Star Trek: Voyager (1995 - 2001)

Note: most of these are my posts copied over from a Star Trek group-watch going through the entire series in broadcast order, rather than properly written reviews. 

VOY S01E01 'Caretaker' Stardate 48315.6 Broadcast date 1995-01-16.


VOY S01E02 'Caretaker' Stardate 48315.6 Broadcast date 1995-01-16.

VOY S01E03 'Parallax' Stardate 48439.7 Broadcast date 1995-01-23.

VOY S01E04 'Time and Again' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1995-01-30.

VOY S01E05 'Phage' Stardate 48532.4 Broadcast date 1995-02-06.

VOY S01E06 'The Cloud' Stardate 48546.2 Broadcast date 1995-02-13.

VOY S01E07 'Eye of the Needle' Stardate 48579.4 Broadcast date 1995-02-20.

VOY S01E08 'Ex Post Facto' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1995-02-27.

VOY S01E09 'Emanations' Stardate 48623.5 Broadcast date 1995-03-13.

VOY S01E10 'Prime Factors' Stardate 48642.5 Broadcast date 1995-03-20.

VOY S01E11 'State of Flux' Stardate 48658.2 Broadcast date 1995-04-10.

VOY S01E12 'Heroes and Demons' Stardate 48693.2 Broadcast date 1995-04-24.

VOY S01E13 'Cathexis' Stardate 48734.2 Broadcast date 1995-05-01.

VOY S01E14 'Faces' Stardate 48784.2 Broadcast date 1995-05-08.

VOY S01E15 'Jetrel' Stardate 48832.1 Broadcast date 1995-05-15.

VOY S01E16 'Learning Curve' Stardate 48846.5 Broadcast date 1995-05-22.

VOY S02E01 'The 37's' Stardate 48975.1 Broadcast date 1995-08-28.

VOY S02E02 'Initiations' Stardate 49005.3 Broadcast date 1995-09-04.

VOY S02E03 'Projections' Stardate 48892.1 Broadcast date 1995-09-11.

VOY S02E04 'Elogium' Stardate 48921.3 Broadcast date 1995-09-18.

VOY S02E05 'Non Sequitur' Stardate 49011 Broadcast date 1995-09-25.

VOY S02E06 'Twisted' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1995-10-02.

VOY S02E07 'Parturition' Stardate 49068.5 Broadcast date 1995-10-09.

VOY S02E08 'Persistence of Vision' Stardate 49037.2 Broadcast date 1995-10-30.

VOY S02E09 'Tattoo' Stardate 49211.5 Broadcast date 1995-11-06.

VOY S02E10 'Cold Fire' Stardate 49164.8 Broadcast date 1995-11-13.

VOY S02E11 'Maneuvers' Stardate 48423 Broadcast date 1995-11-20.

VOY S02E12 'Resistance' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1995-11-27.

VOY S02E13 'Prototype' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1996-01-15.

VOY S02E14 'Alliances' Stardate 49337.4 Broadcast date 1996-01-22.

VOY S02E15 'Threshold' Stardate 49373.4 Broadcast date 1996-01-29.

VOY S02E16 'Meld' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1996-02-05.

VOY S02E17 'Dreadnought' Stardate 49447 Broadcast date 1996-02-12.

VOY S02E18 'Death Wish' Stardate 49301.2 Broadcast date 1996-02-19.

VOY S02E19 'Lifesigns' Stardate 49504.3 Broadcast date 1996-02-26.

VOY S02E20 'Investigations' Stardate 49485.2 Broadcast date 1996-03-13.

VOY S02E21 'Deadlock' Stardate 49548.7 Broadcast date 1996-03-18.

VOY S02E22 'Innocence' Stardate 49578.2 Broadcast date 1996-04-08.

VOY S02E23 'The Thaw' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1996-04-29.

VOY S02E24 'Tuvix' Stardate 49655.2 Broadcast date 1996-05-06.

VOY S02E25 'Resolutions' Stardate 49690.1 Broadcast date 1996-05-13.

VOY S02E26 'Basics, Part I' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1996-05-20.

VOY S03E01 'Basics, Part II' Stardate 50023.4 Broadcast date 1996-09-04.

