Strange New Wednesdays - Charades

0:04 Space the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of Strange New Wednesdays, It's continuing mission to explore episodes of Strange New Worlds to seek out new information and new discussions, to boldly go where no podcast has gone before. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Strange New Wednesdays, where we continue to talk everything about the current season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. Once again read alert.

0:51 Please be warn spoilers to our ahead, So if you haven't seen this week's episode, please stop, go watch it and then come back to join us. I am David Burns, I'm Scott Hoffman, and I'm Wayne Whited. Today we are discussing season two Episode five. Sure rates well, gentlemen, we get a much more lighthearted episode this time. But before we discuss it, Scott, can you give us a recap of this week's episode? Absolutely. This episode gives us a fascinating look at a side of Spot we've never seen before and an interesting twist on his relationship with Nurse Chapel. On the eve of an important matrimonial engagement ritual, Spak has to focus on convincing his future in laws that he's vulcan enough for their daughter to bring. As these events get closer to pushing Spock in Chapel further apart, they team up on a mission to investigate an ancient civilization that's somehow connected with an anomaly in space. When their shuttle is destroyed in an accident, the aliens repair the craft and its crew of two almost Spock awakens to see Chapel, Pike, and Embenga standing over him in sick Bay and wondering why he's suddenly and completely human. What results is a fun look at how Spok deals with human emotions, odd stirrings, teenage angst, and moments of housekeeping related rage. With help from his human mother Amanda and Pike, Spot navigates a grueling dinner with his future in laws. At the same time, Chappell works furiously through survivor's guilt to fix Spock, even going so far as to face off against alien customer service reps. Very detailed well. I thought it was very interesting how

2:23 much seeing to bring in another funny episode or reminded me of the body swap episode from season one, how much she's kind of in these situations as much as her character has to be a naturally dead pan character. That there's kind of a comedic theme to when she appears. You know, it's it's it's we get quite a few laugh out moments and in this episode, but you know, we also get those heartstring moments like sprinkled throughout, you know, which you know, just reminds us how much we love these characters in the chemistry that continues to shine among this cast. I mean, this really don't know if one of you mentioned it before, but I'm going to say a bit. This feels like the next generation crew and how that chemistry is just rolling with them and it just makes this show that much better. And I love that very much about it. Yeah, and it's a very smart use of comedy to not just be slapstick and silly and get cheap laughs, but to full out emotional truths. Yeah, you know, and it's it's it's so brilliant way we do you agree? Yeah, I definitely agree. You know, when I was reading the the snops for the episodes of season, this was the episode that I was looking forward to least because it just, i mean, we've seen this a lot of times. Most sci fi shows will do this where a character becomes human or becomes something that they they're not.

3:49 And it's funny. When I first started, the first thing that came to my mind, and David, you might know this reference. I don't know about you, Scott, but there was an episode of Red Dwarf that was called DNA where crit and Fangs himself human a DNA alterning machine change turns him into a human and he has to deal with the emotions and then of course, you know, at the end, he decides to m he'd rather be a mechanoid, being a robot rather than human. This reminding me a lot of that. But fortunately, unlike that episode, we didn't have to deal with Spok being sexually aroused by watching machine. But that's a deleted thing. Yeah, it's you know. I So I wasn't looking forward to this episode. I thought this is not going to work for this Star Trek, but this ended up being actually my favorite episode of the season so far.

4:36 Here is a good point about you know, other series trying this, this trick of turning a character into a human and having them deal with certain emotions. But something that's that's interesting each time that I've watched this is just remembering that it's pulling forward spots human side right, whereas other characters are kind of you know, what is this emotion that I'm feeling? What is the this new thing? He's always been aware of these things. They're just kind of unleashed like he he doesn't he doesn't know, like what is this thing I'm feeling. He's like weirdly hungry. I know what this is. It's just now he's able to let it out. There's. Um. What I liked about the show with spok is the fact that you know, we got to see some of the scenes where he was the vulcan, but we got to see those same scenes again, know where he was human, and getting to react to those just led up to set some funny, funny moments. Yeah, the scene where he kept looking at um um, oh my goodness, Kirk say damn. And you know he's like looking at it at the table and he's like seeing the crumbs and stuff like that there. So when he's a vulcan, you know he kind of you know, tolerate a little bit more about it. He just went off the right. Yeah. I related to him about that. I hate when people do it. Let just let their dirties just set in front of you. Yeah, I laughed so hard when it cut back and they were holding Spark back, which and Sam's like, seriously, you're going to talk about this now? Okay, I'm right middle of talking. I'll get to it. Yes, hold on. And what I find funny that moment too? Did you notice that Sam raised his

