This episode has some great moments but also highlights some of the worst things of this series. Basic internal logic is forgotten, it goes from one thing to another not resolving the first thing. too many different ideas are crammed in without resolving them giving little room to breathe. lacklustre episode that had more potential. this must have been known as it is evident audio is added after the live recording (characters speak without moving lips) to help explain. overall very amateur hour.
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@aztele WRT your other comments on this episode, posted just a few minutes apart, you can edit comments and [spoiler]spoiler-tag[/spoiler] things inline. (I frequently do an edit or two in the minutes following publish, because I invariably forget something the first time.)
I'm quickly learning that episodes which give Kes a lot to do generally benefit from Jennifer Lien's good acting abilities. I also enjoyed this one due to the continuity of picking up plot threads from the pilot episode - the opening montage actually got me excited that something big was going to happen here. Ultimately, it doesn't, but that doesn't detract from proceedings too much.
When all is said and done, it does fall right into the standard Trek storytelling template. The Ocampa which we meet turn out to be evil and manipulative, and the possibility of getting home by means of Suspira goes nowhere. And yet, the episode focuses on Kes' character and manages to make the whole thing mostly interesting. There's also some surprisingly strong moments of horror when Tuvok's blood begins to boil, and we see people strung up in engineering (where are the rest of the engineering crew and Tuvok's security team, though?). I find myself quite interested in what Kes is really capable of.
The most problematic and annoying part for me is that it ends exactly where it begins, with nothing really changed. Gotta make sure to hit that reset button before the credits roll.
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where are the rest of the engineering crew and Tuvok's security team, though?
Literally the same question! It's like they ran out of budget for extras in that one scene or something.
The fake husband is revealed
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@aajohn Trakt glitched and duplicated your comment. Past experience taught me that you can delete the other one to clean it up if you want, but not this one, because the site won't allow deleting a comment that has replies.
"I analyzed the typing speed and patterns on the hard drive." You WHAT? I so hate meaningless technobabble.
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@katu93 Definitely… but none that can be installed and retroactively analyze them.
When Voyager tackles big story lines, it can take me by surprise. This is a gorgeously twisty episode that doesn't worry about how much it tries to fit in, starting in one place and taking us on a winding path to get somewhere new. I have to congratulate the writers on handling it all so well.
I'm really glad to see that the Maquis are still not entirely comfortable on board the ship, because they do tend to blend into the background in most episodes. It's just a shame that any time we meet one it has to be a new character and actor. The show would have been so much better if there were all people that we had been seeing since the start.
The death and funeral scene at the start really didn't work for me at all for exactly the reason that we don't know or care about the character who died. All of our main cast were talking about how well they knew him, how he had saved their lives and it falls flat. Chakotay especially fails here as he gives one of the most underwhelming and unemotional funeral eulogies - I don't really think that guy truly cares about anyone, or else Robert Beltran was just bored out of his mind.
Always happy to see Seska back, and her interactions with Maje Cullah were a bit more nuanced here, less evil villain. The Trabe kind of suckered me in, I was hoping they would actually be good guys. Nice nod to The Godfather Part III with the big mass execution.
The ending is a bit of a letdown with Janeway realising that the Starfleet way is the only way (it really shouldn't be), and giving a cheesy motivational speech.
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@lefthandedguitarist I love when I don't have to write a top-level comment at all because someone else read my mind :)
Why would you bring your dog down to an alien planet inhabited by a species that found the simple act of eating offensive. Why even ask them if the dog could visit the planet. Why take the risk? Archer, why.
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@splenda Because Archer is not a logical man.
There's nothing particularly bad about this episode, it's just so very forgettable. It's a great showcase for Dax and Terry Farrell finally gets to show us the slightly more fun side of her which will become a trademark of her personality. I like Trill culture so it's nice to get some info about how it all works, but the whole relationship between Jadzia and Arjin is quite dull and just feels half hearted.
Odo has a great mini disagreement with Kira and makes his points beautifully, the voles on the station are a humourous background story and the Klingon chef is always welcome back.
But the whole thing with the tiny universe is just uninteresting and feels without any real stakes. They just end up putting it back where they found it, but isn't it still going to pose a risk there once it continues to expand?
