S01.E09: All Those Who Wander

[Starchild]

It does seem to evolve with the franchise runners: 

Classic Trek = Roddenberry

Revival Trek = Berman/Braga

Modern Trek = Kurtzman/Goldsman

[readster]

The problem like a prequel series such as SNW, you really have a problem. You get boxed in with established continuity, but you also get characters that you could use more like Hemmer. Get killed off earlier than planned. I mean let's face it we know people like: M'Benga or La'an and Ortegas will not making it to the original series. However, doesn't mean you have to kill them off right away either. SNW has two seasons and was pretty much given the green light for season 2 when they were just finishing off the last two episodes. So, I don't know if killing Hemmer was the right idea. We also have no idea if in the finale or season 2 Scottie will be front and center to take over for him. At least with O'hura she is basically an intern and had talked in the original series she had been on the Enterprise while still finishing the academy. You can get away with that and while everyone knows what will happen to Pike. Where the hell did everyone else but Spock go? It's a double edge sword.

[KeithJ]

It looks like Hemmer's death was planned from the very beginning:

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-hemmer-death-bruce-horak-interview

I didn't mind the character but he wasn't one of my favorites.  I still couldn't get over the fact that he could be a blind chief engineer without being able to read any displays.

I agree with everyone saying this episode was a direct ripoff of Aliens.  It was the first thing I thought of and this episode really did feel like a season finale.  It will be interesting to see what we get next week.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, readster said:

The problem like a prequel series such as SNW, you really have a problem. You get boxed in with established continuity, but you also get characters that you could use more like Hemmer. Get killed off earlier than planned. I mean let's face it we know people like: M'Benga or La'an and Ortegas will not making it to the original series. However, doesn't mean you have to kill them off right away either.

M’Benga does make it to the original series. He’s not the Chief Medical Officer at that point so they have to explain that but we know he doesn’t die. For the others they also don’t have to kill them off at all. Not on TOS doesn’t necessarily mean dead. They killed him off to further Uhura’s storyline. I don’t like it but I also feel like the character was limited as written so I’m not too upset by it. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

"The gorn only come out at night. Mostly."  Yeah, Oriana = Newt.

A Gorn hatches and kills her assistant. Nurse Chapel: Oh no, what do we do?!? Joi: GTFO!! 🙄

What a PITA Sam was. They should have fed him to the Gorn but I guess he's protected since he's Jim Kirk's relative.

Aw, Hemmer. We hardly knew ye.

🎶When he gets that feeling, he (acts like) he needs sexual healing...🎶 I still think Spock needs to stop playing with Chapel's emotions.

Was this the end for La'an too? That goodbye between her and Pike seemed kind of possibly final.

[LydiaMoon1]

On 6/30/2022 at 10:19 PM, AnimeMania said:

From what I saw of the Gorn, I find it hard to believe that they would even wear clothes, let alone build spaceships and travel the Galaxy. How can they do that when they don't have any passed down knowledge and two of them can never be in the same room together without killing each other?

On 7/1/2022 at 5:22 PM, tennisgurl said:

My other complaint about this episode is I am not liking how the Gorn are being portrayed so much as we learn more about them. Its not consistent with what we saw in TOS when they were introduced, where they were brutish but were also very much a warp capable civilization. These Gorn hardly even seem sentient, let alone able to build starships, and the society they talked about makes no sense. How do you keep a species going if every nest kills its siblings?

18 hours ago, statsgirl said:

The kind of mindless aggression the larva displayed is usually only in lower species as is the asexual reproduction (plants and single cell organisms on Earth).  How did they go from that to being sophisticated enough to have whole planets where they take hostages for breeding? Or be as intelligent as the Gorn Pike found a few episodes ago that sacrificed a ship to find their whereabouts. Discovery has its flaws but it's got better logic than this.

The audience has only actually seen the Gorn as hatchlings and as that one adult that fought Captain Kirk. We know nothing about what happens to them in between. I don't assume that any newborn possesses the the same skills and capacity they would have in their adult form.

At this point, we really don't have enough information about this entirely new species to make any of the assessments above. Perhaps the Gorn developed in an intensely hostile environment with extremely limited resources. In a setting like that, it may be entirely efficient for each Gorn mating to produce offspring hardwired to assure that only the Alpha of each litter survives . Not only would that naturally control their population, it would assure that only the hatchlings most capable and most likely to survive receive scant resources. Maybe they are taught to channel their fratricidal and internecine aggression to other species in order to become relentless hunters. IDK. I just hope people give the writers the time and the space they need to flesh out the details.

[Zaffy]

On 7/2/2022 at 12:26 AM, Zaffy said:

I can't find any of the so called New Trek to show originality.

