#Janeway: Tuvok what's that ship doing?

[bumblingbabooshka]

Can you imagine if Tuvok got divorced? It’d be so funny, I just know that guy would completely give up on everything. He’d need like, several decades to recover. I think he might go become a Kolinahru for real this time.

[isagrimorie]

Because the whole Tuvix wank is rearing its head every week on Trek forums, I finally decided to rewatch this episode. I mostly avoided it because I am So Tired of the wank and how it's been relitigated for YEARS.

I was over it when it first popped up and I was even more over it with the way it's used as a bludgeon to promote 'psycho Janeway'.

But what's left out in the discussions is Kes's part in all of this, from the jump, Kes was troubled with the merging of Neelix and Tuvok, and anytime Tuvix tried to make advances, she just kept getting more uncomfortable.

(When Tuvix unconsciously touched Kes's shoulder, it looked like she had to consciously not flinch.)

To Tuvix's credit, he did give Kes space and respected her wishes but she was not happy with the whole merge because her relationship with Neelix and Tuvok is different.

We don't see the other people grieve but we see Kes's grief and confusion, which was shared by Janeway. But also, the moment the EMH had a solution to separate the two people in Tuvix, Harry jumped at the chance.

And he's already spent weeks with Tuvix.

The irony is that Janeway was coming around to thinking of Tuvix as an individual but the cure presented itself, but also as the Ship's Captain she has an obligation to care for her crew and absent or not that meant advocating for the two voices who couldn't speak up: Tuvok and Neelix.

Kes was the deciding factor. Kes made her plea to separate Neelix and Tuvok.

Kes was the biggest reason why Janeway decided to separate Tuvok from Neelix.

It was such a cop-out from the Doctor that he refused to do the procedure he made and pioneered. And forced Janeway to execute it instead.

Janeway is clearly not happy about the decision and she's caught between a rock and a hard place.

In Nothing Human Janeway verbalizes it.

"Any consequences of this decision will be my responsibility. Dismissed."

Janeway's constantly put into a wheelhouse of trolley problems, as the only high-ranking Starfleet officer, she is the final authority. In Nothing Human everyone is locked in an endless debate about the morality of using the Cardassians' methods to save B'Elanna's life. Meanwhile, the clock was running down to zero and B'Elanna could have died more.

(Honestly, the story should have been more B'Elanna, Doctor, and Janeway-centric than it was. Nothing Human is a weird episode. Especially since Seven was barely in it and seems to be the Acting Chief Engineer -- amusingly enough because the writers thought they killed Joe Carey between s2 and 3. Alas, poor Vorik, he's not getting any promotions either).

TLDR: Janeway is constantly living through what the Doctor of Doctor Who is living through. Or as the 12th Doctor once said: "Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you still have to choose."

[grissomesque]

The thing about "Worst Case Scenario" is that Seska rewriting a program to torture and ultimately murder Tuvok for his "betrayal" of the Maquis suggests that she was loyal to the Maquis, and not only because of her feelings for Chakotay. She would've had to booby trap the program before "State of Flux," because she's under intense scrutiny then and there's not really enough time anyway. Which suggests to me that she was fueled by real rage: if Tuvok had reopened the program, and been killed by it, how could she have possibly gotten away with it? She wasn't planning to leave at that point, and (!) she specifically depicts herself as Bajoran, not, in some big gotcha moment, as Cardassian:

When Seska returns in this episode [...] the holographic Seska also slightly differs, in appearance, from how the actual Seska ever looked. "We […] see Seska in an incarnation we had never really seen her in before," Martha Hackett commented. "They changed everything – her hair and costume – because it's her creation in the hologram." (Star Trek Monthly issue 34, p. 40)

(Emphasis mine)

This, coupled with her big speech in "State of Flux," makes me wonder whether she would've ever revealed herself as Cardassian, if she hadn't been caught. She seems still to believe in the superiority of Cardassia ("If this had been a Cardassian ship, we would be home now!"), yet follows up with,

"I did it for you. I did it for this crew. We are alone here, at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens, because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation captain. A Federation captain who destroyed our only chance to get home. Federation rules. Federation nobility. Federation compassion? Do you understand? [...] We must begin to forge alliances. To survive, we must have powerful friends."

We are alone. We must have powerful friends. I don't know how this has never occurred to me, but textually speaking, with the notable exception of Incomprehensible Federation Captain Janeway, Seska seems deeply invested in the community she is ultimately forced to leave. It's, actually, a kind of reverse Ro Laren situation. What a twist.

[oakenting]

This is for @deepspacetime. I did not know I was so privileged.

[tigereyes45]

My Top Ten Star Trek Ships & Characters

I just finished Voyager like a week or so ago. (I don't remember when exactly. Time is fake.) Plus I've been hit with another bout of writer's block. So I wanna talk about star trek. Here's a list of my favorite Star trek ships and characters. Feel free to send in asks about any of them: questions, headcanons, do you like them too, etc.

