If anyone’s counting, this is the third episode this season involving hallucinations (SNW: “The Griffin incident” and SNW: “Level Five Transporter Accident” being the other two).

We can add Spock’s hallucinations of Ortegas and Scotty as plants in “Human Best Friend” to that list.

I actually had no idea who Deidre Hall was

For those who have never seen it, she’s been on “Days of Our Lives” for 50(!) years.

The key line is “Space adventures leave little time for humans to deal with their inner struggles”. This line is important because it is wrong.

It’s a little odd - I agree that it’s the key line of the episode, but I don’t think it’s necessarily meant to be universally true (though it does reflect Pike’s beliefs, or at least his avoidance of dealing with his own stuff [Edit: This is almost universally true of our captains over the years]), and I don’t think it’s really the point of the episode.

What I took away from it is a meditation on reality and perception - in a way, maybe the key line was actually what Pike said about the details fading, but the memories remaining. I think anyone who has experienced enough loss in their lives would find that pretty impactful.

I was enjoing the soap opera silliness up until that point, but I ended up really respecting the statements they were making through Pike’s journey. It takes on an added dimension when you consider where he ends up, living out the rest of his days in a Talosian illusion. I wonder if Juliet will be there…

What the heck, I might as well make this my top-level comment and include some other scattered thoughts:

• Soap operas deserve more respect than they generally get - those people work.

• On that note, it was great to see Marlena herself, Deidre Hall, as the counselor. It’s hard to imagine a better choice.

• I’m glad Spock slept through this one - he’s hallucinated more than enough this season. And Ethan Peck crushed it as Evil Twin Sybok.

• One thing I do think has been missing this season is connective tissue for the character arcs. I suppose it’s been there for La’An, but she’s mostly been treading water. It was nice to see her dealing with the fallout of a breakout she initiated, but it still seems fragmented. The same can be said for pretty much everybody else.

I haven’t actually seen “Training Day,” but I suppose both films have entrenched authority figures with outdated and/or corrupt ideas of How Things Are Done, and younger subordinates who have to walk through the ethical minefield that’s been laid.

And I agree, that could be good Trek.

Wasn’t the big complaint against Star Trek: Section 31 was that people didn’t want to watch Corrupt Space CIA?

I think the much bigger complaints are that it was boring, derivative, and had nothing to say?

The good news is, the word “glorify” does not appear in this article.

Yeah, I mean it’s barely a description at all - we’re surviving on scraps over here.

playing the hits

"…while this [script] isn’t a cynical or nihilistic take on it, I think it does acknowledge that there are some bad apples in every institution that can have a strong voice and can really make an impact on that institution and everything it stands for.”

How could they possibly think this is relevant subject matter in the year 2026?

Oh jeepers, I hadn’t considered the Yelchin angle.

My thoughts on this are lengthy, complicated, and probably a little bit self-contradictory, but I think some of the accusations of “gimmicks” are a tad overblown. But also a tad not overblown?

“Valles Marineris” - A pretty standard Trek episode IMO, albeit one with time travel and a twist.

“The Griffin Incident” - A horror episode, but not really a gimmicky one. Star Trek does those all the time.

“Human Best Friend” - Definitely pulling from a specific comedy genre, YMMV.

“A Case of Chiaroscuro” - I won’t argue with accusations of “gimmick” here, but I thought its use of the genre was in service of a pretty damn good Star Trek story. And DS9 in particular went to the noir well a few times over the years.

“Level Five Transporter Accident” - perfectly normal, nothing to see here.

“Off-Hour” - Pretty standard Trek.

But they definitely do a lot of genre play, and recent interviews with the showrunners indicate that it’s completely intentional, and unlikely to change any time soon.

I’ve been reconciling it by focusing on each episode as its own thing, independent of the others, and hot damn, it’s surprising how hard that’s become for me.

This one looks like a Quelane episode, so I think it’s pretty fitting.

I just took it that they both silently agreed that Una was the logical choice and didn’t need to litigate it.

I just took it for granted that she’s the ranking officer, and it’s her call to make. The fact that it led to a (potentially) unfortunate situation later isn’t really relevant in the moment, since they can’t predict that.

It’s interesting that they’re doing so much in London. Good for them!

I assumed they used neutrinos because they’re closely associated with the Bajoran wormhole (and I think wormholes in general?).

I don’t mind there being some sort of Super Secret Special neutrino that only exists under circumstances that can’t really be replicated, but it is a very silly particle.

For me, it was the moment where she patched the hole in her quarters - despite her fixing that specific problem, it suddenly made me dread what the outcome might be for her.

this episode really suffered from prequelitis

I never really feel this way - realistically, the main cast is virtually never in danger of dying, regardless of whether we know what happens next, so it doesn’t really interfere with my enjoyment of the story being told.

I guess this is meant to be borrowing from the 24 style of show

Yeah, it did occur to me that the countdown seemed to be happening in real time. I guess that explains the occasional splitscreen, which in itself feels like a very 1960s thing to do, even though it’s not something that Star Trek did.

a line that sounds superficially vulcan but which under scrutiny makes no sense

Yeah, I did not like that.

I was a little underwhelmed by the demo, but I’m hopeful that it’s been improved, because this sort of game should be right up my alley.

Pretty enjoyable episode - I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve seen a good “disaster” (or “Disaster,” if you prefer) outing.

The Chapel/M’Benga plot was affecting - M’Benga may decide not to leave, but they seem to be laying the groundwork for him to take a subordinate position to McCoy once he eventually shows up.

The Scotty plot has the most long-term impact, I think…enough impact that I was beginning to think Pelia wouldn’t survive the day.

I liked the callbacks in this one - they mostly seemed organic. The sudden return of Boyce was the biggest surprise. I couldn’t figure out why he looked so familiar, but it turns out Brian Markinson is a Trek veteran, playing several characters throughout the 90s, including my boy Elias Giger.

Beyond that, we got a weird TMP-style warp wormhole, and Kirk’s ion pod from “Court Martial.”

Big fun, all around.

Pike’s decision to go along with a planetary genocide on a hunch was indefensible to say the least.

And I think that’s the most compelling part!

TBH, one could argue that this season has been pretty successful, if the number of discussion points is anything to go by.