Doctor Who undergoes its periodic changes from time to time, and our last big change was the arrival of Capaldi’s version of the Doctor last year in series 8. Series 8 was very much a mixed bag, and unfortunately it often seemed like the bad outweighed the good. And in a lot of ways, Doctor Who Series 9 has been much the same, but a clearer vision emerged as it went on. This season has been made up almost exclusively of 2-parters with running subplots, continuing the trend established last year. And there were also huge revelations and things we the fans have been waiting for appearing at last–but was it all done in a satisfying way?

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SHIELD is back at full force in an episode that’s probably among the most grounded they’ve ever had. Keeping a world full of superpowers relateable is tough, but the best way to do that is to focus on emotion and relationships, and that’s where this episode shines.

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Max Headroom occupies a weird spot as it relates to the Primer. Hell, everything about him and his origin is complicated. If you’re old enough to remember the 80’s (and I’m not), you’ll probably recognize the eponymous character, at the very least. He was a pop cultural icon for a while–a witty, irreverent “computerized” character that appeared in everything from Sesame Street to New Coke commercials… and yet the 1987 cyberpunk TV show that starred the character barely eked out 2 abbreviated seasons (14 episodes total) and is all but unknown as a result. I find him fascinating, a fourth wall-straddling fictional star who kind of became the thing he was originally designed to satirize. But is the show worth watching, or has it been rightfully forgotten?

Buckle up, this is a long one.

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Picking up literally where we left off, the team is forced to run in and stop Fitz from getting himself sucked into the monolith. But he’s going to make it happen one way or another, dagnabbit! We just may need some Asgardian’s help. Unfortunately, it’s not the one you’re hoping to see. Or the other one you’re hoping to see.

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back with a little time skip, where Skye has fully embraced her new identity and others have not been so lucky. Where is everyone, anyway? Oh, right…

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Star Trek Voyager is often cited as the first sci-fi show with a female lead, and it was definitely touted as a selling point before it premiered. But as it turns out, Voyager was beaten to the punch–by this show, Earth 2. Premiering in 1994, Earth 2 focuses on–you guessed it–colonists trying to survive on an Earth-like planet after Earth has become unlivable. It’s very much in the vein of a space western, but it’s also a family show, and these two aspects clash from time to time. Lasting only one season, Earth 2 started off popular but plummeted in the ratings as it went on. Is that a sign of its quality, or did it die right as it was getting good?

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With an even more final-feeling finale than last year’s, Defiance puts an end to the Omec threat once and for all by having everyone work together for once. Look at that, it only took a potential extinction-level event to get our characters off each others’ throats!

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All the Omec wake up and invade, and all the building of trust and hope for Trek-like peace ideals are thrown to the wayside. I guess we shouldn’t have expected anything else, eh?

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Nolan is taken to South America and found guilty of murder.

…Just kidding. Did you really think Nolan would be held responsible for his actions? Then you haven’t been watching the same show I have. Sigh… nope, a bunch of easily avoided mistakes happen and we lose one of the good things about this season. Somebody wake up Sukar, time to go soul-spelunking in the underworld!

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After taking a month off, the Obscure SciFi Primer returns with a strange cross-genre offering, Century City. Century City is a sci-fi legal drama–quite possibly the only sci-fi legal drama ever, actually. Airing on CBS in 2004, it managed to film a mere 9 episodes, and of those, only 2 actually made it on TV before it was canceled, so it never really had a chance to succeed at all. Think of all the awful shows you’ve watched throughout your life: even those likely got a 13 episode upfront order produced. So was Century City really that bad, or did it simply get shafted even worse than Firefly and all our other cut short favorites? Let’s find out.

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