Star Trek: The Motion Picture still gets a lot of heat, but I feel like it provides a real contrast between how the flaws of the lead character are handled in that franchise and Discovery.

Nah, they released it on bit-torrent over here. 

It’s a Crossfield class, but the Lindemann variant with the full Rammstein upgrades.

Did anybody else think the (usually overblown) bridge damage effects were absolutely RIDICULOUSLY over the top in this episode?

“The point of the Kobayashi Maru scene is to foreshadow how Kirk’s hubristic belief that there are no “unwinnable” scenarios will eventually get his son and best friend killed.”

When have they topped it?
Meyer accidentally created so many of the franchise’s most iconic moments, it’s going to produce bad imitations for years.

Part of it is that Star Trek in the eighties and nineties was an oddity on tv already; more high minded, philosophical and because of the limitations of technology often forced to resolve the story conflicts by having its actors talk to each other.

I dunno, I don’t entirely agree with this sentiment. Like, I totally get a lot of the frustration about this show (believe me) - but personally I think a lot of the difficulty stems from the fact that both the cultural and television landscape have changed a lot even just since the heydays of TNG-DS9-VOY in the 90s.

I just want to know why, given the state of 32nd century medicine, they can’t fix Detmer’s eye.

You see, the Kobayashi Maru is secretly a metaphor for James T. Kirk being really cool...

- Alex Kurtzman, probably. 

Quick and Important Point:

The people behind Into Darkness are the main creatives behind the modern crop of shows. This might explain a lot.

Yeah and what’s all this hipster nostalgia shit?  I want to re-remember the Thorn Birds miniseries.  Is that too much to ask?

Habit, of course. Years of daily av club visits. Disappointment and frustration at how badly the site has slid. The one or two articles a week that remain awesome. Truth though --- this is no longer a happy place and outside of a few pieces like history of violence, hasn't been for some time. 

This is a frustrating show because you can see a great show buried under layers of typical TV tropes. The best version of this show is one that focuses 75% on Empire and just follows them through the rise and long fall of the empire. The ever-cycling trio is absolutely fascinating, and major kudos to whoever came up…

They replaced Spacey with Christopher Plummer. They replaced Chris Delia with Tig Notaro.

Which makes it all the more imperative to replace her now with someone who has no problem getting vacc’d if they’re to be playing a reocurring role in the MCU going forward so they don’t have to deal with her shit, not just on Wakanda Forever but on every Marvel project the character is involved in.

Get a better actress, you say? I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Lupita is RIGHT THERE. They’ve got time to rewrite things now. God knows Disney and Marvel have the money to reshoot the shit out of this thing. Write her out. Make Lupita the new Black Panther instead. Problem solved.

Well, she was injured on August 25, 2021 and first shared her anti-vaxx sentiment in early December 2020. So... unless Disney has a time machine they only use to smear uncooperative cast members...

Yeah, there’s nothing interesting about a character who is obnoxious and arrogant and never misses an opportunity to insult you while also reminding everyone of how great she is. Problem is, the show itself actually believes her, too.