Jake

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 ;)

[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.

[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.

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.

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?

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)

[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.

I often see this derided as one of the worst DS9 episodes, and while it's definitely not going to win any awards I found myself seeing the good in it. It's certainly got a lot of issues and major story problems, but the episode has a heart and emotional punch which affected me. It also manages to be a very generic and unambitious Trek story.

Yeah, big parts of this don't make sense. Once Molly comes back as an 18 year old, the possibility is discussed of trying again to grab her through the time portal and bring her back as an 8 year old instead. This entire idea is dismissed by both the O'Briens and Dr. Bashir immediately. Why? Because they don't want to deny her the years she's had on the planet. Completely alone, separated from her parents, forced to learn to survive, scared out of her mind. OF COURSE YOU SHOULD TRY TO PREVENT THAT FROM HAPPENING. So, that's moronic.

Once back on the station, no real attempt is made to rehabilitate Molly. There are no child psychiatrists or doctors (bar Julian, who doesn't do all that much) assigned to help her. Miles and Keiko attempt to do everything alone, and it's insane how little patience they have. Miles is getting annoyed when Molly won't pass the ball back to him - based on the amount of balls she collects, they've been trying for all of 5 minutes. They put her in situations among crowds and seem surprised that she lashes out; why didn't they just beam to and from the holosuite to avoid problems?

Their final solution is to just send Molly back. Alone, to remain alone for the rest of her life until she dies alone. There is no feasible way that this is a good idea. For some reason the O'Briens completely reject the notion of Molly getting professional help and being rehabilitated properly.

As for the good stuff, I thought that Keiko especially brought a lot of emotion to the episode. Seeing a child separated from distraught parents is quite upsetting to watch. It's a shame that Molly isn't really a fully formed character, despite appearing on both this show and TNG for so many years (impressively, played by the same actress all this time too!). O'Brien's family in general seem to be a background thing that he doesn't need to deal with unless the story calls for it. Something of a missed opportunity there.

The actress for 18 year old Molly was fantastic, and easily the highlight of the episode.

The more answers we get, the more questions they open. I hate that and I love that at the same time.

I haven't read the books so this is pure speculation.
It seems they're going down the "ancient civilization gone extinct" road, with the sphere being some kind of "hub", numerous gates (we see a dozen of them in the first shot, then dozens more) being seen collapsing / going dark except for one at which the Nucleus fires a beam : what appears to be the Sol star goes boom. It'd be a bit weird to show the Sol system being seeminlgy destroyed as the vision is kind of a "rewind and play", maybe it's a warning to Humanity (like the speed limit inside the sphere being lowered after the grenade was used) ? The synopsis stating Holden sees past, present, and future. It's unclear if the gates closing down / going dark are a direct action of the proto-molecule or some kind of defense against a yet unnamed third-party (intergalactic war between two alien factions ?).
The reoccurence of the bird also seems to indicate that the one Miller saw on Ceres was already a protomolecule hallucination, maybe to guide him to Julie ?

To think there are three more episodes in the season... good thing it was picked up after SyFy dropped it. Maybe I should start reading the books ?
PS: the protomolecule really loves recycling humans.

IT'S A FAAAAAAAKE!

Can you believe that THIS is the episode I somehow managed to miss when first broadcast? I had to wait quite some time before I got to see it.

Often touted as the best Star Trek episode ever, I'm not sure I quite agree with that but it's definitely in the top 10. This is daring and goes completely against everything that the franchise has been about. It's not quite the shocking tale some promote it as, but still. The main character, our hero, manages to lie and cheat, and eventually be an accessory to murder all in the name of the greater good (the greater good).

It's quite a sedate ride, but it all comes together so well at the end. This is about the intrigue and mystery of what's going on, and the anticipation of the reveal. It's exquisitely put together and the acting from both Avery Brooks and Andrew Robinson is wonderful.

The closing moments are a real high point. Sisko tries to convince himself that he can live with his choices, but it becomes more of a statement of hope rather than fact. The Captain may have to continue lying, if only to himself.

I'm now reading the novel 'Hollow Men' which is a direct sequel to this episode and deals with the aftermath.

