What Was the Last Television Episode You Watched?

I think that the focus on Data in so many episodes did not help the flow of the series. There seem to be a number of episodes with interesting sub-plots that are partly spoilt by trying to shoehorn in a personal storyline for one of the crew (usually Data or Wesley).
I remember reading about the show when it premiered and they discussed where the characters would go. Data was supposed to be a Pinocchio and Wesley Crusher was intended to be an important character. The casting didn't help there --Wheaton was simply too dull for that. Jonathan Brandis had a similar role in Seaquest and he was ok (although he had a dolphin co-star). Wesley Crusher became the JarJar of Star Trek and not for anything he did, just the fact that he was so uninteresting. There was one episode where he was given the major focus and his co-star was Ashley Judd. I remember thinking that she could go places because she stood out.
Riker was intended to be the man of action--he was supposed to be doing all the Away team stuff and they sidelined him pretty fast.
Then there's Deanna Troi reading everyone's minds.
 
Farscape Season 2: Ep 16 The Locket - Which was a very soap opera-ish episode with John and Aeryn getting trapped the wrong side of some handwavey time dilation thingy and living to a ripe old age while, for the rest of the crew, only a few hours go by. Basically it's The Notebook in space. At the end everything is put right by just reversing out the handwavey time dilation thingy and everything gets set back to zero and Aeryn isn't dead any more, and no one really remembers that any of it happened. Ho hum. A couple of nice moments but the really big question it raised for me was how the hell can the insanely hot Claudia Black manage to look gorgeous even when slathered in layers and layers of "I'm really old" latex make up?
 
We have discovered binging. (Long story about retarded access to bandwidth, here in the boonies Behind the Redwood Curtain; but we've only had streaming capabilities for a while.)

Since we've had netflix, it's been mostly movies.

This weekend, we've seen 8 episodes of season 1 of Vikings: Valhalla.

Oh, yeah! This is some good stuff. Lots of rowing about the North Sea in open boats, in storms. Lots of bloody battles and bloody treachery and bloody intrigue and Pagans Drinking Blood at war with Christians drinking wine and pretending it's blood.

And when we finish season 1; Season 2 is already in progress.
 
The Man In The High Castle

Just started watching this and it seem rather good. Not sure how they are going to extend it out over several seasons though.
 
The latest (broadcast) episode of "His Dark Materials". So good.
Btw now the overall shape of the story is becoming apparent I can't help but be reminded of Steve Aylett's "Shamanspace"... which came out the year after Pullman's "The Amber Spyglass". Much as I like Aylett I do think he has an inflated belief in his own "originality"
 
Last sff episode was Sweet Tooth, an interesting series from 2021 about a virus outbreak that shows itself by producing animal/human hybrid children. Quite good. Second series in the offing
 
The Monocled Mutineer

I'm pretty convinced that this is the best 'mini-series' ever shown on tv, and one of the best anti-war programmes you could ever watch. Many WWI programmes/films focus on what was happening at the front - what the 'enemy' was doing to the Allied troops. This programme concerns what those behind the front lines was doing to their own men. The 'firing squad' scene in the first episode is as shocking as it is upsetting as it (likely) was true to life.

Anyone who hasn't seen this really should, and the book the programme is based on, which details the life of Percy Toplis and one of - if not the biggest - secret of WWI, the mutiny at Etaples.
 
I remember reading about the show when it premiered and they discussed where the characters would go. Data was supposed to be a Pinocchio and Wesley Crusher was intended to be an important character. The casting didn't help there --Wheaton was simply too dull for that. Jonathan Brandis had a similar role in Seaquest and he was ok (although he had a dolphin co-star). Wesley Crusher became the JarJar of Star Trek and not for anything he did, just the fact that he was so uninteresting. There was one episode where he was given the major focus and his co-star was Ashley Judd. I remember thinking that she could go places because she stood out.
Riker was intended to be the man of action--he was supposed to be doing all the Away team stuff and they sidelined him pretty fast.
Then there's Deanna Troi reading everyone's minds.


I went to a Star Trek convention several years ago, and as a part of my 'Commander' package I was distributed a number of free admittance to talks, one of which was Will Wheaton. I couldn't say that I was overwhelmed with this, but it turned out to be one of the best of all the hosted talk shows. He was articulate and spoke energetically and interesting about Star Trek and his role in TNG, and I came away with a different view of him. I think he deserved better storylines and a more interesting character arc. The way he left the show was unrealistic and disappointing to say the least. One of the best episodes was the cover-up of the accident at Starfleet Academy and showed what was possible.

As an aside, one of the other talks featuring George Takei and Walter Koenig was very funny and enjoyable, and you could tell that they both had a great friendly relationship with each other. I do wonder as well just how real is the animosity between Shatner and other cast members. There was obviously some rubbing up the wrong way, but I think that it's something the media like to portray than how the actors actually feel.

I also at this same convention saw the William Shatner in his one-man show, which truly was an unforgettable experience. Incredibly it doesn't look as though it's been recorded to disc (at least not officially), as I certainly would have bought it. He must have been in his late 80s when I saw him (and also had my photo taken with him!) but he has the look and energy of someone at least 20 years younger. the same could be said of Brian Blessed when I saw him live on stage 3 or 4 years ago. It will be an incredibly sad day whenever either of these (seemingly) immortal legends passes on.
 
