“Strange New Worlds”
Following the search for the Red Angel and the battle with Section 31 and Control at the end of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, the inhabitants of a planet not ready to take the next step into the galaxy use data they gathered from observing the battle to build a bomb based on warp technology. When the warp signature is detected by the Federation, Number One is dispatched on a first contact mission. When she and her crew are captured, the Enterprise is reactivated ahead of schedule and Captain Pike is called back to service to lead a rescue mission.
In this episode of Saddle Up! hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing discuss the pilot episode of the new series, how Pike’s experience on the Klingon moon Boreth may impact how he is portrayed in Strange New Worlds, the tenuous nature of the warp bomb story, and the social commentary. We also look at the new cast of characters and how the series fits into the overall Star Trek format.
Chapters
(Click titles to view transcript.)
Intro (00:00:00)
ChrisWelcome everyone to another episode of Saddle Up! our dedicated Star Trek: Strange New Worlds show. And Matthew, the obvious question is, are you ready to saddle up?
MatthewI'm getting back up on that horse, Chris, and I am ready to go. I gotta say, though, it's a lot snowier here than I thought it was gonna be at this time of year.
ChrisYeah, the weather's messed up everywhere in the world these days, so no surprise that it's snowing like that there in Bearcreek, Montana.
MatthewYes. Which, you know, I'm not gonna complain about.
ChrisWell, I do have to say I'm glad to see that you shaved your big fluffy beard and trimmed your hair for this episode.
MatthewWell, you know, I just figured it was time. It's time to look a little bit more presentable and a little less mountain man.
ChrisThey should have titled this episode "A Little Less Mountain Man."
MatthewWell, we always can. So, you know.
ChrisAlright, everyone, we're going to talk about the first episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is entitled, surprisingly, "Strange New Worlds." Here's a quick rundown.
ChrisFollowing the search for the Red Angel and the battle with Section 31 and Control at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 2, the inhabitants of a planet not ready to take the next step into the galaxy use data they gathered from observing the battle to build a bomb based on warp technology. When the warp signature is detected by the Federation, Number One is dispatched on a first contact mission. When she and her crew are captured, the Enterprise is reactivated ahead of schedule and Captain Pike is called back to service to lead a rescue mission.
Pike's Journey (00:02:07)
ChrisSo there we are, Matthew. That's the setup. We talked on the first episode of Saddle Up! about what those scenes of Pike with the beard on the horse in the snow, what all of those might have been, and we speculated that they could be flashbacks, but it turns out they're not flashbacks. We have a direct continuation from the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 2. So what did you think about the introduction of Pike, especially for anyone who wasn't familiar with what happened?
MatthewWell, they did a good job of helping us understand what had happened to him and that this is not directly related to "The Cage" yet, even though he does experience things that will impact his relationship with Starfleet and his livelihood later on, because he has experienced the death of the man he is now in great detail because of what happened on Boreth. And that has left him in a place where he's really not sure about his place in the universe anymore and whether or not he should be the captain of a starship anymore, which I thought was a really interesting conundrum. What's fascinating is that when he said it's the death of the man he is now, which means—and we all know that he is going to go on because he's going to live on—I cannot remember the name of the planet, but he is going to live on the caged planet after his accident.
ChrisOh yeah. Talos IV.
MatthewAnd so, yes. And so he will live a life there. It will just not be the same as the life he is living now as the captain of the Enterprise. And I think the idea of how this might change him, will it make him callous or reckless? You know, what is this going to do to him as a person who has experienced his death in such a vivid way was really interesting.
ChrisYeah.
MatthewAnd it also, I think, does create the milieu for us to understand that Captain Pike is always going to be somebody who's a little bit more melancholy than other captains that we have seen. And it kind of helps us see that there's going to be a lot of things that actually happen to him that are actually going to lead him to question his legitimacy of being on the Enterprise again.
MatthewAnd so I think there's a lot of interesting story elements at play here. And we're still at a loss as to how all this fits into the stuff that we already do know about this man, but we have a lot to chew on now. And I think we still have plenty of room for the character to be able to grow.
ChrisYeah, yeah. When I watched it the first time, he's there in the house, in the cabin. He's talking to Captain Batel, and he won't reveal what happened out there. And he says these things are classified. And it took me—it's been a little while, not a long time—it's been a little while since I watched Star Trek: Discovery season 2. And I was thinking about everything that happened. And I was thinking about the big thing at the end where Starfleet is classifying the entire incident. And so when he says something's classified, I'm thinking of that. And I'm thinking about how all of those events impacted him and made him a bit shy about going back out into space.
