Date: September 17, 2020

Season 2, Episode 3

Musical Accompaniment: Instrumental rock and heavy metal

Interstellar News: Apparently Voyager is taking a page out of TNG and the season finale will be a season-spanning two-parter, so one episode today allows me to continue on the path of two a night.

TL;DR: The EMH is auto-initiated because of a ship wide red alert but no one is on board. He plays back the bridge’s log and sees Janeway ordered everyone to abandon the ship so he goes to deactivate himself but Torres arrives explaining a Kazon ship attacked. She’s also been working on holo-projectors to allow the EMH to move about the ship and transfers him to bridge where he revives Janeway. She then ships him off to the mess hall to help Neelix fight off a Kazon, but then he’s bleeding and returns to sickbay. He’s experiencing lifesigns and his program is not on file, the CMO is listed as Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. Janeway asks the computer to shut down all holographic systems and everyone disappears except for the EMH.

Suddenly Barclay appears and says Zimmerman is real and has been running a simulation that got out of control. Barclay says if Zimmerman doesn’t end the simulation, he’ll die, so he has to blow up the ship. The EMH tries to figure out if he’s for real and eventually comes to believe him when Chakotay shows up and explains the EMH was in the holodeck enjoying some time off when a radiation surge caused issues and they’re almost done, he just needs to hold on. Eventually the EMH is restored to sickbay .

Favorite Quote:

EMH: Did I program Mr. Paris to be so annoying?

Barclay: Actually, I programmed him. I modeled him after my cousin Frank.

EMH: Hmm. Computer, delete Paris.

Very satisfying indeed.

“I’m not programmed to bleed.”: This episode is a hell of a roller coaster and I am here for it. We start off with a mystery and a very snarky EMH who is totally sad no one said goodbye. This is followed by scared out of his uniform EMH when Torres breaks into sickbay but mixed with his snarkiness when he’s been kept out of the loop. At first I thought the Doctor was going to be bouncing around from disaster to disaster, just like the camera did in “Disaster“. I love that the EMH totally turned into Rapunzel in the mess hall and Neelix isn’t the one hurt, it’s just tomato paste after all. His confusion over his own life signs, the way he tries to figure out what the hell is going on, and the way all of the other crew is exactly as they should be make it an even bigger impact when they all disappear and are shown to be holograms… but not the EMH.

I was totally not prepared for a Barclay episode, and it’s wonderful that they found a way to include him as a reoccurring character. I can totally believe he has a cousin Frank that acts just like Paris… don’t we all? I also enjoyed that the EMH was super skeptical of Barclay for quite some time. He wants to cross all his “t’s” and dot all his “i’s” before exploding Voyager, and it’s exactly what any other senior officer would have done. All of the things that Barclay did, though, were very convincing. Slapping the doctor, reasoning things out with him, bringing him back to the events of “Caretaker“, and even pulling in Kes as his “wife” were all brilliant strokes of the program. The whole time I was guessing as to what could have happened and I truly thought things were over when he woke up in sickbay with Kim and Tuvok standing over him, but nooooooo there was one more twist to be had. Thankfully it was the last one and I’m sure the Doctor won’t be taking any more vacations on the holodeck for a while. I would have loved if the holo-novel he was in was about a disaster or something, but otherwise this was a very fun and twisty-turny episode and I loved it. 8 large bottles of Manhattan Special, but only the “good” kind thank you very much.

TA Out!

Date: September 15, 2020

Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2

Musical Accompaniment: Instrumental Rock

Interstellar News: I’m finally resuming Charmed and I’m almost done, just started the last season after taking a break for a few months. I better finish before they take it off Netflix on October 1, though.

