During my Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch, specifically that of the third-season episode “Extinction,” I mentioned what Jammer’s Reviews critic Jamahl Epsicokhan refers to as “Fun With DNA™” episodes. It usually involves a lot of nonsense science, oftentimes some silly acting, and commonly either a chance to put an actor not normally in prosthetics/makeup into such or an actor who normally has such to not have to deal with it. Among the other examples are TNG’s “Identity Crisis” and “Genesis” and Voyager’s “Threshold” and “Demon,” plus Discovery’s “Su’Kal” and “That Hope is You, Part 2” inverted the trope a bit.
Now we can add “Charades” to that list. This is not necessarily a good thing, though there are aspects of this episode that are quite compelling.
This episode, in which Spock’s DNA is altered so that he’s fully human, is a very obvious attempt to match the dynamic from last season’s delightful “Spock Amok.” At that, it fails pretty spectacularly, mostly because the script by Kathryn Lyn & Henry Alonso Myers keeps defaulting to sitcom silliness. (Given that Lyn came over from Lower Decks, where she wrote the excellent “wej Duj,” this is perhaps not a surprise.)
The actual Fun With DNA™ bit is not that bad, actually, and—ironically, given that it’s not the actual “comedy” part of the episode—provides the absolute funniest moments in this episode. Spock and Chapel go on a shuttle mission to examine some ruins. As we saw in “The Broken Circle,” Spock is still awkward around Chapel, given the feelings he has been having toward her, while Chapel is annoyed by Spock’s awkwardness, and who is also in the throes of the application process for a fellowship on Vulcan. While examining the ruins, they encounter an interdimensional rift, which damages the shuttle and injures them both.
Buy the Book
System Collapse
The interdimensional beings that live inside the rift are able to repair the shuttle and both occupants, but they notice that Spock doesn’t match Chapel, so they “fix” him and make him completely human. Pike tries to contact the aliens to get them to alter the repair, but the aliens—whom I was thinking of as the Customer Service Rep aliens pretty much from jump—hit Pike with all kinds of bureaucratic nonsense and make it clear they don’t want to talk to the icky outsiders anymore than necessary, and we did you a favor, and go away now please?
This leaves it to Chapel to find a cure. Meanwhile, Spock has to have dinner with his prospective in-laws, which—this being Vulcans—involves rituals and mind-melds and declarations of intent and all that good stuff. And this is where the episode goes off the rails. First of all, for all that it’s dressed up with traditional Vulcan foofaraw, this is basically just a “meet the future in-laws for the first time, but something goes wrong” plot, and Lyn and Myers have given us a tired mid-twentieth-century married couple with the overbearing mother T’Pril, who even makes T’Pring roll her eyes in frustration, and the henpecked father Sevet, who any time he expresses an opinion that differs from T’Pril, quickly changes his mind and does whatever his wife says after she glares at him and “corrects” him.
Because Spock is human now, he has to pretend to be Vulcan, getting fake ears and fake eyebrows put on, because T’Pril won’t accept anything else. But he also has to keep his human emotions under control, as he’s behaving almost like an adolescent. As an acting exercise for Ethan Peck, this has its moments—having met Peck at the Shore Leave convention in 2019, the Spock we see for most of this episode is pretty much Peck’s normal mode of talking—but it doesn’t entirely work. The episode itself acknowledges that Vulcan emotions are way more turbulent and difficult than human emotions, and Spock has spent his entire life suppressing his emotions. That’s a learned behavior, not a biological one, and it doesn’t make any sense that he’d have trouble keeping his emotions in check. However, he has to have that trouble in order to make the dopey sitcom plot work, as he contrives to “act Vulcan” in order to please T’Pring and her parents—who, of course, already disapprove of the half-human Spock.
And they also disapprove of Amanda. Mia Kershner is back, and while we are frustratingly denied the opportunity to see Amanda together with Carol Kane’s Pelia (Kane isn’t in the episode, with Pelia off trying to obtain some extra dilithium for some reason), I’m okay with it, because that would’ve been a distraction from some of what this episode does well. (Having said that, we’d better see Kershner and Kane together this season. That was promised when Pelia was introduced, dadgummit…)
Hilariously, given that the character herself was introduced in 1967’s “Journey to Babel” as little more than a housewife who deferred to her husband (a less comedic mid-twentieth-century stereotype than T’Pril and Sevet, but still sexist twaddle), this episode does a superlative job with Amanda Grayson. We see her strength, her resolve, her love for Spock, and also her love for Sarek (who of course isn’t in the episode, as we’re still in the midst of the twenty-year rift between Spock and Sarek established in “Journey…”).
The best part is the maternal mind-meld. Part of the ritual is that each mother must telepathically share a memory with their child. Amanda shares a remembrance of when Spock was accepted by other Vulcan children and allowed to play with them. This is a beautiful moment. Spock’s being tormented by full-Vulcan children for being a halfbreed is a well-established part of his character, seen in the animated episode “Yesteryear,” the 2009 Star Trek, and Discovery’s “Lethe” and “Brother.” But this shows us the next step: the eventual acceptance that he earned, and, more to the point, the pride Amanda felt. It’s obvious that Amanda respects a great deal about Vulcan culture—we see it all over the episode, in fact—but she is frustrated by many Vulcan people. But that scene shows us—and shows Spock—that it’s worth it in the end. It’s a beautiful moment.
Which is a relief after the nonsense that came before it. It’s frustrating, because Gia Sandhu remains superb as T’Pring, and Michael Benyaer and Ellora Patnaik deserve much better material as Sevet and T’Pril. So does Anson Mount. Pike is the host for the ritual—having even prepared Vulcan food, which everyone but T’Pril likes, because of course she doesn’t—and needs to come up with a delaying tactic at one point. The best he can do? A game of Charades. This gives the excuse for the title of the episode, which obviously has a layered meaning, since Spock’s being Vulcan for the ritual is a charade, as indeed is the entire ritual to a degree. But it’s just one more dumb thing in an episode full of them. Ha ha ha! The Vulcans have to play Charades! That’s funny!
One of the things I kept wondering last year is if this would be the episode where T’Pring and Spock had the rift that was evident in “Amok Time,” when it was clear that the affianced hadn’t spoken in ages. By this point, I had given up on seeing it any time soon, so it was a well-written surprise to see it happen here. T’Pring is not pleased that Spock didn’t trust her enough to tell her what happened to him. Spock made a judgment—an admittedly human one—that T’Pring was already stressed out from dealing with her mother and he didn’t want to add to it, so he let her think he was still Vulcan. T’Pring, justifiably, thinks they should spend some time apart.
Which leads us to The Kiss, and this is the bit that’s going to have a lot of Trek fans up in arms and babbling about “breaking canon” and saying this proves that SNW is in an alternate timeline, and all the same bullshit complaints we’ve been hearing about every single new production of this franchise since 1979. Because yes, Spock and Chapel smooch.
Here’s the thing: there’s nothing in the original series that contradicts any of this. In fact, the best proof of it is Chapel’s appeal to the Customer Service Rep aliens. Yes, as a human, Spock can probably more easily respond to Chapel and be a lover to her. But that isn’t Spock, it’s someone else. The person she actually is falling for is the Vulcan-human hybrid, with all the baggage that entails. That’s the tragedy of the pair of them that we did see in the original series, in “The Naked Time,” in “Amok Time,” in “Plato’s Stepchildren,” in “Return to Tomorrow.” It’s Spock’s cross to bear generally—we also saw it with Leila Kalomi in “This Side of Paradise”—that he cannot express his true feelings.
But that’s the Spock of seven-odd years hence. At this point, he still has had his emotional control frayed a bit from the events of “All Those Who Wander,” and then T’Pring left him, and Chapel has just spent a whole episode trying to save him. Oh, and the Customer Service Rep aliens also inform Chapel when she’s appealing to them to put Spock back the way he was that Spock shifted the shuttle’s shields to the side of the craft that Chapel was on so she would be less injured.
So she goes to his quarters and they smooch.
We know this will end badly, and the script reminds us of this during one of Chapel’s cramming sessions for her application for the fellowship. (Which she doesn’t get.) When her crewmates are quizzing her, one of the questions relates to Dr. Roger Korby, whom we know from the original series’ “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” will become her fiancé down the line. (And then get trapped on a planet and transfer his consciousness into a robot and try to kill Kirk and, yeah.)
Getting there, though, should be interesting. Certainly a lot more interesting than the Vulcan version of meeting the in-laws…
Keith R.A. DeCandido has stories in two new anthologies out now: Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups, which he also co-edited with Jonathan Maberry, and which features team-ups of classic characters (Keith paired H. Rider Haggard’s title character from She with the Yoruba goddess Egungun-oya), with other contributors including fellow Trek scribes David Mack, Greg Cox, Dayton Ward, Derek Tyler Attico, Kevin J. Anderson, Diana Dru Botsford, David A. McIntee, and Rigel Ailur; and Sherlock Holmes: Cases by Candlelight Volume 2, which has four tales of Holmes & Watson by Keith, Christopher D. Abbott, and two more fellow Trek scribes Michael Jan Friedman and Aaron Rosenberg.
You summed up my reaction to the episode fairly well. The logic of the episode just didn’t work for me at the end of the day, while the continuity elements that I suspect will cause an uproar didn’t bother me in the slightest.
First, I am so grateful we didn’t see Chris actually act out charades but that would’ve been way too ludicrous. The episode was already a bit much.
As someone who really loved the VOY episode “Faces”, I wasn’t crazy about this one. Spock being unable to control his emotions seemed silly to me. I guess the point may have been that, without the mental barriers from his Vulcan side, the emotions just burst out uncontrollably—this was the first time he had no built-in filter. I just found it really annoying, especially since it was being played for laughs.
