Can't see Parasite, Toyman, Bizarro or most of the others carrying a film.

How is it that the Enterprise hangs out on the edge of Klingon space for ages and ages, and no Klingon ships ever turn up to investigate? If Kirk was caught between Kingon ships on one side and Marcus on the other, and had to think his way out a tight spot, perhaps by bluffing the Klingons somehow, that would have been an actual climax to the story that the first half sets up.

We're familiar with the phenomenon where a show is in the final moments of its season finale, and all of a sudden there's a wacky twist that the writers thought would make people freak out over the summer. Often, viewers are left wondering more "What were they thinking?" than "What's next?" As in the case of Vampire Diaries.

Until the final moments, last night's season finale was a terrific episode. It was mainly concerned with settling the various love triangles and romantic quandaries on the show — but it did so with a lot of grace and cleverness.

And this episode brought in the theme that your first love doesn't have to be your great love, and you can have more than one great love in your life. Which is a good thing to keep in mind, for sure. Also, we got a slightly new spin on the idea that these people, who for the most part have done terrible unforgivable things, are still deserving of love as long as they try to be better.

So, Elena chose Damon, after Damon refused to take the cure for vampirism to save his own life, partly because he'd rather die than be human and partly because he wanted Elena to have it. Matt finally agreed to be Rebekah's kept man, in a series of scenes that really did make me a bit of a Mebekah shipper. Klaus tells Caroline that Tyler can come home — but adds that he will win Caroline over eventually, in a lovely moment. And Bonnie and Jeremy are finally revealed to be each other's great loves, even as Bonnie gives her life to restore Jeremy's.

And the cure for vampirism turns out to have some nice payoff — Elena refuses it, once and for all, because she doesn't want to go back. Damon would rather die than take it, because he doesn't see any point in having a few miserable years as a human, getting older, while Elena is "still you." Elena tries to convince Stefan to take it, because he's really bad at being a vampire — which is actually a really good summation of poor Stefan's character. And at last, it's given to the last person you'd expect: Katherine Pierce, who's in the middle of trying to kill Elena.

All of this is pretty good stuff, and the actual plot about resurrected vampire hunters terrorizing the town to get at Silas, while Kol seeks revenge and/or permanent resurrection is entertaining and action-packed. Lots of great badass scenes, including Alaric smacking down Connor and Rebekah kissing Matt while tricking him into trading places on top of a pressure-sensitive bomb. All in all, a tremendous episode that serves as a reminder of why we love this show.

And then, the final twist. I still can't even quite grasp it — so, Silas is Stefan's doppelganger, because nature needs balance and having two guys who look alike is nature's way of ensuring that? What? It seemed unbearably random, especially given all the other fakeouts about Silas' appearance. This probably isn't just another fakeout, since it's the big season-ending twist — but with a guy who can look like anyone, does it actually matter what he looks like in reality? Oh, and also Silas created the spell of immortality himself.

This is an example of why TV shows just shouldn't try to do season-ending twists. The reason for these sorts of things usually seems to be that everything is wrapped up too neatly otherwise, and so you need to throw in a final WTF to keep people interested. But you know what? Either have all the events of the episode build to a cliffhanger, or just have a neat ending and trust the audience to come back. A twist that comes out of nowhere and seems kind of nonsensical is just a waste. Seriously.

The "Big Dumb Object," as christened by Roz Kaveney, has been a staple of science fiction for decades. But what's your favorite massive freakin space object? Share your most beloved Dyson Sphere, ringworld or mega-space station below!

And always, please share some pictures so we can ogle the lovely massiveness...

I think it's just not a good idea. And honestly I don't think it's the end of the world if the show overtakes GRRM's books. They can carry on the storylines based on GRRM's detailed outlines and probably it'll be better that way. We're already reaching the point where GRRM's writing gets so slow and convoluted that it's impossible to translate to television. The show is going to have to take major shortcuts and combine characters/storylines somewhat, and that might be easier if they're working from an outline rather than a book for Winds of Winter or Dream of Spring.

The official Andre Norton website, staffed by volunteers, has been around since 2004 — but it's just gotten a major facelift. The new version is way easier to navigate and more searchable. And packed with videos of interviews as well as her appearances on convention panels. Definitely worth checking out!

We love watching cities being crushed, blown up and swept away — it happens in a lot of this summer's biggest movies. There's just something so viscerally thriling about structures coming down in flames. Here's some of our favorite concept art of cites getting totally smashed.

Top image: Crysis 2 artwork by Dennis Chan

Washington DC destroyed in Devil's Third concept art

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC: Worlds Collide Concept Art

Fallout Online concept art

Crysis 2 artwork by Dennis Chan

Crysis 2 artwork by Dennis Chan

Robot destruction by Ross Dearsley

Concept art by Eiki Iwamura

Artist unknown

Guild Wars 2 concept art

Matrix Revolutions concept art by George Hull

Concept art from Frontlines: Fuel of War

Art for the Project 8 mod for Half-Life.

Godzilla art by CheungChungTat on Deviant Art, tons more at the link.

Godzilla art by CheungChungTat on Deviant Art, tons more at the link.

Godzilla art by CheungChungTat on Deviant Art, tons more at the link.

Godzilla art by CheungChungTat on Deviant Art, tons more at the link.

Godzilla art by CheungChungTat on Deviant Art, tons more at the link.

Burning City, artist unknown, but it's on every wallpaper site ever.

Post-Apocalyptic Disney Land by Alex Ruiz, via CoolVibe

Big Fire in Neo-Egypt by Emrah Elmasli, via CoolVibe

Tomb Raider concept art, via Digital Spy

Post-Apocalyptic Battle by Alberto Fernández, via CoolVibe

Transformers: Dark of the Moon video game concept art

Transformers: Dark of the Moon concept art by Ryan Church

Transformers: Dark of the Moon concept art by Ryan Church

Transformers: Dark of the Moon concept art by Ryan Church

After the Final Battle by Pound, via ConceptArt World EOW.

By Dan Ghiordanescu

Batman: Arkham Origins art

Destroyed Land by Al Palatiner

Concept art by Adam Kuczek

Concept art for The Darkest Hour

Concept art by Tim Flattery

You can read our early review of Europa Report here, but suffice to say that this is a film that handles space travel in a serious fashion, without sacrificing tension and drama. Europa Report is available on iTunes on June 27, and hits theaters on August 2nd. Download the trailer in full HD over at Apple Trailers.