Hey, Joe. Hi.
So, we're back aboard Enterprise for Strange New Worlds.
We are doing the 4th episode of Strangely World Series one that
we've done.
And in fact, this is episode nine, our previous episode was
episode eight, the Elysian Kingdom, which we did in episode 62.
And then before that, we did episode 7, the serene squall, in
episode 39.
And of course, we cheated when Strange New Worlds, the pilot was
the only episode that had been broadcast we rolled that after
choosing just Strange New Worlds to watch.
So by the end of tonight, we will have watched 20% of the
available episodes.
Make Sean some more out then, please, so we can watch more.
Well, I gather that series 3 is in production now that the rider
strike and everything is over. definitely getting a new set of
episodes fairly soon.
What's all there, Nathan?
The next one we're watching is episode 10 of series one, right?
Good well be.
Yeah, it's the only excited series one I haven't seen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we actually watched this together in person and you hadn't seen
it before, but I had.
I'll tell you what right?
What an experience it was.
We were screaming and squealing and laughing.
It was wonderful.
It was one of those wonderful moments of watching television that
I always remember because I don't know what I was expecting with
this go on episode, but it was not this. for sure.
It's a pretty incredible thing that they've done with the Gaunt
isn't it?
Because the Gorn is a sort of big rubber lizard in a spangly
cocktail dress in arena and it is a great monster.
Like, it's an undeniably superb monster, but it is terribly cat.
It's a bit awkward and static though, isn't it?
That's the trouble, you know.
The poor fellow has not got manoeuvrable limbs.
No, and we we did mention that in the special edition, they do
make the gorn blink in the special CT up the defence, which is
pretty great.
They are back in Enterprise, I think.
Yes, in in a mirror darkly, the 2 part alternative universe story
and mostly done in the half dark, in very good CGI, not brilliant
but fairly good for the time.
Anyway, we've seen some terrible CGI of Enterprise.
And lots of POV shots.
So a lot of what they're doing here as well.
So I feel like the progression from that to that to this...
Well, now they kind of works.
Fucking amazing, don't they?
Absolutely chill.
So good.
And so this is our 2nd gone episode, really, of the season.
We've got La'an's backstory.
And then we had the episode Memento Mori, where all we got to do
is encounter the gone on their spaceship.
That was one of the best ones of the season.
Really great It's actually sort of submarine episode packed full
of carrot stuff.
Yeah, written by the same guy who wrote this episode as well.
So the Gorn, and obviously towards the end, and you haven't seen
the end of series 2, but the Gorn are back, and it does look like
they're shaping up to be the kind of big bad for Star Trek, Strange
New World, which I think is a great choice.
Yes, I mean, in terms of like visceral horror.
Absolutely.
Like, can we have a conversation with them?
Can we can we engage intelligently with them?
Yeah, yeah.
That's that's the normal Star Trek way though, isn't it?
Exactly.
So the, the, you know, adversaries in previous iterations of Star
Trek have always been people, but here they're just monsters, and
so they're monsters on a spaceship, and they're really kind of
deadly and terrifying, and that final episode of series 2 is quite
amazing, and the Gorn really kind of sell it.
So here the job, I think, is to introduce the Gorn properly as an
adversary, and do what Star Trek has done before, but not
generally very well, which is a sort of creepy horror episode.
You remember when we were sort of exploring the Borg ship in
Scorpion recently?
Yeah, and you were lamenting how terrible, and I was going how
atmospheric it was.
I don't think 90s trek can't do horror at all.
I think there's a couple of episodes where they pull it off.
I think endpoint law is pretty good. revulsion has some
atmosphere.
But TV's just come on so much since 90s trek.
This is executed flawlessly.
Yeah, it looks pretty amazing.
I want to say that before I now say the 2 issues I have with this
episode.
I want to get them out of the way because I basically just want to
say nice things.
And none of them are a problem of this episode of Strange New
Worlds, and they are entirely a problem of the genre, the horror
genre that we're watching.
And my number one issue is our 1st viewing of this was so
spectacular because that sequence where the corn come bursting out
of that blue man in true alien style.
I mean, it was just absolutely glorious, that bit.
And something I never thought I'd see Star Trek do, something that
sort of gross in horror terms.
But, in the rewatch of this, and it's a problem with, And it's a
problem with horror movies in general, is that once you've watched
it once, you're basically waiting for the big set pieces and
you're just going around a lot of dark corridors to get there, you
know?
So it doesn't have the same sort of frison as you did in the 1st
one.
So this time around, I was like, this is very well made.
When are we going to get to that bit where the gall burst out of
that man?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The other issue is there's nothing original here at all.
It is just a load of horror cliches thrown in.
So it's kind of light 90s shreking that way.
That's the only way it's like 90 straight though.
And I was sort of ticking them off as I went, you said to me
earlier, predator POV shots.
Yeah, we do the alien thing.
We do it all just so well.
And I think the big difference with this is we love these
characters.
So we immediately feel anxious when they're in a situation of high
peril that they are here.
So that's why this works so well.
I think if it was badly executed or it was the Voyager crew, we
might be on shaky territory.
Yeah, well, I mean, like, if you think about something like, is it
macrocosm, where you've got Janeway with a big gun going through
the corridors, CGI insects.
It's trying to pretend that it's there.
Oh, it's just awful.
So part of the problem, I think, with 90 Streak doing this is that
it's doing it on a kind of daytime soap opera budget with just a
bit of CGI stuff thrown in.
And so now we can actually do it a lot more convincingly.
For me, what works is exactly what you identified is the
characters and in particular the through line for Uhura.
And so we see, yeah, we see Ahura at a party at the beginning, we
know her backstory because I think that she explains it in episode
2, I want to say, which I think is the best episode series one
episode two.
Oh, okay, wow.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It is beautiful.
Like, that's a stunning episode.
That was just great television. is a perfect Star Trek episode.
Yeah, wonderful. just wonderful.
Really, really, very good.
And so she explains her backstory.
And she has throughout the season been doing, I think, I think
Rutherford does this at one point on Lower Decks, where she sort
of seconded to different departments because she doesn't quite
know what she wants to do.
She's a linguist, but she doesn't know where she wants to be.
And obviously the final shot of this episode kind of tells us
where she's going to end up and obviously we know that and have
known that for 50 something years now.
But she starts not wanting to stay because she doesn't want to put
roots down.
And it's a conversation that she has with Hammer in, uh, like I
think it's in episode 4 and and a conversation that she has with
him here about not wanting to make connections with people because
she was hurt by the loss of her parents and so she's avoided
finding a place to settle down.
And like, I just think that's nicely done.
He says to her at the beginning of this, doesn't he?
He goes, you make connections with people.
It's one of your strengths.
Why are you pushing against that?
Yeah, I've had a similar conversation in my life, you know, where
some people have said that to me.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think it's a really good, it's a really good
conversation. and it really works.
And so what it means is that although Hammer has only been in 6
episodes, including this one, his death lands properly, because
you've got Celia Gooding reacting to it and it just works so
incredibly well, I think.
