Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x04 "Memento Mori" Review

This episode starts with a narration about how it's a holiday to honor Starfleet officers who have died. I wonder if the episode was purposefully timed to air close to Memorial Day in the US because it kind of feels like it, but the holiday also provides a reason to hint at La'an's past, which ends up being relevant throughout the episode.

At the beginning of the episode, Una encourages La'an to talk to a doctor because it's clear she's not processing her grief well, but La'an refuses and says she's not broken. I appreciate that Strange New Worlds seems to be dealing with mental health just like Discovery has, and I actually like the way that it's handled in this episode better than I do many of the times it was brought up in Discovery.

I was curious of the mention of La'an's mental health was going to be mentioned and then not brought up again for quite a while, but it actually ended up being relevant to the entire episode as they encounter the Gorn.

The Gorn conceal themselves, and La'an only figures out they're there right before they attack. A few people are killed, and Una gets some deep wounds. Because of problems on the ship, she has to get stitches, which leads to a comment about "archaeological medicine" that was amusing. (Even living in a time where stitches are common and as someone who's had them before, stitches feel bizarre to me, so I can understand how especially weird they would sound in the future.)

While La'an's backstory gets developed more than anyone else's in this episode, we get quite a bit of character development or backstory for a lot of people. One of the people we learn the most about is Hemmer. Him and Uhura get trapped, and his hands are damaged, which forces him to rely on Uhura. It's mentioned that he's a pacifist, which I don't think came up in earlier episodes. Uhura mentions this not aligning with Starfleet, and he talks about pacifism being active. I'm curious to see how this comes up in the future and how it might influence later episodes.

The whole subplot also allows Uhura to help save the day, so her confidence is increasing even more. At this point, I think she may be the crew member whose story I'm most interested in seeing progress as she grows and becomes more comfortable in her role.

Unsurprisingly, the Enterprise manages to destroy the Gorn after a few wrong turns, and Pike makes a comment about them being ready if the Gorn appear again. Which means I kind of expect them to appear again. If they do, maybe we'll get to see their faces next time, since we never actually see any of them in this episode.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode especially for the character development it provided.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x03 "Ghosts of Illyria" Review

In this episode, Enterprise is at an abandoned Illyrian colony, and they're trying to figure out what happened to the Illyrians who lived there. At the beginning, they explain some history of the Illyrians, including that they modify their genes, which is banned in the Federation. I really appreciated that being explained because I knew nothing about the Illyrians before this episode.

When an ion storm comes, Pike and Spock end up getting trapped on the planet, which is already something that seems to be happening a lot.

While Pike and Spock are seemingly the ones in danger at first, the crew on the ship start experiencing weird symptoms where they burn themselves with light. At first it only infects the landing party, but then it quickly spreads to other people.

The learn that the illness is spread through light, which wasn't something I'd heard before. After Covid, any stories about contagions feel a little different, and the idea of an illness traveling through light feels particularly scary because of how hard it is to protect yourself from it.

Spock finds a journal on the colony, and he works out that this particular group of Illyrians wanted to join the Federation. To do that, they needed to "demodify" themselves, and this is ultimately what led to them dying. There are creatures in the storm that might actually be the Illyrians themselves, and they end up saving Spock and Pike, which makes it seem like they're sentient to some extent. It's an interesting storyline, and I'm curious about the show handling more about augments in the future, which should be easy considering Una is an Illyrian.

I really enjoyed this episode. Actually, I would have liked to learn a lot more about this group of Illyrians, and I'm a little sad that that's probably not going to happen. Still, I hope the next episode is interesting in its own way.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x02 "Children of the Comet" Review

While I can't say this for sure when we're only two episodes into the season, it seems like Strange New Worlds is doing a deeper dive into each crew member each week. At least for now. I really like that since it's a good opportunity for us viewers to get to knew each of them more, and I'm incredibly interested in what we'll learn.

Ortegas plays a joke on Uhura because she's new to the ship. She convinces her to wear her dress uniform to a dinner that Pike is hosting when everyone else is more casual. I really felt for Uhura there because something like that would absolutely mortify me. I cringed through that part a lot as well as other moments during the dinner and later on in the episode where Uhura clearly felt worried about making a good impression. I felt for her a lot in this episode, and I think she may be one of my favorite characters now, which is one reason I'm glad that we seem to be getting to know each crew member better over time.

The comet that Enterprise has been monitoring is on track to his a planet that has pre-warp technology and can't defend itself. But when they try to redirect the comet, they realize that it has a force field. This leads to the discovery of a structure on the surface, yet they can't find any signs of life on the comet.

Sam makes a reference to Yahtzee and then tries to explain what it is to Spock, which prompts Spock to reply that he's familiar with the game. I don't know why but the idea of Spock being familiar with Yahtzee actually made me laugh.

