| 1 | [[Website/SFDebris Main Page]] | SFDebris/TropesAToF | SFDebris/TropesGToL | SFDebris/TropesMToR | '''Tropes S to Z''' | [[YMMV/SFDebris YMMV]] | [[Characters/SFDebris SFDebris's Character Interpretations]] | [[RunningGag/SFDebris Running Gags]] | [[ShoutOut/SFDebris Shout Outs]] |
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| 5 | [[foldercontrol]] |
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| 7 | [[folder:S]] |
| 8 | * SanitySlippageSong: |
| 9 | ** Uses Music/BuddyHolly's "Everyday" for the scene in "Unimatrix Zero" where Janeway gets assimilated. |
| 10 | ** "Clementine" in "Equinox Pt. 3." |
| 11 | ** When a brain virus leaves Riker comatose, he-- .....no, wait. You better see this one for yourself. ("Shades of Grey") |
| 12 | * SayingTooMuch: |
| 13 | ** From "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" (''[[Series/TheXFiles X-Files]]''): |
| 14 | --->"And he's constantly writing, constantly trying to get that story out there... and constantly getting back... rejection letters. Harsh, demoralizing papers. Coming one after another, after another... stacking up higher and higher and higher into a glowing ''pack'' of hate, constantly ''looking down and judging you... JUDGING YOU UNTIL THE ONLY SOLACE YOU CAN FIND IS DOING YOUR '''[[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs CRAPPY INTERNET REVIEW SHOW!!]]'''''" |
| 15 | ** He can relate to Captain Braxton's desire to blow ''Voyager'' up. ("Relativity") |
| 16 | --->"I know it's rough, buddy, I've been having to deal with ''Voyager'' for thirteen yea-- '''SPIDERS!''' Nonononono you will not [[SanitySlippage crawl into my ear and make me kill again]], spider, not this time~♪ |
| 17 | ** "Fascination" really speaks to him. A bit too much. |
| 18 | --->"There's nothing quite like the sensation where, at the root of where you live, everything has gone to shit and you can do nothing about it. It's like you can sense that the little components of your soul just went "[[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud vizzle]]" and now you're broken. You could [[ComfortFood eat something that's horribly bad]] for ya, until you feel worse that you've screwed up your ''body'' too, now. You can try finding things that make you happy to look at, but then you remember that they've blocked pornography on your work computer. Seems that all that's left is...finding [[TheScapegoat something that you hate]]. And just ''venting'' at it and ''venting'' at it until you've finally ''purged yourself of all that negative energy''... (sighs contently) '''Back to the review'''!" |
| 19 | ** Obviously, the ''Wonder Woman'' pilot is incomplete, with post-production notes for things to be added in later. These start out as mundane notes such as "[[AC:Enhance skyline]]" and quickly turn into Chuck instructing himself to "[[AC:Turn your back on hope and love]]" and plant vomit in an annoying neighbor's trashcan. |
| 20 | ** Chuck can relate to an alien's temptation to coerce sex from Riker. ("First Contact", TNG) |
| 21 | --->"If the locals are ''us'', then, essentially, she is anyone who has ever been curious about that kind of thing. ...Has had those kinds of thoughts. ...[-wondered what [[Franchise/MassEffect Tali]] looks like when she's out of that suit...-] ''(sputters'') SHADDAP! DON'T JUDGE ME!" |
| 22 | * {{Scandalgate}}: In the review of "Deep Throat" from ''Series/TheXFiles'', he admits that this is his pet peeve. |
| 23 | * SchizoTech: On an ''X Files'' episode he noted that in UFO lore the aliens have oddly inconsistent levels of technology. Sure, they can travel between stars and their metallurgy is far beyond ours, but they apparently can't perform surgery without leaving extremely obvious scars. |
| 24 | * [[invoked]] SciFiGhetto: Discusses this in his introduction to ''Series/RedDwarf'' (which can be found [[http://www.bookgallery.co.il/sfdebris/ here]]), and points out that whilst ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' may have lost to ''{{Film/Gandhi}}'' in the Oscars, ''Gandhi'' has yet to be inducted into the National Film Registry alongside science fiction classics like ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', ''Film/BladeRunner'', and the aforementioned ''E.T.''. |
| 25 | * SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Points this out in the "Terra Nova" (ENT) review. The episode tells us that colonists from Earth to a nearby Earth-like planet became angry at Terran authorities for wanting to send another group of about 200 colonists to the same planet. |
| 26 | -->'''Chuck:''' Wait, they didn't want another ''200 people'' to land on the same ''planet''... How much lebensraum do you people need?! Are Berman and Braga really this stupid? It's a '''''planet'''''! How can these idiots not realize how freaking huge a planet is, considering they will likely never ever leave the one they're on? |
| 27 | ** Notes the same issue with 600 Ba'ku having this objection in ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection''. |
| 28 | ** A minor one in the 2009 reboot where Pine!Kirk ends up withing walking distance of Nimoy!Spock on the same planet. |
| 29 | * TheScrappy: InUniverse, he hates Neelix more than any other main character in a Trek show (with only guest character Okona being worse). |
| 30 | ** He also lists the "Annoying Character" for any non-''Voyager'' ''Trek'' show. |
| 31 | * ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: At the start of the ''Film/NightOfTheComet'' review. |
| 32 | * ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the review for ''Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot'', he explains why this trope works for someone like Franchise/{{Batman}} but not Franchise/WonderWoman: |
| 33 | --->"Batman exists in a world where crime is so rampant that ordinary people live in fear and the judicial system is powerless to curtail it. Wonder Woman's world is so squeaky clean, her number-one concern is somebody testing ''drugs'' with harmful side effects." |
| 34 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: |
| 35 | ** He tries to do this in the "Unimatrix Zero" review after the sight of ''Neelix'' running Voyager's science station is followed up by the revelation that two rebel Borg drones have somehow commandeered a Borg Sphere, which is supposed to have a crew of several hundred, if not thousand drones. |
| 36 | --->That's it, I'm too old for this shit. ''(sound of door closing)'' |
| 37 | ** His review of episode 8 of ''Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden'' has him so infuriated by what can be summed up as "magic lesbians" that he declares "Fuck this episode, I'm out!" |
| 38 | ** Chuck left Website/ChannelAwesome the same time Linkara did in the wake of "Change The Channel". Considering he never got a huge bump from his association and he supports himself through Patreon these days, nobody's considering this a big loss. |
| 39 | * ScrewYourself: Harry once commented on becoming smitten with his own hologram. ("Latent Image") |
| 40 | ** Two Sevens! "Clearly the only way to resolve this paradox is for the two of them to start making out! ..[[GirlOnGirlIsHot C'mon, right now]]." ("VOY: Relativity") |
| 41 | ** Why is it that whenever there are two Janeways, they always argue with one another? The answer: UnresolvedSexualTension! ("VOY: Deadlock") |
| 42 | * SelfDeprecation: Chuck after spending the first eight minutes of [[http://sfdebris.com/videos/films/transformers1.php his review]] of ''Film/Transformers2007'' talking in deep detail about how the relationship of the summer blockbuster to science fiction is both blessing and curse. After the commercial break: |
| 43 | -->"Okay, I stand by everything I have said, and I ''do'' advocate rational discourse over a hurricane of {{troll}}s. But I'm also an Internet critic and part of the job is, well, this part of the show now, where I act like a guffawing dickhead." |
| 44 | ** This one was a long time coming: To commemorate "Captain Picard Day", Riker mockingly imitates the Captain. Chuck replies, in Sir Pat Stu's accent, that it's "the second worst impression" he's ever heard. ("The Pegasus") |
| 45 | *** He pulls a similar gag in the Babylon 5 episode "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father," where it was Bester commenting on how bad Ivanova's Russian accent is. This could be a joke at how Walter Koenig used to play a character with a bad Russian accent, or self-deprecating humor. |
| 46 | ** There's a running gag about him being easily and crudely DistractedByTheSexy, to the point that that almost all remotely raunchy jokes in the show include a barb at himself for making them. He's directly compared himself to Benny Hill in this respect. |
| 47 | * SeparatedByACommonLanguage: In the third "Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay" review, is quickly irritated by their insistence on running the joke that British people and Americans use different words for things into the ground, pointing out that it'd become a [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore tired old cliche]], years ago. |
| 48 | ** Although in "Rose" he pointed out that it was rather amusing when Rose went to find the C.E.O. in the basement. |
| 49 | * SequentialSymptomSyndrome: Chuck doesn't buy the idea that ''Star Trek'' inspired the cell phone, but in "Realm of Fear," he does give credit to the franchise for predicting hypochondriacs using the Internet to diagnose themselves. |
| 50 | * SeriousBusiness: He reveals while reviewing "Real Life" that his twin sons were born premature, and overcame incredible odds to both be alive and healthy today. So he is quite upset at the episode's trivialization of that horrible situation, saying that people should go through it to build character (especially since the show forgot about it anyway). |
| 51 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: When Dukat talks to Weyoun and calls him "anhedonic"[[note]](Incapable of feeling pleasure or enjoyment)[[/note]]. Chuck replies "Someone got a word-a-day calendar" then makes up this bit. |
| 52 | -->'''Dukat:''' I suggest you stop this ultracrepidarianism, Weyoun, especially in front of that xanthippe we work for to avoid acting mendaciously.\ |
| 53 | '''Weyoun:''' Dukat.\ |
| 54 | '''Dukat:''' Yes?\ |
| 55 | '''Weyoun:''' Your newfound logological hobby is leading to excessive magniloquence, so I assert you circumvent words of a hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian nature. |
| 56 | * ShaggyDogStory: Chuck tells one in "Critical Care" (''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager VOY]]''), about a donkey who wanted to do magic all his life. Eventually the donkey gets his chance to do a show for kids, but someone steals part of the sign and leaves it reading "Donkey show - kids watch for free", leading the townspeople to burn the theatre and the donkey to [[ShootTheShaggyDog hang himself]]. The moral of the story? "Magic shows are wrong". |
| 57 | * ShapedLikeItself: Brought up in his second ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''-related review. He mentions that, since Discord was largely based off of Q, Lauren Faust had wanted his VA to "sound like Creator/JohnDeLancie". She ended up with... John de Lancie. |
| 58 | -->'''Chuck:''' So, mission accomplished. |
| 59 | * SharedUniverse: He cameod in Linkara's review of One More Day, making him part of the Reviewaverse. He also provided his Psycho Janeway for Linkara's review of a Star Trek Voyager comic. |
| 60 | * {{Shipping}}: He jokingly ships Mulder and Scully in-universe, i.e. in his review. From ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Deep Throat" review: |
| 61 | -->'''Chuck:''' We then get to return to Mulder and Scully in a bar in the midst of the day working that [[UnresolvedSexualTension sexual chemistry]] of theirs.\ |
| 62 | '''Mulder:''' I've got something to show you.\ |
| 63 | '''Chuck:''' Yeah, you know it. '''Sometimes the fan fics just write themselves.''' |
| 64 | * [[DumbassHasAPoint Shithead Has A Point]]: From the intro of "The Cloud" review. |
| 65 | -->'''Kes:''' I don't think the captain is an idiot. She cares a great deal about her crew.\ |
| 66 | '''Neelix:''' You don't care a great deal about your crew and introduce them to the specter of death at every opportunity!\ |
| 67 | '''Chuck:''' You know, he may be a shithead, but he's got a point! |
| 68 | ** Similar exchange from ''Fair Trade'': |
| 69 | --->'''Chuck:''' See, he thinks that when he stops being able to serve Janeway as a guide, she'll boot him off the ship. What, you mean, just use you until you can no longer serve her, and then cast you aside? Tha-- ''[pause]'' Huh. Fairly astute there, Neelix. |
| 70 | ** "The Void", which notably did ''not'' have a Stupid Neelix Moment, but rather Neelix piping up to say something "useful and well thought-out. ''(Beat)'' It's time for some '''blood tests'''! [[OutOfCharacterAlert Changelings have obviously infiltrated Voyager!]]" |
| 71 | * ShoutOut: Now with their [[ShoutOut/SFDebris own page]]. |
| 72 | * ShownTheirWork: His reviews of ''Series/RedDwarf'' are ''very'' well-researched. |
| 73 | ** Chuck knows his Chinese, which opened the way to a very interesting lecture about "Darmok." He also spotted the faux Chinese in ''Back to Earth.'' |
| 74 | --->"If it seems indulgent, remember, there's not a whole lot of opportunities to practice Mandarin in Wisconsin." |
| 75 | ** His review of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' discusses the franchise and Lauren Faust's past works. |
| 76 | ** Not to mention "Doctor Who: Lost in Time", where the first episode, "Wiped, Junked, But Not Forgotten" went ''very'' deep into detail concerning the lost episodes of ''Doctor Who''. |
| 77 | ** In his review of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', he takes several moments to quote passages from ''Theatre/KingLear'', ''Literature/MobyDick'', and ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', and explains how each story ties into the theme the overall movie. He also explains the history behind how the movie got made. |
| 78 | ** The ''Series/TwinPeaks'' review was pretty impressive. |
| 79 | ** His review of "Chain of Command" points out how the interrogation techniques in the episode (apart from the torture and drugs... probably) match techniques used by real-world police and military. This includes quotes from the US Army Field Manual on Interrogation. |
| 80 | ** While he admits ''Stargate'' took some liberties and has some major face-palming elements, he praises the times they get the research right, like about how languages evolve and how Jackson couldn't speak ancient Egyptian despite being able to read it without hearing it spoken for a while due to not having a clue about the pronunciation of a language unspoken for 3000 years. He mentions that in contrast to other works by Creator/RolandEmmerich, ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' might as well be a lecture by Creator/CarlSagan - and you don't actually feel dumber after watching it unlike ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' or ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve''. |
