Disappointingly, Replacement Theory doesn’t involve exact duplicates replacing the population 😞

Did anyone ever apply that dumb theory to actually invading, extraterrestrial aliens?

I’m grateful it isn’t going to be legacy characters. There has been a certain fetish for recasting the TOS crew as nauseam, and I’m optimistic that it won’t be more of that.

Still, after the Section 31 show TV movie, I’m not too confident that it isn’t going to be about a bunch of “lovable” space pirates doing un-Starfleet-like things because that seemed to work for Star Wars and the DCEU…

He’s probably manifesting Picard through his own and Sarek’s shared Katra. Like a Katra ghost… Because that’s the sort of dumb shit the SNW writers will make up on the spot for no good reason.

Four words, “The year of hell”. It was 90 minutes and immediately reset by the end of part 2…

I agree, Locarno at the con would have significantly upped the ante for Voyager. We did see a hint of it in the pilot when Janeway bails Paris out of the penal camp, but the over the course of the first season they pretty much shrugged it off and he is such a Milquetoast character for most of the show.

If we were in the Doctor Who community I’d have a meme ready for you.

On a visual note,

The titles are presented on a series of retro-styled trading cards, an homage to Star Trek’s colorful 1960s-era merchandise, with a portrait of one of the show’s stars on each card.

Sorry Collider, these reference a set of 1976 sticker cards (with the colour scheme keyed up for 2026). You were off by a decade 🙂

[BBC director general Matt Brittin] said the exit of showrunner Russell T Davies, producer Bad Wolf, and co-producer Disney+ was an opportunity for creative renewal.

No offense, guys 🤣

Yuck, SNW was all the nostalgia tripping I could take. More boldly going, please!

It certainly lowered my enthusiasm for SFA s2, knowing they went hard with a cliffhanger finale… That show had a lot of spirit and promise, I wanted to follow those kids through the academy.

SNW — I know I’m in the minority here, but I couldn’t get into the show’s tone, and especially the way it’s leading doggedly towards TOS, literally checking boxes for each continuity item. It feels like a dead man walking, and even more so now. This is actually the first time I’ve looked forward to a Trek show ending.

In terms of wall to wall far out aliens, Earth’s future, Rose all giddy traveling with a new Doctor, and of course Cassandra, my mind went to The end of the world, but that was probably too in the nose.

I quite agree about The beast below, also a companion’s first space jaunt, right? And boom, Amy get to walk away from Omelas, but it’s future UK in space. Can we just stick to Moffat episodes?

We may both rag on the silliness and threadbare stories in this show, particularly in this episode — but I don’t need any more detail on Jack Harkness turning into a giant head in a fish tank. You die and revive enough times, that’s the end result 🤣

I think that’s the sort of gaps that could never be filled satisfactorily on screen. They’re much better as a space where viewers’ imaginations roam wild instead.

I was going to rewatch this, but reading @ 's rundown soured the memory of it a bit. It’s an episode I’ve watched a bunch, and it has some elements I really like:

• The cat nun nurses, terrific makeup, crazy concept!
• The face of Boe, another wild and well executed idea.
• Cassandra! Probably the most iconic trampoline recurring villain in the early show. Even now, fans post cookies and embroideries in her likeness, even though she’s visually and thematically horrible!
• Let’s just add the Duke of Manhattan, too. What a throwaway character. And I like how his neck grates when he moves.
• And I like Chip, for some reason. In this bonkers rogues gallery, he’s just a dude in scrubs with some paint on his face. Somehow that, a silly gait and the earnest, wide eyed acting is enough.

The allure of the body swap has worn off the more I watch this, though. Not a lot of actors can pull it off, much less so when the person they’re impersonating is Zoë Wanamaker at her peak of campiness.

By now when I think back on this episode, I remember Billie Piper complimenting her own arse, and skip to the one with the werewolf instead. Oops, spoilers for next week’s throwback discussion!

This is honestly not a terrific story as a whole — VS has already pointed out the biggest pratfalls — but at least it’s so full of wacky characters and running away from human guinea pigs, you won’t have time to say “that’s not how medicines work”.

Oh, so jealous. TBF, it’s still hilarious on fourth and fifth watching.

Barclay was evading real life conflict and pressure for sure, but also doing erotic power play with holo-versions of his crewmates… I think that last part was an early taste of our current deepfake porn reality 😬

Either way, Lower decks made it clear that into the 2380s, cleaning out the holodeck biofilters was still the worst job on a starship:

People really use it for that?

Oh yeah. It’s mostly that.

There may be a joke flying over my head here, but Barclay only appears, having rather consequential holo addition issues, two full seasons after the Bynars’ upgrades?

I dunno, it’s almost too neat and tasteful, isn’t it? I checked out Matt Ferguson’s other anniversary posters, and they have a lot more going on visually.

Sure, this movie’s tone is very different, but still.

Love the look on the cop’s face on the right hand side. Like, “That’s it, I’m transferring out of San Francisco ASAP”.

Oh man, was there a four month gap between the christmas special and this? And people moan about “Space babies” being a poor season opener…