Really?
This show is now in Star Trek DISCOntinuity territory at this point.
Too preachy with the politics.
Too much 21st Century dialogue and behavior (I know, writing an advanced society is hard for soap opera writers).
The show as of the 3rd episode is a solid 1-star in terms of the tone, pacing, dialogue, setting, aesthetic, and plot in so far as being a proper sequel to Star Trek TNG.
This show uses Kelvin timeline elements.
It requires the reading of the comic book Countdown series to understand it.
The cringe moments in this episode are too many to list.
From the Vulcan commodore with sun glasses, to the "Mars was an inside job" nonsense.
It short, it is a total mess just like STD.
Reviews
21 Reviews
The Demise of Skywalker
22 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I'm going to just gloss over the main points of this dumpster fire because if I don't this review could be a book. No explanation of how the Emperor survived the explosion of the Death Star over Endor. No explanation of WHY if he can make clones he's still using his crippled, old body when he could CLONE a new one. Palpatine is now Overdog from Space Hunter Adventures in the Forbidden Zone with a mechanical arm shoved up his posterior because you know, in Star Wars there aren't prosthetic bodies like Vader had....oh the stupid...but I digress. He's also a Space Vampire like Overdog that can drain life force to restore himself yet he didn't do that in ANY OTHER STAR WARS movie he was in. I nearly choked on my coffee when I saw him flinch away from Rey making a cross with two light sabers (like he's friggin Dracula). He uses force lightening to "attack" the Resistance fleet...nice new power we've never seen before. What is he Thanos now? No explanation of ANY of the RIDICULOUS force powers in this movie in general. Nobody trains, nobody has to work to achieve these powers, they just get them like some kind of Super Hero movie. The force is apparently a Star Trek transporter now that transports an object to Kylo Ren from Mary Sue Rey (who is God-Mod-Level Mary Sue in this) which allows Klyo to find her. Oh and Princess Leia was a Jedi, had a lightsaber, and can use the force like a master Jedi...because why not? She also so dies in the most lame way. Snoke was Palpatine's creation and he has new replacement Snokes in Jars (yeah...stupid). Also, Star Destroyers now have a planet-killing beam cannon even though they're only Imperial I style and not the size of an Eclipse or Sovereign class SSD. This fleet is hidden under ice, who knows where the crew came from, or how they were fed, none of it is explained and so it just comes off as cheap and contrived. There's a lot more, but the main reason this is a 1-star for me is because it totally makes everything that Luke did to save Anakin a moot point and a wasted endeavor. Why bother with these sequels if all these did was trash what the original trilogy established? The prequels were not great, but they didn't destroy any of what came before. They were original stories that told us how Anakin became Vader and in that they succeeded. In this Disney Trilogy everything that was created in the first 6-films is now pointless. None of it matters because Palpatine won. He succeeded in killing Kylo Ren (the last actual Skywalker) and wiping out Luke's legacy. Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter, so her taking Luke's last name (she just declares herself a Skywalker), taking his moisture farm, taking his X-wing, and essentially taking away and destroying his legacy makes me think this movie should have been titled "Demise of Skywalker".
To boldly rip off like no corporation has before....
23 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Oh man....where do I even start?
Let's see.
The Enterprise launching squadrons of space fighters...err shuttles like its the Battlestar Galactica.
Hey Kurtzman, the USS Enterprise in Star Trek IS NOT an aircraft carrier. There's not enough room in the ship for that many fighters.
Section 31 "Drone Fighters" a la the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica launching from their ships like Cylon-raiders from a Basestar.
Micky-Spock putting on the "Time Suit" is visually the same as the first time Iron Man puts on his red-suit.
The HUD of both suits is nearly identical.
Repair droids going out to repair the Enterprise during the battle is IDENTICAL to the repair scene from Star Wars The Phantom Menace when R2D2 repairs the Naboo transport ship as they fleet the Trade Federation blockade.
While Micky-Spock (Burnam) is using the Red-Angel/Time Suit to travel through time we see a light-sequence that is nearly identical to the same scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey when David Bowmen enters the Monolith near Jupiter.
Leland's death in the Spore Chamber was identical to the destruction of the evil Terminator in Terminator Salvation.
Finally, the USS Discovery goes into the timewarp and the scene is LITERALLY a rip-off of the wormhole sequence from Star Trek The Motion Picture.
I thought the old trek wasn't what people wanted Kurtzman? Yet you use that sequence as the pinnacle of this pathetic finale.
