Re: A Hater Revisits Voyager
A couple of quick notes since I agree with TheGodBen so long as he avoids his racist diatribes.
I disliked "Nightingale" for being boring and predictable, but two other side things annoyed the crap out of me in the episode.
1) The obvious re-use of the Federation fighters for the Nightingale - and I do mean obvious. DS9 had so many on screen in the later seasons, how were we supposed to not notice?
2) Voyager is performing unassisted maintenance on the warp coils. Now, I'd say this is a good thing taken by itself - actual maintenance shown on screen! Holy crap. However, if you go back and read just how delicate the warp coils are supposed to be (at least according to the TNG) tech manual, hauling them out with shuttles on the surface of a dirty planetary environment to do who-knows-what makes little sense to me. I know, you can get around this a number of ways, but I still found it distractingly disbelievable.
Now you're speaking my language, sir.
There was an excellent issue of DC's TOS comic series in the late nineties that basically had a plot like this (but in TOS.) The Enterprise bumped into a Romulan D7 and fought them, ultimately resulting in both ships being crippled, at which time the Enterprise realized that the reason for the fight (an attack on a nearby Fed base) was actually caused by a third party. Long story short, the Romulans and Enterprise banded together to try to repair their ships and survive, but the Romulans were initially working against the Enterprise. Only the engines of the Enterprise work and only the weapons of the D7 work. Ultimately, the third party shows up to attack both of them, and the Romulans go down in a blaze of glory and take the third party with them, leaving Kirk to wonder if it was an accidental destruction, or a sacrifice to save their grudging allies.
And this was a comic book, kids.
Yay, brother.
Ditto. I shall henceforth call you Godfrey.
And, "The Void" was a good idea, but, like you were getting at, super rushed.
I didn't like "Workforce" nearly as much as you, Godfrey. Therefore, I picked it apart. The derelict Voyager found in space had been done before ("Macrocosm"), the aliens needing slave labor angle seemed like a forced deus ex machina, and I didn't really care about Janeway's alien boyfriend. Had the episode focused more on the idea of what the crew would have been like freed of their desire to go home or their obligations to Starfleet and whoever else, I might have been much more interested. As such, I found it annoying.
Also, the recycled Breen ships distracted me.
Agreed.
I lol'd. At both.
Generally agreed, but I did think Keegan de Lancie was shag-worthy, despite disliking Q2 the character for the most part.
Where oh where was the Keegan de Lancie/Manu Intiraymi make out bonanza that this episode so desperately needed?
They were distracted by all the sexual tension between Q2 and Icheb.
(By the way, just who the hell were the Pelosians, Baezians, or Chenari? Were those names actually in the dialog, because if so, would it have killed them to use at least one real TOS alien race name?)
Generous of you. I only liked the first part of this episode, really. The holodeck rights thing always, always, always struck me as too derivative of Data's "Measure of a Man" arc. If they wanted to continue that type of exploration with the Doc that's fine, but it got to the point of overkill.
Spot on my man. Spot. On.
Good lord, I had to look this one up. And yes, I hated it.
A couple of quick notes since I agree with TheGodBen so long as he avoids his racist diatribes.
I disliked "Nightingale" for being boring and predictable, but two other side things annoyed the crap out of me in the episode.
1) The obvious re-use of the Federation fighters for the Nightingale - and I do mean obvious. DS9 had so many on screen in the later seasons, how were we supposed to not notice?
2) Voyager is performing unassisted maintenance on the warp coils. Now, I'd say this is a good thing taken by itself - actual maintenance shown on screen! Holy crap. However, if you go back and read just how delicate the warp coils are supposed to be (at least according to the TNG) tech manual, hauling them out with shuttles on the surface of a dirty planetary environment to do who-knows-what makes little sense to me. I know, you can get around this a number of ways, but I still found it distractingly disbelievable.
Prophesy (*½)
And then the Klingons show up. Makes sense, Voyager has to be in the Beta Quadrant by now, and that is where the Klingons live. Admittedly they live on the other side of the Beta Quadrant and Voyager is more likely to bump into a group of Romulans but... hey, there's an idea!Voyager comes across a Romulan ship, they get into a fight, the Romulan ship is destroyed, Janeway rescues some of them and they're forced to integrate with one another. It would be similar to this episode, but it would be infinitely better because it would have Romulans.
Now you're speaking my language, sir.
There was an excellent issue of DC's TOS comic series in the late nineties that basically had a plot like this (but in TOS.) The Enterprise bumped into a Romulan D7 and fought them, ultimately resulting in both ships being crippled, at which time the Enterprise realized that the reason for the fight (an attack on a nearby Fed base) was actually caused by a third party. Long story short, the Romulans and Enterprise banded together to try to repair their ships and survive, but the Romulans were initially working against the Enterprise. Only the engines of the Enterprise work and only the weapons of the D7 work. Ultimately, the third party shows up to attack both of them, and the Romulans go down in a blaze of glory and take the third party with them, leaving Kirk to wonder if it was an accidental destruction, or a sacrifice to save their grudging allies.
And this was a comic book, kids.
Yet another reason why I'm glad I don't read the novels.
Yay, brother.
Ditto. I shall henceforth call you Godfrey.
And, "The Void" was a good idea, but, like you were getting at, super rushed.
I didn't like "Workforce" nearly as much as you, Godfrey. Therefore, I picked it apart. The derelict Voyager found in space had been done before ("Macrocosm"), the aliens needing slave labor angle seemed like a forced deus ex machina, and I didn't really care about Janeway's alien boyfriend. Had the episode focused more on the idea of what the crew would have been like freed of their desire to go home or their obligations to Starfleet and whoever else, I might have been much more interested. As such, I found it annoying.
