posted
I am really pressed for time this morning, but it seems lately that if I don't start the conversation on a new episode then the episode doesn't get discussed.
All I'll say for now is that I thought this was a great episode. I have a few nitpicks, but nothing remotely major. I'll try to do my more detailed summary/review once I get home from work.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
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I am interested to learn what you found great about it, because I found it mediocre at best.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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Raffi awakens to meet Worf. Yes, meet. She didn't know he was her handler. Worf gets some awesome lines this episode, and his introduction is the first. Dorn effortly goes immediately from badass boasting to asking Raffi how she takes her tea.
Worf has a lead on who is actually behind the attack, and he and Raffi go out and capture him. The two snark about their respective outfits; Worf thinks Raffi's Little Red Riding Hood getup is too conspicuous and Raffi thinks Worf is dressed to go to a beheading. Worf's response of "Beheadings are on Wednesdays" got a good laugh out of me.
They capture the dude and interrogate him aboard La Sirena. And... he's a changeling. (DUN DUN DUN!) I didn't see this coming, to be honest, I was betting the "Conspiracy" bugs were back. But some of the changelings haven't accepted the peace between the Federation and the Dominion and are out to wreak havoc. Odo (not mentioned by name, but clearly who Worf was talking about) contacted Worf about the situation, and Worf is trying to end the threat discreetly rather than risk reigniting the Dominion War.
Michelle Hurd and Michael Dorn have great chemistry, which really worked to keep me engaged in the Raffi plot this week.
My one issue was that the changeling morph sequence looked terrible. I hate to say it, but Disco's changeling morph effect looked way better.
Titan Plot
As the Titan evades the Shrike, we get a flashback to Riker having a conversation with Picard about becoming a dad. I still say Riker losing a kid was unnecessary and the way that he died was beyond stupid, but it's used to good effect here to mirror Picard's suddenly being a father. Marina Sirtis gets a cameo (and gets credited properly this time around!).
Aw, Sidney went down to give Seven (who's confined to quarters) a pep talk. We also actually get Seven's preferred method of address: Commander Seven. I've been wondering about that.
Picard and Beverly have the conversation about Jack. While I get where Beverly's coming from, I think I'm firmly on Picard's side on this. She took the choice away from him. Although, geez, Picard sure was a Romulan magnet at the time that Beverly was pregnant. Was this around the time of the supernova?
Shaw gets seriously injured when the Shrike spots the Titan, and he makes Riker temporary captain. The Shrike also starts whipping out the same portal tech used in the recruitment center attack; every time the Titan tries to leave the nebula, a portal opens right in front of them which takes them back inside.
Jack realizes they're being tracked somehow and springs Seven from her quarters. They figure out the Shrike is following a verterium leak that was obviously sabotage. Jack tries to fix it, but he gets attacked the saboteur: Another changeling. As he comes to, he has some weird vision of red veins growing on the ceiling behind Seven. He's seriously injured and gets taken to Sickbay. Picard takes the turbolift down to be with his son, mirroring the turbolift ride Riker was talking about in the flashback.
The saboteur plants a bomb which takes out the warp drive. Picard convinces Riker to go on the offensive, but the portal weapon just sends the Titan's torpedoes back at it, crippling the ship as it begins to fall into a gravity well inside the nebula...
Good writing. Good acting, especially Jonathan Frakes. I loved his response to Jack complaining that he was being treated as a science experiment. "Well yeah, do you know how long we had to wait for the Picard/Beverly ship to get anywhere?"
Random thought: I wonder if the masked dudes on the Shrike are Jem'Hadar?
EDIT: Forgot a nice detail... So remember last episode when Vadic mentioned that she had read the psychological profiles of everybody? In hindsight, I bet that was a huge hint of the real baddies since the Founders had the Vorta do the same thing.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
I will admit that Zen!Worf is kind of interesting, & an actual logical progression of the character. The rest, though....
• Riker & Picard arguing like that on the bridge in front of everybody? No, they'd've taken it private. Riker having a fear of loss makes zero sense, & yelling at Picard to get off the bridge & "you've killed us all"? That's not even a cliffhager, because we saw so much in the trailers that has yet to be seen, so obviously there's gonna be some sort of deus ex in play (probably miraculous Geordi with a ship)
• Verterium is NOT A FUCKING GAS. Also, a leak inside the ship isn't a fucking trackable thing.
• Why would Shaw put Riker in command? Contrived af.
• I was hoping Jack would die. He's an insufferable MacGuffin. ("Insufferable MacGuffins" is a good band name.)
• CHANGELING TERRORISTS. Come the fuck ON, dude. Like, that makes even less sense than Happy-Go-Lucky Borg.
• The pacing. This did not need to be an entire episode. This all could've been done in 20 minutes. Actually, the Titan plot could've, & should've, & main focus should've been Worffaela (yeah, that's their ship name which I just made up). The fact that we're still padding does not signal well for the the rest to me.