And let's just also say Bruce Horak's performance as the character
is so strong and just so brilliant every time he appears.
What's great about it is it's not falling in sort of the Buffy the
Vampire Slayer trap of we've got characters that are just too
great to kill.
So they just go on and on and on, probably longer than their
actual creative life is.
Whereas we've got a great character here and actually he could
have done an awful lot more, but they actually, whether the actor
wanted to go or for whatever reason, they choose to write him out
and it really impacts, despite the fact that he has legs to
continue.
Oh, I like that.
I think that's a good creative choice to make.
But also as well, at the beginning, the 2nd she's going well.
Well, I'm leaving the enterprise now, you know, our warning bell
should have been going off end of like, something terrible is
going to happen to make a stay because we know that's not the case
right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course.
It is the 3rd Star Trek series to kill a major character in its
1st season.
And so, of course, skin of evil kills Tasha Yar.
Yes, which we recently did.
And then in the final episode of Lower Decks, season one, no small
parts.
Lieutenant Shacks is killed.
Saving Rutherford.
But they turn into the most spectacular joke, long term.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How did Lieutenant Shacks die?
We don't talk about that.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Um, watch, I think we should watch this, you know.
I've got to say, I'm a huge horror movie fan, so this ticks all of
my boxes.
I tend to prefer psychological horror.
Then, you know, one of my favourites is the Hana Rocks, the Cradle
that sort of horror. cruels under your skin because it's people
doing terrible things.
But when a good monster movie is pulled off and this is a great
monster movie, it's a wonderful thing to behold.
Yeah, I agree.
All right. let's go in I'll count us in.
Five, four, three, two, one, and we're off.
Yeah, yeah.
So in the episodes of Discovery that have just aired, you know, the
series 5 just started as we record, it is Discovery that does that
Ident thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And it's the cereta.
I like how they love them all with that, though. a great idea, you
know?
So again, we've said this before, it's really obvious, but the
previously on Strange New Worlds is always about what's happened
with the characters.
I was watching it this time to see if you were lying to me or not
and you was telling me the truth.
Absolutely.
So it's fucking...
Nurse Chapel...
Spock then confessing it to his to bring it to bring.
We get the Arn's backstory.
We get the big pile of thing of blood from Memento Mori, the
colonists.
I love the fact they're not afraid to put a bit of blood on the
screen, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think the 1st time that we've ever seen like real proper gory
horror on Star Trek was in episode 3 of Discovery, which is called
context is for Kings, where they go aboard the USS Glenn and the
Tardigrade is kind of killing people.
Um, So, so, and that Supergory and stuff like that, I'm glad that
they can do that now.
I think that's that's really good.
So, see, this is the party, and of course, this is her talking
about her experience.
This is Ahura talking about her experience, her experience on the
ship in all of these different places, and now she's turning up to
this party.
And the idea that we have food in Chris's quarters all the time is
absolutely brilliant, I think, like really, really quite brilliant
because it gives us a proper chance to really, really get to know
these characters and for them to do banter that isn't horrifically
embarrassing.
It's what I said to you in DS9, isn't it?
the same thing when Cisco's always cooking in his squads and he
advised people down, that sort of domestic angle.
Suggests a family without having to tell you, this is a family
because what do we do as a family?
We all come together and eat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And this year too, you know, we've only got 10 episodes this
season.
It happens quite a lot in that time and is introduced as early as
episode two, like the beginning of episode two.
It really becomes a thing.
I just, I feel like the skill that the economy with how quickly
they got us to like these characters, how quickly they established
the relationship and then started doing interesting things that
you said about Hemmo, who doesn't get a lot of screen time
really.
Um, and his relationship with Ahura at this, uh, initially, it's a
little bit fracturous.
Then they come to find some common ground.
Then they're working together brilliantly.
Then you have a few episodes where things are great between, and
then we lose him here and she's absolutely devastated.
And what's that, 5 episodes?
Yeah, I think it might be three.
I don't think it's quite as much between those 2 characters A lot
of skill to deliver that as quickly as that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, I know what, well, all right, as they've got working on this
show, but they've chosen them well.
It's brilliant.
Even this little bit here where Uhura asks Erica for permission to
speak freely because Erica obviously outranks her and Erica's
going, what are you doing?
Like, what are you doing?
And it is her pulling back.
You know, it's her wanting to pull back, particularly since Chris
has been talking about how they're like a family.
You know, I just want you to imagine that...
That scene playing out on Voyager between Tom Paris and Harry
Kim.
Yeah, yeah, just embarrassing.
Oh I love number one so much.
I think she's great.
I don't think she gets enough to do in series one.
I'm hoping in series 2 when we explore that.
She gets a bit more to do.
Yeah, yeah.
She does get some good stuff in one, but he issues off on a B plot
that we never see.
So she's delivering the thing.
Now this is so funny.
So Lana's come in.
She's been speaking to the ship psychologist because of her trauma
which is a thing.
Her trauma really defines who she is and is really, really
important in this episode, so we get it established really early.
Just this stuff here, where, you know, they're eating, he's
feeding her.
He puts the apron of Spock and look at sponsoring action.
I like it when she goes when she goes, I'm not eating that.
Oh my god, that's delicious.
Give it back, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
No, Beng is there in the background and he just says, oh, yeah, and
the waffle.
You know, like all of that stuff.
They're doing properly funny banter.
And what happens is watch hike and watch number one.
They're like her parents.
They're short.
Like in a maternal and a paternal way with her.
It's really nice.
Yeah.
Even with banger's line there, you know, is an emergency landing
ever scheduled. you know, like someone says unscheduled emergency
landing.
You're going to go, well, they're all unscheduled, aren't they?
And you've got him saying that, which is cute.
I know this is useful stuff, and a lot of this is, you know, her
backstory is being mentioned again because we're going to do a go
on episode.
But I think showing this sort of familial relationships before
leaping into the horror is vital.
This is how much we love these people.
Look how great they are together.
My God, now they're in terrible peril.
It's really well done.
And it shows you because...
He's been talking.
Yeah, I know.
Biker's been talking about them being a family and that's what
Ahura's running away from.
She's frightened that they are a family and they do become a
family and here we just get to see it.
You know, like we actually get, and it's a mission briefing, which
would have been done in like Astrometrics or the observation now
just...
Voyager Conference table.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it said they're eating and kind of just chatting and stuff.
You know, like Spock's in the foreground they're doing the washing
up.
Look, he's doing the washing up in that shop.
Oh, I'm a bit appalled, actually, that they've left space station
K7 in darkness without their power cells.
They're sending Una to get the power cells for K7.
Weren't they a ration waggon?
really shocked me in this episode.
And it doesn't mean something you said to me before, is how hands
off Captain Pike is.
And when they go down onto the planet, he doesn't take control in
a way I usually expect a captain on Star Trek to do.
Yeah.
It's quite refreshing, but also I'm like, I really expected like a
big authority figure here to say, right, this is what we're going
to do.
He doesn't do that.
Look at this shot.
Look how incredibly good this shot is.
Look how far we've come.
You know, because there's snow and moisture.
