Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Season 2
[4K/UHD]
Star Trek, what am I supposed to do with you? Should I just give up on you altogether? Is there anyone on your production team that knows what they’re doing? Strange New Worlds was supposed to be the saving grace of the show. It’s not their flagship, mind you. That one is unsalvageable, which is going to make it last that much more fun to watch. Strange New Worlds was different than what #nutrek had been doing which is what made it better. Let that sink in.
I could see some more appealing elements in Season 1 of SNW but I didn’t get my hopes up, because for season 2, exactly what I thought would happen did happen. Which is that the production team was unable to hone in on what made this show more appealing and expand on it. Instead, they focused on the worst aspects on Season 1 and really used them to drive Season 2.
Are there any good episodes in Season 2? Kind of. A couple. The episode with the radiation planet was the closest thing to an interesting self-contained story this season had. Also, the Lower Decks crossover episode was remarkably whole and satisfying. But, everything else about SNW has gone downhill. First of all, Captain Pike gets no respect from his team and is constantly spoken down to and ridiculed (and he LOVES it!), Spock has been reduced to comic relief and a punch line, La’an’s personal life is boring no matter how much they try to wedge a romantic relationship with Kirk, Una’s only personality is that she’s had a rough childhood from being genetically modified, Ortegas is arrogant and cocky, nurse Chapel is romantically a 12-year old, Uhura is the purest and most gifted member Starfleet has ever had and will never make a mistake…because just because, and I still can’t make heads or tails of what Dr. M’Benga is saying. Is there anyone interesting in this crew!? Look, anyone who likes the musical episode has no idea what the difference is between good catchy self-aware songs that move the plot forward (like in Buffy) and cringey forgettable filler (everything about Spacetime Rhapsody).
It’s cool that we get big flashy TV shows in 4K now. You can see all those dark corridors and lensflares in hi-def now. So, yay.
Here’s to season 3! Let’s hope that the production team makes the opposite decision on everything they did in season 2. Everything.
