Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Repression

VOY "Repression"

The raison d'être of the unusual psychological thriller episode "Repression" is to exploit the Starfleet/Maquis conflict at the heart of Voyager's premise. The catch is that this is done the only way the show can: when that conflict is totally due to an outside influence.

In this case, mind control, courtesy of a deranged Bajoran vedek named Teero Anaydis (Keith Szarabajka). In a very brief and disorienting teaser, Teero is introduced, flanked by what looks like Star Trek concept art, chanting in Bajoran, and hatching a plan to brainwash Chakotay's former Maquis crew, including Tuvok (undercover at the time) and B'Elanna.

The whole issue of the collegiate partnership between Starfleet and Maquis crews on Voyager speaks to the writerly problem of Star Trek. The crews must be in harmonious lockstep because of Trekkian idealism, so the only time their tribalism can be a factor is in an extraordinary circumstance like this mind control. Star Trek is being circumvented to take advantage of a major aspect of the show's basic premise. It's a fascinating and convoluted dynamic.

The episode finds levity in a holodeck replica of a Chicago movie theater. At first hosting a relatively small audience, there's a spectacular amount of leg room, but for a packed house, the seating arrangement becomes more packed. In a nice touch, the carpets suggest the basic yellow and black holodeck grid.

The mind control plot is resolved extremely quickly at the end, Tuvok's psychological unrest overcome. "Repression" has issues as a piece of drama, but stands out for its attempt at askew psychodrama. 6/10.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The New Deal Review

AOS "The New Deal"

"Nineteen-thirties baseball reference." - Daisy Johnson

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back for its final season (or as the promotion puts it, The Final Mission), and it begins with a breath of new life for the series... ironically found from traveling into the past. ABC Marvel, accustomed to mounting a period production by way of Agent Carter, is starting Season 7 in the 1930s. (And the team passes the Bela Lugosi Dracula poster to prove it.) Aside from the superficial entertainment value of seeing Phil Coulson, Daisy Johnson, Alphonso Mackenzie, and Deke Shaw in vintage costumes, the show is on fine form as far as action, humor, and revelations go.

It makes perfect sense to have Coulson (albeit a Life Model Decoy replica of Coulson, but still) walk amongst his agency's origin story, given his historical neediness. Look no further than his geeking out at meeting future President Franklin Roosevelt (whose eventual New Deal gives the episode its double-meaning title). The action in the episode has some nice touches, like Daisy's inflicting a sonic uppercut on a Chronicom Hunter, and Mack using what basically amount to wrestling finishing moves on smaller human beings.

The episode runs through the standard season premiere playbook. There's a reveal for a new command center (read: new fancy set). Characters are established as easing back into an old status quo, or adapting to a new one. Coulson adjusts to his new synthetic third chance at life; Jemma Simmons guards her future knowledge and shows a bit of a sadistic streak; and Melinda May and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez are recovering from the events of the Season 6 finale.

There's a sense that some of these dynamics find the show repeating itself. As alluded to before, this is the second time Coulson has been brought back to life, after Project T.A.H.I.T.I. And Leo Fitz is missing yet again.

In any case, the episode ends with a fantastic twist: the team's new charge, who they must protect from Chronicom assassination, is none other than Gideon Malick's father as a young man, a future Head of Hydra! Suddenly this phase of the story clicks into focus, and I look forward to this being milked for drama next week.

A solid new status quo is established in the 1930s, topped by a devilishly clever twist. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Wolf in the Fold

ST "Wolf in the Fold"

"Wolf in the Fold" doesn't do much by halves. It's an insane episode, and with every passing improbable turn of the plot (like the twist of a stage knife), it becomes even more of a helium-laugh fest.

On the face of it, the premise would be anything but amusing; Scotty is accused of murder, his bloody hands on the murder weapon. There is a thread throughout the episode of, shall we say... exaggeration. Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty are taking their shore leave on a planet home to a "completely hedonistic society", to allow Scotty to get over a recent development in his psychological makeup: a "total resentment of women", because a female engineer was involved in an accident that gave Scotty a head wound.

So from the start, two things are clear. We are in the realm of cartoon psychodrama. And the original Star Trek finds itself once again on shaky misogynistic grounds. Writer Robert Bloch (of the novel Psycho) deploys his big twist late in the game: the murders were in fact carried out by Jack the Ripper, who all these centuries has lived on as a non-corporeal entity! And if that's not enough of a WTF'er, the crew foils Jack's plot while extremely high!

