Hammer is back
- Thread starter Flying Spaghetti Monster
- Start date
He is being totally unfair to S5 and the episodes. He whines about stupid sh*t--why the ship wasn't repaired over ten episodes after Disaster or why Worf wasn't in physical therapy for ten episodes after Ethics.
Given he was popular during TNG's run, I thought you were talking about MC Hammer. 
No, Hammer is Malleus.
What I'm pretty sure you meant to announce was that "Jammer is back."
Whatever happened to Hammer anyway (Or whatever he was going by now). He was like the biggest fan of the Picard/Crusher (I refuse to use that other word) on this board. Those were some good days back then.
At first I was like, Justin Hammer got out of prison and now instead of supplying substandard weapons to the military, he's writing reviews for TV's from twenty years ago?
Given he was popular during TNG's run, I thought you were talking about MC Hammer.
For the same reason, the first Hammer I thought of was this one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090525/
Doug
Given he was popular during TNG's run, I thought you were talking about MC Hammer.
"We are the Borg. We are too legit to quit."
And of course this.
Both minor complaints in his reviews, which don't seem to have an effect on his final grades. He seems pretty fair to me.
Well I think Power Play deserved 3 stars and was far better than his review suggests-the best Trek possession episode. Times Arrow I was 3 stars and wasn't a bad season finale--he specifically mentions BoBW's cliffhanger which isn't fair since no show can match that. He gave Disaster 2 stars, HW 1.5 stars, Coundrum 3 stars etc which is ridiculous. In Disaster he complained that he didn't know how the ship got repaired--apparently he forgot about starbases.
season 5 is far better than his reviews suggest--i guess if it isn't dark, serialized and angsty he penalizes it.
season 5 is far better than his reviews suggest--i guess if it isn't dark, serialized and angsty he penalizes it.
I would have given "Disaster" 3 stars, 4 if they actually showed damage to the ship. "Conundrum" deserved 4 stars easy for being easily one of the best morality plays in Star Trek.
Can't touch this.
that's the problem when you have an Ipad with auto-correct
I'd give "Disaster" 3 stars, myself, but otherwise I completely agree with him on all those episodes. "Hero Worship" was bland and forgettable, "Conundrum" was decent but the premise burst my suspension of disbelief, and "Power Play" came straight out of the standard Trek playbook. And "Time's Arrow I" is alright, but IMO is unquestionably a letdown after "BoBW I" and "Redemption I."
Overall, I think Jammer is probably one of the fairest Trek reviewers out there, and I think he was, if anything, generous in his S5 ratings. I mean, he did give "The Game" and "New Ground" 2.5 each.
Count me in as another who agrees with Jammer’s opinion of Season 5 – I’ve always thought that it was a letdown after the excellent 3rd and 4th seasons. The first stretch of episodes from the start of the season to “A Matter of Time” is good, excluding “The Game” and the fact that I roll my eyes at Troi in “Disaster”.
But starting with “New Ground” to the end of the season, TNG just slides into a very erratic pattern of episodes. There are good-to-excellent episodes like “Violations”, “Conundrum”, “Power Play”, “Ethics”, “Cause and Effect”, “The First Duty”, “I, Borg” and of course “The Inner Light”, some of the best that TNG has to offer.
But interspersed with that is bland and forgettable stuff like “New Ground”, “Hero Worship” (who thought that two kid-centric episodes back to back was a good idea?), “Masterpiece Society”, “The Perfect Mate”, “The Next Phase” and “Time’s Arrow” I thought was weak as a season finale. Then we have outright dogs such as “Cost of Living” and “Imaginary Friend” both of which I thought were bottom-of-the-barrel stories.
Luckily for us TNG somewhat improves in the 6th season over the year before, and then slides even further into mediocrity for most of season 7.
But starting with “New Ground” to the end of the season, TNG just slides into a very erratic pattern of episodes. There are good-to-excellent episodes like “Violations”, “Conundrum”, “Power Play”, “Ethics”, “Cause and Effect”, “The First Duty”, “I, Borg” and of course “The Inner Light”, some of the best that TNG has to offer.
But interspersed with that is bland and forgettable stuff like “New Ground”, “Hero Worship” (who thought that two kid-centric episodes back to back was a good idea?), “Masterpiece Society”, “The Perfect Mate”, “The Next Phase” and “Time’s Arrow” I thought was weak as a season finale. Then we have outright dogs such as “Cost of Living” and “Imaginary Friend” both of which I thought were bottom-of-the-barrel stories.
Luckily for us TNG somewhat improves in the 6th season over the year before, and then slides even further into mediocrity for most of season 7.
I also think he's pretty fair, we actually seem to agree on about 90% of episodes.
"Ensign Ro" and "Conundrum" I wouldve given an extra half star to.
My only main issue is "Darmok". I'm not gonna be person number 8367832648 to try to explain why "Darmok" is my favorite TNG ep and one of Trek's all-time greatest, but I was quite taken aback by his modest 3-star rating.
"Ensign Ro" and "Conundrum" I wouldve given an extra half star to.
My only main issue is "Darmok". I'm not gonna be person number 8367832648 to try to explain why "Darmok" is my favorite TNG ep and one of Trek's all-time greatest, but I was quite taken aback by his modest 3-star rating.
Well to me it i just as consistent as those seasons.
Which I agree with--which is why I find it strange you agree with Jammer on S5--if you look at his reviews not just the scores he clearly didn't care for Silicon Avatar, Disaster.
Yet Jammer is down on Violations and Power Play clearly not good to excellent in his opinion and Conundrum only gets 3 stars. He gets bogged down in other stuff.
Well I like those two episodes myself.
Those two I'll give you are dull but not bad.
I enjoyed those two.
Cost of Living is bad but I like Imaginary Friend. But even considering the episodes you don't care for S5 still strikes me as a pretty consistent season of tv considering they churned out 26 episodes. VOY S5 had The Fight, The Disease, Course Oblivion, Extreme Risks for instance that were awful. NOw VOY S5 was uneven. DS9 S5 had the awful Let He, Looking for Par'Mach, Ferengi Love Songs which were 10 times worse than CoL and far more middling episodes like Soldiers of the Empire, Empok Nor, The Begotten with that horrrible sitcom baby delivery storyline.
It just sounded like Jammer wasn't into really reviewing TNG S5 and it showed in my opinion. Zach Snyden's reviews that he links to in my opinion offer much better insight and details into that year.
"Power Play," as I said, is bogged down by the fact that it's extraordinarily by-the-numbers. It follows the beats of a Trek possession episode exactly as you'd expect it to. But I'm confused by you saying that "Conundrum" gets "only" three stars. That's a pretty good score, and it says to me that Jammer obviously liked the episode.
I.D.I.C my friend.
I guess I should have said I *mostly* agree with him. My biggest problem with "Disaster" is Troi, who's been a senior bridge officer for the last five years, and she doesn't know what leads to a warp core breach. Bad writing or not, it just drives me batty.
The problem with TNG cliffhangers is that the first time they tried it with BOBW, they got it so perfectly that other cliffhangers are gonna suffer in comparison.
I'll give you all that except "The Begotten" - those birthing scenes (and stupid Shakaar - die candle boy!
) are offset by magnificent performances from Rene Auberjonois and James Sloyan. Episodes like the ones you mentioned above plus "The Assignment" are reasons why I rank DS9 season 5 a bit lower than most people - for all the quadrant-shaking that happened that year, it did have some crap episodes. Yes, VOY S5 was also the beginning of the end for that show.Similar threads
