This show just plots along at the speed of molasses in an ice storm. It's excruciatingly slow and uninteresting. Sat through the first 5 episodes to really give it a chance, but enough is enough. 2/10
I really love this movie. You can feel the Mexican magic every minute. Thank you Pixar for this gorgeous movie!
It's missing the White Christmas episode
Picard is c**p...
It's a long boring drag out...
Then in the last five minutes they drop a cliff hangar...
So I for one am no longer wasting time on this show..
Star Trek is supposed to be a Space Opera...
Not this drawn out bilge..
So from episode 4... I am walking off stage and shaking my head..
It could have been so much more...
What an amazing movie! Finally something decent to watch on this theme!
I must admit, the first hour is a bit "what a nonsense movie, what's the point?" But then, the true message buried under the storyline reveals to us and the pieces start to compose, we start to get the message and learn from it! I must say that this particular movie got me to think and think again to, in the end, have a moment of reflection about life, about what we do, or don't do, with it! How sorry we can feel from not doing something or the regrets we may carry for the rest of our life's if we don't take the chances, if we don't dare do dream, to feel, to live, to love and to let someone love us back!
Some people will totally miss the point of this movie, of that message buried underneath but those who can see it and understand it, those are the enlightened ones, those who are already stepping out of the shadow and opening their eyes to the cold truth of life! There no second chance, there's no time to cry for the past or to feel afraid of the uncertain future, there's only the moment, this precise moment and the ones who forget to live it, shall never know what living is!
Would like to also make note for the brilliant, excellent sound track of this movie, it's just amazing and well placed! Loved this movie, really did and again, the first hour may get a bit "boring" but just wait for the rest, just wait for the whole point of this movie and then reflect about the message and in the end, I would like to leave a question to anyone who reads this review and have watched this movie: "do you have any regrets? Do you live your life as you always pictured it? Is your life worth living? Because, you know, time traveling only happens on this movie and therefore... Stop, think, reorganize, prioterize your goals and your ambitions and then... Let's start working on it shall we?"
Enjoy the movie folks ;)
This is going from bad to worse. I love Star Trek and I hoped with Patrick Stewart it will be better, but every episode makes this even worse.
Gravity done right, the fire, tears, blood coagulation, etc. This is science fiction with actual science, amazing show.
What an excellent 20 minute preparation for a punchline.
[9.1/10] If there’s one thing I consistently admire about BoJack Horseman, it’s the show’s creative use of structure. Framing this entire episode as a “listicle”, and using that setup to jump back and forth in time, across continents and situations, is exceedingly creative, and allows the show to play fast and loose with the timeline and with Diane’s emotional state, in a way that pays both comedic and character-based dividends.
I like how the show uses Diane’s trip to Vietnam (and the lead-up and aftermath to it) to explore her cultural heritage, the difficulty of divorce, her newly awkward friendship with BoJack, and much much more. “The Dog Days Are Over” splits the difference between spoofing the “woman finds herself overseas” tropes and deploying them with more earnestness than most tearjerkers can manage.
As usual, there’s some traditional movie parodying being done here (Lost in Translation in particular comes to mind), but there’s also some real feeling, both of being separated, of being aimless, and being in an emotionally fraught place. You have some standard travel and silly animal gags, from the hilarious American family who can’t understand that Diane is from L.A., to the importance of the almighty screen to “AmeriCrane Airlines,” to the “executive grip” with whom Diane pretends to be a non-understanding native speaker.
The latter gag is mostly played for laughs, but there’s also a persistent theme in the episode of Diane trying on different “costumes” and personae in the hopes that she’ll find one that fits the new her post-Peanutbutter. The way that plays out over the course of the episode, from traditional Vietnamese garb, to a kicky new look for Mr. PB’s party, to more psychological changes in presentation is very well done.
