DISC - Battle at the Binary Stars

Plot - Am I such an old fuddy-duddy that scenes of crewmembers walking through the corridors of the ship and discussing technobabble please me so much? Whilst it isn’t exactly what I watch Star Trek for, these sorts of scenes just feel so right. The Shenzhou being seconds away from impacting with the binary star debris and being pulled away at the last minute by a tractor beam is heart in the mouth stuff. If they can keep up that level of tension during the action sequences, I’ll be very happy. The Klingons extracting their dead officers from the battlefield ties into everything we have ever been taught about honouring their dead and provides Georgiou with a devilishly crafty way of damaging their ship. What kind of Star Trek series sees the lead Captain being stabbed in the chest in the second episode? It’s astonishingly brutal and unexpected and really sells the idea that Discovery is taking place in a dangerous universe.

Character - It’s extremely useful to have the scene depicting Burnham meeting Georgiou for the first time and, since the first two episodes can be taken as an extended pilot (or prologue), it provides the right context to give the mutiny that Burnham is currently committing some real context. Most Star Trek shows see a crew coming together in their first episode and so the relationships grow organically but Discovery bucked that trend and opened on existing relationships that we had to get up to speed with pretty quick sharpish. Whilst that was fine and dandy, asking us to invest in a betrayal when have only just started to understand these relationships was pretty hollow. With this scene we can see how aloof (well, Vulcan) Burnham was when she was first invited to join Georgiou’s crew and given the difference in her performance in the scenes in the current day you can really see how her life on the Shenzhou has changed her and tapped into her humanity. It’s probably the most vital scene in the opening episodes, if it’s Burnham’s journey we are charting.  Sarek communicating across light years to consul Burnham is something quite unusual for Trek, it strikes me more as Star Wars (Luke/Obi Wan) but it does stress the closeness between the two characters. Burnham is no slouch when it comes to getting herself out of a tight spot, thinking her way out of an impossibly dangerous situation involving a forcefield and a room that is open to space. Georgiou was worried that one day Burnham’s Vulcan side might trump her humanity. She’s a contradiction of logic and emotion these days, a true hybrid of her mixed race. Her breakdown on the transporter pad following Georgiou’s death and abandonment shows that her humanity can burst like a dam. Voq and Burnham scrapping is very interesting, given later developments in the season. She pleads guilty of treason and mutiny, to starting the war but I still think she is someone it is easy to point the finger at than anything. Starfleet is angry and it needs someone to blame. Unfortunately, because of her questionable conduct around the beginning of this conflict, Burnham is arrested and charged with penal servitude. Who knows what is going to become of her? Let’s find out… Martin-Green is stunning during the trial scene, delivering a powerful speech that is just about as downbeat as I can imagine this show getting. Amazing how good the actors can be seen to be when the pace slackens and the camera stops moving.

Amazing how much more comfortable Yeoh seems during a simple intimate dialogue scene at the beginning of the episode in the way that she is so unpersuasive during her big hitter sequences like squaring up to Burnham with a phaser on the bridge (listen to how she says ‘you violated the chain of command’ like you or I would say ‘you forgot to get the milk’). Georgiou does her utmost to avoid war with the Klingons and strikes me as a believable advocate for peace. Unfortunately, her tagline (‘we come in peace’) taps into T’Kuvma’s paranoia about the Federation. Yeoh’s most impressive moment comes with a silent reaction to the destruction of the Europa. ‘Make it hurt, Saru’ she says of his plan to destroy the Klingon ship. All that diplomacy goes out the window when one of their own is killed.

The look that Saru and Burnham share when they first clap eyes on each other is priceless. His tactics are devious, which Georgiou approves of.

Great Dialogue - ‘T’Kuvma lured Starfleet to a massacre. It’s time I repaid him.’

Production - The Klingon fleet facing off against the Shenzhou is a fearsome visual. You genuinely get the sense that the shit is about to hit the fan for the Federation ship. It took DS9 six seasons to amass two great fleets to slug it out. If Discovery is to go for the action jugular, it’s nice to see them aiming this high. The Klingon ships belch great plumes of green fire which achieves great damage whereas the Federation ships look like kids spitting into the wind. Watch and gasp as the Europa is basically bitten into by T’Kuvma’s vessel and then explodes in spectacular fireworks. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.

