Stargate Director's Cut

 DVD, Stargate Director's Cut (1994/2001) film

I hadn't seen the original version of this film so I don't know how different the Director's Cut is, whether there's much new material or what was changed, but it's a fair old length for what is a relatively slight story: they summon Dr. Daniel Jackson and Colonel Jack 'O'Neil' (one 'L'), go to the planet (which I don't even recall them calling Abydos!), Ra turns up, hangs around for a bit, then there's a modest fight against a couple of Death Gliders, and it's home for tea and crumpets. Except for Daniel who stays behind married to Sha'uri. I had the feeling several of the characters crossed over to the series, 'Stargate SG-1,' and were played by the same people, but I think in the end it was only Erick Avari as Kasuf, the almost Moses-like (holding up his staff!), leader of this tribe, and Skaara, the teen lad who O'Neil takes a liking to (and introduces to smoking!), bringing out the Father in him who's been damaged. You have Kawalsky and Sha'uri (both different spellings in the series), and Catherine Langford, who all crop up by different actors. But it didn't matter, you find yourself drawn into the spectacle which has a beating heart at its centre with the two main characters both on a crossroads in life. It's more obvious with O'Neil, unable to move on from the accidental death of his son, which is why he goes on a suicide mission, but Daniel, too, has reached a difficult point in his life where he's laughed out of lectures for his bizarre theories and can't even afford his rent any more, and the important part of the story is that both he and Jack find a new source of drive and direction, and that's what keeps this working despite the special effects of its time or small scope.

It's hard to believe this is over thirty years old now - I never saw it at the cinema, although a family member did, and it was never really on my radar. Considering its age the effects actually do look pretty good and it's told on a cinematic scale that lends the smallness of that story a much broader impression. That's without even investigating the potential of the Stargate itself - they only use it once (twice if you count the team returning to Earth at the very end), so it's really just a mechanism for getting them to the adventure, though you can see why the TV series and its spinoffs had so much to play with: while so much of the classic iconography and lore of the franchise is clearly visible (pyramid starships; sarcophagus to restore life; staff weapons; hand device for discombobulating a victim's brain; the opening crawl across Ra's face mask that the series would use as its opening titles for a while; the base under the mountain with its concrete and circular corridors; the 'gate room with overlooking windows...), there was also so much left unsaid, unexplained or unexplored. And I really like how they leave it. It's not exactly a clear setup for a sequel, it's just a high to go out on (even though in reality it's just a swarm of allies taking down two enemy soldiers!), and leaves it so they could have done anything next: maybe O'Neil didn't get home after all but was diverted away to some other planet, or perhaps Daniel had an adventure on Abydos or desperately had to return to Earth to convey new information about a threat. The options were open and the series ran with them.

I'd never thought about it before, but Jackson and 'Jack's son' was a link between the characters: maybe even Daniel's surname was a harsh reminder of what O'Neil had lost? Right from the start you have that scientists versus military tension that served the series so long and so well, and James Spader's performance especially is so strong, and actually only makes you appreciate Michael Shanks' taking on the character for 'SG-1' even more, since he got the mannerisms, speech patterns and general affable curiosity of the guy down so well. O'Neil and O'Neill are another matter. It's not that I dislike Kurt Russell's performance here, but he's so very different to Richard Dean Anderson, by design as the latter wanted his own take. I think there's even a joke somewhere in the TV series about another O'Neill with one 'L' in his name, so it's a little hazy whether this is supposed to be the same man who'd go on to be in the series. Not that it matters a great deal (or, for that matter that 'Anubis' is apparently one of the goons working for Ra since we know how dangerous the villain of the same name was in 'SG-1'!), but they don't exist in the same postcode when it comes to military characters, even though they have the same name and backstory. More distracting is actually the little plot holes that seem obvious now after the series explored every aspect of the 'gate. The biggest one is why didn't Earth keep dialling this alien planet every hour or so, that way they wouldn't have to worry whether Daniel could get them back or not? In the film you wouldn't think of it, you just assume there's a reason, but it stuck out to me.

Ra's entourage of half-naked children was a little worrying, but then this being a 'PG' it was at least explained in an innocent way that they're there to provide him with protection - presumably these are all children from the planet so the slaves would never harm their own children if they ever did get their hands on a weapon. Ra was a bit creepy, androgynous and youthful despite being thousands of years old, though I did find it interesting we learn he's actually an alien being that took over the human body. No mention of symbionts, but you see an alien face so we can take it that the original host body was also alien which I hadn't really thought of before. The other big nitpick I have is to wonder why Ra hung around for so long before attempting to send the bomb back down the Stargate to Earth - or were they just guessing that's what he was planning? He puts it by the 'gate, but then seems more interested in lounging around his palace or playing boardgames with the littl'uns rather than getting on with the annihilation, so I didn't understand his reticence there. One thing I liked was how we see O'Neil isn't there because he has a death wish. Yes, he's happy to die, but he's only going to do it as fulfilment of his mission - for example, when he tells Daniel to stand down as he can see they're outgunned and still has his orders, whereas a man who simply wanted to embrace death would have taken any opportunity to put himself in harm's way. It shows he's a principled man and a good soldier that his personal anguish isn't what truly motivates him.

The sets were good, the desert scenes suitably epic. I think I'd have liked a little more back on Earth, things whizz through that end of the story, while it isn't quite as strong in the later stages until you get to the upbeat finale. Catherine and the other experts would have been interesting characters to explore a bit more, but I can see if they did go along on the mission that would give Daniel more support and we wouldn't see him made a fool of because others would be there to bolster his side (I noted he somehow found his glasses as you see he's lost them in the scene where the beast of burden takes him on an unscheduled ride!). The theme wasn't quite as definitive, too, although I do love David Arnold's work, I just think they created a more memorable version as the series' main theme. I found the film surprisingly emotional, especially in the beginning as you're seeing these character meet for the first time, knowing how many adventures they'll go on in the future and it doesn't matter how many times you've seen the Stargate before, seeing what were state of the art effects at the time (I still remember the trailer on TV), and through the eyes of a first time viewer, is still somehow special. And after witnessing the franchise's lowest point not so long ago ('Stargate Origins: Catherine'), it was a relief to get back to something that had the strength of what made it work so well in the first place! There's been talk of a remake, but it would be a shame to undermine so many years of collected history across this film, the TV series' and subsequent films, but at the same time it did work having the same characters yet different to the ones I now know so well from 'SG-1,' so maybe it could work?

***

Võx

 DVD, Picard S3 (Võx)

Jack Crusher, Jr. had been a rather unappealing character, from his 'mystery' identity, to his casual disrespect and self-absorbed attitude, but this time he really takes the biscuit - after the whole season had been about protecting him from the marauding pursuers of Changeling Vadic and her beak-faced crew, upon learning the Borg are behind his strange nightmares and he needs to be kept a prisoner for his and everyone else's sake, he rushes off to seek the Borg Queen! How stupid can one man be, and how unsympathetic can one character be? The whole season! It was all about protecting him! And thanks to his incredibly selfish, emotional need to know what it's all about he puts everyone's lives at danger, very far from the Starfleet way. I suppose you could say he's as equally motivated to run from his friends and colleagues right into the waiting arms of the enemy to protect them as he is to unlock the mystery of himself, but it was such a hotheaded act and he's not a teenager any more, he should have more sense. And who was to say he would have put them in danger if he had stayed, which makes it increasingly, groan-worthily appear it's more to satisfy his curiosity, which doesn't look good at all... Again, in his defence you can argue Picard could have broken it to him in a more gentle, diplomatic fashion, or you could if he'd been as insensitive and out of touch with others as he's been shown to be across too much of the last three seasons, except that he was quite gentle, and all round Picard (and Stewart's acting), have been much closer to what he's supposed to be, exhibiting the qualities or at least a better line delivery, of the Picard we knew before he got old and badly written.

