the Abh fleet command trying to determine the nature of the enemy's new weapon while Admiral Spoor makes her way to join the main fleet gives the show room to operate on a larger strategic scale than it has before. Spoor is a fantastic character — eccentric, brilliant, completely unpredictable — and her presence adds a different kind of energy to the command level scenes. the strategic puzzle of what the enemy is actually doing and why their new weapon has been so effective is genuinely interesting as a military SF problem. the episode does good work making the galaxy feel vast while keeping the focus intimate.