The drawback of these posts is that they really remind me of how quickly time passes... But the good thing is more great VGM!
Let's start with a track from episode 17-8 "The Return of Dragon Patreon Ninja" of Rhythm & Pixels. The track in question is Sea Monk Boss from Alwa's Awakening. I hadn't heard of the game prior to this but this tune definitely got me interested, at least in the soundtrack. I have less interest in the retro 8-bit style gameplay, simply because I often suck at it. I love how this tune manages to be adventurous and ponderous at the same time. It has a driving back beat but the melody still has something solemn to it. It's beautiful and cool at the same time. Doesn't sound like a boss track to me, but a great track nonetheless.
Next up we have a track from Retro Reprise, which is sort of an off-shoot podcast from the Battle Bards. It's mainly hosted by one of the trio from the Battle Bards, but the other ones make occasional guest appearances. This podcast is of a bit of a shorter style, highlighting "retro" VGM , as opposed to the MMO VGM focus that the regular Battle Bards podcast has. The track in question comes from the "Shareware Show" episode and is the title theme from Halloween Harry, also known as or maybe better known as Alien Carnage. This track starts out pretty heavy, with another driving beat, but quickly turns into a happy little jingle. It really tells you that it's a gritty and shitty world that awaits you, but you're going to have fun in it.
Then we're going to a two-fer from Sound of Play. First up a track from the episode 130, with a focus on hip hop in VGM. Even though I don't normally listen much to hip hop I still quite enjoy it and this episode had so many good tracks it was difficult to pick just one. If you're into that kind of music I definitely recommend checking the entire episode out. The track I chose in the end was Tha Shiznit by Snoop Dogg from Rock Band. I couldn't find the Rock Band remix version of this (that sounded good), but the original is just as good (skip to 0:35 to get to the music below).
The second track is from episode 132 and is called The Device Has Been Modified from the game Portal. Just like everyone else on the planet I've heard the famous outro to Portal, but then I never gave the rest of the soundtrack much thought. The Device Has Been Modified is sung by the same antagonist, but is otherwise less of a guitar sing-a-long-song and more electronic in style.
Finally I am going to give another episode recommendation. Episode C1E43 from Nerd Noise Radio has a highlight of Commodore 64 tracks. The music is great, albeit not easy on the ears if you're listening through headphones or generally not used to the rather jarring Commodore noises. This episode was extra fun for me though since it was hosted by Henrik Andersson, a fellow Swede who also runs his own podcast "Commoflage (which I must admit I haven't checked out yet). Because of this there is some Swedish thrown into the episode, and that doesn't happen often. Overall a fun listen!
I could summarize this episode pretty much by saying;
This is definitely the final episode.
or
People with epilepsy, be warned.
or
I really wish I had a bigger TV.
or
Am I watching Star Trek or Star Wars?
When we left off last week, Control-Leland had just showed up at Discovery and Enterprises location and things were going to get really nasty, presumably. At least they didn't look too good. They needed to quickly finish the time suit, finish charging the time crystal and open that wormhole into the future or the presence is toast. Or "rökt", as we say in Swedish (which actually means "smoked").
Let me just say first though... this episode doesn't hold anything back. They threw all their moneys in this one. And the end result is definitely spectacular, to say the least.
Look at all that money burn!
I do wonder where the rest of the Federation is, but they keep saying something about being cut off from Starfleet communication. Still though, their absence in the face of the destruction of the universe or whatever seems odd. Surely someone must've noticed all the Section 31 ships are gone (and that Control is missing). Are they impossible to track? Probably.
One of the first scenes is a pretty neat no-cut scene jumping between different personnel trying to scramble together everything needed for the time suit in that science place where Stamets keeps his spore chamber. It's well put together, and while it gives you a whiplash, it's for the right reasons. Like a roller coaster rather than a car crash.
The first five minutes are spent with me just wondering why no one is shooting something already. But then Control-Leland shows his face on screen and demands the sphere data "or else". Of course Discovery and Enterprise choose "or else" and the shooting starts. And it's not just any kind of shooting. This is probably the most amount of shooting I have seen in a movie ever, and I've seen a fair few Tarantino movies. Both Discovery/Enterprise and Section 31 literally have not only their own mini-fleets but also thousands of drones flying around all over the place and everything is shooting everything at the same time.
It doesn't just look really cool, it actually makes a lot of sense. In the future it's probably not going to be as much about massive starship against massive starship, but all about the little, unmanned drones against the massive starship. It all ends up looking, and sounding (I'll get to that) a lot like something out of Star Wars rather than Star Trek, in which we're more used to seeing the former. It's impossible to make out much of what is happening, but that's not the point and it doesn't matter because all we really need from these scenes is the sense and understanding that shit is going down. And that message comes through loud and clear.
"You go for the left 5000 ships and I take the other half"
I'm not sure if the visuals tricked me and my brain is primed somehow, but I could've almost sworn I heard some actual (or extremely similar) Star Wars noises in there. Things swoosh by almost sounding like tie fighters and the musical score was definitely channelling its inner John Williams.
I could also swear there is a scene where Bryce (one of the Discovery main bridge crew we see all the time and know nothing about) gets cut off mid sentence. Just quickly to the action again, no one wants to see anyone talk!
