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!"

TREK REVIEW: DIS 5-4 - "Face the Strange"

Time travel episodes are always fun, and "Face the Strange" is no disappointment there. Even though this is very clearly a bottle episode designed to recoup some of the money spent on the big flashy openers (and no doubt even bigger, flashier series end), it uses its limitations well. Given that Trek has done a lot of time travel episodes before, including a number that saw a central character jump back and forth through their timeline, there was inevitably a sense having seen this before. However, the episode embraced that, referencing a number of the time travel episodes from the past, but in a natural way. There's a bunch of references in this episode that make the die-hard fans go "aha!" but just sound like extra colour to the less obsessed viewer, which is exactly how it should work.

In the past, when we've had a character thrown back and forward through time, it's generally just been them alone, struggling to convince the rest of the crew of what's going on: Picard in TNG "All Good Things;" Kes in VOY "Before and After;" and Chakotay in "Shattered." The last of these is perhaps the most similar to this, as there the ship had been thrown into different points in its timeline, while here, Discovery itself is being thrown back and forth, along with its crew. The difference here is that we have two characters working together, able to rely on each other, with Burnham and Rayner unaffected thanks to being mid-transport at the very moment the time bug activated. (I love that: time bug. Such a simple, silly sci-fi idea, and such a simple name. On Voyager they'd have called it a "chronometrically disaffected ambulatory arthropod" or something.)

As much as the central idea of shifting everyone else along the timeline doesn't quite make sense (where do all the crew in the future when they're dead? Where does Airiam come from when it goes back to the past?) it's a fun conceit. It's also a good opportunity to finally have Rayner work closely with Burnham and adjust to her way of doing things; had he carried on being an immovable object much longer, he would have become tiresome. 

The episode is focused on the theme of change, and it works so well as a final season instalment it's surprising it was written before they knew the series was ending. Like "All Good Things," this works well because the series has changed so much since its first series. Having Rayner there, who wasn't present for the earlier episodes, underlines this, as he can act as an external observer to remark on this. In this regard, it works better than Voyager's "Shattered" or the quite similar-in-approach "Relativity" (down to the scene on the ship pre-launch), where, in spite of characters coming and going, the series still felt much the same throughout. 

It's gratifying that the writers remembered that Stamets exists slightly outside of time, calling back to the previous (and somewhat better) season one time loop episode "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad." This allows a third character to take part in the time-jumping proceedings, but in a different way, affected by the jumps but aware of them. (Really, what the hell happened to him while they were all dead?) It was nice to have Hannah Cheeseman back as Airiam one last time, and frankly they should never have killed off a character with such potential. Ultimately, the time jumping was worth it to see today's more measured Captain Burnham face off against her angry, chip-on-her-shoulder mutinous younger self. (A touch of the Captain America fighting himself there; she could do this all day, I bet.)

Other bits to like: breaking the warp bubble, with a (fairly solid) conception of what suddenly falling out of warp would do to time relative to the ship's frame of reference when back in normal space; a fun, gruesome intro that shows us just how much Moll and L'ak aren't to be messed with (and that L'ak seems to be the more timid and weary of the two); the jump forward to a ruined Federation being genuinely eerie and foreboding. The only disappointment there was that it really looked like we were getting a glimpse at what led to the situation from the Short Trek "Calypso," when Discovery has been abandoned and Zora has continued to evolve into a sophisticated but lonely being. While clearly that scene was meant to evoke the mini-episode, it can't be related, showing instead a different future that, presumably, Burnham and crew will avert.

A fun, standalone adventure then, but it'll be good to get moving with the main storyline again after treading water for an hour.

Looks back and forward:

• Pretty clear now that the Breen are set to be the big bad this season, being the main bidders for the Progenitor tech and out to take down the Federation.
• We get the briefest of glimpses at a 32nd or 33rd century Breen ship.
• Kind of nice that we see the Golden Gate Bridge out the ship's window while it's still in drydock, seeing as it was the Breen who destroyed it 120 years later during the Dominion War.
• I thought the lizardy guy who sold Moll and L'ak the time bug looked familiar, but couldn't place the species. Apparently he's an Annari, from the Voyager episodes "Nightingale" and "The Void." It makes sense that this far in the future, species from all over the galaxy can turn up.
• Also from the Delta Quadrant, the time bug is Krenim technology left over from the Temporal Wars. Again, it makes sense that the Krenim, who used time as a weapon, would have been involved in that.
• This might be the first time travel episodes that sees someone jump into the middle of an earlier time travelling trip.
• We got some great Linus and Reno moments in this episode.
• The title's a nice nod to the episode's theme: a line from Bowie's classic "Changes."

REVIEW: Before the World Ends (Cerys Evans, 2023)

Every now and then, you go to see something entirely new, and are absolutely blown away by it. 

This was the experience by our little group at the debut performance of Before the World Ends, a new science fiction play by Cerys Evans. Performed by Cerys's own Open Handed Theatre Company at The Actors in Brighton, in a tiny and intimate performance space, as part of FemFest 2023, Before the World Ends is a very different creation to Cerys's previous show, A Trans Fairytale. Full disclosure: Cerys is a good friend of mine, but I don't give good reviews to things I don't rate, even when I like the person who wrote them (I just hide and try not to make eye contact and try to think of excuse for next time). I knew Before the World Ends would be good, but I wasn't prepared for just how good.

With a cast of only six, performing nine roles, it's a very tight production, made with minimal set dressing and props, relying on the talents of the actors and some immersive sound and light design to do the script justice. Realising a world through so little visual material is tough, especially when you're setting the entire thing in the future, but the production handles it with ease.

The story is set in two main time zones: 2027 and 3027. Our focus in the further future is Nicola (Sophie Bloor), trying to work her way up the ladder at a museum of ancient history - specifically the 21st century, a time period that just doesn't draw in the crowds anymore. When she discovers an archaic phone that can somehow communicate through time, she is accidentally connected to Barry (Sam Gibbons), living a thousand years earlier and blissfully unaware that his new phone buddy is interested in more than market research.

Nicola can't help but try to learn from Barry. Not the specifics of the events at the close of 2027 - in spite of a spotty historical record, there seems to be no confusion of the important events - but just how people living then could close their eyes to the devastation around them. As Nicola connects with Barry, she comes to question whether the people of the 21st century were really as selfish and blind as they're believed to be, or whether there is something more to it. Surely they can't be all that different?

I hate when sf material is self-consciously justified as being "a drama first," but that's a very apt way to describe this play, which balances the brutality and heartache of mundane life with futuristic speculation. Nicola's personal and professional life could just as easily be taking place today, and while in some science fiction that would be a weakness, here it reinforces the idea that people are just people, doing the best they can wherever and whenever they live. Nicolas has to contend with an abusive partner and an unimpressed boss, all the while trying to balance her new cross-temporal friendship. For his part, Barry has to struggle with an elderly, disabled mother, as well as the unending "one thing after another" of 21st century life that makes the plight of the wider world seem so far away.

