VOY: “Critical Care”

Date: June 4, 2021

Season 7, Episode 5

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: It’s another sort-of 3 day weekend for me. Making brownies and heading to the beach to celebrate a dear friend turning 40 and the husband person turning 35 tomorrow. Happy early birthday to them!

TL;DR: The EMH and his holo-emitter are kidnapped and he’s sold to a hospital. He helps the sick as much as he can, but basically stages a coup so that everyone gets medical care no matter how important they are to society. Janeway and crew search for the thief and finally track him and the EMH down.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: While I was aboard that ship, I poisoned a man.

Seven of Nine: Deliberately?

EMH: Yes. I was trying to force him to let me treat patients who were dying.

Seven of Nine: You were prepared to sacrifice an individual to benefit a collective.

EMH: No offense, Seven, but I don’t exactly aspire to Borg ideals.

Seven of Nine: You were hoping your behavior was the result of a malfunction. I’m sorry Doctor, but I must give you a clean bill of health.

Seven and the EMH discussing his latest disgnostic.

“I’m not interested in fault. I just want to know how it happened.”: This was a very interesting episode, mostly because Robert Picardo is his usual stellar self. Chellick allows the Allocator computer program to make some inhumane decisions based on resources, something that hits a lot differently after Covid made hospital resources scarce a few months ago. Dysek, Tebbis, and the others all go along with it because it’s the poor who are dying – but the EMH is able to light the fire under their asses to rebel against the system. It’s about doing what’s right and not so subtly screaming about healthcare being a right, no matter how much money you have or how you may or may not contribute to society. If you’re never given a chance, who knows what you’ll be able to accomplish?

The EMH and Dysek talk in front of Chellick
Chellick: “Are we having a problem with our newest piece of technology?”
Dysek: “Actually, he seems to be learning the system quite well.”

I love how Janeway tries tracking down Gar and when they finally find him it’s Tuvok and Neelix acting as slightly unethical Vulcan cop and super sneaky Talaxian cook turned interrogator. There’s also this HILARIOUS bit where they find Gar’s mistress and Janeway and Tuvok have to pretend to be lovers and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s amazing Tuvok is still the security chief after all the damn breaches they have had, but it’s great to see him and Neelix finally working together and not being on each other’s nerves. Another excellent piece is Seven and the EMH’s conversation at the end. The EMH has no idea how he was able to put Chellick in harm’s way unless it was a malfunction, so what does this mean in regard to his programming, his ethics, and his artificial intelligence? I doubt they’ll follow up on this, plus this episode is not the best at including the whole crew so it’s only earning itself 8 exploding zombie cakes.

TA Out!

Sports Night: Season 2, Episodes 11, 12, and 13

Date: June 3, 2021

Season 2, Episodes 11, 12, and 13

Music Video of the Day: Happy Pride Month all!

You are always welcome to be who you are in front of me.

Interstellar News: The last few days have been crazy, but I’m so happy it’s finally Pride month! This is the month my husband, a dear friend, and a dear friend’s mother (who has become one of my moms) were all born. June is also usually a “light” month at work, but with teaching a summer class and online orientation – this year it is anything but. I am excited to get away to the beach this weekend and to visit VA next weekend. This also means it’s very unlikely I’ll post over the weekend, but I’ll be back (she says in her best Arnold voice)!

Episode 11 – “The Cut Man Cometh”

The cut man on the screen in front of the boxing ring
“Well, I hate to correct you on your own show, Casey, but there’s 52 states with Alaska and Rhode Island.”

“The fight lasted 7 seconds, Casey. We’re gonna have to go back to counting states.”: This episode is absolute bananas and I love it dearly. Everyone has boxing fever, we meet Danny’s dad, and the boys have to deal with a very awful on-air personality when the normal person is out sick. Chuck “The Cut Man” Kimmel is a man who gave himself a nickname and only responds when people use it. I love that everyone starts to scramble when the fight is over before it ever really began and that Casey pulls out some useless bit that Jeremy threw at him earlier. It’s a truly ridiculous episode that everyone should watch at least once in a while to make them laugh. I’ll end on my favorite cut-man quote, aside from the one below his picture… “I’m right here at ringside at Bally’s, where the breakfast buffet is $3.95, the slots are loose, and the showgirls are fantastic.“

Episode 12 – “The Sweet Smell of Air”

23, a cologne by Michael Jordan
“Don’t tell them to go to hell. Tell them that we’re professionals and that we want to be the best at what we do. If anybody can understand that, it’ll be Michael.”

