Rewatching Voyager

[Thomas Eugene]

I would predict a positively joyful response from Mr Paris incoming very soon haha

Archimago, you are a genius ... Or a clairvoyant who's looked into his crystal ball ...
In any case, I like what tomalak wrote albeit I like SCORPION for partly different reasons.
(And DEADLOCK is my second fav episode so you're all right by me ... Wish it had been a two-parter, then it could really compete with SCORPION.)

Scorpion

Well, here we are. The Season 3 finale and the Season 4 premiere to Voyager. The episode that gave us Species 8472, really reintroduced the borg, and made an alien race more scary than the Borg.

I've mentioned this before in this thread, but I think overall, Scorpion is my favorite episode of Voyager, with part 1 just beating out Part 2, but both being at the top. People always talk about Best of Both Worlds being Trek's biggest cliffhanger and having that OMG moment at the end with Riker telling Mr. Worf to Fire on Picard. Well, the problem I've always had with that episode is when I rewatch it, it's still a damn great finale, but it's a little overrated and the reason for that is we know Picard is going to survive. Now I watch that episode for the Riker moments, the music, and because it is such a big show, but the Cliffhanger has lost something over the years.

I compare that episode with Scorpion because I think I find Scorpion much more rewatchable. I mean take a look at part 1 first of all. If there was ever a reason for Voyager on blu ray, Scorpion I is it. This was just as CGI was starting to gain prominence, and what we got in this episode is still mind blowing today. We get 15 borg ships flying almost through Voyager, we get a truely alien race in 8472, and a scary one at that, we get the bioships which look so cool, and then the cliffhanger is the ultimate oh my god moment: Janeway has made an allience with the Borg and the Bioships combined their resources and destroyed an entire planet, in one of the best looking Visual Effect shots the Franchise has ever seen. I was too young to remember Best of Both Worlds, but I remember the Scorpion two parter, and I was counting down the days to Part 2. I remember that Wednesday night of the Season premiere and couldn't wait, and when it started I was instantly glued to the set.

Part 2 is a little bit below part 1, but it still has some awesome moments. For one, I loved the look of fluidic space. You had this blurry shot and the bioships flying through it was some nicely done work. I would love to know how this did this episode, with CGI in it's infancy still. That space looked really convincing. We also got a nice shot of the borg being sucked out of the ship, which was a precurser to Enterprise I think.

These episodes also provided some great character moments. I made a mention about the "Road to Scorpion" because these episodes had many callbacks to before. We had that scene with Janeway and Chakotay in the ready room, somewhat calling back to any other Janeway and Chakotay moment (Namely resolutions). We had Chakotay being linked to 7 of 9, calling back to Unity. And then there was Kes, who's telepathic powers have really grown and escalated with Species 8472's arrival. Her communication with them was eerie and really spoke to how scary 8472 were. Everytime I see these episodes though, I really wonder about Janeway's decision to make the alliance and if it was the right one. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but 8472 did attack first when they almost killed Harry. Also, how was Voyager to know first hand that the Borg had started the War. Maybe this was a Prime Directive issue, but what should they have done, added 6 months to the journey? Also, when they tried to communicate with 8472, they said they wanted the weak to parish. It seemed like In the Flesh and Hope and Fear kind of retconned these great aliens, which is a bit of a shame. Would have loved to spend more time with them.

We also had the music of Scorpion and I have to ask, why isn't there a soundtrack to this episode yet. I really hope to see LaLa Land records at Star Trek Las Vegas and maybe buy the Voyager score that should be coming out because the music really made these two episodes movie quality. Heck, I wouldn't mind if these two episodes were stitched together a la Best of Both Worlds on Blu Ray and made a 90 minute movie. I love the main theme (What you hear on the Season 4 DVD sets), and just the action music was some of the best music of the McCarthy/Chattaway/Berman era. It's a shame Voyager got treated badly in terms of the music because there really should be a soundtrack to Scorpion out already.


I know I'm rambling and this is probably the longest review I've given, but I do think this is Trek at it's very best. We have action, great visual effects, great character moments, the introduction to 7 of 9, (Who I will talk more about after I see The Gift), and just two really great episodes. This might have been Voyager at it's very best and yes, I do think these two episodes on the whole are better than Best of Both Worlds.