VOY S03E02 'Flashback' Stardate 50126.4 Broadcast date 1996-09-11.

VOY S03E03 'The Chute' Stardate 50156.2 Broadcast date 1996-09-18.

VOY S03E04 'The Swarm' Stardate 50252.3 Broadcast date 1996-09-25.

VOY S03E05 'False Profits' Stardate 50074.3 Broadcast date 1996-10-02.

VOY S03E06 'Remember' Stardate 50203.1 Broadcast date 1996-10-09.

VOY S03E07 'Sacred Ground' Stardate 50063.2 Broadcast date 1996-10-30.

VOY S03E08 'Future's End, Part I' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1996-11-06.

VOY S03E09 'Future's End, Part II' Stardate 50312.6 Broadcast date 1996-11-13.

VOY S03E10 'Warlord' Stardate 50348.1 Broadcast date 1996-11-20.

VOY S03E11 'The Q and the Grey' Stardate 50384.2 Broadcast date 1996-11-27.

VOY S03E12 'Macrocosm' Stardate 50425.1 Broadcast date 1996-12-11.

VOY S03E13 'Fair Trade' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1997-01-08.

VOY S03E14 'Alter Ego' Stardate 50460.3 Broadcast date 1997-01-15.

VOY S03E15 'Coda' Stardate 50518.6 Broadcast date 1997-01-29.

VOY S03E16 'Blood Fever' Stardate 50537.2 Broadcast date 1997-02-05.

VOY S03E17 'Unity' Stardate 50614.2 Broadcast date 1997-02-12.

VOY S03E18 'Darkling' Stardate 50693.2 Broadcast date 1997-02-19.

VOY S03E19 'Rise' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1997-02-26.

VOY S03E20 'Favorite Son' Stardate 50732.4 Broadcast date 1997-03-19.

VOY S03E21 'Before and After' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1997-04-09.

VOY S03E22 'Real Life' Stardate 50836.2 Broadcast date 1997-04-23.

VOY S03E23 'Distant Origin' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1997-04-30.

VOY S03E24 'Displaced' Stardate 50912.4 Broadcast date 1997-05-07.

VOY S03E25 'Worst Case Scenario' Stardate 50953.4 Broadcast date 1997-05-14.

VOY S03E26 'Scorpion, Part I' Stardate 50984.3 Broadcast date 1997-05-21.

VOY S04E01 'Scorpion, Part II' Stardate 51003.7 Broadcast date 1997-09-03.

VOY S04E02 'The Gift' Stardate 51008 Broadcast date 1997-09-10.

VOY S04E03 'Day of Honor' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1997-09-17.

VOY S04E04 'Nemesis' Stardate 51082.4 Broadcast date 1997-09-24.

VOY S04E05 'Revulsion' Stardate 51186.2 Broadcast date 1997-10-01.

VOY S04E06 'The Raven' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1997-10-08.

VOY S04E07 'Scientific Method' Stardate 51244.3 Broadcast date 1997-10-29.

VOY S04E08 'Year of Hell, Part I' Stardate 51268.4 Broadcast date 1997-11-05.

VOY S04E09 'Year of Hell, Part II' Stardate 51425.4 Broadcast date 1997-11-12.

VOY S04E10 'Random Thoughts' Stardate 51367.2 Broadcast date 1997-11-19.

VOY S04E11 'Concerning Flight' Stardate 51386.4 Broadcast date 1997-11-26.

VOY S04E12 'Mortal Coil' Stardate 51449.2 Broadcast date 1997-12-17.

VOY S04E13 'Waking Moments' Stardate 51471.3 Broadcast date 1998-01-14.

VOY S04E14 'Message in a Bottle' Stardate 51462 Broadcast date 1998-01-21.

VOY S04E15 'Hunters' Stardate 51501.4 Broadcast date 1998-02-11.

VOY S04E16 'Prey' Stardate 51652.3 Broadcast date 1998-02-18.

VOY S04E17 'Retrospect' Stardate 51658.2 Broadcast date 1998-02-25.

VOY S04E18 'The Killing Game, Part I' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-03-04.

VOY S04E19 'The Killing Game, Part II' Stardate 51715.2 Broadcast date 1998-03-04.

