Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - Voyager - Season 3 Week 6!- "Displaces" to "Scorpion - Part 2"

Displaced

Another good episode. A nice mystery at the start and then some decent action once it became clear what was happening.

I wish they'd stop the will they/won't they thing with Paris and Torres though, it's bloody obvious they are going to get together. Either get on with it or stop it altogether.

Worst Case Scenario

Why didn't they shoot Seska before she finished giving the computer her order to destroy the ship? :lol:

Really liked this story, holodeck stuff is normally a bit gooseberry fool, but it was well done here.

At first I thought Seska was going to be self aware like Moriarty or the Doctor, it was pretty clever that it was a booby trap set by the real Seska!

Scorpion: Part 1

Gimli! Shame he's an arsehole in real life.

Part of me wanted to laugh at the CGI on the alien. But part of me was impressed that they could do something like that in 90s TV. Must have looked amazing at the time, but CGI almost always ages badly quickly.

I liked the "Death Star" destroying the planet and Kes has "the force", Lucas should have sued.

A very good episode, I'll reserve judgement until after part 2 though!

Scorpion: Part 2

What a great 2 parter.

It's not without its flaws. Janeway being close to death and then perfectly fine minutes later for instance, but none of that is enough to ruin it.

The new aliens are interesting. I don't know if we'll see them again, but I'd like to see them again as long as they were in a different plot. I think a lot of them are on Twitter (name plus bunch of numbers

).

New season is off to a good start!

Got a bit behind but I'm just going to skip ahead to Scorpion I think. Great two parter and great intro for Seven.

Quick thoughts on the last few weeks to catch up:

Favorite Son

Not terrible but could have been better if they committed to the idea of Kim being an alien Fun to see Patrick Fabian though!

Before and After

This is a good episode, I do like when they do these kinds of stories where we the audience put things together at the same time as the characters, even if in this case it did seem to take Kes a lot longer than it should have to realise what was going on.

Features one of the tropes that I really hate on TV though - where they have some kind of flashback to show a characters parents and they get the same actor to play the mother/father - yes, because everyone looks identical to their parents! :lol:

Real Life

There is a bit of tonal whiplash in this one as Moggy points out. It doesn't really know what kind of episode it wants to be, but it is nice that they are trying to show some genuine development for the Doctor.

Distant Origin

Agree that this is a great episode, if a bit batshit at times!

Displaced
I like this one quite a lot, although it is a bit of a stretch to believe that all the other people/crews who had been displaced just shrugged and got on with their new lives! :lol:

Worst Case Scenario

Love the cold open of this, they do a good job of keeping the viewer thinking "hang on, what exactly is going on here..."

The holodeck is such an inherently abusable technology though, it's amazing that they haven't either banned it or properly locked down the security of it by now! :lol:

Scorpion Parts 1 & 2

Love it! In my head I remember all the stuff with species 8472 coming much later in the run of the show for some reason - maybe I'm getting them confused with another threat that comes along?

This is a good two parter, although it always feels like they struggle to try and match the heights of things like Best of Both Worlds or Redemption from the TNG season cliffhangers.

I've got a bit ahead of things now (not quite to Moggy levels though! :lol:

)

One thing that's annoying me is they made a big deal a while back about Neelix being worried he would no longer be useful to the crew as they had gone beyond the regions of space he knew about... but since then he's still just been chiming in with the same "local knowledge" as he had been before! In general I think that's the main bugbear I've always had with Voyager overall really - it doesn't properly commit to its situation and restrictions as well as it should do

Jenu-All I Want For Christmas wrote:I've got a bit ahead of things now (not quite to Moggy levels though! )

One thing that's annoying me is they made a big deal a while back about Neelix being worried he would no longer be useful to the crew as they had gone beyond the regions of space he knew about... but since then he's still just been chiming in with the same "local knowledge" as he had been before! In general I think that's the main bugbear I've always had with Voyager overall really - it doesn't properly commit to its situation and restrictions as well as it should do

The episodic format really did rob us of a lot of potentially fantastic storylines.
The original "Year of Hell" would have been amazing.