There's the layer thing, like the whole thing looks so good.
Coming out of the ground there.
It looks wonderful.
But you actually expect this episode, like on a Voyager episode
the opening credits would have come in after that scene.
After Pike does the joke about, you know, I'm not going to turn
this car around.
You know, stop or I'll turn this car round or whatever, you know
he's being spacedad and he's got the spaceship station waggon.
And that's the theme of the episode and then we do the thing
there.
But we don't.
We come here and we establish the thread.
And this looks amazing.
Like, not for a second.
I think you just summed it up.
Space that.
That's what Captain Pike is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But not like a domineering.
Hem is really happy because this is like Andoria.
And, you know, you just sort of think, oh, Hammer, you weirdo.
That's really important.
It's going to be a long time.
But in fact, that's one of the things that makes that scene where
he dies so poignant, I think.
Oh my god.
What's the actress's name who plays Nurse Chappell?
Um, Jess Bush.
She's Australian. is incredible in this episode.
There's a dialogue free scene where she's putting her feet down on
the floor to escape the goal.
Oh my god, it's good.
Nobody else sells the danger that they're in better than she does
in that scene.
She's really good.
She's probably scared without being pathetic.
What's that?
Look how quickly we're out.
We see the blood and we don't even have time to react or in the
opening credits before we even realise it.
And there's not even like a big musical thing or anything to say
oh, that's the end of the teaser.
We just strayed into the thing.
I think it's really well directed this episode as well.
No, I said earlier, flawlessly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I certainly hope he's back.
This is the only title sequence in Untitled Star Trek project that
I watch all the way through every time.
Oh, I know, I always...
I love the bit where it goes...
I just think it's gorgeous.
The series 21, I think, is even better.
They change some of the shots and make it...
Do you know what I mean?
And maybe they do that every year, which would be nice.
Takes that sort of miserable original Star Trek theme tune, which
I don't like at all and make something of it, you know?
Talks it out beautifully.
I realise we've just lost everyone that listens to this now by me
saying that, but never mind.
It's the truth.
But this is the Voyager title sequence, isn't it?
Yeah, essentially. with a budget.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And imagination.
That's fair.
When I 1st saw the Voyager title sequence, I thought it looked
incredible.
I think the mistake in the Voyager tighter sequence is having the
ship always so far away.
And I know why because the ship is travelling a long distance to
go home and that's what they want to sell, but here where you've
got a combination of long shots and very close-up shots, I think
it works better and it's more dynamic.
I think that making the music to Voyager and DS9 so worthy.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a mistake because they just, oh, it feels like a chore to get
through, you know?
Whereas it's just got a bit of pace to it, you know?
Christopher J.
Byrne, I salute you, sir.
Your direction is terrific.
So we know we're in deep doo-doo already.
We found our bloody harm in the snow.
Yeah.
Never a good sign, is it?
Yeah, no, no, that's that's never that good.
And see, so we're now very quickly away from the studio serving as
the planet's surface with the big effects wall.
Here, look at the frost on the mirror.
Like again, just selling the environment, the snow, all of that
stuff is really done quite well.
The rest of it's just in the sets, isn't it?
It's just in the enterprise sets that they've kind of trashed up
and they're directing differently.
This will hold up in 10, 20 years time because they don't try and
do anything way beyond their meat.
Even the CGI is minimal in this.
And quick, it's quick.
So you've barely got time to register what's happening.
Yeah, like I think, is it because we don't know these sets quite
well enough?
Because, I mean, Ampoc nor, you know, looks like Deep Space 9, but
just directed a bit differently, every the sets are all quite
familiar, I think.
I mean, do you know what this reminded me of?
All of these early scenes.
It reminded me of the ship in series 5 of DS9, where there's the
upside down Jem Hadar ship on the planet.
So they've turned the sets upside down.
Turn the lights down, filled it full of dry ice and lots of
spotlights, and it's all shot on an angle.
Right.
And yeah, that's what this reminds me.
Well, that's what we're doing here, you know, and there's
bloodstained hands.
These are familiar atrocious, like it works, you know?
It creates an atmosphere.
But really, what we're doing is we are biding time before we get
to the monsters.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do we know it's, no, we don't know it's the corn yet, do we?
It takes a long time.
No, not at all.
I think we...
Well, I mean, the last time in episode 4 where we saw.
Do you remember we saw just, it's what's really particularly gross
about the blood is the signs of people like being dragged through
it?
Do you know what I mean?
There's just heaps of blood and some people have been dragged
through it or have like are dragging themselves through it.
And that's really horrifying in Memento Mori in the middle of that
thing, which we saw in the opening.
They do lean into a cliche.
Well, there's lots of cliches in this, but they do lean into a one
cliche where it's like, you know, the fella has just been promoted
so proud, you know, all of this.
And, you know, immediately like, yeah, red shirt.
He's dead.
And then when he gets pulled along the corridor, he's going, ah
you know, and they're eating him as they go.
Yeah, yeah. as well.
Do you know what I mean?
Like the other, the young woman who gets...
Oh, that bloody gets promoted.
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
There's a brain or like bits of people that you can't see?
and like that shot with...
Oh, stopping it that closely, all right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, so what is it?
There's Lieutenant Duke, who's just been promoted, and we have
that gag, I think, where Spock accidentally calls him Ensign, and
they say that he owes him a drink.
And that's another thing that they do quite well on this show is
have some kind of culture like that.
He's not going to get to buy him that drink.
No, and then there's Cadet Chia, who is also killed.
And I think having them killed, like I think we need people to be
killed for the horror to work, um, and they need to be people that
we know, but I think killing those 2 puts us off our guard and we
may not expect anyone else to die.
Well, I don't think we expect any of the regulars to die, and
that's why this really lands.
Yeah, yeah.
Just saying, so when we do this in 90s trek, go around these dogs
sets with all the dry ice and damaged ships.
And you do often see the screens just, you know, with funny
patterns on them to show that they're not working properly.
What you had there was that and it was all cracked to suggest that
something truly violent has happened.
It's just that strange above, isn't it?
Exactly.
I also think too, like the spaces are bigger and like here
everything's on an angle.
And so like part of the problem is those sets.
Like the sets in Scorpion, part one, were so kind of like the Borg
cube we'd done so many times.
It was all really quite kind of well lit.
We knew exactly where we were.
Here we've got lots of close-ups and stuff and we never get a full
sense of where we are.
And then all these Dutch angles and stuff.
I'd like to set you an assignment, please, between this week and
next week to go and watch the ship at some point in the next week
just as a point of comparison to see.
Yeah.
Because they can do it.
They just choose not to, you know.
And besides, Voyager was never going to smash one of the screens
I'd have to replace it, wouldn't they?
Yeah exactly.
But like, I mean, I could see if you weren't a big horror fan that
this might...
This body's been badly mangled.
You never want to hear that.
This might bore you a little if you weren't a horror fan.
Well, I'm not a horror fan, but for me, oh, look, there's like, is
his legs been ripped off or something and there's just a big pile
bottle of blood?
It's super gross.
