snowydayIs the next episode a comedy? S204 "Charades"
Looks like it. The last Spock and T’Pring episode was that fun body-swap one, I think.
maegul (he/they)Probably a smart and distinctly SNW move to use all the Vulcan stuff for comedy.
BrooklynManthe whole show is a bit goofy, and it works in their favor most of the time, as it did with TOS. DSC tries to be so serious, and I find it to be insufferable, mostly because the writing staff doesn’t have the talent to pull it off.
To be fair to other series, plenty of them tapped into the Vulcans’ potential as comedy straight men. This is arguably why we had the recurring conflict of goofy alien Neelix vs. Tuvok on Voyager. Lower Decks doesn’t see a lot of them, but get a lot of mileage making fun of their uptight nature in Wej Duj.
But yeah, it’s kinda crazy seeing the shenanigans come from the Vulcans themselves in this show.
Just like how Data was often comedy relief. His misunderstandings (and poetry) may have been comedic, but he himself was never the joke or comic (ironically, when he tried stand up comedy, he was at his least funny. Let’s all pray that Spock never meets Joe Piscopo)
So we might be in for more hijinks?
Will the hijinks ensue?
Trek Culture referenced in their last video that Spock has become the comic relief, this series.
Madison_rogueThat episode is forever known as the "Enterprise Bingo" episode. I absolutely loved the sub-plot with Una and La'an. It's one of my favorite episodes of Season 1.
I can’t tell if this is a shit post, but I haven’t seen any of the shows past TNG
Strange New Worlds is pretty light hearted, this is a perfectly reasonable possibility for them
theinspectorstIt's great. Apart from Picard S3, this is the best Star Trek we've had since the 90s.
My partner describes it as like TNG with the weak episodes taken out. They’re great, good, or neutral.
Tom Riley@snowyday @AdmiralShat I struggled to get properly into any post-TNG Trek and I am completely hooked on Strange New Worlds. Like TNG, there’s a whole complete story in every episode, with some over-arching threads. Try S1E1 - if you at all like that, you’re going to love the whole thing. There are a few weird/difficult episodes (as TNG had) but the stand-out episodes are so good they easily carry the whole show. The final episode of season 1, in particular, is superb.
@snowyday ST:VOY did the same back in the days with B’lana’s Klingon DNA, in a quite interesting episode about identity. I reckon the same theme will be dealt with again this time…
Wow! I had completely forgotten about that
This episode seems like it's going to be light-hearted. Faces was, uh... not.
Am I suffering some kind of confirmation bias, or does Spock spend an unusually large amount of time expressing emotions, for someone who's supposed to never express emotions?
100%
So much so that I’m at the point where I’m still wondering if this show is still canon.
I really like Strange New Worlds. The episodic nature with overarching storylines is the right direction for Star Trek, but really wish they had used this cast to make a show with a new crew in a new ship set post-DS9.
I disagree. I really enjoy this show and I can give the writers some creative license as a prequel for a show that's almost sixty years old.
Spock has to have a moment of crisis that brings him to the state of character he's in in TOS. I think there's plenty of room to breathe over the course of the show to allow that. I haven't watched The Cage in several years, so I don't exactly recall, however from what I do recall, Spock shows a lot more emotion in the pilot vs. the beginning of the series with Kirk.
Sure, but they could do literally the exact same show but set further in the future.
When they brought Star Trek back in the 90s we got three great shows that all did their own thing while making callbacks to - but not relying on - the original series.
All of the new shows rely way too much on nostalgia and I just wish they’d move on.
It seems that fan feedback is one of the reasons SNW exists. Which is fine; fan write-in campaigns and petitions are central to Star Trek.
I do agree that a series outside TOS would be enjoyable, however that doesn't seem to be in development right now (actually nothing is really in development right now). More than likely, I wouldn't be surprised if Paramount pushed Star Trek: Legacy as a series after reception to the finale of Picard.
yea, I think this really does just fill in his arc, where he’s still learning how to be the Logical Vulcan, and he pushes farther and farther until you get to where he was in TMP, at the complete opposite, attempting to completely abandon all emotion.
Then the rest of his arc after TMP is finding the balance.
JWBananasSpock has to have a moment of crisis that brings him to the state of character he's in in TOS.
This. It's literally what we saw happen in DIS to get him to where he is in SNW. There is no reason it can't happen again.
I largely agree with that idea. It feels like at some point Trek will need to let go of all old characters, to ensure its long-term viability. Personally, I'd be happy to get to know a new group (crew) of characters, even if they're not a famous character's offspring. I guess that was the idea with Discovery, but the universe/story arcs that they created didn't interest me too much.
I know that's not really how shows work, people get enamored with the cast and roles, but I'd love to see a semi-regular shift in crew or ship, while the writers tackle the issues of the day allegorically.
You know, I really tried to like Discovery, but then they tried to be a prequel and a sequel and I just couldn’t do it.
Another Spock sibling we never heard of? 🙄
Strange New Worlds is great, I’d just really like them to stop relying on the nostalgia.
