@MLClark My Voyager binge has begun!
S2E13 "Prototype," directed by Jonathan Frakes, meaning it will be a step up. And it was.
It was the typical trope teaching the consequence of violating the Prime Directive, but Jonny's directing made it interesting. He found some thoughtful ways to shoot a scene, e.g. dialogue off-camera while POV focuses elsewhere.
Voyager must have a Shuttle factory aboard, because they sure do lose a lot of them ...
SO MANY SHUTTLES.
And the worst part is that this series also implements the idea of replicator "rations", which is both an annoying deterioration of a key part of the universe, and an added reason to SAVE YOUR SHUTTLES.
Yes, scarcity economics creates plot points - LD uses them all the time in S1&2 - but makes a real hash of the world-building.
I'm enjoying S4 more than I thought I would. Just finished "Year of Hell". SO glad the writers didn't try to make a season out of it!
@MLClark Part of the original VOY premise was finite resources. We've never seen a crew before struggle with losing resources. That was the promise, but the production team never followed through.
The BSG reboot did, though.
@MLClark I found on Archive.org an early draft of the VOY Season 1 bible, if you want to read along ... Janeway is still "Elizabeth."
@MLClark S2E14 "Alliances."
Wow, this episode certainly speaks to this week's current events.
VOY returns to its roots -- the Federation/Maquis infighting, the Kazon, and a new "frenemy" called the Trabe.
The only cringe I had was the "homage" to "Godfather III" when the Trabe ship appears outside the conference window to open fire on the Kazon tribal leaders.
This was the fourth straight episode where Kes was absent or had a minimal presence.
That one would have been better as a two-parter: more time for the characters and conflicts to breathe, and less rushing the story in ways that put ridiculous words in Chakotay's mouth.
They still haven't figured out how to use him as anything more than a vague prop for indigeneity at this juncture, and often in some extremely insulting ways, like when he's used to encourage a people to hurry to forgiveness for past atrocity.
(But yes, very resonant for today!)
@MLClark Yes, I agree about Chakotay. They don't know what to do with him. The same with Kes.
That's an interesting suggestion to make it a two-parter. It would have benefitted from more air to breathe.
Lazy character and setting development... and in that way, early VOY is such an excellent teaching tool for storytelling.
Have you ever seen Bubba Ho-Tep? I often point to that film as a perfect example of how it *does not matter* how bonkers your character and plot premises are. You can have an old forgotten Elvis & a Black JFK fighting mummies in a southern retirement home...
But if you commit to your premises, you can make something incredibly poignant out of that story, too.
@MLClark Good morning ... I have not heard of "Bubba Ho-Tep." I just looked it up. "Bonkers" is the right word, and in a good way!
I like the premise; but I wonder if anyone has done a story about a group of primary characters who really are famous people that faked their deaths to regain their anonymity and go off on adventures.
My next VOY episode will be "Threshold." 🦎 🦎
Off to go cycling ...
@MLClark S2E15 "Threshold" 🦎 🦎
Um, okay ... In a way, today is an appropriate day to watch this episode, because it's the 76th anniversary of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier.
Chuck, however, did not mutate into a lizard.
The story was pitched by Michael De Luca, at the time a horror writer. The teleplay was written by Brannon Braga, which tells you all you need to know.
Why they couldn't just go warp 9.95 to return home is beyond me ...
@MLClark Out of curiosity, I looked at what the Season 1 TNG writers guide said about warp speed ... I don't think "Threshold" technically violated this rule, but it did "warp" it a bit ... <rimshot>
My favourite summary of this episode is "Kathryn Janeway and Tom París become deadbeat parents in the Delta Quadrant." 🙂
@MLClark Torres told Paris he would join famous names in history such as Orville Wright, Neil Armstrong, and Zefram Cochrane.
I thought, "Hey, wait a minute, what about Chuck Yeager, the guy you're copying?!" Harrumph.
