I don't think episode 5 is terrible, there's some fun ideas in it, but once again the characters are extremely immature and cringy.
And Spock, for the zillionth time is dealing with his human side verse his Vulcan side. What else can you do with his character at this point? That's the problem with having him on this show. This should have been an entirely new crew. It would have been much more interesting.
SNW is trying really hard to be Star Trek, instead of just telling good stories that happen to be Star Trek.
SNW is doing both – it's a straightforward homage to Star Trek while also telling some good stories. Most episodes have succeeded, notably the first episode and the one about the Gorns, but yes... there have been stumbles. And I agree, they do seem to be fetishizing Spock, wringing every ounce of sex-appeal out of a character who became iconic due to Leonard Nimoy himself. Duplicating Trek's most famous character, invented in large part by Nimoy, is hard enough; placing the character front and center and expecting him to carry so much of the story's heft is asking too much. Hopefully, Spock will recede into a secondary role and we can get back to the story, rather than his id.
Unfortunately, this nitpicking of rebooted characters will remain an issue as long we're in prequel mode. If we're in the pre-Kirk Enterprise, we're going to encounter plenty of familiar names. Some will work, others won't, all will be debated. The only way around the endless homages is a series that actually Boldly Goes somewhere new, a next generation after The Next Generation. New characters whose fates aren't already written. Picard is the only series that's moved the timeline forward and isn't a reboot (although, ironically, the last season took place in the past!). Trek fans would love a future-focused show; unfortunately, I doubt it could be sold without tagging a connection to the past.
