I enjoy it when Star Trek has fun being Star Trek, and The Serene Squall is Strange New Worlds having a lot of fun. It’s a space pirate episode. It’s quirky, and after how heavy last week was, that’s what Mrs. Know-It-All and I both needed.

The short version: a doctor named Aspen comes aboard and beseeches Starfleet to help a colony ship that’s been left out at the edge of non-Federation space. From the ashes of that situation, you find out the person we know as Dr. Aspen is actually Captain Angel, space pirate. Totally legit.

This was a Trek Talk Tuesday with homework. I made Mrs. Know-It-All watch two extra things this week: Amok Time from the original series, and Star Trek V, because once I introduced her to the character of Sybok, she had to see it. So we’ve got the episode, both of those, your comments, and a look at next week’s trailer.

Captain Angel Owned That Chair

Mrs. Know-It-All really liked this one. She’s been on a roller coaster with Star Trek, and after the intensity of last week this was a lot more fun for her. She liked the pirates. They were kind of goofy.

She’s never seen Harry Mudd, so I may have to force some original series episodes on her. Mudd is the space smuggler con man who later ends up king of an android planet. I told her to watch those just to get a feel for how Star Trek does space pirates, because this episode isn’t offbeat. It’s very close to that tradition.

She had a hard time seeing Angel as a villain at all. Yes, she’s a pirate, but she was determined for one purpose: all she wanted was her husband. Villainous, but not a villain. And she’s smart. Spoilers, her husband is Sybok, Spock’s half-brother, so she knows exactly who she’s dealing with, and I liked how she really broke Spock down. She reminded me of a Star Trek version of Sherlock Holmes’s girlfriend, the one who’s just as good at knowing things as he is and the only person who can really fool him.

And how dope was it seeing her in the captain’s chair with her leg thrown over the arm? She owned what she’d done at that point. She shows up like a 90s ska lead singer with the face tattoos and the outfits, and later she’s in the pirate bodysuit. I’m not even talking about whether it’s sexy. That bodysuit makes it look like she’s ready for business. I can’t not like her.

The Wild West of Space

I keep joking about this tongue in cheek, but I did like it. Pike says this part of space is basically the wild, wild west. Who knew? For Star Trek it’s always been that’s Cardassian space, that’s Klingon space, that’s Romulan space. You know who your neighbors are. Maybe at this point in time we haven’t fully learned who all our neighbors are, and that’s fine.

So I liked the expansion of canon: there are parts of space where, when you’re flying through the neighborhood, you hold on to your purse. If I see one of those ships coming on this side of space, I’m going to the other side of the street. Carjacking. I’m sorry, starship jacking.

Erica Ortegas Belongs in the Conversation

I liked that Pike called her Erica. I noticed that.

She’s piloting through all of this and doing an awesome job, and she’s one of my people. When they get stuck in that net (if they hadn’t told you what it was, I would’ve thought it was a Tholian web, the way it showed up in pieces), somebody asks what happens if they touch it and she says “kaboom.” Later, when the warning comes around again, she says she’s not going to say it again. I infinitely enjoy this character.

She belongs in the same conversation as Harry Kim on Voyager, Sulu and Chekov from the original series, and Colm Meaney back when Chief O’Brien was on the bridge all the time. The people who serve at ops and navigation are some of the quietest unsung heroes. The minute somebody gets up for the away team and red shirt number 10 sits down in that seat, I’m thinking, bro, I’m sorry, that entire station’s about to blow up and kill you. People forget the red shirts are in danger on the bridge too.

And y’all are going to think it’s goofy, but I enjoyed Alpha Braga IV very much. The idea that there’s an actual protocol that says we’re going to call a mutiny. I liked the end scene too, where they admit they may have called the mutiny a little early.

Spock, T’Pring and Chapel

I asked Mrs. Know-It-All how she felt about what T’Pring said to Spock afterward, which was basically “I knew you were just putting me on.” My reaction was: did you, though? Her read was that it was logic. T’Pring thought he wasn’t capable of doing that, so it had to be an act. I think he is capable, because he has a human side. Any time Gia Sandhu is playing T’Pring, I’m in. I’m in love with her version of the character.

