Doctor Who (2023) 1-01: Space Babies (Quick Review)

Episode:

876

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Serial:

305

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Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Julie Anne Robinson

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Air Date:

11-May-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the first proper episode of Doctor Who's third volume, Space Babies! Like An Unearthly Child and Rose before it, it's the start of a whole new regeneration cycle for the series, so this is a major event here.

Though there were four specials leading up to it, so this is actually showrunner Russell T Davies' fifth episode in a row, and that's... a concern maybe. I mean, it's only a matter of time before even the best writer comes up with a terrible story, and he's churning out scripts right now.

Alright, there are going to be SPOILERS below, but only for this episode and the stories leading up to it. And maybe something from the movie Aliens. Oh, plus the Ray Bradbury story A Sound of Thunder.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-07: Erigah (Quick Review)

Episode:

62

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Writer:

M. Raven Metzner

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Director:

Jon Dudkowski

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Air Date:

09-May-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing the Star Trek: Discovery episode unfortunately titled Erigah.

The episode was directed by Jon Dudkowski, who only has one other directing credit on IMDb, for season 3's Unification III. Though he's credited as the editor on 17 episodes of Discovery, including the pilot, so he probably gets the show's style.

It's the first Discovery episode to be written by M. Raven Metzner, he's entirely new to Star Trek, but it's far from his first credit on IMDb. In fact, I hope this is very far from it, as his first credit is the movie Elektra, which was so bad that it and Catwoman pretty much killed female-led superhero movies for over ten years. Then he became showrunner on the worst Netflix Marvel series, Iron Fist... but it's okay, he was the one who did the second season, not the first one. I've heard that it's a lot better.

Okay, there are going to be SPOILERS below for Star Trek episodes, including this one, obviously. So don't get caught out when I mention something that happened in Deep Space Nine or whatever.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I am continuing to write about Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

You're reading part two (of five), but if you'd rather jump back and read PART ONE, just click the text.

It's a bit of a shame I reckon that this isn't called Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, to match the earlier films. Sure it says 'Episode VIII' in the scrolling text at the start of the movie, but it's not on the poster or the Blu-ray cover. They could've at least stuck the number on the spine!

To be fair, the Star Wars movies only started to put emphasis on the episode numbers when the prequels came out. Before The Phantom Menace's name was finally revealed the movie was just called Episode I. You can get Episode I: The Visual Dictionary and Episode I: Racer. Companies only like numbers in their titles when they're low, that's why comics keep getting rebooted to a new issue #1. Funny thing is, in the rare cases when sequels do get high numbers in the title, they seem to sell just fine. Star Trek VI and Furious 7 did well enough, and the Final Fantasy games didn't truly take off until Final Fantasy VII.

Okay, I'll be going through another 50 minutes of this movie scene by scene, so with any luck I will be hitting the film's halfway point this time. It'll be close though. Also, there will be SPOILERS.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-06: Whistlespeak (Quick Review)

Episode:

61

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Writer:

Kenneth Lin & Brandon A. Schultz

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Director:

Chris Byrne

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Air Date:

02-May-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Whistlespeak, which probably isn't about an expedition to the peak of Mount Whistles, but I've been wrong before. I was way off with my assumptions about the last episode, Mirrors.

Discovery used to have 13-15 episodes each season, but they slashed that to a miniscule 10 episodes for its final year, which means that I'm already past the halfway point. That's kind of crazy, as it feels like the season's only just started. Either the episodes so far have been well-paced and engaging, or barely anything's happened yet. Or both.

Alright, there will be SPOILERS below, for this and for earlier stories from series like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Strange New Worlds. But mostly this.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Part 1

Written by:

Rian Johnson

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Directed by:

Rian Johnson

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Release Date:

2017

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Hey, they got the logo right. So far so good!

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the first part of my review of the most divisive Star Wars movie: Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi. And it really is his movie as he was both director and writer (with a little help from Carrie Fisher). He brought his style to the Star Wars universe here in a way that a lot of fans... responded to.

If you organise all the Star Wars episodes by their user rating on sites like IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, etc. there's always one movie that ends up right at the bottom, and that is... The Rise of Skywalker (except on Metacritic where TROS came second to The Phantom Menace). The Last Jedi is even higher up the rankings when you look at critic scores, and I've seen plenty of positivity from fans on podcasts and YouTube. But when people talk about "the movie that ruined Star Wars", it's usually this one they're referring to. There's so much hate for this film out there you'd think it was on the level of franchise killers like Batman & Robin, Jaws: The Revenge, or Alien: Resurrection.

Though to be honest, I actually liked Alien: Resurrection, and I enjoyed the The Last Jedi as well. At least I think I did... it's been a while. I don't know if this rewatch is going to turn me against the film, but I'll definitely see if I can pinpoint where other people's frustration is coming from. I'll be going through the movie scene by scene, so there will be SPOILERS below for this and any of the Star Wars episodes up to this point.

Star Trek: Picard 3-04: No Win Scenario (Quick Review)

Episode:

24

|

Writer:

Terry Matalas & Sean Tretta

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Director:

Jonathan Frakes

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Air Date:

09-Mar-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about more Star Trek: Picard. It's season 3, episode 4: No Win Scenario.

In Star Trek, a no win scenario is a situation where there's no possible way to achieve any kind of good outcome. It's a mythical thing, like Rumpelstiltskin or the Greek god Apollo, except less likely to be encountered by a veteran crew with an ongoing series. Sure the heroes lose sometimes, but if they ever think a situation looks hopeless they're just not looking at it from the right perspective yet.

The episode was written by Terry Matalas and Sean Tretta, so the showrunner scripted this one personally. You'll see often a showrunner's name on the most crucial and impressive episodes in a season, the opening chapters, the epic finales, the format-breaking stories, the ones that reveal something about the characters... though on Deep Space Nine you'd also see it on all those Ferengi stories. Ira Behr did love them Ferengi.

I hope you're okay with SPOILERS because this is where they start.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-05: Mirrors (Quick Review)

Episode:

60

|

Writer:

Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco

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Director:

Jen McGowan

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Air Date:

25-Apr-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the 60th episode of Star Trek: Discovery! Okay that's not really that notable as a milestone, not compared to 50, but it's the last round number that the series will ever reach. And honestly, I don't think we'll see another Trek series reaching 60 in the foreseeable future. Short Treks made it to 10, Picard ended at 30, Prodigy seems like it's ending at 40 and Lower Decks is ending at 50.

It's a shame, because 60 episodes was nothing to the '90s shows; that'd barely get you into season 3. Though on the other hand, it brought Doctor Who from the start of Christopher Eccleston's run all the way up to Matt Smith, and it was all the Original Series had in it before it started going downhill, so you can be plenty iconic in just 60 stories. If they're really good.

Anyway, the episode's called Mirrors, and 'mirror' is an important word for Star Trek, especially when it's next to the word 'universe'. I don't think that's where they'll be going with this, for all kinds of reasons, but hey the episode could surprise me.

There will be SPOILERS below for this and other Star Trek shows. So if I do have reason to start talking about TOS' Mirror, Mirror or DS9's Crossover, I will.