#and is still fighting for Janeway to help these people

[pilots-and-protons]

Every time I see people dunking on Tom Paris I just want to make them go back and re-watch “Friendship One”.

Just... everything about him in that episode. Look me in the eye and tell me he’s not a good and decent person.

[trillscienceofficer]

I've been crediting the way Chakotay dismisses B'Elanna's vision in “Barge of the Dead” mostly to the events of “The Fight” and how Chakotay was (understandably) afraid of the barrage of images from the depths of his mind, and how this fed into the fears he has about his grandfather's condition and his own predisposition to it. As a result, he is more diffident about helping other people assigning meaning to their visions, not trusting himself as he used to any longer. After rewatching “Mortal Coil” though I think Chakotay is, also understandably, very wary of validating anyone's mystical experiences (or lack thereof) surrounding death, because one such experience very nearly brought Neelix to suicide and Chakotay almost didn't realize it in time. The way B'Elanna's talks about her own vision can't not recall what Neelix went through, in Chakotay's mind; B'Elanna almost died, and now she feels like she needs to die again. Add to this the history B'Elanna has with self-harm and unnecessary risk-taking behavior from “Extreme Risk”, a history that Chakotay knows all too well, and his mind is made up. He cannot allow this to happen on his watch, especially not to B'Elanna, so he dismisses her recollection of the vision, he downplays it even if it comes across as him not accepting B'Elanna's culturally-informed perspective on her own experiences. In short, I think a mix of fear and guilt is what makes Chakotay unable to appreciate the difference between Neelix' nihilism and his loss of purpose and B'Elanna's longing for meaning and closure through ritual.

I don't think the Voyager writers thought this through as much as I am here, mind you. They likely just had Chakotay play the 'voice of reason' because they couldn't have Janeway doing it, or the parallelism between B'Elanna finding peace with (the memory of) her mother and B'Elanna's acceptance of Janeway's trust would have collapsed, making the episode less incisive. (We can also talk about how yet again the show paints Janeway as a mother figure, in my opinion the lowest-hanging fruit possible, but I digress.) That it sort of contradicts Chakotay's pre-established characterization and background was likely not a big consideration, which is unfortunate. However if we don't take the 'reset button' for granted, this behavior from Chakotay can be taken a sign of the way he changed throughout the show, even it's sort of negative character development. He's more afraid, and more rigid in his understanding of others than at the beginning of the journey, especially when it comes to B'Elanna. The years of survival on Voyager have taken a toll on him. I obviously still think he was wrong to dismiss B'Elanna and that the show needed to handle that conversation between them with a lot more care for both characters, but keeping “Mortal Coil” and “Extreme Risk” in mind definitely helps with lessening the sting of a scene that otherwise seems to come out of nowhere.

[novasjaneway]

Janeway: summarized or how Janeway says i love you: stop blaming yourself for the crimes you committed when you were Borg.

Is it her own forgiveness she's fighting for? Or Ikos second chance? It is both, seven is grieving her losses...

I know your hurting so I'm gonna stroll in here with my dominate energy bc I know you like that and I'm gonna lean over this console and flatter you about your work while I give you my cutest puppy dog eyes and I really hope this helps you feel better bc I hate to see you hurting.

But you're still hurting and you avert your eyes from me and turn away, it breaks my heart. I know I can't force you, but I'm not going anywhere so please talk to me.

I've killed thousands, the guilt is overwhelming how can you even look at me?

Im not afraid to look you in the eyes, your past has been forgiven. You're here with me now. I don't care how many people you've killed

(Soft music playing) I love you and I'll always defend you.

(Soft music playing) Deep emotional surrender, just got loved.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Emergency Medical Hologram

By Ames

Please state the nature of the medical emergency. For a hologram who was never constructed to be left on indefinitely, the Emergency Medical Hologram sure does get a lot of development. He starts off Voyager as an insufferable computer program, grows to learn to fight for his own agency, and ends Voyager as an insufferable computer program of an entirely new ilk! What an arc!

Your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By are quick to cringe at some of the Doctor’s squickier moments (that are interestingly heavily weighted toward the final seasons of the series), but there’s a lot to champion him for as well! The EMH makes us view artificial lifeforms like him as people, in the same way that Data did on TNG. So make sure your mobile emitter is firmly attached as we dive into the Best and Worst Moments of Voyager’s chief medical hologram below and on this week’s podcast episode (activate at timestamp 1:05:06). Hey, I’m a blogpost writer, not a doctor.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Inside you there are two Beowulfs For the first chunk of the show, the Doctor is confined to sickbay for the most part due to his holographic nature, so when he gets to do a hologram-appropriate mission in “Heroes and Demons,” it’s an adventure unto itself! He romances the bonny lass Freya. He solves the mystery of the disappearing crewman. He literally lives out an epic tale and it’s so engaging!

Before I met you, I was just a disease If you liked the Doctor’s relationship with Freya, you’re going to love his relationship with Danara Pel in “Lifesigns.” It’s probably the most genuine we’ve seen the Doc so far, as it’s clear he wants to do what’s best for the diseased Vidiian woman who hates her own body. But he urges her to keep fighting and keep healing because he loves her, the real her.

A physician must do no harm Boy, do we love it when our chief medical officers get righteous about their patients. We saw it with McCoy, we saw it with Crusher, and we saw it with Bashir. And now the EMH ends up being the only person on the Voyager to not silently condone splitting Tuvix in half in “Tuvix.” Sure, he doesn’t do anything to stop it either, but he makes it clear that what Janeway is doing is wrong.

You’re too sick to get better We’ve given B’Elanna and Tom some credit for helping the Doctor experience what it’s like to have a family in “Real Life,” but the actual growth we see is all his own. Deciding (with some encouragement from his friends) to be with his holo-daughter Belle as she dies is heart-breaking, but also encouraging for the Doc to treat the situation so realistically.

Two holograms, alone. Romulans on one side, Starfleet on the other. Alarms beeping everywhere. We see time and again the EMH use cleverness to resolve a situation, even when he’s severely out of his depth as he was in “Message in a Bottle.” But that’s where two EMHs are better than one! He and the EMH Mark 2 are able to take control of the Prometheus back from Romulans, keep the ship from exploding, and even reconnect with Starfleet in the Alpha Quadrant!

History is written by the victors Hands down, one of the best episodes of Voyager is “Living Witness,” and the EMH (or his backup program, who is essentially the same guy) really gets to shine throughout. Awoken 700 years in his future, he saves the reputation of the Voyager that the Kyrians and Vaskans have misrepresented, empowers Quarren to think critically, and keeps the two species from civil war.

Luke, I am your father We still can’t get over the fact that, when the Doctor went down to the planet in “Blink of an Eye” to perform some reconnaissance, he comes back claiming that he somehow had progeny. We never learn in what capacity and by what method, but it definitely blows up our skirts to know that the EMH somehow had a son whom he sadly had to disappear on.

You have the audacity to turn a house of worship into a prison? Jake just loves this little moment from “Spirit Folk” to death. It’s just the line delivery of the EMH as Father Mulligan in the Fair Haven holoprogram storming into the church and shouting “Sinners!” at all the Irish townsfolk who’ve taken Harry and Tom prisoner. He does get captured too and his mobile emitter gets swiped, but what a great line delivery from Robert Picardo.

Extremely Marginal Housecalls When the EMH’s creator, Dr. Zimmerman, is terminally ill in “Life Line,” our hero packs his bags for a trip to the Alpha Quadrant to cure him. And it takes a lot of coaxing and even some covert subterfuge to get to two egomaniacs to see eye to eye, even if all of those eyes belong to the same actor. But the Doctor succeeds! Turns out you can teach a Mark One new tricks.

