#Tuvok in the background: ..........................................................................................

[bumblingbabooshka]

Patreon Post: Tuvok and T'Pol - Ministry of Security [Patreon | Commissions]

[youngpettyqueen]

The Fight is an episode the really just proves that Voyager COULDVE done so much more with Chakotay but they really just. never do

[aquarterpastfour]

If Tuvok had been a human, we’d have see him in the background of every shot with Janeway in it, bouncing on his toes, cracking his knuckles, stretching to keep limber, just waiting for the chance to ask her: “Whose day can I fuck up for you?”

[lostyesterday]

Some really good Star Trek friendships that have a particular flavor that makes them extra special: Dax & Sisko, Jake & Nog, Data & Geordi, Janeway & Tuvok. It’s something about two characters from different species with vastly different backgrounds who connect to each other so deeply anyway, and maybe they’re a little in love with each other but most importantly they’re best friends who would literally follow each other anywhere.

[cdr2002]

I gushed about the DS9 mirror universe in a previous post and how I feel the setting is more fluid than stories centered on the dominance of the Terran Empire, but I really do love the way it handles inverting and “mirroring” characters and concepts

“The names are the same, but the players are in different places” I think Prime Kira put it

The Federation and the mirror Cardassian Union are direct parallels. Both powers enjoy beneficial alliances with the Klingons and Bajor, and a severe dominance over Alpha Quadrant politics. The Alliance is on a larger scale essentially the mirror Federation of this era. Kira at the beginning of the series worried that the Federation would be just like the Cardassians. Oh the irony.

The TNG era is generally considered to be the Federation at its height, before the losses suffered at the hands of the Borg and the Dominion, at least. Meanwhile in the mirror universe, the Terrans, vulcans, and others are at their absolute lowest. They are in essentially the same position that the Bajorans were under the Cardassian occupation. And the Bajorans are, at least in part, among their oppressors.

Kira’s nemesis is Gul Dukat. The Intendant has Gul Dukat’s old job, and behaves similarly to him in many ways. Both Kiras are fundamentally the same person enough to understand each other, but in the ways that they differ are all traits that Intendant shares with Dukat. Kira is second in command of the station, under Sisko’s command. The Intendant commands the station, and Sisko works for her. The reversal of their egos is the most obvious, and the component Nana Visitor herself has commented on.

Prime Garak is an exile. Mirror Garak is still trapped in Cardassian military service, and seems miserable with it, much the way I imagine Prime Garak would have found himself eventually.

O’Brien has a loving family. Smiley has nothing. This very fact helps to inspire him to become a revolutionary. O’Brien knows what he lives for. Smiley has to find it.

Both Siskos “lost” Jennifer. One to the Borg, one or his own hubris.

Prime Bashir is a genius and a savant. Mirror Bashir is kind of a thug.

Prime Quark is arrogant and swaggering. Mirror Quark is timid and quiet, but also more outwardly kind. Too outwardly perhaps, considering he got caught, but we can’t fault him for doing the right thing.

Prime Worf was raised by humans. Regent Worf is all Klingon. If he knew the Rozhenkos, they were probably house servants or something. He was intentionally written to be like Gowron.

Similarly, Mirror Nog is very Quark-like.

The situation that the Rebellion finds itself in forces them to operate and conduct themselves VERY similarly to the Maquis, ironic considering how many of our Starfleet characters have mirror selves who are members of this Rebellion, and who in the prime universe, have opposed the Maquis. Sisko being the most prominent example. They even use more or less the same vehicles and weapons as the Maquis, and I think there are a few shared background actors between both groups, potentially the prime and mirror versions of the same peoples.

Similarly, Tuvok is a spy for Starfleet within the Maquis in the prime universe. He is genuinely 100% a rebel in the mirror universe. Both Tuvoks also have the same outfit in their wardrobe.

Prime Rom is relatively timid. Mirror Rom is fairly aggressive.

Ezri received the Dax symbiont in the prime universe. This never happened in the mirror universe, and the episode makes sure to emphasize this. She’s also tough, guarded, sassy, and aggressive where Prime Ezri is somewhat meek, fairly open, friendly, and usually cordial but does say what’s on her mind, bringing a similarity between her and her mirror counterpart. Mirror Ezri ultimately choosing to become a member of the rebellion could also be argued as a similarity.

Mirror Jadzia is unfortunately quite underdeveloped and boils down to mostly sleeping with people Prime Jadzia ordinarily doesn’t. But there is an interesting note to Mirror Jadzia seeming to be a more frivolous and carefree person (or at least fronting as such), while Prime Jadzia is a relatively more serious person, and while both engage in casual sex, Prime Jadzia is a lot more considered when it comes to starting long term relationships than her counterpart, who doesn’t see Bashir’s immaturity as an obstacle to his compatibility as a partner.

The mirror Klingons and Cardassians find success and dominance in aligning. In the prime universe they go to war, to their mutual detriment.

