As the year comes to an end, Caleb must choose between the life he thought he wanted and the life he’s built for himself at Starfleet Academy. Meanwhile, Nahla breaks protocol in one final gambit to keep a promise to Caleb.
Written by: Kirsten Beyer & Kenneth Lin
Directed by: Jonathan Frakes
There is no spoiler protection in the episode discussion threads, and spoiler tags are not necessary!
Alex Kurtzman has said on a couple of occasions that this series is less expensive to produce that you might imagine, and I do think there have been a handful of moments throughout the season that seemed like cost-cutting measures. This was definitely one of them.
Jonathan Frakes mentions several things in the TrekMovie interview that may impact costs.
Alex Kurztman set the direction style with more close up, tight camera work. More, he specifically ordered special long camera lenses to enable that. This means that despite the enormous sets and UHD cinematography, with long lenses they are able to block the scenes without as much extraneous detail.
Saving the wide angles for when they need them but closing up on the characters, and doing more in set internal volumes must surely reduce a lot of crew time and accelerate production.
Announcing Becky Lynch only to use her an an extra twice, doesn’t feel like cost cutting as much as a potential breach of contract.
I don’t watch WWE, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Becky’s wrestling gear based on her character’s uniform has gotten more screen time than the actual uniform.
I think we’d have to know a lot more to draw that conclusion - and not for nothing, but from what I can remember, she announced herself on social media - CBS didn’t really say anything IIRC.