TREK REVIEW: Prodigy 2-3 & 2-4

2.3 - Who Saves the Saviours? 

2.4 - Temporal Mechanics 101

A solid couple of episodes which kick off the main storyline for the season, as Starfleet's youngest accidentally pervert the flow of history. The time travel rules are either very complicated or very shaky on this show. These episodes occur in the same place in two different time periods, with Gwyn on the planet Solum 52 years before Dal and co. get there, stumbling across Chakotay and his first officer, Adreek-hu. 

It seems that all this criss-crossing in time has tied history up in knots. While they work together and try to maintain the timeline like Starfleet officers should, Dal and his pals end up altering history so that Chakotay and Adreek-hu are successful in their escape from Solum abord the Protostar. This means that the ship never ends up on Tars Lamora, so that the kids never find it in the first place and reach Starfleet. Indeed, the Diviner never goes to Tars Lamora to track the ship down, never buys the orphans to use as labour, and never creates Gwyn in the first place. Even though the events are in the future, changing them has altered the past.

All very well, except that the whole point of Gwyn going to Solum in the present was to stop the devastation it faces in the future. So how does Dal and his friends' accidental alteration of future events cause such a drastic change to the timeline? Surely, if Gwyn had been successful and prevented the war on Solum, the distruption would have been even worse? And if Dal's deduction that they were always meant to be in the future to help Chakotay launch the Protostar is correct, how did things end up going so wrong at all?

It's probably best not to think too much on it, just like it's best not to think too much on how Gwyn is slowly fading from existence, "in superposition between two quantum realities," and doesn't just wink out of existence straight away. For that matter, why are the rest of the kids still there, and not wherever they would have grown up if it weren't for the Diviner? Lawd knows.

There's a lot to enjoy here, from Dal's natural leadership to Ma'jel's softening on the team and helping them try to fix things. Jankon ditching his attempt at politeness and embracing his Tellarite crabbiness, while proving again what an amazing engineer he is, is another highlight. The time travel shenanigans work dramatically, even if they don't quite make sense. The bird puns are dreadful, but in the best way.

However, some parts work less well. Having the ritual to prove Gwyn's true Vau'Nakat-ness be just another big fight is visually fun, but a bit of a let down, and something of a Trek cliché. Dr. Erin MacDonald is a real science advisor and is apparently a big deal, so having her play a future version of herself (a descendant?) is fun, but I found her a bit annoying. And, well, Chakotay is back. I realise we didn't know what a dickhead Robert Beltran was when they were recording this, but no one really liked Chakotay first time round anyway. So a series revolving around tracking him down doesn't exactly grip me.

Overall, this is a fun adventure with some high stakes, with Gwyn's very existence hanging in the balance and some great performances from Brett Gray and Ella Purnell. Plus, we have the mystery of who is speaking to the crew from the future (my initial assumption that it was an evolved future version of Zero was way off, though).

Links and references:

• "We're hurtling through a time hole!" After paraphrasing Doctor Who last week, now Dal's throwing around Red Dwarf references. Janon turning his mechanical hand into a spider-like helper might be a nod to Kryten's similar gambit in "Terrorform," but probably not.
• Ma'jel refers to the Bell Riots from DS9 "Past Tense" (set this year, fact fans) and Cochrane's first warp test in Star Trek: First Contact when explaining causal loops.
• MacDonald's Temporal Mechanics lesson refers to the USS Enterprise and Bounty's slingshot time trips, and Q's temporal trickery.
• The USS Voyager-A has temporal shielding, probably in case they run into any Krenim while they're messing about near the Delta Quadrant.
• Adreek-hu is an Aurelian, a species that first appeared in Star Trek: The Animated Series. Giving Chakotay an eagle as a first officer is a bit on the nose.

 

Cliché count: "I'm a doctor, not an exorcist!" That's two in four episodes.

Best line: "Over here! Look how distracting I am!"

New fiction - "The Gorgon"

I'm posting on Vocal again, and trying my hand once more at some of their fiction challenges, not least because they force me to actually knuckle down and write something creative.

The latest challenge is "Legends Rewritten," for which I have devised The Gorgon: Medusa's Story, a sci-fi take on a very old myth. Go give it a read, if you fancy it.

REVIEW: Nosferatu

 

Never underestimate the staying power of a good horror story. Over a century since F. W. Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was released, another version has rocked the world with its powerful gothic imagery. Of course, even the original Nosferatu wasn’t actually original, being simply Dracula with the names and half the setting changed, to the point where several versions have had the names of the main characters changed back to the ones from the book. It’s a funny thing, copyright: the 1922 Nosferatu was almost destroyed at the orders of Bram Stoker’s widow and now it’s in the worldwide public domain itself. Hence two remakes in just over two years (the 2023 version by David Lee Fisher has not made such a big impact, but it does star Doug Jones, so must be worth a look).

Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse) has had Nosferatu on his ambition list for years, announcing it back in 2015 before production finally started in early 2023. Director’s dream projects that sit in pre-production for years don’t often make for very good films in the end, but Eggers’s ambition and flair are more than up to the task of bringing Nosferatu back to haunting and powerful unlife. Infused with a desolate, strange beauty, Nosferatu is ashen, cold and dour, and yet palpably unsettling. There’s barely any more colour to it than the original, with the odd flashes of bold colour energising the scenes around them: a bouquet of lilacs, the blonde locks of the doomed Anna Harding, and, of course, plenty of blood.

There’s an incredible attention to detail in the production, with pains taken to make the archaic Transylvanian locations look authentic. For external shots, Castle Orlok is in fact Corvin Castle in Transylvania, where the real Vlad Dracula was once imprisoned, with much of the remaining filming taking place in Czechia. Orlok is dressed in heavy furred robes rather than the long, shroud-like coat of the original or eveningwear popularly associated with Dracula. Together with the decision to use a reconstructed form of the ancient Dacian language for Orlok’s own tongue, makes him appear as an actual Transylvanian noble for once. There’s a dedication to using genuine vampire folklore rather than the elements introduced by Dracula and more modern stories; the plague that follows Orlok, while taken from the original Nosferatu, is a common association in Eastern European vampire myths, as is the drinking of blood from the chest or heart, rather than carefully from the neck.

Bill Skarsgård is completely unrecognisable as Count Orlok, the Nosferatu himself. Eschewing the iconic rat-faced look of the original, Skarsgård is made up to appear ancient, haggard and diseased, his pale face dominated by a prodigious moustache. This is more in keeping with the appearance of Dracula at the start of the novel, something infrequently retained by adaptations. However, unlike the original Dracula, Orlok doesn’t rejuvenate as he feeds on others, remaining decrepit, albeit still frighteningly powerful. Skarsgård moves in a disturbingly stiff and deathly way, in keeping with Orlok’s corpselike appearance, but what’s more impressive is his voice. Incorporating operatic training and Mongolian throat music techniques, he reduces his voice to a subhuman growl, something that in most productions would be achieved by electronic or digital modulation.

Eggers initially intended to cast Skarsgård as Thomas Hutter, the Jonathan Harker equivalent of the story. While it’s easy to see that he would have played it well, we would have been robbed of his Orlok as well as Nicholas Hoult’s Hutter. Less than two years since his title role in Renfield, Hoult gets to play a different leading role in a Dracula adaptation with considerably more dramatic clout. His performance is remarkably realistic in an unreal situation; you can sense how desperate and out of his depth he is from the moment he is assigned the job of getting Orlok to sign the legal papers. Meanwhile, the Renfield role is taken by Simon McBurney as Herr Knock, who gives a fabulously over-the-top performance that stays on just the right side of believable.

Willem Dafoe, while restricted to the second half of the film, is almost as intense as Professor von Franz, this version’s equivalent to the great Van Helsing. Having played a vampiric version of original Nosferatu star Max Schrek in 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire, it’s no surprise that Dafoe was considered to play Orlok here. While it would have been interesting, and no doubt entertaining, to see him more-or-less reprise that role, he is so well-cast as the deeply eccentric alchemist/occultist von Franz that the film would be far poorer without him. There are strong performances from Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Ineson as well (particularly pleased to see how many Hollywood roles Ineson is getting lately).

Out of a stellar cast, the best performance is by Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, the central figure of the narrative whose uncanny abilities cause her to call out to Orlok and set the events in motion. While based on Dracula’s Mina Harker, Ellen is central to the story in a much more profound way, and Depp gives an astonishingly intense and deep performance that carries the film. It’s to her credit that, even when we’re immersed in her husband’s experiences in Castle Orlok, we are more than content to be taken back to Wisborg to spend time with the ailing Ellen. Depp shares strong chemistry with Hoult, but it’s her scenes with Skarsgård that are the most compelling.

While Nosferatu almost eclipses its inspiration in foreboding, death-laden atmosphere, it’s not without its flaws. While naturally a slowly-paced film, it loses further momentum as both Hutter and Orlok travel to Wisborg. Much of this is down to the time spent on the cursed journey of the ship that carries the vampire, a sequence that almost invariably slows down and overstretches the more faithful tellings of Dracula. (This reminds me that I must watch The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which overcomes this problem by committing a whole film to the section.) While the sea voyage is also present in the original Nosferatu, its inclusion is just as questionable in both, Dracula sets its second half in England, but why is Orlok travelling from Transylvania to Germany by sea? Hutter has no trouble taken the more sensible course over land.

