The Sailor Moon Anime's Rainbow Crystal Arc Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I don't have a comic book review for you today as I didn't have a chance to read Dark Forces: Rebel Agent as I crashed with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie on VHS last night. But I do have a topic that I wanna talk about today that is related to Manga and Anime. As you can see from the title, I'll be talking about the Rainbow Crystal arc from the 1992/1995 Anime adaptation of Sailor Moon. I'll mostly be focusing on the DIC Dub because that's what I know and that's what I've seen, though I will talk about the original version, including the Viz Media Dub, a little bit. So let's get into it.

The reason I wanted to write about this topic is because I did think it was weird that the Shadow Warriors were nowhere to be seen and not mentioned in episode 39, "The Past Returns", despite them being part of Queen Beryl's attack on the Moon Kingdom in earlier episodes. I knew it wasn't an oversight on the part of the writers of the DIC Dub, because none of the '90s Anime was reanimated for the North American version, just scenes cut down or removed entirely from said episode. Plus they were mentioned by Luna and Artemis in epsode 31, "A Reluctant Princess", while they weren't in the original Japanese or Viz Dub versions of that episode. So then I began to realize that it was simply an oversight on the part of the Japanese writers when the '90s Anime was getting made in 1992.

Because the Rainbow Crystals and the Shadow Warriors are unique to the '90s Anime, it's easy to assume that the writers of the '90s Anime weren't quite sure how they would integrate those elements into the story established in the Manga because they hadn't gotten there yet when they did the Rainbow Crystal arc. And because in those earlier episodes, Luna is only able to tell the Scouts what she knows, which isn't a whole lot since she doesn't remember who the Moon Princess is or who the fifth Scout is, or anything like that. And Queen Beryl being Queen Beryl, she also isn't aware of the Princess's identity even though she wasn't stripped of her memories being that she remembers the war between the Negaverse and the Moon Kingdom. At least in the DIC Dub. I don't know how much she remembers in the original Japanese version or the Viz Dub as I've only seen a few episodes from the Viz Dub (I have them on iTunes), and one or two episodes of the Japanese version. Regardless, because Luna is the mentor character and her memories are incomplete, she can only tell the Scouts what she knows and what Central Control tells her.

Adapting stories from one medium to another is never easy. And adapting comic books, be it American comic books or Manga, is even harder. Especially back in the '90s when the material wasn't taken as seriously by studio executives, and the visual effects were just starting to become what they are today. While the first volume of the original Sailor Moon Manga is five to six chapters long, depending on the release, and the Dark Kingdom arc, which was adapted into the first season of the '90s Anime, was wrapped up in about two and a half volumes, which was only 14 chapters, most Anime were between 40 and 60 episodes back in the '90s. Which means the people adapting the Manga into the Anime had to add alot into the storyline in order to fill the 46 episodes that the first season had. As a result it wasn't easy for them to integrate the new elements into the existing story while trying to keep it as close to the Manga as possible. 

What is even more crazy to me is how the writers at DIC were able to adapt Sailor Moon even further for the first two seasons of the original English dub, given they had to take alot of stuff out and alter many of the characters in order to fit the restrictions that North American Television had on children's programming at the time Sailor Moon was brought over here in 1995. 