My Treatment Coefficient is one When he’s kidnapped and forced to work on the Dinaali hospital ship in “Critical Care,” the Doctor is quick to observe the unethical medical practices, classism, and hypocrisy in their systems. And not only that, but he finds a clever way to work around their tight regulations to force the medical administration to care for all of its patients, not just the elite.

Hoshi, eat your heart out Though not the linguist that Ensign Sato is on Enterprise, the EMH is able to create a language that Fantome’s people can use to communicate in “The Void.” It’s no surprise that it’s derived from music which both the Doctor and Fantome share an affinity for, but it’s also a great moment of empathy when Doc and Seven determine these alien pests are more than they appear.

The holoprograms have nothing to lose but their chains We’ll go off in our next section about how the EMH is kind of a twat when he writes his holonovel, Photons Be Free in “Author, Author.” But on the flipside, his words also prove to be empowering to other sentient holo-people like the obsolete EMH Mark Ones out there. His depiction of subservient life as a holo-person may just start opening minds to their human rights.

—

Worst moments

The Strange Case of Dr. Doctor and Mr. Doctor Whoever gave the EMH the power to tinker with his own programming was just asking for trouble. One of the first things he does in “Darkling” is turn himself into a Mr. Hyde who is even more appropriate to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel than Kirk in “The Enemy Within.” And he somehow becomes even grosser around Kes than usual, which is saying something.

You are out. Auf wiedersehen. Fascinatingly, almost all of our Worst Moments take place after Seven of Nine has joined the crew. Maybe it’s because the Doctor starts getting more to do, and that includes more BAD things to do. Maybe it’s because he spends way too much time sexualizing Seven, as he does in “The Gift” by designing for her the ugliest, cringiest, most uncomfortable catsuit we’ve ever seen. Maybe it's something else. Let’s explore this trend…

Now you will cluck like a chicken And we already have a really awful example in “Retrospect” when the EMH peddles really problematic pseudoscience on Seven instead of impartially investigating the circumstances. He’s not even a little bit unbiased when he surveys the Entharan lab for evidence. But what we can’t forgive the Doc for is literally hypnotizing Seven – some mystical claptrap with no science behind it!

Rise and shine! The EMH has always been a bit of a prick, but usually he knows how to compromise for the good of the crew. So it’s actually a big negative to see how selfish and rude he is to Neelix and the other displaced crewmembers in “Demon” when the whole ship is bunking up to save energy. Dude, everyone is being inconvenienced here. The least you can do is let them sleep.

By George, I think she’s got it! Here’s another example of the Doctor treating Seven of Nine like a sex object instead of a peer! We’ve already given Tom grief for this one, but in “Someone to Watch Over Me,” the EMH recasts himself in the role of Henry Higgins to Seven’s Eliza Doolittle, and it’s just upsetting! Why can’t these men let Seven have her own agency without making it all about themselves?

Yep, here’s your problem: someone set this thing to evil It really shouldn’t take just turning off the EMH’s ethical subroutines for him to turn into a psychotic torturer like he does in “Equinox.” Does he not have common sense or the Hippocratic Oath or even anything better to do than torture Seven just because he’s told to? Just because he now CAN do unethical things apparently means he can ONLY do unethical things.

The dream dreams the dreamer… in bed I admit, I can’t judge someone for their private thoughts since no one other than telepaths would even know what they are. But the sheer concentration of the Doctor’s perverse daydreams all through “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy” is a little much. When you can tell that he’s painting Seven in the nude just to titillate the audience, that might be bad writing, Berman.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, DOLT There’s something about seasons six and seven that turns the Doctor’s insufferableness up to eleven. When the Qomar inexplicably fawn all over him for his singing ability in “Virtuoso,” the ol’ doc really lets it all go to his head and is ruder to the crew than ever before. He’s even prepared to stay with the tone-deaf aliens because they unconditionally treat him like a celebrity.

This one takes the [cheese]cake Everything from “Body and Soul” paints the Doctor in a really ugly light and, especially in the final season of the show, it makes it hard to come back from the impression of him as unsympathetic, self-centered, and abrasive. So when Seven expresses that he has violated her body while he was possessing her and his response is to blame her, that is starkly unforgivable.

Anything you can do I can do better – I can do anything better than you This is the same as one of the extremely out-of-character moments from Harry Kim’s Worst Moments list from last week, but it warrants repeating. What the hell was the deal with the dick-measuring contest between the ECH and Kim in “Workforce”? For that matter, what is the Doc even doing as the ECH right now? Chakotay is back and in command! Step down already!

Once upon a Seven of Nine We gave the Doctor credit for speaking for holo-people in getting Photons Be Free published in “Author, Author,” but the way he workshopped it left much to be desired. How freakin’ hard would it have been to make the characters in his story more randomized and NOT just exaggerated, cynical versions of the crew? It would’ve been so easy to save face, my dude!

One Po-turd-o, Two Po-turdo-o, Three Po-turd-o, Four! I may be alone in my hatred of the turd people in “Renaissance Man,” but I maintain that the EMH shouldn’t have so eagerly (and boringly!) helped them. But what we can all agree on is that his confession to Seven when he thinks he’s dying is disgusting and a terrible impression for his character to basically go out on:

“You have no idea how difficult it's been, hiding my true feelings all these years, averting my eyes during your regular maintenance exams.”

VOMIT!!!

—

Computer, deactivate Emergency Medical Hologram. That’s all from the EMH, until we maybe revisit him when we get around to character spotlights for Prodigy which you are surely watching because it is stunning. For now, we’ve got some more Voyager characters to spotlight here and some more Enterprise to watch for the podcast over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen. You can also give us your medical prognosis over on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe tone down the “I’m a doctor, not a”s a little bit.

[thresholdbb]

S7's The Void is vaguely reminiscent of s5's Night, but they show Janeway in a much better mental state, and how much she has learned to ease up on the distance she maintains from her crew as captain.

The openings of the two episodes have a much different tone. In Night, there's a distinct lack of Janeway. She's MIA, and crew is anxious and antsy because of their situation and missing leader. In The Void, they open on a scene of the senior staff enjoying their time together. They're laughing and sharing a meal, teasing each other like a family. Then they're thrust into the anomaly. Both instances of "the void" lack stars, both are potentially long-term situations without a clear means of escape besides getting through it. Night has a tone of uneasy calm, but there are other ships and adversaries in The Void, adding an element of urgency.

When we finally see Janeway in Night, she is kicking herself for her decision making:

CHAKOTAY: We were faced with a difficult choice. We had the means to get home but using it would've put an innocent people at risk, so we decided to stay. JANEWAY: No. No, no. I decided to stay. I made that choice for everyone. CHAKOTAY: We're alive and well, and we've gathered enough data about this quadrant to keep Starfleet scientists busy for decades. Our mission's been a success. JANEWAY: The very same words I've been telling myself for the past four years. But then we hit this Void, and I started to realise how empty those words sound. CHAKOTAY: Kathryn. JANEWAY: I made an error in judgment, Chakotay. It was short-sighted and it was selfish, and now all of us are paying for my mistake.

In The Void, Janeway and Chakotay have a similar conversation, but she accepts her error and her support network with less resistance and less self flagellation. With the urgency of the other attacking ships, there is less mental space to become concerned with mistakes, but her dialogue shoes that it is still a thought that is ever present in her mind.

JANEWAY: Impulsive and self-righteous? Is that what you think? CHAKOTAY: You did what you had to do. JANEWAY: Still, I made a mistake. ... JANEWAY: Maybe not. But if I'd listened to my doubts in the first place, we wouldn't have lost the other two ships. ... CHAKOTAY: B'Elanna and the other engineers are working around the clock to build one. She thinks they'll be ready to test in a couple of days. JANEWAY: So everyone's pulling together to make up for my mistake. CHAKOTAY: They have to. It says so in the Federation Charter.

