Shout by Antoine Kemperman
VIP4Brilliant twist. Awesome graphics, almost real. Strong story.
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@antoinek What Twist? Did I miss something?
Wish there was less dialogue & more action.
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@tuxedoville This is Star Trek Discovery on a good day. Star Trek sets itself apart by being thought-provoking and centered on the human experience. The whole science fiction/starships and aliens/OMGPHASERSPEWPEWPEW aspect is just a delivery vessel for something much more meaningful.
It's better than you learn that now, so that you don't waste any more time hoping that this show returns to being The Walking Dead/Breaking Bad/The Fast & the Furious in Space again. Yeah, that's what Discovery was when it started, but it's recovering nicely.
I liked how they addressed the subplot of M'Benga's daughter versus miraculously finding a cure for her and it was clearly a chance for the actors to show some different, sillier sides to themselves. Hard disagree with the low-rated comments -- this episode clearly embodied the spirit of TOS.
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@seryous yes! It was such a surprise and really fun to see the show be "let loose" like this.
Absolutely excellent, probably the best episode of the season so far. Some real edge-of-your-seat enjoyment with stunning visuals.
- This very nicely followed up on Saru's episode of Short Treks (which is now finally on Netflix, although it's hidden away). It seemed to me that Saru was becoming a bit unhinged at moments here but I think he did know what he was really doing, and acted in the best interests of keeping his crew safe. Still, he really did put the ship in danger when he started mouthing off to the Ba'ul when Pike was trying to communicate with them!
- The design of the Ba'ul was incredible and effectively creepy. It reminded me a lot of the creature that killed Tasha Yar back in the classic TNG episode 'Skin of Evil'. I have to wonder if that was intentional.
- Dr. Culber is clearly extremely uncomfortable with his new body and being back on Discovery. I can understand why Stamets might not particularly notice, but the other doctor really should be aware that Culber is going through severe stress/panic psychologically and be trying to offer him help in that regard. No way should he be resuming normal duties yet!
- The Red Angel becomes more intriguing. A time travelling humanoid in a mechanical suit? Tell me more!
- I had assumed that all the plant life growing in Saru's quarters was a holographic projection in the previous episode, but it appears to all be real here.
- Tyler has settled in to a strange role, seemingly at one with the whole Section 31 philosophy mere days after joining up with them.
- I still really want to know what the hell Airiam is!
- Do humans drink tea? If Michael was British then she'd probably be correcting Siranna's brewing methods :p
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@lefthandedguitarist That second point you make - I was thinking about the same line. But remembering what Armus said about those who left him behind I'm not sure I could make a connection. But interesting line of thought.
What the heck were those lights?!
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@itswilder These lights were obviously Cylons. xD
literally the most boring storyline they ever did on b99. i couldnt care less about baby storylines in any show. why do writers think we need them.
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@apaethy because luckily most don't agree with you.
Shout by Ahmed Hamdy
VIP4He brought me a banana.
Ed?
No, Isaac.
Oh, right.hahahaha, don't you feel that Isaac is like Sheldon? XDDDD
And that one
I prefer to hear from Commander Lamarr.
That was funny too XD
This episode was so much fun, I think it is one of the greatest one yet!
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@ahmedhamdy90 again, I agree with you, my man! This episode was, indeed, beautifully executed and it's my favourite episode of the season, so far. Heck, it's already one of my favourite episodes from this show!
Oh the wokeness ... SJW's must love it
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@eon4dk Can't you handle stepping outside your safe space?
The empire’s story is the only interesting thing of the countless stories they’ve made up, instead of following the books.
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@magenof "Based off of" needn't mean "same as". My advice is still the same, if the book is more interesting, then read that.
And suddenly this show is about girls getting it done, huh? That’s one way to screw up an interesting premise.
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@eiduren Hurr durr women bad
I think they made an error in dialogue, Barris is telling the Fourth Sister that they are still alive but there is only one man, so I think originally creators wanted severall Jedi there but ultimately they decided that there will only be one, and they forgot to rerecord the dialogue. Idk it's so weird that they left that mistake in.
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@dbmen no mistake here and no cut story either. "The Jedi", as the character is known, is non-binary so would be referred to by they and them.
