The Official Star Trek Thread

[Middle-aged Europe]

This week's episode seemed to be a bit of a letdown.

It started promising with a cameo by Tuvok, but then it devolved into the tedious and incoherent mess I was used to in Season 2. Jean-Luc Picard in particular also seemed to act a bit uncharacteristic, for example when he decided that they should worry about the moral implications of creating a potential weapon of mass destruction later. Hopefully this is only a one-off thing that they drop the ball in this manner.

Only upside: The Geordi/Data scenes dealing with Geordi's grief when he lost Data.

[Middle-aged Europe]

After I watched the two almost back to back now, is it a "hot take" to say that I actually prefer Star Trek Into Darkness over Star Trek (2009)? Critics seemed to like the latter more, but I always had a bit of an issue with the first Abramsverse installment since its "joke - joke - let's blow up Vulcan and kill its six billion inhabitants, including Spock's mother - hilarious joke - joke" structure always seemed to be a bit inconsistent in style and mood to me. STID is more coherent in that manner and Cumberbatch & Peter Weller also make stronger villains compared to Eric Bana who simply sucks at playing an "evil" character.






Ah, yes, they brought back the Enterprise-D on Picard which I found - even though I still believe that on balance the show's flaws outweigh its strengths - pretty darn cool. Hilariously, it probably also featured the best-lit scene during this season so far (= D's bridge). I suppose this was intentional and meant to convey some sort of symbolism/contrast.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I haven't seen Star Trek into Darkness, but I did watch the 2009 one recently and it's not as good as I remember. The lens flare, the Apple Store aesthetic, a poor villain in Eric Bana, more monotonous action scenes than I remember. I'm sure there's more, but it felt more like a regular ol' action blockbuster that happened to have Trek characters (And no disrespect to Zachary Quinto but I think Ethan Peck is a much better Spock than him). Those are just off the top of my head. Perhaps a good film for someone new, but I don't think it cracks my top 5 Trek films list.

The weird thing is that I remember disliking all of those when it came out but disregarded it cause "Trek is back baby!"

STID is also designed as a action film, although a bit darker one which makes it more consistent in tone compared to the first film IMO.

Benedict Cumberbatch almost comes across as an anti-villain here because his primary motivation is to keep his men safe. Peter Weller's insane admiral is sometimes a bit over the top, but he's apparently supposed to be a Don Rumsfeld/John Bolton neocon stand-in.



Anyway, Paramount has green-lit a Section 31 movie, starring Michelle Yeoh:

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/paramount-plus-star-trek-section-31-film-michelle-yeoh-1235586743/

Naturally I'm a bit skeptical towards everything that orginates out of the train wreck that is Discovery (although Strange New Worlds turned out reasonably well), but let's see...

[Middle-aged Europe]

So we now had what is basically our third finale to the TNG era. It was not as good as All Good Things..., but better than Star Trek Nemesis and gave ample room to cameos and farewell scenes. Probably also the only season finale of Picard that can actually be considered "good", so at least they managed to end the show on a high note. I'm not so hopeful (at all) with regards to Trashcovery.

[Middle-aged Europe]

SPOILERS...










They didn't kill one of the crew (they already had done that in Nemesis), but the most obvious parallels to previous finales:

- The episode ends with a poker game of the crew, including Picard, like it did in All Good Things....

- Just like Nemesis ended with the promotion of Riker to the captain of the Titan, Picard ends with the promotion of Seven to the captain of the Enterprise-G (previously the Titan).

- A major Borg hub is destroyed and the Queen is killed (but this time finally for good, I guess), just like it happened in Voyager's Endgame.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Captain Janeway is fine as hell.

I'd f*k the sh*t out of her. 

Okay, boomer.

[Middle-aged Europe]

In preparation for its upcoming second season I'm currently rewatching the first season of Strange New Worlds and I'm still flabbergasted as to how superior it is compared to Discovery or (the first two seasons) of Picard.

Most importantly, it's... fun. And even if it has two or three darker episodes it overall conveys a much more optimistic tone than the aforementioned shows. Most of its characters are likeable, each with their own unique characteristics, and Anson Mount makes a charismatic lead who combines the best qualities of Kirk and Picard.

Only the episode The Elysian Kingdom is a real clunker... a tedious, confusing, seemingly pointless mess so much reminiscent of the sister show Dscovery whose only redeeming quality is perhaps its emotional ending. But for a season that hits the mark almost all the time that is forgiven.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Have now rewatched Strange New Worlds's Season 1 finale... which is interesting because they're essentially deconstructing their own lead character. Captain Pike isn't doing anything what Captain Picard would have done in the same situation, while Kirk - especially from Pike's POV - is portrayed as a reckless loose cannon. Kirk not being in charge (and for long-time fans this is a foregone conclusion) is exactly what leads to a "bad future" though. Pike does have a point, although it doesn't come to fruition because while the Romulan commander does in essence agree with Pike the Romulan commander is ultimately not the one in charge of the Romulan Empire.