Speaking of annoying, there is T’Pril, who when it comes to nightmare future MIL is up there with DS9’s Sirella. With her condescending attitude, it’s hard to imagine why she even agreed to the bonding to begin with. It must’ve been one of the rare occurrences when her husband put his foot down (in a very logical way, of course). I did find Sevet pretty amusing though. He’s very open minded, until his wife disagrees and then he walks it back.
This was a great showcase for Chapel; you could feel her pain. She’s desperate to fix him because, even though all-human Spock may be more emotionally accessible, he’s just not Spock.
It was great seeing Amanda. I do really hope we see Sarek though at some point.
Well, we’re halfway through the season that the actors lauded as “Like Season 1 only BIGGER”. But, honestly, I liked last season a lot better.
Nice to see Michael Benyear again. He was very impressive in “The Expanse” and does well with a somewhat cliched character here.
S
I agree — there were a lot of amusing moments here, but it doesn’t hold up to analysis. It’s contradictory to acknowledge that Vulcan emotions are innately stronger than human, yet show Spock unable to control his emotions when he’s purely human. Why would removing his Vulcan genes remove his Vulcan learning and behavioral conditioning? It makes no sense. Any more than it makes sense that it would make his speech pattern more informal.
In particular, it doesn’t make any sense that becoming human would make Spock a meat-eater. There are over 1.5 billion human vegetarians and vegans, and the bacon scene felt like a direct affront to them.
Also, it was a painfully awkward plot contrivance to have this mysterious, hyperadvanced alien civilization on a planet that’s somehow within a light-year of Vulcan, one of the Federation’s oldest and most central worlds. How has it not already been fully explored by the Vulcans centuries ago? That makes even less sense than Spock’s behavioral changes.
There were some things that worked for me, though. I liked it that, after Spock successfully pulled off the impersonation, he then realized it was more important to confront T’Pril on her bigotry than feel satisfied that he’d pandered to it. Seeing him stand up for his friends and his mother was a satisfying moment.
At first, I felt it was a missed opportunity not to explore Amanda’s reaction to seeing Spock’s human side brought out fully for the first time. The way Amanda was portrayed in “Journey to Babel,” it seemed that was something she would’ve longed to see and been moved by. But I realized that wouldn’t have been a good approach. It would’ve been too much about her wish fulfillment and not enough about valuing her son for who he is. So it was better that she just wanted to help him through this, and that the focus was more on Spock gaining more appreciation for her struggle.
Also, as cliched as T’Pring’s sitcom parents were, having a mother like that does offer some insight into how T’Pring became the way she was in “Amok Time.”
I also agree fully about Chapel. As I’ve mentioned before, I think Spock and Chapel’s interaction in TOS actually works better if they’re exes dealing with baggage that Spock is striving to put behind him. It makes Chapel less pathetic if her feelings for Spock are based on real history rather than just an unrequited crush. And it helps reconcile the Chapel of “The Naked Time” with the Chapel of “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” (who was originally scripted to be a guest character but rewritten as Chapel so Roddenberry could give his mistress more work) if Roger Korby was her rebound guy after she and Spock broke up.
It was also an interesting touch how the Vulcan interviewer considering Chapel’s application took points off because she phrased things in her own words rather than simply regurgitating memorized text. I’m reminded of the bureaucratic exams in Ming Dynasty China, when things got so ossified that the ideal was merely to accurately replicate the approved form of the essays and quote from the approved list of historical allusions and quotations, rather than convey any actual meaning or original thought. That’s a symptom of a society fallen into decadence and decline, and maybe it suggests something about how humans surpassed Vulcans as the leading power in this region of space.
I actually didn’t find Spock’s struggle with human emotions to be contradictory at all. As the episode acknowledges, Vulcan emotions are much more powerful than human ones, but I thought the key difference that La’an helpfully explained is that human emotions are constant. It seems like Vulcan emotions are mostly in response to external stimuli, while human emotions are just part of existence. Vulcans get deeply angry, but they don’t necessarily get hangry. So it makes sense that Spock would get overwhelmed by the constant flow of emotions, just like any human does. Plus, it could be that Vulcan brain chemistry actually does provide some help in emotional control.
I wasn’t bothered by the use of the overbearing mother-in-law trope, because I enjoyed the Vulcan twist associated with it and I thought it was a good way to contrast her with Amanda (who was superb). I chuckled at the inversion of the “use the beanie to hide your ears” Trek tradition. I wondered a bit if this episode was supposed to explain why Spock finds it so easily to lie exaggerate in the future, compared to other Vulcans. It seems to me that’s what he did about the memory, omitting the crucial details.
On the whole, I enjoyed it. Not the best episode of the season, but I’d still say they’re 5/5 so far. It bums me out that the season is half over.
@5/Chase: I don’t see that as a valid difference. I mean, we’ve seen Vulcans with unsuppressed emotions. They’re called Romulans. And Romulans’ emotional expression doesn’t seem any different from that of humans or most any other humanoids. It certainly doesn’t seem like they feel things only intermittently.
“Plus, it could be that Vulcan brain chemistry actually does provide some help in emotional control.”
That’s more plausible. Indeed, Voyager: “Meld” established that Vulcan emotional suppression systems are based in the mesiofrontal cortex. Without that Vulcan neurological anatomy, Spock would have to learn a new method of emotional control.
“I wondered a bit if this episode was supposed to explain why Spock finds it so easily to lie exaggerate in the future, compared to other Vulcans.”
To quote Jonathan Archer, “Vulcans can lie and cheat with the best of them.” While Vulcan characters have often asserted they were incapable of deception, we’ve seen abundant evidence to the contrary. Heck, the original assertion of the notion that Vulcans can’t lie was in “The Enterprise Incident,” in a scene where Spock was lying to the Romulan Commander about many things, so it’s amazing anyone ever took it seriously.
@ChristopherLBennett: My understanding was that Romulabs, while Vulcanoid, are not exactly the same as Vulcans – that, whether by genetic engineering or multiple centuries of genetic drift, they almost entirely lack the psychic abilities that seem to be at the root of Vulcan problems with emotions.
My impression has always been that being born with touch-based telepathic abilities means that any given Vulcan not only has to cope with their own emotions, they also have to cope with the emotions of everyone around them – which is much, much more difficult – unless they practice a degree of emotional and physical remove that can cause problems in it’s own right (Not least by breeding an aloofness that fosters a climate of active snobbery or outright disdain for the more emotive – though this is exacerbated by the genuinely prodigious Vulcan powers of mind & body).
Some writers treat Romulans as a distinct species, but 2000 years is nowhere near enough time for any significant evolutionary change to have occurred. And your premise of a link between emotional control and telepathy doesn’t wash. Remember, Enterprise established that 22nd-century Vulcans believed mind-melders to be a minority, having suppressed the knowledge that every Vulcan had the potential. So most Vulcans for generations were not even aware that they could sense the thoughts of others, proving that it certainly can’t have been something they did all the time. Some tie-in fiction over the decades has presumed that Vulcans automatically sense the thoughts and emotions of anyone they touch, so that they prefer to avoid casual touching, but canon has never supported that assumption.
I liked this one okay, but yeah, it was more wacky sitcom hijinks that admittedly were probably really fun for Ethan Peck to play. And it was nice for Jess Bush to get some significant screen time again.
I have to say, I’m getting really antsy, though (Anson-y?) for a Pike-on-the-bridge episode. Seriously, has he sat in the captain’s chair for 2 minutes combined through half the season?
Well, the great thing about episodic television is that there are ones I can easily skip.
Hmm, mixed feelings on this one. As others have said, Spock’s behavior as of becoming fully human was illogical. And the comedy felt forced. This was too obviously “the comedy” episode and yet “Spock Amok” just felt naturally more humorous and enjoyable. And we still have the Lower Decks crossover coming so I guess that will be yet another comedy episode.
Still, I found this entertaining just watching Ethan Peck having an acting exercise in behaving all out of sorts and looking like the actor himself. But I really enjoyed all of the Spock/Chapel and Spock/Amanda stuff so I feel that redeems the episode. And I mentally cheered Spock and Chapel smooching at the end. Also, I feel like how Spock and T’Pring left things wasn’t a big enough blowout to justify the years-long estrangement that has transpired by the time we get to “Amok Time.” So perhaps we’ll see more of T’Pring yet.
I thought with having T’Pring back this episode that maybe there’d be mention of Sybok. Was that just supposed to be a fun tease from last season and nothing more?
What is the significance of having Carol Kane and Mia Kershner appear together?
When Spock and Chapel kiss at the end all I could say was “Oh wow, they’re really going into dangerous territory there!”
Hoping they pull back on the “Spock goes funky!” episodes in future seasons though, this one was alright, but relied too much on being a cliched sitcom. I cared more about the Star Trek element of ancient civilization on a moon and anamoly aliens, that seemed more “Strange New Worlds” and more interesting Than “Spock Meets his future in laws! But has lost his Vulcan half?! Hilarity ensues this Thursday, only on CBS!”
Quoth garreth: “What is the significance of having Carol Kane and Mia Kershner appear together?”
It’s the significance of seeing Amanda and Pelia together that I was referring to, since Pelia was established early on as being an old friend of Amanda’s.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@11/krad: Ah, I had forgotten that reference from an earlier episode.
This one was a near-total miss. I don’t have anything to add that hasn’t been said already, but I’ll throw my voice in anyway to reinforce the sentiment. I have misgivings with the show as a whole and even its best episodes, but by any standard I just don’t think this episode worked at all. There were some amusing moments, but this was in no way justified in taking up a tenth of the season. When you’ve only got 10 you gotta make ’em all count.
