Sandman

I think I read somewhere that the name "Lirpa" derives from a dialect of Old Vulcan, localized around the ancient traditional capital, from a word which can be translated, roughly, as "cleavage revealer."

Hee. Tell that to David Lynch’s Dune. Welcome, @historylover820! For whatever it’s worth, I’m right where you are in both my excitement and my wariness about this show — as well as my growing disappointment with ST: Picard. Your point about the implausibility of often sending two thirds of the senior staff on away missions is well taken — I mean, of course the script demands of genre tv that make the commanding officer also Chief Adventurer in Charge work against realistic depiction of protocol to some degree, but at least we know it’s possible to assemble an away team whose loss wouldn’t imperil the ship’s command structure. I’m still working out why and how the captain has a full bar in his quarters. “Number One, please report to my Rumpus Roo — er, Ready Room.”

:: secretly wonders how a culture as logical and pragmatic as Vulcan society, even in its most savage era, could have come up with a weapon as ungainly as the Lirpa, surely the most unwieldy, victory-proof weapon in the known universe ::

Wesley! An AI lawgiver always seemed like a mark of a pretty technologically advanced culture, to me. But I guess the planet was pre-warp, which was enough to invoke the Mind Your Knitting Directive. My memory of that episode is blessedly faint faulty.

I was thinking of TOS in my comment about the Prime Directive ("That'll never stick!" was a little on the nose, there, Chris) but I think there may have been times where the TNG crew played a little fast and loose with it, too? (It occurs to me that a non-interference principle is arguably somewhat contrary to the premise of an adventure show. ("Wagon Train To The Stars, but, like, noble!")

Thank you! That was in the back of my mind throughout the episode. Maybe I’m sentimental, but I think I liked Cadet Uhura (“the prodigy”) best of all. Did not expect the bait-and-switch to Sam Kirk, but I’m enjoying the little nods to TOS canon. That makes me easy, I suppose. Overall, I liked it. It seems more genuinely optimistic than any current Trek series, including the increasingly dire Picard, season 2. Mount has an appealing mixture of gravitas, warmth, and vulnerability, and Ethan Peck continues to grow on me. Don’t have a clear sense of Number One yet. And, let’s face it: the Prime Directive was always honoured more in the breach than abided by, anyway.

Oh, so was I! I was about to ask for a show of hands.

Go, Tank!

Doesn’t that make it worse? That the various branches aren’t communicating well enough to share such a purpose? They must REALLY hate Simone at the Academy. Ehh. The more I think about this, the less sense it’s making to me. Time to stop.

What I found weird was that her help was so urgently needed that the FBI dispatched a helicopter to fetch her, and then from the moment she arrived they treated her like an interloper who was sticking her nose into their Extra-Secret FBI Business. She didn’t fly herself there, boys! Also, I’m a big fan of Filion; I am. But it seems like awkward, transparently producer-service level flattery for Simone to single out Nolan as “handsome” when resident prettyboy Sergeant Tim and his jawline are right. There. (No one thinks you’re chopped liver, Nathan — I promise! Yeeesh.)

Definitely felt like a back door pilot. That’s not a compliment.

There’s deeper examination, and there’s pulling retcon crap out of its ass. This version of Picard seems far less functional than we’ve known him to be. I’m having a hard time buying this backstory about childhood trauma, because Picard’s reserve has been made to seem pathological in a way that doesn’t feel organic or justified to me. I totally thought that Maurice (Callis) was a version of Bashir, too. And I admit it: I found the “I work in outer space” Voyage Home callback kind of cute. They’d better not go to that well many more times, but it was cute.

Me. Too!

I'm sure there's lots of personal drama on the way, judging by the secret death glare that Sara the Seemingly Random Teacher of Hungarian sent Forrester's way at the very end there. (Start bringing Tank to your Hungarian lessons, Forrester, yikes!)

I think there’s an irony (dare I say a delicious one?) in the fact that in an episode dominated by the theme of clueless Americans getting their grubby mitts all over precious French culture, the American transplant chef dude names his restaurant “l’Essence,” which means “Gasoline.” (I’m sure the food is great, though.)