The many layers of the episode make your head spin. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and all.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Season 2 premiere was kind of average. Not bad, but nothing special either. The best news was that they decided to retcon the Discovery Klingons' ugly look back into the TNG-era Klingons'  (well, for the most part anyway).



Second episode was definitely better, presenting us a with a classic, thrilling court room drama. The sudden resolution seemed a bit deus ex machina to me, but it also honored the finest traditions of Star Trek. SNW's idealism - which is reminiscent of TOS and TNG - has an almost old-fashioned charm to it.

Funniest scene: Spock and the Vulcan admiral, who by all accounts "hate" each other (by Vulcan standards anyway), having a "fight" in the mess hall that looks to outsiders like nothing more than a civil, cordial conservation.. well, except for M'Benga who knows a dispute between Vulcans when he sees one.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I enojyed Episode 3 too.

Sure, we have seen all this wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff before too, but it gives an opportunity to flesh-out and develop La'an's character.. and to make Paul Wesley's Kirk more likeable.

[Middle-aged Europe]

After last week's forgettable (pun intended) "Among the Lotus Eaters" we move on to Episode 5: "Charades".

Sort of a sequel to first season's "Spock Amok", this episode continues the "Vulcans are hilarious" arc. Quite a hoot, indeed. And the Spock/Chapel shippers will be satisfied too.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Lower Decks crossover episode currently is the best-ranked SNW episode on IMDb. Personally I wouldn't regard it as that good. It does however highlight the show's overall strengths. Unlike Discovery's often overly bleak, melodramatic, shallow, clichéd plotlines SNW doesn't shy way from breaking new ground, while at the same time embracing whacky fun whenever the opportunity presents itself.

This episode is a crossover with an animated series. As such, the episode is also partly animated. Two of the animated characters make it to the "live-action universe" though and are then of course portrayed by their respective voice actors from the animated show. One of the animated characters has purple-coloured hair, therefore his live-action version does too (of course!). This is probably how the episode was originally pitched by the writers.

Just like Season 1's All Those Who Wander must have been pitched as "let's do a Alien/Aliens plot in the Star Trek universe: the Gorn are Xenomorphs, La'an is Ripley, and the episode will be - by Trek standards - really, really gory". And then they just ran with it.

Next week's episode will be a musical episode btw. Because this is Strange New Worlds, you know.

[Middle-aged Europe]

As for the overall quality of this season so far... they seem to hit the mark about half the time.

The Broken Circle, Among the Lotus Eaters, and Lost in Translation were rather weak/boring/generic. This is basically SNW redoing Star Trek: Voyager and/or the first two seasons of Enterprise.

Ad Astra Per Aspera (thrilling courtroom drama dealing with relevant social issues in the finest tradition of classic Trek episodes like The Measure of a Man), Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (good character development for La'an and SNW Kirk), Charades (whacky fun), Those Old Scientists (whacky fun too) were rather strong.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Okay, today's "Klingon War" was unusually... heavy.

Alongside Ad Astra Per Aspera the most serious one this season.

Some musing about guilt, shame, forgiveness, the lack thereof, justice, and revenge.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Finally caught up and watched that musical episode.

I guess it's okay enough, if you happen to like that kind of thing.

The one thing that made it stand out is Christina Chong's (La'an) performance. Jesus, can that woman sing. She should do an album or something.

Now on to the season finale.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Season 2 finale sure does deliver.

SNW's Big Bad, "Xenomorphs-meet-the-Borg" the Gorn are back, and just like in the previous season, the episode is ripe with Alien references.

By the end our heroes look pretty screwed, although canonically we already know that Enterprise will somehow survive this cliffhanger.

[Middle-aged Europe]

After a rewatch of the third season of Picard the final ten episodes kind of grew on me and I would now rate them on par with SNW or LD.

While I still think that it was an odd decision to film almost the entire season in darkness (what is this? Blade Runner? Highlander II: The Quickening? ), it works as a reboot of Star Trek: Picard and/or TNG's unofficial eighth season and/or TNG's unofficial fifth movie in form of a miniseries.

Bringing back these iconic characters was a great idea and thematically the season is held together with the overarching topic of "family", both metaphorically and literally: The former Enterprise command crew as an estranged family who gets back together, Picard got a son, Riker and Troi still deal with the loss of their kid, La Forge has issues with his daughters, Picard's complicated relationship with his "surrogate" daughter Ro Laren and so on...

