It is unfortunately extremely accurate to the manga. In the manga has so many cliffnotes in the margins to explain things, and honestly it does not do that good of a job at it. You have to fill in the blanks a lot of the time. It's also very fitting to cyberpunk media. Like Neuromancer is very obtuse and you have to fill in the blanks again.
The only downside is that the Badmeral didn't get his comeuppance like is tradition, but I can excuse that because we get some justification why M’Benga gets a demotion.
We've seen this plot a few times, I don't feel that's a bad thing. I feel like some of the best of Star Trek, and especially SNW, is just recycling plots but doing them better, or at least something different.
Also, it was super nice to give Uhura the spotlight. It felt a bit over the top, but I kind of accept it... I kind of wish A’Sha had a bit more development to land her decision, but she was not having a good time on the Enterprise and she clearly almost died, and technically she's seen enough times where the Enterprise was almost destroyed, it really does seem logical for her to nope out of Star Fleet. I cannot fault the Vulcan prioritizing self preservation over Uhura's attempts to make her feel welcomed.
And a few continuity notes. The ship is obviously the same one from Balance of Terror. The other helms men next to Sulu says, everyone knows who attacked the Star Fleet Base. So this cloak ship has been a problem for a while and everyone knows of it, but there is likely political problems that make it impossible to deal with.
We also know cloaking tech is not new, as we also see it in ENT's Minefield.
We also seen an alternate reality version of Balance of Terror in SNW's A Quality of Mercy, which I feel this has some strange parallels with. Where in QoM Pike hesitates to attack the Romulan Ship, while we see in BoT Kirk is gungho. In this one Kirk is less gungho (but like, reasonably so). I just thought it was an interesting take. It also explains why the writers need to make sure Pike wasn't on board or else he'd have spoiled the big reveal that it was Romulans.
Hot take. I liked this episode. I felt is landed better then most of the other gimmicks like the puppet episode.
I do believe this season has REALLY been stretching my suspension of disbelief, but I feel a Q episode works well enough as a way to make people perform out of character while also doing some character development.
I just feel like the character development feels a bit weird.
I feel like Ortegas is a simple premise for a character, but I feel like she has had the best, and most realistic character work.
M'Benga, I feel like his character is all over the place. He's like a vengeful war veteran, a bit of PTSD, yet a caring healer. The tone of his character is wild.
But it was actually nice to give them both a bit of screen time together. If it wasn't for the stuff around it being complete nonsense, it was honestly pretty heartwarming.
And I've been waiting for Sybok to get some screen time for so long, and then they take it away from me! I would have loved it if they had really had him, and have him played by Ethan Peck. Just play all of that complete nonsense straight! They foreshadowed he'd play a role, and you have no idea how insanely disappointed I am. Like he really could use some character development, so Star Trek V doesn't feel like it just comes out of nowhere.
I also did find it interesting how they did weave Pike's and Uhura's shared drama of loosing their families. Its something I never thought they'd bother to deal with. And I thought they handled it pretty well.
Also, hilarious that Chapel had an entire adventure off screen. Honestly, kind of what seems like happens to Chapel all the time, like when everyone turned in to Vulcans.
So...I actually like this episode.
EDIT: Also stay tuned for the post credit scene for this episode.
I liked this episode. Reminds me of TNG's Disaster, obviously because they both meant to be disaster movies.
I liked that we had a lot of plots requiring everyone to work together to solve the problem of the week. Felt better then the last few episodes.
I'm also starting to feel like Roddenberry's decree that there shouldn't be any interpersonal conflict really does sell the competence porn aspect of Star Trek that I love. So because of Chapel's and M'Benga's fighting, it did take me out a bit. Also...I do find it slightly hard to believe that they don't have dermal generators to heal a crushed pelvis. This conceptually, seems survivable to me. But then again, I guess there was a time Worf was going to be paralyzed but then Klingon anatomy saved the day, so I guess medical tech can fail if the plot needs it to.
Yeah, since it's a dream, I really wish they had gone all in on the cartoon gags. That's my only complaint.
I can excuse the premise and even the cop out, it's all a dream, but they really need to just go all in on the concept. Like maybe some Kermit tilting his head back while his arms flail around or crumple his face with the puppeteer's fist like when he's mad. Like literally the lowest hanging fruit is using puppet hair whip to the face. Or maybe some cecoling, fourth wall breaking, a Pigs in Space reference which is a parody of Star Trek. Like, just go ape shit with the concept.