DS9 ends with the prime universe Cardassian Union brought low and made to suffer a form of ironic penance for their past sins at the hands of a greater fascist power than themselves, much like the fall of the Terran Empire. But where the Empire was conquered by the Alliance, Cardassia is brought back to its feet by the Federation.

I don’t know precisely how intentional any of this was but I found it fascinating.

Oh and Mirror Bariel has a personality.

[insanewaykathy]

You get a candy if you guess who he's talking to… (and we also have Tuvok talking in the background and being completely ignored, because they don't want to listen to Tuvok, they just want to flirt)

[liebelesbe]

the evolution of my Tuvok... i have more but tumblr has a limit of 10 pics per post ✌️😔

[ID: 10 variations of the same pixel drawing of Tuvok. The background changes colors and the ear placement and shading change slightly over the different pictures. End ID]

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

About all the following discussion surrounding confession #718: I think y'all read too much into it. Imma try not go too much into details but I'll start by stating I see where both sides of the debate come from.

For now let's ignore any mention of the original series being made in the 60s and also any implication of sexual tension with the "bickering". I will also only talk of the original character depictions.

Fact: McCoy many times unnecessarily makes fairly insulting comments to Spock about being Vulcan. Also fact: this only applies to Spock. Throughout the series and movies, he never makes any comments torward other Vulcans, like Sarek, Saavik or Valeris. This is because Spock is half Vulcan and is explicitely shown to be disgusted at his Human side (yes, that makes him racist as someone else pointed out), and because of that trying to force, prove his Vulcanness to a point it would be unnatural even for a full Vulcan, and McCoy doesn't like or understand that, which his why most of his actually offensive remarks ("slurs", i'll come back to that) happen in a critical moment when Spock is convinced acting the most Vulcan way possible is what will work when it's shown not to (whether or not it's a valid way to let out frustration is another debate). Replace Spock with Tuvok and you wouldn't see any of that. Throughout TOS Bones shows a respect to the differences of other cultures, including defending Spock's Vulcan side when outsiders act genuinely hostile torward him for being a Vulcan.

About the slurs, it seems like a lot of people equate McCoy's insults to ethnic slurs, but there's no indication they're established slurs at all and I highly doubt this, looks more like only McCoy's using obscure words to criticize Spock. I just wanted to clarify that because I think it's an important detail.

Now about the original series being made in the 60s. Ignoring actual racist sentiments, as someone who has read historical memoirs from early-middle 20th century (period in which the creators grew up), making explicit comments about a friend's racial and ethnic background without any ill intent wasn't uncommon, if just to give a little more context.

About the bickering and sexual tension: besides the "old married couple" energy (which personally makes me slightly uncomfortable) and comments about private anatomical differences, I too dislike the idea racist comments would imply anything (from both parties). Besides, it goes with a lot of mischaracterization of Spock and his private life, and on a side-note, I've come to kind of try to ignore any shipping content of Spock with anyone because I feel like people reaaaally misunderstand him and that annoys me.

About the Katra sharing etc: it is explicitely shown in TOS and the movies that Spock and McCoy are as a matter of fact very close to each other (from their interactions but most importantly their body language, especially considering Spock's Vulcan heritage) and implying that he had to deal with McCoy as workplace courtesy, and that he wasn't at least one of Spock's first choices for Katra-storing (a deeply personal procedure) is dishonest at best (besides knocked out Scotty was right there!) I can only think of Kirk and maybe Saavik before him.

Hopefully this is the last ask related to this confession as it seems this whole discussion is starting to get judgmental. Force to OP for having to deal with us, lol.

.

[worflesbian]

i fucking LOVE the way dream seeps into reality in the beginning of barge of the dead!!!! starting with the bleeding shrapnel and echoing voices, then b'elanna's conversation with tuvok ending with him shouting that she's not worthy of the blood in her veins, even the background conversations at the party feel dreamlike in their absurdity. and then. time slows down! the light turns red!! figures emerge from the shadows stalking unseen by the partygoers till they strike!! a muffled heartbeat plays over everything and the dream has taken over!!!

only once we're firmly in the bitingly real, windswept, ocean-sprayed barge of the dead is it revealed that every surreal scene on voyager preceding this was, in fact, the dream

[hortaheart]

Been puzzling over Tuvok and Chakotay's dynamic, why they still have such a frosty, poor relationship five years into the journey, and what a flashback into their Maquis days would look like, and I've come to my own personal interpretation.

I believe that Chakotay sees Tuvok as having a deeply flawed moral character, and Tuvok sees Chakotay as the epitome of the foolishness of emotion.

For background, this started when I saw @bumblingbabooshka 's tags the other day on this post, about how Tuvok has no ability to purposefully endear himself to others. This really struck me as a true and concise statement that reflected what I had been thinking about Tuvok during my rewatch. I've also been thinking that Tuvok is very different from the other main Vulcans in the various series, because while he is a Vulcan in Starfleet, he is very much not a Starfleet Vulcan.

