Star Trek: Discovery - There is a Tide... Review

DIS "There is a Tide..."

Being barefoot was the clincher. If it wasn't clear before: with Burnham running loose on the Emerald Chain-controlled Discovery, limping but determined, shielded by the powers that come only from being a regular character on a TV show, she spaces a "Regulator" who pulls off Burnham's shoes while trying to hold on for dear life. So this is Burnham's Die Hard. It's territory Star Trek has trod barefoot on before; "Starship Mine" on The Next Generation was Picard's go at the story template. In place of Hans Gruber and his non-negotiable bearer bonds, we have Orion space pirate capitalist Osyraa, in a suspenseful episode that sets the stage for next week's season finale.

What primarily defines "There is a Tide..." is a desire to flesh out Osyraa as a villain. She's come to UFP headquarters to negotiate entry into the Federation, in a seemingly genuine desire to pool resources and in the spirit of compromise. Through the scientist character Aurellio (played by frequent Discovery guest star Kenneth Mitchell), we are invited to understand why a rational person would follow Osyraa. 

By way of contrast, everything Burnham does in the episode is siloed off from these complications introduced to Osyraa, so it's quite a "by any means necessary" situation for Burnham (including forcing Stamets off the ship to take the spore drive out of the equation. This invocation of high drama and character conflict is half-successful; it works on the performance side, but doesn't quite pop on the story side). Indeed, even Aurellio is forced to face the unsavory ruthlessness that is undeniable in his boss. 

Negotiations between Osyraa and Admiral Vance break down when her assumed immunity from criminal prosecution is off the table, and from the look of the next time trailer, Osyraa's wrath seems to regress her from the overtures she made in this episode. She claims to represent the interest of her people, but baulks when her own interests are put into perspective. The overall picture of this character arc lacks a clear hook or throughline. While Osyraa can appear forthright and rational, she's essentially doing all this with a gun to our main characters' heads. Her past crimes, and those on her watch, speak for themselves.

While the episode tries to introduce more shades of grey to the green Osyraa, it checks off the truly hissable villain box by bringing back Zareh, last seen in "Far from Home". The bridge crew is held hostage in the ready room, but pro tip: maybe assign more than two guards to the only prisoners you've got. At episode's end, the Sphere data from Discovery's computers, which has apparently migrated to the repair robots, offers its services to Captain Tilly. "There is a Tide..." splits its time between retaking-the-ship action (more of which is promised in the finale) and the refracted Osyraa/Emerald Chain characterization. The episode sets out to make the season's main villain more than a space pirate, which only partially comes to fruition. 6/10.

Stray observation:

- One of Trek's old hack moves was always to compare something to an exotic alien animal, like for instance, "That drink had more kick than an Aldebaran bandicoot!" Admiral Vance pulls out, "like an Altarian spider". That type of line used to be so common in 90s Star Trek, and now it's kind of comforting to hear.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 Overview

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2

Average episode rating: 7.4/10

No one expected Baby Yoda. The reveal at the end of The Mandalorian's first episode, utilizing the same silhouetted-ears-from-behind shot that heralded Force ghost Yoda's appearance in The Last Jedi, was blindsiding. While hints were in the air that the titular character would come to protect a young charge (the Lone Wolf and Cub setup), the reveal redefined the conception of the show from a notional bounty of the week structure to odd couple domestic adventure.

By making the Child Yoda's species, the reveal also tied into the larger Star Wars mythology, a project that the second season expanded with many tendrils. With an ear to the ground, appearances from Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze, and Ahsoka Tano came as welcome developments but not surprises. But Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 were shocking cameos, at least to me.

Spinning out of the first season, a quest to find the Child's (now Grogu's) kind was interpreted by most to be a search for other members of Yoda and Yaddle's species. But Season 2 reoriented that, avoiding demystification via a planet of the Kermits by defining Grogu's "kind" as another Jedi. And in a painful, poignant scene, Din said goodbye to Grogu, leaving him in the charge of Luke. For my part, I am prepared for and content with Grogu never appearing on the show again, but it also seems unthinkable that part of what defines the show as a piece of drama and a cultural phenomenon will never return. But I remain open to either cold turkey removal of Grogu for good, or an eventual reunion.

The show's portrayals of both its Jedi characters, Ahsoka and Luke, skewed toward the reverent, like these were mythological figures and not flesh and blood people. Not that there weren't precious dewdrops of characterization from both, but the show itself reacted to them, especially Luke, with a certain depersonalizing awe. Luke never names himself; he represents the legend of the Jedi. The episode in which he appears is called "The Rescue", and Luke's rescue here is quite a contrast from A New Hope's "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you!"

The build-up to his appearance is kicked off by the arrival of his iconic X-Wing. This continues the mythologizing of that craft, particularly in The Rise of Skywalker. Rey leads the Resistance to Exegol in that fighter and is recognized over sensors with, "That's Luke Skywalker's X-Wing." In a moment of jubilation, Finn exclaims, "Red Five is in the air!" In that same movie, we see a de-aged Return of the Jedi-era Mark Hamill face on a body double, showing that The Mandalorian is not the first Star Wars project to make that move.

These big character reveals may dominate the headlines, but to the show's credit it also brought back guest stars from Season 1 for further development. While Greef Karga only featured in one episode, Cara Dune and Fennec Shand's roles expanded, and minor characters like the Mythrol and Q9-0 came back with a new spin on their characterization. (Peli Motto came back much the same!) The poster child of this character rehabilitation was certainly Migs Mayfeld, a fairly generic rogue in Season 1, a likable, almost wise antihero in Season 2.

Season 2 saw composer Ludwig Göransson incorporate past Star Wars music into the show for the first time: From Kevin Kiner, Ahsoka's theme. From John Williams, Yoda's theme, the Star Wars theme, and the Force theme.

There was also acknowledgement of some of George Lucas' foundational influences when creating Star Wars, namely Akira Kurosawa movies and Frank Herbert's Dune. Lucas mentee Dave Filoni framed Ahsoka as a ronin samurai Jedi, using shots taken from Yojimbo and Seven Samurai. The town in that episode was called Caladan, a name from Dune, and the spectacle of a krayt dragon was extremely reminiscent of a sandworm.

Season 2 followed the "bigger and better" paradigm, making for a fine companion piece with Season 1. As the show goes on, it must redefine what the show is yet again. All the Mandalorian lore was a sideshow in the end to the bond between surrogate father and son. What is the show now? I'm fascinated to find out.

Elements from Star Wars canon depicted in live-action for the first time in The Mandalorian Season 2:

- Cobb Vanth, from the Aftermath novels

- A live krayt dragon

- Temuera Morrison lending more than his voice to Boba Fett

- Bo-Katan Kryze

- Dark troopers

- Ahsoka Tano

- A convor (space owl)

- Mandalorian dagger ship

Top 5 moments:

5) Jon Favreau restages Cowboys & Aliens vs. a krayt dragon, "The Marshal"

4) Mayfeld shoots first, "The Believer"

3) Ahsoka Tano vs. Morgan Elsbeth, "The Jedi"

2) Luke's arrival/goodbye to Grogu, "The Rescue"

1) Armored Boba Fett jets down into the fray, "The Tragedy"

Star Trek: Discovery - Su'Kal Review

DIS "Su'Kal"

Doug Jones has always been primarily known as "the monster guy". From the Faun in Pan's Labyrinth to the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water, he brings a beguiling choreography to his characters. He even played an FBI agent turned into a human carrot in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle! Saru has been a plum role for Jones, as he's developed a cohesive physical and emotional characterization for the character, who's even risen to the rank of Captain. Through a quirk of storytelling, "Su'Kal" offers Jones the chance to play Saru without Kelpien makeup. It's an unexpected move on the part of an episode that offers surrealism on the one hand and a sense of real peril on the other, as Discovery enters the season's endgame.

Saru, Burnham, and Culber beam down to the source of the Burn-related Kelpien distress call, and are immediately wrong-footed. The landing party has inexplicably seemed to switch species; Culber is Bajoran (complete with spiritually significant earring), Burnham is Trill, and Saru is human. The episode takes on the contours of a fairy tale, Burnham as a Trill red riding hood in a wintery forest - and beware the grim, unchained monster.

