Good Shepherd

[Dingo]

As some know, this is one of my all time favorite Voyager episodes.

I primarily like the lower decks focus with characters that show that not all Trek characters gotta be larger than life and seemingly perfect and good at all they touch.

Plus I thought Zoe McClellan as Tal Celes was cute and hot at the same time. I also thought the fact that she wasn't a superstar performer at her job like a lot of the main task made her seem like someone we could all sympathize with.

William Telfer the hypochondriac crewman was also a great character as someone who deals with a lot of fear and doubt but seemed to overcome it under the uncommon circumstances thrust upon him.

I didn't like Harren at all. I found him to be an arrogant prick whom I'm seriously contemplating killing off in my Voyager fanfic. I thought his attempt at self sacrifice against the dark matter life forms was contrived at best.

Anyway, the main strength of the episode was its lower decks perspective and the reminder that not all Starfleet personnel are perfect or superstars at their jobs. The rewatch factor for me is high, especially because it's a muse for my fanfiction.

The only thing I disliked is that the misfit crewmembers never even got follow on episode time (Haunting of Deck 12 doesn't count because it showed a time before Good Shepherd occured) to see if their mission experience had changed them. Ah well, there is always fanfiction for that.

 

[Misco]

I really like 'Good Shepherd' too but I think it's a real shame that Tal, Telfer and Harren weren't used more in the episodes that came after. They were a nice mix of characters and it would have been nice to see some more integration between the senior staff and the lower decks crewmen beyond that one story. Tal would have made a nice girlfriend for Harry at least.

 

[kimc]

I didn't like Harren at all. I found him to be an arrogant prick whom I'm seriously contemplating killing off in my Voyager fanfic.

That was exactly what he was supposed to be. As a software developer I've run into this type often. They have no use for people or maybe just never bothered to develop the skills to deal with them. It usualy turns out to be hiding from a fear of rejection. When Harren faced that fear he realized he cared more than he thought. I personally found him interesting but I can see how he would be found irritating.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I loath jerry O'Connel for some reason. It's irrational, since I quite like almost all of his work, even, or maybe especially that Miriah Carey video where there's two of her fighting over him... But if Zoe thinks that she can get away with receiving SAG residuals ad infinitum for playing the female version of Jerry O'Connel on Sliders, then a little of that loathing is going to rub off, no matter how adorable she is on paper.

Tal Celes.

Bajoran names are backwards.

Think about it.

O.

They all had an away mission during Basics II.

 

[exodus]

Who would have thought the Boy Who Could Fly, could be such an asshole?


I liked Harren & Celes, they came off as very real to me as far as people getting trapped in a situation they didn't want to be in. Celes had the best line too: "If we were back in the Alpha Quaderant, Capt. Would I still be good enough to serve on your crew?" Harren was awesome because he was an aspect that had never been covered before, the person serving in Starfleet just for work credit with no desire or intention for space exploration, now trapped in his worse nightmare..

Characters like Tefler & Barclay I've never understood. I don't get how officers like them pass boot camp much less a psyche evaluation. They seem more like an endangerment to the crew rather than an asset.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I wanted more characters like these three on the ship - let's face it, not everyone is suited for space exploration, which, given that the show is ABOUT that, means we can't see every facet of characters in Federation. Not to mention, Voyager may have been brand new, but the crew SHOULD have been... 'average' is the best word I can think of - Voyager isn't a name that carries the prestige and lineage of, say, the Enterprise. These are the standard Starfleet officers, not the best of the best, and, though not the dregs, not the ones where everyone expects their career to keep going up.

Also, on the matter of Tal Celes, I'm kinda irritated that the Voyager writers so casually forgot that Bajoran names are 'family name, given name,' but I try to think that she's one of the Bajorans Ro mentioned in 'Ensign Ro' who switch their given and family names to 'fit in' better with Federation society.

 

[Dingo]

Also, on the matter of Tal Celes, I'm kinda irritated that the Voyager writers so casually forgot that Bajoran names are 'family name, given name,' but I try to think that she's one of the Bajorans Ro mentioned in 'Ensign Ro' who switch their given and family names to 'fit in' better with Federation society.

That's how I interpreted Tal Celes' name discrepancy (her given name first and family name second). It reminds me of a number of Korean Americans I work with whose families did similar things to fit in American society so they wouldn't have to explain the tradition every single time. So Trek has covered the seeming mistake with Tal Celes' name going against naming convention with the episode Ensign Ro in TNG.

I was under the impression that Celes was raised in Federation society, perhaps by expatriate Bajorans or a refugee couple because she doesn't seem to have that somewhat hard edge that those who grew up on Bajor during the Occupation have. My version of Celes was raised by Bajoran expats in my fanfic Dark Realm.