That was a very typical Strange New Worlds episode – slightly wonky premise, descent into full-on cliched fanfiction style tropes by the end (especially the aliens putting Chapel in the ridiculous position of having to say she loves Spock), and yet it was still a lot of fun to watch and very enjoyable.
I agree with all the remarks made about how T’Pring’s parents are a very tired and hackneyed pair of cliches with no real twist offered, though the actors both did great work and got a lot of laughs each. I thought both of them came off as oddly likeable despite everything, though that might have just been due to my determination to like them out of spite when I realised that the writers were relying on the tedious old “overbearing ‘bossy’ wife and hapless henpecked husband” thing.
Thought the Vulcan tell-people-why-they-suck ritual was cool too, something that manages to be pleasingly bizarre by human standards and yet perfectly logical by Vulcan standards. Liked the customer service aliens too though I’m sure I’ve seen that done somewhere before.
One very minor thing that bothered me to a totally unreasonable extent was Chapel’s impromptu shuttle mission back into the vortex. It’s indicated that this hasn’t been okayed by Pike, presumably to raise the tension. But why wasn’t this checked with Pike? If he’s too preoccupied serving snacks, then why wasn’t it checked with Number One, who’s presumably in command of the Enterprise while Pike’s busy with his hors d’oeuvres? It’s presented as Chapel taking a bit of a risk and being a maverick, but from what we know of Pike and Una, they’d almost definitely approve the mission anyway.
Ortegas must be in command of the mission, since Chapel’s a civilian and Uhura’s an ensign, so does Ortegas have the authority to just take a shuttle? Or did the gang steal it, in which case how did they outfox La’an? I guess Chapel mentioned it to M’Benga, maybe he got the entire thing approved off-screen?
@4–is there any reason to suppose that Pike’s bacon is not replicated? Particularly since he specifically called out his herbs, and no other elements of his kitchen, as not “synthesized”?
Anyway, I liked it. The main plot element was nonsense? So was “Kirk is split into good and evil halves.” Star Trek has always started with the metaphor and then worked backwards to the sci-fi. While a few things were a stretch, a LOT of Vulcan quirks have been pegged to their generics over the years. If his nervous system is too altered to mind-meld, I can forgive a traumatized Spock going through a late “human” adolescence with his new extra bits regrown from a confused alien autodoc, and mirroring the human Enterprise officers that he spends all day every day with as he tries to compensate. Importantly, this Spock has already taken some emotional blows of late, and the more-experienced TOS Spock may have found it easier to roll with something like this happening to him.
T’Pring’s parents did not need or deserve to be more than caricatures. T’Pring’s development has been a welcome surprise throughout SNW, but we don’t need her whole family tree to get layers. If anything, her mother’s (typical) Vulcan-cultural jackassery and her father’s failed people-pleasing add context for why T’Pring would regress into the “Amok Time” piece of work that doesn’t mind assassinating a Starfleet Captain as a side effect of dumping her fiancé in favor of a subordinate.
The episode was funny and moving, much like a superior episode of “Lower Decks,” which SNW has always helpfully taken cues from. Consider my appetite thoroughly whetted for E7.
They really do recycle plots over all the ST shows, don’t they?
@15/Patrick: “is there any reason to suppose that Pike’s bacon is not replicated?”
I assume it probably is, but that’s not the point. The point is that it stereotypes humans to assume we’re all meat eaters, to suggest that vegetarianism is some weird alien trait and that even a lifelong vegetarian would suddenly, automatically become an omnivore upon being made human.
@16/Austin: “They really do recycle plots over all the ST shows, don’t they?”
This is apparently the 888th episode of Star Trek overall. Of course there are going to be tons of reused ideas in any body of works that immense.
I actually disagree re: Fun With DNA™ because as someone who is neurodivergent, the idea that he is going through adolescence where hormones are literally causing behavioural changes that he had not anticipated and has no coping skills for is 100% accurate to my experience? If a neurotypical person were to be dropped into my body they would almost certainly struggle with outsized reactions caused by rejection sensitive dysphoria, the executive dysfunction, brain fog, impulse control, hyperfocus– not to mention the metabolic issues caused by my thyroid.
The writers took ‘Amok Time’ where Spock experiences pon farr, and extrapolated logically from that canon example of Vulcans being adversely affected by hormonal changes to the point of behavioural AND physical issues, and how those upheavals put Spock in mortal peril. It also reiterated the idea that Spock views the Vulcan way as suppressing his emotions instead of striving to MASTER their emotions. It also ties beautifully into the extraordinary TNG ep ‘Sarak’, and how Picard struggles with the intensity and depth of Sarak’s feelings for his wife and son.
I know we’re talking about recontextualizing the original series, TNG, The Search For Spock, and even Star Trek (2009). But isn’t that what an expanding fictional universe does? When it’s done well, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While the humour may have been forced at times, and not all the jokes landed, the bones of the story (if you excuse the pun) are strong and completely work for me. It gave us some amazing scenes for Spock’s relationships with Amanda & T’Pring, and great character beats for all 3.
I have mixed feelings about this one. I understand that it’s a comedy episode, so things are intentionally silly and overdone, and I understand that an episode that’s played for laughs often makes the characters behave in ways that they wouldn’t actually behave. That’s all par for the course in a comedy episode.
So although I think if Spock’s Vulcan DNA were actually removed, he’d behave the way he always does, because his memory wasn’t removed. He’s been practicing his control all of his life, and removing his Vulcan genes wouldn’t remove it. But I’m willing to go with the absurd premise for the sake of comedy.
I thought the episode did some wonderful things with the absurd setup. Star Trek often shows us how evil prejudice is, but it’s a message I never tire of, because it’s so very important. It was heart-warming to see Spock claim his humanity and extol his mother’s virtues. Amanda was clearly a better person than either of T’Pring’s parents, and it was wonderful to see him realize that and to celebrate her to her face.
I’m unhappy, though, that BOTH this season’s Spock focus episode AND last season’s Spock focus episode were comedies. It’s fine of have one of them be a comedy — Ethan Peck does comedy very well — but can’t we have a serious Spock focus episode? One that delves into his character a little more than is possible during an absurd episode? I don’t want to see this character become SNW’s Neelix. Spock is important to a great many of us; please write him a serious focus episode for Season 3.
Strange that the aliens of the week deemed Spock the one that needed fixing. What if they decided it was Chapel that needed repair and made her half-Vulcan? That could have been interesting too.
@20, Gareth — That’s a cool idea! Maybe you should write fan fiction of it.
@19/corylea: I think Spock gets more than one focus episode per season. Aside from the comedy episode of the first season you mentioned, he was also focused on in the episode with the pirates where he’s deceived and has his first smooch (under false pretenses) with Chapel. I would deem that outing as a “serious” episode. Plus, Spock usually gets plenty of stuff to do in most other episodes too, like the one last season where he loses emotional control after he and his crewmates are chased around by vicious Gorn babies.
If anything, some of the other characters could be given more to do like Una and Ortegas.
@15/Patrick — There ARE no replicators during this era. During the TOS era, we had food synthesizers, not replicators. It’s not clear what exactly the food synthesizers made the food out of, so we don’t know if their bacon was vegetarian or not. Given that Pike likes to cook with real ingredients, it’s quite possible that any bacon in his kitchen was even made out of pig…
Spock’s lack of emotional control didn’t really bother me, since he was basically in a whole new body with different anatomy, which I assume includes brain anatomy, so that would be enough to throw anyone for a loop. Pile on top of that the fact that he was going through some sort of delayed adolescence, which means his hormones were also all out of whack, and I don’t blame him for being unable to deal with it. On top of all that, he was just getting his emotions back properly under control in the first place when the accident happened. So I give the guy a break.
I also am quite comfortable with how his relationship with Chapel is developing. Apart from the fact that it makes their tension in the original series more understandable, I enjoy the chemistry that the actors have, and I find their relationship entirely believable. That it’s doomed to fail is kind of sad. I also enjoyed the scenes between Spock and T’Pring, as usual. Of course their relationship is also doomed to fail. It’s almost a shame that we can’t just see where this whole love triangle goes rather than having its ending established several decades ago.
Unfortunately, the whole bit with the Vulcan in-laws just fell flat for me. As has been said already, T’Pril and her henpecked husband were such tired old stereotypes that it was difficult to take that entire stretch of the episode seriously. However, I did quite enjoy how Spock stood up for his mother.
Overall I’d say this was the weakest episode of the season so far, but even so I did enjoy much of it.
@19 – I was getting the same feeling about the T’Pring episodes. Two for two, when she visits the ship, it’s time for “Those Wacky Vulcans!”. This time, we get a list from Zek & Moogie.
Wouldn’t Pike know that Spock is a vegetarian? Then why would he be preparing bacon & eggs for him? Even if they’re synthetic, why would he tempt him with something that goes against what Spock would normally eat? WOuldn’t the logical way to do things would be to try and keep his life as pre-alteration as possible?
T’Pring said that she thought they should spend some time apart. That doesn’t mean the engagement is off. Yet the impression is that Spock and Chapel were doing a lot more than just kissing, judging by the way they fell back out of frame. If T’Pring was upset about Spock not trusting her before, how do you think she’ll feel about him knocking boots with Chapel?
Some amusing bits but it feels like they writers came up with some amusing situations and then hammered a plot on them just enough to make it appear like it was coherent. “I know, let’s put Spock in a hat when he meets his mom!”. Yeah, that won’t appear odd at all.
@20/garreth: “Strange that the aliens of the week deemed Spock the one that needed fixing. What if they decided it was Chapel that needed repair and made her half-Vulcan?”
