Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 2

 The second season of what one can consider "some real Trek" hit last year, and finally me and Noshi found the time to watch it.

And it didn't disappoint, with this pre-Kirk crew, captain Pike being of another breed then Kirk but likeable none the less.

Talking Kirk, he does appear in quite a few episodes, still a lieutenant aboard the Farragut, but to be honest he is like the only minor point for me, and a very minor, yet not per se bad point.  While his character is on point, being young and bold (especially in the time travel episode), the actor for me is a tat to willow-y in build, making him look a bit on the nerdy side instead of the lady swooner that William Shatner portrayed, as after more then half a century he seemingly gained the trait of empathy.  It just "feels" different from the captain I got to know over the decades of the franchise.

When undergoing upgrades, Spock, contacted by La'an, steals the Enterprise to prevent a plot to respark the Klingon - Federation War, and while clandestine this is hailed in thanks with the threat of the conflict with the Gorn Hegemony looming on the horizon.  In the meantime, Pike is recruiting a top lawyer to clear his first officer from the genetic modification charges, as she turns out to be the one that turned herself in.  During the process, she is cleared of charges and can resume duties, but this does mean her secret is out.

La'an, is tossed in the past, and must prevent the formation of an alternate timeline together with that realities Kirk, as they need to save Khan Nonien Sing from a Romulan plot to alter time.  While succesful, even though that timelines Kirk dies (and in this episode, we really see streaks of the Kirk we all got to know and love, I must say, cudos to Paul Wesley's portrayal here) to restore the timeline La'an came from instead of safeguarding his own.  

Talking captain', Pike has hiw own issues with captain Batel, his love intrest and captain of the USS Cayuga.  When he is assigned to investigate a planet where a previous mission failed, he finds one of his deemed killed in action crewmembers from that earlier mission has become a sort of local tyrant king with the help of a shield that prevents a memory whiping radiation.  Radiation is also of an issue when together with this timeline's Kirk, the first time we get to meet the actual character, comes aboard from the USS farragut to aid in the repair of a deuterium facility.

And then we get one of the funniest episodes this season, an actual crossover with... the Lower Decks animation series.  Mind you, the opening being drawn this episode was super.  Boimler, assigned by the USS Ceritos to investigate an ancient portal, falls through and ends on the Enterprise.  Starstruck, he tries to help out while not altering the timeline when an Orion pirate steals the portal.  When they get it back, instead of getting home Mariner comes through looking for him, and they need both their future knowledge on how to get the portal back up and running and return them home.  

While the episode with the Klingon ambassador is more serious in tone, looking back in the past of war of doctor M'Benga, the next episode is a musical.  Hilarious (and again, the thing they did with the opening was amazing), but then it all turns back to grim seriousness.  A colony is attacked by the Gorn, and the USS Cayuga who was there is destroyed.  The Enterprise intervenes, but a line is drawn across the planet, being claimed by the Gorn and making it a hard diplomatic tippytoe situation.  Pike finds Batel amongst the survivors, together with a young engineer called Montgomery Scott who had build a cloaking device to escape the Gorn in a shuttle when his own starship was destroyed.  By the way, Enterprise didn't get a new chief engineer this season after the death of Hemmer last season, so I think we all know who is going to fill the vacancy!

But during the rescue mission, which involves crashing the saucer section of the Cayuga on the planet to destroy a Gorn jammer, part of the crew is hijacked away from teleport by the Gorn, while captain Batel is infected with Gorn eggs.

So that was one heck of a cliffhanger for the season, and sadly season 3 at the moment is only in the process of being filmed.  That means we will still have to wait a long time to see how this resolves, but I for one can't wait for season 3 to air!