Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x10 "Hegemony"

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ValueSubtracted@startrek.website⁩ to ⁨startrek@startrek.website⁩

Logline

When the USS Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy.

Written by Henry Alonso Myers

Directed by Maja Vrvilo

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AuroraBorealis@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’ll say it, the adult gorn, in those space suits look awesome, I’m a sucker for more animalistic races in star trek

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- teft@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  I’m a sucker for more animalistic races in star trek
  
  Bring back the Xindi insectoids!!!
  
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  - JWBananas@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They showed up in Prodigy as I recall
    
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- ieightpi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  me too. we need more of the Gorn in other trek adaptions
  
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- nxdefiant@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m impressed by Gorn engineering now. Making a space suit with what looked like dozens of vacuum- grade articulated tail joints can’t be easy.
  
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- Hypersapien@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The one thing I want to see us an Edosoan in a live action Star Trek series.
  
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praxi@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Adored seeing Scotty show up. I am worried about Batel being infected, as I love seeing a strong woman Star Trek captain and love her relationship with Pike. Lots of hints that the Gorn are not just “monsters”. They are the Borg of pre-TOS era, as someone mentioned.

I hate cliffhangers though. I agree, how long before we see the next episode, especially with the strike.

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- jaelisp@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  While a strong woman, they’ve done shockingly little to tell us anything about her until the last episode when we find out she likes tourism. But we know precious little of her personality and most of the relationship has been seen from Chris’ side. I think she’s been written to be disposable. But I’d love it if they save her and actually develop her more.
  
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  - teft@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I hope she lives because I like her as a captain. She seems very laid back and I feel like Starfleet being huge and all there would be a few captains that are pretty chill.
    
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  - praxi@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    We do know she is smart (ad astra episode where she is a lawyer), loyal (she tried to help Una) and doesn’t let Chris lie to her.
    
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- reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I keep hoping Sam Kirk or someone else (even a female character) gets some space lovin’ going on. Everyone on TOS was much more swinging space 60s, and Jim Kirk was quite the lothario, but everyone on this show is much more traditional romantic.
  
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- startrek@hub.hubzilla.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  @praxi maybe they keep Batel in the buffer of the medical transporter like M'Benga did with his daughter in season one.
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  - praxi@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I hope they can find a cure besides the transporter buffer, because I am worried the hundreds of people beamed onto the Gorn ship may also have been infected.
    
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ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The more I think about the Chapel plot, the more I think it was a blunder.

If she survived the initial attack on the Cayuga, it’s likely that others did, too - at the very least, it should give Spock a reason to look before hot-dropping the saucer onto the planet.

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- eva_sieve@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Gotta agree, it seems like an unforced error. A good chunk of the audience knows she shows up in TOS, which robs the whole idea of any tension it might have, and on top of that it feels plot armor-y to have one person survive and then not check for anyone else.
  
  They could’ve just contrived to have Spock and Chapel be the best persons for the saucer deorbiting-- Spock as the precise vulcan/science officer to place the thrusters, Chapel as medbay’s lead in case they could bring anyone back from the Cayuga.
  
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  - ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’m fine with Chapel being stuck there - I think the tension comes from the overall Spock/Chapel emotional arc, rather than wondering whether she will survive - but the sequence practically demands a second scan with the newfangled tricorders to verify that there are no other life signs on the ship.
    
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- Zoboomafoo@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Agreed, the entire saucer section was on the Federation side of the border, they could have openly had rescue teams checking for survivors
  
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  - JohnnyDelirious@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Which does raise the question of why there was a Gorn aboard the wreck of the Cayuga.
    
    The Gorn drew up the demarcation line and broadcast it to the Federation, held their fire as promised, and did not consider the arrival of another Gorn ship as a hostile action.
    
    So the Enterprise sending a shuttle to check the parts of the Cayuga’s wreckage for survivors is something that appears permitted and even expected, so long as it doesn’t cross the line.
    
    But any such rescue party would then bump into this lone Gorn who was very clearly violating the demarcation line that they themselves proposed.
    
