[CaptainCrunch]

Ad Astra Per Aspera

I have to admit that I'm a sucker for legal dramas. One of my favorite old movies is still the Canine Mutiny where the best part of it was not on board the Caine but in the court room. This was a really well written court room drama where we didn't have the crew running around finding miracle evidence to free the defendant, but instead the crew were relegated to spectators and Pike relegated to wondering if his career was about to end. Neera Ketoul was a force in this episode as she manipulated all of the testimony and cornered to court to make the right decision in the end and to free number 1. But this is one of the most power pieces of social commentary based about racism based on fear. The people of earth had gone through a terrifying period of rule by the augmented supermen like Khan and established racist draconian laws to prevent it. This episode was about the difficulties in tearing it down. Spock also continued to brilliantly play the straight man in this series as his Gilbert and Sullivan testimony was so dead pan and brilliant.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

I guess its easy to guess that La'an has become one of my favorite characters of the ensemble cast as they've given her a real depth, and intriguing lineage and back story, and I think Christina Chong is brilliant in this role. This is a paint by numbers time travel story, that they could have really played with if they had made it a two parter. But the Character interaction between Singh and Kirk is actually so satisfying and you see how lonely Singh's life has become because of her guarded nation. We also got the fascinating question. Could you kill Hitler as a young boy, if you thought it would save millions but you knew the effects could be as bad or worse. Could you look a child in the eye and kill him for what you believe is the greater good. Singh had the opportunity to kill Khann as a youngster, but not only was the cost to high, but it would be wrong no matter the results.

Charades

This was such an important episode wrapped in absolutely brilliant and ludicris writing beats. As Spock's Vulcan DNA is ripped from him. We get brilliant struggles by Spock to control his emotion, but none better then when he completely loses it on Sam Kirk for not cleaning up his plates and has to be held back from killing him. I'm sure we can all related. Sadly this brings an end to the Spock T'Pring story line, which was really brilliant. And we get the someone ham fisted Chapel Spock romance, which I think is a weak part of the show.

To be continued