I hear JL left his favorite tea glass in the basement of the Alamo...
Spoilers Episode 7 "Nepenthe"
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I hear JL left his favorite tea glass in the basement of the Alamo...
RLM is good (if you're into that sort of thing) if you ignore the Picard/Discovery stuff, which I'm convinced is just to stay relevant. General Grin's reviews actually bring up cognizant points and have coherent arguments and a deep understanding of continuity without descending into SJW territory. He often conflicts with the overall toxic narrative, although he skirts the line between praisers and haters.
I brought up early in this thread how the Elnor vs. Narissa fight is not very good, in a parody recap. But I still gave the episode an 8, because it was more than just Elnor v. Narissa. I didn't see any Malachowskis this week to annoy fandom.
Right!
Knife in the chest is more 24th century (Picard, Duras).
As long as that man is Brian Brophy.Larry Niven is still alive, and I do believe any man alive can be paid
Value is subjective.
While they've gone back and forth on TAS canonicity, it's been referenced quite a few times since then. Elements established in TAS that were referenced in later canon include the city of James "Tiberius" Kirk, Amanda "Grayson" and her affection for Alice in Wonderland, Shi'Kahr, Vulcan's Forge, Lunaport, the kahs-wan, the appearance of the Sehlat*, Vulcan "healers", the IKS Klothos, the Caitians, the Edosians (not seen again but referenced through orchids, etc.), the holodeck, the Enterprise's second bridge turbolift (later seen in the refit in the movies), ship designs later re-used in TOS-R, quite a few planet names (albeit mostly in Okudagrams), and now the Kzinti. (More details on most of these at https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series#Questionable_canon.)
Now where's my on-screen Glommer?
EDIT: I originally mistakenly said "the sehlat", but The Old Mixer pointed out this isn't accurate. I've edited to correct/clarify.
EDIT 2 (way after the fact): Holy cow, there's actually an on-screen Glommer in this episode!!! A stuffed one at least.
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Where the stars at night are big and bright.
That makes more sense. I didn't really seem them forking out for just a passing mention when they could just as easily have gone with Tzenkethi, Gorn, Nausicaans, or a dozen others and it'd work about as well.
DEEP IN THE HEART OF NAUSICAA...
But I think that's the point. You got to have gradients. You have Picard who is pure good, you have bunch of grey/questionable characters in the middle, and then you have Rizzo as pure evil to balance out Picard. Without a pure evil character to define boundaries in a show, you can't have good vs evil. If everyone is bunched up in the middle, it could also get a bit tedious.
You don't actually need a pure evil character who's evil for the sake of being evil. Magneto gets by just fine and he's the X-Men's most famous enemy. In a 2008 interview, Stan Lee said he "did not think of Magneto as a bad guy. He just wanted to strike back at the people who were so bigoted and racist... he was trying to defend the mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly he was going to teach society a lesson. He was a danger of course... but I never thought of him as a villain."
It honestly has made me more intrigued to see such a play out.
I don't think it is evil for the sake of evil.
TOS Romulans had deeper character development than any until Picard. :/
As for the episode ... Thematically, I understood why they did what they did. But I'm not sure I enjoyed what they did.
Once again in streaming Trek, our characters must be shot through with sadness, and once again the universe must be impossibly interlaced. Of course Riker and Troi are now living with tragedy, in their haunted house in the wood, and of course their tragedy ties in directly with the main arc. I suppose this elevated their appearance above pointless fan service, slightly, and for that I should be thankful. But all this suffering is getting exhausting. As is the lecturing of Picard. This time, Troi gets to slap him down, after a bizarrely insensitive moment on his part that seems to exist just to set up another lecture.
That said, the episode builds to a nice conclusion. As an episodic character piece, I thought it was pretty good. But I would almost have rather not visited with Riker and Troi at all. I'll probably never watch this again, and I tend to agree with the suggestion earlier that the show didn't need this momentum-killing interlude. (Except, I suppose, to set up the possibility of Riker riding in on a Starfleet ship to save the day.)
There were a couple of musical moments I thought were odd. The fanfare as our crew abandoned Elnor all too easily was strange, and the TNG theme at the end struck me as an obligation rather than appropriate musical accompaniment.
The explanation for Jurati's behavior is, so far, deeply unsatisfying. Yet again all of everything is at stake, and I'm so very tired of that.
