Star Trek Social Club

I'm so glad ya'll are here to talk about this!

The Broken Circle. Back to Strange New Worlds and Pike’s Dilemma and Una being arrested. Oh no.

Beautiful opening shot of the station! wow!

“Pike: … But even from afar I sense a tension here among the brass that I can’t pin down.”

I know how you feel Pike. gestures vaguely at how we are currently at rebellion with our former ‘home’

“Pike: Hey, you won’t have to leave space dock.”

“Spock: What is the human expression? Famous last words.”

Some foreshadowing there? Is Spock just going to have an easy time relaxing in Spacedock?

Dr: M’benga: "When you unleashed your anger to combat the Gorn, you removed those blocks. Now all your emotions are flowing more freely. "

Oh shit, is this setting up some more aggressive spock?

“Dr. M’benga: You’ll just have to learn to live with them. Like we all do.”

YES! THE HARP!

Uh oh, distress signal from La’An and Spock has to help out!

“The answer is obvious. We must STEAL THE ENTERPRISE”

OH YEAH! HERE WE GOOOOOOO!

“… Yes, you can always count on a Vulcan’s inability to lie. Another things I know about Vulcans. They don’t do things without a good reason. Do you have a good reason to steal the ship?”

“Spock: I am having what humans call, a ‘hunch’”

“A vulcan with a hunch, that’s a new one. And not just any Vulcan. Amanda Grayson’s Son.”

Well shit, she knows Spock’s mom. What’s up?

“If you’re going to steal a Starship, do it correctly!”

I love this lady’s very dry sarcasm!!!

“OH PLEASE. WE CAN SPEND A LOT OF TIME TALKING ABOUT THIS. OR WE CAN GO. You decide.”

“Spock: Vent the Nacelles on my mark.”

HERE WE GOOO

“Oh I just noticed you don’t have a chief engineer!”

"Be happy to sub in. Been a /Hundred/ years since I’ve gone out with Engines of my own. (A hundred years? Really?) It’s a long story. A really long story.

“Spock: The Starbase will have to wait. Cajitar system. Warp factor 5. …”

"Ortegas: You going to say it? Your thing?

“Spock: My what?”

“Ortega: Your thing. You know. Everyone in the chair has their thing.”

“Uhura: Captain Pike always says: ‘Hit it’”.

"My last captain liked to say “Zoom”

“Spock: Do you have a thing?”

“Ortegas: Well, I’ve been workshopping… ‘vamanos’ but it’s supposed to be about you. What kind of commander are you? All that. So no presh ;)”

“Spock: I would like the ship to go. Now.”

GOOOOOOOOOOOO

Those Klingon ridges are GORGEOUS

I like how La’An was surprised by Uhura’s promotion, “Wait, you’re ensign now?!”

“Chapel: Are you sure you want to do this again?”

“M’benga: Again, no. But I’m not seeing a better choice.”

And they hypospray themselves with that stuff that alters their physical power and kick Klingon ass wow.

Chapel’s in serious distress, and M’benga has the really intense look in his eyes.

Ortegas as snappy as ever, “70%” "Ortegas: Copy. That is the last time they dent our paint job. "

M’benga being EXTREMELY practical about getting off the stolen (and soon to be destroyed) ship

"M’benga: I can use the altitude jet to guide us away from the ship. (Only we’ll be dead) Not necessarily. It’ll take almost a minute for us to freeze to death. Don’t worry. We’ll pass out after 15 seconds. I know it’s a terrible idea. (Chapel: Yeah, it’s terrible. Let’s get to it then. )

OH MY GOD THEY DO A TRANSPORTR PERSPECTIVE YAYY!!

… and they’re FROZEN. And Chapel’s nearly dead :(((( Spock’s giving it his all!!

“Spock: I waited for you. You do not die!”

And we have an episode of near death! Our main characters are not immune from rough times. :|

Spock plays negotiator real well with the Klingons, and all he had to do was throw down the bloodwine.

“You drink bloodwine?”

“Spock: I have been known to.”

“This is something I must see. You’re no typical Vulcan.”

"Spock: No. It would seem I am not.

And our engineer has an ear for Klingon language.

"Well, uh, listen, I think my Klingon might be a little rusty, but did he just say, “May your blood scream”?

Spock: A Klingon toast the true meaning of which is becoming clear to me.

“You want to know the worst thing about living almost forever? (The loss of those you love?) Oh you sweet un-vulcan Vulcan, no. That’s a pain shared by all who live with even a half-open heart. No. It’s BOREDOM. And on that ship of yours, there seems to be a shortage of that. I like it. I might even stick around.” … TO THE VULCAN WHO ACTS NOTHING LIKE A VULCAN!

But alas, that Bloodwine resulted in quite a hangover.

"April: Consider that hangover your punishment. But next time, it’s your commission.

I like how we opened with a very contained episode. We got a lot out of M’benga and Chapel’s history.

Poor Chapel recovering rom being frozen in outer space… And Spock’s doing his best to calm his emotions with music. May he develop some deep meditative songs to heal this ache.

A beautiful dedication for our original communications officer.

"For Nichelle, who was first through the door and showed us the stars.

Hailing frequencies forever open."

Beautiful start to the season.

I guess Una’s trial is coming up.

I mean, it was telegraphed in S1 but there are definitely going to be some Gorn retcons this season.

I'm fine with this! But it was already tough to reconcile what we saw in S1 with later crews, "attending Gorn weddings" (much harder, imo, than the more reasonable 'they have been encountered, just in a limited capacity and with few survivors) and a full on invasion plotline - featuring Spock and Uhura no less - makes Arena tough to reconcile.

Again, that's fine!

I like the current Klingon design, though I wish they had kept the double nostril from DIS. The redesign went too far but their attempt to physically show the Klingon's redundant biology was appreciated.

The actual episode's plot was...fine. A bit rushed. Felt like a Mass Effect sidequest which is fine for an ep but hopefully not the feeling of the season as a whole. Establishing the character's war experiences and generally situating the series as post-war is probably necessary for the rest of the season. I have to wonder if they went out of their way to only show Spock and Pelia with the Klingons given other crew.....probably aren't ready to split a barrel of bloodwine.

Speaking of Pelia: a race of immortals living in secret alongside humanity and now just regular, serving members of Starfleet? Identifiable by accent even? It's a BIG swing and probably the most interesting (though for now unexplored) idea in the episode.

On the Crossfield refit...presumably from the 'shell' style associated with the pre-TOS ships (as seen in DIS Binary Stars sequence) with the Enterprise's modernized plating? Probably would have been simpler to just have a new class.

Huffman told NPR in an interview that Reddit needed to start behaving like an “adult” business. Earlier this week, the Reddit CEO compared the moderator-led protest to a child “blowup,” telling staffers in an internal memo that, “like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.”

I know this point has been hammered in by a lot of people, but this arrogance will eventually sink reddit. Not today, not tomorrow, not automatically after June 30th; but slowly the well will be poisoned until all faith in reddit as a platform evaporates. Both to sponsors as well as users.

I don't know if Fediverse is the future; it can be difficult to grasp for newer/casual users, the mobile apps that do exist have their flaws, and the content is limited compared to agrigators like reddit (and unfair comparison when comparing each other's size). But in the few days I've been here I've seen such a larger form of engagement than I've seen in a long time online. That's purely anecdotal, but I believe at the very least the Fediverse will lead to innovations in this space. And I'm very much looking forward to that.