Strange New Worlds 2x01- 'The Broken Circle' ~~ { ** Spoilers Within ** }

ilovesmybrick

Strange New Worlds 2x01- 'The Broken Circle' ~~ { ** Spoilers Within ** } Warning: This thread will contain spoilers

Spear

Bit of a strange season opener in some ways, only having cameos from the two senior most crew, and with just about all of it following up various season 1 threads. They catch up quite a few of them promptly enough, though apparently not the Number One trial, but do establish in the last few seconds what the season arc is to be.

I do like the concept of M'Benga still being PTSD'd enough to constantly carry combat stims with him. It gives him far more depth and history than the kid in the transport buffer did.

There's a detail that bugs me, Mitchell calls the fake ship a Crossfield class, same as the Discovery and Glenn. And while the saucer is the same, the rest is different. I can't tell if this is a continuity error, or hinting at something more detailed, such as the fake ship being cobbled together, Disco/Glenn being heavily altered, or Mitchell just being wrong.

corkie

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Broken_Circle_%28episode%29

Strange episode indeed, pack with action and slow drawn out bits as well.

Edit:-

https://www.thedigitalfix.com/star-trek/lanthanites-explained

Brave decision to introduce a new species (never heard about again) in a prequel series?

AMKC

So OK am I missing something here. I vaguely remember the Klingons being mentioned in Season 1 at all but a 5 year war left the Enterprise crew stressed out? I know it was partly in Discovery but "Strange New Worlds" never mentioned it at all.

Spoiler Warning

Also Stealing the Enterprise Woo hoo that did not take long lol

I must say Dr M'Benga and Nurse Chapel are some fighter's.

Also nice to finally have a first name for the Doctor. So Joseph M'Benga.

Otherwise do I must say not really gone on this first episode so far

Spoiler Warning

and unfortunately the Klingons do not look great either. More like Discovery Klingons. Actually the Klingobs do look like proper Klingobs after all and act like them too.

Not a bad episode after all and interesting ending. Secobd half of the episode was better than the first.

Spoiler Warning

I take it your one is the new Chief Engineer now. I thought she was wasted in this episode except for her helping them steal the Enterprose

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120717641#Comment_120717641

I think you're conflating two things there. The Enterprise was on it's 5 year mission of exploration, not that the war was 5 years. Hence the Enterprise in general didn't play much if any role in the war, though quite a few of the crew are veterans of it.

ilovesmybrick

Yeah, as with above it feels more like a mid season episode than an opener. I noticed the crossfield thing as well, but I'm chalking that down to the Federation realising the spore drive was a crock of shite and refitting it for warp, or something along those lines.

I'd disagree about the Klingons. I thing they're leaps and bounds ahead of the Discovery ones. Yeah, updated from the TNG/DS9 ones, but far better than we've seen from either the JJ films or in Discovery. Close enough for me tbh.

It looked great, as usual, and was a fun episode. Probably not going to leave a lasting impression, but a solidly fine one for me. The new chief engineer though is going to take some work. I'm not sure if that's the actresses real accent, but christ I found it grating.

Tribute to Nichelle Nichols at the end was quite nice I thought.

ilovesmybrick

Also, tangetially related to the season premiere, isn't it great to have had a full year of pretty solid Trek! While these Klingons may not be to everyones taste they're obviously moving well away from the crap ones in Discovery, and if that is some version of a Crossfield then maybe they've also accepted that Discovery looks awful! Yeah, could merely be a visual distinction for between the shows like they did with variations of Mirandas, Nebulas etc., but still. After slogging through fours seasons of Discovery and the first two of Picard the recent Trek feels like a treat!

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120717843#Comment_120717843

Tribute to Nichelle Nichols at the end was quite nice I thought.

Nice one

I almost missed that.

Very nice of them indeed.

Ye your right about the Klingons.

Spear

I think the Crossfield thing may be a case of poor editing. A second sentence saying something like "that's the saucer of a crossfield, but not the rest" would have helped justify suspicions for the crew and made Spocks conclusion it was a fake seem like less of a leap in logic.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120717653#Comment_120717653

Yes I relooked at the beginning of it again

I took it up wrong the first time.

Makes sense.

eadrom

eh.. not great? Like it was fine I guess. Just very mid-tier.

Was hoping for something more fun to kick off the season.

Very dark too. Some of those scenes were annoying to watch.

fritzelly

Enjoyed that, as above strange opener tho

Carol Kane sounds like that in Hunters so her natural voice, rougher with age then when she was younger - think it will be an interesting character addition like Tig in DISCO

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120717843#Comment_120717843

The Klingon ridges looked very Undiscovered Country. As a look it's way better than Disco but the CGI or makeup or whatever looked terrible.

The Crossfield thing could be that it was a kit bash but far more likely it's that this current team don't have a clue about ship classes and registry as we have seen before.

I enjoyed the episode and happy enough with it as the opener.

DoctorEdgeWild

Really enjoyed that. Great to have some flesh added to M'Benga as a character. Loads there to work with and in one episode, the actor was able to show way more than he could in the first season. Quality.

