Discovery Seasons 3-4
Lower Decks Seasons 2-3
Prodigy: Season 1
Picard: Season 2
Strange New Worlds: Season 1
Note: These are from brief, unedited comments posted on Facebook. Some of the grammar may be a little clunky – I hadn’t intended on archiving these anywhere, but I’ve popped them here as some people enjoyed them!
Episode 800: There is a Tide
Big battle stuff building up. Still struggling to care, although the Su’Kal storyline is touching.
Episode 801: That Hope is You, Part 2
Big battle stuff happens. Great spectacle but something about it all feels very cold. Love the stuff with Su’Kal. Feel kinda shruggy about Burnham being made captain. She seems to have advanced through the ranks unusually quickly, just to get her in the captain’s chair ready for next season. Honestly, overall while I loved the first two seasons of Disco, this one just didn’t get me, and I’m hoping s4 is better (I skipped it at the time as I’d already started this marathon)…
LOWER DECKS SEASON 2
Episode 802: Strange Energies
Yay, Gary Mitchell sequel! “They keep showing me lights!” Some good mother/daughter stuff bringing this down to earth too, along with more Tendi/Rutherford (at this point I am shipping them so damn hard). Oh it’s good to be back on the Cerritos, I missed you!
Episode 803: Kayshon, His Eyes Open
The Tamarians are back! Amazing! We definitely needed more of them – and in glove-puppet form too awww (need one of those). Plenty of opportunity for laughs with the collectors and it’s fabulous to see Riker post-TNG, pre-PIC, in command of his own ship – even if briefly. And Spock Two’s remains! There’s a story we didn’t think we’d get closure on.
Episode 804: We’ll Always Have Tom Paris
The commemorative plates take me right back to the 90s. Having an episode based around one is just *chef’s kiss*. Perfect Tom Paris stuff. In-universe reference to “VOY”. Commentary on bridge crew’s ability to come back from the dead.
Episode 805: Mugato, Gumato
Some fun stuff here but didn’t land for me quite as well as the rest of this brilliant season. Still of course great to see the Mugato (Gumato? Mugatu?) back in action.
Episode 806: An Embarrassment of Dooplers
The Doopler emissary is a marvellous McGuffin for some ridiculous humour, and some nice Boimler/Mariner stuff, And fricking Shelby and Okona?! Man this show brings back some classics.
Episode 807: The Spy Humongous
I haven’t mentioned the Pakleds so far but what a genius idea to bring them back for this series. They’re a perfect foil for the Cerritos crew, and the spy who accidentally throws himself into the vacuum of space is killer. Boimler’s joining of the Redshirts is a nice serious-ish plot element. And… ARMUS!
Episode 808: Where Pleasant Fountains Lie
Mixed feelings on this one. Billups trying not to have sex is just a bit of lowbrow humour for a show that’s generally been quite witty so far. On the other hand, the AGIMUS sub-plot is fantastic and even the casting of Jeffrey Combs is almost an in-joke itself.
Episode 809: I, Excretus
Speaking of in-jokes. Oh let me count the number of deep cuts in the holodeck sequences at the start, especially loving the red sky on the Western world and Borg babies. Another good entry in the Freeman/Mariner plotline too, and the return of a Pandronian to the Trek universe is something I did not see coming – but the comic potential (and suitability for animation, naturally!) makes Yem seem so obvious. ALICE KRIGE! NAKED TIME!
Episode 810: wej Duj
Not that fussed about the main plot here, involving multiple Lower Deckses, but I see what they were going for. All worth it though for the pitch perfect Star Trek V sequence, and some good stuff with Boimler pretending to be Hawaiian in basically a massive extension of a one liner from the original TNG episode that spawned this whole series.
Episode 811: First First Contact
Epic story that doesn’t feel like it deserves a place in a supposedly silly comedy series. Plays up the stakes brilliantly for a high quality season ender, and of course its marvellous to see how well Ensign Sonya Gomez has got on over the years. And the Obena class is beautiful.
