My first voyage with Voyager

[Qutluch]

Ln X wrote:

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OR... Paris, in a jealous rage, taking out a phaser and vaporizing Neelix in the shuttle wreckage. I'm certain a few VOY fans will think fondly of this possibility...

NOOO not Neelix. Who would I giggle at every episode?

[Qutluch]

Not part of my review, but a funny youtube Voyager clip!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6iI1iSdXGM

[Violet.Phoenix]

Qutluch wrote:

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Not part of my review, but a funny youtube Voyager clip!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6iI1iSdXGM

I remember watching that from recordings; still hilarious, especially the Klingon.

[Qutluch]

Persistence of Vision

What in the world happened to Janeway’s hair? Last episode it was shorter, just shoulder length, and now it is back into the Janeway bun….Woops. Janeway is frustrated and she brushes off Neelix and yells at Harry Kim for messing up the Doctor’s hologram; he is only a couple of inches tall. The Doctor then orders her to take some time away in the holodeck for mental health. He then proceeds to yell at B’Elanna and Kim to make him bigger! The ship is preparing to go through Bothan space and Neelix is concerned because it can be dangerous.

The kids in Janeway’s holonovel are actually good actors; the little boy especially. Right after the holonovel’s Lord Burleigh professes his love for Janeway’s character Chakotay calls her away to meet with the Bothans. The Bothan’s are a little sharp over the com. Neelix insists that Janeway eat because she has skipped several of her last few meals. As Neelix is showing her the dining options she notices cucumber sandwiches and a tea cup that came from her holonovel. Then the little girl in her holonovel runs into her in the ship and tells her that her father does not love her. The crew is going to attempt to run tests to see if they can figure out why Janeway’s novel is appearing outside of the holosuite. Lord Burleigh asks why Janeway is dressed so differently (in her uniform). Why don’t holocharacters notice in any of the other episodes/holo-scenes?

After the simulation, Janeway talks to Neelix and realizes that she hallucinated the cucumber sandwiches and flower tea cup at lunch. While being examined by the Doctor Kes has a weird feeling and then the daughter shows up from the holonovel. Kes too sees the little girl, but the Doctor does not. The little girl vaporizes and goes through Janeway. Janeway goes back to her quarters and eats coffee ice cream!! For being a stressed out woman with hallucinations, Janeway looks pretty good. She does not have circles under her eyes or a single hair out of place. Her uniform is perfectly pressed and she appears to be in perfect physical condition. Again, costume and make-up could have really showed this better. Mess up Janeway’s hair and her uniform, darken her eyes, and make her look more ragged. Why do the character’s always appear so fresh and (as one of my co-workers put it) plastic? Her acting is fine; her physical appearance simply does not match the characters mental and physical status.

Janeway has another hallucination that the maid in her holonovel attacks her and tells her to leave. Kes again sees the woman’s attacks, but the scene pans out to Tuvok and the Doctor trying to help Janeway in sickbay. Kes tells Janeway that her telepathic abilities are making her feel like there is an alien invader on the ship, or that everyone was being affected.

As the Bothan are attacking, Janeway goes back to the bridge and the crew realizes that the Bothan are making themselves appear to each member of the crew as someone that crew member loved. The energy field from the ship is making people think that they are seeing someone they once knew. Tuvok is briefly stumped when his “wife” shows up on the screen; he even shows a little bit of emotion; it is somewhat endearing. B’Elanna has a heated affair with Chakotay; Paris gets humiliated by his father. It’s interesting that early on we see her reacting physically to the hallucinations, but everyone just freezes as they get the full attack. (This can probably be explained by the proximity to the Bothan ship, which must be somewhere nearby, despite the three attack vessels being hallucinations also…)

We see more power out of Kes. I think she is an under-estimated character. She seems to be developing her telepathic powers and her character seems stronger. She is a little more upfront and outspoken. She is also able to see through the ruses of the alien-enforced hallucinations. It was interesting to watch her fight the fake Neelix in the last scene. Good juxtaposition of their characters’ usual interaction.

