WHY WE LIKE IT: They dialed back the Klingon make-up.
WHY WE DON'T: Season premiere without Pike?!
REVIEW: Enterprise was harboring an illegal crew member (Una) and Pike still means to fight for her so he's off to find her a lawyer (ooh, exciting, cough), leaving Spock in charge, and the Vulcan ends up stealing the Enterprise, not for the last time, so... this is getting to be a pretty criminal ship. I understand that Spock is a legendary character, but on the show itself, PIKE is the guy we want to see in charge, not Ethan Peck's mumbling version (sorry, his delivery still bugs me). So starting the season without Pike (or Una) is a mistake. What we do get is fun, but more of an oddball episode for the middle of the season that its starter. Except we have to get La'an back right away, and we have to take on a new chief engineer as well, both resulting from this specific plot.
At the center of the episode is Spock's unleashed emotions, a consequence of having taken down psychic blocks in the Baby Gorn episode. Now he feels stress, and is particularly conflicted about Chapel who makes his heart skip - and he's almost destroyed by having to potentially sacrifice her for peace. Origin of the harp (M'Benga offers it to him as a stress aid, don't mind cameo appearances from the previous season, cough, cough). I like how Uhura (now an ensign!) notices it. And apparently, this more emotional Vulcan is prone to "following his gut" and disobeying orders, for example when a former crew member sends a message about an anti-Federation threat Starfleet doesn't want to address. It also allows him to find a diplomatic solution with the Klingons, perhaps foreshadowing his role as special envoy in Star Trek VI. It's just a phase, according to TOS, but even there he's more than willing to steal the Enterprise to help a former crew mate.
The theft happily gives Jenna Mitchell more to do. She's been a steady presence on the bridge through Season 1, and I want to know more. Without Pike nor Una, everyone seems to have been bumped up, and that includes her. Also new to the crew is transporter chief Jay, replacing Kyle and perhaps avoiding a continuity anomaly (he would have been a different Kyle from the Brit in TOS). Regardless, the main addition is Carol Kane as Pelia, an atypically comedic character who appears to be immortal, and have a connection to Spock's mom. Her accent was apparently Kane's own idea, and it's rare that aliens are given accents of their own. It's not too far from Kane's own, but sometimes deviates. To date, she's amusing enough, helping the crew steal the ship because her long life has made her bored with teaching, running inspections, etc. She's a bit of a mystery, but my real question is how Pike will react to her self-appointment. I like Carol Kane so I was intrigued from the start.
On the plot! Seems there's a dilithium mining planet on the Federation-Klingon border that's shared, month-to-month, between the two powers. The mining syndicate was making money hand over fist during the war and wants to start it up again. La'an is on site, being a real badass, drinking Klingons under the table and so on. Great episode for her. But it's M'Benga and Chapel who get the biggest share of the action when they're captured by the extremists (described as Klingon and Fed ex-soldiers, but there are a couple of human guards and that's it, less of an alliance than advertised), brought aboard the Starfleet ship they built from scratch and aboard when it launches its false-flag operation. The big surprise is that the pair, when they served during the war, used to shoot up with Klingon adrenaline or something (that's a reference to the current Star Trek comics for ya) and M'Benga still carries the super-soldier serum. It's even suggested the two of them are addicts. Have they fallen off the wagon here, initiating a subplot this season? It's one bad (but necessary) idea after the other for the medical team as they later throw themselves out an airlock without EV suits to avoid the ship exploding. Chief Jay is on the ball, but Spock has to restart Chapel's heart with CPR, so no metaphor there. Speaking of bad choices, I do take exception with some of the direction during these sequences, in particular when the camera goes upside down for no discernible reason, and there's just too much slow motion fighting (though arguably, it's all drug-induced POV).
Enterprise itself gets into a topsy-turvy dogfight with cool effects, and ultimately destroys the fake ship before it can cause an intergalactic incident, a sequence that makes you wonder just how awful the Klingons' sensors are. I get that there's a lot of debris in the system, but they don't detect two Starfleet ships firing at each other and flying in their direction until the ships are right on top of them? Convenient. And not even necessary, since the Klingons DO catch the end of the battle and are ready to call for war based on that, with Spock becoming the captain's drinking buddy acting as the final solution. Admiral April slaps Spock on the wrist pretty lightly for what he's done, but Starfleet has other things on its collective mind, like a potential conflict with the Gorn that seems to be brewing (see Secondary Watching for more).
SECONDARY WATCHING: References in this episode didn't lead me to watching any TOS episodes, since The Menagerie and Arena are the most relevant and I rewatched them last season. It does seem like SNW is in danger of getting further away from established continuity though, since 1) no one mentions in the former episode that Spock was a repeat offender, and 2) making the Gorn a major enemy (if that's what happens) will contradict Arena's first official contact with them. Of note, however, is Chapel thinking about putting space between herself and Spock by spending a couple months on Vulcan doing an internship in archaeological medicine, the very subject her future husband Roger Korby is the preeminent expert in. I guess I'll have to watch What Are Little Girls Made Of? in the near future.
LESSON: War, what is it good for? Profit!
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: A bit of action-adventure, high stakes, etc., as well as introductions to characters and storylines. I'm not, however, convinced by every choice they make.
Comments