Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Civilization

ENT "Civilization"

"Civilization" comes at a time when the Enterprise crew are still excited to find an undiscovered inhabited planet. Again, the things later Star Trek shows take for granted are unfolding for the first time in Enterprise. Archer and a landing party observe the pre-industrial civilization on the planet, but the situation is complicated by the fact that other aliens have already set up shop there, mining and consequently poisoning the local water.

So the premise of Enterprise crew walking amongst their first new alien civilization takes a left turn into fighting a shadow war against other more exploitative visitors (the Malurians), unknown to most of the indigenous people (the Akaali). I understand that stories need conflict, but making this the focus of the episode turns it from exploration to pulpy punch-the-reptilian adventure. Which is fine, but it makes the episode more generic.

The one Akaali who gets wrapped up in all this is an apothecary named Riann, who is framed as exceptionally intelligent given the context of her society's development. As such, she takes the news of multiple types of aliens interfering in her city in casual stride. That choice reflects her intellect, but it also leads events to seem ho-hum, or not so big a deal.

Stray observations:
- Enterprise represents a pre-Prime Directive Starfleet, though as T'Pol makes clear, the future Directive is based on a Vulcan policy.
- Unlike the Enterprise crew, who get a touch of makeup to look Akaali, the Malurians (Mal - bad, in the Latin) wear Mission: Impossible-esque masks.

A lightweight episode. Without the appealing Riann tagging along, it would be even more of a basic runaround. 5/10.

Power Rangers S.P.D. Randomized: Samurai

PRSPD "Samurai"

Now that Beast Morphers is on hiatus, I'm filling the Power Rangers gap by continuing my randomized trip through the long history of the show. At hand is the S.P.D. episode "Samurai", not to be confused with the season Power Rangers Samurai.

The titular samurai is Katana, a rubber-suit "monster" who turns out to be an honorable warrior. When Red Ranger Jack Landors is disarmed, Katana won't fight an unarmed opponent, and returns the laser blaster. And when Jack uses the Morpher's Judgment function, Katana is found not guilty. Significantly, the action of the episode takes place in Kyoto. So for once, Japanese Super Sentai footage with native iconography actually makes sense in a Power Rangers context!

There is sloppiness and, of course, silliness in the episode. Emperor Gruumm's evil mech Morato technologically scoops up entire buildings, and when defeated, returns them perfectly in place. The way the Delta Base transports itself from New Tech City to Kyoto is unclear. It appears to accelerate fast on a freeway, and then just appears in Japan? And Bridge says Katana is not controlling the evil zord Morato, but when Morato's pilot is revealed, why is everyone surprised it's not Katana?

Amid such strangeness are a few nice touches. Gruumm promises Japan to Broodwing if their plan succeeds, which is a fun practical detail. And Gruumm's plan to divert S.P.D. resources to Japan bears fruit, as he steals iridium from New Tech City. A little forward momentum for your villain keeps them looking semi-competent. And the main thrust of the episode is Jack's growth. He's convinced wielding the Shadow Saber will make him victorious in battle, so when Doggie Cruger disguises a regular blade as the Shadow Saber, it works as a placebo to give Jack confidence.

An episode that flits between good and bad attention to detail. An acceptable outing, but I'm not a fan of the jittery aesthetic of the episode. 4/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Accession

DS9 "Accession"

"It's not easy getting used to being a religious icon." - Benjamin Sisko

We finally dock at Deep Space Nine in this randomized rewatch, finding a story with a level of complexity typical for that show. A Bajoran poet, displaced in time after 200 years in the Wormhole, is hailed as the true Emissary of the Prophets, over Captain Sisko. (That sentence will seem bonkers to anyone who doesn't know the show.) The poet, Akorem Laan, at first seems to Sisko like an ideal choice to take the mantle of Emissary, a role that Sisko and his Starfleet superiors are naturally somewhat leery of. But Akorem's agenda threatens to throw the status quo upside down.

Sisko doesn't bother to ask Akorem what message he intends to spread with his position, so Akorem blindsides everybody by running a hard-line conservative platform. He proposes a return to a strict caste system for Bajorans, one that lifts some families over others and determines pre-determined career paths for each family. This was a caste system that was flattened out, along with most everything else, during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, and now Major Kira faces the prospect of resigning her military commission for a life as an artist, with aptitude for it or not.

The story creates rich conflict for the characters, as Sisko has seller's remorse with the role of Emissary, and Kira must try to balance her faith with her career. In their respective roles, Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor do fine work, highlighting the strength of this ensemble. Brooks, sometimes so big and over-the-top in the show, gives a performance that benefits from restrained anxiety.

The development of the story from major plot point to plot point is fairly juddery, and puts part of the quick resolution off screen, but the textures brought out by the story redeem these flaws. There's also a sweet B-plot where Keiko finally returns to the station, reveals to Miles O'Brien she's pregnant in a slightly awkward scene, and plays "friend matchmaker" to make sure her husband spends time with Doctor Bashir.

