Anika and Liz put on some fancy costumes, murder some Gorn babies and agree: that was definitely a season of television.
But did we actually like season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?
Erm. Well.
- Remember when we were afraid this would be the Pike, Spock and Una show? It’s definitely not the Una show, and we have different opinions on whether or not it’s a Spock show!
- It’s fascinating how season one of SNW shares a lot of problems with season one of TNG, but no one is out there arguing that TNG’s first season was good
- Anika has to “well actually” Liz
- The Elysian Kingdom:
- We just want M’Benga to be happy, is that so much to ask?
- It’s 2022 and the depiction of queerness in SNW is roughly on par with DS9 in the 1990s (this is not a compliment)
- All Those Who Wander:
- #GornRights
- “Straight-up Aliens rip-off” is a feature not a bug for us, but the depiction of the Gorn is even more troubling than it was in “Memento Mori”!
- PLEASE make Star Trek hire a disability consultant because the depiction of disability and mental illness in any Trek overseen by Akiva Goldsman is dreadful and offensive
- Children, whether Gorn or human(ish), don’t have rights in this series, and Anika finds that TROUBLING
- Lifting a Spock/Uhura scene — body language, camera angles and all — from Star Trek (2009) but subbing in a white woman was … well, the optics aren’t great, y’know?
- The Quality of Mercy
- We don’t often say this, but we hate everything about this episode!
- Like, don’t remake “Balance of Terror” if you don’t understand Kirk, Spock, Romulans or the plot of “Balance of Terror”
- It makes a good double feature with “These Are The Voyages…” but that isn’t really a good thing
- We have a new appreciation for Greenwood!Pike and the (relative) lack of ableism in his story
- The Great Man Theory of Star Trek history
- The ending is … exactly the same as the ending of season 2 of Lower Decks? At least for once it’s a white woman facing the Federation’s capricious justice system?