Best Snyder movie so far. Sadly it is deeply misunderstood. Movie is way more deeper and complex than it looks like on first glance.
People don't realize Sweet Pea is the protagonist, Babydoll is a figment of Sweet Pea’s imagination. Babydoll does not exist. Babydoll's story is Sweet Pea’s story. Sweet Pea was sexually abused, killed her sister and is in psychiatric hospital in therapy. Babydoll is Sweet Pea's avatar. Way of dealing with grief, with guilt, and way to manage her current situation and overcome it. Babydoll is also Sweet Pea's guardian angel.
Sweet Pea is the only fully rounded character, other girls represent aspects of her psyche. Babydoll represents strength and courage, Amber loyalty, Blondie fear, and Rocket represents guilt. In the third level reality her psyche fights for the things to get her free from her current state. Second guardian angel (the Wise Man) guides her through. To fully recover she needs to get over her guilt (Rocket dies as a symbol), also other girls represent things which she needs to leave behind to fully recover .
Babydoll is one of those things. She is the fifth thing (“The fifth is a mystery. It is the reason. It is the goal. It will be a deep sacrifice and a perfect victory.”). Lobotomy of Babydoll represents Sweet Pea’s mind of taking control. Sweet Pea needs to sacrifice Babydoll to be “cured”. Escape at the end is a symbol of that process of being cured. That’s why the driver is the Wise Man, he guides her further.
Sucker Punch is Sweet Pea’s journey from “madness” to “sanity”. Movie is philosophical / psychological investigation wrapped in a special effects action-fantasy. As the movie changes realities (mostly in the third reality), Snyder uses more fetishized image of the girls. He uses clichés and cluttered iconography (nazi zombies, sexy schoolgirls). It is a way to detached and disconnected characters from second reality. Second reality, the brothel, is the “main” reality. In which everything happens.
What a tragic story Davey Sacatino's is. And in a way, Tony's story is tragic here too. Hell, so is Meadow's and Davey's son Eric's. Davey's a guy who clearly has a problem, and while Tony's right -- he makes his own choices and they're dumb ones and he has no one to blame but himself, but Tony lets him pursue those urges. Even though Tony wants to keep Davey's iron out of the fire, even though he tries to dissuade him, once the die is cast, he reluctantly does his job. And he realizes how it affects his daughter just a little, even if it angers him.
And he's right when he yells at her. Not to yell, but the point that he makes. Everything Meadow has comes from her father's business. It may not be as unmediated or clear as her friend's car, but everything she has is tainted in the same way. It's no fault of hers, but she seems hurt by the realization in the same way that Eric is frustrated by it. Tony seems frustrated by it too. A lot of the first season seemed to deal with Tony having to harmonize his family life and his work life, and against his almost best efforts, here they are colliding again.
When Tony is reflecting with his crew that he remembers his dad and Uncle Junior running the game when they were kids, there's a sense that it was supposed to be something more than this. This is supposed to be an achievement for Tony, and instead it just causes another headache and makes him have to do something he didn't want to do. Like the Happy Wanderer, Tony should be carefree now that he's at the top of the game. But the Executive Game is a microcasm - it's the trophy he wanted, but it doesn't make him happy.
So did Tony die or didn't he? I think he did. I think the suddenness of the cut to black and the previous flashback to his conversation with Bobby that you don't see or hear death nods in that direction. But I also think it doesn't really matter. The point, if I may be so bold, is that the end doesn't necessarily come on schedule. It can come at any time, when you least expect it, when you're not thinking about it, in the heightened moments when you fear for your life at a safe house with an assault rifle draped across your stomach, or when you're feeling safe and enjoying a family meal at a diner.
We try to ignore that fact, to try to live as though it weren't true. You pretty much have to in order to keep living any semblance of a real life. But Tony, more than most people, lives, as Carmella notes, with a sword of damocles hanging over his head at all times. And that means that we should, as Tony once said and as AJ reminds him, remember the good times, to try to enjoy those sweet moments when we have them because we don't know how long they might last or how many opportunities we may have to find them again. It's existentialist, but a surprisingly optimistic take on it for this show.
Drawing back to the title, there's always been something the show posits as quintessentially American about Tony. In the final scene, they surround him with Americana at the diner: the friendly young couple, the cub scout troupe, the sports hero murals on the walls. Even Tony is assembling his nuclear family. He's from an immigrant family, considers himself self-made and both proud of his heritage and a part of the melting pot. Is Tony himself an aging superpower, or am I reading too much into it here?
The finale spends more time with AJ than I might prefer. But it also shows that as much as Tony wanted it, his kids cannot really escape his orbit. AJ is naive and misguided for the most part, and certainly insanely self-pitying, but he also shows a (again naive) sense of understanding about the greater tragedies in the world. His method of trying to help is an interesting one, but also a hard one, which is not typically the Sopranos way. Instead, his parents ply him with a cushy job (as the equivalent of a D-Girl, as Chris might say). And suddenly his concerns about the material world seem to drift away. He may not be a mobster, but he can be corrupted.
