Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

[ZeroBG82]

I've been checking out a lot of reviews and discussions about SNW and this thread is the first time I've seen anyone discussing potential romance between Uhura and Spock. I personally don't think it's going to happen. Nothing in their interactions so far has hinted at that IMO.

No idea what the people behind the scenes may or may not have planned, but if anything this second episode strongly suggests that Ethan Peck and Celia Gooding have no romantic chemistry whatsoever. Great mentor/mentee vibe, but absolutely nothing else. Meanwhile, in just one scene per episode it's abundantly clear that Peck and Jess Bush (Chapel) absolutely SIZZLE. Stick with what works, I say.

[BeastieRunner]

I've been checking out a lot of reviews and discussions about SNW and this thread is the first time I've seen anyone discussing potential romance between Uhura and Spock. I personally don't think it's going to happen. Nothing in their interactions so far has hinted at that IMO.

No idea what the people behind the scenes may or may not have planned, but if anything this second episode strongly suggests that Ethan Peck and Celia Gooding have no romantic chemistry whatsoever. Great mentor/mentee vibe, but absolutely nothing else. Meanwhile, in just one scene per episode it's abundantly clear that Peck and Jess Bush (Chapel) absolutely SIZZLE. Stick with what works, I say.

I think a lot of men take women being nice as flirting.

[Castle]

No idea what the people behind the scenes may or may not have planned, but if anything this second episode strongly suggests that Ethan Peck and Celia Gooding have no romantic chemistry whatsoever. Great mentor/mentee vibe, but absolutely nothing else. Meanwhile, in just one scene per episode it's abundantly clear that Peck and Jess Bush (Chapel) absolutely SIZZLE. Stick with what works, I say.

first of all chemistry is subjective, although what seems to be going is a bit of shallowness with jess and celia and not that I blame many viewers completely. I also blame some of the bad parts of third way feminism that SNW Uhura now seem to be a victim off.

I wonder if Celia Gooding has been styled the same way as Jess Bush or had her body type, we will even be having this conversation. I personally did not like the character design for Celia Gooding because she looked nothing like the original actress that plays Uhura or Zoe Saldana, if you ask me I would say she is styled to look too masculine, versus the Uhura who we have seen in the past that were very feminine looking characters.


This has always been a worry of mine about how woman are physically designed and styled, I even made a thread about this issue a year ago about what attracts men to watch women in films and there was this discussion here on this board that men do get easily turned off if the female characters are designed to be very masculine and I am seeing it here with strange new worlds about Uhura.

I do wish Celia had been a new character, if she personally did not want to stick to the established way Uhura had always looked, then maybe a new character would have been the better choice. So in a nut shell, maybe subconsciously part of the reason some may think Jess has more chemistry with Spock is because Jess looks far more feminine in the traditional sense, and oozes far more sex appeal, so it is easy to see that as chemistry when she is with a male character.

Jess Bush has been styled as the classic tall hot blonde vs Uhura who basically has been given a hair cut that barely suit the actress face and the uniform barely fits her body type. Celia looks very bulky in those uniform. I will just say it that her character design is poor and the worst of the bunch.

This Uhura from SNW has none of the sex appeal that Zoe Saldana or Nichelle Nicholas had, two women who had chemistry with their own Spock. Meanwhile I have seen constant talk about how hot Jess Chapel is, people are not saying that with the other girls on the show so this is clearly playing a factor here and also Jess Chapel is shamelessly openly flirting with Spock and that by default means chemistry however only in the superficial of sense.

Again, I don't know what is ahead with this writers, but I am aware of star trek shipping stuff and the Spock and Uhura ship have a very strong fanbase because of the kelvin films, while Spock/Chapel dont have a strong fan base. perhaps the writers do want to go the spock/chapel route here and did not want Uhura to be a threat to that, so they chose to give her the Rose Tico treatment from star wars, this is when a female character is stripped away of any kind of traditional take of femininity and sex appeal, given a very bad hair style and is made to look very androgynous, if this was the writers plan for strange new worlds, it seem to be working here with Celia's Uhura.


