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piccolina-mina · 3 years

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The entire One Chicago franchise is a mess when it comes to the romantic components of the series. But Chicago PD continues to be the most uninspired, boring, and redundant mess when it comes to their romantic ships and how they display them.

It's as if someone holds a gun to their head and says "let's choose the most basic, young, white heteronormative relationships and smack a cutesy name on them. Fandom will eat it up!" And without fail, fandom always does.

It's bad enough that half the Intelligence Unit thinks they can only date or sleep with each other. It's also bad enough that it further contributes to Chicago PD's ongoing issue with rarely knowing what to do with its female characters beyond specific plots I've come to call the "traditionally feminine womanly plots" and tying them in with a male character where everything about them hinges on their connection to a male. And also that "there can only be one" issue where only one of the female characters can serve as the primary one while the others duke it out for screentime, plot, and relevancy (congrats on always winning Lindsay and Hailey).

But they recycle the same things ad nauseum. For eight seasons, they would rather devote all of their time cooking up romantic subplots that exclusively feature a constant rotation of Ruzek and Halstead. I get it, they're attractive, hell, I'm no stranger to thirsting over Ruz myself, but they're the lotharios of the unit as if only they can be desirable, and it's gotten so old. My God.

They would rather give us these two involved with mostly young and white women, especially their squad mates, then devote screentime to literally any alternative couple.

I mean they have SHARED a love interest. Why? The only ships they have ever devoted significant screentime or development to: Halstead and Erin, Halstead and Upton, Ruzek and Burgess, Ruzek and Upton, Burgess and Roman. Qwhite shocking, I know.

Trudy and Mouch have one of the sweetest crossover romances from the franchise, and it's so refreshing to see a middle-aged couple find love, and yet, they've all but cooled off showing them, rarely give that ship screentime, and it tends to stay in the peripheral compared to the big ships.

Dawson had a romance with Brett from Chicago Fire (another character who gets passed around to the point of absurdity), but they did very little with it, and most of THAT even took place on CF.

They gave Dawson something troubling with another law enforcement officer or whatever for like a single episode, but hell, they still devoted more time and actual arcs to the two or three times where they put Halsted in similar relationships because of course they did.

Never forget that the first relationship that dates pre-series was Chicago Fire's Gabby with *spins wheel* you guessed it, Jay Halstead.

And of course there was Erin and Severide. So pretty. So ... basic.

Yet they never attempted to give us more of Dawson and his wife or Olinsky and his. The women were barely characters on the series. It would've been something.

I don't mind Burzek. Out of all the ships, I enjoy them most more often than not, but it has been eight seasons of will they/won't they bullcrap that they've drawn out. All of these ups and downs. The one non-cop related romance Burgess had lasted all of a second and ended in tragedy because heaven forbid they DON'T put that woman through endless pain.

But they've always remained the second place ship of the series, and it's just... enough. Meanwhile, we started the series with Erin and Halstead monopolizing screentime with their romantic situationship drama, and instead of giving it a rest and changing things up when she left, they switched it out with the Halstead and Hailey will they/won't they. Why?

Heaven forbid Halstead or Ruzek don't have a piece of ass.

Ruzek was even Trudy's choice for a relationship ruse to dupe her father.

In the meantime, one of the most outlandish and unrealistic parts of this series is that Kevin Atwater-- young, smart, just as hot as Chicago PD's golden, pretty, white boys hasn't had a real, significant romantic storyline in the eight years this series has been on air.

In what universe does that make sense? Single, eligible, employed, decent black man? Da faq?

Pardon my bluntness but Kevin Atwater should be seeing more ass than a toilet seat. The fact that he isn't batting folks off with a stick is ludicrous.

He had ONE fkd up romantic storyline in his one "very special black Kevin" episode in season SIX and that's it. Pardon me? Do you know how many of those Jay has had? Twice or more than Kevin.

On a series that pairs up colleagues like it's their mission, they never once even considered taking the Burgess and Atwater relationship in any other direction beyond platonic (and even that is underused these days). I'm not even saying I would've wanted that. I'm just pointing out that it made no sense given their track record to not even tease it. But Kevin is only good for platonic purposes, I suppose.

The fact that they put all their eggs in a potential Atwater and Rojas ship, that never even came to fruition, in season SEVEN of a series Atwater has been in since the beginning when characters like Adam and Jay have already had two relationships or more under their belts by then is ridiculous.

And then there's Voight. He's the lead character and never once had a romantic storyline. If he were younger, you already know they would've went there a few times over.

Yet the closest Hank has come to one is an ambiguous scene with him talking to a sex worker in a hotel room back in, like, season two. Are we to believe that he has never once developed feelings for or even had sex with anyone else since his wife died? He's never moved on after that?

They could easily allude to him being on an ace or demi spectrum if they want, even if I would side eye them for choosing the older character to do it, but if that's the case, they should do something with that.

Even a storyline with a widowed, middle- aged hardass finding love or getting some would be infinitely more interesting and at the very least something different than the same old same old Ruzek & Halstead merry-go-round. Damn, the 50 and over crowd need love too.

And yet Chicago PD keeps feeding us the same bland diet repackaged.

Fine. Burzek has been a thing from the beginning. But after Jay and Erin WHY did they need Hailey and Jay? And if they were going to do Jay and Hailey, why in the mother loving fk did we need Hailey and Adam?

The good sis bagged not one but both of the coveted white boys.

I mean, just for variety, Dawson was right there. Kevin was right there. I wouldn't have been a fan, but hell, it would at least be something different. Much better than acting as if Halstead and Ruzek are the only viable romantic options.

Why subject her to that?

Isn't it bad enough that she's more often than not reduced to being Lindsay Lite anyway? They struggle to give her a presence that deviates and distinguishes her from Erin as is. From her troubled past, and her stage of being mini- Voight and challenging his authority, to this thing with Jay.

Hell, they even repeated a whole job offer thing.

Mind you, don't get me started on how they missed what should've been the obvious chance to make Hailey queer. If I'm stepping on toes, my bad, but everything about Hailey screamed bi or lesbian. She radiated queer energy, but INSTEAD they chose to pair her with not one but both of CPD's romantic male leads.

Why beat this well-tread path yet again?

Of all the possibilities, and all the different avenues they can explore, they just keep dipping into that same well, and it's so tiresome. It's so unoriginal and uninspired. Yes, it's just so basic. I'm talking 20th century shipping... CPD is so outdated with this and it makes it hard to invest or care about any of them, especially if you already aren't inclined to ship within the series as is.

Shock me. Thrill me. Intrigue me. Bloody hell.

#chicago pd #anti upstead #I'll tag it that just to be nice #ship culture #updated with pics to break up the blocks for the visual learners

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minaminokyoko · 5 years

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Men in Black: International--A Spoilertastic Review

Disclaimer: I AM FUCKING BIASED AS HELL.

Ahem.

That's important to announce.

If you at all follow me, you know I am one of the harshest critics of fiction simply because I do this shit for a living professionally, so not only do I know what to look for, I know when I'm being duped.

I knew going in that MIBI was going to be bad.

But.

I fucking love Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.

So here's the thing: this is a bad, lazy sequel. It's no worse than just your average bad, lazy sequel to a beloved franchise. You've seen these kinds of movies a dozen times and you'll see them a dozen more.

And I think the people making the movie knew that, and that's why they hired Hems and Tessa.

Damn near every moment of these two darlings together is fun as hell.

And everything else is basically trash.

Therefore, it's a battle between my critic brain and my goblin brain.

My critic brain hates the movie. My goblin brain thinks it was harmless fun. So please take that into account for my overall opinion on the flick.

So here we go. Naturally, spoiler alert.

Overall Grade: C-

Pros:

-Let my shallow ass get this out of the way first: DEAR FUCKING GOD CHRIS HEMSWORTH IS A MOTHERFUCKING WALKING, TALKING BUFFET GOOD LORD AND ALL HIS ANGELS HE IS JUST BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, AND FUCKING DESSERT AND I WANT HIM TO JUST SLAM ME AGAINST EVERY WALL IN THIS HOUSE AND TEAR ME APART HE IS WALKING AROUND IN A FUCKING SUIT THE ENTIRE MOVIE AND HE JUST. LOOKS. SO. FUCKING. DELICIOUS. IT'S. NOT. FAIR. THAT SMILE AND THOSE EYES AND HIS CHIN AND HIS PECS AND HIS ABS AND HIS LEGS AND HIS ARMS AND JUST FUCKING BURY ME IN THE DESERT FOREVER BECAUSE I WANT HIM SO BAD KILL ME DO IT. THE THIRST IS REAL AND IT SHALL NEVER BE QUENCHED.