And Meadow has given up Tony's dream for her - becoming a pediatrician, and helping little babies. (The episode does lean hard into the "sociopaths like babies and pets" idea between this and the cat.). Instead, she's going to become a civil rights lawyers, and Tony can see her representing folks like him, marrying another mobster, and being pulled into a life he did not want for her. If there's a persistent theme to these series, it's not simply about the difficulty of changing on a personal level, it's about it on a generational level, how we carry the baggage of our parents and grandparents and other generations past, that makes it difficult to escape from their orbit. The show is a little blunt about it when Meadow says that if she hadn't seen her father dragged away so many times civil rights wouldn't be such a salient concern for her, but it's an interesting idea.
Indeed, another theme the show has kept close and blossoms in this episode is the idea that Tony taints whatever he touches. AJ is back to being a spoiled brat. Meadow is too much in the world of the mob to truly escape it. Carmela long ago figured out that she was in too deep to pull out of the life she had made with Tony. Agent Harris has gone native, cheering on the NJ crime family when he hears that Phil has been executed. Paulie talks about taking time off, but instead agrees to skipper the construction crew. And as he hits out in front of Satriale's, there are a lot of empty tables there with him.
So when the episode cuts to black, do we see a man about to get his just deserts, a tumor in the lives of friends and family being removed, or have we simply ended our time with a man who will go on to face a weapons charge? I have my thoughts on it, but more importantly than the outcome is the idea behind it. We don't know whether Tony lived or died, just like we don't know when the end is coming. There are perilous forces in the world like Tony Soprano who result in people like the motorcyclist from the last episode dying, or the comare and her father, who have no reason to suspect they'd be impacted by these events in this way. You can live the high-powered life of Junior Soprano and still have who you are taken away by forces beyond your control. Value the good times, David Chase & Co. seem to say, because we live in a state of sudden uncertainty, where the cut to black could come without warning or fanfare, and those moments become all we have, or had.
An amazingly well constructed episode that deals with alternate timelines but manages to be a wonderful character piece. The return of Denise Crosby as Tasha is central to this, and I wish I could experience the original shock of seeing her that must have occurred back in 1990.
The episode manages to bring meaning to her senseless season 1 death, and her scenes with both Guinan and Picard are very layered and powerful. Additionally, the episode has a vividly different look from standard TNG; dramatic lighting and longer focal depth really stand out, giving the episode its own identity. I get a small thrill with the return of the original-era movie uniforms and even set design.
It's also nice the way that the main cast change their performances in only subtle ways. Mainly we see that Picard and Riker have a harder edge, they seem more battle weary and forceful in their decisions. But the old captain is still in there as we see in his discussions with Guinan. This is yet another demonstration of what an important addition Whoopi Goldberg was to the cast.
As for minor criticism, I find the last 5 minutes of the episode a little dull. The battle with the Klingons just isn't particularly exciting. It's also convenient that the Enterprise-C crew were so willing to go back to their time without much argument.
A classic episode, doing something very different from what we usually get. Data is such a great creation both on the page and as brought to life by Brent Spiner, that it's almost impossible to not be fascinated whenever he's on screen. This episode is funny and light hearted while also engaging from start to finish.
Several things are introduced to the franchise here, including the hairdresser on board the Enterprise and Data's cat Spot. We also meet Keiko for the first time; I've been surprised to read that many fans didn't really like her, as I always found her an enjoyable character. O'Brien is getting more and more to do as the show goes on, establishing him as a strong character in himself.
Gates McFadden gets to show off her skills in the wonderful dancing scenes which are fun to watch. The subplot concerning the Vulcan ambassador and the Romulans is a bit weird, especially its surprise ending. I'm not sure it was integrated into the episode all that well.
The daywatch/nightwatch schedule on the bridge is a new one. It seems a bit odd because it suggests that the senior staff would rarely all be on the bridge at the same time, but every episode up until this point tells us otherwise. It's also convenient that all matters of importance happen during the ships "day time".
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.
The success of this episode relies almost entirely on the perfect casting of Famke Janssen as Kamala. Star Trek doesn't have a great history of guest stars, but it's so clear from this episode that she's above the usual guest talent and was destined for a big acting career. True to her character, she manages to create excellent chemistry with everyone she interacts with.
It's also a strong episode due to how much it exposes of Captain Picard. It's clear that he always keeps a tight reign on his own personal feelings and those walls come down here. I particularly loved the casual scenes with Beverley, and I'd wish we'd seen more like that through the series.
For all that, there's no denying it's a fairly offensive story in regards to women. It also assumes that all men are attracted to Kamala, forgetting that some people have different sexuality, and doesn't even attempt to show how she interacts with other women.
