When I saw that there was one more Q episode left in VOY I wasn't exactly excited. But it does do a pretty good job of wrapping up the crisis in the continuum plot from several seasons earlier and introduces us to the son of Q. Of course they are always just called Q so I will steal from the episode title and refer to the boy as Q2. Q has always been obsessed with humanity so it is hardly surprising that when he has problems with his family he turns to he current Trek captain to solve them. And honestly this give Janeway an opportunity to show her leadership skills in a way she hasn't had much of a chance to the last few seasons. I admit it, I loved when Neelix lost his speech. Sure, he isn't as bad as the first few seasons, but it is nice to see them acknowledge that maybe they haven't done the best job of not making him super annoying.
We open with Icheb giving Janeway a presentation of Kirk and the early Federation for his on board academy training. When he leaves Janeway is surprised to see an annoying young man in her ready room making fun of what he just watched. It is Q2 and before long Q shows up. It seems Q2 has been brought to learn about humanity and before long Q disappears leaving them to deal with him. So Q2 starts rampaging around the ship causing problems every where until finally he gets them attacked by the Borg getting Q to step in. Janeway gives him some parenting tips, but Q isn't able to make it work so they agree to some consequences. Q2 is to be left on Voyager for a week as a human and if he can't prove his value he will be turned in an amoeba for the rest of eternity. At first he is still up to his old tricks, but Janeway calls him on it and he straightens up and even befriends Icheb. After five days Q shows up again to tell him he has failed so Q2 steals the Flyer with an unwilling Icheb but they encounter hostile aliens and Icheb is mortally wounded. Q2 returns to Voyager and demands that Q fix Icheb but instead he is sent along with Janeway to apologize to the hostile aliens. He give a heart felt applogy and we learn the alien was actually Q. This is enough for Q, but not for the continuum so we have a fake out where Q2 thinks he will have to stay a human the rest of his life. But Q returns with the good news that Q2 has been accepted back into the continuum. Q thanks Janeway and we actually deal with why Q doesn't just send them home, kinda.
Review: I skipped over a lot of the Q2 antics because they weren't all that central to the plot, but overall this manages to balance itself pretty well into a good Q episode. Not nearly as goofy as they sometimes get and some actual lessons seem to have been learned.
6 out of 10
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
VOY: Human Error
I know from what I have read about the episode that this was supposed to have been about post traumatic stress, but I didn't see that at all while watching. I do get that Seven was experimenting with giving up her cold, Borg demeanor and wanted to see how people would react, but also it had a heavy fantasy element to it. Presumably since it isn't considered unethical people in Trek have fake affairs with their coworkers on the holodeck all the time, but in this case it has a double level of concealment since Seven doesn't want people to know she is opening up her emotional side. Honestly all I saw while watching this episode was that it was a set up for Chakotay and Seven to end up together by the end of the series. I will also admit I didn't really get why Chakotay and the captain weren't closer the first time through, but this time I totally get it. Janeway has cut herself off from the thought of relations with a member of her crew and also been quite a jerk to Chakotay over the years so I understand, I just don't see why he and Seven are getting together.
We open with Seven playing piano, but when we see her face her implants are missing. Cut to the mess hall where they are holding a baby shower for B'Elanna and Seven seems to be fitting in really well. She even gives a toast in the babies honor. Janeway discusses Seven becoming more human and offers her quarters and Seven even asks for a uniform. But this is interrupted when she is called to astrometrics by Janeway since she was just talking to Janeway. We quickly learn this has all been on the holodeck and things haven't really changed for her after all. In astrometrics Seven reports to the captain that she has been unable to figure out what is going on with some debris ahead but they all agree it isn't a problem. As she leaves Janeway tells Seven and Tuvok that she expects them at the surprise baby shower for B'Elanna but Seven tries to talk her way out of it. After telling Janeway she would go Seven instead heads back to the holodeck and ends up asking Chakotay on a date.
Seven starts having some problems with her implants and complains to the Doctor at her physical but he is more worried that she hasn't been regenerating. On the bridge things start going bad quickly as the ship is rocked by a series of shock waves. Janeway and Tuvok head to astrometrics as Seven has discovered the explosions were caused by warheads, but not ones aimed at Voyager. Seven gets assigned the job of figuring out where they are coming from, but instead of working she heads to the holodeck to go on her date with holo-Chakotay. Things keep getting worse for her as she fails to be at her station the next time things go bad because she slept with holo-Chakotay and then spent the night in her holo-quarters instead of being at her station. She gets chewed out by Janeway and decides to break things off with her holo-boyfriend but collapses and summons the Doctor who sees what is going on. She tells him that she feels empty after losing Unimatrix Zero and has been experimenting with her humanity. He tells her that her implants won't let her feel strong emotions and she says she wants to keep them. She gets called back to astrometrics though as there are more warheads on the way. She gives the wrong information but then asks for transporter control to beam out the detonators. Janeway is dubious because of how she has been having problems but she saves the day. After she runs into Chakotay and clearly feels awkward, but he seems a little interested in her as we go to credits.
Review: I don't hate the idea of Seven experimenting with romance, but the way she does it on the holodeck with simulations of real people came across as a bit creepy. The threat to Voyager B plot was ok, but not amazing either.
4 out of 10
Monday, November 28, 2016
VOY: Workforce, Part II
This episode manages to be an interesting look into who people are after they lose their memories and if they would want to go back to their old lives if they can. I was kinda disappointed they didn't make this episode more about Tuvok. It seems like the problems of a Vulcan unable to restrain his emotions are more interesting than all the internal politics of the work planet, but I guess they went that way instead. I don't hate the investigation that Seven conducted, but it seemed like almost an after thought compared to how much time we spend with Janeway. The issues with Harry and the Doctor don't really get resolved. Sure, they work together, but in the end they are right where they started with the Doctor thinking Harry is terrible in command and Harry thinking the Doctor is a bit of a pompous ass. I guess the problem is they are both right.
We open with Chakotay escaping his pursuers but getting injured in the process. Voyager too is damaged and can't return for him so he flees to Tom's bar where he runs into Janeway. He is forced to disappear again when investigators show up but he learned Janeway is moving in with Jaffen so he heads to her old quarters. She finds him there with a gun but agrees to help him with his injuries after he explains what happened. Seven meanwhile has started her own investigation into what happened with Tuvok as she has regained at least some of her memories. On Voyager B'Elanna's recovery is going slowing but she has accepted that she lost her memories which is making things easier on her. Jaffen learns about Chakotay from Janeway and sends guards to arrest him. But the investigator in that case is shocked when Chakotay is taken from him to be treated in a medical facility. That guy starts working with Seven. In the hospital they find the communicator implant and signal Voyager to meet who they think will be Chakotay. I admit all the aliens with bland brown uniforms got a little confusing for me, but eventually Janeway convinces Jaffen to help her lower the shields on the facility and the crew are beamed out. Her memory restored Janeway has a touching good bye with Jaffen.
Review: Other than getting a little confused about who was who on the alien planet this was a fun episode. It is almost like having character where uniforms of colors that tell you their job makes it easier for the audience.
6 out of 10
We open with Chakotay escaping his pursuers but getting injured in the process. Voyager too is damaged and can't return for him so he flees to Tom's bar where he runs into Janeway. He is forced to disappear again when investigators show up but he learned Janeway is moving in with Jaffen so he heads to her old quarters. She finds him there with a gun but agrees to help him with his injuries after he explains what happened. Seven meanwhile has started her own investigation into what happened with Tuvok as she has regained at least some of her memories. On Voyager B'Elanna's recovery is going slowing but she has accepted that she lost her memories which is making things easier on her. Jaffen learns about Chakotay from Janeway and sends guards to arrest him. But the investigator in that case is shocked when Chakotay is taken from him to be treated in a medical facility. That guy starts working with Seven. In the hospital they find the communicator implant and signal Voyager to meet who they think will be Chakotay. I admit all the aliens with bland brown uniforms got a little confusing for me, but eventually Janeway convinces Jaffen to help her lower the shields on the facility and the crew are beamed out. Her memory restored Janeway has a touching good bye with Jaffen.
Review: Other than getting a little confused about who was who on the alien planet this was a fun episode. It is almost like having character where uniforms of colors that tell you their job makes it easier for the audience.
6 out of 10
Sunday, November 27, 2016
VOY: Workforce
I have no idea how Netflix decides which two part episodes to leave divided and which to combine. Previously I thought that if it was a season ending cliffhanger they would leave it divided, but this mid season divided two parter proves that guess wrong. This one is going to be particularly hard to judge since I have never seen part 2, but the first half managed to be interesting enough to keep me going. I have to say I totally get Harry's objections to being put under the command of a hologram, but then again his last command didn't exactly work out all that well. I guess technically Chakotay told him and the Doctor to "work it out" but I think we all know what that means. Also, always fun to get to see a less emotionally under control Tuvok. I suspect the aliens had no idea what they were getting into when they brainwashed a Vulcan.
We open with Janeway reporting for work on a large industrial world. She goes by her name but doesn't seem to recall anything about being a captain. She gets to work on some sort of fusion machine thing but makes a mistake which sounds an alarm. She is rescued by a man named Jaffen but the two are soon scolded by Seven who is the new plant efficiency supervisor. Tom manages to talk his way into a bar job while Janeway and Tuvok are taken in for inoculations. Janeway accepts them but Tuvok has to be restrained. Meanwhile on the Flyer Kim is sick because Neelix talked him into drinking some foul meat juice drink while Chakotay looks for Voyager. On Voyager the Doctor is alone attempting to keep the ship running all by himself and seems to have changed into a red uniform. He gets an intruder alert signal but is relieved to find that it is Chakotay and Harry. The Flyer was gone when Voyager was stricken so the Doctor tells Chakotay the whole story. They were hit by a mine and then flooded with radiation. Janeway and the crew abandoned ship on escape pods after activating the Emergency Command Hologram protocols. They start repairs and also working to find the missing crew.
Back on the planet Tuvok is having flashbacks of his old life and tries to talk to Janeway about it but she has no memory of it and rebuffs him. Janeway and Jaffen start dating as Tom starts to hit on B'Elanna every chance he can get, even though she doesn't seem interested. Back on the ship they have tracked their crew down but when they contact the planetary officials they are told that their crew all now happily have new jobs, oh, and no, you can't talk to them and we have a planetary forcefield so fuck off. Chakotay gets disguised as an alien and along with Neelix they get jobs on the planet after flying down in Neelix's shuttle. Harry and the Doctor are left to bicker of who is in charge. Tuvok meanwhile manages to mindmeld with Seven before being dragged off by security. Chakotay and Neelix quickly learn the crew don't remember them and come up with a plan to "rescue" Torres. She, not remembering them, screams when Neelix grabs her and beams out but they can't get Chakotay since Voyager is now under attack.
Review: A tense cliffhanger but they have laid the seeds of their eventual escape I suspect with the mindmeld. I kinda skipped over the Janeway romance stuff, but she agrees to marry Jaffen, I guess only being a captain is keeping her from falling head over heals for some dude.
6 out of 10
We open with Janeway reporting for work on a large industrial world. She goes by her name but doesn't seem to recall anything about being a captain. She gets to work on some sort of fusion machine thing but makes a mistake which sounds an alarm. She is rescued by a man named Jaffen but the two are soon scolded by Seven who is the new plant efficiency supervisor. Tom manages to talk his way into a bar job while Janeway and Tuvok are taken in for inoculations. Janeway accepts them but Tuvok has to be restrained. Meanwhile on the Flyer Kim is sick because Neelix talked him into drinking some foul meat juice drink while Chakotay looks for Voyager. On Voyager the Doctor is alone attempting to keep the ship running all by himself and seems to have changed into a red uniform. He gets an intruder alert signal but is relieved to find that it is Chakotay and Harry. The Flyer was gone when Voyager was stricken so the Doctor tells Chakotay the whole story. They were hit by a mine and then flooded with radiation. Janeway and the crew abandoned ship on escape pods after activating the Emergency Command Hologram protocols. They start repairs and also working to find the missing crew.
