#Tuvok: -Harry's holding a gun to his head- I just want everyone to know that I'm turning around because /I/ want to.

[bumblingbabooshka]

I genuinely love how terrible Tuvok is as a leader. The two times he's in charge the people under his command try to mutiny against him. Chakotay has to threaten to beat people up for the Maquis to go back to his lessons and the only reason Harry Kim didn't start a mutiny is because Kes got him to change his mind about going back to get the captain. He was literally like one second away from being forced to walk the metaphorical plank.

They just wanna talk Tuvok :) Neelix literally said it best in 'Learning Curve'

The theme of him being too rigid to lead a wide variety of people is so interesting. I assume that as a security head it's easier because you're supposed to be able to unemotionally carry out tasks...there's a certain personality I'm sure that gravitates towards that line of work and perhaps that personality is the kind that Tuvok works well with but I find his claim that he's 'never had an issue' with teaching others before in Learning Curve to be him being oblivious to those issues. In 'Repression' the Maquis crew are all talking about how they can't trust Tuvok because he's a traitor and there's no real push back against this. No one brings up anything Tuvok's done to make up for this betrayal or soothe these clearly festering bad feelings because he hasn't. He's done literally nothing. This is season 7. He's spent SEVEN YEARS just letting that whole 'I betrayed half this crew' thing mellow because I doubt he even thought to do anything about it. I love this man - he's gonna get stabbed!!!

Chakotay & Neelix forced to do PR for Tuvok as he just obliviously marches forth, unaware that anyone might dislike him or why he should care if they do.

#Tuvok: -Harry's holding a gun to his head- I just want everyone to know that I'm turning around because /I/ want to. #I genuinely do like this <3 It's an interesting character flaw and aspect of his personality #Especially when you contrast it with say B'Elanna as head engineer. She probably has to work with a wide variety of people #personalities and ideas and judge what's best - what to do - it's a more 'creative' job and the fact she does it so well shows that #despite what she thinks she IS good with people! At least in a familiar work setting! She has it in her! #It makes the fact she was practically forced out of Starfleet even sadder...if she'd just been encouraged more !!! AGH!! #anyway Tuvok should not be a captain in Picard and I hate that he is #it's not his personality it's not in his character it was never a stated goal of his it's stupid #not every character needs to be a captain or an admiral to show they've 'made it' #Tuvok needs to be contained to Security he needs to be in there HEHEH #oh another terrible leadership thing is his whole episode with B'Elanna #Tuvok is only good at nurturing people who want to become 'Model Vulcan' or 'Model Starfleet Officer' and only in one particular way #Tuvok #st voyager #Tuvok: I've always taught people this exact way and I've never had any problems with it #Me: X #literally the only thing Chakotay or B'Elanna can say when the Maquis crew say they don't trust Tuvok is like 'hey...c'mon man....' #Janeway isn't doing PR for Tuvok bc she doesn't think he needs it

[chronotrek]

750. [VOY] Friendship One

SCORE:

(3/5 stars)

With the real-time link between Voyager and Earth properly established, the ship receives its first official assignment from Starfleet in the Delta Quadrant. Friendship One, a warp-capable probe sent out from Earth in 2067 to seek out other species and give them the means to go to the stars and find humanity, has been calculated to have ended up pretty close to Voyager. Their mission is to retrieve it as a piece of Earth history and see if it ever wound up in another species' hands.

After Harry performs some updates to Starfleet's search grid based on anomalies they wouldn't know to account for, they're able to quickly locate the probe's hull signature and head to the planet. They find an irradiated wasteland with no lifesigns, and an away mission with the Delta Flyer is to go down and retrieve it. The away team consists of Kim, Paris, Neelix, Chakotay, and Lieutenant Joe "You Haven't Seen Me Since Season 1 So I'm Probably Here To Die" Carey. (B'Elanna wanted to go on the mission but Tom talked her out of breathing in a toxic atmosphere while preggo.) They find evidence of a ruined civilization on the surface but still no life signs, an apparent nuclear winter befalling the planet. They also find evidence that Friendship One influenced the culture, because they find a music box that plays Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

The man who attacked Chakotay and Harry wakes up in sickbay and is a scientist named Otrin who explains that Friendship One gave them knowledge of antimatter technology, which they were woefully under-equipped to properly manage and caused massive destruction across the planet. He believes it was a tactic by Earth to wipe out their population and leave the planet for humans to conquer. Janeway hopes to change his mind about them, and the Doctor begins treating his radiation poisoning. Seven extracts some nanoprobes from her bloodstream to help repair damage to his internal organs. In a conversation, she points out that Verin is a close-minded leader and is not acting in their best interests, and while Otrin doesn't consider himself a leader, she thinks scientists should be the leaders.

The nearest habitable world is over a hundred light years away and they calculate it would take 3 years to evacuate everyone, so Janeway wants to consider other options, but she lists using violence to get her crew back as an absolute last resort, as she doesn't want to reinforce their views about humans. Since they're not going to be able to start the evacuation in the 3-hour window Verin gave them, she offers a show of good faith by offering to send food and medicine in exchange for one hostage. Verin agrees and has Carey set up the transport enhancers, only to shoot him dead right as he's being beamed away. Nice one, writers. He made it seven years only to go out like that.

Tom and Neelix have been spending time getting to know their captors and ingratiating themselves to them. They give the music box they found to a little girl. A pregnant woman begins early labor and the baby is born not breathing, and Tom is able to save the child using medical supplies he brought along. Tuvok and the Doctor show up to rescue Tom and Neelix, phaser-stunning all the armed guards, and Tom convinces the new mother to let him take the baby for further treatment. The Doctor is able to bring the baby to full health and they beam the child back along with more food and medical supplies.

Otrin comes up with a potential way to rid the atmosphere of radiation, and they're able to come up with a delivery system using modified photon torpedoes fired from inside the atmosphere. It will put Voyager at risk from the shockwaves but Janeway is willing to do it to help undo the damage her ancestors unwittingly caused. They begin the procedure while Otrin returns to his people. When the shockwaves begin, Verin believes they are being attacked and begins to activate antimatter missiles from a silo, which Voyager will be unable to defend against while performing the procedure. But thanks to Otrin and the others who saw the compassion of the humans, they are able to stop Verin and enact some new leadership. Just then, the little girl with the music box tells them all to go outside, where they can see the atmosphere clearing up.

Voyager has retrieved the pieces of Friendship One and resumed course for home, one crewmember short. Janeway and Chakotay muse over the naiveté of their ancestors, and how exploration cannot justify the loss of life.

NITPICKS

The Friendship One has the Starfleet chevron as a decal but it launched in the 21st century, at least a century before that became the insignia of Starfleet.

There's no such thing as "antimatter radiation." Annihilation of matter and antimatter puts off gamma radiation. If they had antimatter of a radioactive element (antitritium would be the most likely) it would still put off the same kinds of radiation as the regular matter counterpart.

FAVORITE QUOTES

Neelix: I had a cousin who used to transport disulfides from a gas giant. He claimed to love the turbulence. Of course, disulfides are known to cause delusions.

Carey: When my wife was pregnant, she didn't want to be coddled, either. Paris: And she's not half Klingon. Maybe it's us. Something about fatherhood seems to regress the male psyche a few thousand years.

Janeway: Do you really believe we'd contaminate a world we intended to conquer? Otrin: I'm a scientist. I believe what I see. And today I saw your people standing on our soil just as you promised, and they were wearing equipment that protected them from the radiation because they knew exactly what to expect. If you were in my position, what would you believe?

#star trek #voyager #voy #chronotrek #chronological #review #friendship one