Glad you enjoyed it. The artist as a few more on his channel.

After the character-focus of episode three, it was nice to have Titan and creature suspense and action balancing the character beats.

Gut punches again following Billy’s reaction to finding the letter and pursuing his mapping of Titan migration patterns. I was really frustrated that they didn’t grab everything on that board in the level ten basement.

It’s good to finally have Cate on board after she bottomed out in the last episode.

Kentaro keeps on showing competence, it was good for Keiko to intervene with Hiroshi to say that perhaps he’s not letting Kentaro know he can see it.

May/Corah buying in to Apex’s agenda for her code was not what I expected but based on what we’ve seen in the show, perhaps I should have. This show needs to lay down the pipe for events to come in the movies in this continuity — and Corah is an unusual legacy character in that her actions have established impact later.

The Skull Island creatures in the lab were disturbing but interesting.

Last thing, in addition to the teaser Apple released earlier this week with the opening scene of the surfers, the scene of Shaw breaking the creatures out of the Apex basement was posted yesterday.

I caught it by chance and wish I hadn’t. It took away the surprise and diminished the impact for me.

They own two AR wall virtual sound stages in Toronto, one of which they share with the CBS Studios Star Trek production.

I believe that there was mention of some Legacy locations and species to visit too.

Sigh…

I’m perhaps at the extreme of negativity about the Legacy premise, but what Matalas seemed to be pitching was almost an anthology of legacy characters being visited by the Titanprise with the bridge full of offspring.

So, yes, Sirtis would not be wrong to think the focus of the pitch was the older cast with the younger characters and the visiting Titanprise as more or less the framing.

I have a theory that someone in senior management of the streamer under the old ownership had a strong belief that ‘children of legacy characters’ were a necessary bridge between old and new audiences. There seems to have been no awareness at all of his antithetical nepotism would be to the meritocratic principles of Starfleet.

We have La’an Noonien-Singh for no particular reason in SNW - she’s not even the bridge officer with augmented abilities.

Also, the more I hear about the pitch for Unity the more it sounds like a family saga with all the great things Archer’s offspring are up to as young adults (since the creators were told that they could have them at the Academy as they’d originally pitched).

You might enjoy taking in the two earlier films in the Monsterverse timeline/continuity: *Godilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island (2017).

Skull Island is rather grim, a bit of Apocalypse Now meets kaiju fiction set at the end of the Vietnam War. It has a great cast with Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and John Goodman as an older version of Billy Randa. Lots of character focus.

Our youngest just did a TNG rewatch a couple of months ago so I think I’ll go for Voyager instead.

The recumbent stationery exercise bike in our family room is the reason I watch as much television as I do.

It’s not intense exercise but it really adds up.

One of our kids recently suggested doing a TNG or Voyager rewatch again with me. It may be time.

Season two is interesting.

Among other things, the two youngest Randas are in very contrasting places psychologically since Kentaro has had two years between seasons while Cate is dealing with the reality that others have had time to move on psychologically and she has not. (I really like season two Kentaro.)

I’m watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (M:LOM) which is in the midst of its second season on AppleTV.

And…my partner finally conceded to give the show a try. So, I’m rewatching season one with them. They say, based on being in the middle of season one that it’s the thing they’re enjoying most on tv just now.

While M:LOM does have creatures and kaiju battles, like the best Star Trek, the show’s emphasis is on its diverse characters and their stories.

The show has all the high quality we’ve come to expect of both AppleTV and Legendary Entertainment (Dune) science fiction productions.

M:LOM is designed as an entry point for those unfamiliar with the Monsterverse continuity or the 70+ year Godzilla franchise more generally. The action shifts back and forth between telling the stories of two generations: one in the mid 2010s and the other in the 1950s. It works well as it comes together at the end of season one.

If the show works for you, please check out our newest community https://startrek.website/c/monsterverse.

Welcome!

I had no recollection there was a Hanna Barbera cartoon but the title The Godzilla Power Hour does ring a vague bell. Being a bit older my introduction was an afterschool monster movie broadcast on a local US crossborder station while the Showa films were still deemed ok for a young afternoon television audience.

Your experience reflects what I think is the great thing about Legendary Entertainment and Apple bringing the Monsterverse to television. With AppleTV’s reputation for high quality science fiction, it’s encouraging audiences and demographics to give the show a chance who might otherwise pass on anything from the longstanding broader Godzilla franchise.

You may not be familiar with the truly awful US film Godzilla (1998). The general view is that it was so bad and so disrespectful of the IP kaiju that had been licensed from Toho — the producer of the Japanese films and IP owner — that Toho became very strict in its licensing of the IP from then on, with covenants about how Godzilla and other Toho creations could be used narratively. Legendary Entertainment has been using the licensed kaiju carefully in its movies and shows, but has also been adding new creatures to provide original elements.

M:LOM seems to be performing as well in Japan as well as elsewhere. Flix Patrol hs the show ranked number one in AppleTV in Japan every week since the season premiere. There’s an earlier post with feature article from the Japan Times that you might like to check out.