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quasi-normalcy · 2 months ago

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Star Trek episode titles referencing specific characters or species:

So I've been through the list of every Star Trek episode ever, looking for titles that specifically reference characters or species. I'm talking specific references here, i.e., name drops, rather than just allusions. So, for example, I didn't count "The Squire of Gothos", but I would have counted it if the episode had been called "Trelane"; I counted "I, Borg", but not any of the episodes called things meant to evoke the Borg (e.g., "Collective", "Assimilation", "Drone", etc.).

Anyways, my results are as follows:

Characters:

Of the ST episodes named after specific characters, a plurality (17 out of 56) were named after what I am calling "minor" characters, which I am here defining as those who appear in only 1 episode. These included: "Charlie X," "Miri," and "Elaan of Troyius" (from TOS); "Bem" (from TAS); "11001001" (which is technically the names of the 4 Bynars) and “Aquiel” (from TNG); “Melora” (from DS9); “The Caretaker,” “Jetrel,” “Tuvix,” and “Alice” (from VOY); “Rajiin” (from ENT); “Jinaal” (from DIS); “I, Excretus” and "In the Cradle of Vexilon” (from LWD); and “The Trouble with Edward” and "Ephraim and Dot” (from Short Treks).

Q, of course, led the "major" characters, with 8: "Hide and Q," "Q Who,” “Deja Q,” “Qpid,” and “True Q” (from TNG); “Q-Less” (from DS9); and “The Q and the Grey” and “Q2” (from VOY)

Next was Data, with 4 episodes to his name (“Datalore” "Elementary, Dear Data” “Data’s Day,” and "A Fistful of Datas," all from TNG)

There was a 2-way tie for fourth place between Harry Mudd ("Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" from TOS; "Mudd's Passion" from TAS) and Spock ("Spock's Brain" from TOS, the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and "Spock Amok" from SNW), each having 3 episodes to their name.

Bashir was the only other character to have multiple episodes to his name ("Our Man Bashir" and "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?", both from DS9

An additional 20 regular or recurring characters had one episode named after them. These include: Lore ("Datalore"), Sarek ("Sarek"), Troi ("Menage a Troi"), Ro ("Ensign Ro"), Okona ("The Outrageous Okona), Dax ("Dax"), Quark ("The House of Quark"), Shakaar ("Shakaar"), Khan (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Kahless ("The Sword of Kahless"), Morn ("Who Morns for Morn?"), Dr. Chaotica ("Bride of Chaotica!"), The Doctor ("Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy"), Su'kal ("Su'Kal"), Vox ("Vox"), Boimler ("Much Ado About Boimler"), Kayshon ("Kayshon, His Eyes Open"), Paris ("We'll Always Have Tom Paris"), Badgey ("A Few Badgeys More") and Ascensia ("Ascension" (not quite, but I'm counting it)).

Species

Here, I counted not just the proper names of alien species, but the proper names of their homeworlds/dimensions as well. And here, again, "minor" species who appear in only one episode dominated the category, with 11 out of 44 episode titles: "The Gamesters of Triskelion," "Elaan of Troyius," "The Mark of Gideon," and "The Lights of Zetar" (from TOS); "The Magicks of Megas-tu" and "The Slaver Weapon" (from TAS); “Angel One” and “Galaxy’s Child” (from TNG); “Meridian” (from DS9); “The Swarm” (from VOY); and "An Embarrassment of Dooplers" (from LWD)

Q, which is, after all, the name of a species as well as a character, again leads the "major" entries, with 8 episodes: "Hide and Q," "Q Who,” “Deja Q,” “Qpid,” and “True Q” (from TNG); “Q-Less” (from DS9); and “The Q and the Grey” and “Q2” (from VOY)

Tribbles came next with four episodes to their name: "The Trouble with Tribbles" (TOS), "More Tribbles, More Troubles" (TAS), "Trials and Tribble-ations" (DS9), and “A Tribble Called Quest” (PRO)

The Ferengi (“Ferengi Love Songs” and “The Magnificent Ferengi” from DS9; “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” from LWD) and the Prophets ("In the Hands of the Prophets", "Prophet Motive", and "Tears of the Prophets", all from DS9) tie for fourth, with three episode apiece

There's a three-way tie for fifth place between the Vulcans ("The Infinite Vulcan" from TAS and "The Vulcan Hello" from DIS), the Borg ("I, Borg" from TNG and "Let Sleeping Borg Lie" from PRO), and the Andorians/Aenar, whom I am treating as one species ("The Andorian Incident" and "The Aenar", both from ENT), each with two apiece.

