captrek’s watch thread

[Captrek]

I’m watching the series through, currently in late Season 4. There are a couple of other current watch threads, so here’s mine, where I’ll drop in with comments and observations when I feel like it.

First, a couple of quick quotes from Hunters:

SEVEN: Commander, am I correct in assuming that Vulcans are incapable of lying?
TUVOK: We are capable of telling lies. However, I have never found it prudent or necessary to do so.

Somebody remind me, what was Tuvok doing when the series started? Something about somebody’s waiting arms? Vulcans consistently understate their own propensity for lying, but it seems that nobody in-universe has picked up on this.

Captain's Log, Supplemental. Seven of Nine and Commander Tuvok suffered no serious physical damage after their encounter on the alien ship. I've been eager to hear Tuvok's impressions of the species who took them hostage.

I’m sorry, Tuvok doesn’t do impressions. His training is in security.

Also, Harry was even more annoying than usual with his miserable moping just because the letter from his parents was one of the last to arrive. I wish somebody would flush him out an airlock again.


Now, Prey.

SEVEN: Each time they boarded a Borg vessel they went directly to the central power matrix and disabled it.

The Borg of Q Who? didn’t have a “central power matrix.” They were way cooler than FC/VOY Borg. I miss them.

Time for a rant:

I have complained in this forum about Janeway completely disregarding the rights of other species when they interfered with Voyager’s interests. In recent experiences with the Hirogen I think she has continued to follow this pattern. In Prey, she goes to the opposite extreme in the craziest way for the sake of an 8472.

She walks in on a hunt. She doesn’t particularly dig hunts with sentient prey — on the intelligence scale, Earth’s tradition is to draw the line at deer — but this kind of hunt is not at all uncommon in the galaxy.

There’s also a difference of opinion on how to proceed when the prey is mortally wounded. Janeway believes that at this point it “isn’t a hunt, it’s a slaughter,” it should be called off, and the prey should be given medical care and a ride home. On the other hand, many hunters in the galaxy, including the Hirogen, are passionate about continuing the hunt to completion, delivering the coup de gras, and collecting a trophy.

Janeway is, understandably, not positively impressed by the values of the Hirogen. Presumably, the Hirogen are also not terribly crazy about the values Janeway has demonstrated in their encounters with her so far. We have a wonderful foundation for a mutual admiration society.

Now Janeway stumbles onto a hunt that’s a little on the far side of the line of what she would consider acceptable. She decides to help the wounded prey and take it home. The Hirogen, not surprisingly, find that unacceptable. Against Seven’s very sensible advice, Janeway decides to risk her ship, her life, the lives of her crew, and that annoying little girl in a fight to the death rather than butt the fuck out.

And she wonders why Voyager has managed to make enemies in pretty much every part of the Delta Quadrant they’ve been through.

All that being said, I loved this episode. The Janeway/Seven stuff is great, but it would be even better if Janeway’s position weren’t so nuts. Also, 8472 is the coolest species in the Star Trek universe. I imagine it’s also the most expensive.

 

[Captrek]

Posted some of my stuff in Shaterntage’s thread. Picking up here after Prey, we are on Retrospect.

•

After the following exchange:

The Captain gives me greater liberty only when she needs my expertise.

You violated her trust, and if you want it back, you're going to have to earn it one step at a time.

She should be thinking:

Yeah, I violated her trust and saved the ship you $%&()$!!! Twice!

but she says:

I will report to engineering.

Seven is awesome.

•

I love Jeri, but sometimes I can’t help but picture Robbie the Robot in that catsuit:

A Jungian therapist would attempt to retrieve unconscious memories by exploring synchronicities in recent events. On the other hand, Amanin of Betazed would argue that a combination of sensory isolation and focused breathing techniques would be more effective. I've integrated the finer points of both to create my own approach to memory reconstruction.

What does this approach involve.

First, putting you at ease by performing the treatment here, in your own environment. Once the cortical probes have reinforced the neural pathways, I'll use a directed imagery technique to guide you through the regression.

You may proceed.

Please, close your eyes. Clear your mind. Try not to think or to analyse.

My mind is now clear.

Seven, this isn't an exercise in efficiency.

