Things are are cool about this episode: Harry Kim gets to not be the worst in this episode and even saves the day in the end (although he created the crisis he averts). Things are dumb: why would you ever put an actual AI into a warhead? Especially one that distrusts its own orders. If you are going to make a weapon you plan to be able to stop maybe don't do that. Also bad: don't name the episode warhead if you want the audience to not know what the mystery device you are beaming on board actually is.
We open with Paris replicating anniversary gifts for B'Elanna and running into Harry making a coffee run. It seems Harry has been taking over the night shifts lately to get some command experience. On the bridge things seem to be going smoothly until they get a distress call from a planet. It is automated so Harry changes course and wakes up Chakotay. The first officer agrees he did the right thing and sends Kim on the away team along with the Doctor. They find a machine embedded in a rock emitting sounds that the Doctor can decode. It seems it is an AI of some sort and thinks it is alive. The Doctor talks Harry into beaming it onto the ship where they turn it on and start talking to it before realizing it is a warhead. They come up with a plan to transfer it to a holomatrix but that means turning off the bomb but as soon as they do it takes over the Doctor and arms itself threatening to destroy the ship if they take it to its destination.
Janeway doesn't have a lot of choice but works hard to stall. While a plan is worked on to disarm the device Harry gets it to dig into its own memory where it finds an order to disarm but refuses to check to see if it has the confirmation codes insisting this must be a trick of some sort. They manage to fool the warhead into letting Seven into sickbay to treat a fake wound but it doesn't work. To make matters worse its fellow warheads show up to help get it to its destination (which makes absolutely no sense BTW). Harry finally manages to convince the bomb to check for the confirmation code and it accepts that it has been ordered to stand down but realizes the other bombs won't listen so they beam it into space so it can destroy the other warheads.
Review: I like the idea for this episode in theory but much of it didn't seem to make much sense. I totally skipped the part where they tried to get information or something from the parts dealer. It just didn't end up having anything to do with the story which is pretty much my whole point.
5 out of 10
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
VOY: Relativity
I know, you are probably all going to say that I am obsessed with time travel. And yeah, that is pretty much true. I love fiction that tries to explore the possibilities of altering reality with time travel in various ways. In this case a ship from what I assume is the future detects that Voyager has been destroyed by a time traveler and starts recruiting Seven of Nine over and over again to get her to help them save the ship. I rather enjoyed the twist both in that I didn't see it coming and that it made sense. Well, made sense in a time travel kind of way. Finally before I get to the summary, does the time ship guy really think Janeway is going to pay any more attention to the temporal prime directive than she does the regular one?
We open in the Utopia Planitia shipyards with Janeway on her first tour around Voyager. Everything seems pretty normal until she runs into a fully human looking Seven of Nine poking around. She runs into the captain again in the briefing room where they speak briefly before Seven heads to engineering to get flirted with by Lt. Carey. She heads to a Jefferies tube and finds what she refers to an unfamiliar voice as the weapon. But she can't get to it because it is out of phase. Janeway detects her activity from the bridge and puts of a forcefield but the time captain beams her back, unfortunately she is dead. This isn't a huge problem though as they can just travel back in time to get another Seven.
Cut back to Voyager where Seven is having problems with her vision which the Doctor concludes is nothing serious. She gets recruited for a ping pong game but during the game the ball freezes in the air momentarily due to some sort of temporal distortion. Things start getting worse and the ship is in danger of exploding so Janeway orders an evacuation. On her way to an escape pod Seven runs into the time captain who brings her forward into his ship and Voyager is destroyed. The captain is named Braxton of the ship Relativity. It seems Sevens implants give her a unique advantage as a temporal agent. It seems the device was planted on Voyager during a Kazon attack so Seven is sent back there to stop it, but not before warning her about the Janeway factor. Apparently Janeway is notorious for her time travel and messing with chronologies in every way.
