Another stunning episode.
Ramin Djawadi's music took me back to the atmospheres of some GOT (g)old episodes like 5x10. Even the ending kinda remembers that situation of kings and crowd closed together inside a building that could mean death for everyone.
Up for the Queen that never was, down for some CGI scenes (and it's not the first time this season). But, WOW.
[8.6/10] It’s amazing what a difference one actor can make in an episode of Star Trek. Matt Decker is a brief but potent shot in the arm for “The Doomsday Machine,” one whose appearance in the first act immediately sells everything else he does that helps spur the plot for the rest of the episode.
Much of that owes to the actor, William Windom, who breathes life into decker. The scene where Kirk and company rouse him, and relays the terrible events that befell him and his crew is arresting from the word go. The disorientation, the distress, the regret in his voice, quickly tell the audience how harrowing what Decker experienced was, without needing to see the scope of the battle. It sells the terror of “that thing” out there better than all the dry “but there used to be three planets in this system” remarks from stoic crewmen and shots of rubble ever could.
It also sells the sense of survivor’s guilt that motivates Decker. It’s hard to make a character both terribly misguided – to the point that he makes foolish decisions that put hundreds of other lives at risk – but also sympathetic. “The Doomsday Machine” pulls that trick off by showing Decker as clearly rattled and a little unhinged, throwing the weight of his rank around and sending the crew on dumb maneuvers, but by having the reason for that be that he’s haunted by the mistakes he made that got his entire crew killed.
That fact clearly weighs on Decker at every moment. Windom plays his single-minded obsession – to either avenge his fallen crewmates or assuage his guilt by joining them – with just the right combination of insanity and capability. He’s not thinking clearly, and he’s disturbed, but he knows enough to take command and order sweeps and attacks. It creates a magnetic, unpredictable presence at the center of the episode that spurs more than a little of “Doomsday Machine”’s action, both inside and outside the Enterprise.
It also pays dividends for the main cast. For one thing, it helps Kirk, who often works best as a side dish rather than a main course. He’s definitely at his peak here – encouraging of his subordinates, but particularly with Scotty, maintaining that wry edge that makes him more than just another stuffed shirt. Too many of his sarcastic asides or too much of his too-cool-for-school wit and he starts to come off as smug and self-satisfied, but when those moments are sprinkled in like this, it presents Kirk as someone who tries to take the edge off of the severity of the situation everyone’s facing with humor rather than someone who doesn’t take those situations seriously.
It also gives him the chance to provide a nice counterpoint to Decker. Kirk is willing to sacrifice himself to save the galaxy as well, but he’s unwilling to endanger his whole crew to do so when it’s unnecessary. The use of the jerry-rigged U.S.S. Constellation to blow up the Doomsday device lacks a bit of intrigue given that, once you realize how far into the episode we are, it’s pretty much a fait accompli that it will work.
Still, the countdown to beam Kirk off of the ship before it explodes actually caught my attention despite the fact that Kirk obviously doesn’t die here. Credit where it’s due, much of that belongs to Shatner, who plays Kirk as remaining stoic with just enough concern in his voice to sell the moment when telling his crewmen to beam him over. Much of it is the score and the editing, which cuts nicely between the various panic points of the effort, but Shatner does his part and it’s worth lauding.
It is also, as usual, worth lauding Leonard Nimoy and Spock. For all the epic white whale-chasing drama going on with the titular Doomsday Machine outside the ships, one of the most compelling parts of the episode is the struggle for command within the Enterprise. Episode writer Norman Spinrad writes Spock particularly well as someone who is by the book, but willing to use every page of that book against Decker when he thinks it’s putting the crew at risk.
Nimoy, understated as usual, communicates Spock’s conflicting desires to follow the regulations he agreed to by becoming a Starfleet officer, and also working within those regulations and that system to protect his crew and his ship. One of the best scenes in the hot-tempered Bones imploring his frenemy Spock to “do something” and Spock grinning and bearing it (so to speak). A by-the-book guy like Spock is unwilling to break the rules, but also is looking out for the best interests of The Enterprise, and that creates both an interesting internal conflict for him and an interesting tet-a-tet between him and Decker for much of the episode. (Decker, meanwhile, continues the proud Star Trek tradition of every officer above the rank of captain being evil, insane, incompetent, or all three.)
But that power struggle is still in service of how to address the giant, Eye of Sauron-containing cornucopia that is attacking the two Federation ships and chewing through planets. It may simple stem from the fact that this is one of those episode where the “remastering” of the old footage is most evident, but “Doomsday Machine” has more of an epic, even cinematic feel than many episodes of The Original Series. The shots of the Enterprise and the Constellation firing on the machine, or careening into its fiery maw, offer the sort of thrilling space battle that are understandably few and far between in the Star Trek of the sixties.
