Good Shepherd, good grief

[Qonundrum]

(Forewarning, I am putting in some spoilers. Really big ones will be shrouded.)

I sat through this one yesterday. It, of course, was quick to see how they were heavily inspired by "Lower Decks". This is not a complaint; the occasional episode with people stuck in the netherlands of the ship (great CGI too) is genuinely refreshing.

Now add in "Hollow Pursuits" - cubed. Instead of one off-kilter human, we not have three: The Hypochondriac(tm), the Squirrel(tm), and Sheldon Coopedup(tm) - oh my.

There's quite a bit of thought put into these characters and handling, and the fact I was able to react to one key scene toward the end shows it is possible to get someone to care for someone we know so little about- since I'm not talkin' bout Janeway.

Speaking of, this is a fantastic, first rate episode that exemplifies strengths not seen much since Kirk's era about giving a damn about your crew.

We never really get to know where the body snatching critters come from, or what "do not belong" really means. This too is refreshing since Janeway espouses some, but not all, possible reasons -- as well as leading to a great little plot point and that all the talk of "first contact, wah wah wah" isn't just ctrl-c/ctrl-v scripted hot air but actually given a bit of depth.

Spoiler: Just in case; it's not the biggest but it's big enough

It's also interesting that the alien fritter decides to take up host, complete with reassuringly gory CGI, into The Hypochondriac. Shades of "Schisms" and "Conspiracy" as the fritter looks like it's a cousin of the gill thing that took home in peoples' necks.

The Hypochondriac is refreshing, and reminiscent of some people I once knew. Including myself in some ways. Like who isn't? But everyone gets their moment of reflection (and the timing and pacing are marvelous)...

...including The Squirrel. Who's not often right, with Janeway admitting her own past gaffes in yet another wonderful scene.

As for Sheldon Coopedup - dang, did this episode provide inspiration for "The Big Bang Theory" or what? The dude's a theoretical scientist, go figure. He has a superiority complex, go figure. Could be autistic, go figure. Looks like Jim Parsons, complete with silly haircut, only he came later, go figure.

But not lastly, Janeway:

Yep, we were all jawdroppingly gobsmacked to see

Spoiler: As promised, a spoiler - do not look until after seeing the episode

Sheldon Coopedup offer to use himself as a distraction to buy the needed time trope, but we're then reminded - with a stroke of luck - that Janeway swoops in. Possibly because it's harder for them to replace escape pods than it is to build big fancy shuttles. /sarcasm.

Janeway pretty much values her crew, regardless.

This episode lacks the conflict that "Hollow Pursuits" had, or rather it redistributes it between Sheldon Coopedup with The Hypochondriac, with excellent results.

This episode also switches around who has the oh-so-terrible job of trying to keep the team together: This time it's not Leonard Huffystrup (oh, okay, Geordi) but the Captain herself. This is arguably the second-best change as, especially as there's no room or place for a single department head given that it's juggling three crewmembers from as many different departments.

If anything, six years is a long time. But Janeway and co. had been busy and I don't think this episode would have begun to gel had it been made three or four seasons earlier. VOY really needed to establish itself first, which it did. The payoff is worth it.

That said and done, is it better than "Hollow Pursuits"? It's tough to say. I'm a fan of that one too, your mileage may vary (go hybrid, woohoo!), and Dwight Schultz is a tough act to follow. But the episode was trying to not be "Barclay cubed" but do its own thing. In that, it succeeded.

7/10 with ease.

 

[Finn]

My issue with this episode is that it's kinda weird when you think about Learning Curve. Where were those three at the time? Surely Telfer was already being an ass during season one? And what happened to those Maquis crewmen we saw in Learning Curve?

 

[Qonundrum]

My issue with this episode is that it's kinda weird when you think about Learning Curve. Where were those three at the time? Surely Telfer was already being an ass during season one? And what happened to those Maquis crewmen we saw in Learning Curve?