Hmm. I'm not totally sold on this one (it might be too dark for me overall), but, for what it's worth, it's vastly better than the muddled and draggy Iron Fist; and Eternals wasn't perfect, but it wasn't the character-assassination-fest that I found Thor: Ragnarok to be.

Certainly Khonshu has arrogance down pat. I'm not sure how else to account for the gap between "Our case against Harrow has to be indisputable!" and the yelly mess of that inquisition. Hey, Crazy Pissed-Off Moon Guy, did you ever think maybe you want to, I don't know, prepare? Your current avatar is broken right down the middle, has no idea what's going on, your previous avatar thinks killing people is just the most fun ever, and your idea of making your case is shouting until the meatsuit's throat is shredded? I think the rest of the senior class just shoved into your stone-lined locker not according to some code of cosmic justice, but because you're an annoying, tantrum-throwing wanker.

I'm spoiler-free (and behind by an episode) but I'm wondering if the name "Steven Grant" was chosen for (what's looking more and more like) Spector's cover personality because those are Captain America's first and middle names?

I will readily join you in the hope -- dare I say expectation? -- of seeing Agnes unleash her crouching badass, inner digital dragon.

Sting was the WTF? casting for me. Dean Stockwell was an odd choice, I agree, but Sting was clankingly stunt-cast, completely wrong for the role, and appeared to be trying to compensate for it by screaming some of his lines more or less at random. Everyone else I could mostly live with — and I rather liked Annis as Jessica. I did feel bad for Siân Phillips, since it seemed a shame to me that someone of her ability was getting deliberate direction from Lynch to gnaw on any nearby scenery.

No; no, it is not. Indeed, I’d venture to say that few things in the entire fifty-odd year canon of Trek can match that level of deranged and creepifyin’. It’s this aspect I was thinking of, in particular — though I think your analysis is pretty spot-on in general.

She creeps me out, too: to that extent, Annie Wersching seems just as effective to me as Susannah Thompson or Alice Krige. I find it a bit disappointing that this plot thread is the second time in as many seasons that Agnes becomes something of a Trojan horse. I was enjoying the Seven Adam Raffi Buddy Cop show, though, and seeing Rios deal with the 21st century. Am I the only one who thought that was just the tiniest bit rich coming from the guy who peopled La Sirena with versions of himself?

No doubt it was in character for the Baron (as much as anything in Lynch's fever-dream of a movie could be said to be in line with the characterizations in the book) to install grotty kill switches in his underlings -- but I found the whole thing so distasteful (and kind of overkill) that I couldn't really think of it as being innovative or interesting -- well, I didn't want to think about those things at all, really!) I think it's the degree of exaggeration that doesn't sit right with me -- as with so many things!

It might just be that it's time for me to reread the first novel (and ... maybe finish the original series?) but I never remembered the Baron using his suspensor rig to rise as high as he seems to in the various adaptations -- merely to simulate walking around under his own power. But it's possible I'm wrong about that. (I will stipulate for the record -- not that anyone asked me, of course -- my entire conviction that the so-called "Harkonnen heart plugs" appear nowhere in the novel and are solely an invention of the Lynch movie. No amount of doubt about my memory of the books will shake that conviction. Er, pray, carry on.)

I can't believe I forgot about Leto's final confrontation with the Duke! It really was heartbreaking. Thanks for the reminder (I ... think?) The end of his life is truly tragic. I agree that Yueh somehow gets off lightly in Villeneuve's version, Yueh's betrayal -- and the horror that it evokes -- being almost literally unthinkable in the novel. I do like Rebecca Ferguson generally, and I think there's much good in her performance here, but Villeneuve's way of externalizing Jessica's conflicts weakens the core of the character. I've always thought that looking to the prequel novels to fill in the characterizations felt like cheating somehow. Full disclosure: I've never read any of the prequels (stopped after God Emperor) -- I always dogged by the feeling that there was something cheaply mercenary about them. Why does every adaptation of the novel pretend that the Baron can basically fly? I never had that impression from the book (he bobs along, too fat to carry his own weight. He's not soaring to the vault of the ceiling!) That image of the Baron rising and rising out of his Tar Bath of Eeeeevill (or whatever the kull wahad that was) was laughable -- the biggest misstep of the film, to me; certainly it was the only visual that pulled me directly out of the story. (I was too busy thinking "Whaaaa? Nope!")