| 81 | ** His review of Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'' has him reading a passage of the original novella, ''Literature/WhoGoesThere'' at the beginning. |
| 82 | ** His "Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire" series is essentially a long history dissertation in video form, quite well-researched and engaging. |
| 83 | ** His review of ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' has an in-depth recap of the history behind the Disney Renaissance, starting with the walkout by Don Bluth and other animators. In addition, he has a very detailed research about the mythology behind Atlantis; for instance, the Atlanteans were depicted as the bad guys.[[note]](He compares the myth to ''Film/IndependenceDay'', saying that the Atlanteans would be the aliens while the Athenians would be the humans.)[[/note]] |
| 84 | ** The review of ''Film/TheDayAfter'' includes Chuck giving some depressingly accurate details about nuclear war, from the history of the Manhattan Project to the actual effects of nuclear detonation. |
| 85 | * SignificantAnagram: [[{{Foreshadowing}} He names his character]] in ''Knights Of The Old Republic'' "Traven Rhad." [[spoiler: It's an anagram for "Darth Revan."]] |
| 86 | * SincerityMode: [[SubvertedTrope In contrast to his usual]] [[DeadpanSnarker approach]], Chuck will occasionally make a point of gushing and talking at length about something he thought was done well, made him think, or just needed a [[SeriousBusiness sober explanation with less of the usual humor]]. |
| 87 | ** Such as the epilogue for the ''Tapestry'' review. |
| 88 | ** Or the ''In The Pale Moonlight'' Coda. |
| 89 | ** Or the Prime Directive rant. |
| 90 | ** Maybe even the ''Passing Through Gethsemane'' Coda. |
| 91 | ** And the dedication to Elizabeth Sladen at the end of the ''Seeds of Doom'' review. |
| 92 | ** Or the episode "Code Of Hero," which praised Dinobot's character growth, tenacity, bravery, and skill. |
| 93 | ** Also, in the ''Real Life'' review, when he compares the death of the Doctor's dying (holographic) daughter, to his own experience of almost losing his twin boys. |
| 94 | ** In the re-upload of ''Shuttlepod One'', praises the professionalism of many of the actors in ''Enterprise'', who were let down because the writers and producers simply didn't seem to care about what they were giving them to work with. |
| 95 | ** Praises "Survival Instict" as an example of what an "average" ''Voyager'' episode could have been, scoring it right at the start (9 out of 10), and going on to dissect exactly what made it work, and what ''Star Trek: Voyager'' might have become if this was the mark they shot for week to week. |
| 96 | * SinglePreceptReligion: The Bajoran religion is occasionally mocked for showing signs of this, but particularly in the review of "Children of Time" (''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine [=DS9=]]]''). |
| 97 | -->'''Kira:''' I miss [First Minister Shakaar], but the last time we were on Bajor we went to the Kenda shrine, and we asked the prophets if we were meant to walk the same path.\ |
| 98 | '''Dax:''' ...And?\ |
| 99 | '''Kira:''' We're not.\ |
| 100 | '''Chuck:''' Well... that's certainly a quick, neat, and ridiculous explanation. I'm surprised it wasn't revealed that he was a Leo and she was a Sagittarius, and their ''signs clashed''. If they ''do'', I don't know, I don't respect astrology enough to even look it up to accurately mock it. But they're really keeping it vague for such a life-changing decision, I mean, do they make use of one of the orbs to get some vision of the future? Is that how they found out? Or is this just asking some Vedec who was trying to take a nap?\ |
| 101 | '''Vedec:''' ''(sleepy)'' Huh? What? No, you're not compatible, now go away, prophets be with you.\ |
| 102 | '''Random Bajoran:''' Uh... Vedec? My father just died...\ |
| 103 | '''Vedec:''' He's rotting in hell. Prophets be with you. Go away. |
| 104 | ** This turns into a small BrickJoke when later in the episode we find out that Kira was killed when the Defiant accidentally jumped 200 years back into the past and crashed on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. |
| 105 | --->'''Chuck:''' Ah. Well, I have to credit them this much: I suppose dying 200 years in the past is a definite sign that you're not destined to be with somebody.\ |
| 106 | '''Vedec:''' Ha! Told you! Prophets be with you. Fuck off. |
| 107 | * SinsOfOurFathers: His interpretation of the [[spoiler: Ninth Doctor]] following Day of the Doctor. [[spoiler: The War Doctor was the one who made the decision to burn Gallifrey but it's the Nineth Doctor who has to live with that decision and the universe it created.]] In Chuck's words, he was born with Original Sin. |
| 108 | ** More humorously, he suggests that the reason why Worf is so disgusted by Alexander is that Klingon Religion states that Klingon Parents can go to Hell (well, Gre'thor, but same thing) for the dishonor of their children. |
| 109 | * SlicesDicesAndMakesJulienneFries: Spoofed the line in the ''Projections'' review, when "kinoplasmic radiation" is used to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] or HandWave almost every plot development. |
| 110 | -->'''Chuck:''' What versatile radiation: it screws up all the computers, the transporters, ''and'' human brains. It slices, it dices, it cuts through a tin can and still slices through a tomato! |
| 111 | * SmallNameBigEgo: Invoked when he accuses ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' director Stuart Baird of this; Baird, at the time a well-regarded editor and fledgling action director, [[AccidentalMisnaming continually got [=LeVar=] Burton's name wrong]] (he called him ''Laverne''). Burton, who [[RenaissanceMan has many talents and has been recognized for all of them]], is highly esteemed by his peers and beloved by fans, and is an all-around nice guy, certainly did ''not'' deserve that treatment. As Chuck himself points out, it's basic courtesy and Baird should never have done it more than once. |
| 112 | ** There's an added wrinkle that Chuck doesn't actually mention: Rick Berman wanted [=LeVar=] to direct, but Paramount went over his head to install Baird as director. In effect, Burton was being mistreated by the man who basically stole his job. [[LaserGuidedKarma No wonder he's more than happy to lay all the blame for the movie's failure at the guy's feet]]. |
| 113 | * SmokeOut: Time onboad the Krenim ship has no meaning ("Year of Hell"), so Annorax can live forever, never aging because that has to do with "time." While continuing to breathe, eat, etc., since none of that to do with time because [[CallingYourAttacks FLASH BOMB!]] (screen goes white) |
| 114 | * SmugSnake: Chuck portrays Lutan from "Code of Honor" as a particularly unlikable Smug Snake, with his every attempt to project authority and confidence failing and instead coming off as entitled, childish, obnoxious idiocy. |
| 115 | * SoWasX: His retort to a TNG Admiral's assertion that "for 500 years, every ship that has borne the name of the ''Enterprise'' has become a legend! This one is no different." |
| 116 | -->"Which lumps the [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise NX-01]] into this group, too. Though I suppose you could argue the ''[[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic Titanic]]'' has become a legend." |
| 117 | ** Tom was thinking along similar lines, as he drew inspiration from "an ancient steamship called the ''Titanic''." ("Year of Hell") |
| 118 | --->"For some reason I was thinking of a doomed ship Captained by someone who thoughtlessly steered the crew into harm's way, causing a disaster so legendary all would remember it for centuries to come." |
| 119 | ** It's no accident that Janeway's ex-fiancee gave her a copy of ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante's Inferno]]'' as a gift, either. ("Shattered") |
| 120 | --->'''Mark:''' For ''some reason'', I picked out the story about a man who journeys through the eternal torments of the damned! ''(chuckle which devolves into a whimper)'' |
| 121 | ** "''Voyager'' may not be as big as a ''Galaxy'' ship, but she's quick and smart -- like her Captain!" ("Relativity") |
| 122 | --->"...and of course devoid of a soul!" |
| 123 | ** When reminded that ''Insurrection'' is supposed to be 'lighthearted and fun'' Chuck's rejoinder is that the last person who tried to combine Moral Dilemma + Lighthearted and Fun was the Clown in "The Thaw." |
| 124 | --->"You know, the '''''VILLAIN!'''''" |
| 125 | ** Michael Pillar was convinced that [=LeVar=] Burton should submit Creator/RaymondChandler parody with [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Banean avian-headed femme fatales and cops]] for ''Emmy consideration''. |
| 126 | --->"I'm sure Ed Wood thought ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'' was brilliant, too." |
| 127 | ** In another moment of Pillerian inspiration: He decided that Ferengi female emancipation would ultimately result in [[InsaneTrollLogic Quark and Rom ending up in drag somehow]]. |
| 128 | --->"...And like many ideas, like nerve gas and butt-chugging, this was a bad one." |
| 129 | ** Likewise, the many "brave" gambles made by John Nathan-Turner in his classic, "The Twin Dilemma." However, like a BASE jump gone wrong, purposely flouting all story convention doesn't make the result suck less. |
| 130 | * SoBadItsGood: Discussed in his reviews of "Threshold" and "The Infinite Vulcan" -- while he considers both episodes to be technically the worst episodes of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' respectively, he also indicates that he considers "Twisted" and "The Ambergris Element" to be the actual least-watchable episodes of their respective shows, due to them just being boring and idiotic instead of entertainingly bad.[[invoked]] |
| 131 | * SoOkayItsAverage: [[invoked]] Declared this of ''Film/{{Star Trek III|The Search for Spock}}''. |
| 132 | * SophisticatedAsHell: A common tactic of his, especially in his otherwise more "serious" videos, to remind everyone not to take him or what he says ''too'' seriously. |
| 133 | -->'''Chuck:''' Once again I will use the words 'magnetic balls' to show that I'm not anyone special myself. |
| 134 | * SoundtrackDissonance: When Eddington asks Sisko for a "rousing" song before they head into battle, Chuck inserts the Piña Colada Song. |
| 135 | ** Janeway blowing up the Caretaker array to the accompaniment of banjo music. How apropos. |
| 136 | ** The first video in "Profit and Lace" (Chuck's Christmas selection) plays Andy Williams over lesbian/gay spank material. The final video closes out with "The Little Drummer Boy" while Quark and his mother hurl vicious insults at each other offscreen. It's glorious. |
| 137 | ** The ending montage in "The Fall of Night" is set to "Peace in Our Time" by Eddie Money. The ironic juxtaposition of this song against the images on screen is chilling. |
| 138 | ** A brief history of Neelix's attempts at deception throughout the series. His faceplants are deserving of "[[Music/MichaelJackson Smooth Criminal]]." ("Resistance") |
| 139 | ** When weighing the triumphs of Trek's respective Captains -- forestalling the Borg invasion of Earth, sealing away the Pah-Wraiths and saving the entire Alpha Quadrant, preserving the very existence of all sapient life, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking getting into a sissy fight with some criminals on a catwalk]] -- we see Archer proudly accepting his accolades while [[Film/TheKarateKid1984 "You're the Best"]] blares. ("These Are the Voyages...") |
| 140 | * SpaceJews: Takes a hammer to the concept in his ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' review - or at least, the idea that the batarians match to Arabs because we've seen a lot of batarian terrorists and there was one batarian religious fanatic. |
| 141 | * SpaceWhaleAesop: Parodied in "Forest of the Dead": |
| 142 | ** Remember to recycle your paper, or your shadow will eat you. |
| 143 | ** Remember to back up your data, or a computer will [[BodyHorror eff up your face.]] |
| 144 | * SpecialEditionTitle: Of a sort. While it's possibly just a holdover from when he was on Website/YouTube, he doesn't use his theme for a number of [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG's]] more dramatic episodes such as "The Measure of a Man", "Pen Pals", "Sarek" and "The Best of Both Worlds, parts 1 & 2", opting instead to open with a scene from the episode in question to set up the weight of the subject. |
| 145 | ** "Emanations" (''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager VOY]]'') was his first Website/YouTube review, and when it came time to remake the video for Blip.tv (it was one of the last Star Trek reviews to be remade), Chuck made [[https://vid.me/3HSZ a special intro montage]] to celebrate all of his ''Voyager'' reviews up to that point. The intro sequence starts as normal, but then the music stops and the video begins to reverse. The music is then replaced with ''Music/{{ACDC}}'''s "Highway to Hell", over video that is simply comprised of all of Chuck's VOY reviews, back to back, strongly {{Undercrank}}ed, and played in reverse, with a few choice cuts (such as Tuvok strangling Neelix) superimposed over parts of the montage. |
| 146 | * SpellMyNameWithAThe: He claims that the real reason why the Prophets call Ben Sisko "The Sisko" is his [[MemeticBadass memetic badassness]]. |
| 147 | * SpoilerTitle: Among its many other faults, he calls out the ''Voyager'' episode "Memorial" for having one, as most of the story is a mystery about what's screwing with the crew's heads. |
| 148 | * SpoofAesop: Unrequited love is tragedy. ...Unless it leads to rampant sexual harassment, ''then'' it becomes comedy! ("Fascination") |
| 149 | ** Well, I hope you girls have learned a valuable lesson: If you want to succeed, all you have to do is be superficial, put down your own gender, and take off your clothes, and the world is your oyster! ("Profit and Lace") |
| 150 | ** He had a nice chortle over Etta Candy tut-tutting Wonder Woman for uttering a vulgarity. ''This'', coming off the heels of Diana torturing a perp in a previous clip. |
| 151 | --->"Remember kids: When you get mad, don't swear; get violent!" |
| 152 | ** In "These Are the Voyages..." we learn the following: coming to terms with a miscarriage and the breakup of your relationship is not important. What ''is'' important is [[BigBrotherIsWatching spying on said personal lives]] from the future. (Riker even joins in the firefight without bothering to save Trip, causing Chuck to observe that it's turned into ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts Call of Duty: Ghost of the Franchise]]''.) |