PRODIGY SEASON 1 PART 1 (first time viewing)
Episode 812: Lost and Found
Looks pretty. Looks very Star Wars tbh. I’m going into this appreciating its not aimed at an audience my age, and if it works as a gateway Trek so be it. I hope I also personally find some joy in it, but if not no big deal. And so far, nothing especially appealing except that it does LOOK very nice.
Episode 813: Starstruck
OK, I love how they introduce us here to a Star-Trek-style “ship in danger” plot without an alien races – just a natural disaster happening that they accidentally get involved in. The characters are growing on me a bit too. This one’s quite fun.
Episode 814: Dream Catcher
Some neat character development stuff, and another episode that avoids (at least traditional) alien cultural stuff, just something scary and out of the ordinary that can’t be bargained with.
Episode 815: Terror Firma
Wait, is this a two-parter, or are they doing something arc-driven? This follows on directly from the above. I’m quite intrigued now. Overall this short block of episodes hasn’t made a huge impression on me, but it’s definitely fun, pretty, and I can see why it would work well for kids.
DISCOVERY SEASON 4 PART 1 (first time viewing)
Episode 816: Kobayashi Maru
Not sure what it is, but this grabbed me in a much more confident way than I found most of the meandering third season. I don’t think anything here has anything to do with an ongoing arc, just reminding us of the setting. Open to be surprised. Still not sure Burnham as captain works for me as well as Burnham as underdog. Yay for a snippet of Archer’s theme!!
Episode 817: Anomaly
Quietly ramping up the series arc (I guess it’s about an anomaly) and at last there’s stuff happening with Adira and Gray that has me paying attention (I don’t know why it took so long – they’re just suddenly working for me now).
Episode 818: Choose to Live
Loving the tie-in to Picard here in the title – really creating a cohesive universe despite Discovery being set outside the standard late-24th century. Some brilliant work by Ajala and Rapp, and I continue to be engaged with the Adira/Gray storyline. Things are building very slowly this season but it’s a fair start…
(As an aside here, in the Ready Room episode for Choose to Live, Ian Alexander explained how Gray’s storyline of being invisible was a metaphor for being trans and OH GOD suddenly the last season fell into place for me. Just call me dumb for that not hitting home sooner. I was fairly cruel about the Gray plotline before – although always in an accepting “look, it’s important for the representation, and if trans people get it, that’s hugely awesome, it just doesn’t do the story in a way I can relate to, even from the outside” – well, now I get it. Duh. I feel much better about it as a plotline now).
Episode 819: All is Possible
Visually exciting episode, and a throwback to some 90s classics with “away team stuck on unpleasant planet” shenanigans and some great stuff for Tilly’s development. The overall arc ticks along in the background but this one feels like an appropriate side-step. As an aside, the Ready Room episode accompanying this, where Wil opens up to Mary, had me in pieces.
Episode 820: The Examples
Nice moralising alongside a race against time (again feeling like the Trek of my youth). Rapp has some good stuff here but I can’t help feeling that “Stamets riled by someone of high intelligence” has been done. A few times now. Tig gets some good material. I also love bringing back an alien race from a single episode on a prequel series, giving the show some epic-level connective tissue, beyond just “oh, Vulcans again”.
Episode 821: Stormy Weather
Totally reminiscent of TNG’s Where Silence Has Lease. Just as creepy as its predecessor. Intrigued by the Zora subplot building up, and Book gets some excellent stuff to do here, facing off against his father . Plus yay, references to the galactic barrier!
Episode 822: …but to Connect
The Zora stuff presents some intriguing moral dilemmas, which soothes my 90s fanboy heart no end (ah we just need Picard striding around adding some ethical twists and we’re all good). I do feel this episode is quite talky, uneventful and low key, mainly setting stuff in place for the second half of the season. Although the cliffhanger with Book leaving is brilliantly handled.
PRODIGY SEASON 1 PART 2 (first time viewing)
Episode 823: Kobayashi
Oooh fan-service. I’m usually on the fence with this sort of thing – let new shows strike out on their own without relying on the past…. But behind the fun of the Ent-D bridge, Gates McFadden, and a million old sound bites (of erm varying quality) is a worthwhile plot about taking the captains chair. Love it!!