The film never quite recovers the momentum it needs in the final act, even as events crescendo with plague ravaging Wisborg and Orlok carving a bloody swathe through the main cast. Nonetheless, Nosferatu remains powerfully haunting till its inevitable, dark and moving end. Both tangibly sexual and profoundly distressing, carefully beautiful yet achingly dark, Ellen’s final encounter with Orlok reflects the atmosphere and emotions of the film as a whole. Nosferatu is a quite unforgettable experience.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek: Section 31

You can wear anything you like, as long as it's black.

After what seems like forever since it was first announced as another new Star Trek series, Section 31 finally arrives as Trek’s first streaming TV movie. Indeed, it’s a first for the franchise in a number of ways: the first production not to focus on Starfleet characters; the first to be set in the “lost era” between the original cast movies and The Next Generation; and the first to be headed by an East Asian and non-Anglosphere lead.

It’s also not very good, which is pretty much the worldwide consensus on the film. Much of this stems from its origins as a series, which was scuppered by COVID and Michelle Yeoh’s status as one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood. The reworking into a one-off film (ostensibly, the sequel hook is as clear as it is unlikely to lead to anything) shows what a hack job was needed to make it fit. With more room to breathe, and time to get to know the characters enough to actually give a shit about them, it may have worked a lot better.

Even accepting that, Star Trek: Section 31 is an inherently flawed production. It’s a real pity, as there is stuff to enjoy here, and frankly, the idea of a different sort of Star Trek is always welcome. While there are many, many fans who would be happy with TNG clones forever, the franchise has to move with the times and try new approaches, as the recent burst of new series has shown. For better or worse, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds and Prodigy have all delivered different takes on Star Trek, and while each has its flaws, they all succeed in different ways as well.

There’s room for all kinds of stories in the Trek universe, but one as cynical as this is a tough fit. I’ve long thought that a ragtag antihero gang, in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy or Farscape, could work well in Trek, but the critical point of those is that while flawed, the characters were essentially decent when the chips were down and had each others’ backs. Guardians and Farscape are both about criminals and dropouts from different backgrounds who are forced together by a common cause, and end up becoming a found family. What’s more, there’s a sense of optimism to their stories, which is essential to Star Trek and missing from Section 31.

But let’s consider the good parts, for there are plenty. Michelle Yeoh is a real leading lady who deserves her own show, with former-Emperor Philippa Georgiou succeeding in spite of being a fundamentally monstrous character thanks to Yeoh’s charisma. The obligatory gang of aliens from all manner of origins is done well, even if individually they don’t all work. Visually it’s stunning, with some of the most impressive battle and space scenes seen in the franchise. It even manages to be funny, occasionally, although not often enough.

One thing that’s really welcome is the lack of legacy characters in this story. Yeoh is the only actor to return from a previous production, this being her own Discovery spin-off. The only character to return from the old days is Rachel Garrett, who’s obscure enough that only the hardcore fans will mark her inclusion as noteworthy. While we have some familiar aliens, they’re from previously seldom seen races, or tweaked in interest ways. The only major elements being carried forward with little explanation are the Mirror Universe and the Empire, which are such basic sci-fi concepts that they barely need explaining.

Let’s look at the rest of the gang. The only one who, for me, works completely is Sam Richardson’s Quasi, the anxiety-ridden shapeshifter. We can buy the idea of an incredibly powerful being hamstrung by indecision thanks to his sympathetic performance, and he stands out thanks to being the only actually likeable character in the whole film. There’s no shortage of metamorphs in Trek, but making him a chameloid is a nice touch, calling back to one of the most memorable characters of the classic Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country without being a copy in any way.

I also found myself enjoying big cyborg guy Zeph, which surprised me, as his character is uninspired. Robert Kazinsky (born in my hometown only one year before me, fact fans, so no wonder he looked so familiar) plays him dumb-but-fun, which downplays the absurdly overpowered threat played by his mechanised suit. The big dumb mech is cliched sci-fi character but a new one for Trek, and the idea of someone suffering from mecha-dysmorphia, while thrown in as a joke, is worthy of exploration.

The other character I enjoyed was Fuzz, played by the very cute South African Sven Ruygrok, for reasons best known to himself, with an outrageous Irish accent. Fuzz is a whole bunch of fun ideas together: a microscopic alien intelligence with small-man syndrome, piloting an android body around, is a daft, Men In Black-esque idea that really works. Add to that severe emotional regulation problems, and then making the android a Vulcan, and you’ve got a wonderfully bizarre combination. Both Zeph and Fuzz have some of the best lines, which is to say, lines that were actually kind of funny, if only because they were sufficiently ridiculous. Frankly, the entire script could have done with being more stupid; it would have been a lot more fun.