I feel really conflicted about this season. I like they're experimenting and trying new stuff, but like, i don't know if it's landing.
However, I do believe in like 10 years I'm going to look back and think, this is good Star Trek. But similar to...honestly all Star Trek, I find it hard to really enjoy it in the moment for some reason.
I guess Star Trek is a fine wine. You got to let it age a bit first.
On retrospective, I really like the development of Ortega. We've seen her rebuild a motorcycle in her quarters. We've seen her jury rig a universal translator in Terrarium. So her revealing she's mad that she didn't become an engineer makes a lot of sense, and taking it out on Scotty.
That's solid character development that has been building over multiple episodes. I appreciate the slow burn and foreshadowing.
We got horror last week, now we got stoner comedy this week. And kicked us off with a Jurassic Park episode. They really are running the gambit with film genres.
I love that they're experimenting, but I also would really appreciate some traditional Star Trek of seeing professionals being professional. I just want some of that Andy Weir style competence porn!
After reading some of the comments, I'm now going to watch the Hangover. As I had compared this episode to Dude, Where's my Car, but that movie jumps the shark and goes in to absurdity. Which, to be fair, is very appropriate for the genre. They didn't get that extreme with this episode, but I also wouldn't have been surprised if they did.
I don't know if I liked this episode, which makes me believe I'll like it a lot more later after I let it sink in a bit and think about what they were trying to do.
Ironically this is very much how the manga was. There were a lot of cliff notes in the margins to explain things, or a few times to explain what Shirow intended but was too lazy to draw.
It was good horror, but I don't think I liked this episode very much.
I feel my biggest problem is the lack of resolution. I know that's kind of the hallmark of horror, the "The End...?" but I actually kind of like the technobabble explanations.
I don't want them to not take risks with Star Trek, so I welcome experimental episodes, but I still feel a bit let down.
I think this is suppose to reset Spock back to status quo for when the series ends next season. I don't think we're suppose to see him align his human/vulcan self.
I love me a good causality loop, but I don't feel like this was good example of one.
The diplomacy stuff on the Enterprise was fun. But oddly the dinosaur planet plot actually didn't feel as impactful.
Like it honestly feels like not a lot happened on planet. Which is a shame, because there were dinosaurs!
I feel like more of the dinosaurs should have had feathers, to keep up with contemporary understanding of dinosaurs. But I understand the pop culture short hand to help establish the cliche and not confuse the audience.
I didn't realize this was releasing, so I binged and got all caught up.
Where is Sylvia Tilly? I thought the whole point of her being an instructor at the Academy was so she'd be here.
Also, what's up with Captain Ake being...extremely unprofessional? Not to say I need my captains to always be stoic. But I feel there is some hypocrisy with how she acts and also dressed down Mir for not standing at attention, when she's lazying around the captain's chair or running around barefoot.
I can understand cadets being unprofessional, and needing to be broken in, but when the ranking officer is too... something don't feel right.
The entire premise of high school/college drama and tropes, I'm not against this. It's not as artificial as I sometimes feel it can be in media target at young adults, but it also is a little bit... Which is slightly bothersome, but I feel they're also handling it well because it does appear to come with some character growth, but my fear is that that growth is coming too quick and they'll just reset some character growth back to give themselves room to have character drama.
I don't know where I stand on this series just yet. It's not bad though.
I enjoy good graphics, but I can look past them if the gameplay is fun and the story is good. With that said, I'm not clear if this will have any of the good qualities.
I do feel this game looks very conceptually interesting. I do very much enjoy VR games and really do feel like there aren't enough really pushing the medium. So I am cautiously optimistic.
Not as dramatic of an ending as I'd expect. But still a pretty fun listen.
I wonder is Lear ever tried to meet up with her Noonien Singh relatives?
I actually feel like La'an really reduces some of the drama of the daughter of Khan trying to find her place and understand where and who she is. She's not technically all alone because she has estranged family who already understands the prejudice of augments in Star Fleet.
I feel it is actually fitting for Khan to stay with his people to lead them. This is a noble trait, but it's also a bit more of an ego thing that does fit his character more than being selfish enough to save himself.