Back on the planet Tuvok is having flashbacks of his old life and tries to talk to Janeway about it but she has no memory of it and rebuffs him. Janeway and Jaffen start dating as Tom starts to hit on B'Elanna every chance he can get, even though she doesn't seem interested. Back on the ship they have tracked their crew down but when they contact the planetary officials they are told that their crew all now happily have new jobs, oh, and no, you can't talk to them and we have a planetary forcefield so fuck off. Chakotay gets disguised as an alien and along with Neelix they get jobs on the planet after flying down in Neelix's shuttle. Harry and the Doctor are left to bicker of who is in charge. Tuvok meanwhile manages to mindmeld with Seven before being dragged off by security. Chakotay and Neelix quickly learn the crew don't remember them and come up with a plan to "rescue" Torres. She, not remembering them, screams when Neelix grabs her and beams out but they can't get Chakotay since Voyager is now under attack.
Review: A tense cliffhanger but they have laid the seeds of their eventual escape I suspect with the mindmeld. I kinda skipped over the Janeway romance stuff, but she agrees to marry Jaffen, I guess only being a captain is keeping her from falling head over heals for some dude.
6 out of 10
Saturday, November 26, 2016
VOY: The Void
This is allegedly an episode about forming a new mini-Federation inside a giant space trap in order to escape with some friendly ships. We have reached the point in the show where every episode or two Chakotay and Tuvok show up in the ready room to tell the captain just how bad they think her latest idea is. And yes, everything works out this time for Voyager, but that is because they wrote it that way. Janeway won't let any one into her alliance that steals from others, fine, but she spies on her enemies, sabotages their engines risks the lives of her crew which hardly seems very starfleet. Well, the risking lives part maybe, but not the rest.
We open with Seven serving a meal she cooked to the crew who are loving the break from Neelix's food, but they are interrupted by the ship shaking. Voyager is sucked into some sort of void in space and immediately attacked. A bunch of their supplies are stolen, but afterwards they are contacted by some dude who I guess offers to help her steal stuff? But she says no, they are going to try and escape instead. They track the ship that robbed them down, but it has already been stripped by the dude she talked to at the beginning. She tracks him down and takes back there stuff but refuses to take anything extra. B'Elanna manages to salvage some parts and is surprised to find a wounded alien on board. While Janeway builds her mini-Federation the Doctor works with the stowaway and teaches him to talk using a pad. More of his people join them as the alliance builds. Janeway kicks out one ship for stealing stuff but is very down with the crew of a survey ship who devise a way to spy on any ship in the void. They eventually technobabble an escape plan but are attacked at the last minute. Somehow they beam the void aliens into the other ships (with shields up on both sides, so yeah, not sure how that worked). The aliens disable the hostile ships and Voyager escapes along with several other ships.
Review: This episode was way too preachy for my taste. Also it seems like taking stuff from people who are trying to kill you isn't an awful thing to do morally, but I guess I am no Janeway.
5 out of 10
We open with Seven serving a meal she cooked to the crew who are loving the break from Neelix's food, but they are interrupted by the ship shaking. Voyager is sucked into some sort of void in space and immediately attacked. A bunch of their supplies are stolen, but afterwards they are contacted by some dude who I guess offers to help her steal stuff? But she says no, they are going to try and escape instead. They track the ship that robbed them down, but it has already been stripped by the dude she talked to at the beginning. She tracks him down and takes back there stuff but refuses to take anything extra. B'Elanna manages to salvage some parts and is surprised to find a wounded alien on board. While Janeway builds her mini-Federation the Doctor works with the stowaway and teaches him to talk using a pad. More of his people join them as the alliance builds. Janeway kicks out one ship for stealing stuff but is very down with the crew of a survey ship who devise a way to spy on any ship in the void. They eventually technobabble an escape plan but are attacked at the last minute. Somehow they beam the void aliens into the other ships (with shields up on both sides, so yeah, not sure how that worked). The aliens disable the hostile ships and Voyager escapes along with several other ships.
Review: This episode was way too preachy for my taste. Also it seems like taking stuff from people who are trying to kill you isn't an awful thing to do morally, but I guess I am no Janeway.
5 out of 10
Friday, November 25, 2016
VOY: Prophecy
When I saw there was ANOTHER B'Elanna Klingon episode I was pretty pissed off. But this one turns out to not be about her deciding of she does or does not want to be Klingon. In fact that seems to have almost completely gone away as a thing she is worried about. Probably my favorite part is how the episode walks the line between saying the prophecy is true and that it is total crap. By the end it is literally true that B'Elanna's child was the one who saved them, but whether she will go on to save the Klingon Empire isn't a question that has been resolved.
We open with Voyager being attacked by a cloaked ship, but they technobabble their way to victory and are surprised that it is a Klingon ship attacking. After a sound thrashing they respond to hails and seem to not be aware that the Klingons and Federation aren't at war anymore. The captain though agrees to beam over and discuss things and is surprised to learn they have a Klingon on board. He meets Torres and immediately asks if she is pregnant and if she got pregnant in a holy month. She says yes to both and suddenly the captain is ready to go again and says they will stop attacking. Janeway is a little surprised, but sends him back to his ship which suddenly starts to explode. They beam the Klingons to safety as their warp core breaches. When she talk to the captain about it he admits he did it on purpose. It seems they are particularly religious Klingons who followed a prophecy to the Delta Quadrant four generations earlier and he seems sure B'Elanna's child is the one.
The other Klingons aren't so sure though, but they start to settle in. To make room the crew double up which of course means Tuvok and Neelix end up together. B'Elanna gets convinced to help talk the other Klingons into believing her child is the one but in the course of one of her stories Tom gets challenged to a duel to the death. Janeway and the Klingon captain talk things down to a dull bat'leth battle but the Klingon collapses part way through. It seems they all have some deadly virus, which, by the way B'Elanna and her child now have too. Realizing the messed up big time destroying their ship the Klingons decide to seize Voyager. They start by taking a transporter room and start beaming the crew to a planet they were scouting as possible home for the Klingons. They also beam to the bridge but Janeway out phasers them. In the end they dump the Klingons on the planetm, but not before Torres' child saves them all by providing the cure to the disease that has plagued them for generations.
Review: A solid episode with some enjoyable twists near the end. I skipped over Neelix destroying Tuvok's quarters by having rough sex with a Klingon in them, but that isn't really the best subplot.
6 out of 10
We open with Voyager being attacked by a cloaked ship, but they technobabble their way to victory and are surprised that it is a Klingon ship attacking. After a sound thrashing they respond to hails and seem to not be aware that the Klingons and Federation aren't at war anymore. The captain though agrees to beam over and discuss things and is surprised to learn they have a Klingon on board. He meets Torres and immediately asks if she is pregnant and if she got pregnant in a holy month. She says yes to both and suddenly the captain is ready to go again and says they will stop attacking. Janeway is a little surprised, but sends him back to his ship which suddenly starts to explode. They beam the Klingons to safety as their warp core breaches. When she talk to the captain about it he admits he did it on purpose. It seems they are particularly religious Klingons who followed a prophecy to the Delta Quadrant four generations earlier and he seems sure B'Elanna's child is the one.
The other Klingons aren't so sure though, but they start to settle in. To make room the crew double up which of course means Tuvok and Neelix end up together. B'Elanna gets convinced to help talk the other Klingons into believing her child is the one but in the course of one of her stories Tom gets challenged to a duel to the death. Janeway and the Klingon captain talk things down to a dull bat'leth battle but the Klingon collapses part way through. It seems they all have some deadly virus, which, by the way B'Elanna and her child now have too. Realizing the messed up big time destroying their ship the Klingons decide to seize Voyager. They start by taking a transporter room and start beaming the crew to a planet they were scouting as possible home for the Klingons. They also beam to the bridge but Janeway out phasers them. In the end they dump the Klingons on the planetm, but not before Torres' child saves them all by providing the cure to the disease that has plagued them for generations.
Review: A solid episode with some enjoyable twists near the end. I skipped over Neelix destroying Tuvok's quarters by having rough sex with a Klingon in them, but that isn't really the best subplot.
6 out of 10
Thursday, November 24, 2016
VOY: Repentance
I have to say this is one of the more realistic episodes of VOY in terms of things turning out not the way the characters want all the time. In this case we have some prisoners, but really only two have any character we are shown. All are condemned to die and one of them is clearly dangerous while another seems like a friendly victim of circumstances. Now having Seven's nano-probes suddenly make a man capable of feeling guilt accidentally is a stretch, but if that is the worst we have to deal with I am ok with it. In the end it turns on the one they are all afraid of has just had a mental disorder while the friendly guy turns out to be a dangerous sociopath. I realize this is Trek's attempt to deal with the death penalty and that part in particular didn't seem as well handled as the rest of the episode.
We open with Voyager rescuing the occupants of a badly damaged ship. Most are sent to the cargo bay but two go to sickbay. Tuvok shows up in the cargo bay as the guards are horrified to realize they are now disarmed and on their own with the prisoners, but with security there everybody is cool. In sickbay though Iko, one of the prisoners, has taken Seven hostage with a knife. She easily knocks him away and he futilely takes the Doctor hostage. Janeway has a special prison section built for them and guard duty is shared between the local guards and Voyager security personnel. The warden, Yediq, isn't too pumped to give up control, but sees he has little choice. Neelix starts bringing the prisoners meals over the objections of Yediq and befriends one of the men named Joleg. The two start playing board games together and Neelix starts looking into the local law and finds it badly discriminates against Joleg's species.
Things take a turn for the worse when Yediq has the guards beat Iko up when Iko threatens his children. Janeway removes the local guards and Iko is taken to surgery. Nano-probes from Seven are used to heal him which work but also do something to his brain that suddenly makes him capable of feeling guilt. He and Seven make a connection but because of how guilty he feels he now believes strongly that he deserves execution. With Neelix's research on local legal practice Janeway gets an appeal going for Iko and meanwhile Joleg talks Neelix into sending a message to his brother. Joleg's brother shows up and attacks Voyager knocking out the shields in the jail allowing the prisoners to escape. Joleg is suddenly super violent and takes several captives with Iko's help. But Iko realizes it is wrong and turns his weapon over to Yediq ending the uprising. Yediq sponsors his appeal but it is still turned down.
Review: A few problems, but overall a very good episode. I was worried it would just turn out that all the prisoners were totally innocent and it would be hella ham-handed about preaching the evils of the death penalty, but it manages to be much more nuanced and interesting.
7 out of 10
We open with Voyager rescuing the occupants of a badly damaged ship. Most are sent to the cargo bay but two go to sickbay. Tuvok shows up in the cargo bay as the guards are horrified to realize they are now disarmed and on their own with the prisoners, but with security there everybody is cool. In sickbay though Iko, one of the prisoners, has taken Seven hostage with a knife. She easily knocks him away and he futilely takes the Doctor hostage. Janeway has a special prison section built for them and guard duty is shared between the local guards and Voyager security personnel. The warden, Yediq, isn't too pumped to give up control, but sees he has little choice. Neelix starts bringing the prisoners meals over the objections of Yediq and befriends one of the men named Joleg. The two start playing board games together and Neelix starts looking into the local law and finds it badly discriminates against Joleg's species.
Things take a turn for the worse when Yediq has the guards beat Iko up when Iko threatens his children. Janeway removes the local guards and Iko is taken to surgery. Nano-probes from Seven are used to heal him which work but also do something to his brain that suddenly makes him capable of feeling guilt. He and Seven make a connection but because of how guilty he feels he now believes strongly that he deserves execution. With Neelix's research on local legal practice Janeway gets an appeal going for Iko and meanwhile Joleg talks Neelix into sending a message to his brother. Joleg's brother shows up and attacks Voyager knocking out the shields in the jail allowing the prisoners to escape. Joleg is suddenly super violent and takes several captives with Iko's help. But Iko realizes it is wrong and turns his weapon over to Yediq ending the uprising. Yediq sponsors his appeal but it is still turned down.