| 153 | * {{Spoonerism}}: Seven getting bombed on synthehol at a party in "Timeless". |
| 154 | -->''(slurring)'' "Ah'm Borrrg you--dammit! ''Prepare to be stimulated! Feudalism is resilience!''" |
| 155 | ** Scotty's mind seems to be... "elsewhere" in ''Wrath of Khan''. |
| 156 | --->'''Scotty:''' ''(carrying Preston)'' He's badly hurt, so I brought him up here to Sick Bay!\ |
| 157 | '''Kirk:''' This... this is ''the Bridge'', Scotty.\ |
| 158 | '''Scotty:''' And then I'm headin' back down to finish ''drinkin' ''the engines! ...I-I mean, repairing the ''scotch''! Er...[-crap.-]. |
| 159 | * SpotlightStealingSquad: [[Film/BattlefieldEarth Terl]] became this a result of John Travolta's ego. Chuck states that Travolta was originally planned to be the hero of the film, but admitted he had gotten to old and out of shape for it, but wasn't too humble to still not have most of the focus of the film be on him, resulting in significant portions of it being written to allow him to chew the scenery. |
| 160 | * SpotTheThread: In his "Unreality" month where he reviewed episodes where reality and fantasy were warping into one another, he finds a common theme. "You may have thought you could fool us, hallucination, but you make the same mistake all the other hallucinations have made. You made Chakotay too lifelike, a dead giveaway!" |
| 161 | * SpringtimeForHitler: {{Discussed| Trope}} in a couple of reviews: |
| 162 | ** Chuck theorizes that putting Kenneth Biller in charge of season 7 of Voyager was Rick Berman's attempt at this. |
| 163 | ** Chuck wonders if this was the case with ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'', given the massive number of cut corners and embezzlement in the production of the film. |
| 164 | * SquareRaceRoundClass: In ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', he played a [[EyelessFace Miraluka]] Imperial Agent, meaning that the character was a blind force-sensitive character who used guns [[note]]setting aside the fact that Miraluka is not a race available to Empire classes by default[[/note]] who even took the Sniper specialization. The character's justification was that he wanted to avoid getting sent to [[TrainingFromHell the Sith Academy in Korriban]] so he passed himself off as a normal human with prosthetics. |
| 165 | * StatusQuoIsGod: For the times when ''Voyager'' doesn't even bother with the ResetButton. To mention one example, the episode "The Could" started off with the Voyager's replicators running low on... whatever it is that powers them. By the end of the episode they hadn't managed to get them refilled, yet in the next episode the replicators were used frivolously like the shortage never happened. |
| 166 | * StealthInsult: Much chortling over the selection of Janeway as the ''only'' officer fit to pose as a galaxy-ruling HiveQueen, even edging out Seven, who has ''actual experience'' serving as same! ("Bride of Chaotica") |
| 167 | -->'''Tom:''' He's a meglomaniac, so it's a good idea to appeal to his ego.\ |
| 168 | '''Janeway:''' Heheh! So clueless! ...Uhh tell me again why ''I'm'' the only one awesome enough to pull this off? |
| 169 | * TheStinger: In traditional [=MST3K=] fashion, playing a funny clip from the episode at the end. Voyager reviews are the exception, always ending on this exchange from The Thaw. |
| 170 | -->'''The Clown:''' I'm afraid.\ |
| 171 | '''Janeway:''' I ''knooooow''. |
| 172 | * TheStoic: Chakotay is interpreted as "half Native American, half tree" as a gag on Robert Beltran's sometimes wooden acting. |
| 173 | * StrawmanHasAPoint: A rich, gold-filled in-universe vein of snark for his reviews of Star Trek episodes. SF Debris is able to spot these from a mile away. |
| 174 | ** So when Bruce Maddox of the ''Next Generation'' episode "The Measure of a Man" ''wasn't'' this trope, he made sure to point it out. |
| 175 | --->"Normally in the Opinionated Guides, we defend the assholes, douchebags, and general antagonists when, objectively speaking, their behavior is understandable given the collection of starry-eyed, clicky, sugar-coated dogmatic zealots that they wind up going up against. But there is no defending [Bruce Maddox]." |
| 176 | ** Believes that Seska's reasons for wanting to forge an alliance with the Kazon, for protection and backup in a region of hostile space, are incredibly pragmatic. |
| 177 | ** The Unaired Wonder Woman pilot has the characters who fight for due process as sleazy criminals or people in the pocket of sleazy criminals. Much better to have a short-tempered, impulsive, violent super-woman who holds such concepts in contempt and is immune to prosecution ferret things out. |
| 178 | ** While reviewing ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', he points out that Jane Espenson's episodes tend to contrast with points explicitly made earlier - while the Catholic belief in the unborn is mocked, the Miracle's parameters lend credence to the idea that life starts at conception, and while a member of the Tea Party is presented as a fringe zealot, the next episode shows a form of "death panels" being used to determine who lives and who's annihilated. While Chuck is neither Catholic nor a Tea Partier, he has to question how effective a work's message is when the quick jibes are utterly contrasted by future events. |
| 179 | ** Praised "Chain of Command," in how they played with this. While you're not supposed to like Jelico and want Picard to come back, the man makes very good points and some defendable decisions, and ''isn't'' an insane admiral making wrong or stupid ones for the sake of drama. Chuck goes into the positives and negatives of some of his decisions, and even states that the fans who ''didn't'' like Jelico tended to still like his decision to make Troi wear a uniform instead of the fanservice-y outfits. |
| 180 | * StealthPun: In the "Body and Soul," he describes [[MateOrDie pon farr]] as "the need to do the Vulcan salute without the ring finger." Which would look [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocker_(hand_gesture) a little something like this]]. |
| 181 | * StockholmSyndrome: Suggests that Kes might have a form of this, theorising that as usual, Neelix simply forced himself into the unwanted position of "boyfriend" and eventually Kes just gave up trying to tell him to take a hike. |
| 182 | ** Considers the villagers refusal to leave at the end of "Paradise" to be proof that they are suffering this, after years of torture and indoctrination at the hands of a mad despot. |
| 183 | ** Why the people put up with Wonder Woman's actions. |
| 184 | --->"She pushes to be given time alone with this fellow that she actually put in the hospital in the first place, yeah, [[SarcasmMode that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all]]. But the detective, for some reason, decides to go along with it, because, well, nobody can say no to Wonder Woman. Or at the very least, no one ''dares'' to say no to Wonder Woman." |
| 185 | * StupidEvil: This is his main complaint about the MirrorUniverse episodes of ''Enterprise;'' everyone's so busy backstabbing each other that it's a wonder anything gets ''done.'' |
| 186 | ** The Borg Queen in "Unimatrix Zero", since it portrays her as a laughably incompetent villain. |
| 187 | ** Darth Malak from ''Knights Of The Old Republic'' gets this for his laughably incompetent, over-the-top Salt The Earth tactics, as well as sending legions of droids to kill a man... who has a power that is labeled, quite literally, "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Destroy Droid]]." |
| 188 | *** Similarly, Darth Zhorrid of the Imperial Agent storyline in SWTOR is also mocked for being a psychotic idiot who frequently interferes with Rex-Dart's work for her own petty purposes. She's even contrasted with her father Darth Jadus, who is insane due to his obsession with [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans the democratization of fear]] but otherwise a legitimate threat in his own right as well as competent and sane Sith such as Darth Marr and Lana Beniko. |
| 189 | ** In "The Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire", he says that Creator/MarvelComics' management "combined the evil of [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] with the coordination of Creator/LaurelAndHardy". |
| 190 | * SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Used in the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' review: |
| 191 | -->Oh hear me speak, oh rhyming tree /\ |
| 192 | Your poet's speech is killing me /\ |
| 193 | So, pardon me if I seem blunt /\ |
| 194 | But knock it off, you stupid... jerk. |
| 195 | * SuckinessIsPainful: In ''Comic History 8'', he puts forward the idea that Creator/RobLiefeld put forth a comic so bad that it actually gave Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald, a non-smoker and a health nut, a fatal heart attack. |
| 196 | * SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat: A RunningGag with Chakotay. |
| 197 | * SuicideAsComedy: Harry Kim is [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation interpreted]] as becoming increasingly suicidal as the show goes on, whether because he's constantly humiliated by his own actions, repeatedly tortured (mentally and physically) by Janeway, or having unrequited feelings for Tom. However, with Harry being Harry, he can't even get ''that'' right! |
| 198 | * SuperiorSpecies: Chuck references this trope in his review of ''Insurrection'' regarding the Ba'ku: |
| 199 | -->'''Chuck:''' You know what these people are? They're elves. [They're] smarter, in tune with nature, have greater gifts, live forever, and are white. |
| 200 | * SurroundedByIdiots: He's very quick to note that, among the [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Predacons]], Megatron is the only one with even a shred of foresight or common sense, describing the rank and file of their faction as a " ...bunch of yahoos" barely kept pointed in something vaguely resembling the right direction by their eternally suffering boss. |
| 201 | -->'''Blackarachnia:''' It's probably what they're after... I'll destroy it! |
| 202 | -->'''Megatron:''' NO! |
| 203 | -->'''Chuck:''' I get the feeling that Megatron has a conversation with his minions along these lines at ''least'' once a day. |
| 204 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Janeway's reputation in the Delta Quadrant precedes her -- even in holographic simulations. (''Living Witness'') |
| 205 | -->'''Janeway:''' ''(speaking too soon)'' I didn't do it. Except for the stuff that sounds good, ''that'' I did the hell out of! |
| 206 | ** She accidentally blurted out the existence of "[[CompositeCharacter Kes-kotay]]" when Chakotay made an offhand remark in "Dark Frontier". She then protests that there's "only one", so if Chakotay kills it, then that constitutes genocide/suicide! |
| 207 | ** When Seven comes looking for answers in the mess hall, Neelix automatically ducks under the counter and cries, " I swear that lice didn't come from me!" ("The Voyager Conspiracy") |
| 208 | --->'''Neelix:''' O-of course, I meant that they came from my ''spice'', and are completely unrelated to my scalp condition. Uh, powdered donut? |
| 209 | * SwissCheeseSecurity: Chuck often pokes fun at how terrible Starfleet's security measures are. To mention a few examples: |
| 210 | ** In TNG episode "Brothers" Data takes command of the Enterprise in part by perfectly mimicking Picard's voiceprint. Wesley did the exact same back in the first season, and apparently nobody has plugged this hole in security since. |
| 211 | ** In [=DS9=] episode "Defiant" Riker's transporter accident-born twin shows up posing as him, and steals the titular vessel. Chuck points out that while Starfleet is completely aware of this other Riker's existence, they have taken absolutely no actions to help prevent one posing as the other. Even Chuck's Dukat character gets in on it, pointing out that this would be pretty terrible if their foes were creatures who could perfectly mimic both voice and physical form... such as Changelings. Which (through their empire, the Dominion), are the ''primary reason'' the ''Defiant'' was brought to Deep Space Nine. |
| 212 | ** The subject comes up in the [=DS9=] episode "Bar Association", when Worf goes to complain about a break-in in his quarters to Odo. |
| 213 | ---> '''Odo:''' Unfortunately, these things happen.\ |
| 214 | '''Worf:''' [[NoIndoorVoice They did NOT happen on the Enterprise!]]\ |
| 215 | ''(Odo devilishly grins as he pulls up a list of incidents as chronicled in TNG on a PADD)''\ |
| 216 | '''Chuck:''' Yeah, you just set yourself up for this, Worf. Do you want them chronologically, or just alphabetically? |
| 217 | ** For a subversion, in TNG episode "Chain of Command" Starfleet actually taking basic steps to help maintain security after Picard is captured utterly astounds Chuck. |
| 218 | --->"Holy crap, you would have changed his access codes? You really are the most competent officer in Starfleet! Next thing you know, you'll be handing out guns that actually work!" |
| 219 | [[/folder]] |
| 220 | |
| 221 | [[folder:T]] |
| 222 | * TakeAThirdOption: Neelix gives us the chestnut of "When the road before you splits into two, take the third path." Chuck responds, "The third path...would be back the way you came." |
| 223 | ** Blames ''Voyager'' for abusing this trope by repeatedly putting the crew in a moral dilemma with two valid but questionable solutions - and then presents a third option which renders all the preceding moral contemplations and discussions moot. |
| 224 | ** Hilariously done in ''Film/TheMatrix'' review. Neo finds several alternatives for the choice between 'blue or red pill'. "Do you have a green pill? Orange? Yellow? Can I take both?" |
| 225 | ** In ''TNG: Haven'' Chuck declares that if he were trapped in a room with Lwaxana Troi, Neelix and Okona and had a gun with only two bullets, he would shoot ''himself''. He also gets on Picard's case for the same reason he gets on Voyager's case- Picard pulls a third option out of nowhere that instantly solves the Plague Ship issue, without even hinting at said option earlier, giving the impression that everyone on the planet was completely screwed. |
| 226 | * TakeThatAudience: "Masks": "What does it feel like...when a person is losing his mind?" |
| 227 | -->'''Chuck:''' In my experience, the first impulse is to start forwarding irrelevant shit to my email. |
| 228 | ** Following his review of ''TMP'', Chuck pauses in the middle of the other TOS films to describe the hate mail he's getting lately. Some die-hards criticized him for using profanity in the review -- curse words that are later used by Kirk himself in ''Star Trek V''. |
| 229 | --->"Apparently, if you like ''TMP'', you didn't watch any more ''Trek'' films." |
| 230 | ** In "Past Tense" he says that he hates reviewing "message" episodes, since it inevitably results in him simultaneously being accused of being a hippie, a warhawk, and a wimpy centrist. |
