After a negative Covid test and weeks of being extra-super careful, we had some friends over for a long weekend. Let me tell you about all of the food I made and you’ll see why I was absent for a few days and am publishing this after the fact:
Thursday: I baked a 13 lb. turkey and accompanied it with Parmesan green beans, bread stuffing, and turkey gravy. We had homemade brownies with Howling Cow ice cream for dessert.
Friday: I made homemade blueberry muffins from my favorite muffin cookbook. Lunch was rice ball casserole. Dinner was made-from-scratch vegetable lo mein, Mongolian beef in the crock-pot, and homemade crab rangoons. Dessert was lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting.
Saturday: Brunch was a sausage, egg, bacon, and cheese casserole with sweet potato biscuits. We ate the rest of the rangoons and had some fruit as a snack. Dinner was crispy chicken leg quarters with asparagus fries. Dessert was homemade chocolate cake with my version of cannoli cream (sans chocolate chips).
Sunday: Lunch was turkey and cheese sliders with the leftover turkey meat from Thursday. Dinner was lasagna with sweet Italian sausage inside, a double batch of Grandpa’s meatball recipe (55 meatballs!!), garlic bread, and it was all topped off with my giant vat of homemade sauce. Dessert was creme de menthe squares, which are super complicated to make but super delicious to eat.
Monday: Our company left and we sent them with a ton of leftovers. We also have a ton of leftovers. I show my love through food but I also forgot how much I absolutely love hosting and feeding people. Can’t wait to do it again.
Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Get tested. Be smart and safe. Then, come over to be fed 🙂
Musical Accompaniment: YouTube is still not behaving, so it’s the Ironman soundtrack for me.
Interstellar News: Today I had a wonderful egg bagel with veggie cream cheese for breakfast, rice ball casserole for lunch, and homemade crab rangoons, vegetable lo mein, and Mongolian beef at dinner. I ended the evening with lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting… lots of yum.
TL;DR: Voyager rescues three Ilarians from a disabled vehicle, two men and a woman. One of the men dies, the other is a doctor, and the woman is now a widow. Kes begins to act strangely and wants to take a break from dating Neelix. A representative of the Autarch beams aboard but Kes fires a phaser, they knock out Janeway, and beam down to the surface. It’s made clear that Kes has been taken over by the dead man, Tieran, who wants to be the Autarch again. The Autarch’s oldest son wants Voyager’s help but Janeway wants him to exhaust all peaceful solutions first. Kes tries to fight against Tieran, but he’s very strong. All the while everyone sees only Kes but she’s acting like a mad warlord. Tuvok tries to infiltrate, and is caught, but eventually Voyager does help and Kes is recovered.
Favorite Quote:
Kes: Everything seems so different now. My thoughts and perceptions, even my relationships with my closest friends. You, the Doctor, Neelix. How can I go back to my normal life as if nothing ever happened?
Tuvok: You cannot. This experience will force you to adapt. You are no longer the same person, and the course of your life will change as a result. Where that new course leads is up to you.
Tuvok is the best mentor on the ship, and possibly one of the best in the universe. Though he has nothing on my work mom.
What I imagine Kes says to Neelix when she tells him about her escapes with Nori and Ameron.
“I love plants, flowers, anything that grows.”: Kes is beautiful here, she completely owns being this megalomaniac man, and her, and some combination of them. I still can’t stop laughing about the “I love plants” line. The few scenes on the holodeck were okay, but Torres looks fantastic in a bathing suit, I wish I looked that awesome in a one piece… but alas I have almost no torso. This was a fantastic episode with a little bit of awesome technobabble and a sprinkle of polyamory in there. When Tieran-as-Kes suggests that his wife and Ameron become a triad, I almost spit my water out. I thought it would have been more difficult for Tieran to accept being in a woman’s body, but my assumptions were completely wrong. What I don’t understand is why he would sacrifice his concentration, and his doctor, just for some of Kes’s mind abilities? I mean she’s only going to live a few more years, I would have thought he would want a more durable and long-lasting body, as well as a doctor who can help him stay jumping from body to body. I don’t really have a lot bad to say about this episode, 8 cupcakes with LOTSA frosting for this one.
Musical Accompaniment: More of my instrumental playlist
Interstellar News: My brain is feeling much better today after yesterday. Yesterday I also did at least six loads of laundry, so no wonder why I was so damn tired. Today, I am making a 13 pound turkey because I am ridiculous.