As for the rest: Alok Sahar makes an OK male lead, with Omari Hardwick giving a decent enough performance with little to work with. The Augments are by now as tired a trope as the Mirror Universe, but being from the grimmer side of Trek had to have some kind of involvement here. There’s an added spin with Alok, though, in that he was originally an ordinary human and was augmented later by one of the Eugenics Wars despots. This, and his man-out-of-time nature, could have been explored and provided much needed depth; another thing doubtless lost to condensing this to a single sitting.

Humberly Gonzalez as the Deltan Melle does exactly what a Deltan needs to do: be incredibly hot and distracting. She might have had more to offer than that, but doesn’t get a chance. Finally, we have Kacey Rohl as Lt. Rachel Garrett, the solitary member of Starfleet along for the ride. Garrett seems like the real missed opportunity. A chance to flesh out the least-known captain of the Enterprise, she’s given next to no actual character, existing solely to have an officially moral character to chide the various criminals she has to work with. I can’t help but feel terribly sorry for Rohl, who seems to be a decent actor but has very little to work with here.

There’s potentially a good story to be told with this bunch of characters, but you won’t find it here. The first act has enough madcap action to at least be reasonably entertaining. Once they’re off the Baraam, Georgiou’s elaborate and impressive space station, and on their actual mission, there’s little to enjoy. There’s precious little to mark this out as Star Trek beyond the name and the surface trappings. It’s not that we can’t follow the dangerous and disreputable parts of the Trek galaxy – there’s enough of them, after all, and they’re often favourite characters. At the end of the day, though, something of Star Trek’s spirit always shone through even the grimmest tales of the past. All this can muster as an endorsement for Starfleet is that they don’t commit murder, and the best it has for a moral “there are no benevolent dictators.” Which, while distressingly topical, is a bit hollow coming from someone whose leadership style was “gleefully genocidal maniac.”

This is wrapped up in a script with some of the most witless (and somehow already dated) dialogue ever, with a storyline involving a faceless villain with the most painfully obvious secret identity, which eventually devolves into the surviving characters standing around pointing out their own cliches to each other.

Yeoh pitched a Georgiou spin-off this to Alex Kurtzmann before Discovery was even broadcast, mainly because she reportedly loves playing her. You can see that in her performance on Discovery, even when the character isn’t written well. Throughout Section 31, though, she appears jaded and tired, and I can’t escape the feeling that this isn’t acting. You can’t blame her; Yeoh is absolutely wasted on this.

Spoilery bits and Trekkie observations

Future history:

• The exact setting of this story isn’t clear, but it’s the early part of the 24^th century. Memory Alpha goes off the stardate of 1292.4 and calculates that (somehow) to 2324, or forty years before The Next Generation, which sounds about right.

• The Terran Empire is still in power at this time. By the late 2360s it will have fallen to the Alliance.

• Alok Sahar was born in the 1970s, which would support an old school dating of the Eugenics Wars in the 90s. On the other hand, given that he was genetically altered after the fact, he could be older than he looks (even accounting for stasis), so a 2030s date might still hold.

Alien life forms:

• Various aliens from Discovery’s later seasons are seen on the Baraam, and will no doubt show up in other eras as the costumes are reused.

• Dada Noe, the arms dealer, is apparently a Deltan as well. He’s not as sexy as Melle.

• Quasi’s transformations have a completely different effect to Martia’s, making it appear that he’s made up from a bundle of tendrils.

• Virgil, Georgiou’s major domo, is a Cheron, the two-tone species from the classic TOS episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” In that episode we were led to believe that Bele and Lokai were the last survivors of their species, but there’s nothing to say no more of them managed to escape the planet before it was devastated.

• The singer on the Baraam appears to be of the same species as Natalia, the semi-crustacean poster girl for Star Trek Beyond’s creature designs.

Cameo surprise:

• So seeing Jamie Lee Curtis as Control was a nice touch, reuniting with her buddy Michelle Yeoh. The old Control was a crazy AI; this one seems to be a cybernetically-enhanced human. Cyborg stuff seems to be the fashion in this era.

• Control sends the gang off to Turkana IV, failed colony and legendary hellhole that will be home to Tasha Yar. I think I could do without a sequel on the planet of the rape gangs, thanks.

TREK REVIEW - Lower Decks 5-3 - 5-4

 

5-3 - "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel"

A fun episode which sees our leads growing up some more, although this does mean regressing them a bit to begin with. Both Mariner and Boimler act more like their season one/two selves, with Bradward freaking out over Ransom's alleged treatment of his recruits and Beckett absolutely refusing to engage emotionally. 

