This post – naturally – contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and do not want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.
This is not an episode review but rather just a bunch of ramblings which I’ve tried to at least sort a little bit into categories.
Season 1 – Episode 7 – The Serene Squall
This episode was hilarious. It is a nice break in tone compared to the last episode and it was so great to see Anson goofing off and showing his comedic talent. He hasn’t done many comedic roles in his career, which is why I am happy he’s catching up now. This entire episode looked like he had a ton of fun making it. I honestly don’t know how the cast and crew could finish shooting this episode, there must have been a lot of laughing fits.
I’ve also worked a bit on my gif-skills and trying a new approach with my ramblings by adding more gifs. I hope you enjoy.
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A lot of T’Pring in the series
I am surprised how much we get to see of T’Pring in this series, especially if you compare her screentime with Hemmer, who is supposed to be main cast. I am even more surprised that I don’t mind at all seeing her that much! She is a breakout character for me who I didn’t expect to see much of, but now realize how much I like to see her.
In this episode I was even more surprised that we even get to see her at work. For a recurring character that is a lot of insight. But luckily the episode gave the reason for this and it all falls into place for me now. Especially with the last second reveal in the episode, SNW is going to focus a lot more on Spock’s family (if not in season 1 already, then for sure in season 2).
What I found funny was her suggesting human sex to Spock. I just wonder why Spock was so shocked about that. What exactly were they planning to do in the pilot episode during their “special night” when Pike interrupted them? That looked very much like what humans do, too! 🤔
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Did Dr. Aspen / Captain Angel hit on Pike?
Or was it just part of their tactic to get Pike on their side?
During the dinner when they told Pike he’s known in Starfleet for being their (!) boy scout, the teasing and charming grin felt genuine. And what I find even more interesting is that Pike seemed to be intrigued.
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That boy scout comment tho!
So here I was squirming around in my last ramblings not to flat out call Pike naive, and they drop the bomb in episode 7 with the boy scout. Next time I guess I should just stick with my gut feeling and call it as what it is.
But was Una just teasing him that it was even in his file? I mean… a nick name in a Starfleet file? That would be weird.
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Remy had a thing for Pike
Nobody can tell me otherwise. Sure, he’s an Orion slaver and most and foremost saw Pike as a prime meat that gets him lots of latinum. But the way he eyed him up, felt for his bicep and patted him while only sideeying La’an and literally disregarding her… tell me I am not the only one who saw this?
And later he tells Pike he doesn’t want to wreck a great jawline (hello???) and then also calling him handsome and witty. I cannot say that Orion had bad taste.
It’s so funny how Remy tried to dominate Pike when his helpers were doing the dirty work for him, but later Pike turned the tables and played Remy like a fiddle.
I wonder if we ever get to see Remy again and how their second meeting will be, after Pike caused his crew to mutiny against him.
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Why did nobody help Pike up when he was tossed inside the cell?
Okay I admit it, I laughed my butt off at this scene. Anson played this so hilariously funny!
But uh, something irks me about this scene. Pike has been the care bear for his crew. Always wants their best. Always puts them before himself. Surely by now his crew must appreciate him as being an awesome captain, no?
So how come when that lizard guy tossed Pike into the cell, none of Pike’s crew made even the slightest attempt of helping him up? They all just stared at him – admittedly in shock about how much he had been roughened up – but they just watched him hauling his butt up all by himself.
I know it was done for comedic reasons (and Anson was so great), but I still find that remarkably weird. There was only one guy in the cell (the one with the gold uniform, kneeling on the right side) who at least offered Pike a bit of a hand. M’Benga at least checked his head (after Pike got up on his own mind you). But Ortegas and Una? They just watched him go down.
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Hints for the big twist
I admit I didn’t see the twist coming, but I was very pleased to watch Jesse James Keitel turning absolute evil as Captain Angel. As they were able to escape, I sure hope we gonna see them again. Especially as they are married to Sybok who I am sure we will see more of. If not in season 1 then in season 2.