If Jack doesn't have even the leg of Picard's blurting exposition to stand on as excuse for his actions, it makes him look even worse. Perhaps Jean-Luc should have been a touch more sensitive from a perspective of Fatherhood, insisting he'll do whatever it takes to protect his damaged son to make up for the bad genes he saddled him with, or if Jack didn't just fly off the handle, then things might have been different, but it ends up looking like Jack isn't trusted and doesn't trust, so decides to go his own way (he can apparently control more than one person at a time, too, as he uses both Security officers to flank him, though I'm not sure it fits with what we saw before that he can move around normally himself, stalking down the corridor, while simultaneously controlling his guards). Unfortunately, that's exactly what the Borg Queen needed at that moment to enact her carefully timed plan of taking over the fleet. At least I think that's the case... The story gets overly convoluted and because so much of this episode is exposition you have to pay close attention to what's being said as it all comes out and the plot unravels, which would be my biggest (but not only criticism), of this penultimate episode of the series, and potentially 24th/25th Century live action Trek indefinitely. Can we say Jack's running away is down to him being so strongly 'activated,' or is it just pigheadedness that drives him to rush off from even his Mother? Is it Deanna's fault for pushing him to open the door in his mind from which all those slightly poor red CGI veins (or vines as she calls them), originate? She didn't get to drive the ship this time, but is she responsible for metaphorically crashing the season?

The question is, what would the Borg Queen have done if Jack hadn't torpedoed straight for her? The timing was critical, presumably, she needed Jack to be the transmitter to activate all the under-25s in Starfleet's, well, star fleet, or am I getting the wrong end of the tubule? Would they still have been activated if Jack had been elsewhere? It's not clear to me, but to go the whole season in one direction, then throw out all the various plotting and actions because Jack gets stroppy and undermines every effort to prevent him from being captured is a major failure of writing, to me. If he came to the decision alone as the only way to save everyone that would be one thing, but as I've mentioned, he looks very self-obsessed more than any other motivation that can be read into it. It might have been exciting to see Borg Cubes coming for the Titan, though that only reinforces the idea that the majority of this season has been treading water (as is sadly the case with serialised seasons, at least in Trek), waiting for the big finale, which is, I suppose the point: you're intentionally stringing your audience along for as long as possible until there's a big final confrontation. It's a model, it's a system, it's a formula, but not one that plays to Trek's strengths. Fortunately, for this particular season it works much better because the draw has been something other than plot: the reunion of the 'TNG' cast, so that gradual coming together has been the glue which held it together.

Once again, like the previous episode, the final scenes of this one almost make up for the lack in the majority of it (though there are some definite highs along the way), and leaves me wishing the goodness could have capped a great story. But to have all those characters not just in the same room, breathing the same air, but walking reverently onto the Bridge of the Enterprise-D, a spotless recreation from the production team, only serves to plunge the knife in further on the fact that the lost aesthetics of Trek needn't have been discarded. It still looks as immaculate, futuristic and simply beautiful as it ever did. I've always loved when Trek has revisited the past by bringing back part of an old ship, whether that be the original Enterprise, the Excelsior, another Constitution, or the 'D,' but all of these examples were achieved in old Trek, while the new has chosen to reimagine and alter, much to the detriment of the visual canon and continuity (just one of many reasons 'DSC' and 'SNW' can't succeed for me - they never seemed to care about Trek history, even while inserting themselves into it, which is a major flaw for a serious Trekker). You can point to the beauty of 'Lower Decks' returning to the aesthetic, and 'Prodigy' has nice moments, such as their Holodeck recreation of the 'D' Bridge, but live action is different, and this more than anything else shouts out that Trek is back!

Picard jokes of all the things he's missed being with his old comrades, he's realised what he missed most: the carpet. This was clearly an intentional dig at the modern Trek aesthetic where everything has to be shiny floors and lights blinding you out of the gloom at every opportunity, but I think it also points to a reality about that, too. I was with Picard, and where he may have been lighthearted about it, encapsulating the moment of reunion with their most powerful shared experience of their former careers, I took it seriously and loved every short second we spent on that Bridge - they even have Geordi explain how it came to be, that the Saucer was recovered from Veridian III (a uniquely 'Generations' reference, my favourite Trek film, how wonderful!), and the engines were formerly of the USS Syracuse, and which he's tinkered with for the past twenty years. Is that how long he's been managing the Fleet Museum or was he afforded a priority berth somewhere he could keep coming back to work on it? That modern Trek would not only make mention of key ship history, but also explain how it came to be, is a huge joy and something missing from much of this TV era where you sometimes get the impression they either didn't know about something, or worse, didn't care, or think the audience would! It shows the writing of this season in particular had its heart in the right place even if it found Trek as difficult to write as what had recently come before.

'LD' has to get some of the credit for making it acceptable to reference the past of characters and ships that we knew, even if they started out on overdrive, but it is the little things like explaining how the Enterprise-D can be in one piece, that matters to people like me. It's a shame they couldn't get everything right, though... And there is one absolute clanger in this episode, and just as Jack as the focus of the season messes up at the end, the other main focus has been Frontier Day, the 250th Anniversary since... mumble, mumble. It hadn't been entirely clear, but this time we get not only a new flagship (presumably, since it's leading the celebrations), the Enterprise-F, but another returning character in Admiral Elizabeth Shelby to tell us the exact meaning of the big day. And it is... drum roll... to mark two hundred and fifty years, or a quarter of a millennium (which puts Trek in its perspective!), since the launch of the first Enterprise, the NX-01, which led to the birth of... I thought she was going to say the Federation, but apparently it was the birth of Starfleet! Is that the Starfleet Captain Archer and his crew worked for and had been around some time even before the launch of the NX-01? That would be a yes. Whoops! You can't catch everything, I understand that, but such a key part of Trek history getting misrepresented or misinterpreted - Terry Matalas, the man behind the season, and who we can be thankful to for so many things, even worked on 'Enterprise,' so to get a detail like that mixed up is astounding! I can only put it down to the stress of this late in the season where everything has to come together, because that's a massive booboo.

In terms of the actual reveal of the 'F,' I loved it. The fireworks reminded me of Voyager's triumphant return at the end of its series, the ship itself was lovingly presented and allowed time to shine, so much so that I wished we could see more of her, and while you can tell they didn't have the money for a proper Bridge set as it's mostly Shelby alone on a Captain's Chair in a blank, empty space, it's another throwback to TV Trek of old when they similarly had to conserve budget when it came to guest ships, so I didn't mind. What I did mind was bringing back another 'legacy' character, as they call them these days, only to kill her off after five minutes. Having Shelby as the voice (or Vox?), of the fleet operations was a nice touch since she was so unlikeable back in 'TNG,' and also that she was so key to the big Borg engagement in those episodes, so I can see the mental lineage of getting her to this point, but she's not really a character, just a speech, she doesn't really even get to interact with Picard or any of our characters before she's shot by her crew. In one sense you can suggest that perhaps this was Matalas' idea as revenge for how she treated Riker, maybe, and I didn't like that impression. It's also not the only one in the episode: they treat the Enterprise-E with disdain as if to say we don't care about that ship, only the original 'TNG' for us, and I had always wanted to see the 'E' again as such a sleek, beautiful design that helped make the 'TNG' films be even more advanced and cinematic than the TV series they'd come from.

In both cases there's room for speculation, and if, as Matalas has said, even the death of Ro Laren isn't supposed to be certain, then not seeing Shelby definitively die also has to count as room for manoeuvre should they ever wish to bring her back. The evidence is that we see two of her crew shoot her with Phasers, you even see the fiery red marks as she's hit, but unlike just about every other Phaser hit in this season, she doesn't dissolve into sparks so there's still hope. It just seems the intent was to suggest she was dead as they never mentioned her fate one way or the other, in this episode or the next and I don't like something hanging like that. Not that it really matters, we're unlikely to see any of these characters again, so Shelby living or dying is a very minor matter, but my feeling is that if you're going to bring back someone it needs to be in a meaningful way, where they can have interaction with our characters, otherwise it's just a little Easter egg, and while they're fine, they're ultimately unsatisfying compared to most of what we've been given this season. The 'E's demise is similarly uncertain, but I didn't like the flippant way it was turned into a joke, and not only that, but it's a joke about Worf's command ability, with the implication being (and they might even have mentioned he was its Captain earlier in the season, I can't remember), he was responsible for its loss, since he defensively denies 'it' was not his fault, whatever 'it' was.

