Anna <3
So, this one actually quite upset me. It's a beautiful look at the qualities that make Double Fine special, and at how important it is to have the right people. People that care about their work, but even more so care about each other.
As someone who considers the podracing sequence to be a highlight of The Phantom Menace, I found a lot to enjoy here. Fantastically animated race sequences with a great sense of speed, and a nice guest cast too.
What a great way to end the season. From the moment we saw that maroon movie-era uniform I had a feeling that we were in for something special. This weaved itself in with an alternate take on a classic TOS episode with great skill, as well as throwing in some fun stuff.
I particularly loved the way that they altered the lighting here to match the TOS style, with actor's eyes/faces smoothly lit up in highlights.
Was it a little too on the nose in it's tribute at points? Maybe. But I'm okay with it, and it had enough of a twist on things to make it work. Introducing Kirk this way was a deft, sneaky move and I liked it. And a cliff hanger ending! SNW, you have my attention and my heart.
The show just keeps stepping it up. This was a joyous adventure full of fun and making full use of the characters. Ethan Peck is bringing so many good things to his portrayal of Spock. Pike's pirate excursion was delightful and I'm becoming genuinely heartbroken for how Chapel's feelings are being thrown around.
The real star here turned out to be Jesse James Keitel who absolutely slayed it, creating a character that I am super eager to see return. Slightly less impressive was the pirate Remy who felt like he was there only for joke purposes. Still fun though, especially as we got to see Pike in armoured apron.
And wow, that ending twist! I didn't even realise how much I wanted that until it happened.
Keep doing what you're doing, Strange New Worlds. This is so much fun. I just wish we were getting more Hemmer.
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.
A little bit of a mis-step, attempting to do comedy but failing to be all that funny outside of a few things (hijinks!). There was nothing wrong with the premise of the episode though, and indeed it probably could have worked great if it hadn't all been so lifeless. It's saved by wonderful performances from Ethan Peck and Gia Sandhu and a truly exceptional opening sequence that gives us a taste of the classic TOS episode 'Amok Time' (along with the wonderful music) and that gorgeous finale on the hull. I also appreciated the character work done with Chapel here.
An absolutely wonderful beginning. All the spirit of classic Trek, characters that are vibrant, a sense of fun and adventure, and it brings up relevant modern issues like Trek always has. I can't wait to see where we go from here. Anson Mount and Ethan Peck are just brilliant in their roles as we already knew, but the new cast seem to fit immediately too. Celia Rose Gooding in particular captured the vibe of Uhura very well, even though we saw so little of her. And that was a nice little surprise with the Lieutenant at the end.
What a great episode! I adored the conversation between Jurati and the Queen, and Alison Pill has been killing it this season. The themes of reconciling with the past for various characters are hitting home. I also appreciated that they noted the discrepancy with Picard's mother appearing as an old woman in that early TNG episode.
The action scenes aren't put together all that well which is letting things down. Too many interruptions to the flow. And the thing which has been a big question mark for me was the decision to use so little of Elnor this season. Did the actor only have limited availability?
And this is where the show went completely off the rails. It seems more concerned with making sure that characters get drunk/high/have sex than exploring any interesting psychological aspects.
My favourite kind of episode, a small number of characters stuck needing to figure out how to survive with limited options. This has great character work and the combination of Carter, Keller and McKay allows for the interactions and dialogue to work extremely well. This balances suspense and comedy brilliantly.
It's long past due that the time an SG team takes before their first scheduled check-in is reduced dramatically, wouldn't you think?!
The far more interesting background story of Sheppard's personal life is overshadowed by the quite dull "replicator-on-Earth" plot line. I'd rather have had a whole episode of John and Ronan dealing with the funeral and will reading honestly. I can't remember if John's ex-wife has been mentioned previously, but it came as quite a shock!
That was 45 minutes of pure Star Wars joy. I can't fault a single thing about it. Excellent character work, deep lore exploration and stunning visuals. Glorious.
Great fun episode, but where the heck is Carter? There was some big stuff to deal with here and she's nowhere to be seen. Does Sheppard just make all the decisions now?
At any rate, it's a delight to see Elizabeth again.
I missed seeing Carter in this one! You'd think they'd be using her more. I also think it would be sensible after all this time if the jumpers had their cloaking devices on by default to avoid random attacks like this!
Finnix was in rehab for 90 days but didn't go through any kind of withdrawal? After being on 400mg a day?
My goodness, this show is pretty. Maybe my least favourite episode so far due it's generic premise (and planet alien), but I have to say that seeing some of these kid's innermost desires did melt my heart a little bit. I'm still struggling to like Dal in any way, but they are setting up an arc for him which has the potential to make him so much more likable. Murf should probably be the captain, though.
I thought this double opening episode was a blast. Clearly taking cues from the Star Wars animated shows but that's not a bad thing to me. This was high energy and exciting with some good mysteries presented.
I like some characters much more than others. Rok is great, Zero is kind of fascinating. Gwyn probably has more depth than the rest of the characters put together. Dal was the problematic one, far too in-your-face, so it's a shame that he's ostensibly the "lead" role.
Visually this was glorious too. I loved a lot of the designs and use of colour.
The big questions for me:
- How did the Protostar get there, and what happened to its crew?
