Green bean casserole absolutely. I have never had a good version of it. Your version sounds better but I’d say it’s a flawed concept.
My most hated was white beans and ham with cornbread. It ruined both the ham and beans and smelled like hot dog water. I ended up just eating cornbread and pushing the beans and ham around until I could be excused.
Also creamed spinach. It looked and smelled like I had already puked it up.
My main takeaway from this episode was the Romulans and Vulcans being the same and what the implications on that for Starfleet and Spock especially.
Romulans are like Vulcans? Does that make Vulcans bad? Romulans good? Spock is already the different one on the bridge? Will the rest of the crew believe in Starfleet ideals or will they turn on Spock and allow racism to rule the day.
Tie this to treatment of Japanese civilians in the US during world war 2 (something Sulu’s actor was unfortunately quite familiar with). Are all members of a race bad because the governments are at war? Obviously not but this is a common refrain from the ignorant and afraid during conflicts.
Ultimately the Enterprise and the Romulan captain stop seeing themselves in terms of soldiers fighting for their side and instead as 2 people caught in the middle of the fight between their governments. The Romulan captain’s sacrifice in the end exemplifies the realization. Rather than continue the conflict and drag both sides into a brutal patriotic conflict, he sees the humanitarian cost of such a conflict and therefore, the intrinsic value of life of both sides.
The episode wants to drive hope the point that people are people, no matter nationality or political conflict. At the end of the day we are all the same. Despite Stiles racism toward Spock, Kirk and by extension the Federation-idealized humanity, will have none of it.
I wouldn’t mind letting James Wan have a crack at a Star Trek film though. He made decent work of Aquaman and Malignant is basically already a Star Trek TNG type of plot.
I worked with a mainframe team at a casino. It processed all the transactions that went along with the machines and how much everyone was gambling.
Those machines were intimidating. Black, blue lights, the fans even sounded distinct. And the terminal emulator to talk to it made it seem even more esoteric and spooky.