LeftHandedGuitarist

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.

Absolutely beautiful. At the time, Trek was able to do stories that other shows couldn't (in today's TV landscape that's far less true) and this is a prime example. It works so well because Hallie Todd's adorable child-like performance, and Brent Spiner being able to play off that so well. Picard gets a great scene standing up to the Admiral, too.

Certainly made me cry, and laugh a lot at Riker's brief scene.

One of my favourite episodes of the entire series. Even the kind of cheesy b-story doesn't take away from how involved I always get in this gorgeous piece of storytelling. It's a wonderful examination of Odo's past and the reason he has the personality he does. He gets to work out the issues he's always had with the man who raised him and experiences a new kind of love and affection for a helpless being.

The arguments between him and Dr. Mora are really wonderfully written. And Quark gets nothing but fantastic moments, too. In regards to the return of Odo's shape shifting abilities, I think it was probably a done a bit too early but that doesn't detract from what a wonderful sequence it is. I don't feel like Odo really had the time to learn much from being a solid.

Kira finally gives birth, and it's played for laughs. I'm okay with that, I love that this show focuses on characters. The Kira/Miles/Keiko triangle has been a lot of fun to watch, and it comes to a bittersweet end. It's just a bit of a missed opportunity that Worf wasn't involved in the birth somehow.

I love that this episode doesn't even attempt to hide the fact that it's based on Groundhog Day by just having Jack name drop it towards the end. Really hilarious and a joy to watch every time. And then it hits you with surprisingly strong emotional beats!

The only thing that stands out as odd to me was that they seem to make Jack more stupid than usual, notably with him trying to tape record the events of a previous loop and thinking that would work.

This episode is a work of art.
I'm trying to find an emoji that represents my facial expression during THAT Kira/Damar scene. "Yeah, Damar. What kind of people?"
No luck so far.

If I ever have another pet I'm naming it Nerys. Or maybe my next guitar.

Garak was gold during this whole thing. And then, after a quite excellent scene with Ezri dropping some political wisdom, we get killing a character we've been watching since TNG. Wow. My only complaint is that the fight is over a bit too quickly.

Julian and Miles' plan to lure a Section 31 agent to the station doesn't sound as smart to me as the two of them seem to think.

Wow. Talk about sticking the landing. There's a lot to process for me here, but this was so emotionally powerful, epic and thematically beautiful. I am so excited to be a Star Trek fan right now with the thought of everything that may lie ahead.

This show has such a good ensemble cast too, I'm completely in love with these characters.

The theme of this season has been there in the title sequence from the first episode: Picard, a broken man, needing to heal and be put back together. His guilt over the death of Data needed closure, his emotional resistance to needing others needed to be addressed. He's been missing a family and he needed to forge a new one. He needed purpose. It managed to fulfil this wonderfully.

My main criticism is what a ridiculous character Commodore Oh was. She kept preparing to cleanse the planet without actually doing it. It was like watching a children's cartoon whenever she was on, the only thing missing was her twirling a moustache and saying "mwah ha ha haa!"

The music in this one increased the anxiety and emotion to a huge degree. It was like a Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross Star Wars score at times! Honestly, it was making my heart thump.

I knew Order 66 from the perspective of this show was going to pack a punch, and it was as powerful as expected. Did Rex shed a tear as he tried to resist? Ahsoka's escape was maybe all a bit contrived but was also true to her creative nature. Mace Windu pointedly addressing her as a "citizen" was really cold.

I did love the way she subverted expectations upon rescuing Maul, and then telling him no they were not going to work together - you're just my diversion.

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.

This was glorious. The stunning stylised 3D art reminded me of the sort of thing seen in Telltale games (and, oddly enough, old LucasArts adventures like Full Throttle), but obviously much more detailed. And so colourful! Visually this just ticked all the right boxes for me. The story itself was exciting and felt pretty unique (farmers with mechs battling giant insect aliens) and allowed for defined characters to come through despite the short run time.

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.

Incredibly compelling stuff that forced me to question a lot. Started off fun with Holden attempting to teach children, and ended with a pretty bad taste in my mouth. A lot of resentment going round here. Also, damn you Patrick and Debbie.

Probably the defining moment of the show, where it really established itself and moved forward confidently in its own direction. Not that it hadn't been working away at that for most of this season, but things really come together here. It continues old plot threads, gives both Picard and Riker great stuff to work with and pushes the show into story elements that will ripple throughout the franchise.

It's not without issues, of course. Personally, I've never found the Borg scary and they look so ridiculously cheap (not sure how this looked by 1990 standards), but their relentless nature is certainly imposing and adds huge tension. The guest character Shelby is a maybe a little too on the nose with her drive to win getting her into trouble in almost every scene, but she's definitely memorable and would have made a good addition to the main cast; I can imagine a great character arc for her.

It's good to see Jonathon Frakes show a lot of range here with scenes where has to be very decisive, pissed off and unsure. Picard as Locutus is of course a powerful image and the cliffhanger is great.

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.

This flips around the usual Trek formula and gives us a story from the POV of the lowly ensigns. We see the main cast doing their thing, and then they disappear and we don't get to follow them. It was an intriguing concept and really well done here. The four low-ranking crew members (and the civilian bartender) that we follow are all interesting characters that the script allows us to become attached to. Seeing things from their perspective actually makes the senior officers feel more intimidating - Picard's dressing down of her is actually quite hard to watch.

The editing between the two poker games is excellently done.

Lovell and Ogawa are likeable, but Taurik is maybe a bit too Vulcan to really enjoy. Mostly, this is about Ensign Sito and the excellent performance behind her. It's a testament to the strength of the episode that her death seems to have far more weight than any previous one on the show.