ChrisAnd it took me a little while to think, yeah, this is actually about the time crystal. This is actually about the vision of the future that he had. So as you outlined there, that incident on Boreth really did make him reflect on himself in a profound way that we didn't see so much in Discovery itself.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisAnd so then they're picking that up here.
ChrisIf we just fast-forward a little bit, I'm curious what you think about how this might go, because we just finished talking about Star Trek: Picard season 2 on The Artificial Tango. And that was very much a 10-episode sprint to really delve into these characters in a very deep way. And they're sort of setting that up here with Pike as well. But with the nature of this series, as we anticipate it's going to be, do you think this is something that they're likely to drag out through the season and through the series? Or is it more of a setup, and we'll come back to it here and there, maybe in the form of what actions does he take?
ChrisBecause we kind of see that here as well in the action that he ultimately takes on this planet. Or do you think it's going to be like this really deep exploration of the psyche of Christopher Pike?
MatthewWell, I think it's going to turn into cooking with the captains. And Picard and Kirk are going to show up at this mountain cabin.
ChrisThat's what I was thinking, yeah.
MatthewAnd they are going to have a show together, which I think would be phenomenal, because can we just talk about the great taste that the captains have in mountain cabins? I'm so jealous of Pike's cabin here, and I want to be there more than anything else. I think it would be amazing.
MatthewBut as per are we going to be exploring the psyche of Captain Pike in the same way that we explored the characters in Star Trek: Picard, well, I would hope so in some ways in the sense that, why tell a story about this person if we're not going to learn more about them? And so if this whole season is about us understanding more of Christopher Pike, I think that would be phenomenal. You know, there have been some books written and everything about this character, but when it comes to what's on-screen and canon, there is just not a lot. And I think there's plenty of storytelling opportunity here.
MatthewI don't know if it's going to be something that's going to be completely 100 percent taking over the season itself the way our exploration of Picard and the rest of the characters did in that second season, but I could definitely see us really kind of digging into him as a character and using that as a catalyst to dig into other characters who have had some trauma on this show, like La'an Noonien Singh, a character like who has also had an immense amount of trauma, you can tell.
ChrisHmm.
MatthewAnd so putting those two characters together in this series and then allowing them to kind of work with each other to overcome where they've been, to help them get where they want to go, would be really interesting. So that's kind of what I see. What were you thinking, Chris, especially as you've gotten a chance to kind of sit with the episode for a few days now?
ChrisI'm thinking that it's maybe going to be more like the way we got to know the characters and got into their psyches in Deep Space Nine later seasons or Enterprise.
MatthewOkay, I like that.
ChrisSomething along those lines, because my feeling with the tone of this first episode is that there appears to be a very strong effort to get back to the kind of a mix of fun and also serious commentary and exploration.
MatthewOkay. Mm-hmm.
ChrisThat's a lot like what we had in The Original Series or The Next Generation, and during that time period.
MatthewRight.
ChrisAnd so I don't think that we're going to get into this deep, drawn-out commentary on Pike's psyche. I think we're going to see him maybe, as he talked about in here actually, second-guessing himself sometimes or being unsure of what decision to make.
MatthewMm-hmm.
Screw General Order 1! (00:10:48)
ChrisIn this episode, what I found interesting in this episode, too, is that in Star Trek: Discovery season 2—especially in the early episodes of that season—Pike was very concerned with General Order One.
MatthewRight.
ChrisAnd here they're down on this world and he's being told we cannot influence the destiny of this world. And Spock says that to him. And he says, "Whether we meant to or not, Spock, we already have. Our only option now is to influence it well." And then Number One jumps in with, "Chris, General Order One clearly states we cannot." And he says, "Screw General Order One." And he just takes action that we could have seen Kirk take in a situation like that, where he makes that decision that, okay, I have to step in, have to tell these people who we are, where we're from, go in and warn them. But he leaves the decision up to them, unlike Kirk, who would step in and tell them what to do in The Original Series, and then the cleanup ship would fly in.
ChrisAlready there we're seeing him make different decisions. And I think that that's based a lot on the fact that he knows that, a decade from now, this event is going to happen to him and change his life. And so rather than just do what so many of us do in our lives, which is plod along as time goes by, he's decided to really look around and maybe rethink how he approaches things.
