Comment Stream

Re: DSC S5: Red Directive / Under the Twin Moons

Okay, the second episode was a lot better than the first, and now I'm more on board with the multi-stage treasure hunt plot. Captain Rayner is also great, now that I see him as more than just Leoben with pointed ears. I'll miss Saru as Number One but Rayner is a solid replacement. I also enjoy how Book actually has some emotional stakes in this hunt now, and how Moll and L'ak are essentially what he and Michael used to be (off-screen, unfortunately) and maybe what he wished they still were. Dr. Culber looking out for his mental well-being is a nice touch. On to Trill...

Re: DSC S5: Red Directive / Under the Twin Moons

Also wouldnt Dr. Culber in his capacity as CMO insist that Captain Burnham have her bleeding head wounds treated ASAP? Judging by how SMG was acting, it seemed like she’d suffered a concussion during the dumbass podrace scene…

Re: DSC S5: Red Directive / Under the Twin Moons

“Aye, Mr. Saru.” Like nails on a chalkboard.

Whoever is in command of the ship is called CAPTAIN by the crew, regardless of rank. They wouldn’t respond to orders with their commanding officer’s name, especially in crunch time. “Aye, Sir,” sure. But not “Aye, Mr. Saru.”

A nitpick, sure, but one more sign the writer(s) have either never seen Star Trek or don’t care. Probably both.

Also I dearly want to know what dirt Olatunde Osunsanmi has on the producers, because he keeps getting episodes to direct despite the fact he’s a talentless hack whose one move seems to be spinning the camera around characters five times in a scene until the viewers are dizzy.

Re: Join us for the first-ever JammerCon

I laughed…out loud, as the kids say!

Re: VOY S5: Counterpoint

Kashyk and the Devore remain one of my favorite Delta Quadrant villains. They could have more "alien" makeup, but as they are they feel like the Mirror Terran Empire operating the prime universe; a xenophobic "Anti-Federation".

If their expansion were to butt up against the Federation's borders it might've made for a cool conflict with the Romulans, Borg, and Dominion no serious longer threats.

That said, their dark aesthetic and hyper-bureaucratic, Orwellian society might just be too similar to the already-explored Cardassians.

Re: VOY S5: Counterpoint

I am an unapologetic fan of Voyager, despite its many flaws, and "Counterpoint" remains one of my favorite episodes, along with "Year of Hell", "Blink of an Eye", "Living Witness", "Thirty Days", and "Night".

This means I will periodically hop on Paramount+ (or whatever it's called once it merges with Max formerly HBOMax - ParaMax+???) to watch it, and I'm never not entertained.

Re: LD S4: Old Friends, New Planets

Great finale, three stars, solid but not groundbreaking. Looking forward to the next season.

My only little gripe not mentioned above is the sudden appearance of the Captain's Yacht...that seems more like a capital ship perk. I get the Ent-D and Ent-E having one, as its the flagship ... but a lowly Cali-Class? No way.

Re: LD S4: The Inner Fight

I loved how this episode simultaneously tied in all the ongoing plot and character arcs while also being fun and entertaining A/B story in its own right. T'Lyn didn't have a lot to do, but she seemed more comfortable interacting with everyone in her limited screen time. Similarly, I loved how Tendi didn't shy away from her Orion status when it meant helping Mariner out.

As soon as we heard Locarno in the first act, I kept thinking they would bump into him somewhere on the planet, or that the bounty hunter was him; I like how it turned out to be Billups and Freeman was shrewder than we thought, and wore Starfleet unis on purpose. I mean even the TNG dorks dressed down in "Gambit" to gather intel!

While Jammer says it's weird there was no joke about the Locarno/Paris connection, I highly doubt it was a missed opportunity and rather a very conscious choice not to connect the two. In agreement with other commenters, I have no problem with them never mentioning it!

I'll just note that when Sito passed in "Lower Decks", I remember being extremely sad about it...even moreso than "The Inner Light." It's almost like LD knew the emotional resonance of both those episodes when it chose that episode title. Trek had been so cavalier about redshirts (usually lower decks) dying, but "Lower Decks" showed that even the loss of a minor junior officer can hit just as hard.

While I'm sad this fourth season is ending so soon, it looks like it's going to go out on a high note, and I'm buoyed by the news a fifth season is in the works. Hopefully it can go the full seven and take its place among the Trek "Big Boys" of TNG, DS9, and VOY.

