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[joju-but-trek]

Q is such a good character. What if an eldritch creature got really bored but he was also deeply lonely. He’s great.

yeah okay deja q is what i needed to get q i think. the whole friendship with data especially, with both q and data having outsider perspectives on humanity but the difference being data's ability to be positive about humanity and, despite supposedly not having emotions, being possibly the first person ever to truly give a shit about q. q describing picard as the closest thing he has to a friend in the universe at the start of the episode (comedy) and then reflected in him saying that if he'd died no one would have cared he was gone (tragedy) at the end. the explicit framing of his attempt at a noble sacrifice being as a suicide as he realizes how miserable he is. just... imagine being immortal on the scale of billions and detached from everything and then, for the first time in your immortal existence, realizing that you're really fucking lonely. yeah you know what i might throw the enterprise at a borg cube just to get picard to say "i need you" too for that reason. and you're the comic relief character. what the fuck man,

[joju-but-trek]

You know, in honor of the Bell Riots, it would be really cool if we could get together a list of homeless shelters and resource networks people could support.

I'll start: Safe Place for Youth is a great organization in LA for anyone under 25 experiencing homelessness. I've volunteered there and am continually in awe of what they provide for the community.

[joju-but-trek]

THE BELL RIOTS

This is just to say the Bell Riots don't take place on August 30th. That's the day Sisko, Dax, and Bashir will have been being arrived* in San Francisco. The Riots will be September 1-3, 2024.

That said, instead of rioting, today I honored Gabriel Bell's heroics with a donation to a couple of charities that help the unhoused and the hungry. I've donated to the Hollywood Food Coalition and the SF Marin Food Bank:

Hollywood Food Coalition Building Community since 1987 - Hollywood Food Coalition (hofoco.org)

San Francisco-Marin Food Bank - Every $1 Donated Provides 2 Meals‎ (sfmfoodbank.org)

I made the donations "In Memory of Gabriel Bell." Please consider honoring Gabriel Bell with donations of your own to these or other organizations that helped the unhoused.

Thank you! Stay safe out there. Live long and prosper!

*Tense is tricky for time travel.

[joju-but-trek]

I saw an interesting post that I can’t find now about people getting excited about violent Trek moments paralleling reality, especially with today being the Bell Riots.

Yeah, we shouldn’t be celebrating them, and after the last few years I don’t want to believe that extreme violence is the only way to get results. Especially when Trek takes that to the only conclusion possible - total nuclear war. There’s a better world after it, but it costs a lot to get there.

I don’t have a better conclusion right now than doing what I can to make a world where the Bell Riots aren’t necessary and imploring others to do the same, sorry to say. But if you do specifically care about combatting homelessness, I’m trying to compile a list of shelters and services for people experiencing homelessness to give to or volunteer at here.

[joju-but-trek]

I’m watching Past Tense now. Why are the cops dressed like Ghostbusters

[joju-but-trek]

You know, in honor of the Bell Riots, it would be really cool if we could get together a list of homeless shelters and resource networks people could support.

I'll start: Safe Place for Youth is a great organization in LA for anyone under 25 experiencing homelessness. I've volunteered there and am continually in awe of what they provide for the community.

[joju-but-trek]

bell riots tomorrowwwww

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek news:

- Lower Decks! Yay! I love those guys! Sad they’re being cancelled but at least they get to go down swinging. Everything in the trailer looks like fun.

- Strange New Worlds what are you doing?

- Section 31: Suicide Squad (2016) called and they want their font back.

- Starfleet Academy has the Doctor! Yay!

- Tawny Newsome has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.

[joju-but-trek]

Of course this is subjective.

[joju-but-trek]

Star Wars is Greek; Star Trek is Roman. 

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 20: Ouroboros, Part 2

I'm so glad no one got erased on Solum. Or did they?

With this episode, we close the door on Prodigy season 2. What a ride it's been. I loved this season and all the successful swings it took, and I am still overwhelmingly impressed by how much they crammed into 20 episodes while still making it entirely coherent. Hats off to the whole team for that. 10/10 for the episode, 9/10 for the season

This review has to be in three parts because of the absolute bombshell that happens halfway through the episode and because we need to talk about the season as a whole.

For the first half of the episode, I loved the escape sequence. It felt a bit like they'd handled too much of the plot in the last episode and didn't have much to fill out the finale, which does make sense with the twist halfway through. I feel like if I were going to make this part a little more exciting, I would have had the Loom creatures get onto the ship and cause some chaos, or maybe have Dal and Ma'jel flying outside with cover fire, but what we got was excellent. And it caps off with the montage of the whole show so far, which was pretty emotional.

And with that, the episode and season 2 end, except HAHA SUCKERS YOU THOUGHT WE FORGOT ABOUT CONTINUITY.

