Still Can’t Stand How SNW Writes Vulcans

Yep, I’m going to gripe about Strange New Worlds S2, ep. 5 (the Spock one), so if that’s going to kill your buzz, please feel free to skip.

The (Mostly) Good
To begin with (virtually spoiler free), this episode had a couple of very good things:

1) Amanda. New Trek Amanda has been written very well in general, and this may be the best Amanda episode in all Star Trek. I love how she is now being treated like full, complex person.

2) The aliens. Though they loosely fall under the “super-evolved energy being” trope, they are different from every other ST alien I can recall, and that’s a quite a trick after almost 60 years of media. They’re benevolent but also narrowminded and just culturally different in their communication patterns. Well done.

I have only one complaint, which is the universalization of the “friendship doesn’t matter” trope. Alien as these beings are, they 100% agree with us (21st century US, for ex.) and our heroes (23rd century) that friendship doesn’t matter much, thereby presenting this not as a cultural quirk but a universal law. As a friendship bonder, this sets my teeth on edge exactly as I imagine the “bury your queers” trope does queer people’s: (not exact quote) “We’re friends, but I want something...” (wait for it) “...more.” Okay, I’ll stop now.

3) Bonus good: Pike. He was a minor character in this, but he came through for Spock as a supportive friend and it spoke well of his character.

4) Bonus good: Excellent acting throughout. This includes Chapel, who is bringing her A game.

5) Bonus good: A lot of the jokes, in and of themselves, were funny.
Spoilers and griping follow.( Read more... )