Re: LD S4: Parth Ferengi's Heart Place

Tendi and Rutherford's anime-esque blushing throughout the episode makes clear that they're more than friends even if they're less than lovers. However, IIRC the showrunner has said that none of the four mains will ever hook up, so perhaps this is just throwing another bone to the shippers.

My two cents? If you can pair up Riker/Troi, Worf/Jadzia or Bashir/Ezri, you can pair up Tendi and Rutherford. I'd like to see them at least try to cross that bridge. Will it happen? Who knows!

Re: LD S4: Parth Ferengi's Heart Place

*repetitive, not competitive :)

Re: LD S4: Parth Ferengi's Heart Place

Love the more in-depth visit to Ferenginar. "Ferengi Love Songs" is a guilty pleasure of mine because of all the little social and cultural details blended into the story.

I've also always found the establishing shots of the planet, where it's always raining very calming, while the hobbit hole-like dwellings looked cozy and comfortable. Even the sound of the door panel is nice.

Always great to hear Rom and Leeta again—I'll take all the DS9 guest stars I can get!—as well as the return of Quimp, who like Quark doesn't come off as a "typical" Ferengi.

The scenes of alien ships being destroyed (or absorbed? ... Stored, V'ger style?) have become rather competitive and redundant, but at least the ship disappearances have been mentioned three episodes in a row in the main stories.

Whatever this is building up to, it involves every major player, so perhaps there can be some teamwork between former enemies.

As for Mariner, it's clear now she's dealing with some kind of illness or complex that she had previously "self-medicated" by continually rebelling against authority and remaining knocked down to ensign.

Now that she's an LTJG she no longer has that crutch to lean on. It will be tough for the show to address both this and the overarching Big Threat in the few remaining episodes, but I look forward to the attempt.

I'm reasonably certain in both cases it will be more satisfying than the Ahsoka finale, which resolved *nothing*.

Re: Star Wars: Ahsoka

Whelp, watched the finale, and talk about stalling! It felt a lot more like a preview for future TV shows and FIloni's film that will apparently tie all the Mandoverse stories together. And unless there's a wealth of unreleased footage, none of that will have Ahsoka's best performer, Ray Stevenson.

Two more words to describe the finale? Plot armor. TIE fighters are unable to hit Ahsoka's *stationary* shuttle, because they're strafing rather than simply hovering and bombarding. Our heroes dodge what has to be supersonic turbolaser fire. They battle dozens of undead stormtroopers and nobody ends up with so much as a scratch.

I can forgive all that, but putting both Shin and Baylan in scenes lasting less than a minute where they simply stand around and say nothing? I would have preferred if they'd just cut them out of the episode altogether.

The previous episodes felt like we were leading up to something with both of them. And the show owed it to its audience to cash the checks it wrote.

Just a deflating ellipsis of a finale. This show had some great moments and reveals, but ended up doing nothing with them.

And hey, I know I can respond by not paying for Disney+ anymore and washing my hands of the whole venture, but I'm not going to do that, because I like Star Wars and as long as they churn out live action content I'll keep consuming it. So I'm really just shouting into the shadows in the starlight. ;)

Re: Star Wars: Ahsoka

To preface, I have never watched any of the Clone Wars or Rebels shows, just the Genndy Tartakovsky standalone Clone Wars short animated films, which were a fun way to show just how crazy powerful Jedi can be in their prime, while also serving as a nifty prequel in between Episodes II and III.

I watched the first two episodes, and Ahsoka is...fine. My expectations were low, due to the potential to not know who anyone is or their history together (see above) but also the fact that Andor set the standard too high for space swashbuckling fun. Not all SW content has to mimic Prestige TV (TM).

One of my main complaints is that, like the sequels, a lot of the environments feel cold, sterile, and clinical, rather than lived in (a nice exception is Sabine's house, complete with a cat straight out of a Miyazaki film).

Another complaint is that Ahsoka as a character so stoic and unemotional she comes off as dull. I've heard a lot from SW:CW/SW:R fans that she wasn't always like this, and many years have passed and she's dealt with a lot since then, but an actor walks a fine line between aloof and boring.

It doesn't help that all the prosthetics and makeup give her a stiff appearance, like it's hard to move in all that. Compare this to a prosthetic vet like Doug Jones, who can still be fluid no matter what crazy suits you put him in.

Most attempts at humor come off as stilted, another un(?)intentional homage to the prequels, which like Jammer I enjoyed more than most despite their flaws.

All that said, this remains a fun universe to spend time in, so I'm going to stick with this newest live-action SW show, which is all we get until they figure out what kind of film to make after the horrendous Rise of Skywalker.

