Tag Archives: Science Fiction

Star Wars: Ahsoka – Part Four: Fallen Jedi– TV Review

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TL;DR – This is an episode that dwells on the weight of choices

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Ahsoka and Sabine ponder what to do next.

Ahsoka Review –

Thinking back on this season, it has been interesting, but I have not found the depths that many other people have with the show. I think part of that is that I am not coming with the wealth of experience from The Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows we draw from. However, this week, I am starting to see hints of what others revel in: destruction and creation coming in equal measures.

So to set the scene, in Time to Fly, Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson), Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), and Huyang (David Tennant) discovered that Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) has been building a giant hyperspace ship able to jump between galaxies. She wants to jump to where they think Thrawn ended up, bringing the last living Imperial Fleet Admiral back from the dead. Even though their ship has crashed, and they are stuck on the planet, the team has to do something to stop the map from being decoded before it is too late. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Star Trek: Lower Decks: I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee – TV Review

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TL;DR – It’s promotion time, and things are changing on the USS Cerritos  

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Romulan wreckage.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

There is only one thing better than a new episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks dropping. That is two episodes dropping at the same time. But if Twovix was the episode where our crew [mostly] got promoted. Then I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee is looking at the fallout of that decision.

So to set the scene, in Romulan space and on a Tal Shiar ship, the crew are busy cleaning up the Reman juice leftover from an interrogation when a strange ship appears and blasts it away. Back on the USS Cerritos, the crew is busy backing up their bunks because they are now all Lieutenant Junior Grades. Well, Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), and D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) all got promoted. Poor Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) got left behind, but for how 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: Lower Decks: Twovix – TV Review

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TL;DR – Not all the story worked, but jumping back into this world was still a delight.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
The USS Cerritos approaches the Star Base.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

After a stellar final season of Star Trek: Picard and a stunning follow-up season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, surely there is nothing left of Star Trek in 2023 … right? Well, hold on to your horses because Lower Decks is back and committing to changing one of its core features, changing the tone of the show … okay, not that much.

So to set the scene, the USS Cerritos has been sent on its most secretive mission so far. No one knows why they have been sent to this starbase until the lights turn on and everyone witnesses the joy that is the USS Voyager [Insert theme song here]. They have to escort the now museum ship to its permanent resting place. This should be a breeze, but Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) lets Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) know he is up for a promotion, just as long as he fails spectacularly. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Mapping Star Trek Series – Map-It

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TL;DR – We map every location on Earth used as a ship name in the Star Trek universe.

The fleet comes together.

Mapping Star Trek –

At the end of last season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, we were introduced to nineteen new members of the California Class. Which made me wonder where they fit on a map of California and lo our Lower Decks Map was created. However, since then, I have wondered what would happen if we expanded it globally. We have had 849 episodes of Star Trek at the time of writing, so we have charted every ship, shuttle, class and transport named after an Earth location.  

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Foundation: The Last Empress – TV Review

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TL;DR – The culminating catastrophe coalesces.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

Many Seldons

Foundation Review –

I was captivated back in Season 1 of Foundation. This book was challenging to adapt, and the show did it interestingly. This season has been a bit of a rollercoaster, and I wonder if they have a plan of where it is going. Today’s episode might be the answer, maybe.

So to set the scene, deep in the capital of Trantor, Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) finds someone in Demerzel’s (Laura Birn) quarters who should not be there. Rue Corintha (Sandra Yi Sencindiver), enjoiner to Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith), is rummaging through all of the android’s personal effects, but is she just an opportunist, or is she a threat? Meanwhile, on Ignis, Gaal (Lou Llobell) is desperate to find out what happened to Salvor (Leah Harvey) and confronts Tellem Bond (Rachel House), only to discover just how powerful Tellem is. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Wars: Ahsoka – Part Three: Time to Fly – TV Review

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TL;DR – It is a smaller episode, but it still packs a punch.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

The Senate.

Ahsoka Review –

After our double-act opening look at Ahsoka with Master and Apprentice and Toil and Trouble, I wondered what direction it would take from there. We had a lot of unanswered questions and a map, and you know I like maps. We got a tight action sequence, some politics, and one clear homage in our third episode.

