sfdebris Reviews "Good Shepherd".

[TedShatner10]

OK, Chuck's review for "Good Shepherd" is up. I usually agree with most of his reviews, but not this one in particular, as flawed as the episode is.

He gave "Good Shepherd" a score of 4/10, I give it a score of 6/10, but mostly due to the otherwise solid first half of this episode (including the trip belowdecks) and the interesting guest characters, which I really liked regardless of Janeway's increasingly kooky fieldtrip in the second half of the episode.

She scorns somebody for killing one alien, then 15 minutes later she is implied of killing hundreds more. Wait? What?! I was not so bothered by Janeway shooting the possessed ensign with a phaser on a low stun setting, as unintentionally funny as it is to some viewers.

I do agree that Harren's extreme talents were seemingly wasted; why the heck do you dump somebody with the IQ of 210 way down in the steerage decks, when he was better suited in Astrometrics alongside Seven?

 

[RyuRoots]

I totally agree with him that if they were trying to make Harren unsympathetic, they did a piss-poor job of it. He was the only one in the episode who was tolerable. I related to him more than the other three, and I'm not exactly a genius cosmologist. I actually felt bad for him, since he was only meant to serve such a short term on Voyager, but his life got screwed by a poor decision on Janeway's part. This is made worse by Janeway and Billy who are assholes to him for not being "normal". Kinda wish he HAD taken the escape pod all the way back to Voyager and just said "So long, suckers!"

I call this ep "a poor man's Lower Decks"

 

[kimc]

I do agree that Harren's extreme talents were seemingly wasted; why the heck do you dump somebody with the IQ of 210 way down in the steerage decks, when he was better suited in Astrometrics alongside Seven?

Because that's the way he wanted it. He preferred working as little as possible so he could devote his time to his own projects. That's pretty much the point of his story - he was brilliant but selfish. Making the decision to perhaps sacrifice himself for his crewmates was a major change for him.

 

[Deks]

I personally liked Harren.
It introduced a character that perceived society outside the box really ... someone who liked being alone and away from others.

Also ... Harren wanted to be on Deck 15.
Torres argued that she wanted to give him more duties given his capabilities, but he refused it on numerous occasions.

 

[Deks]

I do agree that Harren's extreme talents were seemingly wasted; why the heck do you dump somebody with the IQ of 210 way down in the steerage decks, when he was better suited in Astrometrics alongside Seven?

Because that's the way he wanted it. He preferred working as little as possible so he could devote his time to his own projects. That's pretty much the point of his story - he was brilliant but selfish. Making the decision to perhaps sacrifice himself for his crewmates was a major change for him.

Simply because he decided to sacrifice himself for others does NOT imply he would change and become the overly gushy sociable person (which in my opinion would destroy his uniqueness to begin with).

What is it with people perceiving anti-social people as 'not normal'?
Sheesh ... if anything, being overly social is in my personal interpretation a sign of inability to do anything on your own.

Harren comes off as stronger for wanting to do things independently.
He's selfish?
Lol ... we all are selfish. It merely depends on how you look at it.

 

[Kegg]

The real surprise of the review was that, according to sfdebris, "Good Shepherd" was a VOY fan favourite.

I don't know, I'd just never heard of it as such, though being a sort of "Lower Decks" episode I can guess why (as that really is a fun hour of TNG).

 

[Kegg]

double post

 

[RyuRoots]

I do agree that Harren's extreme talents were seemingly wasted; why the heck do you dump somebody with the IQ of 210 way down in the steerage decks, when he was better suited in Astrometrics alongside Seven?

Because that's the way he wanted it. He preferred working as little as possible so he could devote his time to his own projects.

Because he was put in engineering. To paraphrase sfdebris, you don't make Carl Sagan shovel coal.

 

[Deks]

I do agree that Harren's extreme talents were seemingly wasted; why the heck do you dump somebody with the IQ of 210 way down in the steerage decks, when he was better suited in Astrometrics alongside Seven?

Because that's the way he wanted it. He preferred working as little as possible so he could devote his time to his own projects.

Because he was put in engineering. To paraphrase sfdebris, you don't make Carl Sagan shovel coal.

He could have asked to be transferred to another post on Voyager where he would feel more comfortable ... the fact remains though, he wanted to be on deck 15.

He was on Voyager because serving on-board a star-ship for a brief period of time was a requirement for what he wanted to actually do ... so in essence, he didn't care which post on Voyager he got, although Deck 15 gave him a unique opportunity to devote his time to what he wanted to do.

I have to admit that the way main characters came off in this episode (perhaps apart from Janeway who took the effort to get to know the trio) was out of their usual behavior.

 

[Emnabtond]

The problem with the episode for me is it just reminded you how out of touch the senior officers seemed to be with the underlings.
Janeway all of a sudden didn't know her way round her own ship and it took nearly 7 years to figure out these people were having problems.
It just reminds you of how nonexistent the secondary characters were.

