Comment Stream

Re: ENT S2: Minefield

I'm just going to repeat what others have said, but my psyche needs to express it so here goes:

If you have technology that can get you out of most precarious situations - like the transporter--and you don't use it, *explain* why you are not using it, or you undermine your story by distracting your audience by the fact that they could have freaking transported Malcolm off the hull the second he was hurt. Kind of like Hermione's time turner. Just use the thing to go back and fix every possible problem in their world before it happened. Made it hard for me to feel any anxiety over Malcolm's situation as he shouldn't have been in it in the first place.

The Romulans. Hahahaha! I'm sorry, but didn't the main Romulan's voice sound like they borrowed it from Voyager's Captain Proton episodes? Sounded like Chaotica's robot to me. Heh.

And Malcolm, bless his pessimistic little head. The writers sure made it hard to like the guy over these last few episodes. He wasn't just pessimistic, he was *bitter* pessimistic. Makes you kind of want to smack him a little bit.

One general comment: Scott Bakula! You were so much better than this! It's so weird that he could by turns be believable in this part, then sound like he was reading an instruction manual from the cue-cards. Sounding official wasn't his forté, and neither was info-dump dialogue. Blah. Director and writers ought to have helped the guy out a bit and worked with his strengths. Sigh.

I love Star Trek. But it seems like there's always SOMETHING glaring out of it that bucks canon or doesn't fit. *cough* Enterprise Theme Song For Example *cough*

Re: VOY S4: Year of Hell, Part II

Why in the world did they think they needed to reset at the end? There was SO much more dramatic material for them to work with if they'd left things as they were: the ship limping it's way toward home, stopping for repairs along the way with friendly worlds, getting clever to figure out how to deal with unfriendly worlds without hurting the ship further. Watching Doc find a way to restore Tuvok's eyesight and Janeway's skin. Figuring out how to deal with so much physical deprivation on board the ship, and loss. A year of that would have had huge psychological repercussions, and there could have been great episodes surrounding that. Heck, just gathering the crew back together again would have allowed for some amazing stories.

Makes me sad. As it is, these two episodes don't matter. Because they never happened. Sigh.

Re: VOY S2: Threshold

Gross.

"Billions of years from now we will rip out our tongues and become slugs. Woohoo!"

I was eating dinner. Sheesh.

On the up side: "WAKE UP, LIEUTENANT!"

Re: VOY S1: Phage

It's so weird. The first time I watched Voyager it became my favorite Trek series. I mean it had some (major) flaws, but I loved the characters, loved the actors, and Picardo may be my all time favorite Doctor. Or Phlox. Or Doc. I don't know!

Anyway, it's years later and I'm watching it again and it's driving me nuts. Maybe because I'm in the middle of writing a novel myself, the near constant cognitive dissonance in the writing and characterizations is making me batty and I don't know if I'm going to make it through the thing. First episode Janeway blows the Prime Directive out of the water by making decisions for two peoples and blowing up the array--making even more life-shattering decisions for everyone on her ship. Two episodes later she gets up and moralizes about the PD. Gah. If I remember correctly, this keeps happening.

It would have been easy to have the Stranding-in-the-Delta-Quadrant come from something less egregious, more natural. And they really needed to mine the stranding and how people felt about Janeway's unilateral decision for them, and how the Maquis and the Federation learned to get along. Sigh. It would have added needed depth and believability to everything

I just miss the more plausible alien life-forms on the other Trek series. Did not love the turd-haired Kazons who could build battle cruisers but couldn't find water. Couldn't deal with the weird 1970's Stepford-esque society and bad acting (and hair and costumes) in Time and Again. And I canNOT deal with the Vidiians, no matter how cool an idea organ-snatching-space-pirates is. So gross. So so gross. And such silly silly voice choices. Sigh.