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Hmm, the implication of putting the protouniverse back where they found it is that, since it came from a subspace pocket, it won't impinge on normal space. I don't think we the viewers actually know enough about how subspace "works" to know.
There's nothing particularly bad about this episode, it's just so very forgettable. It's a great showcase for Dax and Terry Farrell finally gets to show us the slightly more fun side of her which will become a trademark of her personality. I like Trill culture so it's nice to get some info about how it all works, but the whole relationship between Jadzia and Arjin is quite dull and just feels half hearted.
Odo has a great mini disagreement with Kira and makes his points beautifully, the voles on the station are a humourous background story and the Klingon chef is always welcome back.
But the whole thing with the tiny universe is just uninteresting and feels without any real stakes. They just end up putting it back where they found it, but isn't it still going to pose a risk there once it continues to expand?
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@lefthandedguitarist They did kind of explain where it came from initially in a bit of a throwaway line… Sigh.
Oh dear Q; these are always my least favourite. 6 is a kind score. You'd think Q would have pushed them homewards a bit quicker.. why wouldn't Janeway even ask??
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@danio1972 She didn't ask because it was offered—as a bribe for making the "correct" decision in her asylum deliberations—but she didn't like those terms.
Doris Roberts is always a joy, and this episode was fun and cute, as usual.
Content Concerns:
Sex: None. 5/5
Nudity: Lizzie wears an outfit that shows some slight midriff. 4/5
Language: None. 5/5
Violence: Comedic pratfalls. 4/5
Drugs: None. 5/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Slight emotional intensity. 4/5
Other: A reference to feng shui. 4/5loading replies
Why is a reference to feng shui even worth mentioning, let alone enough to pull down the "Other" rating?
The end car scene was so incredibly heart breakingly beautiful. To see Liz finally admit she cares for Red was beautiful - even after she's tried to limit their relations to purely work, has tried to flee frm him or not talk to him and at times purely hated him; ultimately she would risk her life for him. And to see Red completely vulnerable, even if it was only for a few seconds, was incredible. GREAT performances
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@yapyap92 I thought you might like to know that there are multiple duplicates of this comment. Trakt seems to occasionally flake out when posting. :/
I was sure Tom was about to be killed, but no, he lives on.
Red always has an angle; how does he remember all the alliances, the deceit.. I know I wouldn't
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@danio-1972 "High-functioning sociopath" might have something to do with it, lol. There's also a savant element.
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
I'm as surprised as anyone that I've found an episode with Neelix in such a prominent role that I quite enjoyed. But it's not because of him, it's because it's the culmination of a plot thread that has been building over the past bunch of episodes - even though that culmination may not be the most satisfying end. At any rate, Neelix's scenes saying goodbye to Tom did work very well.
It turns out Tom Paris has been faking his misbehaviour (duh) because Janeway and Tuvok suspect there's a spy on board. They decided to keep Chakotay out of the loop to make it seem more real, but I think it's really because they didn't trust Chakotay not to mess things up. I think what's impressed me most about it all is that the show kept this thread running over the course of several episodes, and it just feels like such a breath of fresh air to have some serialisation that I'm happy to sit back and enjoy it, despite it not being all that compelling.
Tom's fight to escape from Seska and the Kazon is unimpressive, seeminly limited to one corridor set that he has to run back and forth through. Seska herself is revelling in being evil, and I have to admit I get a weird thrill out of the cheesiness of it all. I almost didn't expect Jonas to die, and at least he goes out in style.
Neelix's TV show could become grating if we see lots more of it, but the funny subplot with the Doctor did entertain me. One moment that took me right out of the episode was when Janeway contacts engineering and explains everything that's going on to Jonas ("we need the transporter, because we've detected a Kazon shuttle and there is one human life sign on board and we think it might be Tom Paris") despite no captain ever taking the time to do this in Trek history. Also, Jonas being the only person in engineering is really bizarre.
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Also, Jonas being the only person in engineering is really bizarre.
And not only once. I counted, what, three times when he was the only person there. Isn't there a Starfleet regulation somewhere about never having critical departments manned by only one crew member? (There should be.)
Edit: I hope this reply was worth having to rewrite the first half of my top-level review from scratch, because Trakt lost my in-progress draft when I posted this. Nice bug. (I've also learned that Trakt really doesn't like emoji, by trying to use one in this edit.)
