a CGI design that has aged incredibly poorly…I don’t like the whole body horror “you can see inside your brain” stuff, even with the dated CGI

I don’t mind the CGI creature-that-I-can’t-be-bothered-to-look-up-the-name-of - it’s dated, but decent-looking IMO, but I don’t think those brain ports ever looked good.

It’s strange to me that we’re going to return to Satellite Five in the finale…I’m looking forward to keeping an eye on that one to see whether it was a budgetary move (I don’t remember them re-using the sets, but maybe they did?).

The Bombers may have a get-right game against the struggling Boatchildren.

🤞

The Big Blue have some things to figure out, especially on the defensive end of things.

The Calgary/Montreal matchup should be pretty interesting.

I’ve struggled with this question for years, and haven’t been able to come up with an answer I feel good about, so the “correct” answer is probably, “consider the person’s tastes and cater to them.”

I do believe that it’s probably not a good idea to start with the “best” episodes - they tend to break the usual format, and once you’ve seen them, there’s nowhere to go but down.

Instead, I’m on a continuous search for the most “average” episodes - solid, enjoyable, and representative of what the series and franchise are as a whole. But I still don’t have a simple answer.

I avoided watching this one all week, because I don’t remember liking it very much, and…well, I was right.

It’s not that bad, really. Thebasic story is fine, and themes of the media shaping the way people think are evergreen. But it’s directed like something from at least 10-20 years earlier, and the whole thing is sort of lifeless and boring. This is Brian Grant’s only DW directing credit, and that’s a mercy.

The Adam arc…maybe it should have had one more episode than it got. His initial culture shock is done pretty well, and his greed makes perfect sense, given his previous job. But his (non-) relationship with Rose is rather undercooked - there’s no reason to get invested either way. It also serves to paint the Doctor and Rose’s relationship in a more romantic light, and…I love Ecceleston and Piper together, but they just don’t have that kind of chemistry.

Simon Pegg is rather wasted as the Editor, neither interesting nor funny enough to justify his casting. Suki and Cathica are both more compelling, and the nurse is portrayed in a memorably unusual way by Tamsin Greig.

I keep having the stray thought that “The Interstellar Song Contest” seems like a bit of a do-over of this one. It doesn’t map 1:1, but the similiarities are strong enough that I keep drawing that line.

According to the official site, the final schedule won’t go up until the week of the convention.

I just took a peek at the score, and…yup.

That was more or less expected, but the West is going to be a tough slog.

I’m sure it wouldn’t work for <insert technobabble reason here>, but this is the unfortunate consequence of treating it so casually in season one…

It’s definitely a case of NORAD working as designed. Which is good!

The fact that we’re borderline amazed that it’s working as designed is much less good.

I was mainly responding to the claim that there’s no base, but I really don’t see the value in stationing a combat squadron there.

In the case of an actual foreign invasion, there would be enough time to redeploy from elsewhere.

As I said downthread, that’s a very sensible use of a coastal air force base.

Yeah, the most imminent air threat has historically been over the pole, which is why CFB Cold Lake exists.

The squadrons on Vancouver Island are for surveillance and search-and-rescue, which is entirely sensible for the coast.

CFB Comox is located on Vancouver Island.

And with that, the Stamps have cemented themselves as a legitimate contender.

I’m sure the word on the street will be not to count the Bombers out just yet - and we shouldn’t - but there’s cause for concern. They need to improve in every single aspect of their play if they want to stay in the mix as the season continues. And now Collaros is out of commission, with a loooooong way to go until the next bye week.

Possibly, but looking at the episode titles, episode 9 “Terrarium” seems like it could be a good candidate for a Gorn return.

It really didn’t seem like it, but:

You will see more of the Gorn. The Gorn are not gone, but the Gorn are not the primary adversary for season 3.

That was a very boring game, with the wildest final three minutes I’ve seen in a very long time.

The entire series is set in a snow globe on Sam Kirk’s mantle, in the home where he lives to be 147.

How kind of them to not release it in any other format…

Camera spin continues to be a big part of the visual language.

I was genuinely surprised that Olatunde Osunsanmi didn’t direct.

Hegemony, Part II

I appreciated the continued exploration of the Gorn as a truly alien alien species. All the stuff with their different sensory modes, and solar-associated life cycles, is a lot of fun to me.

It also seems like they’ve written the Gorn off as a going concern, which I think is fine. This is a good place to leave it until “Arena” - they even added some dialogue about the various Gorn stories being somewhat vague, so there’s some wiggle room for them to seem a little different when they’re encountered again in the future.

They managed to film the AR wall in a way that didn’t just seem like a round room, which I appreciate.

Wedding Bell Blues

Give this show all the makeup and costuming awards immediately.

It was a fun romp, and I always like it when two opposing characters have to team up against the universe. I could have done with more dancing at the end - it seems like the actors put in a lot of work for a fairly brief scene.

I’ve never been a big fan of drawing a connection between Trelane and the Q, so I’m glad neither was mentioned by name (Edit: I think…?).

Please give me a Sam Kirk spinoff that runs for 50 years.