Comment Stream

Re: SNW S1: A Quality of Mercy

@Brandon Adams

"Y'all think this is bad, wait until you hear what year it was when Jammer finally reviewed TNG Season 5."

And can you believe how many years it took him to review TOS? Unacceptable. Not yet being in existence is no excuse. He should have found himself a flux capacitor or something.

Re: SNW S1: A Quality of Mercy

@Marlboro
Thanks for the recommendation, I actually already read Children of Time last year, and wow, that is some remarkable world-building! Engrossing and fascinating and just a fantastic novel. (I read the sequel as well, still amazing world building, but the octopi aren't as sympathetic or relatable as the arachnids, and the 2nd book is way too long).

I'll return the favor and recommend Metaplanetary by Tony Daniel. The level of imagination involved is off the charts. Unfortunately he never finished the trilogy due to poor sales.

Re: SNW S1: A Quality of Mercy

Marlboro, I'm pretty happy with SNW so far, but I stopped watching Picard (season 2 is just awful) and Discovery (endless scenes of cringeworthy endless contrived dialogue with totally unearned emotional tones). And I'm mostly with you on the JJ Abrams movies.

But Trek isn't the only game in town. Or shouldn't be. But aside from some surprisingly good episodes from Orville this year, I'm finding a lack of good, non-dyatopian sci-fi out there. I want intriguing and fascinating sci-fi plots, characters I can like, and a generally uplifting message. Why is that so hard to find?

Re: ORV S3: Twice in a Lifetime

So many time travel movies or shows have the silly idea that a reality will just disappear. But if a reality exists, why would it just stop being? In this case, 2025 Gordon was huddled there with his wife and kid, waiting for... what? To fade out, a- la BTTF? If his timeline disappears, that would have already happened.

But maybe the writers are aware of that and planning a follow-up. After all, they have Isaac's speculation about realities being in flux, and Mercer's comment about not really understanding how time travel rules work.

Re: ORV S3: A Tale of Two Topas

Like most of you, I enjoyed this episode and thought it was very well done. I'll sidestep the political / social mudslinging by some in this comment thread, but will say this - transitioning is not a simple thing and there is certainly no one-size-fits-all answer. Every child who feels uncomfortable in their body is an individual and needs to be treated as such, with compassion and understanding, not slogans or as political pawns.

Another thought - Topa has just been abandoned by her previously very loving and doting father in a very hurtful way. That's sure to have deep emotional repercussions. I wonder if they'll revisit that at some point.

Re: ORV S3: Shadow Realms

Why did they spend so much time on negotiations with the Krill when they could have condensed it into one line, with the admiral coming aboard and announcing that the Krill have granted passage through their space to the expanse area. Maybe add another line that the Krill warned that it was full of demons. The actual meeting and negotiation with the Krill added nothing to the episode. (Though I wasn't impressed with the rest of it either).

Re: ORV S3: Shadow Realms

At least the mutated admiral didn't kidnap Claire and transwarp her in a shuttle to some swamp on a planet and have babies with her.

Re: SNW S1: Memento Mori

Regarding violations of Canon, I'm going to paste here a comment I wrote on this site on one of the DSC episodes:
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A lot of people on this and many threads about Star trek seem really focused on inconsistencies. But inconsistencies in Star Trek are as old as the franchise itself. My feeling is that it's fiction, and as long as the story is well told I don't mind some inconsistencies, as long as they aren't glaring within the story being told itself. Star Trek is a modern cultural myth, and different interpretations are welcome. There are many retellings of Shakespeare as well. I have plenty of issues with Discovery, but that has to do with the writing, the dialogue, and the characters in general. It doesn't have to be firmly consistent with other trek shows or movies.

Re: VOY S5: Latent Image

I don't know what the writers had in mind, but my personal solution to understanding how the EMH could have evolved in such an advanced way is that once he was enhanced by 29th century technology (his mobile emitter) it enabled his program to far exceed its original intention, and made him much more "real" than, say, the holodeck DaVinci. And yes, there's a weak spot in that argument, because he's often transferred back to Voyager's computers when he doesn't need the mobile emitter in sickbay. But we can imagine that the 29th century technology isn't limited to the hardware of the emitter, but maybe is inherent to the program itself, even when transferred back to 24th century hardware.

At least that's how I personally choose to reconcile it.

Re: SNW S1: Memento Mori

"No, Gorn, no! That's where I sit!"

Re: VOY S5: Course: Oblivion

From my prior comment directly above "how on earth"

That should probably have been "how in the delta quadrant" ;-)

Re: VOY S5: Course: Oblivion

I've always loved this episode. I generally like episodes with happier endings, but sometimes a bittersweet ending is done so well that you have to love it. And I loved the way the episode dared to let the mimetic Voyager and crew not only not succeed in getting home but also be forgotten, with nothing for the real Voyager to salvage.

And if you want to look at it philosophically, the "real" Voyager and crew aren't real either. It's a TV show. What gives them a sense of consequence is that we, the audience, watch them on TV. By that yardstick, that goes for the fake Voyager and crew as well.

3.5 / 4 stars, with 1/2 star off only because of the once again ridiculous ignoring of the distances traveled and how on earth could the mimetic Voyager catch up to the real one.

Re: DS9 S6: Profit and Lace

I watched only the opening scene. They've been trying to make Quark more likeable, then right at the very start of this episode, they turn him into Harvey Weinstein. Sickening.

