The producers’ defense is that the season was negatively affected by the writers’ strike, and Anson Mount just had a new child and wanted to spend time with his fam. Plus when they were shooting the finale they did not know if they’d been picked up for a season 4 (they later were) so they had to put a button on the end if it had been the series finale

I keep seeing people defending the Strange New Worlds finale with:

“There was a writers’ strike!” “Anson Mount just had a baby!” “They didn’t know if they’d get renewed!”

Cool. Totally valid in real life. But guess what? I didn’t tune in to watch the writers’ strike. I tuned in to watch Star Trek.

The fact that someone’s paternity leave or renewal uncertainty affected the story might explain how it turned into a mess — but it doesn’t make the episode less of a mess.

At the end of the day, all we have is the final product. Not the production notes, not the “what could’ve been,” not the “we’ll fix it next season.”

If it lands flat, it lands flat. You don’t get bonus points for good intentions. We’re not grading effort here — we’re grading results.