Amazing first season of Strange New Worlds. Might be the best opening of any Trek series is far.
Star Trek the way it is meant to be!
After Discovery and Picard left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth this is like cleansing it with a nice glass of cold beer.
Really takes me back to the good ol' days when Enterprise, Voyager and Deep Space Nine were the newest Star Trek installments.
Also, unlike Discovery, the crew looks and acts professionally and dont cry or unload their emotional baggage every chance they get.
It is Starfleet after all.
All in all a very enjoyable show that speaks to both the old and the new generation of Star Trek fans.
I'm kind of conflicted about this, in all honesty.
I get the high ratings: on its own, a return to a purely episodic format is great, most of us do have those pink-tinted glasses through which to look back on the older series; what we do get is great in terms of visuals and writing/direction (mostly); and generally speaking, this enterprise, these characters will never be uninteresting.
But here's the thing. When this episodic format was a thing last time, a single season meant 20+ episodes, on average I think 26. And while the original series did have the approximately 50 minute runtime too, in subsequent series it went down to an average 42ish, but even that wasn't much of an issue due to the number of episodes. Now, what do we have here? 10 episodes that do make an effort to go on for 50-52 minutes each... and that is all. I feel like the exact thing the series fails to deliver on is the titular concept: while we do get to meet a few interesting characters, and we go to a few weird places... each and every episode turns out to be extremely character-heavy. One way or another, there's a reveal that's some big part of someone's Tragic Background:tm: or Complex Personality:tm:, something that defines or changes them at the core - because, ofc, everyone's got to have that right from the start. We spend like, what, three episodes on Spock - I love the guy, but come on, he's like one tenth of the crew. We're introduced to the doctor, then the next thing we learn is that he has a Big Secret:tm:, we get a lolnope resolution dangled in front of us, then - boom, she's gone, can practically be written off as dead. Dunno about others, but it's such a short time for a brand new character to even grow on me enough to care about, much less to have something that dramatic about them to deal with, it just doesn't work at all. (And as an extra, the bighuge plot twist comes in an episode that starts off as something that could be season's "unhinged fun" chapter... yeah, no.) Or take Hemmer: arguably the most interesting new character, we get to hang out with him maybe, what, two times? He becomes a great substitute-dad for Uhura, and right after - oops, sorry, he's dead. We have Rebecca Romijn, for cryin' out loud, she has her secret revealed so she can have her 15 seconds of fame saving everyone, and then - oh she's gotta go because Starfleet laws.
The point is we never get to have fun. We don't go on adventures just for the sake of going on adventures. We don't explore. What we get is characterisation and character development(?) - great in themselves and certainly appreciated when organic parts of a greater whole. But that whole doesn't exist: with the modern day constraints of a series, there's simply no time for any kind of self-contained adventure or story. Those episodes aren't here. Everything is a scaffolding or window dressing or some kinda props or set decoration element to serve characterisation and character building. And yet, even then, at times it's hard to care, especially when every episode does go on for so long, relatively speaking.
Why is everyone keep ignoring all the red flags about these critical crew members who are supposed to be professionals yet act like they are working in a family business:weary: Also what's with the cheesy dialogs? Not just cheesy, it gets somewhat cringey too. They give a false sense of professionalism about Star Fleet because they try hard to portray it as a family while suggesting it's a place for exceptional people, but in reality, it's just a couple of people with PTSD and emotional dilemmas. Military has nothing to do with emotions. I can understand if this is what makes it "Star Trek" but still, it is irritating to see a bunch of high ranking officers act like emotional teenagers. I hope it won't become a mess like Discovery.
Anson Mount is officially TV's new Dad! He should also be the face of a pomade brand. Ok, I really enjoyed this show! Personally, I never got around to watching the rest of Star Trek Discovery considering Bryan Fuller was thrown out of the show and it's difficult to watch a series when the visionary is canned. Anyways, Alex Kurtzman and company created something very special and non-cynical that felt like a breath of fresh air. Star Trek was finally being Star Trek, being an adventure of the week series rather than an ongoing story. It's truly magical and this crew is just an absolute pleasure to watch (Mount is the cool dad, Ethan Peck nails it as Spock, Celia Rose Gooding actually made Uhura feel grounded and I would name everyone else because, damn, they're that likeable). Anyways, some episodes made me laugh, some made me cry, but in all, I was entertained. Every week Obi-Wan Kenobi disappointed me, Strange New Worlds made me smile. One of the best shows of 2022.
Finally Trek is back! Hard to find a favorite episode of this season, they were all great. The only bad thing is that there were only 10 episodes in this season, can't wait for the next one!
Really like this show - granted the first episodes are better than the latter ones, still, this evokes the Star Trek feeling in me. Definitely way superior to Discovery.
Love Pike, even like Peck's Spock (way better than Quinto's Spock to be honest). I'm looking forward to seeing more of this.
The biggest surprise with this show is not that it is good (Star Trek should be good) but that there's someone capable over at CBS that can do Star Trek as it should be but they just have chosen not to with Picard and bloody awful Discovery?! I am glad this show exists as boy Trekkies have had poor pickins' with those other two shows.
A lot of the Discovery defenders keep saying "stop moaning, stop watching" but genuinely fans of the Trek want their shows to be good and Discovery (and Picard) doesn't feel like they're even set in the same universe as the shows that preceded it. No one acts like they're in the Trek canon as the writers never feel like they've seen any Trek and too busy shoe-horning ideas, concepts and character development that doesn't gel with the sandbox they are playing in. This show follows the format, is fun (compare TNG to Picard!) and you know what you actually end up giving a damn about the characters naturally.. how's about that...
I legitimately encourage anyone who wants to try this show to only watch episodes 1 and 10. Not only will you not feel like you missed any storyline elements (because you won't have), you might actually get the impression that it's a strong show.
Why only 6 episodes? Wtf.
Shout by kim-berlyBlockedParentSpoilers2022-06-02T17:00:46Z
It's so good! I'm just loving it. Not loving Discovery and very disappointed in Picard. This takes us back to the beginning, well, before the beginning. You know what I mean.
I wish I could binge watch it. I hate having to wait a week for the next episode.
I've read some other reviews and I wonder what's wrong with people. Are they even watching the same show! It's got the wry sense of humor. The cast is amazing and the writing is excellent. And we have amazing sets and cgi.