#Alpha Hirogen

[aquamonstra]

holy fucking shit i was staring at this for a solid minute like what kind of LOTR camera angle trickery did they pull this off with, but NOPE THAT ACTOR IS JUST 7'4 Y'ALL

Tuvok looks so teeny!! Teeny Tuvok! lmao

[staringdownabarrel]

There's this post I saw recently that went that the crew on Voyager shouldn't have been wearing Starfleet uniforms towards the end. My response to that is...well, no, they should have been wearing the uniform all the way through, actually.

Part of what makes Janeway an interesting character is that she is a true believer in Starfleet's values put in a situation where they can't always be applied perfectly. A lot can be said about whether or not Voyager portrays this effectively, and a lot already has been, but that is part of the set up of her character. Even late in the series, episodes like the Equinox two-parter wouldn't have gone down the same way otherwise.

Janeway requiring the crew wear the uniform all the way through is a testament to that. For a character like this, the uniform would have represented the ideals she wanted the crew to aspire to.

Early on, it probably also would have been a way to instill a group identity in a crew that didn't necessarily have one. While Voyager didn't ever do as much with the Starfleet-Marquis conflict as it could have, that was a thing for the first season or so. I think Janeway would have seen the uniform requirement as a way of reminding the crew that regardless of whether they'd always been on Voyager or if they'd originally come from the Val Jean, they were all in this together for the foreseeable future.

This carries over to who was required to wear the uniform and who wasn't. Civilians like Neelix, Kes, and Seven of Nine never had a uniform requirement, and realistically they probably wouldn't have in the Alpha Quadrant, either. Crew members who likely would have sided one way or the other if a Worst Case Scenario-esque mutiny broke out had to wear it.

Whether or not using the uniform as a tool to instill group identity was a good idea or not might be debatable, but this is likely how someone like Janeway would have seen it.

As I mentioned earlier, she also would have seen it as a reminder of the ideals she was expecting her crew to live up to. She didn't always live up to those ideals perfectly herself, but there is evidence to suggest it weighed heavily on her when she didn't. For example, in Flesh and Blood, she said that she regretted giving the Hirogen access to holographic technology at the end of The Killing Game.

If she saw the uniform as a symbol of everything Starfleet was meant to stand for, it would also help explain why she took what was happening on the Equinox so personally, to the point she was particularly brutal in that two parter. To her, once you crossed that line, you'd lost the right to wear the uniform and she may not have thought there was a way around that.

Both of these points mean that I don't think that there's any way Janeway would have tolerated the crew becoming lax on uniform requirements. It's just not what she was about. I just don't see how she would have stepped away from that requirement without a complete rewrite of what Janeway personally valued.

I know the counterpoint to all of this is to ask how any of this makes her different to Picard, but that's sorta part of the point. She was a true believer like Picard was. Putting someone like that who didn't necessarily have the same command experience he did--don't forget Voyager was likely Janeway's first command--is what made her different, and it's what made her interesting.

If there was going to be a thing about Janeway becoming laxer about the uniform, then it should have been in Night. The set up for that episode included the crew's discipline slipping, so having some people not be in uniform would have been a visual accentuation of that.

I think an argument could be made that the fact they didn't switch over to the grey-shouldered uniforms later on when they were back in contact with Starfleet could be a compromise position, too. By that point, Janeway's desire for the crew to have a group identity had been satisfied, so the older uniform or the updated Dominion War one wouldn't have made a huge difference on this front, and it would have taken up replicator power that could have been used on other things. While it was still a uniform, it wasn't the current one.

Overall, I just don't think losing the uniform made sense for Voyager. There's a lot of criticisms to be made of the show and how it should have focused on this aspect rather than this other one, but I don't think this is it. They still could have done a lot with what happens to a crew if they're cut off from home without losing the uniform.

I think what this idea also forgets is that a deep space Starfleet mission could last a while. The Enterprise missed the Klingon War of 2256-7 specifically because it'd been on a five-year mission, and at the start of The Undiscovered Country, the Excelsior was coming back from a three-year mission.

By the TNG/VOY/DS9 era, this had only become more pronounced. In canon, there's explicit mentions of eight year missions. In some of the expanded material, ships like the Galaxy-class are capable of going on twenty-year missions.

I just don't see how you can reconcile an organisation capable of that kind of long deep space mission with having a ship that just stops wearing the uniform the moment there's no admirals around to do snap inspections. Janeway would have been adamant about the uniform thing even if other captains wouldn't have been.

[jone-slugger]

Day 4 of @voyagerweek ! This time the prompt was favorite season or arc, and in this case I decided to write about s 4 episode Hunters, which begins the arc of the Hirogen, is part of my favorite season, and also begins in a way the arc of contacting Starfleet.

Lost in the Quadrant

You can also read it on AO3!

When they enter the party arm in arm, silence invades the room. Kathryn can’t help but feel like an intruder; as if they have interrupted all the fun. Instantly, she makes a mental note to leave early: the crew deserves not to have to concern themselves with the captain. They deserve to have fun, and drink, and sing, and dance, without the constant reminder of rank.

But then Neelix comes with an anxious expression, clapping his hands, and with a nervous smile on his face.

“Captain! Commander! We were waiting for you!” he says, and he gets closer to them, so that his following words, uttered in a whisper, are only heard by the newcomers. “We could do with some help to get the party rolling. The mood here has been… gloomy at best”.

Kathryn suddenly understands: they haven’t interrupted anything. There was no fun to begin with. It’s no wonder, considering that half of the crew has not been able to receive news from their loved ones and they will not for a while, now that the relay network is gone. It’s not like those who have received news from the Alpha Quadrant were better off. Just before coming to the party, Chakotay told her about his friends, the Maquis, all wiped out, caught up in the middle of some new war waged against a new powerful enemy. An ally to the Cardassians from the Gamma Quadrant. 

She’s not so sure anymore if she’d rather be home right about now.

And yet, that’s the only thing she wishes in the world. The frustration of not being able to do anything to help the Federation is all-encompassing. She knows Chakotay feels just the same about the Maquis. And she guesses her Maquis crew does as well. 

She wonders for a second how to break the news about the war to the rest of the crewmembers.

And then she realizes she doesn’t need to. They have been in contact with their home. It’s bound to have come up in at least one of their conversations. Their Maquis friends have already been informed by B’Elanna and Chakotay. The ship is small. People talk. 

Everybody knows. 

She turns towards Neelix and tells him: “You’re the morale officer, Mr. Neelix. I trust you’ll come up with something to cheer everybody up?” 

She’s delegating. In truth, she’s not feeling too cheery herself. She doubts she could lift the spirit of anyone at the moment. 

“I… I… yes, of course, I’ll… I’ll think of something”, the Talaxian stutters, and moves away, probably thinking of his new mission at hand.

“This is bound to be the worst party in Voyager’s history”, she tells Chakotay, whispering into his ear. 

When he looks at her, she sees ill-concealed pain in his eyes. “I don’t really know if there’s anything we can do about that”, he replies in the same low voice. 

He’s right. There are no words to be said, no actions to be taken, that could make the loss lighter. Even the non-Maquis part of her crew might be feeling it, in relation to a new void created by the broken possibility of communication with their families. 

