Another Voyager 1st-time watch thread

[JanewayRulz!]

Speaking of which, it's time for...

"Phage"

When I found out they took Neelix's lungs, my wife and hi had this exchange:

ME: "Hey, it's like a serious version of Spock's Brain. You know which one that is, right?"

SHE: "BRAIN AND BRAIN WHAT IS BRAIN?"

Is she a keeper or what? She also points out random occurrences of the number 47 to me.

So, onto the episode. Some legitimately creepy stuff with the lung thieves, and some really good moments from Neelix. He's still not growing on me, but this is a good episode for him.

I thought Janeway's speech to the Vidiians was a total disaster. Basically, it came down to "if you do that one more time, I'm going to get angry." We could have used a little Robau-esque "What gives you the right..." instead of that "Starfleet principles" speech. And then to just let them go?

The "good guy" bad guy made everything better in the end, but it was a quick way out of a real moral dilemma. And how come Janeway was able to pull the trigger on Tuvix, but wouldn't at least see if the doctor could hack out one of the Vidiian's lungs and give it back to Neelix?

It just seemed like they made what could have been an incredible episode a little too easy.

They couldn't give the lungs back to Neelix because they were (if you believe the aliens) irretrievably changed to suit Vidian physiology.

Also, in a Star Trek Morality play, its always better to TRY and leave two people alive rather than kill one for the good of another.

And, as has been noted above, she did go postal on the Vidians in "Deadlock".

Oh... and you ARE right, your wife IS a keeper.

Now... lets just hope she says the same about you when you watch HER fav shows!

 

[Shatnertage]

^^^She got me totally into Lost and Project Runway, semi-interested in Grey's Anatomy (I know which one is McSteamy and which one is McDreamy) and mildly interested in Desperate Housewives. And we watch the Harry Potter movies together.

The only one of those shows we're watching right now is Project Runway, which I really like.

Spoiler: Last week's Project Runway episode

Mondo's still my favorite despite the crap he pulled with Heidi last week, though I liked Andy's designs last week and think he's a strong designer, too.

So yeah, she probably says the same thing about me.

 

[Shatnertage]

Time for a new episode...

"Emanations"

I liked this one. It was one of those "concept shows," and unless they misfire badly ("Masks"), I tend to like them.

Last time we saw Seska she was wearing science blue. Now she's in engineering yellow. She really gets around, doesn't she? Shame that they'll kill her off. They should have kept her Bajoran and made her betray the ship because she was sick of the duty roster moving her around.

It's a Kim episode, and I don't see why so many people are so down on Harry Kim. He's a believable character, and Wang does a good job with what he's given here.

At first I thought that the corpses were wrapped in cocoons and this was going to be like that bit in Return of the King where Frodo and Sam fight the big spider. I was wrong.

I like anthropologist Chakotay. Makes me remember archaeology class way back when.

The guy who Kim switched places kind of sounded like Willem Defoe.

And did anyone else wonder why no one notices that the "dead man walking" had bulked up considerably? Kim easily had 20 pounds on that guy, who was as thin as a reed. And how did he get out of the building, and why didn't anyone notice that the alien who was in the same room with him had just vanished? A wizard did it?

Reminded me of The Count of Monte Cristo, though.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Harry Kim still had so much promise in season 1, people disliked him as the show went on because his character was going nowhere.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

I liked the end, where Janeway made him take 2 days off to contemplate life and death and life.

 

[Shatnertage]

Back with another one, which I watched a bit out of sequence:

"The Cloud"

In one sentence, the plot itself was pretty tired, but this has the best dialog on any episode of VOY I've seen, and ranks up there with the best episodes of Trek for dialog.

It seems like half of the lines are instantly quotable--hey, most of them have been quoted, and it's strange seeing where they come from. "There's coffee in that nebula," Neelix's "natural born idiots," "that's a Starfleet expression for 'get out.'" It's like they hired a sitcom writer to punch up the dialog--I love it. I wish the rest of the show had been this punchy.