Episode 824: First Con-tact
Urgh. Really not a fan of Ferengi-focussed plotlines. Plus, as with Voyager encountering the occasional TNG villain, I find it doesn’t serve the plot of a “far away from the Federation” plotline for any of them to show up. Eh, it’s an ok episode apart from that I guess.
Episode 825: Time Amok
Love this. Slick, smart, very 90s-Trek timey-wimey stuff, and a rare decent growth story for Rok-Tahk. Very enjoyable – might be an early rewatch for me!
Episode 826: A Moral Star, Part 1
Episode 827: A Moral Star, Part 2
Suddenly thrown back into the story arc after almost forgetting it for some time (it’s less of an arc, more a “recurring threat”, perhaps). It’s a comparatively epic adventure, although I think I’m preferring the smaller character-based stuff so far. Mind you, the cliffhanger, with the real Janeway promising to track down Chakotay? AWESOME! (Although seriously dude, stranded in the Delta quadrant twice in one lifetime? Careless).
DISCOVERY SEASON 4 PART 2 (first time viewing)
Overlaps with
PICARD SEASON 2 (second time viewing)
Episode 828: All In (DSC)
A nice focus on the changing relationship between Book and Michael, plus awesome visuals leading into the casino, Owosekun kicking ass, a cool poker game and a fun twist. And some good Culber/Stamets stuff. I’m finding after a strong start, s4 is losing its way again a bit for me, but this one’s an pretty good start to the second half of the season
Episode 829: Rubicon (DSC)
Yay, Nhan’s back! I didn’t expect that! I missed her. Otherwise, more moralising on how far to go to save the galaxy or whatever *shrugs* but there’s some tense moments in this, keeping the action moving along.
Episode 830: The Galactic Barrier (DSC)
Firstly – YAY, always cool to return to where Trek (kinda) began, so that’s all good. However, for a seemingly action-packed concept, this episode suffers from the regular mid-season Disco failure of just being there to dump a bunch of exposition ready for the build up to the finale.
Episode 831: Rosetta (DSC)
Nice developments with Ten-C, as they appear to really be nothing like we’ve ever encountered before (impressive after 831 episodes). Does Tal have a crush on Detmer? Interesting!
Episode 832: The Star Gazer (PIC)
A huge start to the season! This has everything! Picard is back on a Stargazer! Guinan! Q! The Borg! There’s a lot of epic stuff being thrown up in the air here which requires some skills to land safely. Yes, I’ve seen this season already and know where it’s going…
Episode 833: Species Ten-C (DSC)
Although a lot of this feels like TMP fused with Close Encounters, the A plot is fabulous (and making great use of the AR wall). Meanwhile some of the best material yet for Reno and Book alike! And the final minutes, where the action really kicks in, is a sudden rush, leading to one of the best “Mr Worf. Fire”-type cliffhangers we’ve seen in years.
Episode 834: Penance (PIC)
Loving the fact that they’re basically telling a mirror universe story here without encroaching on that already complicated arc. DeLancie is fantastic now he’s given some really edgy material to play with. “Annika Seven-Shot” and all of Jurati’s dialogue is brilliant. Spot 73 may just be the cutest Easter egg. Overall very happy with where this is going.
Episode 835: Coming Home (DIS) +RR
Big finale time. Pulls a lot of threads together very well. Book is great as always. Michael does some of her memeworthy crying (but c’mon guys, it’s totally believable in the moment). The sudden jump from communicating basic maths to entire complex language is completely BS but never mind, because it’s all there to tell a good story. I felt this season wavered from time to time but overall much better than s3.
Picard from here:
Episode 836: Assimilation
Brilliant return to horror type Borg for the first real time since First Contact. Gorgeous time travel stuff. And the interplay between Raffy and Seven is excellent – especially the Markridge Tower scene. AMAZING use of Freishwimmer’s cover of California Dreamin’ which gives this such a unique tone. Lea Thompson is a damn fine director.
