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Paramount Plus Archives - Game News https://rb88betting.com/tag/paramount-plus/ Video Games Reviews & News Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 10 review: “Saves the best twist until last” https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-picard-season-2-episode-10-review-recap-ending/ https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-picard-season-2-episode-10-review-recap-ending/#respond Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-picard-season-2-episode-10-review-recap-ending/ Warning: This Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 10 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk… With its numerous nods to movies The Voyage Home and First Contact, and Deep Space Nine two-parter ‘Past Tense’, Star Trek: Picard’s second season hasn’t been shy of …

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Warning: This Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 10 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…

With its numerous nods to movies The Voyage Home and First Contact, and Deep Space Nine two-parter ‘Past Tense’, Star Trek: Picard’s second season hasn’t been shy of homaging previous Trek missions. Now it’s the turn of classic The Next Generation finale ‘All Good Things’ to provide inspiration, as this closing installment makes it clear that the whole of this year’s arc has been built around an eerily similar premise. 

In the last-ever episode of TNG, Q jumped Captain Picard backwards and forwards through time to save reality from a bizarre spatial anomaly. In ‘Farewell’ we learn that the whole of Jean-Luc and co’s jaunt back to the 21st century – including all those flashbacks to the tragedy at Chateau Picard – has been an extremely round-about way of rescuing the Alpha Quadrant from a “galactic event”. 

Despite the familiarity of the premise, it’s a clever – and poignant – piece of plotting. There’s a neat symmetry to the idea of Q – who’s had humanity on trial since the TNG pilot – returning to point the older Jean-Luc Picard in the right direction to fix a problem of galactic importance. More importantly, Q’s involvement provides an emotionally satisfying climax to the story arc that – while occasionally contrived – makes this wonderfully entertaining season’s few narrative missteps feel like they were part of a grander plan.

‘Farewell’ takes its time getting to the point where those plot threads coalesce, however, and the messy opening act is far from convincing. Ensuring Renée Picard blasts off on the pivotal Europa mission is, unsurprisingly, the priority, but the story’s in such a rush to get her into orbit that the episode struggles to build any tension. It also gets bogged down in the idea of prophecy, a plot device that feels totally at home in Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and Doctor Who, yet feels more awkward in the harder sci-fi worlds of Star Trek. 

Picard himself is appropriately skeptical about the Borg Queen’s assertion that “to succeed there must be two Renées; one who lives and one who dies”, but Tallinn takes her words as proof she needs to sacrifice herself to ensure the young astronaut fulfills her world-saving destiny. The shock reveal that she was impersonating Renée when Dr. Adam Soong delivers a lethal, neurotoxin-infused handshake is a neat twist, but it also feels like it’s been lifted from a Mission: Impossible movie.

Perhaps Tom Cruise’s blockbuster movie franchise is where Soong got the idea for the stunt, though he continues to be the most problematic element in the show. When he was introduced as a morally questionable scientist, he was a plausible addition to the ensemble, but as the season has gone on, he’s evolved into the sort of mustache-twirling, cat-stroking Bond villain you might have encountered before things got serious in the Daniel Craig era. In his quest to shape the dystopian future we saw in ‘Penance’, he’s rolling out weaponized drones, demanding a pre-launch audience with the astronauts, and playing assassin – away from Austin Powers, it’s rare to see anybody who relishes being evil quite this much.

After Soong’s dastardly schemes have failed once and for all – and Renée is safely on her way – there’s a last gasp effort to make him feel essential to Star Trek lore, courtesy of a secret file labeled “Project Khan”. It’s currently unclear how a rogue geneticist like Soong will tie into the origins of Trek’s greatest ever villain – in the original timeline, Khan was a dictator in the late ’90s, a quarter of a century ahead of the events here – but right now it feels like an ill-conceived effort to plug a gap in the canon that really doesn’t need filling.

Although Soong is having something of a ’mare, things are looking up for his daughter, Kore. Having been a relatively minor player this season, her exploits erasing her creator’s hard drives are enough to get her noticed by a familiar face from The Next Generation.

