Star Trek: Picard 3-05: Imposters (Quick Review)

Episode:

25

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Writer:

Cindy Appel & Chris Derrick

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Director:

Dan Liu

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Air Date:

16-Mar-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally back to writing about Star Trek: Picard's third and final season! It's only 10 episodes so you'd think I'd be done with it by now, but I had to put it to one side for a couple of months to get some other things written. Discovery's last season was coming out, I had a The Last Jedi review in the works for May the 4th, then the first season of Ncuti Gatwa's run of Doctor Who started as well, so there were a lot of things demanding my time.

But that's all done with now, almost, and I'm ready to give Picard my partially undivided attention for its remaining six episodes.

Imposters was the final story to be credited to Cindy Appel and Chris Derrick, who'd been on the show since season 2. Derrick did one story, Appel did a few, and none of them have been highlights so far. Director Dan Liu was new to Picard, but he'd also done some Strange New Worlds so I'm sure he knew the difference between a phaser and a phase inducer.

Warning, SPOILERS beyond this point.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-08: Empire of Death (Quick Review)

Episode:

883

|

Serial:

311

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Jamie Donoughue

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Air Date:

22-Jun-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Doctor Who's latest season one finale, Empire of Death.

It's weird to have reached the end of a season so soon, I'm supposed to get another five episodes! It's been two episodes longer than the Flux season though, I'll give them that. Also, the classic show's first season only had 8 serials, so that's basically the same length... if you don't count the fact that each of those serials had about 6 parts.

There will be SPOILERS below, for a bunch of things. I can't tell you what things exactly as that would be a spoiler, but it'll help if you're up to date with the series.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-07: The Legend of Ruby Sunday (Quick Review)

Episode:

882

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Serial:

311

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Jamie Donoughue

|

Air Date:

15-Jun-2024

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing The Legend of Ruby Sunday, the first half of the Doctor Who re-revivals' two-part finale!

It's been a long time since we've gotten a penultimate episode written by showrunner Russell T Davies, but I have a pretty good idea what to expect from it. Everything will seem like the most important and dramatic thing to happen in the history of the universe and then it'll end with "TO BE CONTINUED".

But will it be as good as Bad Wolf, Army of Ghosts, The Sound of Drums, The Stolen Earth or The End of Time, Part 1? Honestly I think it's got a shot, as some of those episodes weren't the greatest. Especially on a second watch, when they became nothing but set up for something I'd already seen.

There will be SPOILERS below for the episode, the season so far, and any stories that get referenced.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-06: Rogue (Quick Review)

Episode:

881

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Serial:

310

|

Writer:

Kate Herron and Briony Redman

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Director:

Ben Chessell

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Air Date:

08-Jun-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the sixth episode of Doctor Who's latest first season, Rogue. I'm hoping it's as good as the sixth episode we got in the 2005 series, Dalek, but that's some tough competition.

History is repeating a bit here, as showrunner Russell T Davies wrote most of both seasons himself, with episodes three and six being exceptions. This was written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, who are also the writers of the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Sims. I guess that'll turn out to be a lot like Barbie, except with more people drowning in swimming pools and getting sealed up in walls. Lots of tragic cooking accidents.

Herron also worked on season one of Loki, so she's got some proper time travel experience. Though she was the director, not the writer, so watching that hasn't given me any insight at all into how this episode is going to turn out. It was a pretty good series though!

There will be SPOILERS below for Rogue and whatever classic episodes get referenced in it.

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 5 Review

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the end of another TV series!

I finished writing about all of Babylon 5 a year back, so this brings my total completed TV shows up to... 2. I was supposed to have finished Star Trek: Picard by now as well, but I had to put it on hold due to a new season of Doctor Who appearing and demanding a slice of my time.

Star Trek: Discovery began in late 2017, but I started writing about it way earlier, when the first teaser trailer was released. It was just a reveal of the hero ship but I was so damn hyped for new Trek that I wrote about it anyway. Now it's five years later and I'm writing about Discovery's fifth and final season. Sorry, I mean eight years later, as they were kind of dragging their heels on releasing season 5.

There have been plenty of people who wrote the show off as being a ratings disaster and said it was going to get cancelled before its time, and I suppose it did. Oh well. But it's eerie how close it's run mirrors Star Trek: The Next Generation's, exactly 30 years later. TNG ran from Sep 1987 to May 1994, Disco went from Sep 2017 to May 2024. In fact, if you count the days from The Vulcan Hello to the release of Life, Itself, Discovery is actually the longest running Star Trek series of all time by 11 days!

Was the fifth season any good though? Was any of it any good? I'll be sharing my own thoughts below, so expect a few SPOILERS for Discovery, Picard, and other Trek.

Doctor Who (2023) 1-05: Dot and Bubble (Quick Review)

Episode:

880

|

Serial:

309

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Director:

Dylan Holmes Williams

|

Air Date:

01-Jun-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the second half of Doctor Who's new season 1, with Dot and Bubble. The title isn't really filling me with optimism to be honest, but that's mostly because it reminds me of Short Treks' Tom and Jerry homage Ephraim and Dot. I really hated Ephraim and Dot.

I'm sure this is going to be something very different though, because Doctor Who episodes are always something different. The show keeps switching genre and tone, rarely giving you the same thing twice. Anyway, Dot and Bubble was written by Russell T Davies, same as the last episode, and it was directed by Dylan Holmes Williams, the same as the last episode. I thought 73 Yards looked fantastic, so I'm expecting some pretty visuals at least.

There will be Doctor Who SPOILERS below, but I won't spoil anything that happens later.

Star Trek: Discovery 5-10: Life, Itself (Quick Review)

Episode:

65

|

Writer:

Kyle Jarrow & Michelle Paradise

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Director:

Olatunde Osunsanmi

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Air Date:

30-May-2024

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing Life, Itself - the very last episode of Star Trek: Discovery. The series that kicked the Kurtzman era of Star Trek shows has reached its end of its voyage... a bit sooner than expected. Discovery kind of got cancelled, but they were at least allowed to shoot some extra scenes to properly wrap it up, so I do have some closure to look forward to.

Life, Itself is a member of a very exclusive club, and not just because its a Star Trek series finale. If you disqualify titles starting with 'A ' or 'The ', this is only the third time that a Trek show has had three consecutive episodes that start with the same letter. That's trivia so trivial that you won't find it anywhere else!

(If you're curious, the episodes are: Eye of the Needle, Ex Post Facto and Emanations in Voyager's first season, Sleeping Dogs, Shadows of P'Jem and Shuttlepod One in Enterprise's first season, and now we've got Labyrinths, Lagrange Point and Life, Itself.)

This review is going to include SPOILERS for a bunch of Star Trek stories from across the timeline.