First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-3

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 5

The Fight

Whoa. Wow. My God. Wow. No seriously wow. The good wow. At first, somewhere in the middle I thought this episode sucks. But then, about in 25 to 32 minutes something happened. Pure psychedelic heaven. The best absurd scene in Star Trek. Weird, chaotic, wonderful. And then I realized how to approach this episode. Empty your mind. Seriously, this is the best episode to introduce your stoner friend into Star Trek. The whole episode is very psychedelic. Does it make sense. No. But that's the awesome thing about it. In fact, I could say that „young grass-hopper, you cannot understand the true meaning of this episode with layman's eyes, only with the eyes of your subconciousness“ because it's just that kind of episode. It... I realized that the whole episode is edited in this strange manner that enhances the effect. There were times when I couldn't tell in which time and where and which reality a scene took place in. After the first 25 minutes it just went to the stoner heaven. Not just the 25-32 minutes scene, but the rest of it too. „I don't understand!“ But that's the key. I don't understand it either but it was, in my humble opinion, pure psychedelic heaven. It is different, and kudos for the creators for doing this. Now I know this episode is considered bad, but I think it's still worth at least one watch. You may not like it, but there might be people to whom this might be pure heaven.

However, up to 25 minutes there were things I didn't like. The indian spiritual flute music when Chakotay spoke of his grandfather, the way he spoke of his grandfather – the lines, they had this „hey look, this is so native american“ feel to them (Chakotay is at his best when he is just a man), „I need to vision quest“ and „akoochimoya“. True „akoochimoya“ was prominent in the first two seasons too, but after that they stopped doing it, and I didn't like it then either. Vision Quest without the „sacred bones of my ancestors“, like in Mortal Coil with Neelix is okay, so I was really liking that they stopped doing the whole akoochimoya business for couple of seasons. However „akoochimoya“ made a awful comeback in this episode together with the „sacred bones of my ancestors“. So I was facepalming constantly and crying inside in the beginning for a little while. But then, as I said, pure psychedelic heaven happened. And I've noticed that season 5 does a lot of retroactive continuity – they invented whole different background and interests for Tom in 30 days. But that felt really Tom Paris. However this boxing hobby... this didn't go as naturally as Tom's newly-created childhood sailing interest.

To try to approach this episode by normal standards is a mistake. It's just not a normal episode. It is weird, bizzarely edited, complete mindfuck – it's different, outside of normality. Even if you hate it, it would be a mistake to completely dismiss it as worthless. As I said – pure psychedelic heaven, perfect episode to introduce Star Trek to your stoner friend.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 5

Think Tank

I really really enjoyed this episode. True, except for Gravity (which was just too stupid) I've enjoyed all season 5 episodes at least on some level. But I really really enjoyed this one.

Season 5 has suffered from the phenomen I'd like to call „You got too much Alpha Quadrant in my Delta Quadrant!“ And while some episodes do take place on some random planets; random planets just don't speak for DQ. Random planets are everywhere. They don't really create the world on the scale of Quadrant when they are mostly remote and insignificant. But finally, finally we get an episode which again shows DQ as a unique part of universe. The last time something this happened was in season 3 – Fair Trade.

It really creates this unique feeling to have this collection of individuals, like somekinda knight-merchant order, started by an ancient being that has travelled around the galaxy for several millenia... it really captures the anarchic spirit of DQ. Unfortunately I can't say that DQ is an anarchic corner of the galaxy, because Voyager really hasn't given much thought to it – but judging from this episode and what we've got so far, that's the impression I have.

Of course Jason Alexander sold this episode too. I don't know how one could not completely dig his scenes. There was a challenge to Voyager that actually felt like a challenge. You don't actually get this a lot in Voyager.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 5

Juggernaut

At first it seemed like this episode would continue with giving DQ some color and flavor that Think Tank started after a season of AQ trying to kill even the last of what remains of DQ. Only it was the most formulaic episode that kept reminding me of other Voyager episodes. Oh that's like Revulsion where B'Elanna goes on a ship... and that's like every other episode and....

This is the second episode of season 5 that I didn't enjoy. Yup, I enjoyed even The Fight more than this. I'm weird.

