It ought to instantly be acknowledged that “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” is, maybe greater than something, a comedy collection. /Film previously calculated the volume of the show’s outright comedy episodes, and located that they represented greater than 1 / 4 of the collection. These episodes are all pleasant, however “Unusual New Worlds” might need gone a bit overboard, pushing the franchise into one thing extra whimsical than it had ever been earlier than. Spock (Ethan Peck) is depicted as a extra emotional, passionate, romantic, and comedic character than he had ever been earlier than. The tone of the collection is usually very gentle, the struggle and horror episodes however.
This was very true within the episode “4-and-a-Half Vulcans.” The episode contrived a cause for Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose-Gooding), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), and Lieutenant Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) to be genetically remodeled into Vulcans for a really particular rescue mission. The genetic juice used to remodel them was extrapolated from Spock’s personal neurochemicals, so the Enterprise quartet did not simply develop pointed ears, however developed ultra-Vulcan personalities as effectively. The majority of the episode was a comedy of manners, whereby the 4 new Vulcans needed to work together with their fellow crewmates with all-new Vulcan attitudes.
With a purpose to cope with the disaster, Commander Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) calls in an professional, the Vulcan Doug, played by star comedian Patton Oswalt. Doug is a curious creation, as he was obsessive about human tradition, and allowed himself to really feel (sporadic) ardour. The interactions between Spock and Doug are gentle and humorous. They had been so humorous, the truth is, that the showrunners added a post-credits scene of Peck and Oswalt seemingly riffing, in character, on the foibles of humanity. As a result of it ran after the present’s credit, it is doable many Trekkies missed it.
Spock and Doug riffed on humanity
The deleted scene is sort of lengthy, working about two minutes and 45 seconds. The fast edits within the scene, and the sunshine music enjoying beneath it, make the reel really feel improvised. Peck and Oswalt are, it appears, having a enjoyable, goofy time. Doug, to reiterate, is a passionate Vulcan whose dad and mom liked people and humanity (therefore his human title), and handed on their pursuits to his son. A part of the present’s comedic social awkwardness is the truth that Doug and Commander Chin-Riley are nonetheless powerfully sexually attracted to 1 one other. Doug nonetheless manages to present her the knowledge she and Spock had been looking for about Vulcan katras. Vulcans are not robots.
As soon as the story is all resolved, nevertheless, Doug has an important scene the place he will get to grill Spock about people. In any case, Spock is engaged on a starship that’s populated largely by people, so he has the within scoop. Spock teaches Doug about human customs. He describes the notion of a birthday cake. They speak about human jokes and gags, together with the previous “pull my finger” bit. A few of their interactions really feel extra real to Vulcan habits, together with their frustration that people, nevertheless clever, can solely learn between 200 and 300 phrases in a minute. They riff on the notion of contractions. The humor of the scene comes from the truth that Oswalt and Peck stay staunchly in character, wholly deadpan.
The scene then ends with Doug exiting, and Spock breaking into a smile. Though, actually, that appeared extra like a second when Ethan Peck was merely breaking character. The showrunners determined to depart Peck’s smile within the last edit.
The scene is fluffy and insubstantial, however it’s enjoyable and humorous. It is nonetheless on Paramount+, ready to be seen.
