Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 049: (SNW S02E01-E02) The Broken Circle & Ad Astra Per Aspera (Dual Review)

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Brad, Drew and Majeed are thrilled to return to Pike's Peak, as Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns to our screens!  Season 2 kicks off with a pair of completely different kinds of episodes - "The Broken Circle" hits hard and heavy with action, while "Ad Astra Per Aspera" returns to the courtroom with a classic Trek morality tale. Which one resonated with the hosts the most? Find out as Yet Another Star Trek Podcast covers the first two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2! Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau

Good day and welcome to yet another Star Trek podcast. I'm your host for the day, Brad, who is followed by my Jimless wonder, Majeed and my ex-spants wanna be friend Drew. How you guys doing today? What's the one to be friend? I should be offended by both of these things. What's Jimless? You know, I don't even remember both of these things. What's Jimless? You know, I don't even remember saying want to be friend.

I just said want to be expanse, but you know what? We can always play back the recording and see if I actually said it. So I apologize. You know what? No, no ill hard feelings towards my expanse giving friend. Uh, there. How you doing, buddy? We'll see, expense. Well, this, this MCRN shirt that I'm wearing makes me feel delightful.

Good. I'm glad you looked at my show. Well, thank you, Majid. I appreciate that. How's everybody been? It's been, I think, two full long weeks since we've chatted. We're here in a new phase of our Star Trek podcast. And we're going to be talking about strange new worlds today. Yeah. Yeah. This is the one that this is the one I'm waiting for. All right. Waiting for a crazy world season two since season one ended looking for some more Pike's Peak. Pike's Peak. Don't hate on his hair. It's magnificent and glorious.

It's real. It is truly spectacular. He's peeking it up. He's peeking it up. But how's everybody been doing? How's everything going in your lives? You guys getting sleep, driving okay? Sleep.

Vacations. This is a loaded question, Brad. He set you up. I had a wonderful vacation followed by an emergency hospital visit from my mother and then a completely sleepless night before I went back to my job. That sounds absolutely horrible, man. How was your mom doing? She's better.

She's home now, thankfully. And they've ruled out anything serious. Nothing too crazy. She was getting like dizzy spells. And they were just trying to rule out stuff like stroke or any hard issues, which they were able trying to rule out stuff like stroke or, you know, any hard issues, which they were able to do, thankfully. And then, you know, from there, it's like, okay, well, let's rule out some other serious things. And long story short, they sent her home,

they have no idea what's wrong with her. So that was, you know, a fun two days, but she's home, and she's feeling better, and she's in good spirits and That's all that we can ask for, you know mm-hmm. Yeah, totally. Oh, we wish the best to your mother Thanks, man. I really appreciate that. How about you Majeed? How's everything been going on your side? I'm I'm physically exhausted The fire pit area is almost done. No, I'm supposed to go work out like back today. I don't want to go to the gym.

I'm so tired. I might just take today as a rest day after we're done. I may just save these gym clothes for a different day and just pass out and couch again. You should listen to your body, man. Now, are you working on your backyard by yourself? Were you doing with like your wife or something?

She's only thing that my wife does in these projects is sign off on the credit card statement. That's it. She's, she's, she's, she's focusing at the end to say that she helped like she was, she's full of sin at the end to, to say that she helped. Like she was like, like with this project specifically, right? Did all the manual labor, the gravel leveling, the wiring, she comes in, hangs a couple of flower potches, like, oh, I helped.

This is our project. And I'm like, no, no, In Soviet Russia, you can pull that nonsense. It's not here. I can understand. I, myself, was pretty proactive last weekend. However, my wife did actually assist in the work that I did, which was the full sanding and then painting of my back deck.

I thought that was adorable, by the way. Brad sent a picture. Not sure if you saw this, but his wife was wearing his pants. Yeah, because she has absolutely no work clothes to do physical labor. So she had to wear mine. And of course, I only have like two pairs of jeans. And now both of them are covered in paint. And I'm pretty sure I'll need to buy new jeans at this point. Does seem that way. But I mean, you don't really leave your house very often. So maybe you can get away with it for a couple of years.

That's fair. We're going to set up a go fund me to get Bratz and new jeans. No, no. Bratz, new jeans. I'll probably need to buy some by like September or something, you know. Actually, Brad, we have a pretty, you know, dedicated and loving community on Twitter. If I post to go fund me to get you new jeans, I think I think we can get it happen, everybody.

I think we can get a work in future. What do you think? I mean, I think we can count on about $1.50. That's all he needs. Yeah, just go to Goodwill. Yeah. I love that. I'm not sure that $1.50 was like,

everybody donating or just like one person donating and then Jew and I is just sitting there like, yeah, why don't you donate? Yeah, no, it's a cumulative $1.50. You know, I think there's one person that'll drop like 17 cents. Not like a quarter, 17 cents, just like a very odd number. And then there's another person that does a 1 cent, you know, like 1 cent. But so now we have 1701.

Every little bit helps. Well, folks, I mean, to show you, you do not have to look forward to that type of go-fund me. That will really not be happening. But if you want to send us your money, please do so. Cause we have bills to pay. I can get this to work though. All I need is a picture of Brad, like his face.

And I can photoshop them. You already have a picture of my face. Yeah, it's tough sending me Brad, like his face. And I can photoshop them on the line. You already have a picture of my face. Yeah, it's tough to send to me selfies. It's weird. Like you professionally took pictures of me. Right, I did. I did, that was for a different purpose.

Yeah, no, I do want to emphasize that it wasn't just of me, it was me and my wife for our post or pre-birth thing. So it was like the pregnancy pictures. Magi did a fantastic job. So if you want though, I highly recommend hitting up Magi for photography. And he will totally make a wonderful spread for you. Yeah, Brad, Brad, you were absolutely glowing in those photos. You know, the pregnancy definitely treated you well. And I think you've gotten rid of most of the baby weight at this point.

I'm so glad my wife doesn't listen to this podcast. Oh, that's sad. Even my wife doesn't say the podcast. No, she does. Well, that's one out of three. Oh, right. Your wife believes you drew. We saw, we saw the text exchange on Twitter.

