Comment Stream

Re: ENT S4: Bound

This just continues the long tradition of science fiction television trying to criticize sexism and coming off even more sexist. I can't think of a more sexist trope than women being dangerous manipulators with their sexuality. It's why thousands of them are still forced by law in some countries to cover themselves from head to toe, or even ghastlier customs that don't need describing here.

Re: ENT S2: A Night in Sickbay

I entirely disagree with you. I didn't find the alien makeup hokey.

Other than that, yeah, what a terrible episode!

Re: TOS S1: The Enemy Within

This is one of those episodes that I loved as a boy but has somewhat less appeal to me as a middle-aged viewer. Partly it has to do with Shatner's acting as Negative Kirk. The only scene where he really pulls it off is the final confrontation on the bridge, which almost makes up for the rest. The biggest problem of course is how they handle Rand's character, basically having her repeatedly apologize for being attacked and practically raped, starting with almost immediately after it happened, and culminating in one of the most stomach-churning moments in TOS history, when Spock actually implies that she secretly liked it. 30 years ago I probably would have given this full marks. Now, it still deserves 2 1/2 out of four on the strength of its concept and most of its execution. But I can't say I still think it's one of the best.

Re: DS9 S6: Who Mourns for Morn?

Fun and silly. Nothing to brag about. But a solid episode.

Re: DS9 S6: Statistical Probabilities

And by 'better' I mean less offensive.

Re: DS9 S6: Statistical Probabilities

This episode had me cringing from the opening scene, with its one-dimensional caricatures of the mentally ill standing in for genetic experimentation gone wrong. I kept waiting for it to get better. Didn't happen.

Re: DS9 S6: Resurrection

I hope this is it for DS9's mirror universe episodes. TOS had the good sense only to go there once, and Enterprise's mirror universe two-parter took an original approach. This was just too much 'whatever' for me. I hope it's over now.

Re: DS9 S6: You Are Cordially Invited

I have no complaints about what was shown. My biggest complaint is what wasn't, that is to say the two most important conversations in the episode were M.I.A. First, the reconciliation between Kira and Odo takes place almost entirely off-camera. Second, the reconciliation between Dax and Martok's wife takes place almost entirely off-camera. C'mon!

Re: DS9 S6: Sacrifice of Angels

Odd that your biggest complaints about this episode are the contrivances, but the contrivance of the Prophets simply making the invading fleet disappear you're not just OK with, but actually like.

Re: DS9 S6: Favor the Bold

When Kira and Weyoun were speaking early on, it struck me that they have something in common - their faith in their 'gods.' The difference, of course, is that Kira's worship is something she has struggled with, whereas Weyoun's worship has been genetically engineered into him. I suppose it's that freedom to doubt that means everything.

Re: DS9 S6: Rocks and Shoals

Well that was grim. I never thought Star Trek would feature an old lady hanging herself in public.

Re: DS9 S5: In the Cards

Glad to see at least some of you give this episode the props it deserves. It's zany, and I mean that in a good way. I'm pretty sure I never expected to see Weyoun interrogating Jake and Nog about anything, let alone the possibility of a time-traveling Willie Mays.

Re: DS9 S5: Empok Nor

Lighten up. If you're gonna have a character go wacky psychotic on you, Garak's the one.

Re: DS9 S5: Blaze of Glory

This was a far better send-off than the character Eddington deserved. His last-minute conversion into a Maquis spy by writers was one of the most poorly handled characterizations in a show known for its great characterizations. I would have been happy never to have had it referenced again.

Re: DS9 S5: Children of Time

Watching this episode just reminded me how special is this franchise. It's the only one that could produce it. That said, I was thoroughly prepared to be disappointed that What's-his-name Dax was responsible for modifying the flight plan. I thought it would have been way better if it had been Odo. Then it turned out to be Odo!

Re: DS9 S5: Ferengi Love Songs

I can always guess the score you'll give an episode based on how many Ferengi are heavily featured. It's an inverse ratio.

Re: DS9 S5: Ties of Blood and Water

I actually would have liked the story told without flashbacks. Maybe add a sentence to the final conversation between Kira and Bashir. Maybe not even that. But maybe it wouldn't have worked as well. Maybe I just wanted more Weyoun.

Re: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

This is my favorite Trek film. I understand where fans are coming from when they bemoan it, either as being too slow-paced, dour, and disinterested in telling a coherent story. However, those are my favorite things about it.

