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Re: Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Over the decades, I've made many upgrades to my home theatre setup. Every time a notable advance in the technology has reached a consumer-friendly price point, I've been there, because I'm a huge nerd and love that stuff. And the first* thing I always test it with is the Enterprise flyby scene from TMP. I'll turn off the lights, crank up the volume, and just chill out for a couple of minutes, vibing in sync with Kirk as Scotty indulges their mutual fetish for starship porn.
Visually, sonically, emotionally: for a Star Trek fan, there is no greater catnip than this scene.
I say this because I find myself in agreement with Jammer's review that TMP's aspirations to be a grand *movie*, and not just a good Star Trek episode, elevate it beyond the ho-hum plot that recycles many prior stories from TOS. (And Roddenberry would later recycle parts of this movie into TNG.) This is a movie that *knows* it's a movie. It knows it's an *event*, and accordingly, it swings for the fences. That it doesn't score a home run doesn't mean we can't appreciate the attempt.
TMP, you glorious half-failure: I salute you.
*The second thing is the "stealing the Enterprise" scene from TSFS, which is also excellent starship porn with a similarly fantastic soundtrack.
Over the decades, I've made many upgrades to my home theatre setup. Every time a notable advance in the technology has reached a consumer-friendly price point, I've been there, because I'm a huge nerd and love that stuff. And the first* thing I always test it with is the Enterprise flyby scene from TMP. I'll turn off the lights, crank up the volume, and just chill out for a couple of minutes, vibing in sync with Kirk as Scotty indulges their mutual fetish for starship porn.
Visually, sonically, emotionally: for a Star Trek fan, there is no greater catnip than this scene.
I say this because I find myself in agreement with Jammer's review that TMP's aspirations to be a grand *movie*, and not just a good Star Trek episode, elevate it beyond the ho-hum plot that recycles many prior stories from TOS. (And Roddenberry would later recycle parts of this movie into TNG.) This is a movie that *knows* it's a movie. It knows it's an *event*, and accordingly, it swings for the fences. That it doesn't score a home run doesn't mean we can't appreciate the attempt.
TMP, you glorious half-failure: I salute you.
*The second thing is the "stealing the Enterprise" scene from TSFS, which is also excellent starship porn with a similarly fantastic soundtrack.
Re: LD S2: The Spy Humongous
A mostly inoffensive episode, but it's probably the one that's made me laugh the least since the premiere. As Karl Zimmerman mentioned above, the character work was above-average, which pulls it just out of the two-star midrange for me.
I've been thinking about why it is that I like Lower Decks but don't *love* it the way that some of the fandom has, and this episode highlighted some of the roadblocks for me. I feel like a have a long, boring essay about the show brewing, but I'll save it for a night when I don't have the new UHD remasters of the OG Trek movies waiting for me. For now, I'm gonna go get drunk(er) and enjoy The Motionless Picture in Dolby Vision.
God, I can't wait for this interminable pandemic to end. (Sydney-based Australian here, well into the third month of delta-variant lockdown.)
A mostly inoffensive episode, but it's probably the one that's made me laugh the least since the premiere. As Karl Zimmerman mentioned above, the character work was above-average, which pulls it just out of the two-star midrange for me.
I've been thinking about why it is that I like Lower Decks but don't *love* it the way that some of the fandom has, and this episode highlighted some of the roadblocks for me. I feel like a have a long, boring essay about the show brewing, but I'll save it for a night when I don't have the new UHD remasters of the OG Trek movies waiting for me. For now, I'm gonna go get drunk(er) and enjoy The Motionless Picture in Dolby Vision.
God, I can't wait for this interminable pandemic to end. (Sydney-based Australian here, well into the third month of delta-variant lockdown.)
Re: LD S2: An Embarrassment of Dooplers
A nice combination of low-stakes Star Trek material along with a classic sitcom premise: gaining entry to a party. This episode didn't have anything that made me crack up like last week's Mugato threeway, but it did get quite a few laughs out of me:
* The Doopler just being insufferably precious was great.
* The classic Star Trek stock-footage-of-the-ship actually being a model was cute
* "Eh, *some* of them may be Lores."
* The groundskeeper that actually wanted to die
* "Your pagh is weak and disgusts me!" - bajoran insults. Eat your heart out Kai Winn
* Smash cut from Freeman's inspiring Captain's Speech to still being denied entrance to the party
* DJ Okona
The Tendi/Rutherford material was, as usual, the weakest. I'm not sure exactly why it is but although their friendship is somewhat endearing, there's just not much spark to their scenes together. Tendi/Mariner and Rutherford/Boimler both seem to work better.
A nice combination of low-stakes Star Trek material along with a classic sitcom premise: gaining entry to a party. This episode didn't have anything that made me crack up like last week's Mugato threeway, but it did get quite a few laughs out of me:
* The Doopler just being insufferably precious was great.
* The classic Star Trek stock-footage-of-the-ship actually being a model was cute
* "Eh, *some* of them may be Lores."
* The groundskeeper that actually wanted to die
* "Your pagh is weak and disgusts me!" - bajoran insults. Eat your heart out Kai Winn
* Smash cut from Freeman's inspiring Captain's Speech to still being denied entrance to the party
* DJ Okona
The Tendi/Rutherford material was, as usual, the weakest. I'm not sure exactly why it is but although their friendship is somewhat endearing, there's just not much spark to their scenes together. Tendi/Mariner and Rutherford/Boimler both seem to work better.
Re: LD S2: Mugato, Gumato
SC, I don't think the fact that Lower Decks is a half-hour sitcom necessarily precludes it from giving us interesting plots with dramatic weight. There were a number of interesting plot ideas in the first season that could have easily been spun into full length episodes of the live-action shows.
Barebones plot structures like in this particular episode are fine, but if they're going to go that route then the episode needs to be *hilarious*, not just gently amusing, in order to justify its existence. Personally I think this was the funniest episode of the show since "Crisis Point", but as evidenced by Jammer's review and the comments here, humour is wildly subjective.