One of my problems with this episode is they don't get the tone right sometimes when it comes to the humour. For example, moments with Data were terrific, such as when Geordi asks for more positivity and he pleasantly obliges, saying, "I hope we die quickly," which is very much the kind of Data thing he would say. I think Data as a whole was much more self-aware by 'Nemesis,' but then if you think this is a kind of Data reborn, much like Spock in 'Star Trek IV,' but not quite as strongly, it's easier to see him as still not exactly himself, which can conveniently and adequately justify anything they do with him. I felt like that joke was one of the moments they got the humour right, but too many times they didn't, like with the dig at the 'E,' or Seven offhandedly referring to Data as 'the robot.' In that scene she very much regressed into the Seasons 1 and 2 version of the character where she was brash, casual, flippant, uncaring about precision and specifics or showing intelligence and knowledge, sensitivity she slowly gained on Voyager that made her character so appealing and compelling to watch. All that was sacrificed on the altar of what the writers thought was 'cool,' but which made me greatly dislike her. She doesn't have much to do in this episode as the focus has shifted to the 'TNG' cast having their moment, and it's not a big problem, but it reminds why, without Shaw around it looks like she'll revert back to that awful version of Seven, all for the sake of a 'laugh' at someone treating the venerated and loved android with such disregard.

I'm sure many people would have dreamed of Seven of Nine and Data meeting - they were the outsider character growing towards humanity in their respective series', so to have that potential scene of mutual understanding and similarity lost so they can instead have a cheap joke, is exactly the kind of crude approach to drama, and cruel approach to expectations that has been just one more thing about modern Trek to put me off, and why having Seven here has really made little difference, especially in these later episodes. The same, to some extent, can be said of Worf, who has fallen back into his 'TNG' position of just being one of the gang, mostly a solid presence in the background, literally, when he takes up his old station at the horseshoe, though it didn't even quite register at the time, probably because the cinematic widescreen aspect ratio doesn't really suit a Bridge built for 4:3 Fullscreen, although it wasn't a problem in 'Generations,' so perhaps it just wasn't well-framed by Matalas as Director? Worf on 'DS9' became such an important figure, elevated beyond his role on 'TNG' and far less the butt of jokes, that it's hard to return him to that lesser stature, although they got the humour right when everyone's pouring out love for their old ship and he bluntly complains that the weapons were better on the 'E'! It's a very Worf thing to do, he isn't one to be particularly sentimental about things, though he acquiesces when the sensitive Deanna chastises him, and pretends to be very happy.

It's moments like these that lift this season above all the other live action seasons we've had in the Kurtzman era, and why it was such a good move to bring in these old characters instead of insisting on continuing the drab, boring, unhappy version of 'Picard' they'd presented us with prior. And having them get to be together on the 'D,' so homely and attractive, was a masterstroke and shows where the money went. I would say the lighting is a bit pale and makes the place look different, somewhat dingy to the bright place it used to be, and as amazing as the recreation of the Bridge was, there is a sense that this is all they could build so it does feel somewhat limited rather than the original set where people were coming and going between Turbolifts or the Briefing Room, so I couldn't quite help but feel this was a set, but in the moment it was simply incredible and a real joy - not since the series finale of 'Enterprise' had any of the 'D' been recreated, and there it was other sets, like corridors, Quarters or the Holodeck rather than the Bridge, so taken together, the main parts (other than the impressive Engineering which would require a lot more money!), have nicely existed outside of their own series, and that always makes me happy to see. And they even managed to find Majel Barrett's voice for the Computer, a brilliant icing on the cake and something that's been very much missing from this era as she used to bind all the past series' together. Lovely!

You even get Alice Krige back as the voice of the Borg Queen, and no matter who they go to for new versions, they always come back to her as the original and by far the best, although I was very disappointed it was only a voice role. We only see the back of her head in this episode, so it didn't matter, but in the finale it would have been good to see Krige. Like John De Lancie's Q before her, she made her return debut in 'LD,' which was quite a fun episode, but I think they'd been mixing n her voice with Beverly's across this season of 'Picard,' I'm not sure when I first started noticing it as they were careful to keep it very subtle and for the most part chose misdirection with Crusher as the trick, but it was good to have that connection back to 'First Contact.' I'm not so sure her character's plan made sense, however: employ a disaffected sect of Changelings to infiltrate every Starfleet ship in order to integrate portions of Picard's DNA into every Transporter system so that whenever anyone beamed they were implanted with it, which was some kind of organic technology transmitter (like bees in a hive, or birds flocking together - the Trek explanation!), which then activates everyone under the age of twenty-five (puts a new spin on 'Challenge 25' for those working in retail!), turns them Borg and leads them to take over the fleet. So did this new technological development of having the fleet interconnected so they could act as one have any bearing or was that supposed to show misguided symmetry of Starfleet top brass becoming like the Borg?

The thing about modern Trek is they love to make Starfleet the villain! I know we had officials in 'TOS' that tended to cause problems, and Admirals were the same in 'TNG' onwards, but Starfleet itself as either a villain, or secretly controlled by villains (like Commander Oh in Season 1, or the other Romulan spy who was working for her), does get a little tired. It's like they take every opportunity to deconstruct the positive aspects of Trek to make it more and more Dystopian, and it's quite depressing. I'm not saying that about this particular story, because Starfleet just come across as misguided (unlike the Season 3 finale of 'LD' where they also had connected ships, although they were AI controlled). For one thing, Starfleet's mission is to seek out new life and civilisations, and they boldly go one ship at a time so there doesn't seem to be that much call for the fleet acting as one, since apart from this once-in-a-two-hundred-and-fifty-year event, they're all going to be off in different directions! I'd also insert a little complaint here that when you're showing all these Starfleet ships it would have been nice to be able to see them, rather than just being dots in space! How about some glorious flybys as the 'F' was given, swoop us through the ranks - at least have some views where you're up close to some. I assume this is another budgetary issue, and it does reflect the old days when they were still using models on 'DS9' and having to pull off hundreds of ships in battle they had to use off the shelf model kits or Christmas ornaments to represent ships further away, not having the time or money to build that many, and that worked very well, except that we were getting more detailed views and closer, up front, so there was a sense of scale.

It's the same way I felt about the internal of the shuttle Jack steals - I don't get a sense of scale as you used to when a Runabout or shuttle were filmed, and that has to be down to the way they shoot things so often in modern times, where you have to be zoomed in on a character rather than establishing shots of the environment he's inhabiting. At least when he gets to the vast Borg Cube (Tactical Cube?), it's back to the messy, untidy corridors of old, with their pipes and conduits strewn around and smoke hissing, while evil green lights give a sense of depth. Much better than the clean, tidy, huge blocky corridors seen in Season 1, but I suppose that could be justified by saying all the Borg rubbish had been cleaned out, although that's not the impression I had at the time. They make a major retcon in revealing that Picard never had Irumodic Syndrome in the first place, it was just the side effects of the implanted organic Borg tech that were designed to one day be spread to his offspring, I assume, so the Borg could one day use it... Yeah, it gets a bit hazy then, because why would the Borg put in motion such a longterm plan with such uncertain probability of success. Were they really hoping he'd have children and thus, his immoral act birthed a new threat when he could just as easily have remained childless until death, or was it meant as something where he, himself, could have been co-opted? And why would the Borg kill people when their goal has always been assimilation? And do we know if there are other Changelings at large within the fleet? And when they escape in a maintenance shuttle shouldn't there be lots of other shuttles and escape pods as others have done the same, or theirs would stick out like a sore thumb? Best not to think too much about it because I don't think it makes sense, and if the Borg did that to Picard then why wouldn't they have done it to some other human, and why wait so long, and... oh dear.

At least it gives a rationale for how Picard could hear the Borg in his mind even after the technology had been removed from him, although even that I fear was a product of 'First Contact,' I don't think it ever happened in 'TNG.' But it was a cool development and seemed to make sense, we didn't need a reason, you just assume that because they left some indeterminate thing of themselves in him, not a physical object, but a mental connection, it was a residual effect, but I like that we now know it was due to specific tech that Starfleet couldn't detect back then. It does throw up all kinds of questions about why the Borg would even keep using mechanical parts if they have organic tech now, and also smacks of the Cylons in modern 'Battlestar Galactica,' just like the modified Changelings who could apparently simulate real flesh now - not so keen on all that. Also, when Picard said he could still hear the Borg after he was assimilated I'm assuming he meant after the event, once he'd been de-assimilated, since of course he could hear the Borg after he was assimilated, that's the point of assimilation! The reveal that it was the pesky Borg all along and they would've gotten away with it if... actually, no, they wouldn't have gotten away with it if they needed Jack as the transmitter, or are they saying the Transporter stuff with the DNA in the library– I mean the under-25s would have been activated anyway, because it was unclear if Jack getting hooked up had anything to do with that or it was just the time the Borg chose and they have a more deadly thing planned with Jack as transmitter, but I don't remember exactly what happens in the finale.