The episode's surreal touches, such as an Escher-esque maze of stairs, depict a large-scale holographic environment tailored to an emotionally immature Kelpien, alone on a planet made of dilithium for over a century. Given the Kelpien Su'Kal's culture, the program takes on tropes of Kelpien folklore meant to scare and educate children, a scenario that Saru ironically faces with the unvarnished face of Doug Jones.

It also comes out that when Su'Kal was a child, his emotional distress caused the Burn. In a way it's a twist on past Trek storytelling featuring childlike god-beings whose tantrums have galactic consequences (such as Trelane in the original series).

On Discovery, Tilly is in command. Burnham gives her a nice speech about an imperfection in the metal on an arm of the captain's chair that Tilly can use to ground herself, and Tilly certainly comes to need it. While she adapts to the responsibility of the chair with a commanding, competent affect close to monotone, Osyraa and her big spiky ship arrive and after a stand-off, board Discovery and claim the ship, along with its spore drive. Meanwhile, Book rescues Burnham, but stowaway Adira joins the remaining Saru and Culber to deal with radiation poisoning, and the emotional state of the orphaned Su'Kal.

So a sense of peril raises the stakes, going into the final stretch of the season. The episode is, as Book would say, a "game changer" (apparently a phrase that survives to the 32nd Century). It's also animated by its manufactured children's picture book setting, finding the show getting agreeably weird. 7/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Rescue Review

MND "The Rescue"

The season 2 finale of The Mandalorian has an outsize connection to the larger Star Wars canon, to an awe-inspiring extent, in fact. Crucial developments shed light on the rightful rule of Mandalore (Bo-Katan is back, gunning for the darksaber that Gideon took as a spoil of genocide), the state of a new Luke Skywalker-shaped (!) Jedi order, and even the power vacuum left by Jabba the Hutt's death (Boba Fett and Fennec Shand move right in with an efficient power play).

None of that matters to Din Djarin.

That's how all these planet-shaking story points are held back from overshadowing the heart of this show. Din is here not as a Mandalorian, not as a child of Death Watch, not as a bounty hunter, not as a "Ranger of the New Republic" come to arrest remnant Imperials, but only as a father.

Even his precious Creed matters not, if it keeps him from showing his face to his son, and making that last humanoid connection, before sending Grogu with Luke. There stands Luke: the man who destroyed the first Death Star, founded Rogue Squadron in honor of Jyn Erso and company's sacrifice, and turned the monolithically evil Darth Vader back to the light side of the Force. But all Din needs to know is that Luke can help his son. And so, like Leia later will with her son Ben, Din places Grogu in Luke's care, to train as a Jedi padawan.

From a filmmaking perspective, the Luke reveal is firmly in "the Legend of Luke" territory. Almost angelic in his implacable power and serene facade, there's no interest in humanizing details. Appropriate for the context of this episode, his status as Jedi is almost unknowable.

Taking a step back from the luminous beings stuff, Din attacks Gideon's cruiser with an all-female strike team, including the returning Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves. (Amusingly, Bo-Katan taunts Boba Fett for being a clone, like the Republic clones she once fought alongside.) While Boba Fett creates a plausible cover story for boarding, the three Mandalorians plus Fennec and Cara Dune run up against Gideon's elite Dark Trooper droids. Like something out of The Black Hole, or akin to original Battlestar Galactica Cylons (fitting given Katee Sackhoff's presence), the Dark Troopers are a potentially overwhelming threat that Luke eventually extinguishes.

Throughout the episode, composer Ludwig Göransson simply goes for broke. When the title of the show is thrown up, a pumped-up version of the main theme plays. The Dark Troopers are given an ostentatious metallic techno riff. And even the reveal of a TIE Fighter makes the little unshielded fighter seem like the stuff of nightmares. During Luke's scenes, a redressed version of the main Star Wars theme airs, plus a fairly straight quotation of the Force theme.

Din finds Gideon guarding Grogu, and the two duel, beskar spear against darksaber, until Din is victorious. But like the Elder Wand in Harry Potter, the darksaber can only be claimed by besting the owner in combat, foreshadowing a future conflict between Bo-Katan and a disinterested Din.

There are a lot of elements to this episode that after all is predominantly a propulsive piece of action. And while darksaber lore and especially a visit from Luke and R2-D2 are huge deals to fans, the episode's trick is that in Din's headspace, he has a singular parental goal. He has made safe Grogu and delivered him to a willing Jedi. Doesn't make Din's tears sting less. 8/10.

Stray observations:

- Boba Fett doesn't strike me as the type to sit on a throne, but there he and Fennec are, fresh from a spot of Bib Fortuna-murdering, taking up residence at Jabba's Palace.

- One of the Imperial shuttle pilots canonizes the old Clerks joke about "the contractors on the Death Star". He's played by Thomas E. Sullivan, who also played the villainous Nathaniel Malick in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., featuring Fennec Shand actor Ming-Na Wen.

Star Trek: Discovery - Terra Firma Part 2 Review

DIS "Terra Firma Part 2"

"Terra Firma Part 2" is an episode with a laser focus on Georgiou's character that stands on the shoulders of giants - specifically, two iconic Star Trek episodes. We'll get to what those two episodes are. But the headline is that after Part 1, which surrounded Georgiou with the posturing nastiness of the Terran Empire and only at the end set up the shape of the story, Part 2 finds Georgiou and the show working toward constructive goals.

Georgiou's goal: to try, with a remarkably earnest line in monologues about a shining Federation in place of an Empire, reshaping the Empire and her daughter Michael Burnham into something humane. Good luck!

The show's goal: to send off the Georgiou character from the show, highlighting her personal growth and setting her up for a potential spinoff.

Georgiou's attempts to reform Burnham are doomed to fail, but a convincing veneer of progress is made, with touching motherly anecdotes, and yes, also copious amounts of torture and entreating Burnham to execute conspirators against the throne. Building on her bond with Saru in Part 1, Georgiou also blows his mind with knowledge that reframes his entire understanding of Kelpien life.

In the end, it's revealed that the entire experience was an exercise, a test of sorts within Georgiou's head, to weigh the scales of her soul. It's a logical twist, and in fact the only way to make this backward-looking story work. Georgiou lived a crucible of several months in the span of a minute or so, aligning her experience to Picard's in "The Inner Light".

It's also revealed that the mysterious Carl with his metaphysical door is none other than the Guardian of Forever. In my review last week, I called Carl and the door "a workaday Guardian of Forever", which was not so much a prediction but an observation. But taken as prediction, it paid off! (There is also a hint of tragic future backstory for the Guardian, who was abused by bad actors during the Temporal Cold War.) So "Terra Firma Part 2" gives Georgiou "The Inner Light" experience and "The City on the Edge of Forever" treatment. (Not to mention "Mirror Mirror"...)

The episode's main business is lowering the curtain on Georgiou's time on Discovery, sending her back to a time when the Prime and Mirror Universes were more closely aligned (read: original series time). And so the episode ends with a touching toast to what Georgiou meant to the crew and the show. A Michelle Yeoh-less Discovery is not a joyful thought, but the show closed the door on her well. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- In one of her scenes with Saru, Georgiou wears a blinding gold robe like she's Supreme Leader Snoke himself. Another Star Wars villain connection: last week she said, "Long live the Empire", which Moff Gideon was heard to say just a few weeks ago on The Mandalorian.

- Look at Georgiou being all Shakespearean and using the word "orison".

- Title sequence is upside down, get it?

Power Rangers Season 27 Overview (Beast Morphers)

Power Rangers Season 27 (Beast Morphers Season 2)

Average episode rating: 6.4/10 (holding steady from Season 26, Beast Morphers' debut, with 6.3/10)

The Hasbro era of Power Rangers has gotten off to a solid start with two seasons of Beast Morphers. At least some of the goodwill toward this team might be due to where we just came from. The Neo-Saban era is unequivocally the worst in the show's long history; Dino Charge is the only genuinely good incarnation it produced, with the follow-up Ninja Steel slipping on a banana peel week after week. But even divorcing Beast Morphers from the context of looking good by comparison, it still stands out with its attention to detail, mostly solid character development, bursts of creativity, and an on-point cast.

Its second season, Power Rangers' 27th overall, also made the fan-pleasing decision to embrace more continuity. So main villain Evox was revealed to be a mutation of RPM baddie Venjix, Doctor K showed up as a guest mentor a couple times, and of course, a dinosaur-themed team-up event made a huge noise even if it sacrificed some elegance to do so.

