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nebulouscoffee · 7 months

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for the ask game star trek voyager!!

Thank you sm friend! I already answered a couple of these, but the great thing about being very indecisive is I can give different answers each time <3

Favourite character: B'Elanna Torres, although Kathryn Janeway is a close second (I do have a Janeway-themed url, after all😌)

Second favourite character: okay, I'll talk about Janeway here! Gosh what a deeply flawed individual. She's awesome, and yes, incredibly charismatic and badass, but she's also haunted, complex, and scarily capable of hurting those closest to her (which she does. Like, a lot.) She ends up in charge of a seemingly endless mission, and she cannot afford to crack- not in front of her crew, and not even really in secret- so she begins this seven-year process of what basically amounts to dehumanising herself. Her arc is almost like a long-form merging with Voyager the ship- she is Voyager, and Voyager is her! She will protect her crew and bring them home. She will ensure they get to survive. (What happens to her? Well, she knows she can and will never be the same, but she can't and doesn't think about that right now). She made a mistake and her crew paid the price and the guilt of this eats at her every day, but she cannot afford to acknowledge it or she'll go insane. She tries so hard to stick to her principles but once she's violated a few she starts thinking of her soul as this already-corrupted thing- she knows she can live with it, so why not do something else that's a bit messed up! Better me than any of my crew, right! Like- no wonder she couldn't move on with her life once Voyager reached the Alpha Quadrant in the Endgame timeline. No wonder she had to travel back in time to die in the past. She is so changed by the events of this show that the past the only place she can truly belong. Ugh!!!! I have so many feelings about her!!

Least favourite character: I dislike voyager!Q so much I actually skip all his episodes on rewatch lmao. And I'm someone who actually quite enjoys him on TNG! He's this all-powerful all-knowing omnipotent being who could literally be off anywhere any time doing anything he wanted, and yet he chooses to keep coming back to this one starship just to flirt with the most boring man alive. He literally got kicked out of the Q Continuum for having too much of a hyperfixation on his blorbo. That's funny! And compelling! Unfortunately the Voyager writers did not understand what made this work and decided his only trait was *irritates everybody* (including the audience lol). What he and Picard had was a funny back and forth, a snarky Quodo-style "these horrible old men deserve each other" rivalry. What he and Janeway have is sexual harassment played for laughs 🙃

The character I'm most like: Kes - I went into more detail here :)

Favourite pairing: B7 if we're talking non-canon ships! From canon, uhhhh I guess whatever was going on between Janeway and Chakotay in 'Resolutions' & Tom/B'Elanna before they got together

Least favourite pairing: I don't know if I have one? C7 is the popular answer but I literally straight up forget it exists because it's such a small part of the show, like it doesn't even show up for reals until the finale. I'm not a fan of the way they wrote Tom/B'Elanna for basically all of S5 and S6, and the damage control they did in S7 wasn't bad imo but also felt too little too late. I also dislike Kes/Neelix, though I do think it had potential to be a really interesting breakup arc lol

Favourite moment: That scene from 'Year of Hell' where Janeway has given the order to abandon ship and everyone else is so reluctant to desert the bridge and it looks soooo banged up but she still won't abandon it.... and then Tuvok gives her that hug goodbye..... and she glances at that little gift Chakotay made for her which she didn't have the heart to recycle..... and she talks about what Voyager means to her, and why she has to go down with the ship...... my heart😭

Rating out of 10: Objectively an 8/10, I think the early seasons are GREAT and around midway through they do sort of run out of ideas thanks to their commitment to being as episodic as possible and sidelining more than half the main cast as well as refusing to let the guest cast build up or develop. The show genuinely suffers for it imo! There's a lot of wasted potential, as well as biases of the time that prevented it from reaching true heights- I also wholeheartedly think this show ruined the Borg lol, now 75% more human and 200% less intimidating! However it's also got so many positives- I adore all the main characters so much, and the premise itself gives me so many feels that in my heart it's an 11/10🥰

#to be clear when I say voyager ruined the Borg I'm not talking about seven's journey learning to reclaim her life #that stuff is great #I'm talking about the instances where the ship would actually come into conflict with the Borg #I think that should've happened two times on the whole show max. Every appearance decreased their mystique and made them more human imo #it's the same with the q continuum! by the end of voy they're basically just another typical species & they don't even have forehead ridges #the more appearances you give a species that's meant to be non-corporeal/deeply alien the more human (and boring) they will become #this 100% would've happened to the prophets too if that show had gone on longer btw. imo at least #anyway that's a tangent lol #thanks again for the ask! :)#ask game

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transguygardner · 3 months

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Into the GuyLoboVerse: Day 22 (delayed)

Earth 1207: Star Trek AU

SPACE. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship CLUSTER. It's mission: general check ins on developing planets. During one of the shore leave stops, ENSIGN GARDNER managed to attract the attention of LOBO, the LAST VELORPIAN. While the matter was considered settled, the weird energy reading being picked up seems to indicate that LOBO might become a series regular.

Author's Note:

You've gotta have a Star Trek AU of some kind if you like Green Lantern characters. It's the rules. Guy here is 1/8 Tellarite, "a warp-capable pig-like humanoid species from the planet Tellar Prime in the Alpha Quadrant". Disposition wise Tellarites are prone to impatience, have a stubborn pride, and enjoy a good argument. @shadethechangingman (known Star Trek enjoyer) suggested Tellarite for Guy and I thought it was a perfect fit. Guy is wearing the Star Trek: Lower Decks uniform, placing this AU in 2380 at the earliest.

With Lobo, I'm going with the Omega Men lore and look because it is so Star Trek. I will say putting this together made me finally notice that they change the purple and orange bits around every single panel.

I don't have much meat for this AU yet since I'm only on season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But I'm thinking that the JLI characters would make up the non bridge crew and the Omega Men would be the bridge crew. I reserve my right to change that though.

#into the guyloboverse #guy gardner #lobo #guylobo #my art #earth 1207

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ichayalovesyou · 2 years

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A Pike x reader request: Captain Pike catches an ensign (the reader) red handed in the middle of their Enterprise Bingo - author's choice how Pike reacts!

Now THAT sounds fun! Let’s a go 😎

Yellow Jacket Blues (Platonic Pike x Reader)

Rating: PG-13 (language)

Word Count: 877

Content: SFW, platonic, shenanigans, GN!Reader, Sciences!Reader, Ensign!Reader, Dad Mode!Pike (derogatory), Bingo Trauma

Teaser: The most dreaded, difficult, and dangerous of all the Enterprise Bingo tasks was upon you, but you HAD to do it. Welcome to the greatest Bingo challenge of all, “sit in the Captain’s Chair” good luck!

This was the most dangerous thing you had ever done. The most dangerous thing you would ever do in the history of your Starfleet career even.

More dangerous than an unsanctioned space walk.

More dangerous than a stun duel.

This, was the Captain’s Chair.

Every single Ensign in your department warned you about it. Some had chickened out and not completed the bingo chart, or given up on completing it afterward. Those who had gotten caught had a haunted look in their eyes when they spoke.

You do NOT want to be caught in Captain Christopher Pike’s chair on the bridge. They say part of you will never ever leave. That no matter when you decided to try it, he would be there. He would catch you.

It was strange, the Captain seemed amicable enough, certainly not egotistical. He raised his voice less than most of your superior officers, which you supposed was almost everyone. But the point still stood.

What made sitting in Pike’s chair such an ordeal?

What did he do that had scarred so many an Ensign over the years?

If you were careful, maybe you would never find out.

You had a plan

1. Make sure it was a very slow voyage so that the Bridge has the lightest compliment possible.

2. Triple check the duty roster

3. Make sure the Captain going to be elsewhere (without being weird DO NOT BE WEIRD ABOUT IT)

4. Check the roster again just to be sure

5. Sneak in during the Alpha-Delta shift change shuffle. Specifically when Senior Staff gets swapped over.

6. Swallow your fear, and possibly your dignity.

7. Cop a squat for the minimum five seconds required for the Bingo to be valid.

8. Get out before everyone even finishes taking their seats

9. Swipe the footage, upload it to your Bingo data pad, which will be completely wiped of all evidence upon list completion as is tradition.

10. Mission success!

The execution would have been absolutely flawless, had the Captain not left a stray data pad on the bridge halfway through step three.

“Number One I almost forgot to mention-oh” the Captain caught sight of you immediately, your ass hovering just above the cushion of The Chair, he crossed his arms and started to laugh.

“Ortegas, how much time do we got before we arrive at Starbase 6?”

“Hours, sir.” She replied with a mischievous grin that you could only describe as ‘oh kid, you are a bout to Get It.’

“Congratulations Ensign Y/N, you just signed up for the Command Track!”

Oh gods, oh no, oh gods no.

No no no no no no.

You were in sciences and ONLY for the science didn’t he see the blue? S-C-I-E-N-C-E-S not Command! Nope! N O P E!

You thought you’d made it abundantly clear you weren’t ambitious. You just wanted to get your damn work done and zip around though space oh no oh no oH nO.

It was time to leave, as in right now, you were leaving now.

“Oh by all means Ensign stay in your seat, or really, my seat but we’ll get into that later. Bridge crew’s heard all this before, and believe me, they’ll be paying attention to see if you are paying attention.” the Captain smirked, leaning on the banister.

So one of the worst moments of your life began.

If he hadn’t been quizzing you every fifteen minutes or so on what he’d just said, you could have just zoned out.

But he could not even spare you that suffering.

Two hours of describing how to climb and navigate Starfleet’s command ranks in excruciating detail, confusing food metaphors, and side anecdotes about horses later. The Captain finally picks up the data pad he left behind.

If your brain wasn’t leaking out of your ears, you might have wondered if the data pad being left behind had been a ruse. That you had somehow been found out and deliberately doomed to this failure as some cruel trick of this accursed and unforgiving universe.

“So, in conclusion Ensign Y/N, don’t sit in the Captain’s chair unless you mean it, especially when it’s mine.”

“Permission to leave sir?” you replied, numbly.

He feigned the act of thinking about it, or at least you hoped he was.

“… Eh, sure. Why not?”

“Thank you sir.” You stood up, and meandered toward the turbolift.