What I mean by that, what I think of as a "Starfleet Vulcan", is a Vulcan who, no matter how much they may be appalled or frustrated or confused by human and other species emotionalism, they also have a specific enjoyment of their antics and an appreciation for their alternate way of being.

Tuvok is not like that. He respects and appreciates Janeway utterly, as well as a few others in less intense capacities, (Kes comes to mind), but he never shows a single hint that he finds emotions anything but frivolous, irritating, and Incorrect.

I was thinking about his positive relationships and why they are different, and I've come to the conclusion that it is because Janeway, despite a light teasing every once in a great while, generally takes him as deadly seriously as he wants to be taken. Kes, also, takes him and everything he says deeply seriously. Seven, too, takes just about everyone and everything seriously, which is why they have such a good dynamic. Part of why those three are so partial to him, in return, is that all three of them have a prominent desire to be taken seriously, which Tuvok can always be relied upon to do. (His dynamic with B'Elanna is more complicated and I won't get into my interpretation of that in this post.)

This also explains why he has such a dislike of Paris, and partly Chakotay, and never seems to let Harry that close. (Despite having some nice moments with him, due to Harry's earnestness and open meticulous care for his job, in my opinion.)

It's not just the way that he wants to be in the universe, it is also the way he wants the universe to be around him. The totality of this trait makes for a pretty unique character, in my opinion. It's also what makes him so suited for Voyager over the other Treks, the series that most consistently puts it's characters in horrific action situations that require a serious military tactician.

Now, how did he get close to Chakotay during his time spying on the Maquis? How did he learn the name of every single crewman on board, when surely there is nothing so foolish for criminals to have as a crew manifest on board, and he is not an adept conversationalist to put it mildly?

Here's what I think: Tuvok has absolutely no ability to purposefully endear himself to others, when he is being himself. For the majority of the series, there is no situation that convinces him to act as anything but himself. (This causes many problems.) Despite having little ability to improvise, I think he made a good spy simply by accurately aping Maquis moral stances and language. With prior research and attention to detail, I think this is well within his capabilities.

Most importantly, I think he would hardly need to do much else. By virtue of being Vulcan, a species most people tend to trust and take at their word. If he convinced them that he believes that fighting with the Maquis is the logical thing to do, they would trust him. It reflects what they already believe, and he is Vulcan, so why not?

I think it is very interesting that in Resolutions, Chakotay describes himself as someone who, before Voyager, was always fighting with the people around him, even those within his group. Now, Tuvok doesn't take offensive emotional outbursts personally, as he sees them as utterly illogical, (as in, he'll probably think less of you, but he won't stoop to reacting pettily, very pointedly) and he especially wouldn't if it would interfere with his mission.

Due to their lack of formal training to work in groups, their constant dealings with treachery and oppression, their dire personal circumstances, the necessity of a band of rebels to be full of people who readily stand up for their beliefs, and the culture of the Maquis, the Maquis crew are generally shown to be quite argumentative and disagreeable. Tuvok would be a stark stand-out as someone always patient with their antagonism, trustworthy, and not to mention an exceedingly capable officer that you can rely on in a fight. I believe this is the crux of him getting close to Chakotay, and the rest of the crew.

Then, he betrays them, and is revealed to have never shared their convictions.

Chakotay understands Tuvok was just doing his duty as a Starfleet officer, he might even stop holding the betrayal against him at some point, but the abrupt, horrible transition of thinking of him as someone who shared the same morals, who cares about the same people Chakotay cares about, into knowing he does not, well. I don't think Chakotay's opinion of Tuvok ever recovers from this. Tuvok makes no effort to help it recover! Whatsoever! At any point! I believe his military mindset is at direct odds with Chakotay's high valuation of life, an interesting opposite of the dynamic between Spock and the human crewmen in The Galileo 7.

Of course, despite being quick to fire phasers, Tuvok does value life, but he is not in anyway a diplomat, even within his own crew. I believe the constant irritations this causes on the ship, (thankfully less and less as the series goes on and they accept him), are constant irritating reminders to Chakotay that Tuvok is not the person he used to think he was, and wanted him to be. Tuvok never does anything to soften this impression using what he learned, because Tuvok is incapable of being anyone but himself unless under orders to do so. He is constantly, harshly different. I think it drives Chakotay crazy.

MEANWHILE! Tuvok worked much more efficiently with his Maquis crewmates before the betrayal. When they liked him, they listened to him more. Despite the wisdom of his logic and his orders being the same if not greater now. There were even turbulent discoursive times when they worked better with him, ever patient, correct, and steadfast, than they did with Chakotay, who was apparently not as much those things as he is now. For them to come to Starfleet, to Janeway's command, his domain, and suddenly work better with the teasing, unserious, emotional, Chakotay, over him! Well. Despite the facts of the betrayal, and his powerful emotional suppression, I believe this would grate. Perhaps cognitively rather than emotionally, but grating all the same.