Worst moment - Still too many bloody tilted angles. Do the camera guys know how to hold a camera straight? The last time I watched something this visually jarring was Battlefield Earth and for the same reasons, and we know how that turned out. I remember reading interviews with David Livingston saying that he wanted to bring a more dramatic visual style to Trek, include high and low and tilted angles, and how he snuck them in to episodes as much as he could without the execs getting in a paddy (Go watch DS9’s Crossover, he went to town in that one). But it seems that the tide has well and truly turned these days and whilst I understand the need to be visually arresting and unique, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the performances and storytelling because it is so distracting it pulls your attention away from the important things.

Despite trying to give T’Kuvma (say his name in a melodramatic growl like the Klingons do, it’s so much fun) some backstory (including flashbacks to when he was a child), the Klingon dialogue scenes are still hampered by the language barrier. In the same way that excessive technobabble used to switch me off in TNG and VOY, these inexplicably incomprehensible scenes had a similar effect. Maybe I have become a lazy television watcher and expect everything in English, or maybe these scenes plod on in dreary Klingonese and feel as though they are adding little to the overall story. TNG found a way to make the Klingons palatable and that was to stage their politics and their world as though they were the most theatrical of Shakespeare plays. Discovery seems intent in keeping them as alien as possible. A laudable goal, but pretty alienating as far as I’m concerned. It might be hard to believe but I don’t watch science fiction to listen to men in freaky masks babble an incoherent language, but I think that is exactly what the non-SF think. This material would confirm a non-fans fears. There’s a moment where it looks like Burnham’s head might be burst like a massive spot, Game of Thrones style (and the scream she lets out is agonising).

Result - Much more engaging, but essentially because this is an hour-long action sequence that never lets up the tension. You’re talking truly cinematic visuals that accompany Battle at Binary Stars (and I would expect so too, the reported budget per episode exceeds that of many movies); epic space battles, ships detonating in slow motion, sets being torn to pieces, insane sweeps and zooms through wreckage into battle, hand to hand combat…the action is relentless. Is this the Star Trek we have come to know and love? The one which indulges philosophy, morality and huge science fiction ideas? Not at all. But maybe we have to move with the times and this dizzyingly accomplished action proves to be extremely watchable on a ‘cor wow!’ level whilst my brain remained quite unengaged. It’s Trek based on adrenalin and not intelligence. I’ve certainly not seen anything thus far in Discovery that suggests it is better television than the more dialogue driven Trek of old, just that it is much more expensively produced. I like the fact that the Starfleet gets an arse kicking so early in the show and the attempts to shake hands with the Klingons ends in bloodshed. There’s a certain arrogance about Roddenberry’s vision for the show that deserves a bloody nose every now and again. DS9 was adept at dishing this out and it looks like Discovery is following suit. Burnham remains an interesting character and I’m really pleased that she is called to account for her actions and that her fate remains ambiguous, right up to the last scene. This kind of serialised Trek is well worth exploring, as long as there is one character or a crew to follow to make the journey worthwhile. With Georgiou for the chop, Burnham has become our protagonist and she’s a disgraced and imprisoned one. With no hint of the ship in the series title the biggest question is where do we go from here? As a piece of television, this is damn near flawless. The action is relentless; full of tension, drama and smart set pieces. As an episode of Star Trek, it is unpredictable and exciting, but still very vague as to its intentions as a series. Entering the third hour of a show you shouldn’t still be wondering what the hell it is about. 

**** out of ***** 

DISC - The Vulcan Hello

Plot - Since we know there was a pre-TOS conflict with the Klingons but one that we know relatively little about this does seem like a fresh field of drama to plough for Trek. Although DS9 has already handled that conflict (not especially well admittedly given how brilliantly the Dominion war arc was charted later) so we need a fresh approach to the material. Prequels have that tricky balance of having to tell their own story whilst leaving everything in place for the story they are preceding to make sense (Enterprise used to make up the rules as it went along with TNG style Klingons and the Borg showing up) but setting Discovery in this period means that you can have lots of Original Trek touches that will please the fans of that show. Correlating the technology seen in this series with Original Trek is practically impossible, but then technology has never been a reason for me to enjoy Trek so I can just accept it for what it is and assume they abandoned certain technology before Kirk began his 5-year mission on the Enterprise. 