“Hope the bingo was worth it.” someone said quickly under their breath.

That could NOT have been the Captain. Right? Right?!

… Could it?

“Sir?” you turned around, cautious that any questions might trigger another long winded dissertation.

“What? Go. I’m sure your superior officer is gonna have a problem with you if you stick around much longer.”

As you entered the lift, you heard the beginnings of chatter between the command duo.

“I don’t think you’re doing much to bolster command track applicants with that speech Chris.” Una remarked amusedly.

“Hey, the good ones always come back looking for more. It’s determination. You don’t want Captains who aren’t willing to listen.”

Well, you could tell him one thing you-

…

You… didn’t really actually know if you would be coming back or not.

Were you?

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sshbpodcast · 1 year

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Put a cork in it: Bottle episodes in Star Trek

By Ames

“Good Lord, didn't anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys?” Well, Star Trek sure did, and quite frequently! According to Memory Alpha, bottle shows are “episodes which take place mostly on existing sets and do not generally involve major guest stars.” Basically, any time we never leave the ship so that the show can save money for more expensive future episodes that have bigger sets, more special effects, or most frequently, the Borg.

But even in that definition, there’s still a lot of vaguery. “Mostly” on existing sets. Do not “generally” involve major guest stars. Many listicles of the best bottle episodes across the internet include instances that don’t fit all the components, but fulfill at least some of them. Look at it like a four-set Venn Diagram (which I learned is best arranged like this):

So let’s climb inside the bottle. What episodes perfectly satisfy all the elements and sit in that much sought-after place in the center of the Venn Diagram? Read on below for A Star to Steer Her By’s favorites and listen to our almost certainly contradictory discussion on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:04:49) to find out if we’re suckups who’ve built ships in bottles like O’Brien, or if we don’t play with toys like Worf.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Bottle Episodes with a Central Guest Star

Probably the most common kind of bottle episode is one with a simple plot, a physical confinement to the ship or station, and a non-crew character around whom the plot revolves in a pivotal way. The guest characters come to us and bring with them some kind of conflict for our main characters to handle. You know, your Richard Daystrom in “The Doomsday Machine,” Charlie Evans in “Charlie X,” Lal in “The Offspring,” Commander MacDuff in “Conundrum,” or Lon Suder in “Meld” (someone avenge that beautiful psychopath!). This list could go on and on because there are so many pretty contained episodes in which the guest of the week propels the plot forward. I’m compelled to include “The Changeling” here as well since I would treat Nomad as a full character even if he wasn’t a physical actor.

Our favorite example of this kind of bottle episode is easily “Duet” from season one of Deep Space Nine. Since so much of that entire series is set on the station, one would assume that most episodes of DS9 qualify as bottle episodes, but there’s frequently some specific budget expense that makes them more expensive than they were meant to be or some other guest stars hogging the spotlight. In this case, casting the extraordinary Harris Yullin as Marritza was well worth it, as this episode shines despite its self-imposed limitations.

—

Bottle Episodes that “Leave the Ship”

I call it impressive if the characters can leave the ship and the episode still be considered in the running as a bottle episode due to some kind of shenanigans. For instance, I’d qualify something like “Mirror, Mirror” in this category – technically, it’s not on our Enterprise and yet still reusing the same sets. Similarly, “The Mark of Gideon,” “Where Silence Has Lease,” “Empok Nor,” and “Distant Voices” (wait, I said our “favorite” episodes, didn’t I?) all accomplish this by having the characters visit redresses of their respective sets for various reasons. What a great way to save a couple bucks!

In the The Original Series episode “The Doomsday Machine,” for instance, the starship Constellation is another Constitution class ship. Just turn the lights off in any of the usual sets and move some props around and blamo: instant new bridge! It’s like a whole new starship up in here! Thank Commodore Decker for this quick money-saving tip!

—

Bottle Episodes with Other Sets

Sometimes, you can stay on the ship and still need to build a new set, like in TNG’s “Eye of the Beholder” where we see the inside of the nacelles for the first (and last) time and Voyager’s “One” in which we set up the stasis room. Many holodeck episodes might fall into this category as well, since technically we haven’t left the ship, but we see, say, the Bynars’ jazz club in “11001001” or Sandrine’s in “Someone to Watch Over Me,” which we covered this week.

I’d also deign to call episodes with just a brief stop at Planet Hell more bottley than even some episodes that don’t leave the ship at all. Both “The Naked Time” and “The Naked Now” start with a crewman getting infected with space madness outside the ship, but it is that need to quarantine that forces the rest of the episode to focus the story inwards, utilizing every cent wisely thereafter. And episodes like TOS’s “The Corbomite Maneuver” and DS9’s “Whispers” and “The Sound of Her Voice” are off the ship so briefly at the very end that they might as well have been strict bottle episodes.

Possibly the most controversial thing I’ll include in this list is one of A Star to Steer Her By’s favorite cost-cutting episodes: the TOS third-season money saver “The Empath.” Sure, they leave the Enterprise for a whole new set, but it’s the cheapest set you’ll ever see. Nothing but black walls and spotlights for the actors to stand in. Like our previous category about central guest stars, this episode features a Gem (literally!), but I still think it’s worth bringing up because of how it told a decent story on a shoestring budget.

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Bottle Episodes with Significant Effects

Frequently, it seems like an episode is conceived as a bottle episode, but then ends up going over budget anyway because the design scope increased without expectation. You don’t have to leave the ship to spend a lot of money on special effects, costumes, and just blowing things up. Tell that to Janeway in “Deadlock,” which was a clever reuse of the Voyager set… until someone got a hold of the destruct codes. Similarly, if it weren’t for the Bozeman and the Enterprise colliding (and whatever it cost to get Kelsey Grammer on camera for all of sixty seconds), “Cause and Effect” would make it on more bottle episode lists. You can similarly go overboard with costumes and makeup in shipbound episodes like TOS’s “Journey to Babel” and SNW’s “The Elysian Kingdom.”

I’ve seen a whole bunch of listicles that all include the Discovery season one episode “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” as a candidate for a bottle episode. Which is an interesting choice because I don’t think ANY the currently running Trek series are scrimping to keep on a budget because of the sheer number of effects. And “Magic…” is a good example of this while also keeping all of the action to the Discovery. Who knows, maybe with how modern CGI has improved, it’s actually cheaper? Until you have to pay Rainn Wilson, that is.

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The Pure Bottle Episodes

Are episodes that fulfill every element of being a bottle episode better than the preceding? Well, you tell us because we did, in fact, find a number of pure bottle episodes! They can be as refreshing as fresh spring water because they keep very simple and focused. Having just our usual characters (and maybe some extras and repeated guest stars) really allows the writers to dig into character work without relying on spectacle, constant set changes, or a big planetside adventure.

So episodes like TOS’s “The Immunity Syndrome,” TNG’s “Disaster” and “Clues,” DS9’s “Babel,” VOY’s “Worst Case Scenario,” and ENT’s “Shuttlepod One” and “Doctor’s Orders” succeed in telling a simple shipside story focused on their respective existing characters. Little episodes with big payoffs!

Here’s my pick of the whole blogpost: Give it up for Dr. Crusher in The Next Generation’s “Remember Me”! This episode has got it all – or rather, has got so very little – that it might be the ultimate bottle episode. The number of characters diminishes as the episode goes on because the whole world around Bev is constricting, but she’s still hard at work solving the riddle put to her. She’s quite literally in her own pocket universe – how much more bottley can you get than that? Effects are minimal, guest stars are most noteworthy in their absence, and it’s all confined to a couple of sets while still being a story that is impressive and, dare I say, memorable.

—

We’ve finally corked this bottle and put it on display in our ready room! The humble bottle episode displays some of the best qualities of Star Trek: stories in small spaces that encompass huge universes. A Star to Steer Her By is back to exploring more of the Trek universe every Thursday on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with our voyage through Voyager, raise your glasses with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and chug chug chug chug!

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #bottle episodes #bottle shows #ship in a bottle #the original series #the next generation #deep space nine #voyager #enterprise #discovery #strange new worlds #duet #the doomsday machine #the empath #magic to make the sanest man go mad #remember me

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phantom-le6 · 5 months

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: Voyager Season 7 (5 of 7)

Episode 17: Workforce (Part 2)

Plot (as given by me):

Following the events of Part 1, Chakotay is able to overcome the Quarran security officers pursuing him, but takes an injury to his shoulder from an energy weapon in the process, while in space, Voyager is able to evade pursuit by Quarran patrol ships. Chakotay returns to the bar he and Neelix visited earlier and learns Kathryn is moving in with her co-worker Jaffen. As an investigation begins into B’Elanna’s abduction from the planet, Chakotay is soon missing as well.

The Doctor, still in Command Hologram mode, hides Voyager on a moon that is able to mask the ship’s energy signature. A discussion with Neelix reveals the extent of the manipulation performed on their abducted ship-mates; while select memories have been left intact, others have been altered or bypassed. Working together, the Doctor and Neelix begin working to help B’Elanna remember her real life. Back on Quarra, Annika Hansen begins looking into things following her real memories beginning to resurface as a result of Tuvok’s attempted mind-meld. At the same time, Kathryn begins moving her belongs to Jaffen’s apartment, only to find the injured Chakotay now using her former apartment as a hideout.

Chakotay initially succeeds in gaining Kathryn’s assistance, but when he’s contacted by Ensign Kim and the Doctor, his revelation that she’s their missing captain jeopardises things, even when he removes his cosmetic alterations to show that he’s also human. When Kathryn confides in Jaffen, it isn’t long before Quarran security arrive and take Chakotay. An attempt to speak with him by a detective named Yerid is foiled when Chakotay is moved to Neuro-Pathology at the local hospital without anyone scanning him, and Yerid is swiftly relieved of duty. However, Yerid soon teams up with Annika, as well as Tom Paris, Kathryn and Jaffen in further investigations, and at the same time, a young doctor at the hospital also become suspicious.

