YIP YIP!! I love that!
I just wanna know how tf they built that bridge in the dark.
My absolute favorite part of this episode? (spoiler) That that terrible theme song was gone(/spoiler)
Now that's the theme music they shud have had from the start instead of the pixie dust one we've had to suffer
The new intro is the best thing about these Mirror episodes, everything else is just... NOPE.
Ridiculous plot and Archer is as useless as a leader as always.
That last scene. That's the show i fell in love with.
They paint the world full of shadows... and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn't true. We can prove that it isn't true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it. And who has been so close to doing it as we are right now?
Of all TNG episodes, 'The Wounded' feels like the one which firmly leads to the creation of Deep Space Nine. Chief O'Brien, having been given more and more screen time over the past couple of seasons, is finally given something of a leading role and a huge amount of character development. I would think that it's this episode that brought his character over to DS9. I really love the dinner scenes with Keiko, and of course the fantastic talk in Ten-Forward.
Additionally, we get to meet the Cardassians for the first time. These guys are just incredible, and I think one of the most developed alien races in popular science fiction. A big part of their success is down to the casting here, with Marc Alaimo playing Gul Macet. It's no coincidence he was later cast as Gul Dukat throughout DS9 (and for me, by far and away the best Trek villain ever). He brings a great deal of menace and intellect to the role, but we also get depth when you look at all 3 of the Cardassian actors together as they each display very different personalities. If they hadn't all worked so well I'm not sure that the Cardassians would have become some an important part of the franchise. There are wonderful scenes on the bridge as Picard has to deal with events while Macet watches on, tense stuff.
The weaker parts of the episode for me come in the form of Captain Maddox. Maybe it's because we've gotten so used to Picard as an example of a leader, but this guy just crumbles in comparison to him. It's also odd that we never see any of Maddox's crew and have to assume that they are just blindly following his bizarre orders.
Aw, I would've liked to see more of the Bozeman crew adjusting to the present time.
I don't think this episode had much impact on me as a kid, but watching it now I realised what a wonderful piece of work it is. I've often had a problem with the Borg, in that they just aren't very interesting. Certainly they've managed to give them a cold sort of sense of dread, but mostly they are incredibly bland. 'I, Borg' finally gives them a new angle and it was much needed.
It's also surprising just how little they featured in the show, with this only being their third appearance. We get a brilliant character piece here for Picard, but also for Guinan and even Geordi. It's especially unnerving to Guinan, usually the poster child for serenity and good sense, to clearly be angry and unwilling to let go of her hate. Picard's responses are more expected and the episode allows us to go on a wonderful journey with him. I was particularly impressed by his mental transition back to being Locutus.
The real reason the episode works as a whole though is because the great performance by the young actor playing Hugh. He presents vulnerability and confusion well, without breaking into anything overly emotional or melodramatic.
It does seem that this episode would be completely ignored by the time of the First Contact movie, notably in regard to Picard's state of mind, and there are inconsistencies which aren't really addressed. I think at this point the idea was that Borg were still born and grown instead of being made up of all the species that they had assimilated.
The episode that turns our lovely Enterprise crew into little more than murderers, and seems to want us to be on their side. A ridiculous concept for an episode that shows the Prime Directive for the nonsense it is, and feels like it's completely against the spirit of what these characters have always stood for.
Redeemed a little by having Paul Sorvino as Worf's brother Nikolai and for a creative use of the holodeck (later recycled in Star Trek: Insurrection), but even that is contrived as it conveniently stops working for plot purposes. Plus, if they needed a way to fix it then why not just sedate all of the Boraalans while they're sleeping and carry out the reboot?
so sherlock is over, and these are my thoughts on the finale in order of appearance:
since when the show is a horror movie and why was there a fucking clown.
the motion sensor was activated after the drone had landed and mycroft obviously knew enough about those explosives to realise that’s how they work, so why the hell did they wait for that to happen instead of immediately running away? oh wait. the drama.
they actually put that horrible cgi explosion from the trailer into the episode… why. later, in the very end, i will be reminded of it while watching sherlock and john run in slow mo.
