A Semi-Hater Revisits Voyager

[TheGodBen]

I just posed a question in the Enterprise thread, but I know that many of the people that read this thread decided not to follow along in that thread for various reasons so I'll ask it here too:

Advice needed:

This is a rare thing because I'm actually interested in what other people think.

I know that this thread has died down a lot in the last few weeks so I'm not sure if there's any interest in me continuing reviewing episodes after Enterprise, so I'm trying to gauge people's opinions. My original plan was to move onto DS9 after I had finished Enterprise, but over the last few weeks I've been considering trying out Babylon 5 instead. I know I have to watch it some day if I'm to retain my geek membership card (and I need to keep that to get the ladies) and the longer I stay on this board the more likely I am to read spoilers, so it would be better to do it sooner rather than later.

It would be a thread similar to this one and the Voyager thread, except I'd be watching the show "blind" since I've not watched it before and have little idea where the plot is heading beyond something called the Shadow War. I'm sure people have done threads like that on B5 in the past, so is there normally any interest for them? Has there been one recently? Does anybody have any interest in me doing such a thread? Would you prefer that I stick with my plan of reviewing DS9 instead? Am I just wasting my time doing these threads?

Let me know your opinions any time before I finish Enterprise, I'll have to make my decision shortly before then so that I can make arrangements if I need to borrow the B5 DVDs.

So, B5, DS9, or should I stop? I report, you decide.

 

[apenpaap]

DS9.

 

[Frazzled]

DS9. And then this 'lady' would then be in your queue, if I wasn't already spoken for

 

[PolloCaballo]

I agree. DS9.

 

[seigezunt]

D. S. 9.

 

[Chang]

DS9

 

[Praetor]

DS9.

Resistance is futile.

 

[Akiraprise]

Am I just wasting my time doing these threads?

I hope so, cuz if you're getting paid I wanna know how and how much so I can jump on that bandwagon.

DS9 by the way.

 

[Kegg]

I'm sure people have done threads like that on B5 in the past, so is there normally any interest for them? Has there been one recently?

I did one I have half a mind to get back to, but it's the half-assed ramblings of someone going back through the series a second time for no good reason; not exactly competition.

So, B5, DS9, or should I stop? I report, you decide.

Farscape. Clearly.

 

[kimc]

TOS

 

[TheGodBen]

DS9.

DS9. And then this 'lady' would then be in your queue, if I wasn't already spoken for

I agree. DS9.

D. S. 9.

DS9

DS9.

Resistance is futile.

DS9 by the way.

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to go for B5.

Now hear me out on this. Most of the commenters in the Enterprise thread leaned towards B5 and while discussing it with them I came to realise something: right now I don't have a good angle from which to attack DS9. I could attack Voyager from many angles because I didn't like a lot of the show, and the same is true for Enterprise even though my overall impressions of the show are slightly positive. But when it comes to DS9 I love the stories, the style of writing and the characters, so it would be difficult for me to find a way of criticising it beyond some of the really rubbish episodes.

But by watching the "superior" space station show from that era I'd gain a new perspective when viewing DS9, especially if I actually like B5. I'm certainly not going to turn into a basher, I love DS9's characters and style too much to turn on it, but it will help me to locate missed opportunities and those infamous areas where DS9 was "influenced" by B5.

So I'll probably go for B5 first, but so long as I don't die or, worse, get a girlfriend, I will eventually get around to reviewing DS9.

Farscape. Clearly.

I'll say to you what I said to the people who were trying to get me to watch BSG 2 years ago: "It's not going to happen. I will never watch that show."

TOS

The original episodes or the remastered versions?

 

[apenpaap]

...the "superior" space station show from that era...

BLASPHEMY!!!!

 

[Frazzled]

I'm crushed

 

[Praetor]

Makes sense to me. I like the idea of B5 before DS9 now. And also, I--

Waitaminute, Godfrey. You don't have a girlfriend right now?

So...
How you doin?

 

[DevilEyes]

Makes sense to me. I like the idea of B5 before DS9 now. And also, I--

Waitaminute, Godfrey. You don't have a girlfriend right now?

I thought TheGodBen was dating Enterprise? Or maybe that didn't work out?

 

[You_Guyz]

I actually bought B5 recently, found the first few episodes difficult to get through.
Am now watching Stargate SG1 in a sort of exchange with my friend as I'm introducing her to Star Trek via Voyager. Since Voyager had such a good first season it seemed like a good idea
I also don't own DS9 season 1 and my TNG season 1-4 DVDs are at home.

 

[DevilEyes]

Re: A Hater Revisits Voyager

I've mostly avoided commenting on posts that were posted ages ago, even though I'm reading them now since I'm watching season 6 of VOY, but I have to comment on this one.

Alice (*)

For ten whole years I've been waiting for the chance, to meet the Voyager writers to find out how this script passed, but now I've got to get over it and write a review for Alice. Alice? Why the f*#@ did they write Alice?!

