Reviews

This episode of Highway to Heaven was a bit different - rather than deal with serious themes, it was actually really silly and fun. I laughed pretty hard at this one.

Mark and an actress named Linda both think the other gender has an easier time in life, and at the same moment they both wish they could spend a day in the other's shoes. So God grants them their wish. For the rest of the episode, Mark goes around in Linda's body and Linda in Mark's.

They could have handled this by seriously exploring the pressures society puts on both men and women separately; but seeing as the premise is pretty ridiculous to begin with, they kept it silly and funny. Mark complains about having to wear heels and swaggers around like a truck driver; Linda complains about having a beard and minces around acting so feminine that everyone around believes Mark is gay. It was so funny seeing the beautifully feminine actress act like a hot-tempered brute, and the "man's man" Victor French acting so effeminate. Both actors did a wonderful job here and the comical effect was excellent.

This is definitely not one of the many tear-jerking episodes, and is not to be taken seriously at all, but it is a really fun one which I enjoyed watching.

My husband and I have been watching through Voyager for the first time, and enjoying it very much. So far, I have liked every episode. I think this episode, Faces, might be the first one I didn't really enjoy.

The acting is excellent, and the general premise is interesting. Also, they did a fantastic job on the makeup. Yet, I could not enjoy an episode where a crewman of Voyager is killed and his face removed - so that the creepy Vidiian guy could wear it over his own ugly face. What's worse, he did that because he thought he could get the Klingon version of B'Elanna to get physical with him if he looked less hideous. Ewww....this is creepy, disturbing and wrong on many different levels, and seems more like something from a horror flick than from Star Trek.

What's worse, although poor Durst has been murdered, there is no mention of him at all at the end of the episode. There is no memorial service, no words of wisdom from Janeway, no vow that they will avenge their crewmate's death - just nothing. It's like everyone has forgotten him already.

Perhaps even worse than that is that although there are a number of prisoners still on the planet, that the Vidiians plan to use to harvest their organs, Janeway does nothing about it and makes no attempt to rescue them, which seems out of character for her. I have gotten the impression so far that she is a woman of action, and brave too, not one to run away. Yet running away without doing anything to help is exactly what she does in this episode.

I won't be watching this one again.

I am old enough that, as a young child, I watched Knight Rider when it was brand new. I loved it then, and I love it now - probably much more now, as it drips with 80s nostalgia for me.

I have been watching the whole series through and as a whole it's been one heck of a ride. I've enjoyed it immensely. However, this last episode, Voo Doo Knight, was a deeply disappointing conclusion to a wonderfully fun series.

For starters, there isn't a single cool stunt in the entire episode - not even a chase scene. KITT does almost nothing except scan the inside of buildings to tell Michael who's inside. The only action we see at all is Michael getting thrown across the room a couple of times. They obviously had a tight budget for this episode.

Then, the storyline is just really weird. A lady who claims to be a "voodoo princess" with a magic necklace is supposedly controlling people's minds when they wear one of her special earrings - but it is never explained how. Devon said it uses some kind of high frequency waves (which KITT of course can jam) but how does this connect with her necklace? Is it really magic or some kind of really sophisticated technology? If it's technology, how did this con artist get her hands on it? The writing is terrible.

Plus, we see two people commit suicide in this episode, which doesn't exactly add to the fun factor.

RC3 does absolutely nothing in this episode, Devon does very little, heck even Michael does little until the very end. Basically nothing much happens except jewelry getting stolen and archaeologists being murdered through mind control. Astonishingly, in this series finale Bonnie doesn't even make an appearance!

The only bright spot of this episode was the character of Elizabeth Wesley, who was cute as a button.

I understand that at the end of the series they had run out of money. But even if there was no money for one more good-old Turbo Boost, surely they could have come up with a better send-off for these characters than this strange and boring episode. I feel like it was a disrespect to the actors to just leave the show on a low note like that. It would have been much better just to have a retrospective episode where they talked about their favourite memories working for FLAG. Oh well.

