#ktarian

[baylardian-1]

@maliciousalice had had the idea a while back of Ed having a silly lil boy crush on Naomi like it never goes anywhere and he's toddler-brained but also technically older than Naomi. He's just trying to be a gentleman. :)

[traxanaxanos]

“Before Mark could reply, Gres spoke at as loud a volume as his soft voice would allow. ‘May I have everyone’s attention please?’ The Ktarian stood in the middle of the room, holding a glass of what looked to Mark like Saurian brandy, and had to repeat his request several times before the room quieted down.

‘I would like to thank all of you for coming. I would also like to thank Quark for his fine catering job.’ The Ferengi bowed slightly.”

and

“‘I agree with Mr. Honigsberg,” T’Pel said. ‘I believe that my husband is alive. Many times over the years he has gone on difficult missions and he has always returned to me. I choose to have faith in his ability to do so again. It is not logical - but the feeling remains, and it would be the height of illogic to deny its existence.’

Smiling wanly, Gres raised his glass and said, ‘Then I propose a toast to the height of illogic. Long may it sustain us.’“

  -from Letting Go by Keith R. A. Decandido in Star Trek Voyager: Distant Shores, edited by Marco Palmieri

4 things:

1. Quark

2. T’Pel and Tuvok confirmed for acting illogically in their love for each other

3. Greskgrendtregk has a very soft and quiet voice and I love that for him

4. Greskrendetregk is a man who fucking loves making toasts. 2 in the span of 27 pages, with the implication he will make another in the future. Ktarian cultural practice? A personal quirk? Weird grief coping mechanism? Who can say.

[thefanciestborrower]

Ain't nothing better than eating your bestie and washing him down with a glass of Ktarian beer

[janeway-lover]

I love Naomi Wildman. I mean, come on, she’s amazing. Here’s a kid who grew up completely aboard a starship for the first 5 years of her life, and then is thrust into life on Earth.

(I’m going off of each season being about a year; Naomi was born end-ish of season 2. Also just a note, this kid grew up remarkably fast. Like, by season 4, she looks elementary school-aged. Like, this girl is 3 at that point. I think.)

But imagine, you’re going to school, and the teacher introduces the new kid, who’s much younger than the rest of the class but doesn’t really look it, but she’s half Ktarian, so it makes sense, you suppose. Her spikes are pretty cool, and she smiles when you tell her that. 

Then the teacher asks her to stand up in front of the class and tell them a little about herself. And you find out that she’s from Voyager, that ship that got lost and had a big party when it returned. Your cousin is in Starfleet, and you remember how happy they were about the ship coming home. That’s pretty cool, you think to yourself. 

She’s smart as a whip, you find out after she asks to join your group for a project. When you ask her who her teacher was out in space, she just smiles. “Everyone, really,” she explains. The rest of the work time is filled with stories of holograms and Borg, and somehow the project still gets done.

And then comes the day when the school goes on lockdown. No one had expected it, nothing like this had happened in decades anywhere, and no one knows what to do. There are protocols and rules, which the teachers are doing their best to follow, but it’s clear they’ve never truly been trained for this to be a reality; it’s a distant concern, a worst-case scenario. For everyone except for Naomi Wildman.

You watch in awe as she takes charge of the situation, helping the teachers get everyone to safety, keeping an eye and an ear open for every possibility. You’d never thought a tennis racket would be any good off of a court, but she holds it like a weapon, one she is prepared to use.

(You ask about the racket, later when all the fuss has died down. She explains that Captain Janeway (Captain Janeway!) had taught her how to play.)

You also ask her, once everything is all over and the intruder has been caught and everyone is safe, how she knew what to do. And she just smiles. “That’s just how it was growing up, I guess. Something could always go wrong, so I had to learn how to stay safe. And I learned from the best.” She says all this with that smile on her face, and it makes her look like she’s nostalgic for something. And you decide, right then and there, that Naomi Wildman is a badass. 

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Seven of Nine

By Ames

While we definitely miss Kes, her replacement on Star Trek: Voyager definitely succeeds in filling her shoes and then some. Seven of Nine may have been introduced on the show as an obvious thirst trap to boost the show’s sex appeal, but she is so much more than that. The ex-Borg bombshell, with the acting chops of Jeri Ryan and some excellently written story arcs, grows into more than just the sum of her nanobots.

Get assimilated with your hosts from A Star to Steer Her By as we explore the many facets of Seven, whose journey to regain her humanity pairs so beautifully with the Voyager’s journey to make it back to the Alpha Quadrant. Scour through our astrometrics records below for our usual Best and Worst Moments lists and listen to our hivemind discussions over on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:32:36; featuring some bonus moments from guest star drone Carl!). Resistance is futile!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor abyss of space After Seven has [reluctantly] joins the crew, one of the first thing she does is start helping out in the astrometrics lab, and in “Message in a Bottle,” she discovers the relay network that our heroes use to send the EMH over to the Dauntless and pass communication to and from Starfleet. It’s an early glimmer of hope after years of tooling around in the Delta Quadrant.