Top 10 Ships

Mcspirk (Come on yall knew this was coming. Fucking obsessed. This is the cause of all my star trek brainrot.)

Janeway x Tuvok x T'Pel (Mark was definitely involved as well before the break up. You wanna talk about parallels! Look at Janeway x Tuvok and then look at those three old men listed above.)

Mari'lyn (They're so good together!)

DS9 Polycule (Yall everyone on that station has such fun and unique dynamics. How could I not ship the polycule in so many of it's various forms?)

Mckirk (Yall I swear TOS is just as in love with each other as AOS is.)

Quark x Odo x Kira (If it's these three versus the world, I'm betting on these three.)

TOS Chulu (Listen Sulu lost a bestie but gained a boyfriend.)

TOS Uhotty (They're so sweet together. Scotty always looks to Uhura whenever he's in charge! He respects her so much! I just know he treats her like the queen she is!)

Harry x Tom x B'Elanna (Yall, in my headcanon these three work a lot like Janeway x Tuvok x T'Pel. The PARALLELS!)

Trip x Archer (Besties to lovers. I'm only a handful of episodes in and yall they are so ride or die for each other. If it weren't for these two Spones would've been on the list.)

Top 10 Characters

Leonard Bones McCoy (He cares so damn much!)

TOS!Kirk | Janeway | Sisko (Depending on the day/episode/my mood these three trade places. I adore these captains and seriously as I've learned to be a leader I feel like I've seen a lot of the dilemmas I've encountered, tackled by them as well.)

Beckett Mariner (She's working through so much trauma.)

Tuvok (Yall the way he was when young and working under Sulu versus how he is now as he works with Janeway, oh man, the growth!)

T'Lyn (Love how she comes aboard with so much anger/disdain only to find a home.)

Kira Nerys (She's done so much, but damn it she's not gonna stop working towards what she thinks is right.)

Jadzia Dax (Sometimes the writing does her dirty, but she's so amazing the rest of the time. So confident, ready for any challenge, and she knows what she enjoys and isn't scared to have fun.)

Hoshi Sato (Listen only just started Enterprise and she's so amazing. Love how she's struggling with this mission she basically had no time to prepare for. She deserves the world. Her and Mayweather are so interesting and fun to watch!)

[tea-earl-grey]

For the character ask game: What about Tuvok and Michael Burnham?

from this ask game

Tuvok:

how i feel about this character.

i love Tuvok so dearly. i think he's the strongest Vulcan character of the whole franchise and Tim Russ does such a masterful job portraying him. i really can't think of a single scene where i don't enjoy Tuvok's presence in some way.

all the people i romantically ship with this character.

just his wife t'pel. i can't think of any other tuvok ships i've seen that i hate but there aren't any that really interest me either.

my non-romantic otp for this character.

Tuvok & Janeway without a doubt. they make such a good best friend pairing. all of their scenes alone together make my heart melt a little with how much they care for each other

unpopular opinion on this character.

hm... the only thing i can think of that might be controversial is the fact that Tuvok and his morality is flawed. i think so often he (and other Vulcan characters) are seen in the fandom as the paragon of reason and sense and i think that flattens characters somewhat and also doesn't reflect what we see in canon. there are episodes like Meld where Tuvok advocates for the death penalty or Learning Curve where he's shown to hold his crew, especially his Maquis crew, to unrealistic standards or Resolutions where the crew has to basically mutiny before Tuvok considers going back for Janeway and Chakotay. yes Tuvok does have a strong sense of justice and yes he almost always follows logic but he's also very much a utilitarian and sometimes his morality is at odds with the audience and the rest of the crew which i like and i think should be considered more often.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened in canon.

that he got more stories... i mean it's not a secret that we only really get three-ish stories stories in the last four seasons that truly focus on Tuvok as a character and not just on him as a supporting character for others. i think he gets some strong supporting roles as a mentor and friend but i wish we got more stories actually centered on him.

Michael:

how i feel about this character.

MICHAELLLLL! Michael has by far one of the strongest arcs and characters in all of Trek. while early disco is a bit hit or miss for me, Michael is such a strong & compelling character that it makes up more it.

all the people i romantically ship with this character.

i love Michael/Book and am very happy with how they ended up in s5. i also do like Michael/Laira too because even just a few scenes i think their chemistry really jumped off the page.

my non-romantic otp for this character.

i do really love Michael & Saru. the few times they hug in s4 and s5 really took me out and i love the mutual respect & trust they've managed to cultivate despite their rough beginning in s1.

unpopular opinion on this character.

i mean i think it was a common (non tumblr) fandom opinion that Michael cries or emotes too much and that's obviously just some racist and misogynistic bullshit. Michael's whole journey is about throwing off the repression she was forced into as a child by growing up on Vulcan and live her life on her own terms and part of that is embracing her emotions. like probably one of the best scenes in the whole show is the sheer joy after she makes the time jump to the future at the beginning of s3.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened in canon.