I'm not a big horror fan, but alien and aliens are my era.
Do you know what I mean?
Like alien came out when I was in primary school.
Aliens came out when I was in high school.
Was you not expecting to see the big Queen Gorn come along at the
end?
Maybe in season three.
Get away from her, you bitch.
Oh, this green alien, sorry, blue alien is just fabulous.
The design of his head that sort of opens and closed.
Yeah, yeah, he's really great, isn't he?
Like, it's like the cockroach wings or something, like a beetle's
wings.
Imagine if the Beaumont looked like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we can only afford one of these, and it's mostly a, uh, what
it's a puppet, isn't it?
It's just mostly animatronics.
You only need one, though, for, to, to burst out of him.
But it is moving away from what 90s Star Trek does with aliens
because we can afford to do more interesting things.
It's like a Star Wars alien to me.
It does, exactly. more money.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And just something a bit less kind of straightforwardly human.
It's a very expressive mask though.
It is very expressive.
You can see him being distressed as the eggs kind of hatch or
whatever happens.
And you love the line where like, oh, it goes, you know, your
linguistics.
What's he saying?
She goes, linguistics don't work like that.
But again, I think, again, what she decides to do is brilliant.
She goes, there were 2 life signs.
He's defending someone. we should put down our weapons Do you know
what I mean?
Like as an anthropologist.
Yeah, she understands how people behave.
Yes, clearly he's clearly not attacking them.
He's clearly holding back and defending somebody.
But again, we get to see the characters be clever.
That shot there.
I don't know why that really stood out to me of the corridor
lighting up as the camera pans across.
They don't have to do that, you know.
No, it's really good.
And like just the general blueness of the lighting and stuff makes
these look different from the enterprises.
There's this awkward post-kiss conversation between Spock and
Nurse Chapel.
She's so beautiful, isn't she?
She is really great.
In fact, I really want them to get together.
Screw continuity.
Well, we do actually kind of resolve that a little bit in those
old scientists, don't we, at the end of series 2 of Strange New
Worlds where Boimler comes on board.
Um, and this is important because this continues to play out.
What Spock does here is he lets his rage go, and it doesn't go
back, and that has implications for the next season, for much of
the next season.
All of this.
I'm going to miss you, Hammer.
Oh, yeah, all right.
Stop signposting it. he's going to die, all right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is good though, isn't it?
Like this is, yeah, like this is probably good.
It does that thing.
I don't usually like in television shows.
It's a load of nice people and normally that's spectacularly
boring, but they're just really engaging.
I think it's because they're funny.
I think that's it.
I also think the idea that conflict between the characters not
having conflict between the regular characters is boring.
That was not the thing about Star Trek, the Next Generation that
was boring.
It wasn't...
Oh, the less doing this podcast.
When they had conflict between the characters, on there were
occasions when they had conflict between the characters, guess
what?
It wasn't very interesting.
And so that's not the problem.
And it's the same with Discovery, where everyone on Discovery
loves one another and is so supportive.
That's not boring either, I think.
Although, to their credit, and you know I'm going to do this.
That's why they then created a 90s trek show withinbuilt conflict
between the characters, which just automatically made it more
interesting because they were like, well, we can't do that again.
How boring was that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But they could have just written better.
So that's the hugely important scene there between him and
O'Hora.
I can't believe it.
Sorry to interrupt you, but they're actually putting that man's
subtitles on the screen there.
His alien language.
Just in case you want to say that language.
It's there on the screen, all right?
Yeah, they don't just put it in brackets and say unintelligible
alien language.
I think I may have switched off a little bit here, but why is this
blue man protecting this little girl?
Because he's a nice guy.
Oh, okay.
Are they both from the ship, yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
So it says, so we hear a log by the captain of the ship, um
Captain Gavin, and she says that they...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's her last name.
She says that they picked up the human and the, and the, and
Buckley, and that they are, and an Orion, and they escape from a
gone breeding planet, and the Orion hatched the gone, which
attacked and killed everyone.
So that's why you're like this happened. to explain all that to
me.
Yeah.
So that was all just dealt within in like they they listened to
her.
They listen to her. very dirty looking urchin, isn't she, that
little girl?
Well, she's new, essentially, isn't she?
Like, that's what that is.
We have done this quite a few times on Star Trek because we, you
know, the, the, the one child that's left on the ship when
something horrible has happened, the bonding.
Are you remembering aliens?
That the little girl in aliens?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the cliches.
Yeah, yeah.
But doing them well.
And I think it gives, it gives Arne something to do because I
think there's a surprising thing that happens at the end of this
episode, and that is that Laan leaves, and I think that we're, it's
made clear to us that she's probably not leaving permanently.
But for this to land properly, it has to have consequences and it
does.
The biggest surprise for me in series one of Strange New Worlds
was Le On, because when we watched the 1st episode and I said, I'm
not at all convinced about this character.
She had that great hair.
By the end of the season, she beat the shit out of it.
They had just revealed all these layers and then did that fabulous
episode with her in the princess dress where she had got to have a
lot of fun as well.
And by the end of the season.
Yeah, by the end of this episode, I was going, no, you're like the
best character on the show.
And actually, a lot of the tension does come from her because
she's got this bad attitude because of her terrible pass and how
they sort of smooth out her rough edges as the season goes along.
That's the most interesting story, I think.
Characters.
And did you notice the thing earlier where she starts badgering
Ariana and Mbanga says, can you stop harassing my daughter?
And then he goes, my patient.
And like because last week was when his daughter left.
I did notice that. and it's just a whisper of a link between me
and that.
But it's enough to acknowledge.
No, we're not forgetting that happened.
The thing happened.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're still walking around dark, dark corridors now.
Yeah, but beautiful Ethan Peck is walking around. more close-ups.
See that blood with all the handprints in it?
Like, that's the worst thing about it.
Like, it's all hand printed.
Oh my god.
Oh, look.
Whatever it is that's gone into that ventilation ducting there.
As always, in the traditional fashion.
They must have been in the writer's room, going, come on, give me
more cliches. all in.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, no, Lieutenant Duke.
Oh, dear.
I don't think there's a character I don't like on this show you
know.
No, no.
I think they're all really just well drawn and really likeable.
I mean, there's easily one character on all the others where I'm
like, no, I can take a lead.
Oh God, here we go.
Is this a bit worrying?
Blue man bursts.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It takes a little while, but yes, yeah.
And so this is Cadet Shea, who, of course, he lifts up his sleeve
and that's all this gun underneath.
So immediately we know something terrible is going to happen to
his man.
Yeah, and she like she goes and looks at his neck as well.
And it looks like that's just a puppet.
That's rubber.
Do you know what I mean?
But look how good it looks.
The sound effects of his breathing.
Like, oh, it's horrible.
And you can tell.
I knew at this point we're going to do the aliens thing.
Because he's clearly having a moment there.
So you're just sort of waiting.
The suspense is that this takes about a minute and a half to
happen.
Yeah, yeah.
But is she, the little girl goes away?
Um, but look at what happens to Cadet Shea, who was at the party
they were farewelling her as well.