Granted, it helps that she has some rules to point to for accepting Chakotay's insistence that they're in it together, but the situation in The Void very well could have had her fall back into old patterns we saw in Night. One of the reasons she fights so hard to create and alliance and get the ship and crew out of their situation and back into normal space is because there is an "echo of the void." This time, she isn't as inwardly focused. She is listening to her crew, even when they're being critical. You can see the impulse towards blaming herself for the whole situation, but she's pulled out of her pattern of thinking much easier this time.

[bad-girl-coven]

Silly Voyager Trends

There’s a throwaway line in one of Voyager’s episodes where Captain Janeway remarks that Tom had been behind a lot of fads on Voyager, so here are my silly headcanons for some of them :)

Fidget Spinners (Janeway and Tuvok are especially into these but Chakotay takes Janeway’s away because she keeps trying to do tricks she’s seen Tom do and failing and the sound of it constantly dropping gets on his nerves.)

Heelys (Janeway is really excited about these, but Tuvok points out that her heeled boots are too tall to include wheels and she pouts. Seven spends a ridiculous amount of time drawing up plans for high heeled heelys that would not lead to Kathryn breaking her ankles and enlists Harry to help. They give them to Kathryn for her birthday. She is delighted but Tuvok and the Doctor are not convinced of their safety. Tuvok decides to let it go, but the Doctor is angry that Janeway isn’t taking his advice, so he keeps coming up with schemes to take them away. He tries to convince Kes to help him but she refuses because the Captain looks like she’s having so much fun. All is well until the Captain stumbles and is unable to stop as she barrels down a very slanted street while making first contact. Seven has to pick her up and carry her to the sick bay because she refuses to go because she knows the Doctor is going to be infuriatingly smug. He makes Kes take a picture of him with a very disgruntled Kathryn Janeway and it hangs above his desk)

Among Us (The trend starts out relatively harmless, but Tuvok declares it a security risk and bans it after Harry and B'elanna get into a physical fight in the mess hall because Harry claimed B’elanna was peeking at his screen. Tom takes advantage of this and starts selling bootleg copies of the game for replicator rations. Chakotay finds out and tries desperately to get Janeway to throw him in the brig, but Janeway refuses)

Silly Bandz (Neelix’s food is more popular than ever after everyone uses up their replicator rations on collecting as many Silly Bandz as they can. Tuvok is infuriated by the bandz not being up to Starfleet uniform standards. The trend dies out after everyone gets sick of Neelix’s cooking. Naomi Wildman is overjoyed after everyone gives their leftover Silly Bandz to her. Tom Paris approaches her and tries to convince her to help him restart the trend so she and him can trade all of her bandz for replicator rations and split the profits. She pretends to agree, but takes all the rations for herself. Tom complains to Janeway, but Naomi tells him that their contract doesn’t count because she’s a minor. Tom regrets teaching her too well.

Stress Balls (This trend was mostly harmless. It briefly got out of hand when some of the engineering ensigns started tossing them at each other and a couple ended up in the warp core. They were banned from engineering and most people forgot about them. However, Tuvok still uses his, he finds it helps with his intrusive thoughts.)

Jigsaw Puzzles (The Doctor, Kes, and B’elanna take a shine to the puzzles and spend hours in the mess hall on a 3,000 piece Voyager schematic puzzle. Everytime they’re about to finish, Voyager gets caught up in some anomaly or space fight and their puzzle is dashed to pieces. They finally give up when five tries in, the Doctor is about to place the final piece when the ship lurches and the whole thing falls off the table. Kes burns the whole thing with her powers and they refuse to ever mention it again.)

Tamagotchis (Tom learns about them from one of his history books on 1990s Earth culture and is immediately obsessed. Everyone has a good time until Tuvok points out to Kathryn that nothing is getting done because people keep stopping to feed their tamagotchis. Janeway bans them for use outside of quarters but Seven keeps hers hidden with her in the Astrometrics lab. She finds taking care of something calms her down. Naomi knows about her hidden tamagotchi but has sworn to secrecy.) 

Slime (A short lived trend after a distracted Neelix accidentally puts slime in the food and the Doctor demands it be banned after pumping the stomachs of a dozen ensigns unlucky enough to eat the slime. One of the victims, Vorik, refuses to talk to Neelix for a week.)

[miminmimikyu]

Prodigy episodes 19-20

This series has many moving parts on top of a time travel based plot that spans 40 episodes and yet it never needs to do to a “previously on…” Any reminders just appear organically.

Ascencia exhibiting peak “if I can’t have it no one can!!” behaviour

I really really like that Prodigy makes use of the current state of starflleet defined by Star Trek Picard to create this situation where the crew is alone!

Holo Janeway berating Chakotay took me by surprise!! She never did that with the kids

So Chakotay and the Protostar were lost 2 years ago, I missed that info! And the year the Protostar crashed onto Tars Lamora really is unknown! I was trying to figure that one out since episode 2, but they didn't know either!

But to get back to Chakotay’s timeline: so he left on the protostar in 2382, just 4-5 years after getting home!!! I’m absolutely fascinated by what possessed him to do that? I would have pegged someone like Harry or even Janeway as a person who couldn’t settle back into normal life and needed to experience horrors (, new) to distract from horrors (, old). Unless... something particularly bad happened around that time and Chakotay would rather take a deep space mission rather than hang around. On the plus side, that probably means while he lived on the island for 10 years he only lost 8 years compared to everyone else.

Oh no, Holo Janeway’s existential dread! I really wasn’t expecting that since she was so ok with blowing herself up at the end of S1. But I forgot that that time she wasn't losing 10 years of Chakotay. (seriously.. what happened during those 10 years?)

Omg omg omg it’s going to be a causal loop????? Maj’el mentioning the Bell Riots and First Contact in episode 3, Dal & co being the people who freed Chakotay in the first place… that’s all foreshadowing this??? :D

Of course there's Bad Future Solum and the info that Janeway dug out of the Protostar wreckage with Chakotay piloting the ship that doesn’t match up, but I suppose it’s more wibbly wobbly timey wimey than just one loop-- the Mirror episode (& Wesley's explanation) showed all those alternate timelines existing next to each other after all!

I think I forgot to write this for episode 9-10 but i was reminded of this again: it’s so brilliant to have the Prodigy kids helped by the OG Star Trek prodigy child Wesley Crusher!

This episode is really full throttling it on the visuals, woooow!! That visual representation of finding thr final wormhole!!!!!!!! magic!!!

back to the future moment with that ripped cable!!!!

Holy fuck Murf ripped off a head!!!!jesus this battle is so tense! I almost thought Dal would be blasted to the past there! And Gwyn’s fight was so exciting. “Gwyndala our will is yours" ;_;

I like that this final confrontation ended with Ascencia's own actions taking her down: She focused too much on her revenge and own idea of what Solum should be and abandoned any sort of alternative. Her actions made life on Solum actively worse, thereby alienating people, who became unwilling to follow her (including her young optimistic self). But Gwyndala did get that support and she used it not to hurt Ascencia, but to disarm her. It is so beautiful that the first two people who came to her aid were the young versions of the two last survivors of Solum. Young Ascencia and Ilthuran saw what this revenge quest would turn them into (Ascencia saw first-hand and Ilthuran saw it in the damage he inflicted/would inflict on his own daughter) and that was enough for them to end the cycle. And after being disarmed, Ascencia's final downfall was not at the hands of Gwyn and her reclaimed heirloom, but it was that she still wouldn't let go of her revenge and it literally burnt her out!!

