TL;DR – When it is working in
on the relationship between the two characters
it shines, but it does present some interesting implications that I am not so
sure about.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
We continue our dive into the world of the Star Trek Discovery Short Treks by looking at the episode that is to date is the furthest we have been on the official timeline (depending maybe on that one Voyager episode).
So to set the scene, The USS Discovery has been sitting in a nebula for 1000 years when a surprise escape pod comes across it in the dark. When Craft (Aldis Hodge) awakes he find no one on board bar just a voice called Zora (Annabelle Wallis) who explains where he is and he lets her know that the world has dramatically changed.
TL;DR – A beautiful character
piece that makes the most of the short run time.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
Today we are going to be doing small mini-reviews for all the Star Trek Shorts, starting with an exploration of what it means to step forward and change your life.
So to set the scene, it is after Will You Take My Hand? and Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) has officially entered the Command Training Program, which is a huge achievement, which is completely lost on her mother Siobhan (Mimi Kuzyk). As this is going on a standard cargo run is interrupted by a stowaway and the two are about to crash together.
TL;DR – During the film, I along with the whole cinema, laughed, cried, gasp ‘oh no you didn’t and I can’t remember a film that had that same reaction
Score – 5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene
Review –
There are some films that simply be being made are making a statement of intent. These are films like last year’s Black Panther (see review) and Wonder Women (see review), films that “conventional” Hollywood wisdom states that they shouldn’t be made because they won’t make any money. There is a long history of information coming from focus groups that people are not interested in films helmed by women and people of colour, information which is inevitable proven wrong time after time when the box office numbers are released. To put this in perspective, the last live-action film from Hollywood to feature a predominately Asian cast was The Joy Luck Club twenty-five years ago in 1993. This means a whole generation of people have grown up and not seen their stories or people like themselves up on the big screen, and well folks this is why representation matter. So while Crazy Rich Asians is important for just existing, it is even more power from the fact that it is also a fantastic film in its own right and one of my films of the year so far.
TL;DR – This is a film with a lot of promise and an interesting hook, but it’s missing that final level of polish needed for a film like this and the ending did feel like a cop-out.
Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
It has been a good year for Science Fiction TV on Netflix, I mean it is only halfway through the year and we have already had such gems as Altered Carbon (see review), Lost in Space (see review), Star Trek Discovery (see review) & The Rain (see review). However, when it comes to Science Fiction films it is a bit more of a mixed bag, ranging from the excellent Annihilation (see review) to the quite disappointing TAU (see review). Today we look at the next film that Netflix has saved after having its theatrical release pulled Extinction, which has some good ideas going on but didn’t quite get there with the execution.
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
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.
TL;DR – Blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, Blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, blar, blarrrrrrr
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
Rebooting an old and much-beloved TV series is a fraught proposition. Now from a business perspective, it makes perfect sense because you have an inbuilt fanbase to launch the show to. However, it also comes with a lot of baggage with fan expectations and a wealth of information that you have to wade through and decide what you will keep and what you will ignore. So for every Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who you have a Knight Rider and Bionic Woman that failed to get that balance right. Today we have a chance to look at a series reboot that actually gets that balance right, both showing it understands and respect of the original, but also a show stepping out and doing its own thing. Now as we go on there will be some [SPOILERS] as we will be looking at the season as a whole, so just be warned if you have not seen it yet.
TL;DR – A great story about love and everything that it takes to get there.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There was no post-credit scene
Review –
Your last year in high school is difficult at the best of times, but when you have a secret that could rip your life apart, it adds to it a bit. In Love, Simon, that secret is that the titular Simon (Nick Robinson) is gay, and he hasn’t told anyone yet. So today we are going to look at a story that is part coming of age, part love story, and party mystery novel.
TL;DR – Annihilation is a slow burn that then hits you like a freight train and then messes with your mind till it becomes putty, would recommend watching this, but maybe not at night.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
What is good sci-fi? As someone who loves this gene in all of its permutations, good sci-fi could be the grand space operas of Star Wars, Stargate or The Expanse, the more character driven works like Moon and The Martian. They can be thought-provoking works like Star Trek or Arrival, or thumping action set-pieces of Mad Max. Now sometimes they can be the weird contemplative works that dip into science, horror, supernatural, blending that hard and soft sci-fi into new and wonderful ways, and today’s Annihilation is the later. Now before we jump in I do have to say because the film begins in medias res, that is it opens on the ending, it is hard to talk about the film without getting into [SPOILERS] straight from the start, even with our setting the scene part of the review. If you have not seen Annihilation you may need to be a bit more careful going forward, as there will be major plot points discussed throughout.
TL;DR – From the setting to the characters to the story and themes, Deep Space Nine stands as one of the high points of science fiction
Article –
This week we have the season finale of Star Trek: Discovery (see review) and it has been such a strong first outing for the new series. Because of this, I have been thinking back over the history of the entire Star Trek franchise and when I do that I can’t help but focus on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9). Now DS9 was always the odd one out of the Star Trek spin-offs for some. It aired at the same time as both The Next Generation and Voyager, so it never stood apart. It dealt with issues that the other shows either avoided or ignored altogether, and some felt started to walk away from the vision Gene Roddenberry established. Indeed, it was the first series where he didn’t have a direct control over the creation and direction of, though from all accounts he did approve of its creation. So what I want to do today is talk about the reasons that I love DS9, the setting, the characters, the themes, and the stories. But just before we move on DS9 has been off air for almost 20 years, but all that being said, I will be talking about the series as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] going forward, however, I will also provide links to the Memory Alpha Wiki when introducing characters and races so you can explore it more if you are new to the show.
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
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.
TL;DR Movie Reviews and Analysis 