Well a new episode for Orville and STD so here is my quick thoughts with spoilers.

On Star Wars Discovery Youn Jedi Michael found a deeper use of her Kantra Force when she used it with some tech enhancements to save her Jedi Master Surak who was the victim of a Vulcan Terrorist Group. We also found out that this or another Vulcan Terrorist Group had bombed Michael's school and killed her (she was dead for three minutes) but using his Kantra Force Jedi Master Surak brought her back to life. this is why they have this connection. Also the scientist guy is on an acid trip. To drive this point home he talks in Earth 1960s slang. Groovy Man.

On the Orville we have a society which is total Youtube/Facebook like/dislike and the crew has to deal with it. While this episode is getting alot of likes for its examination of our current society I was very dissappointed in it. This episode suffered for what many an adventure module is guilty of; "Forced Plot Points".

The major ones were they sent the security chief who is not human to an all human planet who do not know about aliens and cheaply disguised her with a hat and a band aid. Apparently there were no human security officers to send. BUT the episode before the Capt and his buddy used personal hologram devices to fool an entire ship of Krill. Why didn't they just give her one of those? Because she had to remove her hat and be discovered as an alien to move the plot along.

They also send the rude and crude Navigator on this mission. The fact he has no skills useful to this mission and in fact would have been best left on the ship to navigate but since he is rude and crude he does something rude and crude which is just to move the plot along.

The Orville has a wide selection of hats for the security chief to choose from since she didn't like the first one picked for her. Yet the crew did not know about the badges EVERYONE  on the planet wears. These badges are the KEY component of this society and yet the crew had no idea they existed. Luckily they meet the one guy who is selling fake badges within ten minutes of being on the planet. Also despite it being illegal to not wear your badge no one notices this group of four poeple not wearing them and then buying fake badges from a street vendor in broad daylight.

Oh well Orville is still better than Star Wars Discovery in my opinion.

Wait...what?!?

Am I to understand that Trek is plagiarizing SW now?

Plagarizing Star Wars? We can go on for a while about who might be plagarizing who in Hollywoodland but not really. STD has now gone so far into the fantasy realm it might as well be Star Wars. 

But GOOD NEWS STD has already been renewed for a second season. No word on Orville though.

Another week and another two episodes of Star Trek. Spoilers everywhere.

Orville did another character epidsode where we learned more about the Doctor and the AI character, Issac. Pretty good episode even with the "we somehow ended up 1000 light years away in unknown space but the ship will find us" prop. Doctor had an interesting line where she told her older son (Yes she has two boys and No man in her life choosing artificial insemination instead) "Take the ray gun and keep it on Stun, we repsect life" (not exact sorry). But this is after she killed two of the aliens with a knife and a gun powder pistol. In context she had no choice and was forced to after trying other ways out of the conflict. Moral dilemas.

STD changed. We started with a personal log like many of the other series did and the episode was a lot less total story arc and more just about this episode. Remember that STD had a nine month delay in release as some things got reworked and this is what we are starting to see. So good news there.

BAD NEWS The magic was everywhere. Harry Mudd the now psycho killer (he killed the Captain 57 times till he got bored with killing him) somehow found a space whale that is so endangered starships have only seen them 50 times in the last 20 years. Hid his spaceship inside it and got it to the area where Discovery would find it even though Discovery is so Top Secret the entire Klingon empire can't find it. Then used his magic wristband to do a "Groundhog Day" 30 minute time loop to take over the ship again and again to try to capture it and sell it to the Klingons. Luckily the Scientist now lives outside time thanks to his connection to the magic Pixie Dust (a fact no one seems to care about) and can warn the crew to stop Harry (cause he is too wimpy to do it himself and Michael is our hero) which she does through a series of actions that she could not possibly complete in the 30 minutes she has to do them in.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum latin for "If you want peace, prepare for war" is yet another long silly title of another long silly STD episode.

