I think I might have liked this series more if it came out like 15 years ago. Right now it just comes off as immature and overly quirky/comedic.

Protostar mentioned! A little too much Shakey Cam. A little too much swearing. Cuss words still feel weird in Star Trek. Sound mixing in the Xenomythology scene of Episode 2 felt off. So, did they forgo green makeup for some of the Orions(?) because it’s hard to apply? Some of those looked digitally colored. Apparently, they heavily considered making Gamora blue instead of green because of such problems with application, so I don’t blame them. Episode 2 got real cheesy near the end. I’m glad to see a love for what seems to be all of trek, with cameos of species like Brikar from Prodigy, the Exocomp, old style Klingons, DS9, and so on. Overall though, it just seems like the priorities are skewed and much of it looks kind of cheap.

Finally an Ortegas episode that isn’t a simple “I fly the ship.”

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.

SPOILERS throughout. I thought it was mostly okay, but kind of underwhelming with a middle that just felt like filler. -The mirrored version of the Logo had me half worried I somehow started streaming on a pirated site, but then it switched around and it was cute.

-Speaking of which, any particular reason they mirrored the text into the lake establishing shot. I like some movies where they make the text part of the environment but this ain’t that.

-I get she’s supposed to be out of breath but the airiness of her words is really tempting me to break a self promise of avoiding subtitles for movies to better my listening skills.

-I was beginning to wonder if those were eggs boiling in the stew and then it turned out to be poison.

-Was this supposed to mirror the beginning of DSC with the walking on sand and getting picked up?

-I loved the one lady in the background casually smiling at the burning hot torture.

-That said this ascension trial seems rather peculiar and unusual for the Terran empire. I’d have thought a dash of nepotism would’ve been in order but she’s just some rando.

-That briefing was rather cheesy. The mystery McGuffin. “This dog bites back?”

-Stardate “1292?” but still using CE year in that earlier briefing without saying it’s CE? I see they continue with the trend of making dates more about vibes than making sense or sticking to a system.

-I do like the design of the swirly space station.

-Bubble Gum spotted. Now I’m thinking about that scene from DS9.

-OMG it’s those half-white and half-black guys from TOS. I never expected to see them again.

-That singer in the “bagel hole” shot along with the edible eye prop kind of made me think EEAAO.

-Okay, I did wonder why that Vulcan was laughing so hard, but I figured he might’ve been half, or Romulan or something. Glad to see that was a deliberate “what’s wrong with this picture?” in a later reveal.

-They’re really hamming it up with these “gathering the team” scenes. It’s a bit goofy.

-Is there a Guy Ritchie inspiration to this movie? Wouldn’t surprise me.

-I’ll be the one to ask the inevitable “why doesn’t it/she/they phase through the floor” question.

-I turned the subtitles on. I just couldn’t make out “Give me the case” and this sound balancing was bothering me.

-Did that naked Andorian have no genitals? Perhaps confirmation of that 3rd/4th Gender from the extended stuff?

-Ugh, I hate the “breaking a bottle on a head” cliche.

-I do think the phase fight was kind of cool, Kitty Pride is among my favorite X-men, but I’ll always have the why phase through walls and people but not the floor question in my mind, and the glitching at the end felt cheap—but it’s always better to be unlucky in getting into more problems than out of them from a writing perspective.

-I do think the Emperor’s reflection while San explains “it is all for you” was a nice shot.

-I definitely laughed at the “I forbid you to die” line.

-It does seem kind of silly that Section 31 has a uniform, even if it’s all black.

-The God’s End vs Godsend joke fell flat for me.

-it sure became nighttime rather quickly.

-It’s a mole subplot. If done wrong I’d probably hate it. I don’t like guessing. RN I’ll guess it’s the leader Alok who’s the mole and see how that sticks.

-Are they really going so fast to say it’s the mech-head with no seeming brain. I feel like it’s a fakeout.

-Okay, so it was. It feels like the mole revealed plot was over a little too quickly. What was it, 13 minutes? -The tunnel fight felt a little too “shakey cam” for me.

-I’m getting flashbacks to Mozart’s laugh in Amadeus.

-The callback about the confusing name also fell flat for me.

-I think they take the “we’re direct to streaming, we can swear whenever we want” card too far with ST and it continues to be poorly implemented here.

-Three parts of “coded transmissions.” ~40 minutes, 25 minutes, 25 minutes, roughly. I can see this having been a miniseries earlier.

-The doll’s kind of creepy. I do like the “different region, different safety standard” bit of world building with the battery. It reminds me of power outlets or how British and U.S. eggs are illegal in each others’ countries. Stuff that adds verisimilitude.

-I feel that the struggle with the autopilot robot went on too long, considering the mild incompetence it was showing earlier at blending in.

-The microbe has a monologue about small things surviving big explosions but then gets defeated by an explosion? Okay.

-So San gets cut in the Carotid artery it looks like. Is this a reference to McCoy saying something along the lines of “if you were to kill me cut me here” while in the Sickbay of ToS with a knife on him?

-Who was that hologram lady supposed to be at the end? She looks vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place her.

It’s been a gas and it’s time to pass.

Spoiler throughout:

Is that an angry bullpup version of the unicorn dog from the Original Series? I like the Sense-oars pronunciation I spotted. OMG I should’ve expected them to address the different Klingon looks but I didn’t expect to see a T’kuvma / Discovery era Klingon reappearing. When they said “solidton” particles I imagined it was going to be a metaphor about keeping “canon” stagnant. First time I see a ST character say “those words aren’t real” to Treknobabble. I’m glad they’re keeping the Star Trek tradition of holding up way too many Pads on the table where one should’ve done the trick. I never wondered if Klingons had claws for toenails, now I am. I like how Brad tries to convince others that William’s the worst. How’d they know they were dropping out of warp if the next shot shows them cloaked? I expected as much with the ship changing. Never really cared much for the different classes of ships though. This Rutherford bitterness feels like it came out of nowhere. Those whales are thirsty again. I thought she was going all Kamehameha. I have a feeling the clam is a reference to something but I’m not sure what. IDK why, but that one shot of Boimler turning his head and us being able to see under his chin particularly stood out as a “bump the lamp” moment. Was there a cut scene, what was (silver?) Badgey doing there? Or was that Goodgey? Have I forgotten about them? I like how Ransom made his own rule for provisional first officers. Engage the core is a perfect Warp catchphrase.

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.

The Bughoons were so cute.