Character -  One of the central reasons to watch and enjoy Discovery is Sonequa Martin-Green’s terrific performance as Michael Burnham, a half human-half Vulcan character who goes on the (very Star Trek) journey of discovering herself throughout the first season of this show. In a series of shifting regular characters, Burnham is an anchor and Martin-Green’s wonderfully cold and yet humane turn really keeps the series afloat during the rockier moments of the season. I really liked how Burnham refused to think that the mysterious presence in the binary star was automatically hostile, preferring instead to see it as a something lost or perhaps asking for help. She’s completely wrong, but it’s a very human approach. Her fear that ultimately turns into laughter as she is flying through space is gorgeous, mirroring that of the audience. The fear of the unknown and the beauty that surrounds her. The Vulcan Hello charts Burnham’s downfall and cements her reputation as the (accidental) catalyst to the start of a war between the Klingons and the Federation. This gives her a dramatic presence in the series but I think it is worth pointing out, because everybody will be pointing the finger at her in the future, that the Klingons were going to attack anyway and anything she does here merely gives them an excuse to bring forward their plan. She’s more of a scapegoat than anything. I’m not sure I buy her reason for wanting to open fire on the Klingons. She says it’s saying hello in a way that they understand, which would make sense if they were on conflicting terms but it just feels like open provocation to me. It’s quite a leap to say that the Klingons will respect you if you say hi with a torpedo up your arse. It feels like creating false drama, a character acting in an illegal way to pump up the tension. And Discovery is never short of that. Certainly, for her to attack her captain and commit mutiny is a massive step to make on the basis of a psychological hunch. 

I think it was Kate Mulgrew who once said that Star Trek comes with its own language and way and talking and acting and you can either adapt to that level of performance or you can’t. She was referring to the actress that she replaced in the role of Janeway, but she may as well have been talking about Michelle Yeoh who, despite being a very strong actress of some repute, looks extremely awkward and stiff in the Trek universe. There is a way of making technobabble sound effortlessly like Shakespeare, and Yeoh simply doesn’t have it. Even when she tries to display humour it comes across as forced an unconvincing (the gage about noting the date and time of an agreement between her officers). Interestingly, she would settle down a little in the second episode before being written out of the series for some time. 

To fear everything is to learn nothing, Saru is an intriguing new character and the only other person on the Shenzhou to exhibit any kind of personality so grab onto him and his quirks as quickly as you can. I thought we were heading into TOS territory with three central characters heading the series with Georgiou, Burnham and Saru taking the main chunk of the action. That was never the case but they are focus in the first episode and written with a small degree of familiarity and humour. We know relatively little about his species beyond the fact that they can sense death, but his caution, put downs and unwillingness to put himself in danger shows promise. At one point Burnham says that Saru is the only one talking on the crew about the potential upcoming conflict with the Klingons but that is only because he is the only character that has been allowed to exhibit a personality. His ability to sense the coming of death adds a layer of tension. That might be an interesting angle to explore throughout the series. 

Production - The title sequence and music both score a win for me, for once erring on the side of subtlety rather than melodrama. I’m used to Trek title sequences throwing a huge orchestra and vast interstellar vistas at me but Discovery instead pumps for a memorable but low-key theme tune that hits all the recognisably Trek notes and a progression of beautifully drawn images that represent the franchise in a vivid way. You might think it oversimplifies the franchise by reducing it to a number of sketched pictures but it suggests a back to basics approach that I wholeheartedly endorse. 

One of the most beautifully produced shows I have ever watched, Discovery really marks out a new era of science fiction that is genuinely reaching cinematic goals. There is no part of this episode that isn’t epic in it’s visual scope, from vast planetary landscapes with huge moons in the background (I love the creepy betentacled creatures that scuttle and chitter in to view) to a dazzling binary star system lit up by the majesty of a nearby sun. The transport technology is awesome, Burnham and Georgiou looking as if they are literally turning to dust in the desert. If Trek celebrates the beauty of the unknown then I cannot think of many sequences where that is explored more viscerally than Burnham flying through the binary system and landing on the dangerous looking and yet strangely beautiful Klingon vessel. Discovery feels like it is exploring the unknown visually and geographically. Hand to hand combat in space with both combatants caught in the hand of gravity is incredibly ambitious. 

Worst moment -  I want to get out of the way one of my biggest bugbears with Discovery and that is the interminable scenes with the Klingons talking in their own language. Firstly, I fail to understand how the Klingons look so different from their TOS counterparts given that this is set 10 years before the beginning of the Original Series. I get that Discovery wants to have its own visual impact with the species, but in order for this to fit in they need to evolve (devolve?) into wimpish looking orange men with goatees within a decade and then mutate into the Klingons that we know and recognise from hundreds of Trek episodes set during the TNG/DS9/VOY era. That’s rather a dramatic transformation for a species. It was these extended dialogue scenes in Klingonese that kept me at a distance from Discovery and forced me to watch the first episode three times before I finally moved on to episode two. They go on for the length of a bible, feature actors already struggling under heavy prosthetics with the addition hindrance of a language that the audience (except hardened Trek fans) understand. It’s a massive disconnect between the show and the audience, especially the casual audience, which I assume the producers were hoping to attract. I can imagine a non-SF fan switching on Discovery, seeing it’s main villains screaming their heads of in unintelligible dialogue but trying to pull it off like Shakespeare and switching off almost immediately. For Trek fans (which I guess I have to label myself, because I have reviewed almost 500 episodes), I can see the creative decision to allow this species to exist in its own right and free from the Federation and it’s spoken language and customs (because our go to Klingon was always Worf, who was corrupted by humanity at every turn) but in practice these scenes (some truly impressive design aside) are inexplicably inarticulate and boring. It’s no way to open a show, frankly. 