VOY S04E20 'Vis à Vis' Stardate 51762.4 Broadcast date 1998-04-04.

VOY S04E21 'The Omega Directive' Stardate 51781.2 Broadcast date 1998-04-15.

VOY S04E22 'Unforgettable' Stardate 51813.4 Broadcast date 1998-04-22.

VOY S04E23 'Living Witness' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-04-29.

VOY S04E24 'Demon' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-05-06.

VOY S04E25 'One' Stardate 51929.3 Broadcast date 1998-05-13.

VOY S04E26 'Hope and Fear' Stardate 51978.2 Broadcast date 1998-05-20.

VOY S05E01 'Night' Stardate 52081.2 Broadcast date 1998-10-14.

VOY S05E02 'Drone' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-10-21.

VOY S05E03 'Extreme Risk' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-10-28.

VOY S05E04 'In the Flesh' Stardate 52136.4 Broadcast date 1998-11-04.

VOY S05E05 'Once Upon a Time' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-11-11.

VOY S05E06 'Timeless' Stardate 52143.6 Broadcast date 1998-11-18.

VOY S05E07 'Infinite Regress' Stardate 52188.7 Broadcast date 1998-11-25.

VOY S05E08 'Nothing Human' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-12-02.

VOY S05E09 'Thirty Days' Stardate 52179.4 Broadcast date 1998-12-09.

VOY S05E10 'Counterpoint' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1998-12-16.

VOY S05E11 'Latent Image' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-01-20.

VOY S05E12 'Bride of Chaotica!' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-01-27.

VOY S05E13 'Gravity' Stardate 52438.9 Broadcast date 1999-02-03.

VOY S05E14 'Bliss' Stardate 52542.3 Broadcast date 1999-02-10.

VOY S05E15 'Dark Frontier, Part I' Stardate 52619.2 Broadcast date 1999-02-17.

VOY S05E16 'Dark Frontier, Part II' Stardate 52619.2 Broadcast date 1999-02-17.

VOY S05E17 'The Disease' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-02-24.

VOY S05E18 'Course: Oblivion' Stardate 52586.3 Broadcast date 1999-03-03.

VOY S05E19 'The Fight' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-03-24.

VOY S05E20 'Think Tank' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-03-31.

VOY S05E21 'Juggernaut' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-04-26.

VOY S05E22 'Someone to Watch Over Me' Stardate 52647 Broadcast date 1999-04-28.

VOY S05E23 '11:59' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-05-05.

VOY S05E24 'Relativity' Stardate 52861.274 Broadcast date 1999-05-12.

VOY S05E25 'Warhead' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-05-19.

VOY S05E26 'Equinox, Part I' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-05-26.

VOY S06E01 'Equinox, Part II' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-09-22.

VOY S06E02 'Survival Instinct' Stardate 53049.2 Broadcast date 1999-09-29.

VOY S06E03 'Barge of the Dead' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-10-06.

VOY S06E04 'Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-10-13.

VOY S06E05 'Alice' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-10-20.

VOY S06E06 'Riddles' Stardate 53263.2 Broadcast date 1999-11-03.

VOY S06E07 'Dragon's Teeth' Stardate 53167.9 Broadcast date 1999-11-10.

VOY S06E08 'One Small Step' Stardate 53292.7 Broadcast date 1999-11-17.

VOY S06E09 'The Voyager Conspiracy' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-11-24.

VOY S06E10 'Pathfinder' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 1999-12-01.

VOY S06E11 'Fair Haven' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-01-12.

VOY S06E12 'Blink of an Eye' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-01-19.

VOY S06E13 'Virtuoso' Stardate 53556.4 Broadcast date 2000-01-26.

VOY S06E14 'Memorial' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-02-02.

VOY S06E15 'Tsunkatse' Stardate 53447.2 Broadcast date 2000-02-09.

VOY S06E16 'Collective' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-02-16.

VOY S06E17 'Spirit Folk' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-02-23.

VOY S06E18 'Ashes to Ashes' Stardate 53679.4 Broadcast date 2000-03-01.

VOY S06E19 'Child's Play' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-03-08.