I'll just conclude that Ray Stevenson (RIP) has by far the most charisma of any character, despite not having much to do. He's followed by his Padawan, played by Ivanna Sakhno. She has the perfect look of a Jedi apprentice gone bad: a bit wired, a bit exhausted, and a touch unhinged.

Re: SNW S2: Those Old Scientists

"Trials and Tribble-ations" it wasn't—that was a stone cold Trek *classic*—but as a fan of both series, MAN was that fun.

When the episode started with Lower Decks, my watching partner, who was casting P+ onto the Smart TV, thought we had the wrong episode. Having heard about a crossover while having done my best not to learn anything more, I simply said "Shh...just wait."

I had a gigantic smile on my face the whole damn time. What a ride. Quaid and Newsome are fantastic as the live-action versions of their characters—who in live-action are *supposed* to come off as overly boisterous and chatterboxy—yet still found a gear to shift down to to keep it from becoming pure camp.

Our SNW crew, meanwhile, found the right balance of bemusement and irritation. It's always good to see "unlawful good" Orions. It even managed to progress the Spock/Christine plotline...albeit in a melancholy direction.

While I wish Tendi and Rutherford could have made the trip to the 3D world, I feel that would have been too much (DS9 had the benefit of two settings—the Enterprise and K-7).

Like the touch of Picard in "Emissary", TNG's "Birthright", the bit of DS9 in "Caretaker", or even VOY's "Live Fast and Prosper", I'm a sucker for these love letters to the franchise. I award 3 1/2 Stars to this ep for the raw, unbridled joy it gave me.

Re: SNW S2: Lost in Translation

While I liked the little La'an/Kirk follow-up I wish they could have gotten that drink.

My friend with whom I watch Trek still thought it was far-fetched that she would fall so head-over-heels in love in just a single episode, but I reminded her "this is Star Trek, people *been* falling in love in one episode, since the beginning!"

Re: SNW S2: Lost in Translation

Another decent Star Trek-y episode that balanced a clever sci-fi mystery with more of that sweet, sweet character work. One thing Disco learned too late (if they learned at all) is that if you don't care about the cast, you won't care about their adventures.

Doggone it, this new Kirk is growing on me!

I like how this was a subtle callback to the classic "Darmok", one of my favorites as I watched it when it first aired. Also "Night Terrors" with the simple message being conveyed by the alien.

As for the sound of the aliens' "voice" in the hallucinations, why that just made me think of the *Breen*! GRHYXTHPTFYTHRTXGH

Re: SNW S2: Charades

The Kerkhovian entities were the rules-obsessed Sheliak Corporate from TNG's "The Ensigns of Command" mixed with the non-corporeal Calamarain from "Deja Q", with a generous dash of present-day AI customer service.

Re: SNW S2: Charades

This was fun. Lotus Eaters was the high concept strange planet Trek trope, and this was the fun out-of-character sitcom Trek trope. Both are essential elements of the whole Trek narrative spectrum, and both IMO were solidly executed. When his pointy ears were revealed to be smoothed over, it just put a big smile on my face.

I might've said this after "Spock Amok", but Ethan Peck really has won me over as a credible Spock. I also don't mind that *many* Vulcans are smug superior racist pricks, but not *all*. They're a diverse bunch, like humans! T'Pring's dad, while reminding me a little too much of the King of Hearts from Disney's Alice in Wonderland, seems like a swell dude!

I also enjoyed the intentional repetition in the montage mapping changes in Spock. It showed the ensemble cast simply chilling together. Unlike DIS, SNW has been doing a better job depicting its characters as more than just people manning consoles and reporting shield percentages. They feel like real, fairly dorky people, like the TNG ensemble.

Re: SNW S2: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I'll add my chorus to the folks who liked Christina Chong's performance, but found the episode overall to be a stale retread of far more compelling time travel episodes. It isn't terrible, but it's just...bland.

It also marks the second episode in two seasons where James T Kirk plays a major role but comes off as an impostor. Chris Pine emanated Kirk vibes; this guy just doesn't.

For one thing, Kirk is supposed to be in his mid-20s in this episode, but Paul Wesley is 40 and it shows (not knocking the guy; I'm 39 and it also shows).

Wesley also doesn't seem to have any real grasp on who Kirk is, and just comes off as a generic Starfleet bro. He also has ZERO chemistry, romantic or otherwise, with La'an.

As such, he serves as nothing more than an irritating distraction, undermining the strong work Chong does despite a meh script.

