Basically, a Star Trek episode that can bring a tear to my eye deserves a 10.
This is Star Trek. Real Star Trek. Sacrifice, courage, growth, and a heroes journey.
This is the Star Trek we've - at least I've - been waiting for.
The cast is settling into their roles. Some of the wisecracking of the senior officers is - finally - being scorned by Pike. Pike is still a little more cavalier than I'd like, but he's getting some good lines and finally starting to act like a Captain (who loves and has believes in his ship.)
This episode is fantastic. Extremely well written and (except for Ortegas) is well acted. The direction here takes on a faster tempo than usual, with excellent camera work, and just a little-more-than-usual Alexander Courage TOS theme music mixed in.
The crew truly has a whatever-it-takes approach to problem solving, which is what we want to see - the crew solving problems.
As usual, Trek flies loose with the laws of physics but at least they're in the ballpark, so that can be easily forgiven.
Four episodes in and this is the best one yet.
A solid 10/10.