I love it. Hahaha. the the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the the after this short commercial break. He moved his desk around again? It does look like it. Yeah, he moved his office around again. I did, I did. Every time we see, like, we're gonna see all four walls

of this room before we get to the next room. Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. This is the same. Is that a baby bassinet? What is that, that white thing? Is that a baby bucket? This is a baby bucket. This is a baby bath.

All right, so I was right, Drew. I was right. Yeah. I got my baby bath from Home Depot last time. Anyway, let's talk about the episodes. All right, so to our loyal listeners, keep in mind, we will be talking about the first two episodes of Strange New Worlds. So if you have not seen the episodes, there is a chance that we will spoil both episodes during even the listening of the first episode because we tend to be scatterbrained so apologies and you can't blame us.

You really do need to watch both of these episodes before you listen to this. If you're just not to listen to it, though, thank you for the download. We appreciate it. It does help. Yeah, we appreciate your loyalty. Yeah, or just, you know, yeah, download it, let it play in the background while the volume's low. So that helps you. So the first episode we watch is the broken circle.

This is the season premiere of season two. We've left the crew of the Enterprise in a bit of a girl's parents and family. And so we joined the crew of the enterprise, oddly enough, with Pike leaving the enterprise. I kind of honestly didn't see that coming. He was going away while the ship was in port and they were getting a full rundown on the ship. They were going through the whole works of checking the systems, making sure everything's up to par

with Spock in the captain's chair and the rest of the crew just kind of standing by support. We're with Pike nowhere to be seen. Did you guys expect Pike to literally be gone from this entire episode when this happened? No. No. Do you think the reason why I took it into the episodes?

Yeah, this was a very strange choice, I think, to have the lead of the show, almost completely absent from the entire episode. I think we get from probably be like two minutes in the beginning of him saying like, eh, you guys will be fine, Adios, right. That honestly, I did not suspect. I kind of knew they needed to tie up the loose end

with number one, but we didn't even get that in this episode. It was entirely a side, I guess it wasn't a side-up because we do get a thing back. So I know we're jumping ahead with that, but let's continue, right? Yeah, yeah, there's a lot going on here. Go ahead. So we have pike leaving, and then the crew, the enterprise, is underway with some sort of inspection. Drew, is

this kind of like one of those normal inspections they kind of do where they're just like, you're recognizing the ship and just kind of going through everything? Because I think we've seen that in like TNG at one point, something similar to it. Yeah, it just struck me as like routine maintenance, you know, we're changing the oil,

we're switching the antibodies out, making sure that the brakes are good, blah, blah, blah. we're switching the any free is out, make sure that the breaks are good, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, and then we get a, we get a strange distress call. They identify as sing, sending them from a planet that has a very bit of a unique situation. We learn that the planet is co-controlled

by the Federation and the Klingons, in a part of their peace talks. This is, was it delithium? A planet that supplies the lithium, I can't remember. I wanna say. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Cajitar, Cajitar, Cajitar 4. Cajitar 4. And so the way it works is the klingons will take a shift and then they will get it for like a for a month I

guess. Yeah. And they'll do mining. They'll get the delithium they need and then they leave. And the federation will take come in. They will do it. And they'll do mining, they'll get the delithium they need, and then they leave. And the federation will take, come in, and they will do it. And then during that time period, the federation should not be present during the clingons, and the clingons shouldn't be present for the federation's shift. So we get this distress signal from saying, and,, Spock like the the loyal individual he is wants to go check it out and try to identify it. Going to Admiral April, he's like, nope, not gonna happen. Too much of a risk. It's gonna cause a war. And it's a legitimate reason, but the

the distress call is indicating that if they don't go, it potentially could cause a war. So it's a bit of a conundrum that they are placed in. Unusually, Spock kind of comes up with a plan to, I don't know, I don't want to say a mutiny, but rebel against the federation and steal the ship. Yeah, they steal in the enterprise. Uh, but he, he goes along with the, uh, the, the crew, the, the enterprise, um, the, the main cast and crew, of course, uh, you get, you know, a chapel, a, a, a, a, a, everybody else from, from that series in there.

And he's like, hey, this is what I wanna do. If you wanna leave, I'm not gonna blame you. And of course, they don't leave. They all just be like, yeah, we're with you. We're gonna work on it. And in the whole process of them trying to steal the ship, they try to do a, was ap Core leak, I think they fake.

Yeah, they try to simulate. Re-reach. And that apparently works very well, except for a engineer named Pellia. Yeah. Pell? Is that how you pronounce your name? Pellia, I believe. Pellia.

Commander P Pelia. Commander Pelia. And I don't really know if she's going to be around much longer, but she was kind of quirky, very odd individual who apparently, like, lives forever, I guess. Yeah. I did a little digging on this because I was kind of curious. I'm not familiar with the actress Carol Kane But apparently yeah, apparently I should be because I guess she's kind of legendary But I went through her film credits and it really wasn't much that I've seen that she's been in and maybe gee Have do you know who Carol Kane is?

She's an actress, right? Do you know who Carol canes? She's in extras, right? Do you know any of her work that she's been in before? I'm gonna go with no, but I know. I feel really heartbroken from the two of you. I'm good at this. Was she in the expanse? No, no, she wasn't. She's been in a bunch of stuff.

Like taxi, scrooge, like she's phenomenal in her work. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm like an Emmy or an Oscar too. Like she's won awards. Oh, definitely, definitely. I just know her from a bunch of nerdy crap reviews. Well, since I had no point of reference

for who she is and what she's done, I did a little bit of digging, mainly because of her accent in this character, which I'm not sure I'm really a fan of, but I'm willing to give it some time. And for those of you that are uneducated like I am, no, she does not normally speak that way. She has a perfectly normal speaking voice.

So that's how I got started down this train. Trying to find out if Carol Cain is in fact speaking like this normally, she does not. Turns out she's playing a character from a speech she's called Lengthenite, which this is the first time I'm aware of them being in Star Trek. And they live for thousands of years. And she decides to join the Enterprise because she's literally bored. Yep.

