The final panel during the Star Trek Universe Hall H event at San Diego Comic-Con focused on Strange New Worlds. The big news was about the season 2 crossover with Lower Decks, but there was much more to talk about as well.
Executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Rod Roddenberry were joined by co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, along with cast members Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Ethan Peck (Spock), Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh), Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura), and Paul Wesley (James T. Kirk). Together they gave more details on that crossover along with more insights into what’s coming in season 2.
Lower Decks crossover goes both ways
The Strange New Worlds panel followed the one for Lower Decks, but began with Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid returning to the stage to crash the party, demanding to be part of the proceedings. After some banter, Anson Mount official announced that season 2 of Strange New Worlds will have a crossover episode. The Lower Decks actors then gave a bit of a preview:
Quaid: We’re coming aboard the Enterprise, baby!
Newsome: We’re going to show up and stress them out.
Moderator Lea Thompson asked for clarification on if they will be appearing in live action and not only did they confirm it, but we learned at least one Strange New Worlds character will get animated. Here is the exchange:
Thompson: Wait, so you guys are in live action form?
Newsome: Yeah, just like you see us now, baby!
Quaid: Very similar to this [points to self] except with purple hair and more red on me, in general.
Mount: And you may get an extremely buff two-dimensional version of me.
Henry Alonso Myers also gave a bit of background on how the episode came to be:
Meyers: All of us are huge Lower Decks fans on the writing staff of Strange New Worlds. And one of our writers—David Reed—also works on The Boys. And he was just chatting with Jack and was like, “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we did a crossover?” And he was like, “Yeah, that’d be great!” And we were in the room and just started talking about it and then we were like, “What if we could get more than one person from Lower Decks on our show?”… The crazy thing is we had this whole discussion about it, and then I got a call from Alex, completely separately… And he says, “I think you guys should think about doing a crossover with Lower Decks. And I was like, “I’ve got some good news for you.” Then it sort of just wrote itself.
Going bigger in season 2… and about Pike’s hair
When asked about the series structure and mix of genres from season 1, Anson Mount talked about what we can expect in the upcoming season:
Mount: My taste as a viewer was always serialized. But we knew we knew early in our conversations with Alex that this needed to be episodic. It needed to be a planet-of-the-week kind of thing. And with the leadership of Henry and Akiva [Goldsman], seeing the potential there not just in having a new story of the week, but that allows us to play with the mode in which it’s presented. It allows the show to be a tremendous amount of fun just both to do and, I think, to watch. And so you are going to see—we took some big swings in season 1—but we’re going for the fences and season 2.
Later, when the panelists were asked to tease season 2, Celia Rose Gooding and Christina Chong pointed to the fantasy episode from season 1 as a benchmark to be topped:
Chong: I will say, if you thought episode eight (“The Elysian Kingdom”) was a bit out there, in season 2 there’s an episode which tops that to an even bigger level.
Gooding: I would say a couple of episodes that top that.
And the co-showrunner also got in on the hype:
We do some things that Star Trek has never done before. I am incredibly proud of it. And this cast brought everything to it, and I cannot wait to share it with you guys.
Speaking of big, Anson Mount was asked if Pike’s hair is getting bigger each episode, and he is very much in on the jokes about Pike’s high hair:
I will relay that question to my hair and he will get back to you. He’s number one on the callsheet… The hair is due in large part to our resident hair guru, Daniel Losco and the entire hair department. Yeah, the hair memes have been fantastic.
Big changes for Spock
As Ethan Peck talked about the Spock vs Spock fight scene in “Spock Amok,” he revealed where his character is headed:
Peck: It was an amazing opportunity in that scene to really view Spock in his various separate parts, Human and Vulcan, and to pit them against each other was a very surreal, unique opportunity. And in season 2, we’ll see Spock really wrestle with his human side much more. He will continue his experimentation with his human emotions, and it will sort of lead to fundamental changes in some very important relationships in his life.
And in response to a fan question about introducing Spock as dyslexic in Discovery, Kurtzman indicated this storyline will be picked up on Strange New Worlds:
I think it’s essential. We definitely made that choice on Discovery for a reason, because obviously, we’re revealing many, many things about Spock that people never knew before on Disco. But I think Star Trek uniquely gets to carry those kinds of conversations as a form of empowerment. And that’s something that we really look forward to doing in every show that we make. But we really make a point of it because if you can’t see it, you can’t be it, right? So we need to make sure that people can see what they’re capable of and not just take such a limited point of view.