A wonderful moment to pause and an important episode for the show. No sci-fi, no drama, no high stakes, just a pure character focus. It's an episode that almost didn't get made, but it's beautiful and feels completely necessary after what Picard has just been through. Patrick Stewart gives a great performance and once again it feels like, as Picard, he lets the mask drop and becomes more himself. Of course, the lingering effects of the emotional damage caused by the Borg are still going to come back and haunt him down the line.

His breakdown while covered in mud is certainly a major turning point for him, and it helped no end that he had great chemistry with the actor playing his stern older brother.

While the focus is on the captain, I found Worf and Wesley's family matters just as interesting. Worf is clearly delighted to see his parents despite the protests he makes to Riker and O'Brien. And oh my God, I LOVE the Rozhenkos!

This episode does drive home what a horrible writing choice will happen later in the film Generations in regards to Captain Picard's family.

That was DS9.
THEY WENT TO DS9.
This is all I've wanted for the past 21 years.

If I don't have my own baby Yoda plush toy by Christmas, I will turn to the dark side.

[Rewatch] The whole setup of this episode feels like something you should roll your eyes at - a good guy and a bad guy trapped together and needing to join forces to overcome a life threatening situation - but it works really well. It reveals a surprising amount of depth in the storytelling and will actually affect both characters going forward.

The fact that it was Zeb who was stuck instead of Kanan or Ezra made it all the more interesting.

A fantastic juggling act of both separate and intersecting storylines, with intrigue and twists galore. This is mostly set up rather than anything really explosive, but it's all so gripping. Great to see Gowron back and as laughably egotistical as usual. I like that Bashir is given a lot to do as I find I tend to really enjoy his stories now.

Nana Visitor looks particularly great in a Starfleet uniform.

O'Brien must suffer! Keiko gets possessed by an evil pah-wraith, and Rosalind Chao finally gets to stretch her acting muscles and does a damn good job. I always enjoyed this episode, partly for that above reason and partly because the whole thing is fun and really well paced. In fact everyone here gets to do some really good work, from Colm Meaney as the heavily-under-pressure Chief, to Rom and his new life as station engineer.

This is funny, exciting and unexpected. Bashir and O'Brien get some great stuff together, and even little Molly gets in on it. A lot of people seem to hate the pah-wraiths, mostly because they were a bit of a lazy concept, but I don't really have that problem and I always was a fan of the Bajoran religious system that evolved through the show.

This referenced so many things established by the old X-Wing series of PC games: Y-wings using ion cannons to disable, the TIE Defender and its systems. It's also the most visually gorgeous thing the series has done with the stuff in the nebula.

The show has been doing much more impressive, epic storytelling recently as opposed to the silliness it gets caught up in.

What a beautiful episode, with some clear allusions to the violent historical meetings between Europeans and the First peoples of other countries. It's a reminder of what Daniel's vital role in this show was and how much I missed him for the previous season. The Unas are a fantastic society for the show to give us and I love that the limited language has evolved to a point where all the conversations can begin to make sense even without Daniel's translations.

It's a shame that the original actor for Chaka wasn't able to return, the version of the prosthetics used here doesn't seem to have much mouth movement. Michael Rooker is a strong guest star even if he's saddled with a very one-note character. I was so wrapped up in this one that I barely noticed how little Sam and Jack featured.

A great episode that comes close to ranking among the best for the show. A simple concept is given a lot of depth thanks to various factors that the show has built up by this point. The Unas have been given just enough development to make this genuinely compelling, and while we only get to see glimpses of what they are all about it still feels like there's a functioning society there. Top marks are due for the actors under all those prosthetics (both of whom have a long history of Stargate appearances by this point).

This is a really strong outing for the characters, too. Daniel gets to be himself and show his frustrations at the situation, O'Neill is allowed to give in to doing what feels right even though it may be against his better judgement. And Larry Drake is on fire as he portrays a bad guy with such skill that we as an audience genuinely hate him. Extremely well done.

It also has the courage to end on a dark note.

Easily Wil Wheaton's best performance from all his Trek appearances, this is a wonderful episode. Tense and extremely dramatic, with severe consequences for a character that we've spent a lot of time with. Patrick Stewart is totally on form too (but when isn't he?). Nice to finally see Starfleet Academy.

I find it far easier in my head to just pretend that Nick Locarno is really Tom Paris, as the two characters share such similar back stories and are played by the same actor.

A genuine classic, funny and fun. I could totally see Simon Pegg in Scotty's role here. Love that DS9 revisited this episode later in such a clever way.

That's more like it! Suspenseful and well executed, dramatic story. Spock and McCoy are really settling into their characters. A shame the bigotry subplot was so heavy handed.

A fantastic display of storytelling and editing. I really like the experimental and creative nature of the way this one unfolds, something which the show attempted back in season 3 with 'Forever in a Day', but achieves much more effectively here. The transitions between realities here are so well done. It manages to hit some great character moments too, and the return of Daniel is surprisingly powerful. You need to pay attention to this one for it all to click into place.

I particularly love Jonas's "new guy" apron.

This was my favourite episode for a long time growing up. I loved the medieval asthetic of it, the muddy village in the forest, the fact that an Unas returns to the series. Europe in the Middle Ages just fascinates me. There are also a group of strong supporting actors in the roles of Simon, Mary and the village Canon.

This is a pretty tense episode, but it has some fun moments throughout ("ah, trees...") and just clicks for me. I'm always taken by surprise at the violence right at the end, but it fits well.

One cool little detail I love: Jack gets hit in the face during this episode and gets a cut to his left eyebrow. He will have a scar there in every following episode.

A simple story that uses visual storytelling extremely well. Combined with the soundtrack, I found this had strong emotional impact. Great casting and acting from the two girls. It's made me very excited for Picard and intrigued about what happened on Mars! (Something about a synth attack?)