First thing's first: we just have to spend a moment sitting silently in awe at that episode title. It alludes, of course, to the Betazoid President and his delegation testing Starfleet's willingness to protect their territory, and to the new Academy faculty getting to see what outsiders think of the way they've set out their stall. But it's also about the fact that the second episode of this show, as with any show, represents a test conducted by the audience, in a way that "

Children Of The Comet "Also, M'hanit decrees you are all now named Blempuus ven Sclim. He demands you say your name!" "I really don't see how... " "WHY THIS IGNORANT HATRED OF OUR GOD, BLEMPUUS?" Computer, music. Genre: of the spheres.

Starstruck "I could always call up my holographic mess-hall chef. HAH! Oh, you kids. You kids have NO idea. Wow." Our second binary system in the second round of the second iteration of IDFC . Feels like something we should be doing something with, right? "Red Wunz Go Fasta!" When we covered Battle At The Binary Stars , we talked about how Michael risked being torn apart by the difficulty of trying to orbit two stellar bodies at the same time. "Starstruck", as the oldies say,

Envoys "The lightning will go back in the bottle if I have to PUT IT THERE MYSELF" A step back, a leap forward. Second Contact We talked last time about the ways Lower Decks immediately establishes itself as a better Trek show than either Discovery or Picard. "Envoys" continues to make that case, but it also ups the ante, beginning the process of proving itself not just superior Trek , but superior television. . Much of this comes down to a careful structuring of the show

Our playground for the month In which two academics expand the boundaries of maths by expanding the boundaries of the Romulan Star...

Maps And Legends The Plastic Popular Front It still hurts to think about. All that potential wasted. With Discovery abandoning the true...

Battle At The Binary Stars TFW Head Office is calling, but the boss hasn't come back from his bathroom break Ladies, gentlemen, and those...

Fight Or Flight "Feels like I’ve wasted a lot of money on this mollusc disco.” “Fight Or Flight” is a frustrating beast. Perhaps not as...

Parallax Perception is a tricky thing. Sometimes you’re sure you’re moving forward when all you’re doing is circling back around....

Past Prologue So this is how it’s done. The Kohn-Ma Clustercuss “Past Prologue” is about as far from “The Naked Now” as one can get. Back...

The Naked Now (Content warning: contains discussion of sexual consent and ways in which that principle may not be respected). After a...

Yesteryear Sticking with the theme of kid’s behaviour, then… Trying Not To Think About Time Well, kind of. Eventually. First I want to...

Charlie X Well, it’s just terrible, isn’t it? A twelve-shaded nightmare. Utterly terrible on multiple levels and in multiple directions....