I've noticed that rather than actually expanding the characters, season 5 actually picks out the established basic traits and focuses on them instead. Thus whatever sense of growth the characters might have had in previous seasons is nullifed by this. It's not the first time I've felt that season 5 is just so wrong. B'Elanna in this episode wasn't B'Elanna. Not exactly. It was a basic trait of B'Elanna with extra focus on that trait, so everyone could pretend it's a character. Sometimes season 5 has made this approach work. But never with B'Elanna. Like Extreme Risk, Juggernaut is wrong. Just wrong. And while I enjoyed Extreme Risk because it had a nice quiet dialogue scene between B'Elanna and Neelix... Juggernaut was just wrong.

Sure sweaty B'Elanna is awesomeness approaching to the levels of Ripley... but that just makes one sad that why Voyager doesn't try to reach the moon more often.

Sweaty B'Elanna is awesome.

But it was just wrong. A lot of the characterization felt a bit off-key. Except perhaps the Chakotay-B'Elanna relationship. That felt natural. By the way, did anyone notice that B'Elanna waited for a bit to make certain that Chakotay is okay before she allowed herself to unleash her fury at that Malon guy. Chakotay is actually the only guy she respects. Sure she loves Tom... but she doesn't look up to Tom, nor listen to him. Tom's nice to love, but when it comes to life and it's issues then B'Elanna knows better. But with Chakotay, it's Chakotay who knows better. With Tom it's modern-day relationship, but with Chakotay it's kinda like the old marriage ideal where the woman actually submits her will to her man. Because she does only to Chakotay her will submit. It's deeper with Chakotay. She's more bare in his presence.

But the episode... well actually I did enjoy Neelix in this episode. But still too formulaic and boring.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 5

Someone to watch over me

I know that it was established quite early that B'Elanna doesn't like Seven. And they repeat that trait again and again. It's just that I don't really understand why. And it seemed to me that B'Elanna got over that by the end of season 4. But no, this trait keeps repeating itself over and over. And I just don't understand it. I didn't understand it then and I don't do now.

But as I said previously: "I've noticed that rather than actually expanding the characters, season 5 actually picks out the established basic traits and focuses on them instead. Thus whatever sense of growth the characters might have had in previous seasons is nullifed by this. It's not the first time I've felt that season 5 is just so wrong. B'Elanna in this episode wasn't B'Elanna. Not exactly. It was a basic trait of B'Elanna with extra focus on that trait, so everyone could pretend it's a character."

It just bothered me.

This was a very sweet episode. And it had a season-long buildup. I've been noticing quite often that Doctor is into Seven more than he knows and that Seven is mostly oblivious to the fact... and I think I've mentioned the cases. Seven's warmed up to him, but she's still oblivious.

And now he discovers what he feels towards Seven. Bittersweet ending, Seven's still oblivious, but now the Doctor knows that she's oblivious.

I also digged the ambassador. And the date. Such a sweet nice episode.

I also did some retro-viewing.

Caretaker

It still my favorite pilot of Trek. I noticed this time that Caretaker gives of the impression of DQ as somekinda Trekian version of Lexx... a weird bizarre universe... and everyone wants to do some medical experiements upon you. And the music helped too.

I didn't notice it before, but this time Tom Paris gave such a vibe of Nick Locarno... hell he practically was Nick Locarno in this episode. Not so much in season 5 anymore. But certainly in season 1. I'll just now pretend that Locarno's real name was Tom Paris.

Hell, everyone seems to have more edge in Caretaker. The character's seemed to be much more interesting in this episode than in season 5.

Tuvok&Neelix - hatred at first sight. From Tuvok anyway. At first hug. From Neelix it's love.

Tom's really craving for some human connection. He's been quite lonely. I also find it amusing that how all the people who showed outright disgust towards Tom just happened to die. I am sorry that Lieutenant Stadi got killed. She was just so pretty. I certainly would have liked to see more of her.

Now post-Alliance the Kazon seem to be even more like feodal kings. Just like the germanic peoples of that time, the Kazon inherited a technology far more advanced than they were. Sure some germanic people did a pretty good job of doing Rome - Theoderic the Great for example - but eventually it lead into medieval ages. And so the Kazon, living with what they inherited from their former masters.

And Ocampan's and Caretakers actually seem to be important. By now I already know how irrelevant they were, but they seem to be important in Caretaker. The second caretaker is like this mystical goal they need to reach.

On the other hand - Janeway's and Kes's hair is just so awful. And Kim's. And for some reason I didn't like Tom's hair either. There's always something wrong with Voyager for some reason. This season it's bad hair.

