Stormygeddon @ Stormygeddon @startrek.website

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2 yr. ago

Eh, I get a horror episode is something ST does all the time but I just didn't like this Plant et Zombies episode.

Might be a bit off beat to say this, but maybe the first episode of Prodigy?

It's very much intended as an entry point into Star Trek for those unexposed to Star Trek.

I'm reminded how I basically never bought a Star Trek merch as much as I like the shows.

S3E1

-Strangely flat ground in that one Gorn ship set where it looked like with all those biomechanical growths and wires it should be a little more textured.

-In the Climax, They were doing that slow frame thing that was popular in the early 2000s and has gone out of style. Was a bit jarring.

-Are they switching to a practical suit for this season's Gorn. The Gorn looked a little more "rubbery" this time around but I don't want to go back to compare.

-I liked the Gremlins 2 look of the Gorn Hatchlings on the back.

St3E2

-Sexy Spock is so back.

-When that training session was sbeing interrupted, I expected Uhura to flex with speaking some Spanish to the Ortegas, but she didn't. And then they just proceeded to tell "be careful around Uhura she knows ___ languages" which just made that expected moment stand out even more. Plus the whole Spanish speaking thing kind of took me out of it as I still think of Star Trek as having some universal translation convention, like with that one episode of Discovery.

-The music being whimsical sounding felt so forced, like it was forcing the whimsy on the regular old scenes with the Bar Tender. I suppose that's half the point, and half an allusion to the original series, but it took me out of it. The LD crossover episode did something similar too.

-Spock punching instead of doing a Vulcan neck pinch felt so wrong, not quite in line with the less-violent TOS Spock, but that was an energy being induced punch so it checks out.

-Feels a bit weird hearing a modern song in Star Trek (even though it's from the 80s. Edit: forgot about two other modern songs in this episode too). Usually they refrain from it which helped some other shows like The Orville have more of an identity by referencing pop culture.

-I'm glad Ortegas is finally getting a subplot. In the previous seasons she's always felt like she was missing "her" focus episode which other members of the crew like M'Benga got. All she had was "I fly the ship" which was a bit lame. Though feels off, like maybe it's recycling some discarded script for La'an's PTSD, or they couldn't quite figure out what to do with Erica so they're trying something more generic. I'm interested to see where it goes.

Any word as to when?

That's it? That's the lost Time Lord? It was one minute of a bony CGI monster! Defeated with a secondhand thought, literally the secondhand to a clock! I guess I do kind of like tying how the Rani thought herself so superior to the human race but then being so unceremoniously finished in return. I don't like how Omega was just "grr, me hungry." I thought his main motivations was from being lonely and I think back to him trying to have the Doctor(s) stay with him.

The whole Poppy subplot kind of rubs me the wrong way. For one, there is a non-consenting aspect to it, suddenly having a hybrid child. Belinda didn't really want for one, and it's a bit of an "accident." The Doctor didn't really ask for it either. I don't see them as a romantic pairing, and the forcing of them to be one in the Wish World was supposed to be uncomfortable, as the Doctor in this generation is supposed Gay coded (could be pan, but doesn't matter) and the Doctor generally doesn't romance his companions. All right, so they had a wish baby without clapping humie cheeks, that can be an interesting consequence. But then they pull the rug and make that baby just a human baby, and the manner of which this baby was placed into existence was by force much like how the secondary antagonist of the last couple episodes did to the whole world. Once again Belinda didn't ask for this child as she has forgotten about Poppy and is disturbed at (and laughs off) the implication of having a (forgotten) child with the Doctor. It just all feels without express consent, uninvited/forced, unearned, and uncomfortable. For the other, it feels irrelevant as a consequence and forced the co-lead Belinda to basically have nothing to do. We didn't have many moments with her having her own agency as a character all eight episodes this season and Poppy was the contrived reason she was put in a box this finale—not even a figurative box, a literal box. There could have been some sort of parallel of Belinda and Poppy being stuck in eternity in an unchanging prison like Omega, but they didn't do something with that either.

Anyway, I was sad to see Ncuti Gatwa go. It feels so soon. He didn't even face Daleks. He'll probably be remembered as the one who cries every episode and was too short lived. At least he had a couple good episodes like Dot and Bubble, Lux, or 73 Yards. If they were going to bring in one of the other Doctors anyway, I'd have liked for the cameo for Matt Smith to have been extended, or at the very least do something with the bigenerated doctor too. I'm sure introducing Billie Piper is going to result in some gimmicky contrived mess.

I didn't realize people thought twice about the Dugga Doo

It's a little weird after so many years to see the Doctor specifically called "Doctor Who" as a name for multiple sentences.

It feels a bit longer than two years.

There's still the "mavity" gag going on.

The whole "it's set in Lagos" thing felt oversold as window dressing when it mostly takes place in a barbershop that could've been anywhere.

I didn't realize how I missed Ruby until we checked in on her again. The Aesop of this episode was a little too hammered in though, baseball caps included.

I'm a little sad to see Santa's sleigh go and likely never return, but dang is the new Grimnar cool. I wonder if there is going to be any special story to Grimnar's crossing of the Rubicon Primaris. I bet Ragnar Blackmane is jealous Grimnar got to keep his pet wolves when he didn't.

Friend caught me watching and was actually intrigued enough by the premise to stay, but then got a little caught upnon the "Why didn't anyone die when ::: spoiler spoiler that lady turned to run to the well ::: ?" question.

SPOILERS throughout. I thought it was mostly okay, but kind of underwhelming with a middle that just felt like filler. -The mirrored version of the Logo had me half worried I somehow started streaming on a pirated site, but then it switched around and it was cute.