Stray observations:
- Director Les Landau employs a nifty oner in Quark's bar, tracking O'Brien's drink order. It's not exactly Goodfellas, but it's nicely done.
- Molly has a doll with Bajoran ridges.
- In a wonderful nod to continuity, Worf reacts with abject fear when he learns Keiko is pregnant again. He delivered her first child under duress in The Next Generation episode "Disaster"!

An engaging religious and sociopolitical conflict for Bajor services Kira and Sisko's stories. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Booby Trap

TNG "Booby Trap"

The Randomizer has been on a Next Generation kick recently. This is the sixth TNG episode so far, and the third from Season 3! Hopefully some variety turns around this disproportionate trend.

--

When the Enterprise gets caught in a millennia-old booby trap (which is explained and circumvented in technobabble I can't begin to decipher), two characters' stories are serviced. Geordi, established as permanently unlucky in love, brainstorms a way to save the ship while flirting with a hologram of propulsion designer Dr. Leah Brahms. And Picard, whose boyhood sense of adventure is excited by a derelict ship, must manually pilot the Enterprise to safety in a daring gambit.

Geordi's story kicks off with an awkward date on the holodeck that fizzles to nothing. He speaks with Guinan about it and she once again proves an effective counselor. Throughout the episode, Geordi develops an attraction toward a hologram who duets with him in technical jargon. After the Leah Brahms hologram says of the Enterprise, "Every time you look at this engine, it's me. Every time you touch it, it's me", she and Geordi kiss. So Geordi, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise, makes out with what is coded as an embodiment of the Enterprise itself.

Also on the Geordi dating tip, it's established that he spent a long time finessing the holodeck date program, trying to get every detail exactly right. It seems to me that part of any date, or indeed any social engagement, is not knowing exactly what's going to happen. Going with the flow, and relaxing into it however possible, is probably the way to go, over trying to fine-tune a beat-by-beat "romantic scenario".

The dead ship that the Enterprise investigates is realized with gorgeous model work that's all the more striking on blu-ray. And Ron Jones' score has an appropriate motif for the vessel: a lonely, echoing sentinel horn. Fitting for a ghost ship in the vastness of space. At one point, when danger for the Enterprise is dire, that theme haunts the Enterprise; it represents the fate the crew must avoid.

The technical side of the episode is kind of a wash as far as I'm concerned. The Picard material is overall better than Geordi's. (There's a sweet moment where Deanna and Riker are happy to see the side of Picard who gets excited by things.) A functional, average episode. 5/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Hunted

TNG "The Hunted"

"To survive is not enough! To simply exist is not enough!" - Roga Danar

"The Hunted" is Star Trek does First Blood. The Enterprise travels to Angosia, and this strange world is used to reflect our social issue of veteran treatment. Just like John Rambo, Angosian fugitive Roga Danar was a soldier, programmed and conditioned for war, used by his government and society, but cast aside by the same in peacetime.

And functionally, the episode plays out a bit like the Enterprise vs. an 80s action hero. Actually, the one-man army has the upper hand. The ingenuity of Roga humbles Picard and the crew constantly, and Deanna empathizes with the inhumane plight that the Angosian government has put Roga in.

This is an action episode, but the action is built upon a fascinating dynamic. When the Enterprise has Roga in the brig, Deanna, Data, and Picard sympathize with Roga and rue having to turn him over to the local authorities. Roga comes out and says he'll do anything he can to escape that fate. And vis a vis Patrick Stewart's subtle acting, Picard tacitly respects and accepts Roga's vow to tear through the Enterprise for a shot at freedom. So the nominal hero and villain of the episode are in high-stakes conflict with each other, with no malice between them. Each cat and mouse ploy, each reversal, has an undercurrent of respect.

The Enterprise is in the Angosian system because Angosia (headed by James Cromwell's Prime Minister Nayrok) is petitioning for Federation membership. Picard, his eyes open to the Angosian exploitation and disrespect of their soldiers, satisfyingly refuses them. And the Angosian society of bureaucratic philosophers looks like a 19th Century, cod-Wellsian utopia - we see no Angosian women.

Solid social commentary, engaging action, and an antagonist with depth. 7/10.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Secret Struggle Review

PRBM "Secret Struggle"

"Wait. You guys are a thing?!" - Devon Daniels, to Zoey Reeves and Nate Silva

"Secret Struggle" addresses two major overarching plot threads. It revives the Zoey/Nate attraction, with Steel playing matchmaker in his lovably oafish way. And the episode finally pulls the trigger on the Evox-disguised-as-Mayor-Daniels plot; the cat is out of the bag.

It is also an episode of outstanding action. Zoey has a marquee fight with the Roxy Robot Avatar, which proves to be the best one-on-one fight the show has produced in a while. Zoey transitions from unmorphed, to morphed, to Beast-X modes - if I'm not mistaken, when the episode gives us a full morphing sequence for just Zoey, that's the first time Beast Morphers has done a solo morphing sequence. (Or at least the first for someone other than Devon.) Enlivened by fun wirework, it's a dynamic fight.

