Hollywood narrative episode and I love it. I'm pretty sure I know the inspiration when they uttered the phrase at 44:48.

Man, would that Lower Decks did this kind of episode. It would have been a masterpiece.

There's characterization that they can use for the future but ultimately, still possibly a throwaway episode. Still love how they pulled this off.

Well, except for the make up. And the freaking... scenes. You'll know them when you see them.

A small character bit I didn't like was when someone tells you their bad thing, don't tell your own bad thing. It would seem like you're trying to relate to them but you just come off as trying to one up them.

Anyhow, LOVED it.

Spoiler

Event Horizon, right? I tried googling the 'Welcome home' phrase to confirm but it wasn't coming up. Just the iconic Save us, save yourselves line.

Screw them for the Pike Chef cutting board scene. And the Kirk bridge window part. Jeepers cripes! The ears were bad enough but geeeeeez! Haha

La'An is weaker of will, I suppose. But maybe just her underlying violent genes maybe?

Ortegas screaming was a horrific part.

A logical part was that Kirk or La'An blew up their shuttle. Since Kirk noticed it first, it was probably him.

The make up totally could have been better. It was the low bit in the ep.

Chapel really tried one upping Spock with her own bad location experience? Even Pike did the same thing to La'An.

David is Kirk's son who died in the movie 3, right?

I knew the first rescue was a fake. I dunno how else they could have saved themselves though. Escape pods, maybe? The transporter rescue was an ok enough solution.

Yay to Spock and logic saving his skin, barely. Should have wrestled the knife away from La'An and did held on until the rescue. Maybe.

Can you imagine Mariner in this situation? Or Boimler? He'd go nuts. Tendi and Rutherford are very emotional and would fall prey. T'Lyn would rally like Vulcan mother father.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Saw Strange New Worlds s4 ep3 Human Best Friend. Spoilers in the comments.


I kinda liked it? It's ANOTHER classic Hollywood narrative (meaning you know how the story beats go. It's not a bad thing, y'know? Just don't overspeculate so you don't spoil the experience for yourself) but I actually didn't watch the source material. Only the sequels.

I feel like it was a more Ortegas episode. I could have had more Scotty really. It was suppose to be a duo ep. I loved Ortegas since the memory wipe 'I fly the ship' but I wasn't wild about the Enemy Mine episode.

Anyhow, perfect amount of Spock. His presence and interaction was perfect. What I really want now is more Pike. I feel like he hasn't had an ep in a looking while.

Story-wise, yeeeeeeah. It was a ton of fun but, I dunno, was it missing something? Was it Ortegas? I dunno. Could have ended early but didn't, which was fine. The twist side plot was awesome. The resolution was TOO convenient buuuut its that kind of story.

Fun watch. I guess its a relief episode after the awesome horror story last week.

Spoiler

I didn't watch Hangover but I guess the story flow is kind of the same? I saw the two sequels tho but I guess not the same.

Loved the Spock seeing plants and, uh, photosynthetic technology something? Loved it. And the reveal that Kirk was real was gravy! I was all set to say that Spock's subconscious is amazing because at the bomb part, he was able to split his mind into two to work at two consoles at the same time. Like he's doing both of the mental calculation and moving his hands at twice the speed but his Vulcan physiology was able to compensate by compartamentalizing his sense of self to make it work. But NOPE, Kirk really was there, hahaha

Total Eclipse of the Heart in Klingon was awesome as long as they don't acknowledge that it came from Earth.

Did we really need the thumb?

Poor Pike with face tats. The sleeve would have been cool. Funny fingers.

La'an, haha
Uhura, yeah, I can see the college party girl
Chapel, boo. Where those Ferengi?
M'Benga, too simple

I like that the vacation host wasn't the bad guy.

Would that I had more to say on Ortegas and Scotty but they were just the vehicle to run around. They should have had more but their drunk adventure was over.

 

[Dekafox]

Spoiler

Did we really need the thumb?

Apparently this is a reference to James Doohan having had a similar accident in real life? Never noticed myself in TOS though.

Chapel, boo. Where those Ferengi?

And this was apparently a reference to Angel from what I've been told, down to La'an carrying her weapon in a similar way to Angel when she enters? They did kind of look like the vampires from that franchise, but I did have the same thought initially.

 

[wonko the sane?]

James doohan lost a finger fighting for canada in ww2, and spent his time on star trek (and most of the rest of his life.) being very careful to hide his hand. The only place you see it in all those original episodes is "The trouble with tribbles" when scotty was hauling around that mass of tribbles.

A little fact for you: he was literally the one in a million case where a cigarette lighter saved his life.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

What what whaaat?!?! When I was watching TOS, did nobody told me he had no thumb?!??! Gosh dang.

What's the lighter story? (In movies and shows, those lighters that don't flame off are always used during an explosive finale thing, haha)

Huh. I watched Angel but its been years.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Wasn't his thumb, it was his middle finger on his right hand. And the lighter story is part of the finger story: he was returning to his command post on D-day when he was caught in a burst of german machine gun fire: he got hit in his ankle, his right hand, and the lighter in his chest pocket. James himself said repeatedly: if the germans could shoot better, he wouldn't have lived to see 25.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Ooooh, I was thinking of the lighter flame saving his life somehow, not the case, hehe. (To be fair, shields in pockets like books, lockets, coins etc also save lives in classic narrative, hehe)

Now I feel like someone did mention the missing finger before but I just forgot.

 

[Shadewing]

James doohan lost a finger fighting for canada in ww2, and spent his time on star trek (and most of the rest of his life.) being very careful to hide his hand. The only place you see it in all those original episodes is "The trouble with tribbles" when scotty was hauling around that mass of tribbles.

A little fact for you: he was literally the one in a million case where a cigarette lighter saved his life.

This reminds me that Walter Jones, Zach from the original Power Rangers, also has a missing finger that is almost never noticed.

 

[Fullstrength Motleypuss]

 

[Axaday]

View attachment 38031

Yeah this, though I sort of give them points for recognizing the farce with a farcical excuse this week.

It isn't a NuTrek exclusive, but I don't really like farcical episodes outside Lower Decks. It was entertaining enough, but it just isn't what I tune in for.

And in my own spot of generally always being uncomfortable with recasting, I didn't appreciate Ortegas calling Scotty out as a small man and having him answer that he was average height. James Doohan was tall.

 

[Ceir]

Stuck my head in a Hallmark store the other day, they already had the TOS Galileo shuttle! Way bigger than I was expecting, this is a little brick of a model, not just an ornament. Reasonably accurate deco, and nothing more obtrusive than the hanging loop on the dorsal.

For anyone who, like me, hadn't checked one of these out - there are only two alternating dialogue bits, but they're pretty long for ornament clips.

Leonard Nimoy holiday greeting, recorded for the original release (based on a line from...Immunity Syndrome, I want to say?):
"Shuttlecraft to Enterprise, shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Spock here. Happy holidays, live long and prosper."

Dialogue from The Galileo Seven:
"MCCOY: Mister Spock!
MEARS: What happened?
SCOTTY: He jettisoned the fuel and ignited it!
BOMA: We need that fuel to maintain orbit! Are you out of your mind?
SPOCK: Perhaps, mister Boma.
SCOTTY: A distress signal? It's like sending up a flare. Mister Spock, that was a good gamble. Perhaps it was worth it.
MCCOY: It may be the last action you'll ever take, mister Spock, but it was all you.
SPOCK: Totally illogical. There was no chance.
MCCOY: That's exactly what I mean."

 

[The Predaking]

So I watched the first two episodes last night.


Episode 1,

Spoiler

I loved this time travel episode. It almost felt like a Q trial moment here, where Pike has to let it happen for the timeline to occur as it should. I was wondering why the ground crew were worried about affecting the timeline by killing Dinosaurs. Like they could kill every T Rex on the planet and it wouldn't matter as they were going to be wiped out. Also, La'an having residual side effects of that Vulcan DNA seems to have triggered latent Augment dna. I hope that we get to see more of that this season.

I loved seeing the Martians, and how Romulan they looked. I liked their commander, and thought their ship was a neat design. Loved that they had a fifth planet full of Aline spiders, and that Mars was a garden like world. Loved that destroying the planet made it into the Asteroid belt and that a part of it is the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. My only question is, if the fifth planet lost most of its mass in the anti-matter explosion, then why wouldn't the planets pull closer to the sun? I mean the mass of the fifth planet isn't pulling on them anymore, so why did Mars drift further away from the Sun? Still, it's a neat thought. I was hoping that we might see the Voth in this episode, since we get to see the dinosaurs being wiped out. Loved the DIno shot at the end of the episode! Also, MBenga finding out that the Martians made it out to other worlds and interbred with other species is great. I am betting that the Vulans/Romulans have some Martian DNA in them.

