LeftHandedGuitarist

This is setting up a strong ending for the show. What I particularly got from this one was how Star Trekky it all felt. The giant flowers in space were such an Original Series concept. From the moment our crew arrived down on the planet it immediately felt like The Next Generation, from the rocky setting to the beautiful (and chintzy) android compound. Even the tone of the dialogue between everyone. I'm was very impressed with how good Isa Briones was here in multiple roles, and actually found her super creepy.

"That's unexpected," followed by the emergence of the Cube was a genuine WOW moment.

I found the emotional scene between Picard and Raffi particularly touching, and a great demonstration of the evolution of Picard's character from the heyday of TNG. He's still awkward but so much more open to expressing and feeling emotions. And again, I have to say that I have absolutely fallen in love with the crew of the La Sirena and I want much more of them.

The surprise appearance of Brent Spiner as another Soong relative (which was spoiled for me thanks to a website publishing articles before the episode has been broadcast worldwide) felt a little too contrived and yet was very welcome.

An enjoyable start. I like the characters quite a bit, especially Bean who comes off as the most interesting of the bunch. Elfo has potential but I feel like I need to warm to him a bit more. Luci is pretty great, but I have to say that I don't think the voice quite fits his appearance, it's just not quite what I was expecting. Right now that's throwing me off a bit. I was also surprised that Bean didn't ask him any basic questions, like why are you here/where did you come from?

I liked the story set up and the jokes were pretty good, with a couple of laugh out loud moments for me (notably with the names of the elves, and the racist antelope warning). Great voice cast, and Matt Berry appeared which I really wasn't expecting! A lot of recognisable voice talent from Futurama here.

In terms of tone, this is definitely steering more towards Futurama than The Simpsons for me and I think that's a good thing. Visually it's in the same realm as well, and quite nice to look at. Groening's style has a lot of personality. It's setting up a world and it needs to take some time to do it. I'm happy to give it that time and keep watching right now.

I'm very torn over the original Star Trek series. I'm too young for it; I grew up in the 1980s with the original cast films - which I loved and still do - but my real adoration for Trek began with The Next Generation and then especially Deep Space Nine. The original Star Trek is a very different show from any of that, and I have to look at it with a different mindset to try and appreciate it. I don't have any nostalgia colouring my view.

To put it bluntly, it's horribly dated and oftentimes difficult to watch or enjoy. It's campy and looks very cheap. BUT, it's saving grace is how good the actors, writing and characters are. They brought the show to life, and at points made it a complete joy. For the time it was made it did incredible things with progressive storytelling and strong special effects.

I'm never going to love the original series, or even really get it. It's not my Star Trek, but it has its place in history and that can't be denied. I feel it got it chance to shine when it moved into the film format (conversely, TNG and the rest of the franchise worked far better on TV than as films).

And here we have it, the real blemish on an otherwise great show and a contender for the worst episode in the whole Trek franchise. This is quite a disgusting episode for very clear reasons: it makes light of sexism, sexual assault and attempts to turn trans-genderism/gender identity into a joke. I honestly have no idea how anyone thought this was a good idea, other maybe than "it'll be funny!". It's a shame, because the episode starts with the very interesting issue of women getting equal rights on Ferenginar before becoming derailed. It also has the superb Wallace Shawn and Jeffrey Combs doing their usual excellent work.

• We open with Quark, a character we've come to love through his faults, openly encouraging a female employee to perform sexual acts on him under the threat of being fired. But it's okay, right? It's meant to be funny.

• Quark is forced to have gender reassignment and becomes woman. It's okay, it's meant to be funny.

• We all laugh at Quark trying to act like a woman, and the way his hormones now make him feel. It's okay, it's meant to be funny.

• A Ferengi male traps female-Quark in his quarters and chases her around in an attempt to have sex with her against her will. It's all very slapstick. It's meant to be funny!

• At the end, it turns out that Quark's female employee actually wants to perform the work-enforced sex acts on him! Women always say yes if you're persistent enough, right? SO FUNNY!