I'm still in shock that they actually followed through and did the Mars attack in this episode. I didn't think they'd show it, and I actually had to pause the episode when it happened. Aaron, if you're reading this, first of all thank you so much for this amazing show and for engaging with the community, and second of all, I'm fascinated by why you did this. What was the reasoning? Because there's so much loaded into having it happen and disrupt everything that it feels like it can't just be setup for getting the new ship together, it feels deliberate to have a paradigm-shattering event break everything you know and love right at the last minute. It's handled well but holy shit it's a massive gut punch.

Janeway's mini-retirement only works in the context of keeping the twist, and it does make sense that way, and I'm glad she got a scene to object to Starfleet's reprioritization. I think it would have been better if she'd explicitly argued against abandoning the Romulans - I don't think anyone brings it up at that meeting - but at least she's still putting up a fight. Her strategy of getting the main cast onto a new ship and back to exploring is fine, but I do hope that if/when we get a season 3 they go to Romulus and get involved there.

Aesthetically, I love the new uniforms. The flashback uniform from Picard is one of my favorite designs, and all the senior officers were wearing it at the end. The Prodigy crew gets a variant of it that I'm not as fond of, but it's more in that style and I appreciate it. I also love that Murf is in one now too. They let him get away with dress code violations for way too long.

We also get the conclusion of Dal's arc, which is excellent. One of the problems with setting someone up to be First Officer is that eventually, they're going to take command. And having Dal accept the FO position because he wants to grow before taking command is a great way to balance the humility and patience arcs that he's been developing.

For the season as a whole, we've been gifted some of the best Star Trek has to offer. It's a serialized narrative that still has time for fun individual beats, while also focusing heavily on building out a cast of very real characters and giving them space to grow. It gets weird in the ways Trek is supposed to, but it never forgets about the people the show is supposed to be about, and I love that. Great job, Prodigy. Go Fast. Hopefully we meet again for season 3.

Also, next time around please put Dal in a room with Tom Paris.

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 19: Ouroboros, Part 1

So next episode starts with Andrew Garfield jumping through, right?

Entering the finale, things are certainly escalating. It seems to be organizing around the two main threats of the season and giving them each an episode in the spotlight, which does make sense. It works, and this episode is a good wrap-up of the Ascensia plotline while also giving Gwyn some resolution. 9/10

This episode is all motion. It has to be, and it's well-paced for it. Voyager is handling space combat and half the main crew gets a cool platform fight that reminds me a bit of Phantom Menace. It all looks fantastic, and I love it.

It is interesting that they split everyone up into different strands for the finale. It's good storytelling economy, but after the buildup of how important it was that everyone stay together it does feel weird. That being said, the dynamics do work well. We get high-stakes math in one thread, high-stakes plugging-things-in in another, and high-stakes swordfighting in a third. They're all fun.

I'm glad Gwyn got the moment with Ascensia. We started the season with her on the thread, and just by the nature of what the show had to cover we lost that, but there's a nice wrapup here for it. Thematically, I'm not sure where I fall on Gwyn winning with the power of community and family. It works with the show overall, and I think it works in the moment, but the first time Gwyn and Ascensia dueled this season Gwyn almost won alone and part of me thinks that reestablishing that in front of the Vau N'Kat would have worked. That being said, there's something in them accepting her whether or not she can take Ascensia, so I'm split on that.

While Gwyn was doing character development, Dal was busy trying to plug something in. It was a good self-sacrifice beat for him, and it does support his character arc really nicely. It was also a fun visual of Murf keeping the Drednok busy.

I also like that the time travel is coming together. Ouroboros is a good name for the episode because of how the causal loop works out. Good naming there.

The only thing left is the Loom coming out of a wormhole. It's a good menace for the finale, but it does make me question again how Ascensia captured one. It's also another example of the apocalyptic stakes for basically all of modern Trek. Other people have complained before and care about it more than I do, but it is pretty blatant when space and time are falling apart here. It works here, for this show, in this context, though, so I'm not holding it against the season specifically.

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 18: Touch of Grey

It's just like in my fanfics! - The Doctor

In the penultimate episode of this season, we have a piece that closes out a lot of subplots. It makes sense that this episode would try to clear the field for a more focused finale, but it does feel a little weird with respect to what it does and doesn't try to wrap up. It also feels like it was trying to do slightly too much towards that end while also doing something new, and it could have handled it better. 8/10

In terms of subplot focus, this episode tries to wrap up a lot of the internal politics on Solum. That part works. It sets up Iltharan to lead a resistance, undermines Ascensia, and works to reposition Ascensia as just herself with a lot more funding instead of the face of a vast empire. I like this emphasis, even if I think it didn't get enough onscreen development leading up to it. Still, I am invested and sold on her as the main villain.

This episode is also the first to really center the returning characters. It had to happen at some point, and I'm glad that it's a) not the finale and b) still focused on them supporting the Prodigy characters. Nerfing Wesley also makes sense for the finale, and they do some character work towards that, but there is something inherently funny about Wesley and Janeway sharing a moment where they realize they're getting old when Chakotay is right there and even more aged up by this season's events.

