The true story of Vulcan first contact.
This felt a lot like Voyager’s *11:59* in setup, but it delivers a much more interesting story. More importantly, I felt that this episode started to deal with the problem of non-T’Pol Vulcans. Here we see that there’s almost a natural fit between Vulcans and Humans – that while they may not be emotional, Vulcans appreciate the interest and variety that Humanity can offer. And that not all Vulcans are so rule bound as to prevent this from ever happening.
Other than a few namechecks the episode avoided being a nostalgia festival, and the approach to situation seemed intelligent and reasonable. Although I don’t buy that velcro was invented by Vulcans. Nor do I buy that the delights of Velcro are obvious as soon as you see it.
(By the way, what’s happened to the ‘Vulcans don’t lie’ thing?)
Callbacks: If I’m not mistaken, that was the first ‘Fascinating’ from a Vulcan. And the first appearance of the ‘standard issue ear hiding knit cap’ for Vulcans.
665 down, 72 to go.