Parallax

This was actually a pretty good character episode. And I like season 1 B'Elanna hair more than season 5 hair. And there's some real tension in this episode with all that Janeway's and Chakotay's authority colliding. At the moment Janeway still sees Chakotay as a threat. Her only real friend is Tuvok - which they got rid of pretty quickly actually. In later seasons her real friend seems to be Chakotay and Tuvok is just some vulcan. And Tuvok's pretty non-existant in these first episodes. Or just boring. I think I personally was enlightened to the awesomeness that is Tuvok with Meld. It's a pity that season 5 only gave Gravity to Tuvok.

Garret Wang is just so bad in these first episodes. Just so off-key. And I don't like his haircut.

B'Elanna is surprisingly so B'Elanna in this episode. Every other character is somewhat off-key and this time I don't mean bad acting, but that there is an element of different to them. But B'Elanna is just 100% B'Elanna in this episode. The same B'Elanna that she is in season 5. Which is both good and sad - good that the actress embodied her character so quickly and sad that...

To be honest, with just some cosmetic changes, this episode pretty much fits into season 5. Like both season 5 B'Elanna episodes, this one has exactly the same B'Elanna-Chakotay relationship.

It's really interesting to view the character of Doctor in the beginning with the knowledge how his character grows. And how everyone just forgets about him... except Kes. I'm sorry, but Kes's hair is just so horrible that I have to mention it again.

Time and Again

And just to imagine that we will see those Delaney sisters only in season 5.

Again the Locarno-Tom Paris shows the inherent goodness of his heart when he shows his concern... about things. It's really natural Locarno character here. Not so in season 5, but this Tom just fits perfectly into First Duty.

Otherwise this episode was just stupid. Or politely putting, I just found it boring, irrelevant, meaningless, too similar to Parallax, too TNG and what not.

There was only one scene that is worthy. And that scene is Doctor checking up Kes and getting the much-needed update.

I noticed that Kate has a more smoky element to her voice than in season 5.

Chakotay stating his belief that perhaps the captain is in whatever place because perhaps she wants to stop the explosion because that's what he himself would have done, was somewhat illuminating. In Caretaker when Janeway blowed up the Caretaker's Array you can see in Chakotay's eyes that he is impressed, surprised, agreeing with the decision and gained respect for Janeway. That he now thinks that Janeway wants to stop the explosion, shows that he thinks Janeway's into greater good. Little does he know that he later quite often has to keep Janeway from killing someone or herself, because Janeway's not about greater good and love of the people but whatever random obsessions she is obsessed with.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-5

11:59

Ah, such a wonderful episode. Suddenly I have this urge to watch Early Edition. Lots of red brickwalls in wintertime in that show too. And the same late 90's vibe. Nice and quiet. I like it when they play around like that. Voyager has done quite a lot of playing around with tv. Unfortunately, Voyager never goes completely with it, but shies away. Personally I couldn't really stand the scenes in Voyager present. I'm just so sick of seeing the same sets and the same red-on-black uniforms, so I really enjoyed real clothes in Shannon's present. There's nothing special in anything that made Shannon's story, but it would have made quite a nice „one of those movies you watch on rainy or blizzardly day when you accidentally stumbled on it while checking through channels, so you watch it and it makes you feel good and you probably won't remember this movie tomorrow“ movies. I think that I like Kate more than Janeway. I really enjoyed watching her playing a different character, which she was.... Shannon felt Shannon in that short time she got.

Despite my dislike for Voy-present scenes, I did find the notion of Ferengi praising Wall Street in human history slightly amusing. Ferengi's own noble savage phenomen? I'm just saying.

Retro-viewing section

The Phage

Time and Again was pointless. That was my opinion the first time I saw it. The Phage should have followed Parallax immediately. I still agree... however, back then I thought the Phage was awesome. Now? It was pretty damn boring and so, so Voyagery. In the bad sense. Don't get me wrong. I still think the Vidiians are awesome. It's just... first time the feeling of unknown made them more awesome, but now with the knowledge what's to come... in this episode they're just your random pathetic alien of the week. Like with Parallax, season 5 reuses aspects of this episode continously. Perhaps not just season 5, it's just by season 5 the formula is just so obvious. Unfortunately for The Phage and, so far, season 1 in general... season 5 just does the same thing more entertainingly. But in season 1 the character's have a much more interesting vibe to them.