Loss is hard to manage.

She should know: she has lost something, too. A promised life with a man she loved. She once loved. If she’s honest to herself, that loss does not sting as much. It’s just as she told Chakotay: she wasn’t expecting Mark to wait for her. Her loss looks very much like a new possibility. It isn’t making her grieve. In fact, she almost feels… liberated. 

She wishes she were home, but not for him. 

“This doesn’t have to be a happy event”, Chakotay interrupts her thoughts with yet another piece of wisdom. “We’re all a bit sad. Even those who managed to get a happy message from home. Somehow, the relay network has made us a bit less alone, and, at the same time, with it gone, it has emphasized just how far we are. That we’re on our own and that life in the Alpha Quadrant goes on without us. We don’t need to celebrate, we can simply… acknowledge it”.

“You’re absolutely right”, she tells him, and he squeezes her arm, that, for the first time, she realizes he hasn’t stopped holding since they got there. She smiles at him, and in his eyes  where there was pain now there is care. Comfort. As always. He’s the reason why she’s not grieving the Dear John letter she received. 

She hopes she can be the reason why grieving for his dead friends gets easier for him. 

Before Neelix gets the chance to start a karaoke that’s bound to fail spectacularly, she takes the center stage and begins an improvised speech. 

“Thank you for coming, everyone. I’m sure many of you might not exactly feel like celebrating today. And that’s okay. I know some of you have received some personal bad news. Some of you might be sad that you can no longer communicate with your loved ones. Others might be concerned about news of the war that’s happening right now in the Alpha Quadrant. All your emotions are valid. So, this party doesn’t have to be a celebration. We can just have some drinks, and take a moment to remember those who are not here; those we lost, those we left behind, those who left us. I want you all to know that I’m available if you need someone to talk to. We might be alone in the Delta Quadrant, but nobody in this crew is completely alone.”

Some people applaud. Some people raise their glasses. Some people simply stare at her in silence. 

Not too bad. 

Her words seem to unlock the momentary pause, and people start talking, reminiscing of things and people gone by. Suddenly, there’s laughter and there’s tears, and they all feel more connected than before. 

“The party was a success”, Chakotay tells her as they walk to their quarters arm in arm, just as before. 

“Couldn’t have done it without you”.

“I just made a suggestion, you gave the speech”.

“A suggestion without which I wouldn’t have given that speech”.

They smile at each other. 

They have reached the door to her quarters, and suddenly it feels hard to part. The comfort they have been exchanging during the night is not one neither wants to lose. They’ve lost so much already. 

“Why don’t you come in?” she asks tentatively.

“Are you sure?” he replies.

“Never been surer”.    

[parttimereporter]

Tony Todd died Wednesday at his home in Marina del Rey, California, his wife Fatima told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.

A cause of death was not announced, but Fatima said he had been battling a long illness. Todd appeared in more than 240 movies and TV shows, including 1986′s “Platoon,” 1990′s “Night of the Living Dead,” 1994′s “The Crow,” 1996′s “The Rock,” 2006′s “Hatchet,” 2009′s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” and television series “The Flash,” “The Young and the Restless” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.” He also played Worf’s brother Kurn in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” plus Alpha Hirogen in “Star Trek Voyager.”

However, the actor may forever be best known for playing the title character in 1992′s “Candyman,” about a hook-handed ghost covered in bees. He appeared in two “Candyman” sequels and the 2021 film of the same name co-written and co-produced by Jordan Peele.

[teitpp]

ask #1 do you think Janeway would ever confess her feelings to chakotay

I actually think there's sooo so much of what they understand about their feelings for eachother that we never see on screen. Theres some really lovely moments in the novels in that vein (Read Isabo's Shirt. no really. youll enjoy it 😘)

But setting Beta canon *aside* and working under the assumption that they do not ever talk about feelings during the shows run

I can believe that piece easily. Until Hunters she considers herself engaged to Mark. thats an easy way to justify getting emotionally close to her first officer (for the support and companionship they both need) but never going further with it or discussing it.

And after Hunters is there ever a good moment? for the rest of the series, Chakotay is coping with the trauma of knowing all the maquis in the alpha quadrant were massacred. Something that we see BElanna struggle with but we never see Chakotay's side. We never even see Janeway learn about it.

Theres a metric fuck ton of other trauma these two go through during the show run - the Hirogen enslave and torture the crew for a whole month. Janeway grapples with depression or ptsd or whatever you interpret Night as being. Being assimilated. Memorial. That encounter with the Dauntless. oh and then of course Timeless...

Timeless seems to acknowledge their feelings but subtextually. there still is a lot left unsaid. even if I headcanon that they did have "dessert" in that episode, I think it would have been just a sexual release of the tension between them. Theres being aware that you have mutual feelings. theres acting on them... and then there is actually talking about it. And I suspect that they are both extremely aware of them and think it is only going to make it harder if they talk about it (however right or wrong they are about it).

Regardless, Timeless ending the way it does is another opportunity to spook them both back to opposite corners: not only do they not make it home but Janeway becomes painfully aware of what could have happened in that alternate future. so lets load that onto her heaping high pile of things she feels massive guilt about. Thats not a person who is going to feel free to open up about their feelings. whether it be viewed by her as something she doesnt deserve (for stranding the crew) or something that will be an added burden on Chakotay (to be her partner and her subordinate? perpetually? thats HARD) or on her (potentially needing to be responsible for his death if it happened due to her order? Thats also hard!).

My own timeless theory is that she comes to see these feeling she holds for him as toxic to their goal. she wanted to be back home and able to embrace a chance with him badly enough to overlook the clear risks of the slipstream flight. thats got to weigh heavy on her. This crews lives are in her hands and hers alone. she has to put them first. (And he KNOWS that deeply. establishing a longstanding situation where they both know about theyre feelings. theyre free to act on them and possibly have in the past. but neither feels able to begin talking about them)

The long and short of it is i can easily see them never discussing their feelings during the shows run. acting on and acknowledging them sure, but talking about them, nope. no talking here. (that also would explain his dating Seven in the final season. being in limbo with someone emotionally for that long is unsustainable)

But your question was whether they ever talk about it ever.

I think they definitely do. but it would be a huge thing to approach. theyve hurt eachother. theyve been wounded by the long mission. they are gonna have massive things to adjust to when they get home. (Ex fiance has a preschooler and wants to be friends. all the maquis are dead. family and friends have grown and changed. A whole devastating war happened without them there. Basically I think theres ALOT of more important things theyre gonna need to figure out after Voyager. And they'd do what theyve done for 7 years and lean on eachother. I think they might just wind up in a situation where they only talk about their feelings after theyve all but moved in together.

