#TNG: Ménage à Troi

[countesspetofi]

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry [ménage à troi, s3ep24]

'Mister Worf, arm phaser banks and photon torpedoes. If Lwaxana Troi is not in my arms in ten seconds, throw everything you've got at the Krayton.

When I have plucked the rose, I cannot give it vital growth again. It needs must wither.

Nine, eight.

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' - picard

[startrekplotnthemes]

S3 Episode 24 Ménage à Troi

This episode features the undeveloped piggish version of the Ferengi as they simply can't use the Klingon for that purpose anymore. It is twice the Troi twice the trouble as Lwaxana is noticed by Daimon Tog, a Ferengi delegate aboard the enterprise. Despite Lwaxana's rejection Tog does not take no for an answer approaching her, Deanna and Riker forcefully taking them aboard the Ferengi ship, effectively kidnapping them.

Tog is interested romantically in Lwaxana valuing both her beauty and telepathic abilities. When Lwaxana repeatedly rebuffs him he threatens Deanna and Riker as chips to get her to assist him. The threat takes hold as the Enterprise finds and tracks down the Ferengi due to assistance from Wesley Crusher who forgoes his chance to go to the academy in order to serve aboard the Enterprise and convey vital information.

Farek, a Ferengi scientist chooses a more violent approach, desiring to prove Lwaxana's mind and discover the source of her telepathic powers. Just as the Enterprise catches up to the vessel, Lwaxana under strain agrees to stay with Tog for Riker and Deanna's safety. The two are returned and after a dramatic performance from Picard so is Lwaxana. For his service Wesley is promoted to full ship's ensign. The episode is meant more for comedic purposes with the Ferengi serving their usual role of incompetence so that the main cast can shine. Lwaxana does at least get to move past her belligerence, demonstrating compassion for her daughter, enduring the kidnapping to ensure her safety, showing us why she enjoys the status she gets.

[leesargent]

Li'l TNG season three

I was going to space these out a little more but meh it's nice posting here again :) In this season I experimented with the eyes because that's what you do LOL.

Evolution

The Ensigns of Command

The Survivors

Who Watches The Watchers

The Bonding

Booby Trap

The Enemy

The Price

The Vengeance Factor

The Defector

The Hunted

The High Ground

Déjà Q

A Matter of Perspective

Yesterday's Enterprise

The Offspring

Sins of the Father

Allegiance

Captain's Holiday

Tin Man

Hollow Pursuits

The Most Toys

Sarek

Ménage à Troi

Transfigurations

The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Lwaxana Troi

By Ames

Lwaxana haters, see yourselves out (or stick around and see how wrong you are!), because A Star to Steer Her By loves our black-eyed Betazoid mama. She’s the daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed, and also one of our favorite characters from The Next Generation!

Like Katharine Pulaski (whom we also stan with the best of them!), Lwaxana Troi is a character who gets way more hate than she deserves, who grew substantially every time she appeared on the show, and who has way more nuance than even some of the main characters we’ve discussed from the show so far! And that fashion sense? Holy cow. So pack your absurdly huge luggage, don your fluffiest wig, and meet up with us and Mr. Homn as we celebrate (and occasionally criticize) all things Lwaxana below and this week on the podcast (sashay over to 55:22 for the convo). We’re going on a manhunt!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Murderers! Assassins! While her first couple of appearances in TNG were fairly annoying, as you’ll see in our next section, the one thing Lwaxana gets emphatically right in “Manhunt” is figuring out the two Antedians the Enterprise was carrying are actually assassins. And she drops this information in the most nonchalant way possible, cementing her status as a major boss.

Release them and I will stay with you willingly Oh boy is “Ménage à Troi,” a tough episode to gauge. While it certainly has its lows (Lwaxana constantly crashing Deanna’s day, Ferengi shenanigans at their worst, and some sexual assault and implied rape swept under the rug), Mrs. Troi does put her daughter first and insists to Daimon Tog that Deanna and Will be released if she sacrifices herself like any mother would.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? The other great scene that Lwaxana inspires in “Ménage à Troi,” is one we mentioned in our Picard Spotlight post, when she and JL work together to trick the Ferengi into releasing her. Even from across viewscreens, she compels the beautiful diatribe of Shakespearean poetry from Jean-Luc that ends up saving the summer’s day!