- Did I accidentally put on Beauty and the Beast?
- I recognised Kristofer Hivju by his voice, but his face looks completely different without a beard and I would not have recognised him without his voice.
- Please give the hair and makeup department more money. I am begging.
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@amberrav Are you saying the boar man looked bad? Because I think he looked incredible!
Review by Andrew Bloom
VIP9[7.5/10] Ahsoka feels right. The vistas of Lothal feel of a piece with their animated rendition. The characters seem like themselves despite shifts in the performer and the medium. Their relationships feel genuine even though much has changed in the five years since we’ve seen them together.
Maybe that shouldn’t be a big surprise with Dave Filoni, impresario of the animated corner of Star Wars, both writing and directing “Master and Apprentice”, the series premiere. He is the title character’s co-creator and caretaker. He is the creator of Star Wars: Rebels, the show that Ahsoka is most clearly indebted to. And he is, for many, the keeper of the flame when it comes to the Galaxy Far Far Away.
But it was my biggest fear for this show. More than the plot, more than the lore, more than the latest chapter in the life of my favorite character in all of Star Wars, my concern was that translating all these characters, and their little corner of the universe, to live action and a different cast and a different era of the franchise would make everything feel wrong. Instead, we’re right at home. The rest is gravy.
And the gravy is good. Because these are not the colorful, if intense, adventures of the Ghost crew fans saw before. This is, or should be, a period of triumph for the onetime Rebels. They won! The Empire is torn asunder! Lothal is led with grace and a touch of wry sarcasm by Governor Azadi, with none other than Clancy Brown reprising the role! Huyang the lightsaber-crafting droid is still around and has most of his original parts!
Nonetheless, our heroes are hung up on old battles and older wounds. Ahsoka Tano is on a quest to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn, who hunted the Spectres in Rebels. Sabine Wren can’t bask in the afterglow of victory as a hero when she’s still mourning Ezra Bridger. And the two warriors have some lingering bad blood with one another after an attempt to become master and apprentice, true to the title, went wrong somewhere along the way.
With that, the first installment of Ahsoka is a surprisingly moody and meditative affair, one that works well for Star Wars. Sure, there's still a couple of crackerjack lightsaber fights to keep the casual fans engaged. But much of this one is focused on familiar characters reflecting on what’s been lost, what’s been broken, and what’s hard to fix. The end of Rebels was triumphant, but came with costs. To linger on those costs, and the new damage that's accumulated in their wake, is a bold choice from Filoni and company.
So is the decision to focus on Sabine here. Don’t get me wrong, Ahsoka has the chance to shine in the first installment of the show that bears her name. Her steady reclamation of a map to Thrawn, badass hack-and-slash on some interfering bounty droids, and freighted reunions with Hera and her former protege all vindicate why fans have latched onto the character. For her part, Rosario Dawson has settled into the role, bringing a certain solemnity that befits a more wizened and confident master, but also that subtle twinkle that Ashley Eckstei brings to the role.
And yet, the first outing for Ahsoka spends more time with Sabine’s perspective. It establishes her as a badass who’d rather rock her speeder with anti-authoritarian style than be honored for her heroics. It shows her grieving a lost comrade whose sacrifice still haunts her. It teases out an emotional distance and rebelliousness between her and her former mentor. And it closes with her using her artist’s eye to solve the puzzle du jour, and defend herself against a fearsome new enemy.
This is her hour, and while Sabine is older, more introverted, all the more wounded than the Mandalorian tagger fans met almost a decade ago, this opening salvo for the series is better for it.
My only qualms are with the threat du jour. Yet another Jedi not only survived the initial Jedi Purge, but has made it to the post-Return of the Jedi era without arousing the suspicions of Palpatine, Vader, Yoda, or Obi-Wan. Ray Stevenson brings a steady and quietly menacing air to Baylan Skoll, the former Jedi turned apparent mercenary, but there's enough rogue force-wielders running around already, thank you very much.
His apprentice holds her own against New Republic forces and Ahsoka’s own former apprentice, but is shrouded in mystery. She goes unidentified, which, in Star Wars land, means she’s secretly someone important (a version of Mara Jade from the “Legends” continuity?) or related to someone important (the child of, oh, let’s say Ventress). And I’m tired of such mystery boxes.
