10 Types of Trek We Want from SNW S2
By Jesse Bailey
Crewmember Doppelganger
The identical double, evil or otherwise, isn't new to science fiction, but when Star Trek does it, it just feels more fun. Twice the stuffiness of Picard? Double Harry Kims? With the second season feeling like a perfect time to give us a second copy of our favorite helmsman, might we suggest multiphasic subspace interference as the culprit of a transporter malfunction resulting in at least three Ericas - OOPS ALL-tegas! Yes, we hear you - "but season one already had two Captain Pikes!" Did it? Did it ever matter that there were two Pikes? Or was it all about one Pike with input from the other? Yeah, that's what we remember, too.
For this Trek type to be considered fulfilled in our eyes, we require full-on two-or-more-copies-of-the-same-person action. If La'an isn't trading phaser blasts on gradually increasing settings with her double while Pike and his disagree about equestrianism, then what are we even doing here? The technology for a simple double episode has reached the point where it's plenty convincing, and a similar tone to "Spock Amok" could make "Uhuraboros" the next instant camp classic!
Crew Suggestions:
- Cameron recommends “Allegiance” (TNG)
- Jesse recommends “Kayshon, His Eyes Open” (LD)
- John recommends "Whispers" (DS
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Political Intrigue
The cold open of this episode would feature what? That’s right. Klingon Ortegas. Erica goes to the Klingon high council undercover to find out what the Klingons know about the Romulan Empire, and gets slowly tangled in a web of lies, deceit, intrigue, and double-mistaken identity.
As the lines between her mission and her real life begin to blur, Kortegas would find herself stuck between a bat’leth and a hard place, unable to remember if she even believes in the mission anymore.
The evidence she uncovers and her time with the Klingons lead her to wonder if perhaps the Federation has been wrong about them, and thus wrong about the Romulans as well, only to have it all come crashing down in front of her as she witnesses an assassination attempt that she was supposed to stop! You get a mind game, and you get a mind game, everyone gets a mind game!
Crew Suggestions:
- Jesse recommends “The Enemy” (TNG)
- Cameron recommends “The Mind’s Eye” (TNG)
- John recommends "In The Pale Moonlight" (DS9)
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Meet Crewmember Family
OK, but we mean other than Sam and Rukiya and T'Pring and Sybok and La'an's brother. Those folks are great, some of the best folks, but we want a whacky relative in the vein of Lwaxana Troi.
Perhaps Hemmer has a grieving aunt who insists upon spending time with the people he cared for most, and must reconcile his reputation as a curmudgeon with the pacifist little blue boy she remembers?
Or maybe Nurse Chapel has a bumbling, incompetent brother who means well but just can't quite get his act together? It all comes to a head when he uses her name to get a job at a medical facility only to be the cause of a terrible accident, thus tarnishing Christine's reputation and putting tremendous strain on their relationship.
Family members of crew offer a great chance to look at life in the Federation outside of Starfleet. If Spock can have Sybok and Michael Burnham, and we firmly believe he can, then Captain Pike can most certainly have a doting grandmother who appears to be incredibly warm and caring but is actually quite demanding and a bit of a perfectionist. Seeing the crew's shields down helps us better relate to them; everyone has a soft spot for someone.
Crew Suggestions:
- Jesse recommends any Lwaxana Troi episode
- Cameron recommends “Legacy” (TNG)
- John recommends "Prophet Motive" (DS9)
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Day In the Life
Two words: Chief Kyle.
This guy has served aboard the Shenzhou and the Enterprise. The dude is Miles O'Brien in a Julian Bashir frame.
Klingon war? Check. Chief on the flagship? Check. Lost people to the Gorn? Check. Ensigns hate him? You better believe it. Chief Kyle has a story that is begging to be told, and we think he's ripe for this kind of episode.
Start us out at the end of his shift, let us follow him back to his quarters where he has a game night with the other crew chiefs. Maybe he's a 3d chess streamer and he's just picked up some new Tellarite subscribers, or what if he blows off steam with a high-intensity combat training regiment? If we're gonna follow a non-bridge crew person around for a day, put our names in the Kyle pile.
Crew Suggestions:
- Cameron recommends “The Trouble with Tribbles” (TOS)
- Jesse recommends “Lower Decks” (TNG)
- John recommends You Are Cordially Invited (DS9)
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Omnipotent Being
Season one gave us Debra the Nebula, the creative force behind Rukiya’s Elysian Kingdom fantasy - but we never really got to see what kind of threat Debra might pose if angered. We understand that the tone of SNW is quite bright and hopeful, but perhaps there are some pesky Romulans who are probing nearby that need an attitude adjustment?
It doesn’t have to be Debra, of course. While the Q Continuum would seem to provide an easy answer, we actually wouldn’t mind taking a deeper dive into the Medusans, as Star Trek: Prodigy is currently doing. The Medusans feel like proper Eldritch horrors to us, and we’d like to see that kind of idea explored through the optimistic lens of this era’s Enterprise crew.