Not so strange. They saw one patient with a consistent set of “instructions,” and another that had that set plus a second, incompatible set. It stood to reason that they’d see the repeated instructions as the standard and the singular one as the anomaly. A narrow-minded assumption, but it’s all too plausible that people would leap to such a conclusion.
@24/David Pirtle: “Spock’s lack of emotional control didn’t really bother me, since he was basically in a whole new body with different anatomy, which I assume includes brain anatomy, so that would be enough to throw anyone for a loop.”
Sure, but why would that make him stop speaking formally or being a vegetarian? Those aren’t about emotional control, they’re about personal habit and preference.
@25/kkozoriz: “Wouldn’t Pike know that Spock is a vegetarian? Then why would he be preparing bacon & eggs for him?”
He was teaching Spock to cook, not cooking a meal for Spock. Perhaps the bacon & eggs were meant for the guests they were cooking for.
This is essentially the SF version of the *I Love Lucy* episode where Cesar Romero comes for dinner.
Bacon: If you had to pick one food with high olfactory appeal to humans in general? That would be up there. I wouldn’t read much more than that into it.
My issue. Other than plotmentium, why would Enterprise be assigned to survey a moon in the Vulcan system when assumably the entire Vulcan science directorate is kinda right there. It’s like Earth saying to Vulcan, hey can you check out this strange energy signature that we have somehow failed to notice for thousands of years on Neptune? We are just waaaay too busy right now.
@26 – I always assumed that Spock had DNA that was a combination of human and Vulcan, not that he had one set of DNA plus another from his other parent. What would your idea look like? Would the DNA be piggybacked on the other set or would it take the form of extra chromosomes?
The way I saw it was that there was 1 1/2 sets of human DNA and 1/2 set of Vulcan and the aliens just decided to turn the 75% into 100%.
It’s kind of a dick move to teach someone to cook a meal that they can’t eat. It would be like teaching an observant Jew how to make bacon cheeseburgers.
@28 – They said it was in the same sector, not the same system
@29/kkozoriz: “I always assumed that Spock had DNA that was a combination of human and Vulcan, not that he had one set of DNA plus another from his other parent.”
But that is basically how reproduction works — a child gets one set of 23 chromosomes from each parent, and then they pair up with their homologous counterparts and trade genes between them. Except for the X/Y sex chromosomes, the two chromosomes in each pair are identical aside from individual variation, so they’re essentially complete genomes. There’s a condition called uniparental disomy where an offspring can get both copies of a chromosome from the same parent.
“They said it was in the same sector, not the same system”
Which doesn’t help in the slightest, because Vulcans have been an interstellar power for centuries and have had plenty of time to explore their own sector. Besides, I believe they said it’s only one light year from Vulcan, but the nearest star to 40 Eridani, LHS 1723, is 3.7 light years away.
@31 – I must have misunderstood when you said “They saw one patient with a consistent set of “instructions,” and another that had that set plus a second, incompatible set.”
I read that as you saying Spock had a complete set of Human DNA plus a Complete set of Vulcan DNA as well.
I’d have to check again but I thought that the energy signature was a new development. A
The comedy mostly fell flat to me, but I did like the emotional core of the episode. I also didn’t have a problem with Spock losing his emotional control upon changing species; Vulcan emotions may be more intense than human ones, but who’s to say that they’re of the same quality? “Anger” in a Vulcan might be an entirely different subjective experience from “anger” in a human; and, having effectively gone through puberty twice, I’m sympathetic to the idea that one’s mind can be a plaything of one’s body. What *didn’t* make sense to me was Spock needing humans to teach him how to act like a Vulcan.
Also, it just occurred to me that the ritual was basically a Vulcan version of the “Airing of the Grievances” for Festivus on Seinfeld.
A. I feel so very sorry for Sevet…he is clearly ready to enjoy himself at so many turns in the evening, and yet gets held back.
B. I had a recent “adventure” with difficult-to-get-on-the-phone customer service, involving a complaint beyond the standard response period…definitely empathizing there as well!
C. Just gotta say: SNW Chapel is my style icon (although the TOS-era look isn’t exactly my thing, she was rocking some amazing hair back then, too!).
I don’t think this was as entertaining as Spock Amock but I do think they’ve really done a good job modernizing Spock’s “Am I human or Vulcan?” However, I also feel like they’ve made T’Pring a bit too much of a victim of what a crappy boyfriend Spock is. She’s really made a huge effort to be accepting and meet Spock halfway (and then again) with Starfleet. The fact that Spock is clearly just not that into her and kind of leaving her hanging repeatedly is awful. Just dump the girl, Spock, as you’ll both be happier. You’re stringing her along in the classical sense.
Well, at least the Vulcan costumes were faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous.
@17–yes that’s a fair point. Lots of odd implications to navigate for a bit that’s not worth the payoff.
@23–even in our world today, we are looking at lab-grown meat being a consumer product in the next decade, not to mention the plant-based meat substitutes we already have being *pretty darn good* in many cases. I confess that I find it almost impossible to imagine a 23rd century in which “synthesized” meat in any way involves Real Dead Animals, and that is a non-trivial component of the case for vegetarianism (source: wife is a former vegetarian).
It is, perhaps regrettably, open to each person’s interpretation of the dialogue to determine because the bacon is not explicitly described as “synthesized.” I would tend to agree that having Spock uncontrollably binge on real bacon due to being “humanized” is unacceptable given the ways that the character is historically coded.
@37/Patrick: Speaking as someone who’s never liked most pork products all that much, I find it obnoxious how people usually react like it’s some shocking personal failing when I say I don’t care for bacon. I mean, come on, I admit it has some interesting flavor nuances when it’s prepared well (which quite a lot of it isn’t), but it’s bizarre to act surprised that different people have different tastes. And as someone who mostly gave up non-poultry meat a long time ago, I don’t really crave the taste of it anymore, and I realize there were things I never really liked about it. I actually prefer a good veggie burger to ground beef. So I’m not at all convinced that someone who’s been a pure vegetarian his entire life would even like bacon.
Then again, I just remembered that there is canonical precedent for Spock acquiring a taste for meat when he loses his Vulcan control, in “All Our Yesterdays.” So I guess it’s at least consistent. I still don’t find it entirely plausible that he’d like it that much, though.
Sort of surprised at the muted response here to this episode. I laughed throughout. The emotional beats felt earned. I love this cast so much. I thought the balance of comedy and seriousness was near perfect. This is the 2nd best of the season to me (the trial ep was best, the la’an/kirk ep a close 3rd).
My only complaint (a minor one) is the acknowledged MIL trope, which has been done a million times.
Yes, the episode was silly. Yes, it used and played with a lot of cliches. But, I enjoyed it. How they are using and developing the Spock character is fascinating. I also find the Spock – T’Pring – Chapel triangle and issues to be great, clever, and, yes, fascinating. I have faith that this will all connect up to ‘Canon’ in the Star Trek TOS. The pleasure is wondering how the writers will get us there. Which I am certain they will. I am happy to enjoy the ride, and each new layer will just add nuance to the Star Trek TOS viewing. I can appreciate the cliches and the reaching for laughs since they did give us added depth to the characters with the actions of Chapel, Uhura, and Ortegas in support of Spock. So, is this the best episode of this or any season? No. But it is worth the watch and was enjoyable.
Great episode. I liked the sitcom hijinks and the will they/won’t they romance between Spock and Chapel. I don’t care about matching up with TOS exactly. They should focus on telling a good story, and not being hamstrung by creative decisions made a long time ago. Canon should be a guide, not a straightjacket. (Don’t @@@@@ me CLB)
When the Vulcan mother was criticizing everyone, it made me think of the Airing of Grievances from Festivus on Seinfeld.
The season is half over and it’s been very solid. I’m looking forward to the Lower Decks crossover especially.
I mostly liked it, not for the sitcom scenario, but for the overall emotional resonance at the end.
The one thing that stood out during the sitcom shenanigans was Sevet’s rather emotional reaction to Pike’s food. By writing both him and T’Pril as the stereotypical 20th century couple, they inadvertently made Sevet a little too emotional. For a second, I wondered if he was half-human. He seemed to enjoy the food a bit too much and he also expressed a bit too much disappointment when realizing he wouldn’t eat any more of it.
One thing for sure. Crafting the dinner/ceremony as a sitcom scenario indirectly made me remember why DS9 worked as well as it did. It treated other cultures respectfully, and for what they were. Whether it was the Ferengi or the Klingons, you wouldn’t have any of those characters being written, acted or directed like contemporary pop-culture savvy human beings. Obviously, the episode reminded a lot of “You are Cordially Invited” and how Jadzia’s attempts at winning Sirella’s respect worked, because that episode took the story and the conflict seriously. Even a disaster like “Profit and Lace” had the brutally honest trigger of Moogie’s heart attack, indirectly caused by Quark’s vicious words – a natural outcome of a problematic mother/son relationship that had been building for years.
Still, the comedy attempts aside, I really enjoyed the way Spock’s own situation and inability to be truthful pushed T’Pring away, making her actions in “Amok Time” all the more plausible and understandable.
I also give the episode major points for the sequence where Chapel is forced to admit her feelings for Spock in order to convince the bureaucratic interdimensional aliens to reverse the procedure. But the real winner of a scene is Spock calling T’Pril on her BS. Not only it pays off the way she validated Sarek’s behavior earlier on, but it really shone a light on Amanda’s own life choices and just how difficult it’s been for her to be the one human living in a planet full of Vulcans – a stark contrast to Spock being the sole conflicted half human/half-vulcan in a ship full of emotional humans. She’s been seen so little in 56 years of Trek, it’s great to have something come out of it. A crucial mother/son moment in an episode that jeopardizes his marriage. Worth sitting through the sitcom parts just to get to this conclusion.