The "Jariner" storyline is silly, and feels like a reaction to fans complaining that the relationship was never resolved onscreen. A quick line to explain that they broke up a while ago would have done, but instead we get a prolonged farce by both Mariner and Jennifer refusing to talk with each other. Similarly, the idea that Ransom is brutally risking his officers' lives by putting them in danger's way ignores the revelations that he's actually a pretty decent officer, and Boimler's over-the-top response is more like his earlier, more panicked self. 

So, it feels like an earlier season episode, but that's no bad thing. It's a lot of fun, and the idea of a ridiculously elaborate space resort and an Apolcaypse Now-inspired drop-out admiral provide a fun storyline, with the nanite monster adding an actual threat. Plus, if it was an older episode, it wouldn't have T'Lyn, who is an absolute delight here, from her increasingly sardonic humour to her surprising following of Krog, a rock-like beach music player.

Starships and stations: 

• The Cosmic Duchess is described as a cruise ship, but it's the size of a moon, with multiple biomes and an artificial sun, so it's practically a mobile Dyson habitat.
• The USS Endeavour is a tiny wee Intrepid-class from a miniature parallel universe, this episode's link the arc plot.

Alien life forms: 

• We finally get to see some Gallamites, previously only mentioned as the species of Jadzia Dax's old flame Captain Boday. I assumed that, aside from their transparent skulls, Gallamites were pretty much humanoids, but they looks absolutely terrifying.
• Krog is probably named after Korg from the Thor movies, given that he looks so much like him. We've seen the odd member of his species in the background before. It's possible he's meant to be a Brikar, like Rok-Tahk on Prodigy.
• The Kreetassans make their first appearance outside of Enterprise, although why they'd be hanging around a bar when they're so offended by people eating and drinking is anyone's guess.

5-4 - "A Farewell to Farms"

Klingon episodes can be pretty tiresome, but this one works because it, quite rightly, constantly takes the piss out of them. It's always good to catch up with Ma'ah, who's now slumming it on his brother's farm after being kicked out of the fleet thanks to his crew's mutiny. I prefer his brother, Malor, though, an easygoing sort of chap who's quite happy with farmwork and pimping out his shuttle. The Klingons can't all be warriors, after all; not only would that be unbelievable, but you need farmers and the like. Otherwise, where'd all the bloodwine come from?

It's also good to see the corrupt side of Klingon culture, which clearly didn't all go away when Martok took over. Bargh, using his position to punish Ma'ah because he killed his brother, rings true, even if it's very dishonorable (after all, isn't getting killed in battle what it's all about?). Anyway, the Beckett-Ma'ah friendship is a highlight, and this time Boimler is along for the ride, back to his new, super-enthusiastic self.

Meanwhile, the B-plot with Migleemo's people is pretty slight, but it's nice to see him get some background, and the idea of a culture focused on food and recipes makes as much, if not more, sense as one based on fighting and killing. 

Alien life forms: Migleemo's species are named as Klowahkians, from the planet Klowahka, following Areolus in the new Lower Decks tradition of naming avian race's planets after suggestive body parts. This one is more bird-appropriate, though.

Callbacks:

• Enaran food is said to be the best in the quadrant (not sure whether we're talking Alpha or Beta), but the Enara Prime is in the Delta Quadrant (VOY "Remember").
• On the farm, Ma'ah dresses like Picard in his vineyard in TNG "All Good Things."

Trek Stars: Sam Witwer does double-duty as the voices of both Malor and Klowahkian critic Legnog, while Mary Chieffo returns to her Klingon roots as the fun Kelarra (she was L'Rell in the first two seasons of Discovery).

TREK REVIEW: Prodigy 2-1 & 2-2 - "Into the Breach"

Star Trek: Prodigy is back and, while I haven't been able to devote much time to reviews lately, I'm now going to get back onto it and work my way through the second season. Seeing as the entire run was made available on Netflix all at once, it made sense to leave it a while and tackle it in a big chunk. 

The first season of Prodigy was one of the best of modern Trek, and while it was unfairly written off by some fans at the beginning due to being a kids' show, it proved to be perhaps the most true to classic Trek of all the shows that have launched since 2017. Season two was in the bag when Paramount decided to bin the entire thing, cancelling it before release in an obvious Warner Bros-style tax write-off. This was a kick in the teeth to everyone who worked on it, and just the first shot in the foot of Paramount's ever-crashing relationship with its audience. But no matter, because Netflix jumped in an picked it up. Seriously Paramount, when Netflix looks like the one with sound judgment, you've messed up.

