I was prepared to come in with a half-assed gag about how this is one of the episodes of all time…but I disliked it even more than I remembered.

It’s not silly enough to be a romp, and it’s not scary enough to be a horror (despite seeming like a Halloween episode, this one apparently aired in April). It doesn’t really engage with the time period or Shakespeare himself in a meaningful way. It’s just blandly there, for the most part.

It’s not very kind to Martha. The Doctor dismisses her concerns about being a Black woman in Elizabethan London. She doesn’t get to do any meaningful doctoring, which would have given her some agency in the story. They didn’t even make her a theatre nerd - she seems to have about as much familiarity with Shakespeare as the average person. But hey, she got to feel sad about the Doctor being hung up on Rose. Character development.

Shakespeare himself doesn’t get much, either - I actually think his initial “rock star” introduction is pretty fun, but he’s little more than a series of gags after that. Much is made about his genius, and his grief over losing Hamnet, but neither comes through in the writing or performance.

Sprinkle in too many references to Rowling that have aged like milk, and we’ve got an episode that I have no desire to revisit again any time soon.

Seven dead as of current reporting, with an unknown number of injuries.

Let’s hope those numbers don’t grow too much.

I don’t think I can agree with that - plenty of Lower Decks episodes seemed reverse-engineered around whatever legacy actors they were able to book, and other legacy actors were just sort of…stuffed in there.

I would agree that they always crafted meaningful stories around that stuff, but that stuff is still pretty foundational - moreso than perhaps any show besides the third season of Picard, which I would enthusiastically hold up as an example of “fan service” (I don’t love the term, but whatever, it fits) done very poorly.

I don’t recall saying I liked the idea. That has no bearing on my interest in discerning what the hell you were talking about.

That interest has reached its limit, though.

Where’s the comparison?

You seem to be taking the fact that they rejected a pitch for a show that you think is a bad idea as evidence that they don’t know what they’re doing, which is…truly dizzying.

Edit: Holy autocorrect.

That’s an awfully strong reaction to a rejected pitch…

It’s very unclear when, exactly, this pitch was made.

But heck, Jean-Luc Picard was 59 to Stewart’s 47, so I’m not sure it matters.

I don’t think the CBC can say “fraudulently” because fraud is a crime and he hasn’t been charged, let alone convicted.

“Allegedly” doesn’t work, because the facts aren’t in dispute.

But I agree, “erroneously” also seems wrong. They probably should have just left the adverb out of it.

Are they comfortable?

Opinions vary (naturally), but I think it’s pretty darned good.

I would expect any comic crossover to live in the realm of “banging your action figures together.”

And hey, the third season of Picard proved that that formula can work in any medium!

The nice thing here is that what he’s saying has been corroborated by Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman - it feels much more like his side of the story, rather than the usual RTD bluster and bombast.

As for SNW…I’m sure I could write essays about it, but this is hardly the right community (maybe we should set something up for Star Trek…?). I think the bottom line is that I’m glad they’ve been pushing the boundaries of what people expect in the 2020s, and have embraced the chaotic TOS Season 3 energy. I also have a weird appreciation for the fact that they’ve been so episodic, it may have given the “I want episodic Trek” crowd some things to reconsider.

But it is not my favourite series of the current era, and has been pretty squarely up the middle for me. I suspect its overall reception will be revised upward over time, as tends to happen.

Connor Who-lebuyk?

Old news, new details!

It reached the point where me and Steven Moffat had tickets booked to go to LA to go to the writers room to try to work out how to do it. And we were talking about more than one episode. And then it’s going to be, in fairness, the nightmare was, with the impossible of it would be to get Disney and Paramount to share it.

It does tend to be difficult for this stuff - the negotiations over “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” are the stuff of legend.

I always thought it had to be Strange New Worlds because I said ‘you’ve got to get the Doctor on the Enterprise’ – rather than on Discovery or something so far back. We were talking about it. Just the Doctor on the Enterprise and say, Spock on the TARDIS. Nurse Chapel on the TARDIS is one because she is a companion, isn’t she?

If they weren’t planning to have La’An meet Lorna Bucket, what are we even doing here?

But they love conspiracy theories! What a conundrum!

Yeah, the episode goes out of its way to establish that both families are very well-intentioned.

somehow, there doesn’t appear to be a legal system with a metal sphere gavel and the social worker from Mrs Doubtfire presiding just yet

The adoptive and biological parents couldn’t decide on which planet’s law should apply, and mutually agreed to Sisko as a mediator. Which seems questionable, but at least they addressed it, I suppose.

And yeah, there are no winners here, but all other things being equal, it probably should be policy to return children to their birth families.

I like that Martha feels a bit more clued in than Rose/Donna from the get go.

RTD really did the Earthbound continuity better than anyone (really, I don’t think anyone else even tried). One oddity in this episode is Martha commenting on the alien incursions of the past couple of years, and yet Morgenstern later spouts off that Mr. Saxon was right in his belief in extraterrestrials.

The straw bit is a funny joke, and is probably peak dark humour in this episode.

I like that stupid straw a lot - the episode strikes a pretty good balance of madcap insanity. Anne Reid plays the plasmavore with a good energy, as well.

Martha’s an enjoyable character, but it’s a real shame she gets bogged down by the unrequited love arc. It works well enough in this episode - the Doctor’s behaviour throughout the adventure could easily be mistaken for flirting, and how can you not fall in love with David Tennant just a little bit? But it’s a shame it didn’t end here.

Stray thought: small universe syndrome aside, I sort of wish Clive’s girlfriend Annalise had been Nerys instead.

I think it’s pretty common knowledge, but “Judoon platoon upon the moon” was written into the script specifically because it would be hard for David Tennant to say with an English accent.

Ah, I gotcha.

Honestly, I think it’s a reasonable call. Sidewalks are often very narrow and poorly-maintained, and keeping them to designated pathways, which are wider and designed for higher-speed bikes and the like, is a good call.

That said, there aren’t nearly enough of those pathways.