Another Voyager 1st-time watch thread

[T.D. Possum]

I liked Macrocosm because it ushered in the era of 'Janeway strips down to her singlet and goes Die Hard on some aliens' episodes.

Well, one just can't say enough positive things about THAT!

He's the MAP!

I don't know exactly why, but something about him creeps me out.

He's always sort of staring and not blinking and looking zoned out and weird. He did that in his guest role on TNG, too. ("Lower Decks"). Maybe the actor stares like that in real life, too? Anyway, it looks creepy to me!

 

[stavrosg]

Absolutley the best "Janeway meets Laura Croft"... *sort of

Its her I'm the Captain let me show you what I got, episode.

This is why I love this episode.

On the "why she didn't contact the sickbay, it was probably because she didn't know if the sickbay was compromised or not, and she would not risk giving away herself, isn't it obvious?

 

[Shatnertage]

OK, I'm back with another episode...

"Coda"

This episode made me glad that I'm not reading reviews, scouring MA beforehand, etc, so I can be surprised by what's going to happen. My first hunch after the Vidiians attacked them on the planet's surface was, "it's all a dream." But the time loop stuff got weirder and weirder.

I liked this one--it was a strong Janeway episode. I really liked the scene where she watches Tuvok make his long entry after he concludes she is really gone.

We've seen Funeral Trek before ("The Next Phase" is one that comes immediately to mind, and "The Tholian Web"), but that doesn't diminish the memorial scene's quality. I can see where there would be criticisms that this show is derivative of earlier material, but that didn't make it less enjoyable for me.

I like that they left it open in the end about whether all near-death experiences were alien attacks.

Now here's the point that I'm hoping to get some comments on. This episode has convinced me that Chakotay loved Janeway.

Or, at the very least, that Janeway thought Chakotay loved her.

In the opening scene, where he's struggling to save her life, he's just WAY too emotional about saving "Katherine" to just be trying to save a fellow crewmember. And his tears in the "loop" when she dies...it just seemed obvious to me that he thought of her as more than his CO, and more than a friend.

At this point, you can say, "Well, that's not necessarily how he felt about her...this is basically a simulation based on Janeway's experiences." So I'd be willing to concede here that maybe this was just a reflection of how Janeway felt about him.

But that last scene...bringing her a rose? A moonlight cruise to celebrate? Champagne?

Spock and McCoy didn't do that for their beloved Jim after the events of "The Tholian Web." They just shared a laugh at his expense.

I had the feeling that this was a man who had almost lost the woman he loved, and that he wanted to express his gratitude that she was still with him.

FWIW, my wife thought so too.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

I enjoyed it, but it was really all over the place.

 

[T.D. Possum]

Coda always reminds me of that episode of the Twilight Zone with the man who thinks he's about to enter the Pearly Gates, only St. Peter won't let him bring his dog in - then later he finds out it those were actually the gates to hell.

Anyway, Coda is a favorite of mine. I'm a total sucker for time loops. And this loop is satisfyingly full of "WTH moments".

I enjoyed it, but it was really all over the place.

When I first saw it, I thought it was kind of disjointed, too, because the time loop doesn't really tie in clearly with the rest of the story. But, I figured the alien just put Janeway through the loop to increase her confusion and weaken her defenses while he was perfecting his plan to trick her. The story felt more connected to me when I started thinking of it that way.

 

[Shatnertage]

Coda always reminds me of that episode of the Twilight Zone with the man who thinks he's about to enter the Pearly Gates, only St. Peter won't let him bring his dog in - then later he finds out it those were actually the gates to hell.

Haven't seen that one, but it reminds me of the one where the lowlife hoodlum dies and goes to a place where he has girls hanging all over him and he can't lose at the casino. He thinks it's heaven. After a month or so, he finds out its hell.

Ah, time loops. When the shuttlecraft exploded, I yelled out, "All hands abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon-"

 

[kimc]

Coda always reminds me of that episode of the Twilight Zone with the man who thinks he's about to enter the Pearly Gates, only St. Peter won't let him bring his dog in - then later he finds out it those were actually the gates to hell.

No dogs allowed sounds like hell to me.

Anyway, while not my favorite I still enjoy watching "Coda". I liked the references to talent night, etc.

 

[T.D. Possum]

No dogs allowed sounds like hell to me.

The dog wasn't allowed in because he would have recognized the . Whereas the man could easily be fooled.

Anyway, while not my favorite I still enjoy watching "Coda". I liked the references to talent night, etc.

Oh, yeah, I like it when there are references to "lifestyle" activities like that. It would have been cool if some more of them could have been onscreen, but then other things would have had to have been cut.