I wish they hadn't done that - I fail to understand why directors assume that science fiction has to be shot in such a discordant way, all tilted camera angles and over exposure, to overstress that this is not a regular drama. There were points during The Vulcan Hello when I wanted the camera to fix itself just so I could get a good look at the sets and concentrate on the performances but the pace, fast cuts, over lighting and sweeps and angles really served to distract. It suggests a lack of trust in the actors to constantly shoot them in such a jarring, attention seeking way that forces the attention on the direction over the performances. 

A reason to watch the episode again -  A show that offers a two-hour prologue rather than a pilot and is definitely serving up Trek for a post-JJ Abrams audience; Discovery offers a visually stunning but troubled opening episode. It asks its audience to take a lot for granted (the relationships between the three central characters are well established before the show begins), to be extremely patient (half the cast don’t feature nor the titular starship) and to suffer interminable scenes of Klingons spouting their own language. Countering that there are some truly dazzling special effects sequences, a sense of foreboding at a potential conflict with the Klingons, excitement at exploring the unknown and a pleasing feeling that this is a show that won’t set it’s stall immediately but build its foundations slowly through the first handful of episodes. TNG, DS9, VOY and Enterprise all laid out their intentions, their cast of characters and their settings quickly and created an identity in their pilot episodes but Discovery is going for a more slow burn, serialised approach. How things have changed. There’s an immediacy to the material, which is furiously paced and packed with visual interest but there were definitely points where I wished it would slow down and let me get close to the characters, which is my anchor into any series. By the end of The Vulcan Hello there is a mutiny that is sold as a huge moment for the characters but since we haven’t gotten to know them well enough it yet it feels like an unearned moment of drama, and rather hollow. It’s a deathly serious show at this point, lacking the colourful characters and humour that I have come to associate with Trek that makes all the technobabble and po-faced drama palatable. Burnham is an immediately interesting character but that is mostly down to Martin-Green’s nuanced performance, whereas I never believed in Georgiou for a second because Yeoh really struggles in this environment. Given conflict with the Klingons is a staple of Trek there is not a lot here that is particularly original, just how the material is presented. The Vulcan Hello works on a moment by moment basis, mostly because the budget allows for a beautifully realised universe, but you will have no clue what this show is going to be about once you reach the titles and I think that’s a tricky way to start a show. 

*** out of *****

The Nimon Be Praised! Series Two

The Power of Kroll


Join Jack & Joe as they kick off series two with a combative episode discussing the gripping Key to Time epic, The Power of Kroll. How would Russell T. Davies have written this story? Is it possible to give a damn about the Swampies? Is this the best Doctor Who location work? And find out all about the sequel...The Children of Kroll! All this and more...as we try very hard to discuss the merits or otherwise of this run of the mill adventure.

Timeless/HellBent


Join Jack & Joe as they tackle the potentially thorny subject of controversial episodes, specifically Hell Bent and The Timeless Children. Two divisive Gallifrey based episodes that attempt to shake up the formula. Was Hell Bent the ultimate criticism of the Doctor and how far he is meant to go...it is it just perversely toxic characterisation? Was The Timeless Children a bold opening out of the shows storytelling possibilities...or was a damning of established continuity? Join us as we reach some huge conclusions about two reviled and celebrated episodes.

Season 24


Join Jack and Joe as they avoid the Rani’s bubble traps, swim past the robotic nasties in the pool, let loose the bees that bring down the Bannermen and open a window that melts off Kane’s face. Season 24 is in the limelight and we’re ready to discuss whether it is unfairly maligned. Is this Sylvester McCoy’s best season, performance wise? Is Mel as grotesque as the stories around her? Hurry...while stocks last.

The Twin Dilemma


With Jack off on thespian duties, Joe dares to plumb the depths of melodrama and tackle The Twin Dilemma solo! Does Colin Baker salvage this story or ruin it? Is tin foil chic an eighties aesthetic? Should Hugo Lang have been a companion? Does Fabian deserve her own spin off show? And can Joe defend his 5/10 rating for this story?

