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

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VOY 219: Lifesigns
-Premise: The Doctor falls in love with a Vidiian patient whose life he saved.

-T2Q Comments: Continuing Paris's being late subplot.

Vidian.
"Incredible."
"It IS, isn't it?"

Romance for the Doctor...or, should I say, Schmalaz?

"Mr. Paris, I assume you've had a great deal of experience being rejected by women."

Suzy Crabtree? Really? Crabtree?

Kinda amusing but also somewhat squirmingly cliche. I'd be pissed off if I was Torres, she did just let a chick convince her to give up part of her brain to try and save her who would just try to kill herself anyways.

While it's nice for the Doctor's development (though it kinda ignores his semi romance with Freya in Heroes and Demons), I just found the episode kinda boring- the subplot with Paris (I assume at this point he's intentionally trying to weed out Jonas by making himself seem like an outcast) is notable since it has him in the brig now, but we'll see where that takes us.

I'd go with "Average" normally but I suppose the subplot (alongside Denara's apparent repeat appearance) brings it to Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good.

Trivia: This episode's script wnet through a lot of changes and had multiple different endings written, including one where she stays as a hologram to stay healthy for a couple days before she dies. The intention of the writers (as of the 4th season) was that the Doctor and Denara had an unseen sexual encounter after they kiss in the Mars holodeck program- although Picardo was unaware of this during the episode's production.

The original broadcast of this episode used a 1959 recording of the song "I Only Have Eyes For You", but on the DVD release, the song is replaced with "My Prayer".

This is the first and only episode in which we see what a healthy Vidian looks like.
"
The experiments on Torres in Season 1's Faces is mentioned here. Picardo once mentioned ""You could never have had a story like 'Lifesigns' with Data," Picardo proclaimed, "because his technology isn't advanced enough for that. He didn't have emotions until Star Trek Generations. But because I'm the next generation of technology, if you will forgive the terrible pun, I get to break some familiar ground?as well as a great deal of new ground?because I have an emotional response."".

Both Jeri Taylor and Ken Biller loved this episode, but felt it was marred by the "couple of superfluous scenes that were part of this ridiculous nine-episode arc we had to do" (Quest's note: They're morons, as that subplot is one of the few things making this season seem more competent than it actually is).



Up next: VOY 220: Investigations & VOY 221: Deadlock.

 

Some of the other time travel stories used some pop songs- the metal on the bus in TVH & Hendrix for the brief 60's beam-in on DS9 come to mind.

 

Yeah I thought about that I posted that, ah well- the Hendrix song is still a legit one. Pop song is usually an easy way for a time travel episode to establish the year/era.

 

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VOY 220: Investigations
-Premise: Neelix searches for a traitor aboard Voyager using his morning news program.

-T2Q Comments: Neelix's show is kinda annoying, but then that could be said for any morning show, i suppose. "I'm a Doctor, not a performer."

This whole speech by Neelix is good, but diminished from knowing Paris is not leaving the show...and would diminish any future episode that would legitimately deal with a Paris departure. Seska returns.

Neelix's adamant enthusiasm for journalism and journalistic integrity wouldn't ring so hollow if they had established it as a trait of his earlier in the series... and not from a single brief conversation with Harry Kim earlier in this episode.

I can't help but feel disappointed that they killed off Jonas... I think having him be captured and interrogated, be able to explain his motives and plans, etc would have been more satisfying. Where's THAT Starfleet courtroom episode? Speaking of unsatisfying.. where is our closure on the spy? We don't even get a final Janeway speech?

Since this resolves the ongoing spy subplot and is surprisingly good despite being a Neelix episode, Definitely Essential.

Trivia: This episode was originally going to be enturely from the POV of Neelix's show, but after production on the episode began, the studio told them to change that so that the action sequences with Tom being a hero could be seen. This episode features a cameo by King Abdullah bin al-Hussein of Jordan as an extra.


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VOY 221: Deadlock
-Premise: While trying to avoid Vidiian territory, Voyager is nearly destroyed by proton bursts coming from an unknown source.

-T2Q Comments: She's finally having a baby after, what? a year and a half? ok, so the father wasn't human, so I suppose that could explain the extended gestation period. Fetal transport- I guess that would replace a c-section, wouldn't it?

I like the "TNG: Disaster" nature of the action so far- and addressing the cons of having your doctor powered by the ship's power systems is also a nice touch as well.

You know, they REALLY need to get some ***damn surge protectors on their consoles- in this franchise, computer terminals are more dangerous than handheld weapons!

Btw, it''s funny that even newborns get crappy forehead ridge makeup on this show. Clever blocking and camera tricks to duplicate Kess in non-bluescreen/splitscreen shots. Vidian ship is pretty big.

