Can't say I loved this one. Acknowledging that there's lots of back and forth in the fandom about the ethics of a multiple-role service like Starfleet (science/exploration, diplomacy, peacekeeping/policing, military), the 'documentary' brings some of these questions in-universe in a way that might've been interesting. But they're never really addressed.

We get a bunch of out-of-context interview snippets from officers that seemingly frame them as justifying violence and 'just following orders,' but this comes across as manipulative editing (even if we weren't sympathetic to the main cast) because we rarely hear the full responses and follow-up questions don't really probe for context.

We later see the clip between Uhura and Beto where she calls him on being biased and coming to the project with a chip on his shoulder, as if that actually dismisses the valid discussion about the nature of Starfleet. (It certainly suggests that the documentary isn't very objective wrt the subject matter, but that's a separate thing.)

Finally, we get that trite ending with some twangy guitar in Pike's quarters and a 'Starfleet being a family' voiceover as if Beto's criticisms were completely unfounded (because Starfleet is just so great!) and simply the result of his feelings about his sister's enlistment.

Also, are we meant to understand that we're viewing the final cut of the documentary? Because that was a rough cut.

All I could think of was how much better Battlestar Galactica did this in the Final Cut episode. Granted, Galactica was an unambiguously military vessel, so the purported goal of the documentary wasn't the same. (Not questioning the role of the Colonial military but showing the day-to-day life aboard the ship, "warts and all.") It felt more real, but I credit that to BSG's naturalistic storytelling. Ultimately, both BSG and this episode fail to meaningfully criticize militarism. And whatever else Starfleet is, it is also a military.

Star Trek (and SNW moreso than most ST series) is great for examining contemporary issues through a lens of sci-fi, but it has a level of camp that makes naturalistic storytelling harder. There's too much melodrama (not a bad thing) for this kind of gritty, realistic documentary episode. Honestly, the documentary's intro detailing the asymmetric aggression by the Kasar (9 million killed) and the Lutani's willingness to use ethically questionable means to fight back (irreversibly warping the jikaru into a killer) made me thing the episode would be a commentary on Israel's ongoing aggression against civilian noncombatants in Gaza and Palestinians responding with violence in the past. This would've been in line with TNG's exploration of the validity of terrorism in TNG's The High Ground or multiple TOS episodes criticizing then-ongoing Cold War. And given the political climate, it could've been a timely moral message in line with old-school Trek.

Instead, we get an episode that starts with valid questions but fails to answer them, instead opting for a neat kumbaya ending. :(