But nope, big reset buttons after every episode.
I can understand why they did it. DS9 was still on and serialised shows were harder to just jump into (Especially back before streaming), and they wanted something to fill the gap left by TNG. But it really could have been something very special if it hadn't had that holding it back.
It's my biggest issue with Voyager.

As it stand Voyager is the weakest of the three 90's shows for me. I still love it, but it's the squandered potential that really drags it down.

Luckily Ronald D Moore got to do it properly with Battlestar Galactica.
God a Trek version of that would be good, with Voyager either completely strawberry floated by the time the show ends or so modified and jury-rigged that it's practically a different ship.

Battlestar Galactica went completely off the rails plotwise by the time it finished though, massively to its detriment.

Lagamorph wrote:Battlestar Galactica went completely off the rails plotwise by the time it finished though, massively to its detriment.

It got too bogged down in it's religious stuff for me, especially as they got towards the end, but I still mostly enjoyed it.
Starbuck always annoyed the gooseberry fool out of me too. :lol:

Yeah it's a hard stick to beat the show with given the time and context it was made in - but there was so much potential there for longer form storytelling!

It's still a lot of fun for what it is though, I'm actually thinking that my overall opinion of the show will have been elevated by this rewatch, it's a lot more solid than I remember it being

For the 90s/early 00s Trek, it goes TNG > Voyager > DS9 > Enterprise

TNG = DS9 > VOY > Enterprise

Gun to the head I'd pick TNG over DS9, but they're both superb at their own thing. Enterprise is the one I watched the least of but I remember it being ropey

Enterprise is ok. Ropey start and then got cancelled just as it was starting to get good. :fp:

Moggy wrote:Enterprise is ok. Ropey start and then got cancelled just as it was starting to get good.

And was given an utterly horrific final episode that was so bad the extended universe novels went out of their way to try and fix/retcon it

The Gift

The 7 of 9 (I can't be arsed writing it out in letters every time) plot was decent, it's going to be interesting to see how an ex-Borg turns more human and how she fits in.

The Kes stuff was bollocks though. My idea, a few episodes ago, for writing her out was much better. :lol:

Moving them beyond Borg space is a decent way of ensuring we are not dealing with the same plot every week. It was done in a bit of a meh way though.

Still, overall it was good. And I liked the Doctor's joke about his hair. :lol:

Day of Honor

Meh, I found this a bit of a chore.

The aliens were ok and I see where they were coming from, Voyager must look like it has more than enough to share.

The Paris/Torres thing gets on my nerves. Hopefully that's resolved now, they are both ok characters when not involved with a dull "will they, won't they!" romance.

Nemesis

Tom Hardy v Patrick Stewart!

Oh...it's not the movie....

I watched this after Day of Honour and maybe I'm just not in the mood today. This was pretty gooseberry fool.

The jungle setting, the guns and the look of some of the aliens made me think of Predator. If only it had been....

How the strawberry float does Neelix know all about all these planets? They've been travelling for ages, plus Kes bounced them forward a long way, and they are still in a bit of the quadrant that Neelix knows about?

Revulsion

This would have been more interesting as a look at the trauma of an abused artificial life. Instead it was more of a PG rated horror.

Not a bad episode, it just could have been so much more.

Kim is a fool, she should have copulated. :lol:

The Raven

While this was decent, I hope they don't do the 7 turns Borg! too often.

The aliens were a bunch of dicks. I bet there was strawberry float all on their planets that anybody else would want. :lol:

7 seems a decent enough addition to the show. But she's very...uhh...distracting though...

Scientific Method

A little heavyhanded with the animal rights message, but it was mostly well done.

The Paris/Torres storyline needs to strawberry float off now.

Year of Hell: Part 1

Red Forman from that 70s Robocop. Didn't he used to be President of the Federation?

As this is a two parter, I'll hold off a lot of thoughts until after part 2. The end of part 1 was pretty bleak, but there is an obvious reset button there.

Year of Hell: Part 2

Brilliant 2 parter! I like time travel stuff anyway, but this was done in a much different way.

I can see exactly how Kurtwood's character became so obsessed with fixing things. But it's hilarious that he never thought of the really obvious solution. :lol:

I can't believe Janeway did a 9/11 on the time ship. :slol:

Lagamorph wrote:
Moggy wrote:Enterprise is ok. Ropey start and then got cancelled just as it was starting to get good.

