Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.01.: Since I had really liked Discovery's version of Pike, Spock and what little we saw of Number One in season 2, I was looking forward to this, and the first episode did not disappoint. Incidentally, if there was one thing that could have kept me from watching, it's the annoying type of DISCO basher who was loundly anticipating "real" Trek. (These kind of utterings are what reliably keeps me from watching The Orville. Seriously, every time someone recs The Orville to me by dissing Discovery, by by now I love as much as my other favourite Trek tv shows, DS9 and TNG, they further ensure I will never watch it.) However, said annoying type of fan is not the fault of this latest show, plus I can report that not only was the pilot charming, but affectionate Discovery references were flying fast, and also, it did not escape me that Pike and Spock were the only men on the bridge of the Enterprise, plus the present day parallels to what was going on on the planet of the week were less than subtle and as firmly messaging as both Discovery and Picard are. (Which is a fine Trekian tradition. The shows don't always pull it off well, but they try.)



Post universe saving in the Discovery finale, Pike has time to process that he now knows his ultimate fate, and unsurprisingly, it's a lot to process. Hence the beard of depression at the start of the episode. At the same time, he's his kind, considerate self; I appreciated that he asks Spock how Spock is dealing with the s2 fallout when they're alone together. As post s2 of Disco, I have to say that Spock being willing to risk everything in order to help Pike in The Menagerie now both has strong emotional background texture for me and is making me cry when rewatching that TOS two parter. Speaking of The Menagerie, though, one running gag through the pilot is that Pike has requested one "Lieutenant Kirk", and I kept thinking, hang on, The Menagerie didn't give me the impression that Kirk and TOS!Pike knew each other well (as opposed to Kelvin Timeline Kirk and Pike), and then we got the pay off near the end when "Lieutenant Kirk" showed up, and it was James T's brother Sam, killed off in TOS and hardly ever referenced again. Well played, scribes!

Young Uhura the cadet was adorable (and the actress did a good job incorporating some of Nichelle Nichols' gestures while being believably far younger, and I really liked this latest incarnation of Christine Chapel with her confidence and somewhat wicked sense of humor. Of the new characters, Security Chief Ms Noonien Singh - for once, not a member of the mad scientist Soong tribe but, I take it, a potential relation of Khan's - as our character with a horrible traumatic childhood, competence and iron woobie demeanor looks promising. As does Ortega who takes the helm when both Pike and his XOs are absent. That the planet of the week falls into the TOS tradition of having a suspiciously Earth like culture but not because some idiot historian wanted a planet wide cosplay made me ruefully smile once it became clear where this was getting at. Mind you, it's been many years since I watched the TOS eps referencing them, but I think the Eugenic Wars and WW3 as imagined by the original series were supposed to be two separate events, with the former already taking place in the 1990s. However, combining them and making them both the result of current day 21st century developments starting in the US was a good kind of referencing while also updating at the same time, so it was a pointed comment, not nostalgia. And "This was how we destroyed our civilisation and nearly blew up the planet; don't do the same!" as the central message to the aliens of the week/the audience at home was rather timely, delivered in Pike's dulcet tones or not.

Let's see, what else: Pike's friend-with-benefits the female Captain reminded me of both Kat Cornwell and Archer's friend-with-benefits. High, Robert April, I think, TAS aside, that's your first on screen incarnation. Did they name a shuttle after Stamets? And lastly, M'Benga and Chapel having an emergency transporter of their own in sickbay makes complete sense, and every starship's sickbay should have one.

: Meanwhile, in the past and the future (from Pike's pov): the s2 finale of ST:P managed to wrap up all the many different plot threads, leaving just about one open answer (why Tallinn looked exactly like Laris, but I suppose one can handwave that as "genetic doublings across centuries do happen), wrote one regular out of the tale (Rios) and in essence another, though I suppose Jurati!Queen can be brought back whenever the series wants to, given she's alive and around in the Alpha Quadrant now, whereas Rios really did stay in the past and lived and died there, according to Guinan. Since Agnes Jurati had the season's most accomplished arc, which did land its ending instead of going for a reset at the last moment, I can't begrudge that. Plus: the Agnes-and-the-Queen tale really does manage to do something new and different with the Borg, for the first time in several shows and movies. (No, last season doesn't count in this regard, since Hugh, Seven and the other Xbees were Ex Borg. In many ways, it brings the Borg story full circle and to a close, with an ending no one anticipated, and it works for me that Q made that possible just as he engineered the Enterprise's first encounter with the Borg.