I don't know if it's this way in the original Japanese version, but in episode 21, "Jupiter Comes Thundering In", Queen Beryl says that Queen Serenity locked the Shadow Warriors in the Silver Crystal, and Luna tells the Scouts the same thing in the very next episode. So, at least in the original English dub, the writers intended it to be Queen Serenity who defeated the seven Shadow Warriors, tying the Shadow Warriors and the Rainbow Crystals, into the main final battle between the Negaverse and the Moon Kingdom more closely than they were in the other two versions of the '90s Anime.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I just found it weird that the writers of the DIC Dub would be so inconsistent, given they added Artemis's line about Queen Serenity defeating Beryl's strongest warriors and locking them away in the Silver Crystal in "A Reluctant Princess", but that part being ignored in "The Past Returns". Even though I knew that all of the flashback sequences in "The Past Returns" were taken from the Japanese version of that episode, it still felt weird to me as Artemis had that line while he and Luna were telling the Sailor Scouts about their past. But hey, that's what you get when you're trying to adapt a story from one medium to another, and from one language and culture to another.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'm not sure when my next blog post will be or what it'll be on. I'll try to have my review of Star Wars: Dark Forces: Rebel Agent out before next Wednesday as Ahsoka starts that day, and I'll be covering the two episode premiere. We'll see what happens though as I have an appointment on Monday. So until then have a great evening and I'll talk to you later. Take care. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 (2023) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well for a Saturday. I'm back to talk about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for the last time this year. This time, I'm going to be discussing season 2 as a whole and reveal what my favourite episodes were, something that didn't work quite as well for me, and other things about the season that comes to mind. There will be spoilers, so if you're watching the show and haven't finished the season yet, please do so before you read this review. Let's get into it.

The first thing I'd like to talk about is how well balanced this season of SNW was. I mentioned this a bit yesterday in my season finale review, but one of the things that I love about this season is that the writers did a great job at balancing the heavy, dark, and action oriented episodes, and the goofy, ridiculous, fun ones. Season 1 really only had "Spock Amok" and "The Elysian Kingdom" that can be considered to be ridiculous and goofy. "The Serene Squall" was also a fun episode, but it was still intense. With this season they alternated between fun and intense. Episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 were the fun and goofy episodes, and episodes 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 were the heavy and intense episodes. Which is great because I don't think we've ever had an even split like that in the nearly 57 years of Star Trek history before. Even in the early days of TOS back in the mid to late '60s. I mean, to be fair TOS itself is campy and cheesy because of when it was produced and visual aesthetics of the show makes it that way by default.

My favourite episodes this season were "Charades" and "Subspace Rhapsody". I mean aside from the fact that "Charades" was a sequel episode to season 1's "Spock Amok", the concept of turning Spock fully human and having him act like a teenager is just a fun idea. Especially because we never got to see it on TOS, or the TOS movies, even when he was a teenager in The Search for Spock. And because I enjoy musicals since I grew up with Disney movies, and movies such as The Sound of Music and Grease, I was going to love "Subspace Rhapsody" no matter what. The crossover episode, "Those Old Scientists" was good as well, but because I'm not a fan of Lower Decks, I didn't like it quite as much as other people did. It was still a fantastic episode, but it's not a favourite episode of mine.

This is normally the part where I talk about my favourite character or characters, but I can't because I love the entire crew of the Enterprise. And each character got a moment to shine this season. While Ortegas didn't get as much as they said she would, the few moments she did have were some of the more powerful moments of the show. Like learning she was a pilot during the war with the Klingons, shown in season 1 of Discovery, ferrying supplies and troops to and from the battlefields. That was nice to learn.

Uhura got so much to do this season. And we learned alot about her too. While we knew that her parents had been killed in a shuttle accident in the second episode of the series, this season we learned that she had nightmares about the accident, even though she wasn't there, and that she hadn't come to terms with it yet. Especially since the death of Hemmer last season, which is something that pops up in this season. Despite the character having been in a total of 104 episodes (78 out of 79 in TOS and 26 episodes of TAS) and nine movies (including the Zoey Saldana version in the three most recent movies), SNW has really fleshed the character out in terms of who she is, beyond just being the communications officer of the Enterprise.

Oh and the new Chief Engineer, Pelia, played by Carol Kane, was fine too. Though she didn't appear anywhere near as often as Hemmer had in season 1. I don't know why she didn't show up very much, or if the writers had intended on having her show up more, but she didn't. Which makes me suspect that she was meant to be the Guinan of SNW, just because back when TNG was on, Whoopi Goldberg showed up from time to time as Guinan, but she wasn't a series regular, and her name didn't show up with the main cast during the opening title sequence either. She just showed up for an episode here and an episode there, and that's what Pelia did in this season of SNW, though alot less since there are 16 episodes less in a season of SNW than there were in a season of TNG back in the late '80s and early '90s.