Ah Brian Blessed.
Some of the best moments in I Claudius were due to him.

There is a website called The Church of Shatnerology and I learned from it that you can rearrange the letters in his name to spell Animal Whistler.
 
Junior Bake Off is back and has immediately become my favourite TV show of the moment. It's very funny and worth a watch:)
 
THE WILD WILD WEST-S 3 The Night of the Assassin - This had a pretty funny disguise for Artemus Gordon as an elderly father for a prisoner who they want to interrogate. That's the highlight of the episode about an assassination plot against the Mexican president.

THE INVADERS - Quantity Unknown A plane crashes and a weird cylinder is recovered. David Vincent goes to investigate and meets James Whitmore as a crazed security guard who knows about the aliens too. Good twist near the end.

SARGE - Psst..wanna buy a dirty picture? - A distraught man leaves $13000 in the church collection plate and Sarge seeks to learn why-which takes him into the world of porno magazines and movies. This series has quality writing.


CANNON- S 1 The Island Caper Keenan Wynn is an ex-con blackmailed into helping would-be thieves steal a money shipment from a sea plane. Has good laughs as he interacts with the thieves led by James Olson.
 
The first episode (not counting the feature length pilot "movie") of Dragnet 1967. It was all about LSD-25, and covered the time it was legal to when it was outlawed. The series always got a bit campy when it came to hippies and/or drugs.
 
Critical Role Season 2, episodes 1-3

Another very polished season begins. The animation is very good throughout, but all the big monsters in Critical Role are particularly excellent. This programme always works better for me when it's being a good (if sometimes quite crude) comedy rather than a slightly by-the-numbers fantasy adventure, and there hasn't been as much humour in this series so far. But it remains a high-quality show.
 
Last edited:
James May's Toy Stories, in this episode he attempted to build and then ride a meccano motorcycle around the Isle of Man TT race course. I found it a little hard to believe the bike passed an isle of Man MOT test and was passed as road worthy, but as he had a police escort all the way I guess it was a moot point. An interesting mechanical challenge that passed the time. The bike is now apparently in the Beaulieu motor museum.
james-may-meccano-moto-in-mostra-al-national-motor-museum-a-beaulieu-meccano-bike-arriving-at-...jpg

 
IRONSIDE "Poole's Paradise" Ironside's van has to make a stop in a small hick town run by a (shocker) corrupt sheriff (Steve Forrest) and his deputies (including William Smith). But then a fugitive from the prison work camp (Clu Gallagher) takes Ironside's associate hostage to make his escape. Funny that the phone in the van rings and it is called a "mobile phone."
1969. The van is destroyed and Ironside gets a new one.

COLUMBO - Requiem for a Falling Star -- Columbo is starstruck by Anne Baxter and she introduces him to Edith Head. Funny exchange when Columbo quizzes a young man at the studio and learns he is the boss. When Columbo says he would never guess the man was in charge, the studio guy responds: "that's ok, I would never cast you as a detective." Premiered Jan 21, 1973.
 
I was away for the weekend watching movies.
Previous to that,watched the first two episodes of Sandman
The first two episodes of the new version of Night Court
And episodes 3-5 of season 2 of the new version of All Creatures Great and Small.
Of the several, I enjoyed All Creatures the most.
 
Watched all three episodes of The Old Devils, an early-90s BBC adaptation of Kingsley Amis's novel (currently on iPlayer).
 
Finished watching The Sandman with my mom. It's noteworthy that she liked it, as she tends to avoid speculative fiction, with the exception of Game of Thrones. I really enjoyed it. The main actor doesn't look much like Dream, but his impassive countenance and deep voice make up for it. I don't think there was one thing about it that bothered me. I have read four or five of the story arcs, and I think they've been pretty faithful.

I recently watched the Star Trek TOS episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky." I saw this episode pretty much redone in The Orville.
 
Started a rewatch of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Having a poor memory can be a good thing, as despite watching this less than three years ago, it's almost like doing so for the first time!
 
OVNI(s) - Season 2: Episode 1 - Didier, former spacecraft designer at le CNES (Le Centre national d'études spatiales - which my brain refuses to hear as anything other than 'Loch Ness'), is driving around France in a VW camper van called the Ovnibus with his former secretary Vera. He's looking for evidence of UFOs like the one he encountered at the end of the last series. After a crushing disappointment, when his best lead turns out to have an incredibly rational explanation that he should have spotted immediately, he finally comes to admit that the vast amount of LSD he accidentally took just before his close encounter might just possibly have had something to do with his experience. He goes back to work designing satellites. Then a former co-worker becomes convinced his boyfriend is in trouble, Didier assembles his old team to help - acquiring a piglet on the way - and comes face to face with a nuclear reactor full of candy floss.

Season two is shaping up to be just as much fun as season one....
2d6c0b0_134717693-ovnis-saison-2-768x512.jpg
 

Similar threads


Back
Top