I can agree with that. Another parallel with Spock's Brain.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x06 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
The timeline was poorly done and pretending Ansom Mount isn't 49.
He wouldn't be a Lieutenant at age 39.
Maybe 20 years ago.
He wouldn't be a Lieutenant at age 39.
Maybe 20 years ago.
In 2249 Pike would have been April's first officer and likely a full Commander.
All right, now they need to do an episode where Pike bangs two alien chicks. Or the same one twice, I guess.
Solid episode with a twist, that while screwed up wasn’t totally a blindside. Just feeling kinda meh in this one.
I like M’Benga, just not the sick daughter storyline.
its weird…to me…that Number One got pushed to some off screen console after having a pretty prominent place on the bridge.
I like M’Benga, just not the sick daughter storyline.
its weird…to me…that Number One got pushed to some off screen console after having a pretty prominent place on the bridge.
One of the best this season.
A few points:
1) I like how much of a dick La'an inherently is and STILL is likable. She comes by it honestly, I guess. Loved her interaction with Uhura.
2) Quick nitpick: When the kid asked Spock about the lightyear numbers, I was fully expecting Spock to come up with an exact numerical figure. It totally took me out of the story when he said "roughly 50K". Say what?
3) I've been FULLY expecting SNW to retcon Pike's fate in The Cage, and this episode did something I'd been expecting. Pike's fate is actually part and parcel of his and Arola's involvement in this episode. At the end of his revelation to her, I had a distinct feeling that they're setting up a future retcon by giving Pike the idea of a possible alternative future -- the ability of this society to cure ANY disease coupled with her not-so-subtle invitation to him to STAY with them (not just then but IN THE FUTURE) made me think that THIS was the alternative arrangement that Pike might just be mulling.... and then ALL of it was ruined (for him) by the end and what she did and how he took it. THAT, in my head, was the actual twist. Not what happened to the child because that wasn't even a twist. We all kind of surmised it was going to go badly.
4) Loved the ending of the two fathers dealing with the fate of their children.
5) Loved the Samuel Kirk bit... "I'm confrontation-averse" -- that's Sam Kirk for ya -- a lovely little easter egg for the ST2009 Jim and Sam Kirk deleted scene where Sam was running away from home.
This one's a solid 9 for me.
A few points:
1) I like how much of a dick La'an inherently is and STILL is likable. She comes by it honestly, I guess. Loved her interaction with Uhura.
2) Quick nitpick: When the kid asked Spock about the lightyear numbers, I was fully expecting Spock to come up with an exact numerical figure. It totally took me out of the story when he said "roughly 50K". Say what?
3) I've been FULLY expecting SNW to retcon Pike's fate in The Cage, and this episode did something I'd been expecting. Pike's fate is actually part and parcel of his and Arola's involvement in this episode. At the end of his revelation to her, I had a distinct feeling that they're setting up a future retcon by giving Pike the idea of a possible alternative future -- the ability of this society to cure ANY disease coupled with her not-so-subtle invitation to him to STAY with them (not just then but IN THE FUTURE) made me think that THIS was the alternative arrangement that Pike might just be mulling.... and then ALL of it was ruined (for him) by the end and what she did and how he took it. THAT, in my head, was the actual twist. Not what happened to the child because that wasn't even a twist. We all kind of surmised it was going to go badly.
4) Loved the ending of the two fathers dealing with the fate of their children.
5) Loved the Samuel Kirk bit... "I'm confrontation-averse" -- that's Sam Kirk for ya -- a lovely little easter egg for the ST2009 Jim and Sam Kirk deleted scene where Sam was running away from home.
This one's a solid 9 for me.
I suppose that the exact speed depends on various factors, so it is impossible to give an exact number. Like asking the speed of sound. One can give the exact answer but only in a very specific frame.
Thank the stars they didn'tWish the ship designers \producers thought that way..
Aw, but he was so cute!
Is it too much to ask for both?