Episode 837: Watcher
The return of an epic character! No, not Guinan – Bus Punk! My jaw dropped on first viewing to see him back in action. BRILLIANT. Guinan was pretty good, although I’m not sold on her as playing the same character we know from Whoopi. The car chase is very exciting, and gives some more fab comedy. Surprise appearance of ‘Laris’ (?) and a doorway no-one but the hardest-core of fans will get. The end with Q realising his powers are fading is intriguing and I remember a lot of theories flying around the net that week.
Episode 838: Fly Me to the Moon
Fun heist stuff. Brent Spiner possibly playing his best non-Data role, with Adam a very believable “desperate father” – in fact his scene with DeLancie is one of my favourites in recent Trek: Spiner and DeLancie are both reasonably good actors in any situation, but when given strong scripts, they’re capable of turning in award-worthy performances. The material they get given in Picard is such. Glad the writers don’t get too bogged down in the Gary Seven stuff – we nerds get it, but it’s not necessary for the general audience. The cliffhanger, with the Queen putting her arm around Jurati, made my eyes bulge first time. Just. Fabulous.
Episode 839: Two of One
Yay Jurati sings! Some nice material between the Picards. Kore’s discovery of her father’s secret – that she’s a genetic experiment gone wrong – is chilling. But with four episodes to go, will the writers catch all the balls they’ve thrown in the air?
Episode 840: Monsters
Mixed feelings. The performances and writing are amazing, and I love James Callis. However, the sudden appearance of this important Picard backstory feels crowbarred into the season arc, and the 35 years we’ve been following Picard. I’m still not sure what to make of this.
Episode 841: Mercy
Alison Pill in a floaty red dress just to enable some awesome slow-mo shots but who cares because it’s gorgeous. Annoying Chris relationship that seems to only exist because “we’re both Latino and sexy, so we must fall in love”. The interrogation stuff is fun. Soong: “you exist because I willed it” great material for Spiner.
Episode 842: Hide and Seek
See Monsters for my thoughts on the Picard flashback story. Nothing more to say here. Hiding a code inside a hologram that can fight is just one big weird plot device but fun to see Elnor back.
Episode 843: Farewell
More brilliant stuff for Spiner: “I never thought we’d make it” / “You didn’t? What a terrible attitude!” I couldn’t bring myself to care when Tallinn died. Kore’s revenge was amazing. Wil Wheaton!! What an awesomely written scene, and really got to me emotionally as Wil speaking rather than Wes – he’s been on a long journey but so much more comfortable in his skin now. Q’s death is beautiful, and particularly Picard’s final hug goodbye – and the way it’s performed and shot showing how small Patrick Stewart is. Chefs kiss. Seven and Raffy’s kiss, and the moment after it, is brilliant. Overall Picard s2 has so many cool ideas, amazing performances, and some really nifty direction – it’s just structurally a mess.
STRANGE NEW WORLDS SEASON 1 (first time viewing)
Episode 844: Strange New Worlds
Wow. Blown away by how confident and slick this new show is from out of the gate. Every single character is clearly defined, which is rare for modern pilots these days to be honest. Nice straightforward but thought provoking storyline, visually spectacular, great shades of TMP score when in spacedock, Pike/Spock discussion of the future seems to riff on Pike/Boyce scene in The Cage, and I immediately have a massive crush on Christine Chapel’s personality, even if it’s totally at odds with what we see in TOS. I’m a wee bit baffled at the two bits of race swapping that’s happened – April and Kyle could have been given different names and fitted into the story exactly the same. Seemed a weird decision to make. But that’s the only fault I found in this awesome hour of TV. I’m so happy!
Episode 845: Children of the Comet
This show has quickly developed a TOS-style level of *fun*, along with the sense of early exploration that represented the best bits of ENT. (But still with that modern dark edge, in Pike’s foreknowledge). Loved Spock’s attempt at a pep talk, and the audience seeing the crew through the eyes of Uhura as a Lower-Decks-esque character. Also Anson’s quiff has got noticeably bigger this week.