VOY S06E20 'Good Shepherd' Stardate 53753.2 Broadcast date 2000-03-15.

VOY S06E21 'Live Fast and Prosper' Stardate 53849.2 Broadcast date 2000-04-19.

VOY S06E22 'Muse' Stardate 53896 Broadcast date 2000-04-26.

VOY S06E23 'Fury' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-05-03.

VOY S06E24 'Life Line' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-05-10.

VOY S06E25 'The Haunting of Deck Twelve' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-05-17.

VOY S06E26 'Unimatrix Zero, Part I' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-05-24.

VOY S07E01 'Unimatrix Zero, Part II' Stardate 54014.4 Broadcast date 2000-10-04.

VOY S07E02 'Imperfection' Stardate 54058.6 Broadcast date 2000-10-11.

VOY S07E03 'Drive' Stardate 54090.4 Broadcast date 2000-10-18.

VOY S07E04 'Repression' Stardate 54129.4 Broadcast date 2000-10-25.

VOY S07E05 'Critical Care' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-11-01.

VOY S07E06 'Inside Man' Stardate 54208.3 Broadcast date 2000-11-08.

VOY S07E07 'Body and Soul' Stardate 54238.3 Broadcast date 2000-11-15.

VOY S07E08 'Nightingale' Stardate 54274.7 Broadcast date 2000-11-22.

VOY S07E10 'Flesh and Blood, Part I' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2000-11-29.

VOY S07E09 'Flesh and Blood, Part II' Stardate 54337.5 Broadcast date 2000-11-29.

VOY S07E11 'Shattered' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2001-01-17.

VOY S07E12 'Lineage' Stardate 54452.6 Broadcast date 2001-01-24.

VOY S07E13 'Repentance' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2001-01-31.

VOY S07E14 'Prophecy' Stardate 54518.2 Broadcast date 2001-02-07.

VOY S07E15 'The Void' Stardate 54553.4 Broadcast date 2001-02-14.

VOY S07E16 'Workforce, Part I' Stardate 54584.3 Broadcast date 2001-02-21.

VOY S07E17 'Workforce, Part II' Stardate 54622.4 Broadcast date 2001-02-28.

VOY S07E18 'Human Error' Stardate Unknown Broadcast date 2001-03-07.

VOY S07E19 'Q2' Stardate 54704.5 Broadcast date 2001-04-11.

VOY S07E20 'Author, Author' Stardate 54732.3 Broadcast date 2001-04-18.

VOY S07E21 'Friendship One' Stardate 54775.4 Broadcast date 2001-04-25.

VOY S07E22 'Natural Law' Stardate 54827.7 Broadcast date 2001-05-02.

VOY S07E23 'Homestead' Stardate 54868.6 Broadcast date 2001-05-09.

VOY S07E24 'Renaissance Man' Stardate 54890.7 Broadcast date 2001-05-16.

VOY S07E25 'Endgame' Stardate 54973.4 Broadcast date 2001-05-23.



VOY S07E26 'Endgame' Stardate 54973.4 Broadcast date 2001-05-23.

Previous watch through notes:

I watched the Voyager pilot, and thought it was okay. Can't believe they also went back to the well of "trapped in an olde times recreation by a god-type being" for their opening episode, after TNG did Q and DS9 did the wormhole entities (albeit with memories), though!

am on S2. Voyager has been consistently entertaining.

I just watched Living Witness and it was absolutely fantastic.

Just watched the cold open for Relativity, and it's a very similar set-up to LOST's opening of Season 5

Seven Of Nine's uniform is fucking ridiculous, whatever exoplating excuses they want to come up with ("you're used to having big clunky armour on, so you'll probably be most comfortable getting sewn into a skintight one-piece"). Her tits take over every scene she's in, it's really distracting and feels pretty seedy.

Just watched Equinox, and I see what you guys mean by Janeway being so uneven - she's gone completely mental! Does this get followed up on at all, or just forgotten? Her actions are incredibly heinous in this episode and seem to have been forgotten about by the end of it because she pulled a sad face when SPOILER that captain died.

I'm on the antepenultimate episode of Voyager and have generally really enjoyed the (skiplist episodes of the) series. I just finished Author, Author, which went back to the alt-crew holo-sim well, but was still entertaining. It also was indeed very reminiscent of the Data trial.