Elborians dying seems like a cop out. But I guess we need a reason the augments never got rescued, and Delmonda would have definitely sent for help.
This is a bit of fiction I never thought needed expanding. But it wasn't so bad. I hope they do some more interesting little side stories or expanded lore on something that might need more exploring. Say what happened to Prime Lorca, or how the events that led to Unification Part 3. You know, something a bit more meaty.
I actually didn't expect Khan to just abandon his people...but he does seem a bit self serving, so I guess it's not exactly out of character.
Also, we get some idea of when everything happens.
2267 - Space Seed. 6 months later Ceti Alpha VI blows up.
2272 - They complete the Venture, and it presumably takes off with Kali and Delmonda and maybe 2 others.
2285 - Wrath of Khan happens. Khan mentioned it was 15 years after being marooned on Ceti Alpha V, but this is clearly 18 year difference. Khan could just be bad at keeping time. (this is assuming that memory alpha is correct)
2293 - The Excellsior goes to Ceti Alpha V to investigate why Ceti Alpha VI blew up and what happened to Khan and company. Sulu also mentions Kirk's death, so we know this takes place after the Enterprise-B's maiden voyage from the opening of Generations.
Also, interesting reasoning for Ceti Alpha VI's destruction being from the Elboreans' nonstandard warp drive. I'm really happy they explained it. I don't understand it though. What kind of FTL drive blows up planets? That sounds more like a horrible weapon putting the Deathstar to shame.
Sounds like rehabilitating Ivan didn't go very well.
Well, one episode left. I have to say, this has been a pretty enjoyable listen to on my mondays.
What a twist. That'd make sense. I guess the age would be about right. Space Seed in about 2267, and this audio drama is set after Generations' death of Kirk in 2293. Kali/Lear could be in their mid 20's or 30's which would fit.
I know this is consistent with the film, but part of me wishes she had met her demise more directly as a result of some choice that Khan made, if only to reinforce just how foolish she had been to join his little cult in the first place.
What I REALLY thought would happen is that Khan would be losing control of the situation and implant the Ceti Eel in McGiven's as a way to control her. Super messed up and dark, not as dramatic and evil going with a hot spring being populated by Ceti Eels. But you know, sometimes the universe is just uncaring.
And clearly they want to make Khan more sympathetic. So it's not a bad decision and is clearly offering interesting character growth for him. I imagine in the next few episodes we'll start to see him swing back to the tyrant we know he is.
It is unfortunately extremely accurate to the manga. In the manga has so many cliffnotes in the margins to explain things, and honestly it does not do that good of a job at it. You have to fill in the blanks a lot of the time. It's also very fitting to cyberpunk media. Like Neuromancer is very obtuse and you have to fill in the blanks again.
Flag. It's a real robot mecha set in modern times, the mecha is basically a tank. And its told as a documentary.
Well, this was a great episode.
The only downside is that the Badmeral didn't get his comeuppance like is tradition, but I can excuse that because we get some justification why M’Benga gets a demotion.
We've seen this plot a few times, I don't feel that's a bad thing. I feel like some of the best of Star Trek, and especially SNW, is just recycling plots but doing them better, or at least something different.
Also, it was super nice to give Uhura the spotlight. It felt a bit over the top, but I kind of accept it... I kind of wish A’Sha had a bit more development to land her decision, but she was not having a good time on the Enterprise and she clearly almost died, and technically she's seen enough times where the Enterprise was almost destroyed, it really does seem logical for her to nope out of Star Fleet. I cannot fault the Vulcan prioritizing self preservation over Uhura's attempts to make her feel welcomed.
And a few continuity notes. The ship is obviously the same one from Balance of Terror. The other helms men next to Sulu says, everyone knows who attacked the Star Fleet Base. So this cloak ship has been a problem for a while and everyone knows of it, but there is likely political problems that make it impossible to deal with.
We also know cloaking tech is not new, as we also see it in ENT's Minefield.
We also seen an alternate reality version of Balance of Terror in SNW's A Quality of Mercy, which I feel this has some strange parallels with. Where in QoM Pike hesitates to attack the Romulan Ship, while we see in BoT Kirk is gungho. In this one Kirk is less gungho (but like, reasonably so). I just thought it was an interesting take. It also explains why the writers need to make sure Pike wasn't on board or else he'd have spoiled the big reveal that it was Romulans.
