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I've been thinking about why I'm less in on this show than average, and watching the human Spock episode I locked into some things that are bothering me.
Firstly, a lot of the plots feel too light. When I think of episodes of SNW compared to older Trek, it seems like less is happening. I think it's partially the decompressed nature of modern TV, but it's also because this show spends so much time focused on romantic drama. Discovery was bad about this too. It's like every episode, Pike and Captain Girlfriend, La'an and Kirk, Spock and Chapel.
I think because of this the sci-fi ends up being somewhat tossed off. In this episode the aliens in the vortex aren't explored at all, they're just a plot device to turn Spock human. Who are they, why are they there, what do they want? None of it is explored, and nobody in the show seems all that concerned. You can almost feel the hand waving.
Instead the show is focused on more relationship drama with T'Pring and her family. Which honestly was pretty pointless. If we, the audience, are supposed to want Spock and Chapel together, we not only don't care if Spock can fool T'Pring's bitch mother, we kind of want him to fail. Especially because we know from TOS T'Pring cheats on Spock and essentially tries to get him killed. We're not rooting for this relationship on any level, so why is it the central conflict of the episode?
I think the better way to tell this story would be to focus on Chapel. She's in a situation where she's tasked with turning a Spock that could love her back into a Spock that can't. That's the real dilemma of the story, and this episode sort of glossed over it. Chapel was emotional about it, but she never questioned what to do. Which is another area this show tends to come up short, presenting strong moral and ethical dilemmas.
All that said, I don't hate the show. It's just more Voyager-level than something that lives up to TNG and DS9 for me.
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