MatthewThere did seem to be, to me, also a recognition that Pike understands they have already influenced this world so they've already opened that door and therefore he wants to try and make sure that the influence is one that is positive instead of one that is negative and right now it is wholly negative, because they have created a warp bomb based off of the schematics they were able to get because of what they saw at that point. And that, in some ways, leaves the Federation with an unintended consequence of those actions to which they were doing to try and save the galaxy. And yet it led to this with this world. And therefore, Pike sees that responsibility and decides, no, we're not going to do nothing about it. We're going to do something about it. And so what's interesting is that I think that there's a really good argument in many ways for what Pike is doing here based off of the actual evidence of what happened and the actions that the Federation is responsible for.
MatthewAnd at the same time, taking that to its moral, logical conclusion—that we can't just leave these people to not have all of the information at their fingertips, and Pike gives them that. And he gives them not only all the information that they need, but he gives them the context that they need it in, which is so important. The fact that he hands them all of the facts that they need, but in the correct context so that they can make a wise decision is something huge here. Because just to give them all the facts without that context of what the logical conclusions of their actions would take them to would be detrimental. And I think there's something really beautiful about showing people the logical conclusion of their choices and where they'll lead, because you have intimate knowledge because of your own experience and the truth of what's happened to you.
ChrisYeah, I think so as well. And on a personal level, I think that he also felt that if he didn't step in, he would be responsible for these deaths, deaths of billions of people on this planet. And he didn't want that on him either, because there is discussion in here as well about deaths.
MatthewMm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right.
ChrisAnd he even starts the episode with no one's going to die today, right? Telling his own crew when they are leaving to go there.
MatthewYes.
ChrisSo it's very much on his mind to avoid that, whether it be his crew or the people of that planet.
MatthewYeah, and I like too that we do see a Pike as well just on a whole other side that has personal relationships with people that are trying to hold him accountable to his own actions. So we see that with Bob April and we see that here with Captain Batel. They're obviously in a pretty close relationship, and both of these people are trying to get him to a place where he can see that he is still needed and still wanted in Starfleet, and that he has a better destiny than just sitting at this cabin riding horses and watching it snow, that he is somebody who needs to be out there. He needs to get back up on that horse because, as John Wayne said, courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway. And that's exactly what Pike needs to do. He needs to get back on that horse.
ChrisYeah, exactly. And I think Spock is helping him as well once he does get back on that horse and gets on the ship.
MatthewI think you're right, yup.
ChrisThe consequence of what he did on the planet that I also liked, in terms of Star Trek and the Star Trek that many fans have been wanting to get back to, is that it ends with this optimism, it ends with showing this destruction that can happen. But then they choose to join the Federation, and they move forward into a positive, optimistic future. And I thought that was a great message to have in the episode to set the tone for the series, because so much Star Trek that we've been getting in recent years, like the rest of science fiction, TV, and films, is very dystopian. And if not dystopian, then it's at least not what I would consider optimistic for the future, which is what Star Trek always was to me anyway, growing up. And so I like seeing that we get back to that a bit.
MatthewMm-hmm.
Spock Sexy Time (00:17:34)
ChrisLet's keep stepping through the episode and talk about the introduction of Spock yet again. And we get a wonderful scene on Vulcan. It's a scene that actually—it's a setting anyway—that Tuvok described in the Voyager episode "Innocence," when he sang some of the lyrics from the Vulcan folk song called "Falor's Journey." And the lyrics talk about "through storms he crossed the Voroth Sea to reach the clouded shores of Raal, where old Falor offered truth."
ChrisAnd I thought it was a great visual. And then we zoom in to what must be a five-star restaurant on Vulcan, I think. And then Spock is there with the beautiful T'Pring. And then we find out how their engagement actually took place.
MatthewYeah, this is something that's really interesting because it's a fine line to walk, especially in light of "Amok Time," but I am wondering and thinking—and I'm not sure if you're on the same wavelength here, but I think you might be—is that this is going to be the thing that actually explains why that happens in "Amok Time," why T'Pring basically leaves Spock because he's too busy gallivanting around the galaxy to actually finish getting married.