And then there’s that ending. Loved it. Loved the way it dared to challenge fan preconceptions of the Spock/Chapel relationship, painting the events of TOS in a whole new light, particularly Spock’s breakdown in “The Naked Time” following Chapel’s own admission. When you really think about it, there’s nothing that contradicts it. That’s the beauty of being a prequel to an episodic series. If TOS had been serialized, it might not have worked. But it never stated or shown that Chapel and Spock were strangers prior to Kirk taking command – only that Chapel was away working with Korby during an unspecified period.
@@@@@41/Tim Kaiser: “Canon should be a guide, not a straightjacket. (Don’t @@@@@ me CLB)”
What? I agree with you.
@33, 41: I think you’re both right. Maybe the writers of this episode are Seinfeld fans? “Serenity now!!!”
This episode was funny and fun to watch. When we finished the episode, my 10-year-old asked me if it was in my top 10 episodes for this show – and I told her that truthfully, it wasn’t – but that I still had fun watching.
I do think that it goes a little far in terms of making Spock fully human – especially as we will continue to see Spock struggling with his duality later on. I think specifically of the speech he gives Kirk in “The Enemy Within” about how the two sides of his nature are constantly in conflict.
Still, it’s worth the silliness for the little moments like Pike suggesting they play charades and Sevet asking whether they are “sacred words” they will need to guess. Yes, the comedy is broad, but no more so than it is in something like “The Trouble With Tribbles” where Kirk gets a lot more snide with a superior than he ordinarily would.
See, I thought they were adding an interesting layer to the whole “vulcan emotion vs human emotion” lore.
We already know that Vulcans feel things more intensely. That they use logic to rein that in. But what I noticed in this episode was that when Spock was describing having human emotions, he was using multiple words – it wasn’t the intensity that was bothering him or hindering his ability to suppress his feelings. It was that he was feeling four or even five emotions at the same time and this was Too Much.
As a human, asked how he felt, he said things like ‘sad. and angry. and disappointed. and…hungry?’ – like it was overwhelming to feel ALL those feelings at the same time.
As a vulcan, though, if asked how he felt, he’d use ONE WORD. Like ‘badly’. “I feel badly about x”. And he could manage that.
I think his emotion suppression training was like…wrestling control over a mountain lion. It’s just one mountain lion, but it’s BIG. And his human emotions were more like wrestling a basket full of month-old kittens. They’re not lion-sized, but they’re everywhere all the time. The same tactics as used on the mountain lion just aren’t going to work.
I thought that was neat.
The Kiss isn’t the thing that breaks canon. What breaks canon is Chapel not recognizing (and stating such on screen) the adult T’Pring in “Amok Time” (and also not knowing in that episode that Spock was engaged).
Of course, that’s part and parcel of a whole bunch of violations (like no one having ever heard about the Gorn in “Arena”). Unless the writers are planning a mass mind-wipe just before Kirk takes over command of Enterprise.
@47/quantummechanic: “Of course, that’s part and parcel of a whole bunch of violations (like no one having ever heard about the Gorn in “Arena”).”
Ahh, but in fact, when the Metrons put Kirk’s battle on the viewscreen, McCoy refers to Kirk’s opponent as a Gorn before he hears the Metron refer to them that way. So that’s evidence that the Gorn were previously known.
If you want to talk about “canon violations,” James T. Kirk is a violation because his tombstone clearly said James R. Kirk. Starfleet is a violation because the Enterprise worked for UESPA. Data being incapable of contractions is a violation because he used them regularly in the first half-season. The Cardassian war is a violation because Starfleet was explicitly at peace in the first two seasons of TNG when the war was retroactively said to have been going on. “Canon” does not mean uniform continuity. It means a bunch of stories that pretend to share a reality, even when they rewrite that reality along the way.
As long as people are talking about Amok Time again, I still can’t see how it’s meant to happen. I watched it again not too long ago and as far as I can tell, it’s presented that the kal-if-fee is literally the only way for T’Pring to escape forced marriage. Obviously Vulcan has since been revised so that nobody is forced into marriage-slavery anymore, so already Amok Time’s events are hard to make sense of, but even then, the episode invites the viewer to hate her even though a) she’s escaping a terrible fate using (apparently) the only legal means available to her and b) all Vulcans seem to agree that kal-if-fee is fine, so she’s not acting outside Vulcan social norms/law.
She doesn’t even trick Kirk; he gets himself locked into a battle to the death by talking over T’Pau, ignoring everyone’s warnings, blustering into the arena, and giving his consent to a battle to the death because he doesn’t bother listening to what people are telling him.
Kal-if-fee, and the forced marriages it acts as a potential escape mechanism from, is hard to fit into the wider “canon” of Vulcan in the first place, so it’s not a failing of Strange New Worlds, but I still can’t see how we’re on track to Amok Time. SNW makes it clear that Vulcan women can – obviously and rightly – enter or exit a marriage at any time, so if Amok Time still happens, then T’Pring seemingly invokes kal-if-fee for no reason at all in order to leave a marriage which she’s not bound to in the first place.
From a person hailing from a “meat culture” in Kentucky, I should note there’s “meat” that is meat cooked and then there is “meat” that is prepared, seasoned, and served as an art form. Pike may not be quite as good at it as Sisko but I fully presume that the bacon being served in Pike’s kitchen is more than the straight out of the Kroger isle and on a pan kind as well. And yes, I’m assuming that the meat is ethical either way due to the impracticality of mass food storage in the 23rd century. It’s almost certainly synthesized or replicated.
(Replicators exist in DISCO/SNW I’m sure but I’m not sure for food versus equipment)
Re: T’Pring
I think a lot of “Amock Time” can be explained away as Spock and T’Pring both being under the influence of Pon’Farr and having gone through most of the rituals when there was ample room to get out before it happened. Which is to say they really should have ended this relationship much earlier. We also know Vulcan divorce is a thing since Sybok’s mother and Sarek dissolved their union.
I think they took all the wrong lessons from the well-received season one. While a less-heavily serialized format was a welcome change from Discovery’s storylines, what I did NOT want was a full return to the goofy, disposable storylines where something life-changing happens to a character (in normal circumstances) that will be forgotten by next week and never mentioned again. I can’t imagine that these episodes are going over well with the general population. This show went from my most anticipated of the summer to a show that I’m now bailing on in the middle of episodes because I know exactly how the silly complication-of-the-week is going to play out.
@51 said: “This show went from my most anticipated of the summer to a show that I’m now bailing on in the middle of episodes because I know exactly how the silly complication-of-the-week is going to play out.”
And I’m enjoy using it the same way I enjoy a good “Law & Order” episode even though I know what will happen next by looking at my watch. Sometimes, it is OK to just be entertained for an hour rather than having one’s beliefs around the human condition or current events challenged. Sometimes it is fun just to see our characters have something funny happen to them and figure out how to deal with it. Their actions and comments while figuring it out are more interesting to me than the solution itself in an episode like this. F
#52
Er, wouldn’t a sitcom be a better comparison than Law & Order? Because that whole franchise is often about challenging one’s beliefs around the human condition, using “ripped from the headlines” stories and so forth.
@50/C.T. Phipps: What I’m saying about the bacon is that it doesn’t necessarily follow that someone who has no history of eating meat would respond to its flavor or texture as enthusiastically as someone who’s eaten meat all their life and has had their tastes shaped accordingly. The palate is shaped by experience as much as anything else.
So I suspect that Spock’s reaction to Pike’s undoubtedly well-prepared bacon would be less like what we saw and more like my own reaction when I gave in and tried a bit of the bacon prepared by my cousin’s friend who’s an excellent chef in his own right: I felt it was actually fairly good and I could finally grasp what people like about it, but it still wasn’t entirely to my taste and I didn’t feel an overpowering urge to gobble it down.
“(Replicators exist in DISCO/SNW I’m sure but I’m not sure for food versus equipment)”
Not replicators, synthesizers. Replicators are transporter-based, creating exact copies of stored transporter patterns. Synthesizers, as the name indicates, assemble things from scratch instead, so what they create isn’t quite as identical to the real thing as a replicated item (in the same way that a synthesized musical instrument doesn’t sound as real as a digital recording of a live instrument). Replicators didn’t replace synthesizers until the 24th century.
And yes, the existence of food synthesizers in the 23rd century was established in TOS.
As for the pon farr thing, are you suggesting that the rules for divorce during pon farr are more restrictive than the rest of the time? Maybe because there’s more imperative to burn off the plak tow one way or the other.
But then, why didn’t T’Pring just split up with Spock earlier? Maybe her overbearing mother was a factor there.
@51/Vic DiGital: “what I did NOT want was a full return to the goofy, disposable storylines where something life-changing happens to a character (in normal circumstances) that will be forgotten by next week and never mentioned again.”
Huh? This is not that episode. What happened here will clearly have consequences. You just missed it if you stopped watching halfway through.
Pretty much. I think this would go with what we’re seeing on screen. There’s a lot of opportunities for the couple to back out without shame to the family (and there’s several RL precedents for this) but once the ink is dry and and the arrangements made, you’re supposed to see it through. Given the biological imperative and brief psychosis that occurs, you can understand why Vulcans note that there’s no going back at this point since Spock requires killing his best friend to shake him out of it.