Oh my god I am only like 5 minutes into episode 20 and I'm already in pieces.. is this what it’s like to get everything you want??? (from a season finale)

(The rest of the episode I was just frozen in amazement)

"Once more into the breach!" I;m dying I'm dying The whales navigating!!!! The wormhole interior and those temporal echoes my mouth is open it’s so beautiful!! Holo Janeway copied to an EMH backup module!! That flashback montage aaahhhhhhfjdhhhhhhhhhhh screaming crying throwing up The final returning of the combadge !!!!!! being able to communicate with each other brought all of this together aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh cutting beginning of the S1 loop off with them touching the combadge i can't

Wesley looks just the right amount of excited-deranged when he says "Things yet to come.. wondrous and terrible things…"

First contact with Solum!!!!!!!!!! Gywn finally gets to let go of that weight!!!!

This made me let out one staccato scream of laughter. That better not be libellous, doc:

Wesley going to see Beverly after who knows how many years is so lovely! And him meeting and smiling at Jack! At least was able to tell Beverly her secret to one person. But lmao this means even Wesley didn't/couldn't convince her to tell Picard. Also I guess the federation going to hell might have been the trigger for her to go into hiding properly.

I cannot picture Janeway retiring (she needs a break, yes, but giving up the stars?). But having her say “don’t we all deserve a new beginning?” when you know what’s coming is heartbreaking.

The Prodigy team has absolutely knocked it out of the park with the First Contact scene. What a contrast between Zero and Maj’el being so cute together and then the breaking news. Then the shutdown of the schools, ending scientific exploration and ushering the era of protectionism and turning back on the Federation’s ideals. It was like air leaving the room. What I like about this portrayal is that we've seen many horrible events in Star Trek but never from the point of view of people so young. They're watching as their entire future might be taken away from them.

(Tangent: and for what??? not that attacks like these are ever justified and if anything S1 Picard is big on “fear of the unknown makes people make the most stupid yet devastating decisions” but man… to torpedo your own people’s [Romulans] survival because you and your secret organization failed reading comprehension of a message in a language you don’t speak , then got mega racist about it? Such a stupid senseless thing to do. Which was the point. I know. Still.)

This turned into another tangent that got too long that I'll post later but Janeway putting the kids on the new Protostar and sending them away probably was the best thing she could have done for them... Too bad for Maj'el's Nova squadron friends...

I wonder if we’ll get to see what Vice Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay of Voyager-A (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) are doing in these dark times if we get a season 3 (!!!!!!!). If the Protostar kids are far away from the federation maybe they will only get a send off from them? Or an occasional message? Or will we actually see what the new status quo will make Janeway and Chakotay do?

Speaking of Janeway and Chakotay, ngl when I read months ago that J/C would be addressed in S2 I thought that their relationship would at least be verbally confirmed. But I do like the way the series portrays their relationship. To me they act like they've been in relationship for a while. I know they were already always in each other's personal space on Voyager but they seem even closer and more loving compared to then.

I'm not really into shipping and I'm also the first person to yell "PEOPLE CAN BE INTENSE AND PLATONIC" but the little things in their behaviour and the fact that S2 keeps paralleling them with Gwyn and Dal just screams "married for years" to me. (That Janeway POV shot in episode 11, what did we just walk in on?) I also get that in the end, this series is about the kids, not Janeway and Chakotay-- there's only so much you can do without overshadowing them. But it would have been nice to have an offhand mention that they're married, or that Chakotay lives at the farm when he's not on a mission (e.g. Janeway saying "You're back!" instead of "I wasn't expecting you"). (i mean I like the decision that their relationship is just existing quietly in the background, but i'm not a proper shipper. if i was i think i'd feel cheated)

ANYWAY Dal's arc!!!!!! my heart!!!! "Others came before me; others will follow."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And captain Gwyn!!!! AAAAA. The three big character arcs this season were so nice: Dal's inferiority complex, Zero's exploration of their identity, and Gwyn dealing with her guilt and doggedness to fix everything herself to "deserve" a place to belong (-> accepting help and learning to lead and trust). Rok got her big arc in S1 but I can't wait to see more + what's in store for Jankom and Maj'el too!!

Prodigy is so good. I hope that Netflix realises what a gem they have obtained and lets it continue for many more seasons. This is seriously some of the best trek I’ve seen in years. So much care went into this series. It oozes love for Star Trek from every detail and yet it is something completely new!

Prodigy managed to tell a cohesive story over 40 episodes, carefully placing threads spanning 2 seasons, and having it come together in such a fascinating and satisfying way is incredible. The fact that this is a story that is so accessible to anyone who hasn’t seen any Star Trek, but weaves a complex story with an ensemble cast that hinges on legacy characters that nevertheless never overshadow the (new character) protagonists, is truly an impressive feat. I don't feel like a single one of the returning characters was there just for nostalgia's sake-- every single one ties into the themes of the story and plays a unique role in the kids' stories. And finally, the finale plants the seeds for the next season by seamlessly connecting to the events leading up to Picard S1. However, because the kids will be off exploring, you still have a sense of uncharted territory. Obviously I want a season 3 like you wouldn't believe, but I'm also so satisfied with how S2 ended that I don't actually mind the wait... if it means we get to see those "wondrous and terrible things" done with as much care as these last two seasons!

[darfeld]

Star Trek Wars

Trying to escape some remnant of the Empire, Luke jump to hyperspace a bit too close from a Black Hole. When he emerge into regular space, his hyperdrive is fried and his computer can't say were he is in the galaxy. In fact, it seems he actually jumped galaxy. With no frame of reference he doesn't know he also traveled through time.

Fortunately, a huge spacecraft soon arrives. Communication between ship take some time to establish, but with the help of R2 (and presumably from the people on the ship working on the problem too), they are able to establish audio contact. The troubles aren't over, however, since they don't speak the same language or any language known to Luke, who regret the absence of 3PO. Finally, the huge space craft decide too invite Luke to fly his X-Wing into the shuttle bay, through means of elaborate shuttle dance. Luke, having little options at the moment and sensing no ill intention from the people of the big ship, accept. With the help of a woman which Luke later learned she was counselor Deanna Troi, Luke's language is analyse by the computer of the space craft named Enterprise. R2's "binary" language is also deciphered and know Luke can hear him speak in basic, which is weird. He suspected his robotic friend had a flourished language but he did know half of it as it turns out. R2 is equally weirded out to hear Luke speak in binary. Picard allow Luke to stay on board as emissary of another culture, and promise to help him get back to his galaxy if the occasion arise. It might take a while. Luke allow the engineer of the Enterprise to have a look at his X-Wing. Geordi is baffled as it is not like anything he has seen before. Even stranger than Borg tech. Luke learn about the federation of planet and is amazed by the post-scarcity society in place on earth. Also by the replicator. He spend a not insignifiant among of time trying to make it replicate blue milk. Data and R2 have long conversations about their experiences as robotic sentient being. Along the way, the Enterprise stubble upon a new civilisation with some fucked up shit going on. Luke want to do something about it. Picard explain to him the prime directive.

Luke is like "You know what, I'm not Starfleet."

Picard is like: "I can't let you go down there wreck havoc, I would violate the prime directive by proxy."

Luke is like: "Yeah well, try and stop me then."

Obviously Luke gets down there, solves the problem of the day. Picard is pissed off. Say if Luke is going to be like this he can't let him stay on the Enterprise. He still commit to help Luke go back to his galaxy if he find something useful while exploring the galaxy. Luke says well if that's how it is, you can leave me to the nearest outpost, because I can't let injustice happen doing nothing, so it will happen again. Luke and R2 are left at the space station DS9. He make friends with Jadzia, Worf (Worf immediately respect him as a warrior), Quarks (he missed having a scumbag in his life), Garak, even Benjamin once they get to know each other a bit better. He has an interesting relationship with Kira. They talk about religion, fighting an empire, being in the resistance, etc... They flirt a bit but nothing come out of it. Partly because Luke learn about the Maquis at some point and decide to go check on them.