At the end of Season 26, the original digital avatars of Roxy and Blaze were defeated, freeing their human selves from comas. Going into Season 27, the potential of these characters seemed limitless. Here were two people who had been intensively trained to be the Yellow and Red Rangers. They could assist the team in any number of ways, including in unmorphed fights or even, if the show felt ambitious, as sixth and seventh Rangers.

But that is not even close to the direction the show took, to its cost. Roxy and Blaze were retained as robot villains in addition to their human bodies. I get it. Colby Strong, and especially Liana Ramirez, give excellent arch-villain performances. But human Blaze, whose spiky personality caused friction at the outset of this team, had a personality lobotomy that made him 100% docile and inoffensive, to the point where Blaze evincing a dissenting opinion meant he must be the robot in disguise. The gaping missed opportunity of using human Roxy and Blaze as secondary team members or Grid Battleforce allies is the single biggest demerit on this season.

But evil or not, Roxy and Blaze are assets in this cast. Ben and Betty were sometimes assets as well, and sometimes victim to the same Wile E. Coyote logic that animated, God help us, Victor and Monty in Ninja Steel.

One area in which this cast excels is roles for women. There is a female Ranger (Zoey), a formidable mentor (Commander Shaw), a deliciously evil villain (Roxy), and broad comic relief (Betty), all appealing. That's all four quadrants! The only other season to match it in all four "quadrants" is Dino Thunder: Ranger (Kira), mentor (Hayley), villain (Elsa), comic relief (Cassidy).

While still prone to wonky Saturday morning logic at times, Season 27 is a success, and Beast Morphers overall is a hopeful sign that the Neo-Saban era's low standards are banished. Next on Power Rangers: Dino Fury. 

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Evox Unleashed Review

PRBM "Evox Unleashed"

What "Evox Unleashed" nails as a season finale, and finale to a Ranger team's story, is an "end of term" feel, wrapping up a number of small but important threads. In doing this, it touches the emotions to a surprising degree, making up for slight deficiencies with the action portion of the episode.

Yes, Venjix/Evox is gearing up for a final power play, but there are human stories to attend to, even in the midst of a Coral Harbor evacuation. In a touching scene, Zoey reveals that she's the Yellow Ranger to her mother (and now, all three original Rangers are "out" to their parents). Even when the situation is desperate, Ben and Betty resolve to stay and help the team. And this is a wonderful episode for Commander Shaw. She authorizes Zoey's disclosure, and Shaw gets one of her best moments in a pep talk to the team about the power of being human. The speech is blunt, efficient, and composed, and I expect nothing less from her.

And another favorite end-of-season trope: morphed Rangers with their helmets off! 

With Venjix having adapted to Grid Battleforce weapons, the Rangers try using various pieces of legendary Ranger arsenal, but despite their best efforts, Venjix appears to kill Steel. Down a Ranger, the team comes up against Venjix' giant evil mech, appropriately looking like a bastardization of an RPM zord. Zoey tells us this is "50 times bigger" than a gigadrone. That seems like quite an exaggeration. It's maybe twice as big?

In a clever turn, the Rangers figure out a way to literalize their human advantage over Venjix. Using examples from earlier in the past two seasons, they figure out that Venjix' Evox form is incompatible with human DNA, and that animates their final blow to the cyber-villain. Impressive as that is on a storytelling level, the biggest issue with the episode is that the fight with Venjix himself is not dynamic. They shoot at him, it doesn't work, Steel tries to shoot him, it doesn't work, Venjix kills Steel with a wave of his hand, Venjix gets big, Rangers stab him, job done. And as a gift from the Morphin Grid, Steel is reconstituted in totally human form.

But that slack is picked up by the rest of the episode, which even provides an epilogue set one year later. Colonel Truman (!) shows up with the fugitive Scrozzle, who had been hiding in the sewers of Corinth. (That year of Scrozzle on the loose is ripe for untold stories at some point.) Commander Shaw is seen out of uniform for the first time and even attempts painting her son's favorite subject, Roxy (who was seen earlier in the episode helping with the evacuation). Devon is now Commander of Grid Battleforce, and he even tries to "do" Shaw in his delivery of orders.

Steel is a movie star in action films, with Blaze as his stunt double (Dax from Operation Overdrive, much?). The finale sees Devon calling Steel away from set for a surprise birthday party. Surely that could've waited until Steel was done filming that day? But in any case, the ending is happy. And Beast Morphers ends with a poignant episode that makes up for its fairly barebones action with a fond salute to this cast of characters. 8/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Believer Review

MND "The Believer"

And so it came to pass, that "The Believer" would be the first Mandalorian episode not to feature Grogu, and there were riots in the streets... Just kidding. In Grogu's absence, Din assembles his version of the Avengers (Cara Dune, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, newly-sprung prisoner Migs Mayfeld from last season's "The Prisoner") for an arcane mission to triangulate the location of Moff Gideon's ship - in a dynamic episode alive to the political context of the galaxy at this time, through the personal lens of Mayfeld of all people.

I wasn't a big fan of Mayfeld from last season. He, like the other guest characters in "The Prisoner", had a performative toughness to them. But the characterization here is downright sympathetic. His days as a stormtrooper have haunted him, particularly as he personalizes Operation Cinder, the defeated Palpatine's devastating scorched earth campaign. He encounters an old superior officer named Valin Hess (played by Richard Brake with a real "evil Dennis Quaid" energy), and when Mayfeld can't take Hess' neofascist drivel a second longer, Mayfeld shoots first.

To hear Hess tell it, the people of the galaxy, like the exploited natives of Morak near this Imperial mining facility, will eventually welcome order with open arms. While he overestimates the citizenry's future receptiveness to the First Order, he speaks what he feels is truth from his point of view. The theme of shifting political reality in the episode is captured in its centerpiece moment, the subversive reversal where Din and Mayfeld are saved from pirates by TIE Fighter pilots swooping in like they're Han Solo. Din and Mayfeld, disguised as Imperial transport drivers, are given an excessively happy heroes' welcome at the facility, the troopers probably unused to seeing main character-worthy heroics from Imperial rank and file.

Mayfeld questions foundational aspects of Din's creed, and as events unfold, Din must remove his helmet to complete his mission. Technically he has betrayed his Creed, but that is a rigid point of view. He certainly looks uncomfortable with it, though. The man introduced with "I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold", rendered vulnerable. The episode's adherence to that classic Star Wars theme of "from a certain point of view" finds its climax at the end, when Din parrots Gideon's monologue about Grogu from Season 1 right back at him, in a righteous new context.

The action of the episode works like muscular punctuation. Things take a Mad Max-shaped turn when pirates in skiffs beset the transport. And Boba Fett gets another punch-the-air moment when he uses the sound-warping seismic charges from Attack of the Clones to take out a couple TIEs (more on this in Stray Observations).

"The Believer" is an episode of unexpected quality, or to be more specific, unexpected depth. Especially given the surprise mileage from bringing the loudmouth Mayfeld back to the show. Roll on the finale next week. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- This episode has an Office Space reference?! Mayfeld says he and Din have to fill out those TPS reports.

- We finally get to see more of the interior of Slave 1 beyond the cockpit, including the weird rotation of the body.

- Nice to see the Scarif shoretrooper design from Rogue One return on this vaguely tropical planet. The transport driver costume is a hybrid of a redesigned Jedha assault tank driver helmet from Rogue One and the Mimban mudtrooper armor from Solo.

- As aforementioned, we last saw Jango Fett deploy seismic charges against Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones. And the boy who said "Get 'im, Dad, get 'im! Fi-yah!" has now grown into a man. This is the first time we've seen Boba's Slave 1 use the charges... except for the Geonosis scenario in Disneyland's Star Tours ride!

Star Trek: Discovery - Terra Firma Part 1 Review

DIS "Terra Firma Part 1"

The first episode of Discovery, "The Vulcan Hello", began with a cold open of Shenzou First Officer Michael Burnham and Captain Philippa Georgiou, bantering as a two woman landing party on a strange new world. "Terra Firma Part 1" recreates that dynamic, even though Georgiou is represented by her Terran Mirror self, and Burnham is no longer First Officer of anything. It's a fitting callback, but is emblematic of an episode that looks back at the expense of going forward.

This third season has thrived when using the new dynamics of the show to establish a new center of gravity for the show. I have been slightly resistant to any element from the first two seasons potentially slowing that roll. So when Georgiou finds herself back in the Mirror Universe, indeed in the backstory to the events we picked up there in Season 1, it feels like going backward.