• Quark doesn't actually learn anything from his experience as a woman! Ha! Sexism wasn't ever a real thing! Oh MY!

An amazingly well constructed episode that deals with alternate timelines but manages to be a wonderful character piece. The return of Denise Crosby as Tasha is central to this, and I wish I could experience the original shock of seeing her that must have occurred back in 1990.

The episode manages to bring meaning to her senseless season 1 death, and her scenes with both Guinan and Picard are very layered and powerful. Additionally, the episode has a vividly different look from standard TNG; dramatic lighting and longer focal depth really stand out, giving the episode its own identity. I get a small thrill with the return of the original-era movie uniforms and even set design.

It's also nice the way that the main cast change their performances in only subtle ways. Mainly we see that Picard and Riker have a harder edge, they seem more battle weary and forceful in their decisions. But the old captain is still in there as we see in his discussions with Guinan. This is yet another demonstration of what an important addition Whoopi Goldberg was to the cast.

As for minor criticism, I find the last 5 minutes of the episode a little dull. The battle with the Klingons just isn't particularly exciting. It's also convenient that the Enterprise-C crew were so willing to go back to their time without much argument.

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.

Much like the previous comedy episode 'Spock Amok', I struggled to click with this one. It wasn't particularly bad with some massive TOS vibes, and I always loved holodeck-gone-wrong style episodes, but the problem was that once again it just felt lifeless. The jokes raised a small chuckle at most, with the majority missing the mark entirely.

This time around something I noticed was the lack of musical accompaniment to help lift the comedy. Without it there to help, things feel remarkably dead. Music was there certainly, but so completely subdued.

For the positives, I thought that Dr. M'Benga lead the episode extremely well. I was also pleased to see Hemmer back. Uhura hammed it up brilliantly. Pike/Anson Mount was kind of delightful as the coward, pitching his performance just right. Wizard Spock looked fantastic. And Ortegas seemed in her element, jousting verbally with Pike. It's just a shame that so few of these elements ended up working well together.

The episode was saved for me by the ending, where it managed to hit me hard. The performances here were top notch. At first I was a little surprised at how easily M'Benga willingly gave up his daughter, but then I realised that she is literally at death's door and has no time left (the show hasn't made this quite as clear as it could have). He knew that holding on to her only means her death.

A weaker episode, but not a terrible one. It feels a little too early in the run to do something like this when the characters haven't been fully established.

Here's a prime example of how good Voyager can be when it tells a story that's all about its characters rather than the plot-driven pieces that we're usually given. I'm also a big fan of strong continuity in my storytelling, so this ticks a lot of the right boxes.

I love that the emotion of receiving letters from home was allowed to be the main focus of this episode, and the Hirogen part was just a background plot that doesn't really take effect until the end. We see the characters reacting in all sorts of different ways and then having to deal with the contents of what their letters say. Both Chakotay and B'Elanna find out about the end of the Maquis (from the DS9 episode 'Blaze of Glory') and it gives their characters - especially Chakotay - something to actually motivate their choices and personalities for once.

It also lead to a quite excellent scene between B'Elanna and Tom as their differing views on receiving letters from home let them learn more about each other.

The Hirogen themselves are kind of cheesy but a far more intimidating and interesting villain than the show has given us so far. I look forward to seeing more of them. Seven handled them extremely well and got some great dialogue.

I'm reading the relaunch tie-in novels chronologically alongside watching these shows, and there's a short story from the Voyager book 'Distant Shores' which leads into this episode very nicely (as well as following up elements of the semi-canon novel 'Mosaic'). Having just read about Janeway's fiancé Mark and how he dealt with her disappearance, then finding out she's still alive and having to write her a letter, made this episode all the more powerful. I really hope there's going to be more Starfleet contact in the future.

The show says goodbye to Kes and brings Seven of Nine into the family. I have mixed feelings about both, but I like that they handled both events in one episode.