What does that little one do, Mister Woof? I don’t know why, but it always tickles me the couple of times on the show that Lwaxana calls our Klingon security head “Mr. Woof” as she does in “Half a Life” and others. Is she doing it just to evoke a reaction from him? Does she actually know his name at all? Regardless of the answer, it’s a cute joke that the writers play.

It is the custom for your loved ones to join you at this Resolution, is it not? Our fuller opinion of the character really started getting formed once the show reached “Half a Life” – one of our TNG faves – and we got a different look at this man-hungry helicopter parent. Suddenly, Lwaxana has nuance. She fights for people other than herself or her immediate family. She becomes vulnerable with Timicin, something we didn’t think possible from her character. And when she decides to go with him to his Resolution, it feels personal, complex, and complete.

A child who is trusted becomes worthy of that trust We gave Deanna some rightful criticism for thinking that writing up a contract between Worf and Alexander would be a good idea in “Cost of Living,” and Lwaxana waltzes in like a fairy godmother and throws that terrible idea in their faces! Immediately, she knows how to better parent Alexander than anyone else on the show ever had, low bar that that is.

You’re telling me you’re not going to be naked at your own wedding? It feels like such a triumph for Lwaxana to so brazenly show up naked to her wedding in “Cost of Living,” fully embracing her Betazoid heritage and throwing her strong will and individuality in Campio’s and his little toady’s faces. Now why she was engaged to that uptight twat in the first place is another story, but good for her anyway!

Whatever it is, we can face it together Here’s an actually good moment she shares with her daughter: That tear-jerking moment in “Dark Page.” It’s another instance in which we see Lwaxana as having more personality traits than we were led to believe she had as she comes to acknowledge the death of her daughter Kestra, and also we see Majel Barrett nailing some acting we’d never seen from her before.

Nobody’s ever seen me like this By the time we reach Deep Space Nine, the writers have figured out what to do with Lwaxana Troi to make her an impactful character. Sure, she’s still a great comic device, especially against rigid characters like Picard and Odo, but it’s in the way that she is humanized (or Betazoidized?) in scenes like the truly remarkable turbolift scene in “The Forsaken” that she really shines.

Then sway with me, Odo. Sway with me. While Lwaxana’s constant pestering of Picard gets tiring really quickly, her relationship with Odo proves something more interesting. In one of those Odd Couple kind of pairings, she’s able to get Odo to come out of his shell, even if it’s just a little bit, so when she gets him to dance with her in “Fascination,” it’s delightful and shows more layers to their respective characters.

Before I met her, my world was a much smaller place Okay, so the weird inspiration vampire side of the plot of “The Muse” may be idiotic, but the Lwaxana-Odo scenes are pure gold. Lwaxana and Odo, again, find each other to be the only people they can be vulnerable with, and Odo agrees to marry a very pregnant Lwaxana to get her out of an existing marriage, delivering the purest, most intimate and beautiful speech we’ve heard from him (until Kira, at least).

Strut your stuff on the catwalk Finally, we just have to give massive points to her remarkable fashion sense. One of our favorites is this blue number from “Fascination,” with the perfect wig to complement it and accessories like whoa. Make sure you check out our full screenshot assemblage that we put together previously to give fair credit to the excellent costuming of this iconic woman.

—

Worst moments

Momzillas gone wild Mrs. Troi is not without her faults, however, and most are man-related. How much pressure she puts on her daughter to get married is more than uncomfortable, it can get downright offensive. When the arranged marriage she initiated between Deanna and Wyatt comes due in “Haven,” it’s clear that this momzilla doesn’t always have her daughter’s best interests in mind; just her own.