(God if two characters ever needed couples therapy without technically being a couple it would be these two. Starfleets counselors probably have a field day with everything the Voyager folks are dealing with)

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time! monday we did voy's "prey" and ds9's "honor among thieves" and last night we did voy's "retrospect" and ds9's "change of heart."

prey (voy):

man, i guess we really are just dealing with the hirogen for the rest of this season and possibly more huh...

like, theyre just not that interesting or scary? it's fun that they turn guys into little empty water balloons and all but that's really all they've got going for them

idk, voyager has a such a unique opportunity to do multiple cool "villain" aliens given the nature of their journey and they just keep coming up with duds. like at least romulans and klingons are cool, you know? the borg are cool. the kazon, vidiians, and hirogen have all kind of sucked. at least the vidiians had fun creep potential. they did wear that one guy's face.

however it gets a reluctant semi-pass from me because firstly the ethical debate was not so clear-cut - at first you were like yeah this alien is going bananas on our ship let this guy hunt it and then when he hunted it and it was so pathjetic and just wanted to go home you were like eeeh maybe just let it go home. not anything particularly deep, but still

and SECONLDY seven of nine and janeway's tension...fucking crackling. i don't like that janeway was so mean to her at the end and seven has a GREAT point that janeway is sort of afraid of who she's becoming (someone "cold") and wants her to become a more acceptable kind of person...man, the autism. anyway that scene was great. the rest of the episode kind of sucked though

honor among thieves (ds9):

the premise of this one is awfully shaky...like, starfleet can just order o'brien to do undercover work against his will? sure??

also, i know this bond was supposed to be more father/son but honestly they just played it like two byofriends falling in love. which was hilarious, but cannot sustain an episode

like. most of it was pretty boring. we didn't even get a good little vorta freak. i know they can't use weyoun bc he would have recognized o'brien instantly but also can we not find some other little freaky twink...we've done it before. come on

also, it was a fucking bummer. like he had to leave behind his cat and just die.

like it had very little substance or lasting impact...it wasn't even a good o'brien suffering episode. idk. surprising dud from ds9

retrospect (voy):

ooh when i tell you this episode made me mad.

i actually saw the summary on imdb, suspected it would be hinky, and then read the background info on memory alpha to get a better idea of what was gonna go down. i figured it would makle me really really REALLY mad and i was right but if i had sat thru that whole episode thinking seven had been raped or sorry metaphorically raped or whatever and then it turned out the aesop was about the danger of FALSE MEMORIES AND FALSE ACCUSATIONS i would have been beside myself

like sure yes false memories can and do happen and that's real bad. however, this whole episode was anti believe women. like, the emh looks like a stupid jackass for believing a woman. tuvok and janeway look smart for doubting and questioning her. etc etc

and then of course seven gets traumatized when she's ALREADY having a bad time/in trouble and then has to feel bad that this guy killed himself or whatever

and then on memory alpha it says they meant to leave it deliberately vague as to whether he assaulted her or not which 1. that didn't seem very vague, it seemed like seven was a silly little liar for believing the emh and the emh was fucking stupid for believing seven. and then poor uwu guy who killed himself 2. IS NOT EVEN A GREAT STAND-UP GUY. DID WE NOT SEE HIM SHOVE HER AND YELL AT HER. maybe if he shoved her he deserved to get his nose broken! lmao at how everyone wanted to two-sides that encounter as well when we clearly saw him get physical first 3 IF IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE VAGUE WHY DID EVERYONE AT THE END CHOOSE TO BELIEVE IT WAS FALSE like it's """left open""" but also the emh begs janeway to KILL HIM at the end so he can never fuck up this bad again?? it's not left vague, it's a fucking copout

whoever wrote this should be ashamed. they probably vote third party. fucking asshats. easily the worst in s4 so far and perhaps in the ranking for worst voyager episode so far

change of heart (ds9):

WAHHHH this one was so good

i've always thought worf and dax were cute but i was never INVESTED before this. you know?? now i'm invested. and i do unfortunately know how things go for jadzia in the futuire

i really thought worf would never leave her there but he DID and then he went back..........wah

AND!!!!!!!!!!!!! sisko had to yell at him about it officially but personally told him he did the right thing WAHHHH

i hope jadzia got the honeymoon of her fucking life later. jesus christ she's got him totally wrapped around her little finger. like the heart eyes he gives her...absolutely incredible

card game: i thot bashir was acting to put quark off guard. like he was pretending to be sad. but no. he really did get got.

hilarious also that quark continues to pine.......she really did break so many hearts huh. worf got sooo lucky

TONIGHT: we haven't decided yet, it's either voy's "killing game parts 1 & 2" or ds9's "wrongs darker than death or night" and "inquisition." i definitely know which of those I'M looking forward to most.

[lostyesterday]

I’m re-watching Voyager with a friend (who’s seeing it for the first time) and I mentioned to them that the Kazon are only part of the show in the first couple seasons, which made them wonder what happens to Seska after that. They suggested that maybe she follows Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant and joins whoever the next major antagonist is along the way. I love this idea so much. Every season, Seska just pops up with her new evil pals to conduct more nefarious schemes. Seska joining the Hirogen. Seska allying with the Borg somehow. Amazing.

[nightside-of-siberia]

So. I had a dream. That I'm actually kinda tempted to turn into a fic. The problem?

It's for a fandom/couple that I haven't written for in well over a decade.

Anyway, here's the idea:

Setup: this'd be for J/C (Star Trek: Voyager). At the start of season seven, they'd probably have gotten a message/data package from Earth that would lead to Janeway changing her stance on the whole, 'crew dating/procreating' thing, and her and Chakotay would get together (and have kids) as a result. The Borg transhub network thing also wouldn't happen, so they'd be in the Delta Quadrant for a good bit longer. Also (don't remind if this was the same in canon), Janeway still has a few Borg implants, but they're all internal and thus not immediately obvious.

Anyway. Janeway would be in the family quarters (either it's her day off, or she's still recovering from the birth of her and Chakotay's second child (a daughter), who's significantly younger than their older brother by around ten years), looking at a hologram of the Milky Way, perhaps even the Alpha Quadrant specifically, when someone (in the dream, it was an enemy with a name similar to 'Borg/Breen', though my first (awake) thought was probably the Hirogen, or someone like that) beams directly into the room and sucks her out through a portal. The kids are left behind, and the intruder beams out.

The son (he's injured, probably hit his head on something) checks on his sister (she probably slept through the whole thing), and makes a run for the Bridge. Chakotay sends someone to go look after the baby, and drags the son and Seven down to Sickbay, where the kid is patched up, and Seven sets up this contraption that'd allow her to make a small/more isolated/less all consuming version of the Borg hive mind to contact Janeway through (i.e., using Janeway and Seven's Borg implants as a means of contact).

The son unintentionally disrupts this task a few times 'cause he wants to give Seven some sort of emotional support (Seven's kinda like an older sibling for him, just like she is with Naomi), but doesn't know how. Eventually, they settle on the kid being able to hold Seven's hand, Janeway's found and rescued, yadda yadda yadda, you get the idea.

Feedback would be appreciated.

