A lesser show and lesser writers would’ve made the entire episode the body swap. You wouldn’t tell the captain, there’d be hijinks galore (that’s the catchphrase of the episode), and eventually you’d get to the full disclosure and somebody says, oh man, you should’ve told us. “Spock Amok” doesn’t do that. You don’t get the body swap until about a third of the way in, and even then it’s secondary to a lot of other things going on in the episode.
I liked it. It was fun, and I had a good time with it.
This one’s a Trek Talk Tuesday that landed a day late, because life got really busy. Mrs. Know-It-All is with me, fully in uniform, combadge and the new pips, our new chief medical officer and lieutenant commander of the USS Know-It-All. I think she was a little nervous I wasn’t going to like this one, because it’s a little tongue-in-cheek. But I’m used to Star Trek giving you a serious, hardcore two-parter or a heavy character episode and then following it immediately with something very light. I’m used to that dichotomy, so I was able to digest it.
Her take, in her words: “I liked it. I really liked the episode. And because you have pulled me into this world, that should say something if I liked it, because I know very little about Star Trek.”
The Dream, the Music and the Dress
The opening dream sequence was pretty cool, and the music is why. That’s the original fight music from “Amok Time” in the original series. It was so cool to hear it, and they didn’t try to hide it. They didn’t blend it in with whatever the current score is. They just said, this is what you’re seeing, and this is why we’re playing this music.
I thought it was neat seeing Spock have to get into his own head and really dig deep. I’ve said this a bunch of times: we’re seeing the beginning of a lot of these characters, where they were before the original series. I believe very firmly that the show is doing a really good job of keeping those nuances and those issues in place. They want us to arrive at TOS, and it feels like we’re going to get there. Mrs. Know-It-All is with me on that.
We hadn’t looked at any of the comments this week, so I sprang it on her and we did it in real time. Thirty-five comments on the review.
Box Top Dollar said: “Anyone who loves Spock Amok, take a moment to freeze frame and appreciate the dress and headdress Gia Sandhu, who plays T’Pring, is wearing on Vulcan during the battle. It is astounding.” They go on about the flowing, random stripe pattern, form-fitting and bracketed with something that resembles jaguar heads, and that headdress. “It shouldn’t even win a television award for costuming. It should win an Academy Award.”
High praise, my friend. I like where your head’s at.
Mrs. Know-It-All called it gorgeous and said it almost looks functional. I pulled up images from “Amok Time” to see the outfit the character wore originally, and the old one wasn’t nearly as good as this one. They brought the whole drum thing back, and they even had that green quartz looking hammer thing. They went to a lot of trouble to make those things look the way they did, and I was a big fan.
Pike Doesn’t Miss a Beat
Daryl Harris wrote: “Hey, I just discovered your channel and I love it. I’m a very big Star Trek fan and I go back to TOS.” Thanks so much, Daryl. We’re big fans too.
Bilcal enjoyed the take on the episode and thought it was funny that Pike didn’t even miss a beat when Spock and T’Pring confessed they’d switched bodies. Totally. He’s like, all right, cool, how do we fix this? We have a different mission to complete and we can’t let that distract us.
Then Bilcal went on something of a tangent, and it’s a great observation. “I hope they address how crew members handle loss.” The ship gets repaired at the starbase, but what about the crew, especially since there’s no ship’s counselor position yet?
We have Deanna Troi in the future, in Next Generation, and you get that counseling mentality there. But that’s because of how messed up these years were. They actually said so in the Next Generation pilot: the counselor is a new position, because they realized deep space can have effects and they needed someone to help with that.
John Seaver said this was a fun show and he loved it. James said, “What a fun channel. Loved your review and was happy to subscribe. I look forward to your future Trek reviews and your other content.” Welcome aboard, James. That one got its answer live on the show.
The Ones Who Didn’t Like It
Michael Strathmore, we loved you last week and I still love you. He left an entire comment with some really deep thought in it, and he didn’t like this episode. Totally understood. Not every episode is everyone’s cup of tea, and some are going to be better than others. I’m kind of still waiting for the shoe to drop and to find a bad episode in this batch. I haven’t yet.
He does bring up a good point: comedy is very hard to do. I’m not arguing with Michael, so please don’t argue with Michael either. I like everybody having the chance to comment, and this is me responding.