It isn’t long before the truth becomes apparent; the head of Neuro-Pathology and a few key officials are conspiring to resolve the Quarran labour shortage by abducting and brainwashing the crews of passing ships, including the crew of Voyager. Chakotay planned to disable the planet’s shields so Voyager could beam their crew away, and the plan is now taken up by the others. While Kathryn and Jaffen infiltrate the power station to contact Voyager, Annika and Yerid infiltrate the hospital. While Chakotay and Tuvok are promptly rescued, Chakotay has been manipulated into luring Voyager into an ambush by the Quarran patrol ships.

While Voyager battles the Quarran ships, they convince Kathryn to execute Chakotay’s plan to take down the shields, which ultimately succeeds. As the crew of Voyager begin to regain their memories, the Doctor and Ensign Kim wrap up things from a diplomatic stand-point. With the conspiracy now uncovered, others who were victims are being treated and repatriated to their proper home worlds. Kathryn, now restored to being Captain Janeway, is forced to leave Jaffen behind. When she returns to the bridge, she thanks Chakotay for coming to rescue her, and despite her feelings for Jaffen, she claims that she doesn’t regret being reminded who she really is. Voyager then resumes its course for the Alpha Quadrant.

Review:

Part 2 of ‘Workforce’ is the second of two episodes directed in this series by Roxann Dawson, which is probably down to her character being featured less in the second part of the story. On Trek wiki site Memory Alpha, Dawson notes that producer Rick Berman gave her this chance by coming up and saying to her “So, I’m giving you another chance to fail”. Apparently, Dawson herself took it as Berman saying she’d done well on her first directorial effort but could potentially find the next one more problematic. Without knowing how Berman said this, I’m not sure if that’s a good interpretation. To me, the words seem to imply Dawson did poorly on her first effort, which was the season six episode ‘Riddles’. Considering how good that episode was, and that Dawson went on to direct 10 episodes of prequel Trek series Enterprise, I’m thinking that she did very well with directing, and if Berman meant what he said in the way I’m thinking, then he’d be an idiot to think along those lines. Dawson does a great job concluding this second part to the overall story, and if the episode is failed, it’s possibly in its writing.

Why do I consider that the episode might involve a writing error? Well, because it took me until the end of this part to get the underlying issue exploration at hand. The whole thing is basically about human trafficking, but via the metaphor of Trek, having Janeway and her crew essentially being trafficked to this alien world to work. The problem is the episode doesn’t make this very apparent because it doesn’t focus on the issue within the story, and that’s down to how it was written. There’s no debate, no seeing all sides of the issue; the mystery of what’s happened to the crew, figuring out how to restore their memories and the inevitable action sequences Voyager goes for by remit all take up too much time for that. As a result, the issue exploration is left, well, unexplored, which is sad when you consider Starfleet and thus Trek is very much in the business of exploring.

Granted, we get the usual excellent acting, some decent character beats and so on, but I really think the episode needed to delve into the substance it had to hand more and focus less on hollow style. For me, this episode earns the same as part 1, 7 out of 10.

Episode 18: Human Error

Plot (as given by me):

Seven of Nine begins a holodeck program in which she has finally shed the last of her Borg implants, becoming more sociable with the crew, being given a Starfleet uniform and allocated crew quarters. She also develops a relationship with a holographic double of Chakotay that quickly turns romantic. However, the program begins to take up time Seven should spend on her duties, even in terms of her interactions with others off the holodeck, such as giving B’Elanna a belated baby shower gift and becoming irritable with the Doctor when he is unable to remove an implant that requires maintenance.

When Voyager is knocked out of warp by a nearby explosion, the crew investigates and learn that they’re travelling through a region that is being used to test weapons that travel via sub-space. Seven is given the duty of trying to detect the test munitions so Voyager can evade them, but the holodeck program interferes with her duties, to the point where she fails to complete her assigned work and is away from her post when another munition strike occurs. When Captain Janeway confronts Seven on the matter, she claims the holodeck program is something else and leaves to perform her duties.

After a brief discussion with Icheb, Seven returns to the holodeck to end things with the holographic Chakotay, but he doesn’t give in, and suddenly Seven collapses. Fortunately, she is able to contact the Doctor before she collapses, and he transmits himself to the holodeck. Initially confused by Seven’s outer implants being absent, the Doctor soon realises this is part of Seven’s program and shuts it down. When Seven awakens in sickbay, the Doctor presses her for further information, as it seems Seven’s cortical node shut down and he needs to understand what happened. Following Seven’s time in Unimatrix Zero, she began to feel incomplete and wanted to experiment with the aspects of her humanity she found there. Seven intends to delete the holodeck program to avoid compromising her work, but the Doctor suggests that the solution lies in Seven finding a proper work-life balance instead.

Seven finally aids Voyager in getting clear of the alien munitions range without further damage. However, the Doctor has bad news; apparently, the Borg design the cortical nodes of their drones with a failsafe mechanism, designed to shut down a drone’s higher brain functions if the individual experiences a certain level of emotional stimulation. The idea seems to be that the Borg would want to inhibit emotional awareness to suppress any desire to leave the collective. The Doctor believes he can remove the mechanism, but it would take multiple surgeries and involve extensive recovery time. Seven is unwilling to consider this, and curtly dismisses the Doctor as she enters a regeneration cycle.

Review:

Whoever at Wired that recommended skipping this episode in a Voyager binge-watch back in 2015 clearly didn’t know what they were talking about. This episode is another bit of quality Trek, and as we’ll see in the series finale, it’s actually of some importance from a continuity standpoint. In this case, we’re getting to see more development in Seven’s character, and in the process, we’re getting some decent issue exploration into the bargain. The character development is fairly obvious throughout; Seven clearly wants to be more human at this point, and as things progress, we learn this is a consequence of her rediscovery of Unimatrix Zero in the shift from season 6 to season 7. In the process, we also see Seven get frustrated and even overwhelmed by these discoveries, and in turn retreat from them.

How does this story explore any issues? Well apparently, the episode was written by a writer named André Bormanis who claims this to be his favourite writing contribution (out of 7 Voyager episodes and 12 for Enterprise). According to Bormanis, the episode was intended to be a metaphor for post-traumatic stress disorder, and I can see how that was worked in. Seven’s liberation from the collective was originally likened by those behind her introduction to someone being freed from a cult, and as I understand it, being part of a cult can lead to traumatic situations. It can be viewed that Seven’s emotional stimulation and the way her implants react to that would be equivalent to a PTSD sufferer experiencing flashbacks or other trauma symptoms from sensory stimuli associated with their original trauma.

However, as I’ve often noted before, Seven is one of the Voyager characters I often see as an Autism analogue, and there’s room here to see her reflect that as well. A lot of Autistic people, myself included, have an interest or may at times express interest in the pursuit of romantic relationships. This isn’t easy for us and we can get overwhelmed more than we might by more basic forms of social interaction. We also see Seven play out how she wants to act in the holodeck, which is similar to how I often mentally envision and replay certain scenarios in my own head before they come around. Of course, they then go totally different in real life because fantasy and real-life are seldom ever the same.

The episode also touches on the subject of work-life balance. This is an issue all of us who have jobs struggle with, and as the Doctor rightly points out to Seven, it’s important to find a good balance. Too much work lowers productivity by denying you rest, while too much leisure time has the same effect by wasting time you need to spend working. As an autistic person who now works from home and is frequently surrounded by special interests, I can understand Seven’s temptation to spend more time than she should going to the holodeck.

The Doctor also brings in some less-than-ideal Autistic representation towards the end of the episode, when he presumes Seven will want to begin surgeries to remove the implants inhibiting her full emotional range. I know from my own experience how much more preferable it can be to find a solution and implement it straight away so that the problem is eliminated. However, not everyone thinks the same way, and sometimes the first solution isn’t something everyone is willing to go for. It’s possible they have some issue with the methods involved, or they need time to process the problem, as Seven clearly does. In circumstances like this one, it’s always better to give the other person time, so autistics like myself should probably take the Doctor’s behaviour in this closing scene as an example of how not to behave in similar situations.

For me, this episode doesn’t make too many mis-steps, and those which seem to be made are probably not errors or compensated for by the positives. My only point of concern is that Seven’s holodeck program runs a little close to how Reg Barclay used the holodeck in his first TNG appearance, and then later in the Voyager episode ‘Pathfinder’, yet Seven’s privacy isn’t invaded like Barclay’s was, nor is she really subject to similar reprimands. I’d be curious as to why that might be, considering that in the world of Trek, humanity is supposed to be beyond double standards based on sex. Regardless of this, I find myself once again handing down a top score; 10 out of 10.

Episode 19: Q2

Plot (as given by me):

Captain Janeway is surprised when Q returns with his son, Q Junior, who has now reached an equivalent of adolescence by the standards of the Continuum. Q claims his son has come to Voyager for a vacation from the Continuum, but after Q Junior makes a major nuisance of himself, culminating in a confrontation with the Borg, Q admits the truth to be somewhat different. Apparently, Q Junior has been using his powers in irresponsible ways for fun. The female Q who is his mother has disowned the young man out of shame, leaving Q alone to try and rectify the matter. Q’s idea was that by leaving his son with Janeway and her crew, some of their morality might rub off on him.

Janeway suggests that Q needs to spend time with his son, but this gets no results. When Q feeds back on what happened, Janeway points out that Q is indulging his son’s antics by cleaning up after him; unless he makes Junior face up to his bad choices, the bad behaviour will persist. Finally seeing the sense of this, Q temporarily turns his son into an amoeba, then delivers an ultimatum; if Junior can show some sign of improvement within a week, he will be restored to the Continuum. If not, then he will become an amoeba forever. The conditions of that week are that Junior spend the time on Voyager as a human.

At first, Junior doesn’t take things seriously. When assigned tasks similar to those Icheb is completing for Starfleet Academy, the young Q cheats instead of doing the actual work. However, he begins to turn things around, but his earlier antics leave him on thin ice. When Q returns to check on his progress, he is unimpressed, much to Junior’s sorrow and Janeway’s frustration. Believing he will be sentenced to life as an amoeba no matter what he does, Junior steals the Delta Flyer to run away, dragging Icheb along on the pretence of fixing a mechanical fault. When Icheb is injured during a run-in with an alien vessel, however, Junior is forced to return to Voyager in an attempt to save his friend’s life.

