kaayo

In 1966, just under half of US men had been (or were) in the military. In 2018 that was one in eight. (Figures for women are harder to come by and compare. Nine of ten veterans were men in 2018, and the total was about 7% of the population) It might be the case that the average American is more familiar with the command structure and norms of Starfleet than that of an actual military operation.

When Spock hijacks the Enterprise in TOS S1E11, viewers understand the stakes are incredibly high. They have a sense of the consequences of violating orders.

When Spock hijacks the Enterprise in 2023, after having done it four? five? times in television and movies "before" (to us, "after" to him), after decades of us watching Starfleet officers ignore protocol whenever they think it's the right thing to do and be rewarded with the highest ranks in the service for it, when most of the audience has no real-life sense that insubordination is serious, there are no stakes. Even within this episode, we're cued that there are no stakes - none of the rest of the crew seems shocked, none of them even consider not going along with Spock's plan.

The whole episode is like this. We spend a bunch of screen time on the Spock/Chapel relationship with no sense of what makes it interesting, with no stakes for it. We're introduced to a new chief engineer who gets to be somewhat charming and mysterious but doesn't actually do anything - whose only effect on the episode is to further reduce the stakes.

This episode contains maybe the most boring CGI space dogfight of this century and a bunch of completely nonsensical camera tricks. It has no sense of pacing or emotional arc.

"I would like the ship to go. Now" is a good line, though the comic timing is wrong, with too much anticipation.

Onitra Johnson's dialogue is solid and true to character. But the Swiss-cheese plot outline and the long-burn relationship beats are a total mess - given the mechanics of writer's rooms that's probably not Johnson's fault (although really great execution in the writing might have been able to paper over more of the problems). Director Chris Fisher also delivered probably the worst direction in SNW S1, in that season's final episode, along with a couple episodes of Inhumans that are the worst television I sat through in my adult life (sacrifices must be made when working on a Marvel game). There's lots of talent evident from the rest of the cast and crew in this episode, but it can't make up for the directing and showrunning choices.

Worse than any of the Season 1 episodes, comparable to a mediocre Voyager ep.

Well here we go again... Probably be better titled
Star Trek: Strange.

First, I was happy they made the doc more understandable, reduced his accent a little and slowed his conversation. But, that was the only thing I could praise.

I didn't last 20min before sitting this garbage down.
(There must bots giving this crap a good review score, 43 @ 80% ... you're kidding right!?).

So the very first episode of season 2 we have Pike leaving Enterprise and the crew (may as well call it an all woman crew because Spock just lost his balls somewhere around Enterprise.

So they take Enterprise while it's in space dock getting fixed and maintained, it supposed to be there for another 3 days, yet they decide to run away with it and take their time about it.

Spock no longer seems worried that he is continually being started as a human, he's anxious and his emotions are like they would be confirming his balls have been excised, making it an all girl crew.

And to rub salt into that wound Spock decides his 'thing' will be nothing Vulcan-esk but
'I would like the ship to go... Now'
That was it for me - enjoy wasting time with this trashpile. 'Punch it'

An entertaining if slightly odd beginning to season 2. It was nice to see a shift in focus to other crew members, even if that choice felt kind of jarring as a reintroduction to the show. Side-lining Captain Pike was quite bold and honestly I missed his presence, but giving a chance for Spock, Chapel and M'Benga to have centre stage was also rewarding.

Still, I found this whole episode to feel like it was throwing us into something that was already progressing and it was a little difficult to stay fully engaged with it. There was a whole backstory to the situation and characters on Cajitar IV that was reduced to fleeting dialogue, instead trusting us to just go with it and not worry about the details. I felt that could have been handled better. Obviously this episode drew from the Klingon War that happened on Discovery, and featuring its repercussions so heavily here required a shift. The deep trauma that M'Benga and Chapel seem to have experienced came out of nowhere and fundamentally altered their characters. It was great material for the actors to work with, but flew in the face of what they've established previously.

It also led to the scene which was the weakest part of the episode for me; an extended action sequence in which Chapel and M'Benga expertly fight their way through hordes of Klingons with the assistance of a drug. Exciting, yes, but tonally bizarre and again not fitting the characters. This was WAY over the top, leading to M'Benga torturing a Klingon.. Again, wrong tone.

Thankfully there was a lot of great stuff outside this. La'an has really come into her own and felt like a well balanced character here. And Spock got all the of the episode's best moments. It's great to see him playing the lute and being in charge. We're going down an interesting narrative path here with his losing his grip on his emotional stability, and honestly I'm quite up for it thanks to Ethan Peck's wonderful take on Spock. Yes, we're edging on breaking canon in several areas here, but I'm really not that worried if I'm enjoying what I'm seeing.

Overall, this episode felt kind of unsettled and over-enthusiastic in it's return, but I'm in.