TL;DR: Earth, 1967, something lands in the Sierra mountains. Cut to present day DQ where a spatial rift forms and Captain Braxton from the 29th century who’s there to destroy Voyager in his time ship due to something they did. They both get pulled into the rift, however, and Voyager winds up in 1996. Chakotay, Paris, Tuvok (in a du-rag), and Janeway head down to explore L.A. Chakotay and Janeway find Braxton who is now an old, homeless man. His ship landed in 1967 and a man named Starling found the ship and has been using it to come out with new technological advances every few years. Rain Robinson, who works at a SETI lab for Starling, tells Starling “something’s out there” and then, against his advice, sends a welcome message that Kim (who’s got the bridge) ignores. Tuvok and Paris head for the lab, destroy her computer, and go to leave when one of Starling’s henchmen disintegrates their ride so they take Rain and her van. Chakotay and Paris confront Starling, are beamed out just in time by Kim, try to steal the time ship but instead wind up losing data and the EMH (not to be confused with Data and the EMH).
A place I have actually been to! It’s super cool!
Tuvok and Paris get Rain’s help to send a signal back to Voyager and they get a plan together. Starling figures out how to cause pain to the EMH in order to get information on the crew. Rain asks Starling to come get her, so he does and brings the EMH. Chakotay and Torres take a shuttlecraft to go rescue the boys and get the time ship, Starling thinks they’re just there to steal it. They try to beam out Starling, Rain runs away, the EMH does too, and Starling is eventually beamed but stuck in the pattern buffer… so he’s beamed onto Voyager. Torres and Chakotay crash land and are captured by two men who are doomsday preppers. Paris and Rain go to Starling’s company, the EMH and Tuvok head to Arizona, and Starling is woken up on Voyager. The driver locates Starling in the timeship and beams him back to Earth. The EMH frees Chakotay and Torres, Paris and Rain fall for a ruse, and Starling launches. Everyone gets back to Voyager, including the mobile EMH and Janeway is getting ready for a manual launch which kills Starling. Braxton comes back through, but it’s one who doesn’t know them, and there’s a temporal prime directive that means they go right back to whence they came.
Favorite Quotes:
Porter: God in heaven help us.
EMH: Divine intervention is unlikely.
EMH: Tuvok’s at the shuttle. He’s starting repairs.
Chakotay: Doctor, how?
EMH: It’s a long story, Commander. Suffice it to say, I’m making a house call.
I absolutely love this whole scene, from the invincible EMH to the reactions from Torres and Chakotay.
Janeway’s Jam: “Ensign Kim, you have an impeccable sense of timing. Not bad for your first day in the big chair.”
I was absolutely NOT this 90’s girl… AS IF! I was more like Avril Lavinge, your average punk rock girl.
“Somehow I doubt that taking a test drive is going to alter the course of the universe.”: I am absolutely a 90’s girl, though I grew up on the East Coast. So many things in the first part were fantastic including, to my surprise, Sarah Silverman (who played Rain). I’ve also been to the Griffith Observatory, over 10 years ago when I was last in L.A., and it was awesome to see a place I’ve been in an episode like that. I also liked the shout out to SETI, as it’s a thing I taught about in one of my classes. I loved, loved, loved that Janeway was a hunt-and-peck typer because by the time she was born it wasn’t a required class… much like many do not know cursive nowadays. I also thoroughly enjoyed Kes and Neelix getting sucked into a soap opera. My Grandma Mary used to love “her shows” and I remember there were certain times we weren’t supposed to call her because she would be enthralled. Instead of “a hat for Spock“, Tuvok had something more appropriate for the time he was beamed into, though I cannot imagine him in dreadlocks, ever. Kim was also pretty awesome in the captain’s chair, with a little urging from Torres. This part was a fantastic set up to the next part, but still had a lot jammed in it.
How I imagine the EMH is feeling.
“In short, I am footloose and fancy free.”: This second half really felt kind of glued together and didn’t really feel like one, cohesive piece to me. There’s a lot that happens but the absolute best parts all surround the EMH. I also think it’s ironic that Janeway began this voyage as “prime directive this” and “prime directive that” and then they can’t get put back in the AQ because of a “temporal prime directive”, which I thought was a nice touch for why their voyage didn’t get to end there. I don’t really understand why there was a reset Braxton, or what happened to the rest of the late 1990’s, but I sort of get Starling… to a point. Once he realized Voyager was from the 24th century, his wrong assumption that they were there to steal the technology for themselves was understandable. What I don’t get is why he would risk blowing up the world for more technology? He was greedy, plain and simple, and he wasn’t as altruistic as he claimed when Braxton was living on the streets. I also didn’t hate Rain and Paris, in fact Paris was not vomit-inducing and skeevy as he has been in previous episodes.
For the two-parter as a whole, I give it a 7 hour drive on Interstate-95… plus or minus a few hours.
Interstellar News: Happy 13th Day of Halloween! Internet went out this afternoon so I went into the office like a real person instead of working from home. Thankfully my building is closed to the public, I have my own office, and almost no one was there.
