Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Hype Train To the Stars

[Exposition Owl]

No, like. Even before the episode began, I had a feeling they were going to do a cliffhanger. They've done so many classic Trek tropes all season and confidently done so many ostentatious things, that they for sure would be feeling themselves enough to go out on a cliffhanger.

Ah, OK. Yeah, that makes sense. The (totally earned!) confidence they’ve been showing this season has been a real sight to see.

 

[Voncaster]

Catching up, slowly. Just watched Spok Amok, great episode. Need to find out more details about Enterprise Bingo.

I'm also catching up. I watch on disc, so I'm well behind the streaming release schedule.

I liked Enterprise Bingo. I was less pluses by the body swap. Having two people who control their emotions body swap was an odd choice to me. I would have preferred swapping two characters with greater personality differences.

I like the show. Does anyone know if the second Gorn episode was intentionally an homage to Alien? Seemed like a lot of similarities: crashed ship with dead crew, fast growing creature and iirc acid spit or blood.

 

[JBear]

The finale was good, but possibly my least favourite episode of the season? That's more a testament how this season has been straight bangers, though. Loved how punchy the shot of the saucer crashing through that jammer was, and I'm also a real big fan of their Scotty.

1.) Did anybody else get an XCOM vibe from the scene with the Enterprise away team making their way down the wrecked main street of the colony?

Absolutely, yes, but, bizarrely, the first game specifically, not the remake.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Pretty good finale. Not as strong of a banger two-parter like some other season finales in the franchise but pretty good nonetheless.

Has this been officially renewed for a third season? Because if it's not hoooooo boy.

Also there goes my pet theory that every season would bring in a new Engineer and we keep expecting it to be Scotty and it never is and only in the season finale does he show up but just as another voice cameo. Honestly I'm happy to be wrong there.

 

[Kirin]

1.)

Did anybody else get an XCOM vibe from the scene with the Enterprise away team making their way down the wrecked main street of the colony?

Oh yeah, extremely! Pretty much every interaction in that setting really.

Also WHAT, I was blithely assuming that this was just a two-part finale, y’all are telling me we have to wait til next season for this? Gahhhhhh.

 

[JBear]

Also WHAT, I was blithely assuming that this was just a two-part finale, y’all are telling me we have to wait til next season for this? Gahhhhhh.

8-year-old me is laughing.

(Or maybe 9-year-old me? BoBW is the more obvious analogue, but for whatever reason, I remember the wait for Redemption part II being way less bearable for your JBear.)

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Has this been officially renewed for a third season? Because if it's not hoooooo boy.

They announced it was renewed for S3 long before S2 came out. But production was halted indefinitely because of the writer’s strike, so y’all have to wait at least a year after the writer’s/actor’s strike has concluded before you can see S3.

 

[Octopus Prime]

They were smart to make sure all the characters in peril were *not* the characters who were regulars on TOS

 

[Mothra]

Pretty mid ep for the finale. The Gorn are not the most exciting enemies when you get them out of their ships, since they're just xenomorphs again.

The light-based communication stuff seemed at least a bit more interesting, wonder if that'll elevate the story somewhat when part two hits.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Pretty mid ep for the finale. The Gorn are not the most exciting enemies when you get them out of their ships, since they're just xenomorphs again.

I appreciate what they're doing. I understand the disappointment here? Like, they're playing with scary-movie tropes, but it's not actually that scary. Part of that is because of the prequel nature of the show, we know most of these characters will be safe and not actually die. A big part of a successful scary movie the peril and threat of death feeling real. That's not really something SNW can help by nature of its place in the timeline and how faithful it tries to be.

But - and maybe this is me giving the writers too much credit - I think a big part of these Gorn episodes is that they work on a deconstructive level? Like, the plot in the Alien movies only ever work because nearly everyone in the settings are incredibly stupid/incompetent. And really, that's just most horror in general. Like, how many zombie movies happen where the only reason the main characters get screwed because there's that one asshole who hides that they were bitten? That kind of plotting can't work in a Star Trek show, especially when Star Trek as an ethos has far more faith in the core nature of humanity than most horror things do. These characters are all the best of the best, with (mostly) impeccable moral compasses. Things are not going to feel all that scary and hopeless when we're genre savvy and know that they'll find a way to get out of this problem just like the hundreds of others they've gotten out of before.

 

[Mothra]

I agree that this doesn't follow the Alien/Aliens model to the T, which is good. Though I think most of the cast in Alien/Aliens behaves rationally (excepting the bad guys), their plans and reactions are very survival driven. The space truckers want the thing out an airlock, the marines want to blow up the colony. Both of those are very not-Starfleet ways of dealing with the unknown.

A thing I like that they're doing in the finale, and in the other Gorn eps, is making them genuinely "monsterous" in how they cull and breed using sentients as cattle. This is just not something that can ever be tolerated by or within the Federation... the way they run their society requires prey, and even the klingons have found more civil ways to satisfy their militaristic thirst.

I am happy that the crew has settled into a "just kill all of them" consensus to these horrible-ass space monsters. The conflict here is in how curious Pike and the crew will continue to allow themselves to be: Why do they do this? What drove them here? Was it the solar flare, or are they expanding militarily? The Federation fears the military possibility enough that it now colors how they're looking at this. I like where that puts the characters. They are not at all inclined to take a sober look at this situation, one of their very own was killed by these things. It reminds me how the bugs in Starship Troopers were technically reacting to colonizing efforts by the fascistic humans, and how that fact was quickly buried in the propaganda.

I expect and hope that part 2 is going to add a lot more nuance to this situation, because it's potentially more interesting than a bug hunt.

 

[SpoonyBard]

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Tfw it’s a T’Lyn episode
Edit: I don’t know how to feel about Kayshon doing a Naruto-run
Edit2: I like to imagine Worf running holistic wellness exercises with his security team and I’m pretty sure that’s the joke?

 

[Kirin]

@WisteriaHysteria I think you got your Trek threads mixed up

 

[Daikaiju]

That's Mirror Universe WisteriaHysteria! Get'em!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Thread mixed up confirmed. Points all still stand. Go catch up with LDS! It's great!

 

[Exposition Owl]

Go catch up with LDS!

Is LDS the official abbreviation for Lower Decks, then?

 

[Daikaiju]

That or VAAMF.

 

[FelixSH]

Those Old Scientists was totally amazing. So adorable, and so funny. It made me feel so, so happy.
I teared up a bit, when Spock said goodbye.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I should go back and watch it now that i've watched Lower Decks