The Broken Circle

Season 1 was for the most part a wholesome, well written and respectful collection of stories.

The writing in this episode however is all over the place. The crew faces no consequences for their actions, two characters who have no business fighting suddenly fight their way through a small army of klingon warriors, and the episode is littered with hateful sexist steriotypes. Hopefully the issues in this episode were due to some kind of internal conflict surrounding the season opening. If the rest of the show becomes like this from now on, SNW might just end up walking in Discovery's shoes, and like its predecessor end up loosing money.

Edit: After watching the rest of the season i can confirm that this was not a one-time thing and the entire season has all the same problems. If you read this to consider if you should watch the rest, i suggest downloading a playback speed extension for your browser and speeding through the episodes for the absolutely FANTASTIC CGI the vfx team produced. The story is garbage and the characters are nothing like themselves. They simply have the same faces and voices but are written as empty stereotypes. One new stereotype for each episode. Do not waste your time on this. Go watch season 3 (skip 1 and 2) og Pickard instead. It is incredible!

So, was this episode written by AI? That was certainly the impression that I got. There were scenes that were stolen from Raiders of the Lost Ark, from Return of the Jedi and even from another Star Trek show - Discovery.

This season has not started off as well as I liked it. Making up a fake weapon/bomb on the spot to deter the Klingons seems silly. The Klingons are warriors and well versed in weaponry. What if. La'an Noonien-Singh's plan didn't work? It wasn't much of a plan to go on. Not something a serious Federation agent would do.

But of course, the characters are all interesting having Carol Kane along for the ride should be a fun time.

Still going to keep watching.

Aside from the tiresome cliché of the recalcitrant admiral who doesn't get it, this episode was fantastic especially for the introduction of Carol Kane's Pelia. She was outstanding: mysterious, funny and alluring.

Unlike bureaucratic admirals, the comic relief engineer is a formula that works. Tig Notaro's Jett Reno has up to now been the pinnacle of the form. But James Doohan's Scotty was no slouch in that department; with Simon Pegg's rendition of the character much more overtly comic to good effect.

Kane, who has already given the world at least one absolutely immortal comedic character (Miracle Max's wife Valerie in The Princess Bride), could give Notaro a run for her money. Have fun storming the castle!

After watching Picard season 3 and getting to this, uh, yah nah. The fighting scenes were somehow more cheesy than tos and 90s trek. This episode was pretty half-baked. I really enjoyed season 1 for the most part, but good lord why are the writers and producers allergic to making a consistently good trek show in this day and age? Starfleet personnel once again acting like unprofessional bozos. If this is how the rest of the season is going to be I'm just not going to bother watching any more of this show. A hangover is a punishment for stealing a ship? Yeah that's fair.

I guess you can watch this episode for yourself and make your own call on whether this is what you'd like to see. It's a downshift from the solid start that season 1 brought in, not looking great so far.

Anson Mount gets something of a day off, barely visible in this Season 2 starter, as crew members Jess and Babs get to take centerstage.

Several novelties mark the show, first off having Spock "steal" the Enterprise for a definitely unauthorized mission necessary to thwart some greedy folks on the verge of restarting a federation war with the Klingons.

Former colleague Chrisitna sends the warning, and it's Spock and his crew to the rescue. It's a rather serious and talky segment, leading to Babs & Jess excelling at hand to hand combat to selflessly save the day and survive under a minute of freezing unprotected (no space suits) in Outer Space before Spock rescues them on cue. Carol Kane as new cast and crew member is delightful, adding humanity to the show, even though she isn't human.