i would have really liked Michael to have explored her relationship with Vulcan culture/society more, especially in s3 and beyond. like she obviously had a difficult time growing up but Vulcan culture is still her culture and i would have loved to see her more with post-Burn Vulcans and Romulans. even just her and T'Rina bonding over a Vulcan holiday or something would have been so good.

thanks for the ask!!! <3

[clementine-kesh]

When Harry finally becomes a captain, what kind of crew do you think he's going to have? Do you have specific character types in mind? Like, what kind of people and ship would he run? WHO IS HIS FIRST OFFICER?? (thanks)

oh great question!! starfleet absolutely would not want to waste his talents and experience, so i think he’d be out doing deep space exploration (side note: janeway being an admiral probably means he can get away with a lot of voyager-type behaviour that wouldn’t fly for anyone else lol).

in terms of first officer, my own self-indulgence calls for either nog or ezri dax staff, they’re in the right age bracket and either would make a great team with him. asides from that, i think he’d be really interested in nurturing young talent, particularly those who’ve been overlooked for whatever reason. i love that in idw 2022 he shows up and immediately enlists ensign lily sato in his incredibly risky mission to blow a bunch of shit up, that’s exactly the characterization i’m looking for! in general i think the vibe onboard would be similar to voyager, controlled chaos and loyalty to the extreme

also i think it’d be so fun if he had b’elanna as his chief engineer as a tuvok to his janeway sort of deal. knowing them they probably also designed whatever crazy engine the ship runs on and added all kinds of wild enhancements just for funsies. definitely not regulation but everyone is far too scared to tell them no

[leohttbriar]

i mean, setting aside the fact that tuvok definitely asked for his consent and he definitely gave it and tuvok didn't just descend on his private mental space like truth coming out the well to shame mankind no questions asked, i think this is still interesting. bc it's clear that who was harmed the most from the mind-meld was tuvok himself--to the point that janeway basically sets up a regulatory barrier at the end of the episode between tuvok's mind and everyone else's. as if this is the natural conclusion for tuvok's empathy-in-praxis, by sharing his mind with a murderer he is becoming the murderer, not just observing him. and the violence of the mind-meld is not just the act of "penetration" (like, okay) but the "joining," in which a non-violent person must share in the first-person violence of another. so the question of whether tuvok's duty requires him to understand why suder did what he did, including exposing his innermost self in a super vulnerable way, is an implied premise of the episode's question of what to do when you've got an unapologetic murderer on your ship in the middle-of-nowhere.

the idea that there is violence inherent in sharing mental space with someone is definitely a thought. the other more famous example of a meld in star trek is spock reading the mind of the horta and the way that scene plays out is that spock is, in a sense, directly experiencing the horta's pain and distress. and then there's the episode where kes looks so deeply into the matter of her plants that she excites the molecules and burns all the plants from the inside out. the idea that consciousness has to be protected from and protected against because it's to do with one's perception and way of being in the world and is therefore powerful and fragile from every direction--it's an interesting understanding of autonomy. and the mind.

[mylittleredgirl]

dang it tumblr crashed before i could reblog it, but someone had a gifset of janeway and b’elanna having that sweet conversation at the end of ‘persistence of vision’ and honestly i love it so much when episodes end with janeway having a bonding moment with one of the junior officers, especially early on where there isn’t as much trauma on everybody’s shoulders.

like all captains have their own style and focus when it comes to command, and i think what janeway loves most about being a captain is mentoring and developing crew members, both as officers and as people. if she had a little backup (and if the existential horror of being the only starfleet captain in this half of the galaxy didn’t take up so much of her mental energy), having a ship full of first-chance and last-chance misfits would be her DREAM job, full stop. like with all the love in the world to tal celes, she was probably in the lowest percentile of academy graduates and janeway chose her on purpose! she loves this stuff!

in an alpha quadrant situation i think her ship would have a young crew with a lot of turnover on purpose, because she’d pick up the weirdest cadets and most adrift officers from the side of the road, and she’d help them find themselves. and without the constraints of being stuck on the same ship indefinitely, they’d grow into new roles on other starships (and probably some of them would grow out of the service and find excellence elsewhere, which would be a moment of growth for HER — starfleet isn’t for everybody!).

it would become a thing in starfleet. “oh, you’re one of janeway’s!” when their future captains recognize a creative and bold way of thinking (and a patchy service record before voyager for some of them).

and you’d also get a few officers who decide they want to stay on board and help support that culture of growth. tuvok, obviously, stays with his bestie (and he enjoyed teaching at the academy, and his struggles as a young vulcan in starfleet gives him an interest in helping non-human officers find their way). i’m also thinking about b’elanna. i love the little moments of her mentoring kajal the hologram engineer in “flesh and blood,” and it’s sad that we never get to see her mentoring her own staff on the ship. i think in another circumstance she could really enjoy teaching new engineers, especially the “troubled” students, passing on her experience and giving them some room to discover their own way of doing things.

