Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Pike Series)

[Dex Sawash]

Wait, That was JT Kirk? I thought it was like Frank Kirk or something and just ignored it altogether.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Compared to what people feared after the first episodes, they've done quite a good job. The whole theme of Pike knowing his fate and being determined by it was left on the side during most the season, then addressed for good in the finale, we didn't have a finale about Sarek, or Khan, the cast is fine, with parts that aren't derivative from TOS or the other shows.
So far, the show is solid, and has delivered on its promise to deliver standalone episodes in the tradition of classic Star Trek.

It's still puzzling to see how little

Spoiler alert

Una/Rebecca Romijn was used during the season. The character was barely featured in most of the episodes, then she suddenly becomes the cliffhanger for the season. She's apparently still part of the main cast for season 2, so it looks like it's not a matter of getting rid of the actress or a precaution before contract renegotiations, but more of an afterthought for a character that was severely underused, even if she's supposed to be the second officer.

[close]

Otherwise,

Spoiler alert

I truly enjoyed the way they handled the legacy and remade "Balance of Terror", but with Pike in charge. It was the right balance between references and changes within the confine of an alternative future episode, and it also serves as an admission that Pike, regardless of his qualities (and Mount's performance) will ultimately serve as a side note to Kirk and Spock. It's much better to be aware of this rather than to push up the stakes for Strange New Worlds and to imply that the Enterprise, under Pike's command, achieved more than during its later years.

[close]

[Lemming]

The underuse of Romijn has been pretty bewildering but I get the sense the writers were struggling with the low number of episodes they had to work with. Same reason for the lack of development for Ortegas.

With eight members in the main cast, it does strike me that a great way to do it would have been one episode dedicated to each of them, which leaves one episode free for any type of story and one more for the mandatory big cinematic finale. That sort of seemed to be what they were doing at first: the pilot episode is more or less about Pike, "Children of the Comet" is about Uhura, "Ghosts of Illyria" is about Una, "Memento Mori" is kind of about La'an, but after that they went off into doing stories about space pirates and Alien knockoffs and storybooks come to life (though I suppose the latter could count as a M'Benga episode).

I'd say that now that the Pike fate plot has been cleared away and the teething troubles are over, the way is clear for season two, but apparently Kirk's going to be joining the cast in some capacity and that Sybok plot is still open so who knows what they're planning.

[13 schoolyards]

I'm (slightly) less concerned about having Kirk more involved in SNW than I was before the final episode. They did a decent job of defining him as a character separate from Shatner's performance, and also as a captain that was distinct from (but not superior to) Pike.

It's easier now to see how Kirk could be around without overwhelming the series - while Spock is pretty much fully formed on SNW, the Kirk we saw is the basis of the later version but still has a way to go before he's a true shirtless snogging machine

[Dex Sawash]

I guess I have to rewatch to see this Kirk everyone is on about.

[Mobbd]

Kirkshire Hunt

[Lemming]

Yeah Paul Wesley wasn't too bad as Kirk. He's a tricky character to write and to perform because, really, he's not that well-defined in TOS, and can change personality almost entirely between episodes. Shatner's performance holds it all together but any actor who just does a Shatner impression will come across as a laughing stock.

I read an interview with Paul Wesley where he said that this episode was his first performance as Kirk and that he took some of the pressure off by reminding himself that this was meant to be a different Kirk from a different timeline, and that we'd see something more akin to Shatner's Kirk in the coming season. It's a really difficult role to step into and I definitely respected that he approached the character as his own and didn't try to replicate Shatner, even if the result was a character that didn't really feel recognisable as TOS Kirk. Interested to see how he plays it in season two.

[jamiefairlie]

meant to be a different Kirk from a different timeline

Really? I thought this was the same timeline as classic Trek?

[Lemming]

A different timeline in this episode, as viewed by Pike - although it doesn't quite match up since I'm fairly sure Kirk had been promoted to captain of the Enterprise some time before Pike got irradiated.

[jamiefairlie]

Ah, I see, right.

[Mr Trumpet]

A different timeline in this episode, as viewed by Pike - although it doesn't quite match up since I'm fairly sure Kirk had been promoted to captain of the Enterprise some time before Pike got irradiated.

Not necessarily a problem if we infer that Pike refused his promotion and secondment to teaching and remained captain of the Enterprise instead.

[Malcy]

There is a crossover episode coming in S2. With LOWER DECKS! Apparently it will be a mix of live action and animation.

[Alberon]

Lower Decks has managed to mostly swing itself around from parody to just comedy, but it's still going to be an odd fit even with SNW at its silliest.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Maybe it will be the best of both worlds.

[Dex Sawash]

Wait, That was JT Kirk? I thought it was like Frank Kirk or something and just ignored it altogether.

Check out this dunce^

I never watched the final frontier episode until now.