MatthewAnd so it leaves T'Pring very bitter against Spock because he continually chooses the captains of the Enterprise over his own fiancée. So I thought this was a really interesting choice, and I hope that that's how that's all going to work out, because I think that would make things make a lot more sense, because what happens in "Amok Time" seems to come out of nowhere in many ways in The Original Series. This would really, I think, fit with the storyline up to that point and help give a lot of backstory as to why T'Pring takes the action she does in that episode.
ChrisYeah, to me, it feels like that's exactly where they're going with it. And is even perhaps the reason this scene is in the episode in the first place, because there are many ways in which they could have introduced Spock in this story, and they chose to do it back on Vulcan with T'Pring. And I don't think it's the last time that we will see her. And it does explain that situation that we saw in "Amok Time."
ChrisThat coming out of nowhere in The Original Series, I mean, it makes sense within the context of the show, because they were just writing standalone episodes. And hey, wouldn't it be cool if Spock had a wife and we went to Vulcan? And it also ties in well to Discovery because it's another example from The Original Series of Spock not telling anybody about his family. And here, though, I like the way they wrote it, because you feel like you're on Vulcan. But like so much of this episode, it felt more contemporary. It felt like something we're familiar with from past Star Trek, but updated to now.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisI thought the characters felt more in tune with us today when we watched this.
MatthewYeah. Are you naked, Spock?
ChrisThat was the best line when it comes up on the screen.
MatthewNo, he is not.
ChrisAnd then T'Pring: "No, but he was about to be."
MatthewIt's a very special evening for us.
ChrisAnd the waiter was like, hmm, I think Naked Night is on Tuesdays, isn't it? Today is not Tuesday.
ChrisAlright, so anyway, I like that scene.
MatthewSo I guess you don't have to have pon farr to have Vulcan Naked Night.
ChrisWell, maybe the name of that restaurant is Pon Farr. Who knows?
MatthewIt could be, yes.
Those Must Be Some Powerful Telescopes (00:21:41)
ChrisAlright, okay, so let's keep going and talk more about the core of the story, where they go to Kiley 279, the planet that we've been talking about. And I like the premise of the story because it felt like an Original Series story. There's this planet, they've somehow created a warp bomb, they've kidnapped our people, we've got to get our people out. And maybe we'll also talk to these people a little bit about what they're doing and why they shouldn't do it.
ChrisNow, the idea that they could use telescopes to observe the battle at the end of season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery and gather data that then allowed them to build a warp bomb really doesn't make any sense. But I kind of like that it doesn't make sense because, again, that also has that TOS feeling, where we're not so concerned about being 100 percent accurate in the scientific nuts and bolts of the story that we're telling. We're just setting up a science fiction scenario and we're throwing our characters into it.
MatthewThis is one of the conundrums of the episode because it doesn't make any sense. And, you know, it's a bit timey-wimey in the same way that the Picard season finale was super timey-wimey and some things didn't make sense there. For them to, like you said, be able to observe this through an astronomical telescope and then be able to create specifications for warp technology, but then turn that into a bomb, seems very far-fetched. And so that, I think, is, you know, because this planet didn't even seem to have satellites.
ChrisWell, that's the thing. There's a mention in here about them being—and they're certainly portrayed as being—about where we are now, but actually technologically in terms of any activity around their planet and in their solar system, they seem to be not even mid-20th-century level yet.
MatthewMm-hmm. Yup. Yeah, that's what I was thinking too and, you know, without having any activity in the local area of space—you know, we have incredible space telescopes and probes and all sorts of things that are happening in our own solar system—but they don't really seem to have any of that, which would have helped, I think, in understanding how they got these schematics.
MatthewBut in the end, what we learn is that this planet, strangely enough, only has two factions and, you know, they've been warring for centuries and they're basically on the eve of a civil war. And so one side wants to crush its enemies and put down this civil unrest from a group that doesn't seem to want to negotiate with it anymore. And they're looking for who's going to get the biggest stick to win, which—interesting misrepresentation of Teddy Roosevelt—speak softly and carry a big stick. And so I thought that that was really interesting because, you know, in the end, the cost of war here has become abstract for them. And it's because in some ways it reminds me of that Original Series episode where the computers decide who's going to die.
ChrisYeah, yeah. "A Taste of Armageddon."
MatthewIt feels like it's almost gotten to that point with them. And yet we don't have the representation that that's the case either. And so a lot is kind of thrown at us here in this section. And yet there's not a lot being shown, but there is a lot being said. And you should always show, not tell in a show.
