From the very beginning, with the unaired Star Trek pilot featuring Captain Christopher Pike, we've been exposed to Star Trek aliens who have always been "Human Plus", as in "Human Plus pointy ears and green blood" or "Human Plus elaborate forehead ridges and oddly shaped noses" or "Human Plus blue skin and antennae" So decades later, even though we accept that almost every alien race (even in a part of the galaxy 70,000 light years, or 67 years of travel at continuous Warp 9) is 99% identical to humans in appearance, this episode decides to tackle that.
And that portion is only tackled in the last 10 minutes, and just as casually discarded as the thoughts and ideas of average Star Trek episodes.
Four billion years ago, there was an alien species that we would consider to be "humanoid", and they discovered faster than light travel, and traveled the stars, where they encountered other aliens... and none of them looked humanoid.
So as this humanoid species began to decline, they seeded thousands of worlds throughout the galaxy with their DNA, so that thousands of species would develop as these ancient aliens would, while shaped and sculpted by the natural evolution to best adapt to their planetary environments.
This explains why Klingons, Romulans/Vulcans, Andorians, Cardassians, Bajorans, Humans, Orions, Betazoids, every single new species encountered weekly by Captain Kirk or Captain Picard that could be considered human with a side of frilly hair or bumpy foreheads, all look alike; they were all descended from the same ancient humanoid alien.
And this is only hinted at half-way through the episode, and revealed in the last 5-10 minutes, and not even once expounded upon or given any time for the audience to think about it and truly appreciate it.
And that portion is only tackled in the last 10 minutes, and just as casually discarded as the thoughts and ideas of average Star Trek episodes.
Four billion years ago, there was an alien species that we would consider to be "humanoid", and they discovered faster than light travel, and traveled the stars, where they encountered other aliens... and none of them looked humanoid.
So as this humanoid species began to decline, they seeded thousands of worlds throughout the galaxy with their DNA, so that thousands of species would develop as these ancient aliens would, while shaped and sculpted by the natural evolution to best adapt to their planetary environments.
This explains why Klingons, Romulans/Vulcans, Andorians, Cardassians, Bajorans, Humans, Orions, Betazoids, every single new species encountered weekly by Captain Kirk or Captain Picard that could be considered human with a side of frilly hair or bumpy foreheads, all look alike; they were all descended from the same ancient humanoid alien.
And this is only hinted at half-way through the episode, and revealed in the last 5-10 minutes, and not even once expounded upon or given any time for the audience to think about it and truly appreciate it.