Weird Trek Episodes - SNW's Shuttle To Kenfori aka "Don't Call them Zombies! It Just Not Nice!"

M'Benga: I just can't believe it... we're in an episode that doesn't focus on Spock's love life.
Pike: I didn't realize how much that would be a thing either, Joseph.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds just wrapped up airing its 3rd season, and I gotta say that I'm kinda underwhelmed with this outing. It wasn't a bad season but compared to an almost perfect first season and a good second season, it does feel like the boat's a bit adrift. I think only having 10 episodes a season isn't helping. Also, I think someone misses Lower Decks way too much. Maybe someone needs to make sure the crew hasn't been drinking too much Romulan Ale. That's stuff's illegal, ya know?

Weird Trek Episodes - The Alternate aka "That One Where Odo Turned into a Goo Monster"

Mora: What does it say, Odo?
Odo: It says that you're one overbearing father figure. Apparently, my people had those too!

Why did I get away from doing these? Not only are they easy to write, but they can provide some nice Trek entertainment. I was planning on talking about the episode around Halloween since it's kind of a monster feature, but that didn't happen. "The Alternate" was from the second season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This was one of the few DS9 episodes I found recorded on a VHS along with some X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons from when I was younger. At this point, DS9 was still kind of in its learning phase, but they did have a better grasp of what they wanted to do with the show. Today, it's an Odo episode.

In the episode, Odo's "dad" comes to the station. Mora Pol, a Bajoran scientist, was the one who realized that Odo was a sentient life form and tried to foster him a bit. While Dr. Mora's come to visit Odo, he also comes with news that he may have found Odo's home world in the Gamma Quadrant. Even though their relationship is a bit fractured, Odo's curious, so he accompanies Dr. Mora, Commander Dax, and another scientist to the planet. All they find there is a statue, a lifeform similar to Odo, and volcanic gasses emanating from the ground.  The gas affects all of them except for Odo who's able to transport them outta there.

This is Halloween 5 - The Blade Trilogy

 

Well, it’s about time I talked about the Daywalker. I think I was going to do this years ago because I had the DVD set of the whole trilogy and the Spike TV series. “Had” is the key word because I think someone took it from my collection. I originally was going to talk about Blade: Trinity in the last post, but after watching Blade 2 as well on Hulu, I knew it was time to talk about these movies.

Now, I’m probably a casual fan of Blade at best. I’ve really only been exposed to his movies, that Spike TV series (yes, he had a TV show and it was weird), his guest appearances in cartoons, and a few comics like Mighty Avengers. I haven’t really read any of his solo work, but that should change soon. For those who don’t know, Blade first appeared in 1974 in Tomb of Dracula as a black vampire hunter who wasn’t a half-human/half-vampire hybrid yet. That came in the 90’s where Marvel started to use him more. The first time I saw him was in the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon where Spidey was going up against Morbius.

New World Pictures got the rights to do Blade in the 90’s when Marvel was selling off film rights for money. David Goyer took on the writing duties for all the films. As for Blade himself, Wesley Snipes took up the challenge. Blade was eventually released in 1998 and was well received. I remember seeing this play a lot on TBS back then. Blade 2 came in 2002, and Blade: Trinity was released in 2004. I vaguely remember that the VHS for Blade 2 was jacked up, so I missed out on part of it. As for Blade: Trinity, I think I saw it  on MTSU’s Movie channel or I rented it from the Hollywood Video down the street. I was sad when they closed up. So, how do these three hold up?

This is Halloween 5 - Third Movie Sorrows

Well, we’re in the spooky season again, and I’ve got a hankering for some Horror. This time, I thought I would continue down the franchise hole and look at the infamous third movie. Now,  third movies tend to have a bad rep in franchises. You rarely see anything that is truly awesome in the third installment. Usually, they’re either disappointingly good or just all-out bad. For every Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you’ll get an X-Men: the Last Stand, Spider-Man 3, or Beverly Hills Cop 3. Recently, we’ve seen this happen with Tron: Ares that was just released in theatres, and you see how that’s being received. I already knew that “Third Movie Problem” would show up there.

Today, I got three movies from different series. I thought I might as well watch the series I’ve looked at in previous years. First up, we swim for a bit in Jaws 3-D from 1983. Next up is Howling 3: The Marsupials from 1987 which is one I’ve never seen. Finally, we get hellish with Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth from 1992. My last pick was going to be Blade: Trinity, but after watching it and Blade 2 recently, I think the Daywalker needs his own post. I also thought Halloween 3: Season of the Witch would make it here, but I’m just not ready for it yet.

Favorites - Ranked Dragon Age 2 Companions

Now, this was definitely one game I wanted to revisit. Dragon Age 2 was released in 2011 and was underwhelming for fans. I didn’t play it until like 2015 since I was in my Bioware phase. I remember liking DA2 and can kinda see why some folks didn’t like it. It did feel a few steps below Origins. We had a lot of reused dungeons and areas, some of the gameplay could be repetitive, and some of the writing wasn’t the best. Still, I had a fun time back then and eventually went on to play Inquisition. 

Now that I’ve replayed it and some of the DLCs (I skipped Mark of the Assassin), DA2 really grew on me. The fact that this game was rushed out of development and made to shelves playable was a miracle. While I get that some wanted an experience similar to Origins, I like how DA2 changed it up. We’re limited to Kirkwall  and get to see how bad things are for Hawke, his companions, and the rest of the city over a span of a few years. Last time, I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t know what to expect when some big moments happened.This time, I really wanted to see what could happen with these characters. I came away with a bit of a realization from some of my companions. I was Warrior Hawke this time and I had so much fun with that big sword/axe/hammer. I might go two handed for Inquisition, but I’m not sure yet.

So, how were the companions this time? They were pretty good as usual. Some of them don’t hold a candle to the ones from Origins, but there are some that are on par. We also have a limited number of companions which I think helped things a bit story wise. Since we play Hawke over a span of years, we get to see these friendships go through the ringer, and you sometimes don’t know how things will end.