This is the kind of episode not seen in any other Trek series. You can really see Jeri Taylor's influence on the show in the much more mature way pregnancy is handled on this that it was on TNG. DS9 doesn't do much better with Dax carrying the O'Brien's baby which honestly felt like it was mostly being played for laughs. At the same time this is one where Neelix is mostly there to be annoying seemingly and I am never going to be in favor of that. The plot about the space organisms seeing Voyager as a member of their species to be courted did feel pretty TOS in a good way though which at least partially offsets the Neelix factor.
We open with the setup for the show, Chakotay catches two crew members kissing in a turbo lift and decides he needs to talk to Janeway about a fraternization policy. Next we see Paris helping Kes carry cabbage to the mess hall which of course sets Neelix into fits of jealousy. Kes notices a beetle on one of the plants and is fascinated by it. On the bridge Chakotay talks to the captain about what he saw but she is willing to accept such behavior from her crew. Kim points out that there is a strange anomaly ahead and when they investigate they find it is a cloud of organisisms which live in space. They go in for a closer look but the swarm creates a magnetic field which pulls the ship into it rather than letting them keep their distance as the captain would prefer.
In the hydroponics bay we see Kes taking care of the plants and then reaching over and grabbing a handful of beetles and cramming them into her mouth. She is horrified when she realizes what she has done and goes to her quarters where she starts stuffing food into her mouth as fast as she can. Neelix arrives and is horrified that she is eating food that she has added dirt to. He drags her to sickbay and proceeds to be so completely in the way that the doctor throws him out. He goes straight to Janeway to whine about it. But they are interrupted by the doctor who calls for the captain in sickbay. Kes has put herself behind a forcefield and won't let anyone in. Shockingly she doesn't listen to Neelix but Janeway gets her to lower the forcefield. Kes tells Janeway that she is entering sexual maturity early but that this is also the only time she will be capable of becoming pregnant.
The ship is having problems getting out of the swarm, the small creatures start turning blue and grabbing onto the nacelles when they try to leave. Then a large creature shows up and starts ramming the ship. Kes tells Neelix about her condition and he is at first terrified of having a child but is encouraged by Tuvok. He tells Kes he does want to have a child with her and she is excited. But she quickly has her doubts and decides not to have a child. Chakotay figures out that he large organism thinks the ship is a sexual rival and points out that they need to act submissive for it to leave them alone. They turn blue and flip over which works. Neelix is sad to not have a child, but pumped when Kes tells him the doctor things it was a false development caused by the energy field of the space organisms.
Review: Overall a pretty good episode, but not one of Treks best. It would probably be a point higher if Neelix weren't as annoying but that seems to be the norm these days.
6 out of 10
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Sunday, June 26, 2016
VOY: Projections
I have some objections in terms of things not making sense in this episode, but most of it is because we see the episode from the perspective of a malfunctioning hologram so anything is possible. The biggest question I have is about what kind of holonovel the Doctor could possibly have been participating in. Because if it wasn't about him being Dr. Zimmerman making the EMH why were so many elements from that forced in? And where did Barclay come from? It seems like the Doctor had never met him before and had no idea who he was so why was he there? It seems like the implication is post TNG Barclay started working with Zimmerman on my autonomous holoprograms which makes sense for him, but how did the Doctor know this? And did he make Kes into Zimmerman's wife because he actually is in love with her? But as much as some parts don't really make sense, that is ok in an episode with such a crazy premise.
We begin with the Doctor appearing alone in sickbay. He asks the computer and it tells him he was automatically activated when the ship went to red alert (this has never happened before, but there are so many things out of place I am going to just have to let some go without comment). He asks and finds out that the ship was abandoned when the warp core went critical and that there is severe damage to many of the ships systems. He is startled then when there is a pounding on the door to sickbay but happy when the person who barges in is Torres. She tells him that they abandoned ship because of the warp core, but she and Janeway were able to save the ship. Unfortunately the life pods where captured by the Kazon. The Doctor tries scanning her with his tricorder but it doesn't work. She transfers him to the bridge to help the captain but she also doesn't show up in the tricorder. They get a desperate call from Neelix who is under attack in the mess hall and with new holoprojectors the Doctor is transferred there.
He finds Neelix under attack and is able to outflank the Kazon and jumps him while Neelix knocks him out with a saute pan. Surprisingly though the Doctor is injured and bleeding. He is transferred back to sickbay and shocked to find the tricorder works just fine on him showing brain patterns along with his other vital signs. He asks the computer what is going on and it casually explains that he is Dr. Zimmerman. Janeway, Torres and Neelix show up in sickbay and he tells them what is going on. Janeway doesn't believe it and tells the computer to shut down all holograms and promptly disappears along with the others other than the Doctor who is now alone. Suddenly Barclay appears and tries to convince the Doctor that he is Zimmerman and he is in a program to study the long term effects of an EMH but that holodeck is stuck running and the only way out is to finish the program. But that means either getting home or blowing up the ship.
Suddenly they are back when the Doctor first appeared on Voyager but everyone can see Barclay too and are confused. He is then in the engine room with the captain as the caretaker makes everyone disappear. Barclay tries to convince him to destroy the warp core with a phaser but Chakotay walks in and tells him that if he does his program will be destroyed. Kes shows up on Barclay's side telling the Doctor she is his wife. He sides with Chakotay though and suddenly wakes up in sickbay telling Kes how beautiful she is. He is relieved to be back on the real ship but after everyone else leaves Kes asks him about telling her she is beautiful and gets upset when he doesn't say she is again and tells him their marriage is over. Then he sees Zimmerman on a bed in sickbay injured and talking like Janeway and then he is on the holodeck. It seems he is finally back out of the layers of simulation, but he realizes he can never really be sure.
Review: An episode that handles ambiguity surprisingly well. I am sure some people hate this one, but I found it to be mindbending in an enjoyable way. Also to be honest I enjoyed seeing Barclay again so there is that too.
7 out of 10
VOY: Initiations
Standard warning at the beginning that I led a 2.5 hour star talk tonight and it is well past midnight so this one is going to be a little short. A fairly average Trek episode that significantly expands who the Kazon are as a culture. Unfortunately they came across to me as kinda weak ripoffs of the Klingons. It was cool to see Chakotay actually living up to the promise of a peaceful Federation even if at the same time the Federation was becoming more militant due to the events in DS9. But that is clearly not what he is in it for and that is cool to see.
The episode opens with Chakotay alone in a shuttle to perform a ritual in memory of his grandfather. He is detected by the Kazon who send one of their own to kill him on a mission to prove himself. Chakotay is surprised to be under attack and even more so when he realizes his attacker is a barely teenaged boy. He tries to talk him out of the attack but is forced to destroy the Kazon ship but he manages to beam to solo occupant onto his shuttle first. The boy is named Kar and is super upset at having been saved. He was supposed to prove himself and will be rejected by his people as a failure now. Voyager notices it has been too long since his last contact and starts heading his way.
But before help can arrive a larger Kazon ship arrives and tractor beams the shuttle on board. Kar is humiliated to be returned alive and tries to explain to Chakotay why, but he isn't having it. Chakotay eventually learns he is to kill Kar to give him back some honor but refuses and takes the ships captain hostage. Kar realizes he has no choice but to join Chakotay and the two flee in the shuttle, but they aren't fast enough. The shuttle is destroyed but they beam to an m-class moon first. The moon is littered with hidden weapons and booby traps though as it is a Kazon training ground. Chakotay and Kar hide in a cave. Voyager arrives and sends down a search party but before they can stop them the Kazon ship shows up and lands on the surface. They seem to want to help the crew of Voyager though and together they find Chakotay and Kar. Chakotay has offered to let Kar kill him in a way he can be revived on Voyager but Kar instead kills his captain and offers his loyalty to the new captain who hesitantly accepts.
Review: This felt a lot like a TOS episode to me on both the good and the bad ways. The morality of it is a little to clear cut for me, but overall it works.
6 out of 10
The episode opens with Chakotay alone in a shuttle to perform a ritual in memory of his grandfather. He is detected by the Kazon who send one of their own to kill him on a mission to prove himself. Chakotay is surprised to be under attack and even more so when he realizes his attacker is a barely teenaged boy. He tries to talk him out of the attack but is forced to destroy the Kazon ship but he manages to beam to solo occupant onto his shuttle first. The boy is named Kar and is super upset at having been saved. He was supposed to prove himself and will be rejected by his people as a failure now. Voyager notices it has been too long since his last contact and starts heading his way.
But before help can arrive a larger Kazon ship arrives and tractor beams the shuttle on board. Kar is humiliated to be returned alive and tries to explain to Chakotay why, but he isn't having it. Chakotay eventually learns he is to kill Kar to give him back some honor but refuses and takes the ships captain hostage. Kar realizes he has no choice but to join Chakotay and the two flee in the shuttle, but they aren't fast enough. The shuttle is destroyed but they beam to an m-class moon first. The moon is littered with hidden weapons and booby traps though as it is a Kazon training ground. Chakotay and Kar hide in a cave. Voyager arrives and sends down a search party but before they can stop them the Kazon ship shows up and lands on the surface. They seem to want to help the crew of Voyager though and together they find Chakotay and Kar. Chakotay has offered to let Kar kill him in a way he can be revived on Voyager but Kar instead kills his captain and offers his loyalty to the new captain who hesitantly accepts.
Review: This felt a lot like a TOS episode to me on both the good and the bad ways. The morality of it is a little to clear cut for me, but overall it works.
6 out of 10
Friday, June 24, 2016
VOY: The 37's
All I remember from my initial watching of this episode was that it had Amelia Earhart being abducted by aliens and I thought that was hella lame. Upon rewatching though it has a lot more going on than I remembered. Somehow in my memory they meet the aliens responsible for the abductions and their reasons are hella dumb, but that is totally incorrect. We never meet the aliens and their apparent motive was to raise a race of slaves which will still a bit questionable at least makes sense. Also our one source for this information is a human who has never actually seen the aliens and is the ancestor of the frozen abductees.
We begin with Voyager detecting a trace of rust in space which clearly doesn't make sense. They follow it and find a 1936 Ford pickup truck floating in space, still in operating condition no less (clearly the battery should be dead as is pointed out later on Earhart's plane, but whatever, it is fun to see Paris fire it up). Turning on the radio they detect an SOS signal and follow it to a planet. For some reason they can't beam down or send a shuttle so they land the ship. As they search the surface we see them being observed by cloaked figures. They find a cryogenic chamber with 8 frozen humans inside including Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan. The revival goes well but the frozen people aren't willing to take their word on what happened and Noonan pulls out a gun and takes them hostage.
Tuvok leads a party of security officers along with Chakotay to attempt a rescue, but they are attacked by the cloaked figures. Just then Janeway convinces Earhart to listen to her and along with Noonan and Kim they exit the cave right in the middle of the firefight. Janeway outflanks the cloaked figures but once they surrender she is shocked to find they are human. It seems they are the descendants of the original abductees who were already unfrozen and they were originally used as slaves. But they rebelled generations ago and have built cities on the planet which they now happily call home. Janeway tours the cities (off camera to save money I am sure) and is impressed. They offer to let the crew of Voyager join them and it is very tempting to a lot of the crew. Earhart and the other abductees decide to stay, but after a dramatic build up all the crew of Voyager decide to stay on for the trip home.
Review: Interesting science fiction going on here, much more so than the cliched flying saucer plot I was expecting. It is cool to see female Captain Janeway meeting female aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and how impressed they both are with the other. Not sure if they needed to tension about who would stay behind, but it was terrible. Also Neelix can cook finally! And isn't the worst!
