Eggs Mayonnaise
All In With The Nuts
Yeah we've all seen it but just in case...
Wacky Reviews: Star Trek
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CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Okay her accent isn't that bad she just sounds...tired.
Eggs Mayonnaise
All In With The Nuts
No the accent is that bad. And she seems lethargic and detached from everything around her. I think she knew before the cameras rolled that she made a mistake.
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
I found Kate Mulgrew a bit grating at times, but at least she had presence and made eye contact with other actors. Must’ve been weird for everyone to do the same scene with a new person a few days later.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Parallax - Torres has punched a guy (Carey.) Chakotay wants to just give her a talking too but Tuvok wants to do things the Starfleet way. Two former Maquis (including Seska!) tell Chakotay they'll back him if he wants to overthrow Janeway and take command but he tells them to cut that talk out. Torres is still angry and throwing stuff around and Chakotay tells her to aplogise to Carey if she wants to be Chief Engineer. Torres doesn't think Janeway will ever let her be Chief. It's good Starfleet/Maquis pre-credits drama! Voyager is low on power and Kim relates that the Holodeck's power grid is incompitable with the rest of the ship (which is stupid but an excuse to keep the Holodeck running.) Neelix and Kes show up for this senior briefing and Janeway lets them stay. Kes wants to create a hydroponics bay. Neelix wants to cook. Janeway doesn't seem thrilled at Chakotay's suggestion for Chief Engineer. She orders Paris to work with the EMH as a field medic, then the ship is hit by a technobabble distortion. They receive a transmission (which is really obviously Janeway herself talking) from wihin a quantum singularity. There's also a ship stuck inside it. Neelix explains the technobabble to Kes and the audience. I wonder if that was going to be a regular thing? Chakotay calls Torres in Engineering for a suggestion but Janeway wants to hear from Carey, who gives Torres a smug look. Janeway tells Chakotay off in private for what he just did and they clash over integrating the Maquis with the rest of the crew. Chakotay says he won't be the "token" Maquis officer and demand Torres be given a chance. It's a good scene as you can understand both their point of view. Kes asks the EMH for help with her hydroponics bay and he's not happy being called on for such trivial matters. Kes notices that the EMH is getting shorter. The Doctor calls Kim to ask what's wrong and Kim just blows him off. Kes asks the Doctor his name and he doesn't have one. Voyager tries to pull the other ship out of the singularity with a tractor beam but Voyager begins to be pulled into the singularity too. Janeway orders them to a nearby system where Neelix has some friends (yeah right!) who can help them rescue the other ship. Janeway asks Torres if she's ready to be Chief Engineer. Janeway just wants to get to know her to find out of Torres can manage people. Torres storms out after Janeway asks her why she quit the Academy. The Doctor calls Janeway He's still shrinking and nobody's fixed him. He's upset nobody told him about the quantum singularity.
Voyager somehow ends back at the quantum singularity. They try to fly away from it again but it keeps appearing in front of them. They're trapped. Janeway reluctantly agrees with Chakotay to let both Carey and Torres represent Engineering at the staff meeting. Carey tells Torres to keep her mouth shut. Seska tells Torres she should have broken more than his nose. I like Seska. Kim gets a bad headache while walking with Tuvok. The singularity is making people ill. The Doctor's a midget now and wants to be repaired before he has trouble reaching his patients. At the meeting, Torres impresses Janeway with her knowledge of technobabble. They come up with a way to communicate with the other ship. They clean up the distress call and realise it was Janeway's hail asking if the trapped vessel needs help. They're the trapped vessel now and can see the past Voyager outside the singularity. Janeway and Torres continue to bond over science and every slowly explain what's going on to Chakotay and Paris. Janeway and Torres come up with a technobable way to escape by "releasing warp particles." They need to take a shuttlecraft to do...something. Paris volunteers to fly it but Janeway says she'll do it herself because she understand temporal mechanics. In the shuttle, Torres apologises to Janeway for storming out earlier. She says she quit the Academy because she couldn't make it in Starfleet. Janeway reveals that a professor put a letter in Torres file saying he'd support her return to the Academy. Torres is surprised because they fought all the time. They widen the opening in the singularity but the shuttle is damaged. When they return there's two Voyagers and they don't know which is real and which is a "temporal reflection." They can't agree on which one is real. They take so long debating which one is really that it would be quicker to just fly to both ships and find out. Janeway picks the real ship and, after some shaking, Voyager escapes the rupture just in time (Janeway has Paris "punch his way through" by going to full impules.) Torres is made Chief Engineer. She makes peace with Carey and suddenly he's a nice guy and congratuling her. Chakotay asks Janeway if she would have served under him on the Maquis ship. The Doctor is super tiny and cute now.
Okay, there's good and bad here (like with nearly every episode of tv ever so I'm not sure why I started like this.) The good is the character stuff between Janeway, Chakotay and Torres is strong. I think this is a better episode for Janeway (and Mulgrew) than the first one. I like how she's willing to concede that Chakotay makes some good points while still looking like a strong Captain herself. Beltran actually still gives a damn here and does fine acting. Janeway and Torres geeking out over science together is the best part of the episode, and actually a lot more believable than those scenes with Tilly shouts "SCIENCE IS AWESOME!" and dabs on the bridge of Discovery. The EMH has some funny moments. The space distortion story isn't very interesting though. It's the kind of thing TNG did dozens of times and it's disappointing if you're looking for something different from Voyager. Even this early on we seen Voyager's love of technobabble. And having Torres become Chief Engineer by the end of the episode feels pretty rushed, but I guess that's episodic television for you!
SCORE: 7.5/10
Time and Again - Paris suggest to Kim that they have to shag the Delaney sisters before anyone else does. Kim tells him he's got a girl back home he wants to get back to. A shockwave hits the ship and Kes wakes up in bed like she's felt a great disturbance in the Force. Janeway asks Neelix if he knows of any intelligence life in the system and he stutters over his words before admitting he knows nothing. Yep, Neelix is already officially useless. They reach a planet where all life has been wiped out by a massive explosion. Janeway decides to find out what happened. They don't really address the fact that this is a delay on Voyager's trip home? Why are they investigating stuff like this? They explore he empty planet. Tuvok thinks it's the result of a war but Janeway thinks it was a power plant exposion as they used some weird energy as a power source. Kes does some cry acting as she tells Neelix about all the bodies she saw burning. She thinks it's because her species has psychic abilities but Neelix patronisingly tells her nobody belives that. Paris suddenly travels back in time and sees living people. Janeway thinks there's "subspace fractures" floating through the planet. She and Paris are sent back in time and scare a kid. Paries asks an alien how to tell the time (why does the timepiece have Earth numerals on it?) The rest of the crew talk about a way to find Janeay and Paris through time. The Doctor is annoyed that nobody's gotten medical histories on Kes and Neelix. It's another fun Doctor scene. Janeway tells Paris they can't save he planet because of the Prime Directive. But saving the Ocampa was fine? The annoying kid's following them around so Paris threatens to eat him. Activists are protesting the power plant and a copy hits Janeway in the face for no reason. Kes insists on being part of the rescue attempt. The protests question Janewa and Paris to find out if they're spies.
Kes walks around on the surface and tells Chakotay she can feel the people. The eco terrorists detect the weird radiation on Janeway and Paris and think they know more than they're letting on. They grab the annoying kid because he was sneaking around outside (why would they do that?) The away team in the future find the combadges of Paris and Janeway. The annoying kid tells Paris he's a journalist and he's going to write about him in his school's newspaper. Kes breifly manages to talk to Janeway through time. Janeway decides to tell the leader of the protesters the truth now. Chakotay manages to send a message back in time but the terrorists hear him and grab her combadge. Okay, shouldn't that make her universal translator stop working? Janeway tells Paris that they're actually responsible for the explosion because the eco warriros have changed their plans because of them. Torres and Kim want to search at the site of the explosion and Chakotay agrees despite Tuvok's objections. The terrorists go to break into the power plant and Paris is shot saving the annoying kid's life. Janeway tries to stop the terrorists from blowing up the planet as it keeps cutting to the away team in the future looking for them. Kes senses Janeway's presence and says this is where Janeway died. This is all really boring. Finally Janeway realises that it's the rescue attempt from the future that sets off the explosion when Chakotay and the others start cutting through time. She says she can seal off the rescue tunnel with her phaser and the terrorists let her do it. This stops the exposion and resets everything. We go back to the very start of the episode. This time the planet hasn't exploded so Voyager just flies by it. Kes comes to the Bridge again because she's had a bad dream about everyone on the planet dying but Tuvok reports the population are all alive and well.
Yep, two time travel episodes in a row. Parallax had good character stuff whereas this...has virtually no character stuff. It's all just a time travel plot and it ends up making no real sense. The only reason Voyager goes to the planet is because of the explosion. It then turns out that Voyager caused the explosion in the first place, and Janeway stops it from happening. Fine, except...why wouldn't that have happened the first time around? If Voyager only went to the planet because of the explosion, the version of Janeay on the previous version of the timeloop would have also figured out that Voyager caused the explosion and prevented it in the same way. Which would mean there would be no explosion and Voyager never would have gone to the planet! Whaaaaat. And look time travel making no sense doesn't really matte if the story is good enough, but this is't good enough. We just end up with an episode that might as well not have happened because nobody remembers it. You could say the same of TNG's 'Yesterday's Enterprise' but the actual content of that episode was brilliant whereas this is just passable. A waste of time.