I do think they’re doing the Chapel thing strictly for tension. Chapel in the original series did have a crush on Spock. It was unrequited, but it was there, and you see it in Amok Time when she tries to bring him soup. I feel like Chapel tipped her hand here. She’s been real good being the flirty friend. You can totally be friends with someone and love them. I have a very good friend who was one of the first people I became friends with when I moved here, I was at her wedding, and she was the best woman at ours.

This is one of the few times I think Ethan Peck is playing it a little too emotional. Don’t get me wrong, there are original series episodes where Spock shows emotion, and yes, he’s half human. At this point in the history he hasn’t endured Kolinahr, the full-blown purge of his emotions. That comes later. Right now, latching on to logic is his own will. I’m way oversimplifying something that should be much more mystical, but you don’t actually eliminate emotions, you build psychic barriers to certain triggers. He hasn’t done that yet, so I’m okay with some emotional flip-flopping.

Amok Time, 1967

In the throes of his pon farr, Spock has to return to Vulcan to meet the wife he’s been betrothed to since childhood. He’s going nuts, everyone’s worried, and Kirk agrees to take him. Then the mission gets moved up and there’s no time. So when Kirk sits down to rest, Spock takes the bridge and orders them to Vulcan anyway. If he doesn’t make it, he dies.

Then his betrothed wants the challenge, so he has to fight to win her. There’s another Vulcan guy standing right there, but that’s not who she picks. She tries to get slick and picks Kirk. That’s where you get the fight everyone has seen, with the thing that looks like it’s from American Gladiators but has a blade on one side. It’s also where that fight music comes from, and if I’m not mistaken it’s one of the first formal times we see the full Vulcan salute. Mrs. Know-It-All still can’t do it. Neither can a couple of actual Star Trek actors. Somebody sets their hand, they hold it there, and the crew films it fast.

She loved the corniness. All of it. Captain Kirk especially. She couldn’t stop watching. She thinks part of why the original series is landing for her is how much Big Bang Theory she’s watched over the past two years. The shine came off T’Pring a little for us after this one, though we agreed the casting on Strange New Worlds is right. You can see how she eventually becomes that woman.

Know-It-All Nation, the Comment Section

Charlotte Bolton loved episode seven, called Angel a strong female character, hopes she returns, and wrote, “You can love a friend without it being weird. Would go to Nurse Chapel for love advice any time.” Agreed on all of it.

One of you suspects Sybok is being set up as a villain for next season. I tend to agree we’ll see him again. We’re a little over halfway through the season, so there’s room. If you really want to impress me, you pull a Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or seasons one and two of The Flash, or Doctor Who, which is great at this. You set up pieces all season and bring several of them back together at the end.

Value of Nothing argued that T’Pring reads like a human wife who doesn’t understand her husband, that it’s a trope out of a lot of WB shows, and that it’s “completely inappropriate in the Star Trek universe.” I’ve got to ask why. The comment says Spock was made to carry the intellectual side of an argument. That’s actually not true. Number One was created to be that character. The network didn’t like her, so Spock got those traits. So when Spock eventually becomes first officer under Kirk, there’s no reason a lot of how he does that job didn’t come from the first officer he served under, which was Una. And Star Trek has always shown relationships. I can remember Data dating because he felt like that’s what he was supposed to do. That could easily have been on the WB.

Paymon of Mine agreed it was a fun episode, is happy Angel survived, said Uhura and Spock episodes are becoming favorites, and loved T’Pring studying human sexuality literature, “especially when Spock nearly choked on his wine upon hearing about it.”

Kenneth at Jamison Visual Arts Studio pointed out that Pike manipulating the pirate crew by cooking for them parallels Long John Silver, who was hired as the quartermaster and cook aboard the Hispaniola in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In my review I’d been thinking of Long John Silver as history. He’s a character in a story. That’s on me. Kenneth gets all the Know-It-All points.

NotAVampire111 was bothered by the communications. They made a big deal about how long it takes the Enterprise to reach Starfleet, and shortly after, Angel is able to FaceTime with T’Pring. I thought they said two days, not two weeks, but I could be wrong.

