I thought it would have been interesting if they'd have gone with Paris, since he's inaccessible in a way that Chakotay isn't. It would also add something to that Seven/Torres frenemy rivalry thing they've had going on. Not only would Seven be taking Janeway's attention from Torres, she'd be stealing her husband. I would have rather had them go the comedy route and have either Barclay or Kim be her "tutor" in all things romantic. If you're looking at the characters, I'd say the Doctor is her best match--they both have the "outside looking in" thing, and she made the parallels herself in the episode where Janeway wanted to wipe his memory (whose name, ironically, I have forgotten!).
I still think it shows Seven as emotionally detached from her core humanity if you pair her up with the Doc. He's not even "real". He just a video game character. Seven would NEVER choose someone like Tom, not after he deeply insulted her in "Dark Frontier". She might have forgiven him by then but Tom is still a douchebag. Seven is contemplating the effects of the Omega, while Tom contemplates the metaphors in Bugs Bunny. I don't see Tom holding her attention. Chakotay appeals to her Borg sense of superiority & organization. If Voyager is her collective, the Chakotay represents the Alpha male of the hive. The only other person her equal is Tuvok but he's already spoken for.
I'm sure there were lots of great guys on board, they just didn't get used a lot. I personally liked Chakotay's right-hand man Ayala.
Was he ever named onscreen? I think I know who that is but I'm not sure. At least I recognize Ashmore, though I still call him "the sad ensign" because the first time I saw him Janeway was comforting him.
He responds to the name Ayala in four episodes "Faces," "Worst Case Scenario," "Tuvix," and "The Gift" I love how he talks about four times in the whole series and he's in more episodes than Jeri Ryan
Love, love this ep. From Janeway's affair (and the ending which was so sad in many ways; I cried) to Seven's efficiency expertness, to Tuvok's role. Just a great ep.
Yes, this earned a huge eye-roll from me as well. I thought it was pretty useless as a plot device at this point in the series. I thought the point was for Seven to reclaim her humanity, and the Doctor had appointed himself one of her chief instructors to that end. There is no room for something like the inhibitor as part of Seven's journey to humanity. And honestly, it had too many shades of Data from TNG for me.
Is this where the "I love Jaffen" train stops? He was sweet, he was funny, he braved her COOKING, something Chakotay only did with a replicator. He loved her, he worried about her, he stood by her even when it might have meant his "job". Sigh. Loved that last scene with him, when she holds herself back by holding onto the chair, and then when she jumps into his arms because it sounds like he thinks her leaving will be easy. Sniiff, sniff, HONK! I also love that scene in "the dark". Chakotay knows his Captain soooo well. Even brainwashed, she can't resist helping a wounded man... as long as its NOT at the point of a gun. Loved the way he turns and chuckles (no nickname slight intended) as she is using the dermal regenerator on him... CHAKOTAY: You seem happy here. JANEWAY: I've got a good job. CHAKOTAY: Ever consider doing something more challenging? JANEWAY: My job's challenging enough. CHAKOTAY: You monitor reactor coils, right? You're obviously a very capable woman. You could probably run that power plant. JANEWAY: Why would I want all that responsibility? Love both scenes "in the dark" from beginning to end. Now... despite that "love", I think even they could have been improved with a little "wordsmithing". Case in point... ... I would change just ONE word at the end of this scene. CHAKOTAY: Listen to me. There are more then a hundred members of Voyager's crew working at that power plant. Your crew, and when our ship gets here I'll be able to prove it to you. Look, I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to, but don't you at least want to know the truth? Let me prove who I am. Hand me that dermal regenerator. (bony ridges vanish and tattoo reappears) JANEWAY: We're the same race. CHAKOTAY: We're more than that, We're friends. OOPS! I'm not allowed to sigh around Teacake anymore, so change that to...
Maybe, also, the newborn baby girl turning your household upside down? In the best way, of course. How is big sister taking to the new addition?
