Screenshot of Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh in 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'. Copyright goes to Roddenberry Entertainment and Paramount+.
Hey! Hallie here!
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' came back with season 2 about two weeks ago, and I have obviously been keeping up with it. Season 1 was so incredible that I couldn't miss the newest season, but I've been so busy that I haven't been able to talk about it. But now that three episodes are out I have a lot to catch up on! I'm going to go through all of my thoughts on all of the episodes so far, but I'm not going to separate this review by episodes. Instead, I'm going to discuss all of my likes and dislikes of the entire season so far. Knowing me I'm probably going to stick mostly to what we've seen of the characters, but I'll definitely be getting into plot as well so SPOILERS AHEAD! Let's look at what this season is bringing to the Star Trek universe!
The Good:
La'an: La'an is one of the few characters who didn't completely win me over last season. I didn't love the over emphasis on her being "tough" during her introduction, and the rest of the episodes cementing her as one of the more boring members of the crew according to her own peers didn't help the situation much. However, La'an's already more than making up for it this season. I thought opening the season with some closure for the victims of the Gorn she was aiding and bringing her back to the crew was an excellent move. Then she got a really interesting role in the second episode, where both her closeness to Una as well as her Noonien-Singh related self hatred were played on in order to seamlessly integrate more character development for her into an episode that wasn't otherwise about her. And then we have this week's episode. Though I wouldn't say a time travel episode that primarily asks the question "Would you go back and kill a mass murderer when they were a child?" is anything new, I did appreciate that the series is finally having La'an deal with her feelings about Khan. The scene where she came face to face with child Khan was surprisingly heartwarming, and I do think the badass acceptance of who she is by the end of the episode felt earned. Surprisingly, I also liked her relationship with Kirk. No offense to fans who love Kirk, but Kirk gets on my nerves easily. But somehow La'an played off of him so well that I actually did care about their budding relationship and felt horrible when La'an attempted to reach out to her own universe's Kirk and wound up heartbroken. 'Strange New Worlds' is doing some amazing writing for La'an this season. I can't wait to see what's next for her.
Spock: Spock took the spotlight in the first episode of this season, and while I wasn't expecting it, it was a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed the takeover of the Enterprise he led, mostly because it reminded me of the crew rebellion in 'The Search For Spock' and this time we actually got to see Spock in on the action. I especially loved his awkward interactions with newcomer Pelia, played by the lovely Carol Kane. The way she absolutely confuses him makes me excited to see more of their interactions as the season goes on. The first episode also dealt with Spock's recent problems controlling his emotions, the focus of that being on Christine Chapel. Though I have no idea where they're going with this storyline given Spock's original storyline in TOS, I still felt for Spock when he almost broke down on the bridge as a result of thinking he had killed Christine. Spock actually crying over Christine after she nearly died out in space made me want to cry. I also like this season's goofier approach to Spock. I enjoyed his adorable enthusiasm when drinking with the Klingons, his brief but hilarious "argument" with the Vulcan Star Fleet prosecutor, and even his handling of the Vulcan lute-related noise complaint. Though his issues controlling his emotions is a serious problem that will likely have to get resolved soon, I'm very much enjoying the light-hearted Spock we've gotten so far this season.
Other Crew: Within the first three episodes I can't say the rest of the series regulars have gotten much time, but I do really enjoy their presences as usual. M'Benga and Christine were given several kick-ass fight scenes in episode one, and though it was interesting to see Christine wrestle with her mortality in that episode, M'Benga has been the star doctor of the season so far. I thought his PTSD related to the Klingon war was the most interesting storyline in the first episode and I kind of want more. We have to address that he nearly killed a Klingon with his bare hands at one point, right? I'm also loving his position as advice-giver this season. Between his sparring scene with La'an (Babs Olusanmokun actually teaches Jiu Jitsu!), and the scene with Ortegas where he stops to read Spock's body language, I feel like he's been keeping a closer watch of the crew this season than Pike has. I'll get to that later, but go M'Benga! Ortegas is another joy to watch. She never fails to be absolutely hilarious, and yes, I cheered during her piloting scene in the first episode. I adore every moment Ortegas is on screen. Speaking of, give me more Uhura please. She's still my favorite character in this series, and though she hasn't gotten any storylines for herself yet, she steals every moment she's on screen. The amount of confidence and snark that comes from her is more than enough to win me over each episode, but she deserves even more. I know there's going to be an episode for her in this season somewhere, but I'm so impatient to get to it!