Go read Michelle Joseph’s comment on last week’s episode. It’s a really good technical comment on the timeline of events and well worth your responses. MTB Dude says my analysis is “dialed.” Dane Bearman: “What does God need with a starship?” All the points. John Sievers loved the tongue-in-cheek 60s style. Mojito settled it: non-Federation space has been explored and declared non-Federation space. Radlings444 says nice set.

And Melinda Hall, who was there on a Thursday night in 1966, has always been uncomfortable with Sybok existing at all: “What was Sarek up to, to produce this child? Fooling around? Oh, perish the thought. My Sarek would not.” Hashtag not my Sarek. Donagha1409 answered that of course he would, he travels a lot, he’s a powerful man, and the most outwardly formal are the wildest when they let their hair down. Melinda took it in good spirit.

Star Trek V Is Brilliantly Bad

Captain Kirk and his crew deal with Spock’s long-lost half-brother, who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy. There’s a barrier at the center, which is the one they go through here. The one on the outside of the galaxy is the one they go to in Discovery, season four I think.

Notoriously, it’s very cut and dry: William Shatner was given a movie because contractually he gets anything Leonard Nimoy gets. Mrs. Know-It-All pointed out that’s Sheldon and Leonard. Sybok is marooned on the planet of galactic peace, the lone planet in the Neutral Zone with a Klingon, a Romulan and a human representative, no technology and no guns. So of course people make their own and shoot rocks.

I told her going in, don’t be fooled, this isn’t a good movie. It’s an amazing one anyway, because I don’t think I could make up half the goofy stuff that happens in it. What my dad and I both love is the work put into the relationship between Spock, McCoy and Kirk.

She loved all the campy stuff, because it felt like fun. Growing up she thought Star Trek was stuffy and not interesting. Her words: “I was wrong.” She loved the rocket boots and how corny Kirk is. And there are gems. When Sybok is using his powers on everybody and turns to Kirk, Kirk flat out says no. I need my pain. It’s what makes me who I am. I’ve always believed you’ve got to have the good with the bad, and Kirk lives up to that.

Then there’s the rest. The three-breasted cat woman, where if you actually look, it’s a molded rubber piece on the actor’s chest. Row, Row, Row Your Boat, which she’ll never hear the same way again. Spock’s marshmallow dispenser. I’m willing to jump hurdles to help Star Trek, but somewhere in the future there’s a machine whose only job is to dispense marshmallows. The fan dance, which was just awkward. And the three of them beaming down posed like a GQ spread.

And God. They never tell you what that thing was. Mrs. Know-It-All figured it was some kind of prisoner, because it wanted the ship, and that Sybok must’ve been crushed after searching his whole life for it. But the ending’s the dopest part. Sybok says “forgive me” to Spock, turns to the thing wearing his face, and says, “I couldn’t help but notice your pain. Share it with me.” Find me a better writer than I am to give us an episode that explains what was at the center of the galaxy.

The very next movie is Star Trek VI, which is brilliant on so many levels.

Next Week Is a Fairy Tale

The trailer turns the crew into characters from a children’s book. I think it’ll be along the lines of the Q episode in The Next Generation, the Robin Hood one. Hemmer’s back, which was good to see, because he’s hardly been around. Spock has long hair, rock star long. I can’t wait.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Serene Squall, lands at an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. It was fun, and I’ve been enjoying this show.

Amok Time gets a 6 and a half from Mrs. Know-It-All. She wanted to say 7. I’ll go 7 for a 1967 sci-fi episode.

Star Trek V she went back and forth on and landed at a 7, because it was so much fun. As an actual critic I’m giving it a 5. That’s film, that’s story, that’s all the bad stuff I mentioned. As a Star Trek fan I’m popping it up to a 7 as well, because it’s a fun ride and it’s goofy as heck.

My father, who we’re going to call Admiral Know-It-All, called me out on these. He said I can’t be handing out tens and eights for everything, because eventually a real ten out of ten is going to show up. He doesn’t mean the ones I’ve praised aren’t good. He means be more critical. So I’ll try to look at these with a finer eye.

If you’re an old school fan, or you’ve never seen Amok Time, go watch it and tell me what you thought, and tell me what you made of that trailer. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.