The Tholians ("The Tholian Web"), Orions ("The Pirates of Orion"), Cardassians ("Cardassians"), Jem'Hadar ("The Jem'Hadar"), Caretakers ("Caretaker"), Xindi ("The Xindi"), Species 10-C ("Species 10-C"), Mugatos ("Mugato Gumato") and Illyrians ("Ghosts of Illyria") get one episode each, mostly just boring noun titles

A few interesting things are of note here. First of all, outside of the one-off appearances and simple one- or two-word noun titles, the episodes of Star Trek that are named after specific characters or species are overwhelmingly done for comedic purposes (which probably explains why Q, Mudd, the Tribbles, and the Ferengi all tend to put in relatively strong showings). When things are serious, Star Trek across all series overwhelmingly tends to prefer more oblique or poetic titles. Notably, even the more "serious" episodes with Q ("Q Who" being the major exception) tend to forego the standard punny names.

Secondly, with the exceptions of Data and Spock (and to a lesser extent Bashir, Dax, Quark, the Doctor, and Boimler), Star Trek really doesn't like to name episodes after its opening credits regulars. None of the captains, for example, appear on this list: apparently you can name a series after Picard, but if you want to do an episode about him going on vacation, you call it "Captain's Holiday" rather than "Picard's Holiday."

Finally, it's remarkable what species aren't name-dropped in titles. The Vulcans, the Borg, the Ferengi, the Q, and the Cardassians (namesake of only one rather unimaginatively named episode) are all certainly among the major parts of the setting, but the Federation's oldest enemies--the Romulans and the Klingons--are nowhere to be seen; nor are the Changelings, the Bajorans, the Trill, the Betazoids, or any of however many other species to be featured prominently on their respective series. Star Trek typically seems to favour more oblique or thematic references when it comes to its antagonists (the aforementioned "Drone," "Collective" or "Assimilation" for the Borg; titles like "Heart of Glory," "A Matter of Honour," or "The Way of the Warrior" for the Klingons; titles like "The Neutral Zone," "The Enemy," and various allusions to political tension or spycraft for the Romulans; two separate episodes referencing the colour green for the Orions, and so on); titles that tell you what you can expect from these guys, rather than that they themselves are in it.

#star trek #the original series #the animated series #the next generation #deep space nine #voyager #enterprise #discovery #picard #lower decks #prodigy #strange new worlds #titles #naming

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fast-moon · 2 months ago

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DS9 Season 4 Thoughts

The Dominion is eeeeverywhere! No one knows who we can trust! So going into Season 4, our problem is...

the Klingons? Really? Guess old habits die hard WITH HONOR.

1-2. Way of the Warrior: New season, new intro! The Klingons show up to invade Cardassia under the pretext that the Cardassian government has been replaced by Changelings and they're simply "liberating" it. So Sisko gets his own Klingon in the form of Worf to stand against them. And unlike Riker last season who was just a one-off, Worf is here to stay.

3. The Visitor: Jake acts out the plot of several Doctor Who episodes where Sisko bounces through time while Jake takes the long way around, and upon Jake's death of old age, the timeline resets and it's like nothing ever happened.

4. Hippocratic Oath: O'Brien and Bashir get captured by the Jem'Hadar, but they decide not to kill them since neither one is a redshirt. Although O'Brien may not be a redshirt, he does seem to be increasingly red-pilled, as his sexism and xenophobia were on full display here.

5. Indiscretion: Kira and Dukat go road-tripping together, where the real treasure is the Cardassian asses we stabbed along the way.

6. Rejoined: Whoa, a same-sex kiss played completely, er, straight in an episode from 1995? Neat. Although, by the rules laid out in this episode, shouldn't Dax's continued friendship with Sisko be forbidden, too?

7. Starship Down: Sisko for some reason takes the entire senior staff with him just to renegotiate a trade deal between Quark and a Gamma Quadrant trader, and they once again all end up in deadly peril because he had the bright idea to fly the ship into a gas giant.

8. Little Green Men: Quark and Rom accidentally stumble upon yet another new method of time travel and get transported to post-WWII earth where they're mistaken for Martians. It's no wonder Starfleet offers a specific "So, you've found yourself displaced in time" course, with how seemingly easily and frequently this happens.

9. The Sword of Kahless: Worf gets invited on a treasure hunt, but ends up being a buzzkill. Though they rightfully conclude that returning a legendary artifact won't unite the empire, just cause it to devolve into chaos while everyone bickers over who gets to have it.

10. Our Man Bashir: Garak acts as the gatekeeper for spying while Bashir plays out a James Bond fantasy with the rest of the crew unwittingly cast in the supporting roles.

