Does It Get Better???

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

It never made sense to me either, and yes, he couldn't act and should have been jettisoned at the end of season 3 like originally planned. The show would have been much better for it.

Glad you're liking Seven of Nine, she's definitely my favorite character in the show and possibly my favorite ever.

She is my favorite character ever and this gif is just wonderful.

 

[JarodRussell]

Is she saying what I think she is saying?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Something about riding a falcon?

 

[AdmiralScreed]

Is it me or is a show that isn't averaging out at at least 7 or 8 an episode, that you should drop it?

Ideally not a single episode would score below a 7 or 8, but 5 or 6 is an acceptable rating as well. On my scale 5-6 just means "average", which is perfectly fine just so long as there are also plenty of 7's and 8's, which there have been so far this season.

And to be totally honest, I can get some enjoyment out of Trek even when it's mediocre (except when I'm watching TOS, which was mediocre practically all the time). I'll take bad Trek over most modern TV any day. I'm sure there are others on this forum that feel similarly.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

About TOS?

NO NO a THOUSAND times NO.

About mediocre trek being better than most modern tv? Yes. I'd go further though, I've concluded that I would rather watch mediocre sci fi than excellent other genres. Give me a mediocre sci fi series over an award winning crime or law or whatever show.

 

[exodus]

While we're talking about rank, it drove me nuts that in 7 years of Deep Space Nine, Bashir never got promoted to Lt. Cmdr. Nearly every other doctor we'd ever seen in Starfleet was at least a Lt. Cmdr (both Crusher and Pulaski were full Commanders), and he was supposed to be wicked smart.

Good observation! I'm betting the writers just never thought about it.

I think Bashir might have lost any promotion he got upon his revelation that he was a fraud.

Also, thanks everyone for the info on Kim.

It still doesn't make a lot of sense to me though. I figured being a "senior" officer meant that you'd had a lot of experience in the field and you were qualified for a position of some authority. It doesn't make much sense to me for an ensign to be made a senior officer right out of the academy. Especially someone as incompetent as Kim...or maybe I'm just biased against him because the actor can't act...

I remember reading that originally the concept for Harry was that he was supposed to be a prodigy and naturally gifted when it came to engineering but due to his lack of field experience he only ranked as a Ensign. So he has a senior officer position due to him being supposedly brilliant.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The ship didn't even warrant a fully fledged Commander as it's XO.

Depending on which reference you hold stock to, "sometimes" they say that Voyager was Janeway's first posting as Captain, so really as far as her department heads go, she's wants loyalty and deference as much as competency and excellence, which she is more likely to get from a green kid than a grizzled veteran like "Carey".

Poor Carey.

Carey is in his 40s, it's possible he even served under Picard in 2364 (TNG Justice) and was it really that B'Elanna had more imagination, or that Carey's end game would have been XO or Captain if Kathryn hadn't so magnificently kneecapped the poor bastard in the first act.

It's amazing the man isn't bitter.

 

[Anwar]

The ship didn't even warrant a fully fledged Commander as it's XO.

Hey, even though Trek doesn't outright say it a Lt Cmdr is a high enough rank to be the CO of a ship...

 

[Harvey]

Wasn't there a Lt. Cdr. in charge of a Nebula class ship in "Second Sight" on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Little ships, or unimportant ships get Lt Commanders as XOs.

Even Smaller, and more unimportant ships have ensigns or enlisted crew as the XO.

Some assignments are so low profile and rat-arsed down and out that they only warrant a Commander to be in charge of the whole kit and Kaboodle.

 

[Lord Manitou]

Processing flash:
JANEWAY: Objection noted. We'll do this without you.
SEVEN: You will fail.
JANEWAY: And you have just crossed the line. End of debate. Report to the Cargo Bay and remain there until this is over. Is that understood?
[Bridge]

 

[AdmiralScreed]

The Killing Game Part 1 and 2: I'll be completely honest, I hate war movies. So, with that in mind, it shouldn't be any surprise that I disliked this episode.
First of all, what did I like? The scenes with Neelix and the Klingons were hilarious, and without a doubt the high point of the entire 2 parter. Seeing the Klingons take on the Nazis at the very end was very funny. I also liked the scenes with the Kim and the Doctor. Although at times Kim's attitude toward the Hirogen seemed really forced and almost comical.
What didn't I like? Practically everything else. They had the chance to do a simulation of Wolf (some 3 digit number) battle with the Borg, but they blew in favor of a dumb WWII simulation. I also wanted to point out that I think the Hirogen have gone from being extremely intimidating villains to just the opposite of that. In their original appearance several episodes back I thought these guys were extremely badass. They were merciless and blood thirsty hunters, and I loved them. Unfortunately, this episode had to go and humanize them, which in my opinion pretty much ruined them. Sure, turning them into good guys was in the spirit of Trek, but did it really benefit them as villains? I don't think so. By the end of the episode they had lost virtually all of their original menace.

