WHY WE LIKE IT: Will they/won't they... survive?
WHY WE DON'T: Continuity's rubber band might just snap.
REVIEW: They left a LOT to resolve last season, and Part II suffers from that abundance of jeopardy. The Gorn have captured colonists and part of our beloved crew. They outnumber/outpower the Enterprise by a substantial degree. And Captain Batel has been infected with a Gorn clutch, which will hatch unless Chapel finds a way to stop it. So when, in the early moments, the Enterprise pulls off a complicated plan that involves them ramming Gorn shields and secretly shooting a homing beacon into it via a dead torpedo, it's only one of several complicated plans that may or may not strain credulity because they are so quickly explained. You might even get lost as to how Starfleet wins the day by the end. But new shots in the opening sequence? Cool.
The episode's greatest trick, in all that fast-paced fury, is to make us believe they'd actually kill off one of the regulars. In the opening scene, I remember thinking I really wanted to see more of Mitchell. And they even gave her a nice moment of resilience here. (I like how Pike makes decisions, generally, choosing from several options - he definitely listens to everyone - but in Mitchell's case, he still should have sent her to bed... though judging by the dead-to-the-world zombie officer who walks off when Scotty relieves them, he might just have wanted to keep the acting on the bridge up.) But then they started teasing Erica's death, and it seemed like Mitchell was due to replace her. It would be true to say that Ortega was underused (her schedule, apparently) in the previous seasons, so it was believable. And by the time they're escaping the Gorn ship, she's bleeding out and calling back to her Season 2 moment about "flying the ship", and you're sure this is a scripted goodbye. I frankly couldn't believe she actually made it (though not unscathed, as we'll find out). You got me, SNW. You really got me.
Everything Gorn related is, of course, harrowing. La'an continues to prove a favorite as she faces her boogeyman and essentially saves her crew and many colonists from them. The "xenomorph" aesthetic is strong, and thinking of people being digested alive is upsetting (Ortega's hand is a horror show). Meanwhile, Batel is allergic to stasis, so Chapel and Spock have to deal with body horror trying to save her life (she makes it, too, I thought this would end more badly than it did, Pike too, as he almost starts praying). She is only saved with genetically modified blood (Una's), but it's not clear how "bad" this is (a lot of grumbling, but no mention of a problem in the next episode). And we see full-grown Gorn, which strains Arena's credibility more and more. Not that they changed the look - it's policy - but Kirk was a lieutenant when Starfleet almost went to war with the Gorn and he doesn't know anything about them in that episode a few years later? Ultimately, the Gorn do NOT become a concern going forward, so it's perhaps not as big a problem as continuity nerds would have it. Their life cycle is controlled by their stars' activity, which the Enterprise manipulates to make their war-like ways dormant again (until they "awaken" again in Arena), which is one of those complicated solutions I was talking about. And here I thought the new opening sequence showing the fleet would mean we would be embattled for longer (not a complaint).
Now, speaking of complicated, three things: 1) Scotty recreating his "chameleon" broadcast (prefiguring the "photonic" way the Gorn see the universe) is key to getting the ship into Gorn space. He and Pelia make a great pair, and she reveals that he works best under pressure. I'm liking "the making of the Scotty we know" and it's great to have Pelia be a part of it, the mentor he loves to hate. 2) Chapel claims she doesn't "do complicated", and here truly breaks up with Spock, denying him the possibility of a long-distance relationship. It's pretty clear from this the next episode will take place three months later, when she's back, and yeah, it gets more complicated. 3) And I hate to point this kind of thing out, but I find it distracting. With the long waits between seasons, actors/characters tend to change their looks. But since Part II takes place seconds after Part I, we have all the women in wigs to hide it. Uhura is the most affected because Celia Rose Gooding grew her hair out and is wearing a bulging skullcap to hide it.
LESSON: Be careful what you wish for. This has been your first warning.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: An exciting return for the show, perhaps too exciting, given the Enterprise does three impossible things before breakfast, but are we really complaining about that?
Comments
Hard to argue with anything you’ve said.
Some thoughts: I have no problem with the look of the Gorn. The Enterprise bridge looks pretty different as well. To me, I apply the same principle as I do to Doctor Who - it’s just production values between a half century of TV, and in my imagination/head canon, they look the same.
Pelia and Scotty - love that pairing. I love the growing of these characters (all of the TOS crew that we’ve seen), into the characters we know they will become. It’s been believable to me. And it’s been fun.