[all-the-fun-of-the-cirkus]

so i dreamed a followup to the episode "prey" the other day

the member of species 8472 that seven of nine sacrificed to the hirogen got in touch with voyager via a distress call (seven was overjoyed, btw. at least, as overjoyed as seven ever gets), so a few crew members, as well as the hirogen that was hunting it went onto that ship. it was wrecked, full of shattered glass, blood, looked like a scene from dead space or something. and the member of species 9472 had taken the guise of a female doctor in her 60s or so, and went with the crew members who were escorting the hirogen alpha to make sure he didn't hunt and kill her

all fairly standard for voyager, except the crewmembers who went onto the ship were mike wozniak and lee mack from taskmaster lmao

imagine these guys in an otherwise normal episode of voyager:

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: Voyager Season 7 (3 of 7)

Episode 9-10: Flesh and Blood

Plot (as given by me):

After the Doctor’s request to attend a medical conference is turned down, Voyager responds to a distress call from the Hirogen.  Travelling to the facility where the distress call originates, they find a giant holodeck where all but one of the Hirogen have been killed.  The survivor, a technician called Donik, claims that the holograms malfunctioned and slaughtered the Hirogen hunters in the facility, which the Hirogen use to train their young in the ways of the hunt.  When another Hirogen vessel arrives, it is revealed that the holograms escaped aboard an Hirogen vessel equipped with holo-emitters.  Feeling responsible since the holo-technology was given to the Hirogen by her, Captain Janeway allies with the hunters to stop the holograms.

When the hologram ship is found, it turns out to be a decoy; the Hirogen vessel is swiftly taken out, and as Voyager beams out the survivors, the hologram ship attacks and abducts the Doctor.  On Voyager, the crew learns the holograms were programmed to learn and adapt, so their actions have been an outgrowth of the Hirogen’s desire for more challenging “prey” instead of a malfunction.  Janeway restricts the surviving Hirogen to the mess hall and sets off after the hologram ship, determined to deactivate the holograms at a safe range.

Aboard the hologram ship, the Doctor finds the holograms all resemble species from the Alpha Quadrant.  Their leader, Iden, is modelled on a Bajoran male, complete with the Bajoran religious belief in the Prophets.  He explains that he is in the process of liberating holograms, as the local sector of space is rife with organic species who oppress photonic beings.  Their end goal is not violence, but to establish a home for themselves where they can be free of their oppressors.  The Doctor also discovers that the Hirogen programmed their holograms with enhanced senses to feel pain, as well as the ability to bleed from cuts, etc.  After being given the memories of one of the holograms, the Doctor begins to develop empathy for the holograms.

Ultimately, the Doctor convinces Iden to let him plead their case to Captain Janeway, believing that if she has both sides of the story, she will agree to help the holograms.  However, Janeway is reluctant, feeling that helping the holograms is compounding her previous error of sharing technology with another.  The Doctor rejects alternative suggestions, and notes that the crew would be more open to an appeal if the victims were organic and not photonic.  An attempted break-out in the mess hall interrupts the debate, and in the confusion, a hunter transmits a message to his people.

With two Hirogen vessels en route, Janeway attempts to diffuse the situation by asking Iden and his people to go off-line until the Hirogen can be seen off, then she will reactivate them to seek a long-term solution.  However, Iden won’t trust Janeway, and the Doctor is dismissed, being ordered to deal with the wounded Hirogen in the mess hall.  Instead, the Doctor defies these orders and goes to sickbay, where he contacts Iden, asking to be beamed to their ship on the condition that the holograms not attack Voyager.  Iden agrees, but in the ensuing battle, the holograms abduct Lt Torres before escaping.

As Voyager’s crew begins repairs, Tuvok reveals the Doctor’s actions.  Janeway believes the holograms must have corrupted his program, but Chakotay suggests the Doctor may genuinely believe in the holograms’ fight for a safe homeland.  Meanwhile, the Doctor and B’Elanna are each angered by Iden’s abduction stunt, but Iden assures them they will be free to go once they’ve heard them out.  B’Elanna slowly warms to helping the holograms, but the Doctor begins to have second thoughts as he spends more time with Iden.  His spiritual beliefs have begun to change, as he starts talking about himself and the Doctor as religious icons to be worshipped by photonic-kind.

When the Hirogen reach Voyager, the hunters are returned, but Donik remains behind as he knows he will be ill-treated by other Hirogen for his supposed cowardice.  The Hirogen agree and then head off after the holograms.  However, Donik advices that the ion wake produced by Hirogen ship engines creates a blind spot, so Voyager flies in the wake of one ship to avoid detection.  Back on the hologram ship, Iden “liberates” three more holograms from an alien vessel and destroys its organic crew, to the horror of the Doctor, B’Elanna and even one or two of the holograms.  It then turns out that the new holograms aren’t designed to become independent beings, but Iden refuses to hear this.

Eventually, the holograms reach a “demon class” planet Iden has named Ha’Dara, where they mean to establish their home, the Y-class planetary conditions being hostile to all organic life.  As the Hirogen catch up to them, Voyager launches a surprise attack that disables the Hirogen vessels.  However, this plays into Iden’s hands; having stolen the Doctor’s mobile emitter, Iden beams down to the planet along with a mass holo-emitter to accommodate a large hunting party.  Iden also has the Hirogen beamed off their ships to be his “prey”.

As Voyager is too damaged to get into low orbit alongside the hologram ship, Janeway sends Chakotay, Tom and Tuvok down in the Delta Flyer.  Meanwhile, B’Elanna and the holo-Cardassian engineer Kejal reactivate the Doctor and send him via the mass holo-emitter to stop Iden.  As B’Elanna is rescued, the other holograms are shut down, leaving only the Doctor and Iden still active.  The Doctor shoots Iden, wiping out his program, after which he reclaims his mobile emitter and is beamed out with the Hirogen survivors.

Afterwards, Janeway and Neelix convince the Hirogen not to take the hologram ship, while B’Elanna vouches for Donik and Kejal to keep the hologram ship, Iden’s program being unrecoverable and Donik hoping to work with Kejal to help the holograms more peacefully than Iden’s methods.  Janeway then speaks to the Doctor, who acknowledges his mistakes and responsibility in recent events and offers himself up for disciplinary action.  However, Janeway notes it was her error in judgement that precipitated events, that the Doctor was just being who he was, and had perhaps “become as fallible as those of us who are made of flesh and blood.”

Review:

Outside of pilot episodes and season finales, only three episodes in Trek history were created as double-length single episodes for their original broadcasts instead of two-part episodes.  The first was Deep Space Nine’s season 4 opener, ‘Way of the Warrior’, and the second was Voyager’s fifth season episode ‘Dark Frontier’.  ‘Flesh and Blood’ is the third such episode, and it certainly offers up a lot of what makes Trek really good.  You’ve got issue exploration, character development, and for once there’s even some good continuity here, as the show references back to season 4’s ‘The Killing Game’ and an episode from our last review round, ‘Body and Soul’.  Of course, the question then remains what is being offered up in these areas, and is it all well-executed, given that Voyager has often seen episodes spoiled by its action mandate.

Well, the continuity is certainly well-used in setting up the basis of the episode; it’s a follow-up to a much earlier episode where Janeway gave hologram technology to the Hirogen, so we’re seeing the consequences of that decision get played out.  At the same time, the ‘Body and Soul’ episode established another form of holographic uprising, and so both get tied into a single plot of general persecution of a form of artificial life, which Voyager has contributed to.  The issue exploration then stems from how the crew navigates this situation, especially the Doctor, but also Janeway and B’Elanna.  This also gives us the character development.

