I feel like there were only 3 good episodes this season and 2 of them were very fan service. Tomorrow’s Enterprise (this one) and Order of Magnitude (the badmiral one), and Off-Hour (the disaster one).

Soap Opera, Stoner Vacation, Dinosaur planet, weren’t bad. But I do have a hard time recommending them.

Ghost Ship was really good, didn’t feel like Star Trek. But it was good horror.

Casablanca and the Muppets, were cool concepts, but did not gel with me. They might be good, but need to give them time to age a bit in my brain.

Anyway, about this episode. Conceptually fantastic. Scott and Urural hooking up seems fine, there is a bit of playful interactions with them in the films, and I actually haven’t watched all of TOS yet, but from some of the discussions of reddit, it appears there is also some implications there. So I feel that’s kind of interesting.

Jumping forward to Star Trek: Year One pilot is fun, since we now know that won’t be happening at all. And it did feel very classic Star Trek with the banter about bluffing in poker and Spock not getting it. It seems weird with all the work SNW did to get Spock more in touch with his human side, that he now feels more estranged then ever. But, it kind of works? Like it didn’t break my suspension of disbelief at all.

I thought Pike was still a Captain during The Menagerie, but Memory Alpha says he was a Fleet Captain, which I guess is a billet and not an official rank? So maybe he was a Rear Admiral but serving as a Fleet Captain? I don’t know man… military ranks be confusing. Time travel non-sense can also play a role…though that feels a bit disingenuous.

Also, I feel that the Enterprise was WAY too close to the event horizon. I can somewhat excuse Uhura jumping in to the black hole and not being crushed in to a singularity, because I feel like it was likely some kind of artificial blackhole, maybe made by the Prophet to give birth? I honestly would prefer if it was not the Prophets, because I feel like the universe feels too small now with all the recurring aliens. For all of Roddenberry’s faults, making TNG need to stand on its own merits and force the writers to not reuse legacy TOS content was a really wise decision.

With that said, I hate that the best of SNW is the best of TOS. Two remakes of Balance of Terror, a remake of Arena, and this. There is a lot I like about SNW, but the best is not original content, and that annoys me.

You know what really annoyed me most about this episode. No one believed Uhura! You got to be shitting me, fucking weird ass time shit happens all the time, and they just encountered weird aliens living in a blackhole, why would you not believe her, or at least humor her, especially since you don’t have any other leads. Picard didn’t gaslight Beverly when she was in a similar situation when she was trapped in a pocket universe that was slowly falling apart. One of the things that annoys me the most about the new Star Trek is just how unprofessional everyone is. I can live with things being a bit more loose and casual, but just be professional about it.

Anyway, great episode, and in retrospective, I thought I didn’t enjoy this season, but it turns out I actually did. So…there is that.

the outcome of the “invisible ship”

Balance of Terror?

the theory about the Vulcan Cadet was true

Wait, is there a theory she’s a Romulan or something?

One season to go, for the moment my biggest regret with the show is that we are never gonna see Captain Angel from S1 comeback, and I think never will (only half season left…). One of finest evil characters ever seen on ST

I wish so hard for the final season to just be nothing by Sybok. I will be so livid that there is no pay off for this!

Why did this fantasy planet exist? Maybe I missed it, but I thought this had something to do with M’Benga’s daughter, and she’s off hanging out with a space nebula or something.

Did they just write Pelia off the show?

I don’t like how they had a magical/physical solution to La’an’s mental/metaphysical problem. Feels hammy to do that. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if it was solved through introspection and realization, but having a personality swap, then drinking magic potion to fix the problem…I don’t know man… I don’t like solving emotional distress through magic. It cheapens emotional growth.

This was an ok episode. I guess…

Well, this was a great episode.

The only downside is that the Badmeral didn’t get his comeuppance like is tradition, but I can excuse that because we get some justification why M’Benga gets a demotion.

We’ve seen this plot a few times, I don’t feel that’s a bad thing. I feel like some of the best of Star Trek, and especially SNW, is just recycling plots but doing them better, or at least something different.

Also, it was super nice to give Uhura the spotlight. It felt a bit over the top, but I kind of accept it… I kind of wish A’Sha had a bit more development to land her decision, but she was not having a good time on the Enterprise and she clearly almost died, and technically she’s seen enough times where the Enterprise was almost destroyed, it really does seem logical for her to nope out of Star Fleet. I cannot fault the Vulcan prioritizing self preservation over Uhura’s attempts to make her feel welcomed.

And a few continuity notes. The ship is obviously the same one from Balance of Terror. The other helms men next to Sulu says, everyone knows who attacked the Star Fleet Base. So this cloak ship has been a problem for a while and everyone knows of it, but there is likely political problems that make it impossible to deal with.

We also know cloaking tech is not new, as we also see it in ENT’s Minefield.

We also seen an alternate reality version of Balance of Terror in SNW’s A Quality of Mercy, which I feel this has some strange parallels with. Where in QoM Pike hesitates to attack the Romulan Ship, while we see in BoT Kirk is gungho. In this one Kirk is less gungho (but like, reasonably so). I just thought it was an interesting take. It also explains why the writers need to make sure Pike wasn’t on board or else he’d have spoiled the big reveal that it was Romulans.

Hot take. I liked this episode. I felt is landed better then most of the other gimmicks like the puppet episode.

I do believe this season has REALLY been stretching my suspension of disbelief, but I feel a Q episode works well enough as a way to make people perform out of character while also doing some character development.

I just feel like the character development feels a bit weird.

I feel like Ortegas is a simple premise for a character, but I feel like she has had the best, and most realistic character work.

M’Benga, I feel like his character is all over the place. He’s like a vengeful war veteran, a bit of PTSD, yet a caring healer. The tone of his character is wild.

But it was actually nice to give them both a bit of screen time together. If it wasn’t for the stuff around it being complete nonsense, it was honestly pretty heartwarming.

And I’ve been waiting for Sybok to get some screen time for so long, and then they take it away from me! I would have loved it if they had really had him, and have him played by Ethan Peck. Just play all of that complete nonsense straight! They foreshadowed he’d play a role, and you have no idea how insanely disappointed I am. Like he really could use some character development, so Star Trek V doesn’t feel like it just comes out of nowhere.

I also did find it interesting how they did weave Pike’s and Uhura’s shared drama of loosing their families. Its something I never thought they’d bother to deal with. And I thought they handled it pretty well.

Also, hilarious that Chapel had an entire adventure off screen. Honestly, kind of what seems like happens to Chapel all the time, like when everyone turned in to Vulcans.

So…I actually like this episode.

EDIT: Also stay tuned for the post credit scene for this episode.

I liked this episode. Reminds me of TNG’s Disaster, obviously because they both meant to be disaster movies.

I liked that we had a lot of plots requiring everyone to work together to solve the problem of the week. Felt better then the last few episodes.

I’m also starting to feel like Roddenberry’s decree that there shouldn’t be any interpersonal conflict really does sell the competence porn aspect of Star Trek that I love. So because of Chapel’s and M’Benga’s fighting, it did take me out a bit. Also…I do find it slightly hard to believe that they don’t have dermal generators to heal a crushed pelvis. This conceptually, seems survivable to me. But then again, I guess there was a time Worf was going to be paralyzed but then Klingon anatomy saved the day, so I guess medical tech can fail if the plot needs it to.

Yeah, since it’s a dream, I really wish they had gone all in on the cartoon gags. That’s my only complaint.

I can excuse the premise and even the cop out, it’s all a dream, but they really need to just go all in on the concept. Like maybe some Kermit tilting his head back while his arms flail around or crumple his face with the puppeteer’s fist like when he’s mad. Like literally the lowest hanging fruit is using puppet hair whip to the face. Or maybe some cecoling, fourth wall breaking, a Pigs in Space reference which is a parody of Star Trek. Like, just go ape shit with the concept.

I feel really conflicted about this season. I like they’re experimenting and trying new stuff, but like, i don’t know if it’s landing.

However, I do believe in like 10 years I’m going to look back and think, this is good Star Trek. But similar to…honestly all Star Trek, I find it hard to really enjoy it in the moment for some reason.

I guess Star Trek is a fine wine. You got to let it age a bit first.

On retrospective, I really like the development of Ortega. We’ve seen her rebuild a motorcycle in her quarters. We’ve seen her jury rig a universal translator in Terrarium. So her revealing she’s mad that she didn’t become an engineer makes a lot of sense, and taking it out on Scotty.

That’s solid character development that has been building over multiple episodes. I appreciate the slow burn and foreshadowing.

We got horror last week, now we got stoner comedy this week. And kicked us off with a Jurassic Park episode. They really are running the gambit with film genres.

I love that they’re experimenting, but I also would really appreciate some traditional Star Trek of seeing professionals being professional. I just want some of that Andy Weir style competence porn!

After reading some of the comments, I’m now going to watch the Hangover. As I had compared this episode to Dude, Where’s my Car, but that movie jumps the shark and goes in to absurdity. Which, to be fair, is very appropriate for the genre. They didn’t get that extreme with this episode, but I also wouldn’t have been surprised if they did.

I don’t know if I liked this episode, which makes me believe I’ll like it a lot more later after I let it sink in a bit and think about what they were trying to do.

It was good horror, but I don’t think I liked this episode very much.

I feel my biggest problem is the lack of resolution. I know that’s kind of the hallmark of horror, the “The End…?” but I actually kind of like the technobabble explanations.

I don’t want them to not take risks with Star Trek, so I welcome experimental episodes, but I still feel a bit let down.

I think this is suppose to reset Spock back to status quo for when the series ends next season. I don’t think we’re suppose to see him align his human/vulcan self.

