#maje culluh

[celtic-romulan]

Janeway: All right, what's your gimmick? Maje Culluh: Gimmick? Chakotay: Yeah, like the last Kazon sect we dealt with. They were all ragtag misfits and crap. What are you? Culluh: *sneering* We're just here for your technology, Captain. Though if I had to choose, I'd say I am the pretty one. Janeway: Meh, six out of ten. Culluh: You sassy b*tch.

[celtic-romulan]

Yes. And he would have rubbed it into Janeway’s face that she is a lousy parent for leaving them behind like that too.

Culluh: “A wOMaN who abandons her children does not deserve to be a parent. I intend to train them to become Nistrim askara like my son!”

Seska: *pets the mudkip babies affectionately while Culluh monologues* Yes, Maje… *keeps it to herself that all three of them are girls*

Happy Threshold Day

Culluh would have kept the lizard babys

[gesssekai]

ALL MY VOYAGER GIFS

check here

BY SEASON

season 1 // season 2 // season 3

season 4 // season 5 // season 6 // season 7

BY CHARACTER

MAIN

Kathryn Janeway // Chakotay // Tuvok

Tom Paris // B'Elanna Torres // Harry Kim

EMH // Neelix // Kes // Seven of Nine

GUEST

Seska // Michael Jonas // Lon Suder // Joe Carey // Samantha Wildman // Vorik // Naomi Wildman

Maje Culluh // Lewis Zimmerman // Braxton // Lady Q // Leonardo Da Vinci

Reginald Barclay // Q // Will Riker // Hikaru Sulu // Janice Rand

* I'm making a gifset per episode right now but I'm open to requests *

[sshbpodcast]

To Be Continued: Multi-parters in Star Trek (Part 3)

By Ames

While Deep Space Nine may have been king of the serial story arc, as we discussed last week in our multi-parter chat, Voyager may have been the most successful at connecting their two-parters. Unlike many [most] of the TNG two-parters that we thought really should have been one episode, when Voyager spanned weeks, it actually felt like their writers planned ahead more often than not.

A Star to Steer Her By is voyaging through this batch of “To Be Continued” stories this week to see if that hypothesis holds up when Janeway is in the captain’s seat. So grab a cup of coffee from your favorite nebula, check them out below, and listen to our chatter on this week’s podcast episode (slipstream over to 48:52) to see when we were rapt by a season cliffhanger and when we were nonplussed by obvious efforts to stretch a plot. Next time, on Star Trek: Voyager!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

VOY: “Basics”

Okay, like our first example from Deep Space Nine last week, our first Voyager example of a two-parter is not helping me prove my point at all. The season 2 finale / season 3 premiere was just uneven all around, and the main issue is that the writers clearly had no plan for what to do with the Seska plot. Would they kill Culluh? Would they kill the baby? Nah, let’s kill Seska in the least satisfying way possible. Ugh.

Speaking of not satisfying, we also never get the confrontation scenes we wanted even though there was plenty of time for them across two episodes. There’s no closure between Seska and Chakotay. Janeway never gets to gloat in Maje Culluh’s face that a woman finally took him down, which she’d predicted ages ago. And my fave Lon Suder, while dying in an admittedly beautiful blaze of glory, really should have been the one to take down Seska. Or vice versa. Something more personal and meaningful, dammit.

VOY: “Future’s End”

Our foray into the past in “Future’s End” fares a little better. Sure, it may have run a little short, and the whole Torres-Chakotay plot out in the Arizona desert seems squicky and superfluous, but these episodes succeed in keeping everyone busy across both their runtimes. The EMH notably gets his mobile emitter, Janeway looks great in that pantsuit, Tom and Rain are super super cute together, and Neelix and Kes even get addicted to soap operas! There’s a lot to love here.

The villain, Starling, is kind of a one-dimensional baddie, and the time travel paradox contradicts itself if you think about it for more than a couple seconds, but these were episodes that knew how to fill their runtime with some fun romps in the past, to sprinkle in some cute fish-out-of-water jokes, and to save a lot of expense by setting things contemporaneously. And what’s the point of a two-parter if not to save a couple bucks?

VOY: “Scorpion”

A more successful season finale / season premiere bridge comes between 3 and 4 when we really start to engage the Borg, something Voyager did with such aplomb it almost feels trite. Almost. But Borg are just too good to pass up, and this introduction of not only the Borg, but Seven of Nine AND Species 8472 has so much going for it. Even if one could argue (as we often do) that it follows the beats of “The Best of Both Worlds” a little too much, is that such a bad thing?

Sure, Part 1 is mostly all setup and the cliffhanger can’t compare to something so groundbreaking as “BOBW,” but Part 2 is where the action is. When the opposing objectives of Janeway and Chakotay clash and clash and then finally compromise into a plan that highlights both of their strengths, it is a thing of beauty. Resistance is definitely futile.

VOY: “Year of Hell”

Ironically, what was originally going to be the season 3 finale / season 4 premiere ends up working absolutely stunningly in the middle of a season. “Year of Hell” could have stretched out into a four-parter, as was originally intended, but then the hard reset at the end would have really felt like a slap in the face. After two episodes, the climax provides just enough of a rug pull to feel cathartic and not like a letdown—something most hard resets can’t pull off like this.

