star trek: discovery, season 3

3x01 “that hope is you, part 1”

michael’s cry of joy and relief when her sensors report plentiful organic life is so raw and so beautiful. i think it actually conveys the stakes of last season much better than the peril itself did, and it makes it so believable that michael and her discovery family were willing to do what they did.

michael being hopped up on truth drugs was fucking adorable, and her saying “i am done being reflexively supportive!” while still under their influence is such a fantastic bit of character writing.

the bulk of the episode juggles action and worldbuilding in a way that entertains and informs exceedingly well, and i really do enjoy all of it but besides michael’s aforementioned cathartic cry of joy, my favorite part of the episode is the ending. it is so, so clear how much the federation, and starfleet, mean to sahil.

the first time i saw this i was a bit guarded when it was clearly positioning michael to restore hope to the federation, because i was very worried it was going to do the same kind of exceptional hero, individualistic theming that made the first season feel so un-star trek, but rewatching it now that i know where it’s going i was able to relax and really enjoy what it meant to both of them to have that moment.

dc universe animated original movies, part 1: pre-dc animated movie universe

this replaces & abridges an earlier review i did of these movies. i decided to read all the comics these movies are based on to give me more context for understanding the movies. some of these movies weren’t based on any comics, so in those cases i just lightly edited my original reviews. oh, and i didn’t read the death of superman for superman: doomsday because i’ll save that for the more faithful recent adaptation.

the dc universe original movies are a series of high-quality direct-to-video (with a few exceptions that received limited theatrical releases) animated features. i first discovered them when i was working at target in the (probably-defunct) music, movies and books department. i was basically the person in charge of putting all the new releases on the shelf every tuesday. there were these tvs all over the department playing this endless loop of commercials for movies and albums and even books. i know, right? commercials for books?

anyway, they barely ever updated it, and it was so repetitive you usually ended up tuning it out if you had to spend much time in that department, but every now and then a new trailer would be added to the loop. that’s exactly what happened about a week before batman: under the red hood was released. the first time i heard it playing, it snapped my attention away from my boring work routine and i was immediately transfixed. i resolved to pick the movie up as soon as it came out, and my excitement was rewarded with a frankly pretty great animated superhero flick.

as soon as i found out that there was a whole series of one-shot movies of similar quality, i started watching them. i didn’t always like them as much as under the red hood. in fact, it’s still at or near the top of my list for best movies from this series, but the overall model of releasing high-quality animated features two or three times a year is still a pretty exciting one, and i wish more franchises would follow suit.

star trek: the original series, season 1

i usually insist on watching the show in production order because i’m all whatever like that, but it kind of really doesn’t make a difference for tos so we just watched them in broadcast order since that’s the order literally every streaming service has them in and that way we don’t really have to think about it.

for what it’s worth, i actually think “the man trap” is a much better episode 1 than either of the pilots, so. there’s that in aired order’s favor at least!

also sorry if i come across as overly harsh but tos is really not my cup of earl grey anymore. for what it’s worth it was the first series i got into. i was pretty attached to the original enterprise, and the characters–especially spock–so it was “star trek” to me for the longest time.

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1x01 “The Man Trap”

absolutely classic monster of the week type stuff. a shapeshifting “salt vampire” just tears through the enterprise’s complement one crewmember at a time. this is exactly the sort of stuff i come to tos for. b-rank

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1x02 “charlie x”

the early days of tos see two episodes about captain kirk and crew having to deal with humans that have gained godlike powers. the other one is “where no man has gone before,” which aired right after this but was actually tos’s second pilot. since i’ll have more to talk about regarding this episode’s status as the show’s second pilot (a rarity in television), i’ll go ahead and talk about the episodes’ similar theming here.

robocop vs. terminator megareview, part 2

welcome back! if you missed part 1, as a reminder we’re here because i had to watch terminator 2 for my childhood movies list so i figured that was a good excuse to watch all of those including the two most recent ones which i hadn’t seen yet. and i remembered there being a robocop vs. terminator video game, turns out it was based on a comic book, kinda sad we never got a movie about that! but yeah, figured we might as well do all the robocop movies too given that tenuous, barely-there connection.

look, it works for alien and predator, leave me alone.

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robocop: alpha commando (tv series 1998)

i watched the three-part pilot and then just sorta skimmed for episodes that sounded fun, and they mostly were. this was a lot more harmless fun and less overt copaganda than the other cartoon. it has basically nothing to do with the movies and other shows. so all you really have to contend with is the usual awful writing and loud dumbness of your average kids cartoon that doesn’t even slightly respect its audience. oh, and some rather cartoonish racism against a nonexistent country in the pilot.

(but the pilot also had an femdommy lady who captured robocop and said stuff like “once your defenses are broken down your delicious powers will be reprogrammed to serve me” and “stop fighting your reprogramming” and “how dare you touch my robocop” and planted a post-hypnotic suggestion in him, so who can say if it’s bad or good.)

robocop vs. terminator megareview, part 1

we had to watch terminator 2 for my childhood movies list so i figured that was a good excuse to watch all of these including the two most recent ones which i haven’t seen yet. and i remembered there being a robocop vs. terminator video game, turns out it was based on a comic book, kinda sad we never got a movie about that! but yeah, figured we might as well do all the robocop movies too given that tenuous, barely-there connection.

star trek: picard, season 2 (and season 1 revisited)

i said in my season 1 review that this show was too serialized to rate and review episode-by-episode, but while rewatching discovery i found it’s actually not all that difficult to do, so surprise! you get a season 1 and season 2 review! since i already wrote a review of season 1 as a whole i’ll try to keep the season 1 reviews short and mostly focus on season 2.

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1x01 “remembrance”

picard’s interview might be part of the early episodes trying to show how he’s grown into a bitter old man, but the moment where the interviewer is dismissive of “romulan lives” and he impassionately responds, “no, lives,” is a truly great moment for the character.

i still hate the idea of starfleet abdicating their principles and one man having to stand up to them, but at least it gets resolved by the end of the season. c-rank

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1x02 “maps and legends”

picard getting smacked in his face over and over early on in the season for being an arrogant bastard is a little cathartic in a way, but it starts to get a bit repetitive. you can at least buy the failings he’s confronted with.

star trek: the next generation, season 4

4x01 “the best of both worlds, part 2”

captain riker.

this episode does a lot, but putting riker in the center seat, making it seem like that could be permanent, and really dealing with that might just be the most important. it’s really great to see what things would be like with riker permanently in charge, and it lets us feel captain picard’s absence more keenly.