The Ferengi are both fun (another Max Grodenchik performance) and it's amusing to see a pre-X-Men Stewart and Janssen together, especially as she introduces herself as a "mutant".
I had to laugh at Riker resisting the come-on from Kamala. As he leaves he says, "I'll be on the holodeck" ... is that the Star Trek equivalent of, "I'll be in my bunk?"
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.
Quite possibly the only time TNG managed successfully to pull of a romantic episode. This is a gorgeous and emotional exploration of Picard's spirit, helped all the more by the focus on music as a way to another person's heart. The biggest issue for me is just how much Nella Daren resembles Beverley Crusher; she's literally like a body double or stand in for her, and given Picard's series-long attraction to the doctor this comes across a a bit amusing.
It's great that the story references events of 'The Inner Light' (an episode I criticised for never having any impact on the episodes that follow; this one proves me at least somewhat wrong), but it's also worth noting that something very similar happens here. Picard finds love and seemingly a new way of feeling comfortable with himself, but it's all over by the end of the episode and any effect it may have had on his character is forgotten from here on. It's such a shame that TNG couldn't have plot threads running through episodes.
It's also one of the very few episodes in which music was allowed to be more than bland background noise (I'll never understand why Trek was only ever allowed to use the musical equivalent of a beige carpet). There's some really beautiful pieces here, both played by characters and as a part of the soundtrack. The background story involving the storm and the rescue attempts don't feel very compelling for much of the running time, but it does enable the episode to build up to a tense ending. The good chemistry between the actors was also essential in this working (see the many Troi romance episodes in which there never is any).
What I have to commend this episode for is the depiction of real emotion. It captures the joy of playing music with another person (I know this, I do it for a living) and also heartbreak. The shot of Picard sitting alone in his quarters, coming to terms with the fact that Nella may be gone is really, really upsetting.
Best lines
I’m waiting for an old friend - Bran
You left me for dead - Hound
I also robbed you - Arya
I’ve always had blue eyes! - Tormund
Whatever they want - Dany
but
It had its moments - Sansa
They need wheelchair ramps in Winterfell. They left Bran in the courtyard overnight!
Parallelism between Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 8 Episode 1
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ S08E01 Jon: "Where's Arya?" Sansa: "Lurking somewhere."Foreshadowing (from different Seasons/Episodes.)
01. S03E05“ “Let’s not go back. Let’s stay here a while longer,” Ygritte tells Jon. “I don’t ever want to leave this cave, Jon Snow.” S08E01 “We could stay a thousand years. No one would find us,” Daenerys says to Jon.02. Sam is suggesting rebelling against the Targaryen because they burned his father and brother alive. Similar to when Robert's Rebellion, began when Rhaegar Targaryen, allegedly abducted Robert's betrothed, Lyanna Stark.
Someone is trying to start a war and it isn't Mars. Is it just the Belt? Or is someone on earth vying for control of it all?
Avarsarala is my favorite so far. Even while using her friend to get around the rules, she is not made out to be cold hearted, but rather determined and with strong convictions. These characteristics are usually placed with men, but it's so refreshing to see a clearly morally gray female character that isn't automatically demonized. Here we see her use her friend and ambassador to confirm if Mars is behind the attack, which ultimate leads to him being collateral damage in her search for evidence against the Red Planet. What she does find instead is that Mars isn't at fault. But the ambadassor does give us insight into her: she's a smart, cunning and bold woman who always gets what she wants and usually she wants to "win", even if that means she has to make up her own rules. (Note: out of all the cast so far, she is by far my fav. So much under the surface that I want to see more. Is she a good? a bad? or forever in the vastness of the gray?)
After beeing arrested by the Mars Federation, our small crew from the water carrier/Canterbury is placed under interrigation and everyone's secrets come out (Former Mars Military, a Possible OPA Member, and a privilged Earther). This crew is much more than they seem. No one really knows anyone and they might just turn on each other as they feel the flames of power. The crew survived space, but can they survive each other?
Loved the interrogation scenes. These remind me of what care the showrunner/directors take in showing us the differences in physiology between the three groups. Here we see the enhaced/altered abilities of the Mars people as the interrogator has enhanced vision, camera focusing on his eyes as he interrogates and notices nuances or small movements in the prisoners, almost as a lie detector. They use this to create the tension in the interrogation, having the viewer watch him what the prisoner, looking to see if he catches a lie or false info, revealing a possible culprit.
Back on Ceres things are getting really interesting. The shipment of water is VERY LATE, due to the destroyed Canterbury, which has everyone on high alert, tensions palpable. With Holden's "Mars Attacked Us" message, the OPA is ready to revolt and now they have a martyr for their cause.
Miller has finally connected Mao's disapperance to the Scopuli, and to the destroyed water carrier, but he has also connected her to the OPA, but they are dangerous territory.
