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Second Edition Playtest Manager
By Faithful Reader (Ross Fertel)
 - Second Edition Playtest Manager
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Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#578867
At the end of teat teaser, it was clear that Pike and Alroa were ready to bone. They did not do so because Una was there. But she wouldn't have minded.

Nice to see an advanced species still clinging to the old ways. This is a trope but done very well, especially the flying city. A good deal of work is done by Lindy Booth as Alora but young Ian Ho did great as well with the script letting him be a kid.

La'an had a pretty strict regimen that reverberates through the ship. Glad Uhura got a passing grade but it is getting a little too convenient that she happens to be wherever the plot requires her each week.

I guess M'Benga is going to get away with endangering the ship. It would be nice if the writers realized that Pike being hush hush about Una's secret was less dangerous than M'Benga putting the entire ship in peril. It does give reason why he is reduced in capacity by TOS.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
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Community Contributor
#579277
"Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach" was very good.

SNW has been fine so far. It has been solidly hitting its Enterprise Season 1 marks, rehashing old Trek stories from "Fight or Flight" to "Starship Down" as it tries to find its own legs, in the great old Trek tradition of rehashing 'til you hash it. I recommend it to people who liked ENT S1 and otherwise figure we can wait and see.

But "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach" was really good. If I may be so bold: it was the first really good live-action Star Trek episode since "Terra Prime" (or at least since "Identity, Parts 1 and 2," if you swing that way).

True, "Suffering" was also a rehash, in a sense, because it was just Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." But I think people may not immediately realize how hard it is to adapt "Omelas." It's like three pages long. It has no plot. The mystery, revelation, and horror are almost immediate. The underlying mechanics are totally unexplained. I've been trying off-and-on to adapt "Omelas" into a Star Trek episode since 2005 or something. It's extremely tough to figure out how to fill an hour with it, how to humanize the characters involved, how to make the payoff actually make some kind of sense. (SNW had a brilliant idea here that never occurred to me: they had it make only the tiniest bit of sense and left out all the details.)

This worked really well. Pike's involvement with the First Minister or whatever was pretty by-the-numbers (shades of "Civilization"), but made us sympathetic with her and her lovely little culture. The kidnapping plot and the unfolding layers of mystery drew us into their society slowly and in just the right order. The father character is not present in "Omelas" at all, and he adds a lot to this story. The unexpected tie-in with M'Benga's daughter was really rather inspired. They even allowed the First Minister Whatever to make an argument at the end. It was an incredibly bad and stupid argument, but it was probably the best argument she had, and the show let her make it without dismissing it out-of-hand (the way the other nuTrek live-action shows always seem to).

Pike, in particular, was great here. It's obvious how and why he was tempted, how and why he liked the girl and her society... but, in the end, he refuses to stand by. He does everything in his power short of declaring war and then, faced with a final temptation, recoils in justified horror and accepts that he would rather die than live like this. Pike's been fun all season long, but, here, he was a hero -- even though he couldn't save the kiddo.

Great episode, loved it, more like this please.
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Second Edition Design Manager
By The Guardian (Richard New)
 - Second Edition Design Manager
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2E North American Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
#579299
BCSWowbagger wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 2:38 pm "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach" was very good.

...
Well said. The episode has been with me since watching it. While at first I was a little underwhelmed (as I assumed there was a twist similar to what was done from close to the beginning; I tend to focus on plot early and character after), that last conversation brought it home and kept giving me stuff to chew on.