Sure it is. But optimism doesn't mean that the characters can solve every bad situation. And that may serve to highlight how fortunate they are that their society doesn't tolerate this sort of thing.I love how this is being praised as honest storytelling. I thought Trek was about optimism...
Wow, you really are a jaded cynic!
Although officers tend to call Lt.Comms "commander" doesn't mean the aliens understand that convention.
There is definitely space for a sequel to this story. In a post above Yistan posited that she could have gotten impregnated with Pike's child, who could be the next First Servant. I think Pike could have a suitable response to that.
Well, this was certainly the most morally complicated episode of Star Trek that I have seen in a very long time.
This weeks episode opens with a traditional Captains log, dated as stardate 1943.7 - I found this to be a very peculiar star date as random as they can be. So I decided to Google July 1943 to see if anything might have happened in Earth history during that year and month that might give us some clues about the rest of the episode…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_1943
This all might be a total coincidence, and does not seem relevant to tonight’s episode even in retrospect, unless I have missed something. This is why TPTB need to start using *real* star dates so that we do not get confused by minutia such as this when us fans try to make random sense out of newly created and unexplainable canon material such as nonsensical stardates!
I have already explained a good system for star dates which would work; using the center of the galaxy as the axis, we could have three dimensional coordinates and ‘star dating’. We could have the location of a star system using this weeks planet as example the Majalis system. We find out the x, y, -x and -y location of the planet, we then combine these coordinates with ‘local dates and time’ based on the same units of measurements as we use on Earth, just adjusted for the local planets rotation (days) and orbit (years) around it’s sun. On top of this we add the speed that it takes for the light to travel to the said location from two permanent fixed celestial bodies, measure in light years perhaps. These two celestial bodies would be used as a bench mark in all star dates. Therefore a working star dates system would be:
(x, y, -x, -y) (Local Year, Local Month, Local Day) (Light Years from point A, Light Years from point B)
So the visual format would be 0000, 000000. 00 or any combination/order of the above like we have different date layout orders in different countries on Earth. Of course, this would all be standardized against Earth time, or maybe Vulcan?
Anyway, the USS Enterprise receives a distress call from a non Federation shuttle which is under attack. There is nothing more heroic than rescuing an unarmed shuttle from a more powerful foe, even if we do not check the facts before our intervention as to why the shuttle is actually being attacked in the first place. How did Pike know that the shuttle was not harboring a criminal before he decided to intervene against the perceived antagonist? This situation was open to a matter of perspective, Pike did not effectively communicate with either party before his intervention, an intervention which even led to the planetary downing of the attacking ship, which could have been performing a duty on any level of the perceived moral spectrum. Pike might have attacked the local ‘space police’ force for all he knew.
The attacking ship deploys grappling hook like tractor beams, similar as to what the NX-01 Enterprise used to have before the invention of tractor beams in order to secure it’s target. It is quite obvious from this point that we are dealing with a species which are less advanced than the Federation… this observation is proven as we see the as of yet unknown species attack the Enterprise in return. An attack which is as effective as Rodd Hull and Emu chasing people around with a tickling stick.
We are next introduced to a pivotal character, that of Alora. We then have a very typical lead up to the opening credits which seems very reminiscent of old school Star Trek episodes as Alora is revealed to be Pike’s old romance from his lieutenant days… all that we needed was soft focus on Alora and a thin light across Pike’s eyes to complete this old school pre credit cliff hanger to perfection.
As the credits rolled I was reminded of their beauty… yet they still lack the substance of physical Modeling effects’. It would be great if we could have a combination of physical models as well as CGI effects such as during the late Rich Sternbach and Michael Okuda days, but I would imagine that physical modeling is far too expensive and time consuming. Physical models have always seemed more satisfying to me visually.
