"Et In Arcadia Ego, Part 1" – Star Trek: Picard S1E09
Look at them. They’ve never met anyone like you before, that granite face, wisdom and integrity etched into every line. The eloquence, the conviction…they don’t know what hit them. —Dr. Altan Inigo Soong Soong’s criticizadmiration of Picard might as well…
DuckTales, Family, and the Surprisingly Insightful Deathtrap
This review contains spoilers for Woo-oo!, the pilot for the 2017 reboot of DuckTales. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s on YouTube for free (as of the publishing of this article) and the full series is streaming on Disney+.…
"Stardust City Rag" – Star Trek: Picard S1E05
Note: I can’t very well begin this article any other way than the episode did: with spoilers. Make sure you’ve seen “Stardust City Rag” before reading any further, as well as Voyager’s season 7 episode “Imperfection.” Picard still thinks there’s…
"Absolute Candor" – Star Trek: Picard S1E04
It’s so empty. I mean, of course, right? It’s right there in the name: “space.” It’s not like it’s called “vast quantities of stuff.” Although, come to think of it, there are over three billion stars in our galaxy alone…
My Top Ten 2019: David Atwell
My 2019 Top Ten list is going to look pretty ridiculous to almost everyone who reads it. I didn’t get a chance to see a lot of the end-of-year Oscar contenders, as a result of a new baby right at…
"Maps and Legends" – Star Trek: Picard S1E02
Dr. Moritz Benayoun: You really want to go back out into the cold…knowing… Jean-Luc Picard: More than ever, knowing. —“Maps and Legends” In stories, there are two types of rest: a state of rest or calm, usually temporary, where a…
Wow Signal: Finding Hope in the Stars
The old joke around the search for alien life goes, “‘is there intelligent life out there?’ I don’t even know if there’s intelligent life down here on Earth!” Nyuck nyuck, rimshot, slide whistle, tip your waitresses, try the veal. It…
The Force is Strong In My Family: A Look Back at the Star Wars Saga
The saga that created the modern blockbuster is “over.” And while The Mandalorian, a plethora of upcoming Disney+ shows, and a still-rumored Rian Johnson trilogy will keep the Far, Far Away galaxy on our screens until the heat death of…
The Mandalorian Chapters 7 and 8: Failure's Favor
It was almost impossible to review and comment on “The Reckoning” without seeing “The Redemption.” Chapters 7 and 8 are the show’s first true two-part episode; they’re truly and completely entwined and inextricable from one another, and with Deborah Chow…