First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-3

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 4

Revulsion

This episode was just brilliant fun. Did I mention how I really love the Voyager characters? I just love watching them and their small antics. Would have liked to see "live long and prosper" actually happen though.

Anyway, the whole Kim&Seven thing was just hilarious.

And I loved the psychotic hologram. Very tense and made very believable by a very good actor. Bravo.

However this overexposure of sentient holograms is starting to get too unbelievable. But, nevertheless, psychotic hologram was just brilliantly performed.

Great acting, fun comedy and tenseful directing. Brilliant.

This episode was great entertainment.

 

[Praetor]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 4

I agree that the sentient hologram angle gets a bit boring after a while. But I think it was used effectively in 'Revulsion.' Another overlooked gem, IMO.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of season 4

The last episode was so good that I was inspired to watch the next episode immediately after that.

The Raven

But, unfortunately, this wasn't as good as Revulsion. It wasn't even that good itself.

I was surprised to see Bryan Fuller's name in this episode. I consider myself a fan of Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, but I never knew he also wrote for Star Trek. Well, the only Bryan Fuller like element in this episode - at least what I think is Bryan Fuller like - is the whole dreamy raven stuff that was there. And perhaps that cute character humor. Other than that, it was too much like Tattoo (and that episode in TNG when Data visits his father) - they are a million miles away from home, they move on a straight path and yet they manage to stumble on things that are more than significant to the characters past.

It left me unimpressed. Not good, but not bad either. Just slightly meh.

Seven though is a very cute character. I like her. I prefered the silver catsuit though, because that gave her a certain otherwordly vibe. This brown dire reminded me too much of that brown drab Deanna had to wear (and in which Deanna didn't look very good).

Also, I found myself slightly missing Kes. You know, used to see her face in the sickbay all the time. Sense of familiarity and all that.

 

[Jaespol]

I missed Kes for pretty much the entire show

I don't see why you felt robbed by the end of "Nemesis", I thought it was perfect how we'd gone on the journey with Chakotay and we felt how he felt right at the end.
It was a bit of an inefficient training method however..
"Revulsion" was OK but I didn't like "The Raven" that much, thank goodness they got rid of the silver catsuit though.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

I don't see why you felt robbed by the end of "Nemesis", I thought it was perfect how we'd gone on the journey with Chakotay and we felt how he felt right at the end.

Unsatisfied tv bloodlust of righteousness. But I agree, the episode made us feel exactly like Chakotay in the end and I sort of bravoed that episode because of that.

Good observations, particularly regarding Chakotay's reactions and getting on the "____ bad" bandwagon. Maybe he's the 'once bitten, twice shy' type?

I noticed in Nemesis that Chakotay tends to be very open-minded and respectful towards other cultures. A trait he has shown before. Which makes getting on the "___ bad" bandwagon more weird.

Theory: Chakotay respects other cultures so much, that he adopts himself into that culture and thus also adopts it's biases. So, he adopted himself into Janeway culture and thus also into her biases.

And, it seems particularly relevant to the Chakotay character, since he did seem to have a beef with the Cardassians.

How did he get involved with the Cardassians in the first place? That has yet to be revealed in the show. So far the impression has been that he is not native to the Maquis conflict. Sort of like Lord Byron fighting with the greek against the turks.

 

[Jaespol]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

How did he get involved with the Cardassians in the first place? That has yet to be revealed in the show. So far the impression has been that he is not native to the Maquis conflict. Sort of like Lord Byron fighting with the greek against the turks.

The Next Generation season 7 episode "Journey's End" described where Chakotay is coming from any why he is fighting with the Maqui.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Journey's_End_(episode)

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

How did he get involved with the Cardassians in the first place? That has yet to be revealed in the show. So far the impression has been that he is not native to the Maquis conflict. Sort of like Lord Byron fighting with the greek against the turks.

The Next Generation season 7 episode "Journey's End" described where Chakotay is coming from any why he is fighting with the Maqui.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Journey%27s_End_(episode)

*sigh* I know how the Maquis were born.

What I meant was that in Journey's End it's a colony of people who've lived there for quite some time, but Chakotay always talks of earth, walking in Arizona and studying in Starfleet.

Born&raised on earth and studied in Starfleet. Thus no inclination of being native to the Maquis conflict. Thus the Lord Byron comparison.