It probably sounds like I hated this episode, and I really didn't. But I do wish streaming Trek would stop going to the same wells so often.
Depends on the story being told. Magneto/Professor X have a huge history, former friends, blah blah. Magneto is NOT an evil guy. But there are plenty of evil characters in Marvel to fill that role. Same with Star Trek, you have plenty of characters who are not evil, but it doesn't mean you can't have pure evil either. And especially since we DO have pure good. Just from writing perspective, it's not evil for the sake of being evil. It's evil for sake of balancing good.
In Rizzo's case, her own brother is not pure evil. So there you go. You can have both.
Watched the episode early this morning, but a busy work day stopped me from commenting until now.
Anyway, I'll break down my opinion on the episode into each of the three plot arcs, because my feelings on them are quite different.
The stuff on Nepenthe with the Rikers was awesome. Fanwank of course, but fanwank in the best way. I had tears in my eyes multiple times early on in the episode. The writers knew just the right TNG nostalgia notes to hit. I typically don't expect much from child actors, but the girl they got to play Kestra did an excellent job as well. I was a bit surprised how most of the interactions were actually between Picard and Troi, rather than Picard and Riker - but this may reflect that Sirtis has kept up her acting chops in a way Frakes has not. A little bit of the dialogue was strangely written (seemed like Kestra was talking about the Enterprise like she had been on it for example) but it wasn't enough to take me out of the story.
The stuff on La Sirena was pretty good as well. The writers have done a good job saving Jurati's character from the heel turn two episodes back, making her into a much more compelling character either than the quirky woman she initially appeared to be or the villain (or possessed person) that many feared. For the second week in a row we're really focusing on her mental breakdown - and it works. I liked the choice to have Raffi, rather than Rios, be the one to turn to her with compassion this time around.
The stuff on the Borg cube with Elnor and Hugh was dreadful. Even setting aside killing Hugh for a second, every second of this was cliched dialogue and a railroaded plot. I think it might have been possible to do what they wanted done here justice with more time, but they wanted to focus on Picard/Soji, so they focused on trying to get done what they needed (Elnor stays behind, Hugh dies, Elnor calls Seven) as quickly as possible - meaning none of the individual scenes make much logical sense.
Anyway, I'll break down my opinion on the episode into each of the three plot arcs, because my feelings on them are quite different.
The stuff on Nepenthe with the Rikers was awesome. Fanwank of course, but fanwank in the best way. I had tears in my eyes multiple times early on in the episode. The writers knew just the right TNG nostalgia notes to hit. I typically don't expect much from child actors, but the girl they got to play Kestra did an excellent job as well. I was a bit surprised how most of the interactions were actually between Picard and Troi, rather than Picard and Riker - but this may reflect that Sirtis has kept up her acting chops in a way Frakes has not. A little bit of the dialogue was strangely written (seemed like Kestra was talking about the Enterprise like she had been on it for example) but it wasn't enough to take me out of the story.
The stuff on La Sirena was pretty good as well. The writers have done a good job saving Jurati's character from the heel turn two episodes back, making her into a much more compelling character either than the quirky woman she initially appeared to be or the villain (or possessed person) that many feared. For the second week in a row we're really focusing on her mental breakdown - and it works. I liked the choice to have Raffi, rather than Rios, be the one to turn to her with compassion this time around.
The stuff on the Borg cube with Elnor and Hugh was dreadful. Even setting aside killing Hugh for a second, every second of this was cliched dialogue and a railroaded plot. I think it might have been possible to do what they wanted done here justice with more time, but they wanted to focus on Picard/Soji, so they focused on trying to get done what they needed (Elnor stays behind, Hugh dies, Elnor calls Seven) as quickly as possible - meaning none of the individual scenes make much logical sense.
It does count. The animated series are canon.
Gave it an 8. Enjoyed the episode. A little slow in parts with Riker & Troi but I thought the actors did well & was great to see them again. Still processing losing Hugh, if that really did just happen. Didn't expect that and wish it didn't happen tbh, but oh well, so it goes.
Well, it was kinda tongue-in-cheeky...
I rated it a 10/10. But no, I did not think it was among the best TV I've ever seen. I rated it a 10/10 because I really enjoyed the episode a lot and I thought that it was an excellent episode on its own merit. I am judging the episode like it is the only Star Trek episode that exists.
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This is the way I judge things as well. Comparison is tiresome.
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