I am quoting myself because what I wrote is not actually true. I forgot about Lower Decks, which IMHO is the best NuTrek of all!

As for what happens to the Enterprise crew that doesn't continue under Captain Kirk, it is not necessary to kill them all. I mean, they could be promoted, get transferred, quit Starfleet. 
But somehow I believe these shallow writers will kill them one by one just for the "shock" factor.

[paigow]

31 minutes ago, Zaffy said:

But somehow I believe these shallow writers will kill them one by one just for the "shock" factor.

And delete all their personal logs so Kirk will always be surprised...

[QuantumMechanic]

On 7/2/2022 at 6:25 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

What a PITA Sam was. They should have fed him to the Gorn but I guess he's protected since he's Jim Kirk's relative.

He’s protected because he has to survive so he can be killed by flying fried eggs in “Operation: Annihilate!”

Edited July 4, 2022 by QuantumMechanic

[millennium]

21 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

What a PITA Sam was. They should have fed him to the Gorn but I guess he's protected since he's Jim Kirk's relative.

Karma's a flying fried egg.

Last episode I expressed my dismay that the writers appeared to be flailing after only 8 episodes.  But I take some comfort from the fact that at least they haven't sunk so low as to start plagiarizing iconic movies.  🙄

This is bad, folks.   Seriously.  A new Star Trek series shamelessly ripping off Aliens?   This show is so lazy it didn't even make an effort to change the Newt character in any way.   Plus, these writers seem to get off on thumbing their noses at canon. 

La'an: "Against an adult Gorn, we'd be no match."

(Unless of course you can find a rocky ledge and some mineral deposits ... or maybe get close enough to box his ears.)

These are writers who think we're idiots, or so desperate for Star Trek Lite that we'll just shrug off these insults to our intelligence.   La'an didn't even need to utter that line -- but they put it in her mouth as an FU to TOS and those of us who remember it.

Someday, this series will be given an acronym of its own.   TOS is already taken.   I'm thinking POS might do the trick.

I like Anson Mount and I thought Buckley (nahh, that doesn't sound reminiscent of Ripley) had a very expressive face, so kudos on that. 

But after the LeGuin pastiche, the fairy tale, and now this counterfeit knockoff of Aliens, I really don't care to watch this show anymore.  

[marinw]

3 hours ago, millennium said:

On 7/2/2022 at 7:25 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

What a PITA Sam was. They should have fed him to the Gorn but I guess he's protected since he's Jim Kirk's relative.

Karma's a flying fried egg.

I was just about to say don't despair, Sam will eventually be taken out by a giant amoeba. We can infere that Sam leaves Starfleet and some point and starts a family on Deneva. Which seemed like a really nice planet before it got slimed.

Edited July 3, 2022 by marinw

[millennium]

One wonders whether Jim Kirk knew his brother was a dick.   The mustache isn't scoring Sam any points either.

[paigow]

20 minutes ago, millennium said:

One wonders whether Jim Kirk knew his brother was a dick.

Old Tiberius is probably in rehab [or going to be soon] from his vampire cloud encounter... so he has 0 ftg 

[LittleIggy]

That was quiche on La’an’s plate, not an omelette.

[ouinason]

It was probably a baked family sized omelet.  There was no dough crust layer around the outside.

[QuantumMechanic]

22 hours ago, QuantumMechanic said:

He’s protected because he has to survive so he can be killed by flying fried eggs in “Operation: Annihilate!”

[Pallas]

17 hours ago, millennium said:

One wonders whether Jim Kirk knew his brother was a dick.   The mustache isn't scoring Sam any points either.

Kirk accepted much more and worse directed at Spock by Dr. Bigot ("I'm a humanist, not a humanist!").

[QuantumMechanic]

Now I’m curious — have you all who are complaining about Sam Kirk ever watched TOS or are you TNG and beyonders only?

Because that was de rigeur from McCoy and some others (hello, Lts. Boma and Stiles). To the point where it struck me as a direct shout-out to McCoy.

[paigow]

17 hours ago, ouinason said:

It was probably a baked family sized omelet.  There was no dough crust layer around the outside.

The Metrons and Organians are ruling that it is a gluten free quiche...

[Guest]

5 hours ago, QuantumMechanic said:

Now I’m curious — have you all who are complaining about Sam Kirk ever watched TOS or are you TNG and beyonders only?

Because that was de rigeur from McCoy and some others (hello, Lts. Boma and Stiles). To the point where it struck me as a direct shout-out to McCoy.

I have but what felt normal in the past hits differently now. Plus they already did the shout-out to McCoy in TNG with Polaski and Data and it didn’t work there either. 30 years later is even more irritating. 