Junior pleads with his father to save Icheb, but Q refuses, so Junior and Janeway track down the alien vessel so Junior can apologise and plead for information on the weapon that injured Icheb. It turns out the alien is really Q; he posed as the alien and injured Icheb to test his son’s sincerity to be a better Q, and believes he has passed. The Continuum, however, disagrees, and sentences Junior to remain human. Outraged, Q pursues his fellows into the Continuum, apparently abandoning his son. As Junior opts to continue his training out of obligation to Janeway, Q returns and explains that he only left so abruptly to appeal the verdict. It turns out Q convinced the Continuum to readmit his son, but on the condition that Q accompanies him for all eternity. As a thank-you, Q provides Janeway with information that will reduce Voyager’s journey home by a few years. When asked why he isn’t sending them all the way back to Earth, Q explains it would set a bad example for his son if he did all the work for them.

Review:

Until shows like Lower Decks and Picard revisited Q, this was John de Lancie’s last performance as Q in any Trek shows. Apparently, the actor playing Q’s son is de Lancie’s real-life son Keegan, and it’s fun to see this father-and-son duo playing characters with the same relationship to each other. The episode touches on some interesting aspects of parenthood, with some elements perhaps more cautionary tale than sound advice. However, the episode doesn’t go deep on any of these issues, instead only touching on them where they serve and feed into the plot. It’s also fun and interesting to see Q Junior and Icheb forming a kind of friendship banter similar to how I’ve noticed a lot of British male-male friendships play out, and I think it’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of this. Perhaps in another reality in the Trek multiverse, it does play out more, but here it’s only a brief flash in the Voyager pan. For me, this was a decent episode, but not by any means the best, and I grant it 8 out of 10.

Episode 20: Author, Author

Plot (as given by me):

Using the quantum singularity that’s enabled Starfleet to have monthly data-stream contact with Voyager, a comm-link is established between Earth and Voyager that will last for 11 minutes each day. The crew draw lots to determine in what order they get to contact home, and the Doctor is first in line. He’s been working on a holo-novel and speaks with his publisher, who presses him to complete revisions shortly. When Tom Paris learns of this, he asks the Doctor about it and is invited to play the program for himself, as the Doctor knows Paris to be a fellow author of holodeck programs. The holo-novel is entitled “Photons Be Free”, and is apparently based on the Doctor’s own experiences.

When Tom plays the holo-novel, he is surprised and concerns by what he sees; the characters and their ship are clearly based on Voyager, but the crew are portrayed in a very negative light. The program also over-exaggerates elements like the Doctor’s mobile emitter. When Captain Janeway plays the program to its conclusion, she summons the Doctor, who explains that he wrote the holo-novel to highlight the injustice facing the other EMH Mark 1 holograms in the Alpha Quadrant, which were reprogrammed for menial labour. He also explains that the mobile emitter’s size and weight in the program is a representation of the stigma he sometimes feels is still attached to it, and refuses to compromise his creative expression to accommodate his friends.

When the Doctor goes to make his planned revisions to the holo-novel, he finds that Tom has altered the program to put the Doctor in Tom’s shoes, showing the Doctor as a lecherous slacker who drugs an analogue of Seven to take advantage of her. When the Doctor confronts Tom, he is told that Tom is less concerned about how the crew will look to people back home. His concern is that the Doctor sees him that way. A further conversation with Neelix makes the Doctor see that he can revise his holo-novel to show greater sensitivity to his crew-mates without compromising the novel’s message. To that end, the Doctor contacts his publisher and gains assurances that he will have time to make further revisions.

Unfortunately, the publisher reneges, and Lt Barclay is soon forced to inform Admiral Own Paris, Tom’s father, of the holo-novel because it’s already been released. When the Admiral informs Janeway, the publisher is contacted and find out that under Federation law, holograms have no rights. As a result, the comm link is taken over for several days by an arbitration. Tuvok attempts to reason that the Doctor is entitled to control his work under the legal definition that an artist is “a person who creates an original artistic work”. The arbiter points out that the definition of person doesn’t extend to holograms, so the crew rallies to demonstrate that the Doctor is indeed a person.

Ultimately, the arbiter is unwilling to go so far as to rule that holograms are people, but he can see the Doctor is no ordinary hologram and extends him the rights of an artist, enabling him to control his work, and a recall of the previous version is ordered. The Doctor feels the victory is somewhat hollow, but his friends encourage him not to give up. Four months later, EMH Mark 1’s in the Alpha Quadrant begin to play the finalised copy of the holo-novel during their diagnostic breaks.

Review:

Just as the Doctor’s episode ‘Real Life’ echoed TNG’s ‘The Offspring’, this episode becomes the Doctor’s version of ‘Measure of a Man’. A lot of past Voyager episodes also come into the mix, either as references made by the other characters or by contributing plot elements to this episode. Of course, this blending initially creates something seemingly original, because at first, it’s not really apparent what the episode will become. The focus is initially on Voyager getting more direct contact with Earth, then it ends up primarily on the issue of the Doctor’s holo-novel.

Now as someone trying to become a writer and trying to focus many of my efforts on pro-Autistic narratives, I can appreciate where the Doctor is coming from. He’s part of a group that’s not being treated in a fair and equitable manner, and those around him are a bit blind to this, most likely because none of them are in the same boat. As such, he wants to showcase how people like him are treated, and when his friends object, he takes it the wrong way. This is why any factual writing based on my life experiences doesn’t name names, and my fiction writing efforts don’t use a single person for each character. Instead, I combine physical and personality traits from across a number of people for each character, creating composites to distance the story being told from my real life present or past.

Towards the end, however, the episode left-turns into full equal rights territory by saying the Doctor has no rights due to being a hologram. Where TNG put Data’s legal status as an android front and centre fairly early on in ‘Measure of a Man’, this episode spent more time focusing on how the Doctor’s writing efforts were being taken by the others. However, I think Tom is the only one who really gets a point across, because most of the others come off like they’re afraid to be seen in a negative light. Given how some of them have ill-treated the Doctor in earlier episodes, even if only by accident, a little tarnishing of their reputations is the least they deserve.

Tom, however, notes that he’s more bothered by the idea that the Doctor sees him in the negative way the Tom-based character is written. This is actually a good point because if someone ill-treats you but later makes amends and becomes a real friend, it’s hardly fair to show them in a negative light later on. As such, I commend the Doctor for finally realising he needs to develop his story further. A key reason I will probably take forever to get anything I write published is that I’ll be constantly reworking things to iron out as much of this kind of issue as I can. Well, at least where my friends are concerned; for anyone that’s bullied me or not treated me right, they deserve whatever literary bombs I don’t defuse.

When the episode makes its shift into courtroom drama, I’m a bit disappointed the Doctor isn’t ruled a person by the arbiter in the same way Data was, but I understand why. Aside from the real-world reason that the episode needed to remain different from ‘Measure of a Man’, there’s the in-world consideration that Data was a relatively unique being, whereas the Doctor is a unique member of a wider race of artificial life form, only some of which possess sentience and even less really capitalise on that gift. It also makes me wonder how the Doctor considers how the TNG crew treated the Moriarty hologram, who I suspect was probably studied to develop the EMH program in the first place.

The episode also has some interesting character moments for others as the crew begin having proper, albeit short, conversations with their family and friends back home. Now if the verdict on the Doctor’s legal status had been more positive, I’d give the whole thing top marks, but instead I’m only offering up 9 out of 10.

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paris-torres-month · 2 years

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FEVER FEBRUARY DAY 11: Fixit Friday

“You could assume that he said he loves you, and that he’s proud of you.” “I think I will.”

On 11 February, 1998 Hunters aired and my heart was broken for both Tom and B’Elanna. For Tom, who lost the opportunity to connect with his father and find out if he’s forgiven him, and for B’Elanna because she had to face the fact that while she was flirting with Tom and slowly growing closer to him, her chosen family in the Alpha Quadrant were being slaughtered. (DS9: Blaze of Glory lands between Real Life & Distant Origin).

Fixit Friday can’t fix their loss or their pain. How I wish it could. But then we wouldn’t have B’Elanna’s achingly painful spiral into her depression and self-harm, and Tom’s confusion and loss when he realizes that she’s pulling away from him.

There are many people who choose to believe that B’Elanna intentionally deleted Tom’s letter from his father. That Owen wrote something cruel and horrible to the son who had twice shamed him. The son he’d believed, up until a few days previously, was dead. Owen found out that Tom was forever beyond his reach, instead.

I find that hard to believe, even from a man Tom describes as proud and unyielding. Especially from a man who told an entire bridge crew that he was proud of his son, and he missed him, then spearheaded the Pathfinder Project/Project Voyager.

The details in this episode are what made Voyager so rich, and made Tom and B’Elanna’s relationship, when the writers paid attention to it, so layered and fulfilling for P/Ters. They love each other through giddy joy and boredom, through pain and enormous loss. They learn how to communicate with each other (eventually), and they grow with each other exponentially. By the end of the series, both are very different from their season one selves, but they remain the same people, in essence.

Even in the midst of her own unimaginable loss, B’Elanna comforts Tom in his small one (and she also calls him out on his ‘I don’t care anyway’ bullshit.) This is why we love them and we love P/T.

#fever february #catch the fever #tom paris #b’elanna torres #tom x b'elanna #paris x torres #hunters #fixit friday #paris-torres-month

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isagrimorie · 2 months

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Rewatching a few scenes from Star Trek Voyager's 2 part episode: Workforce. These episodes really did a number on Janeway; this is one of the times I did wish emotional arcs carried over from one episode to the next.

In the seven years in the Delta Quadrant, nothing has stopped Janeway's quest to bring home her crew back to the Alpha Quadrant.

And in the Delta Quadrant, for Captain Kathryn Janeway, the Voyager is home.

Janeway has faced off against the Borg Queen, the Hirogen, the Vidiians, and Species 8472 but no one has done as much damage to Janeway the way Dr Kadan did a number on Kathryn Janeway.

Because Kadan took away Janeway's certainty.

Kathryn Janeway can traverse any gulf, and jump to any fire as long as she has her iron-clad certainty and belief in her mission intact and that was what Kadan took from Kathryn Janeway.

He accidentally pinpointed the one thing she's been able to repress for so long, and that's her loneliness and how bone tired she is of being in Command.