why couldn’t mycroft, an important government figure and a relative of eurus, officially check up on her instead of the whole dress up game? and then he obviously shows us that he can fire or order around anyone in that prison which makes their shenanigans even less relevant. it’s really sad to see non-existent problems beings “solved” just to use screen time and mindlessly entertain the viewers. detective stories are supposed to be reasonable.
okay, i’m sorry but i’m not buying that “enslaving” bullshit. i want to know how she does it, because all we were given is some pieces of weird bullshit that wouldn’t faze anyone in their right mind. it reminds me of the cabbie from the pilot episode that supposedly talked his victims into killing themselves. but in the end we learned that he just threatened them with a fake gun. ah those good old times when the show had its wits and integrity still intact…
they sure like to deliberately make sherlock obtuse. i just don’t buy him missing that there’s no glass when he’s close to it and there’s still no reflexion. and shouldn’t the music sound muffled too or did the fiddle had its own voice modulator installed? interesting.
i know moriarty being alive would make no sense, but the show is guilty of occasionally doing that already, and he’s such a believably smart and psychotic character that’s interesting to watch that i would have gladly used my suspension of disbelief card.
i thought the girl on the plane was an idiot because she kept giving useless answers to important questions, but the reveal in the end explained it. 1-0, touche. then again, surely eurus would be imagining herself as the young version of herself and the sole reason they used another child actor is to keep the mystery up, which is a pretty cheap trick. 1-1.
now the real idiot (or more like a dumb plot device) here is undoubtedly molly. she fucking knows what sherlock does and in what kind of situations he sometime ends up being, and he obviously sounded nervous and agitated from the get go and eventually resorted to fucking begging, so why the hell couldn’t she trust him and just say what he asked her to? oh i know why. the drama. again. also her making sherlock “confess” his love for her she knows he doesn’t have literally came out of nowhere and had fanservice written all over it. and that conversation was so unrealistic and forced for the sake of plot progression it honestly made me cringe. god i wish they were more subtle with molly and her sad love for sherlock and all the irene adler mentions before it instead of jamming them into the storyline and reinforcing their awkward attempts to bring to life sherlock’s absent libido. they even made him destroy that coffin in a melodramatic fit, which was ridiculous because compared to the other experiments the molly incident surely warranted that kind of emotional outburst the least, no one had died after all. but wait, some fans are gonna love using that as proof for sherlock’s romantic feelings for molly, so that’s why it happened.
mycroft goading sherlock into killing him was painfully obvious, considering he’s the one who has been quite vocal about his brother not being a pragmatic automaton but a quite emotionally driven creature, and that he would never kill john, regardless of his intellectual capabilities.
so the lesson here is that you should pay more attention to your little sisters?..
you can’t just switch psychopathy on and off. but of course eurus was able to. in once instance she’s a cold blooded murderer that doesn’t understand the difference between killing someone innocent and someone guilty, in general she has a spontaneous child murder on her record, but oh no, the episode is almost over and we can’t possibly kill john watson (like we couldn't blow up molly or shoot mycroft, but had no problem axing mary, a character that no one gave two shits about, dead or alive, or moriarty, who had basically been the best character; good job on fucking up twice), the fans would rage, so let’s make our villain a crying scared little girl that longs for brotherly love and make her suddenly change her evil ways, so we could wrap this shit up and move on.
and why did they put her back in the place she can easily break out from? what even has changed? can’t she make the staff into her bitches again just by talking to them (eternal eyeroll) like she did before? yeah she’s not mad at sherlock anymore (because he gives her attention now! how cute), but she’s still a mentally disturbed person and the cage must get boring when you have a fiddle as your only source of entertainment.
so yeah, i basically wrote a fucking essay or more like a hateful ode to the show, but i don’t actually hate it, i still adore first two seasons, tolerate the third and i have been relatively entertained by the last one, this episode included, even if i undoubtedly think the show hasn't been clever for a long time and it's finale was less a detective and more a weird left-field saw tribute without everything that actually makes saw enjoyable. i'm writing this as a former fan that for the last few years has been mostly disappointed by the show they once loved, that’s all. i’m also bored and writing this kept my mind busy. that makes this otherwise useless “review” worth it, i guess.
