Episode 5.6 "Whistlespeak" Discussion Thread

Fantastic episode! My kind of Trek. I love when Star Trek goes to this sort of "ethnographic" scifi, it wears proudly the badge of the best Trek of the franchise. It is also a great example on how to strike a perfect balance between serial and episodic Trek; some of the best DS9 episodes have a similar format, like "In the Pale Moonlight". I am sure you are all familiar with it, there is Story A and a Story B; A follows the serial plot line, the meta arc of the season (or the series), while B tells a tale of the episode, some new species, some new discovery, some technobabble, etc. In my humble opinion this format is Trek highest achievement in storytelling. 

This episode intertwine both stories beautifully. Story A: clue searching, the search for the Progenitors tech; Story B: Halem'no customs and their planet. Of course this had to be a Prime Directive episode, because is there any other reason of the Prime Directive but to break it? The flow of the story and the editing was top.

SPOILERS

Trek trivia for the ages: Puerto Rico is finally a prominent part of Trek culinary history. It was glorious (as a Puerto Rican myself) to see Culber replicating mofongo, an Island delight made out of plantains. So delicious!

What's up with Kovich? I bet this guy is Section 31, I don't like it but I think they are priming us to accept S31 as a fixture on New Trek. Since the movie is apparently coming, P+ executives instructed DSC creatives to find a way to inject S31 into the plot so that our eyeballs get addicted enough and keep consuming the next thing, the movie. It sucks because I really like Kovich, it is a great character. Just my hypothesis.