#GREAT Tuvok lines this ep

[bumblingbabooshka]

Just watched Infinite Regress and damn Jeri Ryan’s really acting her gd heart out. Also, I love how much people shout in this one.

[kncrowder88]

Voyager and Romance

So, the thing about Voyager and romance that sticks with me is they seem to do one couple really, or more accurately two characters, any real justice overall. And that is B’Elanna and Tom. While moments for that relationship may not be perfect that is rather realistic for relationships, as no relationship is perfect all the time so that is tolerable. This post though isn’t going to be about looking at that particular relationship though but primarily at other relationships. Largely because a discord server I am in was talking about Counterpoint and I realized why I both love the episode but also have weird feelings with it. Which, I’ll touch more on that specifically after I discuss the relationship stuff (as that plays a part).

So, I will preface this with it has been a bit since I’ve done a binge of Voyager and really a full binge of Star Trek in general. As such, I may forget a few relationships on the show and overall, throughout Trek in general. From what I can really toss together … I honestly am beginning to believe that when it comes to Voyager and the other shows (the older ones not the new ones – I am not including any NEW Trek in this) that for some reason the relationship writing with Voyager was rather different. Like, they gave 3 characters active relationships prior to being stranded. That being Harry Kim, Kathryn Janeway, and Tuvok. Out of these three we get Janeway and Tuvok holding onto those relationships in their own way while … it seemed mildly convenient for Harry to mention it when it suited him, I guess (like that time Tom wanted to set them up for a double date or you know when he ended up in that alternate timeline but still wanted back with Voyager even more like). Like, the reason I don’t list Tuvok-T’Pel above is because we don’t actually get to SEE that in full, we just get to see Tuvok’s side of it and his dedication – we don’t see the relationship, we don’t see the couple.

Harry and Tom, prior to his relationship with B’Elanna, seem to frequently do this sort of two bros dating around thing which is fine but like … same time the show used them for that. And once they settled Tom with B’Elanna they used Harry in those plot lines when it worked. Thus the alien STD episode and the “how dare you not get the standard permission from your CO and CMO” line (like they really put that into a Trek ep and I’m still unable to not picture Riker, Kirk, Picard, and everyone other Trek character constantly getting permission for their latest romance – just remember Jadzia and Worf likely had to get permission from Sisko and Bashir if the Trill and Klingon weren’t already approved of in the system just saying, that’s a thing that happened). Anyways … my point is they went out of their way on this. Like, when Kes was with Neelix they wrote Neelix to be that jealous judgmental boyfriend who literally got upset she knew where other people’s quarters where, she was nice to Tom, she was … just yeah. They wrote Tom to come off as a player pulling Harry into it, when Tom settled down Harry seems to pick that up (I mean you got his “omg Seven” phase and the alien STD stuff and lord knows what else I’m forgetting with him).

And to top this off I haven’t even touched on the “Janeway can’t have a romance” stuff yet. Which is where my real problem is. Like, its bad enough they brought in Jeri for the sex appeal (which lets be honest stems from the fact they couldn’t use Janeway for that – which I get, Kate was right in the whole concept of the audience target having to keep respect for a female lead and sex appeal couldn’t be a focal point but they could have balanced it right and regrettably because they couldn’t that meant Jeri got all of the other side of the coin). Many of Seven’s eps center on romance or social stuff and honestly that is a whole other WTF post in its own right because it all leads up to the sudden get with the one person on the ship who didn’t want you here in the first place and who also would have served better as the male adult guidance figure/father figure than as a ROMANTIC partner but hey BS happened behind scenes to cause that chaotic romantic on screen set up. But yeah … this is just another example of the poor Voyager romantic plot lines.

Chakotay’s romantic plot lines are usually – and by that, I mean pretty much always – with these strong independent women. But usually, at least from what I recall, they are also typically the “needs help” (damsel in distress/can’t do it alone/etc.) plot. Like, Riley was strong independent but also set up to need help in regard to getting her little collective put back together on the planet. You got Kellin, again another strong lady who yet again also needed help. At least in the ep she’s in and if I recall much of the info on how they fell in love during that time as well – primarily with getting away from danger at the start and then during the initial romance finding her target. Valerie is the only one who doesn’t fall into the needs help plot and that’s largely because she was being manipulated by Chakotay for information – which honestly just goes to show how well Chakotay was at the whole undercover stuff (which tells us a lot about what he could have been doing as a Maquis). Seska was the plot point of “you once dated her, now she is going to badger you to get with her again and when that fails, she’s going to assault you” …. like all of Chakotay’s romances are literally him either 1) being manipulated (as that’s what Seska and Riley did) or 2) being the kind guy or 3) not an actual relationship (either because its undercover work or because the writers were too cowardly to make him and Janeway canon).