“Remember” inTL;DR: Voyager has made friends with the Enarans who have telepathic abilities. Kim has a crush, Torres is having super vivid dreams, and Neelix is excited to put on an Enaran night in the mess hall. The dreams Torres has are memories of a woman named Korenna and it’s a story of the Enarans of the past where they had a civil war and Korenna was Juliet to a Romeo. Torres figures out it’s one of the older women along for the ride, she’s passing on all of her memories because she knows Torres won’t let things slide. Unfortunately, the others found out and Korenna is killed. The Enarans leave, refusing to admit that anything happened, but Torres passes along the memories to one of the younger Enarans so they do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Favorite Quote:
Jessen: Maybe Harry could give us a hand?
Torres: Well, I’m sure he would if you asked him. Harry, you got a minute?
Kim: Sure.
Jessen: Could you help us check the modified power relays? There’s a minor flow problem.
Kim: I’d be happy to help
Kim is always happy to help 🙂
“Nothing is impossible if you want it badly enough. I want us to be together.”
“I wonder how long it’s been since I did anything that surprised you?”: At first I really liked Brel, he was all about consent and ethics and seemed a stand up guy. Then he went and murdered one of his people and that’s just not that cool. I also loved that Torres was super into her dreams but didn’t stop because the sexy stuff turned into political intrigue, she genuinely wanted to see how the story ended. Korenna’s memories are very compelling. You see her as a young woman who is in love with a boy from the “wrong side of town”, her father wants only the best for her but is also sending everyone who wants to live a certain way off world (or maybe even killing them), and eventually she buys her father’s bullshit and turns over her lover to the authorities. She later educates children that the “other people were bad and so they all died” which is totally sugarcoating genocide. The story kind of falls apart for me, though, when Torres busts into the farewell party and just starts shouting as Torres is wont to do. I’m not sure how many others on the ship knew about the dream, given her warning to Chakotay and also doctor-patient confidentiality, so it may have come out of left field for a lot of people at the party. The very end, though, is good because she offers to share the memories with one of the Enarans, who should have had it in the first place. I see a lot of those same topics play out in today’s political arena and it saddens me that we can’t live peacefully with one another all these years later. 5 deep fried vegetable dumplings for this one.
“Sacred Ground” inTL;DR: The Nechani have invited the crew to take shore leave and tour their temple when Kes gets severely injured. There is a clear separation of Church and State here and the monks refuse to talk to Janeway, so Kes is going to die unless they can figure something out. Neelix finds information on a ritual, the monks are pleased and surprised and allow Janeway to complete it. She meets her guide, who is not what she expected, and then three elderly people who ask her to wait. She instead asks to complete the ritual. She holds a rock, paints a wall, climbs a rockier wall, drinks some tea, and gets bitten by a snake to travel to the spirit world. The Spirits say she already have everything she needs to heal Kes, but the EMH can’t get anything to work. She goes back and the three elderly folks tell her what to do, she did all the other stuff because it’s what she expected a ritual to be like… now they are asking her to have faith. She does what they ask, after objection from Chakotay and Neelix, and Kes wakes up. The EMH is able to retroactively explain why Janeway’s decision worked but she’s a bit disillusioned.
Favorite Quote:
Janeway: When other children were outside playing games I was doing mathematics problems.
Guide: Mathematics. I can see why you enjoyed it. Solve a problem, get an answer. The answer’s either right or wrong. It’s very absolute.
Janeway: I’ve always found that satisfying.
Samesies, Janeway. Samesies.
“You won’t find faith or hope down a telescope You won’t find heart and soul in the stars You can break everything, down to chemicals But you can’t explain a love like ours”
“If you can explain everything, what’s left to believe in?”: First, I am absolutely horrified at the host who didn’t warn the crew that there were certain places that were off limits. Second, he was truly upset by what happened and also super surprised about the reaction from the monks. It was enough to balance out. I am suuuuuuuuuper torn on this one. On one hand, it’s a very compelling episode about the mysteries of the universe and where faith may or may not play a part in it. Janeway’s always been the explorer, always wanting to find out how things work, and in her mind there’s a process you follow to get to an answer. I liked that the Spirits took her on the journey she expected because she wouldn’t have believed them otherwise. On the other hand, I believe there are answers to every question. Some of those answers may not be understood by every single person, or some things may not be readily explained, but there’s an answer out there and it’s not just 42. I liked that this caused Janeway to pause when the EMH was describing why the thing worked when they thought it wouldn’t, because it shows just how little we really know about the universe and it helps the captain to remember she’s only human. It’s one thing to be able to reverse engineer a problem and say why something worked when you didn’t think it was going to, but it’s another thing to walk blindly into the light and have faith that what someone told you was true when someone else told you it’s false. Janeway was willing to walk through not-quite-literal fire for Kes because the crew are her children, just like my advisees are mine. 5 books staring at me, waiting to be read, but I’m so tired.
I also thoroughly felt this line: “Most of the challenges in life are the ones we create for ourselves.”
To Boldly Go Where Everyone Has Gone Before 