Use your mind, not your mouth We also found it just plain rude how much Lwaxana insisted on communicating with Deanna telepathically in “Haven” and other episodes. a) Deanna has made it clear she’d rather speak out loud, and b) Picard and other crewmembers can’t hear what’s being said and that’s impolite, especially coming from someone of such standing in the Federation.

Oh, Jean-Luc, what naughty thoughts It becomes a running gag for the first couple appearances of Lwaxana how much she makes sexual advances on Captain Picard, who is just trying to do his job most of the time. But “Manhunt” really takes the cake for just going overboard with presumptuous behavior unbecoming for a woman of her stature. Leave the poor guy alone!

Until death us do part Later in “Manhunt,” it’s even grosser for Mrs. Troi to declare that she and Riker are to be wed. Whatever physiological state she was in is no excuse for how she goes out of her way to mortify her daughter, to put the moves on Deanna’s imzadi without consent, and to make scene after scene all for romantic attention. Why Gene Roddenberry would make his wife act like this is beyond us.

No man has ever been such a mystery to me Lucky for the flesh-and-blood men that Lwaxana spends most of “Manhunt” sexually accosting, apparently she has no idea what a hologram is. I don’t know how, but she’s so horny that when she meets Rex the bartender, she’s so intrigued by her inability to read his mind that she doesn’t even realize it’s because he’s not a real person. We can just imagine how far it went before it dawned on her.

Oo-mox is only the beginning It’s only fitting that someone like Lwaxana Troi should be there for the introduction of oo-mox on the show, and one time was already too much. During “Ménage à Troi,” Lwaxana unknowingly performs what’s essentially a sex act on her captor, which is gross enough as it is, but we learn later in an episode of Deep Space Nine that she also slept with Daimon Tog, and I vomit in my mouth.

Swipe right! We learn in “Cost of Living” that Lwaxana has gotten engaged to Campio, whom she effectively met on a dating app and whom she has absolutely no chemistry with. It strikes us as entirely out of character that she’d accept marriage to someone who wouldn’t allow her to be who she intrinsically is just because he’s rich. Thank the Four Deities she found a way out of it!

My name is Mud While we gave Lwaxana credit for spending more time with Alexander and treating him better than Worf ever does, we have to admit that the jacuzzi scene in “Cost of Living” is off-putting. Sure, it’s the future and we know that in Betazoid culture, nudity is entirely normal, but we’re still not sure it’s something Alexander is accustomed to or had any ability to consent to and that’s weird.

The worst thing that can happen to any parent This is a complicated one because it’s so triggering. I’m not sure it would be fair to blame Lwaxana or anyone for the accident that befell Kestra as we learn in “Dark Page,” but it’s very clear that Lwaxana blames herself. This is truly the lowest her character had ever been, and it explains a few things about how she so tightly latches on to Deanna, but it is a bad, bad time for her.

Bad thoughts, they hurt her What’s more accurate to say about the events from “Dark Page” is that Lwaxana had handled her trauma in an ultimately poor way. By blocking those memories as evidently Betazoids do with triggering events, she never was able to mourn or accept the loss of Kestra, instead avoiding the memories entirely in a way that turned out to be harmful to her and not fair to her late daughter’s memory.

Does no one understand quarantine procedures? I’ll nitpick about it every time some disease breaks out in an episode and no one seems to understand you shouldn’t go around touching everyone around them. So when Lwaxana has Zanthi Fever in “Fascination” and suddenly her horniness becomes contagious, I’m doubly pissed off because it resulted in a really, really stupid premise for an episode.

What I’d mistaken for love was nothing more than a prison After we mentioned just now when Lwaxana leapt at the chance to marry Campio in “Cost of Living,” we see she’s made the same mistake with Jeyal in “The Muse,” except now there’s a baby involved. The most irritating facet of Lwaxana’s personality is how man-hungry she always seems to be. It always clouds her perception, making her make bad decision after bad decision, and worse: making her compromise who she is.

