Querent Mercury

Lol, "radical liberal". What an oxymoron.

YOU'RE NOT THERE! YOU'RE GETTING DRUNK!

New Star Trek is visually attractive, but suffers from a distinct lack of rocky, sunbleached, southern California hills with sparse plantlife.

There is simply no time for a character like Legate Damar to develop slowly in the mid-ground as he does in DS9.

Its not that "NuTrek" can't be as good as the old stuff, but they NEED higher episode counts. It may even benefit from more budget limitations to force creativity on the production. 5/5

The complex relationships between Bajor, Cardassia, The Federation, and the Dominion on DS9 simply could not be developed as well as they were in a newer show with 8-10 ep seasons. Certainly not the big cast of deeply nuanced characters and their tangled web of relationships and interests.

4/

I honestly, desperately, wish Paramount would cut Star Trek episode budgets in half for the new shows and make twice as many per season. The over-reliance on expensive visuals and action means we get less character and plot development.

3/

It's absolutely incredible what they could accomplish with actors just delivering dialogue for 40 minutes in 3 or 4 cramped sets that look good, but inexpensive.

2/

OK, I know I was just praising Starfleet Academy, but I started a rewatch of DS9 seasons 6 & 7 (starting with the Season 5 finale kicking off the Dominion War).

No Star Trek this century has been this good.

1/

Starfleet Academy is good. That's my hot take.

Every Trek is rocky in the first season.

But the blend of classic Trek morality play and YA "special school" genre is inventive and it works. The cast of adult faculty are great. The students are growing on me, especially Jay-Den and Reymi.

Hell, now that I'm thinking of it, I'd love to see art from @tonyfuckingharris.bsky.social depicting Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in 1997 playing Jack and Davey respectively, in costume.

Does he do commissions?

Am I the only one who reads James Robinson's Star Man where Jack's voice is 90s Ben Affleck with the Boston accent?

Opal City seems like Boston-adjacent to me.

I really is in that S tier, among the best of the 2020s. But so is your Black Magic!

Though I'm looking forward to Supergirl, I'm strangely miffed they gave Ruthye a British accent. I read her with a southern accent, because she evokes Mattie Ross from True Grit.

I know it's not a 1:1 adaptation of WoT, though I actually think it should be, but she'll still have a True Grit feel.

My lovely wife!

I would like a re-cut of the entire One Piece anime that reduces every fight scene down to an average of, like, 30 seconds each (maybe 2 minutes at the most), but leaves all the non-combat scenes untouched.

Fantastic issue! No one like "Big John"! I still reference my copy of HTDCTMW!

Watching Cabaret in 2025 hits different.

You've convinced me and I've never even heard of this artist. Don't even know the genre. Just going in blind with just the album cover and your glowing, but non-specific review.

Old Milk and Cheese index card art, "Revenge is the Best Revenge"

I used to draw stupid shit and one day I will get back to drawing stupid shit. Unless I die suddenly, which would be funny but I wouldn't be around to laugh. Being suddenly dead and all.

Please, Evan, the world needs Milk and Cheese more than ever before!

We've both been talking in this conversation about various things we love about RTD's original run.

He shit the bed twice in a row and that sucks. Doesn't mean that I don't think he's a good writer.

Suffered a lot of the same problems as the previous finale in terms of plotting.

And regardless of rewrites, I hate everything about what Davies was doing thematically woth Belinda. Just offensive, frankly.

A shame because both seasons had stand out episodes overshadowed by shit finales.

I dunno, I think The Doctor Falls was pretty darn great!

Two Masters both shoot themselves in the back! It's so poetic and perfect an end for the character.

Still mad that Chibs brought him back so soon and also everything else about that season.

Totally on POTW. Honestly, probably thats just the best isolated season of Doctor Who to this day. What a tight package. Everything just works.

Though Moffat's Series 10 gives it a run for its money.

Sorry to ramble. I just love talking about Doctor Who opinions, haha.

The Stolen Earth/Journey's end was lots of fun, if a bit narratively bumpy.

And Frankly I'd even take Army of Ghosts/Doomsday over some of Moffat's total nonsense finales like The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang or The Wedding of River Song.

Moffat's Capaldi finales were much better the Smith ones.

Not one of the 2005 series finale made the whole rest of the season worse by association.

Also, I always thought RTD's finales were pretty good. Certainly better than Moffat's.

Bad Wolf/The Parting was excellent, as was The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords.

1/2

I just hope he takes some of the criticism of his last two seasons seriously.

There is, unfortunately, a lot of vitriol for completely invalid reasons. And I hope he is able to see through that to the genuine critique, especially of the finales.

Nice!

BoB?

Punk Rock PSA:

Dance for the opening band. Do it for the drummers.