So what did you think about the parts of the article which described what they are doing to address those very challenges?

I haven’t actually seen “Training Day,” but I suppose both films have entrenched authority figures with outdated and/or corrupt ideas of How Things Are Done, and younger subordinates who have to walk through the ethical minefield that’s been laid.

And I agree, that could be good Trek.

Wasn’t the big complaint against Star Trek: Section 31 was that people didn’t want to watch Corrupt Space CIA?

I think the much bigger complaints are that it was boring, derivative, and had nothing to say?

The good news is, the word “glorify” does not appear in this article.

Yeah, I mean it’s barely a description at all - we’re surviving on scraps over here.

playing the hits

"…while this [script] isn’t a cynical or nihilistic take on it, I think it does acknowledge that there are some bad apples in every institution that can have a strong voice and can really make an impact on that institution and everything it stands for.”

How could they possibly think this is relevant subject matter in the year 2026?

Anti-immigrant rhetoric is a pretty mainstream position nationwide at this point.

Oh jeepers, I hadn’t considered the Yelchin angle.

My thoughts on this are lengthy, complicated, and probably a little bit self-contradictory, but I think some of the accusations of “gimmicks” are a tad overblown. But also a tad not overblown?

“Valles Marineris” - A pretty standard Trek episode IMO, albeit one with time travel and a twist.

“The Griffin Incident” - A horror episode, but not really a gimmicky one. Star Trek does those all the time.

“Human Best Friend” - Definitely pulling from a specific comedy genre, YMMV.

“A Case of Chiaroscuro” - I won’t argue with accusations of “gimmick” here, but I thought its use of the genre was in service of a pretty damn good Star Trek story. And DS9 in particular went to the noir well a few times over the years.

“Level Five Transporter Accident” - perfectly normal, nothing to see here.

“Off-Hour” - Pretty standard Trek.

But they definitely do a lot of genre play, and recent interviews with the showrunners indicate that it’s completely intentional, and unlikely to change any time soon.

I’ve been reconciling it by focusing on each episode as its own thing, independent of the others, and hot damn, it’s surprising how hard that’s become for me.

This one looks like a Quelane episode, so I think it’s pretty fitting.

The ood plotlines went nowhere, highlighting this was maybe not the best story in which to bring up the whole slave race plotline

Yeah, it really seems like they wanted the Beast to have a creepy army, and have minimal thought to the greater implications of this “basic slave race” - something they work to remedy in the future, but it’s a very…Ood choice.

Maybe not as strong as the introductory episode, but I still like this one a lot, albeit for only one real reason.

The stuff on the Santuary Base is decent, but perfunctory. Rose and the crew work to disrupt the Ood and make their escape. Rose gets to be a leader, heroic sacrifices are made, Zack gets to learn some self-respect. It’s all fine - good, even, elevated by the same strong performances we got last week. I think the direction betrays the fact that Toby is still possessed, which is unfortunate, because Will Thorp is still quite good. I’m not sure what to make of Danny’s(?) flatulence - is that supposed to be some sulphuric betrayal of Toby’s true self?

The Doctor’s final confrontation with the Beast is also…fine. David Tennant does as good a job as he possibly can - it’s fun to watch him second-guessing the situation and essentially playing chess with himself, but at the end of the day he’s still playing against nothing. It’s the same basic setup that Matt Smith later gets in “The Rings of Akhaten,” but that episode does it better. The Beast looks pretty good, but suffers a lot from the general low-resolutionness of the episode. It’d be great to see a remaster.

But the Doctor and Ida, standing on the edge of the abyss? That’s solid gold. The Doctor standing on the edge of the Pit, waxing philosophical about the compulsion to go down, is all I really think about when I think of this episode. 10/10, no notes.

I just took it that they both silently agreed that Una was the logical choice and didn’t need to litigate it.

I just took it for granted that she’s the ranking officer, and it’s her call to make. The fact that it led to a (potentially) unfortunate situation later isn’t really relevant in the moment, since they can’t predict that.

It’s interesting that they’re doing so much in London. Good for them!

Well, they signed Stuart Skinner, so I guess he counts.

I assumed they used neutrinos because they’re closely associated with the Bajoran wormhole (and I think wormholes in general?).

I don’t mind there being some sort of Super Secret Special neutrino that only exists under circumstances that can’t really be replicated, but it is a very silly particle.

For me, it was the moment where she patched the hole in her quarters - despite her fixing that specific problem, it suddenly made me dread what the outcome might be for her.

this episode really suffered from prequelitis

I never really feel this way - realistically, the main cast is virtually never in danger of dying, regardless of whether we know what happens next, so it doesn’t really interfere with my enjoyment of the story being told.

I guess this is meant to be borrowing from the 24 style of show

Yeah, it did occur to me that the countdown seemed to be happening in real time. I guess that explains the occasional splitscreen, which in itself feels like a very 1960s thing to do, even though it’s not something that Star Trek did.

a line that sounds superficially vulcan but which under scrutiny makes no sense

Yeah, I did not like that.

I was a little underwhelmed by the demo, but I’m hopeful that it’s been improved, because this sort of game should be right up my alley.