The Martians do give us another piece of the puzzle. Now we have Phoebe research station, a restricted station. What was going on on Phoebe that had the Martians so interested in what the Canterbury crew could know?
The pace of the show is still slow. Revealing small pieces of the puzzle, just like a book. Feels more like a mini series than traditional series.
Solid all around. Rate the ep a 7.5.
As hell breaks loose on Eros, the Rocinante crew figure out something is not right. Miller and Holden find an infected group of Belters as they are dosed with lethal amount of radiation. Enough to assure their deaths. Their only salvation is getting to the Rocinante for some radiation treatment, that's if they can make it through a station that neither of them know, where Corporation people are at every turn making sure nobody makes it out alive.
It's interesting that Miller and Holden are paired up, the realist who has to fight at every turn, knowing that the system is against them, and the ever hopeful, who feels like all can be saved if only you try hard enough.... both men always finding trouble wherever they go.
The rest of the misfit crew is working their way through the tunnels trying to find a way to the ship, trying to save themselves and as many people they can convince that salvation is with them.
Again, Chrisjen is my favorite. She knows she is playing a chess game and she knows that manipulation is her only salvation, the only way to get at the truth when those in power are lying/hiding.
Finally Holden and Miller make it to the ship, just in time to get radiation treatment. And the Rocinante blast off, leaving the ProtoMolecule infested Eros Station, They live to fight another day.
The final scene is the UN spy being devoured by the almost sentient PM, as we see it has taken over the whole station. What is it? Why did Mao Corporation create it? What was the point in using Eros as a lab? Where will the Rocinante find refuge? Can Chrisjen win the politics game to find the truth? So many questions answered, so many more raised.
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.
Intense, thrilling, and immensely satisfying. This episode is a payoff to so many things that have been building, and lets rip by officially kicking off the Dominion War. Time is given to each main character as plans are set in motion, and there's a sense of inevitability throughout the whole thing - although, the whole way through we expect the crew to be able to defend the station; instead, they evacuate it and it ends up in Dominion/Cardassian control. A bold move.
There's time for some lighter stuff admidst everything. Rom and Leeta's wedding is short and cute, as well as the Rom/Quark brotherly love which fights its way to the surface. I'm also glad that Kira and Odo finally address the tension between them which begun back in 'Children of Time'. There's further romance in the air when Dax agrees to marry Worf and manages to take him by surprise, which is a rare sight by itself.
I also particular love Garak's view that shooting somebody in the back is "the safest way". He also has a quite magnificent talk with Ziyal.
The episode really revolves around Captain Sisko, though. He's a rock here, making firm decisions and planning things out while recognising that it's a lost battle. Speaking of the battle, it's a glorious space fight that ticks all the boxes and feels pretty epic. It allow us to also see the already broken dynamic between Cardassia and the Dominion as Dukat and Damar clash with Weyoun over their desire to subjugate Bajor again.
The mines seem like a good idea, but the method of implementation felt flawed to me. Surely there were other ships to help out?
But anyway, my favourite moment of the episode comes from Kira as she officially protests the Federations unwillingness to turn the station over to the Dominion, then reports for duty. The planned sabotage towards the end is also a fantastic twist. I know what's coming but I can't wait to watch it all again. I'm going to have to wait a little bit, though, because I'm reading Trek books alongside my rewatch and I have a couple of Dominion War novels to get through which fill in some events between this and the next season.
Suffice to say, there's a lot packed into this one, so it's interesting that it doesn't move at a breakneck pace and spends a fair bit of time on character moments. That's in stark contrast to what Star Trek: Discovery is doing, and I definitely prefer DS9's approach
[7.8/10] A very fun episode that has the sort of solipsism and insane twists that are endemic to The Gang and lead to plenty of comedy. I particularly appreciated the fact that, as Dennis predicted, Dee (and by extension Mac) are legitimately in a Dinner for Schmucks/Pig Party situation, where Trevor Taft is in a competition with his frat brothers to find the biggest loser, but in the end, it’s Charlie who’s pulling a Dangerous Liaisons/Cruel Intentions on Ruby Taft and not the other way around.
Maybe it’s just me speaking as someone who naively thought Cruel Intentions was sexy and brilliant when I was 14, but Charlie using (I think) exact quotes from that movie got a luagh out of me. And the way he seemed to get over The Waitress, move on to Ruby, and then just when you think his heart’s going to get broken, he’s not only the same old Waitress-obsessed guy he always was, but he even semi-successfully pulls off this insane scheme! It’s a superb comic reversal.
The other half of the episode is more run-of-the-mill IASIP insanity, with Dee doing a ridiculous striptease, Mac continuing his propensity to interrupt Reynolds family relations and being really into wrestling, Dennis taking his physical appearance so seriously that a comment about him being pale sends him to the tanning salon, and Frank sneaking into the Waitress’s apartment to put rat poison in her shampoo. It’s the sort of deranged antics that the show regularly wrings comedy out of.
