My second favorite TOS episode, behind Doomsday Machine, is Balance of Terror, which this very faithfully recreates (unlike their revised take on the Gorn). Much of the dialogue is lifted word for word. It worked perfectly.
As the episode unfolded, I immediately wondered if they were going to kill off Kirk, and that was the tragic event that wrecked the timeline, and then in the end when it was Spock, that was a real gut punch. It certainly makes sense, though. Without Spock's wisdom and counsel, Kirk is basically Custer on a space ship - eventually his luck would have run out.
It was also heavily implied in the end that Pike realizes he's just a placeholder for Kirk. In an earlier thread I wondered why, if Pike knows exactly when he's going to die, he wouldn't just not be there that day? Well, now we know. While the Jar Jar Abrams Star Trek was overall silly and lame, one of the best parts of it was the interaction between young Kirk and older Spock, where Spock explained how important the friendship/partnership between the two of them would be. One without the other just doesn't work.
This also borrowed a bit of the Voyager finale, where old Janeway came back to counsel young Janeway. This worked much better, though. I really liked the way Pike was initially lost, popping up in the middle of the Tomlinson wedding. The interaction between old Pike and young Pike was also a bit reminiscent of Guinan and Picard from Yesterday's Enterprise, which is my favorite TNG episode. I guess if you're going to lift elements from previous series, pick good ones and execute them well. That they did.
I guess the reveal of the new Scotty will come next season. Don't know who they got for the part, but damned if he didn't sound just like Doohan. Liked the kid who played Kirk, too. Although it would have been cool if he had used Shatner's staccato speaking style. That would have been a nice touch. Oh well. A small missed opportunity at best.
And also, FINALLY A GOOD OLD FASHIONED SPACE BATTLE!
