It doesn’t matter that I love Doctor Who so much that it’s been inspiring my username for a decade and a half, that reference in this episode felt too out of pocket.

I didn’t like the time loop with such big stakes, but overall I liked this episode and the diplomatic A-plot. The scene regarding Translator mishaps was my favorite.

Also, I know feathers on Dinos is a bit of a hot button issue, but was it even the case for therapods?

Yeah, the T-Rex thing could’ve just been convergent evolution, like with cough cough all the humanoids. Plus, how’d they know about the Martians after the Enterprise was tethered?

Usually Star Trek takes a little more than the first season to get good but this did it somewhat early.

The B-plot with the ambassadorial dinner thing felt a bit incomplete, and too comic-relief without quite landing. I guess it might keep going with the next episode, but overall this one was a decent exploration about the expectations of life and bearing being thrust into a role.