@45/twels: You said your 10 year-old asked you if this episode is in your top-10 for this show and you said it wasn’t but you still enjoyed it. Well, this series only has a total of 15 aired episodes so far, so that would put this one in your bottom 5! ;o)
In some good news, I read that the season two premiere episode of SNW was in the top-10 of streaming shows for the week it aired across all streaming platforms. This is the second Star Trek series to do that after Picard and only the third show to ever do that for Paramount+. So I think it’s a safe bet to assume SNW isn’t going to be canceled anytime soon.
https://trekmovie.com/2023/07/13/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-warps-into-streaming-top-10-chart/
Oh, I’m sure Spock and Chapel do more than just smooch…
@56/ I think that there’s a pretty good chance that Paramount+ itself will go under in the next few years, but yeah,cancelation seems unlikely.
@50 (and @54’s response): We already know Sybok was born out of wedlock (mentioned by Spock in SNW S1), so Sarek and Sybok’s mother did not have a divorce to get. There is also the line in TNG where Sarek’s then-current wife (Perrin) is said to be “from Earth” like his “first wife” obviously alluding to Amanda.
#58
I hear they’re rebranding it UPN Plus. ;-)
I’m sorry to say that I enjoyed the first season much more than this season so far and enjoyed this episode the least. The trial episode WAS good but that is only 20% of the season. The first season episode Children of the Comet was, for me, the perfect episode: a puzzle, enough action to be exciting but they finished as friends and a hint of mystery at the end. I’m not enjoying the emphasis on one character per episode very much. I prefer to see everyone working together; those were the only parts of this episode I liked.
But I’ll keep watching in hopes it becomes more to my liking as it goes on.
@49 I don’t think Kirk bears the bulk of the blame. T’Pring selected him knowing he was ignorant, and T’Pau is in full insufferable Vulcan mode. You can almost hear the unspoken “you didn’t ask”, when she knew full well from context that Kirk didn’t know what he was agreeing to. He was clearly trying to act with respect to T’Pau (one reason he gives for not being able to back down).
I’ve always read that and her turning down a seat on the Federation Council as her having a chip on her shoulder about the Federation generally, and “outworlders'” presence a high Vulcan ceremony particularly. If she wasn’t, like T’Pring, intentionally compassing Kirk’s death, it clearly wasn’t a consequence that would cost her any sleep.
That early in the series, I’m not sure that Vulcan’s place in the Federation was necessarily clear. (Especially with McCoy’s line in a different episode about them being conquered.) Likewise there was the early idea that the Enterprise was mainly an Earth ship. Sturgeon may have seen Vulcans as an imperfectly integrated part of an Earth-led polity (with some resentful holdouts) rather than, as later developed, a founding world among equals and in some ways a senior partner.
The chemistry between Peck and Bush is so delicious I can forgive anything else. But I will say I was actually disappointed in The Kiss. Not that it wasn’t emotionally satisfying to see it happen; It’s just that you can’t unring a bell, and what has always fascinated me about those two is the chaste, repressed nature of their attraction to each other.
Just before that last scene, I was thinking about one of my favorite films, Remains of the Day. That film has many themes, but It’s most moving and tragic moments revolve around the unrequited attraction between Hopkins’ devoted Butler and Emma Thompson’s high-spirited housekeeper who tries vainly to break through his emotional walls without being too explicit about it, which of course would be so very un-British.
They never touch, much less kiss, and the most intimate scene between them is her playfully, but deliberately, trying to pull a dime store novel out of his hand, a moment which ends sadly and awkwardly. By the end of the film, he tries in his own way to correct his error, but it’s too late. Hate to say it, but I would prefer it had Spock and Chapel not physically consummated their relationship, as implied here. I know it’s a fist-pump moment, but to me it also drains that relationship of much of its latent power over the viewer. At least this one.
Or maybe I’m just jealous of Spock. Bush as Chapel is as stunningly captivating a Trek character as there ever was. I am smitten.
@48
McCoy does, but earlier in the episode, the whole bridge crew heard the Metron say “the captain of the Gorn ship”. So we could also assume that either the voice was heard throughout the whole ship (like in the Corbomite Maneuver with Balok), or that he was briefed after he came to the bridge. There are always various interpretations. So while we could assume that they were known, because McCoy wasn’t present when the name was brought up the first time, everyone who was on the bridge, knew the name because they heard it at the moment Kirk was taken away, and they could tell McCoy. (or the script forgot McCoy wasn’t on the bridge)
@64/Em: Sure, you could explain it in the context of the Gorn being unknown, but now that it’s been retconned that the Gorn were previously known, it’s no longer useful to interpret it that way. My point is that McCoy’s knowledge of the name is a detail that we can finesse to reconcile “Arena” with SNW (at least where knowledge of the Gorn is concerned, although I still despise SNW’s complete rejection of “Arena”‘s message by turning the Gorn into irredeemably evil monsters).
@ChristopherLBennett
In terms of the Kherkovians being very near Vulcan, the episode pretty clearly stated that the warp tunnel was new. Presumably the Vulcans had done archeological work before, but wouldn’t have had the chance to meet them until they apparently just randomly decided to revisit their original home. And the line about distance iirc isn’t that they’re exactly 1 light year away, but only that the disruption was making it impossible to send messages more than a light year. So while it’s a stretch, I don’t think it’s contradictory.
I remain slightly nonplussed by the idea of “ascended” dimensional beings as basically modern corporate representatives. It’s funny, but also rather disturbing. But hey, there’s nothing really to say that we even *see* the Kherkovians in the episode. It’s very possible that “blue” and “yellow” are just machines they’ve created to handle dealings with our universe and their version of an AI automated caller system.
That being said, I’m really enjoying the new season of Strange New Worlds. S1 I also enjoyed, but imo it was wildly, wildly uneven in the quality of stories and writing and even the tone week to week, and had kind of a leaden central storyline (Pike’s predicted death). S2 so far shows a lot more basic confidence in the characters and the show’s identity. It’s not a great show–it lacks the deeper character and world-building of DS9 and the more intellectual sci-fi concepts of TOS and TNG–but compared to say, Discovery, it’s really leaning into its strengths, which are likeable characters and good actors and really damn good aesthetics and a general sense of energy and life. Very legitimately TOS-ish, which is quite an accomplishment for a show in 2023.
Anyway, this episode was fun and funny (I don’t mind Star Trek going outright silly comedy: DS9 did it a lot, and “commitment to genre” is an important part of being an episodic show imo), but was significantly elevated by the character stuff with Spock and Amanda. That really did make a contribution to the Spock character as a whole, as well as to Amanda. I’ve never agreed with our rewatcher’s take on Amanda in Journey to Babel: I don’t think she comes off as a stock ’50s housewife at all, she comes off as a strong person with a lot of individual personality who’d learned to handle the conflicts of her life on Vulcan with humor and the ability to brush things off and go along with things, but with a lot of buried complicated emotion under the surface. This episode really puts the button on that interpretation, and gives Spock a very important beat in recognizing and valuing his mother. It deepens Journey to Babel and that story about reconciling with his father without contradicting it. It’s legitimately good prequel-series stuff.
I would say the same for the Spock-Chapel relationship, though that’s less enormously deep as just very well-played by actors with a lot of likeability and chemistry. I very much agree with other ppl here though that this doesn’t contradict TOS so much as enormously, enormously deepen it. Chapel just having a crush on Spock was fine imo (though her using drugs on him in TAS was not), but it makes much more sense if they’ve had a past relationship that Spock did legitimately reciprocate on emotional terrain that he’s now completely closed off as part of his TOS Vulcanization. It makes it impossible to watch those scenes in TOS differently, and adds a lot of emotion and genuine character concern to them. It’s quite a feat.
Of course the biggest problem with this storyline for me, as with most prequel romances, is that it just becomes kind of unbearably tragic, and the better the relationship is and the more likeable the characters the more tragic it becomes. The only consolation is that it has occurred to me that it’s just barely* possible that Spock’s established wedding when Picard was a Lieutenant was with Chapel? If I recall, novel pseudocanon had the bride as Saavik, but that imo is just creepy and wrong on many different levels; and Strange New Worlds has really made me root for Chapel above all Spock’s other love interests, which is quite an accomplishment given how inert their relationship was in TOS.
When I say barely possible, of course, I do mean *barely*: if I’m doing my math right, Chapel would have to be in her 90s at least, but we know Star Trek humans can live a long time–and since the last time we see her onscreen in in TVH, and the last time we learn anything about Spock’s private life (“other men have families”) is TFF, there’s nothing to say that they can’t even have gotten back together by the timeframe of the TUC. Canonize it already, Strange New Worlds! Why not?
@65/ChristopherLBennett I wasn’t disagreeing with you btw just pointing out that you need to consciously make that decision to see it as McCoy knowing, and Kirk not. I’ve personally never had any problems connecting Discovery or SNW to TOS. Would I like to see them retconning some TOS things? Yes. But if they don’t, it’s fine as well, because both prequels seem to (so far) tie in quite well.
Also re: Spock and Chapel. I feel like even in The Naked Time and Amok Time, we can interpret Spock as either still having feelings for Chapel, but reigning himself in (because of what’s to come in SNW, I presume), or just remembering what they used to have. We can also interpret it imho as Spock kind of leading her on because he never rejected her advances in TOS. So it’s interesting now to watch TOS with their backstory in mind.
I’d also say that Spock and Chapel could get together post-TMP (if the writers wanted to). I don’t think there’s anything that would really contradict it on screen. And McCoy’s “other people have families” kind of doesn’t make sense, since the guy technically has a daughter (and the novelization also established that he has a grandkid). So he’s just, you know, being McCoy.