In the Maquis he meet Chakotay and join his crew, just before they are sent at in the delta quadrant. It baffle him to learn the voyage home is suppose to be 70 years long. Sadly he doesn't know enough about hyperdrives to help with that. He has a lot of heated discutions about the prime directives with Janeway, and he end up in the bring a few times for disobeying orders, though nothing serious enough Janeway would actually leaves him behind. He plays with the limits often enough though. All in all, even Janeway get a quite nicer experience than normal out of the arrangement, and the Voyager even arrives home in half the time. At home, with the data from Voyager and the reverse engineering done on the X-Wing's hyperdrive by Geordi, a solution is found to send Luke in his galaxy far far away. Luke thanks everyone for the help and the experience, and come back to the new republic with a lot of interesting idea for a new form of government and society, and a stolen replicator.

[delta-queerdrant]

the best allies we could have (Alliances, s2 e14)

If Voyager’s Kazon arc has a peak, it’s “Alliances.” Here it is, the dramatic turning point in our understanding of Delta Quadrant politics! This episode has a kernel of something almost compelling, but like much of season two, it’s sadly undercut by storytelling failures.

We cold-open on a firefight with the Kazon. Star Trek battle scenes are so silly; why do the consoles explode? I guess the claustrophobic mayhem is a holdover from the nuclear submarine aesthetics of TOS. I will never not be amused by how Janeway’s hair explodes every time they’re in a fight. Are there no bobby pins in space?

A crewman dies in the battle, and we learn that two more have died in previous Kazon encounters, our first casualties since Durst got de-faced (lol) by the Vidiians. The tension is real - redshirt deaths hit differently when a small crew has trauma-bonded in space.

A faction of the crew wants to buy off the pursuing Kazon with Federation technology, but Janeway won’t turn her back on the Prime Directive. The Starfleet/Maquis divide, usually an afterthought, feels momentarily real. We’re treated to a three-way debate between Janeway’s lawful good authoritarianism, Chakotay’s collaborative ethos, and Tuvok’s detached realpolitik. “This isn’t a democracy, Chakotay, I can’t run this ship by consensus,” Janeway says, briefly inviting a utopian, communitarian vision of a Voyager actually run by consensus. But even she’s swayed by Tuvok’s (frankly, bullshit) suggestion that a temporary alliance with the Kazon has the potential to make the Delta Quadrant more stable as long as Voyager doesn’t actually hand over technology.

This is arguably a weak leadership moment for Janeway, who can’t adapt to the demands of her environment or crew, but maybe it’s okay to be a rules-y Taurus if you surround yourself with people who correct your worst impulses.

Janeway reaches out to Seska to try to broker a deal, which is fun because it’s genuinely unexpected and makes Chakotay so squirmy. Meanwhile Neelix makes contact with a Kazon acquaintance. They meet up in what I believe is the first “hive of scum and villainy” of the series. You know these people are up to no good because there are alien bikini girls!

Here Neelix encounters the Trabe, another local alien species who have their own story to tell. The episode both becomes interesting and loses the plot completely.

The Trabe tell Voyager that “over thirty years ago,” they enslaved the Kazon in an apartheid society. When the Kazon rose up, the Trabe lost everything. Now the Trabe are a landless people still persecuted by those they oppressed, even though decades have passed and many of the Trabe were children when the Kazon overthrew them.

Janeway is delighted - instead of allying with the Kazon, they can ally with the friendly Trabe! Chakotay agrees - the Trabe, after all, have openly acknowledged the harm their people caused.

Meanwhile, me: OMG NOOOO THEY FOUND WHITE PEOPLE IN SPACE

Previously I wrote about the Kazon as a parable for midcentury US race relations. Before I rewatched “Alliances,” I genuinely thought they were just clearance-rack racialized space baddies, but here the parallels to white Boomer experiences of the 1960s uprisings are unmistakable. It’s a resonant scene, but watching our command team fall over each other to befriend their new pals is… stressful.

The Trabe build on Janeway's proposal: together they’ll bring the Kazon together and negotiate for peace. But when the meeting begins, the viewer can’t help but notice that the Kazon seem like the most reasonable people in the room. They don’t trust the Trabe or Janeway, and they have a much better read on the power dynamics at play than Janeway does. Because the meeting is a fucking trap.

This episode is such a bummer. Maybe I'm being too charitable, but it feels like a genuine attempt at anti-white supremacist storytelling that missed the mark. Janeway, our audience surrogate, is presented with a complex political situation and immediately latches onto the group she identifies with: white-presenting people who have claimed the moral high ground after centuries as oppressors. Then the rug is pulled out from under her. White liberalism as a facade for violence is a very mid-nineties dynamic.

The full impact of this plot twist relies on the viewer sharing Janeway’s white myopia. If you don’t implicitly trust the Trabe (or the writers), you spend the whole episode screaming at the television. Why are our protagonists so clueless?

“I hope there's a lesson for all of us in this,” Janeway says in the final scene. “Although some of the species we've encountered here have been peaceful, others seem governed only by their own self-interests.” It’s not a good look when our hero has traveled 70,000 light years to learn that… politics are a thing? And why didn’t her command team didn’t save her from herself? Are you telling me that Chakotay, the Indigenous anti-authoritarian militant, is this politically naive?

If “Alliances” is at times a smart portrait of how an oppressor mindset operates, it’s undermined by an offensive caricature of resistance. Violent resistance absolutely can be fueled by an ideology of separatism and racial hatred, but the Kazon aren’t a resistance movement; they’ve won. Yet the Kazon resemble white peoples' worst fears of postcolonial "failed states." It feels like the writers genuinely believe that the political and social problems of formerly dispossessed people are of their own making, not recognizing the ways that white supremacy and economic imperialism still actively shape the lives of formerly colonized peoples. The Kazon only make sense in a universe where the Trabe are still economically and politically exploiting them, and that's not the universe we're shown.

We needed an episode with this shape, one that sets up the hard political choices of later seasons, and I can accept that requires our characters to exercise truly poor judgment. But this attempt at gritty politics doesn’t feel grounded in anything real, and the result feels disappointingly thin.

2/5 triangular tables.

[divinemissem13]

An addendum to @25daysofvoyager day 8 submission:

Final chapter of A Very Voyager Holiday is now up on AO3!

There's a bit more Hanukkah in there too, for @hanukkahbingo

Full final chapter is below the cut, but if you want to read the whole thing, you'll have to go to AO3

The morning briefing was just wrapping up when Captain Janeway turned her attention to her morale officer. “I believe that concludes all official business. Now, Neelix, how is the holiday party planning coming along?”

Neelix sat up a little straighter in his chair and tried not to appear flustered. He hadn’t been expecting to give a report today and there was still so much to do and only a few days left to do it all! “Right on schedule, Captain,” he declared. “With so many traditions to incorporate, it looks like the celebration will go for several days! Uh, several evenings, rather. We can’t have the whole ship at a stand still for a whole week, now can we?” he chuckled to himself.

Janeway looked mildly horrified when she interjected “A week, Neelix? That sounds a little… extreme, don’t you think?”

“Oh, no, Captain! A lot of the holidays last for several days! Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Las Posadas all last a week or more!” Neelix reassured her.

“Yes, I understand and people who celebrate those holidays are welcome to do so for their full duration. But let’s keep the official celebration to…” she glanced at Chakotay and Tuvok for confirmation, “... no longer than three days? Three evenings,” she ordered gently. 

“Er, ah, yes, Captain, I can make that work,” Neelix acquiesced. 

Janeway rose to her feet and called the meeting to a close, dismissing the senior staff. Neelix lingered, however, and he approached her once everyone else was gone.