But anyway, I meant to say the Borg reveal would have had more weight and power if we hadn't already dealt with them for the past two inferior seasons, so they don't quite have the impact they should have had. I know Beverly says no one's seen or heard from them in over a decade, but we've seen and heard from a version of them quite a lot lately! Even the animated series' have got in on the action, and while 'LD' featured them on the Holodeck, 'Prodigy' met them for real, if far away in the Delta Quadrant, which doesn't step on any toes and shows they weren't dormant or destroyed. It wasn't a bad twist to make youngsters be the threat, especially as the series is about seasoned, mature characters well out of that category. I don't think they fully exploited the concept, as while there is some concern from everyone having to escape these sudden attacks from enemies within, it's all rather perfunctory, tension not being something strongly accomplished in modern Trek, even on this season. For example, I know it was done for dramatic effect to have Ensign Esmar clump up the steps and sit on the Captain's Chair, but it wasn't a very Borg thing to do. They wouldn't care about such imagery (especially as there's no one around to see it, so it wasn't even done for intimidation effect), nor do they care about comfort - when was the last time you saw a drone sit down? That's right, they don't, and even the de-assimilated Seven found it hard to sit since it was such an alien concept to her. They don't even lie down to regenerate, but stand stiffly in their Regeneration Chambers.

It's not a problem, you can just say these aren't fully Borgified drones so they're a slightly different concept to normal Borg, but it's just the visual language that Trek was so good at adhering to which was a sort of shorthand that regular viewers would come to learn, that is missing these days. I was glad at least to hear Captain Shaw (remember him, he's the guy captaining the ship, remember?), order them to use stun only, although it used to be the Starfleet way that 'kill' setting was only used in extremes because they'd rather avoid killing if they can. At least these semi-Borg don't develop immunity to Phaser blasts, another sign they aren't quite fully Borg, but also a sign that things can all go back to normal quite easily if we can just stop these pesky Borg at their source, which undermined the tension quite a lot for me. Like Seven and (thankfully), Raffi, Shaw has been in the background more and more as we've focused on the 'TNG' characters, which is fine and good, but he's almost an afterthought now, like when they work out what needs to be done and rather than including the Captain of the ship in the conversation Picard just calls up to the Bridge to tell him where to go! It's a bit demeaning. It at least reminds you there is a Captain, but he doesn't have much authority now. Perhaps his lessening as the season went on also makes it harder to care about his death, dropped by a good shot in a corridor, although there's also the sense that he foolhardily looked behind him at the wrong moment, so even his last act was a rash mistake that got him needlessly killed. Except it wasn't needless, it was needed since he only really existed as a barrier for Seven to surpass to the captaincy.

It's a little strange that throughout the season people have been dying by Phaser, reduced to showers of sparks, except in this case he just falls to the deck so Seven can have that goodbye scene and he can 'validate' her 'chosen' 'identity.' It struck me as the height of inappropriateness to start calling her by a Borg designation now the Borg have suddenly become an active and present enemy again. But that whole thing is a failure to accept or understand Seven's journey towards her humanity that we were landed with right from Season 1. I just wish that like a few other things it had been retconned over, avoided, or maybe Seven wasn't even in it at all, a sentiment I never could have imagined myself wishing before they brought the character back for 'Picard.' It's moments like this that cloud what could have been a good episode, although even if it had been full of the best scenes (such as Data and Picard's exchange in the Briefing Room where there's nothing he can say so he just puts his hand comfortingly on Picard's shoulder, the kind of beautifully touching moment I never thought I'd see again in Trek), it still wouldn't have papered over the heavily expositional and confusing storytelling or the clunking mistakes. I haven't appreciated the horror tropes of Jack's mental imagery with its very specific type of music and the old-fashioned wooden door, etc, it was all very derivative and didn't fit the 'TNG' tone, not to mention they get in yet another old-timey song in the opening scenes, which they seem to love.

Still, it remained very heartwarming to see the old cast back, acting in scenes all together on occasion, even the recap of the previous episode made me smile internally and reflect that this is like a final film in the series, one they never got, even if it also has more of a 'TNG' flavour since there is so much talk. But when it's meaningful talk it works and, if anything, makes me hungrier for more of the cast together as it's like we didn't have enough of them since the drawing closer of all these people was meant to be the point of all that waiting to get to this two-part finale. Others haven't been forgotten, either, with a USS Pulaski a nice little Trekference to the second doctor of the series, and Beverly saying how she gave her first son Wesley space and then lost him to it, and now she's done the opposite with Jack. More information on Wesley Crusher would have been good, but it's not really relevant to what's going on here and you can't fit everything in. They did their best, though, with starship names representing various characters and behind the scenes people (USS Okuda, USS Drexler, USS Trumbull, USS Hikaru-Sulu, just to be clear in case we thought it was for another Sulu, USS Cochrane, USS Mandel, USS Ross for the Admiral of that name, I hope - may have gone a bit over the top with all that!), and even hear the current Captain of the Excelsior's voice (Nolan North, a regular contributor to modern Trek, from 'Into Darkness' to varied credits on 'LD').

We see Data still has emotions as he gets choked up upon seeing the 'D,' which is an interesting revelation in case anyone was wondering about the emotion chip, although the line between organic and tech is apparently so blurred now that maybe he doesn't even need one... I'm not sure about Geordi's description of the 'D' as being analogue, it all looks pretty digital to me, but I take it as meaning in comparison to the fleet synchronisation and it's as good a reason as any to justify bringing the old series' starship back to life, I'm certainly not going to complain. I might complain that Picard's shirt tug at the end was very feeble, but it's more difficult to do wearing a jacket over your top, so that really is a nitpick, and it in no way dampens the high of the ending as our beloved crew set out to right wrongs, all aboard their old ship once again, and at least the end is much better than the sum of the episode's parts, even if parts do drag it down. It is disappointing the Enterprise-F, whose original creation was actually a prize in a competition to design it for 'Star Trek Online' quite a few years ago, would turn out to be a very short-lived addition to official screen canon (for reasons that would become painfully obvious in the finale), but I do appreciate they bothered to include it at all (unlike the 'E,' grrr [gnashing of teeth]), and it undeniably looked the part - spin off? All that remains is to tackle the last ever episode, overlooking the flaws to try and enjoy what will probably be the final coming together of the 'TNG' cast.

**

Surrender

 DVD, Picard S3 (Surrender)

A revelation came to me after watching this, and that was the episode itself is playing out the battle between Data and Lore: the good parts are fighting to dominate, while the bad parts are doing the same, but unfortunately for the quality of the storytelling, unlike the events within it, the bad ultimately wins out! I so wanted this to work, I was toying with the idea of giving it a better rating, but while I liked it slightly better than on original viewing, and while I was once again hoping those memorable Data/Lore scenes weren't part of a weaker episode which turned out not to quite be the case, I couldn't justify the episode as a whole and seemed mostly filler designed to keep us treading water until the big two-part finale, as if taking four times as long to get there, like the opposite of Scotty's rule of giving repair estimates four times what it would actually take, the same dialogue over and over when Trek used to be so tight and had such a command of brevity to create its drama. For example, it showed elements of creative flair in the directing, from the opening looking out from the viewing port on the Bridge's ceiling, to the POV of Jack Crusher while he enters into his special powers of taking control of someone, but then they go and use annoying shaky-cam during simple dialogue scenes as if we're in a Bourne film, the viewer hovering breathlessly nearby as if spying out the scene. Some of the dialogue came out a bit unskilled, too, whether it be Sidney La Forge explaining Jack's ability, or notably Picard expressing his lack of understanding, to Vadic's various expressions in general. Yet I can be an angel's advocate even there, as I liked seeing Sidney support Jack, having experienced his ability firsthand, while Picard has never been more Picard in his own series than when he sits at the head of the Briefing Room table with all his old crew gathered around just like the old days.

