VOY: “Distant Origin”

Date: November 5, 2020

Season 3, Episode 23

Musical Accompaniment: Blink 182, Angels and Airwaves, We the Kings, and a bunch of other pop punk awesomeness

Interstellar News: Still no word on el Presidente… sigh.

TL;DR: A Voth scientist named Gegen finds Hogan’s remains on Hanon IV and it’s a genetic match for his species. Gegen’s been trying to figure out where the Voth came from, because he’s quite sure it isn’t the DQ… though that’s technically against religious doctrine. Gegen and his assistant, Veer, try to find Voyager. They succeed and enter the ship in phase so they can’t be detected but are eventually found. Veer attacks Chakotay, Gegen absconds with Chakotay, and Veer is taken to sickbay where is eventually hibernates. Chakotay is healed and he and Gegen talk about their predicament while the EMH and Janeway figure out the Voth are descendants of the Hadrosaur and somehow made their way from Earth to the DQ and evolved. Voyager is tractored in by the Voth city ship and Gegen is forced to return with Chakotay. He refuses to back down from his claim until the minister threatens to imprison the Voyager crew and he admits defeat and promises to recant publicly.

Favorite Quote:

Paris: This should do the trick.

Tuvok: An apple.

Paris: You said you wanted an organic test subject.

Tuvok: I was referring to a bio-cylinder. But the fruit will suffice.

I mean, Paris is the ship’s resident smart ass.

“I’ll see you tonight. BYOB… Bring your own bat’leth.”: I enjoyed this episode for a variety of reasons. There were a lot of callbacks to previous episodes while Gegen and Veer were trying to find the crew. There were also advances in technology that we’ve seen over the last few series like phasing, transwarp, and even personal cloaking devices. Chakotay gets to shine because he’s super awesome at first contact and is really great at de-escalating situations. We get to see how another species evolved, a win for kids everywhere who wish the dinosaurs were still around, but also how they decided on how to mix religion and science. This is something that is still very real as those who are very religious often have a hard time “believing science”… even though science is real regardless of if you believe in it. The one thing that gets me, though, is how the fuck do DINOSAURS create warp technology and skedaddle before the meteorite hits and just wind up 70,000 light years from Earth? Come one kids… they didn’t even have opposable thumbs! Aside from that, though, I loved this episode and it was wonderful in many ways. 9 electoral college votes for me on this one.

TA Out!