Does It Get Better???

[Lord Manitou]

Processing flash:
JANEWAY: Objection noted. We'll do this without you.
SEVEN: You will fail.
JANEWAY: And you have just crossed the line. End of debate. Report to the Cargo Bay and remain there until this is over. Is that understood?
[Bridge]

[AdmiralScreed]

The Killing Game Part 1 and 2: I'll be completely honest, I hate war movies. So, with that in mind, it shouldn't be any surprise that I disliked this episode.
First of all, what did I like? The scenes with Neelix and the Klingons were hilarious, and without a doubt the high point of the entire 2 parter. Seeing the Klingons take on the Nazis at the very end was very funny. I also liked the scenes with the Kim and the Doctor. Although at times Kim's attitude toward the Hirogen seemed really forced and almost comical.
What didn't I like? Practically everything else. They had the chance to do a simulation of Wolf (some 3 digit number) battle with the Borg, but they blew in favor of a dumb WWII simulation. I also wanted to point out that I think the Hirogen have gone from being extremely intimidating villains to just the opposite of that. In their original appearance several episodes back I thought these guys were extremely badass. They were merciless and blood thirsty hunters, and I loved them. Unfortunately, this episode had to go and humanize them, which in my opinion pretty much ruined them. Sure, turning them into good guys was in the spirit of Trek, but did it really benefit them as villains? I don't think so. By the end of the episode they had lost virtually all of their original menace.

AI will give part 1 a 3/10 and part 2 a 5/10.

[tighr]

Wow. To each his own, I guess, but I absolutely loved The Killing Game.

I guess I knew your score was going to be low based on the fact that for you, the high point was Neelix and the Klingons. I'm surprised you don't point out that the episode would have been better if the Klingon simulation had been the Khitomer Massacre.

I also disagree that a simulation of Wolf 359 would have been a better scenario than WWII. The whole point of the Hirogen choosing WWII from Earth's databases was that the Nazis and the Allies were fairly evenly matched, and that the Nazis eventually lose the war. The Hirogen like a challenge, so they take on the role of the antagonists (also, its TV, so we want to see the bad guys portraying bad guys). If they had done Wolf 359, the Borg had one cube and completely wiped out an entire fleet of starships (40, at least) in a few hours. Not much of a "fight". Also, that would have been expensive graphics-wise.

Also, I feel you're being overly critical by down-rating this episode solely because they chose a WWII battle instead of a Borg massacre. Also, your criticism that it humanized them only makes the Hirogen more well-rounded, a quality that is sorely lacking in most villains.

Seeing the holodeck spill out into the ship, with holgrams running down the halls was an amazing plot turn.

[You_Will_Fail]

Yeah, I don't see how Wolf 359 would have been a remotely interesting simulation. Our starfleet officers playing the roles of.....other Starfleet officers at a battle that probably only lasted 5 minutes before all the Starfleet ships were torn apart? I'm not sure why that came to your mind.

I liked The Killing Game and thought it was a fun romp - they did WW2 which is a solid staple and nothing too extreme, the only thing I didn't like is how extensively the ship was gutted but it was back to perfect the next episode. I mean there is a point where you see the holodeck is 4 decks high and they'd ripped the ship up and practically made it into one giant holo-ship, its really taking the piss that the ship is perfect next episode and the first scene even takes place in a holodeck

[DevilEyes]

It's pretty average throughout, but season 1 is actually one of the better ones. IMO it starts rather well, goes a bit downhill and season 3 is rather bad/uneven, season 4 is the best, and season 5 has some strong episodes as well, then it really goes down and season 7 is the worst. But the differences between the stronger and the weaker seasons isn't that big as, say, with TNG, or ENT, or DS9 or even TOS.

[You_Will_Fail]

DevilEyes wrote:

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It's pretty average throughout, but season 1 is actually one of the better ones. IMO it starts rather well, goes a bit downhill and season 3 is rather bad/uneven, season 4 is the best, and season 5 has some strong episodes as well, then it really goes down and season 7 is the worst

How can you say it really goes down in season 6? There's no great difference between seasons 5 and 6 in my opinion and season six gives us "Survival Instinct", "Barge of the Dead", "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy", "One Small Step", "Pathfinder", "Blink of an Eye", "Memorial", "Child's Play", "Muse" and "Lifeline". There are a lot more excellent episodes in season six than season five.

[Mareika]

I also don`t like season six very much.
The episodes "Muse"and "Barge of the Dead" are among my least favourite episodes.

[You_Will_Fail]

Because you have extremely odd taste in episodes frankly.

[AdmiralScreed]

You_Will_Fail wrote:

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Because you have extremely odd taste in episodes frankly.

I doubt his tastes in episodes are any odder than my own.

[AdmiralScreed]

Vis a Vis: An enjoyable, but flawed episode. The technology on the ship they found had the potential to get them home faster, but they completely ignored it. It's true that there were risks involved with this technology, but time, effort, and lots of research could have helped. It's unrealistic that they wouldn't at least attempt to find a way to integrate the technology into Voyager.
I was also bothered that the villain's motivation wasn't clear. We were never told what he/she/it wanted to accomplish.
Still, this episode had redeeming qualities. The actor who plays Tom Paris gave a terrific performance as usual. In particular, I really enjoyed the scenes with "possessed Tom."
A decent offering.
5/10

The Omega Directive: Another strong 7 of 9 episode, even if she wasn't the main focus for the entire episode. I loved all of the secrecy at the beginning. The Omega molecule was fascinating, and made for a really interesting plot device. This was definitely a high stakes episode. Once again 7 was reluctant to follow orders, which made for some good conflict between her and Janeway at a couple points in the episode. I also enjoyed the scene in the Borg Alcove where 7 gave designations to all of the crew members. Hearing Kim called 6 of 10 and then 2 of 10 was funny.
I was a little confused by Janeway. She claimed that she couldn't risk the lives of the crew in order to satisfy her own curiosity about Omega, and yet that is exactly what she does in almost every episode. A spacial anomaly appears, she immediately investigates, and in the process she almost gets her crew killed. Kind of hypocritical of her to say that if you ask me...
Still, overall this is a strong episode.
7/10

[Mareika]

AdmiralScreed wrote:

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I doubt his tastes in episodes are any odder than my own.

[You_Will_Fail]

Hypocritical is Janeway's middle name

[Guy Gardener]

What were her parents thinking!?!

[teacake]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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What were her parents thinking!?!

[You_Will_Fail]

Maybe one of her parents is Yattho.