I find it absolutely hilarious that the big complaint about this episode is that a computer is experiencing emotions or thinks it is experiencing emotions and that's just too far for some people lol.
We live in a world where advanced AI is not outside of our reach. We have the beginnings of humanoid robots expressing emotion and AI programs trained to express themselves using human emotions. The idea that 1,000 years from now computers wouldn't be far better at this is absolutely absurd. It's no more 'impossible' than invisible shields or the magical walls in the brig that somehow maintain atmosphere and are near indestructible (or warp speed or a mycelium network lol this is all fiction.)
I think all in all this was decent for a filler episode. We checked in with how Book is doing after, well, the anomaly destroyed everything a few episodes ago. We touched bases with Gray (who, after not having a physical body for a long time) is now making friends with the computer. Those interactions seemed a little odd/forced to me.
The interactions between Stammets and Book were wholesome. After Stammets has been struggling with Tarka the past few episodes (and also with working well in a team) it seems he's trying to make extra efforts. Seeing some of this between Stammets and Book added another layer to the show and even though Book gave some skeptical expressions in response, this seems like the set up to what could potentially be a great friendship (collaboratively for Stammets and socially/emotionally for Book.) Especially after everything that he's lost, finding a home and a family on Discovery seems possible and I hope the show goes that way.
I was more than a little surprised that the other members of the crew didn't fight to stay with Michael when they were all facing imminent doom as the ship dissolved. This felt very out of character for some of the major supporting characters of the show (like Saru, Rhys, Owo, and Keyla.) AND ESPECIALLY BOOK?!?! What? They all refused to allow her to fly the Discovery into the future because they didn't want her to be alone so they went with her, knowing it could mean death, but a dissolving ship going through a plasma barrier (generating massive heat and basically turning the ship into an Easy Bake) is too much?
My only complaint is that it seems that whoever wrote this episode didn't know the characters they were writing about. It's very unlikely there was only one EVA suit but if that were the case then it should have been mentioned in the show at least.
One of my all-time fav shows, I'm finally rewatching (I believe a decade on from finishing the series - crazy), in conjunction with the new Podcast, Talk Ville - hosted by the Lex and Clark of this show, Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling. That means potentially 4-5 years of weekly re-watching Smallville.
I'm now getting to the see show with their knowledge and nearly with new eyes - as it's been so long since I've watched this. Obviously the special effects and just the visual quality of the recording are dated, but that's 20 years ago (I know... I keep saying it).
The first half of this episode really hinders Tom as he has to play this timid dweeb but in the 2nd half, he gets to open up and be more natural. Michael Rosenbaum is an excellent Lex and he just gets better and better as the show goes over. Its interesting watching Allison Mack on TV again, after all that's come out since. John Glover and Annette O'Toole are fantastic as the older stars, while John Schneider always looks like he's smiling and it's bugging me.
Some of the dialogue is hokey as it desperately tries fit in the ties to a larger Superman story. Some lines like "nothing will stand in the way of our friendship" (after knowing the guy for a few days) are bad, but made tolerable by Rosenbaum's acting. The way Ross and Sullivan come to suspect the "freak of the week" is extremely forced and rushed, this is a Clark centric pilot that in hindsight probably should have been 1 hour (or at least 5 more minutes). Even the tension between Whitney and Clark feels rushed .
Overall, this is a god pilot from a show that would only get better and better. After the end of the first episode - I wanted to pick up immediately with Episode 2, but that's for another week.