That's right, McCoy injects the crew with a tranquilizer that has a blissing out effect. Add to all this that the primary human antagonist of the episode and vessel of Jack the Ripper, Hengist, is played by John Fiedler, also known as the voice of Piglet.

"Wolf in the Fold"'s gender dynamics haven't aged well, but the episode is a bonkers laugh riot. I don't know how to rate something like this but on balance we'll go with 6/10.

For a less campy take on Jack the Ripper in the 23rd Century, check out the Babylon 5 episode "Comes the Inquisitor".

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Lorelei Signal

TAS "The Lorelei Signal"

"We must go." "Obstruct them!"

The Randomizer finally brings me to The Animated Series, a charmingly cheap-looking cartoon with an impressively full (though Chekov-less) lineup of original Trek actors... and not many other people. Watching the series, you will easily recognize the scores of secondary characters Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and Majel Barrett lend their vocal talents to.

The titular "Lorelei Signal", sent by bewitching alien "sirens", incapacitates the male members of the Enterprise crew, so it is up to the women to save the day. And specifically, for Uhura to take charge. The episode's greatest strength is as an overdue showcase for Uhura the competent command officer.

There's also a Trekkian resolution where the sirens are revealed to be misunderstood, and the crew helps them no longer need to feed off derelict starships. A win-win all around.

A constant baseline of silliness animates this episode, a part-campy, part-consequential SF runaround. There's a quaint and endearing quality to this series: the re-used character articulations, the jazzy music, the abundance of pink. Any future animated stops along the way will be a welcome pit stop.

A fluffy episode that nonetheless laudably spotlights Uhura and Chapel. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Conundrum

TNG "Conundrum"

"Conundrum" has a singularly clever premise, as an alien erases the Enterprise crew's memory and inserts himself in the command structure of the senior staff, in order to use the Enterprise's tactical features as weapons of mass destruction against an enemy. By instantly retconning himself into the crew, the alien (MacDuff) becomes an early example of the "Dawn from Buffy" phenomenon. Dawn was also inserted into the cast of the show, and the artificiality of that was a major plot point.

The initial disorientation of the crew is captured by rare handheld camerawork, from director Les Landau. I love how the initial reveal of MacDuff is done subtly; no particular musical sting accompanies his first appearance, and the camera quickly cuts away. Of course, later MacDuff's cover is violently blown.

What saves the day is Federation ethics. Picard has a great scene in the Ready Room with MacDuff, forcefully saying that he requires a moral context for orders that involve killing. Before things turn around, the Enterprise is treated as a warship even by the show itself. Dennis McCarthy's score follows the ship with a percussive martial cue.

Perhaps the episode's biggest flaw is a quick resolution, so common in Star Trek. MacDuff is phasered into submission, and there's only the briefest reflection on what has happened. What's missing, on the nose as it might have been, is a moment of summation.

With Star Trek: Picard hindsight, we have any seed that pays off in that later show. Data speculates that he could hail from a race of artificial life-forms, who live on a home planet they claim as their own. Such a planet directly factors into Picard.

A clever episode that slightly fizzles out at the end. 7/10.

Doctor Who Randomized Rewatch: The End of Time Part 1

DW "The End of Time Part 1"

This episode is insane. And not just insane in that "it sounds funny to casually describe Doctor Who plots out loud" kind of way, but really off its rocker.

Throughout, Timothy Dalton as Rassilon gives the episode portentous narration that at times feels excessive and at times really hits. "It is said that in the final days of planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams" is a hell of an opening line. And when some of Dalton's booming pronouncements are underscored by Murray Gold's gorgeous Gallifrey theme, that certainly helps it go down easy.

The episode makes some choices when it comes to the Master, which are all ludicrous but somehow not always out of left field. He's got a cult dedicated to his resurrection, and it must be said that his cod-Voldemort rebirth sequence is one of the biggest loads of bollocks the new series has put on screen. But at the same time, the basic idea of a cult devoted to the Master could fit into something like "The Daemons" back in the day. Then his body is overcharged, so you can see his luminescent skeleton. Again, wild, but not far off from the skeletal Master from the Fourth Doctor era. But the headline here would be his super-jumping and electricity powers - the Master as supervillain, out of a mid-2000s Fantastic Four movie.