-Ahem. There. Now then, literally the biggest and only selling point in this movie is the insanely good chemistry between Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth. It's damn near as good as them in Thor: Ragnarok. As I said above, I really think the filmmakers took one look at this "script" and they knew goddamn well they had nothing at all. It's dripping with cliches and tired ass ideas and lack of imagination, so they knew the only way to get it made was to have two utterly charming actors who play extremely well off each other, and that is Tessa and Hems. These two are having such a good time that you actually can't help but have a good time despite the fact that you are watching a completely LAZY fucking movie. Agent M and Agent H aren't fully formed characters at all, but their interactions are a sheer delight. They play off each other beautifully and even when the movie is vomiting yet another cliche at your feet, you can't help but still enjoy the two of these doofs. It's the movie's only saving grace. I shit you not, if it were any other pair of actors, I would give this movie an F. No lie. Tessa and Hems saved the film, hands down, no contest, because they're charming and cute and you want them to be together. It's like the movie is a shit-covered diamond--the shit is everything around them, and Tessa and Hems are the diamond in the shit. You gotta stick your hand in something gross to get the valuable thing out of it, and it is for this reason I would tell people to just rent this movie. It's so not worth box office pricing, but it is worth a look-see because the two of them are a blast to watch, honestly. And do yourself a favor and look up some of their interviews too. They are cute as a button together.

-The only creativity that I saw was the faux villains and the final Hive monster, basically, but said creativity was eye-catching. It was a unique concept to see these sort of celestial beings and they were captivating each time they were on screen. Their powers were very, very cool. The final Hive monster is nothing new if, like me, you watch or play a lot of video games, but it did still have a great presence and felt extremely alien and threatening and scary.

Cons:

-Literally everything else about this movie blows. Fucking. Everything.

-The dialogue for the most part is tired. It's so tired. It's loaded with dull one-liners. Sometimes I think scripts mistake quips with actual jokes. These characters have almost nothing of interest to say in the whole film, and mind you, I do know that sounds like it makes no sense, but it's true. Almost every interesting thing about these characters is off-screen. Seriously. The backstories sound way more interesting than what's presented, and do you know why? Because this fucking movie TELLS YOU EVERYTHING. There is almost NO showing. It doesn't hit any emotional bits. It just loudly announces them like my favorite bit from Futurama: "You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!" That's the biggest problem here. There are Captain Obvious statements fucking everywhere, and what's worse is any emotional beats of connection are also loudly announced in cliche fashions and there's almost no weight given to M or H as characters as a result. It's just noise. Most of the dialogue in the movie is white noise you don't at all need to hear.

-All the cool shit about M and H is withheld. We understand M's motivations just fine, but H's are not dealt with, and that's frustrating because he seems to be fascinating offscreen. For example, being the dude that saved the world might be big shoes to fill and he seems as if he was having trouble coping, or he got a big head from the experience and got sloppy because he was the golden boy. In the hands of an actual competent writer, this could have really, really worked well. But they skip over it. Over and over again, this lazy ass movie skips shit we should have seen, like M growing up trying to tell everyone what she saw and being ridiculed. I wanted to see her long search for MIB. I wanted to see her learning to hack and investigate like Harriet the Spy or something. It could have been a great, compelling way to feel like I understood her, because I would have been the same way. I love that H was just a big old goober, playboy with a heart of gold, and I wanted to see the two of them get closer than they did. H's "big old heart" speech was hella charming. So charming. I like that soft smile he gives her when he talks about the universe being one big chemical reaction. That was a real moment, and sadly, it's one of the few we get with the two of them because the movie is in such a rush to get to the next action sequence. But, hey, if I'm being honest, I only saw this movie so I had full permission to write a zillion fanfic chapters shipping them, so I will just bloody fill the gaps in myself.

-This movie is so goddamn fucking predictable it gave me a headache. Hey, remember the trailer? Well, there. You saw the movie if you saw the trailer. You're sitting there going, "They can't possibly be this boring and transparent about Liam Neeson being the bad guy, can they?" Yep. They fucking can. It is so obvious that I would argue this might be an MIB movie for kids. The whole thing spoonfeeds you every bit of info. There is no mystery and no surprises period. It makes you want to bang your head on a wall with how obvious every single story beat is.

-The ending is nonsensical bullshit. There, I said it. Fuck you, movie. You don't get to try for the emotional wham of separating the partners because you didn't properly make them fucking partners. J and K's bittersweet ending made sense because the two of them went through HELL together, and while they bickered, they liked each other. The other thing is that their skillsets matched their actions at the end. K was exasperated and tired, but he was a good teacher and he knew J loved the job. J was the job, and that fit his character. K had been through years and years of battles, and he needed to rest, and that fit his character. Slapping H with the role of director does not fit his character. We see him as a rough and tumble cowboy type of agent. He parties and he smiles and he kicks ass. What the fuck about that makes you think he should be in charge when Agent C is like right there? I actually sat there waiting to see if they had a post credit scene that undid it because it made NO SENSE. The only reason they busted up the partners was an attempt to echo the original movie. That's fucking it. There is no reason that Agent M can't stay in London, and there is no reason Agent H would accept the leadership position when he's all about fun times and explosions. It's a load of crock and I do not accept it at all, so you'll see me rewrite that shit in fanfics as well.

-All of the above adds up to the final point that this is definitely an unworthy sequel to the original. Not MIB 2 or 3, mind you. I hated MIB 2 so much it made me not watch MIB 3, and from what I hear, MIB 3 was marginally better but still not good. The movie is doing new things, and yet it feels a lot like a small child trying on his dad's shoes, for God's sake. It literally stops entire scenes to fellate the original movie with cameos and borrowed plotpoints or references, and it takes you out of the experience. There's nothing unique about this movie except for who is starring in it. That's the tragic part. I had a good time, but in the end, it just reminds you how far we've fallen and why Sonnenfeld should have been the one to handle this sequel. He had a very, very sharp creative mind and that's why MIB is in its own category as an action-comedy. It was clever and interesting and it actually made you care about your leads, and it didn't rely on nothing but a cliche storm. So I am sad that it's not going to do well at the box office and I'm sad it wasted two extremely talented actors on a sad, boring project that isn't worthy of the name it's using, but at the same time, I signed up for this, so oh well.

In the end, this is a movie that would be intolerable but it's got two strong leads that keep you smiling anyway. I cannot recommend it at all unless you are a die-hard Hems and Tessa fan the way that I am. If you are, hey, you'll still be annoyed at how lazy it is, but you'll get a giggle out of them being cute as hell. There are raw materials in this movie that are in fact good, but it's all carried out sloppily as possible, and that's truly a shame.

Here's to all the fanfiction my stupid ass is about to write.

Kyo out.

#men in black #men in black international #MIBI #tessa thompson #chris hemsworth #spoiler alert #spoilers #movie review #film review

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defenestram · 6 years

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Also, I forgot to mention this last post, but I’m tired of the perpetuation of POC as villains or “not-quite-wholesome” characters in Fantastic Beasts (and throughout much of the harry potter series itself.

Bernadette the Executioner from the first movie feels like a very obvious Black caricature to me, and of course she’s put front and center into the role of an executioner. I think this is a bit of a your mileage may vary moment, but personally I thought it was inappropriate?

Seraphina Picquery is a bit of a mixed bag for me since on the one hand I was excited to see her in the movie, and I’m all for a POC in an actual office of power, but throughout the film it just seemed like... she didn’t do much of anything to really show off how much power she had. She gets duped by Graves/The Albino Noodleman Formerly known as Grindelwald, and still has to rely on the Beasts gang to solve all the problems in the end. We all know that Rowling doesn’t seem to think much of public figures in politics given her portrayal of the various Ministers of Magic in the series, and while I think there was an improvement in Picquery, she just feels more-or-less placeholder. GIVE HER MORE TO DO.

Also there’s this tid-bit in here: She was then chosen by a controversial Violetta Beauvais wand, a kind said to "take to Dark magic like a vampire to blood." which... is just??? Way to insinuate that your one major POC character with some modicum of power might also be evil and bad and dark, despite there being no currently documented evidence to back up this particular insinuation or even a bit of a throwaway line of “but Picquery was so resolute in character that she learned dark magic!!!111!! but only used it for the betterment of witches and wizards and No-Majs”

On another note, I hate the term No-Maj. I hate it.

I don’t know much about Leta Lestrange other than the snippets from the trailer and from the first film, but given the last name, and given that Newt got himself expelled because of one of her experiments? Yeah. I’m sure that she’s going to be problematic. I’ll hold my breath until we actually see what her greater role is, but I am not at all optimistic.

And then lastly... well, Nagini. If you can’t see why it’s problematic that a woman of color is given a bloodline curse that eventually forces her to become a terrible beast? Especially when said beast is revealed to be the familiar/soul-vessel to an evil supremacy-based wizard who has no qualms when it comes to enslaving and killing scores of people just because they were “inferior” in status?

I just... POC deserve so much better from this franchise, especially since there should be ample room with the setting of the United States (and possibly the rest of the world) to have strong and well-rounded characters of color who can actually have a functioning role in plot beyond just being gross caricatures, ineffective props, or just straight up minor villains to be eventually vanquished down the line.

#harry potter series #Aaaaand feel free to lambaste me or debate with me on this i'm always excited to get differing arguments and points #Also like... if you're going to give us a Maledictus #like... that's interesting enough that you don't need to attach it back to Nagini and he-who-must-not-be-nosed #but sure #suuuuuuuuuure #i'm still salty over this #fantastic beasts and where to find them

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calliecat93 · 3 years

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Star Trek Episodes 55-59.