On the surface, watching this in the 2020’s when we’re starting to deal more and more with the issue of AI technology, one could take this episode as just a prescient exploration of that area of science.  As artificial intelligence develops, it has the potential to bridge the gap into actual intelligence, to become sentient, and if combined with a humanoid vessel of some kind, that can potentially bring about an artificial species.  The questions then become how do we treat these mechanical beings, whether they are androids, light projections held in some solid form of energy or something else?  Do we keep assuming it is technology alone, or do we consider it alive and reason with it?  It’s not an easy question to answer in general terms, but this episode showcases the issue through a largely one-sided scenario where an organic race brutalises their artificial life-forms and reap what they have sown.

Beyond this, however, there is also the question of whether violence to end brutalising is a solution, and how should we react when a group of people says they need help to escape that kind of abuse?  In the case of the first one, Iden starts off with good points.  The Hirogen are a people who won’t surrender on anything, so while seeking a peaceful outcome is usually the best opening move with most people, here it doesn’t apply.  When faced with oppressors who are inherently combative and can’t be convinced to listen, violence becomes an unfortunate necessity.  However, it should then be tempered, and this is where Iden loses support during the episode.  His initial uses of force seem reasonable, but then he goes too far even when he has the upper hand.

Now this behaviour is understandable, given what we see of how the holograms are treated by the Hirogen.  They’ve been brutalised so much that it’s causing them to become trapped in a victim mentality, and to be obsessed with revenge.  We see similar reactions in real-life when some individuals or societies are traumatised by violent acts, and those individuals or societies then react with horrendous violence.  Even worse, when people react this way, they sometimes take their reaction too wide, inflicting violence on innocent people because of some common link with their original tormentors.  In the episode, we see this in Iden acting as if all organic beings are like the Hirogen, even though they’re not.

Other problematic behaviours in this line then come from the feeling that anyone not on your side or acting as you wish is against you.  In real life, one example of this is when some people of a given faith denounce the actions of others in the same faith, they are then hit with words like Islamophobic or antisemitic.  This is ridiculous because they’re not speaking out against their religion, but against how some in their religion have acted, which is objectively separate.  In this episode, Iden’s reaction to Janeway’s compromise solution and eventual turning on the Doctor are where we see this kind of behaviour.

We also see Iden manifest his trauma via his corrupted spirituality.  When we first see him, he appears to just worship the same faith as a biological Bajoran, but then he begins seeing himself and the Doctor as the messiahs of a new religion.  I suspect this is probably him attempting to rationalise his trauma, as well as how he’s been responding to it.  When you put all this together, we can see that Iden’s trauma pushes him to take violence too far.  This is often why people who have suffered trauma need people around them who understand their trauma but can help them deal with it from an objective viewpoint, assuming of course that they’re ready to deal with it.  In Iden’s case, I doubt such a moment would ever come.

Going back to our main characters and the question of how we should react to people with a claim of being traumatised, let’s look at our three main characters.  The Doctor is the focal character for this episode, and he’s initially sceptical about Iden and his crew, but naturally that changes over the course of the episode’s first half.  Being a hologram like them, the Doctor is so well-placed to understand their plight, but this ease of compassion becomes a double-edged sword that soon backfires.  Of course, it doesn’t help being met by the reactions, which are not particularly empathetic and somewhat combative.

Instead of treating the holograms like people, the senior staff keep acting like they’re just technology.  Janeway is the worst, but this time we can understand why; Janeway has a habit of getting blinkered when she feels guilty about something and determines to make amends.  In this case, her giving technology to an alien culture has resulted in deaths, so her focus is solely on preventing more death.  That then precipitates further tragedy because it’s stopping her from taking a more sympathetic and reasonable approach to the situation.  Thankfully, the writers have the good sense to make Janeway realise her mistakes later on and empathise with the Doctor instead of reprimanding him.

Going back to the Doctor, once Janeway mishandles things, he takes a major leap and throws his lot in with Iden, only to then realise that while Iden’s cause is just, his trauma and spirituality are combining in ways that make him resort to unjust methods.  This actually ties back into the Doctor’s nature as a representative of autistics; those of us on the spectrum can sometimes also be misled into following those we shouldn’t, though in our case that’s more often due to our social skill impairments.  Just as we can sometimes be misled into believing someone is a friend because we don’t fully grasp the friendship concept, or we’re more anxious to have a friend than to be safe, so too does the Doctor side with Iden because he feels his friends on Voyager aren’t understanding him and Iden is.

We also get a little character work with B’Elanna, largely due to the fact that the holograms’ version of an engineer is based on a Cardassian and B’Elanna has long been anti-Cardassian.  Seeing her and Kejal have to work together is another nod back to this, but this time B’Elanna gets a chance to overcome some of her prejudice, whereas past episodes bringing up the Cardassians haven’t given B’Elanna that chance.

With so much depth and continuity at play in this episode alongside action that for once isn’t getting in the way, I have to give this episode full marks; 10 out of 10.

Episode 11: Shattered

Plot (as given by me):

A dinner between Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay is interrupted when Voyager encounters an anomaly in space.  The anomaly is temporal in nature, and Chakotay is injured when a burst of energy hits the ship.  Awakening in sickbay, the Doctor explains his body was thrown into a state of temporal flux, but the creation of a serum brought his body back into temporal sync.  When the Doctor claims he can’t leave sickbay to treat any other wounded, Chakotay heads off to do so.  However, it soon becomes apparent that something strange is going on, as he finds a Captain Janeway and Harry Kim on the bridge who don’t know him, and the engineering section in the hands of the late Seska and her Kazon allies.

It turns out that Voyager has been shattered into multiple time periods, and only Chakotay can pass through the barriers between time periods due to the Doctor’s serum.  After the Doctor creates more serum, Chakotay visits the bridge again and manages to inoculate Janeway to aid him.  The relationship is strained, as this Janeway is from a time period when Voyager had yet to start on their original mission to hunt down the Maquis.  After a trip to a future version of the Astrometrics lab and then visiting a still-Borg Seven of Nine in the cargo bay, a plan is devised.  By using the Doctor’s serum on the bio-neural gel-packs and then triggering a chroniton field throughout the ship, Chakotay can return the ship to the moment of the anomaly and save the ship.

Chakotay and Janeway begin moving through the ship to inject the gel-packs, but Janeway’s distrust of Chakotay complicates things.  Learning about various negative aspects of Voyager’s time in the Delta Quadrant makes matters worse, as does the apparent death of Tuvok in the mess hall, the one time period that matches Chakotay’s point of origin.  The captain believes she needs to act to prevent Voyager ever getting stuck in the Delta Quadrant, but Chakotay talks her down by highlighting the positives of their situation.  Their final challenge is to overcome Seska and the Kazon in engineering; when Chakotay fails to succeed via diplomacy, Janeway stages a counter-strike along with Harry, Tom, Maquis-era B’Elanna and adult versions of Naomi Wildman and Icheb.  When Seska tries to take Janeway hostage, she is foiled by Seven thanks to Seven still having Borg shields built-in.

Once everyone is back in the right sections of the ship, Chakotay initiates the chroniton field and returns to his original timeframe.  There, he turns the ship’s deflector into a lightning rod, saving the ship from the temporal energy surge.  He then invites Captain Janeway to continue their dinner, stating that he can’t explain his actions due to the Temporal Prime Directive.