7 out of 10
Thursday, June 23, 2016
VOY: Learning Curve
I am really starting to like the hints at what is going on the Janeway's holonovel that they have started teasing in the cold open. The idea of a ghost in such a story isn't exactly surprising, but it should be interesting when the holodeck breaks down in some interesting way. They even tease this with the holodeck losing power and dropping characters midway through a scene, but that episode isn't today's episode. Learning Curve finally deals with the issues the Maquis have integrating into a Starfleet vessel and following the rules. It kinda feels like maybe they should have done this earlier, but I guess they sorta did with Torres becoming chief engineer. It is also fun to see Tuvok becoming more of an actual character and less of a cardboard cutout like he seemed to be most of the rest of this season. I know as a pure blooded Vulcan he doesn't have the emotional inner self that Spock had so it is cool to see him becoming interesting his own way.
We open in Janeway's holonovel where she is preparing to meet the children she will be caring for. There is a boy and a girl and the boy is very interested in being treated with the respect he is due as a member of the nobility. His sister though is still convinced that there mother is still around and not dead, at least she is until she disappears. Janeway calls the bridge and finds that there has been a power loss due to a biogel pack failing. Tuvok goes to investigate and finds a former Maquis engineer is busy replacing the pack. Not that he told anybody on the bridge or anything and he gets very angry when Tuvok points this out. In a meeting Janeway expresses her concern about the failing gel packs as they aren't something that can be replaced. Tuvok also brings up the incident with Dalby and Janeway assigns him the job of running a mini-academy for the former Maquis crew having the most problems integrating.
The first training doesn't go well as Tuvok assigns one of them to start running laps and the others walk out on him. Chakotay confronts them in the mess hall and knocks Dalby to the floor with a punch telling him that is the Maquis way and that he will get more of that if he doesn't fall in line with the training. Torres doesn't have any luck with the gel packs until she takes them to the Doctor who diagnoses it as being infected. He tells them they need to isolate the remaining packs and find the source of the infection. Day two of the academy goes better. That evening Tuvok leads them on a brutal exercise regimen which kinda makes it seem like it is a punishment since they do it in front of the rest of the crew. On the holodeck Tuvok presents them with an unwinnable situation on the bridge of Voyager and they fail because they refuse to retreat. The Maquis storm out again when he points out why they failed.
Eventually Tuvok figures out that the source of the infection is a terrible cheese Neelix is making in the mess hall. They isolate the cheese and the doctor determines that it is an incredibly strong pathogen the like of which he has never seen before. Tuvok has a talk with Neelix where Neelix tries to convince him to be more flexible with the Maquis which isn't really Tuvok's thing, but he considers it. Tuvok tries playing pool with Dalby and while Dalby storms out Tuvok learns a lot about his history and why he is so upset all the time, he feels super protective of the younger Bajoran also being trained. Next they are doing an exercise in a cargo bay when the Doctor tells Janeway that they can cure the infection with heat. She overheats the warp engine but this traps Tuvok and his trainees in the cargo bay. It starts flooding with poison gas and Tuvok insists the trainees go to safety while he rescues the trapped Bajoran. His self sacrifice impressed Dalby and he agrees to give Tuvok's way of doing things a try.
Review: Not the greatest episode so far, but it does manage to add some character depth and tells a decent story. Tuvok doesn't seem like he would be the first choice to train a bunch of rebels, but in the end he does ok.
6 out of 10
We open in Janeway's holonovel where she is preparing to meet the children she will be caring for. There is a boy and a girl and the boy is very interested in being treated with the respect he is due as a member of the nobility. His sister though is still convinced that there mother is still around and not dead, at least she is until she disappears. Janeway calls the bridge and finds that there has been a power loss due to a biogel pack failing. Tuvok goes to investigate and finds a former Maquis engineer is busy replacing the pack. Not that he told anybody on the bridge or anything and he gets very angry when Tuvok points this out. In a meeting Janeway expresses her concern about the failing gel packs as they aren't something that can be replaced. Tuvok also brings up the incident with Dalby and Janeway assigns him the job of running a mini-academy for the former Maquis crew having the most problems integrating.
The first training doesn't go well as Tuvok assigns one of them to start running laps and the others walk out on him. Chakotay confronts them in the mess hall and knocks Dalby to the floor with a punch telling him that is the Maquis way and that he will get more of that if he doesn't fall in line with the training. Torres doesn't have any luck with the gel packs until she takes them to the Doctor who diagnoses it as being infected. He tells them they need to isolate the remaining packs and find the source of the infection. Day two of the academy goes better. That evening Tuvok leads them on a brutal exercise regimen which kinda makes it seem like it is a punishment since they do it in front of the rest of the crew. On the holodeck Tuvok presents them with an unwinnable situation on the bridge of Voyager and they fail because they refuse to retreat. The Maquis storm out again when he points out why they failed.
Eventually Tuvok figures out that the source of the infection is a terrible cheese Neelix is making in the mess hall. They isolate the cheese and the doctor determines that it is an incredibly strong pathogen the like of which he has never seen before. Tuvok has a talk with Neelix where Neelix tries to convince him to be more flexible with the Maquis which isn't really Tuvok's thing, but he considers it. Tuvok tries playing pool with Dalby and while Dalby storms out Tuvok learns a lot about his history and why he is so upset all the time, he feels super protective of the younger Bajoran also being trained. Next they are doing an exercise in a cargo bay when the Doctor tells Janeway that they can cure the infection with heat. She overheats the warp engine but this traps Tuvok and his trainees in the cargo bay. It starts flooding with poison gas and Tuvok insists the trainees go to safety while he rescues the trapped Bajoran. His self sacrifice impressed Dalby and he agrees to give Tuvok's way of doing things a try.
Review: Not the greatest episode so far, but it does manage to add some character depth and tells a decent story. Tuvok doesn't seem like he would be the first choice to train a bunch of rebels, but in the end he does ok.
6 out of 10
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
VOY: Jetrel
Naming an episode after a character who will never appear again and whose name doesn't seem to mean anything is kinda lame. I admit I had a stronger than normal reaction to this episode as the grandson of a scientist who helped build the atomic bombs used against Japan. This episode is very clearly a take on those events and it does it in a rather ham-handed way. To be fair a good portion of that is having Neelix be the one who was a victim of the attack although as we learn he was actually "conscientiously objecting" rather than going to help the victims of the attack. I use the scare quotes in the preceding sentence since Neelix clearly sees what he did as an act of cowerdice rather than a moral stand.
We open with Neelix learning to play pool in Paris' cafe/poolhall/brothel and he is relishing taking the safe route to beat Tuvok. Instead of the conversation with Neelix being interrupted by the other person being called to the bridge in this case it is Neelix who is summoned. There is a shuttle approaching and the sole occupant requested to talk to Neelix. The name who comes on the screen introduces himself as Dr. Jetrel and Neelix flees the bridge looking ill. He tells Janeway that Jetrel was responsible for a weapon that killed 300,000 of his people in a war years earlier and Neelix isn't going to talk to him. Janeway invites Jetrel on board anyway and Jetrel explains that since Neelix was one of the first rescuers on scene he may have contracted a deadly disease as a side effect of the weapon. Neelix still doesn't want to see Jetrel, but Janeway talks him into it. The meeting is understandably tense but eventually Janeway and Kes talk Neelix into taking the test.
Jetrel tells Neelix that he has the disease and is going to die but Neelix is more worried about making Jetrel feel like a monster than his imminent death. Jetrel though has other ideas. He convinces Janeway to let him use the ships transporters to bring on board a sample of the weapon cloud to try and come up with a cure. We also see that he is quite weak and probably dying. He gets the sample on board but when the time comes to work on the cure he disables the EMH and exposes the sample to something that makes it turn into a pile of goop. Having talked to Kes and finally admitting his cowardice during the war Neelix goes to Jetrel but is horrified by the pile of goop. Jetrel knocks him out and heads to the transporter. He gets caught trying to use it to restore one of the victims of the weapon. He believes he can beam them back into one piece but nobody believes him, nobody except Neelix. They give it a try but it fails. Jetrel collapses and is taken to sickbay. Just before he dies Neelix walks in and tells him he forgives Jetrel.
Review: I like the stuff in this episode about the guilt one feels over ones creation being used as a weapon of war, but it stumbles when it comes to its nuclear weapon analogy. It is clear Jetrel's government threw him under the bus and turned him into the monster that was responsible rather than taking responsibility of the weapons use. Still my favorite Neelix ep so far.
5 out of 10
We open with Neelix learning to play pool in Paris' cafe/poolhall/brothel and he is relishing taking the safe route to beat Tuvok. Instead of the conversation with Neelix being interrupted by the other person being called to the bridge in this case it is Neelix who is summoned. There is a shuttle approaching and the sole occupant requested to talk to Neelix. The name who comes on the screen introduces himself as Dr. Jetrel and Neelix flees the bridge looking ill. He tells Janeway that Jetrel was responsible for a weapon that killed 300,000 of his people in a war years earlier and Neelix isn't going to talk to him. Janeway invites Jetrel on board anyway and Jetrel explains that since Neelix was one of the first rescuers on scene he may have contracted a deadly disease as a side effect of the weapon. Neelix still doesn't want to see Jetrel, but Janeway talks him into it. The meeting is understandably tense but eventually Janeway and Kes talk Neelix into taking the test.
Jetrel tells Neelix that he has the disease and is going to die but Neelix is more worried about making Jetrel feel like a monster than his imminent death. Jetrel though has other ideas. He convinces Janeway to let him use the ships transporters to bring on board a sample of the weapon cloud to try and come up with a cure. We also see that he is quite weak and probably dying. He gets the sample on board but when the time comes to work on the cure he disables the EMH and exposes the sample to something that makes it turn into a pile of goop. Having talked to Kes and finally admitting his cowardice during the war Neelix goes to Jetrel but is horrified by the pile of goop. Jetrel knocks him out and heads to the transporter. He gets caught trying to use it to restore one of the victims of the weapon. He believes he can beam them back into one piece but nobody believes him, nobody except Neelix. They give it a try but it fails. Jetrel collapses and is taken to sickbay. Just before he dies Neelix walks in and tells him he forgives Jetrel.
Review: I like the stuff in this episode about the guilt one feels over ones creation being used as a weapon of war, but it stumbles when it comes to its nuclear weapon analogy. It is clear Jetrel's government threw him under the bus and turned him into the monster that was responsible rather than taking responsibility of the weapons use. Still my favorite Neelix ep so far.
5 out of 10
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
VOY: Faces
A fairly average episode of Trek with the still annoying phagliens (yup, still know they are called Vidiians, still don't care). It isn't so much that I dislike the idea of the Vidiians, it is more that it seems like the crew of Voyager should be less accepting of a race that lives by harvesting organs from unwilling donors. I also can't help but wonder if they were originally supposed to be the Borg but they decided to save that for later seasons. The split Torres was kinda cheesy, but no worse than average for TNG or TOS certainly so I am not going to be too upset. Honestly the fact that the doctor was able to easily return her to normal after seemed like the unreasonable part.