So, you know, it's funny, Drew. I like that they always bring in new species to Star Trek. It's always fun to see. But I've noticed in some circumstances, they're just, they're bringing in species that they technically could have already used like, um, guidance, her species. Like, she could have, like they could have just used one of her species. Uh, the L-oreans, yeah. Alloreans, yeah.

Guinin would have been a nice choice. I agree. Well, didn't, didn't have to be guiding it. It could have been like, well, no, but I mean L-oreans, yeah, yeah, yeah. It could have been like that. And because then that would have just made perfect sense of rather than, and I think that would have been more, um, you know, homage to the fans and anything. Just just picking up one of those those characters. But yeah, no, it's, she doesn't talk that way normally

and I think it's, it sounds like it sounds like it reminds me of her character on taxi. Where she had an accent, it wasn't like a from America, so it was kind of similar in that. Yeah. But she is a quirky new engineer who figured out that they, what they were doing, and then proceeds to tell them to how to do it properly. So it actually looks like the warp core is going to explode.

Didn't see that coming, did not see that coming. Yeah, that was kind of surprised how hard she leaned into that. I'm gonna, I knew you don't know me, I'm gonna help you steal the ship, let's go. But I think it really boils on to what you were saying is that her species, she's like, I think you mentioned at the,

it mentions at the end of the episode where spot goes her and like they're talking about, like her living so long and he's like, oh, it's probably the seeing the death of like your loved ones and she's like, oh yeah, whatever about that. It's boredom, it's really boredom. And I was like, yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, yeah.

Anyways, the crew, the enterprise, steal the ship and they head over to the Klingon settlement or sorry, the Klingon controlled settlement, I should probably say. And we cut two seeing, saying, kind of going at it against some Klingons. They are doing a drinking game of bloodline. And she's trying to out drink a Klingon, which I guess is an impressive feat in itself. Yeah, nothing I would ever recommend doing. No, no, apparently she's a, sing however, is a winner with that though. She beats the freaking 11 hack out of the the Klingon for drinking there Yeah, very impressive with that

so then that's however after winning she then gets to meet with some other Klingon something or other Like a general or commander in her investigation, but before that happens, she gets reunited with the crew of the Enterprise. We have Chapel, Manga, Spock, and Uhara on the planet, all dressed in local get-up gear, I guess you could say.

And they're kind of trying to understand what's going on. She explains that there's some sort of conspiracy going on to reignite the war because a war is good for profit, I guess, for this other organization who's trying to reignite it. It's a combination of klingons and humans, I guess. In the meantime, though, Embego and Chapel go to a makeshift hospital area to treat the missing girls' parents who are thus found, but they're burned with some sort of radiation, I don't remember which one it was. Well, photon, something, other? I don't recall. I don't know. They were injured, they were, they need treated.

And so then, Banga and Chappell go over that area for treatment, right? Well, that, that of course doesn't really turn out well and they get captured because you know people of the This rebellious Organization say hey, we got some infected people too and you're gonna need to come with us and help us and They go without any type of resistance because you know my as well. They kind of need to figure things out right Then we cut to saying she's doing some sort of weapons deal with a Klingon and kind of goes all Give me you know the

This is only the these are only the number of phases I could come give me all the money Point if you don't I'm gonna blow you guys up with a thermal detonator I know it's Star Trek or Star Wars, but you know, thermal detonator close enough, but it turns out it was fake either way and nothing really happened. And they kind of give her some information. Nothing really too pertinent to the situation. Any thoughts on that guys? Brad, I was, I was two glasses of whiskey and when I was watching this episode.

Hey, do you think that was a smart move? It was not to be too glass. Okay. It was not no. No, it was not but I was still on vacation and Or no, it was the start of my vacation when I watch this so I wanted to kick it off right Yeah, nothing screams vacation more than whiskey and Star Trek. Well, that sounds like a good time to me. I'm hoping you enjoyed yourself, sir. There's a lot more to cover on this. Drew, would it be wrong of me to ask you how much of the episode you remember? I mean, I remember the brushstrokes.

I wasn't crazy about this episode. I know we haven't gotten to that point yet, but I'm going to pull him a jeet. I wasn't crazy about this episode. I think you weren't crazy about it because Pike wasn't in it. That's part of it. Yeah, that's made a reason for me. So we get the information from the Klingons that they needed, or at least some information. And they're then trying to, you know, beam back on board to the ship, and they're looking for chapel and banga, and they are nowhere to be found. They just disappeared,

vanished, so to say. Then we cut to banga and chapel, and they're in some sort of cavern, and turns out somebody built a giant federation starship in the planet. Yeah, like, like, yeah, without any apparent knowledge of this is going on, it's a full on load of operations. And, uh, yeah, they're they're there to, to help out the crew and treat the wounds and all that fun stuff. Banga and Chapel kind of realize that, what's going on is not good.

And I don't know, I like to call it the use of the venom and get super strong and just go around being the crap out of people. Yeah, what was that, by the way? I missed contacts, what was that? By the way, I missed contacts. What was that? That venom steroids? I have no recollection of this being in the series

up to this point either. It's like they just pulled this mysterious stuff out of embankus pocket and stuck each other with it. And now suddenly they're like superhero ninjas. Yeah, they could fight. Like there are reaction time is increased. Apparently their strength is increased because I really thought Klingons were stronger

than humans, but apparently they're equals now. You know, they're going all gung ho and just being the crap out of everybody. So it's just some stimulant like, they didn't ever really like address like what it is, right? Is this something that we're going to find more about later? Or I don't know. But they, I feel like in this episode,

their, their whole point was, hey, we need an action packs for a step episode. Right. I know this episode was like 52 minutes. I feel like I watched a two hour movie in 52 minutes. That's a is that a bad, um, honestly, I don't think it was the most spectacular of things. Yeah, I mean, that's a good way to put it. We briefly talked about it last week after watching it and, you know, it kind of felt the same way.