They're not entirely wrong. While I have a 48" TV and never wanted more, well let's just say today I definitely wanted more.
Through tribulations and a lot of explosions (and Stamets getting seriously wounded), they manage to finish everything up and Michael gets herself ready to fly to the point she needs to be at to open the wormhole. I think it was explained why she needed to be in a certain place but I've forgotten, probably because the reason mainly is that the writers needed her to fly around in her suit in space for a bit. As they lower the shields for a mere couple of seconds to let her (and Spock in a shuttle) fly away, Control-Leland beams onboard and wrecks havoc on the Discovery bridge. Just like Michael saw in her time-vision that I mentioned in the previous episode.
Was there a reason she didn't mention this to anyone? I realize that she's been extremely busy, but everyone being slaughtered on the bridge by Control seems like pretty important information. She doesn't really have to say more than "maybe you should erect a force field around the bridge during the fight because I think Control-Leland will visit you". Also, how did Control-Leland know they were lowering the shields? Or did he just have the ninja-speed (or should I say Jedi-speed? In his case maybe sith-speed is more fitting) to react to the Discovery lowering its shields for three seconds? Not impossible since he is a machine I guess.
This also means there is a live torpedo lodged in the Enterprise hull. Not sure if I mentioned it before but that was also part of the future-time-vision, though I can't recall if it is Michael or Pike who sees it. Obviously we know Enterprise isn't going to be destroyed but presumably this is where Pike ends up with his disability. Wrong! But I'll get to that.
Pike sends out a load of R2D2-resembling hull-repairing droids to "standby" for all the damage that will come. The fact that not all of these little hull repairing robots are busy fixing all the damage the Enterprise has already received so far is a mystery.
Control-Leland does try to shoot a lot of bridge people, but this time it doesn't succeed in killing anyone. It doesn't seem to care much though, as it is mainly after the sphere data. It runs towards the room where it is being kept (because apparently you can't access it from just any computer) and Philippa and Nahn run after it. Meanwhile, Michael is flying through space protected by the rest of the fleet, but all the ships are taking heavy damage. Things don't look too good when BAM! Out of nowhere this massive monster of a space ship turns up. It's a really cool and well timed revelation - the Klingons have showed up to help. And not just them, but the Kelpiens too! They've apparently taken the space ships from the Ba'ul. So now that the outside fighting is getting a bit more balanced, let's look at what happened to Stamets shall we?
Say hello to our little friend.
He ends up in the infirmary which obviously is completely crammed with casualties and too few people left to help. Tilly is by his side at first but then has to run off to do other stuff on the bridge so for a bit Stamets lies there all alone and I was seriously worried they would let him die like that. But of course not. Who shows up if not Hugh. He, being a doctor, helps Stamets with his wounds and starts telling him that he came back to the Discovery from the Enterprise because he realized that Stamets is his "home" after all. Stamets is barely conscious through all this but it's a really nice scene, and it works because the writers have worked quite hard on their relationship. And they've managed to have a major bump in their road even though things looked to be working so well initially.
Stamets' and Hugh's relationship, while it has little impact on the rest of the series, is one of the few within Star Trek that I think genuinely works and that feels real. Most of the Star Trek series has a few relationships here and there, and most of them don't come off as worth the time. Heck, I really don't care for Tyler's and Michael's relationship for instance and that one did matter for the story.
But I think that is just it - when I think of other relationships in Star Trek that I don't find to be immediate cringe or snooze fest (like the O'Briens in DS9 and B'Elanna and Paris in VOY) I realize they are still there entirely to be used as tools for the writers. I don't get that feeling from the Stamets-Hugh relationship. This is just two people who love each other on a starship that ends up in a whole lot of doo-doo. What does all of that do to a relationship? It's actually well done and ends up being interesting to follow. The conclusion is very nice, if maybe it feels a little bit rushed. I mean it was only last episode that Hugh was sure he didn't want to be near Stamets and we haven't seen him change his mind on screen. But overall, very nice work and I am glad to see a relationship that is just that.
What is with beds in the Star Trek universe though. Whether its hospital beds or any kind of beds, they all look extremely uncomfortable. The hospital beds in TOS still give me nightmares, who would want to lie on those, especially if you're sick or wounded?! But the later ones are rarely any better, they all look like they just pulled a blanket over a bench or something. But I digress…
They'll make you sicker.
Michael and Spock are at the place trying to open the wormhole but she can't get it to work. Spock suddenly has an epiphany, like he does, and says that the signals were send by Michael after all, but not from the future. They were sent from this point in time backwards, to allow for Discovery and Enterprise to have the upper hand against Control-Leland and its Section 31 armada, right here, right now. It sent out a signal leading them to the time crystal or people who will help them with the time crystal (Jett, Po) or people who will help them in the fight (the Kelpiens). This is a solution to our questions that I hadn't foreseen and that I personally think wraps things up very nicely. It makes a lot more sense than whatever I thought they were going for and it feels quite fresh and original as far as time travel stories go. Michael now needs to close the loop by going back and set the signals so that they will find themselves in the same situation as they just were. You should never think too hard about these things, but I find it really answers all those questions I had about why she would've gone through and done all this and in that way, perfectly.