The announcement that the crew of the Enterprise-D are returning in season 3 unsurprisingly attracted headlines, but for the Traveler formerly known as Wesley Crusher to show up here is a wonderful surprise – especially after actor Wil Wheaton seemingly confirmed in his own blog (via ScreenRant) (opens in new tab) that he wasn’t coming back. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that Kore would be selected to help police the tapestry of the space-time continuum – perhaps it explains why 24th-century androids Dahj and Soji look identical to Kore? – but it’s a fun nod to fans to confirm that Wesley is still out there protecting the universe.

It’s the last act of ‘Farewell’ that makes everything worthwhile, however, as Q finally reveals his true motives for interfering with Picard’s timeline – and goes some way to finding redemption for a lifetime of cosmic tinkering. In contrast to Boba Fett’s awkward journey from ruthless bounty hunter to caring man-of-the-people, Q’s shift from villain to antihero works remarkably well. At heart, this entire season has been about a dying man’s desire for his final act to make a positive difference, and Picard – a man for whom Q has obvious respect – is the beneficiary. While it’s questionable that a man as accomplished as Jean-Luc has been significantly held back by his childhood trauma – an issue seemingly manufactured for this season – it also gives Q the chance to belatedly reveal a layer of humanity hiding beneath the riddles and the mischief.

And besides, even a reformed Q would never have made it so simple that the mission was just about a man. The season therefore saves its best twist until last, as Q transports Picard and his crew back to the bridge of the USS Stargazer, resuming their encounter with the Borg Queen who demanded Jean-Luc’s presence at the start of the season.

It turns out that the Borg using Edith Piaf’s ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’ as a hailing frequency was no coincidence, as the intruder reveals she’s the Agnes/Queen hybrid who left Earth on La Sirena 400 years earlier. She needs to coordinate the navy of Starfleet vessels to stop the anomaly destroying a significant chunk of the Federation, but such a truce would never have been possible had Picard not gone back in time. Suddenly, all the pieces of this cleverly plotted season – and Q’s grand plan – fall into place.

It’s also an excuse for some unashamedly happy endings, with Rios staying in the 21st century with Teresa and Ricardo, Elnor returning from the dead, and Raffi and Seven reconciling. It also looks like – in what could be a first for Star Trek – Jean-Luc might finally be lucky in love, as he comes clean with Laris about his feelings. Is the ending too neat? Possibly, but it would take a hard heart to begrudge Jean-Luc and his new surrogate family a few moments of joy at the end of such an entertaining run of episodes.


Star Trek: Picard season 2 has come to an end. However, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has only just started! Click through that link to read our review of the premiere. It’s Star Trek all the time!

The Verdict

3.5

3.5 out of 5

Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 10 review: “Saves the best twist until last”

‘Farewell’ takes time to find its feet, but it grows into an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a cleverly plotted season. When Riker, Troi, Worf, Geordi and Crusher step back into the action in Star Trek: Picard’s third year, there’ll be some big shoes to fill.

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Halo episode 3 trailer teases Cortana’s arrival and a Master Chief showdown https://rb88betting.com/halo-episode-3-trailer-preview-cortana/ https://rb88betting.com/halo-episode-3-trailer-preview-cortana/#respond Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/halo-episode-3-trailer-preview-cortana/ The first trailer for Halo episode 3 is here, and the Paramount Plus series is slowly ramping up the tension as the UNSC and the Covenant make their next move. The new Halo series trailer focuses on Makee, the human in league with the Covenant, on the hunt for Master Chief and the artefact he …

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The first trailer for Halo episode 3 is here, and the Paramount Plus series is slowly ramping up the tension as the UNSC and the Covenant make their next move.

The new Halo series trailer focuses on Makee, the human in league with the Covenant, on the hunt for Master Chief and the artefact he took from Madrigal in the premiere.

“I will not only bring back the keystone,” Makee hisses, “I will bring you the demon’s head.” No prizes for guessing who that demon is, as the scene is intercut with Master Chief dealing with his own personal journey.

Yes, John-117 is back with the UNSC. He’s busy hunting for answers, including the mystery what happened to his parents. Whatever the truth is, it’s clearly something worth hiding. Doctor Halsey, though, has a failsafe: “That is what Cortana is for,” she says.