Akhaten/Praxeus


Join Jack & Joe as they are reunited after a few weeks and get to work praising stories from eras they aren’t fond of. Can Merry actually sing? What is the best version of Clara? Is Doctor Who too woke? And is it possible to give four regulars something to do in 45 minutes? All this and a full ten minutes of frippery as we desperately manage to avoid introducing our topic!

The Caves of Androzani


Jack & Joe are back! This week they are discussing an undisputed classic...or perhaps they are about to dispute that? Is Nicola Bryant a little too good in the role of the sexually targeted victim? Is this the best directed Doctor Who story? Are there any redeemable characters here? And should this be going out at teatime? All this and a trailer for the next four episodes...featuring guest stars!

The TV Movie


Join Jack, Joe and special guest star Kayla (creator of the podcast artwork) as they head to San Fransisco 1999 for the start of Paul McGann’s prolific reign as the Doctor. Just who was the most vital minor character? How camp can Eric Roberts go? Is this a movie or a pilot? All this and so much more laughter and high jinks.

Punkab/Mysterio


Join Jack & Joe & Rohan as they step into the muddy waters of the partition of India and leap into the technicolour panels of a Doctor Who comic strip. Does Jodie Whittaker cement herself as the Doctor in this mid season historical? Does Mysterio live up to the legacy of the superhero movies it is homaging? And how would you cast the romantic leads in this romcom? All this and more as we introduce a brilliantly engaging guest caster.

Ghost Light


Join Jack & Joe as they scratch the Victorian veneer and see if something nasty comes crawling out. Clever or confusing? Is this a renaissance for the show? The best cast in the classic series? And is the extended blu ray version worth watching? All this and more Light impressions than is healthy for two grown men to perform.

Nathan Bottomley


Join Joe as he has a fascinating conversation with fellow podcaster, Nathan Bottomley, from Flight Through Entirety. We discuss FTE, Eric Saward, Hinchcliffe, RTD, Steven Moffat, Barbara, Susan, Jo Grant, Sarah Jane, Robert Holmes...and so much more. We wander the length and breadth of Doctor Who.

Favourite Christmas Specials


Join Jack & Joe as we round off our second series of podcasts with a discussion of our favourite Christmas Specials! Does RTD even get a look in? Why is Jack’s favourite Joe’s least favourite? Is Matt Smith’s Doctor a left wing time fascist? Does Peter Capaldi finally cheer up at Christmas? And what will be the last of The Brain of Morbius quotes as wave goodbye to that story and herald in a fresh one?

VOY – Remember

Plot – As a side note to the relevant message of the episode and the technology that they bring to Voyager, how nice for the crew to meet a new species that they can call their friends. It seems that so often Voyager is encountering hostile species in the Delta Quadrant that it is refreshing to meet a new race that simply wants a lift and to exchange information about their cultures (and a little more besides).

I love how sensibly plotted this story is. Nobody is forced to act like an idiot in order to make the story work. The telepathic abilities of the Enarans are immediately brought up. Torres’ dreams are immediately put down to their visitors presence. The Doctor finds an immediate cure to the visions she is undergoing. And it is Torres’ choice to continue to experience the narrative because she feels a connection with Korrena and wants to know how the story ends. When the truth is exposed, the Enarans refuse to believe the horrible truth they are hearing. And Torres reaches out to one woman to let her experience the same dreams, and hopefully spread the word. At each one of these turns the story could have gone in another direction where characters are made to look stupid in order to progress the story but it follows a direct, linear and sensible course throughout. And it’s shot through with real emotion to make it all the more impactful.

The second anyone starts talking about ‘regressives’ who ‘don’t think like we do’ who are being resettled then warning klaxons start going off in my head. Even Korenna looks completely unconvinced when she tells one of the regressives that they will be going somewhere else where they can be with their own people. Star Trek has made a habit of holding up a mirror to the horrors of the past by telling a story in the future and Remember is one of the better examples. A dislike for the unlike. Suggesting that people who choose to live their lives a different way are unsanitary and need educating in better ways. Cutting away that part of society and sterilising it. The Enarans treatment of the regressives is brutal and the episode doesn’t shy away from it. The fact that Korenna then becomes part of the propaganda machine that tells the children that ask questions about the regressives that they essentially killed themselves in their new resettlement is the most alarming thing of all. For these people to have been swept away and then blamed for their own destruction is just appalling.