And it proves to be a big episode for Zoey in general. Later, an unmorphed Zoey fights Blaze and Roxy single-handedly, and eventually takes them both down. But not without a little assist from Nate, who "takes a laser bullet" for Zoey, which ended up as a tactical advantage for Zoey. It's this act of self-sacrifice that convinces Commander Shaw to dispense with the "no fraternization" rule. And here's where the episode's issues come in. So Nate threw himself in the line of fire for Zoey, who he has feelings for. But that level of selflessness and teamwork should be expected from the WHOLE RANGER TEAM.

I'm not opposed to the idea of the rule change, but I am opposed to this episode changing it without once articulating the reasons why the rule exists in the first place and having a discussion.

Director Oliver Driver brings a little flair; there's an awesome shot with dynamic camera movement of Commander Shaw flanked by Steel and Ravi. And one more unusual development: the Gigadrone in this episode has drones of its own, which come in handy.

"Secret Struggle" benefits from solid action. The dramatic plot works, but it's kept from greatness by providing a one-sided perspective on the fraternization rule. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Devil in the Dark

ST "The Devil in the Dark"

"The Devil in the Dark" is an iconic, foundational episode. The one with the Horta. With "No kill I". The fairy tale of the monster who isn't really a monster, but instead a mother protecting her young from the human monsters. But it is an episode with feet of clay. I intend not to rag on it, but to honestly appraise it as a piece of dramatic television.

Where it succeeds is its quintessentially Trekkian moral. The misunderstood monster is a sentient form of life that demands respect. The framing is a little off, though. The ultimate message of coexistence is in service of very 20th Century stakes: the mining operation that has encroached on Horta breeding grounds is discussed in terms of its profitability, and the arrangement reached with the Horta at the end of the episode feels a little more exploitative than symbiotic. Still, the power of the twist is best illustrated by the reaction of the miners. They're enraged enough to beat Enterprise officers with lead pipes, but upon hearing that they unwittingly killed Horta children, they are conciliatory.

There are plot oddities. After the Horta kills an Enterprise security officer, Spock successfully accounts for all crew members with his tricorder and then Kirk says "I will lose no more men". A second draft was needed there. Later, Spock says that they have about 100 security personnel (redshirts) searching for the Horta. In other words, a fourth of the Enterprise crew are in these tunnels, and they're all security officers!

The centerpiece of the episode is Spock's mind meld with the Horta. Leonard Nimoy goes in for some textbook "seance" acting here, channeling the anguish of the creature with commitment. I realize for the first time, seeing Spock empathically channeling this creature's emotions and yelling "Pain!" several times, that Spock is starting a legacy for TNG's Deanna Troi to pick up.

The two scenes of humor are off the mark. But the most successful bit of comedy in the episode might come from McCoy scanning a human outline on the ground with a tricorder.

Of course the physical realization of the Horta itself is a cheesy effect, but why should that bother anyone? That said, you can see the fringe of the carpet they're using as part of the creature, which recalls the shambling rug monster of The Creeping Terror, as featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. As Spock says, "Astonishing that anything of that bulk could move so rapidly."

The legacy of "The Devil of the Dark" rightly lives on in digestible soundbites. The episode itself is a respectable runaround in a series of tunnels, admittedly with a twist that embodies the best of Star Trek. 6/10.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Phantom Apprentice Review

TCW "The Phantom Apprentice"

"The dark side has never been stronger..." - Maul

Driven by an atmosphere of high-octane foreboding, "The Phantom Apprentice" is The Clone Wars at its best. Ahsoka's confrontation with Maul, set against the backdrop of a burning Mandalore, is not only a clash of lightsabers but an insight into Maul's unique perspective on current galactic events. Maul's almost stagey dramatic monologues are sibilantly brought to life by Sam Witwer, while original actor Ray Park performs motion capture for Maul. The choice to utilize Park pays off, as his movements are very noticeably "human". Not to discount the actor performing motion capture for Ahsoka, but Maul's moves are more ostentatious.

Maul elevates villain monologues to an art because of the tragedy of his character: for all his raging ambition, he is trapped by hate and cast aside as a pawn of his master. He sees well enough that truth, that he and Dooku were mere tools for Darth Sidious, as Maul says, "always one step behind". And when Maul says the line quoted up top, it is not with bluster but with a mix of dread and aspiration. We are far away from the silent devil of The Phantom Menace.

With attention to the wider Star Wars story, it is nicely surprising how far into Revenge of the Sith this arc has already overlapped. The episode's climax unfolds more or less in parallel with Obi-Wan's mission to Utapau. With knowledge of Order 66, the imminent rise of the Empire, and Sidious' plans for Anakin, Maul has a familiar proposition for Ahsoka. Just like Vader to Luke, and Kylo Ren to Rey in events yet to come, it's the classic Star Wars "join me". This is part of the appeal of Star Wars: the episode throws new light on events that have been established for years, and stories told in the orbit of the prequel trilogy still have the capacity to surprise.

