Amph To Boldly Trek Where Many Geeks Have Gone Before- VOY: Drive, Repression & Imperfection

DS9 519: Ties of Blood and Water
-Premise: Kira asks Tekeny Ghemor to come to Deep Space 9 to provide information about the Cardassian government and the revitalizing dissident movement; Gul Dukat arrives and demands Ghemor's extradition.



-T2Q Comments: Followup to the Kira-as-Cardassian episode.

"I will take your request under advisement. But considering the Federation doesn't recognize your govermment and that Cardassia has never agreed to an extradition treaty with Bajor OR the Federation, (bastard smile) you shouldn't get your hopes up."

I see an emerging drinking game for the number of times this guy says something like "you're the closest thing I have to a daughter" in this episode... You'd think someone who would be bed ridden like this would have his clothes changed.

I love Combs's Vorta "Of a sort- interested?"

"He doesn't seem to like you very much- we're going to have to work on your public image."

I kinda wish they had just kept on Kira for a single take during the post-mortum conversation, if it had been possible. I rather like the Bajor arch headstones..

So, a quiet episode, but a pretty decent one. Even though it does follow up the earlier Second Skin episode, it doesn't seem like an absolutely necessity. I'll go with Potentially Essental.

Trivia: The idea of Vorta cloning themselves was introduced specifically so Jeffrey Combs could return. Robert Hewitt Wolfe felt the scene with Kira introducng Ghemor to Kirayoshi was the most important scene in the episode: "This is her family. The father that is not her father. The baby that is not her baby. That's Kira's family.".

The first mentioned appearance of the Jem'Hadar battle cruiser, though it had been seen previously.


DS9 520: Ferengi Love Songs
-Premise: Quark discovers that Grand Nagus Zek has fallen in love with his mother.



-T2Q Comments: As one can guess from the title, it's a Ferengi episode. Rom is getting married to Lyta. Quark and Rom's mom returns. The Bajoran ear piece is not meant for Ferengi ears and you can't fake that.

The Nagus and Quark's mom are a couple. How sweet. And horrifying. I don't think I can take those two being in the same frame simultaneously.

I'm amused how Quark's closet has become an open door, including Jeffrey Combs' Ferengi here (he had a busy Trek season, didn't he? I think he's had more episodes of Trek this season than actors actually credited in the opening titles...)

"You're a manipulative, self-centered conniver."
"Thank You!"

The Rom/Lyta stuff in this episode is really being played like a sitcom.

"Don't you think of anyone but yourself?"
"Of course I do! I just think about myself first."

"You've proven yourself a true Ferengi- you've betreayed friends and family for personal gain"
"Sounds so good when you say it."

When the tall assistant alien hugs Quark, you can kinda see Amin's Ferengi helmet shift out of place, heh.

So, yeah. It is what it is, I suppose. The Ferengi politics element isn't too shabby, but I'm not a fan of the super broad humor the Nagus brings to the table here. Notable for Quark gettng his license reinstated but I don't think thats a reason you have to watch the episode. Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good.

Trivia: The working title of the episode was "How Quark Acquired His Groove Back" and was then titled "Of Love and Profit" up until the last minute (some TV listings still listed the former title).

The comment about not keeping action figures in their original packaging was a jab at Ira Steven behr's collecting habits. Zek's throne is a repurposed prop originally created as an unused Romulan command chair in The Die is Cast. The Marauder Mo action figures are altered Superpatriot Spawn action figures.

Behr was unhappy with the episode, feeling the humor tone got away from them (the first time he felt Zek got away from them as well), however Amin and director Rene Auberjonois disagreed, feeling it was intentionally cartoonish. Rene would even say "I've always thought of the Ferengi as cartoon characters".

The actress playing Quark's mom was recast for this episode and beyond, as the original actress had issues with the makeup. Leck is introduced here, and will return later on.



VOY 322: Real Life
-Premise: The Doctor learns a few real life lessons with the holographic "family" he created; Voyager investigates massive subspace distortions.



-T2Q Comments: Oh, god, if this a VOY Brady Bunch episode I'm going to murder someone. Really? That's your teaser?

Torres with a frontish-ponytail.

"I think I'll read it. Maybe it'll give me some ideas about how to make your heart quicken." UGH. Tom, not one of your best, my friend.

Tuvok at one point suggests using the bussard collectors- it always did seem like they underused that part of the ship. They've reconfigure the deflector dish every Tuesday and EPS conduits every other Friday, but the bussard collectors are lucky if they're mentioned more than once a series.

