I went to see him wrestle once just out of curiosity. It was AMAZING when he took the ring!! He stood there for a good 10mins as flashbulbs went off all over the stadium! He was like a god to them! With that type of fan loyalty and adoration, I can see why they asked him(even if it was only a cameo) to appear on Voyager. I can just see thousands of wresting fans having The Rock and Seven of Nine posters on their walls side by side. However, I can understand why Berman saw it that way. How many wrestlers turned actors can really act and have had truly successful acting careers?
Collective: Reminded me of DS9's Valiant, with the terribly annoying child actors. In this episode there were less of them, and not every child actor was annoying....mainly just the lead drone....The premise wasn't bad, but it was rather dull. How much more do they need to humanize the Borg? I guess I'm not opposed to humanizing them if it's done in an interesting and unique way, ala Survival Instinct.... 4/10 Spirit Folk: Fun, exciting, and full of laughs! Great follow up to Fair Haven! 7/10 EDIT: I've been lax with my scoring....changed Spirit Folk from 8 to 7, Collective from 5 to 4.
Not a favorite of mine(.and I think I'm one of the few Trek fans online that don't find kids annoying, except Wesley) I liked how the Borg kids were kinda like "Children of the Corn" in their creepiness. I think the only good parts are that it introduces Icheb into the series and how Seven finally gets how fucked up she is/was being assimilated as a child in how the lead kid drone mirrors her from "Survival Instinct" Favorite scene is the Doc. flinging open the church doors: "SINNERS!!!!"
@exodus: You know, I don't mind children in sci fi as much as some people. I enjoyed Wesley, and young Anakin in The Phantom Menace didn't rub me the wrong way like I guess he did a lot of other people. It's the really bratty and stubborn ones that bug me, and the lead drone in Collective with his extremely dim witted and demanding attitude really pushed it.... @tighr: Sorry, haven't gone back and watched it yet. I'll slate it as the next episode I watch, so you should be getting a review pretty soon!
I think your criteria for what makes a good episode are significantly different from mine. Which is cool...at least someone's appreciating the episodes I find...unsavory.
If you mean "filler" in the sense that it was a disposable episodic adventure, wouldn't at least seventy-five percent of the series falls into that category?
Sorry for the confusion, the key adjective was "meaningless", not "filler". I'm totally cool with filler episodes, and actually its probably more like 95% of the series is filler. Very few episodes when you think about it actually advanced the plot. Some of my favorite episodes are filler. However, as I said: key word was meaningless. This was an episode about a planet that wrestles. They introduce a wrestler. Our hero is forced to wrestle. Then the episode is over. At least TOS "Arena" had a point: Kirk and the Gorn were fighting as proxy for the lives of their crew. Here, it was meaningless entertainment, just like WWE.
You Voyager folks are seriously the best! Why can't my fellow TNG and DS9 peeps be as fun and awesome? And speaking of awesome Voyager folks, whatever happened to You_Will_Fail? I miss her lively comments and encouragement to keep watching the show.