I posted this at Turdforge, where ed629 was bombing it... so I'll be lazy and cross post it here:
Filler episode, maybe... but this is the kind of stuff in ST that makes the franchise special to me.
I enjoyed the hell out of it. I saw a lot of range here out of some of the actors, such as Mount. That look on his face, right before...
A thought that kept occurring to me while watching this... it reminded me a lot of the Stanislaw Lem novel Solaris. You all probably saw the shitty Clooney movie made of that novel; no, go read the book itself. This episode reminded me a lot of it... almost as if the ship or something in it was trying to communicate with the trio just like the ocean of Solaris was trying to communicate with the researchers. Probably no real world connection, but the thought came up several times with me.
Two asides:
1. It's interesting that Starfleet has a "Division 12" to get a handle on out of control shit like the Griffin. I don't recall any mention of them before... so this is probably the first mention maybe? If so, this might be an Anton Chekhov "gun is produced" moment.
2. It just occurred to me at the beginning of the episode: no wonder Spock and Kirk get along so well... they're tunnel buddies.
I liked this episode. Usually I multi-task when watching something, but this kept my attention all the way through. Season 4 is shaping up to be way the hell better than season 3. It sort of gives me hope for the muppet episode...