Vadic, though, remains Vadic unto death. The only consolation with her is that she's finally dealt with, but it's been a long, slow dealing in a season that has mostly managed to distract from its gradual, almost glacial plotting progress with the sleight of hand of introducing each new 'TNG' character, but has still felt drawn out (just as Vadic takes her time here, enjoying torturing her captives slowly, evoking pleasure in power and evil). It just seems modern, serialised Trek is the toughest to get right, and while I'd take this season over all the other live action, it still shows so many of the same problems. A cartoonish villain being just one of many. There are always going to be holes in the story, no matter the Trek, but a couple of big ones that seemed very obvious to me were: one, that if Jack can take over people against their will, why not go for the target with the greatest power, namely Vadic; and two, why would a starship Bridge have an emergency evacuation hatch that can tip the whole lot out into space?! Neither of these made sense and appeared a way to, one, insert gratuitous scene of torture, and two, flush the villain out of the series because she's served her purpose in diverting the heroes from getting to grips with the 'real' villain of the piece too quickly. Vadic was really just one of those 'mysteries' so beloved of modern Trek, aping modern TV and film, to distract from a lack of substance, in the same vein as Jack's Real Identity, that is supposed to carry us through the trudging pace of the season, and to some extent the latter worked, but to no extent did Vadic work.

The idea of an offshoot group of Changelings wasn't a bad notion and does make sense, even if it took so long for them to get their own back on the victors of the Dominion War, but they weren't well portrayed or well set up - we're supposed to feel some sympathy towards Vadic (no one else because they're all faceless cannon fodder goons only there to be the muscle and to provide space for a 'cool' scene where Raffi can take them all out like a whirling dervish, nothing like the cunning, solitary threats faced from real Changelings), but I only felt horror that Starfleet sanctioned experiments on sentient beings, and I read one online comment that described them as deranged to think they could turn these experiments to their own use as spies, and I heartily agree! But it was the confused nature of these Changelings that was the ultimate downfall: are they flesh and blood, are they mimicking the same, are they something else? Why do the minions speak in clicks and grunts? What was really the point of it all except as a delaying tactic to give us plot to wade through until we get to the end of the season and series? It came home to me once again when Worf rescues Riker and Troi Riker-Troi (!), from the Brig of the Shrike by stabbing the masked Changeling guard right through the middle before blasting it (him?), to the usual uninspired shower of silly sparks that Phaser fire results in now. We see a little blood, and we know they have internal organs, but did that kill the guard, or was that why Worf also had to Phaser it to bits? And does Starfleet sanction wanton killing like that, could he not have stunned the guy?

But then that would give Starfleet a problem because it would have to confront its own immorality if the masked ones were unmasked and the sins put on show for all to see. That would have been a very Trekky way to go, to give these remaining Changelings an outlet, a new lease of life, perhaps if René Auberjonois had been alive when they were making the season they could have had a lovely cameo where he shows up to take the renegades into custody, perhaps even to offer them the rehabilitation of The Great Link, much like the ending to 'Insurrection' where some of Ru'afo's soldiers are allowed home to their own kind again and the hatred and bitter divide is laid aside for the sake of forgiveness and reunification. But modern Trek isn't very interested in those kind of values, never has been, it's much more about the violence and the twisted, and how heroes have to be compromised to beat the villains (see the shortly arriving 'Section 31' streaming film...), entirely antithetical to Trek's former ideals. In the same way as Picard and Crusher were contemplating executing Vadic in the previous episode, there's no sense of dealing with these enemies in any other way than with extreme prejudice. And yet, in keeping with the Data/Lore struggle, I can also point to a shining example of positivity, and bizarrely it comes from Captain Shaw, a character who has not represented that very much at all!

When Seven wants to intervene in the execution scene on the Bridge, Shaw stops her, but it's the line where he says she could have 'blown' the Turbolift, which would have ended the threat, though it would have killed Shaw as well - Starfleet officers don't have the luxury to only do things that feel, in Shaw's words, 'hunky-dory,' and it took me back to that episode of 'TNG' where Crusher has to send Geordi to his death to save the ship in a simulation and at first can't do it. It makes me think Seven is in no ways ready for her own command because she hasn't come to the understanding of what the priority of the moment is, and the hard decisions a Captain must be ready to make. Of course the episode itself isn't necessarily saying that, it's much more concerned with Seven's fierce defence of her 'chosen' identity where she continues to ridiculously assert her Borg designation over, what must be remembered, is her original human identity of Annika Hansen. It's always been this symbol between Captain and First Officer of their mutual incompatibility, and we're meant to side with Seven since it's a thinly veiled support of identity politics, not realising she could easily be considered to be unable to move on from her past (rather like Sisko in 'Emissary'), because she's holding onto something that doesn't exist instead of trying to accept who she really is, and instead it's just a weapon to attack Shaw with. Modern Trek is much more interested in that, but not to the extent they really delve into it because modern Trek is pretty shallow surface level overall!

Shaw going out in the Turbolift could have been a much more dramatic way to go, would have had exactly the horror and shock modern Trek likes to portray, but crucially would have given Seven the lesson in command that would make sense for her to take over as Captain at the end of the season (rather than the weak way Shaw would be dispatched purely to give her the centre seat in the next episode!). Sadly, Starfleet isn't shown to be at its best in this one, mostly through nondescript background characters (the officers rushing madly about on the Titan as they're gunned down, showing only panic and no thought or tactics to prove they belong in Starfleet!), but also in the slightly more developed members of the crew: in the line-up on the Bridge we see Esmar shed a shameful tear in front of Vadic as she walks up and down, prowling for a victim, which showed great weakness in a season where the lesser characters have been treated a lot better than on other recent Treks. And when it comes down to it I never liked the bald, green-faced woman anyway, an example of the kind of ugly alien design we've seen since Michael Westmore no longer had an influence, and while T'Veen was even balder (!), I'd have much preferred Esmar to be the executed example rather than what has been a relatively good example of a Vulcan, but it was meant to be a shock out of the blue, so it's no surprise why they did that.

Mura was the other candidate, chosen as he is to be Jack's avatar to take back control since apparently all consoles on the ship have been locked out to Bridge control except the ones on the Bridge! But to swing back the other way towards positivity, Mura's scene actually showed the qualities of a Starfleet officer: Vadic orders him to demand Picard send Jack to her, and he refuses because it isn't the Starfleet thing to do, and more impressively he's also a Father himself which suddenly gives the scene so much more weight as you can read into it that he wouldn't put Picard in that situation knowing what it would be like were the positions reversed. It could only have been better if Sidney had been among those in the line-up and you think she's going to be killed, since she's the most fleshed out of them all. I'll give them the solution Jack comes up with, too, even if it is a bit of a techy gimmick: we just happen to have a device that can provide a portable forcefield around a couple of people, which the baddies assume is an explosive device, so he was using a bit of blunt Poker face guile to fool them, though even there Seven almost messes things up by unnecessarily staying behind when the others are herded into the Briefing Room - and what happened to the Changelings in there with them? They could have been executed, since surely they had guards in there or they might be able to do something to get themselves out! And what about the Changelings throughout the ship that had been chasing people down? Yes, Vadic's dealt with (I'm guessing the fact she was experimented on was why she froze up in space when we know normal Changelings can survive quite comfortably out there), a relief to be rid of her, but there are other Changelings on the ship, so how were they dealt with?!

There's another rather large plot-hole: Geordi unplugs Data so Lore can't access the Titan's systems any more. But why did it take him so long to come to that course of action? It was all there to provide tension when Jack and Sidney are trapped previously, and an excuse to show off Jack's 'cool' powers of possession, which I'm still not sure make any sense! You could still be forgiven for guessing he's going to turn out to be a Pah-Wraith since they talk about something inside him, something old, etc, though it's all misdirection, except when you know, the light comes on when Vadic says it's fitting Seven is there for the reveal, since she's obviously Borg. But back to Geordi's brainwave of disconnecting Data - it doesn't make any difference anyway as Vadic now has control, and while it is all rather obvious when they build up to needing an advanced computer to be able to crack Vadic's control, it was still fun that it all comes back to Data, I just wished they'd had Picard say something like 'I know someone who can...' And so we come to the best of the episode: Data. He's not the only shining moment, there are pleasant scenes between Riker and Deanna, and the same reiterating their deep friendship between Geordi and Data at the end (something he never got to express due to Data's untimely demise in 'Nemesis'), and of course the wonderful, if overly delayed coming together of all the 'TNG' characters in one room (noticeably alone, as if the other characters created for this series aren't really that important, but I have to agree with that implied sentiment!), almost worth all the bad to get to.