Yes, comedy’s difficult. The pilot I wrote, the one we filmed, was a comedy, and I remember the day we made the decision to do that kind of pilot. For almost an entire day I tried to immerse myself in the genre. It was a very specific kind of genre, so my wife and I watched tons of episodes of different series that did similar things, if nothing else to get a better understanding. Then I wrote the episode. Then I called four comedians who were writers, had them come to the house, and had them read my script start to finish and give me notes. What would make a scene work versus one that didn’t. I wanted somebody who understands comedic timing to give me their take.
All that having been said, I liked what they did with this episode. Were there some parts that were stiff? Sure. But I think they were stiff the way anybody would be in this type of thing.
I’ve started subscribing to some of you fellow folks in the Star Trek world who are doing podcasts and shows, just to get a feel for my people and see what everybody’s doing. One of you (forgive me, I can’t remember his name, he’s the guy with the ball cap and the beard) pointed out that he liked the body swap parts. Then I saw another review that said the worst part of the episode was the stupid body swap thing, it’s been done.
Look, nobody’s blazing new trails in this show yet. I’m sort of giving them a pass on this whole season, and I don’t want that to sound like they’re getting away with anything or that I’m accepting subpar episodes. We’re clearly getting the trope-y episodes we’re used to. This whole thing rings like nostalgia porn. Oh yeah, I remember that, I remember that. A lot of member berries. Totally fine. It’s pulling us in and keeping us.
Brachiator said, “I mostly hated this episode,” which is totally fair. “It confirmed my worst fears about how the Strange New Worlds writers might approach Trek.” The complaint is that they’re writing an episode that asks a stupid question: what if the characters within the episode knew everything about this fictional universe that loyal fans know from watching the show? There’s much, much more in the comment. I don’t agree with the thought process, but I do love the fact that we’re having the conversation. Everybody keep it up.
Where This Crew Has to Go
I believe toward the back half of the season, and going into next season, we’re going to start seeing the evolution of these people. By the end of the mission the Enterprise is on now, you’re going to lose Ortegas. You’re going to lose Hemmer. You’re going to lose all these characters who aren’t eventually serving on Kirk’s Enterprise, and that means a lot more story has to happen.
I’d love to see Ortegas get reassigned in season two or three, and then they introduce an Ensign Sulu or something along those lines. Use this show to do what you’re doing. Give us the young adventures of the Enterprise crew.
We already know we’re getting James T. Kirk next season, and the picture they’ve shown is him sitting in a captain’s chair. I hold very firm to the belief that he’s going to be on another ship, probably the Farragut, because canonically that was his ship prior to being assigned to the Enterprise. I think I said this last week: Pike, for whatever reason, gets busy and has to go somewhere else, and they bring Kirk in to babysit the Enterprise, just like Pike did on Discovery. He’ll get his first taste.
When Kirk joined the Enterprise, everybody else was already there. I don’t believe he brought anyone new. Actually, that’s not true. I think maybe he brought Bones. Maybe he brought McCoy with him. I might be getting that confused with the 2009 movie that wanted to make them friends. Who knows. We’ll see.
Fly Fishing and the Green Wraparound
Ian says fly fishing surgeons is actually a real thing, due to the precision required to create the fly, and yes, he loves the green wraparound uniform.
Dude, right? I want to work on getting one, or making one. Probably making one. Does it fit? No, absolutely not. It has no business being in this thing any more than the original one did when Kirk wore it. But they showed it, they brought it in effectively, and I’ll totally give them a pass on that one.
Then this one: “This is one of the best pure comedies in Trek. The fight music callback was nice. Didn’t like the leather addition to the gold wraparound.” (They probably meant the green wraparound.) “While it’s a fun exploration of giving Spock and T’Pring a better understanding of each other, it’s hard to take her side seriously when you know how this turns out a few years down the road. When has Spock ever resorted to violence so casually to solve a simple problem? As always, thanks for helping me know it better.”
I’ll go with that. Spoilers for the original series, which is a long, long time old. In the original “Amok Time,” the one we were just looking at pictures of, remember the joke she made in the pilot, that she’s not going to chase him around space just to get married. Eventually it comes to a head for real. She gives all kinds of reasons, but at the end of the day she wants to marry this other guy, and rather than having him fight, she picks Kirk as her challenger. That’s why you get the fight.
Mrs. Know-It-All, hearing this for the first time: “Now I don’t like her anymore.”
So that’s our assignment. Before next week’s Trek Talk Tuesday we’re going to watch “Amok Time” together. I might record a short blurb before and then get her reaction after, somebody who’s never seen it watching it for the very first time. That’s one of my favorite things about having her on the show. She isn’t tainted like a lot of us are, and I’d love to get her fresh eyes on it.
