Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you're curious about a nerd's views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of this episodes! I've watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!
Season 2 is literally coming out still AS I AM WRITING THIS. SO BIG SPOILERS, OKAY? SPOILERS TIME. I know literally nothing about it, except that it's after season 1, which is the best season of Star Trek ever, in the best Star Trek show, ever. HIT IT!
Lost in Translation - SNW
10/10
UHURA EPISODE! She hasn't gotten to do really all that much. She's been around to help others and do her job but this is her first real character development since, y'know.... Hemmer. I'm still not okay by the way. It's been a literal year and I'm never going to be okay.
Hemmer recorded a fucking video for her to show her how to do communication maintenence so she'd always have it. He was so good, too good. Anyways we get more Warp Core Witch, this time with Uhura! Surely cause she had such a good report with the last engineer, she will too this time right? No! She's been avoiding her! Oops!
Oops, Hemmer Zombie. So after Hemmer's death, his actor went "You haven't seen the last of me! I WILL be back in season 2!" We see him in that video and uh, also here. As a fucking zombie. Anyways Uhura is hallucinating. She hasn't actually been sleeping. She's suffering from minor Deuterium poisoning. Uh oh.
Kirk is back!! He's becoming a main stay. For his first canon trip to the Enterprise, he visits Sam Kirk, and the two of them are... having arguments. Sam is jealous of Kirk cause Kirk is doing AMAZINGLY in his career, and dad always loved him better, etc etc. Also Una and the Warpcore Witch are arguing. Also Spock and Nurse are also having disagreements about their relationship. This entire episode is about relationships, and strained ones. Good theme. Let's see how it works it out.
Kirk and Uhura's first meeting! She does NOT like him. She's not in a good headspace, the delusions are getting worse, and she refuses to sleep because of her nightmares. God bless Kirk for not actually hitting on her btw. Anyways she has a delusion and sees everyone on the ship dead, and herself attacking her. She punches back, and turns out she just fucking decked Kirk. I cannot fucking believe on their first day of meeting, Uhura punched out Captain Kirk. That is SO funny and validates all of our personal fan theories. God bless Kirk again, because he's like "uh okay. I won't have you written up, and I'll do what I can to help you, let me check with my medical officer".
Uh oh. More delusions are spreading. Someone sabotaged the station and was... unstable, clearly seeing things. There's damage to his speech and auditory centers of his brain, and he goes nuts, hurting M'Benga and running out. Uhura isn't sure what's real and what's not, and she needs to be the one to help stop him. That's fucked up.
All of this is VERY fucked up, and very tense. The energy is REALLY good? This series is so good at bouncing between serious and fun, but some episodes go REALLY hard on one or the other. Last episode (the Spock Is Human one) was VERY silly. This is very, VERY serious. And all the while, this horrible low droning is going through her head, this horrible sound is a fortell that something very bad is going to happen.
One of the Nacelles is fucking exploded by the insane guy, and Kirk and Uhura very barely make it. Two dead, M'Benga in surgery, Uhura thinks she should be confined to her quarters. I THINK THAT TOO. She's hearing the same sounds like, she might start hurting people too? Pike disagrees. I dunno, Pike...
Aww cute La'an and Kirk moment. Kirk working through about wanting to help people, La'an telling him how great he is for it.
Also a great Una and Pelia scene! LOTS of good scenes, but this one is great. Una HATES Pelia, cause Pelia is sloppy. She ignores rules and discipline. She's a Space Hippie. "You have CRUMBS ON YOUR SHIRT! WHEN DID YOU EVEN EAT?!" She also feels superior. Pelia's been in Starfleet for a century. But Una is over her! That makes her BETTER! Maybe Pelia doesn't CARE or WANT to move up the ladder???
Uhura is coming to terms with her failures. One she's been suffering from all season. She hasn't been sleeping, because of her fear of death. She can't handle it, and after Hemmer died, it's really fucked her up. Kirk is there to help her, and gives her a rousing speech to fight against death, rather than run and cower. It also fits canonically. Shout outs to that one Mccoy line: "You did what you always do. Turned death into a fighting chance to live."
Hey we actually get Sam Kirk DOING SAM THINGS! He's a Xenobiologist, he loves aliens, and they think an alien is trying to communicate with Uhura, and they need his help. Kirk goes with Uhura, and they work through this. Turns out, the aliens are in the deuterium they're trying to activate and refine. That's why they got the other guy to sabotage the refinery and blow up the nacelle, and they tried to communicate to Uhura that they're trapped, and being tortured and killed. But it's too late. The refinery is done, Pelia and Una finished their work.