They also borrowed from "Frankenstein" (Paris on the table) and "King Kong" (Paris carrying away Janeway to mate).
At least this show spawned two directors in Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill.
Robert Picardo is on the Planetary Society Board of Directors.
@MLClark #StarTrek VOY S2E16 "Meld" ...
"If you can't control the violence, the violence will control you."
This was very well done, and appropriate for a week where we are wrestling with human nature's evolution from its predatory origins.
Just a smart episode all the way through. No significant oversights, although some nits along the way.
Brad Dourif played a similar character on B5, a serial killer who'd been mindwiped. That episode aired three months before "Meld."
I was going to call attention to the B5 connection, but in another way!
That episode bothered me because it *forces* viewers to accept that capital punishment is the most "logical" response by putting that point of view into Tuvok's character.
Now, Vulcan world-building is a mess - you have fights to the death in mating rituals in TOS and rehabilitation camps for mass murderers in DSC - but this idea also shows up in B5, where Sheridan and Garibaldi echo the sentiment often. /x
@MLClark Re capital punishment and Vulcans ... In TOS "Journey to Babel," Spock said Sarek could perform Tal-Shaya, an ancient means of execution. Sometimes Vulcans rationalize behavior by finding a "logical" reason for it.
Vulcans really struggle to control their emotions. They're more emotional than we are. As the EMH said, there's something wrong with that.
To be honest, Sheridan and Garibaldi reflect their actors' opinions! JMS heard Jerry say "electric bench" and wrote it into an episode.
To be clear, a lot of folks on the "left" do this, too, in Trek.
Adira's coming out with pronouns was supposed to be "progressive" in Discovery, but all it did was give us a future where coming out is still a stressful ordeal... when, ah, it really freaking shouldn't be by then!
Then there was SNW having T'Pring read a recent book by Maggie Nelson to learn more about human sexuality a few hundred years out.
Sometimes writers just *cannot* get out of their temporal moment. 🙃
@MLClark S2E17 "Dreadnought" directed by LeVar Burton ...
Seems to be loosely inspired by "Fail Safe."
Interesting premise, but flawed execution. As is typical with Trek during this era, too many no-win situations are technobabbled out.
I wondered why B'Elanna didn't just beam in with a bomb the first time as a backup.
The second time, she had a phaser, so clearly weapons can get through. Why didn't she just set the phaser to Vaporize?
Some arc-y subplots continue with Paris and Jonas.
@MLClark S2E18 "Death Wish" written by the father/son duo Michael and Shawn Piller.
I'm always a sucker for a good Q episode. In my opinion, this one is the best.
The Pillers found a way to examine all angles of assisted suicide. In the end, it came down to the rights of the individual, no matter how odious to the state.
Gerrit Graham found a way to portray a Q separate from De Lancie. A+ performance.
De Lancie and Kate Mulgrew are longtime friends. I enjoyed watching them together.
@MLClark S2E19 "Lifesigns"
A fairly innocuous episode about holographic love.
There was an interesting moment when Denara's hologram tries to poison her Vidiian body, but the EMH fixes that so no harm done.
Arc-y subplots continue with Paris's insubordination and Jonas's treason with the Kazon.
@MLClark S2E20 "Investigations" brings to an end the Tom Paris and Michael Jonas arcs. Fairly standard stuff.
The novelty is the "Mornings with Neelix" show. It's been clear in some episodes that sharing information hasn't been command's strong point. This way it comes from an independent, if annoying, source.
How convenient someone can just steal a shuttle and fly away, especially an alien shuttle they've never seen before. Also some conveniences for time purposes to move the story along.
@MLClark S2E21 "Deadlock"
"We're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job." -- Janeway
A typical Brannon Braga script -- alternate timeline, hit the reset button at the end.
But ... it's so well directed and acted, and because the stakes are doubled as two Voyagers are at risk, that I can overlook the Braga cliché.
