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.

Gotta hand it to them. They sure know how to keep back-to-back interesting cliffhangers for their episodes. This show would’ve been so tense as a weekly release.

Oof now that was quite the cliffhanger.

And Holo-Prodigy crew is right: Coffee is awful.

Doppelgangers are always fun. I’m kind of hyped up about the personality swaps for the future episodes.

Now I’m trying to imagine how dysfunctional the crew must’ve been in whatever episode they had when the EMH saw them. They’re usually rather okay all things considered.

With how often Star Trek is inclusive and showing some work/research, I’m a little surprised to see the show mispronounce Sacagawea. Then again, there is at least the excuse that an Andorian is saying the word.

Those red leaved trees are known to produce a lot of sap. Watch out as it can stick to you.

Anyway, I expected more of a “Be careful what you wish for” resolution with L’ak, but they just told Mol what would happen instead of actually doing it / creating a copy with no memories. I was disappointed with that.

I’m also kind of disappointed that Vulcans are so often seen kissing instead of doing the finger thing.

I learned the term from Baldur’s Gate 3, personally.

Ah yes, a War in the Stars. My favorite Star related story outside of a Gate in the Stars or The Star of Galactic Battle.

The beginning and last line of Dr. Culber’s conversation with his grandmother recreation felt a bit stilted, as if he wasn’t fluent, which was strange because the middle part of the conversation had a goof flow to it. It made me wonder if there was some failure in directing or if Wilson Cruz is just not that fluent in Spanish compared to the actress for the grandmother, which is understandable and I’m not knocking him for it.

Anyway, I quite liked this episode. Very classic “planet of the week” Star Trek deal that I’m always down for. Break that prime directive. Save those natives from themselves. You can splurge on a plot or two of those. We’ve seen it before, we’ve seen it again. It had a solution more rooted in a character moment rather than Treknobabble which I appreciated. Thumbs up for Tilly’s endurance, they made that whole run not look easy.

I can’t help but think them teleporting to Moll and L’ak with the fresh new clue would essentially play right into their own hands.

Hexagon is bestagon. 'nuff said.

3funky5me

Was I the only one who was expecting a remix of the Discovery theme to the tune of the Original Series theme? I really misread that title.

I can’t stop thinking about it now.

I would posit that the Solid “face” Breen biology that L’ak is maintaining bleeds, while the transparent gelatinous one doesn’t bleed, making the non-bleeding Breen the social norm.

Which episode was this? Am I cursed to rewatch the entire OS now?

Maybe the Discovery got contaminated by a nebula or something.

“Who doesn’t?” I mean asking if a Starfleet officer likes starships is kind of like asking of a /c/star_trek browser likes Star Trek.

Same here. I felt that saying that and having it not work before Rayner has his big speech would have been more fulfilling, and it would have tied in with the awkward scene about pretending to still be in a relationship with Booker.

I kept wondering if the song the Dry Dock Worker was listening to was a song we might be familiar with, but I couldn’t identify it because I’m not that into music.

I kept expecting Stamets to use the “You’ve never been in love” cheat phrase from the last groundhog day episode with Michael as proof.