Throw in the fact that Morgan Elsbet, Ahsoka’s source and prisoner, turns out to be a Nightsister, and you have worrying signs that the series’ antagonists will be rehashing old material rather than moving the ball forward. The obvious “We just killed a major character! No for real you guys!” fakeout cliffhanger ending doesn’t inspire much confidence on that front either.
Nonetheless, what kept me invested in Rebels, and frankly all of Star Wars, despite plenty of questionable narrative choices, is the characters. The prospect of Ahsoka trying to train a non force-sensitive Mandalorian in the ways of the Jedi, or at least her brand of them, is a bold and fascinating choice.
But even more fascinating is two people who once believed in one another, having fallen apart, drifting back together over the chance to save someone they both care about. “Master and Apprentice” embraces, rather than shying away from, the sort of lived-in relationships that made the prior series so impactful in the past, and the broken bonds that make these reunions feel fragile, painful, and more than a little bitter in the present.
I am here for Hera the general trying to patch things up between old friends. I am here for Sabine holding onto her rebellious streak but carrying scars from what went wrong, in the Battle of Lothal and in her attempts to learn the ways of the Jedi. And I am here for Ahsoka, once the apprentice without a master, now the master without an apprentice, here to snuff out the embers of the last war and reclaim what was lost within it.
They all feel right. The rest can figure itself out.
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@rivvvers So you didn't bother to read my write-up, but you did take time to comment on it? If you'd like to understand why I gave the score I did, might I recommend reading my review?
Meant to be set in the 90s but the woke bullshit is already out of hand.
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@kingy72 how is it 'woke'? This is literally the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy that was brought in during the 1990s
"An algorithm could write movies and TV shows!"
"Not well though...."Well played, writing team, well played. :laughing:
The death scene was wild. So well done. I didn't expect the first death to be so crazy. Now, I'm extremely curious to see how the rest of them will be killed.
Likely in the minority here but I wish there was less sexual stuff and weirdness. It doesn't add anything really to the plot. The orgy music was on point though.
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I noticed how in the beginning it shows him laid up with all the naked bodies surrounding him after an orgy and then in the end it’s the same way but they’re dead.
I think they made an error in dialogue, Barris is telling the Fourth Sister that they are still alive but there is only one man, so I think originally creators wanted severall Jedi there but ultimately they decided that there will only be one, and they forgot to rerecord the dialogue. Idk it's so weird that they left that mistake in.
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@dbmen It's very clear,in the dialogue "they" is used to refer to The Jedi multiple times in a very obvious singular pronoun way. If you can't handle pronouns, you probably shouldn't be watching Star Wars, movies and shows about terrorists fighting a tyrannical government.
A boring episode. It's been a good but disappointing season which i'll explain soon. I thought maul was going to be this powerful person, someone in exile who was building his power for years and could not yet return because of both the sith and jedi, but now was the time after savage found him and maul would teach savage. Instead he's some wild beast. God what a disappointment. I thought it was going to be some mastermind. And this person doesn't really feel at all like the maul from episode 1, even though it should be even a little bit. Don't like the spider legs either, they seem like they wouldn't be good in lightsaber combat. Does my idea of maul off the top of my head sound better than what we were presented?. I really hate when writers pull this kind of garbage. They have years to come up with this, the concept, execution, events, characters involved, the stories. They teased him in season 3, and for the whole of season 4 except for the end, he comes in. What the hell is this. But really, since it's near the end of the season it's still just a tease, and we'll get the character "fully involved" in the next season.
So, think about this, they planned the tease in the 3rd season ready for the 4th season. So, you have all that time about planning for the tease in the 3rd season to refine loads of things about the darth maul character. Then you have nearly the whole of season 4 to refine everything about maul and for this tease near the end. And this is what we got. What rubbish. Even after what happened to him, him behaving like this doesn't make sense. I think andrew is very wrong about this, but to each their own.
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@warden1 You've basically summed up the reason Star Wars fans are perpetually disappointed. You sat there thinking up your own stories in your head and are bitterly disappointed that someone else could have any ideas that are different than yours. Your knee-jerk reaction to this is to immediately hate and throw away the work of others despite the fact that they, as you pointed out, have worked for years on it and have a much more detailed and long-term plan.