Character – Torres talking to Chakotay about her sensual dreams being liberating is one of those moments when one of the Voyager crew sounds utterly authentic and not scripted. They don’t hit too often.

Performance – Roxan Dawson is one of the great unsung heroines of Voyager, often forgotten next to Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan and Remember displays exactly what I mean by that in spades. She gets the chance to play two very different characters compellingly, and to give her brand new character Korenna a great deal of depth and nuance and to show how one character has a profound effect on the other. When Torres suggests that she is liberated by dreaming of being this character, that is exactly what Dawson is doing. Getting the chance to stretch her wings and do things that Torres would never do. I particularly like Korenna’s unrepressed sexuality, because that is quite the opposite of Torres and reveals a whole new side to Dawson.

Great Dialogue – ‘No apologies. No requests for forgiveness. Just the truth.’
‘So that’s it? We just go on our merry way and nobody has to take any kind of responsibility.’

Production – For once Neelix is shoving another culture down the throats of the crew for a good reason and his impromptu party for the Anarans and how he tries to educate the Voyager crew in their culture is really rather special. The décor, the ambience, the music; it all works. This is Star Trek seeking out new life and new civilisations.

Best moment – The sequence where Korenna has to face up to the fact that her father is a monster and has been systematically wiping out the regressives…and how with a little persuasion from the man himself she finds that she can live with the idea rather than throw away her career. The fact that she turns in her own regressive lover rather than acknowledge publicly that her father is a monster is a shocking moment. And suddenly the entire reason that she has been pouring these memories into Torres’ head makes perfect sense. She wishes to atone for that terrible choice she made all those years ago. For Voyager this is some surprisingly hard-hitting characterisation. Normally it would duck out of characters making stomach turning choices like this. Dawson plays the scene where Korenna makes her choice in complete silence and the conflict that she goes through and the ultimate choice are stunning acting choices.

I wish they hadn’t done that – TNG’s Violations dealt with a race of telepaths that came on board the Enterprise and imposed their will upon the crew. Comparisons between the two episodes are inevitable.

A reason to watch this episode again – It might be easy to pass this off as another Voyager episode that is gripping because it isn’t about the Voyager crew (ala Living Witness, Timeless, Pathfinder) but the way in which Remember develops means that it shows how much the Enaran history touches B’Elanna means that she can pass on that knowledge to future generations. They have an impact of this society because she was chosen. Throughout I was convinced that this was some enemy of the Enarans trying to sully their name but because of the gripping, direct way in which the flashbacks are told and how Torres reacts so vividly to them you know that this disturbing memory of genocide is very real. As the episode progresses, the memories get more unnerving until we reach the scene where Korenna’s lover is exposed and murdered and it’s one of the most hand to mouth scenes in this shows entire run, especially because Korenna herself has been corrupted to give him up. Roxan Dawson is a revelation, proving in one episode why she was chosen for such a vital part on this show and giving a performance that is a cut way above what is expected of episodic television. The fact that Jeri Taylor thinks that this is one of the season three episodes that doesn’t work goes to show just how much we are on different pages in terms of quality. I think it is one of the rare season three episodes that scores big time. A carbon copy of Violations this isn’t. It’s better.

****1/2 out of *****

TNG – The Host

Plot – There are times when TNG exudes a glorious sense of familiarity with the characters and you just smile at the warmth that is exuding from the screen. The opening of The Host is one of those times. Crusher wants to get her new Ambassadorial lover to her quarters and bonk his brains out but Data, failing to spot all the right social cues, instead wishes to take away her lover and do a two-hour study. Cue a sequence of lies to keep Data busy so Crusher can sneak off and get her end away. It’s not exactly comedy gold, but it did make me smile.

The Trill are an opportunity to do someone a little unusual with an alien species, to not just throw some ridges on an actors head and have that as a shortcut that the person on screen is an extra-terrestrial. It’s taking a much more psychological approach, where storytelling possibilities are enticing, where the Trill is a host carrier for a symbiont that passes from person to person and carries their memories with them. I remember when I first watched this as a child feeling excited by the possibilities of such a species and that kind of psychological insight you could tap into, even then. That episodes such as Facets, Rejoined, Equilibrium, Afterimage were all a result of this bold concept that TNG put out there is all to their credit. The potential was fully realised and I’m sure that there were still more stories to tell, post DS9.