However, Robbie would’ve had trouble with this line:

He performed a surgical procedure on me. He extracted Borg technology from my body. He violated me.

•

Note how the blue states and red states fit the uniform colors:

We're not talking about conjecture, we're talking about science!

Let's not get bogged down.

I’m not sure what kind of state this is, except the kind I don’t want to visit:

The fact that he's running shows that he's got something to hide. Until we find out what that is, we can't risk letting him go.

 

[Captrek]

Thoughts on The Killing Game (Part I):

•

How does a former Borg drone, who has probably not sung a note since she was six years old, have such a lovely singing voice?

•

How did Steve Cohen get to choose the setting for the holodeck game?

•

JANEWAY: Ah. Let's make him feel at home. Send him a bottle of Chateau LaTour. My compliments.
TUVOK: The '29?
JANEWAY: I hate to waste good wine. Give him the '36.

Does this conversation ever happen in real life?

•

EMH: I have had twenty eight wounded and one fatality in the past twelve hours. Even I can't keep up with that level of triage.
ALPHA: You will keep up or they will die.

This is exactly why Zimmerman should have used my [post=4641055]Multiple Man[/post] idea. But no, he’s all, “I’m an engineer, not a holocomic writer.” Smart guy. No imagination.

•

ALPHA: I must continue my research. I'll see you tomorrow on Holodeck one. The Americans are due to invade.

Logan says it should have been the Canadians.

•

YOUNG HIROGEN: I want to see this sub-routine. Show me what you were doing when the accident occurred.
KIM: Forget it. I don't have time.
YOUNG HIROGEN: Do as I say!
KIM: All right! You'd better call the bridge. Tell your superior I'm going to be late, that I'm working under your orders now, not his. Go ahead, make the call. I don't want to take the blame for this.
YOUNG HIROGEN: Report to the bridge.
KIM: Thanks.

That has got to be the worst implementation of this trope I’ve ever seen!

Yes, even worse than Quark & Kim in the pilot.

Somebody please flush Kim out an airlock again, as many times as it takes.

•

You can reach the holodeck controls by moving aside some books on a bookshelf?

•

You wanted a war? Looks like you've got one.

Thank you, George W. Bush

Make that two.

 

[Captrek]

The Killing Game, Part II: Well, that was fun. Americans, Nazis, French Underground, Starfleet, Hirogen, and Klingons all battling through the corridors of Voyager and on the streets of occupied France. The action choreography is nothing special, but that is almost always the case in Trek. This episode is one of Voyager’s better actioners so far.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

captrek just want to say your avatar is awesome.

 

[Captrek]

Thank you, teacake!

Vis à Vis:

Ugh. This episode had me frequently checking the clock counting down the minutes until it would be over.

“I put my mind in somebody else’s body! Now I’m going to live that person’s life. Despite the fact that I don’t have the knowledge, memory, skills, or personality of the person I’m impersonating, nobody will suspect a thing! I can get away with it indefinitely!”

The concept was idiotic in TOS:Turnabout Intruder, and it didn’t age well. Between TI and VàV, I think TI is actually the better episode for a few reasons.

1) In TI, it was clear that Dr. Lester wasn’t exactly operating on all thrusters, so the foolishness can be pinned on the character rather than on the creative team behind the episode. VàV, by contrast, asks the viewer to accept the scheme as viable.

2) While the TOS crew had had its share of experience with doppelgängers, robot duplicates, and alien possessions, this kind of thing was still sort of new, so they can maybe be forgiven for being slow to question their assumption that Kirk is Kirk and Lester is Lester. 24th-century Starfleet officers should be more alert to it. (Perhaps a factor in defense of Paris’ shipmates is that Paris was acting out of character even before the body switch, but this hardly qualifies as a defense of the episode.)

3) TI was the conclusion to the third season of TOS, the most unabashedly idiotic of Trek’s 28 seasons. (29 if you count TAS as a season. I won’t count it as two seasons, even though it technically is.) If you have made it this far through TOS3, you have hopefully come to enjoy the campiness; if not, at least TI gives you “Thank God it’s over” relief. Voyager plays it straight.

4) And, of course, TI came first. Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who imitates him?