Dax is such an interesting character with the multitudes of lifetimes to explore, but somehow I thought that DS9 managed to make her the least developed character. Terry Farrel was great in the role and when the show gave her something really good, she flourished. This is not quite one of those stellar moments, however important it is to her character development.

The revelation that one of the past hosts was a murderer is a big one, but it doesn't feel like it's made as big a deal of as it should be. This should be a character-changing moment for Jadzia, but the effects of this episode seem to have zero bearing on her future. We see an angry and confrontational side of her personality develop here, but it will seemingly be kept under wraps from here on despite the revelations she has. DS9 was usually a bit better at allowing characters to change with big events (although, fair enough, it's not ignored entirely in future episodes).

The episode has some great moments, though. Odo stirring the souffle is quite charming and it's great to see that Bashir has matured enough to be a doctor rather than a womaniser, as demonstrated when Jadzia comes to sleep in his quarters. Also, how fantastic is it that Sisko has his entire senior staff over for dinner and cooks for them? Picard would never do that.

I think it's a great story and I love learning more about the Trill, it just falls a bit flat in the execution for me.

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.

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'.

Section 31 are a controversial inclusion in the Trek pantheon. I totally get that people see it as an unwelcome intrusion into a future where humans strive to be better. Myself, I kind of love it for the fantastic storytelling opportunities and characters it presents. Case in point here, Luther Sloan is just brilliant (helped no end by William Sadler's performance).

I also really enjoy Bashir-centric episodes. His character is one that allows for a number of different narrative styles to be explored; Bashir can be immature and silly or extremely serious and professional, and both of these aspects of him manage to ring true. I guess this applies to most characters in the show, really, they all have so much depth by this point that you could just follow them through their day and become wrapped up in what happens.

This is a fun and intriguing episode that throws in some excellent twists. There are moments of genuine doubt as to whether or not Bashir is a Dominion sleeper agent, and the episode brilliantly incorporates events of previous ones to muddy the waters. The Doctor is really put through the ringer in a manner that would befit one of the "O'Brien Must Suffer!" shows.

For me, Section 31 add something new and extremely interesting to the Star Trek universe, despite it being add odds with what the franchise has always tried to present. I'm sure the writers were relieved and delighted to have it as a storytelling tool, and it's no wonder that it keeps reappearing even as the franchise has evolved and semi-rebooted. Looks like we can look forward to their presence in Discovery too, and I can't wait.

This episode is overshadowed by the controversy surrounding it: Deep Space Nine became among the first prime time US TV shows to show a same-sex kiss, in this case between two women. In 1995, this was a big deal - in 2017, we see this sort of stuff in daytime TV adverts and in the episode it becomes nothing more than a beautiful moment between two people. I'm so glad that times have changed in that respect, but I'm also somewhat proud that my favourite television show had the guts to do this back then.

What makes it work even more is the message that is sent, and it highlights how ridiculous it is that anybody could take offence. The fact that this relationship is happening between two women is not addressed at any point in the episode - the scandal is just the fact that they were married in their previous lives. It effectively put things in perspective and, like Trek has done so often before, has something very important to say.

Once we step away from all of that business, the episode itself is nice but not amazing. There's some great chemistry between Terry Farrell and the guest actress and they both give it their all, but the script is very melodramatic. It also felt to me like Dax was acting very out of character - maybe this could be explained away by her remembering what she was like when she was younger, but it's jarring. There's also the obvious fact that this relationship isn't going to go anywhere, because Lenara Khan is not going to join the main cast of characters.

There's a lot of technobabble, too, which further detracted from my enjoyment. But there's some great moments of levity as we see people confusing Quark with magic tricks and especially with Worf having fun by telling people that Klingon dreams are too dark for humans to take (with a twinkle in his eye).

The whole Trill taboo thing does raise the question of how Dax is allowed to interact with Sisko on a daily basis, since they are friends from a past life of hers.

I have to admit, I went into this expecting a very typical Voyager story. It would have a neatly tied up ending, Seven would be proved right and definitive evidence would show Kovin as the bad guy. When his ship exploded I even expected a reveal that he faked his own death to escape.

