The TV and Streaming Thread: Where is Ricky Gervais when you need him???

[majestic]

12 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Edit: guess who else didn't hate the first episode

Fun fact there, watching on Amazon Prime and turning on the subtitles, the words "Look up" uttered by the Borg Queen are actually captioned as coming from Yvette (Picard). Rich is probably right about that, and this isn't the first time subtitles spoiled who characters are before they are supposed to be revealed.  

edit: Fun fact 2: I started out hating Wesley Crusher in TNG, and I still hate him on rewatches, but less and less with each rewatch. This is an inverse of Wil Wheaton. The more I see of the guy, the more I just loathe him. That he apparently lives in Alex Kurtzman's rectum doesn't help that impression. Sheesh. Golden age of Star Trek? Forget brown-nosed, he's got a brown neck already. Yikes.

Edited March 9, 2022 by majestic

[Amentep]

EDIT:

 

[Sarex]

Got HBO Max instead of HBO Go, thinking of watching Fringe again.

[kirottu]

9 hours ago, Amentep said:

Duel of Fates still brings it.

I really REALLY hope the baddies don't use their rotating lightsabers as means to fly like they did in Rebels.

[Lexx]

Do all these shows take place in the same desert town set?

[Oner]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

Do all these shows take place in the same desert town set?

Don't they all take place on Tatooine for Maximum Crossover Potencial?

[majestic]

Star Trek Discovery Season 4, Episode 12: "I have no idea how this happened"

Not the actual title, but an okay episode. It's still saddled with all the baggage of being Discovery, but there's some non-stupid technobabble, they get the distance from the Sun to Mars right, and start communicating with the creators of the negative space wedgie the season is about by using simple base emotions and mathematical equations.

Spoiler

Book and McKay make a mess of it, of course, because they have to. Can't not have any dumb action in this.

I also found out why the "sets" in this season look so terrible. They've been filming this in front of video walls that show CGI for whatever they need. Yeah, now it all comes together. Well, luckily, next week it'll be over, at least until it returns with season five. Tomorrow we'll see if Picard stays watchable or falls off a cliff. I'm expecting the latter.

[Bartimaeus]

11 hours ago, majestic said:

They've been filming this in front of video walls that show CGI for whatever they need.

Ah, the George Lucas method. Always a good idea to follow in the footsteps of the great pioneers...no matter how abjectly terrible the results were.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ah, the George Lucas method. Always a good idea to follow in the footsteps of the great pioneers...no matter how abjectly terrible the results were.

Didn't George Lucas just film everything in front of green screens? Discovery apparently films in front of very large LCD screens that serve as set backgrounds... with the result that the depth of the shots always feels extremely off, and it explains why everything looks so weird in close ups (becaus the background of the set is literally a flat plane that cannot produce any real depth). More so than in the prequels even.

[Bartimaeus]

24 minutes ago, majestic said:

Didn't George Lucas just film everything in front of green screens? Discovery apparently films in front of very large LCD screens that serve as set backgrounds... with the result that the depth of the shots always feels extremely off, and it explains why everything looks so weird in close ups (becaus the background of the set is literally a flat plane that cannot produce any real depth). More so than in the prequels even.

Lmao, I didn't not understand your original post to mean that. Incredible - that's so much worse!

[majestic]

32 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Lmao, I didn't not understand your original post to mean that. Incredible - that's so much worse!

I'll just quote the Wikipedia article:

Quote

Kurtzman revealed in October 2020 that Paramount+ was constructing a video wall to allow for virtual production on the season as well as the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,^[25][52] utilizing technology similar to the StageCraft system that was developed for the Disney+ series The Mandalorian.^[53] The new virtual set was built in Toronto by visual effects company Pixomondo, and features a 270-degree, 70 feet (21 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m) horseshoe-shaped LED volume with additional LED panels in the ceiling to aid with lighting. The technology uses the game engine software Unreal Engine to display computer-generated backgrounds on the LED screens in real-time during filming, which visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman noted was especially useful for creating the planets that are visited in the series;^[52]

 

No wonder the flame jets on the bridge set come always from the same point and look like heavy metal concert pyrotechnics. Wouldn't want to damage that screen, huh?

