Watching season 3 of "Picard" is getting to be onerous. The number of errors due to basic facts of being in space seem to increase with each episode.
Also I'm finding this very irritating:
Hidden text.
The plastic surgery done to the faces of the actresses who portray Deanna Troi and Beverly Crusher seems to me to be particularly horrible. Every time Beverly has a line, I'm pulled out of the moment, filled with horror at what they've done to her face. What's wrong with honest wrinkles? The male actors have plenty of them and it's OK. I keep thinking back to the movie, "Star Trek Insurrection" where the villains have super stretched facial skin and wondering how they'd compare to that. (I just looked up old pics from that movie, though, and it isn't the same sort of stretch.)
Oh, and also... how the heck did a *doctor* in that day and age accidentally get pregnant? It had to be a deliberate act. Maybe the rest of the series will shed some light on that.
Anyway, so far I'm wishing I'd stopped at season 2.
If you are looking for hard science fiction, you are in the wrong place. Star Trek is space opera, and it's good at it. I try not to puzzle out the lack of scientific accuracy, such as why people aren't squashed flat every time they accelerate. I don't buy the whole "inertial damper" thing, since these same dampers seem to go mysteriously off line, resulting in people dramatically flying all over the bridge, whenever the ship is hit by a particularly hard beam of light. So I choose not to think about it. It's like when I watch Game of Thrones and start to wonder about the aerodynamics of a dragon, then say "wait a minute - it's a dragon - this is not reality". Just go along for the ride
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
I prefer space opera that has decent science in it. I dropped out of StarTrek Discovery very early on, due to their idiotic spore drive.
Another thing I dislike about the Picard third season, is that the writers seem to have a near complete lack of understanding on how the chain of command works. That wasn't terribly obvious in the first two seasons, but it is a great, big, glaring wrongness in season 3.
As far as inertial dampeners go-- if one can have artificial gravity, one can have inertial dampeners. They are the same sort of thing. And if the inertial dampeners were only partially overloaded, then the people wouldn't get instantly squished to jelly on a back wall due to suddenly experiencing the real accelerations going on. That's one thing that doesn't bother me about the series.
We've been watching "Beacon 23" lately. I got a little frustrated with the cliffhanger on the latest available episode recently and bought the book the show is supposedly based on. So far, besides the lighthouse in space concept, the TV series has very little in common with the series of short stories that comprise the book.
I wonder why they do that? So far, the book isn't really good enough to be worth a TV series at all. Why pay an author to make their book into TV and then change almost every little detail? I don't understand.
Is anyone else watching Arcane? I think its one of the most visually stunning things I've seen in years. Season 2, and the conclusion of the Series just released and its incredible/
Here's the trailer for Season 1, to avoid spoilers
When I first saw the actor, I was worried he would play ye olde soldier boy, but no, he's wonderful, he captures the humor and the awkwardness of the character.
And I am so thrilled that they actually filmed bits of The Sanctuary Moon!
"Aargragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
Alatar wrote: ↑Thu Apr 10, 2025 1:44 pm
Whats it based on Frelga? Looks great!
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. The first book is All Systems Red. It's a delight, I highly recommend it.
"Aargragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
I listened to "All Systems Red" and while it was OK... I felt no need to continue the story. I pictured Murderbot as gender neutral, leaning towards female, though. It's weird to see the actor they chose in that role. He's not androgynous at all.
I may have to switch our streaming service to watch this next month. It'll be the first time we've tried Apple +.
We try to only have one streaming service active at a time (not counting Prime) , so we'll have to finish what we are watching on Disney +Hulu soon. It *is* spring though. We really don't watch TV much in the non-winter months.
My latest TV obsession: “The Pitt” on Max. It just finished its first season of 15 shows, so it can be streamed. The entire season is one day in a busy, underfunded emergency room in a Pittsburgh hospital, with each show being one hour of the day crew’s shift. Noah Wyle, who was young Dr. Carter on “E.R.,” plays the lead doctor, who tries to hold the department, the new residents and himself together while still suffering from PTSD brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. I recommend it.
Take my hand, my friend. We are here to walk one another home.
YouTube is serving me medical/first responder comedy shorts, in its wisdom, and I've seen them speak of Pitt very highly as the most realistic medical drama.
"Aargragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
I'm watching both "Watson" and "Sherlock and Daughter", making a mental shift between the two. "Watson" is a present day version of Dr. Watson, running a clinic solving medical mysteries, after the death of Holmes. I've seen about 6 episodes so far. They remind me of the old series "Quincy" about a medical examiner solving murders, but in this case, most of the people with medical mysteries are still alive, and Watson's team is trying to keep them that way.
"Sherlock and Daughter" is set in the original time period, with lovely set designs and a very clever girl invigilating herself into Holmes' life. The girl has read everything Dr Watson has published and that inspired her to travel from California to London to see Mr Holmes, and claim him as her father. It wasn't too clear why, but neither Dr Watson nor Mrs Hudson are on scene for this version. I've only seen the first one of that series. I would call both series charming and somewhat light weight, but perhaps they will mature. Not yet obsession level watching at this point.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus