[Zeke]

It kills me that this season has only 22 episodes. Why were the series' two best seasons the ones to get shortened? I know 26 was a higher-than-normal number of episodes, but it's been standard for Trek shows since what, 1990?

I liked this one. Maybe it's not so bad that Travis is underexposed, because when he does get the spotlight in episodes like this one and "Horizon," they tend to turn out well. It's a shame that Anthony Montgomery has had so little to chew on, though. He's a good actor, but how would most viewers know?

The part I'm not sold on is that humans could make total peace among themselves and somehow still be capable of rabid xenophobia when it comes to aliens. Paxton and his group are probably supposed to remind us of militias from certain states, but those militias don't meet the norms of society at large (they tend to be white-supremacist), and it's hard to believe this group would. Paxton is basically a Babylon 5 human transplanted into Trek's universe, and he doesn't make sense here.

Delightful to see Harry Groener, though. Mayor jokes will abound in the fiver.