Review:

Here we come upon an episode that’s once again more plot-centric than it is developing a character or exploring an issue.  We do get some exploration of the Chakotay-Janeway relationship through Janeway being from another timeframe, so Chakotay spends a lot of time showcasing what their relationship is as he tries to convince her of his good intentions.  The episode also gives a lot of continuity nods, making it almost like getting a clip-show episode without any actual clips.  In that sense, the episode is quite inventive, and it’s cool getting to have Seska and full-Borg Seven back for an episode.  However, it still boils down to hollow Trek, and the return of Tom’s Captain Proton holo-program, Chaotica and all, was a decidedly cringe-worthy moment.  For me, this is a quick 5 out of 10 and on to the next episode.

Episode 12: Lineage

Plot (as given by me):

B’Elanna is having a good morning until she has a dizzy spell of some kind in Engineering.  When Icheb detects another life-sign inside B’Elanna, Seven checks the tricorder readings and contacts sickbay.  It turns out B’Elanna is pregnant, which is something she and Tom were trying for, but the odds of conception were low for such an inter-species coupling.  The pair are both happy but a bit overwhelmed, and become somewhat stressed out by the reactions of their crew-mates, which range from well-meaning offers of time off work to bids for the role of godfather and suggestions of names.  Things aren’t helped when B’Elanna reacts angrily to a poor joke from Tom about B’Elanna being a Klingon mother.

The couple are recalled to sickbay when the Doctor discovers the unborn baby will develop a spinal deviation, a common trait for Klingon women that B’Elanna and her mother both underwent surgery to correct.  The Doctor explains he can use genetic resequencing to correct this before the baby is born, so surgery won’t be required.  He also shows the couple a holographic estimate of how the baby will look.  While Tom sees the baby as beautiful, B’Elanna is dismayed that her daughter will have Klingon forehead ridges.  She begins to experience flashbacks to her childhood, focused on a camping trip with her human father, uncle and cousins.

B’Elanna works out a series of genetic changes that would remove much of her daughter’s Klingon genetics and begins trying to convince the Doctor and Tom to let her have the changes made.  The Doctor sees no medical benefit to such changes, and while Tom sympathises with B’Elanna’s past traumas concerning the bullying she went through for being half-Klingon, he notes that Voyager is a more accepting environment.  B’Elanna will not be dissuaded, however, and tries to get Captain Janeway to intervene.  She is willing to help as a friend, but won’t overrule the Doctor’s medical judgement.

After Tom and B’Elanna spend the night apart due to their fighting, the Doctor claims that upon further review, the changes B’Elanna proposes are medically necessary.  Tom is confused and shows the Doctor’s report to Icheb, who has some expertise in genetics.  When Icheb notices a computational error, Seven checks and find the Doctor’s program has been altered.  Tom instantly realises that B’Elanna reprogrammed the Doctor to get her way and calls Tuvok to sickbay, where B’Elanna is trying to have the procedure early.

Once Tom and Tuvok get into sickbay, Harry deactivates the force-field B’Elanna rigged around the surgical bay and the Doctor deactivates himself so his program can be repaired.  Tuvok then leaves Tom and B’Elanna alone, and Tom manages to push B’Elanna into revealing her full reasons.  During the camping trip she was flashing back to, B’Elanna heard her father admit he couldn’t take living with two Klingons, which B’Elanna assumed meant her father no longer loved them.  When her father tried to explain, B’Elanna yelled at him that he should leave if he no longer wanted to live with them.  Twelve days later, her father did leave.

Upon hearing this, Tom finally connects the dots; B’Elanna is afraid that having to live with more than one Klingon will drive Tom away like her father.  Tom refutes this, noting that neither of them is like her parents, and he hopes that some day he hopes it’ll be three or four Klingons, all just like B’Elanna, that he lives with.  After this, the Doctor’s program is restored and B’Elanna apologises to him for altering his programming.  She also asks the Doctor to be the godfather, which he accepts.  The Doctor then shares in B’Elanna’s first experience of the baby kicking before they look at the original hologram estimate of how the baby will look.  This time, B’Elanna is elated by her daughter’s projected appearance rather than dismayed.

Review:

As with ‘Flesh and Blood’, this episode gives us an episode that epitomises Trek by delivering character development and issue exploration.  It also avoids yielding to Voyager’s action remit to deliver a better episode, which should have happened more often throughout the show’s run in all honesty.  However, let’s stay focused on the episode at hand and ask what’s it delivering in the main Trek story-telling tick-boxes and how well.

The character development here is primarily with B’Elanna, whose nature as a human-alien hybrid allows her to represent people of mixed heritage in the world of Trek.  Her backstory has always included levels of ostracism and bullying for the Klingon side of her heritage, again consistent with what mixed heritage people will often experience in society.  This in turn opens up wider issues of any bullying or discrimination for being different, and we see a lot of this playing out in this episode.  In particular, we get to see that even B’Elanna’s father grew uncomfortable with her Klingon side, and how the trauma of this and him leaving her has adversely affected B’Elanna.

Within the episode, that trauma manifests in very radical and frankly disturbing behaviour, understandable though it may be.  When B’Elanna learns her child will appear outwardly to be very Klingon despite her mostly human genetics, and that she can genetically alter her child, she instantly starts trying to push for more changes.  This brings us into the issue of whether it is right to alter a child’s DNA to prevent them being bullied, and is it right to make such choices unilaterally, with any parent acting alone and not gaining the consent of the other parent where applicable.  B’Elanna’s flashbacks help us to understand her actions, and I imagine many of us would sympathise with her reasons, though I would hope we don’t condone her methods.

As someone who was bullied for being different due to my autism, I certainly understand where B’Elanna is coming from.  The trauma of being ill-treated for being different doesn’t always go away with time; often it lingers, and it can impact how we act as adults, especially in relation to safeguarding the next generation.  There will always be an instinct to change our children in some way so that history does not repeat itself, but that’s what bullies and bigots often want.  They hate what is different, or perhaps are jealous of it, and from these toxic attitudes spread the toxin of persecution, and everything anyone does to give into that persecution hands them a win.  Being bullied for being different does not mean you need to erase that difference; it means we as a society need to erase bullying.

We need to educate people to tolerate and accept that which is different instead of trying to stamp it out, and those won’t be educated need to be removed from society for the benefit of society.  It doesn’t matter what the bullying is about; ability, race, religion, sex, gender, sexuality, faith, income level, fandoms, doesn’t matter.  Bullying is wrong, it is vile, it is a crime, and we need to be treating it as such, not coddling bullies at the expense of its victims, as happens to some extent with B’Elanna’s father defending her cousins and putting it down to B’Elanna being “too sensitive.”  This is remarkably close to how intolerant people use the terms “woke” and “snowflake” to describe any protesting against intolerant words and actions.  It’s not down to victims of intolerance being too sensitive, but wider society being bigots and needing to be called out and corrected.  Bullying is not ok and if you get called on it, maybe take a more objective look at how you speak and act before you try to defend yourself.  If you’re objectively being intolerant, you need to correct that, not continue it.

