DocDAT Reviews

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Star trek is back!

[10/10 · 10 March 2023]

Season one and especially two have been pretty disappointing, but season 3 is completely different. Especially with episode 4. This is now the first proper Star Trek sine Voyager ended in 2001. I'm thankful that someone approved the script for season 3. Yes it has its flaws, but damn it this is real Star Trek - something I've sorely missed. Jonathan Frakes shows how good he is as a director again. Several scenes reminded me of First Contact.

I sincerely hope that season 3 is successful enough that we will get more Star Trek like it. This is very corny, but I really feel the world is a better place with Star Trek - as long as they stick to a positive and optimistic message!

Star Trek: Picard: No Win Scenario (2023) Season 3, Episode 4

Star Trek is back!

[10/10 · 10 March 2023]

Season one and especially two have been pretty disappointing, but this is the first proper Star Trek sine Voyager ended in 2001. I'm thankful that someone approved the script for season 3. Yes it has its flaws, but damn it is real Star Trek - something I've sorely missed. Jonathan Frakes shows how good he is as a director again. Several scenes reminded me of First Contact.

I sincerely hope that season 3 is successful enough that we will get more Star Trek like it. This is very corny, but I really feel the world is a better place with it - as long as they stick to a positive and optimistic message!

Jack Ryan (2018–2023)

Season 3 - pure fantasy without realism or believability

[3/10 · 28 December 2022]

So we had a great season 1. Season 2 was a complete dumpster fire and now we have season 3 which after the first episode is somewhere in between.

The biggest problem with season 3 is the complete lack of realism. Everything is basically wrong. Plot, science, military, politics, geography etc. It seems whoever wrote this has no actual knowledge of above mentioned areas - and didn't involve any technical experts when writing the script. Tom Clancy must be spinning in his grave...

It makes no sense to talk about a nuclear warhead being invisible to radar. A nuke is just a payload. So you can make a stealth missile that is hard/impossible to spot on radar, but it doesn't matter whether its transporting a nuke or a normal high explosive warhead when it comes to detecting it with radar or infrared/thermal sensors. And then they call a 3 megaton warhead "small yield" and "tactical". Tactical nukes are in the small kiloton range - about a thousand times smaller in yield.

Besides - it doesn't really matter if Russia had made a nuclear missile that was impossible to stop. The "7 days to the Rhine" plan makes no sense, because when Russian nukes start going off in the West, there would be a retaliation with ICBMs targeting Russia ensuring mutual destruction. Russia also doesn't have nearly a large enough army to try an invasion of Nato countries - even after a nuclear first strike. And that was before they got most of their army destroyed in Ukraine. People seem to forget that Russia is not USSR. Soldiers and equipment from the other countries (like Ukraine) in USSR made up most of their army. Ironically Polish, East German and Ukrainian army groups made up most the planned invasion forces for Europe in USSR war plans.

Finally it is incredibly annoying that they made Jack Ryan into some super hero action star. It's not who he is and it's not believable.

Edit: just started watching episode 3 and it is so far peak idiocy. Besides the fact that it was moronic to assume that Russia would win the war with Ukraine, are we supposed to believe that they could reach the border to Slovakia without the President of a neighbouring country knowing about it?? It would be on the front page of every friggin newspaper.

The final straw is making the Russian government out to be victims of some conspiracy, when in reality they've made no effort to hide their aspirations for a new Russian empire. It seems like it's written by Putin apologists or at the very least someone with an extremely naive view of Russia and its history. Even if it was written before the invasion!

Edit 2: So I've now watched the episode with the bomb detonation. What was the point of all the BS about project Sokol "stealth nuke", when all they did was make a truck bomb? I can't decide whether the writers are just clueless or if they think the viewers are. Judging from a lot of the reviews here, the second option isn't far off.

Either way I guess it wasn't dramatic enough if the Russians had just used an old Soviet warhead, even though it would have made a lot more sense.

Andor (2022– )

I want to give this more than 10 stars!

[10/10 · 23 November 2022]

Seriously, this isn't just peak Star Wars. It is peak TV. Mandalorian was good, but this is absolutely outstanding. An absolute gem of intelligent writing and storytelling combined with top notch acting. We just finished episode 12 and I can't stop thinking about how good this is on every level.

Besides being great entertainment, it is also extremely morally relevant, considering current events in both Iran and Ukraine.

If you don't stand up against fascism, oppression and imperialism just because it's inconvenient for you, then you're helping the forces of evil. And you're going to regret it in the end.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

A vapid trudge

[5/10 · 12 November 2022]

Like others have written, this movie only shares the title and character names with the book. So much that was the core of the story is missing. And for what? An incredibly boring trudge through artsy scene after artsy scene. Points for production values and cinematography though.