Episode 2,

Spoiler

I honestly didn't like this episode. It was like The Shinning in Space. I felt that they didn't explain what was going on here and I wasn't digging the gore either. In the end, the writers just wrote themselves into a corner, so they had to beam everyone out and just end it. Don't get me wrong, it's very well done, but I just didn't enjoy it. This might be the reason that Spock starts to be more logical again. I hope that they don't break up him and La'an though, as I am digging that. Loved that we got more info on Carol and David. I found it creepy when the possessed La'an told James exactly how David was going to die. Obviously, that creature is some sort of being that can see death or the future. Either way, I hope that Section 12 just tosses the whole ship into a black hole. We can see that the being is attached somehow to the Griffin as La'an sees it in the window of the Griffin one last time as the Griffin is being towed away.

 

[The Predaking]

Spoiler

A logical part was that Kirk or La'An blew up their shuttle. Since Kirk noticed it first, it was probably him.

Spoiler

I honestly believe that the shuttle was just fine. The being on the Griffin was just messing with their minds and made them think that the shuttle was destroyed.

Spoiler

David is Kirk's son who died in the movie 3, right?

Spoiler

Yup. He dies just like the possessed La'an says he does too.

Spoiler

I knew the first rescue was a fake. I dunno how else they could have saved themselves though. Escape pods, maybe? The transporter rescue was an ok enough solution.

Spoiler

Yeah, I figured out halfway through that the away team was fake. I still don't like the just teleport them away at the end, without any real discovery or resolution.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

Hmm, they never did say if there was a wreck. But I say it was destroyed for real. Cooler that way cuz Kirk never did any damage himself under the influence, unlike the other two.

Agree. Would have liked if they escaped under their own power. True that Spock did initiate the rescue but still.

---

Saw Strange New Worlds s4 ep4 A Case of Chiaroscuro. Liked it a lot but it's continuing the trend. Spoilers in the comments.

I knew what I was in for when they showed the circumstance. Amusingly creative, haha. I'm not much for Una (though she had a better focus episode with the sun thing than Ortegas's own eps for me) but once the guy said those opening words, I was invested, haha

Very definition of classic story, haha. I was only slightly worried for the characters but Uhura handled herself very well, with her slip up. M'Benga was just a mouthpiece here. Una was soooo cool. Consumate deceiver. Knew what she was doing. Almost too perfect actually.

Side plot was ok. La'An didn't go the path I thought she would tho.

Cute story. They were missing some elements to make it really authentic but that's ok.

I'm not going to speculate on what other eps would be about. Can't wait for the Angel Puppet episode but since all the other homages have been great, I have high hopes that might be dashed.

Spoiler

SPOILERS!!!
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The ep just needed actual guns and people really smoking cigarettes, haha

Una should have been classic Carmen Sandiego! The noir covered it up but she would have been stunning in red! Her and her advanced tech, mistaken for time traveling stooges, hahahaha

Uhura in the chair was painful but she pulled through. Still close to the truth and all that, hehe. Good for her.

My quibble would be the identity of the killer. There were too few suspects so it wasn't a whodunnit. That sucks. Could have just added a few more characters. The killer reveal didn't make sense because he would have run if she knew it was him. If there was a flashback or journal reading that said she was shot in the back and knew that he knew that she didn't know who shot her, it might have worked. Er, you know what I mean? Either way, they really should have added more resistance caricatures for a good mystery.

There was no doomed romance angle, boo! Haha

La'An, eh. It was ok. I thought it would be a bigger thing but it wasn't. The fact that she was right is good and she should still have told Pike cuz Pike would have understood, c'mooooon. Maybe.

Sound of Thunder?
Event Horizon
Hangover
Noir

Angel Puppet

Not going to speculate, hehe. Loving it so far because they're easy and fun to watch but still waiting on a good Pike ep.

 

[Fullstrength Motleypuss]

 

[Dekafox]

So I think with this ep that covers most of the opening sequence teasers except for the Gorn ship one. So unless I missed one, after that one and the puppet episode that leaves 2 for the season finale, and 2 that we have no idea on?