Um, Oh yeah, he looks so distressing.
When you see him in profile as well.
Yeah, I mean, look at that makeup.
You're right.
There's motion to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a proper thing.
This little girl's pretty good too.
Yeah, I have to say.
We don't have a lot of luck with kids in Star Trek, but... often
bad.
Yeah, it's in profile.
Look at that profile shop.
It's that weird thing about he looks like he's going to throw up.
He's like, he's doing that heavy breathing thing you do just
before you're born.
Oh, this, and she's covering her mouth because she's going to
scream.
Oh, and it builds and it builds and the music comes up. going
down.
He touches...
Amulet.
And that is so gross.
Like just some liquid falls on the ground and that's what she
sees.
And then she looks up and sees it happening.
And look at what look at what Nurse Chapel.
Oh my god.
Oh.
Isn't it great?
And look at what she's in a pool of blood and she's twitching.
The thing is, right?
Oh my god, that 2 bursting out of him.
And they attack one another.
What is the other one?
Oh, my God.
He comes out with sort of a shower of blood.
That's what I'm thinking.
Oh, what's great.
It's the gore Muppets.
If you pause it, they're quite amusing.
They're quite funny.
But because it's so quick and the movement is so realistic. is
really good.
The movement's really, really good.
And you mix that with the visceral horror of all that blood.
It really just has the impact.
It was great.
Oh, here she goes.
Yeah, yeah, she's brilliant actress.
Look at her.
Yeah.
So now everything's ramped up now.
Now we know what the danger is.
And now they've escaped.
Now we know there are monsters on board.
There's a potential that people could start being eaten.
That's gonna sharpen your senses, isn't it?
You know, oh, look at that Jeffreys tube.
It just looks like the ones in original Star Trek.
Um, Yeah, yeah.
So he nearly, he fortunately didn't lose an arm, which is nice.
We just discovered POV shots.
Yep.
He nipples on his neck.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it just sort of pulls him.
And now because Spock is dragging him, like it's actually what
happens to him, that makes Spock angry, and that's how he gets
himself to be angry later when he's trying to kind of confront the
Gorn.
It's not someone he loves or anything, it's just a crew member.
It is a fine directorial choice.
The POV of the alien dragging the man away down the corridor and
you can see Spock on that getting further and further away as he
goes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Man, the execution.
So great.
This is why we love doing coats, but we can say nice things about
the direction.
Yeah, yeah.
Look at the...
I love the force fields in this iteration of trek as well.
Wait, watch her. watch her now Yeah, yeah.
This was really striking.
Look at that shot, though, where it's just her foot touching the
ground and imagine that in 90s track.
Even a shot as simple as that because we just do mid-shots all the
time and we only ever do close-ups of people's faces.
Like we never tell the story like that.
And the lights are sort of flickering on and off as well.
So there's just a, A sense of weirdness about it all.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you're just waiting for them to jump out on her and she looks
so tense.
She's real good, isn't she?
Look, I was hugging my cushions at this point going, 0 my God.
Those jackals don't go out there, please.
And then that bloody lawn comes and scares the life out of her
doesn't she?
Yeah, yeah.
You bitch, I would have said.
Oh no.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Oh, there she is.
There we go.
I feel a bit safer, though, because Lou Aunt Leah.
Yeah, oh, God, she's got a bit of a gun, didn't she?
Look at the blood up the walls.
Oh, my God.
Like, do they have to worry about how graphic this is?
No, apparently not.
Well, no, because it's streaming, and they were doing it, remember
in, um, in Discovery series one.
And they're starting to swear a little bit more in Star Trek
generally, and I like that.
I don't think they're doing it much on this show.
They are doing it a little bit more on the other shows, which I
kind of like.
Yeah, weak enough.
I don't like the swearing, but I love the bloods.
Well, see, I like the swearing because it makes them less like
space people.
That's the that's the thing.
It makes them more like normal people.
Oh, I just can't see 90 straight space people.
Oh, it's not East Strex episodes, though.
I like space people.
Yeah, I know, I know, I do too.
But it's kind of very kind of network TV sanitised space people.
Fuck you, Jean-Luc.
Well, he got to say it in Picard 23.
Okay, come on, we're going off to the gall now.
No, we're looking for the good looking for Ariana.
I've taken that cumbersome costume from the original Star Trek
episode.
I'm making something so fucking chilling out of it.
Yeah, it's pretty great.
And they do, as we said, go partly there in enterprise. know what
this is, don't you?
This is revisionist continuity.
This is nostalgia, which I do think Kurtzman does a lot, but done
brilliantly.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, this is nothing like Arena.
This is not much like the Gordon arena at all.
No, in fact, there aren't really many horror original series
episodes, is there?
Yeah, I mean, it's too colourful for that.
Yeah, I think there are things that are conceptually a bit
horrifying and then there's sort of campy monsters and stuff as
well.
We love that stuff too.
In fact, do you know what?
Given it is his last episode.
Well, Hemmer's been in... 34 scenes?
Maybe?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's not sort of, but he was in that important scene with Ahura.
My point is, if this was 90 Strek, he'd be the highlight of the
episode and we'd be psyched because in the fact he's dying all the
way through, yeah.
Yeah.
So the Ahura Arc is important, but there is also La Arnz Arc and
there's also Spock's Arc here.
I think the Ahura one, which is what we top and tail the episode
with, that's super important.
And Hammer has a massive role to play in that.
Um, So this, do you know what I mean?
Like, and this was my Benga talking to her.
She is now talking to the little girl who she was kind of, you
know, annoyed with before, um, and seeing herself in her, you know
and wanting to help, and that's healing for her as well.
I already turned lower the tone.
Do you know that little girl reminds me of?
Remember the X-Files episode, The Jersey Devil?
And at the end, the Jersey Devil's kids just sort of wearing a
terribly dirty wig comes out of the hole.
She looks a bit like that, isn't she?
Well, she's having a terrible time, you know, she's not going to
look her best.
No.
What the hell is that?
It's ruddy great monsters, and they're coming for you.
I smell human blood.
That's a that's a rather alarming thing for him to say.
But again, sorry, sorry to keep coming back to this.
Again, but Pike really isn't.
He isn't taking control of this, is he?
Everyone's doing their beer.
Yeah, we don't have comms for a lot of it.
You know, we don't have comms for a lot of it, and we've only just
got comms back.
I don't know why, because I don't know if I would excuse it on any
other show.
But I like it.
I like how he just lets everybody do their thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So a comms are now online, and so now he starts to speak to
everyone, but he hasn't been able to do that before.
And so now he's able to warn everyone because each of them, these
guys are only just Ahura and Hemma haven't even really discovered
that the Gorn are about, except they've started to kind of detect
it slightly.
Oh, now they're hearing properly.
It's like a, I always say with management, at the best of what
managing, is not something that stamps all over people and makes
themselves feel important all the time. you extract everybody's
strengths, you know, and allow them to play their best game.
That's what he does.
Oh, my God.
So good.
Oh, and it just...
Yeah, yeah.