Character development of Spock feels fresh but without betraying what we already know and love about Star Trek's most enduring character.

Definitely odd to have the two 'main' characters take a back seat but it didn't feel like they were missing. I'm not sold on the Admiral yet, feels a little two dimensional but really enjoyed the episode, excited for this season.

Slydice

Ouch! Right in the feels, right at the end!

Ah, that was a good episode. It was fun. The klingots, the bloodwine! 🙂

Gonna need to know what that green serum stuff was that M'Benga and Chapel injected.

Oh, and the Lanthanites! Sounds like Highlanders living among us!

I liked how, at this point, that feeling against peace is so raw. Really lends to Kirks feeling later.

Big War with the ole Gorn coming up. Speaking of Highlanders.. there can only be one!

Evade

A decent enough opener if a little inconsequential. The crossfield thing could have been on saucer gaps alone, I don't think they ran it through the computer.

The new chief engineer is older than the Federation at this point.

The transparent screens sure are something. The writing reads correctly on both sides.

The kid should have asked her strange dogs to heal her parents.

@AMKC can we not use spoilers for episode events in case spoilers for leaks and behind the scenes spoilers are needed?

TheValeyard

Was an alright episode.

Mix of Klingons was fine heading towards normal Klingons.

The fight scene with the drugs was just a bit awful though.

Think the Crossfield thing can be explained as an error on their part or Starfleet buried the Glenn and Discovery and created a new Crossfield class.

New Chief engineer was interesting.

Special effects for the most part we're great.

CastorTroy

So is the one who faked the warp core breach going to have a bigger role this season or is she still going to just have an occasional speaking part. the fact she was sat in on the plan to steal the Enterprise. Though I guess she was needed to carry out the plan, being a pilot.

Think it's obvious the Klingons changed their look because they were so badly beaten by Micheal and scared of her that they didn't want to upset her by reminding her that she didn't like them on sight. 😀

squonk

Solid opener. Not as big as I was expecting for an opener but it was grand. As said earlier it felt like a very solid ST episode in any version, TNG or TOS. The early Klingons bugged me but they righted it later. Didn’t realise Disco is a cross field class. That was a new class to me but really Disco is the only live action ST show I’ve literally walked away from. Carol Kane’s addition will be interesting. Apart from Princess Bride I’ve always found her annoying KN screen. I’m reserving judgement on this iteration for now.

Hoping for the Number 1 storyline to progress next week.

Anyone else wonder why the Enterprise was let wander off once she was ejected from the inspection facility? I can only assume they ventured out to a safe distance and played dead while actually going to the planet. I was wondering why the admiral wasn’t calling in reinforcements to get her back under control but it became obvious later.

I think my main takeaway is that the remaining crew/cast functioned quite well in the absence of Pike and Una. Plus you didn’t miss them as such because the ensemble was strong enough to pull it off. That episode could never have happened on Discovery. Michael would face single-handedly saved the family while also negotiating for Una’s release over sub space and they’d have let Una off just like that because burnham is just so great and probably apologised for wasting her valuable time. Then the episode would be interspersed with nonsense monologues about how hard it all was for her. So really, welcome back SNW!

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721252#Comment_120721252

You mean Mitchell? They do seem to have upped her role a good bit. She barely had three sentences previously, but now has scenes focussed on her and invites to senior staff meets.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120720502#Comment_120720502

What strange dogs?

@AMKC can we not use spoilers for episode events in case spoilers for leaks and behind the scenes spoilers are needed?

Yes no problem. I am good with that. Was not sure as had been a while and did not want to spoil anything on anyone.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721660#Comment_120721660

The strange dogs are from another series the kid was in.

Johnny Storm

I could nitpick, but frankly, that put a big smile on my face 🖖

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120722591#Comment_120722591

Ya the nitpicks are forgotten quickly in a decent episode.

ilovesmybrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120722598#Comment_120722598

I think that they've also built up quite a bit more goodwill since we now know they can deliver quality episodes.

DoctorEdgeWild

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120722617#Comment_120722617

Good point that. We'll always forgive the bad if the good is good enough. Once the balance is right, there's plenty of room for different tastes.

Drumpot

Iust checking I got the end of it, Was it simply that the Gorn are being tracked and the federation know there’s a war coming?

The first time I heard it, It played out like there was some nefarious plan by federation and Spock inadvertently stopped it. But then when I rewatched it just looked like Spock did good and prevented 2 wars on 2 fronts instead of the impending Gorn war.

Also, would that be why the federation ship was being inspected (for war)?

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120723726#Comment_120723726

Spock prevented them from having two wars on two fronts. Now they have one war on one front.

Some of those trying to start the war were ex-Fed soldiers, not the Federation itself.

breezy1985

Interesting to see how they play out the Gorn thing because they are supposed to be pretty unknown until TOS.

I know it would be nowhere near the first time stuff gets changed but still an odd choice just for an Easter egg species.

Evade

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120723801#Comment_120723801

The same way Earth and Romulus had a war without ever realising Romulans and Vulcans are indistinguishable?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120723982#Comment_120723982

Being compared to the utterly useless Enterprise is not a good place to be.