She's pretty happy about it--this morning she got really mad because her sister wasn't up yet, and she wanted to see her. And it's fitting, as a parent, that I just got done watching... "Q2" There wasn't a whole lot of meat to this episode, but there was some nice acting and a few funny moments. In other words, it's a good bad episode. We start out with blatant fanwank, in the best sense of the word--Icheb delivering a report on early Starfleet history that focuses on the exploits of Captain James T. Kirk. Then, Q Jr appears, followed by Q himself, who adds a little fanwank dessert with a reference to his buddy Jean Luc. So basically Aunt Kathy has to babysit Q Jr for a week and teach him the real meaning of Christmas. Wow, that's getting to be a trend here. A few awesome moments--Q Jr dubbing Neelix "Kitchen Rat," then Neelix's revenge. I was freaked out by mouthless Neelix--shades of the Twilight Zone there. And I was pretty happy to see him get back at Q Jr. At one point, I paused the DVD to say a brief testimonial for Ethan Phillips. Every day for seven years (well, every working day, but you know what I mean), he went in to work and sat in a makeup chair for hours, getting turned into a goofy-looking alien. Then he continually gave it his best effort. He's got a Levar Burton-like ability to seem really enthusiastic about whatever scene he's in, no matter how ridiculous it is. I respect that a lot. I can now say that while Neelix isn't my favorite character, I think Ethan Phillips is pretty cool for being such a good sport about playing a tough role, and never losing interest. Back to the episode--I liked the scene where Q Jr turned Engineering into a nightclub. That's actually not a bad concept for a nightclub. If Garrett Wang gets his idea for a sci-fi themed convention center and hotel off the ground, they should go for it. In the spirit of single-word Vegas nightclubs like Tryst, Blush, Pure, etc, he can name it "Core." And does Janeway almost drop an f-bomb there? It really sounds like she says, "Get your f... guests out of here!" That's totally awesome. You know that when she's not in front of the crew, Janeway curses like a sailor. Two real kinky moments here: first, naked Seven (well, naked Seven's upper back, but still, I guess), and second, a moment that brought together Janeway fetishists and foot fetishists: Q kissing Janeway's foot. Statistically speaking, I guess there must be a population of fans who are both Janeway devotees and into foot fetish stuff, so this must have been for them what the opening of Trek 09 was for most of us. And since when does Janeway have a jacuzzi in her quarters? I liked "Itchy" and QBall working together. Icheb really got a chance to shine in this episode. I noticed that he does a pretty good dirty look, too--about 7 on the Sawyer scale.* Ironically, in an episode about parenting, we don't see Samantha Wildman at all, and the one guy with the most experience as a parent, Tuvok, is limited to doing cardio with Q Jr. They did lampshade Janeway's lack of qualifications as a parent, so I'll give them credit for that. If money was no object, I would have liked to have seen Bill Cosby guest star in this and share a few witticisms about parenting. So I liked this episode, even though it was pretty lightweight. It proved that self-referential isn't necessarily bad, particularly if it's not too serious. _____________________________________ This is my own innovation--the guy who played Sawyer on Lost (whose name I've forgotten thanks to sleep deprivation) was really good at giving people dirty looks. I've thought that, if he doesn't have another acting gig lined up yet, he could make a pretty good living renting himself out. A lot of people would pay a lot of money to have him walk into their workplace, give all of their co-workers the Sawyer dirty look, say "Son of a bitch" to no one in particular, then walk out. The guy who plays Icheb isn't quite at that level yet, but he's pretty good.
Q2 is one of my favorite Q episodes. Especially since Keegan de Lancie is really John de Lancie's son. So I imagine with John and Kate being such good friends Keegan already knew her pretty well. Favorite moment for me, there's two, the beginning when QJr asks QSr if Janeway was qualified to be his godmother and then QSr suggests Picard and then the end when QJr gives Janeway the flowers, I thought that was really cute. ETA: Oh, and the "Don't provoke the Borg!" part Thank you Q!
I hate all Voyager Q eps on principal (it seems wrong and awkward for them to keep using a character for laughs when he had the power to get them home from the DQ), but this one - sometimes I get to laughing and forget that. Fair point about Ethan Phillips. Bless his heart. But he never did manager to make a silk purse out of his sow's ear of a character. It always looked to me like Janeway was cursing, too! Others disagree. Glad to hear that your little ones are getting along.