Picture of the thing in "action":

I guess that's one way to make a bottle episode out of everything, at least set-wise.  

edit:

This is from the spoiler part of last week's Discovery post. I honestly had no idea how accurate that caption would turn out to be.

On 3/4/2022 at 11:00 PM, majestic said:

 

No, this is not a screenshot from Mass Effect, although it may as well be.

Edited March 11, 2022 by majestic

[majestic]

13 hours ago, majestic said:

Tomorrow we'll see if Picard stays watchable or falls off a cliff. I'm expecting the latter.

Five minutes into the new episode. Q spews overwritten dialogue that would make Chris Avellone blush*, quotes actual Star Trek episode titles ("That's so Yesterday's Enterprise of you!" and "Through a mirror, darkly!") and actually whacks Picard in the face, telling him "This is penance, not a lesson." It also references climate change, I think. Not sure yet.

May or may not play in the Mirror Universe, considering Through A Mirror, Darkly did... and Picard suddenly has Romulan slaves. Anyway, unless something changes drastically, that fell off a cliff faster than expected. Managed to get through the first episode without facepalming and almost without groaning, and now I'm already doing both. Plenty of times. Man, you'd think after all this time and all the terrible tripe I've watched, Kurtzman would be unable to surprise me.

Turns out not so. There's always something new. And always something worse. Do you remember a time when Q was fun and silly? Also, it's now Picard's turn to swear around.

*Let me give you an example:

Picard: I am no longer your pawn!
Q: Oh, you're not just a piece, but the very board on which the entire game is being played!

Why, thanks, I hate it.

edit: Seems to be a new sort of Mirror Universe, and Picard commands or commanded the CSS WORLD RAZER. Wow, that name for sure is even cooler than LASERVELOCIRAPTOR. At least when you're a thirteen year old Twilight fan. Picard has skull collection in his trophy room, the skulls of Sarek, Martok, Gul Dukat and a few others. Man, this is so edgy and awesome. Did I mention his ship is called the CSS WORLD RAZER yet? The C stands for Confederation by the way...

Edited March 11, 2022 by majestic

[Amentep]

16 minutes ago, majestic said:

Picard: I am no longer your pawn!
Q: Oh, you're not just a piece, but the very board on which the entire game is being played!

I guess we know why Q liked playing with Picard now.

...

...

I'll get me coat.

[Lexx]

Personally I never liked Q. Hated the whole idea of some impossible supernatural guy being able to boss you around at any time. It's like internet trolls but you can't get away with just closing the browser.

[Bartimaeus]

I hated the idea of Q for much the same reasons, but he himself sure beat the pants off of a few other TNG characters in terms of having fun, which I think is more important, so eh.

42 minutes ago, majestic said:

CSS WORLD RAZER

That has to be joke - that can't be real. ...Google says it's real, folks. At this juncture, please imagine a Dr. Phil seizure.

Please stop watching Star Trick/Dreck/Ick/Blech and start watching...literally anything decent, .

[Amentep]

29 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Personally I never liked Q. Hated the whole idea of some impossible supernatural guy being able to boss you around at any time. It's like internet trolls but you can't get away with just closing the browser.

 

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I hated the idea of Q for much the same reasons, but he himself sure beat the pants off of a few other TNG characters in terms of having fun, which I think is more important, so eh.

I didn't mind Q.  But Star Trek already had The Talosians, The Metrons, Trelaine, Apollo, Dehner and Mitchell, Charlie Evans, the Arretans, the Guardian of Forever, the Excalpians, and V'ger/Ilia-Probe/Decker-whatever off the top of my head, so I was kind of primed for the idea that Stafleet would encounter beings of vast and different power.  To me they were a way to personify for sake of the narrative encountering the unknown and potentially unknowable.

