You Have Requested : Rise.of.Empires.S02E02.720... REPACK
If there was one person to put your faith in, it should have been Scrappy. He's proven himself to Raq and company more than once and even lost an eye for his troubles. But having said that, at this point, he's got to know that lying does him absolutely no favors.
You have requested : Rise.of.Empires.S02E02.720...
Howard appears to be operating from a place of curiosity mixed with a form of love. He seems to see something in Kanan that his own mother is ignoring, and throughout the conversation with Raq, you have to wonder what life for Kanan would be like with Howard as a father figure and not a glorified and revered drug kingpin.
The rogue representative of the Q Continuum leads Picard in a tour of the alt-château and the study is now a trophy room, full of mounted skulls from various alien races that have been murdered by the Picard of this reality. He whispers the names on the plaques in horror and one is Gul Dukat (opens in new tab) who, according to Q, was "executed in the Ithian Forests after a hell of a fight to take the Cardassian capital" and apparently the reason for Picard's golem body in this timeline. Others include General Martok (opens in new tab), killed in combat after a bioengineered virus decimated Qo'noS and Sarek (opens in new tab), beheaded on the steps of the Vulcan Science Academy in front of his wife and son.
All were killed by the same "withering" hand, the most ruthless and bloodthirsty general of the Confederation of Earth: Picard himself. It's not quite the Mirror Universe, but it could be and so far it's just as good. Before Picard can make sense of it all, Q has disappeared and a synthetic servant named Harvey (played by Alex Diehl, who also played the synthetic F8 in the Season 1 episode "Maps and Legends") enters, but poor Picard doesn't have a clue what's going on. Roll opening credits.
One by one, we see that each member of the crew of La Sirena appear to have also been transported into this nightmare world. That said, both Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) and Elnor (Evan Evagora) who find themselves in Okinawa, Japan in this alt-reality, weren't onboard the USS Stargazer when the Borg Queen attacked; they were on the USS Excelsior. Clearly, Q isn't intent on breaking up the band. However, Elnor appears to be a wanted terrorist and Raffi is an officer in the Confederation security forces, fortunately for the former Qowat Milat warrior-turned-Starfleet cadet.
Check out Dave Blass on Twitter for more amazing images and a technical breakdown of the USS Stargazer. Also, check out The Ready Room with Will Wheaton on YouTube for cast interviews and loads more cool info on this latest episode. Sadly though, Paramount is still struggling with its international audiences and this isn't available to watch in Europe. Unless you have a VPN of course.
Behind the scenes, the episode was unusual in that it had a "guest visual effects artist". Because the wolf was to have close-ups, and animal hair was at the time particularly difficult to portray convincingly, The Mill were compelled to import a "CGI hair specialist" for this one adventure. (DCOM: Tooth and Claw)
He ushers Rose out into the 1970s; however, they are met by armed soldiers on horseback. They demand explanations for the Doctor's presence and Rose's "nakedness". The Doctor realises that they have arrived in 1879 Scotland; "same difference" the Doctor shrugs. Using psychic paper and a Scottish accent, he convinces Captain Reynolds he is a Scottish doctor named James McCrimmon from the township of Balamory. Rose also attempts to speak with a Scottish accent, only to be shushed by the Doctor; unlike him, she would slip up and speak in her natural accent. The Doctor claims to be disorientated due to chasing Rose for some time; when he was buying in London, "it was either her or the Elephant Man." Reynolds isn't amused by the joke.
Upstairs, Sir Robert relates that his father believed the story to be fact, and even claimed to have communicated with the beast and learned its purpose. However, the Brethren of the monastery in the Glen of St Catherine opposed his investigations. Sir Robert asks what if the monks had turned from God and started worshipping the wolf? The Doctor sees Father Angelo face the full moon through the window, chanting in Latin. The Doctor questions what if the monks were with them now?
However, the werewolf does not try to break through. The Doctor wonders what it is about the room that is protecting them from the wolf. Victoria demands to know what the creature is, and why the Doctor has lost his Scottish accent. The Doctor tries to explain, but she will have none of it, declaring sternly that this is not her world. When asked about weapons, the Doctor points out that they have the greatest weapons of all in this very room: books full of knowledge, which can give them clues as to how to fight back.
Mando agrees to take her, but there is a catch. Frog Lady says going to hyperspace will kill her eggs. As such, they will have to travel the entire way at sublight speeds. Apparently, sublight speeds can still be pretty fast. This gas giant, even if it is in the closest system, must still be pretty far away. Mando warns that traveling at sublight is extremely dangerous, and will make the ship a target.