They have to blow up the refinery. As they do, Hemmer gives one last smile, and fades. His last moment. I'm sure blowing up this refinery on the edge of Gorn space they were gonna use for a future war won't cause any problems. This was an amazing episode. So many wonderful character moments, for basically everyone. EVERYONE. From big stuff, to small stuff. Sam and Kirk playing siblings REALLY well. Kirk calling out Spock's losing chess moves. The fact that the first friend Kirk made on the Enterprise is Uhura. Una being sad over Hemmer and Pelia giving support in her own witchy way. Just, everything. Literally everything. Perfect episode.
Those Old Scientists - SNW
9/10
CROSSOVER TIME? CROSSOVER TIME! Also fun fact, it's directed by Jonathan Frakes :D. It's Crossover Time between SNW and Lower Decks! I haven't watched Lower Decks so this might be odd but let's hope I enjoy it! It starts with an episode of Lower Decks, basically, with most of the characters excited to look at some portal, which apparently Pike's crew looked at a hundred and fifty years ago!
While looking at the Portal, it does Portal Things, and one of the characters (I don't know his name yet) is sucked through, oh no! Boimler, that's his name, okay. So, Boimler weirds out all of the Enterprise because of how much of a fucking nerd he is. He's a huge history dork about all of these historical heroes and look I'd prolly also freak out if I saw Pike in person but that's because I want to fuck him, not because he's a war hero or whatever.
This episode is a different vibe. Like, of course it is. It's a crossover episode, it has mixed vibes. Anyways Orions! Look, I want them to do more with Orions. Orions are just pirates who come in and steal shit a lot. Anyways here's some Orion scientists. They steal the portal.
Wow, Boimler is really, REALLY bad at being in the past. He just keeps doing shit. He's an awkward dude, that's his character concept. But that makes for VERY bad things when he could butterfly effect everything. He helps them find the Orions and trade back for the portal, and then as he tries to go back through the portal, Mariner comes through instead. Whoops! Now we got TWO problems! :D
I love Mariner??? She keeps ogling Spock like "damn young Spock is hot?" Apparently her actor added that in, and Frakes was like "fuck yeah go for it". This is EXACTLY how I would act too, though specifically about Pike. Also tbh about Mariner too??? Her actress is SO HOT WHAT THE SHIT? Ahem. Anyways sorry.
THERE WAS A CARDASSIAN AND BAJORAN MENTION WOAH HELL YEAH DS9, TAKE A DRINK
This episode is mostly just.... fun. It's goofy fun. It lets all the characters flex. I also love when Uhura and Ortegas gush about historical people that THEY admire and lol things don't always change in the future. Anyways it's nothing HUGE. A lot of really tiny small things that tie up little threads. And a lot of smaller emotional threads.
This was a cute episode.
Under the Cloak of War - SNW
8/10
The episode starts with this old Klingon ambassador, who is VERY unklingon, coming aboard the Enterprise as a gesture of good faith. Most on the Enterprise are NOT comfortable with Klingons, as they fought in a war two years ago, and they're very not happy with this particular Klingon, because he was a general at the battle of J'Gal.. Ortegas insults the ambassador. M'Benga has PTSD flashbacks upon seeing him, and a massive panic attack. And all the while, the Ambassador is still very unklingon, saying his culture is awful, and that the only thing to it is warmongering.
We jump to a flashback. It's showing Nurse Chapel and M'Benga's first meeting, at a warfront on J'Gal. It's... dark, and interesting. Trek hasn't often portrayed war? War was always a thing that was possible on the horizon, or in history... but not like, a thing that they SHOWED, until DS9. The ultimate goal of the Federation is to make peace, but people are people, and war is war. And it happens. This does well to show it, I think. My chat said it's "literally M.A.S.H" but I've not watched M.A.S.H, so.
Back in the present, Pike has orders that veterans need to interact with the ambassadors, and he does his best to like, try to talk to his friends, make sure they're okay, give them an out. But everyone is willing to do it anyway, even if they're MASSIVELY uncomfortable. But they're there anyway, because they believe in what the Federation stands for, peace, even if their emotions are running wild.
This episode is... heavy, and very tense. Especially seeing poor M'Benga, who we love and know is a great person deep down, being roped into violence, again and again in the past, and now here, having to grapple with his inner demons and trauma, as he hears the ambassador talk about how great peace is and now he's a changed man over dinner. It's just the most awkward thanksgiving dinner. Especially when Ortegas calls him on his bullshit and he basically does a "I'll pray for you" response.