| 231 | * TakeThatMe: Jokes in his review of "Rose" that Clive's obsession with the Doctor has caused even Clive's own family to think he's an internet lunatic. |
| 232 | --> '''Chuck''': Poor people, having to put up with this hobby taking over... *yells offscreen* Get out! I told you, I am NOT playing, I am ''working''! |
| 233 | ** The end-episode caption for ''First Contact'' compared the film to "My Prom Date; [[BrainlessBeauty Stupid But Fun]]" |
| 234 | ** In "Blood Oath" he mentions that the titular blood oath has been going on for 80 years "which is also the time it takes for me to respond to an email". |
| 235 | ** A particularly arbitrary Stupid Neelix Moment in "The Swarm." Rather than a clip of the episode playing us out, we instead see footage from "[[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4yywcpVuY1qj720qo1_400.gif What's Opera, Doc?]]" |
| 236 | ** ''Gattica'' - Can we afford to feed, clothes and house hundreds of thousands of people with inferior genes, who "do nothing but complain about ''Star Trek'' all day"? Food for thought! |
| 237 | * TakingYouWithMe: Duly notes that Neelix - who was indignant at being told to wear a safety harness earlier ([[SarcasmMode expert climber]] that he is) - immediately grabs onto Torres' legs when he takes a tumble, nearly killing both of them. |
| 238 | * TalkLikeAPirate: Has recently become an increasingly-common gag. |
| 239 | ** "Rocks and Shoals" (''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine [=DS9=]]]'') has the first example of this, when Keevan the Vorta opens a box of Ketracel White only to discover there's only one vial left. |
| 240 | --->'''The Third:''' It... just sounded like you were going to say "[[CurseCutShort Oh shit]]".\ |
| 241 | '''Keevan:''' ...What? ''No''! I-- I was saying "Oh... '''[[LastSecondWordSwap shiver me timbers]], thar be White here!'''" |
| 242 | ** In the ''Series/TwinPeaks'' review, Chuck's voice for Nadine is always this because... she has an eyepatch. Seems legit. |
| 243 | ** In "Brothers" (''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]''), when Data hijacks the ship. |
| 244 | --->'''Chuck:''' A wee bit o' piracy, yarrrr! |
| 245 | *** Later in the same episode he is referred to as "Gold-face the Pirate, yarrrr!" |
| 246 | *** And finally, Chuck refers to [[BrickJoke Tasha Yarrrrr]]! |
| 247 | ** A bartender lady wearing an eye-patch in the ''Film/BladeRunner'' review serves Deckard a drink. |
| 248 | --->'''Chuck''': Made it with me'own urine, yarrr! |
| 249 | * TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: "Author, Author", which features a Holonovel that Chuck wryly describes as "What happens if you watch my show and then try to write a ''Voyager'' episode". |
| 250 | -->'''Doctor:''' As far as I know, Captain, you haven't executed any of my patients. ''(cut to Tuvix being killed)'' |
| 251 | ** The term "black holes" falls out of usage by the time Will Decker mentions them in ''The Motion Picture''. ...Except amongst Ferengi, Vulcans, Trills, Data, and Q. Ahem. |
| 252 | ** In "Death Wish", Janeway lauds Q for his honesty. This calls for a Music/FleetwoodMac-style mashup! |
| 253 | --->'''Q:''' I think you've uncovered [[InformedAttribute my one redeeming virtue]]. |
| 254 | ** "Up the Long Ladder" juxtaposes alien refugees being reduced to breeding stock (which is played for laughs) with the Borg essentially doing the same thing to the ''Enterprise'' a year later. |
| 255 | --->'''Chuck:''' Huh, I guess I got that backward. |
| 256 | * TaughtByTelevision: We slag off on Harry Kim's complete ignorance of history, but his crew mates aren't much better. Witness the Doctor's summary of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in "The Killing Game" Pt. 2. |
| 257 | -->'''UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt:''' The only thing we have to fear is Franchise/{{Batman}}. |
| 258 | * TeachHimAnger: Chuck points out a scene in "The Descent" ([[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]) where Data comes into Troi's office with unsolved rage issues, only for Troi to encourage him to explore his rage further. Unsurprisingly, much like Troi's other endeavors, this results in complete disaster. |
| 259 | * {{Technobabble}}: The secret is to take two scientific terms and mash them together, even if you don't know what they mean. He then gives some examples, while stating what they actually would be. |
| 260 | --->'''Chuck (about the phrase "hull plating offline"):''' "...IT'S BROKEN! It's ARMOR! You BROKE it! IT'S ''GONE''!" |
| 261 | ** A BerserkButton of his seems to be pressed when ''Voyager'''s Technobabble isn't even consistent with ''itself'', which unfortunately happens a lot. |
| 262 | ** He also goes out on a limb and says that Technobabble goes against basic good television if you lean too heavily on it. |
| 263 | * TemptingFate: On ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'': |
| 264 | -->"They've clearly gone out of their way with all this stuff to not have that [[TheSixties sixties-era]] feel to it, instead be a timeless piece of-- [cue Bones, [[OutdatedOutfit with a full beard and wearing a giant medallion over his all-white Jedi robe]]] --'''the''' '''''hell'''''??! |
| 265 | ** Aeryn Sun cranking up the Aurora Chair to eleven, leaving Crais screaming in agony. "Ouch," Chuck winces, "I really can't imagine anything worse." |
| 266 | --->''[cut to Chiana & Rygel [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction behind a steamed porthole, with Rygel's hand pressed against the glass]]]''\ |
| 267 | "'''''AAUUUGH--!!'''' Damn my imagination!" |
| 268 | ** His response to a homeless bum settling a dispute over stolen bread... by [[JudgmentOfSolomon breaking the bread in half]]. ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan "Daleks in Manhattan"]]) |
| 269 | --->'''Chuck:''' That's ''[[SarcasmMode brilliant]]'' justice, taking a page from Solomon there! Who are you?\ |
| 270 | '''Bum #1:''' I'm starvin', Solomon!\ |
| 271 | '''Chuck:''' [-oh, this is gonna be a long day.-] |
| 272 | ** In "The Wire," Garak gives Bashir a new book about the Klingons and Cardassians being at war with each other. |
| 273 | --->'''Chuck:''' Bah! Like THAT is ever gonna happen! |
| 274 | ** This bit from "A Night in Sickbay" |
| 275 | --->'''Chuck:''' So far, we've had the fart joke, the pee joke, the Decon Chamber erotica, and we're not even though the first act yet. What next, more water polo?! (cuts to a scene featuring a water polo game) This...is the worst Christmas ever. |
| 276 | * TestosteronePoisoning: When Sisko, Spock and Kirk were in the same frame in "Trials and Tribble-ations" Chuck claims that his computer froze up and nearly broke as though it sensed the sheer awesomeness of that situation. |
| 277 | * ThatOneRule: "Persistence of Vision": A vision of his disapproving father asks Tom Paris several questions, which Tom successfully answers, until he asks him to explain [[UsefulNotes/CricketRules the Leg Before Wicket rule]]. |
| 278 | * ThemeSong: One for every series, and one for the movies, most of them being {{Real Song Theme Tune}}s (though ''Series/RedDwarf'', ''Series/BabylonFive'', ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', ''Series/TheXFiles[[note]](It's the Blue Man Group cover version of the X-files theme)[[/note]]'', ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' cartoons[[note]](A remix of the original cartoon theme, even for ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'')[[/note]], and ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandaloneComplex'' use their own respective themes, ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' and ''Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden'' use their ''ending'' themes, "Magia" and "Agony" respectively, and ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'', oddly enough, has ''no'' theme song), generally dating from the same era, and usually with some thematic connection to their respective series: |
| 279 | ** ''TOS'': "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as covered by, of course, Creator/WilliamShatner. |
| 280 | ** ''TNG'': "99 Red Balloons" by Nena[[note]](which notably contains the lyric "Everyone's a superhero, everyone's a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]])[[/note]]". |
| 281 | *** Chuck used "Harleys and Indians (Riders in the Sky)" on the last few ''TNG'' reviews that were posted to Website/YouTube, after they started disabling the audio on some of the TNG videos with "99 Red Balloons." |
| 282 | *** The episode "Up the Long Ladder" used "Funky Ceili" by Black 47, thanks to the plot point about the Irish stereotypes on the Enterprise. |
| 283 | *** The episode "Skin of Evil" used "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan in tribute to Tasha Yar's death. |
| 284 | *** When reviewing "Darmok", an episode about overcoming a language barrier, he uses the original German "99 Luftballons". |
| 285 | *** Substituted with Ray Parker's "{{Franchise/Ghostbusters}}" for the energy vampire episode, "Sub Rosa". |
| 286 | ** ''Deep Space Nine'': "The Mystic's Dream" by Loreena [=McKennitt=]. |
| 287 | *** For the [=DS9=] episode ''Sacrifice Of Angels'' he added the theme from ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' as a closing theme tune. |
| 288 | *** "Statistical Probabilities" opened with the guest star's performance of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ht-5RmO9E Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do]]", from that episode's followup, "Chrysalis". |
| 289 | ** ''Voyager'': "Harleys and Indians (Riders in the Sky)" by Roxette. |
| 290 | *** In an attempt to lend some dramatic weight to "Basics" Pt 2. opened with "Bonnie Portmore" by Loreena [=McKennitt=]. Part 3 opened with instrumentals apparently taken from ''Battlestar Galactica''. |
| 291 | *** And for kicks, he opened [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager's]] "Death Wish" with Janeway saying Q isn't a liar, then showing all the times Q lied (or was said to be a liar), set to Music/FleetwoodMac's "Little Lies". (See also, TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat) |
| 292 | *** Aptly enough, "[[WelcomeToHell Highway to Hell]]" by AC/DC, to commemorate his fifth anniversary ("Emanations"). It starts off with the standard "Harleys and Indians (Riders in the Sky)", but only for about a second. |
| 293 | *** "Fair Haven"'s companion video, Holograms and Ethics, opened with a Vitamin String Quartet tribute to "Back in Black". This may be a call back to ''Blade Runner'' below. |
| 294 | *** "Blink of an Eye" uses Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" as the Voyager is referred to as "the Ground Shaker, the Light Bringer!" |
| 295 | *** "Barge of the Dead" closed with "Inline Skates" by German band Funny Fux, apparently so awful that Chuck expects it to play at the gates of Hell. |
| 296 | ** ''Enterprise'': "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down. Back when he was on Website/YouTube, Chuck once mentioned that he picked it because a song about Superman going insane seemed to fit Archer. It's also a reference to a scene wherein Archer randomly hops down from a catwalk looking like Superman landing. |
| 297 | *** The second episode of "Through A Mirror Darkly" plays it ''backwards'' to support the dark-mirror theme. |
| 298 | ** ''Trek'' Movies: "[[Series/{{Monk}} It's A Jungle Out There]]" by Music/RandyNewman. (♪ You better pay attention, cause this world we love so much [[DroppedABridgeOnHim might - just - kill - you....]] ♪) |
| 299 | *** The bumper music for ''Star Trek V'' was "WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs", in reference to Shatner finding God in...[[AGodAmI himself?]] |
| 300 | ---->'''Kirk:''' That's right boys, I'm God. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Mwu ha ha. |
| 301 | *** Though for ''[[Film/StarTrekNemesis Nemesis]]'' he switched it with a ShoutOut to Patrick Stewart's speech in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', complete with its theme music. |
| 302 | ** ''[[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries TAS]]'': "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos. |
| 303 | ** ''Discovery'': "Sign of the Times" by Music/HarryStyles |
| 304 | ** ''Series/DoctorWho'': "Good Lovin'", though a variation of the ''Doctor Who'' theme played during the Cyberman episodes from ''The Moonbase''. |
| 305 | *** "Good Lovin'" is also the RealSongThemeTune from the old sitcom ''Series/DoctorDoctor''. Chuck's opening video even seems to be inspired by the show's credits (seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmDurvRTXEw here]]). |
| 306 | *** For the 50th Anniversary, and as of his review of ''The End of the World'', the theme changed to a theme remix by Grubbo. |
| 307 | *** For his [[http://sfdebris.com/videos/doctorwho/dwjh.asp Doctor Who?]] speculation video, "Devil Inside" by Music/{{INXS}} |
| 308 | *** For his [[http://sfdebris.com/videos/doctorwho/spedotd.php review]] of ''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]'', he used "Dust in the Wind" by {{Music/Kansas}} |
| 309 | ** ''Film/NightOfTheComet'': "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany. |
| 310 | ** ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'': "I Can See Clearly Now" by Jimmy Cliff |
| 311 | ** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': "All Along The Watchtower" by Music/JimiHendrix |
| 312 | ** ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': "Adiemus" by Karl Jenkins. The choral bits and almost tribal, mystical sound of the song make it a perfect fit. |
| 313 | ** ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'': "People Ain't No Good", performed by Nick Cave. |
| 314 | ** ''Franchise/MassEffect'' - "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult, since the main villains of the franchise are called Reapers. |
| 315 | *** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOAiT7jzZzI&feature=channel_video_title trailer]] is even better. "[[Music/{{Aqua}} I'm a blonde single girl in a fantasy world...]]" |
| 316 | ** ''Series/TwinPeaks'': "Way Back Home" by Music/BingCrosby. |
| 317 | ** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "The Sound of Silence" by Music/SimonAndGarfunkel. |
| 318 | *** For the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bYbD8arWDs&feature=feedu trailer]], "Hero" by Nickelback. Wait, wait, come back, it works! |
| 319 | ** ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': "Ride the Wind" by Music/{{Poison}}. |
| 320 | ** ''Film/BladeRunner'': "Who Made Who" by Music/{{ACDC}}. |
| 321 | ** ''Series/{{Threshold}}'': "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Music/BobDylan. |
| 322 | ** ''Film/TheManFromEarth'': What else? "WhoWantsToLiveForever" by Music/{{Queen}}![[note]](For posterity's sake, the original trailer featured "Baba Yetu" before [=YouTube=] pulled it.)[[/note]] |