Overall, a very nice episode that plays on things we already know about the characters, but doesn’t just regurgitate past hits. Breath of fresh air.
One thing I can say about this, is that when DS9 decides to do something strange then it fully commits to it. This episode is one that almost fails but pulls through due to its charm and the rich history of the characters and relationships on screen. The pairing of Kira and Odo is one that I've read a lot of viewers discontent with, but I actually found it to work despite the somewhat manufactured nature of it.
A lot of the odds are stacked against this one. We are introduced to Vic Fontaine who I have to admit is a character that I never quite clicked with, but he somehow manages to not grate too badly with me (once I get past his annoying use of dialogue). The 1960s swing music is a a bit too much - and we have to sit through complete songs - but the whole setting somehow seems to nestle comfortably into the show. I'll feel similarly annoyed when he makes future appearances, but I'll also warm to him as the episodes continue.
It's also a far more natural holodeck environment than anything Voyager has done by this point in time. I can understand why the crew would come here to relax.
I remember watching this episode when it first aired and feeling a bit sideswiped by the whole thing. I think that's just because I wasn't expecting it, and I've found myself warming more to it with subsequent rewatches. It's due to the journey we've been on with both Odo and Kira that I feel very invested in what happens between them, but the show could have done a bit more to build up to this naturally.
The dinner between Kira and Odo is genuinely tense and exciting stuff due to the way it's arranged, with Odo not realising he's speaking with the real Kira. We as an audience are waiting for everything to crash and burn in ruins, but simultaneously delighting in seeing Odo really doing well and wanting it to work out. The final moments between them on the promenade manage to be both silly and gorgeous, and I can't help smiling. I'm happy they finally get together.
There is a truly awkward moment during the dinner scene where Vic randomly begins singing and is just staring at Kira and Odo. It's weird and creepy.
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 much stronger follow up to 'The Siege of AR-558'. This puts Nog front-and-centre, which doesn't happen often, and deals with his recovery from losing his leg. Aron Eisenberg gets to show that he's a better actor than most of us expect and puts in a very strong performance that requires a lot of him. The episode also performs the miracle of making Vic Fontaine an integral part, and I actually found myself really liking him for the first time.
It's a downbeat episode for the majority of the running time. Nog becomes kind of exasperating to watch, and it's easy to understand why Jake loses his temper with him. It all feels very realistic, though - not that I have any experience of losing a limb or being around someone who has. The low mood all gives way to quite a gorgeous and positive ending, though, so it's worth it. It's impressive that the two main characters in this episode, Nog and Vic, are just secondary characters who don't even have their names in the opening titles. There is so many depth and good writing to all involved in this show that we can have episodes like this and it just works.
I also love the background stuff that happens, such as the worry shown by Rom and Leeta (and even Quark!). The sense of their family really shines through. I also love Bashir's exasperation when his holosuite programs are belittled.
If I have any complaint, it's the overuse of damn swing-jazz lounge music. I just cannot get behind it's inclusion in the show, and the fact that every character who comes into contact with it seems to fall in love with it just bewilders me.
[8.4/10] Far and away my favorite of the season so far. Just the premise of Mr. Deadly, a polite, sentient doomsday device that wants nothing more than to explode, is hilarious. Matt Berry does a great job giving the character a dry affect, and his constant efforts to get people to say the phrase “please detonate” is great. Even better are Lana’s efforts to convince him that life is worth living, because (1.) he’s a sentient creature who deserves the joys of life (2.) that way he won’t explode and kill millions of people and (3.) to prove Archer wrong.
As I’ve said in prior write-ups, we’ve gotten a lot of good Lana/Archer material in this one, and Archer criticizing her need to fix things as the cause of their break-up, while she turns it around and blames it on his constant extramarital schtupping, is more digging into the pair’s relationship, past and present.
It’s also an episode with great setups and payoffs galore. Lana’s quest to prove that life is worthwhile to Mr. Deadly culminates in her taking a bullet for him, which is a nice place to build to after butterflies and whiskey. All of Krieger’s demented Q-style gadgets come into play in fun ways. And Archer’s fear of black holes comes back a cool, character-worthy fashion as well.
Plus the stuff on the margins is great too. It’s nice to have Thomas Lennon back as Rudy (this time in steel-nosed, Tycho Brahe-esque bounty hunter form). The gags about Mallory trying to sell Mr. Deadly on the black market are fun (and Pam and Krieger’s mix tape cracked me the hell up). Cheryl’s death wish/sexual fixation on dying went to the usual insane but amusing places. And Pam’s pastafication/pasta vacation gags are the kind of dumb but sublty brilliant humor that I love from Archer.