[Gromnir]

On 3/5/2022 at 7:50 PM, Amentep said:

TNG - "Thine Own Self"

 

as somebody who unabashed abuses shakespeare quotes, we got no justification for criticism, but following star trek vi, is impossible for us to have any star trek show or movie quote the bard w/o the over-the-top christopher plummer portrayal o' chang intruding 'pon our recollection. distracting.

am s'posing the episode title could be a reference to ibsen's peer gynt, but it doesn't really work as such. would  need a harry mudd episode or something similar.

HA! Good Fun!

[majestic]

34 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

That has to be joke - that can't be real. ...Google says it's real, folks. At this juncture, please imagine a Dr. Phil seizure.

Please stop watching Star Trick/Dreck/Ick/Blech and start watching...literally anything decent, .

Oh, it gets better. The Confederation is going to hold "Eradication Day", a celebration of, uhm, mankind's enemies being eradicated, of course. This year's special execution is going to be the Borg Queen, and General Picard already requested to be granted the title of Borgslayer.

Spoiler

Apparently Q has created a special new timeline for the main characters, because everyone from the show is there, even though they were on separate ships at the end of the first episode. Every main character is his Prime Universe self.

I wonder if that's going to be the storyline for the entire season, because unlike the Discover mirror universe episodes, this isn't goofy, campy fun, but deadly serious and utterly cringeworthy. It's also not the mirror universe, of course, or even a mirror universe, but just a branched timeline. Imagine of the Brotherhood of Nod and the Federation from Starship Troopers had a bastard child without any fun, camp or satire, and here you are. Ugh.

I think Westwood needs to demand royalties here.

Can someone with decent Photoshop skills give Picard a goatee here? Please?

 

Oh, before I forget it: Legolas starts chopping up people again, Picard shoots up a stage, uhm... things are back to normal. I was worried I'd have to like this, for exactly one episode. Phew.

 

[Lexx]

Man, they sure love their mirror universe branche timeline stuff, huh?

Edited March 11, 2022 by Lexx

[Hurlshort]

Huh. I actually think the LCD screens look like an upgrade from the green screen tech, but it is still a poor replacement for traditional set design.

[Keyrock]

On 3/8/2022 at 6:44 PM, InsaneCommander said:

Edit: guess who else didn't hate the first episode

They didn't COMPLETELY hate the first episode. Massive emphasis on "completely". They still spent 80% of the show burying Picard.

I thought it was interesting that, for once, it was Rich dragging Mike back to torture him and not the other way around. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Keyrock

[majestic]

25 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

They didn't COMPLETELY hate the first episode. Massive emphasis on "completely". They still spent 80% of the show burying Picard.

I thought it was interesting that, for once, it was Rich dragging Mike back to torture him and not the other way around. 

After the second episode, I'm fairly sure Rich will suffer for that in some way. More than usual.

[ShadySands]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

Man, they sure love their mirror universe branche timeline stuff, huh?

Ben Kingsley is that you?

[Keyrock]

Brisco County - EP4 No Man's Land

Brisco tracks a family of violent outlaws while Bowler is tasked with stopping a tank mobile battle wagon. The two stories converge in a town populated entirely by women.

This is a self-contained side quest episode with a guest appearance from Denise Crosby as the town's sheriff. The focus is on Brisco, Bowler, and Professor Wickwire. This was the weakest episode of the show so far IMHO, but it was still decently entertaining.

As much as I love Bruce Campbell, and I do, Lord Bowler is rapidly becoming my favorite character on the protagonists side. Julius "Sho'Nuff" Carry is terrific.

[Amentep]

Yeah, Lord Bowler is a fun character and Julius Carry is very good at the role.  

I love his "heh. heh. heh." laugh.