A Look at A Quality of Mercy (Strange New Worlds)

We close out season 1 of Strange New Worlds by seeing an alternate version of Balance of Terror, where the Federation is in the hands of a decorated captain who pursues peace and common ground. What a dipshit.

[@stevena488]

This feels like a lovely little middle finger to the Roddenberry box, because I JUST watched Season 1 TNG and the whole "We gotta surrender to make sure war doesn't happen!" Thing was driving me nuts, so I like this deconstruction of "No... Appeasement isn't ALWAYS the best option." Also, love seeing the Burgundy Wrath of Khan era uniforms again.

[@darthroden]

I admit while not a major of "new trek" I do like SNW and this episode in particular. And yes, seeing their take on the Burgundy Federation uniforms here was outstanding. The movie uniforms were always my favorites of the Original Series era.

[@michaelsinger4638]

Yeah that era of TNG seemed to not understand how diplomacy works either. It’s not “blindly go along with whatever the other side wants, not matter how immoral or crazy.” That’s not diplomacy It drove me nuts when early TNG did that (Code of Honor for example).

[@darthroden]

​@@michaelsinger4638 In the case to Trek, while it is good to remember Roddenberry for his role in creating the universe (for which he will always be The Great Bird of the Galaxy) its also good that others who understood Trek could see the flaws in Gene's overly-romantisized ideas about what the Federation stood for.

[@noblehelium3794]

@@darthroden Roddenberry was extremely lucky that his universe full of ridiculous ideas like a utopia with no economic system and alien civilizations where everyone has the same profession developed a cult following large enough to eventually get movies and more TV shows made instead of being relegated to the dustbin of cancelled shows. Even today all the shows have to deal with the rotten foundations that he laid for the universe and fans have to just overlook the numerous illogicalities to enjoy the story.

[@Swiftbow]

@@noblehelium3794 The illogical weirdness mostly appeared in TNG. TOS clearly had a monetary system and logical economics, despite attempts by future writers to retcon that.

[@karlgrimm3027]

This feels very relevant with the war in Ukraine. So many leaders thought that they could talk about peace with Putin but the whole time all he heard was “we are weak and can’t fight”.

[@aceshighdueceslow]

weirdly enough, the Romulan Commander commenting on the Sub Com's reverence for a Pyrrhic victory falls in the same place when you look at stuff like the Battle of Bakhmut. However, it likely would be more applicable for earlier conflicts, like a lot of campaigns from WW1

[@chrisw207]

This was the first episode of SNW that felt more Trek than Orville or other shows. It leans Into Canon and pulls off a nice message that diplomacy starts at understanding what the other side respects, not trying to force peace via your morals. Ironically a shot across the bow could prevent war.

[@jceggbert5]

Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach felt like a pure TOS episode

[@oddish4352]

A great bit of irony... Pike is the quintessential Starfleet captain: affable, thoughtful, diplomatic. His approach was textbook Starfleet... but it led to disaster. Kirk's more aggressive approach was far less Starfleet... but it ended the threat.

[@SciFi2285]

This is an important meta episode. Because we finally get an answer to a question that the reboot movies and Discovery never actually dealt with when they turned Pike into a major character who is also an excellent leader: Why do we need Kirk when we already have Pike? What does Kirk bring to the table that Pike lacks?

[@Swiftbow]

I thought the differences between them were also demonstrated in that episode where the planet sacrificed their child-king to their horrific machine. Pike TRIES to stop them, but is beaten up and then gives up after being told it's too late. It seemed like a situation where Kirk would not have accepted that, and demanded Bones and Spock to find him an option. And whether he found a way to save the kid or not, he would not have left that planet with that cultural horror intact. He would have made sure it ended, one way or another. Kirk was not tolerant of evil oppression.

[@MadSpectre47]

@@Swiftbow Kirk would've 200% destroyed that entire mechanism. "Find a way to survive without it, because you won't be pulling this stunt again. Scotty, energize."

[@ravenwilder4099]

Surprised they stuck to the "no one's ever seen a Romulan" thing given how they had no problem ignoring that for the Gorn.

[@maisiesummers42]

The one thing this episode did wrong was cast the wrong guy as the Romulan Commander. For starters, his portrayal is too cuddly. In the original TOS he was quiet, stern, and a thinker. This guy looks like a hugger. Second, he should have been played by James Frain, who played Sarek on Discovery. I should not have to explain why.