More than any other Captain, Kathryn Janeway needed a sabbatical. She needed to reconnect with herself, and just be Kathryn.

This is the gift and curse Kadan gave to Kathryn Janeway. Because as plain ol' Kathryn Janeway, a factory worker she was happy, free of responsibility and burdens of Command.

She found friends, love, and comfort in Jaffen (a well-casted romantic lead. The actor had charisma and acting chops to make us believe Janeway Captain or just Kathryn would fall for him).

I don't think Janeway even knew how lonely she's become -- no one needed a long vacation from work than Janeway. I hope that she got that vacation Starfleet put her on the Flag Officer track.

Through the whole two-part episode we see them build up this vivacious and happy version of Kathryn, and then by part 2, the story slowly pulls that away from her.

Just as an example, the look on Kathryn's face when Harry addresed her as "Captain".

You can see how Harry addressing Kathryn as "Captain" struck a chord in her but it's also like someone threw cold water at her.

Kathryn immediately tells Harry to call her "Kathryn" instead:

Kathryn tries to still be in denial and tentatively brings up what Chakotay told her: "He said you had proof of who some of us really are."

She's trying to put distance between herself and this reality. She's conflicted-- she doesn't want to be Captain Janeway. There's even a hint of temptation there that she doesn't want to continue on helping her missing friends.

And yet, the moment Voyager and her crew were in trouble some part of herself reacted. And despite what she felt, she proceeded to bring down the shield knowing that doing so would tear her away from the life she's come to love.

This happens fast, once the shield grid is down, Kathryn disappears from Jaffen's side.

And the next time they see each other again, Kathryn Janeway is Captain Kathryn Janeway again with her uniform and Command back. And they might as well be a million miles away despite being in the same room:

Janeway allows herself to embrace Jaffen for one last time, and there's tears in her eyes, her grief is palpable. It's the way she's held herself apart from Jaffen, the way her hand twitches like she wants to reach out and touch him but can't.

Not in the uniform she's wearing, not in the position she's in.

You can see how much her experience in Quarren affected Janeway by the way she enters the Bridge:

In the turbo lift, she's faced away from the Bridge as if she can't bear being there. She has to steel herself.

Normally Janeway occupies the turbo lift like she owns that space. Because she DOES.

It’s so strange seeing Janeway occupy so little space in her own bridge, even when Voyager was hijacked she never looked out of place or so small.

The moment she steps out Harry, eager Ensign Harry, who missed the events in Quarren and how it might have affected her notices Captain Janeway immediately and announces her arrival.

She looks around at the bridge, still uncertain. Still picking up the pieces of the Captain.

Even when she sat on her Command chair,Janeway looked uncomfortable and for the first time, Captain Janeway doesn't look like she's larger than life.

She can't help but confide to Chakotay:

And. There. It. Is.

The biggest moment. Janeway admitted that Quarren felt like home. Even in The 37s, on a planet that's closest to Earth and home Janeway never even considered that home.

In the Delta Quadrant, Voyager is home.

The moment Janeway said this on the rewatch, I was bowled over because this is such a big moment for Janeway. A big thing for her to admit.

Chakotay asks her if Janeway is sorry he showed up and upended her comfortable life in Quarren?

There is a second's beat, but the beat tells all the story that needs to be said. Janeway rallies and lies: "Not for a second."

She's saying the right words but, at that moment, so near Quarren, after just losing Jaffen. Janeway says something she doesn't feel.

Janeway orders Tom to resume the course for home; but after she gives the order, Janeway's face falls.

And it's so damned sad and this, as I said above, is one of the moments I wish they continued this emotional throughline with Janeway.

Kadan did a number on her and I wish we get to see throughout a few episodes Janeway slowly get over the lie and find a measure of happiness.

Instead, season 7 loses its focus on Janeway and bizarrely have an episode with Q Jr and then a lot of focus on the EMH Doctor. It takes several episodes before Janeway gets the focus again, and that's the series finale.

If Voyager were written today, and the writers were allowed, this moment would be the emotional turning point for Janeway. It's the point where Janeway has to find a way home fast otherwise she's heading for a breakdown.

The center will not hold.

It's probably a good thing her future, alternate self decided to save Captain Janeway the heartbreak of a decade more of this life, and losing the people she loves the most.

And it kind of hurts that canonically, we don't know if Janeway was able to take that vacation. And if Janeway was able to get a measure of happiness and love, as I've mentioned after this episode and after Firewall I really don't care who Janeway ends up with anymore as long as Janeway is happy.

/Edited, March 13 2024, 10AM

#star trek voyager #long post #kathryn janeway #workforce 1 & 2 (voyager)#voyager s7

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redshirtgal · 3 years

Photo

Sometimes you can watch an Original Series episode multiple times and still never notice a particular character. Even if that person appears in a number of lengthy scenes and whose actions are an important part of the story. This man in red is one of those characters. Have you ever noticed him before? Do you know what his particular duty was in the story?

According to Memory Alpha, this lieutenant who clearly was assigned to Starbase 11 was never given a specific name. On the shooting schedule, he was referred to as an aide. But in the dialog, the lieutenant was spoken of as a clerk, which more accurately describes his role. In “Court Martial” we usually see him seated to the left of the court panel. But each time a session begins, the lieutenant must walk over to the machine and turn it on, signaling that from then on, everything is being recorded.

In many ways, his duty is more like that of a 21st century court reporter. A court reporter also uses a specialized machine to record the proceedings and produce an accurate transcript.

There is one other thing this machine can do, though. When each witness is called to testify, that person then hands the lieutenant an identity tape which he inserts into a slot. It then reads back the official description of that person, his duties, rank and assignment, and any awards he/she may have. Once his testimony is finished, then the clerk hands the tape back to that person.

It would appear we have seen a machine similar to this before. Two in fact. There is another recording device in Commodore Mendez’s office that is used when the Commodore formally charges Captain Kirk with the murder of Ben Finney. The only differences between the two seem to be in the color of the bottom panel where the sound controls and on/off button seem to be. And we have actually seen one earlier than this. During Mr. Spock’s court martial hearing during “The Menagerie, Part One” Miss Piper inserts a tape into the court recorder for the exact same reason - to play back an identity tape. There are a few differences here also. This recorder seems to stand on a pedastal and again, the colors are different. Also in this episode, the machine has labels identifying the purpose of each button on the machine. But neither machine in “Court Martial” has any such labels. Why didn’t the labels carry over? Remember the order in which episodes were aired were not the order in which they were produced. We may have seen “The Menagerie, Part One” first, but “Court Martial” was the 15th in production order and “The Menagerie, Part One” was 16th. So it’s likely that the machine in “The Menagerie, Part One” had the labels added after “Court Martial” had finished filming.

But back to our lieutenant. When the court martial panel and those involved in the proceedings move to the Enterprise, this clerk accompanies them.

He even moves with them to the bridge later. Notice he carries a tricorder with him since he no longer has access to the computer in the hearing room. Which emphasizes the importance of this lieutenant. Without an accurate record, no one else would ever be able to access the official hearing in case of questions later. But this isn’t the only thing interesting about the lieutenant. Did you pay attention to his uniform?

I do believe this is the first time we have ever seen the dress uniform for Starfleet lieutenants. Notice the thin gold piping used instead of the thicker braid worn by commanders, executive officers, and higher-ups. Our clerk did not seem to wear the rank stripes of a lieutenant even though Lt. Areel Shaw had them on her female version of the dress uniform. He wears the assignment badge particular to Starfleet members assigned to a starbase. That sunburst badge had been previously seen in “The Menagerie” on Commodore Mendez and Miss Piper.

(photo from Profiles in History Auction Catalog)

The only other time we see a lieutenant wearing a dress uniform is in “The Savage Curtain.” At least it’s the only other episode I could find with such a tunic. It belonged to Lt. Dickerson, chief security guard and leader of the honor guard. However, someone in costuming gave him the wrong outfit - the one above is actually what Lieutenant Commanders wore for formal occasions. And Dickerson is clearly identified in the episode as being a lieutenant. Notice Scotty standing next to him wears the exact same tunic. Although there does not appear to be that much difference between the two. The only major difference is that lieutenants wore their usual assignment badges but lieutenant commanders wore decorations instead.

Here is one other interesting bit of trivia. Remember the scene in the bar on Starbase 11? That is our clerk seen from the back holding the arm of a female crewman. And at the table on the right in the background? The young lieutenant commander in the redshirt lifting a drink to his lips has been seen in several previous episodes as Lt. Lewis. There is nothing to indicate that any crew members from the Enterprise were given shore leave, which always gave me the impression the crew members in this scene were from another ship or maybe even ships. For years I wondered why this scene (which leads to Captain Kirk’s confrontation with members of his own Starfleet Academy class) would show the members of the court martial panel fraternizing with other crewman in the bar before Commodore Stone has even decided to convene the panel. Then I read the production information for this episode in These Are The Voyages, Season One.” It seems that the scene with Kirk and Stone were supposed to come first and the bar scene later. Supposedly, it was determined that the first scene had very little action and would not snag the interest of the audience. So it was swapped with the bar scene to improve the pace of the first act.

One final bit of trivia - unrelated to the rest of this article but interesting . Take a look at Lindstrom - the officer sitting between Portmaster Stone and Captain Chandra. Notice he is not wearing the same Starfleet regulation trousers with the flared bottoms. Even the material is not the same. And he is wearing what appears to be Klingon boots. Was his shoe size one that the wardrobe department didn’t have? And this is a good photo to end on. You get to see the entire group of Starfleet court members and their various uniforms. And even though we don’t know the name of the actor who played the court clerk, we can still admire the attention to detail he shows. Look at that stance - typical military pose with legs slightly apart and arms behind his back. This may be a small role, but he realizes it is still an important one in the courtroom. And most importantly - he is a redshirt with a desk job. His chance of survival is high.

#Star Trek TOS #Redshirt #Starfleet dress uniform #Court Martial #Clerk #Court reporter

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annakie · 3 years

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Voyager Post-Show Books Read Order + Rewatch List

I’m lending my Voyager + some TNG books to my mom to read, and I sent her an email with this list that I made. I thought it might be helpful for other people, (and also it’d be easier for me to find next time) if I posted it online somewhere.

