Interesting that there is no visual effect to indicate the shuttle passing through the atmospheric containment field. (I'm assuming a containment field is present, because otherwise all those crew members milling about on the shuttle bay deck would have had no air to breathe as the shuttle exited, and they would have gotten very cold in the vacuum of space.)
When Data runs into Deanna in the corridor, he is on his way to meet Dr. Pulaski—presumably in sickbay. After Deanna asks for his help getting to sickbay, they turn around and head back the way from which Data came… Scenic route?
Whatever Eichner radiation is, apparently superglue emits it. (Data says "certain cyanoacrylates" do; cyanoacrylates are fast-acting adhesives, commonly known as superglues.)
Picard tells Riker to "make it so" in response to the ship being "ready to leave orbit". Shortly afterward, Picard enters the Bridge from his ready room, only to give Wesley the order Riker was presumably supposed to give—to prepare to break orbit, and set course for the Morgana Quadrant. Maybe a script revision broke the logic of this? Not sure.
Ian's maturation rate seems to fluctuate. He comes to term in about two days (roughly 150 times the normal ten-month gestation period for a Betazoid), then grows to the rough equivalent of a four-year-old in one day (about 1400 times normal speed). Either the writers didn't bother doing the math, or they just said, "The hell with it."
Wow, 184 words and I didn't even get to the review part. I wasn't even in hardcore nitpick mode.
Anyway, about the story: This was super rushed. Wesley gets a small bit of character development, but he's about the only one.
Everything else feels really contrived, especially Ian's arc. He gets practically no screen time, and all the focus goes from Deanna's pregnancy to the dangerous virus specimens as soon as he's born. Then suddenly Ian realizes he's a danger to the ship and lets his humanoid form die… because the episode ran out of time, I guess? There was no emotional impact, for me. The audience wasn't given time to bond with this character, so why should they care about him? (Also, he's not really dead. The "life force entity" still lives on.)
Troi's parturial experience inexplicably leaves her extremely attached to the mysterious child, though. I can't really make sense of Deanna's emotional journey through this episode. Her tone of voice and choice of words at the first meeting regarding her sudden pregnancy carried a distinct undertone that she felt, basically, raped. But then she does an about-face and insists on giving birth to the kid, after a pretty lame scene where she introspects silently under the other officers' distorted voices. I've seen at least one claim (sadly, without a source) that this was Marina Sirtis' least favorite episode of the series, so maybe she thought it was just as shallow as I did.
Given that this episode was based on one of three scripts originally written for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II series that was to air in 1978, I shouldn't be too surprised that it flopped. The other two scripts were adapted into "Devil's Due" and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The former (TNG 4x13) was an OK but not great episode, I guess. The latter was the opposite of this episode in many ways: A long, slow-moving, dragged-out film that featured the character (Lt. Ilia, a Deltan) who was to have given birth to the alien baby in Phase II's version of this story. (I reviewed ST:TMP quite some time ago: https://trakt.tv/comments/38620)
The good bits of this episode are the additions: Ten Forward, Guinan, Miles O'Brien.
Well, Miles isn't really new (he appeared in two early first-season episodes as a crewman-of-the-week), but this is the first time he's shown operating the transporter. He doesn't have a name yet, but it's still progress toward what became one of Star Trek's best Average Joe characters. I'll take whatever I can get, because Colm Meaney is great.
Funny how Wesley says Guinan never talks about herself. She's only been on the show for five minutes, hasn't she? Of course she doesn't talk about herself. There's been no time!
It's also nice to have Geordi bumped up to Chief Engineer, Worf officially made Chief of Security, and an in-universe explanation for why Dr. Crusher is absent! It really does only take one line of dialogue to turn "pretending that nothing changed" into "moving forward after the absent character's life changed". How refreshing to be thrown that bone, as a viewer.
Picard orders Yellow Alert, and then later in that scene Riker orders the shields up. Yellow Alert implies the shields being raised.
Offenhouse making it to the Bridge presents several problems. One, it should not be possible for an unauthorized person (who is not even wearing a commbadge) to order a turbolift to the Bridge. I would say perhaps that kind of access restriction wasn't yet implemented, but in "11001001" a turbolift panel announces "Bridge Access Denied" when Picard and Riker try to get there. (It did so before they told the computer where they were trying to go, but still.) Then we have to address the security personnel apparently giving up on removing the man, presumably because they're distracted by the Romulan ship decloaking on the viewscreen. Who knew all it took to stop a Starfleet security officer from moving you was planting your feet and shrugging off their hold on your arm?
And finally: Initial scans of the derelict ship should have shown life signs of some kind on board. Data and Worf discovering the cryogenic pods shouldn't have been a surprise.
This episode feels pretty weak for a season finale. Captain Picard's final line ("There's still much to do. Still so much to learn. Mister La Forge, engage.") reads like the end of a series pilot or season premiere. And it wasn't preceded by much substance.
Sure, it's fun to have the present-day humans on board. They're fun, in the same way "The 37's" are fun, because we get to see people out of time come to understand what has changed in the intervening years. But based on the title, they're supposed to be the "B" plot.
Meanwhile, in the actual Neutral Zone plot (which, based on the title, is the "A" story), not much happens. Most of the action is centered on the "B" plot characters, and we actually see surprisingly little of the events leading up to the Romulan encounter.
From my research into "Conspiracy", I can surmise that the destroyed outposts have been captured by the Borg, and this episode is supposed to be a kind of cliffhanger leading into their introduction at the start of season three. Of course, the writers' strike was still ongoing at this time, and the Borg story arc was postponed due to that, so this episode doesn't really have a story to tell any more. (I also found a quote from the director, James Conway, who recalled this script was shot as a first draft—rewrites being impossible due to the ongoing writers' strike. That's probably the main reason it's such a weak episode.)
Riker calls for emergency attention from security, so who shows up? Worf, with Geordi. Neither has a phaser. La Forge isn't even part of the security division—at this point in the series, he's the helmsman. But Dr. Crusher happens to bring along a phaser when called to a medical emergency onboard the ship… because that makes sense. (We'll try to ignore how Worf and Geordi play along with Admiral Quinn's lies about what happened to Riker. That's also bad.)
That chair Remmick is sitting in looks an awful lot like the one used for Admiral Jameson in "Too Short a Season". That's because it was the same prop, redressed.