In this episode, the addition of strange new kind of "photonic energy" onto the ship causes the holodeck to malfunction, and three crew members are inadvertently "turned from matter to energy" during a simulation of Beowulf of all things. The Doctor, being a hologram not composed of matter, is chosen to go into the holodeck and solve the problem.

I really like the Doctor, who, as of the end of this episode, still does not have a name. I really enjoyed how his character was developed in this episode, as he had his first chance to participate in a mission outside of sick bay. He also ate food for the first time, and was even kissed by a pretty woman!

Like most episodes of Star Trek, there were some goofs, and the storyline wasn't terribly realistic (haha!). But that's not what Star Trek is about. It's about enjoying an entertaining story, and this episode does deliver. Not the best episode so far in Season 1, but a solid, entertaining episode.

This is a good, typical Highway to Heaven episode where we witness some serious dysfunction, and then Jonathan shows up and makes everything right. In this episode he and Mark work for a football team whose doctor is a little too free in dispensing pills. By the end of the episode Jonathan helps the team's quarterback admit he is addicted to painkillers so he can keep playing, the doctor to admit he is addicted to barbiturates (downers) to sleep, and the doctor's son to admit he is addicted to amphetamines (uppers) to get through college. In the end they are all well on the road to a healthier life.

This episode maybe wasn't as much of a tear-jerker as some are, but it was a solid episode and I appreciated the message that even prescription drugs can create problems in a person's life, and even decent, upstanding people can become addicted. It is common to hear messages against illegal drugs - everyone knows it's a bad idea to do crack or cocaine - but what about painkillers and sleeping pills? Those can ruin people's lives too if used improperly. I think this message is more important than ever today as the pharmaceutical industry has been shown again and again to value profit over people's health. We should all think carefully about what medications we want to take and make sure our doctor isn't a little too quick to prescribe them, like the doctor in this episode.

This episode, in which Micheal, KITT and RC3 travel to an imaginary Central American country to rescue an American diplomat and stop a military coup, was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, there were some fun moments: We see a Turbo Boost within the first few minutes (I know it is a recycled shot, but still fun), and not once but twice we get to see KITT drive through lava - possibly the most outlandish feat KITT is supposed to have performed yet.

On the other hand, the story of this one was really outrageous, and not only because KITT drove through window-deep lava. Michael almost single-handedly stops a coup in this country by punching a bunch of people out? All the military guys with machine guns are defeated by his fists? And at one point he is placed before a firing squad (with RC3 secretly the commanding officer). He appears to be shot and there appears to be blood on his shirt, but of course he's actually just pretending. Huh? It is never explained how he survived: Did RC3 put blank rounds in the guns? Or did Michael have some kind of bulletproof vest on? Where would they find either of those things? And where did the fake blood come from? It drives me crazy that they never explained that, nor other things in this episode, such as what motive there was for the general to take over the country in the first place. Not that I expect Knight Rider to be filled with realism, but it would be nice if they gave at least a weak and cheesy reason for things happening.

Knight Rider is one of my favourite shows from the 80s, and it was pretty funny watching KITT driving through lava, so I gave this episode 7 out of 10, even though it definitely isn't the best episode out there.

After being pretty bored with Picard Seasons 1 and 2, I felt pleasantly surprised when I started watching Season 3, and it seemed that the story was actually moving forward at a nice pace, not to mention that it finally felt like real Star Trek - being on a spaceship and all. As the episodes progressed and all the old familiar characters joined in, I enjoyed it more and more. Episode 8 I think was the high point. I was so excited to watch the next episode!

But my enthusiasm took a serious hit when I watched Vox. What were the writers thinking? The compelling storyline that had been built up, with an unusual and interesting antagonist (the goo people) was completely derailed when we find out that the bad guys are really the Borg. Again. Seriously? The writers couldn't possibly come up with something more original than that? I was really enjoying having a new and unique bad guy to learn about, and then it ends up being the very same bad guys from both Seasons 1 and 2! I can't believe the writers did this. I thought for sure Jack was going to be something cool and unique, a new kind of human, a Q, or infected with some virus that gave him supernatural powers, anything new and interesting...but no, it had to be the BORG. Good grief!