SCORE: 4/10
Voyager somehow ends back at the quantum singularity. They try to fly away from it again but it keeps appearing in front of them. They're trapped. Janeway reluctantly agrees with Chakotay to let both Carey and Torres represent Engineering at the staff meeting. Carey tells Torres to keep her mouth shut. Seska tells Torres she should have broken more than his nose. I like Seska. Kim gets a bad headache while walking with Tuvok. The singularity is making people ill. The Doctor's a midget now and wants to be repaired before he has trouble reaching his patients. At the meeting, Torres impresses Janeway with her knowledge of technobabble. They come up with a way to communicate with the other ship. They clean up the distress call and realise it was Janeway's hail asking if the trapped vessel needs help. They're the trapped vessel now and can see the past Voyager outside the singularity. Janeway and Torres continue to bond over science and every slowly explain what's going on to Chakotay and Paris. Janeway and Torres come up with a technobable way to escape by "releasing warp particles." They need to take a shuttlecraft to do...something. Paris volunteers to fly it but Janeway says she'll do it herself because she understand temporal mechanics. In the shuttle, Torres apologises to Janeway for storming out earlier. She says she quit the Academy because she couldn't make it in Starfleet. Janeway reveals that a professor put a letter in Torres file saying he'd support her return to the Academy. Torres is surprised because they fought all the time. They widen the opening in the singularity but the shuttle is damaged. When they return there's two Voyagers and they don't know which is real and which is a "temporal reflection." They can't agree on which one is real. They take so long debating which one is really that it would be quicker to just fly to both ships and find out. Janeway picks the real ship and, after some shaking, Voyager escapes the rupture just in time (Janeway has Paris "punch his way through" by going to full impules.) Torres is made Chief Engineer. She makes peace with Carey and suddenly he's a nice guy and congratuling her. Chakotay asks Janeway if she would have served under him on the Maquis ship. The Doctor is super tiny and cute now.
Okay, there's good and bad here (like with nearly every episode of tv ever so I'm not sure why I started like this.) The good is the character stuff between Janeway, Chakotay and Torres is strong. I think this is a better episode for Janeway (and Mulgrew) than the first one. I like how she's willing to concede that Chakotay makes some good points while still looking like a strong Captain herself. Beltran actually still gives a damn here and does fine acting. Janeway and Torres geeking out over science together is the best part of the episode, and actually a lot more believable than those scenes with Tilly shouts "SCIENCE IS AWESOME!" and dabs on the bridge of Discovery. The EMH has some funny moments. The space distortion story isn't very interesting though. It's the kind of thing TNG did dozens of times and it's disappointing if you're looking for something different from Voyager. Even this early on we seen Voyager's love of technobabble. And having Torres become Chief Engineer by the end of the episode feels pretty rushed, but I guess that's episodic television for you!
SCORE: 7.5/10
Time and Again - Paris suggest to Kim that they have to shag the Delaney sisters before anyone else does. Kim tells him he's got a girl back home he wants to get back to. A shockwave hits the ship and Kes wakes up in bed like she's felt a great disturbance in the Force. Janeway asks Neelix if he knows of any intelligence life in the system and he stutters over his words before admitting he knows nothing. Yep, Neelix is already officially useless. They reach a planet where all life has been wiped out by a massive explosion. Janeway decides to find out what happened. They don't really address the fact that this is a delay on Voyager's trip home? Why are they investigating stuff like this? They explore he empty planet. Tuvok thinks it's the result of a war but Janeway thinks it was a power plant exposion as they used some weird energy as a power source. Kes does some cry acting as she tells Neelix about all the bodies she saw burning. She thinks it's because her species has psychic abilities but Neelix patronisingly tells her nobody belives that. Paris suddenly travels back in time and sees living people. Janeway thinks there's "subspace fractures" floating through the planet. She and Paris are sent back in time and scare a kid. Paries asks an alien how to tell the time (why does the timepiece have Earth numerals on it?) The rest of the crew talk about a way to find Janeay and Paris through time. The Doctor is annoyed that nobody's gotten medical histories on Kes and Neelix. It's another fun Doctor scene. Janeway tells Paris they can't save he planet because of the Prime Directive. But saving the Ocampa was fine? The annoying kid's following them around so Paris threatens to eat him. Activists are protesting the power plant and a copy hits Janeway in the face for no reason. Kes insists on being part of the rescue attempt. The protests question Janewa and Paris to find out if they're spies.
Kes walks around on the surface and tells Chakotay she can feel the people. The eco terrorists detect the weird radiation on Janeway and Paris and think they know more than they're letting on. They grab the annoying kid because he was sneaking around outside (why would they do that?) The away team in the future find the combadges of Paris and Janeway. The annoying kid tells Paris he's a journalist and he's going to write about him in his school's newspaper. Kes breifly manages to talk to Janeway through time. Janeway decides to tell the leader of the protesters the truth now. Chakotay manages to send a message back in time but the terrorists hear him and grab her combadge. Okay, shouldn't that make her universal translator stop working? Janeway tells Paris that they're actually responsible for the explosion because the eco warriros have changed their plans because of them. Torres and Kim want to search at the site of the explosion and Chakotay agrees despite Tuvok's objections. The terrorists go to break into the power plant and Paris is shot saving the annoying kid's life. Janeway tries to stop the terrorists from blowing up the planet as it keeps cutting to the away team in the future looking for them. Kes senses Janeway's presence and says this is where Janeway died. This is all really boring. Finally Janeway realises that it's the rescue attempt from the future that sets off the explosion when Chakotay and the others start cutting through time. She says she can seal off the rescue tunnel with her phaser and the terrorists let her do it. This stops the exposion and resets everything. We go back to the very start of the episode. This time the planet hasn't exploded so Voyager just flies by it. Kes comes to the Bridge again because she's had a bad dream about everyone on the planet dying but Tuvok reports the population are all alive and well.
Yep, two time travel episodes in a row. Parallax had good character stuff whereas this...has virtually no character stuff. It's all just a time travel plot and it ends up making no real sense. The only reason Voyager goes to the planet is because of the explosion. It then turns out that Voyager caused the explosion in the first place, and Janeway stops it from happening. Fine, except...why wouldn't that have happened the first time around? If Voyager only went to the planet because of the explosion, the version of Janeay on the previous version of the timeloop would have also figured out that Voyager caused the explosion and prevented it in the same way. Which would mean there would be no explosion and Voyager never would have gone to the planet! Whaaaaat. And look time travel making no sense doesn't really matte if the story is good enough, but this is't good enough. We just end up with an episode that might as well not have happened because nobody remembers it. You could say the same of TNG's 'Yesterday's Enterprise' but the actual content of that episode was brilliant whereas this is just passable. A waste of time.
SCORE: 4/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Phage - Janeway discovers that Neelix has transformed the Captain's private dining room into a galley. Neelix is obviously trying hard to be useful but he's still annoying. An away team goes down to a planet he told them about to mine for dilithium and Neelix insists on going with them. Their readings show dilithium but they can't find any. Neelix wanders off to investigate and is shot by an alien. In Sickbay the Doctor reports the shocking news that Neelix's lungs have been stolen. It's like when they stole Spock's brain but with lungs! Janeway and an away team find a hidden structure on the planet. Paris continues to be a shitty nurse. The Doctor comes up with the brilliant idea of creating holographic lungs for Neelix. He demonstrates how they'll work by slapping Paris. Kes insists the Doctor explain what he's doing and he tells her the holo lungs will keep Neelix alive but he'll never be able to leave his Sickbay bed. Janeway chaes the alien but he escapes the planet. Voyager follows his ship. Neelix wakes up and quickly annoys the Doctor by complaing about the decor in Sickbay. He asks Kes why she can't see that Paris is trying to move in on her after Paris is nice to her.
Voyager finds the alien ships has flown inside an asteroid and Jaeway follows despite Tuvok's warnings that it's crazy. Neelix makes the Doctor scratch an itch for him. He starts to panic at the thought of spending the rest of his life in Sickbay and shouts at the Doctor to release him. The Doctor has to restrain him to stop him for freaking out. Paris flies Voyager through the asteroid into a large "hall of mirrors" chamber that shows reflections of Voyager and the alien ship. They keep following the ship's ion trail, at the risk of flying into the wall. Kes asks the Doctor how he's doing and he admits he's finding it hard being online so much and he isn't programmed to deal with emotional problems. Kes praises him for saving Neelix's life and tells him he'll have to grow and learn like a real doctor. Chakotay comes up with the idea to uses the ship's phasers as a searchlight to find the real alien ship. The phasers reflect off the mirrors and hit the real ship. It's a fun moment! Janeway captures two of the ugly aliens, known as Vidiians. They admit they lured Voyager in to steal more organs as they suffer from a deadly disease known as the phage. Organ theft is the only way to fight the illness. Janeway has sympathy for them, but Neelix's lungs have already been grafted into one of the aliens. The alien who received the lungs makes a passionate spech defending himself. Janeway says that unlike the Vidiians she's not prepared to kill to save another life (and it's just Neelix anyway.) She has no choice but to let them go (with a STERN WARNING) but the Vidiians ask to see Neelix first. The Vidiians reveal that Neelix can receive an organ transplant, thanks to their superior medical knowledge. Kes offers to donate one of her lungs (Neelix says it's too dangerous and "let someone else do it" because he's selfish enough to let a Starfleet crewmember endanger their life instead.) When Kes wakes up the Doctor tells him he's asked Janeway to let her train to be his new nurse.