And just for the record, no, your version of Maul absolutely does not sound better than what was presented or what he turned out to be over the next few seasons and even into Rebels. Your story is contrived, done to death within the Star Wars universe alone, and boring compared to what they did.
I think they made an error in dialogue, Barris is telling the Fourth Sister that they are still alive but there is only one man, so I think originally creators wanted severall Jedi there but ultimately they decided that there will only be one, and they forgot to rerecord the dialogue. Idk it's so weird that they left that mistake in.
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@dbmen And I'm saying it's weird people are confused when the singular they in English has existed for a very long time.
Idris Elba is carrying this show so hard.
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@gusanito1886 well that's easy, it's mediocre at best.
I'm disappointed that all of Paul Wesley's singing moments weren't done as spoken word, as a tribute.
So, this was a mixed bag for me - It's very difficult to overcome my negative feelings towards musicals. I found parts of this quite entertaining, and there was also parts where I was cringing in embarrassment. I'm not sure it's going to have any rewatch value for me. I appreciated that they at least incorporated the songs into the storyline as a mystery that needed to be solved, but am never a fan of when they lean into the music as a way to dwell on a character's emotional state. Just move the damn story forward instead of sitting in a single moment for three minutes!
Some musical parts were definitely better than others, but this was always going to be a difficult one for me. There were just too many songs here, and they were too much in the musical theatre style. I didn't like the "finale" at all (the Klingon moment should have been hilarious but literally made me cry out "oh GOD NO").
At the same time, I really appreciate that Strange New Worlds is taking risks and experimenting. This is a thousand times more interesting than the super safe Berman-Trek, even when the results don't completely work for me. The problem is that we are only getting 10 episodes per season, so episodes like this can feel like a monumental waste of storytelling time.
The best stuff here was everything that dealt with character relationships - Chapel/Spock, Pike/Batel and La'an/Kirk.
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@lefthandedguitarist Funny -- cuz William Shatner released an album of songs in spoken word, right? That would've been more camp. I recommend, if you haven't seen it, watching the "Short Treks" episode where Spock first beams on to the Enterprise, and he and Una get stuck in a turbo lift. To deal with the stress she reveals a secret passion for Gilbert and Sullivan -- and, he joins her in a duet. (She then swears him to secrecy.)
Opera, a physicist told me: "What's too silly to say can be sung." It is a way for actors to show their chops, and I think all of these did sooo much better than the albums released by either Shatner or Nimoy!
That is EXACTLY what I would have done back in the wild wild west.
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@mbze430 Died? Same.
(Three more words.)
The most interesting thing here is the mind-controlling alien itself. It shows a level of either control or technology that hasn't really been done before, and that makes it kind of fascinating.
The hallucinations that everyone has are unfortunately very obvious and unadventurous. Particularly cringeworthy is the stuff with Paris and his father; daddy issues have never felt so dull. Far better is the revelation that B'Elanna kind of wants to get it on with Chakotay, and true to her Klingon heritage she wants him to be forceful about it. Not something I'm particularly eager to see, but it did manage to take me by surprise. Tuvok was a particular let down with his "I ... do not ... understand ... how this is ... possible". Seriously? There's a mind controlling alien giving you hallucinations, Tuvok, it's pretty obvious. You're supposed to be a logical and clever Vulcan, act like one.
Janeway's holodeck fantasy is a fun diversion despite some of the actors involved. For all its silliness, it's managed to create a compelling mystery (WHAT IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR?!). However, having had cucumber sandwiches myself I can say with certainty that they are never something worth fantasising about.
Kes continues to develop her mental abilities and comes out, again, as the best part of the story.
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@finfan @lefthandedguitarist Spoilers for Jane Eyre, but yeah, based on the tropes they're pulling from, the implication is that his wife had some sort of mental breakdown, and he's keeping her up there while telling the rest of the world that she died. As the Doctor says, very macabre!
That was surely one of the Star Trekkiest episodes that ever Star Trekked. I could easily picture this being a TNG story. Hard hitting, tough, highly watchable. Pike's hair continues to impress.
