212. Gamer Gorn Girlfriend (SNW 3.09)

Anika and Liz get sucked into a wormhole and trapped on a moon orbiting a gas giant, which is actually pretty standard when you're adults with jobs trying to organise a board game night. We're discussing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 3, episode 9, "Terrarium", an episode which comes so close to being good before it snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.  "We're going to give you the stories you've been asking for since season 1, and then we're gonna end it with a twist that makes it all totally meaningless! Hurray!" Good news, Akiva Goldsman finally watched "Arena"! Next question, did he, um, understand it?  Anika has notes on Metron experiment design The AUDACITY of SNW criticising the Gorn for ableism This was an opportunity to let Uhura become a more complex and flawed character, but unfortunately Pike is bad at his job (and so are the writers) Is La'an actually psychologically fit for starship duty?  Why are we making fun of Spock's weight? Why is this whole season so dedicated to bullying Spock?  Endangering 4,000 people including children: that's the Christopher Pike way But seriously, why does Uhura have sole responsibility for this problem? Why is Pike setting her up to fail?