Creative and enjoyable, with a pleasantly weird alternate-universe/time-shift aspect that never becomes too complicated to follow. It leaves you with the odd feeling of having seen the Voyager crew die, but never really being sure if they were our original crew, or whether that even matters. The exact same thing happens to Harry that happens to O'Brien in DS9's 'Visionary', in that we are left with a version of the character who isn't exactly our own one.
It was also good to see the Vidiians back to being pretty decent bad guys again. There was something chilling about the way they just assessed unconscious people by which organs they could harvest from them. Janeway was a bit of a badass in regards to the solution to getting rid of them.
Having the duplicate Janeways standing so close to each other during their scenes made it look like they were about to kiss, and really made me aware of how shows had to work within the 4:3 aspect ratio back then. I felt a bit more let down that the two versions of Kes didn't really interact with each other at all.
I got quite wrapped up in the ordeal of Ensign Wildman finally having her baby, which certainly ran through a gamut of emotions! Chakotay was as useless as ever, and I noticed that Voyager didn't require his authorisation to concur with setting the self-destruct - I guess Janeway changed that because she knows he'd just mess it up.
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and I noticed that Voyager didn't require his authorisation to concur with setting the self-destruct
They already threw the self-destruct confirmation out the window in "Dreadnought". Since I spent so many words on it just a few episodes ago there was no point bringing that up again in my own review of this one. :D
Speaking of "Dreadnought", what happened to, "The moment a captain decides to initiate a self-destruct, any episode will become extremely predictable"? Looks like this one proved an exception to your generalized insult directed at plots that use self-destruct.
Walt's mom was a bitch
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Just a little bit
…ch
According to the votes people obviously like this one but as far as stupid Star Trek episodes go this has a shot at being right at the top. The general idea is good but the excecution is - shall we say - to artistic for my taste.
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@finfan I don't think the average score means that much for most shows. It seems to always be in the 70-80% range, roughly, for episodes with a statistically significant vote count. It's almost like Trakt ratings follow a regression toward the mean(ingless).
Why the fuck would they explain their code when they should be keeping it confidential, so much for being geniuses.
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@sunny_senpai That's why it's a comedy.
Is it ok if I wanna kill Richard after this episode?
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@zuretear That's exactly what I thought! The technical explanation made no sense, and neither did Intersite getting hosed. Backups, people. Backups! There's no way that was their only copy of the files.
Worst episode far. Not once but he met him twice? Really? What the fuck?
What kind of laptop is that? Having delete key in the top right corner of the keyboard layout. Even if it did, it ain't some notepad code that could be erased. And they managed to delete terabytes of data in a couple of minutes? lol
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@sunny_senpai It's a MacBook Pro. The "Delete" key functions as "Backspace"; it just has a funny name because Apple's hardware designers like to "Think Different." This episode's believability is the lowest of the whole series (so far, at least).
Shout by dgw
VIP10Salem's been looking really strange in the last few episodes, and I think I know why. They changed puppets for the second half of season one, and again for season two.
The puppets used in the second half of the first season were the result of the network's art direction. It would seem that people high up in Animal Makers disliked the look of these puppets but they had to serve the specific comments of ABC.
Two new puppets were created for season two.
—
http://salem.damowmow.com/puppets/home.htmlloading replies
@cptarius And now you have the crown for fastest reply to one of my comments on Trakt. It usually takes at least 12 hours for someone to notice my posts ;)
"Amazing. We've managed to perfect the apple—a genetically modified version that never goes brown. And yet, we still haven't upgraded human beings." Root, where do I start with you? You're clearly quite intelligent, so how is it you don't see the multiple orders of magnitude difference in complexity between the two life forms you just named?
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@sailormewni It's always the writer, but I get so tired of yelling at "the writers" all the time, lol. I figure blaming the writers for anything a character says or does on screen is implied, so I can just yell at the character directly.
This is a remake of an episode from the original series; like many remakes, it's inferior to the original. While this one has its moments, some disturbing content--especially implied sexual relations between Data and a human woman--messed this up for me. The language was actually rather clean...until the last scene or two; then they fouled it up.