So Michael goes off to do all that and the visuals for the time travel are, pardon my French, COOL AS HELL. They might just be the most satisfying, mind-bending- "I get what it must feel like" style of time travel visuals I have ever seen on screen and I've seen my fair share of time travel media. They definitely evoke 2001 - A Space Odyssey, but don't go off into weird territory but leave it at just really awesome. If I ever had to tell someone what I thought, or at least wished, that time travel looked like - I would show them that.
What happened to Control-Leland though? While it locked itself into the data-room, Philippa and Nahn work on breaking through the door. They manage and a big fight ensues. Nahn proves herself being further useless as a character by adding literally nothing to all of this and had she been removed from season 2 alltogether I don't think it would've made any difference. Turns out, Philippa has hidden the data so Control-Leland couldn't find it. Now it is going to try to find out where it is and they (Control-Leland, Philippa and Nahn) have a fight scene rolling around the walls of a corridor in true Inception-style when the gravity gets wonky (because of the damage Discovery has taken I think, the details quickly get blurry with these fast paced episodes). Nahn gets kicked out somewhere or something, either way Philippa and Control-Leland end up by the spore-drive-cubicle and Control-Leland tells Philippa that he's figured out she must've hid the data in the there because she's so easy to read.
But, double-psyche, Philippa has only tricked Control-Leland into thinking that's where she would hid it so that she could trap it inside. The spore-cubicle won't hold it for long, but Philippa doesn't need long. She activates some magnets (remember that trick from the previous episode?) and laughs while watching it die a slow and painful (apparently it feels pain) death. And when it dies, its entire fleet of ships stop working too. Did they beat Control? Did Control exist only inside this body? Surely it must've known/realized what a bad idea it is to put your entire existence into a very fragile little human body, especially if you don't have to? It's not entirely clear here if Control is truly gone, but they definitely elude to it. But then…
Not this wormhole though.
Michael is back and suddenly opening a wormhole for all of Discovery to come through isn't an issue anymore. And still necessary even though Control is dead? They're worried Control, or something like it, might happen again so they still feel like they need to get rid of the data. Interesting considering that that data has been floating around space for literally millennia but only the second humans get their hands on it, it becomes a problem so large it could actually destroy all sentient life in the universe. Humans are the reason we can't have nice things. Nothing new there I guess.
But wait a minute, what was going on with that torpedo in Enterprise? Admiral Cornwell and Nr 1 (Pike's second in command on Enterprise) go down there to try and fix it. Apparently the issue is that it is going to explode shortly and they can't close the blast door. Because the difference of one blast door is the difference between everyone on the ship dead or not. I don't get how that works either but that is how it is. Pike goes down there to help Cornwall instead of Nr 1, but Cornwall tells him that she can close the blast door from the inside, trapping her with the torpedo. Pike says he should do it, but Cornwall "wins" the argument about who gets to sacrifice themselves and well, dies with the torpedo. But saved the Enterprise, but we knew that wasn't going anywhere. And neither is Pike apparently! Unfortunate to see Cornwell go actually, I really did like her character. But I am glad Pike is still around though I am not sure he will have any spot in a possible future season.
Michael opens the wormhole and Discovery goes through and that's the last we see of them, for now. Instead, the episode ends with the people who were left behind (Spock, Tyler and Pike among others) being interrogated about what just happened and what happened to the Discovery. They all say that it was destroyed in the battle against Control and we see a different scene of Spock talking about how the truth must never come out. He speaks to his parents about how no one will ever mention Discovery again and this also means that none of them must ever speak of Michael again, but that he will always think of her and keep her in his heart. This all to prevent the information that Discovery is carrying from ending up in the wrong hands and history repeating itself. So this is the explanation they use for Spock never mentioning Michael as his sister in any lore going forward from this time. Fine, sure. Pretty ok way to explain that.
As we remember him.
Honestly though, when has total cover up ever been the way to try to prevent things from happening again? What if that had been the go to way after world war 2 - never speak of the Nazis again or maybe they will come back! Maybe that would've worked because unfortunately what we've tried this time didn't seem to... but I still disagree that completely removing something from history is the best way to prevent it from happening again. But what do I know, maybe that is the way we'll go about it in a few hundred years from now.
Another thing they apparently have in the future is a Golden Gate Bridge completely covered in solar panels. Funny little final commentary right at the end of the season there.
Then at some point they mention that Philippa is dead? Not sure I heard that right, but we don't know what happened to her after she killed Control-Leland. My guess she is going to spearhead whatever Section 31 is going to turn into now.
The season ends with a real fan service scene - Spock back on the Enterprise, sitting by his little viewmaster thingy that really never made any sense and there we have it. Star Trek Discovery, season 2, finished.
And what a ride it has been. It's had ups and downs, but its mostly been very entertaining. It's tried to make us feel for characters we barely know and honestly things have been way too high paced for my personal taste. The core idea is great though, and so are the characters. Maybe I am just getting old and my brain is too slow, but things move by so quickly and happen at such a speed that you barely conceive of something before it's gone or dead or altered or reanimated already.
