Tag Archives: Space

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

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TL;DR – Back to the war this week and the Federation is starting to lose, and desperate times calls for desperate measures, and an away team.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum banner

Review –

After taking a pause from the galactic battle last week when Mudd (Rainn Wilson) invaded the USS Discovery in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad (see review). This week we are back to the war between the Klingons and the Federation, and the tables have turned once again. In tonight’s episode, we get three intertwining stories play out, and we get to learn some Latin, so that’s always fun, says everyone never raised in the English private school system. This three-story structure is good because we get to see some character pairings we have not seen so far, and it also gives us a chance to explore more of the Klingon world. For those interested, this is the 9th time Star Trek has used Latin in an episode title, and today’s episode ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’ translates to ‘If you want peace, prepare for war’ and well it is an apt title this week. So after we set the scene, we will break down each of the stories and as always there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

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TL;DR – What is the future of the Federation going to be? As the war drags on we get a glimpse of two possible directions.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad banner

Review –

Today we get Star Trek Discovery’s first bottle episode, and what is a bottle episode you may say? Well, this is a term in TV for an episode that uses minimal effects, guest stars, and filmed only on existing sets. You may have seen many of these before, where say something forces people to stay in one location, or if you are really unlucky you get a clip show like The Next Generations episode Shades of Gray. Bottle episodes are usually created to be cheaper episodes to produce and tend to be looked down on, however, good bottle episodes use the limitations to tell profound stories like the Deep Space Nine episode Duet. So like all good bottle episodes, we spend a lot of Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad getting to know our characters better, and it is a delight to watch. Now as we will be looking at the full episode there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead, so be a bit careful if you have not seen the episode.

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Movie Review – Thor: Ragnarok

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TL;DR – A visual extravaganza, Taika Waititi with the cast and crew gave their all to this film, and it amazing to watch.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – There is a Mid and End Credit Scene

Thor: Ragnarok. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney

Review –

Wow, what an amazing end to a film trilogy, and one of the strongest so far for Marvel. I’ve always had a kind of indecisive feeling towards the Thor films so far. They have been a case of fantastic casting matched with just ok storylines. Now when you have Anthony Hopkins going gangbusters, then even a bad script will look good, but overall I just thought the Thor films were ok and nothing more. To be fair, I think it was a testament to the quality of Marvel’s films that while Thor might have been my least favourite Marvel films it was because they were only ok, not fantastic. However, I was honestly wondering with everyone doing their big Cinematic Universes now if superhero fatigue would set in given my relationship with the films so far, but nope this film was a riot from start to end and I highly recommend it. So today we will set the scene, and then have a look at all the factors that went into making the film work. However because of the nature of Thor Ragnarok and its story, we are going to hit spoilers much earlier than we would normally do, so to be on the safe side I am implementing a [SPOILER] warning from this point onwards.

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Movie Review – Geostorm

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TL;DR – Its, well it’s, ok, it’s not great, it’s not awful, it’s just ok.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Geostorm. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –
So there is a satellite system that controls all of the world’s extreme weather, with a flip of a switch you can take out that cyclone barrelling towards the Australian coast, that heat wave over Paris gone, that mark-5 tornado, what mark-5 tornado. It all sounds great, but if you can see the flaw with this plan, well you can see where the film is heading. Overall, it has been a while since I have seen a big scale disaster film, maybe 2012 was the last one, so it was at least interesting to visit this genre. However, just be prepared that this is science-fiction, not science-fact film, I’m pretty sure there are some laws of thermodynamics that get thrown to the wolves to make this movie happen, nor do we have enough material to build a partial Dyson sphere. So overall I found Geostorm to be well fine, it had some things I liked and some others that I didn’t, and mostly they cancelled each other out. So today we will look at both sides of Geostorm, the good, the bad, and the surprisingly Scottish.


So to set the scene, in 2019 global warming sent the plant into a spiral of extreme weather events which killed millions. Looking death in the face, the world on the brink of destruction put aside years of amenity to create the ‘Dutch Boy’, a series of satellites around the world, designed to stop the extreme weather events. The main engineer of the project was Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler) a man who is equal parts brilliant as he was obstinate, and after many years of work his brother Max (Jim Sturgess) who is employed by the White House was forced to fire him after a bad Senate hearing. Well three years later, and a couple of weeks before Dutch Boy is meant to be officially handed over to an international oversight team, a village in the heart of Afghanistan is discovered to be completely frozen. The Dutch Boy system had never failed before, and given the potential fallout from the lack of trust, or even a cascade of failures, it was a serious issue. So the Secretary of State Dekkom (Ed Harris) recommended to President Palma (Andy García) that there is only one person for the job, yep fired former main engineer Jake, so up he goes, but the clock is ticking.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Choose Your Pain

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TL;DR – Today we meet our final main cast member, and delve into the lives of some of the others, oh and maybe a new villain.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Choose Your Pain Banner

Review –

This was an interesting week for Star Trek Discovery, and not just because it is episode five and one of the main cast only just showed up. No, it was interesting because we got to see a deeper side as to what drives a number of the leading characters. So let’s dive in, and as per usual just a warning that there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Butchers Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry

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TL;DR – We start to see the beginnings of redemption arcs and internal conflicts, but we are still hitting the same tone each week.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Butchers Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry

Review –

It is the fourth episode of the new season, and if nothing else it has been such a great feeling being able to nerd out with other people over new Star Trek. This week is an episode where we get a bit more of the same, but we also get to see a bit of the direction the season is heading in.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Context is for Kings

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TL;DR – We finally get into the heart of the series, and see both the goals and the pitfalls of the upcoming season.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Context is for Kings

Review –

So after last week’s almost preview two part-er The Vulcan Hello (review) and Battle at the Binary Stars (review) this week we finally get into the season proper as we get an introduction to the USS Discovery and its crew. This also lets us into the main tension for the season and we can start to see some of its potential, and also some of its problems. So with that in mind let’s jump in and look at Context is for Kings, now there may be some [SPOILERS] coming up if you have not already seen the episode.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Battle at the Binary Stars

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TL;DR – A great follow-up, showing up the direction the show is going to go, and the coming conflict.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Battle at the Binary Stars

Review –

So this is part two of our two-part opening entry into Star Trek Discovery, and if you want to know more about part one, you can read up on our review of The Vulcan Hello Here. Battle at the Binary Stars, not only has the battle that the title suggests, but it also takes the groundwork of the last episode and propels it forward. Now because we are starting to getting into the heart to the season just a warning that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead if you have not seen the show yet.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Vulcan Hello

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TL;DR – A good intriguing start, looking forward to seeing where we go from here

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery

Review –

So here we are, and boy is it great to be talking about a new Star Trek episode again, it has been too long. This is a universe that is so full of potential, it was just unfortunate that it all kind of fizzled out in the 2000s, but it is a new decade and a new time in TV, so maybe like the original series in syndication Star Trek can finally find a home on TV that helps it flourish. Now I have only seen part one of this two-parter before writing my review, so some of the things I say here may be fixed in the 2nd part or later in the season.

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Movie Review – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes)

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TL;DR – Truly beautiful visuals, and fascinating worlds, and … well not a whole lot else unfortunately

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes). Image Credit: STX Entertainment.

Review –

I’ve really been impressed by Luc Besson previous work, indeed, I would probably put The Fifth Element on my top 10 Films of All-time List if I ever got around to making one, which I should, come to think of it. So given everything I have seen of Luc Besson’s filmography, I’m going to be honest, I came into Valerian with really high expectations, indeed maybe that was the problem. So in today’s review, we are going to first look at the production side of things, and the world building, before taking a stab at the story.

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