Logline
A distress call from Lt. Noonien-Singh compels Spock to disobey orders and take the USS Enterprise and its crew into disputed space, risking renewed hostilities with the Klingons in a bid to aid their shipmate.
Written by Henry Alonso Myers & Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Chris Fisher
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This is a fine episode, but I felt it tried to take on too much when it absolutely did not need to. The stolen starship thing never felt purposeful. I presume its intent is to help set up why the enterprise is going so deep into klingon territory, but i’m just not sold on that. I think an espionage/stealth set up would’ve been a better balance (especially with later sneaking through the asteroids).
Others have brought up Spock’s emotion and how it’s seemingly exceeding TOS Spock. Personally, Im not too concerned with this. I tend to be pretty fast and lose with canon (i’m here to have fun, not stress over every thing). With that said, my best theory is that between now and The Cage, Spock will have some traumatic event which forces him to lock away his emotions further.
The Cage (in which Spock smiles and laughs) was set prior to season 2 of Discovery (in which Spock is an emotional mess) which was in turn set prior to season 1 of Strange New Worlds.
You probably mean The Menagerie in which he effortlessly and stoicly steals the Enterprise to return Pike to Talos IV (under penalty of death, no less).
But those events are several years away, and it should not come as a surprise to anyone but the most devout of Voyager fans that characters should develop and change over time.
Spock is a dyslexic half human who also just lost his adoptive sister only about a year ago, in a very traumatic and very classified fashion at that. And on top of that, he, like Burnham, is still learning what it means to be human after a youth of being forced to be exclusively Vulcan.
It is logical to assume that one’s ability to conquer one’s emotions should improve with age and with experience (outside of Trellium-induced brain damage or plot-device geriatric diseases). He certainly seems a lot more in control now than when he was throwing a temper tantrum in Burnham’s quarters (despite his setback in SNW s01).
The whole point is experiencing the journey that gets Spock to that point. It is no different than Cadet Uhura versus Lieutenant Uhura.
Isn’t that what Trek is supposed to be about? The human[oid] condition?
Completely agreed about Spock’s emotional journey. It’s also important to note that Spock’s relationship with the crew of the Enterprise is far more familial and personal at this time than it is TOS. Look at how Ortegas and Uhura tease him mercilessly on the bridge, and he indulges them with an air of bemusement. I think that by the time he becomes Jim Kirk’s first officer, years from now, he will have seen this close-knit group of officers move on one by one… and as friends come and go, he’ll adopt a more distanced, some might say more professional attitude, one that he considers befitting of an executive officer.
I can see this, also as he is promoted - I imagine a Lieutenant might still be able to be “one of the guys” in a way that the XO just can’t be (for newer people) - but I also have trouble seeing how you wouldn’t remain friends with the people you did know before, i.e. Uhura. Maybe just “You have to act professionally when other people are around”, which also could be a discussion that happens just after she was flirting with him on the bridge (and would make that whole thing in TOS make more sense in line with the other romantic instances for Spock - they never were romantic actually, it just was the last time she was teasing him on the bridge, and she happened to do it that way that time).