Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I am very much looking forward to this show, despite the fact that it spun off from my least favorite show of the franchise (DIS I mean, not TOS). When DIS premiered, I was prepared to accept enhanced special effects and redesigned sets, but I was not prepared to accept the blatant violations of canon for which the series became known (the "spore drive," the Klingons, the backstory and the tech in general), yet the show runners continue to insist that DIS is set in classic continuity rather than a rebooted continuity of its own. [I don't understand; no one insists that the 2004 Battlestar Galactica is part of the same continuity as the 1978 original (which it just as obviously is not), and everyone is fine with it.] My plan is to approach SNW with the same optimism I had for DIS and hope it doesn't reference its mother show too much.

Season One:

1. Strange New Worlds - p1
2. Children of the Comet - p1
3. Ghosts of Illyria - p1
4. Memento Mori - p1
5. Spock Amok - p2
6. Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach - p2
7. The Serene Squall - p2
8. The High Country
9. The Elysian Kingdom - p2
10. All Those Who Wander - p2
11. A Quality of Mercy - p2

Season Two:

1. The Broken Circle - p3
2. Ad Astra Per Aspera - p3
3. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - p4
4. Among the Lotus Eaters - p4
5. Charades - p4
6. Lost in Translation - p5
7. Those Old Scientists - p6
8. Under the Cloak of War - p6
9. Subspace Rhapsody - p7
10. Hegemony - p7

Season Three:

1. Hegemony II - p8
2. Wedding Bell Blues - p9
3. Shuttle to Kenfori - p9
4. A Space Adventure Hour - p9
5. Through the Lens of Time - p9
6. The  Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail - p9
7. What Is Starfleet? - p11
8. Four-and-a-Half Vulcans - p11
9. Terrarium - p11
10. New Life and New Civilizations - p12

Season Four:

1. Valles Marineris - p12
2. The Griffin Incident - p12
3. Human Best Friend - p13

[JD DeLuzio]

It was gripping. The lack of a clear explanation was, I suppose, the point, but I was a little disappointed by it. We did have fun imagining how this episode would have been scripted had it been a TOS episode:

Kirk (vo): Captain's log, Stardate What.evs. A mysterious signal has led us to the long-lost ship, the USS Griffin. Angsty, foreboding stuff about what could have happened.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam on board. First weird thing happens. Dramatic music. Cut to opening credits. Episode is already 5-10 minutes shorter.

OR

Kirk (vo): Captain's log. Stardate What.evs. Something about mysterious signal.

Some banter as they hone in on the source of the signal. We see the other ship.

Uhura: Captain! That's the U.S.S. Griffin! 

Dramatic music. Slow zoom on Kirk and Spock. Kirk looks shocked. Spock raises eyebrow. Cut to opening credits.

I'll skip my usual whine about characters doing things that have no connection with the people we met in TOS who are, theoretically, the same people as these ones are supposed to be, especially in an ep that leans pointedly into canonical future events. That's awkward phrasing, but never mind.

We both rolled our eyes at the "bonding/healing" conversation about offscreen matters that occurs between Kirk and La’An as they walk fraughtfully with taut nerves into anticipated danger.  That conversation could, I suppose, occur, but not at that moment. 

And we definitely enjoyed this one more than the season premiere.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Again, we must disagree. This is a story built almost entirely out of familiar Star Trek and horror clichés. It indulges in tasteless sequences, shock value for its own sake, and dishonest storytelling. None of it has any emotional weight. And in the end, nothing is resolved. I do agree with you, however, that this episodes "leans pointedly into canonical future events." I had to keep reminding myself that this is not the original Star Trek universe.

[JD DeLuzio]

The premiere was a story built almost entirely out of familiar Star Trek and time-travel clichés. However, horse races....

House of the Dragon has us re-watching the original Game of Thrones. Despite the fact that it's riddled with creepy AF sexual and cultural stuff, it's far superior to the prequel. And it has Peter Dinklage. What I find interesting is that, having read the first three novels since watching the show (they start to meander too much at that point, and I lost interest), I am recalling scenes in the series that actually don't happen, or, rather, happen quite differently.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Ready for round three? Episode! Ready for episode three?

HUMAN BEST FRIEND: The main cast takes shore leave on a planet whose atmosphere is said to have a "mildly intoxicating effect." A threat develops and there is a "moral" to the story, but the main point of this story seems to me to be to show the cast drunk. There were a few laughs, I admit, but overall I didn't like it. You?