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discotreque · 4 years ago

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LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked—my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGGTGGGTGQER;LBHAOIBVNV;OAPBIJNVagr;h;oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

#star trek #star trek lower decks #lwd spoilers #lower decks spoilers #lower decks #amy's episode notes

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alyblacklist · 5 years ago

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I have always felt from episode 1 this season that the woman Liz now believes is her mother is not her mother. She has zero maternal feelings for Liz and there's no father-daughter relationship between her and Dom. One of the Johns also said in an interview that they were planning on killing Katarina twice (last season finale and , but decided to stretch the arc, which sounds like she is not a very important character in the bigger scheme of things. Is there another way of reading that?

I do think there is another way of reading it, anon, and here’s why. I hope you don’t mind a long response because you’re about to get one.

First, in terms of the recent JE comments that they considered killing Katarina in 6.22 and again in the midseason finale, the writers have entertained a number of scenarios over the years for various characters that they later concluded were bad ideas for one reason or another. Tom Keen is the main example who springs to mind – they planned to kill him in the Pilot and then again at the end of season 1 and changed their minds both times. His character went on to play an outsized role for 4.5 more seasons and a spinoff despite evidently not being very important to the ultimate endgame (and to much controversy). JE’s comments about how they loved Laila so much that they just wanted to write more for her really reminded me of how he used to talk about Ryan. Liz’s mother was supposedly dead in the Pilot, Red turned himself in “because of your father,” and Katarina wasn’t mentioned by name until near the end of S2. She first appeared in Cape May – an episode the writers didn’t even plan for but got pushed into writing by Sony and NBC – and gradually her role and legend have grown. But I guess I’ve never expected Katarina necessarily to be a critical player in the ultimate endgame of the series (though of course she could be, if they want her to be). They also considered killing Cooper at the end of S1 along with Meera, making Ressler an amputee after Anslo - the list goes on. So I read JE’s interview as simply talking through some of the ideas that they batted around in the room (including an early death in 6.22 that might have had greater shock value) and I don’t take any of this as a definitive clue on whether this is a real Katarina or not or her ultimate importance to the story.

Turning to the character herself, I’m not sure that Katarina has ever had what most would consider typical maternal feelings for Liz. Everything we know about Katarina’s feelings for Liz has largely come through the memories of others – Red, Kirk, Mr. Kaplan, Dom – so how much was true and how much was distorted reality or a tale told to Liz to make her feel better?

Red tells Liz from the beginning that her mother died of “weakness and shame.” By season 3, she’s the “cleverest, most resourceful woman” he has ever known. “The secret-keeper who disappeared.” A woman who “dreaded having a child. Almost aborted it,” but who supposedly had a change of heart after Liz was born and thereafter never thought she was “anything but a blessing.” She’s also a woman who was “never the same” after the fire, who found it “too much” that “[t]he man she loved [was] killed by the child she adored.” Red allows Liz to believe she basically killed both her parents by pulling the trigger on her father the night of the fire. By Season 6, we learn through Red’s trial that Katarina framed Liz’s father in March 1990 for the deaths of 134 sailors aboard the USS Gideon. Red assures Liz that her parents “loved you very much,” and tries to explain that things were “complicated.” Liz is not convinced.

Kirk in season 4 paints a rosier picture – that Liz was his “entire life,” that she was “all your mother and I ever cared about.” All while holding her hostage and ultimately dangling Agnes off a roof. At the same time, Liz reads her mother’s journal, recovered from Kirk’s house where her mother waxes about how Masha is her “entire life. She’s everything.” Truth? Or carefully planted fiction?

And then Kate’s memories (which Liz isn’t even aware of) portray a mixed picture. A Katarina who tells Kate she’s not allowed to love Masha, who kills a Russian operative in the kitchen with her daughter asleep upstairs (and who admits to Kate she considered killing her too), who continues an affair on the property of home she lives in with her family without concern for what Masha sees, who later drops her with a grifter in Nebraska who never wanted to raise a child and then fakes her own death and vanishes. Is she truly maternal or self-sacrificing? Or is she simply selfish?

Dom’s Katarina is desperate and out of options. She vanishes because it’s the only choice after the unspecified things that she’s done. Dom’s memories show little concern for her daughter other than Katarina asking Ilya to care for her if “they” take her, if they get to her and a quick phone call to tell Masha she’s not coming for her anytime soon right before she fakes her death for the world.

And then we have the distorted fire memories complete with all the questions about their reliability in terms of who was who and who did what. Katarina was there – we know that much – she may have come for the fulcrum, may have come for Masha, may have fought with Reddington. There’s a lot there that we just haven’t had confirmed yet.

So – bottom line – I’m not sure if it was fair for us to expect this hardened spy who has been living underground for over 30 years to be any more maternal than she was when she finally showed up in Liz’s kitchen. Laila did portray what I felt was some genuine emotion towards Liz and Agnes. And, for all her flaws, treated both of them better than Kirk did despite his apparent belief up until 4.08 that he was in fact Liz’s father. How else would a hunted but resourceful spy be expected to get close enough to her daughter - who currently works with her greatest enemy and is employed by the FBI - without arousing suspicion other than by a ruse?

And as far as Katarina not having a father-daughter relationship with Dom – if the story we have been shown is even partially or mostly true, we are clearly missing key events in between Rassvet and Belgrade that explain how we got from one to the other. What changed in between the time that Katarina said goodbye to her father in Rassvet and the moment that Dom and Ilya tried to blow up that car in Belgrade? Supporting the narrative that there are key events we are missing are Dembe’s statement to Red that “I’m not sure Elizabeth will ever be ready to learn about what you did to Katarina,” Dom’s statement to Red that “She’s gone because of choices you made for both of them. First Katarina and then Masha. As far as I’m concerned, you killed my entire family,” Red’s statement to Dom that “[s]he knows you tried to kill her, Dom. She wants answers, but she also wants revenge. You set her up, betrayed her–.” So there seem to be explanations for why things changed between Dom and Katarina that we are not fully privy to yet.

Bottom line: There are definitely inconsistencies between the Katarina we have seen as portrayed by Lotte and the Katarina we currently see as portrayed by Laila that constantly cause me to reevaluate my position on whether she is real or not real. This Katarina doesn’t seem to remember things we think she should know. She behaves at least somewhat differently than the Katarina of memory. Not to mention the show continues to avoid the one on screen moment that would likely resolve the mystery once and for all for most viewers: Red in a room with both women confirming to Liz that Laila’s character is her mother, Katarina Rostova.

