InfiniteDoors

It might be easy to quote your bingo post, maybe bold the winning numbers, and post bingo in the main text

Have you ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? A certain plain, simple tailor has an interesting take on it...

Yeah I thought this was going to be about people not paying John on time

Bingo Grid #1 17 15 10 13 22 40 05 23 47 21 37 08 43 39 33 45

Prodigy's entire first season is on Netflix, get on it! I think I ranked the shows on an earlier post, but that was before Picard S3 came out so I'll do it again. 1. Deep Space Nine 2. The Next Generation 3. Voyager 4. Enterprise 5. The Original Series/The Animated Series 6. Prodigy 7. Strange New Worlds 8. Picard 9. Discovery 10. Lower Decks 11. Short Treks 12. Very Short Treks Okay yeah, looking back at my older ranking, it looks like Picard jumped up a few spots on the sole basis of being pandered to in Season 3.

That's what I do, baby The direction they took the Borg isn't the worst thing ever, it's just less frightening, and that's a natural consequence of bringing back the Borg again and again. If they stayed exactly the same as in Q Who, the writers would have a big problem: if they're always unstoppable, then the Enterprise will always have to run away, or pull something stupid out of their ass, or just get blowed up and end the show. So then you need to make them less powerful, chip away at their mystique by fleshing them out more, slowly and surely make them more and more like just another enemy of the week. Not intentionally water them down, but that is bound to happen the more they're trotted out. The same thing happened to Q, he kind of overstayed his welcome on TNG (not counting All Good Things of course). He didn't really work on DS9, so they had the common sense to not being him back. And then they went way too far with the Q Continuum on Voyager. At this point, Janeway has a stronger connection to Q and the Borg than Picard does. This is just my interpretation, but I think it's more like the Queen herself is a consciousness that can inhabit designated vessels (like the one in FC). That way, when her current body is destroyed, she just zips over to another one (Susanna Thompson in Voyager). This is sort of supported in Picard S2, where she's all loopy and discombobulated in the Confederation timeline, but is back to normal when they go to the 21st century. If they stopped making Trek films for the average moviegoer, TMP would've been the first and only Trek movie. Or Trek thing, period. As bad as TWOK's lessons have been taken, the movie was exactly what Trek needed: a nice kick in the ass. But I do agree, stop catering to the dummies. JJ Abrams set a terrible precedent for modern Trek, that everything needs to be bigger, faster, flashier. I'm not saying I want the cheapness and pacing of TOS, but there's a good middle ground. However, this upcoming Section 31 movie is NOT it. That's another thing whose lessons were taken the wrong way, Section 31. But that's another rambling post...

