WHY WE LIKE IT: Captain Pike is back, and episodic Star Trek with him!
WHY WE DON'T: He's not gonna be a sad sack like in The Cage, is he?
REVIEW: As with the beginning of any new show, there's a lot to unpack. All the characters, even in terms of recasting, are not new - we had been screaming for Anson Mount's Enterprise to get its own show since it (and Pike, and Spock, and Number One) appeared in Discovery Season 2 - but even they find themselves in a new situation. Namely that they must now support a series! We HAD seen the Enterprise, or to be exact, its bridge, and simply have to come to terms with the more modern interpretation. Sickbay, Engineering (coming soon), Rec Deck, are all much bigger and slicker than they were on the Original Series. The characters have been recast and might have different appearances and accents, well, the ship has been recast too. So it's only when technology seems disproportionate with TOS that we might raise an eyebrow, like when costuming and hair are provided by the transporter in this episode. I think the real measure of canonicity is whether or not STORIES contradict other stories, not anything or anyone's specific LOOK. I will admit to some misgivings where they recast across racial lines, if only because it seems to give ammunition to a toxic element within fandom that would have the whole of contemporary Trek declared non-canon (you waste your time with your petitions, fools, we'll just enjoy the Renaissance). Oh, not Robert April who was only ever seen in animation, on a show that is dodgy in terms of canonicity already, but I wonder why the young Mr. Kyle is Asian and not British in the least. Couldn't this low-level player have been an entirely new character? Strange New Worlds is always in danger of trying to force links to the original series where they are not needed; we'll see if it ever falls off the tightrope.
A few words about the opening credits sequence before we discuss the cast... It's gorgeous and thankfully not another of those "abstract" Netflix-style openers (like Discovery's and Picard's). I think Anson Mount's rendition of the "Space..." speech is a bit slow. No one has ever been able to beat Shatner and Stewart for me, and this certainly doesn't. But as far as the visuals go, note how the Enterprise is always visiting a literal "strange new world", a promise mostly kept through the first 10 episodes - we are either visiting planets or there's a strangeness that affects the ship, way to keep focus. It makes you wish you could see the stories associated with some of these unusual environments. Now if only they could start putting episode titles on screen like they used to. There's a great place for it under the aligning planets at the end there.
Captain Pike of course leads this cast, but against his will, as the series opens. I questioned often whether this "re-Huntering" was a good idea. In The Cage, Pike was at a crossroads, wondering if he should leave Starfleet after a bungled mission. Over the course of the episode, he learns to get one with it and finds his groove back. In Discovery, we met a Pike who was well over it, a charmer with good humor and a very personal command style. That's who fans begged be given a series, but that's not exactly who we get. Instead, having been shown his dark future in Discovery, he now returns to something closer to what Geoffrey Hunter was doing in The Cage - he is at a crossroads, doesn't know if he wants to stay in Starfleet, and second guesses all his decisions. It's more existential, in that knowing the future could mean he'll think himself invincible for the better part of a decade and make mistakes, etc., but I do feel it's a step back for the character. Anson Mount's likable performance is still there, and though Pike zones out a lot in this first episode, his command style and humor are still present, as a front if nothing else. One wonders if his relationship with Captain Batel will keep him out of romantic subplots, but it is an interesting dynamic I hope they develop further.
As we catch up with Spock, we find his relationship with T'Pring is more than what was sold in Amok Time (see Secondary Watching) and will be an important part of the show. I like it. Arranged marriages are supposed to be logical (and unemotional), but getting to know each other prior to tying the knot is equally logical. The youthful betrothal is here painted as only one step on the road to matrimony, with T'Pring making it official by asking him to marry her (Vulcan is a matriarchy, so again, this makes sense) and already Spock's split duties create problems (a mirror of his split genetics). She already knows Pike enough to call hm Chris, so this has been ongoing. It's not their first meeting SINCE they were kids or anything. Rebecca Romijn's Number One, or Una, was the other crew member we knew from Discovery, and while she provides the voice-over at the top of the show, she comes in late to this. We do find out that she has a connection to La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) who she rescued from the Gorn when she was an Ensign, inspiring La'an to join Starfleet. The rest of the characters are all new (or newly recast).
