Comment Stream

Re: ORV S3: Gently Falling Rain

Bortus gagging during "The Molloy Expanding Helix Maneuver" had me roaring. Some good moments of acting that brought some genuine emotional reactions. Otherwise a little heavier than what I came for. You have to be in a different mood for watching Season 3. Not a bad thing at all and comparable to early DS9 Vs later. Wonder if Mercer will get to Siskoan heights of not giving AF / war crimes, and will MacFarlane have the acting chops? We'll see!

Re: ORV S3: Mortality Paradox

So far it's been easy to guess what's going to happen because The Orville borrows so heavily from other shows.

In a way it would be nice if McFarlane played with us a little more. E.g. it was obvious that after blowing up the holo generator, that they were still in the simulation, because it's the old "have I really woken up" trope that goes way back (Nightmare on Elm Street springs to mind). Even just having someone say it would have been good. We get "there's a new generator" thing with the Kaylon ships but I wasn't buying it.

I am really enjoying it despite the flaws. I love the characters, especially Gordon, and it's a joy to have them back. More gags this week helped.

Lastly, Q-meets-Tron-meets-VGER-girl needs a Picardian smack down speech. I felt like with the possibility of PTSD that Mercer would have given her a bit more pushback than he did.

Re: PIC S1: Stardust City Rag

This was the one where I checked out. I loved older star trek because of the way it made me feel. Awe, wonder, "what if" ... episodes like "Measure of A Man" brought both tears and "woah I never thought of it that way" in equal measure (pardon the pun). DS9, TNG and TOS, even ENT, had plenty of such moments, and that's why I could happily sit through seasons and seasons despite the occasional clanger / ferengi / mirror-universe-but-from-ENT / Troi or Tasha or T'Pol get violated or perved on again / Sisko is Jesus episode.

But disco and now Picard have none of this at all, they just feel like standard sci-fi plots hung around a scaffolding of familiar sets and Federation badges, with vacuous characters introduced alongside beloved old regulars, implying we should somehow feel the same about the new guys. I am just bored. Kurtzman's signature on everything - the unearned familiarity, the soap opera, the lack of meaningful character development, the identity politics that would be fine if it wasn't so clumsy - is just the final shit icing on the cake.

Enough. Seth MacFarlane, please buy the rights. Star Trek needs you.

Re: ENT S1: Dear Doctor

One word: Amazing

Re: ENT S1: Silent Enemy

This is my second run through of ENT and I have to say I am finding it a real blast so far. Plenty of first contact scenes to give me trek tingles, loads of cute and funny moments, likeable characters and some pretty meaningful threats.

Being British I could relate a lot to Malcolm in this one. Though my family are nowhere near as cold fish as Malcolm's folks, I have known a good many brits who are like that from the upper classes.

I really enjoy seeing the development of the tech and the slow morph into TOS. The sets are gorgeous and as an engineer I like to just pause the action and check out the gauges and screens, which feel so much more interesting than LCARS.

Don't know if anyone noticed, but just after the scary alien vessel started venting drive plasma and scuttled off.... they played the Deep Space Nine theme! SUPER TINGLES!

Re: DS9 S6: The Magnificent Ferengi

"Ferenghi Comedy"
Episode skip parameters: Exceeded.
Review and synopsis: Read.
Netflix "next video" button actuated.

....
OK FINE I'll watch it

Re: DS9 S6: Statistical Probabilities

Hari, Hari Seldon

Re: DS9 S6: Resurrection

But he has a wonky eyeball.

Its the only thing I can see in every scene.

MU eps in DS9 are still better than the dreadful offerings in every other incarnation of trek, but I would agree that its ground already well mined and unworthy of further visits, unless they are going to use it to gain some tactical advantage over the Dominion. After all, I assume there's a wormhole and changelings in the MU? Something tells me we'll never know. Shame we had to pull away from the excellent dominion arc for this.

Re: DS9 S3: Civil Defense

They've had starfleet engineers crawling all over that station for 2 years. I can almost understand the program getting missed if it was buried in some separate sub processor, but how has no one ever noticed the canisters of nerve gas secreted all about the place? They never got picked up by the ultra sensitive tricorders or weapons detection system? Its all a bit silly really.

Dukat is also officially nuts. There was no way stationing a garrison was going to last more than 5 minutes before he was court martialled and an emergency session of the assembly convened to prevent war with the Federation, resulting in an execution order by that cardassian Judge lady with the fetching grey lipstick.

Still, I had fun I think.

Re: TNG S7: Bloodlines

The hairline comment. A brilliant, fourth-wall breaking end to lighten the mood of a serious moment. Love TNG!

Re: DS9 S1: If Wishes Were Horses

Ray Stantz: I couldn't help it. It just popped in there.
Peter Venkman: [sternly] What? What "just popped in there"?
Ray Stantz: I-- I-I tried to think--
Egon Spengler: LOOK! [They all look over one side of the roof]
Ray Stantz: No! It can't be!
Peter Venkman: What is it?
Ray Stantz: It can't be!
Peter Venkman: What did you do, Ray?!
Winston Zeddemore: Oh, shit!
[They all see a giant cubic white head topped with a sailor hat]
Ray Stantz: [resigned] It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
[The Ghostbusters watch the gigantic form of Mr. Stay-Puft stomping towards them]
Peter Venkman: Well, there's something you don't see every day.
Ray Stantz: I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood, something that could never, ever possibly destroy us: Mr. Stay-Puft.
Peter Venkman: Nice thinkin', Ray.

Re: TNG S6: Timescape

STEP BACK, NAAAOO
^
Marina Sirtis lapsing utterly into her natural english accent and sounding exactly like an Essex girl defending her pissed-up-on-sambuca mate from a lairy geezer at the local nightclub. You tell 'im, dahlin!

I recall seeing an interview with Sirtis where she said she basically bullied the writers into giving her decent lines, and she specifically recalled the "use a quantum singularity as their power source" line. Amazing it took them til season 6 to a_ put her in a uniform and b) make her a properly functioning starfleet ossifer!

Re: TNG S4: Future Imperfect

"My name is Barash"
BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAA
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
HAAAAAAAAAA
*rewinds*
...........
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Re: TNG S3: The Offspring

WILL SOMEONE STOP CUTTING ONIONS AGAIN
THANK YOU

Re: TNG S3: The High Ground

Totally thought Finn was Jerry Seinfeld for a bit

Re: TNG S2: The Icarus Factor

Klingons are weird

Re: TNG S2: The Measure of a Man

Absolutely one of my favourite pieces of science fiction, let alone TNG. Intensely moving and powerful, we really get to see that shakespearian training come to the fore in Stewart, and that seems to also invite Frakes to really step up as well. When he turned Data off, it was truly chilling.

"Well there it sits!". I swear someone is cutting onions in the room every time I watch that part