Pike’s hunch plays off as he discovers that his former lover is transporting the Majalis ‘First Servant’ - a young boy who had been selected in a lottery to take on this ‘leadership’ role, but more on this role later. First of all, it appears that the First Servant does not have an actual name, like he has already been depersonalised to some extent by those around him. Secondly, if he was indeed selected in a lottery then it is a good job that he was super intelligent, imagine if they would have picked someone out of the hat who did not have the same level of intelligence? It also does not seem fair that his whole future has been taken away from him, he has forsaken his right to a family… should they not wait until he is an adult before making this decision for him? He might grow up and fall in love with someone when his hormones kick in and decide that he wants to start a family instead? He has *years* ahead of him and a personality yet to develop through experience and interactions with those around him.
We are next given a lovely scene between my Strange New World’s standout favourite M’Benga, where the story line of his daughter, Rukiya, is expanded on from the episode Ghosts of Illyria. It is bittersweet getting to see these two characters spending time and bonding together as father and daughter. We are quickly reminded though that something not quite right is happening as Chapel, who is familiar with M’Benga’s secret, tells him and his daughter to take cover as injured are on the way from the shuttle craft which had earlier been attacked.
We find out that Majalis is not a Federation member and actually does not want to be. Mahal is also has relations with an ‘alien’ planet nearby, but again, more on that later. Alora then takes Pike up on his next actions; he intends to investigate why the shuttle was attacked in the first place. Aloes is not happy about this and rejects Pike’s help… however, still wanting to act as galactic police he decides to investigate anyway using the excuse that his ship was attacked too and that he has a right to retaliate under Starfleet regulations… regulations however that Majalis probably do not even recognise. We also find out that the First Servant has some form of Quantum bio implants which help to maintain and heal his body - I get the impression that as this device uses ‘quantum’ mechanics in order to heal, that it could be a technological analogy for some sort of spiritual healing, which if really existed here on Earth would more than likely also work on a quantum level, though without the requirement of technological augmentation. Perhaps the scientists of Majalis have discovered a way of harnessing ‘spiritual healing’ using technology to make it more focused and efficient?
Regardless, making up for their lack in weapons technology, Majalis has almost ‘magical’ levels of medical technology. Something that M’Benga has definitely taken note of, which takes us in to this episodes B plot.
Praise to the special effects department again as we see a very effective rendering of the crashed ship that Enterprise had attacked. We get to see more pairing up of Uhura and Khan, Khan seems to have taken Uhura under her wing and even though she is being harsh in her treatment of Uhura whilst on duty, I believe that this is done with all good intentions as a way of ‘toughening up’ this new rookie cadet. We also learn why on away missions, away team members/landing party members always scan things with their Tricroder first. I even heard a brief audio clip of what seemed like a Breen chatting away, but this was most definitely a coincidence and probably not even an Easter egg…
Pike manages to persuade Alora to allow him to investigate the attack on the Enterprise further undercover at the ascension, and thus investigating the attack on her shuttle by default. Pike beams down to Majalis with Alora as a friend, accompanying her to the First Servants equivalent of a coronation. We definitely get the impression that Alora is not being 100% truthful with Pike, though he could be blinded by the fact that she is his ex and he knows that by beaming down with her he might potentially get ‘lucky again’ for old times sake.
Majalis is itself is one of the most beautifully rendered planets that I can remember ever seeing on Star Trek. It almost reminded me of a Final Fantasy location in style and visualisation. Majalis is is shown to be a ‘cloud city’ with very unique architecture which seemed based on a combination and Indian architecture. It worked.
The plot itself starts to get a bit Final Fantasy like now too…
We are next introduced to a character called Kier via his exposure as a potential assassin of the First Servant. We are given another clue though that things are not quite right as Kier actually shouts out ‘Long live the First Servant’, so maybe he is not too bad after all? Anyway, Alora strikes down and stabs Kier with what I can only describe as her hair pin. Hmmmm… the plot thickens!
The Uhura and Khan ship continues to develop, though we see a side of Khan which makes me think that she would be a potential candidate for Section 31. Khan decides to go against the book, getting Uhura to do a job for her that Starfleet might not approve for a very long time. Uhura has her linguistic skills put to the test once more, except this time we do not get to hear her beautiful singing voice.
