Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 1 – Debuted Thursday, May 5, 2022
Written by means of: Akiva Goldsman; Story by means of: Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet
Directed by Akiva Goldsman
The promising new series returns to conventional Star Trek storytelling with a present day sensibility and has some a laugh along the way.
WARNING: Spoilers below!RECAP“Use it to be the man you most essentially are.”
“Strange New Worlds” befittingly begins with unknown extraterrestrial beings staring at a mystery: a Starfleet ship on a first touch undertaking. Back on Earth in snowy Montana, a very bearded Captain Pike makes breakfast for his captain with benefits. She’s headed off and tells him it’s time for him to do the identical. This concept is echoed by using Admiral April, who shows up to reserve Pike to take the Enterprise and discover what occurred to Number One, who has gone lacking on that first contact venture. Meanwhile on Vulcan, Spock is on a date with T’Pring, in which they “question” each different (wink wink). She pops the wedding question he wanted and matters warmness up back home, however before things cross TV-MA, Pike calls and T’Pring gives us our first hint she doesn’t like sharing.
Cleaned up and returned in uniform, a moody Pike boards the Enterprise after a nice flyby. Spock briefs the captain approximately ship status and how a few team contributors gained’t be boarding until they get again—like Lt. Kirk. Wait, what the what? On the bridge Pike meets his (appearing) first officer, the taciturn Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh and the pleasant “prodigy,” Cadet Uhura. As the eager pilot Ortegas awaits his order to visit warp, Pike is struck with a haunting imaginative and prescient of his destiny chair-certain self. He speedy rallies, going full homespun to update the group on their undertaking before they go to warp. Later, he speaks to the handiest person he can approximately his warfare, Spock, who (aware about all the categorised stuff from Discovery season 2) uses all the logic he has to try to get his captain out of his hesitant second-guessing funk.
“These humans are not ready.”
When they come at Kiley 279, matters are quiet… too quiet. Number One’s deliver is there however empty and there may be no subspace chatter, no ships, not anything. Plus, the warp signature that drew Starfleet there is “quite bizarre” in line with Ortegas, who’s maintaining it actual. This all provides as much as something fishy, so Pike heeds the advice of protection chief La’an and places up the shields just in time for the ship to get hit with a few torpedoes. Spock has taken care of out that “bizarre” sig… it’s not from a warp force, it’s a “warp bomb.” This planet is at battle with itself, and now it has the approach to destroy itself. Spock reminds us first contact is most effective finished with warp-succesful civilizations and distort has never been evolved as a weapon first, so these men should clearly hate every other.
The answer to analyze the planet with out breaking General Order One takes us to sickbay to satisfy the gregarious Dr. M’Benga and head nurse Christine Chapel, who gives off a few amusing mad scientist vibes as she proceeds to “mess” with the genomes of Spock, La’an and Pike to conceal them as locals. After beaming down, La’an and Spock take out a few alien guards to steal their IDs and clothing, then beam the extraterrestrial beings up to sleep it off in sickbay. After a few greater hijinks and transporter tricks the touchdown party unearths Una and her group being held as prisoners. Number One has taken care of it out, those human beings didn’t even invent warp. The warfare with Control from Disco S2 turned into pretty close by, and the aliens noticed the entirety and somehow figured out warp. Taking obligation, the fan of old sci-fi remains behind with Spock and Pike even receives to say, “Take me to your chief.” Classic.
“I’ve visible my future, allow me show you yours.”
The alien chief is skeptical of Pike and has no regard for Federation rules or galactic norms. She has “the largest stick” (aka the warp bomb) and that “seditious faction” is going down. As Pike is manhandled out of the room he makes another call, figuring out to apply his larger stick (aka the USAEnterprise), which he calls down from orbit to scare the s#!t out of encourage the human beings of Kiley 279. General Order Who Cares… this is first-rate. It receives the alien leaders talking for the first time in centuries—truly extra like loosely prepared yelling—so it’s time for Pike to make every other ambitious pass. He inserts himself into the controversy and after a few aw-shucks attraction, he connects the dots on how Earth and Kiley are very a whole lot the identical. Then he shows them just how bad it were given for Earth in the 21st century before we had our own first touch, entire with CNN conflict footage and eventual nuclear horror. The choice is theirs: Continue down the street to “rubble” or be a part of the Federation. They choose wisely.
Back at Earth spacedock, Admiral April isn’t exactly happy. The best thing maintaining Pike out of the distance slammer is the loophole that the war with Control is like Fight Club and no person can speak approximately how this planet got warp tech, so ipso facto, the entirety is great. Chris has his area mojo lower back, moving beyond his haunted future and remembering “Enterprise is my domestic.” And he’s impressed with La’an, so she can stick round as security chief. Just some things left to do before the Enterprise leaves, including welcoming Lt. Kirk… that’s George Samuel Kirk in all his mustachioed glory. They got us with that one. It’s time to move. The undertaking? To explore, are seeking for out, boldly move… you understand the relaxation.
ANALYSISOff to an excellent begin
“Strange New Worlds” does precisely what you need an awesome series superior to do: give you a experience of what the show is all about in phrases of favor, tone, and shape, plus a experience of who the main characters are and what motivates them. This opener makes suitable at the promise of a go back to traditional storytelling with a contemporary replace, which in this case goes beyond the bigger finances and fancier generation. We can get a feel of how this show goes to be driven via the characters and how their memories will tie into the planet of the week.
Pike became the main focus here, and Anson Mount returned to Trek fully in command, giving us a character who is quintessentially a Starfleet captain but also has a complicated inner lifestyles. We can see the inspiration of an arc for him this season as he continues to deal with the fallout of learning his destiny. This internal struggle played out nicely with the tale of the alien first contact, informing the solution to the disaster in addition to serving as a thematic backdrop of fate vs. preference.
Ethan Peck become similarly spectacular, returning with a more nuanced overall performance of Spock and including a few size to it, maximum notably a romantic aspect. Bringing in T’Pring can also prove controversial and is sincerely one of those examples of stretching canon that co-author Akiva Goldsman allow us to realize could be part of the show. However, this creates an entire new region to probe for Spock, who will ought to discern out how to reconcile duty vs. matrimony. Dealing with paintings/lifestyles balance is pretty relatable.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot time with Rebecca Romijn’s Number One, however we were given little tastes of a few of the different characters, each of whom showed unique quirks and talents, from La’an’s tightly wound caution preserving them safe, to Uhura’s enthusiasm and neighborhood sports understanding coming exceptionally accessible, and Chapel’s short wondering getting the landing party into the secret hideout, and so on. These are absolutely everyone we need to examine more about and none experience out of place on a Starfleet deliver.
With a lot time devoted to mastering the captain and his group, the familiar first touch gone awful tale become a chunk too short. Pike’s option to the hassle turned into surely overly simplistic and in reality heavy-exceeded, skipping allegory to head proper to flat out drawing an instantaneous line to how our present day society is at chance due to partisan war. Sure, traditional Star Trek turned into on the nose from time to time with its message, however a present day show have to do higher.
While things got serious with all of the talk of global nuclear battle, the general tone of the display changed into still light and contained the spark of desire and optimism that a Star Trek series should. And we will already see how they’re prepared to have some amusing on this adventure, with some of a laugh gags telegraphing the show doesn’t take itself too critically, like having Pike speculate that calling General Order One “The Prime Directive” will “never stick.”
And of course, the production design is surprising, with the united statesEnterprise getting every other improve after Discovery season 2. The units, props, costumes, visual effects, and tune blend admire for the source cloth in conjunction with these days’s high-quality practices and technology.