It's a good episode! Neelix is annoying at the start but you can feel sympathy for him when he's having a panic attack about being trapped in a restraint for the rest of his life. The Vidiians are great villains because they have an understandable motive and let's face it we'd all steal organs from Neelix to survive if we had to. Janeway's decision to let them go is the kind of thing that would have some people rolling their eyes but...it's Star Trek. It's the kind of thing Starfleet Captains do. There's good character stuff with the Doctor and Kes too.
SCORE: 8/10
The Cloud - We start with Janeway recording a log about how unusual their situation is. She has to be more than a Captain to her crew since they're the whole of the human race in the Delta Quadrant. Kim considers inviting Janeway to join he and Paris for dinner but Paris tells him a Captain wouldn't want to have dinner with them. Janeway tells Neelix she wants coffee but he only has his own shitty food. He tells Janeway not to use her replicator rations because she has to set a good example Amazingly she doesn't tell him to fuck off. Tuvok find a nebula with particles Voyoager can use to make energy (or something.) Janeway says "there's coffee in that nebula!" and I remember the first time I watched this it reminded me of Red Dwarf where Lister went looking for a vindaloo in space and I thouht "VOYAGER IS A GOOD SHOW" because Red Dwarf was my model for a good tv show at the time. Anyway! Chakotay tells Janeway about "animal guides" and I'm sure this is all pretty racist. Kim remarks on how amazing the nebula looks and Tuvok tells him not to say such things as it'll freak out the "junior officers." Isn't Kim an Ensign straight out of the Academy? They find a weird barrier in the nebula and punch through it. Kim gets sassy with Tuvok. Voyager is trapped behind the barrier when it closes. Neelix freaks and whines to Kes about Janeway getting them into trouble. Kes calms him down by kissing him. Weird things start sticking to the ship's hull and sucking energy from it. Voyager shoots a way through the energy barrier with a torpedo (I'm not keeping count on how many they use, watch that Youtube video.) Paris breaks into Harry's bedroom(!) and wakes him. Harry wears a face mask and claims he remembers being in the womb. Paris takes him to the first of many holodeck hangouts: a bar in Paris with a pool table. We're introduced to the colourful cast of characters including Tom's holo girlfriend. Tom acts cool but Harry knows he misses home too. Torres tells the Doctor she could reprogram the Doctor to say something other than "please state the nature of the medical emergency." Zimmerman is mentioned for the first time (and the fact that he looks like the Doctor.)
Chakotay brings his medicine bundle to Janeway to assist her in finding her animal guide. With his help she has a vision of a beach and sees a lizard. She's about to ask it to be her animal guide but Torres interrupts. Chakotay reveals that B'Elanna once tried to kill her animal guide. Torres brings news that the nebula is actually alive. Janeway mutes the Doctor when he's tell her off for flying her ship and shooting a torpedo in a living creature. But the Doctor is unmuted to help Torres come up with a technobabble way to heal the lifeform. Neelix is outraged to learn that the ship is going back inside the nebula. Neelix tells Janeway that he and Kes will wait in Neelix's ship while Voyager is inside the nebula, but Janeway tells him she won't leave him behind every time the ship hits a bump in the raod. "Dismissed. That's a Starfleet expression for get out!" YOU TELL HIM, KATE. The ship is hit by a different defence mechanism inside the nebula and has to vent fuel to stop from being destroyed. Voyager has to fly really slow to stop the lifeform hurting them. Neelix brings a plate of food to the Bridge and claims to be the ship's "morale officer" now. The Doctor comes up with another technobabble way to heal the lifeform as the first one didn't work. Paris mentions dogs so Janeway suddenly starts comparing the lifeform to a dog and says they have to launch a probe as a distraction while they heal it like she always did with her dog (or something.) Voyager stitchest he wound up and gets the heck out of there. Kim invites Janeway to join them in the bar. A hologram tries to shag Janeway (foreshadowing!) Torres calls Paris a pig for creating sexist holograms (foreshadowing!) Janeway proves to be a skilled pool lady.
This episode is all about the fun character interactions and in that sense it interrupts. There's funny stuff with Paris and Kim, Tuvok and Kim and even Neelix declaring himself the Morale Officer is good fun. The Doctor continues to be great. Janeway and Chakotay's "animal guide" scene is also nice, but I can see how viewers would be puzzled at Janeway and Chakotay being friends so quckly (remember the Maquis? Not mentioned once here!) The actual plot is a really standard "this nebula is actually ALIVE!" thing with lots of technobabble and it goes on a bit long. The episode also at times has the feel of just being random scenes of character interaction pieced together, like with Tom's holodeck hangout just being dropped in halfway through kind of randomly. The episode gets by on its sense of humour and likable characters rather than story though, and I did enjoy it.
SCORE: 7.5/10
Voyager finds the alien ships has flown inside an asteroid and Jaeway follows despite Tuvok's warnings that it's crazy. Neelix makes the Doctor scratch an itch for him. He starts to panic at the thought of spending the rest of his life in Sickbay and shouts at the Doctor to release him. The Doctor has to restrain him to stop him for freaking out. Paris flies Voyager through the asteroid into a large "hall of mirrors" chamber that shows reflections of Voyager and the alien ship. They keep following the ship's ion trail, at the risk of flying into the wall. Kes asks the Doctor how he's doing and he admits he's finding it hard being online so much and he isn't programmed to deal with emotional problems. Kes praises him for saving Neelix's life and tells him he'll have to grow and learn like a real doctor. Chakotay comes up with the idea to uses the ship's phasers as a searchlight to find the real alien ship. The phasers reflect off the mirrors and hit the real ship. It's a fun moment! Janeway captures two of the ugly aliens, known as Vidiians. They admit they lured Voyager in to steal more organs as they suffer from a deadly disease known as the phage. Organ theft is the only way to fight the illness. Janeway has sympathy for them, but Neelix's lungs have already been grafted into one of the aliens. The alien who received the lungs makes a passionate spech defending himself. Janeway says that unlike the Vidiians she's not prepared to kill to save another life (and it's just Neelix anyway.) She has no choice but to let them go (with a STERN WARNING) but the Vidiians ask to see Neelix first. The Vidiians reveal that Neelix can receive an organ transplant, thanks to their superior medical knowledge. Kes offers to donate one of her lungs (Neelix says it's too dangerous and "let someone else do it" because he's selfish enough to let a Starfleet crewmember endanger their life instead.) When Kes wakes up the Doctor tells him he's asked Janeway to let her train to be his new nurse.
It's a good episode! Neelix is annoying at the start but you can feel sympathy for him when he's having a panic attack about being trapped in a restraint for the rest of his life. The Vidiians are great villains because they have an understandable motive and let's face it we'd all steal organs from Neelix to survive if we had to. Janeway's decision to let them go is the kind of thing that would have some people rolling their eyes but...it's Star Trek. It's the kind of thing Starfleet Captains do. There's good character stuff with the Doctor and Kes too.
SCORE: 8/10
The Cloud - We start with Janeway recording a log about how unusual their situation is. She has to be more than a Captain to her crew since they're the whole of the human race in the Delta Quadrant. Kim considers inviting Janeway to join he and Paris for dinner but Paris tells him a Captain wouldn't want to have dinner with them. Janeway tells Neelix she wants coffee but he only has his own shitty food. He tells Janeway not to use her replicator rations because she has to set a good example Amazingly she doesn't tell him to fuck off. Tuvok find a nebula with particles Voyoager can use to make energy (or something.) Janeway says "there's coffee in that nebula!" and I remember the first time I watched this it reminded me of Red Dwarf where Lister went looking for a vindaloo in space and I thouht "VOYAGER IS A GOOD SHOW" because Red Dwarf was my model for a good tv show at the time. Anyway! Chakotay tells Janeway about "animal guides" and I'm sure this is all pretty racist. Kim remarks on how amazing the nebula looks and Tuvok tells him not to say such things as it'll freak out the "junior officers." Isn't Kim an Ensign straight out of the Academy? They find a weird barrier in the nebula and punch through it. Kim gets sassy with Tuvok. Voyager is trapped behind the barrier when it closes. Neelix freaks and whines to Kes about Janeway getting them into trouble. Kes calms him down by kissing him. Weird things start sticking to the ship's hull and sucking energy from it. Voyager shoots a way through the energy barrier with a torpedo (I'm not keeping count on how many they use, watch that Youtube video.) Paris breaks into Harry's bedroom(!) and wakes him. Harry wears a face mask and claims he remembers being in the womb. Paris takes him to the first of many holodeck hangouts: a bar in Paris with a pool table. We're introduced to the colourful cast of characters including Tom's holo girlfriend. Tom acts cool but Harry knows he misses home too. Torres tells the Doctor she could reprogram the Doctor to say something other than "please state the nature of the medical emergency." Zimmerman is mentioned for the first time (and the fact that he looks like the Doctor.)
