Tag: top 5 | Amy C. Shaw

Star Trek Voyager Season One: My Top 5 Fave Episodes

February 6, 2016 • 2 Comments

As my husband and I are going through our second full watch of Star Trek as a couple, I thought it would be fun to report on the highlights along the way. So I decided to copy the same format as Charlene at Bookish Whimsy, who is going through her first-ever run of Star Trek and sharing her favorite episodes for each season. To compare, see her favorite episodes of Voyager season one.

The first season of Voyager is a short one, so I was going to do a top 3, but then I found it was actually pretty easy for me to come up with a top 5. After the huge significance of the pilot, not a lot happens in this season; the best is yet to come for Voyager.

5. Heroes and Demons

This is the Doctor’s first real episode and first time experiencing life beyond sick bay. It was good to see him wrestle with, and then embrace, this new experience.

4. Prime Factors

This hedonistic planet (that is not Risa) is interesting to me, but what gets me most in this episode is the end! I don’t want to spoil it, but let’s just say a character makes a surprising decision!

3. State of Flux

This is another plot twist episode where you find out someone isn’t all that he or she said they were. Dun dun DUN!

2. Caretaker

Now that I have rewatched every Star Trek pilot except Enterprise’s, which bored me to tears the first time, I think I can stand by my opinion that it is the best pilot in Star Trek. I don’t love everything about it, but it raises the stakes a ton and really sets the tone of the show from the get-go.

1. Eye of the Needle

I really like this episode and I don’t know how to pinpoint why. I mean, you know they’re not actually going to make it home, but there’s the angle of hope that maybe they’ll get to send out messages. I won’t go any further about the plot, but will also add that I really like the Romulan character in this one. Everything in Star Trek was often overblown with Klingons, or in DS9 Ferengi, but I always want more Romulans (thanks Enterprise for finally indulging me). They fascinate me.

If you’ve seen Voyager, what your favorite episodes of the first season?

Top 5 Books I’ve Recently Added To My “Maybe” TBR

January 19, 2016 • 13 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top 10 Books I’ve Recently Added To My TBR.

I’ve gotten very picky about my actual TBR list on Goodreads, sticking most reads that sound interesting on a “maybe” shelf, because I know I won’t get around to reading 75% of them. Some stay on the maybe shelf until I read them. But most will stay on the maybe shelf indefinitely. So today I thought I would share a few of these recently added to the maybe shelf that do have some stronger interest from me, and your thoughts on them could push me one way or the other! The list is no particular order.

1. The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love

This doesn’t come out until this summer so it will probably be a while before I see reviews. But geeky romance! I mean, it sounds awesome!

2. Red Rising

Sometimes a book has to be out for two years and I have to hear people outside the YA community talking about it to be like huh, maybe I should check this out… If I do read it, I’ll probably wait until the last book is out and binge.

3. These Vicious Masks

Jane Austen meets X-Men?! Yeah, so only bad reviews will keep me away from this, I’m pretty sure.

4. Passenger

Current NYT best-seller, lots of hype, but mixed reviews, plus the time-travel romance is always something I want to love but doesn’t always work for me. So… we’ll see?

5. My Lady Jane

Comedic historical fiction + Cynthia Hand as one of the authors = I’m intrigued. This one also has a summer release date.

Have you read any of these? Are any of them on your TBR?

Star Trek DS9 Season Two: My Top 5 Fave Episodes

December 2, 2015 • 2 Comments

OMG, stuff got real a lot quicker than I remembered! I knew that the end of season 2 was a real game-changer, but there were some good episodes all throughout season two that were good indicators of what DS9 would come to be known for. I’m so happy to be watching it again!

I had a really hard time choosing my five… two were really obvious favorites, and then after that I felt most of the other episodes were equally good! It doesn’t help I feel it’s been a while since I’ve watched some of these with TNG season 7 and live TV shows being watched in between episodes, so I did the best I could with trying to narrow it down. I wanted to be sure to note the honorable mentions, The Maquis Parts 1 and 2 and The Jem’Hadar, which set up a lot of what’s to come!

5. Whispers

O’Brien wonders why everyone on the station seems so wary of him. As he seeks out the truth, it turns out to be quite a surprise…

4. Necessary Evil

This one is interesting as we get a look back in time to how the station was during the Cardassian occupation, and specifically how Odo came into his role.