After she was mostly absent in the premiere, it’s nice to get some focus on Diane here, connecting her sense of directionlessness in her life with a sense of unfamiliarity and the unknown being in a foreign country. The episode isn’t subtle about how starting a new phase in your life is like being in an unfamiliar place, and that the idea of breaking habits isn’t an easy one no matter where you are, but it does these things well, so it works.
“The Dog Days Are Over” also introduces Mr. PB’s new flame well, and uses the timeline shenanigans to deliver the maximum emotional punch for Diane’s discovery of the courtship. But it’s also hopeful, that Diane is, in her own words, “going through some shit” right now, but also surviving it, even if she doesn't necessarily know waht direction she wants her life to take from here.
It’s one of those BoJack episode that treads the line between comedy and drama well, with plenty of well-observed bits and good laughs, but also telling a touching story of a young woman overcoming her divorce while also making fun of movies and T.V. shows about women overcoming their divorce. It’s a tightrope to be sure, but the balance of humor and sentiment is nigh-perfect, with just enough profundity to rise above the clichés.
Overall, an early favorite for the best episode of the series.
What the flying fuck just happened?
sure let's revisit the worst episode of the season but marry it with some of the most moronic action sequences AND have Soong go full stereotype villain
gawd
The most mainstream film Gilliam has probably made, but also one of his best. Whilst the central mystery of how a deadly virus is unleashed on the world is compelling, it's Bruce Willis that holds the most attention, and whilst the ending is telegraphed well before, it's the journey to that end that becomes the most important part of the film and Willis makes the audience care about his character's fate. One of the best time travel stories ever made!
What an amazing setpiece with so much love for the details. For example the tears in zero gravity that stay in the eyes.
This is how you do a filler episode!
[6.0/10] This was the saggiest episode left. On the Picard side of things, we're gathering up the band, and few of the new crewmembers do anything for me. The show tries to slap together some meaningful backstory between Picard and Raffi, but can't pull it off, and she and Picard have no on-screen rapport to speak of. (The "J.L." nickname is beyond dumb.) Rios feels like a generic jerk with a heart of gold, and the accent routine doesn't do much for me either. I like Dr. Jurati more (if only because she's a better actress than the other performers), but the writing for her characters is just as questionable. It's a tall order to have to follow-up the cast of TNG, but this new crew definitely doesn't cut it in the early going.
The other half of the episode is pretty sorry too. Miss me with this whole "double-secret Romulan prophecy B.S." It feels like such a generic tease, and I'm already tired of the mystery box material. I'll admit that it's a thrill to see Hugh again, but the episode barely does anything with him. And the weird, vaguely incest-y Romulan super spies is some hackneyed/weird Bond villain nonsense.
Overall, it's been three episodes and the show still hasn't really won me over. I am a lifer, and pretty much going to watch no matter what, but it's hard to term this anything but a disappointment out of the gate. Thankfully, there's still seven more episodes for the show to, well, grow the beard.
Loved it. A truly beautiful movie.
How do I begin to sum up 'The Visitor'? It's not only one of the finest episodes in all of Star Trek, it's one of the best pieces of television ever made. Every time I see it, I end up in tears. But it's not an overly sentimental tearjerker, it's subtle and honest in its storytelling. It's delightfully simple and self-contained, making it something that you can watch even if you've never seen any of DS9 before.
I think what clicks for me always is the performances. Everything that makes Avery Brooks my favourite Star Trek captain is displayed here, not only because of his performance but because of what he allowed Captain Sisko to be. He's a family man and a father before he is a Starfleet officer, and he's never afraid to show his vulnerable and caring side. Duty is important to him, but it's with the simple things in life that his heart really lies.
To complement that, Cirroc Lofton as Jake is probably the best he's ever been so far. The moment where his father first comes back and asks how he's doing, and instead of being able to reply he just starts to cry sums up so much of their close father/son relationship. Jake really needs his dad, even relies on him and there's a really deep love between them, undoubtedly solidified more since he lost his mother. We can see that without his dad, Jake turns completely away from the life he could have and shuts the doors to so many other people and paths. My favourite moment is actually the last time Sisko appears and he just watches old Jake sleeping with such a lovely expression on his face.
