2 Ups And 7 Downs From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.7 — What Is Starfleet?

3. DOWN — Clichés: A Classification

Star Trek Strange New Worlds What Is Starfleet Pike
CBS Media Ventures

Are you sure there wasn't a subtitle to your documentary, Beto? What Is Starfleet? or, How Many Times Can They (Mostly Pike) Say, "That's Classified"? At least the endless 'pleading the fifth,' or just 'no comment,' was better than Doctor M'Benga's "I cannot recall. I cannot recall." So, you can't recall, to be clear, if you ever scrubbed the sickbay surveillance logs? That's not suspicious AT ALL!

So wrapped up in its in-universe conceit, the episode seemed to forget that its real audience wasn't in the 23rd century. For the viewer at home, what was actually declassified "in the spirit of transparency" (another tired phrase) was barely enough to fit on the back of a postage stamp, and hardly sufficient to pique the interest. The rest of "that's classified," we already knew.

Further down on the list of clichés is the literal framing device on every piece of footage not taken by Beto's own camera. How else are we supposed to know that this is "BRIDGE. HELM" otherwise?

Contributor
Contributor

Jack has been a content creator for TrekCulture since 2022, and a Star Trek fan for as long as he can remember. He has authored over 170 articles, including one of TrekCulture's longest, and has appeared several times on the TrekCulture podcast. He holds a first-class honours degree in French from the University of Sussex, a master's with distinction in Language, Culture and History: French and Francophone Studies and a PhD in French from University College London (UCL). He has previously worked in the field of translation. His interests extend to science-fiction television and film more widely. His favourite series is Star Trek: Voyager, followed closely by Stargate SG-1.