(picturing the three of them having coffee and janeway like “the academy commandant called and said they have some live ones this year…” and b’elanna like “yessss my favorite kind” and tuvok gives a long suffering vulcan sigh and draws up an orientation plan so clear that MAYBE this year there will be no incidents.)

and yeah i should probably watch prodigy.

[bumblingbabooshka]

[Tuvok & Janeway: Control, Distance, Duty & Connection.] Sources: St Voyager Transcripts / Mitski 'First Love Late Spring' / Disco Elysium

[isagrimorie]

People give Janeway guff about not giving Kazon replicators and transporters. Still, it's proven repeatedly that giving one Kazon faction an advantage over the other would be mixing it up in an internal war that would LITERALLY shift the balance of power.

Klingons at least know the technology they have engineers, even as it's becoming a dying breed over Warriors.

TLDR in Alliance Chakotay and Tuvok convinces Janeway that making an alliance with a Kazon faction is the way to go.

And so she does finally concede on this little experiment but with a lot of reservations going in: That once they leave the infighting will go on, and might actually have been worse.

Tuvok naively thinks it might help and bring about a Federation.

B'Elanna then pushes forward Harry's sarcastic comment about forming an alliance with Seska and then at the first sign of this, Chakotay balks.

And then Janeway says something that I feel is her guiding principle in dealing with hard decisions:

Janeway: "You can't have it both ways Commander. If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon you can't start complaining that you might get dirty."

Again, this is what I love about Janeway -- she gets flack for it but when Janeway makes a decision no one else wants to make it.

As I've mentioned in another post in tags: #right or wrong#i admire how janeway is always the one#who goes#the buck stops with me#she makes the hard choices on voyager#especially during debates#when the staff just goes around and around in circles#like in memorial where she starts just in the background#listening to the senior staff debate#from how janeway started in episode 2 of season 1#where she's presented with the horrific#sophie's choice of neelix dying because he has no lungs#and then subjecting another person to the same fate#to the (now boring debate about tuvix)#to this moment#to the moment on the memorial episode#she will take on that burden#and she will always stare at the hardest choice unflinchingly#because someone has to#as the 12th doctor once said#sometimes all your choices are bad ones#but you still have to choose#

In this episode, she allowed herself to be persuaded but she's not sold on it. But she's letting her crew run with it -- okay so we do this, but if we do this, we commit to it. And yet, at the first uncomfortable decisions... there's already balking. This was Janeway testing the waters if any other person on her senior staff could carry water about making the hard choices.

So far the ones who have stepped up were B'Elanna, Tom, and Neelix.

Anyway, I wish there was more fallout on the whole Kazon vs Trabe conflict because that was actually interesting.

But also Voyager had a Doctor Who problem -- if they meddle in the affairs of a spatial politik, they don't know the repercussions of their actions and just look at Living Witness and the reputation Voyager gained simply by doing a bit of a trade deal.

Voyager can help when they can, see: helping Brenari refugees escape the Devore. (Counterpoint).

But they can't and shouldn't really interfere with internal politics. They're not like DS9 where they can stay in one place and fix things permanently. They're just passing through.

This is also why I think she wasn't really considering Tuvok and Chakotay's thing during the Void episode where they raid another ship's resources. (Also, because after Ransom and Equinox, she knows what faltering in the Federation principles can do).

Crucially, she's also known both Chakotay and Tuvok enough that while she loves them -- Janeway knows neither men have the stomach for their proposals.

The Alliance episode was one example of that already.

Janeway, though, if she is pushed to make that commitment and there was absolutely NO way they can prevent raiding others-- Janeway would have committed to that action 110%. This is why I feel Janeway would actually come to a similar conclusion as Sisko in In the Pale Moonlight.

Especially, if she gets daily reports of Starfleet casualties. I have a feeling, there would be less kicking and screaming when Garak finally does his reveal.

Janeway has rules for a reason. She is fastidious about it. For a reason. Because once she commits to an action, it will take both hell and high water to take her off that course.

/edited

[enby-andi]

I've reblogged a post from a star trek blog and I mentioned this episode of voyager but screw it I wanna talk about this episode because imo it's more fucked up than threshold.

SEASON 5, EPISODE 17: "Course: Oblivion"

The episode starts out really nice!!! There's a wedding going on in the mess hall!!! Tom and B'elanna are getting married!!! Chakotay walks her down the aisle!!! Seven catches the bouquet!!!

After that everything is Same as Always. They are trying something new with the engines. B'elanna is telling Seven what to do while she and Tom are on their honeymoon. She goes to their quarters and IMMEDIATELY gets sick (and not the fanfiction "Congratulations! :)" sick).