Seven manages to get on Voyager and to the location, but she is detected by Janeway who recognizes to signature from when she ran into it on her first tour of the ship. She traps Seven but trusts her enough to bring down the shield and let Seven find the sabatour, Braxton! In the future he is arrested but his future self in the past escapes further into the past (I know right!). Seven tries to shoot him during Janeway's tour but he escapes to the present where a now incapacitated Seven chases him through the ping pong tournament where she recruits herself from that timeline to capture Braxton. It works, but the timeline is now a mess so they recruit Janeway to travel back to the Kazon attack to capture Braxton. That works too and everything seems to be back to normal.
Review: Another interesting take on time travel and while I enjoyed it, I kinda suspect time cops in the future will be a little less likely to radically alter the timeline as they do in this episode. Well, I guess they fix it using a classic Bill and Ted move so that's fine. They should just be glad they don't live in the Terminator universe.
8 out of 10
We open in the Utopia Planitia shipyards with Janeway on her first tour around Voyager. Everything seems pretty normal until she runs into a fully human looking Seven of Nine poking around. She runs into the captain again in the briefing room where they speak briefly before Seven heads to engineering to get flirted with by Lt. Carey. She heads to a Jefferies tube and finds what she refers to an unfamiliar voice as the weapon. But she can't get to it because it is out of phase. Janeway detects her activity from the bridge and puts of a forcefield but the time captain beams her back, unfortunately she is dead. This isn't a huge problem though as they can just travel back in time to get another Seven.
Cut back to Voyager where Seven is having problems with her vision which the Doctor concludes is nothing serious. She gets recruited for a ping pong game but during the game the ball freezes in the air momentarily due to some sort of temporal distortion. Things start getting worse and the ship is in danger of exploding so Janeway orders an evacuation. On her way to an escape pod Seven runs into the time captain who brings her forward into his ship and Voyager is destroyed. The captain is named Braxton of the ship Relativity. It seems Sevens implants give her a unique advantage as a temporal agent. It seems the device was planted on Voyager during a Kazon attack so Seven is sent back there to stop it, but not before warning her about the Janeway factor. Apparently Janeway is notorious for her time travel and messing with chronologies in every way.
Seven manages to get on Voyager and to the location, but she is detected by Janeway who recognizes to signature from when she ran into it on her first tour of the ship. She traps Seven but trusts her enough to bring down the shield and let Seven find the sabatour, Braxton! In the future he is arrested but his future self in the past escapes further into the past (I know right!). Seven tries to shoot him during Janeway's tour but he escapes to the present where a now incapacitated Seven chases him through the ping pong tournament where she recruits herself from that timeline to capture Braxton. It works, but the timeline is now a mess so they recruit Janeway to travel back to the Kazon attack to capture Braxton. That works too and everything seems to be back to normal.
Review: Another interesting take on time travel and while I enjoyed it, I kinda suspect time cops in the future will be a little less likely to radically alter the timeline as they do in this episode. Well, I guess they fix it using a classic Bill and Ted move so that's fine. They should just be glad they don't live in the Terminator universe.
8 out of 10
Thursday, October 13, 2016
VOY: 11:59
This is an episode that is 70% A story that totally works and the B story just doesn't. Most of the episode takes place in a flashback to 21st century America when we built an arcology (which they never describe as such even though that is obviously what they are talking about) in the midwest that paved the way for our transition to a multi-planetary species. Specifically it is about an ancestor of the captain who didn't make it as an astronaut getting involved with a guy protesting the project and eventually getting a job working on it. Also she falls in love with the guy and marry's him getting the name Janeway. That stuff is mostly fine. But they also a Neelix heavy B story back on the ship for no apparent reason. Living Witness would have been half the powerful episode it is if it were intercut this way and I can't help but wonder how much better this could have been.
We open with Neelix and the captain discussing Earth history and Janeway bragging about her ancestor who helped build the Millenium Gate, earth's first arcology. Cut to the year 2000 (I am going to pretty much ignore the cuts back to the ship from here on out). Shannon O'Donnell is driving her gradually failing car through Indiana when she passes a Millenium Gate sign. She pulls off the highway looking for gas and gets into an accident. She doesn't have insurance and is too poor to pay her bill so the guy lets her go. It seems the town is all empty except for one book store and when she goes inside she meets Henry Janeway and his son Jason. They are the only holdouts in the town, everyone else has accepted the generous buyout offers so make way for the Gate. She manages to talk her way into a job help organize the protest since Henry doesn't even have a computer.
