Obi-Wan trying to disable the lasers barrier when they could have walked around it cracked me up. This show is unintentionally funny.
The realism is way off on this show, however, I did appreciate the CIA operative played by Stacey Farber. She was by far the best thing going for this episode/show.
Underwhelming on many parts with an odd cast making pretty much every character very unbelievable. Acting isn't good either, stressing the unbelievable part. A plot that plays it safe while at the same time the writing tries so hard to make it cool it comes off as incredibly trashy rather often. That way I have a hard time taking it serious or being entertained by it.
As mookie suggests, rather watch Lethal Weapon. That one has more of a humoristic approach but is so much better, admittedly surprisingly good even. If you want it more serious than LW though, maybe watch The Brave or even SEAL Team, whereas the latter is ehh as well. Not sure if this has even the potential of getting another season not even speaking of airing the full first season.
Efficient action thriller, short on a decent plot but with plenty of action. Switch your brain off and you will find some enjoyment.
I actually fell asleep during this one. The Brave takes SEAL Team down every week now.
I've got to admit, this just did not hold my attention and I lost track of what was going on. Some nice special effects from what I saw.
Awkward girl puts herself in awkward situations and has a ridiculous ending. This film is like a slow bullet to the brain.
I wish they could stop pairing up Becket with some jerk all the time. It's just annoying.
Kind of hoping to see Liam Neeson in the second part of this episode... :zany_face:
This entire episode's execution is nothing short of perfect.
Might have seen it before, but even if I did, it was still 110% fresh this time.
For crying out loud, which moron screenwriter claims Marie Curie was French!? I know it's just entertainment TV, but it's ridiculous, not like you can't find that in the beginning of the article in wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie
I'm surprised that they didn't go for the cliché musical guest (Beach Boys) on Tool Time bit here.
Good one, Beckett. Was it tasty, the heroin? Do you want some more? Maybe with some salad on the side?
As soon as I saw the drugs bag, I started thinking "please don't lick it, please don't lick it, use a drug kit instead, please don't lick it!". But oh well... I guess it's not supposed to be a realistic show anyway, so who cares.
So there is a dirty bomb on the loose, and they don't even bring in the FBI? Just the one guy from Homeland Security? Huh...
Also, plastic hazmat suits may protect against viruses or toxins, but I'm not so sure they also block radiation...
And do all NYPD detectives happen to wear a radiation monitor at all times? X-Ray technicians, or sailors aboard a nuclear submarine, sure, but police detectives?
:rolling_eyes:
Daphne translating the sequence of a basketball game into opera terms for Niles is priceless.
It's not just the uselessness of it, and the unfortunate dislike for the Quan character, but does it have to be so friggin' cliche'? I guess we can guess this well/portal is something John will need/use in the future. But what a waste of my time to get there. Did I mention it's "cliche'". Make the villain as disgusting as possible, last week with the "i can be inappropriately naked just to show how powerful I am, this week the needless shooting of a harmless woman in the back; even a futuristic black SUV! WTF?! How unoriginal can you get? And of course tons of guys shooting automatic weapons, some at almost point blank range, can't hit Soren, but the villain can just raise his mighty pistol and hit him at a distance with 1 shot. I keep meaning to look it up, because the same writers can't be writing both arcs, because last week, focusing on John, Halsey and Makee was brilliant. Rant off....
The action in the end is disappointing since it was rushed. Riggs is told his friend is downstairs with the bad guy. When he's really chasing her with his truck. Riggs suddenly shows up in his car and quickly blows up the bad guys truck with a couple of gun shots.
Otherwise it was nice to have the show back after a two week break. The two leads are still worth watching the show for. I also liked the very end.
Entertaining Friday night fodder. Banderas is suitably gruff, and Kingsley is suitably Kingsley. Goes perfectly with alcohol.
Anyone else getting tired of the "Hello, Megan" --' It's weird and annoying
Eh.....Kinda disappointing. Passengers rebooted, Eleven from Stranger Things rebooted... Maybe if I was new to sci-fi.
Every storyline with Q annoys me so much, because the character infuriates me. It's pisses me off how this potential "higher being" can be so fucking illogical. The fact that he responds to Picard's refusal to let him join the crew, because they don't trust him, by then hurling them 7,000 light years away into danger is so goddamn counterintuitive. He may think he can override their trust requirement by making them beg for his help, but he adds insult to injury by practically mocking the fact that he got 18 people killed. It infuriated me when he said: "Admit it, Picard. You're out of your league. You should have stayed where you belonged." THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE, YOU STUPID FUCK. You brought them there! YOU brought them into that goddamn situation. Every fucking storyline with Q is like this and it's ridiculous! It never fails to make me irrationally angry.
All that aside, I was happy to finally be introduced to the infamous Borg.