There was so much information, jam packed into such a tight timeframe. And none of it really had an opportunity to breathe. I feel seeing the second episode, I feel what would have been a better way for them to handle it, is to combine the first and second episode in a way where it kind of cuts between the two things going on. Well, I mean, okay, the reason is like, I feel like they could have done it better as far as like having like two separate pathways, two separate stories and to have it a little bit more fleshed out in the long run and have it connected in some way. Don't don't get me wrong about the second episode. I enjoyed the second episode a tremendous amount. But I feel like the first one kind of suffered because they were trying to do so much like in a such a short period of time that kind of hurt the episode in its

entirety. Yeah, I think it would it was a more of a less is more approach, not a combined more to make less kind of thing. Yeah, they were aspects of the episode. Oh, sorry, buddy. That's okay. I would prefer they keep the second episode off to the side on its own. And, you know, they can... Dumbare with the first? Yes. Yeah. That's the best way to put it. Well, so in the first episode, after Embangenga and Chapel go full matrix on the crew of this rogue starship, they find their way to, I guess, like the, I don't remember what it's called, like it's the beacon that identifies the ship and Mbenga becomes like a whiz at reprogramming apparently part of, and in order for it to

transmit some information. We don't really know what. And then they try to make their way out, but before they can leave, it takes off and they're now in space. Those more scot. Well, yes, thank you for transmitting more scot. Thank you. Thank you.ijia was gonna get to that. We find out it was Morris code And oh, I thought you didn't know I'm sorry No, I was gonna I was gonna bring it for later when I got to that point

But you know the crew the enterprise in space now they see the next ship, but they also see a cling on Birder prey or Warbird. Oh, it was a T7. T7? Yeah. Okay. I heard a four. Oh, oh.

Anyways, if the battle cruiser receives them, well, guess what, they start a war. Oh, no. What are they gonna do? Well, you know what, the second ship is starting to emit Morris code. The crew, the Enterprise, realize that, hey, we need to like destroy this ship,

but they're like, oh, no, chapel and Bangalore on it. What are we gonna do? Spock kind of runs some turmoil because he's got this romantic crush on Chapel. And Chapel and Meg are trying to figure out what the hell are we gonna do? They're in the airlock and there's no spacesuits for them to leave. However, there's like parts of a spade suit that they're there and they're like, hey, maybe if we, you know, use this, we can jump out of space and survive for like a whole minute before we die. As long as your program is like a distress and it just so happens, they leave the ship, they enterprise destroys the ship and then they get beam to board and they're all live. A little frosty, but, but,y. They're not worse for wear. And then the Klingons are like, hey, you're here, you're starting a war.

And like, Spock's like, hey, let's talk about this in person and drink some blood wide and settle it like real Klingons. And then they just get drunk off their ass and have fun. Yeah, that's good. And then then they kind of leaves like this whole big thing of what they did. It wasn't the right thing to do. And federations like, oh boy, you guys are in trouble, but it turns out they're not really in trouble because you know nothing really happens they prevent a war and I guess they get a new chief engineer. They also hint that the the Gorn is advancing. Yep. So I guess I guess that's going to be the big bad of the season. I'm okay with that. Like, we almost never got much of that from the previous stuff,

and I'm pretty happy with it. Yeah. So, what do you guys thoughts of this episode? I didn't love it, but I liked it, man. Listen, there were certain things like a Spock and Embangue talking at the beginning. And, you know, Embangue not giving Spock alcohol because Embangue's a responsible doctor,

he instead gives him the musical instrument that we saw used throughout TOS, season one. And I said, oh man, I didn't know that I needed this origin story for how Spock got this instrument, but I love it. I'm good. And then that little part of the end where you heard was like, Hey, did I hear

this musical instrument coming from your quarters? And I like, I snatched because they already hinted that you heard as a singer, right? Right. I mean, she was singing in that episode where Sam Kirk got kennied. I knew you'd do it. That's how you get a reference. Where's Sam Kirk? Is he still in the coma? I can only assume. I can only assume. Gosh, that guy. So the episode itself, I think, kind of tried to do too much in such a short period of time. I understand why they put this as the first episode because they want like an action pack to keep the average viewer interested.

Because what follows next is not a very action packed episode. Yeah, it's tricky because you know, you wanna try to get people excited about your season. And you know, the courtroom episodes that we're about to talk about have a tendency to be slower. And you run the risk of losing a part of your audience with something like that.

So there is a strong case to be made of opening the season with something like this. And I don't fault them for that. I just wish they did a better job because there's too much going on. There's too many moving parts and just some of the stuff really was like you had to disconnect your brain and make a logic leap for it to work like the serum that they injected themselves with or You know the leaping out into space thing which you know which I know they've done shit like that in

Magiind's favorite show, The Expans. What's The Expans? So I mean, it's not like it's unprecedented or anything. That does exist and they do believe there's a brief amount of time that you're able to survive in the vacuum of space before you're dead, but they've never done anything like that in Star Trek before. So it was a little jarring. Yeah. It, I enjoyed the episode, but I think,

from my perspective, this is one of the weaker ones. Week for Strange New Worlds. Yeah. Which I think is saying quite a bit about the overall quality of the show. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But not a terrible episode though.

No, no, no, no. There's plenty of terrible episodes in TOS from my perspective compared to that one. The next episode we watch ad, ashtra, her, asper. Yay. Yay. Oh, my bad, sorry. Yay, bad. I saw you in the traffic. I'm like, yay.

No, I don't care. We start off with Una as a child, apparently. And her leg is broken and it's like, it's really bad wound and the parents are talking about something, I've been like, you know, making sure that she's okay, all this wonderful jazz and it kind of cuts to the future with her, in a meeting with like the prosecutor and her defense, they're offering a plea deal for her to be discharged from Starfleet dishonorably, but no prison time or anything like that.

And her defense attorney is like, we should take that. And she's kind of like, hey, how can I trust this guy when he works for you? And that's a valid point. It's like, how would you trust an attorney who works for the prosecutor? Kind of, in that sense. Then we cut to Pike. He's on a planet and he's wearing a mask because apparently it's inhospitable to humans, but where are they called, a laryans?