But while you come down on the side of Fakerina, I still fall on the side of Katarina being real. If she’s not, it’s a terrible waste of time for the #3 slot on the Blacklist and what will probably end up being a full season by the time the arc resolves. If she’s not, it’s a story that should have been resolved at the mid-season finale at the latest and not dragged into the back half of the season. Not to mention I’ve yet to see a plausible explanation for why some other random woman would also have such a close relationship with Ilya such that she would drop everything in Belgrade to help him, and also be intimately familiar with relatively unknown details like Masha shooting her father. Was Red pretty dispassionate about her death? Yes. But was that in part him testing Liz to see how much she had learned from the woman? He saw the signs of struggle in her apartment. He said Aram told him the woman was her neighbor and had been watching Agnes. If he’s not connecting the dots that Katarina had her hands on Liz for some period of time (which he articulated to Dembe was the case in 7.10), he’s worse off than I thought.

I’m not sure what the explanations will ultimately be for all these disconnects, but I certainly hope we’re not spinning on wheels on another fake parent just to avoid killing certain parental theories that certain podcast hosts have managed to popularize in certain writers’ minds. Thanks for the ask.

#anon #katarina rostova #long post

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biscuitreviews · 4 years ago

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Biscuit Reviews Star Trek Discovery (Season 2) (SPOILERS)

After watching the first season of Discovery, I thought, “what first season of Trek isn’t awful, maybe Discovery will hit its stride in the second season.” Then I watched the second season...

That was a thing.

As mentioned previously in my season one review, technological inconsistencies will not matter and Lore will be taken on a case by case basis. Season 2 will be judged on Season 2 alone, but I will bring up Season 1 events if appropriate. I won’t be going over every episode as Season 2 had a continuing storyline.

Spoilers will be discussed so if you haven’t watched either the first or second season, you’ve been warned.

Season 2 immediately picks up where Season 1 left off, with the USS Discovery answering a distress signal from the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. With the Enterprise heavily damaged, Starfleet has tasked Pike to take command of Discovery to continue his mission on investigating seven signals that mysteriously appeared with no explanation.

Having Pike come in is once again an excellent way to bridge this series with the TOS timeline. We also get to see more of Pike himself as our only experience seeing Pike in action is the TOS pilot. Pike is a Captain that will do anything for the crew he serves. He upholds Starfleet’s ideals of peace and exploration. We even get to see Pike still continue to carry the guilt of being able to do nothing during the Federation/Klingon war, something that we also saw in the pilot episode of TOS which was a really nice touch of connecting that this Pike we are seeing is the same Pike from the pilot.

As for where we are exactly in accordance to the TOS timeline, Season 2 takes place at an undetermined amount of time after the events of the TOS pilot. However, from what I have observed with what Discovery presents to us, my guess would be we are about 8 years away from the first episode of Kirk’s command of the Enterprise which we saw in “The Man Trap”. Which would put the events of the pilot happening around the first or second year of Pike’s command of the Enterprise. Take that little detail with a grain of salt, but again, with what we’re presented, I feel this makes the most sense in terms of the timeline of the Prime Universe.

However, despite how awesome Pike was, I felt season 2 used him as a crutch to keep the series up. It seems that the second season wanted to highlight Pike as the main character rather than Michael Burnham, you know, who the series is actually supposed to be about?

Speaking of Michael, what’s her story this season? Finding Spock after he broke out of a psychiatric hospital. Why is Spock in a psychiatric hospital you might ask. He’s there because he’s connected to the seven signals somehow and believes that the creator of the signals, known as the “Red Angel” is communicating with him. Spock also enters a “logic breakdown” trying to figure out if the Red Angel is real or not, seeing how he’s the only person that has had any form of contact with this being.

We’ll get more to Michael’s story soon, but first let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room. How is Spock in Discovery? He’s fine. I don’t have a problem with this Spock showing more of his emotional side as it lines up more with how Spock was portrayed in the pilot of TOS. However, what I do have a problem with the conflict he has with Michael Burnham and how the writers handled the rest of Spock’s family. Spock resents Michael, why does he resent Michael? The reason for said resentment is what I consider to be one of the most offensive things to happen to Spock himself.

Amanda Grayson, Spock’s mother, saying how she couldn’t give all her love and support to Spock because she didn’t want to confuse him with his Vulcan/Human heritages and being raised the Vulcan way.

What the fuck.

Look, I know canon established that Amanda had difficulties with raising Spock and how she faced challenges with the Vulcan upbringing. But even through all of that, she still showed her love towards Spock and did her best to give Spock the support he needed during his formative years. We’ve even seen Spock in TOS and the movies be very warm towards his mother, even AOS reflected this. To have Amanda say she gave everything to Michael not only gives more unnecessary resentment Michael faces to the longtime Trek audience, but also does a disservice to the established relationship between Amanda and Spock that we see in TOS and the movies.

Let’s not forget the other reason Spock has resentful towards Michael, because she called him a half-breed when they were kids. The reason Michael did that was also really weird, which was for the sake of protecting him from the Logic Extremists to show that they hated each other. I’m sorry, but I don’t think that would stop a terrorist organization trying to harm Spock. This seems like another case of the writers needing a patchwork reason to show why they never went after Spock as a child to uphold established Lore and that was what they came up with.

As for Spock himself, well my complaints for Spock are the same as Pike’s. He was used as a crutch for the season to keep interest, which was not necessary. A Spock appearance was inevitable with the adoptive nature he shares with Michael, but to have him play the large role was unnecessary, especially with what we learn about Michael’s connection with the Red Angel.

Now Sarek, this season, I will have to admit, he was handled much better than the previous season. We see a Sarek that cares for Spock, even partaking in Vulcan rituals to attempt to reach out to his son when Spock is missing. We see Sarek doing everything possible to help Spock. Even when he’s faced with a dilemma between turning Spock over to the Federation for questioning, we see that internal conflict he faces on whether it’s the best course of action.

However, his reason for turning him over was a really dumb reason.

“Because the Federation can take better care of Spock.”

I’m sorry, but every piece of Lore, every Star Trek series, has shown that nothing can take care of a Vulcan better than another Vulcan when it comes to these mental issues. We see this in TOS, we see this in DS9, we see this in Voyager, and we see this in the movies. But it’s the thought that counts I guess? Not really.

Another reason for turning Spock over is that it’s because he believes in Spock’s innocence and that he believed it was logical to have Spock, Pike, and Michael provide their evidence regarding the Red Angel and why Spock didn’t commit the murders he was framed for. He knew that for Spock to be cleared, it was logical to appear cooperative and with the Discovery crew actively investigating the Red Angel and Spock’s alleged crime, it made sense. That part I get, and I wish that was just the reasoning, instead of tacking on the whole “Federation can take better care of Spock because of his condition.” It would have really highlighted Sarek’s loyalties to the Federation, while at the same time showing his love for Spock. But we didn’t get that. Instead we got the Federation can take better care of a Vulcan than another Vulcan.

