I just love this show, the feeling I get when the intro rolls is the same as when I was I was 15 watching the TNG intro on TV. The characters all feel special and unique even if I've seen every episode of every series.
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r/startrek: The Next Generation
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Date | Episode | Title |
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11-28 | LD 5x07 | "Fully Dilated" |
12-05 | LD 5x08 | "Upper Decks" |
12-12 | LD 5x09 | "Fissure Quest" |
12-19 | LD 5x10 | "The New Next Generation" |
01-24 | Film | "Section 31" |
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I loved that they gave Dr. M'Benga some screentime front and center and showed that he can throw down if necessary, even if it was with the help of some super serum stuff. And while I even loved his (and Nurse Chapel's ) elaborate fight scene and enjoyed the way they filmed it, I'm also not sure if it quite fits with Star Trek. Just not sure yet with the excessive slow motion. The camera angles however were some great artistic choice. But overall one great start to season 2.
I thought the fight scene was kinda out-of-character for a doctor and a nurse. If anyone would have an inherent respect for life and health of other beings, you'd expect it to be medical workers: beating them up is just highly unethical. Why couldn't they have used subterfuge to achieve the same goals?
I thought that too - even moreso how much it took me out of the show to see them take on three klingons per person. Still a great show and decent episode, but that bit did take me out a bit
He might be doctor, but he also served in the war and from what it looks like the front lines. Same goes for the nurse.
M’Benga turned out to be my favorite character from last season, and I’m glad they’ve been able to stretch his character out beyond having it centered around his daughter this season. He should have an interesting character arc from what they showed in this episode.
He definitely is one of my favorites, too.
@aufsichtsrat @ValueSubtracted I think it was a needless cinematographic choice to use slow mo there. With the excessive cuts, it shows a lack of fight choreography (contrast with Jackie Chan movies, Kingsman, etc.)
I'm still waiting for M'Benga to slap Spock silly.
I'd say it fits more with the space cowboy ethos of the TOS era (although we saw no two handed punches). If they did it in the TNG era it'd feel more out of place.
I was waiting for the double handed punch! Gutted they didn't do it.
That was a purdy opening sequence with the shuttle/drones zooming past the starbase. Good open.
I'm loving the scale they're using with the ships/bases. Some ships look tiny, and other times you get a sense of how massive some of these structures are. It's an artistic choice that's well executed.
I can't quite tell you why but I like April so far too. Just seems well acted I guess. Not a lot to go on yet ofc.
I'm liking the recurring villain of "the Gorn" popping up; weaving between the episodic stories. I hope, and suspect, that they're going to continue that trend well. I don't want them to lean one way or the other too far. So far I like the balance. I like the mystique and menace they've orchestrated too.
"...and we're going to find a way to win, because it's what's right." Anson Mount sells 'boyscout' so well. Man deserves his own show or something...
Pike, "did you manage to even talk to her?"
#1, "she won't respond."
Pike, "she won't take my calls either."
I get the feeling the lawyer Pike is going to get isn't "refusing to return their calls" so much as is probably "in trouble waiting to be rescued." My guess is next ep Pike rescues her. Maybe that ep or the ep after she'll help Una?
I loved the Vulcan lute accompanying Spock's frustrations throughout the episode.
door chime
Spock misses a note
Pelia's entertaining, nice addition. Adds a fun PoV and the actress is giving the role a lot. (RiP Hemmer.)
"You do know I teach a course on warp core breaches at the Academy, yes?"
You know who she reminds me of? Grand Nagus Zekky. (Not Zek, Zekky, specifically when he's all lovey-dovey around Moogie.)
Ortegas had a couple good moments. Her questioning Pelia, and I loved the look on her face after she evades a bunch of incoming fire. I'm sure I've had that exact look when I get away with crap I shouldn't in a game. Particularly PvP games.
Her confidence when hiding from the Klingons too. ("Over"confidence?)
Welp, this isn't the worst look Klingons have had.
That blood wine actually looks like blood. I am impressed, whoever is responsible for that did a great job.
La'an channeling some Princess-Leia-conning-Jabba energy with that Antimatter Detonation Switch ruse on the Klingon buyer.
Chapel/M'Benga, that was quite the ride.
Will say I'm curious what/if any side-effects or drawbacks are with that serum. I'm wondering if maybe there's an ingredient that's impossible to synthesize and difficult to procure. (Ie. from an endangered animal/plant.) Ergo why it's not equipped by everyone in Starfleet security.
M'Benga has some interesting demons in his past.
Finally, noticed something overarching this episode.
There's some measure of failure in almost all the major plot-lines.
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Pike/Una can't contact this Lawyer they apparently need.
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Spock can't con Pelia, particularly due to his inability to lie.
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Chapel/M'Benga wander off to go do something noble but to the viewer, obviously ill-conceived. The girl shouts their names, and shortly after they're, unsurprisingly, dragged off at gunpoint.
