Star Trek: Section 31

Writer:

Craig Sweeny

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Director:

Olatunde Osunsanmi

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Release Date:

2025

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Section 31, the most critically panned Star Trek movie ever made. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier had a good run, but it's finally been dethroned. In fact, its review scores haves been giving Borderlands and Rebel Moon a run for their money, and I'm kind of not mad about that.

I've been biased against the movie from the day it was announced, because I strongly dislike the idea that Section 31 is necessary for Star Trek's utopian Federation to exist. Though I keep hearing that the film's actually about a team of fun misfits on a tame Mission: Impossible adventure, and I guess that's certainly one thing you can do with the dark conspiracy corrupting Starfleet's soul.

The film has already disappointed me by not having the bold magenta and yellow logo from the trailer. I didn't particularly love it, but it looked better than this.

Anyway, I'm going to share some of my thoughts underneath screencaps and I promise you this won't drag on for five pages like my Phantom Menace review. It will contain SPOILERS however, for this and earlier Trek stories featuring Georgiou and Section 31.

Doctor Who (2023) - Christmas 2024: Joy to the World

Episode:

884

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Serial:

312

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Writer:

Steven Moffat

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Director:

Alex Sanjiv Pillai

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Air Date:

25-Dec-2024

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The good news is that Sci-Fi Adventures has finally returned to cover a brand new episode of Doctor Who! The bad news is that it's been six months since I last wrote a full scene-by-scene review like this and I've forgotten how to do it. Honestly it's lucky I remembered I'm supposed to take notes.

Anyway, this is a Steven Moffat episode and that's a pretty big deal, seeing as he's written some of the best stories in Doctor Who history. They haven't all been winners, but that's no surprise considering how prolific he's been. By my calculations this is the 50th episode that Moffat has been credited for writing or co-writing for Doctor Who, which is even more than Russell T Davies' 41. He's still way short of Classic Who writers Robert Holmes (72), Terry Nation (62) or Malcolm Hulke (54), though, and I doubt they'll ever be beaten...

... unless you count full stories instead of episodes, in which case those numbers become Robert Holmes (18), Terry Nation (11), Malcolm Hulke (8), Russell T Davies (33) and Steven Moffat (40... ish). (It's hard to know what to count as a two-parter sometimes.) So Steven Moffat has set an almost unbeatable record here, especially considering how seasons are getting shorter and further apart. At least, it would've been if RTD wasn't so close to catching up.

I should warn you that this review will contain SPOILERS for every minute of this episode and certain minutes of previous stories.

Star Trek: Picard - Season 3 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally crossing Star Trek: Picard off my list of things I need to get done. It's over, I've reviewed every episode and now I'm covering season 3 overall.

That makes this the third series I've covered in its entirety, after Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Discovery, though in this case it wasn't that much of a challenge considering it only has 30 episodes in total. That's less than half of Discovery's episode count, and that wasn't particularly long for a Star Trek series either.

Anyway, I'm reviewing season 3 in particular, though there will be SPOILERS here for the rest of the series.

Star Trek: Picard 3-10: The Last Generation (Quick Review)

Episode:

30

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Writer:

Terry Matalas

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Director:

Terry Matalas

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Air Date:

20-Apr-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing The Last Generation, the dramatic conclusion of Star Trek: Picard's dramatic concluding season. This means I've completed another series! This, Star Trek: Discovery and Babylon 5 are the only three shows I've finished writing about in their entirety, so this is a rare event for me.

The episode was produced, written and directed by showrunner Terry Matalas, so it's more one person's vision than any other Trek episode since, I dunno, the first episode of Strange New Worlds (and that has a couple of other names besides Akiva Goldsman's on the 'story by' credit). The next closest episode after that I can think of is from way back in the 60s, as the Original Series' Elaan of Troyius was written and directed by John Meredyth Lucas. So that's pretty rare too.

There are going to be all kinds of SPOILERS below so I wouldn't go any further unless you've seen the episode yourself. Also Star Trek: Voyager. And Return of the Jedi.

Star Trek: Picard 3-09: Võx (Quick Review)

Episode:

29

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Writer:

Sean Tretta & Kiley Rossetter

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Director:

Terry Matalas

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Air Date:

13-Apr-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Picard's penultimate episode, Võx, which has a weird title. At least, that's what the experts say. Personally I have no idea if it's right or not, I didn't even know that it was Latin, but the internet seems pretty sure that tilde shouldn't be over the o. It may have been meant to be Vōx, but plain simple Vox would've worked just fine. It means 'voice' by the way.

One thing you don't often see on Star Trek is the showrunner directing an episode themselves, but Terry Matalas was at the helm for this one. He'd directed a few episodes of Twelve Monkeys previously, including the finale, so I'm sure he knew what he was doing. It would've been hilarious if he didn't though, and Picard ended as a complete train wreck on a basic production level. I guess I'll find out!

I'm going to start discussing SPOILERS now, so avert your eyes if you'd rather not know anything about this episode or what led up to it.

Star Trek: Picard 3-08: Surrender (Quick Review)

Episode:

28

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Writer:

Matt Okumura

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Director:

Deborah Kampmeier

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Air Date:

06-Apr-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing the season 3 Picard episode titled Surrender.

It was written by Matt Okumura, who wrote Hide and Seek for Picard's second and absolutely nothing else. Well, nothing in Star Trek anyway; he's had experience writing for Leverage: Redemption and Blood & Treasure, which are two series I'm not sure I've ever heard of.

If you don't want to see SPOILERS for series like Discovery, Strange New Worlds and Picard, you should stop reading here.

Star Trek: Picard 3-07: Dominion (Quick Review)

Episode:

27

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Writer:

Jane Maggs

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Director:

Deborah Kampmeier

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Air Date:

06-Apr-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Dominion, which is an interesting word in Star Trek. There are ominous implications there.

It's the season season in a row to feature a Jane Maggs story as episode 7, though that's not much of a coincidence as she wrote almost a third of season 2. Arguably the worst third, but I'm blaming the season arc for that more than anything. I haven't seen director Deborah Kampmeier's name on any Picard episodes, but she did direct The Galactic Barrier for Discovery, which is an episode I didn't like all that much either. Damn, not a lot of reasons for optimism so far, but I'll see how it goes.

This is where the SPOILERS start, so quit reading here if you don't want the episode ruined.