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Star Trek: Discovery: Whistlespeak (2024)
Lots of dialogue with soft piano music...
Lots of dialogue with soft piano music...this should clue you in as how this season will end. They will save the known universe. There's no tension building except for Star Trek fans who want some action instead of chit-chat dripping with fake authenticity. The usual idiocy the writers give us is when Michael and Tilly beam to the planet's surface and immediately begin to chit-chat like high school girls without first engaging in a quiet moment to ascertain a situational awareness. In what direction are we heading? Are any predators about? Were we observed beaming down? I love Star Trek and always have. But the writing for Discovery is so horrible that I will never ever watch any of these episodes again.
Star Trek: Discovery: Face the Strange (2024)
Treading water and time
This is a time travel episode that does not move the plot forward at all. It takes up time and space for a chase story that is simple and needs some filler episodes. The real story is that Rayner is perceived as a toxic male and Tilly and Michael are tasked with fixing him. (Tilly in the previous episode). The time-travel technobabble uttered to explain how they will save the ship/Federation/universe was eye rollingly silly, but since there was no phony earnest teary-eyed breathlessness during those scenes, I liked it in a relative sort of way. Also, there was very little of the Tilly character is this episode, which is why I gave it 5 stars instead of one.
Star Trek: Discovery: Jinaal (2024)
Thank God this series has been cancelled
Horrid. Again. Thank God this series has been cancelled. Tilly has morphed from an insecure brain-dead motor-mouth into a self-righteous Karen, lecturing others, including superior officers. Adding to that silliness, that superior officer takes his comeuppance in stride, as a weakling 2024 male should when he is corrected by a female. The amount of insecure whiny characters in this series and this episode in particular is one thing and one thing only - a reflection of the collective states of mind of the writers. They have projected their own childish insecurities and lack of worldly experience onto the characters and created a version of "Star Trek" that is neither entertaining nor fun to watch.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: The Way Out (2023)
Lazy writing and boring
Hey kids! At dark, let's sneak into a highly secure area cordoned off by the US military where patrols shoot looters on sight. We'll use bright flashlights and sing and harmonize Japanese jingles and laugh out loud along the way! (Never mind that this singing is completely out of character). Then, we'll be shocked when our presence is discovered! We'll waste a lot of screen time running in the dark, but when we get to our objective, we'll quickly figure out where our long lost father is by punching holes in a piece of paper! The sun will shine through the holes and tell us where daddy is! Just like the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark! Kurt's scenes are good, but don't really move the plot forward. Skip this one if you can.
Lioness (2023)
Not perfect, but very watchable
My brother and I have a simple rating system: 1. Don't watch, 2. Worth one watch, 3. Will watch again. This clearly falls in the the third category. While it isn't perfect, there is enough action and excellent dialog to keep one's interest. It starts out fast and lets the characters develop along the way. All of the actors do fine work here and Taylor's script is tight and he moves the story along as he always does. Is there any chance he could help the people over at the Star Trek franchise? They're flailing. Anyway, Lioness is only 3 episodes in, but we are enjoying the heck out of after turning off the utterly ridiculous song-and-dance Star Trek episode.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023)
Horrid for Science Fiction fans
Paramount, the producers, writers, and the cast and crew had to know that there would be a large population of Star Trek fans who would recoil at this episode. If it is possible to for one episode to ruin a billion-dollar decades old franchise, this is that episode. The idea that the new whiny Spock did a song-and-dance routine and that this is now canon, smacks of sabotage of the franchise by those running things now. I'm sure everyone had fun making this episode, I did NOT have fun watching it. After Lioness completes its run, I will be unsubscribing from Paramount as I now feel foolish for giving money to the people who perpetrated this.
FUBAR (2023)
Gawd Awful..too bad, I wanted to like it.
I was looking forward to this and wanted to like and enjoy it. I like Arnold as an actor and general dude in life. But the idea of watching him argue for 8 hours about the past and stupid family issues with his CIA daughter is exactly the opposite of entertainment for me. Everybody seems to be a smart-a$$. I did not like ANY of the characters or their dialogue. The "villain" is such an over-used cardboard stereotype, that my suspension-of-disbelief simply could not be invoked. He was laughably unoriginal. "Get them!" he shouts as he jumps into the jeep in his jungle hide-out. The good guys are shooting automatic long guns from the hip out of a flying helicopter and hitting the bad guys, the bad guys are shooting automatic long guns from a few feet away and missing their targets. If such silliness appeals to you, then this is for you!