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Give it up for Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who could really do it all. Stick around next week for more kickass recurring characters on the Enterprise-D, and for our continued ride through the series Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast. You can also send us love notes over on Facebook and Twitter, but stop marrying every eligible dude you meet!

[geekygwen]

[data2364]

Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi 1990 in Star Trek: The Next Generation ”Ménage à Troi”

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/M%C3%A9nage_%C3%A0_Troi_%28episode%29

[mnemonicpneumaticknife]

Wait, wait...

Grand Proxy Neelix?

Or the other times Ethan Phillips played Ferengi?

Ulis the pirate?

or

Doctor Farek?

neelix was so cute when he was a ferengi...#PEACE...#LOVE

[startrekdreams]

Aww... would you look at these two, taking a peaceful walk in the nature. 

(Somehow Deanna’s dress reminds me a design of an anime magical girl costume)

Star Trek TNG, Season 3, Episode 24, Ménage à Troi

[doopcafe]

Star Trek Prodigy: First Con-tact (1x07)

Summary: The crew messes up first contact; there’s a Ferengi lady.

Comments: The more AQ aliens that appear, the more I’m inclined to just ignore any mystery they may be generating. I’m worried it’s never going to be explained. Here, the crew meets Nandi, a Ferengi woman who was Dal’s foster mom (or something) before she sold him to The Diviner. 

Skipping over why there’s a Ferengi woman over here in the DQ, this is the first Ferengi character we’ve gotten in Prodigy (not that we needed one) and so I want to talk about that since the Ferengi are one of the more interesting alien species of the Star Trek franchise for me. They were introduced as fresh adversaries for the TNG crew in The Last Outpost, but were a resounding flop and only appeared sporadically throughout the early seasons as weak antagonists. By later seasons of TNG, they essentially only served the role of gag villains (e.g., The Price and Ménage à Troi). 

So their rebirth over the course of DS9 through the hard work of Ira Steven Behr (from The Nagus all the way to The Magnificent Ferengi) was simply fascinating to watch, a solid study of how to develop characters beyond stock status. Of course, as Star Trek Vanilla Lite, Voyager regressed to their earlier portrayal in episodes like False Profits (a pair of Ferengi pretend to be gods to swindle people) and Inside Man (a pair of Ferengi hijack a hologram to swindle people), and that’s the flavor of Ferengi we get here: a Ferengi woman lies and pulls on heart strings to swindle people. 

I didn’t take any notes on this episode, and I watched it over a week ago now, but Nandi explains she needs Dal’s help because “a Federation ship can open doors” (or something). This, from what I remember, never actually comes up: the planet they land on has had no prior contact with other species (it’s a first contact mission), so the fact that the Protostar is—at least in appearance—a Federation vessel has no relevance. Besides, there’s no “door” that needs to be opened: they land the ship on the planet and then walk around (after Gwyn saves them). It’s also a strange thing to say in the DQ since (1) the expectation is that no one would know what the Federation even is and (2) if they did, their experience would likely have been negative (based on the events of Voyager). Also, if this is a first-contact planet, and the McGuffin crystals are deep inside the inhabitant’s sanctuary place, how would Nandi have known those crystals even existed, much less where to find them? These are just details...

Anyways, breaking the Prime Directive should really result in stricter consequences beyond “Holo!Janeway is upset with you,” which itself doesn’t have any much bite since Janeway herself has broken it on at least a couple occasions (arguably).

Oh, we learn that the Protostar was boarded by the scary robot guy that works for The Diviner. So... that central mystery plot is really driving this show for me still. If The Diviner already had the ship, how did he lose it? And what did they do with Chakotay (not that I care)? Is he back on the asteroid breaking apart rocks? Wait, now that they know the Protostar isn’t in the mines, are the slaves still back there breaking apart rocks?

My enjoyment: 2/5

[thecraggus]

There's no need to make a song and dance about Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II Omnibus - Vol.11 Here's your weekly Omnibus Edition of Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II covering Season 3 episodes 24 to 26 and Season 4 episodes 1 to 4:

[feral-ferengi]

OMG thanks so much for these screenshots 😭❤️❤️❤️

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by Gene Roddenberry Ménage à Troi (S3ep24)

[thegreaterlink]

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3 Overview

This photo looks really awkward for some reason.