Then there's Tony Todd playing the older Jake who also is magnificent. While the old-age makeup effects still look kind of terrible (always a problem, they looked terrible back in the 1990s too), the performances are fortunately able to come through. He also has a great chemistry with the young lady playing Melanie.
Maybe there's a bit too much technobabble at moments, butI love this episode and it will make you want to go and see your dad.
A hologram within a holodeck simulation of a chateau on a ship.
Popup ads that remind us the Tribbles are food and look like Pixar cartoons.
A man who isn't allowed to smoke on his own ship.
Seven of Nine without her catsuit being snarky to Picard for whatever reason she has.
Space techno and space pimps with a space pirate who overacts more than he should.
Apparently Quark has a bar on the BladeRunner planet as expected.
More space drugs.
Picard, the frenchman who can't speak french, tries to speak french again.
Elnor clearly is st0pid Data while the blondie with the eyes that almost touch eachother is not-so-smart Tilly.
A lot of back and forth editing that didn't make sense AND was annoying/confusing.
A lot of moving from here to there from there to here from nowhere to nowhere.
There's a lot more wrong with this episode, with this show and with Nu Trek. Goddammit
Aside from the horrific editing throughout the majority of this feature, The Little Things is a gripping crime thriller with a sharp human twist. I'm rather shocked by the level of disdain on here for the ending, as I thought it was much better than simply naming the killer. Having Deke save Jim from the guilt that befell him when he killed an innocent man was a nice twist that I didn't see coming. Sure it doesn't answer the main mystery of the crime, but I'd argue that was never the main storyline of the movie in the first place. It was all about Deke finding peace with his past, while helping his replacement not fall into the same hole that he did. Takes a while to get going, but once it does it's a gripping, enjoyable ride to the credits. (Just try and ignore the 293048023948238 edits during scenes as simple as breakfast at Jim's house)
I own too many copies of this, yet won't stop buying it for every new platform.
This movie has everything a person could possibly want in a fun cinematic experience! Good job, mr. Besson.
Simply amazing episode! They manage to top themselves every time!
SyFy is incredibly dumb for canceling such epicness! I hope that in next few days we'll receive some good news about s4. #SaveTheExpanse
Is that a sequel to The X-Files? To me that whole FBI agent plot (who has encountered a Vulcan reconnaissance team long before Cochrane allegedly made first contact?) seems totally pointless. Is that of any consequence to the main story? Or is Picard just free to go and won't see Fox Mulder ever again? If that's the case this episode is another inconsequential mediocre filler episode for the most part. A 6/10. The other part with the hunt for Jurati and what she tries to use Soong for is probably more important - but that's only a small part of this episode.