Not a nitpick, but doesn't fit into the review proper, either: I had no idea Captain Rixx was a Bolian. This is the first appearance of the species in Star Trek, and I guess I'm used to the later makeup design—which uses a much more saturated blue. Bonus trivia: The Bolians were named after Cliff Bole, who went on to direct a total of 42 Star Trek episodes across TNG, DS9, & VOY. He also directed on numerous other well-known shows like MacGyver, The X-Files, Baywatch, and Charlie's Angels.
Some background information on what was happening in the television world at the time explains why this episode wasn't as good as you might think it should be. After all, it's clearly meant to be a taut thriller about the possibility of Starfleet being seized by aliens. It's obviously meant to be part of a larger story arc—that started several episodes back, when Quinn gave Picard that warning.
The writers' strike of 1988 was ultimately responsible for this letdown. This "Conspiracy" plotline was meant to be intertwined with the Borg, who were to be introduced at the start of season two. But the writers' strike delayed the rest of the Borg storyline several months, and this piece of it was dropped. That's why nothing ever comes of the "homing beacon" Data reports.
It's too bad. Aside from it being entirely too easy for Picard and Riker to win against the "mother creature" (in Remmick's body), I enjoyed this one. It's not perfect, but "Conspiracy" as part of something bigger would have been better than what ultimately happened: treating this like any other incident-of-the-week—essentially, pressing the "big reset button" and pretending like these events never occurred.
What's this bullshit about setting the warp core ratio at 25:1? There's only one intermix ratio: 1:1. We learned that in "Coming of Age".
The number of soundstage lights that the various Armus props and costumes reflect is amazing. Using such a reflective material was a big gamble—one I'm not sure paid off in the end.
I don't look forward to this episode when rewatching the series. It's kind of a disaster, from a writing perspective. Picard talking to an oil slick isn't nearly as ridiculous as several members of the production team have been quoted saying over the years, but it's not exactly the high-powered diplomacy we come to expect from Jean-Luc.
Mostly, though, it's the meaningless character death. It doesn't work. Unfortunately, the same thing happened at the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season six, again because the actor wished to move on from the show.
In this case, I think Denise Crosby gave up too soon. I agree with something Wil Wheaton wrote years ago in a review of "Hide and Q":
I have to give up some respect for Michael Dorn. I can't imagine what it must have been like to play Worf in the first season, when he was one-dimensional and so incredibly stupid. He didn't do much more than Denise did in these early episodes, and where she decided to quit the series out of frustration, Michael stuck it out, eventually developed a complex and beloved character, became a regular on DS9, and was in all the TNG movies.
—
https://web.archive.org/web/20071011201935/http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/02/19/star-trek-the-next-generation-hide-and-q/(the original site no longer exists)
When I originally went from watching later-season reruns of TNG on television to running through the series from start to finish, the most striking thing was how flat the writing was at the beginning for Worf. All of the characters needed time to grow depth, but it was especially surprising just how far Worf in particular had come. And yes, Michael Dorn really played the long game, where Denise Crosby seemed to rather impatiently throw in the towel. (Whether Worf would have developed as much as he did if Tasha Yar had remained on the show is another question altogether.)
The good points of this episode, though, are actually the scenes where Deanna gets into Armus' head. Didn't see that coming. Early Troi is really not a very good character, but her empathic abilities really work for me in this one.
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.
Although it was a little slow to begin with, I was not disappointed at all by this film. As soon as I heard there was a new one, I kept an open mind and told myself that: "If it makes me laugh as much as the first and second, then I will be happy", and thankfully, it certainly did! If I was going to pick between the three, I'd still slightly prefer the second one, but I don't really think we should be comparing them. Why not enjoy them all? I certainly have.
As with all of Rowan Atkinson's comic creations, Johnny English is a hilarious character who can simply be funny in an empty room. So many people discuss his physical ability, which is of course outstanding, but even his ability to phrase words for comical effect can brighten anybody's day. There are so many subtle gags in this film, it's unbelievable.
I loved the return of Bough as his sidekick. He plays an excellent part in both the first one and this new one. His character is equally as brilliant as Johnny English himself.
A wonderful film, filled with brilliant comedy, and there were moments when I didn't think I'd be able to stop laughing. It was fantastic!
A truly remarkable film. There's nothing wrong with predictable, but it's refreshing to see something that isn't. The two main characters in this film are both rather eccentric. Harold is obsessed with death - He keeps pretending to kill himself, and he keeps attending random funerals. At one of his many funeral visits, he meets a 79 year old woman who is also eccentric. She attends funerals regularly to make herself feel alive. Despite such an age difference, a friendship develops into a romantic relationship. For 1971, this was probably outrageous, but it's actually told in a beautiful and realistic way.
Despite the morbid theme, there are many comical moments, and it isn't all that upsetting overall. Be aware of the morbid theme though, as it may not always be appropriate viewing for anyone who's just buried a loved one. But don't let it put you off watching it. It's one to definitely watch when you feel able to do so.
As a Chaplin fan, I had to admire the final shot, which was very Chaplin-esq (whether intentionally or not.) Towards the end of a few Chaplin films, he walked away sadly, with his back to the camera to show that he was quite upset, but then he would always kick up his heels and continue walking but in a more cheerful way, as if to say: "tomorrow's another day."
In this film, Harold does the same thing at the end. He walks away from the camera sadly, but then kicks up his heels and quickly becomes happy again. It's as if his character has learnt to be positive and not let negativity get him down. We can learn a lot from Harold and Maude.
Along with "Saps At Sea", this was one of the last films that Laurel and Hardy made for Hal Roach Studios, before moving on to 20th Century Fox and MGM. These two films prove that Laurel and Hardy had by no means lost any of their magic as they grew older. The drastic change from these two amazing films to the dreadful "Great Guns" (their first Fox film) proves that the bigger studios had made a huge mistake by refusing to allow Stan to write or direct their films. If they had lost their magic by this point, then surely the last few Roach films would be disappointing as well.
The reality is: "A Chump At Oxford" and "Saps At Sea" are among their best. This film has far too many wonderful moments to pin-point them all, but the more you watch it, the more you begin to realise how phenomenal the scene is when Stan is playing with the "ghost's" hand in the maze. It is genuinely the other guy's hand and yet is is rehearsed so well, you can trick yourself into believing it's actually Stan's hand. The performance is surreal.