11. Homefront: Changelings have infiltrated Earth, with the aim of sowing enough distrust that people give up their freedoms willingly in the name of security. This episode is pre-9/11, by the way.

12. Paradise Lost: Sisko finds out that Starfleet had been lying about the caravan of Changelings crossing the border, bringing their murderers and rapists, eating the dogs and eating the cats of the people who live there, in order to justify declaring martial law.

13. Crossfire: Fresh off losing the hypotenuse in the last love triangle with Kira, Odo finds himself in another one, spending the entire episode hearing about how everyone appreciates him but nobody loves him. At least he got a hug.

14. Return to Grace: Dukat enjoyed his road trip with Kira 10 episodes ago so much they go on another one, and now he wants to be another leg in her love polygon.

15. Sons of Mogh: Worf gets in trouble for consensual acts between himself and his brother, so ends up non-consensually violating his brother's autonomy in order to not run afoul of regulations.

16. Bar Association: Rom forms a union and then goes on strike against Quark to protest for healthcare, paid vacation, and overtime pay. Americans watching are like, "Wait, those are things?"

17. Accession: A Bajoran pulled from 200 years in the past comes through the wormhole and Sisko is all too happy to hand over his "Emissary" title to someone more deserving. Until that guy starts trying to Make Bajor Great Again.

18. Rules of Engagement: The Klingons accuse Worf of going "It's Worfin' time!" all over a civilian transport, but it turned out the victims were all crisis actors. Alex Jones rejoices.

19. Hard Time: O'Brien commits a minor offense and is implanted with memories of spending 20 years in prison as punishment. Then he becomes a walking case study in why, if the end goal really is to stop crime, that mere incarceration is counterproductive.

20. Shattered Mirror: Sisko gets kidnapped by the Bad Fanfic Universe again, stuff happens to the Bad Fanfic versions of the characters, nobody cares.

21. The Muse: Jake gets entranced by a creepy woman who's after his braaaaains. And somehow in the future, people not only still know how to handwrite things, but write in cursive as well. Meanwhile, Odo and Lwaxana get married in order to give him paternity rights to her child, is now Dado.

22. For the Cause: Kasidy is suspected of being a Maquis infiltrator, but ♫it was Eddington all along♫. Meanwhile the show tries to set Garak up with a teenage love interest young enough to be his daughter, which for some reason they consider more appropriate than just letting him be gay.

23. To the Death: No! To the Pain. Anyway, the Jem'Hadar ransack DS9, and while on the way to kick their asses, they run into some other Jem'Hadar who have a beef with those Jem'Hadar, so they end up working with those Jem'Hadar to beat up the other Jem'Hadar. Jem'Hadar.

24. The Quickening: Bashir stays behind on a planet with a pledge to cure a planet-wide congenital plague in a week, but best he can do is make it so that no one in the future is born with it but everyone alive now is still screwed, so close enough.

25. Body Parts: Quark gets excommunicated from Ferengi commerce for not being enough of a predatory capitalist piece of shit. Meanwhile, the wrong cast member gets pregnant in real life so they need to BS a reason for Kira to be pregnant instead of Keiko.

26. Broken Link: The Founders infect Odo with "I'm melting, oh, what a world" disease, forcing him to go back home for treatment and receive punishment, which was the same punishment Q got for being a naughty boy: forced to become human and unceremoniously dropped naked in front of the Captain. #JusticeForOdo?

All right, halfway done with the series! Still pretty good so far, but some of the writing choices in this season kind of rubbed me the wrong way, particularly about O'Brien. Originally I liked O'Brien because I sympathized with him as the put-upon engineer who always has to clean up everything constantly breaking around him. But in this season he started getting... I dunno... kinda more generally mean-spirited and selfish. It almost felt like the writers were worried that the Bashir/Garak relationship was coming across as "too gay", so they performed some kind of "conversion therapy" for Bashir by making him hang out with O'Brien instead, and had O'Brien show off how a straight and manly man is supposed to act to a toxic level.

I'm not terribly fond of the new intro theme song. It sounds like the old intro theme song, just slowed to like 3/4 speed, so doesn't have as much "excitement", I guess.

There were also some cold opens that were "all the regulars are contractually obligated to a speaking part in every episode, but this episode isn't about them, so here's a random scene with them" to a distracting level. The one about Dax rearranging Odo's furniture was a particularly egregious one, because... what?

Other than that, the show continues to be scary prescient about current society, especially predicting security policy post-9/11 five years before it happened. And also the episode about the new Emissary who ran on regressing Bajoran society by 200 years for the benefit of a privileged few. In both cases, unlike reality, the ones advocating for those things eventually admitted they were wrong and stepped aside. If only.