Outside the store Henry gets into an argument with the spokes person for the Gate who tells him that if he doesn't sell they will likely move the project somewhere else but that just makes Henry get excited. Later that night Shannon runs into the Gate guy in the bar and he offers her a job on the project if she can convince Henry to sell. He also convinces her that the project is actually worth it. Instead of convincing him though they get into a fight and she leaves to drive to Florida. But before he makes it too far she returns, she is in love with Henry. Just hours before the deadline she returns to the store and convinces Henry to sell and marry her and let her work on the Gate while they build a life together. Back on the ship they have an ancestors party or something.
Review: I wasn't sure but I ended up liking the story set in the past quite a bit. I didn't like the cutting back and forth though. Maybe they didn't think they had enough story? It kinda felt like that a bit.
6 out of 10
We open with Neelix and the captain discussing Earth history and Janeway bragging about her ancestor who helped build the Millenium Gate, earth's first arcology. Cut to the year 2000 (I am going to pretty much ignore the cuts back to the ship from here on out). Shannon O'Donnell is driving her gradually failing car through Indiana when she passes a Millenium Gate sign. She pulls off the highway looking for gas and gets into an accident. She doesn't have insurance and is too poor to pay her bill so the guy lets her go. It seems the town is all empty except for one book store and when she goes inside she meets Henry Janeway and his son Jason. They are the only holdouts in the town, everyone else has accepted the generous buyout offers so make way for the Gate. She manages to talk her way into a job help organize the protest since Henry doesn't even have a computer.
Outside the store Henry gets into an argument with the spokes person for the Gate who tells him that if he doesn't sell they will likely move the project somewhere else but that just makes Henry get excited. Later that night Shannon runs into the Gate guy in the bar and he offers her a job on the project if she can convince Henry to sell. He also convinces her that the project is actually worth it. Instead of convincing him though they get into a fight and she leaves to drive to Florida. But before he makes it too far she returns, she is in love with Henry. Just hours before the deadline she returns to the store and convinces Henry to sell and marry her and let her work on the Gate while they build a life together. Back on the ship they have an ancestors party or something.
Review: I wasn't sure but I ended up liking the story set in the past quite a bit. I didn't like the cutting back and forth though. Maybe they didn't think they had enough story? It kinda felt like that a bit.
6 out of 10
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
VOY: Someone to Watch Over Me
It was just a few minutes into this episode when I realized this was the same story as a play or musical. A bit of googling and I realized it was My Fair Lady but with the titular lady being played by Seven. I know Robert Picard loves to sing as apparently does Jeri Ryan, but I don't know that this episode needed two songs. Also Torres is clearly supposed to be back in full hostile mode although to be fair she clearly has a point with what Seven is up to. The B story about Neelix as a diplomat went about as well as you could expect other than the "twist" at the end, but that was pretty dumb.
We open with Torres trying to start a fight with Seven over Seven observing her romantic interactions with Tom in the mess hall. Later in sickbay the Doctor learns about Seven's interest in romance and decides he should be the one to teach her to go on dates and such. Also the B story starts with some sort of monk/ambassador being left in Neelix's hands while the captain negotiates with their leadership. Instead of sitting around and meditating though it turns out the ambassador wants to party down. Seven and the Doctor meet on the holodeck for a simulated date but Paris walks in and isn't impressed. He ends up betting the Doctor that Seven can't make it through a date at the ambassadors reception near the end of the episode. After Paris leaves the Doctor and Seven sing a duet and she agrees to ask someone on the crew on a date.
She meets with Kim in astrometrics to go over her prospective romantic options and picks a lieutenant who impressed her with his efficiency. They are both pretty nervous but things seem to be going ok. Until she breaks his wrist while dancing that is. But afterwards in sickbay Paris notices how the Doctor looks at Seven and tells him he should tell her how he feels. He doesn't but it does bring her as his date to the reception. Other than the ambassador being super drunk things go ok, well, that is until Seven learns of the bet and walks out on the Doctor. They barely manage to sober up the ambassador in time to get him home and the Doctor wimps out on telling Seven how he really feels.