Perhaps this is why Khan is not seen on Kirk’s Enterprise and no one, such as her friend Uhura, talk about her when her ancestor Khan Noonien Singh is reanimated on the Enterprise… she might indeed be working for Section 31 somewhere and be deemed as ‘beyond top secret’ due to her mission. Either that, or she becomes a Traveller with Wesley Crusher!
After Discussing the advanced medical technology of Majalis with the First Servant’s allocated ‘Father’, Elder Gamal. M’Benga tries to negotiate/speculate about the use of this technology in curing the ailment affecting his daughter Rukiya who is currently stored in the transporter buffer. Of course, Majalis has laws just like the Federation does and can not permit the exchange of technology with outsiders from off world.
Surprise surprise, the next scene is a real hark back to traditional Star Trek as we find that Pike has ‘bedded’ Alora… he is proving to be quite the ‘silver fox’ so to speak. But was this his intention in investigating anyway? Fulfilling his primal needs…? We do get a good bit of insight in to Pike’s character as he discusses his fate with Alora, however he talks about the situation he faces being like ‘death’ as the Federation Doctors can do nothing to help him - though we do know that they can and *do* help him to some extent as he ends up in the futuristic ‘wheel chair’ life support machine. Perhaps he thinks that his life will not be worth living if he meets this fate. Does Pike consider this a fate worse than death? Maybe M’Benga is currently designing this life support wheel chair behind the scenes… hopefully Pike can escape this fate though and end up not having to use this device? We have seen examples of fate being avoided already so far this season, in particular in episode two, Children of the Comet. Events as depicted in The Menagerie seem to contradict Pike having any other fate? Unless this is indeed a mirror timeline as part of the Star Trek multiverse? At least we know that things *kind* of work out for Pike to some extent thanks to the Talosians…
Uhura manages to translate the Records from the crashed ship and Khan ‘empowers’ her with confidence so that she can deliver the report to Spock herself, taking credit for all of her hard work.
We get to see some character development between Rukiya and the First Servant as they play together as a result of the Servants amazing scientific capabilities, with him having created a colorful playground for them to interact together on, a bit like hop scotch or ‘Chula’ (jokes!).
I would love to see these two characters friendship develop, though fate might have it that they sadly will never get to meet each other again.
We find out more about the ‘alien’ planet, Prospect 7, that Majalis has some form of relationship with… it is a planet actually populated by an offshoot of the Majalis species themselves, in much the same way that the Son’a were to the Baku. The Baku also had ‘fountain of youth’ medical secrets to a long life too coincidentally.
As the shuttle departs with Elder Gamal it comes under attack once more, this time from the Enterprise itself! It isn’t an actual attack per say, but due to the delicate nature of this species ships and weapons tech it should surely be considered that they need to handle this shuttle *really* carefully. The tractor beams rips the ship to pieces as the shuttle attempts to jump to warp… my jaw drops! Could Gamal and the First Servant be dead?!
The First Servant had used his super intelligence to beam himself back on to the Enterprise, out of harms way… however is he truly out of harms way? He has chosen to follow up his duty and complete the ascension ceremony. This is where things get a bit morally complicated once more. The citizens of Majalis plan to use the First Servant in a form of ‘child sacrifice’, hooking him up for life to a super computer so that he can maintain order on the planet, both socially and geographically by the sounds of it. I honestly don’t think that the planet would fall out of the sky if the boy did not ascend, though Alora did get it correct when she said that the planet floats on ‘rivers of lava’… so who knows, maybe this First Servant is required to fulfill this role after all? We did not get enough scientific enquiry from the Enterprise crew about these points. Perhaps this is the origins of the Borg, the Cybermen or another cybernetic collective consciousness… I’m sure that one day the whole planet might want hooking up to this computer in a similar way using some form of neural network? Let’s hope that the Majalis citizens don’t ever find out how clever Spock is… or they might want to take his brain and hook it up to a computer one day too!