Overall, I'm finding myself enjoying season 2 more than I did season 1 but still don't think the show is "appointment television". Hopefully the writers will swing for the fences a little more in the back half of the season.
SC, I don't think the fact that Lower Decks is a half-hour sitcom necessarily precludes it from giving us interesting plots with dramatic weight. There were a number of interesting plot ideas in the first season that could have easily been spun into full length episodes of the live-action shows.
Barebones plot structures like in this particular episode are fine, but if they're going to go that route then the episode needs to be *hilarious*, not just gently amusing, in order to justify its existence. Personally I think this was the funniest episode of the show since "Crisis Point", but as evidenced by Jammer's review and the comments here, humour is wildly subjective.
Overall, I'm finding myself enjoying season 2 more than I did season 1 but still don't think the show is "appointment television". Hopefully the writers will swing for the fences a little more in the back half of the season.
Re: LD S2: Mugato, Gumato
Jeffrey's Tube - even more amusingly, DeForest Kelley was pronouncing the name *correctly* in the take where he says "gumato"! It's how it was originally written in the script, but he kept saying it as "mugato" so they just changed it. It's still listed in the end credits of the ep as "gumato".
Jeffrey's Tube - even more amusingly, DeForest Kelley was pronouncing the name *correctly* in the take where he says "gumato"! It's how it was originally written in the script, but he kept saying it as "mugato" so they just changed it. It's still listed in the end credits of the ep as "gumato".
Re: LD S2: Mugato, Gumato
So, look. When it comes to comedy, I appreciate a well-delivered subtle joke just as much as the next person who likes to think they're above your lowest-common-denominator dick and fart jokes. But the Mugato mating scene, replete with ecstatic monster faces, different positions, and then a third who just wanted to watch and jack his horn...
...well, dammit, Lower Decks, you made me laugh the hardest you ever have. I genuinely lost my shit. For that I award you four stars and bless you.
The rest of the episode continued season two's trend of being a far more relaxed show than season one. Less flop sweat and more genuine situational comedy. I was particularly fond of the running gag of mispronouncing Mugato and also got a big kick out of Shaxs constantly tasting the dung.
No duds this season yet, show! Keep it up.
So, look. When it comes to comedy, I appreciate a well-delivered subtle joke just as much as the next person who likes to think they're above your lowest-common-denominator dick and fart jokes. But the Mugato mating scene, replete with ecstatic monster faces, different positions, and then a third who just wanted to watch and jack his horn...
...well, dammit, Lower Decks, you made me laugh the hardest you ever have. I genuinely lost my shit. For that I award you four stars and bless you.
The rest of the episode continued season two's trend of being a far more relaxed show than season one. Less flop sweat and more genuine situational comedy. I was particularly fond of the running gag of mispronouncing Mugato and also got a big kick out of Shaxs constantly tasting the dung.
No duds this season yet, show! Keep it up.
Re: LD S2: Kayshon, His Eyes Open
I get it, Jeffery's Tube - I have a lot of fun coming up with headcanon too :)
If you ever read the Trek novels, I highly recommend the Department Of Temporal Investigations series. They are basically Trek time-travel headcanon on steroids and absolute catnip for obsessives like us!
I get it, Jeffery's Tube - I have a lot of fun coming up with headcanon too :)
If you ever read the Trek novels, I highly recommend the Department Of Temporal Investigations series. They are basically Trek time-travel headcanon on steroids and absolute catnip for obsessives like us!
Re: LD S2: We'll Always Have Tom Paris
I think I might start rating LD episodes based on how many times they made me actually laugh out loud rather than just have a knowing smile. They got me three times this episode, all towards the end:
1) Tom Paris saying "A KAZON!" and immediately attacking Boimler
2) Doctor T'ana diving into the box in sheer ecstasy, in typical cat fashion. Almost any joke about her being a cat gets me though. It's low-hanging fruit but I'll allow it
3) Rutherford finding out the true existential, bone-chilling horrors of coming back from the dead and not being able to cope. Much like their take on how ascending into a being of pure energy might actually *really* hurt in the first season, I found this darkly hilarious.
As Jammer noted in the review for last week's episode though, Lower Decks has yet to cement itself as appointment television. I'm glad it exists and I'll definitely keep watching, but for now it's more gently amusing comfort food for Star Trek fans than anything else. I want it to be, and I think it can be, a consistently great comedy for all audiences, but they still haven't found the right gear between *too* manic and not manic *enough*.
I think I might start rating LD episodes based on how many times they made me actually laugh out loud rather than just have a knowing smile. They got me three times this episode, all towards the end:
1) Tom Paris saying "A KAZON!" and immediately attacking Boimler
2) Doctor T'ana diving into the box in sheer ecstasy, in typical cat fashion. Almost any joke about her being a cat gets me though. It's low-hanging fruit but I'll allow it
3) Rutherford finding out the true existential, bone-chilling horrors of coming back from the dead and not being able to cope. Much like their take on how ascending into a being of pure energy might actually *really* hurt in the first season, I found this darkly hilarious.
As Jammer noted in the review for last week's episode though, Lower Decks has yet to cement itself as appointment television. I'm glad it exists and I'll definitely keep watching, but for now it's more gently amusing comfort food for Star Trek fans than anything else. I want it to be, and I think it can be, a consistently great comedy for all audiences, but they still haven't found the right gear between *too* manic and not manic *enough*.
Re: LD S2: Kayshon, His Eyes Open
Booming, "Romufriends" slayed me. 😂
Jeffrey's Tube - I can't tell if you were joking or not when you wrote a (well-written!) multi-paragraph headcanon explanation for the multiple TNG-era uniform changes and then said "So that's not really all that confusing, is it?", but I laughed regardless. (Personally I haven't found the changes and inconsistencies in the new shows to be any more or less easy to handwave away than the old ones.)
