There's nothing particularly bad about this episode, it's just so very forgettable. It's a great showcase for Dax and Terry Farrell finally gets to show us the slightly more fun side of her which will become a trademark of her personality. I like Trill culture so it's nice to get some info about how it all works, but the whole relationship between Jadzia and Arjin is quite dull and just feels half hearted.
Odo has a great mini disagreement with Kira and makes his points beautifully, the voles on the station are a humourous background story and the Klingon chef is always welcome back.
But the whole thing with the tiny universe is just uninteresting and feels without any real stakes. They just end up putting it back where they found it, but isn't it still going to pose a risk there once it continues to expand?
loading replies
@dgw Yep, I considered that afterwards. I think the issue is that the episodes doesn't explain it too well.
Ugh. Where to start? I'm embarrassed to admit that, as a teenager, this was one of my favourite episodes when it first aired. I though the concept of being trapped inside a board game was really cool. And yes, the idea still is pretty great, but when it's executed like this it just makes you want to turn away in shame.
The concept of the episode isn't the problem, it's the poor writing and absolutely horrendous acting involved, from both guest stars and the main cast. Alexander Siddig again comes off the worst here, I can only assume that it's a mixture of him following direction and having very little experience. Falow is way too over the top, and the Wadi in general are a stupid design in all aspects. The less said about the hopscotch scene the better, you can almost feel the embarrassment the cast members were experiencing.
The only ones who come off well here are Quark and Odo. Odo gets a fantastic scene with Lt. Primmin (we won't be seeing him again), mocking him about Starfleet procedures. Quark has a funny grovelling scene in which Armin Shimmerman doesn't hold back chewing up the scenery. And the writing of the episode itself isn't a total loss, the opening scene with Sisko and Jake is just a beautiful father/son piece.
To make matters worse, the episode drags. The final sections in the cave just seem to go on endlessly. This is a really weak moment for the show, but for all that I think I still prefer it to the terrible previous episode ('The Passenger'). There's at least an element of silly fun to be found, but for God's sake don't show this to anyone you want to introduce to the show or sci-fi TV in general.
loading replies
@lefthandedguitarist I really enjoyed this one as a kid too. I still get that little girl's hopskotch rhyme randomly stuck in my head from time to time.
"Gordon's Alive!" - love the nod to the classic line from the Flash Gordon movie.
loading replies
@foucault63 Glad it wasn't just me who recognised it - I got goosebumps!
One of the most powerful episodes Star Trek has ever produced.
loading replies
Truely, Harris Yulin is amazing in this character especially at the end of the episode where he's saying he must be punished in order for Cardassia to admit the truth about what they did on Bajor. It gives me goosebumps.
Cracking episode. I never did feel I trusted the Inspector and I'm pleased Janeway didn't either.
Question though. The passengers all left in shuttles and safely got through the Worm Hole. In the last inspection where were Voyagers crew, Tuvok etc?? They weren't in suspension so how come they weren't found?
loading replies
@danio1972 I wondered the exact same thing. Strange ending.
Can see they are pushing further inner exploration and growth during these episodes. Not sure why there is so much hate for allowing the trek ethos to grow in this way. Think too many are not willing to move with the times and allow this show to deal with social issues like past trek shows have done in their own way.
loading replies
@mad-maru It's not so much "feelings bad" or opposition to diversity, I think the real problem with Discovery is that it's become so dull. I had issues with S1, but it got better and wrapped up well; S2 was great, and S3 was decent. Season 4 has been a slog for me. The season-long story arcs are getting exhausting and that's, frankly, all Joss Whedon's fault for ruining episodic television. ;-)
I do love every minute Tig Notaro is on screen, though.
I'm really sick of the whole "porn is evuuuuhl" angle that this film was pursuing. All I saw was a bunch of nice but not very smart girls making some bad decisions and then blaming everybody but themselves afterwards - one went as far as to compare herself to a rape victim because she voluntarily took part in a scene she later regretted.
I got mad more at the weak support networks those girls had than the porn industry, the worst people in the whole film were one girl's family and friends - her obese mother and "music producer"(read: umemployed) boyfriend making her feel like shit and pressuring her into stopping her career, essentially calling her a prostitute as insult and her boyfriend not even defending her when people at a university party were making fun of her and looking up her porn.