| 323 | ** ''Film/{{Alien}}'': [[IronicNurseryTune "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"]] from ''VideoGame/DeadSpace''. |
| 324 | ** ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'': "One Night In Bangkok" from ''Theatre/{{Chess}}'', as performed by Murray Head. |
| 325 | ** ''Film/HowardTheDuck'': "Loser" by Music/{{Beck|Musician}}. |
| 326 | ** ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'': "Eve of Destruction" by Barry [=McGuire=]. |
| 327 | ** ''Film/TheDayAfter'': "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash |
| 328 | ** ''Film/{{Hogfather}}'': Gets two, "The Old Ways" by Loreena [=McKinnet=] and "Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin. |
| 329 | ** ''Film/{{Stargate}}'': "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (Which doubles a nice bonus as ''Series/StargateSG1'' would often reference ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' and even outright spoof it in one episode). Tv-show reviews originally also used this, before being dropped and replaced with the ''SG-1'' theme. |
| 330 | ** His 5th anniversary ClipShow kicks off with the Creator/DiscoveryChannel's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC1yLD7R0ZU I Love the world]]", with characters from all of the aforementioned recaps singing along. |
| 331 | --->'''Londo:''' ''I love to take a drink!''\ |
| 332 | '''Sisko:''' ''I love to hit things''\ |
| 333 | '''Data:''' ''I love my lifeforms''\ |
| 334 | '''Worf:''' ''[[{{Headdesk}} I hate when Data sings]]'' |
| 335 | ** ''WesternAnimation/WallE:'' "I Like To Move It" by Real 2 Real, a reference to Wall-E's assigned task on Earth. |
| 336 | ** ''[[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot Wonder Woman]]'': "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" from ''Film/{{Gigi}}'', sung by Maurice Chevalier (who might have recanted, had he seen this show). |
| 337 | ** ''WesternAnimation/AllStarSuperman'': "Superman (It's Not Easy)" by Five For Fighting. |
| 338 | ** ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'': Mix between Pandora's Music Box and Lullaby, both by ''Music/NoxArcana''. |
| 339 | ** ''Film/DarkCity'': "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House (director Alex Proyas also directed the music video for this song, and they share certain themes) |
| 340 | ** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'': "Mr. Roboto" by Styx |
| 341 | ** The ''{{Franchise/Godzilla}}'' films: "Big in Japan" by {{Music/Alphaville}}. |
| 342 | ** ''Film/{{Transformers|2007}}'' and ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'': "Panama" by Music/VanHalen. |
| 343 | ** ''Film/GalaxyQuest'': "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart, partially due to this being the CatchPhrase of one of the characters. |
| 344 | ** ''Literature/WorldWarZ'': "The Trooper" by Music/IronMaiden |
| 345 | ** ''Film/ANewHope'': "The Rebel Fleet/End Titles" from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' |
| 346 | * ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: |
| 347 | ** He describes ''SG-1's'' iris like this: bad guys travel at beyond lightspeed to smash into a titanium wall. |
| 348 | --->''(The sounds of Jaffas smashing into the Iris as they come out the Stargate, then the gate shuts down)''\ |
| 349 | '''Walter:''' Wormhole disengaged.\ |
| 350 | '''Chuck:''' Someone bring a hose. A really big hose! |
| 351 | ** {{Averted}} in his ''Film/TheDayAfter'' review, where he describes the effects of a nuke detonating as being "such a level of overkill it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. This is like killing a daddy longlegs with a stick of dynamite." |
| 352 | * TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste: Suggested that, since Q leaving VOY stranded is such a blatant plot hole, the series might as well have ended with Q just snapping his fingers and sending them home. ("[=Q2=]"). It makes about as much sense as a Borg transwarp tunnel which the Queen never got around to using. |
| 353 | * [[invoked]] TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Chuck suggests many avenues in which characters could have developed, particularly characters that did not receive any development during the course of the shows. |
| 354 | ** In a video dedicated entirely to Kes, he theorizes that had her character arc been better planned out, she could have been an effective "River from ''Series/{{Firefly}}''" type character. He also thinks TPTB removing Kes when they did was a waste of Torres, as this could have created an interesting love triangle between Tom/B'Elann/Kes. Even more so that in "Year of Hell" where her knowledge of the future from "Before and After" could come into play, would she hesitate in warning B'Elanna to step away from the console that was going to kill her? |
| 355 | ** Chuck repeatedly mentions that Seven of Nine was a great character who was wasted in Voyager and suggests that instead of being forced to have Humanity thrust upon her, she could have remained as a Borg for her first season and slowly come to embrace humanity, which would have given her far more depth to her character development. |
| 356 | ** He then went on to make her the hero in his {{Crossover}} fanfic ''Fanfic/TheUnitySaga''... [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter and promptly wasted her]], as she was acting for two novels and a half as a borderline suicidal lunatic. Constantly switching back and forth between Borg mode and Human mode also turned out to be a very bad idea. |
| 357 | ** A more minor example: In the alternate script for "Endgame" that he whipped up on the fly, Chuck suggested bringing back Susperia (the Caretaker's ex-girlfriend) as a prisoner of the Borg Collective, which is slowly overcoming her defenses and is well on its way to assimilating an all-powerful lifeform. In gratitude for the VOY crew releasing her from captivity, Susperia repairs one of the remaining Arrays and catapults them back to Earth. |
| 358 | ** In his review of Star Trek (2009) he points out that Nero was far more fleshed-out and sympathetic in the comic book tie-in to the film. He points out Nero could have been the most compelling Trek villain since Khan, and gives a chilling monologue regarding the villain's motivations, finishing with a lament that instead of an effective villain, Nero's lack of on-screen development put him across as some "emo with a trident." |
| 359 | ** In his review of "Non Sequitur," he points out a way the episode could have been infinitely more compelling and developed Harry Kim's character - instead of having him fight being planted in a branching timeline from the very start, have him go with it, [[CannotSpitItOut tell the truth to everyone who thinks he's acting so weird]], and only have him consider going back to Voyager after he learns that his inaction in this timeline resulted in Paris' death. |
| 360 | ** Suggests that if "Year of Hell" had been a full season arc as they had planned, Harry Kim should have been the only one to remember those events after the ResetButton, leaving him as the battle-hardened veteran of a year that never was. This would have allowed the audience to see Harry trying to adjust to a ''Voyager'' he's now a stranger on, as well as his difficulty dealing with the lost friends and colleagues that he'd mourned, alive and well again. |
| 361 | ** And yet again on Harry Kim, Chuck notes that in a handful of episodes (for example "Demon" and "The Killing Game") Harry is a likable character when the script actually infuses him with a spine. |
| 362 | ** In "Bliss," he says he likes Qatai, noting that W. Morgan Sheppard gives a performance that elevates him from a forgettable bit character and wonders if he couldn't have replaced Neelix, since a grizzled [[AloofAlly aloof outsider]] native to a strange region of space was what Neelix's character was ''supposed'' to be before the writer's turned him into [[TheScrappy odious comic relief]]. He suggests that Neelix could have performed a HeroicSacrifice to kill the creature and his place could have been filled with Qatai, who with the death of the creature and nothing to go back home to, now had a reason to join the crew. |
| 363 | ** '''They Wasted a Perfectly Good Ending!''': In "Waltz", Chuck joined the consensus of fans who believed Gul Dukat's tragic fall was complete and that he should have died on that planet, rather than being re-animated into a soap opera villain a la [[Series/DaysOfOurLives Stefano [=DeMira=]]] for the remainder of the show's run. |
| 364 | ** '''They Wasted a Perfectly Good Race!''': In his review of "Acquisition" he notes how for a fleeting moment the episode manages to make the Ferengi look truly intimidating, and muses about how things might have turned out if that had always been the case with them. |
| 365 | ** '''They Wasted a Perfectly Good Director!''': When reviewing the episode ''Timeless'', he talks about how great [=LeVar=] Burton was at directing this episode, how he worked with the actors to get them to give their best performance, and laments how utterly screwed he got when the higher-ups decided to hand the reins of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' over to Stuart Baird. |
| 366 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[invoked]] One of his major peeves against ''Voyager'', as he often points out where it actually has some good, original ideas, but utterly fails to do anything worthwhile with them, such as in "Alliances" or "Waking Moments". Generally, the show was content to coast off fumes and market its hackneyed writing as {{Camp}}. Best summed up in his re-upload of "The 37's", he says that rather than hating Voyager, he's only disappointed that the writers never bothered to take advantage of any of the opportunities they had. |
| 367 | --> '''Chuck''': ''[[[SincerityMode Sincerely]]]'': You could be [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre so much more]] than what you are. |
| 368 | ** He points out in his review of "Scorpion," one of the show's best regarded episodes, that a major reason it works so well is that, with its emphasis on the incredible danger faced by a lone Starfleet ship in hostile territory and serious disagreements between the crew members, it's what ''the entire show'' was supposed to be like. |
| 369 | ** In another review, he flat-out says that Voyager is "Where potential goes to die". |
| 370 | ** Virtually all ''Trek'' end-season cliffhangers cause him great confusion. It's long been Trek policy for the departing writer to write a 100% no-win scenario for our heroes, then leave the mess for somebody else to resolve next year. It got to the point where the recurrence of a ''prop'' in "Equinox Pt. 3" left Chuck [[DamnedByFaintPraise utterly floored.]] |
| 371 | --->"One piece of info they dropped in the first part that they ''actually wound up using''! Believe me, no one was more surprised than I!" |
| 372 | ** He claims [[InUniverse in his review]] that a key difference between SoBadItsGood and just being bad is that the latter embodies this trope. |
| 373 | ** His big complaint in Basics is this, especially since it's obvious he enjoyed some parts of it, but that it eventually transformed in yet another "planet of the week". |
| 374 | ** He brings this up again in ''The 37s'', where he lays out all the interesting elements of the episode...none of which have been put to good use. Amelia Earhart on a planet in the Delta Quadrant full of displaced humans would have been a very tempting crisis for the crew to face dramatically, with Earhart herself being such a beacon of charisma and leadership that she could wind up ''unintentionally'' dividing the crew in two. He also notes that, since it wouldn't make any sense that a civilization with the ability to drag in humans all the way from the Alpha Quadrant could possibly be completely wiped out by them, it would be a possibility that the aliens had simply lost track of that particular settlement, and the Voyager crew waking up the 37's could have alerted them, forcing a confrontation between Voyager and a new, potentially very powerful opponent. Chuck says the whole episode feels like the set-up for a two-parter that never got its second part. |
| 375 | ** [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E14TheVoid "The Void"]] features ''Voyager'' being pulled in by an unknown force and trapped in a hostile region of space, the crew forced to make alliances with unsavory characters in order to survive and all the while dealing with their dwindling resources and power. Chuck points out that after 6 years and a dozen episodes from the finale, the writers of ''Voyager'' finally seemed to realise the premise of the entire show! |
| 376 | ** An inversion of sorts: In response to a bogus rumor that Edward James Olmos was considered for the part of Janeway, Chuck ruminates that we'd see "a lot more of Neelix being bludgeoned with a flashlight, so that's one serious loss we've suffered." The VOY premiere would have doubled as the Series Finale, with the crew getting home immediately after throwing the Kazons [[ThrownOutTheAirlock Out the Airlock]]. |
| 377 | ** According to him, it would have taken very little to make "These Are the Voyages..." a proper tribute to each show in the franchise. For one, actually seeing Archer's [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome galaxy-unifying speech]] which inspires Riker. Or, failing that, having Riker echoing Archer's words to illustrate the long chain of Starfleet heritage. Or, at the very least, having Riker converse with ''Archer'' and not a random smattering of crewmen below decks. As it stands, both worlds seems to stand apart, with virtually no traffic between TNG and ENT (beyond a sentence or two of lip service) and making it all the more easy to disregard ENT in the canon. |
| 378 | ** ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'' revolves around an attempt by the Federation to underhandedly appropriate a planet that magically heals sick and wounded people. Given the stardate reported during the movie, this plot takes place during the events of the Dominion War, when the Federation is being badly battered by a rival space empire. Chuck points out how unlikely it is that Worf (or, for that matter, Riker or Geordi, whose blindness was cured by said planet) would pass up such an advantage during wartime, when this planet could help turn the tide and possibly prevent ''the destruction of the Federation''. The film logically should have shown the crew split into two -- with Picard and the Prime Directive enthusiasts on one side, and Riker and the war-hardened pragmatists on the other -- each group trying to outwit the other. |
| 379 | ** He speculates in his review of "Out of Gas" what could the creators have done with the universe and the characters of ''Series/{{Firefly}} if the show hadn't been cancelled. |
