Right, they fought a war a century ago: Earth-Romulan War.

In an interview with Open Pike Night, the author said he was inspired to use neutrinos by this NPR story and by this What If? XKCD essay.

Thanks, as always! You meant dessert not desert, though I guess strong-force neutrinos can be anything!

I wonder why they brought back Boyce instead of introducing Dr. Piper?

“Sam says Caleb is 20 years old, but I assume she’s not being precise, since he was separated from his mother nearly 16 years prior, which would make him nearly 22.” In the voice messages from his mom, she can be heard wishing him a happy 19th birthday and a happy 20th birthday.

Love these! First thing I look for after finishing an episode.

One typo: unfinished sentence in the Kometa fish paragraph.

Though I am deeply grateful that there is no cliffhanger.

In a season of genre experimentation they couldn’t decide whether to end with a Doctor Who episode or a Doctor Strange episode, so why not both?

As I’ve written elsewhere: By “time-traveling doctor,” Pelia was clearly referring to that time she did drugs with McCoy in the 1930s!

Thanks for doing these so quickly! These are always one of the first things I seek out to read after watching an episode.

• The one time I got to see Gene Roddenberry speak, he had brought along a blooper reel, which I think was fairly common to show at Star Trek conventions in the late 1970s, early 1980s?
• The Greatest Trek podcast mentioned that “TK” in the name TK Bellows is clearly an homage to the publishing term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_come_(publishing)
• The Greatest Trek also felt that the Uhura assistance to Scotty was a nod to her caregiving of him in Star Trek 5 (bringing him dinner while working, going on shore leave together)

I forgot about Gene Roddenberry’s sideburns in the 1970s. Hmm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Roddenberry#/media/File:Gene_Roddenberry_crop.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#/media/File:Isaac_and_Janet_Asimov.jpg

Anson Mount’s sideburns were a clear homage to Isaac Asimov.

Why didn’t they just put Batel in the medical transporter’s pattern buffer, like M’Benga did with his daughter?

I found it humorous that Clem is also a Lower Decker in his society!

My dad watched TOS with me when it first aired, but I was too young to remember it. My first recollection is watching it in syndication. I went on to read my dad’s many books, especially the Star Trek Concordance and the James Blish adaptations.

I’ve since discovered “Banned from Argo” (YouTube, Wikipedia).

I love this! Now you need to do an analysis like this one on Star Trek and the Bechdel-Wallace test!

I realize you’re not trying to predict quality, just personal enjoyability, but I do wonder how it relates to quality.

I actually think it might be slightly more predictive of the quality of a show overall than of individual episodes. But both ST:TOS and ST:TNG have many great captain-centric episodes that I’m not sure if it is predictive of episode quality particularly.

Great suggestion! Everyone remembers the Gorn, but the Metrons are fairly representative of the incredibly advanced aliens typical of TOS (like the Organians, Thasians, or Providers).

I think I’d suggest a planet-of-the-week episode. From TOS, “This Side of Paradise” or “A Taste of Armageddon.” From TNG, maybe “Who Watches the Watchers” or “Up the Long Ladder.”

If it is a promotional image from the studio, I would imagine it said something like “Star Trek Now on Fridays” originally. I think “pon farr” wouldn’t have yet been well known enough to mention.