    Sort of feels like the attack on the colony was unplanned, and that the later Gorn ship was playing damage control while trying to figure out what happened.
    
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Disgustoid@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
HOLY CRAP, I AM SO GLAD I WENT INTO THIS SPOILER FREE!!!1!

Someone posted earlier this week that it looked like Captain Batel was having a really bad day, and yup, she definitely was. My heart sank when she revealed the Gorn egg infestation. My money’s on her being the sole “main” character casualty from the events of this episode.

I didn’t know Scotty was going to show up so that was a total surprise. Finding out he was Pelia’s perfect student who somehow flunked made all the sense in the world, ignoring the obvious small universe complaints.

I LOVED all the effects shots of the Cuyuga’s debris field. I initially thought crashing the remains of the saucer section into the Gorn jammer was complete overkill, like throwing a dinner plate at a toothpick, but then realized the jammer must have been absolutely massive and far away from the settlement. It looked like it was relatively nearby upon initial viewing which didn’t appear to be the case considering the explosion from when the saucer section hit it.

That cliffhanger, wow. I pray that they have the second half already written and aren’t going to do like TNG and wait to write the conclusion. It was mentioned in the TNG Companion that the writers only wrote the first part of their season ending cliffhangers and waited until closer to filming to write and finalize the second part which doesn’t seem like the best way to develop a strong resolution.

I love SNW so much. It’s going to be an agonizing wait until the new season, probably 2025 at this point? Argh.

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- milkisklim@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I think we can excuse the fact that apparently everyone and their transporter clone had Pelia as their engineering professor. She’s been at the academy for so long, I wouldn’t be surprised if she dated Boothby on and off again or at least got him into gardening.
  
  There’s a long tradition in star trek where characters talk about one particular professor or class at the Academy and the other character always knows who the professor is.
  
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- lemillionsocks@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Ah butts. Until I read your post I forgot that a writers strike is going to make the outcome of this episode up in the air.
  
  Pay your writers big corpos and stop trying to figure out how to reanimate actors corpses with Ai so you can use them forever !
  
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- VindictiveJudge@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The TNG writers held off on writing BOBW2 at least partially because Patrick Stewart was renegotiating his contract and they needed to know if he was staying on. I doubt that’s a concern with SNW. The writers strike could be a problem, though.
  
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  - StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Season 3 was originally scheduled to start production May 2nd, just before the start of the strike. It’s only the impending strike date that caused them to stand down on that.
    
    This tells us that the script for the season premiere has been locked for some time.
    
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UESPA_Sputnik@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I loved the colony design. It kinda makes sense. There’s an endless number of planets out there, so why not found a colony for your weird LARP phantasies? “Hey, you wanna join my colony reminiscent of Victorian England? There’d be bustle skirts, butlers and bat’leths.”

I had a feeling right from the urgency of the first minutes that they were setting this episode up as SNW’s version of “The Best of Both Worlds”. And the elements are certainly there. A superior enemy. A plan to fool them with technobabble. A crewmember held hostage – just this time it’s split up between Captain Batel being infected, and La’an, M’Benga and Kirk (and colonists) captured. And a cliffhanger. I had hoped that they wouldn’t do cliffhangers in this show – especially season-ending cliffhangers when we don’t even know when the next season will air. (2025 maybe?) Or if they did it then at least do it DS9 style where it’s more like a teaser of things to come instead of an actual cliffhanger.

Oh well, at least they didn’t kill off Batel immediately, and I hope they won’t do it in season 3. I’d like to see more of her and of her relationship with Pike because I think it’s a really interesting relationship dynamic for a Starfleet captain to have a truly equal partner.

I’m not quite keen on the physics in this episode. Would the Gorn really be fooled by the Cayuga’s saucer suddenly “naturally” accelerating towards the planet from the orbit of its moon? That already bugged me in Star Trek Into Darkness when the ship suddenly “fell” towards Earth. Yes, this is a Science Fiction show but they could really use a science advisor for this basic stuff.

Finally, I wonder if every season will bring in another TOS cast member, and who will be next. Sulu? (he’d be an astroscientist though, unless they ignore the 2nd TOS pilot episode) Cadet Chekov? Bones? Janice Rand?

