Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds. Paramount Plus.

As I watched season 2 I kept thinking, I wish I liked this show better. It's fine but it doesn't grab me, and I feel a bit like I'm watching it out of duty as a Star Trek fan. It was just boring. The plots feel extremely well-trodden. That's not always a bad thing, but it seems to me if you are on a familiar ship (the Enterprise), with a largely familiar crew (Uhura, Spock, Pike), and then also using predictable plots (our fuel harvesting is damaging an alien (2.06)), then you should do something innovative within that framework, something beyond "racism is bad" (2.02).

There is a lot to like here. It's fun to see this mix of new and old characters, and the actors are good. The sets and costumes are fun. I especially enjoyed getting to know a young Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and I laughed at the comedic performance of Carol Kane as chief engineer Pelia. I especially liked the 2 time travel episodes, one of which is a delightful crossover with Star Trek Lower Decks.

I actively hated the arc that involves a love triangle around Spock. He is engaged to T'Pring but has feelings for Nurse Chapel. Hetero monogamy problems! Why!! Why are you clogging up Star Trek!

The season was also concerned with Pike and his girlfriend, another Star Ship captain, and then with La'An and her crush on James Kirk. This was way too much heterosexuality, and no queer story lines. And then they also made Kirk monogamous (with Carol), which seems like a big stretch.

(Weirdly, Kirk also knows that Carol is pregnant, so they are either playing very fast and loose with continuity, or we are just in a whole different universe than "Wrath of Khan," in which Kirk meets his adult son whom he didn't know existed. Well On the One hand who cares about continuity, right? But OTOH why bother making a prequel series if you don't care about the timeline and all the Star Trek lore? this is also a question aimed at my nemesis J.J. Abrams. But, moving on.)

My favorite episode was 2.03, (cut for spoilers)( Read more... )

I am confused why they styled La'An to look just like Camina Drummer from the Expanse--tightly bound hair, lots of eye makeup, military bearing, serious expression. Camina Drummer is one of my favorite characters of all time, so it's not like I mind, I just find it confusing. It adds to the feeling that Strange New Worlds is just mash-ups and fanfics of other stories. For example,

1.06 - The ones who walk away from Omelas. (It's largely from the perspective of the Omelas-dwellers instead of the dissidents.)
1.07? maybe? - The Hunt for Red October.
2.08 - MASH.
2.09 - Buffy Musical Episode.

Of course I am devoted to mash-ups and fanfics! I am pro-homage. But I prefer mine to be way gayer and more subversive.

And Another Thing about SNW

And another thing! about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

People talk a lot about how amazing it was, in 1966, to see a Black woman, an Asian man, and others, on broadcast TV, in a show set in the future. The original series was 57 years ago.

SNW is a prequel to TOS, using some of the same legacy characters and some new ones. It is still powerful to see Black folks, Asian folks, and a Latiné person in positions of authority on the Enterprise. But it feels that SNW is not pushing the envelope. Diversity on TV in 2023 looks different: imagine seeing a person wearing a hijab, a fat actress, an effeminate man. Even if you want to keep your legacy characters the same race and gender as their predecessors, you could still cast background and minor roles differently.

I feel that ST Discovery did do this; most of their characters (and actors) are queer and Tilly is played by an actual fat actress. Deep Space Nine has a North African/Middle Eastern person (Alexander Siddig / Dr. Bashir) and that was 30 years ago. I don't feel that we always need to compare one star trek show to the next. But it's a bit disappointing.