Episode Analysis | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x05 “Charades”
This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Strange New Worlds 2x05 Charades.
Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.
I went back and watch Amock Time and the Spock Amok last night. I was intrigued that his current relationship with his wife seemed consistent (SNWs didn't break any of the Spock canon really). What did impress me was nurse Chapel. When watched AK after the recent SNW episodes it appears that Spock had forgotten his love for Chapel but she still loves him. It actually was very moving when you realize Chapel's secret. When she breaks down when he doesn't even remember her first name. Anyway something to watch for.
The spatial geography on this one seems a little wonky. It’s all ‘in the Vulcan’ system but then the moon is ‘at the edge of the sector’. I mean, that could make sense but just seemed a little weird to me. Also weird: if this moon is in the Vulcan system, then you would think the Vulcans would have already surveyed it themselves, seeing as they have been spacefaring for hundreds (thousands?) of years. I just can’t see them leaving it alone when it seems to be common knowledge that there are the remains of an advanced civilization on it.
This also struck me as being pretty strange, but I think everything here can be weaseled around:
'at the edge of the sector': The Vulcan system happens to be at the edge of the sector it is contained within, sectors being vaguely defined chunks of space laid out fairly arbitrarily.
Surveying the moon: The ruins are well known and well explored (our heroes seem familiar with them already, for instance) but this weird energy vortex is new, strange, and merits a starship crew to investigate it. It's not the first time they've sent Pike specifically to investigate a weird energy source popping up somewhere.
A point of contention in this one is why Spock would struggle with his human emotions, when Vulcan emotions are supposed to be "stronger." I don't think there's been any suggestion in the past that emotional control is a Vulcan genetic trait.
This is given some cover within the episode, when Spock vaguely says that the human emotions are "different," but he doesn't elaborate.
I wonder if, in keeping with Spock's character in the franchise as a whole and in this series in particular, Spock's predicament allowed him to subconsciously give himself "permission" to embrace and explore his emotional side, with the genetic alteration as an excuse.
I kind of like the idea that Vulcans' control of their emotions is a genetic trait. It doesn't seem too far-fetched, since Vulcans already have mental abilities humans don't, and it gives a bit of an in-universe reason for why Star Trek writers seem really inconsistent on whether Vulcans have emotions or not.
I've always thought the Romulans weren't just the Vulcans who rejected Surak's teachings, but also any who didn't have the physical ability to follow them.
Originally it was just based on Romulans not expressing any psychic abilities, but Picard also established that sharing personal details publicly as a major taboo. That would track with them being a mix of former enemies who are concerned with suppressing the rivalries that lead to nuclear war.