[@JonBerry555]

That is honestly the only true mistake of this episode.

[@myriadmediamusings]

Favorite of S1 and a contender for my favorite SNW story so far, with the other being S2's Those Old Scientists. Was at first apprehensive about this one since Balance of Terror is my favorite TOS story, but I felt it turned out great and ended up being much more than a cheap rehash. Its one I feel that requires a bit more thought when comparing and contrasting because of how Pike is not Kirk.

[@MrARock001]

I wonder whether this means that Pike canonically knows Romulans are cousins of Vulcans before anyone else?

[@nexy12]

I'm sure a bunch of people knew, just the Federation at large didn't know.

[@Azure_Fire]

They need to explain how Earth fought an entire war with them and never saw a Romulan body

[@nexy12]

@@Azure_FireIt's explained in the Enterprise continuation novels that Romulans rarely had ground engagements.

[@JounLord1]

This is the episode I knew SNW was worthy of the franchise. It takes an existing story and rather then detract from it, add unnecessary details (or previously never mentioned family members), or make it worse by association it adds to in a positive way. Felt like it fits great with Balance of Terror as an alternative while adding some more gravity of what will happen to Pike, why Spock was so willing to risk his career for Pike.

[@ptonpc]

I've ended up getting Season 1 and 2 on Blu-ray, it is much closer to proper Trek than STD and Picard.

[@Zeithri]

After the awfulness that was the Gorn - discount Xenomorph wannabes - this episode was a complete high mark. Recreation of the angles, of the light, of expressions and poses to match the original. It was all great. If anything was bad, it was just the conclusion of it. I think it'd been better if the Enterprise had been critically damaged and disabled by the Romulan with the destabilizing plasma torpedo, still pleading for friendship and the Romulan gives the " _We could had been friends_ " speech yet ended it with " _Sadly, this means war. For the both of us._ " and then set coarse for Romulus under cloak. That's what I would had done but never the less, a great episode. I'm just disappointed Chuck didn't make any reference to the Hobbit and the Giant here considering they are equal height now!

[@Swiftbow]

I also wish they hadn't gone for the bumpy foreheads on the Romulans. Especially after ST: Picard finally went to the trouble to explain away that design blunder from TNG.

[@Azure_Fire]

I'm glad you pointed out how this affects the Menagerie. If a prequel can enhance the story of the original, then it's done its job right.

[@jceggbert5]

Pike has accepted his fate in the beep chair and he doesn't even know about his happily ever after with Vina 😭😭😭 Best ST captain.

[@BobSentell]

SNW is the show that should have come first in the nu-Trek era. Perfect tribute to what fans loved while providing engaging new stories.

[@mikegates8993]

Let's just consider Discovery and Picard the "season 1" of the modern Trek shows.

[@myriadmediamusings]

If we were to use any of the modern treks aside from DIS to be the very first entry...honestly it woulda still been a lose-lose situation. PIC being the first woulda gotten people to think its just trying to recapture the TNG feeling. SNW being the first woulda gotten people to think its just trying to recapture the TOS and Kelvin feeling. LD woulda gotten people to think Star Trek is just gonna be a comedy from now on. PRO being the first woulda gotten people to think Star Trek is just gonna be for children from now on.

[@KingOfDoma]

... I just realized something. Now that we know that La'an and Kirk had chemistry thanks to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow... if they were serving on the same ship... ... well, for Carol Marcus' sake, let's just hope she staked her claim first. 😄

[@jceggbert5]

She did (see: s2e9)

[@KingOfDoma]

@@jceggbert5 Yeah, that's main timeline, though. Anything is possible with time travel!

[@horaciosi]

To quote Lionel Herkaby: It's nice to see a little effort put forth, while some (Discovery) are content to do the absolute minimum.

[@mjbull5156]

"If you are Captain of the Enterprise here, you would the wrong man, at the wrong place, at the wrong time."

[@CMVBrielman]

I just want to state for the record that I wished they hadn’t ‘updated’ the monster maroon uniform

[@travis7294]

I don't mind the updated uniform. But I absolutely hate the this weird leatherish looking sleeves to the maroon monster and the green wrap around. They should have just left it the same fabric.

