Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I've got some awesome reviews for you today. First up is this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, called "Spock Amok" and the next review is this week's season 3 premiere of The Orville, called, "Electric Sheep". Both will have some spoilers so if you're not caught up on those shows then do so before reading these reviews. So let's get into it with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
"Spock Amok" is my favourite episode of the entire season so far. It is the most fun I've had watching an episode of Star Trek since the first season episode of Enterprise "Two Days and Two Nights" from back in 2002, just a few weeks over 20 years ago. The idea for that episode was that it was light, funny, and entertaining, which is what the goal is for this SNW episode. It also serves to build up Spock as a character, as well as his relationship with T'Pring, which, just like with Uhura in episode 2, did a great job at building a couple that is believable. Again, it didn't seem all that believable in "Amok Time" that T'Pring would instantly dismiss Spock in favour of Stonn when we had just met her. Especially if she and Spock hadn't seen each other since they were children, as the TOS episode had implied without stating it outright. I'll get to that a little later though.
The first thing I want to talk about is Una and La'an and what they did for fun during this episode's shore leave at Starbase 1. They catch two ensigns attempting to complete Enterprise Bingo, which was referenced by Ortegas and Uhura in episode 2, and they decide to do it themselves as Una had been called "where fun goes to die" by many of the Yeomen on the ship, which upsets her. Though this "Bingo" game feels alot more like a scavenger hunt then actual Bingo.Which is actually still pretty cool. Probably my favourite one is where they try to shoot each other with phasers set on the lowest stun setting, I guess to see who's the fastest draw. Regardless this was a fun storyline as it really shows the bond between Una and La'an strengthening after it had been strained in episode 3, "Ghosts of Illyria".
Before I get to Spock and T'Pring's predicament, I just want to talk a bit about what M'Benga, Chapel, and Ortegas end up doing while on shore leave. M'Benga goes fly fishing while he waits for a colleague of his to arrive and Chapel and Ortegas have a night out on the town so to speak. Similar to what Malcolm and Trip did in "Two Days and Two Nights". Minus the whole being duped by criminals posing as beautiful women thing. We learn about Chapel's adversion to serious romantic relationships, until she finds the right one, hinting at her meeting Dr. Korby at some point during this show. Ortegas is just kind of there. I've been saying this since the pilot, but I really hope Ortegas gets an episode focused on her at some point during this season because I think she's a really cool character and Melissa C. Navia is doing a really great job playing her.
I'm going to talk about Pike's role in this episode together with Spock and T'Pring because Spock plays a part in Pike's story as well as his own. While the Enterprise is at Starbase 1, Pike and Spock are assigned by Admiral April to conduct preliminary negotiations with a race known as the R'ongovians, who have been unusually private as April put it. And then things go wrong when the R'ongovian representatives arrive on the ship a day early, which puts Spock's plans with T'Pring into serious jeopardy as she'd come to stay with him on the Enterprise while it was docked at the starbase even while she was on a mission of her own to round up a Vulcan who had strayed from the path of Logic. Basically T'Pring is the Logic Police or Logic Rehabilitation specialist. Which sounds weird, but is kinda cool at the same time.
Anyways after Chapel gives him advice, Spock and T'Pring undergo a Vulcan ritual that would allow them to understand each other's position better. Except it doesn't work properly and they end up going all Freaky Friday and switch bodies. But because Vulcans have Katras, their living essences, that's what they switch. So Spock is in T'Pring's body, and T'Pring is in Spock's body. Which makes for a pretty entertaining episode because the R'ongovians only want to speak to Spock, which means that T'Pring must go in Spock's body, and the Vulcan that T'Pring was sent to apprehend only wants to talk to T'Pring, so she must go in Spock's body. I wonder if Janeway would have a headache yet? They do tell Pike and Chapel, so they get help. I won't give away if either of them succeed, but since it's like Freaky Friday you can probably guess how everything works out.
Spock was always my favourite character from TOS, but I am so glad we're learning more about him on this show. Again, the T'Pring thing in the Original Series felt always weird to me, but now that they're fleshing it out, I am loving how much more dimension it's giving Spock as his fears concerning his relationship with T'Pring also reflect his fears about being half Human and half Vulcan, and that's awesome.
Honestly, I loved this episode. I know I say that every week, but this one was so much fun and full of Hijinks and insanity and goofiness. And it gave us good insight into pretty much all of the main characters in a way that made me connect with them even more than I already had during the pilot and the other three episodes that aired/dropped before this one. Everyone working on this show is incredible.
That is going to be it for me for right now. I'll be back shortly for my review of the season premiere of The Orville. So I'll see you shortly. Take care.
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