We see a full-on Vidiian harvest. It's not pretty. That helped sell it too.
Lots of technobabble to drive the plot, but still one of my favorite VOY episodes.
Re: "Dreadnought" - This episode was for me a sharp reminder of all the wasted potential of having so many Maquis on VOY. So many terrific plot ideas and character arcs frittered away, especially with B'Elanna and Chakotay.
Re: "Investigations" - Neelix's show might be the closest Star Trek has ever come to addressing the world of social media / influencer culture. It's kind of cute how much this future is completely bereft of human inclinations to gossip / cause trouble online.
@MLClark S2E22 "Innocence," AKA "The Curious Case of the Prime Directive."
We start with a first contact, a species that wears nylon stockings over their heads. The Drayans look like they're about to rob a bank.
The other subplot is yet another shuttle crash. Tuvok finds three children. As a father, he's a work in progress.
Of course, the two subplots intersect.
Janeway and Tuvok stomp all over the Prime Directive.
It turns out the children are elderly. The Drayans age in reverse. 🙄
@MLClark S2E23 "The Thaw."
"How does one negotiate with an emotion?"
"Fear exists for one purpose -- to be conquered."
This was a nice little bottle show. A "bottle" show is one that takes place on standing sets so there's no expense from building new sets.
In "The Thaw," we have one set, a simulation where a clown and various circus creatures live off the fear from their captives.
Marvin Rush directed. He's normally a cinematographer, which explains some creativity in filming scenes.
@MLClark Speaking of fear ... Next up is "Tuvix." 😱
I maintain that there's no technical reason in a world with transporter buffer technology that Tuvix couldn't have lived alongside Tuvok and Neelix. An extra crewmate, at best! A new sentience allowed to go off ship and live his best life, at worst. Ethical crisis diverted!
But I also finished "Mortal Coils" recently, so I'm too thankful for how well they depicted suicidal behaviour to be *that* grumpy about VOY setting up a scenario the show's budget couldn't ethically resolve.
@MLClark As for transporter technobabble ... I think they established at one point that a pattern in the buffer would degrade over time. That was why Scotty had to set up that feedback loop in "Relics." Franklin didn't make it because technobabble so his pattern degraded.
But in SNW M'Benga keeps his daughter in the Sickbay transporter buffer, so go figure.
They wouldn't have to keep it for long. Just enough to duplicate it. In a world of replicators & transporter buffers SO MANY plots could be resolved by exploring that technology more...
And conversely, so many more interesting ethical dilemmas could be explored. (Ergo why I said "diverted", not "averted" - the show could have cultivated some more interesting ethical quagmires for Tuvix if he'd hung about - or left us with a different ethical puzzle, if he'd decided to leave.)
@MLClark Well, let me watch the episode again and I'll get back to you. It's been years since I've seen it.
Transporters and their replicator cousins always have posed a writing problem. They can serve as a handy deus ex machina. TNG did an episode where Pulaski was de-aged using DNA from a strand of hair. They violated their own rule saying the transporter can't rebuild someone -- otherwise, who would need a sickbay? Just run an injured person through the transporter.
:) That's why I mentioned "Mortal Coils" - the one where Neelix is healed with Borg tech. Now, they gave themselves a wee out - the brain's neural circuitry needs to be intact - but otherwise this episode's main conceit is almost as bad as VOY's episode on ancient Terran dinosaurs: a wild addition to Treklore that we never hear about again.
But if Seven can bring people back from the dead? That should've been a game-changer!
(I would have been *so* annoying in a writers' room.)
@MLClark You're way ahead of me so I'll have to race to catch up to "Mortal Coil."
I've heard that Trek writers rooms back then were fairly horrific, VOY in particular. It got better as the series wound down and the network was distracted with ENT.
Borg tech is another deus ex machina. It's just lazy writing.
But Paramount made a lot of money selling product with technobabble. I know, because I wrote some of it. It was popular with the fans back then. Writers and actors, not so much.