Great point. I don't recall Learning Curve, so I looked it up quickly (seems to have a not-dissimilar theme as well as being in season one, wow...), but it's so early in the run that there'd be some explanation. Telfer probably said he thought he had hair lice and smallpox despite it having been utterly eradicated centuries earlier and Starfleet opted not to bother and focus on higher priority persons first then circle back. Tal seems easygoing despite being Squirrel and jumped back and forth between opportunities. Harren's the biggest oddball as he's the one who'd fit most with the others in "Learning Curve".

It's also not unlike Equinox, or rather the inverse - for that one, the 2-parter ends with a shiny new gaggle of crewmates - who don't want to be there and are also not brought up again instead of the off-screen bringing them aboard but then showing how to get them into line. As isolated individual stories, VOY has some greatness. Serialized continuity is not its strength for sure...

 

[Tracy Trek]

And what happened to those Maquis crewmen we saw in Learning Curve?

We saw Chell at least one more time. And he was mentioned at least once.

 

[Oddish]

There should have been more episodes like this one... Voyager's supposed to be a family, but all too often it feels like 11* family members and 130 faceless strangers.

*The usual suspects, plus Kes, Seven, and Naomi.

 

[Finn]

^No. The story tends to be about a select group of characters. There were dozens of another students at Hogwarts that we know nothing about, dozens of rebels in Star Wars that we know nothing about...and so on...

 

[Oddish]

^No. The story tends to be about a select group of characters. There were dozens of another students at Hogwarts that we know nothing about, dozens of rebels in Star Wars that we know nothing about...and so on...

So there shouldn't have been any DS9 episodes focusing on characters like Rom and Nog, or Garak, or Weyoun and Damar on the other side....

 

[Brennyren]

There should have been more episodes like this one... Voyager's supposed to be a family, but all too often it feels like 11* family members and 130 faceless strangers.

Agree. Actually, that's part of the problem I have with "Good Shepherd": that on a ship so small, and particularly one that professes to be "family," it seems unlikely to me that these "problem children" could have flown under the radar for so long. I lived in a community of about 800 once, and everybody knew everything about everybody.

For the same reason it seems unlikely to me that, as some fanfic writers present, Janeway and Chakotay (or indeed any other pairing) could have a "secret" relationship. In a community of 140 or so? Fat chance. The first time they got together, word would have gotten around to everyone on the ship (except Harren, and only because he doesn't care) in 24 hours, and the only reason it would have taken that long was because of the three-shift rotation. I wrote a story to that effect once: Janeway and Chakotay decide to "go public": with their relationship, only to discover everyone already knows!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

For the life of me I can't understand how those punks ever made it into Starfleet in the first place.

 

[Oddish]

For the same reason it seems unlikely to me that, as some fanfic writers present, Janeway and Chakotay (or indeed any other pairing) could have a "secret" relationship.

I don't see Janeway trying to pull something like that anyway. I'm glad she and Chakotay didn't get together during the show (despite my fondness for the ship in general), but I could have seen it happening under certain circumstances. Having her try to keep it secret would have been character assassination pure and simple.

 

[Finn]

For the life of me I can't understand how those punks ever made it into Starfleet in the first place.

To be fair, one of them wasn't truly Starfleet. Just needed some experience in space before he could be accepted into that program he wanted, which I found bullshit. He could have found other ways to gain experience.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I forgot that Tom Morello (Crewman Mitchell) was also a Son'a in Insurrection.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It was a good idea for an episode and they characterized the crewmen well.

They just didn't write it very well and Janeway treated them like misbehaving children which was a bit cringey.

 

[Finn]

Yes. Those three would have been a pain in the ass when they were on Hanon IV..... Harren would have said he was too good to help out with "menial duties", and Telfer would have been freaking out about the potential of picking up unknown diseases and ailments.

 

[Oddish]

It was a good idea for an episode and they characterized the crewmen well.

They just didn't write it very well and Janeway treated them like misbehaving children which was a bit cringey.

Par for the course for her, I think.

 

[Brennyren]

They just didn't write it very well and Janeway treated them like misbehaving children which was a bit cringey.