That was exactly what he was supposed to be. As a software developer I've run into this type often. They have no use for people or maybe just never bothered to develop the skills to deal with them. It usualy turns out to be hiding from a fear of rejection. When Harren faced that fear he realized he cared more than he thought. I personally found him interesting but I can see how he would be found irritating.

Maybe it's because I've had negative experience with that sort of person and tend to loathe them to the extreme, but I never warmed up to Harren and thus am liable to kill him off in my fanfic.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone in wishing the trio had more than a single appearance in the series. Well, at least fanfiction exists for expansion reasons.

Here's my fanfiction bio on William Telfer.

 

[Misco]

Also, on the matter of Tal Celes, I'm kinda irritated that the Voyager writers so casually forgot that Bajoran names are 'family name, given name,' but I try to think that she's one of the Bajorans Ro mentioned in 'Ensign Ro' who switch their given and family names to 'fit in' better with Federation society.

To be honest I never much thought about it being 'wrong' at the time because when it's written down it looks like a correct Bajoran name. Celes seems like a first name, similar to Nerys; and Tal sounds the equivalent of a surname. So maybe the name was created with the correct naimg protocol in mind but then in the process of filming or whatever the whole 'Bajoran names are backwards' thing got forgotten and the names got switched by accident?

 

[Dingo]

To be honest I never much thought about it being 'wrong' at the time because when it's written down it looks like a correct Bajoran name. Celes seems like a first name, similar to Nerys; and Tal sounds the equivalent of a surname. So maybe the name was created with the correct naimg protocol in mind but then in the process of filming or whatever the whole 'Bajoran names are backwards' thing got forgotten and the names got switched by accident?

However, there was the fact that only her close friend Telfer called her Tal which seemed like that was her given name. Chakotay, Seven, Janeway and everyone else called her Celes or Crewman Celes so Celes appeared to be her last name by cannon.

 

[Misco]

However, there was the fact that only her close friend Telfer called her Tal which seemed like that was her given name. Chakotay, Seven, Janeway and everyone else called her Celes or Crewman Celes so Celes appeared to be her last name by cannon.

Yeah, well I don't deny that that was idiotic. In fact the odds of everybody on the set forgetting about the Bajoran name format seems so remote I can't fathom how such a silly mistake could have occurred. The 'Ensign Ro' explanation works for me though and that's how I'll think of it from now on.

 

[Dingo]

I know, the Ensign Ro explanation is what I chose to use in resolving that discrepancy in my own writing. Other than the name discrepancy, Misco, did you ever check out the STEU wiki entry I wrote for my version of Celes a few posts ago?

 

[Misco]

Yeah Dingo I did, it seemed pretty thorough. Would definitely be worth using that info as a 'reference bible' for Tal for the people who choose to use her character in a fanfic.

 

[Dingo]

Thanks for the compliment. But that wikia has three different bios of Celes, one that's not too dissimilar from the Memory Alpha bio and another for another writer's continuity. That one was one that I made up for my fanfiction based heavily on supposition with an interesting backstory flung into the midst.

How'd my Telfer bio measure up?

 

[Unimatrix 01]

This was in my top 2 eps that I disliked most. I know they wanted the Captain to seem like she wanted to interact with her whole crew and know she cared. But they crammed it into one episode and then never again did she seek out other members to do the same with. It was all too random and inconsequential.

 

[nx1701g]

^ It was explained in the episode that she did that because they were the worst performing members of Voyager's crew. And we did see at least Celes again.

Good Shepard was good and it was interesting to see an area of a ship we'd never seen before.

 

[exodus]

This was in my top 2 eps that I disliked most. I know they wanted the Captain to seem like she wanted to interact with her whole crew and know she cared. But they crammed it into one episode and then never again did she seek out other members to do the same with. It was all too random and inconsequential.

She didn't need to.

At the end of the ep., they all faced the Ghost of Christmas Future together and ended up learning the true meaning of Christmas. Now they part of the family.

Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine!

 

[kimc]

I liked this episode. It was good to see a Janeway episode for a change instead of just having her onscreen as a sidekick for Seven or the Doctor.

 

[Tachyon]

Yep; Good Sheperd was like a breath of fresh air for Janeway. However, this is not among my favorite Voyager episodes, though I like it quite a lot.

 

[MikeS]

It was a blatant rip of Lower Decks and not nearly half as good.

By season 6 of Voyager I kept getting an uneasy feeling of deja-vu. I had to check I'd not seen the episodes before. This episode and others (Tsunkatse=Bread and Circuses, The Void=Where Silence Has Lease, there are more...) are rehasshes of old ideas from old series (done worse than their originals). It just shows how much the writers had ran out of fresh ideas by Voyagers end, they had to resort to blatant thievery of old stories.

 

[AuntKate]

Hmm. Maybe it is significant that she is called by her first name all the time. She's a lightweight, so it might just be an unconscious "put down" by the crew. But . . . it's more likely ineptitude, as others have pointed out.