Amusing aside; at one of my aunt's weddings the (catholic) priest who performed the ceremony got really pissed and started singing that song into a bottle, swears and all. We captured it on video.

The episode begins well, Voyager comes across a junk-yard in space and do a little trading, that's a good use of Voyager's premise. The Tom finds a shuttle and begins to obsess about fixing it up, which is a bit of a rehash of the worst element of Vis a Vis but I can live with it if it goes some place interesting. Instead the ship is alive and tries to kill Torres and kidnaps Tom and tries to fly into a particle fountain because it thinks that it is home. Why does it think a destructive space anomaly is home? My guess is that there is no reason and that was only used as ticking time-bomb to add "suspense" to the end of the episode. Oh, and I'm right, ten points for me!

There is no character development for Tom because everything Tom does here is under the influence of some silly magic ship that wants to kill itself.

PARIS: Oh, come on, Alice, how about it? Give us a break.
KIM: Alice?
PARIS: Well, I've got to call her something.
KIM: How about The Lost Cause?
PARIS: Alice Battisti was the Lost Cause. I knew her back in the Academy. She was smart, sexy, but she wouldn't give me the time of day.
KIM: All right, Alice it is.

Now clearly I don't know much about women, but I do know it would be a bad idea for me to name my car after "the one that got away" while in a serious relationship with someone else. This scene happened before Tom connected up to the magic interface that made him crazy, so why is he acting so stupid this early in the episode?

Now clearly I don't know much about women, but I do know it would be a bad idea for me to name my car after "the one that got away" while in a serious relationship with someone else. This scene happened before Tom connected up to the magic interface that made him crazy, so why is he acting so stupid this early in the episode?

Well, now...

I'd think it was funny, but I've been married, like, forever. Or maybe I'm abnormally non-jealous/non-possessive? (And I'm definitely not Klingon or half-Klingon.) Anyway, I thought it was funny when Tom said it, too, and it never so much as occurred to me that this would be a bad idea since he was in a serious relationship. I'm not too crazy about this episode, otherwise, mind you.

Well, you're obviously more 'evolved' than I am. I wouldn't consider myself especially jealous or possessive person, i.e. I'm not one of the people who get jealous without a good reason, but this seems like a very good reason to me. If you really love the person you're in a serious relationship with, why would you be still pining over some unrequited crush from years ago? Unless something's not right with that relationship or you're not really that in love with the person you're with.

I'd think it was funny, but I've been married, like, forever. Or maybe I'm abnormally non-jealous/non-possessive?

Maybe I'm just unlucky then, the women I've been with tend to get jealous if I even email another woman. If I named my car after a prior infatuation I would fully expect to find it as a burned-out wreck the next morning.

Well, but of course you're young (at least you seem so to me), so your prior infatuations aren't all that far in the past. Maybe that makes a difference. I mean, it would be absurd for me to be jealous of somebody from before we were married. It was in the previous century, for goodness' sake, and not all that near the end of the previous century, either.

I do know people who would be, though, but they are...well, nuts. There's another possibility for you.

Even if the guy not just names a ship after his former crush but becomes completely obsessed with a projection/representation of that former crush, even claiming that she was what he always wanted?


What really irks me in the episode is B'Elanna's reaction. It shows that VOY writers just don't know how to write believable characters who act like real people would. I've never been crazy about the characterization of B'Elanna - she is portrayed as someone with a very bad temper who gets angry at the slightest provocation, which is usually blamed on her half-Klingon identity, which I have a big problem with (and this bad reasoning was particularly emphasized by "Faces" which made it seem that both her temper and her strength is completely the result of her Klingon DNA, while her "Human half" is a meek little wimp ). And now, in "Alice", when she has a legitimate reason to be angry at Tom, she is completely calm and understanding? It really doesn't ring true.

I actually enjoy "Alice". It is one of those obviously average shows that still manages to be entertaining. There really isn't a lot to really say about it except it held my attention. The episode also built on "Barge of the Dead" with Torres seeming to have grown especially with her relationship with Tom.

If by growing you mean changing the character's personality 180 degrees.

 

[TheGodBen]

Makes sense to me. I like the idea of B5 before DS9 now. And also, I--

Waitaminute, Godfrey. You don't have a girlfriend right now?

I thought TheGodBen was dating Enterprise? Or maybe that didn't work out?

Enterprise is a fun girl, but a little brainless. I don't regret our time together, but I don't see it working out between us. See, Enterprise is only 225 meters long, and I'm something of a chubby chaser, so I've found my eye being drawn to a certain 5 mile long space station of late.

 

[Tallis Rhul]

Someone has to say this really...

"It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it."

Usually said by people who're stuck with a Type VI Shuttle when someone's used to flying a Romulan Warbird

 

[Gepard]

See, Enterprise is only 225 meters long, and I'm something of a chubby chaser, so I've found my eye being drawn to a certain 5 mile long space station of late.

And yet the 700-meter long lady with "ample nacelles" (and how!) does nothing for you? Tsk tsk. Such hypocrisy.