One thing that jumped out at me was the adjectives used: “scientists, explorers, adventurers.” The episode reinforced what Starfleet as an organization and Trek as a concept are all about.
This is important; there’s a distinct feel to the narrative, cinematography, performances and dialogue that the other series def don’t have and kinda maintains through all four (soon to be five) seasons.
Their early scenes kind of felt pissy in a way you don’t usually see in star trek.
I liked them, personally. I often think about what conflict would look like in a post-scarcity people… and sibling resentment, minor grudges (re: Una) feel like the sort of thing that stand the test of time.
It’s such a tragic moment because both their responses were reasonable.
T’Pring is about to be Spock’s wife, and it’s not simply a business union–she’s very much in love with him. She’s eager to be his partner and keeping changes in his life from her compromises that partnership.
The thing about Spock is that up to the end of the episode he’s still wrestling with the isolation that being bi-racial has come with–he’s aware that T’Pring should be let in but emotionally he’s never come around to that, having grown up at odds with other Vulcans.
What saddens me is that if Spock had communicated how his status affects his approach to full-blooded Vulcans (indeed if had even known to communicate it), I have no doubt T’Pring would have been much more forgiving… alas we sometimes figure out ourselves too late.
So wouldn’t a human Spock (with biologically human nature, but the nurture that Spock carries from his life experience being raised as a Vulcan) actually be super rational and logical?
I reasoned that whatever tools Spock employed failed for one of two reasons:
Vulcan responses to emotion are extreme: surprise isn’t just surprise it’s abject terror, happiness isn’t just happiness but absolute mf hype, disappointment is more like a spiral of depression. Since human response to emotion is much more measured by comparison, he’d need time to recalibrate… time he didn’t have.
The procedure that removed his hybrid nature removed whatever moderation was done to him. As a normal human he may not even have a katra anymore, so it’s possible that whatever physiological changes that take place after kolinar aren’t there because not all of the physiology is there.