Episode 846: Ghosts of Illyria
Oooh a classic contagion-ravages-the-ship plot. We’ve seen this all before, of course, plenty of times – but today it brings recent memories of COVID, and also some great racially charged subplots with Una’s secret (and an interesting twist for M’Benga, wondering where that will go).
Episode 847: Memento Mori
Awesome submarine-battle stuff here – it’s Balance of Terror, but with the Gorn! This isn’t where I like my Trek to go too often, but when it does it occasionally (the aforementioned Balance, Wrath of Kahn, etc) it’s all good for me. Fun and exciting.
Episode 848: Spock Amok
Oh yay, finally an outright silly live-action Trek episode. I don’t think we’ve seen one of these since the days of Berman have we?! Ethan Peck and Gia Sandhu both have lots of fun (as does Jess Bush as Chapel), with some great knowing winks to how similar the po-faced Vulcans are to each other, and of course the appearance of the battle music from Amok Time was *chef’s kiss*.
Episode 849: Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach
Nice to see some romance for Pike, and a thought-provoking storyline. Probably the weakest so far, but the quality of this just goes to show that even at it’s weakest, SNW is GOOD.
Episode 850: The Serene Squall
I do find the Orions rather tedious, but this is a pretty fun episode, and Jesse James Keitel’s Captain Angel is deliciously evil. A lot of fun, in a straightforward way. And… what, did they just acknowledge Sybok outside Final Frontier?! OMG!
Episode 851: The Elysian Kingdom
Oh what fun! And also has big shades of TOS, as the crew seem to be cheaping out by just raiding next door’s historical adventure movie costume dept and then building a story around that (although of course I know in this case that wouldn’t have been how it happened). Great seeing everyone play against type, especially a terrified Anson Mount. Very moving ending too.
Episode 852: All Those Who Wander
Awesome use of the AR wall, big action stuff. But also some particularly surprising and touching moments. Hemmer’s death came as a complete shock to me. Chapel’s moment with Spock nicely foreshadowed the relationship they will eventually have.
Episode 853: A Quality of Mercy
I had the spoiler earlier this year that we’d see Pike in movie uniform. I assumed this would involve our Pike travelling forward to an alternate movie-era. I’m glad I was wrong, and movie-era was just a cameo leading us into a Balance of Terror what-if! This whole thing was a very necessary plot device (because how wrong would it be for Pike to save himself and the cadets with foreknowledge of the future? Of COURSE there needed to be a reason he had to let things play out) but it all feels very natural. I hope SNW doesn’t overuse the time travel element to make use of the fact that we know the show’s future (ENT did it a few too many times), but when used sparingly, it can create epic stories like this one. Nothing to say really besides love love love this, and I can’t wait for s2!
LOWER DECKS SEASON 3 (first time viewing)
Episode 854: Grounded
Gotta love the women throwing themselves at Boimler, who doesn’t even notice. Bless him. And throwbacks like Jake Sisko’s awful sweater making a re-apperance… but let’s face it, this is all stolen by Historic Bozeman, and all its amazing theme park crap. Plus the amazing James Cromwell! Wow!
Episode 855: The Least Dangerous Game
Brilliant Boimler growth episode as he decides to say YES to everything, and of course the holo-Martok is such a marvellous throwback to the Trek of my youth. Fun episode.
Episode 856: Mining the Mind’s Mines
Honestly I found this one a bit of a miss, but outstanding to hear Susan Gibney back for a couple of lines!
Episode 857: Room for Growth
Yay, a shore leave episode, and a brave callback to Masks (I thought everyone tried to forget that one!) The T’Ana/Shaxs stuff is weirdly very sexy.
Episode 858: Reflections
Blimey, bold of a ‘silly cartoon’ to do a plot arc, and this one WORKS. I love Rutherford, and the story this has been building to is exciting and worthwhile. The recruitment booth stuff is hilarious, and did I spot a reference to the novelization of TWOK? Easter eggs aplenty.
Episode 859: Hear All, Trust Nothing
Oh so many awesome throwbacks to DS9. What a great tribute! Is it me or did they even soft-focus it a little to match the cinematography? They just managed to give DS9 in 25 mins what they’ve been doing for TNG for the last 2.5 years. Lovely! “Just circle around and pretend we’re in awe of the pylons”.