Yes. Laryans, yeah, the laryans are fine. They're like, yeah, this plan is great, we love it. And he gets to this defense attorney's office and is like, hey, I want to speak to her. And they're like, no, you can't. But then apparently his oxygen levels are about to go away and he's about to die in the seat while he's in reception

and the receptionist is like crap, I can't have this guy dying in my seat. So I gotta get him to my boss and make it her problem. That's essentially what it was. Yeah, he like calls their bluff and like is fully prepared to suffocate to get what he wants. Well, sure enough, the Lettaman and as soon as his things about to expire, they like, hey, you know, you can now breathe the atmosphere in this room. Now, this is this what he was supposed to be doing the entire time the enterprise was off doing there are thing

Getting sing back They overlap in that way I think I police are yeah, and so then the amount of time it took for them to to do all that Spatian and against It was him just going to a prosecutor and getting her to join. Yeah, that's essentially what it was. Pretty much, that sounds about right. So we meet this prosecutor, what's her name?

Nera. We meet the prosecutor Nera, who apparently was friends of Una's, but they've had a following up. And she's no real interest in defending her, but Pike peaks her interest by kind of smooth talking her into getting her to take the go with it.

By saying, hey, you can totally make more precedent here and get parents from your other cases on Sarfly. You like that guy, right guys? I loved it. Okay. Okay. Well, he gives her the information for the actual case, but apparently she already has it despite not having access to it before. So, you know, who knows? But she takes the job and she becomes Una's defendants. Where are your thoughts on Honor? I had such a crush on Nira, like not just not the actress, right?

I'm talking about the character. Just everything was like a power suit. Everything was calculating and measured and just oozed power. Yeah, it was ridiculous. Yeah, she has a level of confidence and power and knowledge that we have not seen in quite some time from any actor.

Yeah, I'm actually pretty happy with the actress they chose, especially, I think she did a phenomenal job. Oh, tremendous. Yeah, and she's not a newcomer by any means. She was on the show, American Gods. Who did she play on the show? Yeah, I remember that. What was that, Drew?

Who did she play on American Gods? One of the guts. I never watched the show. Neither did I. This is kind of interesting. I remember people talking about her performance. You know, just even doing a quick Google search. It's like, oh, okay, that was the one. Maybe the love goddess. I don't know. I listen, I know more about the

expense than I do American gods. What's the question? She was, she was the love goddess. Yeah, it's like, um, she was, I think that's the best way to describe her, yeah. You watched it. So there maybe I know more about. I watched like the first half of this first season in the nice stuff. But we move on into Pike's parlor,

where he's cooking dinner, and his girlfriend comes in, the prosecutor, and and she's like yo, what are you doing? Why you know? Why is she now getting into his new defender like why is she not accepting this? Offer well bikes like hey, yeah, yeah happens. I have no control over this thing Spot on impressions of them both by the way. Oh, you know, not on totally. And in that case, well, that pisses her off. And so when Una is meeting with the judge, I think it was the, you know, they're like, no, we're going to change what like what the prosecution wants to do. And they want to put her in for prison're like, no, we're gonna change what the prosecution wants to do.

And they want to put her in for prison for like 20 years, and on top of the dissonable discharge, like, increase everything to a like a ludicrous amount. Yeah. To me, to me, from what it looked like, is it looked like the Vulcan who is a part of the prosecution is behind most of the method of way the prosecution's handling things, from the way it was looking from my appearance.

Yeah. Admiral Passalak. Passalak. Passalak. Yeah, I think that's Passalak. Passalak. Passalak. Yeah, I think that's Passalak. Passalak. Yeah, I think that's Passalak. Admiral Passalak, the Vulcan who is apparently a jerk and is good at pissing off a spot.

But the, that does not deter the defense. They are going to be like, we're going to fight the crap out of this and they're going to get you off. In the meantime, we have Sang trying to find some information because she feels that some of the information was obtained illegally as far as to Una's identity Unas identity as being a larian. That will find out more of. There's a whole big conversation about Spock and Pissalc, who apparently they got very, they had an outburst, apparently, which was, the way I can describe it was a casual conversation of two people talking very quietly. They didn't even look like they were talking. They looked like they were just staring at each other.

Like they had a staring contest. Yeah, yeah. I love this. This was a great scene. But, Embega, oh, and it was, who is it with? Or Tejas? Or Tejas. Embega and Or Ortegas and Ortegas doing the narration of the whole like interaction. They were having a, you know, of a very lively conversation

according to Ortegas. It was pretty funny. Manbega was like, yeah, you're not really understanding. Those two hate each other. And apparently he was a former contact of Spock's father. And yeah, they don't apparently agree. I think Spock said he brings out the worst in him. Yep. We did. Now, saying is trying to get Ohorah to provide some information that is not Ethically legal, I guess and so she's like, yeah, I'm not gonna do that and it kind of Stonewalls Singh's approach towards where it is So back in the courtroom, however, the first to be called to the stand is Admiral April. He was the individual who sponsored Una and really encouraged her near to pursue her career. The defense asked, you know, if you know you had known all

this information, would you still sponsor her? And you's like, nope, I wouldn't do it then they kind of twist things around and The general directive one which is also referred to like the prime directive and Yep, and they they call out multiple times of when he deemed it fit to violate the order. And that, of course, did not really sit well with the ruling council. And they kind of were like, you know, his testimony will be striked from this, from this

case. And you know what, like the way they took this was something a little different from the way I was taking it. I thought she was trying to prove that exceptions can be made when exceptions are needed. Well, I think that's the path she was started going down. But then it definitely shifted gears. And when they struck it from the record, like you could tell that she was started going down, but then it definitely shifted gears and when they struck it from the record, like you could tell that she was like

intentionally trying to get that to happen. Yeah, yeah. So it's it was a very tense moment in the courtroom. And you know, I have to ask true, when they were doing the corrum, they had their hand over like this light source. Was that supposed to identify like a lie detecting? I don't know. I feel like I've seen something like that before, but I'm having a hard time placing it.