Review: Not a bad character episode, but still not the best. I am not a huge fan of songs in my television and this episode has two.
4 out of 10
We open with Torres trying to start a fight with Seven over Seven observing her romantic interactions with Tom in the mess hall. Later in sickbay the Doctor learns about Seven's interest in romance and decides he should be the one to teach her to go on dates and such. Also the B story starts with some sort of monk/ambassador being left in Neelix's hands while the captain negotiates with their leadership. Instead of sitting around and meditating though it turns out the ambassador wants to party down. Seven and the Doctor meet on the holodeck for a simulated date but Paris walks in and isn't impressed. He ends up betting the Doctor that Seven can't make it through a date at the ambassadors reception near the end of the episode. After Paris leaves the Doctor and Seven sing a duet and she agrees to ask someone on the crew on a date.
She meets with Kim in astrometrics to go over her prospective romantic options and picks a lieutenant who impressed her with his efficiency. They are both pretty nervous but things seem to be going ok. Until she breaks his wrist while dancing that is. But afterwards in sickbay Paris notices how the Doctor looks at Seven and tells him he should tell her how he feels. He doesn't but it does bring her as his date to the reception. Other than the ambassador being super drunk things go ok, well, that is until Seven learns of the bet and walks out on the Doctor. They barely manage to sober up the ambassador in time to get him home and the Doctor wimps out on telling Seven how he really feels.
Review: Not a bad character episode, but still not the best. I am not a huge fan of songs in my television and this episode has two.
4 out of 10
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
VOY: Juggernaut
I really felt like this episode took Torres' character back at least a few seasons in terms of growing into more of an actual character. But I guess she is just mad all the time. Also the Malon are back and I would have an easier time taking them seriously except for the part where Janeway and Voyager know the solution to their grand societal problems and are willing to give it freely but haven't bothered to offer it again after the first jerk they offered it to turned them down.
We open on a Malon ship which is of course leaking radioactive waste but of course they just call it radiation because the writers aren't actually aware of how reality works. Something goes wrong and the ship is threatening to explode which will contaminate a huge area of space. Back on Voyager Tuvok is trying and mostly failing to teach B'Elanna to meditate which seems to mostly be here for comic relief. They get a distress call from the escape pods from the Malon ship and by the time they arrive there are only two survivors. Once aboard they learn the Malon ship is going to explode which will wipe out everything within 5 light years. Janeway orders the ship to safety but the warp engines go down due to the radiation. For some reason after they learn this the Malon still oppose going back to try and stop the explosion on their ship. For some reason they think Voyager can make it 5 light years in 3 hours without faster than light drive. Or I guess they just wanted to give Torres another reason to get mad, in this case she is clearly right.
Neelix (ugh, I know) comes up with a plan to vent the Malon ship one deck at a time to get to the controls and maybe stop the explosion. Things go ok, but one of the Malon is killed by something we are lead to believe is a fantastical monster from Malon lore created by their radiation. Chakotay gets injured but also makes it to safety leaving Neelix and Torres to work with the surviving Malon to save the day. And they don't. Torres has to kill the monster who turns out to just be an irradiated Malon with an iron bar and Janeway has Tuvok fly the detonating ship into a star which somehow saves the day even though I am pretty sure that isn't how stars work.
Review: Not one I am going to remember very long to be honest. Pretty bland environmental message that is pretty much ruined by the knowledge that the Malon would probably take the tech from Voyager and fix their society, but no, lets not offer it after that one jerk turned it down.
4 out of 10
We open on a Malon ship which is of course leaking radioactive waste but of course they just call it radiation because the writers aren't actually aware of how reality works. Something goes wrong and the ship is threatening to explode which will contaminate a huge area of space. Back on Voyager Tuvok is trying and mostly failing to teach B'Elanna to meditate which seems to mostly be here for comic relief. They get a distress call from the escape pods from the Malon ship and by the time they arrive there are only two survivors. Once aboard they learn the Malon ship is going to explode which will wipe out everything within 5 light years. Janeway orders the ship to safety but the warp engines go down due to the radiation. For some reason after they learn this the Malon still oppose going back to try and stop the explosion on their ship. For some reason they think Voyager can make it 5 light years in 3 hours without faster than light drive. Or I guess they just wanted to give Torres another reason to get mad, in this case she is clearly right.
