The second season is over with the two-part finale but I’m still playing catch up having seen episode 12 the set-up for the finale .....
*** Beware ***
*** Spoilers ***
*** Ahead ***
Two arcs in latest episode and as always the acting and production values are superb but story line a bit muddled. In arc A, we follow Pike’s visit to Klingon monastic planet Boreth and Anson Mount knocks it out of the park. He chooses his fate willingly consistent with his character. But the premise of a sealed fate for him is opposite of “open destiny” that was the emotional finish to episode 11. Also whole time crystals idea seems haphazard to me and allows for “deus ex machina” options for the writer’s room.
Meanwhile in arc B, Spock and Michael face Control that looks a lot like the Star Gate SG-1 adversary The Replicators! We all could guess it was a trap and was just waiting for how it would be sprung. As for the story line, what is Control’s obsession with Michael? Does Control have time travel knowledge independent of Red Angel? And red burst thing remains confusing. Will see how it all resolved in the final two episodes?!
#StarTrekDiscovery
2020 Presidential candidate bracketology?
With March Madness just concluded, it is time to attempt 2020 Presidential Candidate bracketology!
I think there are four broad category of candidates:
Governance centrists regional - Joe Biden would be a prime example of someone who has been in the system a long time. As a seasoned senator and vice-president, he has immediate name recognition and a measure of credibility as having "been there and done that." It is hard to say who else is running to fit that role. However, I'm listing the governors (Hickenlooper and Inslee) in this regional. Governors almost always have to be more moderate and make deals to get things done. Senator Klobuchar is the most "moderate" of the Democratic senators. If you look at her rating at 538, she has voted with the Trump position 30% of the time. That number is high compared to other senators running for President. She has pitched herself as from the Mid-West and more moderate compared to the coastal Senators also running. Delaney, a House member, has voted with Trump 34% of the time which is among the highest. This group fears that tacking too far to the left will allow Trump to win re-election in 2020.
Left regional - Sanders has high name ID from running in 2016 and a long history of being a gadfly with very left positions. He comes into this race with a lot of supporters from 2016. Warren seems be running in "the same lane" and also high ID from all the clashes with Trump. I put Gillibrand and Booker in this group but they could be in the "New Left" also as they are younger than Sanders and Warren. However, I think of the "New Left" as being candidates that tack Left but are also so new to the point of having THIN resumes on the Federal level. Gillibrand has been in the House and Senate since 2007 which isn't long but longer than the "New Left" candidates. Booker has administrative experience as a Mayor (2006-2013) and Federal level experience in the Senate since 2013. Tim Ryan has been in the House since 2003 that also provides some Federal level chops.
New Left regional - I distinguish the new left on the basis of the relatively short time they have been on the national scene and generally being younger candidates. Harris is probably the most charismatic of the group but has only been a Senator since 2017. Her challenge is to fully convince the hard left that she is left enough since she served in political law enforcement offices (California Attorney General and SF DA). O'Rourke is a social media phenomena for his fund raising in the losing effort to Ted Cruz. As a House member his profile previously wasn't high. As a social media phenomena, there could be the charge that he may lack substance behind the flare. Castro was an Obama era cabinet member and mayor. Gabbard and Swalwell are House members under 40 with very little profile. Of the senators in the "left" and "new left" regional, their vote with Trump percentages are among the lowest of all the senators according to 538.
Unconventional regional - Buttigieg has leveraged his unique biography with authentic appearances on TV to become the leader of the pack of the unconventional regional. The remainder are trying to get oxygen and it is an interesting mix of Yang (business) and his universal basic income proposal, Messam (mayor of mid-sized city like Buttigieg), Williamson (author described by some as "new age" and "spiritual adviser to Oprah), and Gravel (part-time libertarian, anti-intervention foreign policy).
Star Trek Discovery Episode 2.11
I’m still catching up so don’t tell me about 2.12 yet and I’ve only just digested 2.11!
*** Beware ***
*** Spoilers ***
*** Below ***
Hmmmm…… am not sure I’m okay with where the writer’s room is going …..
Leland has been taken over by the Control AI and it sure looks Borg-ish! Don’t think they really need to go there. Maybe they will pull back from it but the visual style sure looks Borg-ey!
Techno-boo-boo alert: In the previous episode, Leland had to LEAVE the bridge to over-ride the computer so they can get more power to close the wormhole???
That would be very poor starship design. Have never seen any other crew member leave the bridge to over-ride the computer! Of course, the scriptwriters had to get him off the bridge so the Control AI could poke him in the eye!
Dr. Burnham (Sonja Son) was well acted. Her half-defeated, half-defiant demeanor would make a lot of sense for someone who has been time traveling to fix the impending disaster only to find whatever she does actually doesn’t change the outcome. Playing time-line whack-a-mole is something Sisyphus would understand.
This ground was well trodden in the Terminator series of movies. In the original, machines send Arnold, the Terminator, back to the past to kill Sarah Conner to prevent the eventual rise of human rebel leader John Conner. The terminator fails. The timeline is not altered.
In Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the machines send a T-1000 (Robert Patrick) to kill Sarah and John Conner (still a youth at this point). John from the future sends Arnold, the Terminator, this time a good guy to protect John, the youth. The T-1000 is defeated. Additionally, Sarah and the team destroy the technology behind Skynet to prevent the rise of the technology thus “changing the timeline.” “No fate but what you make” is one memorable line from the film.