The dialogue in this film is absolutely hilarious, and yet there are so many brilliant lines that you wouldn't even notice from first viewing. Such as when they finally arrive at one of the most famous Universities in the country and Ollie says: "You'd think they'd advertise this college to let people know it was on the map!"
When Stan turns into Lord Paddington, and is about to fight the students, he turns to his valet and says: "Meredith, hold my handkerchief!"
As with most Laurel and Hardy films, you will miss out on so much if you only watch it once. I've seen this film over a hundred times or more, and it still has me in stitches every time I watch it. I really feel sorry for people who don't watch Laurel and Hardy.
Patrick Stewart flubbed a line in the Sickbay scene, saying "Terellian" instead of "Talarian", and that made it into the final print. It also survived into the syndicated TV broadcasts, DVD release, and Blu-ray remaster.
It's odd that a message to Starfleet would take 48 hours to arrive on subspace frequencies, according to Riker, when the whole episode started with a communiqué from Starfleet asking the Enterprise to investigate a disturbance in the area. They wouldn't ask unless the request would arrive quickly enough for the ship to actually arrive in time to see what happened. Picard says to inform Starfleet the Enterprise will enter the Neutral Zone, which presumably won't take 48 hours to get back to Earth. You can't run a fleet of starships on four-day turnaround between order and acknowledgement… Riker's line had to be a mistake.
Speaking of communication issues… When Tasha reports a hostage situation on deck 17, which she later tells the Bridge to disregard, it's extremely fishy that no one acknowledged it, asked for more details, said they were sending another team… anything.
Worf's reference to the "Age of Inclusion" in this episode is the only time that term appears in Star Trek. In all future episodes that reference this point in a young Klingon's life, it is called the "Age of Ascension" instead.
And more Klingon-related writing flubs: Klingons use disruptors, not phasers, but everyone in this episode calls the weapon Korris and Kon'mel assembled in the security detention cell a "phaser". Oops?
I like this episode as a character study of Worf, though it's not that great overall. The important bits are acted well, and we get a nice bit where Data explains the Klingons' howling at the ceiling to Captain Picard. I do have a soft spot for Data being a smarty-pants.
I went into this movie expecting to hate it. Based on what I'd heard, I was planning for a clunker with bad effects. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised. The visuals are amazing, and the plot is hopeful and interesting, centered mostly around a negative "self-fulfilling prophecy" playing out in our reality. Without getting into spoilers, there's a good reason for our current obsessions with negativity and dystopia and apocalyptic zombie movies. We're being told the world is going to hell, and we're buying into it.
I can understand some of the negative criticism. There are too many CGI robots, enough to make action scenes feel boring. A weird tonal shift happens early on, amping up the violence and throwing viewers for a loop. And many of the action scenes feel hurried and overworked. The ten-minute house invasion section was so rushed, a dozen nifty inventions are thrown at the viewer so quickly, they can't be appreciated. Plot holes and "wait, what?" moments abound, as they do in most big films nowadays. I hate being asked to not only suspend my disbelief but ignore things like physics. When a huge metal ball explodes over your head, you run away. When the film shows it crashing onto a platform where your character was standing, the viewer thinks: "oh, my, is she dead?" Of course not. She's fine, and it's not explained. People fall in water and are dry in the next moment. Humans are vaporized by mean robots and nobody cares or notices. It feels like a great fourth draft of a script that needed a little more polishing.
Unfortunately, the movie feels 20% too preachy, hitting us over the head with dangers like global warming and obesity and famine. But it takes a hopeful view, assuming that, if we work together, we can solve these problems and others. It's a hopeful message, something akin to the 1950s and 60s when the world was recovering from a devastating world war and anything seemed possible and we were landing people on the moon and making strides on social issues like civil rights and the prevention of global conflicts. Clooney and the other actors are good, although the lead actress seemed a little overwhelmed, and you can't base a huge movie like this on essentially four characters. They needed more people and more character arcs to make it have an impact.
But, in the end, this hopeful film asks us to believe that progress is a good thing, but only if that progress is in the service of good. This movie trades in a different message: hope, and hopefulness, and using our combined smarts to figure out solutions to problems. That's not something you hear a lot any more, and it was refreshing to see, especially in a big Hollywood blockbuster. It harkens back to that old Einstein saying, which is highlighted in once scene: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." And that's not a bad thing.
Star Trek again takes on an idea halfheartedly.
There were many depths this story could have plumbed, from the nature of aging to the danger of drug overdoses. But instead, we got only a shallow tale of attempted revenge.
Granted, that very last scene on Mordan in which Karnas seems to realize what an obsessed man he'd become worked really well. Seeing the personal hell Jameson put himself through in an attempt to correct a mistake made four decades earlier, Karnas understands that Mark regretted the course of events more than anyone, and that was enough.
But outside of that beat, the episode feels pretty weak. TNG hasn't hit its stride yet in terms of writing, obviously—what Star Trek series had, this early on?—and a lot of ground is left uncovered. The inspiration this story drew from the Iran–Contra affair appears pretty superficial, and it's not an especially strong "what-if" either because of how dramatically important Karnas' personal vendetta against Jameson is made out to be. I'm honestly not really sure what point this story was trying to make, outside the obvious "you can't ever be young again" and/or "revenge doesn't pay"—which are rather cliché morals, since so many stories illustrate them (and better).
Perhaps, then, some things can be explained by this tidbit: D.C. Fontana's original script for this episode was heavily rewritten by Gene Roddenberry's lawyer, Leonard Maizlish. Why a lawyer, of all people, would be deemed best qualified to rewrite a television script is beyond me… Fontana quit and complained to the Writer's Guild of America, and producer Maurice Hurley eventually gained control of the writing staff from Roddenberry (by pressuring him). Sad as it might seem that the Great Bird himself lost his direct say, letting his lawyer rewrite a script, of all people, tells me that he might not have known what he was doing any more (as Hurley believed)…
I'm currently watching season 6 of the original Magnum PI and was surprised to see this pop up. I immediately thought about how they could fuck up the themesong that I spent many tries attempting to record completely on my cassette-recorder but upon viewing this I must say they didn't fuck it up.
