A nice retrospective, and largely a fair one. But I don't agree with the assertion that the dinos have aged and that CGI has come a long way since JP. I saw the rerelease in 3D earlier this year and was struck by how perfect, flawless even, every creature except the brachiosauri looked. In fact, I've never seen CGI…

That final "evil" line in "Waltz" is just so wrong-headed, undercut by the entire preceding hour (the entire preceding franchise, almost). Maybe in the late 90s there was that much less recognition of mental health problems that viewers wouldn't have been expected to sympathize with Dukat, but I doubt it. …

But I do like "Conspiracy"'s reuse of the Starfleet characters from "Coming of Age." It was unexpected serialization.

I actually don't like Conspiracy. The underlying message of Riker and Picard looking at each other in a knowing way at the words "peaceful coexistence"… it's a pessimistic, Reagan-influenced, un-Roddenberry message, I think. And the suggestion at the end that there are more evil bugs out there, soon to receive a…

I think that class-based approach would be rather dull in the sense that it reflects 20th/21st century humanity rather than the more evolved, egalitarian, meritocratic 23rd/24th century humans of the Trekverse. I guess I imagine Trill society as human-like, but slightly older and wiser, not marred by some unfortunate…

"It's part of a broader problem with the Trill, actually. We know one big thing about them, and not a lot else, and their culture isn't really explored. "

Nice point about Miles (maybe my all-time favorite Trek character)… and thanks for commenting on these old threads, gives us something to do while Zack's on break. :)

The actress who plays Sarina, Faith Saily, is a regular on NPR's somewhat-hacky news trivia show "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me."  I'm always excited when she's on that panel because I remember her DS9 role fondly (though, yes, the character was cliche).

My favorite part of the Klingon wedding ceremony is when they include the bit about the first Klingons turning on their gods.  That's continuity, since Worf once issued one of my favorite lines in the series, "The Klingon gods are dead — ancient warriors killed them long ago."

No, I'm fine with it in this instance, because the "magic" of the wormhole aliens is a well-established part of the show dating back to the very beginning.  They're a pre-existing deus ex machina rather than an ad hoc one, and there are believable-enough hints that they have some sort of long-term, independent agenda.…

"Speaking of Dukat, the Gul is one of the lead figures in the episodes, as we follow his transition from conquering hero (in his eyes) to maddened, grief-stricken fool. Marc Alaimo delivers one of his best performances yet…"

I'm 29, so also have many years of pre-internet memories.  But thanks to my dad, who has great taste in entertainment, I had seen Holy Grail and many episodes of The Flying Circus by the time I was 12-ish.  I've still never seen And Now for Something Completely Different, actually.

Well-said. :)  Tarantino is holding the Leone candle right now, but I don't think he's ever done in-depth analyses of other people's films the way Scorcese, for example, sometimes does.  I've never understood why The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly doesn't get more critical love, so it makes me feel good to know that…

In my view, The Wild Bunch doesn't have a detectable stance on much of anything, except maybe that pinkish jets of blood are neat in slo-mo.  Between the action, there's nothing going on, except for a weirdly romantic soundtrack.  In Seven Samurai, by contrast, hardly any scene or line or look is devoid of layers of…

Seven Samurai is also my favorite movie, if I'm pressed to pick right now (it's at the top of my 500+ movie Flickchart list).  I don't think Magnificent Seven holds a candle to it, but it's a fine classic Western from, as you said, the pre-Leone era.  Even within that group, though, it's got nothing on most John Ford…

"As ever, the Pythons have their cake (in that it’s a finale that implicitly acknowledges its heightened status) and eat it too (in that they’re mocking the whole idea of 'heightened status')."Well-observed and well-said.

So it's basically "Lincoln."  I mean, in its level of Importance.

Oops, I just posted a similar comment without checking to see if others noticed the connection.  Personally I like The Californians, but not nearly as much as Train Schedule Murder Mystery.  It makes sense that SNL stole the idea, since it was one of the best sketches of the previous SNL generation.

Watching the Train Schedule Murder Mystery sketch, it occurs to me that this is where SNL got (shall we say, stole?) the idea for "The Californians."

"the society organizes an escape plan, Nazis show up, it’s all very strange."