The play deals primarily with climate change and collective responsibility, but also touches on domestic violence, bereavement, the ups and downs of technological progress and cultural misunderstandings, and very briefly touches on gender identity. If there's one complaint, it's that in it's ninety minute runtime there isn't room to explore all of these in depth, and the story could be greatly expanded to a full length play or film, or even beyond to a television series. As it stands, though, it's an extremely focused story.

If this all sounds heavy going, then fear not: Before the World Ends is also frequently hilarious. The main events are given context by Patrick McHugh's brilliant museum guide, who gives poignant and often ridiculous notes to 21st century events and artifacts. McHugh is one of the actors playing dual roles, along with Madeleine Hawkey and Aurea Williamson. Plays with limited casts often struggle with this, but here each actor makes their characters completely distinct. Everyone is excellent, of course, but I feel particular praise must go to Bloor and Gibbons in their lead performances, and Sokratis Kyria for his terrifying turn as Nicola's partner. 

As events in 2027 deteriorate around Barry, and the aftereffects are felt in 3027 and even beyond, the story turns bleak. Ultimately, though, it's a hopeful story, showing us how we can make a difference, even if it's only a small one, and that understanding each other is perhaps the most important thing of all.

Sadly, this was a one-off performance for now, but Cerys has plans for future performances. To the future.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-9 & 2-10

 

Hide and Seek 

Farewell

An over-the-top, occasionally silly but overall satisfying end to the second season of Star Trek: Picard, this final two-parter fair belts through plot beats like there's no tomorrow. Which, had our heroes not succeeded, I suppose there wouldn't be. As with the first season, and the recent run of Discovery, there have been some major pacing problems with this season, with an awful lot of side-steps and a leisurely pace through the middle of the run, leaving everything to be rushed for the finale. Perhaps this is a deliberate choice to make the end more climactic, but it does make it harder to fully appreciate the finale.

There are a lot of hard-to-swallow elements to this story, and you need to allow a lot of coincidences to make it work. Not everything quite adds up in the end, but for all that, it's so much fun, and the final episode in particular, so touching, that it's hard to be too unhappy about this. Alison Pill blows it away as the new Borg Queen, by now a convincing amalgam of Jurati's character and Wersching's Queen. We've had false dawns for a new kind of Borg before (whatever happened to those self-aware drones with commanding whole cubes from VOY: “Unimatrix Zero?”), but this time it looks like Jurati's new Borg really are a new era. (Although the news that Pill is not returning for season three suggests we won't be seeing them again, at least not anytime soon.)

Seven's rebirth as a semi-Borg (rather unbelievably, given the circumstances, with her implants in exactly the same places as before) was both predictable and disappointing. It would have been a nice culmination of Seven's development for her to finally be fully human. That said, her acceptance, with Raffi's help, of her part-cybernetic nature is satisfying, especially since she helped birth this new strain of Borg and prove that there's potentially another way of forming a collective. (Maybe they'll meet up with the voluntary hive mind from VOY: “Unity”... or maybe not.) Finally, Seven and Raffi get the smooches on, and everything is all lovely.

No surprises at all that Rios decides to stay in 2024, with the beautiful Dr. Teresa and her precocious sprog. Perhaps leaving him there isn't the best idea, given that this guy is a walking butterfly. I'm half-convinced that Chris is staying just for the cigars, but it's the only way this could play out – Teresa couldn't very well travel to the 25^th century with her littl'un in tow.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2.8 - "Mercy"

 

2-8 Mercy

“Mercy” is the first episode of the season that doesn't really work. There's something to be said for a straightforward adventure, but this side-step into the FBI's least wanted is so unnecessary to the main plot, while also being not terribly interesting in itself.

It's a fun bit of trolling on the part of the showrunners to cast Jay Karnes in this episode. After having so many actors reappear either as their popular characters or someone related to them, casting Karnes in a time travel story immediately makes us think he's reprising his role as 29^th century time traveller Ducane. They even name his character Agent Wells, not only suggesting H.G. Wells, father of time travel fiction, but the Wells-class USS Relativity on which he served. (Apparently this all actually a reference to his role in Matalas's Twelve Monkeys series.)

So it's funny when it turns out he's just a regular 21^st century agent after all. Unfortunately, having him as nothing more than a Fox Mulder rip-off makes him a fairly uninteresting character, in spite of a decent performance by Karnes. It's a nice touch that he's spent decades looking for aliens after freaking out due to a brief contact with some Vulcans in his childhood, but it's still not enough to make this diversion worthwhile.

The best material this episode is between Guinan and Q, here meeting for the first time from Guinan's perspective (I love time travel). Aghayere is excellent here, occasionally sounding astonishingly like Goldberg but mostly creating a new version of Guinan. She's terribly creepy when projecting herself to Picard, another previously unseen El-Aurian power. De Lancie gives an amazing performance as Q, now facing the end of his life and waning powers. We've never seen Q so vulnerable before. (It's hilarious to think of Q, unable to teleport, having to make his way to Guinan on the bus.)

Meanwhile, Agnes is going around eating battery acid (I wonder if her stepmother is an alien?) while Seven and Raffi sort out their problems. There are some nice moments between Ryan and Hurd, and Alison Pill looks incredible stomping about LA in her ballgown, assimilating nasty blokes. Eventually, the new Queen joins forces with Soong, who's own life is falling apart thanks to Q deciding to help Kore. Quite how Soong thinks his destiny as saviour of the Earth is going to come about when the Queen wants to conquer humanity is anyone's guess, but baddies gotta be bad, right?

Bits and bobs:

Judging by his age, Wells probably met the Vulcans in around the 1970s. We know from ENT: “Carbon Creek” that they were observing Earth as early as the fifties and there was another one due in about twenty years.

Do the Vulcans even have transporter technology that early? Doesn't seem to quite line up with Enterprise, but then, Enterprise didn't quite line up with what came before either.

Jurati's ballgown-and-boots look brings to mind Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad, by far her best live action look.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-7 - "Monsters"

An interesting and powerful episode that delves into Picard's character in a way we've not seen before, showing clearer than any script beforehand the influence that Patrick Stewart has had on the direction of this series.

It's not secret that the Trek showrunners tempted Stewart back to his best known role by ensuring him he'd have some creative control over the character and series, and that the stories would be dealing with serious contemporary concerns. Stewart has long been outspoken on the subject of domestic abuse, not only on the suffering of the abused but also the need for understanding for the abusers. Growing up in an abusive home, he recognises that these behaviours rarely come from nowhere and that there's is often a cycle of abuse and mental illness that perpetuates.

Quite rightly, then, that Star Trek should turn to this issue and address it in its own, science-fictional way. I'm sure that Gene Roddenberry would be incensed by the idea that there would still be such abuse going ahead in the 24^th century, but really, no matter how far we develop in the next few centuries, humanity isn't going to magically overcome its demons en masse. The only way we can move forward is by listening and understanding people's individual struggles.

The early hints at little Jean-Luc's brutal upbringing were hinted at earlier in the season, but we finally get some real exploration of his childhood. It's no shock when the mysterious Starfleet therapist who plagues his subconscious turns out to be a representation of his father. James Callis is excellent as Maurice Picard/the psychologist, channeling the best of his Gaius Baltar arrogance and sharing remarkable father/son chemistry with a man several decades his senior. Stewart, of course, gives an exceptional performance too, showing us an angrier, more raw side of Picard that we don't get to see often enough.