Spock’s Brain: This is known as one of the worst episodes in the entire franchise. And... it was meh. It was not good by any means, it’s stupid and kinda sexist. But honestly other episodes like Gothos and Wolf in the Pack turned me off even more than this and consideirng the latter involved freakin’ Jack the Ripper, I don’t even see the plot of Spock’s brain being stolen as that ludicrous. You can tell that the cast weren’t that into it as pretty much all of them gave up. I think that DeForest Kelley was the only one trying at all by the end. I do like the lengths that the crew goes to try and restore Spock and even little things like Kirk turning to speak to Spock until realizing that it’s Scotty. McCoy also being willing to sacrifice himself at the end to get the knowledge to restore Spock despite what it could do to him and succeeding even when he loses the knowledge just further emphasizes why he’s my favorite. So yeah...I need to get through the rest of the franchise before I agree that this is the worst, but as far as TOS goes there were others I disliked more. It’s stupid, but it has some small things that helped it stay as just meh for me. 2/5.

The Enterprise Incident: I’m starting to understand why S3 isn’t looked upon highly. I mean this wasn’t a bad episode, but it has issues. I liked having a better look at the Romulans and that they had a female Commander. She got duped easily, but hey at least they appear equal opprotunity. I fully admit that I was disliking ithe episode at first because of how Kirk reacted to Spock, it felt utterly OOC even with the episode outright saying in the beginning that he’s acting OOC. I was especially pissed at him threatning to kill Spock twice for confirming that he was unstable and broke treaty... though IDK how I felt about Spcok doing that at all. But then it turned out it was a gambit, and while I quesiton how they had time to plan it, it DID make the OOC actions much easier to tolerate. Also McCoy catching on and playing his part with probably no forewarning was awesome. Kirk also going undercover as a Romulan was cool since we haven’t seen him do much espionage work. It’s a decent episode overall. And I do think it does show how ultimateley loyal to the Enterprise that Spock is, denying any appeal at a higher position given to him. I felt it could have been better if they held back on the Romulan Commander trying to seduce Spock scenes and done Kirk a bit better, but it was a fine watch. 3.5/5.

The Paradise Syndrome: Oh Dear Lord, this was painful to watch. It’s the 60’s, but the Native American/white savior stereotypes and clear use of brownface is just... painful. Extremely painful. It had some good things, like the concept of the Preservers. The plot of Kirk getting amnesia and being stuck alone on an alien planet and being brought up into a new culture isn’t a bad idea at all and would have plenty of chances for drama on both his and the Enterprise’s end. But needless tosay the way they went about it was both not great and outright offensive. Not out of place in this era admittedly, but that doesn’t make ot better. The B Plot pf the crew dealing with an asteroid after having to leave Kirk was alright, thOse were the scenes I liked the most at least woth Spock pushing himself to stop an asteroid/not grt killed and McCoy going back and forth between getting on him for the risks and he trying to make sure that he’s grtting proper rest and care. At least I got good Spock and McCoy content out of this. Otherwise, not an episode I intend to revisit anytime soon. 2/5.

And the Children Shall Lead: It was meh. It’s always a gamble when you use children actors, but they already did the creepychildren thing in Miri, and imo much better there. The plot is a decent one with the Enterpirse finding children who are glad that their parents are dead But the execution leaves a lot to be desired and it just feels dumb. Seeing the main cast with the kids is kinda cute, but that doesn’t male up for it. Also the main villain... they hried a lawyer to play him for some reaosn and... yeah IDT I need to say anything more. I pretty much zoned out of it completeley which isn’t a good sign. Medicore at best, not good for sure. 1/5.

Is There in Truth No Beauty?: Out of the five I watched today, this episode was by far the best one. I really enjoyed Miranda, she’s smart, indepemdant, and perfectly capable despite being blind. Also McCoy figuring that out on his own and keeping it to himself until it became necessary to reveal it was freakin’ great and I love how he respected her privacy. Seriosuly, McCoy is the bright spot that has carried these episodes for me. The concept of Kollos is interesting and how glimpsing it can drive a human mad, which lead us to the situaiton of the week. There’s a theme of beauty in this episode with Miranda being look at for her looks despite not being interested in romance and she also asks if Kollos is ugly, or if it posesses a madness-inducing beauty. It’s also interesting that Miranda is envious of Spock’s own telepathic/mental abilities. She’s probably the best written female character in this incarnation with how complex and capable she is despite her blindness. I really enjoyed this one and after one okay episose and three not that good ones, this was a good ending point. Also Spock emoting after the merge with Kollos terrified me cause oh God I’m not used to it, though hey glad that Nimoy can do more! Only real complaint is that some of the first perosn camera angles just looked... weird. Overall though, good episode. 4/5.

Yeah... I can see why S3 isn’t viewed very highly if this is how things started. I’m hoping it grts at least a little better since I’ve still got 19 episodes to get through. I’m glad that we ended on a pretty good spot, but yeah... not having as much fun with this as the past two seasons thus far. But plenty more to go, so we’ll see if we can rise up from this.

#st watchthrough #star trek tos

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rachelbethhines · 7 years

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Is it for me?

The Tosh Era

The Time Meddler - The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve

There was a lot changing of hands during the 3rd season of the show. Donald Tosh came in to replace Spooner as head writer. During the middle of his run Verity Lambert step down as producer and John Wiles took over. Neither he nor Tosh would last very long, both leaving in the middle of the season.

Where to Start

The Time Meddler is a fairly good jumping on point for the show. It introduces a new companion and reintroduces some of the main concepts of the series to the audience. While also setting up new ideas that would later become staples of the franchise.

However my previous warning of not trying to watch whole stories in one go applies doubly here, as The Daleks' Master Plan is the longest serial in the series; clocking in at 12 episodes. So take it slow.

Missing Episodes

This era has been hit the hardest by lost episodes. Only one serial exists in its entirety.

Galaxy 4 - Only one episode has been recovered. For the other three you’ll need recons or audio

Mission to the Unknown - is only one episode long and it’s missing. However there are multiple ways to experience it. First there is the recon and then the audio. There’s also a fan made animation that’s of the same quality as the BBC’s official animations and can be found online. Plus there is a fan made short film reenactment.

vimeo

Since this story was the first Doctor-lite episode, the film isn’t harmed by the lack of regulars and the parts can be recasted easily.

The Myth Makers - All of the episodes are missing. The only thing that exists is a short clip of Vicki’s leaving scene, and we’re lucky to even have that. Once again recons and audios to the rescue.

The Daleks' Master Plan - Only three parts of this twelve part epic exist. There’s some clips and of course, audios, recons, and a well regarded set if novelizations. One of which includes the novelization of Mission to the Unknown. There’s also a pretty popular fan animation of the episode “The Feast of Steven”, which was the first Christmas special.

youtube

It’s gotten taken down by the BBC before. So if you’re interested in seeing it, I’d watch it as soon as possible.

The Massacre - is also completely missing. You’ll have to follow the usual recourse of audios, recons, and/or novels.

Tone

Remember how I described the first era of Doctor as serious and dark, but not grimly so? Yeah, this era is grim and gritty. Everything from implied rape, to mass murder, to whole worlds blowing up, this is easily the darkest Doctor Who has ever gotten. Two companions die for good, two historical massacres happen, and one episodes ends with literally everybody dead.

Granted this is still a 1960s children show so nothing shown is very graphic or gory. It’s certainly no Game of Thrones by any means. Hell, it’s not even Torchwood. But it is devoid of humor for the most part (with The Time Meddler and “The Feast of Steven” being the exceptions) and if you’re looking for a lighthearted adventure series than this era isn’t for you. However if you love drama, lies, betrayal, and the thrill of never knowing who’s going to die next, then you might want to give this era a shot. Assuming you don’t mind recons.

The Doctor

This is arguably the era where the First Doctor makes his greatest strides towards being the hero we know him for. Surrounded by death, destruction, and the constant lost of friends, we began to see a Doctor humbled by his experiences and questioning if there’s more to life than just exploring for curiosity’s sake. Hartnell gives some of his most touching and profound performances during this era. Like little stars of hope against an increasingly darkening sky.

The Companions

Slight spoiler warnings as I do reveal which companions die during this era.

Vicki - As strong willed, adventurous, stubborn, and impetuous as ever, Vicki goes through very little change. She does however, grow even more independent than before promoting her to leave during the middle of the era. A girl from the far flung future choosing to stay in ancient history for love and adventure.

Steven - Steven is also a space pilot from the future, so this era marks one of the rare times in Doctor Who where the Doctor doesn’t travel with a companion from present day. Originally meant to replace Ian as the action man of the team, Steven actually winds up being something a fusion between Barbara and Ian. He has a strong moral backbone and becomes the Doctor’s conscience in their place. Like Barbara he tends to use his wits and his words to save the day rather than his fists, though he is capable of throwing a punch, but like Ian he’s more affable and is quite over protective of his friends.

What makes Steven unique, outside of Peter Purves wonderful performance, is that he takes on more of a big brother role rather than a parental one. Meaning he has a different dynamic towards Vicki and the rest of his female friends.

Katarina - Katarina is one of those companions who’s interesting on paper but lacking in execution. A sweet and mild mannered maid from ancient Troy, Katarina is flung into the horrors of the far future and finds herself way in over her head.

What really makes her interesting is that she views modern sci-fi concepts through the eyes of fantasy and magic. The Doctor is a demigod, his tardis a magical temple, the daleks monstrous cyclops, and her journey through time and space an adventure in the underworld. She may not know what pills or keys are, but she can piece two and two together and make out what they do even when she doesn’t fully understand how they work.

