This show is so wholesome and peak.
Kyoto Animation is doing such an amazing job at animating this series.
Also, who is that girl that rigged the race for Matsuri and Eri? I don't remember seeing her before this episode, but there are so many characters it's easy to have missed her.
A Darmok, The Enemy and Arena episode is not what I was expacting but I was pleasantly surprised.
I don't mind retreading old stories, after all recycling plots is a Star Trek tradition.
I'd have been happier without the reveal of the Metrons. I get it, as a callout/foreshadowing of Arena, but I kind of feel that is took away from the emotional beat of the Gorn being killed by the security team. Then to also have it handwaved away with a memory wipe, so that it is only meant for us, the viewers. I don't know man... I kind of like the deepcut, but it's also distracting.
I guess it was also a bit necessary for us to understand the Gorn a bit more to have the all seeing eye narrate to us that the Gorn pilot was lonely and is the reason Ortega was spared.
Anyway, I loved this episode. We got a whole episode for Ortega. Addressed her PTSD that had been sitting in the backseat for this entire season. And I love these kind of survival episodes. Like I really enjoyed ENT's Shuttlepod One for the same reason. Just seeing characters fighting for their lives and also accepting their death in a cold and uncaring Universe. It's good compelling Star Trek.
The only thing I wish is that SNW's best episodes didn't feel like the best of TOS.