Author: robert

  • Trekathon 218: New Ground (TNG)

    Worf has a sullen child. Yeah, that’s going to go well. A sole parent dealing with their child’s abandonment issues is not exactly the stuff of great Star Trek episodes. Great Gilmore Girls episodes, sure. While it picked up in the back half, it’s still just not very interesting. Star Trek is about strange new…

  • Trekathon 217: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (MOV)

    The final voyage of the original crew. I think this is probably my favourite of the original Star Trek movies. Star Trek IV is probably better as a pure movie, but as a piece of pure Star Trek I think this has the edge. The movie has a nice feeling of closure for the original…

  • Trekathon 216: A Matter of Time (TNG)

    It would seem that Captain Picard and company have never heard of James Randi, Richard Dawkins, or even good old PZ, or really any kind of skepticism. There is just not enough disbelief in a guy who turns up and says “I’m from the future”. Picard says ‘his credentials check out’, but honestly, really? As…

  • Apple announces new Macbooks – what does it mean for pricing?

    Apple announced some shiny new stuff overnight. What can we work out about pricing for the iPad from these? They all work out about the same, so let’s look at the 13″ MacBook Pro. – Australian Price: $1,499 – Subtract the GST: $1,362.73 – US Price: $1,199 – Implied exchange rate: 0.88 (Other exchange rates…

  • Trekathon 215: Unification II (TNG)

    That’s more like it. There’s still a bit of padding with the bar scenes (although who would want to miss out on Klingon Opera?). But again, the scenes on Romulus are good. It’s a complicated political story, without a lot of action, but tension develops well. The main weak point is Sela: she’s still a…

  • Trekathon 214: Unification I (TNG)

    This episode starts off with a huge bang (Spock! Defecting to the Romulans!) And then there’s a whole bunch of padding – Sarek, getting a Klingon ship, the supply depot, Picard trying to sleep. It’s well written padding, but it just feels like an attempt to stretch out the plot to make this a two-part…

  • Trekathon 213: The Game (TNG)

    Wesley’s back, just in time to save the day. Overall this was a pretty bad episode. Wesley’s budding romance is fine, but coupling it with another obnoxious ‘only Wesley can save us’ plot is not good. I find it hard to believe that no one else in the crew could avoid it, that Troi couldn’t…

  • Trekathon 212: Disaster (TNG)

    Let’s count the disaster movie cliches! There’s the Captain trapped in a lift with children, the pregnant woman who goes into labour, a broken ankle, the inexperienced commander. But then there’s some unique Star Trek moments: even with only three people left on the bridge, the rest of the ship cut off, and an imminent…

  • Trekathon 211: Silicon Avatar (TNG)

    The Silicon Entity returns, this time without Lore[^1]. I was a bit interested with the theme the episode appeared to be establishing early on, that of whether to fight or communicate. But rather than develop the conflict further, instead we get a lot of time spent with someone trying to recover their lost son through…

  • Trekathon 210: Ensign Ro (TNG)

    A second go around at dealing with terrorism. It goes a lot better than *The High Ground*, mainly because we have a much clearer idea of the stakes that the terrorists are fighting for. It’s not the quickest moving episode ever, and spends a lot of time establishing the new recurring character of Ensign Ro.…