Favorite part: Kes’ character development.

Least favorite part: The makeup/costumes in this episode. People should have messed up clothes and not perfect hair and makeup after what they had went through.

[Qutluch]

Tattoo

We get to see Chakotay as a kid…I pictured something different; perhaps not as cocky and uncaring. While on an away mission on a moon Chakotay finds a Rubber Tree People carving in the ground similar to one he found as a child. I am pretty sure that Ensign Wildman’s sciatic nerve pain could have been fixed by the Doctor. He was kind of an ass to her. Kes explains to the Doctor that his behavior was not proper, and that she wished he could just once feel pain or sickness so he could have empathy.

Chakotay leads an away team down to the moon to further explore the markings that he found. Meanwhile, back on the ship the Doctor programmed himself to have the flu in order to understand his patients. Back on the planet Tuvok and Neelix have a nice moment when they talk about breeding orchids; Tuvok almost sounds prideful. Then after a brief flashback by Chakotay, pertaining to when he wanted to leave his tribe, Neelix is attacked by a bird that resembles a hawk and Chakotay finds a tribal building similar to that of his flashback. While in sickbay Neelix is concerned about the Doctor who is quite sick at this point and rather moody.

While on the planet Chakotay feels that there are people around them and commands that Tuvok and B’Elanna disarm themselves in order to show that they are not going to hurt them. Then he has a flashback to when he met descendants of the Rubber Tree People with his father. His flashback ends when a storm appears. At one point Chakotay looks up and sees a tree falling and rather than diving out of the way or running further he looks up, screams, and puts his hands over his hand as he gets hit by the tree…really?

The Doctor calls Janeway freaking out when his flu lasted longer than he programmed it. Kes made it last longer because there is a difference knowing when you are going to get better and not knowing when you would get better. Why do they have to land the Voyager on the planet? Couldn’t they just send down one of their endless-supplies of shuttle crafts? Would it really be worth risking the ship to save Chakotay? Also, the last time they landed the ship they went to immediate blue alert, not this time though….

On the planet Chakotay meets the other people and they have the same tattoo as he does. These people explain the culturally history of his people. The scene of how they show half of Chakotay’s face and then half of the other person’s face was rather touching.

Back on the ship, which is riveting toward the planet because of the simulated storm, no one is messed up, nor a hair out of place. Again, I call bull crap. As Chakotay is saying goodbye to his ancestors we learn more about why he joined the Maquis. He joined to honor his father and protect his home. I am happy that we were able to have an episode about Chakotay and actually learn a little about his family and cultural background.

Favorite part: The Doctor had some great lines: “She [Kes] is far more devious than I ever expected!” Also, when Harry Kim comes in complaining that he isn’t feeling very good, the doctor replies: “Neither do I, but you don’t hear ME complaining about it!” (Finally someone told Kim to stop complaining and man up!!!)

Also, the touching scene where Chakotay’s father is given a tattoo by his descendants of the Rubber Tree people. Now we know why Chakotay has his tattoo.

Least favorite part: Chakotay’s gets hit by the tree scene. No bumps, bruises, any limping, his hair is still perfect, and his girly scream before getting hit by the tree was a disappointment.

[Qutluch]

Again, not part of my review, but hysterical!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YuodWzQkM0

[teya]

Nothing like turning on Voyager and finding out that you--as an indigenous American--are not completely human. You're descended from space aliens who needed to help you out genetically.

Horrible, horrible, horrible episode.

[Qutluch]

I agree with you teya; there were a lot of plot holes in Tattoo. There were a few parts of the episode I liked though. I did like the side story about the Doctor with the flu, and it was kind of cool to find out what Chakotay's Tattoo meant.

[teya]

It's not just plot holes. It's offensive to turn on Star Trek of all things, that oh-so-tolerant series based on the premise that all men are equals in our enlightened future, only to find out that of all the people on the planet, you and your family (me and my family) have been singled out to be "not human."

