Voyages Old and New: Warping Through Over Half a Century of Star Trek

[Trollheart]

Right then, for now, we have come to our last stop along this fifty-year-plus voyage, and it ends, kind of, back where it began, rather ironically.



Series: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Total seasons (to date if current): 3
Episode: 1
Episode title: "Strange New Worlds"
Original transmission date: May 5 2022
Span: 2021 -
Writer(s): Various
Director: Various
Basic premise: The adventures of Captain Pike on the Enterprise before Kirk gets to be in the chair
Mood: Can only be described as TOS, which I consider a great compliment
Writer(s): Various
Director: Various
Things I liked: Almost everything
Things I didn't like: Not much really, though I could do without Jeff Russo's music
Timeline: TOS
Stardate: 1739.12
Vessel: USS Enterprise
Registry: NCC-1701
Class:  Constitution
Location:  Alpha Quadrant

Dramatis Personae Captain Christopher Pike; Mister Spock; Number One; Christine Chapel; La'an Noonien-Singh, head of security and descendant of Khan; Uhura; Erica Ortegas, helmsman; Joseph M'Benga, ship's doctor; Hemmer, Andorian and chief engineer

Starring: (Main cast) Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, Jess Bush, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, Bruce Horak, Rebecca Romijn

And now it becomes clear (not that we didn't expect this) why CBS were so dead-set against all those fan films and series, especially those based in the TOS universe (though they were equally incensed about any other timeline too of course): they were making their own. Fucking took them long enough! Set before the events of TOS, and therefore the earliest in the official franchise, it looks into the adventures of Captain Pike when he was in command of the Enterprise, and before, presumably, he ended up as a bargain basement Dalek without a cover after his relaxing trip to Talos IV. The new series has already equalled its forebear, with a third season due to run this year (2024) and possibly more to follow.

Good to see some characters we know and love, even if they (obviously) are played by different people now, but Spock, Uhura, Christine Chapel and, um, Number One - who was originally played by Majel Barrett and therefore is in the odd position of, characterwise, playing alongside herself. Though as I say, of course, not the same actor. Let's hope Hell on Wheels's Anson Mount makes a better Pike than Jeffrey Hunter did! Interesting aside: Mount played, as I say above, in the western drama, in which also Colm Meaney featured. Anyway, after all this time and all these spinoffs and copies and re-imaginings, almost sixty years later we've come full circle as the last (to date) official series features the iconic original USS Enterprise, NCC-1701. Plus ca change, non?

Captain Pike is chilling at home (literally: it's cold in Montana!) while the Enterprise is in space dock. In what must be a tribute to both Kirk and Picard, (and possibly a nod back to his role in Hell on Wheels),  he rides a horse through the snow as he waits, the whole scene looking like something out of Game of Thrones until a shuttle lands near him, carrying an admiral who has a mission for him. He's reluctant for some reason to go back (Talos IV maybe?) but there's a First Contact situation, he's told, that has gone bad, and it involves his Number One. So he has no real choice. Once again, as in the movies, the Enterprise leaves spacedock early, not quite ready for her voyage, but it's good to hear those famous words again. Unfortunately they've let Russo loose on the theme again, though at least this time he does make some effort to retain the original theme. Man, I just don't like what that guy does with Trek themes at all. Hah! Sounds like Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons got in on the action there, right at the end!

On Vulcan, Spock has received an offer of marriage from T'Pring, and they're just about to, um, consummate the agreement when Pike sticks his nose in, and Spock has to leave her behind to rendezvous with the ship. She does not look happy. I am, though, happy to see that they've kept the basic look of the original ship without trying to upgrade it, and that they've also stuck to the TOS uniforms. Great to hear Spock talk about "Lieutenant Kirk", though whether or not we'll be seeing him is something I don't know. Odd how, instead of docking, Pike beams from the shuttlecraft onto the Enterprise. Hmm. Did he not trust the pilot? Women drivers, huh? Sorry, sorry: we all remember Deanna in Generations, and we shall speak no more of it.