Content Concerns:
Sex: Implied sex between a male-type android and a human woman; Data is stopped short before making a crude joke. 2/5
Nudity: A woman is seen wearing an outfit that displays her midriff, her back, and a bit of the lower part of her chest. 3/5
Language: Four or so d-words; one or two h-words; two or three misuses of God's name. 2/5
Violence: Sci-fi action violence throughout. 3/5
Drugs: It is said that the reactions that the crew has are like being intoxicated. 4/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Plenty of emotional intensity; the ship nearly gets destroyed; Geordi is seen without his visor. 3/5Score: 3/5
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@abstractals You should read his comments on classic Disney sitcoms like Lizzie McGuire. For example, "Sex: The whole episode is about two teenage girls buying bras for the first time. 3/5" — https://trakt.tv/comments/96331
This is a remake of an episode from the original series; like many remakes, it's inferior to the original. While this one has its moments, some disturbing content--especially implied sexual relations between Data and a human woman--messed this up for me. The language was actually rather clean...until the last scene or two; then they fouled it up.
Content Concerns:
Sex: Implied sex between a male-type android and a human woman; Data is stopped short before making a crude joke. 2/5
Nudity: A woman is seen wearing an outfit that displays her midriff, her back, and a bit of the lower part of her chest. 3/5
Language: Four or so d-words; one or two h-words; two or three misuses of God's name. 2/5
Violence: Sci-fi action violence throughout. 3/5
Drugs: It is said that the reactions that the crew has are like being intoxicated. 4/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Plenty of emotional intensity; the ship nearly gets destroyed; Geordi is seen without his visor. 3/5Score: 3/5
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@abstractals Between the "Content Concerns" left here on Trakt and the stuff called out in his reviews on Blogger (https://reading-rebel.blogspot.com/)… all you need to do is look at his Blogger profile to know why.
This is a remake of an episode from the original series; like many remakes, it's inferior to the original. While this one has its moments, some disturbing content--especially implied sexual relations between Data and a human woman--messed this up for me. The language was actually rather clean...until the last scene or two; then they fouled it up.
Content Concerns:
Sex: Implied sex between a male-type android and a human woman; Data is stopped short before making a crude joke. 2/5
Nudity: A woman is seen wearing an outfit that displays her midriff, her back, and a bit of the lower part of her chest. 3/5
Language: Four or so d-words; one or two h-words; two or three misuses of God's name. 2/5
Violence: Sci-fi action violence throughout. 3/5
Drugs: It is said that the reactions that the crew has are like being intoxicated. 4/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Plenty of emotional intensity; the ship nearly gets destroyed; Geordi is seen without his visor. 3/5Score: 3/5
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@abstractals I ran out of palms months ago, personally. Just have to accept that people like this exist and move on… lol
This is a remake of an episode from the original series; like many remakes, it's inferior to the original. While this one has its moments, some disturbing content--especially implied sexual relations between Data and a human woman--messed this up for me. The language was actually rather clean...until the last scene or two; then they fouled it up.
Content Concerns:
Sex: Implied sex between a male-type android and a human woman; Data is stopped short before making a crude joke. 2/5
Nudity: A woman is seen wearing an outfit that displays her midriff, her back, and a bit of the lower part of her chest. 3/5
Language: Four or so d-words; one or two h-words; two or three misuses of God's name. 2/5
Violence: Sci-fi action violence throughout. 3/5
Drugs: It is said that the reactions that the crew has are like being intoxicated. 4/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Plenty of emotional intensity; the ship nearly gets destroyed; Geordi is seen without his visor. 3/5Score: 3/5
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@abstractals Man, I don't even know how many Likes my reviews get. They're mostly for my future self to refer to at some point. But if people do like them then that's cool I guess.
This is a remake of an episode from the original series; like many remakes, it's inferior to the original. While this one has its moments, some disturbing content--especially implied sexual relations between Data and a human woman--messed this up for me. The language was actually rather clean...until the last scene or two; then they fouled it up.
Content Concerns:
Sex: Implied sex between a male-type android and a human woman; Data is stopped short before making a crude joke. 2/5
Nudity: A woman is seen wearing an outfit that displays her midriff, her back, and a bit of the lower part of her chest. 3/5
Language: Four or so d-words; one or two h-words; two or three misuses of God's name. 2/5
Violence: Sci-fi action violence throughout. 3/5
Drugs: It is said that the reactions that the crew has are like being intoxicated. 4/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Plenty of emotional intensity; the ship nearly gets destroyed; Geordi is seen without his visor. 3/5Score: 3/5
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@abstractals (OK, now you have to tell me how you're getting these stats lol)
This is a remake of an episode from the original series; like many remakes, it's inferior to the original. While this one has its moments, some disturbing content--especially implied sexual relations between Data and a human woman--messed this up for me. The language was actually rather clean...until the last scene or two; then they fouled it up.
