WHY WE LIKE IT: In uniform!
WHY WE DON'T: Ok, I think I liked the designs better without them.
REVIEW: "A Moral Star" may be an odd title until you consider it's an anagram of Tars Lamora, the Diviner's mining asteroid. Ok, still seems odd even with that information. But we DO return to Tars Lamora to make an unholy deal with the devil himself. And if you know anything about deals made with the devil, you know you're gonna get cheated by the letter of the deal. The Diviner wants the ship, and at the last minute requests Gwyn because he really does feel pangs of fatherhood for her. In exchange they get the release of the enslaved miners (cue shots of that kitty cat--I mean Caitian--that seemed so important in the pilot) and a way off the asteroid. The Diviner will blow the power before leaving, killing the gravity, the engines and the shields holding in the oxygen, but WAIT, they came prepared and denied him the Proto-Core and were faking their distress.
This is all extremely well set up. We see the kids working as a unit and working on an actual plan (Dal has been mostly jumping without looking up 'til now), but the montage only gives clues - such as Murf having to dress up - but no details so that we can be as surprised as the Diviner is. Except we react with delight. And it's not done unfolding. So did Gwyn know she was going to be taken? What about Janeway being corrupted by Drednok? How much of their distress did the kids fake? Part 2 still has many thrills and surprises to come. Painted as a no-win scenario - which Dal learned all about a few episodes before - the kids show that working together and putting some thought into it will increase their chances of pulling a Kirk. So it feels quite natural that they should finally be awarded uniforms. These are very simple black and whites (or grays), and on such a colorful show, you don't really want them to hang out in their pee-jays all the time, but it's the symbol that counts. A symbol that intriguingly triggers the Diviner... We're about to find out what his obsession is about. It's pretty exciting.
LESSON: Scorpions B Scorpions. Frogs need to plan accordingly.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: A little bit like a chess game where you'd input all your moves ahead of time, then watched the outcome, hoping you guessed your opponent's correctly. I like that and the kids have actually earned it over the season.
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