Hot take. I liked this episode. I felt is landed better then most of the other gimmicks like the puppet episode.
I do believe this season has REALLY been stretching my suspension of disbelief, but I feel a Q episode works well enough as a way to make people perform out of character while also doing some character development.
I just feel like the character development feels a bit weird.
I feel like Ortegas is a simple premise for a character, but I feel like she has had the best, and most realistic character work.
M'Benga, I feel like his character is all over the place. He's like a vengeful war veteran, a bit of PTSD, yet a caring healer. The tone of his character is wild.
But it was actually nice to give them both a bit of screen time together. If it wasn't for the stuff around it being complete nonsense, it was honestly pretty heartwarming.
And I've been waiting for Sybok to get some screen time for so long, and then they take it away from me! I would have loved it if they had really had him, and have him played by Ethan Peck. Just play all of that complete nonsense straight! They foreshadowed he'd play a role, and you have no idea how insanely disappointed I am. Like he really could use some character development, so Star Trek V doesn't feel like it just comes out of nowhere.
I also did find it interesting how they did weave Pike's and Uhura's shared drama of loosing their families. Its something I never thought they'd bother to deal with. And I thought they handled it pretty well.
Also, hilarious that Chapel had an entire adventure off screen. Honestly, kind of what seems like happens to Chapel all the time, like when everyone turned in to Vulcans.
So...I actually like this episode.
EDIT: Also stay tuned for the post credit scene for this episode.
Ghost is meant to be your soul. That unquantifiable part of you that makes you human. The shell is just meant to be a cybernetic body.
So a Ghost in the Shell is a person's soul/spirit inside of a robot.
I liked this episode. Reminds me of TNG's Disaster, obviously because they both meant to be disaster movies.
I liked that we had a lot of plots requiring everyone to work together to solve the problem of the week. Felt better then the last few episodes.
I'm also starting to feel like Roddenberry's decree that there shouldn't be any interpersonal conflict really does sell the competence porn aspect of Star Trek that I love. So because of Chapel's and M'Benga's fighting, it did take me out a bit. Also...I do find it slightly hard to believe that they don't have dermal generators to heal a crushed pelvis. This conceptually, seems survivable to me. But then again, I guess there was a time Worf was going to be paralyzed but then Klingon anatomy saved the day, so I guess medical tech can fail if the plot needs it to.
Yeah, since it's a dream, I really wish they had gone all in on the cartoon gags. That's my only complaint.
I can excuse the premise and even the cop out, it's all a dream, but they really need to just go all in on the concept. Like maybe some Kermit tilting his head back while his arms flail around or crumple his face with the puppeteer's fist like when he's mad. Like literally the lowest hanging fruit is using puppet hair whip to the face. Or maybe some cecoling, fourth wall breaking, a Pigs in Space reference which is a parody of Star Trek. Like, just go ape shit with the concept.
I feel really conflicted about this season. I like they're experimenting and trying new stuff, but like, i don't know if it's landing.
However, I do believe in like 10 years I'm going to look back and think, this is good Star Trek. But similar to...honestly all Star Trek, I find it hard to really enjoy it in the moment for some reason.
I guess Star Trek is a fine wine. You got to let it age a bit first.
On retrospective, I really like the development of Ortega. We've seen her rebuild a motorcycle in her quarters. We've seen her jury rig a universal translator in Terrarium. So her revealing she's mad that she didn't become an engineer makes a lot of sense, and taking it out on Scotty.
That's solid character development that has been building over multiple episodes. I appreciate the slow burn and foreshadowing.
We got horror last week, now we got stoner comedy this week. And kicked us off with a Jurassic Park episode. They really are running the gambit with film genres.
I love that they're experimenting, but I also would really appreciate some traditional Star Trek of seeing professionals being professional. I just want some of that Andy Weir style competence porn!
After reading some of the comments, I'm now going to watch the Hangover. As I had compared this episode to Dude, Where's my Car, but that movie jumps the shark and goes in to absurdity. Which, to be fair, is very appropriate for the genre. They didn't get that extreme with this episode, but I also wouldn't have been surprised if they did.
I don't know if I liked this episode, which makes me believe I'll like it a lot more later after I let it sink in a bit and think about what they were trying to do.