The rest however...
The thing that made Magnum PI so great was the fact, despite being a marine, that he was real human being... this Magnum, from the get-go is an action hero jumping from space and blazing his way through the Jungle, driving backward and shooting others... Why is it so important that these remakes need to lose the human aspect that made us cling so much to these characters. The original Magnum wasn't less of a hero for being afraid to get shot or hesitating to jump from one building to the other... On the contrary.
Couldn't care less that this Higgens is a woman but... where's connection between these two characters. Higgens and Magnum were at odds at the beginning of the original series but these almost seem to be at each others' throat. And let's not start about destroying the iconic Ferrari not once but twice (I know, it's popular, the A-team movie did it too, apparently it's their way of saying "fuck your past").
I'm not the kinda person to say this shouldn't exist but I do wonder why it needs to be so different from the original (same with MacGyver) that it barely resembles the source material. Maybe I don't like sucky reboots and rather have mediocre sequels, maybe I don't like bulletproof hero's but people with heart... and this comes from a person who still adores the 80s
Full disclosure: I haven't watched the complete episode (edit: I have now) and I started skipping scenes to see if it would stay like this (and as far as I could tell it did). I have three more seasons of original Magnum to go. I'll be with the lads, Higgy baby! (though I guess new TC won't be saying this to new Higgens any time soon)
I thought it was awfully early in the series to pull the "series regular might be leaving" card, and that was before I looked at some episode trivia and learned that this was filmed as the third in the season. Thank goodness it didn't air as such. Way too early!
A couple of goofs I noticed that weren't mentioned in the sources I found:
1. Wyatt's entrance onto the holodeck from off camera is not accompanied by the sound of the doors opening and closing, but Riker's subsequent exit does come with sound effects.
2. The Tarellians are allegedly trapped on their ship and unable to transport due to the Enterprise's tractor beam. But Wyatt is able to transport over with no issue. Either both ships' transporters should work regardless of the tractor beam being engaged, or neither should.
Lwaxana Troi is a divisive character, I think it's safe to say. Even with myself, I have arguments about whether or not she belongs on Star Trek in general (especially when she shows up on DS9… oy). At times, she's hilariously funny—Gene Roddenberry allegedly described her as "the Auntie Mame of the galaxy" (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 p. 033)—but the writers seemed to misuse her at times. I'll leave further discussion of that for when I get to the relevant episodes, though. This appearance (her first) was mostly great.
What wasn't so great, though: This story. Unsurprising, then, that the script for this episode (as written by Lan O'Kun) was going to be cut from the series. Tracy Tormé rewrote it and "saved" the episode from getting cut, but he still wasn't very happy with how it turned out. I bet a lot of that came from feeling like a lot of the comedy failed to make it all the way to filming. Goodness knows the episode seems to make plays at seriousness here and there, only to fall flat.
The best parts really are the funny bits with Lwaxana, and Data trying to observe more of the human condition. The worst parts all involve Riker ducking out of the room because he's uncomfortable with the situation for some reason that isn't adequately addressed. Oh, and the central idea of Wyatt and this Tarellian girl connecting across the light-years through their dreams. Star Trek usually stays away from that "woo~" sort of thing…
Star Trek: The Next Generation really is the Golden Age of Q.
In most of his later appearances on Deep Space Nine and Voyager, Q plays a pretty obvious comic foil. His depth is severely limited in those series for reasons I haven't quite figured out. But in TNG he's the source of serious moral dilemmas pretty much every time he shows up. Even in "Encounter at Farpoint", which isn't a great episode by most standards, Q is one of the few good elements (even if his "Judge Q" act is a bit ham-fisted).
Quite honestly, I think this episode would have fit in equally well in the years after Riker (quite literally) grew the beard. It's solid enough to stand on its own among the most excellent episodes of future seasons, and displays the quintessential "TNG tone" that I love. (We can, of course, take some fractional points off the score for seemingly un-Starfleet language—I'm sure they would call the soldiers Q conjures up something more specific than "vicious animal things"…)
The only real critique I have is that Marina Sirtis was completely absent. To be fair, I've complained about her character('s writing) a lot already in my reviews of just the preceding nine episodes. But here, in a story where it would make sense to have her around because of her personal history with Riker, she was nowhere to be seen. In this episode that could have used a couple good beats between imzadi, we got nothing. Even better, I wasn't able to find an authoritative source for why Sirtis did not appear in this episode—mostly I found the same suggestion of "sudden unavailability" copied and pasted around, and a couple references to the writers leaving Troi out entirely several times in the first season because they didn't really know what to do with her character.
Whatever the reason for her absence in this specific episode, a look at the final screenplay draft¹ submitted before filming was informative. None of Deanna's lines were anything deeper than the usual lame "sensing emotions" stuff the writers have thrown at her until now. Obviously those were all cut from the final episode, which is more than fine. Most of the remaining lines were reassigned to Tasha Yar, and didn't make much sense coming from her. Clearly the director felt someone needed to say the words, though, and I don't think any of the lines would have made any more sense coming from any other character. As an exception to this, one of the few great edits made on set was assigning the line, "Are you certain, sir?" to Data, rather than Yar, in Troi's absence. That worked really well.
Reading the draft screenplay also told me that, yes, the script referred to the soldiers simply as "Animal Things". How imaginative…
http://www.st-minutiae.com/resources/scripts/111.txtTNG starts climbing out of its rough first-season writing here. Character interactions are still pretty strained compared to the later years, but we get a good hint at the depth of storytelling to come. Picard has his first true "Star Trek dilemma" in this episode, the first of many.
The one element I must seriously question is why the Enterprise visited what appears to be a pre-warp civilization. Given that the Edo seem to have a complete apparent lack of awareness regarding space vessels or interstellar travel, it's unquestionable that the Prime Directive would have forbidden any contact with the planet at all. They somewhat regard the Starfleet team as gods after becoming aware of the ship's position in space near their own god, even.
Starfleet's general prohibition against interference or contact of any kind with civilizations that have yet to develop warp capability is long established at this point—at least as far back as "The Omega Glory" (TOS 2x25), which aired nearly 20 years before "Justice". Ironically, the Prime Directive should have prevented Picard's Prime Directive dilemma from ever cropping up in the first place. In a way, he ended up having to break the Prime Directive in the end because he broke the Prime Directive…
I thought this was a pretty great episode in spite of its numerous, shall we say, plot holes.