There’s also the part of me that loves how this one riffs on well-worn sci-fi tropes, like doomsday devices in general, and semi-sentient defense mechanisms from long-defunct alien civilizations in particular. The original Star Trek went to that well all the time, and it’s fun to see this spoof of the idea.
Overall, this is a clever, well-written, and above all else very funny episode of the show.
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.
Less of a "holodeck gone wrong" episode than it is a "holodeck gone weird". And I feel quite weird myself, because apparently this episode is a favourite among fans and the cast/crew. I honestly struggled to keep my attention on it.
Maybe it's because it feels like ground that's been trodden so many times before, or maybe it's because of how unimpressed I was by the Beowulf environment. Trek has done this endless times over, they just normally substitute the halls of Viking warriors for Klingons.
If anything, I felt that it highlighted how much Robert Picardo stands out among the rest of his cast mates as having a fantastic character to work with. The Doctor is fun to watch and he has some great comedy moments here. In theory, the concept of sending the Doctor onto the holodeck to do the crew's work for them would make sense, but it just raised so many questions for me about what he is. The characters, and indeed the show itself, is treating him as if he were a real person now with feelings, desires and specialities. That would suggest that holograms are capable of becoming a recognised life form and that Starfleet ships can create them (a subject done by TNG).
It's just very quaint, very safe, and an uninteresting side step for the show. I do admit, though, that Freya the Shield-maiden was pretty awesome.
Bonus points: no Neelix.
I was worried when this started as it looked like was going to be an episode all about Neelix and his jealousy. It turns out that it is, but it's nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Tom and Neelix really needed to work their differences out, and in true cliched TV tradition they get stranded together. It becomes a prime example of how simplistic the writing on this show was, as the two of them bond over a baby and magically resolve all of their differences. You could argue that Trek in general operates like this, but Voyager somehow makes it much harder to stomach. Still, I'm really glad that the Neelix/Paris jealousy story is over.
It's also a shame that the alien baby puppet looks like a reject from that '90s TV show Dinosaurs.
I really appreciated the calmer moments of this one, such as Harry playing clarinet and the Doctor's discussion with Kes. Voyager was not one for really digging into characters, so when the moments occur I tend to enjoy them. I think this also wins the prize for the most insane camera shaking ever during the shuttle's crash landing. That was absolutely nuts.
Janeway's new hairdo is awesome.
The most interesting thing here is the mind-controlling alien itself. It shows a level of either control or technology that hasn't really been done before, and that makes it kind of fascinating.
The hallucinations that everyone has are unfortunately very obvious and unadventurous. Particularly cringeworthy is the stuff with Paris and his father; daddy issues have never felt so dull. Far better is the revelation that B'Elanna kind of wants to get it on with Chakotay, and true to her Klingon heritage she wants him to be forceful about it. Not something I'm particularly eager to see, but it did manage to take me by surprise. Tuvok was a particular let down with his "I ... do not ... understand ... how this is ... possible". Seriously? There's a mind controlling alien giving you hallucinations, Tuvok, it's pretty obvious. You're supposed to be a logical and clever Vulcan, act like one.
Janeway's holodeck fantasy is a fun diversion despite some of the actors involved. For all its silliness, it's managed to create a compelling mystery (WHAT IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR?!). However, having had cucumber sandwiches myself I can say with certainty that they are never something worth fantasising about.
Kes continues to develop her mental abilities and comes out, again, as the best part of the story.
It might feel like Q is just shoe-horned in to the various Trek series by this point, and after his pointless appearance on DS9 you'd be right in thinking so. There's an especially dangerous area in including Q in this show, because he could get them home in an instant and the writers would need to consistently give us reasons why Q doesn't just send them back to Earth that don't feel ridiculous.
It's surprising, then, how well this episode does manage to get him on to Voyager and even more so how it pushes his character in a very different direction than the pure comedy that has come before.
We are given a classic Trek conundrum, a moral dilemma about whether somebody should be allowed to take their own life or spend eternity trapped in a prison. Some of the writing aspects of that could have been handled better, I thought (Janeway is no Picard when it comes to this sort of stuff), but there's some elegance to it. I especially liked the portrayal of the Q Continuum as a long road in a desert. But the episode does drag in parts, and as mentioned above, the moment when Q teases sending the ship back to Earth just feels cruel.
Q2 is also a very sympathetic character, far removed from the Q we know so well. What most intrigues me, though, is that Q becomes so much more interesting when he's being serious. There's a nice chemistry between John de Lancie and Kate Mulgrew, and hopefully his future appearances will be equally as fun. Nice appearance by Riker, too.
Creative and enjoyable, with a pleasantly weird alternate-universe/time-shift aspect that never becomes too complicated to follow. It leaves you with the odd feeling of having seen the Voyager crew die, but never really being sure if they were our original crew, or whether that even matters. The exact same thing happens to Harry that happens to O'Brien in DS9's 'Visionary', in that we are left with a version of the character who isn't exactly our own one.