Cortana, Master Chief’s long-time AI companion in the video game series, is briefly shown and arguably looks better in live-action than in previously-released stills. That should put to bed any lingering doubts over the character’s redesign, a shift that caused controversy among the Halo fanbase when the show’s original trailer released back in January.

Halo’s third episode is also going to juggle multiple plotlines for the first time. Kwan Ha is still stuck on Rubble with Soren, though she plans to head back to her home world of Madrigal. Kwan Ha, Master Chief, and Makee are now on diverging paths. With the wildcard Cortana now in play, the Halo series is looking unpredictable as it slowly heads towards its first major showdown.

For more from the Halo series, check out our interview with the cast and creators of the Paramount Plus series, which airs every Thursday on the streamer.

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Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 3 review: “An antagonist to savor” https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-picard-season-2-episode-3-review-recap/ https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-picard-season-2-episode-3-review-recap/#respond Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-picard-season-2-episode-3-review-recap/ Warning: This Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 3 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk… There’s no humpback whales or maiden warp speed flights to save, but the influence of The Voyage Home and First Contact is unmistakable in the latest episode of …

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Warning: This Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 3 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…

There’s no humpback whales or maiden warp speed flights to save, but the influence of The Voyage Home and First Contact is unmistakable in the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard. Of course, if you’re going to take inspiration from any of the Trek movies, the much-loved fourth and eighth entries in the series are a good place to start – and there’s something refreshingly familiar about a Starfleet crew playing fish-out-of-water in present-day California. Besides, even the oddities of our world must feel like a breeze after last week’s misadventures in the totalitarian Confederation.

The problem with revisiting old ground, however, is that ‘Assimilation’ – a clever title that works on more and more levels as the episode progresses – too often falls back on old Trek clichés. The first well-worn trope appears as early as the opening scene, when last week’s cliffhanger is resolved ridiculously quickly. Indeed, after Seven’s Eradication Day cheerleader/husband the Magistrate – played, coincidentally, by Jon Jon Briones, father of Dahj/Soji actor Isa – is dispatched with remarkable ease, you can’t help feeling his brief jaunt to La Sirena was more about giving us a reason to tune in for this episode as advancing the story arc.

That said, the Magistrate’s actions have major consequences, with a phaser blast to Elnor’s chest putting serious pressure on the production team’s supplies of green Romulan blood. Raffi’s doing her best to stop him bleeding out, but with ruthless Confederation forces pursuing La Sirena with extreme prejudice, the rest of the crew have more pressing matters to deal with.

Salvation comes in the unlikely form of the Borg Queen who – after the stasis field holding her captive proves it’s not fit for purpose – is now very much at large. Using her techno-tentacles – techtacles? – she takes mere seconds to commandeer the ship, obliterating enemies and rolling out pithy catchphrases like “the past is now”, before initiating the complex slingshot maneuver that will transport the crew back to the 21st century. It’s a spectacular sequence, though fans of Star Trek 4 may be disappointed that Picard and co don’t get the surreal clay head treatment experienced by Kirk and the crew in The Voyage Home. 

Star Trek: Picard

(Image credit: Amazon/Paramount)

The high-speed trip around the Sun is successful, but the “targeted crash” of a severely damaged La Sirena has left a pair of the passengers in critical condition. Rather than disconnecting the comatose Borg Queen to divert the ship’s power to saving Elnor in Sickbay, Picard argues that keeping the Queen alive is paramount – after all, she’s the only link they have with the “fissure in time” they’ve traveled back to repair.

When Elnor ultimately passes away – a genuine shock in a franchise that rarely kills off lead characters – it’s impossible to know if the admiral has made the right choice. While there’s a chance the idealistic Romulan will be brought back to life, if and when the original timeline is restored, the unknown “causality loop’ mechanics of the situation mean there are no guarantees.

Raffi makes no effort to hide her feelings about her commanding officer’s choice describing an “intense, sharp disappointment in leadership, before blaming Picard’s decades-long sparring match with Q for Elnor’s death. She poses an intriguing question: how much is Jean-Luc addicted to his tussle with the omnipotent entity? Is his perpetual state of annoyance at the trickster’s actions really just a front for an epic confrontation he can’t get enough of? In an episode that limits Q’s involvement to some dangerous whispers in Jean-Luc’s ear, it’s a shame we don’t learn more about the rules of the game.