Madeline Wise is almost as good as his troubled maman, engendering tremendous sympathy even when we realise that she isn't entirely as she seems. The revelation that the abusive Maurice is actually not the monster Jean-Luc sees him as, but that the Admiral has spent decades burying the memory of his mother's own mental illness and potentially deadly behaviour moves this story beyond the tried-and-tested bastard dad route.

In the circumstances, the absence of Jean-Luc's older brother Robert is odd, given how much of a father stand-in he was portrayed as in his one appearance on The Next Generation (season four's remarkable “Family”). There would be little room for him, though, given that Tallinn was given the role of entering Picard's mind to help him battle his internal demons. Orla Brady is great in this role, convincing when fighting monsters, playing with impossible technology or reassuring Picard's inner child. (Are they still looking for the next Doctor Who? Because she's a candidate if ever I saw one.) The reveal that Tallinn's actually a Romulan is about the least surprising thing so far this season, what with the little clues at first and finally the massive giveaway of the pointy-ear attachments on the tech, but it's a fun moment. Whether she's really Laris's ancestor, are actually gets some kind of extended lifespan as part of her deal with the Supervisors and is therefore Laris herself, remains to be seen.

While Picard deals with his demons, the rest of the plot treads water. We barely got a glimpse of what Queen Jurati was doing, something I'm desperate to get back to. Rios gets an entertaining plot to himself, revealing that Picard has become a father figure to him while also proving that he's learned absolutely nothing about the rules of time travel from him. Dr. Teresa is gorgeous and amazing, yes, but he basically gives up all pretence and shows her everything so he doesn't have to risk upsetting her with more lies. I'm starting to think that, whenever the original divergence was, this lot have now completely preempted it and the timeline will never get back on track.

In the closing scene, Picard goes back to bother Guinan, in a strange meeting that makes huge revelations about the El-Aurians and the Q while also posing all sorts of new questions. It seems the Listeners are more powerful than we realised, having actually formed a treaty with the Continuum centuries ago. I can only assume that the magic bottle that can be used for Q-summoning isn't the actual one from centuries past, but that an El-Aurian can use anything like that to focus the ritual. Otherwise it'd be a bit hard to believe she was allowed to just keep it in her bar on some backward planet. Of course, we know Q won't show up because his powers have failed him, but shouldn't another Q appear? This suggests something is very wrong with reality altogether – more indications that the timeline has already diverged?

Finally, Jay Karnes turns up as a slimy FBI agent, who promptly arrests both Picard and Guinan for teleporting on camera. Karnes previously played Lt. Ducane of the Federation timeship Relativity (on the eponymous Voyager episode), and I half suspect/hope that he turns out to be the very same temporal policeman, which is rather more interesting than a cut-price Mulder.

Quote of the week: “I'm from Chile, I just work in outer space.” Rios channels Kirk at his best.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-5 & 2-6

 

FLY ME TO THE MOON 

TWO OF ONE

Picard continues on its way in a muddled but still highly enjoyable couple of episodes that move the season-arc on, giving us as many new questions as answers.

So, who had Gary Seven in their Trek bingo? Not me for one, although there were hints that the mysterious Watcher was linked to that sci-fi secret agent and his unseen “Supervisors.” It's remarkable that Trek has never returned to Gary's employers before (onscreen, at least, they're all over the books and comics), but that's hardly the biggest mystery here. Why does Tallinn look just like a human version of Picard's Romulan ladyfriend Laris? She claims to know nothing about Q, but then, would she be aware even if he had created her as a trap for Picard? It's good to have Orla Brady back, either way. Equally mysteriously, just why is she assigned to watch over Renee Picard, whose importance to the timeline is surely impossible to know in 2022?

Of course, individual people being vitally important to historical events is a common sci-fi trope, even if it does seem to be oversignifying one woman's space mission by making it the crux of future history. We're assuming that Picard is correct in trying to ensure Renee completes her flight to Europa. Could it not be the other way round, and that something she encounters leads humanity to become aggressively anti-alien?

On the other hand, we have Adam Soong, the latest (or rather, earliest) in a long line of Soong men played by Brent Spiner. It wouldn't be Picard without him somewhere, and to his credit, Spiner creates a character who is both reminiscent of his descendants and entirely his own person. It's interesting to see the Soong timeline come together slowly, as Adam's work in human genetics clearly leads to his descendent Arik's work with Augments a couple of hundred years later, before Arik himself switches to artificial life eventually leading his own descendent Noonian to create B4, Lore and eventually Data. All of whom look remarkably similar.

No prizes at all for guessing that his daughter Kore is a flawed clone, and that her genetic disease is the result of some error in her creation. Clearly, the image of this girl is embedded in Data's mind, having been presumably passed down to Noonian, and finally leading to the creation of Soji and Dahj and numerous other synths allied with Inigo Soong. Not a bad way of saving costs – an entire family across four hundred years, all played by two actors. It's a little hard to swallow that Kore has never googled her dad before, although I guess he could have programmed in some kind of aversion to that sort of thing that she's only now breaking. I expect this will be skirted over though.

Now that Q has lost his powers, he's rather wonderfully reduced to putting on silly accents and pretending to be Renee's psychiatrist. He seems dead set on stopping her from joining the Europa mission, but there must be simpler says of doing it. Soong tries to simply run her over, while Q is going about it in a much more Machiavellian way. Are there some kind of rules he has to play by, and if so, why? I'm still not convinced that he's actually in the wrong here – I wonder if he's actually working to prevent the Confederation timeline. Could his alliance with Soong actually be a way to discredit him, to stop him from becoming the influential figure?

The wider team get to have a lot of fun, although the Raffi and Seven storyline doesn't really go anywhere. I like how Raffi has started seeing Elnor's face everywhere. It's first played just after we've met Tallinn, looking inexplicably like Laris, so for a split second we wonder if this really is Elnor recreated. But now, it's seemingly Raffi cracking up. Nonetheless, she and Seven have spent a lot of time getting in and out of trouble just to swoop in and shut down Rios's storyline, although thankfully he reconnects with the good doctor after Picard is injured.

Everyone gives their all to their characters, with Stewart getting to make one of his trademark speeches to Renee, who is portrayed with great character and sympathy by Penelope Mitchell. (Fifty quid says we see her return to play a descendent in the fixed future at the end of the season.) Michelle Hurd gets to bring some real pain to the grieving Raffi, struggling to stay on the wagon, while Santiago Cabrera is at his charming best as Rios becomes ever-more enamoured with the 21^st century that Raffi despises. (Got to wonder how he got away with smoking indoors in California though. This really isn't our timeline...)

Orla Brady makes Tallinn into a solid character, even as we kind of just want Laris back, while Spiner, de Lancy and Isa Briones all give excellent work as new players or revised versions of classic characters. The only one of the main cast underserved in these two episodes is Jeri Ryan, who as Seven just doesn't have much to do but react to Raffi and various unlikely plans.

Both episodes belong to Agnes Jurati and the Borg Queen, who are just about one character by the end of it. Annie Wersching continues to impress as a wholly different type of Queen, one who appears to be becoming increasingly human in her attitudes and personality as she spends more time disconnected from the hive and reconnecting with Agnes. After her twitching, insectile performance in episode two, Wersching's Queen has developed into a completely new creature. Stealing every scene she's in though is Alison Pill, who brings new depths and desperation to Agnes. It's no surprise that she'd shoot the Queen – we've seen her murder people she cares about far more – nor that she'd break down under pressure, although her misstep in letting herself get partially assimilated is a bit of a foolish moment.

Pill owns the show during the elaborate gala event, literally when she, under the Queen's influence, channels Pat Benetar and belts out a scene-stopping number. While the logistics are a bit hard to take – she's just been taken in as a gatecrasher, and now the band are supporting her with no instruction – Pill is so great it's impossible not to love the scene. Indeed, sashaying through the party as the advance scout, looking absolutely gorgeous while carrying off a performance as someone gradually losing their identity, Pill's is the standout performance of the season so far.

Links and observations:

All of Kore's deceased sisters are named after figures from Greek myth. In fact, several are named after the same one: Kore is another name for Persephone, the name of the first girl, and there is also a Prosperpina, Persephone's Latin variation.

Two spacecraft make cameo appearances as the gala/expo/party: Nomad, the space probe from TOS: “The Changeling,” launched in continuity in 2022; and Renee's favourite, the OV-165, a fictitious shuttle that appeared in the title sequence for Enterprise.

This, along with references to treaties outlawing certain types of genetic treatment, make it very clear that this is not our timeline, but one that simply looks a lot like it, and otherwise matches (as best can be expected) various events in Trek history.

After directing two episode, Lea Thompson appears in front of the camera as the head of the committee that slams Soong. Jonathan “Riker” Frakes takes over directing duties for these two eps.

Best lines:

“He's had some transplants.”
“Which ones?”“... all of them?”

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-4 - "The Watcher"

Wotcha! Another strong episode from Picard, and it seems we're now firmly in the serialised part of the storytelling, rather than the attention-grabbing stage of the opening two episodes. It's a quieter, more thoughtful episode, albeit with enough action to keep things fun and interesting, with some strong character moments.

By far my favourite part came early on, with Seven and Raffi on the bus, reenacting the “I Hate You!” scene from The Voyage Home, with Kirk Thatcher appearing as an older version of his punk character from that film. He's a lot more mellow and polite now, although perhaps he's having traumatic flashbacks to his humiliating nerve-pinching by Spock back in 1986. In the meantime, he'd got out of California and took a trip to New York to appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming. I like to think there's a Kirk Thatcher Punk Rock Guy in every reality.

Seven and Raffi get some angry bonding time this episode, but to be honest this isn't the strongest episode for either of them. Their main purpose at the moment appears to be to run around trying to find Rios while he's doing more dramatically interesting things. It's fun to see Seven driving (in a stolen police car which would have been perfectly fine to leave where it was if Raffi had just pinched the laptop inside and run, instead of getting in), albeit badly. It's a shame we didn't get a little nod to Voyager; who else could have taught Seven to drive 20^th/21^st century internal combustion vehicles but Tom Paris?

As said, Rios's experiences in ICE detention are more interesting, and damning. His character is consistent with how he appeared in season one: putting on a facade of charming nonchalance to cope with genuinely traumatic experiences. He continues to have great chemistry with the gorgeous Dr. Teresa, and this plot thread shines a light on the appalling state of the West, particularly post-Trump America, in the 2020s. I like that the writers are openly tying this into the future seen in DS9's “Past Tense,” with Rios being carted off to a Sanctuary District. The future shown in DS9 is looking more and more like the present we now inhabit. However, the Sanctuary Districts are a paradise compared to the conditions that many men, women and children experience in ICE custody, even after the States' regime change.

Alison Pill's toughened-up Agnes Jurati continues to be one of the best things this season. He relationship with the Queen is becoming very interesting. After their interface, they each have an insight into each other's psyche and are seemingly trying to out-manipulate each other. While Agnes gets what she wants, the Queen is nothing if not patient, and I suspect we'll see them connect once again further down the line. Our prediction: Agnes is destined to become the new Borg Queen after the current version finally breaks down, and will be revealed to be behind the mask we saw back in episode one.

The main talking point of the episode is, of course, the reintroduction – pre-introduction? - of Guinan. Ito Aghayere is brilliant as the younger, angrier Guinan, giving enough of a young Whoopi vibe while providing her own take on the character. There's a bit of a clash with existing continuity: a time-travelling Picard previously met Guinan back in 1893, when she was already living on Earth and played by Whoopi Goldberg, looking and acting quite differently. Obviously, Whoopi looks very different now, and I much prefer re-casting to attempting an extended de-ageing CGI effect. We know from the 2401 Guinan that El-Aurians can age if they choose to, so maybe they can take their physical age down or otherwise tweak their appearance too? Along with their time-sense (which I had previously supposed was down to Guinan's exposure to the Nexus in Star Trek Generations), it's all very Doctor Who.

As to why Guinan doesn't doesn't recognise Picard from their previous meeting... well, it was 130 years earlier, so she could be forgiven for not immediately clicking, but you'd expect once she'd heard his name and her time sense had been triggered she's recall. Then again, has that meeting even happened in this timeline? The Picard she met came from a future which no longer exists, after all. The time travel rules aren't quite clear here.

When it comes to her character, though, Aghayere's version is perfect. After decades on Earth, living through the entire twentieth century, it makes perfect sense that Guinan has lost her faith in humanity and is getting off planet. Maybe it would have been different if she, as she pointed out, looked like Picard, but as a black woman in the United States, who knows what she's experienced in that time? Plus, it's the right time for her to leave, what with World War III coming and all.

Thankfully, Guinan is not revealed to be the legendary Watcher, which would have been too obvious, but she does at least know who is. The mystery is even greater now, though, as the alien overseer has turned up looking just like a human version of Laris. Meanwhile, Q is keeping an eye on a young woman who is no doubt vitally important to the future of Earth, Picard's ancestry or both. Only he seems to have lost his powers. More evidence that something has happened to reality and he is powerless to fix it without help from Picard? We're almost halfway through, so will likely be getting a few more answers soon.

Links and references:

Jurati calls Picard “Dixon Hill” for being clever, a reference to his favourite fictional detective, who he often cosplayed on the Holodeck. The mystery woman is reading a Dixon Hill novel, The Pallid Son, written by Tracey Tormé, who wrote for TNG back in its first and second seasons.

Guinan keeps a bottle of Saurian brandy in her bar. She drives a car with the registration S02 E01, referenceing the character's first appearance on TNG season two episode one (“The Child”).

The Europa Project where Q and the mystery woman were sitting is situated at Jackson Roykirk Plaza, named after the scientist who created the Nomad probe from TOS: “The Changeling,” twenty-two years earlier in the Trek timeline. Q's newspaper namechecks Brynner, the businessman who unsuccessfully tried to hook up with Dax in “Past Tense.”

