Ronald D. Moore

This review is for the DVD of the 2004 reboot miniseries, not the novelization. I resisted watching this series for ages despite the urging of friends. It was hard for me to credit this could be good given what I'd seen of the original series this was based on--science fiction television at its cheesiest. Then I saw one episode in isolation and wasn't impressed, felt confused. Well, yes, because this is modern series television with arcs--which means most episodes don't do well in show more isolation--the story builds, the characters develop. I finally gave in to the incessant nagging of a friend.... well, she gifted me with a Netflix subscription just to get me to see it--and soon I was loving it. But Netflix didn't have the initial miniseries--which is why I got this DVD--and I wasn't disappointed. It's excellent. The start to one of the best series in television. show less

A desperate man is willing to kill millions in order to return to a magical timeless joy vortex.

It's made of disappointment. The control and writing was in the hands of television producers, and they clearly treated it with the same weight as an episode of one their shows. But if you go in with low expectations, it's still reasonably entertaining. Better than a lot of TNG episodes, worse than the average TOS/TNG cross-over episode. At least it's a type of story that hadn't already been done show more in a Star Trek movie.

The biggest problem with this movie (and that's really saying something - there are some huge problems with this movie) is the gross mishandling of the characters. They introduce at least a dozen characters in the movie (not counting the three original series characters), as if it were the pilot to a new TV show. If they had done all of those introductions right, the movie would have been two hours long before it even got started. Even as it is, there's no time left for what might otherwise have been an interesting villain to do anything more than push the occasional Destroy Solar System button. Meanwhile Kirk shows up just for the sake of being in the movie, doing nothing relevant to the story. And then there's Data... In a lot of ways his character is the heart and soul of TNG, but this movie takes seven years of development and wedges it, along with a neat-and-tidy resolution to his entire character arc, into less than 10 minutes of gratuitous comic relief.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.0/4 show less

Evil robots try to destroy humanity... in space!

3/4 (Good).

I'm not sure why I didn't like this when I first tried watching it back in 2010. I guess it was a different time, in terms of genre TV quality. Lost was still blowing everyone's minds, Doctor Who was in its prime, and Firefly was still fresh in my mind. What I had to say about it was accurate enough - it's slow to get moving, and it's terrible at drama. But looking back on it from 2020, it's a pretty good show. The space battles are show more exciting, anyway. It doesn't do anything unique or special, but I've been seeing so much bad TV lately, I don't need unique and special; I'm happy to get coherent and well-lit.

[my original review, 12/4/2010: I really wanted to love this. I tried so hard to love it. Based on the hype, I expected something on the level of Doctor Who or Lost. ... In fact, it's not even as good as the original Battlestar Galactica (or at least, not as good as the pilot). If I wasn't clinging to the hope that it would eventually live up to its reputation, I probably would have turned it off after 15 minutes. The first hour or so is just dumb and boring. It does pick up a little as it gets going, but it never quite gets good. The writer's idea of good drama is having a pretty woman kiss somebody. Yeah, that might be pretty exciting if you're 14 years old.] show less

A WWII nurse is transported to 1743 Scotland.

Concept: A
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 3.0/4