Two thoughts:

I wouldn't get too excited about The Darkness & The Light… Nana Visitor does an excellent job as usual, but the plot and the villain are as cliched as they come.

I don't know why this didn't dawn on me before, but: Lassie's dog is a lot like Columbo's dog!

Last week you mentioned that this was a "controversial one" — were you perhaps thinking of The Principal & The Pauper?

Yeah, don't even get me started on Voyager's utterly idiotic conception of "photonic life"

Well, *that's* a different thing altogether — a hideous framing device for a terrible clip-show. And yes, that's much worse.

Of course, this is also the show that contrived a way to send Robert Picardo back to the alpha quadrant for an episode, just because there was no conceivable role for an Andy Dick guest appearance other than a new obnoxious holodoctor.

Also good to see the return of Worf's forehead-covering babushka, though not as hilarious as in TNG's "Homeward" when it is referred to as surgical alteration.

Nah, that's just going easy on them. I don't think it's a valid excuse at all. This is Trek — there are a million ways to explain away anything you might want to do. Even a holodeck episode or "a Q did it" would have been better than the memory virus crap.

My favourite detail in Trials: Sisko & Dax taking the role of whatever stagehands were off camera tossing tribbles through the hatch onto Kirk's head at the end of the original episode.

Flashback's means of going to the past (in this case to visit Sulu) is the old "enter someone's memories" chestnut. And it's one of the worst-executed examples of the trope I've ever seen. Such stories are always kind of stupid since it's so unclear what the rules of walking around in a memory are — Voyager attempts…

Re: Waste Exraction, I do indeed think this is the first time. It comes up on a couple other occasions, and DS9 sort of turns it into a very subtle joke. Later, in one episode, Rom comments that he "has to go to waste extraction" in a context that makes it very clear he means the bathroom — and there's something very…

I believe it's actually:

Disposable camera wins for Paula's tone of dawning realization as she reads "…that's constantly careening off things."

It's not just a Mark thing, it's a David Mitchell thing — everyone is always making jokes about how he has a Hitler haircut (see: Would I Lie To You?)

It also rings very true. A lot of people who want to write fiction find their way to journalism because it's a practical, immediately meaningful use of their ability to tell a story (which is not to say fiction isn't meaningful — but you know what I mean)

Trials is pure, shameless fun — and perfectly geared at someone who has been working their way through the entire franchise like this. Plus if I recall correctly, they did an *excellent* job of shooting and compositing it.

Ah, Clarice — the fire-starting, coin-counting, sweep-arpeggio-knowing-about cypher in a bimbo suit, aka "one weird little mama". I wish we'd gotten more of her in the series — she's actually a pretty fascinating character.

One of the best parts of Class Trip is the cut to Jason, in full costume, on the toilet. "Woah woah woah — someone's in here!"

Whatever their reason for leaving Harrenhall, the Lannisters made the most effective move. Like Robb said, his men were looking for a fight — they would have welcomed it, and they likely would have won it. Instead they marched into a demoralizing horror house.