Also, the recycled Breen ships distracted me.
Agreed.
Q2 (*)
Okay, I've got to admit, that's pretty funny. I'll give that a point.
Watching this episode inspired me to make this video, so if you've got 7 minutes please check it out and revel in some of the best scene's TNG had to offer.
I lol'd. At both.
If you watched the video then you probably know what my point is going to be; Q is at his best when he is teaching humanity something rather than the other way around. Q was at his worst on TNG during season 1, back when it was the humans teaching him lessons, the only exception to this rule (the exception that proves it
Generally agreed, but I did think Keegan de Lancie was shag-worthy, despite disliking Q2 the character for the most part.
Where oh where was the Keegan de Lancie/Manu Intiraymi make out bonanza that this episode so desperately needed?
They were distracted by all the sexual tension between Q2 and Icheb.
(By the way, just who the hell were the Pelosians, Baezians, or Chenari? Were those names actually in the dialog, because if so, would it have killed them to use at least one real TOS alien race name?)
Author, Author (*****)
I'm surprised too, I remembered disliking this episode.
The episode starts out by taking a comical look at a Living Witness style Voyager, and I must admit that I found this to be quite enjoyable. Janew-... sorry, Jenkins shooting a patient in cold blood, En Kimble the hypochondriac and Lt Marseilles the porn-star, good fun is had by all.
Then comes the second half of the episode which works as Voyager's version of Measure of a Man but with a copyright twist, and Shmully sees himself as fighting for his people rather than just for himself. While the courtroom scenes were a little rushed, it is probably best that it is kept that way so as not to hold back the energy this episode has, and there is no need to go into detail proving that Shmully is a person because the audience is already well aware that he is. The ending also works very well, Shmully doesn't make legal history by having all holograms defined as people, or even himself, but he does win a small victory and opens the doors for those future debates. This is how civil rights are won in the real world, you keep making small victories until equality becomes the norm.
I was also pleased with the scenes of the Voyager crew having conversations with family members back on Earth, they proved quite effective. I know that Voyager isn't going to have a proper finale with these important character reunions, but at least I get to see what they might have been like here. Even Harry Kim gets a good scene.
So, does the episode deserve five stars? Maybe not, but I've not seen a more suitable candidate since Living Witness; I came away from this episode having enjoyed it and with surprisingly few qualms. I could deduct a point for being derivative of Measure of a Man, but instead I'll give it a pass. Consider it my parting gift to Voyager.
Generous of you. I only liked the first part of this episode, really. The holodeck rights thing always, always, always struck me as too derivative of Data's "Measure of a Man" arc. If they wanted to continue that type of exploration with the Doc that's fine, but it got to the point of overkill.
Friendship One (**)
An interesting idea for an episode but one which ends up being dull, pointless and dumb. It starts out well enough, I like the idea that the naivety of early humanity's desire to make contact with alien races inadvertently caused a disaster on another world. The scenes of various crewmembers walking through the devastation with no idea that humanity is partly to blame is not only interesting, but it opens up a lot of potential. However, rather than exploring the legitimate grievances these aliens have with humanity, the episode makes the aliens insane conspiracy nuts who accuse humans of some asinine plot to invade the planet, and the real issue is almost side-stepped entirely. That's disappointing.
Then the episode devolves into your standard hostage situation where the goldshirt we haven't seen in six years is the only person to die. I'm not the sort of person who is opposed to characters being killed off, I believe when it is done right it adds to the drama of a series, but Carey's death is pointless, and it has no emotional resonance because the guy was clearly brought back purely to kill him. When I first saw this episode all those years ago I didn't even remember him, he meant that little to me.
Then Voyager solves the problem using magic torpedoes, and Janeway reflects upon Carey's death:
Um, what?
Torpedoes: 96/38
We saw two torpedoes being fired, then Janeway orders at least one more volley so that brings a total of four torpedoes (although explosive sounds indicate there might have been a lot more).
Spot on my man. Spot. On.
Natural Law (*)
I was a bit confused while watching this episode, most episodes last around 44 minutes and I didn't understand why this episode was allowed to run for over 50 minutes. Then I looked down at the clock/timer on my DVD player and saw that I was only 35 minutes in. There was another act to this thing?!
I found it to be such a dull episode that is derivative of so many other Trek episodes; a shuttle crash, primitive aliens, technobabble deflector shenanigans... this is a bunch of Trek episodes carved up and reserved in a not very interesting way. Even the final act where there is an actual issue to explore isn't interesting, I just wanted the episode to end so I could go back to wasting my life by zooming in on random locations on Google Earth (I'm bound to find a nude sunbather eventually).
Then there's the b-plot involving Tom getting flying lessons, but the actors apparently didn't get the memo I sent them informing them that it's not funny. An episode where Tom is confronted with his reckless piloting might have been a source of amusement, but instead the funny is supposed to come from a grumpy old man who has to get up 6 times a night in order to pee and he's taking his prostate problems out on Tom for no good reason.
But if there is one thing this episode had in spades it is the sexual tension between Seven and Chakotay. Seeing them together in this episode you can tell that these two are meant to spend the rest of their lives together, and the passion in their eyes is so strong that I was half-expecting them to jump one another and make sweet, sweet love in front of the whole tribe.
I think I just broke my sarcasm unit, I may not be able to use it in my final three reviews.
When Seven used the deflector to turn off the magic shield thing, do you think that the shuttle wing that was suspended on the shield fell on one of the primitives? Because I'd like to think that it did.
Good lord, I had to look this one up. And yes, I hated it.
