EAS Today

Sweet mother of mercy, this season finale was a pain to watch...

You see, I can take the humorous episodes in a lighter tone and be so much more forgiving than when they fumble the "serious" episodes with so much "mumbo-jumbo" to make it completely veer off sci-fi and dive deep into full fantasy territory. And let's be frank, good fantasy is much, much more coherent than this third season finale.

Overall, third season fell off a steep cliff on narrative quality. I think the acting by some of the cast is what kept this from failing completely, but even then, the actors can't salvage this much garbage.

I'm afraid I'll wait for your take on 4th Season's episodes before giving it my tyme of the day, Bernd :P

Live long and prosper, fellow trekkers. Maybe one day we'll get good Star Trek again...

I mean, at least it wasn't puppets..........

.........also, so, Gorn bites turn you into Doctor Strange, or something smh........I can't begi to imagine how they expect anyone to come back for season 4.

It was a very tiresome day. While I was driving home, I prayed the Ascended Koala would grant me a decent SNW episode. "No can do" was His answer. Sure, I became grumpy towards SNW during this season and this may have had a negative impact, but... I feel @Bernd Schneider was too kind in his review. In addition to what he wrote, few comments follow.

1. I found the Skygowan CGI quite poor. It was unrealistic, too gameish for me, like the starbase dome environments - outdated. OK for 20 years ago but not for today.
2. The moment I saw the floating octahedrons I thought "Hellraiser II". When the camera zoomed in, "Assasin's Creed Odyssey Atlantis' textures". Yup. Gameish.
3. Lovecraftian cosmic horrors are not a good match with Star Trek. I disagree with the TrekCore folks who say ancient evil aliens are a common TOS theme. Also, even if correct, I honestly can't see any Lovecraftian horror in TOS (yes, I've read Lovecraft's complete works).
4. I like my ST secular. Keep religions where they deserve to be - the garbage bin. Yes, I do remember "Bread and Circuses", but I also remember the many false gods episodes from TOS, TAS and TNG.

Disappointing. I wanted to like SNW, but this season didn't help. Call me a Kurtzman-era hater if you want. I'd rather say its just not for me. Best wishes, I do hope the powers-to-be are right.

ETA:

I found the Nexus-like Pike's what if future life boring and too long. Found myself scrolling for the news in my cell phone about half of it. That's how I managed to resist the urge to skip it.

So, now the Federation knows Gorn DNA can turn people in to powerful demigods but TOS Kirk never heard of them. I can only hope they will not make an episode where Section 31 weaponizes it and things go wrong...

Reasonable people would consider placing worlds containing Vezda vaults under strict control - at the very least heavy secutity and surveillance around the vaults.

"Now suffer, primitive primate!" said the Ascended Koala...

The medical symbol used in the Confederation timeline is stock artwork available here . https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Actually, two scoutships were referenced in ST:TMP. During the long establishing shots of Epsilon 9 you hear someone relaying the message, "Scout Columbia, NCC-621, to rendezvous with scout Revere, NCC-595, on stardate..." Both of those were listed in the technical manual with those hull numbers

seems to me, it would have been something like a PT boat, so a lot of them could have been build during the dominion war.

Every time the Gorn show up in Strange New Worlds, I'm left feeling like bringing the Gorn back instead of creating an entirely new species was an enormous unforced error. Not only do they have nothing in common with the Gorn from TOS (and Enterprise) besides being generally reptillian, but it felt like another instance of the writers referencing a classic Star Trek episode while completely missing what the point of that episode was.

"Terrarium" felt like an attempt to course-correct, which I mostly appreciated—the plot was unoriginal but well-presented, to the point where I thought it could have been one of SNW's best episodes—except that it couldn't stop getting in its own way.

For one thing, I agree the B-plot on board the Enterprise really dragged the episode down. Uhura played basically the same role as she just did in "What is Starfleet?" without adding much to her character or the story—the most interesting moment is when she falsifies data and potentially endangers the ship in order to sell Pike on her plan, but then Pike just dismisses the issue by saying he knew the whole time and doesn't care. (This felt like a worse echo of Ortegas herself did in "Shuttle to Kenfori"—I assumed it was a deliberate callback at first, but SNW seems incapable of making a reference without directly calling it out, so I guess they just went back to the same well on instinct.)

And then the final five minutes kind of ruined the A-plot for me, too. Having La'an and the landing party immediately kill the Gorn was frustrating but consistent with how the show has treated the Gorn up until this episode. It reminded me of "Duet" from DS9, which I think handled the same idea better. (It did seem contrived that they sent a landing party in the first place when they obviously knew exactly where Ortegas was—but didn't know there was a Gorn with her?—and might have just beamed her up.) But the real disappointment came when the overarching mystery turned out to be another cheap TOS callback.

To the extent that "Terrarium" felt like an attempt to reconcile SNW's portrayal of the Gorn with TOS, adding in the Metrons just makes the problem worse. In "Arena," the Metrons seemed to be punishing both the Federation and the Gorn for effectively starting a fight in the Metrons' yard, but in "Terrarium" they've deliberately lured Ortegas and some random Gorn into an experiment to see if their species can get along, apparently just for kicks. Which is technically more a retcon than an inconsistency since we can assume the TOS Metrons were lying, but I don't see how it improves on the original: in "Terrarium," the Metrons come across as a weak deus ex machina to explain why the episode is so full of plotholes. It's also frustrating how obviously they were only included for the audience, since none of the characters will even remember them.

I've always had another, slightly more complicated, theory. And it comes from my own military background.

