Yes, the Klingon augment thing was deeply stupid, both in-universe and out, and I think it’s to SNW’s strength that we’re all just going to pretend it didn’t happen.

It’s still so weird that they got the one completely charisma-free actor on the show to play Jim Kirk, and yet Sam Kirk lights up every scene he’s in

I think season 4 was the only one I didn’t have to push myself to like - there were lots of great bits scattered throughout the first three seasons, but the fourth is where I felt like the whole season was enjoyable and strong (particularly the last couple of episodes).

I adore how campy this looks, but I’m so frustrated by the constant shoehorning of Kirk into the show. Maybe if the performance were interesting or there was something compelling about him it would be different, but he just seems to drag down the show whenever he appears (outside of the episode with La’an, but really, she was doing all of the work in that one).

How do you say “devour feculence” in Klingon?

And of course she has perfect taste and loves DS9. Iconic.

FINALLY a Cerritos!

Why are they wasting this on Picard ships?

I cannot tell if it’s terrifying or just hilariously bad. She looks like a drunk ventriloquist doll.

I guess they couldn’t make a Rutherford because all their plastic went to Spock’s incredibly long torso. Also, this set is VERY kind to Jonathan Frakes.

Every day this world gets dumber and dumber and yet I’m still surprised by how completely incompetent and unstable the main ENT crew (sans T’Pol and Phlox) are. It is something that even by 2025 standards - which are just about the lowest standards for stupidity possible - these people probably could probably not get through a week working at Walmart without getting fired for like fighting a stranger or sexually harassing their coworker.

Brent Spiner, who has a story credit on “Star Trek Nemesis”

Life finds new ways to disappoint you every day

I’ve seen people suggest adding alcohol, but I think the idea is to simulate that Klingon coffee would have a sharpness or bite to it, rather than assuming that raktajino on the show would actually have alcohol. I played around with some recipes for fun and I actually mixed a few together and found something pretty delicious. I mix Turkish coffee, a small amount of whipped milk, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and a little honey.

Frankly, the scene that introduced Stamets and Culber together I think was intended to surprise the audience in a different way –– Stamets is a huge jerk the previous few episodes and set up as a semi-antagonist, and that bit shows him in a very different light, as the audience/Burnham starts to thaw on the Discovery crew.

The Orion ship that arrives to collect Tendi is inspired by the one introduced in “The Pirates of Orion”, but appears to be a more modern iteration of that craft, as well as being significantly larger.

There have been a number of references to that episode this season, but STILL no one has said “Oreeeeon” or worn a silly green jumpsuit/helmet combo. Like what are they even doing?

If Locarno had kidnapped like Harry Kim or Geordi or some shit and put them on that viewscreen like he did Mariner, we would have had a full episode’s worth of them interminably trying to find a way to play along and send a secret message out and agonizing over the situation, when just yelling “this guy’s an idiot and his plan is stupid” is genuinely a vastly better plan.

The information broker has had cosmetic surgery to resemble the puppet Balok used to appear intimidating in “The Corbomite Maneuver”

I don’t think it specifies in the episode that the information broker had cosmetic surgery, does it? I wondered if this episode was trying to semi-canonize the Dassik. I don’t really care either way because that bit was hilarious.

Are you implying that there’s a joke in a Canon Connections post? Inconceivable.

I loved this one. I’d read a Ryan North comic about Shaxs doing pretty much anything, but nice to see him in action fighting fascists.

With all the “Pirates of Orion” references in this one, they really missed the boat not having at least someone pronounce Orion the insane way they do in that episode.

The Bill thing at least is a joke about TNG season 1 - they had Troi call him Bill and it was in the early series bible that Picard would call him William and he would be called Bill by “close female friends.” I hate these shorts (although I’m glad they exist for the animation, at least), but that was a pretty funny callback.