Vee

This wouldn't shock me at all. They've been bleeding this show's wallet for years and COVID could've slashed it further.

Legend after legend this month. The great Leiji Matsumoto did many very famous anime, but is perhaps best known to Westerners for his work with Daft Punk:

More evidence for the "Conspiracy" parasite theory above in a preview clip from the next ep:

It's a very somber, downbeat and candid series of scenes - a C-storyline, but very honest and sad about the slow death of their relationship. But I avoid that account tbh because the owner seems like an opportunist [!@#$%^&*]-talking in the comments, and I suspect some of the content is appropriated from other people and re-titled to make it look like exclusives. There are a fair amount of Carla eps from the '80s floating around online, including I think a couple featuring the quad with her, Ed, Phylicia Rashad's character and Roger Hill's football player, who Holly apparently was involved with IRL. She didn't think much of that 'silly little' storyline in her book. There's also a couple '78 or '80 ones with her and Jack Scott.

Again, paternity/maternity crap is one of the only stories easily greenlit these days. And they're almost always boring now.

They may have mentioned that more recently, I wouldn't know. My best recollection of Taggert's (offscreen) exit in the 2000s was Scott or someone saying he'd been reassigned to Alaska or something after being the squeaky wheel against Sonny and Jason (and maybe sticking it to Scott's corruption) once too often.

The Nikolas reveal and its timeline were meticulously plotted out. The scenes where Laura tells Luke all about exactly where, how and when she learned her mother was 'dead' in the '80s and that it had been attributed to the Cassadines to silence her re: her other son were intricately done.

Which ironically is also what broke up Curtis and Jordan IIRC, even if I frankly find all of Curtis' relationships very bland and interchangeable.

The mention of Taggert's past in the main thread got me thinking of the great Vanita Harbour as long-suffering ADA Dara Jensen, and this hilarious scene I have never forgotten from summer '98, in which Helena reveals that Katherine is alive after all after the fall off the Wyndemere parapet (a now common death or near-death location of choice, as Esme and Brad can attest). Even in poor quality the face journeys Dara, Alexis, Stefan, Nikolas, etc. go on as Helena gleefully lays her insane story out below (timestamped appropriately at the link) are hysterical. I would embed if I could, but you can see it here.

Taggert was involved with several women during his time on the show, including Dara and Hannah Scott, Roy's daughter and Sonny's FBI sidepiece (and Mrs. Jonathan Jackson). Anything with Portia has to have happened after he left town/was reassigned to a remote location, IIRC how they framed it onscreen.

@DRW50 A worthwhile thread on the commentary recording for POTD.

Zach Tinker appears to have at the very least a recurring role in the Dick Wolf procedural complex. It is unlikely he will come back if he gets a regular contract there. Those shows run and run.

Stunning! @Faulkner

Some, but not in years. I will watch them, but currently I've been sort of splitting my GL focus between Agnes Nixon eps from the '60s, the Dobsons and the mid-'80s.

I've been on a GL binge of late in addition to my other COVID-era classic binges* and maybe it's me but the Dreaming Death virus is really, really creepy to me. Lesley Anne's death spiral hallucination of her last dance with her con man husband and moving off into the light with the spooky music is really, deeply disturbing. I can see why GL might've been the wrong show for this material but I think the idea of a killer virus which induces these hallucinations is good stuff for GH or something. I also don't understand why they put so much time into hiring and building up Michael Woods as Jim Reardon and then he leaves like a year later. (* apologies to Knots Landing fans, I promise I will get back to it shortly; it's just such a dense show and I want to give it my full attention when I'm not so busy. Also I am kind of hoping it starts going up in HD like Dallas sooner than later.)

A lot of greats passing us by these days.

@AdelaideCate007 I have always, always, always wanted to see the return of the infamous parasites from "Conspiracy," a very disturbing early TNG episode - and a dangling plot thread dropped when the new showrunners post-S1 came up with the Borg as a new threat - and smart Trekkers have pointed out a few key things that make me think the bad guys in S3 could well be them after all: Jack (Speleers) says their pursuers 'have a different face every time'. The Conspiracy parasites attached themselves to hosts' necks and used them as hosts - humans, Vulcans, anyone. Beverly's encrypted message to Picard tells him to trust no one, including Starfleet. "Conspiracy" opened with Picard receiving an encrypted message from his old friend, Walker Keel, who also told him to trust no one including Starfleet. Beverly vaporizes one of her attackers down to a scorch mark in the floor. Riker makes special note of this at the end of the premiere and asks why Crusher would feel the need to burn someone to ash. This is exactly what Riker himself had to do alongside Picard when they fought the giant parasite at the end of "Conspiracy", in probably the most violent and shocking scene in Star Trek history and one I still can't believe they got on the air in the late '80s - the magic of early syndication: While the vibe I get from Amanda Plummer's character in the trailers is not that of a parasite host, it's still worth thinking about.

Yeah, I don't buy Beverly cutting them all off.

I was a Picard/Crusher shipper going way back and was never happy with how the later eps and movies threw him at other women without acknowledging that character thread enough, so I am very happy for anything that cements the relationship. I do think the idea that they only got together and conceived a child around the time of Nemesis is a bit farfetched, but whatever. My guess on the surprise return:

She's a huge horror star and producer again in film and TV these days. I can't see her signing back onto a daytime contract.

So classy of Barbara Crampton to do this, as she is a big gun in horror these days. She's always been happy to talk about her daytime career. I never thought they'd bring Mamie back. And yes, Dru should be on this list but won't be. I'd love to be surprised.

Watching it now. So far so good. I have not bothered with S2 yet, lol. I'll get to it amidst this season. I had wondered if they would make Orla Brady's character Picard's lover - I liked her a lot in Season 1. I remember her from Matt Smith's finale on DW. They are cute together. That said, she's not Beverly and Beverly and Jean-Luc are clearly the thrust here. I've only waited 30+ years for them to be properly dealt with. Michelle Hurd is one of the few remaining castmembers from the original Picard ensemble and is still excellent. I suspect she may get a spinoff with Jeri Ryan, though I found their sudden romance very rushed at the end of S1. They're both so good though that you don't care. Jeri is as good as she was 25 years ago. Some premiere spoilers in addition to heavily likely rumors and some major rumor/spec that also sounds very likely to me:

Wow. What a find.

LMAOOOO. Oh lord.

The double-down: