TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: That Hope is You, Part 1

TL;DR – A fantastic start to the season full of promise and potential.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix subscription that viewed this series.

Star Trek Discovery: That Hope is You, Part 1. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

That Hope is You, Part 1 Review

How things have changed, so much has happened since we last checked in with Star Trek Discovery. Since the end of Season Two, we have gotten the fascinating first season of Star Trek Picard, followed by the delightful Star Trek Lower Decks. It has been such a long time since I have been able to talk about this much Star Trek all at once, so you can imagine that it makes me almost giddy with excitement. Today we are going to dive back in with the first episode of Discovery’s third season, the season where everything changes.                   

So to set the scene, at the end of Such Sweet Sorrow the USS Discovery and its crew had to make a tough choice … do they stay or do they go? The ship had to leave on a one way trip to the future (for the why you can read our primer), and everyone in the crew had to decide do they stay with what they know or take a trip into the unknown. Flash forward in a moment, and Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is crashing out of the wormhole, smashing into Book’s (David Ajala) ship the Nautilus much to the consternation of Grudge (Leeu) and plummeting down to the planet below. After barely dodging significant wreckage in orbit, Burnham is able to take control just before she landed. Her first question: Is there life? ‘Yes’. Where Is the Discovery? … well that one is a bit harder to answer. 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 Discovery: Season 3 Primer

TL;DR – With the new season starting in a few weeks we catch you up on everything you need to know about Season 3 of Star Trek Discovery (Timeline, plot points, and outstanding questions oh my)

Star Trek Discovery. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Star Trek Discovery: Season 3 Primer

It is not long until the next season of Star Trek Discovery comes out, and with its big jump and all the new Star Trek and Sci-Fi, we are getting you might need a catch up as to where we are and where we are going. In this primer, we will sum up the critical story posts that led to where we are, give an overview of where all this fits in the timeline, and look at the outstanding questions coming into Season Three.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks: Second Contact – TV Review

TL;DR – Super charming and a fun new direction for the franchise.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Second Contact. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

We are currently living in the middle of a new golden age of Science Fiction on TV, and one of the significant drivers of that has been Star Trek. With Discovery and then Picard, you feel that they are starting to get their groove back. However, when I heard there was going to be a more light-hearted animated series coming out, I felt a bit of trepidation. However, after watching the first episode, I can see I had nothing to worry about.

To set the scene, we open in on the USS Cerritos in 2380 (which for those playing at home is two years after the return of the USS Voyager and twenty years before the start of Picard). The Cerritos is a Federation Vessel that specialises in second contact, which is the follow-up mission after first contact, not as much glory but still significant. Ensign D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) has just come on board from Outpost 79, and this is her first placement on a starship. Her orientation guide is Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) a very straight-laced command track-captain seat hopeful Ensign. However, orientation is soon side-tracked as Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) decides to take D’Vana on a more personalised tour. This gets put aside when they go down to the planet to help the Galardonian High Council with a subspace receiver while things down quite go to plan back on the ship.

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Countdown – My Personal Top 25 Episodes of Star Trek

TL;DR – We count down my favourite episodes of Star Trek that span the whole gamut from 1966 to 2020   

Countdown

Well, today at the time of writing it is May the 4th and I feel compelled to write about Science Fiction. However, I have spent a large chunk of the day trying to find an angle to look at its namesake without much luck, so when in doubt fall back to something you love. Well, there are few things I love more than Star Trek, at since that is a science fiction show and it is even has a ‘star’ in the title, I thought what the hay, I’m 50% of the way there.

So today I am going to count down my favourite 25 episodes from across all of Star Trek’s run, which at the time of writing is everything up to the end of Season One of Star Trek Picard but not including The Animated Series simply because I have not watched them and they are not really considered canon but maybe (that is a whole pandora’s box for another day). This means we have 743 episodes across eight series (The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Short Treks & Picard). Bringing them down you just a top 25 was a hard job with a lot of amazing episodes just missing out. Also, I should point out that this is my list if you have a favourite episode that didn’t make it on here let me know which one it was in the comments below. Well without further comment, let’s dive in

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 and Season 1

TL;DR – Not every part of the final episode landed, but the promise is so much more

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review – It is time to come to the end and the first season of Star Trek Picard has drawn to a close, it was a show full of warmth and promise but also a hint of sadness. Like someone taking one last look at the old neighbourhood before moving one. With this in mind, I approached the final episode with a little hesitation and now I have seen it that felling was not entirely unmerited. Well then, let’s dive in and have a look at the final episode before having a look at the entire season.

