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The Orville: Midnight Blue (2022)
Priorities
Suppose we had an alliance to fight climate change with a horribly oppressive, openly sexist regime.
By the reasoning of this episode, an elevated society would abandon the alliance.
I like the ethics this show champions, but the way they're prioritized really reflects our current unwillingness to address existential issues prior to cultural ones, and our habit of judging populations exclusively by their worst behaviors and worst examples.
No wonder we're so divided.
Stranger Things: Chapter Nine: The Piggyback (2022)
Masterclass in salvaging a weak ending with an intermission after your best episode
It's a fascinating technique: if you know your ending is weaker, you can make an intermission right after your very best performance, and people will remember how awesome that episode was as they're half-tuned out watching the actual ending.
When a line starts with "I know this sounds cliche, but..." you know the writers have given up.
It felt really unpolished. Unfinished, even.
Why did the tentacle things gently let go of El when she rebooted? Couldn't she have blown them up or at least shoved them off?
Ed says he's "buying time" right before he goes on his suicide mission. How does he even half-plausibly believe he can accomplish that by Leeroy Jenkinsing his way into the swarm of death bats?
And the over-the-top tragedy bombing with Max... Seriously, did they *have* to go there? Were they *that* unconfident with that ending?
How did Yuri show zero signs of coming around before he suddenly became a hero with two-three convincing sentences? He went from being an amusingly amoral joker to a helicopter pilot with exactly zero personality.
And what is going on with the tender "friendship reaffirmation" scenes this season? We get it, someone's going to die. But honestly, all the characters are more or less equally important, so playing Russian Roulette with them doesn't have much emotional draw. The math doesn't work that way.
Star Trek: Voyager: Flesh and Blood (2000)
Somehow managed to make a fun Hirogen episode
I don't know if it's acting, but the tense conversation at the end made this episode for me.
Settling differences responsibly is the theme that makes Star Trek more pertinent in 2021 than ever.
Star Trek: Voyager: Muse (2000)
Goofy and campy and fully Star Trek. The new Star Trek writers ought to learn from it.
"Captain Janeway kissing Commander Chakotay? Tom Paris kissing Seven of Nine? I don't see the point."
Exactly, Picard writers.
Star Trek: Voyager: Memorial (2000)
This episode gave me flashbacks of other episodes, but it surprised me at the end
It's another one about the crew being implanted with memories of a war that they may or may not have taken part in. I think there are at least two more such episodes, at least one of which was in Voyager -- the one where Chakotay thinks he was part of a war.
This is one of those episodes where the very last decision turned it around instantly and made it all worth it.
Others seem to disagree about the ending, but there are plenty of photos and videos from our history that can easily be permanently scarring even without being as vivid as implanted memories.
They're among the most important media we have, even if not all of us are going to view them. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that in real life, destroying those records would be considered a crime against humanity.
A warning beacon is a perfectly fair compromise.
Star Trek: Voyager: Drone (1998)
"You are hurting me"
Is a haunting line.
The look in the mirror at the end really sold it for me.
Star Trek: Voyager: Unforgettable (1998)
Did they not have paper in the 90s?
Or stun mode on phasers?
This reminds me of that Riker episode in TNG where he falls in love with someone and also mysteriously forgets about stun mode.
Star Trek: Voyager: Real Life (1997)
This episode has haunted me for over a decade
I remembered the last scene from when I watched it a long time ago, but I couldn't remember which show it was from, much less which episode. It was just the sheer painfulness of it that was seared in my mind.
And then I watched it again just now, half by accident.
Can't fault it for doing its job, but jeeeeeesus is it ever brutal.
Worth a watch, even if it's contrived (when is Star Trek ever not?), if even just to remember what it's like to have feelings.
But expect feelings.
Star Trek: Voyager: Tuvix (1996)
Moral decisions dictated by the Writers' Guide
In this episode, there are two accidents and a murder.
I don't think this episode would have ended the way it did if not for the requirement to reset the plot as much as possible by the end of each episode.
It was definitely interesting, and I can see why the writers were desperate to tell this story, but I don't think a TV serial with a strict canon is the right medium for it if you want the Captain to stay true to her principles.
Star Trek: Voyager: Lifesigns (1996)
Doctor's got game
Honestly, I thought this would just be the call-response to Death Wish. But damn, the Doctor's dialogue at the end hit like a ton of bricks.
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (2013)
Once upon a time, everything. The end.
Technically, that was a spoiler, because that's what happened in this episode.
It was an over-saturated mess in which everything happened and nothing mattered. People popped in and out without purpose, old props made cameos without consequence. Plot twists clearly marked RECYCLE get tossed in the trash bin after very, very brief use.
Pacing was non-existent. Nothing the characters do or have happen to them (and believe me, a lot of things happen to a lot of characters) means anything at all. You can tell Moffat was trying to make it seem tragic, but he glosses over everything so haphazardly that nothing -- absolutely nothing -- sticks.
It was like watching an hour-long movie trailer. I'd like to believe the episode was written by the marketing department.
Doctor Who: The Rings of Akhaten (2013)
Deus ex machina endings are one thing, but...
This one's just a huge mess.
One moment it's a Disney fantasy. Another moment it's a Carl Sagan monologue. Then it's bits of the Silence, a Final Fantasy last boss, a second last boss, and last boss in final form.
One moment the Doctor is enjoying the religious rituals of the land, next he shows absolutely no regard for the societal fallout and dismay that should have happened (but apparently, magically, didn't) following the collapse of their religion and order.
The last boss dies because Clara makes a benign comment about "what should have been" -- as if all the people who made offerings in the past had no aspirations associated with their trinkets for the whole of their recorded history.
Then the Tardis translation stops working for the barking person.
And when they can't figure out what to do with a character, he just gets himself teleported out.
Ambition without substance.