Their capital city being a bunch of egg-shaped buildings around a giant birdcage building was a hilarious touch.

Actually this brought up a completely buried memory for me. For a few years I lived in the same neighborhood as him – at the time, cool guy that I was, I had a Starfleet badge on my coat, and one day I was at the grocery store and had an awkward moment with him where our carts got sort of wedged together negotiating the too-narrow checkout lanes. He saw my pin and gave me a Vulcan salute as he moved into his lane. He seemed nice and a bit sheepish. The staff at the coffee shop I used to go to told me he was extremely lovely.

Breaking the fourth wall is a Doctor Who tradition - the First, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors all directly address the camera in addition to the Fifteenth, as do River Song, Martha, Clara, and various Classic villains. I don't understand why people suddenly need some sort of in-universe explanation for it. It's a narrative technique, and Doctor Who is a goofy camp show that's always been flexible enough, playing with various tropes, that it works. Davies explains it perfectly in the link: "I mean, you would [be taken out of the story by it] if it was Pride and Prejudice, that would be odd. But there’s something showy about Doctor Who, there’s something proscenium arch about it. There’s something arch about it, full stop."

This sort of needing an in-universe explanation for every theatrical device or inconsistency is how you get garbage like Trek's Klingon augment virus.

Real M'Benga erasure here

I struggle to think of a Trek character more Star Trek than Saru. DSC has its (sometimes severe, sometimes not) flaws, but it has an impressive track record of occasionally absolutely nailing how to make some of the trekkiest Trek characters.

It's going to be interesting where the series ends up in the inevitable reevaluation once a few years have passed.

Man, you have to watch the one with Giant Spock ("The Infinite Vulcan")

I just finished watching Space Babies - I have to say, I missed this. It’s been a long time since Doctor Who was fun - I love all Doctor Who, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones) but my heart is really with the bizarre, campy, man-in-a-rubber-suit style episodes like this one. If anyone was worried this was going to get Disney-fied, this is RTD at the most RTD. I might as well have been watching the Ninth Doctor take Rose to the End of the World. Ncuti is the Doctor the very instant he steps on screen, and the Doctor/Ruby chemistry is absolutely perfect. I don’t love her being a mystery box but as long as the explanation is suitably weird I’ll go with it.

A bit of a new experience for me in that this time I got to watch it with my daughter — she’s nine and a huge Trek fan. She liked Church on Ruby Road and we watched a bit of other doctors, but I wasn’t sure she’d take to this, but she was just beaming the whole time. Bit of a new experience for me because other than some Tom Baker episodes on old VHS tapes, I was an adult by the time I came to DW. It’s fun to see it through the eyes of a child.

Also, uh, did the Doctor just suggest that the world of Star Trek is real in his universe?

I don't know how you could get past Capaldi's first series and not see what an incredible Doctor he is.

I tried so hard to like things in the Chibnall era –– I was so excited when Whittaker was cast and I think she did the best she could -- but after reading Elizabeth Sandifer's evisceration of the Chibnall ethos in her piece on Kerblam! (which I think also applies to ENT, tbh) I think I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not really going to get there.

As much as I want every Star Trek show to now have one musical episode once a season –– just to annoy Subspace Rhapsody grinches –– I don't think it's funny enough for Lower Decks. I would love to see an episode where, like, the same anomaly happens but it makes everyone speak exclusively in limericks, or some shit like that.

Totally, thank you. Star Trek is goofy as hell sometimes. I think if the Kelpian kid had been a plot device isolated to a single episode, no one would have batted an eye if it were on TNG or VOY. But as the reveal of a season long mystery, it was a big woof for a season and a concept that I was really into.

That said, season 4 really picked up that briefly dropped ball. I think the last two episodes of S4, plus the one with the debate at Federation HQ, will go down as Trek classics once Disco ages a bit.

Are you implying that there’s a joke in a Canon Connections post? Inconceivable.

Knowing a few people who have worked on series that ended up looking for new networks, I feel pretty confident that for zillions of reasons (both legal and promotional) they would never have shown this footage if it wasn't basically a done deal –– this is just marketing to see us go bananas over the Doctor before they reveal the streaming deal. Which –– I could not believe it when I woke up this morning because I was totally sure all the "new home" stuff was entirely wishful thinking and that Prodigy was fully dead.