While it's hard to pick a favourite character, I can say that, without a doubt, Pike, as played by Anson Mount, is my favourite Star Trek captain, even over Picard. I know, it's weird, because TNG is my Star Trek show, and Picard has been my favourite Star Trek captain for my entire life, but Pike is a fun character, but also a deeply tragic character because of the fate that's in store for him in the future. Anson Mount's Pike is like Superman, if Superman was a Starfleet captain. I also love his relationship with Captain Marie Batel, who is now the former commanding officer of the USS Cayuga following the ship's destruction in the season finale.

What I thought didn't work quite as well was how the Spock/Christine relationship was handled. Except for them starting to make out at the end of "Charades" and a 3D chess game in the very next episode, "Lost in Translation", we didn't see their relationship at all before it basically died out in "Under the Cloak of War". For some reason the current Star Trek writers have a problem with maintaining more than one romantic relationship at a time on each show. Maybe they'll pick it back up in season 3 for a bit, but, who knows at this point. Either way it's something that these writers really need to work on, because part of the appeal of Star Trek, at least to me, are the relationships between the characters in each show, whether it's romantic or friendship or familial. Those relationships are just as important as the individual character development, and it's something I'd like Modern Star Trek to do better with in the future.

Overall though this was a fantastic season of Star Trek. What I liked most about it is that it was made by Star Trek fans for Star Trek fans. Not only are the showrunners, Henry Alonso Meyer and Akiva Goldsman, fans, but Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck are fans as well. And it shows in the writing, the acting, and small visual details as well. And, as I've mentioned a few times since this show started, these people like the comics and novels as well as elements seen in this show, from Number One's first name being Una, Uhura and Scotty being on the Enterprise while Pike was in command, and a few other things as well I'm sure, being taken from the novels and comics. Which is amazing to me since Star Trek novels and comics are more niche than Star Wars novels and comics are. If you haven't checked this show out, I highly recommend doing so. I got the first season on Blu-ray recently, so I plan on doing a full season rewatch at some point in the very near future.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with my next Star Wars: Dark Forces graphic novella review. So until then have a great rest of your weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 20 (S02E10), "Hegemony" (2023) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? Happy Friday! So, I've got a big review for you today. Because it's the season finale, there will be spoilers because I can't talk about any of it without them. So, if you have not watched the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Hegemony", then please don't read this review until you have seen it, because it was big guys. So let's get into it.

Every Star Trek fan has that cliffhanger season finale where they feel the importance of it. For Trekkies who watched TOS either when it aired in the '60s or in reruns in the '70s and '80s, "The Best of Both Worlds Part I" is the episode that confirmed to them that TNG was as much Star Trek as TOS had been. For others, such as myself, "Equinox Part I" was important season finale for me. I saw "Best of Both Worlds Part I" when it aired, but I didn't understand the significance of it because I was so young when it originally aired. "Hegemony" has that same sort of weight to it. It's that, "Oh crap, is this really happening?" thing that Star Trek hasn't had since Enterprise ended in 2005 because TV shows tend not to have season ending cliffhangers anymore. At least not one as big as what Star Trek was doing in the '90s and early 2000s. So I appreciate it for that.

The Gorn are absolutely terrifying. If you've only seen them in TOS or as CGI lizards in Enterprise, then you definitely have never seen the Gorn before. Because, despite them being a guy in a suit, not CGI, these ain't your grandparents's Gorn, or your parents's Gorn. They look fantastic in this episode. Which is why they're terrifying. Even more so than they did in season 1. So I thought that was really cool.