Troi is once again shown "reading" Ferengi in direct contradiction to later established canon that Betazoids cannot sense Ferengi emotions due to their unusual four-lobed brain structure. Bok also transports off the Stargazer while its shields are up—I suppose the Ferengi could have transporters that work through shields, but if so they'd be used in other episodes and this just smells like the writers forgot Bok had raised the Stargazer's shields earlier in that scene. (And at the end, Picard has the Enterprise beam him back without lowering the shields, too. We know Federation transporters don't work through shields.)
What really saves the episode is Riker's relationship with the Ferengi first officer, Kazago, whose actions begin the work of transforming the Ferengi from the underwhelming villain role originally assigned to them by the writers into the principled traders we come to know. He's reluctant at first, but comes around to demonstrate that the Ferengi do, in fact, have a sense of morality and ethics after all. Armin Shimerman might have been one of the Ferengi in their first appearance ever, but Douglas Warhit has the honor of kicking off their development as a proper Star Trek alien race with some kind of actual culture.
What a phenomenal show! Being a Marvel production, I fully expected something of quality, but my expectations were blown entirely out of the water. Daredevil has easily taken its place among my favorite shows currently on air and far surpasses the current lineup of comic book-based television properties (including Marvel's own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).
The cast is great. Charlie Cox brings emotional weight to Matt Murdock and an intimidating presence to his vigilante alter ego. Supporting players Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, and Rosario Dawson, all make their respective roles feel critical, never distracting or annoying. But it's Vincent D'Onofrio that really steals the spotlight as Wilson Fisk, bringing to life a villain who is not only vicious and truly terrifying, but also heartbreakingly pitiful.
Daredevil's writing separates it from the current crop of superhero television. The progression of the plot is well organized and dialog rarely (if ever) crosses that line into comic book corniness. You really get the sense that the show runners had a clear vision for where they wanted this freshman season to go, while still laying groundwork for future seasons. Never does it feel like you're just being strung along for bigger and better things to come next season. And the show doesn't constantly try to remind you of the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, as any references to it are (usually) subtle.
But perhaps Daredevil's greatest strength is its cinematography. Fight sequences are expertly choreographed and coherent (not to mention brutally gritty), even rivaling those of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The production value is top notch, probably thanks to the refreshingly limited reliance on CGI. But what impressed me the most was the brave willingness to let the camera linger or even meander occasionally. Ending episode 2 with a minutes-long single take fight sequence had me speechless, and is a testament to the level of quality brought to the show.
Daredevil is a strong addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think Marvel's partnership with Netflix could prove to be one of their best decisions regarding their television properties and I look forward to future shows like A.K.A. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
A perfectly placed flashback.
An episode entirely dedicated to Karen was something I didn't know was needed until now. The episode begins with a 30 minute flashback, and it's just so damn good. It had my full attention from the opening scene. I had no idea she used to be a drug addict, and had no idea about her relationship with her family...and this was the perfect time to finally inform me. Then, when it flicks back to present day, Karen is receiving inspiring and wise words from father Lantom regarding her "troubled soul". Then that church scene happens, and even though it's all action and violence, the scene still feels very much about Karen rather than the action.
In so many TV shows, flashback episodes always feel like an outlier; like you could almost forget about the episode and the season would feel the same, but the polar opposite can be said with "Karen". She's a great character who gets a lot of undeserved hate, and Deborah Ann Woll absolutely gives us her best work on this show yet in this episode, and rightfully so.
The people giving this episode hate have very short attention span and have to see Daredevil fighting the villain over and over again, much like a children's superhero movie. This brilliant show is an 18 age certificate for a reason. It's a patient and dark programme that explores adult themes, and it's starting to feel more and more mature now, with season 3 being its most adult season yet.
R.I.P Father Lantom. So much wisdom and a kind heart. Such a good character.
Where's my breath?!
Things really explode in episode 4. The previous two episodes did feel a lot like a build up to something, and that 'something' is one hell of a detonation.
I'm really liking the storyline of Dex so far, especially when you get extraordinary scenes like the one involving CCTV. The way those deep, cold eyes stared into the camera was unbelievable and sent shivers down my spine. I just can't get over how amazing Vincent D'Onofrio is as Fisk.
I just have to mention the fight scene though. This is, without a doubt, my favourite long take fight scene of the show. It's just pure adrenaline that doesn't seem to end. It's even more realistic than the hallway scene in season 1. The effort and preparation they put into this must be off the Richter scale. Well, it looks like the show's going to pick up another Emmy nod for stuntwork... ...and just when you think your jaw couldn't fall any lower, the episode ends like THAT and proves you wrong, sending your jaw to another world. I guess it's lucky these don't release weekly, because I wouldn't be able to handle the week after this ending.
Seriously impressive stuff; I'm addicted.
jock lead, check
hot girl with all-time perfect makeup and visible rack cleavage for male gaze, check
nerd guy with glasses, and curly hair, check
nerd girl also with glasses, shorter hair, childish clothes, trying to show "female power" but failing anyway, check
the movie is riddled with clichés and tropes. every scene, moment a child can predict. cliché!!.
it has released much early in my country by the way. and I don’t think anyone cares for a SPOILER in this movie/franchise??. but you’ve been warned none the less
u almost think. oh wow, I did not expect that to happen. good work. NOPE SURPRISE!!! that’s exactly cliché thing which was supposed to happen.
some dumb person smiling and being happy that he escaped a dino. nope he will be EATEN!!!!.
every henchman in the bad guy's team was an animal cruelty symbol. u know so that we would try to root for the poorly written "so called" good guys I guess....
the dialogues are also cliché. "holy shit" "you have to see this”. we have all heard this before.
it was like this movie was written with a book of cliché’s nearby. I don’t get it, this is a sequel right? so why can’t they do something new. carry things on. why do they have to have the very same moments throughout all the series. it’s almost like they are welcoming "new audiences" to the franchise. and so there u go: here is 1 unrelated guy eaten by a huge dino. here is a scene where someone barely escapes. here is a classic "safe" dinosaur with relaxing bg music for all chars to see. typical Jurassic movie tropes here.
and to fill things up they also had some horror tropes for no reason. even some non dino ones!!. like a little girl scares her nanny. and we as audiences have to witness few seconds of a scene where it felt like we are watching a murder movie.
the characters are horribly written.
why are we supposed to root for Owen (Chris Pratt) again? he seems like a jerk. who doesn’t care for anything at all ever but himself. Claire breaks up with him every time for some reason... (but its ok because they will get back together of course, because... movie). he had abandoned his care for dinosaurs. and we never know why. pretty ex gf just guilt trips him over one beer and he is ready to join the adventure. WHY??? WHAT CHANGED HIS HEART? WHY HE BECAME ASSHOLE IN THE FIRST PLACE??
and oh btw. it happens in the cliché scene again.
where they wait for him at the plane runaway. and oh nooooo he is not gonna come :(.