The series finale was rather unsatisfying. It felt very similar to that one where Chekotay and Harry find Voyager on the ice planet, plus there never felt like any peril except from crazier-than-usual, genocidal future Janeway until she does what she should remember is always the best thing to do: stop fucking about for half an episode and just tell Janeway the truth. It certainly had high production value, though, and I liked the future stuff.

(Enterprise notes start on page 12 of that Thumbs thread.)

The Fall Guy (2024)

It's so close to being great, it just needed half an hour cut out and a Shane Black rewrite. There's loads of fun stuff in there, it just regularly loses steam and focus. Whenever it gets away from 'stunt guy uses his skillset to survive peril' it starts to drag: the romantic storyline feels disconnected and distracting, and the villains' plot is too busy (they lampshade this at one point but that doesn't magically fix it) and occasionally nonsensical.

Also, for a movie about a stunt guy directed by a stunt guy, a lot of the stunts feel too fake or underwhelming. A lot of them look better in the bts footage that plays over the credits than they do in-movie. I think it may have been a combination of too much wire-removal and digital enhancement plus an overuse of close-ups to show off how much the actors are doing - it just never looks as good as the GoPro wide shots.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, laughed a fair bit, and thought some of the melee combat was great (Gosling and Blunt are excellent, and Duke gets some good stuff though not as much as I would have liked), but still came away a bit disappointed.

Rating: sporadically great but overall a bit of a waste.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

(watched as part of a broadcast-order franchise group-watch)

This movie came out in the middle of a month-long gap between TNG episodes, before the last four episodes of TNG S2. I suspect it's going to feel very weird jumping from TNG back to TOS movies!

Back to the classy opening titles. I like this arrangement of the opening theme, too.
The opening is cool. Enigmatic, and a bit of a Mad Max vibe. (edited) 

More location shooting for this rock-climbing bit, too. Good stuff.

More Mad Max and Star Wars vibes on that planet, with the Mos Eisley style bar (though SW never had three-boobed cat strippers!).
They're going back to the 'this is a new ship that hasn't had all the wrinkles ironed out' beat from TMP again, which I can't blame them for - solid narrative sense to put your heroes on the back foot again.
Straight into the broad comedy stuff with the main crew, though - this perhaps feels like a bit of an admission that the light-hearted tone of Voyage Home is the best fit for the ensemble at their current age. Don't know if they could pull off a Wrath Of Khan again, even though it's only 7 years later.

All the visual and special effects are strong so far. Good starship shots, matte paintings, compositing etc. Funny to see them save budget on the shuttle picking up Kirk et al by just shining a big light - you'd never see a more modern Trek movie doing that.

The Kirk/Spock/Bones dialogue is still great. Amazing how evergreen that chemistry is. (edited) 

The majesty of the shuttle approach and docking to the Enterprise is a bit less than it used to be, but nice that they're still taking a few moments to do it.

I see Kirk still has a female crewmember in a skirt to take his coat for him.
It's interesting to see that they're keeping the 'I hate those Klingon devils' stuff in, even though regular Trek viewers are now used to seeing Worf on the Enterprise and generally less fraught relations with the Klingons. Intentionally making the TOS crew seem a little bigoted and retrograde is a bold choice.

Spock's eyebrows look a little more drawn on than usual!

Well, it's nice that Uhura's singing finally got used in a story beat, I guess, even if she did have to strip in front of the crew.

Ha, great to see Shatner still doing some unconvincing karate chops.
And neck-pinching a horse is a fun move, even if tactically nonsensical.

Oh wow, I remember that 'Scotty hits his head' gag was in the (tv?) trailer and endlessly amusing, I don't think I'd ever realised that it's actually a very contrived way to take him off the board rather than have him actively on either side.
Oh well, at least he passed the Venkman test of not copping off with a possessed horny woman. Not sure TOS Scotty would have.

A few more ropey effects showing up as it goes on!

