This was … a DISCO episode.
Lengthy but meaningless action sequences? Check. Shaky cams all the damn time? Check. People talking about their feelings at the worst possible moment? Check. No apparent command structure and people just doing whatever they want? Check. One-dimensional villains? Check. Flamethrowers on the bridge? Check. (although, to be honest, those are so absurd that I’ll actually miss them)
I liked the future scenes because they were noticably slower and cerebral than pretty much anything that Discovery did during its five seasons. I wish they would have done something like that more often.
But yeah, that’s it. I’m somewhat glad it’s over. I liked the first two seasons of the show. Despite their flaws I appreciated that they’ve tried something new in the Star Trek franchise. And ultimately that led to Strange New Worlds, so I’ll have to give them credit for that. Anything after the season 3 time jump was not my cup of tea though. There was never enough worldbuilding for my taste because so much screentime was devoted to Burnham and Book, and that meant that the 31st century never really felt “real” to me.
Maybe I’ll rewatch seasons 1 and 2 somewhere down the line but I have no interest in watching seasons 3-5 again. I’ll just treat them as Burnham’s fever dream or something like that.
Thankfully TOS never did any fantasy stuff like galactic barriers, Trelane, massive green hands in space, or Abraham Lincoln. That wouldn’t have been true to Gene’s vision.
I’m not a fan of Disco either, but tardigrades and time bugs are really low on my list of complaints. Star Trek did lots of even whackier stuff over the last 60 years (or did everyone forget the “Fun with DNA” episodes of the 90s?). In fact, that time bug episode was probably the best 32nd century Disco episode. Which is a low bar, but anyway.