The transporters go offline when Tom starts to get sucked into the eddy... but they never really say why they went offline.

The Klingon teen's "Yesss" response to the Doctor is dubbed over hilariously bad. The teenage son is irritatingly cliche.

Though they dont exactly resolve the teenage son thing, except in a broad gesture, the final scene is difficult to not get a little teary-eyed over. Not a bad episode- the fact that it evokes an emotional response does earn it some points, though i think the journey there is not as well developed as it could have been. The Paris subplot was fine, but it doesn't really lead to anything. That said, I'll go with Average.

Trivia: The Doctor's name used by his family in this episode, Kenneth, is a reference to co-producer Kenneth Biller. This episode's stage directions in it's shooting script coined the "Zimmers in" and "Zimmers out" for the effect of the Doctor's holographic appearances and dissapearances. This in-joke refers to the Doctor's creator being named Lewis Zimmerman, that the Doctor was referred to as Zimmerman in all of VOY's first season scripts and a nod towards production designer Herman Zimmerman (though he did not work on VOY).

Picardo described the story as starting off as a 50's or 70's sitcom then becoming a 90's sitcom before ending up like an epiosde of ER. Producer Peter Lauritson was amazed that FX had progressed to the point to where they could achieve the astral eddy's tornado effect on the same shcedule they had on TNG in the late 80's. Torres hair braid would not return. Torres's checking of the Doctor's systems after he tinkered with his program is likely a result of preventing something like Darkling from occurring again.

Up next: DS9 521: Soldiers of the Empire, VOY 323: Distant Origin & DS9 522: Children of Time.

 

Of the Ferengi episodes, this was less terrible than when they spent an episode* having Rom and Quark constantly complain about their mother not being naked.

At least this one played out like a sitcom.

*Such a horrible thing to just now realize they spent money on those episodes...

 

They could have, but I give them credit for owning up to all of the race's characteristics in their attempts to redeem them.

Not saying they were successful or that it was necessarily the right decision, however.

 

I believe the Picard one is from the episode where Picard had to overact his love for Mama Troi to "win her back" to get her away from somebody.

 

That was my initial thought as well, but I've tried to block memories of most Mama Troi episodes .

 

Yeah the Odo I liked. There was one or TNG ones that were ok- she could just be really hit or miss even within an episode to me.

 

Even though I've got a dozen+ episodes to go before I post my review, let me just say in advance, having just watched it, Sacrifice of Angels:

 

A question my usual snarkiness will not fail to ask .

 

DS9 521: Soldiers of the Empire
-Premise: After Worf becomes first officer of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey commanded by General Martok, he is caught between loyalty to his commander and loyalty to the crew.



-T2Q Comments: Picking up with Martok trying to get back into fighting shape after his incarceration. Worf's eyebrows look much bushier and taller here while talking to Sisko...

Some nice shots of the BOP, trying to remember if we've seen any of these before. Episode is making a kinda of spiritual followupup to the Riker TNG episode with him aboard a Klingon vessel.

"No one serving on the Rotarran has any pride left."
"Does that include me?"

Is that... is that Levar Burton as a Klingon? I like the added touch of the Klingon "captains log" entry. The crew gets into singing mode a bt too quickly for my tastes- I think that transition could have been handled better. A shame they couldnt show the actual battle- it seems like kind of a cop out after building towards it for a whole episode, but I guess they gotta save the budget for elsewhere.

Seems a little odd that Worf would abandon his family name crest for another's but we'll see where that step takes us.

Overall, very good episode and one that furthers the Martok subplot and, seemingly, Worf's as well. I'm going to go with Definitely Essential.

Trivia: Directed by Levar Burton. Story originated from a request by Behr to Moore: "Give me Star Trek: Klingon- a story that we could do as a Star Trek episode, but with all Klingon characters".

Original story concept involved responding to a distress call from a Klingon colony which would lead to a mythical journey into the afterlife where Worf would meet his father, Mogh. That original concept later became the basis for the VOY episode Barge of the Dead.

The Warrior's Anthem sung in this episode is it's first canon appearance after originating in the CD-ROM game Star Trek: Klingon.

The Klingon, Kornan, was not played by Levar but rather Rick Worthy- who played the Jaffa K'Tano on SG-1 and Number Four on BSG, which explains why he seemed so familiar.