So to set the scene, after finding out that Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) still had production facilities working, and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) was able to sneak a tracker onto a shipment to discover something is going wrong in the Deneb system. It is time to call in the cavalry, but will Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) be left hanging? Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Star Wars: Ahsoka – Part Two: Toil and Trouble – TV Review

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TL;DR – We move from making introductions to giving a plot a needed kick-forward, but I am not quite there with it yet.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Ahsoka feels the force.

Ahsoka Review –

While Star Wars has arguably made several fumbles in recent years, releasing these first two episodes simultaneously was not one of them. They make an intriguing double act, one introduction, the other plot, one nostalgia, the other vibes. It also meant we didn’t have to suffer through a useless cliffhanger, which I always appreciate.

So to set the scene, at the end of Master and Apprentice, tragedy struck when Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) was stuck down by Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) after the mercenaries working for Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) stole the map that Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) recovered. The bad guys now have the map that could lead them to Admiral Thorn (Lars Mikkelsen), the last remaining Imperial heavyweight left after their defeat by the New Republic. The heroes are on the defence, but can they make up lost time? Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Star Wars: Ahsoka – Part One: Master and Apprentice – TV Review

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TL;DR – This was an exciting introduction that intrigued and frustrated me in equal measure

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Opening Title Crawl: The evil galactic empire has fallen and a new republic has risen to take its place.

Ahsoka Review –

Ahsoka is an interesting series because it is the first Star Wars live action work based on a previous property with which I have no experience with. I did not watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Star Wars Rebels growing up, and sorry to be blunt, I don’t have time in my life to catch up on 208 television episodes before jumping in here. The question is: does the team behind the show understand that this is where a large, probably a majority, of their viewing audience is coming from? Well, that is what we will look at today.

So to set the scene, we open on a deserted planet full of ruins built by the Nightsisters of Dathomir. But somewhere in this ruin is an old map, a map to the location of a formidable enemy, and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) is here to find it. The only problem is that she is not alone, while she might have gotten good intel from Morgan Elsbeth Diana Lee Inosanto). The former Imperial magistrate is not without her resources, as the crew of the rebel prisoner transport discover when they are boarded by the Dark Jedi mercenary Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and his apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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The Moon (더 문/Deo Mun) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that is fundamentally frustrating, but even with all that, you can’t help but get caught up in the emotion.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Warning – contains scenes that may cause distress.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Hwang Sun-woo on The Moon.

The Moon Review –

Today we have a fundamentally exciting film because it strikes two vast divides. On the one hand, it was a compelling work of fiction that captured my imagination and emotions. However, it was also an entirely frustrating endeavour at times. These two halves should not work in the same film, but today we see an example where it does.

So to set the scene, in 2029, five years after South Korea decided to strike out on their own in the space race that led to their first mission exploding and killing all three astronauts, they are back for a second attempt. Everything has gone well as the craft approaches the Moon until a large coronal explosion from the Sun fries everything onboard. Lee Sang-won (Kim Rae-won) and Cho Yoon-jong (Lee Yi-kyung) have exited to fix the ship when tragedy befalls them, and Hwang Sun-woo (Doh Kyung-soo) is left alone on a failing vessel where no one can help.   

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Hegemony & Full Season 2 – TV Review

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TL;DR – A tense end to a remarkable season.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

La'an looks through blood stained glass.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review –

Well, it has been a rollercoaster of a season, with episodes flying, time-travelling shenanigans, and cross-overs happening, but we have now come to an end for now. So in our review today, we will first look at the season finale, Hegemony, which brings up back to the Gorn question hinted about back in The Broken Circle, before looking at how the season went as a whole.

So to set the scene, the USS Cayuga, under the command of Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano), is visiting a new colony on Parnassus Beta just outside of Federation space. The colonists wonder if Federation Membership is the protection they need or the target on their backs. But the subspace communications go down out of nowhere, shuttles fall out of the sky, and a Gorn battleship appears in orbit. Admiral April (Adrian Holmes) cautions Pike (Anson Mount) that this could cause a war between The Federation and The Gorn, and he is only to engage in reconnaissance to see what happened. But that is not what Pike has planned. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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