ChrisYeah, but doing it this way does mirror the Original Series format a good bit, where often we weren't directly shown these types of things. We did have a lot of conversation between Kirk and the leader of the planet, or the leader of the faction, or something like this going on. So I think, for me, it captured that feeling that I was hoping for of TOS. But I, yeah, I was watching it even the first time and then on rewatches and thinking, yeah, I don't know how they got there. I don't know how they got the warp bomb built, but at least it sets up the situation. And I think for this story to work, there had to be something for which the Federation is responsible affecting this planet so that Pike could step in.
ChrisSo what do you do if you've got someone on this technological level? What do you do to create that situation that would make you feel responsible? And I don't know, for me, it works fine for that. I said on Twitter, I felt like this episode had all the heart of the original Star Trek. And this situation actually, in the plot, is one of the reasons I feel that it has the heart of the original.
MatthewI think that they had the bones to be able to create something that made more sense. They just didn't take it to the fullest logical conclusion.
ChrisYeah, yeah, I could see that.
MatthewThere's a way to create this so it's more believable that they end up with this technology.
Commentary and Context (00:27:39)
MatthewAnd I think even they show pictures of quote, unquote riots happening in some of the cities, and yet what they could have done is they could have shown us war footage from the front between the revolutionaries and the government, which I think would have helped much more than what they did. It costs a little bit more to produce that, but, you know, it's the same thing that we spoke about with "A Taste of Armageddon." They actually show what they talk about, which is the computer rooms where people just kind of fall down dead and disappear. They show us all that stuff.
ChrisMm-hmm, yeah. That's true, yeah.
MatthewAnd so they could, again, all of those things could have been done in this episode to ameliorate some of these issues that I had with the episode. And I think it made the social commentary even better, because even though this is very on the nose, I think it's also important to be able to realize that this idea of being brought to the table to have a conversation, because negotiation is the best way to form a lasting peace, is what Pike says. And it helps us see the power of possibility.
MatthewAnd this is another indication of a society that has just completely othered the other by not ever meeting with one another and only seeing them in one light, because they've spent centuries never negotiating with this. This is the first time these two leaders have been in the same room, they said, in centuries.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
MatthewAnd so I think all of that would have been made even better if we had had even more context because of what the episode could have shown us.
ChrisMm-hmm. Well, I think one reason they didn't show war footage, apart from budgetary reasons, which is probably not an issue with this production, is that although there are two factions here and this is supposedly impacting the entire planet. You just mentioned the commentary is quite on the nose, and it seems very clear that it's not commentary about nation states on Earth in conflict with one another. It's commentary on what's happening inside the United States right now. And because that is not a hot conflict at the moment, there isn't any actual military fighting going on.
ChrisI think that's probably a reason why they didn't go that route, because what they're talking about are those types of protests and gatherings and this refusal to talk to each other and othering, as you said, the other side and just creating this wall of division where you really can't make any progress.
ChrisAnd then suggesting that if in our own world we continue to do that, we're going to reach this point where we have something akin to a warp bomb, not technologically, but in terms of the power that whatever that thing might be would have to destroy our society.
MatthewMm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
ChrisAnd we need to pause and look at the consequences of that. Look at what the last day would be like for the world as we know it. It's sort of like Pike talks about how the man he is died. He didn't actually die. He will continue living, but he's not that same person anymore. And if the situation in our society right now continues, there will be a last day where the world that we know right now ceases to be. And many of us will live on and the world will continue, but it won't be the same country, the same society, the same world that we know. So I think that was so much the point of what they were getting at here, that avoiding showing hot conflict warfare on that planet probably supported that point better.
Choice and the Power of Possibilities (00:31:57)
MatthewI mean, it is an interesting thing because, you know, when it comes to the choices that we make, they continually take away the power of possibilities.
ChrisMm-hmm. Yeah.
MatthewBecause each choice has a logical conclusion that leads you to another choice and another choice. And so by showing where these choices are going to lead these people, it makes a lot of sense. And so I think that's the part that does, you know, work pretty well in the episode. And it's one of those things where, as Pike was talking, he talks about how the second Civil War turned into the Eugenics Wars, which turned into … like the one thing left led to the next. And in the end, they all just ran together to the point where we all … we see them as just kind of this big mishmash of things that happened that we couldn't get out of because we had made choices that had led us in that direction.