This film glossed over some real questionable practices in porn and instead just highlighted that yes, a lot of 18 to 25 year old girls make mistakes and don't think things through. Hell, one of them thought she couldn't get pregnant if guys pulled out.loading replies
I do agree to the point that these girls arent very smart but I have to add that the Girl who felt like a 'rape victim' took a shady job she shouldn't have taken. Any serious Agency wouldnt have let the girl go alone there. So these not very smart and YOUNG woman should get some sort of protection and thats all the film is trying to tell the world. Porn industry isnt pretty and it isnt save. And thats a fact - if it would be amateur porn wouldnt be so famous. They are build upon making the most money out of cheap shit. That has nothing to do with porn itself being evil. It is not, but the amateur industry behind cheap porn needs to get saver for young girls.
Ugh. Where to start? I'm embarrassed to admit that, as a teenager, this was one of my favourite episodes when it first aired. I though the concept of being trapped inside a board game was really cool. And yes, the idea still is pretty great, but when it's executed like this it just makes you want to turn away in shame.
The concept of the episode isn't the problem, it's the poor writing and absolutely horrendous acting involved, from both guest stars and the main cast. Alexander Siddig again comes off the worst here, I can only assume that it's a mixture of him following direction and having very little experience. Falow is way too over the top, and the Wadi in general are a stupid design in all aspects. The less said about the hopscotch scene the better, you can almost feel the embarrassment the cast members were experiencing.
The only ones who come off well here are Quark and Odo. Odo gets a fantastic scene with Lt. Primmin (we won't be seeing him again), mocking him about Starfleet procedures. Quark has a funny grovelling scene in which Armin Shimmerman doesn't hold back chewing up the scenery. And the writing of the episode itself isn't a total loss, the opening scene with Sisko and Jake is just a beautiful father/son piece.
To make matters worse, the episode drags. The final sections in the cave just seem to go on endlessly. This is a really weak moment for the show, but for all that I think I still prefer it to the terrible previous episode ('The Passenger'). There's at least an element of silly fun to be found, but for God's sake don't show this to anyone you want to introduce to the show or sci-fi TV in general.
loading replies
@lefthandedguitarist Ah, first season Trek spin-offs… They never get better, do they?
(Your comment like brought me back to see that I left two shouts on the same day… Why, past self?)
Ugh. Where to start? I'm embarrassed to admit that, as a teenager, this was one of my favourite episodes when it first aired. I though the concept of being trapped inside a board game was really cool. And yes, the idea still is pretty great, but when it's executed like this it just makes you want to turn away in shame.
The concept of the episode isn't the problem, it's the poor writing and absolutely horrendous acting involved, from both guest stars and the main cast. Alexander Siddig again comes off the worst here, I can only assume that it's a mixture of him following direction and having very little experience. Falow is way too over the top, and the Wadi in general are a stupid design in all aspects. The less said about the hopscotch scene the better, you can almost feel the embarrassment the cast members were experiencing.
The only ones who come off well here are Quark and Odo. Odo gets a fantastic scene with Lt. Primmin (we won't be seeing him again), mocking him about Starfleet procedures. Quark has a funny grovelling scene in which Armin Shimmerman doesn't hold back chewing up the scenery. And the writing of the episode itself isn't a total loss, the opening scene with Sisko and Jake is just a beautiful father/son piece.
To make matters worse, the episode drags. The final sections in the cave just seem to go on endlessly. This is a really weak moment for the show, but for all that I think I still prefer it to the terrible previous episode ('The Passenger'). There's at least an element of silly fun to be found, but for God's sake don't show this to anyone you want to introduce to the show or sci-fi TV in general.
loading replies
@andrewbloom Me too, but it's always in Avery Brook's high-pitched singsong voice!
Ugh. Where to start? I'm embarrassed to admit that, as a teenager, this was one of my favourite episodes when it first aired. I though the concept of being trapped inside a board game was really cool. And yes, the idea still is pretty great, but when it's executed like this it just makes you want to turn away in shame.
The concept of the episode isn't the problem, it's the poor writing and absolutely horrendous acting involved, from both guest stars and the main cast. Alexander Siddig again comes off the worst here, I can only assume that it's a mixture of him following direction and having very little experience. Falow is way too over the top, and the Wadi in general are a stupid design in all aspects. The less said about the hopscotch scene the better, you can almost feel the embarrassment the cast members were experiencing.
The only ones who come off well here are Quark and Odo. Odo gets a fantastic scene with Lt. Primmin (we won't be seeing him again), mocking him about Starfleet procedures. Quark has a funny grovelling scene in which Armin Shimmerman doesn't hold back chewing up the scenery. And the writing of the episode itself isn't a total loss, the opening scene with Sisko and Jake is just a beautiful father/son piece.