Then you got Janeway. Then you got KATHRYN JANEWAY. You know, the one where Kate Mulgrew said no romance, no sexualizing, no doing that sort of stuff because the audience had to maintain respect for the character. I’m sure someone has the exact various quotes out there. Like … this is why we don’t have JC as canon. But what we do got instead is …. Janeway in Prime Factors being flirted with by the administrator as if that’s going to get him what he wants because “female leader means flirt with her”. We got Janeway and a period drama holodeck adventure in the early years which was clearly meant to be her romantic tête-à-tête early on that never got followed up with. We got “delete the wife” with the Fair Haven plot point (because its totally respectable to see the FEMALE LEAD, the STARFLEET CAPTAIN, just straight up DELETE THE WIFE of another individual - yeah, I get its meant to be humor factor because hologram but come on). You have her whole thing with Mark which we get tidbits off but again similar to Tuvok we literally only get to see her side of it – the only couple moment of theirs we get is the comm call in Caretaker.

But Jaffen? You are correct. We got that lovely and touching and wonderful romance with Jaffen …. Oh wait … they had to remove her from the ship, strip her of her memory, and her autonomy in order for her to have a relationship with another individual. And yes, by losing her memories, by losing what made her who she was as a person, she did lose a sense of autonomy. She entered into a relationship without a full sense of independent choice. The point in which she made a choice in that episode, the point in which she – Kathryn Janeway – made a choice with all of the person, the individual she is, was at the end when she had her memories back and could decide based on the values and beliefs and all that she is. What I’m getting at is the people on that planet deliberately took away who she was, they took her memories and her ability to make the decisions they knew she would make --- they did that deliberately (that’s even established in the episode) --- and as such her decisions while in that state are not truly her full independent decisions but the ones impacted by the state she was forced into.

And while I love Resolutions, while I love all the JC goodies, we get in that ep … Yet again the only time we get to see Janeway in any sort of romantic situation is when they remove her from the ship. When they remove her from command. When they strip her of that setting. This time, though – well the first time – she keeps awareness and has to go through lose of it all in order to even start to let it all happen. I love the episode, I do, but I just find it rather amusing they went “’Hey we gotta strand them what should their tasks be on the planet?” and they immediately went “Well Janeway is scientist how about that” “Okay and he can build, Chakotay can start building. Man builds house, right?” and then like went “oh and then she can start a garden” …. Like really? Really? That’s what you got for me. Oh, and then there is the monkey. That’s the romance this ep. Boat, science, monkey.

Then we got Kashyk. We have dealt with Kathryn throughout this series dealing with various leaders of various styles. As mentioned, Prime Factors guy attempted flirting. Other leaders pulled similar or worse or even dismissed her …. Like the list goes on. Counterpoint is a great episode because it deals with prejudice and is rather dark. The thing is, had Janeway been able to have a healthy romantic relationship on screen to counter this episode this episode probably would have come off better. Episodes like Prime Factor could have been done different (that leader didn’t need to be as flirty for example). One or two eps through the series having creepy dudes she had to deal with, fine, whatever … that be a nice impact for the audience. But when you have to many prior to Counterpoint – even if its minor, small stuff – it makes this episode so much harder for fans. Especially the female fans who deal with this constantly.

See, here’s the thing with this ep…. Some of the fans who watch … we know Kashyk well. We know that character. He is that male leader, that male power figure, who uses the power he has to manipulate those in his control to get what he wants. And Kathryn … Kathryn was in his control. Kashyk is listed as a relationship on memory-alpha. But much like how I view Seska with Chakotay … I do not view Kashyk as a proper relationship. In Devore space, Kathryn did not have proper power. She had people in her command, on her ship, that she had to protect. That she knew she had to protect. Her own best friend … lives in her hand … and Kashyk right there willing to kill them. Willing to snatch them up and destroy them. And he used that power to manipulate her and play her. Yes, she played him right back but … did she truly have a choice? Did she have any other choice but to play his game? What would have happened if she said no? And that … that is why this episode is so unsettling for some people. And why this relationship being considered on is so off putting … that the writers, that memory-alpha, that the fact I’m putting it on this list as one of the ones on here for Voyager says so much … they wrote this as one of her relationships while out there … she had to do what so many women had to do to stay safe, to keep people she loves safe, and that’s not a relationship.

Voyager could have done romance/relationships such better justice.