Kes's hair is still awful.

The Cloud

Oh God. I had forgotten how "native american" Chakotay was in the early seasons. They're killing me with this. Oh no. And when Janeway herself sayed "Yes we are indeed far from the sacred bones of our ancestors," I just had to laugh uncontrollably. Chako gets it pretty bad in season 5 too (though I liked The Fight and enjoyed In the Flesh)... his best days are from Unity to Year of Hell, I'd say.

5th (or 6th, depends how you count) episode and already 3 episodes that feel too... random, unimportant and similar. However some of the dialogue between the characters is really much more interesting than what they get in season 5. Which makes me think that someone should re-edit some of the early episodes, cut the good dialogue from the bad episodes, and create one really "new" good episode. This could be very interesting – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNJCqcWNUk. Just saying.

Harry Kim is very creepy in first season. "This reminds me being in the womb." Tom has such a nice danger vibe. Kes's boring. Doctor more cranky. B'Elanna's the same. Chako's the same. Janeway is more... lighter. And Neelix has a certain... different vibe to him. And he's thinner.

Kes's hair has slightly improved. Still bad.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-5

Relativity

Hey, how weird is that. Season 5 also does some retro-viewing with me. Not very insightful. More like "remember how fat I used to be?" Yeah, Janeway had a different hairstyle and there were Kazon. But actually there is lot more. Just not in this episode. Relatively entartaining. Some nice visuals. Entertaining twist with Captain Braxton. Time Trek ship was very white though.

Warhead

The little nuclear bomb that could. The Doctor's version of Prototype and Dreadnought. So after 5 years Kim is still too inexperienced to handle away missions? But he has gotten actually quite a lot of love from season 5. Nice little entertaining episode.

Retro-Viewing Section

Eye of the Needle

This was a pretty damn good episode. Actually, the best so far in season 1. There was just so much character stuff. And that romulan guy managed to be quite memorable. It was the acting and the character's that sold this show. Otherwise it's just the first appearance of AQ in DQ. Kes's and Doctor's relationship is one of the better things of Voyager. I just love it. The only time we see this happy Doctor of later seasons, is when he is with Kes. Kes played such a major part in his life. Which I guess Projections is all about.

Ex Post Facto

Pretty average. But "killing some old guy for a woman" is actually believable from this Nick Locarno Tom. Neelix is just so thin in first season. I really liked the woman's clothes. Kes's hair has slighlty improved.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 5

Equinox

Rip Ransom. So sad, never reaching home, only a poor man's holodeck to bring him comfort.

Equinox is definitely one of the best two-parter's in Voyager. Though, it left me with the same feeling that Basics did. It could have been better. For example, remember how at first Chakotay had a child and then Basics II said: "No, not really"? I myself think that Chako should have been left with the baby. Judging by how well Naomi turned out I don't see why little Chako would have been any worse. If Chako would have kept the baby he at least would have had something to do in most of season 5.

The same with Equinox. I think it would have been interesting if Equinox would have survived and there would actually have been two ships travelling together. It would have given the rest of Voy's seasons a unique flavor and character's something to do. For example, that blonde girl liked Chakotay, so he could have had a potential romantic interest.

Because the problem with season 5 is that it repeats previous seasons. And so, if the rest of seasons would have been about travelling with Equinox together it would have certainly helped for seasons 6 and 7 to overcome season 5. Or, just one season with Equinox and then that gets destroyed, surviving crew to Voyager and back to business as usual. I just think it was a wasted potential.

Another thing. I think the two-parter should have been done with a more psychological angle. Sure there was Janeway and Ransom's own descending into madness, but what I mean is to really really explore the Equinox crew, to really discover why that blonde chick got scared in the elevator and to really show all their scars. They were pushed aside to make room for self-righteousness.

Now to Janeway. Jesus, she would have killed that poor boy if Chako wouldn't have intervened. And after that she just existed in her own world. In the briefing room she just keeps staring at Chako. I actually wished that Chako would organize a mutiny. It would have been interesting if there was a mutiny on both ships. On one ship, the first officer who wants to solve it peacefully throws the captain into the brig. And on the other, the first officer who wants to continue with the violence throws the captain into the brig.