“The 37’s” in TL;DR: Kim reports that’s there are traces of rust but Janeway is confused because there’s no oxygen in space, so how can there be rust? They find a 1936 Ford floating through space whose AM radio picks up an SOS from a nearby planet. On the planet they find the signal is coming from an old plane with an alien generator attached and there’s a cavern with several cryogenic containment rooms. They find one with eight people and decide to revive them and ask them what happened. The survivors are all from 1937 Earth, including Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred, a Japanese military officer, and a farmer. Fred takes them hostage but Janeway convinces Earhart to trust them and they head to the surface to look at Voyager. Chakotay and Tuvok were heading to the rescue when they’re attacked by folks in grey suits… who turn out to be humans! Apparently the Briori captured over 300 humans in 1937 and brought them to the planet to be their slaves, but there was a slave revolt and the Briori never returned. They thought the eight bodies in stasis were dead and explain to Janeway that they’ve built three wonderful cities. After a tour they offer the 37’s and the crew of Voyager to stay. The 37’s all decide to, they’ve been asleep for 400 years, but the entirety of Voyager‘s crew stays aboard to continue the mission home.

Favorite Quote:

Paris: Captain, I think I should tell you I’ve never actually landed a starship before.

Janeway: That’s all right, Lieutenant, neither have I. 

Janeway doing her best to be supportive.

“So is this an early hover car?”: This was a very fun episode. I’m so glad Janeway was the one to deliver the history of Earhart to the rest of the crew. Often you’d have Spock or Data reading the Wikipedia entry to the rest of the crew, but here it makes so much sense that a human female captain would have been inspired by Earhart, even if it was 400 years before her time. I love that Paris knew the parts to gasoline, I mean airplanes did use to run on them, and that he had a hobby that involved vintage vehicles because that’s a totally Paris thing to do. Kim was the child that everyone was educating this episode and if Janeway was from the South she’d have called him a “sweet summer child” and I would have giggled. Tuvok had the absolute best reaction when the car backfired, he whipped out his phaser like the good security chief he is.

I thought it made sense that the “37’s” decided to stay on the planet, there’s nothing for them back on Earth. All the people they knew are dead, the world they knew only exists in history books, and it’s not their mission to return to Earth 400 years too late. Yes, Voyager could use the extra bodies but you’d have to train people from scratch. It would have been cool if Earhart wanted to explore space in a starship, but it’s totally not the same feel as her airplane, I mean you can’t even feel the wind in your hair. Maybe she wanted to start life over with Fred or maybe she just wanted a rest. Either way, it was incredibly touching when Chakotay and Janeway walk into an empty cargo bay, even I teared up. I do have a few dings for this episode. Why is it ALWAYS the third planet? Why didn’t they give Kes a hat? Why didn’t they leave guards if the “alters” were so “sacred”? How did the Briori travel so quickly from the DQ to the AQ and back again, and why did they go so far for slaves? Why only people from Earth? Why only one Briori ship left and why was it destroyed? Also, it’s a “Class L” planet so how are they all breathing okay? 7 unanswered questions for me and this episode.

“Initiations” in TL;DR: Chakotay is in a shuttle craft performing a ritual to commemorate the anniversary of the death of his father. A Kazon-Ogla ship sees him in the distance and sends one of their sons off to “earn his name”. Chakotay tries reasoning, but to no avail, so he destroys the ship and beams aboard the kid, Kar. He can’t get in touch with Voyager so he contacts the Kazon ship, but they tractor beam him in. Razki, the Maje, orders Chakotay to kill Kar as that is the punishment for failure but Chakotay instead steals his shuttle craft back and invites Kar to join him, though the eventually have to transport to a Kazon training moon that’s booby-trapped with weaponry as the Kazon ship shoots at them. Voyager finally catches up with them so Tuvok and Janeway beam down to the moon and are “helped” by the Kazon while Neelix and Paris hold down the bridge. Chakotay instructs Kar to kill him as he knows the EMH can revive him, that way Kar can earn his name and return to his people. Kar, however, decides to kill Razik and leaves Haliz in charge. Kar is now known as Jal Karden and Chakotay finishes his ritual in the confines of his room.

Favorite Quote:

Chakotay: It may mean something to you to die a violent death, but I’d like to get out of this without killing or being killed.

Kar: You’d rather die in your sleep a wrinkled old man?

Chakotay: Sounds about right.

Kar is shocked, shocked I tell you!