Review: A few problems, but overall a very good episode. I was worried it would just turn out that all the prisoners were totally innocent and it would be hella ham-handed about preaching the evils of the death penalty, but it manages to be much more nuanced and interesting.
7 out of 10
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
VOY: Lineage
They say that if you want to see how well media gets anything look at something they cover that you understand well and you will see that they understand almost nothing particularly well. And I am not saying I am an expert in pregnancy, but I am starting to learn enough for this episode to seem a bit silly. I guess it does make sense that B'Elanna's self loathing would come up again when she got pregnant, but they have done at least two episodes specifically about her getting over her self hatred already, do we really need another one? Also, I am not sure why Tom and B'Elanna thought their baby would stay secret, Icheb and Seven aren't exactly known for their tact or understanding of human cultural traditions.
We open with a shockingly friendly B'Elanna getting about her day until she collapses in engineering. Icheb scans her and finds a possibly hostile life form inside, her, Seven looks at the tricorder and tells the Doctor Torres is pregnant. Both she and Tom are surprised since it is allegedly hard for humans and Klingons to have kids despite all the evidence to the contrary in the various series. Tom starts stressing out and goes to Tuvok for guidance, Torres starts having flashbacks to childhood and really freaking out. Things get worse when the Doctor generates a hologram of the baby and B'Elanna sees that she has ridges on her forehead. Torres comes up with a plan to alter the babies DNA so she won't look Klingon but sells it to everybody as trying to deal with health issues. They all say no so she reprograms the Doctor and seals herself in sickbay until Tuvok forces to door open. In the end they decide it was all just pregnancy hormones and she and Tom work out their differences and she is allegedly ok with being Klingon again.
Review: In case it wasn't obvious from my super brief summary I thought this episode had some serious issues. Not much happens, which I would excuse if it also had good character development, but none of it really worked well for me.
3 out of 10
We open with a shockingly friendly B'Elanna getting about her day until she collapses in engineering. Icheb scans her and finds a possibly hostile life form inside, her, Seven looks at the tricorder and tells the Doctor Torres is pregnant. Both she and Tom are surprised since it is allegedly hard for humans and Klingons to have kids despite all the evidence to the contrary in the various series. Tom starts stressing out and goes to Tuvok for guidance, Torres starts having flashbacks to childhood and really freaking out. Things get worse when the Doctor generates a hologram of the baby and B'Elanna sees that she has ridges on her forehead. Torres comes up with a plan to alter the babies DNA so she won't look Klingon but sells it to everybody as trying to deal with health issues. They all say no so she reprograms the Doctor and seals herself in sickbay until Tuvok forces to door open. In the end they decide it was all just pregnancy hormones and she and Tom work out their differences and she is allegedly ok with being Klingon again.
Review: In case it wasn't obvious from my super brief summary I thought this episode had some serious issues. Not much happens, which I would excuse if it also had good character development, but none of it really worked well for me.
3 out of 10
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
VOY: Shattered
This episode really felt like a look back at the journey Voyager has been down which makes me think the writers knew they were coming to the end. In theory this episode is about Chakotay, but it isn't. Really the person it is about is the Janeway from the pilot seeing all the changes that have happened and how much of an impact it has had on all their lives. For quite a while she is, justifiably, thinking that she should change what she did and not trap her ship in the Delta Quadrant, and for all the dead crew I can see why, but she has clearly had a positive impact on at least some of their lives. I don't really think it is reasonable for Chakotay to be able to just walk through the timelines since the ship was at radically different locations during the different timelines, but that is a complaint about essentially all time travel in fiction so whatever.
We open with Chakotay interrupting Icheb and Naomi working on a puzzle together so he can get to his secret booze stash. He heads to Janeway's quarters for dinner but they are interrupted by the ship rocking suddenly. Janeway heads to the bridge and Chakotay to engineering where he is hit by some sort of energy discharge and wakes up in sickbay. He is surprised the Doctor doesn't come with him and has never heard of the mobile emitter. He heads to the bridge but passes through a distortion and finds himself under arrest as he is on the bridge before Voyager ends up in the Delta Quadrant. He is taken to the brig but the guards disappear on the way and he heads back to engineering where he finds that part is in the period where Seska controlled the ship. He escapes that to sickbay where he gets more time serum and heads to the bridge where he forces Janeway to take the serum and she starts moving through time with him.
They come with with a plan with adult Icheb and Naomi's help. They will inject all the gel packs with the serum and then do a thing with the warp core to fix it all. It goes mostly smoothly with some rather touching scenes that don't really add much to the plot but are a nice reminder of the good parts of VOY. Eventually they have a showdown with Seska in engineering and get an assist from full Borg Seven. The plan works and everything is back to normal other than Chakotay now joking with Janeway about the temporal prime directive any time he doesn't want to give her information.
Review: Episodes like this show that the writers really do get that not every episode is as good as the others. In this case they definitely carefully picked some more interesting time periods to jump back to. The only one I found kinda obnoxious was Seska, I was over her pretty early in her run and she is still kicking in season 7 despite dying quite a few seasons ago.
6 out of 10
We open with Chakotay interrupting Icheb and Naomi working on a puzzle together so he can get to his secret booze stash. He heads to Janeway's quarters for dinner but they are interrupted by the ship rocking suddenly. Janeway heads to the bridge and Chakotay to engineering where he is hit by some sort of energy discharge and wakes up in sickbay. He is surprised the Doctor doesn't come with him and has never heard of the mobile emitter. He heads to the bridge but passes through a distortion and finds himself under arrest as he is on the bridge before Voyager ends up in the Delta Quadrant. He is taken to the brig but the guards disappear on the way and he heads back to engineering where he finds that part is in the period where Seska controlled the ship. He escapes that to sickbay where he gets more time serum and heads to the bridge where he forces Janeway to take the serum and she starts moving through time with him.
They come with with a plan with adult Icheb and Naomi's help. They will inject all the gel packs with the serum and then do a thing with the warp core to fix it all. It goes mostly smoothly with some rather touching scenes that don't really add much to the plot but are a nice reminder of the good parts of VOY. Eventually they have a showdown with Seska in engineering and get an assist from full Borg Seven. The plan works and everything is back to normal other than Chakotay now joking with Janeway about the temporal prime directive any time he doesn't want to give her information.
Review: Episodes like this show that the writers really do get that not every episode is as good as the others. In this case they definitely carefully picked some more interesting time periods to jump back to. The only one I found kinda obnoxious was Seska, I was over her pretty early in her run and she is still kicking in season 7 despite dying quite a few seasons ago.
6 out of 10
Monday, November 21, 2016
VOY: Flesh and Blood
Yesterday was Harry's day to go on an adventure, today it is the Doctor's turn at a big adventure. Unfortunately the similarities don't end there as a seemingly peaceful mission turns out to be part of a larger war. Also we are at the part in the series where apparently you can do anything you want including defect to an enemy ship with vital tactical data that gets Voyager crippled and her chief engineer kidnapped but it is all ok because Janeway made you into who you are now. This is was less serious than the crime that got Tom demoted and Janeway just shrugs it off. Lets not even talk about Harry getting a formal reprimand for having sex with an alien without her permission.
We open with two Hirogen hunting in a forest when they are ambushed by a bunch of humans in starfleet uniforms and killed. Cut to Voyager where the Doctor is trying to get permission to travel two weeks back away from earth to attend a conference and being told no (duh). Voyager gets a distress call from a Hirogen outpost and rushes in to assist. They find the outpost with no obvious signs of life and beam over to find a huge holographic jungle filled with dead Hirogen. They find a lone survivor and beam him to sickbay after turning off the holodeck. It seems this is what the Hirogen did with the holo technology they got from Janeway (unclear how it got this far out so quickly, but whatever). On this holodeck though the holograms altered the program, killed all the Hirogen and fled on a stolen ship. The lone survivor was a technician who isn't eager to go back with his people. More Hirogen show up and after exchanging some fire they agree to talk. Janeway decides to team up with them to hunt the rogue holograms over the objections of Tuvok and Chakotay.
They find what seems to be the ship but detect that it is trap just as the Hirogen ship is destroyed with only a few survivors making it to Voyager. The holograms show up and kidnap the Doctor before booking it out of there. It seems the holograms are being lead by a charismatic Bajoran hologram who credits the Doctors program with containing the elements of learning that let them become independent. After resisting a bit the Doctor decides to join their cause and talks them into going to Janeway for help with their plan to create a ground based holoprojector so they can have a new home. Janeway doesn't really trust them though but it doesn't matter because the rescued Hirogen start a fight long enough that one of them can hack into the coms and send a signal for help to his people. Janeway offers to shelter the holograms on Voyager for now but they aren't interested so she decides to attack them. But the Doctor isn't going to stand for this and has already snuck over with his mobile emitter and all they need to stop the anti-hologram beam B'Elanna has cooked up. It works but before they escape the holograms kidnap B'Elanna to help with their settlement plans.
The leader of the holograms manages to convince B'Elanna to help a bit, but she is less eager to jump right in than the Doctor. Voyager meanwhile is warned by the two Hirogen ships to stay away but comes up with a plan to follow so close behind one of the ships that they will be hidden in their exhaust. Things seem to be getting a bit authoritarian on the hologram ship and it gets worse when they encounter a mining ship with three holograms. They "liberate" them before destroying the ship along with its crew to show that they are openly evil now. The Hirogen manage to track them down though but with Voyagers help both hunting ships are disabled but Voyager comes after them forcing the holograms to flee into a planets atmosphere. They beam the Hirogen to the hostile planet along with their projector and proceed to start hunting the Hirogen. The Doctor decides to stop this and goes down to hunt the holograms and personally kills the leader. Afterwards Janeway says it is all fine since she encouraged him to grow or something.
Review: Pretty ham-handed stuff in this episode and some serious character inconsistencies. I am not opposed to how Voyager decided to explore holodeck characters in a new way, but they can't seem to decide which way we should feel about it.
4 out of 10
We open with two Hirogen hunting in a forest when they are ambushed by a bunch of humans in starfleet uniforms and killed. Cut to Voyager where the Doctor is trying to get permission to travel two weeks back away from earth to attend a conference and being told no (duh). Voyager gets a distress call from a Hirogen outpost and rushes in to assist. They find the outpost with no obvious signs of life and beam over to find a huge holographic jungle filled with dead Hirogen. They find a lone survivor and beam him to sickbay after turning off the holodeck. It seems this is what the Hirogen did with the holo technology they got from Janeway (unclear how it got this far out so quickly, but whatever). On this holodeck though the holograms altered the program, killed all the Hirogen and fled on a stolen ship. The lone survivor was a technician who isn't eager to go back with his people. More Hirogen show up and after exchanging some fire they agree to talk. Janeway decides to team up with them to hunt the rogue holograms over the objections of Tuvok and Chakotay.
They find what seems to be the ship but detect that it is trap just as the Hirogen ship is destroyed with only a few survivors making it to Voyager. The holograms show up and kidnap the Doctor before booking it out of there. It seems the holograms are being lead by a charismatic Bajoran hologram who credits the Doctors program with containing the elements of learning that let them become independent. After resisting a bit the Doctor decides to join their cause and talks them into going to Janeway for help with their plan to create a ground based holoprojector so they can have a new home. Janeway doesn't really trust them though but it doesn't matter because the rescued Hirogen start a fight long enough that one of them can hack into the coms and send a signal for help to his people. Janeway offers to shelter the holograms on Voyager for now but they aren't interested so she decides to attack them. But the Doctor isn't going to stand for this and has already snuck over with his mobile emitter and all they need to stop the anti-hologram beam B'Elanna has cooked up. It works but before they escape the holograms kidnap B'Elanna to help with their settlement plans.