I was going to write that it's undeniably a slow-burner, but that's not fair. It doesn't even try to burn. There's nearly no plot to speak of beyond getting the band back together (and a vague rehash of a livelier TOS episode), but that doesn't bother me any more than a Jackson Pollack painting's lack of figures or narrative.

Even though it came out in 1979, The Motion Picture held the distinction of having the very best visual effects of the entire franchise for a full 30 years, and it's still got the best soundtrack of just about any science fiction film, let alone any Trek iteration. The movie's a visual and aural extravaganza that also happens to make you think a tiny bit, something seriously lacking in today's Star Trek films.

Several comments above have noted its similarities to 2001: A Space Odyssey, while others have taken umbrage at the very notion that this movie be compared with the Mona Lisa of science fiction. Personally, though I recognize that this film isn't in the same league as Kubrick's masterpiece, I have to salute the filmmakers for deciding to reach for that aesthetic when just about everyone else in Hollywood was trying (largely without success) to ape Star Wars' brand of flashy space opera. It was a bold move.

Another frequent complaint is that the characters aren't handled the way the audience wanted them to be, but I prefer TMP's more realistic vision of what' happened to our heroes to what we got in the soft-reboot that was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Kirk's become a bitter, middle-aged paper-pusher willing to sabotage the career of his own hand-picked successor just to get back in the captain's seat, and it nearly gets everyone killed more than once. Spock, having failed to find a comfortable place with humanity in Starfleet, has turned his back on that half of his being (and his best friends) in pursuit of pure logic, and even that doesn't work out for him. McCoy's so happy to have left the service that he has to be 'drafted' back onto the Enterprise. I imagine he spent most of his time between TOS and TMP getting loaded in a Federation version of a VFW bar.

That might seem depressing to some of you. Heck, it is depressing. But on top of being a boring person, I'm also a moody person, so I guess this film just speaks to me. :P

Re: DS9 S5: A Simple Investigation

Random observations.

I wonder if detectives actually do read detective novels. That has to be dull. I just realized that the fake stars outside DS9's windows slowly move. Nice touch. I liked the Finnean design. It's always good to see Trek do an alien with more than just a weird forehead (e.g. the Idanians).

Re: DS9 S5: Doctor Bashir, I Presume

Also, not to be too pedantic, but wasn't the Eugenics Wars period 400 years ago, not 200 years ago? If the latter were true, Khan would have been banging around AFTER the events of Enterprise, right? A bit awkward, that.

Re: DS9 S5: Doctor Bashir, I Presume

When a character's past is retconned in such a major way as this, it's almost always for the worse, but this is one of those rare exceptions that proves the rule, because it actually fits so well with what's already been established about Bashir (his athletic prowess, his undeniable intellectual abilities, his occasional arrogance about said abilities, etc...). It's a shame that everything about the development, from how it was revealed to how it was tidied up, was so poorly written. This could have been one of DS9's best stories if handled with more subtlety and patience.

On the other hand, I largely enjoyed the Zimmerman/Leeta/Rom love/lust triangle, and, even if it was 'low brow' for Trek, I can't complain about seeing Chase Masterson bouncing around in a towel.

Re: DS9 S5: In Purgatory's Shadow

Before embarking on this current binge, I'd never seen the last four seasons of DS9, and this is the first episode that really hammered home why a vocal minority of the Trek fanbase consider this series to be the best the franchise has ever produced. I'm also starting to understand the Voyager hate a bit more - not because I hate Voyager, but because I can only imagine how difficult it was to flip back and forth between this terrific season and whatever was going on in the Delta Quadrant in 1997.

Re: DS9 S5: For the Uniform

I think the Maquis lay firmly in the 'bad guy' camp. Terrorists always think their actions justified.

Re: DS9 S5: The Begotten

I was a bit disappointed that Sisko would threaten Odo on Starfleet's behalf, and I'm doubly disappointed that Odo would give in to such threats and allow Mora to conduct procedures he believed to be distressing to the child-changeling in order to get faster results. None of that seemed in-character.

Re: DS9 S5: Rapture

I'm not sure I would have given this 4 stars, but I'm shocked by some of the very negative reactions. I don't know why people have a problem with Bajoran faith being a part of this series. The pilot episode laid all the cards on the table. If, like Bashir and Dax, you prefer to think of the Prophets as meddling aliens who live outside of the flow of time, you can do that. If, like Kira and Work, you prefer to approach the issue from a faith perspective, you can do that as well. I'm not a faith person myself, but it can't be denied that faith is one of the most important aspects of our society, and it's no less worthy of examination than any other, and by examination I don't mean just dismissing it as barbarism.