Back in the past again, M'Benga imprints on this poor kid, who's panicking, not knowing why they're here. M'Benga tells him war sucks, fighting sucks, but if we're ever going to have peace, we need to. And the kid takes it to heart, and goes on a suicide run. This is going to end in tragedy.
Incoming transport. That repeated word. As more come in, over and over. Dying. Dead.
M'Benga and Rah, the Ambassador, fight it out in a sparring match. It... goes about as well as you'd expect, maybe better. No one is HURT lol, at least. Rah wants to work with M'Benga to better peace, because the two of them working together sends a good message, and we find out Rah murdered his soldiers, because of the atrocities they committed. Murdering and torturing. Killing children. He admits to it. War changes you.
In the end, we find the truth. M'Benga actually murdered those generals, not Rah. Rah took his credit, to try and make him look better to the Federation. There's a scuffle, Rah wants to work past his trauma, M'Benga kinda... can't. And in the scuffle, M'Benga kills Rah. Nurse Chapel then covers it up, claims Rah attacked M'Benga. After all, that knife belongs to the Butcher of J'Gal, it has the blood of those murdered on it... so it's his, right? He's the one who struck?
We don't see it. It's behind a divider. We don't know exactly what happened. M'Benga denies starting the fight. We may never know. It's ambiguous.
This episode was good. I like it. But characterwise, I'll have to see where it goes. I'm not sure how they're gonna take M'Benga here. My views on this might change based on what they do with him. That line at the end, about how "some things get broken and can never be fully fixed again" worries me.
Subspace Rhapsody - SNW
10/10
This episode starts with lots of Relationship Drama between all the couples on the ship. Chapel is leaving for 3 months. Pike is being flighty with his partner. Kirk is here, AGAIN (wow they just KEEP bringing Kirk back) while Uhura and Spock are trying to communicate with a Subspace Fold. Uhura chooses the next thing to send into it, and she chooses showtunes. A wave flies out at the Enterprise, and suddenly, OOH! MUSICAL EPISODE!
The first song is everyone singing about their parts in "the play", who they are and what they do, while also going "why the fuck are we singing". It sounds fucking awesome.
THE INTRO THEME IS ACAPELLA OMG.
I am going to love this, aren't I? I'm not a showtunes girl mind you, I don't watch TOO many musicals, but I love music just... in general. It's very important to me. So an episode with a lot of good music is a great idea. This entire thing is a great idea tbh.
An "unprobability field" is connecting them to some alternate reality where everyone sings. A musical universe. Most people are bothered by this (ESPECIALLY Pike, who's like "omg we gotta fix this"). I think it's great. But it IS making them say things they'd never actually say out loud. This DOES end up being a problem when La'an sings about alternate timelines in her quarters and is like "uh captain this is a security threat"
Look at this amazing art they made for this.
Uh oh. The zip is spreading. Pike's girlfriend calls and starts singing and she's NOWHERE on the ship. The Improbability Field is expanding, to the ENTIRE fleet, through the subspace network. It's getting worse and more dangerous now.
I like how it's established that two people here love musicals and music in general. Uhura, of course, and also Una, who studied Gilbert and Sullivan, and they're both the experts on this. Una has a lot of songs helping people out, and Uhura has some ideas on how to fix the issue. It's cute.
The improbability field has already reached the Klingons, who consider it a massive dishonor, and are headed there in two hours to blow it the fuck up. They did some testing and found out yes, if you tried to blow up the fold, every single ship in the fleet would explode. I guess that's what happened in Discovery, huh?
Oh we're having this talk! This'll be good. There's no music though, because La'an REALLY ACTUALLY wants to talk about it. and she wants to "talk about it without doing a 17th century sea shanty". Kirk understands, and apologizes, as he's in a relationship with Carol Marcus right now. But he's there for her. This Kirk is a really cool guy.
I'll be real, I don't have a whole lot to say? Because the episode is kinda simple, in a way. It's a lot of very good character and relationship drama, with VERY VERY good music. It's REALLY good. I especially love Chapel's theme about how she doesn't need Spock, and then Spock's reprise of it where he talks about how he sacrificed everything to be with her. Also good wordplay about being "the X".
I also love what this does with Uhura. She's the one who figures out everything and she brings us all together. She's good with communications, and that's what we need right now. They need to do one final number, one large finale. If everyone can sing it'll create enough Technobabble Units to shatter the field.
One final song, even the Klingons join in! It's pretty great, and the day is saved with the power of musicals and singing! The episode ends with tying up a few loose ends. Including with Pike and Patel... She's like "I'm off on a priority one mission but we'll have our date when we get back". Oh she's so dead.