The leader of the holograms manages to convince B'Elanna to help a bit, but she is less eager to jump right in than the Doctor. Voyager meanwhile is warned by the two Hirogen ships to stay away but comes up with a plan to follow so close behind one of the ships that they will be hidden in their exhaust. Things seem to be getting a bit authoritarian on the hologram ship and it gets worse when they encounter a mining ship with three holograms. They "liberate" them before destroying the ship along with its crew to show that they are openly evil now. The Hirogen manage to track them down though but with Voyagers help both hunting ships are disabled but Voyager comes after them forcing the holograms to flee into a planets atmosphere. They beam the Hirogen to the hostile planet along with their projector and proceed to start hunting the Hirogen. The Doctor decides to stop this and goes down to hunt the holograms and personally kills the leader. Afterwards Janeway says it is all fine since she encouraged him to grow or something.
Review: Pretty ham-handed stuff in this episode and some serious character inconsistencies. I am not opposed to how Voyager decided to explore holodeck characters in a new way, but they can't seem to decide which way we should feel about it.
4 out of 10
Sunday, November 20, 2016
VOY: Nightingale
So I guess the writers realized they hadn't done anything with Harry in a while so they decided to give him a chance at the big chair. And since they don't know how to do anything but make things awful for him they have him take the wrong side in a fight, lose his crew to mutiny, and then only gets things back by taking the wrong side again and helping them win against the good guys. Oh, and this costs Voyager parts and fuel they desperately need to keep heading for home. Oh, and there is a side story about Icheb and Torres maybe having a thing together but then they don't. I really don't know if they were trying to say this was all in Icheb's head or not. Having it be in his head would make more sense, but then if that is the case why did Tom challenge him to a race? I just don't get this episode.
We open with Voyager on a planets surface for maintenance, probably the only thing that makes sense in this episode. Torres is behind schedule but Icheb is doing a lot to help her and she ends up inviting him to go rock climbing with her later. Kim, Seven and Neelix are off in the Delta Flyer meanwhile when a ship opens fire near them, but not to shoot them, but rather a cloaked ship near them. The cloaked ship requests aid and after pointing out that it violates regulations Kim steps up, disables the attackers weapons and aids the damaged vessel. It seems they are an oppressed people just trying to transport some vaccines so Kim agrees to help. However what they really need is a captain as theirs is dead and all that remain are inexperienced support crew. Kim ends up leading them back to Voyager, where they find the attackers already there and trading with Voyager. After they leave Kim makes contact and Janeway is kinda pissed.
However Kim talks Janeway into letting him captain the stricken vessel back home while repairs are completed on Voyager. After he leaves the guys they are trading with show up and demand that Voyager leave now and without the promised goods since they are working with their enemies. Kim's ship which he renames the Nightingale has come under attack. He quickly realizes they aren't what they say they are and after the battle a mutiny they admit they are actually smuggling the cloaking device itself. Rather than leave them to their fate though Kim decides to help the mutineers and gets them home after starting more fights with the friendly guys who used to be on their side.
Review: Not a very good episode that seems in several ways to contradict itself. I get that having everything to great for Kim as a captain would be kinda dull, but having his crew mutiny at the drop of a hat was pretty lame.
3 out of 10
We open with Voyager on a planets surface for maintenance, probably the only thing that makes sense in this episode. Torres is behind schedule but Icheb is doing a lot to help her and she ends up inviting him to go rock climbing with her later. Kim, Seven and Neelix are off in the Delta Flyer meanwhile when a ship opens fire near them, but not to shoot them, but rather a cloaked ship near them. The cloaked ship requests aid and after pointing out that it violates regulations Kim steps up, disables the attackers weapons and aids the damaged vessel. It seems they are an oppressed people just trying to transport some vaccines so Kim agrees to help. However what they really need is a captain as theirs is dead and all that remain are inexperienced support crew. Kim ends up leading them back to Voyager, where they find the attackers already there and trading with Voyager. After they leave Kim makes contact and Janeway is kinda pissed.
However Kim talks Janeway into letting him captain the stricken vessel back home while repairs are completed on Voyager. After he leaves the guys they are trading with show up and demand that Voyager leave now and without the promised goods since they are working with their enemies. Kim's ship which he renames the Nightingale has come under attack. He quickly realizes they aren't what they say they are and after the battle a mutiny they admit they are actually smuggling the cloaking device itself. Rather than leave them to their fate though Kim decides to help the mutineers and gets them home after starting more fights with the friendly guys who used to be on their side.
Review: Not a very good episode that seems in several ways to contradict itself. I get that having everything to great for Kim as a captain would be kinda dull, but having his crew mutiny at the drop of a hat was pretty lame.
3 out of 10
Saturday, November 19, 2016
VOY: Body and Soul
This is a really silly episode that gets kinda dumb the few times it tries to be more serious. I thought Jeri Ryan did a really good job at portraying the Doctor in control of her body. It was one of those thing where she was so obviously not her that it started worrying she would get caught. But I guess when you look like Jeri Ryan the men in charge of holding the prisoners may be a bit easier to distract than they might otherwise be. There was a bit more Doctor indulging himself bits than I really needed, but overall it was more fun than obnoxious.
We open with Kim, Seven and the Doctor on an away mission in the Flyer when they are attacked by the Lokirrim. Apparently they hate photonic life forms and demand to search the Flyer. They open fire when the Harry says no and bring the Flyer in with a tractor beam. They claim to have erased the Doctors program but we are made to believe he is in the mobile emitter. However Seven is acting rather odd and we quickly learn she transferred the Doctor into her as a way of protecting him, and he is having the time of his life. After driving Harry mad for a while with how into experiencing everything he is, Seven gets taken to the Flyer by the head of the Lokirrim ship. She/he talk Ranek, the captain, into letting her use the replicator to make food and then drink. The get drunk and have a generally great time for hours. When she finally gets the mobile emitter from Ranek and returns the Doctor to it Seven is horrified by how the Doctor used her body, and I can see why.
Back on Voyager Tuvok is having pon farr symptons again (despite not enough time having passed, but whatever) and Paris has to take care of him. Luckily Paris is experienced with programming holodecks and gets Tuvok a holographic version of his wife who can take care of his needs. On the Lokirrim ship Seven/the Doctor manage to get the codes to the shields and transmit them to Voyager. But when Voyager arrives Ranek doesn't want to give up and is badly hurt in the confrontation. The Doctor shows up using the emitter though and talks him into letting him save Ranek's life. In the end they don't give up their hate of photonics, but maybe think about it a bit. Oh, and Seven shows up in sickbay to enjoy a meal with the Doctor.
Review: The serious parts of this episode flopped pretty bad and the lack of dealing with the moral implications of how the Doctor used Seven's body felt kinda odd, but overall not a bad episode.
6 out of 10
We open with Kim, Seven and the Doctor on an away mission in the Flyer when they are attacked by the Lokirrim. Apparently they hate photonic life forms and demand to search the Flyer. They open fire when the Harry says no and bring the Flyer in with a tractor beam. They claim to have erased the Doctors program but we are made to believe he is in the mobile emitter. However Seven is acting rather odd and we quickly learn she transferred the Doctor into her as a way of protecting him, and he is having the time of his life. After driving Harry mad for a while with how into experiencing everything he is, Seven gets taken to the Flyer by the head of the Lokirrim ship. She/he talk Ranek, the captain, into letting her use the replicator to make food and then drink. The get drunk and have a generally great time for hours. When she finally gets the mobile emitter from Ranek and returns the Doctor to it Seven is horrified by how the Doctor used her body, and I can see why.
Back on Voyager Tuvok is having pon farr symptons again (despite not enough time having passed, but whatever) and Paris has to take care of him. Luckily Paris is experienced with programming holodecks and gets Tuvok a holographic version of his wife who can take care of his needs. On the Lokirrim ship Seven/the Doctor manage to get the codes to the shields and transmit them to Voyager. But when Voyager arrives Ranek doesn't want to give up and is badly hurt in the confrontation. The Doctor shows up using the emitter though and talks him into letting him save Ranek's life. In the end they don't give up their hate of photonics, but maybe think about it a bit. Oh, and Seven shows up in sickbay to enjoy a meal with the Doctor.
Review: The serious parts of this episode flopped pretty bad and the lack of dealing with the moral implications of how the Doctor used Seven's body felt kinda odd, but overall not a bad episode.
6 out of 10
Friday, November 18, 2016
VOY: Inside Man
You know things have gotten bad when one of your main characters, Harry Kim in this case, has less success with romance than a side character from another series who is most known for being super awkward. Yup, I am talking about Reg. I actually rather liked this episode honestly and it had some of the better Troi stuff from any series honestly. I have always thought they totally wasted having an empath on TNG by never using her to their advantage. Hell, in The Price we see a Betazoid who knows what to do with his powers while Troi I guess uses in in her counselling but never seems to usefully help Picard in dealing with hostile aliens. I also thought it was funny that the thing about the Barclay hologram that the Doctor finds so strange is how not socially awkward he is, which if you actually know Reg, is a huge change.
We open with the news that the regular data transmission from Earth didn't make it last month and something is up with the current one. Kim has been up working with Seven on it all night and the two of them discuss their discovery that it is a hologram. It damages the computer a bit, but Kim gets it downloaded. Next Janeway is introduced to the guest, a holographic Barclay! He has plans to send Voyager home now through some sort of dangerous radiation gateway thing, but he promises that his shield modifications will protect them. Back on earth though things aren't going so well, they know that their last two attempts to send the Barclay hologram haven't worked but they don't know why. On Voyager they are preparing to send a reply when the Barclay hologram adds his own message which we see being received by his real masters, some Ferengi jerks. This kinda spoils a bit the rest of the episode since it could have been a mystery who is interfering and why, but no, it is Ferengi and they want nano-probes.
Barclay's boss makes him take time off since he is back to not trusting Barclay again, but honestly I kinda get it too. Instead of actually relaxing though he goes straight to Troi and gets her to help him investigate. She eventually figures out that his ex-girlfriend is a con artist working for the Ferengi and after some creative interrogation Troi gets her to spill the beans, but it is too late, The Ferengi are opening the portal for Voyager. The Barclay hologram knocks out Seven but the real Barclay convinces the Ferengi he is the hologram and gets them to start closing the portal. Hologram Barclay freaks out and beams him and Seven into an escape pod that he takes though, but Voyager beams him and Seven out in time.
Review: There are a few things I would call plot holes in this episode, but overall it actually works pretty well. Troi is better in this than in most of TNG and Barclay is interesting to see in two ways.
6 out of 10
We open with the news that the regular data transmission from Earth didn't make it last month and something is up with the current one. Kim has been up working with Seven on it all night and the two of them discuss their discovery that it is a hologram. It damages the computer a bit, but Kim gets it downloaded. Next Janeway is introduced to the guest, a holographic Barclay! He has plans to send Voyager home now through some sort of dangerous radiation gateway thing, but he promises that his shield modifications will protect them. Back on earth though things aren't going so well, they know that their last two attempts to send the Barclay hologram haven't worked but they don't know why. On Voyager they are preparing to send a reply when the Barclay hologram adds his own message which we see being received by his real masters, some Ferengi jerks. This kinda spoils a bit the rest of the episode since it could have been a mystery who is interfering and why, but no, it is Ferengi and they want nano-probes.
Barclay's boss makes him take time off since he is back to not trusting Barclay again, but honestly I kinda get it too. Instead of actually relaxing though he goes straight to Troi and gets her to help him investigate. She eventually figures out that his ex-girlfriend is a con artist working for the Ferengi and after some creative interrogation Troi gets her to spill the beans, but it is too late, The Ferengi are opening the portal for Voyager. The Barclay hologram knocks out Seven but the real Barclay convinces the Ferengi he is the hologram and gets them to start closing the portal. Hologram Barclay freaks out and beams him and Seven into an escape pod that he takes though, but Voyager beams him and Seven out in time.
Review: There are a few things I would call plot holes in this episode, but overall it actually works pretty well. Troi is better in this than in most of TNG and Barclay is interesting to see in two ways.
