What to Watch?

Andor if only for the scene where the young revolutionary Karis Nemik says to Cassian Andor, "The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it, and that is the real trick of the Imperial Thought Machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident.”

We see how a population is subjugated through economic exploitation, a creeping surveillance state and draconian policing that feeds a giant prison industrial complex.  (source) 

Sounds like here and now doesn’t it? All we gotta do is replace Imperial Thought Machine with Despot Demento Donnie’s Deathworks and Kiddie Rape Emporium and we’re all set.

Did Andor's revolutionaries overcome the Evil Empire? I don’t know. I believe I need to know the answer to this before diving into the show, into the Andor storyverse. Why? I need a happy ending. I need some inspiration to hope and dream that our current, supremely wretched reality can get better.

Remember the show Deep Space Nine? It ran from 1993 to 1999 – you know, last century, back when we were young. Deep Space Nine was mostly set on a space station of that same name with Benjamin Sisko as the captain, (played by Avery Brooks).

In a two episode story, Sisko and his crew, through a transporter beam mishap (?) are sent back in time to 2024. Homelessness and wealth disparity are wildly out of control – poor and homeless people are put in concentration camps. Gee, sound familiar? Sisko and team, having just arrived from the future, are without acceptable ID and money. They’re busted and put into the camps.

I don’t remember these episodes but, and this may come as a shock, I haven’t been deeply into ALL of Star Trek's offerings.

The original series, Next Generation, Picard, and Strange New Worlds are, to date, my favorites. Mind you, I truly loved the first few seasons of Discovery, especially all the episodes with Michelle Yeoh as the good Captain Philippa Georgiou and then the evil, despotic Terran Empress Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius, and finally, the semi-rehabbed, still evil yet heroic Philippa. 

Captain Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, was Spock’s adopted sister – human but raised Vulcan. She was great for the first three seasons. By season four, Captain Burnham seemed to have lost her Vulcan tone and characteristics. She came down with some serious quirks, like always tilting her head to the side and getting this confused doe-eyed look in her eyes when anything or anyone didn’t respond as she would wish. It came off as Lifetime channel/Hallmark movie concerned/condesending-mother-with-troubled-child level of acting. Martin-Green was SO much better than this in the first few seasons. Whose idea was it to turn her character into a maudlin, repellent cliché?

Clearly I’m still pissed about this.

Neither Andor or DS9 seem to offer up much in the realm of escapism today. After the week’s insanity, I've GOT to take a few hours away from reality. 

Alien: Earth is right out. In it, our planet is ruled by five supremely greedheaded corporations. The only good guys are a bunch of seemingly powerless kids. The show’s brilliant but NOT today, thanks. Life brings enough horror.

Too bad I’m not healthy and wealthy enough to just fly off to another, safer land. Where’s safe though? Russia’s flown drones into Poland and Romania. Naturally, Putin’s best employee, the Tangerine Taint, hasn’t said a word.

I woke from a dream where Ten and I were happily rushing through Logan airport to our departure gate. We were heading to Amsterdam. In real life, I haven’t been there in, probably, 20 years. It’s definitely a walking city so I don’t know how I’d get around now. Luckily, in Dream World, I was still fully mobile. Amsterdam would be a great escape.

Is it more dangerous to be geographically closer to the Russian homicidal madman or the batshit U.S. tantrum toddler?