But with the fate of the future at stake there’s little room for debate or grieving, and a field trip into the 21st century gives Raffi the perfect excuse to get away from JL. Along with Seven and Rios, she makes sure her clothes are era-appropriate – “fascist bastard” chic is definitely out – and beams into 2024 LA. They’re looking for evidence of future tech that might signify the presence of the elusive “Watcher”, while making every effort to avoid the Ray Bradbury-style “butterflies” that might have a catastrophic effect on the timeline.

Having played Marty’s mum in the Back to the Future trilogy, ‘Assimilations director Lea Thompson has time travel in her blood. And while this isn’t quite as accomplished as Marty and Doc Brown’s adventures through time – what is? – there’s an undeniable sense of fun as La Sirena’s crew find themselves in a truly alien world. Though there’s nothing quite as memorable as Spock using a neck pinch to mute an antisocial punk on a bus in Star Trek 4, Seven does get to tell a kid she’s a superhero when she arrives by transporter. Meanwhile, a billboard advertises The Europa Project, seemingly a TV show whose “To Boldly Go” catchphrase is remarkably familiar…

If Raffi and Seven seemingly get the fun end of the assignment – lying about their engagement to blag their way to the top of the tallest building in LA – Rios’s bad landing leaves him face down on a sidewalk and running the gauntlet of 21st-century medicine. (Echoes of Chekov in The Voyage Home.)

Although his scenes with an altruistic doctor are among the strongest in the episode – sowing the seeds of romance in a season where love will presumably be in the air for Jean-Luc as well – they also jar with the more comedic elements of the 21st-century culture clash. From Rios’s arrest by Homeland Security officials to Raffi’s historical assessment of the era – “I’ve never been able to understand how a society could exist with so many contradictions and not collapse sooner than it did” – the episode displays an admirable level of social conscience. But these moments plunge the episode into a hinterland between comedy and quasi-realism that the script isn’t quite smart enough to integrate.

It does, however, get the Borg Queen totally, chillingly right. Having been used sparingly and intelligently in The Next Generation, the Collective popped up so often in Voyager that they lost a lot of their mystique. Annie Wersching’s portrayal of the Big Bad, however, adds intriguing new dimensions (first, second, third, and fourth) to a character originated so memorably by Alice Krige in First Contact.

Her evolution across the episode s remarkable, channeling classic horror as her torso eerily hauls itself across La Sirena, before spending most of the running time in a Borg recovery mode, as if she’s a PC. And yet even when she’s silent, she remains a threat, like a coiled cybernetically-enhanced cobra waiting to pounce.

Dr. Jurati volunteers to face the monster head-on, hooking herself up to the Queen in an effort to reactivate key systems, before the Queen can assimilate her. The sequence is deceptively simple, its three-actor set-up giving it the feel of a stage play with a colossal production design budget. But despite the lack of simulated memory palaces or other VFX fireworks, the scene is remarkably gripping and tense, as Jurati goes through all the emotions trying to stay one step ahead of the invader in her subconscious.

Stealing information about the Watcher the Queen was using as a bargaining chip gives Jurati an unexpected upper hand, but she may have opened up a can of worms she isn’t prepared for. “What you have done is more difficult and vastly more dangerous than you realise,” the Queen says ominously. “You’ve impressed me.”

If we’ve learned anything about the Borg, it’s that brushes with assimilation tend to leave a mark – don’t be surprised if Jurati isn’t quite herself next week…


New episodes of Star Trek: Picard season 2 beam onto Paramount Plus (US) and Crave (Canada) on Thursdays. Viewers elsewhere can watch the show on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays. For more Trek action, check out our reviews of Star Trek: Discovery season 4.

The Verdict

3.5

3.5 out of 5

Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 3 review: “An antagonist to savor”

The latest incarnation of the Borg Queen is an antagonist to savor, but some jarring tonal shifts ensure that Picard’s second trip back to the 21st century isn’t quite as memorable as First Contact.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds casts its Captain Kirk https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-captain-kirk-paul-wesley/ https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-captain-kirk-paul-wesley/#respond Wed, 16 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-captain-kirk-paul-wesley/ Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has cast its Captain Kirk – Paul Wesley will be playing the iconic role in season 2 of the Paramount Plus series. Season 1 of the show has yet to air, so it’s a slightly unusual move to announce season 2 cast members already.  “I am deeply humbled and still …

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has cast its Captain Kirk – Paul Wesley will be playing the iconic role in season 2 of the Paramount Plus series. Season 1 of the show has yet to air, so it’s a slightly unusual move to announce season 2 cast members already. 