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-3 - "Assimilation"

 

Another solid episode which pushes the story onto what seems to be its main trajectory – setting the path of history right back in the 21t century. After a gripping (and pretty bloodthirsty) intro, La Sirena is catapulted back in time in a classic slingshot round the sun, just like in the good old days before Red Angels and tachyonic subspace rifts. It's not as trippy as The Voyage Home, but it's still a pretty cool sequence as the ship heads back in time under the Borg Queen's control.

Time travel episode are, of course, common as muck in Star Trek, and trips back in time to roughly contemporary settings are nothing new either. It's an obvious idea, of course, letting the characters comment on our way of life directly, but Trek has been running so long now that the present is catching up with the future. DS9's classic two-parter “Past Tense” was set in San Francisco in 2024, just a stone's throw from LA. There are hints towards it in the rundown homeless area that Raffi materialises in, and plenty of commentary on how we live in a society on the brink of collapse.

Raffi has a rough episode all through, first seeing Elnor die and then being thrown into, from her perspective, a primitive society. And she's understandably furious at all this, especially as Picard prioritised the Queen's survival over Elnor's. Seven fares better in the 21^st century, suddenly “liked” by people she meets instead of being met with fear or awe. Seemingly because she no longer has Borg bits on her face, she's not threatening, by I wonder if she's actually different in this timeline; if not having her implants has changed her physiologically and mentally.

Seeing Raffi and Seven doing the couple-y thing is fun, of course, and aside from some odd lines (“You and 2024 should get a room,”) they have great chemistry in this episode. Among the storylines in contemporary America, though, it was Rios's plotline that I enjoyed the most. Having Chris, a Hispanic man who commands a starship, suddenly thrown into the world of immigration raids and back alley medicine illustrates the brutality and injustice of our society more effectively than having Raffi pass judgment on the homelessness crisis and beat up a mugger. Sol Rodriguez is a great addition to the cast as Teresa. She has excellent chemistry with Santiago Cabrera and will no doubt be our present day point of contact for the story. More of an Edith Keeler than a Rain Robinson though...

It's interesting that the Queen remains as a major character in the series. I was expecting them to just leave her in her self-induced coma. Wersching's Queen, now that she has her marbles back, seems more like Krige's than before, manipulative and insidious, but has a sassy arrogance that's all her own. Alison Pill gives her best performance ever as Dr. Jurati, as she very inadvisably links with the Queen to try to kickstart her and get data off her. There's definitely a lot more to come from this strange pairing. Really, the only character who doesn't come off well here is Picard, who's perhaps proving too single-minded and inflexible for his crew. I'm wondering just what sort of test Q is running him through.

One more niggling element is the inconsistent attitude to their presence in the past. They worry about “butterflies” but simply being present on Earth in their own past is inevitably changing events. I'll be frankly surprised if it doesn't turn out that Picard and co's interference isn't the very thing that sends history down the wrong path. At least Agnes is thinking about causal loops, even if no one else is.

It's a great episode, the pacing settling down a little since the frenetic opening episodes. The direction, by time travel sci-fi veteran (and huge Trek fan) Lea Thompson and strong performances by the cast make this is a gripping instalment.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-2 - "Penance"

 

Picard storms ahead with another belter of an episode that barely gives the viewer a chance to take in what's happening. The episode leaves you breathless, but under the excitement and strong performances, it's not as solid as it appears.

Resolving last week's cliffhanger by barging us into a different reality altogether, “Penance” acts like a second introduction to the season that, on the face of it, has little to do with what went before. “The Star Gazer” set us up with the characters in a new dynamic, and with a mystery surrounding the Borg's strange new behaviour, before essentially blowing it all up and starting over with a new story about Q and his interference in the timeline.

Q's scene with Picard is a highlight of the episode. Stewart and de Lancie have the same great antagonistic chemistry they had back in the TNG days, but overlaid with an angrier, more impatient drive, made fierier by the fact that the streaming platform doesn't need to watch its language for primetime. “I don't have time for your bullshit!” snarls Picard at Q, and you feel him. It's two old men lashing out at each other after years of furious history. Picard insists that Q has gone mad, but perhaps he's just lost his patience as well – who knows what bizarre pressures are playing on him?

This new reality, not a parallel universe like the Mirror Universe but an altered timeline, is well-realised, a dark, fascist state where humanity rules with cruelty and brutality. Some of the details are chilling – First Contact Day replaced by Eradication Day, famous aliens slain by the ruthless General Picard, Romulans as slaves and no ban on synthetic servants – but others are harder to understand. After introducing the Stargazer, Rios is now captain of La Sirena again, now a warship for the Confederation of Earth. Annika Hansen is the President of Earth, never having been assimilated by the Borg and changed into Seven of Nine. It's a bit too neat.

Of course, there's the question. Is this really an altered timeline, or some huge fabrication of Q's? On the other hand, given Q's apparent insanity, is something else going on? Has something else changed history in 2024 (only two years away from our present, but also notably the year of the crucial turning point of the Bell Riots in Trek lore)? If that's the case, Q must be pulling strings somewhere to have put everyone (except the unfortunate Elnor) in positions of power that allow them to escape and travel back.

The bigger question, though, is: just how is this different from the Mirror Universe? Aside from Q pointing out it's not an altered rather than alternative reality, this is the Mirror Universe in all but the details. The Confederation instead of the Empire, Nazi-esque black instead of imperial gold. In the Mirror Universe humanity was overthrown by its subject races, while here its still in power and ready to wipe out Vulcan and execute the last of the Borg. Really, though, that's just pushing things forward by a century or so. We still have versions of the regular characters, however unlikely that would be after centuries of divergence, but twisted to become utter bastards. Why not just make it the Mirror Universe and be done with it if you're going to be that clichéd?

Still, it's hard to worry too much about that when it leads to such a gripping thriller as this. Where this works, while the Mirror Universe episodes of Discovery didn't, is that it keeps things moving and focuses on the “real” characters instead of mincing supervillains. Stewart is impressive, of course, convincingly frightening when he pretends to be the cruel General Picard. The most effective part of the episode, though, is President Hansen waking up, with Jeri Ryan beautifully portraying the slow realisation that she is no longer Borg, testing her reality to make sure she's not dreaming it. It's a shame the trailers spoilt the reveal, because it's a wonderful moment when we finally see she has no implants.

On the Borg side of things, Annie Wersching's new iteration of the Queen is also a triumph. Whereas Alice Krige played her as oily and creepily sexual, and Susanna Thompson with a sort of twisted maternal instinct, Wersching's Queen is the most inhuman, twitching and insectoid and more concerned at the change in time than her own imprisonment. The idea of forming an uneasy alliance with the Borg Queen as she's the only one with the brains to calculate the trip back in time is a brilliant one. Making these scenes even better is Alison Pill as the entirely out-of-her-depth Dr. Jurati. Agnes obviously never got parallel universe training and is terrible at undercover work, but watching her wing it is hilarious.

As fun as it all is, I'm glad that it looks like we're on our way back to the past in the next instalment. Just like the Mirror Universe proper, this new evil empire could outstay its welcome quickly. I'm more interested in seeing how all this ties together than spending time in fascist central.