Sadly though the writers gave up on this idea halfway through and decided that writing for someone so different from the norm was too hard. Therefore, Katarina has the honored distinction of being the first companion to ever die; nobly sacrificing herself to save her new found friends and the rest of the universe.

Sara Kingdom - There’s a bit of debate on weather or not Sara counts as a companion. That all depends on how you define “companion”. Like Astrid Peth or Jenny from the new series, Sara is meant to fulfill the companion role but only for one story; as she dies at the end of The Dalek Masterplan. However, given that that particular story is extra long, and she travels on the Tardis to many different locations through out it; many are inclined to include her on the list. She even proved so popular that expanded media has given her an extended shelf life and many extra adventures outside of her one on screen story.

But why is she so popular? Well for two reasons; for starters she is the first action girl in the series. A trained soldier from the future, Sara is a ruthless combatant on the field; both with fire arms and her fists. The second reason is because she’s morally complex. When we first meet her, she murders her own brother in cold blood. All because her government ordered her to. Once she’s betrayed by the government she trusted and realizes she was duped into killing her family, she joins the Doctor in his quest all in the vain hope to seek revenge. A goal that ultimately becomes her undoing.

Personal Opinions

I do love the experimental nature of this time in Doctor Who, and I admire the chances they took, but overall this era is something of slog to get through. The lack of watchable episodes doesn’t help matters, but there’s also an issue of pacing as The Dalek Masterplan, while impressive in scope, has really no business being twelve parts. With some episodes seemingly having little to do with the over all story.

All in all it’s my least favorite of the various Hartnell eras, but it’s still Hartnell so I’ll go back to rewatch it more than some other doctors.

#doctor who #classic who #First Doctor #William Hartnell #donald tosh

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phantom-le6 · 3 years

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 (3 of 6)

Continuing our look into season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, here’s a third round of episode reviews, beginning with the first of three mid-season two-part episodes that during the last two seasons of the show.

Episode 10: Chain of Command (Part 1)

Plot (as given by me):

The Enterprise rendezvous with another Starfleet vessel, the Cairo, where Picard learns from Vice-Admiral Nechayev that he is being relieved of command of the Enterprise. Nechayev later briefs Commander Riker, Counsellor Troi and Lt. Commander Data that following a Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor, the Cardassians have mobilised some of their forces along the border with the Federation and their communications traffic has increased 50%. Suspecting this may be prelude to a new offensive by the Cardassians, Nechayev has assigned the Cairo s commanding officer Captain Edward Jellico to command the Enterprise as it heads to the border to engage in talks with the Cardassians. Jellico was apparently crucial in negotiating the peace treaty between the Federation and the Cardassians, which is why he is to lead the mission in Picard’s absence.

However, Picard is not the only member of the Enterprise crew being reassigned; Dr Crusher and Lt. Worf are also reassigned as part of a clandestine mission, which the three officers begin to train for as Jellico comes aboard and takes command in a formal ceremony. Jellico is much more strict and less personable in his command style, expecting immediate implementation of his orders regardless of whether they’ll take time to implement or not, and he orders Troi to wear a standard issue uniform while she is on duty. He also uses a lot of strange tactics with the Cardassians when they arrive rather than being more diplomatic as Picard might be, and Troi senses Jellico is not as sure of himself as he acts.

Picard, Dr Crusher and Worf eventually leave the Enterprise via shuttlecraft to begin their mission, which Picard reveals en route is to infiltrate a Cardassian base on Celtris III. Apparently the Cardassians have been experimenting with a new means by which to safely utilise metagenic weapons; viruses programmed to consume any DNA they encounter, effectively wiping out all forms of life on a planet while leaving its population centres and infrastructure intact. Picard was chosen because he is the only officer in Starfleet with any expertise relevant to the delivery system, Worf for his combat expertise and Dr Crusher for the medical knowledge necessary to identify and destroy any bio-weapons found.

The trio manage to convince a Ferengi smuggler to provide them with transport, and the infiltration is initially successful. However, it soon turns out that the whole thing is a trap, and the group is ambushed by Cardassian soldiers. Dr Crusher and Worf manage to escape, but Picard is captured. He is then brought before a Cardassian officer later revealed to call Gul Madred, who reveals the trap was designed so the Cardassians could capture Picard. Madred also notes that Picard is there to answer questions rather than ask them, and any answers the Cardassians find unsatisfactory could mean his death.

Review:

For a long time, Next Generation had shied away from multi-part episodes outside of season finale cliff-hangers, presumably because mid-season episodes of the multi-part persuasion were part-and-parcel of any show having an over-riding continuity, whereas Next Gen was very much supposed to be episodic television that could be dipped in and out of. However, with more and more single episode referring to TNG’s own continuity and to the wider franchise of Trek, not to mention the season 5 two-part episode ‘Unification’, it seems the way was opened to really start this kind of longer episode on a regular basis.

That all being said, it appears that if the Memory Alpha wiki site is to be believed, budgetary reasons were what led to this episode becoming a two-parter. As a one-part episode where Picard was rescued by the end, it was too expensive, so expanding it over two parts was apparently governed by financial concerns. Regardless of the reasoning, the episode is quite an interesting re-jug of the show’s normal status quo. All of a sudden, we have a new captain in command and the old one going off on a stealth mission with two other key officers, and we finally see Counsellor Troi compelled to wear a standard uniform, something she then largely sticks with for the whole rest of the show and on into the films.

The problem with part 1, however, is that while it’s got enough other things going on to keep it from being pure set-up, I also feel like the change of command wasn’t very well-handled. From what we come to learn is standard dismissive bitchiness from Nechayev and Jellico’s out-of-place harsh command style, we’re being set up to loathe and despise the change of commander, so you know from that and the fact this is all coming mid-season that the change is highly unlikely to be permanent. However, the episode tries to make us buy into the idea that it might be with a formal transfer of command ceremony. A valiant try, but for me it’s a waste of time.

To make the change of command seem more likely to be permanent, they should have brought on board a commanding officer who wasn’t acting like a militaristic hard-ass more suited to a 20th century military than 24th century Starfleet. The new CO should have had a different command style but still have gotten on well with the crew instead of rubbing them all the wrong way. Next, there should have been interim replacements for Crusher and Worf as well. Surely there’d need to be a new chief medical officer and new Chief of Security/main Tactical Officer in a situation where combat and casualties would be likely if talks with the Cardassians went sideways. As it is, every time Jellico was on screen, I was hoping for him to get blasted away by a Cardassian. For me, this episode gets 7 out of 10.

Episode 11: Chain of Command (Part 2):

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Gul Madred uses a number of torture methods on the captured Captain Picard, including sensory deprivation, sensory bombardment, forced nakedness, stress positions, dehydration, starvation, physical pain, and cultural humiliation to try to gain knowledge of the Federation's plans for Minos Korva. Picard refuses to acknowledge Madred's demand for information. Madred attempts another tactic to break Picard's will: he shows his captive four bright lights, and demands that Picard answer that there are five, inflicting intense pain on Picard if he does not agree.

Meanwhile, the Cardassians inform the Enterprise crew that Picard has been captured. Captain Jellico refuses to acknowledge that Picard was on a Starfleet mission, an admission necessary for Picard to be given the rights of a prisoner of war (along with better treatment) rather than being subjected to torture as a terrorist. This leads to a heated argument between Jellico and Commander Riker, which ends with Jellico relieving Riker of duty and promoting Lt. Commander Data to acting first officer. Lt. Commander La Forge detects residue from a nearby nebula on the hull of the Cardassian delegation's ship, and Jellico suspects a Cardassian fleet may attempt to use the cover of the nebula to launch an attack on Minos Korva. Jellico determines that their best course of action is to place mines across the nebula using a shuttlecraft. However, Riker is the most qualified pilot for the mission. Jellico visits Riker in his quarters, where he candidly criticizes Riker's performance as a First Officer and Riker does the same for Jellico’s command style. Jellico asks, rather than orders, Riker to pilot the shuttle. Riker agrees, and he and La Forge successfully lay the minefield. Jellico uses the threat of the minefield to force the Cardassians to disarm and retreat, as well as agree to the release of Picard.

With word of the failure of the Cardassians to secure Minos Korva, Madred attempts one last ploy to break Picard, by falsely claiming that the Cardassians have taken the planet and that the Enterprise was destroyed in the battle. He offers Picard a choice: to remain in captivity for the rest of his life or live in comfort by admitting that he sees five lights. As Picard momentarily considers the offer, the Cardassian head delegate enters the room and informs Madred that "a ship is waiting to take him back to the Enterprise." Picard realizes he has been duped. As Picard is freed from his bonds and about to be taken away, he turns to Madred and defiantly shouts, "There are four lights!" Picard is returned to Federation custody and reinstated as Captain of the Enterprise. Picard admits privately to Counsellor Troi that he was saved just in the nick of time, as by that point he was broken enough to be willing to say or do anything to make the torture stop. In addition, by the end he actually believed he could see five lights.