A more disturbing issue with this movie, is that it's portraying the French as the bad guys - burning and slaughtering the poor Germans on the battlefield and then forcing them to sign a bad deal.

I wonder how many people in current society even know the story behind WW1. Definitely not any of the ones giving this 9 and 10.

The Sandman (2022– )

Very uneven

[6/10 · 8 October 2022]

The first half of season 1 was excellent but the last half was a flaming dumpster fire.

I had rated it 9/10 until episode 6. Then came episode 7 - which I'd rate 3/10. Such a huge drop in quality of writing, directing and acting that it was near unwatchable. To make matters worse, it seems they tried to compensate for the weaker script by turning up the virtue signaling to the max and basically force feeding it to the viewer.

Extremely frustrating since episode 6 was one of the best episodes I've ever seen - of any series!

I'd highly recommend watching only up to episode 6 - or even only watching this episode, to see how good a story you can tell in that format.

For All Mankind (2019– )

Too much soap

[6/10 · 15 July 2022]

It pains me to write this, but it's becoming almost unbearable to watch this series. It started as great alternate history sci-fi but has now devolved into pure soap. The drama in season 1 was well written and integrated naturally with the space stuff. Season 2 also, but to a lesser degree. Season 3 is completely off the rails.

We have astronauts on friggin Mars, but instead of all the exiting possibilities that entails, the plot revolves around creepy stalker Danny, petty squabbles and various people's sexual orientation.

There's nothing wrong with being LGBTQ+ and people should be free to be who they are (which they are in the civilized world), but drama like this is just not very interesting. Especially not when you're trying to watch a show about space travel.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Uneven but ultimately worth watching

[7/10 · 14 July 2022]

Favourite episode was VI. Worst episode was III and it was so bad, that I considered stopping watching the series. Completely non-sensical and full of plotholes.

Andrew Stanton's involvement on the scripts for episode V and VI clearly helped - and saved the series for me.

The Terminal List (2022– )

Dark but thrilling

[10/10 · 14 July 2022]

A great example of how useless the professional "reviewers" have become. They like moronic tripe like "Raised by Wolves", but hate this. Yes this series is dark in both subject matter and lighting, but it still manages to be a thoroughly thrilling ride.

I guess the main problem the reviewers have with the Terminal List, is that it wasn't PC enough.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part III (2022) Season 1, Episode 3

That's not a moon - it's a PLOT HOLE!

[3/10 · 6 June 2022]

The first 2 episodes were quite good, but this one? Yikes! So many huge plot holes, inconsistencies and just poor writing that I thought it was a spoof or low budget rip off. The confrontation between Darth Vader and Obi-wan was pure cringe. People teleporting around - like Reva overtaking Leia inside a tunnel. How did this script even get approved? And where is Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau? They are the only ones who should be allowed near Star Wars projects. Maybe they saw what Disney had planned for Obi-Wan and wisely didn't want to be associated with it.

It's a shame really, as both Ewan McGregor and the girl playing Leia are doing a great job in spite of the horrible material.

The music is also bad. It's actually quite puzzling. You have this great opportunity and bring back Ewan McGregor and then use what appears to be local grade school kids to write the script. I know Deborah Chow can direct - she's made some great Mando episodes - but with a bad enough script, it becomes an impossible job. The whole feel of this episode was low budget schlock.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022– )

Finally real Star Trek again

[4/10 · 15 May 2022]

The first proper Star Trek series since Voyager ended!

Episode 2 was outstanding. Yes there are some woke elements, but unlike in ST Discovery it's not as overbearing and doesn't detract from the story. I'm definitely looking forward to the next episodes.

Love, Death & Robots: Snow in the Desert (2021) Season 2, Episode 4

Awesome - and finally a Neal Asher story brought to the screen

[10/10 · 21 July 2021]

Amazing graphics, but best of all - a story set in the Neal Asher Polity universe. I had no idea this was based on his work (haven't read that story), but once Earth Central and AIs were mentioned, I said to my wife that this had to be a Polity story. 😁

The Stand (2020–2021)

Hugely disappointing disjointed mess

[3/10 · 27 December 2020]

One of the main reasons for The Stand being such a great book, is the linear way it's told. You get to experience the horror of the apocalypse unfolding and follow the arcs of both protagonists and antagonists, making their motivations and actions understandable and believable - even relatable. It is in my opinion a masterpiece of storytelling.