STD isn't Star Trek, not in tone, not in style, not in storytelling, not in aesthetic. It is Kurtzman's wet dream of every movie he wishes he made and/or directed and it shows....horribly.
*Sigh*
7 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
We are nearly two seasons in and they have not fixed the damage entirely yet, or to the point where the show is good.
The introduction of the new D7 is both good, but also bad because it shows that they could have done this from the start and didn't need the David Lynch (Dune style) ships they had in the first season.
The Klingorcs still have not been fixed yet, and the "romance" between Ash and the Klingorc Mommy rings hollow and seems forced.
Hyper-accelerated baby aging in the Time-Crystal cave with the Klingorc Should-not-exist-in Monks was so stupid I laughed my touch off (so thanks for that Kurtzman at least STD is good for something).
Pike seeing his future and having to make a choice was good actually, but not good enough to overcome Mikey-Spock being Mary Sue as usually or the stupidity of Skynet being in Star Trek (Control).
Trying to destroy control and the Uber-data from the alien Magic-8-ball by transferring it to another hard drive was really DUMB. Hint, Kurtzman, hire some gamers to help you since even they know that will COPY not DESTROY files.
I won't even begin to pick apart the stupidity of the identity politics with Tig Nataro, etc.
Good GAWD this show is stupid.
Perpetual Stupidity
3 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
First we're told that the DNA of the suit matches Burnam 100%, then mommy is piloting it, and now we've got Stamets contradicting that in this episode.
This truly is Star Trek Discontinuity.
The writing here is not even up to fanfiction standards at this point.
While the effects are excellent, the writing is so badly done, and so A+ Bechdel Test that it has destroyed what could have been a great alternate universe of Star Trek.
Really sad to see this happen.
Not sure how much more I'm willing to watch since it isn't getting better, it's getting worse.
Nope.
3 April 2019
Shatner did this story best and Lithgow did a fine job of it as well, but third time was NOT a charm.
Advice to the showrunner, stop with the left-wing politics.
Stop with rehashing the old series.
Create a NEW, politically NEUTRAL set of stories that are witty, well written, and thought provoking (but NOT propaganda).
Do these writers understand.....
23 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
....the concept of continuity?
Not only is there a time-traveling suit that should not exist in the post-ENT/pre-STD timeline, but it is Burnam's MOTHER who invented it? REALLY? And worse yet, the Klingorcs were working on their own version of it? C'MON KURTZMAN! You people aren't even trying at this point. It was awful. I mean, it isn't even coherent within Star Trek Discovery, let alone the rest of Star Trek in general. 1-star, because you can't even keep your own storyline of Star Trek coherent. Ridiculous. I've read fanfictions better written than this.
Not only is there a time-traveling suit that should not exist in the post-ENT/pre-STD timeline, but it is Burnam's MOTHER who invented it? REALLY? And worse yet, the Klingorcs were working on their own version of it? C'MON KURTZMAN! You people aren't even trying at this point. It was awful. I mean, it isn't even coherent within Star Trek Discovery, let alone the rest of Star Trek in general. 1-star, because you can't even keep your own storyline of Star Trek coherent. Ridiculous. I've read fanfictions better written than this.
Not a good idea.
8 March 2019
Starting the episode with "The Cage" was a very bad idea. It contrasts the quality science fiction writing of the 1960s Star Trek with the low quality writing of Star Trek Discovery.
It also shows the intent of Alex Kurtzman to try and harmonize the events of STD with the events of Roddenberry's Star Trek which is no longer possible due to the entire first season of STD and some of this season.
The disjointed, piece-meal way Kurtzman's clown car has gone about trying to force STD into the prime timeline of Gene Roddenberry is why I continue to score STD low.
Kurtzman has claimed STD is actually in the same universe/timeline as the 1960s show, if that is the case, then he volunteered to respect that show and follow what has come before. Kurtzman isn't doing that, he's treading on the original timeline's stories and established canon. It is one thing to disrespect the visuals of the original (which Kurtzman did), that can be corrected by redoing the CG of the show. The dialogue and story however cannot be corrected and the damage has been done. The closer they bring STD to the events of the ST:TOS, the worse STD gets.
If STD were its own universe/timeline, this would not be an issue.
As a stand alone episode, this one was actually good, but put into the context of it being in the same time and universe as ST:TOS, the episode is 1-star because Kutrzman's team keeps disrespecting the source material and changing the timeline so badly that it is essentially making Star Trek's canon a jumbled mess (worse than it already was).