[mylittleredgirl]

trekathon: enterprise “in a mirror, darkly”

season 4 episodes 18 & 19:

oh my god, the first contact music 💗😭

the opening sequence to the enterprise mirror universe eps really is inspired. i also like to imagine the composer metaphorically tossing it down on a table in front of all the fans who’ve been complaining for four years like “HERE’S YOUR FUCKING INSTRUMENTAL OPENING THEME” and storming out

i’ve been breaking up the discovery recaps because there are 19 concurrent plots and i’m trying to keep them straight, but i feel like a stream-of-consciousness bullet point experience is appropriate here:

those of you watching today will never know the special delight that mirror captain forrest brought to internet nerd fans back in the day. the site television without pity used to write snarky tv show recaps, and keckler, who wrote the enterprise recaps week to week, decided early on that admiral forrest was such a boring character that he must be evil -- and so after 3-some years of calling him “evil admiral forrest,” him showing up in the mirror universe was like prophecy coming to pass

mirror phlox and reed developed the agonizer booth!

apparently non-terran rebellions against the empire are a recurring concern

mirror!travis is REAL hot

they’re all hot but travis? with that earring? and that hair? dang.

i think we can all agree that phlox is the creepiest mirror version, just casually performing live vivisections of random animals with a smile 😬

i’m glad discovery went the full-on sexy leather uniform route instead of just slapping some pins and patches on the existing uniform style and putting the ladies in crop tops

mirror!t’pol going through pon farr (and ~ahem~ asking trip to help her out) raises my continuing question about how and when pon farr affects female vulcans

does it just kick in at some point, like with vulcan men? is it connected to their bond-mate? should i be worried about tuvok’s wife is what’s behind my question

mirror archer is such a hopeless disaster and hoshi very obviously like “wow... those orgasms... so great... 🙄” really gives me life

vulcan bowl-cut rebellion!!

the vulcan science directorate has found no evidence of alternate realities 

given it is ALSO going to be time travel, the vulcan science directorate’s about to take a double hit

okay okay space science time! tricobalt device + gravity well of dead star -> interphasic rift to other universe

i don’t know why trip saying “so what?” is so funny

i totally forgot the suliban had cloaking technology by the way

i also forgot how great the enterprise transporter effect is!!

okay now i want to watch “the tholian web.” star trek marathons are not linear

mirrror!malcolm getting horny for future phasers is very on brand

tos sound effects 🥰

honestly impressed they even have escape pods in the mirror universe

i assume they’re all on the evil line of the alignment chart, but i guess that makes captain forrest lawful evil, hoshi neutral evil, and archer chaotically unhinged evil

part ii!!!

“release the ducking clamps!” bakula why

t’pol’s orange eyeshadow is quite a look

on-screen text falls into the “canon if i feel like it” zone as far as i’m concerned, but i love that archer’s profile starts with: “charming, bold,”

apparently he was the starfleet chief of staff, the ambassador to andoria, and the president!! of the federation!!!!

the best part is that when i paused it to read, the closed caption says [LAUGHING]

our babes look so good in velour

GORN!

disaster mirror archer hallucinating prime!archer is an entire thing i’m not even sure how to deal with

a cgi gorn was a bad call from start to finish. this isn’t a 16 years on thing. they did their best, but it was ridiculous then too. 

shakespeare’s plays are “equally grim in both universes”

omg travis high-kicking the admiral

archer parading around the shuttlebay of the admiral’s nx-01 ship, making a dramatic speech to about 18 people all looking either bored or concerned. i love that they chose to make this entire episode about what a clown mirror archer is

those 18 people include two vulcans, an andorian, a denobulan, and an orion, and we saw a tellarite officer earlier. during this period in history there are a significant number of aliens serving on starfleet ships -- as opposed to Just T’Pol in the prime universe. they’re all second-class citizens, but they hold officer ranks. in the discovery era, i don’t think we see any non-terrans holding military positions. 

okay actually given that they successfully take over a ship i can see why that policy doesn’t last

i have a specific desire to see t’pol with hyper realistic disco spock style ears

i love that even mirror hoshi protects phlox 🥺

i would like to thank the director of this episode for the artistic decision to only show archer and hoshi hooking up in silhouette form

“it may take centuries, but humanity will pay for its arrogance” YES i love that connection to the ds9 mirror universe eps

they really can design the heck out of a negligee in the mirror universe can’t they

hoshi and travis making out!!!!

honestly i don’t think hoshi had a long game here? i buy her being content as forrest’s captain’s woman, but then archer betrayed forrest and she wanted revenge, and then forrest died so she had nothing to go back to, and then it’s like “well i was going to go for tenure but now that i’m here i might as well rule the empire”

[kncrowder88]

I’ve done a lot of thinking about Janeway in Prodigy. And while its rather disappointing that the only female Captain (that is only - so far - lead female Captain) is returning to us in an animated format (though admittedly in Nemesis we saw her briefly as an Admiral) while Picard has returned to his own live action series ..... I am rather pleased with this. This is gonna be long so ...

