Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category VIII

 The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was particularly insular when it comes to featured guest actors.  So many episodes focused on the main cast and building relationships within the core, that even those stories that didn't feature everyone, only used supporting actors.  In contemplating what it takes to qualify for this category, I only identified 5 actors for consideration.  This doesn't mean that the awards aren't deserving; however, I would say this--recipients in future seasons will have had much more to work with as actors on their road to qualifying.  

One of the other absolutely wonderful aspects of Strange New Worlds comes from the fact that it was filmed in Canada.  This gives us an opportunity to discover some truly wonderful actors who are Canadian, and who otherwise don't get much U.S. air time.  Here's a fun fact for you, as well.  Did you know that both William Shatner (Capt. James T. Kirk) and James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott) were both born in Canada?

And a final thought.  I've included actors in this category who had recurring roles in this season or subsequent seasons.  I'm giving serious consideration to breaking them out into a category of their own for future seasons.  

Like Best Supporting Actor, this category also comes with a Gold, Silver and Bronze recipient in descending order.

BRONZE goes to Actor Jesse James Keitel for their portrayal of Dr. Aspen, the duplicitous Pirate Captain in the episode "Serene Squall".  This is the second Randy Award for this episode.

SILVER goes to Actor Bruce Horak for his portrayal of Chief Engineer Hemmer in the episode "All Those Who Wander."  Hemmer was a recurring role in season one.

GOLD goes to Actor Gia Sandhu for her portrayal of T'Pring in the episode "Spock Amok".  This is the third Randy Award for "Spock Amok." T'Pring is a recurring role in multiple seasons.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category VII

 We have made our way through the evening's celebrations and it is time to announce the winner of the seventh category: Best Costume Design.  A tried and true area of artistic excellence, season one of Strange New Worlds provided a range of possible candidates with one episode standing out for the sheer extravagance of the fare.  However, I did not select "The Elysian Kingdom" with its capes and gowns, pantaloons and crowns.  

In fact, of all the awards I am bestowing, this one was the easiest.  It has two very different and distinct designs.  One was the new EV-suites which in this case debuted on the bodies of Spock, La'an Noonien-Singh, Lt. George Samuel Kirk, and Cadet Nyota Uhura on her first away mission.  They are elegant and action oriented with a slightly understated sex appeal.  They are a far cry for those flimsy, "bird cage" helmeted space suites worn by the original Capt. Kirk and others in "The Tholean Web" over half a century ago.

But the costume I completely fell in love with were the cloaks worn by the Deleb.  These folks wear such sophisticated clothing that there's got to be a wonderful anthropological explanation.  Just me having this sort of idea about a costume, speaks profoundly to its unique qualities.  The Children of the Comet was written by Henry Alonso Myers and Sarah Tarkoff.  It first aired on May 22, 2022.   This is the second award for Children of the Comet.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category VI

 The next two awards move even further into the realm of standard fare.  Award VI of the "Randy's" is for Make-Up Design.  Even with other amazing SciFi programs, none have explored in such depth the creation of the "Alien" race.  Or, perhaps, more to the point: Created MORE Alien races!  From the very first pilot where we met our very first Vulcan, the idea that there are other humanoid species in the universe feels imminently more like thanks to Mr. Spock.  

Another keystone of Star Trek through the years is that as our ability to create more complex and functional prosthetics has evolved, so have the appearance of particular Alien races.  One needs only to review the cavalcade of Klingons to establish this premise! But Aliens are more than fake foreheads, cheeks and chins!

In considering this award I went with the episode Spock Amok, it's second win of the evening, and in so doing acknowledge the Rongovians.  Portrayed by Ron Kennell (Vasso) and Carlyle J. Williams (Brax), I do not doubt that the process of recreating their "zebra" stripes was no less an arduous and long-suffering endeavor.  Unlike synthetic molds that can be replicated over and over and over again.  These designs had to be reapplied each day.  It is clear from the variation in the patterns from scene to scene, that while the make-up crew had a pattern to follow, getting it the same was not a thing.  In spite of this, I recognize their efforts.  It's clearly not as easy as one might imagine.

Best Make-Up to Spock Amok, written by Henry Alonso Myers and Rabin Wasserman.  It first aired on June 2, 2022.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category V

 Category V of my "Randy" awards for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is Special Effects.  This has always been an important aspect of Star Trek episodes and since the iconic USS Enterprise first "zoomed" through the stars, to the CGI revolution that is currently the State-of-the-Art go to.  In considering the special effects from season one of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds I wanted to acknowledge the episode that featured the most interesting and atypical use of special effects.  In other words, exploding ships and stars and asteroids...old hat.  I also wanted to look beyond the straight up creation of CGI aliens.  Certainly this iteration of the franchise does it better than any of its predecessors, but it isn't really anything new.

In selecting the "Ghosts of Illyria" I was most impressed by the use of light, distortion and finally, but to a lesser extent, the grand imagery (the Illyrian science lab, the crazy plasma storms on Hetemit IX.  The "Ghosts of Illyria" written by Akela Cooper and Bill Wolkoff, first aired on May 19, 2022.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category IV

 I'm calling the 4th category Best Design and Set Elements.  It's really a combination of best writing meets best settings and props.  It's sort of the Golden Globe of the awards.  You know the winner here is definitely in line for one of the top three Best Episode awards!  And while it's a little hard to define, it's really not that difficult either.  I'll use as my example that seminal quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in the case Jacobellis v. Ohio dealing with the definition of pornography.  "I know it when I see it."  And the same is true here.

The winner is "Spock Amok" written by Henry Alonso Myers and Robin Wasserman.  It first aired on June 2, 2022.  

Humor plays an important role in this episode, but so does empathy.  In fact, empathy is actually another character throughout the entire hour.  Multiple sub-plots are woven together filled with hi-jinx and wonder.  Scenes on the Vulcan home world, images of the Rongovian sailing space ship, competitions from "Enterprise Bingo," and inside jokes aplenty conspire to create something entirely cohesive and beautiful.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category III

 The third category of the Randy Awards that I will reveal tonight is that of Best Supporting Actor.  This is meant to highlight the work of a smaller roll given to a guest actor.  The character can appear more than once, but they are not featured in the plot of the episode as leading or causing the action at the heart of the episode.  So, for example, our BRONZE winner plays an important and memorable part in "The Serene Squall" relative to a sub-plot.  Where as the actor, Jesse James Keitel in the role of Dr. Aspen holds a featured spot in the focused actions of the main plot.  This qualifies her for consideration in the category Best Performance by a Featured Actor.  Actors are also eligible if their performance is part of the main plot but in time and/or scope not significant enough to be considered Featured in comparison to the rest of the cast for that episode.  This distinction applies to our Best Supporting Actor GOLD winner.

As always I include the synopsis page from the 10 episodes of the season as a reference.

Without further ado, in ascending order, here of the winners of the Best Supporting Actor Randy Award for season one of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - The RANDY Awards: Category II

The second category of my Randy Awards is another single Gold to an episode.  While the first went to acknowledge a somewhat return to episodic story-telling, this one also taps into a Hallmark of the franchise: The Ensemble Episode.  

And the winner is "THE ELYSIAN KINGDOM".   Written by Akela Cooper and Onitra Johnson.  It was first aired on June 23, 2022.