Citadel (2023)
Entertaining Spy Sci-fi
Yes, I added sci-fi to the description of this series because there are sci-fi elements in the story. (Human memories can be remotely erased but stored in a fluid that when injected anywhere into your body, restores your memories). OK. Overall, this is a fun popcorn entertaining vehicle, with very attractive actors and lots of action. In other words, standard American fare. If you are looking to be entertained and have the usual suspension-of-disbelief posture, you won't feel like you wasted your time. My standard rule for how good something is, is to ask myself "Would I ever watch it again?" The answer here is "Yes."
Star Trek: Picard: The Next Generation (2023)
Excellent Start
This is an excellent start for season three. It gets straight to the point with an action sequence as the opening scenes. In a wonderful departure from Discovery and other "new" Star Treks, as almost every scene moves the plot forward. Of course, SNW learned this lesson, too. (You should be watching that series too.) The CGI in Picard is superb. The acting is also very good. Again with another departure from the recent past, the writing is also excellent. If you are a Star Trek fan, or a fan of Captain Picard, don't let the first two seasons of Picard turn you off. This is well worth the time to watch it.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: A Quality of Mercy (2022)
Thank you writers and producers
A very Star Trekish episode, finally. Science Fiction at its best. Fun to watch, intellectually stimulating, action, tension, good writing and production values, excellent CGI. Add in a cliff-hanger to be resolved in season 2. But...now that we know you can this and do it well, the bar is set high for season 2. I look forward to it.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Elysian Kingdom (2022)
Hideous - A nebula named Debra
Forget the hideous writing and acting and production values. There is this: The Enterprise stumbles across a nebula that is conscious of itself and has multiple abilities, including telepathy, mass hypnosis, healing terminal illnesses, and the ability to manipulate matter. If I were the captain, I would have parked my starship close by and been part of ushering in a new era in the understanding of consciousness. But no, the writers sketch out a stunningly ridiculous story, which they resolve, then they have the Starship Enterprise fly away. Fly. Away. The message from the writers to the audience is clear: You are all idiots, so here is some mindless pablum for you.
Star Trek: Picard: Hide and Seek (2022)
Finally, some action! Oh, wait...
Finally, some action! Oh, wait...a flashback with some jibber-jabber. Then yes, some action! Oh, wait...another flashback with more jibber-jabber. Yay! Borg drones chasing our heroes! Oh, wait...yet another flashback with even more jibber-jabber. This is the pattern. Any tension in the fighting sequences is completely dissipated by the many dozens or perhaps hundreds of flashbacks. I lost count because by now I was scrolling on my phone. I only watch this because of some misguided loyalty to the ST brand. I'll never watch any of these episodes again. Sorry, Mr. Stewart. You're a good actor and deserve better writers.
Star Trek: Picard: Mercy (2022)
Not a horrible episode, just a bad one...
I've never liked the "Q" character because I considered it a lazy plot device to do "anything". Also, if an alien being showed up who could violate the laws of physics and time, wouldn't intelligent humans be curious and want to discover those secrets rather than always being antagonistic? And now the "Q" dude is dying? What laws of reality govern his existence? Oh, never mind! Let's NOT boldly go there! Lol!
Star Trek: Picard: Monsters (2022)
It's billed as "Star Trek" but...
This episode consists of:
25% Mindless jibber-jabber dialogue
25% Psycho-babble
25% Dungeons and hokey looking monsters
25% Star Trek.
I scrolled on my phone most of the time, wishing for the old "Star Trek" days. The lengthy psycho-babble segments were especially hard to watch, followed closely by the dungeon scenes. Seven of Nine's character is wasted as mostly an observer, until near the end. The new and cranky Guinan returns, but finally smiles.
Star Trek: Discovery: Coming Home (2022)
Again, horrible...
Ever since season 3 started, this series has been in deep trouble with poor writing. On many numerous occasions, the dialog does not move the plot forward, and worse, that dialog sounds forced and unrealistic. Check out Picard, The Mandalorian, Halo, and The Book of Boba Fett for some really good science fiction with good writers.
Star Trek: Discovery: The Galactic Barrier (2022)
Hyper-boring.
If feelings and talking are your thing, don't miss this episode!
If you're looking for good Sci-fi, check out the Book of Boba Fett on Disney+.
The dialog in this episode is atrociously boring.
The alien Saru acts like a shy Earth teenage boy, and is told the lie that "everyone is insecure". The writer projected her own insecurities on the rest of creation and all aliens everywhere. With dialog like this, maybe she SHOULD fear for her job. ;-)
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Horrid.
Been a Trekker since '66 when the original series aired. Discovery is awful:
The Good:
Sonequa Martin-Green,
Michelle Yeoh,
Jason Issacs,
Anson Mount,
Special effects.
The Bad:
Writing,
Storyline,
Directing.
The Lt. Tilly character especially is an insult to all women with her mindless babbling. The idea that any person with such a lack of mental discipline could become a military officer is simply unbelievable.