More Gorn
When talking about the choice to use the Gorn in season 1, Alex Kurtzman indicated there is more to come:
Kurtzman: Early on when Akiva and I were breaking the story for the pilot, we wanted the Gorn to be the big bad for of the season. And obviously, the Gorn holds a very special place in our hearts from TOS. But the idea of what we could do with the Gorn now given technology and where it’s at felt like a really amazing opportunity. And we were really excited about stretching them over the course of the season as kind of the big bad, even though the show is episodic. So I don’t think it’s going to be the only time you see the Gorn. The lore of them and the way they were presented, they’re just too exciting and too interesting.
Sticking with canon… and M’Benga
For season one Dr. M’Benga is the Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise. During the Q&A, a fan noted how he later ends up working under Dr. McCoy as the CMO and wondered if we will see M’Benga lose or give up the position. Henry Alonso Myers answered:
Myers: You’re talking about the TOS era that we’re familiar with. We are not there yet. And a lot of things can happen between then and now. We’re not trying to rewrite canon, but we’re trying to deepen our understanding of how things come to be. And I will say as far as I’m concerned, Babs [Olusanmokun] will be Dr. M’Benga for a long time.
La’an gets some Khan
Christina Chong talked about La’an’s connection to her notorious ancestor Khan Noonien-Singh and how there is more to explore with his aspect of the character:
Chong: I love that I get to be a descendant of his, but obviously La’an is very different. She has some traits that Khan has. She’s a formidable fighter. She is very tactical. She’s a leader. But her decisions come very much from a place of wanting to learn and grow and evolve for the better. It’s a lot of fun. I don’t know, maybe we get to see version of La’an where she inherits more of the other side of Khan. I don’t know. Do we, Henry?
For the record, Henry Alonso Myers answered knowingly: “Maybe.”
Hemmer continues to influence Uhura
Celia Rose Gooding spoke eloquently about the importance that original Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols has had on her:
It’s been incredible. Her legacy stretches beyond entertainment. It stretches into space exploration and representation and opening the doors for other Black women in entertainment. And so to have an opportunity to sort of step into that legacy, and put my own little spice on it, it’s been incredible. All of this has been such a dream come true. To me, if it is not all thanks to Nichelle, it is a majority of the things to her.
Later she also drew a parallel between Nichelle being motivated to stay with Star Trek by Dr. Martin Luther King and the influence that Hemmer will continue to have on Uhura:
To have that parallel of Dr. King saying to Nichelle you have to stay here and find a family here and continue to be the change you want to see in the world for Hemmer to then say Uhura, “This is your family the moment you allow it to be. Open yourself and let these people love you the way you deserve to be loved.” And to then lose him after that is heartbreaking. But Hemmer is and will always be such an incredible person and incredible mentor and friend—and honestly, father figure—to Uhura. And me—Celia—loves Bruce [Horak] very much and it broke my heart when I read that script and realized that this was going to be the way it was. But knowing what’s coming up, I am excited to watch Uhura’s memory of Hemmer influence her decision-making and be a huge reason as to why she ended up staying.
The actress and Grammy-winning singer also teased that we will see more of her musical side:
Uhura, like myself, is very much a musical person. Poor Ethan shares a trailer wall with me, so he hears me singing morning without fail. [Peck interjects “It’s like I am in a musical”] So I am sure we are going to get more of musical Uhura if I have anything to say about it.
A lighter Kirk in season 2
Paul Wesley appeared in the season 1 finale, playing an alternative future Captain Kirk. At Comic-Con, the actor made it clear that the Kirk we will see next season (and it sounds like we will see a good amount of him) is different, and not so serious:
Wesley: We only saw Kirk for a handful of scenes in the finale. And that specific episode was fairly intense. And if you watch the original “Balance of Terror,” Kirk is quite intense in that episode. So I’m looking forward to viewers seeing a different side of Kirk, and certainly not an alternate timeline Kirk, but a lieutenant on the Farragut. So he’s a much younger Kirk. He hasn’t quite developed into the Captain Kirk that we know. And there’s more levity, it’s an exciting season. So I’m really looking forward to people seeing that.