This episode was really fucking good. I almost wish it went harder, especially with visuals. The only good dance number was really Chapel's song, but it's still great.
Hegemony - SNW
9/10
This episode literally starts with shots of a colony that's pretending to be a Midwestern American town, with a bunch of children running around, all "whee I sure do love being alive"
Oh this episode will fix that, kids. Remember when I said SNW does this thing where it whips between happy and upsetting episodes? Well it's whippin' REAL hard, I can already tell.
Batel, Pike's girlfriend, is hanging out on this planet, trying to get them to join the Federation. Nurse Chapel is there too, and as all the kids cheer happily at being alive, oops, the fucking Gorn show up.
Pike IMMEDIATELY goes to help out, but Admiral April is like "Hey don't help out the colony. They're not directly Federation, and we don't want war with the Gorn. We don't understand them, they aren't MONSTERS". This season has been very very bad at showing Admiral April in a good light, I'm not gonna lie. But as we've LONG since determined, once you're promoted to admiral, your brain go mush.
"I sure hope your girlfriend possibly being murdered won't cloud your judgement, Pike", says Admiral April.
Anyways, his girlfriend possibly being murdered clouds Pike's judgement, and he pulls out a literal "break in case of Gorn" box filled with weapons specifically designed to fight the Gorn. They're going in, against all orders. I'm sure this will go well! And ERICA GETS TO JOIN A LANDING PARTY! How exciting~ The landing party is Sam Kirk, M'Benga, Erica, Pike, and La'an. A good group for a war with the Gorn. Well mostly. Sam Kirk last time he was with the Gorn was straight up the "GAME OVER, MAN, GAME OVER" guy. He literally brings that up, and says he wants to be better.
So, I heard this episode described as "An X-Com Terror Mission". Basically, in the game X-Com, aliens invade towns and cities across Earth and abduct and kill civilians, and you send in X-Com marines who try and find the aliens and take them out. It's... tense and terrifying, and this episode shows it quite well.
No one is optimistic. But Pike refuses to accept that Batel might be alive, and Spock is the same with Nurse Chapel. Well, Pike IS optimistic, ever the optimist. He hopes one day they can communicate with the Gorn, and reach out. Maybe some day. TOTALLY not today.
This episode is bloody and meaty. Meat drips from the ceiling, is splattered all over walls.
OH FUCK IT'S MONTGOMERY SCOTT. WHAT THE FUCK. Didn't expect him to show up this early. He's a little shaken up, understanding considering he's the ONLY survivor we've seen so far. He built a trap to trap Gorn, very Scott. He's also figured out a lot abotu the Gorn, like how they react to light, and how to hide in plain sight with some duct tape and gum. Again, very Scott.
He leads them to the other survivors, and OH SHIT BATEL IS STILL ALIVE! Wasn't expecting that. Still a chance for her to die horrible I guess. She forces Pike to talke her along on a mission to retreive Scott's shuttle, and Scott goes too. Good, two canonical survivors are going with you, your chances are better.
Speaking of Canonical Survivors. Gosh, Chapel CANNOT take a break, constantly waking up in situations with people dead or captured around her, in dangerous places. She's an action survivor though.
We watch Spock fly towards the Cayuga's lifeless corpse, planning to set up little thrusters so it'll fly past the Gorn and hit their tower they set up on the planet. He's floating along in space in an enviro suit, and I was getting movie flashbacks.
We get a sick-ass battle with Spock and a Gorn in a space suit, and Chapel jumps in to help out in her own suit. It's good shit.
Meanwhile back on the planet, Pike, Scott, and Batel are confronted with a Gorn Baby. The Gorn Baby sees Batel and just fucks off. Welp, we know what THAT is. She's got Gorn Eggs in her. She doesn't want to come along with them, but Pike REFUSES to let her sacrifice herself, citing Hemmer directly. They beam a woman with live eggs onto the Enteprise, as the others left on the surface line up to be beamed up.... directly into the Gorn ship.
The Federation orders them to leave, and Pike is left with a choice. We zoom on his face, and...
THEY BEST OF BOTH WORLDS THIS WHAT THE FUCK.
Good episode. Very scary, sets up for the future so well. Imagine if this show gets cancelled cause of strikes lololol I made myself cry.
THOUGHTS
No bad episodes, this season was like just as good as the first. Fucking Christ. What a great show. I am so excited for what the future brings. I hope they never end this god damn show. It's still consistantly the best Trek ever. Even better than like, mid TNG, which still has some duds. But tbf, there are only ten episodes, compared to TNG's like, 26+.
Anyways. Shit's good.