This God thing comes out of left-field. I think that's the big issue with this movie: it's full of good stuff (that scene where he's attempting to 'turn' McCoy, Spock and Kirk was very effective) and it's fairly pacey but the structure is pretty flimsy. There's no strong throughline because you don't know what Sybok wants, you're not sure for a long time what the nature of his hold over people is, the Klingons are just hanging about on the edges to show up for a bit of jeopardy when needed...

Funny moment when Eden turns out to look like Southern California and Sybok is awed while Kirk just has a 'I've seen this at least thirty times before' look on his face.

A really messy ending. Suddenly they're looking for God, and they get through this impassable barrier with no issues or unique approach, but then he turns out to be a Wizard Of Oz with laser eyes (and it's unclear how Sybok knew to come to this planet, or if it's a coincidence that there's a godlike alien on the one they happened upon, or it's read their minds somehow and played into what they were looking for), and then they try to do an action movie ending which is far too low-budget and goofy to work, and then there's an empty gesture towards some sort of character arc between the lead trio, a butt joke and then that's the end.
I like a lot about it, including the deeper thematic stuff even though it's under-served, but it has a lot of issues with structure, pacing and scale. I think I would have preferred a return to the TMP tone for this one.

DooM (2016)

Finally got round to starting DooM '16 on my new PC and it handles it marvellously! It's running fine in 4K (as far as I can tell, unless even though I've set it to that it's outputting at 1080p regardless because of some setting or other and I'm sitting there like a dope going "wowwww 4K much difference"!), I might whack some more settings up, see how it does. It looks really nice although honestly I don't think I can really see much difference in game graphics over the past ten years. Maybe I need to get a 2024 game and see if it blows me away.
Anyway, I had to knock it down to easy mode to get anywhere with it (maybe the game is tough, maybe I'm rubbish, or maybe it's because I'm not at a proper set-up with a desk and stuff, I'm just on the sofa with my kb/m and a tray, but I didn't feel like I was able to do all the strafing and swivelling and what have you as gracefully as I should be), but now it's really fun. I'm enjoying ripping through demons but still getting freaked out when they decide to charge at me. The enemy AI and physics and stuff all come together really nicely. The mood's great as well, everything's designed to feel really oppressive and heavy metal.

Have got back into DooM 2016 (with a proper desk set up now but still on easy mode!) and am now about halfway through. While I'm enjoying it, I am feeling a little worn on it already. I'm not sure if it's because I put it down to Easy, but there doesn't feel like much balancing in this game - none of the enemies or weapons feel that different from each other, I'm not constantly making tactical decisions like I was with classic DooM™. The hellknight is the main one I worry about because it constantly charges and does its jump attack thing, but otherwise it feels a bit more like a Serious Sam game a lot of the time. The enemy AI and navigation continues to be very impressive, though. But I'm climbing this tower to chase down cyborg Tilda Swinton, and it's just big fight in a circle then lots of platforming then big fight in a circle...
Also, I want some pinkies and flying tomatoes and stuff! I'm starting to get cooler enemies now but it's still mostly zombie variants, and all humanoids.

Okay, Doom almost immediately picked back up again by sending me to Hell and introducing a bunch of new enemies. I've now got Cacos, Lost Souls and Barons, plus I've got the gauss gun! The atmosphere is great here as well, especially the sound design.

I'm just about to get the BFG, and I'd ideally like to meet a cyberdemon and robospider, but I'll have to see if I get bored of it before they show up! The arena fights are definitely more blood-pumping now all the bigger, more diverse enemies are in. They probably should have cut an hour or two out of the first half of the game.
It's also weird how the beginning of the game is all 'look at us, we hate boring story, the Doomslayer is just going to smash up any vidscreens trying to do exposition and give him missions' and then there's loads of boring story throughout the whole thing.

Well, I got to the cyberdemon, and fuck that noise. An incredibly irritating, long and boring boss battle in a small round arena with a bunch of shitty wave attacks, and they start you off in a really annoying position as well. Plus, it kept crashing every fifteen or so attempts. Fuck that. I was still enjoying the game but it also didn't really feel like it was giving me much variety, so I'm not too disappointed to give up at this point - I think I got everything out of it I was going to, although it's a shame I didn't get to see more of Hell.
Generally, though, very cool game, especially once it steps up at the halfway point, with lots of atmosphere and great enemy AI.