This is how Tuvok's subconscious conception of the crew's emotional irrationality, (the WORST thing in the UNIVERSE, with NO UPSIDES), gets utterly tied up with his subconscious impression of Chakotay. Whenever the crew or Chakotay fail to be utterly serious and logical actors, it adds to the irritation. Whenever Chakotay succeeds with wrangling the crew where Tuvok fails, it adds to the irritation. This of course happens constantly. Tuvok is too adept at following the teachings of Surak to hate.

But he fuckin' hates that guy.

And the feeling is mutual!

[lostyesterday]

Percentage of Star Trek Voyager Episodes Focused on Each Major Character

I’ve been thinking about which major characters Voyager spends the most time focusing on, and which characters are more often left in the background. I decided to collect data on this topic, and I made the following graph:

The percentage for each character on the graph represents an estimate of the percentage of the total number of Voyager episodes that are focused on that particular character. Double episodes were counted as singular episodes, bringing the total number of Voyager episodes counted for the graph to 160.

Episodes that I judged as focusing fairly equally on two major Voyager characters counted as half an episode for each of those two characters in my percentage calculation. I decided to do this because I felt it more accurately represented the overall proportion of time that Voyager allocates to each character than if I were to only count episodes that focused solely on one character. Episodes that focused equally on three or more major characters were not counted in the graph.

After tallying every episode that I judged as focusing primarily on either one or two major characters, 22% of Voyager’s episodes remained uncounted. These were generally episodes that focused on the crew as a whole, or on characters outside of the main cast.

Obviously, all of my decisions about which episodes to count for which characters are subjective. There are a lot of complicated questions to ask, such as, how does one draw a distinction between an episode focused on Janeway in particular versus an episode that focuses on the whole crew where Janeway takes the most significant role in the plot simply by virtue of being the Captain? Or how does one count episodes such as Someone to Watch Over Me or The Haunting of Deck Twelve where the major subjects of the story and the character whose perspective it is told through differ? I made my own determinations for each episode, but there is plenty of room for alternate interpretations, some of which might cause a significant shift in the allocation of episodes to each character.

I welcome any disagreement with or discussion about the methodology I used here. I also welcome analysis of what this data means – whether it reflects positively or negatively on Voyager as a show, how it fits with or contradicts popular perceptions, or anything else.

A full list of episodes that I counted for each character is below the cut.

Kathryn Janeway:

Parallax (with Torres – half points)

Time and Again (with Paris – half points)

The 37’s

Resistance

Alliances

Deadlock

Resolutions (with Chakotay – half points)

Sacred Ground

The Q and the Grey

Macrocosm

Coda

Scorpion (with Chakotay – half points)

Year of Hell

Concerning Flight

Prey (with Seven – half points)

The Omega Directive (with Seven – half points)

Hope and Fear (with Seven – half points)

Night

Counterpoint

11:59

Equinox (with Chakotay – half points)

Fair Haven

Good Sheppherd

The Void

Q2

Endgame

Seven of Nine:

The Gift (with Kes – half points)

The Raven

Prey (with Janeway – half points)

Retrospect (with EMH – half points)

The Omega Directive (with Janeway – half points)

One

Hope and Fear (with Janeway – half points)

Drone

Infinite Regress

Bliss

Dark Frontier

Think Tank

Someone to Watch Over Me (with EMH – half points)

Relativity

Survival Instinct

One Small Step

The Voyager Conspiracy

Tsunkatse (with Tuvok – half points)

Collective

Child’s Play

Unimatrix Zero

Imperfection

Body and Soul (with EMH – half points)

Human Error

Natural Law (with Chakotay – half points)

EMH/The Doctor:

Heroes and Demons

Projections

Lifesigns

The Swarm

Real Life

Revulsion (with Torres – half points)

Message in a Bottle

Retrospect (with Seven – half points)

Living Witness

Nothing Human

Latent Image

Someone to Watch Over Me (with Seven – half points)

Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy

Virtuoso

Life Line

Critical Care

Body and Soul (with Seven – half points)

Flesh and Blood

Author, Author

Renaissance Man

B’Elanna Torres

Parallax (with Janeway – half points)

Faces

Prototype

Dreadnought

Remember

Blood Fever

Day of Honor

Revulsion (with EMH – half points)

Random Thoughts (with Tuvok – half points)

Extreme Risk

Juggernaut

Barge of the Dead

Muse

Drive (with Paris – half points)

Lineage

Chakotay:

Initiations

Tattoo

Maneuvers

Resolutions (with Janeway – half points)

Unity

Scorpion (with Janeway – half points)

Nemesis

Waking Moments

Unforgettable

In the Flesh

The Fight

Equinox (with Janeway – half points)

Shattered

Natural Law (with Seven – half points)

Tuvok:

Ex Post Facto (with Paris – half points)

Learning Curve

Meld

Innocence

Flashback

Alter Ego (with Kim – half points)

Rise (with Neelix – half points)

Random Thoughts (with Torres – half points)

Gravity

Riddles (with Neelix – half points)

Tsunkatse (with Seven – half points)

Repression

Harry Kim:

Emanations

Non Sequitur

The Chute (with Paris – half points)

Alter Ego (with Tuvok – half points)