Also the race aspect could also be a factor too. maybe some just think Spock is better off with a the white blonde than a very dark skinned black woman. However I won't put much on race yet until we see more reactions, right now I think it is more about looks and sex appeal and Jess's Chapel is bring that while Celia Uhura isn't. Which is kind of ironic because this show is a direct prequel to TOS and in TOS Uhura is the one with all the sex appeal and hotness, while Chapel is the timid mousy woman.


This video just sums it up about what they have done to Uhura and I think it is just sad.

I think a lot of men take women being nice as flirting.

nah, it is a lot of people's take that a woman flirting with a man as instant chemistry, especially when the woman appears physically attractive in the way society has always defined those terms.

[Castle]

So, LOL about the romance predicting aspect of the show. I finally saw episode 2 in all its glory instead of just reading some spoilers and watching some clips and fan thought and I am sorry, for not trusting my own predictions.

To ZeroBG82 about chemistry, guess we going to have to disagree, I feel the scene where uhura tells of the andrioan and spock in their native language was a better friendly, lay the foundation romance chemistry than we got from spock and chapel, uhura scenes with spock in episode 2 feels more natural and realistic than his scenes with chapel because with chapel it feels as if they want her to flirt with Spock based on TOS, If you have not seen TOS, Chapel's flirting here will look bizarre and random. while uhura and spock there seems to be a layer of foundation of something in the future that was done in the episode.

The way this show is going, spock/uhura are likely to develop something more naturally but I will predict it will take years, maybe by season 3-4 unlike Spock/Chapel were it has been fixed already from episode 1-2, meaning it wont last for long by the later seasons.
I may conclude there may also be a bit racism and traditional standard beauty looks that some will just easily favour chapel here over Uhura from this one episode.

In this episode 2, Spock admits already that he likes Uhura, (guess you miss that ZeroBG82). The Andrioan says he himself likes uhura and Spock replies by saying indeed. Also when Chapel flirts with him, Uhura looks bothered, very bothered. she is the only one who seem weird about it. I don't think that is a coincidence. Finally the ending scenes between them, where she smiles, I guess it is open to interpretation but that also includes romance in the future.

Honestly I think I know what the writers have planned ,it is fair to say, we will get all the pairing spock/chapel and spock/uhura, spock/tpring and spock/leia. which is cool, and that is why I am having issues here that some are saying just saying no to Spock/Uhura. the one woman who trek fans ship spock the most with apart from K/S slash and she is black too, so that is suspicion.

I guess Tpring and Chapel are lucky here that Zoe Saldana in not playing Uhura in SNW. If she was I doubt there would even be a conversation. Also maybe I was a bit wrong about Ceelia Gooding, I give her props for daring to go natural and not be the standard definition of beauty, while I still think she looks a bit masculine for Uhura, I find her beauty more interesting to explore than Chapel who is the standard tall blonde where I already know what those kind of beauty are about. if you watch the dinner scene close up, when Ceelia talks to the andrioan and spock, that is a very pretty girl they have dressed down and she still looks quite good, despite almost been bald with no hair.

[Castle]

Moving on from the romance of trek, I am wondering also about the future of trek shows. it seems very clear that the expensive budget may be going to star trek discovery because in this episode, the effects look very cheap. season 1 and 2 of discovery had almost movie quality look, this does not. hopefully if this show gets good ratings they may up the budget.

Additionally the cast during missions feel different to the dinner scene, they appear more lifeless and it makes the show look dry. This show overall I wont say has that great spark that TNG or the Kelvin cast had right from the start but maybe they can build to that.

Even Celia Gooding who is meant to be a top notch actor coming from Broadway as a Tony nominee, I feel like she is been shorthanded here because the material is not meaty enough. Arson Mount does not have the presence of Bruce Greenwood and Ethan Peck you can tell is trying to act. He does not have the natural thing that Zachary Quinto had.

The show needs a peculiar kind of richness. I also wish the enterprise did not look so big because it is making the ship feel very empty with space no one is using but should be using.

[Sutekh]

The show needs a peculiar kind of richness. I also wish the enterprise did not look so big because it is making the ship feel very empty with space no one is using but should be using.

