The Great Bird’s introduction to the TMP novelization makes it clear that the original show, and presumably all the later ones, are just dramatizations of real events. Jim Kirk signed off on the novelization, so it’s a much more accurate depiction.
So the popular conception that live action is canon and novels are apocryphal is backwards.
There’s also a line in The Doomsday Machine where Kirk tells Scotty he “Just earned his pay for the week”
Given that this was essentially a sequel to probably the two worst episodes from season 3, its surprising how much I liked it. The comedy really worked for me, and the transition from it to more serious drama was well handled. It can be very effective when a story softens you up with comedy and then goes for the throat. The idea that there was emotional truth behind every contrived soap opera scenario threaded the needle as far as keeping the episode relevant while giving it enough space to be zany. Much better than the puppet “all a dream” ending, and does well to foreshadow Pike’s future with the Talosians.
It’s nice to see Pike’s arc continued, since they really haven’t touched on it since the start of the season. It’s a little awkward that the Hangover story occurred between these two episodes, since that somewhat detracts from the idea that Pike was been deliberately overworking himself all this time.
Prime timeline Vic was never actually a hologram. Just a holosuite employee with a transporter and good reflexes.
They’re like episodes of TOS, but speed ran and on (even more) crack. They’re delightful, despite the limited animation.
Well, Picard and Co seemed to agree it broke the treaty, so lacking access to the actual text I think we have to take their word for it. It could say something insanely general, like “any technology that renders a ship invisible to the naked eye…”
Can’t argue with everything else you said, though.
TBF, the war never seems to happen. Even when Picard decloaked the Pegasus right in front of a warbird to show how thoroughly Starfleet was breaking the treaty, nothing really came of it.
If they wanted to go all in on making Starfleet the bad guy, I’d be all for it. Showing that the Federation’s ideals can overcome and dismantle even the Federation’s largest and most ingrained institutions when they go sour would be about the most hopeful thing the franchise could do right now.
But this just sounds like another badmiral situation, nothing ground breaking.
I’m really not trying to compare TNG to anything. I just didn’t think your comment matched the teaser, or SNW in general. It’s really not the most action-oriented show around. I don’t think it’s even the most action heavy Trek show we’ve had.
Now, if your complaint was regarding high school level romance subplots, that’s something SNW has definitely overindulged in previously that’s also likely to come up in a soap opera episode. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Hey, you’re in luck: soap operas aren’t watched by kids, and aren’t exactly known for their high octane action either 😉
I’m enjoying the genre surfing. Most or all of the episodes are traditional Trek stories and they’re just viewed with the lens of a different genre, if that makes sense. Like, trying to get a culture out from under an enemy’s control without seeming to be involved has happened in Trek a hundred times, they just filmed it like a film noir this time. I’m having fun with it.
For me, it’s just a question of whether it’s serving the story. If it’s baked into the premise, like the musical or puppetry episodes, I’m happy to go with it.
But disaster scenarios are more satisfying if the obstacles and especially solutions seem like a natural consequence of the world of the show. Magical particles that both heal and fuel showing up in M’Benga’s case notes feel too convenient, even if it took some effort on Spock and La’an’s part to track them down. I’m not sure if I’d call it a Deus Ex Machina or just a MacGuffin that came into the story too late, but it just doesn’t do it for me.
Yeah, that’s a fair point. Time was of the essence, and the commanding officer made a call. We wouldn’t normally see anyone question that unless they had a very compelling reason not to.
I guess I wouldn’t object to some dialogue like that, but I also don’t see it as necessary. I agree that if Una weren’t as tough as Spock, or if she’d just never shared this with him, he would have spoken up. Since he didn’t say anything we can logically conclude that she is, in fact, known to be that tough. Unless there’s some other canon showing that to be untrue, I don’t really see the problem with simply accepting that conclusion.
I feel like this is only coming up because Una looks like a normal human. But we know she isn’t, so there’s no contradiction that I can see.
I’m less concerned that neutrinos don’t act like this, and more amused that any particle can heal a bisected corpse simply by being aimed at it.
Diverting power from life support makes all the heat from the hallways instantly vanish? Where does it go? Is 23rd century technology somehow effortlessly recapturing the heat and turning it into electricity? Is that what they’ve been doing all these years every time they “diverted power from life support?”
It was cold enough for Chapel’s finger to snap right off, but she’s walking around completing tasks with her face uncovered? It’s great that they let the actress emote, but…
What the episode lacked in believability it made up for in good character work. Loved seeing Scotty’s connection with the Enterprise being born, loved seeing Chapel put to the test (and actually giving her actress something to do for the first time since the second season). I also always appreciate bottle episodes just because of how gorgeous these sets are, and the special effects here were top notch, too.
Maybe my grasp of the lore isn’t encyclopedic enough, but is it a given that an augmented Illyrian would be less suited to extremely high gravity than a Vulcan? As I was watching, I just took it that they both silently agreed that Una was the logical choice and didn’t need to litigate it.
I do think the mind meld solution was valuable, because without it the entire extremely flimsy neutrino plan to save the day would have gone off without any real wrinkles. Aiming the particles at M’Benga and the deuterium worked exactly as expected, so the real friction was in how many roadblocks they ran into getting the data.
Those episodes are frequently discussed and memed, though, so as far as community involvement goes they’re actually among the most important!
Family is the prime directive
I thought you were going to talk about the wild swings in characterization, the ratings-chasing premises, and the continual reset button mashing. The kind of minor plot hole/contrivances used to move the story along that you’re talking about never bothered me all that much. I feel like they’ve always been there to a degree, but you’re probably right, those were probably worse in Voyager, too.
It had some good moments and wonderful character dynamics when the writers managed to stay halfway consistent about it, but the franchise definitely showed a downward trajectory with Voyager and Enterprise.