Star Trek | My top 4 episodes in Strange New Worlds Season 1

Strange New Worlds (SNW) is a fantastic TV show. I enjoy most of the new Trek shows a great deal, but SNW is the one that feels like Star Trek the most. For starters, the series is episodic, and what continuity we get comes mostly in the evolution of character arcs. The bridge of the Enterprise is well lit - as it should be - and there's not technology that shouldn't be there, in accordance with what we know from that time in the 23rd century. The stories are character driven, and every now and again one of them verges on the absurd (The Elysian Kingdom, right?).  I love all that. I am not saying that I wish all TV shows were made exactly like TOS was in the 60s. Nor am I saying I don't want Star Trek to venture into new territory (which includes new forms of storytelling). No. I get it. I even enjoy the exploration (like any Starfleet graduate would). But I also like the way trek used to be. And I'm glad we get to have at least one current trek show that chooses to tell stories in that way. So without further ado, here are my top 4 episodes in the first season of Strange New Worlds: 

 A Quality of Mercy

 The first season of SNW went out with a bang. When he first appeared in Discovery, Captain Pike was shown a vision of what his future looked like - the awful truth we have seen since The Menagerie (TOS 1x11). He's been struggling with that knowledge all season, and in the final episode, for the first time he is presented with a chance to try and change the outcome. For everyone involved. Before he is about to take the crucial first step though, he receives a visit. Himself, from the future. An older, more seasoned Pike, wearing the red uniform of TOS movie era, with a simple message: don't do what you're about to do. The future will be worse for it. And because he suspects his younger self won't believe him, older Pike throws our Captain in the future, so he can see for himself the consequences of messing with the timeline. 

One of the reasons why I like SNW so much is that it respects the established canon of Star Trek. When they want to revisit something from the old shows, something that we shouldn't be able to see yet, because we know these events will take place when Kirk and not Pike is in command of the Enterprise, they find a way to show it without breaking the internal consistence, by making it a dream, a delusion or an alternative timeline. This episode goes for the last option, and in this manner we experience an alternative version from the first contact between a Federation vessel and a Romulan warbird - what in the prime timeline takes place during Balance of Terror  (TOS 1x08). 

Everything about this episode is great, including the first appearance of Captain Kirk (who is as old as he should be in the prime timeline, instead of the absurdly Captain-fresh-out-of-the-academy thing they had going for the J.J. movies). I also appreciated the hints they gave of things that may or may not happen in the future (for instance, Una's future, especially considering what happens to her at the end of the episode). But my favourite part (perhaps unsurprisingly), is that conversation between Pike and Spock towards the end, a conversation full of unspoken words, except for the things that absolutely had to be said:

 

Spock: Captain. Am I interrupting? 

Pike: No. I'm very glad to see you. 

Spock: But you saw me only moments ago. 

Pike: Right. 

Spock: You left the briefing suddenly. It was uncharacteristic. 

Pike: Was it? 

Spock: But now your demeanor appears changed. Having heard the boy's name, I cannot help but wonder if this pertains to your future. 

Pike: Let's just say I... think the universe is telling me that some fates are inescapable. And even if I could get out of mine... it might just fall to someone else. 

Spock: Someone you know? 

Pike: Yes. 

Spock: Is that why you are very glad to see me? I believe I may owe you a debt of gratitude, Captain. Although for precisely what, I do not know. 

Pike: Spock, you are... You are very important to me. 

Spock: As you are to me, Captain. Chris.

Spock: Captain. Am I interrupting? No. I'm very glad to see you. But you saw me only moments ago. Right. You left the briefing suddenly. It was uncharacteristic. Was it? But now your demeanor appears changed. Having heard the boy's name, I cannot help but wonder if this pertains to your future. Let's just say I... think the universe is telling me that some fates are inescapable. And even if I could get out of mine... it might just fall to someone else. Someone you know? Yes. Is that why you are very glad to see me? I believe I may owe you a debt of gratitude, Captain. Although for precisely what, I do not know. Spock, you are... You are very important to me. As you are to me, Captain. Chris.