Plus the problem with Kirk isn’t just that. He’s insufferable in pretty much every scene he’s in. 

[paigow]

5 hours ago, QuantumMechanic said:

Because that was de rigeur from McCoy and some others (hello, Lts. Boma and Stiles). 

Spock got hate from Vulcans, including Daddy....

[Ottis]

Finally was able to watch SNW. Interesting episode. I liked that they killed characters, and I liked that some evolved (Uhura) while I was not surprised they had Spock struggle with his emotions. Figured that was coming.

I was not thrilled with the Alien ripoff/homage, and honestly, the Gorn make no sense. Given they breed that young, that through that method, they should have overrun the galaxy by now. They weren't particularly scary, especially the little ones. I don't know how they managed to be as threatening as they were shown. Also, I suppose it could always come later, but they didn't indicate any ability to be a space faring species. 

Meanwhile, a bunch of dumb choices by the Star Fleet crew. I mean, come on .. La'an told you those people could be infected. M'Benga just says no, they aren't, and that's good enough? Then when blue alien starts sweating and groaning, no one thinks of what it could be? It was pretty obvious.

I still don't get the captain's quarters. That was a holo fire, I assume. 

[ouinason]

I imagine that the rapid breeding and fight to the death thing is why they have nursery planets.  Drop off some eggs and food, come back a set time later and scoop up the survivors.  Send them to Gorn High and repeat.  You get only the strongest and smartest mofos.

[paigow]

4 hours ago, ouinason said:

Send them to Gorn High 

only one graduate per year

[Colorado David]

Yeah, I'm thinking they should've written the gorn better. the TOS ones, just way too slow - tho they did seem tech savvy when it came to the weapons. Aliens type Gorn is going too far the other way. We need a happier middle ground with them, howabout intelligent but brutal?  Like Klingons but with no code of honor, more the might make right but intelligently so.

[ouinason]

maybe that Gorn was old?  

[tkc]

On 6/30/2022 at 6:43 PM, QuantumMechanic said:

Nothing we haven't seen before from McCoy.  Heck, he was practically channeling one of McCoy's rants from times when Spock implacably stood there after someone got killed.

Actually, it reminded me of Chris Pine's Kirk goading Spock into starting a fight in Star Trek (2009):
 

[Catfi9ht]

Meh. Like everyone else has mentioned, what a predictable episode. Hemmer isn't a dick for two episodes and gets offed. The alien species on the ship was a cool character design and gets offed.

This show repeatedly refuses to expand the Star Trek universe. Since I'm enjoying the episodic episodes more, maybe that's a blessing in disguise.

[Sandman]

So, the Gorn are like the Xenomorphs, but more insectile?

Grrrreat. This episode’s not gonna give me nightmares at all. 

[shrewd.buddha]

On 6/30/2022 at 4:45 PM, rtms77 said:

The triage cadet and Davis? we’re goners the moment you found out who they were and a big occasion happened for them just before. 

As soon as no-screentime-cadet was introduced, I said, aloud, "She's a goner."  And while I do enjoy Pike's loose command style, it would be interesting to see how he handles informing the parents and loved ones of crew members who die under his command. 
Also - it doesn't take a Vulcan to question how non-logical it is to send almost all senior staff on an away mission. 
One day someone in StarFleet will invent a drone or robotic rover to check out landing sites before sending crew members (not likely -- that type of safety would defeat the excitement).

On 7/1/2022 at 12:44 AM, statsgirl said:

Why couldn't they put Hemmer in either suspended animation or in the transporter buffer until they could figure out a way to save him?

Letting Hemmer suffer through the hatching of the Xenomorph Gorn babies seemed super cruel.  Even vaporizing him with a phaser blast would have been more humane. 

On 7/1/2022 at 5:26 PM, Zaffy said:

I can't find any of the so called New Trek to show originality. They are  prequels, soft reboots or based on already established characters (Picard) and their inspiration to show something different is to change the canon, modify how aliens look and discover new relatives for Spock.

A this point in our entertainment culture, corporations seem to only care about creating more content for streaming services.  Creation by committee will probably always feel like a paint-by-numbers effort. 
I can imagine that some show's writing teams have actual checkboxes when it comes to including current cultural hot topics. 
The maximum-profit entertainment algorithm has shown that "new" doesn't sell as well as "familiar".  So I expect almost all "new" shows to have ties to previously popular, nostalgic shows/movies/characters. 
(So settle in for Stranger Things spin-offs,  Game Of Thrones spin-offs,  Lord of the Rings spin-offs, Star Wars spin-offs , etc, etc, etc.) 
 