Favorite Son

Timeless

The Disease

Warhead

Ashes to Ashes

Nightingale

Neelix:

Jetrel

Parturition (with Paris – half points)

Investigations (with Paris – half points)

Fair Trade

Rise (with Tuvok – half points)

Mortal Coil

Once Upon a Time

Riddles (with Tuvok – half points)

The Haunting of Deck Twelve

Homestead

Tom Paris:

Time and Again (with Janeway – half points)

Ex Post Facto (with Tuvok – half points)

Parturition (with Neelix – half points)

Threshold

Investigations (with Neelix – half points)

The Chute (with Kim – half points)

Vis a Vis

Thirty Days

Alice

Drive (with Torres – half points)

Kes:

Elogium

Cold Fire

Warlord

Darkling

Before and After

The Gift (with Seven – half points)

Fury

[hyperlexichypatia]

Star Trek Voyager fanwank with queer potentiality reading under the fold.

I've been plowing through Voyager and noticed the most interesting seeming plot discrepancy.

In "Counterpoint," the Voyager is clearly stated to have exactly two (2) Vulcan crew members, Tuvok and Vorik. In that same episode, we see them hiding in the transporter. Through season 7, these are the only two Vulcans we see on board.

Then, in "Repression," in season 7, we see a background character who appears to be a Vulcan woman, who is described on Memory Alpha as an "unidentified Vulcan female." Where did she come from? Has she been here this whole time?

Obviously this is probably just sloppy writing, but I can think of three possible Watsonian explanations.

One: She's a Vulcan crew member who's been here this whole time, we just haven't seen her. She wasn't mentioned or shown in "Counterpoint," because she had some other hiding place, and maybe her personnel record was deleted or something. After all, Janeway was lying about what happened to the Vulcan crew members, so she could have been lying about the number of Vulcans as well.

Arguments in favor: This is the simplest explanation, probably the closest to writer intent, and is consistent with a previous line by Tuvok about "other Vulcans," plural, on the Voyager.

Arguments against: It's kind of sloppy writing that's also boring.

Two: She's a crew member who's been here this whole time, but she's not Vulcan. She's some other species that resembles Vulcans, like a Romulan, or a Romulan-Human hybrid. Alternately, she could be some sort of splinter Vulcan whose species might be Vulcan might not count as a Vulcan citizen of the planet Vulcan.

Arguments in favor: Consistent with "Counterpoint" canon; also, it's implied (but not directly stated) by her presence in that scene that she's a Maquis crew member, and it's not clear that there were Vulcans in the Maquis, or why there would have been, except for Tuvok going undercover (counterargument: Tuvok successfully going undercover implies that he didn't stand out, so there might have been other Vulcans around). A Romulan or part-Romulan Maquis member has narrative potential and could be an interesting parallel with Torres. Also, in the same scene, another character refers derisively to Tuvok as "the Vulcan," which would be astonishingly rude if there were another Vulcan right there.

Arguments against: She's listed in Memory Alpha as Vulcan.

Three: This "new character" is actually Vorik. She transitioned.

Arguments in favor: Consistent with "Counterpoint" canon. Reading Vorik as an egg adds significant character depth and explains a lot about Vorik. Trans representation is always good. Filling a plot hole with a queer explanation is praxis.

Arguments against: This character's uniform is red, while Vorik's is yellow. However, Vorik could have gotten reassigned to a different job. This character is implied (but not directly stated) to be ex-Maquis, which Vorik is not. However, maybe she was in the room for another reason.

Trans Vorik is my favorite option. I think there needs to be fanfic about this.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. last night we watched voy's "concerning flight" and ds9's "statistical probabilities."

concerning flight (voy):

this one sucked sooo bad this was the second-worst of season 4 so far after the racist one with chakotay in the woods

the sad thing is that as a bit character i really liked gimli i mean leonardo. it's one of only like a tiny handful of times when i didn't mind the holodeck as like a background device. so naturally we have to ruin it by giving him his own episode

yes he is a good actor. you saw gimli in him before he gimli'd. he didn't need his own episode because it didn't make any goddamn sense

firstly, playing the doctor losing his holo-emitter for laughs was MEEEAN please treat him very niceys. secondly, what was with that racist remark at tuvok...come on

like, whatever emotional arc janeway was supposed to be having about her childhood hero giving up on his dreams and then building the flying machine after all was lost under the weird pirate adventure that was boring and bad

all love and light to tuvok, whomst i love, whose outfit was perfect, but i think it was a bad idea to bring him along because what he did was point out how illogical the situation was in order for the writers to justify it, which they failed to do. there was no good reason to keep the hologram out when the emitter was needed on the ship except that janeway wanted to hang out with him

also, character assassination to say that tuvok wouldn't slay at small talk. he's very cunning and last episode he tricked the ao3 black market people into thinking he wanted to buy problematic fanfic but now he can't rustle up a distraction for a hologram??? come on

i did like seven in this episode. her moment with the emh was so good i love that she and b'elanna are like regularly almost coming to blows. but then pretty much all of seven's scenes are good

maybe this episode helped this guy get gimli...a small price to pay i suppose but sheesh

statistical probabilities (ds9):