The bitter irony is that that was the very reason colonizers & the US Govt used as the basis for genocide. Indians weren't human.

And the really pathetic thing is that Jeri Taylor (she of the quick trip to Maya.net for "research") probably meant it as a compliment. Talking about fracking clueless.

It's just the beginning of the endless assaults on indigenous American heritage...

[Sindatur]

teya wrote:

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It's not just plot holes. It's offensive to turn on Star Trek of all things, that oh-so-tolerant series based on the premise that all men are equals in our enlightened future, only to find out that of all the people on the planet, you and your family (me and my family) have been singled out to be "not human."

The bitter irony is that that was the very reason colonizers & the US Govt used as the basis for genocide. Indians weren't human.

And the really pathetic thing is that Jeri Taylor (she of the quick trip to Maya.net for "research") probably meant it as a compliment. Talking about fracking clueless.

It's just the beginning of the endless assaults on indigenous American heritage...

Hmmmmm...I need to rewatch this one? I don't remember it establishing Chakotay's Fore-Fathers as Non-Humans, I thought it only established them as guided by the Aliens?

[teya]

Nope. They were given a "genetic inheritance."

And the Rubber Tree People in the 24th century rainforest had cranial ridges.

Now that's a stupid plothole. Unknown tribe of RFAs managed to survive to the 24th century without detection. Sounds like a Weekly World News cover story to me.

Perhaps I'm related to Bat Boy?

[Tiberius]

teya wrote:

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Nope. They were given a "genetic inheritance."

And the Rubber Tree People in the 24th century rainforest had cranial ridges.

Now that's a stupid plothole. Unknown tribe of RFAs managed to survive to the 24th century without detection. Sounds like a Weekly World News cover story to me.

Perhaps I'm related to Bat Boy?

I don't see that "Genetic inheritance" means "not Human."

What if it was correcting a flaw in their genes that would make the susceptible to a disease? Would that make them not Human?

[JanewayRulz!]

What TNG ep was it that showed all humanoid life in the milkyway galaxy was basically seeded by some master race? The DNA of the different races gave a clue/map (?) to their orginators.

In that sense, we All... Rubber Tree people, Anglo Saxons, Klingons, Cardassians, Ferengi are basically a genetic experiment and not "begotten" by the almighty.

[teya]

JanewayRulz! wrote:

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What TNG ep was it that showed all humanoid life in the milkyway galaxy was basically seeded by some master race? The DNA of the different races gave a clue/map (?) to their orginators.

In that sense, we All... Rubber Tree people, Anglo Saxons, Klingons, Cardassians, Ferengi are basically a genetic experiment and not "begotten" by the almighty.

But after that initial seeding, you all managed to evolve on your own--without the assistance of other aliens.

Only us "special people" needed additional genetic assistance.

[Lynx]

teya wrote:

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Nothing like turning on Voyager and finding out that you--as an indigenous American--are not completely human. You're descended from space aliens who needed to help you out genetically.

Horrible, horrible, horrible episode.

I totally agree to your comments. That was downright insulting.

If they wanted to give us something about Chakotay's background, they could have done like this:

Chakotay in a shuttlecraf, out to survey a planet for minerals have some trouble with the shuttle and crash lands in an area which looks like a Central American rain forest. While struggling to survive and get in touch with Voyager, he encounters some aliens whose way of life reminds him of his youth, therefore the flashbacks to his earlier life. They see Chakotay as a hostile enemy, since they are used to aliens in spaceships who come to raid the planet for its resources but Chakotay convinces those people that he is no enemy and with their help he finds a way to an area where he can contact Voyager.

No "Sky Spirits" rubbish or the crap we saw in "Tattoo", only glimpses of Chakotay's background.

And yes, they could have bothered to give him a background based on a real tribe (the Maya, for example), not some fantasy Hollywood stereotype thing.

By the way, nice to have you back, Teya. Haven't seen you here for a while.