All by myself. Don’t wanna be all by myself anymore. We get an absolute showcase in acting from Jeri Ryan in the stunning “One,” in which she’s left to guide the ship through some nebula or other while the rest of the organic crew members wait in stasis. Seven’s battles with her own demons of isolation, loneliness, and self doubt play out as hallucinations, but she keeps it together enough to save the whole crew from nebula gas!

A single Borg among billions of individuals When home seems to be in reach because of a starship Arturis brings them to in “Hope and Fear,” Seven initially determines that she doesn’t want to go on this roadtrip because of how daunting she finds returning to Earth. Watching her deal with those feelings until she comes out the other side feels like a win, even if Arturis’s scheme turns out to be too good to be true.

The robot has been neutralized. May I leave now? This is just one of those little moments from the show, but I like it enough to include it. In “Night,” when Tom is trying to pass the time during months of monotony, he’s playing some Captain Proton with an unimpressed Seven, who simply deactivates Satan’s Robot with one of her patented “I am Borg”s and it’s just so charming and funny that I’ve got to hand it to her.

Are you my mother? By the time we hit “Drone,” Seven’s able to help her sort-of son One learn the merits of individuality weighed against the dangers that the Borg exemplify, no matter how tempting they may seem. Her taking this new breed of Borg under her wing shows just how far Seven has come in the season since her introduction, and her heartbreak at losing him is real and lovely.

Part of me not unlike your replicator. Not unlike the Doctor. Like Kes before her, Seven develops a rapport with the EMH that is built on trust and their outsider perspectives (oh, and horniness because the Doc can be a bit of a cretin sometimes). Seven fights for his rights in “Latent Image” when she urges Janeway not to blank his malfunctioning memory again – something you couldn’t do to one of the solid crewmen.

You and I wouldn’t be able to play Kadis-kot anymore Another great friendship we see Seven develop is with Naomi Wildman. The young Ktarian starts out terrified of the ex-Borg drone, but by “Bliss,” the two are teaming up to take on the bioplasmic organism, as the only two people on the ship not affected by its hallucinatory effects. They bond over how they don’t have anyone waiting for them on Earth, but they have each other!

Time is the fire in which Braxton burns You know I’ve got to give some love to one of my favorite time-travel stories! Seven really gets to shine in “Relativity,” jumping through time to prevent some sabotage to the Voyager and brilliantly uncovering Braxton’s madcap plan. She knowingly puts herself in danger with repeated trips through time because she knows the importance of this mind-boggling mission.

No really, are you my mother? If you liked Seven’s friendship with Naomi, you’re gonna love her relationship with the dronelings we meet in “Collective.” We meet the Borg children adrift on their vessel and threatening anyone who comes by like puffed-up stray kittens, but Seven tries to save them from themselves and takes in the four survivors (and the Borg baby!), acting like their foster mother.

Definitely in contention for worst parents in Trek While the SSHB team tends to prefer Mezoti because she’s the best, Seven takes a particular liking to Icheb. Like a mother honey badger, she protects him when she smells the danger that his parents pose to him in “Child’s Play.” She figures out their scheme to sacrifice their child and saves Icheb from getting reassimilated, even if it would help his terribly flawed people.

They’re tryna build a prison for you and me to live in By season seven, Seven’s come so far in her character development that she fights for the rights of Iko, the death-row prisoner in “Repentance.” She determines that he can be rehabilitated and given the chance he deserves because he feels true remorse. If Seven got the chance to regain her humanity after everything she did as a Borg, shouldn’t this guy too?

Their isolation may limit their potential, but if that isolation ends, so will a unique way of life This one may not be a particularly good episode, but it’s always nice to watch Seven learn a life lesson. Though she doesn’t initially understand why she should prevent the Ventu culture from getting corrupted by the Ledosians in “Natural Law,” Seven befriends the primitive people and comes to understand the value of allowing them to develop on their own terms.

—

Worst moments

Scorpions are not to be trusted Speaking of things Seven does as a Borg, when we first meet her in “Scorpion,” Chakotay is reluctant to trust this scorpion in Borg’s clothing, who is certainly going to betray the agreement she made with Janeway. And whaddaya know, Seven immediately betrays the agreement she made with Janeway! Just like the scorpion in that parable that Chakotay totally lifted.

Nevertheless, I am willing to explore my humanity. Take off your clothes. Once Seven gets deborgified, it becomes clear that she’s first and foremost here for her sex appeal. And the show is going to remind you of that. A lot. No one is more aware of that at first than Harry Kim, especially in “Revulsion” when Seven just offers to sleep with him to lessen the tension, having no idea how inappropriate that is. How else are we to notice she’s hot???

Quoth the raven: We are Borg Like Data in “Brothers,” Seven feels compelled by some unnatural force to take over a ship and fly towards her homing beacon in “The Raven.” Unlike Data, she’s not just programmed by some Soong or other, but instead is hallucinating all over the place and would like to be reassimilated by the Collective. She even holds Tuvok hostage until she learns the corvid truth.

Jenny, I got your number: Species 847-2309 A big speed bump to Seven’s reintegration comes in “Prey” when the Hirogen are demanding the crew hand over an injured being from Species 8472. Janeway tries to teach her the value of compassion for a helpless creature, but Seven loses any trust that’s she has built up by deciding on her own to issue them a death sentence and beam them over to the Hirogen vessel to be murdered.