Anyway, three seasons down, four to go.

Y'all know the drill by now - every episode goes into good, bad or mediocre categories, followed by favourite and least favourite episode of the season then ranking the whole thing out of ten.

You might also have noticed that some 6/10 episodes are still marked as mediocre. That’s because these are based on a mixture of both an episode’s objective quality and my personal enjoyment of them.

For example, “Transfigurations” is objectively a decent episode, as reflected in its 6/10 score, but my actual enjoyment was more on the 4 or 5 range. Hope that makes sense.

Obligatory link to my ranking system.

"MAKE IT SO!" - THE GOOD

Evolution

The Ensigns of Command

The Survivors

Who Watches the Watchers?

The Bonding

The Enemy

The Vengeance Factor

The Defector

The Hunted

The High Ground

Déja Q

A Matter of Perspective

Yesterday's Enterprise

The Offspring

Hollow Pursuits

Sarek

The Best of Both Worlds - Part 1

"SHIELDS UP!" - THE MEDIOCRE

Booby Trap

The Price

Sins of the Father

Allegiance

Tin Man

The Most Toys

Ménage à Troi

Transfigurations

"ABANDON SHIP!" - THE BAD

Captain’s Holiday

THE BEST EPISODE

While Déja Q is probably my favourite episode of the season, Hollow Pursuits is objectively the best.

I never would've imagined an episode focused on a character we'd never seen before could be so compelling, but that just goes to show how great this series can be with the right effort put in.

Barclay thankfully never slips into the kind of snivelling little shit stain behaviour that I first feared, instead being the easier-said-than-done archetype of "clumsy but means well" that you can really root for. I hope we see more of him (and more episodes of this quality) in the future.

THE WORST EPISODE

Golly gee, so much choice.

But yeah, you all knew this was coming. It's Captain's Holiday.

You want to do a fun breather episode? Fine. This season has two of those, and the other one is a solid 8/10.

The key difference is that episode is actually funny, and wasn't just the creators trying to find an excuse to have scantily-clad women on set. Unless you count John de Lancie entering the episode completely naked and showing bulge for the rest of it, but that's matter of opinion. Think of it like your favourite anime doing a beach episode and trying to pretend it serves a purpose outside of fanservice.

I guess if you want to be pedantic about it, Vash apparently shows up again in both a later episode and an episode of Deep Space Nine, so this could be seen as essential viewing for her little arc. Because out of all the side characters we've had so far, clearly she was the one begging to be brought back.

I'll at least give this episode credit for the entertainment value of the whole crew tricking Picard into taking a day off as well as some fun time travel shenanigans, but that's about all it has to offer.

Still, if you ever find yourself home alone with like 40 minutes to kill... then there are a ton of better episodes in this season alone to help you pass the time.

FINAL RANKING

7/10 - Pretty good.

Considering we only had a single truly bad episode in the entire season, I'd say we're definitely improving. Unfortunately a lot of those other episodes were still floating around the 4-6 range, so we’re not quite there yet.

Previous Episode | TNG Masterpost | Next Episode

[daaataaa]

~~ my ST-TNG rewatch list ~~

what if we build ourselves a future based on our best qualities?

In Theory (s4)

The Naked Now (s1)

The Offspring (s3)

Ensing Ro (s5)

Brothers (s4)

A Fistful of Datas (s6)

Hide and Q (s1)

Ménage à Troi (s3)

Datalore (s1)

The Enemy (s3)

...

I'll add more on the go

:D

[sshbpodcast]

Top Five Star Trek VOY Episodes

by Ames

We made it back to the Alpha Quadrant, y’all, and it was a pretty good trip! Overall, we’d say Star Trek: Voyager is a pretty decent contender for one of the best series in the franchise. Sure, we here at A Star to Steer Her By are probably still on Team DS9 for the most part, but our plucky friends lost in the Delta Quadrant are at least giving TOS and TNG a run for their money in terms of overall episode quality, character development, and consistency. Hell, TNG’s first season alone brings its average way down, so it might be a pretty close race!