What if Picard always intended for LaForge to be the chief engineer, but for some administrative reason LaForge was stuck as a lieutenant junior grade? I've seen it happen. Someone misses a required school or certification, doesn't make a certain deadline, even got screwed over by a previous commander. There are lots of reasons why a promotion might be delayed that aren't based on potential or even performance of duties. There was even some season-one dialog that implied LaForge had been serving much longer than Worf, even though they were the same rank. (LaForge was only a couple years behind Riker career-wise, and they may even have been at the Academy together). So Picard agreed to bring LaForge aboard, temporarily assigned him as flight controller until whatever admin issue was cleared up, then promoted him quickly to full Lieutenant as soon as he was eligible. LaForge may even have completed some type of additional certification between seasons 1 and 2.

That's where the above theory comes into play. Since Picard already had his "permanent" engineer selected (but couldn't assign him), the other four "chief" engineers were actually on temporary tours. None of them were ever meant to be assigned permanently. Maybe the "temporary" engineers were evaluating the new systems, making adjustments for future Galaxy-class ships (or even the Nebula-class), or even just there because their next assignments weren't ready yet (ships being refit or constructed, etc). Nothing we'd ever

As someone who appreciates slapstick, general physical comedy and the type of chaos on Lower Decks, I heartily agree.
If you are going to do a live action Trek, tell good stories first then approp humour. Not utter tripe from the off!

I should note, LWD also has some very thoughtful classic Trek moments in it alongside the humour. SNW is going down the cheap rehash road.

How many times has the 'last world war' moved now? In TOS it happened in the 90s, IIRC TNG just gave a vague 21st Century, First Contact said when it ended, but I don't recall if any production said when it started. Memory-Alpha says 2026, but I'm not sure where that came from.

Model by

JLStudio

The Arrow class Runabout "Spirit of Proxima" escorted by two Kestrel class fighter. (Alternate view of this image: Escorting the Arrow)

In 2379, a medium-sized dispute broke out between the Kromsapiods and the Talarians over two planets in the Goliana system. The Talarians wanted to found a new colony there, unaware that the two planets serve as traditional hunting grounds for the Kromsapiods. Starfleet agreed to serve as a neutral mediator for the two parties, but due to the repeated outbreaks of violence on both sides, they wanted to play it safe and sent a small fighter escort with the diplomatic ship.

Rendered in 3ds Max 10

No Post Work

Arrow Class Runabout Designed by Malcolm Lu (Galen) and Andrew Gillespie (Kaden)

Kestrel class Fighter model parts (Typ 2 Shuttlecraft & Peregrine fighter) by David Metlesits

Similar Star Trek artworks:

Someone once asked me to make a display looking like someone from TNG or beyond was researching older starship designs. This is what I came up with

I never wrote about this cool shot of the USS Enterprise in orbit of Krulmuth-B in #StarTrekSNW's "Those Old Scientists". As it appears again at the beginning of the "last time on..." segment in "New Life and New Civilizations", I can finally mention this beautiful shot here. :-)

I like how this ready room shot in #StarTrekTNG's "Chain of Command I" is set up. Captain Jellico receives the bad news that there is no new information about the whereabouts of the away team on Celtris III, he fears the worst. This is echoed by the fact that no stars are seen outside the window.

Inhaltswarnung:#StarTrekSNW's "New Life and New Civilizations"" spoilers

The small device next to Scotty in #StarTrekSNW's "New Life and New Civilizations"⬆️ really reminded me of a similar prop seen in several #StarTrekTOS episodes, often close to Scotty ("The Naked Time"↙️, "The Galileo Seven"↘️).

Inhaltswarnung:#StarTrekSNW "New Life and New Civilizations" spoilers

At first I thought Pelia was referring to Berlinghoff Rasmussen (from #StarTrekTNG's "A Matter of Time") but he was only identified as "Professor" Rasmussen in the episode so I guess she IS talking about THE #DoctorWho Doctor in #StarTrekSNW's "New Life and New Civilizations".😀

#StarTrekSNW's "New Life and New Civilizations" does not have as much visual stuff to write about as the earlier season 3 episodes, which means I shall go back to covering #StarTrekTNG season 4 sooner than expected. More ready room stuff and some upcoming #StarTrekTOS research! :-)

Inhaltswarnung:#StarTrekStrange New Worlds' "Terrarium" spoilers

Here's a close-up of a service duct number 5 label, seen on the inside of a wall panel inside the shuttlecraft Archimedes in #StarTrekSNW's "Terrarium". I love these small details now visible thanks to 4K. :-)

Though the window frame is not seen in #StarTrekTNG's "Rascals"⬇️, this shot must also have been filmed through the ready room window, like this shot from season 1's "Coming of Age"⬆️. I love how similarly both shots (in which Picard has to make a tough decision about his future in Starfleet) are set up.

Inhaltswarnung:#StarTrekStrange New Worlds' "Terrarium" spoilers

Here's a comparison of the spherical shuttle console in #StarTrekSNW's "Terrarium"⬆️ and #StarTrekTOS' "The Galileo Seven"⬇️.

Inhaltswarnung:#StarTrekStrange New Worlds' "Terrarium" spoilers

The Epslion Indi star system has repeatedly featured in various #StarTrek episodes, namely in #StarTrekTOS' "And the Children Shall Lead"↖️, #StarTrekTNG's "The Naked Now"↗️, "The Child"⬅️, "Eye of the Beholder"➡️, #StarTrekSNW's "Terrarium"↙️ and #StarTrekDiscovery's "Terra Firma I"↘️.

Inhaltswarnung:#StarTrekStrange New Worlds' "Terrarium" spoilers

It seems in #StarTrekSNW's "Terrarium"⬆️, we briefly see a unique Starfleet Medical emblem: Instead of the regular one ("Hegemony II"⬇️) it only has two feathers on each wing. Read more about the Starfleet Medical emblem here:

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/medical_emblem.htm