Doctor Who: Enlightenment (3/5)
A OldWho serial starring the Fifth Doctor that, like most of OldWho, is filled with wonky writing, wonky acting, and wonky effects.
Even by the standards of OldWho, this serial is pretty lacklusture. Five and his companions end up on a sailing ship, or rather what they think is a sailing ship, but instead is a ship sailing through space (not even in the Treasure Planet sense, it's just a ship). The ship is crewed by ethereals (immortal beings) who want to win a race to obtain enlightenment. And, well, stuff happens.
Yes, I could say more, such as the whole thing with Turlough and the Black Guardian, or an ethereal being attracted to Teagan, but it's barely worth mentioning. I usually like the Fifth Doctor (even more than Four, believe it or not), but to quote an ancient and wise saying from the depths of Mutter's Spiral, "this ain't it, chief."
Overwatch: Genesis (4/5)
...god damn it, why couldn't you name it "Genisys?" Yes, I know Terminator took that title, but FFS, both IPs deal with rogue AIs, come on, spice things up!
Huh? Oh, yes, the review.
Basically, this is an animated prequel series to Season 6 of Overwatch, as in, it details the history of the Omnic Crisis, leading up to season 6 carrying the story forward with the invasion plotline and whatnot. Going into things, I was a bit wary, as I doubted that the series would really give me that much new info, since I'm well versed in Overwatch lore. I'm not decrying the series ipso facto, since it's obviously meant for relative newcomers more than anything else, but even then, the series has a number of things going for it. In that:
-This is a subjective judgement, but the series has "edge,' without being "edgy," and strikes a tone I think is a good middleground between how Overwatch initially portrayed the war (see the intro cinematic for the first game) and something like, say, The Animatrix (which incidentally I found myself reminded of given the animation style and subject matter). Granted, this isn't the first piece of Overwatch media to do this (see the Sojourn novel for instance), but as far as visual representations go, I think it's on the money. I mean, this is a global war with an (implied) death toll in the millions, so of course, things are going to be unpleasant for everyone involved.
-In terms of lore, like I said, while a lot of material here isn't technically new, what new stuff there is is appreciated. We finally know why Anubis went rogue (not the most original reason, but it's a reason nonetheless), and finally know exactly what happened with Aurora; what "the Awakening" was (I had suspicions this was the case, and I was about 90% right). Also, while not technically new, tying in with what I said above, I think this take on the conflict is better. In the past, it was along the lines of "robots attack, world's militaries fall apart, Overwatch saves the world." And yes, I know lore has fleshed things out since then (again, see the novel Sojourn, as much as I dislike it), but Genesis does a good job of expanding things here, not only in regards to the course of the war (e.g. how Aurora's sacrifice gave humanity the opening it needed to take the fight to Anubis), but the shades of grey that followed afterwards, with some omnics laying down their arms, some fighting alongside humanity, some remaining loyal to Anubis to the end. While the Doylist answer for this apparent glossing over is that it likely wasn't concieved this far ahead (I say "likely," because Titan was a thing before Overwatch), the Watsonian explanation that comes to mind is that I can't help but wonder if the "friendly omnics'" role has intentionally been scrubbed out over time, given how pervalent anti-omnic sentiment is in many parts of the setting.
-Moving away from lore and on the subject of storytelling, it's well done - moves well, is efficient, etc. And yes, I did get "the feels" with Aurora's sacrifice, which incidentally, is likely the source of the Iris as well.
So, yeah. Pretty good. Now gimme MOAR!