6:10 hands and head that look on his face the same scene, the same shot that like James Kirk had Williams Shatner, you know, that famous shot you see of him like raising his Yeah, I wonder if they did that on purpose? Maybe maybe I thought that was pretty funny. I laughed at that. Here's a holy crap. Did they do that on purpose? Yeah? That was awesome. Although it's it's interesting that they used Sam for that because now you get a little bit of a taste for how much is he actually holding in when he's interacting with a Kirk, you know, with with Jim, He's probably like, right, So I've got I've got a surprise question for you both. So, uh, seeing that Spock and Pike, especially Pike loves to cook, if Spock and Pike were cooking, what would they be making for you too? For me, it would have to be breakfast, Okay, knowing how I mean, you know, I'll I'll say something that might, you know, trigger a bunch of responses. But bacon is bacon. But we've already seen a few times when when Pike is making breakfast, it just blows people away, and that's probably what i'd pick. Okay, actually I agree with that. I would say the same thing, breakfast.

7:26 But then, but I love bacon. Bacon's fantastic, and I wanted to do exactly what Spock did and just eat it all and sitting right in front of them. But no, I would definitely want them to make me make me breakfast. I think it'd be fantastic. Yeah, that's one aspect that I love about this show, and I'd love to find out if antson Mount I know that he puts a lot of himself in Pike. I wonder if he has this, you know, attraction to cooking, because he makes it look so fun, even when he's kind of like rubbing those herbs together to say, Spuck, come on, smell this like it looks fun. And I think that's a great aspect to his character that they use. And I'm glad we're getting to see that side of Pike. We're getting to see that part of the crew. You know that we're not used to seeing, and we're seeing more and more of that with strange new worlds, and I love that, Wayne, I think you mentioned that a few episodes ago.

8:16 Yes, I think that's what makes the show's work. We saw that on the other on the nineties series. You know, when you when they sent around the episode, they show show them outside of the action. I think that's when Star Trek works the best. It brings us, It gives us more involved in their character. It attaches us more to him because it makes him human, you know, and we appreciate that. We care more about him. So absolutely love them about it. Well, one of each week, it seems like we have a new character. She's been here before, we saw her in another episode, but for this season. Miya Kirshner, who plays Amanda Grayson, I thought she was incredible in this guys. Yeah, yeah, I think she's a great ad and she pulls forward so much more of that character. Though we've seen obviously an original track, we've seen it in the generation. M I think she was a great ad to Discovery when she first appeared, but in this episode does such a great job as a mom. Yeah, in so many ways, like aside from her performance and being able to kind of see through and be like, what's with this silly hat? Right, and the way that she handles that teapot is so telling where she's like, well, you have to suppress, Yeah, you have to hold a lot of that in and she's like, I've learned how to do that, and knowing that that's you know, that's an aspect of strength that she has, but it's also you know, it's it's said that she has to do that kind of thing. Yeah. And one of my favorite moments I'll go ahead and say that now is there towards the end when you know, Spock and um Amanda having that conversation and you know, Spot

9:48 tells her you know, I was so basically I don't know word for word, but he basically tells her, you know, I was so wrapped up with with me of you know, getting making friends with a Valkans and stuff that I forgot your journey And you know that was so telling of in that moment, and this whole episode wrapped it up in that, you know, because it's like wow, you know, for him to say something like that and he was Vulcan at the time. You know, when he said that, you know, he finally understood what his mom was going through and what she did in order to make sure Spock had everything he had, which is what a mother does, you know, And you know a lot of us forget that sometimes too, what moms go through to make sure their kids get what they want and are protected. And that's exactly what I thought. That was an incredible moment in this episode. Yeah, yeah, And I have to I'll have to backtraffic my own emotions because last season, when we first saw her, I thought it was she was miscast. I didn't feel that she was the right actress for the play Amanda, because Amanda, in the very little we saw of her, I think what we saw her twice, she was very a very proper woman and very a high class type of woman.

11:03 Remember the actress that played her in the original series, but so you know, but it was that very sixties mother type of character of woman. And when I first saw her last season, I didn't think that the actress was was bringing that across. But she won me over in this episode. I think she does such an incredible job of Amanda. Now that we got to see her more, got to see her act. I want to see more of her on the show. I agree. I think she's she's fantastic. She's bringing a new take on the character of Amanda, and um, it's it's just it's lovely. I agree. I agree, yeah, way, And I love that you say that she You know, it kind of gives you a new filter to see those performances, right because knowing that that kind of proper affect that she was projecting is probably to kind of accentuate that.