Though my main disappointment with this episode is with the Borg being there, I also see other problems with this episode that bother me a lot. For instance: *There is no way on God's green earth that Worf would EVER leave behind a partner to die. He and Raffi were partners and friends - he simply would NOT leave her behind on the Titan. Very out of character.

*Shaw's death was not done very well - they could have given the poor guy a better send off than that - and I feel like they only killed him off because they wanted to have only the original officers of the Enterprise-D on board there. That's rather cold.

*Since when does Deanna do mind melding? Did she gain new abilities since we saw her last? If so, an explanation is in order.

*Also, what happened to Deanna and Riker's daughter, Kestra? They haven't mentioned her at all. If the goo people kidnapped Deanna you would think they would kidnap Kestra too.

*I really don't see why Jack ran to the Borg at all. Sure he was mad at his dad and questioning his identity, but after showing himself time and time again to be a Good Guy, I find it really out of character that he suddenly turned some guns on Picard and took off to join everyone's worst enemy. It was too sudden of a change and I didn't believe it.

*Like others said, it was great to see the good old Enterprise-D again. Not only because of the nostalgia, but because finally we can actually SEE the crew! The Enterprise had proper lighting! (and carpeting, yay!) But come on...do they really expect us to believe it can be piloted by only 7 people? That's a bit of a stretch... *Wasn't the Excelsior the ship that Elnor was on? And we saw it be destroyed. So Raffi was grieving Elnor's death for most of Season 2, and was ecstatic when he got another chance. But this time when he dies she doesn't even notice or care? Okay.

*Lastly, and most importantly, did the writers even watch Season 2 at all? What happened to Agnes, the "good" Borg queen who changed the Borg into a benevolent species? Now suddenly the Borg are once again obsessed with assimilating humanity? Starfleet in particular? Talk about a lack of continuity!

I am just so disappointed. A fantastic season, ruined with one stupid episode. I would actually have given this episode a three out of ten, but I gave it five because it was truly enjoyable to see the bridge of the Enterprise-D once again.

I am not a fan of this new kind of Star Trek series where a single storyline is carried on over 10 episodes. It just takes forever to get anywhere and contains too much filler. However, although Season One did drag for me quite a bit over the middle few episodes, yet I still felt it was worth watching. Season Two, not so much.

I feel Season Two is a step down from the first season. The same great cast of actors is here, but what the heck is going on with the writing? With each new episode, more annoying problems spring up, more rabbit holes are found to go down, and the story becomes yet more complex and convoluted; yet nothing is really solved and no answers are found. This is getting really annoying. This episode in particular felt like a total mess. Everything is going wrong, nothing makes sense whatsoever, nobody seems to know what to do next, and even Picard has no idea what Q really wants from him...for that matter we are not sure that Q himself even understands all that is going on (as he seemed confused in the previous episodes). Characters we thought were on the side of good are now seemingly not...and then when it was already confusing enough, Picard gets hit by a car and has a heart attack and then goes into a coma...even though we know he is now a synthetic life form...what!? Confusion and chaos reign in this episode, and I really disliked it.

I still gave it 3 stars because I think the actors in this series are excellent - except perhaps for Patrick Stewart himself, who, as much as I hate to say it, I think should have retired from acting by now. His speech is noticeably slow and slurred in this season, and though I am a great fan of his work in general, I think there comes a time for everyone when you're just to old to keep working. I think he has reached that time, though I am sure he's trying his best. The other actors do an excellent job with what is, in my opinion, a terrible script.

Also, as others have said, it appears almost this entire season is taking place on Earth...how can you call a show "Star Trek" that does not take place in the stars?

Just disappointing.