Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x01 "The Broken Circle"
Logline
A distress call from Lt. Noonien-Singh compels Spock to disobey orders and take the USS Enterprise and its crew into disputed space, risking renewed hostilities with the Klingons in a bid to aid their shipmate.
Written by Henry Alonso Myers & Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Chris Fisher
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I really enjoyed this one. It felt fun. Who doesn't love a good "steal the Enterprise" plot?
They're clearly gonna push the Chapel/Spock ship. I'm broadly fine with this but I do wonder how they will reconcile it with canon Spock/Chapel (or if they'll just abandon it - which I'm also fine with).
I don't really have an issue with the green super drug. I hope we get to hear more about their time together during the Klingon War. Guessing we will based on this. But it was a cool sequence and I'm good with it.
I'm curious if that fake Federation ship was a variant of the Crossfield or just something cobbled together by those folks. I imagine we'll get some clarification from the design people at some point.
Loving the current Klingon design. I didn't really mind the Disco re-imagining but this feels like a good compromise. And that Spock made peace over bloodwine. And ended up with a hangover.
And, for me, I'm fine with The Joke. I like Ortegas' and the background that some Captain says "Zoom!" Spock's left a bit to be desired, but I laughed.
undefined> I’m broadly fine with this but I do wonder how they will reconcile it with canon Spock/Chapel (or if they’ll just abandon it - which I’m also fine with).
I think they were setting Chapel up to go off for a couple of months, which is probably where she'll meet her future fiance.
I haven't seen the episode in many many, many years now, but my recollection is that her main story episode in TOS she revealed that she joined the Enterprise (probably re-joined in this case now) to find her missing fiance (Roger Korby, wiki tells me)
We provably aren't seeing that, as there are characters (Kor, L'rell) who have appeared in more than one variant of the Klingon makeup. The implication is obviously that these are different interpretations of a single species' appearance.
I certainly would as well. (Actually I'm glad you mention Romulans as they provide another data point regarding this matter. The same individuals-- the Bird of Prey Commander and Sub-Commander-- at the same time-- the shared events of "Balance of Terror" and "A Quality of Mercy"-- show different variations of the Romulan makeup.)