The next thing I wanted to touch upon is the fact that they introduced Scotty, or Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Montgomery Scott, played by Martin Quinn. I love Scotty. He is one of my favourite TOS characters, so I was very happy to have him introduced into the SNW world. In fact this episode is yet another example that the writers, in this case Henry Alonso Meyer, read the novels and comics. In the 1986 TOS novel, Enterprise: The First Adventure, the 1989 TOS novel, Vulcan's Glory, and the 1993 TOS comic, Star Trek Annual #4, all show Scotty having joined the crew of the Enterprise while Pike was still in command. None of them are canon obviously, but if the people behind SNW are using elements from that material, then they clearly have an affinity for the Star Trek comics and novels. Which is pretty rare outside of Star Wars. Also, interesting to note that Martin Quinn is the first Scottish actor to play Scotty. The original actor, James Doohan, was Canadian and used a Scottish accent, Simon Pegg, who played Scotty in Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016), is British, and Matthew Wolf, who voiced Scotty in the SNW season 1 finale, "A Quality of Mercy", is also British. So that was cool.

The cliffhanger ending was insane. While Pike, Batel, Spock, and Chapel made it back to the Enterprise, the remaining colonists, survivors from the Cayuga, and La'an, Sam Kirk, Ortegas, and M'Benga were all captured by the Gorn, beamed up before the Enterprise could get a lock on them. That moment when Uhura informed Pike that Starfleet ordered them to leave the Parnassus System as the ship got hammered by Gorn phasers and torpedoes, and just the look on Pike's face as he tried to make his decision, with the crew on the Bridge waiting for his orders very much reminded me of Riker ordering Worf to fire their deflector dish weapon at the Borg Cube at the end of "The Best of Both Worlds Part I". I was on the edge of my chair as the screen faded to black and the words "To Be Continued..." appeared on screen. It was fantastic. I haven't felt this excited to see what happens next on a Star Trek show, after a cliffhanger ending, since the Enterprise season 3 episode, "Azati Prime" aired back in 2004. And the last time I felt this way about a show as it aired was when "Identity Part I" aired during season 2 of The Orville. And that was back in 2019. So kudos to Henry Alonso Meyer for writing a fantastic season finale, and to all of the writers and actors for creating characters we actually care about that aren't just older versions of characters we've known for over thirty years.

"Under the Cloak of War" was more intense than "Hegemony" is, simply because "Under the Cloak of War" was dealing with darker themes than "Hegemony" does. This episode is more action oriented than dark. It felt more like one of the more action oriented episodes of Deep Space Nine or Voyager, which was great. One of the things I'm going to mention in my full season review is how well this show balanced between the goofy, ridiculous episodes, and the more serious, dark ones. I mean last week we just had the crew singing in a musical, and two weeks ago, Mariner and Boimler from Lower Decks came for a visit and caused chaos for an episode, and THEN that same week we had "Under the Cloak of War". This is what Star Trek did from TOS to Enterprise, alternating from light, fun, goofy adventure episodes and dark, serious, thought provoking ones. This is how Star Trek should be and I am very glad that the people working to bring us SNW agree with that sentiment because I had so much fun with this season.

Overall, this was an amazing season finale. It was action packed, it was interesting, and it was alot of fun. It's been great to be a Star Trek fan this year. Crossovers, reunions, storytelling by people who actually care about Star Trek, and love Star Trek as much as the fans do, all of it was awesome. 

I'll be back tomorrow for my full season 2 review. Again, there will be spoilers because I have so much I want to talk about. So join me for that. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Only Murders in the Building Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2 (2023) TV Show Review

Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. My day got changed around unexpectedly yesterday, which is why this review didn't come out when it was supposed to. But, I was able to watch the two episode premiere of the third season of Only Murders in the Building so that's what I'm reviewing today. This is going to be a completely spoiler free review, though I will be talking about a few character things so just warning you about that up front. So, with that out of the way, let's get into it.

 As usual these two episodes were a solid start to the season. But, I think it's lost the novelty of the show's premise. Shows like this tend to be huge hits, but oftentimes they burn out after two or three seasons because of the repetitiveness. The quality of the show has not diminished one bit. Particularly in the writing and acting, but, I do think that the show should end after this season, if not the fourth season, if it gets renewed for a fourth season, which isn't a guarantee at this point. 