WAH............................nobody look at me

i spent the first 15 or however many minutes of this episode going "boy this sure is heavy-handed commentary" and then we got to the scene where julian and obrien are playing darts and he's raving about how wonderful they are when they are some of the most horrifically offputting characters that have ever been on genuinely had me welling up

like maybe............sometimes people who are offputting and weird in an unpleasant way...............deserve to be shown compassion and understanding and deserve to connect with people who genuinely think they're cool. as someone who experienced the social consequences of being a weird and offputting child i love that this episode said with chest WEIRD OFFPUTTING PEOPLE HAVE PERSONHOOD AND RIGHTS!!!!!!!! good for them and good for me. i love to feel an earnest human emotion while watching star trek. that's probably the most authentic was to experience it

like forget all that shit about the war and surrendering. that was stupid. they presented us with like a handful of people who felt extremely difficult to care about and then julian cared about them and then we cared about them and by the end they seemed very charming in their own weird ways. you could stand this in for like autism, being ND, being disabled, whatever, but it's such a smart and good way to 1. illustrate julians compassion and 2. teach us that same compassion. for them. for ourselves. dont worry about it!!!!!!!

even though i thought the plot where they predicted the end of the war and tried to betray the federation was dumb (are we backtracking all that good work and making a point that autistic people/ND people/disabled people/etc ARE dangerous after all and should not be allowed in society?? come on), i DID like that it sort of touched on and played with development missing from the initial episode where we found out about julian being genetically modified

like, firstly that he got to go jesus christ i fucking lucked out SO good like what was done to me was horrible but at least i am able to pass in society and the privileges i got afforded as a result were MASSIVE compared to these people kept in an institute with very few personal freedoms who quite literally cannot function alone and whose living situations are actively making their various conditions WORSE

but secondly that he got to say aloud "yeah the reason they don't let us do stuff is because we could turn out like khan!" and believe that with his whole pussy (which shows that he HAS believed that for awhile) and then he gets to question his belief when they all do something good together. and like yeah in the end he has to sit back and go jesus christ like FOUR PEOPLE almost handed over the entire alpha quadrant to the enemy on a platter we ARE dangerous after all better send those fuckers back to the looney bin which i think negates the point of the episode somewhat but i do like that it gives him angst and problems. mwah.

like, i'd be lying if i said i'd be happy if his khan fears got cured in a single episode. live with that. marinate in it. have psychological problems about it. go have a deep space talk with garak about it and get him to work it out of you with his d--

TONIGHT: voy's "the mortal coil" and ds9's "the magnificent ferengi" both of which, love and light, look awful. manifesting strength.

[firstroseofspring]

8, 11, 16, 19, for the trek asks? 💖

<3333 heyyy!!!!

8. are you a nepo baby? (has trekkie parents/uncles/siblings)

no i am not actually! my family doesn't know anything about it really, i started watching it on a whim! :)

11. do you have any songs that you associate with star trek characters?

yes !!! @trillscienceofficer introduced me to the beths and chappell roan for b'elanna and i think about her every time i listen to them. i also really like son of a preacher man for tuvok/t'pel...

there's a filipino folk song called katakataka (i listen to the eva eugenio version) that reminds me of sirella nd martok. i tend to think of worf a lot when i listen to old country songs... big bad john by jimmy dean im thinking of specifically cause of the lyrics but also just like the steeldrivers and other country artists have this earnest vibe that i think fit him. :) hank williams singing about the country... old soul worf vibes

andd also corny but oh no! by marina... and brutal by olivia rodrigo are very b'elanna and seven songs to me

16. your favourite ship?

i forgot to mention in the first ask but actually i'm a big fan of k'ehleyr and worf they had a lot of tension (the good and bad kind) that i found sooo compelling fr... the shared history... the arguments... the yearning.... the loud silence!!!!! oughhh. just the- worf wanting to be with someone who understands his background in the way she can, who doesn't see him as lesser for being in starfleet, but then also holding her up to the same standards other people hold him up to- we have to do this the perfect klingon way or this is wrong etc.

and k'ehleyr trying to discern after they sleep together whether he wants her or wants to be understood or wants do the honorable thing and marry her despite what he might feel... but then also not really feeling totally okay with herself and her identity, and what being with worf, who embraces that stuff to a fault, would mean for herself and eventually for alexander. i thought that the dynamic was so engaging and i liked seeing what a relationship looked like outside of (? but not totally) human convention the blood on the palm scene? slayyeddd

19. share a headcanon!

hmmm i think vulcans think it's polite to look away when someone (vulcan, this might be impractical with other races) is displaying an emotion really overtly! crying or laughing maybe... i think if someone was going into pon farr and getting mad i'd try to leave or at least look away, it must be uncomfortable to see on display like that!

[liebelesbe]

anyways. the Tuvoks. bc i can't decide which one is better and keep switching around the original post.