Kes was a character who never really contributed anything to Voyager, despite the intrigue surrounding her developing mental abilities. It's a shame that nothing came of her, because Jennifer Lien was one of the best actors on the show and always brought more to the stories than others would have. Her relationship with Neelix never worked, but her interactions with Tuvok and the Doctor promised that more could have been coming up. Anyway, her method of leaving the ship is very abrupt and denies her a a proper goodbye with anyone other than Janeway. It's a somewhat emotional finish that leaves open ended questions.

And then we have Seven of Nine. A problematic character, because as has been freely admitted she was brought onto the show for no other reason than to have an attractive woman to boost ratings. They stick her in a catsuit, get rid of all the ugly Borg implants and the whole thing is quite ridiculous. What nobody could have forseen is that Jeri Ryan is a fantastic actress who brought a huge amount of weight to all of her scenes and elevated the character far above whatever ambitions the producers had for her.

This episode is all about moving things around, so very little really happens in it. Janeway's ridiculously elastic morals/superiority show up again as she tells Seven that she will have no free will aboard Voyager - at least the script acknowledges how horrible this is by having Seven accuse her of being no different from the Borg.

'Fair Trade' managed to do something incredible, and that was to make me care about Neelix. I've often spoken about how he's my least favourite character on the show - maybe the whole Trek franchse - and that I generally think he brings things down. I've never thought that was the fault of the actor, Ethan Philips, but rather the horrendous writing of the terrible character he was given.

And yet here, Philips manages to show what he's capable of doing when paired up with good writing. This episode is a gripping tale that kept me engaged from start to finish. Seeing Neelix get dragged into more and more precarious situations was exciting not because of the peril he was in, but because of how we imagine it might affect his relationship with Voyager and its crew. I didn't want to see his worst fears realised, and that surprised me more than anybody. No surprises that his Talaxian friend Wix turned out to be a ciminal, though. Well, duh.

I like that it shows a different side to Neelix, he's so much more interesting when he has a serious story rather than being over the top comic relief. Janeway gets a good scene in which she's able to give him a bit of a talking to, too.

Interesting to see the introduction of the Vulcan Ensign Vorik, who bears a remarkable resemblence to the Vulcan character the same actor played previously on TNG (Taurik). Novels will establish that they are twin brothers, and I like that notion. I also like Neelix's conversation with Tom that kept things vague enough about his crime that we can still imagine he's actually the same character as Locarno from the TNG episode 'The First Duty'.

A surprisingly strong episode.

This doesn't work for me all that well. Eddington is portrayed as Sisko's nemesis, but we never really saw him enough to care about him. I don't buy the Captain's obsession and anger towards him, because it feels like its come out of nowhere all of a sudden. The Les Mis references feel heavily forced, and Avery Brooks unfortunately overdoes it on the acting front, too.

I think that by this point, the Maquis storyline has reached a dead end and feels spent. There is no exploration of the issues or attempts to resolve them, and the arguments go round in circles. We see a bunch of refugees living rough, but it has zero impact.

I've also got to say that I can't see the new holo-communication system as anything other than a way for the show to save money. It doesn't have the epic feel the viewscreen communication does and it's really overused here, so much so that the gimmick loses appeal very fast.

However, the episode does end on a stinger that I do quite like. We get to see the lengths that Sisko is willing to go to put an end to things. It sets him apart from other captains and is a stepping stone to what will come later (his hands are going to get very dirty), and it manages to successfully feel both uncomfortable and triumphant. There don't appear to be any consequences, though.

An episode based around the theme of coming together, in some cases to work towards a goal or in some to just forge a friendship. This is the beginning of the fantastic O'Brien/Bashir pairing, and it's off to a rocky start. I love that O'Brien just doesn't like Julian, but I also love that Julian isn't oblivious to this. It seems the writers might have realised just how arrogant they were making the character and began the process of making the doctor more likeable.

The Jake/Nog friendship has also grown to the point where the two of them are becoming inseparable, and to where they now comfortably argue a lot. They behave as believable teenagers, far better than Wesley ever did over on TNG. I have to admit, when I watched this episode as kid I also had a massive crush on Varis Sul, and it's interesting that I had forgotten about her completely but the episode brought it all the memories back!