The only interesting part is perhaps the Q/Guinan interaction. Since TNG I wonder, where (or when) these two races have crossed each other's paths. I have to admit that I still don't understand Q's game. But Picard and Guinan obviously don't get it either. Jurati (aka the Queen) revealing parts of her plan to Soong is equally mysterious and hard to understand. Let me get this right:
So the Borg, who mysteriously appear from yet another timeline or an extra dimensional pocket of space, summoned Picard in episode 1/2. They almost killed him, so that Q rescued Picard from death (why would the Borg know that's gonna happen?) and hurled him into the alternate "Terran" timeline, that Q branched off from the regular timeline by manipulating Renée in 2024. The Borg knew (Why? And how could they know at this point since Q supposedly created this timeline only after making the decision to rescue Picard?) that in this alternate timeline (which must be yet another timeline than the one the Borg ship emerged from) there was a Borg queen imprisoned by humans. This Borg Queen was the last of her kind in this alternate timeline. She was awaiting her execution. This would mean the total eradication of the Borg in this timeline. They were defeated by mankind. In this alternate reality, this last Borg Queen lured Picard into time traveling to 2024 Earth pretending that's where the timeline could be fixed. She needed Picard to escape from her 24th century execution. For two reasons: she trusted Picard would free her for morale reasons and - of course - alternative Picard was supposed to be her executioner and was the only one who had the chance to liberate her. But in reality this Queen wanted to go back to 2024 to execute her own cunning plan. In 21st century California she wanted to stop Renée (who - for whatever reasons - is a Picard ancestor? It's that important?) so that this dreadful alternative Terran timeline prevails (It's not clear what Q was up to... He wanted to stop Renée, too. Why? Only to branch off the alternate timeline where he'd Picard fling into? His intervention as her shrink must have had the desired effect: before Picard intervened, Q created an alternate path where she was determined not to fly into space and which ultimately led to the universe of in which Picard became this cruel warrior in the first place. Why wanted Q Picard hurl into this terrible version of the universe? I don't get it. And why do the Romulans represented by the watcher try to protect Renée? Or don't they protect - just observe? How do they know that Renée will be important to the future of the galaxy? And if they knew, why doesn't this particular watcher - is she Laris or not? - doesn't have any clue wether it's best to help or stop Renée from being launched into space?) Back to the Queen: She never wanted to revert the timeline back to the timeline Picard came from. That was just a pretense. She wanted to change this timeline in a different way: Her cunning plan is to assimilate Earth before humans will become a threat. Stopping Renée will somehow preserve the Terran timeline (for reasons not known to us 'cause we don't know what the Europa mission will discover) and she knows this (cause she knew what Q has manipulated? How does she know?). Only preserving this Terran timeline will give the Borg Queen the chance to have a 400 years headstart (the other timeline where Renée flies into space won't allow her plan to materialize. Why? Wouldn't that equally allow her to quickly assimilate the whole Earth before Renée is even back from Europa? And if that's so, why didn't she travel to a time in the year 2024 in which the Europa rocket has been launched w/o Renée, who was discouraged by Q anyway?) During this 400 years time period she would have all the time in the world to assimilate humankind. In a couple of decades the rest of the Borg will eventually expand their space into the alpha quadrant (if the timeline we know from TNG and VOY is an indicator when the Borg will be able to reach Earth) and this Borg Queen (or her successors) will reunite with the collective. By keeping the alternate "Terran" timeline intact she would prevent regular's TNG (in which the Borg are also controlling vast stretches of the galaxy) timeline from ever happening. The Borg would dominate humankind in that alternate timeline long before those violent Terrans even started to develop warp technology and ultimately will have had the chance to defeat the Borg. And then there's Soong who seems to be important to both Q and the Borg Queen, right? Why? This part of the story is still shrouded in mysterious fog
Is that the general idea? Hmmm.... probably not even close. But you see my point right? Who is supposed to understand that w/o consulting the Memory Alpha wiki article? When does a plan become too convoluted to be a believable plan? When does a show's plot become too convoluted to be enjoyable?
Now that was a fun U-turn! I was beginning to worry about where they were going with this humanizing arc for Jules-Pierre.
BOOOOOOORINGGGGGGG. 40 minute story, agonizingly stretched out to 2 hours. Honestly felt even longer.
I begin to wonder if @startrekcbs has lost all knowledge about scripts and pacing.
Where Discovery breathlessly rushed through plots for complete seasons within few episodes, Picard just keeps stumbling forward providing little of value.
In this episode we learned minimally about the background of Agnes, Seven of Nine and Raffi. While the men Picard, Elnor and Rios behaved like clowns, providing exactly nothing.
The greater story arc? Nothing new, Maddox came and left. The crew is simply forwarded to their next destination. The end.
So, the most interesting bit of the story is the fact, that Q is dying. But this is but a flicker amongst a chaos of nonsense. Even this fact doesn't seem to be related to the main arc.