Now, do we kill it?
No, we don't need escapes.
It looks so good.
And look, it's more terrifying than that monster is Laan with a
big gun baring her teeth.
If that was a scene in a movie. wouldn't be surprised.
CGI was so great.
It was really good.
Wasn't it?
It was really good.
And it's because they got a sort of like a lizard look.
It doesn't look too ridiculous, you know?
No, that's right.
That's right.
And it is a little bit based on the enterprise version.
It has got fucking enormous incisors that are going to tear you
apart.
Yeah.
This fellow, this fellow Kirk with the moustache.
Yeah, I don't really know too much about him.
So he is he's obviously in episode two, which we've watched, and
we do see him in season 2 with James T. Kirk, who obviously
becomes a semi-regular in series two.
So he's his brother.
And there is an episode of original trek where Kirk finds him dead
finds Sam dead. and turns the body over and it's Shatner with a
moustache.
Who's playing coach bed in series too?
I can't remember his name.
He does turn up in episode 10.
It took me, he turns up next episode to this.
It took me a little while to warm to him, but he has a great
episode with Laan in series 2, and I really like him now.
But a week off coming up, maybe I should binge that whole season.
It's really great.
I haven't seen the musical yet.
Oh my goodness.
Bruce Horak does turn up for the musical, playing a Klingon, who's
on another ship, who is also affected by the musical.
I did see the cliff of the Klingons singing the boy band song.
I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So one of them, one of them is Emma.
Oh dear.
When they said to go, Star Trek's gone soft and woke.
I saw that scene.
I was like that's all the evidence they need.
So, I, again, speaking of soft and woke, here is where they say
the advantage they have over the gaun is that the gauner fighting
to the death to find out who the alpha is going to be, whereas we
can work together.
And, you know, that's entirely, you know, consistent with the
theme of the episode.
Are we, is it suggesting then that the people on this ship that
were all devoured did not work together, and that's why the gore
empowered them. just weren't stars of their own Star Trek shows
probably the problem. they weren't these characters.
Yeah, exactly right.
Yeah.
Their names aren't in the opening credits.
But like, you remember, I said you, I will stop labour in this
point.
I said you go and watch the ship.
Yeah?
Watch this go in that.
He's absolutely in command throughout the entire episode.
He's barking orders at people.
He's telling people off.
That lovely scene there with Captain Pike, where he's saying, what
you do this, you do this, you do this.
You do this.
There's just no sort of force to him.
I really like it.
I think Discovery does that too, with Michael and Saru, where you
have captains who are good managers.
They're not the king of, you know, in a Shakespearean tragedy or
anything like that.
They're just people who are good at handling people.
Big Saru, maybe.
But you know me and Burnham.
Oh, she's, you know, already having great fun in series five.
Well, it's about time.
That's what I was going to say.
There we go.
Yeah, and Hammer is a pacifist.
Do the anar pacifist?
Aina?
I don't even know how to say it.
They're in an episode of Enterprise, but this isn't the 1st time
where he said he won't kill anyone.
You remember you said how appalling it was in Skin of Evil, where
you know, Tashio was talking about Jordan La Forge's site because
everything about, but Levarber and Ashley is a sighted person.
They've absolutely corrected that here, haven't they?
with Emma, by having a blind man playing a blind character.
And just making you absolutely adore him.
And then when it goes, you're devastated about his loss.
Oh, here's the monster it's chasing Celia.
We've got a monster chasing Celia quick.
POV shots make me a little bit hard, Nathan, if I'm honest
especially when they're doing that sort of radiation filter, you
know, where the person's quiet.
It looks pretty great. doesn't it?
It looks pretty good.
Oh, she walked straight through a load of dry ice then, but just
like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So the dry ice is to cold is cold and the corn can't stand cold.
I like Sam going, you're good at everything.
The bit where they blast the corn with the dry ice.
Have I missed it?
No, no, no.
Oh, no, no, no, that's a pier.
Where large in the box. and then the gold's on the top.
Smashing his way in like a madman.
Yeah, it's terrifying.
Great.
And so this is the spark scene where spot can't get the gone to
react or respond, even though he's got a fuck off giant gun
because he can't get angry.
And now he imagines Duke, Lieutenant Duke being dragged away by
the thing, which we saw earlier, and then he awakens it, but he
can't put it away.
And it's so good.
It doesn't like I tried to put it away.
She's like, oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And we've had that stuff because we had that conversation between
her and and um, between her and Jess earlier, between her and
Christina, um, about Vulcan emotions.
The one thing we haven't praised in this episode.
The only thing is those gorgeous sound effects for the gall, the
clucking and the chicken, which, you know, you can't see the
gallon.
You could just hear the noise. wonderful.
So Sam, who was being a panicky idiot earlier gets to save Spock
after doing the racist you're a pointy eared computer, which is a
very kind of, yeah, very appropriate for the period. that's
right.
That's why he's not bothered when McCoy's stopping.
Yeah, that's right.
The alpha.
We got to take down the one in charge.
We got to put it down.
We put it down.
We go home.
Good on you.
But that's she's so great.
That is not your standard Star Trek ending. kill this thing.
Normally, it's like, how do we reason with this corn?
you know?
Yeah, yeah, maybe that'll come later.
But for now having them be monsters is actually a really good call
because we can still have federation values, but if they're going
to eat you and that the only way of surviving is killing them, you
have to do that.
Do they eat everything?
Have they got any fresh corpses they could possibly use to lure
them out into the open?
I don't know.
There was plenty of body parts outside.
Lieutenant, what's his face?
We found half of his corpse.
Yeah that's right. will dangle him from a Jeffrey Stube and then
say it on fire.
Oh, look at Christina Chong.
Everyone's called Christina.
It's sequels here. where the gaunt chases her down the corridor
and starts leaving up the walls.
This is amazing.
Can you imagine a woman in like the 1st 2 or 3 Star Trek series
ever doing this?
No, which is so great.
Maybe Tashyar.
No, no.
And this is so frightening because the thing is fucking slamming
the glass and the glass is breaking.
It's not going to keep it out.
Like, it's so good.
It's so good.
What's great about the...
Oh, the dry arse coming down the stage dramatic.
But like there's been so many sort of slower shots of people
wandering around corridors.
What's great about these really exciting business.
The editing goes crazy.
You're inside the box.
You're outside the box.
Your POV showing and it's bang, bang, bang, bang, one after
another.
And you're like, oh, look, I can't take in what I'm actually being
shown.
It's it really expresses the desperation of the moment.
It really good, isn't it?
And look at that.
That looks amazing.
Little frozen, little frozen corn.
Is it being all gone sickle?
I was actually a bit shocked.
I expected it to shatter where she just loses her shit with it and
smashes it and all this gunk goes everywhere.
It looks a bit like a frozen kermit, doesn't it?
And that's great.
Give her that moment where she gets to literally bash it to shit
is great.
Yeah.
And now it's all about hemma.
Yes.
Yeah.
I like I said, there's been there's been enough time away from him
for us not to suspect this at all.
No, that's right.
That's right.