At the same time, thinking back I realize that not that much has happened really. This could've almost been a two-parter of any other Star Trek series. The core story is pretty short. They see signals, they follow a couple of signals, Control is evil, they fight Control, they win. Inbetween all of this they've got a lot of fluff that is used in completely the wrong way. Almost none of it is used to expand on characters for instance (Saru's episode is an exception for instance), almost all of it used to show some cool effects (like the whole episode about them being in the spore world, I can't even remember how that was relevant to the story anymore). The core concept is good, very good. The fluff on the other hand is just not necessary. On the other hand, while I feel too few characters develop over the course of the season, the ones that do are very interesting. Saru, Spock, Philippa, Hugh & Stamets and even Michael are fun to watch and follow. So many others feel like they could've almost been cut altogether and it wouldn't have changed much. Tilly had that thing with the spore-friend, but like I said I can't even remember what that was about anymore. Tyler feels pointless. Nahn is entirely pointless. Detmer, Owosekun and Bryce are just names. Airiam is only lucky enough to get a backstory because she moves the main story forward in that one episode.
My best analogy would be that season 2 is a stew with all the right ingredients that is just never allowed to simmer to let the flavors truly come through. It'll still taste good, but it'll end up feeling more of a tease of what could've been really great. So in the end while it's definitely entertaining, it just had the possibility to be extraordinary. They are definitely moving in the right direction however and I am intrigued and hopeful for a season 3.
Images from trekmovie.com, startreknz.com, tldrmoviereviews.com, io9.gizmodo.com
Ok let's hop right to it because this two-parter sets things up very sweetly and I am eager for it to be next Friday already.
Last episode ended with Pike announcing that they need to evacuate Discovery and blow it up. Do you think it'll work? Of course not, they immediately discover that the sphere data has merged with the Discovery and is protecting itself, preventing any attempts to blow up the ship either by remote controlled auto destruct or photon torpedoes.
They even have them in the games?
Something funny happens before then, so silly it made me write half a page of questions in my notebook about something that happens all the time in Star Trek and that I just never have given much thought to before.
The episode opens with us seeing the crew of Discovery scrambling to evacuate and we hear Michael talking, because apparently she is recording a personal log. What, now? When we're about to evacuate? She literally says "Personal log: we're evacuating the Discovery...". Well clearly you're not? And of course that got me thinking... personal logs has been a main stay of the Star Trek series ever since TOS but I've actually never given them much thought. Clearly their main purpose in the series is to give us viewers a way to hear different characters thoughts. But what is their purpose lore-wise?
Is everyone required to keep personal logs, and how does that work then? Do you have to fill something out every day, or just when something out of the ordinary happens? And if you're not required, does it just so happen that everyone is really keen on chronicling their life in the future? And they never seemed very personal but who is supposed to have access to them? Are there rules for what or when you can fill something in? Surely, mid-evacuation in a war might not be the best chosen time.
Many questions, but I wasn't finished being confounded there. Michael also states in her log, while evacuating, that Control has cut them off from communication with Starfleet and they only have ship-to-ship communication. Since they intend to destroy Discovery, why is Michael even bothering to record something now? Where does the recording go?
It's pretty though.
They are actually getting help from Pike's old ship, the Enterprise. Yes, we are going to get interior shots from the Enterprise. Maybe all the logs get transferred over there, who knows. The Discovery "docks" with the Enterprise by shooting out some sort of corridors that literally unfold in space and hook onto the ship. Seeing it I couldn't really decide if I thought the idea and execution was really cool or really stupid. Unfortunately I was rather leaning towards the latter, but maybe it makes sense that they would have this extremely elaborate evacuation system that exactly fits another ship even though they could just transport over? Hey, why weren't they just transporting?
As soon as they get onto the Enterprise though, cue intense fan service. They throw probably about five retro-sound effects from TOS at you within the first ten seconds of Pike and co walking around on the ship. And then they get onto the bridge, which doesn't look exactly like the TOS bridge of course, but it's a very nice modern version of it that I quite liked. We already know that Number One is represented, but I'll be honest and say I haven't paid enough attention to the other crew on Pike's bridge in his TOS pilot episode to know if they are also faithfully represented in this episode. He calls some of them out by name, which makes me think they probably are.
At this point we're still at them trying to destroy the Discovery and then realizing they can't. Michael, who touched the time crystal in a quick scene while evacuating, is having some weird parallell time visions on the bridge, where she sees Control-Leland catching up to them and shooting everyone. In her vision, everyone (even Philippa) stands around like geese just waiting to get shot, so I don't know what that was about. In fact I don't understand her time vision at all. When Pike touched the time crystal in the previous episode, he was told that he couldn't avoid that destiny. But now Michael can? And what is her time vision even about? In the episode they make it seem like them shooting torpedoes on the Discovery will lead to Control-Leland murdering them all, but Michael managed to stop them before that happens and then all is well? Yeah I didn't get that part at all.
I know time is relative, but still.
They also have a big issue with time frames, or sense of time, in this episode. Everything revolves around when Control-Leland will catch up to them. When they are trying to destroy Discovery the time frame is "an hour, maybe less". Then we see them sitting in a meeting room trying to figure out what to do next and you really get the feeling that their "one hour, maybe less" surely must've passed by now. Michael figures out that the time crystal they got in the previous episode is meant to be used to bring the entire Discovery into the future. Fortunately for Michael, her mom talked a lot about what gear is needed to make a time jump in her logs. Convenient. But I guess if you're stuck all alone on a desolate planet in the future you'll end up talking about just about everything in your logs. Again with the logs though, who was she expecting to see them?
