Frain played Sarek on Discovery - he was played by the late Ben Cross (who was also very good) in the Kelvin films.

Yeah, it seems he may have thought he was free to speak, and been very mistaken.

But here’s a screengrab!

The split-screen screen with doctor and wolf listening through the doorway was really nice.

I’d suggest it’s somehow foreshadowing the end of the series, but…visuals aside, I guess it doesn’t really make sense?

This one’s a step up from “New Earth”, but still not one that I think of too fondly (or at all, really).

Warrior monks! Neat! Unfortunately, their sweet martial arts are ruined in the edit, so I guess that’s that.

I’m honestly not sure what to say…it’s pretty paint-by-numbers, for the most part. RTD dips his toes into the supernatural-folklore-but-actually-they’re-aliens well, which…I think I preferred the approach in his most recent run, just letting magic be magic.

The CGI werewolf actually looks pretty great - good design, well-animated, and kept in the darkness to paper over any jankiness. My only complaint is that it seems pretty weightless at times, which is a common issue.

The cast is good. The story is contrived-but-serviceable.

As for the theme of the episode, with the Doctor and Rose not taking the situation as seriously as they should…it almost feels like this episode should come toward the end of the series, after they’ve had more adventures together (of course, it’s entirely possible that they have had more adventures together, but we didn’t see them). You could swap this with “Fear Her” and it would seem better-placed within the series.

Mind you, that would have meant that I had to watch “Fear Her” this week, and I don’t know why I would do that to myself.

Well, it’s a settlement - the judiciary has nothing to do with it.

He’s definitely got an irritating populist streak.

I’m not sure I agree about health care being worse since he took over, but then I haven’t seen the metrics. I do think they’re trying to make headway, but it’s a tall task.

World’s most badass waterslide

I would have agreed with you completely up until last week, when he gave the project to a Crown corporation.

Simply removing federal resistance and letting Smith try and fail to find a company willing to build the thing seemed smart.

This new approach…I’m not so sure.

I haven’t finished reading this, but it’s excellent.

And boy, does Keir Starmer ever come off as…extremely Starmerish.

The stations being shut down are all either news or sports.

New information has been added since this went live:

The Prime Minister’s Office said the Trudeau-era process that largely excluded partisans needs to end.

“This decision recognizes the valuable contributions made by Canadians who have chosen to serve in elected office or in other partisan roles, including knowledge of the governing and legislative processes, which will contribute to a stronger, more effective Senate,” the PMO said in a news release.

To that end, the PMO said the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, which has been used to sort through applications from would-be senators with an eye to those who are “independent and non-partisan,” will be reconstituted.

“Guided by constitutional requirements and merit-based criteria, the board will identify highly qualified candidates with diverse experience and perspectives, and make recommendations to the prime minister,” the PMO said.

“Canadians are invited to apply to serve in the Senate through an application process that will open in the coming weeks.”

“Partisan” is an understandably dirty word, but I think the biggest strength of the Trudeau reforms is the lack of a party whip - I hope the Senate retains its relative independence.

The title looks fine on the Lemmy side of things, even from another instance.

In theory…no. Pipelines are federal jurisdiction, so they can do what they want.

I can’t imagine Moe would be opposed to it. Kinew is, but the reason is his disagreement with the other provinces about their approach to reconciliation. If that issue is resolved to his satisfaction, I could see him going along with it.

But even more than the west coast pipeline, I think this project is a non-starter.

It’s funny, I kept mentally comparing this one to “The Beast Below”, which is a similarly madcap re-introduction episode…but I fucking love “The Beast Below”. I guess it comes down to execution.

The face of Boe

I neglected to mention him. Cool concept, great…puppet? Prop? But it bums me out that the Jack Harkness connection never really gets explored, and thanks to John Barrowman, never will.

the Duke of Manhattan

Definitely memorable. I actually paused to see whether the actor had played another character - I was thinking of Dorian - but nope.

Chip

A goofy, thankless role, played to perfection by an overqualified performer.

Is there reason to believe this is the worse option?

There have been a few. Some of them haven’t found anything, and some have.

There is no consensus about whether to excavate and potentially disturb the burial sites.

They’ve shown at least a willingness to slow down and reevaluate things, if there’s enough outcry.

Low bar, but it’s better than a pure “move fast and break things” attitude.

“New Earth” is…fine, I suppose?

It delves into familiar territory for Davies - he seems to have an affinity for the banality of evil, with societies taking a theoretically-well-intentioned turn into darkness. Unfortunately, I think it’s handled better in episodes like “Turn Left” or even Torchwood’s “Miracle Day” (which I remember enjoying the one and only time I watched it, which I know is a very unpopular opinion).

For all the talk about DW being a low-budget show at heart, the makeup and production design were frequently top-notch, even back then. It’s really the VFX end of things that lagged behind the rest of the industry. The cat people in particular look great in this one.

Cassandra’s back! Uh…yay? Probably not who I would have picked as a returning series one antagonist, but here she is, talking out of her ass. I don’t think she’s used particularly well here - her motivation to uncover the secrets of the hospital is unclear (maybe I missed something), and her human supremacy goes largely unacknowledged in favour of some basic classism.

And of course, much of the fun of the episode involves Cassandra possessing Rose and the Doctor. Piper and Tennant do fine with this individually, but they do not seem to be playing the same character to me. Overall, Tennant’s seems to be more authentically Cassandra, but even he is upstaged by Sean Gallagher at the end, when Chip is possessed.

I don’t really know how to feel about the final scene where Cassandra dies in her own arms. I know it’s meant to be touching, but she’s also a vain murderer, so there’s an upper limit to how much I care about any of this.

The test subjects in the hospital vaccilate between intelligent and mindless zombies as the plot requires, and the resolution of spraying disinfectant all over them is pretty convenient, even for this show.

A pretty middling episode all in all, and I don’t think it’s a great introduction to this new incarnation of the Doctor for anyone who missed “The Christmas Invasion” some four months earlier.

Consider me inspired - from this point forward, I collect the blood of my coworkers.

Y’know, just in case.