Charades

He's a grandson of Gregory Peck.

His performance in the Star Trek universe as Spock has been measured and subtlety. Here's his chance to be outlandish and explosive. He's also obviously having fun.

If there's anything missing is maybe a bit more slapstick. Not his fault, but he is so good as he struggles to kill a certain someone whose slovenly habits become unbearable after years of going along and cleaning up the other person's mess.

For those of us who quietly take care of others, it's a moment of joy and release - and spittle.

And we get the joy of seeing Mila back as his mother Amanda.

This episode felt like Trek ought to be. The writing was tight, the developments natural, the humor unforced, and the story made sense.

After the episode, I had a huge Spock-like grin on my face. They really nailed this one out of the park, and that is saying a lot considering the nail-biting disappointment of more recent Trek franchises.

I'm impressed with how the storylines in this episode complimented one another and there was no pointless unresolved plot strings.

And we all love seeing our (nearly) emotionless, stoic Spock being subjected to human emotion and the "sacrifice" Chapel makes to reverse something that had happened.

A scene in which 4 of Spock's shipmates imitate his Vulcan mannerisms is legitimately funny, and the chemistry between him and Nurse Chapel is fantastic.

I believed this episode, and I hope more magnificent writing shown here beams down in future installments.

Hey he may not look as much like Leonard Nimoy as Zach Quinto does (except for his deep voice) but Ethan Peck is really selling it as Spock.

And in this episode, he delivers a shall we say variation on Spock (no spoilers) that is pretty amazing and makes me wish we could keep that character too, or at least revisit him (time travel/alt reality episode?) sometime.

They're also getting the hang of comedy. Last season there were some attempts that were misfires but this one delivers subtle comedy, from the officious "gas clouds" to the prissy Vulcans and their rituals.

And we get some interesting developments in the interpersonal realm that makes me wish we could just regard this as an alternate-reality Star Trek without worrying about where we know these characters will all end up.

This episode was a much needed change of pace that focused on interpersonal relationships between every major character on the show. Having the luxury of downtime was a key factor in establishing that this cast has the chemistry and ability to create magic on set. Spending time crafting the viewer's sense of the show's spiritual emotional center.. in the moments where key characters also experience the same developments allows for some incredibly wonderful payoffs. If you have any friends or family that need to be sold on the idea of Strange New Worlds, this is the episode to show them. Although plot elements are carried through, it also serves as an effective bottle episode and brings all the charm of the best Berman era camaraderie focused episodes(ie Data's Day, Lower Decks).

This episdode was a delightful spock centred episode. While a lot of it was comedy, dealing with changes to spocks character, there was a romantic sub plot between Spock and Jess.

Suprising a clash between Vulcan logic and traditioan, forces spock to actually question his Vulcan side over his human side, something he rarely does. In this case, spoke realised what his mother must be going through, living in an alien culture and forced to adapt for love.

I found the scenes where spock finally related to his mother and what she had gone through very powerful - such a logical emotionless character to fincally show his feelings.

Overall, there was a lot in this, some great humour, romance and drama. Awesome episode.