Science Fiction

Star Trek: Voyager – Ex Post Facto

  • Title: Star Trek: Voyager – Ex Post Facto
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Star Trek: Voyager - Ex Post Facto television review

Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the Delta Quadrant and to the misadventures of a starship crew 70,000 light years from home. In a story more than a little similar to Star Trek: The Next Generation “A Matter of Perspective,” Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) is accused of romantic entanglements with the wife (Robin McKee) of a scientist and the scientist’s (Ray Reinhardt) murder. Convicted of the crime before Voyager is made aware of the situation, Paris has had memories of the murder (from the victim’s perspective) implanted in his mind, forcing him to relive the murder every 14 hours. Given his more questionable character, and a living record of the murder, Paris’ possible guilt is an easier sell than Riker‘s in “A Matter of Perspective,” although no one ever accepts the evidence against him. The idea of implanting memories as punishment was also used by Deep Space Nine in “Hard Times.”

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Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Matter of Perspective

  • Title: Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Matter of Perspective
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“It is the truth… as you each remember it.”

Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Matter of Perspective TV review

Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the final frontier where no one has gone before. “A Matter of Perspective” opens with the destruction of a space station the Enterprise was sent to inspect just as Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is beaming back to the ship. Riker’s tumultous relationship with the scientist (Mark Margolis) killed in the explosion, and suggestions of the First Officer’s inappropriate behavior towards Apgar’s wife (Gina Hecht), make him the prime suspect in the explosion. Under local law, Riker is presumed guilty and must prove his innocence or Picard (Patrick Stewart) will be forced to turn his First Officer over to the authorities.

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Doctor Aphra #1

Doctor Aphra #1 comic reviewSet after the events of The Empire Strikes Back, evil archaeologist Chelli Lona Aphra earns a new series opening with her plundering the recently-evacuated Rebel base on Hoth, and running into a bit of Imperial trouble, before accepting a job from Shadow University student Detta Yao. Yao is on the hunt for the mythical Rings of Vaale (which, it turns out, may be real, very valuable, and very dangerous).

The new series’ initial issue is a good mix of action and story with several characters to introduce including Aphra and her team of Just Lucky and Black Krrsantan, Yao, and an old acquaintance of Aphra in archaeologist Eustacia Okka, along with introducing the Rings and the team’s chief rival in their search for them in Ronen Tagge and the Tagge family.

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Star Trek: Discovery – Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

  • Title: Star Trek: Discovery – Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
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Star Trek: Discovery - Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad television review

“Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” offers a time loop episode featuring the return of Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd. Through the use of an injured, and endangered, space creature and a time crystal, Mudd is able to sneak on-board Discovery and keep resetting time as he searches for the secrets of the ship which he plans to sell to the Klingons. He also spends quite a bit of time killing Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) over and over as revenge for the captain living Mudd in a Klingon prison. While not as clever as something like “Cause and Effect,” and problematic for glossing over how Mudd acquired (and could figure out how to use) such technology, the episode does have its moments including the use of a Trojan Horse and making use of Stamets‘ (Anthony Rapp) altered physiology to explain why he alone remembers the various loops.

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