So now they need to make that happen, ergo build a time suit for Michael and charge the time crystal. They also figure out that the signals must come from another time jumper, since Gabrielle (Michael's mom) said she hadn't sent them. They decide that Michael is the other time jumper and because of this whenever they hit a snag another signal should appear to help them.
Well, they've hit a snag. They don't know how to charge the time crystal. And lo and behold, a signal appears. This time over the planet Xahea, where a certain Po is queen. If you've seen Tilly's "Star Trek Shorts" episode, you'll know who this person is, as that episode shows Tilly getting to know Po. It's interesting that they're referencing another ST Shorts, one that just like Saru's turns out to be quite important to have seen to get the whole picture. I wonder if the other remaining ST Shorts will be equally important in some future episode?
Tilly figures out that the signal is by Xahea because Po has the knowledge and resources to help the charge the time crystal, so they spore jump there. And by the way, since they have the spore drive, why are they afraid of ever getting caught by Control? They could just jump to the furthest reaches of the Delta Quadrant and Control-Leland would take 100 years to catch up to them. At which point they could just jump back and go neener-neener. But I guess they might be concerned about what damage Control might do while they're gone. But at least the Sphere data would be less accessible for Control.
She really likes her ice cream.
Po comes to their ship and helps them figure out what they need to charge the crystal. While they are all busy building everything they need to make it work, and again with the time frame - they say they have somewhere around an hour and there is just so much happening that you think they can't possibly get all that done within that time. Where was I? Ah yeah, while they're all busy building everything, Stamets and Culber meet and try to... reconcile? Or something. They talk a bit and it basically ends with Culber telling Stamets that he is transferring to the Enterprise. So much for the previous episode giving us a bit of hope that they would get back together again or at least become friends or something. Little of that matters though, because all I could think of was how ill-timed their conversation is. I get that they probably want to get it out of the way before they maybe all die, but right now they're really busy. What is it with people choosing to do the silliest things at the worst time in this episode?
Just to make sure everyone is with me at this point - Michael is going to take a time suit and make a worm hole and bring the Discovery through it and end up somewhere in the future, hopefully far away from Control. Philippa thinks Michael is trying to be a martyr, overall she seems to have the same thoughts on Michael as Spock, that Michael has some sort of Jesus-complex and has to try to save everyone all the time. Not that her saying as much to Michael makes her change her mind though.
As Michael is about to leave, Tilly tells her that basically the entire main cast of Discovery has decided to come with her to the future. How convenient for the series! Because it would've been dull with just Michael in it. But now we have everyone. Except Pike who returns to Enterprise and Tyler who stays with Section 31 in our regular time.
We knew Pike would be removed from the series sooner or later, because he needs to have his accident. To see Tyler go though... I mean I won't miss him, but I didn't expect the writers to remove him considering they've really done everything to keep him in the series so far.
The episode ends with the time crystal still charging and Control-Leland catching up to them. Michael shows them an image of all of Control-Leland's ships in a circle around the Discovery and Enterprise and says "we're surrounded". You're in space though dummy, just having ships on a horizontal plane around you doesn't mean you're surrounded. An armada trying to prevent someone from leaving would surely spread out like a ball around a ship, rather than like boats on water. Anyway, the episode ends there and of course it's a major cliffhanger. I'll give them this, I am so curious as to how this season will end now.
The possibilities are endless. If they do jump to the future, which future will it be? Will they continue the fan service and show us stuff from TNG, DS9 and VOY as well maybe? That has potential to be really cool, as long as it makes sense for however the story is moving forward.
Images from arcgames.com, player.one, en.wikipedia.org, treknews.net,
When I grew up we didn't have a VCR for the longest time, and when we finally got one I only ever owned one children's movie - The Little Mermaid (in German). Other than that there were cartoons on TV for an hour or so every evening, but the rest of the time or any place that didn't have a TV? Nothing. It's interesting then for me to ponder the sheer amount of content that is at my 5 year olds disposal, compared to what I had. And with this unlimited amount of content I also see something else that I wonder how I would've handled as a kid - the wide variety of quality of that content. Not only do we have videos of people playing video games, but also videos of people playing bad or broken video games.
More and more, watching and gaming have been closer and closer intertwined. It's become clear to me that we're now actually looking at a genre of games that seems to be designed specifically to be able to generate watchable content. By using wholly unscientific methods, my conclusion is that the main demographic of these games is the new generation of kids who are looking for "funny" content where things just go bonkers. In essence, people online have become the new whacky cartoon characters of my days and one easy way to end up in funny situations is to play a game that is designed entirely around that idea. With this we actually have a whole plethora of games that seem to be intentionally broken or badly designed to allow for the player to fail and fumble their way through.
I don't know if games like QWOP kickstarted the phenomena, but in my mind it's one of the first instances I can remember of a game that was intentionally designed to be horribly wonky to control and play. Then came a sudden rush of open world sandbox survival games that were in alpha or beta stages of development (i.e not finished and buggy as heck) and kind of stayed there because they weren't meant to be finished products. Other games were simulating life as a slice of bread or a goat.
