Excellent episode. Thoughts:
1. WTH is up with the captain's quarters? Open flame fireplace and a kitchen, for crissake? I can only imagine Kirk when he took command of the ship: [Shat]"WT ever-loving F?!?! My quarters............are................
a broom closet!"[/Shat]
2. Ethan Peck is really growing on me as Spock- he's definitely putting in the effort. He's selling it much more than Zach Quinto ever did, at this point.
3. This version of Uhura whoops ass on Zoe Saldana's, too. Much more realistic, much less a 'badass' Trek version of Gamora from GotG, sexing up Spock.
4. So far, everyone is selling as a functional, rational adult. Especially our reluctant cadet. More of that, please!
5. Really enjoyed the use of music as a medium for communication, here.
6. Did the Shepherds remind anyone else of the creepy aliens from the Enterprise episode 'Silent Enemy'? We never saw them again in Enterprise after that one episode- maybe this could be their resurgence. There was always potential there that I felt was left unexploited. The Shepherds certainly came off as asshole-ish enough to board a ship uninvited and take samples from the crew against their will.
7. Loved the episodic format. That line: "before your sun burned in space" or whatever it was, was a total throwback to TOS. Loved it, plus the use of the term 'landing party'.
8. Do the Aenar have forehead ridges? Been a while since I watched that episode of Enterprise, but whatever. Hemmer seems cool.
9. The writers have two choices here: Pike's fate is his fate, or he beats the accident and proves once and for all that this is not the TOS timeline. Can't have it both ways.
10. I thought it was a nice touch that Number One and Spock also showed up to the captain's dinner in uniform- very in character for both of them.
Looking forward to next week!