this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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My partner and I really liked this one.
We both think it’s in the top rank of Star Trek episodes. In my view it may be the best of SNW to date.
It definitely should be the ‘For Your Consideration’ episode of this season.
The direction was excellent. This was one of the best dramatic performances from Mount as Pike since season two of Discovery.
My sense is that some viewers were mistaking the C-plot about the warring groups, for the A-plot about the Enterprise officers response to the ethical choice between orders and the free will of a sentient being or the B-plot about the making of the documentary.
I can’t agree that the episode was too short. The best Trek episodes are tightly rendered and leave lots of room for thought after.
The part about the officers' ethical decision should have been the A-plot, but the episode basically forced the documentary angle on us as the A-plot. I think that's the fundamental problem; if this had just been an episode about them wrestling with the ethical ramifications of using a sentient creature as a weapon, it would have been top-tier Star Trek.
I enjoyed the episode, but I agree that the documentary framing device seemed to preclude any serious discussion of the ethical problem, like you'd get in the 1701-D's conference (briefing?) room. Instead, we got a lot of Pike saying "Orders is orders!"
We're not privy to Pike's communications with Starfleet, there's little nuance to any discussion of the issue we do see, and the Lutani get so little screen time, they're practically 2d.
I liked the novelty of the format, and I generally enjoy the way SNW mixes things up. I do think it often leans too far into style, to the detriment of substance.
Frankly, we saw more in Pike’s face and heard more in his tone of voice — grim and determined - than any debates might have given us.
We were shown rather than told, and that’s a good thing.
This was arguably Anson Mount’s best, most sincere, performance as Pike since Discovery season two. There’s been a glibness in Pike in SNW. Both episodes 5 and 6 this season have turned that around.
It was also another episode where Una showed that she really was Pike’s First Officer and principal advisor.
I don’t see the documentary as the A-plot at all.
It was constantly present as a frame, but the episode wasn’t primarily about the documentary - it was primarily about how Starfleet captains and senior crew wrestle with ethical decisions when their orders do not align with their values, and how they seek to find information that can provide a rationale to pursue an alternative course of action.
Basically, it showed how important the crew that is present in the situation is and how that makes Starfleet more than just a military organization serving a military mission.
I agree, the documentary was simply a framing device. I think it was an interesting decision as well. The moral quandaries are not taking a backseat just because the framing device is so front and center.
I think an entire series framed like this could be very interesting with an embedded reporter creating a documentary on the on goings of a Starfleet ship.
Honestly, as an audiance we are a bit spoiled with the all seeing eye, but that's not necessarily how the average citizen in the Federation sees it.