Review:

It’s in the second part of ‘Chain of Command’ that we finally see something of what Trek should be in that it tackles an on-going issue from real-life society. However, because of how part 1 was presented, it’s not so easy to see. Basically, this is an anti-torture episode, but that fact is kind of hidden by the fact that Picard is being held captive by a highly militaristic race like the Cardassians who are fundamentally villain characters for the Trek set in the 24th century. Because of that, it’s hard to see that this episode is trying to make an allegorical case against torture because torture is something to be very much expected of the Cardassians based on how TNG has portrayed them up until now. This episode was the last before Deep Space Nine’s pilot aired, so the complexity that show added has yet to materialise, and so if not for reading Memory Alpha’s page on this episode, I wouldn’t have got the message of the episode.

To my mind, an effective anti-torture episode should really show it being used by some rogue human or other and involve some genuine debate around its use. It’s more the kind of show that would have been better on Deep Space Nine after the characters of Sloan and Section 31 were introduced. Alternatively, it could have fit into the season 4 episode ‘The Drumhead’ or involved an over-zealous Starfleet security officer in another episode of this series. Because this episode was part 2 of a multi-part episode and combined such villainous behaviour with what was a villain race at the time, the message is lost and ends up appearing as just so much status quo.

We also get more of Jellico being profoundly unlikeable back on the Enterprise and the somewhat convenient return of Crusher and Worf before yet another command shake-up as Riker gets relieved of duty and Data not only becomes acting first officer, but also has to shift from the gold shirt of an engineering officer to the red shirt of the command branch. It just goes to show what a total tight-arse the character is, and much as I’d rather have seen him get a right cross to the jaw or a phaser hit before leaving, at least Riker put the idiot in his place towards the end. Ok, yes, Jellico did a good job working in getting the Cardassians to agree to return Picard at the end, but to me it was very much too little too late. When Jellico leaves the bridge for the last time, I want him ejected through a photon torpedo tube or the waste disposal rather than by transporter or shuttlecraft.

Luckily, the episode does far better with British actor David Warner guest-starring opposite Patrick Stewart in the role of Gul Madred. Apparently, Warner appeared in a couple of the original series films, but I know him more from roles like Captain James Sawyer in series 2 of Hornblower and Professor Jordan Perry in the second of the original live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. Both Warner and Stewart are classically trained theatre actors, so seeing the two perform together is similar to the high quality you get out of performances between Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan when they played Professor X and Magneto in the X-Men films. In other words, there’s some great acting going on with a lot of gravitas, and it makes for great viewing regardless of the roles being played or the franchise at hand. Overall, I give part 2 8 out of 10; with a more likeable interim captain, a more blatant exposure of the issue part 2 was exploring or the unlikeable interim captain getting a bit more karma for his bastard attitude, this episode might have snatched top marks, but sadly it misses out and largely relies on Stewart and Warner to save its proverbial bacon.

Episode 12: Ship in a Bottle

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Lt. Commanders Data and La Forge are enjoying a Sherlock Holmes holodeck program when the pair notice that a character programmed to be left-handed was actually right-handed. They call Lt. Barclay to repair the holodeck, but as he checks the status of the Sherlock Holmes programs, he encounters an area of protected memory. He activates it to find the sentient Professor Moriarty character projected into the Holodeck, who appears to have memory since his creation ("Elementary, Dear Data"), including during the period while he was inactive (a feat Barclay and the others claim to be impossible). Moriarty again wishes to escape the artificial world of the holodeck and was assured by the crew of the Enterprise that they would endeavour to find a way to do so, and is irritated at the lack of results on the part of the crew and their seeming lack of effort. Captain Picard, along with Data and Barclay, attempts to assure Moriarty they are still working towards this goal but their technology does not yet permit it. Moriarty is dismissive.

Moriarty confuses the crew by seemingly willing himself to existence by walking out of the holodeck door. He explains this to the stunned Picard and Data by saying, "I think, therefore I am." Moriarty creates a companion for himself, the Countess Regina Bartholomew, by commanding the computer of the Enterprise to place another sentient mind within the female character of the Sherlock Holmes novels that he is programmed to love. Moriarty then demands that a solution to get Regina off the holodeck be devised. He takes control of the Enterprise through the computer, insisting that a way be found for her to experience life beyond the confines of the holodeck.

Barclay and Data suggest trying to beam an inanimate object off the holodeck using pattern enhancers in hopes that the transporter could re-form the object as conventional matter. However, when the experiment fails and Data finds no information in the transporter log, he becomes suspicious. Data then observes that La Forge's handedness is incorrect, just as they had experienced earlier. Through this, Data deduces that he, Picard, and Barclay are still inside the holodeck with Moriarty, and everyone else and everything that appears to be the Enterprise is part of a program Moriarty created. Picard then realizes that he has unwittingly provided Moriarty with the command codes for the Enterprise. With this information, Moriarty takes control of the real Enterprise from within the simulation.

Captain Picard finds a way to program the holodeck within Moriarty’s simulation to convince Moriarty that he and Regina can be beamed into the real world, though in fact they are only "beamed" onto another simulation on that holodeck. Moriarty, believing he has entered the real world, releases control of the ship back to Picard. He and the Countess use a shuttlecraft given to them by Commander Riker to leave the Enterprise and explore the galaxy. Picard ends the simulation and the trio return to the real Enterprise. Barclay extracts the memory cube from the holodeck and sets it in an extended memory device in order to provide Moriarty and the Countess a lifetime of exploration and adventure.

Picard comments that the crew's reality may actually be a fabrication generated by "a little device sitting on someone's table." This unnerves Barclay enough for him to test the nature of his own reality one more time: he gives an audible command to "end program" to test whether he is still in a simulation. There is no response, indicating he is indeed back in the real world.

Review:

“Elementary, Dear Data” was one of the few highlights of TNG’s second season, and apparently hadn’t been revisited before now because the show’s writers believed there was an on-going legal dispute between paramount and the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the end, it turns out to be a misunderstanding; the estate had been irritated at Paramount over the film Young Sherlock Holmes. Fortunately, the estate allowed Next Generation to use the Holmes characters again for a reasonable license fee, and thus the sentient Moriarty holodeck character came back. However, this time we see Picard, Data and the ever-amusing recurring guest character of Lt. Barclay get trapped within a simulation of the Enterprise that is created by Moriarty, which is quite a clever way of mixing things up.

However, the one thing that spoils the episode slightly is the final scene where Picard suggests the reality of Trek itself may not be real and Barclay then feels compelled to test that idea. I get that it’s meant to be a bit of an in-joke given that this is a TV show, but not only does it seem unnecessarily cruel to a well-known paranoid multi-phobic introvert like Barclay to make that suggestion, but it’s also annoying when any TV show tries to suggest the reality of its own world isn’t that at all. Once any world of fiction establishes what its reality is, to my mind that reality must be its reality at all times. You don’t wait until you are mid-way through your penultimate season and then suggest it might be a fantasy. Either it’s a fantasy from day 1, and you either also show the real world now and then or make that what you’re trying to get back to, or it’s real and any fantasies are conclusively revealed, over and done with inside of a single episode or multi-part story. Having it both ways is just indecisive and moronic. Because of this, the episode only nets 8 out of 10 where it could otherwise have claimed full marks.

Episode 13: Aquiel

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The starship Enterprise arrives at a subspace communications relay station near the Klingon border on a resupply mission. However, when an away team boards the relay there is no sign of the two officers assigned there. Lieutenant Aquiel Uhnari, Lieutenant Rocha, and the station's shuttlecraft are missing. While searching the station, the away team finds a dog that belongs to Lieutenant Uhnari. The away team also finds a substance on the floor, which Dr Crusher determines is a type of cellular residue.

The crew uncover evidence that a Klingon had been on the station leading Dr Crusher and Commander Riker to suspect that Uhnari and Rocha may have been the victims of a Klingon attack. Lt. Commander La Forge backs up this theory when he examines Uhnari's personal logs. He finds an entry in which Aquiel relays her fears to her sister Shianna about a Klingon named Morag. Captain Picard contacts the local Klingon governor, Torak, and learns that Morag is commander of one of the Klingon ships that patrols that section of the Klingon Empire's border. At this point, Torak refuses to cooperate further. Picard threatens to take his case to Chancellor Gowron, a threat scoffed at by Torak until Picard casually mentions that he served as Gowron's Arbiter of Succession. Knowing Gowron would be in Picard's debt and how the former might frown upon the disrespect shown to the latter, a nervous Torak agrees to cooperate fully.

The senior staff meets with Torak, and he produces Aquiel alive. She explains that Rocha attacked her and that her last memory was escaping from him. She doesn't remember precisely what happened. To help clarify what really occurred, Picard requests to speak with Commander Morag, the Klingon who was allegedly harassing the station. Attracted to her, La Forge befriends Aquiel, and takes her to the Ten-Forward lounge. He reveals to her that he surveyed her logs and personal correspondence as part of their investigation. Aquiel says she didn't like Rocha but did not wish to hurt him. She realizes she is a suspect in his death.

Meanwhile, Dr Crusher continues to examine the cellular residue found on the deck plate. Riker and Lt. Worf, who are examining the shuttlecraft, come across a phaser set to kill. La Forge gives moral support to Aquiel as she is questioned again.