Indeed, everything in this first part of a two-parter leads up to the moment when Georgiou, with the benefit of a more "evolved" consciousness, makes a different choice and doesn't execute Mirror Burnham. That choice changes things and brings the story into uncharted territory, serving to make Part 1 something of a no-frills setup for what's to come.

The essential problem with the Mirror stuff in this episode is that it replaces plot with posturing. Yes, the aesthetics are very effective, it's great to return to Captain Killy, Landry's back, there's a play within a play, everyone's wearing too much eyeliner, and even the maintenance robots are shadowy. While the arch scenery-chewing has always been the delicacy of Mirror Universe episodes, there's not a lot to the setting as presented here beyond that. 

There are the mixed feelings Georgiou seems to feel in her homecoming. For one thing, her slightly softer edges account for her uncommon civility toward the enslaved Saru. It's almost like the Georgiou of the season so far has protested too much, that her sadism was a bit of a front, some useful branding, and that confronted with her old life, she doesn't embrace it with open arms.

The episode begins with an expository scene with Culber and David Cronenberg's Kovich, and there are few actors on this show I'd rather hear exposition from than Cronenberg. Any sinister undertone to Kovich from his last appearance appears to be a red herring at this point. Dude just knows the Mirror Universe. (And the events of 2009's Star Trek film, as he alludes to Nero's incursion in time.) Elsewhere, the Burn-relevant distress call is revealed to be Kelpien in origin.

While the plot device of the doorway and the affably enigmatic Carl just screams, "We're being SURREAL!", it's novel. (Like a workaday Guardian of Forever.) That puts it in contrast to most of the episode, which has a lot of Terran pomp and circumstance but proves slightly hollow. Now that Georgiou has splintered the timeline by sparing Burnham, hopefully Part 2 triangulates how to tell a more dynamic Mirror Universe story. 5/10.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Source Code Review

PRBM "Source Code"

"You've reached the final chapter in your story." - Venjix/Evox

Beast Morphers' penultimate episode, "Source Code", recontextualizes the threat of Evox, tying the storyline inextricably to RPM, one of the best seasons of Power Rangers.

As Evox interacts with a Cell Shift Morpher, it's revealed that Evox is a snake DNA-enhanced offshoot of Venjix, the evil computer virus from RPM! This makes sense, as many fans compared Evox to Venjix when he was first introduced. This is an unprecedented twist, revealing the main villain of a season as truly the main villain of a previous season in a new guise. Given that the same voice actor for Venjix, Andrew Laing, has been performing Evox all along, the pieces all fit into place. Taking a step back, all these developments mean that Beast Morphers has shown an uncommon willingness to incorporate elements from past Ranger seasons set in other dimensions, including Dino Charge.

Nate unwittingly created Evox when he was a child prodigy, leading Evox to taunt him with booming lines like, "How does it feel to be responsible for the destruction of human civilization?!" This element of backstory is reminiscent of Doctor K, who created Venjix, so naturally she arrives to give Nate a pep talk. It's good to see Olivia Tennet again, in an expanded role after her appearance earlier this season, making for a team-up of two Ranger teams' tech geniuses!

The Rangers manage to destroy Robot Blaze for good, who appears powered up the entire time so as not to leave evidence for last episode's Hairgate. After this accomplishment, Steel comes dangerously close to dabbing. Zoey's "It's good to be counted on" feels like a defining line for her. And Doctor K gets a poignant moment where she tells our heroes they have a beautiful world - we know that K's is despoiled. But the ending is hardly happy. Blaze was a diversion, and Scrozzle has delivered the world's morph-X towers to Venjix.

With its outsize developments and Earth-shattering twists, "Source Code" is an excellent lead in to a finale. At its best, Beast Morphers' attention to detail is a big part of its appeal; as in RPM, Venjix' monsters don't speak. Next week, we say goodbye to this incarnation of the show. 8/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Tragedy Review

MND "The Tragedy"

In "The Jedi", Ahsoka was revealed in all her glory in the very first scene, which was wonderful in its own way. In "The Tragedy", Boba Fett, having surreptitiously retrieved his armor from the Razor Crest, jetpacks into a fight after a runway of build-up, making for a truly fan-pleasing moment. I'm not a "Boba Fett bro", but that was something special, a highlight of a fantastic slice of Star Wars.

On the planet Tython, Din takes Grogu to the seeing stone of a Stonehenge-like Jedi Temple, only to encounter Boba Fett (arriving in Slave I!) and a not-dead cyborg-ized Fennec Shand looking to make a deal for the armor Din got from Cobb Vanth in "The Marshal". But Gideon's Imperial forces follow them and a pitched battle ensues.

The episode gets the show off the Volume studio stage into glorious sun-kissed location filming, setting a bright stage for a glorious extended action sequence marshaled by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn). Boba, Fennec, and Din cut swathes through waves of stormtroopers, until rocket-booted Dark Troopers (updated from Legends continuity) kidnap Grogu.

The centerpiece of the episode is Temuera Morrison's expanded role as Boba Fett, having way more to say in this episode than in, say, The Empire Strikes Back. After years of back and forth, we learn that Boba's father Jango Fett was indeed a Mandalorian foundling. And Boba, being a clone, actually goes there and quotes his father by calling himself "a simple man trying to make his way in the universe". It should be noted that in early concept art for The Mandalorian, Boba Fett was used as an illustrative placeholder cradling Grogu before Din's distinct design was in place. And now things have come full circle, and Boba is a major part of the show.

Going into the episode, a focus on "that Jedi stuff", as Din calls it, seemed top of mind given the Temple setting. Indeed, Grogu's experience on the stone seems to amplify his power, as two stormtroopers find to their cost. But where last episode tapped into the samurai genre foundation of Star Wars, this one stages a space Western skirmish. The show again brings out the E-Web blaster cannon, extrapolating the old Western trope of the gatling gun. It's pew-pew action at its finest, thrilling every step of the way. 9/10.

Stray observations:

- What is it with Nevarro's new administration and putting your feet on your desk? First Greef in "The Siege", and now Cara in this episode.

- The Imperial troop transports are clear design precursors to First Order troop transports. Boba Fett rockets the escaping transports, vaguely reminiscent of Rey destroying another escaping transport with Force lightning on Pasaana in The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Trek: Discovery - The Sanctuary Review

DIS "The Sanctuary"

"The Sanctuary" continues the Orion-Andorian Emerald Chain syndicate's animus toward Discovery, reinforcing the old science fiction maxim: If you need a villain, when in doubt, use space pirates! Just as the titular sanctuary refers to the ecosystem of Book's home planet Kwejian, threatened by harvest-eating locusts, the episode's ecosystem is also not in perfect balance.

The B and C plots (respectively Georgiou's deteriorating condition and Adira's work on the latest Burn data) are largely transitional, by design lacking a sense of closure. So it falls to the A plot to make the episode unique. But the episode struggles to give its main storyline a strong identity, beyond "this planet has wood tech!" It has high emotional stakes for Book, returning to his world and the brother he feels has sold out their principles, but I'm not sure those stakes translate to the audience. 

The Discovery side of the main plot puts some paprika on the sandwich. We see Tilly in action as First Officer, playing bad cop (then ultimately, of course, good cop) to Andorian asylum-seeker Ryn. Saru workshops a "Captain catchphrase", raising everyone's eyebrows in the process (he considers Pike's "hit it". And never forget Lorca's "...go"). And in a contrast to Star Trek's vintage space extrapolation of submarine tactics, Detmer uses Book's ship for a strafing run on Emerald Chain boss Osyraa's flagship.

Georgiou's condition makes her even spikier than usual, and then literally spikier than usual in the face area. Meanwhile, Adira makes clear their preference for "they"/"their" pronouns. To its credit, the show doesn't explicitly tie this in as 100% part and parcel of the Trill experience. For one thing, the actor Blu del Barrio uses they. But at the same time, it seems like many joined Trill might go by they, fitting with the sort of gender fluidity that has animated Trill storytelling since The Next Generation.