While season 1 focused alot on Mabel (played by Selena Gomez) and season 2 focused on Charles (played by Steve Martin, season 3 seems to be focused on Mabel and Oliver (played by Martin Short). Which is great, because like many of the shows that I watch, the strength of this show is the three main characters and their interactions with each other. So to see that maintained in these episodes was great. Also, I'm intrigued by Mabel and Oliver's storylines this season, because Mabel's aunt has sold the apartment at the Arconia, which means that Mabel has to move out, and because both Oliver and Charles have been busy with with their Broadway show, and there hasn't been another murder at the Arconia, they haven't had time to record new episodes of the podcast, which makes Mabel feel like she's lost as she has nothing else to really occupy her time the way that Charles and Oliver do. So that'll be interesting to see how things develop with that as the season goes on.

I wasn't as invested in the murder victim, played by Paul Rudd, this season as I was with Bunny in season 2 and Tim Kono in season 1. I think it's because with Bunny, we'd seen her for an entire season up to her death, and we'd seen her interact with Mabel, Charles, and Oliver, and in season 1, Tim had that personal connection with Mabel, being someone she was close with when she was younger. With Ben Glenroy though, while he has a professional connection to Charles and Oliver due to him starring in Oliver's return to Broadway after fifteen years, there isn't that personal connection, plus he was only introduced in the season 2 finale and all we got was a flashback in season 3, episode 1. So that investment from the first two seasons isn't there this time. But we'll see what happens as the season goes on. 

Overall this was a great season premiere, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the gang solves the murder this season. I still recommend checking this show out if you've never seen it before because it is fantastic and it's alot of fun.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'm going to hold off on the review of Dark Forces: Rebel Agent until next week, just because I'm doing this review today, and I've got Strange New Worlds posts coming out on both Friday and Saturday, and I haven't had a chance to read the graphic novella yet. So I will see you all on Friday for my review of the season finale of SNW season 2. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 19, "Subspace Rhapsody" Episode Review

 Hey everyone, happy Friday! How's it going? I'm doing okay. I'm back for another episode review for season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This week I'm reviewing episode 19 (S02E09), "Subspace Rhapsody". This is a special episode because it's Star Trek's first ever fully fledged musical episode. Unlike other episode reviews I've done, I'm not going to have spoilers in this review, simply because not a whole lot happens, and what does happen, just gives us some easter eggs for TOS and the TOS movies, and unless you've never seen any other Star Trek series or movie prior to watching SNW, none of what I talk about will be spoilery for you. Though there is one thing I need to mention that will be go into spoiler territory, but I'll tell you when I'm gonna be hitting the spoilers. So let's get into it.

While this is the first episode to be a musical for Star Trek, we've had characters singing throughout the franchise. From Uhura in TOS and the TOS movies, to Sisko's big duet with Vic Fontaine at the end of the DS9 season 7 episode, "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang", to The Doctor singing various tunes on Voyager. So singing is not a foreign thing in the Star Trek franchise. It's just never been utilized in this way before now. Which is really cool.

As someone who grew up watching animated musicals, and movies like The Sound of Music and Grease, I loved this episode. It was fun, but there was some character development as well. It also wrapped up a ton of storylines from earlier in the season so that they wouldn't have to be dealt with in what I assume is going to be an intense season finale next week. Which is fine, because many season finales tend to have too much in them as it is. So being able to wrap up a bunch of stuff in this episode, works for me.

The songs were brilliant and the entire cast had great singing voices. Christina Chong (La'an) is a recording artist, and Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) is a stage performer and has been on Broadway, so I wasn't surprised that either of them were good at singing. It's the rest of the cast that surprised me. Though apparently Rebecca Romijn has also recorded music. I'm not surprised that Anson Mount is a good singer though, since he seems to be great at everything. While I don't have a favourite song among the nine songs that appeared in the episode, because they were all so good, I would like to highlight the grand finale, "We Are One", because the original Alexander Courage Star Trek theme played at the end of it. More precisely, the end theme from the closing credits of TOS played at the end of the song. Which is pretty cool considering everyone has remixed and redone it between the Kelvin timeline movies and of course the opening credits of SNW itself. So to hear the actual music on a modern Star Trek series was neat.