Only when I watched the episode a second time, I noticed there were hints that Dr. Aspen was the pirate leader, or at least associated with them.
During the dinner, when Spock mentions the Serene Squall, you can see Aspen stop in their movements for a brief second.
They also tell everyone how the pirates are outsiders, fiercely loyal to each other, which turns out to be not true. But as Angel was their leader, this is certainly what they wanted to believe to be true.
Dr. Aspen also knew the solution how to get out of the net trap. It was a very scientific solution, something one wouldn’t expect from a counselor.
Remy knew exactly that Pike is the captain. How else would he know if not from Angel beforehand? At the time Remy was torturing Pike to get the codes, Angel was still in their Dr. Aspen cover.
Dr. Aspen urged Spock to use the escape pods and abandon the ship.
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Angel and Sybok
Angel isn’t just married to Sybok, they also share the belief in allowing emotions to unfold. Multiple times Angel encouraged Spock to rely on his emotion. Just when they asked him about Kolinahr (which is the Vulcan ceremony to detach themselves from all emotions) and were all excited to learn that Spock hasn’t underwent the ceremony yet, or when they pushed Spock to follow his gut feeling to decide which asteroid to fire on to destroy the net trap. Not to mention the dialogue they had with Spock about Spock’s true self (which was beautiful!).
Angel might have chosen a vile way to get their husband back, but they acted out of love. I don’t think they are purely evil. I think Angel is truly believing in Sybok’s ways and as such, I am almost certain we will see both again.
Sybok on his path to find Sha Ka Ree is going to gather quite a following. He will collect many followers by using his telepathic abilities to heal people from traumatic experiences. I am curious if we’ll get to see any of that in SNW and who all Sybok will try to win over. I mean, there are a couple of people on Enterprise with traumatic experiences…
I am also curious how his relationship with his half brother Spock will unfold.
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Star Trek writers know exactly what the fans want
Not only did we get a non-binary character, who kicked ass!
But whumpers also got their happy day!
Still some unchecked boxes though. But I am certain the show will deliver.
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Some Randoms
This is very random, but I loved the boing sound the Enterprise made when it kicked the rock away that set off the trap
I cannot wait to get my hands on the season 1 blu ray and watch the outtakes for this episode. How could they all pull this episode off without getting caught in endless laughing fits?
Holy shit was Spock badass or what? And he’s just half Vulcan. How much stronger is a full Vulcan? 😱 I was squealing when I saw that.
Pike wearing an apron over his combat gear (!), and to top it off, the apron is also gold just as his gear? This had me in stitches. 🤣
The oversized steering wheel… in a spaceship… like wtf? Lol
Did Chapel seriously aim a hypospray at Spock and Dr. Aspen in engineering? 🤣 This episode was pure comedy.
The Serene Squall under Remy was about to separate from the Enterprise and leave part of their crew behind when Remy announced they would set course to Qu’Vat to sell the Federation crew to the Klingons. So, was this actually a double mutiny? Fran turning against Remy on the Serene Squall, after Remy turned against Captain Angel? Well played Chris, well played indeed!
“Spock, you are failing to communicate effectively.” Bahahaha, I love this. Vulcan’s being funny when trying not to be funny.
Alright people, Hough says this is very serious business!
Actually it isn’t, it’s pretty damn funny.
So, Michael Hough did not buy up all the possible domain names that people would possibly search for if they were in the middle of a drunken stupor and wanted to donate some money to his campaign. But, someone else did. And it’s very serious business so you SHOULD NOT look up this website and should be the appropriate amount of disappointed that Michael…
Some very serious news has made it our way via the FNP political notes section. Senator Michael Hough is now in danger of becoming the devil’s consort. How could this be?! Well, one of his bills accidentally (?) got marked with the devil’s much coveted seal of approval! It’s true, he introduced the 666th bill this session and lo and behold the devil came straight up from the fiery pits of…