SURPRISE. he is already there!!!.
Bryce Dallas was told to look pretty and act pretty. that’s pretty much it. and she is all "dinosaurs must be free" now.... because...... I don’t know... movie... again. what happened? what changed her mind??. is it because franchise kicked off and we must root for these people now.
why break them up????? why do we get to see their intro all over again. because hey the next time they fall asleep. girl's hand will be all inside Chris Pratt’s shirt. (IT HAPPENS!!!)
is this even a sequel? it feels like a reboot of a reboot. this person was trying to commercialize dinosaurs and was pretty much a huge jerk aunt to those kids (who were so annoying and thus I’m glad they are not here btw)
the "villain" is this guy, who knows Claire from before and he explains to her why they must save the dinosaurs into this new place (oh please, we know you’ll be the bad guy, we have read book of cliché’s too movie)
he ultimately brings the dinosaurs for an auction back to the city.... without anyone realizing anything.... man these guys could run the country if they're so powerful and covert
there are 2 stereotypical nerds. with franklin written so bad that I wanted him dead asap. overacting AF. seriously. if u tell me u like him you are just a casual moviegoer or a troll. I can’t describe him more without the need of punching something.
there is a scene exchange between him and the leader of the capture team. where just within 2 seconds he is taunted "Can u open this door tiger" something like that. and the door like practically immediately opens. and this nerd is like. "there u go, tiger". yeah nice comeback
minutes later they are locked in and this guy acts like he knows nothing now. he keeps being a weirdo and and changes his motivation within seconds of a scene just for weird humor.
horribly inconsistent characters.
during the first encounter with Owen’s friend dino raptor blue. (who also was not a reason enough to come join this mission for Owen, "let them die" he said)
the capture team people go bad. (because cliché) and they shoot blue and Owen. fine.... but now the nerd girl who was 2 minutes ago showing off to this team as a badass girl because "girl power" I guess? is now taking a gun and pointing at the.... ok ... for what.. will u really shoot them? they did not really kill Owen or the dino. how badass are you u want to show??
and they all ready to shoot her too. but due to some illogical argument which I really don’t want to get into. this "Mexican standoff" stops but the guys shrug her off.
there is this little girl's character who is shown to be a complete Mary sue at first. she can go anywhere to listen in on conversations way too smart for her age. she is not afraid. she is a daredevil , not afraid of heights at all. u know what. I’m all cool for powerful child characters if the movie is ABOUT THEM!!. this was really awkward. the worst part like I said how character arcs go haywire. as soon as she encounters her first dinosaur. she is screaming at the top of her voice. and then continuing to do that till the movie ends.
hey u know what, don’t show me a dinosaur loving young girl afraid of nothing at all at first and then since she is a girl, she has to scream unbearably loudly every time something is happening and then keep hugging chris pratt for no reason. instead of probably claire which would make more sense. stick to your character traits maybe...
cliché moments and cliché characters. yes, I am using the word cliché a lot. but that’s what I was rubbed with in my face in few hours ago.
there is an auction going on where they present the dinosaur in the huge case which I am sure pretty much hides all the bidder to the auctioneer. but movie!!!
lot of moments of story did not make sense. and I don’t want to spend more time for them.
the cinematic moments like the dinosaur roars and everything were same old same old. so, it’s a dino fatigue at this point. nothing new and fresh for it. I was seeing in this Imax and wanted to be blown away and scared probably. but it did not happen. it’s really like they are catering to a fresh new audience rather than people who see and remember movies, like the first parts!!!!
The set pieces although feel fantastic at first end up being anti-climactic. The whole third act takes place in that huge manor where the auction takes place. After which there are teases for the sequel. Why does every movie want to be a franchise so badly? First be good and people will throw themselves over your movies and wait day by day for sequel. Me included. But this shove in your face teases after your average movie makes me want to punch someone!! “The dinosaurs are free in this world now. So get ready for awesomeness you wanted in this movie, in the next part!!!” Yeahhh!! F***!!!!!!!
Jeff Goldblum was shown in trailers. and thats exactly how long he will stay in the movie, couple of minutes. why show him in your trailer and ruin a cool surprise which could have saved this movie otherwise marred by cliche's and average writing.?? and if you show him like that. maybe use him much more in the plot......
I really enjoy movies and am more than happy to suspend my disbelief as much as possible. but it was not possible here. so, I’m not thrashing on this movie for no reason. it really was bad.
that being said. few positives here are:
the special effects are spot on. couldn’t really complain here. it’s sad how much potential can be wasted.
also, I have nothing really against the actors. I am sure most of them were doing their best and are talented. the writing and the direction lead to this mess.
the sound and music were decent.
if you are a casual audience this movie is perfect. you will NOT be disappointed. but if you are an avid moviegoer. tired of tropes and repetitions and also somewhat of critic. get ready for a lawsuit because you would have punched someone sitting on your side or front.
definitely won’t be watching this again even if I have time and money to kill. not even years later on streaming I think
enjoy!
I loved the first Deadpool so I had very high expectations for this one. I was a little disappointed, I still enjoyed this movie a lot but I didn't love it like I thought I would. Maybe it is because the first one was so fresh and different and simple and the sequel is more of the same just more complicated. It could also be the promotion cycle just overloading on jokes and taking a little bit of the wind of the sails.
First off Ryan Reynolds is still perfect. He lives and breathes Deadpool. Josh Brolin is great too but just doesn't have a ton to do here. Hopefully we see more of him in the future. And a shout out to the fantastic Zazie Beetz. She is amazing in the show Atlanta and now I hope everyone gets to see how wonderful an actress she is. This movie also has a few great cameos too.