And what episodes these are! They really benefited from two hours spent wrecking the Voyager and her crew more and more. One episode would not be enough time to see and really appreciate the progression into despair that we experience. We really get to know Annorax and start to wonder, like Chakotay does, if we can fix him. And Janeway gets to self destruct the ship! Her favorite thing! A+

VOY: “The Killing Game”

I love that in our initial coverage of “The Killing Game,” Chris’s reaction was “This shouldn’t have been a two-parter” and Jake’s response was “This should have been a six-parter!” There was something different we wanted from these episodes, and it’s hard to put our finger on just what that is because this two-parter is all we have to judge. We’d love to see options in which the characters get their identities back much earlier OR much later, because somehow the balance just seems off the way it currently is.

These episodes also first aired back to back on the same night, so initial audiences also didn’t have to worry about the cliffhanger leaving them in any suspense. And it could have paid off better: we definitely demanded more of the holodeck programs bleeding into each other like was promised in that final Part 1 scene! While it was a blast to have the Klingons attacking Nazis, taking it further would have been immeasurably more fun! Where’s da Vinci? Where’s that nanny from the Jane Eyre program? Let them take out some nazis too!

VOY: “Dark Frontier”

I may be biased because of how much I love me some Borg Queen, but “Dark Frontier” similarly nails the double-length slot. This one was also feature-length, all delivered as one big episode on the same release day, so obviously the writers knew enough to plan it out ahead of time and really get the pacing right. Like “The Way of the Warrior,” which we talked about last week, it feels like its own little Voyager movie.

And it’s got a lot going for it: We get the Borg sphere heist, we get a ton of Seven’s backstory with her utterly neglectful parents, we get a pretty decent Borg Queen–assembly scene, and we get the rivalry to beat all rivalries: Janeway/Borg Queen. Anyone who thinks Borg Queen and Picard are the biggest enemies of the franchise utterly forgets that this is the matchup to bring the audience to its feet.

VOY: “Equinox”

Apparently when “Equinox, Part I” concluded season 5, there wasn’t a full plan for how to get out of its scrape in season 6. And you could have fooled me because they nail it! Somehow Part 2 is even better than Part 1. Maybe it’s the more thorough exploration of the darker actions these characters take to survive. Maybe it’s the layers and layers of scheming we get from the Equinox crew—Ransom and Burke and Evil-EMH all devour the scenery like it’s a Thanksgiving meal. Maybe we just like it when Janeway breaks some knees.

The main gripe we have about this two-parter is that its lasting effects pretty much terminate with it. Even though the Voyager has picked up the remnant crew from the Equinox, we never see them again in any real capacity. And what a shame! These are characters that could have entered the cast with so much potential to dig into their stories, and that’s just it. Rats.

VOY: “Unimatrix Zero”

Like “Scorpion” above, we’ve got another example of Voyager trying real hard to be “BOBW.” The cliffhanger at the end of the sixth season has not one, not two, but three members of the crew get assimilated by the Borg! So it’s Locutus cubed (Locubus?), I suppose. But you know what, if you’re going to crib from an existing successful episode, it pays to pick the best, because Janeway and crew end up with a pretty watchable little story here!

Not all of the hosts of A Star to Steer Her By cared for the romance sideplot between Seven and Axum, but this Matrix-style haven for Borg drones is a very fun idea! The stakes keep getting raised with every passing scene, with Tuvok losing his humanity (Vulcanity?), Borg cubes getting annihilated on a whim, and our beautiful haven going up in flames. And there’s more Borg Queen action! Really, what better can this show do?

VOY: “Flesh and Blood”

Another very fun idea is having a whole bunch of holograms gain sentience and take over a ship. Like, seriously, how cool is that? Did this one have to be a two-parter? Unclear, but I don’t remember ever being bored or feeling like the plot was spinning its wheels to fill up time. And this was another feature-length episode that all got released on the same day, so it’s possible people didn’t notice.

Some of the elements we get are pretty enticing! EMH [yet again] has to choose between the ship where he belongs and some new population that he finds kinship with. Our Cardassian hologram Kejal starts an adorable little galpal-ship (is there a word for that?) with Torres. Really the one big flaw is the predictable ending having Iden turn out to be an megalomaniac in the eleventh hour, which is a crying shame.

VOY: “Workforce”

Our final outing is another familiar one. “Workforce” features the whole crew brainwashed and living an alternate life for the benefit of their captors, a pregnant B’Elanna Torres, Harry Kim and the EMH both unaffected on the outside trying to get everyone back, and Seven’s Borgbrain being used to snap her out of it. Uh, “The Killing Game,” anyone?

Not that there’s anything wrong with telling the same story again, and this is a decent one at accomplishing that. As with “The Killing Game,” it’s a fascinating watch to see everyone running around as different people (memory wipe episodes frequently make interesting statements about a person’s true nature, after all), and just as entertaining seeing Tuvok and Seven learn their true circumstances, albeit to different results. Congrats, Voyager! You did it!