Considering Voyager usually gets overlooked on a good day and unfairly criticized on a bad day, it’s a damn good show with a lot of stunning episodes that leave the audience invested, affected, and ready for more. And now that we’re out of episodes, we’ve assembled our favorites of the series for you to warp through below, and/or listen to on our finale episode of the podcast (series discussion at 1:29:20) which features even more picks from guest star Liz. Bon voyage, Voyager!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“False Profits”: Chris We’d be remiss if we didn’t include some of the fluffy comedy shit Chris loves (I’m just as shocked as you are that it’s not Bride of Chaotica!), so here’s a very funny yet very Star Trek example that brings back the two Ferengi all the way from TNG’s “The Price.” It’s a pretty deep cut for a reference, but they certainly run with it in an ultimately satisfying way, complete with putting Ethan Phillips back in Ferengi makeup, as we saw in TNG’s “Ménage à Troi” and will see again in Enterprise’s “Acquisition.”

“Course: Oblivion”: Ames Just for the whiplash of it all, let’s pivot from a fun romp of an episode to a deeply depressing, tragic episode in “Course: Oblivion.” The inevitable demise of all the Silver Blood Duplicates is like watching a slow-motion car crash: you know what’s going to happen is going to be upsetting but you can’t tear your eyes away. And the nihilist cherry on top of this ice cream cone of sadness is that their message never even gets through! It’s so successful at being so bleak!

“Memorial”: Caitlin Let’s kick off a handful of noteworthy episodes that examine how we connect with and remember history, starting with a space genocide that plays out in the memories of anyone who happens along as both a memorial to its people and a not-so-subtle disparagement of Holocaust deniers. The post-traumatic stress disorder that the crew displays is also expertly done, making their reactions to atrocity something personal and all the more intriguing, like “The Inner Light” on a whole ship’s scale.

“Remember”: Caitlin Before getting saddled with Paris, B’Elanna Torres had some really good character work early on, and her living out the moments in the life of an Enaran woman in her dreams gives Roxann Dawson quite a lot to play with. We also did a lot of comparing this episode to the classic “The Inner Light,” and for good reason! Dawson really shines in this role, and we also get a spellbinding portrayal of the really troubling Enaran culture and their genocide of the Regressives.

“Blink of an Eye”: Jake One of the cleverest episodes of Voyager comes in this fast-paced planet that develops quicker than you can ascertain, and thus allows for us to view the full evolution of a culture’s advancements in perfect little vignettes. And it all culminates with a hopeful and touching moment with one of Jake’s favorite characters, Gotana-Retz, finally connecting with the ship that has shaped his planet’s history and saving their asses.

“Distant Origin”: Ames Here’s another episode that’s almost too clever for its own good. The Galileo allegory is so strong and fascinating that we entirely accept that some sapient dinosaurs left earth at some point, which should be so silly as to utterly distract from the episode, but Forra Gegen is just so earnest and his plight to open the eyes of his people to their forgotten history so reasonable that we just go with it! Plus Chakotay is probably the most in character he ever gets to be all series long and it’s great to watch!

“Death Wish”: Chris While Q is at his best when paired with Jean-Luc, and his other appearances in Voyager may stretch credulity a little bit, this episode shows us a side of the Continuum that is refreshing and new. Quinn’s depiction of life as a Q as a prison is rather fascinating, and he expertly plays a compassionate character whom you root for even though you feel conflicted by it because his winning the trial will result in his death. But that’s the kind of moral conflict that Star Trek plays so well!

“Nothing Human”: Caitlin Speaking of moral conflicts, we’ve got another ethical debate on our hands in this allegory to Nazi medical experiments. While everyone here on the podcast was firmly in the camp that it is okay to use medical knowledge obtained through deplorable means, it’s still a fascinating reminder to see the full context of what it means to use data from someone like the Cardassian Josef Mengele. The science fiction lens of this real-world allegory is just what Star Trek is for.