Shouldn’t the TARDIS have caused the Cyrillic sign in the underground tunnel to appear as English?
But is it really a happy ending, though?? Yorkie, as a ~baby dyke~, is excited to explore her sexuality. She then meets bisexual Kelly, who had been with Richard for 40 years: they were happy and loved one another. What about Yorkie (whom she's been with for only 5 hrs, weekly) could possibly contend with someone you've loved for 40 years?? Thus, I find Kelly made the wrong choice, and that they will break up soon.
And here we have it, the real blemish on an otherwise great show and a contender for the worst episode in the whole Trek franchise. This is quite a disgusting episode for very clear reasons: it makes light of sexism, sexual assault and attempts to turn trans-genderism/gender identity into a joke. I honestly have no idea how anyone thought this was a good idea, other maybe than "it'll be funny!". It's a shame, because the episode starts with the very interesting issue of women getting equal rights on Ferenginar before becoming derailed. It also has the superb Wallace Shawn and Jeffrey Combs doing their usual excellent work.
We open with Quark, a character we've come to love through his faults, openly encouraging a female employee to perform sexual acts on him under the threat of being fired. But it's okay, right? It's meant to be funny.
Quark is forced to have gender reassignment and becomes woman. It's okay, it's meant to be funny.
We all laugh at Quark trying to act like a woman, and the way his hormones now make him feel. It's okay, it's meant to be funny.
A Ferengi male traps female-Quark in his quarters and chases her around in an attempt to have sex with her against her will. It's all very slapstick. It's meant to be funny!
At the end, it turns out that Quark's female employee actually wants to perform the work-enforced sex acts on him! Women always say yes if you're persistent enough, right? SO FUNNY!
Quark doesn't actually learn anything from his experience as a woman! Ha! Sexism wasn't ever a real thing! Oh MY!
A tale as old as time...., Girl meets Boy, Girl loses boy, Girl goes all timey wimey wibbly wobbly and tracks Boy through multiple dimensions and timelines only to STILL lose him every time. Girl finally finds Boy, but, he's not HER Boy, and She's not HIS Girl. Girl vainly tries to recreate HER Boy, but endangers NOT her Boy and her entire crew. Girl and Boy hopefully finally realize, if you can't be, with the one you love, baby, love the one you're with... OH yeah, and a bunch of deranged KVN clones wanted to eat Clarence's liver and spleen, with fava beans and a glass of Chianti, if they actually ate food.
Creepy friendly alien race is creepy!
This is an example of how much better Voyager could have been, as it demonstrates many elements that make for compelling television. It's all about the characters and their choices, and we see how much having decisions made for them by others is affecting them.
The potential mutiny here is the real spark of the episode, and it's important to note that it begins with a mixture of the Maquis and Starfleet crews. Seska is the one who keeps pushing, but it doesn't take much for others to be willing. And once it all really begins to play out, it's Tuvok of all people who sees it as the logical course of action.
Janeway's decision is the part that speaks most to me. I have to admit, I think she was wrong. Her primary duty to her crew is to get them home and she denies them that because she's worried about upsetting another culture, and betraying her principles. That would be all well and fine until Harry is offered another way to get the technology they need. That was a loophole on a platter.
The final scene with Tuvok is heartfelt and lays bare a lot about each character's way of thinking. I think he did the right thing even if it was for the wrong reasons, but it can't be overlooked that he probably averted a ship-wide mutiny.
The thing which really brings the episode down are the terrible aliens and their terrible planet, with Gath being particularly hard to watch.
"How does it feel to be in a womans body?" Idk dude, just pick her yourself next round
nolite te bastardes carborundorum
"Don't let the bastards grind you down"
"Vinculum" is a really silly word.
This episode is all about the killer performance from Jeri Ryan as she moves between completely different personalities. Great stuff. Her face completely changes for some of them. Outside of that, it's all kind of going through the motions. I was particularly surprised when the Doctor referred to the mind-meld as "Vulan mumbo-jumbo". Not very enlightened, eh, Doc?