In either phase, Janeway is really set on blowing up her ship, ha. You know- instead of just Kim and the baby, why not send all 10 or so people that the rift can handle and save as many lives as possible?

Self-destruct attempt #2- a successful one, so, Voyager Death #1.

"Mr. Kim, we're Starfleet Officers. Weird is part of the job."

We need to stress this point again: HARRY KIM IS DEAD AND HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A "DUPLICATE"/TWIN/ALTERNATE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SERIES. I suspect the show never brings that up again, much like how something similar that happened to Picard in early TNG.

Although they seem to glance over what seems like should have been a lot of casualties as just injuries, as well as a lot of damage to the ship that reset, but other than that- Good Episode, But not Ncessarily Essential. However, it is good to see the Vidians presented as a larger scale threat like this.

Trivia: Developing episode concepts featuring duplicates of the ship run back to TNG, where the script got bogged down with trying to give everyone and their duplicate a story arc, instead here, they found taking a high concept action approach as a solution.


Up next: VOY 222: Innocence.



Voyager Resources:

Torpedoes: (Starting with 38, as of The Cloud)
-1 fired in The Cloud (37 remai

 

Especially considering having additional crew on Voyager would only be a benefit in their situation- oh, we have two of the same senior crew member. Paris is supposed to be one of the best pilots around (and certainly the best on Voyager)- it certainly wouldn't have hurt to have two Paris's on rotating shifts so you'd have your best pilot at the helm almost all the time.

Even if it wasn't senior crew, still wouldn't hurt. And since they aren't technically from another time or universe, it's certainly no different than the other Riker.

 

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VOY 222: Innocence
-Premise: Tuvok is trapped on a moon with a group of alien children who are disappearing, one by one.

-T2Q Comments: Oh, for the love of- that's not even a forehead ridge appliance- they just slapped a sticker on that girls' forehead!

The reaction to the children/insight into Tuvok's fatherhood is quite good, but the kids are pretty blah so far. Never thought I'd see/hear a Vulcan sing (Nimoy singing that BIlbo Baggins doesn't count ). Benjamin Button people twist only kinda works- it's not built up to and creates a few "why didn't the ambassador tell them?" questions that would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. Average.

Trivia: The search for polyferranide deposits began back in Tattoo.



Up next: VOY: 223: The Thaw.



Voyager Resources:

Torpedoes: (Starting with 38, as of The Cloud)
-1 fired in The Cloud (37 remain)
-3 fired in Alliances (34 remain)
-7 fired in Dreadnought (27 remain)

Shuttles: (Unknown Starting Value)
-1 destroyed by Chakotay/Kazon in Initiations, unnamed.
-1 destroyed by Kim in Non Sequitur, Drake.
-1 destroyed by Paris in Partuition, unnamed.

Crew: (152 People, as of The 37's)
-Death Wish: Quinn/Q2 joins the crew (153 remain), then commits suicide. (152 remain)
-Alliances: Kurt Bandera, dead. (151 remain)
-Meld: Darwin, dead. (150 remain)
-Investigations: Michael Jonas, dead. (149 remain)
-Deadlock: Wildman baby born. (150 remain)
-Innocence: Ensign Bennet, dead. (149 remain)

 

Neelix? Get above 40% Not-annyoing? Impossible!


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VOY: 223: The Thaw
-Premise: The crew attempts to rescue three aliens in stasis from a bizarre computer program that is based on fear.

-T2Q Comments: I quite like the initial premise to this one so far- though once again we have a way too human forehead race for the Delta Quadrant. hmm, well, I liked the initial premise until it turned into a "stuck in the matrix" type story.

"I don't see another alternative"
"Neither do I"
Really? Really?

These carival clowns are a bit too silly for me and they don't quite reach the Henson creepiness factor I think they're striving for, although the main Clown played by Michael McKean is an interesting character, though I suppose one can't help but think "Joker" or, do a degree, "Q". I will say, though, the Doctor's appearance is great.

"Restore the entire program. We've lost" Wait, what? You have less than 10 out of the 40 things to go and can probably finish them off before the chick dies- so instead you want to give everything back and make it easier for them to do so if they don't? You are a terrible Captain.

That said, I do like the resolution- though it the lack of an epilogue feels obvious (it effectvely makes the whole "Thaw" earlier portion of the episode meaningless), as if they chose to go with the fade to black style over the story's substance.

I'm a little divided on this- I did like the episode overall, and there are elements to it that are different from other similar types of stories other shows have done, and Michael McKean as Fear the Clown was quite good- in fact, I kinda wish he had been preserved somehow so that he could be used again in different ways down the road.

I'm struck with the visual of him being stored on a holocron of sorts sitting on Janeway's desk. It would certainly one up the pattern of Captain desk trinkets. Picard has a flute. Sisko has a baseball. Janeway would have Fear itself.

