Category: Trekathon

  • Trekathon 371: Jetrel (VOY)

    Neelix runs into a war criminal from his past. This is pretty heavy handed stuff. The number of not-so-veiled allusions to [Hiroshima and Nagasaki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki) got really annoying fast. And too much of the weight of the episode rests on Neelix being serious – possible, but a big ask given how he’s only been given comic…

  • Trekathon 370: Family Business (DS9)

    Quark’s mother breaks Ferengi law. Grading on the ‘Ferengi episode’ curve this was pretty good. That means it comes out slightly above ‘mediocre’ on the normal scale. My main problem in enjoying this is just the sheer offensiveness of Ferengi culture’s treatment of women. But the story works in the end, and other than one…

  • Trekathon 369: Faces (VOY)

    Torres gets split into a Klingon and a Human half. From the summary line I was expecting to hate this episode a lot, but it turned out to be really really good. The story is able to teach us a lot about one character, while managing to avoid the deep dive into technobabble that’s been…

  • Trekathon 368: Explorers (DS9)

    Sisko goes all [Thor Heyerdahl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl). A strangely quieter episode, the trickiest thing here is adjusting to the suddenly slower pace than the episodes around it. It’s a good story, well told in a way that builds useful character elements, it’s just a bit of a whiplash in change of pace from the ‘Romulans trying to…

  • Trekathon 367: Cathexis (VOY)

    Chakotay’s brain gets drained. How would you make a really bad episode? * Stupid Holodeck opening sequence with no point other than using up a few minutes. * Ridiculous technobabble explanation for the main inciting incident. * Painfully long ‘oh, he’s native american’ sequence with a medicine wheel. * Kes having strange psychic visions that…

  • Trekathon 366: The Die Is Cast (2) (DS9)

    The Romulans and Cardassians try to deal with the Founders once and for all. A bit of ‘two parter’ syndrome at play here, but still a pretty good story. The best part is Garak’s mental journey. Initially I was a bit unclear about whether he was just faking or not, but the torture scenes made…

  • Trekathon 365: Heroes and Demons (VOY)

    Voyager finally gets a start on an important Star Fleet tradition – the holodeck malfunction. The first 15 minutes is a strange combination of bizarre technobabble and bad period drama. It’s quite simply not very good. The decision to use the Doctor as the main character is a good one, as it turns a pretty…

  • Trekathon 364: Improbable Cause (1) (DS9)

    Garak’s shop has a little bit of an explosion. Another one of those ‘so good I don’t have much to say’ episodes. This is the payoff to a lot of parts laid through the season and before – the secret Cardassian fleet from *Defiant*, the Romulan intelligence exchange from *Visionary*, finding the Founders in *The…

  • Trekathon 363: Through the Looking Glass (DS9)

    Sisko is kidnapped by the mirror universe O’Brien. Something just felt a bit off about this one. Perhaps it was as simple as the terrible costume design for Jennifer Sisko, which just looked wrong every time I looked at it. I appreciate what they were going for, but somehow it just didn’t work. Other than…

  • Trekathon 362: State of Flux (VOY)

    Someone on board is leaking information to the Kazon. A nice episode that uses up what could have been a really interesting ongoing plot with a bit more work. The idea of a traitor in the crew is a good one, but it gets bought up and resolved in a single episode. We’ve now got…