“I ask you to continue to watch over me as you’ve always done.”: I get that the ritual needed to be completed in solitary, but his room could have been just fine. Set it up where your combadge is off, your room is locked and no one can request to even knock, and you’re golden. Also, what was Voyager off doing? Anyway, aside from that, this was a great episode. It was wonderful to see “Nog” again giving us the pain of someone who was now on the outs with their people, but eventually made a choice he thought was best for him. Chakotay shows his compassion and you almost forget why he became a Maquis until you hear him talk about the land and how people can’t possibly own it, just live with it. Neelix and Paris do a pretty great job on the bridge while the EMH continues to be hysterical about all the “junk” in his lab. I don’t really have a lot to say about this episode other than it was generally good and a wonderful way to have the crew continue to work together to help each other. It was also fantastic to see how the different Kazon sects really worked and how they have no a clue how to interact with one another. 8 hours of silence, please.

TA Out!

Date: August 15, 2020

Season 1, Episodes 14 and 15

Musical Accompaniment: I had to listen to this because it has my favorite drink and one of my favorite cat’s names in the title: Whiskey Jazz

Interstellar News: Today was a long and productive day, and tomorrow will probably be just as long and likely not as productive.

“Jetrel” in TL;DR: A Haarkonian ship carrying Dr. Jetrel hails Voyager and wants to speak to Neelix. Neelix explains that his people were at war with the Haarkonians but they detonated a weapon on one of their moons disintegrating everyone, so the Talaxians surrendered. Jetrel was the person who created the weapon. Jetrel explains that Neelix likely has a fatal disease and he wants to scan for it. After much convincing Neelix acquiesces and is found to have the disease, which Jetrel wants to cure (and also has himself). Jetrel thinks the transporter system will help him find a cure, but then he disables the EMH and tries to do something else… he is trying to bring the victims back because their DNA is still floating around. Neelix begs Janeway to try, but she and Tuvok can’t get enough power. Neelix forgives Jetrel who dies shortly after that conversation.

Favorite Quote:

Kes: So, you put your life at risk for something you believed in, and you think that makes you a coward? I don’t understand.

Neelix: It makes me a liar! I’ve lied about it all these years, to you, to Jetrel, to everyone.

Kes asking the same question I did. If you don’t stand for anything, you’ll fall for everything.

“Outnumbered and outflanked. All right then, I surrender.”: This was a gut-wrenching episode at every turn. Clearly this was meant as an allegory for what happened in real life at Hiroshima and the episode makes sure you know, several times. War is horrible and horrifying and every day I wish we could find a better way to share this planet. Neelix’s true colors came out when the chips were down, he admitted that he was angry with himself and he found it in his heart to forgive the man responsible for the development of the weapon. The problem of creating something is that someone else can always use it and sometimes that reason is not ethical, humanitarian, or even legal. At the end Jetrel admitted he has been exiled by his own government and was trying so hard to right his wrongs, he had lost everything and was trying to find balance. Kes and Neelix discussing their relationship was something I also felt was much needed, as you rarely see them together.

The hope at the end that it just might work was palatable, and hurt so much more when it wasn’t enough. It’s hard to think that there are people still suffering the cloud. There are a few things I didn’t understand, though. Why couldn’t the EMH have given Neelix the exam, I mean he’s a pretty fast learner. Also, why was the EMH unable to turn himself back on? He was supposed to have control over his on/off switch. It was awesome to see him turn himself off for the first time, it was great to see Janeway had that done for him. Speaking of Janeway, she’s waaaaaay to damn trusting. She’s an eternal optimist and sees the good in everyone, she needs someone to balance her out with some skepticism. Anyway, an otherwise excellent episode that shows us more about Neelix and how live in the DQ is not so different from that in the AQ. This episode earns 9 small, stuffed animals with personalized bandanas around their necks.

“Learning Curve” in TL;DR: Janeway is back in her holonovel when the children disappear because of power fluctuations, there’s an issue with a gel pack. The gel packs all over the ship start failing because of a bacteria from, reads my notes, cheese. Neelix made cheese so he could make macaroni and cheese for one of the crew and that got into the ventilation and then there was a virus in the bacteria. Tuvok, meanwhile, is tasked with whipping four Maquis into shape… they are not integrating well. The first session ends poorly but a right hook from Chakotay helps the second session go a little better. There’s physical training and then a war game situation that they fail. Tuvok tries to get to know the crew, but they want nothing to do with him. When the ship begins to have issues the good news is they can heat up the ship, the bad news is they all almost die. The bridge has to cut off life support and the four Maquis and Tuvok are stuck in the holodeck and it fills with gas. Tuvok saves the kid and the other three save Tuvok, so they all decide to play nice.