So to set the scene, at the end of Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 we were in a very perilous place with everything about to unravel. Picard (Patrick Stewart) had been taken hostage by the synths that had finally discovered the meaning behind the Zhat Vash prophecy and were using the death of one of their own as a pretence to steam straight ahead to the destruction of all organic life. On the Borg Cube, Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Elnor (Evan Evagora) chat not realising that they have an uninvited guest in the form of Narek (Harry Treadaway). But there might be one ray of hope because Agnes (Alison Pill) might not be who she says she is. Now we will be looking at the episode and the season as a whole, so there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

TL;DR – A documentary about one of my favourite shows of all time, please and thank-you    

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and end-credit scene that you need to stay for

What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Image Credit: 455 Films.

Review

 I have made many allusions in the past to just how much I love Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and to this day it is still my favourite installation in the Star Trek franchise. So when I heard that there was going to be a documentary made about it, I was excited, when it was coming out in Australian cinemas I was going to be there, and then that one weekend my life fell apart. Well, things are mostly better now, as long as I don’t read the news and stay home, which was the perfect time to catch up with something I missed and always wanted to watch.

So to set the scene, back in the 1990s the producers behind the very popular Star Trek series decided to do something a little different, instead of being in a ship that warps away at the end of each episode, the set the show on a space station. A station that is permanently positioned in the newly independent Bajor system, abandoned by the Cardassians after decades of ruin. It was an ambitious show, it was a controversial show, and it was and is still my favourite.

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1

TL;DR – It is the beginning of the end, and I don’t think I am ready

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Oh wow, I can’t believe that we are already at the penultimate of Star Trek Picard. It is a show that feels like it was always with us, and also one that has gone in a blink of an eye. Well, today we get all out horses into line because the apocalypse is upon us and someone better stop it.  

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s Broken Pieces, the crew of La Sirena was about to do something monumentally stupid and that was to jump into the Borg’s transwarp network to get to Coppelius before the Romulans can blow it out of the sky. Well, this week we open with them doing just that, only they didn’t know that Narek (Harry Treadaway) was following them, oh and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) has her own Borg cube now. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Nepenthe

TL;DR – Picard comes home

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Nepenthe. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

Today we look at an episode that I think everyone has been excited for since that first trailer dropped last year. The moment that Picard (Patrick Stewart) meets back up with Will (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna (Marina Sirtis) is something that has real power to it. However, if the show keeps looking back, can it move forward? Well, that is what we look at today.

So to set the scene, after last week when Narek (Harry Treadaway) activated Soji (Isa Briones) by trying to kill her, Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) took Picard and Soji deep into the Borg Cube to the Queencell. Here they used a failsafe transporter to take them off the cube at to Nepenthe. This week we open on when they arrive but waiting for them is not a friend, but a hunter with a bow and the arrow is ready to be loosed. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Stardust City Rag

TL;DR – This episode starts with a deeply emotional moment, then goes into high farce, and then back again without missing a beat.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

tar Trek: Picard – Stardust City Rag. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review

There are moments in TV that you never knew you want right up until the moment they air and then you wonder why it is that you had not wished for that before. In today’s episode, we get that but also we get something I never wished to pass and it still pains me to think of it.

So to set the scene, we open in on the Seven Domes on the planet Vergessen in the Hypatia system … and well that is all I can really say without hitting spoilers so far it would make your head twist. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Absolute Candor

TL;DR – We have a crew, repeat we have a crew, this is not a drill

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Absolute Candor. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review


For the first three episodes of the season Remembrance, Maps and Legends, and The End is the Beginning, it felt like we were setting the scene, getting our call to adventure, our call to the stars, we were building the world, and in one word bringing it all together. But now we are in space, and it is simply pure joy.

So to set the scene, we start back in time in a fateful time where Picard (Patrick Stewart) on Vashti when he was happy. He was starting to move people out of Romulus, making friends, establishing real progress, however, then the synthetics attacked Mars and everything went to hell. In the present, the crew of the La Sirena have come together on their task, only now that they are in the Beta Quadrant, Picard has another calling, to meet some friends from the past and write some past wrongs. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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