In this case, I kind of prefer the ship to not have a bunch of extras running around the halls for like no damn reason at all, like in the Kelvin-verse. So the COVID changes that have resulted in less packed hallways between rooms are a welcome thing to me. It's a working ship, not the queue to get into a popular nightclub. Most of these people should already be at their job, not spend 85% of their day running to it.

[ZeroBG82]

To ZeroBG82 about chemistry, guess we going to have to disagree, I feel the scene where uhura tells of the andrioan and spock in their native language was a better friendly, lay the foundation romance chemistry than we got from spock and chapel, uhura scenes with spock in episode 2 feels more natural and realistic than his scenes with chapel because with chapel it feels as if they want her to flirt with Spock based on TOS, If you have not seen TOS, Chapel's flirting here will look bizarre and random. while uhura and spock there seems to be a layer of foundation of something in the future that was done in the episode.

A foundation of boredom, maybe. Considering you have the balls to call anyone else shallow and then drone on for entire paragraphs about a woman's body type, which literally nobody else had even mentioned, I'm not sure you're the best judge of literally any of this.

But here's the real talk. Spock is stoic at the best of times. Positively robotic at the worst. A relationship with this version of Uhura, who is basically a wallflower who feels on the outside, would be BORING. Not saying it might not be realistic, but it would be dull as dishwater and not worth watching. Ignoring the fact that he's assumed a position as her mentor, which makes a relationship creepy as all hell and dubiously ethical at the best of times.

Chapel, on the other hand, is a firebrand. She's bold, she's sassy, she's in your face. In other words, she's CHALLENGING for Spock. It's the fact that she's such an opposite that makes it interesting and opens the door for actual drama and entertainment. Spock has literally no idea how to deal with her. It's why Saldana's Uhura in the films vaguely works as a romantic foil for Spock (I say vaguely because the relationship between the two in the films is really poorly done and just woefully written). And she's not, so far at least, been established as anything but an equal.

[Castle]

A foundation of boredom, maybe.

In writing it is not a foundation for boredom, to be honest in writing it is the foundation of lust until you find the real thing. No I did not necessary call the womans's body shallow, I talked about the shallowness of beauty that is be given to Chapel over Uhura. I wonder why people keep on saying Chapel is hot and no one is saying so about Uhura.

But here's the real talk. Spock is stoic at the best of times. Positively robotic at the worst. A relationship with this version of Uhura, who is basically a wallflower who feels on the outside, would be BORING. Not saying it might not be realistic, but it would be dull as dishwater and not worth watching. Ignoring the fact that he's assumed a position as her mentor, which makes a relationship creepy as all hell and dubiously ethical at the best of times.

HMM, Not really and I guess you don't know vulcans, I think what you said fits more with chapel because Spock been vulcan would not appreciate a woman flirting with him like that and would turn her down and call her behaviour inappropriate.

Ironic because this shows massive inconsistent and a bias because Uhura in the Kelvin films also challenged Spock with more reason to because they were already in a relationship. The scene in the 2009 film when she demanded spock put her on the enterprise because she deserves it was a challenged that worked, she was his equal in private as seen in the scene where she comforts him after vulcan got imploded. Also when she also challenged him into darkness for not knowing how to feel. Also I wont really compare movie arcs to TV arcs, but if you want than so be it.

What is the challenge here with Chapel from episode 2? we get no content compare to this, not to mention Zoe and Zachary are better actors than Jess and Ethan, who you can tell are not experienced actors As I said if you have not watched TOS, Chapel comes off like a standard random seductress in SNW. so how is that better than the kelvinverse. We only accept the flirt because we know she is in love with him in TOS. Also that is not even the character. Jess Chapel is not Chapel at all. she should have just been a new character.

If you were to say the spock/uhura relationship was poorly written in the Kelvin films than by that same logic SNW so far is poorly written for worse reasons because why is Chapel just flirting with Spock with no context at all and why has he not shut her down, when he has a fiancé, that is even worse than the spock dating a student at least in the Klevin films Uhura was an ex student of Spock and a lot of heavy reference was made about their relationship before it was fully revealed by the 2nd act of the film. She was not his student when they started dating. So yeah, all your logic is filled with inconsistency for both women.