The movie itself is a mixed bag. The action is a lot better but the CGI can be pretty bad at times. The plot is bigger but more messy. It does some really unexpected things and I enjoyed that. The jokes are great, at least the ones that land. I think the first movie is constantly funny but this feels more like an action movie with a lot of jokes. There are a ton of references, which most are funny now but I wonder how they will age? The music is pretty good too. The opening credits James Bond rip off is really great.
Overall I liked this movie a lot and want to see it again but not right away. I look forward to seeing more Deadpool and hopefully some X-Force movies.
P.S. This has one of the best mid credits scenes any movie has ever done.
Edit: Watched the Super Duper cut and I didn't notice that much difference. They did change some of the music, I like the original soundtrack better. Still the same Deadpool and some jokes are different. The first half drags and that extra time makes the movie feel a lot longer even though it really isn't.
There is one feeling after watching this movie and it sums up with the following statement: This would be my favorite hero movie of all times if they do not resurrect everyone. Saying this, it is expected of them to come up with a solution to do exactly that, unless they really surprise us in the second installment of Infinity War. Still, if one analysis Infinity War just in itself and do not connect to past movies or the ones that will follow, Infinity War would deserve to be in everybody's top 10 superhero movies of all time.
The best superhero stories don't necessarily need the villain to win, but it is "realistic" (aka better and it feels more satisfying) when the villain's strategy is better and/or they are stronger than the heroes and they get to win because of that. It is even more satisfying when the reasoning of the villain kind of makes sense while their logic is flawed somewhere (showing the weakness of the villain), especially if the superhero and the villain agree on something but their approach is quite different to solve the problem.
There is room to argue that Thanos is one of the great villains since he has a purpose beyond just being a villain for the sake of villainy.
I thought the movie really underdeveloped the world, and didn't take advantage of all of the cool possibilities. Other than The Shining none of the references had any impact. Mark Rylance was the only actor to make an impression. I didn't even like the narrative of the book that much but I thought Stephen Spielberg would improve it not make it worse. The plot holes were huge especially in the third act ( How did Art3mis just walk into his office, walk out without anyone seeing or hearing her, and just walk out of the IOI headquarters ). It felt like a lot was cut for time, or they spent so much time on CGI sequences they forgot to make anything real, but what they cut were the parts that made the book interesting. You could ignore Ernest Cline's narrative and plot struggles because he made the characters slightly interesting, the challenge seemed difficult and all encompassing, and a lot of the references were actually relevant to the story. Every time they got a key it was a huge deal in the book, here I totally forgot it even mattered because it was so glossed over even from the beginning ( Really a race? ) and the real world consequences also didn't matter, so the whole thing felt like it was hitting the classic sentimental Spielberg movie moments with nothing to back it up.
I finally watched the whole series (so far) and this is my comment for all seasons and episodes:
who writes these shit ?
I liked the history and mythology, until they started twisting it.
I like the battles and the music that goes along. No comments there.
The actors? Come on. Hand-picked for their muscles and their looks. Barely believable. With some exception I won't bother mentioning.
All in all I enjoy watching the show.
What I don't enjoy are the endless scenes of supposed poetic beauty, the pretentious anachronisms, the jumps in story-telling, the twisted timeline, the foretold deaths, the prophecies, the inner turmoils, the silly characterization.... It's poor. It has been all along and no-one seems to know how to fix it.
The biggest burden of the show must be its success. They did stupid things from day one, but people still accepted and followed the show, and instead of using that chance to get better story-telling, they kept re-iterating their teenager targeting plots, as if they were masterpieces.
Nothing was new or original in Season 4. It seems they said all that was to be said, in Seasons 1-3 and then got renewed and went back to the previous seasons trying desperately to dig the stories to bring to life: the same siege, the same brotherly betrayal, Floki's clinging to the past, more betrayals, Harbard, Lagertha's mishaps, child-births and christian woes .. Nothing original. And they wasted a whole lot of time in utter nonsense, then rushed things in the last episode, then decided to prepare for the next season with what was probably improvisation from Mr.Fimmel as I can imagine anyone writing his speech in paper and getting it approved as a final scene .
All the great scenery and costumes and hairdos and boats... all wasted in the hands of obviously young, overconfident and ignorant writers. If money and ratings is all that counts, then maybe they've succeeded. But if the final product and its filming legacy counts for anything, then they have failed and they did tremendously.
When you can write a summary of an episode in 10 words or less, that's a hollow episode, visually appealing maybe, but not at all profound.
My guess for next Season? Whichever actor/actress is favorite of the viewers and willing to keep the same salary will miraculously be alive. The rest, will be written off in one sentence or less. There will be cameos for the reunion-junkies. Then they will prepare for the Mediterranean . At least 2 or 3 episodes will be wasted in Kattergat with silly plots introduced in that same season only to be resolved in the next episode. Some events will be foretold, probably in an intense drug-induced frenzy with ominous music. New characters will appear, become prominent, overshadow everything, then die tragically, or not. One good fight mid-season, one in the finale. And in-between the never-aging Ragnar will fight the same inner daemons, restate his bro-mance with the over-played and long dead Athelstan and try to be the leader he hasn't been since Season 1. Mixed with some Wessex and Paris stories to keep the filming budget under control, we'll conclude the series with endless scenes of everyone saying goodbyes to everyone mostly through long stares and 'don't you die on me' moments...
I'm so disappointed. I hate not being 16 years old, for I cannot enjoy any of that. And I really wanted to.
A good battle, but not really epic. No tactics, no special feat, only one action. They just clash and go. A little disapointing after the whole going over mountains thing.
Also it just ends there ? Feels like they lost so many more men on the first try in season 3. Why don't they just retreat and come back with a new tactic ? And on the other end why would the Franks let them go knowing they usually come back ? They could have used the chain to block and slaughter them all. Wasn't Rollo saying just before What defeat ? As long as he's not dead Ragnar is not defeated ?
Then what, 10 years pass and they just decided to kill several storylines just like that ? That's a great cliffhanger and Travis is great so I wanna see what they do with that, but come on. I don't count this stunt in my rating of the episode. I hate this kind of abandonning of current events and pausing, like nothing happened during 10 years, but all the unresolved things left in suspense will start moving on now.
