The Broken Circle

After watching Picard season 3 and getting to this, uh, yah nah. The fighting scenes were somehow more cheesy than tos and 90s trek. This episode was pretty half-baked. I really enjoyed season 1 for the most part, but good lord why are the writers and producers allergic to making a consistently good trek show in this day and age? Starfleet personnel once again acting like unprofessional bozos. If this is how the rest of the season is going to be I'm just not going to bother watching any more of this show. A hangover is a punishment for stealing a ship? Yeah that's fair.

I guess you can watch this episode for yourself and make your own call on whether this is what you'd like to see. It's a downshift from the solid start that season 1 brought in, not looking great so far.

Season 1 was for the most part a wholesome, well written and respectful collection of stories.

The writing in this episode however is all over the place. The crew faces no consequences for their actions, two characters who have no business fighting suddenly fight their way through a small army of klingon warriors, and the episode is littered with hateful sexist steriotypes. Hopefully the issues in this episode were due to some kind of internal conflict surrounding the season opening. If the rest of the show becomes like this from now on, SNW might just end up walking in Discovery's shoes, and like its predecessor end up loosing money.

Edit: After watching the rest of the season i can confirm that this was not a one-time thing and the entire season has all the same problems. If you read this to consider if you should watch the rest, i suggest downloading a playback speed extension for your browser and speeding through the episodes for the absolutely FANTASTIC CGI the vfx team produced. The story is garbage and the characters are nothing like themselves. They simply have the same faces and voices but are written as empty stereotypes. One new stereotype for each episode. Do not waste your time on this. Go watch season 3 (skip 1 and 2) og Pickard instead. It is incredible!

So, was this episode written by AI? That was certainly the impression that I got. There were scenes that were stolen from Raiders of the Lost Ark, from Return of the Jedi and even from another Star Trek show - Discovery.

This season has not started off as well as I liked it. Making up a fake weapon/bomb on the spot to deter the Klingons seems silly. The Klingons are warriors and well versed in weaponry. What if. La'an Noonien-Singh's plan didn't work? It wasn't much of a plan to go on. Not something a serious Federation agent would do.

But of course, the characters are all interesting having Carol Kane along for the ride should be a fun time.

Still going to keep watching.

I was a big fan of the first season of Strange New Worlds and was excited for this new one. Perhaps I was overhyped because this opener ended up being my least favorite episode so far. While I liked the basic idea, the execution felt contrived, melodramatic, and rushed overall.

I am also not sure how I feel about the new engineer played by Carol Kane (from Taxi). While I liked her in other shows, she comes off a bit too quirky, comedic, and out of place here. However, her newly introduced race is intriguing and I will give her a chance.

I certainly still like the show and will continue to watch the new season, but hopefully this episode was an anomaly and the subsequent ones are better.

Anson Mount's relaxed style as Captain Pike is, in real life a good trait and his sense of humour is reminiscent of JTK. Big themes and a big budget suggests we're in for a great ride. I hope the episodes can stand alone as the original Star Trek's did and the series does not become an interpersonal soap opera as many other works have done in recent years, This episode is about first contact with a pre-warp warring civilisation who accidentally get hold of Starfleet technology which could mean the end for them. How does Pike stop the new civilisation from destroying itself? Watch and see! Enjoy!