Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 1 available for free!

[Henadic Theologian]

Okay, okay. I'm four episodes in, and I'm starting to wonder how many mysterious secret/tragic backstories do we really need? Warning: Spoiler for the first 4 episodes.

Spoiler

• Pike - Okay, I get it. It's kind of cool having a character know his fate.
• Uhura - Do we really need a tragic backstory here? Isn't a young person trying to figure out what she wants to do compelling enough?
• Noonian-Singh - Is there some reason the family didn't change their name? Even the Hitlers decided to be somethign else. Plus we've got a Godzilla survivor. She's got two tragic backstories in one!
• M'Benga - Crouching Doctor Hidden Kid?
• Riley - Attack of the Clones

I don't really object to any single one, but man, when everyone has one it kind of lessens the impact. It's like a soap opera. So far that's my biggest fault with the show, which means I'm just nitpicking at this point.

Una background isn't tragic, beyond her species, its barely explored.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Una background isn't tragic, beyond her species, its barely explored.

Plus some of it was established in the Star Trek EU before SNW came along.

 

[Ryujin]

Plus some of it was established in the Star Trek EU before SNW came along.

I must admit that finding out her people built Ontario Place was a bit of a revelation to me.

 

[MGibster]

Una background isn't tragic, beyond her species, its barely explored.

Her species is exactly what I'm talking about. Oh, woe is me, I belong to this species who has cultural practices the Federation considers abhorrent and would get me kicked out of Star Fleet, result in my prosecution, and cost the trust of a crewmember I respected when she found out the truth. I think it qualfies.

Again, I'm being nitpicky. I thought they handled it just fine and I'm sure in the future and I'll expect we'll see it as a nice allegory for accepting people based on who they are rather than our own prejudice. I'm looking forward to learning Ortega is actually part Gorn or a member of the Q Continium or something.

 

[Umbran]

The soap opera-ish elements are one of the reasons TNG and Deep Space 9 are the most popular Trek series. SNW is quite deliberately trying to emulate that. It's soap opera... in space

Specifically, one of the goals is to not put the series in a large, centralized external plot arc. The show is supposed to stay largely episodic. However, they are ensuring that each character has their own personal journey that does extend across episodes. Personal journeys have significant emotional components so... soap opera.

 

[Umbran]

I don't really object to any single one, but man, when everyone has one it kind of lessens the impact. It's like a soap opera. So far that's my biggest fault with the show, which means I'm just nitpicking at this point.

See my note about personal journeys - journeys need starting places.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I will point out that TNG regularly made a habit of throwing in previously unmentioned family members and ex-girlfriends. Even TOS did it occasionally (OMG they killed Sam!)

 

[S'mon]

"Video is unavailable", so US only probably.

Yep. I'd have actually watched this! Probably licencing issues.

 

[MGibster]

Oh, my God! They used the Star Trek fight music from the first series.

 

[MGibster]

And I finished the first season. One of the problems with a prequel series is that they can touch on issues that appeared in the original series and suddenly something doesn't make sense. The original series episode "The Arena" makes less sense given that the Federation obviously had some pretty good knowledge about who the Gorn were and what they were all about. In "Arena," we find out the Gorn attacked because they believed the Federation was moving in on their territory. i.e. They weren't just a bunch of jerks attacking for no good cause. But that does not sound like the Gorn in SNW.

I enjoyed the last episode partly because it was a retelling of "Balance of Terror" which is one of my all time favorite TOS episodes. It was kind of neat to see how Pike handled the situation differently and while he wasn't wrong or foolish it was still a less desirable outcome than Kirk's decisions. This was a solid first season without a single bad episode. And you could tell the actors had a lot of fun with "The Elysium Kingdom."