- The bad guy said he had been searching for the ship for a long time, but we've been told by the creators that this show is set only a few years after Voyager, so something doesn't entirely add up at this point.
- Similarly, how come there were so many Alpha Quadrant species here? Mysterious!
Great fun if all a bit silly. Tori Higginson manages to portray two different characters quite well, but Joe Flanigan seems to play both of his roles the exact same way. Some very odd decisions from people in places here - I always assumed Ronan was smarter than this - but I don't really care though because I was enjoying it all. Good to see Colonel Caldwell recovered, but his personality hasn't changed much!
Eww, bugs! This is fun and creepy, fortunately not giving us too many close up details of the little buggers. It reminds me of older X-Files shows. Yeah, this is overflowing with tropes for sci-fi episodes but I quite enjoyed having the IOC members along for the ride. Woolsey's character is becoming more faceted without totally betraying what we've seen so far. Teal'c is on form with his quick remarks. Carter is probably more fatalistic than she should be, at least in terms of morale. Daniel is surprisingly not totally freaking out given the situation.
Oh my God, they blew up Prometheus! I had completely forgotten that happened. A strong episode that winds up becoming very compelling. The previous Tagelus episode had enough juicy material to warrant this, but it really shines here. Ernie Hudson helps to lift this higher and things escalate very nicely towards the end. Strategically the SGC don't do the most clever things here, though.
John Alyward is great at playing characters you can hate.
Surprisingly dull for the amount of things that happen in it. Mitchell is in a strange funk and none of the scenes with his friend at the hospital work. Teal'c being captured and tortured feels like it's been done enough already. It ends with a decent big action set piece which makes up for some of this, but I wish the character stuff leading up to it had been more engaging. The Jaffa politics have become quite repetitive.
I'm still always happy to see Bra'tac.
I remembered hating this episode when first broadcast and it's in my memory as being among the worst of the entire Atlantis run. Watching it now, it's fortunately not quite that terrible. But I can find very little good to say about it. The re-dressing of the Atlantis sets feels cheap (and they made them look so ugly - plants and drapes?), even though it's a part of the plot and even commented on. Budget Richard O'Brien is too obviously evil from the start.
I love single location episodes like these, and this follows in the footsteps of one season 1's best episodes ('Thirty-Eight Minutes'). David Hewlett is able to carry the majority of the episode and the damaged jumper is made to feel like a dangerous place. The episode stays engaging from start to finish and really works because McKay is the trapped character. I also really like the opportunity to include Carter here, and the callbacks to the similarly titled SG-1 episode 'Grace'.
The pilot's sacrifice is effective and allows us to get a glimpse into a deeper side of Rodney's character. I wanted to see more of the whale sea monster!
While it does borrow from a variety of other stories, this is quite delightful to watch. The characters all play to their strengths to make this work well. I love the panic of the Atlantis side of the door compared to the relaxed feeling of John's side. Good to see yet another appearance for David McNally.
The invisible monster is a bit of a let down, but I guess it had to work within mid-2000s sci-fi television budgets. Definitely reminiscent of the classic Star Trek: TNG episode 'Darmok'.
With great beard comes great responsibility.
An incredible amount of fun, and the episode manages to keep a potentially complicated set up quite simple. There's just so much entertainment to be found in all of those SG-1 teams hanging around, although I think it's a shame (and also quite unrealistic) that the majority of them don't get involved. But, I can understand how that would have made the episode unnecessarily convoluted. As another user mentioned, the fact that O'Neill isn't in any of the teams is very odd.
The real heart of this comes from the return of a couple of familiar faces, though. It's hard not to be incredibly happy to see them.
This concept has been seen in Star Trek a few times, but Stargate manages to add its own twists to things. The question of Cam's innocence or guilt is sorted out fairly quickly, the rest of the episode deals with the further consequences of it. Mostly, though, I really like the look into Cam's past and the new information it gives us about him.
The Gene Kelly sequence has to be one of the highlights of the entire show. That must have taken so much work to replace Jerry.
This rises to some glorious emotional heights after the dull dregs of the first part. It feels like there's a lot going on here but it's all nicely focused towards the same outcome. On the fringes we get a lovely guest turn from General Hammond and some wonderful stuff between Landry and Carolyn.
And yet the episode keeps on delivering. William B. Davis is fantastic as a prior stripped of his powers, Tony Todd is his effortlessly awesome self and Louis Gossett Jr. delivers maybe the best performance here. The core cast also support these guest stars really well, and Teal'c in particular here shows us the culmination of what he's come to understand over the past 9 years. And yes, Bra'tac should totally lead the Jaffa!
If there's a weak spot then it's the unfortunately poor casting and performance for Orlin, who's stilted delivery and blank mannerisms make the episode feel like it comes to a screeching halt every time he's on.
Things finally get turned up to 11, and suddenly we can take the Ori more seriously. This is extremely well put together and escalates magnificently. I'm sure that we all saw the Goa'uld double-cross coming and yet somehow it unfolds in a more shocking way than anticipated.
The supergate is a cool idea, and also DAMN it's good to have Carter back. In the background we have the new Jaffa government being absolute jerks, but thankfully Louis Gossett Jr. makes it all work.