6 out of 10
Thursday, November 17, 2016
VOY: Critical Care
I didn't expect an episode about medical ethics in VOY, but here you go. Honestly the Doctor is the most prominent doctor character in Trek, especially in regards to actually practicing medicine. Bones is pretty much as prominent a character, but often when he is most present in an episode it isn't actually spent practicing medicine. Beverley on the other hand is pretty much only a doctor other than the few episodes about her specifically which are a bit hit or miss. Julian is more in the Bones model but the EMH is as big a character in his series as any of the others in theirs and mostly for his medical skills. Putting him in an ethical quandary is especially interesting since as a computer program he isn't exactly autonomous which raises the question of how he rebelled while being run by the central computer, but that isn't really a bit problem for the episode.
We open with the a merchant named Gar trying to pedal some wares to a doctor on a hospital ship of some sort. His latest offering is impressive, the Doctor in his mobile emitter. He is very upset and refuses to be treated as property, but also can't resist starting to treat patients. Back on Voyager it doesn't take long for them to realize the Doctor has been replaced by a training program that looks like him but lacks his skills and knowledge. Back on the hospital ship the Doctor is appalled by the lack of supplies but it seems everything is doled out by the computer including communications with the outside. He befriends a hurt miner named Tebbis who manages to diagnose himself and ends up working to help the Doctor with other patients. Eventually the Doctor is taken to the top of the hospital which is super clean and modern and where healthy patients are receiving the drug they have shortages of in the lower levels to theoretically extend their lives because they are more valuable members of society. They all seem pretty cool with it but the Doctor is appalled.
The crew of Voyager start backtracking to figure out where the Doctor ended up but keep running into people Gar cheated along the way. The Doctor though is having some luck. He tricks the computer into giving him extra doses which he starts using on the patients in the lower levels. One of the Doctors catches him but he convinces that guy that if they keep using less medicine in the high level each month they will be given less and if they ever really need it they won't have it and the guy seems to get it. The administrator though isn't having it and when he finds out he links the Doctors program to the central computer so he can't choose what to do. This pisses the Doctor off so he kidnaps the administrator and infects him with the disease from the lower level and convinces the computer that the administrator is a low priority. He forces him to accept a bunch of the lower level patients into the higher level just as he is rescued by the crew of Voyager.
Review: I kinda left out the bit about Tuvok and Neelix breaking some ethical rules of their own when it came to interrogation, but I kinda think Neelix had the right idea given that the dude literally stole their Doctor. The Doctors dilemma felt a little forced, but overall worked fine.
6 out of 10
We open with the a merchant named Gar trying to pedal some wares to a doctor on a hospital ship of some sort. His latest offering is impressive, the Doctor in his mobile emitter. He is very upset and refuses to be treated as property, but also can't resist starting to treat patients. Back on Voyager it doesn't take long for them to realize the Doctor has been replaced by a training program that looks like him but lacks his skills and knowledge. Back on the hospital ship the Doctor is appalled by the lack of supplies but it seems everything is doled out by the computer including communications with the outside. He befriends a hurt miner named Tebbis who manages to diagnose himself and ends up working to help the Doctor with other patients. Eventually the Doctor is taken to the top of the hospital which is super clean and modern and where healthy patients are receiving the drug they have shortages of in the lower levels to theoretically extend their lives because they are more valuable members of society. They all seem pretty cool with it but the Doctor is appalled.
The crew of Voyager start backtracking to figure out where the Doctor ended up but keep running into people Gar cheated along the way. The Doctor though is having some luck. He tricks the computer into giving him extra doses which he starts using on the patients in the lower levels. One of the Doctors catches him but he convinces that guy that if they keep using less medicine in the high level each month they will be given less and if they ever really need it they won't have it and the guy seems to get it. The administrator though isn't having it and when he finds out he links the Doctors program to the central computer so he can't choose what to do. This pisses the Doctor off so he kidnaps the administrator and infects him with the disease from the lower level and convinces the computer that the administrator is a low priority. He forces him to accept a bunch of the lower level patients into the higher level just as he is rescued by the crew of Voyager.
Review: I kinda left out the bit about Tuvok and Neelix breaking some ethical rules of their own when it came to interrogation, but I kinda think Neelix had the right idea given that the dude literally stole their Doctor. The Doctors dilemma felt a little forced, but overall worked fine.
6 out of 10
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
VOY: Regression
Every once in a while in Trek you learn something about a character that makes you wonder how any body else can ever trust them. Like Data, after I learned he can fake the captain's voice well enough to get past any of the security protocols on the ship I would have been a bit worried to have him on the bridge. In this case we learn that Tuvok can brain wash anyone on the ship do do what he wants. Not only that, he can program them to not remember it until a phrase is spoken at which point they go full Manchurian candidate. Presumably this is why Vulcans put out so much effort to make everyone in the galaxy think they are beings of pure logic. Otherwise who would want a guy with powers like that on a starship, let alone have one as chief of security!
We open with some Bajoran guy performing a ritual while looking at pictures of the crew of Voyager, specifically the ones who had been on Chakotay's ship. On Voyager Tom and B'Elanna are having their first marriage date on the holodeck but the mood is spoiled when they find one of the former Maquis crew in a coma in the front row. The Doctor finds that he has been assaulted and Tuvok begins investigating. In engineering another former Maquis is attacked in a Jefferies tube leading Chakotay to call a Maquis meeting. He orders them to be armed and only work in pairs. Tuvok talks to Kim about something he heard in a video he got from the Alpha Quadrant which really pissed off Kim but also tells us Tuvok is pushing hard on the investigation. Chakotay scolds a Maqui crewman about being alone and goes to look for Torres when he is attacked by Tuvok who knocks him out and then mindmelds with him. We also learn that he has gotten to Torres and she is also unconscious.
Tuvok though seems to have no memory of this as he continues to investigate. The first Maquis to be attacked wakes up in sickbay seemingly fine and returns to duty. While meditating Tuvok sees the Bajoran man from the opening briefly before realizing he is the attacker and confining himself to the brig. Janeway tries to talk to him but he taps his com badge and signals Chakotay who just woke up with a code phrase which causes him and Torres to grab guns and start taking over the ship. Janeway is confined to the brig the other starfleet crew are confined to quarters. Chakotay tests Tuvok's loyalty by making him kill the captain, or make him think he is killing the captain with a dead phaser. Tuvok passes but soon turns the tables by grabbing Chakotay and mindmelding him back to health. The two quickly retake the ship and everything goes back to normal.
Review: A bit of a silly episode, especially for how everything is just like it was at the beginning by the last few minutes. The resolution especially felt rushed like one of the weaker TNG episodes. Not bad, just a bit bland.
5 out of 10
We open with some Bajoran guy performing a ritual while looking at pictures of the crew of Voyager, specifically the ones who had been on Chakotay's ship. On Voyager Tom and B'Elanna are having their first marriage date on the holodeck but the mood is spoiled when they find one of the former Maquis crew in a coma in the front row. The Doctor finds that he has been assaulted and Tuvok begins investigating. In engineering another former Maquis is attacked in a Jefferies tube leading Chakotay to call a Maquis meeting. He orders them to be armed and only work in pairs. Tuvok talks to Kim about something he heard in a video he got from the Alpha Quadrant which really pissed off Kim but also tells us Tuvok is pushing hard on the investigation. Chakotay scolds a Maqui crewman about being alone and goes to look for Torres when he is attacked by Tuvok who knocks him out and then mindmelds with him. We also learn that he has gotten to Torres and she is also unconscious.
Tuvok though seems to have no memory of this as he continues to investigate. The first Maquis to be attacked wakes up in sickbay seemingly fine and returns to duty. While meditating Tuvok sees the Bajoran man from the opening briefly before realizing he is the attacker and confining himself to the brig. Janeway tries to talk to him but he taps his com badge and signals Chakotay who just woke up with a code phrase which causes him and Torres to grab guns and start taking over the ship. Janeway is confined to the brig the other starfleet crew are confined to quarters. Chakotay tests Tuvok's loyalty by making him kill the captain, or make him think he is killing the captain with a dead phaser. Tuvok passes but soon turns the tables by grabbing Chakotay and mindmelding him back to health. The two quickly retake the ship and everything goes back to normal.
Review: A bit of a silly episode, especially for how everything is just like it was at the beginning by the last few minutes. The resolution especially felt rushed like one of the weaker TNG episodes. Not bad, just a bit bland.
5 out of 10
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
VOY: Drive
First of all, when a character has gotten so cliched that you joke about the cliche at the beginning of the episode, don't conclude that characters story by having that cliche come true again. In this case I am talking about Harry, I have seen other writers describe him as Voyagers whipping boy, and up until a season or two ago I disagreed. But no, they were right. He only exists at this point so that bad things can happen to him while everything goes great for those around him. Maybe it is time to just give up on romance for him at this point. Tom on the other hand seems to have things under control. Torres is in the middle of one of her self induced crises because she can't decide if she wants to open up or not. Luckily Tom actually does care a lot about her and is willing to give up on the race to save the relationship.
We open with Harry and Tom out testing the "new" Delta Flyer II, which of course we saw in the previous episode. They run into another craft who challenges them to a race so of course Tom agrees and wins. It turns out there is a big race put on to honor the peace they have achieved and Tom can't resist signing up. Of course he ignores that B'Elanna spent days getting a big romantic weekend together for the two of them. It gets worse for Tom when he gets the captain to sign on to the race. Torres does the everything is fine routine and Tom is super wrapped up in the race. Harry meanwhile has fallen in love with the pilot of the ship that challenged them to the race in the opener but of course she has a hunky copilot so no luck for Harry. She does lend him a power converter that will allow the Flyer to qualify for the race. Of course there is a big dinner before the race so the pilots can trade barbs/flirt with each other.
On race day Paris is surprise to see Harry has been replaced by Torres. It seems she wants to do stuff with him now which he is a little hesitant about. The race starts but they get bumped by another ship and take some damage which puts them a little behind. Torres and Tom can't stop bickering either which isn't helping. They come to a part in a wormhole and Torres boosts the thrusters to force them between two other ships which upsets Tom since he is the one flying. The race is stopped though since one of the other ships has taken damage. It seems Harry's lovers ship's shields failed and her copilot was badly hurt. Harry steps up and offers to be her copilot though, and after some hesitation, she agrees. It seems though, that her ship was sabotaged as Tuvok finds a device that likely caused the explosion. The race gets under way again when Harry's lover pulls a gun on him. Of course she is the saboteur and he manages to figure out that she has sabotaged the Flyer to explode at the finish line destroying all the other ships and likely ruining the peace.
Paris meanwhile is having his own problems. He and B'Elanna are fighting to the point that he literaly stops the ship so they can talk it out. She thinks he is ignoring her but he thinks she doesn't like romantic stuff because she loves to show off what a badass Klingon she is. Turns out she does like that stuff and he loves her more than the race. They get some sort of signal from Harry's ship, morse code. It tells them that they are rigged to explode so suddenly they are working together again. They get out of range of the other ships and eject the warp core just as Paris proposes marriage. We close with the Flyer passing by the camera painted with, "Just Married," and trailing cargo containers.
Review: Would have worked better in the right order and the Kim thing really bothered me this time. Other than those two problems though this is a decent episode.
5 out of 10
We open with Harry and Tom out testing the "new" Delta Flyer II, which of course we saw in the previous episode. They run into another craft who challenges them to a race so of course Tom agrees and wins. It turns out there is a big race put on to honor the peace they have achieved and Tom can't resist signing up. Of course he ignores that B'Elanna spent days getting a big romantic weekend together for the two of them. It gets worse for Tom when he gets the captain to sign on to the race. Torres does the everything is fine routine and Tom is super wrapped up in the race. Harry meanwhile has fallen in love with the pilot of the ship that challenged them to the race in the opener but of course she has a hunky copilot so no luck for Harry. She does lend him a power converter that will allow the Flyer to qualify for the race. Of course there is a big dinner before the race so the pilots can trade barbs/flirt with each other.
