Hegemony, Part II

I review from a unique position of having been introduced to Star Trek with Strange New Worlds season 1 and season 2. Following this I watched The Original Series and I am halfway through Next Generation, before coming back for Season 3 here. Only after watching it side by side with the originals do I realise that this franchise isn't what it was once.

The biggest difference is that back then it was low budget, big imagination. It was incredibly realistic, the characters, the interactions, the political situations, the conflicts and even the science to explain them was more believable.

Here, I don't see that. It's a visual effect spam to create a popcorn grabber. A lot of very marvel level dialogue, humour, and meme potential reaction faces / shots. I don't doubt it looks amazing, as does the hair, makeup, sets, costumes, but it just lacks the underlying substance. I am not fascinated with the world of the federation when I watch. The flashbacks and the whole La'an sequence really did not feel in place to what a Star Trek episode is, very much simplistic action with nice visuals.

It also reflects how our world has changed from the 60s. There isn't a chain of command in the same fashion, including a lack of authority from the captain. It's much more 'we did this as a team :)'. I don't see nearly the respect, the ability, the leadership and intelligence from Pike as I do the original captains. The enterprise doesn't function similarly to how it has in other editions, or similar to how a real world military or space organisation would function. Uhura and Scotty are examples in this episode. New ensigns or newly joining the ship yet they're running the show. The amount of times the captain is overruled by an ensign IE Rachael 'all respect sir but I am staying'.

I can also say I agree with past reviewers on how, by nature of expanding from the originals, it often overwrites what has come before. This makes the original meeting with the Gorn that Kirk had less valuable to me.

Aside from the nearly two years between the cliff hanger and this episode, I think the producers did a great job of wrapping up story to a point that the could move the plot arcs forward. The writing was tight, the humor subtle and very much on point. It felt... organic. Where "Discovery" relied heavily on McGuffin's (invented objects strictly for the sake of pushing the plot along), this we true. Everything has a purpose; a necessity

I watched the episode twice (so far) in case in missed anything. It was just superb Science Fiction and certainly everything that has made Star Trek, Star Trek for the past 60+ years.

I've decided to give Strange New Worlds another honest try. I'm not a huge fan of the show so far, but I love Star Trek, and I feel I owe it to myself to approach new episodes with a fair perspective rather than just dismissing them outright.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed this first episode of the third season. I've often been critical of modern Star Trek for leaning too heavily into war and conflict at the expense of exploration. While this story certainly had its share of high-stakes tension, the solutions were clever, character-driven, and rooted in ingenuity rather than brute force. That felt much closer to the spirit of classic Trek. The resolution did come together a little too quickly at the end, but honestly, that's a critique you could level at many Star Trek episodes across eras.

This chapter wrapped up the ongoing conflict with the Gorn, while weaving together multiple parallel storylines that kept the tension high. The dangers faced by the crew were genuinely harrowing, and a few of the more shocking moments reminded me of Star Trek's long tradition of slipping in unsettling, unexpected beats that make you sit up and take notice.

What I appreciated most, though, was the focus on problem-solving through medical ingenuity and engineering creativity rather than just building a bigger weapon. It suggests that the writers are paying attention to long-time fans and trying to honor Star Trek's legacy. To me, that's a very good sign. When you're working within such an iconic franchise, respecting its core identity should always come first - innovation and new ideas can follow.

Good episode, but 0/1 on the discovery and exploration of a strange new world in season 3.

After all the tension buildup in the last episode, unfortunately this has been slightly on the disappointing end.

As someone else posted here, there were too many parallel problems cramped into a single episode, leading to a rushed resolution that sounded like lazy pretense even for a Sci-Fi world like Star Trek.

And just as an example: beaming people from an alien ship using alien transporter codes? What was that? And just using transporter codes, how did they avoid beaming the already digested folk?

Of course there were some references to other Star Trek tropes, like shield modulation frequency etc., but not executed elegantly.

It's a weak start for the season, but let's see what comes next.

Star Trek Strange New Words had plenty of other popular culture enemies. All started with "The Thing" and fall apart with this conclusion.

The enemies lack complexity while they are showed as the ultimate enemy. Sort of like the hive of Borgs that have very obvious flaw, that by logic you can defeat. The episode had a lot of nonsense wording and "make it work" moments that even La Forge would start having a PTSD.