Edit: Hmpf. There is a mention of Chakotay being native to the colony in the Cardassian Border in Tattoo. It's just that he talks of earth so often that it leaves the impression that he is native to earth. My mistake.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Scientific Method

The plot in this episode was just irrelevant. But it was filled with a lot of cute character moments that made it enjoyable.

1) Cranky tortured Janeway
2) Chakotay & Neelix doing that scene from Lethal Weapon 3.
3) Janeway physically assaulting someone
4) Tom's and B'Elanna's sexual antic's.
5) Mad Janeway

One thing that bothered me was the death of the crewman. It always bothers me when a crewman dies. Firstly, they are mostly always a new face we've never seen before. Secondly, they always die in an exploitative manner - either their faces ripped off or getting eaten by a giant earthworm. Thirdly, lack of regret or remorse when a crewmember dies in a horrible way.

Well at least Janeway showed regret and rage in this episode. But it still bothered me.

Anyone else noticed how Janeway patted Chakotay on the leg? Picard never patted Riker on the leg.

 

[kimc]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Anyone else noticed how Janeway patted Chakotay on the leg? Picard never patted Riker on the leg.

This is true.

 

[Praetor]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Good observations, particularly regarding Chakotay's reactions and getting on the "____ bad" bandwagon. Maybe he's the 'once bitten, twice shy' type?

I noticed in Nemesis that Chakotay tends to be very open-minded and respectful towards other cultures. A trait he has shown before. Which makes getting on the "___ bad" bandwagon more weird.

Theory: Chakotay respects other cultures so much, that he adopts himself into that culture and thus also adopts it's biases. So, he adopted himself into Janeway culture and thus also into her biases.

That's a good theory, actually. He could 'assimilate' without even realizing it.

And, it seems particularly relevant to the Chakotay character, since he did seem to have a beef with the Cardassians.

How did he get involved with the Cardassians in the first place? That has yet to be revealed in the show. So far the impression has been that he is not native to the Maquis conflict. Sort of like Lord Byron fighting with the greek against the turks.

Well...

The Next Generation season 7 episode "Journey's End" described where Chakotay is coming from any why he is fighting with the Maqui.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Journey%27s_End_(episode)

Yep. Also, in "Preemptive Strike," Ro mentions a Lieutenant Commander who resigned from Advanced Tactical Training to go join the Maquis. This was supposed to have been Chakotay - although it sounds more like it could have been Tuvok as part of Tuvok's undercover mission.

Scientific Method

The plot in this episode was just irrelevant. But it was filled with a lot of cute character moments that made it enjoyable.

Agreed.

One thing that bothered me was the death of the crewman. It always bothers me when a crewman dies. Firstly, they are mostly always a new face we've never seen before. Secondly, they always die in an exploitative manner - either their faces ripped off or getting eaten by a giant earthworm. Thirdly, lack of regret or remorse when a crewmember dies in a horrible way.

Also agreed. That's one reason why I thought these 150 people should have been explored more - these aren't just redshirts that are going to be anonymously replaced at a starbase between episodes.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Year of Hell

Whoa. Awesome. Epic. Made of pure win. Outstanding.

Two-parter's often have the problem that the first part and the second part are somewhat out of sync with each other. Be it from that the second part works too quickly to solve the problems of the first part or thematic differences or whatever. Anyway, Year of Hell doesn't have this out of sync problem. The episodes really are one continous entity building natuarlly up to the climax until to "Time's up."

I state it as a fact, but of course it's just my opinion.

Perfect. Awesome. Made of pure win.

Impressions-impressions. Seven&Tuvok = win. Their relationship in this episode is just perfect. I like how Tuvok came to physically rely on Seven later.

Janeway = win. This is the defining episode of Janeway's character. I think that in this episode the very essence of Captain Janeway comes out. This is Captain Janeway.

Annorax - brilliant captain Nemo like character with the perfect actor for the role.

When Tuvok said: "Live long and prosper" I got the shivers. There was just so much good character stuff - like Chakotay and his present to Janeway - and so much good action.

I also noticed that some scenes seemed to be shot-on-shot remakes of scenes from Before and After, which well, introduced the idea. But "Year of Hell" ditches the faceless menacing hunters of B&A though. In fact, come to think of it - trying to relate this episode to B&A was just unnecessary, considering it went into completely different world with this.

I don't like Janeway's new hairstyle. It makes her face look too hard.