A group is sent on a mission to the surface of the comet. Down there, they find markings that may be a language, and Uhura is the one tasked with figuring out what they mean. As I mentioned before, I really felt for her during this episode because that's a lot to deal with on your first ever away mission when you still felt a little out of place amongst the crew.

Spock attempts to give Uhura a pep talk later, and while the pep talk itself is kind of funny, I enjoyed seeing them bond a bit more.

They discover that a group of people are guarding the comet, which they have a religious view of. While we get some answers about this in the episode, the episode also raises so many questions that I'm still curious about. They claim that the comet's destiny is preordained, and later on, we discover that this seems to be true. Or, at least, the comet knows the future. What it's guardians didn't seem to know is that Enterprise intercepting the comet was part of what was supposed to happen.

Uhura figures out that the code is music. I'm still not entirely clear about how the communication works other than that it seems to be effected by the mood of the music. I also wonder why they needed to communicate at all when the comet seems to have known what needed to happen anyway. I don't think communicating with the comet ultimately changed what the Enterprise would have done anyway. But there we go I guess.

In the end, the comet does miss the planet, and it ends up altering the atmosphere of the planet in a way that might help civilization develop. That and the fact that it knew its future raises a lot of questions that aren't answered and probably never will be, yet I'm incredibly curious about them. It's hard to imagine that being explained away by science. Thinking about it now, just the fact that the comet can communicate and has knowledge means that it seems sentient in some way, which raises even more questions than I realized that I had before.

Since I suspect that Strange New Worlds is going to be pretty episodic, I don't expect us to get answers to those questions, which is a shame. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what next episode is about.

Heartstopper 1x08 "Boyfriend" Review

I'm actually sad that this is my last Heartstopper review to write. I'm so obsessed with this show that it's taken over my life.

At the start of the episode, Tao is still mad at Charlie, which I completely understand. While I also completely understand why Charlie didn't tell him, I get why Tao is upset. What's actually more frustrating is Charlie attempting to break up with Nick and avoiding him instead of talking about what's bothering him. Even though that also makes complete sense for Charlie's character.

There are a lot of great moments in this episode, but one of the "smaller" ones that I love is Nick sitting down with Tao at lunch. Yes, he was looking for Charlie, but I really like the fact that he still sat down with Tao and talked to him when he realized that Charlie wasn't there. It was good for them to actually talk, and I think it does a good job of showing that there is actually potential for friendship between them.

Also, Nick telling Tao that he should try rugby makes me laugh every time.

I have some questions about the Sports Day outfits. Namely, why do the girls seem to be in skirts to play sports? I'm guessing they're actually skorts or something, but... Why aren't they just in shorts?

Charlie finally tells Ben off, and I loved it!

The end of this episode is without a doubt the cutest part of the whole show, which is saying something considering how cute the entire thing is. While Nick just walking off the field during the rugby match was wonderful, I am glad that he led Charlie into the school instead of just kissing him in front of everyone. The conversation that they had was way more satisfying than a sudden kiss where they didn't actually deal with what was happening would have been.

And then we get the absolutely adorable date at the beach! It's hard to even pick a favorite part of the beach date, but I love the parallel of Charlie asking Nick if they're boyfriends with the earlier (heart breaking) moment with Ben.

Nick coming out to his mom was also adorable and a very heart warming scene that's another one of my favorites. I should really just say that this whole episode is my favorite now because it is. We get another reference to the timeline that I'm still not clear on though. I do get that the episode starts at the beginning of term and this episode seems to be close to the end of term, but everything in between feels pretty blurry.

I'm so happy that this show exists. I'm going to go rewatch it for the millionth time.

Book Review: Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Published: February 23, 2017
Publisher: Orbit
Received: purchased
Read from December 4, 2021 to May 5, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Tade Thompson's Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices.

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

Review:

This is the last of the Life's Library books that I have left to review, since Life's Library has sadly ended. However, this wasn't the last Life's Library pick. It just took me months to read it.

It didn't take me that long to read the book because I disliked it, but I did find the book quite dense. Every chapter gave a lot to think about, which led me to read the book particularly slowly. The world of the book is a very interesting one but also one that was constantly raising questions. I never felt like I quite knew what was going on, which also meant I didn't feel like I could fly through it.

My least favorite part of the book was definitely the main character Kaaro. His view of women is an extremely stereotypical take on all the worst "men write women" tropes, which got very tiring very fast. It sucked because I was very intrigued by the actual universe of the book itself and wanted to learn more about it and the other characters. I just wish I hadn't been learning about it through Kaaro.

Rosewater is the first in a series, and I'm interested enough in the world that I probably will continue to read it. That being said, it's not a huge priority. I've heard that the other books are told in the point of view of various characters, not just Kaaro, so that also makes me more interested in reading them. We'll see when I get around to it.