11:54 You know, well, I've got to suppress, and I'm so used to suppressing, and the people that I'm interacting with are most likely having some kind of vulcan background and are kind of expecting that. Ever, So, yeah, I agreed. Not that performance, it really was so any any favorite moments scenes in this Wayne, what about You? There? There was a lot of them for this There was I actually found myself laughing out loud on this episode, which is really rare for me to do. Uh, there were there were so many great episodes. So the interaction between Spot and to Prying and their families and especially Pike was just hilarious. But I think it is such a small bit, but but my favorite part was when Pike was bringing the food, the food tray over to the family, just when Spot was telling him what is what has happened to him that he's become a human and Pike's the look on his face has suddenly changed and he's out of air and just turned around and turned. I laughed for about a minute after that that I did too. Great food, great thing. Scott, what about you? Yeah, I mean Wayne, like you said, there are so many I've already mentioned a couple. Um. I like his aunt may a moment with respect to Mercatome when he first kind of wakes up his human he goes, what the fuck? What the m oh, yes, the hat, the bacon. I think, um, his muscle spasms that he was trying to keep in check and kind of like trying to suppress, like,

13:26 you know, being angry or frustrated. It was a great Adum. I've got to give it to to Pring. I think this This actress always gives a great performance and takes a page from Brent Spiner's book in delivering great comedy with a dead paint with a dead pain character, you know, and knowing how to pull those kinds of things forward. The fact that she was just like I've had to deal with my mother so much, just just no, and he's trying to tell her, but she's like, I can't. I just can't right now. Um. I think the the Alien Customer Service reps were interesting. Yellow and blue. Yeah, vacation has been made, no further contact is required. It's like, well, we can't lodge a complaint because you won't let me through right. The Science Academy jerk that Chapel had to deal with. M I love when she put him in his place and she's like, you know what, your fellowship is not ready for me.

14:22 And I know they will, Yeah, I know they we'll probably get into it, but you know, Jess Bush again great performances as Nurse Chapel m not wanting Spock even though he was human. It was kind of like, you know, it's easier to connect with, but it's not that part that I connect with. And it's kind of a flip on all this stuff about like you have to be somebody else, you have to do something else, and you would think that being human, they'd go right into a relationship, but she was like, no, that's a that's a part of the divice. So it's an interesting twist on Amanda's struggle for accept um. And you know, as far as you know, um uh spok moments we've already mentioned a bunch. When he's screaming into the pillow, Yeah, I thought that was great. I love that scene. Yeah, um, we all wanted to do that. We do that when we heard about them Balkans.

15:20 Yeah. Well, when he kind of like rage pounds at the air and he's like flailing his arms and his legs, that was fantastic. Um. I like that Chapell interrupt his He's just about to, you know, say something about you know, his feelings for or whatever, and she hits him with the hypospray and she's like, no, I don't want to hear it from this spot. I want to hear it from full spock. And when you're ready to do that, let's go. That was fantastic. Um. And then the father in law. I've got to give credit to that character because he was such a great foil to to Prill, who was also an amazing character. She did such a great job of being somebody that you just right no. But he's like, wow, this is really good. Good job. Pike and then she's like, well, no, it's wrong because of these reasons. It's oh yeah, maybe try again, and it's like, damn it, stand up man, say something for yourself. Yeah, what about You did so many good scenes in this In this and you know I've not hidden the fact on how much I love Nurse Chapel. Jess Bush knocks it out of the park. You know you've already said that. Um.

16:26 There's a couple of scenes of her that I absolutely loved. One of those was obviously when she was walking out after giving that shot the Spot and she is visibly shaken and emotional of a feel of her feelings for him. Um, incredible acting right there at performance on her part. But another scene that I absolutely loved is going back to when Chapel, Horror and Ortegas went to figure out how to help Spot and they were there with Yellow and Blue and uh, you know she basically, you know, they're saying talking to Chapel and Chapel you know, was trying to hide her feelings there for Spot that he's my friend, you know, and you know, a Horror and orteg Us are like rolling their eyes like really, are you kidding me?