All this is tempered by the unique honor "The End of Time" has of placing Wilfred in the role of companion. It's almost like since writer Russell T. Davies knows he's got Wilfred in reserve for moments of charm, thus giving him license to play Picasso with the episode's plot.

And Wilfred is, of course, wonderful, and he and the Doctor have a poignant scene in a cafe where the Doctor confesses his fear of death. It's earned emotion, not something to take for granted in an episode often in danger of buckling under the weight of its own pretentiousness. The Ood and the Time Lords keep warning of THE END OF TIME ITSELF, which just comes off as silly.

"The End of Time Part 1" has its share of effective moments, balanced out by stretches of rubbish. An episode of extremes, it'll likely leave you exhausted if not always entertained. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Time's Arrow Part 1

TNG "Time's Arrow Part 1"

"My brother's positronic brain had a type-L phase discriminating amplifier. Mine is type R." 

"Type R?!"

- Data and Jean-Luc Picard

The Enterprise is recalled to Earth by a project manager who seems to know the conventions of television. Instead of telling Picard and Data up front that they've found DATA'S HEAD, he buries the lede and only reveals it for maximum, end-of-teaser, effect.

The evidence points to Data's death after being displaced in time to 19th Century Earth, which Data reacts to with customary unemotional evenness. Not so his crewmates. This leads to a wonderful first act of the episode, where everyone reacts to the specter of Data's apparent inevitable death with unease. In a hilarious moment, Geordi just sighs and says casually, "They found Data's head a mile below San Francisco..."

But for Data, having knowledge of his death at an undetermined future date is strangely comforting, giving him a mortality that brings his life experience closer to transitory humanity. It's profound stuff, and for anyone who's seen Star Trek Picard Season 1, it should sound a massive signal that certain developments in that show have their exact roots right here.

Soon enough, Data is transported back in time, and the episode takes the left turn in stride. He's winning money in poker, connecting with Mark Twain and the Guinan living in San Francisco at the time, and applying Starfleet resourcefulness to period machinery, "City on the Edge of Forever"-style.

The entire rest of the cast, minus Worf, follow Data into the past. Which begs the question, who's helping Worf run the Enterprise? With Worf as acting Captain, I would speculate that we'd have Ro Laren as First Officer, Reginald Barclay as Chief Engineer, Alyssa Ogawa as Chief Medical Officer, and Guinan as Counselor. Would watch.

It must be said of the science fiction concept of the episode: what were they smoking? The Devidian sequence at the end is truly bizarre, as ghostly approximations of alien forms feed on human life force through their foreheads, and there's a creepy snake too for some reason. It's an eerie Doctor Who-esque setup, aliens targeting Earth's history to feed on humanity.

While the clear highlight of the episode is the warm character-driven Act 1, the episode as a whole balances well affability and true strangeness. 7/10.

Doctor Who Randomized Rewatch: Dalek

DW "Dalek"

When you're bringing a classic monster back, it's often a good idea to compress the scale and focus on an individual case study. "Dalek" pioneers that move that the new series will use several times: "Cold War" with a lone Ice Warrior. "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" with a lone Cyberman. And, again, a lone Dalek in "Resolution". "Dalek" honors the deviousness, lethality, and psychology of the Dalek, and consistently makes smart choices to complicate the hero/monster dynamic.

The Doctorly compassion for a being in pain comes from companion Rose Tyler, while the Doctor literally slobbers over his hate for the Dalek, for the race that his people fought in the Time War. Christopher Eccleston's Doctor gets a wonderful showcase here, with my favorite moment in the episode coming after the Doctor believes Rose dead. Righteously lashing out at American billionaire villain Henry Van Statten, the Doctor rebukes Van Statten and mourns his companion. "You're about as far from the stars as you can get!" It's a scene that gives me chills.

Van Statten himself is one of the weaker elements of the episode, a broad caricature of an ultimate asshole businessman. Still, he becomes a more tolerable character as panic sets in. One small standout moment is the tragic and noble fate of security guard De Maggio, who tries to hold off the Dalek to cover Rose and Adam's escape, even knowing it's hopeless.