I think the carnival extras environment detracted from the episode more than anything else- they only got slightly creepy on a couple of occasions, but the rest it felt like they weren't numerous enough to convey the environment they were aiming for, so it comes across as a dozen extras prancing around a seemingly small set left over from TOS like idiots (although the size of the set was no doubt due to budgetary limitations, I'm sure, so not fully their fault). Had it been a real carnival or festival location shoot with more extras or some kind of changing environment to reflect the different experiences of the hostages, it might have worked much better- as it is, I think I would have much rather them have taken a B5 approach and just kept it to be a dark stage with Fear the Clown, Harry and the hostages and MAYBE 1 or 2 of Fear's support crew. It would have been much more effective- much like the holo-Janeway scenes at the end. I'll be kind and go Good Episode But Not Ncessarily Essential. However, credit for it being one of the few, if only episodes, to recapture that TOS feel that they were supposedly striving for with the series.

Trivia: The opening scene with Harry and Paris was filmed for Death Wish but was edited out and repurposed here due to it's generic nature. McKean was eager to accept the role, being a Trek fan and fan of sci-fi, as well as having interest in being a part of Trek's cultural impact. The background players are from Cirque du Soleil.



Up next: VOY 424: Tuvix & VOY 425: Resolutions.

 

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VOY 224: Tuvix
-Premise: After a transporter malfunction, Tuvok and Neelix are merged into a single being. In the search for a way to restore them to their original forms, a moral dilemma is faced as the new being does not want to be terminated.

-T2Q Comments: Dammit, Neelix is annoying. When the JJ reboot of Voyager happens 40 years from now, can we please leave him behind? Oh god...this premise does not bode well...

So far my initial fears, despite the kinda stupid premise, haven't played out- Tuvix is much more preferable to Neelix. The one flaw here in trying to present this merged condition as untreatable/irreversible (just like my rain coat!) doesn't fit with the rest of the franchise undoing ridiculous amounts of genetic mutations and changes- they were able to undo Janeway and Paris turning into lizards, and who knows how many other types of changes that happened on TNG, yet can't undo a humanoid to humanoid change?

"With a primitive imaging technology called x-rays", wow, been a while since we have had some of that we-are-future-uber mentality expressed- surely x-rays have been used before in the franchise?

Tuvix has Paris slow to impluse yet we still see warp star straks outside Janeway's window in the next shot. That isotope sure does spread quickly- think they'd have to wait a bit for it to permeate the whole body.

Epilogue, you ****ers, epilogue! You getting as bad a SG-1 is with that! Maybe even worse.

So, yeah, that ended up being a rather good episode (but then, Neelix was technically not in it at all, so that certainly helps ) managing to overcome the sillier setup by the time it becomes more about the execution debate, though it may have been stronger if I didn't dislike Neelix as much- thus making the choice harder.

Also, we never get any relvance or elaboration on why Tuvok was "being too much like himself" at the start, which would have seemed relevant to me- at the very least, since that wasn't relevant to the episode (the episode could have started aboard ship trying to beam them up) they could have dropped that opening scene entirely and used the runtime to include an epilogue scene with everyone dealing with the experience (Kess & Neelix in particular, though Tuvok and Kess and Tuvok and Janeway would have been nice too- although I could understand wanting to leave Janeway where she was).

Good Episode But Not Necessarily Essential.

Trivia: According to an unauthorized reference book, this episode was the most debated of Voyager's first 5 seasons, regarding Janewya's decision to separate Tuvix. While writing an episode in Enterprise's 3rd season, Similitude, Manny Coto strived to avoid making it too similar to this episode.


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VOY 225: Resolutions
-Premise: Voyager is forced to abandon Captain Janeway and Chakotay when they are infected with a terminal illness. Tuvok leads Voyager on a mission to find a cure.

-T2Q Comments: it's interesting that Harry stays behind after Tuvok dismisses everyone...no explanation though. The farewell speech is nice (especially Tuvok's closing line) but it kinda feels hollow in the same way the conversations about Paris's departure from Voyager were- we know it's not for real/permanent so it loses impact and takes away from any such speeches that might need to be delivered for real in the future. The short of it is: don't give a goodbye speech unless they are actually leaving (or are at least departing for multiple episodes).

I do like how the previous Vidian stories are being factored into events here-the destruction of a ship, Torres's potential relevance to the Phage, etc. Also, shouldn't Tuvok be wearing red now? Tuvok's change of heart isn't fully convincing to me, but it works well enough- though

 

It's actually neither the Neelix actor nor Tim Russ but rather a third actor- which actually works for the story by literally making Tuvix a third entity, as opposed to one that looks like one of the characters but is just acting differently.

