I do agree that the chemistry between Ethan Peck and Jess Bush is way more intense than between Leonard Nimoy and Majet Barrett. That isn't the kind of onscreen chemistry the writers should just disregard or throw away -- you've gotta do something with it. Going full Spock/Chapel would be an interesting take, and would give both characters an arc to distinguish themselves from their TOS versions.
And I do think there's a strong argument to be made anymore for treating TOS as "diet canon" rather than fully canonically binding on future continuity.
This is a nit-pick, but I don't understand the point of referring to the Peregrine as a Sombra-class starship yet treating its exterior and interior as visually almost identical to the Enterprise. Why not just refer to it as a Constitution class?
I wouldn't be surprised if the writers were planning on doing an Alien pastiche as far back as "Momento Mori." And doing a pastiche like this is a completely legitimate creative choice -- Star Trek has a long history of doing pastiches of other films and novels. Li Nalas on DS9 was a pastiche of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" was a pastiche of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" were pastiches of Seven Days in May; "Balance of Terror" was a pastiche of the submarine film The Enemy Below; "Elaan of Troyius" is a pastiche of The Taming of the Shrew; "The Drumhead" is a pastiche of The Crucible combined with elements of Judgment at Nuremberg and The Caine Mutiny; etc.
Buckley was awesome!
I really don't think we have enough information about the Gorn culture or biology to come to that conclusion at all. What we do know, really?
We know that at least some Gorn reproduce parasitically, then rapidly develop into canine-size creatures that are extremely violent and aggressive, both among themselves and to other species. This particular variety of Gorn is also capable of reproducing very soon after leaving their gestational hosts. We know that at least one faction of Gorn uses "breeding planets" and appears to abduct alien species for use as breeding stock for the parasitic Gorn.
We know from the Kelvin Timeline that at least some Gorn experience something akin to mammalian pregnancy and that these young can be extracted from the pregnant adult via C-section; we know that Gorn infants born via this process can also be at least somewhat aggressive since Dr. McCoy remarked that they bite. This would seem to imply that there are at least two different species of Gorn, or that one Gorn variety or the other is a heavily-modified subspecies.
We know that at least one faction of Gorn operates sophisticated starships capable of warp travel, with powerful weapons that grant them tactical performance comparable to that of a Constitution-class starship. We know that this faction engages in what appears to be some form of ritualized predatory behavior towards non-Gorn, suggesting the possibility that at least one faction of Gorn interprets their relationships towards alien species through the lens of the relationships between apex predators and their prey.
We know that in about 10 years, the Gorn will respond to the establishment of a Federation colony on Cestus III by interpreting it as a hostile act and encroachment on their territory, but will not attempt to communicate. Instead, this faction of Gorn will massacre the colony, and then fake transmissions in order to lure the Enterprise into a trap. The commanding officer of this Gorn faction will engage in combat with Kirk under the supervision of the Metron, and will yield when defeated and shown mercy. We know that in the 2370s, Cestus III is established Federation territory and the fight with the Gorn is well-remembered.
We know that Gorn have wedding ceremonies, and that in 2380 Rutherford crashed on a planet where one was happening and was attacked for encroaching on the ceremony. We know that in 2381, a Gorn chef was living aboard Starbase 25.
We know that at least one faction of the Gorn is recognized as a sovereign state known as the Gorn Hegemony. We know the Gorn Hegemony had dealings with the Orion Syndicate in the 2150s. We do not know if any of the factions of the Gorn we have encountered so far are affiliated with or part of the Hegemony, or if there might be other Gorn factions.
That's... not a lot. Gorn culture is still very much a blank slate. The fairest summary we can make is that there are at least two species of Gorn; that at least one faction is highly aggressive and treats aliens as prey and breeding stock; that it is unclear if that is the common behavior of most Gorn or to what extent Gorn are politically unified.
I really don't think abducting one of their children and indoctrinating them into Federation culture is a good way to build bridges of peace. That would be an act of colonialism, not an act of diplomacy. In an ideal world, they would have tried to capture the Gorn children and then return them to a Gorn ship peacefully. Though since that was obviously not possible given the resources at their disposal, I don't think the Enterprise crew did anything wrong.
Do we actually know the Gorn are ectothermic, or is that an assumption based upon the Gorn children's dislike of cold?
The kids must have gotten into the food storage lockers, because there's no way they could have grown so large so quickly without eating a lot in the meantime.
I mean, these Gorn were literally children less than a day old. If anything, they seem comparatively smarter than newborn Humans.
Sure! Lost in the sense of not knowing how to control the emotions he had unleashed. Presumably, the death of Hemmer -- one of the few non-Humans aboard the Enterprise to whom Spock seemed somewhat close -- also triggered some unresolved feelings of trauma from losing Michael less than a year ago.
But I think he's also realizing that he and Christine are actually more compatible than he and T'Pring -- because, unlike T'Pring, Christine lives a life that's similar to his and actually accepts Spock for who he is rather than trying to make him fit into one box or another. So he's simultaneously feeling like he's found something he didn't know he was missing -- but also extremely disoriented because this is a threat to the life he had planned for himself with T'Pring.