This all sounds a bit negative but I actually enjoyed the episode. It wasn’t the best episode of the season but still above average. I just hope that season 3 will come rather sooner than later.

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- eva_sieve@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yeah, the colonists in this episode intentionally curating the a small-town experience is pretty subtle worldbuilding, but tees into the crazier variants like the Hysperians from Lower decks.
  
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- erbazzone@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m not the most accurate and precise regarding the lore but for what I remember of TOS (that was my favorite series) we should expect Sulu being the next one, then Bones should be in the cast together with Kirk later. Seeing that every one that will not be in TOS is now in Gorn hand’s I think we already know why.
  
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  - UESPA_Sputnik@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    Seeing that every one that will not be in TOS is now in Gorn hand’s I think we already know why.
    
    M’Benga and Sam Kirk show up in TOS though. The only one in danger is La’an. (and I’d be pissed if something happened to her because I think that Christina Chong is a super strong actor, and possibly the breakout star of this show)
    
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  - reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    How about we slow down and let the current cast own the show rather than it all being about rebuilding the TOS cast one by one?
    
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Navi@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I agree with most people here. Great episode as long as you kinda ignore the fact that only Chapel survived in the saucer section and neither her nor Spock made any attempt to look for anyone else or even acknowledge it.

Rest of the episode I loved and I’m now just a bit sad we are going have to wait so long for the next series.

That being said, I absolutely support the strikes so I’m not complaining about the wait.

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- maxwisecracks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  They just had to say something like “Scans show nobody’s alive in the saucer section” and everything would be fine I guess.
  
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  - Hogger85b@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The whole point was scans were down UNTIL they slammed saucer into planet. They couldn't detect chapel due to the beam the saucer was used to destroy
    
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  - StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Let’s wait until part two.
    
    I think we may already have enough to figure out what happened but the technological explanation is yet to come. Much of the plot mechanics related to the Gorn so far rely on issues around what can be detected or transmitted and differences in solutions.
    
    The writers’ challenge for the saucer subplot was that they wanted Spock to be surprised by both the adult Gorn in the environment suit and by Christine Chapel.
    
    Their arrivals behind Spock on the exterior of the saucer were both unexpected, and were key elements of the suspense. His surprise and ours was necessary.
    
    We would have expected however Spock to have done some kind of local tricorder scan of the wreckage when he arrived. It’s possible that a tricorder scan was done, was negative, but we didn’t hear any report because there were no vocal coms back to the Enterprise. Uhura gave a play by play based on telemetry, we didn’t hear Spock report directly.
    
    In that case, we’re owed an explanation about why the new tricorder technology failed. As long as we get it in the second part, I’d be fine.
    
    Given the established interference field technology of the Gorn, I would be perfectly comfortable if the follow up episode acknowledged that the Gorn environmental suits put out some kind of localized disruptive stealth.
    
    The new Starfleet tricorder technology is designed for unsuited Gorn. It’s designed to solve the problem of Gorn biology but not Gorn technology.
    
    Gorn technology is different, they are driven by different species biological imperatives (as in the coronal flares), and that’s an extra hurdle for Starfleet.
    
    We have already seen however that Scott designed a system to both spoof human life signs to Starfleet tricorders and Gorn as well as hide human life signs for hundreds of people. To do this, he used some of the specialized technology from the scientific research array that was studying the nearby sun.
    
    Spock would naturally follow up on his surprise encounter on the saucer. Scott would be the natural collaborator to figure out how it was that the Gorn came up behind him undetected by his tricorder.
    
    So then, what about Chapel in the saucer? If she was the sole human life form, and he completed the scan, why didn’t his technology detect her?
    
    A couple of possibilities exist.
    
    – Chapel’s suit has some local stealth technology. She got into her suit as soon as she saw Spock pass by. Given it was in her quarters it’s a personal suit not a generic one, and she’s established as being a war veteran who had to fight despite being medical corps, and/or
    
    – the distortion field or stealth technology put out by the Gorn’s environmental suit was large enough to hide her as well.
    