Tom finds her and takes her to sickbay. The doctor diagnoses her with cellular degradation due to radiation. The rest of the crew are trying to figure out why. Chakotay and Tuvok are trying to figure out why parts of the ship and replicated food are going bad and immediately disintegrating except for food Neelix has gotten from other stops on the route for the past six months.

And the B'ELANNA FUCKING DIES.

SHE FUCKING DIES WITH TOM CRYING HER NAME AND TELLING THE DOCTOR TO KEEP TRYING AND THE DOCTOR RESIGNEDLY STOPPING REVIVAL ACTIONS.

Tuvok and Chakotay go over all their travel logs and realize something. They go to sickbay where Tom is grieving his FRESHLY DEAD WIFE and tell the Doctor to inject her with a solution.

AND B'ELANNA TURNS INTO A PUDDLE OF MERCURY LOOKING LIQUID.

AS IT TURNS OUT, THIS ENTIRE CREW AND THE VOYAGER SHIP ARE DUPLICATES MADE OF THIS FLUID THAT HAVE ALL THE EXACT SAME MEMORIES AS THE ORIGINALS BUT FORGOT THEY WERE DUPLICATES.

And I'm sure you're asking: Andi, when could this have happened???? It happened in the episode "Demon" ONE WHOLE SEASON AGO IN 4X24. These biomimetic lifeforms (called Silver Blood) from a demon class planet duplicated the entire crew and the ship because they had never encountered human DNA before. Janeway let them because otherwise they couldn't have gotten the dilithium they needed safely.

SO THE ENTIRE CREW AND SHIP ARE DUPLICATES AND ARE SLOWLY DISENTEGRATING AND IT IS HORRIFYING. EVERYONE BEGINS TO LOOK LIKE A CRONENBERG EXTRA. PEOPLE ARE DYING. JC LITERALLY HAVE A MOMENT AND HE FUCKING DIES. JANEWAY GETS THEM OUT OF ONE LAST SPACE CONFRONTATION AND THEN SHE FUCKING DIES IN THE CAPTAIN'S CHAIR. HARRY KIM IS NOW THE CAPTAIN BUT DEAR GOD THE COST AND THE ONLY SENIOR STAFF LEFT ARE SEVEN ANS NEELIX.

After Chakotay dies, Janeway had ordered the crew to try to find the OG Voyager crew so that they can duplicate them again and get a few more months so they can find another demon class planet to survive on. Harry and Seven are pushing the ship to its limits. They can only use impulse, life support, and can barely send out a distress signal. A ship is approaching. Harry braces himself for a confrontation. Something in engineering explodes.

The Ship is the OG Voyager. They got the distress signal. They notice it's gone. They turn on the view screen -

The duplicate Voyager has completely disintegrated into the liquid. The OG Voyager is confused as hell as to what happened here, but make a note of it and move on.

What I found the most fucked up??? After this episode, the viewER HAS NO IDEA IF THE EPISODES BETWEEN "DEMON" AND "C:O" DETAILED THE EVENTS OF THE OG VOYAGER OR THE DUPLICATE ONE. IF IT WAS EVER MADE CLEAR PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I HAVE BEEN HAUNTED BY THIS EPISODE SINCE I WAS IN THE 5TH GRADE AND I NEED CLOSURE!!!!

AND!!!!! IT WAS SO FRUSTRATING BECAUSE THEY GOT SO CLOSE!!!! THEY ALMOST MADE IT!!!! BUT THEY WERE TOO LATE AND DIED!!!! ITS SO FUCKING TRAGIC 😭😭😭😭

[curator-on-ao3]

Again, cool response to the last question, so I'll let you pick from these options:

And there are things I have fan-fixed in my head to the point that I have to remind myself that the fix-it isn’t part of the actual canon: favourite one of these?

Or

Your/a favourite part of actual canon. Like, maybe something little but it's just so lovely and fitting to you and you're just happy that it exists?

I’ve been a little down on Trek lately, so I’m going to type as fast as I can to brain-dump, in show order, the first things that pop into my mind that I absolutely love in Trek canon:

Kirk calling Nomad his son, the doctor

Christine Chapel’s snark to Roger Korby about schtupping the androids

Mark Leonard’s performance in Balance of Terror

the Horta (a great mama)

“Edith Keeler must die.”

Captain John Christopher, United States Air Force. Serial number 4857932.