The 1994 miniseries was a bit cheesy, but it had good actors and was faithful to the book. You could also accept the poor production values because at the end - the story is paramount. If the script doesn't work, it matters not how much money you throw after it. It'll still be a turd.

Which brings me to this, the 2020 miniseries. It is a shiny and high budget gold colored turd. But a turd nonetheless. Mostly because of the absurd idea of making it non-linear. But also because many characters are unlikeable and two-dimensional or have been changed for PC reasons.

Don't waste your time on this. Watch the 1994 version. Or even better, read the book.

I guess the 2020 version is the perfect bookend to a godawful year.

Star Trek: Discovery: Forget Me Not (2020) Season 3, Episode 4

Probably the worst episode in Trek history

[1/10 · 6 November 2020]

Where to begin with this mess? It was so incredibly sappy and trite that I'd rather be in a dentist's chair than watch it again. Overly woke is an understatement - and I'm all for equal rights for all orientations and liberty to be who you want to be (as long as it doesn't harm others).

The crew is behaving like spoiled children and Discovery has now completely abandoned all notions of science and has crossed over into fantasy.

It's a shame since the first 2-3 episodes in this season were actually quite good. Especially the previous one directed by the awesome Jonathan Frakes.

Whoever wrote and directed this steaming pile of crap should be fired.

It's ironic that I used to vastly prefer Star Trek over Star Wars, because of it being Science Fiction and with some great ideas about how to better humanity whereas Star Wars was just a childish fantasy. Now the Mandalorian is so much better that it can hardly be compared to this.

Raised by Wolves (2020–2022)

Pretentious idiocy masquarading as arty SciFi

[2/10 · 21 September 2020]

First - from all the 10/10 votes here, it's clear that a lot of money has been spent on fake votes and reviews. Of course there are also all the morons who enjoy pretentious pseudophilosophical tripe like Prometheus, Covenant and this, so they can fool themselves into feeling smarter.

As others have stated, Raised by wolves is one scene after another of unbelievable stupidity, gaping plot holes and inconsistencies. As in Prometheus, the plot is driven by people doing stupid things without believable motivations or reason.

The whole premise is laughable (both the simpleton view of atheism vs religion and the whole trying to start humanity over with only 6 embryos, no medical tech etc). Clearly no one with any scientific background was involved or consulted when writing the story.

Like Ridley's films over the last decade or so, it's beautifully shot but idiotic, pretentious and based on pseudophilosophical BS.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Only good surprise of 2019's movies

[9/10 · 25 January 2020]

Just finished watching the 3 hour Directors cut, and after being disappointed by almost every movie I've watched in 2019, this was a pleasant surprise.

Didn't really know what to expect, after hearing almost nothing about it. I won't spoil anything, but it is excellent. Compelling and sometimes disturbing, but ultimately very satisfying.

Ad Astra (2019)

Pseudo philosophical BS

[1/10 · 8 December 2019]

As others have pointed out, this is an insult to both science, SF and the viewer's intelligence. Completely ridiculous plot with so many nonsensical things happening it boggles the mind. It tried to be arty, but ended up being laughable.

No it's not highbrow or deep - more like the 2 dimensional worldview of a person suffering from clinical depression combined with a complete lack of scientific knowledge. People who think it's misunderstood as SciFi and that it's an intelligent psychological drama with some higher meaning other than the obvious (We are alone with "God", so stay home with your family and don't expand your horizons), are pretentious simpletons lacking in the brains department...

Nightflyers (2018)

In the future we send stupid people into space

[1/10 · 30 July 2019]

This show joins the list of "sci-fi" (Prometheus, Life, Another life etc) where the writers use stupidity to drive the story forward. Probably because the writers have no idea what good sci-fi is.

People who read and watch good sci-fi expect rational plots that make sense, scientifically believable and exciting concepts plus believable characters. Not dumb and dumber in space.

Maybe it's because the writers on drivel like this haven't written or read sci-fi before, but is used to making dumb soap operas?

Another Life (2019–2021)

Mindnumbingly bad

[1/10 · 27 July 2019]

After barely making it through 20 minutes of episode 1, before I had to turn it off, I just thought "WTF is this crap? Who was dumb enough to approve this script?! Is this a satire?" But then it dawned on me - this was made by someone who thought they'd get more viewers than with a normal sci-fi show, by catering to the kind of people who enjoy reality TV. Yes, let's have a crew of astronauts who wouldn't be able to keep a job at McDonald's and a plot that makes no sense. We'll just have lots of drama and an "edgy" crew. It'll be great! It's not like the people who usually watch sci-fi care about science, rational plots and believable behaviour from characters with depth.