So, to kick us off, it's "Into the Breach," our opening two-parter. Spoilers from here on out.

Season one ended with the Federation saved (again) and the runaway kids preparing for Starfleet Academy, except for Gwyn, who went off on a special mission to her home planet Solum to try to save it from the upcoming civil war. We catch up with the main gang in San Francisco, where we learn that they're not actually cadets, but in a sort of prep school programme, getting ready for induction. (Presumably their too young for the Academy itself, plus none of them have had a formal education before.) 

Vice Admiral Janeway takes them aboard the new USS Voyager as her own special training project, although she assigns the Doctor to be their mentor. It's wonderful to hear Robert Picardo back - interestingly after he turned down an appearance on Star Trek:Picard - and he's every bit the clucking hen we remember. Kate Mulgrew is very good as Janeway, and while she doesn't have my favourite voice in the world, she is an old hand at voice work and really brings Janeway to life (somewhat better than some of the other officer actors). 

The kids are as entertaining and likeable as ever, with the core cast giving great performances, as we might expect. It's fun to see their progression over the last few months: Dal is, predictably, frustrated and impatient; Rok-Tahk is absolutely loving the learning; Jankom is trying to learn to be polite (not very culturally aware of the Academy - let the Tellarite be a Tellarite); and Zero, interestingly, is longing for a physical form. Oh, and Murf is Murf, not really making much sense to be honest. He still seems somewhere between pet, mascot and full-fledged team member, as if the writers aren't quite sure what to do with him.

We might wonder why Janeway decides it's a good idea to take a bunch of pre-cadets on a top secret mission, one that they (and apparently most of the crew) aren't supposed to know about. Surely she realised this was asking or trouble? Of course, they have a personal link to the mission, as it's tied up in their own story aboard the Protostar, but since they aren't allowed to know about it, why does that matter? It's satisfying that this season leads on from the previous one so closely (unlike, say, Picard, which basically ignored previous events each season). Voyager is out in the depths of space to find Chakotay, thanks to the swirling wormhole that was left at the end of the last run. I like that time is running on both sides, meaning that timing is everything if they're going to pull this off without disrupting history. Whatever could go wrong?

There's also Nova Squadron to worry about. While they share their name with the daring flight team from TNG's "The First Duty," they're more like those arseholes in Red Squad on DS9 (those cocky idiots who ended up on the Valiant). At least there's only three of them. Ma'jel is obviously a major new character from the amount of focus she gets; thankfully, Michaela Dietz gives a brilliant turn as a young Vulcan, in spite of being forty in real life (she also voices Grom, the Lurian Squad member). Ma'jel doesn't seem that logical, storming in with her Squad buddies and causing trouble instead of trying to find out what our gang is up to. So frankly it's her fault the Infinity is launched prematurely.

Meanwhile, Gwyn goes to Solum and has a terrible time. Ascencia (a fun turn, as always, by Jameela Jamil, who is great at playing villains) has got their first, and has already turned the Vau'Nakat against her. It seems pretty likely that the schism that tears Solum society apart after first contact has its roots here, as we see factions alredy starting to form based on whether or not to trust aliens. It looks like Gwyn and Ascencia's travelling back has caused the whole problem in the first place, although how this squares with the future on the othe side of the wormhole apparently being an alternative future, I don't know. John Noble gives a truly excellent performance as the younger version of the Diviner - named Ilthuran, we discover - who is recognisable but a very different man to his possible future self.

There's an awful lot going on in these episodes, but they make for a gripping and impressive start to the season.

Placement: It's been a few months since the end of season one, and the Romulan evacuation is underway, meaning it's either 2384 or '85. Memory Alpha goes with 2384, and who am I to argue? This would place the future period in which Chakotay is stranded in 2436.

Starships and stations: 

• The new USS Voyager NCC-74656-A is a Lamarr-class ship. According to behind the scenes info, the class is named after the legendary Hedy Lamarr. 
• The original Voyager is said to be a floating museum. We saw it being taken there in the latest season on Lower Decks, set a couple of years earlier, and saw it displayed in the Fleet Museum in the final season of Picard, set about seventeen years later.  
• I love that, while Voyager-A looks all fancy and swish, the Infinity is just a functional. boxy wagon.

Links and observations:

• Ma'jel is named, of course, for Majel Barrett, the first lady of Star Trek.
• Rok-Tahk gives a presentation on the ill-fated tribble experiment from the Short Trek "The Trouble with Edward."
• However, the scientific name she gives, Polygeminus grex, is the classic one from tie-in material, not the one used in that episode.
• The Doctor is still writing holonovels in his spare time.
• The Infinity has a cloaking device, which is still illegal thanks to the treaty with the Romulans, as well as temporal shielding.