Canon connections:
- Kevin Kiner uses the Emperor's Theme, the Imperial March, and a motif from Duel of the Fates.
- Excuse me while I freak out that Dryden Vos is in the episode!

A self-consciously dramatic episode, "The Phantom Apprentice" thrillingly dances in the shadow of the wider Star Wars story. 10/10.

The Twilight Zone Randomized: Number 12 Looks Just Like You

TZ (1959) "Number 12 Looks Just Like You"

In a dystopian society circa 2000 AD, teenagers entering adulthood are pressured by society to accept surgery giving them a traditionally aesthetic body, prefabricated from a limited variety of stock choices. Lead character Marilyn Cuberle (Collin Wilcox, giving off Sissy Spacek energy) is determined not to get the procedure, but her support system's insidious insistence that they know best might erase her free will anyway.

The premise, a clear companion piece to the famous episode "Eye of the Beholder", is a skeleton key that unlocks a lot of fascinating thematic material. The way that catalogued models represent ready-made body templates people can choose to look like comes off as a satire of modern marketing images. "Traditionally beautiful" images have a powerful subconscious effect on self-esteem, and the episode literalizes the impulse to mold oneself on those images.

We see the perspective of adults who have already undergone the procedure. At one point Marilyn's mother comments that the body she chose is "everybody's favorite", which is an oddly arrogant and boastful thing to say. One implication of the technology is that members of families and friend groups can look exactly the same as each other. Again, taking family resemblance to a satirical extreme.

As obviously disastrous as this dystopia is, it throws up complex shadows. For instance, in a world where so many men and women look the same, that might be a world where people must truly rely on their personalities to attract mates. But as the episode goes on, it's clear: the procedure changes how you look, but it also, tragically, smooths out how you think.

And as Marilyn's individual agency is snuffed out, replaced by a boilerplate shell with a blandly docile personality, we realize that while every citizen of this nameless failed utopia may start out with doubts, idiosyncrasies, or violent resistance to homogeny, the state always wins in the end.

While gender-biased pronouns are used throughout, this dystopia holds up. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: A Matter of Perspective

TNG "A Matter of Perspective"

Yes, this is the episode that features the famous Riker facepalm. (Almost as well-known as the Picard facepalm.) It's one of many moments where Riker is made to squirm, as he is accused of the murder of a Tanugan scientist, and must sit through hostile testimony at a hearing. The hook is, the testimony is dramatized on the holodeck, so the prosecution and defense can powerfully and immersively illustrate their sides of the story.

In Tanugan justice, the defendant is guilty until proven innocent, a familiar idea from Cardassian justice later in the franchise, and indeed already seen in this rewatch: It was also the modus operandi of the mid-21st Century courts from the post-atomic horror, as shown in "Encounter at Farpoint". Of course, by episode's end Riker is exonerated, with Picard and Geordi proving his innocence in a very technical, Trekkian way.

From an optics perspective, it should be noted that on the face of it, the episode features a woman (Manua Apgar, the dead scientist's wife) lying about an attempted rape to stack evidence against a man (Riker). While depicting this tends to be a bad look, there is more to it than that. When Manua's testimony is given, Deanna doesn't sense deception from Manua's perspective. So the truth, between a violently exaggerated version of Riker's womanizing tendencies, to Riker's account of warding off her advances, lies somewhere in between. Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, my side, and the truth.

Ron Jones' score is instantly more interesting than those for the Season 4 and 7 episodes the Randomizer has recently featured. (That's largely because producer Rick Berman wanted the scores toned down about halfway through the show's run.) A regal motif accompanies an amusing scene where Data the art critic assesses the work of Picard's art class (who are painting a nude model). The episode's main theme is waftingly eerie, though admittedly not very pleasant to listen to.

A novel use of the holodeck makes for an engaging look at space justice. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Inheritance

TNG "Inheritance"

The final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation was like a clown car family reunion. The show debuted Geordi's parents, Worf's foster brother and a future version of his son, Beverly's grandmother, the sister Deanna never knew she had, the son Picard never knew he had, and here, the mother Data never knew he had.

Doctor Juliana Tainer (guest star Fionnula Flanigan) claims to be the wife of Data's creator Noonien Soong, and to have had a hand in crafting Data. Her part in raising Data was, to hear her tell it, erased from Data's memory banks. Data investigates her claims with the same Sherlockian vigor he brings to bear when portraying that detective on the holodeck, and eventually comes to call Juliana mother as casually as he refers to Noonien Soong as his father. (Surely a small sign of Data's progress toward humanity.)

The episode weaves in a wide tapestry of Data continuity from throughout the entire show, with multiple previous episodes mentioned or alluded to. The episode also calls forward to the future, as in retrospect, we can see the seeds planted for Star Trek: Nemesis' B-4 and Star Trek: Picard's Soji and Dahj Asha.

