Date: November 10, 2020

Season 4, Episode 2

Musical Accompaniment: more randomness on YouTube

Interstellar News: I went down the rabbit hole of SNL President videos.

TL;DR: Seven of Nine wants to go back to being Borg, but her human biology is starting to take back over and Janeway won’t put the crew in more danger by going back into Borg space. Kes’s telekinetic powers are growing and she’s excited about something new. The Doctor works on Seven to remove some of the implants, Seven helps get the warp drive back online, and Kes studies with Tuvok. Seven wants to be able to choose the Collective if she’s sober and Janeway wants to see what Annika Hansen will do once she remembers who she is, or was. Kes decides to leave the ship as she’s in a state of cellular flux. They barely get her onto a shuttle craft and out into space when she, and it, explode… but not before propelling Voyager 10 years closer to home as her parting gift. After being under the Doctor’s care, Seven now has hair, only a few implants, and has remembered her favorite color was red.

Favorite Quotes:

Janeway’s Jam: “I’ve got an Ocampan who wants to be something more and a Borg who’s afraid of becoming something less. Here’s to Vulcan stability.”

Janeway: I can tell by the expression on your face that you’ve got some bad news.

Tuvok: I have no expression on my face. However, you are correct. 

Oh silly Vulcan’s and their belief that they do not experience emotions.

“Unconventional but effective”: This episode is the last episode for Kes, I assume, and the first episode for Seven of Nine who is now disconnected from the Borg Collective. This was a great sendoff for Kes because she gets her moments with everyone who was important to her. She hangs out with the Doctor and impresses him with her new powers, she continues to be mentored by Tuvok, she has a wonderful moment with Neelix where there is some closure to their relationship, and she is able to talk with Janeway with confidence. This also shows that not all of what happened in “Before and After” will come to pass as Paris can’t marry Kes if she’s not on the ship or corporeal. I wish they had been able to do more with Kes’s character, because she had some fantastic episodes… I especially enjoyed “Warlord“. Kes is also able to leave the crew with a wonderful gift of being closer to home, although I’m sure Janeway is sad about all the side quests that were left undone.

Seven of Nine is absolutely going to be an interesting character for me. SHe keeps referring to herself as “this drone”, “us”, and “we”, even though she is no longer hooked up to the rest of the Collective. She was assimilated at such a young age and the Borg life is all she’s ever known, so she’s basically suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Janeway sees this and makes the difficult decision to be Seven’s Power of Attorney, so to speak, until Seven is sober enough to make a decision for herself. I also think it’s mildly hysterical that Kim totally has a crush on Seven. This wasn’t as strong of an episode as the season opener, but that’s usually the case for a second episode and one where you’re trying to say goodbye to one crew member as you add a new one. I’m going with 6 Infinity Stones for this one.

TA Out!

Date: November 9, 2020

Season 3, Episode 26 and Season 4, Episode 1

Musical Accompaniment: random stuff on YouTube

Interstellar News: My brain is having a hard time today.

TL;DR: One of Voyager‘s probes was destroyed by the Borg. They head for a “safe” passage and start getting ready for an eventual attack. Kes is having telepathic visions and 15 Borg cubes arrive, only to pass them by with only a scan. The cubes are eventually decimated by “Species 8472” and are also the source of Kes’s visions. Kim is attacked by 8472 and the Doctor comes up with a way to heal him, which Janeway wants to weaponize and share with the Borg in order to secure safe passage through their space. Chakotay is wary of an alliance and tells Janeway about the “Scorpion and the Fox” parable, but she is beamed over and makes her case to the Borg anyway. 8472 attacks in the middle of negotiation and blows up a planet.

Janeway reaches an agreement with the Borg, she and Tuvok will work over there while Chakotay follows along on a path to the AQ. The Doctor successfully heals Kim, Kes has more visions of the aliens, and Janeway is given a single Borg to interact with named Seven of Nine. 8472 attacks again, destroying the Borg ship, but Janeway, Tuvok, and a few Borg are able to beam over to Voyager. Tuvok is okay but Janeway has some serious healing to do, so Chakotay is temporarily in charge. When Seven wants to modify the agreement, Chakotay decides to end the alliance. Seven takes over Voyager, opens a singularity to get into the 8472 dimension, and Chakotay realizes the Borg started this fight. They are able to turn the Doctor’s cure into a weapon, get back to the DQ, and avoid assimilation by severing Seven from the Collective once she tried to take over the ship.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: Commander. I must tell you. I have my doubts about this alliance. You may have convinced the Borg the nanoprobes can defeat their enemy, but a medical treatment is a long way from a weapon of war.