The Vidian/cure/following orders subplot is ok- as I noted, it does at least mention connections to previous Vidian episodes, but the artificial farewell detracts from the other story, which is obviously just an excuse to answer fan requests for some Janeway/Chakotay shipping in of itself.

Chakotay's explanation of how he views Janeway is a nice moment, as is the what-is-unsaid moment of them getting back to business at the end of the episode, but it ultimately comes across as "Janeway and Chakotay take a vacation alone in the woods" scenario.

If you want to try to refresh your memory, you can read Memory-Alpha's summary of the episode here.

I think my main disappointment, though, is that the Vidians deserved a much better final episode if they were going to be abandoned as featured antagonists- one where they were the focus, not the subplot, as well as one where they were actually seen (only the Doc's girlfriend is seen in the episode, and that's only on viewscreen for 2 scenes) as opposed to just ships.

I mean, they were clearly the only recurring antagonists that Voyager had introduced that actually worked by this point- the Sikarians misfired from the start and they tried to salvage the Kazon like DS9 did with the Ferengi and it just didn't work. Yet the Kazon got a two-parter to wrap them up, while the Vidians seem kinda brushed aside.

 

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VOY 426: Basics, Part I (SEASON FINALE)
-Premise: On a mission to rescue Chakotay's son from Maje Culluh, Voyager is captured by the Kazon-Nistrim in a sneak attack, the crew taken hostage, and Paris is believed to be dead.

-T2Q Comments: Yay! Suder! (following up from Meld). Also the return of Seska...and maybe the death of Seksa, offscreen at that?

The almost casual combat with the Kazon Raiders is almost comical in a "swatting a flies" type of way.

"It feels like we're being pecked to death by ducks." ::spit-take:: Not nibbled to death by cats? (check the date on episodes aired)

"Hold your fire, Mr Tuvok- they may have torpedos to waste, we don't" well, the numbers will see about that, but if they have such torpedos, maybe it;d be a good idea to try to acquire some of those eventually?

The Doctor's unique combat situation is pretty funny, actually. Three torpedoes fired.

Ugh, tearing off the toenail. "Dispersal pattern sierra" of torpedos fired.

i dunno, Paris, Mr shuttle pilot, but maybe you shoulda jumped to warp a wee bit quicker there? this ain't star wars, mass shadows and indictors (and any technobabble substitute Trek would care to interject) aren't an issue.

Self-destruct attempt #3. hmm, so maybe Nemesis wasn't being as original as I thought with the self-destruct aversion, though it's set up differently here so it still has a different impact, emotionally and tactically.

They give Cullah a brief speech to merge their Klingon-lite nature with the oh-so-appealig and-so-popular-with-fans misogyny of the Ferengi and how they treat their woman. Bravo.

"Why is it so dark in here? Someonebody turn on the lights!" That actually made me laugh, though I don't recall Kazon ships being all that well lit either. The sky really cleared up pretty quickly there, didn't it? it was dark and cloud covered, and now it';s just a nice blue sky.

The collecting of the comm badges is a nice touch... come to think of it, they need to have a bad guy go after the crew by going after those badges. Eventually Voyager will run out or have to waste resources making more... but in the meantime they lack personal communications and the ability to track and transport crew.

Actually a rather great line by Cullah- "A fitting end for a people who would not share their technology. Let's see if you manage to survive without it." ...although taking away from that line is the observation that, ya know, you could just kill them.

This is obviously the culmination of several season 2 threads, as well as some threads from season 1, and it at least treats the Kazon in the way that they are able to be a threat (through their numbers and inside knowledge via Seska) even if the Kazon themselves don't physically project themselves as a threat. Definitely Essential.

Trivia: This is the first two-parter for Voyager. Departing executive producer Michael Piller aimed to provide this series with a 2nd season coda with the excitement of his Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger through this episode. He was also the one who pushed for the Kazon to be the enemy who took the ship, instead of a new race. The title "Basics", besides reflecting the "back to basics" situation for the crew, was also meant to reflect Piller's final message to the franchise and what he learned from working with Riddenberry.

The director felt that the baby as an excuse to get them on the planet was not well thought out as a plot device. Mulgrew felt the episode should have been more action oriented and the crew portrayed as more cautious and have had more control on their part. Tim Russ said they had to make some changes on the set to make the episodes work as well as they did.

When Cullah strikes Janeway, Mulgrew jokingly commented

 

They were probably trying to maintain the Roddenberry vision of Federation being more evolved and in control (all that no-conflict between Federation characters thing they tried to bypass by using Maquis).

And I don't doubt Chakotay becomes generic- I remember a couple later season episodes and I read how the actor was annoyed by the end of the show that they clearly didn't know where things were going.

You might want to dig out The Thaw since you like TOS a lot- it has a very TOS feel to it (and, intentionally, a very TOS look to the "virtual" set).