Here it is, 2023, and I'm watching this series for the first time. A friend made me start watching all of the Star Trek shows so that I could be prepared to start watching Picard. So far I've enjoyed them, and the doctor in this series is actually one of my favorite characters just because of his snarky behavior. This episode is just so filled with hilarious little moments that are so directly opposite of the much more normal serious tone of the show, especially considering the dark nature of the episode immediately before this one.
I actually made a comment to that friend that today, in an earlier episode, I had my second laugh out loud moment of the series. Considering this is season six, and it was only yesterday and today that I had laugh out loud moments, it's obvious that they don't go for laughs and this one nearly as much. And then this episode came along, and I've lost count.
The show does such a good job of building the characters, their personalities, their histories, that you immediately know what their reactions are going to be in different situations. And this episode simply tosses all of that out the window.
I know some trekkie purists out there really didn't like this one, but I think this just might be my favorite episode of all so far. All the other episodes are so similar, this one really shows a creative left turn for the writing staff.