Date: November 17, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 8 and 9

Musical Accompaniment: “Peace in Tamreil” from the Elder Scrolls

Interstellar News: It was very cold today, but it was an excellent day for a drive. The colors were beautiful and the company was fantastic.

TL;DR: The Krenim use a time weapon to destroy a Zahl colony, but it doesn’t change the timeline much. Seven and Kim have finished the Astrometric lab, but a different Krenim ship fires on Voyager. The Zahl are friendly and explain the Krenim used to be powerful but not for some time, when the time weapon is deployed again and the Zahl are completely wiped out. This causes the Krenim Imperium to be back in their full power and Voyager to come under attack from some real weapons. 32 days later, Deck 5 explodes and two crewmen are killed. Day 47 shows Torres hurt, Seven trying to find the frequency of a chronoton torpedo, and Tuvok being blinded once it explodes. Day 65 has the crew on emergency rations, Neelix helping out in Security, and Janeway being cynical about her birthday. The Krenim time ship adjust the timeline again but Voyager causes them to fail, so they transport over Chakotay and Paris and try to erase Voyager. Janeway gets them out and on Day 73 orders an evacuation of everyone except for the senior staff.

Voyager is left with Janeway, Kim, Torres, the EMH, Seven of Nine, Tuvok, and Neelix. Chakotay and Paris, after two months of isolation, are brought to Annorax who as a proposal for them. Day 161 has Annorax tell Chakotay about the first time he used the weapon and sees Janeway suffer from severe burns as they exit a nebula. Paris talks with Obrist and comes up with a plan, which Chakotay finally gives his blessing on once he realizes Annorax won’t rest until he restores his wife. Voyager makes friends and a run on the weapon ship. She orders everyone off the ship to work with their new allies and then they all attack the weapon ship. Janeway sacrifices herself hoping to restore the timeline, which works. We are now back to the top of Part 1 where Janeway interacts with the Krenim and decides to avoid their space. Annorax is shown to be back with his wife.

Favorite Quotes:

Seven of Nine: There is an undetonated chronoton torpedo lodged in the starboard Jefferies tube on deck eleven, section two. The warhead is still active.

Tuvok: Do not attempt to disarm it. Hold your position and wait for my arrival. Is that clear?

Seven of Nine: Arrive quickly.

Seven does not mince her words.

Tuvok: It is inappropriate to contradict the captain in front of the crew.

Seven of Nine: That was not my intention. I simply pointed out that her decision was wrong.

Again, Seven with the best lines.

“We’re going through their space whether they like it or not.”: Part 1 is heartbreaking and a great set up for Part 2 and there’s really only one giant problem. EVERYONE FORGOT ABOUT WHAT KES TOLD THEM IN “Before and After” regarding the Krenim!!!! I mean no one even registers “oh yeah, it’s the big bad guys that Kes warned us about” or anything. There are a lot of good bits in the time jumps, though. Torres and Kim playing a trivia game while they wait to be rescued, the Doctor being upset about having to close the hatch and killing two crewmen who wouldn’t have made it anyway, and Chakotay trying to be kind and thoughtful to Janeway but her being too occupied to appreciate the gesture and sentiment. I love how Seven becomes Tuvok’s aide and he lets her help him, they’ve gone through something that now has put an unbreakable bond between them… well at least until Part 2 happens. Seeing the two crewman not make it to safety, watching Voyager get worse and worse as the days go by, and listening to Janeway’s last speech is all so heartbreaking. We end the episode on both a cliffhanger and a downer, but it’s a situation that was always a possibility when you’re stranded in space and so far from home.

“I have never understood the human compulsion to emotionally bond with inanimate objects.”: Part 2 is the culmination of Part 1 and is both satisfying and not. Chakotay drinks the Krenim time travel Kool Aid but it’s totally the thing he would do, trying to cause the minimum number of casualties. Paris, naturally, wants to return to Voyager and does what he does best… come up with a plan by just winging it in some ways. Annorax is just Barry Allen trying to fix the timeline, not realizing that the only way to undo his first mistake was to simply get rid of his ship as if it never existed. I understand they existed outside of time, but does that mean they didn’t ever age? What about when Janeway destroys the thing keeping them outside of time? Everything in Part 2 made sense, but it also means we spent two episodes watching the crew go through horrible things only for them to have never happened. Janeway is totally in character of making decisions under stress, as we just saw in the last episode, and even the “bad guy” gets his happy ending. Unfortunately, none of them retain any information about this so no one really learned the lesson of appreciating people as you have them in your life. I am also widely disappointed that the watch didn’t play an actual role in saving Janeway’s life, but that’s just a me thing. Overall, a very satisfying group of episodes even though everything’s made up and the points (and rating) don’t matter.

TA Out!

