A Quality of Mercy

Am I the only one who did not like the actor who played James T Kirk? He had no presence, had the William Shatners' cadence all wrong, and lacked his gravitas. Other than that I have really liked the casting, and look forward to the meeting the new "Scotty" we received a glimpse of.

One of if not the single best episode of star trek i've seen, and i've seen pretty much everything with star trek. Goosebumps! Chills! Excitement!.. just.. WOW!

After last week's complete crib of Aliens, and the teasers clearly showing elements of the original Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror" - including word-for-word dialogue - I was wondering if they were just going to try and retcon a classic original episode. That is, be super lazy.

But was I surprised! They really pulled it off, and I was saying "Okay. Okay. I like this." and off the story went.

I have to say I'm less than excited about the casting choice for Kirk. His frame is too small and his facial features remind me too much of Jim Carrey. But, he had good delivery, and with the size of the shoes he was filling I imagine he was giving his all, and by any other measure he's better than Chris Pine. I suppose with a good enough script he could grow on me.

This was an excellent episode, and I can't really say more without spoiling anything but to the production crew: well done.

I don't give 10's - but this deserves one. Keep this up and you'll have something.

I did not think Kurtzman and Goldman and all of the clowns responsible for singlehandedly ruining Star Trek were actually capable of producing an episode of this caliber. Where was this writing for the last six years? Finally, we get a genuinely good episode, not just by Kurtzman Trek standards, but by general Star Trek standards. I much enjoyed the Romulan redesign, which blended elements of the TNG and TOS Romulans seamlessly. They should have done something similar with, I don't know, THE KLINGONS????!!! I mean, how were these people capable of making these Romulans when they made those godawful Klingons.

The writing, too, was pretty good; there were actual stakes, believe it or not, and you genuinely cared about what would happen next. The story gripped you, and you genuinely wanted to know what happened next.

Although it isn't necessarily as good as 90s-00s trek, I'm no cynic, and I'm fine with this. It is Trek, and I cannot say that for what we have been getting so far. I hope to god that future NuTrek will maintain if not transcend this level of quality. Then, I will be a truly happy person.

I didn't want this episode to end. Fantastic writing, acting, suspense, action, drama... all of it. And they did it without any overt or shrouded political agenda. Just good, clean, fun entertainment. PLEASE keep it coming!