First, let me point out that while yes Riker also appeared in Picard so did Troi. And likely so will others from TNG (not to mention Seven was in the first season). This to me indicates that Star Trek isn’t gonna do one of those Hollywood “female actors can’t return to their past parts” things that we can see happen. In fact, if you watched Lower Decks they are also willing to give us returns in regards to animated as well. Basically: all the new Star Trek we are getting are willing to give us returns in as many ways as possible and I am still going to hold out hope that now she is back for Prodigy we may get a guest spot on Picard.

Okay .... onto the good stuff ....

When they were picking out the cast and story line for Prodigy they could have gone with many things. They could have done a simple Starfleet Academy story. They could have even done a Vulcan Academy or any other of the trillion planetary schools out there for this coming of age style thing they seem to be going for. I mean, its a show designed for kids which begs for that coming of age but for Star Trek. Yet, instead of going for the easy ‘‘everyone would love a starfleet academy” story line they went for it. They grabbed a bunch of teenagers, juvenile delinquents out in space, and tossed them at a ship. These kids can’t just be running around on their own though, no. They need someone. They gotta have that parental figure. That guiding light to help save them, teach them science and engineering, and everything else under the sun. That figure who isn’t going to just drag them back to their actual parents and shame them into staying home - because maybe home wasn’t actually the best place for them. No, they need that figure who will take one look at them and go “Mine Now” AND WHO BETTER TO DO THAT THAN CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY OF THE USS VOYAGER.

Now, I know there will be a lot of debate on who is the best mom/dad/parent style Captain out there at this point. But for everyone who watched Voyager really think about it. This woman traveled the DQ and was constantly taking people under her wing. Seriously, need I share the image of that moment she saw Kes as someone she could protect? Or the way she just opens her arms to Kes in the hospital wing and Kes runs to her? Or maybe you need to see the way she looked at the Borg baby again? Or perhaps the way she is like “what do you mean i have crew members struggling? I shall personally take them on an away mission!” Or perhaps .... okay look this list could go on and I really dont want to get into the debate on the different ways of viewing J7 (because even I can I who sees it as maternal can see how people don’t and that’s a whole other post okay). Anyways, yes Sisko would have also been another great choice. But then you have to contend with all the prophet stuff again and honestly I think the show made the right choice on this. When Janeway was cast, when Voyager came out, Kate Mulgrew had to put up with SO MUCH CRAP. Like, to the point that even the mere idea of having a relationship on Voyager for Janeway was something Kate Mulgrew pushed back against because at that time she knew, she understood, how it would be taken.

This, right now, is the time for the Janeway character to truly shine. And for Kate Mulgrew to, as she said, embed in the character things she couldn’t do on screen before. Because now she will be in her own room doing voice. Which, in its own way does allow for such things. On top of that, we get to see Janeway in an entirely different arena. This isn’t gonna be Janeway The Starfleet Captain. This is going to be Kathryn Janeway, Captain to CHILDREN.

Like, I’m sorry but I can’t see her being that pulled in by protocols and guidelines anymore if she is not personally walking these kids back to base for STEALING A STARFLEET SHIP. Like, your telling me that Kathryn Janeway somehow comes across these kids who commandeer a Starfleet ship and she, PROTOCOL AND REGULATIONS JANEWAY just runs with it?

Look, not saying she wouldn’t but for her not to there has to be a reason. Janeway isn’t strictly all about protocol and regulations. (she is when its something extremely personal like ‘i may get hurt by this’ - i.e. if I allow myself to get to close to this person i love and let them in i may get hurt so time to pull protocols). This is the same person who broke the temporal prime directive to save her best friend and her entire ship. This is the same woman who violates other rules for her crew. She is willing to break protocol ... but for reasons.

Which tells me one thing ..... one of these teenagers (or all of them) is going to have extreme emotional value to our Kathryn Janeway either at the immediate start or by the end of the first episode. I’ve had a couple thoughts on this and I like the idea of it being Miral or one of Tuvok’s grandchildren. But honestly .... I also love the idea of them all being complete strangers she is completely ready to drag back to Starfleet for a firm lecture but then by the end of the ep she’s adopted them so she’s gonna raise them now.