If STD becomes its own universe (something I WISH they'd do), then I will no longer hold it to the standards of ST:TOS, but as it stands now I have to and in keeping to the storyline of the original canon, STD fails miserably.
Captain Marvel
(2019)
Forget the politics....
7 March 2019
This was just bad.
The movie was stale, it have very little substance to it and was truly a forgettable film.
I want my money back.
Really, this show was not up to the standards of the other MCU movies (which have been awesome).
I'd say I don't want to spoil the movie, but there really isn't much to spoil.
It's a nostalgia flick of the 1990s like "Ready Player One" was for the 1980s, only Captain Marvel is no where near as good.
Really disappointing.
I see why people buy into the "Prime" timeline thing....
1 March 2019
I'll start by saying I do not believe in the whole "Prime" timeline vs "Canon" timeline.
STD is "canon", which is why it must be held to the standards of the previous 50+ years of Star Trek.
Making it "Prime" allows the show to do the kinds of BS they did in this episode.
Vulcans DO NOT cry unless the circumstances are extreme.
In this episode BOTH Spock and Sarek cry.
That is because the people writing this show have NO respect for the canon that came before STD, and now they're making a mess of the canon by creating contradictory characters. Because these drama writers do not know Star Trek, and because they cannot write science fiction, they made Vulcans highly emotional and schizophrenic when STD is put into the timeframe it is supposed to be in (pre-ST:TOS).
Spock's mother is portrayed as a shrew, which again contradicts ST:TOS.
Of course the Bechdal Test is in full effect which ruins everything in science fiction because it turns Star Trek into Woke Trek which erodes canon and turns the whole of Star Trek into a trainwreck.
This is due to the politics of the people writing this show. Progressives have no idea how to write a Liberal show and that's why they're failing.
Hint, Liberals believe in egalitarianism (equality), not some SJW war against the mythical patriarchy.
1-star, because of toxic Feminism in the show and a total lack of science fiction writing.
Oh my gawd this was stupid.
22 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
So, in this episode we learn that the Baul were like the Kelpians but evolved? Really? In like what, a day, a week, a month? Evolution takes MILLIONS of years.
Sound in space....AGAIN!
Saru evolving in the last episode due to the "flu" was bad enough (actually it was the sphere, but still). Now he's got darts/quills that shoot out his back? WHAT? IS STD now the X-men?
Star Trek is NOT a super hero franchise.
It is a mix of Science Fiction and Space Opera, NOT SPACE FANTASY.
Then there's the Mary-Sue-Burnam moment when Captain Pike and Saru are arguing over going to Saru's planet to find the Red Angel, and then Mikey Spock yells at them BOTH. SHE DOESN'T HAVE THE RANK TO YELL AT HER CAPTAIN. That's called insubordination and would land her in the brig. Good gawd, these writers have no idea what they're doing. They don't know anything about scientific principles. They know nothing about how to write SF. They know nothing about how to write Space Opera. They're trying to write Space Fantasy but are failing miserably.
I thought last week's episode was bad, but now this one is right up there with it.
It didn't take any other Star Trek series this long to get good. This show is so far gone that it really needs to be cancelled. They can't save this trainwreck.
Alita: Battle Angel
(2019)
Wow!!!
12 February 2019
I'm not going to spoil this movie because I would like people to go see it and enjoy it.
Let me just say that if you liked the 1990s era manga and anime, you'll LOVE this movie.
James Cameron out did himself with this one.
Kudos to him on a job well done.
This deserves 10-stars.
Better than last week, but still not Star Trek....
9 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
After seeing the analysis done by various sources I trust on this subject, it is clear that due to licensing issues this show has to be different than the Roddenberry-timeline and I don't mean just the aesthetic, I mean the tone, the story, the entire world-setting is not compatible with the Roddenberry-Universe.
Now that in and of itself would not be an issue if this show were any good in terms of writing, politics, tone, and over all quality.
However, its politics are rubbish, its writing is sophmoric, its tone is disjointed, and its quality is substandard for science fiction.
For Space Fantasy it might be okay, since science doesn't apply in a Space Fantasy, but the showrunner is trying to sell STD as SF and that is a major flaw in how this show is being presented.