VOY 323: Distant Origin
-Premise: An alien scientist finds evidence linking his species' ancestry to Earth, but government officials refuse to accept his evidence because it conflicts with existing doctrine.



-T2Q Comments: Am I the only one hoping that this is somehow the body of the real Harry Kim? .

An assistant character named Vir, heh. I do like the approach of the story thus far of how an alien race might perceive or deduce the nature of humanity based on recovered remains.

Wait wait wait wait- how they hell can these guys read freaking English (and if it's a Voyager ID marker, it has to be English, or at least some kind of common Federation language) if they haven't even come into contact with us? I understand there's translator tech to some degree, but still... it'd be worse than Latin- not only is there no one around to speak it but you have no idea how to interpret or pronounce it's alphabet.

"I was referring to a bio-cylinder, but the fruit will suffice."

Ship-scale transporter. There's a degree of both Sliders (evolutionary rivals, with the Kromags- first appeared in 1996) and Crusade (X-files parody episode with planet trying to obscure knowledge of an outside race- though not all outside races in this case, granted; that aired in 1999) in this episode (which aired in 1997).

Ooh, Marshall Teague- aka Ta'lon. Actress playing head Voth seems familiar too...

This post-trial profile shot of Voyager looks new and very sharp. Not sure if it's the lighting or a new CG model, but it seems more "edgey", less smooth- more defined.

So, that was a rather Good Epiosde, But Not Necessarily Essential, and I'm guessing an allegory half to modern evolution debates and half toGallaleo / "sun is center of the solar system". Needed more Teague.

Also it's hard to not at least comment on the similarities between the Voth and the Silurrians from Doctor Who- both are evolutions of dinosaurs from Earth, for example, and both see themselves as the primary/first species.

Trivia:the opening shot is a leftover establishing shot from Basics part II, with the bones then belonging to Ensign Hogan. The warp plasma from Fair Trade is also referenced.

The use of different camera lens was used to distort the alien makeup to make them more other-worldly- a technqiue that doesn't work as well with humans as it does for aliens.

The Voth city ship was one of the largest ships ever created for Star Trek. The transwarp effect of the Voth ships is carried over from Threshold.

Voyager's crew is said to be 148 at this time - so it's kind of interesting that the crew number has jumped back up to levels not seen since Basics, Part II- an episode whose events effectively kick off this episode's story.

Events here are mentioned in Season 7. The throne chair used here was originally created for the Coneheads movie and is later reused in another Voyager episode. The Voth personal cloaking device is never mentioned or used again.



DS9 522: Children of Time
-Premise: Investigating a planet surrounded by a powerful energy field, the crew of the Defiant discovers their own descendants, and learns that in two days they will crash two hundred years in the past.



-T2Q Comments: No more Shakaar? Indifferent.

Molly girl actress looks familiar. Seems like a strange plan to agree to- creating doubles of yourself to sentence to exile.

Well, way to throw your present day self under the bus, future-Odo.

Please get rid of the Klingon-wannabe child.

A lot of expositionary dumps. I'm guessing we chalk up the "we remember what doesn't exist" conundrum to the barrier or some such?

Some interesting concepts here, the overall execution isn't too bad- but it does suffer from the heavy exposition and the kid actor. The revelations for Odo and Kira seem pretty important though, and the time travel slant to things doesn't hurt either. I want to go with "Good Episode" but because of those latter two elements, I'm going to let this one slide into the Potentially Essential category- but it's borderline at this interval.

If it were me? Prime timeline trumps alternate timelines and loops as far as I care. Sorry, future great-great-great grandchild, unless you're the equivalent of John Connor, it ain't happening.

Trivia: This episode was originally pitched during the 3rd season, but was held off on due to the proximity to Past Tense 1 & 2 and The Visitor both featuring time travel.

This is the first episode of Star Trek to feature the use of a freestanding ladder. The stasis chamber for Odo seen in this episode was a redressed breadmaker.

This is apparently the final episode to feature the Gamma Quadrant until the series finale.

This is the fourth of 4 episodes to not feature any scenes based on DS9, alongside Past Tense 1 & 2 and Paradise Lost;

Up next: VOY 324/325: Displaced, DS9 523: Blaze of Glory & VOY 325/324: Worst Case Scenario.

