Daystrom Institute

I am whelmed. I liked everything about it except for what was ostensibly the "main event."

Putting Spock in command? Interesting choice, I continue to enjoy Peck's portrayal as younger, less confident Spock. Love Pelia. Can't wait to see more of her. Love that we're back to a more traditional Klingon appearance. Love the updated D-7. Good use of La'an, interesting to see a planet which is firmly stuck in the wake of the Klingon war.

But then we get to the main event: Chapel and M'Benga are in a jam. And so they just... take drugs and fistfight Klingons. Yawn. This is the head doctor and the head nurse we're talking about here, and you're telling me there wasn't a more scientific or medically oriented solution? I mean sure, I guess doing some stims counts as vaguely "medical," but that's not really what I mean. It would have been interesting to see them exploit Klingon biology or Federation medical tech in a more thoughtful fashion, rather than just go bonk heads.

But, eh, that's a minor blemish on what was otherwise a solid hour of Trek. I do think it's interesting that they've managed to draw out Una's trial arc into three episodes now... hopefully it's just three? There are Strange New Worlds out there to visit.

I think the premise is interesting. Klingons are interesting. Spock in command is interesting. M'benga and Chapel fist fighting Klingons? God save us all. And then to face no consequence. It's a shame such an interesting premise is muddied with all of the nonsense.

I was disappointed in the season opener. The story was silly and incoherent, and to be honest it reminds me of the worst elements of Discovery.

I don't begrudge them deferring dealing with the Una situation as that is likely (hopefully) going to be strongly character driven episode.

But the Embenga/Chapel subplot was by far the worst part of the whole episode. Exploring the trauma of the Klingon War is actually an intriguing idea, and even the idea of Starfleet medical being weaponised is intriguing but instead we got Embenga and Chapel injecting up and becoming rediculous super soldiers which has zero link to anything we've ever had from their backstories. Then we had 10 minutes of tedious kung fu fighting which is a common trope of Discovery; it's lazy writing and just fills screen time with pointless violence. It is exactly the opposite of what makes SNW so refreshing. I hope to god this stupidity is a one off. If you are going to shoehorn in a pointless action sequence, why on earth would you pick Embenga and Chapel for that? And then the crazy space walk? It was ludicrous.

Other elements were ok but the overall episode felt out of place with what SNW did in series 1. I really hope they have not decided the show needs more "action" because they will be making the same mistakes as Discovery if they do that. SNW series 1 was extremely well recieved because it was character and plot driven; each episode was stand alone but the characters plots extended across the season.

I'd give this episode 5/10 to be honest.