Episode 2.3 "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and..." Discussion Thread

Haven't read the comments on this thread nor on the last few episodes threads as I'm quite busy at work (including a quick trip to my old second home in Nunavik), but I'll say the first episode was okay, the second one was good and this last one was quite bland.

Still not sure about having Kirk there (a second alternate timeline Kirk for SNW), nor am I truly seeing Kirk in Paul Wesley (but he got closer to a likable Kirk and it's definitely not his fault he was cast for the role). Jim and La'an had little chemistry, despite the actors' efforts. I also really like Christina Chong's La'an (and I might have a minor crush on her), but the story really only shone in the last 15 minutes or so (where most of the real story and character development happened) and it feels like the writers are wondering a bit what to do with her.

I'm getting extremely wary of time-travel episodes in general, but one thing that was interesting was that they did hint about the "main timeline" changing a bit when the Romulan agent (that character was annoying in multiple and diverse ways, which was in itself a feat) mentioning she's been waiting 30 years for Khan to appear, which seems to confirm a theory often expressed by fans (including a version based on First Contact often mentionned by Sehlat, but that wouldn't seem to be at play here) that the original timeline itself has been changing since we first watched Trek in the sixties.

As someone who lived in Toronto for two years, I also have a mixed feeling about that. I'm glad the city stars at itself (even though I believe its reputation is surfeit), I am as usual annoyed that it tries to appropriate poutine as its own, which Anglo-Canadians - and Torontonians (as demonstrated by the Blue Jays) in particular - have a bad habit of doing (my strong opinions on poutine being a Québec dish is an old running gag going back to Trekweb and Astrobar days, so I'm happy Trek allows me to discuss it organically here), but aside from the cheapness of modern Trek to film numerous time-travel episodes in the time-period and cities they are filming in, it's mostly superficial annoyance, aside from the MacGuffin giant bridge in the Toronto harbour.

That said, that "nonexistent in real life" bridge brings another interesting time-related point in the fact that Trek now has numerous instances (the 2024 Europa mission in PIC S02 and now that big freaking bridge) of that universe's early 21st century looking quite different from our own.

Regarding the story, I got annoyed by the storytelling shortcuts, as if the writers really didn't want to think too much about the logistical issues of being stranded in our time, but still wanted to address it (The most egregious: making enough money while hustling at chess, of all things, to pay for a very nice hotel suite in downtown Toronto without a credit card; bribing a border guard (!!!); and a downtown car chase ending with a warning from the cops because a passerby (AKA annoying Romulan) films and heckles them).

Also having Pelia - a very interesting character - show up to be mostly useless was both an interesting twist and a disservice to the character. It felt like a bit of padding to the episode's running time (which was already quite long).

As a final note, my girlfriend - who gave up on all the other modern Treks and still loves SNW - liked the first episode of the season more than I did but was extremely disappointed and annoyed with this one. But I did point out one benefit of episodic TV: You can move on to the next one without bringing all the season's bagage like we had to do with Picard.