Yeah, I’d like to see a comparison of switching to permanent DST and continuing with the twice-annual changes.

I wouldn’t mind if it was solved through introspection and realization

I think that’s what happened, at the end of the day. Princess Thalia is fictional, but she’s representative of personality traits La’An has suppressed since she was a child.

I don’t remember a cogent explanation for the planet, either - it didn’t bug me, but it is an omission for sure.

Well, their past wasn’t changed, and that’s the only past Starfleet is really concerned about - that’s the problem with predestination paradoxes.

I understand your reaction to the episode, but I also think you’re hitting on exactly the thing that makes it interesting.

When you get right down to it, that’s the essence of the temporal prime directive, is it not?

Okay, I guess it’s time for some actual thoughts. It was all right.

I’m not really big on Jungian psychology, but writers love it, since it’s so steeped in metaphor. It’s been many, many years since I studied it, so I’m just going to defer to Wikipedia.

In analytical psychology, the shadow (also known as ego-dystonic complex, repressed id, shadow aspect, or shadow archetype) is an unconscious aspect of the personality that does not correspond with the ego ideal, leading the ego to resist and project the shadow, creating conflict with it.

In analytical psychology, the struggle for the superego is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not to become it or be controlled by it. “Non-identification demands considerable moral effort [which] prevents a descent into that darkness”; and though “the conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious…understanding acts like a life-saver. It integrates the unconscious.” This reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. “Assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak,” thereby providing a launchpad for further individuation.

So sure, this is all fine and good. Taking stuff like this and making it literal has a long tradition in sci-fi generally, and Star Trek specifically. I’m glad they addressed La’An’s inner conflict without confirming her fears of her genetic heritage controlling her destiny. I hope they’re finally putting the subplot to bed - it’s hard to see where else they could go with it.

Seeing Hemmer in the previouslys primed me to expect to see Caster show up, but nope.

They had some fun with Carol Kane’s “Princess Bride” connection - too much fun, perhaps, but whatever.

It’s a little disappointing that Ortegas in particular didn’t clock the imposter Pike and Spock immediately - the others I can forgive due to the ongoing crisis, but it would have been nice to see Erica had simply decided to go along with it for a while.

Find yourself someone who looks at you the way Melissa Navia looks at Rebecca Romijn.

Sounds like they’re going to a world that’s both strange and new. I expect everyone will love it.

at the whims of other countries’ laws and size

A hypothetical full membership would instantly catapult Canada to the #5 spot in the EU, in terms of population size. Granted, the other four (Germany, ~85 million; France, ~60 million; Italy, ~60 million; and Spain ~47 million) are all significantly larger.

But in principle, I agree - at the very least, full membership would require a much more in-depth national conversation that we’re simply not having right now.

Yeah, it seems like they’re being very selective for some reason.

Hoo boy. Wait until they hear about the rubber ducky…

…Do I even want to ask?

I’d have to double-check, but it IIRC it was the same map we typically see. But maybe that’s the “problem” 🙄.

That’s a good question. There have been two attempts at targeting younger viewers in recent years, and neither seems to have made enough of an impact to stick around.

And I don’t think it’s a question of quality - Prodigy and Academy were both quite enjoyable.

I think an important difference is the characters’ motivations, though - for Reeger, it’s personal, while Ramsey in “Crimson Tide” is merely hawkish and reckless.

Holy false equivalency, Batman!

It also lays a foundation for his actions to (arguably) come back to bite him in the ass in “Balance of Terror,” when (presumably) the same Romulan ship reappears and starts wiping out colonies. I’ll leave it up for debate whether this is a good thing.

I’m guessing this episode drawing from old war films, in particular I am getting flavours of submarine hunts, chasing after wakes, and handling big questions of WMDs, the sanity of the chain of command.

Maybe it’s just because the writers of the (alleged) next Trek film have been talking about it, but I did think of “Crimson Tide” several times during this one.

A’Sha leaving is fine, I guess, she didn’t feel very present throughout the season anyway.

I can’t help but think there’s still more to come with her - they haven’t dropped her off yet, after all. Something about it seems unfinished, somehow.

A pretty good episode that got a lot more interesting in the final act.

For the most part, it came off as a story that we’ve seen before, albeit a well-told one. But the reveal that Kirk drugged Reeger in order to make him unfit for commend is a genuinely compelling idea, as is the idea that M’Benga just torpedoed his career to cover it up.

The B-plot was decent, too - it was good to see Uhura do some ass-kicking.

They sure do like to talk about the Klingon War as if it’s ancient history when it only ended about five years ago, though.

Indeed, it’s the name of the entire video series. I think he’s done three of them now?

Until next year.

We are, but I don’t think any country on Earth believes that drones are the solution to every problem. Ukraine has revolutionized drone warfare, but even they are actively working to get new planes.

I don’t believe there is a kill switch, but the basic truth is that they don’t need one - the Americans control the maintenance pipeline, which is just as effective.