Chakotay brings his medicine bundle to Janeway to assist her in finding her animal guide. With his help she has a vision of a beach and sees a lizard. She's about to ask it to be her animal guide but Torres interrupts. Chakotay reveals that B'Elanna once tried to kill her animal guide. Torres brings news that the nebula is actually alive. Janeway mutes the Doctor when he's tell her off for flying her ship and shooting a torpedo in a living creature. But the Doctor is unmuted to help Torres come up with a technobabble way to heal the lifeform. Neelix is outraged to learn that the ship is going back inside the nebula. Neelix tells Janeway that he and Kes will wait in Neelix's ship while Voyager is inside the nebula, but Janeway tells him she won't leave him behind every time the ship hits a bump in the raod. "Dismissed. That's a Starfleet expression for get out!" YOU TELL HIM, KATE. The ship is hit by a different defence mechanism inside the nebula and has to vent fuel to stop from being destroyed. Voyager has to fly really slow to stop the lifeform hurting them. Neelix brings a plate of food to the Bridge and claims to be the ship's "morale officer" now. The Doctor comes up with another technobabble way to heal the lifeform as the first one didn't work. Paris mentions dogs so Janeway suddenly starts comparing the lifeform to a dog and says they have to launch a probe as a distraction while they heal it like she always did with her dog (or something.) Voyager stitchest he wound up and gets the heck out of there. Kim invites Janeway to join them in the bar. A hologram tries to shag Janeway (foreshadowing!) Torres calls Paris a pig for creating sexist holograms (foreshadowing!) Janeway proves to be a skilled pool lady.
This episode is all about the fun character interactions and in that sense it interrupts. There's funny stuff with Paris and Kim, Tuvok and Kim and even Neelix declaring himself the Morale Officer is good fun. The Doctor continues to be great. Janeway and Chakotay's "animal guide" scene is also nice, but I can see how viewers would be puzzled at Janeway and Chakotay being friends so quckly (remember the Maquis? Not mentioned once here!) The actual plot is a really standard "this nebula is actually ALIVE!" thing with lots of technobabble and it goes on a bit long. The episode also at times has the feel of just being random scenes of character interaction pieced together, like with Tom's holodeck hangout just being dropped in halfway through kind of randomly. The episode gets by on its sense of humour and likable characters rather than story though, and I did enjoy it.
SCORE: 7.5/10
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CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Eye of the Needle - Voyager sets course for a wormhole Harry discovered. Turns out it's too small to fly through, but it might be possible to send a message through it. They send a probe through but it gets stuck and Harry's sad until a ship on the other side scans the probe. A patient with a bad arm seeks treatment but will only talk to Kes and not directly to the Doctor. Kes lets the Doctor know she respects him. Kim and Torres work together send a message through. They talk about who's waiting for them on othe side. Torres doesn't talk to her parents anymore. Tuvok reports that someone received their signal...in the Alpha Quadrant. Kes goes to Janeway and tells her she doesn't like how people treat the Doctor. Janeway tells her people have been complaining about the Doctor's bedside manner and she's thinking of reprogramming him. Janeway assures Kes that the Doctor isn't alive but Kes think he should still be treated with respect. Voyager gets through to a cargo vessel on the other side. The Captain accuses Janeway of lying about being in the DQ, like she's just someone making a prank phonecall. Tuvok reports that the man they just spoke to was a Romulan and he may have thought they were Federation spies. Janeway asks the Doctor if there's anything he can do to help him. He's surprised, but asks that she remind people to turn him off when they leave. She offers him the ability to turn himself off and on and he's touched (in his way.)
Janeway (while in bed in her nightie!) is hailed by the Romulan. He still doesn't quite trust her but he's willing to listen. Mulgrew does a great job in this scene, alone and acting against a voice, as we see how desperate she is to convince him to help her. She asks if he'll accept personal messages from the Voyager crew to send to their families. He tells her he's come up with a way to speak face to face and the next morning he hails Voyager and appears on their viewscreen (after some weird interference is clear up, THIS IS A CLUE.) He says he's not familiar with Voyager's class of ship AND THIS IS ALSO A CLUE. As the Romulan has been in space for a year, Janeway appeals to him through his sense of loneliness (he has a baby daughter he's never seen!) He promises he'll try to convince his superiors to allow the messages to be sent. Torres runs onto the Bridge excited, and talks to Janeway in private: she think it might be possible to beam the crew back to the AQ through the communications link. Wesa goin' home? Kes impresses the Doctor with her studying and her desire to watch an autopsy. Kes tells him how there may be a way to transport them all home. The Doctor says goodbye because it won't be possible to take him with them (he's full integrated with the Sickbay system.) Kes gives him a kiss(!) and thanks him for everything. After some difficulty, Voyager manages to beam a test sampe throug to the Romulan. Everyone's really excited about going home as it seems like it's going to be possible. They manage to beam the Romulan through to Voyager (again with some difficulty due to the CLUE VARIANCE.) Tuvok asks the Romulan what year it is. He says it's 2351...but it's 2371 on Voyager! He's from the past! The senior crew have a debate. Harry wants them to go through the wormhole anyway, but Janeway says they can't because it would pollute the timeline (this will turn out to be an ironic statement in later seasons.) The Romulan agrees to transmit their messages to home in twenty years and finally tells them his name (Telek.) Janeway promises to look him up when they get home. The Romulan is beamed home...then Tuvok reports some bad news: Telek died four years ago. Torres suggests Telek might have left the messages with someone to be sent in the event of his death but there's no way to know. The Doctor tells the guy with the bad hand to speak directly to him. The Doctor tells Kes he would like a name.
Six episodes in and three of them have involved time travel. That's a lot! Fortunately this episode is the best of the six. It's very well acted and sensitively written. I llike how you see everyone, even Janeway and perhaps Tuvok get more and more excited about the possibility of going home. Telek is very well acted and I like seeing a sympathetic Romulan. The b-story with the Doctor is good too (thought kind of gives away that they're obviously not getting home) and Kes continues to be a strong character! This is the kind of episode that makes Voyage worthwhile.
SCORE: 9/10
Ex Post Facto - Tom (somehow) watches his own memories in black and white. He kisses a married woman then stabs her husband to death. Tom denies doing any of this. An alien court has sentenced him to relive the last moments of his victims life for the next fourteen years. Kes and the Doctor discuss his name (spoiler: this is never going to go anywhere.) He thinks of "Doctor Spock" as a possibility. A weakened Ensign Kim is returned to the ship in a shuttle and explains that Paris has been arrested for murder. We see in flashback Paris and Kim being invited to dinner by a scientist (with a dog who barks when anyone new comes home.) The scientists wife is hot and Tom checks her out a bit. The next day the scientist is murdered. Janeway asks Neelix for advice about the aliens. He makes a terrible joke and laughs inapporpriately. An alien ship contacts them and Neelix thinks they're acting strangely. The minister of the planet explains that Paris was convincted by viewing the memories of his victim (that's what we saw at the start.) Janeway is allowed to see Tom. He tells her his side of the story: he did hang out with the wife while Harry and the husband were talking about boring science stuff. The flirted a bit (she smokes so you know she's evil.) Tom is cut off by having to relieve the murder again. It casues him to pass out and the aliens admit there's a chance he could die because of his alien brain. The aliens reluctantly let Tom go back to Voyager to fix his implant.
Tuvok wants the Doctor to do a space lie detector test on paris while he goes back to the planet to speak to the sexy wife (the dog growls at him.) Tuvok suggests she didn't love her husband because she's still living in the home he was murdered in. Tuvok mentions he's been married for 67 years. The wife tells her version of the story: she and Tom got all wet in the rain and kissed a lot. Since Tom's memories never went this far we don't know if this is true. She tells him she witnessed the murder. Paris tels Tuvok it never happened and the Doctor's space lie detector confirms he's telling the truth. The aliens attack Voyager. Chakotay suggests an old Maquis trick (remember the Maquis) to escape. It works and Voyager disables both alien ships. Tuvok proposes that he mind meld (like in Star Trek!) with Tom to get to the truth. The Doctor warns that the implant could damage Tuvok's brain (but they won't obviously.) Tuvok witnesses Paris murder the guy but Tuovk notices something that gives the game away (the audience don't know what.) The aliens agree to remove the implant and Tom is sent back to them (he tells Harry that one day he'll do something crazy for a girl too.) The rival aliens of the main aliens (did I mention there were rival aliens at war with the main ones? I didn't care really) try to kidnap Paris but Janeway beams him away and leaves them with a bomb-packed shuttle. Tuvok finally gets his Jessica Fletcher moment of calling everyone to the scene of the murder. Tuvok reveals that evil wife drugged Tom and proves the memories were altered by showing that Paris isn't the same height as he was in the memory and he knew where the alien's heart was etc. The symbols in Tom's memories were secret codes that someone was trying to send to the rival aliens (wait what.) Tuvok reveals that it was the doctor who did the procedure who commited the murder and was getting off with the wife. His smoking gun evidence is that the barky dog is friendly with the doctor. That wouldn't stand up in court! Sexy wife tells Tom she was tricked! i don't know why she suddenly cares about Tom. Back at the ship Tom thanks Tuvok for saving him (Tuvok was only doing his job) and says he's made a new friend.
Remembe TNG's 'A Matter of Perspective'? That was good fun. It had alternate versions of scenes play out where we got to see Jonathan Frakes do some great over the top acting and get beaten up by an old man and stufff. Remember DS9's 'Hard Time'? That featured a wrongl convinced Starfleet officer having fales memories implanted in them as punishment. This is not as good as either of them! It's boring! We don't get to see different versions of the same scene, just three flashbacks to three different scenes. Sexy evil wife is kind of amsuing, I guess, and Inspector Tuvok is good to watch, but the story as a whole just isn't good.