I agree with everything - still SCORPION is partly different in my book. I can see you attribute a lot of importance to CGI - that doesn't really matter so much for me. It's nice to have this kind of thing occasionally but for me this is not particularly important and it's definitely not important in the case of Voyager, the essence of which for me is the family feeling - a sense of belonging - and not how it's done technically/technologically. But it's good to know that SCORPION has succeeded in this respect as well.

Voyager is the big borg show and although we've had hints at this in previous episodes, this arc actually starts here. We've only seen a dead borg drone in BLOOD FEVER and the characters of UNITY had long ceased to be borg any more and had become ex-drones. Which means that the "real" borg story only starts with SCORPION and then stays with us for the rest of the show. For me, the borg are the second best villain in the world of Star Trek (Voyager), perceded only by the Hirogen (love those guys !). A lot of people often accuse Voyager of having given us too many borg stories, of having muddled long-standing borg tenets and of neutering the borg.

To me, none of this is true. First off, the borg are so interesting I could have watched twice as many borg episodes on Voyager as we got. Second, I think those stories are hugely entertaining and it's easy to find explanations for the changes, such as the fact that Seven knows the Collective a lot more than anyone else or that it was the producers intention to get us acquainted with the borg in more detail because the knowledge Star Fleet in the Alpha Quadrant had of the borg was sporadic and by far not as in-depth as when you get to their heart in their very home in the DQ. Third, I've never felt they are not scary enough. Any time our characters have set foot on a borg ship, I've always enjoyed every second of it but at the same time I've also feared for their safety. To me, the borg reamined exciting and frightening throughout the show.

SCORPION is my favourite episode for a number of reasons. This episode is about the borg - in great detail. It's also about their biggest enemy, who turns out to be the Milky Way Galaxy's biggest enemy, too. The viewer is transported into the heart of their conflict and is immediately hooked. Species 8472 turns out to be even more dangerous than the borg - surprising, isn't it? You'd've thought that by now you've encountered the most dangerous villain but now you learn you haven't. Then their conflict gets more complicated partly because Voyager is added to the equation. That changes everything: who presents the biggest danger and how to beat them? To answer that question, Janeway finds herself in a predicament. She has to take someone's side. She can't see the solution at first but later, it presents itself. With the help of Leonardo da Vinci, my fav holographic simulation on Voyager. His intervention is not direct - it's only a few shadows created by Leonardo that give Janeway an idea. Then Janeway finds herself at odds with Chakotay. Then she ends up on a borg cube. Enter Seven of Nine. Who would have guessed at that point that she'd become a regular?

The list goes on and on. But really, to me the best thing about this episode is that Kes is still with them and Seven is already with them. The idea of having 10 main characters on Voyager is tempting. It sounds like a dream. It is a shame I have to wake up from that dream in the next episode.

Some of the most memorable moments for me are shown in the following desktop wallpapers:

 

[Archimago]

Archimago, you are a genius ... Or a clairvoyant who's looked into his crystal ball ...
In any case, I like what tomalak wrote albeit I like SCORPION for partly different reasons.
(And DEADLOCK is my second fav episode so you're all right by me ... Wish it had been a two-parter, then it could really compete with SCORPION.)



I agree with everything - still SCORPION is partly different in my book. I can see you attribute a lot of importance to CGI - that doesn't really matter so much for me. It's nice to have this kind of thing occasionally but for me this is not particularly important and it's definitely not important in the case of Voyager, the essence of which for me is the family feeling - a sense of belonging - and not how it's done technically/technologically. But it's good to know that SCORPION has succeeded in this respect as well.

Voyager is the big borg show and although we've had hints at this in previous episodes, this arc actually starts here. We've only seen a dead borg drone in BLOOD FEVER and the characters of UNITY had long ceased to be borg any more and had become ex-drones. Which means that the "real" borg story only starts with SCORPION and then stays with us for the rest of the show. For me, the borg are the second best villain in the world of Star Trek (Voyager), perceded only by the Hirogen (love those guys !). A lot of people often accuse Voyager of having given us too many borg stories, of having muddled long-standing borg tenets and of neutering the borg.