Observations (and evil observations with sinister beards):

General Picard keeps the skulls of his most high-profile vanquished foes on stands in his trophy room. They include Gul Dukat, General Martok, Ambassador Sarek, an unidentified Ferengi (but probably the Grand Nagus, given the staff included), a Borg and uncertain reptilian species (update - it's a Saurian!)

Brilliantly, we learn that the Ferengi have bones in their ears.

General Sisko is namechecked. I would have loved just a quick cameo from Avery Brooks, if only to punch Q in the face again.

The Queen says Annika was assimilated in 2350. That was actually the year of her birth, and she was assimilated when she was six, so in 2356 or '57. Still, the Queen was having an off day.

Apparently, the Queen can hear her counterparts in other realities through higher dimensions.

Patton Oswalt voices Spot 73, Jurati's cartoonish hologram and homage to Data's cat Spot.

The Magistrate/First Husband is played by Jon Jon Briones, the father of Isa Briones who plays Soji, which may well end up being significant (or not).

Picard even has a synthetic body in this reality, as unlikely as that seems, thanks to a nasty altercation with Dukat.

TREK REVIEW: PIC 2-1 - The Star Gazer

 

After quite the wait, Picard returns with a storming opening episode. While it's predictable in many ways, due to the main plot points being heavily trailed and the decision to open with an action-packed teaser that takes place in the episode's climactic moments, it's all done with such verve and flair that it's hard not to be swept up in it all.

In the eighteen months or so between seasons, we've reached the 25^th century and Starfleet has forgiven all sins. Picard, Raffi and Rios are all back, with promotions and new positions. The venerable admiral is Chancellor of the Academy, Raffi has her own posting on the Excelsior and Rios is now captain of a brand new Stargazer. Meanwhile, Seven has taken La Sirena off his hands to continue her work for the Fenris Rangers, while Soji and Dr. Jurati have both been let off their frankly murderous ways on some pretty flimsy rationalisations (one wonders if Picard has been pulling some strings and bending the truth).

While they're all doing rather well for themselves professionally (Jurati's position as drunken master remaining entertaining but questionable), none of them are managing terribly well in their personal lives. Picard is too uncertain and stuck-in-his ways to allow a romance with his housekeeper Laris (and when Orla Brady comes on to you, you do not make excuses). Raffi and Seven don't appear to be seeign each other anymore, or it they are, it's very long-distance. Jurati and Rios have a tenuous friendship at best. At least we can rely on Guinan to sit down and talk sense to Picard – hopefully she'll have a chance to tell everyone off before the season's out.

The episode is actually rather slow, but punctuated by exciting bursts of action. In between there are very long talky segments, but the occasional exposition dump aside, the dialogue is entertaining enough to keep things moving (in both senses of the word). It helps that we have an absolutely top-notch cast delivering it. Nonetheless, it can't all be awkward chat about feelings: this is Star Trek, so there's an anomaly to explore.

Big swirling subspace anomalies are ten-a-penny in Trek, and it would be no surprise who's behind it even if we hadn't seen them attack in the opening moments. Green is the signature colour of the Borg, after all. Nonetheless, the Borg we meet here aren't quite like anything we've seen before. They ask for Picard by name, send their Queen (visibly unrecognisable) as an emissary, and claim to be interested in peace. The closest we've seen to this before is their tenuous alliance with Voyager, when Seven herself was sent as an emissary, and even then we couldn't trust them. Yet the Queen, even as she assmilated a fleet of starships, continues to only use stun setting with her weapons. Something interesting is going on here, but it doesn't look like we'll get to the bottom of it anytime soon.

Still, if this was Discovery, it would have been a month before we even saw the anomaly and another before we found out who was behind it. This episode introduces a spatial rift, pulls the Borg out of it, gives us both a mystery and a thrilling battle and then up-ends everything. While Q's appearance is, again, well-known to everyone coming in unless they've been very careful to avoid trailers, but it still packs a punch, largely down to John de Lancie's magnetic presence. Doubtless Q is in someway linked to the Borg event – who knows, perhaps this is what he was guiding everything towards when he flung the Enterprise-D into the path of that cube in “Q, Who.” Then again, given that they arrive through some kind of space/time rift, perhaps these Borg, in their bizarre ship, with their even more bizarre Queen, aren't from this timeline at all.

Whatever the answer, I can't wait for the next episode.

References and observations

The gorgeous shot that pans out from Earth, across the solar system, into deep space and finally to the Borg rift, brings to mind the original title sequence of The Next Generation.

Elnor is lauded as the first fully Romulan cadet in Starfleet Academy. Simon Tarses, who was pilloried by Admiral Satie in TNG: “The Drumhead” was a quarter Romulan, but he both kept this secret and enlisted as a crewman rather than attending the Academy. Saavik was originally written as half-Romulan, but this never made it to the finished films.

Raritan IV, visited by Soji and Dr. Jurati, appears to be a Deltan colony. This is the first time we've seen the Deltans on screen since The Motion Picture, save a couple of barely visible cameos in subsequent films.

El-Aurians can age if they choose to, to make others feel comfortable. Q, of course, can appear how he likes on a whim.

The USS Stargazer NCC-82893 is a Sagan-class ship, apparently the first of its class. We also hear mention of a USS Hikaru Sulu, and according to info from the design crew, a USS Uhura. Ships making their live-action debut (if you can call it that when they're all CGI) include the Luna-class (from the novels and later Lower Decks) and the Ross, Reliant, Sutherland and Gagarin-class (from Star Trek Online).

REVIEW: Loki Season One

Loki is a far better series than it has any right to be, even considering that they have the endlessly entertaining Tom Hiddleston as their star. For all the twists and turns, it's ultimately quite predictable, and is hugely derivative of any number of things that came before. What you'll mostly see as an influence depends on your fandom and reading material. Of course, for me, I couldn't escape how much this was like a high budget Doctor Who, riffing on such concepts as individuals who exist across different incarnations, a vastly powerful civilisation that rules time, a villainous time traveller who begins to learn redemption... It's all there, but it's not like Doctor Who was ever wildly original with much of its material anyway. No, much of this goes way back to the early annals of sci-fi, with huge debts to Asimov's The End of Eternity, Norton's The Crossroads of Time, and Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself, to name but a few. And of course, everything in here is based, to a greater or lesser degree, on Marvel's comics. 

But originality isn't all it's cracked up to be. This takes the time-travelling, dimension-hopping melting pot of influences and mixes it up into a new combination, full of colour, beauty and pathos. Derivative as they are, the Time Lords Masters Bureau Variance Authority are a brilliant concept, rendered with style and wit. Loki's had his journey from troubled prince to supervillain to uncertain hero before, but here it plays out completely differently. It's never anything other than hugely entertaining, even in the somewhat slow, rather flawed final episode. Having the restraint to keep the series down to a mere six episodes helps keeping everything moving and never gives us a chance to get bored. 