SCORE: 4.5/10
Janeway (while in bed in her nightie!) is hailed by the Romulan. He still doesn't quite trust her but he's willing to listen. Mulgrew does a great job in this scene, alone and acting against a voice, as we see how desperate she is to convince him to help her. She asks if he'll accept personal messages from the Voyager crew to send to their families. He tells her he's come up with a way to speak face to face and the next morning he hails Voyager and appears on their viewscreen (after some weird interference is clear up, THIS IS A CLUE.) He says he's not familiar with Voyager's class of ship AND THIS IS ALSO A CLUE. As the Romulan has been in space for a year, Janeway appeals to him through his sense of loneliness (he has a baby daughter he's never seen!) He promises he'll try to convince his superiors to allow the messages to be sent. Torres runs onto the Bridge excited, and talks to Janeway in private: she think it might be possible to beam the crew back to the AQ through the communications link. Wesa goin' home? Kes impresses the Doctor with her studying and her desire to watch an autopsy. Kes tells him how there may be a way to transport them all home. The Doctor says goodbye because it won't be possible to take him with them (he's full integrated with the Sickbay system.) Kes gives him a kiss(!) and thanks him for everything. After some difficulty, Voyager manages to beam a test sampe throug to the Romulan. Everyone's really excited about going home as it seems like it's going to be possible. They manage to beam the Romulan through to Voyager (again with some difficulty due to the CLUE VARIANCE.) Tuvok asks the Romulan what year it is. He says it's 2351...but it's 2371 on Voyager! He's from the past! The senior crew have a debate. Harry wants them to go through the wormhole anyway, but Janeway says they can't because it would pollute the timeline (this will turn out to be an ironic statement in later seasons.) The Romulan agrees to transmit their messages to home in twenty years and finally tells them his name (Telek.) Janeway promises to look him up when they get home. The Romulan is beamed home...then Tuvok reports some bad news: Telek died four years ago. Torres suggests Telek might have left the messages with someone to be sent in the event of his death but there's no way to know. The Doctor tells the guy with the bad hand to speak directly to him. The Doctor tells Kes he would like a name.
Six episodes in and three of them have involved time travel. That's a lot! Fortunately this episode is the best of the six. It's very well acted and sensitively written. I llike how you see everyone, even Janeway and perhaps Tuvok get more and more excited about the possibility of going home. Telek is very well acted and I like seeing a sympathetic Romulan. The b-story with the Doctor is good too (thought kind of gives away that they're obviously not getting home) and Kes continues to be a strong character! This is the kind of episode that makes Voyage worthwhile.
SCORE: 9/10
Ex Post Facto - Tom (somehow) watches his own memories in black and white. He kisses a married woman then stabs her husband to death. Tom denies doing any of this. An alien court has sentenced him to relive the last moments of his victims life for the next fourteen years. Kes and the Doctor discuss his name (spoiler: this is never going to go anywhere.) He thinks of "Doctor Spock" as a possibility. A weakened Ensign Kim is returned to the ship in a shuttle and explains that Paris has been arrested for murder. We see in flashback Paris and Kim being invited to dinner by a scientist (with a dog who barks when anyone new comes home.) The scientists wife is hot and Tom checks her out a bit. The next day the scientist is murdered. Janeway asks Neelix for advice about the aliens. He makes a terrible joke and laughs inapporpriately. An alien ship contacts them and Neelix thinks they're acting strangely. The minister of the planet explains that Paris was convincted by viewing the memories of his victim (that's what we saw at the start.) Janeway is allowed to see Tom. He tells her his side of the story: he did hang out with the wife while Harry and the husband were talking about boring science stuff. The flirted a bit (she smokes so you know she's evil.) Tom is cut off by having to relieve the murder again. It casues him to pass out and the aliens admit there's a chance he could die because of his alien brain. The aliens reluctantly let Tom go back to Voyager to fix his implant.
Tuvok wants the Doctor to do a space lie detector test on paris while he goes back to the planet to speak to the sexy wife (the dog growls at him.) Tuvok suggests she didn't love her husband because she's still living in the home he was murdered in. Tuvok mentions he's been married for 67 years. The wife tells her version of the story: she and Tom got all wet in the rain and kissed a lot. Since Tom's memories never went this far we don't know if this is true. She tells him she witnessed the murder. Paris tels Tuvok it never happened and the Doctor's space lie detector confirms he's telling the truth. The aliens attack Voyager. Chakotay suggests an old Maquis trick (remember the Maquis) to escape. It works and Voyager disables both alien ships. Tuvok proposes that he mind meld (like in Star Trek!) with Tom to get to the truth. The Doctor warns that the implant could damage Tuvok's brain (but they won't obviously.) Tuvok witnesses Paris murder the guy but Tuovk notices something that gives the game away (the audience don't know what.) The aliens agree to remove the implant and Tom is sent back to them (he tells Harry that one day he'll do something crazy for a girl too.) The rival aliens of the main aliens (did I mention there were rival aliens at war with the main ones? I didn't care really) try to kidnap Paris but Janeway beams him away and leaves them with a bomb-packed shuttle. Tuvok finally gets his Jessica Fletcher moment of calling everyone to the scene of the murder. Tuvok reveals that evil wife drugged Tom and proves the memories were altered by showing that Paris isn't the same height as he was in the memory and he knew where the alien's heart was etc. The symbols in Tom's memories were secret codes that someone was trying to send to the rival aliens (wait what.) Tuvok reveals that it was the doctor who did the procedure who commited the murder and was getting off with the wife. His smoking gun evidence is that the barky dog is friendly with the doctor. That wouldn't stand up in court! Sexy wife tells Tom she was tricked! i don't know why she suddenly cares about Tom. Back at the ship Tom thanks Tuvok for saving him (Tuvok was only doing his job) and says he's made a new friend.
Remembe TNG's 'A Matter of Perspective'? That was good fun. It had alternate versions of scenes play out where we got to see Jonathan Frakes do some great over the top acting and get beaten up by an old man and stufff. Remember DS9's 'Hard Time'? That featured a wrongl convinced Starfleet officer having fales memories implanted in them as punishment. This is not as good as either of them! It's boring! We don't get to see different versions of the same scene, just three flashbacks to three different scenes. Sexy evil wife is kind of amsuing, I guess, and Inspector Tuvok is good to watch, but the story as a whole just isn't good.
SCORE: 4.5/10
Fuddlemiff
Is this real life?
This is reminding me how much I enjoyed the early episodes (not Ex Post Facto though).
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Yeah it's definitely a much better start than TNG and possibly than DS9 at this point.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Emanations - Voyger has just discovered the 247th element in the asteroid rings of a planet. An away team finds loads of dead wrapped up aliens on one of the asteroids. Chakotay wants to leave the bodies aloone but Kim wants to poke around in them because he's a pervert. Chakotay can still tell a lot just by looking at the bodies because he understands mystic shit. Some kind of subspace portal opens and Seska(!) loses Kim when trying to beam him back, getting one of the shrouded aliens instead. They find the body is newly dead and can be revived by the Doctor. Harry appears in a coffin thing at an alien funeral. The aliens believe Harry has come from "the next emanation" their afterlife. Harry has to tell them he's not actual dead, just from another dimension or something. The alien woman wakes up in Sickbay and asks where all her dead relatives are. A religious alien guy (Jerry Hardin, who played Samuel Clemens in TNG) explains to Harry that the pod he woke up in is used to euthanise those with terminal illnesses and send them to the afterlife through the naturally occourring portals. He's outraged when Harry tells him their afterlife is just an asteroid with a load of dead bodies lying about on it. The alien girl yells at Janeway for not having the answer about what happens when you die. Janeway says just because she doesn't have the answers doesn't mean they don't exist. Another dead alien shows up in Engineering.
An alien who was going to kill himself in the pod is having a crisis of faith after meeting Harry. His wife is unhappy that her husband doesn't want to kill himself anymore. Harry, like Janeway, tries to convince him that it's possible there is an afterlife and he just doesn't know about it. Husband explains that he's got a bad leg and been a burden on his family so his wife has been nagging him to kill himself. He admits to Harry that he's scared of dying. Kes talks to the alien girl on Voyager (it's interesting that Kes is actually used more than Neelix in these early episodes.) She explains to Kes that her people believe they'll come back to life in their own bodies in the next emanation and have a great time with their dead relatives but she knows it isn't true now and she wants to bet sent home. Janeway comes up with a risky way to send her home. They try to beam her home but she dies. And they only have two hours to find Kim before the portals go away again. Oops. Jerry Hardin won't help Harry get home and sad alien husband is wrapping himself in his death shroud. He has some relatives he's thought of running away with, but his wife really wants him to die. An idea forms in Harry's head! Harry takes the cripple's place and somehow his bitch wife doesn't notice even though Harry's like twice the size of her husband. Harry is killed inside the pod, but transported back to Voyager. The Doctor manages to revive him in Sickbay. Janeway tells Harry to take some time off to deal with the face that he's just been resurrected. Janeway reveals that "energy" from the aliens becomes part of the energy field in the asteroid ring so maybe there is an aftelife who knows!
This is one I remembered being terrible but there's actually some interesting stuff here. The idea of an alien species who willingly kill themselves to go to the afterlife is a fascinating one. I liked the scenes with the wife pressuring the husband into killing himself to stop being a burden. I would have liked to have seen more of their society and how it worked (what happens to people who die in accidents?) The stuff with the alien girl on Voyager is quite good too with how tragic it is, her whole belief system being shattered. I think killing her off was a bit cruel though? The problem is that a lot of the episode is just Harry or Janeway saying "well no one knows what happens when you die!" to the aliens. It feels like they're being careful not to offend religious viewers or something (that bit at the end with Janeway talking about "energy" feels tacked on and similarly motivated.) If this was a TOS episode with Kirk in the place of Kim he's probably have made a speech to the aliens about how they're fooling themselves and brought down their entire society.
