CharoleaWood Reviews

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Rules of Engagement (1996) Season 4, Episode 17

Just Wait 'til You Get Four Pips on that Collar

[8/10 · 4 February 2024]

It's a cheat that the solution for this episode comes out of nowhere --- we should have been involved in investigating and uncovering the revelation presented.

That being said, Rules of Engagement is a fun episode with creative scenes involving criminal witnesses giving testimony while embodied in flashbacks.

It's the final scene between Lt Commander Worf and Captain Sisko that I particularly enjoyed.

I felt that Worf truly was being celebrated as a worthy commander even as an important and difficult lesson was being hammered home.

There's also the message about keeping morale even at your own expense as a commanding officer --- "Part of being a Captain is knowing when to smile" --- excellent stuff!

Star Trek: Enterprise: Harbinger (2004) Season 3, Episode 15

Think We're Dismissed?

[7/10 · 4 October 2023]

I'm not normally one to put in a 7/10 written review but I wanted to point out that this episode has one of the most visceral and exciting fight scenes in all of Trek.

It's all the better for being part of a character B plot --- it's about relationship and ego rather than plot and intrigue.

And it's funny! Even as the makeup is made more real and gritty than ever before in a Trek show I'm laughing and clapping because the fight is so well done.

The payoff to it all is a very charming scene in the captain's quarters and Scott Bakula gets to have a wonderful captain's moment.

I'm giving this episode a 7 because I dislike several elements not having to do with that fight scene.

The A plot is fine and often charming as Trip and T'Pol wrestle with their own feelings for each other.

But it's the C plot about a captured alien that I found to be the big turnoff of the episode and I really hated how the writers drew Archer in these scenes.

Star Trek: Enterprise: Doctor's Orders (2004) Season 3, Episode 16

I'm a Physician, Not an Engineer!

[10/10 · 4 October 2023]

Very funny episode. It centers around Phlox and T'Pol losing their minds while the rest of the crew sleeps.

Did Voyager do this too? Sure did, and that episode, "One", s4 e25, is also excellent.

Here we get to see Billingsley and Blalock stretch their comedic legs.

We're used to comedy from Billingsley but it was particularly refreshing and funny to see Blalock play T'Pol as childlike and panicked, especially her facial expressions which were gold!

So it's just a very endearing episode and we get to laugh at ourselves and comfort our own scared inner children.

Adults are, after all, just children with a facade of confidence which will crumble when you undercut those systems they've come to rely on.

Children are much more flexible than adults, an adult on fire might be too proud to remember to stop, drop, and roll but children aren't held back by what others view as proper, rolling on the ground is not a big ask for a child.

"Doctor's Orders" is about allowing that inner child to guide you through your panic, to do those things you are scared to do when they aren't part of your adult expertise.

Star Trek: Enterprise: Carpenter Street (2003) Season 3, Episode 11

Trek + Terminator + X-Files

[10/10 · 3 October 2023]

A remarkable episode, entertaining and very well shot.

I recognized several nods to both Terminator 1 & 2. Another reviewer points out John Carpenter and Halloween, hence the title.

It also feels like a X-Files episode with the way it's shot and its tale of alien abduction/conspiracy (certainly X-Files is felt in the overarching plot of the Enterprise series with a "black oil" like substance playing a role).

Generally, I want trek to be more like the 90s shows: to embrace the old television format of storytelling verses trying to be like Hollywood --- I want less mood lighting, less lens flare, less style and more substance --- but I super dig this episode.

The Flash (I) (2023)

Not Enough Microns

[3/10 · 3 September 2023]

Barry and Barry "quantum tunnel" through a door that is WAY too thin at the quantum level.

If I may push my glasses up here for a sec, it should have taken them HOURS to get through the door at the speed displayed when at the quantum level, but the door is presented as being only, like, ten microns thick!

So what's the deal with that? I'll tell you what we need here folks --- the ten hour micron cut!

3/10 not enough microns. Not nearly enough. If people want to be educated about why this is such a critical issue then check out the corridor crew analyzing this scene. Also, totally check out pbs space time, it's rad.

Star Trek: Voyager: Virtuoso (2000) Season 6, Episode 13

Standing Ovation!