Fionnula Flanagan's warm performance brings out fine work from Brent Spiner as Data, as he processes this new relationship in his own way. Data's wonderfully matter-of-fact affect is on full display, like when he says of his art, "I am attempting to master all known styles of painting."

The twist of the episode comes with the reveal that Juliana is an android replica of the original, long deceased woman, programmed to think herself human and even with some internal human biological systems. She's a clear predecessor of the more "uncannily human" Soong androids Soji and Dahj. One of the highlights of the episode comes in an observation lounge scene where Data, Beverly, Deanna, and Picard discuss whether to tell Juliana if she's an android.

A sweet, above-average character episode for Data and his mother figure. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Silent Enemy

ENT "Silent Enemy"

A sickly green-colored alien ship drops out of warp in Enterprise's face, stares it down for a few minutes without responding to hails, then warps away. As Travis puts it, "Maybe they checked us out, decided we weren't that interesting".

The setup is too easy; insert punchline here.

But while encounters with that mysterious craft dominate the main plot of the episode, the subplot also is textually about how uninteresting the regular character Malcolm Reed is.

In a memorably unusual setup for a B-plot, Captain Archer tasks Hoshi with figuring out Malcolm's favorite food. Since Malcolm's birthday is coming up in a couple days, there's a ticking clock. Archer contacts Malcolm's parents on Earth, Hoshi calls his sister and best friend, running into a wall every time. It's a lightweight subplot, amusingly generated basically by how boring Malcolm appears to be. That's one way to develop your characters.

The enigmatic aliens do keep coming back, eventually boarding the ship and skulking around like the aliens in Signs. Their ship tactically outmatches Enterprise, leading Trip and Malcolm to spearhead a project to install phase cannons on the ship. This is all pretty perfunctory stuff, but it succeeds in Enterprise Season 1's mandate to portray Starfleet's origin story. The ship can't even shoot phasers until this episode. Technology later Enterprises take for granted are coming together gradually for the first time. On that point, Archer and Trip have a conversation in the Kirkian "risk is our business" tradition, framing Enterprise as a true pioneer ship.

A functional episode, with a workmanlike A-plot and an entertainingly odd B-plot. 5/10.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers: Boxed in Review

PRBM "Boxed in"

"He's lean, he's mean, he's tougher than two-dollar steak..." - Commentator Gigadrone

The latest episode of Power Rangers is poorly timed. This Beast Morphers sports special revolves around the Pan Global Games, a clear stand-in for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which at the time of production were on schedule for this summer. Then COVID-19 happened (and continues to happen).

Whoops.

The episode's status as a cultural artifact aside, it's a decent enough outing infused with some fun silliness, but some deficiencies as well. The plot concerns robot Roxy and Blaze (both chewing the scenery even more than they usually do) unleashing a revolving door of Gigadrones who trap Red Ranger Devon Daniels' Racer Zord in a strange boxing-ring/pocket dimension for a rock 'em sock 'em boxing match.

But that's not before Blue Ranger Ravi Shaw of all people complains that Ranger work is interfering with his attendance of the Games. Ravi should be a by-the-book character, and this development gumbifies his character. The show is in a bit of a bind because it feels like a slightly more appropriate story for, say, Devon from the very beginning of the show, but since he's developed beyond that, it feels like an arbitrary way to include an obligatory message through a randomly chosen character.

Sports infuses the action of the episode, but really only in the flavors of wrestling and boxing. In a fun one-on-one fight, Ravi fights a Robotron (there are so many monsters in this episode it's hard to keep track of the names) with explicitly wrestling-inspired moves, bolstered by his Beast-X super-strength. And when Devon is trapped in the uncanny boxing ring, the action is narrated by a play-by-play Gigadrone who is at first unseen, prompting Devon to say, "There's a Gigadrone and some type of creepy commentator!"

There's a lot of (samey) action between the Racer Zord and a bunch of Gigadrones, and eventually things escalate to the point where the team unlocks the new Beast-X King Ultrazord. Beast Morphers is usually good at having the team genuinely earn a new power-up in a meaningful way, but this isn't one of those times.

Canon connections:
- "Boxed in" was also the title of a Power Rangers Samurai episode, that time punning on a literal physical box.
- At one point during a Tronic fight, you can see concert posters for none other than Ninja Steel Gold Ranger Levi Weston. Wonderful attention to detail.

Not a good showing for Ravi. Some fun gimmicks, but they wear out their welcome fairly quickly. 5/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Chute

VOY "The Chute"

"It's all here in my manifesto!" - Zio

Our first stop aboard the good ship Voyager is an almost subversively unusual one: a parade of unpleasantness in the form of a grimy prison drama with an SF twist. Harry Kim and Tom Paris are unjustly convicted of a terrorist bombing and left to rot in a hellish prison, where the only point of interest is a central chute that deposits new prisoners and occasional food shipments. There are two SF elements: an implant in the brain of all prisoners called the Clamp that stokes aggression and paranoia, and the twist of the episode, that the prison that is understood to be underground is in fact a space station.