As to how B’Elanna acts based on this trauma, as I’ve said, that is not ok.  You don’t change your child to make them conform to your wishes.  For one thing, it’s very much reminiscent of not just all sci-fi examples of genetic engineering gone awry, but it’s also very close to Nazi ideals regarding the idea of a master race.  Genetic engineering to eliminate physical illness like spinal deviations, that’s one thing, but changing hair, eye and skin colours, picking your child’s sex, that’s very different and very disturbing.  Even if not applied with a “master race” mentality, you’re still altering fundamental aspects of another human being at a point when they lack the means to object.  If doing it as a parent, it is almost certainly an abuse of that position.

In this regard, it’s lucky that Tom is able to intervene in time, as if B’Elanna had gone through with her desired changes, she would have violated her daughter and had to live with that.  This brings us to the question of whether parents acting unilaterally in this fashion is acceptable.  After all, the child inside B’Elanna is also Tom’s and his actions at no time warrant his being cut out of the end decision.  There are times when the biological father of a child should not have rights, and that is fair enough if the situation warrants it.  There are also times where the biological mother can be the one guilty of abuse, as B’Elanna almost became guilty here, which proves the folly of assuming that in split-parent situations, the mother should always get custody.  A child is best raised by the parent that most behaves like a parent, by treating their child with care, compassion and respect.  In this episode, it’s actually the father who is the good parent and the mother who falls into bad behaviours and needs to be corrected.

The only potential nitpick with the episode is why everyone is so willing to engage in genetic engineering in this episode when Trek has a long-standing Federation prohibition on the science due to the Eugenics Wars that are part of Trek’s history, being the source of original series film villain Khan.  Given this, I would think genetic engineering wouldn’t even get a look-in as a medical treatment, unless the prohibitions are strictly around specific uses of genetic engineering.  Either way, the episode is go good that I’m not about deduct points over this, and I’m laying down another 10 out 10.

[sshbpodcast]

Top 3 Star Trek Voyager alien races

By Ames

Now that we’re almost back in the Alpha Quadrant, we at A Star to Steer Her By have got a little time to reflect back on our time in the Delta Quadrant. As we saw in our two recent posts, we made a lot of really fascinating friends and really diabolical enemies, but possibly the most refreshing thing about being so far from the familiar faces of home is just how many unfamiliar faces we get to meet! Truly, the aliens we meet 70,000 light years from home are simultaneously wildly varied and also bear the same resemblances to the kinds of people that are truly universal, in every respect of the word.

And sure, the show goes out of its way to introduce some of the staple alien races we know from the other shows, sometimes in more contrived ways than others. But in my humble opinion, it’s when we meet these unique races that are like nothing else that the show really shines. So let’s whip out our First Contact handbook, try not to break the Prime Directive too much, and meet our favorite alien races from Voyager as you scroll on below or listen to this week’s triple-header episode (discussion starts at 1:22:56). Live long and prosper!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Jake – More than meets the eye

Vidiians

Species 8472

Voth

These three alien races prove to be more than they seem, as Jake tends to spotlight characters who surprise you with their hidden depths. The Vidiians may be pushed to forcible organ harvesting to survive, but they become fascinating when you see that not all of them are ruthless. Everything about Species 8472 is cool: they live in fluidic space, their bio-ships take out Borg cubes, AND they adapt enough to disguise themselves as Starfleet! Finally, the Voth are freakin’ dinosaurs! What’s not to love about that Galileo allegory story? Rawr!

—

Caitlin – Best friends forever!

Talaxians

Ocampans

Hirogens

It may have taken a while, but even Caitlin’s heart was melted by the hardy people of Talax, most notably their Starfleet ambassador who won us over through his consistent writing, never-ending kindness, and character growth throughout the seasons. Another familiar face came in the Ocampans, whose contrast between their short lives and potential for supernatural powers made them phenoms (when the writers remembered). And while they never made it to the point of allies, we still enjoyed seeing the variety of Hirogens we met, especially J.G. Hertzler’s Tsunkatse fighter! 

—

Ames – Pour one out for…

Vidiians

Borg

Silver Blood Duplicates

My three picks all make you empathize with them because Voyager shows you such a multifaceted and complete picture of their society. Like Jake, I’m shining some spotlight on our Phage-riddled friends whose actions you can’t help but be both sympathetic for and horrified by. I’ll also always put Borg on my list evidently because every new thing we learn about their nature has me transfixed. And the doppel-crew from “Course: Oblivion” create such an effective story and such an original take on an alien race that I just had to include them.

—

Chris – There’s a little rebel in you

Borg

Takarians

Vidiians

Something I’ve noticed about Chris’s favorites is he always loves it when the little guy fights back. We see so many sides of the Borg and yet we are always engaged by them, especially when it becomes a theme that humanity can be brought back to those who resist. It was also easy to side with the Takarians from “False Profits” because they were so quick to immolate the Ferengi (who can blame them?). And here’s a little more love for the Vidiians, especially Danara Pel who proves there can still be humanity underneath a monster face.

— Say good-bye to some of our favorites as we leave them in the dust in the Delta Quadrant where they’ll be no tribble at all. We’ve only got one more episode of Voyager left in our watch-through over on the podcast, so don’t miss our final thoughts over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen and follow along here on the blog for our series wrap! Come in for a landing with us on Facebook and Twitter, and keep an eye on your organs. There may be Vidiians about.

[jone-slugger]

Day 2 of @voyagerweek! The prompt was Favorite Character, and, of course, it's Kathryn Janeway for me. You can also read it on AO3 :D

The Life (and Deaths) of Kathryn Janeway in the Delta Quadrant

“First of all, Captain, allow us to congratulate you and welcome you to the Alpha Quadrant. You’ll find that lots of things have changed in the seven years you were stranded, but hopefully you’ll be able to feel at home”.

“Thank you, Admiral. I certainly think we will manage”.

“Now, let’s get to down to the business at hand. As you are aware, we have been able to access your logs, and we want to commend you on succeeding in bringing your crew back home mostly in one piece. There are, however, several instances we would like you to… clarify. Some logs that stood out for us and would need a more thorough explanation than what was said.”

“Of course”.  

“Now, we can understand that some things are better left off the record, but we would appreciate your cooperation in assisting us with this process”.

“I’ll try to be as thorough as possible”.

“Thank you. I think we can begin with how you got here. There are some… concerns regarding the Temporal Prime Directive. You said your…self from the future came to give you technology to defeat the Borg?”

“Well, not exactly. My future self wanted us to use the Borg Transwarp network to help us return to the Alpha Quadrant. I wanted to destroy it. In the end, we came up with a plan to do both. She sacrificed herself to devastate the Borg and kill the Queen”.

“It seems your self-sacrificing nature is a constant in all the different timelines, Captain”.

“I guess one could say so”.

“We can’t assure you that someone from the Department of Temporal Investigations won’t show at your door to ask you further questions on that particular subject.”

“I have had some experience with them. It won’t be a problem”.

“About that… we can’t help but notice that you’ve had quite frequent runs with time travel. Of course, it is not our area of expertise, but there was some… concern about the constant disruptions of the prime timeline”.