[10/10 · 25 June 2023]

Another marvelous Doctor episode!

Doctor's ego is both a benefit and a curse to those who love him, but we have to take each other as we are.

He learns this is a two way street, that in as much as his friends have to accept his own capacity for ego he has to accept that they will not always feed that ego --- autonomy is a double edged sword.

If your friends are happy to inflate your ego without respecting their own individuality then they are fake friends; the real ones won't debase themselves to prop you up on a pedestal.

So bravo, Doctor, for embodying our own experiences of painful lessons, they are valuable and through you we laugh at our own inflated egos!

5/5, a lovely episode.

Star Trek: Voyager: Pathfinder (1999) Season 6, Episode 10

I See Barclay in Me

[10/10 · 24 June 2023]

What a superb character and I'm grateful to the writers and Schultz for displaying the complexities and stupidities of society through him.

The truth about Barclay is that none of his outbursts are more childish or out of line than any of Captain Picard's.

But society is not a place where ideas are equally weighed, reason takes a back seat to popularity --- who you are takes precedence over what you say or how you say it.

It's rather like what Ezri Dax says about Klingon honor --- we see soldiers kamikazeing themselves even though they know Gowron is dishonorable and essentially a child.

But Gowron is at the top, and we under the top must obey without reason.

And so this sickness infects society --- the pretense of reason, the pretense of honor --- and kills people.

Therefore the Barclays and Ezris of the world are needed to counterbalance society's own insanity, disobedience is critical to wellbeing.

Barclay is a true hero.

Star Trek: Voyager: 11:59 (1999) Season 5, Episode 22

A Feel Good Story

[10/10 · 22 June 2023]

I love 11:59, it's one of my absolute favorite Voyager eps.

It's a simple story and well told, so for all those who complain about Voyager saying it didn't have room for these kinds of tales while TNG and DS9 did, well, here you go.

I also felt the previous episode, "Someone to Watch Over Me", was brilliant and a simple story told well.

What I like most about 11:59 is that the frame narrative involves Captain Janeway struggling with the realization that her ancestor isn't the giant she thought she was.

We get to see that woman and get to know her, she is so much more relatable BECAUSE she is not a giant, I think that's really wonderful.

5/5, superb.

Star Trek: Voyager: Extreme Risk (1998) Season 5, Episode 3

An Excellent B'Elanna Ep!

[10/10 · 22 May 2023]

I really love this episode.

It has a really cool opening with B'Elanna performing an orbital skydive in the holodeck with the safeties turned off and with a pretty cool space suit on to boot.

So what's going on here? Why risk the danger? What does she seek?

The themes of self harm and risk taking speak to my heart, I want B'Elanna to be well, I want her to enjoy the holodeck without needing to risk death, but I also understand feeling so close to death that it's the only thing which makes you feel alive.

B'Elanna is such a wonderful Trek character, I also really enjoy her story in the first season episode "Faces".

We get some excellent drama here between B'Elanna and each of Paris, Chakotay, and Janeway, and also a pointedly quiet and caring scene between B'Elanna and Nelix over a plate of banana pancakes.

Finally, I'd like to say that the season five ep "Once Upon a Time" is also excellent and that Chakotay has always been a character I enjoy seeing.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Rapture (1996) Season 5, Episode 10

An Ex-Christian's Perspective

[10/10 · 25 April 2023]

As an ex-Christian I'm particularly sensitive to "mumbo-jumbo" and proselytizing --- I find the Voyager episode "Sacred Ground" particularly distasteful, an episode that seems to be a clear attempt to capitalize on the Touched By an Angel audience; there were several high profile proselytizing programs in the 90s.

And there is a little of that here in DS9 with a conversation in the control room between those who have faith in religious credos and those who do not.

But it seems clear to me that these entities the Bajorans worship are real denizens of the Star Trek universe and there is room for them in the Star Trek pantheon.

The Original Series gave the answer for the origin of classical gods --- as though we, the audience, thought they were any more than drunken religion crafting by ancient Greeks and Romans --- Kirk and crew interact with these beings.

We also have telepaths and the Q Continuum.

