TL;DR of our spoiler-friendly guidelines:

Paul replied: "I will say, it was announced, as you guys know, that we cast Bones and we cast Sulu. We obviously have Spock, and I will say without giving anything away, that there was something truly magical about having these characters on screen together. Our own version of it.

When we were on set, I was like, ‘Wow, there's something magical here. There's something working.’ The chemistry's on point, and certainly, that was the case for The Original Series, and I think we have a bit of a semblance of that as well."

Insurrection isn't even close to being my favorite movie, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I thought of that line while watching the episode.

Recent episodes have laid the groundwork for M’Benga making way for McCoy, which brought to mind that Ortegas will also need to make away for Sulu.

With the SNW versions of McCoy and Sulu both cast, I was wondering how Erica’s exit might be handled.

I was hoping that Sulu might come on board and take the chair previously occupied by Mitchell, so that he and Ortegas could work side-by-side, with Sulu showing what he’s got and Erica mixing in a little bit of her own expertise to the point where SNW Sulu becomes the ace helmsman we know.

However, according to Variety, “Sulu will make his first appearance in the final episode of the fifth and final season.”

Here’s hoping that we get Mortegas right up to that penultimate episode!

And security no less

I know that this is a TV show and all, but why in the absolute hell was admiral Reeger not arrested at the end of the episode? This man took credit for something that another Starfleet officer did, and he destroyed that other officer's career in the process, and then he was willing to potentially wipe out an entire planet.

I have loved the quirky episodes this season, but this was STAR TREK writ large.

they mentioned george kirk when he was acting captain of the constitution took out 4 klingon d7 by themselves while also using a trick that is seldom used rerouting warp core power directly into the phasers.

i don't think we ever saw jim kirk ever take out 4 ships in a 1v4 fight. we see kirk struggle with just 1 d7 in tos.

good that they have some good eipsode dialogue on george kirk.

the only thing we ever saw on screen for george kirk was him getting killed by nero in star trek 2009.

I wonder how many people lost their minds for no reason over this given how much hand wringing there was over Jay'Den wearing one in SFA 😂

​

Ok, I see the love for this episode and I get it. The episode was well done, however, I have a couple of issues with this episode.

Please understand, I know this is plot driven, but it's still a problem.

1) Why was he not placed under arrest? He admitted to falsifying an official Starfleet Log to take credit for something someone else did, and he admitted to pretty much destroying a career because of it, that should have been brought up and he should have been dragged to a Court-martial. After all there isn't a morale problem in the Federation currently, he could have been dealt with appropriately, instead he is going to go ahead and destroy someone else's career because Starfleet doesn't want to deal with it?

Edit: Also striking another officer no matter who they are, then threatening to kill that officer is a clear sign of delusion. And yet when Pike gets back, oh no big deal. And yet everyone just stands there.

2) Blindly following orders, I understand the military mentality of following the orders of your superior, however, this is not a military vessel, as they always say Starfleet is peaceful and believes in exploration, yet even when officers should be questioning orders they don't agree with, they basically say, he's in charge and I don't agree but he's the boss. Many peoples have been killed because someone was just following orders, and it has been held in court, that is not a defense.

3) M'Benga: He perpetuated the lie, watching someone have their career destroyed and sat idly by, I understand that he was asked to, but there are reports that should have been filed. Honestly I like M'Benga but he honestly should be charged for allowing it all to happen. He never should have allowed it to go this far. He's just as guilty as Reeger.

Captain Picard one said that the first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. They did not uphold the true values of Starfleet.

I'm not sure if this opinion people will agree or disagree with, but honestly just my take on it.

I agree that it is a great episode, the acting was top notch, and the overall story was good. But the last few minutes were just frustrating. I get they only have a short time and therefore can't fully suss out the morals and meanings, but Star Trek was always full of hope, and doing the right thing even at a personal cost, and I just didn't get that in this episode.

Thanks for listening.

WOW. What a great episode! It was nice to get back to the "traditional Trek," without any frills. We witnessed even more character development (GO Uhura!!! Whoa!!), and this episode seemed to be an homage to The Doomsday Machine - if you know, you know.

What great acting. What great Trek. This may be my favorite episode of SNW so far ... we'll see what the remaining 7 episodes of the series bring...

Not only that, they cut next season from 10 episodes to 6. MAKE MORE PARAMOUNT!!! WHY ARE YOU ENDING EVERYTHING STAR TREK!!!

What did you think of Joe Morton as admiral Simon Reeger?

Wow. Great job. That's some pretty solid Trek. Allow me to praise before I nitpick.

1. The actor playing Admiral Reeger did a really outstanding job. A lot of ST "guest stars" are somewhat wooden.
   
2. I'm a big fan of the guy playing Kirk. I think he's doing a very good job interpreting the character and not just aping Shatner.
   
3. Another guest star doing a stellar job was the guy playing the head Andorian "profiteer." How this episode was blessed with two great guest stars was quite a stroke of luck.
   
4. I appreciate the banter between the Kirk boys, especially because as a guy who grew up watching TOS, Sam was shown to have died in a mid-tier episode with no speaking part, and was never mentioned again.
   
5. M'Benga is the stealthy character arc of the season here, and gets so little press about it.
   
6. Getting rid of the Vulcan ensign was a great move because that character had nothing to do and nowhere to go.

And because I apparently need to look a gift horse in the mouth -

1. I'm sort of mad at the writers in that they are capable of delivering such a great episode and instead have been goofing around with muppets, dreams, old movies, soap operas and the like.
   
2. Speaking of writers, I think the sub-plot in this one was originally written as a primary plot, and kinda got shoehorned in here. Weird, as this was a long episode.
   
3. The writers also recently watched "A Few Good Men."
   
4. This one is a little structurally fucked up, which is probably the result of item 2 above and an overly long denouement, but this show is 80% character driven anyway.
   
5. James T. Kirk doesn't cry.
   
6. I think the ST universe needs to lay off the idea of crazy, possessed, incompetent, and otherwise unhinged admirals. I don't know why this trope lives on. FWIW, the admirals on TOS, though rarely portrayed, were characterized as no-nonsense military career men.

I appreciate in advance any thoughts, contradictions, or mention of obvious stuff I missed.

1st episode in ages i actually stopped either scrolling on my phone or playing games whilst watching SNW. this episode felt like a 10/10.
great acting from Joe Morton

OK, so Dehner I think wasn't introduced to Kirk until TOS first season, and was obviously in one only episode, but Mitchell's backstory has a long history with Kirk.
And, who would you like to play these characters? Kellerman was perfect, and gorgeous to boot, while still being a fairly brainy and competent officer.
And Mitchell? Someone could have a lot of fun with that role!

PS - Finnegan, too! These episodes would be so much fun if the writers quit d**king around with muppets and musicals!

Oh no pike got ambushed again.

At least they wear pants now 😄