• The Changeling informant was played by Thomas Dekker–previously one of Picard's Nexus sons & the son in Janeway's 19th-century holomistress thing.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
They should've called this episode "Disengage" because I'm very close to do just that. This is not the TNG reunion I wanted to see. The Riker/Picard conflict was very unprofessional (so was Titan crewmembers blaming Jack) and came out of nowhere after them being best buddies. Putting the blame on Picard in the end was also totally out of character; also it was Riker who made the decision to go with Picard's plan.
They've character assassinated Beverly in my book. Her BS explanation was totally unconvincing to me. She wanted to keep her son safe? Well, he's an intergalactic fugitive at the age of 20. Good job, Bev!
The nebula anomaly better be not connected to the main plot. There's already too much coincidence going on as the weapon is as predicted connected to Vadic.
Raffi and Worf's story line was tedious in the beginning. I'm not interesting in her junkie problems. Got interesting with the Changeling reveal.
Random notes: They packed another new uniform in an already cramped period in the flashback scene.
I hope the Shrike gets destroyed next episode. The bhwam-noise everytime it appears annoys the hell out of me.
-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
Registered: Mar 2000
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-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
The ep did seem to go around in circles, even before they cracked out the portal gun.
So at the time, I did think that the Changeling storyline’s resolution - Odo is going to spend some time telling them off and showing them how nice solids can be, and then we can aww be fwends! - to be a bit of a cop-out. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it hadn’t worked. And yet now we see it hasn’t, I do rather feel like it’s pissing on the memory of the late great Rene Auberjonois just a little bit…
I’m sure there’s nothing to this but Matalas’s usual cack-handedness, but it struck me as weird that there’s a character called Titus Rikka, which sounds like a mispronunciation of “Thaddeus Riker.”
Worf has lightened up a bit. Not before time.
I fear that they’re going to keep piling mystery on mystery and then have to resolve it all in a hurry at the end. So, it’s annoyed Changelings. But why are they after Jack-or-Bev-or-Picard? We can guess what it is they took from Daystrom - Lore - but why? That’ll be the added mystery next week or maybe the week after.
Oh… just thought of something. Why was Rikka so easy to find? Because he was meant to be. And get Worf & Raffi to go to Daystrom…. Because the “other thing” hasn’t been stolen yet! They’re going to be the unwitting Trojan horse that’ll enable the theft of what the Changelings really want, but couldn’t get first time!!
quote:But why are they after Jack-or-Bev-or-Picard? We can guess what it is they took from Daystrom - Lore - but why? That’ll be the added mystery next week or maybe the week after.
Here's a theory. Assuming the item the Changelings stole was Lore, who in the universe is more familiar with a Data-type android than Geordi LaForge and Beverly Crusher? Geordi's apparently still in active Starfleet service, but Bev's running around the fringes of the Federation as a doctor-without-borders, apparently isolated, and estranged from many of her friends and former colleagues.
Either that or they want Jack's DNA so they can clone Picard.
Anyway, I agree with the notes that the pacing seems weird. I think we certainly could have condensed all of the Titan sequences into the second episode. I really like the Worf/Raffi storyline.
One thing I was curious about: Crusher talks about the last time she and Picard saw each other. He was called away, and she returned later to the Enterprise. I'm taking this to mean that Picard had been promoted, and Beverly remained aboard the Enterprise under another captain. Not a groundbreaking realization, but a nice little subtle addition of detail.
posted
I’m rowing back on my “[this] Worf is a changeling” theory. If he was, why even get Raffi thinking about Changelings as the potential enemy? If they know everyone’s psych profiles, they’d know she’s paranoid enough to potentially figure it out. Unless they’re planning to exploit that paranoia in pursuit of their wider aims… aargh!!
It has to be Jack. Vadic has him and Bev and Picard RIGHT THERE, all in one place… and she still wants just Jack handed over. Unless it’s as a hostage just to force Picard to undertake whatever her ultimate plan is. Though if having Data experts under her control is what she’s after, well, Geordi is THE Data expert - and hey, his daughter is RIGHT THERE too!!
Question: when did we start doing threads for each new episode? During ENT I think? I don’t recall it being a thing during DS9 or VOY.
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
quote:Originally posted by Lee: Question: when did we start doing threads for each new episode? During ENT I think? I don’t recall it being a thing during DS9 or VOY.
I think we started with Series ?.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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Well yes but that was implied by the format. I had a look back and while new VOY episodes often used to inspire a dedicated thread, they didn’t always, but then this Forum was a LOT busier back then! My goodness, so many threads - often started by DARKSTAR (sorry kid - though he’s not a kid anymore obviously)! It was only with ENT that they started. And - this has only just occurred to me now - I was just looking in the general Trek threads; I can’t remember in which sub the ENT threads with the annoying tech pun titles were…
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