My wife pointed out a possible continuity error. When Chakotay comes into Janeway's office, he tells her he's never shown anyone else his medicine bundle. Then when Torres comes in, he says she tried to kill her animal guide, the implication being that he's done this same thing with her. What gives?

The electronic hallucinogen was an interesting way to avoid having the captain ingest mind-altering substances.

I remember watching a TAS episode where they also had to get out of a giant space amoeba or something like that. Can't remember the title, though.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

I totally agree that the dialogue in "The Cloud" is extremely strong- sounding natural and interesting. It makes the episode a winner for me.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Loved the beginning, where Neelix is flattering Janeway, then chastizing her for being a bad example when she tries to use her replicator rations to get a cup of coffee.

Her face, when he pours his lumpy "better than coffee substitute, was precious! As was her response to Chakotay when he told her there was no reason to come to the bridge for his report, "Yes there was!"

 

[T.D. Possum]

I didn't really like "The Cloud" the first time I saw it. But then I began to notice what a gold mine it is for little bits of Voyager campy humor. The dialogue is great, as you mentioned. But the visual aspects lend themselves to comedy, as well. The scene J'Rulz mentioned is a great example.

Some of you may not have seen this parody vid of "The Cloud". I've watched this a dozen times, I swear, and I still get tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--N1NPilMbo&feature=related

There's more, but Part Two is the funniest bit.

 

[Shatnertage]

^ I love the look on her face at 4:02, "Well screw you then!"

 

[Shatnertage]

I got to watch not one, but two VOY episodes last night. The first was...

"Ex Post Facto"

By the end of the tease, I had written it off as a rehash of "A Matter of Perspective." But there was actually something likable about this episode: it was a different kind of twist on a noirish thriller, with a femme fatale and our own beloved Tuvok playing the role of the hard-boiled detective.

I'm convinced that any episode featuring Tuvok is a plus, particularly when he gets to do detective work. I don't know why they didn't do the meld right away, instead of the lie detector test--maybe the risks that they referred to.

While it wasn't exactly original, "Ex Post Facto" was pretty good genre entertainment. I can see how people can criticize plots like these as recycled, but as an hour of television on its own merits, it was pretty good.

 

[froot]

I'm convinced that any episode featuring Tuvok is a plus, particularly when he gets to do detective work.

Amen. I love, love, love Detective!Tuvok I enjoy that he was given quite a few chances over the years to use his mystery-solving prowess.

 

[Shatnertage]

OK, here's the next one...

"Prime Factors"

This was a pretty unique-to-VOY story, so it gets some credit for that. It's a classic Trek story, with a real moral dilemma, and a potential warp core breach as well.

The "hospitality" guy reminded me a bit of Raul Julia, which was kind of cool. He was very...hospitable. At this point I think they were still proving that female captains can be as flirtatious as Kirk--at least that's how I explain the interplay between NotRaulJulia and Janeway.

Harry goes on a date! Good for him!

The idea of stories as currency is a pretty fresh one, too. They're really pushing some boundaries here.

Seska's getting some more screen-time, basically inciting mutiny. They never should have killed her off.

Nice job in making the hospitality folks appealing, yet creepy.

The real star of the show, however, is Janeway--or rather Kate Mulgrew. Basically, she acts her ass off from the start, selling us on how great the hospitality planet is, her struggles over whether to "cheat" by getting the space-folder from Jared Hotel (at least that's what his name sounded like to me), and her final scene with Torres & Tuvok.

Even the way she stands up and walks around seems to have a real energy to it. I'm absolutely serious. If you want to get someone into VOY, this might be an episode to show them, since it's a real showcase for Mulgrew--probably the best, drama-wise, that I've seen so far.

If I was writing the show, I would have had the space-folder work, but send them 40,000 light years in the wrong direction. So now they've got 110,000 light years to go. Then it breaks.

Even though I usually detest Prime Directive episodes, I really liked this one.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

^^Love this episode, love Janeway in all her manifestations that week (powerful, questioning, flirtatious, disciplinarian, betrayed friend) , Love Torres, love snively Seska, was absolutely blown away by renegade Tuvok.

THAT was a surprise!