[@ObsdnBlck]

@@travis7294They couldn't. The original uniforms were made with a sewing machine from the 1800's, and the needles for the machine aren't made anymore. The existing copies used in the movies were so rare they had them under guard when not in use. They don't exist anymore, so the original uniforms are impossible to replicate accurately.

[@travis7294]

​@@ObsdnBlckI don't mind the fact they updated the uniform, I hate the way they updated it. Just make the sleeves the same material as the body.

[@wdcain1]

I think this episode is an do-over for _The Vulcan Hello._ Both episodes deal with a Vulcan second-in-commanf encouraging their captain to take violent action against an old enemy that's returned after decades of silence. But while DIS fumbles the message, SNW hits the mark.

[@MadSpectre47]

The difference is DSC set up Burnham to fail by having her mutiny. SNW didn't have Spock mutiny. TOS didn't need to, Kirk trusted Spock's call, despite "those outposts, this ship, and all aboard are considered expendable"

[@wdcain1]

@@MadSpectre47 I heard there were so many rewrites of DIS season 1 (even while they were filming) that there probably was a script where Michael's mutiny was successful but the war still happened.

[@Tuskin38]

Only issue I had with this episode is Future Erica. Her personality was completely off. Though maybe something happened to her between the intervening years I was iffy about Kirk in this episode, but I like him a lot better in season 2

[@travis7294]

In universe I chalk up the different Kirk up to the different history. In the real world though, it took time to settle into the role, and the more he does it the better he gets.

[@MadSpectre47]

They wanted someone in the Stiles role.

[@navibc31]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who felt that Ortegas behavior was off

[@heskrthmatt]

7:10 Damn it, I said the exact same thing! James Fran must have been really busy because having him play that part would been perfect.

[@Scuzzlebutt142]

Me too! When I saw it, thought they really should have leaned into it.

[@fredrikcarlstedt393]

Pike vs Brutus, the most honourable Romulan of them all .

[@benives254]

Was that scotty?!

[@Grayvorn]

Seems that way.

[@MadSpectre47]

Aye...

[@marshallhuffer4713]

Scotty does appear in the Season 2 finale "Hegemony".

[@quaqamolgreatandmightyskin7312]

I watched this episode first then i watch Balance of terror and i loved this episode even more the seccond time around.

[@ObsessiveCostumingDude]

It's always nice to feel like someone bothered to watch an episode of STAR TREK before writing one! :) This episode worked for me in all the ways that INTO DARKNESS didn't. STID took a classic story and unnecessarily did it again, but STUPID. On the other hand, this episode was respectful of the original, was mostly character-driven in a believable way, and didn't have Kirk just be the butt of jokes as he continuously failed upward. It wasn't perfect (I still don't know WTF a "time crystal" is other than a magical fantasy plot device, and I thought the actor who played Kirk was pretty bland) but for me it was definitely the best episode of the season.

[@megabyte01]

My mom watched the original series and ADORED this episode

[@ptonpc]

While I did like this episode, I did feel it had a few problems. Even if the future plays out as in the episode, when Pike comes back to his present, he *knows* what to do now. He still doesn't need to get melted cheese face.

[@MadSpectre47]

They kind of gave themselves a (cheap, IMO) out with WoK-Pike saying "no matter what we do, he suffers this fate" at one point. My headcanon (and there's no way, I think, to show this) is that Pike NEEDED to end up as swiss cheese, because he NEEDED to be on Starbase 11 so Spock could divert the ship there, because if he didn't, the mission they were to have taken would've resulted in their destruction. Imagine what changes if the Enterprise is destroyed in 2266 with all hands dead.

[@nashshaffer6235]

I was hoping at the end the Doomsday Machine would come out and wipe out the Romulans

[@wdcain1]

I'm surprised the Romulans are such a threat here. TNG has them as cunning chess masters since they weren't the physical threat the Klingons are. Like the Romulan Captain said, pragmatism is needed for long-term victory and the Praetor doesn't have that. I'd see Romulus losing badly if war broke out in this era.

[@AWriterWandering]

Something that never made sense even in the original TOS episode: Half the aliens in the galaxy look exactly like humans… no pointer ears or forehead bumps… and no one bats an eye, but give him some pointy ears and somehow it’s obvious they’re related?