The time frame for some of the Borg assimilations doesn't really seem right, either. Apparently a Federation starship was taken years before the Enterprise first encountered them.
Cracking episode. I never did feel I trusted the Inspector and I'm pleased Janeway didn't either.
Question though. The passengers all left in shuttles and safely got through the Worm Hole. In the last inspection where were Voyagers crew, Tuvok etc?? They weren't in suspension so how come they weren't found?
Me at the start of this episode:
- What the hell, B'Elanna and Tom are getting married? When did this all happen?
- Tom's a Lieutenant? He was demoted. How stupid are the writers on this show?
- Voyager has a new warp core? Why is this the first we're hearing of it?! I hate this show.
And as it turns out it's all a deception, nicely done. I did not see it coming. That still doesn't change the fact that the episode is all just a bit shit, really. It's got to be one of the most depressing ones, too. The crew's generally subdued reactions to finding out they're not who they think they were, Tom being the one angry crew member and suddenly becoming an arsehole bad boy (like the series initially set him up to be, but forgot about), these things just don't ring true.
The makeup effects also look very silly, and I honestly couldn't stop laughing as the episode progressed. The performances didn't help either, with Janeway mostly coming across as sleepy, Neelix looking like a leprechaun and Harry looking like a frog.
On the positive side, I like that the episode picked up a storyline from a previous one and I was impressed that Jeri Ryan still looked gorgeous even with the "melting" makeup. The ending is really dark and final, something which I wasn't expecting.
I'd say that in general this season had some of the best Jodie episodes for me, and Dan quickly became my favorite of her companions... but nothing changes the fact that there was just too much going on. Too many characters, too many plots to tie together. I shouldn't be very surprised by my disappointment... but I was surprised anyway, there was so much wasted potential.
In the end, there was zero pay-off with Swarm, Azure, and Passenger, they were gone in seconds and there was never any big revelation. Swarm loved to talk as if he was secretly someone tied to the Doctor's past (in the same vein as The Master or another past Time Lord), but was just someone going up against "Division" I guess? (I'm starting to think they're overestimating how interesting the "Division" plotline is.)
The Grand Serpent was absolutely of no consequence other than to bring back Kate Stewart I suppose, yet her interactions with the Doctor were small, and not really as fun as they could've been? And also... so... many... Sontarans. Why so much focus on the Sontarans and their plans, when they already had an entire episode about their conquest, and were defeated before? I don't know if it's because COVID affected the amount of episodes, but everything just fell flat as hell.
I hate being so negative - I really did enjoy these episodes more than the past couple of seasons and there were plenty of memorable moments, including great supporting characters. But it feels so frustrating that they didn't capitalize on all the buildup. I'm definitely looking to the Thirteenth Doctor's specials though - maybe we will see some of it come back and get a better resolution. All I hope is Jodie gets the sendoff she deserves, because even though I had plenty of issues with this era of Doctor Who, she's a great performer and wonderful Doctor.
meh. i genuinely think the writers have no idea what they're doing. there's a lot of "big moments" but i have no emotional attachment to them at this point. how do all the hosts feel about hale telling them to transcend? we haven't gotten nearly enough insight into how the hosts view this world, hell we don't even have a single host character to relate to in that aspect besides maybe william. everything happens because bernard magically saw it happen in his supersim. there's no explanation for why the world can't be saved, we just know it can't. we were wondering what was going on with christina, knowing this show would give some kind of twist, and there it is, she's "not real"... uh... okay? was i supposed to drop my jaw in awe? so what's the explanation for the people she interacted with earlier? why was hale visiting her? i guess that's a remaining mystery for the finale. i really don't care anymore...
the worst part was the way christinia and william just straightforwardly monologued to explain their entire story arc over the situation. it's such bad writing. they couldn't find a way to organically explain it. william's thing didn't even need to explained, it was obvious what had happened to him. they don't trust their own viewers so they spell everything out and have zero subtext.