I've always thought the depiction of the Borg in Q Who was absolutely terrifying. The Enterprise was completely helpless, and without Picard groveling to Q, they would've been finished right then and there. The wording is a little vague and easy to spin in future showings—which they did—but the intent of both the dialogue referring to the Borg, and the actions of the Borg, very clearly show that they don't care in the slightest about lifeforms. They were only interested in the technology. That's why in Best of Both Worlds, it's surprising that they want Picard. The whole point of turning him into Locutus is to facilitate their introduction to Earth, to the Federation's society, where their culture will adapt to service the Borg's. But after TNG all the Borg want to do is just assimilate everyone they come across, unless you're completely worthless like the Kazon (that was a good joke). The existence of Locutus makes less and less sense the more we see the Borg, especially with a Queen. I, Borg shows that without the collective bending a drone to its will, said drone can break free and become an individual. Not regain its humanity (or soul, if non-human), because at this point in the franchise, the Borg is not comprised of assimilated individuals. Hugh is not human—They never say what species he is, because he wasn't assimilated. He was born, then enhanced. Anyway, the episode goes on, Picard realizes that genocide is bad, and Hugh chooses to go back to the Collective to protect Geordi, his friend. Picard believes that perhaps Hugh's newfound individuality can spread throughout the Borg, and help others break free. This should have been the last time we saw the Borg, a nice coda to their story. But no, we got Descent instead. Descent turns the Borg into Lore's goons, because Hugh's return did set them free, but made them directionless. I think this episode set the stage for the Queen, that individual drones can be subsumed by a strong will, shape them into a Collective. Other than that, it's not really a Borg episode. The only good thing about Descent was the poker game between Data, Isaac Newton, Einstein and Stephen Hawking as himself. Then the rest is history: First Contact and Voyager establish that the Borg loves assimilating lifeforms, they seek perfection, the stupid idea that "the Borg gain knowledge through assimilation. What they can't assimilate, they can't understand", and the ultimate insult: Janeway, B'Elanna and Tuvok let themselves get assimilated, but they did something to let them maintain their free will, thereby destroying any remaining danger the Borg presented. By Endgame, they've been so completely and utterly defanged, it's embarrassing. I think the implication is that they're all the same Queen, regardless of actress. You think in such three-dimensional terms. How small you've become. I understand the logic behind not directly connecting Insurrection to DS9, it's the same problem that Star Wars and the MCU face: the general audience will not watch everything. People like you and me, who watched everything, will bemoan the fact that the movies all but ignored DS9 and the Dominion War. But to Joe Schmoe, who only watched TNG (the most popular of 90s Trek), he wouldn't understand what's going on if they did. "What's the Dominion? Wait, there's a huge war going on? AND the Romulans are our allies? Huh? Worf got married and then his wife died? Who the hell is Sisko? What's a Prophet?" And the list goes on. Now, that's how studios see everyone, not giving them the benefit of the doubt. And sure, on average people are dumb. You might say "But Insurrection introduced new species anyway, why not use the Jem'Hadar and Vorta and Founders instead?" Well, once you establish that they are part of a bigger plot happening on a different show, you might feel like you're lost and without real context. This is where modern Disney fails really badly. With the advent of Disney Plus, we've gotten a ton of shows that tie into the MCU and Star Wars. On paper, they're all of equal importance, nothing overshadows anything else, otherwise why bother watching the shows? In execution, the movies sort of ignore the shows, at least the MCU movies do. Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels, Quantumania, they all have characters and plot elements from WandaVision, Ms. Marvel and Loki respectively. But they kind of sort of make the movies without really needing to watch the shows, so that the feeling of being lost is minimized as much as possible. But if you didn not watch the shows, you still get questions like "Why is Wanda evil, and since when did she have kids? Who is Monica and why should I care? Who is Kamala and why should I care? Why are there a million billion Kangs in this post-credit scene?" You would have these types of questions even before D+ if you didn't watch all the movies, but it's worse than ever now. The same thing is happening with Star Wars, but in reverse. The shows are more important than the movies now. With the failure of the sequels, and as the love for the prequels grows more and more, things like the Clone Wars cartoon is now essential viewing, and Ahsoka is a hugely important character. The Mandalorian is the most popular thing they have right now, and he's getting his own movie. Andor is a masterpiece of a show, and is legitimately too good for Star Wars, but is surprisingly very unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Probably because it's a prequel to a prequel. Boba Fett sucked big time, but almost half of his show was hijacked by the Mandalorian, functioning as Season 2.5. It's there that Mando and Grogu are reunited, if you only watch the Mandalorian then you'll be totally confused as to when that happened. Going back to Star Trek and Insurrection, the movie can't have something important happen that affects the story of the Dominion War, because people who watch DS9 but not Insurrection will be confused. It would also beg the question of why the DS9 crew isn't in the movie, or why the TNG crew doesn't show up on DS9. Wow I talked way more than I intended to.

It feels very much like bad Season 7 episode to me. Which it kind of is, it's basically Journey's End (and a dash of Who Watches the Watchers, a top 5 episode). The Ba'ku are lame, Ru'afo is lame, the action feels cheap (especially compared to FC), it's weird how it does and doesn't connect to the Dominion War, the holoship is stupid. But Crusher's and Troi's boobs firmed up, so it's not all bad 😑 I love the First Contact stuff with Cochrane. I hate the rest of the movie. I, Borg is a fantastic episode, but it's also the beginning of the end for the Borg. It helped them go from an unstoppable force of nature to stupid zombies controlled by a mustache-twirling villain. First Contact did irreparable damage to the Borg, and Voyager doubles down real hard (even though Seven of Nine is one of my favorite characters). Head canon the existence of the Queen all you want, explain how she makes total sense, but it doesn't change the fact that she was a terrible idea. For some reason she's very hammy, she's unnecessarily sexy, and her plan is dumb. Picard is really angry in the movie. It's... not without warrant, we saw him break down in Family about being turned into Locutus and used to kill. But I'm too aware of the fact they're playing up his rage because it's a movie, and movies need bigger everything than television. It's also a little incongruous with how he acts in I, Borg and Descent, and even Picard Season 1 but whatever. The were going to destroy the Defiant if Behr didn't object to it. That would've been unforgivable. The Enterprise episode that follows up on the Borg left behind in the past was actually kind of neat. Wasn't needed at all, but Enterprise did have a bad habit of retconning here and there. Although it sort of explains how the Hansens heard of the Borg before Q Who. Oh and the opening of In a Mirror, Darkly is just *chef's kiss* Uhura's mind was blanked by Nomad and she had to relearn everything, chalk it up to that if it makes you feel better. It was pretty good, the only thing is that the villain is insanely weak. There's just one scene to set up his motivation, and it was exposition via video logs.