Perhaps our favorite candidate though, would be an encounter with the lost “race of Titans” who eventually cast off their collective sins into a single, vile mass that would later be called “Armus” and imprisoned upon Vagra II. Perhaps they were inspired to be their best selves upon witnessing Ortegas’ haircut?
Crew Suggestions:
- Jesse recommends “Is There In Truth No Beauty?” (TOS)
- Cameron recommends “Dejá Q” (TNG)
- John recommends DS9
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Courtroom Drama
It feels like there's a pretty good chance that we'll get at least one impassioned legal argument from Captain Pike on Una's behalf, but we're here for the complete court martial experience.
That means we're gonna need good, strong opposition making salient points on behalf of Starfleet. Maybe La'an even gets called as a witness against Una, putting an even greater strain on their friendship than the revelation of Una's origins.
We also think this would be a great opportunity to bring in Admiral Satie's (from TNG's "The Drumhead") father Judge Aaron to spar verbally with Public Defender Spock. He would indeed make an excellent foil to both Spock and Pike, and would likely earn the respect of both.
Crew Suggestions:
- Cameron recommends “The Menagerie” (TOS)
- John Recommends "The Measure of a Man" (TNG)
- Jesse recommends “The Drumhead” (TNG)
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Pike as a God
This one almost seems too easy, as Pike would likely be the single most benevolent possible candidate for worship at the hands of an undeveloped civilization of proto-someones. Alas, we must see it done.
No, you're right, it's too easy. OK, let's go opposite. Pike is accidentally discovered by indigenous people while on an away mission and just so happens to bear a striking resemblance to their version of the devil, thus striking fear into the hearts of the people he wasn't supposed to interact with in the first place.
The fun part will be that the rest of the crew beamed out successfully, and is simply observing his comedy of errors from orbit. Una just keeps making pirate sounds at him over the comms, and Spock becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the whole situation.
Crew Suggestions:
- John recommends "Who Watches the Watchers" (TNG) -
- Jesse recommends “Blink of an Eye” (VOY)
- Cameron recommends “Strange Energies” (LD)
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Time Loop
Captain Pike, and Star Trek in general, are no strangers to shenanigans in or through time. We’ve had crews go back to the present, check out the distant future, get caught in repeated explosions, inhabit alternate timelines, go back to the present, check out the distant future, get caught in repeated explosions, inha…
All we're saying is that it's time for a loop in time. We've seen Pike grapple with slightly varying visions of the same event already, so this episode would likely need to feature a less obvious character.
As every good time loop episode needs one or two folks who are either unaffected or somehow aware of looping time, we think Una would fit this bill nicely. It could even serve a dual purpose in that she is somehow reliving her own court martial over and over, using her Illyrian immunity to learn something from each loop, culminating in a closing argument so effective that it grants Una clemency AND results in the founding of Starfleet's Temporal Litigation Department.
Crew Suggestions:
- John recommends "Cause and Effect" (TNG)
- Jesse recommends “Year of Hell” (VOY)
- Cameron recommends “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” (DSC)
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Race for the Artifact
We admit this one is a bit selfish, but we'd love to see more about the harbinger comets that the Shepards are guiding with such blind loyalty. There could be an artifact discovered somewhere that has drawings of all the paths of comets for thousands of years, and it could be implied to be the handiwork of the same species we "saw" at the end of Picard S1.
Too Eldritch for your tastes? What if the Harbinger comets are a result of something our old friends the 10-C did way back in the day, instead? Sure, they're still pretty Eldritch, but it makes for a nice tie back to SNW's "Disco" roots without being too heavy-handed.
Just put the crew on a mission that feels like a race, where the prize is knowledge, and failure means the loss of priceless historical context. We don't even need answers or a winner, just the thrill of a map-spanning jaunt across the stars.
Crew Suggestions:
- Cameron recommends “Captain’s Holiday” (TNG)
- Jesse recommends “The Chase” (TNG)
- John recommends "Emissary' (DS9)
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Mirror Universe
We’re not sure that this would even be able to be broadcast in most countries, considering how absolutely horny the Mirror Universe is, and how ridiculously good-looking the cast of SNW is. That having been said, we think we really, really need to see the ruthless Captain Pike, Erica the Eradicator, and of course Hemmer’s non-pacifist twin, Hammer.
Chief Kill can have a scene where he reminisces about the Ensigns he has slain on his path to Transporter Chief, and Una can explain that on her bridge, there can be only Number One. Of course, even with all these evocative names and perfect punch-ups, we’d still be dancing around what everyone really wants out of a SNW Mirror Universe episode:
Gabriel Lorca Prime. We rest our case.
Crew Suggestions:
- Cameron recommends “Mirror, Mirror” (TOS)
- John recommends "In a Mirror, Darkly" (ENT)
- Jesse recommends “Terra Firma” (DSC)
[ An enormous thanks goes to trekcore.com for the use of their wonderful screenshot galleries, they're the best place for Trek screengrabs of any kind ]