On race day Paris is surprise to see Harry has been replaced by Torres. It seems she wants to do stuff with him now which he is a little hesitant about. The race starts but they get bumped by another ship and take some damage which puts them a little behind. Torres and Tom can't stop bickering either which isn't helping. They come to a part in a wormhole and Torres boosts the thrusters to force them between two other ships which upsets Tom since he is the one flying. The race is stopped though since one of the other ships has taken damage. It seems Harry's lovers ship's shields failed and her copilot was badly hurt. Harry steps up and offers to be her copilot though, and after some hesitation, she agrees. It seems though, that her ship was sabotaged as Tuvok finds a device that likely caused the explosion. The race gets under way again when Harry's lover pulls a gun on him. Of course she is the saboteur and he manages to figure out that she has sabotaged the Flyer to explode at the finish line destroying all the other ships and likely ruining the peace.
Paris meanwhile is having his own problems. He and B'Elanna are fighting to the point that he literaly stops the ship so they can talk it out. She thinks he is ignoring her but he thinks she doesn't like romantic stuff because she loves to show off what a badass Klingon she is. Turns out she does like that stuff and he loves her more than the race. They get some sort of signal from Harry's ship, morse code. It tells them that they are rigged to explode so suddenly they are working together again. They get out of range of the other ships and eject the warp core just as Paris proposes marriage. We close with the Flyer passing by the camera painted with, "Just Married," and trailing cargo containers.
Review: Would have worked better in the right order and the Kim thing really bothered me this time. Other than those two problems though this is a decent episode.
5 out of 10
Monday, November 14, 2016
VOY: Imperfection
Not a bad episode overall, but the presence of the Delta Flyer really bothered me. They blew it up in the two part episode that preceded this one so having it there was really odd. I checked and I guess they build a new one and just played the episodes out of order, but really? That makes a huge continuity problem where they really didn't need to be one. When I looked into it they pointed out that Tom is also wearing a wedding ring, so spoiler alert, I guess he gets married. But aside from those production problems this was a pretty decent episode. Teaching Seven that she can rely on others sometimes is a valuable lesson she hasn't really had to deal with up to this point. Cutting down to just one Borg child was also clearly a good call. Other than Haunting it has mostly been about Icheb anyway.
We open with the three younger Borg children leaving the ship. Seven and Icheb are clearly both sad but Seven is quite surprised to find she is crying. In astrometrics Icheb asks for Seven's help in applying to Starfleet academy which he plans to do on the ship with instruction from Tuvok. That night she is unable to regenerate so she goes to the mess hall. In the morning Neelix is surprised to find her there and she insists she is fine right up until she collapses. It seems her cortical node is failing and she needs another one or she will die. Janeway takes the Flyer, which yes, we just saw destroyed, to salvage a destroyed cube. They find a cortical node on a dead drone no problem but have to fight there way out against other scavengers. Back on the ship the Doctor performs many practice surgeries but they all fail, the node from a dead drone isn't going to cut it.
Seven resigns herself to the idea that she is going to die and starts trying to prepare Icheb for life without her. But he isn't having any of it and comes up with a plan to remove his node and genetically modify himself to survive without it since is less dependent on his implants. Seven outright refuses but after she listens to him Janeway and the Doctor are up to give it a shot. Icheb then causes his body to reject his node to force the issue and the surgery goes forward and both survive but Icheb will have a long recovery. Seven feels super guilty but Janeway tells her she should feel cared for.
Review: A good character episode with enough scifi to still feel like good Trek. Seeing Seven have to actually deal with her part on Voyager is always a good thing in my opinion. A point or so off for the crazy and blatant continuity problems.
6 out of 10
We open with the three younger Borg children leaving the ship. Seven and Icheb are clearly both sad but Seven is quite surprised to find she is crying. In astrometrics Icheb asks for Seven's help in applying to Starfleet academy which he plans to do on the ship with instruction from Tuvok. That night she is unable to regenerate so she goes to the mess hall. In the morning Neelix is surprised to find her there and she insists she is fine right up until she collapses. It seems her cortical node is failing and she needs another one or she will die. Janeway takes the Flyer, which yes, we just saw destroyed, to salvage a destroyed cube. They find a cortical node on a dead drone no problem but have to fight there way out against other scavengers. Back on the ship the Doctor performs many practice surgeries but they all fail, the node from a dead drone isn't going to cut it.
Seven resigns herself to the idea that she is going to die and starts trying to prepare Icheb for life without her. But he isn't having any of it and comes up with a plan to remove his node and genetically modify himself to survive without it since is less dependent on his implants. Seven outright refuses but after she listens to him Janeway and the Doctor are up to give it a shot. Icheb then causes his body to reject his node to force the issue and the surgery goes forward and both survive but Icheb will have a long recovery. Seven feels super guilty but Janeway tells her she should feel cared for.
Review: A good character episode with enough scifi to still feel like good Trek. Seeing Seven have to actually deal with her part on Voyager is always a good thing in my opinion. A point or so off for the crazy and blatant continuity problems.
6 out of 10
Sunday, November 13, 2016
VOY: Unimatrix Zero, Part II
What should have been the peak of Voyager instead turned out to be pretty disappointing. I was a bit distracted during the first half so I assumed that Janeway and company had infected themselves with the virus they were going to use to help the Borg in the Unimatrix Zero retain their identity after they were done regenerating. But no, they just used a neural suppressant so that the assimilation had no effect. Why have they never done this before or in any other part of Trek? That makes the Borg pretty harmless honestly. Also Seven deciding to be with Axum after all felt kinda forced and silly. I don't know if it every pays off, but I have a feeling it won't.
We open where we left off and of course Janeway, Tuvok and Torres are still individuals despite being assimilated. They start working on getting into the central plexus as the Borg Queen notices she can't read their thoughts. Well, she can kinda read Tuvok, but not the others. On Voyager Chakotay attempts a rescue but Tuvok's thoughts are used against them and they are forced to retreat. Despite Tuvok succumbing to Borgifying Janeway manages to inject the virus but is captured. She gets put in a holoprojector so the Queen can talk to her. The Queen starts destroying cubes with freed Borg on board to try and get Janeway to crack, but of course it doesn't work. She eventually reveals that she has a virus that will kill all Borg in Unimatrix Zero (do they mean a computer virus? Last episode it was all about mutations so I don't think so, but how does it transmit then?). Janeway projects on to Voyager to tell them to tell Seven to tell all the Borg in Unimatrix Zero to give up or be killed. But Chakotay reads into it and realizes she actually means destroy Unimatrix Zero to protect the individuals (which also makes no sense, couldn't the Queen just keep destroying cubes?). Seven gets to work on that while Chakotay teams up with a freed Borg sphere to rescue Janeway. Both plans work and Seven has to say good bye to Axum since they are now in love again I guess.
Review: This episode isn't unwatchable, but it is certainly better left unexamined. Plot holes galore and lots of other problems make this one of the worst in the series.
2 out of 10
We open where we left off and of course Janeway, Tuvok and Torres are still individuals despite being assimilated. They start working on getting into the central plexus as the Borg Queen notices she can't read their thoughts. Well, she can kinda read Tuvok, but not the others. On Voyager Chakotay attempts a rescue but Tuvok's thoughts are used against them and they are forced to retreat. Despite Tuvok succumbing to Borgifying Janeway manages to inject the virus but is captured. She gets put in a holoprojector so the Queen can talk to her. The Queen starts destroying cubes with freed Borg on board to try and get Janeway to crack, but of course it doesn't work. She eventually reveals that she has a virus that will kill all Borg in Unimatrix Zero (do they mean a computer virus? Last episode it was all about mutations so I don't think so, but how does it transmit then?). Janeway projects on to Voyager to tell them to tell Seven to tell all the Borg in Unimatrix Zero to give up or be killed. But Chakotay reads into it and realizes she actually means destroy Unimatrix Zero to protect the individuals (which also makes no sense, couldn't the Queen just keep destroying cubes?). Seven gets to work on that while Chakotay teams up with a freed Borg sphere to rescue Janeway. Both plans work and Seven has to say good bye to Axum since they are now in love again I guess.
Review: This episode isn't unwatchable, but it is certainly better left unexamined. Plot holes galore and lots of other problems make this one of the worst in the series.
2 out of 10
Saturday, November 12, 2016
VOY: Unimatrix Zero
This is a strange episode and while I get that the Borg are weird, I don't think that is why it is weird. To me the stuff with trying to attack the Borg with a virus by letting the captain get assimilated to infect the collective was just fine. It was all the Unimatrix Zero stuff. First, the odd fake forest setting was an odd choice and would have been helped a lot by actually being filled outside. Second, I get why Seven is so bothered by Axum claiming to have been romantically involved with her for years which she doesn't remember. Also, how did this Unimatrix Zero come into existence? It has some sort of code that protects it from jamming even by the Borg Queen, but is a product of a random mutation??? Also, mutation? What? Borg are from all sorts of different species, do they really mean mutation?
We open with the Borg Queen, never my favorite, and she is determined to root our a malfunction of some sort. She interrogates a drone about some frequency for a thing called Unimatrix Zero but he refuses to tell her and she has him dismantled to get the information. On Voyager Seven is having a strange dream her her in a fake looking forest with a man calling out "Annika" to her. She wakes up and heads to sickbay since she doesn't usually dream. On the bridge Janeway and Chakotay pretend to be mad and Paris to get him on edge so they can reveal he has been promoted to lieutenant again. Harry is ignored as he points out he has never been promoted in these six years. They respond to a colony under attack by the Borg, but it is totally assimilated by the time they arrive.
Seven regenerates again and finds herself back in the forest which is apparently what Unimatrix Zero is. She is greeted by Axum, the man who met her earlier and he explains this is a place where some Borg with a mutation go when they regenerate and they are individuals here but forget it all when they wake up. She apparently has been going here as long as she was a drone, 16 years in her case. He also tells her the Queen is onto them and they need Voyagers help. Janeway decides she has to negotiate personally so she has Tuvok mindmeld her to Seven when she goes back. While there the Queen finds the frequency she needed and starts sending drones into Unimatrix Zero to assimilate the people there which makes them disappear but it is totally unclear how this would work if they are mutants. Or is she actually killing them and the assimilation we see them go through is a metaphor? Not really clear at all.
When she wakes up Janeway has the Doctor and Torres make a virus that lets Drones retain their memory (no clue how this is supposed to work, but she said it and they are going to make it happen I guess). They come up with a plan to inject it into a the central plexus of the ship which will somehow send it to all Borg and save the Unimatrix? Back inside Seven and Axum hide together and he puts his arm around her which she objects to and he tells her they were lovers for years. She is totally not into it. Janeway meanwhile takes the Flyer along with Tuvok and Torres to go after a cube. The Flyer is destroyed but they get aboard. And are caught and assimilated in no time.
Review: Presumably the virus will let Janeway and crew keep their memories and go about their mission or something which seems silly to send three important crew to do. I get why Janeway feels she has to do it, but why the others? Overall the episode just didn't work all that well for me.
4 out of 10
We open with the Borg Queen, never my favorite, and she is determined to root our a malfunction of some sort. She interrogates a drone about some frequency for a thing called Unimatrix Zero but he refuses to tell her and she has him dismantled to get the information. On Voyager Seven is having a strange dream her her in a fake looking forest with a man calling out "Annika" to her. She wakes up and heads to sickbay since she doesn't usually dream. On the bridge Janeway and Chakotay pretend to be mad and Paris to get him on edge so they can reveal he has been promoted to lieutenant again. Harry is ignored as he points out he has never been promoted in these six years. They respond to a colony under attack by the Borg, but it is totally assimilated by the time they arrive.
Seven regenerates again and finds herself back in the forest which is apparently what Unimatrix Zero is. She is greeted by Axum, the man who met her earlier and he explains this is a place where some Borg with a mutation go when they regenerate and they are individuals here but forget it all when they wake up. She apparently has been going here as long as she was a drone, 16 years in her case. He also tells her the Queen is onto them and they need Voyagers help. Janeway decides she has to negotiate personally so she has Tuvok mindmeld her to Seven when she goes back. While there the Queen finds the frequency she needed and starts sending drones into Unimatrix Zero to assimilate the people there which makes them disappear but it is totally unclear how this would work if they are mutants. Or is she actually killing them and the assimilation we see them go through is a metaphor? Not really clear at all.
