I liked this episode a lot more than I thought I would. It's competing with the Kirk episode for personal best of the season so far. I like the T'Pring actress so it's always nice to get her back, and it was neat seeing her family, as well as Amanda again too. I really liked Spock sticking up for his mother, as well as exposing he was human for most of the ritual. Also liked mention of human odor, which harkens back to T'Pol on ENT.
I liked the aliens, I liked how Uhura, Ortegas, and Chapel were the ones who went to find them. Good use of the ensemble cast. Also like a lot of the costuming in this one, T'Pring's dress in particular.
I didn't care necessarily for how human Spock acted though. They described it like he was a teenager, and I don't see why he would necessarily act like a teenager. He's an adult, and I could see him struggling with unrestrained emotions, but not acting like a teen. I suppose that was done for comedic effect, but it didn't make much sense to me. Further, the scene where Uhura, La'an, Una, and Ortegas are teaching Spock to be Vulcan is another scene, which worked as comedy I suppose, but didn't make much sense either. Spock has been half-human all along, and learned to integrate his feelings, and he has been culturally Vulcan since birth, so he wouldn't need them teaching him how to be Vulcan.
When T'Pring's mother was ripping into Spock, I do wish she had gotten a jab in on Sybok. But oh well. I suppose she didn't want to go after Sarek owing to her husband's relationship with him.
I'm not the biggest fan of Spock and Chapel getting it on in the context of TOS/Trek overall franchise, however, I think that it works for SNW because that's how they've been setting it up.
