After a few days of doing other stuff, I am back in corporeal form to discuss...
"In the Flesh"
This is a really good Blondie song, so I had high hopes for the episode. I thought it would be, "Seven is transformed into a completely un-Borged human" or something like that, so I was way off with my guess.
Actually, I've been having a lot of fun guessing the plot based on the title before I see it. I don't think I've gotten close yet.
So, the tease is Chakotay at Starfleet headquarters. It isn't a flashback, so it's either an alternate universe or an anomaly. And yay! Tucker Smallwood's here. And his character actually has a name! Good for him.
Then we meet Boothby. I love Boothby and all that, but my wife had a good point: "Out of everyone from TNG, he's the one the fans wanted to see again?"
So basically Species 8472 feels threatened by humans, even though they live in another dimension, and they're going to do something about it: make replicas of Starfleet command and pretend to be human.
Even though this episode has some good moments, it's completely illogical. Why would 8472 go through all this trouble? They're so over-powered, the Federation wouldn't stand a chance against them. And if they really wanted to study humans, why not just track down and capture Voyager?
And weren't they telephathic?
I also don't understand how Tuvok and Chakotay are able to infiltrate the place.
So the whole set-up doesn't make sense. But then, once Janeway finds out that it's 8472, things start making even less sense. Clearly, 8472's been to Earth, if they're able to duplicate everything so perfectly. It never crosses anyone's mind to say, "Hey, if you give us a ride to Earth, we can clear this entire mess up."
Also, if they've got such sophisticated surveillance, why not just monitor Federation subspace radio for a few weeks. They'd see right away that no one knew about 8472. Weren't they pre-occupied with the Dominion War, anyway? For that matter, just read Janeway's logs, which would explain that the conflict was really a defensive one, and that she didn't initiate the incursion into fluidic space?
Instead, we get a really tired, "We shouldn't fight...we should trust each other" episode, which, again, hardly needs saying at this point. It's not like Trek fans are a bunch of warmongers who constantly need to be reminded that diplomacy can solve conflicts better than violence (sometimes).
And why doesn't anyone think to ask 8472 to take them home? Here's what I would have said:
A) Take us home
B) Fake Boothby becomes the 8472 ambassador to the Federation
C) Everyone heads down to the Night Owl for a venti latte
And at the end, Voyager gains nothing of consequence--they didn't even ask for a ride home. So it's like they're trying not to get home.
And even though Tucker Smallwood's character has a name, he doesn't really get to do anything, as opposed to his next Trek role, where he'll get to do a lot, but won't have a name. That the writers know about, anyway.
So this one is a dud, mostly because the premise doesn't work. Species 8472 believed life in our universe was an infestation. If you had termites in your garage, would you dress up like a termite to get a better understand of how to fumigate them? The whole idea only works if 8472 respects humans as a sentient life form, which originally they did not.
"In the Flesh"
This is a really good Blondie song, so I had high hopes for the episode. I thought it would be, "Seven is transformed into a completely un-Borged human" or something like that, so I was way off with my guess.
Actually, I've been having a lot of fun guessing the plot based on the title before I see it. I don't think I've gotten close yet.
So, the tease is Chakotay at Starfleet headquarters. It isn't a flashback, so it's either an alternate universe or an anomaly. And yay! Tucker Smallwood's here. And his character actually has a name! Good for him.
Then we meet Boothby. I love Boothby and all that, but my wife had a good point: "Out of everyone from TNG, he's the one the fans wanted to see again?"
So basically Species 8472 feels threatened by humans, even though they live in another dimension, and they're going to do something about it: make replicas of Starfleet command and pretend to be human.
Even though this episode has some good moments, it's completely illogical. Why would 8472 go through all this trouble? They're so over-powered, the Federation wouldn't stand a chance against them. And if they really wanted to study humans, why not just track down and capture Voyager?
And weren't they telephathic?
I also don't understand how Tuvok and Chakotay are able to infiltrate the place.
So the whole set-up doesn't make sense. But then, once Janeway finds out that it's 8472, things start making even less sense. Clearly, 8472's been to Earth, if they're able to duplicate everything so perfectly. It never crosses anyone's mind to say, "Hey, if you give us a ride to Earth, we can clear this entire mess up."
Also, if they've got such sophisticated surveillance, why not just monitor Federation subspace radio for a few weeks. They'd see right away that no one knew about 8472. Weren't they pre-occupied with the Dominion War, anyway? For that matter, just read Janeway's logs, which would explain that the conflict was really a defensive one, and that she didn't initiate the incursion into fluidic space?
Instead, we get a really tired, "We shouldn't fight...we should trust each other" episode, which, again, hardly needs saying at this point. It's not like Trek fans are a bunch of warmongers who constantly need to be reminded that diplomacy can solve conflicts better than violence (sometimes).
And why doesn't anyone think to ask 8472 to take them home? Here's what I would have said:
A) Take us home
B) Fake Boothby becomes the 8472 ambassador to the Federation
C) Everyone heads down to the Night Owl for a venti latte
And at the end, Voyager gains nothing of consequence--they didn't even ask for a ride home. So it's like they're trying not to get home.
And even though Tucker Smallwood's character has a name, he doesn't really get to do anything, as opposed to his next Trek role, where he'll get to do a lot, but won't have a name. That the writers know about, anyway.
So this one is a dud, mostly because the premise doesn't work. Species 8472 believed life in our universe was an infestation. If you had termites in your garage, would you dress up like a termite to get a better understand of how to fumigate them? The whole idea only works if 8472 respects humans as a sentient life form, which originally they did not.