3. Tribunal

O’Brien must suffer! I have to say, this could have been interesting as two episodes, with more torture for O’Brien and a good B plot too, but what we got was interesting. It’s a look into the Cardassian judiciary system (which is terrible) and we learn a lot about O’Brien as a character.

2. The Wire

On my first watch of DS9, I didn’t like Garak until I watched this episode, and then everything about him made so much more sense and I finally understood him. I love seeing Bashir’s relentless efforts to help Garak in this episode. And we get this great line: “It’s all true… especially the lies.”

1. The Siege

This was the third episode of the season, and the first one that made me be like whoa, this is definitely feeling like DS9. There were some really funny moments, but also dark moments, and it doesn’t wrap up nicely like most Star Trek episodes before had.

What are your favorite episodes of Deep Space Nine season two?

The Top 5 Author Duos I Want to See

October 13, 2015 • 7 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Author Duos You’d LOVE To See Write A Book Together. I just came up with ten because I’m lazy like that. My list this week is in no particular order.

1. Cristin Terrill and Lauren Miller: High-Stakes, Twisty Contemporary Sci-Fi

They both have written books with fabulous, intriguing plots, so imagine what they could do together! Cristin would be totally in charge of the characters though because Lauren’s characters drive me nuts!

2. Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Ally Carter: Thriller Contemporary

I mean, they both write in the genre, it only makes sense! I think I would really love to see what they can come up with together!

3. Emery Lord and Jane Austen: Romance Filled with Witty Banter and Wonderful Slow Burns

I know this is literally impossible due to Jane Austen being no longer living BUT CAN YOU IMAGINE. ALL THE WIT AND SWOONS.

4. Diana Peterfreund and Marissa Meyer: Imaginative Sci-Fi with the Most Wonderful Characters Ever

Between my love of the For Darkness Shows the Stars duology (though please write more in this world Diana kthanxbai) and The Lunar Chronicles I cannot even imagine if these two came together with their sci-fi world-building ideas and amazing characters!

5. Brandon Sanderson and Scott Westerfeld: Alternate World Fantasy of Awesomeness

In my mind, this would be like Mistborn meets Leviathan. I mean, what’s not to love about this idea?

Which authors would you like to see team up for a book, and what would the book be about?

Star Trek DS9 Season 1: My Top 5 Fave Episodes

August 31, 2015 • 6 Comments

On this rewatch of Star Trek, we’re watching the episodes in the order they were aired, meaning that in the middle of TNG season 6, we started incorporating Deep Space Nine episodes into the mix. It’s been interesting so far to see DS9 with knowledge of what happens; I have had more appreciation for some of these earlier episodes (especially the pilot) and some of the characters that it took me some time to care for (namely Kira, Nog, and Garak). And in case you’re new to my blog, Deep Space Nine is my absolute favorite, so it’s a joy to see the characters again.

I thought I would go ahead and mention two honorable mentions: A Man Alone (for Odo’s speech about compromise in relationships) and Babel (for “simple hesitation!”). Overall, season one really isn’t so bad as some make it out to be. On with the Top 5…

5. Past Prologue

I decided to put this one in my Top 5 because it’s the first time we see Garak. I actually didn’t like Garak on the first go-around until the episode “The Wire,” but this time I like him and his complicated friendship with Bashir right away.

4. Emissary

I have a lot more appreciation for the pilot now that I’ve seen the whole series. There is a lot of exposition and introductions, and I got a little tired of Sisko trying to explain linear time to the Prophets/wormhole aliens for the 100th time, but overall this pilot was pretty solid. It was definitely a better start to the series than TNG’s pilot. UGH.

3. Captive Pursuit

This is a pretty good O’Brien episode where he befriends an alien from the Gamma quadrant whose whole existence is about being hunted. It definitely raises interesting Prime Directive related questions.

2. If Wishes Were Horses

This is probably surprising to a lot of people, but I really have a fondness for this one. I’ve always shipped Bashir and Dax, so I just love his pining over her at the beginning of the episode, and then to have the “imaginary” Dax throwing herself at him. I remember very specifically from my first watch of DS9 that this was the first episode where I finally felt connected to the characters and decided I would probably would like DS9. I don’t know why, but it is what it is.

1. Duet

This is an early turning point for Kira, in which she learns she can’t paint all Cardassians with the same stroke. It’s a twisty episode that keeps you guessing and a good episode for DS9 period, not just a “good for season one” episode. It’s non-happy ending is exactly the sort of thing you come to expect from DS9 as well.

What are your favorite episodes of Deep Space Nine season one?

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