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)
-3 fired in Resolutions (24 remain)
-3 fired + 1 "Dispersal Pattern Sierra" (5 torpedos according to Yesterday's Enterprise, but we'll assume a minimum of 2) in Basics, Part I (between 16-19 remain)
-1 fired in Future's End, Part II (between 15-18 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.
-1 dismantled by ex-Borg Raiders, 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)
-Basics, Part I: Bridge crewmember shot, presumed dead (148 remain)
-Basics, Part II: Hogan, Suder & blue uniform crewmember, dead (145 remain)
-Warlord: Martin, dead. (144 remain)
-Unity: Ensign Marie Kaplan, dead. (143 remain)
-Distant Origin: Five people added to crew, as crew stated to be 148


Time Travel Log:

-TNG: All Good Things... (alternate 3.5 Billion Years Ago; Jean Luc-Picard & Q; from alternate-2370)
-TOS: All Our Yesterdays (2700 BC, Sarpedion Ice Age; NCC-1701 crew; from 2268)
-TOS: All Our Yesterdays (Undefined 17th Century-esque Sarpeidon; NCC-1701 crew; from 2268)
-TNG: Time's Arrow, part I (1893; NCC-1701-D crew; from 2368)
-TOS: The City on the Edge of Forever (1930: NCC-1701 crew; from 2267)
-DS9: Past Tense, Part II (1930; NX-74205 Defiant crew; from 2371)
-DS9: Little Green Men (1947; Quark's Treasure crew; from 2372)
-DS9: Past Tense, Part II (1967; NX-74205 Defiant crew; from 2371)
-VOY: Future's End, Part I (1967; Aeon; from 2373)
-TOS: Assignment Earth (1968: NCC-1701; from 2268)
-TOS: Tommorow is Yesterday (1969: NCC-1701; from 2267)
-ST4: The Voyage Home (1986: The Bounty crew, formerly of NCC-1701; from 2286)
-VOY: Future's End, Part I (1996; NCC-74656; from 2372)
-VOY: Future's End, Part II (1996; Aeon; from 29th Century)
-DS9: Past Tense, Part I (2024; NX-74205 Defiant crew; from 2371)
-DS9: Past Tense, Part II (2024; NX-74205 Defiant crew; from 2371)
-DS9: Past Tense, Part II (2048; NX-74205 Defiant crew; from 2371)
-ST8: First Contact (2063; NCC-1701-E & Borg Sphere; from 2373)
-TOS: The Tholian Web (2154 (Mirror Universe): NCC-1764 Defiant; from 2268)
-DS9: Children of Time (alternate 2173; NX-74205 Defiant; from 2373)
-TOS: The Naked Time (2266: NCC-1701 goes back in time 3 days; from 2266)
-DS9: Trials and Tribble-ations (2268: NX-74205 Defiant crew; from 2373)
-TNG: All Good Things... (alternate 2364; Jean Luc-Picard; from alternate-2370)
-TNG: Time Squared (2365: Picard goes 6 hours into the past; from 2365)
-TNG: Yesterday's Enterprise (2366 (Standard & FKW Universes); NCC-1701-C goes forward through a temporal rift; from 2344)
-TNG: Captain's Holiday (2366; Vorgons; from 27th Century, approx. 2666)
-TNG: Future Imperfect (False-2383; Will Riker. NCC-1701-D; from 2367)
-TNG: A Matter of Time (2368; Berlinghoff Rasmussen; from 22nd Century, using 26th Century technology)
-TNG: Cause and Effect (2368; NCC-1701-D ends up 17 days in the future after timeloop; from 2368)
-TNG: Time's Arrow, part II (2368; Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens; from 1893)
-TNG: Firstborn (2370; Alexander; from 2410)
-TNG: All Good Things... (2370; Jean Luc-Picard from alternate-2370)
-VOY: Time and Again (2371; NCC-74656 crew go back in time 1 day; from alternate-2371)
-DS9: Visionary (2371; Miles flashes forward in time between 3.5 & 5 hours six times; from 2371)
-VOY: Before and After (2369; Kess (mentally) from alternate 2370)
-VOY: Before and After (alternate 2370; Kess (mentally) from alternate 2371)
-VOY: Before and After (alternate 2371; Kess (mentally) from 2373)
-VOY: Eye of the Needle (2371; data and Romulan; from 2351)
-ST7: Generations (2371; Picard and Kirk through the Nexus from 2371 & 2293)
-VOY: Future's End, Part I (2373; Aeon; from Alternate 29th Century)
-VOY: Before and After (2373; Kess (mentally) from alternate 2374)
-VOY: Before and After (alternate 2374; Kess (mentally) from alternate 2378)
-VOY: Before and After (alternate 2378; Kess (mentally) from alternate 2379)
-TNG: All Good Things... (alternate 2395; Jean Luc-Picard & Q; from alternate-2370)