It was a great idea to have Data surrender to his errant brother, and in so doing bring him into the light, Data's own memories and personalities overwhelming the evil represented by Lore. And it was all so Data in its approach, not some feat of speed, agility and violence as when they first faced off in 'Datalore' way back in Season 1 'TNG': moderate, thoughtful, yet also a shrewd cunning that defeats Lore's focused self-interest because he can't see beyond it, and all so expertly carried off so you think Data's time is over, Lore taking Data piece by piece, one memory at a time, when in fact surrender led to victory, even the way Data says it was perfect, soothing Lore's triumphant bitterness by saying that he had nothing while Data had everything. It's a terrific turnaround which almost overcame the problems of the episode. It's not achieved quite without Trekferences, but I'm not one of those people that hates connection to previous Treks, especially when its done in such a wonderful way: we get little cameos from two characters (you could almost say the only other characters that haven't featured in the season, though Dr. Pulaski and Wesley Crusher could certainly have been included), in the holo-recording of Tasha Yar (I don't remember it well enough to know if this is the exact same image, hands on hips, that was seen in 'TNG,' or whether they recreated it, but the clear multisided shape it's projected from certainly looked familiar), so Denise Crosby wasn't exactly wrong when she indicated she'd appear, or did she indicate she wouldn't, I don't recall, but it was important she had some recognition, especially as Data himself kept her memory alive for viewers throughout 'TNG.' And Spot the cat was the other one, not seen since 'Nemesis'!

Oh, but once again I do have to sound a negative knell because I loved the concept and potential for Data to have multiple personalities in one body, so that on occasion Lore or B4, Lal or Dr. Soong (one or more of them, who knows!), could rear their heads in a given moment. That's of course if we were ever going to see more of the character, which seems increasingly unlikely at this point, Season 3 essentially peak old Trek, maximum Trek, or Treximum shall we say! I'd have loved to see another season or more with Data, Geordi and the rest, and if we ever did get more (even a spinoff streaming film), they could still pull out any of those personalities with a bit of technobabble, so I'm not really complaining. It even suggests new ground for Data to cover since he now feels the rigours of old age thanks to this new body (which was never adequately explained, but who cares, we got Brent Spiner playing Data again, the rest is custard), and can commiserate with the aged Picard and all the others who have passed through the fire of time in which we burn. It also makes him less tragic because he hasn't stayed the same while all his friends have become old and degenerated, and there remains so much potential for this band, this happy group, though that remained to be seen at this point with two episodes left in which anyone could be sacrificed on the altar of shock twists (thankfully not, to spoil the 'surprise').

There were some little side digs that I wondered about: firstly, when Vadic implies the Captain's Chair is cosy and she's going to take it with her this could be a reference to the times the Chair was stolen from the set of at least a couple of the 'TNG' films, which I took as a fun, knowing in-joke. And when Lore says something about Data scanning through his 'meaningless memorabilia' I couldn't help but take that as a nudge at many of the fans who love to collect Trek stuff, though in Data's case he willingly gives it all up (to be human?). I felt there was a problem when Geordi states that Data's ethical subroutines don't permit him to take a life, any life, referring to battling Lore, but then I thought of the end of 'The Most Toys' when Data has his Phaser trained on Kivas Fajo with the strong suggestion he was about to execute the man, so I'm not sure it's quite as cut and dried as Geordi makes out, although it is refreshing to be reminded of a time when life was held to be so important Starfleet characters would do their best not to take life wherever possible, even if it inconvenienced them, which is completely at odds with the modern Treks where they vaporise enemies all the time without a second thought: case in point, why did they blast the Shrike to bits (reminding me of the end of 'Star Trek XI' and Nero's ship)? It was a threat, but with their leader gone maybe the Titan could have taken it over, and it'd have been far more use as a source of information on what was going on than the vague, unspoken questions within Jack Crusher's mind about his role and identity. Not to mention it was the last resting place of Jean-Luc's biological remains, which we see one last time before Worf, Raffi, Riker and Troi escape. Not that Picard's body was needed, but it was almost like when Data got blown up within the Scimitar in 'Nemesis,' his remains were vaporised.

That's a question: did Picard know that his body had been kept somewhere by Starfleet? Did he give his authorisation? Why would they keep it, surely it deserved a decent burial, even if the consciousness of the man had been transferred to a positronic form (which once again they felt they had to incorporate, though it really has no bearing on Picard's existence - the only intrigue was that part of his brain was taken out, though it must have been beamed out since his head looked entirely intact!). The Shrike doesn't feature much throughout the season, mainly showing the Bridge, so at least we got to see more of it here, and the chamber where Picard's body was kept felt quite solemn, like an actual burial chamber, even if Picard is really still alive, so there was a strangeness there more than anything else in the season. The scene with Riker and Deanna coming together was a highlight, it's so real, even if I didn't exactly buy all that was said. I'm generally in favour of the retconning of the previous seasons since so much of them was bad, but I felt it a shame to make out that the Riker-Troi's actually hated living on Nepenthe, since the episode of the same name in Season 1 was actually one of the better parts. It was sad to learn they were both living a falsehood then, and I'm sure Kestra (whom I was glad to hear mentioned), didn't feel that way and it would have been a joy to grow up there. It seemed so idyllic, but then you remember Deanna was a bit angry when Picard visited so maybe that's evidence she was harbouring conflicted feelings.

The scene did at least make more sense of how she and Riker could have come to the point where he had to leave for a while, and it tied it neatly into Deanna's Betazoid heritage, that she had numbed his pain, which (like Kirk in 'Star Trek V'), he'd been holding onto and she'd taken that away, but as she saw it, helped to shoulder the burden. I suppose it makes a statement about consent and choice, and that Riker needed to get through it rather than the quick fix she thought she was providing. Once again, the timing doesn't seem to make any sense whatsoever, since Thaddeus was born decades ago and it took this long for Riker to get through all that? It's a bit like the stuff with Dr. Crusher casting off all her old friends and colleagues for twenty years because Jean-Luc might put her son in danger, it made little sense and was really only a plot convenience, but it could have been worse, they could have killed her off and said that's why we never saw or heard of her again. There is one scene that had no backlash or any bad feeling in it whatsoever, and that was Geordi expressing his friendship to Data, and vice versa, as that was the final healing plaster over the top of the open wound of not just 'Nemesis,' but the ill-judged choice to euthanise the mental remains of Data at the end of Season 1 - they have to get their seal of approval on that, unfortunately, by Data saying that version of him is resting peacefully, but it also shows that he isn't human, that he can be copied, but more importantly he's started a new chapter of life which holds promise and if there was never any more of Data in Trek, allows him to be left in a state in which we can imagine him living on as Data always did: exploring, experimenting, learning, and living life as we all do, perhaps even appreciating it more now that he's experienced a kind of death.

That would be a nice place to leave this review, with a kind of hopeful optimism that was once inherent to Trek, but is now a rarity, or a blind, unfounded hope, but like the episode itself isn't the end of the season, and there's still the big two-part finale (and we know how good they are at finishing out serialised seasons...), I still have a few nits to pick: I come back to Raffi, once again misused because she really has no point in the season, other than as a conduit to bring Worf in. We could just as easily have seen the big Klingon doing all the investigating alone in the former episodes, but Raffi has to be there for some reason, and her 'big moment' has to be there for the sake of stupidity - Changelings, we can take them out with just a bit of elbow grease and a couple of long knives, 'cos that's what Trek's all about, isn't it? So she strides down a corridor and easily makes mincemeat out of these faceless goons who we were supposed to feel sympathy for since Starfleet experimented on them (or was it Section 31, but either way...), but were never given any dimension, indeed were deliberately portrayed as mindless heavies. If it'd been Jem'Hadar I could get behind it, and they'd have been only too pleased to have a puny human woman come at them with bladed weapons because they lived for battle. But it just sums up the uselessness of both the Changelings themselves, and the pointlessness of Raffi, too! Mindless action scene just for the sake of it when really it would have been better to make more time for the thoughtful scenes, like Data and just about anyone else. But sure, Raffi fights with knives: go to town.