17:08 We know everybody on this ship sees this, you know. So the moment when she's ready to confess and she does that little thing with her finger to make or take us in a horror turnaround as she was telling a yellow of how her true feelings were for Spots that come on, really gonna haven't turn around, They're still gonna hear you. But I love that moment. I love Jeff Bush. I love her so much. She is so incredible in this. Yeah, but there's just so many good scenes in this So I have a feeling we're probably all gonna be talking about the same person, but we might not um which character shined the most. And I'm gonna be rude and I'm gonna go first. For me, it was Ethan Peck. We've talked about Spok so many times this season, but this episode, this episode, he truly showed what an incredible performer he is. He was able to take not showing emotions to showing ridiculous emotions over the top, just funny, but yet someone struggling like a teenager. Scott. You mentioned that he knocked it out of the park in this you know, he we've talked about he is making Spot his own but he's also still giving the spot that we know, you know, he's he's finding that balance of the other spots obviously Leonardimoy, but you know, he's finding it to himself and he's making it believable and making us love him for that. For ethanpect to be able to go

18:41 through all of those emotions in this episode and perform and make us believe he was actually going through those that full gamma of emotions, you know, hunger, acceptance, anger, frustration, all of that. He knocked it out of the park. There is no way that I would say anybody else was shining to the most in this episode except Scott. What about you? Yeah, I totally agree. I couldn't agree more. Yeah, you raised great points. I think it's daunting for each of these actors. It's got to be daunting to try to step into these roles knowing how much legacy is preceding it, especially with Spock. Yeah, and Ethan Peck has done an amazing job in every performance. I feel with the Spot character, he's done a great honor to Leonard Nimoy and what the character has been built to be.

19:33 But I agree this This gives such another aspect to Spock, and credit to the writers in addition to Ethan for giving so much more of it because his performance you can still see Spock there, and again it goes back to that idea of like, it's not changing him, it's just uncovering another aspect of it, and you can see, like, as much as there are funny moments with his you know, ocd lash out at Sam, it shows how much he's keeping in check and the nature of the you know, of vulcans to have to you know, hould those down and in many cases we're seeing become absolute jerks. But him having the human side, you know, there's more struggle there and his ability to carry that knowing that it's just showing another side of Spok is brilliant. I don't think it was very well done.

20:33 Agreed, Wayne, what about you? You've brought up some incredible points. This this is Spock and Chapel's episode. It was really hard to choose. I actually choose Chapel. I think she stood out just just a hair of just a little bit more, her interactions with Spak, her suppressed desires for him, frustratings, her frustrations for not being able to help him, and then of course, you know, she eventually came up with a solution and it took action. Uh. It was just perfectly played by by just Bush. I think we haven't seen she's been a fantastic actress. I mean, she's she's great. But really we got to see her do so much this episode and went at the end when she tells her her Vulcan interviewer just how brilliant she's been and how wrong they are for for rejecting her. I mean, she is, she's brilliant. The character's brilliant. We've never seen this in chapel and we're learning so much more about this character. She's bringing so much to us. It was you know, that final scene was a great bookend for a fantastic episode. I just just a hair above. I think she stood out. I love I love that to point that out. Wayne.

21:52 I love that you're that you're mentioning a different character because I love when we do that. Although there are sometimes when you can't help it, like you know, yeah, Dave, I'm still totally agreeing with you, but part they're both fantastic. This was both oh absolutely yeah, yeah, well and again kind of you know, credit to the writers and the actors in coming together and bringing together that knockout performance because not only dealing with her feelings on a romantic side, but what she mentions before about survivor's guilt and how much of that's weighing on her and you know what she's doing, her furious you know, working through the night to find a solution. Is a blend of both and she really does a great job of carrying both of those through in her performance. Yeah, totally agree. When when I sat down to figure out which who I thought shined the most in this episode, it came down to Chapel and Spock, Wayne, So I completely agree with you your choosing a Chapel and you've already confessed how much I love her, but because she's incredible actors, she really is, and she really brought her performance in this episode. And you're right, I can see why you would have chosen her, because I was very close to picking or two, but I just had to go with Ethan Pec on this one. So but still great, great choice, Wayne, great choice. So if he could be any character in this episode, who would it be? And why? Wayne? Uh, Well, I think I'm gonna choose Pike this time. You know, he spent the whole episode out of the way, um, because I would not be want to be in the middle of that, that family drama that

23:22 is the worst. And he loves cooking. You know, I love cooking. He loves cooking. You know, he has the most amazing quarters on that ship. Of it he does he think about all the other other quarters from all the other captains either there's they were also small compared to his. He's got this nice, this wonderful kitchen with all this fresh stuff and and you know think he's the last captain in Starfleet to actually have something like that, because everybody else had to eat with out of those stupid replicators and that's boring. I mean, that's that's there's so much fun that that Pike had just standing back and watching Spock and you know his own problems. You know, just just see I ain't getting in the middle of that, right Scott.

