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alchemicinkThis week: Zeztz meets important new people; Eliza looks for a missing racehorse; and the Starfleet Academy crew go from serious political negotiations to prank war shenanigans!
Title quote comes from episode 3 of Starfleet Academy. I was gonna pull a more serious quote but this one had me laughing so hard 😂 (the answer to the question is that they're tiny warp cores!)
Spoilers, as always, below:
Zeztz (episode 18)
We were introduced to some new faces in this episode, who may be important going forward. Three shows up briefly to take over Zero's role. He's pretty mean to Baku, but we don't get much more about him yet.
But the other new character is much more intriguing. Kureha is Nasuka's old friend from school... and also apparently an agent just like Baku, even though she seems to have forgotten for a bit. I'm really interested in what the show is setting up here with her. She could be a potential ally for Baku, or may end up a foe by the end of this little arc. I can't guess which way it'll go.
What I like about Zeztz so far is that it has been slow to reveal information. We don't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet about what's going on or why these characters are motivated to do what they do. It's definitely kept me invested through these first 18 episodes, and I continue to look forward to watching the new episode each week.
On a sidenote: Kureha is introduced as a journalist here, which means that out of the five Kamen Rider series I've watched so far, three have featured journalists. You can't keep doing this to me, Kamen Rider!!
Miss Scarlet (season 6, episode 2)
This was definitely an improvement over the season premiere. The case was more interesting! I liked that it centered around a stolen racehorse and not a murder (though there was some death along the way eventually).
But mostly, I liked that Eliza felt more in-character this time. Instead of being weird about working together, she and Inspector Blake have simply agreed to not talk about work when they're spending their private time together. It creates a mild bit of conflict in this episode (not between them) that's just more entertaining to watch than whatever was happening last week. Of course, in the end, they can't stick to their own agreement, but it's a very cute scene of them on a date, so I enjoyed it.
The other entertaining part of the episode was the b-plot of Mr. Potts becoming a househusband during his newfound unemployment. And he's actually quite thrilled about the cleaning and arranging and book writing. He's been such a cranky character over the past several seasons, it's so nice (and delightfully unexpected) to see him be happy.
On the downside, however, Ivy is not really enjoying it. But I have little sympathy for her when she can't be honest with her husband about it!
All in all, a more entertaining episode than last week, but we're not hitting the highs of previous seasons yet. BUT Moses is in the preview for next week, so I have a good feeling about the upcoming episode 👀
Starfleet Academy (episode 2)
This episode focuses more on politics than action, but it's a nice breather after the pilot episode. It gives the audience time to get adjusted to the state of things in this series: we see glimpses of the cadets' classes and life on campus, and we learn more about how the Federation is rebuilding itself.
The main crux of the episode is diplomatic negotiations with the Betazoids who left the Federation a century ago. It's crucial to get them to come back, so of course, much of this somehow hinges on Caleb being charming 😂 It's fun though to see him interact with Tarima, the daughter of the Betazoid President. She's a main character who wasn't introduced in episode one. I don't ship them at the moment but I enjoyed them getting to know each other, with all the fun and rough spots between them along the way.
This introduction, however, unfortunately means we had less time with the other cadets in this episode, and I found myself missing them. But such is life with an ensemble cast.
There were lots of things I enjoyed about this episode (the whales! The Doctor getting to sing! Caleb and Reymi being roommates lmao) but my favorite detail was the Betazoid president using sign language. I appreciate when shows actually include characters with disabilities. It's not treated as an inconvenience either. It just is.
Starfleet Academy (episode 3)
I just find this whole show incredibly delightful. That's what I kept thinking throughout the whole episode. School settings aren't for everyone, but they are absolutely for me 😁 In this episode we get sports and shenanigans!
While the previous episode gave us broader worldbuilding for the universe at large, this one does more to flesh out the more local setting... that is, the shared Academy and War College campus. We learn more about the two different schools and the students' routines and their extracurriculars, such as the intense Calica game.
The trade-off for good worldbuilding and character development is that there's minimal plot to the episode. It's basically just a prank war the whole time. Normally, I'd be a little disappointed in this, but since this is only episode 3 of the series so far, I don't mind some table-setting. Even if it can be a bit heavy-handed at times. It's good to get to know the characters and the world they live in. (And we did learn a lot about Darem and Genesis... and, to an extent, Tarima this episode.)