We open with an extra Klingony Torres strapped to a table seemingly being experimented on. Back on Voyager they still aren't done with the gag that Neelix is a terrible cook but doesn't seem to get it as he makes a bowl of inedible soup for Tuvok who is happy to flee to the bridge to get away from it. It seems the away team that included Torres who were supposed to be surveying caves for some reason have gone missing. Tuvok and Chakotay come up with a plan to find and rescue them. Back on the planet Torres in full Klingon form is told by the phage doctor that he believes Klingons are able to resist the phage so he purified her removing her human DNA. Torres is obviously pissed to be a lab animal but doesn't have much choice as he infects her with the disease. Paris and redshirt dude are prisoners of the Vidiians and are being forced to mine rock and if they get weak their organs will be harvested.
Tuvok, Chakotay and Kim beam down to look for the missing crew but have to beam out when they run into some Vidiians after discovering a forcefield made to look like a rock wall. Paris is surprised when a human Torres is brought into the prisoner area. She is sick and afraid of just about everything. Klingon Torres starts working on a plan to seduce the doctor experimenting on her while also trying to break out of her restraints. Redshirt guy gets hauled off to have his organs harvested and Paris gets sent to mine with human Torres. The doctor working on Klingon Torres shows up with the redshirts face but she still breaks out and knocks him out.
On Voyager they have come up with a plan to beam through tiny cracks in the shield but it will be a one way trip until the shields are off so the doctor modifies Chakotay to look Vidiian and he beams down. Human Torres isn't keeping up with the mining but instead of taking her to have her organs harvested she is taken back to the prison room which for some reason has a computer console she can try to take the shield down with. She gets caught though by Klingon Torres rescues her. They head back to the lab to use the computer there as Chakotay shows up and rescue Paris also taking him to the lab. They have a showdown in the lab where human Torres manages to take down the shield and Klingon Torres sacrifices herself to save them all. Back on the ship the doctor is going to be able to bring Torres back to normal no problem.
Review: The idea behind this episode is pretty solid, but it has some execution problems. They really should have left out the entire Chakotay being made into a Vidiian bit as it added nothing to the episode.
5 out of 10
We open with an extra Klingony Torres strapped to a table seemingly being experimented on. Back on Voyager they still aren't done with the gag that Neelix is a terrible cook but doesn't seem to get it as he makes a bowl of inedible soup for Tuvok who is happy to flee to the bridge to get away from it. It seems the away team that included Torres who were supposed to be surveying caves for some reason have gone missing. Tuvok and Chakotay come up with a plan to find and rescue them. Back on the planet Torres in full Klingon form is told by the phage doctor that he believes Klingons are able to resist the phage so he purified her removing her human DNA. Torres is obviously pissed to be a lab animal but doesn't have much choice as he infects her with the disease. Paris and redshirt dude are prisoners of the Vidiians and are being forced to mine rock and if they get weak their organs will be harvested.
Tuvok, Chakotay and Kim beam down to look for the missing crew but have to beam out when they run into some Vidiians after discovering a forcefield made to look like a rock wall. Paris is surprised when a human Torres is brought into the prisoner area. She is sick and afraid of just about everything. Klingon Torres starts working on a plan to seduce the doctor experimenting on her while also trying to break out of her restraints. Redshirt guy gets hauled off to have his organs harvested and Paris gets sent to mine with human Torres. The doctor working on Klingon Torres shows up with the redshirts face but she still breaks out and knocks him out.
On Voyager they have come up with a plan to beam through tiny cracks in the shield but it will be a one way trip until the shields are off so the doctor modifies Chakotay to look Vidiian and he beams down. Human Torres isn't keeping up with the mining but instead of taking her to have her organs harvested she is taken back to the prison room which for some reason has a computer console she can try to take the shield down with. She gets caught though by Klingon Torres rescues her. They head back to the lab to use the computer there as Chakotay shows up and rescue Paris also taking him to the lab. They have a showdown in the lab where human Torres manages to take down the shield and Klingon Torres sacrifices herself to save them all. Back on the ship the doctor is going to be able to bring Torres back to normal no problem.
Review: The idea behind this episode is pretty solid, but it has some execution problems. They really should have left out the entire Chakotay being made into a Vidiian bit as it added nothing to the episode.
5 out of 10
Monday, June 20, 2016
VOY: Cathexis
This episode manages to pull off two fake outs rather successfully, although that is at least partly because I don't remember Voyager as well as the other series. After last nights rather successful holodeck episode I was kinda worried when this one opened on the holodeck at all, but it turned out to just be an early set up for something down the line. Second I was kinda annoyed when they "blew the mystery" by having the camera fly around obviously from the perspective on the allegedly hostile alien. But fortunately this was the second fake out as it turned out Tuvok had been under the actual aliens control the entire time. I guess the pan flutes in sickbay should be been a clue that things were going all mystical for Chakotay, but I guess I was a little slow today.
As mentioned above we begin on the holodeck where Janeway has just been hired as the governess of an English household. She meets the widower lord who after telling her about his children admonishes her to never set foot on the fourth floor of the estate. Just then she is called to the bridge. The shuttlecraft with Tuvok and Chakotay aboard is returning badly damaged. The two are beamed to sickbay and while Tuvok has a minor concussion Chakotay is totally braindead. Tuvok explains that they were charting a dark matter nebula when they encountered a ship. It hit them with some sort of energy and he was only barely able to set the shuttle to return before losing consciousness. Later in sickbay Torres is surprised to the doctor recognizes and understand the medicine wheel she sets up to try and draw Chakotay back to his body. The pan flute music I believe is our cue that something mysterious is happening. In her quarters Kes feels a presence as well.
On the bridge they set a course for the nebula to try and find the ship that attacked the shuttle but suddenly they aren't going that way any more and it seems Paris is responsible. But he has no memory of doing so. He goes to investigate and soon they have changed course again and the controls are locked out. It seems Paris was responsible again so he is sent to sickbay to be checked out. Tuvok confirms he is the one who did it but the doctor has discovered that Paris' mind was taken over briefly both times he changed course and they realize they have some form of intruder. Janeway realizes the only person who can't be tampered with is the doctor and transfers the ships command codes to him. Torres comes up with a plan to scan the ship for the alien but it will take several hours to set up. Tuvok shows up in sickbay to do something to the sensors but after he leaves the doctor is no longer operational.
Kes tells the captain she can sense the aliens and Tuvok offers to mindmeld with her to help focus her powers but they are both found unconscious in the turbolift soon after. The doctor is unavailable to treat them though so Paris takes over. The warp core gets ejected as they approach the nebula but Torres doesn't remember doing it. As they prepare to enter under impulse power there is a power struggle on the bridge with the alien jumping around until Tuvok stuns them all. Torres found something in the shuttle and gets to Janeway in private. It seems there never was an alien ship and Tuvok has been lying. She returns to the bridge and orders them to stop going into the nebula, but Tuvok pulls has phaser and declares she is under the influence of the alien. The crew follow her, but he sets his phaser on kill and they do what he says. He flies them in but Janeway manages to activate the pulse of energy to find the aliens and Tuvok collapses and we see the energy creature leave his body. They realize the possessing alien was actually Chakotay and after reactivating the doctor they revive Chakotay.
Review: One of Trek's more successful mystery episode which manages to avoid the problems many have run into. For some reason most other series either have the villain be someone who is only introduced at the end and we therefore don't care about or they give the whole thing away too early. This is the best of VOY so far and a good Trek episode in any series.
8 out of 10
As mentioned above we begin on the holodeck where Janeway has just been hired as the governess of an English household. She meets the widower lord who after telling her about his children admonishes her to never set foot on the fourth floor of the estate. Just then she is called to the bridge. The shuttlecraft with Tuvok and Chakotay aboard is returning badly damaged. The two are beamed to sickbay and while Tuvok has a minor concussion Chakotay is totally braindead. Tuvok explains that they were charting a dark matter nebula when they encountered a ship. It hit them with some sort of energy and he was only barely able to set the shuttle to return before losing consciousness. Later in sickbay Torres is surprised to the doctor recognizes and understand the medicine wheel she sets up to try and draw Chakotay back to his body. The pan flute music I believe is our cue that something mysterious is happening. In her quarters Kes feels a presence as well.
On the bridge they set a course for the nebula to try and find the ship that attacked the shuttle but suddenly they aren't going that way any more and it seems Paris is responsible. But he has no memory of doing so. He goes to investigate and soon they have changed course again and the controls are locked out. It seems Paris was responsible again so he is sent to sickbay to be checked out. Tuvok confirms he is the one who did it but the doctor has discovered that Paris' mind was taken over briefly both times he changed course and they realize they have some form of intruder. Janeway realizes the only person who can't be tampered with is the doctor and transfers the ships command codes to him. Torres comes up with a plan to scan the ship for the alien but it will take several hours to set up. Tuvok shows up in sickbay to do something to the sensors but after he leaves the doctor is no longer operational.
Kes tells the captain she can sense the aliens and Tuvok offers to mindmeld with her to help focus her powers but they are both found unconscious in the turbolift soon after. The doctor is unavailable to treat them though so Paris takes over. The warp core gets ejected as they approach the nebula but Torres doesn't remember doing it. As they prepare to enter under impulse power there is a power struggle on the bridge with the alien jumping around until Tuvok stuns them all. Torres found something in the shuttle and gets to Janeway in private. It seems there never was an alien ship and Tuvok has been lying. She returns to the bridge and orders them to stop going into the nebula, but Tuvok pulls has phaser and declares she is under the influence of the alien. The crew follow her, but he sets his phaser on kill and they do what he says. He flies them in but Janeway manages to activate the pulse of energy to find the aliens and Tuvok collapses and we see the energy creature leave his body. They realize the possessing alien was actually Chakotay and after reactivating the doctor they revive Chakotay.
Review: One of Trek's more successful mystery episode which manages to avoid the problems many have run into. For some reason most other series either have the villain be someone who is only introduced at the end and we therefore don't care about or they give the whole thing away too early. This is the best of VOY so far and a good Trek episode in any series.
8 out of 10
Sunday, June 19, 2016
VOY: Heroes and Demons
When this episode started with Kim disappearing into the holodeck I was worried this was going to be just another TNG style "Oh noes, the holodecks is broken" episode, but luckily the addition of the doctor made it much more interesting. Also this is a clever way to resolve the kinda silly idea that the doctor desperately needed a name. I suspect when they created the series they brainstormed to come up with a name for him but couldn't find one they liked so they punted and decided to work it out later down the line. I am actually glad they didn't just pick some silly name or have the idea that he needed a name drag on season after season. Also this was a clever way to get the doctor on an away mission without the remote holotransmitter thing they came up with a few seasons down the line. Finally it is kinda terrifying to think the holodeck could just malfunction at any time and turn you into energy like it does with its own phantasms.
We open with Janeway and Torres working to beam a sample of photonic (kinda obnoxious since this clearly just means light energy, but whatever) energy from a protostar into a lab to be used to try and make the ship more efficient or something. At first it seems to not work but they try again and it seems to be fine. However when they try to call Kim for help they discover he is no longer on the ship. It seems his last known location was the holodeck where he went after his shift. A scan of the holodeck reveals that he doesn't seem to be inside, but there is some kind of massive interference going on so they can't be sure. Tuvok and Chakotay go in after him and find he was running a Beowolf novel. They are confronted by Freya and are taken to Hrothgar's hall where they present themselves as kin to Beowolf and convince the king there are there to get revenge upon Grendel for Beowolf's death. However when they encounter Grendel they are turned into energy and disappear from the holodeck.