Something else that I really appreciated about this episode as a lifelong Star Trek fan, is something they confirmed during a scene with Kirk (Paul Wesley) and La'an. In the scene, as La'an is telling Jim about her experience with the alternate timeline version of him from "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", Jim informs her that he's currently with Dr. Carol Marcus, and she's pregnant with their son, David. Though David's name isn't mentioned, most likely because Carol hadn't named him yet. It's good to know that Kirk is with Carol at this point, and it's around the time that Carol was pregnant with David, though Kirk is still a Lieutenant, until his promotion to first officer of the Farragut at some point in the next little while. This next part is where I'll be getting into SPOILER TERRITORY, so if you don't want to hear about SPOILERS related to SNW, then click off this review, and know that I really enjoyed this episode.

The one thing that did bring this episode down for me a little bit is how Chapel ended things with Spock. I get what the writers were going for, given they name dropped Dr. Roger Korby at the beginning of the episode, but these writers don't seem to know how to write lasting romantic relationships. I mean, sure, we currently have Pike and Batel, and we have Stamets and Culber in Discovery, but the Spock/Chapel pairing is the second one they teased at the end of an episode and then did nothing with except break them up. The first was, of course, Seven of Nine and Raffi in Picard, and they did it with them twice. It just feels wrong given how much they built up to Spock and Chapel getting together, including breaking Spock and T'Pring up I might add. So that's my only negative about the episode.

Overall, I loved this episode. However, it's definitely not going to be for everyone. If you like musicals, you'll enjoy this episode. If you're not a musicals person, you're not going to enjoy the episode at all. But I loved it, which I'm glad about because this was another episode, like the crossover last week, that I was nervous about going into it because, again, musicals aren't for everyone, and not any writer, director, or producer can pull one off, so kudos to the people involved in the production of this episode, including the writing and the directing, because they did a fantastic job. 

And that my friends is it for me for this week. But I'll be back next week with lots of posts as the third season of Only Murders in the Building premieres with two episodes on Tuesday, and then I'll have my review of Dark Forces: Rebel Agent on either Wednesday or Thursday, and then on Friday I'll have my review of the season finale of Strange New Worlds. Finally, on Saturday, unless I feel bold enough to put it out on Friday after my season finale review, I'll have my SNW season 2 review out for you. So until then, have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

A Feast for Crows (2005) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. I'm back with another book review. This week I'm taking a look at the 2005 fantasy novel, A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin. I know I've said this in my previous two A Song of Ice and Fire book reviews, but I honestly don't know how much I have to say about this book. Because of this, there may or not be spoilers in this review. So let's get into it.

One detail about the production of the A Song of Ice and Fire series that I would like to take note of is that it took five years following the publication of A Storm of Swords in 2000 for A Feast for Crows to come out. A Game of Thrones was first published in 1996, then two years after that, A Clash of Kings came out, and then in 2000, two years after THAT, A Storm of Swords was published. So why did it take five years for this one to come out?

According to Wikipedia, Martin orginally planned this book to be called A Dance with Dragons and intended it to pick up five years after A Storm of Swords, but changed his mind when he realized that he'd have to rely on flashbacks to fill in the missing events over the course of those five years. Which would take away from the story itself. Then he split it up into two books, A Feast for Crows, and book #5, A Dance with Dragons, with each book focusing on a different geological location. As a result, Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow don't appear in this book.

The part I disliked the most was all of the stuff going on in King's Landing with Cersei. It started off fine, but after spending multiple chapters with nobody but her at King's Landing, it began to get tedious. Though, I did enjoy her final chapter, when she had to suffer the consequences of actions of which she's taken since before the beginning of A Game of Thrones. So that was good. Of course, even when I first read this book a few summers ago, I could see it coming a mile away since her uncle, Ser Kevan, had warned her of the turning tide of affairs for the Lannisters at King's Landing following the death of Tywin at the hands of Tyrion in the last book. 