Pike is powerless as all of these events unfold on Majalis, but he does threaten to report what has happened to Starfleet. Alora is not bothered though, as Starfleet have no jurisdiction on Majalis. Who were the villains in this episode? The people of Prospect 7 wanting to save the First Servant? Or the People of Majalis who wanted to ascend him?
I found this all to be quite a dark ending to this weeks episode, though perhaps we will have a sequel of sorts over the coming season. It would be nice if the First Servant *did* find a way to help his friend Rukiya. Though it is possible that maybe there just is no cure for her condition and M’Benga might need to give her an inevitable final goodbye one day? The First Servant might be able to store her in his computer buffer and create a virtual world for her where they can both live out ‘happy’ yet ironically still tragic lives together.
BTW it was good to hear a shout out to the Mugatans via Khan’s ‘Mugatan breathing stones’ comment. Also, I also thought that maybe the writers wanted to call this beautiful planet ‘Majelis’ at first, but stopped after realising that it was a too obvious reference.
I give Star Trek: Strange New World’s episode 6, ‘Lift us Where Suffering Can Not Reach’…10/10!
This weeks episode opens with a traditional Captains log, dated as stardate 1943.7 - I found this to be a very peculiar star date as random as they can be. So I decided to Google July 1943 to see if anything might have happened in Earth history during that year and month that might give us some clues about the rest of the episode…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_1943
This all might be a total coincidence, and does not seem relevant to tonight’s episode even in retrospect, unless I have missed something. This is why TPTB need to start using *real* star dates so that we do not get confused by minutia such as this when us fans try to make random sense out of newly created and unexplainable canon material such as nonsensical stardates!
I have already explained a good system for star dates which would work; using the center of the galaxy as the axis, we could have three dimensional coordinates and ‘star dating’. We could have the location of a star system using this weeks planet as example the Majalis system. We find out the x, y, -x and -y location of the planet, we then combine these coordinates with ‘local dates and time’ based on the same units of measurements as we use on Earth, just adjusted for the local planets rotation (days) and orbit (years) around it’s sun. On top of this we add the speed that it takes for the light to travel to the said location from two permanent fixed celestial bodies, measure in light years perhaps. These two celestial bodies would be used as a bench mark in all star dates. Therefore a working star dates system would be:
(x, y, -x, -y) (Local Year, Local Month, Local Day) (Light Years from point A, Light Years from point B)
So the visual format would be 0000, 000000. 00 or any combination/order of the above like we have different date layout orders in different countries on Earth. Of course, this would all be standardized against Earth time, or maybe Vulcan?
Anyway, the USS Enterprise receives a distress call from a non Federation shuttle which is under attack. There is nothing more heroic than rescuing an unarmed shuttle from a more powerful foe, even if we do not check the facts before our intervention as to why the shuttle is actually being attacked in the first place. How did Pike know that the shuttle was not harboring a criminal before he decided to intervene against the perceived antagonist? This situation was open to a matter of perspective, Pike did not effectively communicate with either party before his intervention, an intervention which even led to the planetary downing of the attacking ship, which could have been performing a duty on any level of the perceived moral spectrum. Pike might have attacked the local ‘space police’ force for all he knew.
The attacking ship deploys grappling hook like tractor beams, similar as to what the NX-01 Enterprise used to have before the invention of tractor beams in order to secure it’s target. It is quite obvious from this point that we are dealing with a species which are less advanced than the Federation… this observation is proven as we see the as of yet unknown species attack the Enterprise in return. An attack which is as effective as Rodd Hull and Emu chasing people around with a tickling stick.
We are next introduced to a pivotal character, that of Alora. We then have a very typical lead up to the opening credits which seems very reminiscent of old school Star Trek episodes as Alora is revealed to be Pike’s old romance from his lieutenant days… all that we needed was soft focus on Alora and a thin light across Pike’s eyes to complete this old school pre credit cliff hanger to perfection.