It was also good to see the Vidiians back to being pretty decent bad guys again. There was something chilling about the way they just assessed unconscious people by which organs they could harvest from them. Janeway was a bit of a badass in regards to the solution to getting rid of them.
Having the duplicate Janeways standing so close to each other during their scenes made it look like they were about to kiss, and really made me aware of how shows had to work within the 4:3 aspect ratio back then. I felt a bit more let down that the two versions of Kes didn't really interact with each other at all.
I got quite wrapped up in the ordeal of Ensign Wildman finally having her baby, which certainly ran through a gamut of emotions! Chakotay was as useless as ever, and I noticed that Voyager didn't require his authorisation to concur with setting the self-destruct - I guess Janeway changed that because she knows he'd just mess it up.
A real struggle to get through despite having the great Michael McKean. In fact, in many ways he's part of the episode's problem as he is so over-the-top. The whole thing has a horrendous visual style and it pushes the cringe factor to high levels. It feels extremely low-budget. Trek has been guilty of doing this before (TNG's 'Cost of Living' to name one), but apparently any kind of alien party needs to include jugglers, fire breathers and weirdos doing interpretive dance. It's like being in a damn circus and it's certainly nobody's idea of a good time.
And then, the episode manages to pull out a couple of really excellent moments that shows there was something good hiding underneath. Namely, the Doctor's first appearance when he saves Harry from surgery is excellent comic timing and performed wonderfully, and the final moments with holographic Janeway revealing what they've done is a really powerful scene. Both Kate Mulgrew and McKean do truly excellent work and have great dialogue as we fade out, and it's a shame that 95% of the episode is not worthy of that. Indeed, a story about the power of fear should be one of the most relatable, so what happened here is extra disappointing.
Baby Harry in a Stafleet uniform is also worthy of a giggle.
At least this one is entertaining. Despite the fact that it mainly warns us about the dangers of adolescent popstar live.
It's also very long to start. Its 1h10 could easily be packed into 45 minutes. The whole Rachel awkard teen's story and how she can so easily be influenced by a toy telling her to believe in herself is way too long. First as usual with this type of character, I have a very hard type believing that a girl that looks like her would be in this situation at school. And it's not like she's even useful in anything as a character. She's just a plot device. She wants the Ashley Too, and she wants to do what she says. That's it. She's such a huge fan and that's her whole character. OK, the fact that she says that when face to face with Ashley that is tied to her bed and just woke up from a coma a few seconds ago, that's funny. But she doesn't do a single thing. She's in a back fangirling while Jack drives. She does nothing while Ashley Too unplugs the real one and Jack is handling the bodyguard. She does nothing at the end while Jack is actually playing with her idol. Such a loooong exposition for a character that has nothing to do after. I mean it goes through all the cliches and then deliver nothing...
I'm not really in the Miley Cyrus demographic, never seen her, maybe heard one song, I mostly have seen her in tabloids stories. But wow, I found her very good. As the cheery popstar, as the depressed ex child star (but maybe they're not such composition roles) and very much as the robot voice. Through the whole beginning the only interesting parts were hers, and the real story starts at Ashley Too's awakening.
This second part was fun, though it looked more part of a teen show than a BM episode.
As for the tech part, it's a lot less dark than usual. There's basically no downside. Previous season had a way harsher treatment on the duplicating consciousness thing. That was a constant theme in last season, with very dramatic to horrific consequences, but here it's like they wanted to show, look, it can be fun too. Very not Black Mirrory.
However it's not like we're talking about every day technology as it is usually the case. Even in this world, the tech used seems to be revolutionary. And that makes no sense in the story. So the aunt, or her company, or people who work for her anyway, manages to map an entire mind, industrial scale, and they use it for... a pop star doll ? Also it was cheaper to have a miniature doll with the capacity of containing and running the whole thing and put a limiter on it, than to just map and put the tiny part you want to use ?
Then their holographic tech, that seems pretty good too. Though weird moment when Catherine is in front of the (probably mostly teenage fangirls) audience and does her Apple keynote, being happy to be back into the most lucrative part of the business. She actually says that. Not at a tech investor meeting, in front of the live audience. Also fully customizable (even her clothes!) and scalable, like that's not the easiest part of an hologram.
And then there's this machine that allows to decipher songs from the brain of a coma patient ! That's fucking amazing. The applications just for medecine, are unimaginable. And the other ways it could be exploited...
I can think of a thousand ways to make a shitload of money with that without needing to drug your niece into a coma ! They litterally invent technology worth hundreds of billions of dollars just to make a few millions out of a teenage pop star ! Pretty weird when the aunt's character is just presented as being driven by money.