Favorite Quote:

Neelix: I feel that my services as Morale Officer are required.

Tuvok: I assure you, you are wrong.

For once, Tuvok was actually wrong.

“Get the cheese to Sickbay. The Doctor should look at it as soon as possible.”: I loved the mystery of the gel packs. One goes wrong, maybe it’s a Maquis plot to take over the ship? Dalby was being all mysterious and then snarky with Tuvok… mayhaps. More gel packs start to fail, Torres gets a second opinion… and the EMH was fantastic. He tries to pull HIPPA in the guise of being more understanding of his patient’s needs. Neelix was trying to be helpful and cheese, unfortunately, was the downfall of the apparently lactose intolerant gel packs. It was a mix of medical and engineering solutions that helped save the ship and the crew. Ships were likely not designed with the thought that actual cooking would go on in them and it’s no wonder what happened, happened. When your engineers don’t plan for every contingency, like being stuck 70,000 light years from home and someone wanting macaroni and cheese, then they likely did not go to an accredited engineering school.

I liked some parts of the Tuvok plot. He makes Chell do laps, he doesn’t sweat one bit after all of the physical exertion, and he delivers his lines and facial expressions just so. I wasn’t sure why Tuvok didn’t tell them Chakotay hand selected them until the very end, and even then he only tells Dalby. Tuvok or Chakotay should have explained it better, though Chakotay belting Dalby was also fantastic. Tuvok tries to get to know Dalby better during a game of pool, but I don’t understand why no one mentions his time on the Maquis ship? Shouldn’t he know them? Shouldn’t they be pissed because he betrayed them? Why are they so salty about what’s going on… they’re stuck in the DQ for fucks sake. They can’t go home so why are they making it more miserable on themselves? The more I look at this part of the plot, the more I have divided feelings about it. I spy, with my little eye, 5 red objects staring down at me.

TA Out!

Date: September 14, 2020

Season 1, Episodes 12 and 13

Musical Accompaniment: Star Trek music from 1966 – 2020

Interstellar News: Yesterday was the worst day I’ve had in a long time. Today was better but not all is well in the world. Tomorrow, however, I will finish Season 1.

“Cathexis” in TL;DR: Chakotay and Tuvok return from a mission where Tuvok has a concussion and Chakotay is brain dead. They try to head back to the nebula but Paris, Torres, and others are taken over by “the alien” that Tuvok suspected came back with them. Kes feels the presence of something on the ship but she and Tuvok are assaulted in the turbolift and now she’s unconscious. After a phaser shootout on the bridge, Torres tells Janeway that Tuvok lied and Tuvok is revealed to be the alien trying to get them back to the nebula so his people can eat the crew’s neural energy. The “alien” floating around the ship is really Chakotay’s essence trying to warn the crew from heading into the nebula. Janeway runs the scan that breaks loose the alien hold on Tuvok, they pick up the warp core, and the EMH merges Chakotay back with his consciousness and he explains what he was doing.

Favorite Quote:

Torres: How did you manage to reintegrate his consciousness?

EMH: It involved three neural transceivers, two cortical stimulators and fifty gigaquads of computer memory. I would be happy to take you through the process, but it would take at least ten hours to explain it all to you. Needless to say, it was a remarkable procedure. I would consider writing a paper about it if there were a convenient forum in which to publish it.

The EMH being super smug about his awesome accomplishment.

“I’m telling you, it wasn’t me.“: The episode begins with Janeway exploring a holonovel and then, it’s absolutely never discussed again. I completely forgot about it until I was rereading my notes and went, huh I wonder why the hell that was in there then. I loved that, for most of the episode, you think the “alien” is the things taking over people and Tuvok keeps getting picked on, but even when he’s revealed to be the bad guy he still stays in Vulcan character, it’s fantastic. I thought it was a nice touch that Torres tried to help Chakotay by using his medicine wheel and that the EMH knew what it was, though I don’t know why either of them would have known its use. I was also glad they went back to pick up the warp core, I was worried for a minute that they’d forget about that little detail.

