I freaking love it even though it’s punishingly difficult at times. Everything will be going fine then a couple unlucky developments and you’re in the shit. Gives you an all new appreciation of what Janeway had to deal with. 😆
The bg music is a little lame but I just turned off the in-game music and put on the VOY soundtrack collections in the background and it feels great.
I dreaded the musical episode and I was wrong, it was fantastic. I dreaded the Lower Decks crossover episode and I was wrong, it was fantastic. I dreaded this episode and unfortunately, this time it was even worse than I feared.
I’ll admit, it was well made, the technical and performance sides of the puppets were outstanding and I genuinely laughed out loud on several occasions, but holy hell was it cringe from start to finish. Is this what anyone wants from ST??
I was so relieved that
it was at least ‘excused’ from canon by being a dream
but ffs, did we really need to waste what precious time is left with this series on… this??
The biggest weakness of Kurtzman’s era was that he granted way too much freedom to people’s ideas. Exploration and growth are of course necessary if Star Trek is going to survive (Even the 90’s shows got flak: DS9 stayed in one place and didn’t explore like the Enterprise, Voyager was going the “wrong direction” by coming home instead of going outward), but any artist will tell you that self-imposed restraint is what makes any work really spark. Some ideas should be rejected because they just don’t fit somehow and I’m shocked that no one realized it enough to put their foot down in this instance.
I realize that this was this season’s obligatory hijinks episode (the previous entries of which I generally liked and in the case of Spock Amok loved), but for me this one didn’t just cross the line, it jumped the shark.
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk. 😅
It really was obnoxiously enjoyable
Was it though? I could see it if you changed the audio track to a language you don’t understand, because it does have a lot going for it; the production design and costumes, set design and construction are all outstanding, sound design is still some of the best there’s ever been (especially when it came to modernizing legacy sfx), obviously the vfx and novel approaches to cinematography (yes, including the lens flares) are all great, etc etc.
But literally every last thing about the story is stream of consciousness, fever dream nonsense, which in any other franchise might be forgiven, but for Star Trek of all things to have such boneheaded threads of anti-science magical thinking, noxious xenophobia and childish cruelty is unforgivable. It’s a top to bottom garbage script, ironically produced with one of the most talented film crews in sci-fi movie history, which for my money anyway, makes it even more tragic and hard to enjoy.
That was great! I thought I knew where it was going but it totally surprised both me and my wife and we were like, “Damn, that was pretty good!”
Very hyped for shore leave episode now, the crew has earned it!
This could be even funnier by at least 8.3% if the second frame was rear view on the main screen and the credit appeared mirrored from Enterpise’s perspective.
Yo that comm badge is sweet! Did you buy or make?
Wow I never knew about all the bts drama of this film! Also found this illuminating:
Frank Mancuso, Sr. – who had been intimately involved with Star Trek ever since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – , did not really want to end the Original Crew run on The Final Frontier low note, especially with the 25th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise coming up, and wanted one more film, but found himself seriously hampered by the strictest of budget limitation: under NOconceivable circumstance was a potential new film to exceed the budget of The Final Frontier, not even by one dollar.
Man, those scenes with Braka and Ake were really something. Wasn’t sure how I was going to like Giamatti in this series but I’m kinda digging him.
At least they got, “Botanically Scented.”
She did! And it’s insanely great, it’s got a 28.8bps modem!
Well I like your username!
Oh wow, good find about Avery’s lines being from the spoken word album! I was hoping he had come into the recording booth as a cameo but whatever, it was beautiful either way.
Oh man, it started a little… extra shall we say, but that was really something special! I did not expect this series to be this good.
Sorting in Immich needs a lot of work still. The main thing I’m still missing from Google Photos is being able to manually sort images in an album.
I overall loved the choice to use it and orchestral arrangement especially, really got my attention after all the action and made me lean in to the moment and the show. What I didn’t love was Rufus Wainright’s overly syrup-y vocals. Really would have preferred the original remixed with the orchestral arrangement.
That said, I do wonder if over time this is going to grow on me and become another Faith of the Heart. 😁
Totally! I haven’t loved the post-Burn setting but the way this show is already contextualizing it, and the optimism it’s doing it with is already starting to change my mind.
And it’s even carrying over from the show into real life, which is one of the things I love most about Trek and its good to have this out there. There’s some nitpicks, as there always are, but so far I can deal with them, especially if it stays consistent. 🖖
If you prefer this particular dystopian vision with chuckles, Rifftrax did it and was pretty good as I recall.
Yup, the older I get the more I appreciate Neelix.
I mean DS9 and VOY were shot on film and edited/finished on Beta, just like TNG was. The same restoration processes could be used for them too if they were sure they’d make up for it in sales.
EDIT: Several BTS shots starting here showing the Panavision cameras used (though you can also just tell from the tonal range of the images in the show, there’s no video camera that was capturing that in the 90’s).