I must say, the gender balance has shifted. So many female officers! In fact, it looks like Pike and Spock are the only two males on the bridge. How times have changed. The security chief is related to that villain of villains, KHAAAAANNNNNNN! (as Kirk would say) so this may be interesting. Of course Uhura is there too, at her usual communications console. Mount sounds very like Shatner to me; whether or not that's intended I don't know. It's also strange to hear him address the female crewmembers as "Miss", when in TOS - reflecting the well-loved male-dominated Navy - everyone was "Mister", even if they were female. Suppose it would sound silly and outdated. In his quarters. Pike tells Spock he has seen his own death, knows when and how he will die, and he is haunted by that knowledge. He worries what this will do to him as a captain, will it impair his judgement, make him more hesitant, less likely to take risks, or indeed more? This kind of links back to part of the original Pike's mindset in the pilot, and is a clever connection made.

As they arrive at the planet Kiley 279 (don't say it, don't say it, don't say it - oh all right: it's spinning around...) they see the USS Archer, dead in space. No life signs, no activity, just floating there. Spock confirms there were only three people aboard (surely it takes more than that to run a starship of any size?) and speculates they may have gone down to the planet. Good to see him use his favourite word: fascinating. As they put up the shields, on Noonien-Singh's recommendation, and over the protests of Spock, as this violates the protocols for First Contact, they are attacked from the surface by plasma torpedoes. Spock works out that though there was a warp signature detected, which would have despatched a ship to initiate First Contact, this civilisation is incapable of warp travel, and they have, instead, created a warp bomb.

Wait, what? A warp bomb? What the hell is that? Well I will say that their doctor is the happiest and friendliest of all I've seen in Trek, and that includes Bev. He's positively beaming! And there's Christine Chapel, looking well. The idea now seems to be to use plastic surgery to alter Noonien-Singh's (look, I'll just call her La'an, ok? It's easier) physiognomy so that she can pass for a native, find their people and get the Gene Roddenberry out of there before she's discovered. They arrive in the middle of protests and civil unrest, as rumours of a WMD circulate. I like Spock's reference to the USA and "both their civil wars" - very topical and scary.

In classic Trek style, Spock nerve pinches two guys and they take their clothes, transporting the two up to the ship, where - of course - one wakes up and goes running around the Enterprise: shades of "Return to Tomorrow" eh? Also kind of, in a way, reminds me of that Voyager episode where they had to stop the race becoming extinct and then failed when they realised the explosion that wiped the race out was caused by them. The landing party (are they calling it that, or an away team now, or something else?) find Number One and her crew, but unfortunately just as they're almost home free the drug used to change their appearance wears off on Spock, for whom it was not calibrated, and he changes back. Only one thing to do: fight, in the great Star Trek tradition.

It seems Number One and La'an have history, but more importantly, the warp bomb these people have made seems to be due to an accidental sighting of the USS Discovery? Right, let's see. Apparently when the Discovery went through a wormhole in space which allowed it to go forward in time, it was being pursued by enemy ships and the spot where that wormhole was is only a light year away - she calls the area Zero Point - and she says that there was no way the warp signatures could be missed. Good to see - great to see, in fact that Pike follows the tradition of Kirk and not Picard when he growls "Screw General Order One!" Oh yeah: first episode and he is going to kick that Prime Directive right where it hurts. See this airlock? Got that rule book?

In fairness, it's a very Kirkesque thing to do, and I have to wonder if old baldy would not have done the same? After all, they've given - if inadvertently - these people technology they should by all rights not have. They've created the problem, so in effect the Prime Directive has already been breached, if accidentally, and now it's up to them to fix it. What Starfleet captain worth his salt would do otherwise? Anyway, we're not just talking "A Piece of the Action", "Bread and Circuses" or even "Patterns of Force" here: these people will wipe each other out, and as Pike says, all those deaths will be on his conscience. Like any good captain though, he takes sole responsibility, and sends everyone else back to the ship. Except for Spock, of course. Gotta have a wingman.