All kidding aside, not a bad list. I really need to rewatch the movies, especially after having gone through the first 5 shows like a million times already. I'm sure I would appreciate Final Frontier a lot more a second time around. But if I had to rank them, I'd probably say 1. Undiscovered Country 2. Wrath of Khan 3. Search for Spock 4. Voyage Home 5. The Motion Picture 6. Beyond 7. 09 8. First Contact 9. Into Darkness 10. Final Frontier 11. Insurrection 12. Generations 13. Nemesis At a certain point, it's not about how much I enjoy the movie or think how good it is, but how much I respect it.

I can't respect any man who has Insurrection that high. Please leave.

Bunnies are like tribbles: detestable creatures, an ecological menace, a plague to be wiped out. Hundreds of warriors will be sent to track them down throughout the galaxy. An armada will obliterate their homeworld. By the end of March they will be eradicated.

Thank you kind sir ... Unfortunately, I already sent hell in the mail. Maybe throw it into the fireplace when it arrives...

You see what happens when you complain obnoxiously? You get what you want! Let this be a lesson to all of you, and your children. Always speak to the manager!

Bro you got it backwards. "Strange New Worlds" goes before "Where No One Has Gone Before", not to mention it's missing a segment. As a sci-fan, I am deeply ashamed. As founder of the Star Trek club (graveyard), I am very angry at you. I am going to send a strongly worded letter to you, expect hell in the mail!

You know what else was a misunderstood masterpiece when it released?

CM's pathetic attempt at trying to have a unique Back to the Future? A toy car? Psssh

Okay you guys, here's my most anticipated movies of 2024! 1) Madame Web After the runaway success of Venom and Morbius (did you know Sony re-released Morbius after seeing popular it was online?), I want to see the next Marvel legend! I'm going to be there opening night, and who knows? Maybe Spider-Man will show up... 2) Kraven the Hunter Speaking of new Marvel legends, we can't forget the next best anti-hero, Kraven the Hunter! The guy gets infected by magic lion blood, and now has superpowers? Sign me up! Plus, I'll be in the front row to admire Aaron Taylor-Johnson's abs. I MEAN, his acting ability. Yeah. That's what I meant. 3) The Garfield Movie Bill Murray sucked, let's face it. They should have fired him after the first Garfield movie, but no! They brought him back for the sequel! However, all these years later, we're finally getting the proper Garfield voice we deserve. After seeing how his Mario voice got everyone talking, Sony once again made the right decision: hiring Chris Pratt as Garfield. He's so cool! I bought my ticket already. Now, hopefully Manta Lab gives us stellar one click boxes for these future masterpieces. If not, Blufans would be awesome. Bring on the steels! Sony is just the best movie company you guys, it's not even funny.

Sounds good, thanks!

@Gary K Just want to double check before I pull the trigger, so there's no HUB service for USA on Godzilla? Direct only? Also would the 2.60 MPC be too big for a Full Slip? I get conflicting info from the MPC page

Question! I'm currently sorting through my stuff to see what falls under Fantasy, and I'm mainly using IMDb to confirm the genre. However, there's a few I feel should be classified as Fantasy but aren't. For these borderline cases, can I present evidence in the form of the Saturn Awards to back me up? Fooooooooor example, IMDb does NOT consider the Indiana Jones movies as Fantasy, merely Action/Adventure. But all 3 movies were nominated for Saturn Awards, and Raiders won for Best Fantasy Film. I just don't want to present my movies and be struck down by the cold, cruel hand of technicalities...

Well.... this is certainly more interesting than the normal release....

I have to agree. This is one of the first releases I was interested in when I first joined MP, and now it's been left in the dust by the FAC release. The only thing this has over that is the new art, and yeah it it looks like a lame collage of floating heads. If the variant box blows my nips off, maybe we'll talk again CM. Maybe.

I get that, but it is very much a small flourish to try and jazz up an otherwise unremarkable release. Like @extantsrevenge pointed out, almost all the art is recycled, and that is way more annoying. I personally don't like the color scheme either, but of course that's what BB always had. Now, if the OC boxes tried to do a multi-part bat symbol where you need to spend close to a grand just to complete, THAT would be terrible.

Wow, seeing a lot of people crying over the bat symbol spread across all three spines, sort of surprised. If I were to only get one of the slips and therefore an incomplete symbol, would I be upset? Meh. It's not very prominent, and it doesn't ruin the slip itself. This teeny tiny detail is not an attempt by Manta to "force" people to get the OC, come on people, have a little perspective.