FWIW I've been in the military for a decade and had three different uniforms in that time - and that's not counting the constant minor changes to things like dress uniforms, boots, headdress etc.
Booming, "Romufriends" slayed me. 😂
Jeffrey's Tube - I can't tell if you were joking or not when you wrote a (well-written!) multi-paragraph headcanon explanation for the multiple TNG-era uniform changes and then said "So that's not really all that confusing, is it?", but I laughed regardless. (Personally I haven't found the changes and inconsistencies in the new shows to be any more or less easy to handwave away than the old ones.)
FWIW I've been in the military for a decade and had three different uniforms in that time - and that's not counting the constant minor changes to things like dress uniforms, boots, headdress etc.
Re: LD S2: Kayshon, His Eyes Open
A better effort than the premiere, I think. "Strange Energies" felt like it was straining to find the jokes amidst the chaos, but this one seemed far more relaxed about letting the humour just come naturally from the characters in these weird situations.
My favourite part of the episode was the solution to getting Boimler back to status quo aboard the Cerritos. Making a Tom Riker-style transporter clone of him was both downright funny *and* a clever callback, and it hits the reset button without having to write him as too incompetent or cowardly to remain onboard a high-octane ship like the Titan. Good writing all round.
And we also got maybe my favourite quote ever of this new Third Age of Star Trek:
MARINER: So, was the Titan as awesome as everybody says?
BOIMLER: Eh... it was a bunch of complex characters thrown into heavily serialised battles which always ended in mindblowing twists and made me question the basic tenets of my reality. But who cares about that? Tell me more about this puppet ray! That's the kind of stuff I live for.
You and me both, mate!
A better effort than the premiere, I think. "Strange Energies" felt like it was straining to find the jokes amidst the chaos, but this one seemed far more relaxed about letting the humour just come naturally from the characters in these weird situations.
My favourite part of the episode was the solution to getting Boimler back to status quo aboard the Cerritos. Making a Tom Riker-style transporter clone of him was both downright funny *and* a clever callback, and it hits the reset button without having to write him as too incompetent or cowardly to remain onboard a high-octane ship like the Titan. Good writing all round.
And we also got maybe my favourite quote ever of this new Third Age of Star Trek:
MARINER: So, was the Titan as awesome as everybody says?
BOIMLER: Eh... it was a bunch of complex characters thrown into heavily serialised battles which always ended in mindblowing twists and made me question the basic tenets of my reality. But who cares about that? Tell me more about this puppet ray! That's the kind of stuff I live for.
You and me both, mate!
Re: LD S2: Strange Energies
With you on the middle-of-the-road rating, Jammer. I found myself onboard with the madcap escalation of Ransom's powers and the subsequent resolution - it felt suitably ridiculous for this show and yet perfectly in keeping with the Trek tropes it's playing with - but the Tendi/Rutherford subplot got tiring fast, which is a shame as it started out very promisingly.
Overall though this felt far less forced than the opening half of season 1 did, which I think is a combination of my own growing familiarity with the characters and the show's still-developing rhythms, as well as the writers learning they can throttle back a little bit and let things breathe occasionally. Hopefully they can continue the positive trajectory that season 1 finished on, where the worst we'll get is a "meh" rather than a "that was not funny at all".
With you on the middle-of-the-road rating, Jammer. I found myself onboard with the madcap escalation of Ransom's powers and the subsequent resolution - it felt suitably ridiculous for this show and yet perfectly in keeping with the Trek tropes it's playing with - but the Tendi/Rutherford subplot got tiring fast, which is a shame as it started out very promisingly.
Overall though this felt far less forced than the opening half of season 1 did, which I think is a combination of my own growing familiarity with the characters and the show's still-developing rhythms, as well as the writers learning they can throttle back a little bit and let things breathe occasionally. Hopefully they can continue the positive trajectory that season 1 finished on, where the worst we'll get is a "meh" rather than a "that was not funny at all".
Re: MAND S1: Chapter 4: Sanctuary
The weakest episode of the first season, I think. As you mention, there's just not much here, and it feels a little too cliche`.
The weakest episode of the first season, I think. As you mention, there's just not much here, and it feels a little too cliche`.
Re: MAND S1: Chapter 2: The Child
I enjoyed the first episode of the show and was hooked by the Baby Yoda reveal, but the opening sandcrawler chase scene in this one was what made me sit up and pay attention. It was the most exciting action scene I'd witnessed in Star Wars since that first Millenium Falcon chase scene* in The Force Awakens, and it was being done on TV!
I have really, really enjoyed the show's back-to-basics episodic approach to storytelling in the era of streaming epics with plodding, convoluted plots and juggling multiple character arcs through overlong runtimes.
*A scene so fun they tried to duplicate it in each subsequent sequel to *severely* diminishing returns
I enjoyed the first episode of the show and was hooked by the Baby Yoda reveal, but the opening sandcrawler chase scene in this one was what made me sit up and pay attention. It was the most exciting action scene I'd witnessed in Star Wars since that first Millenium Falcon chase scene* in The Force Awakens, and it was being done on TV!
I have really, really enjoyed the show's back-to-basics episodic approach to storytelling in the era of streaming epics with plodding, convoluted plots and juggling multiple character arcs through overlong runtimes.
*A scene so fun they tried to duplicate it in each subsequent sequel to *severely* diminishing returns
Re: VOY S5: Relativity
I'm surprised that when Season 5 Janeway was transported to the Season 2 time period no one noticed how much shorter her hair was.
I'm surprised that when Season 5 Janeway was transported to the Season 2 time period no one noticed how much shorter her hair was.
Re: VOY S7: Endgame
@ grumpy_otter
Very well put....I understand the connection over the years with other commenters on a great tv show...or any show for that matter.
I used to be a regular commenter on the remake of Battlestar Galactica....and wow did we have some interesting discussions. When the show ended I was probably more sad that I lost the connections to the friends I'd made on the forum than I was of the show ending......so yes...I know where you are coming from.