As the credits rolled I was reminded of their beauty… yet they still lack the substance of physical Modeling effects’. It would be great if we could have a combination of physical models as well as CGI effects such as during the late Rich Sternbach and Michael Okuda days, but I would imagine that physical modeling is far too expensive and time consuming. Physical models have always seemed more satisfying to me visually.
Pike’s hunch plays off as he discovers that his former lover is transporting the Majalis ‘First Servant’ - a young boy who had been selected in a lottery to take on this ‘leadership’ role, but more on this role later. First of all, it appears that the First Servant does not have an actual name, like he has already been depersonalised to some extent by those around him. Secondly, if he was indeed selected in a lottery then it is a good job that he was super intelligent, imagine if they would have picked someone out of the hat who did not have the same level of intelligence? It also does not seem fair that his whole future has been taken away from him, he has forsaken his right to a family… should they not wait until he is an adult before making this decision for him? He might grow up and fall in love with someone when his hormones kick in and decide that he wants to start a family instead? He has *years* ahead of him and a personality yet to develop through experience and interactions with those around him.
We are next given a lovely scene between my Strange New World’s standout favourite M’Benga, where the story line of his daughter, Rukiya, is expanded on from the episode Ghosts of Illyria. It is bittersweet getting to see these two characters spending time and bonding together as father and daughter. We are quickly reminded though that something not quite right is happening as Chapel, who is familiar with M’Benga’s secret, tells him and his daughter to take cover as injured are on the way from the shuttle craft which had earlier been attacked.
We find out that Majalis is not a Federation member and actually does not want to be. Mahal is also has relations with an ‘alien’ planet nearby, but again, more on that later. Alora then takes Pike up on his next actions; he intends to investigate why the shuttle was attacked in the first place. Aloes is not happy about this and rejects Pike’s help… however, still wanting to act as galactic police he decides to investigate anyway using the excuse that his ship was attacked too and that he has a right to retaliate under Starfleet regulations… regulations however that Majalis probably do not even recognise. We also find out that the First Servant has some form of Quantum bio implants which help to maintain and heal his body - I get the impression that as this device uses ‘quantum’ mechanics in order to heal, that it could be a technological analogy for some sort of spiritual healing, which if really existed here on Earth would more than likely also work on a quantum level, though without the requirement of technological augmentation. Perhaps the scientists of Majalis have discovered a way of harnessing ‘spiritual healing’ using technology to make it more focused and efficient?
Regardless, making up for their lack in weapons technology, Majalis has almost ‘magical’ levels of medical technology. Something that M’Benga has definitely taken note of, which takes us in to this episodes B plot.
Praise to the special effects department again as we see a very effective rendering of the crashed ship that Enterprise had attacked. We get to see more pairing up of Uhura and Khan, Khan seems to have taken Uhura under her wing and even though she is being harsh in her treatment of Uhura whilst on duty, I believe that this is done with all good intentions as a way of ‘toughening up’ this new rookie cadet. We also learn why on away missions, away team members/landing party members always scan things with their Tricroder first. I even heard a brief audio clip of what seemed like a Breen chatting away, but this was most definitely a coincidence and probably not even an Easter egg…
Pike manages to persuade Alora to allow him to investigate the attack on the Enterprise further undercover at the ascension, and thus investigating the attack on her shuttle by default. Pike beams down to Majalis with Alora as a friend, accompanying her to the First Servants equivalent of a coronation. We definitely get the impression that Alora is not being 100% truthful with Pike, though he could be blinded by the fact that she is his ex and he knows that by beaming down with her he might potentially get ‘lucky again’ for old times sake.
Majalis is itself is one of the most beautifully rendered planets that I can remember ever seeing on Star Trek. It almost reminded me of a Final Fantasy location in style and visualisation. Majalis is is shown to be a ‘cloud city’ with very unique architecture which seemed based on a combination and Indian architecture. It worked.