Plus, that scene when Neelix sounds like he's referring to having had sex with Janeway is totally hilarious to me.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Loved "Coda". LOved the fact that, as you said, Janeway not only thought Chakotay loved her, but that B'Elanna and that Harry loved her too. More than that, she loved them too much to leave them, even in death.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

It would have been cool if some more of them could have been onscreen, but then other things would have had to have been cut.

Lets face it, the episode was padded to the extreme. Nonsensical time loops, overly long "memorial" scene. They coulda fit a talent night in easily.

 

[Shatnertage]

Hey, you could say the same about "Cause and Effect." Basically that episode was "Cause and Effect" meets "The Next Phase." It was a good 45 minutes of TV.

Now we're on to...

"Blood Fever"

Does anyone else consider this a comedy episode? I sure do. I'm not saying it was bad (I liked it), but it was pretty funny at times.

My favorite moment was when Torres and Paris were fighting over the gun, and Paris stops and says, "Face it. This isn't about a gun. This is about sex." My jaw dropped, then I LOLed.

So we finally realize why Vorik (he's got a name!) has been acting so creepy. It's his pon farr. Naturally he goes for Torres, but she says, "You're not a regular. Get away from me."

Guys, you may have been rejected before and felt pretty bad about it. But if you didn't need surgery to repair a dislocated jaw, you've got nothing on Vorik.

Hey, the Doctor has developed a cure for pon farr. And its...an all-expenses paid trip to HoloSandals? With a willing Vulcan holo-lass? That was easy.

If Vorik can make his mind believe that his 3-D porn is the real thing, his body will accept it. So running a level 3 diagnostic on yourself in the holodeck is really a test of discipline. All quite logical. Best justification for porn ever. This is like the anti-"Hollow Pursuits."

Would have LOLed again if HoloVulcanLoveSlave had said, "I am the goddess of empathy," and the Doctor had said, "Hmmm...that somehow got mixed up with that Barclay program that was making the rounds back at Jupiter Station.

Loved it when the Doc came back to check in and Vorik was looking so serene. He should have been wearing a smoking jacket. And no hologram in sight...it was wham bam thank you HoloVulcanLoveSlave.

Down under the planet's surface comes the big Torres/Paris scene. His "I don't want to take advantage of you when you're in this condition" came off as kind of funny, considering the circumstances and his reputation as something of a cad.

So they get back to the surface, and Tuvok tells them that, in his considered opinion, Torres and Paris have to do the nasty. Paris just shrugs and heads off into the bushes with Torres. As Scotty would say, "I LIKE this ship! It's exciting!"

But wait! Vorik is back! He's not really cured. Alas, poor Vorik.... (I just had to work that in).

And in Tuvok's considered opinion, Vorik and Torres have to duel to the death to settle this. While everyone stands around watching. I would love to read this incident report.

But after a few minutes of rolling around, Vorik is spent, and Tuvok declares the Blood Fever sated. And I declare that Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick did this scene way better. The music was better, too.

What? I thought it was supposed to be a duel to the death! Wasn't that the whole point of "Amok Time?" Now it's just a few minutes of grab-ass, and everyone's free to go? What's going on here?

Awkward turbo-lift scene back on the ship. My wife said, "She could do a lot worse than him, you know." I agreed. Liked that last zinger from Torres.

But on the planet's surface, we find a...Borg. Didn't they dematerialize after they die? Not when the plot says they don't.

I've heard plenty of people complain that VOY neutered the Borg. I guess I'm going to be able to judge for myself soon.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Yes, I thought this was a comedy.

TORRES: Maybe, maybe we should continue separately.
PARIS: No.
TORRES: You don't know how strong, how hard it is to fight this urge.
PARIS: Are you telling me that I'm impossible to resist?
TORRES: I wouldn't go that far.
PARIS: Good. Come on.

 

[Shatnertage]

It's on to the next episode...

"Unity"

According to the DVR blurb, the Borg help an injured Chakotay. Well that didn't take long. They could have kept us in suspense about the Borg for at least an episode or two.

Another hopens in a shuttlecraft. They're responding to a rescue call, and end up in a hobo encampment circa 1937.

Chakotay ends up with the good guys, and his unfortunate redshirt "doesn't make it."

And we find out the hot chick is actually a Borg. Is this where they got the idea for Seven of Nine?

I didn't catch how his head was injured. Is it a concussion? Having to beam in neural energy seems a bit extreme to me. And I don't understand how this collective healing link works. If my car's got a bad radiator, I can't hook it up to a CB radio and use energy from other vehicles to fix it. I was willing to suspend disbelief, but it was a pretty big leap to ask of the viewer.