Overall, it was a fun low-stakes episode that I really enjoyed. (Also, the best part was a little reveal that Lura Thok and Jett Reno are together 👀 thank you for canonical lesbians in my new Star Trek show 💜)
Title quote comes from episode 3 of Starfleet Academy. I was gonna pull a more serious quote but this one had me laughing so hard 😂 (the answer to the question is that they're tiny warp cores!)
Spoilers, as always, below:
Zeztz (episode 18)
We were introduced to some new faces in this episode, who may be important going forward. Three shows up briefly to take over Zero's role. He's pretty mean to Baku, but we don't get much more about him yet.
But the other new character is much more intriguing. Kureha is Nasuka's old friend from school... and also apparently an agent just like Baku, even though she seems to have forgotten for a bit. I'm really interested in what the show is setting up here with her. She could be a potential ally for Baku, or may end up a foe by the end of this little arc. I can't guess which way it'll go.
What I like about Zeztz so far is that it has been slow to reveal information. We don't have all the pieces of the puzzle yet about what's going on or why these characters are motivated to do what they do. It's definitely kept me invested through these first 18 episodes, and I continue to look forward to watching the new episode each week.
On a sidenote: Kureha is introduced as a journalist here, which means that out of the five Kamen Rider series I've watched so far, three have featured journalists. You can't keep doing this to me, Kamen Rider!!
Miss Scarlet (season 6, episode 2)
This was definitely an improvement over the season premiere. The case was more interesting! I liked that it centered around a stolen racehorse and not a murder (though there was some death along the way eventually).
But mostly, I liked that Eliza felt more in-character this time. Instead of being weird about working together, she and Inspector Blake have simply agreed to not talk about work when they're spending their private time together. It creates a mild bit of conflict in this episode (not between them) that's just more entertaining to watch than whatever was happening last week. Of course, in the end, they can't stick to their own agreement, but it's a very cute scene of them on a date, so I enjoyed it.
The other entertaining part of the episode was the b-plot of Mr. Potts becoming a househusband during his newfound unemployment. And he's actually quite thrilled about the cleaning and arranging and book writing. He's been such a cranky character over the past several seasons, it's so nice (and delightfully unexpected) to see him be happy.
On the downside, however, Ivy is not really enjoying it. But I have little sympathy for her when she can't be honest with her husband about it!
All in all, a more entertaining episode than last week, but we're not hitting the highs of previous seasons yet. BUT Moses is in the preview for next week, so I have a good feeling about the upcoming episode 👀
Starfleet Academy (episode 2)
This episode focuses more on politics than action, but it's a nice breather after the pilot episode. It gives the audience time to get adjusted to the state of things in this series: we see glimpses of the cadets' classes and life on campus, and we learn more about how the Federation is rebuilding itself.
The main crux of the episode is diplomatic negotiations with the Betazoids who left the Federation a century ago. It's crucial to get them to come back, so of course, much of this somehow hinges on Caleb being charming 😂 It's fun though to see him interact with Tarima, the daughter of the Betazoid President. She's a main character who wasn't introduced in episode one. I don't ship them at the moment but I enjoyed them getting to know each other, with all the fun and rough spots between them along the way.
This introduction, however, unfortunately means we had less time with the other cadets in this episode, and I found myself missing them. But such is life with an ensemble cast.
There were lots of things I enjoyed about this episode (the whales! The Doctor getting to sing! Caleb and Reymi being roommates lmao) but my favorite detail was the Betazoid president using sign language. I appreciate when shows actually include characters with disabilities. It's not treated as an inconvenience either. It just is.
Starfleet Academy (episode 3)
I just find this whole show incredibly delightful. That's what I kept thinking throughout the whole episode. School settings aren't for everyone, but they are absolutely for me 😁 In this episode we get sports and shenanigans!
While the previous episode gave us broader worldbuilding for the universe at large, this one does more to flesh out the more local setting... that is, the shared Academy and War College campus. We learn more about the two different schools and the students' routines and their extracurriculars, such as the intense Calica game.
The trade-off for good worldbuilding and character development is that there's minimal plot to the episode. It's basically just a prank war the whole time. Normally, I'd be a little disappointed in this, but since this is only episode 3 of the series so far, I don't mind some table-setting. Even if it can be a bit heavy-handed at times. It's good to get to know the characters and the world they live in. (And we did learn a lot about Darem and Genesis... and, to an extent, Tarima this episode.)
Overall, it was a fun low-stakes episode that I really enjoyed. (Also, the best part was a little reveal that Lura Thok and Jett Reno are together 👀 thank you for canonical lesbians in my new Star Trek show 💜)