I kept wishing Pike had one more line: "If you're so unashamed, why did you hide what you were doing from me?" The episode could be seen to stand in stark contrast to the Star Trek "needs of the many outweigh..." axiom, but there is definitely enough of a difference in circumstances to argue it. Might even have been worth laying some Spock groundwork with it, but he's had his fair share of episodes, so I was fine seeing him take a bit of a back seat. Meanwhile, Pike has a similar choice (maybe the wrong word, as he's already decided) in the future, so there's plenty to dig into.
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
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2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#579359
lotjx2 wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:02 pm Strange New Worlds Episode 7 Review: Betrayal on the Starship in Space. https://comicbookspotlight.com/2022/06/ ... episode-7/
Lol, we're probably going to play Betrayal at House on the Hill tonight.
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Second Edition Playtest Manager
By Faithful Reader (Ross Fertel)
 - Second Edition Playtest Manager
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Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#579360
Jesse james Kietel iss great as Angel/Aspen. Great cahratcer work and fun moments with Spock. I jsut wish teh shift was nto as abrupt between teht wo. But we are all but assured to see her again.

The rest was a little flat, especially the whole "let's mutiny again' angle which was fun but not good for viewing especially since so much of it was offscreen and old hat. It is a nice contrast to the regimented crew we are used to.

We may finally give Sybok the story he deserves.

Man this second half of the season is falling flat for me.
jadziadax8 wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 10:26 am
lotjx2 wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:02 pm Strange New Worlds Episode 7 Review: Betrayal on the Starship in Space. https://comicbookspotlight.com/2022/06/ ... episode-7/
Lol, we're probably going to play Betrayal at House on the Hill tonight.
One guy in my group loves that game. Along with video games.
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
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2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#579372
Faithful Reader wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:49 am One guy in my group loves that game. Along with video games.
I take it no one else likes it?
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Second Edition Playtest Manager
By Faithful Reader (Ross Fertel)
 - Second Edition Playtest Manager
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Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#579410
jadziadax8 wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 2:10 pm
Faithful Reader wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:49 am One guy in my group loves that game. Along with video games.
I take it no one else likes it?
Several like both. It is just that this individual is not a fan of board games. Betrayal is the only one I am aware of that he will play, and that includes the game I made called I Put A Twenty On The Table And It's Yours If You Pick It Up In The Next Five Minutes.
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
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2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#579716
🤣 first then 😭 by the end. Solid episode.
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 - Beta Quadrant
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#579723
jadziadax8 wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:32 pm 🤣 first then 😭 by the end. Solid episode.
Very dusty in my house at the end.
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
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2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#579741
abargar7510 wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:11 pm
jadziadax8 wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:32 pm 🤣 first then 😭 by the end. Solid episode.
Very dusty in my house at the end.
Yeah, um, same here!
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Second Edition Playtest Manager
By Faithful Reader (Ross Fertel)
 - Second Edition Playtest Manager
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Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#579799
You know those episodes that you have a lot of negative things to say about it but turns out great overall? This is the opposite.

Why was this alien playing with Rurika? If it loved the tales so much, why was she is her quarters (M'Benga's quarters?") the whole time? This seemed lie an excuse to have most of the cast play act for an hour without having to leave the sets. It would scream bottle episodes but there was a lot of work that went into these costumes.

Mind you, it is great playacting. Chong played strongly against type and had a certain special co-star along for the ride. Romijn kicks ass no matter what but my favorite is Mount. This is a rare turn for him to show his comedic chops and he has them in full. Talk about throwing yourself into the role. As much as there was a dusty ending, there were some hilarious moments before it.

So i guess M'Benga is going to get away with putting the ship at risk. Thankfully they never lost power to the point where he had to shut down sickbay.
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By Cartagia
 - Beta Quadrant
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#579867
Faithful Reader wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2022 10:58 amWhy was this alien playing with Rurika? If it loved the tales so much, why was she is her quarters (M'Benga's quarters?") the whole time?
I'm not sure what you're saying here? Debra specifically says that she reached out mentally and found Rurika, whose loneliness was similar to her own ad they bonded over that.

Rurkia also says that she could see what was going on the whole time ("You were doing so good, Daddy!"), so I imagine it was somewhat like a video game to her.
This seemed lie an excuse to have most of the cast play act for an hour without having to leave the sets.
Yes, and I am totally here for it.
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