I think I am a little jealous that I missed the party with Star Trek Voyager (years after the final episode) and I was pleasantly surprised the post was still open....a tribute to the quality of the commenters.
Thank you for your feedback!!
ps Happy New Year!
@ grumpy_otter
Very well put....I understand the connection over the years with other commenters on a great tv show...or any show for that matter.
I used to be a regular commenter on the remake of Battlestar Galactica....and wow did we have some interesting discussions. When the show ended I was probably more sad that I lost the connections to the friends I'd made on the forum than I was of the show ending......so yes...I know where you are coming from.
I think I am a little jealous that I missed the party with Star Trek Voyager (years after the final episode) and I was pleasantly surprised the post was still open....a tribute to the quality of the commenters.
Thank you for your feedback!!
ps Happy New Year!
Re: DSC S3: That Hope Is You, Part 2
Great review Jammer, and I find myself agreeing on nearly everything. Particularly the egregious turbolift fight; the episode was never going to win me back after that.
Great review Jammer, and I find myself agreeing on nearly everything. Particularly the egregious turbolift fight; the episode was never going to win me back after that.
Re: DSC S3: There Is a Tide...
Deadpan Jammer is my favourite Jammer:
"Turns out there's more to Osyraa than previous episodes — in which she, say, fed her nephew to giant worms — had indicated."
😂😂😂
Deadpan Jammer is my favourite Jammer:
"Turns out there's more to Osyraa than previous episodes — in which she, say, fed her nephew to giant worms — had indicated."
😂😂😂
Re: DSC S3: That Hope Is You, Part 2
Well, that was shit.
Not 100% shit. As in "Su'Kal", the material with Saru and the Su'Kal was decent enough. I'm fine with The Burn being a result of his bizarre technobabble link to dilithium (which itself is usually just a story macguffin that is surpisingly unexamined given Trek's long history). In fact, I think I even prefer it to yet another vast conspiracy or convoluted plot.
Burnham continues to Die Hard her way into taking back the ship, with some just-fine fight scenes and shootouts. This was entertaining enough.
And Oded Fehr as Vance was, as always, excellent.
Everything else... well. Hooboy.
* The flashy spinning cameras felt particularly obnoxious and pointless this episode, even for this show.
* No further story for Stamets, who has no agency and is unceremoniously railroaded out of the finale. Guess they just didn't know what to do with him, because they were too busy with so many other great script ideas, like...
* Osyra reverts from being a more complex character than we thought, back to Discount Seska.
* How can the computer on the crashed, creaking Kelpien ship read Adira's mind and project Grey, who also apparently exists independently of her? Because shut up, the script said so, that's why, aren't you touched by their now-repetitive scenes? Don't you understand this is a plot they brought into existence without knowing where it was going, or what arc it was taking Adira along, and now they need to wrap it up 'cause there's only thirty minutes of the season left?
* The stupendously vast, cavernous interior space of the Discovery as presented on screen in previous seasons in those brief VFX shots was *so* jarringly ridiculous and stupid that I honestly cannot believe that the producers have doubled down on it by setting an entire action climax within it. Like, I don't usually like having to resort to all-caps, but here goes: THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE AND INSULTS THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUR AUDIENCE TO A SHAMELESS DEGREE.
It is completely divorced from the reality of the show, and exists purely because the writers were too unimaginative to think of something that actually did work within the bounds of that reality. It's the kind of thing that *cannot* have escaped notice while they were writing and producing it, and they went "Eh, fuck it, who cares".
Well, congratulations, show, I stopped caring about your story from basically that second onwards, because once again the episode was not being driven by the characters or the setting, but because the script said so, so shut up and eat your popcorn, idiot.
* Burnham is finally Captain of the ship. I'm actually okay with that part; it will finally address the glaring structural problem this show has always had from day one by making its primary protagonist a subordinate who nevertheless has to drive events.
No, my problem is that this is done with zero screentime shared between her and Saru and no explanation throughout the entire season of how she went from believing that "It's always been you" (to Saru in episode 2!) to it now being her. Yes, we saw Burnham reaffirm her belief in Starfleet back in "Unification III", but there was no development at all of why she suddenly thought she was leadership material.
* Saru just gave away the captain's chair for no reason other than the writers deemed it so. I actually quite liked him in the hot seat and thought the lessons being learned the whole season might have been going somewhere. Well turns out they were, and that place was "some people just can't grow into being good leaders ever and would be better off standing aside for insubordinate mutineers with extremely checkered service records". What an inspiring message!
"That Hope Is You, Part 2": 1 star
Star Trek Discovery season 3: 2 stars. What I wanted from the show from the get go was some episodic Star Trek goodness that didn't completely forget what happened last week. Season 1 didn't satisfy that desire, although the batshit-insane super fast-paced master plot kept me very entertained for the most part. Season 2 upped the quality of the standalones and kept that breathless pace, but had a far less interesting season arc (oo, evil AI, never seen that before).
Season 3, on the other hand, served up a number of very generic and unambitious action adventure tales that wouldn't have felt out of place alongside some of the Berman era's most forgettable stories, and barely had a master plot at all beyond the mystery of the Burn. The pieces were all there for interesting world building and character development; the new future setting gave the show permission to truly start from a clean slate.
Instead, we got "That Hope Is You, Part 1" (snooze), "People of Earth" (how's Earth? Who cares, we're only spending five minutes there!), "Scavengers" (meh), "The Sanctuary" (zzzzzzz), and "Terra Firma" (which I actually really liked, but also wasted two entire episodes of the season in literally a different universe on a character who was being written out). If you're keeping score, that is half of the season's episodes wasted on irrelevant schlock.
