I do annotations for every episode on DaystromInstitute, noting references and so on. Do I post the one I’ve done for “The Broken Circle” here or wait for Sunday?

I would like the strange and new to go. Now.

I think this got things off to a reasonable start, but it doesn't feel like the strongest episode out of the gate. Maybe it's because the show deliberately chooses not take on the cliffhanger of the last season in the first episode. Starting the season with only part of the cast undertaking the mission I think also makes the episode feel a bit slight.

It's also a bit of a darker episode than the last season, but I'm not sure if engaging with the Klingon civil war aftermath is actually necessary in this episode. In fact, leaving out the Klingon stuff here would make it a bit less stodgy to me. I guess there is some curiosity as to what SNW characters were doing during the war, but it really feels like here, the only reason they framed this entire episode around the war was so that M'Benga and Chapel could juice themselves up with a substance that they never quite introduce before using it and Die Hard Klingons for a chunk of the episode. There's maybe some M'Benga trauma, but giving the character another trauma moment where some (particularly Ortegas) remain comparatively lightly characterized feels...meh.

It's probably all the Discovery elements, both in plot and in set design on screen, that make me feel this way, but I was hoping that Discovery would learn the best lessons from Strange New Worlds. This episode has me slightly worried that instead of that, Strange New Worlds may be learning some bad lessons from Discovery. That said I'm hoping things get better across the season. I thought this was good but just not quite what I wanted from the season opener.

Finally had time to watch it tonight and I thought it was great.

I feel like what seemed corny or off was on purpose. Spock is on a learning curve with his emotions/duty conundrum and we certainly felt that.

Looking forward to next week!

Was that a TOS style California-class docked next to the Enterprise early on?

That space jump sequence was the best part of the episode. I felt that.

I really enjoyed this one. It felt fun. Who doesn't love a good "steal the Enterprise" plot?

They're clearly gonna push the Chapel/Spock ship. I'm broadly fine with this but I do wonder how they will reconcile it with canon Spock/Chapel (or if they'll just abandon it - which I'm also fine with).

I don't really have an issue with the green super drug. I hope we get to hear more about their time together during the Klingon War. Guessing we will based on this. But it was a cool sequence and I'm good with it.

I'm curious if that fake Federation ship was a variant of the Crossfield or just something cobbled together by those folks. I imagine we'll get some clarification from the design people at some point.

Loving the current Klingon design. I didn't really mind the Disco re-imagining but this feels like a good compromise. And that Spock made peace over bloodwine. And ended up with a hangover.

And, for me, I'm fine with The Joke. I like Ortegas' and the background that some Captain says "Zoom!" Spock's left a bit to be desired, but I laughed.

For me that was surprisingly good, by the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well here we go. Let’s try this out