If Locarno had kidnapped like Harry Kim or Geordi or some shit and put them on that viewscreen like he did Mariner, we would have had a full episode’s worth of them interminably trying to find a way to play along and send a secret message out and agonizing over the situation, when just yelling “this guy’s an idiot and his plan is stupid” is genuinely a vastly better plan.

I adore how campy this looks, but I'm so frustrated by the constant shoehorning of Kirk into the show. Maybe if the performance were interesting or there was something compelling about him it would be different, but he just seems to drag down the show whenever he appears (outside of the episode with La'an, but really, she was doing all of the work in that one).

Judging by Nacelle's website, it looks like once again these will be expensive display figures that kids can't play with.

As a parent of young Star Trek fans, the fact that this is the worst-merchandised franchise in the world is incredibly annoying

Freeman said she planned to take them to Earth to have them figure out how to keep everyone alive, but my guess is that inside, she was using this to pass the buck to someone else and privately was pessimistic about the chances of figuring out a way to separate them without Janewaying them. That feels like a very Freeman thought process. But yeah, they ought to have said something on screen.

The Bill thing at least is a joke about TNG season 1 - they had Troi call him Bill and it was in the early series bible that Picard would call him William and he would be called Bill by "close female friends." I hate these shorts (although I'm glad they exist for the animation, at least), but that was a pretty funny callback.

“Kahless, the first one, the original one, the one who did impressions” is just, I have no words

Reno partying with Hysperians –– now that is a show I want to watch

Probably because he sucks

Oops you just explained all of Enterprise

I've seen people suggest adding alcohol, but I think the idea is to simulate that Klingon coffee would have a sharpness or bite to it, rather than assuming that raktajino on the show would actually have alcohol. I played around with some recipes for fun and I actually mixed a few together and found something pretty delicious. I mix Turkish coffee, a small amount of whipped milk, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and a little honey.

It’s gratifying to see how much the fandom — however split people are about this season — has embraced Mille Gibson, because she’s truly phenomenal.

I was worried when people ran with the “she’s being replaced” story (which they thankfully clarified) and started to go with a classic sexist “she’s hard to work with” story (which turned out to be that she got tired on night shoots, being basically an actual child when they started filming) that the fandom would pile on her, and I’m glad that people are recognizing her talent. However the character turned out, she was pretty flawless in the role. Delivering a performance like 73 Yards on your first week at a new job when you’re eighteen years old is pretty impressive.

I just finished watching Space Babies - I have to say, I missed this. It’s been a long time since Doctor Who was fun - I love all Doctor Who, even the bad ones (especially the bad ones) but my heart is really with the bizarre, campy, man-in-a-rubber-suit style episodes like this one. If anyone was worried this was going to get Disney-fied, this is RTD at the most RTD. I might as well have been watching the Ninth Doctor take Rose to the End of the World. Ncuti is the Doctor the very instant he steps on screen, and the Doctor/Ruby chemistry is absolutely perfect. I don’t love her being a mystery box but as long as the explanation is suitably weird I’ll go with it.

A bit of a new experience for me in that this time I got to watch it with my daughter — she’s nine and a huge Trek fan. She liked Church on Ruby Road and we watched a bit of other doctors, but I wasn’t sure she’d take to this, but she was just beaming the whole time. Bit of a new experience for me because other than some Tom Baker episodes on old VHS tapes, I was an adult by the time I came to DW. It’s fun to see it through the eyes of a child.

Also, uh, did the Doctor just suggest that the world of Star Trek is real in his universe?

I loved this issue. If they ever decide to canonize anything in the comics, I hope it's this one.

I wish we had a few more Jackie Tyler opportunities for Carla and Cherry. I was sort of bummed we didn’t get a hero moment for Carla in the finale — and Ruby going on about her “real mum” with Carla right there made me feel just awful for her.

Their capital city being a bunch of egg-shaped buildings around a giant birdcage building was a hilarious touch.

They would 100% never let files with Trump's name in it out. This is going to absolutely backfire on the Democrats when the Republicans inevitably release a doctored list with all their political enemies on it. This is so much better for the Dems when the files are a big MacGuffin. Even if by some miracle they did release the actual list and Trump was on it, they would say it was a witch hunt by the corrupt Biden administration and MAGA would eat it up. There will never be legal consequences for any of them, ever. If they ever do get consequences it will be because of some brave Luigi.

Just upfront, hopefully not here (you never know) but definitely elsewhere, you're going to run into a lot of the usual bigots telling you that DOctor wHO EnDED wiTH cApaLDi. Coincidentally, the end of Capaldi's run basically dovetails with when social media algorithms started giving these people brain worms, so everything after that is wOkE gArBaGe while everything before it, with exactly the same messages and techniques, is galaxy brain stuff. They can't deal with a woman or Black man being on screen so just ignore them, please. (That said, the Thirteenth Doctor's run is...not great, but certainly not because of those reasons.) If you are concerned about things like a "woke agenda" then Doctor Who is very, very much not the show for you - this has been an important part of the show's DNA since the 60s.

I've loved Doctor Who for thirty years, and seen nearly every episode of every Doctor. The thing about Doctor Who is that it's goofy and campy, and that ends up with it being dated sometimes, sometimes moreso than other shows. This isn't a bad thing! It's charming and fun, but depending on the kind of viewer you are, that might mean that you want to start with the current series (it's loads of fun and the current Doctor and companion are exceptional), and then watch the older ones in context.

However, that's going to get you only about six episodes so far. If you really want a project, I'd say start with the 2005 series (the Ninth Doctor) and go from there. You're going to run into quite a bit that's very early 2000s, but the fun, camp, and drama, are all on display. I know others will say you can start with the first series of the Eleventh Doctor, but to me you'll run into a really turgid arc of the showrunner tediously and self-referentially mystery boxing over and over far too soon. This is stuff you ignore when you've been watching for a while (or can skip) but it might demoralize you to get into it and then get to molasses so soon.

The classic series are very different - not in terms of story, but format. I love them, I started with the Fourth Doctor, but it's not to everyone's taste. They are shorter arcs or four or six twenty-minute episodes, with drastically lower production values and slower pacing. One of the best stories involves the Doctor fighting essentially spray-painted green bubble wrap on a set that sort of looks like a bathroom. If you're up for it, it's wonderful, but it's very different visually and structurally than modern shows.

Are you implying that there’s a joke in a Canon Connections post? Inconceivable.

I have to say, I did not have "canonizing the Shalka Doctor" on my Doctor Who bingo card for this series

Knowing a few people who have worked on series that ended up looking for new networks, I feel pretty confident that for zillions of reasons (both legal and promotional) they would never have shown this footage if it wasn't basically a done deal –– this is just marketing to see us go bananas over the Doctor before they reveal the streaming deal. Which –– I could not believe it when I woke up this morning because I was totally sure all the "new home" stuff was entirely wishful thinking and that Prodigy was fully dead.

I don't know how you could get past Capaldi's first series and not see what an incredible Doctor he is.

I tried so hard to like things in the Chibnall era –– I was so excited when Whittaker was cast and I think she did the best she could -- but after reading Elizabeth Sandifer's evisceration of the Chibnall ethos in her piece on Kerblam! (which I think also applies to ENT, tbh) I think I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not really going to get there.