I love me a good causality loop, but I don’t feel like this was good example of one.

The diplomacy stuff on the Enterprise was fun. But oddly the dinosaur planet plot actually didn’t feel as impactful.

Like it honestly feels like not a lot happened on planet. Which is a shame, because there were dinosaurs!

I feel like more of the dinosaurs should have had feathers, to keep up with contemporary understanding of dinosaurs. But I understand the pop culture short hand to help establish the cliche and not confuse the audience.

Ah, I didn’t make that connection that Pilia and Ake are the same race. I should have paid a bit more close attention. I guess that seems like a proper racial characterization.

Almost wish they’d give her that weird Pilia accent.

I didn’t realize this was releasing, so I binged and got all caught up.

Where is Sylvia Tilly? I thought the whole point of her being an instructor at the Academy was so she’d be here.

Also, what’s up with Captain Ake being…extremely unprofessional? Not to say I need my captains to always be stoic. But I feel there is some hypocrisy with how she acts and also dressed down Mir for not standing at attention, when she’s lazying around the captain’s chair or running around barefoot.

I can understand cadets being unprofessional, and needing to be broken in, but when the ranking officer is too… something don’t feel right.

The entire premise of high school/college drama and tropes, I’m not against this. It’s not as artificial as I sometimes feel it can be in media target at young adults, but it also is a little bit… Which is slightly bothersome, but I feel they’re also handling it well because it does appear to come with some character growth, but my fear is that that growth is coming too quick and they’ll just reset some character growth back to give themselves room to have character drama.

I don’t know where I stand on this series just yet. It’s not bad though.

I enjoy good graphics, but I can look past them if the gameplay is fun and the story is good. With that said, I’m not clear if this will have any of the good qualities.

I do feel this game looks very conceptually interesting. I do very much enjoy VR games and really do feel like there aren’t enough really pushing the medium. So I am cautiously optimistic.

Not as dramatic of an ending as I’d expect. But still a pretty fun listen.

I wonder is Lear ever tried to meet up with her Noonien Singh relatives?

I actually feel like La’an really reduces some of the drama of the daughter of Khan trying to find her place and understand where and who she is. She’s not technically all alone because she has estranged family who already understands the prejudice of augments in Star Fleet.

I feel it is actually fitting for Khan to stay with his people to lead them. This is a noble trait, but it’s also a bit more of an ego thing that does fit his character more than being selfish enough to save himself.

Elborians dying seems like a cop out. But I guess we need a reason the augments never got rescued, and Delmonda would have definitely sent for help.

This is a bit of fiction I never thought needed expanding. But it wasn’t so bad. I hope they do some more interesting little side stories or expanded lore on something that might need more exploring. Say what happened to Prime Lorca, or how the events that led to Unification Part 3. You know, something a bit more meaty.

This was a pretty heavy episode. A lot of interesting emotional beats.

Rosalind Lear appears to be hiding some kind of alternative motivation for investigating into Khan and Ceti Alpha, that is assuming Tuvok’s suspicions are correct. I wonder if Lear might be a distant relative to an augment. We know that the Noonien-Singh line even survives to the 23rd century because of La’an from SNW. (Why did La’an’s ancestors not change their last name?)

The song the young augments were listening to was Your Touch released in 2021. The song is synthwave so sounds like something from the 80’s, which I thought was intentional, as we know from Space Seed that the Botany Bay was launched in the 90’s (thought because of time travel shinanigans this was shifted around a few times). But I was expecting this to still be true. I’m unsure if this song is meant to imply that we’re in a timeline where the Botany Bay is launched after 2021, or if this song is meant to be from the 80’s which is how the augments have a copy. I wouldn’t read too much into this, but…what’s the point if we don’t argue a bit over it?

Ivan’s betrayal, and Khan’s odd mercy towards him is interesting. Khan’s paranoia served him well to deduce Ivan’s betrayal as well. I’m very curious if the Elboreans will actually be able to rehabilitate Ivan, i suspect if they’re successful this will place a great deal more paranoia in to Khan as he’ll believe the Elboreans are capable of brainwashing. And make him even less trusting of them.

Lastly the inevitable loss of McGiven’s to the Ceti Eel. It hit much harder than I was expecting. Amazing performances from the actors. I feel there are 2 possible fates of Kali, either Delmonda will save her and escape on that small ship they’re building (Delmonda leaving the augments behind on Ceti Alpha V because Khan inevitably betrays them), or she dies which will send Khan of the deep end to go ape shit on the Elboreans.

This was a very interesting episode. I think we only have 2 eps left. Things should get moving pretty quick.

I also really like Season 3, but I do feel it is the weakest of the 3 seasons we got so far.

What are the rifles they’re using? Maybe taken from the 90s Eugenic Wars? I guess Kirk would have left them with it, since they’re basically obsolete and they do need something to help defend themselves.