Fifth Season - Part I
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Ratings System
Night
Night leaves so many openings for easy insults that one suspects
it of being self-mocking. We'll give it the benefit of the doubt
and not take the open shots provided. (You know things like "Why
don't we consider this a two year vacation". Yeah, wish us viewers
could take one, and other things likening the Void to the series.
Too easy... we will not succumb.)
The opening holodeck fantasy we found most amusing. It captured quite
well the atmosphere of the cheesy fifties television sci-fi. It was
also quite a consistent character trait for Paris to go in for that
kind of thing. Darn the Doctor for interrupting, we'd have been
reasonably content with this as the entire episode.
The concept that these folks would be bored silly after two months
in the void wasn't hard for us to get our minds around. They're
accustomed to having their lives in grave danger once a week,
being shot at, invaded, jerked around by anomalies and generally
living off of adrenaline. Not surprising they would consider normal
inactivity burdensome. The Captain's depression was a little more
surprising. Though we suppose if she had to choose a time, then
one when they weren't in danger or needed decisions to be made,
then she couldn't have picked better.
We liked the moment in the briefing room where Neelix suggests he
learn something about the tactical station. Tuvok looks like he'd
rather eat nails, and Chakotay smothers a laugh. Makes the later
scene where Chakotay asks Tuvok's advice have a little more tension
since we have just been reminded of their feud.
We think Harry Kim deserves some sort of meaningless award or medal
for being crewmember mellow enough to have made it through the void
even if it had taken two years. (Nice compostion for Clarinet BTW,
constructive use of his time.) Neelix, of course, was handling it
the worst. We can't really complain, since less Neelix is better
in our book, but his nihilphobia wasn't really seen through, made
an issue of, or otherwise followed up. We just had that "And..."
feeling about that aspect.
Tuvok's subtle little sense of humor always delights us. "The
view from my quarters has been less than stellar," indeed. Somehow
he only seems to come out with those jokes when no one will get
them. And okay, we have to confess to a snort of amusement when
Seven disabled the holorobot. But if Paris wanted authenticity
he really shouldn't be asking Seven to play.
Raise your hand if you thought that Voyager might be stuck in
nothingness for two years. No? Well, you were right, before long
they're attacked and find themselves in the middle of a conflict
between two other species. It must have been comfortingly familiar
for them. Janeway is practically frothing at the mouth to get back
into the thick of things. As usual she quickly chooses up sides
according to her moral compass. (And the relative cleanliness of
the two sides).In effect repeating the decision she's been agonizing
over all episode. Well, there's her answer. She'd do it all over
again.
Perhaps repeated exposure to Theta Radiation causes terminal
stupidity. The Void aliens never thought maybe concentrating
on ways of destroying the vortex might be a good idea. Just a
"we don't know how, you Voyager shmucks do it for us". And
Emck, the alien Captain, passing up the opportunity of a lifetime.
Can you say "exclusive patent". No he can't. Though, hasn't
the Voyager gotten a lot less picky about who they hand out
their technology to.
Let's not even talk about Janeway's attempt at self-sacrifice,
as it did seem to be merely a ploy for an expression of affection
from her crew, mutinous though it was. Good thing for her that
they had the brilliant idea of shooting from the other side
being just as good as shooting from this side.
Of course, it worked. And, oh wondrous joy, they saw the stars
again. Liked the way Janeway asks Kim what he sees as if
he's the barometer of reality. Guess he probably is.
Hurrah they're out of the void and back to harrassing various
innocent species in the Delta Quadrant.
Rating:
Raktajino
Applicable Rule of Acquisition: #59 - Free Advice is Seldom Cheap
Top Ten Things The Voyager Crew Did To Keep Busy in The Void
10) Roasted weenies over the warp core
9) Spread rumors about Chakotay and Janeway
8) Lego sculptures
7) Watched "Gilligan's Island"... again!
6) Beer chugging contests on the holodeck with the safeties off
5) Listened to Tuvok's comedy act in the crew lounge
4) Every once in a while shouted "Look! A Star!"
3) Spread rumors about Seven of Nine and the Replicator
2) Counted the shuttlecraft
And the number one thing the Voyager Crew did to keep busy in The Void:
1) Shadow puppets
"I assure you Mr. Paris, that looks nothing like a bunny." -- Tuvok
Drone
Where Voyager often seems to excel is the episodes where they focus
on a guest actor in a highly emotional story. (Brad Dourif as
Suder pops to mind.) This is one of those. But in order to accomodate
the premise, they have to start by doing something foolish and
sacrificing a shuttlecraft. No biggie. They always do that. But
why doesn't anyone ever say, "can't we look at the deadly nebula
from over here where it's safe and not risk a valuable shuttlecraft,
Captain?" But, no, no one ever says that.