The machine itself provides a great deal of the tension, even apart from the good character work being done all around. This massive, destructive device, that cannot be reasoned with, that prevents warning, and that is difficult to escape presents a real challenge to our heroes that mandates some creative thinking and desperation maneuvers. Sure, the thematic elements are laid on a little thick – “Can you tell we’re offering a cautionary tale about nuclear weapons?! Can ya!?” – but the titular machine serves its narrative purposes as well or better as it serves its thematic one.
That machine is the object of Decker’s Ahab-like fixation in this Moby Dick-esque tale. “The Doomsday Machine” is an episode centered around individuals who are devoted to their crew, and wondering which rules they can break, what principles are inviolable, and what parts of themselves they’re willing to sacrifice in order to save their ships or avenge their people. That’s the sort of character and narrative stakes that produces many of Star Trek’s best episodes, and “The Doomsday Machine” is no exception.
This is bad. A bad, slow, poor adaptation from the comics. And, hell, I watched it through 4 1/2 seasons... I mean, c'mon, 1st season is great! 2nd is ok. 3rd is meh. But 4th? 4th is "what the hell are the producers doing to this show?" horrible. And now they announce that the 6th (FU*&%ING 6TH!!!) season will have... ZOMBIES?? Isn't this SUPPOSED to be a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE SHOW? And they announce zombies as if it was a great turn of events in the show... Really? o.O
No, don't bother telling me what happened to the show after the first half of 4th season. I'm pretty sure I can sum that up in only three syllables: "bla bla bla"...
I give it 2 hearts. And that is because 1st and 2nd seasons really entertained me, despite what they did to some characters (like... what? 19 episodes to kill Shane? Seriously? Why? And why is Lori so annoying? Someone please kill her!! \o/ YESSS! Thank you Carl! That's my boy!! Now I can stop watching this crap! Oh no, wait! The Governor appears! YESS!! ............. Aaaaand, he's boring. -_-' ).
In this mocumentary you will learn that 1+1=7 and that there is not a conspiracy theory that MAGA people won't fall for!
A two and a half hours boring, depressing mess. In short, Zack Snyder.
And the dream sequences take more screen time then the actual BvS fight. Who thought this was a good idea?
While still funny and immensely entertaining, I confess I was a little disappointed with Deadpool. With this character, they had an opportunity to make a completely ridiculous and nonsensical superhero movie, and what we got as another generic plot following the tired origin story / damsel-in-distress formula, with a bit of crude humor and 4th-wall breaking mixed in. I almost wonder if that was the cost for finally getting this movie made.
Everyone is missing the most important part of the movie.. That haircut.. W-H-Y?!
Ends on cliff hanger. Starts new ep. 5 minutes in its good. next 40 minutes its quite disappointing. Ends on cliff hanger. Repeat.
Wow, how the mighty have fallen. Was this season produced by the Hallmark channel? The schmaltzy music that plays in the background every other scene, the forced feel-good vibe, the corny jokes, the cringy musical interlude during this episode, that fucking Ed Sheeran montage…. it’s all so incredibly lame and cheap. Any of the sharp wit and quirk from the first two seasons has completely disappeared from the show. Instead this entire season felt like a bunch predictable, bland, sentimental nonsense made for the broadest of audiences.
how tf was i supposed to know that the leader was his brother if we hadn't even seen his face besides the small photo
props to my boy Dylan G for holding that position for what seemed like an eternity!
Now, this is classic Star Trek! Despite a few problems, this is a delight to watch from start to finish and is Discovery's first foray into the tried-and-tested 'bottle show'. These episodes often end up being my favourites, we are given a situation and really get to dive into it. They often reveal a lot about our characters and usually have fun doing it. Great examples of this include 'Civil Defense' (DS9), 'Disaster' (TNG), 'Explorers' (DS9) and of course the other classic Trek time-loop show, 'Cause and Effect' (TNG).
If I had any doubts about Rainn Wilson's portrayal of Harry Mudd, this episode easily washed them away. He's a lot of fun and full of energy, as well as managing to come off as a fairly complex person. It was interesting the way he was quite cruel to the crew of the Discovery, and then shrivels up at the sight of Stella and her father. I think there was a missed opportunity to make her a bit more like the shrew seen in The Original Series, but it's important to remember that what we saw there was Mudd's own vision of her rather than the actual person. The various deaths were quite mean spirited, despite being somewhat offset due to the fact that they weren't permanent A couple were also pretty funny, although I never quite got the impression that those little purple balls caused an "agonising" death.
Mostly, I think I enjoyed that this episode showed us the characters in more relaxed and natural states. Captain Lorca's apathy at finding a space whale is quite funny and even endearing, as he tells his crew to just get on with it (loved that he's finally sitting in the chair, too). Tilly continues to just delight me, and drunk Tilly is even better. It seems to me that she's hiding a lot of confidence under a socially awkward front. Stamets possibly emerged as the best part for me, this new happy version of him is charming and fun to spend time with (again, PLEASE let us get back to that mirror image thing from a couple of episodes ago).