Regarding the Kherkovian mission, note that technology advances constantly, and Starfleet ships are likely equipped with (and regularly upgraded to) the best sensors the Federation is capable of producing. It’s entirely likely that the Vulcans have long been aware of the Weird Glowing Swirly Thing (technical term translated from the original Vulcan) in their back yard, but haven’t been able to get close enough make any detailed scans until new tech (and an expendable Starfleet crew) became available (which logically means that everything they know about these aliens must come from other archaeological sites on Kherkov).
I also note that, while T’Pril does explain a lot about T’Pring, so does Sevet; he’s much more relaxed and emotional than most Vulcans we’ve met. We’ve seen that T’Pring works in V’tosh ka’tur rehabilitation, and did indeed seem more liberal and understanding of Spock’s human side (sometimes more than Spock himself) –it’s possible that it was her father’s influence that gave her that interest.
@14. While she’s referred to as just the pilot, it’s more likely (from how she’s treated and from internal franchise logic) that Ortegas is actually a department head; her proper title is probably something like “Head of Flight Operations” or “Chief Flight Officer.” In addition to serving as helmswoman, she would also have oversight of any support craft, shuttle maintenance rotations, and certification and assignment of other flight-qualified crew members.
So yes, she likely has the authority to take a shuttle out for a “test flight” with few questions asked.
@36. I was especially struck by the blood-green colour scheme worn by Spock and his family (including Pike). I wonder if that was part of the ceremony or just a subtext-laden choice by Amanda. Spock in particular looked very Romulan.
@66/Captain Peabody: “If I recall, novel pseudocanon had the bride as Saavik, but that imo is just creepy and wrong on many different levels”
I’ve never understood why people think that. Just because she was Spock’s protegee something like 60 years in the past? Yes, he was briefly sort of a surrogate father figure to her when she was a kid, but he was never really more than her mentor, and they didn’t get married until two human generations later, after they both had decades of adult experience taking them very far from those beginnings.
And yes, a few versions of Saavik’s backstory have Sarek and Amanda adopting her, making her technically Spock’s sister, but that didn’t stop Barry Allen and Iris West from getting married in The CW’s The Flash, or Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers being love interests on the bionic shows in the ’70s (and eventually marrying in the ’90s revival movies). It’s not incest if the relationship isn’t biological.
@67/Em: “just pointing out that you need to consciously make that decision to see it as McCoy knowing, and Kirk not.”
What’s wrong with that? It’s a big galaxy. There’s a lot to know, and no reason to assume two people have 100 percent of their knowledge in common.
And let’s not forget, Kirk had never heard of Surak either, even though Surak has retroactively been established as one of the most famous historical figures in the Federation. So you can’t worry too much about how characters’ prior knowledge of certain things is portrayed. Trek continuity has never held together on the level of precise details, just broad strokes.
@66 – Picard’s line from Sarek was “I met him once, many years ago, very briefly at his son’s wedding.”. The writers obviously didn’t name Spock so they could allow some ambiguity so there’s no indication that this was Spock he was talking about. For all we know, Sybok could have come back. After all, we didn’t see a body at the end of TFF. And while characters getting over a mild case of death don’t seem to be common, they’re certainly not unheard of.
@65 – Kirk said “Weaponless, I face the creature the Metrons called a Gorn.”. He’s obviously taking the name from the Metro, as opposed to his or Starfleet’s experience. But, that’s been blown out the airlock ever since Lorca had a Gorn skeleton in his ready room in the first season of Discovery.
Also, we saw the fight with the Gorn from Kirk’s perspective. The Gorn was pretty much reduced to saying things like “I shall be merciful and quick.” No indication of seeking a peaceful resolution, just that he’ll kill him quickly. Sure’ we’re supposed to think that a peaceful resolution could be reached but event he mention of Cestus III on DS9 doesn’t prove anything. For all we know, there was a war After Arena because the Gorn reported humans as weak for not taking advantage of the situation and Cestus ended up on the Federation side of the new border.
It feeds like this show is determined to distance itself from the “grittiness” of Discovery by having a shedload of whacky antics and it really isn’t working.
@71 / It’s debatable whether the “wacky antics” land, but I’ve seen no evidence that the show has any need or desire to distance itself from Discovery. So far, I’ve counted at least 4 major plot and character points from the first two seasons that directly reference Discovery, and they’ve used several of the same actors. Meanwhile, the tones and formats of the series are completely different. Also, Disco hasn’t been “gritty” in any meaningful sense since its first season.
69: I recall a certain running theme with a certain recapper: “Geordi supposedly ends up with Leah Brahms and that is so creepy”. I never quite agreed with Krad on that, but I think I can get behind the idea that we haven’t seen the real her since the second episode ended, unless I missed something on Picard. We haven’t seen the interim. The character is static in our minds as we last saw her.
Now… the same applies to us viewers and Saavik. We basically last saw her having implied sex for logical reasons with her teacher (that alone is so many kinds of awkward) then possibly implying she was leaving Starfleet, taking a sabbatical, or requesting to be reassigned to Vulcan, whatever reason she had to join Jennifer Parker in the “not relevant to this plot” land. We saw Spock grow old with Leonard Nimoy, but we never saw Saavik reprised so she feels like she’s just the same person we left her as. Look at the cover of “Vulcan’s Heart”; the illustrator did Nimoy as old as in Unification, Stewart looks younger than he ever was playing Picard, and Saavik’s illustrated as Robin Curtis was in Voyager Home. The earliest date in this book is 50 years after that by the Chronology and they couldn’t picture her any other way.
Basically to sum up, I know time has passed, but I understand how some fans would still be thinking of her as fresh out of the Academy. I WISH Alley or Curtis were in Unification; we’d have had an image of Older Saavik to build on.
@73/wizardofwoz77: “We saw Spock grow old with Leonard Nimoy, but we never saw Saavik reprised so she feels like she’s just the same person we left her as.”
Except you do see Saavik reprised in Vulcan’s Heart, the book where she marries Spock. You get a really good picture of her as an accomplished starship commander and a mature person whose romantic bond with Spock is quite well explored and justified within the novel. So it seems contradictory to object to a plot point from a novel with an argument that relies entirely on unfamiliarity with the novel. If you haven’t read the book, why are you even concerned about a plot point from it?
“Look at the cover of “Vulcan’s Heart””
You look at the stuff inside the cover. Otherwise you have no basis for an opinion.
By the way, here’s a graphic apparently from the episode, clarifying that Kherkov is a circumbinary planet of the 40 Eridani B/C pair:
https://twitter.com/timothypeel1/status/1680632707116675074
This is significant, because it appears to canonize not only that 40 Eridani is Vulcan’s primary star (as initially proposed by James Blish in 1968 and strongly implied by Enterprise‘s fourth season putting Vulcan 16 light years from Earth), but that Vulcan has a companion planet named T’Khut. The planet, originally identified as T’Kuht in the novel The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah, was an attempt to reconcile the appearance of a huge moon in Vulcan’s sky in “Yesteryear” and ST:TMP with Spock’s line in “The Man Trap” that “Vulcan has no moon,” since that’s technically true if it’s large enough to be an actual planet. IIRC, the T’Khut spelling comes from Diane Duane’s Spock’s World, though A.C. Crispin referred to it as T’Rukh in the novel Sarek and also alluded to it having multiple names.
@75 – It’s interesting that the graphic states that 40 Eridani B has no planets and that 40 Eridani C has one, yet the planet is shown orbiting both stars.
@71. Have to disagree there, at least from my vantage point. Discovery is a slow slog through furrowed eyebrows and angst and characters that speak in hushed whispers when they’re not bawling, as an artificial way to generate tension. This show is a breath of fresh air, not taking itself so seriously that we can’t enjoy it, yet still 100% Trek
74. I guess I should have been clear: I read that book. I liked it and felt like it worked. I was using the cover as a metaphor.
If a person has not read any other books, then we can assume that they’re starting off from the perspective of what has been aired on TV and filmed for the screen. And like I said, their perspective is that of a character we saw portrayed when the actor was in his 80’s, and a character we last saw portrayed when the actress was 29. And that can keep them from cracking the book open in the first place.
It’s almost impossible to separate the actor and the character for some people. Scott Glenn looks nothing like Commander Bartolomeo Mancuso, USN should look like, Courtney B. Vance is even more different than Sonarman First Class Ronald Jones, and don’t get me started on Admiral Greer! But ever since I saw The Hunt for Red October that’s who I picture in the later books Clancy wrote. So I wonder if some people have the same issue, and in my opinion that’s most likely turning them off of the idea altogether. There’s also the fact that we’re introduced to Spock as an instructor, current, of Saavik’s, and the ethical dilemma of that could be projected onto 50 years later, though from what I’ve heard about that, in today’s day and age it’s not supposed to be looked in askance if any relationship happens one year after the teacher/student relationship ends, unless the teacher was planting the seeds for the future relationship.
Now, if it’s the idea that anyone who has ever had a teacher/student relationship should never have a romantic relationship? That’s a different story. I recall a changing attitude to that in my lifetime, from points where I cannot recall what romance movies I’ve seen had that as a barely commented on aspect to relationships otherwise presented as healthy, to the Kelvinverse Spock/Uhura relationship being criticized by some for that aspect alone, though I honestly have more of a problem with the fact that she’s in his chain of command as of the end of the movie. (Starfleet has established that they do not have a fraternization rule. In my opinion, mirrored by Krad in one DS9 episode recap IIRC, Starfleet is stupid.) But everyone has their own opinions and in that case I’m at least willing to talk about it, though I do think that 50 years minimum for Vulcans, that’s the equivalent of at LEAST 17 or so years proportionate to lifespan, and that’s more than enough time to presume the imbalance in power in the relationship is long gone and no grooming has taken place.
@78/wizardofwoz: “And that can keep them from cracking the book open in the first place.”