[@S1nwar]

this episode was so good - it could have been in Lower Decks

[@bradwolf07]

I prefer the TOS episode, but I thought this showed why Kirk was needed at that time and not Pike.

[@JZBelexes]

I loved the classic-era dramatic close-ups and lightning to really add the TOS feel of this episode.

[@CaptainSovereign]

Dr.Chocolates!

[@michaelsinger4638]

SNW had the best first season of any ST show imo. ST usually takes a bit of time to get going. But this show hit the ground running.

[@jceggbert5]

Disco had one season of garbage and one season of playing with Pike, et al., so this show could hit the ground running.

[@jennifergayford7335]

It wasn't 7 years in the past but 7 years in the future

[@Erinaceus87]

They got an off camera soundalike to voice Scotty there (and he does a solid job FWIW); but for god's sake Canada Central casting or whoever picks and chooses the local talent... When the time comes to put the character on screen in SNW I must remind you that Paul McGillion is camped out in your back yard there. He's only been waiting for the chance to bust that Scottish accent back out since 2009 or so.

[@cameronmcknight1525]

I'm rewatching SGA, and while I agree that Paul woulda made a fun Scotty, he's probably too old now at this point to play a younger Montgomery. They also already cast the role for a younger version of the character. The dude that played Scotty in the Season 2 finale was a lotta fun to watch and I really hope he's a main (or recurring) cast member for Season 3.

[@Nyst2]

This show really should have been the first one. Because as it is it is polluted by the likes of Discovery or Picard. What's the point of preserving the timeline, if you know for a fact that it will lead to a thousand years of fear, xenophobia, stagnation and suffering?

[@Swiftbow]

It's pretty easy to pretend Discovery doesn't exist. Picard, too, frankly.

[@jordynshepard7111]

I think Chuck forgot the final score. I've been along for the Sfdebris ride since '09, and I've never seen a Trek review without a numerical score.

[@cameronmcknight1525]

He didn't. SNW is ongoing, and as he mentioned, the scoring is a kind of ranking. It's based on the rest of the series, and since SNW hasn't ended yet, he can't probably base this on stuff that doesn't yet exist.

[@hagbardceline7118]

Maybe it's called A Quality of Mercy because this new take took a catastrophic turn for the worse by having a new person in charge is just like Harold Ramis remaking the episode for The Twilight Zome movie and getting 2 children and an adult actor killed

[@MadSpectre47]

I took it as a sarcastic title. Pike shows mercy, and look what happened. Kirk did not show mercy, and look what happened.

[@hagbardceline7118]

That's probably what they were going for

[@sethmaki1333]

A seriously awesome opportunity was missed when James Frain wasn't cast as the commander of the Bird of Prey.

[@SciFlyGal]

I didn’t like the end of this episode, I’ve never been a fan of the whole “the enemy has limitless resources just sitting with the engines running, but destroying this one ship will make them leave” trope. It’s just a dumb way of raising the stakes and adding cgi phaser battles.

[@boobah5643]

Well, that and if you've already mobilized your force and planted them on the border, you've also already decided to use them, and soon. There's also the not-minor detail that the one place you're poking for a reaction is probably not the same spot you're invading, at least not when you immediately run for home as soon as you notice any resistance. The 'lure in a small counterstrike and smash it with overwhelming force' trick goes a little different. And assumes the information that they were supposed to be gathering in the first place.

[@SciFlyGal]

@@boobah5643 I agree completely. Again, it's an annoying trope. I always wonder in these alternate timeline stories what happens with the Whale probe, that could easily act as a filter that requires Kirk to be captain of the enterprise during a specific time. That could easily be the reason the Terran empire falls in the mirror universe during the DS9 episodes.

[@arklestudios]

They didn't need to use as many of the Romulan Captain's lines from Balance of Terror as they did, but that's my only major issue with the episode.

[@Tezunegari]

This episode has the same flaw as The Inner Light. They both have the wrong viewpoint character. In The Inner Light, the viewpoint character should not have been Picard trapped on an alien planet, it should have been the alien Kamin. (that would also lessen, or remove, the torture aspect of the experience with the whole Picard chooses to settle down and have kids) Same in this episode. The viewpoint character should have been the Pike of that time, not the Pike from the past.