But now, Changelings are everywhere! Infiltrating top levels of government and sowing chaos! And now that Odo isn't a Changeling anymore, does that mean his Putty Privilege is also revoked when it comes to dealing with the Dominion? We shall see in Season 5!

#ds9 #star trek #season 4

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cosmicretreat · 1 month ago

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Today in 1989: "The Vengeance Factor" (TNG)

Today in 1995: "The Sword of Kahless" (DS9) and "Maneuvers" (VOY)

Today in 1996: "Warlord" (VOY)

Today in 2002: "Singularity" (ENT)

#star trek

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sirellas · 1 year ago

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Left Hand of Destiny (1&2) stream of consciousness review

Overall thoughts: I really liked this book! Or technically 2 books but the second is just the continuation of the first so in my head it was just one long book (~500 pages all in all). This is only the second trek book I've read and also the second written by the actor who played the character in ds9 (shoutout to ASIT, though this one has a non-actor co-writer as well), but even beyond the star trekking of TLHOD, this was a really good read in terms of writing style, pace, emotion. It was very action and character focused which I enjoyed, and especially the characterization of Martok was so great and obviously JG Hertzler had a lot of thoughts about the character he played that translated really well on page.

The memory alpha article on TLHOD says this but I didn't really start to see it until the last half of book 2, but this is very much a King Arthur story (btw don't look at that memory alpha page unless you don't care about major spoilers lol). Down to a lady in the lake handing out mythical swords. That instance was a little heavy handed in my opinion, but I did like all of the prophetic dreams and talk of glorious purpose.

That's something to note though: if you don't like dream sequences, this is not the book for you. There are A LOT of dreams. In fact the opening scene is a dream, but it's now my new favorite opening line in a book because it jumps right in by telling you who this guy is and what his deal is:

I personally am a big fan of overt symbolism like this (even a well done cliché or two), myths and repeating cycles of heroism etc etc. And I think this book melded Arthurian drama with Klingon drama well. The Klingon-ness of this book was great. What better way to get to the heart of Klingon culture in a story but by focusing on the guy chosen to lead his people and getting it ripped out from beneath his feet and having to decide that he actually wants to be chancellor. In a lot of ways this is a story of outcasts finding their way back to where they belong, which isn't always what they expect or want in the beginning. Which leads me to...

The supporting characters really made this book. Without Pharh the Ferengi who got bullied for being as ugly as a Klingon as a child and now runs a landfill on Qo'noS, there would be no book. He's my favorite (little buddy coded to the extreme) but most of the major side characters are really well explored in terms of motivation and actions. Worf, Sirella, Ezri, Darok, Kahless, Alexander, to name a few. Alexander and Kahless were two of my other surprise standouts. And because no one who hasn't read this book knows about my new favorite guy Pharh, I will now include a couple passages I highlighted to spread the word about how great he is:

Wide array of well developed side characters aside, this book is awful for women. Yes the main antagonist is Martok's insane ex, but her character is kind of too outlandish to really have much depth. Ezri shows up at the end of book 1 and plays a big part in book 2 but honestly I'm not sure why she was even there (apart from loyalty etc, but I mean story-wise she didn't add all that much to keep the action moving ((anyone else could have been subbed in for her 9 out of 10 times and it would've made more sense tbh)) except to be another explainer of Klingon things to the reader). Sirella has a few great scenes, but not nearly enough and she wasn't allowed to do much either in terms of agency and impact on plot. Martok's two daughters are barely afterthoughts.

The main plot is that a usurper attacks Qo'noS (and specifically goes after Martok), swaying the Klingon people to their side through a combo of bioengineered charisma and the people's growing resentment toward progressive ideas that Martok (and Worf) represents. That's really only the problem in book 1, while book 2 deals more with Martok accepting the hand fate has dealt and deciding to win so they can save the decaying Klingon heart and so on. But even with the kind of cheesy setup, it rarely felt overwrought or unearned with the emotional beats. The antagonist lady is, yeah, she's a bit over the top. And before 2016 I would've said the quick flip to xenophobia and Make Klingons Great Again (I'm pretty sure they use that phrase almost exactly) in the general public was unrealistic but hey, cycles of destiny and evil constantly shifting and repeating, am I right??