However, in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the machines send a female terminator to kill John Conner and future wife Kate Brewster. Once again Arnold, the Terminator, as a good guy once again is sent back in time to protect them. But in this case after defeating the female terminator and before being destroyed himself, he gets John and Kate into a nuclear fallout bunker because Skynet goes live and nuclear destruction ensues. Skynet happened but it just took a few more years.
I have seen ads for additional Terminator films but haven’t seen them and have no idea what they are about.
All of which to say, Dr. Burnham is trying to stop Control for ever happening and found she can’t seem to stop it much like how Skynet can only be delayed but eventually causes the near destruction of humanity. All of which to say again, her performance was fantastic.
At the end of 2.11, Dr. Burnham is sucked back to the future along with the Red Angel suit but since the Red Angel suit is damaged, there will be no more time travels for her. Spock tells Michael at the end of the episode it is now up to them to stop Control in their timeline with no help from the future. The emotional wrap up is nice.
However, I think the scriptwriters made a techno-boo-boo: Mama Burnham reports seeing Michael at many key moments in her life. We are told that in her many travels in the Red Angel suit, she saw Michael many times. However, when she travels in the Red Angel time suit, a wormhole opens up and she enters the timeline. From the end of the last episode, it is pretty hard to miss the appearance of a wormhole and the arrival of the Red Angel! She has many hundreds of mission logs and NOBODY ever saw the wormhole appearance? Nobody ever saw the Red Angel arrive (with the exception of Spock apparently and those whisked off to New Eden in Ep2.2) or moving through space - shown dramatically at the end of episode 2.10? And of course, the wormhole re-appears and sucks the Red Angel back 950 years into the future and again that was pretty hard to miss! Thus, with every time jump, there are at least 2 times the wormhole appears -- and nobody ever saw it?
Anyway, 3 episodes left to wrap up season 2.
#StarTrekDiscovery
*** Beware ***
*** Spoilers ***
*** Below ***
Hmmmm…… am not sure I’m okay with where the writer’s room is going …..
Leland has been taken over by the Control AI and it sure looks Borg-ish! Don’t think they really need to go there. Maybe they will pull back from it but the visual style sure looks Borg-ey!
Techno-boo-boo alert: In the previous episode, Leland had to LEAVE the bridge to over-ride the computer so they can get more power to close the wormhole???
That would be very poor starship design. Have never seen any other crew member leave the bridge to over-ride the computer! Of course, the scriptwriters had to get him off the bridge so the Control AI could poke him in the eye!
Dr. Burnham (Sonja Son) was well acted. Her half-defeated, half-defiant demeanor would make a lot of sense for someone who has been time traveling to fix the impending disaster only to find whatever she does actually doesn’t change the outcome. Playing time-line whack-a-mole is something Sisyphus would understand.
This ground was well trodden in the Terminator series of movies. In the original, machines send Arnold, the Terminator, back to the past to kill Sarah Conner to prevent the eventual rise of human rebel leader John Conner. The terminator fails. The timeline is not altered.
In Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the machines send a T-1000 (Robert Patrick) to kill Sarah and John Conner (still a youth at this point). John from the future sends Arnold, the Terminator, this time a good guy to protect John, the youth. The T-1000 is defeated. Additionally, Sarah and the team destroy the technology behind Skynet to prevent the rise of the technology thus “changing the timeline.” “No fate but what you make” is one memorable line from the film.
However, in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the machines send a female terminator to kill John Conner and future wife Kate Brewster. Once again Arnold, the Terminator, as a good guy once again is sent back in time to protect them. But in this case after defeating the female terminator and before being destroyed himself, he gets John and Kate into a nuclear fallout bunker because Skynet goes live and nuclear destruction ensues. Skynet happened but it just took a few more years.
I have seen ads for additional Terminator films but haven’t seen them and have no idea what they are about.
All of which to say, Dr. Burnham is trying to stop Control for ever happening and found she can’t seem to stop it much like how Skynet can only be delayed but eventually causes the near destruction of humanity. All of which to say again, her performance was fantastic.
At the end of 2.11, Dr. Burnham is sucked back to the future along with the Red Angel suit but since the Red Angel suit is damaged, there will be no more time travels for her. Spock tells Michael at the end of the episode it is now up to them to stop Control in their timeline with no help from the future. The emotional wrap up is nice.
However, I think the scriptwriters made a techno-boo-boo: Mama Burnham reports seeing Michael at many key moments in her life. We are told that in her many travels in the Red Angel suit, she saw Michael many times. However, when she travels in the Red Angel time suit, a wormhole opens up and she enters the timeline. From the end of the last episode, it is pretty hard to miss the appearance of a wormhole and the arrival of the Red Angel! She has many hundreds of mission logs and NOBODY ever saw the wormhole appearance? Nobody ever saw the Red Angel arrive (with the exception of Spock apparently and those whisked off to New Eden in Ep2.2) or moving through space - shown dramatically at the end of episode 2.10? And of course, the wormhole re-appears and sucks the Red Angel back 950 years into the future and again that was pretty hard to miss! Thus, with every time jump, there are at least 2 times the wormhole appears -- and nobody ever saw it?
Anyway, 3 episodes left to wrap up season 2.
#StarTrekDiscovery
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