The plot itself starts to get a bit Final Fantasy like now too…
We are next introduced to a character called Kier via his exposure as a potential assassin of the First Servant. We are given another clue though that things are not quite right as Kier actually shouts out ‘Long live the First Servant’, so maybe he is not too bad after all? Anyway, Alora strikes down and stabs Kier with what I can only describe as her hair pin. Hmmmm… the plot thickens!
The Uhura and Khan ship continues to develop, though we see a side of Khan which makes me think that she would be a potential candidate for Section 31. Khan decides to go against the book, getting Uhura to do a job for her that Starfleet might not approve for a very long time. Uhura has her linguistic skills put to the test once more, except this time we do not get to hear her beautiful singing voice.
Perhaps this is why Khan is not seen on Kirk’s Enterprise and no one, such as her friend Uhura, talk about her when her ancestor Khan Noonien Singh is reanimated on the Enterprise… she might indeed be working for Section 31 somewhere and be deemed as ‘beyond top secret’ due to her mission. Either that, or she becomes a Traveller with Wesley Crusher!
After Discussing the advanced medical technology of Majalis with the First Servant’s allocated ‘Father’, Elder Gamal. M’Benga tries to negotiate/speculate about the use of this technology in curing the ailment affecting his daughter Rukiya who is currently stored in the transporter buffer. Of course, Majalis has laws just like the Federation does and can not permit the exchange of technology with outsiders from off world.
Surprise surprise, the next scene is a real hark back to traditional Star Trek as we find that Pike has ‘bedded’ Alora… he is proving to be quite the ‘silver fox’ so to speak. But was this his intention in investigating anyway? Fulfilling his primal needs…? We do get a good bit of insight in to Pike’s character as he discusses his fate with Alora, however he talks about the situation he faces being like ‘death’ as the Federation Doctors can do nothing to help him - though we do know that they can and *do* help him to some extent as he ends up in the futuristic ‘wheel chair’ life support machine. Perhaps he thinks that his life will not be worth living if he meets this fate. Does Pike consider this a fate worse than death? Maybe M’Benga is currently designing this life support wheel chair behind the scenes… hopefully Pike can escape this fate though and end up not having to use this device? We have seen examples of fate being avoided already so far this season, in particular in episode two, Children of the Comet. Events as depicted in The Menagerie seem to contradict Pike having any other fate? Unless this is indeed a mirror timeline as part of the Star Trek multiverse? At least we know that things *kind* of work out for Pike to some extent thanks to the Talosians…
Uhura manages to translate the Records from the crashed ship and Khan ‘empowers’ her with confidence so that she can deliver the report to Spock herself, taking credit for all of her hard work.
We get to see some character development between Rukiya and the First Servant as they play together as a result of the Servants amazing scientific capabilities, with him having created a colorful playground for them to interact together on, a bit like hop scotch or ‘Chula’ (jokes!).
I would love to see these two characters friendship develop, though fate might have it that they sadly will never get to meet each other again.
We find out more about the ‘alien’ planet, Prospect 7, that Majalis has some form of relationship with… it is a planet actually populated by an offshoot of the Majalis species themselves, in much the same way that the Son’a were to the Baku. The Baku also had ‘fountain of youth’ medical secrets to a long life too coincidentally.
As the shuttle departs with Elder Gamal it comes under attack once more, this time from the Enterprise itself! It isn’t an actual attack per say, but due to the delicate nature of this species ships and weapons tech it should surely be considered that they need to handle this shuttle *really* carefully. The tractor beams rips the ship to pieces as the shuttle attempts to jump to warp… my jaw drops! Could Gamal and the First Servant be dead?!
…of course not!
The First Servant had used his super intelligence to beam himself back on to the Enterprise, out of harms way… however is he truly out of harms way? He has chosen to follow up his duty and complete the ascension ceremony. This is where things get a bit morally complicated once more. The citizens of Majalis plan to use the First Servant in a form of ‘child sacrifice’, hooking him up for life to a super computer so that he can maintain order on the planet, both socially and geographically by the sounds of it. I honestly don’t think that the planet would fall out of the sky if the boy did not ascend, though Alora did get it correct when she said that the planet floats on ‘rivers of lava’… so who knows, maybe this First Servant is required to fulfill this role after all? We did not get enough scientific enquiry from the Enterprise crew about these points. Perhaps this is the origins of the Borg, the Cybermen or another cybernetic collective consciousness… I’m sure that one day the whole planet might want hooking up to this computer in a similar way using some form of neural network? Let’s hope that the Majalis citizens don’t ever find out how clever Spock is… or they might want to take his brain and hook it up to a computer one day too!