While it almost goes without saying that "The Chute" should be no one's idea of comfort Trek, there is something admirable in what it's trying to do. So often in SF TV, the characters will get imprisoned and of course always escape. Here, the episode chooses to present such a situation as unvarnished as it can, depicting an atmosphere of nihilistic claustrophobia. The stakes are further raised with the Clamp, a device (literal device and plot device) that genuinely starts to drive Harry and Tom crazy, and to turn them against each other. They swing from desperate solidarity with homoerotic undertones to being victimized by the Clamp into instinctive fear and paranoia.

The only prisoner in a seeming state of equilibrium with the Clamp is Zio, played effectively by guest star Don McManus. In a standout sequence, Zio monologues with deranged but calm conviction about his "manifesto", essentially a self-help text to cope with the Clamp. As he finishes his speech, the chute forms a makeshift halo over the head of this prison philosopher. Audacious.

From time to time, the action cuts back to Captain Kathryn Janeway and the Voyager crew figuring out how to get Harry and Tom out of prison. Really, every time we see Voyager it's just a relief to break up the bleak prison scenes.

Disorienting and non-sugarcoated, but at the same time unpleasant viewing. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Charlie X

ST "Charlie X"

"Charlie X" was the second Star Trek episode ever to air (though the eighth produced), and it is an early example of a familiar type of Trek story: the godlike being episode. The titular Charlie is an outwardly average teenage human, but who mysteriously survived on a desolate planet for years - to dispel the mystery, the near-omnipotent powers given to him by the local non-corporeal life-forms helped. So the hook of the episode is, what if a raging hormonal teenager, and one who grew up in near-isolation at that, had great power?

The potential of the premise is undermined by Charlie himself. There's nothing appealing about his (intentionally) awkward screen presence; he has no particular redeeming qualities as a person or as a villain worth watching. Charlie's mood swings over an unrequited first crush prove to be uncomfortable to watch. In one typically cliched moment, he makes a female crew member rapidly age, so she can scream for her lost youth. (And in one atypically horrifying moment, he relieves a crew member of her face.) The ending is tonally confused; it's unclear whether it's going for relief, tragedy, or horror.

What does distinguish "Charlie X" is that it's essentially a hang-out episode. Everyone's shown during leisure time. With Spock backing on his Vulcan lyre, Uhura sings of his "devil ears and devil eyes". This irreverent, impromptu musical revue feels like something that would go on a solo Nichelle Nichols tie-in novelty album. Characters are seen to play three-dimensional chess and solitaire, practice martial arts, and generally socialize.

Stray observations:
- This is early in the series, so it's not Starfleet but UESPA, the United Earth Space Probe Agency.
- The show predicts synthetic meat.
- The finale, where a mischievous godlike being is called home by his "parents", will be repeated in "The Squire of Gothos". Here, the Thasian who takes Charlie looks like something out of The Haunted Mansion.
- The Thasian also declaims in a deep voice, "Everything is as it was". The Guardian of Forever will later say the same thing in the same tone of voice in "The City on the Edge of Forever".

An episode called "Charlie X" would do well to portray a more compelling Charlie X. 3/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Light and Shadows

DIS "Light and Shadows"

"We're always in a fight for the future." - Captain Christopher Pike

The Randomizer brings me to Discovery for the first time, and against all odds, the first appearance of Spock in this rewatch comes when the half-human, half-Vulcan icon is played by Ethan Peck. This episode's setup, and indeed that of the first half of the season, is another Search for Spock. Foster sister and series lead Michael Burnham finally finds him in this episode, as an addled Spock is fought over by his parents, Starfleet, and Section 31. This half of the installment isn't as compelling to me as the other half, which is one of those science-heavy SF scenarios that Discovery is accustomed to churning out at this point.

It revolves around a massive time distortion field generated by multiple time rifts, and as Ensign Sylvia Tilly points out, it's cool to put "time" in front of most anything. What differentiates Discovery technobabble from, say, Voyager technobabble is that in the more contemporary show, the problem-solving feels, well, more contemporary. Characters tend to discuss brain-expanding crises like a modern think tank would, with an emphasis on slightly more relatable concepts and soundbites. As Paul Stamets says, "Trust the math".

This story involves Captain Pike (played with easygoing authority and quiet charisma by Anson Mount) and Section 31 Specialist Ash Tyler piloting a shuttle into the temporal anomaly. The probe Discovery had sent in has uncannily technologically evolved for 500 years, now a timorous beastie resembling a mix between those squid robots from The Matrix and a Doctor Octopus product. This is a breezily trippy SF concept that the episode efficiently gets some thrills from, and on a micro level it also recalls the V'Ger space probe's evolution in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Shifting gears back to the Burnham/Spock story, it tends to inelegantly lurch around in this episode. There's a whole to-do about getting Spock to Section 31 custody only for Burnham to break him out a few minutes later. It's very busy storytelling, and quite opaque on top of that. On the plus side, it leads to a fun fight out of nowhere between Burnham and Mirror Georgiou.

