Again, what's your point?
Also, Janeway to my knowledge did not prior to this particular episode engage in a mind-meld, and she certainly didn't know that the memories would become disorganized, so her shock (while perhaps admittedly a bit an overreaction) is more or less understandable.
And as for the parasite... well, it was a way to get us to see what Tuvok's early years were like.
Also, I take it you skipped the part where he talked about his disdain for Humans and SF as a whole?
="Flashback" pales 1000 times in comparison to "Trials and Tribble-ations". The show goes out of its way to make a special episode as a tribute to TOS and makes an episode about an alien parasite with added technobabble, something is wrong. Janeway did not meet Sulu or anyone on that ship, she met some made up construct in Tuvok's brain. It was soulless garbage.
Who says it was supposed to be funny in the first place?
What do you think this episode was aiming to do? It was a comedy episode, clear as day. The only thing was it wasn't funny. You're not very perceptive. Is that what you do when comedy episodes fail to be funny? Pretend that they weren't supposed to be comedy episodes in order to make them seem better in your head? Slightly odd.
Bland in your perception. They revealed their 'faces' literally to Tom and Torres after all just before shooting them, and I thought that because they were a practical unknown was what made them interesting.
If your show is about a ship stranded thousands of lightyears from home and the best you can do is a B plot about some mystery aliens who we never even get to know, something is pretty wrong. More mediocre season 3 pablum.
Let's see... it was a civil way and yet it wasn't a war.
Make up your mind, will you?
Who said it wasn't a war? The Q were involved in a civil war, that doesn't mean it was anything like the American civil war. Q just chose to present it that way to Janeway so she could understand something visually that she otherwise couldn't. Maybe you should rewatch this episode.
Tom putting a gun to the opposition leaders head is not exactly ridiculous...I agree it was 'simplistic' but we are talking about a TV show.
It's not as if TNG, DS9 or even ENT or TOS don't suffer from this very problem.
It was ridiculous since they dropped the "vague representation" aspect and acted like what we were seeing was real meaning human characters could interact...when its obvious humans have no chance against Q. It was simplistic and lazy and by saying "its just TV", you're really grasping at excuses to defend this episode.
'Shallow' in your opinion. I thought it was interesting actually, in a creepy sort of way (especially when both Janeway and Neelix roamed the ship without knowing what the heck happened in the first place).
Even if you enjoyed, it was still shallow. If you'd like to explain how it was not a shallow episode then why don't you.
Perhaps you'd like to outline all the emotional and story depth you encountered in the show that saved it from being shallow?
Ok... since this episode effectively took place inside Janeway's brain, lets give it some thought.
The alien who wanted to feed off Janeways consciousness needed to create a scenario that made her think she was 'dead' so she can 'let go' and go with him.
The mixing-mashing of time loop and other elements are more or less equivalent to a dream, all ending on a same note:
And yet its all such obviously hollow drek - a mishmash of well worn sci-fi elements from previous episodes that were received well in an attempt to keep the viewer's attention despite the entire lack of character insight or emotional depth. The time loops are particularly incongrious and are the most blatantly pointless part of the whole episode. Mashing all these sci-fi elements together randomly is like like jingling some keys above a baby to keep him occupied.
Janeway's death.
Also, on her fantasizing about her crew giving long-winded speeches - the last time I checked, all of that was a byproduct of the alien's manipulation - an elaborate illusion HE specifically created.
I would surmise that Janeway's memories provided him with enough context so he can concoct that scenario in the first place.
If Janeway had actually been present at her own wake and witnessed crewmembers talking about how close they'd grown - that would have given true insight into the relationships on Voyager. But its all fake, so that's 5 minutes spent watching a scene that thanks to how the story ends, means absolutely nothings. Its shameless, hollow and overdone - just like this entire episode.
Oh and something else that sucks the story - Taylor managed to come up with a plot concept 10 times more interesting than what we got (crewmember contracts the phage) in a throwaway line in a pointless scene made for no other reason than for the "cool factor".
You can say you enjoy this episode, but don't try to convince me its remotely well written, constructed or suitable for this show in any way or form. "Unity" came only two episodes later and proved that there was ability in that writer's room to come up with wildly original ideas that didn't need to be derivative, messy and pointless like "Coda". Unfortunately we were at Voyager's lowest ebb here and things wouldn't get better until after the triumverate of terror - Rise/Darkling/Favorite Son.
Blood Fever wasn't the worst abomination they came off with this season.
I said the episode 'Favorite Son' was dull in certain areas but there were others I thought were interesting.
It was one of the worst episodes in Voyager and you'll struggle to find it well reviewed anywhere. This was TNG season 1 level crap.
I do have a critical eye... I'm just wondering if you have the capacity for critical thinking given that your opinion is extremely biased and apparently just love to push it as something that's 'globally shared' or 'commonly accepted'.
Not globally but you'll frequently find Darkling to be a poorly reviewed episode. Braga and Menosky often did great work together on Voyager, this was possibly their worst.
Having said all that, I had a craving for watching each and every one of those episodes regardless of their 'shortcomings' because in the end, there is an underlying interest that makes me want to watch them and from an overall point of view, I find them interesting than most of DS9.
Some of us look at episodes more critically and how it was constructed/written/characters fleshed out. For example with Coda, I look at how derivative it was and how it filled up large parts with meaningless sci-fi scenarios and hollow, meaningless characterisation. You simply watch it and see if you enjoy it or not without giving any kind of deeper thought.
I have my way and you have your way, but you can't really convince me something is well written or constructed when it simply wasn't. Season 3 WAS one of the poorest seasons in all of Trek filled with half baked ideas, well worn Trek cliches, technobable, poor writing, derivative ideas and it featured the writers at their absolute worst until that good stretch at the end. It was Voyager at its lowest, lacking the semi-cohesion of the first two seasons and the relatively good writing of the later seasons.
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