Obviously I don't imagine Janeway actually being in the brig... like Ransom she would work against her first officer with her loyal men. It would have painted the impression of Janeway actually being more evil than Ransom more clearly, and would have made the conflict more nuanced. Because Janeway was more evil than Ransom in this two-parter. Janeway shows no guilt when she's about to kill a member of Equinox crew, but Ransom begs on his knees that Seven wouldn't force him to harm her.

"When we turn our backs to our principles then we stop being human," said Janeway. This episode revealed that we can stop being human then too if we do follow our principles. Ransom was cornered and in that situation people don't really notice the choices that could help them to come out of this cycle of violence, they only notice the choices that keep them alive for another day of violence. If Janeway would have been honest to herself and actually admited to braking a few prime directives, then all this might not have happened. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad that Janeway's a bit hypocritical. I don't choose my favorite captains by how perfect human beings they are. Besides, it does after all make for a good drama, and there was good drama here... it just could have been far better.

So bottom line: good episode, but I would have prefered at least a more psychological approach that would dissect the character's and their personal scars more closely.

I liked the symbolic touch how a ship can't tolerate a captain's wrongness by dropping the nameplate. Janeway's schock when Chakotay says the same thing to her thad she did to Ransom says it all. She was as twisted as Ransom but in a different way. Ransom became twisted because of his love for his crew, Janeway because of his obsessivness in proper rules. Janeway was like the twisted Old Testament God and Ransom was like a twisted Jesus.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 5

Season Analysis

Season 5 is for me one big contrast. On one hand, season 5 probably produced more "my most favorite episodes" than past seasons together. On the other hand, season 5 is getting really formulaic. It doesn't do anything new, it just repeats the past seasons. Just more entertaingly I guess. For example, B'Elanna has been reduced to a formula. B'Elanna has problems, she goes on an abandoned/destroyed/talking/suspicious ship, she fights monsters there and then finds peace. B'Elanna was one my most favorite characters in Voyager, so I did not really like that she had been reduced to a simplistic formula.

But my biggest grife is with Tuvok. He also was one my favorite characters for a while. But now – he's just an extra. "It's amazing what attention this Trek show shows towards mere extras" as I said in one of my mock reviews (The Captain, The Doctor and The Borg show reviews). He got only one episode. And, imo, the stupidest episode in season 5. Once he was the friend of Janeway, but now Chakotay fills that position. Tuvok is just a guy who misses his wife. That's all. There was nothing done with his character. Even Harry Kim has gotten a change. But Tuvok just got fleshed out from a mere basic traits figure and was then forgotten. Which is sad, because I felt that the early season 4 pairing with him and Seven worked brilliantly. There was certainly something that could be built upon it.

The greatest thing that season 5 did was to give us Captain Proton. Now Bride of Chaotica bordered on untolerable, but all those other clips in various episodes brought much enjoyment and refreshment. And we finally got to see Delaney sisters. Captain Proton was the greatest thing about season 5. And Naomi. Naomi was also great. I liked Naomi's fairytale holoprogram too.

Season 5 lost the flowing feel of season 4. Season 4 seemed to grow naturally towards it end, while season 5 is more clearly cut. Season 4 is like a river, while season 5 is a collection of individual stone blocks that all sit somewhat apart from each other. The same with characters. With season 4 introducing Seven and then having her interact with all the people on the ship, made that season feel like very crewish. Suddenly there was more crew banter and interaction than ever. However in season 5 that crewish feel is eliminated. A character get's an episode and then dissappears into the background for 15 episodes and then gets another episode. Also, season 5 starts to lean clearly towards the The Captain, The Doctor and The Borg show.

Season 5 is also the season where Voyager just stops caring about Delta Quadrant completely. Suddenly every second episode features some Alpha Quadrant element to it. Actually, season 5 is where Voyager stops caring about Voyager completely. It's in season 5 that suddenly in every episode 13 torpedos are fired, while season 4 still tried to maintain the idea that torpedoes are numbered and their usage does not come lightly.

Season 4 also still had a feeling of growing amongst characters too, though many were still not been fleshed out from basic traits yet. But there was still a feeling that it would happen. However season 5 makes it clear that the feeling of growing is history. Season 5 actually takes those basic traits and enlarges them and focuses extra intensly on them and then calls it a character. For some reason, it works quite effectively sometimes (30 Days)... but since many characters weren't yet fleshed out yet... well it's a bit sad. Basically this time the character analysis is pretty much conclusive since it's obvious they're now going to remain the same for the rest of the show.

