Voyager again, for the first time

[NightJim]

Well get ready for some Kick-Ass Janeway.

Year of Hell

I remember watching Year of Hell sixteen years ago. The first episode absolutely blew me away, the second felt a little bit of let down, but it's still a good time travel epic.

Having watched it again I stand by that, though the impact of part 1 is obviously diminished knowing what's coming/how it ends. I think part 2 just jumps forward too much, the resolution just sort of happens. Suddenly Voyager has a fleet, everything's lost so Janeway does an almighty (and effing awesome) sacrifice that reverses time. It's moments like this that I'm totally on the Janeway fan-wagon.

Couple of moments just don't work for me. The ending of "Yeah let's just go round." I guess it's because they've not done the astrometrics scan yet so don't really know that the Krenim are bluffing, but Janeway always tries to have a conversation about it instead of just agreeing to adding time to their journey. It ends a little too cleanly.

Also, does the five year shortcut from the start count? By going around Krenim space they don't have the same line, does Astrometrics still shave that distance off their journey.

Oh, and on the Astrometrics debate, and the fact they mention having one in S1 or 2 only for this to be built. Janeway actually says in an early episode that it's being rebuilt by Seven and Kim.

Other problem is Kes warned them about the Krenin, yet that's totally ignored. I realise that timelines are all over the god damn place because of the Timeship, but that warning stands so why does no one remember what she said? Bloody Voyager and continuity.

Chakotay goes along with the timeship idea a bit too easily. Okay, he thought he talked him down, but when Annorax wipes out a civilisation on a whim from last night, his defence should crumble. It seems like he goes along with Paris' plan incredibly reluctantly. It just didn't sit right.

The Tuvok/Seven team up I absolutely love, and I hope to see more in the future. They play off each other so perfectly. Though at the same time, I'd still like it if they didn't as it being a road not travelled. Because Seven's actions didn't blind Tuvok they never get that close.

DigificWriter, you're probably going to overtake me now. I really struggled to find time for this, but since of Year of Hell was one of the episodes I'd been waiting to watch, and paid off Before and After I wanted to get it done before I got pulled away from Voyager for too long.

 

[Melakon]

One major thing I liked about the concept was the manipulation of time without using the more familiar types of time travel or time machines. Annorax believes he has conquered time, yet like any force of nature, it remains unpredictable. Kurtwood Smith was one of the best guest stars the show ever had.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

The scene with the timewave passing over the bridge and changing it is one of the best visuals in trek. Love YoH.

 

[DigificWriter]

For me, Year of Hell is the perfect example of the way Voyager handled continuity and serialization (which it did in fact have), as nearly all of the specific details we learned about the YoH itself from Before and After were 'reprised'; the only things that were changed were Kes no longer experiencing the YoH with the crew, B'Elanna not dying, and The Doctor's program not going offline.

With regards to the crew not being familiar with the Krenim even though Kes said she would write down everything shed learned about them, we're dealing with a 2-parter that has as its central premise the concept of screwing with time. It's therefore not a stretch to infer/assume that the first temporal shockwave that hit Voyager altered time around them so that Kes either never wrote her report for some reason or never experienced the events of Before and After in the first place.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm not sure why you think that Year of Hell is such a celebration?

They didn't create something isolated that was picked up creatively for a later story after a stroke of genius.

It wasn't Voyager taking advantage of Voyagers huge tapestry of characters and adventures.

They knew Year of Hell was coming as the season ender 5 episodes later.

The two stories were written in concert.

It was a trick.

You might as well also marvel over the continuity of how well Year of Hell 1 synced up with year of Hell 2.

A good example worthy of marvel would have been Shattered, even if all time travel stories are goofy.

They made a plan.

Before and After will set up Year of Hell.

Then they got distracted.

Before and After will not set up Year of Hell (because we might not make it anymore... Oh god, what's happened to Jennifer? Where's Jennifer!? What did you monsters do to Jennifer!!!!????? Oh, the humanity!).

Then they said a year later that despite Voyager being 10,000 light years forward of were you would think they should be now from last year and the hero of Before and After being sent out to pasture, that Before and After will indeed set up Year of Hell.

"Sigh"

 

[NightJim]

ALSO just because it annoys me, the impression I got with Kes and torpedo is that it comes relatively late in the year, but when it's Seven it happens a lot earlier. Though I do like

Having now read the Memory Alpha behind the scenes, I'm even more annoyed with the ending. They had a decent ending with Chakotay and Paris remembering and them being responsible for averting the Year of Hell through simple choice dialogue, but weren't 100% it worked so Berman said just wipe the slate clean and ignore it all. Bloody Rick Berman.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Captain Marvel, a comic book character, fighting an evil version of his unborn son from the future, after a bitter series of confrontations lasting maybe 5 issues, loses. The good guys lose and evil prospers. it's really quite sad. Captain Marvel looks his kid in the eye and says something awful: "On the night of your first birthday, I am going to reach into your crib and snap your little neck."

**POOF!**

Time unwinds and the universe conquering despot vanishes, while leaving everything else pretty much the same... A page later in the epilogue set 8 years later we see the wife go mental seconds after Captain Marvel kills his baby.

