Value Subtracted @ ValueSubtracted @startrek.website

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Pretty good for a table-setting episode. The most significant development was taking Wesley's omniscience off the board, which probably had to happen for the rest of the season to have any stakes.

Ever since "Picard" season one, I've been itching to see Starfleet during the time of the Romulan evacuation, when the vast majority of their resources have been redeployed to support that mission. I never expected it to be this show that did it. It's interesting to hear that there are A500 synth units supporting the Federation member worlds - it's probably a good thing that only the units on Mars were hacked, as far as we know.

Thematically, things are really starting to come together, with Dal and the crew learning to contribute to the mission rather than take control of it.

I think I'm pretty happy with this resolution to Zero's arc - their new body seems fitting.

Those were the Enderprizians from "All the World's a Stage", right?

They certainly appeared to be - how that's possible is an exercise left to the viewer, which is part of the fun of alternate universe stories.

That said, this is the first episode of the season that fell a little flat for me. I know part of the show's mission is to give a bit of a "grand tour" of Star Trek, but this is the first one that seemed a little contrived to me.

Part of it is probably that I prefer the Mirror Universe to be more scary than silly, and the episode understandably leaned into the silly.

1. Mrs. Merridew is played by a woman named Susan Twist, yes.
2. Expect spoilers in the retrospective discussions. That's why they're called that.

I love this one so much. Davies excels at creepy, menacing, difficult-to-comprehend threats, and this is a great example of the genre.

The scene in which the Doctor and Donna split up, only to "reunite" with their fresh doppelgangers is very well-executed, demonstrating that something is amiss without making it too obvious. The scene in which the Doc absolutely cannot stop thinking is great, too.

In terms of ongoing storyline, we have our first Susan Twist appearance as Mrs. Merridew. We also have the origin of "mavity," which has yet to be resolved in the series.

And, of course, we have the Doctor invoking supersition while casting salt at the end of the universe, which is the handwave for the show's new directions into the supernatural. I personally don't think it was necessary, but it is a neat bit of texture.

In fact...do we know if the salt had any bearing at all in the Sutekh story? It kind of seems like the finale could have played out just fine without this element.

So...did Rok-Tahk just come up with a "cure" for tribble breeding? That would seem to be a significant development...

Gee whiz, it really sounds like this instance isn't for you, and also like you don't know what an advertisement is.

Best of luck in...all that, I guess.

That was certainly unexpected - I love the concept of having to sail the Protostar across the atmosphere.

Beltran's work as Chakotay this season has actually been really good - this might be the first time I've ever been invested in the character.

Wow, Wheaton was really great in this. His manic, impulsive Wesley Crusher is a lot more interesting than the more serene version we've gotten since...always, really.

They're really leaning in to the Doctor Who of it all, not just with Wesley, but also with the Loom, which seem ripped straight out of Father's Day.

It's nice of the Starfleet of this era to not only put security officers back into red shirts, but making them brighter than those of the command officers to make them easier targets.

Yeah, it's probably good to mention that all (I think?) of our DMs are open if someone has a suggestion for us.

“The Breen ship, I believe, is the largest asset we’ve ever built. It was about 10 kilometres of an actual digital environment that were built so we can travel through and also shoot practically in certain areas,” he recalls. “It was a really massive ship both from the exterior but also from the interior. And it’s something that if you look at the details when you’re watching it on screen, there’s just so much depth, Digi doubles and ships – the detail is almost endless.”

Not sure what to say here besides, "wow."

YOU KILLED LEMMY

YOU BASTARDS

See, I knew I should've paid more attention to what they were saying around "Zee."

It really was good to get a Zero-centric episode.

The Nobodies being reckless thrill-seekers was a nice story element - I always wished Saru had gone through something similar following his vahar'ai.

I think the episode did about as well as could be expected when it comes to conveying the concept of gaining senses for the first time, and then willingly giving them up. Heady stuff for a kids' show.

By the way, did Gwyn refer to Zero as a he in the log?

I had the chance to keep an ear out for this as I watched, and I think the line is, "I think Zee's safe with us until we do." They've used the nickname a handful of times through the season so far, but it's susceptible to unclear pronounciation.

It was a fun twist - it was good to see something that will carry forward from what was otherwise a fairly standard hijinks episode.

It's also good to see Maj'el getting involved in said hijinks like a good Vulcan.

spam

Wow, Tarka was a chatty sonofagun.

Honestly? I think that's probably exactly what they do.

Nostalgia sells, which is why TOS stuff specifically has dominated the merch market for years. And older fans, unfortunately, are probably more likely to have money to burn.

I find merch interesting these days...what do people even want? I feel like action figures are a thing of the past. Are prop and costume replicas where it's at these days?

If you don't like the content hosted on this instance, why do you have an opinion on this at all?