Since the holodeck is now dangerous to lifeforms the next option is to send the doctor in to investigate. He is a little taken aback but also realizes this is a golden opportunity to try his hand at an away mission. He studies up on Beowolf and Kes convinces him now is the time to take a name. Paris transfers him into the holodeck where he meets Freya and introduces himself as Schweitzer. He isn't exactly welcomed in Hrothgar's hall and has to face Unferth to gain some respect. At first he uses a sword but then realizes he can just make himself non-cohesive and let the weapon pass through him harmlessly. That night Freya gives him a kiss before he faces Grendel. He finds Grendel to be some sort of tentacly energy being that can apparently harm him as he returns to sickbay sans an arm.
Luckily the arm is easily repaired and scans show that the thing he touched was actually some sort of lifeform. They also realize the stuff they are holding in the containment cells is alive too when one of them escapes through the ship and joins some sort of photonic energy matrix thing around the protostar. They also detect three foreign biological energy forms in the matrix and correctly guess they are the missing crew. The doctor offers to return to the holodeck and release the final lifeform to Grendel as a good faith offer. He is confronted by Unferth as soon as he arrives but Freya comes to his aid. She is killed by Unferth though and dies in his arms. He returns to the hall and convinces Hrothgar to give him the containment vessel before summoning Grendel. He releases its kinsman and it disappears and Kim, Tuvok and Chakotay all rematerialize. Afterwards the doctor is too traumatized by Freya's death to keep the name Schweitzer.
Review: This is by far the best episode of this show so far and it makes me glad they decided to make the doctor into ever more of a main character on the show.
7 out of 10
We open with Janeway and Torres working to beam a sample of photonic (kinda obnoxious since this clearly just means light energy, but whatever) energy from a protostar into a lab to be used to try and make the ship more efficient or something. At first it seems to not work but they try again and it seems to be fine. However when they try to call Kim for help they discover he is no longer on the ship. It seems his last known location was the holodeck where he went after his shift. A scan of the holodeck reveals that he doesn't seem to be inside, but there is some kind of massive interference going on so they can't be sure. Tuvok and Chakotay go in after him and find he was running a Beowolf novel. They are confronted by Freya and are taken to Hrothgar's hall where they present themselves as kin to Beowolf and convince the king there are there to get revenge upon Grendel for Beowolf's death. However when they encounter Grendel they are turned into energy and disappear from the holodeck.
Since the holodeck is now dangerous to lifeforms the next option is to send the doctor in to investigate. He is a little taken aback but also realizes this is a golden opportunity to try his hand at an away mission. He studies up on Beowolf and Kes convinces him now is the time to take a name. Paris transfers him into the holodeck where he meets Freya and introduces himself as Schweitzer. He isn't exactly welcomed in Hrothgar's hall and has to face Unferth to gain some respect. At first he uses a sword but then realizes he can just make himself non-cohesive and let the weapon pass through him harmlessly. That night Freya gives him a kiss before he faces Grendel. He finds Grendel to be some sort of tentacly energy being that can apparently harm him as he returns to sickbay sans an arm.
Luckily the arm is easily repaired and scans show that the thing he touched was actually some sort of lifeform. They also realize the stuff they are holding in the containment cells is alive too when one of them escapes through the ship and joins some sort of photonic energy matrix thing around the protostar. They also detect three foreign biological energy forms in the matrix and correctly guess they are the missing crew. The doctor offers to return to the holodeck and release the final lifeform to Grendel as a good faith offer. He is confronted by Unferth as soon as he arrives but Freya comes to his aid. She is killed by Unferth though and dies in his arms. He returns to the hall and convinces Hrothgar to give him the containment vessel before summoning Grendel. He releases its kinsman and it disappears and Kim, Tuvok and Chakotay all rematerialize. Afterwards the doctor is too traumatized by Freya's death to keep the name Schweitzer.
Review: This is by far the best episode of this show so far and it makes me glad they decided to make the doctor into ever more of a main character on the show.
7 out of 10
Saturday, June 18, 2016
VOY: State of Flux
I know they try to excuse Chakotay in the end of this episode, but it seems like he is an extremely poor judge of character and should probably not be first officer, but whatever, he can teach Janeway to spirit quest. Also for once Neelix wasn't the one who set them up in a trap so I guess that is good? Neelix is still my least favorite part of this episode though for not understanding that the crew don't want to eat garbage. The joke that he is a bad chef got old about one episode in and has gotten to the point where it is pretty much the worst part of the show in every episode it is featured. Want to keep moral up? Get rid of the dude who has no useful local tips and makes everyone on the ship sick with his lack of taste.
We open with the crew on a planet to gather horrible tasting roots for Neelix when Kim and then Tuvok discover that there is another ship in orbit. They prepare to beam the crew up but one of them is missing. Chakotay goes after Seska and finds her in a cave along with a bunch of Kazon. She seems to be hiding though so Chakotay trusts she is a victim and helps her escape. That night Seska shows up in Chakotay's quarters with some mushroom soup she made for him. She also tries to seduce him after he gets upset that she stole food (to be fair I think it was a mercy stealing if it was from Neelix). Just then they get a distress call from the Kazon ship they detected earlier and when they arrive they find the crew are all either dead or incapacitated. An away team beams over and finds all but one of them dead, but whats worse is the source of the explosion seems to be a console with Federation parts. In a turbolift Janeway discusses it with Tuvok and Chakotay and they agree the most likely explanation is they have a traitor on board and suspicion immediately falls on Seska.
Torres comes up with a plan to retrieve the console but Seska has a different idea. To keep her from either sabotaging the mission or making it look like she is guilty Chakotay tells Seska to stay on board Voyager. She heads straight to sickbay and learns the surviving Kazon is in bad shape and needs a blood transfusion which is when we learn Seska never gave a blood sample. Instead of staying on board Seska beams over to the Kazon ship but messed up whatever she was trying and ends up in sickbay where they learn she is actually a Cardassian. Two more Kazon ships show up and the captain convinces Janeway to let him beam over to see the injured Kazon but instead of helping he kills the dude with a poisoned ring. Janeway uses her strong language again rather than doing much about it. Torres manages to get the equipment back and discovers it is clearly from Voyager and even which parts where taken. Tuvok sets up a trap to find out if it is actually Seska behind the problem and it is. She does have one more trick though and beams off Voyager onto a Kazon ship.
Review: First of all I am glad to have only had to spend one episode typing Seska which I invariably type as Sisko. This turned out to be a better episode than I thought when it opened and while I am annoyed with Janeway for letting the murderous Kazon go this time it isn't clear what other options she had.
6 out of 10
We open with the crew on a planet to gather horrible tasting roots for Neelix when Kim and then Tuvok discover that there is another ship in orbit. They prepare to beam the crew up but one of them is missing. Chakotay goes after Seska and finds her in a cave along with a bunch of Kazon. She seems to be hiding though so Chakotay trusts she is a victim and helps her escape. That night Seska shows up in Chakotay's quarters with some mushroom soup she made for him. She also tries to seduce him after he gets upset that she stole food (to be fair I think it was a mercy stealing if it was from Neelix). Just then they get a distress call from the Kazon ship they detected earlier and when they arrive they find the crew are all either dead or incapacitated. An away team beams over and finds all but one of them dead, but whats worse is the source of the explosion seems to be a console with Federation parts. In a turbolift Janeway discusses it with Tuvok and Chakotay and they agree the most likely explanation is they have a traitor on board and suspicion immediately falls on Seska.
Torres comes up with a plan to retrieve the console but Seska has a different idea. To keep her from either sabotaging the mission or making it look like she is guilty Chakotay tells Seska to stay on board Voyager. She heads straight to sickbay and learns the surviving Kazon is in bad shape and needs a blood transfusion which is when we learn Seska never gave a blood sample. Instead of staying on board Seska beams over to the Kazon ship but messed up whatever she was trying and ends up in sickbay where they learn she is actually a Cardassian. Two more Kazon ships show up and the captain convinces Janeway to let him beam over to see the injured Kazon but instead of helping he kills the dude with a poisoned ring. Janeway uses her strong language again rather than doing much about it. Torres manages to get the equipment back and discovers it is clearly from Voyager and even which parts where taken. Tuvok sets up a trap to find out if it is actually Seska behind the problem and it is. She does have one more trick though and beams off Voyager onto a Kazon ship.
Review: First of all I am glad to have only had to spend one episode typing Seska which I invariably type as Sisko. This turned out to be a better episode than I thought when it opened and while I am annoyed with Janeway for letting the murderous Kazon go this time it isn't clear what other options she had.
6 out of 10
Friday, June 17, 2016
VOY: Prime Factors
Welcome to the planet of seduction! Or something like that. The leader of the world seems way more interested in sleeping with Janeway than it just about anything other than not helping her. From the the name of the episode I guess the theme is supposed to be how crappy it feels to be not helped by someone else because of something like the prime directive, but that just doesn't work all that well for me. Sure they have the meeting where they discuss it, but so far VOY much like TOS has treated the prime directive as more of a tertiary advisory that an actual rule which makes this episode feel kinda hollow. It kinda reminded me of Omega Glory where Kirk goes off on the other captain for ignoring the prime directive, but it isn't like he has followed it up to that point really at all.
We begin with the ship receiving a distress call, but when they investigate they find a dude who insists it is they who are in distress and insists on bringing over some tasty food. Neelix only appearance in the episode is to first be pissed that someone is interrupting his terrible cooking but when he learns the dude is from Sikaris he is stoked since they are known to be very friendly. And since he has to be totally worthless he never bothers to mention that they are also super protective of their technology. Janeway agrees to visit Sikaris and sends the crew down for shore leave as soon as they arrive. Kim ends up finding a woman reading the weather with a harp and tells her a story which she is super into. She takes him to a transporter that carries them over half the distance back to home just so they can watch a sunrise, but Kim isn't into the sunrise, only the transporter.
Kim interrupts Janeway about to get it on with the leader of the planet with the news about the spatial trajector. They are both told though that the Sikarans won't share any tech that might hurt somebody. They return to the ship and have a meeting where they agree they can't violate the local laws, but maybe they can trade their stories for the tech. Janeway proposes this to the leader but he is really only interested in getting them to stay on his planet. Kim gets an offer though from another person on the planet to make the trade and after discussing it with his friends decides to take it to the captain who forbids it. However Kim and Torres decide to do it anyway. Just as they are about to leave they find themselves locked out of the transporter and are shocked when Tuvok walks it. But he isn't there to stop them, he is there to carry out the plan. He returns with the tech and Torres quickly realizes it will only work while they are near the planet and almost destroys the ship trying to make it work. Janeway is very disappointed in all of them for breaking orders.
Review: I can see where they were going with this and a good part of it does work pretty well, but it just failed to come together as an actually good episode for me. It seems like from what we have seen of Janeway so far she should have been the first to jump at the chance to get them over halfway through their voyage, but I guess it would have made this a short series.
5 out of 10
We begin with the ship receiving a distress call, but when they investigate they find a dude who insists it is they who are in distress and insists on bringing over some tasty food. Neelix only appearance in the episode is to first be pissed that someone is interrupting his terrible cooking but when he learns the dude is from Sikaris he is stoked since they are known to be very friendly. And since he has to be totally worthless he never bothers to mention that they are also super protective of their technology. Janeway agrees to visit Sikaris and sends the crew down for shore leave as soon as they arrive. Kim ends up finding a woman reading the weather with a harp and tells her a story which she is super into. She takes him to a transporter that carries them over half the distance back to home just so they can watch a sunrise, but Kim isn't into the sunrise, only the transporter.
