And another one without Amanda Tapping. Why did they have her join the main cast if she's not going to appear in even one scene every week? Pretty sure we've seen more of (guest star) Jewel Staite so far this season—which I don't mind, but it is odd.
Dr. Mallozzi's anime DVD collection? I can't even begin to unpack that one.* :joy_cat:
Two episodes in a row with the "catastrophe, then cause" structure… Occasionally being yanked back to the past after a tantalizing and suspense-building glimpse at (what the viewer thinks is) the present is OK, but not all the time. That said, this one is different enough with multiple skips to show different plot threads that it's fine, mostly. (The repeated dialogue does get a little tedious at times.)
And of course, the final impact of this story on we viewers' hearts trumps any minor quibble I might have with the storytelling devices used. It's very dangerous to be a doctor on a Stargate series, innit?
* — For those who don't pay attention to credits, the name is a reference to Stargate producer, Joseph Mallozzi.
I felt like this had a supremely well written and executed story. Despite having a couple common plot elements, there were a few less common ones thrown in to keep things interesting.
The characters were great. Especially Nerus, mostly due to the wonderful Maury Chaykin. But even the annoying Vala was well written in this episode.
We even get to see how terrifyingly badass the Ori are.
I am very excited by how well done this episode is done. We need more episodes like this. Solid and moving the plot forward.
Well, that was easily my favorite episode of the show. All kind of thrilling, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful in its vision. Bring on season 3 and hope down the line they can top this.
Very intense, emotional and poetic finale. Great acting and wonderful production.
That's one hell of an episode. emotional ( way to go Gordo ), disturbing ( what the hell Karen?) and terrifying ( wtf is wrong with you people?)
The ending was disappointing. They really should have went with the highlander situation, with only one of each surviving at the end. That would have been so much more enjoyable and would have been enjoyable for future episodes, knowing these were the most powerful Rick and Morty's. Instead they went with the character who wants to be hunted which should have stayed as a beginning joke or removed entirely. And then they went the ending of "Well it's just a loop of a loop of a loop" which makes sense but is kinda boring.
Wow that ending. I mean, isolation has a terrible effect on the human mind but couple it with the paranoia of the cold war and losing your son? And now the rescue mission has failed again. Poor Ed. Definitely not for shock factor (or agenda like one commenter said? Lol). A true reflection on what state we can get into. This show keeps on giving.
LOVED Annie and Joy's interactions. Though, I'm hesitant to believe that a 16 year old, who grew up as she did, would take into action to tie up her mother to get answers. (well, i guess look at Carrie. She locked her mother in a closet after being beaten for so long.) I mean, Annie was going a bit sideways. My hope is that maybe we learn that Joy isn't all that she appears to be.
Additionally, Dr H is amazing. I cant wait to see more of her story and fear it'll end tragic. The same goes for Tim Robbins. I was excited to see (and hear! he has such a iconic tone to his voice) him this season.
As far as Barkhad Abdi (woah .. his last name is his first name in the show?!?) has been fun to watch evolve.
How did Ford, who was leaning over the DHD, get shifted by momentum when the entire cockpit was submerged before the drive pod touched the gate? He would have been dematerialised energy.
Also, love the discrete units/only in one piece rule that suddenly applies to gate travel when SG-1 has shown dozens of cases of something being cut off by the gate. Usually staff weapons.
Now this is the kind of bottle episode I can get behind! No need to waste (burn) screen time on flashbacks; just write a tidy story that uses maybe one small new set or two and skip the location shooting. Add some political intrigue… boom!
Love the subtle parallel to the Dominion of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, too. "Keep using the wormhole/stargate and we'll be cross."
I thought we're getting Voyagers version of "Lower Decks". No, not the animated show. But this is different in many ways.
Where the TNG episode made me care for the characters, I couldn't care less here. Voyager always displays problems when it comes to secondary characters and their impact on the story. The just aren't that interesting.
On the Enterprise the department heads, Dr. Crusher and Worf, show deep care for their subordinates, and help them with their problems. And B'Elanna ? She shrugges everthing off and goes like "Yeah, I tried but if he doesn't want to I don't care". That's bad leadership to say the least.