Commander Morag then arrives aboard the Enterprise and meets with the senior staff. He admits that he was present on the station, and that he took priority Starfleet messages from its computer. La Forge returns to the station and discovers that Rocha's personal log has been tampered with. He confronts Aquiel who admits deleting messages from Rocha's log, because Rocha, as the senior officer, was going to declare her insubordinate and belligerent to Starfleet. Scared that this new evidence will condemn her as Rocha's killer, she agrees to stay aboard the Enterprise because La Forge has faith in her. He and Aquiel use an ancient method of her people to bond and share their thoughts.

While Dr Crusher examines the DNA found on the deck plate yet again, the material moves and touches her hand. It then withdraws and forms a perfect replica of her hand. Due to this, she suspects that the real Rocha may have been killed by this strange coalescent organism, and a replica of him may have attacked Aquiel in search of a new body. Believing that the organism may now have Aquiel's body, Riker and Worf race to Aquiel's quarters and stop the ritual she is conducting with La Forge. Morag is also arrested, as it is just as likely he is the organism.

With Aquiel and Morag in the brig, the Enterprise proceeds to the nearest starbase as the crew keep a close watch on them both, since the organism may need a new body soon. La Forge is in his quarters along with Aquiel's dog Maura reminiscing about her. The dog transforms and attacks him, but he is able to kill it. Later, he explains to Aquiel, who has been released, that Rocha was replaced by the organism. When it attacked her, it began the takeover process (hence her lapse in memory); however, she managed to get away in time. The creature then turned to the only other life form on the station, her dog.

The episode ends with Aquiel and La Forge in Ten-Forward, where she turns down his offer to help her join the Enterprise crew. She tells him she wants to earn her way there on her own merits.

Review:

This episode is rather ‘meh’, as it was supposed to be a La Forge character episode that gave a main cast member a long-term romance and compensated for the transfer of the O’Briens to Deep Space Nine, which meant TNG had lost the only married couple on the show and was once again basically a Trek singles’ cruise in terms of its main cast and recurring guest characters. However, it ends up being taken over by the murder mystery plot, and not in the fun way of Data pretending to be Sherlock Holmes or Picard acting as Dixon Hill. It’s a decent episode, but it’s too plot-driven with no character focus or issue exploration, which means it’s not proper Trek.

The only thing I truly hate regarding this episode is that according to the Wikipedia page about it, in 2019 the website ScreenRant claimed this episode made Geordi look like a sexual predator. Presumably this is in relation to Geordi reviewing Aquiel’s logs and personal correspondence when she was through to be dead, so all I can say is clearly ScreenRant knows fuck all about proper murder investigation. If someone is believed to have been murdered, everything about the victim and any suspects has to be looked into, and it’s not like a corpse has to worry about privacy anymore. The idea that this would lead any reviewer to categorise Geordi as some kind of pervert only shows what naïve, romanticised and childish views some people hold regarding murder investigation. Far too many people out there seem bound and determined to act like Hastings in Agatha Christie’s Poirot stories, blanching at any detection methods he considers as ‘ungentlemanly’.

In the BBC audio drama for ‘Peril at End House’, Poirot unearths love letters from Michael Seaton to Mademoiselle Nick Buckley, and when Hastings objects, saying “Poirot, you really can’t do that; it isn’t playing the game.” Poirot then instantly responds, and quite rightly, “I am not playing a game, my friend; I am hunting down a murderer.” This is the perfect example of the ScreenRant idiot’s point of view versus my own; even in the world of Trek, hunting down a murderer is a serious business and you can’t avoid potentially vital information just because it might invade the privacy of a victim or, as in the case of ‘Peril at End House’, an intended victim. If you have reason to believe the information is relevant to finding the killer, you pursue it, end of debate. Geordi just mis-handled telling Aquiel about it afterwards, but he nicely recovered and was otherwise a perfect gentleman. End score for this episode is 5 out of 10, end score for ScreenRant’s ability to comprehend proper murder investigation procedure, zero out of infinity.

Episode 14: Face of the Enemy

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Deanna Troi is kidnapped and brought aboard the Romulan Warbird Khazara. After waking up, Troi looks in a mirror and is horrified to find that she's undergone cosmetic surgery to make her look like a Romulan. Subcommander N'Vek, the Khazara first officer, privately explains that he has no intention of harming her, but needs her to pose as Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan intelligence service and secret police. N'Vek has secret cargo meant for the Federation, and needs Troi to act her role to convince the Khazara commander, Toreth (who is not aware of N'Vek's plan) into complying. Troi, as Rakal, is able to sway Toreth to head for a planned rendezvous in the Kaleb sector under threat of intense interrogation techniques.

Aboard the Enterprise, the crew brings aboard Stefan DeSeve, a human who had served as an ensign in Starfleet before defecting to the Romulans. Now he has returned with a message from Ambassador Spock. Captain Picard, wary of his prisoner's motives, considers Spock's message regarding a meeting in the Kaleb sector that would be prudent for the Federation's interest, and directs the ship there.

As the Khazara is en route, N'Vek shows Troi the secret cargo - Vice Proconsul M'Ret and two of his aides, held in stasis. They wish to defect to the Federation, and his presence there would aid further Romulan dissidents to flee the Empire. The plan is to transport the stasis chambers to a Corvallen cargo ship at the rendezvous point, who will subsequently deliver them into Federation space. When the Khazara meets up with the cargo ship, Troi senses its captain is not trustworthy, and N'Vek fires upon it, destroying it. He claims he was ordered by Major Rakal. Troi later explains to Toreth that she recognized the captain of the cargo ship as a known Federation spy. N'Vek, in private, explains to Troi that their only other option is to travel to Draken IV, an entry point for the Federation, where Troi can use her Starfleet codes to allow the ship to enter undetected. Troi gives this order to Toreth, who reluctantly agrees to it. However, their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the Enterprise.

The Enterprise arrives at the designated time and coordinates, but finds no trace of the cargo ship. They start a search, soon finding the wreckage of the vessel. As the Enterprise moves in, Toreth takes this as a sign of Troi's truthfulness. Troi wants to hold position, but the commander points out that with the wreckage nearby, they will be detected, and has the ship travel some distance away while the Enterprise continues to search. Troi is worried that the Enterprise will not be able to follow them, and has N'Vek create a trail of the cloaked ship.

Toreth learns of the Enterprise trailing them, and suspects that they've been detected. She orders a collision course for the vessel in order to test their reaction. When the Enterprise moves to avoid collision, Toreth orders the ship to decloak and attack. Troi steps in as Rakal and takes command from Toreth, then orders the ship to decloak and hails the Enterprise, offering to discuss the matter. The Enterprise crew, though they recognize Troi, feign ignorance and take down their shields. N'Vek fires on the Enterprise with low-powered weapons, appearing to damage the vessel. In reality, the low-power disruptor shot masks the transport of the stasis chambers to the Enterprise. Toreth, realizing that she is being deceived, executes N'Vek and retakes control of the Khazara. Before the Romulans can leave with Troi as their prisoner, Troi is safely transported to the Enterprise. In sickbay, Troi's cosmetic surgery is reversed, and she contemplates the value of N'Vek's efforts to aid the Federation.

Review:

This is the first and only call back in TNG history to Spock’s dissident movement that was showcased in the two-part episode “Unification” the previous season. It’s an interesting episode, and for a Troi episode very good, as it nicely takes us away from seeing her having to deal with her mother or whine over something strange sensed via her empathic abilities. Personally, I’d have preferred to see Troi go into this set-up fully briefed and prepped to play the role of spy rather than being landed in it at the deep end, as some of her initial scenes do verge on being highly cringe-worthy a la the Troi episodes of old. Moreover, it would have helped distinguish it more from the later Deep Space Nine episode “Second Skin” which revolved around a very similar premise.

The episode gives us a good of character development for Deanna in hindsight as well; between her recent uniform shift and having to play a commanding role on the fly, Deanna is beginning to develop skills she will later need when she takes the Bridge Officer’s Test to try and become a full commander the following season. As such, the episode is a case the show trying to get back to what it should be. I give it a score of 8 out of 10.

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esonetwork · 5 years

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Movie review: Is ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ a worthy follow-up to ‘Endgame’?

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/movie-review-is-spider-man-far-from-home-a-worthy-follow-up-to-endgame/

Movie review: Is ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ a worthy follow-up to ‘Endgame’?

“Avengers: Endgame” is, admittedly, a tough act to follow. How do you continue the franchise after an epic, three-hour film that wraps up a story arc spanning 10+ years and 20+ films?

Actually, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” doesn’t necessarily answer that question. The latest Spidey film serves as more of an epilogue to “Avengers: Endgame” than a harbinger of the new era of Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

And that’s perfectly fine with me. So much happened in the last Avengers movie, and so much about the MCU will be changing post-“Endgame,” that we all still need some time to adjust to what the new MCU is going to be like. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” reflects on the legacy of the past films with just a few teases as to what we might be seeing in the future.

Much like its predecessor “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” one of the best things about “Far From Home” is that it feels like a teenage comedy/coming of age tale first, and a superhero movie second. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love superhero movies, but one of my slight concerns about the MCU going forward is that the “formula” may start to feel a little stale. “Far From Home” works so well because it’s a smaller scale superhero flick that really focuses in on the characters, with plenty of delightfully awkward teenage charm.

