You do see that a lot in movies though. The idea of slipping on a loose pebble or worse getting shot, then spraying your friends in the back with friendly fire does heck for unit cohesion.

Respectfully disagree. Marcus is a near perfect character with a backstory of taking on the mission of his brother who died saving their colony from the Shadows. He is strangely one of the most moral characters in the series in an almost Arthurian fashion. He actually seems like someone out of a different time as a knight errant. His unrequited love of Ivanova is one of his defining features and his final self sacrifice for her sake his ultimate act of love. It also explains Ivanova's departure as a main character (but who returns periodically later).

I would certainly agree with Discovery. I genuinely tried to like it and failed. I gave up after two seasons and the ridiculous plot ending the arc to explain "the Burn". Simply incredulous at the quality of the scripts. I rather like Strange New Worlds. Although none of the rebooted Kelvin timeline movies have any appeal to me. JJ Abrams has ruined two major franchises already and studio executives should keep him away from any other properties if they actually listen to the diehard fans rather than the ones who pay once for a movie ticket for the bubblegum action then have no further interest.

Please, I ignore the Kelvin timeline. I watched the first movies once each then didn't bother to go back to view any even though they're for the asking on Paramount plus which I have. I will quite happily rewatch any of the ST franchise series and films and if the JJA films spontaneously combusted I probably would shed a very very tiny tear.

There's the unspoken caveat. Flint was dying, if Kirk outlived Flint the promise of privacy was moot. As much as I love that episode, it does have inconsistencies. Some of Flint's lives had documented childhoods which would be a lot harder to pull off than faking old age. So, I don't think Kirk deserves too much criticism, and while he "claims" to have met Da Vinci, Voyager's computer didn't appear to know Da Vinci was immortal in the sim, so maybe even in the end he withheld the whole story?