To be fair to Spock,  La'an is absolutely rocking that CowGirl outfit.

Iridium: It just hit me that they made the Doldrum ship (I don’t remember where the captioning put the apostrophe) heavy in iridium because the geological layer marking the extinction of the dinosaurs has a lot of iridium. A ship rich in iridium presumably came from a planet rich in iridium so the chunk that hit Earth would also be rich in iridium.

If the first season of Loki has taught us anything, the butterfly effect is minimized when you change things just before an apocalypse.

"Super easy, barely an inconveneince". I didn't know Sean was a fan of the Pitch Meeting videos! Nice little easter egg in the easter egg section of the video

I loved the use of the Universal translator in the "alone" scene. And of course it works in reverse as it explains why Kassel speaks of Mars and Valles Marinares millions of years before they are named thus. it's just the universal translator translating her speech. Lovely and subtle

Sean, I'm a retired US Navy Officer here.  The term "Fleet Captain" is only in Star Trek.  it's much like in the Catholic Church, a well-regarded priest is named a Monsignor and leads a large church but not promoted to Bishop.   In real-life navies, a Commodore can be one of two things:  1) An officer who holds a one-star flag rank.  2) The commander of multiple ships, usually a squadron.  However, the position of Squadron Commodore can be held by an officer who is a Captain in rank, which is usually the case in the US Navy.  This is much like an officer of any rank in charge of a ship can be referred as the Captain, except the Commodores, of course.  Usually, officers of flag rank will command larger units like Task Forces, Fleets, large shore commands, etc.

54:24 Oooh, Pitch Meeting references are TIGHT!

This whole episode felt very Doctor Who-y in a way, and I think the Phone Box joke was a notice that this episode was going to be that.  What made it Doctor Who-ish was this trope in Doctor Who that nothing that happens to Earth, from the creation of the planet to the creation of life and the evolution of man, comes about naturally.  Its always some external force.  The end of the episode reminded me of this.

The black & white shot in the credits reminds me of Captain Proton

🎶 Open the door, get on the floor, everybody punch the dinosaur! 🎶

I prefer to think Pelia just likes to reference 20th century pop culture as an inside joke because she has been around so long.

I wonder if the iridium thing was a reference to the fact that part of the reason we know that an asteroid caused the end Cretaceous mass extinction is that the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene rock layers is marked by iridium deposits from the asteroid.

Martian DNA everywhere?  In Valen’s name!

La’an punching the raptor on the nose and it just running away is - that part of the episode I find totally believable. Movies like Jurassic Park often treat Dinosaurs like relentless monsters, but of they are just animals, and generally if an animal isn't sure about something it will stay away. It might be more surprised than hurt by the punch, but it has presumably never seen a human before, doesn't know how much of a threat she is or if she's something it can eat, and just decides it's not worth taking any risks. Predators that survive the longest do so by avoiding fights that aren't necessary.

Adding my bias as a widower but I would have made that subtlety of language the latinum up.

16:13 Yes I suspected, reminded me of when Voyager picked up the distress call from themselves in the black hole

36:50 and the raptor has feathers in theyr tail!

I feel like they missed the best "red shirt" opportunity ever with this episode. Una, Erica, La'an, aaaaand introducing Fuel Specialist Bill, who will definitely survive this simple away mission and definitely not become the only Enterprise crew member ever eaten by a dinosaur.

For me this is getting back to what makes Star Trek and especially SNW so great. Hope for a better tomorrow. I mean, look at the world now. Peoples swapping recipes and music, not insults and self interest, it is a brilliant trek idea. The writers did an outstanding job bar the 'downs' Sean noted. A good start to the 60 years anniversary.

A sign of a great episode is that your still thinking about it later. This was one of those episodes.