Voyager episodes!
Aug. 17th, 2025 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulySo, we watched that one with the telepathic pitcher plant. Seven and Naomi bond - the writers really worked to make Naomi useful to the plot rather than just being kinda there, and it mostly works - but honestly, our space Ahab has chosen the least-efficient manner possible to destroy his whale.
Then we watch the two parter with the Borg Queen, in which we establish that the Hansens (whom Seven actually refers to as the Hansens) were absolutely terrible parents. I mean, even beyond the way they brought their child on a platter to be assimilated, growing up on a tiny spaceship with only two other people is just no life for a child. They should have left her at home. (And all the flashbacks establish that she spent a lot of her brief childhood scared. Poor baby!) At one point in this episode, Seven helps rescue a group of astonishingly passive refugees who are about to be assimilated. There's a lot of off-screen screaming, but I guess these refugees weren't paid enough to talk, because they're both passive and totally silent. Also, nobody at any points suggests trying to de-assimilate any drones, even the one who is probably Seven's father, if we can believe the Borg Queen. Seems a bit uncaring, but as I said, he wasn't a good father so fuck him, I guess.
This is followed by a kinda sad and pointless episode in which Harry Kim contracts love from having surprisingly racy (for 90s Trek) sex with a dissident from a xenophobic society. She achieves her primary objective, forcing the people in charge to allow those who want to leave their society to do so, but they still break up. He's sad about it. (E and I decided that the only other Varro with a speaking role has gotta be her dad. He sure acts like he knows her pretty well, and that ship has a lot more people than Voyager does!)
And then one of my absolute favorite episodes, the one where Tom and B'Elanna get married and there's apparently a new baby on the ship we haven't heard of before and, by the way, the ship is disintegrating. Lots of people hate this episode because it's sad and bleak and pointless, but I absolutely fucking love it.
We skipped the Chakotay episode because ugh, fake Native American fake spirituality, something something "vision quest", and then it was Think Tank, which is a very watchable episode. It's not great, it's terrible - it's watchable. Also, nobody really says it, but the spokesperson of the eponymous Think Tank is himself a victim of it. He was taken from them in childhood, which wasn't all that long ago. Possibly they all are victims except the founder. It sounds like being part of a particularly reclusive cult.
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How America Got Its Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back (I gotta say, the CEO etc. who were interviewed clearly know how to make themselves sound friendly and approachable! They sound absolutely delightful, and maybe they are.)
Hidden Inside Our Electronics, Tiny Doodles From Another Era
See how aerosols loft through Earth’s sky
In the 1980s and ’90s, Adrienne Salinger photographed American teenagers in their natural habitat: their bedroom.
After Mount Vesuvius Erupted, Pompeii’s Poorest Survivors Lived Amid the Rubble of the Ancient City for Hundreds of Years
Clothing Britain’s Spies during World War II
ICE Agents Storm My Porch (Poem)
Trump’s new tariffs go into effect as US economy shows signs of strain
Trump’s new congressional map in Texas still stymied as Gavin Newsom urges president to give up
Texas Lawmakers Push ‘Massive Secrecy Grab’ to Shield Police Files
Survivors of Israel's pager attack on Hezbollah struggle to recover
Then we watch the two parter with the Borg Queen, in which we establish that the Hansens (whom Seven actually refers to as the Hansens) were absolutely terrible parents. I mean, even beyond the way they brought their child on a platter to be assimilated, growing up on a tiny spaceship with only two other people is just no life for a child. They should have left her at home. (And all the flashbacks establish that she spent a lot of her brief childhood scared. Poor baby!) At one point in this episode, Seven helps rescue a group of astonishingly passive refugees who are about to be assimilated. There's a lot of off-screen screaming, but I guess these refugees weren't paid enough to talk, because they're both passive and totally silent. Also, nobody at any points suggests trying to de-assimilate any drones, even the one who is probably Seven's father, if we can believe the Borg Queen. Seems a bit uncaring, but as I said, he wasn't a good father so fuck him, I guess.
This is followed by a kinda sad and pointless episode in which Harry Kim contracts love from having surprisingly racy (for 90s Trek) sex with a dissident from a xenophobic society. She achieves her primary objective, forcing the people in charge to allow those who want to leave their society to do so, but they still break up. He's sad about it. (E and I decided that the only other Varro with a speaking role has gotta be her dad. He sure acts like he knows her pretty well, and that ship has a lot more people than Voyager does!)
And then one of my absolute favorite episodes, the one where Tom and B'Elanna get married and there's apparently a new baby on the ship we haven't heard of before and, by the way, the ship is disintegrating. Lots of people hate this episode because it's sad and bleak and pointless, but I absolutely fucking love it.
We skipped the Chakotay episode because ugh, fake Native American fake spirituality, something something "vision quest", and then it was Think Tank, which is a very watchable episode. It's not great, it's terrible - it's watchable. Also, nobody really says it, but the spokesperson of the eponymous Think Tank is himself a victim of it. He was taken from them in childhood, which wasn't all that long ago. Possibly they all are victims except the founder. It sounds like being part of a particularly reclusive cult.
How America Got Its Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back (I gotta say, the CEO etc. who were interviewed clearly know how to make themselves sound friendly and approachable! They sound absolutely delightful, and maybe they are.)
Hidden Inside Our Electronics, Tiny Doodles From Another Era
See how aerosols loft through Earth’s sky
In the 1980s and ’90s, Adrienne Salinger photographed American teenagers in their natural habitat: their bedroom.
After Mount Vesuvius Erupted, Pompeii’s Poorest Survivors Lived Amid the Rubble of the Ancient City for Hundreds of Years
Clothing Britain’s Spies during World War II
ICE Agents Storm My Porch (Poem)
Trump’s new tariffs go into effect as US economy shows signs of strain
Trump’s new congressional map in Texas still stymied as Gavin Newsom urges president to give up
Texas Lawmakers Push ‘Massive Secrecy Grab’ to Shield Police Files
Survivors of Israel's pager attack on Hezbollah struggle to recover
Re: Course: Oblivion
Date: 2025-08-17 10:41 pm (UTC)Re: Course: Oblivion
Date: 2025-08-17 11:08 pm (UTC)Doesn't diminish the existential horror of the episode. I've heard C:O described as "Voyager meets Twilight Zone." Kinda like that.
Re: Course: Oblivion
Date: 2025-08-18 05:55 am (UTC)Re: Course: Oblivion
Date: 2025-08-18 06:08 pm (UTC)As for the other episodes in your review.
The Disease - sucked
The Fight - really, truly sucked
Dark Frontier - I totally agree; somebody call Federation Child Protective Services on the Hansens
Think Tank - Hey, they cured the Vidiian phage--I'll give them that much. But if I want to see Jason Alexander be a smug asshole in bad makeup, I'll just watch his interviews.
Re: Course: Oblivion
Date: 2025-08-18 06:36 pm (UTC)