A Semi-Hater Revisits Voyager

[TheGodBen]

Real Life (***½)

It's amazing how the little things annoy me. During the final scene where Belle dies, Dr Kenneth Shmully (henceforth known as K-Shmull) pulls out a tricorder and spends ten seconds scanning her to check that's she's really dead. I found that distracting and it ruined a great emotional scene, so it lessened the impact of the death. Combined with the fact that we'll never see K-Shmull's family again and the episode doesn't even think about addressing the impact of this death beyond the final scene, this episode loses some of its power.

But overall I found it to be pretty good, K-Shmull and his family at the beginning made for some humorous scenes, and his attempts to relate with his family after B'Elanna changes the program make for some good character moments for K-Shmull. I found most of this episode enjoyable.

Then there's the b-plot where Voyager encounters blah blah blah and explores blah blah blah shuttle gets stuck blah blah blah moose testicles blah blah blah blah. To be fair, this weird sci-fi plot didn't annoy me too much, and the special effects were cool so the shallow side of my brain enjoyed the pretty colours. It was standard fare as far as sci-fi plots go and it at least tried to tie into K-Shmull's story at the end.

[Jaespol]

Real Life annoyed me and I felt it was ruined by the manipulative, unrealistic and mean-spirited ending. Seriously, what is the casualty rate for Pirizzi squares anyway? I really doubt many people die playing that game but conveniently the doc's holo-daughter manages to die after only two days? The statistical probability of that happening must be infantesimal and I just couldn't get over how ridiculous and emotionally manipulative it all was.

[DGCatAniSiri]

This episode really needed a follow-up. I mean, the Doctor (you realize, don't you, that when you say K-Shmull, it makes me think of 'K-Fed' and I don't WANT to think of K-Fed) has experienced this traumatic event and should be persuaded to continue this - in real life (no pun intended), you can't just shut the program off after the end. Not to mention, part of me wants to see this family continue and the Doctor go for a 'take the family to work' day.

And all of this holo-programming stuff for the Doctor really makes me wonder why no one ever thought to program a holographic staff - make them interns that the doctor teaches so he has a medical staff and doesn't need to draft Tom for his medical assistant - in situations where Tom would be needed in Sickbay, they'd also need him at the helm, and what happens in Sickbay if anything happens to Tom?

EDIT: To Jaespol, and I'm willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I believe that what happened to the Doctor's daughter was that she was playing without safety equipment and taking more risks. I have an aunt who is living with the consequences of not doing that while bike-riding, so I know what it's like - my aunt is essentially confined to a wheelchair after she crashed into a tree and hit her head. It was before I was born, so I'm fuzzy on the details behind it, but those 'statisical probabilities' mean jack to the people it does happen to. Life's one big crap-shoot, and the snake eyes come up more often than one might think.

[TheGodBen]

Jaespol wrote:

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Seriously, what is the casualty rate for Pirizzi squares anyway?

I have to agree here, as soon as parisi squares is mentioned somebody is going to get hurt. The game seems to be more dangerous than Russian Roulette.

DGCatAniSiri wrote:

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you realize, don't you, that when you say K-Shmull, it makes me think of 'K-Fed' and I don't WANT to think of K-Fed

I don't want to think of him either, but if they're not going to give him a name then I'm going to and it is my duty as a viewer to give him the most humiliating name possible.

[startrekwatcher]

"Real Life" was a very average episode. I wasn't pulled in by the emotional manipulation. It failed miserably to bring me to tears and I'm a big old marshmellow who gets all emotional at the drop of a hat. The family scenes of trying to be "Leave it to Beaver" and then dysfunctional were obviously intended to be cute and funny but I found them to be absolutely boring. If I wanted to watch an actually clever and funny family sitcom I've got Roseanne.

Then you've got the perfunctory technobabble-laden B-plot that is just there to pad out the hour and you have an episode whose only interesting contribution to the series was Torres' neat one-time hair braid.

Overall another weak outing from Jeri Taylor.

[Lynx]

Before And After

One of my top 10 favorite episodes. OK, the story is actually very weird but it's interesting to see the flashbacks of Kes's earlier life and also what could have been if Kes had stayed (no, I don't think that the future had become exactly as it was described) and also for what "Year of Hell" could have been if they had kept Kes and the original concept.

I have to agree with GodBen about Kes's past. I would also have liked to see more of it.

As for the change of hairstyle, it wasn't actually planned. It happened because Jennifer Lien had an allergic reaction to the glue which was used to attach the Ocampa ears on her head. While letting her have long hair, the Ocampa ears could be omitted. That was the reason for the quick change of hairstyle and why it never was explained in the series. In the episode "Worst Case Scenario", Kes has short hair again but look closely and you'll see that there are no Ocampa ears.