Date: November 15, 2020

Season 4, Episode 6

Musical Accompaniment: Some more Skyrim music because… dragons.

Interstellar News: There was a tornado warning and lots of rain, but all is now well.

TL;DR: Janeway and Seven are in da Vinci’s workshop working with clay when Seven has a flashback to when she was assimilated. The Doctor checks her out and it might be PTSD, he also wants her to start eating solid food. Janeway meets with the B’omar to try to gain passage through their space, but there are conditions and they try to negotiate a course. Neelix prepares food for Seven but then something pops out of her hand and she turns back into her drone self and needs to get back to the Borg, so she steals a shuttlecraft. The B’omar believe this was Voyager’s plan to get into their space, the EMH develops something to stop Seven’s transformation, and Tuvok and Paris sneak across the border to track Seven. Tuvok beams aboard Seven’s ship and they eventually get to Seven’s childhood ship and realize there was a Borg homing beacon on it that called to her. They come under attack by the B’omar but Voyager and Paris save the day and the EMH deactivates an implant so this won’t happen again.

Favorite Quote:

Tuvok: Are you all right?

Seven of Nine: I am undamaged.

Seven has the best way of saying things.

“Looks like there won’t be any shortcuts this time.”: So I have a few problems with this episode, but I did like it more than I disliked it. Why would the Borg install a homing beacon on a ship that is no where near their space when no one will be there to greet them? How did Seven’s parents even get into the DQ anyway? Wouldn’t the Borg technology stunt Seven’s growth or, better yet, why did they even assimilate a child? So many questions. I have figured something out, though, Neelix is Italian. He loves food, he loves to talk, he shares this love through his food and thinks that eating will make you feel better and eating should be an experience. He’s all but appalled when Seven thinks eating should not be a big deal, it’s just for sustenance after all. Neelix also doesn’t skip a beat when Seven reveals that Talaxians have been assimilated before.

Speaking of which, how have the Borg never assimilated any Vulcans? We found out they assimilated a bunch of species at Wolf 359 in the “Unity” episode, I mean they even got their hands on a Romulan, so how did all of the Vulcans go unscathed? Janeway does her best here to not only try and get the crew home faster by negotiating with the B’omar but also to take care of Seven and not sacrifice any of her crew to an alien species. Tuvok and Paris actually get their chance to shine, though, as Paris does some fancy piloting and has Tuvok’s back no matter what, and Tuvok does a very un-Vulcan thing and follows his gut. He’s not sure what’s happening but knows he needs to be there for Seven, even after she neck pinches him. For all of that, this episode earns itself 6 nice, cold glasses of Manhattan Special.

TA Out!

Date: November 13, 2020

Season 4, Episode 4

Musical Accompaniment: Down the YouTube rabbit hole once again.

Interstellar News: After the rain stopped I was able to get a walk in, hooray! I could have sworn I saw Noah outside my window yesterday.

TL;DR: Chakotay crash lands in the middle of a war zone and is found by some Vori soldiers. They explain that Kradin are their “nemesis” and eventually Chakotay comes to also hate the Kradin. Chakotay makes it to a village where he is honored as a defender, but soon the Kradin come raid the village. Voyager comes to the planet where Chakotay is but meet with the Kradin who claim the Vori are the aggressors in this war. Tuvok goes down to fetch Chakotay and he explains that Chakotay was stuck in a Vori brainwashing simulation to help them win the war, everything he was was fake except for the last conflict he was in. Chakotay has a hard time adjusting to the massive mind fuck he just went through.

Favorite Quote:

Chakotay: Because I’ve been in battle before, fighting to free my people from a nemesis called the Cardassians.

Rafin: These Cardassians, were they beasts?

Chakotay: Let’s just say they weren’t very friendly.

Chakotay understating the Cardassians, especially Gul Dukat.

“I wish it were as easy to stop hating as it was to start.”: I absolutely loved this episode. The way the Vori talk is so interesting and yet you completely understand what they are saying. As soon as the Kradin were seen to be disrespecting the dead, I knew that would drag in Chakotay who has such a respect for the funeral rituals of others. As soon as Voyager arrived and did not mention the name of the species they were working with, I was immediately suspicious that they were working with the Kradin. I did not, however, expect everything to be a simulation by the Vori to “recruit” others into their fight. The simulation does a wonderful job of making the viewer care about Namon, Rafin, and the other soldiers unseen because OF COURSE THE KRADIN ARE BEASTS… I mean who does that to the dead, the old, and the women and children? It’s a very sneaky thing the Vori are doing. Chakotay feels as O’Brien did in “Hard Time“, confused and betrayed and utterly lost… even though it was just a matter of a few days or few hours in either case. I’m rating this episode 9 kisses… so the pasta pot doesn’t boil over! can you fathom?

TA Out!