La'an's connection to the Gorn is certainly interesting, the aliens still a mystery in these pre-Arena days, and given some horrific Xenomorphic traits. Her experience as the sole survivor of her colony ship is harrowing and has made her a joyless young woman, on edge, no-nonsense, and cautious. She is to SNW what Worf was to TNG, except Pike listens to her. She plays guest XO in this episode and is offered the job of Chief of Security once Una is back. Still outstanding: What's up with that last name. Her attitude contrasts with the rest of the crew who are more personable and humorous as a rule. Chief among these is Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas, serving at the helm and as audience stand-in/comic relief throughout the season. She seems to have been with the ship for a while because Pike knows her and allows her to crack wise on the bridge (but why is she in red?). Then there's Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel, a fun, punky interpretation of Majel Barrett's stick in the mud (so was her Number One, I find a lot of glee in the fact that two Majel Barrett characters are in the cast though). She's part of some civilian exchange and an expert on the new techniques of gene modification to make you look like another species (she must have lent her expertise in The Enterprise Incident). Her relationship to Spock is one to watch for. Dr. M'Benga, who made a couple appearances on TOS, here played by Babs Olusanmokun, is CMO and already has a relationship with Pike even if he's newly come aboard. (He also has a pre-existing relationship with Chapel who he calls his "favorite", and they have an inside joke about cornering a rabbit, though one wonders how Ortegas also knows it... did they screw up?) Cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding, filling big shoes admirably) makes a good showing, with youthful wonder (seems like Pike's unnecessary speech at the end is just there to dazzle her) and already an instinct to go above and beyond (she knows how to ingratiate herself to an alien because she familiarized herself with their broadcasts). Talk of a Lt. Kirk makes you do a double-take, but it turns out it's Jim's brother Sam, mustache and all. Dan Jeannotte is a comic actor so he seems an easy fit working under Spock in sciences. Our new engineer will keep, as he only shows up at the very end and has no lines, but it's exciting to get an Andorian on board. Quick mention of Navigator Jenna Mitchell, whose manner I like even if the role is more or less generic - but that last name wasn't picked out of a hat, was it?
The plot of the week requires Pike to be recalled to the Enterprise so he can rescue Una from a disastrous first contact situation with planet Kiley 279 (really? that's what you're going with?). Seems the warp signature discovered there wasn't for a drive, but for a warp BOMB, and these people really weren't ready to accept aliens in their midst or join interstellar society. They are quite pointedly US, today, at each other's throats and teetering on the edge of disaster. This isn't as blunt an approach as Picard Season 2, but it's not subtle either. Their leader has giant hair like she's come kind of alien Sarah Pallin, and she doesn't care about Pike's speeches, only about who has the biggest stick. Well, have you seen the Enterprise? And so the show begins on a story of cowboy diplomacy, where the Prime Directive (just starting to be called that) be damned, Pike is gonna do what must be done to get his people home safe. His justification: These people developed their bomb reverse-engineering what they detected in nearby space when all those ships fought the machine mind's wormhole at the end of Disco S2. Accidental interference now merits a more direct adjustment (which Starfleet eventually capitulates to because the chain of evidence leads back to Discovery and things that can never be spoken of - you can't admit one without the rest). So Pike shows the people of Kiley how the people of Earth blew themselves up in THEIR 21st Century (there are even shots from the January 6th insurrection - told you, it's not subtle), and gives them a choice - kill yourselves or join the Federation (surely, that path is going to take a while). To give the crew a bit more to do, there's a bit where Kileyans are kept sedated on the ship and it goes wrong and people have to race after them, and another where Chief Kyle has to transport a DNA salve right onto Spock's eye. Down on the planet, there's also, oh, not the best fight ever filmed. But it all seems to work out, with the people of the planet taking an interest in the wider universe, ending on a great transition between a child's paper Enterprise cut-out and the real thing. It's just an okay plot, but as a delivery device for all the necessary introductions, it works well.
I do hope we're not going to hear about Discovery ever again (or at least, seldom) because it IS supposed to be legally unmentionable. Discussing it openly in front of La'an (and those extras playing scientists) should be a one-time thing, in my opinion. And guys, a shuttle called the Stamets? That should NOT exist. If we're to believe Spock and his family never ever mentioned Michael Burnham because this rule took root so completely for all involved, you can't have the characters let it slip.
SECONDARY WATCHING: I'm introducing this new rubric for Strange New Worlds ,and Strange New Worlds only, because one of the effects it has had on me is making me want to go back and look at key TOS episodes to see how well SNW fits previous canon. I will try to keep comments for when they become most relevant (for example, I won't mention Arena or Space Seed here even if they relate to La'an's character). The introduction of T'Pring did make me rewatch Amok Time and that damning scene where Spock looks at her picture as a little girl. Yes, it seems to imply they haven't seen each other since, BUT nowhere does it say that. He might have been looking at the betrothal pics, or scanning through different images of her (and we just happened to see that section), or you could even say he didn't want to look at sexy adult T'Pring as a way to stymie his Pon-Farr. But on this point, SNW does not actually contradict TOS. We'll get back to Amok Time in due course. Lt. Kirk's introduction here also made me watch Operation: Annihilate where it's easy enough to confirm the mustache and family, but what I REALLY wanted to see was Spock's reaction. While he doesn't say anything about knowing Sam, he doesn't say he doesn't. He's just not the one who discovers the body, nor would a Vulcan need to express emotion. However, he does seem pained at the fact. In the original episode, you take this to be an empathetic reaction to Kirk's pain, but you could now see it mixed with grief for an old friend. Look at how he keeps his back to the corpse, and wonder if Spock's reckless experimentation on himself to solve the problem isn't at least a little bit motivated by that feeling.
LESSON: Fans can get what they ask for without creating a toxic environment, harassing stars and producers, calling for boycotts, or creating unwholesome bots.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: I'm not in love with the story of the week, but the new cast is instantly interesting and likeable.
Comments
To quote another Scotty on a different Enterprise, this is exciting!