Content Concerns:
Sex: Implied sex between a male-type android and a human woman; Data is stopped short before making a crude joke. 2/5
Nudity: A woman is seen wearing an outfit that displays her midriff, her back, and a bit of the lower part of her chest. 3/5
Language: Four or so d-words; one or two h-words; two or three misuses of God's name. 2/5
Violence: Sci-fi action violence throughout. 3/5
Drugs: It is said that the reactions that the crew has are like being intoxicated. 4/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Plenty of emotional intensity; the ship nearly gets destroyed; Geordi is seen without his visor. 3/5Score: 3/5
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@abstractals Hmm, you can export other people's data? I can, in fact, grab a CSV of someone else's comments. @justin is this intended?
Waw that's a long episode
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@mounirabbas Long? It's 23 minutes, same as most of the series… Or did some database update happen and you were talking about the next one, which is 37 minutes according to Trakt?
> Jeffrey Combs
> and Ethan PhillipsI heard Phillips' voice immediately. Yes, I was a bit excited. Yes, I was later disappointed.
It's so fun seeing recognizable real-life products disguised as futuristic sci-fi props. In this episode, it was two bottles in Sickbay that were clearly SIGG brand (and only very slightly touched up by the props crew). Nothing compared to Quark using my family's picnicware glasses every day in his bar on DS9, but still fun.
So there are only 173 Rules of Acquisition at this point in time? A lot changes in a century.
"There are fourteen weapons lockers on this ship." — And none of them should be accessible without any authentication at all. The key word is locker. They're supposed to be locked. Sigh.
Nice touch that they threw in "Do I look like a Menk to you?" as a reference to "Dear Doctor".
So Porthos wasn't affected by the gas? Does it only work on humanoids?
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@miclaymon Maybe they're really "weapon lockers", as in each locker holds only a single phase pistol!
I thought it was awfully early in the series to pull the "series regular might be leaving" card, and that was before I looked at some episode trivia and learned that this was filmed as the third in the season. Thank goodness it didn't air as such. Way too early!
A couple of goofs I noticed that weren't mentioned in the sources I found:
1. Wyatt's entrance onto the holodeck from off camera is not accompanied by the sound of the doors opening and closing, but Riker's subsequent exit does come with sound effects.
2. The Tarellians are allegedly trapped on their ship and unable to transport due to the Enterprise's tractor beam. But Wyatt is able to transport over with no issue. Either both ships' transporters should work regardless of the tractor beam being engaged, or neither should.
Lwaxana Troi is a divisive character, I think it's safe to say. Even with myself, I have arguments about whether or not she belongs on Star Trek in general (especially when she shows up on DS9… oy). At times, she's hilariously funny—Gene Roddenberry allegedly described her as "the Auntie Mame of the galaxy" (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 p. 033)—but the writers seemed to misuse her at times. I'll leave further discussion of that for when I get to the relevant episodes, though. This appearance (her first) was mostly great.
What wasn't so great, though: This story. Unsurprising, then, that the script for this episode (as written by Lan O'Kun) was going to be cut from the series. Tracy Tormé rewrote it and "saved" the episode from getting cut, but he still wasn't very happy with how it turned out. I bet a lot of that came from feeling like a lot of the comedy failed to make it all the way to filming. Goodness knows the episode seems to make plays at seriousness here and there, only to fall flat.
The best parts really are the funny bits with Lwaxana, and Data trying to observe more of the human condition. The worst parts all involve Riker ducking out of the room because he's uncomfortable with the situation for some reason that isn't adequately addressed. Oh, and the central idea of Wyatt and this Tarellian girl connecting across the light-years through their dreams. Star Trek usually stays away from that "woo~" sort of thing…
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@lefthandedguitarist When I think of Lwaxana's DS9 appearances, I think of her crush, I guess you'd call it, on Odo. That never made sense to me, and it felt forced.