Afterwards, Chakotay and Riley have steaming hot, mind-blowing Borg collective consciousness sex. Although I don't want to go into the implications of "feeling everything you feel" in this case.

Janeway makes a good argument against reuniting the collective. I would have appreciated a few more words said on behalf of liberty. By its very nature, the Borg collective is coercive and therefore wrong. Riley and her fellow survivors were seriously nuts to want to be reconnected.

They needed Jack to go out there and make a "live together...die alone" speech. There are plenty of ways they could have gotten the colony to work together without wiring them all up again. Who's to say the destructive elements wouldn't have overwhelmed the constructive ones? When people aren't free to decide for themselves, that's a danger.

I don't know why Janeway didn't loot everything that could give them an advantage from the cube, then destroy it. Why take chances?

Chakotay's mind control is kind of a cop-out--a way to have him advance the plot, but to keep him from being in conflict with Janeway. Basically, it's the Picard defense, on a smaller scale.

The end of the episode, with the "new collective," raises the possibility that the Borg collective was originally formed for benevolent purposes--my wife was wondering if that was the case, and so was I. It doesn't make it any less wrong.

Interesting episode, but one with some flaws.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Speaking from the shallow end of the pool...I love the looks Janeway gives Chak in the conference room and the sickbay when she realizes this other woman is moving in on him.

 

[Shatnertage]

YES! She was definitely jealous. We saw that, too.

 

[T.D. Possum]

^ I never even noticed that. I shall have to rewatch that scene soon. (Although not the whole ep, not one of my faves.)

 

[Shatnertage]

Back with more VOY watching...

"Darkling"

According to the DVR blurb, the Doctor's project backfires. Sounds like fun. We start off in a faux-medieval inn, with some guy blabbing about a space monster. Then Handsome Alien Guy, who it takes me half the episode to realize looks like Richard Alpert from Lost, shows up with Kes. Kes has a boyfriend.

The tease continues. Oh boy. HoloSandals. They just can't get enough of that place, can they? And you've got Gandhi talking with some fop in a blue jacket. Turns out he's Lord Byron. Just for fun, Socrates and T'Pau are there, too. T'Pau doesn't have a mullet, so I'm declaring a CANON VIOLATION!!!

And wow, this really went nowhere.

Onto the story--amusing moment as the Doctor hits on Torres. She's pretty cool. It's all the new subroutines' fault. I already don't like where this is going.

From here, it's pretty much a rehash of The Enemy Within. With more technobabble about subroutines added, which doesn't make it any better.

There's an interesting idea here--how extending yourself may lead you to discover some bad things, and potentially some parallels between Kes and the Doctor as they both try to grow in different ways. It's good to see Kes getting some more screen-time. Big chuckles when she says, "I'm a big girl now--I'm three!" The idea isn't developed enough, and the result is, I think, kind of a mess.

Ultimately, only Robert Picardo's portrayal of the Evil Doctor redeems this episode for me. He really turned it up, in a good way. Usually in situations like this the actors just ridiculously over-act (I'm watching IAMD right now, and thinking of Scott Bakula's performance in it), but Picardo seems more intense, without turning up the volume.

Otherwise, this was better when it was The Enemy Within.

 

[HoneyBLilly]

Spike is starting to play it from the beginning now. I had to make sure Before and After was on for my sister and instead I got Caretaker.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112178/tvschedule?mode=desktop

 

[JanewayRulz!]

"Darkiling" isn't a fav of mine, but I do love the J/Kes moments in it.

 

[Shatnertage]

OK, time for....

"Rise"

We start off in media res with some forehead alien friends on the bridge as their planet is getting hit by asteroids. If they can track them when they're hours away, why not try to blow them up before they're right on top of the planet?

This episode was kind of like Murder on the Orient Express, but in a tether-thingy. I waited about 2 days to write this up, and I've already forgotten just what was going on in there. I remember that they named a website-ranking site after Neelix's sister (Alexia). And that the plot didn't really seem to make a lot of sense. Plus it was a Neelix episode, and I'm not that fond of Neelix.

I don't think it's the actor or the writing--I think it's mostly just how he looks. Call it the Sixth Doctor Effect if you want: if your character looks like a goofball, it's going to be very difficult to see him as credible for anything but comic relief.

There's one thing I absolutely loved about this episode, though: the last scene, with Neelix playing McCoy and Tuvok playing Spock. They had a great interaction there, and I'm really glad I sat through the episode, if only for that scene.