The legacy character that's worked the least for me and has only gotten worse is the Doctor, which is disappointing because I love the character. He's been played as a joke for most of the season, and this episode is the worst offender of it as he becomes the primary comic relief of the team. It's not anything character-breaking, it's just that as a fan of the character I wish they hadn't made the creative decision to use him like this. I feel like if you gave all his specific medical duties to Noum he wouldn't even need to be here for this season. Honestly, Tuvok might have worked better in that capacity, since he provides another Vulcan tactician for Ma'jel to bounce off of. It's unfortunate, but the show isn't about him, and he isn't needed for this story to work.

Also, Ascensia captured a Loom creature somehow. They handwave it, which isn't completely out of line with how much Ascensia was able to steal from Wesley, but it is a bit of a jump from them almost eating Voyager last time we saw them. I do like that the characters end up using it to get out instead of fighting it - it's a good reminder of how these creatures work in Star Trek, where talking your way out of problems is a much stronger tactic.

Anyway, the finale's next! I hope Dal flies something small and full of lasers while the Doctor writes more self-insert fanfic.

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 17

It's just a site-to-site transport to the left.

I love the scale we're working on now. There's still a multiverse-spanning creature coming, but we also still have the personal story and the Starfleet political story going on, and it all ties together so beautifully. I'm on board for the finale. 9/10

The Wesley mystery set up last episode is closed out pretty quiickly. It's fine for what it is - I do think they could have stretched out Ascensia having him for longer, but with everything else they put into this season it's a good way to cover more ground. Also, Wil Wheaton was having fun this episode and I'm happy for him.

I like that Janeway's war council is split evenly between the Voyager transplants and the new Prodigy crew. It's nice seeing them all bounce off each other like that, and how they work with each other as a new unit. They also set Gwyn up for her mission in a good, measured way, and it works for her.

Putting Gwyn in charge was also a good call for the arc. It worked for recentering the story on her as the crew went back to Solum, which was definitely necessary considering that we're reintroduced to the planet here. It's a bit weird that we're getting introduced to three very different Solums in the same season, but the show does make it work well. Saying it like that does make me realize just how much ground this 20-episode season has covered, and I am so impressed that they did all that and still made it an amazing, character-focused story. I'm taking notes.

I also like that Wesley's "stay together" was entirely literal. That was a funny twist and a good dread moment for the episode. Speaking of dread moments, I noticed that young Ascensia wasn't there at the end. I'm on to you, Aaron.

I'm excited to get into the finale. It's a little weird that there's an episode between now and then, but they did it in season 1 too, and that was good character material too.

[joju-but-trek]

[joju-but-trek]

skizz shouldn’t be on the bridge of the uss protostar

suggested by anonymous

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 16: Ascension, Part 2

I didn't think M. Night Shyamalan could do Star Trek, but here we are.

This episode is an amazing payoff to part 1. It feels like a weird thing to specifically praise, but so often the setup and payoff don't work as well as this one did in Trek two-parters. This episode manages to feel like the dramatic conclusion to part 1 without carrying the same finale vibes part 1 did, which is impressive in its own way. 9/10

Is this the first true starfighter combat in Trek? There's a lot of large ship-to-ship combat in older shows, but I don't think we've gotten a proper Star Wars-type dogfight in space before. I could be totally wrong, and if I am, the comments on this will be a great watch guide, but if it has happened before I can't remember or I haven't seen it. Either way, it looks amazing, and it's something that makes so much sense for Dal and Ma'jel to be good at that I never thought of.

Speaking of Ma'jel, she has a few good one-liners this episode. In general, Ma'jel's dialogue is amazing. I'm not sure how they figured out how to do a Vulcan adolescent as well as they did, but she works so well. And the moment she has at the end with Zero being the first one to touch them is amazing.

Zero's arc also got a good payoff here. I still don't know if I would have paired it with the overall Quest for Chakotay arc, but I like the way they ended it, while also managing to kill off Zero without having to actually kill them off. The visuals of the body ageing to death are great, and Zero getting last words was pretty gutting. I do like the new bodysuit, it's my favorite Zero look, and I like how it looks like a more refined version of the original outfit.

Janeway and Chakotay strategizing in the background was also fun, even if it did rush things with Jellico letting them get back to the mission. I can't remember if I said it before, but I'm not sure why it has to be Jellico representing Starfleet here. He works best in his original story as an example of what Starfleet shouldn't allow, and him still being here could add merit to why the Mars Riots went the way they did, but I'm not sure he needs to be in this specific story issuing commands.

Also, because I did double-check, the Boothby Supernova is named after the Academy groundskeeper from TNG. I admit I had to look it up to confirm, but I did think it was the move that got Nick Locarno kicked out at first, and when I researched it, I found out the actual origin. Nice one.