Further than I ever got.
Then we have a game like Octodad: Dadliest Catch, which tries to walk the line a bit in-between "intentionally unplayable game" and "regular playable game". As such it was initially difficult for me to decide whether to review it as one or the other. In the game you play as Octodad, an octopus who at the beginning of the game is about to get married and apparently also already has kids. The gameplay revolves entirely around trying to navigate something as unwieldy and squiggly as a mollusc trying to do normal-people things, while also trying to not get caught out by other humans. The control-scheme is simple enough, using only the mouse you move your Octodad around, using left and right mouse buttons to control the legs. With a press of the space bar you swap to using one of your tentacles, allowing you to grab things and move them around. The challenge then of course comes from the fact that none of these limbs are easy to control. The game does punish you for flailing too much and thus arousing suspicion in bystanders, but overall I thought it was very lenient with how much you could knock things over without anyone being too bothered.
Now, have they tried to make an intentionally broken game or an actually playable game? I definitely think it's the latter. The challenge for the game designers then comes from making a game that is wonky, but makes sense within the rules of the gameworld, and not veer over into "broken game" territory where things happen arbitrarily and feel out of the players control. While the Octodad is tricky and frustrating to control, overall you get the hang of it. The tricky control is the point of the game, so you do know what you're getting yourself into when you start playing it and overall I think it stays fun throughout the relatively short runtime of the game.
Nothing stands out as overly spectacular, but maybe it's all overshadowed by the fact that you are playing as the tentacles of an octopus who is pretending to be human. Graphics, sound effects and music all do their job without being in the way nor leaving a lasting impression. You will hear a lot of squibbly, gibbly noises as you flail your way past objects and the main character comes off as quite endearing. While the wonky control-scheme is all there is to the game, it does explore that concept in a variety of ways with a light-hearted story as a frame. The game never takes itself seriously and feels very self-aware of what it is, but it also feels like it is genuinely trying to be a good gaming experience. And as such I think it mainly succeeds. The few segments that get frustrating don't last long enough to ruin the fun.
There is a co-op mode I didn't have the opportunity to try, but I assume it allows one player to control the "legs" and another to control the "arms" and I can definitely see there being a lot of fun in that. I can also see the game being nigh impossible to play like that, but again, that is the point of the game after all.
There are some issues that make things difficult in the wrong kind of way. For instance, when controlling your "leg tentacles", moving the mouse upward is supposed to both work as moving your tentacles on a 3d horizontal and vertical plane. In some places you're supposed to move your Octodad into a hole in the wall, and need to make the tentacle go up and in with the same movement. It's entirely up to the game then how it wants to interpret your input and feels too much out of control. The same becomes true when trying to climb any stairs that aren't situated in a left-right plane. In these places it's less about trying to wrestle control over the limbs and more about trying over and over until you happen to get a tentacle in the right place, and these sections are less fun. Fortunately I didn't think they happened often enough for it to become too big of an issue.
This is how I feel after a nap too.
You also have very little control over the camera, which sometimes becomes an issue when you want to see what is coming ahead or just get a better angle of whatever you're trying to do. You can tilt the camera in different directions, but this function is almost pointless as it doesn't allow you enough extra view to be of any use. I can only imagine that this design choice is to intentionally make the game more difficult, similar to the static camera angles of Resident Evil, but in this game it doesn't add tension, just frustration.
Playing it with my kid, my intention was for things to go wrong though, and I would've probably forgiven the game even if it had more failings than it ended up having. I knew that the fun we'd have with the game would come from him laughing at us flailing our way through a stage. However, while I thought it was a fun concept, most of my fun with the game came from his enjoyment. Personally, I didn't see myself wanting to play through this on my own.
And he did enjoy it. While it required too much precise motor skills and reflexes for him to be able to play it entirely on his own, there were many sections where he could just play around and have fun with the weird controls. For a 5 year old, it has to be a dream come true to be allowed to absolutely wreck a room. At first he wanted to play himself, mostly just throwing things around. Eventually, he mainly wanted to watch me play but it seemed like he had a lot of fun with the game throughout, and he said as much. Still, when the end credits were rolling (and they are interactive, here's to more interactive credits in games!) I got the feeling that this wasn't a game that would linger in his memory for very long, nor a game that he would ask to play again (unlike for instance Chuchel).
Climbing provides the most challenge.
It's not a particularly long game, it took us about five hours to complete and that is including my son just goofing around in some levels. I'd say this is a positive thing though, because that way the game doesn't outstay its welcome with what in the end isn't an idea to build a huge game around. The designers have realized this and managed to make the most of what is there to explore. The game does allow you to replay sections you've completed and there are things, more specifically ties, to collect in each area so there is some replayability if you feel like you haven't had your fill when the game is done.
I set out to find a game that would provide the kind of humour that kids seem into these days, and as such this didn't disappoint. Octodad does what it says it will do, and it doesn't take long enough to get through for you to get bored with the concept. It churns the idea thoroughly and provides with a nice variety of scenarios to test yourself in. Overall however, I find it difficult to recommend the game unless you happen to be in the same situation I was in (trying to entertain a child) or just really interested in games with intentionally frustrating controls. If you happen to fall in any of those two categories however, you'll get what you're looking for.