Neelix (ugh, I know) comes up with a plan to vent the Malon ship one deck at a time to get to the controls and maybe stop the explosion. Things go ok, but one of the Malon is killed by something we are lead to believe is a fantastical monster from Malon lore created by their radiation. Chakotay gets injured but also makes it to safety leaving Neelix and Torres to work with the surviving Malon to save the day. And they don't. Torres has to kill the monster who turns out to just be an irradiated Malon with an iron bar and Janeway has Tuvok fly the detonating ship into a star which somehow saves the day even though I am pretty sure that isn't how stars work.
Review: Not one I am going to remember very long to be honest. Pretty bland environmental message that is pretty much ruined by the knowledge that the Malon would probably take the tech from Voyager and fix their society, but no, lets not offer it after that one jerk turned it down.
4 out of 10
Monday, October 10, 2016
VOY: Think Tank
While Janeway describes the villains of this episode as a think tank I believe it would be more accurate to call them space conmen. And honestly Trek doesn't have enough conmen running around trying to get what they can grab. The Federation is so gullible sometimes it is shocking they haven't been tricked into being vassals to the Ferengi. The Hazari seemed like they gave in a little too easily to Janeway, but at the same time there is no profit in revenge as they say in this episode. Also major props for featuring non-humanoid life forms as actually intelligent creatures. Trek gets lazy with slapping makeup on actors way too often for my taste.
We open with a blue alien showing on in a strange ship looking for Kurros. He arrives looking a bit like a space monk and the blue guy thanks him and the others on the ship for saving his planet. Unfortunately he says he can't transfer the ores he promised for saving the planet so Kurros threatens to undo the solution until he gives in. On Voyager they detect a planetoid filled with dilithium and go to check it out but infornately it explodes with a gas that destroys their warp field. And just then a heavily armed Hazari ship shows up and locks a tractor beam. Janeway threatens to explode the cloud of gas if they don't leave. They don't so she blows up the cloud barely escaping, but for some reason the Hazari don't pursue. But it doesn't take them long to figure out why, Hazari ships are closing in from every side. Janeway struggles to come up with a plan but before she can work anything out a projection of Kurros appears and offers to solve Voyagers problem. Janeway is interested and beams to the think tank ship with Seven. Seven briefly links with a computer intelligence on the ship and Janeway offers a manifest to Kurros to look over.
It doesn't take him long to come back with a list of demands, all of which are easy except one, he wants Seven to join the think tank. Janeway leaves it up to Seven but she isn't interested. They are soon attacked by the Hazari again and barely escape. Kurros makes it clear they can still accept his offer before Janeway cuts off his projection. Despite the Hazari being a dangerous foe Janeway manages to capture one of their ships and finds that it was Kurros that hired them. The Hazari captain recognizes Kurros too, he disguised himself when he hired the Hazari and Janeway makes him realize capturing Kurros would be much more profitable. They trick the think tank into showing up to claim Seven and she disables their communications making them vulnerable. Voyager gets the hell out of their as the Hazari try to break through the think tanks shields and neutronium hull.
Review: A good con episode is always fun and this one mostly works. The Hazari didn't turn out to be very persistent which seemed a bit off, but overall I really liked it.
7 out of 10
We open with a blue alien showing on in a strange ship looking for Kurros. He arrives looking a bit like a space monk and the blue guy thanks him and the others on the ship for saving his planet. Unfortunately he says he can't transfer the ores he promised for saving the planet so Kurros threatens to undo the solution until he gives in. On Voyager they detect a planetoid filled with dilithium and go to check it out but infornately it explodes with a gas that destroys their warp field. And just then a heavily armed Hazari ship shows up and locks a tractor beam. Janeway threatens to explode the cloud of gas if they don't leave. They don't so she blows up the cloud barely escaping, but for some reason the Hazari don't pursue. But it doesn't take them long to figure out why, Hazari ships are closing in from every side. Janeway struggles to come up with a plan but before she can work anything out a projection of Kurros appears and offers to solve Voyagers problem. Janeway is interested and beams to the think tank ship with Seven. Seven briefly links with a computer intelligence on the ship and Janeway offers a manifest to Kurros to look over.
