the implication is that the Daleks have been pushing things for a lot longer than just 100 years anyway.
Yeah, I'm not convinced that the Daleks' Master Plan actually makes any sense, but I'm prepared to withhold judgment until I've rewatched the big finale.
"Society collapsing into a horrifying regime way more quickly than you'd expect" is actually a bit of an RTD running theme, and...I think history is on his side there, to be honest.
I kept putting this off all week, dreading The Reality Show Episode. On rewatch...it's silly and dated, but I didn't actually mind it.
Oddly prescient for them to feature game shows that are still around 20 years later.
The episode itself is pretty thin, though: the Doctor, Rose, and Jack get separated into different reality/game shows, discover that losers get killed, and find a way to esacape. The highlights are Eccleston and Piper's performances - they both do terrific work here, selling the emotions that they go through quite well.
They probably could have done more with the fact that Rose had to play that entire "Weakest Link" episode, sending quite a few people to their deaths.
Jack is...present. He seems somewhat stilted again, much as he did in "The Empty Child."
The guest cast all turn in good performances, which help elevate the overall episode.
I can't decide if setting the episode on Satellite 5 100 years later was simply an excuse to reuse the sets (which I likely would not have recognized anyway), but confronting the Doctor with the revelation that he's the cause of this divergence in history works pretty well.
And, of course, the whole thing is a setup for the full-on return of the Daleks in the big finale. The weight of their reveal is really felt, with the heavy lifting having been done back in "Dalek".
I don't know, this feels like a pretty scattered collection of thoughts, but...it's that kind of episode.
The lead-in novel to the first season of "Picard", "The Last Best Hope", is excellent.
The "New Frontier" series is an interesting experiment in storytelling with a (mostly) original cast.
Yup. It's good to have some momentum, but the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl are going to be big tests.
Reed really is awful. It's almost better to be blandly forgettable like Mayweather or Hoshi.
There's a tonne of icky ambiguity to this one...which is honestly what I like about it, though I totally get why it's not to everyone's liking.
They were saying, "next year" in 2024.
I think the answer is probably complicated - the overall tv landscape is in a tough place, and who knows what other factors are in play.
I personally think the RTD2 era has been fine, with the usual assortment of episodes ranging from outstanding to not-that-great, and some unfortunately disappointing finales that tend to leave an aftertaste.
"Documentarian with an agenda" is a real type of documentarian - maybe the majority.
His biggest sin was probably making a doc that was secretly about himself...
Well, that's disappointing...
After being underwhelmed last week, I enjoyed this one a lot.
I appreciated Beto cutting straight to the unspoken conflict at the heart of this franchise - Star Trek is kind of colonialist/imperialist.
When they got to the conclusion, my initial reaction is that "the people are the difference" was sort of trite...but what else is there, really? These are people who are willing to put their morality first, even as they walk an uneasy line.