Comment Stream

Re: BSG S3: Crossroads, Part 1

"It is what collaborators always say. I had no choice. I only followed orders. I tried to make the best of a bad situation but what they really do is enjoying a better life than the rest while making it easier for the occupiers to control the population. "

I really don't like that word, "collaborator". Aren't we all collaborators to some extent? When we enjoy a better life than the homeless guy on the street, we collaborate with the system that has taken the land, food and natural resources that rightfully belong to everyone, divided them up and put them in the hands of those deemed more worthy of them. I really don't see any difference. The concentration camp begins with the policeman.

Re: VOY S6: Spirit Folk

Loved this episode. I wish they had 10 more like it.

Re: TNG S5: Redemption, Part II

Not understanding all the hate on the Sela character. It was an obvious conceit, to get Crosby back on the show, but so what? My hate is reserved for the writers, who wasted a character that could have been more fully explored (particularly in the movies, Nemesis should have resembled The Undiscovered Country and Sela/Crosby should have been front and center) and whom they turned into a one dimensional Scooby-Doo villain in her next installment (Reunification).

Anyhow, I digress. Came here to say that I've always felt the ending here was a bit ham ended, where Worf decides to spare Toral while giving a "This is why we're better than you" Kirk/Picard speech to the assembled Klingons. I would have done the scene with Worf taking the knife, looking at Toral, who is ready to die, looking at Kern, who is impatiently waiting for him to do it, then looking at Picard and seeing the disapproval on his face, and an idea comes to mind....

"No! I will not kill him. He does not deserve that honor. Let him live with the shame of his dishonor, as I was forced to do. I can think of no worse punishment."

*drops the knife, slaps Toral across the face, looks at Picard who gives an almost imperceptible nod, looks at Kern who grins with approval*

Gowron, "Very well." *turns his back on Toral, as do the other assembled Klingons in turn*

Seems like that would have been more in-character for Worf than to give a Federation lecture to his fellow Klingons.

Re: ENT S3: Rajiin

Wait, why is Archer concerned about sex slavery now? Just recently he condemned an entire gender of an alien race to sex slavery, even refusing asylum to a refugee who was so distraught by their captivity that they killed themselves.

Re: DS9 S3: The Die Is Cast

I love these two episodes, but Sisko's blatant and consequence free violation of orders strains credibility, even by Trek standards. More to the point, it was wholly unnecessary for the plot, given the Dominion's "No changeling has ever harmed another" ethos.

Personally, I would have skipped the rescue subplot and ended the story with Garek and Odo escaping on the runabout. I'm not certain why it exists, except to consume screen time and provide a nifty Defiant pyrotechnics display.

Re: TOS S1: Balance of Terror

This episode was almost directly lifted from The Enemy Below; watch the back to back and you can almost make a drinking game out of the similarities.

Concur with the chorus of people that say Jammer had underrated this episode. This is classic Trek and Kirk right here, in fact I'm pretty sure BoT makes the essential ten episodes list for TOS.

Re: Star Trek: First Contact

Watch the scene in BoBW where The Collective addresses Picard:

"You speak for your people."
"I have nothing to say to you. And I will resist you with my last ounce of strength."
"Strength is irrelevant, resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves....."

That scene still sends chills up my spine. The Borg are so completely alien in BoBW; you can't reason with them, you can't destroy them, they are a simple force of nature all the emotion of a spider devouring its prey, e.g., NONE.

Then came First Contact and a retconned Queen as a personification of The Collective. Alright, I can get behind the Queen, that's what Locutus' character was there for after all. Except of course she has to take things personally, get angry, and have a human desire for revenge. WTF? Remember how Locutus dismissed his "abduction" in BoBW, without a hint of emotion or concern? That's how the personification of The Collective behaves!

The Borg in BoBW and Scorpion (I can't believe I'm citing Voyager as an example of doing it right!) were genuinely frightening. After that they were just the Bad Guys of The Week.

And +1 for whoever mentioned RedLetterMedia. The part of his review called "A Tale of Two Picards" nails it. Completely out of character. FC is 90% dumbed down action movie and 10% Trek. The 10% was the final scene with the Vulcans landing, Lily, Picard, and Cochrane. That was Trek; too bad the payoff wasn't worth the pain of the rest of the movie.

In my mind TNG will always have ended with "All Good Things..."

Re: TNG S3: Yesterday's Enterprise

Michael, you're really gonna nitpick the battle based on how many photons the Enterprise fired? That's the worst attribute of Trek Fandom right there, thinking that technobabble should drive the story rather than serve the story.

You can justify it easily enough, the limits of a TV budget and special effects technology at the time, but why bother? The ultimate point is that the Enterprise is fighting a hopeless battle for a greater cause. Three on One are long odds, she's doomed the minute they decide to stand rather than run, but they survive long enough to accomplish their mission and even take some of the bad guys with them.

If you think this episode would have been better with a drawn out CGI rendered wank fest like Nemesis (or, dare I say it, Sacrifice of Angels) I'm afraid you've missed the point entirely.

Re: CAP S1: Ghosts in the Machine

"How much do you think Zoe might want to tell him that it wasn't her who blew up the train?" This isn't possible because it's not really Zoe that's in the U-87 but Zoe's avatar and the avatar doesn't know if Zoe was or wasn't responsible for the bombing.