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Continuumguy@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS AS I WATCH:

NOOO, I DON’T WANT THIS TO END!

Previously: The various stuff happened.

Oh, hey, Cayuga captains log.

Nice of them to have a colony modeled after an Earth town. Saves on budget.

“SIGNAL LOST.” In space, a dropped call can mean only one thing: Invasion.

Oh, we’re doing the Independence Day thing?

Telling a Starfleet captain to just do reconnaissance is basically telling them to go weapons free.

Nice little tinge of one of the TOS scores at the end of the cold open. Someone more geekier than I can probably place it.

If you ever feel like you are useless in life, just remember that there is a “skip intro” button during a “Space, the Final Frontier” monologue.

Is the “Gorn Protocol” a hand-cannon with with a diamond?

She flies the ship!

I’d like to imagine there is a deleted scene where they glue every piece of junk they have onto the shuttle.

If they’re going to do a “is someone still alive in the wreckage” storyline, they probably should have flip-flopped Batel and Chapel’s spots, given that we obviously know she’s going to live.

They keep giving Jenna Mitchell lines! FREE MITCHELL! Give that actreess a cast credit, cowards!

Ah, a good old fashioned beam into the sky.

Oh, look, a Gornzooky!

And… vaporized.

More Gornzookies!

Oh my god, it’s young Scotty. Hopefully this means Keenser is there. I always loved Keenser and his ability to sit on things he isn’t supposed to.

Doesn’t seem like Keenser is there :(

Of course Scotty would engineer a way to save people. He truly is a miracle worker.

Smashing a piece of space debris is a very… brilliant idea.

Pelia continuing to harass Una for her poor academics in engineering.

Why do I get the feeling that whatever plan Spock has to put the rockets on the hull will also allow him to check for survivors?

Wow, imagine that, Chapel is alive! Imagine that! Whoever would have thought! (Seriously they should have flip-flopped her and Batel if they were going to do this)

USE THE MORSE, CHRISTINE!

Oh, now she grabs the spacesuit. Although I guess she didn’t need it yet.

WARNING: GORNZOOKY

COMMAND CODE INVALID’

That looks like a bigger Gorn. An adult? Or at least like a teenager.

So incredibly Alien.

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM, YOU BITCH!”

Oh shit, she’s been impregnated with gornzookies. A very zombie movie trope.

“There’ll be time later.” Before or after you get engaged to Dr. Korby?

“We need to abort some Gornzookies.”

Yeah, Scotty would be a shitty student despite being brilliant.

OH FUCK THE GORN KIDNAPPED THEM

TO BE CONTINUED?!?!!?! Okay, who wants to drive to Hollywood and personally beat up some billionaires? I want this strike over NOW and I want a conclusion WITHIN A YEAR, A YEAR AND A HALF MAX!
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- michaelgemar@mstdn.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  @Continuumguy @startrek If Starfleet has weapons that work against the Gorn, *why keep them secret*?!
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  - Hogger85b@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think they are still trying diplomacy with the gorn, admiral april says they want to try to bring them in and see if they can be allies. Star fleet doesn't want to be outward threat
    
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  - angstrom@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    (Ignoring sloppy writing as the reason…)
    
    Star Fleet seems to like to compartmentalize information. Examples:
    
    At least post ‘First Contact’ they had hints of the Borg before ‘Q Who’ but kept it quiet. Similarly the Genesis device information was on a need to know basis (although probably for good reason). There was also that Voyager episode based around the Omega directive that only Janeway knew about.
    
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- felixxx999@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I want to know what ST fan actually skips the openings. Especially SNW, LD, DS9… yes the French Horns rock.
  
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  - thefatone@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Strangely LD seems to me to be THE MOST CATCHY Star Trek theme. Every time I hear it it’s playing in my head for the next 24 hours. Not saying it’s the best, it’s great, but goddamn does it burrow its way into my brain
    
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  - original_reader@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s been a long road, getting from there to here…
    
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GaiusGornicusCaesar@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A cliffhanger… I was hoping they wouldn’t introduce those. I expect Sam and M’Benga will be the only one who makes it out alive… expecting to see Sulu and Chekov introduced soon.

