I thought the metaphor in "The Devil's Chord" was the conservative British government trying to kill off the BBC and the arts in general. But YMMV.

Only note on your recaps is on Space Babies because RTD crammed a lot into it. What if we use space babies and a snot monster as a metaphor for how conservatives treat life in the womb vs once they’re out.

My guess:

I have a sort of double-edged train of thought on this; I’ve never really liked the Doctor being a “romantic” figure at all - I always felt in the older days especially, there was this sense of ‘apartness’ that helped fuel the character (and made the Companion important as the lens by which to see the Doc function).…

The Doctor is not a Time Lord, nor an alien. He is a bunch of lines written on paper by a human and then said out loud by another human. So of course he will reflect human moores and perceptions.

looks like fun to me.

I actually though it looked funny.  I’m dumb, I guess.

I feel like it’s 50/50 him and the Paramount execs who are penny pinching before the big sale, but yeah. 

Very much like how “A Quality of Mercy” from Strange New Worlds shows that as understanding, diplomatic, and empathetic a captain Pike was, a different kind of captain was needed for that mission. One built for a more hostile period in Federation history who can better adapt his ideals to the necessities of the times.

It feeds into the idea that Sisko is this unhinged madman, who’s the antithesis of the refined officer that is Picard

Sisko is absolutely a black man in all that means. Don’t take that away from Sisko or Brooks or Benny.

Whatever you think of the show (I personally really enjoyed it) Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes have probably just about the best chemistry of any duo in the entire MCU.

Something seems weird....a manmade pond would have a shallow entry, no? So she blew backwards so fast that she went far enough off the edge to submerge the car...this would have to be >3 meters out....what kind of 3-point turn involves this level of speed?

I read the first half of your comment and suddenly realized...

Speaking of “inevitably bad”, here’s the reading experience for this article on mobile. Be better.

Re: Highlander: Y’know, it never seems to go well when people go “deeper into the lore.” We didn’t love the first Highlander for the lore. We didn’t love Ghostbusters because of the lore. Star Wars, even, barely had any lore and the deeper we go into it, the less satisfying it gets. 

That’s where the controversy started. Its now significantly worse.

I’ll be honest, I don’t get the whole Elordi is super handsome thing.

One thing I wonder about the people who are suddenly outraged about this after thinking Green Day was on their side: why couldn’t they have continued to be blissfully ignorant of the song’s message against their beliefs? If they were clueless enough to miss the song’s message when it was first released, why the sudden…

For a good (though non-canon) story with the “Conspiracy” bugs, check out the DS9 “Season 8" books starting with Avatar books 1 and 2. It takes a few books, but they play a major part, and their secret origin is really interesting.