Voyager again, for the first time

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Voyager' started by NightJim, Feb 26, 2013.

  1. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Robert Picardo is always awesome, no matter how bad the script may be hahahaha.
     
  2. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    He trades in grumpy for snarky. Considering how rare snarky is on Trek it really stands out.
     
  3. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, but some of us remember who programmed his interpersonal subroutines, his personality would be like that even if he had the run of the ship.
     
  4. NightJim

    NightJim Captain Captain

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    After all that talk of taking some time off last week, then not doing, only to get snowed under with work. So with nothing going on today I ended up spurlging on a few episodes.

    Then I come back to Cathexis

    I don't know how I felt about this episode. I enjoyed watching it, but as I think about the premise while writing this I'm rolling my eyes a little. That said, the double bluff what was going on was pulled off pretty well.

    Mulgrew's acting in a couple of places is a bit odd though. It's clear she decided to play it suspicious of Tuvok relatively early on, despite the script having Janeway not mistrust him until much later. Which left half the scenes with her very odd.

    I can see why Beltran gets annoyed later on with his character too. Here Chakotay saves the crew, but he spends 99% of the episode lying in sickbay. Though as a result we did get to see the brilliant reaction from the Doctor to the medicine wheel, especially when he points out the mistakes. Gotta love that database of knowledge. But that music started playing again, I'd not even really noticed till Captain Kathryn pointed it out. Cheers for that ;)

    For the first time during this rewatch, I think I found an episode I missed originally. I had absolutely no recollection of this before. Usually I get this vague sense of having watch them. But here, nothing.

    Faces.

    This one I do remember. Well the B'Elanna Klingon/Human split anyway. I didn't remember it was the Vidians. I love them as villains. The body-horror of them is very well done.

    It's also a good luck at how the two sides of a person born in two cultures learns to balance them, and by removing one they aren't the same place. Dawson also does a great job of playing two versions of the same character. Though her speech as a klingon makes me wonder how much of their distinctive way of speaking is just a result of the teeth they have to wear.

    Poor guy who will go on to become the police chief in Continuum (that's just a reference, not a slight on the show). Durst is introduced in one episode and killed the next. Not only that but the evil surgeon then wears his face.

    Jetrel

    The guy responsible for a weapon of mass destruction sets about making up what little he can for the damage he has caused. Is it me, or has this one been done a thousand times?

    For a second I actually thought they were going to twist it and have the guy still an evil nutjob, but apparently not.

    This one didn't really do a thing for me.
     
  5. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Haha...I noticed that music early on in the series, first during the episode when he introduces Kathryn to her animal guide.

    Then during episodes like Tattoo (ughhh) it plays THE WHOLE TIME! It just adds an unnecessary cheesiness to his Native-Americanness that did not need to be there lol.

    EDIT:
    OMG just found this video on YouTube.
    I would rather listen to Voyager's lame tribal music than this ANY DAY.

    Why would someone make this?!?!

    [YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49_GyuKUJI[/YT]
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2013
  6. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Is it the pipes?
     
  7. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    The actual music used in Voyager?
    Or that ridiculous video?
     
  8. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The music used in VOY. Peruvian pipes or whatever.
     
  9. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Yeah...some kind of pipe music.
    I had no problem with the music on its own.
    It was just that EVERY TIME Chakotay was having one of his "I'm being spiritual" moments, it played.

    Maybe its just me who eventually got peeved by it? :lol:

    I tried to find an example of the music on YouTube, but all I get are J/C videos haha.
     
  10. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    See it never bothered me that every time Spock was having one of his Vulcan angst moments we got the same very poignant and tense music. But that's because I believed in Spock the character and his story.
     
  11. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Yeah I don't know why the Chakotay music bothers me.
    It's just...you'll see him doing something "Native American" and you just KNOW the music is coming...and it does.

    Not sure why it bugs me. :confused:
     
  12. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm saying that Spock worked because the character worked. I don't think a lot of Chakotay works, bumbles along well enough at times but that's about it.
     
  13. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    I am finding so many so-bad-they're-good Chakotay videos on YouTube now... oh man...
     
  14. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Yeah I know what you meant. That it worked for Spock, but not for Chakotay because his story and his character weren't completely on-point and developed.