Re: DS9 S6: The Reckoning

Just rewatched this for the first time in many years. I agree with Jammer - the entire pyrotechnic battle at the end is just ridiculous. And it makes a mockery of the wormhole aliens / prophets, who until know have been much more mysterious figures who have a hard time understanding corporeality and have only begun to understand linear existence. Suddenly one of them is possessing a humanoid body to become a massive phaser? Come on.

Re: TNG S6: Realm of Fear

One thing they didn't address is why on Earth (or rather why in the galaxy) would the missing crew members manifest in the beam as some sort of worm-like macro version of a microscopic creature?

Re: TNG S6: Realm of Fear

In general, I find Barclay to be a little over the top, but otherwise I enjoyed this episode. And I really liked the resolution to the mystery of the missing crew members. The first time I saw it, I had no idea that was going to happen, and I had no idea why Barclay grabbed and hugged the creature. Good sci-fi twist!

Re: TNG S5: The Next Phase

I've always liked this episode, but hadn't seen it in a while. Upon rewatch:

1) I was waiting for the moment when time stops and Geordi and Ro are on the bridge and the frozen Romulan officer turns out to not be frozen after all. Then I realized I conflating this episode with season six's 'Timescape'. After all, both have enterprise officers out of sync with the rest of the crew, an energy transfer beam between the ships, Romulans, and more specifically, a Romulan who is secretly out of sync as well and ends up in a confrontation with 'our' out of sync characters. No wonder I misremembered!

2) On my recent viewing, I decided that I disliked the very end. Ro I feel something personal and expresses genuine conflicted feelings, and what does LaForge do? He uses it to jokingly belittle her and her reputation for being stubborn and difficult, instead of being a true friend. She may have laughed, but it seem to be an uncomfortable laugh.

Re: TNG S5: Cause and Effect

To all those pointing out this plot hole: what was the Bozeman colliding within the 80 years before the Enterprise came along..... The answer is, the Enterprise! Once you eliminate linear time, anything is possible. Both ships entered a space where time acts independently of the rest of the universe. To the outside universe, sure, the Bozeman entered decades earlier, but once in that space, linear logic no longer applies. I don't see any reason why the Enterprise could not have collided with the Bozeman only 4 or 5 times while the Bozeman was colliding with the Enterprise thousands of times. Or maybe they also only collided four or five times, once they entered the space with its own rules of time. Maybe somehow the Enterprise anchored the era into which both ships emerged after the time loop ended. It would have been an interesting two parter if somehow the Bozeman had been the anchor and the Enterprise emerged 80 years earlier.

Re: DS9 S5: By Inferno's Light

@DLPB

"But a show cannot be a true science fiction if it is continually breaking the laws of physics."

Warp Speed. Transporters. Two technologies that are central to all of Star Trek, yet should be classified as Science Fantasy. Nuff said.

Re: DS9 S5: The Ascent

Pet peeve of mine that could probably apply to dozens of Star Trek episodes.

If you're traveling through interstellar space, how do you just conveniently find planets fo crash land on? Interstellar space is huge! The chances of being near a convenient solar system is infinitismal. Is warp drive still working after a bomb goes off?

Re: DS9 S4: Accession

@Markz

"Bajorans seem so primitive and superstitious; how did they ever invent warp travel?"

Humans seem so primitive and superstitious. How did they ever invent nuclear weapons or space shuttles or the internet or smartphones...

(Answering 6 years later, but time is non-linear, you know)

Re: PROD S1: Lost and Found

Jammer, when I subscribed to CBS All Access (gave it up because I hated DSC and had finished Picard S1), I had my subscription via the Amazon Video portal. Worked great that way.

Re: DS9 S4: The Visitor

I've seen this episode a few times over the years, and I agree it's excellent, though I normally don't like overly emotionally manipulative plots.

One thing that struck me in this episode, and which I realize holds true for the whole series, is that although Avery Brooks' acting is awkward and strange sometimes, it's always excellent and moving in his father/son scenes with Cirroc Lofton.

And I only realized upon this rewatching that Melanie is played by Andrew Robinson's real life daughter. So the frame tail is Garak's daughter and Sisko's son hanging out together.

Re: DS9 S3: The Adversary

I just watched this for the first time in many years and I had the same thought as some others here - why are Kira and Odo on a Starfleet mission, a mission entirely unconnected to Bajor or to DS9 security, aboard the Defiant? Why is Kira the 1st officer of the Defiant? Makes no sense.

And while I did enjoy the episode, it felt like it was written for TNG or Voyager, and felt off for DS9, like the writers didn't entirely know their own characters.

Re: DS9 S3: The Die Is Cast

I didn't read the whole comment thread, only the first third or so, so maybe someone else already mentioned this. One viewpoint in the comments seems to be that Odo and Garak brought back useful information to the Federation and that's why Admiral Toddman went easy on Commander Sisko. Another view counters that they brought back nothing of value.

I would argue that Sisko's actions were actually detrimental. Toddman orders Sisko NOT to take the Defiant to the Gamma Quadrant. Unspoken is that the Federation doesn't want to involve itself at this point and make an explicit (rather than implicit) enemy of the Dominion. But there the Defiant was, firing on Jem Hadar ships during the big space battle over the Founders' empty planet. Those Jem Hadar ships will report to the Founders that a Federation ship was involved in the battle.

And Sisko gets off without even a slap on the wrist?

Great episode, otherwise.