First, it’s also a read order for the major books covering Voyager happenings plus a few TNG books that I also own for the same era. It’s got all the major Voyager happenings in it, and a few TNG books that are optional, though most play into what’s happening with Voyager.

In reading the books, I found it was helpful to go back and rewatch certain episodes to do things like remember who the minor / guest characters were and their plots when they showed back up, or review some character arcs for the main characters, or just the overarching plots of episodes which the books referenced.

I also linked to their pages on Memory Alpha for easy referencing, but rewatching is better.

Unless otherwise marked, suggested episodes below are Voyager episodes.

Any episodes I put a * after I'd say is critical to understanding the book(s), otherwise it's just helpful. I’m happy to add to this list if anyone has other suggestions.

Voyager - Homecoming - This book deals with the immediate aftermath of Voyager's Endgame (the series finale). This and the next book are a two-parter. They're good but not great. The Voyager books get much better starting with the fifth. Rewatch List - Non Sequitur (2x05) Hunters (4x15) Lineage (7x12) Prophecy (7x14) * Author, Author (7x20) Endgame (the very last episode) *

Voyager - The Farther Shore - Part 2 of the above.

Voyager - Old Wounds - This and the next Voyager book are also a two-parter. They are... okay. The Voyager books get a new author after this and then they get really, really, really good. Rewatch List - Tattoo - (2x09) * Nothing Human (5x08) TNG Journey's End (7x20) (Chakotay's people live on the planet Starfleet is trying to relocate in this TNG episode.)

Voyager - Enemy of My Enemy - Part 2 of the above.

TNG - Death in Winter - Non-essential for Voyager. This takes place shortly after the movie Nemesis and deals with Picard having to rebuild the crew. This is maybe the worst of all the books I've read in this series, but one important thing does happen. Rewatch List - TNG Nemesis (the movie) * Eventually, you're going to want to rewatch the below episodes, I think it'd be useful to watch them before the following books. TNG - The Best of Both Worlds 1 and 2 (3x26, 4x1) Voyager - The Q and The Grey (3x11) * Voyager - Scorpion Part 1 and 2 (3x26, 4x1)

TNG - Resistance - Moderately important for future Voyager stuff, skip if you want. Most rewatch episodes were covered above.

TNG - Q&A - Honestly, a rewatch list for Q&A would be every single episode with Q in it that hasn’t been touched on. This is maybe my favorite of the TNG-only books on this list, but it’s not very important for the Voyager list.

Voyager - Full Circle - FIRST HALF ONLY!!! - There's a break in the middle of this book, with a timeskip in between. ONLY READ THE FIRST HALF at this point if you’re doing an in-order read with TNG books as well. If you don’t care about anything but explicitly Voyager books, skip down to #12 as Beyer does a good job of explaining what happens in the subsequent books between the two parts of Full Circle. This is also the book where Voyager starts becoming amazing. The only bad thing about Kirsten Beyer's books is you'll be sad all the rest of the Star Trek books aren't as good as hers. No watchlist as mostly the first half of the book is wrapping up the storylines from Christine Golden's first four Voyager books.

TNG - Before Dishonor - This is nearly as much a Voyager book as TNG. This book is instrumental in understanding everything that happens afterwards. I won’t get into my opinion about the book itself though because it’s not very flattering. You probably want to read at least the first and last chapters, the rest is... skippable if you’re not enjoying it. If you haven't rewatched Voyager's The Q and the Grey and Endgame yet, you're really going to want to here.

TNG - Greater Than the Sum - Just started reading this one, I’ll update once I’m done. Yes, I’m reading some of these books very of out of order. :) *edit* It was an improvement over Before Dishonor, I’d recommend reading as it does bridge into the next books.

TNG/VOY/DS9/More - Destiny Trilogy - (Gods of Night/Mere Mortals/Lost Souls - I bought them all as a collection) This is a massive crossover event trilogy but next on my to-read list I do know that characters from TNG, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise, plus Titan (Riker's ship) are all in it. I don't have a rewatch list but I'll make it as I get to reading it. *Edit* OK I’ve finished reading it. My opinion is that you should read this trilogy. Yes, it’s long, but also very worth it. Probably my favorite non-Voyager books on this list. There are only a couple of cameos of Voyager characters but they are meaningful, and Seven has a small storyline of her own, as does Tuvok (since he’s on the Titan serving under Riker.) The writing is very good, the story is great, and reading it massively increased my understanding of and investment in a major storyline throughout the rest of the Voyager books. I also just really, really enjoyed it. If you don’t want to read anything else not explicitly Voyager, I still rec you read this trilogy. Rewatch List Enterprise: Home (4x03)* Affliction (4x15) & Divergence (4x16)

Okay, now read the second half of Full Circle. Cry a lot about it. Everything I talk about from here on out is just Voyager.

Unworthy - The adventure finally re-begins! Rewatch List In The Flesh (5x04) Okay but maybe put off rewatching this episode after the climax of the books. Life Line (6x24) Homestead (7x23) TNG - Darmok (5x02) (The new Voyager CMO is a Tamarian, though you can put off rewatching this until Acts of Contrition if you really want, the character doesn't get important til then.)

Children of the Storm - No rewatch list.

The Eternal Tide - My FAVORITE of all the books. Rewatch List- Q2 (7x19) * The Gift (4x02) TNG True Q (6x06)

Protectors - This and the next two books are their own trilogy, so the below episodes are for all three. Rewatch List - Twisted (2x06) Unity (3x17) Counterpoint (5x10) Dragon's Teeth (6x07) Unimatrix Zero (6x24) and Part II (7x01) (If you haven't rewatched TNG - Darmok 5x02 yet, do that now)

Acts of Contrition

Atonement

A Pocket Full of Lies - Watch List - Year of Hell Parts 1 and 2 (4x08 and 09) * Shattered (7x11) *

Architects of Infinity - It’s been a couple of months since my first reads of these two books but I don’t recall any particular episodes jumping out as needed rewatches as I did. Let me know if you think I’m wrong and I’ll update the list.

To Lose The Earth

#star trek #voyager #star trek voyager #star trek the next generation #kathryn janeway #Kirsten beyer #chakotay #tuvok #tom paris #b'elanna torres #harry kim #neelix #seven of nine #beyerverse #annakie's star trek stuff

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

Text

Humans are Space Orcs, “Un-Human.”

I survived finals and am finally home for Christmas. this should give me more time to work on writing for the book, and working on the conlang for the Drev language. I know a lot of you are busy with your own school work, but I hope that this is at least somewhat entertaining.

“Kill the bastards.”

“Steal him back.”

“Kill them with fire!”

“Start a riot.”

“Go to their planet and make sure that none of them can get anything done.”

“Burn their fucking planet to the ground!.”

“Tell the GA if they don’t give him back we will start a rebellion.”

Commander Vir sat at the head of the conference table hands clasped lightly on the table before him He may have seemed calm on the outside, but on the inside he was seething with a rage that threatened to rip through his body and level the entire building. Everything his crew was saying, every suggestion of violence and every urging to go out and do something insane made his insides thrill with eager emotion.

He wanted to do what they suggested, he wanted to rain hell down upon the bastards that had taken Krill. He wanted to sweep down upon them like a destroying angel with all the power to turn cities to salt, and rivers to blood.

Every bone in his body ached to descend upon them with all the fury of humanity at his back.

“No….”

“What do you mean no!” Maverick demanded, “They took Krill, now they have to pay.” Her anger caused a chorus of agreement, especially from the other marines, who were so riled up they could barely maintain their seats.

“Yeah, Maverick is right.” Ramirez had jumped from his seat

The other marines continued to chorus their agreement.

Then the entire room erupted, and could not be silenced until Commander Vir slammed his hand on the table “THAT’S ENOUGH.”. The marines and rest of the bridge crew went silent Heads turning in shock and surprise.. Commander Vir was standing partially from his seat hand in a fist atop the table, “I-said-no. Now all of you SIT-your-asses-down.” Wide eyes and glances were exchanged about the room, but the marines slowly took to their seats shuffling into position the fire in them partially dampened by surprise. Commander Vir stood at the head of the table leaning over the cold metal two hands bracing himself against the cold metal. He stared down for a long moment quietly waiting for the marines to calm down and take their seats looking at his distorted reflection in the face of the metal.

When he looked back up, it was only cold calculation that they saw in his single eye.

The marines shifted in their seats in surprise.

The bridge crew glanced between each other.

“We will not be doing any of that.” The man said quietly looking around at each of the marines, “I don’t think I have to remind you what kind of political backlash any one of those options might cause to us. Do I want to go in and reign hellfire? Yes, but we have to think about the long term consequences.” He stood back up and turned around clasping one wrist behind his back,

“You aren’t suggesting we just abandon him, are you?”

Commander Vir turned his head to the side slightly, “I never said anything about abandoning our friend, but I am suggesting that we push our more baser instincts back where they belong.” He turned back away from them his head low, “If we do what we all want to, it could potentially result in a galaxy wide war at most and extreme political unrest at least…. We need…. We need to do what Krill would do.”

“Scream profanities and write a rant about how stupid humans are.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of the man’s mouth, “We need to be surgical….”

***

The Vrul Official floated just in front of the entrance to his ship staring out at the alien horizon on an alien planet. He did not bother to hide the fact that he wished for nothing more than to go home. Traveling through space was a delicate matter that required a great deal of risk. The fact that he was willing to captain a ship had nearly ostracized him from much of society that knew of his job.

Of course, he did not find pleasure in his work, but it is what he was good at, and he intended to keep doing it to the best of his ability until such time that he was terminated from his position. He was not inherently a riskater, and would have taken extreme offence to anyone who suggested it, but he was willing to do what needed to be done for the good of his species.

He continued to watch the alien horizon neither interested or awed by its strange other-wordly beauty. It was simply time to return home, with the cargo that had been requested by the council.

If any Vrul had the audacity to think he was a risk-taker, they would soon be proven wrong in comparison. The Dr….. Dr Krill, a renowned Alpha of some importance has and was proving himself to be of some concern. The official had seen in, in the way the creature moved when he stepped aboard the ship, not bothering to float but scuttling along with quick jerky movements. The way his head had turned at every sound, and the strange way in which he spoke.