Character – Trust Picard to cut through Beverley’s kinky fun. She’s being kissed and complimented and he cuts through all the fun with a comms. She acts like a child that has been caught doing something naughty. I love it when Dr Bev is allowed to behave like a human being instead of a Starfleet medical drone. It’s in her downtime moments where Gates McFadden really shines in the role and where I can’t imagine Dr Pulaski taking her place. The second she starts admitting that she is blissfully happy in love it is patently clear that she is about to receive terrible news that her lover has suffered a terrible fate. That’s just the way episodic television goes.

Just look at Picard’s face when Odan states that Dr Crusher is an extraordinary woman. Never before has he tried to change the subject so quickly.

Imagine the difficulty for Troi to counsel Beverley who has fallen in love with a man who comes from a species that can change host bodies and he know inhabits the body of Troi’s former lover. Only on Star Trek.

Performance – Good grief. The gorgeous scene where Deanna winds Dr Bev up as she is getting beauty treatments displays a lovely, natural chemistry between the two characters. ‘Sometimes I wish you weren’t so damn empathic…’

Great Dialogue – ‘You can’t be open to love if you can’t risk pain’ might sound like a dreadful line but anybody who has been in love and felt pain knows just how much truth there is in that statement.

Best moment – All the unspoken relationships amongst the crew that give this story it’s substance. This might be a love story about Dr Bev and Odan but the most powerful moments come from Picard and Troi when it looks like Beverley and Riker have been snapped up. It’s one of the few times where I feel it was a good idea that they never explored these relationships on TNG because what is unspoken is much more powerful than what is said aloud. Even better is the weirdness that now exists between Beverley and Riker now they have done the deed.

Worst moment – The negotiations. They are merely an excuse for Odan to be on the ship. Why we have to sit through all the preparations and then the actual negotiations says something about episodic television of the time. Nowadays we would get to the juicy stuff of the Trill plot much quicker and explore the implications of the gender transition with much more detail and (hopefully) satisfaction).

I wish they hadn’t done that – In The Host it is acknowledged that transportation damages the host symbiont of any Trill. Obviously, that is something that they worked on over time because it would have been a major plot complication in many a DS9 episode. Either that or the writers just chose to ignore the continuity that they set up here.

What’s odd is that Riker literally seems to become Odan the second the symbiont is inside of him. Going forward that is the suggestion that the host is the dominant personality and that all the previous hosts memories swim beneath the surface. Here the episode seems to suggest Riker’s personality is subsumed and the previous host is now in control of the body.

When Dr Bev talks about how she cannot move past the fact that the host has moved from one gender to another it sounds as though she is talking for the entirety of humanity, and that is one of the more unfortunate decisions that TNG ever made. It would have been so much braver (for the time, but complete normal these days), and more interesting had she chosen to pursue the relationship whilst Odan is in a female host. Essentially it seems to be saying that bisexuality or pansexuality does not exist in the future and that’s not a statement any show should be seen to be making.

A reason to watch this episode again – First off, massive kudos for TNG for trying to tell a fairly radical story, especially for the time. It takes real nuts to tackle the subject of bisexuality in such a creative fashion and for a while I was convinced that this was going to be an absolute classic. Beverley’s relationship with Odan feels very real and the two actors have terrific chemistry and I love how the show shifts into uncomfortable territory when the symbiont shifts to Riker and the romance continues. The Trill are an intriguing new species and one that DS9 would be able to tackle in far more depth over seven seasons, but this is a fair attempt to explore the idea of lifetimes shifting from one person to another in a single episode. Where the episode dives and crashes is in the last scene where Dr Bev fails to acknowledge that humanity can move on from very strict gender ideals. Newsflash – we’re already making huge strides in that direction. How much bolder would it have been for Beverley to extend the possibility of a romance to female Odan and to suggest that sexuality is a far more malleable thing than was the norm in the early nineties. Instead it seems to putting a halt on stories that explore sexuality in the 24^th century, which is unthinkable, when there is so much that could have been explored there. When Star Trek came around to exploring Trill romance again it did so in DS9’s Rejoined where same sex passion is a perfectly normal, unquestioned delight. The Host is trying very hard to be revolutionary. Instead it’s reductive and exclusionist. And that’s a crying shame because everybody is so committed. Gates McFadden has never been better.

*** out of *****

TOS – The Changeling

Plot – You know you are watching science fiction when you are threatened with ‘an extremely dangerous bolt of energy!’ And bugger me if it doesn’t hit and throw all of the actors across the set this way and that. It’s the same energy as 90 photon torpedoes and so you would expect some kind of terrible impact. So, when they are hit three times surely that is the equivalent of being hit by 270 torpedoes? Surely the Enterprise would have been destroyed under that onslaught? 

