Comment Stream

Re: DS9 S5: Let He Who Is Without Sin...

As somebody who didn't love or hate the episode (it was just fine! and fun!) I am fascinated by the last decade of comments. Watching this episode in 2023 feels extremely timely. I wonder if viewers back in 2010 felt like we were past the moment in history in which the Essentialists' speeches sounded convincing. As other commenters have pointed out, these ideas are pretty popular nowadays, and the ways in which they are expressed are not any more subtle!

(also, what's with the hate re: Bashir's tank top? the man looks like a normal dude on a tank top. he looks like any man at a pride parade in Florida*. he looks good!).

*pre-2023, of course...

Re: DS9 S7: Chimera

This episode is outstanding in that it uses a single plot to enter into a reflection of many different subjects (albeit none more than a ST episode typically permits) such as humanity, prejudice, social assimilation, ODO as a (special) character, love.

Jammer's review misses to express two points I also find relevant:

1. (universal): once again Klingons are shown as the impulsive, simple bullies of Star Trek. They know about the Changeling, saw it transform from vapor into a humanoid form but try to hurt it with a knife???

DS9 spent more time on developing Klingon and Ferengi but still did not manage to overcome the former being marked as relatively mindless brutes and the latter as selfish and greedy (Quark, Rom, Nog and Worf may be somewhat atypical but rather than showing that their races aren't they are just shown as rare exceptions). It's so sad that a ST does not manage to overcome its own once set race stereotypes. Klingons are said to be great warriors and technologically advanced, but at every turn they are shown to be simplistic idiots that get beaten up by humans and fight with Bathlets as children would with sticks.
I don't understand why they have any fans, I find them so depressing.

2. The final scene between Kira and Odo where she says she wants to see and get to know him for what he really is and truly seems to be ready for him to open up fully: that is the most powerful state any of our relationships can have - to not be afraid to show EVERYTHING we are ... and then to still be loved. The latter is not a condition for the first to happen. Up to that point, I found their relationship forced and a bad move but with this single scene, they catapult it into something beyond what I would say most of us can only aspire to reach: to have the person lose all fears of sharing everything they are and think and not be worried to hurt the person with it but to trust it to be the right thing to do, also for the significant other. No tabus.

Re: VOY S6: One Small Step

How this is a good episode is beyond me. Average at best because its plot and point is truly easily concocted up.

Chakotay is way out of character (disobeying the captain, risking lives of his fellow crewman for a not so relevant artifact, they'd never missed had they never looked), the rest of the crew also ignores a direct order from the captain because 2nd in command says so.
The entire crew basis their decision "let's go in" on Steven's mere remark that the Borg invented a special shielding. Oh well, if the puny Borg could do it with their mini cube, sure we can retrofit the Deltaflyer within the hour. This reminded me of when they encountered that space beast pretending to be a wormhole to earth,making everyone franatic and thoughtless a few episodes earlier.

Archologists do not typically go on life threatening missions that include the risk over never being able to report their findings.

Everything about that command module can be found in Earth's history records minus its reading of the anormality which Voyager's probe already looked at much more than any 21st century would have.

we care not about sub space travel analysis or what to learn from metal organisms, we want a spaceship as interesting to us as the first macintosh to 20th century earthlings.

On a mission to Mars, we want to learn new things about space (travel) and Mars. No one would go there just to look at a rock for the rock's sake or to retrieve a probe from an earlier launch for purely sentimental value about the probe.

Re: VOY S5: Warhead

A smart, kinda sentient warp capable bomb of that size and the marvel of it skips everyone's attention on Voyager. The doctor is relying on 29th century tech to carry his smarts around in an arm patch rather than having to rely on the huge spaceship computer.
Sounds akin to a warp capable Data (even if it wasn't as intelligent as Data).

And the way it disposes of the trader ship so easily should cause a "why have we never thought of that"-moment for voyager. Use a transporter beam to send a bit of antimatter over to the other ship and boom.

Re: MAND S2: Chapter 13: The Jedi

Can't believe ST Discovery meager rating while this show gets so many stars. If your, Jammer's, reviews sounded like giving preference to an only visually smart VFX Western of the Star Wars mill, sure, why not.
But you see how each of the series works, what they are trying to establish and how they do it and yet SW Mandalorian gets high praise for SO MUCH LESS. I don't get it.
It is the same SW as always. The same races, the same kinda helmets, blaster shots and terrible misses, stupid droids, towns in nowhere, jedi in a swamp, plus idiotic metal, a voice actor trying his best to build character without a face (good job under a harsh condition) but who's character doesn't get true development. He and everyone else pretty much just IS. The constant bounty hunter turned involuntary nice guy cowboy plot. That's as much character as the Mandalorian got in 2 seasons so far. There is more going on in a single e.g. ST:DIS episode.

The praised fight between jedi and magistrate is rediculous. Jedi not using her powers and downgrading her speed and agility to make someone with a metal stick look even the least bit threatening. And that stick is what made that magistrate boss of the town or what? She does not have a character besides "evil person" either.

None of the story arc's make sense. 1. Spent resources incl. Mandalorian metal to get metal to spend metal. Meet more Mandalorian to then leave them as easily and not go to Mandalore. Bring a child to its family that is not its family at all nor does he know the least bit about them. The one thing he should know is that force sensitive beings are born into many species across the galaxy time and again, some turning out benevolent, others seeking power for themselves, going on and on for thousands of years. What is he doing other than playing lineman gunslinger ruining his ship instead of earning credits?!