Sometimes your words just hypnotize me While we’ve already thoroughly put most of the blame for this one on the EMH’s shoulders, Seven isn’t entirely innocent when it comes to the episode “Retrospect.” She’s quick to believe his quack psychiatry and accuses Kovin of violating her just because the Doctor tells her to. If anyone was going to view the facts first, even under duress, it should have been Seven.

From Alpha to Omega The Borg strives for perfection, so Seven gets super into the Omega particle in “The Omega Directive” so much so that it becomes an infatuation. She stops considering reason and the danger of the situation that this highly unstable particle poses, which seems entirely unlike Seven most of the time. Like, it’s a cool particle, but don’t get everyone killed just to look at it, lady.

This is a starship, not a nature preserve After living among the crew for close to two seasons, you’d think Seven would have a slightly better handle on tact by the time we get to “Someone to Watch Over Me,” but apparently she’s just as inappropriate as ever just so the writers can make a joke. Frankly, watching her study Tom and B’Elanna’s mating habits makes me roll my eyes at the inanity.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own Oh, and we can’t forget all the assimilating that Seven did as a Borg, even if it’s hard to blame her as a person for it. But she sure does, so we’ll take that pass and run with it. We have a perfect example of it in the flashback story in “Survival Instinct” when she forces the little mini collective who’ve been showing signs of individuality to assimilate, ruining their very lives.

It’ll be like a simple night's sleep I can’t help but harp on this moment in “Dragon’s Teeth” when Seven opens up all the crypods and releases the Vaad’waur from stasis… for absolutely no reason. Scratch that: the reason was to move the plot forward. But really. Seven of all people should know better than to release swarms of randos without investigating the circumstances first. They could be assholes!

The caretaker array is turning the frogs gay! Okay, while I’d admit that this one might inadvertently (or maybe advertently?) be the funniest episode of Voyager, you’ve got to admit that Seven downloading all the logs into her Borg brain in “The Voyager Conspiracy” is hare-brained. Like when the Doc turns himself into Mr. Hyde in “Darkling,” Seven tampers with her mind and ends up turning into a conspiracy nutjob.

Fun will now commence On the flipside, some of the moments that are meant to be comedic fall flat in “Ashes to Ashes” when Seven teaches the dronelings a basic educational curriculum. She has no idea what she’s doing in providing the basic education of the kiddos… and it’s not her job! It’s clear the writers have only stuffed her in these circumstances for some chuckles, but I see through it!

We aren’t far from the boner of your people While I’ll be the first to stand up for the Chakotay-Seven relationship (rushed though it was), any time there’s weird romantic and/or sexual bullshit in the holodeck, I admit the red flags go up. So when Seven makes herself a holo-Chakotay in “Human Error,” that’s a no no. We’ve chewed out La Forge and Janeway for this before, and just wait until our surprise spotlight next week!

—

Turns out resistance wasn’t futile! We’ve just got one more bonus Voyager character spotlight before our Enterprise series wrap – and it’s a doozy! So make sure you’ve got this holoprogram running, follow the page for future spotlights and blogtivities, celebrate with us as we get through the rest of Enterprise on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, chat with our hivemind over on Facebook and Twitter, and we are Borg!

[chillychive]

Suppose it's time to mention this AU to finally give me the motivation to start posting it... or at least bits of it.

Star Trek Life Series AU (season 1)

Some general information:

This will (hopefully) be a fic posted on AO3. To make it feel more Star-Treky, it'll be broken up into seasons and episodes. It'll have Trek like nonsense with better planning and character consistency. It'll feature Life Series, Empires, Hermitcraft, Evo and possibly other MCYT characters. NOT RPF. Some of the species mentioned will be real Star Trek species, others will be made up by yours truly to fit the design of the character. It'll be an ensemble style story, like TNG. Knowledge of Star Trek is NOT required in the slightest, but it might enhance your reading- it will have hidden references/have some episodes based on real Trek episodes.

I've been working on this for genuinely a year, and I'm overhauling the original idea as well. At the minute it's 13k words and a whole lot more planning.

PLEASE send asks if you're curious. I have SO MUCH MORE but I didn't want this post to be too long.

With that out of the way, let's get on to the main characters:

Pearl

Species: Human and Risian Department: Tactical Rank: Lieutenant Design Notes: Pearl's Risian tattoo is fading. Otherwise her design is fairly similar to your average human Pearl. Significant Relationships: Grian, adopted brother (same age), Gem, roommate turned best friend turned partner in later seasons Other: Most of the story will follow Pearl. She grew up at Starfleet academy with Grian, her parents taught there, and her dad still does. Her mom is dead... or is she?

