God, I wanted to like this more. I really did. A "Balance of Terror" what-if episode with Pike in the big chair sounds on paper like something made for me. But there's just too much here that doesn't land, or doesn't make sense.
1. There's a certain amount of cool factor in seeing scenes from the old show reprised with fresh effects. But it all feels a little too by-the-numbers, with too many people who seem to be there simply for the purpose of serving up warmed-over takes on classic dialogue. Where the new takes try to replicate or curiously parallel the original, they don't feel earned and sometimes feel illogical: the "I could have called you friend" speech is there for no other reason than its being in the original, and Ortegas is for some reason now suspicious of Spock because someone had be the episode's Stiles.
2. The divergences don't make sense, either. Kirk is shoehorned in rather than Pike and his crew facing this challenge on their own, but he doesn't really have much to offer that Pike couldn't have done on his own... which means Pike has to be forced into a making an irrational error that's just a smidge less manly than Ye Good Olde Kirk Style, in order that Kirk can lecture him about how "sometimes you can't avoid a fight." This really makes no sense: given that we've seen Pike unflinchingly unleash hell in space battles on two different shows now, this isn't advice he needs or should need... and the poor guy playing Kirk is so completely outclassed both by the original and by Anson Mount that he does not in any way come off as credible.
3. The consequences of Pike "showing weakness" lead to immediate war since apparently the Romulans just had a fully-mobilized armada on standby awaiting the outcome of a single raid? I make allowances for the pulpy nature of NuTrek a lot, but come on. This is pushing it too far. Had Pike been Sufficiently Manly all those ships and personnel were just going to say "oh well," and call it a day?
4. Leaving aside that being periodically bludgeoned about the head with Pike's Impending Doom is the feature of SNW I like least -- I get that some people are into it and fine, good for them -- but even rolling with that, the amount of detailed knowledge about Fate that Future-Pike has seems inexplicable, and the whole Spock-as-Man-of-Destiny thing seems unnecessary. Why wouldn't seeing just *one* reality in which changing the timeline led to Spock's destruction be enough for Pike, whom we know to be a fundamentally decent guy?
At the end of the day, "Memento Mori" outclasses this episode in every way as a thrilling space battle outing. I couldn't tell you how I would have done this concept differently... except to say that maybe it didn't need to be done at all. We could have indeed, in particular, gone a full season without the obligatory Jim Kirk guest-turn, especially if it was going to be this underwhelming.
1. There's a certain amount of cool factor in seeing scenes from the old show reprised with fresh effects. But it all feels a little too by-the-numbers, with too many people who seem to be there simply for the purpose of serving up warmed-over takes on classic dialogue. Where the new takes try to replicate or curiously parallel the original, they don't feel earned and sometimes feel illogical: the "I could have called you friend" speech is there for no other reason than its being in the original, and Ortegas is for some reason now suspicious of Spock because someone had be the episode's Stiles.
2. The divergences don't make sense, either. Kirk is shoehorned in rather than Pike and his crew facing this challenge on their own, but he doesn't really have much to offer that Pike couldn't have done on his own... which means Pike has to be forced into a making an irrational error that's just a smidge less manly than Ye Good Olde Kirk Style, in order that Kirk can lecture him about how "sometimes you can't avoid a fight." This really makes no sense: given that we've seen Pike unflinchingly unleash hell in space battles on two different shows now, this isn't advice he needs or should need... and the poor guy playing Kirk is so completely outclassed both by the original and by Anson Mount that he does not in any way come off as credible.
3. The consequences of Pike "showing weakness" lead to immediate war since apparently the Romulans just had a fully-mobilized armada on standby awaiting the outcome of a single raid? I make allowances for the pulpy nature of NuTrek a lot, but come on. This is pushing it too far. Had Pike been Sufficiently Manly all those ships and personnel were just going to say "oh well," and call it a day?
4. Leaving aside that being periodically bludgeoned about the head with Pike's Impending Doom is the feature of SNW I like least -- I get that some people are into it and fine, good for them -- but even rolling with that, the amount of detailed knowledge about Fate that Future-Pike has seems inexplicable, and the whole Spock-as-Man-of-Destiny thing seems unnecessary. Why wouldn't seeing just *one* reality in which changing the timeline led to Spock's destruction be enough for Pike, whom we know to be a fundamentally decent guy?
At the end of the day, "Memento Mori" outclasses this episode in every way as a thrilling space battle outing. I couldn't tell you how I would have done this concept differently... except to say that maybe it didn't need to be done at all. We could have indeed, in particular, gone a full season without the obligatory Jim Kirk guest-turn, especially if it was going to be this underwhelming.
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