Re: VOY S2: Tuvix

I would have done this as a 2-parter. In the first part, we establish Tuvix as a character, see him forming relationships and turning into a unique personality. He forms allies and friends, and enemies who want him restored. By the end the battle lines are drawn, Janeway who wants her two crew members back, and Tuvix's friends and allies. Cliffhanger in the transporter room, in a will-she won't she situation. 2nd episode, she goes through with it, but someone uploads a hologram of Tuvix. A large rebellion forms led by HoloTuvix, challenging her authority. Posters appear around the ship: Is janeway fit to run our ship? Coups are attempted, and one succeeds. Janeway dies, and HoloTuvix takes over command. End credits.

Re: VOY S7: Shattered

Overlooked in the review and comments:

If people disappear when crossing timezones on the ship, what does that mean for Naomi and Itcheb - that they stayed in their time/ship zone for 17-25 years and are where by now?
Not a single question from Chakotay to the future crew who says they are analysing the still persistent time shift phenomenon (presumably for several years) nor enlisting their help. No care in the world for them as people (hi and bye). No care from Itcheb and Naomi that Janeway and Chakotay are alive again, no cate what they do next, what might happen to any of them.

Minor ridiculous scene: Don't get in my way or I will poison Janeway with the injection you just saw me already administering to her. And now, only seconds after administering it, I take her through the time barrier trusting the stuff has made the changes in her already so she will not vanish into nothing.
Then, having just crossed, Chakotay and Janeway can now conveniently see what happens in timeline they just left when before that was not the case nor will it be again while they move through the ship.

I am sorry but always when the people who write a script and all people involved in filming it don't take care of the flaws and moon-sized plot holes that are apparent to watchers the moment they see it, that is just very sloppy work. A script can be good or bad and a matter of opinion. But not being able to or not caring to make the inner workings of your own story and character choices the least bit plausible makes for the worst kind of professional story tellers in my opinion - possibly only exceeded by those not able to tell any story at all.

You can entertain with less but you don't need to be a professional writer to do it.

Re: VOY S3: False Profits

Rewatching this in 2019 makes me hope the new show Picard will not fall victim to the same biggest two problems of ST:

1) Lack of plausible Federation security measures and combat skills (it would only be half as ridiculous if we were not constantly reminded of the quality of security teams and Academy combat training)

2) Using all their resources at hand to choose the most logical and easiest solution to a problem (instead of constantly forgetting they have better options in store).

Re: VOY S3: Future's End, Part II

The main plot lives off the idea that a 20th century guy/hippie can reconstruct 29th century technology superior to 24th century technology within the confines of the 20th SL century. Just by examining the ship, he (alone or with an invisible army of scientists), Over the course of 1-2 decades, can build transporter tech, force fields, scanning jammers, hack into Voyager from an Earth computer, etc. Why even the best of Starfleet's engineers in the 24th century need years of study to build on 24th century knowledge, this guy learns it all from a crashed 29th century 1-person ship.

Re: TNG S5: The Outcast

It makes me so frustrated to read all the criticisms people have about this episode mostly due to the fact that everyone is trying to make it about gay rights. Whether or not it was intended to be and I do agree that gay rights was the intended issue it did end up being about transgender rights. I hate that people are trying to make it into something it's not and I hate that everyone is complaining that it isn't gay enough.

I'm trans and I can say from experience that it's hard to find representation, harder so to find representation that I like either because of personal preferences or because it was offensive. I found Soren relatable and genuine and the character meant a lot to me. I enjoyed seeing myself on screen.

Yes, the episode was dated. No, it didn't portray the issue you wanted it to. So what? Intended or not the character is a heterosexual trans woman and was portrayed more respectfully in 1992 than people like us often are now.

Re: DS9 S4: Indiscretion

What made Dukat more accessible was his confession that he had a Bajoran lover. And that he felt something for her (see scene with earpiece, so his trip was so much more than destroying evidence).

I believe on some level Dukat felt attracted to Major Kira, and once his first secret was out, he was emotionally more open.

The way he laughed about the thorn in his ass, he would have done, when he was alone with his Bajoran lover.

I would have expected a scene where after Dukat's announcement to kill his daughter Kira would have been angry that he first sleeps with a Bajoran and then wants to kill their common child. That should be a total relapse from the playful thorn scene, something like being betrayed.

Re: VOY S6: Unimatrix Zero, Part I

Cool new feature:

We have known you can beam out people from an exploding ship to Enterprise or Voyager. They get stored in the transporter buffer during the explosion and materialise afterwards just fine.

Now with the delta flyer we see an exploding ship can beam the passengers out of it, explode and then the passengers materialise ... must be some etherial transporter buffer with rematerialisation circuits ...

Re: VOY S5: Someone to Watch Over Me

The Doc shuffles Chapman very quickly out of the holodeck.
That could have been a situation for Seven to react more naturally, bring her date to the sickbay or talk about how she and he felt about the evening.

Seven felt he was quickening the sequence, because he did not like it. It would have been a compliment for her, if Chapman resisted the Doc (just a bit) more. She wouldn't have felt it as a failed date.

Anyone agree?

Re: VOY S5: Dark Frontier

Did anyone notice the use of "Please"? Seven tries to persuade each of her Ersatz-mothers and both change their mind after Seven says "please": Janeway takes her onto the mission, the Borg queen releases the four aliens. Was that some kind of lesson or does Seven learn to use her charm?

Re: BSG S3: A Day in the Life

You mean that a batttleship's airlocks are thicker than hull plating on the Astral Queen?
Possible, but they have to slide away, so I somehow doubt it.

Anyway, the whole action felt contrived IMHO, like: "Hey, let's do a cool CGI space stunt!"

That's not what I generally expect from Galactica.

Re: BSG S3: A Day in the Life

One technical issue:

Why didn't the "Raptor rescue party" dock to the pressure door and weld through it in a pressurised environment?
They did it in "Bastille Day" on the Astral Queen.