As Spock is torn between his human and Vulcan sides, I am torn between my "OH, JUST HAVE FUN" side and my "why is it so stupid" side. So I'll try to approach the episode from both angles...
"Why is it so stupid" first to get it out of the way so we can finish the post positively: Yeah, I hate how dumbed down the science is in Star Trek now. I know it's never been hard sci-fi but they don't even make an effort anymore. A character will say something scientific then someone else will say "wow, science is SOOOOOOOO sciencey!" They're supposed to be Starfleet officers! They're supposed to be smart!
Sorry, I went on a tangent and maybe that doesn't apply as much to this episode, it's just a thing that annoys me. The way they treated the Vulcan DNA is stupid as fuck, of course. Vulcans work to suppress their emotions, they aren't born as completely emotionless robots (the episode even acknowledges this by making La'an different.) Injecting "Vulcan DNA" into you wouldn't just make you turn into a perfectly logical asshole with Vulcan hair instantly. And - and I'm being too serious here I know - It's kind of problematic how La'an turns out to be a "bad" Vulcan because she's got "bad genes" from her distant ancestor Khan. There's no "dictator gene" to be passed on.
Finally I'll just say this: when previous (live action) Trek series did comedy episodes they could get pretty silly, but I don't think they ever broke the reality of the show.
DS9 would do Ferengi comedy episodes (of varying quality), but the silliness was confined to the Ferengi. They wouldn't have Sisko marry Moogie and fall in love with her and eat tube grubs in a meeting with Admrial Ross or something. With
SNW it feels like the comedy episodes exist in an entirely different reality to the rest of the show. I feel that's the difference!
I hate how every Spock-centric episode is a comedy. Give Ethan Peck another note to play.
In
TOS, McCoy doesn't know what a mind meld is and it's treated as a secret and sacred things to the Vulcans. Here, Uhura somehow knows about it (don't tell me the knowledge is passed through DNA) and casually does one on Beto. WHATEVER. I KNOW IT'S A COMEDY, OKAY.
"OH, JUST HAVE FUN."
Patton Oswalt was funny. I found the bit with him, Spock and Una funnier than the transformeed crewmembers part. "We have two children. They have different names." or whatever the line was from Spock made me laugh out loud. The post credit scene was very funny and I liked Ethan Peck grinning at the end because it reminded me of Nimoy breaking character and laughing near the end of
The Voyage Home.
I liked that Spock's human side was what helped with getting Doug to help (though they could have made more of this in the episode.)
I liked how the Spock/La'an fight turned into a dance.
Marie finally showed a bit of personality.
Jess Bush looked great as a Vulcan.
I didn't hate it, I'm not going to quit the show, but I hope the next two episodes aren't dumb.