As for the long hair, what I know it was a wig too!

Personally I must admit that I prefer Kes with short hair. It's more of a trademark fr the character. She looks great in long hair too but more like an average character, one of those we've seen in so many series and movies.

As for the catsuit, that was probably because of Braga's obsession with such clothes. I prefer Kes with her normal Ocampa clothes.

As for the episode itself, I'll give it 5 points out of 5!

Still Life
Now why do I always mix the title of the episode up with an Iron Maiden song with that name? Sorry for that, of course the name for the episode is:

Real Life
I have to admit that this episode doesn't work for me and I don't understand why they came up with it in the first place. Lack of inspiration?

Because this isn't a Voyager story, more a syrupy soap-opera episode and the whole "hologram wants to become human" gone too far.

I'll give it 1 point out of 5.

[startrekwatcher]

re" Kes' hair and outfit.

From what I understand it was her long hair and the reason they adopted it were two-fold. One was the fact that Lien was having allergic reactions to the ears and so her hair covering them up was the solution. And the second reason is she was growing up. So they wanted to make her look less like a waif and more adult. It also explains why Kes wore the tighter fitting costume. It was because like most teenagers.young adults, she was coming into her own.

[Lynx]

startrekwatcher wrote:

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re" Kes' hair and outfit.

From what I understand it was her long hair and the reason they adopted it were two-fold. One was the fact that Lien was having allergic reactions to the ears and so her hair covering them up was the solution. And the second reason is she was growing up. So they wanted to make her look less like a waif and more adult. It also explains why Kes wore the tighter fitting costume. It was because like most teenagers.young adults, she was coming into her own.

I don't think it was the purpose with the long hair. If it had been, then it would have been explained better and not just showed up as quick and unexpected as it did. I've never seen any statements from anyone in charge or explanations at all from anyone that this change was made to make Kes look more adult or so.

[neogothboy74]

GodBen wrote:

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Real Life (***½)

I liked this episode when it aired, though I did think it was slightly manipulitive. My roomie heard about this episode after I saw it, but I didn't have a copy of it until the dvds came out years later - and he still remembered and wanted to watch this one. I think it's ok on it's own. But this episode could have led to a great followup in my opinion, and it didn't. Which is too bad. I'd rate the episode ***.

[Jaespol]

startrekwatcher wrote:

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you have an episode whose only interesting contribution to the series was Torres' neat one-time hair braid.

I loved that hair-braid.
But I think it really scream "Voyager" that they don't even have continuity when it comes to a hair braid

[neogothboy74]

Jaespol wrote:

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I loved that hair-braid.
But I think it really scream "Voyager" that they don't even have continuity when it comes to a hair braid

Well, to be fair, Dax had that freaky hairstyle in "The Search, Parts I & II" that we had never seen before or (thankfully) ever saw again after the 3rd Season opener. And I think it's fairly common for people to try something new once in awhile and not keep it.

But I liked the hair-braid too.

[Jaespol]

It made her look a lot more feminine but also a little more wild, it was good.
There was a lot of good hair going on at that dinner table!

[Jaespol]

Lynx wrote:

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Before And After

One of my top 10 favorite episodes.

I'm surprised you don't rate this one higher, I mean how can you rate "Cold Fire" above this? Suspiria took the form of a little girl with a scary voice! HEllo!??

[Praetor]

I liked 'Real Life' for what it was, but the fact that there was never any reappearance or re-reference back to it de-emphasizes the importance of it. I found the emotional scene poignant, but overall, it feels more like a stepping stone in the Doc's 'growth.'

(Trivia: the actress who plays the Doc's wife, Wendy Schaal, also plays the voice of Francine, the wife on 'American Dad.')

[M]

I really like Real Life. Once again the gratuitous technobabble B-plot doesn't go anywhere (although in the end they at least tried to combine it with the A-plot; unsatisfactory, if you ask me), but the story about K-Shmully's holographic family is rather nice. I must admit, I also groaned when K-Shmully spent like what seemed a full minute scanning his daughter's dead body, but I also shed a tear during the scene where K-Shmully learns of his daughter's accident and ends the program because he can't bear it anymore. (Honestly, I did shed a tear.)

One big downside of this episode, though, is the circumstance described by Praetor here:

Praetor wrote:

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I liked 'Real Life' for what it was, but the fact that there was never any reappearance or re-reference back to it de-emphasizes the importance of it.