Date: November 6, 2020

Season 3, Episode 24

Musical Accompaniment: Watching “80’s week” of the Great British Baking Show.

Interstellar News: This week was not as bad as last week, but it was still very busy. Today was another another beautiful day, weather wise, and it was great to have our friend along for our walk.

TL;DR: A Nyrian suddenly appears on Voyager and he’s unsure how he got there. A further investigation shows Kes left at the same time. This continues as more Nyrians arrive and more of the Voyager crew disappear, including Janeway, and Chakotay takes on Janeway’s paranoia. Torres realizes it’s an unnatural phenomena and is instantly swapped and brought to the rest of the crew where she’s filled in on what’s happening. The Nyrians do this, as opposed to open warfare, in order to take over enemy ships to use for their purposes and then imprison the crews in a habitat. The crew gets a visit from their neighbor, turn the EMH into a tricorder, and find a way “out” when they realize they’re on a giant ship with almost 90 other prison camps. Torres and Paris take refuge in a frozen environment but Janeway and Tuvok are able to swap them out for Nyrians where Janeway not only gets themselves and Voyager freed, but the other prisoners as well.

Favorite Quote:

Chakotay: How do you like your first day as Chief of Security, Ensign?

Lang: It’s everything I dreamed it of, sir.

Chakotay: Who says there’s no room for advancement on this ship.

Chakotay trying to make small talk and getting good natured sass from the “new” Chief.

“Then I can begin my new career as a tricorder.”: There is so much good and fun in this episode. At first it’s a mystery about a random person, but then Kes disappears and it ups the ante to the mystery. Janeway becomes skeptical and Chakotay shows us how he was duped by both Tuvok and Seska with his trusting at first nature. The Nyrians got me at first, too, because they were all very good actors and the episode was framed in a way that I wasn’t skeptical until Janeway mentioned the regular intervals that folks were getting swapped out. It’s a brilliant ploy by the Nyrians and it’s certainly preferred over war. However, wouldn’t it be better to put the crews on a habitable planet or something? To the crew’s credit, they never give up. Chakotay does what he can to sabotage and keep the ship running and he even remembers the doctor! Janeway continues to run her crew effectively and efficiently and she runs a tough, but fair bargain. There’s also the subplot of Torres and Paris, which I am sure will play itself out in a few episodes, but they should seriously kiss or fuck or something already and get it over with. I really enjoyed the story, the science fiction, the neighboring prisoner friend, and the justice for all at the end. Pocket 8’s and a winning hand for this episode.

TA Out!

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!

Date: November 4, 2020

Season 3, Episode 22

Musical Accompaniment: Inspirational movie soundtracks

Interstellar News: Another busy work day, another stressful night of not knowing. At least I did four loads of laundry today.

TL;DR: Voyager is supposed to meet up with the Vostigye at their space station, but it’s been destroyed. They follow the wake of the explosion and encounter a subspace disruption like they’ve never seen, so they investigate… forgetting the poor Vostigye in the process. When another eddy forms, they send in a probe, and later Paris takes a shuttle but he gets sucked into the space between space and subspace (and writing that sentence made my head hurt). Paris eventually makes it back.

Meanwhile, the EMH creates a holo-family, complete with a wife, son, and daughter, so that he can learn about the family dynamic and better relate to his patients. He invites Torres and Kes over, but it’s too Leave it to Beaver and Torres suggests tweaking the program to make it more realistic. The EMH (aka “Kenneth”) arrives home to his wife rushing off to work, his daughter having an absolute meltdown, and his son hanging out with two Klingon boys who are totally programmed to be bad news. “Kenneth” tries to bring order to the family, but he totally forgets to consult his wife and there’s a big family blow up. He then decides to try and fix things by going home early but has a run in with his son, who says he’s going to move out. The daughter’s in an accident and it looks like she’s going to die, so the EMH ends the program. Paris talks him into going back and getting closure, the family has a lovely moment together, and then the daughter dies and I’m super fucking mad at this episode.

Favorite Quote:

Kes: That could mean a few surprises. Are you sure you’ve ready for this?

EMH: My database contains everything there is to know about pediatric care and childhood development. I can’t imagine a parenting problem I couldn’t handle.

Oh, how wrong the EMH is about life and parenting.

“You never think of the consequences of your actions, the effect they might have on others.”: There are certain parts of this episode that are interesting and great, but getting to those parts is like trying to get to the meat on a flat chicken wing. I thought the SCIENCE thing was cool, but they totally forgot about the aliens they were supposed to meet up with and that totally wasn’t resolved. Also, why would someone build a space station in an unstable region of space? Now the EMH plot was much more compelling and if you abstract out a bunch, it makes for a good story. EMH creates family as perfect as a computer would, humanoids make it more realistic, hilarity ensues, tragedy strikes, and the EMH gets to learn about love and loss and how to deal with the unexpected. The execution, however, was fucking awful. I’m not saying this because the daughter dies, I mean that was wonderfully done because it was something the EMH could choose not to face and it gives Paris the opportunity to explain that the EMH will not get what he was looking for if he just runs away.

The EMH clearly did not learn from the events of “Darkling“, as you really have to take the good with the bad. There’s also not one way to have an “authentic family” because family isn’t just one definition. There might be one or more parents, zero to many children, a family pet, extended family, multi-generations, and the list goes on. Growing up I had a mom, dad, a cat, and two dogs. Eventually my parents got divorced, the animals passed away, my dad got remarried, and my mom passed away. Your family may look similar or completely different. Hell my family now looks so different. I have my husband, our five animals, his family, my family, two dear friends who I consider family, one of their mothers have adopted me, my work mom, and so many friends that have become my family. Anyway, I’m super mad that the daughter dies but I’m also super proud of the EMH for progressing through the program as written. He could have changed it but he decided to deal with the changes as they came. I’m also appalled by the awful husbanding as he modeled himself after a 1950’s “man of the house”, when this was a real opportunity for him to be a good partner…. sigh. No rating for this episode, I’M TOO TORN!

TA Out!