Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.7: The Kiss

An exceptional Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.7 on Paramount+ yesterday because--

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

That was a quite a good kiss between Spock and Chapel.  Never mind that it was planned and feigned to fool Captain Angel.  Spock and Chapel clearly both enjoyed it.  They got a lot out of it.

Now, if you compare that with the way Spock and T'Pring later kiss, well, that was pale in comparison. I suppose that could be explained as when Spock was kissing Chapel, he was kissing with his human side, whereas when Spock was kissing T'Pring, he was Vulcan.  That would be the logical explanation.  But since I'm only human, I found Spock and Chapel much more powerful than Spock and T'Pring.

Of course, Chapel has to tell Spock the kiss didn't really affect her.  But we saw her face after the kiss, and she clearly was affected.  But she knows and we know and very likely Spock knows she's lying -- Spock knows because he's likely feeling the same way -- so we're left with a simmering erotic attraction and that's a fine place to be.

Meanwhile, Captain Angel is a clever character (good job Jesse James Keitel), and I hope and assume we'll be seeing her again.  She and Spock's half-brother have the makings of important long term characters, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him, too.

About the only thing that I thought was dumb in 1.7 was the successful mutiny that Pike instigates on the pirate ship over ... food?  Look, eating is certainly important, but it just didn't work in that context, and the whole segment was another example of why humor isn't Strange New Worlds' strong suit.

But the kiss made this a highly memorable and important episode, and I'm looking forward to next week.

See also Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1.1-1.2: Great Characters, Actors, Stories ... 1.3: "Instead of terraforming planets, we modify ourselves ..." ... 1.4: The Gorn and the Wub ... 1.5 Going to the Chapel ... 1.6: Two Stories

Big Sky 1.1: Pretty Big Deal

 

My wife and I caught David Kelley's Big Sky.  He has a good thing currently going on The Undoing, check out my reviews.  Big Sky, based on the pilot, appears to be another good thing.  [Spoilers below.]

The story takes place in Montana, hence Big Sky.  It has a definite Twin Peaks vibe, replete with a scene in a diner (which shut down, due to Covid, a real Twin Peaks touch right there).  But so far, there's nothing other-worldly or interdimensional.  (I can't recall, was Twin Peaks already in that alternate zone in its first episode?)

But what we do have is a sharp kidnap-sex-slave ring that's been going on for a while, with at least two out-of-the-blue surprises.  A truck-driver who seems an easy going guy (played by Brian Geraghty, who made a good impression on Chicago P. D.) tazes a prostitute (played by non-binary Jesse James Keitel) he picks up at a truck stop, and then two young women whose car broke down on the road in the woods.  And a state trooper (played by John Carroll Lynch, who has made a good impression on dozens of shows) plays a state trooper, who kills a private detective who is looking for the missing women.  One unexpected tazing (the other two were certain to happen as soon as the car broke down on the road) and one unexpected murder are a better-than-average quotient of surprises in a pilot, which usually have only one.

And it's a good thing that the victims were just kidnapped not killed.  They look to be at least a little more interesting-than-usual characters (played by Natalie Alyn Lind and Jade Pettyjohn, in addition to Keitel).  And the murder of the detective leaves the agency in the hands of two women investigators, played by Kylie Bunbury and Katheryn Winnick.  I haven't seen Bunbury before but Winnick was memorable in Bones and even more so in Vikings.

So it looks like we have some good ingredients in Big Sky, and I haven't even mentioned the music, also much better than average.  Hey, it's not too often, if at all, that you hear The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" on a network television show.  See you back here next week,