Tribbles

the lesson of The Cloud Minders that we must have empathy and listen to others when they tell us about their lived experience in an environment unlike our own

the cheap-ass animation of TAS

Q

Bynars and Minuet

Beverly Crusher’s frustration in Arsenal of Freedom (and the episode’s Good Ship Lollipop joke)

Picard shooting the other version of himself in Time Squared (to clarify: out of respect for those times when we have to stop ourselves from getting caught in loops/doing stupid stuff and we summon up the courage to break a bad cycle and move forward)

K'Ehleyr

Picard out-lawyering the Sheliak

Rachel Garrett; Yar and Castillo

Lal (but I can’t watch the end anymore, it hurts too much)

the Shakespeare and “Set a course for Betazed. Warp 9.” comedy in Ménage a Troi

Best of Both Worlds, I and II (Shelby inclusive)

every conference table discussion in all of TNG

Beverly’s jump in Remember Me (such a damn good episode)

the reveal in Future Imperfect (which one? all of them)

The Dancing Doctor tap dancing with Data

Darmok. And Jalad. At Tenagra.

Ro Laren

Troi saying, “You could have easily been right” to Ro in Disaster

Hugh, Third of Five

the fact that The Next Phase has so many plotholes and they’re forgivable because the episode is so fun and great

Scotty on the holodeck version of the TOS bridge and Picard joining him

Rascals!

Deanna’s “Ancient West” outfit

the Jefferies tube music and make out session in Lessons

Attached. Oh, my heart.

the Enterprise with three nacelles … and that absolutely perfect last shot of the series

“You exist here.”

Sisko’s casual, everyday affection for Jake

“Old Man”

Rejoined. Lenara Khan. The love. That kiss. The emotional stakes. All of it.

the three Ferengi hitting their own heads to try to fix their universal translators so the 20th century Earth military people mimic the movement to try to communicate

every second of Trials and Tribble-ations including Sisko working overtime to stop fuckmaster Dax, tossing the tribbles, Sisko meeting Kirk, “We do not discuss it with outsiders,” and so much more

Kira blaming Bashir for putting the baby inside her when … you know … behind the scenes

The Sons of Mogh helping with the harvest in Children of Time

Far Beyond the Stars — some of the best if not the best science fiction I have ever seen

the monster fakeout (and kindness) in The Sound of Her Voice, even though the end makes me cry

“Computer, erase that entire personal log.”

Solok

Sisko and Kassidy discussing their comfort levels about a simulation in which the reality was segregation

Janeway waterfalling off the sofa to be closer to Mark on the screen

“Warp particles!”

the lizard babies

the two Janeways in Deadlock

Remember (a painfully good Holocaust episode that doesn’t get enough credit and, yes, I know the path the script took and I’m glad it ended up as a B’Elanna episode)

“I don't know what I'm seeking.” “Then I believe you are ready to begin.”

“The child you spoke of, the girl. Her favorite color was red.” Also, Tuvok’s meditation lamp in the window for Kes.

hot damn, Counterpoint, yaaas

everything in Relativity

“The Yankees, in six games.”

Janeway going after Seven in The Voyager Conspiracy

“This is Lieutenant Reginald Barclay at Starfleet Command.” “It's good to hear your voice, Lieutenant. We've been waiting a long time for this moment.” “The feeling is mutual. Unfortunately, the micro-wormhole is collapsing. We have only a few moments.” “Understood. We are transmitting our ship's logs, crew reports, and navigational records to you now.” “Acknowledged. And we're sending you data on some new hyper-subspace technology. We're hoping eventually to use it to keep in regular contact, and we're including some recommended modifications for your comm system.” “We'll implement them as soon as possible.” “There's someone else here who would also like to say something.” “This is Admiral Paris.” “Hello, sir.” “How are your people holding up?” “Very well. They're an exemplary crew, your son included.” “Tell him, tell him I miss him. And I'm proud of him.” “He heard you, Admiral.” “The wormhole is collapsing.” “I want you all to know we're doing everything we can to bring you home.” “We appreciate it, sir. Keep a docking bay open for us.”

“Nice hair.” (Live Fast and Prosper)

Janeway and Jaffen in Workforce

the spot-on legal concerns of Author, Author

“Set a course. For home.”

(Nothing from Enterprise or Prodigy only because I haven’t watched enough of Enterprise or any of Prodigy)

Burnham and Georgiou forming the delta with their footsteps

the CGI on only the shields protecting Burnham from space

“Are we in session? Because I didn't know you were practicing again. Because if I have your undivided attention for fifty minutes, I can think of a whole bunch of other things we could be doing.”

“That's as depressing a trait as I've ever heard.” “I don't give a damn … I still don't give a damn.”

Cornwell beaming in, phaser aimed, taking command of Discovery

Cornwell phasering the fortune cookies

Cornwell’s voice breaking: “So my Gabriel is dead.”

Detmer’s little bounce when Emperor-as-Captain Georgiou takes command

Pike beaming aboard and instantly being all like MOJAVE to prove to the audience he’s the guy from The Cage

New Eden. Everything. Oh my God (pun intended). The visuals. Owo’s backstory. Pollard patching Pike up after he’s shot. The light at the end. Oh my God, yes. That episode. Yes.

