Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Time Squared"

The Enterprise finds a Starfleet shuttle drifting in space. It turns out to be the Enterprise's shuttle, even though said shuttle in still in its launch bay. Inside they find Captain Picard in a coma, even though Captain Picard is still on the bridge. When La Forge and Data work out that the shuttle is from six hours into Enterprise's future, it gives the crew a very short deadline to prevent whatever destroys the ship in the future from destroying it again - or the first time - in the present - or is that the future?

"Time Squared" is a nonsensical time travel puzzle. It's an episode that demonstrably makes no sense. This would be fine, except it's constructed as a bit of a mystery. The viewer is invited to speculate on what will happen, and how the Enterprise will change the course of history. By the time the climax is finished, the same viewer will be none the wiser over what actually happened or how the Enterprise escaped. To quote Douglas Adam's immortal creation Zaphod Beeblebrox, this episode gets 'ten out of ten for style, minus several million for good thinking'.

Star Trek Enterprise: "Hatchery"

The Enterprise's journey to Azati Prime is interrupted by the discovery of a crashed Xindi spacecraft on a nearby planet. When the away team discovers a hatchery of unborn insectoid Xindi, Captain Archer orders for the eggs to be saved at all costs - even at the expense of the Enterprise's mission. When Archer's order become too much, the crew break against his orders and start a mutiny.

Oh for goodness sake get to Azati Prime already. This is the third full episode since the Enterprise's crew learned of the location of the Xindi weapon and we still haven't reached it yet. It all feels like a delaying tactic and it's getting tiresome. This episode also feels quite tedious to watch because the suspense is a false suspense. We know that Captain Archer is acting irrationally, so we know there has to be a reason for it. The result is an episode that's less about trying to work out what's going on so much as it's about wanting it all to end.

20th Century Fox's big X-Men gamble

Yesterday I wrote about the extraordinary risk that DreamWorks Animation seemed to be taking by swapping their animated films around in the schedule. Today I wanted to look at a movie opening right now around the world: 20th Century Fox's big-budget superhero sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past. It's a high profile release, widely hyped and pretty much the biggest movie Fox are releasing in 2014. It's also an enormous financial risk. Here's why.

Studio estimates put Days of Future Past's production budget at $225m, and since then there have been additional reshoots and overruns, so let's be relatively charitable at round things up to the nearest $50: that's an estimated budget of $250m. Add to it at least $100m in promotion and advertising (P&A), and you're looking at $350m. So as the rule of thumb goes: the studio will be satisfied if the film grosses double it's cost. This means Fox are looking for a $700m payday for their film. Fair enough, you might think. Superhero movies are huge. Why last year Iron Man 3 earned more than one billion dollars.

Chronicle (2012)

Three Seattle high schoolers stumble upon a massive glowing crystal in a cave. Shortly afterwards they start developing telekinetic powers - powers that seem to be growing stronger and stronger over time. At first it seems like the most amazing gift in the world, but as one of the three - the bullied and insular Andrew - begins to exhibit even more pronounced powers than the others, how long will it be before something snaps and all hell breaks loose?

'How long will it be' is pretty much the core question of Chronicle, an impressively staged found footage thriller by first-time director Josh Trank. The film opens with Andrew deciding to document his life with a video camera. Through that camera we see a relatively unpleasant life: bullied at school and on the street, abused by his drunk father, and generally ignored or ridiculed by his peers, Andrew is a tightly-wound spring ready to launch. That launch is going to come with his growing psychic powers: at first he can levitate pebbles. Before too long he can crush cars. The result is a film that is from it's first 10 minutes a question of 'when' rather than 'if': essentially Carrie by way of Akira, only shot from videocameras and smartphones like Cloverfield.

Daily Links: 14 May 2014

I read a lot of geek-related news on the Internet each day, and so I figured it was probably about time to start throwing together links to the most interesting things I see each day. I used to do this occasionally as "Odds'n'Sods", but just flat-out calling it "Daily Links" makes it a lot clearer what these posts will be about.

• Snyder debuts new Batman. Director Zack Snyder has posted the first official photograph of Ben Affleck as Batman, along with his Batmobile, from the forthcoming Batman vs Superman movie. The cowl is visibly inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which matches the older, more grizzled Batman that Snyder has been hinting at for some time. (link)