Grian

Species: Human... that is until Evo... Department: Tactical, Bridge Crew (until Evo) Rank: Lieutenant Commander (maybe) Design Notes: Fairly standard Grian, is a human (until Evo) Significant Relationships: Pearl, adopted sister (same age) BigB, academy friend Impulse, friend, Joel, roommate Other: Grian is a prankster. He was promoted to bridge crew literally only hours before the ship left starbase for the first time. He grew up on Earth at Starfleet Academy, with his parents, both of whom taught at the Academy. *his parents are not the same as Pearl's- they grew up together at the academy since their parents were friends, and they basically grew up like siblings- they often forget they're not actually related, by blood or legally* He's an accomplished pilot, but actually has tactical station on the bridge. A few months in, he is assigned to lead a mission to a new planet... and a few months later when the ship returns for rendezvous, he's not among the landing party. He's presumed dead and will not return to the story until the finale. The shuttle they take to the planet is called the "evolution"

Gem

Species: 1/2 Bajoran, 1/8 arkarian, 1/8 ktarian, 1/4 an unnamed species Department: Botany, with a LOT of Tactical training too Rank: Lieutenant/Ensign Design Notes: Gem has a very complicated design. She has the bajoran nose ridges, paired with a barely noticeable version of the ktarian spikes plus faint arkarian ridges on her head. She has small antlers-like structures on her head, that have little fungi things on the end that occasionally move around in response to signals from certain mushrooms. Her pupils are massive and look out of proportion with her eyes, and in bright light she can barely see. The reason for this is because the unnamed species' DNA isnt very compatible with the other species- they have vestigial eyes, which makes Gem's eyes very weak and very sensitive to light. To compensate, she wears a shaded visor and takes breaks often. She also has very light bones (thanks to her unnamed species DNA), which leaves her susceptible to breaking bones easily. Let me know if you want more information on that species. Significant Relationships: Fwhip, twin brother Pearl, best friend/roomate/partner later on Other: Her combat skills are top tier because originally she was told she couldn’t do security training because of the fragility of her bones + her eyes, so she basically went “okay bet” and then learned how to avoid getting hit perfectly. She’s fantastic at dodging and was soo good that security training couldn’t say no to her. She made it through the academy with top notch security training, and then decided to instead go into botany, designing better ways to grow plenty of different plants. She also often gets pulled into security forces when needed as her botany isn’t a 24/7 job. This is especially true whenever they go anywhere with a low light level as that doesn’t affect her as much as it does many of the others, since she’s used to dim light.

this isn't a complete list, so lmk if theres anyone else you're curious about and I'll explain!

thank you for reading if you made it this far... this got longer than intended, and i only got through the 3 main characters...

[bumblingbabooshka]

Do You Like Ktarian Music? Patreon | Ko-fi

[mrsmarymorstan]

Wait. Hold on. Wait.

Is Molly the ONLY Human X Human full term pregnancy we see in Star Trek????

Because obviously there's Deanna who is half betazoid and was pregnant by weird alien conception. And then later from Riker too.

Miral is 1/4 Klingon, birthed by a half Klingon.

Naomi is half Ktarian, birthed by a Ktarian.

Yoshi is genetically 100% Human but the PREGNANCY was (mostly) Bajoran.

Trip and Rutherford are both human but the ones who got them Pregnant were both aliens.

I mean, I guess there's also Sisko and Kasidy's kid, but the series ended before they were born. So I'm not sure if we should count them? Plus with Sisko being the Emissary can we REALLY count him as fully human???

I mean I MUST be forgetting someone but ... am I?

This is also fun because Molly is Bi-racial by today's standards but mono-racial by star trek standards!

EDIT: I also forgot about Alyssa Ogawa but, again, we never see her go full term. And whilst it is assumed Andrew is fully human we don't know that for sure.

[tinderbox210]

Title: Don't Knock It Till You Tried It Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery Pairing: Michael Burnham/Rayner, Michael Burnham & Sylvia Tilly Rating: T Chapters: One Shot Setting: Season 5 Summary:

“But baking just ruins the cake, making it dry and crumbly,” the Kellerun huffed, shaking his head as if taking personal offense at the suggestion that cakes should be baked and not boiled. “You wouldn’t say that if you’ve ever had a piece of Ktarian chocolate puff cake,” Michael hummed. Just the thought of her favorite dessert made her mouth water and her stomach growl with appetite, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten for hours. Rayner leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk and kneading his hands in a nervous habit. “And you wouldn’t dismiss boiled cake so easily if you’ve ever had a slice of homemade mud pie with a cold mug of citrus mash! Best cake on Kellerun! Don’t knock it till you try it.” Michael and Rayner are having cake.

Read on AO3

[heymrsandman]

Wanna Try Star Trek? 2 - Kate Mulgrew and Explosions

Hello again Tumblr, it’s me, John Startrek, back to recap another episode of Star Trek in a newcomer friendly way so that I can help show just how fun and wild these shows are to watch. If you’re boldly going into this franchise for the first time, or an old hand, welcome!

The Great Trek Wheel has selected a doozy for us today, in the form of the episode Deadlock, from episode 21 of season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager. So let’s talk about Voyager.

Voyager aired for seven seasons between 1995 - 2001, launching as the flagship series for the then brand new UPN channel. The basic premise is that a fresh off the factory starship, under the command of the recently promoted Captain Kathryn Janeway, are sent out on a short mission to capture members of a terrorist group called the Maquis. During the mission, both Voyager and the Maquis ship found themselves flung to the far side of the galaxy and the two crews have to unite and travel back the long way round. Yes, this is the salamander sex show you’ve seen trekkie tumblrinas get so excited over.