(Sidenote: though I assume the Jurati!Queen led Borg through the last 400 years were and are a separate tribe from the standard Borg with the 1.0. version of the Qeen, who were also around but died due to various late ST show events.)

By "made it possible", I don't mean "caused", just "provided the opportunity", because really, most of the credit goes to Agnes, amazing woman that she is, some to the Queen for accepting her last proposal instead of going through another round of conquest/defeat/death, and some to Picard for post return to the future trusting Jurati!Queen and throwing his authority behind her so she could do the world saving. Q in general was used mostly as a catalyst as opposed to an active player, but somehow despite having started the season hoping for way more Picard & Q scenes than what we got, I don't feel disappointed. Because what we did get was meaningfull. (Not the case with some previous Q appearances, cough, cough. ) Though I was going to say: therapy for Jean-Luc should have been possible in a less complicated way and without putting the rest of the gang through those experiences, but then it turned out the various events needed to happen and had always been part of the original timeline (i.e. being left by his "daughter and creation" and bereft of the promise of future glory, Soong's next move is to genetically engineer Khan; and of course no redeemed Borg and Jurati!Queen ending the cycles of Borg assimilation-by-force without that time trip). Elnor turned out to be only Mostly Dead like most people predicted and was alive again once the future was reset (though I do wonder whether we'll see HoloElnor again as well, this show loves its doppelgangers). I must admit I was waiting for one more reveal, that the reveal that the cosmic Whateveritwascalled that the Borg-plus-Starfleet needed to shield from exploding, thus allowing it to transform into a superwormhole transwarp gateweay instead was actually Q's death/transformation manifest in energetic form, and until I hear otherwise, that's going to remain my headcanon.

(Sidenote: a goodbye kiss would have been nice, but at least we got face touching and a hug as Q took his leave from his favorite Captain (no offense, Janeway) and vice versa, and it was important Jean-Luc initialized the hug.)

All in all, I thought the second season had more narrative drive and was better focused than s1. Doesn't mean it was perfect, - I wasn't as upset by Yvette Picard, suicidal manic-depressive, as everyone else seems to have been, but I can see their point. (One thing, though: the series doesn't imply Maurice Picard could think of no other way to deal with his wife's mental illness than locking her up and that in the 24th century, there were no other options available. It's explicitly stated twice that Renée refused any kind of treatment (which would have been available). Now that's another less than satisfying trope (I'm reminded of Homeland's early seasons and Carrie stopping to take her meds when the plot required it despite knowing disaster would unfold), but it doesn't make Picard Snr. Mr. Rochester.) But where the first season tried to pack too many elements together that didn't quite fit, I thought this time the various cross connections really worked, and the focus on fewer characters allowed for more development all around. I already praised Agnes Jurati's storyline, but the show also really sold me on Seven and Raffi as a pairing who are shown, not just told to be, good for each other this season. And it doesn't escape me that Seven now has just become the Captain Raffi an episode earlier said she could be. Rios, Teresa and the kid were (without irony) heart warming, though the social criticism of the first half of the season faded in the second when we were approaching the climax of the other storylines, and I'm not sure Rios really was ready to commit to al ife not just in the 21st century but with a gruesome war ahead. (Though Guinan tells us he and Teresa and the kid were essential for the reconstruction of Earth after the disaster.) But one can't say he was going in blindly - he got a good look at how nasty the 21st century could be even without the impediing World War to consider during his stint as an illegal alien.

Cameo of the episode: WESLEY! I've always had a soft spot for young Mr. Crusher the much maligned at the time, and am happy for Wil Wheaton they gave him this scene after his cameo in the last TNG movie fell to the wayside. It also neatly combines the Traveler(s) with the Guardians that Tallinn and Gary Seven worked for, and now Kore. Speaking of whom: if she's hanging out with Wesley and being a Traveler-in-training now, I guess it's an open question whether we'll see the actress next as Soj or as Kore. Or both. Like I said, this show likes its doppelgangers. I do like Kore got to avenge her sisters and deprive Soong of his earlier experiments when she left. (She couldn't know he'd go on creating Ricardo Montalban, could she?), and I wonder whether in another timeline she simply died (since her cure was another thing that depended on Q showing up); leaving her creator behind and going to explore and safeguard the galaxy is definitely preferable.

If I didn't know there's a season 3, I would assume this to be a series finale, actually, with all the wrapping up, including Laris giving Picard another chance after he asks for one. (I'm still regretting they killed off Zhaban, as I wanted Picard iwth both of them.) As it is, my guess is season 3 will feature the transwarp tunnel or whatever it's called, and exploring where it leads to. But I could live with this ending.