It was all quite strange and rather…. unsettling .

Completely un-vrul.

Of course, they hadn’t worried about this phenomenon so much before. There was even a time where they had let humans onto their planet, but that was before their scientists had discovered this strange change in behavior. Of course the doctor wasn’t the only one, but he was the worst having demonstrated signs of deviation even before exposure to the humans.

At the time everyone had just thought it an eccentricity of an Alpha. If the Doctor’s official transcripts were to go buy, he was more than a simple alpha, he was a genius, a strange creature that thought differently from the rest of them, but still this behavior was just outrageous.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he did not see the human approach.

It was a fact that gave hi great unease, the way the large creature could be so silent despite it’s clunky misshapen frame.

He only noticed it when he heard the hissing humm of his own dialect being spoken through the things rubbery lips.

“Official, it is I, Commander Vir. I desire to speak with you.”

He nearly leaped out of his skin. The words sounded strange and distorted coming from the human mouth, but it was unmistakable as the Vrul language. How the human had even managed to learn it was a surprise, and the fact that he could utilize it even more surprising.

The Vurl remained at a safe distance, “Speak your peace, human.”

“I think, Officer, the title you are looking for is, Commander. That is your custom, to call people by the title they hold?”

The Vrul officer pressed his mouth tight closed, “Very well Commander, speak your peace.”

“I wish to accompany you.”

The Vrul was very unsettled by the unwavering expression of that single green eye.

“I am afraid that is not possible commander, and besides, don’t you have a fleet to command?”

The human crossed its upper appendages over it’s trunk, “Not currently, my ship is being serviced.”

“I still cannot allow it.”

“Quite to the contrary. I think it can be allowed once you hear my reasoning.”

Reasoning with a human, now wasn’t that a fun thought experiment, “Go on.”

“If what you say is true, that the simple interaction of our two species causes irreparable psychological changes to your species, than I wish to see it. Humans need to understand the danger we put you in, if there is danger at all. I need to know in order to make an accurate statement to my human counterparts about the issue because if they do not see it, they will not believe it. I must learn how this has affected you, and what I must do to mitigate the effects.” He ... had a point.

“Forgive my caution, Commander, but humans are known to be rather…. impulsive . How can I be sure you would behave yourself.”

“I came alone didn’t I? Even if I weren't to behave myself we can assume that you would quickly take care of the problem.”

The Vrul floated a bit closer to the human, “It can be argued that even one human aboard our ship could be quite disastrous.”

“But now you have warning and can prepare.” The human pulled something from behind his back buckled it around his waist, and then engaged in some sort of control. And then, he floated from the ground gently kicking himself until he was eye level with the Vrul who quickly paddled backwards in shock.

The human’s cold green eye fell upon him without so much as a waver.

“Official, you must trust me. And know that, If I were going to behave rashly, I would already have done so.”

The vrul pulled back slightly not entirely sure if that had been a threat or not, but it’s meaning was clear. The human could have killed him at any time, but he had CHOSEN not to, and his words made sense. As far as they knew the human brain seemed capable of reason and logic, so it wouldn’t make sense to anger the humans by refusing their civilized offering.

“Very well Commander, but you will be isolated as much as possible during our voyage. We would not want to expose you to any more of our unsuspecting crew members. Our conversation is already pushing the limits of what I consider to be acceptable. I will escort you to a room, but beyond that your interaction will be limited.

“Understood, Official.” The human lowered his large head in a strange nonverbal gesture that he couldn’t have determined the meaning.

Was he making a mistake.

***

Krill was escorted through the 3 dimension-ed maze of hallways curving upwards and backwards and downwards. Considering their use of helium sacks, the Vrul did not require such structured floor-plans as the humans did, and made a habit of utilizing all space possible including vertical.

It was a rather strange and alien scene despite being a produce of his own species, after spending so much time with the humans he had grown used to their geometrical architecture laid out in very meticulously planned grids. Granted the Vrul were almost as organized, arguably more so, but in different ways.

The two beta guards and their Omega assistants escorted him up a long vertical tube and through another lateral passageway to the left. The ship was designed to operate with a minimal amount of Vrul crew members, generally equaling less than fifty, a fact that made the ship seem wide, quiet and deserted, a far cry from the human ship which was always bustling with active life.

Ahead of him, the organic structure of their ship drew back with a soft slithering noise, and he was pushed into the room and left the wall closing behind them.

“Beginning diagnostic examination.”

Krill sighed but remained very still as the sensors in the walls rolled around him.

“Good morning, Doctor.” The voice said “Please complete this short psychological survey. How are you feeling.”

Krill blinked at the wall, not amused, “Annoyed.”

“Word does not translate, please be concise.”

Krill huffed. He forgot how nebulous annoyance was, “I am displeased with the situation as of now. I wish to leave.”

“Why are you displeased.”

“I was taken away from my friends and crew and accused of things that have no bearing on the rest of my species.”

“Please repeat again, and be more precise.”

Krill growled in frustration, “I have been removed from my duties and accused of something that does not directly involve the Vrul as a species.”

“Psychological evaluation complete, please wait for a physical representative to come speak with you. Enjoy the relaxing array of lights while you wait.”

The voice clicked off, and the walls began to glow with a soft blue light.

It only made Krill more mad.

He turned back to the door waiting, and it seemed as if he was waiting for a while before the door opened and another Vrul stepped inside. This one grey with yellow prisms for eyes, “Greetings, doctor, I am here to complete your psychological evaluation. The results to your physical tests are out of my range of expertise, but I am told they were ... worrying.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean diagnostics indicate changes in core body temperature, movement patterns, neuron arrays, and brain waves. The brain waves being the most worrisome. How are you feeling.”

“I am displeased.” Krill snarled

The expert watched him with a dark expression.

“How would you consider your current emotional state.”

“I already said. I am DISPLEASED. The humans have a lovely word for the emotion. It is called annoyed, when a slight inconvenience leads to almost anger but not quite. You have removed me from my duties against my will, that makes me annoyed.””

“How ... interesting.“Do you often find yourself using human terms in conversation.”

Krill glowered, “Of course I do, I work with humans. I MUST use their language structure to communicate. I also find they have words that are more accurate than our speech.”

“Do you understand why you are here, Doctor.”

“Of course, I understand why I am here. This is a termination evaluation, an absolute load of chicken shit.”

The Vrul stared at him in confusion, “I am sorry? I do not understand.”

Krill turned in a frustrated circle, “I mean that I think it is illogical and a waste of time.”

“Why do you insist on using these human terms while you speak.”

“Because human words more accurately represent how I am feeling.”

The evaluate shifted on his four limbs adjusting the amount of air in his helium sack.

“Doctor, you understand why the council is worried. Even after our first few minutes of discussion, I can see that your behavior has deviated from the correct Vrul behavior and towards human behavior. You are showing increased aggression, agitation, and your body utilization has changed.”

“I am behaving this way because you are being illogical. By taking me you risk angering the humans, and that is a bad idea. Not to mention that my departure from the ship leaves the humans in danger.”

“You think you are that important to them?”

“I AM that important to them.”

“And what makes you say that.” The Vrul didn’t turn his gaze from Krill who shifted in annoyance in the air.

“Because the humans have accepted me into their pack. I am one of them now.”

“Does this mean that you identify more with the humans than you do with your own species?” He questioned his face so smooth and expressionless, Kril was having a hard time telling how he was feeling. Then it crossed his mind that he had never needed facial expressions when he did not live with the humans. In fact, the Vrul had never assumed to know anything about the inner workings of other vrul, but here he was, presenting open emotions to this emotionless creature.

He was trying to interact with his creature as if he was interacting with a human. He was using human speech patterns, human terms and even human body language. A fact that he had not realized he was doing subconsciously until just now.

He was behaving just like a human would….

How fascinating.

“No, I simply accept a way of behaving that does not align with my original behavior This is adaptive for my survival aboard a human ship.”

“Are you afraid of the humans.”

“More afraid FOR the humans.”

“Why would you be afraid FOR humans.”

Krill turned away from the questioner facing the wall and its uniform gleaming surface. The room was a ball, not a square lie the humans preferred, the ground was bumpy and uneven.

“I am afraid for what they might do…. Humans are rash you know, and they might get themselves hurt.”

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ectogeo-rebubbles · 3 years

Note

P, M for the ask meme :)

(for this fandom ask meme)

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

Voyager+DS9 crossover AU where Voyager gets stranded in the Gamma Quadrant (before the wormhole is discovered somehow, idk how that works with the timeline). Then after a few years of making enemies with the Dominion, and burning all kinds of bridges with other Gamma Quadrant species, Voyager finds the wormhole back to the Alpha Quadrant, or they hear from another Starfleet ship that has gone through the wormhole, and they just... go right home, lol... And then a huge horde of rightfully angry Gamma Quadrant aliens come pouring through the wormhole in pursuit of Voyager and Starfleet, and DS9 has to deal with all the Gamma Quadrant hostility Janeway has incurred lol. Also maybe some of the Voyager crew have been replaced by Changelings during their Gamma Quadrant adventures.

Anyway, I just think it would be funny if Voyager had to experience more consequences for their actions. I would want this AU to have the energy of like... the Voyager crew rudely flips someone off as they pass them on the highway, and then continues to drive home, and then the car they flipped off pulls into the driveway next-door, and they realize that was their new neighbor, and all say a big OH SHIT in unison.

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you)

Dear Miles/Julian shippers... I do not get it, but I support you. Even though I don’t quite connect to the ship in practice, IN THEORY I do like the concept of Miles being bi and polyamorous despite seeming like the straightest man ever. Also, I do think Julian being highkey attracted to all of his friends and co-workers is extremely good shit

#fandom ask meme #conceptadecency

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falkenscreen · 4 years

Text

Star Trek: Voyager

Yes this show ended some time ago; that doesn’t mean that it’s not still underrated.

A relative late convert to Star Trek, this author committed to traversing the Delta Quadrant having finished The Original Series, The Next Generation, Discovery & Picard to date. Deep Space Nine is next; like the Doctor I don’t know anything about this ‘Dominion’ but they seem important and we’ll get there.