And tragedy suffuses the episode as a whole. Rose's artron energy reconstructs the Dalek's cells, but also corrupts the Dalek with the impure stain of humanity. So precisely because the Dalek can imagine more than killing, it has to die. It just goes to show that you can have your "badass" monster on a rampage massacre scenes, which "Dalek" certainly features, but when you go deeper, you can make something special. 9/10.

Continuity notes:
- This is the second straight episode in this rewatch, after "The Time of Angels", that features a museum of alien artifacts.
- Van Statten's museum features a classic Cyberman head from the 1970s. "The stuff of nightmares, reduced to an exhibit." The Doctor's poignant reaction to seeing it is not exactly brief, showing that real fans are at the reins here.
- "Dalek" takes a few elements from the Big Finish audio story "Jubilee", also written by Robert Shearman. But the details are so different that each story stands on its own.
- Of course, a Dalek went up stairs in "Remembrance of the Daleks", but the showy sequence here was a necessary wake-up call for casual viewers in 2005.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Broken Link

DS9 "Broken Link"

As a season finale, "Broken Link" doesn't appear to break the budget. It's a character-focused look at Odo facing a reckoning for killing another changeling, an unprecedented act in the species' history. Odo is surreptitiously infected with a virus to draw him out to the Gamma Quadrant in search of a cure from the Founders; the various stages of Odo's sickness are rendered in... extraordinary makeup jobs. At one point Odo's hair looks painted on like a tabletop gaming figurine.

The episode uses Odo as a nexus for his relationships. His infatuation with Kira is addressed briefly. There's a lovely scene with Quark where he sensitively hopes for Odo's safe return without losing face. And there's a lot of material for Odo's friendship with Garak. Friendship is an interesting word for it, considering that about a season ago, Garak agonizingly tortured Odo, but Odo doesn't appear to hold too much of a grudge.

As Garak, Andrew J. Robinson shows the range of the character. He shows Garak's congenial side, his gleefully devious side, and in one showdown with Worf, gives the kind of deranged performance he brought to the Scorpio Killer role in Dirty Harry.

Odo is tried and sentenced in the Great Link of the Founders: he is made a solid, stripped of his shape-shifting abilities. Specifically, he is made human, which seems a bit baffling to me. Why not Bajoran? Odo was raised by Bajorans, his approximation of a humanoid face is based on a Bajoran, and he wears the uniform of the Bajoran militia. To make him human is to equate humanity with solidity, which is an oddly Earth-centric notion.

When Odo identifies Klingon Chancellor Gowron as a changeling duplicate, the even-more-aggressive acts of the Klingon Empire at this point in the show make a lot more sense. But I must question another of the Founders' decisions. If there was a risk of Odo uncovering details of their statecraft, why did the Founders let him go? Now their operation is exposed.

"Broken Link" is a typically effective, though not particularly standout, example of Deep Space Nine's focus on character. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Innocence

VOY "Innocence"

Last time the Randomizer visited Star Trek: Voyager, Harry and Tom were trapped in a prison with dangerous convicts. Now, Tuvok is trapped on a planet with three unruly children. After soothing a goldshirt's passing with an admittedly decent bedside manner, Tuvok is set upon by three Drayan kids who ask for his protection from a mysterious monster that has taken a couple of their companions in the night. In the big, absurd twist of the episode, it turns out that Drayan society is one comprised entirely of Benjamin Buttons; the kids are in fact pushing 100, because the Drayan aging process is reversed.

Drayan logic at times is also reversed. Upset that Tuvok has corrupted their holy site, the Drayans demand that Voyager cleans up the mess, but refuses to let a shuttle near the planet. Not to overrun this review with nitpicks, but former Jeopardy! champion Lisa Klink's teleplay is filled with sloppy internal logic (ironic for an episode starring a Vulcan). Tuvok preserves his dead crewmate's body to take back to Voyager, for "proper burial". Burial... on a starship? Janeway learns from the Drayans only that one of the two shuttle crewmen is dead and reacts like she knows it's the trivial supernumerary, when in reality it just as well could be Tuvok. And Tuvok gives a kid a phaser, which as we've just seen in "Elaan of Troyius", you can kill yourself with somewhat easily.

While Tuvok's parenting technique leaves something to be desired, that seems to be the hook of the episode: Emotionless Vulcan must deal with rowdy children. Tim Russ likely asked to be given a musical number, given his singing ability, so he interprets a few bars of epic Vulcan sung poetry.