The film starts with a great premise — a high school trip to Europe — that provides an interesting backdrop for Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to process the events of “Endgame.” He’s had to deal with a considerable amount of trauma — vanishing in the snap, fighting in an intergalactic war, and losing someone very close to him — and I appreciated that the film addressed Peter’s complex feelings and didn’t try to “move on” too quickly.

***Warning: Spoilers ahead!!!***

Iron Man/Tony Stark is my favorite Avenger, and I’m still not over his death at the end of “Endgame,” especially since I didn’t think he’d be the one to die. I loved how the MCU positioned Tony as a mentor for Peter, and how both of them were able to learn from each other. Understandably, Peter is still grieving this loss in “Far From Home.”

Peter is afraid he won’t live up to Tony’s legacy, and in the end, he comes to peace with the fact that he doesn’t have to. He can take the lessons he learned from Tony and become his own superhero.

I really, really loved all the scenes with Tony’s former head of security, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), who is also grieving the loss of his friend. Normally AC/DC’s “Back in Black” isn’t a song that makes people teary-eyed, but hearing Happy play Tony’s signature song for Peter definitely got to me.

In a very different way, Peter also learns a lot from his interactions with Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). When he first arrives, Mysterio looks like the perfect candidate to join the new Avengers team. He’s got a cool set of Doctor Strange-esque powers, and he even seems like he would be a good mentor for Peter.

Of course, Marvel comics readers already know this is all an act — Mysterio uses effects and technology to make himself appear to have powers he actually doesn’t have. When he ultimately turns against S.H.I.E.L.D., Peter takes it personally, questioning his own abilities and judgement even more.

Mysterio was a great foil for Peter and an interesting contrast to Iron Man. Plus, it was really cool to see how he used technology to mimic superpowers and caused everybody to question what was actually real.

Overall, I don’t have a lot else to add about this film. It’s really fun (and funny), and Peter’s best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) continues to be one of my favorite side characters in the MCU.

My only criticisms about this film are actually found at the very beginning and the very end. I wasn’t a fan of the little joke tribute film that played at the beginning. I get what they were going for — a low budget “in memory” video made by kids at Peter’s high school, highlighting all the Avengers that were lost in the Infinity War.

I’m pretty sure it was intended to be funny, but it really rubbed me the wrong way, because it was awkwardly making light of a serious moment. I don’t want to have a laugh about the deaths in “Infinity War” and “Endgame.” Thankfully, the rest of the humor in the film is really great, but this one scene definitely fell flat and was mostly received with silence during the two showings I attended.

I also don’t know that I love the final post-credits sequence. The mid-credits clip was a great, gasp-inducing moment, and I love that they were brave enough to reveal Peter’s secret identity. But I’m not necessarily a fan of the fact that apparently Skrulls were pretending to be Nick Fury and Maria Hill throughout the entire film.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like backsliding after everything that happened in “The Winter Soldier” and “Civil War.” Steve Rogers really wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. to be more open and transparent, and is using shapeshifters to trick people something he’d be comfortable with? Also, after Peter already got duped by Mysterio, he might have a hard time trusting S.H.I.E.L.D. when he learns they also tricked him.

Anyway, maybe I’m reading too much into this. I do think the Skrulls are interesting as a concept, and I want to see more of them in the MCU’s future. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the future.

Regardless of whatever the next phase of the MCU includes, I’m definitely on board for another Spidey film!

#far from home #Marvel #Marvel Cinematic Universe #MCU #Mysterio #Spider-man #superhero

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shervonfakhimi · 6 years

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The Kawhi Trade Reaction

Yes, it actually happened. The year long Kawhi Leonard-San Antonio Spurs saga has come to a screeching conclusion, as the Spurs have traded him, along with Danny Green, to the Toronto Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a 2019 1st Round Protected that will convey if it is placed outside the Top 20. What does this mean for each party involved? Let’s dig in.

San Antonio Spurs

Let’s start with the Spurs. The market was fairly dry for Kawhi, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne previously reported. Without getting an offer that included Markelle Fultz, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum or Brandon Ingram from the three most noted suitors for Kawhi, the Spurs elected to retool and stay competitive rather than bottom out and plan for a rebuild. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it isn’t the route I would’ve taken, yet San Antonio has had plenty of success developing non-lottery draft selections and allowing them to gain much needed playoff experience. Heck, Kawhi Leonard was the 15th overall pick and no one expected him to have a championship, Finals MVP and multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards to his name to be left off. Their development and experience matched with Leonard’s outstanding work ethic and stoic demeanor allowed him and the Spurs as a collective to reach the milestones they did. A team led by DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge won’t match the peaks Kawhi helped the Spurs reach, but should help San Antonio stay competitive, make the playoffs and give fans a product to enjoy on the court. Jakob Poeltl gives the Spurs some much needed youth and athleticism in the front court, with some rim protection, energy and savvy on the offensive end. DeRozan is the closest approximate to a primary option the Spurs can realistically find. He isn’t the most efficient scorer (career 44.8% from the field, 28.8% from 3), but has upped his playmaking and should find more opportunities in the finely tuned offense Spurs offense. He can provide and create the offense in tense situations and have every offensive possession not to be a LaMarcus Aldridge fadeaway jumpshot over his right shoulder on the low post, which should ease some of the load off of him as well. If the Spurs nearly won 50 games without Kawhi, getting a guy who just made an All-NBA team should lift them into that stratosphere, even if he isn’t all that great a defender and they lost one of the better role players in the league in Danny Green. DeRozan is realistically the best player the Spurs could’ve traded for if they decided to keep the ship going. Players like Lonnie Walker IV, Dejounte Murray, Derrick White, Jakob Poeltl, can and will still develop under the stewardship of Popovich and his staff. While the status as championship contender can not be bestowed upon the Spurs any longer without the requisite elite talent to win it and many of the faces (Leonard, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, possibly Manu Ginobili?) who helped sustain this multiple decade-long dynasty are no longer present, perennial playoff appearances with young talent to develop in the arsenal isn’t the worst spot to be in either.

Toronto Raptors

Since Sam Presti quoted A Tribe Called Quest during Paul George’s Sportscenter specials regarding his FA destination, I think this “'nough dollars make sense, while you ride the bench

Catch me swingin' for the fence” Jay-Z quote is fitting for the occasion. Even without LeBron in the Eastern Conference, as he eloped to the Los Angeles Lakers, controlling the Raptors of Toronto the same way Chris Pratt’s character in “Jurassic World” did, the Raptors did not project to be contenders to win the East with Boston returning Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward from injury and the 76ers’ marquee talent gaining that much-needed playoff experience. Now, they’re right there with Boston, bouncing ahead of the 76ers but not quite the Celtics just yet. A healthy Kawhi Leonard can replicate DeRozan’s offensive output and then some, paired with not just elite perimeter defense, but perhaps the best perimeter defense the NBA has seen. He is that good. Danny Green’s average ranking in ESPN’s ‘Real Plus-Minus’ statistic over the past 5 years has been 7.4, busting his chops on the defensive end while bringing a sniper-esque 39.5% career 3 point shooting percentage to the 6. Toronto can now play an even faster pace offense with more shooting and a more switchy defense, one that can realisticially be able to switch, at the very least, 1-4 in select lineups with Kyle Lowry, Green, Leonard and OG Anunoby on the floor. They instantly have reasserted (or asserted if you never bought into their perennial playoff charade, unlike me who was duped this past postseason) themselves as Eastern Conference contenders.

But what if Kawhi leaves? The Raptors are prepared for that outcome as well. If they weren’t contenders before this trade, made a run in a LeBron-less East and came up short, would it have been time to blow it up then? Probably. This deal gives them a head start in that direction, shedding the last three years of DeRozan’s deal which pays him above $30 million. According to Spotrac, Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas are all under contract for over $17 million, assuming Valanciunas opts into the final year of his player option, which I would imagine he would. However, all, also including CJ Miles, though at lesser $8 million figure, would be the final year of their contracts, making it ideal for the Raptors to trade them and recoup assets to begin a rebuild that includes promising young players such as Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Delon Wright, and Norman Powell. The privilege and power of a superstar player was what it cost for the loyalty of Toronto’s primary star player in the entirety of its franchise, but it is worth the shot. Jakob Poeltl and a pick in the late 20s can be recouped, but not every day can you swap a DeMar DeRozan for a Kawhi Leonard. Masai Ujiri swung for the fences. It is a bold strategy, lets see if it pays off for them like it did for Sam Presti and Oklahoma City.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers sat out the Kawhi sweepstakes, banking on signing him in the Summer of 2019 rather than give up real and spectacular assets to land Kawhi now. That is a risk, considering they did the same thing with Paul George as he proceeded to spurn them and re-sign with Oklahoma City this summer, along with the fact that LeBron is on their roster and the Lakers do not have a roster presently constructed to maximize his window. Its a risk, but a calculated one I believe the Lakers are right to take by sitting out and waiting. If Kawhi truly does want to be a Laker (or a Clipper or Sixer), he will make it happen regardless of what happens in Toronto, a place he, as of now, has no desire to play in, per Chris Haynes. But the Lakers surely shouldn’t have given up major pieces to bring in a player they believe will arrive a year from now, let alone give up a player who’s per 36 minute numbers are fairly similar to those of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, per Basketball-Reference. Another factor is that Kawhi isn’t the only projected free agent-to-be in 2019, with Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins joining Kawhi. Magic Johnson has preached patience and it should theoretically pay off after already landing the greatest player in the world. Someone will take their money and join him, whether it is Kawhi or not or the next star comes via trade or Free Agency. The Lakers were right to sit this one out, develop their young players, who, with LeBron running the show, should help keep the Lakers just as competitive any non Warrior team in the West and play for Act 2 of the Kawhi sweepstakes, if there even is one.