[ID: Two versions of the same pixel portrait of Tuvok in front of a purple background. The face of the one on the right is one pixel longer than the one on the left. End ID]

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s6 ep20: Good Shepherd

Voyager does a lower decks episode... again. And I don't think it needed to. While the Next Gen ep 'Lower Decks' did a beautiful job of respectfully portraying a group of junior officers with complex inner lives, and binding their stories up seamlessly with those of the main characters we know and love, this episode did not do either of those things. It came off rather condescending, and didn't even have a proper resolution.

I have a lot of issues with this one. While I generally like seeing little tidbits with background crewmembers, an entire episode feels like too much. Especially since they already did basically the same plot on Voyager already, way back in season 1, with the episode 'Learning Curve' where Tuvok struggled to train up and inspire a group of unenthusiastic former Maquis crewman. I liked that episode, despite it's focus on characters we never see again, because it helped flesh out the world of Voyager in the beginning of the show, and it was about the conflict of blending Starfleet and Maquis into one crew, which had been a central theme of those early seasons.

While Captain Janeway does have a main role here, and I do appreciate that they're trying to show what a good captain she is by taking an interest in even the lowest of lower deckers on her ship, I feel like by season six, it's coming in way too late in the game. It actually makes her look kind of negligent that she let them go on struggling the way they were for so long before she even noticed. It makes her look worse still when she refuses to consider alternatives that would be better for them, and the ship in general, instead insisting that they can do their jobs perfectly if they just believe in themselves. *eyeroll*

The story itself was weak- it was too predictable, especially since they already did this storyline in season 1 - obviously Janeway making these underperforming crewmen her project will inspire them with confidence and lead them to be happier and more productive members of the crew. But in this case, the crewman's personal conflicts were either glossed over, or way too easily resolved- getting taken over by an alien entity is a magical cure for hypochondria?! What?! That's so stupid. Just...what??

On top of that, the most obnoxious lower deck guy in this, in addition to being very unlikable, is incredibly rude and insubordinate to the Captain at every turn, yet she patiently lets him say whatever he wants, and it's like, no. that's not how Starfleet works. Crewman can't just insult superior officers and tell them their orders are stupid and refuse to do what they say. Like I get that Janeway is the friendly captain who wants to be approachable to her whole crew, but there's a line- people need to be checked when they're breaking the rules. Janeway even says in another episode that being the captain means she can't always be everyone's friend. No Starfleet captain would or should put up with that kind of disrespect, and I don't think they'd have written a character who behaved that way to Picard or Sisko without getting slapped down by them right away. Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she should have to take shit from any man in her crew.

I also didn't buy the obnoxious lower decker's change of heart at the end, where he suddenly decided to give a crap about everyone he'd just been insulting and try to help them- where did that come from?? It didn't feel earned at all. You have to see some sort of emotional journey to justify it, and he didn't have that. He was just bitch, bitch, bitch the whole time, then magically 'actually I'm going to help', out of nowhere. (Also I hope she threw him in the brig when they got back for kiling that creature. Like holy shit dude, who does that??)

But the worst thing about this is that it devoted yet more time to characters we don't know and won't see again. Meanwhile, our main characters are languishing on the shelf like disused toys. The regulars barely got one scene each, which is unfortunately all too common at this point. The scene they did give to Tom and B'Elanna wasn't even good, to boot. We didn't need another scene about the obnoxious guy, since we've already established that he's obnoxious in his scene with the captain, so having Tom go talk to him was pointless, unless they thought we really needed that little 'haha Tom is stupid' moment, when he doesn't understand the equations obnoxious guy is working on. Sure, Tom doesn't live and breath science the way most of the others do, but like, he graduated from the Academy with a degree in astrophysics, he's not stupid. They don't let you graduate just because of who your daddy is if you can't do the work- Starfleet officers actually have to be competent to do the job they're training for, because out on a starship, if your officers don't know their stuff, everybody dies. The way they try to make Tom into this dumbass manchild in the later seasons is so frustrating.

Having Tom chide B'Elanna about not caring about obnoxious guy, even as a joke, came off as jerky more than funny, and it doesn't even make sense- she already explained she tried giving him more work, but he likes being left alone on deck 15 to work on his own projects. Which honestly, is the right thing to do. Props to B'Elanna for actually meeting this guy where he is, and letting him go back to what works for him, rather than trying to shoehorn him into a mold he doesn't want to be in. That's actually showing good leadership skills. Janeway trying to help out the other two crewmen, whose biggest problem seemed to be anxiety, made sense, but the obnoxious guy was happy where he was, and meeting the requirements of his job. He didn't even want to be on a starship long term, so it's actually kind of jerky of Janeway to decide that everyone on board needs to have as much enthusiam for the Starfleet life as the bridge crew. It seems like a symptom of our very American brand of corporate capitalism to believe that everyone should be obsessed with their job and make it the center of their entire life.