To the episode's slight credit, the Drayan child catchers are a little creepy. And "Innocence" is clearly trying to land a sensitively-observed episode with a sense of Trekkian diplomacy and a SF twist. Its heart is more or less in the right place, but the episode kneecaps itself (with, among other things, whiny kids) and ends up subpar. 3/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Elaan of Troyius

ST "Elaan of Troyius"

"Elaan of Troyius" is a histrionic episode, whose only measure of success comes when viewed as high camp. Elaan (South Pacific's France Nuyen) of Elas is to be married off to the ruler of Troyius to mitigate a war. The trouble is, Elaan is an impetuous and arrogant hurricane of a stateswoman and rages against her arranged marriage. The idea is that Elas is an aggressive warrior culture, but in practice it's more like a series of over-the-top temper tantrums. And because it falls on Kirk to "discipline" the unruly Elaan, the episode moves the needle for crazy sexual politics all over the place.

One of the Elasian guards (who dress like Flash Gordon rejects) apparently kills a redshirt just by... touching his head? And when head guard Kryton kills himself, Kirk and company barely react to his act of desperation and get on with the plot. Emotional realism is not the episode's priority.

Written and directed by John Meredyth Lucas, "Elaan of Troyius" is a rare case study in Star Trek auteur theory. One of Lucas' primary moves is the highly provocative "save money" technique. Multiple times, stock footage of the bridge is used for coverage, so alternatively Sulu and Chekov are replaced by imposters, then switch back to the familiar helmsman and navigator.

Lucas has not hidden his mythological influence for the episode: replace Elaan with Helen and Troyius with Troy. But any "take" on that Iliad story is purely superficial and certainly incoherent. To add tension, Lucas adds a Klingon subplot that pays off with an extended space battle, which is a novelty in the original series. I do have some time for Jay Robinson's guest performance as Troyian Ambassador Petri, who gives the character an officious quality.

The only way to enjoy the episode is to take it as camp. 3/10.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Victory and Death Review

TCW "Victory and Death"

To review "Victory and Death" is to review the last five minutes of the episode.

But before we get to that, the bulk of the episode must be addressed. It is a runaround, albeit one imbued with desperation, as Ahsoka and Rex try to flee the Star Destroyer, relentlessly hunted by the clones. Maul disables the ship with the Force, putting it on a collision course with a moon, and the brainwashed clones are so focused on the task of assassinating Ahsoka, Rex, and Maul, they don't pay any mind to self-preservation. In a poignant moment, Rex allows himself to feel the emotional weight of what has happened to his brothers. And the clones' situation, sacrificed on a crashing Star Destroyer, symbolizes the new Empire's attitude toward them: they are disposable things.

(Ahsoka and Rex are helped by a cadre of droids, and when ARC trooper Jesse and his clones kill the droids, the show stops short of showing blaster fire hit the droids. In a darkly amusing way, the episode treats shooting a droid like most movies treat shooting a dog.)

After the action of the episode is resolved, all that's left are two elegiac epilogues. First, Ahsoka and Rex mourn the clones, who have been granted the dignity of burial; Ahsoka leaves one of her lightsabers in the makeshift cemetery. And later, the snowed over Star Destroyer is discovered by Darth Vader and his newly-minted snowtroopers. Vader picks up Ahsoka's blade, ignites it for the rare spectacle of the Sith Lord wielding a blue lightsaber, and walks away.

Vader, seemingly animated more like the skinny frame of Hayden Christensen, is depicted here not long after first donning the suit at the end of Revenge of the Sith. From Charles Soule's Darth Vader comic series, we know this is a period in his life when the wounds of Anakin Skywalker are at their most raw; he's still struggling in the dark. And as he surveys the snow, and finds the lightsaber of the woman he's now so far away from, physically and emotionally, it is clear how much Vader has lost.

"You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister, you were right." - Anakin Skywalker

After his redemption, when Anakin speaks those words to Luke referencing Leia, it's possible Anakin's thoughts also turned to Ahsoka, the surrogate sister he lost 23 years ago, the loving bond he never stopped mourning.

An episode of survival and sadness. 7/10.