But I think, and, and, you know what it is?
there, it's that, where she says, she realises 1st and says not
quite.
It's not over.
And then we cut to him and he says, I'm going to go outside.
You know what it is with Strangely Worlds, is they have learned
the conventions of television, so they know how to subvert it and
surprises.
And not each track, it's like, no, we're going to do all the
conventions of television one after another.
That's right.
And all of this will try and do space things to stop it from
happening, and of course we can't do that.
I do need to let everybody know that I have, in fact, been
watching him of suicide.
This entire episode, Nathan's background in the Zoom call.
Yes, yes.
There's a tiny hammer falling out of the hatch there.
Behind me.
The way her reaction is so poignant.
So what I love, what I love is he tells her, so he says goodbye to
Spock and we have had him and Spock together as well.
That went through the well.
Yes, he said my friend.
And so what he says to Ahura is, you need to love people.
I want to leave you with one last piece of advice.
This is so beautiful.
Because it's happening to her now.
The thing that she fears more than anything else is connecting
with someone and them dying.
Like happened with her parents.
And he's dying right now.
And he's telling her that even though this hurts, you have to keep
doing it.
And so I love how Nurse Chappel just holds her while she's, you
know, she's doing the usual...
She's making a connection there.
Yeah.
Well, she has made this connection and it's hurting her right now
but he's saying you have to perceist. you have to keep doing it.
And look, look.
Oh, beautiful, beautiful Celia.
She's so good.
She's just all...
Nestling a really shocking surprise at the end of such a cliche
episode.
It was such a savage. such a great move.
Yeah, because you're sort of relaxing into this going, all right
we know how this plays out.
They're going to find the monsters.
And we've had the bit of relief.
Like she smashed the monster.
It's dead.
It can't hurt us anymore.
And that, just like Andoria, you know, the joke that was a fun
character bit about what a weirdo he is, and he gets to look out
on what, what looks like his homeworld for the last time in a
incredible special effect.
He just disappears.
There he goes.
He falls. tiny in the frame.
His minuscule there.
Yeah, yeah.
The only reason you can see him is that he's moving.
I saw how I would like to go, Nathan, in a moment of heroic self
sacrifice like this.
I would like Celia Rose Gooding to be crying.
I want to go in slow motion, so that's perfect for me.
You know, after being chased around by a load of monsters.
I mean, it's just perfect.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, oh, this is the tractor beam. dragging the ship. how broken
the ship looks.
Look how broken that Nacelle is.
I think we thought the consequence of this was going to be losing
that lieutenant, which is still, that's still a good shock.
Oh, and and cadet cheer.
Like, that's it.
I think we're put on, you know, I've forgotten about it.
She was twitching on the floor in a pool of blood.
It was a pretty great performance.
A lot of people were, though, in this episode.
Yeah, that's true.
Oh, yeah, where is she?
Where is she in this episode?
So she was, she was flying the ship to deliver them.
Well pissed if it was me.
The batteries to K7.
That's why.
You just need some terrible excuse to get them all down there.
They do it all the time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But they get rid of Una and they get rid of of Erica.
And Erica, I think, is the most underused character so far.
And I think she's just as charming as her.
Look how beautiful.
What's the actress's name that plays Ahura?
Uh, it's it's um Celia Gooding Jr.
I keep calling a senior Gooding Jr.
Celia Rose Gooding.
Her father is a junior.
She's not.
How she conveys emotion without overselling it.
She did it in that 2nd episode and really movement by barely doing
a thing and she's doing it here right now.
What asset they've got there.
And she's quoting she's quoting him from episode four.
Fix what is broken and he did.
And Eve, what made her, what persuaded her to stay was actually
undergoing the thing that she feared the most, and loving people
means that this happens to you all the time.
And that's okay because it's worth it.
It's so good.
And may I also add she is just beautiful as well?
Oh, yeah, yeah, stunning.
Just got it.
A camera loves her.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Here we go.
Spock and Ahura.
Yeah.
Nog, nog, nog, nog.
They did snog 2 weeks ago.
Come on.
I mean, look at them. so pretty.
You would, would you?
Absolutely.
Oh my god.
I've let something out, rage and pain.
So, we were talking uh, the other night with um, like some of the
flights through entirety people about how high def means that
Spock has this sort of beard basically all the time.
Um, you know, because clearly he's a man who needs to shave very
frequently.
And so, like, Nemoy had a fair bit of makeup on us, Pock, as well
like, you know, pancake, but yes, he's much more heavily bearded
than his predecessor.
Even black, look at that hug.
Well, it's a proper human heart. you know what I mean?
Like that's that's what she offers.
It's how 2 people culling on to each other when they're in a lot.
And it's not, like, that's not what Spock is like, and we will
explore this next year.
And in fact, the theme of the annual Spock and to bring sex comedy
the straight of sex comedy, is him being human.
So is there going to be a sex comedy in series 3 as well?
I hope so.
But you remember the body swap comedy in series one?
And then there's a high concept, sex comedy episode in series 2
which is just wonderful, which involves meetings. they're trying
to write the mistakes they did in not his track.
Those terrible sex episodes in it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's not one of them that works in 90s.
No, no.
Now that we're back on the ship, on our ship, even though it's the
same sets, not all of them, but the warmth of the lighting, how
yellow everything is, you know. and the camera has stabilised.
Yeah.
Not completely though.
I didn't realise it was all the same sets.
Yeah, yeah.
It's just redressed enterprise.
This is so cheapy then.
Well, the funny thing was that I think, um, Chris, or someone says
that it's a blah, blah, blah, class ship, which is made up of many
of the same parts that the Enterprise is.
They do hang a London on it, then.
Oh, okay.
That's very handy, a bit like N-pop normal, you know?
Yeah that's right.
Well, remember it was a constitution class ship in the doomsday
machine.
It's not like they haven't done it before.
But it's quite nice to see the same sets. you know, dress and lit
differently.
I mean, I don't think anyone could look at this episode and say
it's a cheapy.
But look how warm as well Christina Chong is in this scene.
And when she calls him Chris, there's something so lovely and warm
about them calling him by his 1st name.
Just like after that, she's like an ice cube in that 1st episode
and she slowly thaws throughout the season.
So it's really nice. the thing that we can't hear.
So this scene, remember that she's been seconded to all sorts of
things and that's why she was working, working with Hammer.
She comes onto the Bridge of the Enterprise.
Is she about to leave?
Has she made a decision because there's her station and what we
hear on the soundtrack is the sound that her station has made ever
since original Star Trek. those little pinging Star Trek noises.
And that's what we go out on.
And I think that's where she decides to take the position.
Like, I've been talking a lot about course corrections that
Strange Nuance has been doing throughout this episode and where it
hasn't worked in the past, but lots of different things.
Ahura is the best example of that, where you and I have done
countless episodes of original Star Trek, where she's barely got a
line.
And we'd be going, well, she's just there shed doing nothing.
This is what she should have had.
I'm so pleased they're doing this.
It's a shame to Michelle Nichols because she was great.
And I think Michelle did get to mate Celia, I think.