I also have a problem with the episode's outlandish theme. Well outlandish is good and fun thing. But, Voyager has done outlandish so many times with all those "Help! My DNA just malfunctioned" and "Hello, my name is Kim and I was killed, but fortunately I was alive in another timeline so I came here with this baby, that died here but in my time her mother's dead.. so... hello" episodes that... well I feel it kinda destroy's the sanctity of life. I don't know if I'm able to express what I mean. Well, it makes life too irrelevant, when the existence of entire cultures depend on one press of button. Wiped out of time (I wonder if the Q would notice that?) by one press of button. Or well, when a mother gives birth to a dead child but is given a replacement from a different timeline.

If there was a universe just for outlandish concepts but (like Lexx)... well TNG had this sociological-philosophical approach... it largely created this universe and everything... but Voyager's antics like this largely make this universe feel irrelevant.

Not that outlandish is a bad thing itself. This episode was awesome. But, just... I don't really know what I'm trying to say.

Anyway, awesome two-parter.

 

[Jaespol]

Who were the "faceless, menacing hunters" of B&A exactly? They were just the same except in YOH we got to actually see where they were.

I like Year of Hell too although the first time I couldn't get over the fact they don't recognise who the Krenim are despite having seen a whole report on them....until I realise "Before and After" never happened and they never got the warning since Kes left the ship prematurely.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Who were the "faceless, menacing hunters" of B&A exactly?

The ones who existed in my head I guess. B&A left me with an impression of ships who come out of nowhere, shoot and leave. No one knows exactly why and everything is in hells... and... well they did exactly the same in YOH but it wasn't exactly the same. I guess the mystery part made me imagine stuff.

 

[Praetor]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Glad you liked 'Year of Hell,' Jimmy Bob. To me, the only really sucky thing about 'YoH' was the reset button at the end. I'd have preferred they still remember everything they went through. But of course, the argument can be made that a lot of VGR eps basically have no consequences.

 

[Praetorian]

The "escape pod" thing also made zero sense. Janeway sentenced those folks to death..

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Random Thoughts

I've seen this episode before. No, not because the story is familiar. The look of the episode is familiar.

It was actually pretty good. I like seeing that raging psychopath Tuvok again. And the whole "violence pornography" subtheme of the episode had a wonderful creepy quality.

Neelix kind of bothered me - in the beginning he asks relationship advice from Tom and the whole scene was too much like Geordi and well most of TNG - that kind of "Disney films for elementary schooler's" approach to relationships that TNG was filled with.

But the violence part was awesome. Raging psychopath Tuvok for the win.

 

[Jimmy Bob]

Re: First-timer's impressions of seasons 1-4

Concerning Flight

This episode kind of reminded me Resistance. Janway in casual attire, having adventures with an old guy in a criminal society, focusing on touching character scenes between Janeway and the old guy.

Kinda meh. Lighthearted and easy to watch, but kinda meh really.

What makes it kinda meh? The whole Leonardo da Vinci hologram thing. And space pirates. Space pirate idea was good - they get mugged and then they have to go looking for the robbers and their stolen goods. A pure episode on space pirates could have been quite fun. Leonardo da Vinci idea I'm not so impressed with, but I don't know - perhaps a pure hologram episode would have worked more better for da Vinci? The whole flying scene would fit more into somekinda inspirational tale than space pirate tale.

The thing is that it's just not the real da Vinci, but a computer's version of how da Vinci might have been. So essentially, Janeway is running around with a computer game she likes very much while kicking space pirate ass. Not that John-Rhyes Davies doesn't do a good job in making da Vinci likeable.

Who knew then that John-Rhyes Davies would star in Lord of the Rings? Of course, nowadays more and more movie actors star in tv shows.

Easy to watch, probably won't remember it. It's always nice to see the cast in different clothing.

 

[Praetorian]

Yes "Random Thoughts" is 100% TNG-Lite (or TOS-Lite even). However I really enjoyed it. The "violence pornography" angle was very interesting and Tuvok is the man anyway...

"Concerning Flight" was silly fluff.

 

[kimc]

I liked the Da Vinci hologram but I found it hard to believe a bunch of space pirates would have such an easy time stealing Voyager's technology.

 

[Jaespol]

I liked Random Thoughts, I thought that B'Ellana's complete disbelief at what was going on was pretty funny, it was also cool how they had clips from Event Horizon in there.

Concerning Flight wasn't enjoyable for me and I found it annoying.
I did like the idea we saw them actually buy weapons to try and replenish their supply and yet in the end they didn't buy and this idea is never explored again, so much for a stab at continuity