Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2

The second season of the prequel to the original series and Discovery spin off, Strang New Worlds, oddly enough starts off with an episode that is primarily devoid of its Captain and their first officer.  With the Enterprise in dry dock for regular maintenance and repairs, Captain Pike (Anson Mount) takes leave to find a special lawyer to represent Una (Rebecca Romijn) who concealed the fact that she was genetically modified, which is against federation law. With both the captain and the first officer gone, that leaves Spock (Ethan Peck) in command.  The crew is also missing a chief engineer after their previous one sacrificed himself to save the crew and a security officer as La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) took an extended leave of absence to help a girl she had rescued from the Gorn find her parents.  During an inspection, a distress call comes in from La’an, that sets in motion the action of the episode which includes the stealing of the enterprise with the help of one of the inspectors, Pelia (Carol Kane) who also happens to be an engineer. It also includes a lot of hand-to-hand combat between Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) with Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) who kick some ass against a bunch of humans and Klingons all in the hopes of stopping another war from breaking out.  There is also some intrigue about what Star Fleet is hiding leading to a little bit of information about the upcoming season.

I really enjoyed this show and I liked the first episode of the second season even if the captain was missing from the majority of the episode.  The introduction of Carol Kane’s character as the new chief of engineering is fun and I love the over-the-top performance from her.  She is definitely going to add some new energy to the show.  I also like Doctor M’Benga, there is a rough side to him based on his history during the Klingon war.  In this episode we see some of that come out and it gives the character an added dimension as it does with Nurse Chapel.  I love her energy and spirit.  I also very much enjoy the rest of the bridge crew, including Melissa Navia as helmsman, Erica Ortegas, and Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, now an ensign.
Viewers will also notice that the look of the Klingons has changed back to the Klingon make up most viewers are familiar with from the early Star Trek films and The Next Generation. The reasoning for this is due to the Discovery Klingons’ make up not having been a hit with fans of the show and, perhaps even more, the Discovery Klingon make up was incredibly expensive and time consuming. And you might remember from one of those Discovery episodes, where the various Houses of Klingons were assembled, that the look of the Klingons varies a lot from House to House. The producers say there are many looks to the Klingons. Whatever the reason, it was a good idea to give the viewers something they are familiar with if only for some consistency.

The episode was fun and exciting with a lot of action which was a good way to get us back into the story, introduce a new character and tie up loose strings from last season without losing its audience.  The writing was good with some nice moments as Spock battles some inner demons, but also has some humor.  The banter of the crew is fun and the one thing that has always made Star Trek so likeable was the familial feelings of the crew. How they bond and become a family, which is very present in this episode. The downside to the start of the season was the weird absence of the lead character, Captain Pike.  He is in the beginning but leaves early on and is absent for the rest of the episode.  We don’t even really get to see his reaction to Spock’s first time commanding the Enterprise.  Hopefully in episode two.