AI will give part 1 a 3/10 and part 2 a 5/10.

 

[tighr]

Wow. To each his own, I guess, but I absolutely loved The Killing Game.

I guess I knew your score was going to be low based on the fact that for you, the high point was Neelix and the Klingons. I'm surprised you don't point out that the episode would have been better if the Klingon simulation had been the Khitomer Massacre.

I also disagree that a simulation of Wolf 359 would have been a better scenario than WWII. The whole point of the Hirogen choosing WWII from Earth's databases was that the Nazis and the Allies were fairly evenly matched, and that the Nazis eventually lose the war. The Hirogen like a challenge, so they take on the role of the antagonists (also, its TV, so we want to see the bad guys portraying bad guys). If they had done Wolf 359, the Borg had one cube and completely wiped out an entire fleet of starships (40, at least) in a few hours. Not much of a "fight". Also, that would have been expensive graphics-wise.

Also, I feel you're being overly critical by down-rating this episode solely because they chose a WWII battle instead of a Borg massacre. Also, your criticism that it humanized them only makes the Hirogen more well-rounded, a quality that is sorely lacking in most villains.

Seeing the holodeck spill out into the ship, with holgrams running down the halls was an amazing plot turn.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Yeah, I don't see how Wolf 359 would have been a remotely interesting simulation. Our starfleet officers playing the roles of.....other Starfleet officers at a battle that probably only lasted 5 minutes before all the Starfleet ships were torn apart? I'm not sure why that came to your mind.

I liked The Killing Game and thought it was a fun romp - they did WW2 which is a solid staple and nothing too extreme, the only thing I didn't like is how extensively the ship was gutted but it was back to perfect the next episode. I mean there is a point where you see the holodeck is 4 decks high and they'd ripped the ship up and practically made it into one giant holo-ship, its really taking the piss that the ship is perfect next episode and the first scene even takes place in a holodeck

 

[DevilEyes]

It's pretty average throughout, but season 1 is actually one of the better ones. IMO it starts rather well, goes a bit downhill and season 3 is rather bad/uneven, season 4 is the best, and season 5 has some strong episodes as well, then it really goes down and season 7 is the worst. But the differences between the stronger and the weaker seasons isn't that big as, say, with TNG, or ENT, or DS9 or even TOS.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

It's pretty average throughout, but season 1 is actually one of the better ones. IMO it starts rather well, goes a bit downhill and season 3 is rather bad/uneven, season 4 is the best, and season 5 has some strong episodes as well, then it really goes down and season 7 is the worst

How can you say it really goes down in season 6? There's no great difference between seasons 5 and 6 in my opinion and season six gives us "Survival Instinct", "Barge of the Dead", "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy", "One Small Step", "Pathfinder", "Blink of an Eye", "Memorial", "Child's Play", "Muse" and "Lifeline". There are a lot more excellent episodes in season six than season five.

 

[Mareika]

I also don`t like season six very much.
The episodes "Muse"and "Barge of the Dead" are among my least favourite episodes.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Because you have extremely odd taste in episodes frankly.

 

[AdmiralScreed]

Because you have extremely odd taste in episodes frankly.

I doubt his tastes in episodes are any odder than my own.

 

[AdmiralScreed]

Vis a Vis: An enjoyable, but flawed episode. The technology on the ship they found had the potential to get them home faster, but they completely ignored it. It's true that there were risks involved with this technology, but time, effort, and lots of research could have helped. It's unrealistic that they wouldn't at least attempt to find a way to integrate the technology into Voyager.
I was also bothered that the villain's motivation wasn't clear. We were never told what he/she/it wanted to accomplish.
Still, this episode had redeeming qualities. The actor who plays Tom Paris gave a terrific performance as usual. In particular, I really enjoyed the scenes with "possessed Tom."
A decent offering.
5/10

The Omega Directive: Another strong 7 of 9 episode, even if she wasn't the main focus for the entire episode. I loved all of the secrecy at the beginning. The Omega molecule was fascinating, and made for a really interesting plot device. This was definitely a high stakes episode. Once again 7 was reluctant to follow orders, which made for some good conflict between her and Janeway at a couple points in the episode. I also enjoyed the scene in the Borg Alcove where 7 gave designations to all of the crew members. Hearing Kim called 6 of 10 and then 2 of 10 was funny.
I was a little confused by Janeway. She claimed that she couldn't risk the lives of the crew in order to satisfy her own curiosity about Omega, and yet that is exactly what she does in almost every episode. A spacial anomaly appears, she immediately investigates, and in the process she almost gets her crew killed. Kind of hypocritical of her to say that if you ask me...
Still, overall this is a strong episode.
7/10