The episode continues mining the emotionally rich baseline of this season. But the main plot doesn't have a particularly strong identity or hook. All things are in transition. And if the next time trailer is any indication, Michelle Yeoh might be on her way off the show (no!), in time to wait for her own spinoff (oh!). 6/10.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Crunch Time Review

PRBM "Crunch Time"

All this season, I've wanted the human Roxy and Blaze to take on a bigger role. "Crunch Time" features Blaze creating drama within the show and contributing to the fight, but the episode pulls the rug out from under this and reveals it was the Robot Blaze pretending to be the human all along. So "Crunch Time" is an episode that cruelly and annoyingly gives me half of what I want, before revealing it was all a fake-out.

Robot Blaze (apparently having gotten his hair dye reversed by unseen interdimensional stylists) constructively critiques Devon's leadership decisions as the Red Ranger, helps out during a monster fight, and points out that the Ranger team minus Ravi have had it easy, skipping the rigorous cadet training stages. While his abrasiveness should've been toned down if this was the human Blaze, this is exactly what I would want out of that character. But then it all gets undermined, and Zoey says the line:

"No wonder Blaze was acting like such a jerk! It wasn't the real Blaze!"

...

Yes, because human Blaze has been neutered of any personality beyond bland support of the Rangers. This plotline casts a somewhat poor light on Devon too, who's so easily manipulated by an outside agent. Especially because Blaze's more hardline approach to leadership so clearly throws Cruise under the bus. Dial down Blaze's attitude a bit, and this could've been dramatic gold. If only Power Rangers didn't take the possession/imposter route like it so often does.

The climax of the episode is unique, a zord fight inside Grid Battleforce's hangar. From a storytelling standpoint it's chaotic, from a plot standpoint, dangerous. In the end, Evox's personally piloted Omega Gigadrone self-destructs, and Evox is captured in a force field. But maybe, like Loki, Raoul Silva, and so many other villains before him, Evox is exactly where he wants to be.

"Crunch Time" is frustrating because the bones of what it presents have so much potential. It's almost like the writers know that they can't do the drama with Blaze for real, so they couch it in whatever half-measure they can. At least Scrozzle gets a decent joke on the failing Railtron: "I thought trains were supposed to run on time!" 5/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Jedi Review

MND "The Jedi"

"The Jedi" wastes no time building up to its namesake. There is beloved Clone Wars and Rebels hero Ahsoka Tano, in live-action for the first time, playing the part of an unknowable ronin, thorn in the side of industrial-level exploiter Morgan Elsbeth. That villain's name is like a witch straight out of a fairy tale, and so is the setting. Elsbeth has despoiled the planet Corvus, rendering the outskirts of the town of Calodan a dark, twisted Tim Burton forest. The bursts of action the episode unleashes are made all the more dreamlike because they might as well take place in Sleepy Hollow.

Elsbeth's agenda feels more corporate than militaristic, making her an appropriate foil for Ahsoka, who fought the corrupt conglomerates of the Separatists during the Clone Wars. Even so, the samurai movie meets Brothers Grimm aesthetic recalls something more elemental. When Ahsoka and Elsbeth slowly take each other's measure and face off in a vaguely Japanese garden, it's so Kurosawa it hurts.

It's a dynamic that Din walks into as an outsider. After the episode gives us a brief taste of explosive Jedi vs. Mandalorian action when Ahsoka and Din clash, Din quickly gets to his true purpose in seeking her out. Reaching out with her mind, Ahsoka senses that the Child's true name is Grogu. It's humorous seeing the little one snap to attention every time someone says the name. Grogu was trained in the Jedi Temple but has a decades-long gap in its memory.

When Ahsoka mentions Yoda as another member of Grogu's species, composer Ludwig Göransson deploys Yoda's theme. And when Ahsoka shows herself at Calodan's gate, I detect a flourish of Kevin Kiner's Ahsoka theme. This is the first time The Mandalorian has quoted other Star Wars music. When Grogu used the Force to lift the Mudhorn, the Force theme didn't play. When Moff Gideon landed his TIE Fighter, the Imperial March wasn't trotted out.

Din agrees to help Ahsoka deal with the Elsbeth situation. Ahsoka and Elsbeth's fight is a highlight, with the latter using a beskar spear reminiscent of the quicksilver baton Captain Phasma dueled Finn with in The Last Jedi. Victorious, Ahsoka demands Elsbeth reveal the location of her boss, Grand Admiral Thrawn (?!) - more on that in Stray Observations. 

Ultimately, Ahsoka sees Grogu's attachment to Din as a father figure, and declines to train the child. Her experience with Anakin has only reinforced her adherence to the Jedi Order's old tenets. She does point the way to a Jedi temple, meaning that more Force mysticism is on the cards for this show.

Rosario Dawson's portrayal of Ahsoka is effective (even if her voice isn't much of a match for Ashley Eckstein's), and director Dave Filoni's use of Ahsoka action in quick bursts works excellently well. "The Jedi" is another workout for a dark color palette on this show, but the atmosphere is thick. Filoni's invocation of samurai movie tropes, just putting Ahsoka and Elsbeth opposite each other in a widescreen frame, is just as magnetic on screen as Force Projection Luke squaring off with Kylo Ren on Crait. Might as well call the episode "The Samurai". 8/10.

Stray observations:

- While appearances in some fashion by Boba Fett, Bo-Katan Kryze, and Ahsoka Tano could be foreseen, the Thrawn namedrop was a surprise. This raises a big timeline question. In a coda at the end of Rebels (taking place at an unspecified point after the Battle of Endor), Ahsoka and Sabine Wren went on a quest to find Ezra Bridger, who was spirited away across the galaxy along with Thrawn. So is "The Jedi" before or after that quest? Seems to me it would likely be after, meaning that Thrawn's story is far from over.

- Ahsoka says she's only known one other of Grogu's species, Yoda. I guess Jedi Council member Yaddle was before Ahsoka's time?

Star Trek: Discovery - Unification 3 Review

DIS "Unification 3"

Why "Unification 3"? That's because the first two parts of this story aired during The Next Generation's fifth season in 1991. And now, 29 years later on a different show, the story of Romulan-Vulcan reunification continues. Incidentally, while "Unification 1" was technically the second Star Trek episode to air after creator Gene Roddenberry's death, it bore a tribute to the Great Bird of the Galaxy. Arguably Roddenberry's most famous creation, Spock, made it the life work of his later years to lay the groundwork for unification, and being in Spock's far future, Discovery finds that his work came to fruition. The show, and the characters within the show, honor Roddenberry and Spock by continuing this storyline. This feeling of deep connections within Star Trek canon, made personal by Burnham's story, defines the episode.

Discovery finds that Vulcan of the 32nd Century is now called Ni'Var, and like Earth, this founding member of the Federation is no longer in the fold. The apparent burden of causing the Burn through advanced propulsion experiments contributed to the surprising withdrawal. The planet is shared by Vulcans and Romulans; Romulus was destroyed in the 2009 film Star Trek, and the aftermath looms large in Picard. As the legendary Spock's sister, Burnham is chosen to open diplomatic channels, and in order to obtain Ni'Var's experimental data, invokes a traditional crucible called T'kal-in-ket, a forum in which she can explain her scientific need for the data. 

As part of her future history download, Burnham watches a recording of Leonard Nimoy's Spock from "Unification 2". The invocation of Trek history, plus Burnham's connection to a person she only knew in his younger years, is enough to make any Trekkie, including this one, cry. As per tradition, an advocate is assigned to Burnham for the T'kal-in-ket from the Romulan order of the Qowat Milat, as introduced in Picard, bene gesserit-like warrior nuns who follow the precept of absolute candor. The USS Yelchin is given a shout-out, named after tragically deceased actor Anton Yelchin, Pavel Chekov in the latest three Trek movies. Thus, earlier seasons of Discovery, the original series, The Next Generation, Picard, and even the Chris Pine feature films, are all thrillingly connected.

But all this is secondary to Burnham's emotional story. Triangulating Burn origin points is reminiscent of triangulating the mysterious signals from Season 2, and that's not the only connection to that season: Burnham's Qowat Milat advocate turns out to be her time-traveling mother Gabrielle. This development is given appropriate weight, but is almost a side note because there's so much going on. The dynamic of the T'Kal-in-ket is like an undergraduate defending her thesis before a skeptical board, in this case consisting of three quorum members.

From a scene-blocking perspective, it's just people standing in a room and talking to each other while fixed in place, a director's nightmare, but this never becomes an issue. It's a sometimes contentious display. At one point, the Romulan quorum member N'Raj laments that Vulcans spuriously take a position and bend logic to justify it, and he has a point. Recall the Second Doctor's words in Doctor Who: "Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority." Eventually, Burnham withdraws her request for the data but an impressed Ni'Var President T'Rina gives Discovery the data anyways.