Episode 860: A Mathematically Perfect Redemption
Focussing on a robot and an avian species, this almost doesn’t work. But it does. Primarily, it has to be said, for the sex scenes and the Jeffrey Combs cameo.
Episode 861: Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus
Doesn’t quite stand up to the original, but it’s a very solid episode. Highlights: Kitty Hawk reveal, the spot on TWOK-briefing-video homage, and Sulu in the ‘Nexus’.
Episode 862: Trusted Sources
We’ve seen this plot done in other TV shows but I don’t think Trek has done “unreliable TV report” has it? It’s a solid, thought provoking episode reasonably light on laughs.
Episode 863: The Stars at Night
Wow. Blown away by just how many callbacks to earlier Lower Decks episodes this had. It’s like they snuck a story arc in without us noticing. And honestly all the California class ships showing up brought a real tear to my eye. This show does serious stuff really well! And awesome post-credits sequence 
PRODIGY SEASON 1, PART 3 (first time viewing)
Episode 864: Asylum
I really didn’t expect this show to ever interact much/at all with the Alpha quadrant – I’m quite amazed at how it’s all integrating with the ‘regular’ Star Trek shows! It just took its time establishing the universe for the new (young) viewer before diving in on lore. Bravo. And this is a fun story that welcomes us back from the break well. Fabulous to see the real Janeway too – I also didn’t expect her to appear, except maybe in cameo.
Episode 865: Let Sleeping Borg Lie
Fortunately going the Picard route of returning the creep factor to the Borg, and not the Voyager route of just overdoing them for the sake of it. Yep, as a Borg fan, I was very happy with this one, and it’s a nice Zero episode.
Episode 866: All the World’s a Stage
OH MY GOD, best episode of Prodigy so far, and one of my favourite of the current decade of Trek. So well-observed, so many nice nods (but in a more realistic way than Lower Decks does, so no overlap there). I actually thought that was George Takei at first too. BRILLIANT.
Episode 867: Crossroads
Exciting high-octane adventure, and what a pleasure to see them facing off against Admiral Janeway. I also never thought I’d be happy to see the rather rubbish Thadian Okona back but he fits in fine here.
Episode 868: Masquerade
Jellico’s back, of all people! This is really a continuation of Crossroads, still focussing on the high action and plenty of reasons to punch the air in joy. I’m also, honestly, quite pleased to see Murf is actually useful and not just a Frank-Welker-esque gurgling cutesy character.
Episode 869: Preludes
Straightforward flashback concept, almost a bit tired and lazy for an ongoing series to do, but I gotta admit, I’m invested in these characters now, and the backstories are fascinating, even if the mechanism they use to present them is ‘easy’!
Episode 870: Ghost in the Machine
Wow, a holodeck episode that actually comes across as really enjoyable. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good holodeck story – and I can’t put my finger on why this one’s such a winner, especially as the format goes way back to TNG:1 with “safeties off, locked in”. There’s just something very pleasurable about the whole thing, and the holoJaneway twist (which we should have seen coming tbh) was a cool ending.
Episode 871: Mindwalk
Such fun! The animators manage to capture all of each characters performances so perfectly, of course, that Janeway-Dal and Dal-Janeway both manage to be equally hilarious, and there’s some great lines as Dal tries to sound Janewayesque (“Team work, makes the dream work!”). Behind this, fab action and tension as Dal stays undercover, while we get some hope as Janeway learns that the kids are OK.
Episode 872: Supernova, Part 1
Episode 873: Supernova, Part 2
What an epic story. Seriously amazed by how this show has turned my expectations around. The cliffhanger in the middle is one of the most jaw dropping ones I’ve seen in a long time (how will they get out of it?! No seriously?!). There’s action and adventure throughout, and the bravery of killing off the ship and holoJaneway for real in a “kiddy show” is applause worthy and made for some genuinly moving moments. Wow.
December 29th 2022, eighteen months after beginning my voyage, I’m finally up to date (again!)