Nerdy minds think alike! Also welcome to the boards. I watched The Axanar problem the other day and thought it was a great breakdown.
It's available on All Access now. (2AM EST) It's a very short Short ... 9:35 minutes. Spoiler This Is A Test ... Yep, it is Pike's/Number One's version of the Kobayashi Maru for candidates of the Enterprise crew. Spoiler Fantabulous view of the Discoprise Engine Room at the end. Pictures Spoiler Scotty would have had a field day with this version. Definitely NOT our "Fathers Trek". (obviously CGI) It's more than a bit gaudy, but about what I expected we'd eventually see. I gave it a 9. I liked it, but it was pretty obvious to me from the get go what was going on. Also, the preview for Dec. says They are going to show BOTH of the Animated ones on the 12th.
Yeah I enjoyed it but pretty color by numbers and obvious what was going on. Always great to see Pike, Spock, and Number 1 through.
It was good, but pretty clearly my least favourite of the three this season so far. I think the other two had me wanting more fun romps, emphasis on fun, and "Ask Not" was not that, unfortunately.
Without getting too spoilery, it reminded me of an early TNG episode. The short treks for me this year have been lackluster; none of them for me had the emotional depth or storytelling skill of "Calypso", which I rate as one of the best of this series. This episode is average, so I rated it a 5.
I like that the engine room has shades of the 2009 brewery in all the pipes, tubes and tanks around the room.
The centerpiece being surrounded by big boxes aimed at it like so many spotlights is also reminiscent of the ST:ID sphere (that is, of the real-world setup of instrumentation there). Although said centerpiece itself is pure Star Wars. Only with safety railings... Timo Saloniemi
Not a whole lot for me to say. Good training scenario, I like Engineering, and does what it sets out to do. 7.
**Yawn** That was...okay, but it didn't really work for me. Mainly because I wasn't really sold on Amrit Kaur's portrayal of cadet Sidhu. She had the whole wild-eyed wonder thing once she got onto the Enterprise down cold, but there wasn't even a hint of concern on her face when Pike told her that her husband was onboard a ship which was under attack by the Tholians. These sort of shorts live or die by the chemistry between the characters, she was clearly the protagonist here...and yet Mount outshone her in every way. The plot itself was very straightforward - such as it was. Though Sidhu's sense of wonder during the last two minutes did help rescue the short somewhat. I'll give it a six - probably the most disappointing Short Trek to date (yes, even including the first "season") It sure felt like a prologue to a Pike series in a way that the other two Discoprise shorts did not however.
I was teetering on giving it a 6 but my mind didn't wander while watching, so I went with a 7 but it's a very soft 7. One thing that I think helps to make this feel one more like a short for a Pike Series is that the beginning didn't have the Discovery-style intro and the closing credits had their own music.
I've never been really in favor of a Pike series. I feel like it would be too much of a retread in addition to facing all the canon/aesthetic problems ENT and DISCO have faced thus far. However, for me these three short treks have established the plausibility of a Pike-centric miniseries that could tell self-contained stories in 3-4 episode arcs.
Again, the main fault of the episode comes down to acting. Kaur is just weak and unconvincing. If they had found someone better who could express the range of emotions she's supposed to be feeling in the short, I think it could have been excellent. One thing I was thinking about while watching the episode was DS9's Duet honestly. Mostly because that was similarly a story which was told mostly in a single room, with minimal action, through the interactions of two characters. But in that case it worked because the actors were both very strong and had great chemistry. Mount and Kaur do not.
That was a very good short trek. I liked it better than the Tribble one but maybe not quite up to the first one. I did love her sense of wonder seeing the Engineering room for the first time. This gets an 8 from me.
The episode would've worked better if they'd gone the doppelganger/mind control route, with Sidhu unsure whether Pike's the real deal and the station's been taken over, or if he's a bad guy trying to con her.
definitely the weakest of season 2. the tension never rose high enough for the abrupt cut off to feel earned or like a relief, it just ended. i could've lived with that if this episode was more about the cadet's love for engineering and the enterprise, but that really wasn't the focus so the money shot at the end (engineering) didn't feel particularly earned. but i did like the 2 seconds we spent on enterprise.