In the subplot, Saru offers Tilly the first officer position on Discovery. To be fair, there's not really a better choice onboard, even if she is an Ensign. The subplot, like the rest of the episode, puts the focus on emotional development. That focus makes all the inside baseball stuff land all the more, making for an episode rich in character and canon. 8/10.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Fossil Frenzy Review

PRBM "Fossil Frenzy"

While Evox gets to full strength and lays the groundwork for a climactic confrontation in the background, Zoey has a run of the mill, episode-of-the-week focus story in the foreground. Her brother Mike, an amateur paleontologist, has discovered a new species of dinosaur he dubs vulturesaurus (which sounds like a zord naming convention), and Zoey is determined to help him leverage this into a scholarship. Imagine how Mike would react if he knew that Zoey has been to another dimension where dinosaurs never went extinct...

Mike gives a fossil to Zoey so she can use Grid Battleforce resources to comprehensively analyze it. Zoey accidentally melts the fossil down to nothing, so gets a different fossil from the same hard-to-reach site. To reach the site, Zoey free solo climbs up a rock face that looks like it belongs in Wild Force's Animarium. But the episode's logic blows up when Mike's unverified finding, that he was so crestfallen to lose before he could show it off, makes the front page of the newspaper...!?

Elsewhere, Roxy uses the vulturesaurus DNA to upgrade herself yet again, this time to such an extent that she can kaiju herself up to zord size. But her hubris is her downfall. The upgrade process destroys Scrozzle's Robot Maker equipment, meaning that if Robot Roxy or Blaze are destroyed, they're gone for good. (Dramatically speaking, this is a welcome development to add some stakes.) Also, Dino Roxy is doing a fine job kicking the Rangers' asses on the ground, but pushes her luck by taking it into zord scale, where she's outclassed and killed. Robot Blaze, in all his malevolence, has a bit of a moment when he witnesses this and seems to genuinely mourn.

The episode's dialogue is even more on-the-nose than usual. Mike tells Zoey his "entire future" rests on the fossil. Roxy soliloquizes to the camera that she "has to prove herself". It's an episode precariously balanced between a final reckoning with Robot Roxy, and a genuine desire to tie that in emotionally with Zoey's small character story. In the end, Roxy's end feels anticlimactic (after all, we've seen her dispatched so many times), and Zoey's story covers familiar points and the newspaper beat defies all logic. 5/10.

Stray observations:

- When Devon swings to the rescue from Zoey's zord, he cuts a Spider-Man-like figure.

- If Power Rangers was merchandised beyond action figures and the like, they could sell the Grid Battleforce-branded dog onesie featured in this episode.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Siege Review

MND "The Siege"

This week's chapter returns to Nevarro for dynamic action on a bigger scale than the first season, while veritably littering the episode with easter eggs and self-reflexive jokes. Reconnecting with Greef Karga, Cara Dune, and former quarry Mythrol, Din is enlisted to take out an Imperial Remnant facility. It all adds up to the most purely adrenalized action episode the show has featured so far.

The episode begins with a comedy bit of Din exasperatedly trying to get the Child to follow technical instructions. Comparisons with Rocket desperately trying to get Baby Groot to press the correct button in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are unavoidable. Afterward, the show features its most 2020 moment yet: Din lifting his helmet slightly to drink something.

On Nevarro, Cara is a Marshal in her own right (after this season's titular "Marshal", Cobb Vanth) and Greef is a Magistrate. The former hive of scum and villainy now hosts a school, with a protocol droid giving out the kind of geographical exposition you usually only find in tie-in reference books. And from the very first episode, Mythrol is back, admittedly a character I struggled with back then. His contemporary quality was something I had to get over when acclimating to the show.

Once our heroes have infiltrated the Imperial base, things take a turn for the stranger. This is Dr. Pershing's lab, home to misshapen genetically engineered bodies not unlike the infamous vat of Snokes on Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker. A recording of Pershing makes clear that he was trying to inject blood into these vessels with a high "M count", namely the Child's blood. Almost certainly, that M stands for midi-chlorians.

A comforting and exciting array of classic Star Wars action ensues. The stormtroopers even say, "Blast 'em", like they're in Mos Eisley's Docking Bay 94. There's the corridor blasting like we got last week, but also a chase through a canyon featuring speeder bikes and TIE Fighters. This type of action, filled with derring-do followed by whoops and cheers, feels different for this show, more in line with the saga films. There are multiple "theme park ride" moments - even the Child raises its hands during a roller coaster-like dogfight.

Actors have done good work directing this show, notably Bryce Dallas Howard. With "The Siege", Carl Weathers gets in on the act, and interestingly, in directing himself he seems to have tamped down his own grandly theatrical impulses that made Greef such a huge personality in Season 1. This is a Greef of more authority and less showmanship. But as an episode, "The Siege" isn't lacking in showmanship: a solid action chapter with weirder touches on the fringes. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Last week, the show once again joked about stormtroopers being lousy shots. This week, it's the lack of guard rails in Imperial architecture. 

- The protocol droid teacher mentions the Akkadese Maelstrom outside Kessel, where Han made the Kessel Run in Solo. Also the current New Republic capitol on Mon Mothma's home planet Chandrila - but since the capitol is designed to periodically cycle through different homes, it's on Hosnian Prime when the First Order's Starkiller Base destroys the seat of government in The Force Awakens.

- The untrustworthy engineer employed by Greef is Mimbanese. This species was introduced in Solo on the planet Mimban; recall Han's sergeant calling them "the hostiles" and Han retorting, "it's their planet, we're the hostiles". Recently one of the New Republic pilots in the Squadrons video game was Mimbanese.

- The reveal of Moff Gideon's mid-size cruiser is, of course, reminiscent of the Star Destroyer in the first shot of A New Hope. In that cruiser, he's got rows and rows of... they don't seem to be Death Troopers, they're not TIE pilots, it's not Vader armor. They look like something new.

- In last week's review, I perversely did not bring up the fan-galvanizing mention of Ahsoka Tano, who will likely appear later this season (!); if the structure of Season 1 is any guide, three closely connected episodes are followed by three that relatively stand alone, leading into a big two-part finale. Perhaps Ahsoka will appear in the final two episodes of this season.

Star Trek: Discovery - Scavengers Review

DIS "Scavengers"

"Scavengers" affords Burnham and Georgiou the opportunity for a buddy adventure, rescuing the wayward Cleveland Book from a scrap facility run by the Emerald Chain. An unsanctioned mission (with Burnham, it would be surprising if it wasn't), the operation is sandwiched by scenes of humor and heart with a light touch - that is, until the consequences of Burnham's actions come into focus.

The episode begins with more 32nd Century technology porn. Discovery detaches its nacelles like they're Bluetooth accessories, the USS Le Guin gets a shout-out, and the Disco crew get new Starfleet badges that do quadruple-duty as communicators, PADDs, tricorders, and personal transporters. (That's not how selling toys is supposed to work! Items sold separately, not all in one purchase!)

After hearing of Book's capture by the same Andorian-Orion syndicate from the season premiere, Burnham and Georgiou spirit away in Book's ship to collect him and a ship's black box from the time of the Burn. This action element of the episode is quite compact and familiar. Indentured workers with decapitating chips in the head, an off-puttingly square-jawed Orion taskmaster, a scrappy uprising. Seeds are planted for later this season, as surely the unseen Oryssa, who owns this facility, will not be happy with this turn of events.

Punctuating the mission are romantic interludes for Burnham and Book, and Georgiou's debilitating Mirror Universe flashbacks. Perhaps these are a symptom of her disconnection from her native reality? There's certainly an air of palpable familiarity to the plot device of Burnham going rogue (in the tradition of crusading cops and spy movie heroes). In the end, we understand why we're re-treading old ground: Saru disciplines Burnham by relieving her of the First Officer position on Discovery, demoting her to Science Officer while still keeping her rank at Commander. It's kind of a lateral move, but the pain of both parties is clear.

Meanwhile, Stamets and Adira find unlikely and uncanny shared life experience, Tilly corrals Grudge the cat, and Linus continues to be this season's tertiary comedy swiss army knife. These scenes strengthen the episode, but they also give it a puffy structure. There's a fitted-as-standard, chase in a sci-fi quarry feel to the episode's A-plot, but the quasi-familial odd couple of Burnham and Georgiou make it their own. 6/10.

