Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x10 "Hegemony"
Logline
When the USS Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy.
I loved the colony design. It kinda makes sense. There's an endless number of planets out there, so why not found a colony for your weird LARP phantasies? "Hey, you wanna join my colony reminiscent of Victorian England? There'd be bustle skirts, butlers and bat'leths."
I had a feeling right from the urgency of the first minutes that they were setting this episode up as SNW's version of "The Best of Both Worlds". And the elements are certainly there. A superior enemy. A plan to fool them with technobabble. A crewmember held hostage -- just this time it's split up between Captain Batel being infected, and La'an, M'Benga and Kirk (and colonists) captured. And a cliffhanger. I had hoped that they wouldn't do cliffhangers in this show -- especially season-ending cliffhangers when we don't even know when the next season will air. (2025 maybe?) Or if they did it then at least do it DS9 style where it's more like a teaser of things to come instead of an actual cliffhanger.
Oh well, at least they didn't kill off Batel immediately, and I hope they won't do it in season 3. I'd like to see more of her and of her relationship with Pike because I think it's a really interesting relationship dynamic for a Starfleet captain to have a truly equal partner.
I'm not quite keen on the physics in this episode. Would the Gorn really be fooled by the Cayuga's saucer suddenly "naturally" accelerating towards the planet from the orbit of its moon? That already bugged me in Star Trek Into Darkness when the ship suddenly "fell" towards Earth. Yes, this is a Science Fiction show but they could really use a science advisor for this basic stuff.
Finally, I wonder if every season will bring in another TOS cast member, and who will be next. Sulu? (he'd be an astroscientist though, unless they ignore the 2nd TOS pilot episode) Cadet Chekov? Bones? Janice Rand?
This all sounds a bit negative but I actually enjoyed the episode. It wasn't the best episode of the season but still above average. I just hope that season 3 will come rather sooner than later.
Yeah, the colonists in this episode intentionally curating the a small-town experience is pretty subtle worldbuilding, but tees into the crazier variants like the Hysperians from Lower decks.
I'm not the most accurate and precise regarding the lore but for what I remember of TOS (that was my favorite series) we should expect Sulu being the next one, then Bones should be in the cast together with Kirk later. Seeing that every one that will not be in TOS is now in Gorn hand's I think we already know why. I don't think it's a coincidence
Seeing that every one that will not be in TOS is now in Gorn hand’s I think we already know why.
M'Benga and Sam Kirk show up in TOS though. The only one in danger is La'an. (and I'd be pissed if something happened to her because I think that Christina Chong is a super strong actor, and possibly the breakout star of this show)
Oh that was the same doctor? Never connected the two. I was thinking also about Ortega. Sam disappeared in TOS until he died so maybe he got traumatized from the incident.
The actor had a bad time last couple of years, there were rumors that she wanted quit acting so I guess they are setting up some rooster changes for the next season. That will be... in twothousendnever... :(