So they allow themselves to be captured, and Pike gets to say those words: "Take me to your leader." Lovely. Then they try to explain to the planet's head honcho the mistake they've made, which really doesn't go down too well, when these Kileyans (?) think they're so clever to have been able to have created such a weapon. Kind of takes the fun out of it, you know? So Pike tries the softly-softly, we're so sorry, our bad approach, but it doesn't wash. Having shown them the carrot (ooer!) he decides it might help if he instead used the stick, or at least threatened them with it, and at a signal from him the Enterprise enters orbit, showing these backwards yokels who happened to stumble onto the secret of mass destruction the kind of people they are trying to fuck with. Having no choice now, the two factions meet to discuss terms, and to also discuss their new visitors.

But age-old enemies don't become buddy-buddies just because aliens have arrived, and the talks are not going well, so Pike beams down (in itself an attention-grabber) to show the people of Kiley 29 Earth's fate, when World War III broke out, and warn them that they are headed on the very same course if they don't take this opportunity to turn away from their own planetary destruction. In the end, of course, they choose not to go to war and accept Pike's offer to join the Federation. Later, La'an tells Pike she was part of a group captured by the Gorn (remember them?) and the only one to survive, and it turns out that Lt. Kirk they were talking about isn't our Kirk, but his brother, Sam. Makes sense really: Kirk didn't serve with Pike, Spock did.

Even more so than Discovery, this has been worth waiting for. They got it exactly right, where so many others have failed (but some succeeded): the correct tone, the bit of comic relief, the easy, family atmosphere, the somewhat high-handed moral lessons, the over-rosy future envisioned by Gene Roddenberry tempered with a healthy dose of hard reality. It's interesting that their first mission is in fact a repair one, a race to undo the damage they have done, if inadvertently - and that that screw-up actually ties this series back to Discovery, very clever. So in effect it's almost a bridge between the old and the new, a link both looking back and forward to the future, showing how the series began and how far it's come. I think I found Spock a little more emotional than I would prefer, but then, who could ever compare to the late, missed Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of the original and best? Pike's very  much a Kirk for the twenty-first century, almost his brother from another millennium, as it were, and I can see this going from strength to strength.

This episode perhaps leans a little heavily, as I mentioned, on tropes from the previous series, but it is finding its feet so we'll allow it that support. The ship looks great; not over-pimped for 2020 but still looking every inch the Enterprise we know and love, and the little bit at the end of the opening credits, where it goes into warp, like its bigger, Galaxy-class sister, is a fine homage both to TNG and VOY, as it should be. The mission statement at the end by Pike ties it all together nicely, and overall, despite a slight imbalance, to say the least, in gender, I'd say they got just about everything right here. Long may she warp!



And that, my friends, is it, for now at least. After fifty-eight years and countless series both fan-made and official, the franchise is back in what some of you would consider the right hands, and they seem to have learned a lot of important lessons. Overall, you'd have to say the official series have been generally good - my own dislike of Enterprise aside - and while I personally frown on a kids-oriented comedy version of Trek, it would now be fair to say that there is something in it for everyone. The original series was quite groundbreaking in terms of ethnic diversity, and this has only increased and improved as the franchise has powered on through now nearly six decades. There have been missteps along the way, sure, but nobody's perfect, and while some of the fan-made series might have been better had they not been made, many of them can all but stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with the official ones.

No doubt the series will continue to grow and evolve, and by the time I'm sitting in a nursing home dribbling into my soup and trying to figure out the remote for the TV, while everyone else laughs because they know you control the vision-box with your mind, grandad!, who knows what new strides the franchise will have made? As long as I'm competent and able, I'll keep adding to this as new series arrive, but for now this is where it ends for me. We've followed this phenomenon right through from its inception in the 1960s, when a young writer of westerns and cop shows had to convince a sceptical network to give his new series a chance, to its triumphant return, bringing everything full circle. It's certainly fitting that it ends as it began, with a ship called Enterprise boldly going where, well, everyone has gone before, but continuing the mission it originally set out upon, all that time ago.  Though many of the faces we grew up with have now passed on - may they rest in peace - their spirit lives on, and the behemoth they helped to create is now a billion-dollar industry, rivalled really by only one other franchise.

Whatever else happens, one thing is clear: the human adventure continues.

Live long, and prosper!