And what's with the dad's machine ? It shows a brain, so I thought he was working on rat's brains, but he just has a small rat chasing robot ? And, without knowing anything (it's repeated enough), you can plug a toy, see it's brain and edit the limiter on it ? That was worse than any hacking scene in movie history, but maybe it was a joke on that ? Didn't feel like it.
Anyway, by far the best episode of the season, but that's not saying much. And still not a Black Mirror episode. I rate it 7 because it was entertaning, but if I was to rate it as if it was a BM episode, that would be lower.
A real BM episode would have gone over the spying part of the Ashley Too technology. A lot to do with that alone. And like I already said, all the brain mapping thing, there was a lot of ways to exploit that, though it was kinda alredy done in last season, there were still lots of possibilities.
Kinda liked the suggestion that if you're not kept under hallucinogenics drugs you would real music instead of pop :)
This is the one. This is the episode where, back in 1999(?), I more or less gave up on Star Trek: Voyager. I caught a few more episodes over the next year or two, but my heart really wasn't in it anymore and this was the nail in the coffin.
It's an episode that fails in every way, made worse by the fact that it's attempting to make a valid point about blind hate and propaganda. The horrible icing on the cake is that, of all the characters, Chakotay is the one chosen to lead this outing.
The peculiar dialogue, while initially intriguing, quickly becomes tiresome and cheesy, and then infuriating. Especially given how seriously all the actors attempt to deliver it, and then once Chakotay begins to use it it's unbearable.
In a lazy move, the Kradin appear to just be a slight variation on Nausicaans. The episode ends with an unbelievable act of stupidity on the Voyager crew's part when they bring the Kradin ambassador to meet Chakotay and wonder why the Commander is uncomfortable. HE'S JUST BEEN BRAINWASHED TO HATE THEM.
How many shuttlecraft does Voyager have? This is the third to be lost in the last three episodes.
Apparently it may take some time for Chakotay to get over this, but don't worry everyone - he'll have forgotten all about it next week. Just like this episode forgot that Tom and B'Elanna professed their love for each other last week after a whole year of trying to get us to believe it.
To see a show which tackled a somewhat similar subject and did it very well, see the Stargate SG-1 episode 'The Other Side'.
The intriguing setup leads into what turns out to be a surprisingly boring episode. Janeway goes into her no-nonsense-no-arguments mode which only further solidifies her lack of definition as a captain and a character, refusing to listen to questions or advice from anyone. The plot attempts to explain this by the magical use of the "Omega particle" and it's priority over everything, including the Prime Directive. Hmm, nope, that's doesn't work for me and isn't enough. It's something that's come out of nowhere and isn't given anywhere near enough explanation: is it man-made or naturally occurring? If it's artificial, then how do random species across the galaxy all happen to stumble over making it? And surely there are all sorts of other equally dangerous substances encountered all across Star Trek that don't receive this level of paranoia?
While I also saw the semi-religious aspects of the episode as a failure (Seven's reverence of a particle is nonsense), I think that Jeri Ryan manages to save the episode from being a complete disaster. She sells Seven's feelings well and gets some excellent moments of conflict with the Captain. These scenes are ones which are making the show in general far better - somebody really needed to challenge Janeway's decision making and the scenes only help to improve both of the characters. By the same token, however, if Seven keeps on doing this then it's going to show a real lack of character development for her which would be a shame.
Very odd scene in which Seven begins treating the crew like Borg drones and Chakotay is perfectly fine with it. Seven seems to have rank privileges over Starfleet crew members now?
Frack,.. Frack,... Frakitty, Fracking, FRACK!!!! That having been said, Don't read any further if you are one of those folks who whine and moan about episode details in the comments, cuz thar' be spoilers below...Sweetie!!!
Quin: "Who AM I? If I'm Nightfall, how can I exist, because Nightfall is DEAD!" Timey-whimey-wibbly-wobbly-loop de loopy-ness to the n-teenth power! Or, to quote the great philosopher Sara Conner, there is no fate except the one we make."
This was indeed an intense, aptly titled episode. IDK if Invictus directly infected Bolo with doubt, or, as Bolo himself opined, that his very freedom from imprisonment simply allowed him to see the vagaries and chaos of the universe, thus, just as one cancer cell can metastasize into full blown disease, his doubt blossomed and fractured his mind and spirit. The end game of course being to turn Ash against the rest of the crew and switch her allegiance to Invictus.
Pretty diabolical, especially when she SAW what occurred, and HAS to know that Gary didn't suddenly gain arm transforming powers to facilitate the murder of her "Brother". She must have the internal fortitude to disregard the mirage of lies that she has been presented, and suss out the actual truth of the situation, that, it wasn't Gary that killed her brother (as Bolo said, he was ALREADY dead), but Invictus. If she can muster the courage to see this reality, rather than the manipulation, then Invictus will have truly overplayed his hand, as he will have actually created the instrument of his own demise.
....So say we all!!