Character development? Well, at least Detmer got a little bit. Otherwise: Burnham is still Jesus, Saru gave up on leadership, Stamets was literally ejected from the final story, and Tilly was not promoted despite being an obviously capable junior officer and everyone singing her praises. The rest of the bridge crew are bland ciphers. You could almost make an argument that *Osyra*, the villain of the season who appeared in a grand total of three episodes, had more character development in "There Is A Tide" than the main cast.
Gergiou actually had the best character development of the season... and was then written off the show.
Was I entertained by Discovery this year? Yeah, kinda, sorta. I didn't feel the need to switch it off in disgust. But neither was I ever really excited or energised by it as I was previously. Of the five seasons of Trek we've had since it returned to TV, Disco season 3 is by *far* the weakest.
See you all around for whatever the next one is! (Picard season 2? Lower Decks - actually not that since Jammer doesn't review it. Strange New Worlds? Section 31?")
Well, that was shit.
Not 100% shit. As in "Su'Kal", the material with Saru and the Su'Kal was decent enough. I'm fine with The Burn being a result of his bizarre technobabble link to dilithium (which itself is usually just a story macguffin that is surpisingly unexamined given Trek's long history). In fact, I think I even prefer it to yet another vast conspiracy or convoluted plot.
Burnham continues to Die Hard her way into taking back the ship, with some just-fine fight scenes and shootouts. This was entertaining enough.
And Oded Fehr as Vance was, as always, excellent.
Everything else... well. Hooboy.
* The flashy spinning cameras felt particularly obnoxious and pointless this episode, even for this show.
* No further story for Stamets, who has no agency and is unceremoniously railroaded out of the finale. Guess they just didn't know what to do with him, because they were too busy with so many other great script ideas, like...
* Osyra reverts from being a more complex character than we thought, back to Discount Seska.
* How can the computer on the crashed, creaking Kelpien ship read Adira's mind and project Grey, who also apparently exists independently of her? Because shut up, the script said so, that's why, aren't you touched by their now-repetitive scenes? Don't you understand this is a plot they brought into existence without knowing where it was going, or what arc it was taking Adira along, and now they need to wrap it up 'cause there's only thirty minutes of the season left?
* The stupendously vast, cavernous interior space of the Discovery as presented on screen in previous seasons in those brief VFX shots was *so* jarringly ridiculous and stupid that I honestly cannot believe that the producers have doubled down on it by setting an entire action climax within it. Like, I don't usually like having to resort to all-caps, but here goes: THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE AND INSULTS THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUR AUDIENCE TO A SHAMELESS DEGREE.
It is completely divorced from the reality of the show, and exists purely because the writers were too unimaginative to think of something that actually did work within the bounds of that reality. It's the kind of thing that *cannot* have escaped notice while they were writing and producing it, and they went "Eh, fuck it, who cares".
Well, congratulations, show, I stopped caring about your story from basically that second onwards, because once again the episode was not being driven by the characters or the setting, but because the script said so, so shut up and eat your popcorn, idiot.
* Burnham is finally Captain of the ship. I'm actually okay with that part; it will finally address the glaring structural problem this show has always had from day one by making its primary protagonist a subordinate who nevertheless has to drive events.
No, my problem is that this is done with zero screentime shared between her and Saru and no explanation throughout the entire season of how she went from believing that "It's always been you" (to Saru in episode 2!) to it now being her. Yes, we saw Burnham reaffirm her belief in Starfleet back in "Unification III", but there was no development at all of why she suddenly thought she was leadership material.
* Saru just gave away the captain's chair for no reason other than the writers deemed it so. I actually quite liked him in the hot seat and thought the lessons being learned the whole season might have been going somewhere. Well turns out they were, and that place was "some people just can't grow into being good leaders ever and would be better off standing aside for insubordinate mutineers with extremely checkered service records". What an inspiring message!
"That Hope Is You, Part 2": 1 star
Star Trek Discovery season 3: 2 stars. What I wanted from the show from the get go was some episodic Star Trek goodness that didn't completely forget what happened last week. Season 1 didn't satisfy that desire, although the batshit-insane super fast-paced master plot kept me very entertained for the most part. Season 2 upped the quality of the standalones and kept that breathless pace, but had a far less interesting season arc (oo, evil AI, never seen that before).
Season 3, on the other hand, served up a number of very generic and unambitious action adventure tales that wouldn't have felt out of place alongside some of the Berman era's most forgettable stories, and barely had a master plot at all beyond the mystery of the Burn. The pieces were all there for interesting world building and character development; the new future setting gave the show permission to truly start from a clean slate.
Instead, we got "That Hope Is You, Part 1" (snooze), "People of Earth" (how's Earth? Who cares, we're only spending five minutes there!), "Scavengers" (meh), "The Sanctuary" (zzzzzzz), and "Terra Firma" (which I actually really liked, but also wasted two entire episodes of the season in literally a different universe on a character who was being written out). If you're keeping score, that is half of the season's episodes wasted on irrelevant schlock.
Character development? Well, at least Detmer got a little bit. Otherwise: Burnham is still Jesus, Saru gave up on leadership, Stamets was literally ejected from the final story, and Tilly was not promoted despite being an obviously capable junior officer and everyone singing her praises. The rest of the bridge crew are bland ciphers. You could almost make an argument that *Osyra*, the villain of the season who appeared in a grand total of three episodes, had more character development in "There Is A Tide" than the main cast.
Gergiou actually had the best character development of the season... and was then written off the show.
Was I entertained by Discovery this year? Yeah, kinda, sorta. I didn't feel the need to switch it off in disgust. But neither was I ever really excited or energised by it as I was previously. Of the five seasons of Trek we've had since it returned to TV, Disco season 3 is by *far* the weakest.
See you all around for whatever the next one is! (Picard season 2? Lower Decks - actually not that since Jammer doesn't review it. Strange New Worlds? Section 31?")
Re: DSC S3: There Is a Tide...
This episode had a lot of disparate elements to it, and I liked all of them. The main problem is cohesion, and a through-line for the episode. As AMA said above, what story are the writers trying to tell here? It's hard to tell. It's what prevents this episode from being top-shelf Trek material.