I would've done *so* many things differently with Seven. It's especially absurd that she remembers Borg tech, but can't pull upon the Collective's store of individual experiences of camaraderie to avoid all the faux pas.
There could've been transitional plots to her individuality that involved filtering out the other voices she'd experienced for so long that she needs help "finding herself" among false memories of everyone else.
So many great character ideas with weak execution.
@MLClark Okay, I poured a vodka shot and watched S2E24 "Tuvix" ... This is going to span multiple posts ...
My memory was this was a stinker, but it was much better than I expected.
A lot of it is just technobabble mumbo jumbo, some of which defies logic. If the orchid causes organics to merge, why did their uniform merge?
I was also annoyed that they beamed up the Away Team after an anomaly without running a test first. In NASA speak, we'd use a mass simulator. (1/x)
@MLClark But then I realized the MacGuffin only worked with organics, so it wouldn't have scrambled a mass simulator.
Tom Wright did a great job portraying the two merged characters. Researching online, apparently the script went through a lot of rewrites.
It appears the story idea was bought from a pitch, then written by a staffer. That's not unusual, especially near the end of the season, when they're mentally exhausted. That's also why we saw another bottle show, to save money. (2/x)
@MLClark Cliff Bole and Marvin Rush did a good job with directing and cinematography. I noticed that, when Janeway comes on the bridge to order Tuvix to Sickbay, they switched to a handheld camera to create the sense of panic and confusion. Renting a handheld is an extra expense, so good for them.
They raised lots of moral dilemmas. What is conscience? Did Tuvix have the right to live? In the end, Janeway made a decision, but EMH refused to perform the procedure, a nice touch. (3/x)
@MLClark So I still think the idea is preposterous, but Trek history is sprinkled with preposterous ideas in the name of "examining the human condition," to use a Roddenberry phrase.
Kirk was split into two people by a transporter malfunction ("The Enemy Within") so I guess VOY can go in the opposite direction.
Anyway ... Two episodes left in S2. The writing seems to be improving because they're buying pitch scripts from fans who know best what a Star Trek story is. (4/4)
Tom Wright was terrific. Great stage presence. And glad you enjoyed "Tuvix" more on rewatch!
Great note about the story coming from a pitch, too. It's fascinating how often fans have more of a sense of what makes for a solid ST quandary. (Speaks to that writers' room climate, I suppose!)
Just wanted to say that I *did* stop halfway through S4 when you said you were catching up - so no rush! There's plenty of other media noise for me to put on between writing sessions & classes!
@MLClark Back on the VOY treadmill ... S2E25 "Resolutions."
Forced proximity is one of the more common arrows in a writer's quiver.
We never learn how it was that Janeway and Chakotay caught the same virus. The rule about the captain staying on the ship gets violated at the writer's convenience. But both commanding officers?!
The "B" plot with Captain Tuvok is familiar. My friend Judy Burns explored this in "The Tholian Web," when Kirk was thought lost and Spock had to take command. (1/x)
@MLClark I was reminded of one of Kate Mulgrew's early complaints, that the UPN suits wanted Janeway to be more "feminine." So here they are roughing it, but she wears only dresses, wears lipstick and makeup, and we get a bathtub scene. (Doesn't Chakotay take baths?!)
I felt like Jeri Taylor could have pushed this further. Janeway was being a "cold fish" while Chakotay clearly had an attraction. But it's barely discussed, and only after the worst backrub I've ever seen ... (2/x)
@MLClark And, of course, it's totally forgotten in future episodes. This can be excused by rationalizing that the two commanding officers involved in a relationship would create all sorts of potential conflicts of interest. But not even a private moment in future episodes ...
The filming location piqued my curiosity. My first thought was Griffith Park, but the hills didn't look right. Memory Alpha says "Angeles National Forest," which is a lot of territory ... (4/x)
@MLClark I thought it might be one of the filming ranches that studios have up in the local mountains. Oh well.
