Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)

Watchseries; First episode, and we have an encapsulated story, with a beginning, middle and end, in which the dilemmas of modern society are explored in a self-reflective way, using an alien civilization as a parable.

The old classic trek formula with updated and impressive visuals.

And the same can be said of the cast, all charming and easily relatable. But keep in mind that some are remakes of familiar characters. Some people will not like that.

So far, this is the Kurtzman-era series that has positively impressed me the most. Let's see if the quality holds up.

Still. There are some creative choices that bother me a little.

Probably my favorite character from this new series, is La'an Noonien-Singh. One of the best officers onboard and a dashing beauty. But just the fact that she's a Noonien-Singh is going to unnecessarily stress many of the more purist fans.

So far this series is a significant improvement, it has everything many fans have long claimed. And still. They keep some of the tricks, which mess with the cannon, unnecessarily. For me is a minor complaint, but for some boomer fans it's sacrilege.

But clearly, in my opinion, it's the most enjoyable of all the recent Star Trek series. I really liked this episode. And I will look forward to the next.

First episode, and we have an encapsulated story, with a beginning, middle and end, in which the dilemmas of modern society are explored in a self-reflective way, using an alien civilization as a parable.

The old classic trek formula with updated and impressive visuals.

And the same can be said of the cast, all charming and easily relatable. But keep in mind that some are remakes of familiar characters. Some people will not like that.

So far, this is the Kurtzman-era series that has positively impressed me the most. Let's see if the quality holds up.

Still. There are some creative choices that bother me a little.

Probably my favorite character from this new series, is La'an Noonien-Singh. One of the best officers onboard and a dashing beauty. But just the fact that she's a Noonien-Singh is going to unnecessarily stress many of the more purist fans.

So far this series is a significant improvement, it has everything many fans have long claimed. And still. They keep some of the tricks, which mess with the cannon, unnecessarily. For me is a minor complaint, but for some boomer fans it's sacrilege.

But clearly, in my opinion, it's the most enjoyable of all the recent Star Trek series. I really liked this episode. And I will look forward to the next.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds watchseries. The makers of Strange New Worlds have got this first episode more or less right.

It's probably the best Star Trek that we are likely to see for the foreseeable so we might as well buckle up and enjoy the ride. I would like to extend my personal thanks to the following people:

1 to Anson Mount's mother for bringing up her son as a fully certified Trekker who can properly respect the source material and understand the special place it has in so many people's hearts.

2 to Seth MacFarlane for creating the Orville and showing Paramount how it should be done

3 to Alex Kurtzman for yielding to the temptations of avarice and allowing old fashioned entertainment to take precedence over partisan dogma.

This episode is full of political commentary on the situation on earth in the 21st century but reviewers are apparently asked to steer clear of mentioning it. So I'll delete that part of my report and submit it again. It's all been said, anyway.

We'll no doubt get onto an examination of the characters in subsequent episodes but, in the meantime, Senior Trekker just can't resist pointing out the following:

A an all-female bridge crew may be the way of the future but it does risk making the lone male Captain look like a bit of a creep.

B appropriating women's style tips from The Expanse just isn't going to work. One of them can barely see through all that Kohl and no amount of shaved temples will ever make the other one as cool as British actress Dominique Tipper

C Pike's upswept hairdo and Chapel's all-white cat suit will probably be seen as early mistakes but, thankfully, Rebecca Romijn who plays Una appears without the horribly unflattering greasepaint she was forced to wear in Discovery.

D It was SAM Kirk who came aboard, not his brother JIM Kirk

Stay safe, stay kind and keep the faith. Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.

I was a Big fan of TOS. I watched every episode of TNG pretending it to be better than what it ever was (there are probably only 4 or 5 great episodes). I watched Deep Space 9 until the end (only 1 episode truly memorable) and I finally gave up on Voyager after about 3 seasons (what took me so long?). With Enterprise, I got as far as 2 characters smearing anti-radioactive goo on each other and thought, "If I want to watch porn, I'll just watch porn ". I managed 1 episode of Discovery and 2 of 'Picard'. Whatever Star Trek has evolved into, it is not what beguiled me 5 decades ago. It has become the mouthpiece of writers and producers that believed Star Trek was all about social commentary and not science fiction or drama, with a little social commentary interspersed.

So, now we have SNW - it looks OK, although the CGI for the title sequence is a bit dodgy and heavy handed. When will CGI effects teams ever learn that less is more? Still, the Enterprise looks familiar and although the shuttle in the opening sequence looked cartoonish ( especially when April stepped off it) I can accept that it, overall looks ok more times than it does not.

The actors are fine. Anson Mount is a good choice for the part of Pike and manages to convey some of the jaundice that Jeffrey Hunter created in the character originally. Ethan Peck sounds so much like Leonard Nimoy, (with slightly more appealing looks), that I hope he takes over from Zach Quinto (who just looks pissed off all the time) in the movies real soon.

So, with some good ingredients in place, what is missing? Well, look to my above criticisms of Trek since TOS and you find your answer.

The opening sequence is peppered with social commentary. Pike lives in a house littered with 'antiques'. His ship's communicator lies next to an antique handset phone (presumably not connected or working) and his house in rural Montana is powered by a wind farm ( several giant wind towers required just to power his house?). So, the notion that older, simpler times were better and that Wind Power really is the energy answer for the future because it is still around in the 24th Century. Please.

The premise of the whole episode is presaged by Pike watching 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. Since this was the most interesting part of the episode I kept hoping they would return to it. Not directly. Instead, the writers paraphrase it and insert images of the recent White House riots to illustrate the beginning of WW3 on Earth. Not subtle and a political statement of the kind the original series was always wise enough to steer clear.

Then there is the schmalz. Characters behaving as if they are excited to 'Go Boldly' when I presume that's what they have trained for over the past few years. Can you imagine a Communications officer on a modern day Aircraft Carrier going all goggly eyed upon hearing the order to leave port? TOS portrayed Starfleet Command as a military style organisation, which makes sense since discipline is required in order to survive such a venture. With each subsequent series, Starfleet increasingly has become this boatload of wide-eyed kids that follow orders only when they choose to and constantly wear their hearts on their sleeves. Also, why does every security chief have a background of being orphaned in a hostile environment? Good grief, get real SF writers handing in scripts and maybe we can get some originality back in this show. However, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.<

The visuals are there. I'll give it that. However, they're trying way too hard to be reminiscent of the classic series. I get that fans wanted more of the old formula after Discovery and Picard left much to be desired, but this doesn't feel organic at all.

As a lifetime Treker, who has literally seen every episode of every show and certainly every movie, I hoped for so much more. I understand that they have to introduce all of the characters in the first episode, but come on. Couldn't you at least have had something fun and exciting going on? Boring, boring, boring.

Wow so Trek has turned into an advertisement for the pharmaceutical companies and everything is woke, and the Vulcans are now totally liberal...where did we go wrong?