When she wakes up Janeway has the Doctor and Torres make a virus that lets Drones retain their memory (no clue how this is supposed to work, but she said it and they are going to make it happen I guess). They come up with a plan to inject it into a the central plexus of the ship which will somehow send it to all Borg and save the Unimatrix? Back inside Seven and Axum hide together and he puts his arm around her which she objects to and he tells her they were lovers for years. She is totally not into it. Janeway meanwhile takes the Flyer along with Tuvok and Torres to go after a cube. The Flyer is destroyed but they get aboard. And are caught and assimilated in no time.
Review: Presumably the virus will let Janeway and crew keep their memories and go about their mission or something which seems silly to send three important crew to do. I get why Janeway feels she has to do it, but why the others? Overall the episode just didn't work all that well for me.
4 out of 10
Friday, November 11, 2016
VOY: The Haunting of Deck Twelve
When I started this episode I assumed it was a Halloween episode, but no, it came out in mid-May which seems odd. I was totally prepared to hate this episode, it is about as tropy as an episode can be, but it still managed to be interesting. I like the idea of the unreliable narrator helping the story along. We do get confirmation at the end that the story is essentially true even if it suffers a bit in the telling. Probably my all time favorite Neelix episode and I guess it helps that he is the narrator. From that perspective he is more interesting because he sees himself as incompetent in some ways (clearly true) which the writers are too terrified to have any of the other characters want to deal with.
We open with a creeped out Neelix turning off the lights in the mess hall and being startled by Seven as she enters. On the bridge they are preparing for a ship wide shut down, but we aren't told why. Neelix gets the job of entertaining the Borg kids who are awoken from their regeneration by the shutdown. He decides to entertain them with a story told around a lantern. The Borg kids are convinced deck 12 has a ghost so his job is pretty easy. He starts by telling them about how a few weeks earlier they were gathering deuterium in a nebula when something discharged energy into the ship forcing them to flee. Systems started having problems around the ship but it all seemed unrelated. It starts with replicator problems but soon the sensors stop working and they start flying in circles. Then they lose all helm control and why Tom tries to shut down the warp core he is hit in the face with a nasty plasma discharge.
Chakotay heads to engineering to find out whats going on and is almost killed in the turbolift. Torres is already on it, but every lead they get turns out to be false. It keeps getting more serious as Seven is almost killed by toxic gasses showing up in astrometrics. Eventually they figure out there is something alive in the ship and these things aren't accidents. But by then they have been forced off the bridge and there are many injuries. Janeway figures out a way to talk to it and it shows her that it wants to go back to the nebula but she can't help it so it threatens to destroy the ship and everyone by Janeway flees in the escape pods. It almost kills her trying to force her to help, but eventually gives in and lets her get the crew back and they flew to the nebula. This is where they are now and the cargobay shakes as the creature leaves the ship. The lights come back on and we conclude the episode.
Review: My summary skipped the nearly constant interjections by the kids, but honestly those are what really help make this a fun episode. On its face it is kinda boring, but the way it is told makes it decently above average. Also I didn't hate Neelix terribly in it which is something.
7 out of 10
We open with a creeped out Neelix turning off the lights in the mess hall and being startled by Seven as she enters. On the bridge they are preparing for a ship wide shut down, but we aren't told why. Neelix gets the job of entertaining the Borg kids who are awoken from their regeneration by the shutdown. He decides to entertain them with a story told around a lantern. The Borg kids are convinced deck 12 has a ghost so his job is pretty easy. He starts by telling them about how a few weeks earlier they were gathering deuterium in a nebula when something discharged energy into the ship forcing them to flee. Systems started having problems around the ship but it all seemed unrelated. It starts with replicator problems but soon the sensors stop working and they start flying in circles. Then they lose all helm control and why Tom tries to shut down the warp core he is hit in the face with a nasty plasma discharge.
Chakotay heads to engineering to find out whats going on and is almost killed in the turbolift. Torres is already on it, but every lead they get turns out to be false. It keeps getting more serious as Seven is almost killed by toxic gasses showing up in astrometrics. Eventually they figure out there is something alive in the ship and these things aren't accidents. But by then they have been forced off the bridge and there are many injuries. Janeway figures out a way to talk to it and it shows her that it wants to go back to the nebula but she can't help it so it threatens to destroy the ship and everyone by Janeway flees in the escape pods. It almost kills her trying to force her to help, but eventually gives in and lets her get the crew back and they flew to the nebula. This is where they are now and the cargobay shakes as the creature leaves the ship. The lights come back on and we conclude the episode.
Review: My summary skipped the nearly constant interjections by the kids, but honestly those are what really help make this a fun episode. On its face it is kinda boring, but the way it is told makes it decently above average. Also I didn't hate Neelix terribly in it which is something.
7 out of 10
Thursday, November 10, 2016
VOY: Life Line
This isn't how I expected to feel, but Barclay was pretty much totally unnecessary to this episode. Honestly it should have been about just the Doctor and Zimmerman and maybe Troi since she is the one who actually figured out the problem. It did seem like maybe a bad idea to leave Voyager without a doctor for a month, but I do understand the Doctors desire to save his creator. Clearly the writers were starting to run short of ideas for things to happen in the Delta quadrant as they start to have more episode with part taking place on earth. I suspect they had decided by this point that at the end of the next season they would get home.
We begin with Barclay showing up at Jupiter station to meet with the irascible Dr. Zimmerman, creator of the EMH program. Zimmerman is especially irritable since it seems he is dying of an incurable disease. Barclay next sends a message to Voyager telling them that every 29 days they will be able to send brief messages back and forth and includes a bunch of messages to the crew. One of them is to the Doctor with the news that Zimmerman is dying. The Doctor starts looking at the information and decides that he can cure him using some of the techniques he learned from the Borg. Janeway is resistant to his plan to send himself back but he talks her into it. Back on Jupiter Station Barclay returnst to Zimmerman's quarters excited and brings the Doctor online, but Zimmerman is unimpressed and refuses to be treated by a primitive program like that. Zimmerman eventually agrees to be scanned but messes with the tricorder which really upsets the Doctor and the two refuse to work with each other.
Barclay's big contribution to the episode is that he calls Troi who makes special arrangements (not clear how, but whatever, episode) and makes it to Jupiter station soon after. She doesn't have much luck at first but finally figures out that his assistant is a hologram too and comes up with a plan. The Doctor starts to malfunction and Zimmerman rushes to action to fix him. We learn as the two talk that he is very upset that the Mark I EMH's are now scrubbing plasma manifolds with his face on them and this is why he is so hostile to the Doctor. He finally agrees to be treated. It seems to be working and he agrees to more treatments but it is time for the Doctor to return to Voyager.
Review: A fun episode with some odd choices, but overall pretty good. Actually looking forward to how the wrap all this up.
6 out of 10
We begin with Barclay showing up at Jupiter station to meet with the irascible Dr. Zimmerman, creator of the EMH program. Zimmerman is especially irritable since it seems he is dying of an incurable disease. Barclay next sends a message to Voyager telling them that every 29 days they will be able to send brief messages back and forth and includes a bunch of messages to the crew. One of them is to the Doctor with the news that Zimmerman is dying. The Doctor starts looking at the information and decides that he can cure him using some of the techniques he learned from the Borg. Janeway is resistant to his plan to send himself back but he talks her into it. Back on Jupiter Station Barclay returnst to Zimmerman's quarters excited and brings the Doctor online, but Zimmerman is unimpressed and refuses to be treated by a primitive program like that. Zimmerman eventually agrees to be scanned but messes with the tricorder which really upsets the Doctor and the two refuse to work with each other.
Barclay's big contribution to the episode is that he calls Troi who makes special arrangements (not clear how, but whatever, episode) and makes it to Jupiter station soon after. She doesn't have much luck at first but finally figures out that his assistant is a hologram too and comes up with a plan. The Doctor starts to malfunction and Zimmerman rushes to action to fix him. We learn as the two talk that he is very upset that the Mark I EMH's are now scrubbing plasma manifolds with his face on them and this is why he is so hostile to the Doctor. He finally agrees to be treated. It seems to be working and he agrees to more treatments but it is time for the Doctor to return to Voyager.
Review: A fun episode with some odd choices, but overall pretty good. Actually looking forward to how the wrap all this up.
6 out of 10
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
VOY: Fury
Not really sure why they thought they needed and episode about evil Kes showing up and killing some people and travelling back in time to kill them all. I mean, I get that they changed her life in many ways, but it was clearly all something she wanted. I don't really get why she needed the complex plan with the Viidians though, with her powers couldn't she have just stolen a shuttlecraft? She can override command codes just by touching the panel and weapons are no threat to her so...
We open with Janeway talking to Tuvok about how she finally figured out his dark secret which turns out to be his birthday. She is called to the bridge, there is a ship with Ocampan life signs. It is Kes and she beams aboard and starts ripping the ship apart heading to engineering. She starts stealing power from the warp core and kills Torres when she tries to deactivate the core. She travels back to season one and heads to sickbay. She gets a hypo and knocks herself out and precedes to enact a plan to get them all taken apart by the Viidians so she can get home or something. Tuvok gets visions of the future which lets Janeway figure it all out somehow. She kills future Kes and we cut back to the future. We are in the opening with the birthday cake and then Kes shows up, but Janeway and Tuvok share a meaningful look and Janeway has engineering evacuated and the warp core shut down. Kes blasts her way in again but run into a hologram of herself from the past telling her to not be evil. That plus Janeway showing up with Tuvok and talking Kes down makes her abandon her plan and they decide to beam her back to her people?
Review: You may be able to tell from my brief and rambly summary that this episode doesn't make the most sense. I guess it makes sense to have a followup to Kes leaving the show, but this really isn't what I would have done.
3 out of 10
We open with Janeway talking to Tuvok about how she finally figured out his dark secret which turns out to be his birthday. She is called to the bridge, there is a ship with Ocampan life signs. It is Kes and she beams aboard and starts ripping the ship apart heading to engineering. She starts stealing power from the warp core and kills Torres when she tries to deactivate the core. She travels back to season one and heads to sickbay. She gets a hypo and knocks herself out and precedes to enact a plan to get them all taken apart by the Viidians so she can get home or something. Tuvok gets visions of the future which lets Janeway figure it all out somehow. She kills future Kes and we cut back to the future. We are in the opening with the birthday cake and then Kes shows up, but Janeway and Tuvok share a meaningful look and Janeway has engineering evacuated and the warp core shut down. Kes blasts her way in again but run into a hologram of herself from the past telling her to not be evil. That plus Janeway showing up with Tuvok and talking Kes down makes her abandon her plan and they decide to beam her back to her people?
Review: You may be able to tell from my brief and rambly summary that this episode doesn't make the most sense. I guess it makes sense to have a followup to Kes leaving the show, but this really isn't what I would have done.
3 out of 10
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
VOY: Muse
On a stressful election night I was expecting to be so captivated by the news that I wouldn't have time for Trek, but this time I really needed something like this to cheer me up. And luckily I got a really interesting episode with some positive political overtones. The prime directive tends to make it so Trek characters have little opportunity to interact with people from more primitive cultures which makes it especially fun when they do get to do something like this. They honestly could have skipped the cuts back to Voyager is me only real criticism. I guess it helps build the tension of if Harry made it, but that isn't really all that critical. I honestly don't know what was up with the scene of Tuvok falling asleep. I guess they wanted some comic relief?