[cambridgeguy]

49 minutes ago, shrewd.buddha said:

One day someone in StarFleet will invent a drone or robotic rover to check out landing sites before sending crew members (not likely -- that type of safety would defeat the excitement).

They usually scan the area from orbit - hardly a foolproof method, but it's something.  Plus they sometimes make an effort to beam down with tactical gear, which is more than you can say for other Trek shows where a standard uniform is all they wear even when they know combat is a distinct possibility (i.e. fighting the Borg, Klingons, Dominion, etc.).  At the very least you'd think they would want something with more pockets, but hey, gotta be comfortable while getting attacked.

[raven]

Tee hee.

Holy Alien ripoff, Batman!

I'm late to the party watching this show so y'all mostly covered everything.  This was a tense episode because I care about these people (except for the Not Wearing Red Shirts but Might As Well Be characters).   

WRT to the Gorn, maybe the ones who are hatched are warrior drones of some kind.  Could be we have the *ahem* updated version of the one pictured above, who directs the drones or some such.    There could be castes/hierarchies of Gorns, who knows?  I hope the Gorns reoccur as a threat with some kind of explanation, because the ones we saw were creepy.

I didn't at first but now I'm digging Chapel/Spock.   I like the friendship chemistry and could see it developing into more than friends - I know that's not the case in TOS but in this show, who knows. 

I really like Uhura and her friendship with Hemmer was a highlight, so was bummed that we lost him.  Not just for that, he was a good character in his own right.

The medical staff not even considering that alien Buckley could have Gorns hatching out of him was not a good look for them.  Not as bad as how the crew allowed the dumb pirates to take over the Enterprise a few eps ago, but the writers need to come up with a bit more plausible scenarios. 

Not-Newt was not needed.  La'an could have come to her realization just by being involved with the Gorn again and left to explore her own history and/or mental health off ship. 

All in all, an entertaining episode.

[dovegrey]

I’m bummed about Hemmer for a variety of reasons. The biggest being … This show doesn’t need to barrel toward TOS, and it’s the TOS legacy characters - like Uhura and Spock and quite possibly Hemmer’s replacement (I’m a year behind but still unspoiled whoo hoo) - that I’m least interested in watching, but it’s those characters and TOS callbacks that the writers seem most interested in revolving the show around. Boo. Just reboot Prime TOS, then.

I think what I like best about this show is the Enterprise and Mount’s Pike. I find myself wondering if it wasn’t for those two factors, if I’d care to keep watching. It’s certainly not the strange new worlds and new civilisations that they never actually get around to exploring.😅

[Quickbeam]

Hemmed was my favorite character of this cast …..so sadz. 

[marina to]

I have known the actor who plays Hemmer for a long time, and it's my bad it took me this long to watch the show. I was thrilled when he was announced because he's every bit as open and dignified as the character he played. So it was a shame I had to fast forward through much of this episode because I don't watch horror. (I value my sleep. Could have done without this horror turn in the show.) And like so many have said here, I wish he hadn't been killed off so soon. I would have loved for him to show off more of what he does. 

[Raja]

On 7/6/2022 at 8:41 AM, ouinason said:

maybe that Gorn was old?  

Only if we buy that after the infant culling of the siblings the alpha Gorn is then socialized accepts his place and no longer fights for dominance.  Otherwise getting old and slow enough for Kirk to take just means some other young fast Gorn reaching for the top would have taken the senior out long before

[John Potts]

In trek, everyone can see your homage… (All the first 3 Alien movies got a shout out, in fact). At least it did make the Gorn scary rather than goofy, even if it didn’t look much like it did in Arena (or In a Mirror, Darkly). Maybe it goes through a number of metamorphoses in its life cycle?

They really are trying to portray Sam Kirk as completely useless, aren’t they? I guess it’s to make us not care as much when he dies.

Hemmer Down!

On 6/30/2022 at 11:31 AM, cambridgeguy said:

This is also why you don't send so many senior officers on dangerous away missions, captain.

That would break with Starfleet policy! At least they had an excuse that they had to divide their attentions between the two missions.

On 6/30/2022 at 8:01 PM, paigow said:

Gorn reproductive methods are confusing. They lay eggs AND spit embryos that implant into humanoid hosts

In a galaxy of shapeshifting aliens made of protoplasmic goop and sentient Nebulae, that’s positively mundane.

On 7/1/2022 at 7:45 AM, thuganomics85 said:

I felt bad, but as soon as I saw these other two ensigns that were supposedly training with Uhura this entire time, I was like "Whelp, they ain't making it to the end credits!"

My first thought was “Wow, there are other members of the crew!” - if not for long.