To me, none of this is true. First off, the borg are so interesting I could have watched twice as many borg episodes on Voyager as we got. Second, I think those stories are hugely entertaining and it's easy to find explanations for the changes, such as the fact that Seven knows the Collective a lot more than anyone else or that it was the producers intention to get us acquainted with the borg in more detail because the knowledge Star Fleet in the Alpha Quadrant had of the borg was sporadic and by far not as in-depth as when you get to their heart in their very home in the DQ. Third, I've never felt they are not scary enough. Any time our characters have set foot on a borg ship, I've always enjoyed every second of it but at the same time I've also feared for their safety. To me, the borg reamined exciting and frightening throughout the show.

SCORPION is my favourite episode for a number of reasons. This episode is about the borg - in great detail. It's also about their biggest enemy, who turns out to be the Milky Way Galaxy's biggest enemy, too. The viewer is transported into the heart of their conflict and is immediately hooked. Species 8472 turns out to be even more dangerous than the borg - surprising, isn't it? You'd've thought that by now you've encountered the most dangerous villain but now you learn you haven't. Then their conflict gets more complicated partly because Voyager is added to the equation. That changes everything: who presents the biggest danger and how to beat them? To answer that question, Janeway finds herself in a predicament. She has to take someone's side. She can't see the solution at first but later, it presents itself. With the help of Leonardo da Vinci, my fav holographic simulation on Voyager. His intervention is not direct - it's only a few shadows created by Leonardo that give Janeway an idea. Then Janeway finds herself at odds with Chakotay. Then she ends up on a borg cube. Enter Seven of Nine. Who would have guessed at that point that she'd become a regular?

The list goes on and on. But really, to me the best thing about this episode is that Kes is still with them and Seven is already with them. The idea of having 10 main characters on Voyager is tempting. It sounds like a dream. It is a shame I have to wake up from that dream in the next episode.

Some of the most memorable moments for me are shown in the following desktop wallpapers:

Haha wonder how I knew..

I particularly liked the 2nd and last wallpapes you posted you have a favorite?

Voyager has randomly apperead on netflix for me and SGU has dissapered ; ( but a good trade off overall. I'm gonna watch it through like Tomalak counting a few things

I mean I think Voyager's security teams are possibly the worst ever. So I'm gonna count how many times they fail and how many times they succeed, Becuase i would've thought Tuvok should train his teams well but i only ever seem to see them fail. Anything else anybody wants counted up as I go through?

 

[tomalak301]

@Thomas Eugene

Great write up and awesome desktop photos. I bring up CGI because the first thing I notice watching these episodes is the visual effects. From that opening teaser where the big ships are destroyed you are pretty much hooked right in. I love what you say though about janeway's predicament and how things keep escalating. It's like I asked if Janeway had a choice in aligning herself with the Borg. The Janeway Chakotay stuff was some of the best bits of this two parter.

 

[stardream]

I really liked the cliff hanger scene...the Borg cube warping away with Voyager caught in its tractor beam...so unexpected.

 

[tomalak301]

I really liked the cliff hanger scene...the Borg cube warping away with Voyager caught in its tractor beam...so unexpected.

I love when the bioships destroy the planet. Now that was cool and unexpected.

 

[Thomas Eugene]

Hello SCORPION-lovers, thanks for the likes.

@Thomas Eugene

Great write up and awesome desktop photos. I bring up CGI because the first thing I notice watching these episodes is the visual effects. From that opening teaser where the big ships are destroyed you are pretty much hooked right in. I love what you say though about janeway's predicament and how things keep escalating. It's like I asked if Janeway had a choice in aligning herself with the Borg. The Janeway Chakotay stuff was some of the best bits of this two parter.

I have actually made 18 wallpapers for SCORPION and all of them contain some kind of quotation from the episode(s). If you look at them in the order I made them, they mesh into a whole and tell the story of SCORPION.