Instead I was given quite a nuanced story that leaves things very open ended, and the end result is something quite daring. What is essentially a metaphor for rape happens here, and there's some very dangerous ground in exploring whether or not the victim should be believed. This story goes as far as to ask who the victim even is.

It's in many ways a very sad story, not only for Seven and the man she - perhaps falsely - accused, but very much for the Doctor too. Again, the question of whether Voyager's computer system has created a sentient being in the form of the Doctor comes up for me, and the fact that the implications of that still haven't been explored. At any rate, his request to reset himself to "factory default" at the end felt very heavy.

I'm also continually impressed by Jeri Ryan's performance as Seven. She shows a much more vulnerable side here.

The episode deals with very difficult material, and while in many ways it handles things well it also fails to definitely come down on either side. I can understand why not, to a point, there's the potential for this to be inflammatory stuff and even harmful. Victims of violation often have no solid proof of what happened and shouldn't be dismissed, but at the same time someone's life can be completely ruined by a false accusation. There is no easy answer.

[6.4/10] I don’t know what to do with this season of Star Trek Discovery so far. It is full of ideas that I find compelling, character beats and dynamics that intrigue me, and a consistent visual flair that makes the show seem like a step up. But on the other hand, it can be so grave in its execution, so ham-handed in its arcs, and so contrived in its situations that I get ready to tear my hair out. “Light and Shadows”, appropriate for an episode that plays in themes of duality, represents the best and the worst of what this season’s had on offer.

On the one hand, I really liked the structure of this one. We had a genuine A-story and B-story this time, with few connections beyond some thematic linkages. In the A-story, Burnham returns home to Vulcan to see if her parents have any info on Spock. She ends up embroiled in a family dispute and Section 31 escape when, to her chagrin, she finds what, or rather whom, she’s looking for. And in the B-story, the rest of the crew of the Discovery has to deal with a “time rift.” (as Tilly so kindly lampshades for us, using the prefix “time” makes it sound cooler. The anomaly calls on Pike and Tyler to explore and eventually need rescue in the rift, Tilly and Stamets to work together to find them, and Saru to command the bridge crew to find the captain.

What I like so much about this structure is it really helps the pacing of the episode (and the non-overstuffed runtime doesn't hurt either). A tense moment of Discovery can shift to a scene on Vulcan to cool down, or a brisk escape from Section 31 can lend that same tension to a fraught rescue near the time rift. There’s a minor thematic connection between the two about duos with issues or differences working together to achieve common goals. But more than anything, the approach just helps the disparate stories feed into one another.

That’s underscored by the wild scene transitions deployed in this one. Everything from a shuttle launch melding into a pan down from the bulkhead, to a match cut of a crewmember’s eye and the ceiling of a Section 31 ship manages to wow here. Dipping into that well too often could become cheesy. But particularly with themes of how the time rift distorts people’s perceptions and Alice in Wonderland references of being disoriented through the looking glass, the inventive transitions really work to add a flair that dovetails with the broader mission of the episode.

And yet, I found myself growing frustrated with both stories as we rolled deeper into them. For the B-story, I initially loved the dynamic between Pike and Tyler. The Captain doesn't trust this former-Klingon killer in the shady spy corps., and Tyler questions the motivations behind Pike’s decisions, which leads to some nice verbal jousting between the two. In principle, I even like the arc of mutual respect each one has. Tyler saving Pike’s life convinces him that the specialist is on the up and up and admits to a little bit of overcompensation for having missed the war. Tyler learns to respect his new semi-captain, and sees that he has creative ideas that can get them where they need to go. In theory, that’s good, solid material for characters we haven’t really seen paired up before.

But man, I really don’t need each of them to announce every beat of that arc. Tyler openly questioning Pike over having missed the war feels weird for two characters who have no history. And the signposting of Pike’s own little arc becomes far too heavy-handed in points. The ticking clock danger covers for some of this sort of thing, including Stamets’s metaphor- and cornball-heavy back-and-forths with Tilly, but it wastes solid ideas on blunt dialogue and tin-eared declarations.