Meanwhile, we get one huge bit of character development totally thrown away in one line- Tom, for some reason, feels the need to mess with B'Elanna by telling her, untruthfully, that he hit it off with obnoxious guy and invited him over to watch their TV. (This whole scene wasn't funny. If it had been about Tom being anxious about inexperienced crewman going on a mission on the Delta Flyer, that could have been funny, and in character, but whoever wrote this one doesn't seem to get him, or how to do comedy, at all.) Meanwhile, I'm like, hold up! Their TV? They moved in together?! That's kind of a big deal! That's a milestone in any relationship, and it's blithely glossed over like an afterthought. These are main characters for crying out loud! That should have been a major plotline of an episode! We should see how they arrived at that decision! We deserve to see the full journeys of the characters we've been with all these years, but no, we get little tidbits we have to excavate from the smallest throwaway lines. I guess only Seven and the Doctor matter anymore, and all the other characters can just go to hell, huh? Even guest characters we'll only see once deserve more focus than them, apparently. (Did Neelix even say more than one word in this scene? I don't think so! He's just thrown in to show that he's there. God forbid we have stories that are actually about our main crew anymore.)

But yeah, this ep was a washout for me. Whatever character development the lower deckers may have had doesn't matter, because we'll never see them again. They had that whole scene between Janeway and Celes, where Celes talks about how she feels deeply that she's not cut out for Starfleet life because the work is just not what her brain easily processes, (and after six years, I think she's the best judge of that) and how being a waitress in the mess hall would be a better job for her. It's played like a tragic scene, but like, why is that tragic?? Why couldn't she assist Neelix in the mess hall? Why couldn't she take charge of growing plants in the airponics bay? Why can't she just change to a job where she doesn't have to confront the numbers and algorithms that make her feel stupid and give her anxiety? Chakotay literally suggests that at the beginning of the episode, and Janeway is all 'we couldn't do that! They're not drones! We can't just deactivate them!' But how is it treating them like drones to let them choose jobs they like, and are better at?? (I guess if you're Janeway, and live and breathe science, not having a science job would seem like death to her.) But she's already treating them like drones by requiring everyone to do their original jobs, regardless of inclination or aptitude.

Janeway is a far more canny captain than they're giving her credit for here- she knows how to find positions that tailor to people's strengths. Neelix doesn't do science stuff, and he's an integral and valued member of the crew, why is it different for these crewman? They could have had a nice resolution for Celes, where Janeway agrees to help her find a new job that isn't STEM related, but no, they kept on the myopic track of 'everyone must love science or I have failed! she simply needs encouragement and she'll magically be better at the thing she's hated for six years!' There's no way one away mission will make Celes struggle less with math, so she didn't even get a resolution to the story we just wasted a whole episode on.

The idea that one mission can magically fix anyone is bad enough, but even if it could, I'm still not invested in them. And we never did find out what those creatures were, to boot. (And why was Seven allowed to audit every ship department? She's not even Starfleet! She has no interpersonal skills! Why does she get to tell experienced department heads how to do the jobs they've already been doing for years? That just makes no sense. Can the writers please stop shoehorning Seven into absolutely everything??)

One of the few interesting parts of this ep was getting to see parts of the ship we never see- going to deck 15 is very much like going from first class to steerage on the Titanic. It feels, well, like an actual ship. We never, ever see cramped, utilitarian areas like this on the Enterprise, which maybe doesn't even have a deck like this because it's the biggest and most luxorious ship in the fleet. You really get a sense that Voyager is a working ship with limited confines in this one, rather than a sort of endless maze of corridors and rooms that go on forever and reconfigure as needed, which it usually feels like in most eps.

But it also shows that life is very different, and not super exciting or glamorous, for the average crewman on regular starships, which is a little depressing, tbh. People complain about Harry Kim never getting a promotion, but at least he's a bridge officer, who gets to go on away missions and take command sometimes. Being a lower decker on Voyager seems like the ultimate purgatorial dead end job. (Which I always thought it must be, but to have it canonically confirmed is like, yikes.) I actually had never seen the first half of this ep before, where they show deck 15, and the crewmen having to share quarters with roommates. Seven damn years of that seems like a lot. Throw some enrichment into their enclosure! It's actually worse to know that some of the crew lives like this, and to not have the Captain, or anyone, be like- 'How can we make life more fun and rewarding for these people?' instead of just 'we must make them conform, and love their lives of endless toil!' Idk, the whole thing just had weird classist, corporate overtones to it, which is the total opposite of what Star Trek should be. And I hate that they're conflating realizing that something doesn't work for you, and deciding to change jobs, with failure. (Also, the score was weirdly cutesy in this ep- it felt kinda patronizing toward the lower deckers honestly. Usually you don't even notice scores in Trek eps, but this was conspiculously overdone and obtrusive.)

Tl;dr: Another episode that ignored our main characters in favor of one-off characters, whose character development didn't even feel authentic, and which will never pay off. It even managed to paint our main crew in a rather bad light as oblivious, privileged jerks, which it didn't need to do at all. Just not a great ep.