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Star Trek Voyager

When we first meet 7 of 9 in season 4


Someone complained on Reddit that season 3 was boring but I enjoyed the exploration of culture. 

Two episodes on season 5 have stood out for me. Of course the queen Borg stealing 7 back was fun. But the one on Bliss was quite evocative. And episode 16 The Disease is also great. There are some great episodes. I've been powering through them because they're leaving Netflix at the end of the month. Voyager was the Star Trek that I connected the most with. I watched TOS as a kid. I watched NG as an adolescent. I caught a few episodes of DS9 and learned to love it later. But I watched Voyager as an adult, every week, every episode. And yet my memory isn't that great. It does ruin quite a few episodes, that done hold up to rewatching as well. It hits me a different way, now that I've watched them all, continue to watch them all, and have read many novels. 

I was reading the other day they didn't include the Kess breaking up with Neelix scenes, they ended up on the cutting floor. I've come to quite like Neelix. 

Episodes that brought tears to my eyes: When Neelix experiences a crisis of faith when he dies. The way people rally around him during his loss of faith. When Kim finally stands up to Janeway, going against everything in his nature and culture, for love. When she angrily understands. When Seven says it may not be a disease to love.


As I round the corner to see the finish line of a month long binge of Voyager, I feel there are cliches that use too often. "Divert power from x to give it to y." And that kind of stuff. They should avoid cliches and write more creatively, there's a sense that they've done enough creativity, and they really are creative, so maybe they have a point. Maybe we can tolerate a few cliches that get us through a lot of creativity.

Not sure why the last episode is so unfulfilling. I don't like time travel that doesn't have some kind of horrible hidden consequence. And I found it quite strange that Chakotay got with Seven. And that we never see B'Elanna's child. It all seems so open ended and frazzled. I suppose the band is breaking up and it's hard to not want it to happen.

I'm so grateful that I finally got gripped by the hippy liberal dream of Star Trek, and find their working through of being liberal in a conservative universe to be therapeutic, if not slightly rigged to always win. I don't think the Ferengi are Jews, I think they are capitalist only, and if you think that's how the Jewish people are, that may be anti-semitic. 

I'm onto DS9 and if you think the Cardassians aren't MAGA, I'm not sure if there isn't a worse depiction of them. They're oily at any cost winners, but Gul Dukat is the ultimate collaborator, he works with people. Assertive losers is what they are, without a sense of boundaries or propriety. I also love the fundamentalism that keeps trying to creep in, with the return of the Emissary in S4E17 Accession.

DS9S4E20 The Muse, I see the Borge Queen as the Muse. I see lots of actors crossing over series and with different roles. 


Links:

Found this fun review of Human Error episode, S7E18, "I was in a permanent state of ungrippedness."


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