Overall, I really liked the overarching plot, but I think they needed to extend out the conclusion over more episodes with this episode and the previous feeling a little rushed.
That being said, still a very enjoyable episode and
Feels like a lot of character development this series.spoiler
yay captain Boimler!
I enjoyed the TWoK references though!
Cayuga is a connie according to memory alpha - confirmed in some background graphics: https://twitter.com/timothypeel1/status/1690018124492349440/photo/1
I would like to know why the Gorn was there too, but the Gorn didn't notice Spock boarding and so there's no reason to believe Enterprise would have notice a Gorn boarding. It's also possible it was beamed over when the Cayuga was destroyed to find something or to access the ships systems.
It makes sense that following the Eugenics War (and I believe it's heavily suggested that the Eugenics War and disagreements around genetic modification were a key cause of WW3) that genetic engineering would be banned on Earth. First Contact happens not long after WW3 in 2063. It takes almost 90 years for Enterprise to be launched in 2151 with the help of the Vulcans.
WW1 ended 105 years ago and it's still taught in schools, including the causes. WW2 ended 78 years ago and is also still heavily taught and is used as a parallel for why fascism is bad, even today. Both are a similar time difference from today as WW3 at the time of Enterprise and has a higher death toll (30% of the population) and so if you could ban a leading cause of that war, you would. I could see UE making it a requirement on the other founding members (none of which seems to have particularly experimented with it, and have seen the effect on Earth. Banning it is only logical.)
During that time, we see a rise up of the Soong's augments in 2154, which ends badly and I think would be more than enough to reinforce the prejudice in Earth society (and the Vulcans and Andorians would have been aware of it too.) Plus we see the Klingon Augment Virus as you suggested.
SNW takes place in 2260, which is about 100 years on and now the Federation has obviously been founded and is a growing force - but 100 years isn't that long and as human life times are suggested to be extending by then - there are probably people alive that remember the events of 2154. The rules have also led to fewer or no repeatable events involving augments and I can understand wanting to keep it that way.
Then in DS9, we see that it is still being practised illegally by some. Occasionally it turns out fine like Bashir but often leads to medical issues like Jack and his group in statistical probabilities. (Which again, ends with them trying to force the Federation to surrender to the Dominion.)
Janeway also attempts to give CPR to a dead crewman in Voy: Scientific Method
SNW I thought did a pretty good job of blending TNG and Disco and they look pretty good. Overall, probably TNG though
Ah, I understand your comment better. I am still not sure it's enough to turn it (generally) into a no-go term. Plenty of news outlets have been commenting on Russian false flags against Ukraine and that's used more in the context of how it's used in this episode.
I'm not necessarily suggesting that they'd need to use diplomacy, but they could have somehow captured phasers or it turns out that Chapel was with Pike on Discovery (as at least the saucer of this ship was Crossfield class) and she knew where the Jeffries tubes were to get them where they needed to be. They could have told one of the Klingons that they'd had a medical emergency reported in the transporter room and they needed to get there fast. If they were playing the trauma from the Klingon war angle, I think all of the references are really too abstract for us as an audience to get that and I don't think the scene was quite good enough to give us a mystique.
+1 for the complaint on the 'do the thing' comment. I feel like it's because engage/make it so have become somewhat of a meme from Picard in TNG and they're looking to replicate that.
But the idea every captain has their thing is one seemingly from the new Treks. In the past series, engage is used frequently by Kirk, Janeway and Sisko. (Kirk also frequently uses warp speed Mr sulu, ahead warp factor 1, take her out, first star to the left and straight on till morning etc.) They've been really pushing 'let's fly' from Discovery, but it's a terrible line and trying to force it just makes it cringy. I wish they'd used that time to expand the stealing the Enterprise plot a little more.
Yeah, the drug scene didn't feel great to me, they literally could have just found phasers or found a cleverer way around it.
I was wondering if you could explain the issue with the term 'false flag?' As far as I was aware, it's when party A carries out an action and tries to frame party B for it - which was exactly what was happening here.
Overall, a pretty good episode! I am slightly conflicted - I really like the character development of this Spock, but it's also less and less feeling like the Spock we'll eventually see in TOS. As the Klingon captain said, 'the least Vulcan like Vulcan ever' - whereas Spock in TOS is trying to suppress his human side and it takes him till like Star Trek VI to actually act on a hunch. But I am also conflicted as I really like this character too.
The stealing the Enterprise scene, I think Search for Spock is laughing... The CGI of the Enterprise manuvering away from space dock and escaping to warp was amazing though - one of the best uses of 3D space in Star Trek ever but pausing for like 5 minutes whilst stealing a ship to decide what his 'line' is going to be... I wish the new series would stop their pre-ocupation with this, it's kind of famous because Picard uses Engage and Make It So enough to be memeable, but most of the time people from Kirk to Janeway to Sisko also use Engage. (Kirk also frequently uses warp speed Mr sulu, and ahead warp factor 1, take her out, first star to the left and straight on till morning.) And so every captain doesn't have their thing. Pike's 'hit it' is ok, but 'Let's Fly' is kinda dumb and 'I want to go, now' is out of character and just a really unnecessary part of the story. It's also not going to be memeable when it's forced.
I really didn't like the scene where M'Benga and Chapel use some kind of drug to give them super strength to fight off a whole ship of Klingons and then the torture scene? Star Trek should be cleverer than that and made me lose respect for both of the characters. At least the Klingons look like Klingons again.
I like the new chief engineer a lot more than I thought I was going too though!
Star Trek has always been kind of lax when officers disobeying orders save the day, but I thought the admiral should have been angrier and I really hope there's a scene in episode 2 where Pike and Spock talk about it.
Most likely means that the pre-production, writing, location scouting, set/prop design etc. and key crew have likely been confirmed and that when the strike ends, they'll be able to move to shooting pretty fast depending on if they've confirmed the rest of the cast before the strikes (I assume actors aren't meant to audition for parts whilst striking.)