Now, what about the other characters? Staments’ storyline dealing with the revival of his husband Dr. Culber I’ll admit is something I was not a big fan of. If anything the revival of Dr. Culber, got rid of the development and drive Staments had in the end of the first season and the need to want to leave Starfleet at the beginning of Season 2. It had the potential to tackle a sci-fi issue, is this alternate version of a character the same person, or are they a completely different person?

The initial answer I’ll admit was rather intriguing. Dr. Culber can recall the experiences, but those experiences are not his and he even stated as such. He even moves out of the shared quarters with Staments to figure out who he is as well as show that this Dr. Culber is indeed a different person. I was looking forward to the two of them getting reacquainted and see a new type of relationship develop. A new romance, a friendship, or maybe not get together at all. Instead, we got the new Culber picking the relationship back up with Staments without any real meaningful development or reasoning as to why he chose to re-enter said relationship.

Now Trek has always played with character deaths. In fact, Voyager is a series that played with it alot, at least every character died at some point, but got revived because of either breaking time loops, changing the past, or having alternate universe versions just take over. The reason it worked with Voyager is because the crew were in an unknown part of galaxy and were doing everything possible to get back home. All of it was written and ingrained in Voyager’s story and DNA.

With Discovery, this felt more like a mistake they were trying to correct in season one by negating the “killing the gay” trope to be like “see, he’s not dead. It’s Trek, just write it off!” No, I’m not going to write that off, Alex Kurtzman, you just did more of a disservice towards these two characters just like the disservice that happened to them in season one.

Saru’s arc is not only amazing, but also in many ways relatable to his self-discovery as a Kelpian. We learn that Saru’s planet, his species actually used to be the oppressors towards the Ba’ul many years ago. Now that the Ba’ul have risen to power, they have turned their revenge on the Kelpians and are now oppressing them. Saru begins to enter a stage in a Kelpian’s life where it has been long believed that he is entering death. Instead he’s entering an evolution in his species. The fact that he doesn’t know what this new stage will do or how to go about it is very relatable. As a human person, I sometimes don’t know the inner workings of my body. Everytime we see a species in Trek, they know everything about their biology so to see an alien species actually not know something about theirs is very relatable.

I did love Tilly’s arc with communicating with the mycelinal network. Thinking she’s losing her grip of reality little by little, coming up with the conclusion on what was happening, reaching out for help when she needed it and the Discovery crew giving her actual honest help. If only they actually provided that level of support for another character that reached out for help. Don’t worry, I’ll be getting to Ash Tyler later. Hell, when Tilly was taken into the mycelinal network, Discovery did everything they could to get her out. The second part of her arc, which occured in the finale, was handled terribly in the writing sense as it actually required you to watch another series known as “Short Treks” to understand as it introduces a new character, Me Hani Iki Hali Ka Po (which I will refer to as Queen Po moving forward).

Yeah, I’ll deviate from Discovery a little to briefly mention Short Treks. Short Treks was meant to be more of a supplemental series telling short stories within the Trek universe. It’s a great idea for lore building but to have one episode required to understand how something in the finale happened left a bad taste in my mouth.

Take Saru for example. He had a Short Trek episode that showed how he joined Starfleet. Yet it’s not required to watch as Saru gives what you need to know in the main series, but if you want the full experience you can watch the Short Trek episode or don’t, either way, you have everything you need. Even the Picard prologue episode doesn't require you to watch it first as again, what you need to know is in the series itself.

But Tilly’s episode regarding Queen Po, if you don’t watch it, you’ll be lost as to why this new character is important as well as her connection to Tilly.

So what about Ash Tyler, what’s he up to. He’s on Kronos! Maybe he’s acting as a liaison between the Federation and the Klingons? Nope, he’s now the husband of the new Klingon Chancellor, who was his rapist. He forgave his rapist and then married her.

Do the writers just not know what to do with him?

I’m sorry are we going to forget everything that he went through in season 1? How he would enter a mental breakdown at the mere mention or sight of her. Are we going to forget all of the physical and mental abuse that was done to him, just sweep it under the rug and forget that everything happened because they now love each other?

Look, I know canon established that Klingon women are very violent and physical towards their mates. But you know what Trek also established, that it was consensual when someone would engage with a Klingon in any sort of courtship or sexual relationship. But everything that happened to Ash Tyler wasn’t a part of Klingon culture and courting, it was not consensual, it was torture and rape in a time of war!

Look, the writers need to do better. He had some great potential to highlight issues such as PTSD and male rape victims. But it got bungled so hard that I don't even know how they can fix the mess they have made of his narrative. Would certainly be better for him if the writers stop trying to have him be a posterboy of issues that they clearly do not understand how to convey.

Oh, they have a kid too. But the father was the Klingon who’s personality and soul was fused into Ash Tyler and now he needs to protect the kid, because reasons. So he and the Chancellor fake Tyler’s death and the death of their child. Those events bring him to join Section 31.

Now, Section 31 has been mentioned here and there in Trek lore, we would see their presence every now and then in DS9. We learn that Emperor Georgiou has actually become a member of Section 31 and would be an ally to the Discovery crew. Seeing a Mirror Universe person try to acclimate themselves to the way of life in the Prime Universe, which is a very drastic change compared to what she’s used to was a very refreshing change of pace involving anything that deals with the Mirror Universe.

From being a leader of an empire that nearly brought the galaxy to its knees, to now taking orders from Starfleet. Not only that, but she must also obey her superior officers and report to her commanding officer, Leland. Whom in classic Mirror Universe fashion, does what she can to become a new commanding officer of the ship.

I’ll admit seeing more of this is something that I would like and I really hope that the Section 31 series starring Emperor Georgiou really takes off.

Leland will actually be our “big bad” for the season. He will be killed and have his body taken over by a Section 31 AI known as Control. Control’s immediate goal is to obtain consciousness, however, it’s the connection with the Red Angel that explains why Control is a threat.

The Red Angel is Michael’s mother, Gabrielle, who was thought to be dead. This actually added a lot to Michael’s backstory. Michael’s mother worked for Section 31 and was developing a time travel suit. Why was she working on a time travel suit? Because Section 31 obtained evidence that the Klingons were developing time travel technology. That little part I’m a bit weirded out on as I don’t think Klingons would even waste their time on time travel tech. Honestly that seems more like something a Romulan would do than a Klingon, but ok, I guess we’ll go with that.

When the Klingons attacked, she attempted to use the suit to go back in time to get her family out before the Klingons came. But, instead of going into the past, she ends up 950 years into the future, where Control has evolved and eradicated all life in the galaxy.

