Janeway: "Cut the crew rations in half for the next month.
We need the energy to replicate parts for my 21st shuttle, the solid gold one with the dinged fender."

Exactly this.
The tank was clearly not transparent aluminum. Scotty got regular plexiglass, as payment for the formula.

One thing I liked about the original xXx was that they showed Cage analyzing the situation, that he had to figure out what to do. The plot was still completely ridoncolous, but having a character act like they are actually thinking is better than the overly choreographed action sequences that drain suspense.

If you are mentioning the X-Men, there is some resemblance to Mojo (Wikipedia link), so was a blatant parody/exaggeration of a media executive.

With Lucas's writing, no I don't think Yoda takes it seriously.
(Later on, Yoda also doesn't think twice about why they have a clone army that was created on the planet that was hacked from their records.)

As a hermit, he had actual authority (in Empire and Jedi).

The shows are part of the Barrowverse.

That was my first impression, before I read in the article that he was a magician.

What's impressive is how little action is actually on screen. The suspense and dread comes from seeing these characters, that we know and somewhat like, losing their cool and freaking out to stuff that is off-screen. (Modern action movies should remember that sometimes less is more.)

If you survived a lion attack, and NO ONE ELSE has, that makes you an expert on lions. Maybe a crappy one, but better than nothing at all.

I can understand your reaction, but I had just the opposite reaction.

When it was first broadcast, I stopped watching after 2/3rds of the first season, because Fringe was "resembling The X-Files". The "fringe" science was like the Uncanny Valley for me: I needed either more fantasy or more science to make it less annoying.

S5 Angel also preceded Fringe in having an underrated actress (Acker) who blew people away when she played a different character. Especially when the second character started imitating the first character.

Why do they want to touch James Cromwell's (blank) ?

Bond takes M to Skyfall, his family estate and childhood home in Scotland.
Owning a freaking estate and having servants seems to refute you. I haven't read enough Bond books to be able to say if the film's writers invented this, or if it is supported by the books.

The story says that if you raise an English Lord anywhere, under any circumstance, he will be superior to the common folk who live there. The African setting was incidental.

You are right.
I was searching for the right term, and I knew "gentleman" was too weak. "Royalty" is too strong.

It was one day in 50 freakin' years.
Let the people have a moment.
The people who don't like sports can still take advantage of the situation to throw a party (without the sports-theme).

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Then shouldn't Tarzan be fighting Vandal Savage?