209. The Shape of Star Trek (SNW 3.06)

Anika and Liz battle an ancient and unbeatable enemy: grimdark anti-morality in Star Trek. We're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail", an episode with all the ingredients of Star Trek except its soul...

• This feels like a backdoor pilot for a series which has been around for nearly 60 years
• Why are we spending so much time developing James Kirk instead of the regulars? We have had a whole movie trilogy about Kirk learning to be a good captain!
• Take a drink every time Anika says this should have been an Una episode!
• SNW does not understand why people love watching Kirk and Spock together, and we say that as people who don't ship K/S
• It's weird how Kirk's characterisation in Strange New Worlds has so little to do with "Where No Man Has Gone Before". We have never asked this question before, and we hope to never ask it again, but: do we need more Gary Mitchell up in here?
• How much was season 3 impacted by the strikes?
• Pike sending La'an into danger while he hangs back is not a good look
• "I wasn't sad about killing 7,000 people until I found out they were human" is bad ethics and bad Star Trek
• How many NFTs do we think Pelia owned?