Thanks for liking my write-up. I like to express myself verbally when I feel I have something to contribute - but really, wallpapers are my forte. You know the old saying - a picture is worth a thousand words.
The conflict between Janeway and Chakotay is an interesting aspect of the story - still, I usually perfer the harmony that exists between these two characters. No matter what the disagreement is about, you know you can count on them making it up later on. In this episode, Janeway came up with a particularly brainy (brainy? is that the right word?) resolution to the conflict. You just have to make the other person understand that you are on the same side - even if your approach to the problem might be different:

Haha wonder how I knew..

I particularly liked the 2nd and last wallpapes you posted you have a favorite?

Voyager has randomly apperead on netflix for me and SGU has dissapered ; ( but a good trade off overall. I'm gonna watch it through like Tomalak counting a few things

I mean I think Voyager's security teams are possibly the worst ever. So I'm gonna count how many times they fail and how many times they succeed, Becuase i would've thought Tuvok should train his teams well but i only ever seem to see them fail. Anything else anybody wants counted up as I go through?

Is Tuvok really so incompetent? Might be. I've never noticed. He looked like a good teacher/trainer in LEARNING CURVE.

I don't have a particular favourite among my SCORPION wallpapers but if I absolutely had to choose one, I'd go for the first one.
First of all, the quotation. It's only a part of what Leonardo says and every time we get to this bit in the epsiode, I just start pricking up my ears:
"There are times, Catarina, when I find myself transfixed by a shadow on the wall, or the splashing of water against a stone. I stare at it, the hours pass. The world around me drops away, replaced by worlds being created and destroyed by my imagination. A way to focus the mind."
Secondly, look at that beard, that facial expression, that ... intelligence which is radiating form da Vinci. It is simply perfect! Gimli, the dwarf from The Lord of the Rings was an excellent choice for the character. Did you know that John Rhys-Davies was actually offered the role? He is supposed to have been a keen follower of Star Trek so the producers simply asked him to play the character.
Who was Kate Mulgrew's idea in the first place. One of the producers (I guess it must have been Brannon Braga) asked her something along the lines of "Where in the history of humankind did science meet humanities the most prominently?" And Mulgrew is supposed to have said: "Leonardo da Vinci". (I wonder if Braga's answer to that was "essatto") So the idea of my favourite Renaissance hologramme was born.

Finally, here's a wallpaper to complement Chakotay's story of the scorpion and the fox - explaining at the same time why this episode is called SCORPION:

 

[tomalak301]

^Very nice.

The Gift

Through the excitement of Scorpion, I didn't really write too much about the newest member of the crew, Seven of Nine. I'd like to think if I were to keep the Best of Both Worlds analogy going, The Gift is Voyager's version of Family. We deal with the aftermath of the Species 8472 event and this episode allows us to catch our breath and meet Seven. Over the years from the original viewing, I've become a big fan of Seven. Yes she got the criticism of Barbie of Borg and it was a way to sex up the show, but I always thought the writers took it a lot deeper than that, talking about themes of individuality, maybe a little PTSD, and how to adjust to a life that was robbed from you at a young age. In a way, this is almost like finally coming out to the world when you have just been living in a singular room for most of your life. I watched the movie Room earlier this year, and there are issues in that movie that are similar to the development we see from Seven in these first few episodes. In that movie, a little boy only knows about a tiny little room and wants to go back there because it is considered his sanctuary. In Voyager, Seven is severed from the collective but wants to go back because that's the only life she has ever known.

I'm going on a tangent here, but my point is there are dimensions to Seven's character that run deeper than what fans criticized her for and it really does start in The Gift. On this rewatch, I'm really looking forward to exploring the complexities of Seven this time around, and what Jeri Ryan (Who I can't wait to hear talk at the convention in August) brings to the role.

The other part of this episode is a little more controversial, and that is the Kes story. Now I'm a big fan of Kes, and I didn't like the way they treated Lien at the end, but if there was a creative way to go, this was it. She didn't die, she didn't destroy Voyager, she just fully developed and gave Voyager the gift of 10 years closer to home. I really like Lien here because her calm innocence is on display in spades. She's basically saying goodbye to everyone, especially Janeway during her conversation. I wished she had a talk with Paris though. It seemed like other than Neelix, Paris was who she got the closest to and it would have been nice to see them part ways somehow. Still, while I don't agree with what went on behind the scenes, I am glad we got some character development for Kes in the last 3+ years. I am not looking forward to Fury though.