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- LibraryLass@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Wouldn’t prime!Chekov be like 12 around this time frame?
  
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  - GaiusGornicusCaesar@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Nevermind, forgot that Chekov wasn’t introduced until Season 2… but Sulu is a possibility.
    
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- StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Also not Sulu if Sam Kirk is hanging around. Sulu was some kind of xenobiologist (xenobotanist?) in the opening episodes of TOS. The move to alpha shift helmsman came later.
  
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  - GaiusGornicusCaesar@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Need to rewatch TOS then, memory’s got a bit rusty. Thanks!
    
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khaosworks@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As I note in my annotations, I got very emotional whenever I heard them refer to Scotty as “Mr Scott”. Not sure why, it just sounded so right. When they said, “Thank you, Mr Scott,” I mentally added: “That’s something he’s going to get used to hearing over the years.”

The moment I heard Pike say he missed Batel and then praise Ortegas I immediately knew they were going to be placed on jeopardy and sure enough…

It was also immediately obvious when the Gorn youngling left Batel alone why it did so, so glad they didn’t string that out as some big mystery.

Wish they’d have given some hints to why that Gorn was on the Cayuga saucer, though. Why was it trying to access command level functions? Intel or something else? And how did it get there without Enterprise noticing or was it there before they arrived? Questions, questions…

At least Martin Quinn, who plays Scotty, is a Paisley boy like David Tennant and Steven Moffat, which means using his natural accent will be easier to make out, as the Paisley accent is less harsh than, say, a Glaswegian one. He’s a bit young for Scotty though, at 28. I’d always assumed Scotty was at least five to ten years older than Kirk.

Nice, fast moving action finale - but I echo the frustration at having this be a cliffhanger.

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- teft@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I swear if anything bad happens to Ortegas I will riot. That girl has surpassed Tom Paris as my favorite pilot and with all the banter with Pike I worry for her well-being.
  
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  - scy@chaos.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I imagine they left it open on purpose to allow Melissa Navia, who had a pretty rough year during production of season 2, an opportunity to be written out of the story.
    I would love for her to continue though, because I like her way more than Tom Paris, too.
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- abba2566@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I would like to know why the Gorn was there too, but the Gorn didn’t notice Spock boarding and so there’s no reason to believe Enterprise would have notice a Gorn boarding. It’s also possible it was beamed over when the Cayuga was destroyed to find something or to access the ships systems.
  
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StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Martin Quinn (Montgomery Scott) was reportedly born in Paisley, Scotland.

Dropping in to note that I’m feeling very smuggly self-satisfied that I decided not to completely abandon my alias when we migrated from the other place.

I guess that I must now become an unrepentant SNW Scotty stan. I look forward to seeing the charter grow.

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- NuPNuA@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  That’s the first actually Scottish Scotty isn’t it?
  
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  - StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yes. Born in Paisley (like David Tennant), and out of Scotland’s National Theatre Company, no less.
    
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angstrom@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Anyone else notice that the 2 people on the shuttle down who didn’t have plot armor (Ortegas and La’an) were wearing red shirts?

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- Disgustoid@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  There was at least one unnamed, previously unseen red shirt on the bridge as well. That was a hint there was going to be a body count. Of course, it could also mean that no one dies and the production staff are just playing into our expectations.
  
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- Basilisk@mtgzone.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Ortegas was in the alternate future with Pike at the time of “A Quality of Mercy”, which is not necessarily “plot armour” but if we assume the timeline still hasn’t diverged — Pike not having had his accident yet — then it would seem reasonable she should get through to survive long enough to see the point of divergence and therefore survive long enough to be on the bridge with Pike when he meets the Romulans. However, that’s all very timey-wimey and subject to a lot of “maybes” and “what-ifs”.
  
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  - transwarp@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    A Quality of Mercy also showed Una in prison, and Those Old Scientists implied she’s revered. Did sending that letter prevent Pike from recruiting her lawyer? Things are already not heading down the exact timeline we saw Ortegas alive in.
    
