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Star Trek: Picard: Mercy (2022)
No stars, no trek.
How a high-budget, flagship Star Trek production managed to create an entire season of a show that takes place entirely on earth in essentially the present day is beyond my understanding. Add to that a needlessly convoluted plot that is heading nowhere interesting, and you have quite possibly the worst of the Star Trek television entries. What a waste of potential and a wonderful cast.
Cobra Kai (2018)
An unlikely success
Cobra Kai strives to be both a nostalgic throwback-slash-reboot of the 1980s classic Karate Kid and a CW-style teen drama, and it wildly succeeds on both counts. Somehow, perhaps by the power of magic, this show unites two incredibly different demographics in a celebration of the campy 80s obsession with karate.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Damage Control or Satisfying Conclusion?
This is an entertaining and heartfelt, if messy and rushed, addition to the Star Wars universe. The Rise of Skywalker is not nearly as bad as the critical consensus will have you believe, but there are a couple of consistent points of criticism that ring true:
a) It is a departure from and a significant retcon of the events of The Last Jedi. As a result, if you disliked The Last Jedi, you are somewhat more likely to enjoy this film, and vice versa.
b) It has some pacing issues that are likely the result of J.J. Abrams trying to fit as much of his original plot ideas for two films into one film as he could, while also shoehorning in Palpatine due to the untimely loss of his principal big bad, Snoke.
Opinions on The Last Jedi tend to polarize fans, but in order to evaluate The Rise of Skywalker, you have to put the film in the context of a trilogy that many fans, myself included, did not entirely believe needed to exist.
Rian Johnson took significant risks with The Last Jedi and made a film that many enjoyed, but it served to undo much of what the first film in the sequel trilogy-and the preceding six films, frankly-established. I wholeheartedly believe that The Rise of Skywalker is a damage control film that mostly succeeds on its own merits. It's fun, it's nostalgic, and it has the feels.
Now, please let us move on to some Star Wars films that explore the vast, rich universe that George Lucas created and its enormous timeline of nearly infinite stories somewhere and some time other than this incredibly narrow corner we've explored for 42 years.
The Orville: Firestorm (2017)
Solid episode
"Firestorm" is my favorite episode of the series to date. It follows Alara as she struggles to convince herself that she is capable of doing her duty in the face of her fears. If you're a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, elements of this episode might remind you a bit of S4:E5 "Remember Me." If you're a fan of Futurama, you'll find a resemblance to S7:E24 "Murder on the Planet Express." If you're a fan of both series, you're really going to appreciate this one. Solid performance out of Halston Sage, and a particularly fun bit of performance out of Penny Johnson Jerald.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Galaxy's Child (1991)
An Exploration of Self-Restraint That Ultimately Misses the Mark
Everyone has fantasies. Everyone who is familiar with the concept of the holodeck has explored its possibilities. Everyone has imagined using the holodeck to make fantasies reality, even fantasies involving other real human beings, friends, strangers, celebrities, you name it. For this reason, it is important to explore just how far the average person might take it and the ethics of doing so. TNG rightly attempts to tackle this difficult concept in this episode and others (namely S3E6, "Booby Trap," and S3E21, "Hollow Pursuits") but ultimately shies away from delving too deeply into the psyche.
In this episode, Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge finally gets to meet the engineer chiefly responsible for designing the Enterprise's warp drive system, Dr. Leah Brahms. Of course, he has met her before, in a sense, in the aforementioned season three episode, "Booby Trap," when he creates a program simulating her likeness on the holodeck in order to work through a difficult engineering problem. It is implied that Geordi engages in a reasonably tame but somewhat romantic relationship with the holodeck version of Dr. Brahms—a relationship that can't be described as entirely professional, in any event. "Every time you're touching the engine, you're touching me." As a result of his virtual encounters, Geordi expects the possibility of a romantic relationship with the real Dr. Brahms during her visit to the Enterprise.
As it turns out, Dr. Brahms isn't exactly interested in Geordi the way he had hoped. In fact, the first thing she does is berate him for having "fouled up {her} engine designs." Nevertheless, Geordi continues to pursue her, asking her at one point to meet him is his quarters and passing up no opportunity to take advantage of every piece of knowledge he gleaned from her personal records in order to gain her favor (I had to Google fugilli). Ultimately, she discovers the questionable holodeck program, and this is where the episode falls short of its goals.
Although the show makes an effort to suggest that Geordi never engaged in any sexual or otherwise inappropriate behavior on the holodeck with the simulated Dr. Brahms, we and the real Leah Brahms are asked simply to take Geordi at his word. Given the candor with which LaForge interacts with Brahms in his holodeck program in "Booby Trap" in addition to his expressed hopes to spark a flame with her in this episode, it's reasonable for any audience to infer that Geordi could be lying about his behavior. It would certainly be far more interesting if he were lying, but Brahms unrealistically believes that he has exercised self-control on the holodeck and that her likeness was never violated. Beyond that, she ends the episode not only forgiving him for what could be pretty salacious invasions of her privacy but congenially apologizing to him for her behavior.
From a plot perspective, I left the episode disappointed in the lack of consequences for Geordi, but I was mostly disappointed in the show's reluctance to investigate the insight into human nature that they had at their fingertips.