“Was there something else, Neelix?” she asked curtly, though not unkindly. 

He fumbled for the right words. “Well, it’s just a small thing… barely worth mentioning really… only…”

“Spit it out, Neelix,” Janeway ordered.

“I’m concerned that we don’t have enough dilithium for me to prepare everything in only three days,” the Talaxian blurted out. “There are a lot of different types of food, and decorations, and I was planning to spread out my replicator use over a week so there would be time to recharge, but now I have to do it in less than half that time and–” 

The captain held up a hand to keep Neelix from babbling again. “Neelix, you have my permission to replicate as much as you need to. It’s been a rough few months; the crew deserves a good celebration. And besides, Seven thinks she has found a planet rich with dilithium about a week from our current position so we’ll be able to restock soon.”

“Oh! Thank you, Captain! If you’re sure… oh, that’s wonderful!” Neelix bubbled. 

“Of course, I’ll have B’Elanna keep an eye on the energy levels and if we are getting too low, you’ll have to stop immediately. Understood?” 

“Absolutely! Oh, Ensign Kim will be so happy that I can make his patjuk - there really isn’t a good substitute for the red beans, you know - and we’ll be able to have the Bajoran fireworks display on the holodeck, the talent show for Kwanzaa’s evening of creativity… Oh! And Lieutenant Paris’ Festivus pole! Thank you, Captain. You won’t regret it. This will be a holiday to remember!” Neelix exclaimed as he rushed out of the room.

Captain Janeway shook her head in amusement as the doors slid closed behind Neelix. His unbridled enthusiasm was both contagious and exhausting. She turned to pick up the small stack of PADDs on the table and stopped suddenly.

Did he say ‘Festivus pole’?

***

Neelix most certainly had said ‘Festivus pole.’ Further research into the holiday of Festivus had led him to an acceptable alternative to fighting the captain, and the newly replicated pole now stood proudly next to the Christmas tree. 

With Naomi’s help (and unlimited replicator access), Neelix had put together a holiday celebration for the ages. 

In addition to the tree and the pole, a Hanukkah menorah and a Kwanzaa kinara were prominently on display in the center of the mess hall, each fully lit with holographic candles that could last all night. There was even a Vulcan prayer candle, despite Tuvok’s insistence that it wasn’t necessary to include any Vulcan rituals as their holidays were usually celebrated in solitary meditation. 

Tables of food lined the room, representing all the different cultures and religions. Neelix was far too busy playing host and running between the mess hall and the holodeck  to explain the dishes in person as he usually would, so it had been Naomi’s idea to include labels explaining what the dish was and which tradition it belonged to. 

Thanks to the captain’s generosity with the replicator, Neelix was able to make both traditional and Delta Quadrant versions of many of the dishes. In most cases, the traditional dishes were more popular, but the surprise hit was Neelix’s Leola root latkes. Tom even went so far as to suggest that this be the primary preparation for Leola root going forward but Neelix insisted that they would be reserved for the holiday so that they remained special. 

The holodeck was very busy for the three days as well. There was a packed schedule of performances and activities, including traditional spirit dances of both the Trebus and Earth varieties, Klingon opera (performed by the Doctor and a troupe of holograms, of course. B’Elanna refused to have any part of it), a talent show to celebrate creative expression, and a nightly Bajoran fireworks display, just to name a few. 

During the daytime, the holodeck was transformed into a winter wonderland. Off-duty crew (and there were a lot, since the ship was operating with a skeleton crew for the holidays) could stop by at any time to build snowmen, go sledding, or sit by the fire with hot cocoa. Neelix even heard a rumor that Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay had spent some time strolling in the snow together hand in hand - but he found that harder to believe than the rumor that Lieutenants Paris and Torres had started a massive snowball fight between bridge officers and engineering.  

On the morning after the final evening of celebrating, Naomi found Neelix in the mess hall, sitting next to a half-packed box of ornaments. He had a sort of far away look on his face and, sure, enough, he jumped in surprise when Naomi tapped his shoulder. 

“Oh! Hello, Naomi!” Neelix exclaimed with a tired smile and just a bit less exuberance than usual. 

The perceptive child squinted at him, threw her arms around his neck, and asked “Neelix, are you ok?”

Neelix caught Naomi in his arms and hugged her for a moment before placing her back on the floor. “Oh yes, just a little post-holiday blues. Nothing to worry about,” he reassured her. He chuckled softly and added, “Who would have thought that I’d run out of energy before the replicators?”

“Oh! That’s what I came to tell you!” Naomi remembered suddenly. “It’s a Hanukkah miracle!”

Neelix looked at her quizzically so Naomi explained further. “The replicator shouldn’t have had enough energy to last the whole week - but it did! And Mom says we’ll even have enough to get us to that dilithium planet to restock!”

“That’s wonderful, Naomi, but what does that have to do with Hanukkah miracles?” Neelix wondered. 

“Neelix!” Naomi whined, starting to get annoyed. “It’s like how the oil was only supposed to last one day but it lasted eight!”

Neelix’s eyes grew wide with realization. “Do you know, I spent so much time planning the party, I never learned about any of the actual holidays!”

Naomi giggled, “Neelix! We’ll have to work on that for next year. Like, did you know that Bolians celebrate because…” 

Naomi continued to catalog all she had learned about holidays but Neelix wasn’t listening. His brain had shut down at the words ‘next year.’

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep20: Investigations

The episode where the spy plot finally comes to a head, this one was full of all kinds of good stuff.

We open with Neelix starting Voyager's version of a cable access show (what I wouldn't give to see all the crew's segments he mentioned lol), and we soon learn that Tom Paris is leaving Voyager for good because he just doesn't feel like he fits in, and never did. While this had been built up for a while, it never made sense or felt sincere, and I honestly don't remember if I had figured out that something was up the first time I watched it or not. With the benefit of hindsight, and knowing that it was all an act set up to help uncover who was sending messages to the Kazon, it's actually quite heartbreaking to watch Tom have to brush off all his friends showing their concern and telling him how much they care about him and don't want him to go. Robbie McNeill does a very good job walking the tightrope of playing a character who's putting on an act that has to be convincing to the other characters, while still letting the audience see little moments where Tom's true emotions want to break through.

Neelix's tribute to Tom on his little show, with shots of the whole crew throughout the ship stopping to watch, was a really nice moment, because yeah, actually, Tom is a really good person and deserves some credit for it! I'm honestly astounded by how many people on tumblr these days don't like Tom- I always liked him, even back when they still gave him a lot of bad writing, he had a lot of those selfless qualities from the very beginning. I have no idea what show people are watching if the many times Tom risked his life for someone, or gave help or advice to his friends, didn't even register. But Neelix made a bunch of darn good points that the Tom detractors should listen to.

After Tom leaves, Neelix investigates to find out who the spy could be. Of course he inadvertantly asks help from the spy himself, and almost gets attacked by him before the Doctor's zoom call interrupts. (How did the Doctor not notice Jonas right behind Neelix pointing a phaser at him?! There's no way even he's that oblivious, but idk!)

The plot thickens when Tom is kidnapped by the Kazon, but lo and behold, the Captain was hoping for just that! Tom's insubordinate behavior was a plan to entrap the Kazon and find out who the spy is! Gasp! (More of a relief than a surprise for the audience, but I love how Chakotay was so mad about being left out of the loop. Lol he's not part of Janeway and Tuvok's inner circle of space besties just yet.)

Meanwhile, on the Kazon ship, Seska questions Tom, then very stupidly leaves him alone with access to a computer, which he uses to find out who the spy is. The Kazon realize this, and come in guns blazing, but Tom gets an action hero moment as he fights off three armed Kazon singlehandedly, and escapes in one of their shuttles.