The panel just happened to take place on Wesley’s birthday, so he was surprised on stage by the panel singing him “Happy Birthday,” along with the presentation of a custom Captain Kirk cake. Mount noted this was the second year in a row the cast celebrated Wesley’s birthday together, with a celebration last year on the set of Strange New Worlds.
Still more to come from SDCC 2022
There is still more to come from our Comic-Con coverage, including more details from Saturday’s Star Trek Universe panel. Stay tuned to TrekMovie.com for more news from San Diego, and check out the rest of our San Diego Comic-Con 2022 coverage.
Keep up with all the Star Trek news out of San Diego Comic-Con here at TrekMovie.
First season of SNW honestly was great! Not perfect but compared to PIC and DIS, close enough! ;)
While I’m not fond of the new Kirk, I’ll wait to see how he’s handled in season 2 and fits in going forward. Personally I still think they could’ve kept him out of the show a few more seasons, but hey!
I do like the Gorn story line, but I really hope we see them move beyond just savage animals next season.
And yes super excited about the cross over with Lower Decks. Still crazy it’s even happening but I can’t wait to see how Mariner and Boimler stress everyone out lol. And I always love to see any story where the 23rd and 24th century connects somehow since it’s pretty rare. It will only be the fifth time when you include Generations, Relics, Trials and Tribble-ations and Star Trek 09. I still wonder will it be time travel or something else?
And Peck’s shirt is just hilarious!
As usual, I agree with you 100%.
Thanks! :)
I mean, compare it to MOST first seasons of any Star Trek and it was a better first season. Now personally I really love the first seasons of Picard and Discovery – especially Discovery, but SNW can take a bow because they really did a great job with what the goal of that show is
Fair enough! I only point those two out directly because it’s the same people who are making all of these shows. Akiva Goldsman was a big part of season 1 of Discovery and co-show runner of season 1 of Picard. And sadly these are both my least favorite seasons of the entire franchise. That’s strictly speaking for myself of course. But my point is I was very hesitant of how SNW was going to turn out knowing Goldsman was now heading that show as well. And after season 2 of Picard even more so. He’s partly responsible for three dismal seasons of Star Trek IMO.
But I was quite surprised how much more I liked this show versus those. And I will also say hearing more about Picard season 3 sounds like it’s going to be everything most of us wanted from the show who was disappointed initially and more. It sounds like its TNG in its best form! So I’m feeling more positive where things are going in general!
I fully agree with your points that Akiva was responsible for 2 poor seasons of Picard. Discovery season 1 was a lot better. But remember there are plenty of interviews where Akiva wanted Disco to look more TOS like and he said he got to rectify that with SNW. If you read the interviews he is the one who wanted the aligned uniforms and closer look to TOS. So we have to credit him for that
OK, I did not know that. I do know from all the SNW interviews he was the one who pushed for a Pike show on day one but I didn’t know he tried to make Discovery a little more in line with TOS. So yeah he gets credits on that for sure.
And yes sadly I will agree Discovery season 1 is better than both seasons of Picard which is why Picard is lower than Discovery on my favorites list and my least liked show period.
I’d really like to know who associated with SNW approved of using the Gorn. Whoever it is, one or more, would be nice to at least know who to blame.
The show runner Henry Alonso Myers said multiple times now both he and Akiva Goldsman together wanted to bring them back so they did. I even told you this like a month ago.
Slipped my mind. Looks like once again Secret Hideout has made terrible staff choices on their projects.
Interesting. I wonder if he felt the same about the Klingons. Honestly my issues with DISCO go beyond the uniforms. A spore drive that can take you anywhere in the universe belongs in the 32nd century not the 23rd. Ditto with a time travel suit. Etc…
Totally agreed. Inn all honestly the only Trek show that has ever had a good first season besides SNW (in live action) was TOS.
Seventh, with TNG’s Unification and Voyager’s Flashback. Also, 22nd and 24th Century crossover in Enterprise’s These Are The Voyages.
OK, let me couch these in the most nerdy nitpicky way possible lol.
Originally Flashback was included but I ruled it out because it basically all took place in Tuvok’s head. They weren’t directly interacting with Sulu or the Excelsior, just his memories of his time on the ship. If it was the real Sulu spotting Janeway on his bridge, it would be different. So I think you get what I’m saying with this one.
Unification is also different because Spock was just living and a part of the 24th century due to Vulcans long life spans. There is no time gap the way it was for Scotty in Relics or Kirk in Generations. He was born in the 23rd century but his life simply carried on through the 24th. When he and Picard meets, it’s just two people part of the same existence meeting. But in the 09 movie when he meets Kirk for example, you can feel the gap in many ways, especially from Kirk’s POV obviously.
It’s kind of the same for TATV, Riker is not interacting with the real characters (one of the many many problems with that episode). And it’s the 22nd century. ;) NOW that said, it actually kind of goes to the original idea because it’s Riker and Troi kind of drooling over Archer and life in the 22nd century but it’s still not the real thing.
Again, just my silly conditions. Obviously you can certainly view it differently with all of these.
Honestly I am reserving judgement on Kirk. After all, the S1 Kirk was *kirk* in name only. He never met Spock or Bones which in TOS were really the 2 sides of his personality. He never commanded the Enterprise. Like Kelvin, he lived a different adult life.
S2 hopefully will show us a much more Kirk like Kirk akin to where he should be pre-TOS rather than one which would have occurred should TOS have never have happened.
I have a lot of very specific issues with the first season of SNW now that I’ve finally seen it, but one thing I’ll give it major points for is the way those ten episodes really mixed it up in terms not only of storytelling and genre, but even visual styles, in a way that hasn’t been seen since the first season of TOS. I found this very refreshing, even when I disliked the particular episode or the subject matter (e.g. space pirates), particularly after the cookie-cutter sameness of the Berman era. (Which, too be fair, nevertheless managed to produce some shows superior to anything SNW has done thus far.) I hope they continue to swing for the fences, even when they miss.
Going to weigh in at greater length later on, Michael? I mean, the contemporary vernacular really bugs me, but I still was able to get into half the shows, which is a huge gain from the other programming.
Sure, I’ll double-back when I’m not on the clock. I agree about the annoying vernacular, though TOS was plenty guilty of that itself on occasion and BABYLON 5 and THE ORVILLE aren’t immune to it either. Fans tend to assume that these things just happen because the producers and writers aren’t paying attention or don’t care, but I think that’s pretty naive. I’ll bet there was a fair amount of discussion in the writer’s room over Pike’s warning not to make him turn the station wagon around (would even many millennials know what a station wagon is at this point?), but the producers have decided to go with it, one of a number of creative choices that drag the show down for me even though I still do kinda like it.
Did anyone ask why we’ve seen so little of Rebecca Romjin’s Number One? Does she have another job, is she ill, does she need to be extra-cautious about Covid … what’s the story on her?
I am wondering that myself in regards to season 2. There has been a lot of speculation she works less hours but nothing has been confirmed. Hopefully Trek movie or even some other Trek sites can get the news on that one because it was one of the biggest issues of season 1.
Yes, I was hoping Anthony Pascale might have heard something, but I guess if he had, he would have told us.
Lets speculate, lets make some stuff up, lets throw in the room what just comes to Our minds and what feels Like it needs to be said…
For me it feels like the actress has no time because I heard she eats so much that she just doesn’t have time… Thats Just a speculation. I have heard this…. Somewhere…. Therefore this neeeds to be speculated about ;)
Why did you even bother writing that post?
Everything the show has been doing is wonderful but it’s the things they are NOT doing that bother me a bit. The show is called “Strange New Worlds” and I’d like that to be a little more than a reference to the holy monologue. I’d really like to see those strange new worlds at some point, planets of all kinds… with glass deserts, diamond mountain ranges, blue fire lakes, purple forests, artsy megastructures and transparent space dragons… you name it. This is the stuff I’ve been waiting for decades, and Trek still doesn’t really deliver. ,
Yes. I want them to not even know where they are.
Agreed. Eight episodes with but three of them featuring new worlds, only one of which could rightly be called “strange.”
Really strange, as opposed to seeing stuff on TNG that seemed awfully familiar even though Riker would invariably say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before,’ esp in early going.
Yeah that is true it would be nice to see more exploration in general (but definitely had a fair amount) and more ‘strangeness’ as the title suggests. Yeah with the exception of one episode, there was nothing all that strange or unique about most planets they visited.
I just rewatched ‘Blink of an Eye’ a few days ago and it’s such a great concept of a strange new world and actually built around real science, in that case time dilation. Easily one of Voyager’s best episodes. Or what Prodigy did with the episode ‘Terror Firma’ finding a planet that gives you hallucinations so it can consume its victims (or maybe planets are just weirder in the Delta quadrant ;)).