    I mean, I believed Chakotay's story, but it was so underdeveloped that it just became cheesy that every single time he had "a moment" it had to immediately get musically tribal-sounding. It had a soap opera quality about it. I was just like...can't the man be moved by something without the Native American pipes coming in?
     
  15. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Let's face it, those pipes are like the accordion. No one will ever take them seriously after so many silly moments. Mr. Spock got to have music with zero associations already welded into our brains.
     
  16. NightJim

    NightJim Captain Captain

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    I'm not sure if those pipes would have bothered me either way, until they were pointed out. Now it immediately takes me out of the show. It's like the BioShock 2 cover, I can't see anything but Bomberman now. But I'd looked at it hundreds of times before a friend made that joke and it never once occurred to me.

    I managed to fit one more episode in last night: Learning Curve

    I remember this being a much more tense episode. Something about potential mutiny maybe, or outright not following orders. Maybe I'm combining episodes, or projecting what I wanted it to be. Either way, it was nice to see some Marquis struggling to fit in. I haven't had this moan for awhile but I really do feel that season 1 could have benefited more by focusing on this aspect.

    However, now that I'm (technically) done with the season, it was a lot better then I remembered, and has dampened down a few of the criticisms I had about the start of the show. Amusingly, I told one of my oldest friends I was doing this, we've known each other from school, roughly when Voyager was first airing, and both into Star Trek. He had a bunch of complaints about the first season too, none of them proved to be true either.

    Since I've hit the end of the season, I might take a proper break from watching, haven't properly decided yet. So there'll likely be a post in about 8 hours of me watching the next episode. ;)
     
  17. Captain Kathryn

    Captain Kathryn Commodore Commodore

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    Aw...I am sorry I ruined Chakotay's spiritual moments for you. Once you realize it's there...that's all you're ever going to hear. And you'll start waiting for it...like when he takes out his medicine bundle and you're just waiting for him to say AH-COO-CHE-MOY-AH! But it had to be said. I've seriously been waiting for some post to come along that would allow me to complain about the Chakotay music. :lol:

    Learning Curve was a decent episode. Finally they acknowledge the Maquis being somewhat different. I LOVE when Chakotay punches Dalby in the face. He's like "Okay, let's do it the Maquis way." PUNCH. :ouch:

    A CHAKOTAY MOMENT WITH NO TRIBAL MUSIC! :techman:
     
  18. NightJim

    NightJim Captain Captain

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    lol yeah that is pretty awesome, and one of the moments I was talking about when I said that early on I had big hopes for the character.

    I wouldn't say you ruined it, I did after all call it "Chakotay faith babble". You just added another layer ;)
     
  19. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Babble or bubble?
     
  20. NightJim

    NightJim Captain Captain

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    Babble, as in a play on techno-babble. Or I'm missing an incredibly funny pun here, in which case I'm sorry.

    The 37's

    A nice episode that finally has the crew solidified about going home. I do remember a TNG episode about people from the 20th century being frozen too. Thankfully this does it quite differently.

    My first thought of this episode was that I'd have made it a new model car from 1995, just for a little bit more of wow factor. But then I'm a petrol head, and I'm ignoring what the entire episode is about. I just think it would be far more awesome to see a car that might be sitting on your driveway floating in space.

    But ooo Voyager lands. That's pretty damn cool. I'd totally forgotten the Interpid class could do that. Would have liked a few more SFX shots , but I guess that's budget constraints.

    The one thing I found confusing when they found the plane was the complete disregard of Paris' knowledge after they've dealt with the car. Yes, it might only be cars, but surely you'd call for him to have a look for any quick recognition.

    It also feels odd that we never see the colony. Even just a city shot while Janeway gives her Captain's Log speech about it being amazing would have done.

    During the conversation with Janeway and Chakotay about staying or not, one thing never enters into conversation "what about the alien crew members?" While this offers the perfect opportunity to humans, and some of the aliens may be okay with the idea of staying, it's making a few assumptions. Can you imagine someone like Chell being the only Bolian on the planet? I realise it might not be that different to life on the ship this would be asking him to settle? That's a bit much.

    Okay, so this one I'm mostly nitpicking. I don't know why, lots of little mistakes that bugged me I guess. It was a decent episode, but I think a few little changes could have elevated it a bit further.