TV Round-Up: Lost in Space (2018) — Impact & Diamonds in the Sky

While I’ve seen a handful of episodes of the original version of Lost in Space, I’m not well versed in the nuances of the show.  I know the broad strokes (lost family, robot with a catchphrase, and the stowaway who keeps throwing a monkey wrench into plans), but not much else.

People who have more invested in the original than I do tell me that taking a deep dive on season one is worth the time, but once the series goes to color, it becomes progressively sillier, culminating one of the most infamous episodes of sci-fi television where apparently they land on a planet of sentient vegetables.*

*I have to admit part of me is morbidly curious to see this episode to see if it’s really quite as terrible as pop culture zeitgeist would indicate. 

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TV Round-Up: The X-Files: This

Who needs Google when you’ve got Scully?

One of the bigger missteps of the tenth season of The X-Files was continuing to follow the same pattern the series did for nine years.  Have a big mythology episode and then follow it up without any follow-up for weeks or months on end.  

And while “This” isn’t what I’d call a huge step forward in the mythology nuggets we got last week, it still felt like it was trying to build on some of the blocks put into place last week as well as paying off some of the history of the series (assuming we can remember it all, of course!)

TV Round-Up: The X-Files: My Struggle III

Oh. That’s the plan. A secret space program? I don’t think so. I think this is a power play. You want me to kill him so you can implement your own plan. You want to see blood in the streets. The colonization of space? How do you plan to do that? Transport all humanity off-planet? That’s 7 billion people. That’s not possible. Only a chosen few. And you call him evil?  –Mulder talking pretty much for the entire audience…

It used to be that when I heard that Chris Carter was writing an episode of The X-Files, I was filled with a sense of excitement. These days when I hear that Carter is writing an episode of The X-Files, I’m filled with dread.

It’s not secret I wasn’t a huge fan of the conclusion to season 10.  “My Struggle II” felt like Carter throwing a lot of things at the screen and seeing what might stick. He then painted himself into one heck of a corner, flashed up the words “To Be Continued” and dared Fox not to give the series another season.*

*It’s almost like he took a page from the Sledge Hammer playbook when it came to cliffhangers.

TV Round-Up: Star Trek: Discovery: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

After taking a week off for some wacky time-travel fun, Star Trek: Discovery gets back to the business of the war with “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.”

CBS Digital originally intended for this episode to serve as the mid-season finale.  And while it does end of a cliffhanger, I’m glad they’ve decided not to just leave us hanging on these developments for the next couple of months.  Don’t get me wrong — it’s strong, solid episode but I think I would have been annoyed if this was where we left things until January. 

TV Round-Up: Star Trek: Discovery: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

Strange that an episode featuring a never-ending time loop where a lot of the crew dies in the course of defending the ship would be one of the most entertaining, fun and light episodes Star Trek: Discovery has given us.

And yet, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” achieves just that.

A lot of that can be chalked up to the presence of one Harcourt Fenton Mudd, who wants to sell Discovery’s secret weapon to the Klingon in exchange for a lot of money. (I’d argue that Mudd may be lying a bit there since it’s fairly obvious that he has an iffy relationship with the truth.  It doesn’t seem too huge a stretch to think that Mudd has bartered with the Klingons to set him free in exchange for handing over Discovery to them.  That would go a long way toward giving Mudd more motive to reset the timeline when he finds out who Burnham is and she kills herself.  Mudd may need that extra money to pay off whatever debts he’s accrued and would rather spend his life running from, rather than marrying Stella). 

TV Round-Up: Star Trek: Discovery: Lethe

Years ago, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens classic Trek novel “Prime Directive” opened with a paragraph talking about how badly Starfleet misjudged the men it put into the center chair of the constellation class ships during TOS era.  It pointed out that a large majority of these captains came to a less than ignominious end, citing examples from TOS episodes as the basis for this.

Watching “Lethe,” I felt like this opening paragraph not only applied to the constellation class ships in Starfleet but also to other commanders from the TOS era. 

TV Round-Up: The Orville: About A Girl

Dear producers of The Orville:  More episodes like this one, please.

Not sure yet if this episode will be the exception or the rule, but I’m hoping it becomes the rule.  While not perfect, “About a Girl” feels like it’s a step in the right direction.

Which, knowing Seth MacFarlane can only mean next week will the series take on “The Naked Now” only instead of acting drunk, everyone will act like they’ve had one too many of the special brownies the replicators can whip at the drop of a hat.