I was kind of hoping to see more stuff like that. But hopefully we will in the future.
That’s one of the few episodes of VGR that I never did get to see, and I have to admit that the concept always sounded pretty cool — it reminds me of an old “Outer Limits” where a scientist creates a microscopic civilization and then, God-like, gets to observe its speeded-up historical advances in real time.
Definitely watch it when you can Michael. Everything about the episode is pure classic Star Trek: science vs myth, debate over the prime directive, philosophical issues over influencing a primitive culture and a very inspiring ending. Just hit all the right marks for me.
These are the type of stories I miss and hope SNW does in future seasons.
Agreed. What I found frustrating, too, is that quite a lot of the familiar things used could’ve easily been made ‘strange’ and therefore made the universe feel larger. The malevolent alien species didn’t need to be the Gorn in order for those stories to work. Likewise with La’an, who didn’t need to be descended from Khan; it could’ve been some other tyrant. And so on. It’s like they get close to something new but retreat to familiar canon for whatever reason.
For what it’s worth, I’m hoping for more episodes like the one with the living comet. More odd space mysteries.
I’ve always wanted to see an obsidian landscape, myself. Supposedly there are stretches someplace in midwest, but it would be new to me and to Trek. Think they can capture a real location for the LED wall, then light and build a small area to match that for actors, and have an effect less ‘treated-looking’ but at least as effective as, say, PITCH BLACK.
The planetoid where Bones and Carol Marcus disarm the torpedo in I to Darkness looked like it might be an obsidian landscape. I would like to see more of that kind of thing on SNW.
I totally forgot about that part of the movie (actually, most of it.) Will have to pop the disk in and take a look.
PITCH BLACK was just great, though we needn’t talk about the sequels.
So much not exciting news at all. The idea of a LDX crossover is… I don’t know how to describe how ridiculous that sounds. Normally I would say let’s wait and see what they do but their track record is not exactly stellar. I think it safe to say that however it happens there is a high chance it will be bad.
And then there is this…
Yeah. Except we rewrite Gorn history and now everyone knows about T’Pring and Chapel is an entirely different Chapel that doesn’t fit at all into the person she is a decade layer. But apart from that… Yeah, they aren’t rewriting canon.
So in your view characters can never mature and develop? They are basically the exact same people from when they are born until they die? With T’Pring I trust that as the show progresses we will get an explanation as to why Spock doesn’t talk about her.
Did it need explanation? Amok Time made it pretty clear he didn’t talk about her because he was a very private person. Also, she was an awful person. Not worth talking about, really.
Why did he gaze at her photo when she was a kid?
Beats me. Spock’s a weirdo, I guess.
That is fair of Chapel. It’s just that her change most I think would consider a regress. From aggressive bad-ass to demure afraid-to-speak-up-too-much nurse. I didn’t say anything about T’Pring’s character. Only that everyone knows about Spock’s relationship with T’Pring when in Amok Time literally no one did. Including Uhura and Chapel.
No, he’s right on this one. No way the character Jess Bush plays is the same person as the Nurse Chapel portrayed by Majel Barrett in TOS. (As opposed to, say, Celia Gooding, who is totally credible as a young Uhura.) And you know what? I’m totally down with it. Chapel was acutely underdeveloped (and, by today’s standards, sexist) as a character, as Barrett herself would be the first to tell you.
Honestly I only added it to pile on. My main gripe is the use of the Gorn. If Chapel was their worst offense I could live with it. And yes, stunningly Uhura is presented quite well.
I chalk up Chapel to the fact that in 99% of TOS Roddenberry just didn’t have much screen time at all.
I thought maybe they’d do it by having LDS characters visit the NCC-1701 on the holodeck, but that’s not how this sounds.
It sounds like some proper time travel shenanigans.
I honestly for me it doesn’t matter how they are doing it. It’s that they are doing it to begin with. If they were going to do it, I’d really rather they do with Star Trek Discovery. SNW is not all that good but it’s still the best live action show Secret Hideout has done. So I’d rather they not bring it down more by mixing it with LDX.
The problem is Discovery is 800 years in the future and everyone think they died in the 24th century. That’s kind of what that show harder to cross over. It’s too far out of the realm of the rest of the shows.
I don’t see how that’s a problem. SNW takes place over a century earlier. The only real difference is the direction of the time travel.