MatthewAnd so they leave them with a choice, right, which is you can either have your last day or you can have a brand new day and join something bigger than yourselves. And you can join us in the Federation, which I don't know if offering Federation membership to these people was actually the smartest idea with where they are.
ChrisRight.
MatthewBut they were already aware that there was something out there. And so to put them on that road seems like the logical conclusion of Pike's choice, which is he's going to do the best he can for these people to leave them better than when they found them.
ChrisYeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, bringing them in, giving them Federation membership at the stage of development that they were in felt like not what the Federation would normally do, but if you need to mitigate the impact of exposing them to this technology, maybe you have to do that. I think back to Deep Space Nine, and I think about Sisko hearing about the situation on Bajor.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisPicard is telling him at the beginning, in "Emissary," and Sisko says, "Sounds like they're not ready to me." Right?
MatthewRight, yes, it's exactly.
ChrisAnd yet Bajor is a planet that was thousands of years ahead of Earth in terms of its societal and technological development.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisAnd then here you have humans saying, I don't think these people are ready yet. And here it's, yeah, these guys are like maybe early 20th-century technology, but sure, let's bring them in, be part of our Federation.
MatthewYup.
ChrisBut again, I don't mind that because it takes us back to that time in Star Trek where it felt like there weren't as many rules. And exploration was a little bit more into the unknown, and people were making decisions on their own as explorers.
MatthewYeah.
ChrisThey've been given authority. Pike's a captain. He has the authority to make these decisions. But he doesn't feel the need to pause and, okay, well, let's call the Federation Council and see what they think about this, and have drawn-out diplomatic discussions before making a decision, which he could have done here. You know, it wasn't like they were on the verge of setting off this bomb in the next 15 minutes or the next week even, right?
MatthewRight.
ChrisBut he takes action. So I like that element of it.
New Cast of Characters (00:35:40)
ChrisOkay, let's talk about the characters a little bit since this is the first episode and just thoughts on some of these new characters we saw. I mean, what did you think about the La'an scene?
MatthewOn a whole, yeah, she's the one character that I thought was the most interesting and worth talking about. I liked most of the characters. I think they all came off well. The actors were enjoyable and engaging. La'an Noonien Singh … I don't understand her story and how it really fits right now with Number One, and what that conversation at the end with the captain has anything to do with anything that happened in this episode, really.
MatthewBut the idea that her family was on a colony ship that was overtaken by the Gorn, so our first contact with the Gorn, which goes completely wrong, and she's the only one that survives because of this idea of she can imagine herself dying. And she's set loose by them and Number One's ship picks them up, the Martin Luther King Jr. And she joins Starfleet because of it.
MatthewOkay, that's all somewhat interesting. I don't know how any of that story fits into trying to shove it into this episode, in all honesty. And maybe I'm just completely missing something, but it did seem like a story for another time.
ChrisI think in terms of a connection with this particular story, I think that they're trying to tie in someone else who has had an experience with death and has a certain view on death with what happened to Pike and what he's concerned about, or considering, in terms of his own future. The story itself, the background story, the first time I watched it, I was like, the Gorn? Really? Because, you know, Kirk fought the Gorn in "Arena," and that was the first contact that we know of that humans had with the Gorn. But then I started thinking about it a bit more. And does it fit? Does it not fit? Because we do hear the Gorn mentioned in "Bound" on Enterprise. And we had Lorca with the Gorn skeleton in his lab on Discovery. And there's the whole thing about delivering Gorn babies in Into Darkness—although that's a different timeline.
ChrisBut for me, and I've seen some uproar online where people are like, it's a massive canon violation going on here, I can't believe they did this. But I think it works okay because what we're saying is that this person, this ship had contact with Gorn. It's not the first official contact between humans and Gorn, so that's fine. I think this stuff happens. I think we've talked about this on Warp Five, actually, when we've talked about running into Nausicaans or people like that, that came along later. So that works fine for me. I think I personally would have chosen some other race that we know, even Klingons, or I would have created another race just to not get into those muddy waters of alien species that people know and love and other things that have been established.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisBut I also think that maybe including this story in here is part of what we were talking about at the beginning today, where getting to know these characters, I think, is going to be a bit more DS9- or Enterprise-style. Bit by bit, we're going to learn things that they build on over time, although, unfortunately, they only have 10 episodes. So it may be a drawn-out process. But I think it's one of those things where we find this out about her and, at some point, they'll build on it again later. And it's not directly tied into the story.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisI think the more interesting thing to me with her is she doesn't want to have a sedative. She's obviously uncomfortable with the idea of her genome being modified even temporarily. And I think that's going to play into some background of her character being a descendant of Khan and that group.