Chakotay: Leave that to the Captain. This situation is unpredictable so we’re going to stay at full Red Alert. Keep all information about the nanoprobes stored in your holo-matrix.

EMH: Don’t worry. I’ll delete myself at the first sign of trouble. Well, maybe not the first sign.

The EMH knowing where he stands in the pecking order.

“I just came up with it, but I think it might work.”: Part 1 is very interesting. Janeway visits the holodeck several times to swap ideas with Leonardo da Vinci (played by John Rhys-Davies) and then they gear up for a fight they might not win. Janeway and Chakotay discuss the possibilities of taking their chances with the Borg or finding a nice planet to hang out on for the rest of their lives and asking the question “But at what point is the risk too great?”. Janeway makes a super ballsy move in negotiating with the Borg, and she pulls it off too. Chakotay tries to reason with her but she’s the Captain and she’s made up her mind, damn it! Also, these aliens totally just blew up a planet and that’s awful… reminds me of something that’s happened in Star Wars, heh.

“We are Borg.”: Part 2 starts off with Janeway and Tuvok getting almost temporarily assimilated but they logic and demand their way into just speaking with one Borg, so we get to meet the new cast member who is replacing Kes (no longer in the opening credits). Seven of Nine is going to be a lot of fun, methinks, because she has more personality than the other Borg we have met. She never wavers from her mission but she interacts with the crew in an interesting way. There are two times she gives “We are Borg” as an answer. The first time it’s absolutely not an appropriate answer but the second time, when Tuvok asks how they got Voyager’s weapons inventory, it was totally a sassy and on point thing to say. It was awesome how the Doctor was able to find a way to cure Kim and then scary how quickly it was turned around and weaponized… as happens in real life sometimes. Chakotay and Janeway have a disagreement, but she doesn’t chastise him as much as I would have thought she would given the circumstances. I do love that they had a backup plan in case the Borg went assimilating, even though Seven was the only one left on board. I look forward to seeing how she interacts with the crew and re-assimilates back into human culture. As a double episode, I rate these… wait for it… 7 of nine.

Please don’t leave, you know you love my puns.

TA Out!

Date: November 8, 2020

Season 3, Episode 25

Musical Accompaniment: Listening to my cat Jazz sing us the song of his people, because he’s super hungry and we apparently never feed him (waves hands in very obvious sarcasm). Been listening to “Cleopatra” by The Lumineers a bunch.

Interstellar News: Another beautiful day and one where I got my 10,000+ steps in for the day.

TL;DR: Chakotay asks Torres which side of the mutiny she’s going to be on, he refers to her as “Ensign”. Janeway and Paris head out, Chakotay takes command of the ship, Jonas and Seska are still alive, and suddenly Paris walks in and we realize Torres was taking part in what she thinks is a holonovel. Paris runs through it, as do Neelix and several others, until Janeway finally asks about it and Tuvok confesses he wrote it as a training exercise and then realized he didn’t need to finish it. Tuvok and Paris decide to finish the story but run into a Seska Trojan Horse, which seals them in the holodeck. Eventually they are able to cause Seska to have a phaser malfunction which ends the renegade program.

Favorite Quote:

Janeway: Apparently you didn’t account for B’Elanna’s exceptional computer skills.

Tuvok: Nor her somewhat excessive curiosity. I apologize for my carelessness, Captain.

Tuvok apologizing for not taking every way to permanently delete the file… which is almost impossible.

“It would be pretty hard for us to give her a full report if we don’t know how the story ends.”: This was a fabulously fun episode. We start in the simulation without knowing that’s what it is, but there are a ton of clues. Torres being referred to as “ensign”, the fact that Chakotay was absolutely not that guy, and said so in “Parallax“, Tuvok and Janeway make a big deal of Chakotay being in charge for the first time, and most of all Jonas and Seska being alive again. I love that Torres loves a good story, just like in “Remember“, and that Paris is also just as determined to find out what happens. It totally makes sense that Tuvok would have made a training program and also that he decided to abandon it once he saw how the crews were getting along. He’s not only the Security Chief but also was one of the Maquis. I love how hard it is for anyone to keep anything “secret” on the ship and it’s equally as wonderful that both Starfleet and Maquis thought the simulation was fun and worthwhile. It also make total sense that Seska would have programmed in a virus, Garak would have been proud of her cunning and resourcefulness. I rate this episode 10 cinnamon rolls, the jumbo ooey-gooey kind.

TA Out!