“I am deeply humbled and still a little startled to have been given the honor of playing the inimitable James T Kirk,” Wesley tweeted. “Ever since I was a kid, I have been awed by the imaginative world Gene Roddenberry created.”

I am deeply humbled and still a little startled to have been given the honor of playing the inimitable James T Kirk. Ever since I was a kid, I have been awed by the imaginative world Gene Roddenberry created. Recently, I boarded a flight to LA to discover that the man in the pic.twitter.com/U8GVD4ZemPMarch 15, 2022

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He also recounted a chance meeting with former Kirk actor William Shatner, adding: “Recently, I boarded a flight to LA to discover that the man in the empty seat beside me was the one and only William Shatner, having himself just returned from space. I could barely put two words together but ultimately I managed to say hello and we chatted.”

Strange New Worlds is set to be a direct prequel to The Original Series, which aired between 1966 and 1969 and starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as Kirk and Spock. It will follow the crew of the USS Enterprise in the years before it came under Captain Kirk’s leadership – Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck reprise their roles from Star Trek: Discovery, playing Captain Christopher Pike, Number One, and Spock respectively.

Wesley is best known for playing Stefan Salvatore in The CW series The Vampire Diaries between 2009 and 2017. He’s also had roles in shows like Smallville, 24, and Tell Me a Story.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 arrives on Paramount Plus on May 5. In the meantime, you can catch Star Trek: Picard season 2 airing weekly on Paramount Plus in the US and Prime Video in the UK. 

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The Fairly OddParents live-action trailer is here to ruin your childhood https://rb88betting.com/fairly-odd-parents-live-action-trailer/ https://rb88betting.com/fairly-odd-parents-live-action-trailer/#respond Thu, 24 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/fairly-odd-parents-live-action-trailer/ The Fairly OddParents live-action reboot has its first trailer – and people are not happy at their first look at the show.  The original series ran for 10 seasons between 2001 and 2017 and followed Timmy Turner (voiced by Tara Strong), a 10-year-old boy with neglectful parents and an unhappy life, who’s given two fairy …

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The Fairly OddParents live-action reboot has its first trailer – and people are not happy at their first look at the show. 

The original series ran for 10 seasons between 2001 and 2017 and followed Timmy Turner (voiced by Tara Strong), a 10-year-old boy with neglectful parents and an unhappy life, who’s given two fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda, to grant his every wish. However, these wishes usually backfire in some way and cause problems that Timmy has to fix, despite the well-meaning efforts of Cosmo and Wanda.

The reboot (titled The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder) is set several years later, with the fairy godparents now (attempting) to help Timmy’s younger cousin Vivian (Audrey Grace Marshall) and her new step-brother Roy (Tyler Wladis). Daran Norris and Susanne Blakeslee are reprising their voice roles as Cosmo and Wanda from the original series, in which they also voiced Timmy’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Turner. Timmy also makes an appearance as an adult – he’ll be played by Caleb Pierce this time around.

However, Twitter users have been left confused and disappointed by the trailer. “Remember when I’ve always said that The Fairly OddParents died a slow and painful death?” tweeted one user. “Well now it’s come back with a vengeance and became a fucking zombie.”

“Didn’t we already prove that “live-action Fairly Oddparents” gets mixed results, thanks to the THREE Nickelodeon movies?” said another

“Please. I’m begging you @Nickelodeon PLEASE let this franchise die,” wrote someone else. “It should have been allowed to end decades ago. Either have the creators come up with something new or find new creators instead of just doing “The Fairly Oddparents” & “SpongeBob SquarePants” all the time.”

The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder starts streaming on Paramount Plus on March 31. For further viewing inspiration, check out our list of the best Netflix shows that you can stream right now. 