IMO, the writers were way too married to that whole "mother of her crew" thing. Not only is it a cliché trope for women in leadership positions, but also, as here, it does tend to reduce adult subordinates to the role of children.

Side note, but perhaps not an irrelevant one: the actors playing Celes and Telfer looked too young to be playing characters who had supposedly been serving for six years. Celes had gone through the Academy, right? Add six years on Voyager to that, and she should have been close to thirty. Her actress, meanwhile, would probably have had to show ID to buy a beer.

@Qonundrum, you asked if this episode was better than "Hollow Pursuits." I really can't see that. "Hollow Pursuits" was funny, and visually gorgeous, and Dwight Schultz's Barclay was more memorable (and less cliché) than Harren, Celes, and Telfer put together.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If you think about it, those three are the material components of Barclay's personality.

But you have to ask why they didn't respond a little more like Learning Curve plus counseling sessions.

 

[suarezguy]

Continuity can help or hurt a show, not introducing unique characters later on because they haven't been seen or had impact before but should have seems like continuity hurting a show. Likewise "Learning Curve" especially its resolution was pretty weak, not a real need to revisit or even reference it.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Continuity can help or hurt a show, not introducing unique characters later on because they haven't been seen or had impact before but should have seems like continuity hurting a show. Likewise "Learning Curve" especially its resolution was pretty weak, not a real need to revisit or even reference it.

But its approach to underperforming crew made a lot more sense than patronizingly taking them on a shuttle trip to make them feel all appreciated and magically make them behave better.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

That said and done, is it better than "Hollow Pursuits"? It's tough to say.

I'm personally surprised by this statement, unless you specifically mean "better at developing the lower-decks characters." What makes "Hollow Pursuits" such a classic is the holodeck shenanigans, the comedy of seeing a dopey lower-decks guy's unflattering portrayals of our usual heroes. Not that the serious side of the story isn't important. But it's like asking if "Hunters" is in general a better episode than "The Killing Game," based solely on their portrayals of the Hirogen.

My issue with this episode is that it's kinda weird when you think about Learning Curve. Where were those three at the time?

I think the entire point. Voyager has been busy managing these problem-types that no normal Starfleet ship would be prepared for: integrating the Maquis, taking on Delta Quadrant aliens like Neelix and Kes, getting used to the EMH and his desire for independence, and of course Seven of Nine. And that's on top of helping all of them and the rest of the crew adjust to life stranded on a starship, plus the first child born onboard (Naomi). Altogether, of course three ordinary Starfleet officers with ordinary performance issues would get overlooked, until the dust had largely settled.

For the life of me I can't understand how those punks ever made it into Starfleet in the first place.

Tal Celes said that Starfleet was so excited to have Bajorans at the time, that they basically give her an easy pass into the Academy. And it's not like they anticipated her getting stranded. She probably would have decided early into her first mission that this wasn't for her after all, and resigned; that just wasn't an option now. Billy Telfer seems book-smart enough to pass through the Academy, he just didn't turn out to have the stomach for a real deep-space mission. Who knows if he was even a hypochondriac before Voyager got stranded, and started experiencing catastrophes every week. As for Harren, he's also a genius, but he only took the assignment to gain experience for some other thing he wanted.

IMO, there are only two things that really bug me about this episode.

1.) The implication that the only options for these three are to become good Starfleet officers, or contribute nothing at all and "pursue their own interests." Surely there are plenty of very important, but relatively easy, civilian jobs on a stranded starship--helping Neelix in the kitchen, Airponics (the vegetable garden), collecting food and seeds for Airponics, cleaning, teaching/baby-sitting Naomi, organizing/stocking the tools in Sickbay and Engineering....

And (2), when Harren whines about how he was cheated out of his career of choice, I wish someone had pointed out to him that Janeway sacrificed her marriage for this decision, and all of the Maquis onboard have had friends and relatives slaughtered back home. Heck, even a non-Maquis Bajoran like Tal Celes could give Harren some words about being trapped in far worse living conditions.

That aside, I generally enjoy the episode. I wish Tal and Billy had been recurring characters throughout the series.