Good things here, as I mentioned before there was a change in leadership of the show and things have changed. We got another personal log this time with a Stardate. The bridge crew were allowed to talk. We learned the name of the cyborg woman officer on the bridge and she is the third in command. 

Then they switched to Michael and it all went down the drain. Quick plot spoilers they found a magic planet with a magic crystal tower that when they add their tiny amplifier too will reveal EVERY Klingon ship with a cloaking device in the galaxy (cause galaxies are small). But the magic planet in actually inhabited by a race of magic hippie blue energy creatures that have never meet another living race but grasp interstellar politics magically fast. Oh and space cow gets really mad for once.

This episode is the first part of the two part mid season finally so mad cliffhangers next week. Anyone else really hate mid season? You're taking a break for the holidays just say so.

I may wish to take back my "let us be thankful" after episode 9 Cupid's Dagger. It is definitely the episode that is getting talked about the most in comments and chats.

Good points the writing and combining of comedy and drama are getting done very well. Seems the show is finding its sweet spot and making the laughs part of the drama and not rude jokes thrown in to justify it being a comedy. The Elevator Music Alien needs to be a recurring character. And we got to see Bortis' husband and child and Claire's kids again so minor characters not forgotten. Oh and Commander Kelly does karioke of Anyway she Wants It.

Bad points the storyline was that a serial rapist from a race of serial rapists shows up on as the only one who can stop a war between two species. Unfortunately he is too busy raping Ed and Kelly (that's the Captain and First Officer) to allow them to try diplomatic solutions and ends up having to get the two alien ambassadors to rape each other to end the war they start because of the serial rapist was too busy getting busy. But only after the shooting starts and we can presume a few dozen people die. Oh and the Doctor and the Dralasite looking character have sex shown on screen. Something you will never unsee.

Yeah you can see where I stand on this episode. In these times to have shown this episode clearing makes you ask "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING"? Wasn't it like a month ago that Seth had to apologize because he knew about Harvey and didn't really do anything. Oh and the serial rapist was played by Rob Lowe. Someone who only avoided being listed as a sex offender thanks to good lawyers and pleading down to 20 hours of community service. 

STD and Orville this week

Orville had a great episode and while their were jokes it is very apparent Seth lied to the network and did a drama. Catch it if you can. Bad news is Fox decided to drop the last episode of the season. The show has been renewed and they are saying it is a scheduling conflict. I think they said some of that about Firefly.

STD had its midseason finale and now no new episodes until Jan 7. What can we say about this episode? Naked Klingon Boobs. There was plot and characters and Michael saving the day but Naked Klingon Boobs is really the only talking point. First considering all the make up the actress was wearing if you have ever seen a body painting competition show then you know how little you actually saw. 

The bigger reason is Why? Yes they are on a streaming service and yes they have dropped one F word in an earlier episode but why are they bothering to do this? They seem to have forgotten that Star Trek has always been a family show. Guess they don't want that audience anymore. Maybe they think they need the Game of Thrones audience? If so first they do not know why people watch GoT (its the storylines and characters not the nudity) second these little baby steps are not helping and just driving Star Trek fans away.

In case you forgot (I sure did), STD returned to the streaming waves Sunday. This time going boldly where everyone else has been before THE MIRROR UNIVERSE.

For those not avid fans this is the alternate dimension with the Terran Empire where brutality is the way of life, assasination is how you move up in rank and everyone wears (men, women and amoebas) wear skimpy uniforms.

Yep this is STD so the uniforms got more utilitarian and more material than the normal universe and the amount of violence is pretty much the same. They will be there for at least one more episode so guess we will see.

Oh very important rule. Do NOT kiss anyone in the STD universe. As soon as you do they will either die or turn on you in very unpleasant ways.

If you have Netflix check out Black Mirror. Twilight Zone type anthology series exploring how current and possible technology can go very wrong. Very dark series and for adults or at least those who know how to act like adults.

It is in the fourth season so we are seeing some of the already looked at technology at differing stages of its development and use. Pretty interesting.