In short: Drivel made by idiots, for idiots.

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

One of the most frustrating movies I've ever watched

[5/10 · 13 July 2019]

The first 45-60 minutes of the movie was awesome. I enjoyed it more than any movie I've seen in a long time. I read a lot of high quality SF and it was hitting many of the right buttons.

However after a cringeworthy and not really believable scene, where Alita is literally offering her beating heart to the first young male she met after waking up, it quickly went downhill. By the end, I was pulling my hair out. I can't remember the last time I was this frustrated by a movie. The second half was as bad as the first was good. The last 5 minutes was just pure stupidity. So much wasted potential.

Now, I'm not burdened by having read the original manga, so I don't know how much of the complete nonsense in the movie is caused by being restricted to the original plot. I'm not a big fan of manga, because it rarely makes sense and is usually style over substance. So I don't really care if the movie was "true" to the cartoon. There was clearly a ton of potential in the concept and it could have been made into a kick ass story if you were willing to ditch all the stupid stuff.

The only story that really matter in this, is the background with the war, finding out what happened - and why. Like exploring how the victors of the war were actually the bad guys. And finishing the story by having Alita complete her mission.

The romance was not that believable, but I could have accepted it. However the whole rollerball BS - especially at the end was a complete waste of time and made no sense at all. Why didn't she just continue running up to Zalem, after beating the cable defence thingy? Is the viewer supposed to believe that she would be let up there if she became a rollerball champion??! You'd have to be brain damaged for that to make sense. I get that the rollerball scenes made for good action, but action without believability does not make for a good movie.

So for me the first half of the movie was 10/10, the second half was 4/10 with the last 5 minutes being pure drivel and pulling the total score down to 5/10.

For good dystopic sci-fi with a believable and deep story watch Altered Carbon. But then it also had amazing source material...

The Wolf's Call (2019)

Awful script

[4/10 · 24 June 2019]

I love sub movies and it had a decent premise with a lot of potential, but clearly the writers have no idea of sub warfare (well any warfare to be honest). It's just a mess full of nonsensical actions and stupidity. I started laughing several times.

You're attacked by an enemy frigate and sub at close range, but instead of shooting a couple of torpedoes at them and evading, you surface an SSN to try and shoot down a helicopter with an unguided RPG. Never mind the stupidity of thinking you can hit the helicopter - for some reason the frigate that launched the helicopter just proceeds to ignore the surfaced sub 😂

When the heroic captain found out that there was a trigger lock on the RPG and survived being shot at with a machine cannon on top of the sail, I just started laughing. To top of this ridiculous scene, the RPG without any kind of seeker or proximity detonator - since it's not an anti-air missile - some how still manages to detonate near the helicopter, bringing it down. I've seen more realism in the "Hot Shots" movies. 😂

Chernobyl (2019)

Well made, but 50% fiction

[5/10 · 8 May 2019]

Fantastically well made, but like others have pointed out, this series is not historically accurate. I suspect the changes / fabrications are to make it more effective as anti-nuclear propaganda?

The 3 stars are for good acting, cinematography and direction. 2 stars for doing an awesome job of portraying life in the USSR, with lots of authentic details. However since the script is mostly made up and a distortion of an important part of history, I have to warn people not to take this seriously and just view it as entertainment. Take for example the "bridge of death". It's a debunked urban myth. No one who were there died.

Star Trek: Discovery: Point of Light (2019) Season 2, Episode 3

Wtf did I just see??

[1/10 · 1 February 2019]

Why did they have to go and make absolute drivel like this, after last week's return to something at least resembling Star Trek??

I haven't seen something this bad in a long while. It's like they tried to take the worst script possible and then have a teenager with ADHD direct it. Please fire this episode's writer and director!

Star Trek: Discovery: New Eden (2019) Season 2, Episode 2

Way to go Frakes!

[28 January 2019]

I hope the rest of the season is going to follow this path!

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

Season 4 has ruined the series

[1/10 · 28 January 2019]

I hated season 1 (which I rate at 2-3 stars) for many reasons described better by native English speakers in reviews here. So I didn't have high hopes for season 2. However it appears that they've gone back to the roots now - although there are still continuity issues with the previous series regarding tech etc.

I'd recommend people who've bailed on Discovery because of season 1 to give season 2 a chance...

Edit: Dec 2020: Unfortunately season 3 so far is almost as bad as season 1, some episodes even worse.

Edit: February 2022 Season 4 is practically unwatchable. All pretense of caring about story and making quality sci-fi is gone. It's full steam ahead with the soap opera woke train and it is unbelievably cringe worthy. I'm out.