Strange New Worlds 1x08 - 'The Elysian Kingdom' ~~ { ** Spoilers Within ** }

Rubbish. Couldn't wait for it to be over.

Getting rid of that ridiculous kid stored in the transporter buffer was the only positive thing about it. Can't store them in the buffer in any other series. Scotty was the only one who figured out how.

Worse than last weeks episode.

It

How could you not love that episode?

I thought it had everything a brilliant start and fun middle and a brilliant ending that even resolves one of the story threads that has being going on since the beginning of the series. It was fun to see how the actors would do out of character playing different characters to there standard ones and they all knocked it out of the park.

Michael Burnham comes back for last two episodes to save the galaxy from an emotional threat.

Well I imagine if he wasn't full on in to it after his "rehearsal" in Disco I guess he would have said no so I'm guessing he's a bit of a Trekkie at heart and jumped at the chance. He has been brilliant and so have the rest of the cast - you wouldn't normally see this kind of well oiled symmetry until usually the second season but they are all playing off each other so impeccably it makes you feel right at home watching them

I think at the end M'benga made the right choice - he had spent years trying to find a cure to no avail and here's a chance for her to live a real life rather than a few minutes here and there in the real world and like early on he said you can make your own ending...and she did

This episode made me laugh and honestly cry.

The fun stuff was just the whole character shift for all the actors. Mount was hillarious. La’an was funny and very attractive. Everyone else done so well.

I’m delighted they made his daughter come back straight away to tell him it was the right decision and that she’ll see him again. Otherwise I was cursing his decision to just give her up. I know she was basically dying and he felt like this was the lesser of two evils but I’m not sure I could ever as a father just give that up. It was quickly redeemed by the pop back of her older and happy. Thankfully.

But yeah, yet another enjoyable episode and possibly the maddest 8 episode run of any Star Trek series ever. They must have a bucket list of episode types they want to do and are ticking them off the list. What an brilliant show this is.

Some other thoughts…

• All the crew getting time to shine. Love it.

• Pike is probably only second to Picard in my favourite Captains list.

• Uhura put them away, it’s a family show.

• Una and Ortegas knowing each other “really well” was so funny.

• Hemmer had so much personality in this one.

• This goes in the same category of episode as Voyagers Captain Proton episode, DS9’s one where Sisko is a sci-fi writer, and probably TNG’s Casino Royale, Orient Express episodes.

So using an in show fictional author for the book.

Yeah for sure - if it had just stayed as a bit of a fun comedy episode it'd have been totally grand - it's the weight at the end of it and how quickly they just sort of 'wrapped things up', around the biggest moment in Mbenga's life that really threw me off. It felt like that moment and decision should've had more build over the season so we felt more of the tension of her illness... maybe if we'd seen more visual progression of it over the season or something, and if they'd removed that bit of hope they provided from the 'Omelas' doctor, it could've worked.

I also just entirely expected her to say she wanted to stay with her Dad, and she believed in him - adding more pressure for him going forward as he looked for a cure, knowing a compromise had been turned down. But instead she was just done. It actually kinda felt like a sudden course correction, where the writers decided they just didn't want to follow this story at all, and just nixed it asap.

Same. I hate when Trek let's actors play different parts due to Holo/mirror/ space magic nonsense.

Glad we got done with the girl in the transporter bubble story too although surprised it got wrapped up so quickly.

Yeah, M'Benga allowing Rukiya to go with "Debra" seemed a bit rushed ... and then Rukiya returning moments later as an adult felt really rushed ... seemed to be going for closure far too quickly. Unless Rukiya and Debra come back at a later stage to have a significant impact, this was the first poorly handled sub-plot of this otherwise excellent show.

It was a very fun episode otherwise.

Was hoping it would be a Babylon 5 Garibaldi/Alcoholism story arc where the doctor became more and more obsessed with the cure as time was running out and the moral dilemma that would have posed when the crew's safety came second. There is a lot there a writer could work with to make some hard hitting episodes.

You mean more like Babylon DR. Stephen Franklin story arc where he became obsessed with finding a cure that had never been found or even like Doctor Bashir trying to find a cure for the plague the Dominion had caused on a planet that disobeyed them or other ones where he could not find a cure.

Holy cr*p. Yet ANOTHER fantastic episode. Each series has one of these mad God/mad world/Mas situation episode but they all seem to be very poor. (Usually they are very cheap "Bottle" episodes where they just re-dress the existing set). This was hilarious.

Especially Hemmer "Behold the power of me powerful magic's.... uh.... power!!!!" The enthusiasm of the cast in the episode.

The dialogue between Pike and Ortegas.

Pike/Mount in general (I hope nobody takes it as an old-fashioned gay portrayal. He was just a comedy coward).

Ortegas and Number One (Actually, Ortegas in general).

Noonian Singh and her song.

I liked how immediately M'Benga assumed he was hallucinating "Compared to Crusher's episode (If there is nothing wrong with me, then there must be something wrong with the universe"... Uh. OK).

True, the ending was a bit rushed. We should have seen more of the daughter before now to add a bit more weight to the scenes. But the girl was sweet and portrayed well.

As for the crew members being injured, well if "Deborah" can can warm reality that easily and cure the daughter while in the warped reality then I assume they could just say "What happens in this reality STAYS in this reality"

Just another stellar (No pun intended) episode of a stellar series. A hard two thumbs WAY up for me

They don't have an I & II name anyway but that's all I know.