I don’t like destiny episodes. It makes it feel like nothing matters. Like in ENT’s Shockwave, the crew just follows Daniel’s plan it and it all works out.

I feel this was not a very strong season, but I did enjoy it and that they experimented with the shows formula a bit. But over all, I feel this is the weakest of the 3 seasons we have so far.

Also, what’s up with all the mind melds? I went back and watch Dagger of the Mind, the first time we see an onscreen mind meld, and Spock says that he never mind melded with a human before. I guess he could always be lying, as that is definitely within Spock’s ability, but it seems like a trivial thing to lie about. But I get it, don’t be a slave to canon when we got a story to tell.

But to be realistic, it’d have been easier to make a program that could fire the phasers at the same time rather then a mind meld. And at the same time, there are many times in Star Trek where literally basic cyber security or actual computer programming could have saved the day, and at the end of the day that’s just not good compelling story telling.

I’m also a bit disappointed that they did not find a contrived techno babel solution to save Gamble. But I get it, he’s not bridge crew, so is expendable.

It was nice that Pike and Batel got to experience a happy ending that we know will never come.

I don’t think I much like this episode though.

I’m refreshing myself on Khan story and am watching Space Seed. And I see Lt. McGivers identifies Khan as a Sikh. I knew that Khan and company rules over India during the Eugenics Wars, but for some reason I always thought since the augments were multiracial, I just assumed they got Ricardo Montalban, a Mexican actor, because when they’re combining genes to make the perfect human they just kind of go with whatever’s on hand.

It not makes me think that Andrews is even better casting choice now.

Not to throw shade at Montalban, because I love Ricardo Montalban. He’s got so much charisma. But I do think it makes sense to have a Sikh character played by an Indian actor.

In contrast, Benedict Cumberbatch is another fantastic actor, but literally made no sense why they casted him as Khan.

Gasp! I should have looked up if Earl Boen was still with us.

I’ll add my comment from the other post here too.

Naveen Andrews is doing a great job with Khan sounding very charismatic.

Not to throw shade at Andrews, but I do kind of wish maybe they got Earl Boen who can do a very good sound alike to Ricardo Montalban. Boen filled in for Montalban as Señor Senior Sr. in Kim Possible, and sounded really spot on.

But if we ever see Khan on screen again, I think Andrews would be great casting.

I also did the unthinkable, I’m listening to this podcast at 1x speed. Because I wanted to really be immersed in the story telling. I usually listen to podcasts at 1.5x or 2x, whichever allows me to consume the content quicker while understanding it.

It’ll be intersting to see what hell comes from this that will inform Khan’s revenge for Kirk in Wrath of Khan.

Naveen Andrews is doing a great job with Khan sounding very charismatic.

Not to throw shade at Andrews, but I do kind of wish maybe they got Earl Boen who can do a very good sound alike to Ricardo Montalban. Boen filled in for Montalban as Señor Senior Sr. in Kim Possible, and sounded really spot on.

But if we ever see Khan on screen again, I think Andrews would be great casting.

I think we should. Any reason to talk more about Star Trek lore is great in my book.

I personally am looking forward to the inevitable crossover episode with Strange New Worlds.

That’s going to be so dope. Probably very pricy too, since license Lego products are expensive and the tariffs I’ve heard have even effect Lego prices.

2. Yeah. They waste at least 2 days trying to get Ortega back when maybe they should have just accepted the calculated loss. They even risked the Enterprise in a very dangerous maneuver to force open the wormhole. All around it is a bad call from Pike, but it’s pretty on brand for Starfleet Captains to put an individual over the needs of the many. It’s why Vulcan captains probably suck.

1. I think this can easily be handwaved away since the scenario is artificial in the first place.
2. Odds are it’ll take a few days or possible weeks of travel to rondevu with the Constellation.

To be fair, if you look at her quarters, she does tinker with things a lot. So it’s not exactly out of left field that she might have the mechanical knowledge to tinker up some jury rigged devices.

A Darmok, The Enemy and Arena episode is not what I was expacting but I was pleasantly surprised.