| 380 | ** Incidentally, he mentions it in his reviews of ''Stargate'', combining it with Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad: The potential of the Stargate, and its world changing implications had not been really explored by the movie, and he credits this as why ''Series/StargateSG1'' succeeded where many series based on films died: Because this huge element was untouched by the movie, it left the door wide open for the series to do so. |
| 381 | ** He suggests that in the 2011 ''[[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot Wonder Woman]]'' pilot, a better plot would have been Diana Prince (as a separate character) acting in the shadows to do the right thing while the KnightTemplar Wonder Woman is a gloryhound and monster worshipped by the city. When that Wonder Woman is done in by her own hubris, Diana steps up to thwart the villain and take her place and live up to the actual ideals of Wonder Woman rather than the monster she has been. |
| 382 | ** He has also repeatedly stated that he considers the ''Star Trek: Enterprise'', Temporal Cold War arc, to be a waste of potential as it really went nowhere and was resolved too easily. In his review of ''Enterprise'' episode "Cold Front" he gives his own version of the storyline which is that the Vulcans knew about the War and the reason why they were spying on the Andorians is because they were afraid that the Sulibans were infiltrating their ranks, and that they tried to slow down humanity's development to keep them out of it only for them to accidentally stumble onto it, and that eventually Archer would have to sacrifice [[RetGone the very existence of his Enterprise]] [[HeroicSacrifice to ensure]] [[TheFederation the Federation]] comes to existence even though no one will remember them at all. This would've explained away the [[StrawVulcan uncharacteristic behaviour]] the Vulcans had in the early Enterprise episodes as well as [[ContinuitySnarl why the events of this series were never referenced in any of the other series]]. |
| 383 | ** Believes that Braga was ''right'' to want to have an entire season of ''Voyager'' dedicated to the "Year of Hell", instead of a two-parter with a rather lame ResetButton that rendered all of the events meaningless. |
| 384 | ** Hes noted that [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E14Jetrel "Jetrel"]] fails to go into deeper specifics regarding the war between the Talaxians and the Haakonians, missing some potentially good character moments. For instance, he theorizes that the Talaxians were the aggressors in the war and the Haakonians used the cascade in a last-ditch effort to avoid total defeat. |
| 385 | ** He also expresses his dissatisfaction with ''Voyager's'' finale "Endgame" for taking two elements (time travel and the Borg) that could've made for a great finale and failing to do anything good with them, leading him (much like in his "Cold Front" review) to tell his own version of the ending which includes a future where Voyager does indeed return home but the Borg, having assimilated the second caretaker and her powers, have launched a full scale invasion of the Federation and have assimilated Vulcan and Earth. The surviving Voyager crew propose a plan to use captured Borg time travel technology to send a probe containing all the information and equipment Past!Voyager in the Delta Quadrant would need to prevent this future from occurring and in the process of altering history results in '''causing''' the Temporal Cold War that ''Enterprise'' would have to deal with. |
| 386 | ** He pointed out the major plot hole of "Flesh and Blood," in which ''Voyager'' finds Hirogen using the holodeck tech they had given them...some thirty thousand lightyears from where that tech was given. The obvious solution to this is ''Voyager'' coming across an unstable wormhole that takes them deeper into the Delta Quadrant, not changing any of the dilemmas present in the episode, but adding another in which Janeway was decide between helping the Hirogen clean up their mess or using the wormhole before it closes and leaves them worse off than they were before. |
| 387 | ** Regarding the ''Next Generation'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E7Attached Attached]]", he feels that a world [[OneWorldOrder without a single government]] in Star Trek is so interesting a concept on its own in a season known to struggle with coming up with fresh new ideas, he wishes the entire episode was spend on it. Nothing about the Picard and Crusher plot really requires it. |
| 388 | ** He felt that Qatai should have joined the crew in the ''Voyager'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E14Bliss "Bliss"]], with [[TheScrappy Neelix dying]] in a vain attempt to escape the pitcher plant creature. |
| 389 | ** Like many VOY episodes, he listed all the wasted opportunities of [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E1The37s "The 37s"]], such as the legendary Amelia Earhart potentially causing a schism amongst the crew over wishing to stay and the potential for accidentally alerting the alien slavers to this lost colony. He described the episode as being the setup for a two-parter with no payoff. |
| 390 | ** One thing he makes clear in his review of [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the Doctor Who TV movie]] is that the presence of Creator/SylvesterMcCoy was necessary, in order to bring in fans who were skeptical about this film maintaining over twenty years of continuity. However, Chuck states that he would have opened with the Doctor already having regenerated into Creator/PaulMcGann, with no memory of who he is. During this, the Seventh Doctor would appear as a mysterious mentor who slowly fills him in on his identity. This would tie in to his role as the {{Chessmaster}}, having foreseen his coming death and taking steps to ensure he was prepared. |
| 391 | ** [[invoked]] This is his biggest criticism of ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness''. The settup ''could'' have been one of the best entries in the franchise, but instead they made a completely mindless action flick (and [[IdiotPlot made all of the characters idiots]] in the process). |
| 392 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Chuck is taken aback in "Shattered" when Janeway, distracted by an alternate-universe (and dying) Tuvok, ''sets down an untouched carafe of coffee and steps away from it.'' Now we '''know''' it's serious. |
| 393 | * ThisIsGonnaSuck: In his review of "Daleks in Manhattan," a character who acts like King Solomon is actually named Solomon causes Chuck to have this reaction. |
| 394 | ** Chuck asks, in the first episode of ''Full Moon'', what the anime is going to be like. Cue the opening credits of the anime, intercut with a disgusted[=/=]horrified looking Spock and a facepalming Picard, and finished up by Chuck simply going "Oh fuck." And to top it all off, a clip of Galvatron screaming that "This is Bullshit" in Japanese. |
| 395 | * TimeyWimeyBall: Not a big fan of this trope in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' when discussing the Borg using time travel to assimilate Earth and why the good guys don't use it more often. "And before anyone tries to bring the whole parallel reality argument in...don't. If that's true, then it invalidates when it IS used. You can't have it both ways, that the only time that it works just the right way is when the plot says that it's okay and the rest of the time you can't use it. Look, all I ask is that you [[MagicAIsMagicA be consistent with your nonsense]], okay?" |
| 396 | * TitleDrop: "Why it's...dare I say it...a swarm! Maybe even ''The'' Swarm." |
| 397 | ** Meta-Title Drop during the review of the Voyager episode ''Real Life'' when the crew makes a shocking discovery while attempting to visit a space station. |
| 398 | --->'''Kim:''' It's...debris...\ |
| 399 | '''Chakotay:''' Debris?\ |
| 400 | '''Chuck:''' Yes, it's meeee!! You guys are sooooo screeeeewed... |
| 401 | ** Similarly in "Dark Frontier": |
| 402 | --->'''Janeway''' Debris status?\ |
| 403 | '''Chuck''': ''(confused)'' I'm fine, thanks for asking. |
| 404 | * ToiletHumour: Done with the aid of an abrupt cut between two unrelated clips here: |
| 405 | -->'''Chuck:''' ''(on the Q story arc)'' We've gone through the good ''(clip of "Q Who?")'' the bad ''(clip of "Hide and Q")'' and the ugly...\ |
| 406 | '''Pakled:''' We look for things. Things that make us go:\ |
| 407 | '''Worf:''' Prune juice, extra large! |
| 408 | * TooDumbToLive: This is pretty much the modus operandi of the cast on Enterprise. It's rare for an Enterprise review to go without Chuck commenting on at least one Too Dumb to Live moment (Almost always from Archer, with Trip taking most other incidents). |
| 409 | ** Of particular note is the instance where Archer engages in some convoluted plan, which involves getting the shit beaten out of him, to figure out where some holes in the wall lead to. This plan is apparently preferred to the simpler plan of... looking through the holes. |
| 410 | ** Reaches a head ''Nemesis'', where he points out that the only reason that the Enterprise crew isn't destroyed out of their own stupidity is because Shinzon is even ''more'' incompetent. |
| 411 | ** Points out that Linnis, Kes' daughter, could quickly tell Kes her brilliant plan to keep her in the present, but instead stands and gawps helplessly while she quantum leaps back in her own timeline. Congratulations Linnis, you now have been responsible for erasing yourself from existence. |
| 412 | ** In ''Film/BladeRunner'', he notes how stupid it was to make soldiers out of slaves. |
| 413 | ** In "Lifesigns," apparently there are Vidiians who do not have the Phage. Such a medically advanced species has apparently never heard of "quarantine." |
| 414 | ** [[invoked]]Neelix in "Q2", when he taunts the temporarily depowered "Harry Potter" by ''refusing to shut up'', as revenge for Q's son having used his powers to previously remove both his mouth and vocal chords. Chuck points out the stupidity of taunting a Demigod that will get his powers ''back'' in a week. |
| 415 | ** The crew of ''Voyager'' for assigning their technologically-minded engineers in charge of gathering plants, putting their botanically-minded biochemists in charge of handling medical technology and taking over ''seven years'' before they realised they'd assigned an engineer to be their astrophysicist while conversely putting "Creator/CarlSagan in charge of shovelling coal". |
| 416 | --->'''Chuck:''' Is it any wonder why these dumbasses are ''lost''?! |
| 417 | ** The crew of ''Voyager'' for everytime they seem to be taken in by Neelix's [[BlatantLies claims]] that he's an "[[InformedAttribute Expert]]" on something. |
| 418 | --->'''Chuck:''' Neelix has conned the crew into thinking he's a survival expert... |
| 419 | ** The Psychlos in general. He describes Terl as the smartest and most cunning of Psychlos, which would mean he would generously be considered an imbecile. They only manage to conquer native populations because they have gas drones, robotic nerve-gas dispensers not burdened with an incompetent psychlo brain. |
| 420 | ** Whether it's the ''Enterprise'' or ''Voyager'', Chuck will always facepalm when someone decides to conduct a dangerous experiment or handle unknown, dangerous material within close proximity of the warp core. |
| 421 | * [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously Took The Bad Episode Seriously]]: An in-universe LampshadeHanging. Gives props to Robert Duncan [=McNeill=] in "Threshold" who is clearly acting his ass off... while doing so under pulsating head-lung lizard makeup and in an episode so awful that it that actually became CanonDiscontinuity. |
| 422 | ** Another example from the original series: Chuck praises Creator/DeForestKelley and his ability to deliver the most ridiculous dialogue with utter sincerity in "Spock's Brain". |
| 423 | ** Is utterly baffled why Michael Piller so firmly believed "Ex Post Facto" to be good enough to be submitted for Emmy nomination, when it was clear to everyone else involved just how ''awful'' the episode was?! |
| 424 | * TokenEvilTeammate: His version of Janeway. |
| 425 | * TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Believes that in ''Unimatrix Zero'', the reason the Borg Queen starting blowing up her own ships was because an assimilated ''Janeway'' was actually subtly taking [[AssimilationBackfire control of her]]. |
| 426 | -->'''Janeway:''' Your mistake was assimilating ''me!'' |
| 427 | * TrainingFromHell: Notes that Tuvok's attempts to put the Maquis through their paces in "Learning Curve" makes him come off as a massive jerkass, especially when he makes them run a 10 kilometre lap, with full packs and the gravity turned up 10%. |
| 428 | -->'''Chuck:''' A particularly nice sign of dickishness from a man who has over ''[[MadeOfIron three times the strength]]'' of the people he's leading. |
| 429 | * TranquilFury: While reviewing the ''Voyager'' episode "Real Life," he reveals that his twin sons were born premature and barely survived. Hence, he takes serious issue with the episode's message that people should go through something like that to build character, never raising his voice until the last few words while it's still clear that we're hearing absolute, genuine rage. |
| 430 | * TranslationByVolume: In "Darmok" from ''TNG''. He comments on desperate attempts of the ''Enterprise'' crew and Captain Picard to communicate with incomprehensible aliens whose language their Universal Translator couldn't crack. |
| 431 | -->'''Chuck:''' I'll check [Picard's] academy records. His language course was 203. Let me cross-check that. Oh yes! He's fluent in yelling at people. This is the time honoured method of speaking your own language loudly and somewhat slowly to people who don't speak it, in the hopes that they will suddenly understand you. ({{beat}}) The others just laugh at him. |
| 432 | * TranslationTrainWreck: In his review of the episode "[[http://sfdebris.blip.tv/file/4574217/ Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy]]" he translates the lyrics of "La donna è mobile" using the Babylon 8 translation software resulting in this trope. Apperantly the song is about furniture. |
| 433 | * TrashTheSet: In his review of the "Eleventh Hour", he notes that due to the Tenth Doctor's violent regeneration, Eleven can't use the still-rebuilding TARDIS, but at least he still has his ever-faithful sonic screwdriver, right? Cue it promptly exploding. |
| 434 | -->'''Chuck''': Man, when Ten breaks shit, he really ''breaks shit'', doesn't he? |
| 435 | * Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad: Chuck mentions this by name when he reviews the TNG episode "Timescape", noting that several of Brannon Braga's scripts begin with the premise "the captain returns to the ship to find things have gone to hell", but that does provide a good mystery setup. |