The spiders are relentless and determined to get Mando and company. Maybe they are just hungry. Given the theme of the show, I think it is just as likely they are trying to protect the newly hatched spiders. Just when all seems lost, the X-Wing pilots find the Razor Crest, and save our heroes. They have determined that back on the prison ship, Mando captured three wanted fugitives and tried to save New Republic officer Lt Davan. As such, they agree to let him go.
The-the... The Borg Queen was claiming that Romulans had infiltrated the palace with spies from a little-known sect called the Qowat Milat, or Final Stranglers as they were known in the North, and I postulated it wasn't true, but I-I didn't have any proof until I saw that Picard had apprehended a Romulan.
At Galavan's penthouse, Theo Galavan congratulates the group for their work at the Gotham Gazette and he begins to instruct them regarding the theatrics of their performance. Soon after, Barbara Kean and Tabitha arrive in the room, torturing Mayor James with a whip, as they were bored. To placate her impatience, Theo begins to ask Barbara questions about Jim Gordon. At Wayne Manor in Thomas Wayne's lair, Bruce and Alfred look around the cave, interested. Determined to get the lowdown on what his father was working on, Bruce turns on his father's old computer, but while the computer was starting up, Alfred begins to destroy the computer fearing for Bruce's life. Devastated by the loss of his father's research, Bruce decides to fire the butler for the action. At Galavan's penthouse, Jerome and Robert Greenwood have a face off, with a chainsaw and a sword, over who was the leader of the group. Theo presented a solution to the dispute, and offers a gun so the two could play Russian Roulette to decide who the leader was. Jerome eventually comes out victorious, to Theo Galavan's excitement.
In the city, Jerome, and the rest of the Maniax, in order to further make their presence in Gotham known decide to hijack a bus full of cheerleaders. At the GCPD, Nygma attempts to invite Kristin Kringle on a date, though due to his own nervousness, he fails. His dual personality soon emerges, claiming that she'd like him as he was confident, and ladies loved confidence. The dual personality infuriated Ed to the point where he screamed at him to away, with a police officer entering as he was doing so. Minutes after the Maniax had taken over the bus, and drenched the inside with gasoline, but Jerome failed to ignite the bus, as his lighter had failed. Arnold Dobkins attempted to try his, but Gordon and his colleagues quickly arrive at the scene. The Maniax and the GCPD have a shootout, with Jerome eventually ordering Aaron Helzinger and Robert Greenwood to get the truck started, leaving Dobkins to light the fire. Jim sneaks up right behind Dobkins, making him drop the lighter which ignites the gasoline. He quickly knocks Dobkins out with a punch, and gets into the bus, driving it away from the fire to save the lives of the cheerleaders on the bus. Later after the cheerleaders were safe, he questions Dobkins as to discover who set him free, but Tabitha shoots Dobkins with a sniper from afar, before he can talk.
Alfred waited at the train station ready to leave the city, but Bruce appears and told him that he didn't want him to leave, but there was nothing Alfred could do to stop him from continuing his father's work. He then told Alfred that he was either with him or against him, prompting Alfred to tell him that he had always been with him. Bruce then asks Alfred to make him ready to face the dangers he'd be facing, promising to train every day and even go back to regular school. Alfred agreed, though on the condition that Bruce must do what he say, when he said it, with no exceptions. However after agreeing to Alfred's conditions, Bruce told him that in exchange he must find someone to fix the computer he had broken. At the GCPD, Detective Gordon and Captain Essen watched Dr Thompkins perform an autopsy on Dobkins' body, and after Essen questioned why they had went after cheerleaders, Gordon reached the conclusion that the Maniax were looking to cause mass panic, and wanted headlines. Elsewhere, Alfred sat a bar alongside Lucius Fox, eventually telling Lucius a story from his past of a friend who he had done a favor for, and then the friend had betrayed him, causing Alfred to have to beat him. Alfred told Lucius that he needed to confide and him, but if it turned out that he couldn't trust him, he was a dead man.
In the course of our conversation, which occurred before the murders in Atlanta and subsequent attention to ongoing violence toward Asian and Asian American people, Dr. Thomas referenced a few public materials highlighting racism and anti-Black racism in Japan, Asian Studies, and the United States. We have gathered them here, in case listeners might want to explore them further (in the order they appear in our conversation): 041b061a72