SCORE: 5.5/10
An alien who was going to kill himself in the pod is having a crisis of faith after meeting Harry. His wife is unhappy that her husband doesn't want to kill himself anymore. Harry, like Janeway, tries to convince him that it's possible there is an afterlife and he just doesn't know about it. Husband explains that he's got a bad leg and been a burden on his family so his wife has been nagging him to kill himself. He admits to Harry that he's scared of dying. Kes talks to the alien girl on Voyager (it's interesting that Kes is actually used more than Neelix in these early episodes.) She explains to Kes that her people believe they'll come back to life in their own bodies in the next emanation and have a great time with their dead relatives but she knows it isn't true now and she wants to bet sent home. Janeway comes up with a risky way to send her home. They try to beam her home but she dies. And they only have two hours to find Kim before the portals go away again. Oops. Jerry Hardin won't help Harry get home and sad alien husband is wrapping himself in his death shroud. He has some relatives he's thought of running away with, but his wife really wants him to die. An idea forms in Harry's head! Harry takes the cripple's place and somehow his bitch wife doesn't notice even though Harry's like twice the size of her husband. Harry is killed inside the pod, but transported back to Voyager. The Doctor manages to revive him in Sickbay. Janeway tells Harry to take some time off to deal with the face that he's just been resurrected. Janeway reveals that "energy" from the aliens becomes part of the energy field in the asteroid ring so maybe there is an aftelife who knows!
This is one I remembered being terrible but there's actually some interesting stuff here. The idea of an alien species who willingly kill themselves to go to the afterlife is a fascinating one. I liked the scenes with the wife pressuring the husband into killing himself to stop being a burden. I would have liked to have seen more of their society and how it worked (what happens to people who die in accidents?) The stuff with the alien girl on Voyager is quite good too with how tragic it is, her whole belief system being shattered. I think killing her off was a bit cruel though? The problem is that a lot of the episode is just Harry or Janeway saying "well no one knows what happens when you die!" to the aliens. It feels like they're being careful not to offend religious viewers or something (that bit at the end with Janeway talking about "energy" feels tacked on and similarly motivated.) If this was a TOS episode with Kirk in the place of Kim he's probably have made a speech to the aliens about how they're fooling themselves and brought down their entire society.
SCORE: 5.5/10
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Prime Factors - Torres and Seska ask Harry and Tom if they're knocking off the Delaney Sisters. There's some blonde girl sitting next to Tom laughing like she's part of it but she doesn't get to speak. Janeway is happy both crews are "finally" getting along (when weren't they, really?) Aliens named the Sikarians send out a distress call "because Voyager is in distress" and a French guy named Gath invites Janeyway to enjoy his planet. Kes and Neelix think it's a great idea but Tuvok raises his eyebrow a bit. Gath offers Janeway loads of clothes but she just wants a nice scarf. Harry flirts with a hot girl. Harry's knew girl tells him how important stories are to the Sikarians. She takes Harry to a private place so he can tell her stories (this is possibly a come on) and Harry realises they're on another planet. Not only that but it's a planet 40,000 light years away. Janeway nearly gets off with Gath but Harry runs in to cockblock (and tell her there could be a way to go home using the Sikarian space-folding technology.) Gath explains that it's against their laws to share the technology as it could fall into the wrong hands if it left their planet. There's a big debate scene with the senior staff. Janeway points out that they're on the other side of the Prime Directive now and some of the aliens they've denied Starfleet technology must feel the same way they do now. Tuvok suggests they should attempt to talk the Sikarians around and Harry points out that they value stories above all else and they could offer them Voyager's complete Kindle library. Janeway sweet talks Gath, trying to convince him to transport Voyager 40,000 light years in exchange for some books. Seska tells Torres that it's her brother's birthday and she'd really like to get home (is this her real brother or a cover-story brother?) Torres starts looking into the technology even though Janeway told her not to. Carey joins them too (recurring characters!)
Harry's girlfriend takes him to a shady back alley meeting with Gath's assistant who is willing to give the space-folding technology to Harry in exchange for the stries (she he can become a famous story supplier.) Harry tells Paris, Torres and Seksa before going to tell Janeway. They all suspect Janeway will turn down the offer because it isn't above board. Seska tells Torres they should take the technology anyway. Torres is torn between her and her new loyalty to Janeway. Janeway asks Tuvok for advice. He suggests that doing the deal might not be so bad because they'd just be breaking Sikarian law and not their own. Janeway struggles with what to do but thanks Tuvok for being such a good friend. Janeway asks Gath if he's talked to the rest of his government about helping Voyager but he's all "nah there's no rush, babe, relax and hang out with me!" He wants Janeway to just stay on the planet with him instead. Janeway realises all he cares about is his own pleasure and he'd get bored of her soon enough. Gath doesn't find this conversation pleasurable and tells her to get off his planet. Tuvok looks a bit concerned (in a Vulcan way) that Janeway wants to leave the planet and isn't considering the other deal. Seska and Carey convince B'Elanna to accept the technology without Janeway's permission. Tuvok catches them in the transporter room...then reveals that he'll make the exchange instead. Tuvok brings the technology to Torres but warns her not to activate it until he's talked to Janeway (Seska instantly ignores him and plugs it in to run a simulation.) It turns out they have to activate it before leaving orbit and do so. But something goes wrong (yes there's a lot of technobabble but it's done well) and the Warp core nearly blows up. Torres has to destroy the technology to save them. Seska wants to keep lying but Torres says it's time to face the music. Torres and Tuvok both come clean. Janeway tells Torres how deeply disappointed she is. Mulgrew is good here. She's more angry with Tuvok because he's her oldest friend. Tuvok tries to use logic to justify his actions, saying that he chose to act to spare Janeway of her ethical dilemma. Janeway tells him to bring his logic to her and not act on it behind her back. Tuvok says hislogic wasn't in error but he was.
It's probably the best episode yet, or a tie with 'Eye of the Needle' anyway. You can see everyone's point of view and having it not just be the Maquis who were breaking the rules but Tuvok as well was a great choice by the writers and gave Tuvok a bit of an edge. The only thing I'm not sure about is Gath: he just seems a bit too pervy. The episode could have done more to show why it would have been so bad for Janway to accept the deal with the other guy. But yeah it's very good stuff.
SCORE: 9/10
State of Flux - An away team is searching a planet for food. Carey is excited that he's found some kind of apple but that dick Neelix has to humilate him by revealing it's poisonous. Leola roots make their first appearance (Chakotay thinks they're shit.) Voyager finds a kind of cloacked Kazon-Nistrim ship. Seska is missing on the planet and Chakotay goes to look for her. He spots some Kazon in a cave and finds Seska apparently hiding from her ("thank the Prophets!" she says.) Chakotay is shot. Seska makes him mushroom soup to help him get better. Chakotay gets mad when he finds out she stole the mushrooms. We find out they used to be lovers. Voyager picks up a distress call from the Kazon ship they saw earlier. Janeway wisely takes precautions in case it's a trap but of couse goes to help them. They beam over and find most of the Kazon are not just dead but phsed into metal, like there's been some horrible transporter accident. Torres determines the accident was caused by Federation technology. One Kazon survived and the Doctor needs to do blood screenings to save his life. Tuvok wonders of another Federation ship came to the Quadrant before them (Janeway says there were no reports of other missing ships. CONTINUITY ERROR FOR LATER!) Someone on Voyager must be a traitor. Torres turns Janeway on by saying "I don't exaggerate!" when Janeway tells her to get something working faster. Chakotay is worried people will think Seska is the traitor because she went missing on the planet. Seska goes to look at the sick Kazon and tells the Doctor he's the only one who can clear her name. Kes wonders why Seska's never left a blood sample. Seska beams over to the Kazon ship by herself. She claims she's just there to get the Federation technology back but Tuvok suggests she could be there to cover her traps. There's an accident and Seska has to be beamed to Sickbay.
Janeway and Tuvok talk to Carey, another suspect as he went missing on the planet to pick apples. He acts a bit shifty and jittery, making it look like it could be him (which means it isn't.) Janeway locks him up. Maje Culluh (oh great, him) contacts Voyager, wanting to speak to the surviving Kazon. Tom does one of his "friendly sort!" quips. Culluh wants the other ship back but Janeway won't give it up while there's Federation tech on it. Culluh's bodyguard murders the sick Kazon with a poisoned ring. The Doctor and Kes also break the news that now that they've got a sample of Seska's blood they know she's actually a Cardassian altered to look Bajoran. Chakotay can't believe his former lover was a Cardassian spy and wants to question her. Culluh theatens Janeway again and she tells him she does't like bullies. Torres finally gets the Federation technology out of the Kazon ship and determines it's a food replcatior and that wasn't properly shielded. Chakotay finally talks to Seska and admits he isn't sure what to believe. She claims she has a rare disease and was saved by a transplant from a nice Cardassian woman and that's why her blood is weird. Martha Hackett as Seska plays it so well that you can almost believe her. Chaktoay and Tuvok have given Seska and Carey the same bait to catch one of them out as the traitor, like in Murder She Wrote. They detect someone with Seska's secuirty code trying to destroy the evidence. Torres thinks that means it's Carey trying to frame Seska, but Chakotay knows it's a smart Seska double bluff. Chakotay, Janeway and Tuvok go to confront Seska with the truth. The Doctor reveals her childhood virus story is a lie, she's a real Cardie. Seska finally drops the act and reveals she did it all because of Janeway's Federation morals. If it was a Cardassian ship they'd be home by now. She wants to make an alliance with the Kazon. She cruelly says "I can't imagine how I ever loved you" to Chakotay and beams away to a Kazon ship. Chakotay asks Tuvok if he's really a big fool since Seska and Tuvok both managed to spy on him. Tuvok points out that he himself did not notice that Seska was a Cardassian spy either. This makes Chakotay feel a bit better.