So that's it for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. We thought the show was all over twice before, but now it's true. Farewell to the show that gave fans Ahsoka Tano, Rex, Asajj Ventress, the Nightsisters, Savage Opress, Mandalore, Satine Kryze, the Darksaber, Saw Gerrera, Mina Bonteri, a resurrected Maul, Hondo Ohnaka, Cad Bane, and a tolerable Jar Jar Binks.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Borderland

ENT "Borderland"

In the opening sequence of "Borderland", two genetically engineered "Augments" take over a Klingon bird-of-prey and kill its crew. Unusually for Star Trek, in addition to shooting their way through, they open a can of martial arts whoop-arse on the Klingons. The Augments are super-strong, super-intelligent, and super-aggressive. Their dress sense is ragged chic, like a tribe of Peter Pan's Lost Boys (and Girls). And they answer to one man.

That is, Dr. Arik Soong, ancestor of Data creator Noonien Soong, again played by returning Trek royalty Brent Spiner. Spiner turns in a charismatic, sarcastic performance, animating this scientist who, unlike his roboticist descendants, specializes in genetic engineering. He gets a rise out of all the characters he interacts with, and even Phlox is uncommonly hostile toward him. One highlight of the episode is a particularly heated argument Soong has with Archer in the brig about the danger and potential of genetic engineering. As seen above, director David Livingston sets up some ostentatious shots foregrounding each actor's face in turn. It's like a Brian De Palma-esque split diopter, but without the actual mechanism separating the two elements of the shot.

Eventually, Soong's hormonal übermensch "children" get the run of Enterprise embarrassingly quickly. Spiner appears to be having fun, and so thankfully balances out what is the first bad guest performance I've identified in this rewatch: Joel West as Augment Raakin. His delivery is unconvincing and his screen presence sophomoric.

While all the Augment material is being set up to continue over the course of a trilogy, most of "Borderland" itself revolves around the misadventure of T'Pol and eight other Enterprise crew members, who are kidnapped by Orion slavers, fitted with a restraining chip, and sold at auction. It helps to keep "Borderland" feel episodic, which fits my purposes, but it's not the most pleasant material.

A good showcase for Brent Spiner and a decent start to the Augments three-parter. 6/10.

Doctor Who Randomized Rewatch: The Time of Angels

DW "The Time of Angels"

Classic Doctor Who is built on cliffhangers. And to agree with Misery's Annie Wilkes on one point, there is an art to good cliffhangers in serial storytelling. "The Time of Angels" ends with one of my favorites in the series, to the point where in college I would watch the last couple minutes of this episode on a loop. Backed into a corner, the Doctor gives one of his best grandstanding monologues, ending with the punctuation of a bang.

The rest of the episode leading up to that end is excellent as well, filled with efficient setpieces (the spectacular rescue of River in the TARDIS, Amy and the screen-based Weeping Angel) and effective ensemble dynamics (Alex Kingston lights up the screen as River and Iain Glen gives gravitas to the paradoxical character of Father Octavian). "The Time of Angels" was the first episode recorded for Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, so the ease of their performances is remarkable.

Of course Steven Moffat wanted to bring back his Weeping Angels, the monsters that made such a big splash in "Blink". He also trots out a previous trick he came up with, having Bob's re-animated consciousness hauntingly linger on, just as victims' dying thoughts were looped in the "Silence in the Library" story. But Moffat one-ups that here, keeping Bob conversational with the Doctor, relaying the taunts of the Angels with a deliberately flat intonation. "I died in fear", he bluntly and casually informs the Doctor, enraging the trapped Time Lord.

Something I'm of two minds about is the sound editing and music that gives a sting to virtually every Angel or Angel statue appearance in the episode. It heightens the horror stakes, but it also feels obvious, like it's the consequence of aiming your horror at a family audience. I can forgive it, but it is the one criticism I have here.

"The Time of Angels" is a fresh, exciting Doctor Who nightmare that rollicks along like a ghost train with a full head of steam. However off-the-rails parts of the Eleventh Doctor's era would eventually jump, in this episode at least everything is cooking with gas. 10/10.

Doctor Who Randomized Rewatch: Aliens of London

DW "Aliens of London"

Joining Star Trek in this blog's stable of Randomized Rewatches is Doctor Who. The classic and new series, as well as The Sarah Jane Adventures, are all fair game here. First up is an early outing for the modern series, as Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor accidentally takes Billie Piper's Rose back home not 12 hours after her departure, but rather 12 months. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, he brings her back to Earth directly before the apparent "first contact" with an alien race.