Number freaking One beaming aboard and having her lunch briefing with Pike (Chris and Una’s decades-long friendship wasn’t canon yet, but it shows here so beautifully)

Gabrielle Burnham

“In case the shit hit the fan.”

Michael Burnham on truth serum

Book

Laira Rillak, everyone!

Q&A

season 1 Raffi Musiker

Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief Kirsten Clancy

“You owe me a ship, Picard.”

“You need a feather in your hat.”

Riker greeting Picard

Hugh greeting Picard

the separate trio of Raffi, Clancy, and Deanna all telling Picard he’s shit

Rios singing in Spanish

President Annika Hansen

everybody finding each other in the Confederation Universe

Liam Shaw — a character with incredible highs and lows

Majel Barrett as the computer voice when the crew gets to the Enterprise D

“Somehow I figured you might.”

everything in Ghosts of Illyria

Spock and La’an’s mind meld

Spock and T’Pring in Spock Amok

“You cannot resign. The loss to Enterprise would be unimaginable. To me.”

“If you’re going to steal a starship, do it correctly.”

Neera Ketoul

La’an normalizing needing to eat all the time as a teenager (especially important for girls to hear)

Pike and Una visually checking in with each other so often that it’s in their cartoon versions (that whole episode, actually, including, “Riker!”)

That’s scrolling through episode titles and jotting down stuff I love off the top of my head, fam.✨

Thank you so much for this ask, anon! ❤️ I needed this positive energy in my life.

[thegeminisage]

janeway/seven: spirk if it were messy dyke drama. thoughts

HAPPY SEVEN OF NINE DAY! i didn't wait so long to answer this just for seven of nine day on purpose, but i love the happy little accident.

i've given this a lot of thought and as though i agreed with you initially because janeway reminds me SO MUCH of a female kirk it's uncanny sometimes i actually detect notes of spones in this vintage.

consider that seven accuses janeway of wanting her to become an individual, but balking when she decides she doesn't like the kind of individual seven is becoming. this REEKS of spones because bones often goads spock into admitting he is having a feeling...or giving him shit because he is not having a feeling, or not having the correct one. kirk basically NEVER does this - he accepts spock's feelings or lack thereof at face value. he sometimes tugs spock's pigtails (happy 10k to this post!) and alludes to the fact that he knows that deep down, spock is having a feeling, but he never tries to catch spock in a lie or force him to admit to said feelings.

the tholian web, the menagerie, the empath, requiem for methuselah, journey to babel, all our yesterdays, and the paradise syndrome (even though i hate this one, it's racist af) all arguably contain examples of spock doing things bones disagrees with with the primary factor behind him doing those things BEING his emotions. consider also their iconic scene in bread and circuses in which bones yells at him while they're stuck in a cell together and compare it to the scene where janeway is basically spooning seven in the brig while she goes through the painful transition from borg to an individual and they're both shouting their way through it. (i think this was during the gift? but memory is hazy.)

now i have a plot twist for you. even though tuvok is the vulcan on this ship, i think his relationship with seven is closer to what kirk and spock have, even though tuvok and seven care about each other platonically and kirk and spock are a romantic couple. (nobody come to this post and try and dispute me. they are.)

seven is the spock in both situations: standoffish, unable or unwilling to show emotions like affection or concern, trapped between being human and being Other and unsure of where they fit. but much like bones, janeway wants seven to be more like her ideal idea of a person: a human being and an individual. she tries to teach her to socialize, to exercise her agency (even though it backfires at times), and even suggests seven go back to using her birthname, annika. seven reacts to this with predictable confusion and frustration, the sparks fly, and the romance just writes itself.

tuvok, on the other hand, behaves more like kirk: he meets seven exactly where she's at. he accepts whatever emotions she has, but he also isn't troubled when she doesn't have them. he's just as satisfied to speak to the human part of her or the Other part of her. he steadily helps her through the emotional crises she does have in the raven without judgment (vaguely similar to kirk prying that vulcan biology speech out of spock by being absolutely 100% nonjudgmental about it), as a result seven feels very comfortable with him and trusts him a great deal - even going so far to ask him if janeway still doesn't trust her, which is a pretty vulnerable thing to do, since it lets him know she's very concerned about it, and even seems to believe his answer! and even though she's bad at feelings, she also supports HIM when he's vulnerable - offering to help him shave and walking him around the ship during year of hell.

anyway, i don't have an eloquent conclusion, but these are my thoughts ✌

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep6: Twisted

Okay but I actually love this one too. It has all the things you could ask for in an episode.

It starts off with an adorable birthday party for Kes on the holodeck, with the crew coming together to celebrate and give her presents and teach her about human birthday traditions, awww. Neelix even grits his teeth and doesn't go on a jealous tirade when Tom gives Kes a locket. (Wow, what a concession Neelix, to not yell at your girlfriend on her birthday! What a catch you are! ugh.)