With no Starfleet and no support, Voyager must make it on her own, with only the grit and gumption of her crew to protect her. She’s going to explode a lot this episode.

Before we get started, I do want to throw out a quick content warning: this episode contains the death of a small child.

We open on a charming little domestic scene. The ship’s cook, Neelix (a Delta Quadrant native Voyager had recruited back in the pilot) is asking recurring character Samantha Wildman to check on a few technical difficulties he’s been having. Samantha, despite being heavily pregnant, is only too happy to agree.

Medical Officer’s Note: Samantha Wildman’s actually been pregnant since the show started, her child having been conceived before Voyager disappeared. Given that Trek adheres to the general rule that one season is about one year in the show, this means that her baby might seem slightly overdue. However, the father is a Ktarian, and this is apparently quite normal.

Samantha goes into labour and Neelix rushes her to the medical bay, where the ship’s doctor sets about delivering little baby Wildman. By the by, the Doctor is a hologram (Voyager’s doctor having died during the events that stranded Voyager) called the Doctor. The nurse is another Delta Quadrant native named Kes.

We cut to the bridge, where everyone’s on the edge of their seats while they wait for news. Again, it’s cute, getting to see the daily lives and mundane concerns of the crew. I dunno, it makes me happy. The usually reserved Tuvok even shares that his wife once spent 96 hours in labour. The idea that Tuvok recognises the consternation of his colleagues and, instead of preaching about logic as Vulcans are wont to do, chooses to soothe their nerves instead is just the kind of charisma that Voyager’s detractors tend to overlook.

It’s not all smiles and storytimes, however, as a Vidiian ship shows up on sensors. Janeway never met an emergency she didn’t want to mud wrestle into oblivion, so she soon orders the ship to hide in a nearby plasma drift on the advice of one of her officers. There’s a pretty shot of Voyager doing just that.

Science Officer’s Note: One of the reasons for Voyager being set on the far side of the galaxy was the opportunity to create new aliens to serve as recurring antagonists. The Vidiians were one of those races. They don’t get to do a lot here, but when they do get focus they tend to be quite creepy. The entire species is dying from an incurable disease called the Phage, and they travel the stars harvesting the organs of other races to prolong their own lives.

Remember what our medical officer said about the baby being half Ktarian? That means that that little baby Wildman has horns on their forehead, which have gotten caught in the uterine wall. Yeah, I winced at that too. The safest solution is to use the ship’s transporters to teleport the baby into a nearby bed, apparently. Gotta wonder why they weren’t doing that in the first place, to be honest. I know I’d prefer it.

It’s a girl! Samantha doesn’t have a name prepared, but with the mystical powers of having watched this show before, I can inform you that her name’s Naomi. We’ll be using that going forward, cause it’s gonna come up. Due to the transporter, there’s a slight issue with young Naomi that the Doctor is going to treat with something called osmotic pressure therapy.

Just then, main power cuts out and the engines stall. Janeway called the Chief Engineer, B’Elanna Torres, and establish that the ship is rapidly running out of antimatter, basically their source of fuel. The two technobabble back and forth until they have a solution, setting off proton bursts that’ll basically keep the remaining antimatter from using itself up. Seeing as everything’s now safely in hand, it’d sure be a shame if the ship suddenly started exploding. 

Anyway, the ship starts exploding. 

Chief Engineer’s Note: Whenever the ship is under attack, hitting turbulence, what have you, they aren’t actually blowing up the set, of course. Instead, the cameras are rocked about and the actors are told to just play pretend. This makes it all the more impressive that Kate Mulgew throws herself quite so violently out of the captain’s chair during this episode.

See, the proton bursts are firing, but without any of the safety procedures in place it’s doing massive damage. Torres swears she didn’t start the procedure. In fact, one of the damaged systems is the very one they’d use to fire the bursts in the first place! Casualties are flooding in from all over the ship. Explosions are wracking the bridge, throwing our characters around violently. It’s all very tense.

There’s a rupture in the ship’s hull, down on Deck 15. Ensign Harry Kim tells Janeway he thinks he can seal it, and gets sent off to do so with the help of B’Elanna and somebody who’s not a main character. Three guesses who’s gonna die.

The Doctor’s trying his best to keep up with triage, but baby Naomi is struggling. With more bursts hitting the ship, the Doctor is temporarily knocked offline at a crucial moment. Back on the bridge, they’ve still no idea how to stop the bursts, but think they can minimise the effects with technobabble.

Lt Hogan, the non-main character, is hurt badly by an exploding panel, but Kim & B’Elanna can’t go back and help him. The big hole in the floor that leads into the yawning void of space is slightly more pressing.

This is where Naomi doesn’t make it. Even in the midst of triage, the Doctor takes a moment to comfort Samantha. But it’s not long before duty calls again, with Hogan requesting medical aid. Kes rushes off to save him.

Things aren’t going any better on Deck 15. Another burst rocks the ship and Kim falls through the breach and B’Elanna can’t save him. He’s flushed into space, dead and gone. With no time to mourn, B’Elanna turns back to help Hogan, only to see Kes run down the corridor and vanish into thin air.

And you thought Hogan was gonna die.

