2y ago

Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x01 "The Broken Circle"

Written by Henry Alonso Myers & Akiva Goldsman

Directed by Chris Fisher

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11 comments

I am 100% here for the chaotic energy that Carol Kane is going to bring to this show.
The Klingon captain had exactly the right amount of swagger and sassiness that a TOS-era Klingon captain is supposed to have. I'm glad that they're moving on from some of the Discovery Klingon characterization while also resisting the urge to jump right to them behaving like TNG Klingons.
- Hemmer was my favorite character from season one, and is very difficult to replace in my heart. But Carol Kane is one of those actors you just can't help but love to see on screen (in any capacity). It's going to be very hard to be upset knowing she'll be around.
Pelia is like "I have been alive for hundreds of years and I'm going to make that everyone else's problem."
Thoughts and observations written as I watch- I'll be putting this on both Reddit and Lemmy, since infinity diversity/infinity combinations:
Wheeee, NCC-1701 in the Star Trek tag!
Previously: Last season happened.
Little ships flying!
Wonder who the lawyer that Una and Pike have tried to reach is.
Oh, hey, the Vulcan musical instrument whose name I can't remember!
“Fascinating.” “Isn't that usually his line?”
The fellowship on archeological medicine? Is that a reference to Dr. Korby?
“We must steal the Enterprise.” Buddy, if I had a nickel every time someone had to steal the Enterprise, I'd have several nickels.
Lt. Mitchell gunning for series regular next year with how much screen time she's had early on this episode.
Okay, having Carol Kane is already paying dividends.
And, yeah, Carol Kane doesn't need alien makeup to be an alien. She's already an alien.
I'm still not sure if the emphasis one the warp catch phrase is amazing or annoying, but this scene was funny.
KLINGON UPDATE: RIDGES!
So clearly La'An's augmented ancestors were genetically engineered to drink a lot. Which, y'know what? Fair.
Ah, the borderlands, where utopian rules go away and everyone becomes a Ferengi.
Congratulations to Uhura on graduating from the Academy.
Ah, the old "I have technology that I'm totally not making up that will blow you up" bluff!
New transporter chief?
Okay, so the angry borderlands people are trying to do some sort of false flag thing.
Redundant Klingon organs, the old standby.
Roided-up doctors can tell you what bones they broke as they break them.
These are obviously Discovery sets.
This action scene, while well-done, is way too long.
A D7!
“We've gotten out of worse.” “No, not really!”
“This I've got to see!”
I wonder if “Lanthanite” is a synonym for “El-Aurian”
Pelia knowing that being on the Enterprise means adventure is further proof that those ships are goddamn weirdness magnets.
Gorn. Yes, it stretches canon but fuck it the Gorn are awesome we'll come up with an explanation later.
“For Nichelle”
Overall, while not one of the better episodes, it still was a good start to the season. It wrapped up one of the hanging threads of last year (La'An), we continued to see some of Young Spock's struggles with his emotions before he became the more-Vulcan Spock that Nimoy was in the main TOS series, and we got our first look at Carol Kane as the nutty new engineer. Overall, I'll call that a win!
Ortegas inverted her controller settings as everyone should 🎮
- Honestly Inverted Stick for Flight controls makes so much more sense on controller because that's what you would do with an actual flight stick
The M'Benga-and-Chapel-are-Max-Payne sequence went on far too long: only one group aboard the ship had weapons (and Stormtrooper accuracy) of any kind? I'd have preferred a stealthier sequence: after reprogramming the transponder, they use a series of Jeffries tubes to get to the airlock with the intent of opening it to escape but the ship takes off to ruin that plan.
Other than that, it was a decent episode to get the season going. Spock's emotional journey will be a focal point of the season, which I'm okay with. ~~SPECTRE~~ The Broken Circle Gang is probably going to show up again and I wonder if we'll eventually see some TOS villains retconned to be members. Carol Kane will be fun and with what was said of her species, I'm betting on her making at least two ENT references during the season.
Interesting that the false-flag ship is Crossfield-class: the saucer is a clear match but the drive section is completely different. Were the Discovery and Glenn modified from that spec to fit the spore drive research project or was the ship we saw a wartime refit of the class?
- So Die Hard on a spaceship? We did that with Starship Mine already but I definitely wouldn't mind seeing it again. Is Starfleet's version of the Hippocratic oath "First, do no harm, unless you have to, in which case go hard."?
  As for the Crossfield-Class, I thought it might either be that the classification of Discovery made them change the format of it for obfuscation purposes. Either that or they built that ship from salvaged parts from the war, and the saucer/transponder was from a Crossfield, and Uhura was simply reading from the transponder code the ship class.
- Were the Discovery and Glenn modified from that spec to fit the spore drive
  Yes. IIRC that was stated in of the first handful of Discovery episodes. (possibly the one where they encountered the Glenn?)
So, bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed Spock smashing bloodwine, and the general idea of the plot, decent Klingons etc. I did not enjoy unexplained spacewar drugs, feels like a very non-Star Trek thing.
That being said, I really wish they would stop harping the "do the thing do the thing" angle every time anyone sits in the Captain's chair. It's been in every show now and it's just such a tired and stale joke that it's moved over time from being funny, to tiring, to outright annoying.
- The big problem with the joke here is it’s totally the wrong moment. They’ve disobeyed orders and “stolen” the enterprise but haven’t actually gotten away yet… don’t just sit there messing around!

11 comments