That said, it was a pretty entertaining hour of television. We've seen the "take back the ship" plot a thousand times before, but thankfully it wasn't the only focus of the episode and was executed well. (Everyone following Ensign Tilly's orders here is still *insane* to me, even if I think she's not a bad commander.)
The best material of the episode, I think, was the negotiations between Dadmiral Vance and Discount Seska. Vance just continues to be a magnetic presence whenever he's on screen and radiates authority and wisdom. Oded Fehr is just perfect in the role. His casual delivery of "They're made of our shit, you know" referring to replicated food made me laugh out loud, and you could feel how tantalised he was by the prospect of piece without letting that feeling overwhelm his hard-nosed judgement of what would be required.
RE the Stamets story, I truly empathised with Stamets here. Especially with Burnham being the one to deny him the ability to rescue his loved ones; you just KNOW that if the table were turned, she'd probably gun down half the ship to save her mum, or Book.
Speaking of Burnham, SMG's Die Hard turn was fine. Nothing particularly memorable but nothing to complain about either.
It was nice to see Zara (if that's how you spell it) back to. I quite like that actor as well, although he was WAY more menacing in his first appearance. Making him Discount Seska's lapdog detracted from it.
All in all, I look forward to the finale without the trepidation I had in previous years. The FATE OF ALL ORGANIC LIFE or EARTH BEING RAZED BY THE KLINGONS is not on the table here; just a distressed Kelpian kid, Saru's growth as a leader, and a great big baddie ship that is just *begging* to get blowed up real good. Hope they do it creatively!
But if they don't, meh. I can deal.
This episode had a lot of disparate elements to it, and I liked all of them. The main problem is cohesion, and a through-line for the episode. As AMA said above, what story are the writers trying to tell here? It's hard to tell. It's what prevents this episode from being top-shelf Trek material.
That said, it was a pretty entertaining hour of television. We've seen the "take back the ship" plot a thousand times before, but thankfully it wasn't the only focus of the episode and was executed well. (Everyone following Ensign Tilly's orders here is still *insane* to me, even if I think she's not a bad commander.)
The best material of the episode, I think, was the negotiations between Dadmiral Vance and Discount Seska. Vance just continues to be a magnetic presence whenever he's on screen and radiates authority and wisdom. Oded Fehr is just perfect in the role. His casual delivery of "They're made of our shit, you know" referring to replicated food made me laugh out loud, and you could feel how tantalised he was by the prospect of piece without letting that feeling overwhelm his hard-nosed judgement of what would be required.
RE the Stamets story, I truly empathised with Stamets here. Especially with Burnham being the one to deny him the ability to rescue his loved ones; you just KNOW that if the table were turned, she'd probably gun down half the ship to save her mum, or Book.
Speaking of Burnham, SMG's Die Hard turn was fine. Nothing particularly memorable but nothing to complain about either.
It was nice to see Zara (if that's how you spell it) back to. I quite like that actor as well, although he was WAY more menacing in his first appearance. Making him Discount Seska's lapdog detracted from it.
All in all, I look forward to the finale without the trepidation I had in previous years. The FATE OF ALL ORGANIC LIFE or EARTH BEING RAZED BY THE KLINGONS is not on the table here; just a distressed Kelpian kid, Saru's growth as a leader, and a great big baddie ship that is just *begging* to get blowed up real good. Hope they do it creatively!
But if they don't, meh. I can deal.
Re: DSC S3: Su'Kal
I'll wait and see where this is all going, but my initial thoughts are mixed:
* I liked the malfunctioning holodeck conceit taken to the Nth degree here.
* As Booming noted, Burnham being concerned about someone else's objectivity was genuinely hilarious. I don't think that's what the writers were going for.
* I still hate Tilly being in charge because it just reminds me of how underdeveloped the rest of the bridge crew has been, but I also think she's doing well in the role and enjoy Mary Wiseman's performance. Her banter with Discount Seska (thanks, Karl Zimmerman! 😂) was actually super entertaining to me.
* Nick brought this up in the first comment: WTF is going on with beaming through shields nowadays? Are we just not bothering with that idea anymore? Because if that's no longer a thing, as this episode repeatedly demonstrated, it's universe-breaking. Voyager played especially fast and loose with that particular Star Trek Rule in its later days, but Disco seems to have just forgotten about it entirely. If you can just beam whereever you want, whenever you want, and if the tech has been miniaturised into a badge that everyone carries, then no ship should ever allow an enemy ship into transporter range of itself ever again lest they get boarded and pantsed the way the Disco crew was here.
* The Burn just being an accident is actually fine by me. Disco season 3 has successfully been operating with lower stakes for its mystery arc than prior years, such that even if the Burn plotline ends unsatisfactorily, it's not going to retroactively make the whole season worse for me the way that it has in the past.
I'll wait and see where this is all going, but my initial thoughts are mixed:
* I liked the malfunctioning holodeck conceit taken to the Nth degree here.
* As Booming noted, Burnham being concerned about someone else's objectivity was genuinely hilarious. I don't think that's what the writers were going for.
* I still hate Tilly being in charge because it just reminds me of how underdeveloped the rest of the bridge crew has been, but I also think she's doing well in the role and enjoy Mary Wiseman's performance. Her banter with Discount Seska (thanks, Karl Zimmerman! 😂) was actually super entertaining to me.
* Nick brought this up in the first comment: WTF is going on with beaming through shields nowadays? Are we just not bothering with that idea anymore? Because if that's no longer a thing, as this episode repeatedly demonstrated, it's universe-breaking. Voyager played especially fast and loose with that particular Star Trek Rule in its later days, but Disco seems to have just forgotten about it entirely. If you can just beam whereever you want, whenever you want, and if the tech has been miniaturised into a badge that everyone carries, then no ship should ever allow an enemy ship into transporter range of itself ever again lest they get boarded and pantsed the way the Disco crew was here.