 

[kimc]

What is it with people perceiving anti-social people as 'not normal'?
Sheesh ... if anything, being overly social is in my personal interpretation a sign of inability to do anything on your own.

Harren comes off as stronger for wanting to do things independently.
He's selfish?
Lol ... we all are selfish. It merely depends on how you look at it.

Since I'm technically an introvert I naturally do not equate introvertism with selfishness or anti-social behavior. We introverts get exhausted when around other people all the time and need to be alone to recharge and in my opinion there is nothing wrong with that. However, there can be selfish people among introverts just as easily as among extroverts. Harren wasn't selfish because he was an introvert, he was selfish because he was selfish.

The real surprise of the review was that, according to sfdebris, "Good Shepherd" was a VOY fan favourite.

I don't know, I'd just never heard of it as such, though being a sort of "Lower Decks" episode I can guess why (as that really is a fun hour of TNG).

Given how awful most of the episodes in the latter part of the seventh season are I can see how it would stand out among Voyager fans. I know it's one of the few I can watch on my Season 7 dvds.

The problem with the episode for me is it just reminded you how out of touch the senior officers seemed to be with the underlings.
Janeway all of a sudden didn't know her way round her own ship and it took nearly 7 years to figure out these people were having problems.
It just reminds you of how nonexistent the secondary characters were.

I think this would have played better earlier in the series. Sure, it's a big ship and there were some distractions along the way but 150(?) people aren't that many to get to know in seven years.

 

[Kai Winn]

well, there was a terrible stereotype with the bad guy redeeming himself by the ultimate sacrifice, but it's an enjoyable episode nonetheless. 8/10 imo. harren's not the only one who prefers to be on his own, tuvok and seven are no team workers either. all of them are taught and accept the great values of friendship, and relations, and integration of course.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I do agree that Harren's extreme talents were seemingly wasted; why the heck do you dump somebody with the IQ of 210 way down in the steerage decks, when he was better suited in Astrometrics alongside Seven?

Because that's the way he wanted it. He preferred working as little as possible so he could devote his time to his own projects.

Because he was put in engineering. To paraphrase sfdebris, you don't make Carl Sagan shovel coal.

They could have put Harren somewhere where his talents were of better use, like Torres did orginially. But if he adamently refused to do the work, which he did, that would leave them with three choices...
1.) Keep him where his talents are of use.
2.) Throw him in the brig.
3.) Transfer him where he wants to go.

Going with Option One means no work will get done. Going with Option Two also means no work will get done. Option Three at least means he'll actually contribute something to the ship.

Just because someone is capable of doing something doesn't mean they are going to do it. One reason I like this episode is because of this. Almost everywhere else in Star Trek we see everyone doing anything asked of them and being happy to do it. Harren, however, doesn't want to. He just wants to do his job and then have his fun, that makes him more interesting in my opinion.

 

[WorfSucksDax]

This Ep was too little too late. Voyager had about 150 crew, it should have been so much more in touch with what happened on the lower decks, there shouldnt even have been as much of a divide. The notorious prob with Voyager was that crew could just espawn, they never made a big thing of how important every member of the crew was before, why start now? I was watching a ep of TOS the other day, Charlie X, where a guy comes on and starts controlling things, but still needs everyone active at stations to steer the ship. This is something that was missing for VOY, there was never a feeling that you needed any crew. You cant just do one episode where a group with over the top problems get totally changed by spending some time with Janeway, then thats it forever.

Just pick up more borg!

 

[TedShatner10]

I agree that "Good Sheppard" should've been what Voyager should've been about in its earlier seasons, instead of mostly pedestrian run-ins with those Klingon knock offs, the Kazon.

 

[2 of 10]

On a bit of a different angle, I thought the intro to "Shepard" was excellent, following the padd all the way from the bridge to Harrens station WAY down in the lower decks, (loved the TNG ep by the same name) and then the scene pulls away and shows Herron from the outside of the ship, still one of my favorite openings in Voyager...

Resistance is Futile

 

[truetrekker]

I am a long time fan of Voyager and recently watched "Good Shepherd"... I give the episode a 8/10. This is because the episode was kind of random. It made no sense. Although there was a good storyline and plot, Voyager has always been action and complication, why would it take Janeway 6 years to realise that she has 3 failing crewmembers???

Im not picking though... I dont think that I could write a better series so I suggest everyone stop being so critical eh!

 

[john titor]

Why do you think Harren clashed with Janeway, aside from the bitterness of being cast into the delta quadrant?

 

[TheGodBen]

Im not picking though... I dont think that I could write a better series so I suggest everyone stop being so critical eh!

NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!

 

[kimc]

Why do you think Harren clashed with Janeway, aside from the bitterness of being cast into the delta quadrant?

I think he was a loner who had issues with authority. Imo, his clash with her wasn't personal as much as with "the captain" - whoever that would have been.

He didn't care much for anyone else on that shuttle either. They weren't smart enough for him or whatever. He obviously changed his mind about them at the end after getting to know them - at least enough to want to save their lives anyway.