Anyhow. We liked Seven practicing her smiling, but we didn't like
the Doctor's sudden obsession (just as suddenly dropped) for
holo-photography. Is this some sort of fad? It's hard to believe,
that a static, though three-dimensional, presentation is state of
the art, yet two more episodes this season will mention it. In any
case, the camera seemed to have little or no point, except to set
up a joke with Seven.
Do emergency beam outs ever go well? Well, at least there was no
pattern buffer problem, just the old filters this time. We suppose
it could have gone worse. Seven's nanoprobes could have gotten mixed
up with the holocamera, and then where what would we have? Steven
SpielBorg.
Nice imagery in this episode. The holo-emitter sprouting, the nifty
green borg aura, etc. Especially like the babyborg's eyeview of the
Voyager crew peering at him.
We didn't think much of the comic relief in this episode. The
Doctor's anxiety over his emitter, making him go so far as to
peek into B'Elanna's shower, was only irritating, not amusing.
We did find B'Elanna's later line funny, "They don't assimilate
anymore, they just show up and look helpless." Good one.
Okay, we are getting to the stuff we did like, which was most of
the episode. The Drone for one. J. Paul Boehmer did an excellent
job portraying the innocent but dangerous Borg. He did manage to
make us care what happened to him, even though we could guess he
was doomed.
We're not big Seven of Nine of fans, but we enjoyed her character
development in this episode. There she is practicing the appearance
of emotion in the opening scene and journeying to the end of the
episode where raw emotion is now apparent. And it was a well-handled
journey: First her uncertainty that she even wants the Drone to come
into being; (We will avoid drawing a comparison to an abortion debate,
though it could easily be done, and doubtless was intended.) Second
the scene where she directly interfaces with the drone, and first
utters the line "You are hurting me." and, by the way, where the Drone
learns to be concerned with another's pain; Third her growing pride
in her offspring's abilities, including being able to socialize;
Fourth, the two of them sharing a moment of apprehension before the
battle; Fifth the mixture of pride and concern when he volunteers to
destroy the Borg ship, and of course, sixth, the capper, when One
chooses to die, and Seven repeats her earlier line, "You are hurting
me." It was touching, and we aren't usually touched.
It was appropriate that both One's parents should be with him when
he died. In fact if we have a complaint it's that the Doctor was
not enough involved, and was only used as comic relief rather than
being involved in the dramatic situation that developed. Though
we did have an extra second of concern when the Borg ship blew
up, not because One might die, but because the Doctor might not
get his holo-emitter back. Ewww. Guess they had to go in and
remove that.
Oh, yes, one other suggestion. Voyager should run straight out
and buy a baby name book. They are so bad at naming things.
The Doctor never did get around to picking a name. Species 8472
would be a little easier to remember with a descriptive name.
Seven scorned the whole name thing and stuck with her designation.
And now the best they can come up with is "One"? You know on
TNG, at least Geordi made the effort to come up with something
for his pet Borg, though Hugh wasn't much more imaginative.
Rating:
Cardassian Kanar
Applicable Rule of Acquisition:177 Know your
enemies, but do business with them always.
Top Ten Things You Get When You Cross a Borg
10) With a Talaxian: A bad cook with a bad attitude
9) With a Ferengi: "Sales Resistance is Futile"
8) With a shuttlecraft: One less Borg
7) With a Klingon: "It is a good day to Assimilate"
6) With a choreographer: A really bad musical
5) With a buffet: SmorgasBorg
4) With a tribble: Lots of hungry little Borgs
3) With a Cardassian: A Borg that wants to tell you his problems
2) With a Microsoft CEO: No Difference.
And the number one thing you get when you cross a Borg:
1) With the Titanic: An IceBorg
"Captain Janeway, I regret to inform you that we have
struck an Iceborg." -- Tuvok
Extreme Risk
Rating:
Applicable Rule of Acquisition:
Top Ten List
In the Flesh
Rating:
Applicable Rule of Acquisition:
Top Ten List
Once Upon A Time
Rating:
Applicable Rule of Acquisition:
Top Ten List
Tea with T 'n' T
Do you think we're wrong about these episodes? Do you have a
nit to pick with one complaint we didn't have? Do you absolutely
agree with us? Well, step into our parlor and have a cuppa. Tell
us all about it. Please come in!
Number of people who thought Janeway should just go around
things:
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