But we get to see the long awaited first meeting between Q and Guinan. In the cellar of a secret FBI facility with Q posing as an agent (how did he get in there ? No one seemed to have a problem with him being there. He has no power so he works for the FBI ??). Only this isn't their real first meeting, no. That, according to Q, hasn't happened yet.
The facility is run by an agent who saw aliens visiting earth (Vulcans in the 1970s I suppose which is such a huge thing to add to Trek-lore, it shouldn't be done like that) who then spend his life to the pursuit of proofing that aliens exist. Now where have I heard that before ? Right, that's the kind of "original" writing today.
Now this seems to be a battle between Q and The Borg Queen, who is also still Jurati, who wants to "borgify" humanity. That I get. And Q ? He wants to escape from the timeline he himself created ? Renee is but a means to an end and the fact she's a Picard ancestor just an added extra. If they send anyone else instead of her (which clearly would happen as there are always backup crews) they wouldn't discover whatever she would ?
Meanwhile Rios finally get's to kiss the girl while Annika (she isn't Seven in this reality) and Raffi use every available moment during there hunt for the JurQueen to talk about their relationship.
Where is the cohersion in all that ? I don't know. But I think we'll get five minutes at the end of the season to explain it.
(If you want to tell me that I'm just a digruntled old Trekkie who clearly is way too stupid to understand and aprreciate the new Star Trek, please hit "Reply" now and leave a message after the beep)
Vietnamese end credits song FTW!
[4.1/10] I am the king of complaining about Star Trek episodes where some Federation ship barges in and just completely upends somebody else’s society. If I had a nickel for every time Captain Kirk strolled onto some alien planet and, over the advice of Spock, decided that their way of life was wrong and he knew better, I could afford to build my own stentorian-voiced authoritarian supercomputer. There’s a lack of nuance and practicality that always drove me nuts in that, and it’s a strain of arrogant righteousness that ran from the 1960s series to the latest one.
But holy hell, “Cogentior” ends with Archer chewing Trip out for teaching a slave to read and blaming him for the slave’s suicide. I just....I don’t know what to do with that.
Let’s go back to the basics of the situation. The Enterprise is studying some megastar and runs into a more advanced species. They have fancier ships and better equipment and, for once, they’re friendly rather than hostile! They too are explorers, hoping to meet new species and learn more about the galaxy. After so much rough and tumble diplomacy, Archer and company meet some aliens who are excited to see them, ready to teach them about their technology, and seem to share the same values.
That alone is kind of refreshing. Granted, friendly aliens don’t usually make for great drama, which is probably why Star Trek tends to go more for the aggressive/greedy/paranoid types, but still. There’s something kind of adorable about Archer and the alien captain trading quotes about Shakespeare (a Trek tradition), and having their little mutual admiration society.
The catch to all of this is that Trip discovers the species’ titular “cogenitor.” You see, the Vissians have a third gender, who expectant couples take with them when they decide they want to have a baby. The episode plays things a little coy when Trip finds the setup a bit weird and has a certain purtianical curiosity about the whole thing. At first, it feels like an extension of the subplot from “Stigma”, where he’s just a little uncomfortable, or even close-minded, about other species’ cultural practices.
But then the episode takes a startling right left turn, when Trip discovers that the Vissians’ cogenitors are basically chattel. He follows on his shock and curiosity and uncovers the fact that neurologically, the congenitors are exactly the same as the other Vissians, despite the fact that they’re treated like will-less property. He is aghast, and aims to teach the nameless congenitor on board how to read and instill in it the idea that it could have freedom and self-direction and the capabilities to be something more that need not be penned in by the restrictions of the Vissians’ society.
That actually sets up a really interesting dilemma and bit of social commentary. Here you have one of the most kind, altruistic, advanced, and seemingly enlightened species that humanity has ever met. They have a lot to teach Archer and his crew, and it seems like the beginning of a long, fruitful, mutually beneficial relationship between the two peoples. What happens when you realize that your new best friends are slavers? What do you do when the nicest people in the galaxy, who’ve been exploring the galaxy for 1,000 years, turn out to casually treat sentient beings like pieces of property?