Raffi Musiker is the only one of the show's original characters who is retained, but she is utilized as sort of a sidekick and foil for Worf in a very effective way. Jack Crusher (Junior) appears to be a cross between Jim Kirk and Han Solo with daddy issues, but the character works too. Captain Shaw is still a bit too over-the-top for my taste in his introduction (how does Starfleet allow someone to remain in command who willfully bullies his first officer on a regular basis?), but since this merely serves as a starting point for *character development* it is easily forgiven.

Speaking of character development, Worf is now a calm, meditative Zen master (which at the same time makes him a bit of a goofball who serves as comic relief with his sometimes misplaced fortune cookie wisdoms), Data has become almost fully human (but is also still a bit of a goofball due to this being a recent development), and Seven is a much warmer, kinder person almost three decades after being de-assimilated by Janeway.

TNG has effectively three finales now: All Good Things..., Star Trek: Nemesis, and The Last Generation. While Nemesis is still a major letdown, the other two episodes are almost on par with each other, and quite fittingly both end with the old TNG crew holding a poker game.

Only one question remains: Where the hell was Wesley (especially after him being teasered in the Season 2 finale)?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Tonight I watched what must be worst piece of Star Trek ever produced... the episode Worst Contact from the animated mini-series Very Short Treks.

It's only three minutes long and features guest voice appearances by Jonathan Frakes and Gates McFadden and I recommend not to watch it.

It's just unfunny, pointless, and most importantly disgusting. In a sense, Trek's version of  The Human Centipede. Did Frakes need the money? Did he even get any money? Were execs at CBS on drugs? Were they kept out of the loop on this one? We'll never know.

[Middle-aged Europe]

[Middle-aged Europe]

Even though it is marketed as a kids' show, I decided to finally give Prodigy a try and found it surprisingly enjoyable... surprisingly dark at times too. With its CGI cartoon, serialized narrative, robot characters, and Star Wars-esque main villains (John Noble who used to play "mad scientist" Walter Bishop on Fringe is delightful as the Big Bad here) it's fairly obvious that they were trying to emulate animated shows like Clone Wars or Rebels.

The one thing I'm still struggling with is the creative decision to simply retcon away the 70-year travel distance between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants, leading to all kinds of Alpha Quadrant species' casually popping up. There's a Tellarite, a Ferengi, the wreckage of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. That Tellarite character is particularly jarring since (as a Delta Quadrant resident) he was unaware of the Federation's and Starfleet's existence, despite the fact that his species was one of the founding members in the other Trek shows. Don't know whether this will be explained in any way later on, so far I have seen the first half of Season 1.

[Middle-aged Europe]

[Middle-aged Europe]

I'm in the process of rewatching a couple of old Voyager episodes - the ones that are usually considered good. Last up was Hope and Fear, the Season 4 finale.

With its first female captain, first female half-Klingon/half-Latina chief engineer, and first female Borg drone that served as a de facto science officer, it marked a significant step up in wokeness compared to The Next Generation with its first female medical doctor, first female psychotherapist, and first female security officer that was killed off after 20 episodes.

In the time-travel two-parter Future's End, guest star Sarah Silverman described Voyager pilot Tom Paris in the following manner:

"Sexy, in a Howdy Doody sort of way. Pretty goofy, although sometimes I think you're the smartest man I've ever met. All this running around you do, your mission. You're so dedicated, you know? Like you care about something more than just your own little life."

In a way, this is also a good description for the overall series the Tom Paris character appeared in, I guess. When Voyager was at the top of its game, it used to be a fun action-adventure show that it didn't delve too much into brainlessness, and once in a while it even featured morality plays like Death Wish, Distant Origin, or Living Witness that were worthy of its precursor TNG.

When Voyager had a bad day however it was just a bland rehash of "Voyager gets attacked and boarded by rubber-forehead aliens of the week" plots. There certainly were a bit too many episodes of such nature, but at least Voyager wasn't as agonizing as Space: 1999, Star Trek: Discovery or the second season of Star Trek: Picard (Take that!).

[Middle-aged Europe]

Saw Latent Image tonight. a perhaps underrated gem in Voyager's 5th season. Let's get psychological. And philosophical. And turn out what is perhaps Robert Picardo's best performance on the show.

When the Emergency Medical Hologram was put in a situation where he could only save one of two patients with equal chances of survival he picked the one who was his closer friend and let the "redshirt" die. Something his program wasn't designed to do. His program was supposed to perform the software equivalent of a random coin toss, or something. What would perhaps be problematic for a human doctor with a conscience turns out to be downright catastrophic for a hologram.

Kudos also to Seven of Nine who unexpectedly emerges as the voice of both reason and empathy, showing how far she has come since her de-assimilation. She provides the much-needed outside perspective since the Starfleet officers simply opt to stuff the holographic genie back into the bottle by performing a digitial lobotomy on their "malfunctionining" medical "equipment".