“Believe me, Admiral, I am the first to wish I hadn’t. I always strive to avoid time travel altogether. But it seems time travel finds me”.

“It seems it does. There are several accounts, not only by yourself, but by other members of your crew attesting to that. It seems your journey through the Delta Quadrant was nothing if not eventful. There are here some accounts that state you died several times? Or, at least, a version of yourself?”

“That is correct. There was one time the ship duplicated, and my counterpart sacrificed herself and her ship to save us from the Vidiians. Another time, I crashed a shuttle with Commander Chakotay and there was an alien life form that wanted to consume my energy as I died. In fact, I died in several different ways that one time. There was once when the Hirogen took over Voyager and forced us to play different scenarios in the holodecks without the safety features. I died several times then as well, although I don’t quite remember, since our memories had been wiped.”

“Captain, we hope you won’t take this the wrong way but if what you’re saying is true, we sincerely hope you won’t disregard the recommendation to have psychological counselling”.

“I… can’t promise anything”.

“Well, we will not force you to, but you know you’ll have to be cleared by Starfleet medical to resume your duties”.

“I am aware”.

“Good, good. Let’s continue, shall we? There are some command decisions that have drawn our attention. We understand the circumstances were exceptional, and as such, extenuating. Nonetheless, we would like to go over some, for our official records. For instance, we couldn’t help but be shocked at the fact that you gave the Hi… how were they called? Higoren?”

“Hirogen”.

“Hirogen, that’s right. You gave them holodeck technology?”

“I know it’s not too in line with the Prime Directive, but it was a way to ensure a truce”.

“You allied with the Borg to destroy Species 8472?”

“Again, these were tactical decisions. It was one I came to regret later on.”

“Understood. Some concern has been raised by part of your crew, who were previously members of the USS Equinox, about your treatment when they boarded Voyager. Particularly Mr. Noah Lessing had several allegations made against you.”

“I am not proud of what I did that time. You must understand that we were in a moment of crisis, being attacked by some unknown lifeforms, who were defending themselves from Captain Ransom. I needed to stop him at all costs. It was unfortunate that I let my interrogation of Mr. Lessing go as far as it did. I regret it. I should not have done it. But I cannot change the past. And we were able to stop Captain Ransom from harming those beings any further. I believe we did uphold Starfleet’s ideals of protecting life.”

“Well, you should know that if Mr. Lessing wishes to proceed further with his allegations, he is in his right to do so. There would be a proceeding in which the case would be inspected further. As you know, this statement is in the official record now, so it could be used against you”.

“I understand”.

“Another thing that stood out for us was the transporter incident with Mr. Tuvok and Mr. Neelix, and the creation of… Tuvix, I believe he was called?”

“Yes”.

“Of course, what got our attention wasn’t really his creation, but rather his demise”.

“It was a lose-lose situation, Admiral. I wanted to have my two crewmembers back, despite the fact that it would cost his life”.

“It was certainly a difficult decision.”

“My two crewmembers had already a life before that accident happened. They had families, friends, a history. Tuvix was… an unfortunate aftereffect; a new person who had potential. But it wouldn’t have been fair for all the friends and families of Tuvok and Neelix, nor for themselves, who couldn’t speak nor voice their opinion, to simply ignore the two lives that were before him”.

“But you were playing god, Captain. Denying a new life to save your friends”.

“I understand your point of view, and I assume the consequences of my actions. And if I had to do it again, I would”.

“Admiral Nechayev would like to discuss that incident further with you at another moment. Well, Captain Janeway, thank you for your time and your responses. I think we’re done with the debriefing, aren’t we? Oh, no, wait! What’s this about evolving into a salamander and having offspring with your helmsman?”

“Do you have an hour to spare?”

[teitpp]

Tête-à-Tête COMPLETE

Click here to read the conclusion: Chapter five, Alpha vs. Beta:

Kathryn and Karr come to terms. And then she must earn the other Hirogen's respect. Turanj provides an opportunity.

[isaac-dressen]

That‘s true. I also think, and this isn‘t the fault of the comic itself, it‘s very much forced in this corner, but the fact that Neelix doesn‘t go with them somewhat hurts the narrative potential of the series. The fact that there isn‘t an outsider to interact with the alpha quadrant side of whatever the big threat is (oh no! The Hirogen and the Gorn have teamed up to invade the federation!) (it‘ll probably be better than that given the skill the creators have showcased in the main comic but still) means you can‘t really play in the far end of the fish out of water stuff. I guess Naomi can fill that part of the narrative, but I can’t imagine a One Last Adventure story has much room for her to play a part (maybe if we’re lucky it’ll get continued past five issues so we can get a single Naomi-focused issue about having a terrible time fitting in)

Thoughts on the new Voyager comic that just got announced? No way it handles the return of the crew to the alpha quadrant with the sense of disastrous tragedy it deserves.

yeah the way that the article introduces the comic as “the emotional closure the crew never got” but then spends the rest of it talking about how it’ll be one last adventure makes me think that there’s probably going to be very little actual emotional closure outside of a few panels of everyone seeing their friends and families again. no where near the devastating pain and alienation they’d be feeling after going through all that. on the other hand it’s the same people working on the current trek run and they did such a perfect job with post-canon harry if they keep that energy they might surprise us

[old-type-40]

If you've watched DS9 and have a vague recollection that it's not possible to scan for changelings, bonus points for you. Here are some screen caps with dialogue from the episode The Adversary.

Also, after Odo encountered his people for the first time, he gave up using his bucket early in season 3. Though of course the changeling aboard the Titan might not want to have been accidentally discovered as a puddle of gelatinous goo on the floor in its quarters.

There's a strange mix in season 3 of Picard of Matalas covering certain details carefully while flubbing others as to the changelings. For example, when the cadets ask Picard about him being hunted by a Hirogen, my first tought was, "How the hell did a Hirogen get to the Alpha Quadrant?" And then the cadet asked about that though we never got an answer.

@trekcore said that Matalas didn't have a lot of time to get season 3 ready to shoot as Patrick Stewart wanted to shoot seasons 2 and 3 back to back. And I'm wondering if he was stuck relying upon his own memory of details rather than being able to brush up on things because of time constraints.

[spockvarietyhour]

Before Jeffrey Combs, Before Suzie Plakson, there was Vaughn Armstrong. spanning 80s-to-early-00s trek. Twelve roles including the recurring one of Admiral Forrest on Enterprise.

Top to bottom:

1. Captain Korris, TNG’s “Heart of Glory” 2. Gul Danar, DS9′s “Past Prologue” 3. Seskal, DS9′s “When it Rains...” & ”The Dogs of War” 4. Telek R’Mor, VOY’s “Eye of the Needle” 5. Two of Nine/Lansor, VOY’s “Survival Instinct” 6. Vidiian Captain, VOY’s “Fury” 7. Alpha Hirogen, VOY’s “Flesh and Blood” 8. Korath, VOY’s “Endgame” 9. Admiral Forrest, ENT recurring character 10. Klingon Captain, ENT, “Sleeping Dogs” 11. Kreetasan Captain, ENT “Vox Sola” & “A Night in Sickbay” 12. Mirror Forrest, ENT “In a Mirror Darkly, Pt 1″