It's a notoriously cheesy moment within the first season of the show, though. The whole storyteller plot line in the village is really hard to take, mostly because of how stupid the villagers come across. Our first real visit down to Bajor presents a people who seem moronic among the galaxy's occupants, shouting at a cloud in the sky. We've been told repeatedly what an advanced and cultured civilisation they are. I always laugh at O'Brien's attempt to tell the story, though ("once upon a time...").

An episode I always kind of liked, because it's a silly concept that is taken fairly seriously. Mainly, though, it's a an episode that strongly defines many attributes for our main characters. Bashir shows again that he's an extremely capable scientist and doctor who puts a lot of effort in. Kira demonstrates her initiative and fierce personality in going after the solution with full force (and no small measure of creativity). Quark and Odo get to show of their dynamic, with Quark getting to have all sorts of fun throughout and Odo always being frustrated by it. And Sisko gets to have some wonderful father/son interaction with Jake.

It also shows us again how different this show is to TNG with the personality of the station itself. It's still a mess and is seemingly on the verge of falling apart with all the systems constantly breaking down. All the responsibility seems to be on Chief O'Brien who is just run off his feet, poor guy, and his sarcastic snapping at his commanding officer would never have gone down well on the Enterprise! (and I love it.)

The weaker parts of the episode are mostly with the captain who tries to escape at the end, it's a terribly written part that's performed by quite a weak actor (he doesn't seem to want move his face or head as he speaks). Odo's opinion about Rom being an idiot is amusing in retrospect since Rom turns out to be an engineering genius in later seasons.

I really enjoy the symptoms of the aphasia virus itself here, the gobbledegook is wonderful to listen to, and makes a nice change from technobabble! Further seeds being planted about the inventive Bajoran terrorism attempts too, given that the virus turns out not to be Cardassian in origin. It's all wrapped up with too much ease at the end, but a far more memorable "virus of the week" episode than in most of Trek.

Even after what may well be my 100th viewing of this film, I still get pretty emotional at the ending.

While Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been a financial success, it went so wildly over budget (and was really dull), that a sequel wasn't guaranteed. When a new Trek film was finally greenlit, it would have to be made on a very small budget. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as many of the best things are made when you have to work within restrictions. Lack of budget meant that the filmmakers would have to be creative and make a strong, exciting story be the main force of the film.

Star Trek II delivers on that front, and marks such a change in tone for the franchise that it's almost a soft reboot. For me, this is where Star Trek really begins. While the film doesn't ignore what's come before, it establishes many things that would remain with the whole series.

This time around, Kirk and crew are training up a new bunch of inexperienced cadets on the Enterprise when an old enemy resurfaces and is intent on exacting his revenge. By this point, the cast are beginning to show their age and the film acknowledges this beautifully. It deals greatly with themes of getting older and of obsession, from both protagonist and antagonist.

The movie is tense, exciting and gripping. And yet, it doesn't move at a breakneck pace. I really appreciate the time the film takes to set things up and establish the characters. I love the revelation that Kirk needs reading glasses and is embarrassed to let his bridge crew see him wearing them. These are a wonderful bunch of people to spend time with. Add the fantastic Ricardo Montalban into the mix as Khan and you have something very special. Once the action does begin, it benefits from the time taken to get there, because as a viewer you are completely in it.

Parts of the film become almost like a submarine movie as a game of cat-and-mouse begins. The effects budget for this film was used well, with the filmmakers saving money by re-using a lot of shots, set decoration and props from other films. The new shots they do use are spectacular, and I really love the model work for the spaceships. Additionally, it has one of the earliest uses of CGI.

Through all this, the film never loses the emotional impact. The modern Trek films are all pretty mindless action with jokes thrown in, Star Trek II has action and humour (McCoy is great: "would you like the sedatives?") but also has heart and makes you care. Plus the nasty ear-bug torture scene really disturbed me as a little kid.

Add to that a gorgeous soundtrack (elements of which were later reworked for Aliens), and it ensures that I will never get tired of this wonderful film and I would recommend it as a perfect starting point for anyone who's never seen any Star Trek.