More and more, I wonder if this episode came about because there wasn't enough budget to do the whole season in space, so they did a cheap one in Toronto. They also managed to film an even slower, more pathetic "car chase" than the one with Seven and Raffi!

These days, if Trek is going to do a time travel episode, it's gotta bring its A-game. All this meandering episode did was remind me of better episodes...*including* DS9's Little Green Men, by the way!

Re: MAND S3: Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

Glad you mentioned music @MercerCreate, because it's another thing that Mandalorian excelled at in its first two seasons but seems to be flagging here.

Ludwig Göransson was the composer for the first two seasons, but he's only credited for "themes" in the third. Joseph Shirley composes the rest of the music...which is utterly forgettable.

Anything you hear this season, be it Mando's primal flute stab, Bo-Katan's theme, the Armorer's theme, etc., are Göransson, and dare I say, that flute stab has gotten pretty stale? It's overused for sure, to the point it would make a dangerous drinking game to take a shot every time you heard it.

But even if Göransson were still composing all the music for this season, I think I just like and appreciate the Andor score (by Succession alum Nicolas Britell) more. It's more mature, more varied, and just sounds more sophisticated in the same way the writing and direction are optimized for an older adult audience, while still sounding like Star Wars.

Re: MAND S3: Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

The Droids were created by man.
They rebelled.
They evolved.
There are many copies.
And they have a plan.

Coming to Disney+ Spring 2025!!!

Re: MAND S3: Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

Having an episode calling attention to the inherent problems with having a slave race of sentient droids when that entire story was disposable stalling for Bo-Katan to reassert her leadership was a pretty big unforced error, if you ask me.

Dealing with the "droid problem" in the SW universe, if done right, could be make for a compelling season, if not a series all its own.

If you're not going to address the elephant in the room, don't bring it in the room!

Yes, it's funny that there's an all-droid bar, and that they all go completely silent when two organics enter. But that's about it for the comedy. But was I the only one who felt *bad* for the bartender he threatened to torture, or the cargo droids he was shoving?

Yes, he lucked out that the third or fourth he messed with drank the bad batch of Nepenthe, but the fact Mando remains an unrepentant "droidist" (and that it's mined for yuk-yuk comedy) makes for a bad taste in the mouth.

Re: PIC S3: Surrender

Apropos of nothing, I've been watching Cheers on Paramount+ (I was too young to watch it when it first aired—looks great in HD) and who should show up in Season 5, Episode 17 but Brent Spiner as the defendant in an attempted murder trial for which Diane was the jury foreman. I had NO IDEA he had ever appeared on Cheers, but there he was...about seven months before "Fairpoint" aired. I almost wish his Cheers character momentarily surfaced in Nu:Data when he was still having an identity crisis...

Re: MAND S3: Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

Wow, Mandalorians sure like their technicalities!

"Never remove your helmet" - *Unless* you need to eat, so you "go off to be alone" - That seems...inconvenient, not to mention antisocial. How the heck is oral history passed on if Mandalorians not together for meals???

What if you sneeze, or vomit, or have an itch, or something on your head or face requiring medical attention? What if you're on a small ship and there's no where to "go off to be alone"? What about sex?

"OK Bo can remove her helmet around other Mandalorians" - The Armorer really is just making this up as she goes along, huh?

How is the son of one of the Mandalorians a "foundling"? Where's the mom? Was he adopted?

"The Darksaber cannot be given, it must be taken" - *Unless* some weird cyborg disarms its owner and you defeat that cyborg weeks (possibly months in-show) ago, then you can just hand it over to that person when it's most convenient.

The Mandalorian does not lend itself to intense scrutiny, and yet it invites that scrutiny by playing fast and loose with its own purported hallowed rules.

And yeah, I have no idea why Grogu is still around, plot-wise. His arc was complete (ok I do know the cynical reason - he's popular and a money maker).

Luke taught him how to hop around like Yoda, and every scene he's done that seems manufactured to simply demonstrate that he can hop around like Yoda. ...Ok?

Re: PIC S3: No Win Scenario

Terrific episode and a great capper to what looked and felt like the fifth TNG film that never was. Even the grouches at RedLetterMedia liked it!

After the nightmares that were the first two seasons, this is a very satisfying and appreciated course correction. Clearly the new showrunners love Trek and understand both that you can't just replicate Berman-era Trek or throw it out completely with the space baby's bath water.

There's a great sense of balance and confidence, which was so sorely lacking before. If this was the first "act" of our ten-hour TNG finale, I'm no longer cautiously optimistic but excited to see what they've saved for the rest of the season.

Bring on Geordi and Data (or Lore/B4??) !