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They could've wrapped up the whole episode with the Klingon ship never finding out. They didn't end it that way. The false-flag ship makes it out, the Klingons see.
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Bit of a stretch so it's last and not a hill I'm dying on, but the admiralty seem to have had a failure to predict or even understand the Gorn. Not really a failure in the way the others were, but still a failure of-sorts.
Overall I loved it, couple missteps and a joke or two that didn't land, but no dealbreakers and just lots of great entertainment.
Looking forward to more.
My gut feeling is that with a couple changes this episode would have hung together better-
- Have them take a shuttle instead of the Enterprise. This lowers the stakes for our command crew and simply makes more sense than half the crew (that wasn't on leave) agreeing to steal a ship. It also means they need to figure out a different way to deal with the fake Federation ship at the end of the episode is some way other than 'shoot it with bigger guns'
- Have Chapel and M'Benga do something within their character strengths to escape instead of magic drug that lets them hand-to-hand fight their way through a dozen or more Klingons.
That said, there were a lot of things I DID like about the episode, including the Klingon Captain at the end and the new Chief Engineer.
- I am 100% here for the chaotic energy that Carol Kane is going to bring to this show.
- The Klingon captain had exactly the right amount of swagger and sassiness that a TOS-era Klingon captain is supposed to have. I'm glad that they're moving on from some of the Discovery Klingon characterization while also resisting the urge to jump right to them behaving like TNG Klingons.
Blowing up a Crossfield class in an episode with real Klingons weeks after we learned of Discovery's cancellation feels quite loaded with subtext. Reminds me of DS9 blowing up a Galaxy class on screen within a week of TNG ending.
For the love of Pete can we stop with all of the lame catch phrases and dumb jokes? Spock should have just uttered something simple suiting the Vulcan personality/character, like "proceed". But no, we have to get a lame line one step above a fart joke...
Spock should have just uttered something simple suiting the Vulcan personality/character
I would argue that that's exactly what he did. That line was very representative of where his character is in this episode - stressed-out and awkward.
Regarding Nurse Chapel almost dying - this is one of the TV/movie tropes that I think is such a cheap and terrible device and I am tired of it. Discovery was full of these scenes where they make you believe a main character really almost died, only to survive after all, and having their crew mates weep for them (I am looking at you Burnham). There are much better ways to create good drama.
@triktrek Oh, boy - Can we talk about “Picard”?! Data dies in Nemesis, a great and noble sacrifice. Which is then diminished, because we brought him back for Picard! The staff didn’t think the Nemesis sacrifice was a worthy sendoff, or perhaps *they* wanted to do the sending off. So we’ll kill him again, this time with feeling! But, season three, the old gang is all getting together again. Maybe we can resurrect him one more time? (I’m aware of the supposed differences, but really. It was Data.)
And they killed off Picard! Another great and noble sacrifice! But no, not really, let’s bring him back as an android, you’ll never notice the difference! 🙄
It’s really at the point where a character's death is robbed of all drama, because there's always a way to resurrect them. It was a dream, they were in the Mirror universe, the mycelium network made a copy, etc.
I’d normally agree with you but I don’t think they were trying to fool the audience in this case. It was more about showing Spock’s emotional reaction.
Still, there’s better ways of showing that than the almost dying trope.
spoiler
Nurse Chapel is in TOS - so there wasn’t really any risk that she was going to die here.
undefined> I’d normally agree with you but I don’t think they were trying to fool the audience in this case. It was more about showing Spock’s emotional reaction.
Yep that was my take as well.
Yeah, putting aside that not everyone has seen TOS who is watching this show, I didn't interpret this as some kind of attempt to make the audience think Chapel was going to die. The purpose of this happening was all about what it shows about Spock and the scenes and character development that come from that.
And I think in this case it was quite effective and I wouldn't change it to something else. Spock was holding off the order and he was really upset because he didn't want to give the order that kills Chapel and M'Benga (though he has more attachment to Chapel). The threat to their lives is a vital part of this story they're telling about Spock and it wouldn't have the same effect if they changed the situation to something else. Seeing him have to give the order, then have them be possibly alive, but then having Chapel seem to be dead and Spock himself bring her back was very powerful for me and I don't think that could be replaced with something else or a different kind of situation and have the same impact on either Spock or the audience.
Both the scene in the transporter room and in sick bay later were excellent excellent scenes for Spock and highlights of the episode for me. Ethan Peck's acting was really strong in those scenes too — I'm so glad to have him playing Spock.
Really delighted with this episode.
No complaints. Can’t really buy into the nitpicks on this one. It seemed completely Trek, and gave many of the ensemble their moments to shine. Production design gorgeous, virtual staging more seamless, costumes excellent, vfx great.
I like how M’Benga has hoarded the green vial as part of his lingering trauma. Better, we finally see a physician giving himself the juice instead of Kirk or some other command officer. In fact, one has to wonder if McCoy carried a stash provided by M’Benga.