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@lefthandedguitarist LOVING Pike's hair!!!
Shout by Scorpia
VIP2
- Adam's back, I guess?
- ..wat... "He-Ro" ? ...llllooollll
- oh god, the flying saucer pads
- aaand there is Greyskull.. The myth, the legend?
magic + tech = big bada boom?
oh ffs communicate people!
moss man back, still dead though.
sword fixed
oh, boom
dammit, stop killing characters!
Evil-Lynn was always my favorite, but now? Hot damn!
will he or won't he?
sailor moon transformation!
all's well that ends well?
oh .... Shit. Well.. Okay.. That just happened..
oh.. Oh no... Oh nooooo holy fucking shit lmao nice cliffhanger I guess
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@entrapta He-Ro is straight out of the 80s, invented in 1987 and He-Mans ancestor. There's a lot there that's amazing nods to some of the planned storylines.
[8.0/10] Easily the best episode of the series so far. I really enjoyed the glimpse we get of Will and Deanna -- happy enough that it feels like a nice grace note to their story in TNG, but with enough loss involved to make it something other than a wish-fulfillment happy ending for them.
But what I like even better is that this stop is more than just fanservice with some familiar faces. The show uses Picard's connection to his old officers, and Soji's budding bond with their daughter, to make the Riker family a bridge between Picard and Soji. Reminding Picard that he needs to be patient and kind to earn someone's trust and that fighting the good fight is what keeps him feeling alive, while Troi and Kestra show Soji that she has value regardless of whether she's "real" and that he can be trusted, is a really great way to use these cameos.
The Jurati/Raffi/Rios stuff back on La Sirena is a lot less successful. If nothing else, I appreciate the plot mechanics of Narek being able to track them using the pill Jurati takes in the flashback. But I'm still super confused as to the shape of Jurati's motivation here. I get that she's afraid of a Synth uprising thanks to the mindmeld, but why and how does that lead her to kill Maddox and what's her objective? It also feels a little dumb that Raffi and Rios don't really catch on. Still, there's intrigue in the idea that she's willing to go into a coma to try to detach herself from her Zhat Vash handlers now that she's having second thoughts.
The weirdest part of the episode is the Elnor/Hugh/Narissa stuff. The fight was pretty cool (even if I'm still tired of Narissa's hammy Bond villain routine), and the show piqued my interest with the quick rapport between Hugh and Elnor. But then why the hell did the show (seemingly) kill off Hugh five minutes later? It's another disappointing and abrupt end for a legacy character. (Justice for Hugh and Icheb!)
Still, the Picard/Soji/Riker family stuff is so good that it makes up for the other parts of the episode. Picard's scenes with each members of the family are great. His and Riker's dynamic in particular is so warm and familiar in the best way. And holy hell, Marina Sirtis gives her best performance in all of Star Trek here! The layers to her conversations with Picard and Soji are so good!
Overall, this one has its problems away from Nepenthe, but when it's at the Riker homestead, things are really good and nicely manage to make a feel-good TNG cameo into something more meaningful and relevant to this show's characters and the story at hand.
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...they'd have common ground as unique members of hated groups
Great point - I hadn't thought of it from that perspective. Mind you, it was such a fleeting suggestion that there wasn't much time to consider where it was going/the implications, lol
I think it's far more likely that he has a change of heart thanks to his affection for Soji and ends up turning on his sister and defending Soji against Zhat Vash.
Yeah, this is my suspicion, too. He's clearly not as hard-hearted as Narissa.
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
A fantastic end to season 2 gives us a deceptively small episode that grows bigger as it continues and ends with events that will shape the course of the entire series to come. This has a little bit of everything, starting with some lovely father/son bonding between Jake and Commander Sisko, juxtaposed by the funnier relationship between Nog and his uncle Quark.
In many ways, Quark is the real star of this one. His arguments with Sikso culminate in quite a beautiful speech about the nature of Ferengi vs. humans, and it serves to demonstrate the casual racism that everyone, noble Starfleet officers included, show towards Quark and the rest of his species. It seems like Quark's words are strong enough to actually register with Sisko.