Neera: Though I'm not the biggest fan of Una Chin-Riley, especially when she's put up against some of the more interesting crew on the Enterprise, I do want to highlight her episode. But I mostly want to do it for Yetide Badaki and her spectacular performance as Neera. The ideals about discrimination and respecting the cultures of others felt well timed in this episode, but it was Neera who sold those ideas. It was bold to come to a trial episode like this from the perspective of a guest character, but Neera's position, not only as Una's betrayed friend but as an Illyrian who was cast out because she refused to hide her identity, made her the perfect person to follow. She establishes herself as a good lawyer immediately, making her easy to root for, but her character development makes everything more complicated. At first she uses her amazing lawyer skills to try to take down Star Fleet for upholding a discrimination law while being known to break various other laws. She takes the case to enact vengeance, not caring who gets taken down as long as Star Fleet looks the worst it could possibly look by the time the process is over. The plot doesn't fault her for this, but it does make clear that it isn't ultimately helpful to Illyrians in Star Fleet at the present moment. So we get to see her slowly come to terms with why Una joined Star Fleet and start to care about that as well. Though she can only really help Una out on a technicality, her cleverness ultimately makes it still feel like a win and they sprinkle in some hope for the future as well. Una's episode was basically just about Neera, but I'm ok with that.
The Bad:
Pike: Why has Pike been practically gone for three episodes now? I love Pike. I love him as a captain. I have never had a Star Trek season go so long without bringing their captain to the forefront and I don't think I like it. He gets some role in the second episode, but his only purpose is to worry about Una and his only scenes consist of various people telling him that he needs to sit on the sidelines and wait her case out. Which he does. In the other episodes he's had about two lines per episode. I think we've gotten to the point where every member of the crew has played a more important role than him in the season, and that includes Kirk. This is a really odd choice and I hope it ends soon.
Prequel Problems: The first two episodes of this season deal with storylines that heavily suffer from relevance issues. I don't mean that the two episodes are irrelevant to the season. The opposite in fact. But because a show that is a prequel to everything else we've seen in Star Trek is doing these storylines, it suddenly feels like these major events have no major impact on Star Trek's story at all. Take the first episode, where we're primarily dealing with Spock's new inability to control his emotions and his conflicting feelings for Christine. We know that in TOS Spock is probably too good at keeping his emotions in check. He doesn't really start opening up until Kirk and Bones encourage him to do so. We also know that Christine pines for Spock in TOS, but Spock apparently doesn't return those feelings. So how is Spock and Christine's current storyline relevant if they don't end up together by TOS and if Spock goes right back to being great at dealing with his emotions? No idea. How is Una's trial relevant if augments in every other series of Star Trek get heavily discriminated against by Star Fleet? No idea. I appreciate what the writers are trying to do here, but their hands are a bit tied because 'Strange New Worlds' is a prequel, and I'm not sure they can always find their way around that.
Spirk: This isn't as much a critique as it is a defense of the fanbase, but I have been noticing that between the Spock/Christine pairing and now the La'an/Kirk pairing, 'Strange New Worlds' has been keeping Spock and Kirk in very straight relationships. Spock and Kirk haven't even interacted in the show yet. But Spock/Kirk is one of the most famous fan pairings in fandom ever, to the point that fans of this pairing basically created fanfiction. All I'm saying is at least a nod in the direction of these fans would be nice. They've been waiting for something, anything, for so damn long and Star Trek is more progressive than it's ever been before.
That's all I have for the series so far. I jumped around a little bit but I tried to make this as coherent as possible. I'm really liking this season so far! Though I won't say that it started out as strong as the first season did, it's still one of the most engaging (yes, that was a pun) Star Trek series I've ever watched. I can't wait for next week's episode, and I'm especially anticipating the appearance of Mariner and Boimler from 'Lower Decks' soon. There's so many crazy things from this season that we haven't seen yet and I'm impatient to watch them!
Don't do anything fun until I get back!
Hallie
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