Having now finished Voyager, here’s the (spoiler-filled) thoughts of someone who came to the bridge afresh and savoured the light-hearted nature of the show. Yes TNG demanded more attention and the episodes herein that do are generally better, but for relaxed, semi-serialised adventure Voyager is a high point.

We’ll start with the negative and get to the fun stuff.

From the get-go there was a jarring disconnect between the premise and goals of the show. If a ship more advanced than any in the region is travelling really fast in one direction they’re not going to keep running into the same people; better begetting a saga poised for episodic rather than serialised fiction. The writers and audience were evidently a little tired at this point of TNG’s slavish devotion to wrapping everything up in 40-odd minutes so wanted to try variations on a theme; it was the right approach for the time accompanied by a smart premise that didn’t match.

And a stellar premise it was only set to be buoyed by the Federation-Marquis dynamic. Also partly squandered, corresponding grounds for strong tension and stories were left by the wayside – characterised by Chakotay’s ill-established, apparently immediate and seemingly endless trust in Janeway; together major failings of the show.

On continuity, and just so it’s out of the way; no they don’t show it but it’s clear the crew just manufactured more photon torpedoes like they did so much else.

Commencing with one of the best episodes, there is rarely a subsequent moment as character-defining as Janeway destroying the array. Don’t get me wrong, Kate Mulgrew is great, but she alike Kirk and Picard are, as fleshed out as they become, for stretches bare variations on a tired theme; young headstrong hotshot dedicates their life to the stars to become a reasoned, seasoned Commander. ‘Tapestry’ did it best and there was no need to explore this further.

Voyager had a general problem with characters that took several seasons to grow; it was a long time before Neelix stopped being grating and his earnestness became endearing. There is too very little you can relay about Tuvak beyond his being a Vulcan and a little sardonic, or Harry besides his yearning for advancement or Chakotay aside his membership of the Marquis and focus on his cultural background.

The stand-out worst episode of the entire show was Chakotay finding out that the Sky Spirits central to his people’s religion were actually from the Delta Quadrant; you can garner Robert Beltran’s clear ambivalence (at best) to such material. This author is aware of the significant tension between the actor and others on set; I can understand the frustration at a lead cast member belittling the series in public but the directions and emphasis the character took in later seasons was something else, as were the music cues whenever his or some others’ cultures came up.

Star Trek, and notably The Original Series, is often (but not always) shrewd for both telling stories addressing the place of culture, religion and community in people’s lives while not overly if at all drawing attention to particular characters’ backgrounds. To Beltran’s credit, he only made the disaffection perceptible on screen in the episodes that were of poor taste, as opposed to the ones that were just bad. There are many lousy episodes of The Original Series but what near always makes it enjoyable is Shatner et al’s absolute commitment to the bit. One of the very worst episodes of Voyager is the one where Harry is lead to believe that he’s actually from a planet in the Delta Quadrant full of attractive women; yet no one in Star Trek ever needs to look bored reading their lines. There are good ones and bad ones and we’re along for the whole ride.

There’s also that one where Tom and the Captain turn into salamanders, start life on a random planet and somehow transform back into their usual selves with these shenanigans never brought up again. Yeah that was awful but it was preceded by a generally decent few acts centred on exceeding warp limits; reputation aside it wasn’t quite down there.

On Alpha Quadrant folks being in the Delta Quadrant, as much as I missed the Klingons they did not need to rock up latently and near the very end; there were plenty of better ways to give B’Elanna an arc. One of the more interesting characters, she offered a variation on Worf’s overwhelming pride as a Klingon, though she barely got enough episodes to shine and these were predominantly featured much later on. And when the show stopped pretending Tom was the cocky pilot we’ve seen dozens of times before he too managed to get a whole lot more interesting.

It would have made a lot more sense for McNeill to just directly continue his character from TNG’s ‘The First Duty;’ alas.

Also welcome were the insights into the Borg; even if they became a lot less eerie it was great to learn that much more about them, though nothing, save the introduction of Seven, bettered the recuperating drones who were the ship’s first Borg encounter. The Borg children were also very funny (the related Voyager pick-ups in Picard were excellent) and should have stayed on the ship longer so Seven could say more things like “fun will now commence;” she can only say “Naomi Wildman” deadpan, as good as it was, so many times.

Heralded by such a superb actress, Seven and the Doctor thrillingly shared dual arcs akin but distinct to Data’s and each other’s, permitting us to relish their gradual growth and revel in their leaps forward. Seven’s narrowing down of eligible crewmen, unlike Chakotay’s later courting, was a particular highlight, as was her month of isolation when the crew were in stasis and the one where the Doctor overtook her node.

The Doctor however emerges the best character, far and above all others save the near as interesting Seven. Picardo’s charisma and stage presence, well-befitting an exaggeratedly humanistic, bombastic piece of programming, only propelled the most relatable arcs in the series; his desire to fit in and, as any, make a contribution. The Doctor’s opening number in ‘Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy,’ but one occasion where Picardo’s vocal abilities were graciously integrated into the series, by this author’s judgement is the funniest sequence in seven seasons.

‘Message in a Bottle’ with the Doctor centre was too among the very best of the series. Mining any opportunity for comedy we can nonetheless be grateful, alike TNG, that they kept the bald jokes to about one per season.

As asides, it was lovely to see Reginald Barclay return and realise his aspirations in one of the best and most heart-warming episodes of the saga, while the singular and very obvious inspiration one episode draws from Predator proved amusing for just being so unabashed.

‘Scorpion’ was amazing as was anything to do with Species 8472. Captain Proton, acknowledging the entire franchise’s schlocky roots, was a definite recurring highlight, with Mulgrew in one installment clearly having no end of fun alike the cast’s enjoyable turns in late 90’s Los Angeles alongside Sarah Silverman. Speaking of guest stars, seeing The Rock was a nice surprise though with hindsight they may never have cast him given Star Trek shrewdly chose to not have celebrity appearances overshadow the show. But hey, they can’t see the future; at least cleverly opting to obscure Jason Alexander in piles of costuming.

‘Year of Hell’ is good, but the premise befitted an entire season and alike the lacklustre finale nothing really matters (with some well-executed exceptions) if you can just go back in or erase time. There were many, many episodes that shouldn’t have been contained within forty minutes and deserved longer-form devotion, ala ‘30 Days.’ ‘Timeless’was a much better (and unusually technically-focused) variation on the aforementioned themes and it was fun to catch Geordi, as it was Deanna and especially Sulu. ‘The Omega Directive’ was cool; ‘The Thaw’ was great.

The fable-esque nature of the franchise has always been enjoyable and digestible given the show is partially aimed at kids, though there are episodes where it’s just a little too direct, and characters take a little too much pause. ‘Alice,’ the one where Tom almost cheats with his ship as an overly obvious parallel about why you shouldn’t have sex with other people if you have a girlfriend, if a good lesson, in execution was a tad much.

On reflection this author was surprised to discover some of the least generally favoured episodes, among them the Fairhaven double. It may be my great personal affection for Ireland but it makes perfect sense that given the time available this sort of world would be created and characters might pursue holo-relationships, a theme underexplored in Voyager yet still covered to great effect. The established technical deficiencies of holo-technology in such regular use should not come as a surprise when they recur.

The one where Kes comes back was actually a later highlight; her character was never very well handled and no it wasn’t that blast off into the sunset but sometimes old friends lose their way and it’s the job of old friends to set them on the right path.

Most surprising was the dislike directed at ‘Tuvix.’ The difference between Voyager and much heavier sci-fi is that herein characters make a lot of decisions that are hard, not ones that are difficult. The destruction of the array was devastating but not morally questionable within the confines of the show. As a tangent, you could argue that had Janeway made the decision to return to the Alpha Quadrant at the beginning of the series that it would have been the morally correct decision given that, as we see in ‘Hope and Fear,’ another highlight, the ship would not otherwise have been a factor in much disorder and destruction. The show was not however so expansive philosophically as to greatly tread such ground as the franchise otherwise managed in the likes of ‘City on the Edge of Forever.’

In ‘Tuvix’ Janeway, a figure, like Chakotay, who often shifted characterisation to fit the requirements of any given story, was faced with a difficult decision with no easy moral out nor ethically unquestionable approach. It was a refreshing change and correspondingly dark denouement to boot apparent in the likes of ‘Latent Image,’ another fine instalment with the Doctor.

‘Eye of the Needle,’ the only episode this author has watched twice to date and a deeply empathetic early high point, save ‘Balance of Terror’ is the best treatment of the guarded but necessarily relatable Romulans (I haven’t seen all the movies!). ‘The Void’ bookends the show as a later stand out while the in respects not dissimilar ‘Night’ bears one of the darkest challenges and finest, most resonant endings.

This brings us to the ‘best episode;’ one featured regularly in top ten lists but seemingly not a very favourite.

‘Blink of an Eye’ is everything that is exceptional and aspirational about Star Trek. Stranded in the stratosphere of a planet where time passes with greater rapidity, the curious presence of Voyager in the skies begins to influence the society to the point where the inhabitants develop space travel to face the spectre.

A commentary on the Prime Directive as deft as any and a relatively novel variation on both the time travel and petri dish tropes resplendent throughout sci-fi and Star Trek, the episode is also a fabulous meta-commentary on the place of the franchise in popular culture much less crude than Janeway bemoaning the Doctor’s fleeting interplanetary fans’ obsession with every aspect of his personal life. Incorporating a fair bit more science than is typically par, the astronaut’s moving decision to help them, as with his staring into the heavens as Voyager finally departs, speaks to the selfless ethos and sense of overwhelming curiosity so intrinsic to the most basic lore of Star Trek, the most beloved episodes and all that Gene Roddenberry best achieved.

It’s also an amazing meditation on first contact principles and pitfalls which unlike many episodes doesn’t borrow story bones from TNG.

A more than welcome reprieve from a pandemic, I didn’t spend as long in the Delta Quadrant as the crew but for what I did I was glad to relish with them.

Star Trek: Voyager is now streaming on Netflix

#xl #film/tv #voyager #star trek #star Trek: voyager #gene roddenberry #jeri ryan #kate mulgrew #roxann dawson #robert duncan mcneill #robert beltran #ethan phillips #tim russ #jennifer lien

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