LOL, so Chapel is bold, sassy, in your face. it is funny that all this points was used against uhura in the kelvin films who had all the same personalities and much more. Not to mention, this is a different timeline, so an alternate uhura works here. this chapel in SNW is suppose to be the same as the tos prime timeline and she is nothing like thE TOS Chapel.


Uhura Zoe is far more bold, sassy, in your face and even too sexy for some. Welcome to the world of subconscious world of racism that has been ever so present in fandom when it is about POC characters. As I said already, I will give you Spock/Chapel for season 1 and 2 but the end game in SNW I see it with Spock/Uhura. In fact I am happy the series is burning through spock/chapel first, it will make it easier to build up to Spock/Uhura that will match up with the Kelvin films by the end of the show. This is like Smallville in the world of Spock's love interest.

Chapel is the Lana Lang here

Uhura is the Lois Lane.

[Castle]

In this case, I kind of prefer the ship to not have a bunch of extras running around the halls for like no damn reason at all, like in the Kelvin-verse. So the COVID changes that have resulted in less packed hallways between rooms are a welcome thing to me. It's a working ship, not the queue to get into a popular nightclub. Most of these people should already be at their job, not spend 85% of their day running to it.

Nah, this is before COVID it was an issue too in star trek discovery. this new streaming star trek show, all their ship and the crew in it just feels too empty and spacious with little details. it is as if the VFX and design have no depth. I know it is a movie but the Kelvinverse looked superior



I think they should have used the TNG design, for SNW just update it to 2022 VFX and design. TNG Enterprise always looked warmly and homely. This new streaming shows star ships looks like a big ware house.

Watching SNW, you can tell paramount is just using the same sets for all their shows (Picard and Discovery). I know it saves money, but it is making their shows look very cheap compared to say the Star Wars streaming shows like The Mandalorian.

[ChrisIII]

^A lot of TNG's sets were actually just redresses of the TMP sets, with the main exception being the Bridge (although the TMP bridge set was used for the Battle bridge and many other Federation ships). https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/i..._interiors.htm. This is also why Enterprise A's sets in TFF and TUC kind of look like TNGs-they didn't really bother to change the sets too much, probably because they needed them for TNG filming.


I think Discovery and SNW are actually using virtual sets similar to Mandalorian as well.

[ChrisIII]

Should mention there's an unseen Kelvin Chapel who had some kind of relationship with Kirk.

[Malvolio]

^A lot of TNG's sets were actually just redresses of the TMP sets, with the main exception being the Bridge (although the TMP bridge set was used for the Battle bridge and many other Federation ships). https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/i..._interiors.htm. This is also why Enterprise A's sets in TFF and TUC kind of look like TNGs-they didn't really bother to change the sets too much, probably because they needed them for TNG filming.


I think Discovery and SNW are actually using virtual sets similar to Mandalorian as well.

Star Trek has a long history of repurposing sets and models. For instance, the model they used for the probe in TMP was flipped over and used as the model for Regula One in Wrath of Khan.

[ChrisIII]

Actually it's the office complex space station Kirk and Scotty take the travel pod from.


Funny thing is TWOK's footage of that space station-well, the one shot where it doesn't have the planet in the background-was reused in TNG and DS9 a few times (As well as some brand new shots of the model itself, sometimes modified).


A good chunk of TWOK's first half also uses stock effects footage from the motion picture as well.

BTW switching topic a bit, did the concept of Starbase one's Seed Pods kind of remind anybody of the sci-fi film Silent Running? The film was directed by Douglas Trumbull (Who passed away a few months ago) who also saved Star Trek TMP's effects after Robert Abel was kicked out. (Abel would go on to pioneer a lot of very very early CG though such as Tron).

[G. Boney]

I do wish Celia had been a new character, if she personally did not want to stick to the established way Uhura had always looked

It's fine if you don't like her hairstyle but there's no rule that Uhura has to have the same hairstyle as a cadet she will have years later as a lieutenant. To suggest otherwise is as ridiculous as suggesting she's "masculine" because her hair is short.

[inisideguy]

I don't know about all this relationship stuff but this is this the best Trek for me in two decades.