Change of heart about a VGR episode/season

[Eddie Roth]

I've recently started catching up on some VGR that I seem to have missed or not paid much attention to back in the day. For me, that was the latter part of season 6 and all of season 7 - which was my time of heavy "franchise fatigue". My memories of especially S7 were of a dull string of episodes that plodded along without much to say and with few exciting moments.

Now it turns out I must've paid no attention at all! Having now reached "The Void" in my second look at the season, I would now argue it's in fact one of the strongest seasons of the entire series. I particularly appreciate how that season tries to bring back, in some form, all of the elements that once set VGR apart from other Treks - the Maquis (even though "Repression" - which I did like - may have come up with a somewhat contrived way to deal with the issue again), the progress on the voyage home ("Inside Man"), the more lighthearted, familial tone among the crew ("Drive", "Body and Soul") and the value of Starfleet protocols even in extraordinary situations ("The Void"). In total, a version of TNG, still, but with a few twists that keep it distinct.

The Void in particular I found to be an excellent ST episode altogether, emphasizing in brief what the franchise's ideals are: exploration, exchange, cooperation, encounters with the unknown. Great.

I'm so surprised about my change of heart (For years, I had considered VGR a mildly entertaining waste of time, now I look forward to watching another episode every night) that I wondered if such radical reevaluations of older Trek material, whole series or seasons or just individual episodes, have happened to anyone else. Or maybe a change of opinion towards the negative?

EDIT: Despite the title, I'm not just referring to VGR material.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Your comment about "franchise fatigue" is telling, for those who watched Voy in its first run.

Season 7 has lots to recommend, glad you gave it another chance.

 

[Eddie Roth]

I am too. I find myself enjoying yet another episode every day. Last night, it was Workforce Part 1. Another well-constructed story with something to say - about characters and a topic.

Is it my impression or did Kenneth Biller, in his stint as showrunner, actively try to get back to somewhat more down-to-earth, topical storytelling compared to Braga's style?

 

[Guy Gardener]

I watched Workforce today.

The cgi with the monorail in the beginning was very impressive.

Which hardly makes up for not trying harder to make it look they were not ripping off the episode of Stargate which was almost exactly the same.

Mulgrew reminded me of Breakfast at Tiffanys or one of those other movies where a hayseed arrives in the big city full of wide eyed optimism.

 

[Eddie Roth]

I don't know any Stargate episodes, so I don't mind overlap.

 

[Guy Gardener]

People were calling shenanigans after the plot for workforce was released before it even aired.

Brainwashed to think they were happy workers, but it's all undone because the black alien in the group has complex emotional issues which the brainwashers couldn't compensate for causing him to go crazy and rant about their other lives.

I just described both episodes with uncanny accuracy.

 

[Eddie Roth]

OK, but I don't really see your point except if you were aiming to call this a racist episode. And then I wouldn't really agree.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Teal'c and Tuvok. How spellingist is it to say that both their names start with the letter T?

The Vulcan/Jaffa components of their identity is the actual reason the brain washing didn't work, not because they were both black. Forgive me if I was just piling on the coincidences between these two episodes if I can't say that almost every other episode of Stargate and Voyager is the same because MacGyver and Janeway are both white or that Carter and B'Elanna are both female engineers.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Oh my god, Guy, you're right. Wow.

 

[AuntKate]

I love "The Void." My favorite season, though, is probably Season 5 with Season 6 close behind. Enjoy!

 

[I am not Spock]

I changed my mind, upon rewatching season six of VOY. 'Dragons Teeth', 'Survival Instinct', 'Barge Of The Dead', 'Memorial', 'Blink of an Eye', THIS is Star Trek! (especially the excellent latter episode). There's a lot of really good, topical, underrated eps in the sixth season. Maybe forgotten about because of stuff like 'Tsunkatse' and 'Spirit Folk'.

 

[Eddie Roth]

True, Blink of an Eye is an excellent episode, probably my number 1 VGR favorite. Epic. But then again, I had never seen this any other way.

 

[Guy Gardener]

There was a wonderful prime Directive conversation they could have had. No matter that these guys were about Half an hour from inventing transwarp drive when Voyager left orbit, what if Janeway had seeded that world with advanced technology to jump start force their technological evolution to the point that they could get Voyager home, and everything went wrong, Janeway could have bombed them back into the stone age and wait half a day for them to build back up to a warp capable culture.

It's what Ransom would have done and it would have got him home.

47 second life spans. How the hells can you take that seriously?

 

[Eddie Roth]

Once again, Guy, I fail to see the point.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It was a way home if they just waited a couple more hours rather then wander off.

Formed a trade alliance with a technological equal who 73 seconds later was a technological superior who 5 minutes later had evolved into energy beings leaving the world behind and all it's super technology sexily waitng for salvage and archaeological rape.

If Janeway was a criminal bastard (like Ransom without the squeamish 9 year old pig tails girl with a skinned knee attitude.) she could have purposely steered their evolution making absolutely sure that they invented exactly the technology she needed to get her ship home. You know if she decided the prime directive was bollocks because her own principles are better than the ones she swore an oath to abide by.

She could have been vader, but she stayed Anikan because of a lack of vision not an excess of conviction.

 

[AuntKate]

Vader? Annikin? Who are they?

Janeway stayed a Star Fleet captain, and you can't do better than that. Nuf said.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No, they promoted her.

They took her out of the field where she was doing so much damage and no one had the power to check, balance or reign in her Ahabish zeal .

 

[AuntKate]

We've disagreed about this before . . . admirals have more power and less oversight than captains in the Alpha Quadrant. She wasn't promoted so that she could be "controlled." She was promoted because she did so well in the DQ. Live with it.

Obviously, what I meant was that she remained a Star Fleet captain during "Blink of an Eye" and did not take advantage of the inhabitants of the planet as Ransom probably would have done.

 

[Ensign Johnson]

I bet she was getting a bollocking at first. They planned to demote her to ensign but after one conversation she charmed them into giving her a promotion. No one can stay mad at Janeway.

 

[Guy Gardener]

What ever magic kept the Maquis and Equinox 5 out of Invercargle certainly saved the Captains Bacon too.

However there was only 15 minutes between taking advantage of a prewarp culture and begging aid from an advanced super culture, if they didn't die out just moments before they could possible be of aid to kathy. And even if they died out. Couldn't Janeway just have fired modified human DNA into the soup and created her own offshoot of man to grow up and invent what she needed? It's barely any different from when the entire crew donated their dna to the quickliver life forms who went on to copy federation principles and technology and spread that contaminain all over.

Kate, I enjoy and understand these differences of opinion we have and i can see how you would be right if the world was made out of fairies and lollipops.