Episode 4
Another good episode that I had a few issues with by the end but none of them were big enough to outweigh the stuff I really liked. I will always be hyper-critical when it comes to Star Trek and nitpick way more than I would in other shows and there is quite a bit to nitpick in Strange New Worlds, but overall it's been very good.
Some serious Balance of Terror and Wrath of Khan vibes going on with this one which obviously takes from WW2 submarine warfare films as well. I enjoy big pew-pew fights like Sacrifice of Angels, etc but these slower methodical starship battles are great. I was getting some big Das Boot reminders (one of my favourite films of all time) as well when they were descending into the Brown Dwarf.
Good to see the Gorn (even if we don't actually see them) a species that is largely ignored in Trek after TOS (probably because of the negative "hokey" connotation they have) so it was good for them to feel like a real threat here and obviously playing into La'an's backstory as well.
All the cat and mouse stuff was done really well and did the inspirations it was obviously riffing from justice.
The show does seem to lean pretty heavily into a main character's personal trauma story every episode and the mind meld to get the solution to how to fight back seemed like it had no build-up at all for something that is a pretty big deal to perform but, OK. Not a massive issue.
The other minor issue I had was that the Enterprise felt kind of empty. There is hardly any background crew shown at all after the start of the episode and it felt weirdly off. Again, this is a nitpick and not a big deal but I noticed it.
Everything else was good. The production is slick, the acting is good from everyone and the CG space stuff looks great. Another winner, winner, chicken dinner!