“I could make a nuclear reactor if I could get my hands on some decent plutonium.”: Michael Jordan wants to do an interview but it turns out the PR company only wants him to talk about his new cologne and not sports… so they came to Sports Night because they assumed the network was desperate enough for the ratings, but they aren’t. Casey’s going to bake bread for his son’s class, but instead he does a play-by-play of recess and interviews some of the kids like it’s a real news show. Isaac gets excited about a space squid and it’s absolutely adorable. This episode may not be all out laughs, but it’s wonderful. I wish we had gotten to see Casey do his bit at the school instead of him telling about it later. I’m glad Sports Night stuck to their journalistic principles and Sam and Dana got to be on the same page for once. There was not enough Sam Donovan in Season 2.

Episode 13 – “Dana Get Your Gun”

Dana looking at Sam holding the rifle she inherited
“You gotta learn to separate the stuff from the stuff.”

“Could you let him know that unless he’s dating Martina Hingis, we don’t mention our girlfriends on the show?”: Danny gets Kim a suite so she can have sex with a guy who will get Natalie into a club so Natalie will go clothes shopping with Casey so Casey will trade days off with Danny so he can see Tom Waits in concert. It makes sense, I promise. When Tina gets sick they call in Steve to sub for Danny, but Steve is an absolute mess. Sam and Dana flirt while Jeremy and Natalie break up.

I absolutely love all of the things Danny has to do in order to get his night off swapped, only to almost not be able to go to the concert. It’s been done on so many shows, but it totally works here because Danny is a people-pleaser who also has connections. I also enjoy Dana and Sam, because they have wonderfully awkward chemistry. Dana wants to hate Sam so much but she’s grown to like him. After last episode where they were on the same side and here where he also shows his dislike for handguns, it’s clear she’s starting to see him a new light. What I dislike about this episode is how and why Jeremy and Natalie break up. They’re both in the wrong… Jeremy is too snotty about things Natalie wants to experience and Natalie drags Jeremy around knowing he’ll be like that. They each could have done their own thing and got together later, or compromised and each done one thing the other wanted. Instead, we got this mishegos. Still, a wonderful 2/3 of an episode.

TA Out!

The Incredible Iron Men

Date: May 28, 2021

Music Video of the Day:

“If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts.”

Interstellar News: Today is my first of three 3-day weekends in a row, but it’s the only one where I’m not traveling. I’m not feeling the greatest, but I know I need to catch on on writing and watching. Here’s the latest in our MCU movie rewatch as tonight we plan to watch Thor. I’ll be recapping Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2… hence the title of my post.

Also, don’t forget to back the Apocalypse on Kickstarter!

Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man movie poster
“The truth is… I am Iron Man.”

“Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?”: I love this movie so incredibly (see what I did there) much. The opening music, the horrifying moment it goes all wrong, the flashback to who Tony was pre-kidnapping, and everything right up until he wakes up is wonderful storytelling. Tony is self-obsessed and begins to realize that he actually has a responsibility to the world. He tries to pull a 180 and you can see he’s trying the only way he knows how. He doesn’t know who to trust and then realizes it was one of his closest “friends” after all. It’s the one movie in the MCU I have watched the most, because it’s where the MCU really began – even if not chronologically. The dialogue is witty, Pepper is amazing, Stane is a wonderfully terrifying villain, and you can’t help but want to eat a cheeseburger at the end.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The Incredible Hulk movie poster
“Me In A Metal Tube, Deep Underground With Hundreds Of People In The Most Aggressive City In The World?”

“Don’t Make Me Hungry. You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Hungry.”: This movie had so much potential and just left me, sad. Banner is trying to lay low, but of course that doesn’t work and General Ross has to find him. They both, funnily enough, have the same goal – getting the Hulk out of Banner. What neither of them understand is that isn’t possible. It’s a great re-introduction to the character and I loved that actors who played or voiced the Hulk in the past were part of the movie. We get a tease of The Leader potentially being explored later and a few Easter eggs peppered in, but otherwise it’s just a flat movie. It’s not clear what happens to Abomination or why General Ross even lets Hulk go. There’s no movement on Betty/Banner or Betty and the guy she got engaged to and there are just so many things left unsaid. It’s really not as bad as watching Episode II, so there’s always that. I still find it interesting to think of Norton as Hulk in the remaining MCU films, but seeing what Ruffalo did just makes me curious but not at all upset. I still love Norton in The Italian Job remake as well as in Fight Club, so he’ll always live there for me.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

“If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit back and watch as the world consumes you.”

