Comment Stream

Re: VOY S5: Once Upon a Time

Good episode. Not great. The pacing was weird because we were away from the Delta Flyer haps for like 25 minutes and you're kind of wondering what's going on with them. I liked Flotter & Co. I really enjoyed them when I was a kid and still like them now, haha.

I feel like this is the Neelix we should have had the whole time. Someone who is crushed on the inside and copes by being bubbly and silly on the outside. Someone who doesn't have the skills of a Starfleet officer but is still sincere and really cares about those around him. Not the jealous, annoying, childish guy we had for the first 3 seasons. Neelix should be child-like, not childish.

Wildman should have died for the reasons Jammer said above.

Re: VOY S5: In the Flesh

I really enjoyed this episode, but only for entertainment reasons. I can't say I agreed with the show "neutering" 8472 as Justin pointed out, and the concept of them being just as scared of us as we are of them was a bit...old. And why did they give them the nanoprobe technology? Isn't that kind of a bad idea?

Anyways, the old guy made me laugh a lot, and I really liked watching Chakotay going under cover.

3.5 stars

Re: VOY S5: Night

People who are saying that Jammer is being harder on Voyager because he just likes DS9 better, instead of judging Voyager episodes based on their own merits, here me out on this:

I watched DS9 and Voyager side by side from ages 8 to 12. I LOVED Voyager, and I thought DS9 was ok.

Now I'm 30 and watching them all, and I went in saying, "seriously, Voyager is the best series. I love how they get put through the ringer, and they meet all these new species, etc etc"

But now I find, Voyager episodes almost always have the same problem: They usually start with a good idea, but then it's got too many flaws to take seriously, or they don't explore the good idea enough, or they skip over interesting possibilities, or the execution just makes no sense. The not making sense thing has been a big problem for me. I pause it several times an episode to say, "wait a minute, how did they accomplish x if they just said y like, last episode." or things like that.

And I always want to get into it because I like the good idea it started with! But it rarely goes anywhere that I care about.

With the exception of Seven of Nine and the Doctor (and Kes during her time on the show), Voyager hasn't really developed its characters and their backstories. This episode, I didn't mind it, but wow they only spent 2 minutes on Janeway's depression. The show is too scared to commit to anything.

I was immediately caught off guard watching the second episode in the series, and noticing that no one seemed to consider it a big deal that they were 70 years from home. The second episode was about whether it would be a good idea to make B'Elanna the chief engineer or not. I actually really enjoyed this episode, funny enough. But again, the lack of impact that this event had on the crew, not only threw me off, but it set the tone for the entire series: Voyager would not be about feelings.

And this is why I defend Jammer's continued comparisons to DS9 because while it is not perfect, DS9 gives generous amounts of time to developing its characters and their feelings. And as a person who went in thinking Voyager was great and DS9 was just ok, I can say it's not bias that makes me so disappointed in Voyager. It's the constant lack of character development, repercussions and normal cause & effect.

I really want to see people's inner struggles. That's what I'm in it for most of the time when I watch a series. So DS9 wins.

Interesting sidenote: While Jammer and I are of the same mind re: Voyager vs DS9, I don't agree with a lot of the points he talks about in his DS9 reviews. Haha!

PS: Whenever ST does deal with personal repercussions, I call it a "crying in the mud" scene, because of the absolutely fantastic TNG episode "Family." All shows need to have episodes like this once in awhile, where a character has to take some reflective time to accept what has happened to them.

Re: VOY S4: Unforgettable

This episode made a concerted effort to be boring.

Re: VOY S4: Vis A Vis

This is how I believe the pitch went for this episode.

"Guys, I have a great new idea for an episode:

Picture this: it's Tom and Bulldog from Frasier, right, two bros working on mechanics together, bro-ing out for the first three quarters of the episode. Tom is getting really angsty with B'Elanna (uh oh, trouble in paradise, am I right!!), but he's not really telling her why, nor he is talking about it with his new bro, either. He won't confide in anyone, so the audience to say, "I should stay tuned to find out what's happening with Tom!"

Of course, we won't get too 'in depth' with this, because it's boring and sad feelings would make the audience sad, so we will make sure to interrupt any moments of personal reflection with some unrelated shenanigans.

The ironic thing is, ok, get this, Tom doesn't want to be tied down to a settled life, even though he is on the other side of the galaxy running into new and life-threatening adventures every week! Get it?!

So Bulldog is a body snatcher, right. He hops from body to body, but he is also doing the hopping really often, like every few days. He's not even in the new body long enough to do anything interesting with it, before he ditches it for the next body! Because get this, he has DELTA ADHD!

But even though he ditched some chick's body at the last stop he made, he keeps transforming into this chick by accident and trying to hide it from Tom. We obviously won't have the time to explain why this is happening, but it will make the viewers go, 'hey, what's going on around here?' and that means they won't change the channel. Genius, right?!

Then Bulldog steals Tom's body and keeps angsting out, in the same way Tom was before, only slightly more exaggerated. Chilling!

In the end, when the crew finds out what's going on and catches Bulldog, he will have nothing to say for himself. He won't say, "I did it because of blank," or "I care about blank" or "I've always wanted to blank someone else's girlfriend while I was in their body." No, he just shuts up and is quietly led away by authorities. And you know why? Because the episode was really about Tom and how much he has learned to appreciate B'Elanna. Awww!!

Good, right?!"

Re: VOY S4: Retrospect

Wow, that awful ending, though.

If the writers wanted to keep the truth "ambiguous", then they shouldn't have had the Doc and Seven talking to each other about how wrong they were, followed by another convo between the Doc and Janeway about how wrong they were, again!

If the episode was supposed to have a question mark at the end, then the crew should have acknowledged that the investigation was unfinished and the best they could do know was to help figure out what was going on with Seven.

If it wasn't because of Kovin, then what caused Seven's PTSD? And how could it be treated? Would Seven recover soon?

Apparently the only message the show wanted to get across was that the Doc could be wrong sometimes, and he would have to learn how to deal with that.

These nutty writers.

Re: VOY S4: Hope and Fear

This isn't the worst Voyager episode.

But I have to say that there is something seriously wrong with a season finale episode if I only notice 3 episodes later that I'm in Season 5. Then I check the episodes in Netflix and go, "wait just a damn minute. The DAUNTLESS episode was the season finale?!"

Re: VOY S4: The Killing Game

I feel like Klingons fighting Nazis would not be boring.

And yet...

Re: VOY S3: Displaced

I'm currently binging and reading these as I go. I'm getting a little tired of the whole "only Voyager is brave/smart/determined/clever enough to escape entrapment" plot.

We just had the one where Kim the ONLY ONE smart enough to figure out that the planet of 90% women was a trap. Shocking! It's pretty snotty to assume only humans are cunning and sharp minded enough to solve problems. And conversely that all other races would fall for an obvious trap.

With "Displaced" every other species accepted their new prison. No one likes to be imprisoned even in idyllic conditions. If this epsiode had been done properly it would have never happened at all because there would have already been a prisoner rebellion years ago.