Stray observation:

- Burnham obfuscates by saying that Georgiou is on the hunt for self-sealing stem bolts from the late 24th Century. Those being the very same knick-knacks that Jake and Nog were nonplussed to acquire a large shipment of during their inauspicious entrepreneurial career, as seen in the first season of Deep Space Nine.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: The Silva Switch Review

PRBM "The Silva Switch"

"The Silva Switch" is a body-swap episode, but the hoary old trope is animated by a character reason: to explore the poignancy of Steel's wish to understand the (fully) human experience. The fairly light episode also uniquely features a full-blown musical number (!), indicating a healthy experimental strain late in Beast Morphers' run.

To illustrate the switch, Nate and Steel's voices are switched as well, presumably as a kid-friendly tool to avoid confusion. I idly wonder how it would've gone to have Abraham Rodriguez imitate a Steel voice and Jamie Linehan a Nate. After all, Rodriguez does his usual mugging when venturing outside the Nate characterization.

Steel is a goofy character, albeit one with the classic wistful Pinocchio desire for a rounded human experience, and that goofiness flows into the decision to include a song. The song sequence kicks off at the gym location. A tracking shot makes clear that the show's entire human cast with the exception of Commander Shaw is there (including Roxy and Blaze). Soon it becomes clear why: it's all hands on deck for the production number. And given the Commander's attitude to artistic pursuits, it's clear why she's not there; she wouldn't approve! In Power Rangers' 27 seasons, it's flirted in the direction of a musical episode before, for instance in Zeo's "Another Song and Dance". While the song featured here is a little "elementary school recital", I welcome such a bold step toward the dream of a full musical episode.

Meanwhile, Robot Roxy and Blaze's arch bickering is on particularly fine form this week. Jealous of Roxy's upgrade, Robot Blaze gets one of his own, resulting in villainous accessorizing. A hipster scarf, a cape, and a rapier complete the upgraded Blaze's look. He's even arrogant enough to kill his own Robotron when it gets in his way!

"The Silva Switch" is largely a run of the mill exercise through a standard TV cliche. But the musical number, complete with magical costume changes, does a lot to make the episode stand out. 6/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Heiress Review

MND "The Heiress"

The third episode of The Mandalorian Season 1 got a lot of mileage by featuring a cadre of Mandalorians jet-packing in to save the day. Now, the third episode of Season 2 does the same. Leaving a trail of righteous fanservice in the sky, "The Heiress" features high adventure, guest starring a beloved Clone Wars and Rebels character making her live-action debut, and provides meat and potatoes thrills all the way through.

Din successfully delivers Frog Lady to her companion and makes a deal with a Quarren crew to find other Mandalorians. It's a trap, but those very Mandalorians rescue Din and the Child from a death on the high seas. And Katee Sackhoff, who voiced this role on the aforementioned animated shows, appears as Bo-Katan Kryze, a punch-the-air moment for Star Wars fans. In animation, Bo-Katan is an intense, bitter character. Sackhoff brings a lighter charisma to her in live-action, that being part of her default screen presence.

When Bo-Katan and her companions casually take off their helmets, Din freaks out and smugly looks down on their disregard for the Creed. It becomes clear that Din and the Mandalorian covert from Season 1 are a fringe orthodox cult with their own stringent code on never removing their helmets in the presence of another living being. A few things are going on here. On one hand it's writer Jon Favreau's idea of Mandalorian mystery coming into conflict with new canon's (read: Dave Filoni's) face-front Mandos, and finally reconciling the two.

It's also a slick move on the show's part to cast the Mandalorians the show's been following in a different light. Their certainty of purpose can look like reverent conviction or fanaticism. And in a way I'm put in the interesting position of not being on Din's side here. Here's Bo-Katan, the rightful ruler of Mandalore the Great, and Din is acting like an asshole.

Star Trek's Worf, a Klingon orphaned and taken in by human parents on Earth, overcompensates for this by acting "more Klingon than Klingon". He insists on Klingon tradition all the more rigorously, precisely because he is the product of a human upbringing. A similar thing characterizes Din. A foundling rescued and recruited into a strict Mandalorian Creed, Din holds onto such an ethos to a fault. The Way did save his life, after all.

Bo-Katan's mission is some standard Imperial Remnant sabotage, with the aim of stealing weapons and a cruiser. This is straightforward swashbuckling fare in a cool Star Wars context. But the dynamism of the episode's action is inconsistent. Bo-Katan's rescue scene on the space-boat is a quick, solid setpiece with some variety of technique, but much of the action on the cruiser boils down to her cadre running and gunning in a straight line down an Imperial corridor - or more accurately, walking and gunning. Granted, this is core Star Wars DNA stuff (from the Death Star corridors to Finn, Poe, and Chewbacca blasting away troopers on the Star Destroyer Steadfast in The Rise of Skywalker), but not as dynamic as the earlier boat rescue.

"The Heiress" of the title seems to refer to Bo-Katan Kryze, heiress to the rule of Mandalore. It is her presence that gives the show one of its most fan-pleasing episodes yet. And aside from some reservations on the strength of the climax, this is a fine, down-the-middle action episode that complicates the show's Mandalorian world-building. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- Check out the uncannily Earth-like fisherman sweater that Mon Calimari is rocking in the image above. The bustling port environment he works in is based on early Takodana concept art, at least by eyeballing The Force Awakens art book - before the Takodana market concept (codenamed "Exotic City") became Maz Kanata's castle. 

- "Everyone seated needs to eat", the tavern worker says to Din Djarin. What is this, Oga's Cantina at Galaxy's Edge? The Disneyland establishment requires each guest to order something.

Star Trek: Discovery - Die Trying Review

DIS "Die Trying"

"Dysfunction is the team." - Jett Reno

In which Doctor Culber cures COVID-89, Nhan leaves Discovery for her home planet, and Star Trek gets its version of midi-chlorians.

After we could be forgiven for thinking virtually nothing of the Federation still exists in the 32nd Century, "Die Trying" reveals much more Starfleet infrastructure than was at first apparent this season. The episode lays the groundwork for a bumpy but ultimately fruitful integration of Discovery into Starfleet, and gets some episodic energy from a compact (generous word for underdeveloped) virus plot. While reaching for and not quite matching the emotional impact of previous episodes this season, "Die Trying" is a fine transitional episode with some interesting touches.

As Discovery takes in the spectacle of Federation headquarters, the crew nerds out about all the future ships and tech on display (including the Voyager-J!). It's a sequence of pure wonder, akin to the similar, even more gorgeous "Night on the Yorktown" sequence from Star Trek Beyond. The good will is slightly tempered by finding a Starfleet on the back foot, surviving without necessarily thriving, and a bureaucracy that isn't ready to trust Discovery with open arms.

This leads to a humorous sequence where the crew are interviewed for their backstory over the past couple seasons. Matter-of-factly laying out bizarre sequences of events is part of the fun of discussing any science fiction show (especially, say, Doctor Who), and the crew is getting in on that action. They also acclimate to some more little touches of the status quo: Beaming is near-instantaneous, the Temporal Cold War from Enterprise is actually relevant, and both Saru and Nhan have a bit of a moment where they learn their planets became Federation members after their time.

Most intriguing of all is Georgiou's interaction with a shady debriefer played by David Cronenberg (!), who has an interest in her since he's a connoisseur of Mirror Universe history. That's right, the director of The Brood, Videodrome, eXistenZ, and A History of Violence is on Star Trek, revealing that Mirror Universe Terrans have a special "evil" component in their cells! As alluded to before, we're definitely getting into midi-chlorian territory.

The bones of the plot are more of a skeleton to hang Nhan's departure on, which wouldn't be much of a surprise if Rachael Ancheril wasn't credited as part of the main cast. Elsewhere, there's a hilarious scene where Starfleet observer Audrey Willa is amused by Stamets, Tilly, and Reno's bickering. And on an enigmatic note, there's a mysterious melody that disparate people know against all odds - aside from evoking Battlestar Galactica's Final Five reveal, it's hard to predict where that's going.

"Die Trying" is doing a few different things, and isn't as crystallized in focus as the past couple episodes. But it does provide a base to potentially give structure to the season going forward, and plenty of opportunities to pull out the Star Trek fanfare. 6/10.