It's another very good episode. Martha Hackett is so good here as Seska here that it's actually making me really mad they didn't just make her a regular character. Imagine if she had to stay on Voyager with them knowing she was a Cardassian spy? That would have been good drama! I'm not holding that against this episode though. Chakotay, while not the most interesting man alive, finally gets a good story. The Kazon return and are used fine here. I guess the only problem is that it's always pretty obvious that Seska is the traitor, despite how good her acting is. With all the screentime she got it was never going to be an "it was Carey all along!" ending.
SCORE: 8.5/10
Harry's girlfriend takes him to a shady back alley meeting with Gath's assistant who is willing to give the space-folding technology to Harry in exchange for the stries (she he can become a famous story supplier.) Harry tells Paris, Torres and Seksa before going to tell Janeway. They all suspect Janeway will turn down the offer because it isn't above board. Seska tells Torres they should take the technology anyway. Torres is torn between her and her new loyalty to Janeway. Janeway asks Tuvok for advice. He suggests that doing the deal might not be so bad because they'd just be breaking Sikarian law and not their own. Janeway struggles with what to do but thanks Tuvok for being such a good friend. Janeway asks Gath if he's talked to the rest of his government about helping Voyager but he's all "nah there's no rush, babe, relax and hang out with me!" He wants Janeway to just stay on the planet with him instead. Janeway realises all he cares about is his own pleasure and he'd get bored of her soon enough. Gath doesn't find this conversation pleasurable and tells her to get off his planet. Tuvok looks a bit concerned (in a Vulcan way) that Janeway wants to leave the planet and isn't considering the other deal. Seska and Carey convince B'Elanna to accept the technology without Janeway's permission. Tuvok catches them in the transporter room...then reveals that he'll make the exchange instead. Tuvok brings the technology to Torres but warns her not to activate it until he's talked to Janeway (Seska instantly ignores him and plugs it in to run a simulation.) It turns out they have to activate it before leaving orbit and do so. But something goes wrong (yes there's a lot of technobabble but it's done well) and the Warp core nearly blows up. Torres has to destroy the technology to save them. Seska wants to keep lying but Torres says it's time to face the music. Torres and Tuvok both come clean. Janeway tells Torres how deeply disappointed she is. Mulgrew is good here. She's more angry with Tuvok because he's her oldest friend. Tuvok tries to use logic to justify his actions, saying that he chose to act to spare Janeway of her ethical dilemma. Janeway tells him to bring his logic to her and not act on it behind her back. Tuvok says hislogic wasn't in error but he was.
It's probably the best episode yet, or a tie with 'Eye of the Needle' anyway. You can see everyone's point of view and having it not just be the Maquis who were breaking the rules but Tuvok as well was a great choice by the writers and gave Tuvok a bit of an edge. The only thing I'm not sure about is Gath: he just seems a bit too pervy. The episode could have done more to show why it would have been so bad for Janway to accept the deal with the other guy. But yeah it's very good stuff.
SCORE: 9/10
State of Flux - An away team is searching a planet for food. Carey is excited that he's found some kind of apple but that dick Neelix has to humilate him by revealing it's poisonous. Leola roots make their first appearance (Chakotay thinks they're shit.) Voyager finds a kind of cloacked Kazon-Nistrim ship. Seska is missing on the planet and Chakotay goes to look for her. He spots some Kazon in a cave and finds Seska apparently hiding from her ("thank the Prophets!" she says.) Chakotay is shot. Seska makes him mushroom soup to help him get better. Chakotay gets mad when he finds out she stole the mushrooms. We find out they used to be lovers. Voyager picks up a distress call from the Kazon ship they saw earlier. Janeway wisely takes precautions in case it's a trap but of couse goes to help them. They beam over and find most of the Kazon are not just dead but phsed into metal, like there's been some horrible transporter accident. Torres determines the accident was caused by Federation technology. One Kazon survived and the Doctor needs to do blood screenings to save his life. Tuvok wonders of another Federation ship came to the Quadrant before them (Janeway says there were no reports of other missing ships. CONTINUITY ERROR FOR LATER!) Someone on Voyager must be a traitor. Torres turns Janeway on by saying "I don't exaggerate!" when Janeway tells her to get something working faster. Chakotay is worried people will think Seska is the traitor because she went missing on the planet. Seska goes to look at the sick Kazon and tells the Doctor he's the only one who can clear her name. Kes wonders why Seska's never left a blood sample. Seska beams over to the Kazon ship by herself. She claims she's just there to get the Federation technology back but Tuvok suggests she could be there to cover her traps. There's an accident and Seska has to be beamed to Sickbay.
Janeway and Tuvok talk to Carey, another suspect as he went missing on the planet to pick apples. He acts a bit shifty and jittery, making it look like it could be him (which means it isn't.) Janeway locks him up. Maje Culluh (oh great, him) contacts Voyager, wanting to speak to the surviving Kazon. Tom does one of his "friendly sort!" quips. Culluh wants the other ship back but Janeway won't give it up while there's Federation tech on it. Culluh's bodyguard murders the sick Kazon with a poisoned ring. The Doctor and Kes also break the news that now that they've got a sample of Seska's blood they know she's actually a Cardassian altered to look Bajoran. Chakotay can't believe his former lover was a Cardassian spy and wants to question her. Culluh theatens Janeway again and she tells him she does't like bullies. Torres finally gets the Federation technology out of the Kazon ship and determines it's a food replcatior and that wasn't properly shielded. Chakotay finally talks to Seska and admits he isn't sure what to believe. She claims she has a rare disease and was saved by a transplant from a nice Cardassian woman and that's why her blood is weird. Martha Hackett as Seska plays it so well that you can almost believe her. Chaktoay and Tuvok have given Seska and Carey the same bait to catch one of them out as the traitor, like in Murder She Wrote. They detect someone with Seska's secuirty code trying to destroy the evidence. Torres thinks that means it's Carey trying to frame Seska, but Chakotay knows it's a smart Seska double bluff. Chakotay, Janeway and Tuvok go to confront Seska with the truth. The Doctor reveals her childhood virus story is a lie, she's a real Cardie. Seska finally drops the act and reveals she did it all because of Janeway's Federation morals. If it was a Cardassian ship they'd be home by now. She wants to make an alliance with the Kazon. She cruelly says "I can't imagine how I ever loved you" to Chakotay and beams away to a Kazon ship. Chakotay asks Tuvok if he's really a big fool since Seska and Tuvok both managed to spy on him. Tuvok points out that he himself did not notice that Seska was a Cardassian spy either. This makes Chakotay feel a bit better.
It's another very good episode. Martha Hackett is so good here as Seska here that it's actually making me really mad they didn't just make her a regular character. Imagine if she had to stay on Voyager with them knowing she was a Cardassian spy? That would have been good drama! I'm not holding that against this episode though. Chakotay, while not the most interesting man alive, finally gets a good story. The Kazon return and are used fine here. I guess the only problem is that it's always pretty obvious that Seska is the traitor, despite how good her acting is. With all the screentime she got it was never going to be an "it was Carey all along!" ending.
SCORE: 8.5/10
Starship Coyote
Original Gangster!
Remember Chakotay!
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Heroes and Demons - Harry goes missing (oh well.) Tuvok and Chakotay go looking for him on the Holodeck, where Harry was playing Beowulf. Of course the Holodeck commands and safeties aren't working and they soon meet the King's daughter Frey, who ttakes them to her father. The King tells them Harry was killed by the monster Grendel. There's a bunch of time-wasting Holodeck stuff with the King and Chakotay talking about the power of myth before Janeway finds that Harry has actually been converted from matter to energy. Grendel then does the same thing to Tuvok and Chakotay. Tom comes up with the idea to send the Doctor to the Holodeck to convert the missing crew back to matter since the Doc is already energy anyway. The Doctor admits to Kes that he's nervous about his first mission as he'd never left Sickbay before let alone been to viking times. Kes suggests he chose a name before going on his mission (Kes is still one of the best character at this point!) The Doctor impresses Freya with his knowledge of her character (he read Beowulf) and says his name is Schweitzer (a hero's name!) The Doctor impresses the vikings by letting a sword phase through him and making a quip.
The Doctor eats elk and tells a story of curing a virus to the confused vikings. The King likes the Doctor but one asshole viking doesn't. Freya tells the Doctor how she's losing all her friends to the monster and no one will speak of it. They bond and kiss. She invites him to visit her bedroom. Grendel shows up and we see it's some weird energy being. The Doc is returned to Sickbay but Grendel's ate his arm. Paris and Torres examine a sample of the energy but it breaks out and flies away. It's alive. Janeway realises that the missing crew have been converted into photonic energy and taken to a star, as payback for Voyager accidentally capturing sentient energy beings. Okay. The Doctor returns to the Holodeck to give the captured energy beings back to Grendel. Freye gives him a big hug and the asshole from earlier appears and accuses the Doctor of wanting to kill them all. Freya steps in the way of the assholes knife and dies in the Doctor's arms. The asshole steals the energy being container and takes it back to the King. The Doctor has a badass moment saying he won't kill the asshole because he's taken a vow to do no harm. The Doctor returns the energy beings and Chakotay, Tuvok and Kim are returned too. The being disappear. Janeway talks about how exciting it is to meet new species even though we didn't really get to know the aliens at all.
