VindictiveJudge

I interpreted that a bit differently, but I definitely see what you mean. I got, "The biobed/M'Benga needs some extra maintenance, but that's fine since it/he can always be fixed up." The overall darkness of the episode and the ambiguity of the ending makes that fuzzy, though.

I hope that this is the middle part of a three episode arc, like with Una's modifications and trial. If there's a part 3 I think it will end more positively, but we'll have to wait and see.

Or Farscape, which sometimes did both in the same episode. Teen Titans could pull it off in a kid-friendly format, too, along with ATLA.

The backlash is usually first for Trek, then when a new show comes out the last one is suddenly an underappreciated gem. Not sure what that means for SNW.

This is SNW's Duet. If it marks a similar increase in quality, then SNW is going to be amazing.

And the guys in the comic are wearing TOS uniforms, including the rank stripes on the sleeve cuffs.

Klingons have had two totally consistent design elements from TOS all the way through Into Darkness that DSC didn't incorporate. The first is that the majority are fairly hairy, and the second is that their tech is very industrial and bare-bones looking. I can totally buy Klingon factions that stray from either of those things, such as a group that shaves their heads or has more elaborate tech, but the entire species being that way doesn't work. The facial redesign could have worked, but ultimately the masks were too thick for anyone to emote in and they hindered the acting. Season 2 thinning the masks a bit and adding hair was a huge improvement and showed that the concept could work, but the organic looking tech just doesn't do it for me at all as the predominant look in the empire.

Overall, I get what they were going for, but they lost what little consistent design language the Klingons had and it just did not work for me at all.

I still don't get the impression that S31 being legitimate was the writer's intention at the time. That Sloan is or was from Starfleet Intelligence and uses Starfleet resources while Starfleet Command looks the other way also works for interpreting his statement. Starfleet Command refusing to confirm or deny S31's existence can be used to back up basically any position. For instance, if S31 is a conspiracy within Starfleet, then Command can't acknowledge it or they would have to do something about it; acting like they don't know anything means they can keep letting S31 do what they want.

Even the bit of the charter mentioned in ENT implies that Harris and S31 are taking a very liberal interpretation of the Starfleet Charter. "Reread the Charter, Article 14, Section 31. There are a few lines that make allowances for bending the rules during times of extraordinary threat." But S31 operates day-to-day against ordinary and mundane threats, like everyday Romulan politics. And that bit doesn't seem to mandate the creation of a special branch just for extreme threats. Rather, it seems like it's there to cover the random crazy things that Starfleet crews run into once every few years, like taking a BoP back in time to gather some whales not resulting in punishment because of the extreme threat posed by the whale probe, even though they blatantly violated a bunch of rules regarding time travel.

The way he says it implies he's not being entirely truthful.

BASHIR: So which department are you with? SLOAN: Let's just say I belong to another branch of Starfleet Intelligence. Our official designation is Section thirty one.

I don't think I've ever heard someone say, "let's just say," and had it been followed by a truthful statement.

I was very skeptical when Lower Decks was announced and didn't watch any until the first season had finished, but it and Strange New Worlds are some of the most fun content to come out of this era of Trek. The whole show is just overflowing with love for the franchise.

They've been trying to give The Empress her own show and Worf said they were necessary. Depicting them as an official branch of Starfleet instead of a conspiracy within Starfleet also grants them legitimacy that they didn't have in DS9. Even their plot in DSC S2 is specifically depicted as their AI going rogue rather than S31 doing anything wrong.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Part of the problem is that they seem to think S31 are the good guys.