The Burnham/Tyler pairing is maybe not my favourite thing. I don't feel a huge amount of chemistry between them, but then again Michael's standoffish nature means that she doesn't really have chemistry with anybody. I think it's more down to me not really clicking with the character of Tyler, as I talked about in my review for the previous episode. He feels like he's fit in too easily and his personality is a bare minimum.
Where the episode could have done a slightly better job is with the various time loop escapades. The movement through them became a bit too quick, and we are supposed to understand that Stamets explains things to Burnham who explains things to Tyler who explains things to Lorca, etc. every time, and everyone just accepts what they're being told and gets to action? That took me out of things a bit, and I would have been perfectly happy to have longer scenes that established things better. It's also hard to ignore the fact that the episode should have been all from Stamet's point-of-view, as he's the one dealing with it all.
Overall though, damn this was fantastic. The use of the introductory log and mostly self-contained nature of the episode made this feel so much like it was a part of the franchise I love. Mostly, though, it let us get a grip on these new characters and let them just get on with things as opposed to being dragged along by plot mechanics.
8.7/10. Archer is back! You knew it!
And what a return to form. Maybe after a year of doing Archer Vice, and a turn at going official with the CIA, a L.A. detective agency is the right move to refresh the show a bit. This was pretty classic stuff, with Archer, Lana, and Ray having misadventures in the field with their usual witty banter ("why didn't you tell us you were bleeding like a Russian princess?"), Mallory being a big presence with her acerbic wit (including her delightful comment that the ability to buy liquor in grocery store is "the only thing about L.A. that doesn't make [her] want to vomit" and her hilarious take downs when Cyril tries to throw his weight around), Cyril playing up his mostly ceremonial role as head of the agency ("the writing is literally on the wall), Krieger throwing together his usually goodie bags (hush puppies), and Pam and Cheryl enjoying their usual bit of amusing sidekickery.
It's only one episode, but this was a return to form, with enough self-referential humor to make you feel like the show remembers where it came from, but not so much that it feels indulgent. Plus the fact that they'd been duped by a faux-movie star is a classic Archer twist. The story is simple enough, and the animation is better than ever (though I could do without those weird silhouette interstitial cards) but what really sells this show is the crackerjack dialogue that manages to be funny, cutting, and clever, and "The Figgis Agency" had that in spades. Very glad to have the show back.
Mediocre show, Rosario is awful as Ahsoka and Winstead doesn't fit Hera Syndulla at all. Story is very predictable unfortunately.. I was so looking forward to this, dissapointed.
THEY PROMISED ME ZOMBIES AND ALL I HAVE NOW IS DEPRESSION
What a beautiful episode, I don't remember an episode like this for years, very well done, just perfect.
Which version do you prefer? The Game or the Show? I will have to go with the show, its more happy, kinda.
I really enjoyed the first half of this season, but the second half forgot to give me reasons to care. In the end I didn't care who lived or who died, I just wondered what the point of any of it is.
Episode needed more flash backs, perhaps 5 more.
Nothing in this episode felt earned and because of this nothing felt real. Sure there was setup but it didn't make enough sense to make it reality. The scenes I should have felt emotion, ofcourse cued by sensitive music, didn't do anything for me cause... I don't care about any of these characters anymor. I rooted for them in season 1 but then they stopped being "human". And for the story... We're just going through the motions, following the rails from point A to B with whatever leaps they force on us.
To think there would come a day I'd be bored when two attractive women are fighting.
They've been hinting at it all season, but making David literally the villain, with heavy themes like sexual abuse involved is a tough and ridiculously bold move, and I'm not sure whether audiences will go with it. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with it in the next season.
Season 2 hasn't for me been on the same level as the spectacular S1, but Legion is still one of the most inventive, interesting and engaging shows currently on TV.
"How would you like to die today motherf*cker" ... Once again, Jared YOU ARE MY MVP.
I have to say that personally, I like Will Yun Lee's performance as Takeshi Kovacs a lot more.
Joel Kinnaman does a decent job, but he's not that engaging for me.
Weak ending to a great show, way too many questions unanswered.
It's clear that the writers value shocks and twists over characters with consistent motivations.
Edit: I'll remember Stannis as he was.
I think that The Flash is very overrated series (at least on Trakt) with only a few good episodes. Every episode to me like McDonald's - not good, not bad, just regular food.
This episode was painfully slow. You really only need to watch the last 10 or 12 minutes.
I feel like overall this season is a return to form after the just decent (but still very solid) 4th one, with an all-timer episode ("Pride Parade"), but this finale's decision to revert the season-long arc feels very anti-climatic and underwhelming. At least it doesn't save its reversion for next season's premiere as the show does a few times.
Didn't Clarissa's implant stuff use to look better? :thinking:
A reasonably funny episode, but the ending really bummed me out. Is S10 gonna be another dream season, this time in space? Please no, just conclude the actual story.
Yaaaaawn. On one hand, I'm surprised we're already in the second half of the season because nearly nothing of actual interest or impact has happened, on the other hand, I'm grateful we're in the second half because that means Danger Island is that much closer to being over.