Cliché count: "I'm a doctor, not a butler!" Our first McCoyism of the season.

TREK REVIEW - Lower Decks 5-1 - 5-2

Catching up on the old Trek reviews with a quick rundown of the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks. I'm going to miss this show, which, while very much for die-hard fans, has been a real pleasure throughout and maybe the best of the relaunch-era series. The other contender for that is Prodigy, which I will also catch up with reviewing as soon as I can feasibly fit it in.

5-1 - "Dos Cerritos"

The season kicks off with an entertaining story that balances two entirely separate plotlines, one of which is fairly personal and small scale and the other which will have repurcussions for the whole season and the entire universe.

It's clear from the outset that this is going to be the Multiverse season, and while Trek has played with parallel universes plenty, this is its first time really delving into the concept. Everything is doing multiverse adventures now, so it's not surprising that Trek is having a go as well, and that Lower Decks is the series to do it. "Dos Cerritos" has great fun with this, sending the Cerritos through an interdimensional rift to meet its alternative self, commanded by Captain Becky Freeman. Tawny Newsome is clearly having a blast playing her character's aggressive, authoritarian other self, and it shows how much Mariner has grown as a character; in spite of being more like her earlier, more rebellious self, she's far more mature than Captain Freeman. The more assured alt-Boimler is pretty fun, but the most interesting is the heavily-augmented alt-Rutherford, who has forsaken his humanity so that he doesn't have to feel the loss of Tendi. The funniest pairing, though, is the two indistinguishable T'lyn's, who hate each other nonetheless. 

The other plotline follows Tendi as she takes on her role as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations. This strand has plenty of action but also works well as an exploration into Tendi's character. I like her pirate crew and love how we're seeing more and more of Orions who want to do something more fulfilling than violent piracy. Including the Blue Orions from The Animated Series - stupid costumes and mispronunciation of "Oreeon" and all - is another fun instance of Lower Decks taking the odder elements of TAS and celebrating them.

Callbacks: 

• The title sequence has been updated again. The title itself has been given TNG-style whooshy effects, while the big space battle is now ludicrously busy with the hand of Apollo, the Tholian Web and ruddy V'Ger all joining in.
• We get another visit to a Collector ship, this time owned by an alien with a weird metal thing running through his face ("It's prescription!") He's the same species as Palor Toff from TNG "The Most Toys," one of the strangest looking chaps to appear on the series.
• Mariner and T'Lyn play Kal-toh, a favourite of Naomi Wildman on Voyager. Boimler isn't happy Naomi made the "30 Under 30" list, and that she's "Like ten years old." If this is accurate, this places this season in 2382, meaning the entire five seasons take place over about two years.
• Becky Freeman does the same sarcastic Vulcan salute to Mariner as Mariner did to her mum back in season one.

Fun for me: One of Tendi's pirate crew is called Astrid. That's a great name (if you don't know, it's my daugter's name).

Sexy Trek: Not gonna lie, angry alt-Mariner with a riding crop is hot.

5-2 - "Shades of Green"

These first two episodes were released together originally, and appropriately this is basically the second half of a two-part story, at least for Tendi's ongoing storyline. Her adventures on and around Orion are easily the better part of the episode. A space race is a cliche, but a fun one, and it's hard to beat hitching a ride on a comet to get to the finish line. 

The other plot, on new Federation member Targalus 9, is good fun, but not as successful. It's interesting to see how a civilisation might dismantle its plurocratic society so that it can mesh with the Federation, and although everything seems ludicrously oversimplified here, it's fun to see the uber-rich of the planet desperately trying to stay relevant. Boimlers "bointers" are pretty funny and aren't overused, and we get the beginnings of his beard - well, fuzz - as he tries to emulate his alternative reality counterpart.

The C-plot, seeing T'ly trying to get closer to Rutherford and doing the logical yet entirely wrong thing is sweet. While it's wonderful to see Tendi back on the Cerritos where she belongs, it's a shame we don't get more development of this friendship. Still, the various plotlines dovetail nicely at the end, making for a satisfying episode.

Callbacks: 

• The Orions use archaic solar sailing ships for their races, much like the Bajorans once used, as seen on DS9 "Explorers."
• The socks Tendi offers D'Erika look like the space dog from TOS "The Enemy Within," an iconic little alien.

Alien life forms: 

• The Orion Queen has a dragon-like bet called a blazzard, which looks and sounds quite like the stock monsters that turned up on The Animated Series.
• The Targalans have really long ears and tie them up on top their heads. Given that they have orange skin and were super-capitalist, maybe they're related to the Ferengi.