“What is the point of owning a race car if you can’t drive it?”: I have a soft spot for this movie because it has some great bits. Whiplash asking for his bird is one I quote all the time, honestly anytime a bird is involved. I love the recasting of Rhodey, I love Sam Rockwell’s character… who is a complete putz, and I love that Pepper and Black Widow just get shit done. It’s not the best movie, but it’s certainly not the worst. It shows us more of Fury, it introduces more SHIELD agents, and it sows the seeds for the government’s view of superheroes. Tony continues to be called a prick, boosts his ego even more by synthesizing a new element, and gets to beat up drones with his best friend. All in all, it wasn’t the worst way to spend a Tuesday evening with my friends online.

TA Out!

VOY: “Repression”

Date: May 26, 2021

Season 7, Episode 4

Music Video of the Day:

“He says all the right things / At exactly the right time / But he means nothing to you / And you don’t know why.”

Interstellar News: There was too little of a dear friend today and too much pain in my body. However, the good news is there is still time to back the apocalypse!

TL;DR: A Bajoran Maquis member named Teero implants something in Tuvok’s head while they are still in the AQ. It turns Tuvok into a Mr. Hyde that attacks the crew while his Dr. Jekyll persona investigates who’s responsible for the attacks on anyone who was Maquis. Eventually the Maquis take over the ship but Tuvok is somehow able to snap out of it and the Maquis go back to being part of the Starfleet crew.

Favorite Quote:

Torres: Protective lenses?

Paris: These will make the images on the screen appear three-dimensional.

Torres: Let me get this straight. You’ve gone to all this trouble to program a three-dimensional environment that projects a two-dimensional image, and now you’re asking me to wear these to make it look three-dimensional again?

Paris: Great, isn’t it?

Torres not understanding the point of 3-D “glasses” and Paris thinking it’s nifty.

“It is my experience that emotional involvements often lead to unpredictable behavior.”: What an absolutely terrible episode. Teero, the Bajoran who used Vulcan telekinesis against Tuvok, did something and programmed some sort of instruction that would turn the rest of the Maquis crew into drones that would carry out whatever his plans were. The problem is that the Maquis are no longer a thing, the crew is stranded in the DQ, and the reason Tuvok is able to break free is never mentioned. Why would Teero have input a coded message in Tuvok’s son’s note after all this time? IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!

Janeway and Tuvok wear 3d "glasses"
Oh, the “good old” days of 3D movie vision.

I was more interested in the date Torres and Paris were going on, and I did love that the episode ended with the whole crew going to the movies. I also liked that Tuvok was put in charge of finding himself and that it was weird he kept having “hunches”. I moderately enjoyed the Maquis takeover of Voyager and Chakotay needing to test Tuvok’s loyalty, but overall there wasn’t much to redeem this episode. 2 bottles of sub-standard root beer for this episode.

TA Out!

All-the-Way House: A Review

Date: May 25, 2021

Music Video of the Day:

“Don’t you want to believe / This life, it means something / No one can save you / But yourself this time.”

Interstellar News: I just finished reading “All-the-Way House” by Keith R. A. DeCandido. I got an advance copy as part of a Pensacon exclusive. It’s his take on the Jersey Devil and it’s Book 4 in the Systema Paradoxa series on various cryptids.

It’s split into 5 chapters. Chapters 1 and 5 take place in February 2020, Chapters 2 and 4 take place in 1909, and Chapter 3 takes place in 1735.

cover of all-the-way house with the Jersey Devil artist rendering on the front

Chapter 1 introduces two Coursers tasked to deal with a “monster” on the beach at Atlantic City. Chapter 2 recounts how a then-Slayer first encountered the “Jersey Devil”. Chapter 3 is the secret origin of the Jersey Devil and the Leeds family. Chapter 4 dives into what they Slayer does with his newfound knowledge. Chapter 5 sees the coursers “deal” with the “monster” and explains the title of the book.

It’s well written, an easy read, and I was hooked on every word. It’s available for pre-order on Kindle or Paperback, and you can even get an autographed copy from the author! There’s one illustration in the back of the book, which is absolutely fantastic, and there’s a bit in the back about the origin and description of the Jersey Devil. If the Jersey Devil isn’t your Cryptid of choice, there will be 12 total cryptids available in the series.

TA Out!