1) So 10 years passed. Didn't they raid anything during that time ?
2) Aslaug is still there, probably alcoholic, nothing on letting Bjorn's daughter die ?
3) The whole Harbard thing was totally useless this season.
4) Aethelwulf and Alfred going to Rome, was there a point ? What about when he learns of Kwentrith's death ?
5) What about Harald that wanted to be king ? 10 years without Ragnar and nothing ?
6) The Frank king knows about Roland and gets rid of him and his sister. How did that happen ? And so this lead nowhere, they were just a plot device to replace Odo by Rollo.
7) In the end, there was almost no impact of Ragnar's addiction. Unless he's still a junkie but it does not look like it. Another whole useless arc.
8) As the child is dead now, I guess we'll never see Porunn again
9) Floki and the seer ? On hold for 10 years ?
10) The Wessex settlement. In 12 years, nobody bothered to go and check or even wondered what happened to these people ? It was supposed to be their future, nobody wanted to go and check, or join them, or try to establish other settlements ?
I am a huge fan of the inventive yet simple first film. It is a guilty pleasure of a film that includes giant robots and monsters, but has enough development of characters that I have something to latch onto. It also helps that Del Toro's imagination helps build not only some fantastic beasts, but a great world to have the action focus on.
This sequel, while almost stand alone, doesn't have as much in any of those departments. The characters are pretty flat. The relationships between the characters are barely developed (like between Pentecost and Lambert, or Pentecost and Amara). The film lacks any heart or soul to it. Yes, there is lots of action, lots of Jaegers fighting Kaiju, but it almost feels rote. While the fight scenes in the original film are masked in night and rain, the fight scenes in Uprising take place mostly in the bright day light. I figured that would make for something exciting, but the action mostly falls flat. Maybe, it's because there aren't any memorable touches in the fight scenes like the original such as the Newton's Cradle or the funny items falling out of cargo containers used as weapons.
Even with this said, I did enjoy the film for what it is, a film that aims high, but falls quite short of its original. The film is carried by John Boyega whose charisma makes the film very watchable. The casting of newcomer Cailee Spaeney was also great, she has a future ahead of her. I didn't much care for Scott Eastwood who doesn't emote anything other than "stern" or "annoyed".
The story for the film was pretty thin, except for the twist which sets off the big fight in the third act. I actually thought the twist of flipping Newt to be the bad guy was brilliant since Newt is the last guy I would think could be a bad guy.
I do wonder what happened to some of the other characters that survived the original film. What happened to Raleigh Becket? How come he's not with Mako Mori who shows up in this film? How come Herc Hansen is not leading the Shatterdome? And where in the hell is Hannibal Chau? The script doesn't bother to fill us in on these interesting characters from the first film.
The score was taken over by Lorne Balfe and was fairly forgettable until he uses Ramin Djawadi's original Pacific Rim theme in the third act.
The episode has something to say, at least, but I find this infuriating to watch. That is really the point, though. Red Squad are a bunch of the most unlikable, bratty, all-American stereotype, non-diverse bunch of white kids that the franchise has ever presented to us and it's almost a joy to see them wiped out at the end. It also digs into my dislike and mistrust of military mindsets (something which Trek usually handles beautifully).
That is a bit of a disservice to the episode, because there is some nuance in there. The conversation between Jake and Collins is a gorgeous high point with some wonderful dialogue and acting, plus we get to learn more about the moon (or 'Luna') as it is in this 24th century. Nog also gets some great character development as he falls prey to the charms of the elite cadets he always looked up to, then realises the danger in blindly following someone. Red Squad turns out to be little more than a cult, and Captain Watters is so overcome with notions of duty without the experience to back it up that he's doomed his crew from the start.
The ending scenes in which we return to our regular crew with Sisko at the helm feel like a moment of relief, and seeing them utilising their own experience in such a smooth and natural way serves very well to highlight the insanity we've been watching for much of the episode. I also really like the opening section with Quark pining for Dax.
It bugs me a bit that the only escape pod that survives is the one with the main characters on. TV contrivances! This is a bit of a ridiculous episode and I can't say that I have any good feelings towards it, but it's not a throwaway.
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.
This film was a head scratcher for me. It was a novel concept - to tell a story of heroism casting the heroes to play themselves - but it just didn't work. Not that the heroes didn't bring good first time performances, their contributions were natural and convincing. But the story wasn't big enough to justify a full length feature treatment. So, what we got was: Part 1 - a looooooong first hour to establish basic character points (during this hour I repeatedly asked the questions, "Is this a Clint Eastwood production? Have I mistakenly gone into a low budget, single concept, student film?); Part 2 - A travelogue of Europe to establish the context (that erased the notion that it was low budget, those were lofty locations); then, Part 3 - the act of heroism, itself, worth telling, but it only takes a few harrowing minutes. So, not a documentary, not a movie. Perhaps, a short live action would have worked. Because, the kernel of this film is a story deserving to be told, I give it a 6 (fair) out of 10. But as a feature length movie I would give it a 4 (poor) out of 10. [Reenactment of a true act of heroism]
First off, what a great episode title. I know it's taken from classical literature, but it could be some heavy metal thing and it conjures up some great imagery in the mind.
The episode itself is mostly good, almost great due to its thematic and character work - but I struggle to get over the revelation that Dukat was intimately associated with Kira's mother all these years. In fact, it feels like nothing more than a contrivance; why has Dukat never brought this up or even hinted at it in all the years he's known Kira? They've had a lot of adventures and spent all this time together, and this just comes out of the blue. It's like his character is completely re-written after the events of 'Waltz'.
Add to that the convenience of using of the Orb of Time to magically transport back 30 odd years, and too much of the episode just doesn't ring true.
Still, the episode is quite emotionally powerful and develops Kira even further. She's really one of the most interesting and well rounded characters on the show by this point. I also like that the ending is left somewhat open - Kira isn't completely able to forgive her mother for collaborating but is somewhat able to see the reasons behind it. It doesn't come down definitively on either side and lets the audience makes it's own decisions. No easy answers, a regular theme of DS9.
Also, the Bajoran collaborator Basso - what a slimy bastard! Great performance.