There is a push and pull between notions of moral relativism and practicality versus the founding values of Starfleet and respect for sentient beings’ human rights that is a worthwhile and engaging topic to plumb the depths of. It’s the sort of conundrum we rarely see, and it’s especially salient at a time when the Federation doesn't even exist yet, and humanity is the new kid on the block that needs all the help it can get rather than the intergalactic equivalent of a global superpower.
But for some godforsaken reason, Enterprise elides all of that, and basically comes down almost wholesale on the side of “it’s their culture, and if they want to have slaves, it’s none of our business, and shame on you for interfering!”
It is mindboggling. After forty years, this is where Star Trek draws the line? This is where the franchise finally takes its whole “noninterference” thing seriously? After dozens, maybe hundreds of episodes where the crew of Federation ship decides that their morality and ethics supersedes those of the other cultures they encounter, the hill that Trek is willing to die on is “so what if this species has fully sentient, socially subjugated, baby-making slaves? It’s none of our business!” What the bloody hell!
It doesn't help that, like “Stigma”, this episode breaks up its “Very Special Episode” seriousness with broad, inessential subplot. Chief among these is Reed flirting with one of the Vissians. It’s a pointless but cute bit of cultural exchange, and in another episode, I think I’d like it. It’s the sort of slice of life bit of Trek that we don’t get enough of. But here, it just feels out of place.
The same goes for Archer and the Vissian captain’s adventure exploring the megastar. Being the most charitable, you could argue that these scenes are necessary to establish the bond that Archer is forming with the Vissians, which makes him loathe to let anything disrupt the relationship. But really, it feels like a chance for the show to show off some mid-2000s CGI firestorm effects, which are fine for their time, but pretty unavailing when you’re dealing with a choppily-edited story of Trip trying to free a slave in the main story of the episode.
Naturally, when Archer gets back from his sojourn and learns what Trip’s done from the Vissians, there’s hell to pay. The episode pays lip service to Archer seriously considering the Cogenitor’s seeking asylum, but devolves into even more stultifying Archer speeches and Vissian recriminations about not judging other cultures. So in the end, Archer agrees to return the congenitor back to the Vissians.
That alone would be a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion, albeit probably a realistic one. But what happens next takes the cake. The Enterprise gets word that the congenitor, having been consigned to a life of repression and servitude, takes its own life after having been shown the greater possibilities it will never experience by Trip. Archer reams out his chief engineer over this, laying the death at Trip’s feet and tearing him a new one for being reckless, without any consideration for the fact that, you know, this is a sentient being who was in bondage that Trip was trying to help.
What kills me is that you could keep the major beats of this story and still make it work. All it would take is Archer being genuinely conflicted, genuinely understanding of why Trip did what he did, for someone other than Trip to acknowledge the utter horribleness of what the Vissians are doing to these people, however nice they may seem otherwise.
If there were some bit of realpolitik going on, of Archer or T’Pol or somebody else saying, “You are right. This is terrible. But being absolute novices in deep space and humanity’s only representatives means that sometimes we have to make hard choices about what we tolerate in the name of not making enemies when we need friends,” then this would still be a hard episode to watch, but it would be bearable and even comprehensible.
Instead, the message of the episode seems to be “Trip was dead wrong for teaching that slave how to read and that it deserves freedom, and the congenitor’s blood is on his hand.” That is a lesson so far removed from the enlightened, compassionate ethos of Star Trek that it feels like an insult. At its best, the franchises explores the moral gray areas of where personal ethics meet cross-cultural exchange, and the fraught sore spots that arise when those two things clash. But an episode that aims to do the same, and yet lands on a message of “how dare you mess with those aliens’ practice of slavery!” is utterly antithetical to the nuance and the values that have sustained Star Trek for so many years.