—

Join us next week for the thrilling conclusion of our multi-parter series, when we will tackle all the two- and three-parters of Enterprise, which are somehow weighted almost entirely to the fourth season. Make sure you’re also listening along to the podcast on SoundCloud—or wherever you get your podcasts—as we rewatch all of Star Trek: Discovery, and chat with our little mini Borg collective over on Facebook. And remember: when in doubt, copy “The Best of Both Worlds.”

[cnroth]

Oh hai! It’s been a while, but the lovely @coffee-in-that-nebula tagged me in the seven sentences challenge, so ofc I had to come and share! Here are the FIRST seven sentences of my current WIP:

First Maje Jal Culluh peeled the dried blood from his calloused hands, sloughed off under a stream of water in his bathroom sink, tinging it red as it swirled the drain. Beneath the blood, his russet skin flushed crimson over his knuckles.

The Ogla man had broken easily, big talk when Culluh’s warriors dragged him from his pathetic little ship but weak under Culluh’s fists. It was a good thing, too; the information he carried had the potential of being worth more than all the meager wealth of Kaza. More even than the extravagant wealth of Relorus. In fact, if Culluh played his cards right, it could be the beginning of a new, unified Kazon empire.

There were strangers in Kazon space.

I have no idea who has already done this, but if you haven’t, consider yourself tagged. 😉

[celtic-romulan]

Culluh doesn’t just chew the scenery. He devours it.

Culluh & Seska were an underappreciated comedy power couple.

He: The ruler repeatedly foiled by his own pride and stupidity.

She: The devious supervillain spy that tries to be a Lady MacBeth but can't seem to get over her crush on her former boss.

[textsfromthedeltaquadrant]

[llama-milk-for-the-egg-nog]

thinking about how Seska's baby and Naomi Wildman could have been friends

[baylardian-1]

Amelia gets lost in the Delta Quadrant after her starfleet ship is attacked and destroyed. Rather than attempt to return home and face failure and quite frankly more of the same looming expectations that persist in her life, she chooses to remain lost. She ends up working as a dancer in a Kazon club for a time, just trying to lay low and survive, abandoning her Starfleet attire. There she'd meet Culluh's son, Sessen and they end up developing a friendship and she serves as a confidant within his sect, similarly to Seska but Sessen's a lot nicer than his father was lol.

just my silly lil thoughties::: I think a Maje's cabin, while lavish in decor, would have a rather messy and nestlike bed and a lot of their dropped feathers kinda accumulate there. And the way Amelia and Sessen might toss around in bed together she tends to end up with a lot in her hair. :) ummmm and i have the headcanon that because the kazon are feathery and fight amongst themselves, they wear the feathers of their defeated enemies in their messy hair as war trophies. i have sessen wearing one of his father's, and amelia has one of sessen's. and then i imagine theyd both wear one from a rivaling sect's maje that they skillfully defeated together.

[celtic-romulan]

Maje Culluh every time Janeway opens her mouth:

Rude.

[celtic-romulan]

Anthony De Longis is so freaking awesome.

So I recently found out that the guy who plays Maje Culluh on Star Trek Voyager, aside from being an actor, is a master swordsman, stunt coordinator, fight choreographer, martial artist, and an absolute BOSS at the bullwhip (he taught Michelle Pfeiffer how to use it in her role as Catwoman, and Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones 4), and went toe-to-toe with Jet Li in Fearless. AND he can do all those stunts...on horseback.  

(De Longis’s fight is at the 1:12 mark.)

Also? He was one of Garrett Wang's (Harry Kim) teachers at UCLA. And he starred in the Masters of the Universe film alongside Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris; he held him at knifepoint in one scene). From what I could find on him on YouTube, he seems like an awesome guy, super nice, well-spoken, and a great teacher.

This guy is SO GOD DAMN COOL. Culluh deserved way better than what we got with him. Knife fight with other Kazon Majes when? Never? Not even a beatdown against Chakotay or Tuvok, or even attempting fighting B’Elanna with a bat’leth? We have been robbed.

^^ My exact reaction when I learned all of this. 

[stvoy-kazon-stan]

I love using Culluh full name and title from time to time

"First Maje Jal Culluh Of The Kazon Nistrim Sect"

It's a really mouthful but very elegant

[weepylucifer]

Oh my god. I can’t believe they just flew off with Lon Suder in the vents. They’re all gonna die

[stvoy-kazon-stan]

Different character but same

[novakspector]

Seska was a more compelling villain than any of the ones who came after her. I would have liked her to be the main antagonist of Voyager, at least for the first half of the series. She should have only been pretending to be subservient to Maje Culluh and then killed him and taken over the Kazon as their new overlord (sort of like what Lore did with the Freed Borg on TNG). She had such a crappy death. A show where the captain is female and most of the villains were female would have been so cool. I suppose we ultimately got a female main villain with the “Borg Queen,” though I prefer Seska. I never cared for the idea of the Borg having a leader, and the Borg are quite boring and predictable. Meanwhile Seska is ruthless and you never know what she’s gonna do next.