Yep, I think so, too. I suppose it's just reflective of the time that it's made in; so much of film and TV (and games) is just re-boots, pre/sequels, remasters and remakes. It's like it's too big a risk, to try an stray too far from a perceived existing audience.
The point I dwell on for longer is the need for humour to be so prevalent in what is essentially a drama series. I keep repeating this in various threads, but I don't like how often it's used and how weak it is. I guess I'd rather watch something that's Hornblower, rather than Family Guy.
Spock in SNW brings his portrayal in The Cage in alignment with the rest of TOS. In that episode, he smiles and has a more relaxed demeanor. If you watch TOS again, Leonard Nimoy plays Spock as oblivious to human emotional expression without being robotic. I actually find Ethan Peck’s portrayal to be more rigid than Nimoy’s. The Peck Spock tends to either suppress his emotion to the degree that he can appear monotonous and stiff, or fail to suppress emotions and experience outbursts. Around 10 years later, the Spock in TOS finds a balance and seems to have found a balance between emotional expression (including sarcasm and low-key passive aggressiveness against Dr. McCoy) and logic. That’s good character development imo
Go back and rewatch TOS. Spock is emotional.
I think the pint we are supposed to take away is that he’s very young, relatively speaking, to the Spock we know and love from the movies and TNG. He’s a work in progress in his way to becoming that person
Value SubtractedYeah, it’s weird how they’re embracing this…foundational aspect of the character.
USSBurritoTruckThe first episode of the season had Spock discussing with Doctor M’Benga the fact that embracing his anger to help him fight the Gorn last season in “All Those Who Wander” broke down his mental conditioning. It’s also been shown in three of four recaps at the beginning of episodes this season. I would assume they’re building towards something.
As for Spock “never” having emotions, I’d suggest rewatching some TOS. His wry enjoyment when Uhura teases him with her song in “Charlie X”, his outburst at seeing Kirk alive at the end of “Amok Time”, and just how ridiculously horny he is in “The Cloud Minders” all come to mind, never mind those instances when he’s affected by some outside force suppressing his conditioning.
He is certainly spending a lot less time expressing emotions than he did in season 2 of Discovery.
There seem to be two major camps of thought about his portrayal of SNW:
He is way too different in SNW than he is in TOS, thus breaking canon. These must be people who really enjoyed the nobody-ever-experiences-personal-growth-except-for-Seven-of-Nine aspect of VOY.
Personal growth is okay, but his current trajectory is veering off too far from where he needs to land in TOS. This is the nobody-ever-makes-the-same-mistakes-twice camp.
Here's what we know for sure, chronologically:
- Spock smiles at plants in The Cage and seems stable.
- Spock is a mental and emotional wreck in DIS season 2, but he pulls it together in the end.
- Spock is back in control in early SNW season 1, but he has overcorrected after the events of DIS to a place where he is much more stoic than he was in The Cage.
- Spock opens back up the emotional can of worms in SNW season 1 to fight an adversary, and he is having a difficult time closing it back up. But he seems to be trying to make the best of it.
- Spock is about to lose all his Vulcan DNA in this week's upcoming episode. Hijinks will ensue with T'Pring's family.
That last one may lead to more overcorrection in the future. Or maybe it won't. Who knows?
Maybe he'll undergo Kolinahr at some point before TOS. Maybe it doesn't work twice, and that's why he fails in TMP.
But you can't tell me you've never met anyone in real life whose emotional state of being sways back and forth like a pendulum swing over time.
Voyager763Something I’ve become increasingly concerned about with SNW is how giving Spock a series’ worth of screen time and development before his time in TOS might put him “ahead” of where he’s supposed to be in his pursuit to understand his humanity.
I hope that the goal is to make him more appreciative of his Vulcan heritage over the course of SNW to explain why he’s so all-in on it by the time TOS starts.
ProuvaireI was not a fan of introducing legacy characters like Spock, Kirk - and even lesser-explored characters like Pike, Chapel, Number One and M'Benga to an extent - in DIS/SNW. Introduce new characters I say, that aren't hamstrung by what's already been established - something that I think is even more important in a show that's set in the "past".
That said, if we were to have a pre-TOS Spock, I wanted to see a Spock who would credibly grin at a plant or exclaim "The women!". I think SNW has given us that.
However, you're absolutely right. The destination for the character in SNW is for him to choose his Vulcan half over his human half. Hopefully the writers have planned this out. There's potential for a poignant story arc here, not just for Spock but also Chapel and T'Pring.
grin at a plant
To be fair, The Cage is set before SNW and even before DIS. And if you recall season 2 of DIS, he sort of lost his mind at some point in-between.
I can already guess T’Pring’s family will not be a fan of hijinks.
It most certainly will be a comedy, and I am up for it. It’s ironic how the episodes with emotionless Vulcans are so god-damn funny. The last episode with the body swap was a masterclass in writing. Passive aggressiveness has never been this fun.