-Speaking of which, any particular reason they mirrored the text into the lake establishing shot. I like some movies where they make the text part of the environment but this ain't that.

-I get she's supposed to be out of breath but the airiness of her words is really tempting me to break a self promise of avoiding subtitles for movies to better my listening skills.

-I was beginning to wonder if those were eggs boiling in the stew and then it turned out to be poison.

-Was this supposed to mirror the beginning of DSC with the walking on sand and getting picked up?

-I loved the one lady in the background casually smiling at the burning hot torture.

-That said this ascension trial seems rather peculiar and unusual for the Terran empire. I'd have thought a dash of nepotism would've been in order but she's just some rando.

-That briefing was rather cheesy. The mystery McGuffin. "This dog bites back?"

-Stardate "1292?" but still using CE year in that earlier briefing without saying it's CE? I see they continue with the trend of making dates more about vibes than making sense or sticking to a system.

-I do like the design of the swirly space station.

-Bubble Gum spotted. Now I'm thinking about that scene from DS9.

-OMG it's those half-white and half-black guys from TOS. I never expected to see them again.

-That singer in the "bagel hole" shot along with the edible eye prop kind of made me think EEAAO.

-Okay, I did wonder why that Vulcan was laughing so hard, but I figured he might've been half, or Romulan or something. Glad to see that was a deliberate "what's wrong with this picture?" in a later reveal.

-They're really hamming it up with these "gathering the team" scenes. It's a bit goofy.

-Is there a Guy Ritchie inspiration to this movie? Wouldn't surprise me.

-I'll be the one to ask the inevitable "why doesn't it/she/they phase through the floor" question.

-I turned the subtitles on. I just couldn't make out "Give me the case" and this sound balancing was bothering me.

-Did that naked Andorian have no genitals? Perhaps confirmation of that 3rd/4th Gender from the extended stuff?

-Ugh, I hate the "breaking a bottle on a head" cliche.

-I do think the phase fight was kind of cool, Kitty Pride is among my favorite X-men, but I'll always have the why phase through walls and people but not the floor question in my mind, and the glitching at the end felt cheap—but it's always better to be unlucky in getting into more problems than out of them from a writing perspective.

-I do think the Emperor's reflection while San explains "it is all for you" was a nice shot.

-I definitely laughed at the "I forbid you to die" line.

-It does seem kind of silly that Section 31 has a uniform, even if it's all black.

-The God's End vs Godsend joke fell flat for me.

-it sure became nighttime rather quickly.

-It's a mole subplot. If done wrong I'd probably hate it. I don't like guessing. RN I'll guess it's the leader Alok who's the mole and see how that sticks.

-Are they really going so fast to say it's the mech-head with no seeming brain. I feel like it's a fakeout.

-Okay, so it was. It feels like the mole revealed plot was over a little too quickly. What was it, 13 minutes? -The tunnel fight felt a little too "shakey cam" for me.

-I'm getting flashbacks to Mozart's laugh in Amadeus.

-The callback about the confusing name also fell flat for me.

-I think they take the "we're direct to streaming, we can swear whenever we want" card too far with ST and it continues to be poorly implemented here.

-Three parts of "coded transmissions." ~40 minutes, 25 minutes, 25 minutes, roughly. I can see this having been a miniseries earlier.

-The doll's kind of creepy. I do like the "different region, different safety standard" bit of world building with the battery. It reminds me of power outlets or how British and U.S. eggs are illegal in each others' countries. Stuff that adds verisimilitude.

-I feel that the struggle with the autopilot robot went on too long, considering the mild incompetence it was showing earlier at blending in.

-The microbe has a monologue about small things surviving big explosions but then gets defeated by an explosion? Okay.

-So San gets cut in the Carotid artery it looks like. Is this a reference to McCoy saying something along the lines of "if you were to kill me cut me here" while in the Sickbay of ToS with a knife on him?

-Who was that hologram lady supposed to be at the end? She looks vaguely familiar but I couldn't place her.

It's been a gas and it's time to pass.

Spoiler throughout:

Is that an angry bullpup version of the unicorn dog from the Original Series? I like the Sense-oars pronunciation I spotted. OMG I should've expected them to address the different Klingon looks but I didn't expect to see a T'kuvma / Discovery era Klingon reappearing. When they said "solidton" particles I imagined it was going to be a metaphor about keeping "canon" stagnant. First time I see a ST character say "those words aren't real" to Treknobabble. I'm glad they're keeping the Star Trek tradition of holding up way too many Pads on the table where one should've done the trick. I never wondered if Klingons had claws for toenails, now I am. I like how Brad tries to convince others that William's the worst. How'd they know they were dropping out of warp if the next shot shows them cloaked? I expected as much with the ship changing. Never really cared much for the different classes of ships though. This Rutherford bitterness feels like it came out of nowhere. Those whales are thirsty again. I thought she was going all Kamehameha. I have a feeling the clam is a reference to something but I'm not sure what. IDK why, but that one shot of Boimler turning his head and us being able to see under his chin particularly stood out as a "bump the lamp" moment. Was there a cut scene, what was (silver?) Badgey doing there? Or was that Goodgey? Have I forgotten about them? I like how Ransom made his own rule for provisional first officers. Engage the core is a perfect Warp catchphrase.

I liked how William Boimler was so done with Multiverse fatigue. Felt topical given the current Hollywood trend.

"Sodium is not a full life" "Maybe it is for me, dammit!" Felt this in my soul.

The Bughoons were so cute.

"We'll have to lick it off" had me reeling.

I found the lurkey quite funny this episode, even if it was a bit of an embellished and exaggerated character.

And my goodness, I love the guest star that they found on the time dilation planet in this episode: The Vasquez Rocks.