Anyway, overall, good episode saying goodbye to an old cast member and bringing in the new one. I really do wish we would have had some scenes with Kes and Seven though. That would have been something else. Maybe instead of Janeway, have Kes teach Seven in the humanities, or at least how to be more nice to people.

 

[Thomas Eugene]

^Very nice.

The Gift

Through the excitement of Scorpion, I didn't really write too much about the newest member of the crew, Seven of Nine. I'd like to think if I were to keep the Best of Both Worlds analogy going, The Gift is Voyager's version of Family. We deal with the aftermath of the Species 8472 event and this episode allows us to catch our breath and meet Seven. Over the years from the original viewing, I've become a big fan of Seven. Yes she got the criticism of Barbie of Borg and it was a way to sex up the show, but I always thought the writers took it a lot deeper than that, talking about themes of individuality, maybe a little PTSD, and how to adjust to a life that was robbed from you at a young age. In a way, this is almost like finally coming out to the world when you have just been living in a singular room for most of your life. I watched the movie Room earlier this year, and there are issues in that movie that are similar to the development we see from Seven in these first few episodes. In that movie, a little boy only knows about a tiny little room and wants to go back there because it is considered his sanctuary. In Voyager, Seven is severed from the collective but wants to go back because that's the only life she has ever known.

I'm going on a tangent here, but my point is there are dimensions to Seven's character that run deeper than what fans criticized her for and it really does start in The Gift. On this rewatch, I'm really looking forward to exploring the complexities of Seven this time around, and what Jeri Ryan (Who I can't wait to hear talk at the convention in August) brings to the role.

The other part of this episode is a little more controversial, and that is the Kes story. Now I'm a big fan of Kes, and I didn't like the way they treated Lien at the end, but if there was a creative way to go, this was it. She didn't die, she didn't destroy Voyager, she just fully developed and gave Voyager the gift of 10 years closer to home. I really like Lien here because her calm innocence is on display in spades. She's basically saying goodbye to everyone, especially Janeway during her conversation. I wished she had a talk with Paris though. It seemed like other than Neelix, Paris was who she got the closest to and it would have been nice to see them part ways somehow. Still, while I don't agree with what went on behind the scenes, I am glad we got some character development for Kes in the last 3+ years. I am not looking forward to Fury though.

Anyway, overall, good episode saying goodbye to an old cast member and bringing in the new one. I really do wish we would have had some scenes with Kes and Seven though. That would have been something else. Maybe instead of Janeway, have Kes teach Seven in the humanities, or at least how to be more nice to people.

Again, I agree with everything, esp. with the bit about Kes's leaving. If she had to go, it was done very tastefully. I understand people's frustration who are die-hard Kes-lovers but this was certainly a nice way of saying goodbye to her (FURY is horrible).

What I don't understand is when people keep blaming Seven or even Jeri Ryan for this change. First of all, she had nothing to do with it. Secondly, although the loss of Kes sucks, we have a super character here who will shake up Voyager a little.
Not that I don't enjoy the first three seasons. Quite the contrary, actually, I love them. But just because the tone of the show is changing, there's no need to place the blame where it doesn't belong. This episode is what we call in Hungarian a "one of my eyes is crying, the other one is laughing" type. I don't know the appropriate English expression - any help here would be hot.

I love the scene with Janeway and Kes and I actually love every scene in this episode in which Kes is involved. Her mediatation session with Tuvok ... her saying goodbye to the Doctor and Neelix ... all very beautiful. Seven at this point will take a bit of getting used to but thank God we already know that she'll become one of Voyager's highs.

Of course, as on so many other occasions, it's always Janeway who sums up the essence of the episode with her spot-on remark:

 

[borgboy]

Kes and Seven are my favorite two characters, I love them both. Considering that Kim is useless while Kes is interesting and that the gender ratio is three to five, it would've made more sense to get rid of Kim and keep Kes and Seven.