This has all standard elements of the MCU: highly choreographed fighting, absurd plot contrivances, spectacular visual effects that get way to busy by the end of thing. Yet, the MCU's most important element, the real key to its success, is its characters, their relationships, and the actors who portray them. This is perhaps why the last episode feels like a bit of a cop-out, introducing as it does a major new character without earning his presence, even if that in itself was also predictable. Still, there's a fine balancing act in play here, between the small and intimate and the vast and cosmic. This series sets out the scope of Phase Four in a way that WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier only hinted at. Everything in the first three phases is revealed to be nothing more than a sliver of a huge universe. The first episode knocks the stuffing out of Loki by proving to him that the TVA is an organisation of phenomenal power, hammering it home with the revelation that minor agents use Infinity Stones as paperweights. 

I had assumed, before the series began, that we'd be seeing a return to the outright villainous Loki of The Avengers, given that this variant had jumped from immediately after those events. While we do get that for a spell, it doesn't last long. This Loki's redemption is fast-tracked, the sheer futility of his "glorious purpose" being shown to him by the catastrophic consequences of his actions in the main timeline. More so, however, it's his relationships with the people he meets during his bizarre quest that lead him to change. In Mobius, Loki finds his first genuine friend, someone who has no time for his God of Mischief shit but all the time for him as a man, if he ever allows himself to be one. Mobius is beautifully realised by Own Wilson - who ever thought we'd get a subtle, understated performance like this out of him? Mobius goes on his own journey of discovery, of course, with Loki's presence being the catalyst. The tenuous friendship he shares with Ravonna Renslayer - the absurdly over-the-top name for a quietly intense and dangerous character, played perfectly by Gugu Mbatha-Raw - is at once touching but clearly can't survive his new friendship with Loki and the revelations it brings.

Hiddleston's performance is heartfelt and affecting, hilarious and tragic at turns, and he's come on years from his performance on the first Thor, and he was pretty damned excellent then. The real hit of this series, though, is Sophia di Martino. Sylvie could easily have been a slim, contrived character. A female alternative of Loki, written as essentially a combination of Lady Loki and the second Enchantress from the comics, she rises above the gimmicky character she could have been and becomes a fascinating character in her own right. di Martino's fluid, emotionally wrought performance makes it, along with her chemistry with Hiddleston, but she's an intelligently written character with a far more rational motive than Hiddleston's Loki. She presents in a very different way, too, with di Martino using her gently northern accent as a distinct contrast to Hiddleston's posh RP. Her downtrodden survivalist character is a world away from the Asgardian prince, and her more down-to-earth style completely different to the Etonian old boy's superiority-based characterisation. And yet, the design, writing and performance show similarities throughout, so you can absolutely believe they're two versions of the same person. Again, the Doctor Who similarities are obvious. And a blonde, northern female time traveller from a race of cosmic beings... it's hard not to see Sylvie as better-realised version of the Thirteenth Doctor.

The fourth episode ends, of course, with the fabulous cliffhanger of Loki deposited abruptly at the end of time, faced with four other variants of himself. We're verging more on DC territory here, embracing the concept of the multiverse and endless versions of familiar characters. DC/WB have, of course, pretty much cornered the market in this sort of thing on screen lately, with the Arrowverse's huge crossover events on the CW, culminating on Crisis on Infinite Earths, but this crisis of various Lokis comes close. The writers, headed by Michael Waldron, wring it for all the pathos it's worth but happily embrace the absurdity of it all. Having Richard E. Grant, looking more animated than he has in years, portraying Classic Loki (a perfect recreation of his early comics look and persona but actually prime Loki's alternative future), is a masterstroke, but let's not forget the rest: Jack Veal as Kid Loki, being the only one who successfully killed Thor, is bound to be back in some capacity (Young Avengers on the horizon?); DeObia Oparei as the still-villainous but otherwise Thor-like Boastful Loki; and everyone's favourite, Alligator Loki. The only thing more delightful than the existence of Alligator Loki is the bit of trivia that the rest of them acted alongside a cuddly toy before the CGI was inserted in post-production.

We also have the face-off with President Loki and sundry other variants, clearly inspired by this moment from The Mighty Thor series, but it's the quieter interactions between Lokis that tells us the most about their character. Of course, Loki has always been a fluid character, in both the comics and the original Norse mythology. It's only right that the writers embraces this - there are few other characters in the MCU who could've withstood the approach in this series. Pretty much it's only Spider-Man (that's got to be the only person with more variants than Loki, right?) Playing with Loki's sexuality and gender is all part of the parcel. With crushing inevitability, some people are furious at a brief line suggesting Loki is bisexual, apparently blissfully unaware that he was completely fluid in sexuality and gender in mythology. He fucked a horse, for crying out loud. Alligator Loki doesn't seem so wild now. Of course, it might have had more impact if they'd had Loki share a romance with another male variant of himself, but we can't have everything.

Loki, Sylvie and Mobius are the centre of the series, but there are other interesting characters involved too. There's a clear opportunity for some fascinating stories developing from the revelations about Renslayer, and the turncoat time soldier Hunter B-15, who becomes something more interesting than she first appears as performed by Wunmi Mosaku. There's potentially a lot more that could be done with Sasha Lane's damaged Hunter C-20, and we need more Miss Minutes. In fact, we need more Tara Strong in any capacity.

After everything, the final episode is both a huge event and a bit of a damp squib. There were only ever two likely candidates for the identity of He Who Remains. The obvious one, for those not versed in the comics but watching the actual show, was another Loki variant. The other, for those of us steeped in comics lore, was Kang the Conqueror. This is who we got, although they never quite come out and say his name yet, but there we go. Jonatahn Majors gives it his all, although he dies just in time as his relentless OTT-larking about was on the verge of becoming intolerable. When he returns as Kang proper in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it's likely he'll give a very different performance. While setting up the new big bad for the franchise is an understandable move, his presence in the story feels arbitrary in the way that another Loki variant wouldn't have.

Nonetheless, the ending, while predictable as ever, is a perfect cliffhanger. With the multiverse well and truly reestablished and allowed to run riot, history itself in the firing line and potentially infinite realities to explore, the MCU can expand into unknown territory. We're already expecting to see elements of this explored in Quantumania, Spider-Man: No Way Home and, most of all, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which will bring back both Loki and Wanda. Where Sylvie will come into this remains to be seen, but given a second season of Loki is guaranteed, we haven't seen the last of her. Or indeed, anyone: there's no character that now can't be brought back in one way or another. It doesn't get more comic-booky than that.

 

Superhero Show Round-Up: Legends of Tomorrow 4-B and Elseworlds

Legends of Tomorrow Season Four, Part Two

Legends, week in, week out, keeps on being the most fun of the Arrowverse series. Splitting the series in two so sharply, with episode eight airing mid-December and episode nine a the beginning of April, robbed the season of some momentum. Nonetheless, things kicked off well with “Lucha De Apuestas,” an episode that revolves around Mexican masked wrestling, one of those strange cultural artefacts that Brits only really get to see on telefantasy shows. The episode brings a lot more focus onto Ramona Young as new Legends recruit Mona Wu, whose nervousness and trouble fitting in is put into sharp relief by her new ability to turn into a hulking were-beast.

