Hey Zack! Hey everyone! Good to be talking Trek again!
The smiles that slowly crept across the crew's faces when Spock said "we have to steal the Enterprise" sums up what works about SNW so well. It strikes the perfect balance between "space is fucking terrifying" and "space is fucking awesome", neither getting too bogged down in the form…
Hey Zack! Hey everyone! Good to be talking Trek again!
The smiles that slowly crept across the crew's faces when Spock said "we have to steal the Enterprise" sums up what works about SNW so well. It strikes the perfect balance between "space is fucking terrifying" and "space is fucking awesome", neither getting too bogged down in the former but not leaning too into lightheartedness with the latter. There's serious stuff at hand, but it's treated with a level of levity and excitement that feels quintessentially of the Trek ethos. The comparison that keeps coming to my mind is Legends of Tomorrow, and while SNW isn't as overtly self-aware or goofy as Legends was, that's still an excellent vibe to shoot for.
The implication of an impending Gorn war and M'Benga new role as Guy Who Saw Some Shit in the War (which I like for him - the story with his daughter was sweet, albeit rushed, but it relied on the universality of a parent/child relationship more than it relied on something story-specific, and tying him in more directly with the Klingon War helps to automatically backfill his characterization with information the viewer is likely to be familiar with) shows that there's plenty of heavy stuff to come, but SNW will undoubtedly know how to approach it with a deft touch. The overall vibe of a Trek show tends to flow down from its captain, and even though this was a Pike-light episode you could still feel that it was imbued with his personality and the overall charm of Anson Mount's performance.
On a related note, I spent the post-Picard interim finally getting caught up on Discovery despite people warning me off it for years. Maybe it was due to my low expectations, but I'm two seasons in now and I'm enjoying it far more than I expected. Season 1 peaked in the middle and kinda sputtered out by the end, but the introduction of Pike at the start of S2 made for a huge immediate improvement (it's crazy how quickly Mount and the writers nailed his character) and then it took another big step up midway through when Michelle Paradise joined the staff. It also helps that I'm a sucker for the "we have to travel back in time to set the events we have already witnessed in motion" and "the friends we made along the way return to save the day in the climax" storytelling tropes. I'm surprised at how much I'm looking forward to the rest of this catchup.
I felt exactly like you did about Discovery seasons 1 and 2; at that point I think trying new things was just entertaining enough to outweigh what would later be its recurring flaws. I thought season 3 had a very promising setup, but without spoiling anything, ended up kinda disappointing. Season 4 was much better in my opinion, but by then all the usual criticisms people have made about Discovery became pretty obvious. Whatever its flaws though, I'll be forever grateful we got SNW out of it!
Hey Zack! Hey everyone! Good to be talking Trek again!
The smiles that slowly crept across the crew's faces when Spock said "we have to steal the Enterprise" sums up what works about SNW so well. It strikes the perfect balance between "space is fucking terrifying" and "space is fucking awesome", neither getting too bogged down in the former but not leaning too into lightheartedness with the latter. There's serious stuff at hand, but it's treated with a level of levity and excitement that feels quintessentially of the Trek ethos. The comparison that keeps coming to my mind is Legends of Tomorrow, and while SNW isn't as overtly self-aware or goofy as Legends was, that's still an excellent vibe to shoot for.
The implication of an impending Gorn war and M'Benga new role as Guy Who Saw Some Shit in the War (which I like for him - the story with his daughter was sweet, albeit rushed, but it relied on the universality of a parent/child relationship more than it relied on something story-specific, and tying him in more directly with the Klingon War helps to automatically backfill his characterization with information the viewer is likely to be familiar with) shows that there's plenty of heavy stuff to come, but SNW will undoubtedly know how to approach it with a deft touch. The overall vibe of a Trek show tends to flow down from its captain, and even though this was a Pike-light episode you could still feel that it was imbued with his personality and the overall charm of Anson Mount's performance.
On a related note, I spent the post-Picard interim finally getting caught up on Discovery despite people warning me off it for years. Maybe it was due to my low expectations, but I'm two seasons in now and I'm enjoying it far more than I expected. Season 1 peaked in the middle and kinda sputtered out by the end, but the introduction of Pike at the start of S2 made for a huge immediate improvement (it's crazy how quickly Mount and the writers nailed his character) and then it took another big step up midway through when Michelle Paradise joined the staff. It also helps that I'm a sucker for the "we have to travel back in time to set the events we have already witnessed in motion" and "the friends we made along the way return to save the day in the climax" storytelling tropes. I'm surprised at how much I'm looking forward to the rest of this catchup.
I felt exactly like you did about Discovery seasons 1 and 2; at that point I think trying new things was just entertaining enough to outweigh what would later be its recurring flaws. I thought season 3 had a very promising setup, but without spoiling anything, ended up kinda disappointing. Season 4 was much better in my opinion, but by then all the usual criticisms people have made about Discovery became pretty obvious. Whatever its flaws though, I'll be forever grateful we got SNW out of it!