Anyway, while Tom is escaping, the warp core is going to breach back on Voyager, because apparently they can't go a day without a warp core breach on that ship (do starships come with manufacturer's warranties?? Because it seems like they should!) and while Neelix is in engineering trying to investigate the missing communication logs, Jonas realizes he's getting close to being uncovered as the spy. Jonas locks out weapons and transporters to aid the Kazon as they chase Tom back to Voyager, and Neelix realizes what he's doing. Neelix gets his own action hero moment as he wrestles with Jonas to try to stop him. A weird plasma fire suddenly appears in engineering, and as they struggle on the catwalk above it, Neelix pushes Jonas over the railing into the plasma fire below, which kills him. Weapons and transporters ate restored, and they rescue Tom before the Kazon destroy his shuttle. There's an incredibly bizarre moment where they ask Neelix what happened in engineering, and he makes some silly comment and then laughs and smiles about it- even though like, dude, you just killed a guy! You literally watched your coworker be incinerated before your eyes a few moments ago, and you're joking and laughing?? What?! Sure, he was a spy, he was a bad guy, he made very bad choices, but like, you didn't know that till a few minutes ago, and he was your shipmate for almost a year! Idk, I feel like a normal response would be sadness of some kind, some sense of loss or betrayal, not, like, a silly little chuckle, but ok then I guess!

Also, what was with that plasma fire?? It appeared out of nowhere just in time for Jonas to fall in and die, and then it magically disappeared! And there was no hole in the floor with an exposed plasma conduit, not even a burn mark on the carpet! What the heck?? I guess it was a magical plasma fire that pops up to mete out doom to Starfleet officers who are deemed impure of heart, lmao. I suppose the writers kind of had to kill him to avoid having to deal with what they were gonna do with him, since they already had Suder confined to quarters forever to deal with, but still, that was pretty lazy to kill him off so perfunctorily and have everyone just be like, cool, he's dead, great! And I think having them figure out how to deal with a spy would have been way more interesting, and had way more they could have done plot-wise with the overall arc, rather than wasting more time on crazy serial killer Suder, but they missed that boat, so we're stuck with what we got.

Tom's scene at the end where he apologizes to the crew on Neelix's show is really great. He clearly feels bad about having to lie to people as part of the mission, and the first thing he does is take responsibility for whoever's feelings he hurt, no 'I was just following orders' buck passing for him. We have our good guy Tom back at last, and I'm always a fan of seeing a man deliver a sincere apology. 10/10, no notes.

The intel Tom brings back from the Kazon ship also details more of Seska's plan to hijack Voyager, which sets up storylines for future episodes.

Tl;dr: A twisty-turny spy thriller that keeps up the suspense and entertainment value throughout, while also giving Tom Paris some particularly good scenes.

[this-geek]

May I have your thoughts on Janeway for the character breakdown thingy, please? :)

Hello, hello, this took longer than I thought it would but here are my thoughts on Kathryn Janeway

• How I feel about this character

I love and adore her. She was one of the first characters that I got brainrot for and my attraction to her finally gave me the courage I was looking for to come out and look for help to stop hating myself. So yeah, she's pretty damn special to me.

• All the people I ship romantically with this character

I think it's just Chakotay tbh. I have read in the past some excellent fics about her and Ayala though. It was mostly because they were missing the people they truly loved.

• My non-romantic OTP for this character

It's gotta be Tuvok, he considers her insane and reckless and yet he stands by her. Ride or die besties. I also like her & Tom, in my head they grew up adjacent to one another as Starfleet brats so they have a sibling energy where for the most part it's all good and then Tom does something so unbelievably stupid & she has to fight the urge not to clip him round back of the head because that would be imature and unbecoming of a Starfleet captain.

• My unpopular opinion about this character

Hmm, I'm not sure. I don't like the J/7 ship which I know is quite popular, I just don't see it personally. But I'm not going to be a dick about it, you do you.

Sometimes I feel like she is over maternal-ised (probably not a word lol) which I think just comes from the era she was created in (Star Trek will always be a product of its time) and the circumstances of her character (no other Starfleet, highest ranking officer etc etc). Like yes, she is protective of her crew because she is the Captain it doesn't always have to be about 'Mama bear' instincts.

• One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I think it's pretty obvious. I'm going to need her to tell Chakotay she loves him and for him to say it back. It's been too long at this point and I've only been in the fandom 10 -12 years which is a fraction of the time others have. (I'm still watching Prodigy S2 and trying very hard to avoid spoilers).

[bumblingbabooshka]

Imagining a version of Voyager where actually a not insignificant amount of people didn’t trust Janeway or actively resented her for:  Her decision in Caretaker Being Starfleet Trusting the Maquis so quickly And Janeway (+ Chakotay, Tuvok etc) had to figure out how to actually really get the crew to be a unified front that trusted one another.

I’m thinking about that early seasons episode where Tuvok of all people goes against Janeway’s orders and tries to get them back home. I’m picturing a scenario in which (before that episode) Janeway assumes Tuvok trusts her completely and that she can always rely on him - that he believes in her. They’re each others only friends aboard and they have the most history together.   Tuvok going against her should shatter her and it should have led to like...a discussion, right? In my head I’m imagining a scene where we learn more about their largely unspoken history together. How they went from people who didn’t think much of each other to close friends, best friends. In my head they talk about what they lost, what they want to get back to. Mark, T’Pel, their families - Tuvok’s children. (Through this we also learn more about Vulcans) Tuvok reveals that the crew is not getting along well at all, despite what Janeway might think (I’m imagining many of the crew would hide animosity from Janeway as she’s the captain). As security officer he’s alerted to all the fights that break out, he’s aware of the discord amongst its crew. He decided it would be illogical to try to continue with a crew so fractured when there’s something that would take them home and end it. (And also, secretly, he wants to go home as well. He wants to see his family again. There’s a part of him that does blame Janeway for stranding him in the delta quadrant and they have to address that.) Janeway of course sticks to her guns and says that she isn’t going to give up on the crew. The situation is worse than she thought but she still believes in this ship and the people on it. This is where we and she learn that she’s going to have to be an entirely new kind of Captain if she’s going to get Voyager home in one piece, which is still her intention. I think the Chakotay - Janeway - Tuvok dynamic could have been so rife with tension. It’s about them ALL learning to trust one another and there should be a reason for them ALL NOT to. The Janeway&Tuvok dynamic should also in some way threaten the Janeway&Chakotay dynamic - making it something all three of them have to address. (Not just Tuvok and Chakotay).  Like the time where Janeway & Tuvok had a secret plan they carried out without informing Chakotay. I’m imagining stuff like that happening more often in early seasons - being left out of things until Chakotay gets fed up and is like “Hey. Is me being first officer like an actual thing that means something or is this just a symbolic title?”  Idk! I just think it would have been really cool if we saw Voyager’s crew go from a disorganized mess of Starfleet officers who didn’t sign up for this + Rowdy criminals + Random aliens they picked up along the way to like...a real crew, and more than that a family. Rather than them being pretty much fine the whole way through. I want to feel like there really might be a mutiny any second. Like even all the way at the top people are feuding because NO ONE was prepared for ANY of this. Also in this version of voyager Harry Kim would first and foremost be The Guy. He’s Mr.Friendly and Mr.Starfleet - he’s the guy that people on both sides grow to like and trust right away. He’s INTEGRAL to the plot and we can see throughout many episodes how he helps bridge the divide between people that Janeway and the more senior officers can’t - because of time, rank or personality. <- AND. CRUCIALLY. HE GETS PROMOTED FOR THIS.

[clementine-kesh]

What do you think a Voyager 'beyond the stars' type ep would be like?