With Michael hoping for a joyous reunion with her mother, we find Gabrielle determined with one mission and one mission only, to stop Control. I actually really liked Gabrielle’s coldness towards Michael as it shows that she has been trying to stop Control for a long time. The exhaustion on her face, the zero emotion she had when reuniting with Michael and the sharpness of her dialogue delivery show a woman that has seen everything she cares for die in front of her repeatedly. So much so that Michael’s attempts to reach out to her are met with a callous mindset that Gabrielle knows too well. Why should she bother trying to reconnect with her daughter, if to her she’s simply going to die soon anyway for what is probably the thousandth time?

We even see Michael desperately trying to find some sort of connection, some sort of in to allow her mother to feel what she is feeling and that moment right there you really feel for Michael and just wish that her mother would at least hug her or something.

It’s these moments that help Michael grow more as a character and help her stand on our own, without the need of Sarek or Spock holding her back. These moments show a Michael that just wants to save her mother, and show her that this long battle she has fought can end and that the future can change. Michael has lost her mother once and she is now in a position to save her.

This is how you bring a reunion, this is how you make a character standout. By having Michael show herself and her feelings. Not attach her to something that she really doesn’t need to be attached to for the sake of creating a connection with legacy characters for the buy-in.

After the final battle and stopping Control, we see the USS Discovery and its crew find themselves 900 years into the future and that is where season 2 ends and where season 3 will begin.

Once again my main complaint is terrible writing that disrespects the characters. It disrespected Michael by having her continue to be held back by Sarek, Amanda, and Spock. It disrespected Spock by completely trashing his relationship with his mother. It disrespected Staments and Culber by just negating a major death from the previous season, tackle an interesting topic, and then just back out and move on like nothing changed. It disrespected Ash Tyler by continuing to have him be a representative of not-so-much talked about issues and still doing everything wrong on bringing awareness.

Hopefully being in the future can free Michael and allow her to grow now that Sarek and Spock are no longer holding her back since they’re now dead. Hopefully this allows Ash Tyler to no longer be tortured by the writers ignorance. Hopefully, they stop messing around with Staments and Culber and actually show both of them starting a new relationship, or just have them both remain friends or show them finding new love. Also, I hated that they used this to essentially “test the waters” on their version of Pike and Spock to see if a new “Strange New Worlds” series would be welcomed. Despicable!

But with how the first two seasons have been so far, I’m not holding my breath.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 receives a 2 out of 5

#Star Trek #Star Trek:Discovery #Disco #Michael Burnham #Spock #CBS All Access #Discovery season 2 #Biscuit reviews

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rorykillmore · 6 years ago

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ok haha relevant to ur field: top 10 tv episodes of all time?

i finally sat down and tried to do this and it’s taken me all of like, an entire evening, and i’m STILL not sure i haven’t forgotten something,

that being said i tried to the best of my ability, and also big disclaimer: some of my favorite shows are just straight up not on this list. determining my favorite shows overall would be MUCH different than determining my favorite individual, stand alone episodes of something. and with that being said...

(also i gave up trying to number-rank them. they are maybe like, ROUGHLY ranked, but i could flip flop a lot of them especially towards the middle so like, whatever)

lost - “the constant”

there are so many good, defining episodes of lost that it was kind of hard to pick one but... for me this was a good example i could think of that summed up the show at the height of like. how weird it could be and how emotional it could be. it also may be one of the best stand-alone episodes of the show objectively, i think. for those who are familiar but can’t remember, this is the one where desmond is kind of jumping around through time and the one with That phone call between him and penny at the end (which frankly should earn it a spot on this list by itself). okay i rewatched that and made myself cry so we’re off to a great fucking start!

hannibal - “mizumono”

mizumono is honestly one of the most like... perfect culminations of disaster i’ve ever seen. and i mean that in a good way!, but really, it brings seasons worth of tension to a head with near-flawless execution, it’s one of the most beautifully and artistically shot episodes of an already beautiful and artistic show, and the last fifteen minutes are like... kind of beyond description. i honestly have yet to see a season finale that’s as brutal to like, its ENTIRE MAIN CAST, and because of the impact it had at the time i felt like i had to put it on here.

true detective - “form and void”

the first season of true detective as a whole was honestly incredibly influential to like... the modern tv landscape we have today and how highly regarded television as a whole has become. it’s really important and really worth seeing. the finale, “form and void”, is if i recall correctly perhaps a little divisive because of how the mystery ultimately ended up being solved (i won’t give spoilers) but it was beautiful and surreal and creepy and for me, just the right amount of satisfying. actually for me, i’m not gonna lie, it was... and still is, very important to me personally. specifically in regards to the culmination of rust cohle’s character arc and the hopeful, compassionate note it ended on. rust was essentially a deconstruction of the “bitter edgy nihilistic main character” trope, much of his characterization was about how that mentality just ate away at him, but he found this essential moment of peace in the end that just... still really stays with me.

alias - “pilot”

i had to include this because alias has, literally my favorite pilot episode to date. in general alias has a few episodes i considered putting on this list (the finale of season 2 also being one for... Reasons) but i just had to go with this one because it’s a fucking pilot. in the television industry, pilots are notoriously difficult to get right. there’s so much establishment and exposition that needs to happen all while making sure you hook your audience that it can be... really tough to pace it correctly, and i have never seen anyone fucking nail it like alias did. of everything i’ve put on this list i think this is probably the episode i’ve watched the most times. sydney bristow in that bright red wig. still iconic.

westworld - “the bicameral mind”

westworld season 1 almost felt like it could have... ended with that finale, period. i mean naturally it did not, but in some ways if you weren’t so attached to the characters and didn’t want to see how they’d evolve, you almost wouldn’t NEED more than the bleak (well, for humanity), inevitable note it ends on. there are so many gratifying answers to the questions the season spun, so much emotional catharsis and satisfaction in dolores’ awakening and self-realization and maeve making her first real, free choice in returning to the park... idk it’s a lot. and it’s executed wonderfully. there are tons of moments that never lose their impact no matter how many times i revisit them. not much more to say than that.

buffy the vampire slayer - “restless”

possibly a controversial choice even among buffy fans? i remember at least at the time people were mad that such an unconventional episode was used to top off season 4. but let’s be real, season 4′s overarching plot was, not that great. for me, i never minded that it tied up early and that we had something really... different for the finale.

it also helps that i’m a huge sucker for like, surrealism, character studies, symbolism and significant imagery, foreshadowing, that kind of thing, and this episode is thick with ALL of that stuff. look i hate joss whedon but this was him at his best. restless is still... one of the most haunting things i’ve ever watched, and such a bold choice, and people are still dissecting it today and i’m like, “how did they manage to foreshadow some of this stuff this intricately this early in the show’s run’. i could probably go back and rewatch it easily even though i haven’t really delved into buffy in forever. “once more with feeling” also gets an honorable mention to being the best musical episode of a show to date.