Hmmmm: Surely a planet doesn't have to ditch money overnight to become a Federation member? We've already seen that the Ferengi are maintaining their way of life in spite of petitioning for membership, and we've heard of the Bank of Bolias a few times on DS9.

WHO REVIEW: The War Games in Colour

 

As part of the 60^th anniversary celebrations, the Beeb released The Daleks in Colour, an edited down, colourised omnibus of the second Doctor Who serial (and the earliest one they can currently show, due to an absurd copyright dispute). It wasn't terribly good. So I greeted the news of The War Games in Colour with cautious interest. The War Games is one of the best 60s serials, and while it's overlong, it's entertaining across all ten episodes, which is no mean feat.

Cutting a story down from four hours to ninety minutes means a lot has to go in the bin, even more so when new footage has been generated to swish things up. Still, The War Games is a story with plenty that can be chopped; while the padding is all enjoyable, it's still padding, put in to stretch out a story that had to fill the gap of two late in the day. It's an important story, though: Patrick Troughton's final story; the last of the monochrome era; the introduction of the Time Lords and the Doctor's exile to Earth.

The War Games in Colour, fortunately, works. It's a vast improvement on The Daleks in spite of taking more liberties with the original material. Visually, it's a massive step-up from The Daleks; part of this is down to better quality of the original footage, but a lot of it is down to more consistent and logical colouring work. A large chunk of the story being set in familiar historical locations means that there are realistic colours to try to recreate, but even the alien locales, in the War Games headquarters and Time Lords' capital, a less over-the-top than the Dalek cities while still making the most of the incredibly late-60s psychodelic design.

The music is also an improvement on whatever was going on in The Daleks, with much of the original score surviving, albeit somewhat remixed, although there's still a weird tendency to make some scenes sound like the worst excesses of 80s Who. (This sort of thing has been happening since the 90s patchwork release of Shada.) Musical cues are also used to highlight story connections, in a cheeky but obvious retcon: it's made abundantly clear that the War Chief is now meant to be considered an earlier incarnation of the Master. While the use of both the original Master theme and the Murray Gold one are obtrusive, due to being entirely out of keeping with the rest of the score, I'm completely in favour of the idea. I've always been in the War Chief = Master camp, so it's nice to have some validation of this on screen (with plausible deniability if you don't like the idea).

It's certainly a pacier version of the story, and while this means you can comfortably enjoy it all in one sitting, it also means the story loses a great deal of its original atmosphere. The original serial had a slow build-up of foreboding as the extent of what was happening was revealed, while here everything is explained at breakneck speed. Whole chunks of the story are excised, and while a lot of this is just capture-escape-capture stuff used to bulk the original serial out, it also makes the story and the Aliens' plot seem a lot smaller. Lady Jennifer is scarcely in it now, which is frankly a crime.

The most notable changes come at the story's climax, highlighting an old issue with how The War Games is viewed by fans. We tend to treat the first nine episodes as an extended prologue for the last one, when the Time Lords show up, put the Doctor on trial and sentence him to exile and a change of appearance. With so much of the preceding plot removed, the focus is even more heavily on the ending, with the majority of extra material added here. There's new CGI material throughout, most strikingly a outside look at the Aliens' base, and while it all looks great, it's so clearly of a different style and grade to the original footage that it sticks out like the proverbial tender thumb. This is ratcheted up a notch when we're approaching Gallifrey, making the final scenes feel even more separate to the rest of the story.

The biggest change, of course, is the addition of the regeneration. Originally, all we got was Troughton spinning away into blackness, pulling faces until his image was obscured completely. The net time we saw the Doctor, he was played by Jon Pertwee, tumbling out of the TARDIS at the beginning of Spearhead from Space. Now the entire trial is rejigged – much more effectively, in fact – and the story ends with a full regeneration sequence, put together using archive footage, rendering and new effects. On the whole, it works, and gives the Second Doctor a rather more dignified send-off than he got before. Where this leaves the old “Season 6B” theory is anyone's guess, as there appears to be even less of a gap for the Doctor to nip off for some extra adventuring than there used to be, but entire eras have been shoehorned into less feasible places. The only thing I'm not keen on is the substitution of the Tenth to Thirteenth Doctors for the Doctor's parade of possible faces. Something like it has been done before by fans, of course, but in an official story it's a bit too knowing. (It would have been more fun to stick in photos of some of the actors who were considered to take over from Troughton.)

At the end of the day, though, whether you want to consider this the “real” events of The War Games or ignore it completely is up to you. As an alternative version of the story it works, providing a punchier, far shorter yet still effective adventure, while the 1969 original still sits there, untouched and ready to watch.