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startrekexplained@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Canon issues aside, I do dig the new Gorn and the adult ones look badass. I liked the cliffhanger too

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- Magnetar@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I love how they tock one of the most laughable elements of TOS and made the Gorn into a terrifying and interesting enemy. I genuinely want to know about Gorn society.
  
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  - StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    This exactly. Using something closer to the xenomorphs of Alien, introduces a truly frightening species that is sufficiently different that their kind of intelligence and motivations are believably difficult for Federation humanoids to understand.
    
    I know there are other older fans struggling with this, but I think it’s saving the Gorn and Arena from absurdity.
    
    No matter how compelling the story, TOS Arena’s ridiculous rubber suit Gorn has become one of the most recognized images from the franchise in popular culture.
    
    Even as a child watching the episode in its first run it seemed more like silly monster movie stuff. It didn’t have the quality of truly scary monsters of that era such as the Creature of the Black Lagoon. It wasn’t in any way reaching Roddenberry’s target high value sci-fi standard of Forbidden Planet or even The Cage.
    
    More, with so many later stories of Kirk and other captains welcoming the strange and different, coming to terms with very alien species, we need to be shown why Kirk was so hostile to the Gorn by the time of TOS.
    
    While they could have gone for some other kind of reptilian, I like SNW’s choice to go with a the biology of parasitic R-breeder. Roddenberry’s original concept for the Ferengi was closer to the parasitic bat people of Andromeda than what TNG and DS9 gave us. The updated Gorn can be viewed as incorporating that idea and making them as terrifying.
    
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Acid@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
On the whole a solid episode and the Scott appearance was very surprising and well done.

However why the hell is Christine the only survivor on the cayuga, it makes no sense at all.

Also the fucking cliffhanger is ridiculous

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RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Uggggh, not a cliffhanger!!! Damn them! Ok, how long till season 03?

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- Zpiritual@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  With the strikes and every production on halt and needing to restart? Maybe early 2025 if we’re lucky. Earlier is possible I guess if the parts settle in the not too distant future and CBS put prio on SNW once things resume.
  
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- khaosworks@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It may be a while, depending on when they settle the SAG-AFTRA/WGA strike.
  
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devnull@crag.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Sensitive Content
Chapel: [restores life support on the saucer]
Spock: [straps rockets to the saucer and yeets it into a planet]
Chapel: surprisedpikachu.gif
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IonAddis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The location they filmed the town at is the same one used in the Wednesday TV series, which was a bit distracting for me, although I suppose if anyone wants to do a crossover Wednesday/Star Trek fanfic, it’ll be super-easy, lol.

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passinglurker@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
They did it again TOS purists

spoiler
you wanted a rubber suit, so they gave you a rubber suit.

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macabrett@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I thought they did a great job with the casting this week. Had no idea he was going to show up.

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erbazzone@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My biggest gripe with this episode is that it could been easily a double episode THIS SEASON with more breath but the plot armor was too strong here, we already know who will survive and who don’t even before the start of the episode xD

I expect we’ll see Sulu next season

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- AuroraBorealis@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  “Man sure hope no one else was alive on the saucer section before I viking funeral’d it” ~ Nurse Chapel
  
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felixxx999@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I like that Pike avoids conflict whenever he can. And him not immediately knowing what to do at the end is so him. I’m confident that none of the cast will be killed off. Just unnamed red shirts.

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- Basilisk@mtgzone.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  They seem to be bookending the season with flashbacks to Pike’s expedition to Rigel VII. His decision to withdraw there cost people their lives and led to Zak corrupting the local culture. Now he’s back under fire, under seemingly unwinnable odds, and forced to make the call to leave people behind again.
  
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Mandolingual@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The landing party moving through the attacked town positioning themselves around crates and fighting the youngling was like a glimpse of an XCOM adaptation to a tee (with fewer OP melee weapons and grenades).

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- Navi@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  That’s a great observation, thinking back on it that’s absolutely what it was like!
  
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angstrom@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A lot to unpack here. Definite ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ vibes. Great end of season episode. Hopefully this time they have the resolution to the cliffhanger written.

