Star Trek: Discovery 5-03: Jinaal (Quick Review)

Episode:

58

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Writer:

Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Wilkinson

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Director:

Andi Armaganian

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Air Date:

11-Apr-2024

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the third episode of Star Trek: Discovery's final season, Jinaal.

I've mentioned this before, but it's rarely a good sign when Star Trek decides to go with a short made-up word for an episode title. Sometimes it works out and you get a Sarek or a Darmok, but no one's dying to see Melora or Rajiin again. Personally I prefer the more poetic and evocative titles. Give me something like The City on the Edge of Forever, The Measure of a Man, or Parth Ferengi's Heart Place.

I mean, which of these sounds like it's going to be the better written episode: The Girl in the Fireplace or Praxeus? GROPOS or Intersections in Real Time? Though don't bring up the critically-acclaimed and beloved Star Wars series Andor, we're not talking about how it gets away with half its episodes having names like Kassa, Aldhani and Narkina 5.

Anyway, writer Kyle Jarrow has done a couple of episodes of Discovery's fourth season, one I liked, one I didn't like so much, but Lauren Wilkinson is new to the show. She's known for writing the novel American Spy and working on spy thriller series Citadel, so maybe this is going to have some spy stuff in it? That might not be so bad!

There will be SPOILERS below for Star Trek stories released on or before 11th April 2024, including this one.

Star Trek: Picard 3-01: The Next Generation (Quick Review)

Episode:

21

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Writer:

Terry Matalas

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Director:

Doug Aarniokoski

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Air Date:

16-Feb-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm starting Star Trek: Picard season 3 with the episode The Next Generation.

There's nothing weird about Star Trek shows switching showrunners, but it's funny how every season of Picard is clearly a new creator's story. The first season was helmed by novelist Michael Chabon, the second was by Akiva Goldsman, and the third was by Terry Matalas. Okay, that's an oversimplification, as Goldsman also worked on season 1 and Matalas worked on season 2, and the episodes themselves were by a bunch of different writers, but this was definitely Matalas' turn to steer the ship.

I'm one of the people who enjoyed season 2 but I have to concede that it was a bit of a mess. In fact, a lot of Trek fans consider it to be a complete train wreck, an embarrassing disaster, perhaps the worst season of Star Trek ever made. The trouble is, it's hard to tell how much of that was due to Terry Matalas' presence and how much was due to his absence. There was some overlap with the production of the second and third seasons, and Matalas switched his attention to season 3 after just a few episodes. So it could be that season 2 collapsed without him or it could be that his decisions set the season on a course for catastrophe.

Anyway, at the time I'm writing this intro I already know how season 3 went, but my episode reviews were written back when they were coming out so they're all full of authentic ignorance. It just took me a year to publish them because, I dunno, it seemed more important to write about The Trouble with Tribbles and Doctor Who's 60th anniversary, and Picard got pushed to the back burner.

There will be SPOILERS in this review for the whole episode, and things like Star Trek: Discovery, but it won't give away anything that happens later as I didn't actually know what happens later.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-02: Under the Twin Moons (Quick Review)

Episode:

57

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Writer:

Alan McElroy

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Director:

Doug Aarniokoski

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Air Date:

04-Apr-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about the second episode of Star Trek: Discovery's final season, Under the Twin Moons! I need to pick up the pace though, as I'm falling behind. We waited two years for the series to return then they dropped two episodes on us on the same day, so they're a week ahead of me.

There are some familiar names up there under the picture. Director Doug Aarniokoski had been with the series since the beginning, or since the episode Lethe anyway. But he had more success over on Star Trek: Picard, with series highlights like Nepenthe, The Star Gazer and Penance having his name on them. Writer Alan McElroy hasn't impressed me as much, but I did like An Obol for Charon at least. I think there's the potential there for this to be a good one.

There will be SPOILERS after this point. Though I won't spoil anything that happens later, partly because episode 3 wasn't even out yet at the time I wrote this.

Crusade 1-01: War Zone

Episode:

1

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Janet Greek

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Air Date:

09-Jun-1999

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching an episode of the short-lived Babylon 5 spin-off series Crusade! I thought it was called Babylon 5: Crusade, but nope it's just Crusade.