It also irked me when (and this is a very tiny, minor moment to complain about), the guy Jack takes over says something in his thoughts about needing to regroup with his squad. I mean, when has Starfleet operated in squads, it's not the army! The white-haired alien girl who looks too much like a Changeling is seen in the best view we've had as she's standing in the line-up on the Bridge (I wonder if in thirty years' time they'll do a 'Trials and Tribble-ations' and have the characters of whatever Trek series is running then go back in time and stand in that line: "I lied to Captain Vadic!" Probably not, because judging by this modern generation of Trek the concept is on its last legs and I'm not sure how much longer it can last!), and you can tell better she's not one. Was it always the case that Betazoids couldn't read Changelings? And if so, wasn't that because they don't have a conventional brain, the same as certain other races can't be read due to their brains, whereas these different Changelings would have a physical brain since they have other organs? Not a nitpick, just a question to ponder. At least there was no 20th Century music to kick off the episode, post-title (and no sign of the ever-present bar set!), although we did have the wearying foghorn sound effect instead, which is almost as bad. I loved hearing Jack mentioning The Great Link as it really is cool to hear characters talk of things that were so integral to the days when Trek was great, though that's going to lead me to end on the bad and so saying, underline the point of my review that the episode couldn't fight the bad parts and win: Vadic's last line is another one of those entirely out of place 'cool' bits where she swears, "[bleeeep] Solids," and we're supposed to laugh, while the episode for the most part wasn't too offensive in language and content, it just shows how low the quality bar is when it comes to what is acceptable, though it's of course by no means limited to Trek and is yet another sign of it trying its best to appeal to the lowest common denominator against its better nature. Thus does it fall, thus does it fail, but it had its moments, this episode, it just ain't Data (but what is).

**

Retrogaming Review of The Year 2024

 Retrogaming Review of The Year 2024

25 Years of N64
October marked the quarter-century anniversary of when I got my favourite console and I was glad to pepper in strong gaming with it through the year, although I originally planned at least a couple around the actual anniversary - but the best game on the system kicked off the year, with a first serious play of one, and a replay out of the blue of another. If it wasn't the greatest amount of time on the system that's because I've replayed every great and many more over the last decade or so!

Birthday For One, Death For Another
25 years of N64 marked, but it was 25 years of my Amiga 1200 last year, and sadly it was the death of its stablemate, the 1500, this year, after enjoying so many games on it in 2023 - I only played 'Fire & Ice' for five minutes before the hunk of metal and plastic turned into the silent doorstop it now is, lifeless and inert, a very sad end to a wonderful machine for which I still had so many plans. A harsh reminder of the dangers of retrogaming: relish every moment because you never know when it might end (a maxim for life, not just Amiga).

Awards:
Surprise of The Year: Impossible Mission 2025
Disappointment of The Year: Eledees

[Ratings reflect total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.]


January - February: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, N64) - What more can be said? Simply my favourite game on the system, to the extent that I was actively missing playing it this Christmas and remembering back to the previous year's. The great thing about it was quality and quantity so I was still playing it into 2024, searching out the Gold Skulltulas and Heart Pieces, and playing it was not only a nostalgic trip back in time, but a very relevant challenge for the present, as great as ever, and one of Nintendo's triumphs. I don't think it will ever fade away for me. *****

January: 1080º Snowboarding (1998, N64) - Got this down as a potential multiplayer diversion, but we never got around to playing it. Didn't plan to play it myself, but when I didn't have time for a proper session on 'Zelda' this was ideal for a quick bash, especially now I have a better picture that isn't a white-out! I thought the main match races would be easy and the first two difficulties were, but the third was very tough, mainly on that last race against the Panda, reminding me it was such a challenging and (thanks to expert controls), rewarding game. I also enjoyed the trick courses, and though not usually a high score fiend, found it addictive and fun. There's nothing like carving a course through the snow as the sun goes down in the distance and this is such a technical marvel, certainly much better than its sequel on 'Cube, 'Avalanche,' which became a little cartoony, and I've not yet got around to playing 'SSX' so this remains the best snowboarding game ever for me... or would be if not for the superior 'Snowboard Kids,' though that's more 'Mario Kart' than serious sports sim - having these two in your collection covers all snowboard bases, whether Regular or Goofy! ****

January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - The continuing saga of X-COM's defence of the globe from alien evil has now been a regular stalwart in my Amiga's disk drive for twenty-two years and shows no signs of waning, except– right at the very end of the year, my last session of 2024, the drive started playing up, requiring me to insert and reinsert the disks several times before it would read them! Shock, horror, could this mean my 1200's drive is finally giving out after twenty-five years use (plus time prior to that as it was bought secondhand), or, as I've found the disks worked fine in early January this year, was it just a scare? Everything has its time, nothing lasts forever, I just hope the 1200 doesn't go the way of the 1500... *****

January: Perfect Dark (2000, N64) - Multiplayer fun sessions, with some good games of, among others:
- Man With The Golden Run (Hold The Briefcase in the Complex with Custom Golden Gun (F2 Silent, Shotgun, F2 Scope, DY-LX Golden Gun, F2, Shield), 10mins, first to 20 points, no teams),
- Silent Night (Combat in the Car Park with Custom weapons (Sniper, F2 Silent, Shield, Cloak, Sniper, F2 Silent), first to 15 points, no teams),
- To The Garden! (Pop a Cap in the Villa with Custom Power weapons (Magsec, Phoenix, Cyclone, Shotgun, Sniper, F2 Silent), 10mins, 2 teams of 4),
- Chocolate Game II (King of The Hill in G5 with Custom Heavy weapons (Mauler, Avenger, Reaper, N-Bomb, Shield, -), 10mins, team first to 30 points, Mobile Hill, 20s a point, max. teams),
- RCP in The Toilet (a new one: King of The Hill in the Felicity with Power weapons, 10mins, team first to 30 points, Mobile Hill, 20s a point, max. teams). *****

January - October: Wii Sports (2006, Wii) - This continued to be my choice for extra exercise through gaming, and while I struggled to increase the frequency (it remained a roughly fortnightly endeavour at best), I still enjoyed it, even if it's always so frustrating at the unfairness if you're knocked down once in the Boxing, you don't even have to lose the match, your ranking plummets and you have to claw your way back up point by gritted-teeth-point. Perhaps a reflection of the reality of real boxing, I don't know. My other favourites include the Tennis Target Practice against the wall and the Golf Target Practice, though in all the games I don't seem to come close to beating any of my records any more. ***

February: Impossible Mission (1984/1993, Amiga 1200) - Retrogaming can't get much more retro than a trip back to the early-80s (for me, at least!), and this was one of those things I picked up simply because I wanted to play more Amiga and it happened to work on the 1200 after the disappointment of losing the 1500. It's one of those where you have to finish it in one go, but the fact the rooms remain the same, if the location of each is randomly generated, helps you learn what to do in each to be able to check all the furniture (yes, it's a game about searching down the back of furniture for the carelessly dropped pieces of a code card that will enable entry into the villain's control centre!). The sound effects are perfect and there's a tactical side to taking risks (using up time on the tile memory game to gain advantages, or rushing through), giving it more depth. May not have that much replay value, but as I hadn't played it (and never completed it as a child on the Commodore 64), since maybe the late-90's, it was a joy to revisit and finally complete - the first time I'd played a C64 game in decades, perhaps not since 'Ninja Massacre.' ***

February - March: Impossible Mission 2025: The Special Edition (1993, Amiga 1200) - One game I never had any joy from was this Amiga-based sequel to the C64 original, as it was so different from the neat, tight, colourful original: dark, gloomy, brown, sprawling levels, needlessly complicated pickups, and quite tough, but somehow the challenge suited me this time, and where I failed in the past, I was able to put my mind and skill towards beating it. It helped that password saves meant completing it in one sitting was a thing of the past (although, similar to the original, each level has a time limit to up the tension), and the different levels with their variety of design made it more appealing - there's a reason why this sticks out as my Surprise of The Year! I had such low expectations, but still reeling from the inability to explore so many of the old Amiga games I'd been looking forward to, this ticked the box for what I needed, and so, while tough, was a pleasure to play. ***

March - June: WSC Real 08 (2008, Wii) - I've advanced so far in my career I now get an option at the start of each match to choose a 'Human Win,' 'AI Win,' or 'Play Match' - needless to say I always play! I was finally World Number 1 in 2023, so I entered my first full season in that position, still wanting to win every trophy on the calendar, but I never quite finished that season (stopping just before a match against Hendry in the Round of 16 of the World Champs having won everything else that season!), the fault of 'Eledees' taking over so much Wii time that I lost interest in Remote-based gaming after that game's wrist-workout, and never went back, even at Christmas, though I intend to get into it again in 2025. I still haven't switched to a Pool career, but I've got to at least get my full No. 1 season completed first. ****

