Yeah, this pretty much exists on the strength of the leads' chemistry. As stories go it's entire inconsequential, and could be summed up as "the Doctor meets Martha's family; weird stuff happens around them".
That CGI scorpion is pretty atrocious. Also, I forget if it's ever explained how Lazarus has dormant scorpion genes that he could be (d)evolved into/out of/from. The whole thing is fairly nonsensical, even for a Doctor Who episode.
If one were to compare RTD's first and second eras, this story could be juxtaposed to "Lucky day" as a fairly humdrum monster used as backdrop for character buildup to seed a finale. Only that's sort of generous to "Lazarus experiment" while selling "Lucky Day" short.
Either way, this isn't an episode I rewatch unless it's for a full Martha-thon...
...and provided we don't make the planet uninhabitable first.
Sorry to hear that. Hope you get your money's worth if you sell your copy.
Like I predicted in OP, we don't agree at all and don't need to carry on the conversation save to note that you're wrong, and Shapes of midnight is a tedious, warmed over retread of the same old routine.
I've had no luck getting my hands on the yellow vinyl version (UK only, I believe), so when I found this one I pulled the trigger.
Honestly, this is the most interesting album they've made in a decade. Yes, it's an odd one with all the faked dialogue and "incidental music", but it suits the band. And if you don't like oddness, I'm afraid we won't have much of a conversation to begin with.
In the end, the real tools were the "AI" boosters and simps we made a long the way...
Yep, quick and easy way to get their brand new account reported/blocked.
Oh, regular. I imagine IMAX is even more overwhelming 😳
Watched it on Friday with the more kaiju loving of my kids 👍 We both liked it a lot, though the junior felt that particularly Godzilla's superfast regeneration during battle was a bit of a cheat. To be fair, that restorative superpower is a key plot point throughout the movie, but I agree that it makes things a little too easy.
The human characters have nothing but difficulties, on the other hand. And I enjoyed the scrappy ingenuity carrying over from Minus one. In the Hollywood wing of the franchise they'd have all of the armed forces mobilized and shouting tactical acronyms at each other within the first act. I like that there is less of a military perspective to this incarnation, even in the face of rather devastating destruction. Again, the post-WWII framing adds to the story!
And you feel the scale of both the monsters and the havoc they leave in their trail. I haven't had the chance to analyse the techniques, but I'd attribute it to direction, camera angles and perspective. The film feels much bigger than its Monsterverse cousins, but we know its special effects budget certainly wasn't, so my intuition tells me the sense of scale must be largely due to lo-fi cinematics, and all the more impressive for that. It's not the bloody kaiju battle in itself that is memorable, it's also the framing that feels like you're ringside for a visceral MMA match.
The human side of the story still revolves around the found family from the previous film. It strikes me, having rewatched Minus one just before this one, how much of their relationship is communicated through the character of little Akiko. Fortunately they have found a child actor who can fill that part without becoming saccharine. I may be getting old and sentimental, but she sold me on every scene she was in.
Some viewers will probably clamour for a third movie in the series, but I think these two stand pretty well on their own. We've had some interesting points about Japanese history play out through the perspective of massive kaiju destruction over two movies, let this take on Godzilla rest before the good stories get drowned out by more routine monster fare. Now, isn't it high time for a contemporary set movie with a fresh spin?
Type O Negative, "October Rust" (1996)
I thought it would be an advantage for the show to have a Director General who's a Doctor Who fan... but I guess I willingly overlooked that he's also a tech bro 🙄
All of that utopian nonsense about "enabling diverse voices" and "allowing more creative risk" is so clearly the exact opposite of what's happening with "AI". Instead, 200,000 American creatives have lost their jobs in the four year period since the first ”generative AI" models were released.
Actual creativity, craft, and imagination is being eliminated from the equation of media production as that trend continues to develop worldwide. Of course, that would sound A-okay to a former Google exec, but it paints a very bloody dire picture for future productions.
Bryan Fuller posted this on Instagram as a birthday greeting to Laurence Fishburne, back on July 30.
So apparently Fuller had intended to carry over the Hannibal cast into Discovery in various parts — and this was how he'd imagined Fishburne in Klingon prosthetics. It also suggests that the much maligned Disco Klingon designs were decided upon after Fuller left as (preliminary) show runner.
ETA: Here is a rundown of the casting plans he had in mind, originally revealed on the D-con chamber podcast. I would have watched Gillian Anderson as a starship captain.
Soap Opera episode
WTAF. Enough with the damn genre exercises already.
It only took forever (well, from May until now) for this vinyl to become available in my local b&m record store... But holy hell, is it worth the wait! 🤘🤩
https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-undying-love-for-a-burning-world
It would be easy to just gesture vaguely at all of Sir Patrick Stewart's career. But your question was about better performances than in Trek, and I actually think he did an excellent Picard during the original TNG run. Not quite a hot take, I know.
However, for a double off-Trek billing, I suggest Green room (2015) where he plays against Anton Yelchin among others. It's a pretty taut little thriller about a punk band on the road that realise to their horror that their gig for the night is at a neonazi club out in the sticks. It goes downhill from there.
"Hey, now you have one more way to watch that show we nipped in the bud for political reasons! Aren't you excited for the next (also, last) season, coming on this platform next year?!"
Sorry, had to get that out.
I mean, in Star Trek TNG s07, Barclay "devolved" into a spider or something, too, so I guess there's precedence?
Edit: "Genesis", blanked on the name of the episode...