Much of Legends' appeal has been in its ability to take characters who don't fit together and turn them into workable double-acts and team-ups. Some of these have been established characters, such as Mick Rory, who gets to show new and ever-more sensitive aspects as he shows there's a lot more to him than the arsonist villain he started as on The Flash. His grudging respect for Ray Palmer, or “Haircut” as he prefers to call him, his more rough-edged buddying up with Charlie, and his surprising reveal as Mona's favourite author (after Jane Austen) all serve to make this once paper-thin character into a three-dimensional one, and a fan favourite at that. Other characters were created just for this series, such as Jes Macallan's wonderful Ava Sharpe, who went from being a jobsworth obstacle as the head of the Time Bureau to being one of the most complex and relatable characters in the series as she tries to understand her place in the world. Unlikely friendships, such as Ava, Mona and the formerly villainous Nora Darhk forming their wine-fuelled book club, bring out new sides to their characters. Legends has a big ensemble cast, and this can be tricky to pull off, yet the writers manage it with style by juggling the various relationships across the episodes.

Alongside all this is Nate's budding relationship with Zari, helped along by some very sweet chemistry between Nick Zano and Tala Ashe, juggled with his difficult, but slowly thawing, relationship with his father (just cannot get over Thomas F. Wilson being on this show). Hank's seemingly villainous turn is revealed to be nothing of the sort, although there are some dodgy undercurrents to his actions, and it turns out that he's literally made a deal with the devil (or, at least, a devil). The reveal that he wasn't planning to use the various subdued magical creatures as weapons, but as exhibits in a huge theme park/circus/magical zoo as a present for Nate, is one of the harder things to swallow in the series. Given how batty this series can be, this is saying something. It does, however, all come together rather beautifully at the end.

In amongst all the love, though, is poor old Gary, played to nebbish precision by Adam Tsekhman. Constantly overlooked, put upon and mocked by both his bosses at the Bureau and his heroes in the Legends, it was only a matter of time before Gary snapped. Thankfully, he does come good in the end, but his turn to the dark side has been, in retrospect, signposted since the beginning of the season. It also gave us the unforgettable visual of his demonically possessed severed nipple crawling back to him, which is a sight I had not expected to see on any series, let alone this one.

The decision to mix in supernatural monsters with the time travel revitalised this show during season three, and the monster-of-the-week format carried it forward nicely through the first half of season four. Wisely, though, the second half of the season phased this out in favour of more serialisation, with the character-pieces playing out against the background of the demon Neron's invasion of the living realm. Having Brandon Routh's character Ray subsumed by Neron is a bold move; Ray has been the noble heart and conscience of the group since its inception, and his gradual temptation by Nora showed that his love for others can lead him to make the wrong decisions. Having him allow Neron to take possession of him in order to save his friends is absolutely in character but almost ends up destroying the world, and gives Routh a rare chance to play a villain, something he excels at. (I cracked out Scott Pilgrim after watching the finale; he really is good at playing a charming bastard.)

The Neron storyline also brings Constantine's story to the fore, and while I still live in hope that we'll have a resolution to Matt Ryan's own series someday, this follows up on much of his backstory and brings things forward. We finally get to see Astra, the girl he lost to Hell in his greatest failure. Now played by Olivia Swann in her jaded adult form, Astra seems like an clear candidate for a recurring character in season five, albeit on an unknown agenda. Plus, we get to see Constantine at his best, playing the forces of Hell against each other in a take on some classic material from the Hellblazer comics.

The finale brings together these many disparate elements in a more-or-less coherent manner. It's all a bit syrupy, with a “love conquers all” message that they just about carry off. There are similarities between the messages of tolerance here and in Supergirl, but the use of magical creatures is a much poorer allegory than alien immigrants and it's lost amongst all the silliness. Still, it does see a whole bunch of monsters teaming up with the Legends against Neron (and Jane Carr reprising her brillaitn turn as the evil Fairy Godmother), which can only be good fun. It's good to see that the time travel element hasn't been pushed to the wayside, and the fact that Zari is from the future means that the world-changing events in the present have unforeseen effects to her timeline. Thankfully, Tala Ashe is confirmed for season five, because if she wasn't, I'd be most unhappy.

Best episode of the half-season: “Terms of Service.” Constantine faces the Triumvirate in Hell.

Best episode title: “Seance and Sensibility.” Jane Austen and a love god.

Most unexpected cameo: Caspar Crump returns as Vandal Savage, now dead and totally over himself.

Elseworlds

It seemed sensible to look at the annual crossover event separately, since more and more they act as a multi-episode serial instead of individual episodes from each parent series. This year didn't feature Legends of Tomorrow in the line-up, instead crossing Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl.

On the whole, Elseworlds was a qualified success, and this lies in the fact that it's purpose was less to provide a coherent adventure than to introduce new elements to be followed up later. Firstly, it had to introduce Ruby Rose as the new Batwoman and bring Gotham City into the Arrowverse. Secondly, it had to plant the seeds for the next season's upcoming crossover extravaganza, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

As a multiverse-building exercise, it works. It's a lovely touch to have the nineties The Flash explicitly included in the new multiverse (as Earth-90, the 52 Earths idea having now been completely abandoned). The Monitor is about as outlandish and comic-booky a concept the franchise has brought to the screen so far, even ahead of Gorilla Grodd, and we finally get the Arrowverse version of Lois Lane. Played by Elizabeth Tulloch, Lois was a major missing element of the Superman family of characters in the CW multiverse.

Ruby Rose is pretty perfect as Kate Kane. The character is, after all, one of the LGBT icons of the DC universe, even if the comics have fluffed it in the past, and having such a real life LGBT icon in the role seems appropriate. More importantly, Rose has the tough-as-nails bravado and incredible sexiness that the role needs. We'll see how she does heading her own series in Batwoman this coming season. For now, though, the Gotham sequences are the elements of Elseworlds that work best.

The central story, though, with John Deegan manipulating reality from within Arkham, doesn't work as well as it should. Having him become evil Superman has some clout, but since Superman is a peripheral character in this franchise, it doesn't deform the story the same way it would in, say, the DCEU or Smallville. Swapping Barry and Oliver over in their superhero roles works OK, but Barry is such an angsty dick lately and Oliver seems a lot more centred, so that they don't contrast nearly as much as they would have if this had been done a few years ago. I like the hints that Batman exists on Earth-One but no one really believes in him, whereas he's a known quantity on Earth-38 and good buddies with Superman. On the other hand, meeting Earth-One versions of Alex and James Olson should be significant, but since they're part of an already altered reality they matter less to the overall story than they should.

Given the huge, anything goes crossover to come, I wouldn't be surprised if Jeremy Davies again either as John Deegan or an alternative version. He did, after all, play Ritchie Simpson on Constantine (retroactively part of the Arrowverse) as an essentially very similar character, and in Justice League Dark voiced him alongside Matt Ryan's Constantine, where Dr. Destiny took control of him. So really he's played three versions of the same character already, plus the version here seems modelled after the version of Dr. Destiny seen in The Sandman. Anyway, if he doesn't turn up again in some form alongside the Monitor I'll be surprised.