Chapel
One of you joked that after the body swap episode, next up is Chapel meets Frankenstein. I mean, I’d be down for Chapel meeting Frankenstein. I’m totally kidding.
Mrs. Know-It-All has wanted to know more about Chapel for a while. The only connection, canonically speaking, to the original series is that Chapel had a crush on Spock. In the old series that was the one defining character trait of Nurse Chapel. Otherwise she was the blonde nurse who stands there and hands McCoy stuff.
They’ve fleshed her out a lot more here. They’ve given her some backstory and a little bit of nuance, and I like what they’ve filled in the gaps with. Her interactions with Spock have been good. I’m not super worried about Spock and her having any kind of an affair or relationship. I feel like Spock’s the kind of person who’ll be very much about having a friend. On her side, I believe it’s going to be unrequited. I could be wrong. This series has gone left when I thought it was going to go right, so don’t quote me.
Next Week: A Cloud City and a Kid in Danger
We watched the promo for episode six and then went through it frame by frame.
The first thing is the woman who clearly knows Pike and is all about some Pike. You get a really nice shot of Number One and Pike walking onto the transporter, and obviously he knows who she is. Whoever her species is, wherever she’s from, they must have a history of some kind. She points out the uniform. “Your new uniform is very yellow.” “It’s gold, technically.”
Somebody tried to say they’re trying to make Pike look or act like Kirk. I don’t think so. The one thing Kirk never had was boyish, shy charm. Pike’s a country boy at heart. He’s mountain man Pike, with the beard, on a horse, in a snowstorm. That’s legit. Even without sound in that shot, he’s got a smolder.
Somebody told me, maybe in the comments, maybe in real life, forgive me if I don’t remember, that what their kids are most worried about is whether Pike left his horses just sitting out. Did he get on the shuttle with Admiral April right there and leave the horse out in the field? I don’t think so.
I freeze framed on the cityscape. It’s really nice. Those are places in the clouds. It’s a cloud city, Star Trek style, and by that I mean it’s literally a cloud and then a building, all over the place, like neighborhoods.
From the sound of it, the kid is some sort of holy person. “Everyone on Majalis is his family.” It reminded Mrs. Know-It-All of one we just recently watched, Eddie Murphy’s The Golden Child. This one’s a little more talkative. He tells Spock he could generate his own frequency, and you’re like, wait, what? She wanted to know whether he’s just a kid who thinks he’s godlike, but the woman in the background does say the entire planet is his family.
The one thing everybody’s been talking about online is that this era of Star Trek is missing the all-powerful, Q-like god being. “The Squire of Gothos” kind of people. That’s an original series episode with a Q-like person, and I say Q because she just got finished watching Picard. If you’re going to trope me, that’s the only one we’re missing: something more powerful that looks juvenile, and the captain has to out-think it, outsmart it, or out-parent it. It always ends with the thing going, fine, I guess I’ll listen, and somebody says, did you just order around a god? And he says, shut up, he hasn’t noticed yet.
Then it looks like they get in some kind of trouble. There’s a place I took for underground, and she thought it was nighttime. She might be right. I’m so used to the language of Star Trek. It’s nighttime, still in the clouds, with colored cables dropping from the buildings above. Then cool starships, because you’ve got to have cool starships, and the screens going all RGB when they take a hit from the left and a hit from the right.
Her prediction: Pike’s going to have to save somebody. “The boy is in great danger.” “If the First Servant doesn’t ascend, we’ll be destroyed.” If the kid does the thing he’s supposed to do, I think he’s supposed to die. So I’m going to predict she asks Pike to help save the kid, because she knows Pike will do something good like that.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Spock Amok” is an 8 on the Know-It-All Index from Mrs. Know-It-All, and she called it easy. “I had a lot of fun. I thought it was a lot of fun.”
I’m here for it. I loved it. It wasn’t hard hitting. You got a nice, fun story, and next week looks like we’re going to get some more stuff.
There you go, now you know, and if knowing is half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
One more thing for next week. We’re going to introduce you to a new game, one we learned about online and adopted as a family during the pandemic. It probably saved our sanity in a lot of ways. It’s definitely Star Trek related, tangentially, and it’s awesome.
If you hated this one, I want to hear that too, the way Michael and Brachiator laid it out. And if you’ve got a first-time “Amok Time” prediction for Mrs. Know-It-All, leave it in the comments on the video above.
