I'm with the others that say it's a really good episode, until you start picking apart some of the decisions. Pike taking the word of a person who has been suffering hallucinations, with no evidence, then preceding to destroy a massive infrastructure project with no real hesitation...it didn't feel earned. I know he trust her, and Kirk, but damn that was an extreme leap of faith.
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That's frankly what caught my attention, even as I was watching the episode. The decision turns out to have been right, but on thin-to-nonexistent justification.
I think what justifies it is the second case that they encounter. The other guy provides them with scientific evidence that Uhura was experiencing something that wasn't unique to just her.
It was definitely a leap of faith for Pike, but his decision was bolstered by someone (Kirk) that he knows can make the right decisions too.
i was just thrown by the fact that nobody considered the possibility that it was a plot by Romulans or Gorn to get the Federation to self-sabotage. they stated they were at the edge of known space, so i thought a much more cautious attitude was required
This might be a case where they compressed too much for coherence.
Yeah, there was the other guy. But in my mind, not enough had apparently been done to confirm a superficial and partial similarity of symptoms.
To give an idea of the dissonance, I'm remembering somebody (I think it wasn't Miles O'Brien who got the line) encountering the Cardassian systems on Deep Space 9 and complaining that they weren't triple-redundant.
In academia, we call it parsimony in a way that doesn't quite seem to match a dictionary definition that I just dredged up on line: It's when an explanation seems straightforward and satisfactory. For me, that was missing.
I think a challenge for script writing here is keeping the story moving without dragging this too far into soap opera territory. How much do we really want get into the weeds here?
Maybe the writers thought this was too deep in the weeds. Maybe they just ran out of episode time. Maybe we agree they didn't get the balance right here.
This /r/Daystrom thread from last year is kinda funny, the OP correctly predicts how Pike and Kirk meet, but then he and most of the commenters dismiss it as "unlikely".
This leads us to three possibilities
- Pike was promoted to Fleet Captain and Kirk took over Command from him as a result, which is where they met. Traditionally, especially in many of the novels, thats when the met before.
- Kirk met him on two distinct occasions, firstly when Pike became Fleet Captain and secondly, when he took over Command (its possible that the order was reversed).
- Kirk met him on at least two notable occasions, which he mentions.
With James T being confirmed for Season 2 and Sam being on the ship and friendly with Pike, enough to call him "Chris", no 3 seems to be the most likely answer
It's a fun thread to scroll through now that we know this episode.
A little sleepy w/ exposition over showing BUT had some nice moments.
An okay episode.
Finally Una got to do something instead of being completely on the sidelines. The whole ensemble got something to do, except Ortegas who slowly turns into SNW's Travis Mayweather: that one cast member that is just there physically but doesn't get anything to do.
My personal highlight was the scene were Spock and Chapel play chess, and he passive-aggressively pushes her to play faster. Very Vulcan.
What irked me: everyone and their mother immediately started calling the First Officer of another Starfleet ship by his first name. That was weird.
The Canon defenders will complain that Kirk and Pike met face to face, although there was that throwaways line in The Menagerie that they've never met. But it was kinda inevitable that it would happen sooner or later. At least we got that out of the way.
It was a good episode, but there are a few things I didn't like:
- Blowing up a space refinery on a whim.
- Too much romance/interpersonal stuff, still.
- Pike needs to grow a spine and be more assertive.
I give it a 6/10; not bad, not great. I'm looking forward to the new episode.
Alright, one of the weaker episodes.
Not a fan of this Kirk, he reminds me more of Carrey than Shatner. Neither he, nor the Farragut needed to be in this episode.