Most of the time (no pun intended ;)) they travel backwards, not forwards. The few times they do travel forward it’s usually under really really crazy circumstances like Daniels bringing Archer to the 31st century or it’s something like the Nexus like what happened with Kirk. For the Cerritos to make an 800 year forward jump in time would have to be for a crazy reason. Of course it’s been done at least once lol.
They’ve done time travel quite a bit. Don’t see how how-far they go really makes any difference.
Traveling to the past is pretty common. The future and so far, not so much.
But hey… maybe season 4! 😀
I really REALLY hope if this is time travel, LD travels back rather than 1701 going forward. I know I keep saying this but the Federation isn’t supposed to know how to time travel till Kirk does it in TOS with the slingshot maneuver.
It’s no way they would do another version of TATV. I think EVERYONE has learned that lesson lol. Or if they did do it, they would do on LDS, not SNW because like Enterprise they would just be holodeck characters on their own show.
Yikes, I hope it’s not the holodeck. That sounds like The are the Voyages all over again.
Honestly, I’m kinda hoping that is how it will be done.
And heeeeeeere comes the outrage.
wow this is sooo clever 🥱
It’s funny, cuz it’s true.
J.S. was being sarcastic about your first comment being clever.(or funny).
If this hurts Phil’s feelings at least a little, I would say GOOD!!!!!!!!!!
“Kurtzman: Early on when Akiva and I were breaking the story for the pilot, we wanted the Gorn to be the big bad for of the season.”
I’m pro-SNW and I’m pro-Kurtzman, but that quote frustrates me because SNW botched up the Gorn badly,
I was also disappointed with the direction they took the Gorn.
You are not alone. No one knew of the Gorn yet in Trek lore. That was a huge blunder. Make up something else. It would not affect your episodes one teeny tiny bit.
At some point we have to get past the changes that are made. They are almost too numerous to dwell on now. Whether you like it or not, “canon” is very flexible, and they aren’t calling us to get our opinion. Besides, if they did, they would be inundated with conflicting views. Others are calling the shots, not me. That’s just the way it is. We either accept it or we don’t. I’m going to accept it and try to enjoy it for what it is.
Have to agree. No one should’ve been shocked they were going to change canon as they did and they will obviously get bigger next season. But now that they have, either ride with it, tell yourself it just exist in an alternate universe or ignore the show completely. Those are the only options.
I’m not shocked they changed some things in canon. I am shocked they had the balls to change something so huge. I guess I underestimated Secret Hideout’s hubris.
For others though it’s not huge though. They were literally in one episode and you never heard from them again. Dude you’re getting waaaay too hung up on this lol. It happened, it’s time to move on. It sucks but it’s also fiction. And it’s the same people that made Khan white and gave Discovery a spore drive in the 23rd century, so this was always in the cards so to speak.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect them to honor the big things better. If they used the Gorn once and never returned, it could be forgiven as a one time mistake. A little like Enterprise using the Romulans. They kept their look secret but they exposed their cloaking device. That was a mistake but it was one they never returned to. Thus rendering the mistake forgivable and we could move on.
Dude its ALREADY happened man! Yeah, it’s now spilled milk. I get it, you want to rant about it, you definitely come to the right place lol. And you know I love to rant too at times. But yeah they CHANGED CANON! OK? They did it on purpose because they wanted to tell this story. Nothing more can be done and you already know they are coming back next season. But they been doing it since 2017. At some point you have to accept it and move on. Or simply decide not to watch the show. That’s also an option if you’re THIS upset about it. Is that one you are considering? I really really hope not.
It’s not unusual to learn why the milk was spilled and then try not to do it again. And the fact remains that they could have told the EXACT SAME story just with a different alien. One that didn’t have first contact outlined or one they just made up. It shouldn’t be that hard for creative types. I’m a fan so of course I’m still going to watch (God help me). Just like I watch a crappy player my team brings up continue to underperform while the front office keeps telling the fans how great that player is. I’ve seen that sort of thing before.
At this point I am really hoping that the one and only one reason the Gorn are coming back is because they made yet another mistake and shot the 2nd season before getting any feedback from viewers. Crossing my fingers they drop it for their 3rd season.
And about “getting over it… Check out my post below from about 5 1/2 hrs before this one. I doubt anyone would be “getting over it” under those circumstances.