“Relativity”: Ames I have such a soft spot for this episode. I’m a sucker for a really interesting use of time travel in storytelling, and the way this episode is structured: chef’s kiss. The twist that it was a crazed future Braxton the whole time. Yes. The weirdly sexy dynamic between Seven and Ducane. I’m there for it. And the best thing of all is seeing Jeri Ryan in a Starfleet uniform, looking fly as hell! Her character journey is now complete because someone finally dressed her well.

“Eye of the Needle”: Jake Another very soft spot of ours is in this season-one episode featuring another of Jake’s favorite Voyager characters. This is the first time (of many) that the Voyager comes this close to finding a way back home to the Alpha Quadrant only to have those hopes dashed to bits by circumstance. It’s so Voyager-specific a story that it’s actually quite perfect. So many episodes could be TNG in Voyager clothes, but it’s episodes like this one that really gave a particular voice to the show.

“Homestead”: Caitlin The literal journey the Voyager characters go on is a big part of the whole series (even when they dipsy doodle around on sidequests so often), and the most complete and meaningful character journey is Neelix’s. Throughout the show, we’ve seen him grow as he got further and further from his homeworld, became an important fixture on the ship, and developed friendships with the other characters (like Tuvok, as you’ll see in a moment). So the closure his character gets in “Homestead” is too perfect for words.

“Riddles”: Caitlin, Chris The Neelix-Tuvok relationship is on full display here. Where normally they’re paired together for the comedy of an odd-couple dynamic, this episode really shows the love these two have for each other. And Tim Russ acts his butt off as a Tuvok who is struggling to recuperate from a serious injury, trying to find himself again, and being supported by his best friend. It’s so good that it didn’t even make Caitlin’s tops list of that season, but has reemerged in the finals!

“Jetrel”: Chris, Jake One more Neelix episode to round out his character, and this is one of the early ones. We’ve already talked about some good allegories on this list for Galileo and Mengele, and appropriately for this moment, we’ve got another great scifi lens to view Robert Oppenheimer (almost said Barbie, but alas). Jetrel is a fascinating character just like Oppie, but Neelix really steals the show with the remorse he feels for draft dodging and then surviving an atrocity that would have killed him. Damn, those are some deep layers for a usually fun character.

“Year of Hell”: Ames, Jake This may be one of the best two-parters in Star Trek, as it never lost momentum and its conclusion was that jaw-dropping kind of satisfying that marks really good writing. Watching the ship and crew getting more and more wounded over the course of the two-parter was excellent to see, and the character Annorax is one of our favorite Voyager villains. And for good reason! Kirkwood Smith infuses that character with such humanity and resolve you almost root for him. Almost.

“Living Witness”: Ames, Chris, Jake Finally, the episode with the most votes from your SSHB hosts is yet another original way of looking at how people represent history, and how so much of it is told through the biased lens of whoever’s in charge. But the best thing about “Living Witness” is how much the actors get to really ham it up by portraying evil versions of their usual characters. It’s like doing a mirror universe episode, but more thought provoking, less contrived, and less doofy.

—

See also: our Bottom Five Star Trek VOY Episodes list. And why not: here’re all the seasonal tops and bottoms from seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7!

Welcome back to Earth! We hope you had as great a time following along with Janeway and crew throughout the series, but we’ve got more Star Trek on the way! Next on the docket is the one you’ve no doubt been waiting for, so make sure you’re following along here as we finally fill out the classic Trek roster with Star Trek: Enterprise in our watchthrough on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also hail us on Facebook and Twitter, and give one final toast: To the Journey!

[rikerxworf]

‧⁺✧ one pretty Commander ♡°‧

Star Trek: The Next Generation Ménage à Troi

[ID: Two gifs from TNG, showing Riker in a blue shirt. He sits with his back against a wall and an arm raised on his knee. End ID.]