THAT's how you write time travel.

 

[NightJim]

Precisely. Rewinding for "It never happened and no consequences" you might as well as write "But it was all a dream!"

 

[R. Star]

Well a two-part push of the reset button, quite literally, is impressive in it's own right.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No.

Witchblade is impressive.

They reset a season.

Season one played out, the Universe rewound.

Only Witchblade remembered.

The bad guys got their asses handed to them at every turn, and they had no idea why.

It was hilarious.

Or then there's Tru Calling where they rewound time at least once an episode.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I need something new to watch in between watching Lexx which is like having your head smashed into a time machine blender.

I need something that is..

1. Sci fi-ish if not actual sci fi. Fantasy is acceptable. Big Brother shows about shadowy corporate evil doers will have to be really great on some other level, really worn out on this theme.

2. Sexy.

3. Doesn't take 20 episodes to get into, would really prefer a newer show with small seasons. Though I can always be persuaded to make exceptions.

I have got all of UFO and Space 1999 on dvd which I got second hand for a pittance but I suspect both of those will fail at No. 2.

Yes, People of the Thread, save me from rewatching Firefly and give me something fresh! Oh and I hated Fringe, hated hated hated it so you can all leave that one out.

Oh and uhh...Year of Hell, "Kick Ass Janeway"

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Sexy, in a very '70s way.

My G-d, Victor Bergman could be Phlox!

 

[NightJim]

I was about to suggest Continuum which fulfils all of the above except shadowy corporate evil doers is sort of a driving force of it.

How are you with Superheroes? Arrow's pretty good, is new, 2nd season has only just started but 1st was 20+ episodes.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Grimm is Shit.
...

Haven is Shit.
...

Eastwick. I discovered that there were 3 more episodes of Eastwick than I thought there was yesterday... So Girly. Shit and girly.
...

Tru Calling... Three episodes to get over the shitty pilot, horrible pilot, the pilot is all about boobs running, it gets better... Zach Galifinakis is now massive, and if you can last till half way through, Jason priestly shows up as a son of a bitch.
...

Witches of Eastend (It's brand new) seems like charmed lite, and then it starts to seem like a mildly heavier Charmed.

...

Prey. Homosuperior is trying to cleverly supplant Homosapien, and only the gorgeous anthropologist red head from Will and Grace can Keep things on an even keel.

...

Dead Like Me. Sarcastic 20-something is hit on the head by a toilet seat fallen from the Mir Space Station. Rather than going to heaven, she becomes a Grim Reaper in training under the tutelage of Mandy Patinkin.... Favourite line?

"It's like a party thrown by Bacchus."

"Who's Bacchus?"

"He's the Greek god of why don't you read a fucking book."

...

The Venture Bros (cartoon) It's a piss take on Johnny Quest. Moron children following their mad scientist father across the globe... Favourite line... "Hello, I'm organising a child's birthday party, I would like to order 5 of your finest whores."

...

Red vs Blue. (Web series) Foul mouth soldiers with low IQs trying to survive inside a Halo Game. They use a game generator to animate the series with graphics from the game. I think it's 90 percent unscripted.

...

The Guild (Web series). Socially Awkward 20 something (Felicia Day) uses her might as well be World of Warcraft but it isn't, Guild to help her navigate the real world more than the game world. Favourite Line... Wil Wheaton referring to what Felicia's game avatar is doing to his game avatar: "Oh my god? Are you Skull fucking me?"

...

Titan Maximum. From the makers of Robot Chicken, they take the piss out of Voltron giving it a triple X rating for claymation.

 

[delenn13]

Teacake,

On my Tumblr dashboard I am getting lots of Once Upon A Time(they ship Emma and Regina) and American Horror Story because of Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Angela Bassett and others..I can't remember. From the pics it can be quite sexy..especially OUAT. I am thinking of starting to watch it..to tide me over till OitNB starts back up.

 

[DigificWriter]

Teacake: Watch Once Upon a Time.

 

[NightJim]

Grimm is Shit.
Red vs Blue. (Web series) Foul mouth soldiers with low IQs trying to survive inside a Halo Game. They use a game generator to animate the series with graphics from the game. I think it's 90 percent unscripted.

It's 100% scripted. I've been a fan from day one, and to Rooster Teeth in general (the guys behind it). It is, however, hilarious. Couple of later seasons mix it up with CGI, though it's just reverted back to all in game graphics because the animators have switched to their own show (Still produced by Rooster Teeth) called RWBY (pronounced ruby) that's basically an anime.

Don't worry too much about it being based on Halo, it goes out of it's way to avoid references so to not confuse a non-games playing audience. The only thing from Halo you really need to know is humanity fought a war against some aliens. Each season is basically the length of a movie I think.

 

[USS Firefly]

Teacake perhaps Smallville or Angel?

 

[Melakon]

Didn't Smallville run for over 10 years?

 

[Guy Gardener]

10 seasons. 9 and a half years.

But it seemed twice as long.

A very masochistic journey.