And then Burnham deciphers the meaning of the numbers the raving Spock has been repeating: coordinates for Talos 4. This is a bit of a punch-the-air moment for big Star Trek fans, as that's the planet from the first Trek episode ever made, "The Cage". It represents where it all began.

Stray observations:
- The time distortion field is described as a four-dimensional problem, and we just came from a two-dimensional problem last time on the Randomizer, in TNG's "The Loss".
- At one point we see an exterior view of the turbolift system on Discovery. It's like seeing the superstructure of an indoor roller coaster.

A solid Discovery plot is paired with a Burnham/Spock story I'm not a huge fan of in this particular installment. I would rate the former a 7 and the latter a 5 so let's average out at 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Loss

TNG "The Loss"

Back to TNG, and we skip ahead three seasons. The difference between where the show is in "The Loss" and where it was in the pilot is clear. The show has calmed down. The aesthetic is more locked down and frankly more beige. In a way, the tone has traded campiness for dignity. These changes are what secured the show's success, but the evidence of only "The Loss" is that of a show on autopilot. Come up with a technical threat, and tie it in with character stuff for one of the regulars (Deanna Troi in this case), and spend as little money as possible.

The technical threat is a pretty esoteric SF concept: two-dimensional sentient beings unwittingly trapping the Enterprise in their wake. And as the Enterprise reckons with an almost literal abstraction, a cosmic anomaly robs Deanna of her empathic abilities. At one point, the parallel between plots is made explicit: Deanna fears that without her powers, she feels as two-dimensional as the new life-forms.

I said earlier that the tone of TNG on display here is that of restraint. Still, Deanna is having a total emotional meltdown over losing her abilities, snapping particularly at Beverly Crusher. The drama of the episode comes from Deanna trying and very much failing to adjust to life without sensing emotions, with the teleplay making a connection between her situation and disability. (Of course, by episode's end, she gets the powers back.)

At one point Deanna resigns as Counselor. This leads to some halfway-there character material. For instance, it's sage bartender Guinan who finally gets Deanna to see that she can still read emotions in others like non-empaths do, which is exactly the logical thing to show Deanna. But the teleplay characterizes that phenomenon as a "human instinct". While there's truth to that, it seems to me that for a trained, elite psychiatrist, there's much more to it than only "instinct". What about picking up on social cues? Micro-expressions? Tone of voice? Reading between the lines of what patients say? And most of all, regular human empathy? What did Deanna learn at the Academy if she's lost without her Betazoid abilities?

The cosmic side of the episode is weighed down by technobabble, which will likely prove a common theme in a lot of TV Trek coming up on the Randomizer. "The Loss" feels like the result of a cheap "Build a TNG episode" kit, given a bottle show budget. 3/10.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Old Friends Not Forgotten Review

We open on a familiar green Lucasfilm Ltd. logo, which transitions into a burst of even more familiar John Williams fanfare as The Clone Wars logo zooms away against a starfield. Just like The Clone Wars all began, with a few episodes pinned together for feature length, its last four-episode arc is being framed as another movie.

And that statement of intent is matched by the show itself. Everything feels bigger, from the hero moments to the emotions to Kevin Kiner's music. Seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi, the 501st legion, and Ahsoka Tano each get their big action moments, the cumulative effect is that this feels like a victory lap for the show.

After some classic clones on droids action, the episode brings wayward Jedi Ahsoka briefly back into the lives of her beloved older brother figure Anakin and uncle figure Obi-Wan. Old nemesis Maul is on Mandalore, and Ahsoka and her Mandalorian ally Bo-Katan Kryze request help from the Republic to end his reign of terror. The emotional centerpiece of the episode is the scene where Ahsoka sees that Rex and his 501st have colored their helmets in tribute to her, their former commander. The irony  is clear: the noble clones choose to poignantly honor their Jedi sister-in-arms, when most of them will painfully soon have their free will taken away by Order 66 and be forced to kill their Jedi colleagues.

I mentioned before that Ahsoka gets a big hero moment, and it's a tribute to Jedi idealism. She ignites her lightsabers and rampages through Shadow Collective Mandalorians, but only incapacitating them and tending to target their jetpacks. To quote Snoke, she "has the spirit of a true Jedi".

Canon Connections:
- A couple Star Wars Rebels tie-ins: in the newsreel segment, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance from Caleb Dume, the future Kanan Jarrus, with his master Depa Billaba. And Ursa Wren, mother of Sabine, helps to defend Mandalore.
- Obi-Wan heroically saves the life of his friend Commander Cody, who during Order 66 will try to kill Obi-Wan.
- Kiner pulls out the Star Wars theme, the Rebel fanfare, and the Force theme to great effect.

