My Latest Reviews of Voyager- "Bliss", "Think Tank", and More

[INACTIVESamusAranX]

Well, I'm almost through Season 5 on my DVR of Spike TV's reruns.

Here's some thoughts:

-I liked "Bliss"; it was an interesting concept somewhat, and an overall enjoyable episode. I'm not sure why some dislike it so much.

-"Dark Frontier" was cool, but did take some "scariness" off the Borg.

-"The Disease" and "The Fight" were unwatchable, and they could do better with Kim and Chakotay when they decide to give them a centric episode.

-"Think Tank" was...unique. I liked the episode, liked the concept, but though his acting was respectable, Jason Alexander seemed a bit out of place in Star Trek.

 

[startrekwatcher]

-"Dark Frontier" was cool, but did take some "scariness" off the Borg.

I thought the Borg maintained their scariness up until the last ten minutes or so of Dark Frontier when the Delta Flyer and Janeway just waltzed right into the heart of the Borg stronghold at that massive unicomplex and got away. And the Borg had assimilated the Hansens research and should have already adapted to detect it. Up until then I thought VOY had done a reasonably good job in maintaining the Borg's terrifying nature with the crew barely surviving each encounter.

The rest of the episode was entertaining once you worked out and made sense of all the new revelations dropped on us i.e. the Hansens knowing of the Borg before "Q Who?. The episode also did a good job of pulling together some loose threads such as how the Hansens got to the Delta Quadrant. I also liked the idea of the Hansens being researchers who set out to locate the Borg.

I'd say it was good, not great. It wasn't as compelling as the promos made it out to be at the time. I'd put it behind The Best of Both Worlds, Scorpion, Q Who, I Borg and on par with Regeneration, Descent I, Unimatrix Zero I and ahead of Descent II, Unimatrix Zero II and Endgame as far as big Borg event episodes.

-"The Disease" and "The Fight" were unwatchable, and they could do better with Kim and Chakotay when they decide to give them a centric episode.

Agreed. I never cared for Harry Kim and even if I did the romance was lacking in any chemistry and the way the crew acted about it was stupid. And "The Fight" was a waste--it drowned in technobabble, the overacting was astounding, boxing is stupid, Boothby was wasted.

-"Think Tank" was...unique. I liked the episode, liked the concept, but though his acting was respectable, Jason Alexander seemed a bit out of place in Star Trek.

I enjoyed Think Tank. It wasn't deep but a nice adventure especially coming off the heels of The Fight, The Disease and Course:Oblivion.

 

[Kegek]

-I liked "Bliss"; it was an interesting concept somewhat, and an overall enjoyable episode. I'm not sure why some dislike it so much.

Yeah, definitely an above-average hour of VOY in my book. It benefits much from its sturdy Captain Ahab character and a rather bizarre and fascinating idea.

 

[Smiley]

-I liked "Bliss"; it was an interesting concept somewhat, and an overall enjoyable episode. I'm not sure why some dislike it so much.

Yeah, definitely an above-average hour of VOY in my book. It benefits much from its sturdy Captain Ahab character and a rather bizarre and fascinating idea.

In my review of the episode, I mentioned that we had already seen Picard playing the Ahab role in First Contact, so another one was not really necessary. Beyond that, I found most of the episode obvious and predictable. The redeeming feature of the episode is Seven and Naomi's takeover of the ship.

 

[INACTIVESamusAranX]

I enjoyed Think Tank. It wasn't deep but a nice adventure especially coming off the heels of The Fight, The Disease and Course:Oblivion.

I thought that episode was great, especially considering the fact it took a weak episode ("Demon") and added value to it.

 

[Kegek]

In my review of the episode, I mentioned that we had already seen Picard playing the Ahab role in First Contact, so another one was not really necessary.

That's a rather weak criticism. By that logic any repeated character stock type should be criticised for having been used before. A more pertinent issue, IMHO, is if they handle the Ahab type well - and in this case, I believe they did.

Besides, The Wrath of Khan also did Ahab with Khan and did it a lot better than First Contact.

 

[Navaros]

Disagree with saying Jason Alexander was out of place in Star Trek. He gave hands-down the best performance ever on Voyager IMO (including all of the main cast). Totally unrecognizable as Kurros, which is the ultimate achievement for an actor. I had to look up who played Kurros the first time after I saw Think Tank, as I was amazed by the brilliant performance and wanted to know who provided it. Was shocked to find out it was Jason Alexander. Shame they didn't use Kurros more often, he easily could have carried a whole season arc on Voyager. Think Tank is also one of VOY's top 2 episodes IMO, the other being The Void.