That pirate episode was pretty bad. Clichéd writing, internal logic that didn't work... at least it had some good laughs, but it didn't do anything else for me.
High hopes for next week!
Star Trek also explained the humanoid appearance of almost all aliens encountered: the 'first' alien civilization existed in the galaxy alone, thousands of lonely years before any of the others developed. As such, they spread their genetic material to other planets, in the hopes of creating a rich ecosystem of Humanoids who could fulfill the joys of finding and integrating with alien cultures that these first beings never had.
It's a question of money, of course. Man in costume with clay on his face = cheap. Convincable CGI or rubber suit or teaching a rhino to act = expensive.
