Tag Archives: Brit Marling

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Come, Let’s Away [S1E6] – TV Review

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TL;DR – While I am not normally a fan of bait-and-switch episodes, if you are going to pull it off, it helps when you have Holly Hunter, Paul Giamatti & Oded Fehr lighting up the screen. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that airs this series.

Caleb and Tarima sitting on a bench looking at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Come, Let’s Away Review –

Ooo, this is an odd episode, in that it is tonally very different from anything else the show has done, and look, it goes places. Places I was not expecting this early in the series. However, as big swings go, you’d better have a cast ready to pull it off, and thankfully, it looks like Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has that.

So, to set the scene, after spending all season in several stages of flirtation, Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) and Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner) have finally taken their relationship to the next level. But things hit a rock when Tarima’s accident captures something in Caleb’s mind, and he sees into his past. The USS Athena is on a joint mission between Starfleet Academy and the War College on the wreck of the USS Miyazaki. But when The Furies intercept the cadets and take them hostage, Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) might have to make a deal with a devil to get the cadets back. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Vox in Excelso [S1E4] – TV Review

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TL;DR – Starfleet Academy finally fixes the issue of Klingons on multiple fronts and earns the classic Jerry Goldsmith theme.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that airs this series.

The USS Athena.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Vox in Excelso Review –

Okay, today, before we dive into the review, I need to warn you that we are going to get deep into the lore and into some of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the series. I would not usually get as inside-baseball as this in the reviews; however, it is clear that this episode is very much based in that space.

So, to set the scene, the USS Athena has taken the Starfleet Academy out on their first away mission to chart a nebula. While it is meant to be a learning opportunity, it is to some extent. The trip is marked in tragedy when it is discovered that a refugee ship carrying remnants of the last 8 Klingon houses has crashed, and some of those onboard were Jay-Den’s (Karim Diané) family. Now he is thrust into a spotlight he does not want nor is appropriate, but he still has to navigate it anyway. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Beta Test [S1E2] – TV Review

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TL;DR – I think this episode shows the potential best and also the possible worst for the series moving forward.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that airs this series.

The Cadets in a line.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Beta Test Review

Apparently, it is tradition in the year of the Lord 2026, when you drop a weekly series order, you need to drop two episodes, which usually feel like they could have been one movie-length episode, but weren’t because of weird Hollywood economy reasons. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is no stranger to this phenomenon, but to give it its credit, this did feel like a whole new episode in its own right.  

So, to set the scene, Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) is trying to acclimatise to a world defined by rules, order, and, strangely for him, safety. Meanwhile, Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) is championing student learning wherever she can. One opportunity is being given to Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) because, for the first time since The Burn, the Betazed delegation is coming out of their psionic barrier that was put up around their territory. This could be a big win for the Federation to get Betazed to return to the fold, but it was the Federation that abandoned them during The Burn, and memories can be long. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Kids These Days [S1E1] – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is a bit of a rough first episode, but underneath all the mess is a lot of promise.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that airs this series.

The USS Athena.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Kids These Days Review –

Well, it is a new year, and also it is time for some new Star Trek, well, I say new Star Trek, but the idea of setting a show in Starfleet Academy has been kicking around since at least the 1980s. However, it might have taken forty-odd years to get it going; its time is now, and of course, we must take a look, even though I suspect it is a show that is not pitched to me. But then Star Trek Prodigy was also not pitched to me, and that turned out to be a real gem.  
So, to set the scene, at the end of Star Trek Discovery’s Fifth Season, we discovered that things had stabilised enough in the remnant of the Federation and Starfleet to restart the Starfleet Academy back on Earth. Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) had the tough job of choosing a commandant for the Academy, but he settled on Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), who left Starfleet because it was not living up to its ideals. However, on its maiden flight from Bajor to Earth, the USS Athena detects an anomaly. She stops to examine this possible teaching opportunity that turns out to be more than they bargained for. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – The OA Part 1 and 2

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TL;DR – This is a show that entrances you and then just when you think you have everything worked out it shifts the game completely and you are left in awe with what just happened.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

The OA Part 1 and 2. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

I have tried to keep up with all the new sci-fi shows dropping on Netflix, but occasionally one of them slips through the cracks, and this week we are looking at one of those with the brilliantly odd The OA. When a friend highly suggested that I give it a watch I thought I would get it an episode or two to see how it was and then at some point during Part 2 I looked up to see that it was 3 am and I truly wondered if I should watch the two last episodes then and there, so that should give you an indication as to how good the show is.

So to set the scene, we open with a rainy day as people drive over a bridge when someone records a woman in white running across to the edge of the bridge and then falling off into the water below. She survives, but won’t tell anybody her name or where she is from. Meanwhile in a small town, in a housing estate that was never finished, Nancy (Alice Krige) and Able (Scott Wilson) are going about their day when someone sends them a link to something online and they watch at their long lost daughter Prairie (Brit Marling) jump off a bridge. They race to her hospital, retelling the story of how their daughter went missing one day seven years ago, they race into her hospital bed where the woman in front of them goes by The OA not Prairie and does not recognise who just walked in, that is until she touches Nancy’s face. For you see when Prairie was taken she was blind but now she can see. Now, from this point onwards, we will be looking at Part 1 and Part 2 as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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