I was going to suggest to my wife we watched something else once we’d finished Season 1 of Strange New Worlds, but I’m enjoying it so much that we’re going to carry on with Season 2. Do we know when Season 3 is due (Paramount + has a ‘new season announced’ tag on the programme page)? Want to know if it’s before our subscription is due to finish!
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I think “2025” is all we know as far as when Season 3 comes out.
Season 2’s got both the musical episode, and the Lower Decks crossover in it to look forward to…
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You can do that as well. First Contact is great, but the other ones are mediocre at best, I think. I suppose it depends on what format you want now.
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And if you like Boimler and Mariner in the crossover episode, I know exactly what to suggest next.
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I think I’m going to start watching Star Trek soon…
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First time? (Star Trek has at least 12 characters in it)
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I’ve seen bits and pieces, but I’m going to try and get into it properly.
I’ll probably be starting with TNG, and maybe watching some TOS episodes when I feel like it.
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I was going to recommend TNG as an entry point. I wouldn’t say it’s the best Star Trek, but it’s a good baseline. Probably the best one to start with to just get a general feel for what Trek is like. I think TOS is the better series, but it sometimes holds up less well than 60s Who, both in production value and the way it’s often not as progressive now as it was during its time (though I’d argue it did more for the 1960s than TNG did for the 80s/90s in that second regard).
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So we watched Balance of Terror tonight.
Absolutely fascinating to see the ‘original’ version of the story and all the little parallels.
A few observations:
- Loved how the ship design/Romulan uniforms were mirrored in the SNW version (but with a dash of their 90s style too). I hadn’t realised how based around Roman culture the Romulans were either.
- Really interesting to see how SNW matched the main plot but every now and again took it in a different direction due to Pike being Captain rather than Kirk.
- I don’t think I’ll ever get on board with TOS simply because its just way too earnest. Way too many scenes of people looking serious at each other or at the screen.
- I noticed this when trying to watch TOS before but why is there so much a) soft focus on Kirk and b) those weird lighting shots where only their eyes are lit and the rest of their face is in shadow?
- The ‘secondary’ role of women is really glaring even in a show as progressive as Star Trek - Yeoman whassername appears on the bridge, stands really, really close to Kirk and then gets a clinch just before they get hit and then later she comes to get Kirk a coffee. The bereaved bride hugs Kirk in a hugely unprofessional way for no real apparent reason (she doesn’t even look that sad that some pink gas killed her fiancee on her wedding day). Uhura does obviously fair better but its hard to avoid the fact that she’s little more than a receptionist… (I’m sure I’m not pointing out something that hasn’t already been discussed ad infinitum and probably debunked/defended etc). Good to see her get to take the helm though.
- Nimoy was excellent.
So, I may go back to TOS at some point but I’m in no rush. I really don’t think it’s for me even though comparing this to SNW was fascinating.
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I do know what you mean about the role of women and how it’s a show that was progressive at the time it aired, but is pretty behind the times by today’s standards. There was even an episode of TOS that claimed there were no female captains!
(And yes, SNW is very much reconning this to have not been a thing. I appreciate the way things are being modernized. T’Pring is much better in SNW, too. )
One thing that might be helpful to bear in mind is that the first episode of “The Highlanders” aired two days after this episode, just to give an idea of where it falls comparatively to Doctor Who.
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You pretty much have to watch TOS in the mindset of a 1960s viewer and the standards of the time. If you watch with today’s mindset, it’s going to be much more of a struggle. Back then the simple fact that women were even allowed on the bridge was a big deal, not to mention one of color. Today, the roles they have on the bridge would be seen as too basic, not enough for them to do. Back then, the uniforms with the miniskirts and the idea that they could be worn in a professional setting was seen as empowering, including by the cast. Today they’re seen as revealing and male-gazey. The list goes on of course.
As for the lighting, that was just a stylistic choice, the lighting the eyes was to be more dramatic or something. They don’t do the soft focus nearly as much after the first season. I actually never noticed much soft focus with Kirk actually, but most of the time there’s a close-up of a woman, soft focus. As I said, they don’t do that nearly as much in S2-3.
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Enterprise (as well as Discovery) retconned the women can’t be captains in Starfleet thing before SNW did.
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Makes sense. I don’t really remember a lot of Enterprise well.
I also haven’t watched any of it past near the end of season 2, though they could easily have retconned it before then. Enterprise has been on my rewatch list for a while… (Though I’ve got better access to copies of other Star Trek shows, so I’d probably stall out when I got to season 2 if I tried right now.)
Though, yeah, should have remembered Discovery, since even though I’ve only watched season 1 and a few episodes of season 2, season 1 started out with a female captain.
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Yeah, but you’re saying this to someone who is steeped in 60s Who. I don’t have an issue with adapting my mindset for any of these ‘archive’ programmes but there’s a lot about TOS which just doesn’t quite work for me and it’s not just the role of women.
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Fair enough. You had other points there, such as how it’s shot, how it’s performed, I just didn’t have much of a response for that, since it’s a matter of taste.
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I think TOS looks great.
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I don’t think it looks bad by any stretch but there are a lot of shots of people looking serious and then looking at the screen. On more than one occasion in Balance of Terror they look at the screen in surprise/horror/shock and yet there’s nothing on it for at least 5 seconds.
Thanks film. Shooting on it was a good decision.
Enterprise is worth a rewatch. I think it’s significantly better than it gets credit for.
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IMHO only good thing about Enterprise is T’Pol 