Spock’s unresolved feelings for Chapel are well crafted and mirror the lingering pain we see her left with in TOS. It makes those scenes with Chapel in TOS comprehensible instead of cringe-inducing.
I liked it, but it didn’t have enough Pike.
Doesn't that make it better? TOS had Kirk but it wasn't about Kirk. SNW has Pike but it isn't about Pike. They're both about the Enterprise, its crew, and its missions(s).
Always need more Pike!
I mean, it was telegraphed in S1 but there are definitely going to be some Gorn retcons this season.
I'm fine with this! But it was already tough to reconcile what we saw in S1 with later crews, "attending Gorn weddings" (much harder, imo, than the more reasonable 'they have been encountered, just in a limited capacity and with few survivors) and a full on invasion plotline - featuring Spock and Uhura no less - makes Arena tough to reconcile.
Again, that's fine!
I like the current Klingon design, though I wish they had kept the double nostril from DIS. The redesign went too far but their attempt to physically show the Klingon's redundant biology was appreciated.
The actual episode's plot was...fine. A bit rushed. Felt like a Mass Effect sidequest which is fine for an ep but hopefully not the feeling of the season as a whole. Establishing the character's war experiences and generally situating the series as post-war is probably necessary for the rest of the season. I have to wonder if they went out of their way to only show Spock and Pelia with the Klingons given other crew.....probably aren't ready to split a barrel of bloodwine.
Speaking of Pelia: a race of immortals living in secret alongside humanity and now just regular, serving members of Starfleet? Identifiable by accent even? It's a BIG swing and probably the most interesting (though for now unexplored) idea in the episode.
On the Crossfield refit...presumably from the 'shell' style associated with the pre-TOS ships (as seen in DIS Binary Stars sequence) with the Enterprise's modernized plating? Probably would have been simpler to just have a new class.
WE ARE BACK!!!! :D
I feel like I have waited so long and it was worth it, while at first I wasn't bought entirely on the action, it really came together at the end.
I loved the entire part of Spock stealing the Enterprize for the first time of many and April's unintentional implications for the future. SNW keeps proving it has the Trek energy, yes it might stumble some, I can understand questions about magic steroids (it's a bit out there even for me but I am also surprised it took this long to have it, but maybe its not meant for combat actually but some medical thing?)
But it doesn't change that the quality of this show is so high, this really manages to capture the feelings of the older series, DS9 and TNG but also with a certain high quality to it.
Loved seeing the Crossfield get another showing and how the D7 has become the mainstay. I like that we get some more traditional trek ships out there. That feel like the older ones.
Klingon blood wine drinking with Spock was amazing.
I also loved Pellia and haven't heard of the lanthenians before but something about the half crazy old lady character is just amazing.
I laughed so much, felt so much heart warming. But then also feeling my heart ripped out with the memory to Nichelle and seeing that she has passed. I remember reading it but had kinda lost track of it.
I am so looking forward to more episodes of this <3
Finally had time to watch it tonight and I thought it was great.
I feel like what seemed corny or off was on purpose. Spock is on a learning curve with his emotions/duty conundrum and we certainly felt that.
Looking forward to next week!
I also enjoyed this week's episode. I don't care for how close Spock and nurse Chapel are, but ok that's fine I guess lol
I hope to see more cooking.
Before season 1, I was sceptical about what I'd heard of the direction they were taking with Chapel, but Jess Bush's depiction of her has been one of my favourite things about the show so far. I'm happy to see more of her and Spock working their way through this.
👍
That was my interpretation too. I'm cautiously optimistic!
I'm so happy to have SNW back. Whoever decided to put Carol Kane in the show needs to get a raise; she is absolutely spectacular. I'm very curious to see where her character goes.
I enjoy the idea of Spock being more emotional it really puts it into perspective that Vulcans have emotions they just try to keep them under lock and key and Spock being half human is having a harder time with that compared to most Vulcans is... relatable.
I did not like weird green super power drug that Chapel and M'Benga took to fight the the Klingons. It came from no where, the shot on the eyes right out of Dread made me think it was literally Slo-Mo from that movie. It really wasn't necessary, they could have just grabbed phasers somewhere instead.
I'm not realy sure how I feel about them using the term false flag in Star Trek. The plot makes sense but still it's a very charged term today.
Yeah, the drug scene didn't feel great to me, they literally could have just found phasers or found a cleverer way around it.
I was wondering if you could explain the issue with the term 'false flag?' As far as I was aware, it's when party A carries out an action and tries to frame party B for it - which was exactly what was happening here.
Yes, what was up with the green stuff?? I thought maybe I missed something from last season and kept watching thinking I'd remember but... Nope. I was half expecting them to get time-accelerated like in TOST Wink of an Eye episode, so they could just zip past all the Klingons.