Tag Archives: Doug Jones

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Point of Light

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TL;DR – This week we take a moment to look at many of the other stories swirling around Discovery, with a return of a few old friends.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery: Point of Light. Image Credit:. CBS Studios.

Review –

So far this season we have been focusing very much on the Red Lights, the Red Angels, and the potential threat (maybe) that they pose. However, at the end of Season One, there were a lot of plot threads still hanging there and this week we take a moment to say hello to some old friends, and also kick a bit of ass while we are doing it.

So to set the scene, in last week’s episode New Eden, we discovered that Spock is not only on leave but that he has checked himself into a mental health facility, and is refusing all contact from his family. Well, that’s great but no one told Amanda (Mia Kirshner) that she could not find a way to reach her son. She arrives with Spock’s medical files and one request to Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green) break the encryption, which would be a breach of protocol if everything had not just changed. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: New Eden

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TL;DR – We get to see what Discovery will be exploring for the first half of the season, and it is an area Star Trek does not often venture.   

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery: New Eden. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review –

There are some areas of discourse that Star Trek has not really delved all that much in to in its fifty odd years, and one of those is faith. Now, of course, there are references to it in The Original Series and Enterprise, and we do get more of it in Deep Space Nine, but still, the show has been very hands off. Well, last week in Brother we dipped our toes into faith, well today we dive all the way in.

So to set the scene, Captain Pike (Anson Mount) is continuing to command the USS Discovery to find out what the deal is with these red lights that appeared with purpose across the galaxy. Today they have found another red light but this is deep into the Beta Quadrant 100s of years away at maximum warp. There is no way any ship could get there, but then no other ship has the Spore Drive. So off to the Beta Quadrant, we go, and nobody was quite expecting to find what they find. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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TV Review – Star Trek Short Treks: The Brightest Star

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TL;DR – We explore the difficult past of one of Discovery’s officers and learn once again that hope is better than fear.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Short Treks: The Brightest Star. Image Credit CBS Studios.

Review –

Our next dive into the Star Trek Short Trek series takes us into the past to let us know more about a character we know very well in Star Trek Discovery and what is driving him forward.

So to set the scene, we open in on Kaminar a planet never visited before in Star Trek and homeworld of USS Discovery first officer Saru (Doug Jones). Though at this moment he is not in Starfleet because his people are part of a pre-warp society, which is a big no go area in Federation law. The Kelpien people live in small villages along the coast where they harvest seaweed and grasses, as well as the flowers of the jungle. However, while Saru looks up at the stars and sees hope, the rest of his people see fear because the Ba’ul are coming for their harvest.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Chapter 2 and Season 1 Overview   

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TL;DR – We started with a group of people on a ship in space, and over the season, as adversity after adversity piled up, we ended with a crew. I mean I just wrote 1000 words just on the cast, the show is that good.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

The USS Discovery being all majestic and what. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review –

This year has been a strong year for Sci-Fi on TV we have Lost in Space, Altered Carbon, The Rain, as well as more Westworld, 3%, and The Expanse. In the middle of all this was a release, which for me was probably anticipated more than anything else, a new Star Trek series. Now the fact that I really like the Star Trek franchise should come as no surprise, indeed a wrote an article all about my love for Star Trek Deep Space Nine. However, there was also a lot of trepidation going in, since DS9 we had Voyager that had some great individual episodes but nothing really came together as a series, and Enterprise that took three seasons to find out what type of show it wanted to be and when it got there decided to end on just about the most insulting note that it could (yes I know it was not meant to be a series finale but still). However, I went into this thinking that I can at least give it a season, and boy what a season it was. So in the first season of Star Trek Discovery the broke it up into different chapters, we took a look at Chapter One here, and today we are going to take a look at Chapter Two which was the back half of the season but also some of the themes that transcend all of the season, you can also see all of our reviews for the individual episodes here. With this in mind, just a warning that we will be looking at the season as a whole, and as such there will be some major [SPOILERS] discussed in this review. So caution is advised if you have yet to finished Season One of Star Trek Discovery, and we would recommend you giving the first season a watch.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Will You Take My Hand?  

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TL;DR – In the end, we started with a group of people on a ship in space, and over the season, as adversity after adversity piled up, we ended with a crew.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Will You Take My Hand?

Review –

Oh wow, we have reached the end of Season One and what a season it was, there were jumps in time and space, war with the Klingons, even a sojourn in the Mirror Universe. Now all of this was like a freight train barrelling towards tonight’s finale and here we are. So today we are going to take some time to look at how the episode worked on its own, before looking at how the whole season worked as a while in an article a bit later this week.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The War Within, The War Without  

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TL;DR – The season is hurtling towards the season finale and today is about putting all our ducks in a row waiting for next week’s growing dilemma.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The War Without, The War Within

Review –

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the first season of Star Trek Discovery, and that today’s episode is the penultimate entry for the season. Now, this more than any episode this season was all about getting everything ready for what I am assuming is going to be a massive season finale. Which is good because you can see where it is going in the future, but does leave this being one of the weaker episodes this season, but given the strength of the season it still is a fascinating one to watch. Now as always, we will be going into depth with the episode, so there may be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – The Shape of Water

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TL;DR – A compelling film that pulls you in with its content and visual style, and then used it to tell a story of a world not that dissimilar from today.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – No

The Shape of the Water

Review –

So today we are looking at a Guillermo del Toro’s monster film, ok wait no that is too broad a category. Ok a Guillermo del Toro’s monster film featuring Doug Jones, ok no that is still too many, Ok a Guillermo del Toro’s monster film featuring Doug Jones as a water monster … seriously still. Now, of course, I kid because all of these films are visually stunning and some of the most fascinating stories in modern cinema, indeed I still think about the ending of Pan’s Labyrinth. So today we are going to unpack Guillermo del Toro’s latest film The Shape of Water which is up for a fantastic 13 Oscars at the moment.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: What’s Past is Prologue

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TL;DR – Tonight’s episode takes the twist from last week and ploughs forward at 100km an hour

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

What's Past is Prologue banner

Review –

So right out of the gate, I have to say that last week’s episode Vaulting Ambition (see review) completely caught me off guard. Lorca’s (Jason Isaacs) reveal was such a masterful stroke on the part of the writers, it was a surprise but it was also hiding in plain sight all the time. That is such a difficult thing to nail, especially when you were setting it up all the way back in Context is for Kings (see review). So it is in the afterglow of that reveal that we start this week’s episode, the continuation of our now four episode Mirror Universe arc, where we discover a number of things, including that I was completely wrong last week and that reactor is totally not Romulan.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Vaulting Ambition

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TL;DR – Just when you think Star Trek Discovery is done surprising you, it pulls out an emotional punch followed by a 2 by 4 to the head

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Vaulting Ambition

Review –

I have to take my hat off to the team over at Star Trek Discovery, tonight had a reveal that spent episodes building up, the reveal felt completely justified and not contrived, and I did not see it coming at all. That is such a difficult difficult task to pull off and make it feel natural, it was magnificent to watch. Now we will get into that a bit later when we can get into spoilers, but wow, this is one of the best episodes of Star Trek I have seen in a very long time.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Wolf Inside

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TL;DR – Trapped in the Mirror Universe, old friends appear, and secrets are revealed … oh and an Andorian

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Wolf Inside banner

Review –

So before we start, because this is Part 2 I want to be clear from the start that there will be [SPOILERS] from both last week’s Despite Yourself (see review) and this week’s The Wolf Inside in this review. As well as this, because there are some big reveals that we have to talk about, if you have not watched the episode can I really recommend that you do that before you read this review.

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