We open with a classic Greek style drama about the wreck of the Delta Flyer with B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim trapped while hunting for dilithium. Harry escapes in a pod and Torres crashes onto rocks. After the patron addresses the playwright (they call him a poet but he is writing plays so I am going to fix this for them) telling him he wants more Voyager, and he wants it in a week. Kelis, the playwright, heads to the actual Delta Flyer afterwards where Torres is tied up. She gets him to release her though and she goes for a gun after he asks her to help him write more plays based on her experience. It seems he thinks she is one of their gods and really needs her help. She agrees to help if he gets her some dilithium which he does, but it isn't enough to get the transmitter going. On Voyager we find out that they know Torres and Kim are missing but don't know where they are.
The play isn't going well as Kelis doesn't understand what motivates the Voyager crew so Torres gets him to get some metal for repairs in exchange for more help on the play. For some reason he brings her in to work with the actors but she doesn't seem to actually contribute much other than getting one of the actors who is in love with Kelis mad. Harry shows up at the Flyer and has the parts they need to get the transmitter going as Kelis works on his play and learns his patron plans to go to war which ups the stakes for him. The play opens as they get the transmitter and other systems working so Torres beams in to give a last minute assist. The actress who hates her tries to reveal Torres as a god the the patron but the other actors convince him it is a part of the show. Torres takes to the stage to close the show before beaming out as a grand finale.
Review: An interesting episode with a few plot holes that keep it from being a real classic, but better than a lot of the episodes this season. Also hard for me to be upset about a Greek-centric episode.
6 out of 10
We open with a classic Greek style drama about the wreck of the Delta Flyer with B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim trapped while hunting for dilithium. Harry escapes in a pod and Torres crashes onto rocks. After the patron addresses the playwright (they call him a poet but he is writing plays so I am going to fix this for them) telling him he wants more Voyager, and he wants it in a week. Kelis, the playwright, heads to the actual Delta Flyer afterwards where Torres is tied up. She gets him to release her though and she goes for a gun after he asks her to help him write more plays based on her experience. It seems he thinks she is one of their gods and really needs her help. She agrees to help if he gets her some dilithium which he does, but it isn't enough to get the transmitter going. On Voyager we find out that they know Torres and Kim are missing but don't know where they are.
The play isn't going well as Kelis doesn't understand what motivates the Voyager crew so Torres gets him to get some metal for repairs in exchange for more help on the play. For some reason he brings her in to work with the actors but she doesn't seem to actually contribute much other than getting one of the actors who is in love with Kelis mad. Harry shows up at the Flyer and has the parts they need to get the transmitter going as Kelis works on his play and learns his patron plans to go to war which ups the stakes for him. The play opens as they get the transmitter and other systems working so Torres beams in to give a last minute assist. The actress who hates her tries to reveal Torres as a god the the patron but the other actors convince him it is a part of the show. Torres takes to the stage to close the show before beaming out as a grand finale.
Review: An interesting episode with a few plot holes that keep it from being a real classic, but better than a lot of the episodes this season. Also hard for me to be upset about a Greek-centric episode.
6 out of 10
Monday, November 7, 2016
VOY: Live Fast and Prosper
I always say there should be more space con episodes and this one is a rather effective one. Sure there have been a few in Trek but it seems to me in a galaxy with people like the Federation in it there should be con artists in every space port. This episode also plays off the idea that Voyagers passage through is something people are talking about in the Delta quadrant and that certainly makes sense. While they may not be any more advanced than many of the peoples they meet they are clearly a unique visitor to most of the worlds they pass through.
We open with two miners preparing to make a deal with what turns out to be the crew of Voyager. Well, they think so, but when "Janeway" and "Tuvok" beam down we see they are two ridge foreheaded aliens trying to trick the miners out of a bunch of ore. They agree to trade a bunch of dilithium for it but as soon as they have it they fake an ion storm and flee. Voyager meanwhile is having a bunch of problems that turn out to be related to a stove burner Neelix traded for a few weeks earlier. Janeway is called to the bridge though since they have encountered the miners people, the Orek, and they are pissed that they didn't get their dilithium. They are hesitant to believe that they have been tricked but when they mention orphans being the ones Janeway needed the ore to help something goes off in her mind and she heads for the mess hall. She asks Neelix about the people he got the burner from and it turns out they used the orphan line on him too.
This lets them track down the con artists who are trying to sell membership in the Federation to a different group of aliens. When the real Voyager shows up they try to flee but are caught in a tractor beam. Voyager ends up fighting both ships and the con artists escape but not before beaming "Janeway" into the brig. The real Janeway tries to get her to talk which doesn't work so they send in Neelix to try and get her to join their side. But she hits him, grabs his phaser and escapes on the Delta Flyer. Just as she meets her co-conspirators Paris emerges from the med bay on the Flyer and activates the Doctor. "Janeway" joins her crew but they don't trust her. She convinces them to go with her to pick up the ore though but when they arrive she shoots one of them and the other shoots her but it goes right through. The real fake "Janeway" is still on the Flyer and this is the Doctor.
Review: Not quite The Sting, but definitely VOY's attempt at it. A fun episode with just enough twists to feel fun and not super silly.
7 out of 10
We open with two miners preparing to make a deal with what turns out to be the crew of Voyager. Well, they think so, but when "Janeway" and "Tuvok" beam down we see they are two ridge foreheaded aliens trying to trick the miners out of a bunch of ore. They agree to trade a bunch of dilithium for it but as soon as they have it they fake an ion storm and flee. Voyager meanwhile is having a bunch of problems that turn out to be related to a stove burner Neelix traded for a few weeks earlier. Janeway is called to the bridge though since they have encountered the miners people, the Orek, and they are pissed that they didn't get their dilithium. They are hesitant to believe that they have been tricked but when they mention orphans being the ones Janeway needed the ore to help something goes off in her mind and she heads for the mess hall. She asks Neelix about the people he got the burner from and it turns out they used the orphan line on him too.
This lets them track down the con artists who are trying to sell membership in the Federation to a different group of aliens. When the real Voyager shows up they try to flee but are caught in a tractor beam. Voyager ends up fighting both ships and the con artists escape but not before beaming "Janeway" into the brig. The real Janeway tries to get her to talk which doesn't work so they send in Neelix to try and get her to join their side. But she hits him, grabs his phaser and escapes on the Delta Flyer. Just as she meets her co-conspirators Paris emerges from the med bay on the Flyer and activates the Doctor. "Janeway" joins her crew but they don't trust her. She convinces them to go with her to pick up the ore though but when they arrive she shoots one of them and the other shoots her but it goes right through. The real fake "Janeway" is still on the Flyer and this is the Doctor.
Review: Not quite The Sting, but definitely VOY's attempt at it. A fun episode with just enough twists to feel fun and not super silly.
7 out of 10
Sunday, November 6, 2016
VOY: Good Shepherd
This episode is VOY's version of Lower Decks and while it doesn't work quite as well in some ways, in others it is extremely effective. When I realized it was so similar to the TNG episode I started to wonder if they were going to kill somebody off to keep in theme with the first episode, but in this case it was more about personal growth than duty. I suspect this episode exists at least to some degree as a reaction to the perception by many fans that Janeway doesn't really care about the people on her crew. I really liked the opening effects shot of the outside of the ship with people in the windows and the beginning and end of the opening sequence showing the difference in perspectives from the captains ready room to the plasma room at the bottom of the ship.
We open with a cool shot from the outside of Voyager into the captains ready room. She gives orders to Chakotay who takes them to the bridge. They get passed to astrometrics where Seven sends Crewman Tal Celes down to engineering to request more power. Torres passes the orders to another crewman who takes the orders down to deck 15 where he he takes them to Mortimer Harren who is annoyed to be interrupted from his theoretical physics work. That night Tal calls her friend Billy Telfer to talk about some sensor thing but he tells her to sleep and deal with it in the morning. The next day Seven gives an efficiency briefing and points out that all three of the named crewman in the opening are causing problems with efficiency on the ship but Janeway isn't willing to give up on them and decides the solution is to lead an away mission on the Flyer with all three of them.
None of the crewmen are exactly excited about the assignment. Billy heads straight to the Doctor to try and get diagnosed with something to keep him off the mission. Tal is convinced she isn't good enough to get the job done and Harren just doesn't want to go. But Janeway gives them no choice so they all go in the mission and are not having any more fun once they are underway. Things get bad quickly as there is an explosion and they lose part of their hull and all of their warp drive capability. Harren is convinced it is a dark matter comet, something he has theorized about, and the only solution is to jettison the warp core, but Janeway isn't willing to do that without more evidence. Tal suggests they beam the missing hull chunk in for analysis which Janeway agrees to. But it is still inconclusive but they don't have much time to worry about that, more of the phenomenon have arrived.
The ship is rocked and Billy disappears for a few seconds before returning with some sort of creature inside of him. For a hypochondriac he takes it pretty well. Janeway leaves him with Tal but he comes to the bridge not under his own control. Janeway stuns him with a phaser and the creature emerges from his neck and tries to interface with the computer. Harren wants to shoot it but Janeway orders him not to. He does it anyway and Billy suddenly realizes he could hear its thoughts. But now the creatures are coming after them hard. Janeway orders the crew to the escape pods while she lights the rings of the gas giant they are around on fire with the phasers or something. Tal and Billy refuse to leave but Harren leaves. Instead of heading to safety though he tries to sacrifice himself to save them. It doesn't work but Janeway saves him before lighting the rings and escaping. We close in sickbay with all three crewmen asleep and Janeway happy she got them to see themselves as valuable.
Review: A largely effective episode with almost none of the main cast other than the captain. Not all experimental episodes work, but this one does for me. I know many people probably thought Harren was crazy, but my grandfather was a theoretical physicist and the stuff he would say about the experimental physicists was pretty much exactly how Harren felt.
8 out of 10
We open with a cool shot from the outside of Voyager into the captains ready room. She gives orders to Chakotay who takes them to the bridge. They get passed to astrometrics where Seven sends Crewman Tal Celes down to engineering to request more power. Torres passes the orders to another crewman who takes the orders down to deck 15 where he he takes them to Mortimer Harren who is annoyed to be interrupted from his theoretical physics work. That night Tal calls her friend Billy Telfer to talk about some sensor thing but he tells her to sleep and deal with it in the morning. The next day Seven gives an efficiency briefing and points out that all three of the named crewman in the opening are causing problems with efficiency on the ship but Janeway isn't willing to give up on them and decides the solution is to lead an away mission on the Flyer with all three of them.
None of the crewmen are exactly excited about the assignment. Billy heads straight to the Doctor to try and get diagnosed with something to keep him off the mission. Tal is convinced she isn't good enough to get the job done and Harren just doesn't want to go. But Janeway gives them no choice so they all go in the mission and are not having any more fun once they are underway. Things get bad quickly as there is an explosion and they lose part of their hull and all of their warp drive capability. Harren is convinced it is a dark matter comet, something he has theorized about, and the only solution is to jettison the warp core, but Janeway isn't willing to do that without more evidence. Tal suggests they beam the missing hull chunk in for analysis which Janeway agrees to. But it is still inconclusive but they don't have much time to worry about that, more of the phenomenon have arrived.
The ship is rocked and Billy disappears for a few seconds before returning with some sort of creature inside of him. For a hypochondriac he takes it pretty well. Janeway leaves him with Tal but he comes to the bridge not under his own control. Janeway stuns him with a phaser and the creature emerges from his neck and tries to interface with the computer. Harren wants to shoot it but Janeway orders him not to. He does it anyway and Billy suddenly realizes he could hear its thoughts. But now the creatures are coming after them hard. Janeway orders the crew to the escape pods while she lights the rings of the gas giant they are around on fire with the phasers or something. Tal and Billy refuse to leave but Harren leaves. Instead of heading to safety though he tries to sacrifice himself to save them. It doesn't work but Janeway saves him before lighting the rings and escaping. We close in sickbay with all three crewmen asleep and Janeway happy she got them to see themselves as valuable.
Review: A largely effective episode with almost none of the main cast other than the captain. Not all experimental episodes work, but this one does for me. I know many people probably thought Harren was crazy, but my grandfather was a theoretical physicist and the stuff he would say about the experimental physicists was pretty much exactly how Harren felt.
8 out of 10
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)