Alternate Universe Log:

-TOS: The Alternative Factor (Anti-Matter Universe)
-TOS: Mirror, Mirror (Mirror Universe)
-TOS: The Tholian Web (Mirror Universe & "Solo-Kirk" Universe)
-TNG: We'll Always Have Paris (Simultaneous Continuum universes, "Manheim Dimension")
-TNG: Yesterday's Enterprise (Federation-Klingon War universe)
-TNG: Remember Me (Beverly Crusher-created Warp Bubble Reality)
-TNG: Cause and Effect (failed timeloop occurances)
-TNG: Timescape (aliens from alternate timeline, alternate outcome of Enterise's destruction)
-TNG: Parallels ("Original" universe, "Surprise Party w/Chocolate Cake" universe, "Surprise Party w/Yellow Cake" universe, "9th place Concussion" universe, "Blue Dress/Moved Battle Painting" universe, "Blue Uniform/Moved Starship Painting"; "Married w/no kids" universe, "First Officer Worf/Married with Children" universe; "Borg-Controlled" universe, "Altered Original" universe)
-DS9: Crossover (Mirror Universe)
-TNG: All Good Things... (alternate 3.5 Billion Years Ago, alternate 2364, alternate-2370 & alternate 2395)
-DS9: Past Tense, Parts I & II (Alternate Federationless 2371)
-DS9: Visionary (Alternate 2371 outcomes including the destruction of DS9; resulting from Miles' timeflashes)
-DS9: Through the Looking Glass (Mirror Universe)
-VOY: Emanations (Vhnori dimension)
-ST7: Generations (alternate "Destructon of Veridian III" timeline)
-VOY: Non Sequitur (alternate Kim Earth)
-DS9: The Visitor (alternate death-of-Sisko timeline)
-DS9: Shattered Mirror (Mirror Universe)
-VOY: Future's End, Part I (Alternate 29th Century)
-VOY: Before and After (Alternate 2369, 2370, 2371, 2374, 2378 & 2379)
-DS9: DS9: Children of Time (alternate 2173 through 2373 for energy barrier-encased planet)

 

VOY 324/325: Displaced
-Premise: Voyager crew members begin disappearing one by one, being replaced by aliens.



-T2Q Comments: That's a rather abrupt teaser- thats usually not a good sign, but I hope to be proven wrong.

"Welcome to sick bay. Take a number."

The lockdown procedures element is an interesting angle- having to prepare for your ship being completely taken over unintentionally by a non-hostile group.

OK, maybe hostile afterall... however, now I wish they didn't all have those silly hats- yes, it plays against audience expectations as far as generic peasant victim attire goes for the show, but I'm not asking they look like Cardassians- just something that could fly both ways for both hostile and non-hostile scenarios.

Well, Chakotay is a bit of a Maquis badass here, isn't he? The trick with the lights was particularly amusing.

"Then I can begin my new career as a tricorder."

"Shows how much you know about Klingons. They have much less tolerance for the cold than humans do."
"Really? I thought that was Cardassians?"
"No, they just complain about it more."

Oh, come ON, let's NOT take the bad guys weapons laying on the ground, shall we?

Might have been a mistake to use the holodeck cabana in the same episode as the "prison"- makes the similarities between the sets very obvious.

So, pretty good episode- my earlier concerns over the abrupt teaser did not play out. Would make a nice double feature with Starship Mine.Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential.

Trivia: The Nyrian forearms were stock weapons props used in previous Trek episodes such as Unification, Gambit, The 37's and, yes, Starship Mine (ha!).

Director Allan Kroeker felt the Nyrians should have had a nastier motive- like fattening the prisoners up to eat them (Quest: IMO, that would have made the episode worse and been too much like the "You're Special, Harry Kim" space vampires from a recent episode).

The bet between Paris and Torres mentioned here is the one that we saw in Distant Origin.



DS9 523: Blaze of Glory
-Premise: To prevent a Maquis missile attack from reaching Cardassia, Sisko must force Starfleet traitor Eddington to lead him to the launch site.