Pike is powerless as all of these events unfold on Majalis, but he does threaten to report what has happened to Starfleet. Alora is not bothered though, as Starfleet have no jurisdiction on Majalis. Who were the villains in this episode? The people of Prospect 7 wanting to save the First Servant? Or the People of Majalis who wanted to ascend him?
I found this all to be quite a dark ending to this weeks episode, though perhaps we will have a sequel of sorts over the coming season. It would be nice if the First Servant *did* find a way to help his friend Rukiya. Though it is possible that maybe there just is no cure for her condition and M’Benga might need to give her an inevitable final goodbye one day? The First Servant might be able to store her in his computer buffer and create a virtual world for her where they can both live out ‘happy’ yet ironically still tragic lives together.
BTW it was good to hear a shout out to the Mugatans via Khan’s ‘Mugatan breathing stones’ comment. Also, I also thought that maybe the writers wanted to call this beautiful planet ‘Majelis’ at first, but stopped after realising that it was a too obvious reference.
I give Star Trek: Strange New World’s episode 6, ‘Lift us Where Suffering Can Not Reach’…10/10!
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You know, if they took out the fluff (i.e. most of the Uhura/La'an stuff), and added Hemmer, I would have given this a higher mark. But, they didn't, so I give this episode a 7.
On that note, I wonder if this episode is a metaphor for how adults use children to push their agenda, which has been done as early as the Children's Crusade debacle 1212 CE/AD. In my remake of this episode, there would be a satisfying resolution, and Pike would have learned that the boy was his son, by way of Alora. But that's the point: we're literally seeing a darker version of "The Needs of the Many..." line, which is surprising that Spock never uttered in this episode. It would have been interesting to see Spock or Una taking an opposing side, siding with Alora on the fate of the First Servant.
Still, at least the First Servant got a chance to be a kid, one final time, and may have helped his new friend, Rukiya.
I do feel sorry for Pike on this one, which may have hardened his ability to be charitable towards non-Federation worlds. Time will only tell if this will be the case.
On that note, I wonder if this episode is a metaphor for how adults use children to push their agenda, which has been done as early as the Children's Crusade debacle 1212 CE/AD. In my remake of this episode, there would be a satisfying resolution, and Pike would have learned that the boy was his son, by way of Alora. But that's the point: we're literally seeing a darker version of "The Needs of the Many..." line, which is surprising that Spock never uttered in this episode. It would have been interesting to see Spock or Una taking an opposing side, siding with Alora on the fate of the First Servant.
Still, at least the First Servant got a chance to be a kid, one final time, and may have helped his new friend, Rukiya.
I do feel sorry for Pike on this one, which may have hardened his ability to be charitable towards non-Federation worlds. Time will only tell if this will be the case.
That ending would not be in TOS lol
That wunderkind was so smart, I suspect that the 'lottery' is a lot less random as the populace would like to think. I would lay money that he was engineered.
Some people see this episode as a metaphor for X/Y/Z with gun control, child labor, climate change, and so on. I think it's not a metaphor but as Tolkien says, applicable.
It's any situation where innocents are sacrificed for the comfort of the many/minority.
It's any situation where innocents are sacrificed for the comfort of the many/minority.
It's kind of funny. For all the rap Kirk gets about 'banging those green alien chicks', does anyone have a definitive list? He hugged a few yeomen in moments of duress, met a couple of old flames along the way, but Elaan of Troyius is the only one I can actually recall off the top of my head. Where can we find Kirk's actual scorecard?