Finally finished Strange New Worlds S2, so I thought I'd list out my thoughts
-Fantastic season with amazing characters, dialogue, writing, drama, comedy... everything
-At first, I didn't think it was better than S1, but after that last episode, I'm not so sure
-This is my all-time favorite Star Trek show hands down
-I was super skeptical of both the Lower Decks crossover episode as well as the musical one as I thought both would be really tough to pull of well and I ended up liking both of them. In fact, I thought the Lower Decks episode was one of the best of the series and I found the music in the musical episode to be really well written, catchy, and much better than I expected. In fact, I found the music to be better than the music in 80% of the musicals I see out there.
-The majority of the castings/recastings for Strange New Worlds are so so good. Anson Mount as Captain Pike is obviously #1, but Ethan Peck as Spock is right there with him. In fact, I've loved all 3 castings of Spock, but Ethan Peck might even be my favorite. Some other notable great castings are Babs as Dr. M'Benga, Jess Bush as Dr. Chapel and Martin Quinn as Scotty.
-There is only really two castings which haven't necessarily worked well for me, at least so far, and that is Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura and Paul Wesley as Kirk. At least Celia's portrayal has been steadily improving for me over time, but I can't say the same for Paul Wesley's Kirk. I still just don't see his character as Captain Kirk at all, but rather something completely different. Its not that I can't see Captain Kirk recast as I loved Chris Pine as Kirk. Wesley, not so much.
-Not helping Wesley's Kirk appearances is the fact that they are using him WAY too much in this series. What was he in like 3 episodes this season in addition to what we saw him in last season? There just isn't any organic reason to have him be in so much, especially with the musical episode. Its like they are just making up reasons for him to appear even though he is on the Farragut.
-The aesthetic and graphics for this series are pretty great and on point for both their budget and what they need to do. While both Star Wars and Star Trek clearly heavily use The Volume technology for their shows, Star Trek's settings are just way more suited to be using it as much as they do, whereas Star Wars is the ultimate case of overuse of The Volume. Star Wars' overuse of the volume has made too many settings feel small, off and claustrophobic whereas most of Star Trek can live in that type of world. Andor not using The Volume as much as Obi-Wan and Ashoka is why that show's aesthetic is far superior.
-I can't emphasize enough how good the writing and dialogue for this series is. It has turned Star Trek into my new favorite franchise right now, which is quite impressive.
-On a side note, SNW has inspired me to pick up a pretty on-point Captain Pike uniform online to wear this Halloween. Not gonna lie, but I look pretty darn good in it.
-Fantastic season with amazing characters, dialogue, writing, drama, comedy... everything
-At first, I didn't think it was better than S1, but after that last episode, I'm not so sure
-This is my all-time favorite Star Trek show hands down
-I was super skeptical of both the Lower Decks crossover episode as well as the musical one as I thought both would be really tough to pull of well and I ended up liking both of them. In fact, I thought the Lower Decks episode was one of the best of the series and I found the music in the musical episode to be really well written, catchy, and much better than I expected. In fact, I found the music to be better than the music in 80% of the musicals I see out there.
-The majority of the castings/recastings for Strange New Worlds are so so good. Anson Mount as Captain Pike is obviously #1, but Ethan Peck as Spock is right there with him. In fact, I've loved all 3 castings of Spock, but Ethan Peck might even be my favorite. Some other notable great castings are Babs as Dr. M'Benga, Jess Bush as Dr. Chapel and Martin Quinn as Scotty.
-There is only really two castings which haven't necessarily worked well for me, at least so far, and that is Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura and Paul Wesley as Kirk. At least Celia's portrayal has been steadily improving for me over time, but I can't say the same for Paul Wesley's Kirk. I still just don't see his character as Captain Kirk at all, but rather something completely different. Its not that I can't see Captain Kirk recast as I loved Chris Pine as Kirk. Wesley, not so much.
-Not helping Wesley's Kirk appearances is the fact that they are using him WAY too much in this series. What was he in like 3 episodes this season in addition to what we saw him in last season? There just isn't any organic reason to have him be in so much, especially with the musical episode. Its like they are just making up reasons for him to appear even though he is on the Farragut.
-The aesthetic and graphics for this series are pretty great and on point for both their budget and what they need to do. While both Star Wars and Star Trek clearly heavily use The Volume technology for their shows, Star Trek's settings are just way more suited to be using it as much as they do, whereas Star Wars is the ultimate case of overuse of The Volume. Star Wars' overuse of the volume has made too many settings feel small, off and claustrophobic whereas most of Star Trek can live in that type of world. Andor not using The Volume as much as Obi-Wan and Ashoka is why that show's aesthetic is far superior.
-I can't emphasize enough how good the writing and dialogue for this series is. It has turned Star Trek into my new favorite franchise right now, which is quite impressive.
-On a side note, SNW has inspired me to pick up a pretty on-point Captain Pike uniform online to wear this Halloween. Not gonna lie, but I look pretty darn good in it.