Meanwhile, back on the bridge, they spot a space anomaly (because of course they do) and as usual, they poke it with stick (brilliant) and then get caught in it (as you do).

It seems as though it'll be a standard 'go back to the bridge and launch a probe at it/phaser it/do funny particle beam stuff to it' episode, but no. The senior officers can't get to the bridge; they keep being taken to other parts of the ship instead. At first it's comical, but then it turns serious as the crew figures out the ship's configuration is being altered around them by the anomaly. The sense of impending doom builds slowly and steadily as more and more of the ship is affected. Throughout, we get lots of wonderful character scenes as they slowly realize that time may be running out, and they say things they've wanted to say to each other in case they don't get the chance again. Captain Janeway tells Harry she's proud of him! B'Elanna calls Harry 'Starfleet' again! Even in the confrontation between Chakotay and Tuvok, it was nice to get some acknowlegement that yeah, maybe they do still resent each other in some way, but they both know they have to put it aside for the sake of the bigger picture.

The crew finally ends up trapped together in a walls-closing-in scenario that's genuinely quite intense. There's many Star Trek episodes where the whole crew almost dies, but they usually involve frenetically working to avert a warp core breach or defeat an enemy ship in a battle- the kinds of situations where no one has time to sit and reflect on the fact that they might die in the next few minutes. Having them all sit together, and wait together, knowing these could be their final moments, is a heartbreaking, but very moving moment. You see the love between them all spelled out so clearly, and it gets to me every single time I watch this episode. They're not just people thrown together by necessity anymore, they're a family now. <3

(And of course they don't die in the end!)

Tl;dr: An excellent episode that builds to an intense climax, while still making time for moments that give us insight into the characters and their relationships.

[delta-queerdrant]

where are your troubles now? forgotten? (Resistance, s2 e12)

(POV you’re watching the Barbie intro but it’s Star Trek screenwriters. Please indulge me.)

Once, in another century, there was a show called Star Trek Voyager. (Cue 2001: A Space Odyssey music.) A lady and two dudes created it. Occasionally other ladies cowrote episodes. But by the time Season Two rolled around, there were not so many ladies. Actually there was just Jeri Taylor, and by god she tried. But one lady cannot be all things to all people.

Then in November 1995, a great miracle happened. A new lady was hired to write a teleplay. It was fresh, inventive! Something was happening!

Her name was (music crescendos)

L I S A K L I N K

I don’t know much about Lisa Klink, except that “Resistance” marks the beginning of her multi-season involvement in Voyager, and that she was a five-time Jeopardy winner. (I do not watch Jeopardy, I would not be good at Jeopardy, but Jeopardy people are nevertheless my people.) Mostly I know that I turned on “Resistance” and, despite my general disinterest in the show’s production history, immediately asked: who the FUCK wrote this?

“Resistance” is not a perfect episode, but after half a season of flailing, it is a revelation. Klink, writing the script for a story by Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin J. Ryan, has a clear vision of what Voyager can be - a show that’s grounded, emotionally resonant, and trusts its actors. 

I am partial to the gritty, Blade Runner-inflected, Firefly/BSG brand of science fiction television, so when we started in media res, our heroes in civvies doing deals in an outdoor market, I died and went to cyberpunk heaven. (Neelix’s coat alone is worth the price of entry.) Instead of swanning across the galaxy like tourists in a slightly under-resourced cruise ship, the Voyager gang are finally the scrappy underdogs they ought to be.

This is our second Janeway episode of the season, and the first episode, perhaps of the series, that really gives her a character mandate beyond “strong but feminine captain who loves her dog.” Mulgrew has her work cut out for her, acting against JOEL FUCKING GREY, but they’re both marvelous. Waking in the home of the enigmatically batty Caylem (in a claustrophobic sequence whose stagey absurdism recalls a Beckett play), Janeway slowly grows to understand that Caylem, who’s decided she’s his daughter, might be her best ally for escape. The growing emotional connection between the two is so tender and understated; as a writer, Klink has mastered the light touch.

Janeway and Caylem end up collaborating with the local resistance movement to rescue Torres and Tuvok, who have been imprisoned by the lawful evil overlords of this world. Our characters genuinely feel like they are in big trouble! Torres and Tuvok’s prison stint is rough. (I did enjoy B’Elanna’s beatnik dissident prison garb. She looks like it is approximately 1956 and she is a French student who has been arrested for throwing a baguette at a cop.)

The only weak sequence is the prison break itself, which feels too easy and relies on a tired “sex worker disguise” subterfuge. But the ending is so satisfying and will break your heart.

Once Janeway’s back in uniform, it feels like we’ve truly been on a journey, one that brings to mind iconic episodes like “The Inner Light.” Voyager is a long way from home, and I want these characters to go through transformative experiences. The boldness of this episode gets us a little bit of the way there.

A radical reimagining of Voyager, and the best episode of season two in my estimation. I award this one 4.5/5 melon hats.