It’s not the first time either. Lower Decks had Riker swoop in to save the day in a finale after Picard did the same thing.

For all we know, 24th century transporters have an advantage over the 23rd century design but at the expense of superior pattern storage.

I didn’t get the impression George was a bad father. Sam certainly struggles with their relationship, but no father is perfect.

This is also the most information we’ve ever gotten on George as a father, so there’s nothing retroactive about it.

Half of all TNG episodes started with them being amazed looking at a relatively common phenomena. Those old scientists were just passionate about their job.

The episode acknowledges this at the end, when Spock says Vulcans feel more deeply. What I think we need to remember is that Vulcans have mental capabilities humans don’t. Human Spock literally did not have the same tools available to him that Vulcans do. It’s likely why Spock has more trouble with his emotions than full-blooded Vulcans.

They characterized T’Pring’s parents really well, I thought. You could see where her compassion and acceptance came from, as well as her adherence to tradition.

The AR wall stood out to me more on Rigel VII, where the background, while beautifully done, just had that empty, standing in the middle of CGI look. In this episode, it made sense for it to be obvious. They’re in a space humans can’t truly perceive, much like the celestial temple, and it had a sterile feel that seemed right for the chatbot aliens.

But they also managed to explain the moving of the Eugenics Wars as the result of time hijinks, some of which we’ve seen on screen. I think this is a credible explanation Star Trek can use for TOS retcons without being too dismissive of canon.

I believe this post is operating under a misunderstanding. You can still watch Prodigy. It’s available for sale on iTunes right now. Until DVDs became widespread, it was often difficult to watch previously aired shows, especially in a complete way, but TOS and TNG never became non-canon and Prodigy is infinitely easier to watch than those days.