Amph "Set a Course For Home." Star Trek: Voyager

Yeah, he has the recurring character collect some bones outside a cave entrance, leading to him becoming land eel lunch.





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VOY 302/307: Sacred Ground
-Premise: Kes is injured when she accidentally commits sacrilege on an alien planet; in order to save her life, Janeway must go through a mysterious ritual that challenges her faith.

-T2Q Comments: Another boring forehead ridge race. Another example of the magic seamless zipper-replacing tech of the 24th century. The "helpless" / "I do understand" moment, while not impactful, is an interesting observation at least.

Are you serious? The last twenty minutes of this episode were literally meaningless? That's worse than "it was all a dream". Seriously? WTF?

Well, at least part of the meaningless segment of the episode is relevant...

"If you can explain everything, what's left to believe in?" the explanations?

If belief is the key to surviving the biogenic field, how is it Kess could have been harmed by it in the first place, when she had no reason to doubt or hesitate, being unaware of the field's existence?

I'm not quite sure what the message or point of this episode was. It tries to be a "belief over fact" type episode, which is unTrek like, but then it reveals it's more of a "belief over fact because they won't let you scan something for no reason" type scenario, which somehow upsets Janeway, even though it shouldn't (at least, not in the way it seemingly does). Average.

Trivia: The first (in production order) of four episodes produced during the second season and intentionally held back for the 3rd season. The first episode directed by Robert Duncan McNeill. Originally, this was to be directed by Jonathan Frakes, who backed out to direct First Contact.



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VOY 303/307: False Profits
-Premise: Voyager discovers a pair of Ferengi who control the economy of a primitive world; nearby is an unstable wormhole that leads back home.

-T2Q Comments: Seeking a wormhole- the wagging dog tail analogy is actually kinda neat. You'd think for away missions like this they might come up with a more discreet slipcase for a tricorder to help mask some of the blinking bits. Also, these people look completely human- they didn't even bother with a generic noseridge.

Ah, yes, the follow-up to TNG: The Price with the Ferengi stuck in the Delta Quadrant.

"That...was beautiful." ::snort::

Naturally, Neelix would make a good Ferengi. Well, thanks for nothing Neelix, your squealing isn't helping my opinion of you. However, Neelix's reaction to the "seven years of pure profit" line kinda makes up for it.

Shame they couldn't fit in an epilogue to at least deal with the (somewhat obligatory) loss of the wormhole and let that failure as a result of their preoccupation with the Ferengi (for better or worse) sink in.

This one was kinda fun, really and does follow-up on the first significant Delta Quadrant plot element in the franchise- although The Price wasn't mandatory viewing, so we'll have this one be Potentially Essential.

Trivia: The second (in production order) of four episodes produced during the second season but intended for airing during the third.

This episode was the first episode written by a staff writer during his return from a 4 year stint in France- he had previously been a staff writer on TNG (so, fitting that a TNG writer works on a TNG sequel episode).

Arridor is played by the same actor from The Price, but, because Kol was played by an uncredited, non-speaking extra in The Price, he had to be recast. Ethan/Neelix had previously played a Ferengi in TNG: Menage a Troi and wo

 

Read the DS9 thread, he explained his views pretty well there (though you'll have to go back a couple pages, as, IIRC, he only made his way through season 2 and maybe part of season 3?).

 

Yeah, i think an Excelsior show set in the immediate post-movie era would have been more interesting than Enterprise- they'd still be able to use TOS elements like ENT did, you could still have disgruntled Klingons not happy about the treaty to use as enemies, plus you could set up early TNG-era stuff (heck, you can even have "Worf" (or whoever that lawyer was in ST6) show up .

 

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VOY 305/303: The Chute
-Premise: Harry Kim and Tom Paris are found guilty and detained in a prison where a neural implant gradually drives the inmates mad.

-T2Q Comments: "I will not allow this ship to be boarded." again. You forgot to add "again".

These quick pans for the ship FX seem a bit...quick? cheap? Janeway blinking at the coward accusation is an interesting moment. Oddly enough, halfway into this episode, for once, Harry has been more interesting than Paris. The way the chute is framed to give this guy a Jesus halo is a curious shot.

The escape attempt is handled well, as is the reveal. Is this guy from walking dead? No, it's not that guy.... oh, he played the Minbari Ranger in Severed Dreams on B5! That's it!

Neelix's ship...have they even mentioned that since the pilot? You know, I almost feel like Harry should have been compelled to go back for that manifesto guy...in another world, this could have been a key point along Voyager's journey, freeing wrongfully imprisoned beings almost driven mad, their recovered state providing an interesting ally for Voyager. Unfortunately, we live in the universe where this is still just a standalone episode.

Still, a really good Harry episode. Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential.

Trivia: This episode was a left-over concept from the first two seasons that they struggled with because, since it's essentially a prison movie, it would require a passage of time beyond the scope of the series- thus the clamp was introduced to accelerate or simulate a similar effect, though the writer wasn't in favor of the concept. This was the first episode produced during the third season. Garrett Wang studied his performance in this episode to better his acting in general.



Up next: VOY 306: Remember.

 

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VOY 306: Remember
-Premise: B'Elanna Torres receives vivid dreams from an unknown passenger aboard Voyager.

-T2Q Comments: Senator Kelly. I get the impression that this speech was meant to be addressed to a larger audience than this... not much to say about the episode. The remembered drama plays out better than it could have, though the whole regressive/progressive thing seems a bit heavy handed and somewhat confusing in metaphor at the same time. I also think the episode would have better been served showing us the woman's reaction to these memories at the end as she received them instead of replaying the initial dream.

Though I think it's better than many of the episodes it'll share company with, I don't have much interest in rewatching this one- Average. However, Dawson does maage to play the two different characters very well and distinctly.

Trivia: The episode was meant to a parable to the Holocaust (while I can see it, however I'm not sure it's as clear a connection, though modern politics may be diluting the issue) and was originally concieved as a Troi-centric episode of TNG.

Dawson cited this as the episode she was most proud of. Braga was dissapointed by the episode, feeling he would have preferred it had been done as a TNG episode and that Schindler's List and subsequent awareness of the Holocaust had taken the edge off the epiosde's genocide story. Oters felt it worked better as a Voyager episode since having a non-sensitive like Torres made it more effective than if they had used somebody like Troi. Taylor thought the episode, alongside False Profits, was an example of episodes that didn't work.




Up next: VOY 307/304: The Swarm.