Despite all the tragedy around her, B’Elanna’s almost as tenacious with a problem that presents itself as Janeway. She waves a tricorder at the space where Kes disappeared and detects a spatial rift that leads to somewhere with a breathable atmosphere, which she reports in. There’s no time to explore, however, so she and Hogan evacuate the deck.

With the blasts minimised for the moment, Janeway gets a truly devastating damage report from Tuvok, including the death of Naomi. But a crisis is where Janeway thrives. With barely a moment’s pause, she starts ordering triage of their biggest problems. 

Another burst rocks the ship, causing a hull breach on the bridge and knocking out the technobabble that they’d just spent all that time setting up to minimise the proton bursts. Janeway orders a full evacuation as fires rage around her. Well, full except for her, as she stays behind to try and seal the breach.

Chakotay, the first officer, yells at her to hurry up and leave dammit. She does acquiesce, but on her way she sees a ghostly image of the crew in their seats on an unexploded bridge. The ghostly Janeway notices her too. Spooky. 

Turns out there’s a whole other Voyager, which hasn’t had any explosions tearing it apart, where Janeway has been going completely unenriched and is all about figuring out her momentary hallucination. Kim, alive and well on this Voyager, tells her that there was a momentary spatial rift, for all of a millisecond. Sadly, they can’t tell any more with all the proton bursts they’re doing to save their fuel. So Janeway orders them sped up. Uh oh.

At least Naomi is safe and healthy in this version, the therapy having worked perfectly. Also in this nice clean sickbay is a second Kes, who mysteriously appeared on Deck 15.

Ship Counsellor’s Note: With two Voyagers and two crews, things could get a little complicated. From here on out, we’ll be referring to Janeway et al from the explosion dimension as Janeway 1, Voyager 1, etc. and everything from the non-exploding Voyager will be Janeway 2 etc

Kes 1 explains what happened to her ship to Janeway 2, and is eager to get back and help Voyager 1. Janeway 2 and B’Elanna 2 pretty quickly work out that somehow the plasma drift duplicated Voyager and all the matter aboard, but not the antimatter. With two ships drawing from the same fuel source, it’s no wonder the stuff was draining so fast. Janeway 2 orders the proton bursts stopped, but that means the antimatter starts draining again.

Together, Janeway 2 & B’Elanna 2 manage to figure out a way to talk to Voyager 1, where they manage to speak with Janeway 1 who has had to set up shop in the Engineering department.

Most of this conversation happens offscreen, and afterwards the crew of Voyager 1 are torn on whether or not to trust Janeway 2. Janeway 1 says she knows enough information about the situation and her own history that she’s willing to believe it and enact Janeway 2’s plan that was not explodey enough to let us listen in on.

The plan to merge the two Voyagers doesn’t work, and instead causes more explosions. The antimatter is now haemorrhaging, the com link is lost and there’s 30 minutes of power left, if that.

Two Janeways up against a strict time limit, with the deaths of hundreds of people on the line? The universe doesn’t stand a chance.

To wit, Voyager 2 has figured out a way to send Kes 1 back to her ship, and Janeway 2’s going with her. The two Janeways talk about how to fix their mutual problem in a really tight shot that makes it look like she’s about to pin herself against the bulkhead and make out sloppy style. That’s one for AO3, I guess.

Janeway 2 recommends another technobabble solution, and Janeway 1’s already ruled it out with her B’Elanna. She counters with the suggestion to move the crew of Voyager 1 to Voyager 2, but B’Elanna 2 has already figured out that that’d make everything explode, so another no go.

There’s only one thing for it, Janeway 1 is gonna self destruct her Voyager. Janeway 2 tries to argue it with her, but not even Janeway can defeat Janeway. Janeway 1 does agree to a 15 minute reprieve, in case of any last minute genius ideas.

With Janeway 2 back on her pristine bridge, she calls up Janeway 2 and begins to describe a plan to her counterpart. I say begins, because hey, remember the Vidiians? That hostile alien race that kickstarted this plot? Well, they’ve found Voyager and neither version of the ship is able to raise shields or engage weapons thanks to the power drain. 

The Vidiians fire on Voyager but only Voyager 2 seems to be affected. And when they board Voyager, it’s only Voyager 2 that gets boarded. Outnumbered two to one and being swiftly overrun, Janeway 2 decides it’s her turn to have some explosions and announces to Janeway 1 that she’s going to self-destruct her ship so Voyager 1 can escape. What’s more, she’s going to send Kim 2 along with Naomi 2 to replace their dead counterparts on Voyager 1.

The Vidiians take out Tuvok 2 and Paris 2 easily, and the Doctor 2 tries desperately to hide Naomi 2 after sickbay is breached. Kim 2 enters, does a cool stunt, and takes out the Vidiians. Explaining that their Voyager is doomed and that he’s going over to Voyager 1, the Doctor wastes no time mourning his demise and hands over Naomi 2, along with a message about her health for the Doctor 1.

Up on the bridge of Voyager 2, Janeway 2 has just enough time to icily welcome the Vidiians to the bridge before the ship blows up. Kim 2 just makes it through the spatial rift, emerging on Deck 15 of Voyager 1 in time.