To make matters worse, the episode drags. The final sections in the cave just seem to go on endlessly. This is a really weak moment for the show, but for all that I think I still prefer it to the terrible previous episode ('The Passenger'). There's at least an element of silly fun to be found, but for God's sake don't show this to anyone you want to introduce to the show or sci-fi TV in general.
loading replies
@dgw We all have a dark section of our past that we try to forget...
There's nothing particularly bad about this episode, it's just so very forgettable. It's a great showcase for Dax and Terry Farrell finally gets to show us the slightly more fun side of her which will become a trademark of her personality. I like Trill culture so it's nice to get some info about how it all works, but the whole relationship between Jadzia and Arjin is quite dull and just feels half hearted.
Odo has a great mini disagreement with Kira and makes his points beautifully, the voles on the station are a humourous background story and the Klingon chef is always welcome back.
But the whole thing with the tiny universe is just uninteresting and feels without any real stakes. They just end up putting it back where they found it, but isn't it still going to pose a risk there once it continues to expand?
loading replies
@lefthandedguitarist They did kind of explain where it came from initially in a bit of a throwaway line… Sigh.
Essential
Themes: main season arc, time travelWarning: contains ST Discovery Season 2 spoilers.
Finally we get to the main plot of suliban and Temporal Cold War. Episode starts with Sulik getting stripped of his supersight, which I guess is important for larger story because it shows that suliban can be stripped of genetic modification, which would explain why they haven't conquered the galaxy in any of the other shows.
Anyhow, the show introduces bellboy Daniels with captain seems familiar with. Enterprise is going to star nursery where they encounter a ship full of tech monks who are there to observe some rare phenomenon. They enter a plasma storm and almost encounter catastrophic cascade falure that would destroy the ship, if not for our friendly diguised avokado man. Now, that's a turn of events! Daniels reveals to captain he is time police, sent to 22nd century to prevent meddling with timeline and he believes Suliban is on the ship and saved them, and now wants captain to help catch him. Now, that's a turn of events. He has portable holodeck that displays the current timeline and device that allows him to walk through walls, which is enough to convince even skeptic T'Pol.
Meanwhile, Silik confronts captain and throws cloud of suspicion over Danielses motives. Now that's intriguing. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode gives us little reason to believe Sulik, as he kills Daniels and almost kills Archer. The question what they stand to gain from saving Enterprise still stands though. Sulik was after timeline thingy, but they lose both that and walk-through-walls device in a fight as Sulik makes his escape by HALO jumping out of the ship.
Add resistance to space conditions to long list of suliban enhancements, along with invisibility, contortion and climbing on walls.Now, that's more like it! Really compelling storyline that puts Enterprise at the forefront of temporal war and with that brings gravity to its story and position in ST universe.
It's interesting to put facts that we got from Daniels into context. He says he is from approximately 900 years in the future. That would put him around year 3050. Last episode of Voyager ends around year 2400. In Discovery, Burnhams mom is stuck in approximately year 3150 (I guess Calypso Short Trek as well). And though Daniels doesn't say when time travel was invented, he says that primitive versions existed a century before. But Discovery plot discovers that humans already had working time travel device in 23rd century. Interesting, and I wonder if they even considered this episode when building a plot for Discovery, as clearly they worked on integrating Discovery into ST cannon.One complaint I have is that they could have left it a little more ambiguous. They built up intrigue of whom to trust nicely, and if they left it at that it could have been much more intriguing going forward.
loading replies
@andrewbloom I guess it's just a reflection of that period of TV. I remember Galactica being so refreshing exactly because it went for those moral gray areas and often misleading viewers while building larger story arcs, which was something ST has rarely or never done, as this and previous episode show. You could say in general TV shows from that era weren't really great in being subtle, that came a few years later.
Kudos for paying close attention, I must rewatch those parts.
There is some weird shit in this episode, hell, it is a fucked-up episode!
loading replies
@dewdropvelvet I thought it was a great episode! Put together a great redemption arc for Syd. It's not us or them, it's us AND them.
There's nothing particularly bad about this episode, it's just so very forgettable. It's a great showcase for Dax and Terry Farrell finally gets to show us the slightly more fun side of her which will become a trademark of her personality. I like Trill culture so it's nice to get some info about how it all works, but the whole relationship between Jadzia and Arjin is quite dull and just feels half hearted.