 

[tomalak301]

Day of Honor

This is the episode that really kicked the Paris/Torres relationship in high gear. We get Torres confessing his love to Tom and it sent shippers of this relationship into a tizzy.

This is a great episode and one I've gained more appreciation with over time. This is a Torres episode, sure, but this was also the first episode with Seven as we will get used to for the next 3+ years. She is having a hard time fitting in, and the crew's reaction to her is understandable. I loved seeing that dynamic play out, as well as Seven and Janeway talking about unexpected compassion in the ready room. It led to Seven coming up with a compromise, showing she can really be a part of this crew.

Torres is also great here, as a character who is having the worst day of her life. It is fun watching Dawson take lead on episodes because she brings it every time. Her trying to participate in the ceremony was great, her break down to tears was emotional, and then we get the big reveal.

Nemesis

I find this episode extremely underrated. It's almost like the First Contact syndrome from TNG where because there was a movie with the same name, it kind of nullified (See what I did there ) the episode. I love this episode for a multitude of reasons, the main one being the social commentary on war and the propaganda tool being used to recruit. We see a friendly race and the words they use add to the power of the propaganda, and then we get that great twist at the end that it was really the Kraten who are nice while the Vori are not. Watching Chakotay being brainwashed was really interesting and Beltran nailed this episode really well. I just wish it was more liked amongst Voyager fans, because I don't think it is.

 

[tomalak301]

Revulsion

This episode is creepy and a bit uncomfortable. The Doctor portion was a precursor to Flesh and Blood (or so it seemed) and the hologram guy was kind of not all there. The Harry plot was uncomfortable because once again Harry is falling for a woman he knows he's not going to get. Seven is too good for Harry, and I'm glad this plot didn't continue and that The Doctor ended up teaching Seven in the humanities. I think the only thing I really liked about this episode was it was the start of Astrometrics, which will become really important as the series goes on, as well as giving Seven a position on the ship.

 

[Thomas Eugene]

Day of Honor

This is the episode that really kicked the Paris/Torres relationship in high gear. We get Torres confessing his love to Tom and it sent shippers of this relationship into a tizzy.

This is a great episode and one I've gained more appreciation with over time. This is a Torres episode, sure, but this was also the first episode with Seven as we will get used to for the next 3+ years. She is having a hard time fitting in, and the crew's reaction to her is understandable. I loved seeing that dynamic play out, as well as Seven and Janeway talking about unexpected compassion in the ready room. It led to Seven coming up with a compromise, showing she can really be a part of this crew.

Torres is also great here, as a character who is having the worst day of her life. It is fun watching Dawson take lead on episodes because she brings it every time. Her trying to participate in the ceremony was great, her break down to tears was emotional, and then we get the big reveal.

Whenever I think of this episode, the first image that springs to mind is how they are floating in space ... running out of oxygen ... and then the great confession of love. It is one of the (many) elevating moments of Voyager for me:

Of course, galaxy's best boy completely rocks as usual, and this is one of the many episodes, again, in which one of the main characters gets one or two emotional sentences - Tom in this case:
"I can't imagine a time I wouldn't have found you fascinating."
This guy really knows how to woo someone with compliments. And the best thing about them is that he means them. As their relationship progresses, this will become even better.
B'Elanna's struggle with the worst day of her life is also an interesting aspect of the episode. But really, can a day on which you declare your love for your future husband be called the worst day of your life?

Nemesis

I find this episode extremely underrated. It's almost like the First Contact syndrome from TNG where because there was a movie with the same name, it kind of nullified (See what I did there ) the episode. I love this episode for a multitude of reasons, the main one being the social commentary on war and the propaganda tool being used to recruit. We see a friendly race and the words they use add to the power of the propaganda, and then we get that great twist at the end that it was really the Kraten who are nice while the Vori are not. Watching Chakotay being brainwashed was really interesting and Beltran nailed this episode really well. I just wish it was more liked amongst Voyager fans, because I don't think it is.

