I was worried that a high five was relegated to habits of the ancient past when the Lanthanite was initiating with no reciprocation, but then the post credits scene with Spock teaching human mannerisms showed it’s still a thing.

When I noticed that this week’s intro was being done in a Vulcan manner, I was hoping they would take the opportunity to fix the infamous grammatical mistake¹ and say “to go boldly” with an unsplit infinitive just this once.

Vulcan Pike’s hair reminds me of my old Dark Eldar figures.

I was wondering if the federation ban on advantageous genetic manipulation would have been implemented as a rule to stop the “four Vulcans” from choosing to remain Vulcan, but the episode didn’t go there.

I found the use of bacon/cheese/animal products a little un-Trek-like in this episode. Comments against veganism felt a little weird in an era of food synthesizers and the general vision of “we don’t enslave animals for food.” It’s not like vegan food is disgusting. Spock confirmed humans still eat inordinate amounts of cheese and meat with implications that it’s often to the point that it’s unhealthy. Is it still illogical to have some animal protein if it’s problems regarding ecological efficiency are a solved issue (beyond the saturated fat and caloric arguments)? IDK, something felt off.

I didn’t appreciate that despite the extra long (and extra long feeling) runtime of this one they had three of the Vulcans return to human off screen. I was kind of hoping for a Steven Universe type situation where they emotionally explore the core of these beloved characters and get reminded of who they are.

Overall, this episode was pretty cringe inducing. I’m kind of shocked to say I straight up did not like this episode. The secondhand embarrassment was too much for me to handle. Painfully unfunny scenes went for too long. The conflict resolution wasn’t to my liking, feeling like a missed opportunity to explore character instead going for cheap gags—dinner with the boss sitcom, overbearing girlfriend, lie holding up more lies until the lies implode, pretending to be married, “we want our jerk back”—stuff we’ve seen thousands of times. I wasn’t a big fan of the previous episode either so I’m just kind of put off that they’ve had two “duds” in a row where SNW usually had bangers in my opinion. Maybe I’ll be kinder to this one upon a rewatch.

What even is he eating? A taco?

I was hoping they’d “fix” the infamous grammatical error and say “to go boldly” for this one.

Bold choice to have an in universe documentary made by an in universe bad/unprofessional documentarian. It makes the episode feel bad.

Also feels like 10 or so minutes were redacted considering the short length.

The first time in a decade where the sci-fi protagonists were wearing visored helmets that weren’t transparent and lighting up their faces – at least until the visor magically folded away.

Minor pet peeve to have, I know. I imagine the choice wasn’t director induced and more something regarding stunt coordination but I wouldn’t rule out thematically mirroring the faceless unempathic enemy.

add +2 to the “some sort/kind of” count

La’an saying “fascinating” makes me wonder if Spock is rubbing off on her.

For some reason I knew Pelia was going to say “heebie jeebies”

Same here but my AC is actually broken

The TNG references with the chair gag and wearing jeans BTS really got me.

Eh, I get a horror episode is something ST does all the time but I just didn’t like this Plant et Zombies episode.

Might be a bit off beat to say this, but maybe the first episode of Prodigy?

It’s very much intended as an entry point into Star Trek for those unexposed to Star Trek.

I’m reminded how I basically never bought a Star Trek merch as much as I like the shows.

S3E1

-Strangely flat ground in that one Gorn ship set where it looked like with all those biomechanical growths and wires it should be a little more textured.

-In the Climax, They were doing that slow frame thing that was popular in the early 2000s and has gone out of style. Was a bit jarring.

-Are they switching to a practical suit for this season’s Gorn. The Gorn looked a little more “rubbery” this time around but I don’t want to go back to compare.

-I liked the Gremlins 2 look of the Gorn Hatchlings on the back.

St3E2

-Sexy Spock is so back.

-When that training session was sbeing interrupted, I expected Uhura to flex with speaking some Spanish to the Ortegas, but she didn’t. And then they just proceeded to tell “be careful around Uhura she knows ___ languages” which just made that expected moment stand out even more. Plus the whole Spanish speaking thing kind of took me out of it as I still think of Star Trek as having some universal translation convention, like with that one episode of Discovery.

-The music being whimsical sounding felt so forced, like it was forcing the whimsy on the regular old scenes with the Bar Tender. I suppose that’s half the point, and half an allusion to the original series, but it took me out of it. The LD crossover episode did something similar too.

-Spock punching instead of doing a Vulcan neck pinch felt so wrong, not quite in line with the less-violent TOS Spock, but that was an energy being induced punch so it checks out.

-Feels a bit weird hearing a modern song in Star Trek (even though it’s from the 80s. Edit: forgot about two other modern songs in this episode too). Usually they refrain from it which helped some other shows like The Orville have more of an identity by referencing pop culture.

-I’m glad Ortegas is finally getting a subplot. In the previous seasons she’s always felt like she was missing “her” focus episode which other members of the crew like M’Benga got. All she had was “I fly the ship” which was a bit lame. Though feels off, like maybe it’s recycling some discarded script for La’an’s PTSD, or they couldn’t quite figure out what to do with Erica so they’re trying something more generic. I’m interested to see where it goes.

I liked how William Boimler was so done with Multiverse fatigue. Felt topical given the current Hollywood trend.

“Sodium is not a full life” “Maybe it is for me, dammit!” Felt this in my soul.

“We’ll have to lick it off” had me reeling.

I found the lurkey quite funny this episode, even if it was a bit of an embellished and exaggerated character.

And my goodness, I love the guest star that they found on the time dilation planet in this episode: The Vasquez Rocks.

Apparently there is a deleted/alternate scene with more straight forward Klingon Operatic singing that will be included in bonus features.