24:04 What about you? Yeah? Well, clearly Wayne, we were having some kind of a mind meld because I agree with every single word that you said. Um, I love cooking. It's so much fun. And to know how much he brings to this character with that that there's this you know, his quarters are very open and welcome that kind of family aspect. So he's bringing everybody in to cook, and it's not just you know, it's not just come in and eat what I've cooked, but helped me prep, help me wash dishes. It's an amazing part of the character. Love to be Pike during this, even though he had to go through so much, It feels it going to be fascinating to be there with him when he's making these traditional Vulcan dishes and they sound delicious according to father at Long, So yeah, I'd totally be What about you, David, Well, we've had a standby me moment here because all three of us have chosen Captain Pike for the same reason we got a Goojer, we got a um but yeah, the same same reason Wayne Pig because you know, and you Scott, and he gets to cook, he gets to eat and drink, will sit back and watch everything fall apart because he doesn't have to worry about it at all.

25:14 Going back to that moment, you know that Wayne had mentioned earlier that he laughed out loud, because I laughed out hysterically too when he was bringing the drinks that everybody and then Spock was confessing about what was going on, and just that little return to the side, just something so simple but yet made me laugh so hard. Just his facial expressions too. We're fans and they're like, oh god, here we go. Well, even the namesake for the episode, Charades, like there there's so much that, you know, we get to see. Pike have to add lib Yeah right, and he's like, uh, charades, that's a human thing. Then he tries to teach them and he's like, we you're really not getting this. This is gonna be tough. That was a good toucher by the episode for that. I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, you know, very well done. So did you guys notice any Easter eggs in this There wasn't very many of them in this episode, you know which I mean, that's okay.

26:03 This episode was full of stuff. Anyways, they had their own stuff to deal with. But there were a couple um we mentioned. They mentioned that Chapel was going to be working under doctor Robert Corby that was mentioned on the original series. That was her fiancee in uh the episode what Are Little Girls Made Of? I haven't seen that episode in so many years, but I do. I do remember so I'm not really sure if how much the character appeared on there, but that was a reference back to that episode. And then, of course, you know, there were a lot of references back to Journey of Journey of Babel, Yeah, especially with spos ongoing feud with his father. Um, of course, you know his mother's appearance.

26:52 But that's the only thing I was really able to catch in this episode. Nice, well, I think the only thing I caught was hold onto your butts. I don't know if that was a non or not, but yes, nice, I loved it. I wonder if that'll be Ortega's you know, that'll be her thing, think that she says in the chair, I love I loved the um, the use of the classic nimoy ears. Yes he was using as the disguise. I kind of wondered if they, you know, maybe molded those after the original um, especially when you know Ethan kind of picks them up and wiggles them a little bit and he's like, really, these things are full of people. Yeah and yeah, all right, so I'm sorry, go ahead. I also want to mention because this isn't really an Easter egg, but I liked seeing it. It was nice to see another non humanoid alien race in Star Trek. We don't get very many of those in any of the Star Trek series, and it was great scene one that actually it could interact with the with the characters. Kind of reminded me of another race that we saw a long time ago, the calumar Rain, which was in Next Generation and the one that said was chasing after Q when he became human too. I forgot all about that. You know, Q became human very similar to what Spock did here and having to deal with it. But it's nice to see that we usually always get humanoids with with the prosthetics on their forehead, and we need to see more non humanoid races. I agree. I agree completely Well. Next week's episode Lost in

28:23 Translation, what do you guys think about that one? That'll be interesting in my house because I've been I kind of watch these in different stages. I'll watch the episode at first on my own just to you know, get a first impression. Then I'll watch it with my family, including my ten year old. And there was one particular scene where you know, her is scared by, you know, some kind of zombie looking thing, and it's like, all right, I might have to get a screen this a little bit, but it looks like an interesting, kind of a scary episode. It looks like Carol Kane's back, which is awesome. I think we'll see a lot more of her this episode two. Yeah, I hope. So it looks fantastic. So looking forward to it as I always do. But I'm predicting and I'm hoping that this is it. You're her episodes. We haven't got much of her and I want to see her get an appisode. Yeah, she had a few episodes where she really shined in season one, so it's her turn again to show us her acting chops because we know she has them all right, So we're gonna open up a channel give us your thoughts, predictions, and questions on social media if you want to leave a comment discuss what's next. We even have suggestions. You can find us at www.

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