I can't remember.
But, you know, like Nichelle did live long enough, I think, to see
the beginning of this.
There's something I don't need to talk to you about, which I said
I was going to bring up in the episode, and then we had no time to
do it because we were too busy squealing and laughing at all the
bloods. occurred in this.
But you know, I should sent you a link recently of a YouTube video
of a man who finds all of modern day trek, absolutely appalling
woke, you know, nonsense, and always refers back to the heydays of
90s trek when it was serious and worthy and, you know, spectacular
drama.
Well.
I used to be that person, I think.
And what it pleases me to say, through our run of dipping in and
out of Kurtzman Trek, which I really didn't have a lot of love for
at all.
You know that.
Yeah, yeah.
And through my discussions with you, and just through being able
to compare TV from the 60s to the 90s, to now and the
characterisation and how they write these shows and how they, as I
said, subvert the conventions of television.
There is something incredible happening in Kursman Trek.
I don't think they always get it right.
I think they do lean into nostalgia too much.
And, you know, they they do learn their lessons as they go.
But the best of it, and this show, strangely well.
This is the best of what they do.
It's just fucking exceptional.
How anybody can look at this TV and say this is bad compared to
something like horse oblivion than we watched last week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Are you people mad?
All right, it's the end of the episode, and it's time to find out
what we're doing next.
I was the one who for once rolled a good episode of Star Trek.
What in 10?
You've got to get it right.
Yeah, that's right.
So what are we going to be watching next week?
Well, obviously, we've watched some stunningly executed television
so we'll do what we normally do and spring ball back to some less
stunningly executed television.
And we're going back to the 90s again just because I love talking
about it so much.
And because we're so fucking much of it we've got to get through.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm going to put in my free fades to talk about Next Generation
Deep Space Island Voyager.
Yep, yep.
And let's see what we get.
Oh, buck at me.
No, no.
Oh, what is it?
Oh, don't press the button. yeah You have to know what it is.
Got to be shit on 90s track of all the time.
Oh, what is it?
What is it?
You're right.
Star Trek.
The next generation episode is season six, episode 22.
Suspicions.
Yeah.
I can't wait to do suspicions.
Oh, but we were so mean of it.
It's really terrible.
It's so terrible. terrible in a fun way.
All right, okay, roll again.
Oh, yes.
Okay.
No, no, no, no.
This is one of my favourite next generation episodes. and I can
practically guarantee on this rewatch, it will still be one of my
favourite next generation episodes.
Season three.
Episode three, the survivors.
Oh, I love this episode.
It's the one where Troy is hearing all that music box music and
she's like, please make it stop.
Yeah.
The reason, I mean, we'll get interesting.
The reason I think this works so well is it's just so simple is
such a simple idea.
Brilliantly done.
Yeah, okay.
Yep.
Yeah, I just remember that house, the fantastic...
The spatial of the grass.
Yeah, square of brass on the deserted planet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I remember Riker been trussed up a tree.
Do you remember on the rope?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's just proper them doing Star Trek things all episode too.
People are going to think we've got something against Marina 30s
because the last episode we watched.
We love being evil, which she was being tortured.
And now in this episode, she's being tortured again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But she is awesome.
Cheers.
All right, cool.
Brilliant.
Let's do it You've been listening to entitled Star Trek Project
with Joe Ford and Nathan Bottomley.
We're online at Untitled Star Trek Project.com, where you can find
subscription links and links to our social media accounts.
Our podcast artwork is by Kayla Ciceran, and the theme was
composed by Cameron Lamb.
This episode was recorded on the 9th of April, 2024 and released
on the 26th of April.
We'll see you next time for Star Trek the Next Generation, the
Survivors.
Of course.
Worthy Star Trek, course oblivion, yeah.
And this guy, right?
Because I could listen to 90 seconds of it, but he had like boring
fanboy voice and it was just shitting me and so I couldn't last
any longer.
And he's going, uh, the last time that Star Trek did anything
original was Voyager and Enterprise.
And I'm kind of going, you know, you do realise Voyager is, what
if Star Trek the Next Generation only right wing?
And then Enterprise is, what if Star Trek, the Next Generation
only much more right wing?
You know, like, really, right?
That's right Like, what's, what's so original about it?
You know?
Like, in fact, in fact, that guy, and I did read the 1st comment
he likes Stranger Worlds, but Stranger Worlds, he's very Trad.
And so what he was reacting to, although he identified it as it
being unoriginal.
What he was reacting to was Star Trek doing things that it's never
done before.
And he hated that, clearly, discovered.
Yeah, yeah.
Like when discovery arrives, it very, very clearly says this is
not a 90s Star Trek episode.
This isn't just the next Star Trek that came along.
This is something different.
And of course, Discovery has all of its own problems and stuff, as
we've talked about.
But this actually says, no, this is the next Star Trek show, we're
even going to do the monologue in the opening credits.
This is a success of Star Trek.
It's this, next gen, and original Star Trek are the 3 Star Trek
episodes, 3 Star Trek series, you know.
In its execution, in its writings.
They just understand how to make better TV.
And that's a thing that happens over time.
Like this is this is the thing.
Like, I think we can grade on the curve.
And I think that, like, I think there's genuinely brilliant, you
know, like original track and genuinely brilliant 90s track.
We wouldn't afford them for it if there wasn't something there.
No, that's right, but people got better at watching television and
at making television and that's just undeniable.
And so this looks and is paced and has better dialogue and more
interesting characters than previous iterations of Star Trek did.
But it's fine.
In the same breath, we could still watch, you know, that boring if
memory serves that we watch from Discovery series.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then watch Star Wars.
That was boring.
A week later, I go, that's a bit of television.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's not, you know, there's overlaps and all sorts of things.
And I think you do grate on a curve.
I think it's absolutely, you know, unreasonable to watch an
episode of Star Trek, the Next Generation, and complain that it
doesn't have great CGI monsters in it.
Do you know what I mean?
Like they do with I think I think we can complain about how bad
the budget is.
Do you know what I mean?
And how that is, like, grappities in all sorts of ways.
But, you know, like it does inventive things and all of that sort
of stuff.
Like we talked about the...
Just saying we're not going to do 24 episodes.
We going to do 10 and that makes a difference.
Except the amount of money, that makes a huge difference, doesn't
it?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
But remember that what they do is they run a bunch of series at
the same time and it's not happening now and there was COVID and
people's contracts ended and we're in a weird position.
If you have a bad episode, then it's one of 10 rather than one of
26.
Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, no, there's swing some roundabouts, but sure.
But I really have to come to embrace this though, which is quite
nice.
Yeah, it's so good.
I mean, Fitzbat is still annoying.
Discovery and other shows.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, fair enough too. we'll get there.
I think we've got a tag there, you know.
Yeah, I think we probably do.
All right.
Let's roll a thing.
Let us roll everything. you sure?
Yes, because you you said we're definitely going to do Strange New
Worlds because you needed a...
That's right.
Well, I can't promise it's going to be a good one next, baby.
All right, I'll do it.
All right, it's the end of the episode.