Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Ghosts Of Illyria

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A virus makes it aboard the Enterprise which leads to the crew desperately craving light, also there is something about genetic modification.

Did the writers go on strike or something? What was this episode? It felt like barely concealed filler, even in the worst episodes of Doctor Who they could come up with something better than a light crave virus, it is just lame.

Moreover, I am glad to see Rebecca Romijn’s Number One get more fleshed out on screen but this was not the way to do it. I felt like with the genetic modification point they were trying to convey some broader political or philosophical message but if they were it past right by me.

Furthermore, this episode seems afraid to give us any time with Pike, played by Anson Mount, and has him and Spock, played by Ethan Peck, marooned on a planet together, but for the most part just ignores this side plot.

Overall, a lame filler episode by definition.

Pros.

Romijn manages to keep the episode together

Pike and Spock have some fun banter in the short time we see them

Cons.

The main plot feels like it was made on the fly by people just writing down random words

The message and or point is missed

The ending

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Children Of The Comet

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A comet threatens to destroy an inhabited world, and as the Enterprise tries to prevent this they are contacted by a race of aliens that worship the comet as a God.

At the time of writing I have only seen the first three episodes of this show and I can easily say this is the best of the bunch. I think the reason for this is because there is a deeper philosophy at work within this episode that raises some interesting questions. Whether, Pike, played by Anson Mount, and co do the right thing is debated and openly questioned in the episode, I appreciated this as it felt nuanced.

However, the episode isn’t all great. A large part of the episode focuses on Uhura, played by Cecilia Rose Gooding, and whether she can cut it as a Starfleet officer, which as far as sub-plots go is incredibly cliched and overly familiar. What I think makes this worse is that compared to other cast members on this show Gooding is a noticeably weaker actor and as such struggles to convey this basic cliched storyline of feeling incapable and like an outsider. Her emotions barely change over the course of the episode and it becomes a noticeable problem as the arc continues.

Overall, I enjoyed the mature philosophical debate it felt like real Star Trek to me, however in some cases the novice cast of actors is continuing to drag the show down.

Pros.

The morality of the mission

The ending

The new alien race

Mount continues to shine as Pike

Cons.

Gooding

The cliched sub-plot

The humming/ singing

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Strange New Worlds

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Star Trek finally starts being about exploration again.

I thought this first episode was miles better than anything coming out of either Discovery or Piccard however, it was not entirely perfect.

I thought Anson Mount made for a great lead and really sold the character. I enjoyed the cut aways to his character trying to process knowing his own death that was an interesting side plot that I think can be used to great effect over the course of the season. Moreover, I thought Pike’s relationship with Spock, played by Ethan Peck, was a lot of fun the two have great chemistry together.

The adventure of the episode was ultimately fun, even if the speech Pike gives does seem a little too referential to contemporary politics. I dislike how the other Star Trek shows of the newer generation feel the need to force in ideology at every turn they get as it takes me out of the show and forces me back to reality, hopefully this show can avoid that. One would hope this show could be different to the other new shows as it was made to go back to basics and avoid the criticisms and complaints of those shows.

Another thing that I thought was strange and didn’t notice until someone pointed it out to me, but the entire bridge crew bar Spock, Pike and one guy in the back is made up of women. Now on the surface this seems fairly like a non-issue however, it seems like in a quest for representation the show has over done it a little bit as it seems to be quite obvious. It is noticeable how few men there are on the show in general which again seems like it is being done for the purposes of agenda rather than good storytelling. Again hopefully later episodes can fix this.

Overall, a fine first episode lets hope it is only up from here.

Pros.

Mount

Peck

Romijn

Cons.

A creeping sense of identity politics

The speech took me out of the show and brought me back to reality

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