The idea of the Enterprise encountering a probe from Earth that was sent out on the same missions as there’s – to seek out new lifeforms but that programming has been altered to a point where it attempts to wipe out biological infestations, is a fascinating one. Sometimes when I hear the bold concepts of these Original Series episodes I can see immediately why this show caught on so well with the public at the time.

The trouble with episodic television is that you can introduce a character as smart and capable as Nomad but ultimately he is always going to have to slip up because it has to be defeated within 50 minutes. And usually that means it making an out of character or stupid move. Nomad is defeated by an argument of logic by Kirk, which is a really fun scene as he essentially talks the machine into committing suicide. The Changeling demonstrates that you don’t have to take a dive into illogic at the last hurdle in order to resolve the episode. Fabulously, Spock admits to Kirk that he didn’t think he had such a dazzling display of logic in him.

Character – I love Kirk’s reasoning that as soon as Nomad is brought on board that it will no longer be taking any shots at them. This is one of the best episodes to expose Kirk as a strategist. There’s a real battle of wits between Kirk and Nomad and he has to try and understand his opponent in order to defeat it.

How does Spock perform a mind meld on a computer? I was on board with Scotty dying, Uhura losing her memory…but the idea of Spock going head to head with a machine baffled me? I thought it was memories and emotions that he can sense? Surely, he cannot get that from wires and circuits? Leonard gives the scene exactly the kind of gravitas that it needs to convince you that this is taking place, but on a logical level my brain just couldn’t make the leap.

Great Dialogue – ‘Intelligence does not necessarily require bulk, Mr Scott.’

Production – Nomad has a sleek and impressive design, even for the time, and how they achieved it floating about the ship is genuinely impressive. What truly sells the machine, however, is the ever-recognisable voice of Vic Perrin, who gives a terrific performance as the logical and cold computer. This is an acting role that requires the computer to go head to head with Kirk. I can only imagine how intolerable this would have been had Nomad just emitted a series of bleeps and bloops. Some of the best moments of this episode are Nomad on the move and the creative ways that the director makes his transportation feel so smooth. The handheld camerawork is especially dramatic. Even in the special edition you can see the string in shot from time to time.

Best moment – How refreshing to give Uhura some focus and in the first half of the episode you might be fooled into thinking that she was a fully paid up member of this crew rather than somebody who often chirps up with the odd line. I love seeing her this involved. She’s a vital part of the Bridge scenes, she’s heard singing (and how lovely that the crew listen to her on the comms, she has a beautiful voice) and she is confronted by Nomad because of it. When she is attacked, a massive deal is made of that (of the kind that is usually reserved for Spock or McCoy) and I am thankful that Nichols fought her corner and had Uhura speak in Swahili once she has regressed mentally. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the episode that Whoopi Goldberg watched when she called in her mother and exclaimed that a black woman was on the television and she wasn’t a maid. The implication is that the loss of Uhura would have a huge impact on the show, and I like that.

Worst moment – Scotty’s death is exactly the sort of cheap tricks that TOS played all the time. It’s like Steven Moffat is in charge. I was counting the minutes until he was alive again.

I wish they hadn’t done that – It takes a shocking ten minutes for the crew to make contact with Nomad and in that time there is relatively little character material to be found, just a ton of technobabble. I have heard an argument that these TOS episodes could all do with being edited much tighter and I have to say I agree with this assessment. There is plenty of hanging about with relatively little happening here (I remember The Corbomite Maneuver was the same) and with a little judicious editing those episode ten minutes could easily take place in two or three. I realise what I am saying is probably heresy to hardcore fans of this show but in terms of empty air time, this is very guilty.

A reason to watch this episode again – A memorable episode for the fact that Kirk has to oppose and defeat a powerful piece of technology, but in doing so a Trek cliché is created and would be repeated ad nauseum over the next two seasons. Nomad is memorable, both aesthetically and creatively, and there are some awesome scenes where the crew have to try and outsmart it. How they take a piece of technology that originally had the same mission as this crew and twist it so it is directly opposed to any other life in the universe is quite inspired. It shows us what this show could be like if it was about a ship that seeked out new life and new civilisations…and destroyed it. Season two features a lot of my favourite TOS episodes (Amok Time, The Doomsday Machine, The Trouble With Tribbles) and this game of cat and mouse isn’t quite up there with those but it is still an engaging piece with some smart writing (DC Fontana gave this polish) and really fun scenes (especially when Nomad is on the move). Ten minutes shorter and it might be a classic. Nomad should have had his memory wiped and remained on the Enterprise. He would have made a memorable addition to the crew.

**** out of *****

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