This has been a borderline show for me since the beginning since I turn to fiction to escape politics of any kind, not so that I can get more of it in addition to real life. But the initial premise and mystery were enough to hook me. Going into season two, it's obvious that (a) this show has an identity crisis and (b) bears little resemblance to that initial premise and that (c) the writers have no idea what to do with a bunch of additional episodes that they probably weren't expecting to get. As such, I'm literally fast-forwarding through everything in the White House -- this week's viral outbreak (that will be resolved within 42 minutes) and Confederate monuments are a far cry from bombing Congress -- at this point because it's not my thing and because I can't stand New Guy at all.
Which leaves the Hannah stuff which, while far less interesting so far than it was last year, is at least more in line with my own interests. In short, it's the stuff that could have made an interesting show on its own instead of being a small part of the bloated and generic thing that DESIGNATED SURVIVOR has become. And at this point, Hannah has learned of some ties between the First Lady's parents and some possible shady contracts or deals done as favors were called in to move the First Lady's father to the top of a heart transplant list. Not quite "Who bombed the Capitol?" stuff, but better than statues. Still, it probably would have been better to end this as a one-season thing instead of trying to extend its lifespan like this.
This is starting to feel like The Mentalist's Red John seasons. I really hope they'll close this storyline soon and move on to something different, and back to the weekly cases and Castle's humor.
Don't bother with this one...probably the least interesting show in the "highly unrealistic millitary/romance show" category I have ever seen... :P
[4.6/10] When something has a reputation for being “the worst ever” you tend to expect it to be blood-curdlingly, insanely awful. “Spock’s Brain” is not that. Make no mistake, it is still deeply stupid and dull, but it’s pretty well par for the course among Star Trek’s lesser lights, with only the ridiculousness of its premise to distinguish it.
Then again, the thought running through my mind is whether that premise was really so outlandish, or at least, whether it was out of character for the show. We’ve seen Kirk cloned, duplicated, and had his consciousness transferred into a glowing translucent orb. We’ve seen Spock trade consciousnesses with crazy men and killer robots. We’ve had Dr. McCoy figure out to do everything from cure a floppy, silicon-based creature to help a pregnant alien deliver her baby. And lord knows, we’ve seen more than a few primitive species organized by some wild, ancient computer.
So while it’s silly, to say the least, to have the latest scantily-clad alien woman blink onto the ship, harvest Spock’s brain, and deposit it into a 1960s coffee maker to run her society, it’s not dramatically sillier or all that different than the sorts of premises we’ve seen in the show before, in both great and terrible episodes.
What does make the episode truly a slog to get through is that the acting is bad from everyone. Maybe that stems from Leonard Nimoy speaking through a tape recorder rather than interacting with the other actors on set (at least as anything other than an essentially comatose living shell). He normally brings up the acting quotient for the whole show, but couldn’t muster anything here in his stilted expressions through the communicator.
But that’s true for pretty much everyone. I’m no great fan of Shatner’s acting, but he was particularly halting here. The same goes for McCoy (and I am a fan of Kelley’s acting), with there seeming to be long, awkward pauses between many of his lines. And the same goes for the variety of guest stars who, whilst going for childlike or officious, mostly hit the level of a school play.
The writing of the dialogue did the actors no favors though. I can understand the notion that writer Gene Coon (using the pen name, Lee Cronin) wanted to underline the fact that Kirk & Co. were being stymied because they could hardly communicate with the people who had taken Spock’s grey matter. But my god, “Spock’s Brian” has so many repetitive exchanges of “take me to your leader”/”we don’t understand what leader is” or “you have to restore Spock’s mind”/”no I refuse to do it.”
Nevermind the fact that this is yet another script with about half an hour’s worth of incident stretched out to double that length (which, perhaps, helps explain the repetitive dialogue). Every step of the process, from picking a planet, to finding the right cave, to speaking with the locals (Morgs and iMorgs) to finding Spock and getting his brain back in his head, includes a significant amount of fumfering around or not much happening. It’s one of those “you don’t need to write about it every time that Harry walks down a hallway, J.K. Rowling” episodes.
What I suspect is supposed to be the element that keeps the episode’s momentum up is the audience learning more about the Morg society. But we don’t really, since the episode is pretty confusing and opaque about what exactly the setup is or how it came about even after the reveal happens. The men (Morgs) live above where it’s cold and look like cavemen, and the women (iMorgs) live below in some ancient series of buildings where they have a childlike demeanor and have the usual Theiss-sewn outfits. Other than helping me understand what I assume is an amusing reference to this episode in the first season of Rick and Morty, “Spock’s Brain” doesn’t do much with that.
