You can’t really hold the Writer’s Strike against the show, since they wrote and shot the whole thing a year ago. And given that the streaming era often consists of shows disappearing for years at a time, I can’t imagine the hype from this season won’t carry over to third season, even if it takes a while.

On the other hand, the Anakin vs. Gorn Younglings memes practically write themselves.

maybe in place of a separate timeline this is just a modified version of the TOS era that’s still close to what happened the first time around

Marie. We learned it last week.

My concern isn’t continuity or canon. I honestly don’t much care about either of those.

Yeah, Star Trek fans have long ago learned to embrace the fact that a lot of its material is terrible. There’s also just a ton of content thru Roddenberry/Berman era that has aged...questionably when viewed through a more modern lens (not just the social politics, but even technology, realism, and coherent…

I’m excited they did a cliffhanger. Even if we probably won’t see the resolution for a year and a half, it ups the stakes and I think the anticipation and speculation will be a lot of fun.

I’m sad Lowe left cause I love Sam...but in seasons two and three Sorkin does seem to struggle in giving him strong story material. ‘Someone’s Going to Emergency...’ rehashes a plotline from Sports Night (turns out my Dad was cheater for years) and then after that there’s like, what? That time we met his ex-fiance?…

Josh was the Hawkeye character, so he kind of naturally gravitated toward the center on more than one occasion.

I also think it’s a matter of genre. Because - like you said - the two don’t have all that much in common. Star Wars is largely fantasy (and sometimes western) while Star Trek is science fiction. And scifi has a history of the nuttiness being baked in; this is especially true of TOS coming out of the 60s.

What?

I’m actually kind of surprised that Lower Decks hasn’t already done a musical of its own.

Exactly! This is the furthest thing from the first musical number Star Trek has ever seen.

Every episode of SNW has had emotional stakes - including the goofy ones. Also, with Kirk and Batel in the trailer, and how often musicals explore romance, I strongly suspect the Kirk/La’an, Chapel/Spock, and Pike/Batel relationships will each reach a crucial turning point. Add to that the whole ‘sing your secrets’…

I genuinely don’t get it.

I love that he’s become kind of an unofficial recurring presence for the franchise.

Great episode. And while DS9 was much in my mind, the line I kept thinking of was from The Wounded about ‘I don’t hate you - I hate what I became because of you.’

The later seasons got a DVD release, but they’re kind of hard to find.

Riker had a particular way of sitting down that I think the fandom collectively realized when someone made a compilation video a few years back. It’s since become known as the Riker Maneuver. When Boimler sits on the saddle, he swings his leg around in a way similar to Riker, which is why he says the name.

Emony Dax should be out and about this time period. That could make for a fun cameo, at the least.