First-Timer's Voyager Character Analysis

Janeway

Janeway's a lot more darker in season 5.

Doctor was cynical and bitter in the first season, because that was his defense mechanism against people treating him as an object. And also part of original programming. However, for a long time he has been a happy, peaceful, flamboyant man. Janeway on the other hand was more flamboyant, innocent, cheerful in the first seasons. For example in Phage, she was on the verge of tears when talking to the Vidiians. She had to bit back her tears to try to be angry. In season 5 she is bitter, cynical, sarcastical, on edge, dismissive and more capable of killing. Part of the reason why I enjoyed 11:59 so much was that it was a relief to see Kate in a more lighter and positive role. It's not so much as a natural progress through series than Taylor's Janeway vs. Braga's Janeway. Hard to say without re-viewing all the episodes again, but I believe there is a moment between season 4 and season 5, where this change pretty much happens overnight. Cause I remember Janeway being much more innocent in season 4 (the whole Da Vinci thing).

However it manages to feel like natural character progression (well, after this many seasons it all starts to blend together). So Mulgrew herself might have flirted with this darker Janeway in past seasons while delivering run-of-the-mill lines. Anyway, Janeway in season 5 is a dark character. Dark's a word that might be ruined by all that „darker and edgier“ phenomen. Dark means now that Harry Potter sits in a lonely room, emoing in sadness and silence while people get killed. It's not this „dark“ I'm talking about. But Janeway is dark... there is darkness inside her. Once on the verge of tears whenever someone was sad, she now.... Something is eating her from inside.

The way she treated Tom and Kim for example. I don't see it as an inconsistency, but rather she did it because she could. She's unhappy. And unhappy people tend to be abusive. Especially when they have authority over someone. And then they live out their inner grief on that someone. Which was what happened. On the other hand, season 5 does it's „reducing every character to basic trait and refocusing on it extra large so everyone can pretend it's a character“ business, which means, that it's a Braga Janeway who probably won't change that much anymore. As in, this is the Janeway of season 5-7. But, season 7 has a new lead writer so I don't know. But I assume season 6 Janeway is pretty much the same season 5 Janeway.

Harry Kim

Harry has changed. Recently, I've been doing some retro-views of early seasons, so I noticed that. It's not a major thing. But there has been a change. He's not so awkward anymore. That's all I can say. He was pretty creepy in season 1. There is much more common sense to him. He's still the same "young guy". But not the same. I can see different person in Disease than in and in Emanations. But this might be because Garret is now much more comfortable in the role. Basically, Harry in early seasons is a creepy young guy while now he's a normal young guy.

Harry actually has gotten a lot of love from season 5. In fact, for Kim season 5 has been the best season. His episodes are much more interesting than ever before.

Tom Paris

Tom Paris likes early 20th century pop culture. In the first season, Tom practically is Nick Locarno. He's more dangerous in season 1. A nice guy deep inside, but hurt and on edge. Season 1 Tom Locarno was looking for friendship because he was lonely and was probably attracted to Kim because he had a similar innocence to him like Wesley Crusher did.

However in season 5 everything that Nick Locarno has completely gone from Tom. He's just a nice goofy
guy who hangs out with Kim and who makes pretty wild holodeck experiences. He has a girlfriend and he loves the sea.

Tuvok

For a while there Tuvok was a pretty nuanced character. He wasn't just a vulcan, but a potential mass murderer waiting to happen. He owes his life to vulcan tradition of suppressing emotion. Once he thought he didn't understand a certain murdering betazoid. But then he discovered that he was that murdering betazoid. Once he was Janeway's most trusted man. But now Chakotay serves that purpose and he's just an security officer.

Now Tuvok is just some vulcan guy. He's all about proper and security, and quick to shoot people. He also misses his wife. Once he had a "hate at first sight vs I wowses you, mr Vulcan" relationship with Neelix, whom he always mistreated and humiliated when he could. Now he hasn't even that.

Chakotay

Chako's gone. He was yet to be properly fleshed out, so I have to take all those small fragments of attempts at character and piece a wholesome picture of them. Chako has a strong sense of right and wrong. Well Janeway does too, but whereas Janeway's right and wrong is in rules and other things that people have made up over the years, then Chako's right and wrong is in respect towards life.

