The Broken Circle

Aside from the tiresome cliché of the recalcitrant admiral who doesn't get it, this episode was fantastic especially for the introduction of Carol Kane's Pelia. She was outstanding: mysterious, funny and alluring.

Unlike bureaucratic admirals, the comic relief engineer is a formula that works. Tig Notaro's Jett Reno has up to now been the pinnacle of the form. But James Doohan's Scotty was no slouch in that department; with Simon Pegg's rendition of the character much more overtly comic to good effect.

Kane, who has already given the world at least one absolutely immortal comedic character (Miracle Max's wife Valerie in The Princess Bride), could give Notaro a run for her money. Have fun storming the castle!

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!

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.

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'm a day one Star Trek fan, in that I saw the first episode broadcast in September of 1966 and I've seen virtually all Star Trek since ...

Except I had to give up on Discovery due to stupid writing. I gave a pass on Picard 2 simply from reading the synopsis which sounded nothing but moronic ... and now this in Strange New Worlds, which started out with a decent set of season one shows?

I don't care what kind of boost they get, a doctor and a skinny nurse beating up mercenaries at odds of 6 to 2, with many of them Klingons? That COMPLETELY lost me. Stealing the ship shades of The Search for Spock? Just ... no.

The escape into space ... evidently written by second graders.

Just nothing, nothing, nothing about this episode made any sense at all. It's a great shame.