Review| Reel Redemption
Reel Redemption is a visual essay by film critic and academic Tyler Smith about the conflicts between Hollywood and Christianity. He has a solid grasp on how we got to where we are, and in just under an hour, with…
Trektember: Trials and Tribble-ations
The original Star Trek was sometimes over-dramatic, but it was always dramatic. It was aiming for a kind of weighty seriousness, a sense that things really mattered; except in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” Then they just had fun, even poking…
Trektember: Duet
“Duet” remains my favorite episode of Deep Space Nine, derivative of Robert Shaw’s The Man in the Glass Booth as it may be. Not just mine; it was featured in The Museum of Television and Radio’s 1994 “Tribute to Excellence;”…
Trektember: The War Without, The War Within | Star Trek: Discovery
“We created something today in a desolate wasteland that had never seen life.” —Michael Here is a terrific episode, the best one of the season. It floats through what feels like the perfectly toned middle act of a great submarine…
Trektember: What's Past is Prologue | Star Trek: Discovery
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled…
Trektember: Firestorm | The Orville
One episode after she put out a fire for a joke, Alara is so terrified of fire that a crewman dies due to her hesitation in the face of some fire. It’s not an auspicious beginning. There are a lot…
Trektember: The Wrath of Khan | Classics
If it had been the only Star Trek thing ever, we would simply regard Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan as a great movie, like The Adventures of Robin Hood, Seven Samurai, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or The Dark…
Trektember: Into the Forest I Go | Star Trek: Discovery
This was the first episode where, for me, the Klingon scenes weren’t insufferable. Their speech finally sounded like language and actual communication rather than ceremonial correcting and positioning. It’s a too-common mistake made by shows set in cultures of deep…
Trektember: Krill | The Orville
This is the episode that brought me back to The Orvile after what I saw as a shockingly dull, unfunny and vacuous first episode made it the lowest of priorities for me. Here I saw what Seth MacFarlane was really…
Trektember: Star Trek: The Motion Picture | Classics
In Which Spock Gets His Heart I unabashedly love this movie, and pretty much have since I got it on a videotape. The opening scene is fantastic. It really *is* visually and musically a lovely movie. Almost 40 years after…