Chako prefers to be a knight for King Arthur rather than King Arthur himself. So when finding himself in a situation where he has to submit himself to another he tends to idealize his leader. Usually it happens like this. Chako gets captured, capturer makes some nice deed and Chako goes all "You have returned from Avalon my noble liege!" This can be seen both in Caretaker and Year of Hell.

However usually the idealized leader turns out to be not so King Arthur after all. And then Chakotay either accepts it, or when the leader goes beyond good and evil, goes all rogue on the leader.

It can be seen in season 1 that Chakotay see's Janeway in a more noble manner than she actually is. In Caretaker, his eyes when Janeway decides to destroy the Caretaker's Array so the Kazon couldn't use it against the Ocampa, say that he's mightily impressed by this noble deed. And in Time and Again, he expresses the opinion that perhaps Janeway wants to stop the explosion because that's what he would do, to which Tuvok pretty much replies "You don't really know Janeway, do you?"

Of course now Chakotay no longer thinks of Janeway as some sort of King Arthur like figure. But when Janeway's not completely wrong, her ways help to maintain some sort of imagined security and stability and peace... and by now everyone's already used to her ridiculous protocol, so why break it. After all, the devil you know is better than the one you don't. Only when Janeway's completely wrong Chakotay goes independent – Scorpion and Equinox. Course: Oblivion and The Disease also show some of that aspect.

Like with leaders, Chako tends to idealize women, his interested in, too. Chako falls quite quickly. However when a love interest uses him for her purposes and Chako realizes that, then Chako gets angry. Chako has a thing with being used.

So now in season 5, Chako is actually all that. Or some of that. It just that he spends too much time in the background.

B'Elanna

B'Elanna is now such a formula. From all of the characters she has suffered most from the "enlarge and focus extra intensly on basic traits" approach. Because she was just so much more than "get's angry, goes to a spooky looking ship, fights monsters, come's back one step closer to Nirvana." And I don't get her dislike for Seven at all.

Chakotay-B'Elanna relationship. By the way, did anyone notice that B'Elanna waited for a bit to make certain that Chakotay is okay before she allowed herself to unleash her fury at that Malon guy in Juggernaut. Chakotay is actually the only guy she respects. Sure she loves Tom... but she doesn't look up to Tom, nor listen to him. Tom's nice to love, but when it comes to life and it's issues then B'Elanna knows better. But with Chakotay, it's Chakotay who knows better. With Tom it's modern-day relationship, but with Chakotay it's kinda like the old marriage ideal where the woman actually submits her will to her man. Because she does only to Chakotay her will submit. It's deeper with Chakotay. She's more bare in his presence.

Tom's and B'Elanna's relationship has been pretty much non-existant. And she had stupid hair in this season. In Equinox the hair was finally improved upon.

Neelix

In the beginning Neelix definitely was a shady guy. He joined Voyager for safety reasons. His space was a chaotic region and Voyager was advanced and seemingly safe and stabile. You can see his anger in The Cloud, where he discovers that Voyager always goes looking for trouble. And the way he played Voyager around in Caretaker where he used them to save Kes from the Kazon.

However now he's a nice guy who spends time with kids. Not even any Tuvok "hatred at first sight vs I wowses you, mr Tuvok" thing. He was also much thinner in season 1.

Seven and Doctor

Seven and Doctor are the only characters who have had some growth in this season. Someone to Watch Over Me didn't just happen, but there was a build-up to it. Hints that the Doctor considers Seven more than she him were all over there. And somewhere Seven started to consider the Doctor back. Just not the same way. And that leades us to SWOM. Doctor gets love all the time, but Seven is the one who gets the most love. She even got herself a 90 minute episode. With Susanna Thompson who was awesome. The episode itself not that much.

Doctor has become somewhat of a comic relief. He's a happy flamboyant man with good bedside manners. He likes to sing. While he now considers hismelf somewhat of a human being with rights. He's very sensitive towards AI rights. Other's don't really to that extent. Latent Image shows that in the end he's just considered a program. Seven on the other hand is kinda seeing him as an unique individual. Sort of like Kes once did, though Doctor is Seven's Kes.

Seven's got issues. She's also Naomi's friend. She's getting a bit into the wonkerkid of Voyager. She alienates people yet she feels ashamed when she misses perfection. Obviously she wants to be liked. She just doesn't do that very well.