Kim interrupts Janeway about to get it on with the leader of the planet with the news about the spatial trajector. They are both told though that the Sikarans won't share any tech that might hurt somebody. They return to the ship and have a meeting where they agree they can't violate the local laws, but maybe they can trade their stories for the tech. Janeway proposes this to the leader but he is really only interested in getting them to stay on his planet. Kim gets an offer though from another person on the planet to make the trade and after discussing it with his friends decides to take it to the captain who forbids it. However Kim and Torres decide to do it anyway. Just as they are about to leave they find themselves locked out of the transporter and are shocked when Tuvok walks it. But he isn't there to stop them, he is there to carry out the plan. He returns with the tech and Torres quickly realizes it will only work while they are near the planet and almost destroys the ship trying to make it work. Janeway is very disappointed in all of them for breaking orders.
Review: I can see where they were going with this and a good part of it does work pretty well, but it just failed to come together as an actually good episode for me. It seems like from what we have seen of Janeway so far she should have been the first to jump at the chance to get them over halfway through their voyage, but I guess it would have made this a short series.
5 out of 10
Thursday, June 16, 2016
VOY: Emanations
Another decent episode with what felt like a bit of a cop out at the end. This entire episode is about how there is no afterlife and even a culture obsessed with death doesn't really transcend it, instead they just beam their corpses to asteroids in the middle of nowhere and let them rot. Janeway's bit at the end about how maybe they live on as energy seemed like a way to get out of the fact that they were talking not just about how aliens look at death, but how we do as well. It felt especially hollow after Kim's awakening of a man who was preparing himself to be sacrificed to be less of a burden on his family.
We begin with Voyager investigating a super heavy element discovered improbably on asteroids with atmosphere in the ring system of a gas planet. I am going to just let them go on the super massive element discovery, it is obvious the writers don't actually understand physics. Chakotay leads an away team to investigate, but instead of finding mineral deposits they find dead bodies wrapped in what appears to be spider webs. As they debate how to proceed a dimensional rift opens and threatens to drag them in. The transporter chief manages to rescue Chakotay and Torres but Kim gets swapped out for a recently dead body. The body turns out to be capable of being revived and the doctor gets to work. Meanwhile Kim wakes up inside some sort of body transporter on a distant planet. The people there are convinced he has been brought from the afterlife and are hella pissed when he says he came from an asteroid full of dead bodies.
At the same time on Voyager the revived woman wakes up and is similarly upset to not be with her relatives. After having to sedate her once she is awake again and explains her people believe that after death they will wake up in the physical presence of their dead family and friends. She is still quite disturbed this didn't happen. On her planet Kim gets questioned by the death scientists and gets a guy who is preparing to die to question what he is doing. On Voyager they come up with a plan to send the woman back with a transponder to get Kim home but the plan fails and she dies. Kim though convinces the doubter to switch places with him and he goes back through the rift. Just as they prepare to leave Kim's dead body appears on the ship and he is revived by the doctor.
Review: A decent episode which would have benefited from the writers being willing to stick to their guns and let there be no afterlife, but still an interesting episode. The lack of Neelix is also an always welcome bonus.
5 out of 10
We begin with Voyager investigating a super heavy element discovered improbably on asteroids with atmosphere in the ring system of a gas planet. I am going to just let them go on the super massive element discovery, it is obvious the writers don't actually understand physics. Chakotay leads an away team to investigate, but instead of finding mineral deposits they find dead bodies wrapped in what appears to be spider webs. As they debate how to proceed a dimensional rift opens and threatens to drag them in. The transporter chief manages to rescue Chakotay and Torres but Kim gets swapped out for a recently dead body. The body turns out to be capable of being revived and the doctor gets to work. Meanwhile Kim wakes up inside some sort of body transporter on a distant planet. The people there are convinced he has been brought from the afterlife and are hella pissed when he says he came from an asteroid full of dead bodies.
At the same time on Voyager the revived woman wakes up and is similarly upset to not be with her relatives. After having to sedate her once she is awake again and explains her people believe that after death they will wake up in the physical presence of their dead family and friends. She is still quite disturbed this didn't happen. On her planet Kim gets questioned by the death scientists and gets a guy who is preparing to die to question what he is doing. On Voyager they come up with a plan to send the woman back with a transponder to get Kim home but the plan fails and she dies. Kim though convinces the doubter to switch places with him and he goes back through the rift. Just as they prepare to leave Kim's dead body appears on the ship and he is revived by the doctor.
Review: A decent episode which would have benefited from the writers being willing to stick to their guns and let there be no afterlife, but still an interesting episode. The lack of Neelix is also an always welcome bonus.
5 out of 10
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
VOY: Ex Post Facto
At this pace VOY is going to end up with a higher average score than TNG! I suspect that isn't true, but this is the third decent episode in a row. I would even venture to say this is a good episode. It even has a minute or two of Neelix and those are by far the worst parts of the episode. I feel like I may have to start taking a point off of every episode that Neelix is consulted and contributes nothing. Hopefully like Luwaxana he ends up find a place in the show, but I have my doubts at this point. One of my favorite parts of this episode is that even this early in the show it builds on what we already think about Paris, namely that he is a ladies man not afraid to bend the rules. It is also the first episode where Tuvok does anything character wise other than scold Kim over the intercom.
We open with Paris watching himself stab another man in the stomach through the eyes of his victim and learn that he has been convicted of the murder and his sentence is the experience the murder every 14 hours for the rest of his life. Back on the ship Kim has been returned with the news of Paris' conviction. He admits that while he was there working on the science mission Paris and the scientists wife did seem to be involved with each other. The woman ended her marriage and her husband was killed apparently by Paris the following night. Janeway decides it is time to enter the system to investigate despite the population of another planet in the system being at war with the people who convicted Paris. Sure enough they are confronted by the belligerent race, but they promise no aid to the other race and are allowed to pass. Janeway beams down to meet with Paris who denies the charges against him. The memory implant is causing him problems though and he passes out after experiencing the memories. This allows Janeway to get him taken aboard Voyager.
Tuvok begins his investigation by visiting the scene of the crime questioning the only living witness. The widow is pretty dispassionate about the whole thing. While questioning her he gets a message from the ship that Paris is awake again and returns. He questions Paris using a truth scanner and determines that Paris at least truly believes he is innocent. While he is questioning him the ship is rocked by an attack. The belligerents are back and Chakotay has to use an old Maquis trick to defeat them. Tuvok decides the only way to investigate further is to mind meld with Paris as he experiences the murder. It gives him all the answers he needs. He has Janeway contact the court and say that Paris will be coming back via shuttle. As soon as the shuttle launches the belligerent aliens show up and attack but Janeway beams Paris and Kim out safely and tells them there is a bomb on board after they seize the shuttle. On the planet Tuvok explains that first the man who did the murder was much shorter than Paris. Second there are numbers and characters in the memory that are state secrets being leaked to the enemy which is why they attacked immediately. Finally he accuses the doctor who did the implantation and proves he has been with the widow but letting in the family dog which greets him enthusiastically. In the closing Paris tells Tuvok that his help has made the two friends which Tuvok isn't quite sure how to take.
Review: Voyager can keep making episodes like this as long as it wants and I will be ok with it. I am not doing an official point subtraction for Neelix yet, but honestly it would probably be a point higher if her weren't in it.
6 out of 10
We open with Paris watching himself stab another man in the stomach through the eyes of his victim and learn that he has been convicted of the murder and his sentence is the experience the murder every 14 hours for the rest of his life. Back on the ship Kim has been returned with the news of Paris' conviction. He admits that while he was there working on the science mission Paris and the scientists wife did seem to be involved with each other. The woman ended her marriage and her husband was killed apparently by Paris the following night. Janeway decides it is time to enter the system to investigate despite the population of another planet in the system being at war with the people who convicted Paris. Sure enough they are confronted by the belligerent race, but they promise no aid to the other race and are allowed to pass. Janeway beams down to meet with Paris who denies the charges against him. The memory implant is causing him problems though and he passes out after experiencing the memories. This allows Janeway to get him taken aboard Voyager.
Tuvok begins his investigation by visiting the scene of the crime questioning the only living witness. The widow is pretty dispassionate about the whole thing. While questioning her he gets a message from the ship that Paris is awake again and returns. He questions Paris using a truth scanner and determines that Paris at least truly believes he is innocent. While he is questioning him the ship is rocked by an attack. The belligerents are back and Chakotay has to use an old Maquis trick to defeat them. Tuvok decides the only way to investigate further is to mind meld with Paris as he experiences the murder. It gives him all the answers he needs. He has Janeway contact the court and say that Paris will be coming back via shuttle. As soon as the shuttle launches the belligerent aliens show up and attack but Janeway beams Paris and Kim out safely and tells them there is a bomb on board after they seize the shuttle. On the planet Tuvok explains that first the man who did the murder was much shorter than Paris. Second there are numbers and characters in the memory that are state secrets being leaked to the enemy which is why they attacked immediately. Finally he accuses the doctor who did the implantation and proves he has been with the widow but letting in the family dog which greets him enthusiastically. In the closing Paris tells Tuvok that his help has made the two friends which Tuvok isn't quite sure how to take.
Review: Voyager can keep making episodes like this as long as it wants and I will be ok with it. I am not doing an official point subtraction for Neelix yet, but honestly it would probably be a point higher if her weren't in it.
6 out of 10
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
VOY: Eye of the Needle
After finishing this episode I thought to myself that it was actually a slightly above average episode. Certainly the best so far. And then it hit me, Neelix isn't in it at all! Also it is a fairly cool scifi episode which not at all shockingly involves some time travel. I guess since he is security guy, not science guy I should excuse Tuvok for being a bit of an idiot, but when he suggested that the wormhole has a 25% chance of hitting the alpha quadrant it was too much. A wormhole could go literally anywhere in the universe, so the odds might be just a bit worse than that Mr. Vulcan. (DAMN IT, THAT IS A NEELIX LINE)
The episode opens with the discovery of a wormhole, but unfortunately it is only 30 centimeters across. They send a probe in, but it gets stuck. Just as they are giving up hope though the detect that the probe is being scanned from the other side. In sickbay Lt. Jerkface is trying to impress Kes with how awesome he is at working out despite getting hurt all the time doing it. He totally ignores the doctor and offends Kes in the process. In briefing Torres comes up with a plan to use the probe as a relay to send a message to the ship on the other side. She gets to work with Kim and they get it to work. They even manage to send a voice transmission but are kinda bummed out when it turns out they are talking to a Romulan. They come up with a plan to at least send messages home though so that is something. Kes meets with Janeway about the doctor and points out that since he is going to be their only doctor the whole way home he needs to be treated like a member of the crew.
There is another problem as well, it seems the Romulans are probably on a covert mission and are unwilling to believe even that they are in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway eventually convinces the other captain to talk, though he won't give his name. They manage to get visual communications working and convince the Romulan to try and convince his government to send their messages, but for some reason they decide they can't send them through unless they know they will be transmitted which seems silly. Janeway does manage to also find time to meet with the doctor and tells him to think of himself as a member of the crew and agrees to let him be in control of when he is turned on and off. Torres figures out that they can beam using the probe as a relay and Janeway convinces the Romulan to let them try. Tests work and the Romulan captain agrees to beam to their ship as a test, but when he arrives Tuvok drops a bomb, the wormhole goes across space AND time, the Romulan is from 20 years in the past. He does agree to send take their messages though and send them when the time is right, but after he leaves Tuvok does it again pointing out that he died almost ten years before their mission left.
