Given the revelations of the Chibnall era, the Doctor can’t actually have a mother on Gallifrey, so we can presumably write that one off.

But that’s reacting to the Finetime people, not anything to with what might or might not have happened to Ricky.

That’s possible, but the lack of any reaction - not even a shrug of acceptance, it’s just moved on from - also hurts the episode, I would argue.

No they didn’t have to toss her to the slugs but the also could have gone back and have a quick check. In fact, had they done so, seen Ricky dead, then still tried to save the Finetime people it might have actually added to the power of what the Doctor was trying to do. 

I genuinely wondered if the mantraps were going to turn out to be the Tractators, just wonky CGI rather than a wonky costume. I mean, in a way they’re a perfect fit - they have precedence within the series, they’re a life-form we known that is both insectoid and can be taken over by another life form that’s powerful…

I actually think part of the problem is that there just isn’t that much material in-text to justify the “it’s about racism” angle but there is in-text justification of another kind of prejudice - ageism. We get a few references to the fact that the people of Finetime are only young - there’s the “17-27" (an 18-30…

Well, unless he means that one on the bridge. The bridge crew are a whole pile of nothing, to be fair, consisting of Ensign Asian, Lieutenant Sassy, The Fish One and, uh, sometimes Tilly?

You’re forgetting Geordi’s toe-curling bit in Encounter at Farpoint but I don’t blame you for that!

It’s “Intergalactic” in Into Darkness, IIRC.

Beastie Boys are in all three movies, FWIW. It’s actually a consistent piece of Kirk characterisation - that he’s into them - though how sensible or good you think that is may be another matter.

In some ways I think Khan is one of the worst things to ever have happened to Star Trek. Not necessarily because of TWOK (which I don’t think is all that great of a movie but which is infinitely better than Space Seed, which is straightforwardly shit) but because the shadow cast but the character just isn’t something…

I think that’s kind of what Beyond proved. As the article says, it’s basically just a TOS episode on a bit of a budget and the crew slot pretty much perfectly into that. It’s not hard to imagine watching a short-run series of them tooling around the galaxy bumping into green hands and space racists. The only problem…

But isn’t every recast Bond functionally a reboot? You get odd characters that travel between actors, like Q or M, but there’s no meaningful overlap between, say, Moore and Dalton other than a couple of ageing actors delivering the exposition at the top of the movie. Between Brosnan and Craig there’s only Dench…

Year of Hell basically was a season long arc. It’s Season Two of Voyager, when they consciously lean into the whole “on the run” vibe and it’s miserable - one of the very worst seasons of Star Trek ever (and I say that as a Voyager lover and someone who’s written two books on the show).

That makes it even better!

Isn’t that exactly what we had with Whittaker’s run of companions? You can argue about their quality (Graham>Yaz>Dan>Ryan) but none of them were OMG-Supes-Most-Specailist-Companion-Evah! which still feels like a breath of fresh air. Just normal people caught up in the Doctor’s shenanigans (OK in Ryan’s case, maybe too…

I mean, it’s not even that hard to understand. It’s basically just “What if Doctor Who, but James Bond?” That’s it. And the bafflegab is flimsy as hell, so if you want to make another Doctor Who connection there, I certainly won’t stop you. Robert Pattinson’s character is just River Song minus the catchphrase(s).

I thought it was the best season of a bad bunch but I hated the tag scene with Q and Crusher. Not because I don’t want to watch Star Trek: Legacy (I do) but it completely undermines the emotional core of the end of Season Two. The whole point is its finality so to just handwave that away seems exceeding cheap and…

Everyone figured that and the Delta Flyer proved they could make other shuttles. Of all the things to get hung up on, that’s not the one to go for.

The universe with DS9 is also very depressing.