| 436 | * TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: [[InUniverse Acknowledges this trope]] when discussing David Lynch and surrealists in general. In his opinion, what separates Lynch from the others is that he doesn't fall into this trope: all of his surreality seems to serve a higher purpose. |
| 437 | * TwentyPerCentMoreAwesome: From his review of Voyager episode "[[SharingABody Body And Soul]]" he uses the unit "Kims" (as in deci-Kims), which is the measure of [[RunningGag Harry Kim]]'s sexual trauma applied per cubic meter/second. Not to be confused with a metric-Kim, which is a measurement of personal shame. |
| 438 | * TwoferTokenMinority: |
| 439 | ** Parodied along with ExecutiveMeddling in his review of "The Naked Now," where one (hypothetical) moronic executive thinks Geordi is wearing the visor because he's gay, making him gay, black, AND blind. [[labelnote:Full transcript]] |
| 440 | --->'''Writer:''' Geordi [=LaForge=] here is going to be an interesting addition. He wears this gold thing on his eyes, because he's --\ |
| 441 | '''Executive:''' Gay.\ |
| 442 | ''[pause]''\ |
| 443 | '''Writer:''' ...because he's blind.\ |
| 444 | '''Executive:''' Eh, I don't know. Gay ''and'' blind? ''And'' black? Seems a bit like a politically correct value pack.\ |
| 445 | '''Writer:''' We weren't actually planning--\ |
| 446 | '''Executive:''' Well, you really should have. You can have gay, or you can have blind, but not gay and blind. Not unless you make ''him'' the Klingon, and have Dorn be the show's black guy.\ |
| 447 | '''Writer:''' We're not talking about making a character to be "the black guy".\ |
| 448 | '''Executive:''' Well, you'd better. You don't want to leave ''them'' out, or everyone will think we don't want them on the show!\ |
| 449 | '''Writer:''' We don't need to ''single out'' the fact that they're black!\ |
| 450 | '''Executive:''' Why not? You seem fine with putting that thing on [[Series/Roots1977 Kunta Kinte]] so that everybody knows he's gay.\ |
| 451 | '''Writer:''' He doesn't wear it because he's gay! He wears it because he's ''blind!''\ |
| 452 | '''Executive:''' Gay, blind, the point is you put that on his face so that everyone knows he's a freak.\ |
| 453 | '''Writer:''' He wears that because it helps him ''see!''\ |
| 454 | ''[pause]''\ |
| 455 | '''Executive:''' So he puts that on, and he stops being blind?\ |
| 456 | '''Writer:''' YES!\ |
| 457 | ''[pause]''\ |
| 458 | '''Executive:''' Does he stop being black, too? Because we need a ship black-guy.[[/labelnote]] |
| 459 | ** Even funnier, the dumb executive is portrayed by an image of Rick Berman. (The guy who fired Ron Jones. Make of that what you will...) |
| 460 | ** During a review of Stargate, Chuck complains that they often won't let a black guy in Speculative Fiction be JUST a black guy, pointing out that they're often black AND an alien, or a robot, or something else non human (the android in "Wormhole X-Treme," Worf, Sisko, Teal'c, etc). |
| 461 | * TypeCasting: [[invoked]] When Creator/BradDourif turns up in the ''X-Files'' episode "Beyond the Sea", playing a serial killer: "You might remember him from ''Voyager'', where he was a killer. Or ''Babylon 5'', where he was a killer. Or ''The Lord of the Rings'', where he betrayed and then killed people." |
| 462 | [[/folder]] |
| 463 | |
| 464 | [[folder:U]] |
| 465 | * UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: Comparing the quality of each wiki page's on their universe's references on breasts (''Franchise/StarWars'' won). TWICE! |
| 466 | * UndyingLoyalty: Suggests that Janeway has slowly brainwashed a sense of this into Tuvok. |
| 467 | -->'''Janeway:''' Tuvok! Bring me some coffee!\ |
| 468 | '''Tuvok:''' But Captain, I'm trying to hold this cable to stop the lift with my family in it from plummeting to their--\ |
| 469 | '''Janeway:''' Tuvok! Do you actually expect me to get up and walk over there?\ |
| 470 | '''Tuvok:''' ...No, of course not, Captain. I'm sorry for being selfish.\ |
| 471 | '''Janeway:''' I'll punish you later, coffee now! |
| 472 | * UnfortunateNames: |
| 473 | ** ''The Next Generation'' writer Melinda Snodgrass, incorrectly referred to by Chuck as "Melissa". |
| 474 | ** Chuck can't help but laugh when the "pronunciation" of Chakotay's name by Torres sounds exactly like Chocolate Day. |
| 475 | --->'''Chuck:''' CHOCOLATE DAAAAAAAY! |
| 476 | ** In his review of "Message in a Bottle," Chuck makes the obligatory joke about guest star Andy Dick. |
| 477 | --->"And the EMH is replaced by, well, this Dick." |
| 478 | ** Due to the lack of colons in their titles, Chuck is led to think that ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'' and ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' were respectively rebelling against and the enemy of ''Franchise/StarTrek''. But given [[FranchiseKiller the fate of the franchise]] not long afterwards, [[WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt he finds them appropriate]]. |
| 479 | * UnholyMatrimony: In his review of Voyager's "Counterpoint", Janeway falls in love with Kashyk because he too is a brutal oppressor. |
| 480 | * {{Unishment}}: In Voyager's "Unimatrix Zero" the Borg Queen disconnects a drone from the Borg hive mind after he refuses to tell her about the titular Unimatrix. Chuck points out that her behaviour is this trope - she has disconnected him from the Borg Collective and given him back his individuality. |
| 481 | * {{Unperson}}: He likes to sell the idea that Jonathan Archer was stricken from the history books for being such an embarrassment. Picard actually spat in disgust when his name was mentioned. |
| 482 | * UnstoppableForceMeetsImmovableObject: Mentioned in his review of ''All-Star Superman'', where he states his believe that the Unstoppable Force would win, based on the logic that the Immovable Object would either be vaporized, sublimated, ground into nothingness in the case of kinetic force, or, in the case of a gravitational force, be captured. Unless the Object were able to make itself large enough to emit an even greater force, which would still count as a win for the Force, based on the logic that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters becoming what you're fighting against is a loss]]. |
| 483 | * UriahGambit: A running gag that Picard almost letting slip that he intentionally sent Jack Crusher to his death so he could get Beverley in the sack. |
| 484 | * UrineTrouble: In "Booby Trap", Wesley poses a hypothetical to Riker which involves spying on girls while they pee, as though there's nothing odd about that. |
| 485 | ** "Prototype" opens on a POV camera lens aimed at Torres, angry as usual. Chuck guesses she mistook it for one those webcams Harry keeps hiding in her toilet. |
| 486 | ** During "A Night in Sickbay", Chuck keened that if Archer had his way, every "diplomatic mission" would entail peeing on the dignitaries from the safety of his shuttlecraft. |
| 487 | [[/folder]] |
| 488 | |
| 489 | [[folder:V]] |
| 490 | * ValuesDissonance: ''Franchise/StarTrek'' may have been FairForItsDay, but [[InUniverse Chuck]] uncomfortably points out how most of the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' original episodes he's reviewed have been unkind to women (with depictions of them as crazed and emotionally fragile). |
| 491 | ** Not to mention legally barred from captaining a starship in the 23rd century. In a story that Gene Roddenberry came up with, so you can't just say it was another writer who didn't understand his vision. This becomes FridgeLogic when ''Enterpise'' has a woman as the Captain of the second NX-class ship. |
| 492 | ** In "Angel One", Riker defends wearing a skimpy outfit he's been given to wear to meet with the leader of a female-dominated society, stating that it's his duty as a Starfleet officer to respect local customs and traditions. Chuck notes that by that logic, any Ferengi delegation would be completely in their rights to ask for female diplomats to be nude, as is ''their'' custom. |
| 493 | * VerbalTic: He personally acknowledges one of them - prefacing rhetorical questions with the phrase "You might ask" - during his "The Nth Degree" review. |
| 494 | * ViewersAreMorons: Their repeated use of the word "[[YouKeepUsingThatWord Ancient]]" to describe ''anything'' in Earth's past, which he points out is seemingly done to remind us that this is the future. Because all the starships, aliens and phasers, didn't make it clear to the audience ''before?!'' |
| 495 | * VillainBall: |
| 496 | ** He points out the many idiotic things Starling does in the ''Voyager'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E8FuturesEnd "Future's End"]]. For one, he orders his henchman to kill Rain after she's leaked the possible UFO to the press, [[RevealingCoverup even though her sudden death would likely put greater scrutiny on him]]. He decides to go to the future to get more marketable technology...even though he has downloaded the Doctor and, with him, his vast medical database with cures for countless modern diseases. Craziest of all, his plan is to recover technology from 29th century Earth, and when told that his attempt will ''destroy'' 29th century Earth on arrival, he waves it off as an irrelevance! |
| 497 | ** Points out in the MirrorUniverse ''Enterprise'' episode that everyone suffers from ChronicBackstabbingDisorder to the point that most of their problems are a result of it, and marvels at the fact the eventual collapse of their empire comes from reform instability rather than the blatantly self-destructive way it's run. |
| 498 | ** Unalaq's entire plan needs Korra to be willing to do what he wants her to. So, under the claim of protecting the spirits, he invades the Southern Water Tribe capital, imposes a blockade, has his soldiers march through the streets provoking people, and when some of them kidnap him because they're obviously upset, he arrests the South's leader, AKA Korra's father, on trumped up charges. Instead of just setting up a perimeter around the spirit portal, which is some distance from the city, and letting people leave through the harbor, which would mean they'd be going away from the spirit portal. The only thing this accomplishes is to drive a wedge between him and Korra. |
| 499 | * VillainOverride: Suggests that the reason that the Borg Queen starts blowing up her ''own'' ships in "Unimatrix Zero" actually came from Janeway being the one to control her. |
| 500 | --> '''Janeway:''' Your mistake was assimilating ''me!'' |
| 501 | * VillainProtagonist: By his reckoning, Captain Kathryn Janeway. |
| 502 | * [[invoked]] VindicatedByHistory: Discussed with ''Film/TheThing1982'' doing poorly in ticket sales and reviews during its release, but is held in high regard today. Another example he mentions is ''Film/ThePrincessBride''. |
| 503 | ** Discussed how ''Star Trek: Insurrection'' actually ''inverted'' this- it did very well at the box office, but then faded away, becoming one of the most forgettable of the films. |
| 504 | * VoodooShark: [[TropeNamer Coined the trope name]] in his review of the ''Voyager'' episode, "The Cloud". The Voodoo Shark plot device in question is that the power supply to the holodeck on Voyager is stated to be completely incompatible with the rest of the ship. Chuck references this fact frequently in other episodes, such as when alien technology is subsequently integrated with the ship, meaning that utterly alien power sources are more compatible with Voyager than Voyager is with itself. |
| 505 | ** Alludes to this in the review of ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', pointing out the sheer lack of explanation or information about the central plot device means that the only two clues in the first six episodes could easily be replaced with the words "Walrus Tusk" and still have just as much impact on the progress of the story. |
| 506 | [[/folder]] |
| 507 | [[folder:W]] |
| 508 | * WalkingDisasterArea: His version of Commander Shepard, appropriately named Shiva Shepard. |
| 509 | * WaxingLyrical: |
| 510 | ** The Stupid Neelix Moment for "Manuevers" was subtitled, "''[[OffToSeeTheWizard I would not be just a nuthin', my head all fulla stuffin'...]]''" |
| 511 | *** "I'm off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Booze!" -- sung by Bones |
| 512 | ** In response to Sybok's "secret pain" shtick, Chuck shoots back with "[[Music/LeonardCohen Hallelujah]]." (''Star Trek V'') |
| 513 | --->''I heard there was a secret pain\ |
| 514 | That Sybok finds to keep men sane\ |
| 515 | But you don't really care for bullshit, do yaaaaa...'' ♪ |
| 516 | ** "Yes, We've got trouble. Right here in River City. [[Theatre/TheMusicMan With a capital "T" and that rhymes with]] "[[CallBack 3]]" [[Theatre/TheMusicMan and that stands for Ziyal]]." |
| 517 | ** Quark spends the first act of "The Jem'Hadar" complaining about roughing it in outdoors and wishing his people would strip-mine the whole planet. For this he earns that episode's "Annoying Character" award, with the subtitle "''Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.''" |
| 518 | ** Just listen to Chuck's cackling laughter when Neelix's lungs are stolen. ("Phage") |
| 519 | -->"Tall stranger, ''you'' are [[{{Film/Beaches}} the wind beneath my wings]]." |
| 520 | ** He eventually zones out in the middle of "Ex Post Facto" to hum "[[Music/PaulSimon You Can Call Me Al]]" to himself. |
| 521 | ** ''[[Music/DeanMartin When some guy out-ranks you / And tells you what to do / That's an or-der...]] ♫'' ("Unimatrix Zero") |
| 522 | ** He expresses amusement that "Tsunkatse", a gimmick episode designed to attract testosterone-soaked Wrestling/{{WWE}} fans, more resembles "[[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel The Sound of Silence]]" set to film. |
| 523 | *** "'''''[[SayMyName SUSPIRIAAAAAAA!!]]'''''" ("Cold Fire") |
| 524 | ---->'''Chuck:''' ...''you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my con-fi-dence dai-hee-ly...'' ♪" |
| 525 | ** Janeway instructing Kim to "brush up" on his Ancient Earth History. Hoo boy. There's a reason "The [=37s=]" is the codifier of Ancient Chinese Secret. |
| 526 | --->'''Kim:''' ''(panicking) ''Uhh, umm... On behalf of Napoleon Bonaparte, first Pope and the ever-living Pharaoh, I have been asked to welcome you in His traditional greeting, that [[Music/ElvisPresley you ain't nothin' but a hound dog, barking all the time!]]" |
| 527 | ** "A Night in Sickbay" brought on the lyrics to "[[Music/CultureClub Karma Chameleon]]". He actually fell asleep beforehand, dreaming about Scott Bakula [[Film/TheRing crawling out of his TV]] and peeing on the couch. |
| 528 | ** "[[Series/{{Farscape}} Crais is a maniac!]]" ("The Way We Weren't") |
| 529 | --->"That's for sure. And he's...[[Film/{{Flashdance}} dancing like he's never danced before]]." |
| 530 | ** [[Series/BabylonFive Londo]] singing the No Beer Polka. ("One Small Step") |