Review: An actual story with people acting in ways that make sense for their characters plus no Neelix and this is a decent episode. Still has a few issues, but a solid:
6 out of 10
The episode opens with the discovery of a wormhole, but unfortunately it is only 30 centimeters across. They send a probe in, but it gets stuck. Just as they are giving up hope though the detect that the probe is being scanned from the other side. In sickbay Lt. Jerkface is trying to impress Kes with how awesome he is at working out despite getting hurt all the time doing it. He totally ignores the doctor and offends Kes in the process. In briefing Torres comes up with a plan to use the probe as a relay to send a message to the ship on the other side. She gets to work with Kim and they get it to work. They even manage to send a voice transmission but are kinda bummed out when it turns out they are talking to a Romulan. They come up with a plan to at least send messages home though so that is something. Kes meets with Janeway about the doctor and points out that since he is going to be their only doctor the whole way home he needs to be treated like a member of the crew.
There is another problem as well, it seems the Romulans are probably on a covert mission and are unwilling to believe even that they are in the Delta Quadrant. Janeway eventually convinces the other captain to talk, though he won't give his name. They manage to get visual communications working and convince the Romulan to try and convince his government to send their messages, but for some reason they decide they can't send them through unless they know they will be transmitted which seems silly. Janeway does manage to also find time to meet with the doctor and tells him to think of himself as a member of the crew and agrees to let him be in control of when he is turned on and off. Torres figures out that they can beam using the probe as a relay and Janeway convinces the Romulan to let them try. Tests work and the Romulan captain agrees to beam to their ship as a test, but when he arrives Tuvok drops a bomb, the wormhole goes across space AND time, the Romulan is from 20 years in the past. He does agree to send take their messages though and send them when the time is right, but after he leaves Tuvok does it again pointing out that he died almost ten years before their mission left.
Review: An actual story with people acting in ways that make sense for their characters plus no Neelix and this is a decent episode. Still has a few issues, but a solid:
6 out of 10
Monday, June 13, 2016
VOY: The Cloud
VOY is finally feeling a little more settled in and seems to be trying to pull a DS9 with this episode. What I mean by that is there are lots of side stories and character bits that are too numerous to even be sorted into the classic A, B and C stories. Also, as much as I may complain about Janeway sometimes she is getting better, and Neelix is getting worse. I get that he wants to cook for them, but having the entire gag be that he is a terrible cook and his food makes people sick kinda ruins the entire concept of him contributing to the ship. Plus having him barge into Janeway's office to yell at her is just straight obnoxious, not even mentioning his appearance on the bridge to "raise moral." More like raze moral.
We open with Janeway walking around the ship making what seems is a mental captains log (even though she asks the computer the delete a sentance, can it read her mind???) talking about how her role as captain is changing now that they are so on their own. In the mess hall she chats with Paris and Kim about how they are doing before going in search of coffee. Sadly all they have is some sludge Neelix made and he yells at her when she considers using her replicator ration on some. (Janeway is harsh in a lot of people, why not Neelix??) Luckily she is called by the bridge which she interprets as being called to the bridge to get away from Neelix. It seems they have located a nebula which may contain the anti-matter they need to get their power reserves back into better shape. They fly right in only to discover an energy barrier which of course Janeway wants to just punch through. As soon as they are inside it closes behind them and blobs of goop start hitting the ship and draining even more energy.
Determined to get out Janeway eventually decides to fire a photon torpedo at the barrier and they escape into open space. Torres gets a sample of the goop and takes it to the EMS who determines that it is organic and therefore actually a giant life form which they have injured. Somewhere in here Neelix gets pissed about going into the nebula and demands to be sent away in his own ship which Janeway denies and Paris breaks into Kim's quarters to drag him to his favorite holodeck cafe/brothel/pool hall. Janeway decides she needs to heal the injured lifeform and takes the ship back in, but it doesn't work and they get attacked again losing a lot more energy. Eventually they manage to fly the ship into the wound and seal it back up. Afterwards Kim convinces Janeway to join them in the cafe and after being propositioned a few times she cleans up at the pool table. I almost forgot that somewhere in here Chakotay introduces Janeway to her spirit animal, in her case a gecko.
Review: Some good and some bad in this episode. I kinda feel like I would like it a whole lot better if Neelix had left and we just had to deal with the crew trying to get home.
5 out of 10
We open with Janeway walking around the ship making what seems is a mental captains log (even though she asks the computer the delete a sentance, can it read her mind???) talking about how her role as captain is changing now that they are so on their own. In the mess hall she chats with Paris and Kim about how they are doing before going in search of coffee. Sadly all they have is some sludge Neelix made and he yells at her when she considers using her replicator ration on some. (Janeway is harsh in a lot of people, why not Neelix??) Luckily she is called by the bridge which she interprets as being called to the bridge to get away from Neelix. It seems they have located a nebula which may contain the anti-matter they need to get their power reserves back into better shape. They fly right in only to discover an energy barrier which of course Janeway wants to just punch through. As soon as they are inside it closes behind them and blobs of goop start hitting the ship and draining even more energy.
Determined to get out Janeway eventually decides to fire a photon torpedo at the barrier and they escape into open space. Torres gets a sample of the goop and takes it to the EMS who determines that it is organic and therefore actually a giant life form which they have injured. Somewhere in here Neelix gets pissed about going into the nebula and demands to be sent away in his own ship which Janeway denies and Paris breaks into Kim's quarters to drag him to his favorite holodeck cafe/brothel/pool hall. Janeway decides she needs to heal the injured lifeform and takes the ship back in, but it doesn't work and they get attacked again losing a lot more energy. Eventually they manage to fly the ship into the wound and seal it back up. Afterwards Kim convinces Janeway to join them in the cafe and after being propositioned a few times she cleans up at the pool table. I almost forgot that somewhere in here Chakotay introduces Janeway to her spirit animal, in her case a gecko.
Review: Some good and some bad in this episode. I kinda feel like I would like it a whole lot better if Neelix had left and we just had to deal with the crew trying to get home.
5 out of 10
Sunday, June 12, 2016
VOY: Phage
Back from Tahoe round one and straight into VOY once again. This episode is interesting in some ways, and kinda awful in others. They do at least find something for Neelix to do on the ship so that is a good thing. We also narrowly miss an opportunity to get rid of him which isn't so good. The scene were Janeway gets super fiery over the phagliens (Vidiians I guess, I like my name better) is well acted, but her threat is clearly entirely empty. If she isn't willing to cut the lungs out of a dude who just stole them from a member of her crew what does the threat of deadly force even mean? Also, if anyone on their ship could have donated a lung to Neelix why did the doctor immediately jump to his holographic lung plan? Has he never heard of organ donation or is it just that he thinks of holographic plans first? Both seem like a serious lapse in his programming.
We open with Neelix telling them about a local planetoid that has dilithium available to mine, but before that Janeway is off to have breakfast. She heads to her private dining room only to find Neelix has taken it over and turned it into a kitchen. Before she can reprimand him too harshly they arrive at the planetoid and she heads to the bridge with Neelix in tow. She sends Chakotay on an away mission to look for dilithium along with Kim and Neelix. Their tricorders show dilithium is there, but they can't find it so they split up and we see that one of the walls of the cave is actually a holographic projection. It seems they have been tricked as no dilithium is actually there. Neelix is startled when a holographic projection turns off in front of him and he sees a shadowy figure who immediately hits him with with some sort of energy weapon and he collapses as Chakotay finds him and beams Neelix directly to sickbay.
The doctor discovers that Neelix's lungs have been removed by the weapon. The doctor rigs up some sort of holographic lungs but they keep Neelix trapped in sickbay unable to move which he finds intolerable. They beam down to investigate the caves further and find an organ storage facility, but Neelix's lungs are gone. Janeway runs into one of the organ stealing Vidiians but he manages to escape before she can capture him. They flee in their ship and hide in an asteroid. But Paris manage to follow them in and after some shenanigans about there being a reflection of the ship they capture the Vidiians. They explain they have a disease that makes them need to steal organs or die and Janeway threatens them, but won't actually take Neelix's lungs out of the dude who now breaths through them. For her leniency the Vidiian points out that any of them could donate a lung to save Neelix and Kes agrees to do it.
Review: Pretty average for Trek over all which from what I have seen of VOY so far isn't bad. The Vidiian existence based on stolen organs is a pretty cool scifi idea and their design is well done. I have to wonder why Neelix thought there would be dilithium on the planetoid in the first place and why he wanted to go down to the help search so badly. Kinda feels like he was setting them up...
5 out of 10
We open with Neelix telling them about a local planetoid that has dilithium available to mine, but before that Janeway is off to have breakfast. She heads to her private dining room only to find Neelix has taken it over and turned it into a kitchen. Before she can reprimand him too harshly they arrive at the planetoid and she heads to the bridge with Neelix in tow. She sends Chakotay on an away mission to look for dilithium along with Kim and Neelix. Their tricorders show dilithium is there, but they can't find it so they split up and we see that one of the walls of the cave is actually a holographic projection. It seems they have been tricked as no dilithium is actually there. Neelix is startled when a holographic projection turns off in front of him and he sees a shadowy figure who immediately hits him with with some sort of energy weapon and he collapses as Chakotay finds him and beams Neelix directly to sickbay.
The doctor discovers that Neelix's lungs have been removed by the weapon. The doctor rigs up some sort of holographic lungs but they keep Neelix trapped in sickbay unable to move which he finds intolerable. They beam down to investigate the caves further and find an organ storage facility, but Neelix's lungs are gone. Janeway runs into one of the organ stealing Vidiians but he manages to escape before she can capture him. They flee in their ship and hide in an asteroid. But Paris manage to follow them in and after some shenanigans about there being a reflection of the ship they capture the Vidiians. They explain they have a disease that makes them need to steal organs or die and Janeway threatens them, but won't actually take Neelix's lungs out of the dude who now breaths through them. For her leniency the Vidiian points out that any of them could donate a lung to save Neelix and Kes agrees to do it.
Review: Pretty average for Trek over all which from what I have seen of VOY so far isn't bad. The Vidiian existence based on stolen organs is a pretty cool scifi idea and their design is well done. I have to wonder why Neelix thought there would be dilithium on the planetoid in the first place and why he wanted to go down to the help search so badly. Kinda feels like he was setting them up...
5 out of 10
Thursday, June 9, 2016
VOY: Time and Again
Finally an episode that I rather enjoyed! Still probably a better start than TNG so I shouldn't be complaining yet. Also this time at least Janeway only violated the prime directive unintentionally so that is certainly an improvement. I mean, sure it initially wiped out literally billions of lives, but they fixed it so whatever. Also, did they decide to throw out the "no time travel until fourth season" rule entirely? Two of the first three episodes have directly involved time travel in some form or another. This time it at least made sense in a clever way instead of just being poorly written.
We begin with Paris trying to talk Kim into joining him on a double date, but Kim has a girl back home and doesn't want any part. But before Paris can get going trying to date both sisters at once the ship is rocked by something. Janeway recognizes the techno-babble as meaning there has been a massive explosion. They find the source of the explosion, an M-Class planet with the remnants of civilization, but no life remaining. Janeway leads an away team to investigate (clearly the rule about captains not going on dangerous away missions has been revoked again, Kirk would be proud). While walking through the rubble Paris suddenly finds himself in an earlier version of the place with bright lights and people everywhere, but then he is back with the away team. Before they can beam out again though Janeway and Paris get pulled into the past. A kid sees them appear, but he serves no point other than yelling about them being demons the rest of the ep so don't expect to hear about him from me again.