I kinda like the idea of Chakotay being the 60s Sisko (I dont remember his name!) Because he is THE storyteller but I think theres all sorts of stuff that could be interesting about it (I know it would be weird for there to be a voy one as well as a DS9 but let's ignore that for a minute)

oh this is such a good question and i love the suggestion of chakotay but my immediate thought took it down a bit of a different path from the original far beyond the stars. so first of all we’re gonna live for a minute in a world where the writers weren’t awful at writing indigenous people/cultures for this. second of all i’m going to preface this by saying that i am not indigenous myself and am working off of my own research into post-colonialism as well as discussions with indigenous friends/teachers/colleagues so if anyone thinks anything i say here is off-base please let me know!

the vision i have for this ties into both chakotay’s background as an archeologist and as an indigenous person and places the voyager crew as a team of anthropologists on an archeological dig sometime in the 1990s or so. thematically, it would be very focused on interrogating colonial ideas of nature and discovery and ideally reveal some of chakotay’s own reasoning for leaving the federation to fight for the maquis (in a metaphorical sort of sense).

the plot would be something along the lines of professors chakotay, janeway, and tuvok showing up to some remote little island (in my mind this is somewhere along bc’s west coast but it doesn’t have to be, this sort of thing has happened in lot of places) with their gaggle of grad students and support staff (the rest of the crew) to do research. chakotay meets some of the locals and finds out they’re going to be kicked off their land soon because of some resource extraction project. chakotay’s like “well that’s bullshit, your people have lived here for hundreds of years and clearly have a deep connection to the land. this is your home, you can’t just move” and the locals are like “yeah well that’s not what the government thinks in part because they don’t recognize the various ways we’ve shaped the landscape through generations of living here because it doesn’t resemble western ways of living with the land and they don’t recognize the ways we still continue our cultural practices in this place.” of course chakotay gets really passionate about helping them and finding evidence to make the ministry of environment (or whoever is approving the project) change their mind.

mirroring sisko’s experience in far beyond the stars, i don’t think chakotay succeeds! i think one of the final shots is him looking haunted as bulldozers roll into town! but i do think it ends on a note of him being able to carry that story forwards and work even harder against dominant colonial narratives and ways of thinking.

[galactic-pirates]

Ok I’m going to do it. New drinking game (in no particular order):

Personal anti-wishlist aka do NOT want predictions for Picard Season 3 finale

Screentime is limited. Raffi is either not seen or only in background shots. It’s explained she is trying to sabotage the Titan’s engines or something if she is mentioned at all. Seven and Raffi are barely (if at all) on screen together and their relationship is never mentioned.

Seven is shown carting Shaw to sickbay. She uses her Borg nanites (hello Voyager callback) to help bring him back to life. This doesn’t make him a Borg it is just temporary. Shaw is not grateful and chews her out for it. Says she isn’t StarFleet. Seven agrees and resigns.

There is no Saffi spin-off, no Fenris Rangers. Raffi is never seen again. Seven is either never seen again or…

Shaw gets his own show spin-off. Possibly Seven guest stars one episode so he can save her life, and show he is magnanimous while still pressing the point that he was right and she was never StarFleet.

As part of being magnanimous Shaw pays Seven a compliment. Only it’s something backhanded like “you made really good coffee” and the writers think fans will be happy at the nod to Janeway, and completely overlook the fact that in the 25th century a brilliant woman is reduced to being ‘good at making drinks’.

The only assimilated we see get killed/do bad things are aliens, POC or both.

At the end Geordi is seen hugging his two crying girls and Sydney apologises to him and goes home with him. As part of the end montage she is shown handing him tools to fix the battle damage on the Enterprise-D because fuck that she had dreams of her own to be a pilot I guess.

To gain an advantage in battle Picard uses the “Picard manoeuvre”. Bonus points if it doesn’t make sense as to how it would help.

Even though Vulcan, Klingons etc. have a lot of their own ships nobody can/will help them against the assimilated fleet. Only the Enterprise is fighting the good fight. Sort of like an oblique reference to the hopefulness regarding the Federation shown in Prodigy. That was where StarFleet ships were all taken over by an external force and made to attack each other…. wait a minute *deep sigh* but anyway nobody helps because fuck that stupid kid show right? 😔

Somebody very gravely says “we are on our own”. Despite being decades older, and the odds being 50-1, the Enterprise is so special it manages to hold it’s own in battle long enough for Jack and Picard to save the day.

Even though he is assimilated and it should be impossible Jack is ‘special’ and Picard manages to reach him through his special Dad bond (fuck Beverley as the mother who raised him I guess), and Jack manages to sever the connection/put them to sleep/stop all the StarFleet assimilated.

In a parallel to Nemesis the Borg Queen self-destructs. Picard tells Data to get Jack off the ship and he has to stay behind. They both could have escaped given Picard spent a minute monologuing about friendship and family but he has to sacrifice himself like Data did in reverse.

As the unassimilated were murdered the changelings were all killed. Why/how they teamed up with the Borg, what happened to the people they impersonated etc. is never explained. They are dead, the situation is tied up with a bow. And this “they are all dead” is only an off-hand mention in a single sentence.

Despite name-dropping her Janeway neither appears nor is mentioned unless she comes in for a cameo at the end to lead the memorial/give Jack his medal/commission etc.

Hundreds were killed but the big memorial service only focuses on Picard and how he is the most legendary of all StarFleet heroes.

Jack is given command/made Captain of the new Enterprise even though it’s the flagship, he never went to the academy and has no experience. This is possibly done at said memorial service.

Inexplicably Worf is security, Beverley CMO, Deanna counsellor and Riker as first officer. This is seen with “Captain on the bridge” when Jack walks in. They all look very proud.

Kestra is never mentioned. Who is looking after her, where she is etc. is never explained.

The last line reveals Jack has taken the name Picard so he is “Captain Picard” like his dad and he says the legendary ‘Engage’.

I really hope I don’t reblog this next Friday and cross a lot off. I just really hate how damn plausible I think this list is 😭 this is a do NOT want list universe. Don’t get confused now. This is like worst case scenario for where they could go (in my opinion). So let’s really hope not. Unless of course I have had a failure of imagination and it is even worse somehow 😬

[kncrowder88]

I would have loved an 8th season, not for further DQ time, but the return. Do Endgame time travel plot with the borg (take out C7 and some other stuff personally not for it and can be shifted differently with an extra season).

Start the new season with the crew not even on Earth. Start it with Janeway on a call with the Admiralty - not just Admiral Paris but ALL of the top brass - and being given orders. Being told to sit. To wait. To ease the ship back home, just follow those other ones Captain they got command now.

And by the time she gets off the call you can visibly see her tension, her discomfort, her absolute terror at handing her crew over. Because ... she has been the only one in charge for years.

Show Tom and B'Elanna processing their child safely born. Despite it all. Despite all they've experienced. They are home and safe, their child safe .... both waiting for that other shoe to drop and tell them it's a trick.

Chakotay immediately scrambling because he has to ensure the Maquis and others will not suffer.

Seven uncertain, having just been ready to explore relationships more now exposed to an even larger community.

Tuvok needing medical help and his family hurrying to get to him, his wife constantly messaging Kathryn for updates.

I want that 8th season where they all now adjust and figure it out and fight for each other and still somehow at the end even with them all going separate places and Seven headed for the Fenris Rangers .... Janeway insists no one else will lead these people but her, they are her crew. Her family. And she'll fight for them.

One thing I truly appreciate about Voyager is just how long it takes them to contact Starfleet. They aren't even able to inform them they are alive until season 4, and it takes them until well into season 6 to actually be able to talk to them. I truly truly appreciate the commitment.

Like, it would have been easy enough to invent any excuse and have Voyager establish contact with Earth after the first season. But no, the crew is truly stranded in every sense of the word. And that makes it even more special when they finally make contact.