Reading through Memory Alpha, I find my suspicions about exploring the romance are right. The writing staff seemed to conclude that any romance would take much longer to evolve, given the established personalities.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Resolutions_(episode)
Anyway, on to the season finale, which is a cliffhanger. (5/5)
@MLClark And extra for experts ... I did a quick Google on "forced proximity" and found this Writers Digest article for romance writers, "Forced Proximity: 50 Reasons for Your Characters to Be Stuck Together."
Alien virus is not on the list. Perhaps it should be. 🤔
@MLClark S2E26 "Basics, Part 1."
An excellent production, but once again based on the premise that the Voyager command staff do something massively stupid.
How many times have we seen them fall for one of Seska's traps? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice ... It's a good thing there's no one here in the Delta Quadrant to relieve me of command. 🙄
Janeway asked Kim, "Do you see any evidence that this is a trap?" Kim said no ... (1/x)
@MLClark THAT'S THS POINT. All the evidence is pointing you in one direction. Any intelligence analyst (I'm looking at you, Tuvok) should tell you that evidence is never 100%.
The captain who decided to terminate Tuvix decides to risk the entire crew and ship to go chasing an infant created from Chakotay's DNA without permission, obviously as bait. They've already used it as bait once. Fool me twice ...
Ensign Suder's redemption arc begins. Brad Dourif is excellent as always. (2/x)
@MLClark I'm a bit surprised that Tuvok is still melding with him unsupervised. In "Meld" he was affected by Suder's homicidal instincts.
My whining aside, production as a whole continues to improve. I really liked the camera work and lighting. I'm always on the lookout for use of a handheld camera, because those are rented and cost a production $$$. There's a desert scene where they build a rail line to dolly the camera as the crew walked across the plain. More $$$ for a quality shot. (3/x)
@MLClark Janeway divided up the castaways into four teams. She put Neelix in charge of one team. 🤔 😳 😱
Robert Picardo is developing all sorts of nuance in his performance ... His accidental beaming into space was humorous, but there's no sound in space so his screaming made no sense. It would have been funnier if he'd screamed for help but nothing came out; he'd get frustrated.
Anyway, on to S3. I have to catch up to someone who's always one step ahead of me. (4/x)
@MLClark Extra for experts ... The alien planet scenes were filmed near Lone Pine CA, about 200 miles north of Paramount Studios. That was a long drive to take such a big cast for a couple scenes.
The general vicinity was where Star Trek V filmed the Nimbus III scenes, according to IMDB.
(5/5)
@MLClark S3E1 "Basics, Part 2"
We begin with a Jurassic Park moment. Hogan, a recurring character, gets carried off by a space worm.
The second crew member to die was portrayed by Trek's resident stuntman, Dennis "Danger" Madalone. He did stunts starting with TNG through ENT. If you see him in a scene, odds are he's going to get his butt kicked. When I saw him enter the cave with the rest of Chakotay's team, I knew he was next on the casualty list.
Here's what Danger looks like ... (1/x)
@MLClark The episode is a product of its time (1996). Chakotay calls himself an Indian, although today we'd say an indigenous person, or his tribal name. They avoided the cliché of him making the bows and arrow, starting a fire by rubbing two sticks, etc. He fails miserably and admits he could never do it. Tuvok makes the weapons.
A bit of a swerve in that even Seska didn't know that her infant's father was actually Culluh. The EMH scanned the infant and found Kazon DNA. (2/x)
@MLClark Seska gets killed off. We never really find out what was her ultimate agenda, which made her somewhat two-dimensional. I'm sure she wants to command the Kazon sect, but the Kazon are so misogynistic they'd never accept a female leader, so she had to manipulate Culluh. Without knowing her ultimate goal, we're left with someone who's just bad to be bad. (3/x)
@MLClark Once again, excellent direction and cinematography. I liked the camera angle chosen when Suder is in Sickbay looking at the EMH on a montor. Kolbe chose to have the camera behind the monitor at an angle where we saw only Suder's Betazoid black eyes, not the rest of his face, making them starker and also emphasizing his borderline sociopathy.