The series began airing about six months after the end of Babylon 5, in June 1999... which means if I'd just waited another couple of months I could've published this on the show's 25th anniversary. It's too late for that now, I already promised this would be my next review, but it shows how it helps to plan things in advance.

Crusade had actually been planned out while Babylon 5 was still airing and they'd kicked off the show's story arc in the movie A Call to Arms back in January. Everything was going great... until it wasn't. The TNT network's meddling made such a mess of the continuity that it's hard to figure out what order to watch the episodes in. It's not as simple as just putting the events in a sensible order as there's a change in uniforms partway through the series, so all the grey uniform episodes have to be in a block together.

War Zone seems a safe bet as a starting point, seeing as it's chronologically earliest and it's numbered episode one, but creator J. Michael Straczynski would disagree. He wasn't impressed by how it turned out and would've preferred that the series had started off with the 9th episode, Racing the Night. His thinking was that he'd already established the premise in the movie so there was no need for a lot of extra exposition.

Okay, I'm going to be going through the episode scene by scene, sharing my reactions and observations as I go, so there are going to be SPOILERS here. There'll also likely be a few spoilers for Babylon 5 and A Call to Arms, but I won't ruin any Crusade episodes but this one.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-01: Red Directive (Quick Review)

Episode:

56

|

Writer:

Michelle Paradise

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Director:

Olatunde Osunsanmi

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Air Date:

04-Apr-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching some Star Trek!

Hey, remember Star Trek: Discovery? It was the first Star Trek spin-off of the modern era and lasted four seasons before completely disappearing in March 2022. It's been gone so long that Paramount has released 71 episodes of Star Trek in the meantime, split between five different series. That includes half of Lower Decks and Prodigy, most of Picard and the entirety of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

But after a two-year absence, Discovery is back for its final season! They didn't know it was going to be its final year when they were filming it and they probably would've liked it to go on for longer, but the series has had a good run. It didn't hit the traditional seven seasons, but it did run from 2017 to 2024, which matches Star Trek: The Next Generation's run of 1987 to 1994. And when it ends it'll have 65 episodes, which may turn out to be the best we'll get from a series during this era.

I've had my issues with Discovery in the past, but I do have my hopes up for this final year. Like I hope it doesn't have that unpleasant blue tint to it, and I hope characters start talking more like regular people (or regular Star Trek people at least). I also hope it's more about boldly going to new worlds rather than being traumatised by what happened on them.

Alright, this is going to be my review of season 5, episode 1, Red Directive, by showrunner Michelle Paradise. There will be SPOILERS beyond this point.

Doctor Who (2023) - Christmas 2023: The Church on Ruby Road (Quick Review)

Episode:

875

|

Serial:

304

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Mark Tonderai

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Air Date:

25-Dec-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about The Church on Ruby Road. Because I said I would, and it'd be weird not to after covering the other three 2023 specials. Plus this is a big deal. It's the first episode of the Fifteenth Doctor's era of Doctor Who!

It's going to be hard for Ncuti Gatwa to follow David Tennant, one of the most beloved Doctors in the series' history, but Matt Smith has already proved that it can be done. I'm not worried, as there has never been a bad Doctor in the series' entire history. Though sometimes good Doctors get stuck in a string of mediocre stories that prevent them from really shining. I'm sure there's no way that's going to happen to Ncuti though. Probably.

There will be SPOILERS below, but nothing for stories that come after this.

Doctor Who (2023): The Giggle

Episode:

874

|

Serial:

303

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Chanya Button

|

Air Date:

09-Dec-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the third and final Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special, The Giggle. That's seriously the title they went with. That's going to be stuck with us in episode lists forever now. Still, at least it's easier to spell than The Tsuranga Conundrum or The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos.

I just typed those from memory by the way, which I guess proves that my exposure to Doctor Who has gone way beyond safe limits. I can't remember what happened in Flux though, so there's still hope.

I'm expecting that this is where we see the Fourteenth Doctor regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa, which is a bit sad actually. It's rare that I honestly can say that a Doctor is going too soon, but this time he's really going too soon. Three episodes doesn't quite beat Paul McGann's record of one movie, but it's a lot shorter than Christopher Eccleston's thirteen episodes and even that wasn't enough.

There will be SPOILERS below for this story and earlier ones.