In the fourth installment of the 2nd season we're still not getting the tone of a proper military starship at this time in the Star Trek universe. The Khitomer treaty isn't signed until 2093, so Starfleet is still a military force. That means that Michael Burnam's character is totally OUT OF CHARACTER by constantly being the person everyone goes to for leadership, including the Captain of the ship--Pike. That reeks of Mary Sue style writing and it is childish at best. The Saru has the flue stupidity went nowhere, and the fact that the writers do not know that antibiotics do not work on viruses only adds to how poorly written this drek actually is.
At this point the show is still pushing the "Search for Spock" which is boring since this version of Spock isn't the same character from over 50-years of established official material.
"Number One" coming aboard ship was nice, but she doesn't stand out much since there are already too many female lead characters on this show to care about her. She's window-dressing in this episode.
Drilling a hole in Tilly's head was neither dramatic, nor did it inspire any concern for the character because the scene was poorly done. There reasoning behind it was too thin and had no substance other than a clear plot device to further the "invasion of the body-buggers" nonsense from the last episode.
My interest in this show is definitely waning due to the fact that it is going nowhere fast and it is far too preachy with left-wing politics that I do not share.
It deserves a 1-star.
Four episodes in and it isn't getting better fast enough.
9 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This episode was better than last weeks, to be sure, but it still suffers from being too much like season 1.
Many Trekkies and Trekkers (the target audience for CBS All Access) do not want what we saw in season 1: The Michael Burnam Show.
If Kurtzman wanted to create his own Star Trek universe, he should have said so from the beginning.
The SJW themes are bad enough, but I could get past that if the writing of STD was good: it isn't.
Just like season 1, and episode 3 of season 2, we're right back to taking a political stance and proselyting. That doesn't work in Star Trek as it undermines the Liberal cooperativist theme that Roddenberry created. The crew of a Star Trek series is supposed to be like a family, STDs cast is not like that. It got close in episode 2 of this season, but degenerated right back to season 1's problems in episode 3 of this season and that has continued in episode 4.
From Spock running away on a shuttlecraft, to Pike's "number one" acting pretentious and condesending towards him to the total lack of science in this show (antibiotics DO NOT EFFECT VIRUSES you morons).
STD is going to fail and it's going to drag down Star Trek with it.
Hopefully, when Shari Redstone takes over, she'll correct this Bad Robot mess that Kurtzman has created.
I used to think it was Aaron Harberts and Les Moonves that were the problem, now that they're gone and the problem continues, it is clear that Kurtzman is part of this cancer that is killing the Prime timeline.
STD would be fine as its own universe, but so long as they claim this anti-Roddenberry standard of storytelling is Prime Universe, I will 1-star it.
Forbidden Planet
(1956)
Nothing even comes close.
4 February 2019
This is the greatest science fiction movie ever made.
Better than Star Wars.
Better than Alien.
Better than Star Trek.
Better than the Terminator.
Better than (insert title here).
It hits EVERY single check mark of the Campbellian SF test and does it with a style, tone, and respect for SF that no other movie has done before or since.
2001: A Space Odyssey comes really close, but Forbidden Planet edges it out.
This movie is the Golden Rule by which all others are measured.
Space Battleship Yamato 2199
(2012–2013)
Nothing compares.
4 February 2019
I've seen a lot of reboots over the last 10-years and nothing compares to this one re-imaging. Not only does it respect the source material immensely, but it actually adds to it in a meaningful and constructive way.
I will not spoil the show.
I will only say that it should be watched by English speaking viewers in the original Japanese with subtitles to understand the full tone and depth of this Space Opera.
It is amazing how much care, and work the SBY 2199 team put into making sure this reboot followed the canon of the original, while at the same time correcting many of the major scientific mistakes and inconsistencies the original show had.
10-stars, and the SBY 2199 team earned them.
Amazing
4 February 2019
A perfect tie-in between SBY 2199 and SBY 2202.
This movie adds a whole new dimension into the relationship between the crew of the Yamato and Gamilas. It also moves the story of Gatlantis into a more believable arc.
Thus far the whole 2199-2202 SBY series has been better than the 1970s original series.
Enjoying this Space Opera very much.
Utter garbage.
1 February 2019
Worst episode of 2nd season so far.
Every check mark in the Bechdal test was checked with Tilly before the opening credits.
A Junior High School creative writing class could do a better job at writing than this worthless drivel.
Not worth watching, and it is definitely not Star Trek.
Star Trek doesn't proselytize, nor does it push an agenda.
It used to not take a side and showed the pros and cons of different cultural ideas and beliefs.
This show doesn't do that.
It is propaganda, and that is a total turn off.
Star Trek is now officially not science fiction.
