I used to see Strange New Worlds as Star Trek's saving grace - a series that got back to the basics that made the original shows so watchable. But all these novelty episodes are starting to wear me down. The original TOS and TNG writers had enough of a science background to at least try to pay lip service to plausibility, even if it meant coming up with various hyperspace anomalies and hand wavium to explain things. People at NASA used to watch and be inspired by those shows! But what kind of remotely plausible transporter physics could "malfunction" in a way that turns everyone into living, breathing puppets, as opposed to quivering piles of mystery meat? Unless it's just script writers j***ing off for their own amusement, without really caring how it affects the show, its fans, or the greater Star Trek universe. Or maybe they were all just doing mushrooms when they wrote this one. It seems the Trek franchise has a lot of writers and producers like that these days, with no respect for the original material – out of any good ideas, and willing to burn it all to the ground for a few laughs. I really miss the days when Gene Roddenberry was steering the ship. Do you think he would have ever allowed a muppet episode?

Nielsen rating: 3.651 million viewers with 0.19% 18-49 demographic

That news just makes me sad. This show deserves better. The cast and characters are solid. The stories are interesting. And Mark Harmon's bookend narration elevates each episode from the usual case of the week into something more like parables or life lessons. If it all ends after 2 seasons, the Gibbs backstory will be left with a lot of holes and unanswered questions. But however much CBS likes to talk about the NCIS "family", they still ruthlessly cut shows that under-perform.

I'm not sure where all the hate is coming from. I almost turned this off too after the first few minutes, but fortunately stuck with it. I was rewarded with a send-up of not only the original series, but some of the behind the scenes drama associated with it. Along the way, they talked about how a cheesy low budget sci-fi show might offer a safe place to discuss controversial real world subjects, and go on to inspire generations of fans - just in time for its 60th anniversary. While parodying stereotypes of Gene Roddenberry, Lucille Ball, William Shatner - or John Belushi's SNL version of him - plus the original sets, effects, costumes, and tropes, it was aimed squarely at long time Trek fans who don't take it all too seriously. It also introduced a not quite ready to deploy holodeck, and then safely tucked it away for the next generation to re-discover, so didn't break continuity nearly as much as introducing the Gorn last season. It ended with some hilarious outtakes from the show within the show at the end, that I'm sure were based on real on-set misadventures from the time. That said, it will be nice to get a few "straight" episodes to balance out all the goofiness this season.

Since nobody else has mentioned the obvious Peter Pan shaped elephant in the room - as if the first episode title wasn't a big enough clue - here it is:
Boy Kavalier: Peter Pan
Wendy: Wendy Darling
Joe: John or Michael Darling? not sure which
Kumi: Hook - complete with an artificial hand
Smee: Smee - Hook's first mate
Slightly, Curly, Nibs: Lost boys, same as in Peter Pan
Kirsh: I dunno, Tick Tock? Although the Alien itself is a contender for this one
Tinker Bell: ? - maybe she'll show up in season 2, unless she's the Eye alien or something
I'm sure there are more. Maybe some of the bad writing that has been commented on previously was to hammer the Alien franchise into this other Disney franchise. When corporate branding gets involved, all bets about story integrity are off. It still looks good, so I'll stick around a bit longer to see where it goes.