The "Wormhole Aliens", or "Prophets", are part of the very backbone of DS9 and, (unlike many people, it seems), I prefer the first three seasons of DS9 when the stories were about Bajor and Cardassia and religious power struggles on Bajor.

And so, with all that in mind, I found Captain Sisko's telepathic or enlightenment journey to be much more believable, effective, and affective than when they tried to do the same thing with Janeway in Sacred Ground.

I was with the Captain when he refused surgery and I was equally with his son, Jake, when Jake made the call that Bashir should carry out the Surgery, they are delightful and eloquent opposing viewpoints.

And I even enjoy the pity I feel for the captain as he regrets not being in long enough to see and understand all the mysteries of the universe --- if he'd died how could those revelations have had any meaning?

He got enough answers.

And, besides, Winn is correct when she says that Bajor needs time for Bajor, that five years of independence from outside dictation is not enough to establish a strong, new identity that can keep its influence in an organization like The Federation.

A wonderful episode, 5/5.

Reunion (VI) (2020)

Don't Tell Me To Calm Down You're Boiling The Cauliflower!

[10/10 · 24 April 2023]

This movie clearly didn't find its audience based on the reviews here, I'm only grateful my library had it and I found it there on a tour of horror films several years ago.

Reunion is a criminally underrated supernatural/psychological thriller --- intelligent and brilliant, thematically, visually and sonically.

The story here is about a daughter and her crazy mother.

The exceptional final act leaves us with some interpretations:

either, A., mom was genetically crazy and passed her insanity onto her daughter;

or, B., mom and dad were the genuine occult article and crazy mom is trying to prevent her daughter from inheriting their dangerous knowledge.

Of course, daughter is crazy too, but whether or not her craziness was genetically caused she was certainly pushed to it by her mother throughout her life.

We can, however, have some understanding (if not compassion) toward mother because we make the same mistakes.

We, too, have children as means to an end, to play god or in misguided attempts to improve our relationships with our spouses.

There's also the jealousy of infidelity --- here misplaced onto daughter's adopted sister.

Sister turns out to be not only a murder victim, but also one who had been molested by father.

What a glorious final fifteen minutes are presented here as everything comes together!

And a wonderful tour of a beautiful old house.

Reunion is a pure diamond in the rough, if you enjoyed this movie then please add your review to this here pile of soot so that this flick may shine and get seen by others!

Star Trek: Voyager: Remember (1996) Season 3, Episode 6

Memory/History

[10/10 · 23 April 2023]

Roxanne Dawson is incredible in this astonishing episode.

I don't really have anything to add that these other positive reviews haven't already stated, but I'm reminded of a quote from X-Files episode "The Blessing Way", said by Floyd Red Crow Westerman playing the character Albert Hosteen:

"There is an ancient saying that something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it.

"My people have come to trust memory over history.

"Memory, like fire, is radiant and immutable while history serves only those who seek to control it, those who douse the flame of memory in order to put out the dangerous fire of truth.

"Beware these men for they are dangerous themselves and unwise.

"Their false history is written in the blood of those who might remember and of those who seek the truth."

Star Trek: Voyager: Tuvix (1996) Season 2, Episode 24

My Favorite Trek

[10/10 · 19 April 2023]

One of the things that I find missing in these reviews is praise for Kate Mulgrew's performance as Janeway --- the end you can see it all over her face, "I've committed murder."

It's her command decision to make and she takes on the moral dilemma of it so sparing the crew the responsibility of it, she does it because she loves her crew.

It seems to me that this decision would be the toughest one of her career and you can see she's killed a part of herself in order to achieve it.

Tom Wright as Tuvix is also superb, of course, and Jennifer Lien as Kes is brilliant as usual.

5/5, an astonishing episode.

Star Trek: Voyager: Death Wish (1996) Season 2, Episode 18

One of the Best Episodes in All of Trek

[10/10 · 17 April 2023]

Following up on DS9's exploration into the theme of suicide (s4 e14 "Sons of Mogh") Death Wish gets more philosophical with the subject and stands out to me as a singularly pointed journey into the nature of existence.

This was an episode that played a lot on reruns where I was at as a youth, it is a quiet and pensive episode and for the longest time I had remembered it as belonging to Next Generation --- Janeway's role as arbiter between Qs somehow feels very Jean-Luc, like a lost Next Gen script.