black mirror - “nosedive”

okay i was really tempted to put uss callister on this list because i enjoyed that so immensely, it’s one of my favorite things ever, but uss callister is so... almost movie-like that it almost feels unfair to put it on this list with more traditionally structured television episodes. so apart from that, i have this inexplicable fucking soft spot for nosedive. i think about it all the time. it’s the black mirror episode i’ve rewatched the most. i’m not even sure if i can articulate why i love it so much except that... well, firstly it is another character study (with bryce dallas howard giving a wonderful and moving and vaguely unhinged performance), but also like. i think it is perhaps one of the most insightful episodes of black mirror overall. the point isn’t to be... bleak, necessarily, but its message is important. it’s less about ~the dangers of social media~ i think and more about how people relate to one another (or don’t, and how painful it can feel to not really emote or connect or find sincerity) and just, the social media app being a vehicle for that. stories about emotional suppression and catharsis always hit me hard.

oh and since black mirror is an anthology series with all standalone episodes, you can watch this even if you’ve never dabbled in the show before! go see it if you haven’t!!

grey’s anatomy - “losing my religion”

so i knew i wanted to put a grey’s anatomy episode on this list but i wasn’t really sure... how to go about picking just one, because grey’s has so many iconic individual episodes that have really. permeated television culture at this point. i don’t know, how do you just pick one? but i went with losing my religion because 1) i do genuinely feel that it contains some of the shows best and most poignant and memorable to date, i mean, even like 13 years later people remember the culmination of the denny storyline, and 2) i distinctly remember this being the point when i was watching the show for the first time that i really... consciously, vividly, felt myself falling in love with it and appreciating it for all that it was.this is really the point where you can’t write off grey’s anatomy as a one-dimensional quirky medical drama anymore no matter how hard you try. so it’s on here for nostalgic reasons too

also, this was the episode that launched “chasing cars” as the song that reduces literally everyone to tears, so there’s that,

ahs asylum - “madness ends”

for all the shit i’ll give ryan murphy, i truly still believe that ahs asylum was his masterpiece. it is perhaps the most sincere and tender and brutally real i’ve ever seen his work get. and madness ends will always be... one of my favorite season finales ever, and something i’ll always remember so fondly and emotionally. it also, and maybe this is an unconventional opinion, but it is also the most hopeful the show has ever felt to me. the most forgiving, the most kind. the closure it grants lana, kit, and jude, and even MARY EUNICE (wait was this the episode she died in? i think. i don’t remember) was just... i don’t know if you can get more satisfying than that. jessica lange’s performance in this episode specifically, and the ending of jude’s story, is something that’ll stay with me forever (there’s a reason that i consider jude to be one of my favorite characters, like, ever). i actually haven’t rewatched it in full, let alone this specific episode in so long but... yeah that shit stays with you

and last but incontestably not least...

the leftovers - “international assassin” or “certified”

guess what! for the leftovers, i actually COULDN’T pick just one! and if there’s any show on this list that deserves two episodes... well,

“international assassin” is a lot of people’s favorite episode, from what i understand. at least, its usually the critics’ favorite episode. and it wins a lot of points with me for the same reasons “restless” does (it’s basically another instance of like, the show taking a break to do a completely different kind of surrealist episode) and it marked the first time the show really like. completely abandoned all pretense of reality and went all-out mysticism. and it fucking worked. everything about this episode is a masterpiece. to give you a basic premise if you’re not familiar, basically. the main character, kevin, has spent the entire season behind haunted by... either a ghost or a hallucination (you’re not sure at that point as an audience member, but kevin is leaning towards ghost) and is told by someone that in order to get rid of her. he essentially has to die, go to purgatory, and confront her. the end result is... something you couldn’t even imagine and i don’t think i could fully put into words, but as most things in the leftovers are, it ends up being startlingly insightful and compassionate and is 100% guaranteed to make you feel very deeply for a character that most people hated up until that point

“certified” isn’t as much as a standout but for me it is one of the most powerful episodes in an already incredibly powerful show. it’s essentially devoted to giving closure to one of the characters (who happened to be one of my favorites) and her longstanding pain and her struggles with being tied to realism in this world where you increasingly need to believe in something to survive. it’s hard to give much context beyond that but it is heartbreaking and wonderfully performed and i actually haven’t been able to revisit it many times since because it affected me so much

idk i could really put every episode of the leftovers on here, honestly. it is incredibly special.

#thanks tony!!#man theres a lot of good tv out there huh #fizzlep0p

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phantom-le6 · 4 years ago

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 (1 of 5)

With the first season of Star Trek TNG firmly and thankfully behind us, it’s now time to warp into the show’s second season, which although better overall still has a few horrid episodes. Anyway, let’s warp to the first round of second season episodes without any further ado…

Episode 1: The Child

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The new Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, is brought aboard the Enterprise as it prepares to travel to Aucdet IX in order to take on dangerous virus samples, which will be carried to a Starfleet Medical station hoping they will be able to devise a cure for a plague epidemic in the Rachelis System. After taking aboard the new doctor, the ship is traveling at sub light speed when a ball of energy passes in through the hull, eventually settling in the womb of Counsellor Deanna Troi. Captain Jean-Luc Picard wonders why the new doctor hadn't checked in with him, and locates her in the Ten Forward lounge, where the bartender, Guinan, works. Picard finds Doctor Pulaski talking with Troi about her unexpected pregnancy. The senior officers meet to discuss the pregnancy. The foetus is developing at an accelerated rate and would be fully developed in 36 hours. Troi does not know who the father is, but was aware of a "presence" entering her body the night before. Though the senior staff debate terminating the pregnancy, Troi decides she will carry the child to term.

The Enterprise arrives at Aucdet IX to pick up the plague samples, which are stored in a highly secure storage vessel. Troi gives birth to an apparently normal boy, whom she names Ian Andrew after her father. Ian continues to develop rapidly; within a day, he appears as a four-year-old child with corresponding mental faculties, and later develops to the physical and mental equivalent of eight years old. When asked if he is ready to explain who or what he is, Ian responds "not yet." Having completed the transfer of the virus samples, the Enterprise heads for the Starfleet Medical station. En route, the crew finds one of the plague strains is growing inexplicably; should it continue growing, it will rupture the storage vessel and result in the catastrophic exposure of all on board.

They discover that an unknown source of Eichner radiation is causing the growth. Ian confides to Troi that he is the source of the crew's problems and will have to leave. Troi realizes Ian is dying and calls for medical assistance. Ian dies in Troi's arms, and returns to his energy form. The energy being contacts Troi's mind, and explains that he impregnated her in order to discover what it was like to be human. With Ian gone, the plague sample returns to normal and the crew continues on their mission.

As a subplot through the episode, Wesley Crusher is trying to cope with leaving the Enterprise to join his mother on Earth after her promotion to director of Starfleet Medical. After receiving guidance from Guinan, he decides he wants to remain on the Enterprise.

