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4thofelevenIn which Paul Schneider really deserves a writing credit, since they used parts of his script directly.
So, it should come as no shock that Strange New Worlds didn't achieve a miracle and reverse my low opinion of the show. It tried, and there's more than a few things I liked – but at the same time, the things I liked weren't enough to overcome the basic structural flaws, and in the end, the show just hasn't become something I enjoy watching.
The idea of doing a story about Pike avoiding his fate is a good one; showing us Pike still in command of the Enterprise years later is intriguing, and I loved the decision to retell “Balance of Terror”, one of my favourite episodes. Yet, once again, Strange New Worlds has taken a classic story and seemingly missed the point entirely, with a script that is far more interested in nostalgia than telling something new.
And don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like in this episode – the redesigned Romulan uniforms, that still have a hint of the strange asymmetrical colours of the classic designs, the little lighting choices that homage TOS. The actor playing the Romulan commander does an excellent job of capturing Mark Lenard's original performance, and both Mount and Peck put the effort into making their characters seem older and more experienced.
So that's all great, what's the problem?
Well, the fundamental problem with the episode is that it has to convince us that a timeline where Pike avoided the accident is worse than the original. And just alone, that's a weird choice of story to tell, and really a sign that SNW is far more interested in wallowing in the past rather than giving us something strange or new. It's an episode that basically says that anything different, anything changed, is worse. We got the best possible version of Star Trek in 1966, anything else would be and is inferior.
What makes matters worse is the way in which this timeline is presented as worse. In this timeline, Pike hesitates, trying to take the Romulan ship and its crew intact. As a result, the Romulans see the Federation as weak, and launch a full scale invasion. There are two basic problems with this premise, one thematic, and one character based.
Thematically, it undermines the original Balance of Terror. Balance is very much a tragedy; both the Romulan commander and Kirk are men of duty and honor, who history and politics have put on opposing sides. The Romulan's last words are reminding us of the wastefulness of this war – necessary or not. It ends with the sense that there should have been another way, the wish that we lived in that other world where he and Kirk could have been friends.
Well, now we get to see that other world, and learn that things would have been even worse. Violence is the only language the aliens understand; Pike's weakness is that he lacks the killer instinct. We need men of action, hard men who can make the hard calls. There was no world where peace was possible; the noble Romulan commander always needed to die. So too must Pike; there is no place in the universe for men like him. He's just keeping the seat warm for the real captain of the Enterprise, and should know his place.
That's pretty damn appalling as a Star Trek story – and utterly baffling after Discovery spent a whole season emphasizing the value of communication and empathy, and Picard managed to find common ground with the Borg.
What makes it worse is that it doesn't even feel appropriate for the characters. Pike is basically being written out of character here to serve the plot. We need a compassionate, thoughtful character to hesitate, and a more ruthless and reckless captain to call him out, and so Pike and Kirk are forced into those roles, even if it doesn't quite suit them. SNW has already done its spin on “Balance of Terror” in “Momento Mori”, and presented Pike as just as willing to fight to the death, to gamble on long odds to win a fight. We've barely seen this dangerously compassionate captain we're told is Pike here; hell, one of my complaints about the show so far has been that Pike's been far too quick to resort to deadly force.
At the same time, Kirk is mischaracterised as well. For all that this script borrows liberally from Balance of Terror, it misses the subtle details. Kirk is not eagerly charging into battle; he takes advice from his crew, the same as Pike does here, trying to find an alternative. He's reluctant to risk a full-scale war, and rebukes Style's aggressive suggestions. The entire story is built around a false dichotomy around Kirk and Pike that fails to engage with either character as they've actually been written.
And, finally, there is the detail of Maat al-Salah – which is honestly the strangest part of this story. This episode establishes that Maat will die in the accident that cripples Pike, and meeting him is what initially motivates Pike to change his fate. At the end, having seen the price of that decision, he chooses not to send the letter that would have saved Maat's life.
Despite this being the inciting incident of the story, though, it's weirdly underplayed. It doesn't quite logically follow from the story we saw – there doesn't seem to be any reason why he can't warn the cadets who die while still accepting his own fate – and the episode doesn't seem to recognise that it has put Pike back into the Omelas scenario again, only this time he willingly sacrifices an innocent child for the 'greater good'. It's a very strange choice and one that should have been made more of a focus.
(And it's not a great look that once again it's a non-white child who needs to be sacrificed to save the day. That's, what, three in ten episodes?)
One final point to discuss: The cliffhanger with Una. It's nice to see the issue of her Illyrian background finally be raised again after being ignored for most of the season. At the same time, it just highlights how much Una has been wasted this season; there's very little weight in her departure when she's barely been a presence in the series so far, and her imprisonment seems to indicate she may well be absent for part or most of season two as well. And I can't help but feel her lack of appearances is part of the fundamental flaw of Strange New Worlds; it's much more comfortable writing about Pike and his future fate, or setting up Spock and T'Pring's doomed relationship, than it is with writing about a character who doesn't have such direct ties to the original series. When the other new Trek shows are eager to explore new concepts and stories, Strange New Worlds is content to bask in nostalgia and remind its audience of better stories from decades prior.
I suppose, taken in that light, this is the perfect capstone to the season; an episode that seems to exist purely to make Balance of Terror look better.