Anyway, Death Wish deliciously sets up a continuing Q ark for Voyager.

Kate Mulgrew is always wonderful but the episode is really about Graham and Delancy --- two Qs at odds but also, in their own way, in love.

Nobody wants to lose a beloved sibling, Worf didn't and neither does Q.

I've seen several reviews comment negatively about the Qs and their presence in Trek but I think that most Q episodes are gold, I love the character and I also love that his episodes are few enough and far between to keep me fond of him.

5/5, an EXCELLENT episode.

Star Trek: Voyager: Threshold (1996) Season 2, Episode 15

A Mesmerizing and Grim Comedy

[10/10 · 15 April 2023]

I actually take Paris's transformation and struggle seriously, I think it's a very moving portrayal of mental suffering and the struggle on the part of loved ones to provide care.

If any of these negative nabobs who crap on this episode can appreciate Cronenberg or Carpenter or Barker then they should also be able to appreciate this.

I think Threshold is equally great viewed either as a serious drama or a comedy, there certainly is comedic timing, but as somebody who has had mental health problems and three day stays Threshold feels real.

There are families who have had to see their loved ones die in horrible ways, AIDS victims living long enough to have mold growing on their tongues, cancer patients transformed behaviorally by chemo and radiation therapy.

I'm honestly bothered by the lack of intelligence in these other reviews, even the ones that score the ep highly also go on to bash Voyager as a "bad" show and they call this a "terrible" episode --- I'm baffled!

Voyager is as excellent a show as Next Generation or DS9.

And it's not as though Next Gen didn't already give us "Identity Crisis" where Geordi very casually investigates his and another crew member's transformations.

It's great that in Threshold Tom Paris is believably wigged out by what's happening to him.

There's also the Next Gen ep "Genesis" which is not less whacky than Threshold but Genesis is without any real belivable reaction to the bizarreness that ensues, I think that Threshold is a much better episode than Genesis.

As for people pretending to care about science --- Star Trek has NEVER been scientifically credible, ultimately it's got more in common with the Globe Theater of Shakespeare's time than it does with science education, this is about performers on a stage creating human stories.

I give Threshold a 5/5, an excellent episode.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Shakaar (1995) Season 3, Episode 24

Fear Civil War

[10/10 · 11 April 2023]

I felt it, the spiral of conflict that happens so shortly after attaining peace through military conflict.

The last thing I want is for DS9 writers to put Bajor into more war and misery, I'd hate to see Winn twirling her mustache and Bajor become an autocracy where its people are as afraid of the government as the people on Cardassia.

Thankfully, the writers knew what they were doing here.

Winn is so delicious as a villain because she's been written and portrayed so believably.

There's a lot here that's believable (sans the silly B story which was a dud), the banter between the freedom fighers in Nerys's company, "The next time I get nostalgic for the old days, shoot me", felt genuine, like they'd been through real battles together and survived.

The ending felt earned, as well.

We want our Trek characters to do the right thing and I believe that there have been times when civil war has been averted in our own world by just a hair's breadth because those who could have pulled the trigger instead chose to talk.

I'd like to offer a correction to reviewer "romkevdv17", Winn does not get fired from her ministerial position, rather she withdraws from election --- which she shouldn't be allowed to participate in anyhow since she's already Kai.

5/5, a brilliant episode.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Civil Defense (1994) Season 3, Episode 7

Smart, Taut, and Funny

[10/10 · 9 April 2023]

Civil Defense is a classy episode that starts unassuming and builds its tension slowly without fanfare.

The surprises come as a comedy of errors highlighting the irony and "shortsightedness" (as Garak puts it) of Cardassia's tyrannical paranoia sparing absolutely nobody who find themselves aboard Deep Space Nine during this unique crisis.

It all works out to a darkly comedic episode where rationality is punished and chaos reigns.

Civil Defense is an ensemble episode, all of the main cast members have good moments ("Gaila, the one with the moon?"), ultimately it belongs to guest stars Andrew Robinson (Garak) and Mark Alaimo (Gul Dukat) who brilliantly steal the show.

5/5, a GREAT episode.