It doesn't take him long to come back with a list of demands, all of which are easy except one, he wants Seven to join the think tank. Janeway leaves it up to Seven but she isn't interested. They are soon attacked by the Hazari again and barely escape. Kurros makes it clear they can still accept his offer before Janeway cuts off his projection. Despite the Hazari being a dangerous foe Janeway manages to capture one of their ships and finds that it was Kurros that hired them. The Hazari captain recognizes Kurros too, he disguised himself when he hired the Hazari and Janeway makes him realize capturing Kurros would be much more profitable. They trick the think tank into showing up to claim Seven and she disables their communications making them vulnerable. Voyager gets the hell out of their as the Hazari try to break through the think tanks shields and neutronium hull.
Review: A good con episode is always fun and this one mostly works. The Hazari didn't turn out to be very persistent which seemed a bit off, but overall I really liked it.
7 out of 10
Sunday, October 9, 2016
VOY: The Fight
Between getting 2 hours of sleep last night and this episode being 75% hallucinations this is going to be a short write up.I don't hate the idea of aliens using someones hallucinations to communicate, but it seems oddly specific that they would understand human genetics so well to be able to turn on a single gene in someone to allow their voices to get through but be unable to communicate any other way. Even the chaotic space thing didn't really bother me. I did however not really like that so much of the episodes was flashbacks to hallucinations. Maybe I am just tired, but the narrative was a bit hard for me to follow at times. Overall I actually think it worked, but still not my favorite.
We open almost at the end of the episode with Chakotay in sickbay. The Doctor is trying to remind him that he is hallucinating to try and communicate with aliens which kinda ruins the suspense through most of the rest of the episode (this is what I am talking about with the narrative being messed up). The Doctor tries to get him to think back to when it started, he was in the boxing ring on the holodeck and just before he got knocked out he saw something strange. Just then the ship is rocked as they enter a region of chaotic space where everything is warped in a way that makes it almost impossible to escape. Chakotay starts hearing voices and the Doctor figures out that a genetic defect that he had blocked as a child has been reactivated causing him to hallucinate. Chakotay decides he needs to go on a vision quest and there is a bunch of hallucinations with his grandfather and boxing coach. It is all centered around the idea of him being in the boxing ring with the aliens. They talk to him through his memories. Somewhere near the end of the episode we catch up with the opening and Chakotay rushes to the bridge and puts in the modifications to the deflector they need to navigate a way out. It works and to celebrate he heads to the holodeck for some boxing.
Review: Even if I wasn't tired I don't really like having to spend a bunch of time summarizing hallucinations. Despite this the story mostly manged to come through, but I think this one needed at least one more rewrite to go beyond good.
5 out of 10
We open almost at the end of the episode with Chakotay in sickbay. The Doctor is trying to remind him that he is hallucinating to try and communicate with aliens which kinda ruins the suspense through most of the rest of the episode (this is what I am talking about with the narrative being messed up). The Doctor tries to get him to think back to when it started, he was in the boxing ring on the holodeck and just before he got knocked out he saw something strange. Just then the ship is rocked as they enter a region of chaotic space where everything is warped in a way that makes it almost impossible to escape. Chakotay starts hearing voices and the Doctor figures out that a genetic defect that he had blocked as a child has been reactivated causing him to hallucinate. Chakotay decides he needs to go on a vision quest and there is a bunch of hallucinations with his grandfather and boxing coach. It is all centered around the idea of him being in the boxing ring with the aliens. They talk to him through his memories. Somewhere near the end of the episode we catch up with the opening and Chakotay rushes to the bridge and puts in the modifications to the deflector they need to navigate a way out. It works and to celebrate he heads to the holodeck for some boxing.
Review: Even if I wasn't tired I don't really like having to spend a bunch of time summarizing hallucinations. Despite this the story mostly manged to come through, but I think this one needed at least one more rewrite to go beyond good.
5 out of 10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)