March - May: Starsky & Hutch (2003, GameCube) - Runner-up for Surprise of The Year, this one. I'd intended to play it for years, but it was David Soul's death in early 2024 that brought it to my attention again, and playing it on some late nights during the Snooker World Championship will always remain happy memories. I usually enjoy racing games, and this had that and more, though I went in expecting it to be the usual licenced rubbish and came to really enjoy it. Unlike some games this year I was able to complete everything, despite the challenge, and at just the right length and just the right time it was a very pleasing experience. ***

May - June: Blast Corps (1997, N64) - My traditional N64 Summer game was this one I'd only ever tasted many years ago. Again, it was another toughy that required quick reactions and careful tactics to work out the clever puzzles, and though I'm not usually much of a puzzle enthusiast, the presentation as a game of vehicles and destruction, plus the tight time limit and bitesized gameplay across many levels was a marriage that worked. With good quality N64 titles I haven't already completed (either new to me, or returning to old favourites), starting to look thin on the ground, I was glad to find this very early Rare game on the system to be well worth trying out. ***

June - September: Eledees (2007, Wii) - The low point of the year, and not because it was a terrible game: it wasn't. It's just that it was so hard, which made for great satisfaction upon completion of each level or task, but it took up far more time of my gaming year than I intended, and at the worst time to be playing, too. Summer time, with the sun shining in the window isn't good for the Wii Remote's sensor, so you have to pull the curtain, and even then it can be a bit sensitive. But even in the darkest night the controls weren't up to scratch for the precision needed to feel in complete control, and I spent endless hours trying to hunt down some of those stupid Pink Eledees to unlock the other challenges on certain levels, ultimately unable to find them, to my great consternation. Technically, I did complete the game, but I wasn't able to get every version of every level (such as all the Challenges), and achieve what I wanted to so I eventually had to leave the game in frustration and admit defeat. I thought it was going to be a great one, too, and it could have been if the controls had been up to the concept. **

July: The Keys To Maramon (1990, Amiga 1200) - One that came a bit out of the blue, stemming from my desire to play more Amiga games that had been stymied by the 1500's demise, and this was just one of very few titles I was surprised to discover worked on the 1200. An innovative day/night cycle, it was almost a resource-driven game, except the resource is time and money to be able to get to the stage where you can venture into the catacombs beneath the beleaguered city under nightly attack from the monsters of down below, slowly collecting the keys which will unlock doors further into the lower levels, yet also keeping in mind you may have to rush back to the surface before the city is damaged too much by the raids. I wouldn't say it was anything special, very basic sound and visuals, but I'd never played it before, it was just one out of the many boxes of Amiga games I noticed, and was pleased to play as an antidote to 'Eledees.' **

October: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997, N64) - Almost as much platformer as FPS, this was one of the big guns from back in the day, which is a suitable analogy since it features a lot of big guns. Perhaps the dinosaurs (for the most part), weren't that big, there's an over-reliance on human foes, plus the extreme levels of fogging show the limitations of the earliest days of development on the system, but it's one of those I'm amazed I never went back to as I was so sure I had! It was quite surreal to find a game I'd fully completed that in all these fifteen years of writing reviews (or even before), I'd never thought to replay, and it almost made me contemplate returning to the sequel, 'Turok 2: Seeds of Evil,' which I abandoned on grounds of occult content, though I'm not sure how true my impression was. As for this, it had that simple pleasure of blasting, coupled with some maze-like levels and that sense of being alone in a dark, barren place populated only by hostile enemies, excellently atmospheric. I played it on the hardest difficulty since I'd already completed it on Normal, and even then I rarely found it to be all that taxing, but it was ideal for some good old run-and-gun exploration. ***

November - December: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010, Wii) - I didn't hurry to complete this as I intended it to be my main game over Christmas with only a Game Boy 'Zelda' planned as the festive season's entry, but I still found myself rattling through the stars (65 by end of year). It's true that some took a number of attempts, but this is really just more of the same from the first 'Galaxy.' I liked that game, but it's much more geared to a 2D platformer mentality, in fact certain sections even become practically 2D, and that side of the genre never interested me much, I always preferred vast 3D landscapes to explore, characters to meet, tasks to accomplish, all while collecting. The collecting side in this is almost an afterthought - you do need the Star Bits to progress (feeding the Lumas), and coins recover health, but coin-grabbing is too much in the high-score realm for me to be drawn to, and it's so easy to die during a level and lose all your accumulated coins, that, like the first one, I often found it frustrating more than empowering. Imaginative, as you'd expect from Nintendo, but I still prefer the 'Banjo-Kazooie' style of platforming. ***

December: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993, Game Boy) - This should really qualify as the year's biggest disappointment except it was external factors rather than the game itself: I'd checked it earlier in the year in preparation, only to discover my old saves had been wiped, but what I didn't realise, and what I found out now, is that the internal battery wouldn't keep saves at all any more, so after a morning's play-test, enjoyable as it was to get back to it after about twenty-seven years, and long anticipation, I didn't have the will to open it up and do the necessary DIY, nor did I fancy keeping the Game Boy Advance SP (upon which I was planning to play it), switched on for days, so my Christmas tradition came to a sad and depressing end and I couldn't even stir myself to tackle the other (much inferior), Game Boy Color entry, 'Oracle of Ages.' A crushing end to the year's gaming. -

December: Mario Kart Wii (2008, Wii) - I hadn't played this since first starting it Christmas 2021 (!), and had always meant to go back to finish unlocking everything, but never did. Christmas, specifically Boxing Day (when we used to have big 'Mario Kart' championships twenty years ago for all the family), was the perfect time to re-immerse, and while it took time to get back into it, I eventually came to enjoy it, actually overtaking my play time on 'SMG2' as the main game over Christmas! Difficult to get into, even using the GameCube Controller rather than Remote, mainly because the CPUs appear to have stopped cheating like in the earlier titles (magically appearing behind you at the winning line, always pushing a particular character to be the winner), and had improved their ability no end. Once I'd got the hang of the Corner Turbo, or with motorbikes, the Wheelie, for a speed burst, not to mention the Boost Start (accelerate right in the middle of the 3-count), and got to know the various tracks, I found my skills increasing. I'm not sure many of the new tracks hold the same design excellence as older games, though the addition of the Game Boy Advance's rating system of E up to A, then 1-3 stars gave the one-player vastly improved longevity (plus ghosts to beat on every track and unlockable characters and vehicles), but by the end of December I still felt unsure if it was the classic of older versions (and appreciated the N64, GBA and 'Cube tracks that were included, much more), with too many characters, though admittedly I never tried out the multiplayer, and there is still much to be done. ***

Honourable mentions: Post-Christmas leftovers multiplayer Mario Kart 64 (*****), Perfect Dark (*****), and 'WWF Wrestlemania 2000' (****), and some 'Burnout 2' multiplayer into the year (Feb, *****)


Next Year - I didn't get to play as much Amiga as I'd hoped, and N64 appreciation meant I bought more games which I didn't have time for, and I also need to ensure I have my main Wii periods in the darker months for best results, so in 2025 I'd like to:

- Get the Amiga down... no, not the 1500, the 500 so I can play titles such as 'Fire & Ice,' 'Soccer Kid,' and 'Simulcra' that I wasn't able to this year (at least 'Sleepwalker' or 'Gauntlet,' which I discovered work on my 1200!)

- Another plan to get into big Wii games, even though I wasted too much time on one this year: 'Pirates,' 'Bully,' 'Need For Speed' would be my top selections

- Definitely 'Glover' as my Summer N64 game of choice, but 'Wipeout,' 'Winback' and 'Wars, (Lylat)' are all still begging for attention!

- Still want to do something on 'Cube, like 'XIII' or 'Lego Star Wars'

- Enjoying the 'Impossible Missions' made me want the Wii version

- Christmas 'Zelda' is down to slim pickings now, though whether I install a new battery and get into 'Link's Awakening' soon, or save it for next Christmas, I don't know

- A late addition could be the Nintendo Switch 2 as that may be coming this year, backwards-compatible with Switch titles, but do I have time to add a whole new console to the roster?

Happy New Year!