Yeah it's a Holodeck malfunction episode AND a Voyager accidentally hurts some weird energies beings all in one! The first act is pretty dull but it thankfully picks up once the Doctor is sent to the Holodeck. Robert Picardo is great and makes all his interactions with the vikings a lot of fun. The actress playing Freya is actually really good too and I enjoyed her bonding with the Doctor. But yeah the plot isn't very good. It's just an excuse to let the Doctor have some fun. I enjoy seeing the Doctor having some fun though so the episode is decent.
SCORE: 6.5/10
Cathexis - Oh fuck no Janeway has started a new holodeck adventure in "ancient England" and it's terrible. There's a bit where we see a point of view shot of someone watching her outside (but she's the only one in the Holodeck) then a terrible actor tells her to look after his kids and I don't care. This takes up nearly five minutes then we find out someone's drained Chakotay's brain. Tuvok reports they were attacked inside a dark matter nebula so Voyager goes there to investigate. Voyager mysteriously changes courseon the way to the nebula but Tom doesn't remember doing it. Torres sets up a "medicine wheel" over Chakotay to heal him. Kes senses a presence in her room (it was probably Neelix hiding in the wardrobe wanking over her.) Voyager's course changes again and Paris is implicated. As Voyager gets closer to the nebula, Torres shuts down the warp core and doesn't remember doing it. The Doctor determines that an alien entity has taken control of Paris and Torres and is now jumping from body to body getting up to all kinds of shit. Janeway transfers all command codes to the Doctor to overrule anyone acting strange as he's the only one they can trust (you could say he's an Emergency COMMAND Hologram now!) Kes tells Janeway she can sense the entity and she ends up with a coma like Chakotay (once again Tuvok is there but not put in a coma, HMMM.)
Harry's mind wonders and everyone nearly shoots him. Neelix gets paranoid too because somenoe changed their drink order. The Doctor tells Tuvok that someone actually beat Kes up rather than it being an energy attack or whatever. Janeway asks Tuvok if maybe he was the one who smacked up Kes as everyone grows more paranoid. Someone's disabled the Doctor too (it's pretty obviously Tuvok doing this stuff by this point.) The alien possesses Janeway and attacks Tuvok, then jumps into several others who all attack Tuvok before he shoots them all with a phaser on wide beam stun. Torres tells Janeway that there was no attacking ship when Chakotay was brain drained, it was the nebula itself and Tuvok lied. Paris determines Kes was injured by a Vulcan neck pinch. Look, it's Tuvok, he's evil. Janeway confronts Tuvok and he claims Janeway is the actual enemy. Harry does some "acting" and reveals he believes Janeway. Evil Tuvok takes them into the evil nebula and explains he's an evil alien. Torres is possessed and ejects the warp core (off screen since they can't do a warp core ejection animation yet.) There's two aliens! And one of them...IS CHAKOTAY! The evil alien is kicked out of Tuvok's body and flies away to join its evil energy being (always with the energy beings) outside. Chakotay jumps into Neelix and rearranges the medicine wheel to make a map for Voyager to follow and escape the neblula (yes this barely makes sense.) They get out and pick up their warp core (offscreen, obviously.) The Doctor finally puts Chakotay back in his body.
Wait.
Chakotay was flying about possessing people all this time.
Why the fuck didn't he just fly back into his own body?
Also how the fuck is Chakotay's consciousness able to exist outside his body and possess other people.
And why didn't he just write "HI, I'M CHAKOAY" when he was in someone else's body?
So yeah it's really stupid. I'll admit that first time I watched it, over twenty years ago, I probably did like the twist where it turned out the evil alien was actually Chakotay. But you can't just write an episode to get to a big twist and think that makes the episode good! It has to actually be entertaining all the way through. This one is boring and pretty dumb and lacking in character moments. There's some decent paranoia stuff, sure, and it's fun when Janeway starts beating up Tuvok, but it's all pretty bad on the whole.
SCORE: 3/10
The Doctor eats elk and tells a story of curing a virus to the confused vikings. The King likes the Doctor but one asshole viking doesn't. Freya tells the Doctor how she's losing all her friends to the monster and no one will speak of it. They bond and kiss. She invites him to visit her bedroom. Grendel shows up and we see it's some weird energy being. The Doc is returned to Sickbay but Grendel's ate his arm. Paris and Torres examine a sample of the energy but it breaks out and flies away. It's alive. Janeway realises that the missing crew have been converted into photonic energy and taken to a star, as payback for Voyager accidentally capturing sentient energy beings. Okay. The Doctor returns to the Holodeck to give the captured energy beings back to Grendel. Freye gives him a big hug and the asshole from earlier appears and accuses the Doctor of wanting to kill them all. Freya steps in the way of the assholes knife and dies in the Doctor's arms. The asshole steals the energy being container and takes it back to the King. The Doctor has a badass moment saying he won't kill the asshole because he's taken a vow to do no harm. The Doctor returns the energy beings and Chakotay, Tuvok and Kim are returned too. The being disappear. Janeway talks about how exciting it is to meet new species even though we didn't really get to know the aliens at all.
Yeah it's a Holodeck malfunction episode AND a Voyager accidentally hurts some weird energies beings all in one! The first act is pretty dull but it thankfully picks up once the Doctor is sent to the Holodeck. Robert Picardo is great and makes all his interactions with the vikings a lot of fun. The actress playing Freya is actually really good too and I enjoyed her bonding with the Doctor. But yeah the plot isn't very good. It's just an excuse to let the Doctor have some fun. I enjoy seeing the Doctor having some fun though so the episode is decent.
SCORE: 6.5/10
Cathexis - Oh fuck no Janeway has started a new holodeck adventure in "ancient England" and it's terrible. There's a bit where we see a point of view shot of someone watching her outside (but she's the only one in the Holodeck) then a terrible actor tells her to look after his kids and I don't care. This takes up nearly five minutes then we find out someone's drained Chakotay's brain. Tuvok reports they were attacked inside a dark matter nebula so Voyager goes there to investigate. Voyager mysteriously changes courseon the way to the nebula but Tom doesn't remember doing it. Torres sets up a "medicine wheel" over Chakotay to heal him. Kes senses a presence in her room (it was probably Neelix hiding in the wardrobe wanking over her.) Voyager's course changes again and Paris is implicated. As Voyager gets closer to the nebula, Torres shuts down the warp core and doesn't remember doing it. The Doctor determines that an alien entity has taken control of Paris and Torres and is now jumping from body to body getting up to all kinds of shit. Janeway transfers all command codes to the Doctor to overrule anyone acting strange as he's the only one they can trust (you could say he's an Emergency COMMAND Hologram now!) Kes tells Janeway she can sense the entity and she ends up with a coma like Chakotay (once again Tuvok is there but not put in a coma, HMMM.)
Harry's mind wonders and everyone nearly shoots him. Neelix gets paranoid too because somenoe changed their drink order. The Doctor tells Tuvok that someone actually beat Kes up rather than it being an energy attack or whatever. Janeway asks Tuvok if maybe he was the one who smacked up Kes as everyone grows more paranoid. Someone's disabled the Doctor too (it's pretty obviously Tuvok doing this stuff by this point.) The alien possesses Janeway and attacks Tuvok, then jumps into several others who all attack Tuvok before he shoots them all with a phaser on wide beam stun. Torres tells Janeway that there was no attacking ship when Chakotay was brain drained, it was the nebula itself and Tuvok lied. Paris determines Kes was injured by a Vulcan neck pinch. Look, it's Tuvok, he's evil. Janeway confronts Tuvok and he claims Janeway is the actual enemy. Harry does some "acting" and reveals he believes Janeway. Evil Tuvok takes them into the evil nebula and explains he's an evil alien. Torres is possessed and ejects the warp core (off screen since they can't do a warp core ejection animation yet.) There's two aliens! And one of them...IS CHAKOTAY! The evil alien is kicked out of Tuvok's body and flies away to join its evil energy being (always with the energy beings) outside. Chakotay jumps into Neelix and rearranges the medicine wheel to make a map for Voyager to follow and escape the neblula (yes this barely makes sense.) They get out and pick up their warp core (offscreen, obviously.) The Doctor finally puts Chakotay back in his body.
Wait.
Chakotay was flying about possessing people all this time.
Why the fuck didn't he just fly back into his own body?
Also how the fuck is Chakotay's consciousness able to exist outside his body and possess other people.
And why didn't he just write "HI, I'M CHAKOAY" when he was in someone else's body?
So yeah it's really stupid. I'll admit that first time I watched it, over twenty years ago, I probably did like the twist where it turned out the evil alien was actually Chakotay. But you can't just write an episode to get to a big twist and think that makes the episode good! It has to actually be entertaining all the way through. This one is boring and pretty dumb and lacking in character moments. There's some decent paranoia stuff, sure, and it's fun when Janeway starts beating up Tuvok, but it's all pretty bad on the whole.
SCORE: 3/10
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CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
It was so shit and took up nearly the first five minutes (then had nothing to do with the rest of the episode.) Millions PROBABLY changed channels.