Discovery soldiers on with its break-neck speed. I actually had to quickly read through my previous post to recap what had happened last week because things fly by the screen so fast it quickly gets jumbled. Stamets driving the Discovery halfway into the spore-world feels like centuries ago. Was that even this season?
Discovery finds another signal, this time over the Klingon planet of Boreth. Remember that one? Neither did I, but apparently that is where Tyler left his son in the care of some monks. What are the monks doing on Boreth you might wonder? They're guarding time crystals, the most Deus Ex Machina, the-writers-really-needed-something-simple-to-move-the-plot-forward-crystal in all of Star Trek and there are plenty to choose from there.
But we still don't know what the signals mean and who is sending them, because in the previous episode Gabrielle denied knowing what they were and also she doesn't have the means to be doing anything timey-wimey anymore anyway. Michael gets annoyed at all the speculation and says she really just wants to set after Control-Leland. Everyone else correctly remind her that putting the sphere data, which is all inside the Discovery, any closer to Control-Leland is probably a bad idea. Michael reluctantly agrees.
Instead, Tyler gets into contact with L'Rell to allow the Discovery to make contact with the monks on Boreth. At this point both Michael and Pike have found out that Tyler has a baby on Boreth. Michael and Tyler do some more reconnecting in this episode, are they about to go back together again? Do I feel like we need this love-story? It might have held some purpose in the first season, because it turned out Tyler was actually some sort of Klingon and tried to murder Michael and that was a bit interesting, but do we need them to continue this? A love-story that doesn't seem to fill a purpose in the bigger picture yet but that they handle well is the one between Stamets and Culber though, which they give some time in this episode and also allow us to see and get some more backstory on Reno. Reno is a great character that they should use more in this series to be honest. Reno basically tells Culber that he's got a second chance with Stamets by coming back alive and that he shouldn't waste it. But maybe he doesn't have feelings for him any longer, talk about putting pressure on someone who is already feeling bad about his situation, Reno?
Do they only have one mess hall? Where do they all fit?
Anyway, Pike decides they are going to try to get a time crystal to fix Gabrielles suit (somehow) and Tyler wants to go down to see his son. L'Rell reminds him that he is supposed to be dead and that he'd just ruin their entire scheme from episode 2 or whenever it was if he did that. Pike volunteers instead. It's interesting that Klingon monk architecture looks a lot like any generic Hollywood we-are-supposed-to-be-in-Tibet-now-architecture. To be fair, the go-to Star Trek monk-architecture always seems to be badly lit caves, and this isn't far from that either.
When Pike comes down to Boreth he is met by a monk with an uncanny resemblance to John Travolta from Battlefield: Earth. Every time I see a Klingon in this series I scratch my head as to why they felt the need to completely change them like this and still call them Klingons? It's like they wanted the cake and eat it too, because I realize at this point in Star Trek time the Klingons were still the biggest threat to the Federation. At the same time the writers of Discovery, as I have speculated before, probably felt like the Klingons were old hat and that something "cooler" was needed. They wanted something new that wasn't the Klingons, but were bound by lore to call them Klingons. While I can understand it on some levels, I think they went a bit far. To be fair, this isn't the first major overhaul the Klingons have received but I still wish they would've kept more of the TNG/VOY/DS9 style.
Couldn't they've been Nognilks instead?
The monk that helps Pike turns out to be the son of Tyler and L'Rell, apparently an adult now although only months have passed, due to the influence of the time crystals. Tenavik, as he is called, explains to Pike that acquiring a time crystal requires a sacrifice and the second he said it I knew where this was going. That's right, we're getting the backstory on how Pike gets to be where he is when we see him in the TOS episode The Menagerie, which is completely disabled in a wheelchair with severe damages to his face. I've probably said it before, but in that TOS episode they had to have an explanation as to why they didn't have the original actor from the pilot episode The Cage that Pike originally stars in. So they make'd him up to be almost unrecognizable so they could use a different actor and said he had had some unspecified accident. Here we are 50 years later and Star Trek writers have had to fit that quick-fix into their storyline somehow. It's pretty impressive actually how they've done it, because it doesn't feel forced but like a fairly natural progression and part of the DSC storyline. Pike gets to see that this is his future if he decides to take a time crystal, and as we know, he does it.
It's interesting though that the Klingon are in possession of a planet that seem to hold a great quantity of something as awesome as the time crystals. You'd think half the galaxy would be on that planet like flies to poo to get their grubby hands/paws/tentacles on some, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The fact that it isn't harder to receive a time crystal from the monks than basically asking for one might be part of it. But still, if they are even half as dangerous as they are made out to be, why aren't they hidden or destroyed or... something?