[@KnightRaymund]

One of the things that bugs me about this episode is the change in several characters. Like they made Ortegas act completely out of character because she was made a stand-in for the racist guy in the original episode. They should have just cast a Stiles and replaced Jenna Mitchell in the episode.

[@JanetJedro]

Show not tail you making mistake from future self

[@fredrikcarlstedt393]

Would be interesting to retcon Kirk as Pikes First Officer. He sure will do a bang on job keeping the female crewmembers very satisfied .

[@Swiftbow]

It's quite canon that Kirk felt it inappropriate to do anything with the female officers of his own crew. The whole point of Yeoman Rand in season 1 was to have a character that he was attracted (and her to him) to but that duty prevented them from acting on it. They dropped that thread (and her character) due to network interference, but the first part stayed intact throughout the series. He flirted with crewmembers occasionally, but his only actual romances were with women not tied to the Enterprise.

[@pearsegallagher9832]

algorithm comment

[@Didymus20X6]

AND WE MINE MINE MINE TILL THE MORNING LIGHT DIGGING, CRAFTING, CARRYING OUT THE ORE, SMELTING AT THE FORGE NOTHING SHALL PREVAIL OVER THE GOLD TILL THE KING AND ALL THE DWARVES HAVE COME BACK HOME

[@reimannsum9077]

A thoroughly mediocre effort that relies entirely on nostalgia and the reformulation of a vastly superior, innovative story written decades earlier. A limping, blind cripple of a story that can only cling on to sign posts left behind by titans, groping about to find the way forward. Or, in other words, the best Trek that has been produced in the last two decades.

[@Idunnoyouguessit]

Prodigy is right there

[@reimannsum9077]

@@Idunnoyouguessit Worse than Discovery, though both are utterly unwatchable. At least STD is superficially Trek-adjacent.

[@Jokie155]

@@Idunnoyouguessit Don't waste your breath on the willfully ignorant and stubborn. It's not worth your own mental health.

[@Azure_Fire]

You know you could just say "it's bad" and be done with it. The purple prose makes you come off a little arrogantly.

[@reimannsum9077]

Merely stating that "it's bad" gives no concrete reasons as to why it is of terrible quality. Using basic English conveys, in precise terms, the myriad failings of the episode and series. @@Azure_Fire

[@jaylewis9876]

Those were the gold old days when writers knew all the prior shows and worked to enhance them rather than start over or ruin them

[@myriadmediamusings]

SNW, LD and PRO are the only ones to know this fully it seems.

[@Azure_Fire]

@@myriadmediamusings At least LD and SNW are the only ones that are continuing right now. Discovery only has one more season and it jumped so far into the future it doesn't really affect anything.

[@ThePiachu]

Honestly, I really dislike this episode. First, it changes how Trek's time travel works. I don't think it was ever based on predetermination - that some things must happen. But with the future Pike telling past Pike that he tried everything and Spock ALWAYS ends up dead is just awful. Like sure, I get that they need to not chagne the show canon any further, hence why in general I really dislike the Pike's precog vision plot in the first place. You could also argue that the Klingon seers manipulated Pike - only showing him the futures where everything turned out to be dire to get him to not mess with time. But preserving the status quo is writing the show from the audience perspective and not the characters'. Like imagine if in any other Trek show a character showed up and told the captain "oh, by the way, you must get horribly mangled and basically die because the future demands it". The episode would've been about defying fate and not putting your head on the chopping block, but not here... Reminds me of that TNG episode about past getting messed up and the characters going "We're not changing the future, we're restoring it, so the temporal prime directive doesn't apply!" without any hint of it beign a cop-out... As a remake of Balance of Terror, it also feels inferior to the original. It just feels awkward all the way through. So yeah, it really feels that the whole Pike's future vision story is a letdown each time it crops up...

[@Azure_Fire]

Star Trek does not have set time travel rules. They abused every version of time travel so much that in Voyager Seven of Nine was quizzed on different outcomes of time travel. They use whatever rules service the plot.

[@Swiftbow]

@@Azure_Fire It seems to me that Star Trek has multiple forms of time travel, and whichever one you use affects the rules. Which, frankly... I think is fine. Though they should try to be consistent about THAT at least.

[@KiltedCritic]

One of the few decent episodes of new Trek, and as usual it's only because they took so many elements from a timeless classic. These writers don't have a drop of originality in them to create. Only imitate, and modify material that already exists.