They quickly get to the business of fitting in and trade their clothes for something more local, but for some reason keep their combadges in plain sight. Voyager starts investigating and Kes insists on joining the next away party. On the surface she can somehow sense the presence both of the people of the planet but Janeway and Paris as well. In the past Paris somehow figures out how long they have until the explosion using the local unit of time which is hella silly. The explosion will be the next morning. They run into a protest and are arrested when Paris trips a radiation alarm. It seems only people who are with the power industry give off as much radiation as they do but for some reason Paris and Janeway find this very confusing (I know they are supposed to be lying to hide their true identity, but failing to get something basic like this makes it obvious to everyone they are lying).
Realizing they have been infiltrated the rebels (yeah, the cops that captured them are actually rebels I guess) speed up their plan to sabotage a powerplant they consider to be too dangerous. Janeway then realizes that her arrival is what causes the planet to be destroyed. For no good reason the rebels bring her and Paris on their mission to the powerplant and when she tries to sabotage the mission they shoot Paris and rush in. But for some reason Janeway is able to get a gun and follow them inside. She threatens to shoot them but they point out that will kill all of them and possibly be the thing that destroys the planet. But just then Torres starts trying to blast through from the future and Janeway somehow realizes that the cutting through from the future is what dooms the planet so she starts shooting it with her phaser that the rebels brought along for some reason and it works. We are suddenly back in the opening with Paris trying to talk Kim into the date. And Kes comes to the bridge to make sure the planet is ok and it is fine.
Review: A solid TOS style episode that actually worked pretty well. Janeway is being set up as a Kirk figure and that is not as bad as I remembered. Keep it up and maybe I can actually make it through the next seven seasons!
6 out of 10
We begin with Paris trying to talk Kim into joining him on a double date, but Kim has a girl back home and doesn't want any part. But before Paris can get going trying to date both sisters at once the ship is rocked by something. Janeway recognizes the techno-babble as meaning there has been a massive explosion. They find the source of the explosion, an M-Class planet with the remnants of civilization, but no life remaining. Janeway leads an away team to investigate (clearly the rule about captains not going on dangerous away missions has been revoked again, Kirk would be proud). While walking through the rubble Paris suddenly finds himself in an earlier version of the place with bright lights and people everywhere, but then he is back with the away team. Before they can beam out again though Janeway and Paris get pulled into the past. A kid sees them appear, but he serves no point other than yelling about them being demons the rest of the ep so don't expect to hear about him from me again.
They quickly get to the business of fitting in and trade their clothes for something more local, but for some reason keep their combadges in plain sight. Voyager starts investigating and Kes insists on joining the next away party. On the surface she can somehow sense the presence both of the people of the planet but Janeway and Paris as well. In the past Paris somehow figures out how long they have until the explosion using the local unit of time which is hella silly. The explosion will be the next morning. They run into a protest and are arrested when Paris trips a radiation alarm. It seems only people who are with the power industry give off as much radiation as they do but for some reason Paris and Janeway find this very confusing (I know they are supposed to be lying to hide their true identity, but failing to get something basic like this makes it obvious to everyone they are lying).
Realizing they have been infiltrated the rebels (yeah, the cops that captured them are actually rebels I guess) speed up their plan to sabotage a powerplant they consider to be too dangerous. Janeway then realizes that her arrival is what causes the planet to be destroyed. For no good reason the rebels bring her and Paris on their mission to the powerplant and when she tries to sabotage the mission they shoot Paris and rush in. But for some reason Janeway is able to get a gun and follow them inside. She threatens to shoot them but they point out that will kill all of them and possibly be the thing that destroys the planet. But just then Torres starts trying to blast through from the future and Janeway somehow realizes that the cutting through from the future is what dooms the planet so she starts shooting it with her phaser that the rebels brought along for some reason and it works. We are suddenly back in the opening with Paris trying to talk Kim into the date. And Kes comes to the bridge to make sure the planet is ok and it is fine.
Review: A solid TOS style episode that actually worked pretty well. Janeway is being set up as a Kirk figure and that is not as bad as I remembered. Keep it up and maybe I can actually make it through the next seven seasons!
6 out of 10
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
VOY: Parallax
The closer to modern times Star Trek gets the more they try to use actual science words instead of techno-gibberish, and honestly it is driving me nuts. TNG would have just called this a spacial anomaly and I would have been able to put up with that, but making it a straight up singularity with an event horizon makes the gibberish insultingly bad. Also god damn I am already getting sick of Neelix. Kes is so far a lot more tolerable. Her suggestions actually make sense and she has been established as a caring person. Neelix meanwhile is only super self centered and obnoxious at all times. It seemed lazy on the writers part to give Janeway access to all of Torres' records from the academy. I know they say something about having stuff for research into their backgrounds, but that seems like a bit too much. And if they do have it, why did Janeway not know about it when she talked to Torres earlier?
We open with the consequences of Torres breaking the nose of one of her colleagues in engineering. Chakotay takes over from Tuvok and tells Torres he is considering recommending her for chief engineer in a bid to get her under control. Next they are in the briefing when Neelix and Kes barge in and demand to be considered senior officers. Kes has a good idea of turning some cargo bays into hydroponics facilities to save power and Chakotay mentions making Torres chief engineer but they are interrupted but the ship shaking. They rush to the bridge and find that while they were in briefing whoever was in charge flew them straight into a black hole. They try to not call it a black hole but use every other term consistent with that explanation so it is clearly a black hole. There is another ship there and they hail to offer to help but can't understand the reply. Chakotay calls Torres in engineering and she has some dumb plan to make a super tractor beam to drag the other ship out but it fails, destroys their power relays, and pulls them into the even horizon (even though they are clearly already inside since they can see the naked singularity but whatever).
They decide to flee from the situation ("going to get help") but find they are back where they started. They try it again and return back to their original position. Torres comes up with a plan shield their sensors from the distortion (what???) and it works. They realize the ship they are trying to save is them from the past or the future or something (the writers couldn't figure it out I would guess so they just made Janeway criticize anyone who points out how silly it is as "not understanding temporal dynamics). They also somehow figure out that they need to find the original opening and fly out, but they need the best pilot they have! Paris volunteers but Janeway tells him he is needed to pilot Voyager so she goes. This gives her alone time to give Torres a pep talk and the two start getting along. They open the hole in the event horizon (?????????) enough and fly back to the ship. Paris flies them out despite the opening not being big enough by punching or something and Torres gets the chief engineer job.
Review: I don't hold Trek accountable for being scientifically accurate, but this episode hurt more than most. Also the whole conflict over Torres being chief engineer seemed kinda forced. Even if I hadn't seen it before it was obvious main character lady who was central to the last episode was going to get the job, not new to the show and barely seen older engineer guy with a broken nose.
4 out of 10
We open with the consequences of Torres breaking the nose of one of her colleagues in engineering. Chakotay takes over from Tuvok and tells Torres he is considering recommending her for chief engineer in a bid to get her under control. Next they are in the briefing when Neelix and Kes barge in and demand to be considered senior officers. Kes has a good idea of turning some cargo bays into hydroponics facilities to save power and Chakotay mentions making Torres chief engineer but they are interrupted but the ship shaking. They rush to the bridge and find that while they were in briefing whoever was in charge flew them straight into a black hole. They try to not call it a black hole but use every other term consistent with that explanation so it is clearly a black hole. There is another ship there and they hail to offer to help but can't understand the reply. Chakotay calls Torres in engineering and she has some dumb plan to make a super tractor beam to drag the other ship out but it fails, destroys their power relays, and pulls them into the even horizon (even though they are clearly already inside since they can see the naked singularity but whatever).
They decide to flee from the situation ("going to get help") but find they are back where they started. They try it again and return back to their original position. Torres comes up with a plan shield their sensors from the distortion (what???) and it works. They realize the ship they are trying to save is them from the past or the future or something (the writers couldn't figure it out I would guess so they just made Janeway criticize anyone who points out how silly it is as "not understanding temporal dynamics). They also somehow figure out that they need to find the original opening and fly out, but they need the best pilot they have! Paris volunteers but Janeway tells him he is needed to pilot Voyager so she goes. This gives her alone time to give Torres a pep talk and the two start getting along. They open the hole in the event horizon (?????????) enough and fly back to the ship. Paris flies them out despite the opening not being big enough by punching or something and Torres gets the chief engineer job.
Review: I don't hold Trek accountable for being scientifically accurate, but this episode hurt more than most. Also the whole conflict over Torres being chief engineer seemed kinda forced. Even if I hadn't seen it before it was obvious main character lady who was central to the last episode was going to get the job, not new to the show and barely seen older engineer guy with a broken nose.
4 out of 10
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
VOY: Caretaker
I think after all the criticism of DS9 that they just sat around and waited for stuff to come to them they wanted to show from the start that Voyager was different. This felt like an attempt to make a TOS episode but with a new cast of much less competent crew. Harry Kim isn't off to a great start almost getting conned at Quark's and Janeway has already decided it is time to ignore the prime directive. I am sure that will never happen again though. At least the parts at the beginning with the Maquis worked pretty well, felt like something out of DS9 for at least a few minutes.
We begin on the Maquis ship fleeing from the Cardassians into the badlands. At first I saw Tuvok on board and was pretty sure he wasn't Maquis, which is in fact correct. They get away but run into some sort of energy field thing and we cut to a prison in New Zealand. Janeway is there to recruit Tom Paris. It seems Paris was involved with the Maquis and she is hoping he can lead her to the ship we saw in the opening. It has gone missing and her security chief is on board. There is a brief stop at DS9 where we learn from Harry Kim that they are warned about Ferengi at the academy which Quark considers racist (which it is) and tries sell him the junk for that reason. Paris shows up and points out the rocks being offered are worthless and the two make their way onto the ship. They meet the doctor who I am pretty sure never even gets a name so you know his days are numbered. Next Paris and Kim head off to meet the captain and we learn Kim is an even more raw recruit than was apparent.
They get under way and arrive at the badlands but before they get to do anything else they hit the same energy field and are flung 70,000 light years to the other side of the galaxy. The ship is in rough shape and the unnamed chief engineer has been killed, and even worse, the warp core is about to breach. But for some reason the sirens aren't going off all over as Janeway makes her way down to fix it. She tries a risky procedure which manages to save the day. In the holodeck we meet the EMS for the first time, but he doesn't have long to interact as the entire crew are beamed away to a strange platform in space they saw when they arrived. They find themselves in a rural setting that their tricorders easily detect as a holodeck type creation. After messing around with the locals Paris and Kim find that a barn is the center of power but get into a tussle with the locals. Eventually with no real change they are invited into a chamber where they find the Maquis crew and Tuvok on tables being probed with needles. They disappear again and now they are the ones being probed.
They wake up three days later back on the Voyager and Maquis ship only Kim and Torres are missing. Janeway contacts the Maquis captain Chakotay and he agrees to work with her to rescue their missing crew. He beams over with one more Maquis and Tuvok who promptly reveals his true loyalties. But luckily for Chakotay it wasn't a trap so he and Janeway beam down to the holodeck farm along with Paris. They meet an old man who rambles about a debt that can't be repaid. Cut to Torres and Kim in some sort of hospital with strange lesions. Torres fights get guards and gets knocked out by some sort of sedative/stun beam. On the ship they figure out (you can literally see it happening so it shouldn't be rocket science) that the space platform is shooting pulses of energy at the fifth planet so they decide to stop by. They pick up space scavenger Neelix along the way and he agrees to help in exchange for water.