| 531 | --->"Een heaven there eez no beeeer! That's why wee drink eet heeere!" |
| 532 | ** In ''Series/StargateSG1's'' PilotMovie, he sees a guy who resembles Music/MeatLoaf killing a Jaffa, causing Chuck to quip: |
| 533 | --->"Don't be sad Jaffa, two out of three ain't bad." |
| 534 | * WhatCouldHaveBeen: Discussed. In the TOS episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekS1E15ShoreLeave Shore Leave]]'', a behind-the-scenes book says that Shatner wanted to wrestle the tiger and had to be talked out of it. Chuck is incredulous at this claim and believes that if Shatner did offer to wrestle the tiger, he did it as a joke and the story was since embellished. |
| 535 | * WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: |
| 536 | ** In his ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' review he points out that it's probably not a good idea to name a spaceship sent on a mission to the sun after a mythological character who was killed due to venturing too close to the sun. And after losing the first one, they named the next one Icarus II. |
| 537 | ** The exploration vessel which disappeared at Z'ha'dum with Sheridan's wife on board in ''Series/BabylonFive'' was also named Icarus. |
| 538 | --->'''Chuck:''' When will people learn to stop naming ships 'Icarus'? It never ends well! |
| 539 | ** In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Scorpion" Chakotay names a seemingly safe route through Borg space the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage Northwest Passage]]". Chuck proceeds to point out that several expeditions were lost looking for the Northwest Passage on Earth (that is to say, a way to navigate between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the waters between North America and the Arctic), and it ultimately proved to not exist. (Actually, it does exist, but has turned out to not be nearly as useful as people seeking it hoped.) |
| 540 | ** When reviewing ''Gojira'', he makes several jokes about Star Trek... but then points out that ''he'' isn't the one who named one of the locations "Odo Island." |
| 541 | * WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: [[InUniverse References this trope]] several times when reviewing ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', in particular how it averts NeverSayDie. Also comes up in his ''Clone Wars'' review. [[invoked]] |
| 542 | * WhatMeasureIsAMook: Discussed with the Battle Droids in WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars. Unlike in the prequel films, the droids in the series are clearly sentient and very much aware that they’re CannonFodder in a war they want no part of. |
| 543 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: In "Meet John Sheridan" he chews out the Minbari for launching a genocidal war against humanity over a simple cultural misunderstanding, refusing to accept Humanity's unequivocal surrender and then having the gall to be ''[[AssholeVictim offended]]'' that the sole human victory of the war occured when John Sheridan managed to actually blow up ''one'' of their ships. |
| 544 | * WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: Leadership skills are going to be a key element to the crew's survival in "Basics Pt 2." Therefore, the four team leaders are Janeway, Tuvok, uhh...[[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Harry Kim]]. And the fourth...? (Oh, this won't end well.) |
| 545 | -->"''(chuckling)'' Naah, ''you know'' who I'm gonna say! But you're wondering, "''How could it happen''?! How could anybody be stupid enough to actually suggest this?" Well, remember, we're in this situation precisely '''because''' of that stupidity!" |
| 546 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: In the third "The Killing Game" video, a WWII-era Tom holds Harry at gunpoint to test whether he's a German or not. In theory, anything that Tom asks - anything at all - Harry can answer! Just so long as it's not related to [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality the sexual behavior of a normal human being.]] |
| 547 | -->'''Tom:''' If Creator/BettyGrable came around that corner, what part of her would you be staring at?\ |
| 548 | '''Harry:''' ''([[OhCrap sighs resignedly]])''\ |
| 549 | '''Chuck:''' And the answer is: '''None of the above'''! All he'd see is his grandmother slapping and shaking her finger at him for looking at girls, then her face splitting open and Janeway's head on a snake's body coming out and ordering him to remodulate her rug. |
| 550 | * WhyWeCantHaveNiceThings: Classic television mistake: handing [[SlowMotionDrop a highly-breakable cup]] to a [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone psychic]]. "Thanks, demons from the beyond!" |
| 551 | ** This also appears to be [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Dooku's complaint when Sidious tells him to kill Asajj Ventress]]. |
| 552 | * WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: "The first half of TheNineties largely reflected this realization that the world was no longer what we thought it'd be, from the decline of the military industrial complex, to who should be the default bad guys in fiction." |
| 553 | * WildCard: The inexorable Brannon Braga who, while not the crap writer he's been described as by some, isn't good enough to save bad material. In this respect, Chuck suspects he acts as a "multiplying factor" in whatever job he's given. |
| 554 | * WickedCultured: His interpretation of Khan, spending quite a while in the "Wrath of Khan" review quoting from the various books seen on Khan's shelf, noting how these few books have affected his worldview. |
| 555 | * WildMassGuessing: Discussed at length in the "Doctor Who?" special, where he lists the various speculative theories on the identity of [[spoiler: Creator/JohnHurt's Doctor, as well as where [[TheNthDoctor this incarnation]] possibly fits into the overall continuity]]. |
| 556 | * WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: Refers to this in the ''Voyager'' episode "Faces", where he points out that the intelligent, believable way the characters were written in that episode makes it possible to accept that the episode's entire premise hinges on the absurd plot point that the Vidiians can somehow split one person into two fully-formed and fully-grown people. |
| 557 | ** Although he doesn't mention it, it comes again for his review of Wall-e, were he mentions that, despite how simplistic the science was, the mature way things were handled allowed him to put that aside. |
| 558 | * WordSaladHumor: In his review of ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'', Chuck points out how Creator/RLeeErmey has perfected the DrillSergeantNasty persona to such a degree that he can literally say anything and it will have the same effect. |
| 559 | -->'''Chuck:''' [''Ermey Voice''] "I WILL MARCH YOU DAISYMUFFINS THROUGH THE CAN-OPENER OF WAR!" |
| 560 | * TheWorldIsJustAwesome: ''The No Context 5th Anniversary Clip Show'' starts with a straight adaptation of the original Discovery Channel ads using references to things he's reviewed, changing the message to "imagination makes the whole world ''even more'' awesome". He also gave this as his reason for still playing ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' four years after release despite all the annoyances he described in his review of the Imperial Agent story, demonstrating it with a montage of random scenes from several of his other characters set to ''Fett's Vette''. |
| 561 | * TheWorfEffect: Worf seems to have finally overcome this in "By Inferno's Light", laying out 10 Jem'Hadar in a row. |
| 562 | -->'''Chuck:''' [''Worf baritone''] It was the 'hitting them' part that I was having trouble with. |
| 563 | ** Chuck theorizes that the reason for this trope's existance is that Worf's commanding officers in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' are such pantywaists that they keep hampering his efforts while giving the enemies time to prepare. |
| 564 | ** Notes that Tim Russ seems to play characters who are on the receiving end of the Vulcan nerve pinch, more than anyone else in the franchise. Even though, as Tuvok, his character has three times the strength of a normal human... and he ''still'' gets knocked out this way! |
| 565 | * WorldOfHam: "''Series/DoctorWho'' is a world where no villain has an indoor voice." |
| 566 | * WrongGenreSavvy: An interesting variation in "Tattoo" where, as Chuck points out, Chakotay is told by the chief that he should stay with his people and embrace the old ways... which is perfectly baffling to Chuck, as we're supposed to ''agree'' with this chief, when a) pretty much every other story in modern fiction would present "Staying with your kind and doing the same thing for all time" as a ''bad'' thing, and b) this takes place in ''a Star Trek episode'', a series about finding the unknown and exploring all the strange and wonderful things of the universe, ''not'' staying in one's closed-off environment. |
| 567 | ** He predicts that Samantha Carter, a strong feminist blonde woman, will be the one selected as the next one to be selected by the Goa'uld in the Stargate Pilot, and then spends the next fifteen seconds listing all the action movie cliches that will be employed... and then ''Skarra'', Jack's surrogate son, is taken instead. After a moment of shock, Chuck praises this for subverting his expectations. |
| 568 | [[/folder]] |
| 569 | [[folder:X]] |
| 570 | * XDaysSince: The poor safety record of an ''entire moon'' in ''Star Trek VI'' is mocked. |
| 571 | -->"It's hard to imagine anyone would do something like this, without being deliberate gross negligence, like they have a sign up somewhere celebrating 428 days without a workplace apocalypse." |
| 572 | [[/folder]] |
| 573 | [[folder:Y]] |
| 574 | * YouCantHandleTheParody: Inserted into Dukat's rant in "Waltz." |
| 575 | * YouHaveFailedMe: Chuck's headcanon for why there are two different Borg Queens. The one played by Alice Krige was retired after the crippling losses to Picard and the Undine. The one played by Susanna Thompson was much more aggressive and expansionist, resolving to throw more cubes at enemies so they could claim more resources. Unfortunately, the Collective realized the new queen was willing to destroy entire ships just to taunt Janeway, so she was retired as well. |
| 576 | * YouKeepUsingThatWord: Really hates their repeated use of the word "Ancient" to describe anything that takes place before the 21st Century, pointing that this means they've lumped Roman chariots and nuclear weapons into the ''same'' era. |
| 577 | ** Launches into a tirade when ''Enterprise'' repeatedly uses the phrase, "Hull plating offline," explaining everything wrong about the term. |
| 578 | * YouMightRememberMeFrom: |
| 579 | ** [[invoked]] Creator/BradDourif: |
| 580 | --->''"You might remember him from ''Voyager'', where he was a killer; Or ''Babylon 5'' where he was a killer; Or ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' where [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs he betrayed people and then killed them]]." (''Lord of the Rings'') |
| 581 | ** Previously, referred to Creator/BradDourif as "who you might remember from your ''nightmares''". ("Passing Through Gethsemane") |
| 582 | ** Creator/WilfordBrimley: Perpetual old man, oatmeal spokesman, and cock fighting enthusiast. (''Film/TheThing1982'') |
| 583 | ** Hey kids, it's Creator/MarkSheppard! "Great chance to talk about this performer in a ''rare'' appearance '''[[Series/{{Firefly}} in]] [[Series/StarTrekVoyager a]] [[Series/TheXFiles work of]] [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 science]] [[Series/DoctorWho fiction!]]'''" |
| 584 | --->"Okay, I lied, he's in every damn thing I review." |
| 585 | ** Creator/RonnyCox, whom you may remember from ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'', ''Film/RoboCop1987'', ''Series/CopRock'', ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopII'', and his most famous work ''Cop Cop Part Cop: Still Copping.'' ("Chain of Command") |
| 586 | ** One of the Bond Babes in Dr. Bashir's holo-porn, Mona Lovesit, whom you might remember as "[[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0108597/?ref_=tt_cl_t14 Girl in restaurant]]" and two -- count 'em, ''two''! -- appearances on ''Series/{{Baywatch}}.'' ("Our Man Bashir") |
| 587 | ** Ensign Ballard you may recognize from the film version of ''Film/AtlasShrugged'' by Creator/AynRand. ("Ashes to Ashes") |
| 588 | --->"...And ''speaking of'' a manipulative coldhearted tormentor of all those she claims to love, Ballard's having dinner with Janeway!" |
| 589 | ** Mr. Grey Poupon Guy! (''Dark City'') Guess those fifty years of theater and film training finally paid off, eh, Mr. Richardson? |
| 590 | ** Says that there are so many speculative fiction actors and actresses in ''Stargate Atlantis'' that "EVERYONE is in this series." |
| 591 | *** And then follows that up by a clip from the show of Rodney talking to ''Bill Nye The Science Guy.'' He's not kidding. ''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer This actually happened in the show.]]'' |
| 592 | * YouMonster: Notes the sheer horror of Janeway's actions in "Tuvix", where she forcibly executes Tuvix, who literally goes from person to person begging to be allowed to live. Besides the Doctor, everyone simply stands there and ''does nothing''. |
| 593 | * YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Discussed in the Wonder Woman review. "A tip: unless your goal is to make the hero question what they're doing, don't have their supporters defend them with things that are fucking stupid." |
| 594 | * YourMom: Mentioning Spock's origin as his disadvantage to his face? One of the best Yo Momma jokes on Vulcan in thousands years. From ''Film/StarTrek2009'' review. |
| 595 | ** The Klingon Ambassador doesn't have anything to say to Sarek's accusations in ''Star Trek VI'', other than, "er... yeah, well... yo' momma's so fat ''we'' don't have to look for whales this movie." |
| 596 | [[/folder]] |
| 597 | |
| 598 | [[folder:Z]] |
| 599 | * ZanyScheme: Invoked as Quark in the ''Profit and Lace'' review, where he has to change his gender in order to dupe an influential businessman, cutting Bashir who took it seriously and started to advise to follow the lifestyle of a woman first before making such a life-changing decision. To Quark's regret, there is no ZanyScheme clause to speed up the process. |
| 600 | * ZeeRust: Chuck once mentioned that if he ever made a sci-fi film, he would deliberately use outdated tech and call it "advanced." |
| 601 | -->"Stick a couple of Jacob's ladders on there and say they're to keep static charges away from the processors. Fuck trying to make the future [[Film/StarTrek2009 look like the inside of an iMac.]] I want the future to look like a drunk tried to make a ham radio and gave up halfway through." |
| 602 | [[/folder]] |
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