Kirk, of course, ends that arrangement, with his usual “we’re destroying the big computer thing and you’re going to live our way” speech to a reluctant local. There’s no society that Kirk can’t come in and “fix” with a grand sense of benevolent but haughty entitlement. I’m not saying the Morgs had the ideal arrangement, or that he should have sacrificed his first officer’s brain in order to preserve it (although there’s a utilitarian argument that could be made for that), but as usual, Kirk is awfully cavalier about totally upending another planet’s society.
Maybe that’s the thing that grounds “Spock’s Brain” into fan rage dust -- it’s a combination of some of Trek’s lamest tropes, employed with little flair or joie de vivre (beyond Kirk and Bones leering at their would-be hosts in a typically distasteful fashion). It’s another “superpowered alien” mystery, another primitive society with “backwards” ways, another grand old computer that needs to be neutralized one way or another. Repetition is nothing new on this show, but the episode really is a combination of several different things that have come before, with stultifying writing and performances to boot.
That, to my mind, is what really sinks this episode. Star Trek has done massively silly or outlandish episodes before, but if you inject enough fun or flair or even ham into them, they can at least be entertaining, even if they don’t rise to the level of greatness. “Spock’s Brain”’s biggest crime is that it’s mostly just boring. Even ignoring the implausibility of automaton Spock being guided around by remote control, or the salon hair dryer with doodads sticking out of it providing uber-advanced knowledge to build spaceship and perform brain transplants, the whole thing is just dull.
There can be a charm to bad episodes. Sometimes they are so wrong-headed or absurd that they wrap back around to being bold and captivating in their terribleness. “Spock’s Brain” never really gets there. It’s rarely bad in a roll your eyes or laugh or cringe sort of way; it mostly just makes the viewer want to change the channel, and for the most infamous episode in the whole series, I was hoping for something better in its awfulness.
wrong run time. the episode is closer to a 90-minute run time
Screw Frasier's dream; I want more of Martin and Daphne in the elevator!
Half The Mummy, half Legion, but not as charming as the former, nor as quirky as the latter. Nice ending, though.
This has always been one of my favourites. I really enjoy "bottle" episodes that just take place in our main location with our main characters. It's often the case that they end up trapped or have some mystery to solve (see also 'Disaster' over on TNG) and I just love them. I guess I like focused storytelling.
Here we have a classic situation with the main characters all trapped in various parts of the station and a countdown to destruction. Maybe one of the reasons that I like this so much is because it reminds me so much of one of my other favourite pastimes: point & click adventure games. All our characters are locked in somewhere and need to get out or survive by figuring out how to make use of the tools they have around them, which is exactly what you need to do in adventure games. In my mind I can see this playing out as a pixellated LucasArts or Sierra game from the 1990s, and I find it charming.
The episode has other things going for it, too. The situation is just crazy enough to be fun without being ridiculous, and we get interesting pairings of characters. It's not often that we see Sisko and Jake having to get out of a dangerous situation together, or see Garak come up and work in Ops. We are also given the classic Odo/Quark match up too, which we've seen a lot but never fails to be a highlight.
And then there's the wonderful Gul Dukat who comes along and just begins to enjoy himself. It's really difficult to dislike him, no matter how smarmy or condescending he's being, because he's just so damn charming and Cardassian. The interplay between him and Garak gives us a real sense of how much they hate each other. Plus, his blustering outrage at finding out that the station has turned on him as well is quite hilarious.
The ending is a bit of a let down. O'Brien is kind of useless crawling through that tube and Sisko frantically swapping out rods on a panel doesn't make for exciting viewing as we're not all that sure what he's attempting to do. It's also a shame that there's no resolution shown to us for Dukat as he departs the station, as that was where the best parts of the episode lie.
It did occur to me that Gul Dukat must have spent an entire afternoon at one point just recording video messages to account for every possible contingency on the station, and the more you think about that, the funnier it becomes.
"Bajoran workers, you have stayed out past curfew, you have 5 minutes to return to your quarters."
"Bajoran workers, you did not return to the habitat ring, your families will now be executed."
"Bajoran workers, you have spent too long in decontamination, if you do not report for work within 7 minutes a security detail will arrive to escort you."
"Bajoran workers, you have blocked a toilet in the docking ring, resolve the situation immediately or face the consequences."
"Bajoran workers, you did not resolve the blocked toilet situation in a timely manner..."
etc.
The first encounter with the Borg was probably quite creepy back in the late 1980s, but watching it today it feels a bit underwhelming. Far more interesting is the performance of Guinan, and Picard's need to become humble before Q. Lots of things here which were never followed up on, notably the concept of baby Borgs which was completely abandoned. The 18 dead crew members do lead a bad taste in your mouth, and severely alters any playful side we may have seen in Q.
They also set up a big mystery with Guinan's background, which was never mentioned or explored again. Lt. Gomez could have become an enjoyable recurring character, too.
