I’m currently rewatching DS9 so I enjoyed this episode thoroughly. The show’s really growing on me.
I’d love to know if it actually resonates with audiences in the age group our cadets are in.
And Tawny Newsome as Professor Illa (last name redacted) was a treat!
Ben and Adam really have a point about characters not calling each other by their names regularly. I’d take less naturalistic writing over better remembering character names any day.
I like seeing the personal growth of these characters kicking in early. And that we don’t only focus on Caleb. When’s my Jay-den episode coming?
And while I didn’t think I‘d like the post-burn setting, it gives our characters a reason to reiterate what Star Fleet and the Federation stand for. In the classic shows, there wasn’t really a reason so argue what the federation is supposed to be (because it was objectively extremely successful the way it was). I enjoy seeing our characters rebuilding this utopia.
I never really watched TOS (except a few clips here and there) and I was positively surprised by this episode! Cool sci-fi story (love a doppelganger infiltration) and good pacing!
I adore the plant monster puppet that was so clearly just a hand in a glove with plant/flower stuff glued to it.
There is an actual RFC for "IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service" that was released on April fools day 1999.
There are some fantastic diagrams in there: 
I can recommend the Janeway autobiography by Una McCormack! She also wrote the Spock autobiography.
Listening to this episode, I remembered how I just never could warm up to Malcom Reed. I couldn’t stand him across the whole 4 seasons.
It’s not Keating’s fault, the performance is fine. It’s just the character that bums me out.
w/r/t this episode‘s drunk Shimoda: I couldn’t believe that there actually is a mouse pointer in the LCARS displays but here it is:
(yes, I took a picture of the screen because Netflix blocks screenshots)
The healing powers of pan flute music are unmatched.
Was that Patton Oswalt as a Vulcan? Maybe he's Sybok! And Rhys Darby looks like he could be playing Trelane.
How great is Tawny Newsome? Hope they’ll put her in (charge of) more new-trek stuff.
Regarding the episode: I didn’t know about the Sisko plot before, but after they called SAM an emissary and that chewy jumja stick popped into frame, I was convinced we’d get a DS9 episode.