Logline
A distress call from Lt. Noonien-Singh compels Spock to disobey orders and take the USS Enterprise and its crew into disputed space, risking renewed hostilities with the Klingons in a bid to aid their shipmate.
Written by Henry Alonso Myers & Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Chris Fisher
A note about episode discussions on startrek.website
Right now, the plan is to post the /c/startrek discussion when the episode drops on Thursdays. Once the global community has had some time to watch and digest what they’ve seen, the /c/daystrominstitute discussion will go live on Sundays for a more in-depth analysis. This is subject to change as we evaluate what works best for the community as a whole.
I didn’t really love this episode. I agree with other users that it feels a bit more DIS than SNW s1. I think maybe because of the pacing &/or the action, or maybe just how OTT the plot is, like stealing the Enterprise should be a bigger deal than it is here imo, it just feels a bit … almost routine? Also I feel like I am the only person on the internet with this opinion, but I really like Spock’s relationship with his fiancée and I don’t particularly care for the whole Spock/Chapel sub-plot, soooo I am sad to see that continuing. I also didn’t enjoy the overtly -> overly emotive Spock, it reminded me of the films, and the Chapel nearly dying bit again felt more DIS than SNW s1. Also, I counted like four different occasions of somebody remarking on Spock being a very un-Vulcan Vulcan, which really felt like a bit much…?
It was very nice to see more of M’Benga, though. He is a great character and I felt like we didn’t see enough of him in s1. It felt weird having very little Pike or Number One, though. I hope this is not going to be the standard going forward, it feels like going backwards after SNW seemed to spend a whole season trying to reassure us that they understood what people hadn’t liked about DIS?
Oh also – the new chief engineer seems cool.
Haven’t seen the episode and I stopped here, I just read it because that was something I was worried since the trailers… I really hope I’m wrong but it seemed a lot a new JJA Star Trek that I didn’t dislike so much as others but I loved S1 because it was so similar to TOS.
(Keeping my response spoiler free as far as I can to take your not having watched the show in account).
I am diehard anti-disco, it just didn’t do anything for me as a Star Trek show. I wouldn’t quite peg it as Disco-like, I’d peg it as closer to Picard season 3 or maybe Dominion War-esque in tone and design. Touches on some interesting concepts, some interesting world building to fill out that era, and seems designed to add new nuances to expand on M’benga after his daughter situation was resolved season 1.
I will say, I think the milage you’ll get out of the episode is going to be pretty reliant on how much you like M’benga. He’s one of my favourite characters in the series, so for me, I enjoyed the episode quite a bit. If you’re not an M’benga fan, I can see you enjoying it quite a bit less.
Some users in this post really loved it, it’s probably worth checking out just in case. I will definitely be watching e2 at least, and I hope it will get back on track (according to my tastes).
I watched it, it was meh. I loved the new engineer but the fights were awful and too long. It didn’t seemed SNW tbh, I hope it’s just the start
I also agree on your pov on Spock and Chapel and all the rest.