Odo has a great mini disagreement with Kira and makes his points beautifully, the voles on the station are a humourous background story and the Klingon chef is always welcome back.
But the whole thing with the tiny universe is just uninteresting and feels without any real stakes. They just end up putting it back where they found it, but isn't it still going to pose a risk there once it continues to expand?
loading replies
Hmm, the implication of putting the protouniverse back where they found it is that, since it came from a subspace pocket, it won't impinge on normal space. I don't think we the viewers actually know enough about how subspace "works" to know.
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.
loading replies
@lefthandedguitarist "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 think the keyword here is 'friends', from what I gather the taboo is merely about past lovers coming together again. So Jadzia being friends with Sisko isn't a problem since they weren't lovers in that past life of hers.,
The story is just absurd but it is somewhat entertaining.
loading replies
@nmahoney416 absurd in what way? You’ve never had at least one crazy night where things happen that you least expect? For me personally, it’s like all the crazy nights rolled into one film. Love it. Plus it’s Scorsese. Pleasantly surprised when I found out later.
Voyager can land! That's pretty cool, and something I only vaguely had in the back of my memory. I thought that the sequence was done pretty effectively here.
While this riffs on similar ideas done in the TNG episode 'The Neutral Zone', it makes it more about the Voyager's crew than the people they find, which was a good decision. It does feel like quite a big moment when Janeway and Chakotay walk into the cargo bay to see how many people want to leave. Honestly, I was a bit surprised that everyone wanted to stay because the show hasn't really managed to sell the idea that everyone there is working towards the same goal at all.
It's also nice for them to encounter something that isn't a spacial anomaly. I quite like that the people they find include Amelia Earhart (dodgy wig aside) and how Janeway bonds with her. The rest of the 37's are a bit flat, though - at least, the ones who are actually allowed to talk. It's particularly annoying the way Fred goes all-American and immediately becomes hostile. Nice to see Tackleberry from Police Academy, though!
Overall, this is a fun episode. A few things bugged me: finding the car floating in space and it works - wouldn't all liquids inside be extremely frozen? Also, having Paris be a geek for 1930s automobiles certainly detracts (again) from his bad boy image, but in this case it does serve the character better because he needs to move away from that. On the flip side, I thought that the way the rest of the crew talk about the car was quite realistic, and kind of charming. Once we meet the humans living on the planet, it feels like a massive cop out that we don't see these incredible cities they are talking about; yeah, I get that it would have been a huge and expensive undertaking to put them on screen, but the dialogue around them feels so awkward and could have been handled so much better: "I'd love to see your amazing cities!" "Oh wow, weren't those cities amazing!" just doesn't cut it.
loading replies
@lefthandedguitarist When they "came back" from the settlement tour, without showing anything at all, all I could think was, "Something something budget," haha.
I was expecting mutant or superheroes. I've heard of Xmen legacy. How disappointing.
Only a mad man delusional in an asylum, more than an hourlong. Atmosphere is disturbing. More horror show than sci-fi.
Episode 1 is very long and very boring. Dancing scenes was so ridiculous.
If you like Marvel caractères run away.loading replies
@fo2x That's intentional, it's what Noah Hawley (the director) wants to avoid: people who only watch this as "le superheroes in TV seriezzz" instead of focusing on the characters or story. Things like Agents of Shield may fit you better.
As Trek so often proves, the sci-fi part of a story can be the most uninteresting thing; it's the characters we're here to see. A wonderful Worf episode brings his son Alexander to live with him, and it's an emotional rollercoaster. We are shown a Worf completely out of his depth, he has no idea how to be a father and can only fall back on driving home Klingon platitudes about honour and family. At the same time we can see that he's trying genuinely hard and is clearly devoted to doing whatever is best for his son.
Counsellor Troi finally gets to be a proper counsellor for once in a gorgeous scene with Worf. Meanwhile there's some rubbish side story about trying to find a new way to travel at warp with some artificial jeopardy attached. Unless I missed something, why did Picard have to wait until RIker and Worf were clear of the fire before launching the torpedoes? The two dilemmas had no bearing on each other.
loading replies
@lefthandedguitarist To answer your question, when the torpedos hit the wave there was a high risk of radiation in the bay where Worf's son was. Picard knew that Riker and Worf were in there.
Why the hell people vote the episode weeks before the release?
loading replies
@maimokatsu Why the hell isn't voting disabled for episodes that are not released yet?