So I think it's possible that that could be a lie detector. It might just be their version of a Bible, So I think it's possible that that could be a lie detector. It might just be the version of a Bible, you know, but I guess you had to leave it on there the whole time. If there was a version of a Bible, I mean, they're under oath. And when you take the oath normally in court cases, we have a lawyer friend, you can probably correct us on this, but I'm sure. They just take the Bible away.

You're not holding the Bible. I think Brad's idea of it being like this kind of lie detector. You have your finger on it. And if they're detecting an elevated pulse, maybe they can detect it if you're lying. Which I think is great. I think we should probably do that more often. Yeah, I would like to know when Brad is lying to me.

Oh yeah, all the time. He's lying to you right now. Yep, I lie every second of the day. That's a lie. That's a lie. So we then move on to three other individuals who are testifying for the case. We have Sang, Spock, and Banga. They all go through their normal here, this kind of giving support for when providing all the good character, saying everything that they've helped her with.

It was a very touching moment of the crew, of the Enterprise, providing that level of support. The one person that we don't see on the stand is Pike, however. And the reasoning is that they didn't want to cause any type of potential self-incriminating discussions of when he found out, I guess, of when Uno was like an actual modified individual. Yeah, they were trying to avoid him becoming like part of a witch hunt. individual. Yeah, they were trying to avoid him becoming like part of a witch hunt. Mm-hmm. Yep, and so that's a reasonable thing. But then we get to another meeting with Sang, and what was the woman's name again? The defense. So Neera and Sang talk and Sing is concerned that she was the one that told the federation of Una being a genetically modified individual, but Neera said is that it would have been, it's like a six month turnaround time for them to get like any type of subpoena

of personal logs. And so they're like, nah, it's not a, you know, you can rest assured, you didn't cause your best friend to be outed as a modified genetic individual. And so then they have, Una on the stand, going through and, and you know telling her experience as a genetically enhanced individual and it was a very unfortunate situation where when the Larian wanted to join the Federation a part of their agreement was that no modification could be done on children going forward from that day. However, like any parent you wanted to give the best for the child, some people didn't listen. And so that kind of divided their culture and half of the people were kind of following through

and then the other half were just doing it because they knew it would be beneficial to their child. And it expressed a lot of discrimination that she experienced over the years growing up. People were arrested for being modified. She mentioned that her friends, was her friends cousin was arrested because like he was modified and he was only a 10 year old boy along with the parents. And you know, there were slang that was used to discriminate using in a negative sense.

And it was a very unfortunate situation. And she expressed how that she, despite all this, that she still wanted to join the federation to help make a difference, to help the less fortunate. Where were you guys thoughts on that part? Were you guys kind of like moved a little bit like I was? A little heartbreaking. Yeah. You know, we believe the federation would be above this sort of behavior. But there's always pockets where stuff like this happens. We've seen it with artificial life,

you know, with data, with Androids in Picard. with Androids in Picard. And now we're seeing it here with the Allerians. And it's heartbreaking because, you know, we, the Federation is supposed to be this utopia. And it is, but there's always a sacrifice for them to reach that utopia. Are you talking about the data episode measure of a man? That is one of them, yeah. Yeah, without ever seeing measure of a man, I can honestly say that straight new world did it better.

Oh well played, Majid will play. But with Una on the stand, we learned who actually turned her in and it was herself. She was the one that said, hey, I modified come get me. And yeah, she explained that she wanted to, she was tired of hiding, wanted to help other people. Then the prosecution, our lovely friend, Pesulk, trying to get, wanted to say, hey, when did Pike actually learn about your modifications? And it was a lot sooner than her admitting that she was modified to the federation.

And so Pesalk, mindset is like, well, then we don't have just a issue with the individual being modified. We have conspiracy, a much more grievous charge that would incriminate Pike as well. That was a little bit of a concern, right? Yeah. I wasn't really sure how they were gonna go with this. I was at that point kind of feeling that this episode was gonna end maybe not necessarily

on one of the happier notes. But thankfully, we got a different results. We then, what's her name? We got Nuri. Nera. Nera. That's strike two. That's a mother of the Marit for you.

So then we get Nera who has this wonderful idea of bringing up a whole new mindset of an individual who is looking for asylum. Going through and breaking down what qualifies as to what asylum would be warranted and she points out specific situations to what Uno is saying during her testimony that helped cover the need for asylum, the discrimination, the asking for support from the Federation and sponsorship from those within it. And we have ourselves the happy ending because of this.

Yeah. We get her to be, her case to be kind of pretty much close, not guilty and reinstated. Yeah. Case closed. I don't, but Brad, remember, I don't think it was a completely new angle. Nera is brilliance. And I think that was established early on with Pike saying that Nira is the best, one of the best in the galaxy. Now she had this going all along, even Una knew that. She's like, oh, you, you know, you plan this, you plan this entire thing, you knew what

I was going to do. So I don't think it was this brand new angle. It was her literally playing the game. I did not see it. I didn't see it was this brand new angle. It was her letter with playing the game. I did not see it. I didn't see it. All man. She did. I mean, we didn't see it.

We didn't see it. But, you know, everything from near asking, con, um, co-star name. Who know? No, con Sing? Yes. It's been a whole year. Sorry. So everything from near-assing sing for the code of conduct, like the whole rule book, she had the long game.

Like she had a plan. She knows she's going to do. So I mean, it was all the pieces were there. She just let it fall into place at the very end, just like a normal law and order episode. Yeah. It was a pretty spectacular law and order style episode. And we leave them with everybody parting ways

and her friends, Una and Neura are friends again. Everything's good. Yeah, I don't think that Narra and Uno are just friends, by the way. Based on their conversations, yeah, based on conversations, the looks, the cuts, there's hinting at potentially some type of romantic history there. there's hinting at potentially some type of romantic history there. You know, the extended goodbye holding hands. Right. The cut to that. I really just took that as friends. I think you can go either way with it.