The same’s true for the Spock family portion of the episode. The family divisions in that clan have always been rich, fertile ground for Star Trek. But the exchanges between Sarek and Amanda about propriety and how to look after their children and their family dynamic -- all powerful, meaningful stuff -- is delivered as such overblown melodrama. Every line and shot and exchange is so dour and severe. And I get that to an extent. This is meant to be heavy stuff. But it doesn't land, which leaves all this family drama, what is nominally the core of this season, trying to proceed with a gravity it just can’t muster. The idea of Burnham and Spock being stuck between humanity and Vulcans is a venerable on in Trek, but the Alice in Wonderland comparisons become thudding with the show’s clunky dialogue.

Nevermind the fact that many of the developments here seem contrived or rushed. Burnham turning in Spock to Section 31, conspiring with Georgiou, and then busting him out just as quickly to hide from the spooks makes you feel the strain of the show blowing through plot points to position everyone where it wants them. The reveal that Captain Leland is the one who killed Burnham’s biological parents feels like a convenient and unnecessary connection between the two of them that will no doubt be unveiled at some later, even more dramatic moment to really blow the lid off things.

And I absolutely do not know how to feel about the fact that Spock had space dyslexia (not to be confused with Zapp Brannigan's very sexy learning disability). On the one hand, I like how Star Trek takes real life issues and blends them into a sci-fi setting, and that sort of obstacle as a bridge (and presumably, eventually a wedge) between him and Burnham could be something that adds depth to their relationship. At the same time, it’s another Spock-related retcon on a show that’s trying my patience with them, and the more hidden reveals we get about Spock’s past from this franchise, the more strained it seems. It also doesn't help that it’s not very far removed from real life learning disability issues, both making the storyline seem a bit crass, and also leaving the confrontation between Amanda and Sarek feeling like a bad Lifetime movie about parents with a child with dyslexia, who just happen to live in a cave-adjacent, Silicon Valley mansion.

That’s what’s so hard about Discovery this season. Very few things are clearly great or clearly terrible. Every choice in the show is some good idea with a questionable approach, or a questionable story beat saved by good character dynamic, or timey-wimey nonsense weakened by strained technobabble but buoyed by the show’s aesthetic charms. In an episode about shades of gray in a variety of relationships, my relationship with the show is starting to feel just as unsteady and complicated.

DS9 really did comedy well. Unlike the funny but often garish Ferengi-centric episodes, this one feel much more natural. Riffing on Cyrano de Bergerac and developing an almost Shakespearean tilt, this is an absolutely wonderful episode about lust and romance in all its various forms.

The jokes just work, and so much of it is because the comedy all stems from characters rather than just situations. From over-the-top stuff like Worf throwing Morn aside and challenging Thopok, to subtle things like the girlish (and very un-Klingon) yelp from Grilka when Quark pinches her on the way down from the holosuite. The actors sell it, too, for example the excellent ending when Julian realises what his multitude of patients have been getting up to.

Then we have the O'Brien/Kira storyline. On the surface this is very strange and something that I wouldn't have thought works for the characters at all - and it doesn't, that's entirely the point. They're both equally as horrified with the sudden thoughts in their heads, and again it's played so well that even though we as an audience think, "noooo!", the show recognises it.

Certainly among the funniest episodes of the series, but it also gives us so much great character work. Finally, after a year, Jadzia manages to get Worf to see that she's been standing there the whole time!

[7.5/10] I recently read an article about Star Trek Discovery, praising the character of Captain Pike. The author argued that Pike was a much-needed masculine role model after the supposed degradation of men in popular culture. He argued that the manly, decisiveness of Pike was a sorely needed corrective to the deconstructions of masculinity that have been en vogue of late.

As you can probably tell from my tone, I don’t necessarily agree with the premise. Discovery’s Pike is great, but one of the important and useful things pop culture has done in the last couple of decades is pry away at the trappings and expectations of masculinity in our modern era and in our past, and examined the unsettling underbelly of those cultural tropes and pressures.