I figured Batel would suffer the fate she did, even before the episode started. It was lazy writing that she should end up in the situation she did and so it happened. The writing team can and should do better than this.

Scotty appearing was a nice touch, and was well played by the actor. Given that Chapel is probably going to be rotated out for a while I think pairing him with Pelia for season 3 might be fun.

The Gorn were also well done, although the Aliens homages are getting tiresome and unless they are going completely retcon ‘Arena’ then there isn’t a huge amount more than can be done with them. Thankfully so far they seem to using them sparingly. Hopefully they will move onto other TOS races in season 3. The Tholians, for example, have a unique feel and less alpha continuity to worry about.

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tewha@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Some of the special effects for the gorn babies were one plate of curry away from being right at home in 1980s Red Dwarf. Oh how I cringed!

But a great episode.

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- e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I thought they looked like high-budget Scarrans
  
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Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Scotty!

Playing it kinda like Simon pegg, Which is honestly great. Looking forward to seeing more tos characters introduced next season.

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steebo_jack@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Just watched this and my biggest gripe with Star Trek will always be that the federation ships are just way to week. Yes they aren't supposed to be a battle force, but any moderately powerful enemy and they are toast...at least they had that special crate of better weapons, but why not just make that the norm? And send more friggin ships...

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Azfaa@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I really enjoyed this episode, while I do agree that it’s strange only Chapel survived (she should have remained on planet).

That to be continued hurt with the way the strike is, so I guess we’ll have to see if we will actually get a follow up.

And I love the Gorn, this episode finally hinted at their intelligence. And the solar flare thing while a bit weird could be an interesting way of using biology to influence how a civilization develops. I know Arena exists but I really don’t mind retconning this. Having recently looked at the Enterprise depiction of Gorn, I feel like this remains in the same vein but looks more lizardy.

SNW is still my favourite Trek, maybe its because I never actually watched TOS but I feel like even if I did I wouldn’t dislike it.

Pelia knowing Scott doesn’t surprise me considering she seems to be the Boothsby of the Engineers.

Scotty being introduced made me really happy ^^

As a prequel I think this still works, some people say its not the Pike show they expected but I don’t get why, yes we have seen some TOS characters like Kirk and Scotty, hopefully Kirk will get less time next season, probably considering the ships has less to do together.

I get its corpo decisions but I will trust the creative team to not drop the ball with overusing fanservice characters, having scotty as a member of the Enterprise crew is also imo not a problem. If anything I hope we get to keep Pelia and have him as a underling for next season and maybe build up to him being promoted head of engineering later on.

Hopefully Paramount will dare to make a new series about an entirely new crew set post VOY or maybe even some time in the early 2300s around the time the Enterprise D was around as we haven’t seen a lot of that time. But I would prefer a firmly 2400s series.

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ThrowawayInTheYear23@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Imagine being trapped like Chapel in the Wolf 351 wreckage. 😱

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Tove@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Soooo good. Big Best of Both Worlds feels from that cliffhanger.

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goldfishmotorcycle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This one was a bit disappointing to be honest. The darker/space-war episodes are rarely my favourite anyway but this one really suffered from impenetrable plot armour on most of the main cast. Gosh, will Spock and Chapel survive this time?! Of course they will; because it’s Mr. Spock and Nurse Chapel :-/.

And the federation apparently willing to just let it slide that an entire starship and crew were destroyed.

Are the Gorn supposed to be dumb reptiles confused by flashing lights or technologically advanced space fairing antagonists? It’s too much of a stretch to leave unexplained at this point. Maybe part two will clear that up… in a couple of years :-/

And just the general bloodlust among the crew when prepping to go fight. These established affable and charming young scientists and nerds but suddenly it’s season final time and it’s all “the only good bug is a dead bug 😡”.

Some incredible best-of-show set pieces and special effects but a pretty dour end to a fun season of Trek. I’m not against more serious episodes at all, just this one has too many loose ends and inconsistencies.

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JWBananas@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My captions! I can’t hear without my captions!

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