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Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 2 review: “The cold vacuum of space is where it comes to life” https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-season-4-episode-2-review-spoilers/ https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-season-4-episode-2-review-spoilers/#respond Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/star-trek-season-4-episode-2-review-spoilers/ Warning: This Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 2 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk… So what is it? After announcing its arrival in spectacular, planet-obliterating style last week, the mysterious mass of destruction that’s threatening the Federation gets title billing and a …

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Warning: This Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 2 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…

So what is it? After announcing its arrival in spectacular, planet-obliterating style last week, the mysterious mass of destruction that’s threatening the Federation gets title billing and a lot more screentime. ‘Anomaly’ also ups the emotion on the season opener, as Book struggles to come to terms with the loss of his family and his homeworld, Kwejian. 

The result is a slightly jarring mix of hard sci-fi and clunky introspection that fails to coalesce into a coherent whole. Ironically, the cold vacuum of space is where the episode comes to life, the visually stunning, Christopher Nolan-like elements of the story more accomplished than the soul-searching on the Discovery bridge. 

A whopping five light years across and leaving carnage in its wake, the anomaly that destroyed Kwejian instantly forces itself to the top of Starfleet’s agenda. Evacuation plans for the worlds in its path are rapidly put into place, but with the Federation still a shadow of its pre-Burn self, the threat of civil unrest looms large. It’s time, then, for Discovery to spool up the spore drive once again, for a mission to research the hell out of this undefinable invader.

For all the disruption the anomaly is causing for the Federation, its effect on the guilt-ridden Book is even more profound. As he obsessively plays back footage of the spooked birds and debris that were the prologue to his planet’s destruction, the flickering images of the episode’s opening may leave you wondering if you need to adjust your set.

Star Trek Discovery season 4 episode 2 'Anomoly'

(Image credit: Michael Gibson/ViacomCBS)

Unsurprisingly, he’s desperate to take a lead in the research mission, leaving Michael Burnham with a quandary: yes, Book’s experience makes him the logical candidate to pilot his shapeshifting ship into the gravitational maelstrom, but perhaps his fragile emotional state makes it too dangerous for him to go. Burnham’s responsibilities as a Starfleet captain and as Book’s partner are suddenly in direct opposition.

Luckily for her, Saru has left behind his advisory role on Kaminar to dispense fortune-cookie wisdom at her side. He’s turned down the command of the USS Sojourner (named after Nasa’s late-’90s Mars rover) to return to Discovery as Burnham’s first officer, and the reassignment feels rather contrived. All the hugs and “old friend” exchanges suggest they’ve forgotten how Saru fired Burnham as his own number one in season 3 episode ‘Scavengers‘ for her failure to follow orders. Is that now just water under the bridge? Or is this the writers’ effort to imitate the Kirk/Spock dynamic of the original Star Trek, with the more impulsive captain receiving advice from their alien BFF/Jiminy Cricket? If the latter is indeed the case, it’s been a convoluted journey to get there.

Though it’s not a particularly surprising development, seeing as most of Discovery’s crew are trending towards sainthood. Like Saru, Dr. Culber has evolved into an oasis of implausible calm and competence, so skilled in everything he does that he’s becoming too good to be true. 

Not only is he fulfilling a role as ship’s counselor for Tilly (the events of recent months have taken their toll on even the ship’s most upbeat officer), he’s about to come good on his promise to give Gray a physical form. Yes, the new artificial body is cunningly explained away by referring to the “Soong method” – an 800-year-old technology that, fans of Star Trek: Picard will recall, had a spectacularly restorative effect on a certain former Enterprise captain – but surely the process shouldn’t be quite so easy? The promise of a new form is a joyful moment for Adira and Gray that doesn’t feel earned, especially when you compare it to the long-running sagas of Data and the Doctor’s efforts to become more human on The Next Generation and Voyager.

The increasingly pivotal Culber also has a role in the away mission to the anomaly, hooking Stamets up to the hologram that will fill in for him at Book’s side. (Side note: If Starfleet officers can now hook themselves up to a real-time holo-version of themselves, surely that makes all future off-ship adventures null and void? Why would any responsible commanding officer put a human in harm’s way if a hologram can do the job just as well?)