NEMESIS is not one of my favourite episodes, but it's definitely not a bad one. I agree with everything you wrote - however, the reason I don't like it as much is simply because this is about Chakotay and a lot of guys we had never seen before or will never see after the end of this story and the other main characters make too little appearance in this one. It kind of reminds me of THE CHUTE from the previous season - also not one of my favourite episodes.
Overall the story was not bad - and at least there were quite a few good-looking guys in this one . The one in my wallpaper in the bottom left hand corner is NOT one of them, LOL!

Revulsion

This episode is creepy and a bit uncomfortable. The Doctor portion was a precursor to Flesh and Blood (or so it seemed) and the hologram guy was kind of not all there. The Harry plot was uncomfortable because once again Harry is falling for a woman he knows he's not going to get. Seven is too good for Harry, and I'm glad this plot didn't continue and that The Doctor ended up teaching Seven in the humanities. I think the only thing I really liked about this episode was it was the start of Astrometrics, which will become really important as the series goes on, as well as giving Seven a position on the ship.

I like REVULSION, if for no other reason, then for the fact that there are memorable quotes in this one, too. This time, they come from Seven, whose moments most people remember over the long term and also from the Doctor, whose lines are at least as good as Seven's but most people tend to forget them after the episode is over:

1) "The Captain has authorised me to recruit someone with advanced medical training to help out in sickbay. Unfortunately, the most qualified crewmember is you."

2) EMH: You seem to have become good friends.
TORRES: Let's get one thing straight. I don't appreciate you or anyone else speculating about the kind of friendships I have. Or who I have them with.
EMH: Sorry, I didn't realise I'd struck a nerve. Perhaps you'd like a tranquillizer.

3) TORRES: I'd like to check your mobile emitter, make sure you made it through the transport okay.
EMH: For a Klingon you have a decent bedside manner.
TORRES: Thanks.
EMH: I wonder what kind of bedside manner Mister Paris will exhibit. That was a rhetorical question, Lieutenant.

4) EMH: I'm detecting elevated hormonal levels. If you two don't take it easy I'll have to declare a medical emergency.
PARIS: If you'll excuse me, I have to go check on Harry. I hear he's having a nervous breakdown. It's a long story.
EMH: Not so fast, Mister Paris. You are going to help me sterilise every square millimetre of this sickbay. No doubt you've left your oily residue on every hypospray, your sloughed secretions on every console. Just kidding. In fact, I've had a change of heart about my fastidiousness. A little clutter never hurt anyone. Sickbay should have a more organic touch, don't you think, to help our patients feel more at home?
PARIS: What's gotten into him?
TORRES: It's a long story.

Etc. The list goes on and on.
Seven was really the innocent babe on this one. She was gerat - as usual. My only regret is that this was the last episode we'd seen her wearing her silver catsuit. It's a real shame - even as a gay man I can see that it was her best outfit. However, as far as a know, there were size problems (don't ask me which parts of her body were affected ), and obviuosly the solution was not to readjust her silver catsuit but to come up with a new one:

(PS: You might have noticed that I've had quite a few offerings for the last episodes. The reason for this is that when I started making these wallpapers, I was a bit confused at first and didn't understand a lot of things about GIMP2 [that's the name of the application I use for making these desktop wallpapers]. Then later when I was getting the hang of it, I decided to start from CARETAKER and go episode by episode. But then I realized that in this way it'd take years before I got to Seven of Nine, so I changed my mind and made wallpapers for a first season episode then a fouth season one. Then I went back to the first season for the next episode and then back to the fourth season again. Later I realized that I should take random episodes from different seasons but I only realized this after a time, when I was approaching the tenth episode in both seasons. Which means that for these seasons I have a lot of wallpapers so in the next few days I'll be sharing some with you. /You couldn't see most of my Season 1 pictures because at the beginning of this thread, tomalak didn't write about every single episode - but if someone's interested in a few of those, please let me know./)

 

[stardream]

I have often said that I like B'Elanna the character a lot but I am not a fan of most of her episodes. I do, however like Day of Honor. A day that started out so badly for her but ended up being one of the best days of her life. I re-watch that one often, especially when I'm having a bad day myself. I liked the fact that it was B'Elanna who told Tom she loved him first...rather than the other way around which is the way we usually see it.