The Ninth Doctor as presented in this episode is a giggling genius, amused by most everything around him and filled with a sense of glee, excitement, and wonder at history unfolding on Earth. Still, he warns Rose in the TARDIS, "Don't you dare make this place domestic", as Jackie and Mickey learn the truth of Rose's adventure in space and time. The show in general has benefitted from a more domestic approach, giving unprecedented realism to the life of a contemporary Earth companion. And for all the Doctor's broad grins, he has made rather a hash of things by bringing Rose back so late.

In an amusing early moment, Rose grapples with the unique privilege she has as one of the few humans to know of the existence of aliens... right before an alien spaceship flies over London for all to see. London gets a mini-Independence Day, as the ship crashes into Big Ben and creates a worldwide crisis. Writer Russell T. Davies deploys reams of cod-authentic news footage to cover events, with the clear intent of portraying a grounded take on an alien invasion. But brilliantly, just as the Slitheen have staged a phony invasion as a diversion, so the show Doctor Who has staged a phony sense of grittiness as a diversion from what the show truly embraces: bonkers, over-the-top farting aliens!

The Slitheen have engineered events to take control of the British government, walking around in constrictive human politician skinsuits they can unzip to reveal their true form. It's a whole-heartedly silly concept, and indeed, the climax of the episode is just people standing and staring as the Slitheen shed their disguises. Indeed, one wonders why one of the Slitheen in particular bothers to unmask at all if the plan was just to electrocute everybody! But the reveal is an end unto itself. And that's the choice "Aliens of London" ultimately makes: shedding its pretensions of realism, to glory in the wonderful absurdity of Doctor Who. 7/10.

Continuity notes:
- That's future Torchwood operative Toshiko Sato examining the fake alien, and of course Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, is introduced here as well.
- The Doctor infiltrates a UNIT facility, gets an entire security team's worth of guns pointed at his face, and then effortlessly transitions to giving them orders. He used to work for UNIT, after all. (But then why, later in the episode, does he react like he just figured out UNIT is involved?)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Shattered Review

TCW "Shattered"

"I wish I was good at something other than war." - Bo-Katan Kryze

"Shattered" shows that The Clone Wars as a show is good at something other than war. This measuredly paced episode generates an atmosphere of dread and foreboding centering around one event: Order 66.

As Ahsoka and Rex are en route to Coruscant with a captured Maul, soon-to-be-Emperor Palpatine gives the fateful Order. This allows the show to confront head on the idea of Order 66 as a tragedy for the clones. In Revenge of the Sith, the galaxy-wide kill order against Jedi is exclusively seen from the Jedi perspective; the clones are plot devices. But The Clone Wars has spent seven seasons showing humanity and individuality in clone characters. In a way the whole show has been building to this final indignity, when the clones' autonomy and free will is short-circuited. A tragedy for the executed, yes, but also for the executioners.

Kevin Kiner's score goes a long way to establishing a mood of dissonant unease. His eerie melodies, utilizing synthesizers in extremely Blade Runner-esque patterns, eventually give way to a rendering of John Williams' Order 66 music from Revenge of the Sith that gave me chills. As Ahsoka de-programs Rex with help from industrious droids, hope returns to the narrative.

"Shattered" is almost meditative in its unflinching embrace of one idea. So it is more like a tone poem than a dynamic epic. Heavily atmospheric, the tragedy of Order 66 is further unveiled here. 7/10.

Canon connections:
- Ahsoka is directly embedded into the end of the "I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi" scene from Revenge of the Sith.
- Ahsoka chooses not to send a message to an Anakin whose turn to the dark side is imminent.
- When Ahsoka and Maul hear Anakin's fall through a disturbance in the Force, audio from the movie is used, but Anakin voice actor Matt Lanter is also given the opportunity to offer his interpretation of the "What have I done?!" line.
- There's an astromech droid named Cheep, who resembles and sounds like Chopper from Star Wars Rebels.
- Maul gets his equivalent of the Darth Vader hallway massacre from Rogue One.
- There are a few echoes of exact dialogue from the films. The phrasing "hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights" used by Obi-Wan in A New Hope is a Rex line here. "More to say, have you?" is said by Yoda both here and in The Phantom Menace. And "The Jedi are keepers of the peace, not soldiers" is spoken by Ahsoka, after Mace Windu said almost exactly that in Attack of the Clones.