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Online Series: Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 2 (LOWER DECK CROSSOVER ALERT)

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johnjm22 said:
I have a bit of an issue with Pike's character.

He lacks agency. Stuff is always happening and he's just along for the ride.

He's always looking to make a joke or sarcastic comment even in serious situations.
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Yeah, you and I agree on this point about Pike's tone as Captain. Look at TNG – a lot of its greatness pivoted on Patrick Stewart's gravitas. His Picard had a profound awareness of the stakes of every decision. There was nothing cute about interspecies negotiations.

Even Shatner's Kirk was dead serious with every command decision. Sure, Kirk would absolutely have ended up in bed with Alora (can't blame him), but he carried an air of authority in his role as Captain.

Mount has the chops, but he needs to find Pike's steel underneath his humanity.
 
I just got around to episode 4. It felt derivative of the TNG episode that introduced the Borg. I'm afraid that the Gorn are the Borg repackaged. It was a somewhat tense episode, though, especially when it looked like Uhura might not make it.
 
Started watching it last night and got two episodes in. It's... pretty good? Definitely a marked improvement over the rest of nu-Trek. I just adore the bottle episodes over the forced 10+ episode arcs that end up not letting the crew breathe or the viewer to just enjoy an adventure without figuring out where to place it within a convoluted plot.
 
Probably the worst episode of the season so far. Unlike two weeks ago where it felt goofy when they were going for goofy, this felt goofy when they were going for tension.
 
I watched only the first episode, which was extremely cringe. Does it get less cringe/better?

I'm beginning to give up on modern Trek.
 
Blender said:
Probably the worst episode of the season so far. Unlike two weeks ago where it felt goofy when they were going for goofy, this felt goofy when they were going for tension.
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Thought the actress playing the Pirate Captain was as subtle as a sledgehammer.
 
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Fantomas said:
I watched only the first episode, which was extremely cringe. Does it get less cringe/better?

I'm beginning to give up on modern Trek.
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It stays fairly cringe. The characters talk and act like high schoolers much of the time. It's often trying to be "cute".

There's is some occasional good stuff in it though. FWIW, the cringe factor is way way lower than Discovery.
 
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Fantomas said:
I watched only the first episode, which was extremely cringe. Does it get less cringe/better?

I'm beginning to give up on modern Trek.
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I slowly lost interest and stopped watching for a few weeks. I'm currently halfway through episode 5 and it may be the cringiest yet.

The series feels like it tries too hard. If a scene is meant to be funny, playful, touching, inspiring or intelligent, it'll really lean into it to make sure that we feel what we're supposed to. It's a problem that Discovery and Picard have, as well.

I don't hate the series like Discovery and Picard, but I'm not enjoying it, either.
 
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Osprey said:
I slowly lost interest and stopped watching for a few weeks. I'm currently halfway through episode 5 and it may be the cringiest yet.

The series feels like it tries too hard. If a scene is meant to be funny, playful, touching, inspiring or intelligent, it'll really lean into it to make sure that we feel what we're supposed to. It's a problem that Discovery and Picard have, as well.

I don't hate the series like Discovery and Picard, but I'm not enjoying it, either.
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I don't think episode 5 is terrible, there's some fun ideas in it, but once again the characters are extremely immature and cringy.

And Spock, for the zillionth time is dealing with his human side verse his Vulcan side. What else can you do with his character at this point? That's the problem with having him on this show. This should have been an entirely new crew. It would have been much more interesting.

SNW is trying really hard to be Star Trek, instead of just telling good stories that happen to be Star Trek.
 
johnjm22 said:
I don't think episode 5 is terrible, there's some fun ideas in it, but once again the characters are extremely immature and cringy.

And Spock, for the zillionth time is dealing with his human side verse his Vulcan side. What else can you do with his character at this point? That's the problem with having him on this show. This should have been an entirely new crew. It would have been much more interesting.

SNW is trying really hard to be Star Trek, instead of just telling good stories that happen to be Star Trek.
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SNW is doing both – it's a straightforward homage to Star Trek while also telling some good stories. Most episodes have succeeded, notably the first episode and the one about the Gorns, but yes... there have been stumbles. And I agree, they do seem to be fetishizing Spock, wringing every ounce of sex-appeal out of a character who became iconic due to Leonard Nimoy himself. Duplicating Trek's most famous character, invented in large part by Nimoy, is hard enough; placing the character front and center and expecting him to carry so much of the story's heft is asking too much. Hopefully, Spock will recede into a secondary role and we can get back to the story, rather than his id.

Unfortunately, this nitpicking of rebooted characters will remain an issue as long we're in prequel mode. If we're in the pre-Kirk Enterprise, we're going to encounter plenty of familiar names. Some will work, others won't, all will be debated. The only way around the endless homages is a series that actually Boldly Goes somewhere new, a next generation after The Next Generation. New characters whose fates aren't already written. Picard is the only series that's moved the timeline forward and isn't a reboot (although, ironically, the last season took place in the past!). Trek fans would love a future-focused show; unfortunately, I doubt it could be sold without tagging a connection to the past.
 
I dislike that it is a prequel of course and wish they would have done a similar show post-DS9/Voyager time, but I still think it's been one of the strongest first seasons of Star Trek after only TOS and DS9.

Modern Trek just doesn't seem to know what to do with Spock. I think Ethan Peck has nailed the portrayal, but of course it did not take long for the writers to go back to "emotional Spock" or "Spock explores his humanity" tropes they keep rolling out in every portrayal.
 
Really enjoyed this week's episode - and the series overall. SNW has found a way to be creative and fun in a way Discovery and Picard haven't.
 
I enjoyed the campy episode this week, though it also had some seriousness with the father/daughter plot. My one issue is that it was kind of a "cheap" resolution to a plot line that it seems they didn't want to do anymore.
 
Blender said:
I dislike that it is a prequel of course and wish they would have done a similar show post-DS9/Voyager time, but I still think it's been one of the strongest first seasons of Star Trek after only TOS and DS9.

Modern Trek just doesn't seem to know what to do with Spock. I think Ethan Peck has nailed the portrayal, but of course it did not take long for the writers to go back to "emotional Spock" or "Spock explores his humanity" tropes they keep rolling out in every portrayal.
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Honestly a lot of this is I think the driving force for TOS (and honestly TNG, DS9, Voyager, and to a lesser extent Ent.) was that character development - to the extent it existed in some of these - happened over the course of 25+ episode seasons in small doses. But the shows weren't about character development - it was something that happened naturally over the course of their adventures.

While I am enjoying SNW, it still is trying to jam a *lot* of stuff with the crew in what - 13 episodes this season? And every episode is in furtherance of that development so far. It still feels a good bit like a modern show (in a bad way).

Edit: Slight expansion. I think there's room in Star Trek for those personal stories of character development so I don't want to come off implying otherwise. It's just... not *every* ST property has to be doing it.
 
SNW from what I've seen is a fine standalone show. The issue is there's too much retconning for me. I grew up on Star Trek and I don't like retconning. There will be times writers are loose with facts are things don't make sense, but it's a whole other level with Nu Trek.

I'm annoyed that Spock now isn't the only TOS character who served aboard the Enterprise prior. It doesn't make sense in the context of TOS, the original six movies, the hundreds of novels, the Marvel/DC/Malibu comic runs, etc. That was a huge part of the show and it was established Spock was the longest tenured person on 1701.

The reason they probably avoid a show about 1701-G or H or years in the future from TNG Era, is those ships keep getting bigger, so more characters to run the thing and better effects are needed.

The Enterprise-F bridge in STO is pretty intense and like three levels.
 
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