ValueSubtracted

It sounds like you're most interested in outdoor stuff?

Doing my rewatch now, and you're correct. So it serves as an indicator that he's changed as he's grown up (and it's not actually related to Anisha breaking out of prison, since he didn't learn of that until months later), and also that she doesn't expect him to have changed.

I think we'd have to know a lot more to draw that conclusion - and not for nothing, but from what I can remember, she announced herself on social media - CBS didn't really say anything IIRC.

Interesting to see this coming from a member of the opposition after Kinew signaled disinterest in going down that road right now.

My memory is hazy, but I think there was an, "I stopped trying after _____ happened" line. For the life of me I can't think of what it was, and it's possible that I hallucinated it.

Why did they bother introducing the Athena’s bridge crew if they’re not going to use them?

Alex Kurtzman has said on a couple of occasions that this series is less expensive to produce that you might imagine, and I do think there have been a handful of moments throughout the season that seemed like cost-cutting measures. This was definitely one of them.

But… are we sure he’s a genius if he never thought to try that moon’s name as an encryption cypher?

It whizzed by pretty fast, but they did say it's something he used to try pretty often, and eventually gave up on, and started concentrating on more complicated, "adult" searches. I kind of like that.

“Oh hey, is that planet in the Federation now? You know the one, what’s it called?”

It did stand out, especially when the planet in question is friggin' ~~Vulcan~~ Ni'Var. I assume that's some exposition for the newbies that will become relevant in the finale, but it was definitely odd.

Caleb wanting to rejoin his mum over staying with his friends felt like a real betrayal. And his teardown of Darem and Genesis even more so. That was brutal.

I'm definitely more attached to these kids than I expected. And Tatiana Maslany is talented enough that her sudden-but-inevitable betral next week is going to be a real gut punch.

All in all, I agree that it's a pretty good table-setting episode.

Yep.

May the rest of the galaxy have your healthy perspective.

I think they've managed to strike a balance with the new shows so far - each one of them feels unique enough that I don't necessarily feel any fatigue.

That's circular reasoning, though.

The fact that Alcubierre was inspired by Star Trek to come up with something (theoretically) workable does not mean that the warp drive as originally conceived was somehow "grounded in physics." At the end of the day, the similarities are pretty superficial.

Alcubierre’s theoretical proof of concept for warp drives was created in the mid 1990s nearly 30 years after TOS first broadcast and TNG had completed its run.

Probably the most salient point - one cannot credibly claim that the warp drive was "based on science" that hadn't yet been published, and wouldn't be for three decades.