I expected to like this because I've generally liked Lower Decks. I was worried though, that it might just have been a gimmick. In the end, though, it very much exceeded my expectations.
I was pretty surprised by the decision to have Boimler the only time traveler for the first half of the episode, but it was surprisingly effective because when Jack Quaid was playing him quite differently here than Lower Decks. Yes, he was fanboying at the start, and the comedic element was strong. But ultimately, the setbacks and the slower pace/different tone of SNW brought out a different side of the character. We saw a level of pathos that LD hasn't allowed to come out, as Boimler's embarrassment and frustration grew over the course of the episode. Something that contrasted pretty strongly, because Mariner more or less stayed in LDS mode the entire time, having had less time in the 23rd century to suffer setbacks.
As for the actual cast of SNW, they were all good here, as I knew they'd be, given they've done plenty of comedic bits already. Much of it was mere befuddlement at Boimler and Mariner's antics, but they did manage to wrap in some sweet character moments, from Pike's unresolved feelings around his father and his birthday, to Una's "pinup" picture, to some more Spock/Chapel drama inadvertently caused by Boims (I felt so bad for Chapel in that scene in the turbolift), to Mariner trying to teach Uhura to relax. Really everyone other than M'Benga and Ortegas got something meaningful to do here (and Ortegas almost never gets anything meaningful to do), so I can't complain.
The last-minute inclusion of a callback to Enterprise was a nifty way to technobabble themselves into a solution and also allowed the SNW crew to fanboy themselves for like 30 seconds. It would have been a much sweeter scene if someone didn't explicitly call it out though.
It was interesting they chose to include Pelia here, but I feel like they missed a beat not having Mariner meet her and drop that she knew Pelia from the future.
If I had any quibble here, it's that I thought the downtime Orions were played a bit too straight for my taste. Yes, I know that it was important to show they weren't pirates - or at least, didn't want to be pirates - but I think a bit more could have been done here to add some levity to the scenes including them.
While I know what they were going for with that final animated scene of the SNW crew, my only thought watching it was damn, Melissa Navia sounds a lot like Kira when I don't have her actual face to look at.
On the whole, a lovely romp and a near-perfect Trek comedy.