Ironically this is very much how the manga was. There were a lot of cliff notes in the margins to explain things, or a few times to explain what Shirow intended but was too lazy to draw.
It was good horror, but I don't think I liked this episode very much.
I feel my biggest problem is the lack of resolution. I know that's kind of the hallmark of horror, the "The End...?" but I actually kind of like the technobabble explanations.
I don't want them to not take risks with Star Trek, so I welcome experimental episodes, but I still feel a bit let down.
I think this is suppose to reset Spock back to status quo for when the series ends next season. I don't think we're suppose to see him align his human/vulcan self.
I love me a good causality loop, but I don't feel like this was good example of one.
The diplomacy stuff on the Enterprise was fun. But oddly the dinosaur planet plot actually didn't feel as impactful.
Like it honestly feels like not a lot happened on planet. Which is a shame, because there were dinosaurs!
I feel like more of the dinosaurs should have had feathers, to keep up with contemporary understanding of dinosaurs. But I understand the pop culture short hand to help establish the cliche and not confuse the audience.
I didn't realize this was releasing, so I binged and got all caught up.
Where is Sylvia Tilly? I thought the whole point of her being an instructor at the Academy was so she'd be here.
Also, what's up with Captain Ake being...extremely unprofessional? Not to say I need my captains to always be stoic. But I feel there is some hypocrisy with how she acts and also dressed down Mir for not standing at attention, when she's lazying around the captain's chair or running around barefoot.
I can understand cadets being unprofessional, and needing to be broken in, but when the ranking officer is too... something don't feel right.
The entire premise of high school/college drama and tropes, I'm not against this. It's not as artificial as I sometimes feel it can be in media target at young adults, but it also is a little bit... Which is slightly bothersome, but I feel they're also handling it well because it does appear to come with some character growth, but my fear is that that growth is coming too quick and they'll just reset some character growth back to give themselves room to have character drama.
I don't know where I stand on this series just yet. It's not bad though.
I enjoy good graphics, but I can look past them if the gameplay is fun and the story is good. With that said, I'm not clear if this will have any of the good qualities.
I do feel this game looks very conceptually interesting. I do very much enjoy VR games and really do feel like there aren't enough really pushing the medium. So I am cautiously optimistic.
Not as dramatic of an ending as I'd expect. But still a pretty fun listen.
I wonder is Lear ever tried to meet up with her Noonien Singh relatives?
I actually feel like La'an really reduces some of the drama of the daughter of Khan trying to find her place and understand where and who she is. She's not technically all alone because she has estranged family who already understands the prejudice of augments in Star Fleet.
I feel it is actually fitting for Khan to stay with his people to lead them. This is a noble trait, but it's also a bit more of an ego thing that does fit his character more than being selfish enough to save himself.
Elborians dying seems like a cop out. But I guess we need a reason the augments never got rescued, and Delmonda would have definitely sent for help.
This is a bit of fiction I never thought needed expanding. But it wasn't so bad. I hope they do some more interesting little side stories or expanded lore on something that might need more exploring. Say what happened to Prime Lorca, or how the events that led to Unification Part 3. You know, something a bit more meaty.
I actually didn't expect Khan to just abandon his people...but he does seem a bit self serving, so I guess it's not exactly out of character.
Also, we get some idea of when everything happens.
Also, interesting reasoning for Ceti Alpha VI's destruction being from the Elboreans' nonstandard warp drive. I'm really happy they explained it. I don't understand it though. What kind of FTL drive blows up planets? That sounds more like a horrible weapon putting the Deathstar to shame.
Sounds like rehabilitating Ivan didn't go very well.
Well, one episode left. I have to say, this has been a pretty enjoyable listen to on my mondays.
What a twist. That'd make sense. I guess the age would be about right. Space Seed in about 2267, and this audio drama is set after Generations' death of Kirk in 2293. Kali/Lear could be in their mid 20's or 30's which would fit.
What I REALLY thought would happen is that Khan would be losing control of the situation and implant the Ceti Eel in McGiven's as a way to control her. Super messed up and dark, not as dramatic and evil going with a hot spring being populated by Ceti Eels. But you know, sometimes the universe is just uncaring.
And clearly they want to make Khan more sympathetic. So it's not a bad decision and is clearly offering interesting character growth for him. I imagine in the next few episodes we'll start to see him swing back to the tyrant we know he is.