Deadlock - Double the Janeway, double the Fun. I love this episode a lot. It's not the best in season 2, but it's in the top 5.
Innocence - This episode would have been so much easier if the Drayens revealed everything earlier. I know it's TV drama, but come on, reveal the fact that the children are actually the end of life earlier and things would have gone much easier. It's better than unnecessary conflict. The only good thing about this episode was Tuvok being a father figure.
The Thaw - I put this in the same category as Masks. It's so weird but so good. Love the Clown and how Janeway conquers him.
Innocence - This episode would have been so much easier if the Drayens revealed everything earlier. I know it's TV drama, but come on, reveal the fact that the children are actually the end of life earlier and things would have gone much easier. It's better than unnecessary conflict. The only good thing about this episode was Tuvok being a father figure.
The Thaw - I put this in the same category as Masks. It's so weird but so good. Love the Clown and how Janeway conquers him.
(Hint: Not Argyle, who in his first story does nothing then apologizes for doing nothing and with as much banality as possible... Argyle as a character was simply not developed whatsoever in the script, but I digress.) The scene suggesting the conflict of "'We're better because we make synthetic meat from our transporters' versus 'we're better because we're obligate carnivores and synthetic meat is barbaric and phony and you're full of hubris'" could have been polished a lot more-- but clunky/undeveloped or not (I'll assume the replicators can create amino acids and nutrients despite not replicating taste, as told in a handful of TNG/DS9 episodes but contradicted in others, but even O'Brien mentions her mom's belief of nutrient value and Eddington hyped up real food over replicators as well) it still raises enough of an interesting idea that the franchise always kept stumbling over too inconsistently in retrospect for its own good... the Selay and Anticans are rather well-realized given season one and there is much fun to be had with them... Picard being taken over by the nebula energy fritter and how he acts is a genuine hoot in all honesty... ditto for when and why he's deposited into the nebula as energy - which is rather innovative and clever, as well as being a nice hook for letting the transporter save the day in a new way for the first time. Never mind this is the only time when "having to go out to P" isn't reduced to joke fodder in the way early TNG sometimes strayed into but "The Orville" definitely would have and still might for its upcoming season. I've a true soft spot for this episode, especially as it outdoes "The Naked Now" in letting characters act differently compared to their true selves. But it's still so rough around the edges at times that I have to cringe.