Review:

Within this episode, there are a number of noticeable shifts among the Enterprise crew. First off, Worf, Geordi and Wesley have all undergone wardrobe changes, with Wesley’s top now a more serious plain grey in place of the one featuring a few colours in stripes across his chest from season 1, while Worf and Geordi are sporting yellow uniforms, and Worf’s sash is now a heavier silver metal rather than the gold we saw him wearing in season 1. All of this appears to be symbolic of these characters maturing a bit, with Worf now full chief of security and tactical officer, Geordi now the ship’s chief engineer (which makes way more sense than the rotating chief engineers of season 1), and Wesley is now not tied to his mother’s apron strings.

Speaking of Wesley’s mother, this season also has Gates McFadden dropped from the main cast, and according to behind-the-scenes features on the TNG boxed set, it seems this is mainly attributed to a writer insisting the actress be let go because she complained about sexism in his writing. This is apparently supported by the fact that in season 3, the same writer left and McFadden came back, which just goes to show how bad TNG was at embodying the values of Roddenberry’s creation in their real-life conduct at the time. Though Beverly Crusher is basically replaced for the duration of this second season by Dr Kate Pulaski, played by Diane Muldaur, the actress declined a main cast credit in favour of a special guest star one, and apparently, she was meant to be a kind of female analogue of Dr Leonard McCoy from the original series of Star Trek. Another recurring guest star making their first appearance in the show is Whoopi Goldberg as Guinnan, a bartender who runs the Enterprise’s bar space known as Ten-Forward. The final change of note is that Riker is now sporting a beard, something he does for most of the rest of the Next Generation franchise.

Sadly, all these changes, as good and interesting as most of them are, land in an episode that is very much as abysmal as the worst of season 1. Here we get an episode where Troi is effectively ‘raped’ by an energy being so that being can be reborn in human form, and the being’s rate of growth is phenomenally accelerated. If this sounds like a familiar plot to some, then I’m guessing you’ve either read my film review for Captain Marvel from my Facebook-posting days, or you’re enough of a Marvel Comics buff to have read the horrendous David Michelinie-written story arc that some fans would refer to as ‘the Marcus incident’, but which I and many others would know as ‘the rape of Carol Danvers’.

In the story I’m describing, Carol Danvers develops a pregnancy that takes days to come to term, giving birth to a child who then grows at an accelerated rate, only to turn out to be the human form of an extra-dimensional being who plucked Carol from our space-time continuum in order to essentially rape her, all so he could be born in a form compatible with our dimension. In this, the Trek episode at hand is almost identical, even with the rapist’s human form causing a major sci-fi techno-babble disruption that has to be ended by said rapist leaving; the only difference is that where Ian chooses to effectively kill his human form to save the Enterprise, Marcus took Carol back to his home dimension.

The key similarity between the two stories is there’s no effort by the main characters to consider how the character whose has been subjected to a sci-fi-twisted version rape feels. There is no attempt to consider their emotional well-being, no investigation to seek and punish the culprit, and when the culprit is known, again nothing is done to penalise them. Frankly, this episode is just Trek at its worst, and there’s not even any follow-up in later episodes regarding the impact on Deanna. Add in Polaski’s stupid and out-of-place prejudice against Data, not to mention Data being very, very stupid in his question bombardment of Deanna during her labour, and it’s easy to see why most people hate the living guts out of this episode. That’s before you factor in the meeting where Picard, Riker, Data and Worf all discuss this like they should have any say in the matter. None of them are the father, the pregnancy is not happening to them, and their supposition of any authority in the matter makes me want to shove them out the nearest airlock. This episode only gets 1 out of 10 for a few good scenes not otherwise connected with the title plot.

Episode 2: Where Silence Has Lease

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

While on a charting mission, the Enterprise, discovers a zone of pure blackness in space; probes launched into the area simply disappear. As they study it further, the zone expands and soon envelops the Enterprise, leaving them in a black void with sensors reporting complete nothingness outside. Captain Picard orders the ship on a return course, but they find that they cannot escape; they leave a stationary beacon behind them, only to have it reappear ahead of them again.

A Romulan Warbird suddenly decloaks in front of the ship and attacks, and Picard orders the crew to return fire; they destroy the Warbird, but Picard is suspicious of how easily this occurs. The crew then detect what appears to be their sister ship, the USS Yamato, approaching, but it does not respond to hails. Commander Riker and Lt. Worf beam over to search the ship, where they find it empty with various inconsistencies in its construction, including more seemingly impossible physical loops. The Enterprise then detects an exit from the darkness, but cannot lock onto the away team to retrieve them before the opening disappears. The Yamato begins to fade away, but the Enterprise is able to beam Riker and Worf back just in time. More openings appear in the blackness, each closing as soon as the Enterprise approaches them. Picard realizes that they are being manipulated, and orders a full stop.

Suddenly, an entity with a distorted, almost childlike face as a result of it attempting to look humanoid, appears in the void, calling itself Nagilum. It announces its curiosity about humans and their "limited existence" and would like to test the limits of the human body. It causes Ensign Haskell to experience violent convulsions, and he then falls to the floor dead. Nagilum then states that it wants to know everything about death, asserting that it would take between a third and a half of the Enterprise's crew to complete its experiments. Picard decides to activate the ship's self-destruct sequence rather than to submit to Nagilum's whims.

As the crew prepares for their end, Picard is tested again by Nagilum through peculiar behaviour displayed by doppelgangers of Counsellor Troi and Lt. Commander Data, both of whom question the self-destruct order. After these facsimiles are gone and the countdown nears zero, the void suddenly vanishes, leaving the Enterprise in normal space. Picard orders the ship to move away at high speed, and when he is finally satisfied that they are truly free, cancels the self-destruct sequence. As the Enterprise continues on its mission, Picard is met by the face of Nagilum on his ready-room computer. Nagilum offers its evaluation of humanity, criticizing the species’ faults and claiming they have nothing in common with its kind. Picard disagrees, pointing out that their recent encounter shows that both species are curious, a logical statement to which Nagilum concedes before disappearing.

Review:

This episode is far better than this season’s opening episode, but at the same time it’s a bit confusing. While with some episodes it’s easy to grasp their intention or confirm what you suspect it to be by checking a wiki site, such as Wikipedia itself or a Trek-specific site like Memory Alpha. However, this time I’m not sure what we have there is right. The episode’s director claims it’s based on the idea of perspective and how people from different groups don’t necessarily perceive each other in the same light, but I fail to see why that idea would be explored through the idea of an alien being subjecting the Enterprise crew through experimentation. To me, that whole idea of the Enterprise and its crew being proverbial ‘lab rats’ made the whole thing more of an attempt to show audiences why lab tests on live animals can be cruel and wrong.

