Synopsis: Jadzia falls in love with a scientist on a planet whose inhabitants shift between this universe and a plane of pure energy, re-emerging every sixty years. Back on DS9, Quark tries to obtain a holo-image of Major Kira for an erotic holosuite program for a wealthy patron.
Review: A really gross, pointlessly contrived episode (based on Brigadoon) that sees Dax do the Trekky fall in love in a matter of minutes routine, but because she can’t leave the show, find a reason for her to stay on Deep Space Nine anyway.
Synopsis: Grand Nagus Zek is deposed after he begins to promote female rights; Quark changes his sex temporarily to prevent Brunt from becoming the new Grand Nagus.
Eight years ago today I finished my countdown for Star Trek: The Next Generation. I promised many times I would eventually get to this one, and it’s finally happening.
Author: Accidental Queens Year: 2017 Genre: Slice of Life Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Switch
My Rating: 4
While the premise of looking through someone else’s phone is intriguing and the backstory you discover is important, I was nevertheless not terribly impressed with A Normal Lost Phone despite all of the awards it was nominated for.
Year: 2018 Director: Peter Ramsey, Bob Perischetti, Rodney Rothman Rating: 8
I have never been an overt fan of either comics or superheroes, especially the latter. I just don’t find superpowers (especially when the same person has more than one) inherently interesting. It often feels like the protagonist has a cheat code and they’re fighting other people with cheat codes. Of course, like any genre, good writing can overcome that. Into the Spider-Verse is impressive on all fronts and probably my favorite superhero movie.
An observation my wife made that struck a chord was that one of the joys of watching a foreign film is that typically you aren’t familiar with the actors and have no preconceived notions or biases about them. Of course a brilliant actor can overcome this anyway, but there’s something to said for going into a movie completely blind. Watching Parasite is like opening a Russian doll, except each doll is better than the last and — oh surprise — they’re not dolls. The movie may be best watched spoiler-free, so a heads up before you read further.
Author: Jon Ingold Year: 2001 Development System: Inform Cruelty Rating: Merciful Length of Play: 1-2 Hours
My Rating: 6
Awards: Best Game, Best Story, Best Setting — 2001 XYZZY Awards 1st Place — 7th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
I normally am a sucker for anything involving time travel and paradoxes and I tend to prefer linear gameplay. Jon Ingold is also one of my favorite authors. So All Roads should be right up my alley. I judged the 2001 IF competition and remember giving this one a score of “6” and then being surprised it took first place and won a whole slew of XYZZY awards. I decided to play it again recently to see if time would change my mind, but I left once again feeling underwhelmed.
Author: Jon Ingold Year: 2000 Development System: Inform Cruelty Rating: Cruel (but the game is so short it doesn’t matter) Length of Play: 1-2 Hours
My Rating: 8
I’ve always enjoyed games that take place in space, especially on failing space vessels (e.g. Mission Critical, Seedship). I fell immediately for Fail-Safe’s hook, which entails playing the role of mission control talking to the lone survivor on a failing space vessel.
Author: Mike Sousa & Robb Sherwin Year: 2001 Development System: TADS Cruelty Rating: Polite Length of Play: 2 Hours
My Rating: 4
Mike Sousa and Robb Sherwin as a pairing makes sense, as the former’s strength is coding and the latter’s strength is writing. So I was pretty stoked when I first played this. But instead of combining their strengths, it appears this was developed like a McCartney/Lennon song where they just jam two separate numbers together and hope it works.
Death By Troggles 
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