The trip into the anomaly is predictably eventful. Book’s ship takes something of a pounding, but it’s even worse for Discovery, waiting outside in the supposed ‘safe zone’ – the bridge crew being thrown into the air by malfunctioning artificial gravity shows off some truly inventive VFX work. Under normal circumstances, a commander would pull their people out, but Book is so obsessed with gathering data that he’d give the CEO of a social media company a run for their money. 

He’s also dealing with visions of his late nephew, Leto, and the fact he’s sitting next to the worst (virtual) co-pilot imaginable. It makes sense that Stamets still has issues to work through after his entire family were nearly lost on the dilithium planet in season 3 episode ‘There is a Tide…‘ – who wouldn’t? – but surely a decorated Starfleet officer would be disciplined enough to stop talking about it for a couple of hours? Otherwise he wouldn’t be on the mission. The whole storyline feels like emotional beats are being crowbarred in at the expense of the story.

That said, there’s no doubt the true star of ‘Anomaly’ is the entity that gives the episode its name. Recent Star Trek series have dealt with threats from Klingons, Borg, Romulans, rogue AI, and criminal cartels, but none of them are quite as chilling as this vast, unknowable object – all the background talk of real-life physics such as black holes and gravitational waves only adds to its mystique. The unexpected change of direction identified at the episode’s end reveals a ‘monster’ that can’t be reasoned with, and we’re pretty sure it doesn’t feel pity or remorse either. Getting the Federation out of this mess is going to require a lot more than diplomacy…


New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 beam onto Paramount Plus on Thursdays in the US and Crave in Canada. UK viewers can watch episodes on Pluto TV from November 26

The Verdict

3.5

3.5 out of 5

Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 2 review: “The cold vacuum of space is where it comes to life”

Some big ideas and spectacular visuals suggest Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is going to push the boundaries of its “boldly going where no one has gone before” remit. What a shame the heavy-handed emotional beats aren’t quite so accomplished…

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Avatar: The Last Airbender creators tease “very ambitious” plans to expand the universe https://rb88betting.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-creators-tease-very-ambitious-plans-to-expand-the-universe/ https://rb88betting.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-creators-tease-very-ambitious-plans-to-expand-the-universe/#respond Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://rb88betting.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-creators-tease-very-ambitious-plans-to-expand-the-universe/ When the world needed Avatar most, it vanished. But now the fan favorite animated franchise is back – and has the potential to be bigger than ever before. Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have teased the sheer scope of the newly formed Avatar Studios on the Braving the Elements …

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When the world needed Avatar most, it vanished. But now the fan favorite animated franchise is back – and has the potential to be bigger than ever before.

Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have teased the sheer scope of the newly formed Avatar Studios on the Braving the Elements podcast (opens in new tab) (H/T ComicBook.com (opens in new tab)).

Konietzko told the hosts that the pair currently have a “very ambitious, multi-tiered” plan that will explore the “rich, largely untapped history and future in the Avatar world.”

The plans for the Avatar universe are so grand that DiMartino joked that there could be decades of stories ahead of us.

“We have all the ideas and ideally we’re going to get to, over the years, explore all of them and get to make them, but it’ll take some time. If we make all this stuff, you guys will just be podcasting for about the next 20 years or so,” DiMartino said.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series The Legend of Korra were hugely popular ventures on Nickelodeon and launched a multi-million dollar empire, though each mainline series only scratched the surface of a world dense with lore and untold histories. Now, there is serious backing for the creators to achieve their vision.

But it’s been a long road to get to this point. The original series launched in 2005, while a live-action 2010 movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan stumbled critically. Netflix even hired both DiMartino and Konietzko to develop a live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender, but the pair left the project in August 2020 and returned to Nickelodeon for the formation of Avatar Studios.

In March, ViacomCBS announced in a statement (opens in new tab) that streaming service Paramount+ would be home to “a wide-range of Avatar-inspired content, ranging from spinoffs and theatricals to short form.”

Things, it seems, are looking promising – and the franchise could even escalate into an MCU-style universe filled with spinoffs, shorts, and completely new series that should set the world on fire once more. There’s never been a better time to be an Avatar fan.

Need something to watch this month? Here’s what’s new on Netflix and new on Disney Plus this July.

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