You know, I think I think Majid's like, hey, that's what I was like. No, but I mean, if Star Trek's also a big on representation, you know, and they've never hit it. They could, they really could go in either direction. And I think either one would make sense, you know, but I could understand why somebody might think that there was more than just a friendship there. Can we talk about the hug from Pike and then the little shoulder push? Man, he looks like such a good hugger. Yeah, I want to get hug by that man. Yeah, he has such strong arms, you know, just, but he smells fantastic. Oh, yeah.

I'll be honest, like, I feel like he's the type of guy where you just want to wake up in the morning and his just like spooning with you. And then he makes your breakfast. All right. Oh, totally. You kidding me? Yeah. Wow.

Based on I'm sorry, but like if I had a fight in choice between like leaving my wife and going with Anson Mow, I would totally just do that. It was a compelling argument. Is Anson Mson Mount on Twitter? Can we get him, like, can we send this clip to him and just know he will never respond? You might be surprised.

He's pretty active on there. Yeah. I would like to see what he thinks about Brad's crush. Like I thought my crush was weird, but no, Brad is like is like no I want to cut a little bit of my woman to make me breakfast in a way. Yeah, I will leave my wife for him. Yeah, pretty much. Drew, I don't know if you noticed, but do you recognize one of the judges? Was it Taylor

writes? Yeah, we haven't seen too many Taylorites in Star Trek over the years, but they've been showing up in more frequency lately, which I think is pretty great. Big fan. The furry person. Yeah. Yeah. And if, when we get to them in TOS, it is kind of creepy. It is kind of creepy. Yeah. Because their eyes are clearly, you know, it's clearly a like a plastic mask that they're wearing. And there's like a gap between like the whole of their eye and their actual eye. Yeah.

Hey, Geride, I didn't get a chance to ask you. Are you okay? Proud that she was canceled. Disappointed. Yeah, I kind of wanted to talk about that at the beginning of the show and we didn't get to it. But it's disappointing, but not completely unexpected. Nobody was really talking about the show. It had like small pockets of, you know, very strong fan, there were small pockets

of fanfare, you know, so like a very small, loud fanbase, but I just never really broke through the rest of the mainstream Star Trek crowd. It's weird saying that mainstream Star Trek. But I guess season two is in post production now and they're gonna shop the series around in the hopes that somebody picks it up. So I don't know how they can do that because Star Trek is a CBS owned property, a paramount owned property.

But it just doesn't make any sense because not only are they canceling the show but they're literally pulling it from the streaming service. And I don't understand why. Like, that seems unnecessary. We were, I think you guys talked about it in the discord. I checked this morning. Is it something like tax write offs? When something like that happens?

I guess. I don't know how that works. Is it something like tax write-offs when something like that happens? I guess I Don't know how that works. They could probably use it to something like Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. Well, they've been they they first of all Paramount owns Nickelodeon So and secondly it was airing on Nickelodeon. Oh Okay, yeah They came out on Paramount Plus first and then they were doing it like as a, you know, I don't want to say a re-array.

But it was like a syndicated thing on Nickelodeon. Netflix can possibly pick it up if you consider that at some point, Netflix and Nickelodeon, I believe it was a Netflix Nickelodeon that had a deal to air some of the older cartoons like Rugrats and things that would just put it on the streaming platform. So, I don't know, buddy, you may have to fire up that Netflix accounts. Yeah, it's disappointing.

I really enjoyed that show. I'm not going to make any claims that it's the best Star Trek or anything like that, but it was really enjoyable. And if anybody has an opportunity to watch it before it's pulled, I really do recommend it. It was fun. We'll always have lower decks. Unfortunately, we always run those risks. Yeah. I love this episode.

I agree. Complete 180 from the last episode. The last episode, I think, for Stranger Dude Worlds was met, but I think it was still better than a lot of Star Trek. This one I think is like on par with some of the best Star Trek episodes ever. Star Trek does courtroom stuff really well. Oh yeah.

Magiz favorite episode of Measure of a Man as a great example of that. Yeah, but again, Strange Dude Worlds did it better. Like I have no frame of reference for TNG, but I really, Strange New Worlds did it better. Like, I have no frame of reference for TNG, but I really think Strange New Worlds did it better. I love your confidence in that, Majude. Yeah, he is. Thank you, buddy. I think they did a good job.

I don't, you know, in all seriousness. I don't know that I could say it's better or worse. It's a different take on the same type of episode and I think they did an excellent job with it and I think they did an excellent job with the TNG one. So you know, I'm always gonna have some sort of nostalgia factor when it comes to TNG, but this was really really good. Yeah, so far But this was really, really good. Yeah. So far, we have a good roller coaster of the,

of the, an actual season so far up and down. Yeah, down and up I should say. I wonder if Pike used his knowledge of the future to help Una. Well, let me explain, right? Because in the season one finale, he heard that Una was in a federal penitentiary for 20 years. So he knew that information. Could he have looked up the details of that case to go higher near as to

he's hurting. I'd have to refer back to that episode to refresh myself. But I can give you the footnote really quick. When he's on the ship, he gets to find out that spot is number one. He knows that singing still on ship. So he has on the ship, he gets to find out that Spock is number one. He knows that singing is still on the ship, so he has sing. Hey, how's Una doing? Wasn't I, so I'm talking to Una and sing is like, I don't know, no one can talk to her. And it's a pikes like, what do you mean? Well, she's still serving in that penal colony. This is in the alternate timeline though.

That was alternate timeline, but still a version of events that would happen if Pike took a course of action. If you took a specific course of action, yes. A specific course of action that he did not know what it would be. Like he didn't know that, you know, he didn't know what that course of action would have been to make that. Well, he knew that the whole thing was the butterfly effect, right? Is the butterfly effect? He sends the letter, getting those kids away from starfleet. And then this course of action happens. And then he killed Spock, right? And he starts the the war with Romulans. Yeah. But that was the only thing Romulans. Yeah. But that was the only thing that would have been changed. Everything else would have just still been the same theoretically.

Brad, you're a time traveler. Like I feel like you should be helping me out here. Um, sure. Uh, thanks, buddy. Travel totally works this way. Um, how got any Franks, uh, any Franks so bad sometimes. Anyway, uh, Jonathan, Drew, Frank's any Frank so bad sometimes. Anyway, uh, Jonathan Drew, we get Jonathan Frank's. No, well, I definitely.