A compelling and cinematically-scaled episode that begins to draw the curtain on this show. 9/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Horizon

ENT "Horizon"

The Randomized Rewatch spits out its first Enterprise episode! Not my favorite Trek series, and a rare Travis Mayweather-focused episode at that, exploring the backstory of one of Star Trek's blandest regular characters. So call me pleasantly surprised when I report that "Horizon" is a pretty lovely little episode.

The episode gets off to an underwhelming start. One of my pet peeves in TV is the lame duck teaser, or the teaser that gives the viewer nothing to work with, no special motivation to come back after the opening titles. "Horizon"'s teaser features Travis getting a call to come to the Bridge because Admiral Forrest just called. That's it.

Riveting stuff.

My theory is that at this point in Trek history, the mandate was to make the teasers as short as possible. But that's no excuse.

Anyways, this episode sees Travis reunite with his mother and brother, and reckon with the sad news of his father's death. The whole family are space freighters, in contrast to the infinitely more resourceful Starfleet. This actually brings up something like class issues, but that's not a main focus of the episode.

There's a touching scene where Captain Archer consoles Travis on his father's passing, and it's nicely and sensitively done, with a warm score from Mark McKenzie. Same goes for Trip's notably thoughtful gesture of giving Travis pictures Trip's taken of him over the past two seasons to show Travis' mom. See, I'm used to Enterprise characters behaving like incompetent reprobates, so this is all a nice change of pace.

Continuing with that theme, there's also a pretty delightful subplot where Trip programs a film festival of Frankenstein movies, consisting of the 1931 original, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. (I've seen all four of those movies.) T'Pol's bemused reaction followed by her insightful reading of Frankenstein's themes reflects well on her.

The main jeopardy of the episode comes from Travis' family's ship being attacked by space pirates, but there's also an Enterprise-bound subplot where they observe a planet that's been superheated by an unusual orbit and thus seeing widespread volcanic activity. This is little more than a footnote in the episode, so I won't get into the fascinating history of volcanic Prime Directive scenarios in Star Trek. I'll save that for if the Randomizer lands on the TNG episode "Pen Pals".

Speaking of TNG, which the Randomizer last sent me to, "Horizon" gets real cute talking forward to that show. Travis wonders aloud if future Starfleet ships will carry families onboard, and Malcolm jokes that if that's the case, they'll also need a psychiatrist aboard.

A warm-hearted outing that's part of the way to a hang-out episode. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Encounter at Farpoint

TNG "Encounter at Farpoint"

After a ten-year cryosleep, this blog has awakened. The first order of business? Dipping a toe into a randomized rewatch of Star Trek on TV. "Dipping a toe" is the operative phrase, because this is not meant to hit every episode of every series; it's just a fun mechanism to get a sampling of Trek on telly. The totally scientific method a random episode is arrived at? Hitting Random Page on the Star Trek wiki, Memory Alpha, until running into an episode link. And while it might've been more befitting for the first entry returned to be something obscure, the fates dealt a heavy hitter: "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the 1987 return of Star Trek to the small screen after nearly twenty years away.

It's funny to see a TNG episode infused with the colorful energy of the original series. Specifically, zonked out concepts involving super-advanced life forms and a fair amount of histrionic acting. On the advanced life form side, John de Lancie ably struts around and chews the scenery as Q, and the space jellyfish evoke a sense of wonder. And on the histrionic acting side, guest star Michael Bell as the wonderfully titled Groppler Zorn gives a very big, constantly exasperated performance that's kind of fun to watch. Not to be outdone, series regular Denise Crosby delivers an epic rant evangelizing the Federation. As Deanna Troi, Marina Sirtis is given empathic dialogue that relies exclusively on repetition. To paraphrase, "Pain... Great pain. Joy... Such joy."

Jean-Luc Picard himself has a mixed showcase here. He does have moments of eloquent gravitas and endearment. But he also has a stiff and awkward rapport with Riker (everything is noticeably more militaristic than it would be later in the show), and let it not be forgotten that he takes command of the Enterprise, and during the first incident on his first day surrenders the ship.

Other character notes: William Riker is amused by everything around him. At this point, the Klingon Worf is there to casually represent how yesterday's enemy can be tomorrow's friend, but he has no clear function on the bridge. He's basically a functionary, and indeed in this episode he sits in both Geordi and Data's seats as ship operations demand it. Leonard McCoy's cameo is pretty great, very touching for a fan.

Director Corey Allen's most impressive touches come in the mock-trial scenes, particularly the dynamic way he films Q's crane-operated judge's chair. But certain story elements need a second draft. Particularly when Picard leaves the bridge to have a personal conversation with Beverly Crusher, at a crucial point in the story when Doctor Crusher was just preparing to beam planetside to tend to wounded people who are presently BEING SHELLED.

A baggy pilot with mixed results, caught between charm and mediocrity. 6/10.