As a side note, I would like to have seen a combined ethical/non-ethical solution to the lung problem. Along the lines of:

"Dudes. We don't murder people for personal gain, like you do. So we're just going to take one of those lungs back."
"Wait! With only one lung the phage will kill me sooner!"
"You're right. I'd hate to put you through that. We'll take both."
"I'm good. Happy breathing. Bye."
"Don't let the door knock your butt off on the way out. Next time it won't be just lungs we transport out of you."

So, I think what I've learned is a lot of what one enjoys in entertainment is what one brings to it. I used to be bored by DS9 and love Voyager. This year I loved DS9 and want slap Voyager upside the head.

Maybe I'll go watch Parks and Rec reruns instead.
At least for a minute.

Re: DS9 S6: Valiant

So the Dominion had special Adult-Seeking Missiles that left only the teenagers alive on the Valiant? Even if the adults were manning all the stations and the kids were hanging about in their quarters, that's some precision. Also, if enough damage was done to kill all the adults, how were these kids able to make all the repairs? With no help? When DS9 falls apart any time Chief O'Brien isn't on the station?

Kind of an intriguing idea to come across a ship manned by teenagers, but the war-time plot makes it too unsupportable and unbelievable. Also, much of the Valiant crew's dialogue was waaaaay to mature and uncharacteristic of teenagers--even mature elite military teenagers. It seemed written for mini adults. Very stilted mini adults.

Also, I was looking forward to seeing Jake squelch around Ferenginar, so I'm kind of sad they never got there.

Re: DS9 S6: Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night

Daniel B and MMM:

Regarding these great comments from each of you respectively:

"She very clearly didn't forget her husband."
"The episode portrayed that very clearly. Nerys didn't see it because she was too upset at the sudden revelation about her mother's story not being what she thought."

"I don't think it's just a physical act for most men either."

"I also don't think this episode ever told us that Kira's mom did not feel exploited or used on any level."

"The way the whole thing is portrayed pretty realistically as far as a manipulative emotional abuser like Dukat goes. People like that really delude themselves into thinking that because they never physically forced their way in, that they didn't do anything wrong, that they just wooed the other person into consenting. And going along with such a person rather than resisting is an actual defense mechanism."

--Very well stated, and I mostly agree with both of you. I do feel that the writers sent a confused message surrounding Meru. They showed her feeling conflicted. They showed her being sad at the separation from her husband. But they also seemed to show her enjoying her new life, beyond just trying to adjust to it. Like, she was happy and excited when she came back from her vacation with Dukat. She acted flattered and happy like a young woman in love when he gave her flowers. Not realistic. And she never defended herself from Kira's accusations that she had fallen in love with Dukat. The writers just let that hang there, and that's what Kira left the experience thinking. Which, btw, I thought was very inconsistent with Kira's character and intelligence levels,

I guess what I'm feeling is that if the writers meant to suggest that Meru was in fact traumatized and was just playing along in order to survive and help her family, and that she did miss her husband and was doing what she could to survive a horrific situation, then they needed to make this more clear and show Kira realizing it, instead of having the episode end with Kira feeling that her mother was weak and a collaborator. I left the episode not sure what the heck the writers were trying to say with it, and I don't think it did any favors for women who truly have been put into the position of being abused like that. I mean if you read the comments, many of the commenters above refer to Meru as having been "weak." So yeah, that's one of the messages that came out of this ep., unfortunately. --unless I misunderstood and the commenters felt she was weak for not fighting until she was killed instead of sleeping with Dukat. Maybe that's where they thought she was weak? If so, then I'd say you'd have to hold off on that judgment until you were in that situation yourself. If you thought you were protecting your family and even helping them, I think that would guide your choices. They could have shown that better, if that was the case.

PS - As for my statement that sex for women is more than just a physical act--I didn't mean to imply that that is all it is for men. But men tend to feel loved and supported *by* sex, whereas women need to feel loved and supported first. Which is one of the many reasons that forcing it on a woman (either physically or through manipulation) is so damaging to them. And it's why they can't and wouldn't just let go and enjoy it in a situation like Meru's. I didn't mean to make men sound shallow, so my apologies for that implication.