Frank's. I mean, I always use a good right. And my speaking, speaking of Kudler, do you think Riker's a Kudler? Yes. You think so? Yes, totally. I'm not hesitating when I say yes.

All right. All right. I'm like hesitating when I say yes. All right. All right. I'm like, I'm going to ask how you know. You said it with such confidence. Yeah. All right. That's a great way to end the episode. Guys, speaking of time travelers,

we have a time travel episode next week. No. Is it lower decks? Is it lower decks? Well, I don't know what it is. We just have a title tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Lawn travel is back in time to 21st century Earth to prevent an attack, which will alter humanity's future history. Does not sound like lower decks.

Wait, who carried like intent? Lawn. Oh, I hope it's not another groundhog. sound like lower decks. Wait, who carried that content? Juan. I hope it's not another Groundhog the episode. Discovery did that with Mud, and I think that was great. I don't think we need another one. Yeah, I would agree. I would like another Mud episode.

I'd like another Mud episode. I don't want another Groundhog Day episode. Mud, I'm looking with Mud and Wigs. Mud is still within this timeline, right? Yeah. Like he's still within this, yeah, because Discovery went into the future season two. Right.

Mud was season one. This is around the same time. Yeah, no, definitely. Let's bring back Rain Wilson. Yeah. Let's go. Well, there's no evidence. There's no evidence that he's in this episode so We shall see we shall see yeah

Maybe I'll try drinking it drink in a whiskey while watching the episode. Yeah, that works out for me I'd love to see you just drink whiskey in the first place regardless of the Star Trek implications Yeah, have we talked about how little I drink alcohol? We have. Yes, yes, great. Well, I had a, just really quick before we leave, I had a work function on Thursday. I had to be down in Narwalk, Connecticut, for a work function.

And they put a co-risk band into my arm at 3, 4, or a team beer garden, which by the way, it's great. Brad, if you ever come back to Connecticut, you should try it. But they put a wristband on me. They're like, yeah, you're going to get older, free drinks. So the bartender comes up. She's like, what do you want? I said, a water.

Everybody at the table looks at me like, what are you doing? I said, I don't drink alcohol. What's the point of you being here with the band? I don't know. They gave me the band. But I was ridiculed for I think five minutes. That's really decision to not drink alcohol. So purely pressured into drinking. I mean, it's not peer pressure. It didn't work. I don't fall to peer pressure. It was the

point of fall in the peer pressure. But, you know, but I mean, like, people should respect that decision. Yeah. I mean, I feel like a lot of it was said in just it was said, you know, with, you know, an air of playfulness. But, you know, I people just probably don't know that about me. You know, Brad knows that because, you know, we're obviously friends. Drew, you know that because we talked about my buying Tehran Montetiquilla and having it sit on top of my fridge just because the rock, you know, he put it out and I have to support him. I'm sure he needs your financial support. Listen, if I don't support the rocks, financial endeavors, who is the rock? I started out with seven

bucks in this pocket, Brad. How else would he? Brad you insensitive. I'm a horrible person. Sorry, you know what I apologize, give all your money to the rock. He needs it more than you do. Yeah, speaking of which, I need a new hooded sweater. I keep washing mine incorrectly. So I think it might go with a project rock hoodie. Can you explain to me how you're washing it and how it's incorrect? So I wash my, I wash it in cold water,

but I'm putting in the dryer and I think I'm using too much heat in the dryer. Cause now he probably needs low heat. Maybe, yeah, but it kind of like, so it's shorter, so it's almost like a crop top now. And it's strong. And it's, yeah, and it's, it's, it's also tighter on my arms. It's a mid-refred now.

It's like, it only goes like above his belly and everything. Oh my. And it's, yeah, and it's like really tight on my arms and my chest, and I'm like, okay, so this is basically now my wife's sweater. Wouldn't it be hilarious if you're just putting on so much muscle mass that you think it's shrinking, but it's really not you know

Be really funny is if in reality he's actually like putting on his like daughters sweater But he doesn't realize it cuz it's like an identical sweater He thinks the shrunk in his daughter just like has his sweater in like her closet Because she just wants a bagger one. That's all we we talked about this in our discord too, Brad. You may not have been around for this one. I took my daughter likes to wear oversized hoodies. So I'm like, ah, this looks like you can fit me. I put on a hoodie and it fits. And I took a picture and walked around a house

with this bandana on and I took the picture. I put it in our discord. I have to reshare that maybe I'll put it in the Star Trek discord, which is what's talking about it here. But yeah, no, I fit into my door just closed and I fit into my wife's clothes. Maybe I should give some context

about which clothes of my wife's I tried on. Yes, please. Yeah, it's, no, no, no, we should leave it here. It's just kind of thanks for the super fun to have a good day. Yeah. here. It's just cut off. Thanks for listening It was a sweat pants All right guys until next week right? Until next week All right, guys love you all later. Take care. Make sure this day. Peace. Oh

We're leaving we're actually the was joking. I didn't realize. Thank you for listening to yet another Star Trek podcast. We are part of the retro sessions network. This episode was recorded on June 24th 2023, hosted by Brad Drew and Majeed. Drew, that's me. I edited this program while Brad took care of the synopsis and Majeed is responsible for all of our imagery and social marketing. Except for the artwork of us as lower-decks characters, we could thank George Retow for that, and I have nothing to do with the music. That's all William Gromalar.

We have links to both of these fine, wonderful people in our show notes, so please check it out. Also included in the show notes, or links to our website, www.yetanotherstpod.com, as well as all flavors of our social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. I'm being honest, we really only use Twitter, we don't really use Facebook and Instagram, that's mostly because we're lazy.

But YouTube, all of our episodes are available on YouTube, so be sure to check that out. In two weeks, we'll be back with more strange new world's action. So stick around for that, we'd love it if you liked and subscribed. Anywhere you get your podcasts, it goes a long way to help us out, and of course if you'd like to leave a review that would also be appreciated. Thank you so much for listening, we'll see you next time. you