25 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The Marvel Super Hero way in which the omni-religious group is transported from post-WWIII Earth to the planet in this episode is more of a plot-device than an actual part of the storyline. The way STD-Pike insists Starfleet cannot interfere with them shows a total lack of understanding of what the Prime Directive was supposed to be. These are not aliens, these are humans who were transported against their will to another planet. The Prime Directive was for non-interference in the natural development of other alien species, not other Earth colonies found in space. It is why the actual USS Enterprise recovers the Botany Bay and revives them in Space Seed.
STD is so far from any continuity with the Roddenberry timeline, that there is no way to rectify the show with the 50+ years of Star Trek before it. At this point it would be better for Alex Kurtzman to put this show in either its own timeline or the Kelvin timeline.
What's worse is that STD cannot even maintain its own continuity within the show. Is Tilly comic relief, or is she some kind of genius?
Is STD-Pike the captain? Or is Mikey Spock the Captain (because she is written to act like it which is ridiculous.
In science fiction there is proper military decorum for military organizations that are depicted. Once again, the writers of STD get this horridly wrong. Burnam isn't advising STD-Pike, she is subverting him and undermining his authority with her mannerisms towards him, and her disrespect for his position.
I could go on and on about the inconsistencies with the way the previous episode treats the gravitic-asteroid with this one, but at this point I see no reason to since the show cannot even stay within its own canon on what this substance does or how dangerous it is (which is why it was dangerous to handle in Brother, but Burnam has no problem with it in this episode).
This episode deserves a 1-star because it is fantasy-drama masquerading and attempting to be science fiction.
Maybe they'll get this fixed by season 3...if there is one.
20 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Where do I begin? First, the "science". For any work of fiction to be considered science-fiction it at least has to have some semblance of science in it. Unfortunately, the writers of Star Trek Discovery are NOT science fiction writers; they're drama writers to be sure and it shows in how insufficient their knowledge of space-sciences of today are. From having SONAR in space (SONAR requires sound to travel to work and sound doesn't travel in space), to Burnam surviving 9gs for 11 minutes (maybe she misspoke, but it still made it past the editors), to the internal size of the USS Discovery being far larger than its exterior (unless it is a TARDIS, which I highly doubt). Having glass in space that can crack (what, no transparent aluminum used for view ports? They use GLASS? REALLY Alex Kurtzman?). Those are just a few of the problems with the science of the show, the continuity issues would take a full Encyclopedia Britannica just to get through. In this particular episode the most glaring issue is Michael Burnam's character acting in a misandrist manner towards a superior officer: named Captain Pike. At this time in the Starfleet they are still a military force. They don't change that until AFTER the Khitomer Accords of 2293 as we see in the movie Star Trek 6, military decorum is still very much alive when Christian Slater questions Captain Sulu and Sulu does not tolerate his insubordination by saying "you have a hearing problem mister?" And that was after the Organian Treat, you do 10-years prior to that--the time STD is supposed to take place--and you have Starfleet as a full-fledged military force, so Burnam's behavior would NEVER be tolerated by Captain Pike. If the writers had any military experience and any knowledge of Star Trek lore, they'd know this. The writing team has no knowledge of either Star Trek lore or military decorum so they flunk at writing it miserably.
As a whole this first episode is not any better than the last season, so a 1-out-of-10 is fitting to this very poorly done retread of the 1960s Star Trek. JJ-Abrams Star Trek reboot was/is far better and it is a pity is has now been effectively ended.
Star Trek: Discovery
(2017–2024)
Not good.
28 September 2017
From the Kelvin-style of ships, to the bad dialogue, horrid writing, and SJW message, there really isn't much good to say about this show. The actors and actresses did the best they could I'm sure, but the storyline is so SJW-laden as to be unwatchable if you are not of a Progressive political persuasion. Even a Liberal (Classical) like myself had trouble with the in-your-face blatant SJW nonsense from the hyper-feminist lead character who is borderline Mary-Sue, to the theistic Klingons that Aaron Harberts said represent Trump-supporters (something CBS is now back-peddling on). The whole show is garbage and what is worse is that an amateur copyright-infringing fan-film maker (Alec Peters) did a better job at modernizing the TOS era for the 21st Century and creating a Star Trek-lore compliant pre-TOS story. That's sad considering CBS/Paramount own the IP and are treating it worse than some fan-film maker. STD deserves its acronym, and is a 1-star production in my view. I will not be paying to watch this tripe.
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