Dude they retconned first contacts many times from the Borg to the Klingons. This is another one.
Anyway it’s done. Hopefully it will be good enough where you will accept it in time.
They did? Pretty sure the first contact with Borg is still the Q thing on TNG. Also that Klingon first contact was never really set. We just know we were aware of them in the first Enterprise episode.
No that changed in Voyager running into seven and her parents 15 years before Q Who in Dark Frontier. In Q Who it was supposed to be then they first ran into humans.
Klingons first contact was supposed to start with a war with Starfleet that lasted for decades according to First Contact the episode but Enterprise changed that in its first episode.
I would have to check out that Voyager episode again. Were her parents specifically studying Borg or were they just grabbed and assimilated? If they were were sent by Federation scientists to study them then yes… Somehow the UFP knew about them before Q. If they were just in deep space and vanished it still works with what TNG presented.
When was that Klingon war mentioned on TNG?
I’ll give you 7 of 9 if the circumstances were right. But to me a one episode mistake is forgivable. If TNG continually referenced said Klingon war I would consider that a little different.
Also in fairness I should also admit my bias towards TOS. I have greater respect for it than for TNG so I tend to treat the two a little differently when it comes to this sort of thing.
The Hansens knew of some race that were invading Federation space but they didn’t specifically know about the Borg. IIRC when the Romulans first encounter the 1701-D in TNG, it was because bases on both sides of the neutral zone were obliterated and I think it was implied it was the Borg that did it. This all happened before Q as well. Q’s true intent was to warn Picard about the Q being a threat that was coming for the Federation.
Let me just say this… If Secret Hideout had decided to make a Picard on the Stargazer show but decided young Picard would be an Australian aborigine woman rather than a French male…. Decided to make the show’s big bad all about whatever Armus was all while insisting what they were doing was perfectly in line with canon… Something tells me precious few would be saying “we all need to get over it.”
You would have preferred a guy in a crappy rubber suit?
LOL
Were there only two options available? Damn budget cuts.
Put a guy in a suit — not a crappy one, makeup and animatronic fx are spectacular, have been since FARSCAPE — use it on set for interaction, then use mocap of actor adjacent to action for the performance, which is how they did HALO.
or be real different, try mocapping a lizard (never understood why they mocapped a guy for the emmerich godzilla when they should have worked with a lizard — they threw out all that stuff in the end anyway.)
The problem wasn’t what the Gorn looked like or how they acted. The problem was they were used to begin with.
Perhaps we’ll find they are the G’Hor-n? Like Kronos and Q’Onos.
That is actually a clever way to get around it. And at this point, my reaction would essentially be… “(pregnant pause)….. Okay.”
Yes, they might be g’horny. 😉
Compared to the low rent Alien 3 xenomorph knockoff that we got, yes.
There are folks pining for a return to the Enterprise of plywood and 2×4’s. So there’s that….
If people are pining for that, they got it. What do you think TV & Movie sets are made of? Concrete?
And… who are these folks? I haven’t seen anyone here say that.
Agree 100%
I really liked what they did with the Gorn and whilst they’re certainly not unique in sci-fi they are quite different from virtually anything we’ve seen in Star Trek before.
But I can see a lot depends on whether you care that much about canon, which (within reason), I don’t and that’s not a criticism of people who do.
I prefer to see Star Trek more as fun allegorical stories with a vague continuity, rather than a literal telling of a fictional chronology. I find that when the franchise fundamentally so nonsensical and unbelievable anyway (in an entertaining, ‘suspend disbelief’ way) that changing things from time to time to tell a particular story is a small issue.
I’m not a HUGE stickler to canon. I can even accept the unreasonable regression Chapel takes from this version to the one we saw on TOS. But some things should be set in stone. Picard is French. There is a United Federation of Planets. Kirk & Co should not know about the crystalline entity. And for sure Pike & Co should never have heard the word Gorn because even Kirk hadn’t in Arena. The only “wiggle room” there might be for using the Gorn is by keeping the name of their species unknown and have no one ever see them. And then, they absolutely positively should NOT be a recurring alien race.
I didn’t so much have an issue with them using the Gorn at first. It was the second to last episode, the Alien one, that rubbed me the wrong way. Because it’s pretty much the opposite message of “Arena.” It begins with La’an scoffing at legitimate therapy and ends with her taking no mercy and knocking off the head of a helpless frozen Gorn. And then she’s okay. She seems better when she says goodbye to Pike.