I don’t mind retreading old stories, after all recycling plots is a Star Trek tradition.

I’d have been happier without the reveal of the Metrons. I get it, as a callout/foreshadowing of Arena, but I kind of feel that is took away from the emotional beat of the Gorn being killed by the security team. Then to also have it handwaved away with a memory wipe, so that it is only meant for us, the viewers. I don’t know man… I kind of like the deepcut, but it’s also distracting.

I guess it was also a bit necessary for us to understand the Gorn a bit more to have the all seeing eye narrate to us that the Gorn pilot was lonely and is the reason Ortega was spared.

Anyway, I loved this episode. We got a whole episode for Ortega. Addressed her PTSD that had been sitting in the backseat for this entire season. And I love these kind of survival episodes. Like I really enjoyed ENT’s Shuttlepod One for the same reason. Just seeing characters fighting for their lives and also accepting their death in a cold and uncaring Universe. It’s good compelling Star Trek.

The only thing I wish is that SNW’s best episodes didn’t feel like the best of TOS.

Why wouldn’t doctor m’benga challenge their decision to remain Vulcan without checking, testing, verifying their capacity?

I totally thought that too. Clearly, their judgement has been impaired and what they want is irrelevant. But you know…sometimes you just need stuff to happen to get the plot moving.

Does that imply that Romulans augmented themselves? And that’s what distinguishes them physiologically from Vulcans, and is what makes them kinda evil?

I guess it makes some sense. They never got the teachings of Surak. So to control their emotions maybe they looked in to genetic augmentation, and it turns out, they turned evil. Which to be fair, a very common theme in Star Trek (exect when it’s not).

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 feel like Pike and Uhura already had external character growth on screen to explain why it wouldn’t take much convincing for them to go back. I kind of wish they showed what convinced Chapel.

But I think it makes sense to also emphasis La’an because they’re trying ti build up the relationship with Spock, so they do kind of need more screen time.

Great episode. Extremely cringe but it works for me.

God, the amount of bullying Spock must have put up with as a kid. It’s no wonder he joined Starfleet. We even see it in one of the movies where he kicked the shit out of another Vulcan kid.

And incase someone needs a reminder on how Pike and La’An knew what Romulans are. La’An ran in to one in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. And Pike runs into them in A Quality of Mercy. Both dealing with wacky time displacement nonsense and conanically Romulans aren’t revealed until TOS’s Balance of Terror (which A Quality of Mercy is a remake of).

La’An is a terrible Romulan. She should have kept her plotting closer to the chest. Also funny how Pike saw through her behavior but didn’t do anything about it. Does show Vulcan’s are inherently bias towards other Vulcans. Which we even saw brought up when Batel calls out Pasalk.

This was a very fun episode, and does show off the complete bullshit logical fallacies that make up Vulcan society without having to deal with Vulcan society.

I agree, the documentary was simply a framing device. I think it was an interesting decision as well. The moral quandaries are not taking a backseat just because the framing device is so front and center.

I think an entire series framed like this could be very interesting with an embedded reporter creating a documentary on the on goings of a Starfleet ship.

Honestly, as an audiance we are a bit spoiled with the all seeing eye, but that’s not necessarily how the average citizen in the Federation sees it.

If this is FTL but Star Trek Voyager, I’m going to be in heaven.

You might be right. I just took a look at the sales, and last year did see a 12% drop. Apple’s Vision Pro is over priced and lacks software, and the Meta Quest 3 saw high initial sales but has dropped a lot since then.

It is definitely a very niche product with a high price point that prevents it from making broader market appeal.

But oddly, Meta is reporting increase in VR game revenue, so I guess games are still selling on its platform at the least.

Survival horror and Star Trek is not something that instantly seem like it goes together to me. But this does look interesting. Being able to Vulcan death grip and mind meld with people in VR looks interesting and sounds like cool mechanic combined with Star Trek lore.

This looks pretty fun for some reason, and I do own a Valve Index, so happy to see this not locked behind the Meta store, like so many other VR games.