Actually the more I ponder it, the more it stops holding up and I don't really care for it.

• The show really undercuts Kirk (IMHO) by having his plan be 1) risk killing himself by accident by hiding amid the radioactive phaser whatever it was to establish a bluff, and then spike his CO's drink with a high potency drug he only just learned of and he shouldn't be playing around with because, I don't know, he's not a doctor. This is smarter and better for the character than showing us Kirk staking out the moral high ground, standing that ground, and finding another resolution?
• M'Benga deciding to not only go along for the ride on this but take the blame doesn't do him any favors either. I know they're setting up M'Benga's departure to mesh with TOS, but if this story went "M'Benga takes the moral stand and relieves him even though maybe Starfleet won't support that stance after the fact" that would have been a stronger character point too.
• Really, while this sets up "M'Benga will wind up departing but Kirk will be cool with him coming back later in TOS because he knows the true story", the idea that M'Benga is allowed to stay in Starfleet after admitting to drugging his CO to have an excuse to relieve him of duty is kind of wild. Or at least how that came to pass would be a good story (that we'll never see).
• Watching this again, I hear Picard saying Starfleet's first duty is to the truth and wondering when exactly Starfleet got there, because it's sure not in this episode.

Just got to watch this week's. It was all right, I guess, compared to most of the rest of the season. My best praise is it was good enough to make me forego head-desking that they found yet another reason to get Kirk aboard the Enterprise for a story about him.

Well now we need to re-remaster that episode, obviously.

I will always reserve judgment until seeing it (taking the hypothetical stance that this actually gets made), but it's not an exciting description of a Star Trek project (to me).

I'm sorry but no. Of all the "and it didn't happen/gets reset at the end" episodes of Star Trek -- possibly of all of television -- that was the biggest waste of time I've ever subjected myself to.

Here's the first (big FWIW/grain of salt/etc) thing on the decision that's I've seen (besides the TrekMovie article note that 'it's no secret that the show didn't Nielsen chart'). From author Mike Chen on Bluesky.

From the few insiders I know, viewership was actually above expectations and this was more of a "future of the franchise" corporate decision. I'm expecting Trek to be in flux as there are SO MANY variables. Everything from tech stocks to Iran to midterms is impacting Paramount.

Leaving the link to his post here for reference but he has his posts hidden unless you're logged into Bluesky.

Random reactions:

• Disappointed but not surprised.
• Even though the article leaves this an open question, I will be surprised if Kurtzman returns after this.
• At least they didn't memory hole S2 as a tax write off.
• I wonder if they will attempt (and be allowed to attempt) to rework the S2 'cliffhanger-ish/lite' ending into something else, or if it's just impractical to rework a "part 1 of 2" episode into a 1 episode contained story.

Oh shit, that was fun. I hate having to wait now. Also, the end credits are sublime and must be paused and read in their entirely. This is non-negotiable.

Quieter episode but I enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting a Genesis story this season from what's been said, but I was glad to get one.

I hadn't heard that, other than they got his blessing basically (and the licensing) and he was given a copy of the script to read. Cirroc Lofton seems to be the one that was as close to hands-on involved as you can get when you're not a writer of the script.

Presumably it's a combination of "thank you for what you contributed to Star Trek" and maybe a way to acknowledge him letting them license the final scene narration off of an album he did some 20 years ago.

Loved the episode, no notes.