 

[T.D. Possum]

I like two things about Prime Factors:

1. Janeway tries to bribe a stubborn alien with pecan pie. I love that on soooo many levels.

2. I like that it was Tuvok who did the sneaky deed. And I like the scene when he and Janeway discuss it. The relationship between those two is my favorite (friend)ship on the show, and this episode does a good job of displaying their special bond.

I never really considered this one for an episode that I might use to introduce someone to the show. I am currently try to recruit a non-Trekkie friend, so I'll have to give that some thought.

 

[Shatnertage]

Forgot about the pecan pie thing for a moment. That was great. And I really liked Tuvok's mea culpa of, "my logic was right, but I was wrong." Great stuff.

And now for another episode I really liked...

"State of Flux"

I'm a big Seska fan--I really like Martha Hackett's sneaky/villainous take on the character. I hadn't seen this episode before (though I had an idea of how she got hooked up with the Kazon), and from the blurb ("A traitor is on board the ship), I figured this was her swan song.

They threw the C/S romance in at the last minute, didn't they? Again, having seen the S3 episodes, I knew they had a past, but in the previous few episodes it wasn't even clear that Chakotay knew her more than slightly.

Nice to throw suspicion on Carey--good carry-over from earlier episodes. I really like this approach. Too bad they ditched it later on.

Inspector Tuvok is on the case again--great stuff. Did I imagine Chakotay calling him "Chief Inspector Tuvok," or did that really happen? If he did, was he being serious, or making a sarcastic reference to "Chief Inspector Clouseau?"

My one quibble is that one of the Kazon commits a murder in Janeway's sickbay, and her only response is, "Get off my ship." Shouldn't he have been prosecuted for murder?

Loved the resolution, with Seska making a speech that actually made some valid points, then escaping to bedevil the crew another day. The coda with Chakotay and Tuvok was even better.

 

[HoneyBLilly]

"You were working for her. She was working for them. Was anyone on that ship working for me?"

Best Chakotay part.

 

[Shatnertage]

I wish he had done a Bogart-esque, "Of all the Maquis cells in all the Badlands, she had to walk into mine," when talking with Chakotay.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

JANEWAY: How could they possibly have Federation technology?
TUVOK: There are only three alternatives I can discern at this time. One, it is not Federation technology at all but something similar.

[Turbolift]

JANEWAY: Bridge.
TUVOK: Two, another Federation starship may have been brought to the Delta Quadrant prior to our arrival, and they interacted with the Kazon-Nistrim.
CHAKOTAY: Were there any other reports of missing starships?
JANEWAY: Not to my knowledge.
TUVOK: Three, someone from this ship has covertly given technology to the Kazon.
JANEWAY: Computer, hold turbolift. I don't like number three at all Tuvok.

I loved that moment!

 

[Shatnertage]

OK, onto a new episode. Spike has started VOY early, so i don't get a tease--the DVR just picks up in the middle of the majestic opening theme.

"Heroes and Demons"

With a sinking heart, I realize that this is a holodeck episodes. Like most Trek fans, I generally don't like holodeck episodes. I'm willing to accept it, however, as the best of three undesirable alternatives. If you want to get the crew into costume and clowning around with recognizable scenes from Earth's past, you can either do A) time travel, B) alternate earths/parallel developed civilizations or C) the holodeck. I guess if you have to do a costume episode, (C) is the least objectionable choice.

The only holodeck episode I truly love is "Hollow Pursuits," which was incredibly prescient about how absorbed people could get into virtual worlds, long before the Internet was popular. When the episode involves holodeck technobabble, I tend to tune out.

Which is what happened with "Heroes and Demons." I tried to like it, and I can appreciate where they were going with the Doctor's "away mission," but this was very, very dull. I didn't pause it while doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen, which is a measure of how un-riveting I found it. It's particularly noticeable coming after two of the best episodes I've seen in a while.

Unlike "State of Flux," where the technobabble takes a backseat to a mystery involving betrayal and treachery, "Heroes and Demons" just plods right through the technobabble all the way.

It just seemed really flat and boring, and not that much fun at all.