With Voyager 2 and the Vidiians destroyed, Voyager 1 is hurt but alive. Luckily, there were no further fatalities and nothing was irreparably damaged. Chakotay comforts Janeway, who bemoans but acknowledges the necessity of the other Voyager’s demise. Samantha, for her part, is just happy to have her daughter back safe and sound. Kim is a little more confused about whether he’s the same Kim as the one they lost, and whether this is the same ship as the one he woke up on that morning. Janeway tells him that they’re Starfleet: weird is just part of the job.

Often, Star Trek is a morality play. A thoughtful and nuanced discussion of ethics and philosophy. Sometimes, it’s explosions and Kate Mulgrew with a face of blood and soot, daring the universe to say that to her face. People will often bemoan when Trek turns towards action, but when it’s done well it’s a treat to watch. 

The decision to focus on the two Janeways is smart in both streamlining a potentially confusing story, but also letting Kate Mulgrew really strut her stuff. She’s on record as saying that this episode was very technically challenging for her, but also very rewarding.

The character of Janeway has gotten some guff over the years, as has Voyager the show, for not always being the most consistently written. Frankly, with a performance this good, I find it hard to care.

If this was your first Star Trek episode, would you get a good feel for the world, the characters, the inquisitive mind of Trek? No, but you’d have a hell of a good time. I can heartily recommend Deadlock.

If you've seen the episode before, or decide to give this one a try, please let me know somewhere here on our beloved hellsite.

So what’s next? Where will the Great Wheel of Trek take us?  What strange new worlds await?

Ho boy, time to hit up Enterprise.

[dataentryspecialist]

🍽️ personally, i’d be all up in those alien desserts

🍽️ alien food/drink I'd like to try

We have the same brain because my immediate thought is the Ktarian Chocolate Puff

Special mention to Bajoran Tuwaly pie 🥧 I like to think of it as a kind of boysenberry pie

[traxanaxanos]

“Again, the short laugh. ‘You may simply call me Gres, Mr. Johnson. It is usually the best that human tongues can do with my name.’ His tone grew more wistful. ‘Samantha was the only human who was ever able to pronounce it properly.’“

-from Letting Go by Keith R. A. Decandido in Star Trek Voyager: Distant Shores, edited by Marco Palmieri 

I’m not sure if this is the originator for Greskrendtregk shortening his name to Gres in beta canon, or if this is following another beta canon novel’s decision to do it. I’ve also seen fic authors shorten his name this way - not sure if it’s because they’re following beta canon or that Greskrendtregk is a lot to type out.

But!

As a person with a long name that starts with a G that absolutely no monolingual English-speaker can get right on the first try I hate this decision. It’s not that humans physically can’t say Ktarian names - Samantha has obviously figured it out and can say it. So it’s more that awkward balking that happens when people just don’t want to try, that annoying little laugh of “oh haha, that’s quite a name/ I’ll never be able to keep that straight” or the immediate insistence of “Well I’m going to call you [nickname].” Greskrendtregk has clearly met that multiple times, and just decided its easier to forward an alternative, a nickname, a shorter version, which I get because its tiring! I have also made the decision of “I guess I will simply be a different person at work” after spending weeks correcting everyone. I get it but it doesn’t make me any less mad about the phenomenon.

The episodes with Ensign Ro fighting to get her name said correctly in TNG touch on this as well, the (because its sci-fi) human-centrism and, more importantly, the (because its sci-fi written by a specific make-up of people) English-language-centrism that casually strips people of their names and the personal and cultural import they have.

[theeminentlyimpractical]

I really thought I would be going gay pirate insane when OFMD came out but turns out the gay angels still have such a chokehold on my brain I can’t get away. I feel like that episode of TNG with the video game that turns everyone into Ktarian agents except with Good Omens.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s5 ep5: Once Upon a Time

Alternate title: Neelix, Naomi & the Importance of Trigger Warnings. Okay, not really, but that's my biggest takeaway from this ep, tbh.

While I like giving characters with kids scenes with their kids, I'm not a fan of having whole episodes that revolve around kids in Star Trek. Especially with Voyager having so many regular characters, it feels like wasting time we could have spent developing them instead.

Naomi Wildman is certainly cute, and Scarlett Pomers is a good actress, but it is a bit odd to have Naomi aged so much when she's technically only 3 years old at this point, and Scarlett is obviously like, 8-ish. Since Naomi's half Ktarian, it's possible they mature faster than humans, which would explain why she's so grown up when she was born only 3 years ago. But it would have been nice to have a line of dialogue with some character talking about how fast Ktarians mature or something to give it a canon explanation, rather than just seeming like poor continuity.

I think maybe if they gave Naomi a better holodeck program to play in, I might have liked this episode more- Treevis and Flotter both have very creepy makeups that are more uncanny and terrifying than cute and likeable. Whatever happened to like, Winnie the Pooh?? I know, Star Trek couldn't afford the rights to a real beloved children's series, but I can't suspend my disbelief enough to accept that those characters would ever become a beloved children's franchise. And that Flotter doll that Neelix has Harry replicate for Naomi is even creepier! Giving her that thing would give her anxiety rather than comforting her. But tbh I'm surprised she can sleep at all with that creepy red Anubis jackal rocking horse thing in her bedroom- what the heck is that?? The only thing this episode convinced me of is that no one working on Star Trek had any idea what children actually like at all.