But then I come to an episode of Enterprise like “Desert Passing”, and it reminds me how much Star Trek in particular has long been a purveyor of notions of different sorts of masculinity, beyond just macho manly man nonsense. Sure, Kirk never found a situation he couldn’t punch or sleep his way out of, but Spock was a dignified alternative, Picard was the picture of dignity and unassuming strength, Sisko carried emotional baggage and was warm with his son, and Voyager had...uh...Tuvok I guess? Well they’re not all winners, but the fact is that Star Trek has often put forward these sorts of role models, who modeled different but no less strong ways to be men to scores of impressionable nerds like yours truly.

And while I have my beefs with Archer as a character, I like how he too fills that role here. He is venerated as a warrior, as a tactician, and legendary freedom fighter here, the sort of Rambo-esque figure who drops in, single-handedly fights an army, and then saves the day. But Archer not only brushes off those sorts of comparisons, but show’s a different sort of caring, wit, endurance, and self-sacrifice that are traits less associated with the sort of image that article’s author wanted to conjure.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a weird Top Gun-esque space lacrosse scene where Archer and Trip go shirtless and knock over their alien competitors. (Which, I guess, at least helps balance out some of the weird cheesecake the show does with T’Pol?) But the focus of the episode is not on Archer as a manly man; it’s on him as a survivor, someone who is giving and kind.

The meat of the episode sees him and Trip tracking their way across an alien desert while they wait for help to arrive. That challenge means you never see Archer throw a punch. You see him give his water to Trip, who’s suffering from heat exhaustion. You see him being smart enough to remember seeing shelter when they arrived, in case they needed it. You see him being resourceful enough to jerry-rig a way to boil some contaminated water to make it potable. And you see him coming up with all sorts of ways to keep Trip awake and engaged so as not to lose his good friend in the throes of a fever.

In short, Archer is someone unbelievably sharp and giving here. He spends none of his time plotting against attackers or showing anger at a semi-betrayal or frustration with his circumstance. He spends all of it figuring out the situation, helping his dear friend, using his wits and his kindness rather than anything more traditionally masculine.

The same goes for the episode’s interesting take on Starfleet and the Enterprise’s role in the interstellar community. I love the fact that Archer and company’s exploits have been bent and twisted out of proportion, to where random freedom fighters on other planets see the Enterprise as powerful allies to the downtrodden who will save and fight for them with the push of a button. That is very much a Captain Kirk mentality: show up some place, decide that you don’t like the way things are run, and so blow the whole society up and remake it the way you’d like it to be.

But “Desert Passing” engages with the way things are more complicated than that. The humanoid who befriends our heroes seems nice and gregarious (and Clancy Brown hamming it up in the role, Harry Mudd-style, is tons of fun). He offers a believable story that tracks with American history, of minority groups being officially and technically granted equality, but facing softer and realer obstacles when hearts and minds and public institutions have to put that into practice. But we also get a countervailing story from the official government of the planet, that Archer’s friend is actually a terrorist, whose allies are attacking cities and peoples. And then we see that same government be curt with T’Pol and harsh with Archer and Trip.

It’s an idea you don’t always see much of in Star Trek. We’re used to planets being essentially unified nation states, where making contact with one group means that they represent the whole. As Hoshi points out, first contact is likely to be trickier than that in most instances, with situations like the one in “Shadows of P’Jem” that suggest our main characters are trifling with complicated internecine struggles that it’s hard to comprehend, let alone interfere with, after an afternoon of getting to know someone or a single distress signal.

While the show once again lays it on thick with a “directive” reference, at the end of the day, Archer decides that discretion is important, that deferring to governments rather than individual starship captains is the right way to go, and that forbearance is the right choice, no matter how uneasy he feels about it. It’s the exact opposite of a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality that you might expect in a more traditionally manly leader, but Archer represents that Star Trek ethos of not just ethical righteousness, but calm deliberation, making hard choices that sometimes lead to a queasy stomach rather than an exciting firefight.

At the end of the day, Archer is worried about the health and well-being of his chief engineer and best friend. He’s worried about the complexities of using the Enterprise’s arsenal to take sides in a war that may be just, but which probably has more nuance to it than can be gleaned from one partisan in a high dudgeon. He is not the innocent-saving, evil-basting cowboy rocking through the galaxy. He is an occasionally supercilious, sometimes cavalier, but ultimately well-intentioned, altruistic, and thoughtful leader. It’s a flavor of masculinity that might not please the anti-feminist sceeders out there, but which is part and parcel with Star Trek’s more nuanced take on what being a man is and can be.