They beam to the planet and encounter hostile near savages who are super impressed with the ability to replicate water. It seems they don't have the crew, but they know that there is another race, the Ocampans, who live underground. But they are weak and only live 9 years so the surface savages aren't really interested. They have an Ocampan woman who they seem willing to trade for water but Neelix freaks out and shoots the water contains and they escape with the woman who is of course Kes. On the planet Torres and Kim decide to work together but before they can really do anything some locals come and help them escape. Kes helps Janeway find holes in the defense grid around her people and with her help they manage to beam down. The locals don't want to offend the Caretaker, but they still totally agree to help.
They also at some point figure out that the Caretaker is both a living entity on the platform and that it is dying. It shuts down its energy transmissions to the planet an starts blasting the energy channels closed. Paris and Neelix manage to catch up with Torres and Kim and help them escape before returning for Janeway and Chakotay who were behind for no apparent reason. Janeway goes back to the platform and talks to the Caretaker who admits he is dying and that his reason for kidnapping Torres and Kim was that he was hoping they would be compatible for reproduction but they weren't He also says he is destroying the platform and their means to getting home so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But apparently it doesn't work because he dies first and the savages from the planet show up with powerful ships and a desire to take over the platform. Chakotay sacrifices his ship to stop the savages and they all agree to stick together on the voyage home. Even Neelix and Kes.
Review: Lots of stuff happened but it didn't really come together all that well. Trying to cram in a scifi story of explorers devastating a planet and feeling guilty ended up feeling kinda silly and rushed which is too bad. Not Encounter at Farpoint level of questionableness, but not a great start.
4 out of 10
We begin on the Maquis ship fleeing from the Cardassians into the badlands. At first I saw Tuvok on board and was pretty sure he wasn't Maquis, which is in fact correct. They get away but run into some sort of energy field thing and we cut to a prison in New Zealand. Janeway is there to recruit Tom Paris. It seems Paris was involved with the Maquis and she is hoping he can lead her to the ship we saw in the opening. It has gone missing and her security chief is on board. There is a brief stop at DS9 where we learn from Harry Kim that they are warned about Ferengi at the academy which Quark considers racist (which it is) and tries sell him the junk for that reason. Paris shows up and points out the rocks being offered are worthless and the two make their way onto the ship. They meet the doctor who I am pretty sure never even gets a name so you know his days are numbered. Next Paris and Kim head off to meet the captain and we learn Kim is an even more raw recruit than was apparent.
They get under way and arrive at the badlands but before they get to do anything else they hit the same energy field and are flung 70,000 light years to the other side of the galaxy. The ship is in rough shape and the unnamed chief engineer has been killed, and even worse, the warp core is about to breach. But for some reason the sirens aren't going off all over as Janeway makes her way down to fix it. She tries a risky procedure which manages to save the day. In the holodeck we meet the EMS for the first time, but he doesn't have long to interact as the entire crew are beamed away to a strange platform in space they saw when they arrived. They find themselves in a rural setting that their tricorders easily detect as a holodeck type creation. After messing around with the locals Paris and Kim find that a barn is the center of power but get into a tussle with the locals. Eventually with no real change they are invited into a chamber where they find the Maquis crew and Tuvok on tables being probed with needles. They disappear again and now they are the ones being probed.
They wake up three days later back on the Voyager and Maquis ship only Kim and Torres are missing. Janeway contacts the Maquis captain Chakotay and he agrees to work with her to rescue their missing crew. He beams over with one more Maquis and Tuvok who promptly reveals his true loyalties. But luckily for Chakotay it wasn't a trap so he and Janeway beam down to the holodeck farm along with Paris. They meet an old man who rambles about a debt that can't be repaid. Cut to Torres and Kim in some sort of hospital with strange lesions. Torres fights get guards and gets knocked out by some sort of sedative/stun beam. On the ship they figure out (you can literally see it happening so it shouldn't be rocket science) that the space platform is shooting pulses of energy at the fifth planet so they decide to stop by. They pick up space scavenger Neelix along the way and he agrees to help in exchange for water.
They beam to the planet and encounter hostile near savages who are super impressed with the ability to replicate water. It seems they don't have the crew, but they know that there is another race, the Ocampans, who live underground. But they are weak and only live 9 years so the surface savages aren't really interested. They have an Ocampan woman who they seem willing to trade for water but Neelix freaks out and shoots the water contains and they escape with the woman who is of course Kes. On the planet Torres and Kim decide to work together but before they can really do anything some locals come and help them escape. Kes helps Janeway find holes in the defense grid around her people and with her help they manage to beam down. The locals don't want to offend the Caretaker, but they still totally agree to help.
They also at some point figure out that the Caretaker is both a living entity on the platform and that it is dying. It shuts down its energy transmissions to the planet an starts blasting the energy channels closed. Paris and Neelix manage to catch up with Torres and Kim and help them escape before returning for Janeway and Chakotay who were behind for no apparent reason. Janeway goes back to the platform and talks to the Caretaker who admits he is dying and that his reason for kidnapping Torres and Kim was that he was hoping they would be compatible for reproduction but they weren't He also says he is destroying the platform and their means to getting home so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But apparently it doesn't work because he dies first and the savages from the planet show up with powerful ships and a desire to take over the platform. Chakotay sacrifices his ship to stop the savages and they all agree to stick together on the voyage home. Even Neelix and Kes.
Review: Lots of stuff happened but it didn't really come together all that well. Trying to cram in a scifi story of explorers devastating a planet and feeling guilty ended up feeling kinda silly and rushed which is too bad. Not Encounter at Farpoint level of questionableness, but not a great start.
4 out of 10
Monday, June 6, 2016
DS9: What You Leave Behind
The final episode of DS9 manages to squeeze a whole lot of story telling into what seemed like only a bit of a long episode despite it being a full double. I don't know if it needed the flashbacks to people throughout the series right at the end, but that is my only serious objection. Oh, that and the conclusion of Sisko's journey of spiritual discovery being that he has to push Dukat off a cliff and then kinda die but I guess not really is a bit weak. I suspect the writers didn't have anything in particular in mind when he was deemed the emissary in the opening episode, but I kinda hoped for a little more than this. Also it isn't clear why getting married made this so much worse, I guess because now he misses Kasidy more?
We begin with Ezri and Julian waking up together on the morning before the great battle and promising each other that they will both survive. Then Miles and Keiko with Miles worrying about having to tell Julian he is leaving DS9 for a position teaching at the academy. Ben says good bye the Kasidy and the crew of the Defiant set off to join the invasion of Cardassia. And speaking of Cardassia things aren't going well there for the Dominion. Word of Damars survival makes its way to the Founder who is pissed. Things get worse when the power goes out due to the now widespread rebellion. When things come back on they realize they still can't contact the fleets to find out how things are going and the Founder orders the genocide of the Cardassian people in retribution for their uprising. Just before the space battle Ben gets another vision from the prophets who tell him his journey's end lies behind him, not in front of him. On Bajor Dukat and Winn make there way into the fire caves, but Dukat is disappointed by the lack of fire. After Winn starts reading the Kosst Amojan things get more to his liking though.
The battle is poorly until the Cardassian ships switch sides upon hearing that one of their cities has been entirely wiped out by the Dominion. Things are still looking rough but they manage to force the Dominion to retreat further so they only hold the space directly around Cardassia. On the planet Garak, Damar and Kira's hiding spot is finally located by the Jem'Hadar who take them prisoner and then get orders to execute them, but that Cardassians with them turn against the Jem'Hadar and then agree to help them storm the capitol building. They get there only to be stopped by a neutronium door that is too tough to blast through. Fortunately some Jem'Hadar drag out several Cardassians and kill them outside allowing the rebels in. They manage to kill and the Jem'Hadar and even Weyoun and capture the founder. She won't talk to them but Odo beams down and links with her curing the disease and convincing her to surrender. She gets the ships to stand down ending the war.
They all return to DS9 to celebrate but there is also a lot of sadness. Worf is offered the position of Federation ambassador to the Klingons and O'Brien finally tells Bashir he is leaving for Earth. Even sadder Odo tells Kira he is leaving to join the great link and he won't be returning. At the victory/going away party Sisko suddenly realizes what he has to do and rushes down to Bajor. As he does so Winn gives Dukat a dose of poison so he can be her sacrafice for the pah-wraiths, but it doesn't work. They possess him and bring him back to life just as Sisko shows up. Dukat has telekinetic powers now and makes Sisko bow before him. Winn isn't having it though and tries to take the book, but is burned alive for her efforts. Dukat is distracted though and Sisko throws himself and Dukat into the abyss of the fire caves destroying the Kosst Amojan. He wakes up with the prophets and knows he is there to stay. He does get to say good bye to Kasidy, but now it seems he will return some day. The rest of the episode is all good byes and such so this is pretty much the end.
Review: Not as strong as All Good Things but a very DS9 ending with all the characters getting their due. I am going to average all the series scores after I am done, but I am sure DS9 is going to be the high water mark for me.
8 out of 10
We begin with Ezri and Julian waking up together on the morning before the great battle and promising each other that they will both survive. Then Miles and Keiko with Miles worrying about having to tell Julian he is leaving DS9 for a position teaching at the academy. Ben says good bye the Kasidy and the crew of the Defiant set off to join the invasion of Cardassia. And speaking of Cardassia things aren't going well there for the Dominion. Word of Damars survival makes its way to the Founder who is pissed. Things get worse when the power goes out due to the now widespread rebellion. When things come back on they realize they still can't contact the fleets to find out how things are going and the Founder orders the genocide of the Cardassian people in retribution for their uprising. Just before the space battle Ben gets another vision from the prophets who tell him his journey's end lies behind him, not in front of him. On Bajor Dukat and Winn make there way into the fire caves, but Dukat is disappointed by the lack of fire. After Winn starts reading the Kosst Amojan things get more to his liking though.
The battle is poorly until the Cardassian ships switch sides upon hearing that one of their cities has been entirely wiped out by the Dominion. Things are still looking rough but they manage to force the Dominion to retreat further so they only hold the space directly around Cardassia. On the planet Garak, Damar and Kira's hiding spot is finally located by the Jem'Hadar who take them prisoner and then get orders to execute them, but that Cardassians with them turn against the Jem'Hadar and then agree to help them storm the capitol building. They get there only to be stopped by a neutronium door that is too tough to blast through. Fortunately some Jem'Hadar drag out several Cardassians and kill them outside allowing the rebels in. They manage to kill and the Jem'Hadar and even Weyoun and capture the founder. She won't talk to them but Odo beams down and links with her curing the disease and convincing her to surrender. She gets the ships to stand down ending the war.
They all return to DS9 to celebrate but there is also a lot of sadness. Worf is offered the position of Federation ambassador to the Klingons and O'Brien finally tells Bashir he is leaving for Earth. Even sadder Odo tells Kira he is leaving to join the great link and he won't be returning. At the victory/going away party Sisko suddenly realizes what he has to do and rushes down to Bajor. As he does so Winn gives Dukat a dose of poison so he can be her sacrafice for the pah-wraiths, but it doesn't work. They possess him and bring him back to life just as Sisko shows up. Dukat has telekinetic powers now and makes Sisko bow before him. Winn isn't having it though and tries to take the book, but is burned alive for her efforts. Dukat is distracted though and Sisko throws himself and Dukat into the abyss of the fire caves destroying the Kosst Amojan. He wakes up with the prophets and knows he is there to stay. He does get to say good bye to Kasidy, but now it seems he will return some day. The rest of the episode is all good byes and such so this is pretty much the end.
Review: Not as strong as All Good Things but a very DS9 ending with all the characters getting their due. I am going to average all the series scores after I am done, but I am sure DS9 is going to be the high water mark for me.
8 out of 10
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