Interpreted the Betazed as being analogous to bipolar. I interpreted the peaceful vs war schools to be representations of contrasting political parties. There’s so many more options now and short attention spans are being rewarded. Am happy to give the show time to grow its Riker beard.

I liked the series, even though it felt like its own thing. But when I finally got to the Jay-Den focused episode the whole thing immediately gave updated TNG vibes. The adults in the cast are excellent philosophy-heavy mentors and I find myself repeatedly rewinding their scenes to recontextualize their pearls in terms of my own life. If I had one gripe it’d be all the YA aspects, but I immediately retract that as I want the series to also appeal to the yutes. Tawny Newsome is my hero.

I’m jaundiced so I’m never confident whether I’ve left urine in the toilet. Tis a tough life.

Yeah, intelligence is a continuum. Animals have varying degrees of intelligence (esp. corvids, cetaceans, cephalopods, other “c” animals…), but that isn’t the same as saying they have human-level intelligence. AGI and ASI are the important thresholds.