* The Burn just being an accident is actually fine by me. Disco season 3 has successfully been operating with lower stakes for its mystery arc than prior years, such that even if the Burn plotline ends unsatisfactorily, it's not going to retroactively make the whole season worse for me the way that it has in the past.
Re: DSC S3: Terra Firma, Part 2
I liked it. Georgiou's been massively out of place on Disco the entire season, even moreso than in previous years, and whilst I found it welcome early on as a foil to Saru, it very quickly became implausible to keep her around whilst at the same time being honest to the show's new mission statement of upholding and rebuilding Federation values. Writing her out felt like a question of when, not if.
Well, "when" has finally arrived, and not only did it actually manage to sell me on the idea that this brutal genocidal maniac has been genuinely changed by her time in the Prime, but it also sold me on Burnham continuing to put up with her for as long as she has. We know that Burnham has never gotten over the guilt of betraying Prime Georgiou, and letting her accompany the Mirror version on this final journey felt like a nice way of putting a bow on one of the show's longest-running character threads.
Just like when Saru invited her to dinner, though, I do find it massively improbable that the crew would gather to toast her farewell with jokes and good vibes rather than sheer relief that she was finally, finally no longer their problem. Oh well, at least we won't be putting up with that narrative dissonance any longer.
In a way this is exactly the storyline that I felt that season 1 was lacking. Season 1 gave us Lorca, an MU imposter, who upon his return to the MU showed he hadn't been changed one bit by his time in a kinder, gentler place. It felt like a huge missed opportunity and cheapened his exit from the show.
Final thought: I got a kick out of the Guardian of Forever tie-in with the Temporal War stuff. Makes perfect sense that that particular one-off uber-powerful Star Trek technology that was never mentioned again since its introduction would have been a terrific prize to any faction in a time war, as does it deciding for itself to bugger off somewhere else.
I liked it. Georgiou's been massively out of place on Disco the entire season, even moreso than in previous years, and whilst I found it welcome early on as a foil to Saru, it very quickly became implausible to keep her around whilst at the same time being honest to the show's new mission statement of upholding and rebuilding Federation values. Writing her out felt like a question of when, not if.
Well, "when" has finally arrived, and not only did it actually manage to sell me on the idea that this brutal genocidal maniac has been genuinely changed by her time in the Prime, but it also sold me on Burnham continuing to put up with her for as long as she has. We know that Burnham has never gotten over the guilt of betraying Prime Georgiou, and letting her accompany the Mirror version on this final journey felt like a nice way of putting a bow on one of the show's longest-running character threads.
Just like when Saru invited her to dinner, though, I do find it massively improbable that the crew would gather to toast her farewell with jokes and good vibes rather than sheer relief that she was finally, finally no longer their problem. Oh well, at least we won't be putting up with that narrative dissonance any longer.
In a way this is exactly the storyline that I felt that season 1 was lacking. Season 1 gave us Lorca, an MU imposter, who upon his return to the MU showed he hadn't been changed one bit by his time in a kinder, gentler place. It felt like a huge missed opportunity and cheapened his exit from the show.
Final thought: I got a kick out of the Guardian of Forever tie-in with the Temporal War stuff. Makes perfect sense that that particular one-off uber-powerful Star Trek technology that was never mentioned again since its introduction would have been a terrific prize to any faction in a time war, as does it deciding for itself to bugger off somewhere else.
Re: DSC S3: Terra Firma, Part 1
Was not expecting to go back to the MU! But I really enjoyed it, and still maintain that of all the Treks, Disco's take on the MU has been the best. There's something about the show's production that just lends itself really well to the savagery of the MU.
Who the hell was that guy sitting by the door? Will we ever find out? I almost hope not, because I found it really effective and striking imagery.
As others have mentioned, taking a two-part detour from the prime universe feels rather self-indulgent in a show with a short season. But I'm fine with that if the results are as reliably entertaining as this.
Standout performance of the week has to go to SMG. Psycho Burnham is genuinely terrifying; the rage in her eyes burns out of the TV and into your own. Great effort.
Was not expecting to go back to the MU! But I really enjoyed it, and still maintain that of all the Treks, Disco's take on the MU has been the best. There's something about the show's production that just lends itself really well to the savagery of the MU.
Who the hell was that guy sitting by the door? Will we ever find out? I almost hope not, because I found it really effective and striking imagery.
As others have mentioned, taking a two-part detour from the prime universe feels rather self-indulgent in a show with a short season. But I'm fine with that if the results are as reliably entertaining as this.
Standout performance of the week has to go to SMG. Psycho Burnham is genuinely terrifying; the rage in her eyes burns out of the TV and into your own. Great effort.
Re: DSC S3: The Sanctuary
Another fairly generic action-adventure episode (that makes four for the season by my count, not a great number) that's elevated by some decent character stuff. I don't really have much more to say about this one, except that I still hate Tilly as first officer, but found every scene with Saru working on his new catchphrase to be downright hilarious. I loved it. Had a real Lower Decks vibe and I was on board with it.
Another fairly generic action-adventure episode (that makes four for the season by my count, not a great number) that's elevated by some decent character stuff. I don't really have much more to say about this one, except that I still hate Tilly as first officer, but found every scene with Saru working on his new catchphrase to be downright hilarious. I loved it. Had a real Lower Decks vibe and I was on board with it.
Re: DSC S3: Unification III
I'm going to get my biggest problem with this episode out front, and it's with the B-story. Saru making Tilly his first officer is completely and utterly absurd, and I hate it for multiple reasons. It breaks the reality of the show, makes Saru look stupid, and glaringly highlights its decision not to develop the supporting cast.