There's nothing particularly outstanding about the story. It resolves as expected. But a fun watch. (4/4)
@MLClark Good morning ... I wanted to add one more observation.
The Prime Directive remains quite fluid. In S2E25 "Resolutions," Janeway and Chakotay are left on a Class M planet, where they build a habitat and (apparently) leave behind state-of-the-art equipment.
Remember in TWOK when Carol Marcus said, "There can't be so much as a microbe"?
In S3E1 "Basics" there's a primitive indigenous people. Yeah, the crew was stranded against their will, but they interact with the natives anyway.
Re: that episode -
I laughed at your assumption of Janeway being a cold fish, because I definitely read that episode the way the writers intended. She was set up as a traditionalist from the jump, man and dog waiting for her at home, and loving Victorian lit. Chakotay *does* take her for platonically intimate R&R at the end of a later ep, but it was clear to me that they were both working up to her being ready to let her husband go. Weird to see monogamists in Starfleet, though!
@MLClark Well, that's a good point. I've dated women who were "cold fish." I remember one who told me, "Sex is just a biological urge for animals." Harrumph.
You make a good point about her being a traditionalist, e.g. her Victorian holonovel.
But then there was S1E9 "Prime Factors" where she's flirty with the alien who has technology they need.
As you know, it takes writers a while to figure out a character, e.g. Spock smiling in "The Cage."
And Data using a contraction from day one. :)
Funnily enough, I have known fellows (as friends) who are also not big on sex! Long before the term asexual became popularized, folks have always struggled to find sexual compatibility in this strange culture of ours. But I really feel for the fellows who grew up with a stereotype of being "ready for it" all the time, when they'd really rather be doing anything else.
Humans are weird & diverse - but that's often what makes us fun! 😉
@MLClark One last thought about the "Basics" two-parter ... It was a great team-building exercise. 😊
I think a few weeks playing "Survivor" on that planet put an end to Starfleet vs. Maquis.
@MLClark S3E2 "Flashback."
This is the ST6/VOY crossover.
You know how I am about episodes written by Brannon Braga. It's the typical technobabble virus excuse for time travel.
That said, it's fun enough, although it does have some problems. Most notably, Braga killed off Valtane when he was most definitely alive at the end of ST6.
Uhura was supposed to be in the episode but Nichelle declined, so Braga had to write five minutes of filler. (1/2)
Seska's character was a waste, and the show dated itself in not treating Chakotay's sexual violation more seriously - but the laziest part of all?
How the writing takes for granted that sexism would look the same in the Delta quadrant, for this ridiculous pseudo-injun species design: the Kazon a set of hopelessly primitive infighting tribes that's also *everywhere*, with enough good relations that settled worlds trust their views about Voyager.
*Such* a waste of a new quadrant!
@MLClark Agree about Chakotay's violation. Meh. If this were TNG, we'd have an episode where he's in therapy with Counselor Troi.
As for "infighting tribes," there are so many examples of that around the planet just today, never mind in history. One might as well equate the Kazon to the Palestinians, or the Balkans. Or the U.S. Republican Party, given the events of last week. 🙄
@MLClark Also agree about Seska. She was the "scheming vixen" cliche so common around that time.
I think we're about to outrun the Kazon, so hopefully that's that.
@MLClark We also have a very cute Earth monkey, but that never really pays off either.
I found myself wondering what would have happened if Chakotay had "crossed the line," Janeway rebuffed him, and it grew into resentment? Gene's vision of "free love" in the future, I guess, means that 24th Century humans accept such gestures as natural, and would respect a rejection. But, again, not explored. The emphasis was more on Janeway not wanting to let go ... (3/x)