Read more at: https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=1328&t=54864

Beautiful.

Children of the Comet 

I really like this family meal scenes :)

 

 One of the virtues of Strange New Worlds is its crew. I struggle a bit with the crews in new Trek Shows. I mean, as far as classic Trek goes, maybe it took me a while to warm up to Neelix at first, but now I can say I really appreciate every one of the members of all classic crews. With New Trek though, the situation changes a bit. In Discovery, I love Saru, and I think Stammets is a really cool character, but I can't stand Michael Burnham and the doctor might as well not be a part of the crew at all. When Picard brings old members back it rocks - and Elnor was a fun addition to the cast - but I don't really care about Raffi or Jurati (and don't even get me started on Rios). Strange New Worlds on the other hand gets every single character right. Maybe it has to do with the fact that so many of them were actually created by gene Roddenberry, but still, so much depth was added since. 

 Mbenga,  a Vulcan trained physician who appeared  in a mere two episodes in TOS is now the chief medical officer and he gets a cool story line about a chronically ill child he is keeping in the transporter buffer.  Una, the cold female first officer first played by Majel Barret became an Ilyrian, member of a species whose genetic enhancements challenge the views of a Federation whose memory of the Eugenic wars remains very much alive. La'an is a direct descendant from Khan, and Hammer is an Aenar, a species that only appeared briefly in a few episodes of Enterprise. The whole cast of characters is wonderful.

One of this characters is Uhura, who at this point in time is still a cadet undergoing her training rotation on board the Enterprise. Unlike most people in Starfleet however, she chose the Academy because she didn't feel like she had anywhere else to go, not because it was a lifelong dream, and despite being in a coveted post, she's not yet sure Starfleet is the place for her. She is there because she can. Simple as that. I realluy enjoyed this storyline, which appears for the first time in Children of the Comet. The episode also features Uhura and Spock singing together (echoing what will happen later in TOS 1x03 Charlie X), and the story of the religious crew trying to stop Enterprise from interfering with the path of a comet echoes some of the aliens encountered by Captain Archer in the Expanse (ENT 3x12 Chosen Realm).

Ghosts of Illyria  

  My favourite new species in SNW are the Illyrians. Its cool to see the Federation's attitude towards genetic engineering challenged by something other than augments, and I was particularly entranced by Una's personal struggles during this episode, culminating in that heartbreaking personal log at the end. As much as I thought she was being unfair to Chris here, she had a point, more generally, with regards to the Federation attitude overall

Una: Dr. M'Benga stopped hiding today, just a little. And for once, I did, too. I told Captain Pike the truth about myself. And he defended me. Told me I was exemplary. That he would fight for me. So why do I feel terrible? What if I hadn't saved all those lives? Would the captain feel the same? What would he do if I wasn't a hero? One of the "good ones"? When will it be enough to just... ...be an Illyrian?

Spock Amok

The recreated everything, including the bells from the original episode. Respect.

 

 You know how I mentioned that when Strange New Worlds wants to revisit a classic TOS moment it finds a way to make it believable? They did that with Spock's Pon Farr, which appears here in a dream of sorts, with Spock fighting his human half during the kal-if-fee. 

The first thing that's great about this episode is that we get to see more of Spock's relationship with nurse Chapel, and more of Christine herself, and how she ended up falling in love for her unattainable Vulcan crew mate. That line in Nice Peter's song ("I'll probably meet you as a friend, I won't see the change, but all love is sudden, we'll both feel something strange...") describes exactly what happens to Spock and Chapel, and the development of their friendship is wonderful to watch. 

We also get to see a lot of Spock's relationship with T'Pring, and in that learn more about Vulcans in general, and about Spock's past specifically. Already we had a number of things added to Vulcan Lore - including the "soul sharing" that ends up with an unexpected body swap. At this point in time, Spock and T'Pring are trying their best to make it work, in preparation for their joining. But the brief appearance of Stonn reminds us that we know how this story ends, and it feel great and heartbreaking all at the same time.