ValueSubtracted

I can only imagine the tension in the building during the final three minutes...

perhaps more-so by the current writers of Star Trek

It was acknowledged in the episode that aired this week...

I'm going to try something different this time and type out my thoughts in real time. That's sure to make them more coherent and less disjointed...right?

The effect of materializing the TARDIS around Rose is cool.

It's interesting that the Doctor talks about the Time War in somewhat abstract terms - it's his people that destroyed the Daleks - but the Dalek Emperor seems to lay the blame more squarely on the Doctor.

This is the first "Oncoming Storm" nickname. I'd honestly forgotten where it came from.

A little convenient that the Emperor's ship just happened to be the one that survived the end of the war.

The whole "we've been hiding on Earth for centuries" thing really makes no sense, and has no emotional resonance for me at all. We probably needed to see some of the humans they speak of being converted.

That said, a Dalek cult is a fun idea.

The sound mix is terrible, and I can barely make out the dialogue.

My library-issued DVDs are scratched, so I missed the scene where the Doctor tricks Rose into going home. From what I remember, it's pretty good.

The scene in the restaurant is great - I love Rose and Jackie's debate over whether the battle is happening 200,000 years in the future, or right now. And good on Mickey for helping Rose, despite the things she's saying about there being nothing for her in the present being incredibly hurtful. The scene where Rose tells Jackie she met Pete is also dynamite.

It's a lot of fun watching the civilians getting picked off. Waht can I say - I like these sorts of stories. RTD's bloodlust is in fine form here, and he gives each of them just enough characterization for you to give a damn, if only a little.

I wonder if there's an alternate universe - maybe the one in which Eccleston had stayed on - where Rose doesn't survive staring into the heart of the TARDIS, and regresses to an infant or something.

Billie Piper is decent as the Bad Wolf entity, but it's interesting to see the contrast between this and her second time 'round in "The Day of the Doctor".

Hey, who's this new guy? He'll never last.

This episode belongs to Christopher Eccleston, and he makes the most of it, running the full spectrum of the Ninth Doctor's emotions. He turns on a dime from despondent, to aloof, to furious, and everything in between.

And that's a wrap on series 1. I think it's a pretty mixed bag overall - they're definitely still figuring things out. But there are flashes of brilliance throughout. It's definitely not my favourite series, but Eccleston will be missed.

What. A. Game.

As I'm starting this comment, the game isn't quite over, technically - The Riders just finished their interception on that 2-point convert attempt with 30 seconds to go.

This has been a defensive battle, and at the end of the day, the Riders have the better defense. I thought Collaros did pretty well under pressure, but he was under pressure damn near all the time. No good.

But the Bombers continue to improve, and the feel more like a complete team than they did a few weeks ago. It gives me some hope for the Banjo Bowl.

Well done to the Riders. We'll see you next week.

The pivot-to-movie happened well before anything was filmed.

But it does seem like the "pivot" was trying to stuff ten hours of story into a two-hour bag.

I obviously think Georgiou is a more interesting character than you do, but other than that, I agree with this list.

I find it interesting that Capaldi seems quite determined to stay away from the role now that he's out of it.

It's absolutely his right...but it's interesting.

I think that was definitely the idea. I'm somewhat skeptical that it worked, but it would be cool if it was a gateway movie for someone.

it was ambiguous, did it really exist? Was it just one crazy guy?

This was never credible, and was never how it was presented in DS9.

Even in "Inquisition", Sloan had two other guys standing next to him, and an entire starship at his disposal. Starfleet Command covered for him at the end - something that was noted by the DS9 senior staff.

In subsequent episodes, Admiral Ross acknowledged their existence, and Bashir worked out what he believed to be the bare minimum number of operatives required to create the morphogenic virus (73).

Later, we saw them working for the United Earth Starfleet in the ENT era.

The only suggestion that it's just "once crazy guy" comes from Koval, who then helps Sloan fake his death and is revealed to be a S31 asset in the very next scene.

So no, that's not really something Discovery changed. People have had to wilfully ignore the DS9 episodes to buy into that theory.

the characters that we built and the rapport that we had with each other was amazing

I have to admit, I thought Alok was a pretty interesting character. Sam Richardson was also very charismatic as Quasi, though he didn't have much to do. And Young Garrett was okay, too.

I wouldn't mind seeing any of those characters pop up again, with a better story.

Yeah, it's a thing with federation - I see it on Mastodon from time to time.

I've raised it with the Lemmy devs, and they suspect it's some kind of caching issue that will be fixed in the next update.

We hope.

I liked that episode quite a lot, but it definitely coasts on pure vibes in places.