Mostly the episode was about Neelix projecting his trauma onto Naomi when they lose contact with the Delta Flyer on an away mission that Ensign Wildman is part of. He doesn't want to tell her her mom might be dead, even though she starts figuring out something is wrong, because he lost his entire family and he's freaking out at the prospect of Naomi going through the same thing. Captain Janeway is sympathetic to him when she realizes that's why he won't tell Naomi what's going on, and has a rather sweet scene where she comforts and reassures him, like the awesome space mom she is. Of course Naomi sneaks onto the bridge and finds out in the worst way, and Neelix has to apologize for not telling her himself and trusting her to handle it. At least Neelix has learned to apologize to people since he dated Kes. Naomi finds a way to revive the fantasy forest in her holostory after a scene where the forest is burned to the ground, which gives Neelix flashbacks to his home planet being destroyed, (and illustrates why stories should always have trigger warnings, which everyone would know in the future, but such are the limitations of a show made in the 90s) and they eventually find and recover the Delta Flyer, with everyone still alive. (I think the scene where Ensign Wildman reunites with Naomi in sickbay at the end of this ep is the only time they were ever in a scene together. I think Naomi ended up being in more episodes than her mom, and it feels like they just don't think mothers are an important part of a small child's life, which is weird and stupid.)

The scenes of the Delta Flyer trapped under the moon surface were frankly more interesting than the Neelix babysitting Naomi stuff- Tuvok has an absolutely wonderful speech where he reassures the injured Ensign Wildman that Naomi will be okay no matter what happens. It's a touching moment from one parent to another, when he tells her he has faith in the people around his children to care for and support them, and that he knows he taught them well enough to be okay in his absence, and that he knows Sam is a good mom who raised Naomi well, and that the Voyager crew will always take care of her if anything happens to Sam. Good space dad Tuvok moments just get to me!! You can say Vulcans aren't emotional, but that man loves his family and his Voyager crewmates so, so much!!!

Scenes where they think they're going to die are always wrenching, and watching them run out of oxygen in the Flyer before they're rescued was certainly tense, but I feel like it didn't really build to a point where they actually seemed like they were going to die before they were rescued, and it lost what could have been a more dramatic moment.

I was also annoyed by the lack of thought put into Tom's farewell letter to B'Elanna during the scene where they literally think they're recording they're final goodbyes to their loved ones. It should have been emotionally devastating, but they just have him be like, 'well, this kinda sucks, but at least I won't be around to annoy you, huh? lol!' I mean, what was that?! He should at least be like, sad! But they gave him nothing in that dialogue for Robbie to even work with to make it more heartfelt. (Saying goodbye to your one true love should be heartbreaking, fyi!) What he thinks are his last words to her are just 'so long'?! Aside from the nonchalance of it, who even talks like that anymore?? Even in the 90s, nobody talked like that, it sounds like a line from a 1950s movie. Sure, Tom loves old timey stuff, but life and death situations aren't the place for that. And he should also have said 'I love you'!!! I never noticed it when I originally watched the show, but now that I'm binge watching them all in succession, I'm truly baffled and pissed off that Tom's not being allowed to say 'I love you' on screen. Why??? He obviously does, and she got to say it. One of my hugest pet in writing in general, but in sci-fi shows especially, is when they won't let male characters say 'I love you' to anyone. It's this weird toxic masculinity thing that so many (usually male) writers have, where they think that it somehow takes away from the heroicness of men to say it, or something. And it's insane because the stories themselves show clearly that they do love people, but there's just some taboo about actuallly saying it. Modern Doctor Who is especially guilty of this, and it drives me up the wall there, and now the same thing is happening here, and it makes me just as crazy. And it's completely nonsensical, given that both Doctor Who and Star Trek are shows specifically about how love is the answer and antidote to all the bad things in the universe, but men still aren't allowed to express that in words??? Writers who do this, you are on my shit list!!!

Tl;dr: An okay episode that had some nice elements, but the B plot was more compelling than the A plot, which kind of suffered for trying to posit what beloved children's literature would look like in the future, while not managing to make it seem like something that would appeal to children at all.

[best-star-trek-character]

Propaganda on Naomi Wildman's behalf:

-Just a baby

-Contributes stupendously to the morale of the ship

-Died, but was too powerful to be allowed to stay dead on the main Voyager

-Helped save the whole ship from the Pitcher Plant

-Too powerful to fall prey to the Pitcher Plant in the first place

-Bff with a borg

-Cool biologist mom

-Fun chef uncle

-She is gunning for the position of captain's assistant!!!

-Literally the main vehicle for any Ktarian lore this forsaken franchise has deigned to give us

.

[sapphosewrites]

Trektober Day #26: Sickfic

"This is why I advise you to trust no one. Learn from my example, Doctor."

"You haven't been poisoned, Garak. Cardassians are simply lactose intolerant."

"A fact that can be exploited by our enemies."

"Your enemies didn't make you eat that many Ktarian chocolate puffs."

"Your bedside manner could do with some improvement."