I did enjoy Jaime's chapters quite a bit. Particularly when he was out in the field, dealing with the events at Riverrun, the former home of the Tullys. Events that were mishandled by lesser Lannisters and the Freys. During my last read through of this series, my opinion of Jaime didn't change all that much from when we were first introduced to him in A Game of Thrones to where we leave him in A Dance with Dragons. But this time around, I actually felt for him a little bit when he was dealing with the Freys, the other Lannisters, and Brynden Tully.

The character I enjoyed reading about the most though was Sansa, under the guise of Littlefinger's illegitimate daughter, Alayne Stone, at the Vale. I think it's because she cares for Robert Arryn and the way she does it, with much love and patience, reminded me of the nurse I had at school and at home when I was Robert's age, though Sansa is actually Robert's cousin through their late mothers and my nurse was my nurse, not someone related to me. It still reminded me of my nurse though, and her daughter, who was older than I was. 

Overall, I liked this book more than I did A Storm of Swords even though all of the King's Landing stuff lost its appeal to me by the end of the book. There were still alot of good character stuff in the book. Brienne, Jaime, and Sansa's chapters were my favourite, though I did miss Dany, Tyrion, and Jon. They're back in the next one though.

And that my friends is it for me for the time being. I will be back on Friday for my weekly Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode review. After this week I only have one episode left so not only will I have an episode review for you next week, but I'll also have my full season 2 as well. Oh and I'm also going to finish my reviews of the Star Wars: Dark Forces graphic novella trilogy before I finish A Dance with Dragons, which I've already started reading. So until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care my friends.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 17 "Those Old Scientists" and 18 "Under the Cloak of War" (2023) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay for a Friday. Today I have two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to talk about today thanks to Paramount's decision to drop the crossover episode with Lower Decks, "Those Old Scientists" early because they screened it at San Diego Comic-Con on Sunday. And because I don't have Paramount+ or Crave, I had to wait until last night to watch it, along with the second episode that CTV Sci-Fi Channel aired last night. So, as per usual there will be spoilers most likely for those of you who haven't watched the two episodes yet. Let's get into it.

If you've been reading this blog, or my previous blog, The Review Basement, or you know me in real life, you know that I'm not a fan of Star Trek: Lower Decks because the humour started to be a bit too much and I found I wasn't able to get into the stories and connect with the characters. That's a personal thing for me, and in no way reflects on the writers, animators, and voice actors who make the show. So when it was announced about six months ago that we'd be getting a Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover during season two of Strange New Worlds, I had mixed feelings on it just because, well, it's a comedy and SNW isn't. Plus crossovers can go either way as we've seen with other crossovers on television since television began in the late '40s and early '50s. Especially ones that got big like the later Arrowverse crossovers.

"Those Old Scientists" was a great episode. My biggest problem with it is that it got a bit too meta for the kind of show that Strange New Worlds usually is, but it fits right in line with what Lower Decks is. It just felt really weird to me. Same with the gag at the end where the Enterprise and her crew are in animation and they're aware of it through the Orion hurricanes that they made from the delaq that the Orion captain, Caras had given them as Mariner had tried to make the drink without the delaq earlier in the episode, using Tendi's recipe, for Uhura and Ortegas, in the officer's lounge. It was funny as hell, but it felt more like a Lower Decks gag than something we would normally see on SNW.

My favourite part is when Mariner, played by her voice actor, Tawny Newsome, arrives on the Enterprise after transporting herself through the time portal, she and Boimler, played by his regular voice actor, Jack Quaid, are standing around in Pike's office, and Mariner is like, "I'm making this 100% profesh (professional) but I was thoroughly unprepared for how hot young Spock was going to be", Boimler replies, "Yeah he's just full of surprises" and Mariner just continues with, "Like what? The body, the face, the ears, what?". It's such a Mariner thing to point out on Lower Decks and yet I'm sure some of the ladies, besides Nurse Chapel of courses, have noticed that Spock is attractive.