Meanwhile, Michael has been informed that a Section 31 ship has failed to report on time, so basically disappeared, and she feels compelled to go investigate. She tells Saru that she will take a shuttle to the last known coordinates so that way the data on Discovery won't be in danger. Spock decides to tag along, and we get some more good sibling-banter between them while they travel on the shuttle to their destination. As they get there they see that the ship is intact but all the people have been shot out into space and... well, died. All except one. Lucky! They find someone who happens to have had the presence of mind enough to get into a space suit and can give them a quick rundown of what went wrong. Bad writing or suspicious? This someone also happens to be someone Michael used to work with on the Shenzhou, Kamran Gant. Apparently, the Section 31 ship just suddenly decided to shoot all its personnel into space but now it's just floating around in space doing nothing. Also suspicious?
You'd also remember Kamran from the mirror universe.
Indeed very suspicious. For some reason Michael insists that they get onto the ship to find out more about what happened there. Kamran says he doesn't want to first, but gets talked into it by Spock and Michael. Then they come up with some plan of how to purge Control from the computer so they can access the data or something, to be honest they kind of lost me here, but the important thing is that they argue about who has to go to the control room and they finally settle on it being Spock. When Michael and Kamran are alone, Kamran reveals himself to actually be a nanobot Kamran version of Control, just like it did with Leland. Control-Kamran tells Michael it lured her there to be able to make a version of her body to be able to get access to the data on Discovery. So here we have another extremely convoluted plan that is dependant on so many factors going exactly right from Control. It kills the crew of a Section 31 ship in the hopes of getting Michael interested enough to going there to investigate in person. Then it realizes Michael didn't come alone so needs to get her on her own but bets on Spock volunteering to go to the control room, then it reveals itself to her before it attacks which of course puts her on the defence. Now why would you do that?
Spock also manages to find out that Kamran is in fact control and hurries back to help Michael who is now under attack. After a shootout billions of nanobots eventually pour out of control-Kamran and go for Michael but Spock manages to magnetize the floor which renders all the nanobots harmless. Seems like a giant magnet would be a pretty good defence against any dealings with Control in the future? Or something like a suit that magnetically repels the nanobots?
They manage to flee back to the Discovery where they discover that they're suddenly under attack by all the Section 31 ships there are. I swear, by the way this season has been going it feels like there are no other ships than Discovery and Section 31 in the entire galaxy. And also, are the Section 31 ships out in the open? Do everyone know what ships they use? Are they not a secret organization? I guess they could have the information because they are in liaison with them. Either way, Michael says that if they can't protect the data by destroying it, they have to destroy the Discovery. The episode ends with Pike giving the order to evacuate the Discovery.
No Tilly or Philippa in this episode.
Things are moving quickly as usual in the Discovery-verse and as I just started re-watching DS9 the other day it's interesting to compare the two. I am ten episodes into DS9 but we've already received a basic backstory on most of the main characters (at the moment Dr Bashir is the only one without yet). Kira, Odo, O'Brien, Quark and Dax have already had episodes of their own to further their backstory and character development. The worm hole, which makes out the raison d'être for DS9 is mentioned in most episodes but has only had one focused episode so far (the pilot). Things are allowed to take their time, characters are allowed to be expanded and explored just as much or more as the main storyline. I know I am repeating myself and I think Discovery has a fun and interesting storyline in season 2 (more so than in season 1) but I do miss these in-between episodes that flesh out the world and just make everything fit together better and most importantly matter more.
Still, I am curious to see whether they'll actually destroy the Discovery and as this season comes to an end will they make off with yet another captain? I'd be sad to see Pike go, he's been very good and I liked Lorca too. I guess that is a way to ensure the series doesn't become too focused around one captain, since it seems they're really trying to not make it about the captain this time around.
Pictures comes from trekmovie.com and memory-alpha.fandom.com
Awesome VGM is no April fools, let's start out with…
a track from Suikoden! Although not my favorite track from Suikoden, it's definitely a very good one, and anything that reminds me of that game is good in my book. Suikoden is a great jRPG that you should definitely check out if you're into that kind of thing. This track was played in the also great Time for Tea with Rhythm & Pixels episode of the Forever Sound Version podcast, in which the theme was to find VGM that is somehow related to tea. I think Michael, Rob and Pernell went about that task slightly differently, and for a tea fan for myself this was great fun to listen to, so I recommend checking out the entire episode. Also, that can't possibly be the actual box art of the game? 😂
Singing Mountain has a Halloween-themed episode that was actually pretty creepy to listen to in the dark - it showcases spooky music from Mario-games. Among them is this gem, Ashley's Theme from Wario Ware, and the original version is much better than the re-arranged version for Super Smash Bros on the WiiU. Seriously, the re-arranged version completely removes Ashley's cool and menacing style, why would you do that? The original is funny and the right kind of edgy though.
Nerd Noise Radio episode 32 plays the Meteor track from Starfox. The interesting thing about this track is that it's right on the edge of being repetitive, but every now and then it'll throw something new in the mix to keep things moving forward, and I always end up listening to the whole thing because I want to hear what comes next. It's got all these neat little sounds moving around and it makes great use of the stereo.
So far for tracks I had already heard before and that might be a bit affected by my nostalgic bias. So not for the next track that is cool as ice and I can't get enough of - Brother Goes Away from the game Ollie King - played in Episode 10 of VGMBassy, which is a showcase of the music by Hideki Naganuma. Extra interesting for me who had little knowledge of his style, and it's definitely quite original. This track is so funky it'll make a stone want to dance.