And ultimately this episode is more about Janeway anyway. The title refers to her and the episode ends with her stating she achieved what she wanted. She just can't accept that there are people on the ship that don't want to be there. Who are victims of circumstance and can't, or don't want to, adapt. Even Chakotay thinks it might be better to relief them of duty and that it wouldn't hurt the ship. It might help those crewmen. Oh no, says Janeway, not on my ship. I force them together and make them see my view. They'll come around.
Since this is Voyager we'll most likely never know if they did.
Another fifty-fifty episode.
The concept of a race procreating through other races dead bodies sounds intriguing. Sadly that is not really discovered in detail. This episodes has two flaws. I am not emotionally attached to an Ensign I've never seen before on the show. And of course we need to turn this into a romance. And who else but Harry Kim is the one to be involved. So I'm not invested.
I don't know where I stand on the kids. Not sure that is something the show needs. Why come up with more Borg becoming individuals ? Is it necessary for Seven's developement, who by the way is acting like a governess.
I don't know. Both of the episodes parts left my rather indifferent.
The moment they introduce a new holodeck scenario you know one of two things is going to happen. A catastrophic malfunction that threatens the whole ship. Or someone's going to fall in love. Well, pick your poison. It's not that we already had every conceivable angle covered.
While I can see something in the Doctor's argument about the differences of falling in love with a hologram (figuratively, this is after all sci-fi) the whole thing is just to stupid.
So, when I watch an episode like that I start to imagine the writers sitting with the producers pitching ideas. Than someone says: "let's make an episode about a sexy, seductive shuttle that lures Tom into its web" Now I imagine the producers saying: "what kind of a stupid idea is that ?! We are not that desperate"
Sadly this is not what happened and we have to endure another stinker. Did they actually bother to tell why Alice wanted to go into that particle fountain she called home ? I wasn't paying attention but I guess not.
Starts with a very irritating Neelix but turns into a great story about friendship. And we see once again that this show can reach great heights if the focus on characters. Sadly these episodes are few and far between. Tim Russ is brilliant, he shows a completely different side.
If only the producers had the guts to stick with such a change, or at least would carry the effects over to the character, just once.
Wait a minute. Wasn't there some kind of non interference rule. How was it called ? Main rule. Ahh, what the heck, we can get a thousand light years out of that and I can face the music later. After all I just bend the directive but I don't break it. And who's ever gonna hear about it anyway?
Everything that's coming out of this is on Janeway. Seven revived one of them but the captain made the deal with the devil. And switched sides in an instant. What a prime example of captaincy.
I get the message, I really do.
Propaganda is an instrument to turn people to your cause. There are enough examples around in our past and present. And you shouldn't draw conclusions based on looks alone. And I totally agree that it is easier to hate than to stop hating.
What I don't buy in, is that Chakotay got completely turned in, what ? Three days ? Four tops. At least that was they time we see pass. And after that short a time I don't think you can brainwash someone so drastic. They provided some explanation in the episode and, of course, you only got about 40 mins of time to deliver your story. But I think that this is an example that, when you can't make it belieavble, than don't do it.
And to be honest, they way those people talk is ridiculos. It was probably done to differentiate them from mere humans because they had no alien traits. Guess the budget went completely into the beasts who look like a cross between a Nausikan and a Predator.
The first season of most shows are bound to have ups and downs, but it’s without a doubt that this is one of the ups here. Bart finally goes too far, flushing a cherry bomb just as Principal Skinner’s mother uses the toilet next door, leading Skinner and Homer to agree that Bart should take part in an exchange programme that will send him to France for three months. The catch is that in return the Simpsons will also receive a pupil, albeit from Albania. This makes little sense, really—Albania seems to have been picked purely because it was a communist country the vast majority of Americans would know little about, but the writers work well with it. The dinner argument between Adil (whose surname is Hoxha) and Lisa over American capitalism gives Homer one of my favourite gags so far about ‘the blood of the workers’.
Meanwhile, Bart’s French odyssey gleefully takes every possible American stereotype about France and runs wild with it. I liked the bike journey through famous paintings, the allusions to the antifreeze wine scandal from Austria, Bart’s sudden fluency in French. It’s probably the first example of the show taking a truly outlandish concept and making it smart, funny and surprisingly touching.
