Tag Archives: Stephen Colbert

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Beta Test [S1E2] – TV Review

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TL;DR – I think this episode shows the potential best and also the possible worst for the series moving forward.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that airs this series.

The Cadets in a line.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Beta Test Review

Apparently, it is tradition in the year of the Lord 2026, when you drop a weekly series order, you need to drop two episodes, which usually feel like they could have been one movie-length episode, but weren’t because of weird Hollywood economy reasons. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is no stranger to this phenomenon, but to give it its credit, this did feel like a whole new episode in its own right.  

So, to set the scene, Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) is trying to acclimatise to a world defined by rules, order, and, strangely for him, safety. Meanwhile, Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) is championing student learning wherever she can. One opportunity is being given to Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) because, for the first time since The Burn, the Betazed delegation is coming out of their psionic barrier that was put up around their territory. This could be a big win for the Federation to get Betazed to return to the fold, but it was the Federation that abandoned them during The Burn, and memories can be 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: Starfleet Academy – Kids These Days [S1E1] – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is a bit of a rough first episode, but underneath all the mess is a lot of promise.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that airs this series.

The USS Athena.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy – Kids These Days Review –

Well, it is a new year, and also it is time for some new Star Trek, well, I say new Star Trek, but the idea of setting a show in Starfleet Academy has been kicking around since at least the 1980s. However, it might have taken forty-odd years to get it going; its time is now, and of course, we must take a look, even though I suspect it is a show that is not pitched to me. But then Star Trek Prodigy was also not pitched to me, and that turned out to be a real gem.  
So, to set the scene, at the end of Star Trek Discovery’s Fifth Season, we discovered that things had stabilised enough in the remnant of the Federation and Starfleet to restart the Starfleet Academy back on Earth. Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) had the tough job of choosing a commandant for the Academy, but he settled on Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), who left Starfleet because it was not living up to its ideals. However, on its maiden flight from Bajor to Earth, the USS Athena detects an anomaly. She stops to examine this possible teaching opportunity that turns out to be more than they bargained for. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Despicable Me 4 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Look, the kids started laughing with the title card and stopped with the end credits, and I am not sure that anything more than that truly matters in the grand scheme of things.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid credit sequences but you don’t need to stay for them.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Minions in a pool.

Despicable Me 4 Review –

Well, it is time to get the banana papayas out because it is Minions time. Look, I have generally liked these films because there is an almost charm to the slapstick comedy that permeates every frame. Also, while my mother is not a fan of this, I don’t have any kids, so I only have to watch this film once—my deepest sympathies to those well into the double-digit viewings. But now we are six films deep into this world, can there be any more fun to be found? Well, that is what we will find out today.   

So to set the scene, Gru (Steve Carell) is still working for the Anti-Villain League, and this time, his mark is Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), a heavily ‘French’ accented villain and former classmate of Gru. Indeed, Gru takes him down in the middle of their class reunion. Things are also looking up at home, where he and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) have welcomed a new child into the family, Gru Jr. But when Maxime escapes and threatens to ‘cockroach-ize’ the baby, well, the whole family has to go undercover to keep safe. You better hope your new neighbours are not secret supervillain fans.

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