So, it should come as no shock that Strange New Worlds didn't achieve a miracle and reverse my low opinion of the show. It tried, and there's more than a few things I liked – but at the same time, the things I liked weren't enough to overcome the basic structural flaws, and in the end, the show just hasn't become something I enjoy watching.
The idea of doing a story about Pike avoiding his fate is a good one; showing us Pike still in command of the Enterprise years later is intriguing, and I loved the decision to retell “Balance of Terror”, one of my favourite episodes. Yet, once again, Strange New Worlds has taken a classic story and seemingly missed the point entirely, with a script that is far more interested in nostalgia than telling something new.
And don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like in this episode – the redesigned Romulan uniforms, that still have a hint of the strange asymmetrical colours of the classic designs, the little lighting choices that homage TOS. The actor playing the Romulan commander does an excellent job of capturing Mark Lenard's original performance, and both Mount and Peck put the effort into making their characters seem older and more experienced.
So that's all great, what's the problem?
Well, the fundamental problem with the episode is that it has to convince us that a timeline where Pike avoided the accident is worse than the original. And just alone, that's a weird choice of story to tell, and really a sign that SNW is far more interested in wallowing in the past rather than giving us something strange or new. It's an episode that basically says that anything different, anything changed, is worse. We got the best possible version of Star Trek in 1966, anything else would be and is inferior.
What makes matters worse is the way in which this timeline is presented as worse. In this timeline, Pike hesitates, trying to take the Romulan ship and its crew intact. As a result, the Romulans see the Federation as weak, and launch a full scale invasion. There are two basic problems with this premise, one thematic, and one character based.
Thematically, it undermines the original Balance of Terror. Balance is very much a tragedy; both the Romulan commander and Kirk are men of duty and honor, who history and politics have put on opposing sides. The Romulan's last words are reminding us of the wastefulness of this war – necessary or not. It ends with the sense that there should have been another way, the wish that we lived in that other world where he and Kirk could have been friends.
Well, now we get to see that other world, and learn that things would have been even worse. Violence is the only language the aliens understand; Pike's weakness is that he lacks the killer instinct. We need men of action, hard men who can make the hard calls. There was no world where peace was possible; the noble Romulan commander always needed to die. So too must Pike; there is no place in the universe for men like him. He's just keeping the seat warm for the real captain of the Enterprise, and should know his place.
That's pretty damn appalling as a Star Trek story – and utterly baffling after Discovery spent a whole season emphasizing the value of communication and empathy, and Picard managed to find common ground with the Borg.
What makes it worse is that it doesn't even feel appropriate for the characters. Pike is basically being written out of character here to serve the plot. We need a compassionate, thoughtful character to hesitate, and a more ruthless and reckless captain to call him out, and so Pike and Kirk are forced into those roles, even if it doesn't quite suit them. SNW has already done its spin on “Balance of Terror” in “Momento Mori”, and presented Pike as just as willing to fight to the death, to gamble on long odds to win a fight. We've barely seen this dangerously compassionate captain we're told is Pike here; hell, one of my complaints about the show so far has been that Pike's been far too quick to resort to deadly force.
At the same time, Kirk is mischaracterised as well. For all that this script borrows liberally from Balance of Terror, it misses the subtle details. Kirk is not eagerly charging into battle; he takes advice from his crew, the same as Pike does here, trying to find an alternative. He's reluctant to risk a full-scale war, and rebukes Style's aggressive suggestions. The entire story is built around a false dichotomy around Kirk and Pike that fails to engage with either character as they've actually been written.
And, finally, there is the detail of Maat al-Salah – which is honestly the strangest part of this story. This episode establishes that Maat will die in the accident that cripples Pike, and meeting him is what initially motivates Pike to change his fate. At the end, having seen the price of that decision, he chooses not to send the letter that would have saved Maat's life.
Despite this being the inciting incident of the story, though, it's weirdly underplayed. It doesn't quite logically follow from the story we saw – there doesn't seem to be any reason why he can't warn the cadets who die while still accepting his own fate – and the episode doesn't seem to recognise that it has put Pike back into the Omelas scenario again, only this time he willingly sacrifices an innocent child for the 'greater good'. It's a very strange choice and one that should have been made more of a focus.
(And it's not a great look that once again it's a non-white child who needs to be sacrificed to save the day. That's, what, three in ten episodes?)
One final point to discuss: The cliffhanger with Una. It's nice to see the issue of her Illyrian background finally be raised again after being ignored for most of the season. At the same time, it just highlights how much Una has been wasted this season; there's very little weight in her departure when she's barely been a presence in the series so far, and her imprisonment seems to indicate she may well be absent for part or most of season two as well. And I can't help but feel her lack of appearances is part of the fundamental flaw of Strange New Worlds; it's much more comfortable writing about Pike and his future fate, or setting up Spock and T'Pring's doomed relationship, than it is with writing about a character who doesn't have such direct ties to the original series. When the other new Trek shows are eager to explore new concepts and stories, Strange New Worlds is content to bask in nostalgia and remind its audience of better stories from decades prior.
I suppose, taken in that light, this is the perfect capstone to the season; an episode that seems to exist purely to make Balance of Terror look better.