The camping trip is a really enjoyable part of the episode, both Quark and Nog providing some really good humour. More so, though, is the continuing and very genuine love between Jake and his father. Any time they end up reminiscing about Jennifer always results in some quite heartbreaking stuff, and both Cirroc Lofton and Avery Brooks always hit the right notes.
Things change with the arrival of Eris (who we will later learn is a Vorta) followed by our first look at the Jem'Hadar. These guys are just great, and at this point it's all about displaying how intimidating they are. They have personal cloaking devices, great strength and a highly aggressive attitude. One of the most powerful moments of the episode is the way that the soldier on the station just casually walks through the force field the crew think they have him contained in; it's done in such a nonchalant way and shot so well that it becomes kind of unsettling.
If we needed a less subtle demonstration, they destroy a Galaxy-class starship. That could easily have been the Enterprise, as it was thoroughly overwhelmed and had no defence. There's a few moments here which don't track with later developments - Eris has telepathic abilities that will never be seen again, and she doesn't recognise what Odo is - but they're small enough things that it's easy to forget.
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@lefthandedguitarist I always enjoy looking at the comments after an episode, but it would be nice if you would put a spoiler tag on a part of your 4th paragraph, specifically "Things change with the arrival of Eris (who we will later learn is a Vorta)". I'm pretty sure that Trakt didn't have the spoiler tag back in 2017, and so instead of using the general spoiler warning for the whole comment, you just left it as is. But for us new Trekkies, it sucks to have those kind of things spoiled ;)
I wasn't won over by this premiere, but neither am I writing off the show entirely. I can see potential here. Unfortunately, this pilot spends a bit too much time on characters that I don't think I liked very much. The young-adult angle means it's focused on teenage angst which isn't great, but some of the writing felt like it was designed to make people idiots. The hockey kids that Connor spoke to seemed to actually state that it was cool that he got to watch his dad murdered in front of him - surely even teenagers aren't that moronic?
On the plus side, I was entranced by Echo. What a great voice! Bode is very young so I guess he can be somewhat forgiven for falling for such an obvious trick, but his mother certainly can't be for just walking into the creepy mirror of doom. I wish TV characters would be allowed to have at least a little bit of common sense once in a while.
The ending mirror sequence did suggest that there is the potential for some crazy/spooky fun ahead. I'll keep watching for now.
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@lefthandedguitarist Yeah, the writing is.. modernly edgy? I don't know how to explain it properly.
And this show is also based on the comic by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son) and it should be rated hard R. They toned it down completely and already changed a lot of things in this episode.
I liked Bode and ''Echo'' too. Bode was smarter in the comic and he actually stopped trusting Echo after some time. And the mirror scene with the mother didn't happen in the comic at all..
Netflix really wants to appeal the mainstream audience with this one.
I'm cautiously optimistic based on this first episode. It seems faithful to the book and I really like the cast.
I felt like maybe there was too much awkward exposition up front and yet I still feel like I would be pretty lost if I didn't already know the story.
Were there helicopters in the book? I don't remember that and it seemed out of place with the 1920s technology feel of the rest of the world. Also, it felt like only the main characters had daemons with none in the background.
But, there were also moments here where I was completely entranced by the story being told. I'm looking forward to the next episode.
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@lefthandedguitarist I don't remember there being helicopters in the Lyra's world either. Only airships. Was a bit taken aback by the opening scene there. That being said, there were 'Gyrocopters' apparently so we may have just not pictured them as such.
There are points here where I completely forgot I was watching puppets. Incredibly high artistry just as in the original film. Mission accomplished.
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@lefthandedguitarist that's so true! Story is great. I'm drowning in it.
This may have been the most boring tv episode I have ever watched. This season was like, ok, we don't want to do this show anymore lets wrap it up as quick as possible, but the last episode lets just have everyone sit around and talk.
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Have entire seasons where 90% of every episode is people walking around a garden/talking to whores/writing letters via raven scheming
"Best show ever, so intellectual for them to spell everything out for me"
Have final season where all of the last four episodes have rapid, meaningful plot development and amazing character moments that change our view on who actually deserves to rule
"This is boring, why are they doing this. This doesn't make sense"
Lol I love this ending
