I did enjoy the fact that they mentioned the air issue. Makes me think of TNG's The Next Phase — lots of people make the obvious observation that they are nonsensically *walking on the floors* in that episode, but few question what they are breathing (not to mention why they aren't just left hanging in space while the…

I really don't think what I said qualifies as a spoiler…

You might not have expected a Donnie Brasco riff, but that'll be nothing once you get to the bizarre *daytime soaps* riff that this episode sets up…

you think i'm asking for a "philosophical and intellectual speech" when in fact I think that's exactly what we got (a trite, simplistic one) and I'm asking for something better. That last monologue wasn't some rapt emotional outpouring — it was a "now here's Sisko to wrap everything up with a philosophical bow"…

Perhaps — but at the same time, there are many many great episodes of TNG or DS9 that you could use to introduce someone to the series. They may not get the full force of everything in it until they watch more and get to know the characters, but they will still be engaged and entertained, and they will be getting a…

No no, we're not talking about Benny's breakdown, but about the wrap-up as Sisko at the end. "Somewhere out there, far beyond all those stars…"

The breakdown was right on the line for me, and can go either way when I re-watch the episode depending on the mood I'm in. But the ending speech is definitely awful, and threatens to ruin the whole episode for me every time I see it.

Agreed. I thought that if Sisko needed to make a little philosophical wrap-up speech, it should have been slightly more nuanced and vague — a little flirtation with the idea that we could all live a million different lives, that dreams are a mystery, and that it's hard to say with utter certainty what's real.

There's a habit among mega-fans of any show to dub a particularly unusual episode as "best" without realizing that they've lost perspective a bit. Episodes like this one are fantastic, but it's largely *because* of their contrast to and use of the resources from all the dozens of other episodes that are their…

It's the sandwich parasites, when Fry threatens to slice his brain up

Having mentioned “Oh yeah, the taxes. The finger thing means the taxes!” I feel the need to bring up my other two favourite "voice in the crowd" moments from animation —

Why does this show even bother with the "Chester's mill is a town like any other…" spiel? After all, they are SO GOOD at exposition, they could just work that information into cold opens.

"Maybe that lady is the fourth hand."
"But she hasn't had any seizures!"
[Pointlessly repeat hand-on-dome ceremony]
"We still need to find the fourth hand."
"Someone with seizures!"

When you consider the career chip plot that kicked off the whole series, I'd say it's *definitely* a conscious choice on the part of the writers, even if the chips themselves have been presumably long-since forgotten as part of the futurama mythos.

"In the case that there are two killers, police are making an unusual offer. Total immunity for the one who turns the other in, plus a double $2-million reward."

That scene was beautifully timed. As soon as Farnsworth started listing names, I rolled my eyes and was about to say "Clone High did it better…" when BOOM.

The intro prompted me to check out the Wikipedia page for Farce, only to discover that it is woefully incomplete, containing only a brief unsourced definition and a long list of examples. Just bringing that up here in case any ambitious critics feel compelled to fill it in:

In a much better show, having Angie return to her captor could definitely be interesting. But this is Under The Dome. One of the only emotions they've managed to actually evoke successfully is the frustration of captivity, because that's hard to fuck up (not that they didn't try — we didn't get a single scene of Angie…

Yup, that was the other moment I was thinking of.

Dear Under The Dome: when people pointed out that Junior wasn't good at being menacing, we most certainly did not mean he would work better as a redeemable anti-hero.