WHY WE LIKE IT: Genesis!
WHY WE DON'T: Darem! (I'm kidding.) Actual answer: The CWness of it all.
REVIEW: Starfleet Academy's R&R episode, set during All Worlds Day - a kind of non-denominational, pan-galactic Christmas - uses the occasion to get to know both Genesis and Doren better, once again paired as in Vitus Reflux, though not physically together. It's an odd follow-up to the previous episode, which ended on almost a cliffhanger. But Tarima is convalescing on Betazed, and SAM uses the "Spring Break" to get fixed by computer experts. It's a month later, defusing the tension of those situations. We're really following two semi-equal A-plots that show the two overachievers in personal crisis, paired with other cadets (Caleb and Genesis doing The Holdovers, funny to me though Paul Giamatti isn't in this particular episode, I guess his role is taken by Jett Reno; and Kraag misses his Ibiza trip with confirmed boyfriend Kyle to accidentally become Darem's best man). So yes, this is technically a wedding episode in the Amok Time or Haven vein.
I was certainly eager to see what Darem's people were like, but like Kraag, was surprised that the "traditional marital abduction" took us to a desert moon. I guess anything else would have flooded the Academy and/or drowned the Klingon cadet. Still, I thought the Khionians would all be in their scaly forms, and that their humanish ones were just natural camouflage. That they might be able to look like any humanoid species. But no, it seems they all have a human side, their hair is real, etc. Doesn't make a LOT of sense, but this is where the budget hits the wall, I guess. I don't think we really believe that Darem will leave the show to get prematurely get married to the planet's new queen, though they push it pretty far. What's to like here is the friendship that's grown between him and Kraag, and that ultimately, it's Kraag's well-meaning farewell toast that makes the bride realize Darem's destiny (and ambitions) lie elsewhere. I think the episode could have been called "Catch and Release" (add in the silly warp slug bit in the other plot) if it hadn't spoiled the ending. Unfortunately, it also feels very low stakes. Interesting to see Darem's on-planet personality, where he can't let his a-hole flag fly, but we're not REALLY visiting his planet, the customs are fairly ordinary, the "coral" costumes aren't believable, and we know it'll all be undone, and is. 'Shippers might, in fact, be more interested in the simmering homoerotic tension between the two friends. Darem definitely seems jealous, rather than dismissive, of Kyle, and often gives us expressions that seem to point to unrequited love.
And the same can be said of Genesis towards Caleb - it's been going on since the second episode at least - though it's hard to trust anything she actually says or does here because she's playing him to get access to the Athena's bridge so she can change her reference letters before Ake sends them to the committee that will review her potential for a pre-command program. Seems she fudged things in her application to Starfleet because they didn't glow enough. It's a bit messy, honestly, as a subplot. It felt more truthful for her to want to not be considered a nepo-baby - which was the stated motivation for getting Caleb to hack into the bridge - but she doesn't really have a chance to succeed or fail. We're told the reference letters said she wasn't driven enough, which in turn MADE her driven, so the point is moot in the present. As punishment for trying to hide something that didn't need to be hidden, the opportunity is taken away from her. So while we might have had a chance to see her extra-credit adventures in the future, instead it's just back to the status quo. And before we even get there, there are a lot of shenanigans with weird lab stuff that just comes across as silly. Oh, and whether or not she has feelings for Caleb, she still helps him connect with Tarima (always the Ko'Zeine, never the bride). So in terms of working within the theme of pairings (friendships and romances), all four characters are well covered, but you could probably skip this one and not notice.
LESSON: Kids, don't play Toxic or Non-Toxic at home.
REWATCHABILITY - Low Medium: Leans into teen angst too strongly, and nothing really happens.
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