And people who feel entitled to condemn books they haven’t read are just trying to feed their own egos, and there’s no reason the rest of us should pay any attention to them. Ignorance is not a valid foundation for argument, despite how many politicians and pundits assume it is.
@CLB And I’m just going to say I completely agree with that. It’s a bit ironic that I led with what I think of as a devil’s advocate of an argument and the argument that actually makes more sense to me (teacher/student relationships: when do they end and when is it appropriate if at all to pursue a romantic relationship?) ended up in the second comment. Even that I would argue is more of an issue with JJ!Spock/Uhura and doesn’t apply to Spock/Saavik at all.
I have mixed feelings about the Spock/Chapel hookup just because the tension itself was so compelling, but I’m not one of those Getting the Couple Together Never Works people and we already know, assuming this show continues to hew to the general outline of TOS continuity, how things will stand between them down the line; also, I have no trouble believing that a version of this also happened in the past of said original series’ very similar universe… ;^)
I just started to notice how much this season of SNW reminds me of season 3 of The Orville with the longer episodes and the general tone and flavor of the crew and their interactions all feeling quite similar to each other.
-Kefka
@54, the wedding part of course will have long-term effects. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the, oh, life-changing event in one’s life when they are changed from one race to another. Or when they spend a lifetime in a single day. Or when they get pregnant, go through their whole pregnancy, have the child, that child grows to adulthood and then dies of old age, all in the span of 24 hours. Or you spend a few hours in an alternate timeline where you have the choice to kill your ancestor. Or on and on and on of these silly stories that stretch all patience and credulity. I can think of a hundred different ways of making the wedding elements feel important rather than having Spock have to be taught how to be a Vulcan by the other members of the cast doing Vulcan impressions.
@83/Vic DiGital: You could make a case that everything Spock goes through here will have long-term effects. I mean, in TOS, Spock was always struggling to keep his human side in check, and not only was he kind of obnoxious in his denigration of human ways, but he often acted as if he were unfamiliar with human customs and points of view altogether — which is strange from someone who’d previously served with a mostly human crew for 13 years and attended a largely human Academy for years before that. It makes sense, though, if he’s overcompensating for letting himself explore his human side too much in his younger days, and if that led to painful consequences such as, say, breaking the heart of his friend Christine Chapel, so that he strove to be more Vulcan and logical from then on.
Anyway, the nature of an episodic series with continuity is that you can’t assume there won’t be long-term aftereffects of an episode just because they don’t show up the following week. I mean, look at the arc of Worf’s relationship with K’Ehleyr and his involvement with Klingon politics. That arc was revisited maybe once per year or thereabouts, but each episode in the arc definitely had long-term consequences.
Just chiming in to say I loved it, better than I expected it to be having read krad’s review first and then seen the ep. It wasn’t perfect — I agree T’Pring’s parents were definitely a dead weight — but I laughed throughout, enjoyed the whole thing, and appreciated the more serious bits. Personally, this is precisely the type of Star Trek I want to see.
Ok, it seems it hasn’t been mentioned before – the plot about Spock’s vulcan side taken away is almost as dumb as if his brain got stolen…at least that came to my mind about this episode.
The episode was dumb and intellectually insulting on many levels, which is something i did not expect from SNW based on the previous episodes. The great part was the continuation of Spock’s love triangle, the new insights we got about his
mother, she was pretty awesome here as much as the dumb story allowed, i like Chapel a lot and i liked that Chapel, Uhura, and Ortegas went on the adventure together to the Customer Service, but it was surprising that they did it in secret and if they did that there was no consequences to it from the XO or the captain…but this is a starfleet tradition that you can steal shuttles, do your own things and there are no consequences of such actions. (from my perspective they could have just informed the captain about the plan and unless he’d veto it, they could be good to go,it’s good they have initiatives, but it’s NOT good that they do it in secret). But all in all, i liked that the three of them were acting as friends and that the series really gives space to more characters.
@86/th1_: “the plot about Spock’s vulcan side taken away is almost as dumb as if his brain got stolen…”
So you’re saying an alternate name for this episode could’ve been “Spock’s Ears?”
@87./ ChristopherLBennett Yes, great idea! that would have been perfect. :D
I laughed a lot in this episode, so it’s a winner in my book.
Sevet seems like a pretty cool Vulcan, and it’s fascinating that he is so henpecked considering what we know of Vulcan culture. Perhaps it’s a situation where there’s some kind of nobility ranking system going on. But it could be just sheer force of personality. Or perhaps he’s deferring to her because she’s technically correct. I am curious how long a running gag of him walking back what he likes because she hates it could go. There’s also the possibility of T’Pring and Sevet showing up later as an inversion of a Lwaxana Troi episode, where the in law shows up and everyone’s happy to see them.
I adored T’Pring’s dress. It was gorgeous. T’Pril may be a pill, but she has legendary tier fashion sense. Kudos to wardrobe.
The rote memorization thing was such a perfect very Vulcan detail, though I was disappointed that Chapel didn’t say, “We humans call that plagiarism and it’s something to be avoided”.
It is extremely odd that a planet IN Vulcan’s own star system hasn’t been sufficiently explored at that there wasn’t at least an expeditionary fleet vessel on hand.
I was expecting that Chapel was going to kiss Spock in the bathroom before giving him the cure, and T’Pring was going to walk in on them and that was going to be what set her off. The not trusting her thing is…more intense? If an affair with Chapel was the impetus for their breakup, then the solution would be remove Chapel from the equation, but this isn’t the case. She’s not mad at him because of another woman, but because of a deficiency in their relationship, something that can’t be as easily overcome. Despite Chapel being another woman with an intimate connection to him, Christine is irrelevant. T’Pring has been shown to go out of her way to be accommodating and accepting but Spock still doesn’t trust her. And that’s much more damning for a relationship. You do feel bad for her.
Amok Time raises another question for me. If it had been Pike there for the Kal-i-fee, would she have made the same play? Pike is someone she’s met, is familiar with, who even she has been through some stuff with. Kirk on the other hand, that was his first firsthand experience with Vulcan culture, and she had no reference for him being Spock’s best friend, found brother, and general running partner. She just saw expendable Starfleet Captain #1.
Other props go to the Interdimensional space setting, very beautiful and well realized.
I hadn’t thought of the Kherkovians as Customer Service Aliens…now I can’t unsee it. Blue going to get yellow was even like getting the manager on the call. It was interesting that they wanted to get to the heart of the matter on Spock and Chapel’s relationship, they went from Customer Service to interested in the Soap Opera real quick.
I was wondering the Kherkovians may be related to the Aretians. How many hyper advanced species that ascended to a non-corporeal existence passed through the Nevasa system anyway?
As a random testament to the episodic TOS-like nature of this show, i accidentally watched a few of them sightly out of order, and it has had nearly no effect on my experience, for what that’s worth. :)
Anyway so I’m here now to say that I liked this episode as a solid B, but the silly scene with the three musketeers in customer service made no sense:
1. Where did the shuttle go and why wasn’t anyone concerned about that? Ok fine I can let it go but it kind of bothers me.
2. What if they were like “Okay, you have one chance, hand him over… you BROUGHT him, right?” I mean, do you go back to the car dealer and not bring the car?!
3. Charades is a first draft idea. It could have been way better if they had bluffed something more interesting and complicated and less stumbly. We really do enjoy seeing our characters be smart and good at what they do. Clever improvised bluffing on Trek shows has a long and rich creative history, down in which charades will not boldly go.
4. They kept referring to it as a dinner but it was just appetizers nobody ate, right?
5. Blue! No, yellow! Aaaaaaaagh!
6. I kept thinking of the goofy scene with Sonny and ONJ in the glow room talking to Zeus and Hera, which I can’t find online but the next part is there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfybMUXYA6U
This was classic TOS dorky with a side of nice, and I enjoyed it. The plot contrivances were like a lesser episode of Cheers. Now I want to see a Sam/Diane thing with Spock/Christine.
@90/jofesh: “4. They kept referring to it as a dinner but it was just appetizers nobody ate, right?”
TV and movies are full of meal scenes where nobody actually eats the meal, because the actors would get really stuffed having to actually eat through potentially dozens of takes and angles. The hope is that we’ll focus on the dialogue and overlook the fact that nobody’s actually eating. But of course, I can’t help noticing and it drives me crazy to see all that food going to waste.
@91 I’m still wondering why Nick Meyer offered money to anyone who actually ate the blue squid in Star Trek 6. Not that I would doubt Shatner taking him up on that. It just makes me wonder about continuity on the plate, though again, if we were paying attention to THAT there’s a problem in and of itself.
Indeed, it was actually famous that Sean Connery was so confidant of his abilities on THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, he actually ate a steak on camera. The other actors didn’t and it unintentionally created a great scene where it seemed the other officers were terrified of eating because of their looming fear of defection.
Lady Beltane commented on the costumes
I agree that T’Pring, T’Pril, and Sevet’s outfits are magnificent with the understanding that they are formal. They wouldn’t be practical for everyday wear. But since the dinner is a formal/ceremonial occasion, that’s perfect.
The costume of the official who talks to Chapel about her fellowship, though, I didn’t like. That high collar is completely impractical for any normal work, even that of a bureacrat (which he obviously is.)
Is it just me or is there a hint of The Prophets in the way this episode’s immaterial beings repeatedly refer to themselves as being “of” somewhere? (They don’t closely resemble the Prophets by dint of being Comedy Cosmic Aliens, but there’s more than a hint of affectionate parody to the whole business).
Incidentally, did anyone else get the suspicion about these particular Cosmic Call Centre Aliens doing their very, very best to hush up this little incident before their supervisors can get wind of it?).