Nothing is ever static in the NBA. After all, look at all the player movement just in the last two seasons. Kevin Durant and completely altered the landscape of the NBA, and the rest of the league and its players have been running on treadmills, hopefully figuring that changing the speed means they will catch up. Toronto is gambling that this move gets them to at least the top of the East. It is a gamble well worth the shot.

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narellenuzlockes-blog · 7 years

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Black 2 Nuzlocke - Update 1

BW2 is my least favorite set of games in the entire pokemon franchise. I really hate Unova in general, but the sequels are SO much worse than the originals.

But I have this game, since I collect all of the games, and should really try to get through it at least once. Maybe I’ll like it more than I expected if I get past the dumb parts. Or maybe the whole thing is dumb. We’ll see. This is my second go at nuzlocking it.

RULES:

1. Only catch the first encounter per route/area. 1A. Cheatiest dupes clause in the world. If I encounter a pokemon from an evolutionary line I’ve caught before, I can ignore it every time I encounter it. The first pokemon I’ve never caught before becomes the first encounter. If a route only has pokemon I’ve encountered before, I can catch the first dupe I encounter. 1B. Shiny clause. If a shiny is encountered I MUST try to catch it, regardless of dupes or if I’ve caught anyone else. If I want to use it and I’ve already got a pokemon from that route/area, I have to move that mon to the DEAD box. And nobody leaves the DEAD box. 2. If a pokemon faints, it’s DEAD and must be forever stored in the PC’s DEAD box. 2A. If a shiny dies, its dead for this run, but can be traded to regular games because who would ever get rid of a shiny for real? 3. All pokemon must be nicknamed with Highly Suspect song names (or shortened versions that fit in the allotted space). If I run out of songs, I can use the band members’ names or reuse names from dead pokemon. Or some alternative naming convention I’ll have to figure out later. 4. Learn to use stat moves and stuff! All pokemon must have their moveset used to the best of my ability, not just overleveling and spamming attacks. No cop out movesets. 5??? Pokemon can only be leveled up to the gym leader’s highest level pokemon (unless they get an accidental extra level or so). They can be as overleveled as I want for every other battle ever. (This might mean overleveling is allowed for E4 etc.) If this is too hard for me while learning to better use stat moves and such, I might give up on it.

So I started out the game with a female Oshawott. I named her Lydia, after the Highly Suspect song. I’m going to name everyone in this locke after their songs, until I run out of songs. (They are a somewhat newer band, there are only so many to choose from.)

Lydia, female Oshawott. Ability Torrent. Met at Lv. 5 in Aspertia City. Rash Nature. Alert to Sounds.

I restarted the intro a few times trying to get through the rival battle, because I was having terrible luck with it, but Lydia was the one to make it through.

On Route 19, the only possible encounters were Patrat and Purrloin. Purrloin is pretty terrible, so I was really hoping for a Patrat. I got:

Claudeland, male Purrloin. Ability Unburden. Met at Lv. 2 on Route 19. Hardy Nature. Sturdy body.

I wasn’t super excited about Claude, but I need teammates, so I’ll make the most of it. I gave him a good name, hopefully it will be lucky for him. Ground him up to Lv. 5, Lydia up to 7.

Cut through Floccesy to Route 20. Didn’t look ahead at who I could meet here. I caught:

Vanity, male Sunkern. Ability Solarpower. Met at Lv. 2 on Route 20. Quirky Nature. Thoroughly cunning.

Not the strongest pokemon in the world, but nice to have a type that helps add some balance to the team. I like knocking out the main 3 as early as possible. I was pretty upset with all the Sewaddle encounters afterwards though - I love the Sewaddle line, its an overall better pokemon, and it would have given me that grass type coverage as well. Oh well.

Got Vanity and Claude up to Lv. 7, Lydia to Lv. 10 (switch training keeps her way ahead). Moved on to Floccesy Ranch, where I met:

Chicago, female Lillipup. Ability Pickup. Met at Lv. 6 at Floccesy Ranch. Brave Nature. Good perserverance.

I wasn’t excited about this catch. Can’t stand Stoutland, and I know there’s plenty more interesting pokemon available to catch here. But at least I got something a little more sturdy on this team full of softies. I can’t expect Lydia to carry them all.

I knew I was supposed to be looking for the rival character, which would probably mean a battle, but didn’t expect anything difficult so I didn’t bother to look ahead. I went into it leading with Chicago, still at Lv. 6, and also had Claude at Lv.7, Vanity at Lv.7, and Lydia at Lv.10.

The rival still only had a Snivy, but it was up to level 8. I knew based on Lydia’s level ups that it should have a grass type move by that point, and that Claude and Vanity were too weak to take it on underleveled, so I stuck with Chicago. She got in a tackle or two? I don’t remember, I’m going from memory here. But pretty sure she got OHKOed. My only hope was to switch in Lydia and cross my fingers that she’d make it out alive. I lucked out in that the rival spammed tackles the rest of the fight till Lydia finished off his Snivy.

There went my only decent catch.

Chicago, Lillipup. Lv. 6 - 6. Death Count: 1

After that, I trained everyone up a ton and went through all the silly Floccesy Ranch plot stuff. While training, I practiced some strategies for the upcoming gym battle (that I DID look ahead at). I have always just overleveled and went in blazing with my strongest type advantage moves. In this run, I’m trying to teach myself to make use of the moves I’ve always dismissed and learn to use real strategies in pokemon games. Which means I decided to only level up to Cheren’s highest level pokemon. (Not sure if this will be a real rule?)

I was actually pretty impressed with Vanity? He still can’t take a hit, but his movepool does a good job of compensating for that. By the time I got him to Lv. 13 (and had finished beating up those small children for Alder and the gym trainers keeping me from my Cheren battle), he had Grasswhistle, Growth, Leech Seed, and Mega Drain. I usually finished my training battles with him at full health. I was feeling pretty good about him.

Claude...not so much. He lagged behind everyone else, and took a bunch of extra (super tedious) grinding to get him up to Lv. 13 with the other kids. But I did figure out a decent strategy for him. He ended up with Sand Attack, Growl, Assist, and Fury Swipes. So I sand attacked my opponents like crazy so that they would rarely even get the chance to hit me, then growled at them a ton so any hits that got through barely did a thing, then I could assist (because the rest of my team had better moves) or fury swipe them to death without worrying about him dying in the time it took him to finish them off. Takes forever, but it works.

Lydia is just a tank and doesn’t really need the help. She has Tackle, Tail Whip, Water Gun, and Focus Energy.

VS. Aspertia City Gym Leader Cheren

So my plan for the gym was to lead with Vanity against Cheren’s Lv. 11 Patrat, and use my sweet bullet-proof sleep-heal-fight strategy, then have Claudeland lead against the Lv. 13 Lillipup to set up as many sand attacks and growls as I could get in until he got hit, at which point I would switch to Lydia. I figured if Vanity struggled, Lydia could be his backup too, but I wasn’t too worried about him.

The Patrat fight started out great. It outsped my slow little Sunkern and got in a Work Up, but then my Grasswhistle put it right to sleep. I threw out a Leech Seed and then a Growth, then hit it with Mega Drain. It woke up after that, which I wasn’t too worried about. It only had a couple HP left, but my plan was to immediately put it back to sleep to be safe and then finish up with another Mega Drain.

Except it OHKO’d Vanity with a single Tackle.

Vanity, Sunkern. Lv. 2 - 13. Death Count: 2

I was pretty stunned, but had a plan for this so I threw in Lydia who finished off the last couple HP with an overkill Water Gun.

Cheren switched to Lillipup, so I switched to Claude. I was 100% convinced I was sending him to his death, but I wanted to stick to the plan and keep trying this whole ~strategy~ thing.

Claude was faster, so I got a sand attack in off the bat. Cheren used work up, though, and I knew better than to let that fly, so I responded with growl. Which turned into something like nearly 10 turns back and forth of workup and growl? Finally he hit me with a tackle instead. That was supposed to be the point that I switch in Lydia, but I knew Claude could take one more hit as long as it wasn’t a crit. So I left him in and tried to fit in one more Sand Attack.

He got tackled again right after, but no crit, so he survived and I switched to Lydia. Her watergun did surprisingly little damage, but the sand attacks worked and Cheren’s Lillipup missed a ton, so I was able to use a tail whip and a couple more tackles to finish it off.

I won, so I got the Basic Badge. I expected that to go much smoother, but I guess that’s how it goes when you use weak pokemon that aren’t overleveled. Impressed with Claude, though - maybe if he sticks it out I’ll try to drag him all the way to the E4. We’ll see.

I think that’s enough of an update for now, though I’ll probably keep playing. I’ll likely doodle up my team and maybe add in some doodles to this post, or reblog with some, at some point. Assuming I keep up with this blog. ^^;;

#nuzlocke #basic badge #black 2

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