[8.0/10] I really dig the vibe this one is going for. I’ll admit, I’m not as reverent of Bowie as most people are, so the song carries a little less weight, but I’m still a sucker of the slowed down, mournful version of a more cheery pop tune.
I also like the setup here. You have these two girls who are both dealing with their parents being away, which puts them both in a bad headspace and more likely to lash out at something, whether it deserves to be the object of their frustration or not. Their escalating feud is dramatized nicely, with each bit of revenge going one step beyond the lost until they’re brawling in the hallways.
And then, the tragedy strikes and suddenly it all seems so petty. The short does a great job of capturing the mood of what it felt like to be a high school student when 9/11 happened, how the mundane drama of your life suddenly gave way to this national shock to the system. The way that it spurs these two young women, practically at one another’s throats moments ago, to reach to one another for solace, is superb.
Sure, it’s interesting to consider exactly how this is going to be a prelude to Star Trek: Picard but more than that, I like it as a short exploration for how the world’s horrors can put things in perspective for us, and unite us in an hour of sadness and need.
A simple story that uses visual storytelling extremely well. Combined with the soundtrack, I found this had strong emotional impact. Great casting and acting from the two girls. It's made me very excited for Picard and intrigued about what happened on Mars! (Something about a synth attack?)
This. This hit harder than I imagined.
This was a teaser for the Picard series, right?
This story fits with the narrative of the prequel novel written for the ST:PIC series, The Last Best Hope, which I heartily recommend. That provides a great deal of background to the retirement of Jean-Luc as well as his subsequent fraught and fractious relations with Starfleet. That having been said, Children of Mars is well-produced and can stand on its own.
Review by Paladin5150BlockedParent2020-01-10T16:29:57Z— updated 2020-01-11T20:37:55Z
The first order of business is to correct the Episode description, which SHOULD read, "12 year-old classmates Kima and Lil find themselves at odds with each other on a day that will change their lives forever.". (You had ONE JOB Lilith!!! LOL)
That correction having been made, I must say that, even WITHOUT performing the double duty of giving us a teaser of the back story for the upcoming eponymous series debuting on 01/23/2020, which, those who have been hotly anticipating it instantly recognized, especially with the (spelling it out for you) last shot of the "emergency broadcast" display they were staring at....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=FySrgrKJguE&feature=emb_logo
....this, IMO, was one of the better, if not the BEST "Short Trek" episodes this series.
Thought provoking, especially with (as LHG noted) its eschewing of verbosity in favor of letting the viewer glean the story simply from the visuals. Doubly, given recent events between differing cultures IRL here on our own little rock, I was struck by the prescience of this trek in dramatizing how one individual, acting out against another, can result in a "tit for tat" retaliation until someone steps in, or something traumatic occurs, hopefully, to make both realize the error of the path they have chosen. May we only be so fortunate in our own age.
Maybe, just maybe, instead of SPREADING and INFECTING others with with what is actually our own discontent, anger and hate, we can take a step back and decide that if we too "can be heroes, just for one day", then, possibly, that cycle can be broken in OUR time, and not just in a Utopian vision of the future