MatthewMm-hmm. Yeah. Yup.
ChrisAnd so we'll see where that goes.
MatthewYeah. I think you're right.
ChrisWell, what about other major characters? We've got Uhura here. You know, I felt like the portrayal was—I hope it's not going to stay this way the whole time—I thought the portrayal was a little bit too bright-eyed and young.
MatthewMm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you on that. I also feel like Ortegas and Chapel felt a little bit like that as well. Like they're too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which, you know, it would be hard not to be on this ship that's so bright and shiny.
ChrisYeah, true.
MatthewSo I thought Dr. M'Benga was fantastic.
ChrisYeah, he was great.
MatthewYou know, I really liked his relationship with Pike, although I didn't love Pike walking in and being like, give me some good advice, Doc. It was like, where is that coming from? You know, some of the dialogue did not feel natural between the characters here. But I liked the actor playing him. And I thought that was really good dialogue.
ChrisI think that may have been like a little bit of a callback to Pike and Boyce and how he would go to Dr. Boyce and get advice. And if you don't know that, maybe it doesn't. I mean, you know that, of course. But as the viewer, if you don't know that, maybe you're wondering about their relationship.
MatthewRight.
ChrisBut I think it still works pretty well.
MatthewAnd I think the most interesting thing is that we have a Kirk that's on the ship at the end, but it's Samuel Kirk, his brother, and how all that's going to work out, I'm really interested because, of course, they've cast Jimmy Kirk as well, and we know he's going to be on the show later. So, you know, we're playing in a really interesting time period to which you have a ton of land mines you can trip over at any point, and how they navigate through this minefield of canon timeline is going to be fascinating to me.
ChrisMm-hmm.
MatthewIt's been a decent start so far with the characters and everything and the show, but I would say, you know, we got a long road to get from there to here.
ChrisYeah. Well, I feel like they are charting this path through the timeline and canon a little bit, like bringing Sam Kirk on there, I suspect is being done to connect some dots to the story that we already know about him and his relationship with his brother. And maybe a little bit to throw people off at first, like they're thinking, oh, is James T. Kirk going to show up on the bridge here? And then the door opens and it's Sam.
ChrisAnyway, I liked Nurse Chapel quite a lot, actually. I really enjoyed Jess Bush's portrayal of her. I kind of like that she's that kind of bright-eyed. It is explained there. M'Benga explains that she's on loan. I don't think he uses the word "loan." She's on assignment from like a civilian project that's going on. So I got the feeling that she's not accustomed to being on a starship all the time, exploring space. And that might reflect a little bit of her personality there. But I quite liked her and I like her style, the way they've done it with the hair and the white uniform and everything.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisOrtegas, we'll have to see where that goes, because right now, she's very much that person sitting up there at the front of the ship. But we still got more interaction with her than we do with some of those characters in some of the newer series. So I liked that as well. But yeah, overall, I thought the casting was great. Good start for the characters and performances. I enjoyed it. So yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing where it all goes.
Final Thoughts (00:44:17)
ChrisSo what are your final thoughts on the episode and what's your rating for it?
MatthewYeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's a decent start so far. I wasn't turned off by anything yet and I think that's all wonderful. And I would say that, for me, this is probably one of the lesser introductions to a show, premiere episodes. I would probably give this six out of 10 misplaced warp bombs, but I am still interested to see where the show continues to go, which is good. But again, when it comes to the premiere episodes, this is definitely one of the lesser episodes in that genre, because it just grabs me in some areas and it kind of left me scratching my head in others in ways that aren't good story-wise.
ChrisMm-hmm.
MatthewSo we'll see, though. And I'm looking forward to the next week. So how about you, Chris?
ChrisWell, my final thoughts, to pick up on what you said there, I think this pilot feels this way in part because, unlike pilots we've gotten in the past, we're already familiar with the ship. We're already familiar with a lot of the characters. We already know they're on this mission to explore. And the series itself was born of the popularity of Pike, also the performance as Spock from Ethan Peck, and Number One. And this desire among fans—and I think some of the creators as well—to get back to the Star Trek formula that made the franchise so popular and allowed it to survive for more than half a century. And we're already familiar with all that. And so there doesn't feel like there's anything new or grand going on. It's just like we've been plopped down into something that we're more familiar with.
MatthewMm-hmm.
ChrisWhereas with other series, they're really setting up a new environment, a new crew, a new mission. But it's interesting. I've seen quite a few people say this is, for them, the best pilot of any Star Trek series ever, which has to be recency bias in most situations, in my opinion. Because it really is of a different type of pilot from establishing a story like the other ones have. So I don't really get that. However, I did very much enjoy the episode. And as I said earlier, I feel like the show has all the heart of The Original Series in terms of story, in terms of message, in terms of visuals as well. It feels like The Original Series updated for 2022, which I'm very happy about.
ChrisAnd so far in this episode, I think it delivered on the promise of returning us to that traditional story format, but in a little bit updated way. So I really enjoyed it. And I'm going to give it eight super-advanced telescopes.
Closing (00:47:46)
ChrisWell, everyone, we would love to hear your thoughts on the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds. There are many ways for you to share those with us. Perhaps the best way is to go to Facebook and join the Babel Conference. That is our listeners group. If you're already a member, you know what to do. But if not, just type Babel into the search field and it should come right on up. If not, just type the whole name. Now, it is a closed group for our listeners. So if you're joining, please answer the questions and agree to the rules of the forum so that I can let you in. You'll find a post for this episode there and you can share your comments with fellow listeners and us right there on the post.
ChrisYou can also send us email if you like. Just go to our website, trek.fm/contact. Use the form you find there, choose to send to a show and choose Saddle Up! and that'll come to Matthew and me by a horse carrying mail, not actual email.
MatthewAh, the Pony Express.
ChrisThe Pony Express. That is it. I'm going to rename the form right after this. You can also find us in social media on Twitter, Instagram, everywhere. Our username is trekfm.
ChrisNow, Matthew, when you're not trying to stay away from Gorn because you don't want to be eaten or cast away on a space raft, where can people find you?
MatthewWell, of course, I'm all over social media under the name mattrushing02. So in social media, look for that name. You'll find me here on the network. I'm doing so many shows and you can find me on most of the shows on the network except for Interphase. So just check out things like The 602 Club or Warp Five or The Orb or Literary Treks or The Artificial Tango.
MatthewYou can also, of course, find me over on The Nerd Party network doing two shows. One's a completed show I did with Drea Coffman talking about every single chapter of the Harry Potter series one chapter at a time. And then over on Aggressive Negotiations, talking Star Wars with John Mills.
MatthewNow, Chris, when you're not trying to figure out how in the world you can get a captain's cabin like Pike's, which may be the most palatial and amazingly created captain's cabin I've ever seen in all of Star Trek—it's even got a chimney—where can people find you?
ChrisAnd it's got a TV right above the fireplace, which is …
MatthewIt's phenomenal. I want that place so much.
ChrisIt was a great place. I was looking at that and thinking, how spacious. You know, when you live in Japan, you don't have a lot of space. And I actually have a fairly big house, but nothing like that.
ChrisWell, when I'm not doing that, you can find me here on the network. As you mentioned, we do a lot of shows. You and I talk Deep Space Nine together on The Orb, Enterprise on Warp Five, Larry Nemecek and I do The Ready Room from time to time, and I'm in a lot of shows in the back catalog. So check out all of that if you want to hear more of my thoughts on Star Trek.
ChrisAnd if you'd like to chat with me, I'd love to hear from you on Twitter. That's where I'm most active. My username is cbryanjones. That's my username everywhere in social media, but Twitter is where I'm most active. And again, I'd love to chat with you there. If you'd love to help us keep saddling up and keep all the shows on the network going, we could definitely use your help. Please visit patreon.com/trekfm to find out how to get involved in the network and help us keep everything going. We really thank everyone who is supporting us right now. We would not be here without you. So thank you so very, very much. Again, just visit patreon.com/trekfm to get involved.
ChrisWell, Matthew, we've done this on Enterprise, but it looks like we're going to do it here as well. A little bit of comet chasing, perhaps, as we talk about the next episode.
MatthewWell, Chris, sounds fantastic. So saddle up, and lock and load.
Hosts
C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing
Production
C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)