I realise it's just a TV show, but past iterations of Trek (and Disco itself!) have always done reasonably well at depicting how the chain of command and rank structures work, and this is *not* how it works, *ever*. I'm in the military myself, so I feel confident in speaking with authority on the subject: whilst you [should] always treat someone in an appointed position with the professionalism and respect that position entitles, if they are of a lower rank than you, they cannot tell you what to do and you are in fact fully within your rights to tell *them* what to do. Like, I have occasionally had to step into a role that's usually the domain of a higher rank, but only when someone of a higher rank is simply unavailable for it.
Maybe Saru will promote Tilly to Lieutenant in coming episodes and do away with that objection. But that then highlights a second issue: does the show really expect us to believe that *none* of the other lieutenants on that bridge have command ambitions of their own, or are not capable of stepping up? I don't buy it, and it makes Saru look like a shitty leader to leapfrog a favourite of his above the others. Perhaps if we'd had more time to get to know those other lieutenants this decision might make some shred of sense, but we haven't and it really highlights the show's failure to develop them, and this feels like a huge missed opportunity to actually do that.
Whew! With that out of the way...
Good episode! Burnham was *really* annoying me in the beginning of the episode with her indecisiveness and constant speaking out of turn, but the script and SMG (along with the ever-reliable Sonja Sohn) did a bang-up job of convincing me that she really was just at a personal loss and coming to a big decision point. Will the writers now commit to making Burnham more at ease existing within a chain of command and less contrarian? I sure hope so, because otherwise it will make a mockery of her apparent self-discovery here.
I also appreciated the worldbuilding here. Unification finally happening in the wake of the Romulans becoming homeless makes perfect sense, as does it still being a rocky process centuries in the making. Seeing Leonard Nimoy again was just the icing on the cake. This was also a clever usage of Disco's original weird decision to make Burnham a member of Spock's family. I liked how it drew together elements from TOS, TNG *and* PIC, and made Disco's world feel like it really was part of a bigger Star Trek universe.
And heavens to betsy, we have a new Star Trek episode that centered on a philosophical and scientific debate! I'm genuinely surprised and pleased. The actual debate itself was not exactly on the level of some of TNG's best iterations, but I certainly appreciate the effort.
I'm going to get my biggest problem with this episode out front, and it's with the B-story. Saru making Tilly his first officer is completely and utterly absurd, and I hate it for multiple reasons. It breaks the reality of the show, makes Saru look stupid, and glaringly highlights its decision not to develop the supporting cast.
I realise it's just a TV show, but past iterations of Trek (and Disco itself!) have always done reasonably well at depicting how the chain of command and rank structures work, and this is *not* how it works, *ever*. I'm in the military myself, so I feel confident in speaking with authority on the subject: whilst you [should] always treat someone in an appointed position with the professionalism and respect that position entitles, if they are of a lower rank than you, they cannot tell you what to do and you are in fact fully within your rights to tell *them* what to do. Like, I have occasionally had to step into a role that's usually the domain of a higher rank, but only when someone of a higher rank is simply unavailable for it.
Maybe Saru will promote Tilly to Lieutenant in coming episodes and do away with that objection. But that then highlights a second issue: does the show really expect us to believe that *none* of the other lieutenants on that bridge have command ambitions of their own, or are not capable of stepping up? I don't buy it, and it makes Saru look like a shitty leader to leapfrog a favourite of his above the others. Perhaps if we'd had more time to get to know those other lieutenants this decision might make some shred of sense, but we haven't and it really highlights the show's failure to develop them, and this feels like a huge missed opportunity to actually do that.
Whew! With that out of the way...
Good episode! Burnham was *really* annoying me in the beginning of the episode with her indecisiveness and constant speaking out of turn, but the script and SMG (along with the ever-reliable Sonja Sohn) did a bang-up job of convincing me that she really was just at a personal loss and coming to a big decision point. Will the writers now commit to making Burnham more at ease existing within a chain of command and less contrarian? I sure hope so, because otherwise it will make a mockery of her apparent self-discovery here.
I also appreciated the worldbuilding here. Unification finally happening in the wake of the Romulans becoming homeless makes perfect sense, as does it still being a rocky process centuries in the making. Seeing Leonard Nimoy again was just the icing on the cake. This was also a clever usage of Disco's original weird decision to make Burnham a member of Spock's family. I liked how it drew together elements from TOS, TNG *and* PIC, and made Disco's world feel like it really was part of a bigger Star Trek universe.
And heavens to betsy, we have a new Star Trek episode that centered on a philosophical and scientific debate! I'm genuinely surprised and pleased. The actual debate itself was not exactly on the level of some of TNG's best iterations, but I certainly appreciate the effort.
Re: DSC S3: Scavengers
One-half decent character stuff, one-half super generic action adventure. The junkyard setting was at least more visually interesting than the dull warehouse of the season premiere, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters inhabiting it. Book nearly makes me care just by David Ajala's sheer charisma, but doesn't quite get over the line.
The character stuff was good though, with both Burnham and Saru having to learn some hard lessons. Could have done without the ridiculous camera spin around the Book-Burnham kiss though - I get it, show, you want it to be a Big Moment.
What's going on with Georgiou? I'm interested on a plot level, but I just have zero sympathy for the character. As Spore Driver pointed out above, she's Space Hitler. Her presence being tolerated in Starfleet continues to accelerate far beyond the bounds of plausibility and it almost breaks the show.
One-half decent character stuff, one-half super generic action adventure. The junkyard setting was at least more visually interesting than the dull warehouse of the season premiere, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters inhabiting it. Book nearly makes me care just by David Ajala's sheer charisma, but doesn't quite get over the line.
The character stuff was good though, with both Burnham and Saru having to learn some hard lessons. Could have done without the ridiculous camera spin around the Book-Burnham kiss though - I get it, show, you want it to be a Big Moment.
What's going on with Georgiou? I'm interested on a plot level, but I just have zero sympathy for the character. As Spore Driver pointed out above, she's Space Hitler. Her presence being tolerated in Starfleet continues to accelerate far beyond the bounds of plausibility and it almost breaks the show.
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