Something that is rarely discussed is Tom offering his friendship to Seven is that act of compassion that causes her to rethink some things that she believed to be true of humans.

Revulsion was supposed to come right after Day of Honor. Not sure why they got switched in the airing schedule but that's how I watch it. It's an ok piece. I wish they could have 'fixed' the hologram though. Doctor does get in some good digs at B'Elanna. He knows what's going on with her and Tom.

I like Nemesis. Not really sure why. It's not a favorite but I don't skip over it. Maybe it's what I consider one of the last good Chakotay episodes.

 

[tomalak301]

Something that is rarely discussed is Tom offering his friendship to Seven is that act of compassion that causes her to rethink some things that she believed to be true of humans.

I forgot to mention this, but was Tom being a bit hypocritical here. You get him offering to help and seeing where Seven is coming from, but then in Revulsion you have that scene between Tom and Harry and it kind of went against what he said. He was just as judgemental towards Seven as everyone else in the beginning.

 

[stardream]

I took that scene as being more about Harry than it was about Seven. Harry was playing around with getting into something that was way over his head and Tom was just pointing that out and most of what he said was the truth. I thought Tom was quite kind and respectful to Seven while she was there. Not sure of your take on this. Can you expand please?

 

[tomalak301]

I took that scene as being more about Harry than it was about Seven. Harry was playing around with getting into something that was way over his head and Tom was just pointing that out and most of what he said was the truth. I thought Tom was quite kind and respectful to Seven while she was there. Not sure of your take on this. Can you expand please?

Maybe I misinterpreted the scene but it seemed like Paris was saying Harry shouldn't hang out with her because she was a Borg. I thought he was all about letting go of the past. Maybe, like you said, it was more criticizing Harry than Seven.

 

[stardream]

Maybe I misinterpreted the scene but it seemed like Paris was saying Harry shouldn't hang out with her because she was a Borg. I thought he was all about letting go of the past. Maybe, like you said, it was more criticizing Harry than Seven.

I suppose it could be taken either way now that I think more about it.

 

[tomalak301]

The Raven

This feels like the first episode we really got into Seven's backstory. It could have been so much better without the Bomar there, but it was still a pretty good episode. We learn about Seven's psyche and where she was raised and how she got assimilated. We also get a little preview for Dark Frontier, which won't happen until a season from now but it was still really cool. I also liked Janeway in this one. She's always been a mother figure and she has made Seven her personal project. To see her almost desperate to find out why Seven acted this way was some nice work from Mulgrew. Also, I've said that over the years I've come to really appreciate Seven. One of the things I love is how great of an actress Jeri Ryan is. She might have been brought on the sex up the show, but in her own way, it went way beyond that.

 

[stardream]

I always liked the Seven/Tuvok dynamic. They seem to be kindred spirits.

 

[Thomas Eugene]

The Raven

This feels like the first episode we really got into Seven's backstory. It could have been so much better without the Bomar there, but it was still a pretty good episode. We learn about Seven's psyche and where she was raised and how she got assimilated. We also get a little preview for Dark Frontier, which won't happen until a season from now but it was still really cool. I also liked Janeway in this one. She's always been a mother figure and she has made Seven her personal project. To see her almost desperate to find out why Seven acted this way was some nice work from Mulgrew. Also, I've said that over the years I've come to really appreciate Seven. One of the things I love is how great of an actress Jeri Ryan is. She might have been brought on the sex up the show, but in her own way, it went way beyond that.

The Bomar looked ... weird:

Seven's story is interesting, the beginning just as much as the continuation in DARK FRONTIER:

Of course, to me one of the most entertaining aspects of the episode was Da Vinci's workshop. It's a shame we didn't get to see the maestro:

And what about the scene in the mess hall? That was pretty interesting, too. You don't often get to see a sitting borg ... not to mention one that has to be taught the basics of eating ...
But Neelix is a patient teacher. And at least we learnt that the borg had assimilated Talaxians ... If any of you spots one on a borg cube, let me know ...

So how did the borg find out about the existence of humans/Earth/the Federation? Through Picard in Q WHO? - or through Seven's parents in DARK FRONTIER?