A New Star Trek fan

But I find that whilst SNW does have some interesting concepts, they are rarely explored to their fullest. The documentary episode is a great example of this: it's a very intriguing idea with lots of room for exploring new questions, but it doesn't really do any of that. It ends up being a pretty unoriginal story, and that's disappointing. Four and a Half Vulcans also had this issue, where I felt like we were being constantly switched between so many characters and plotlines that none of them really got to shine, and it ended up feeling shallow. I'd honestly prefer if they used more boring/cliché concepts but took the time to fully explore them, like in the latest episode with Ortegas and the gorn.

TOS managed to build a franchise out of the dynamic between three characters. Kirk, Spock, and Bones. Yes it is annoying that, excluding Scotty, few other characters really get the chance to shine, the trade off is one of the best trios in well, anything.

Snw gets so preoccupied with its episode’s concepts that it doesn’t leave much room for characters to react or showcase their full personalities outside of what broadly makes sense for the plot. It’s not so much contrived as it is predictable. It’s not motivated it just makes sense in the broad strokes. Which is much less interesting.

The big picture ideas of fate, what it means to be human, environmentalism, racism, what if a planet based its whole society off of a history book about Chicago gangs? Etc. They’re all playgrounds in tos to see how the big 3 react, change, and grow.

Snw is so focused on showing off, “oh my god we did X!” That it forgets that. It’s caught up in spectacle of what it can do. It’s lost in the sauce.

Imo, no amount of beautiful set pieces, expensive mando monitors for the backgrounds, or giant cgi space battles are ever gonna compete with the raw emotions of these three trying to sacrifice themselves for each other, while on a black sound stage with like 10 props.

I see you white smoke cloud of death

Based on the voiceover I wonder if Spock and Kirk really will be trading traumatic memories.

Would Kirk really willingly open up to him like that?

This early?

The hype is real

In the episode, Jim tells McCoy to look over tapes about the Farragut to explain how this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Meanwhile when going over it with Spock, they’re talking around it until Jim basically says “Doctor McCoy is looking at certain tapes right now. You should check it out.” Doesn’t even elaborate. This is likely because they’re on the bridge in front of others but still.

Yet despite this lack of details, Spock is able to find the info about the Farragut, review it all, and hand over a summary to McCoy, who, because of all the dead and injured crew, hadn’t had time to look up the info yet.

Compare this to conscience of the king. Where you get a scene of Spock using the ship’s computer to figure out the correlation between the karidian, Jim, and Riley.

There’s also this little moment when Spock and McCoy confront Kirk.

Jim: I’m convinced this is the same creature that attacked the Farragut 11 years ago.

Spock: Creature, Captain?

Jim: My report is on the tapes.

*Scotty gets shot

Uhura: Scotty! No! If you die I’ll you!

Uhotty shippers, come and get your food.

except: everyone in the trek fandom. we love this shit. theres tags for Tarsus trauma up the wazoo. this little piece of grit that much of the actual body of work doesn’t interrogate has become a fandom pearl. its such a good example of fandom doing what fandom does best: picking at something interesting in the source that doesn’t need to be explored for the function of the larger plot, yet makes all the difference in a pure character or dynamic study.

Both Conscience of the King and Obsession have scenes between Kirk, Spock, and Bones, where the latter two have to recite Kirk’s tragic backstory at him to get him to react/tell them what’s going on. Obsession is especially neat cuz he’s constantly like “I explained this in the tapes.” He does not want to reveal anything new or expose his feelings about this. Conscience of the king Spock simply has to go “I checked the computer like you did. I got the same info.” For Jim to be like “okay they know some stuff,” and begrudgingly start talking about it. (But not before trying one last time to get them to stop).

Meanwhile Spock has no problem talking about his past most of the time, and when there are issues, he pretty easily cracks under the pressure.

Jim Kirk however just doesn’t.

So realistically making a trauma arc out of stuff maybe paralleling his past is extremely difficult.

There was an episode in s2 where Kirk go possessed by a dude that survived a mass extinction event because he was deemed more valuable than the other people on his planet.

The tarsus iv parallels aren’t even hinted at.

Trouble with Tribbles is about Kirk being mad he’s out on an escort mission for apparently very important grain.

If pacing was the issue, then did we really need to see Spock’s crap again? We’d done that song and dance.

And what kills me is SHATNER DIRECTED FINAL FRONTIER! HE COULD’VE GIVEN HIMSELF A JUICY DRAMATIC SCENE BUT NO WE HAVE JIM ONLY HINTING AT HIS BAGGAGE

And look, I know Jim isn’t the type to monologue about whatever he went through. But like, he didn’t have to. Have Sybok show everyone, then when he tries to make his elevator pitch, Jim could just be staring him in the eye, eyes filled with anger,

He's a little that way about Tarsus, and he's that way about Edith, and he's very much that way about the Tycho cloud monster. He's made his trauma part of his personality; he doesn't know who he'd be without it.