*********** SPOILER OF SEASON 1 OF SNW **********
Couple of days ago I finished the 1st season of Strange New Worlds.
Disclaimer: I did not see or read any reviews on it, and avoided all trailers. From the new trek, I watched only Discovery. All being said are my opinions only, I do not expect you to agree, but any discussion is more than welcomed.
I will separate this review in three parts. The positives, the negatives and finally a hope for the future.
Positives
By far, the biggest positive is the return of a more episodic format. Where each episode has its own story, a problem to be solved. No season long arcs.
This allows to "dedicate" each episode to a different character and develop that character. So naturally, the characters are interesting, fairly likeable. To me, the most interesting character is Pike. I think the actor did a great job, and his struggle of knowing his own death is very well done in my opinion. Additionally, Spock has been explored quite a bit and I actually like the direction they are going with him. Exploring the boundary between Vulcan logic and Human emotion is obviously a difficult task for him and a very enjojable experience for us.
Some episodes gave us something to think about, a moral question which often does not have a clear answer. In episode 6 (Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach), we see a world celebrating a child which will suffer for life in order for the civilization to survive. A dialog between Pike and Alora at the end was probably peak of the season for me. "Tell me there are no poor children who starve and work in order for your civilization to work. The only difference between us is that we dont look away." (paraphrasing) No matter your stance on the morals of this, its a cool point to stop and think, and that is what ST is all about. Similar moral problem is presented in episode The Elysium Kingdom (ep 8), where Doc has to give away his daughter if he wants her to live. A decision not easy to make for any parent.
The Gorn. I honestly love what they did with the gorn. They made this mysterious, evil, terrifying villain. I like that they are "teasing" us with them, not giving us a lot to keep this sense of fear and unease. I was not a big fan of the "alien" episode, I thought that could have been done a bit better, but it was still a decent episode.
Negatives
As any show, or anything in life really, it has its negatives.
10 episodes in a season is too short. This short of a format seems to forced the writers to solve some "problems" they presented early on. Such as Pike knowing his end date, or Una being an Ilyrian or La'an having trauma from the Gorn. They decided to solve or resolve all these problems which could have been explored much further. This way, it felt rushed and the payoff was kind of meh. For comparison, things like Bashir's genetic modifications, or T'Pol's addiction to trillium-D were plot lines that were stretched out, allowed to mature and felt significant when resolved. La'an and her Gorn trauma seemed more like only hate, and not a PTSD as i thought it would happen. She seems more calm than any other person facing the Gorn, when she really should not.
The aesthetic of the show, while big improvement to Discovery, still does not seem like it belongs in a Star Trek show. Everything is too shiny and lights looks more like neon lights than normal natural lighting. Why is the future so shiny and full of lens flares? There is no way they have a cleaning person who is polishing the floors every day. This leads to some weird scenes, where the bridge, altough half destroyed, still looks new and good, just because its so damn shiny. You dont have a feeling that half of the bridge or ship is destroyed.
Killing of Hemmer was completley unnecesseray. I asumme they want to bring in Scotty to replace him. But he was a great character, who was non-human (Andorian) which we dont see often. He was a really cool character that did not get what he deserved. The reason behind most of those kind of decisions is that they are trying to hard to pay homage to TOS.
Personally, i have had enough with paying homage to older shows, i want something completely new. Literally, best ST shows are the ones which brought something completely new. TNG brought a completly new era, DS9 was the first to gives a station as a setting. VOY practically seperated us from the federation. New character, new settings, new stories. While here we have, old character, old setting, old stories. While I think the new Kirk is really cool and I like the character, give him a rest. Introduce a new character that we will love. I really hope this does not go to some kind of a TOS reboot.
Final thought and future hopes
I know i wrote a bigger section for negatives than positives. But I really do think this is a great show, a show I was hoping to have when they announced Discovery. I look forward to watching Season 2. I hope they continue this episodic format, and I hope they dont reboot TOS. And please, for the love of god, stop polishing the floor.
Any comments, thoughts and discussion are welcomed. That is the point of this, after all.
P.S. If you think I overlooked something and want my opinion on it, just ask :)
Croatia here,
tap water is completely drinkable and safe without any boiling. Exception are some more remote islands, so if you are going on some island, chekc if the tap water is drinkable.
Fun fact: Croatia actually uses drinkable water for toilets as well, altough i would not drink from a toilet :)