-T2Q Comments: Cloaked missiles a nice concept. Is this station from TWOK? Return of Eddington, nice. I'm surprised Sisko hasn't quite called Eddington out on his hypocrisy- he surrendered when Sisko threatened to cause a lot of collateral damage, now here is Eddington (or those he's affiliated with) trying to do the same. A mention that Cal Hudson (from the Maquis 2 parter) died. I

think this is new Badlands footage. That's a pretty powerful "attack" from a Runabout- I know its more of a trick but the explosion shockwave seems quite a bit bigger than one would expoect.

Nog's subplot is a bit of an annoyance here, but it's minor enough to forgive.

"I can barely see two meters in front of me- how will I know what I'm aiming at?"
"I'll be the one holding the pipe."
"Attacking two Jem'Hadar soldiers with a pipe? That's a brilliant plan."
"It could be worse."
"I know- it could be me holding the pipe."
"Exactly."

:shoots two cloaked Jem'Hadar::
"Glad one of us remembered they can do that."

Didn't like Eddington as much this time around- he was less subtle (though the way he plays off of Sisko, or at least, how Sisko plays off of him, is still interesting) and the marriage "twist" came a little too late, IMO- like it was tacked on to add more to his sacrifice, but i think he's lost enough already.

Beyond that though, good episode. Nice closure to the Eddington arc (and, possibly, the Maquis as well... though they never do answer what happened to those Klingon cloaking devices, did they? hmm..). Definitely Essential.

Trivia: Ira Steven Behr decided to end the Eddingotn/Maquis arc because he felt there were too many open threads going into the sixth season and wanted to get some closure on at least one of them. He initially wanted to kill off every single member of the Maquis but was overruled by Berman in the event that Voyager wanted to use them again at some point in the future, but the Maquis arc was over as far as the DS9 writers were concerned.

The B-Plot was created to show viewers Martok was still on the station after the events of Soliders of the Empire. Eddington's death is based on Steve McQueen's in the movie The Sand Pebbles, directed by Robert Wise (wo directed The Motion Picture).

Averaging the difference in stardates between Children of Time and the next DS9 episode, Empok Nor, the events of First Contact should have taken place between this episode and Empok Nor. But Sisko's mention of the Borg attack in "In Purgatory's Shadow" necessitates ignoring the stardate of FC and placing it before that episode.



VOY 325/324: Worst Case Scenario
-Premise: A buried holonovel with high entertainment value depicting a Maquis mutiny is discovered.



-T2Q Comments: Suggesting a Maquis coupe... fine idea, but rather too late to ty to implement it, no? Given what they've gone through and how they've reacted, if Chakotay truly wanted to take over Voyager and ditch Janeway, there would have been many opportunities for him to have done so. As such, it undermines the plausibility of the scenario (though there's likely to be some kind of twist coming)- even comments like Chakotay still adjusting to his role as 1st officer are out of place since I think 2 years is long enough to adjust...

Ah, ok, with Seska and Jonas being around this scenario is clearly being set much earlier. I retract my earlier snark.

The replay with Tom is a nice way of showing an alternate approach to the same events... though I wish the framing could have been handled slightly differently to reveal that factet earlier than it did.

"With all due respect, Mr. Tuvok- loosen up,"

The meta commentray on writing collaboration is rather amusing. Kind of a nice postscript on Seska's arc, but, sheesh, you think by now holodeck malfunctions would be easier to counter/prevent. Even Microsoft managed to get the 360 from RROD eventually.

One of those harmless episodes. Good Episode, But Not Essential (though one might argue Seska's presence here could render the episode Potentially Essential, I don't think it's a strong enough element to be considered that important to her arc).

Trivia: Despite generally favorable reaction, this was the least watched episode of Voyager's 3rd season. The concept here has a resemblance to DS9: Civil Defense.

Up next: DS9 524: Empok Nor, DS9 525: In the Cards & DS9 526: Call to Arms.