So what’s the message? Catharsis through killing? I mean, that is the message of Aliens in the end, but Star Trek doesn’t have the same ethos of Aliens, and it doesn’t have the same dark and corrupt elements to play around with. Starfleet isn’t Weyland-Yutani and the Gorn aren’t xenomorphs. For those reasons — thematically, morally and all that jazz — it was a poor fit.
It shows how little they respect their source material. And it also shows how lucky we were to get Manny Coto running a prequel show for even the one season he did. He also spoke of how much he loved the Gorn and really wanted to use them. But, unlike Kurtzman and Akiva, Manny knew he knew he couldn’t because no one knew about the Gorn until Kirk fought one in Arena. His work around was to use one in his MU episode. Kurtzman & Akiva just thought, screw it. We don’t care about Arena or TOS so we’ll do it anyway. It just shows a HUGE lack of respect towards the franchise they are supposed to be guiding.
Why? Why do you need a “big bad” anyway?
I’m OK with it so far, but JUST OK. Just not thrilled. Technically other than La’an, no one has seen the Gorn and lived to tell about it.
Season 2 should amp things up from the 1st season.
been a while since a ST series has debuted to mostly positive acclaim from fans and critics
As a Trek series (live action) ever debuted to mostly acclaim from fans and critics besides SNW? Other than maybe just the pilots themselves I honestly can’t think of one.
Has anyone confirmed the number of episodes for season two? Unlike some of the other nu Trek shows, ten episodes felt way too short for SNW.
It’s ten episodes next season. They all have ten now except Prodigy which has 20 per season. And that’s for being on Nickelodeon.
That’s a weird thing… They say Prodigy has a 20 episode season but there is an abnormally long break between episodes 10 & 11. So long that one could easily mistake episode 1.11 for 2.01.
It sounds like Prodigy just got behind production wise and why we got that weird break after like the fifth episode or something. And I also read because they made a deal to show it on Paramount+ first and then Nickelodean the deal was to show the first ten episodes on the network before they can air the second half on P+, ie not show new episodes on P+ until they finish showing the first ten on Nickelodean. And because everything got pushed back already it landed on Nick later too. This is just second hand information I read on another board but it makes sense if true. But I hope when second season comes, it’s played straight through though. It’s ridiculous to have this long of a wait.
Battlestar Galactica did something similar. Once or twice they divided their “season” into two halves but the 2nd half came some 10-12 months after the end of the 1st half. I often wondered why not just call it the next season?
I don’t know if you’re a Walking Dead fan but its the final season right now and has been going on nearly a year lol. It’s 24 episodes but for some bizarre reason they purposely been running them at 8 episodes a piece and then give like 4-5 month breaks.The final 8 of the season is coming up but not until freaking October! The ‘season’ started in August of last year. Unlike Prodigy there is no production delays or contractual issues I know of, they are just prolonging the end as long as possible. Talk about milking it.
I mean, The Walking Dead has always done mid-season breaks after 8 episodes, haven’t they? It’s just that this time they’re having an additional 8 episodes after another break. But sure, this is to prolong the end.
It’s still pretty ridiculous and the second break is much longer than the first one. Usually it’s four months. This one is six months.
I’m only catching up with season 11 now so the break is much shorter for me.
Never seen TWD. But I know such things have been done on some of those cable shows.
I think this might show which two shows are most popular, right now.
LDS fans will be exposed to SNW and vice versa. It’s also an attempt to keep subs to Par + active, or what they call in the streaming biz as: sticky.
As id LDS Fans are Not already Exposee to snw….
Oh dear. Elysian Kingdom was by far the worst, most twee episode. I hope it’s not any benchmark at all. I’d also like to see more strange, new worlds…
My thoughts EXACTLY!! When I read that quote, I just shook my head. For the actors, I’m sure it was “fun” to break character, but it was honestly pointless on so many levels. If that’s what we have to expect for the 2nd season, I’m really not sure SNW will be as highly regarded as it is right now a year from now (or so). Not to mention the Lower Decks crossover. Sometimes I just feel like the producers and show runners live in a bubble where they applaud each others ideas but never bounce it off of anyone who has actually watched Star Trek….
I hope the animated Pike gets Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius hair.
So this is a time travel episode obviously; since LD is a 100 years after the SNW timeline?