I also loved it when Boimler and Mariner were in the shuttle and Boimler shouts, "Holy Q!" and Mariner says, "Don't yell Q! They haven't met him yet. They had a kind of a Trelane thing going on". Lol. I laughed so hard at that, considering they were the only ones on the shuttle, though La'an was about to nab them before they could steal the shuttle. 

Speaking of Mariner and Boimler, while Tawny and Jack did a wonderful job playing the characters in live action, due to the fact that they're usually animated characters, they're more subdued in terms of their movements and personalities. Jack still gets Boimler's mannerisms down perfectly, including the Boimler Run, but they aren't as animated as they usually are.

Overall, this was a fantastic episode. It's perfect for those who have never seen Lower Decks, and it's perfect for people who love Lower Decks. It was also perfect for me, as I used to love Lower Decks, but don't anymore, but am a huge SNW fan, as you know quite well by now, given that I'm reviewing the show week to week as each episode airs. Now, let's talk about season 2, episode 8 (episode 18), "Under the Cloak of War".

"Under the Cloak of War" is a title that is very reminiscent of a number of episodes from later seasons of Deep Space Nine. And it actually deals with some of the same issues that DS9 dealt with during the Dominion War arc and in the first couple of seasons of the show. Except this time it's the survivors of the skirmish on J'Gal between the Federation and the Klingons, instead of the Bajorans and Cardassians. I'm not going to make too many comparisons between this episode and those DS9 episodes because I understand that not everybody reading this post has seen DS9. I just wanted to make that observation while I was thinking of it.

One of the things that I love about this episode is that it's focused on M'Benga and Chapel, but Ortegas is involved as well being that she was a pilot during the Federation-Klingon War of 2256-2257, as presented in season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery. Because this episode makes the story about the characters rather than about the war itself, it makes the weight of what they went through so much more palpable. And because of that, it makes the story more effective than it would've otherwise.

The idea of a Klingon defector is a fascinating one because it's not something we've seen really. Especially not one who has the reputation that Ambassador Dak'Rah has in this episode. Speaking of Rah, his demeanor reminds me of a few Klingons from later in the Star Trek timeline, though he is definitely unlike any Klingon we've ever seen before. 

While I feel like the flashbacks didn't really do much to add more than the expressions on M'Benga and Chapel's faces did during the dinner scene in Pike's quarters, they were interesting to see, since we didn't get much battlefield stuff in Discovery, or much of the war in general for that matter, and it was great seeing Clint Howard back. He played Commander Buck Martinez, the chief medical officer of the field hospital that Chapel and M'Benga worked at on J'Gal. Of course Clint is not only the brother of Ron Howard, but he's a veteran of over two hundred films and TV shows, and he's Star Trek royalty as he's popped in and out of franchise alot over the years, starting when he was a child, playing Balok of the First Federation in the first season of TOS back in 1966. 

Of course the majority of the Enterprise crew didn't fight in the war because Starfleet had ordered Pike to stay out of the fighting in case things went south. So they don't understand what M'Benga, Chapel, and Ortegas went through during that time, or that having Rah onboard is severely affecting them mentally and emotionally. 

I won't spoil the end of the episode, but it was intense and M'Benga is going to need therapy for a really long time. It's likely that this is the reason that M'Benga is replaced by Mark Piper and then Doctor McCoy in TOS. 

Overall both of these episodes were fantastic. "Those Old Scientists" was my favourite of the two, but both were excellent. I was talking about it with my buddy, Aaron, and this season has had some real tonal whiplash, particularly in this back half of the season. I mean, next week's episode is called "Subspace Rhapsody", and it's a musical, which is the complete opposite of where we were with "Under the Cloak of War". So that's gonna be lots of fun.

That my friends is it for me for this week. I'll be back next week for my review of next week's musical episode of SNW, and of the next volume of the Star Wars: Dark Forces graphic novellas series. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.