Ahhhhh I love the rainbow around the Trek logo 🏳️‍🌈

Oh bloody hell that was intense. I know Trek isn’t supposed to be battles but what I super loved here was how it was a team effort. Everyone brainstormed together.

Still such a pretty intro and great music. I confess I always skip the older Trek intros but I always watch SNW and Disco.

I wonder if they filmed this at the same time as season 2 because I saw in the trailer folks have different haircuts but they look the same here (which they’d have to as it’s a part two).

Ooooh Pike smack down “because it’s non-Federation citizens it doesn’t matter”. And then the line that keeps moving. I do love sci-fi metaphors.

Hell yeah Admiral April!! Punch back. I love it when the authority figure is on the side of our guys, rather than being an obstacle that the ‘hero’ has to ignore. It’s why I adored Hammond so much in Stargate.

Ewwww gross sacks. I always think actresses are so brave getting all gooey like that.

La’an baby 🥺 she’s back in her worst nightmare and being so brave.

Ortegas hand 😱 I hope M’Benga is right and they can fix it, but it could be an interesting storyline if they can’t, as Ortega needs her hands to fly so Trek showing adapting for disability would be good.

Not surprised brother Kirk threw up – I would!

Oh La’an my heart hurts so much for her. She was the only survivor and now she wants to save everyone.

lol Pelia scaring Scotty into brilliance was funny and then it was a sucker punch. Poor Scotty 😦

Spock vowing to do everything to help Batel and being deliberate in his words. Not saying it but the implicit promise is that he will give mercy to Batel to save such a decision from the Captain’s guilt if it comes to it.

Awwww 😍 Una’s proud look at “Uhura is the one that found it”.

The way Una always has Pike’s back! I love it 🥰 he didn’t have to say anything but she knew what was bothering him and what to say.

Oh yes! Mitchell seems to be getting an upgrade to more main character. Idk why Pike looked so impressed with the “I’m not moving until we get everyone back” because that’s not a surprising reaction from his crew.

Ouch. I guess that’s why Pike has the big chair having to choose between people 😬

🤣 🤣 🤣 Scotty saying it’s impossible and then talking through how he would do it. Pike going “I like those odds” to the 1/1000 and the visual of the ship exploding and going “oh well just turn it off before we explode” and then Mitchell and Una turning to side eye one another – absolutely priceless! So funny

Batel’s back with those pulsing sores 🤢

M’Benga noticing La’an is struggling and trying to keep her present “you are here now not back there” and La’an keeping it real by saying “here’s not great either”. Oh I love them!

Ortegas dry wit is the best “oh well make a day of it, bring snacks” 😂

Oh Ortegas does have a gun they must have found one. 😱 urk Ortegas got stabbed and ewwww that was gross. But that was very badass of La’an with that cold look as she put the phaser to its neck and blam.

Ortegas demanding to be in the pilot seat and M’Benga being all “forget about it” but then relenting as he had no idea what to do. I mean idk how Ortegas knew what to do but I guess some stuff must be universal with experience 🤷‍♂️

Pike you gonna burn your eyes out. Couldn’t they close the window? It must be so hard to see their screens.

“A problem for someone else to solve later” – and that’s how we get to TOS and Kirk’s gorn episode I suppose.

“I’m Erica Ortegas and I fly the ship” – love it but also please give them something else as well.

Enterprise is broken. Lotta debris in the corridors.

I know Batel is in the main infirmary is that why they are only using the overflow infirmary? Although Pike is getting awful close – like touching – so 🤷‍♂️

Oh ok I can breathe again. Soooooo many feels!

It was always going to be hard to follow up that cliffhanger but I feel they did it well. This didn’t fall flat at all. It took all episode to resolve. It wasn’t just the first 10 minutes and then leap into the next season.

The visuals were extremely impressive and I’m torn between going – cool! – and wishing it was noticeably cheaper. I vaguely recall some studio person saying that season 1 and 2 were short 10 episode orders due to covid etc. and that they were really just “one season” and that we’d getting proper seasons after that. But that’s not what’s happening at all. Instead they have gone ahead and ordered seasons 3-5 but sticking with the same 10 episodes except for season 5 which only gets 6! Imagine thinking “oh wow we get 5 seasons” and then realising that’s only 46 episodes. Like lower the budget, we’re not making movies here and give us more episodes. Like it’s not enough for character work. I said above about Ortegas only having “I fly the ship” as their thing.

But we are where we are.

I could have done between the Chapel and Spock tension. I do love Chapel as a character but I feel like it gets too much focus tbh. Which admittedly I probably wouldn’t if we had more episodes! It’s like I’m biased obviously and with a much more limited ‘budget’ of screen time I wish they’d apportion more of it to the characters/stories I am most interested in 😛

Ok I’m probably not done. More will occur to me and I’ll add on (I have tried to keep this all in as few messages as possible so notifications weren’t going crazy). But I need to go decompress now. Can’t watch episode 2 even if I want to. Too many feels and need a break.

Ok I do just want to be clear with this point. Like I alluded to it earlier with the “love how they all brainstormed together” but it’s more than that. For all I moan about how I feel like certain characters/storylines get more than their fair share of the limited screen time what I really super love is how genuine the ensemble feels when it comes to hero time.

Everyone got to have a badass moment. Everyone got to contribute. It wasn’t all just Pike saving the day. It wasn’t that the female characters got to take it so far and then fail at the end so the male character could swoop in and be the hero. It was a real team effort. That means a lot.

I just walked over to mums and I thought of something else I wanted to say and by the time I got here I forgot 🫣 hopefully it’ll come back to me!

Oh! I remembered what it was 😁

Everybody lived.

I love that ❤️ I saw some folks complaining that the trailer ‘ruined’ the cliffhanger but I was relieved.

Today’s TV wants to be ‘edgy’ and I miss my old shows where the tension didn’t come from “are they going to survive?” and instead it came from “how are they going to get out of this one?”

Believe me I was still very much on the edge of my seat. I felt the tension. I was gripped but I could be compelled without that sharp edge of anxiety.

I don’t find it cheesy or unrealistic that they all lived – it’s quite frankly what I want and expect from my TV. SNW for all it has the short season issue, does feel more ‘old school’ in this way and I love it all the more for it.