So I'm about halfway through the audiobook and it's already my favorite audiobook ever.
Because it's not Andrew Robinson reading a book. The book is written in 1st person as Garak telling the story to the reader/listener, and Andy is Garak, and any imperfections in the narration (e.g. character voices) don't come across as Andy mis-voicing Quark, but rather Garak's impression of him because he really gets into the groove.
SNW playing with the format we all know and love continues to pay off.
Trek has a very, very long history of the space anomaly of the week causing hijinks to ensue. And these hijinks were epic. Especially considering the sheer amount of raw broadway-class talent SNW has.
And the foreshadowing with the drinking-song-belting, sea-shanty-and-opera-loving Klingons getting pissed off about the "we have to sing everything" bit was hilarious (and Pike's "WTF" face was the icing!)
I know it's a one-shot, but bloody brilliant.
Frakes has directed two Orville episodes (so far), and arguably brought his experience over to SNW, as Boims and Mariner were fan[boy|girl]ing about, it had serious "Orville" vibes to it. I don't think they could have picked a better director.
The bit where Ortegas and Uhura were gushing about the NX-01 crew and suddenly realizing that's why their guests were gushing was priceless.
"What would come after the dash?"
And both Jack and Tawny crushed it as the live action versions of their characters. (Both were over-the-top, and that was the point).
I wonder if that "Riker!" Gag was improvised and if so, how long it had Frakes (and/or the crew) laughing.
The LD-style intro was chefs kiss perfect. The coda was, likewise, a perfect capstone.
Trek has a very, very long history of having weird shit happen to the crew because of space anomalies--
Once More With Feeling was in 2001, and Trek trying to follow in BTVS's wake would have felt derivative at the time. The closest it came was The Doctor's hallucinations... and that was hilarious.
If anyone can pull this off its the SNW crew.