Parris and Torres getting taken over makes you think the aliens didn’t want Voyager to go back to the nebula, which convinces Janeway they’ve got to check it out. The big Tuvok reveal is great. All the while I thought it would be easier for an alien to take over a human’s brain and thought maybe a Vulcan was too much, but it was the opposite here and Tuvok was easily taken over and the alien adapted so well no one knew anything was wrong. As soon as the EMH explained what happened to Kes, however, I knew Tuvok was the culprit… but I assumed he had be taken over. The dance of giving the EMH the ship codes and then Tuvok disabling the EMH and then Janeway being like “okay let’s go tell the crew… whack” was awesome. I was truly hoping Janeway suspected Tuvok and she wasn’t that naive, but she also didn’t see everything that we did. Kim got suspected for daydreaming and Janeway was never taken over because Chakotay didn’t want to give the actual alien any leeway. The bit about taking over Neelix and using the medicine wheel to plot a course back out of the nebula was a little far fetched, but overall a fun mystery with a twist. 6 Vulcan neck pinches for Tuvok, see how he likes it!

“Faces” in TL;DR: Voyager is headed back to pick up Torres, Paris, and Durst but can’t find them so Chakotay, Kim, and Tuvok beam down to find them. Sulan, a Vidiian surgeon, splits Torres into two people: her Klingon half and her human half). He does this because he believes Klingons can survive the phage and, if they can, he can use it to cure his people. Paris meets another Talaxian in jail who has been there for six years and Durst is taken away to be killed for his parts and skin as Sulan uses his face to try to calm Klingon Torres. Human Torres is a hot mess but does try to bring down the force field. When she’s caught, Klingon Torres saves her and they rant about their differences and then decide to work together. Chakotay is altered to look like a Vidiian, he rescues Paris, and the Torres halves work together to bring down the force field. The Klingon half is killed but the EMH is able to gather her DNA so as to restore Torres because she can’t live without her Klingon self.

Favorite Quote:

Neelix: It is zesty, isn’t it. I tried following the recipe in the computer’s databank but it seemed so bland, so I took the liberty of spicing it up a bit. Call it plomeek soup a la Neelix.

Tuvok: I must point out that if you take the liberty of changing a time-honored recipe you are hardly presenting a taste of home.

Tuvok is not wrong.

Today is a good day to die: “I know I’m the first Klingon you’ve ever seen, so I’ll tell you that Klingons find honor as warriors on the battlefield, not as guinea pigs in a laboratory.”

“Courage doesn’t mean that you don’t have fear. It means that you’ve learnt to overcome it.”: So we have a callback to “The Enemy Within“, kind of. In TOS Kirk learns that he must balance both sides because they both help him in equal measure be the captain he is. Here Torres learns that both of her sides give her strength and she needs to learn how to channel what she needs in order to get through whatever situation she’s in. It’s a great device for Torres to really do a self introspection and come to terms with her two halves. She blames her Klingon half for all the trouble and her temper, but I know plenty of human women with a temper (she says as she avoids looking at a mirror) and it’s not so far fetched that her Klingon self could have been the engineering whiz and her human self was the “punch first, punch second” kind of woman. I thought both Torres depictions were spot on, though I could tell she was having trouble talking with the prosthetic teeth. I also liked that no one asked the Talaxian if he knew Neelix. I absolutely hate when people hear I’m from New Jersey and ask if I know a specific person they know… dude, Jersey is a big damn state.

I am pissed, however, that Janeway didn’t bring the fury of Voyager down on the Vidiians. She made a badass threat in “Phage” and then didn’t back it up?!?! She didn’t get them on the view screen and ream them a new one. She didn’t order all of the prisoners to be saved, what kind of Starfleet operation is that? I mean they could have used some new crew members or at least transported them somewhere safely. Also, no one mentions Durst at all? He was even in the last episode, he spoke a few lines and everything, and there’s no nothing about HIS FACE BEING USED and his organs being stolen? This could have been better as a follow up episode and it just fell short. 5 tacos for you, but every one is missing one thing that you ordered.

TA Out!