And was given an utterly horrific final episode that was so bad the extended universe novels went out of their way to try and fix/retcon it

The final episode was a complete slap in the face to the characters that had done a good job of making what started out as a terrible Trek show into some of the best in the last few series.
I would like a continuation of the series if they could get rid of the ending as the cast was solid and the stories were great.

Peter Crisp wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:
Moggy wrote:Enterprise is ok. Ropey start and then got cancelled just as it was starting to get good.

And was given an utterly horrific final episode that was so bad the extended universe novels went out of their way to try and fix/retcon it

The final episode was a complete slap in the face to the characters that had done a good job of making what started out as a terrible Trek show into some of the best in the last few series.
I would like a continuation of the series if they could get rid of the ending as the cast was solid and the stories were great.

Seriously. After DS9 they could have probably pulled off a really good Earth/Romulan war arc.

Lagamorph wrote:Seriously. After DS9 they could have probably pulled off a really good Earth/Romulan war arc.

Yep, the characters had bed in really well and they had shown they can do longer stories and some great multi part side stories with the Nazi episodes.
It was a bonkers point to end the show as they more than deserved the full 7 series run.

Random Thoughts

I wasn't too impressed with this. The basic idea was ok, but it was full of holes.

It's fine to respect local laws in the most part, but it's daft to accept them no matter what. It reminds me of the TNG episode where Wesley (Wesley

) is going to be executed for accidentally crushing flowers. The punishment doesn't fit the crime and the Federation absolutely shouldn't accept such brutal punishments.

Concerning Flight

So Janeway moved on from the Jane Austin bollocks into Da Vinci bollocks.

I know Da Vinci looked like that, but I can't help thinking he looks more like Santa. :lol:

I think they could do a really fun episode if the crew were sent back in time and hung out with the real Da Vinci. As it was, he just felt pointless here, he'll be wiped as soon as Janeway gets a taste of another historical period.

The getting mugged story was ok. But nothing more than just ok.

Mortal Coil

I guess I'm a heartless prick because I couldn't give less of a gooseberry fool about Neelix's crisis of faith.

Meh.

Waking Moments

I genuinely fell asleep during this. :lol:

After sleeping and watching the next morning, I actually enjoyed this. It was based on one of my pet hates "are they out of the simulation...nope lol they are still in it!", but being a dream made it feel a little fresher than this type of story usually does.

Not the best Trek, but far from the worst.

Message in a Bottle

The Doctor gave himself a cock? :lol:

The EMHs are all arseholes, but I find them hilarious. Mk2 was just as much of a twat. :lol:

Looking up the actor though...strawberry floating hell :dread:

I assume that they can now talk to Starfleet regularly? Or is something going to happen to the array they were bouncing signals off?

Romulan episodes are usually excellent and this was no different. Really good from start to finish.

Hunters

One of the writers really likes the Predator movies. We had Predator lookalikes in the "Chakotay gets brainwashed into joining a war" episode. Now we have these strawberry floaters hunting and collecting trophies from other races.

Not a terrible episode, but suffers from following the previous one.

I'm glad that my prediction about the array was correct!

Prey

Very Alien v Predator. But not gooseberry fool.

The Hirogen are an odd bunch, kind of Klingon mixed with Predator. They work ok in these couple of episodes, but I think they'd get irritating if used much more.

I hope Species 8472 (I still think they sound like a Twitter troll bot) are not used again. While impressive for the era, the CGI is terrible.

That sounds like I didn't enjoy it, but I thought it was decent. The message of compassion being important was well done.

I think this episode is marks the halfway point of Voyager. And you losers (

) are not even on the final season of TNG yet. :lol:

Retrospect

I didn't like this one much. It had the makings of a decent episode, but seemed to fall into "you can't trust what women say! Think of the poor falsely accused men!". This might not have been about sexual assault, but it felt like they were hinting at that. Looking online after watching, it seems I am not alone in thinking that.

Yeah Retrospect is a real disappointment of an episode because it had the potential to actually say something meaningful about the subject matter but in the end fluffs it completely :dread:

Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - Voyager - Season 3 Week 6!- "Displaces" to "Scorpion - Part 2"

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