The fact that the episode is so confused is ultimately what makes it a fairly forgettable one among the lifetime of the TNG series. The writers should have made up their minds what the episode was meant to deal with and then deal with that exclusively in a way that wouldn’t confuse any prospective audiences. As an autistic person, I believe in what I call the three C’s; be clear, be concise, be consistent. Apparently, whoever wrote this episode couldn’t be clear if their life depended on it, otherwise we’d have a clear idea just from watching it what its intent was. For this reason, I give this episode only 5 out of 10.

Episode 3: Elementary, Dear Data

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

As the Enterprise waits to rendezvous with the USS Victory, Chief Engineer La Forge and Lt. Commander Data go to the Holodeck to recreate a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Data, playing Holmes, has memorized all of the Holmes stories, and recognizes and solves the mystery within minutes. Frustrated, Geordi leaves the holodeck, leaving Data confused. In Ten Forward, Geordi explains that the fun is in solving the unknown; Data does not understand. Overhearing their conversation, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pulaski asserts that Data is incapable of solving a mystery to which he does not already know the outcome. Data accepts Dr Pulaski's challenge and invites her to join them on the Holodeck. There, Geordi instructs the computer to create a unique Sherlock Holmes mystery with an adversary who is capable of defeating Data.

In the new program, Dr Pulaski is kidnapped, and Data investigates. They soon discover that Professor Moriarty is responsible, but when they find him with Pulaski in his hideout, they are shocked when they learn that Moriarty is aware of the Holodeck program being a simulation, and is able to access the Holodeck computer, showing them a sketch he has drawn of the Enterprise, based on the computer's description. Data and Geordi leave the Holodeck to alert Captain Picard, and Geordi realizes that when he asked the computer to create the program, he had asked for an adversary who could defeat Data, not Sherlock Holmes. As a result, the computer gave the Holodeck character Professor Moriarty the intelligence, self-awareness and cunning needed to challenge Data, plus the ability to access the ship's computer. When Moriarty gains access to ship stabilizer controls, Data returns to the Holodeck with Captain Picard.

Picard meets Moriarty, who demonstrates that he has evolved beyond his original programming and asks to continue to exist in the real world. Picard tells Moriarty that this would not be possible; instead, he saves the program and tells Moriarty that if they ever discover a way to convert Holodeck matter into a permanent form, they will bring him back. Picard discontinues the program and the USS Victory arrives, with La Forge preparing to present a model of the historic HMS Victory. Moriarty’s actions have damaged the model slightly, but Picard assures La Forge that she’ll soon be “ship-shape and Bristol fashion.”

Review:

Data impersonating Holmes briefly was a great bit in one of the season 1 episodes, and it’s brilliant seeing it fleshed out to be the subject of a full episode, which is made even better with guest actor Daniel Davis’ performance as Moriarty. In fact, if Brent Spiner and Daniel Davis haven’t played Holmes and Moriarty somewhere at sometime outside of their Next Generation appearances, I have to wonder why on Earth not, because they’re too good in these roles not to have carried them on in another form of Holmes adaptation.

Although the episode gets some praise around its focus on computers and artificial intelligence, these are just window-dressing for the real elements of the story. Leaving aside the development of the friendship between Geordi and Data, and Polaski’s irksome Data-bashing, there are two key issues at play. The first is the question of whether someone who learns by rote can be imaginative, whether they can show the invention and intuition necessary to solve something original. Because Data has characteristics akin to autism, and because as a writer who is autistic, I have struggled to develop original concepts to write about, I don’t see Data’s struggles as a strictly AI question. Rather, it is a question that affects many humans and is just being explored through a character who happens to be an ‘artificial’ life-form.

The second key issue is the power and importance of the words we choose. In this episode, a single word makes a huge difference by giving a holodeck character sentience, something that in hindsight would pave the way for the Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine’s Vic Fontaine and numerous other self-aware holographic characters within the overall Trek canon. This is why the study of language is highly important, and why our freedom to express ourselves is a great power that demands the greatest responsibility in order to be wielded well. We’ve seen only too well in recent times the damage that can be inflicted in real life through the misuse of words, and it’s a lesson we need to hammer home to people now more than ever. Without doubt, this episode is some of the finest Trek going, and I give it the first top score in my reviews for episodes of this series; 10 out of 10.

Episode 4: The Outrageous Okana

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

As the Enterprise passes through the Coalition of Madena, it detects a small cargo ship, under manual control by its single occupant. The crew makes contact with the pilot, Captain Thadiun Okona, and offer to repair a part on his ship. Captain Picard orders that the Enterprise tow Okona's ship while Okona is brought on board. The crew soon finds that Okona has taken a keen interest in the women on the ship, beginning with Transporter Chief Robinson, and is in no rush to effect repairs.

Continuing through the sector, the Enterprise is set upon by ships from two different planets, each of which locks its weapons upon the Enterprise, though both are vastly outclassed, and pose no actual threat. Debin, from the planet Atlec, accuses Okona of impregnating his daughter Yanar, while Kushell from the planet Straleb asserts that Okona has stolen a state treasure, the Jewel of Thesia. The two leaders clearly know each other, and both demand that their own claim on Okona take priority. Okona denies both accusations but offers nothing to defend himself with. Picard offers to arbitrate the dispute, and brings Debin, Yanar, Kushell and Benzan, Kushell's son, aboard the Enterprise. Okona sits and quietly listens to both Debin and Kushell's arguments but does not offer any evidence to defend himself from both allegations.

After much more arguing amongst the two leaders, Okona then declares that he is the father of Yanar's child, and offers to marry her. Benzan then declares that the Jewel of Thesia hasn't been stolen: it is revealed that Okona has been acting as a go-between for Yanar and Benzan, who are in love with each other, and that Yanar is pregnant with Benzan's child. Benzan has offered to marry Yanar, intending to present the Jewel of Thesia, which he asserts is rightly his, as a courting gift. Okona was carrying the jewel between the two planets when he got engine trouble, and he only falsely claimed to be the father to force the two lovers to reveal the truth. Embarrassed and frustrated with how her relationship with Benzan has caused such a crisis and the quarrelling of their parents, especially her father's pressuring her to marry out of honour, an exasperated Yanar declares that she is not marrying Benzan or Okona. Okona has a heart-to-heart conversation with Yanar about how she cannot throw away her relationship simply because their parents cannot "behave themselves". Yanar takes heed to Okona's advice, she and Benzan profess their love to each other in front of Debin and Kushell, who finally realize how happy their children are with each other. Picard cannot get involved in the internal political disputes between the two planets and allows Okona to go on his way once his ship is repaired, and Debin and Kushell are left to argue (in a friendly manner) about wedding details.

Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Data is motivated to explore the concept of humour after meeting Okona. Prompted by Guinan, Data uses the holodeck to generate a comedy club setting and stand-up comic as his adviser, but when he performs in front of the holographic audience, he is dismayed to find that they are predisposed to laugh at anything he says or does. Guinan cheers Data up by explaining that being able to laugh or make people laugh is not the ‘be-all and end-all’ of being human; Data agrees, but points out that ‘there is nothing more uniquely human’. As the Enterprise parts with Okona, Data is able to unintentionally make the crew laugh, but does not at first understand the joke himself.

Review:

Observant fans of DC Comics-based TV shows will note that this episode features an uncredited appearance by guest actress Teri Hatcher, who would later appear as Lois Lane in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman during the 90’s, followed by a role as Daxamite Queen Rhea in the Supergirl TV show of the 2010’s. However, her role in this late 80’s guest appearance is fairly minor, simply serving as the first among a number of ‘conquests’ made by the title guest character, the charming rogue that is Captain Okana (played by William O’Campbell).

The title plot of the episode is a rare bit of fun for a Trek episode, though it lacks for much depth, and ends up verging on being a Romeo and Juliet in Space situation once we find out Okana has been playing go-between for this episode’s pair of star-faring lovers. Luckily, Okana’s portrayal in the third act nicely fleshes the character out into the heroic outlaw definition of his characterisation as a rogue, and avoids the necessity of the traditional R&J suicide pact. Frankly, I think it’s a wonder more Shakespeare adaptations don’t work in an Okana-like go-between and a Juliet-is-pregnant-by -Romeo plot to create a true romantic ending, as opposed to the original Shakespeare version that was just tragic in its entirety. Then again, what do you expect from someone how also wrote comedies that were actually romances and tragedies that were actually comedy? If a great play-write like that can’t be accurate when categorising his plays, how can you expect him to really write well?

The B-plot is a bit more of Trek’s stock-in-trade as Data tries to grasp the concept of humour, but Joe Piscopo makes for a lousy choice of holographic mentor, as his performances were so ridiculously silly, I just had to fast-forward them. Likewise, as great as Whoopi Goldberg is as Guinnan, I don’t think she was necessarily coming at teaching Data from the right angle either. Leaving aside Data not being programmed with emotion, which is a key component in effective humour, the episode tried to throw our favourite android in right at the deep end, and therein lies the B-plot’s failure

As I’ve noted before, Data is many ways not unlike an autistic person, and this includes some aspects of his misunderstandings around humour. Now as a person with autism, there is very little that I have learned well by being thrust in at the deep end and having to adapt on my proverbial feet. By my very nature, I’m someone who needs to take time to learn something new before putting it into practice, and I need to learn in a way that works best for me. When I’ve been doing some research for my novel writing, for instance, reading books and making notes has been a key element of learning at least one key item being worked into the second novel in my trilogy.

By the same token, Data doesn’t seek any non-interactive forms of information about humour or comedy first, which he perhaps should have done before seeking the advice of Guinnan or any holodeck comedians. Unfortunately, the title plot crowds out the time he could have spent doing that, and so a great moment of character development just becomes so much cringe-worthy filler. Overall score for this episode, 5 out of 10.

Episode 5: Loud as a Whisper

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise is set to take aboard Riva, a renowned and successful negotiator, to help resolve a centuries-old war between two tribes on planet Solais V. Riva is deaf and mute due to a hereditary genetic deficiency, but travels with a "chorus", an entourage of three people in telepathic communication with him, who are able to enunciate his thoughts. Riva dismisses the Enterprise crew's briefing on the history of the conflict, explaining that the dispute has long since become personal, regardless of whatever tangible concerns that may have started it. When Riva, his chorus, and several Enterprise officers beam down for the meeting, a rebel member of one tribal delegate fires upon them, killing the chorus. The tribe's leader immediately brands him a traitor and executes him, begging for the talks to continue, but the away team has already begun emergency transport back to the Enterprise amid the chaos.

Riva, frustrated and agitated, struggles to communicate with the crew, so Captain Picard orders Lt. Commander Data to find and learn Riva's sign language in order to act as a translator. Counsellor Troi offers to take Riva's place at the mediation, but Riva believes the Solaian tribes will only cooperate with him. Riva is prepared to abandon the peace process and return to his home planet, accepting his failure, but Troi inspires him to stay, suggesting that he turn his disadvantage into an advantage, recalling Riva's own negotiating tactic.

Riva returns to the meeting spot on the planet, and to the crew's surprise, tells them that they should leave, and he will signal Starfleet when the negotiations are complete, as they may take several months. In order for the tribes to work with Riva, they will both be forced to learn sign language from Riva, which will create a shared experience between them. Thus, Riva is turning his disadvantage of being unable to communicate into an advantage. The crew leaves Riva to await the tribe representatives.

Review:

This episode is another great example of Star Trek doing a good job, for the most part. According to the Wikipedia page for the episode, the show’s writers initially wanted the deaf character of Riva to gain the ability to speak after losing his interpreters, but the guest actor Howie Seago opposed this. Seago was deaf himself, and felt that the concept would encourage a practice of forcing deaf children to speak aloud rather than through sign language, and the show amended the script accordingly. Considering this show had fired a main cast actress for speaking up against sexism in the show’s writing, this kind of receptiveness from the show’s writing staff seems almost uncharacteristic.

As a result, we get a great episode about accepting the differently abled for who they are, thought not perhaps a great as it could have been. I find it strange, for instance, that if people with sensory deficits still exist in the future, sign language hasn’t been worked into the basic education of Federation cultures or into Starfleet. It is even stranger considering how Worf notes the usefulness of the non-vocal communication style while Data is learning it, because it only serves to highlight how useful learning sign is. Had more of the crew shown an ability to sign, maybe there might have been more of a push to work sign into national curriculums, especially considering that the children of most countries are more likely to encounter someone who is deaf than someone from another country.

Even worse is Polaski having looked into prosthetics to give Riva the ability to hear and then offering something similar to Geordi. It makes her the symbol of regularly abled arrogance, an arrogance that suggests everyone not fitting into the regularly abled average is somehow defective or lesser and somehow needs ‘fixing’. That should have all been taken out because as Riva notes, we’re all special in our own way. If someone is born deaf or blind and they can be their best self with that as part of their own normality, then that is fine, and it’s not them who need to change to fit the world. The world needs to change to fit them, as it should for autistics, for the dyslexic, for the wheelchair-bound and everyone else outside of the narrow (and too often narrow-minded) scope of our societal default. Except for Polaski, all the other main characters are at least trying to embody proper acceptance of people like Geordi and Riva, and we need much more of that kind of acceptance in real life. Overall, I’d give this episode 8 out of 10.

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