Stray observation:

- The Voyager-J reveal recalls the Enterprise-J reveal from a temporal flash-forward in Enterprise. 

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Goin' Ape Review

PRBM "Goin' Ape"

The plot of "Goin' Ape" largely falls into that category of Power Rangers plot that has to contort itself into a certain shape to facilitate an arc - people inexplicably not just being upfront and telling the truth, other people getting mad about it, and then eventually the misunderstanding is cleared up. I guess the intention is to illustrate a moral. That aspect of the episode is frustrating (though far from the worst of that type), but what saves "Goin' Ape" is the consistently excellent action.

Finally regular human Roxy comes back to the show, in time for her anniversary with Ravi. A misunderstanding involving Ravi's present for her devolves into a bitter argument, which contributes to a Beast-X-related problem for Ravi: his super strength "overheats" his temper and runs roughshod over everyone, villain and ally alike. It's a bit of an Incredible Hulk type of story for Ravi.

The problem flares up during a one-on-one fight with the upgraded Robot Roxy, during which Ravi gets a rare full solo morphing sequence. The fight (which takes place on a beach, in a perversion of the ecology that human Roxy is passionate about) is particularly well-done, brutal and creative. It easily tops Ravi's fight with the Roxy avatar from the end of Season 1, benefitting from dynamic filming as well.

Later, Robot Blaze gets involved, fighting Devon. There's a pretty weird moment when Devon moves to upgrade to Beast-X mode and Blaze just sighs in resignation, apparently unwilling or narratively unable to attack Devon mid-power-up. It's that old chestnut: why don't the villains attack the Rangers when they're morphing or posing?

I'll keep sounding like a broken record: human Roxy and Blaze are the biggest missed opportunity of this season. While I miss them having an active role in the show, at least we get what little Roxy this episode affords. And while the emotional story is flawed, the action in the episode is so good I have to give it credit. There's even a moment when Ravi uses his Beast-X Saber like Mjolnir, spinning it in order to approximate flying. 7/10.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian - The Passenger Review

MND "The Passenger"

"The Passenger" is the most overtly comedic episode of the show so far, which is unsurprising given that Peyton Reed (Bring it on, Ant-Man) is in the director's chair this week. While leavened with horror and adventure elements, the episode also approaches the feel of a hangout episode at times, from Din Djarin's awkward interactions with his passenger (a character the subtitles literally refer to as "Frog Lady") to the Child's insatiable appetite for incubating life-forms. We even get a quiet moment that reveals Din and his Child's nighttime routine and sleeping arrangements on the Razor Crest.

If last week's chapter was a sequel to Season 1's "The Gunslinger", this week's episode is a sequel to "The Prisoner". Din's entanglement with the New Republic prison facility from that episode has consequences. Richard Ayoade briefly returns as the voice of the dismantled droid Q9-0. And most notoriously of all, series co-creator Dave Filoni returns as X-Wing pilot Trapper Wolf - but this time, he leaves most of the talking to his wingman Carson Teva, played by actual actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee.

In a way, "The Passenger" is like Din's very bad day. He falls into a trap and crashes his speeder bike, which puts the Child in imminent danger. He's a little uncomfortable ferrying Frog Lady, but things take a turn for the worse when he crashes the Razor Crest to avoid New Republic X-Wings... only to find a nest of ice spiders that exist somewhere between George R.R. Martin's wight spiders and Peter Jackson's repulsive worms from King Kong. He's saved by Wolf and Teva, who basically say they watched "The Prisoner" and saw that Din isn't such a bad guy. The episode plays into the subjectivity we're used to from the show; Reed fades to black whenever Din loses consciousness. And in a nice touch, when Din looks to his New Republic saviors, the X-Wings' blinding headlights feel like those of cop cars.

The ice spider portion of the episode is quite well done. The problem is, we're in monster movie territory again, so soon after the krayt dragon last week. While each episode's take on it is effective, it feels slightly redundant to go back to that well so soon.

The last two episodes have been sequels to specific Season 1 installments, and from my perspective, the two weakest episodes of the debut season at that. Connecting back to them gives the series' tapestry a richer sheen. The episode's humorous slant is also good for some amusing moments. But playing the monster card two weeks in a row dilutes the impact a bit. 6/10.

Star Trek: Discovery - Forget Me Not Review

DIS "Forget Me Not"

While last week's installment of Discovery took a standard "zippy space conflict" Trek pattern and updated it, "Forget Me Not" takes a more internal character-focused Trek pattern and updates it to emotionally resonant effect. The Adira character gives the show an opportunity to further explore the Trill host/symbiont concept for the first time since Deep Space Nine, this time with a fresh take and with 21st Century resources.

We've been on Trill with Jadzia Dax, we've had previous Dax hosts manifest dramatically in episodes like "Facets", and we've been to these sacred caves before. But in the 90s, those caves never looked like this. Constellation patterns on the walls, an otherworldly atmosphere, and a visceral spiritual journey into the very synapses of a Trill symbiont feature here, making the most of the science fiction elements. The icing on the cake is Jeff Russo's almost transcendent score, helping to accentuate this aspect of Trill culture - even if Adira herself is a human host.

In the subplot, Saru and Culber try to improve crew morale, with peaks and valleys of success. I don't mean this as damning with faint praise, but what I appreciate in both plots this episode is a clear structure, and that is not nothing. Even given the episode's nearly hour-long runtime, the scenes are tight, each one accomplishing something very specific, with no wasted space.

This subplot has a classic thesis-antithesis-synthesis structure. Thesis: Saru and Culber offer emotional support, in the form of a bridge crew dinner and informal one-on-one counseling respectively. Antithesis: a haiku contest at the dinner takes a dark turn, the product of frayed nerves. Synthesis: the crew acknowledges their trauma and comes together, united by common pain and purpose, and the daredevil stunt work of Buster Keaton.

The main plot also hits hard emotionally, as it's revealed that Adira took the Tal symbiont from her lover Gray after an asteroid accident, thus preserving something of the late Gray inside Adira's very being. This repressed memory, once confronted, unlocks the knowledge and memory of the Tal symbiont, which includes possible coordinates to 32nd Century Federation headquarters.

Both plots in "Forget Me Not" hit their mark in the emotional stakes, and the episode has a compact structure that facilitates that payoff. The subplot also gives Culber good material outside the context of his relationship with Stamets. Hopefully the show continues its solid run with a return to what's left of Federation bureaucracy. 7/10.

Stray observations:

- "No one has seen a human host" to a Trill symbiont. Except for William Riker, in The Next Generation episode "The Host"! Granted, that probably doesn't count as a "successful" blending.

- Detmer's acidic words to Stamets have something of the feel of a lower deck perspective vs. senior staff, but more specifically, secondary character vs. primary character.

- It's distressing that the contours of a cinema screen have been all but erased, but it's not unexpected, as I believe the Short Trek "Calypso" also featured this form of film viewing.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Golden Opportunity Review

PRBM "Golden Opportunity"

Now that the show has to come down from the high of a team-up trilogy, it's back to business as usual. This time, Nate's parents finally reconnect with him and offer him a chance to accompany them on their Peace Corps-esque adventures. As it happens, the episode works fine except for one glaring flaw.

When Nate considers accepting his parents' offer, giving up the Gold Rangership and his post at Grid Battleforce, his absence's effect on the team is explored. Megan would rightly replace him in the lab, for instance. As it turns out, the Rangers fail to pick up Nate's slack and can't even figure out how to transport their morphers and weapons off-site. The point is seemingly clear: they need Nate. But there's one giant problem with this plot: Nate was given one single day (!) to bring everyone up to speed on what to do in his absence. One day?! I'm sure given a reasonable buffer period when Nate could train everyone, things would run fine. But the episode needs to contort its plot into an insanely small timetable, so the points it makes come out looking pretty forced.

Roxy has quite a showcase this episode. After essentially appearing as a jump scare, Roxy upgrades herself into a "super" form that looks like a rancid blooming flower. She even channels Steve Rogers when she says "I can do this all day" during a fight. Minus their morphers, the Rangers show their bravery by fighting an upgraded Roxy and Clawtron while unmorphed. There's a bit of action creativity when Nate rides Devon's cheetah speed power-up.

So the action has its moments beyond the usual (although there's a lot of the usual), and it's definitely amusing and strange seeing Steel vying for affection from his "parents". But the foundational flaw in "Golden Opportunity"'s plot weighs it down. 4/10.