Ridley Scott clearly recreating a very similar ambience to that of Prometheus, there's quite a chunk of that movie in this pilot episode. I love the soundtrack, it's creepily haunting, just like in Prometheus. This is only another reason for me to continue watching the series. Definitely looking forward to more!
[7.7/10] I hate escort missions in video games, but for some reason I like watching them? I can’t explain it either. But there’s something really heartwarming about watching all the effort that Spear goes to in order to save and protect Fang. It’s funny, I wouldn’t necessarily draw a straight line between the works of Genndy Tartakovsky and something like Breaking Bad but they share a common ethos -- namely taking the time to depict the tactile work of our heroes and villains.
Just like we might see Walter White or Mike Ehrmantraut painstakingly construct or pick apart some device, we get to see Spear here going to great (and detailed) effort to create a makeshift gurney for Fang, a set of reins to make it easier to pull her, a stack of rocks to hold enemies at bay, and an array of fires to ward of the scavengers.
The looming threat of those scavengers is one of the smartest choices in this episode. It creates a sense of ominous urgency to everything that Spear does here, lending each event the sense that if Spear slips up, even just a little, the vultures or the hyenas or the spiky bugs will descend upon his friend’s tender flesh and remove the dino’s last chance at recovery.
That makes it meaningful to see Spear go to all that trouble to save his friend. We see how hard the work is. We see the tenderness with which Spear spoons handfuls of water into Fang’s mouth. We see the physical strain it imposes on our favorite caveman to haul a massive beast across the landscape. There is rampant effort highlighted here, which not only informs Spear as a character, but vindicates the bond he and Fang have formed out of their mutual tragedies.
So it’s super cool when we get to the fighting and witness the level of danger and exhaustion and strain that Spear puts into keeping the baddies away (replete with spike-beetle brass knuckles). That makes it really satisfying when Fang recovers from her injuries and returns the favor, chomping down and crushing the villainous hyenas. All of Spear’s good works are being rewarded, and the two are a team again! A great recovery and journey back from the cliffhanger at the end of the first five episode batch.
Kickass episode, one of my favourite thus far. If only the purists would just allow themselves to be entertained...
Maybe it’s because I kept nodding off half way through this episode but don’t understand everything that happened at the end.
Good start to what I hope will be an exiting show.
"Hyoo-mons!!" Hahahaha... No better hyoomor than a Ferengi walk-on to lighten the mood... Definitely worth the profit....
If it stays like this I doubt it will make it to season 2. And this comes from a big Muppets fan who has seen everything with them.
It seems that everything they tried to achieve this season (but failed miserably for the most part) has finally come together in this episode. This was genuinely intriguing, well acted with solid dialogue thought. And so freaking beautifully filmed... I wanted to make a joke about them trying to please "fans" by inserting original St episodes at the start of the new episode, but this was in fact very well done. More of this please
Now it's going to become interesting with the mentioning of Talos IV. Because if I put events in the right order from memory, and with a little internet research, than Pike and Spock had already been there. Or should have been there. As it is still not clear how, or if, this timeline is connected. Which would also mean that the order to avoid Talos should be effective and in turn makes me wonder why it is listed in the computer at all. Maybe someone else has something to add ?
This is again dangerous territory in terms of continuity. And I wouldn't bring this up, again, if Kurtzman wouldn't insist on all of this tying into canon.
I will also admit I was wrong about when they bring in Spock.
It's great to the these early stages of the rebellion and how they are coming together pretty much stealing their equipment from the Empire. Very cool to see Thrawn. I'd much rather have him then a new Inquisitor.
But I really can't come to terms with Ezra. While he showed some progress at times in the second season he's reverting back to being the arrogant know-it-all each time. And his excuses afterwards are getting old. Plus his path is too similar to Anakins. But while he at least had redeemed himself in my eyes through the Clone Wars series I don't see myself comig to like Ezra. I simply don't care if he dies or reverts to the Dark Side.
And speaking of the Dark Side: is that Ventress Holocron ? The voice is hears, is it not ?