(As an aside, I really liked the production design and directing here. The desert landscapes were beautifully composed, and there were tons of creative shots like Archer and Trip emerging from their sandy hiding place. Certainly the most visually appealing the show’s looked so far!)

Honey, I shrunk the runabout! Okay, this is a silly episode that gets a pass from me because it's really good fun and put me in a good mood. We get to see a tiny runabout flying about inside the Defiant and that's just cool. It's the sort of thing I imagined when playing with my toy cars when I was little. The sequence with Bashir and O'Brien wandering about a "forest" of isolinear chips is absolutely brilliant. I also appreciate that the episode puts some effort into the science side of things.

But, yes, it's quite a silly episode. That's made worse by some truly idiotic Jem'Hadar characters - they've never seemed this stupid before, and it took away a good deal of their menace. Think back to the Jem'Hadar child that Odo tried to look after as he matured in 'The Abandoned' and how single-mindedly aggressive he was, and the comparison is night and day to what we are presented with here. I think the rift between the Gammas and the Alphas is an interesting one, but it was portrayed here as nothing but petty.

The comedy is on point throughout, and there's some especially good lines at the very end with Worf/Dax and Odo/Quark.

Wesley doesn't have a combadge on his uniform during his scenes on the Bridge. Why?

This episode is a great illustration of how Captain Picard interprets the Prime Directive. He can take no action that would interfere with the relationship between Ornara and Brekka, but neither is he compelled to take any action to preserve the status quo. Thus, he may not inform the Ornarans that they no longer need felicium to live, but he also is within his rights to withhold replacement engine coils that would otherwise enable the Brekkians to continue shipping the drug.

I do think this breaks down somewhat in that the Brekkians must surely have at least a few of their own ships, or at least individuals mechanically minded enough to repair the Ornarans' freighters for them… but that's just an assumption. Perhaps Brekka really never developed the facilities to build its own space vessels because the Ornarans simply did all the freight runs themselves. Data's report indicates that Ornara is the higher-tech of the two civilizations, after all.

It's also interesting that Wesley gets that anti-drug lecture from Tasha. Not only will Yar leave the cast in the following episode ("Skin of Evil"), but Wesley will get a first-hand lesson on the effects of addiction in a future episode, "The Game" (5x06). By then, of course, viewers of the original broadcast run likely had forgotten about Tasha's little spiel, but it's an interesting little connection nonetheless.

Edited June 22, 2020, to fix a couple missing words.

I'm not entirely sure what point this episode is trying to make.

On the surface, it seems to be an obvious gender equality play, with clear parallels to the past (and continuing) struggle by women in all parts of real-life human society to be taken and treated as equal to men in all respects. There's even an entire story beat wherein the writers went to great lengths to have Phlox scientifically determine that the Cogenitor is equal in every way to the other Vissians.

Then there's the undercurrent of commentary on slavery. The Vissians do seem to treat the Cogenitors in their society as property of sorts, what with the male/female couple being "given" a Cogenitor. This line doesn't go very far, unfortunately. All we really have on it is that one scene around the conference table with the Vissian engineer's line asserting that Enterprise's stewards are forced to serve, and his following statement that it's easy to misunderstand another culture when you don't understand it. That's pretty much all of it. We don't know if Cogenitors are forced somehow into serving their role. Vissian culture remains pretty opaque.

The whole thing is overshadowed by the resolution, in which Trip is all but formally reprimanded for his methods, if not his intent. (Though it's pretty clear that Archer disapproves of both.) Keeping in mind that this is pretty much pre–Prime Directive, I suppose Archer's objections stem mainly from the obvious: Trip's actions resulted in a sentient being committing suicide. I'm just not sure how to square his apparent opposition to Trip's intent, which was to show one Cogenitor that the way they're treated isn't necessarily right. Potentially starting a social revolution would definitely violate the Prime Directive, but that doesn't exist yet.

Unless the subtext is that the Cogenitor was killed to prevent her inflammatory ideas from spreading. That would make the story marginally more interesting, maybe.