The Babylon Project Log:

-Space stations ending with a numerical designation that are of commerce ports in nature (prominently featuring a casino area), near a giant swirling blue vortex passageway (wormhole/jumpgate) used for travel and a location of advanced creation (prophet temple/Great Machine).
-Hard-edged female second in command, pessimistic, sarcastic security chief. somewhat ethnic doctor.
-Characters named Dukat/Dukhat
-A spiritual race recently coming free of occupation by a more militaristic civilization, the conflict of which led the spiritual race to become more militant themselves.
-Gambler conman (Quark/Londo) has somewhat fluctuating antagonistic friendship with hard-edged chief of security (Odo/Garabaldi).
-Characters played by Julie Caitlin Brown have a long-standing grudge against a notorious murderer who has prolonged their life at the expense of others through scientific experimentation (Rao Vantika/Jha'dur "Deathwalker").
-The term "Changeling" has significance in relation to early parts of both series (the B5 pilot "the Gathering" and DS9's "Vortex" & beyond), though applied to different elements (technology versus a species).
-A main character slowly constructs a device (chrysalis/clock) piece of piece in their quarters while conversing with a subordinate .
-A main character often referred to as Chief (Miles/Garibaldi) has a recurring assistant (Neela/garibaldi's Aide) who is a plant by another faction that attempts to bring about political change by assassinating a prominent rival leader (Bariel/Santiago) in the first season finale so that one of their faction may replace him (Adami/Clark). Their plot is uncovered by the Chief character.
-The Circle/Homeguard Bajoran for Bajorans, vandalism with a symbol; subdues and brands an alien on the middle of the forehead with their logo
-Second Season opens with a command officer (Sinclair/Kira) being reassigned from the station to be among the religious order of a species heavily involved with the operation of the station, partly due to prophecy
-A near-human alien race has their hair up in a fan-style to represent social status.
-A character played by Julia Nickson (Catherine/Cassandra) romances (or attempts to romance) the commander of the station (Sinclair/Sisko).
-Characters have discussion of higher and lower lifeforms awareness of each other to that of ants (Odo & Kira/G'Kar & Catherine Sakai).
-3rd Season Premiere introduces a new prototype warship for use by the station's crew using technology from other races (Vorlon/Romulan), in response to the appearance of a powerful new enemy race (Shadows/ Dominion)
-Image of female commanding officer of station used (or attempted to be used) in an erotic hologram program against her knowledge/wishes.
-Shady Political Organization develops it's own fleet of ships in secret without knowledge of the military (Obsidian Order/Psi Corps)
-A redheaded female character named Leeta/Lyta becomes a recurring character on the show in 1995, played by somewhat similar looking actresses.
-During a time travel story in the 3rd season, the Commander of the station becomes/takes on the identity of a key historical figure.
-An alien brings (or is speculated to have brought) knowledge of the future to the past that is passed on by others as religious prophecy amongst a spiritual people.
-A main character uncontrollably flashes forward in time and attempts to use those visions to change future events (Miles/Several)
-The Doctor must, through strength of will, fight his way through a potentially fatal wound inflicted by a one-shot criminal, guided by vision(s) of a familiar face(s) representing a different facet of his mind. (Bashir/Franklin)
-The opening title sequence involves people in spacesuits doing external repairs to the station to convey a sense of scale
-Weapon systems of the station are upgraded for a coming battle
-Weapon systems on the station of similar design emerge from hidden ports
-The station, after harboring political/military refugees/fugitives, must defend itself in battle (both against ships and boarding parties) against former allies. Re-enforcements to the attacking forces are known to arrive just as allied re-enforcements do so, forcing the resolution to the battle to make the attacking forces standdown.
-A warrior of alien traditions joins the main cast about midway through the series.
-A main character is involved in a "lesbian" relationship in an episode that aired in October 1995.
-The main character (Sheridan/Sisko) serves under a high ranking Earth military officer played by Robert Foxworth (Hague/Leyton), who is attempting a coup against the Earth's government.
-A guest character undergoes a mindwipe/death of personality. (chronological viewing also results in this episode being back to back with the VOY episode that features Brad Douriff, who plays the guest character on B5)
-Labor disputes attempted to be resolved "by any means necessary" via enforcers.
-A main alien character becomes more human through a drastic physical change.
-The main enemy of the series (Shadows/Dominion) attempt to destabilize opposing forces by inciting war between factions by controlling/manipulating/allying with the rulers of one (or both) sides.
-The advanced alien race worshipped as holy figures have a cast-off (or opposing) faction/race villified by the same races (Vorlons/Shadows; Minbari, Narns, etc).
-A character has a vision of being on a planet and looking up to see enemy forces blot out the sun (Londo/Sisko)
-The station Captain has fragmented visions of events to come. (Sheridan/SIsko)
-A character initiates an area spead of a attack with a weapon to reveal and kill two cloaked enemies they only suspected were there.

 

I'd favor Displaced over WCS.