There were... quite a few deaths. I guess I should've expected that, being a Klingon setting and all, but some of them hit me hard. And a few I don't think really needed to happen and kind of weakened the narrative.... maybe I'll put a spoiler section below a cut at the bottom of this to discuss those 🤪

This paragraph will haunt me for a while I think... 😀 sorry for inflicting it on others now but hey that's show business

Even with some hiccups (see spoiler section below), I loved the book pretty much. Shocker: tumblr user girlmartok loves the Martok book, but it was better than I had hoped even. The Martok focus was so good and the side characters just made it even better. Much more of a heroic fantasy than most star trek settings, which fit really well and also was refreshing. It's long! But I would recommend it if you have any interest in Klingons and/or fun little guys who go on adventures and think a lot about death.

SPOILERS ⬇️

Okay ripping the bandaid off. The way Sirella died was not chill. I mean even having her die was not something I would have included, because the story really didn't dive all that deep into her and Martok's relationship. But ramming an enemy ship so Martok could flee near the beginning of book 2... and she doesn't even kill any major bad guys doing it?? It just served no point narratively (the bad guys still outnumbered them, still caught up to them not long after) and it didn't even really affect Martok all that much beyond like one paragraph where he wants to turn around and go on a murder spree in her name... He doesn't even get to go on a murder spree in her name!!!

Bandaid rip #2: PHARH MY LITTLE BABY BOY DIES???? I was glad I had forewarning about this one because I would've been mad otherwise. I am not exaggerating saying he was my second favorite character in this book after Martok. The humor he added, yes, but also just his role as an outsider who's seen as weak by both Ferengi and Klingon, and he befriends the chancellor of the Klingon Empire, HOLDS ONTO THE CHANCELLOR'S RING FOR MOST OF THE BOOK AND BECOMES HIS SQUIRE BASICALLY 🫠💔 I don't know how anyone wouldn't fall in love with him. At least his death was done well, even though I don't think it should have happened. He at least got a murderous rampage in his name 😤 and Martok basically adopted him so he could get into Sto'vo'kor 🥺

Those were my main two criticisms of the book, and really ties into why this wasn't as great a story as ASIT, for example. A lot of things happen to Martok, but some things don't get the resolution they would need to influence him on this character journey he's going on. One of Martok's defining characteristics in ds9 is that he's a wife guy and his wife doesn't take bullshit. But then his wife dies suddenly and he's upset but he's not Upset upset, if you know what I mean. It didn't feel earned and it didn't feel necessary. Literally the first and only time it did feel like a reasonable plot device was at the very end when Worf tells him that people love a tragic victor even more than a victory. The problem is just that Martok doesn't ever explore what that tragedy really means to him.

Justice for Shen and Lazhna, Martok's daughters, who in addition to dying off screen are only brought up to highlight how shitty of a dad Martok has been. He just thinks of them (and his son Drex too but he gets more characterization solely by virtue of appearing in the narrative) in terms of himself and his love for them is more on the side of pity rather than real emotional attachment. Sirella should've been way meaner to him about that tbh.

Non character death related but a big focus of the first book was Martok losing public opinion pretty much immediately. Old friends turn against him and that really shakes him. But then in the second book... that's not really brought up again? The whole second book takes place away from Qo'noS, and yeah they mention that people will probably become less affected by the dumb bioengineered charisma after time, but I cannot stress enough how much the entire planet hated him. So he won the big battle against his foes etc etc, came back to Qo'noS and... just told everyone all that?? That goes along with the lack of fully exploring the consequences of some of these bad things that happen to Martok. It felt like a little too much piled on him and not enough resolution.

#the left hand of destiny #star trek books #star trek #martok #tlhod review #star trek book review #would LOVE to hear from anyone else who has read this btw #and sorry for the super long review. i did not even cover everything i wanted to lol #long post

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thegeminisage · 6 months ago

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ok its star trek update time. once again i am So Fucking Behind thank you work week from hell. monday (i think...) we watched ds9's "starship down" and "little green men," tuesday we did voy's "cold fire" and ds9's "sword of kahless," wednesday was voy's "maneuvers," except we watched it right after we watched star wars so i was incapable of paying attention properly, and last night we got ds9's "our man bashir" and voy's "resistance." whew!

starship down (ds9):

ALMOST perfect. i have very few notes here

first of all, sisko my best friend sisko my favorite guy sisko. i think it was very fun drama that sisko had to order the little bulkhead closed when he knew dax would die if he did in order to save the ship. i JUST WISH. he and dax. or he and literally anyone. had spoken about it afterward. i mean he thought his BEST FRIEND was DEAD and that it was HIS FAULT and we arent gonna follow through on that? what is this, tng??

that said, it was such a lovely way to deepen his relationship with kira...my best friend kira my favorite terrorist girl kira. it's easy to forget that she she has a truly and deeply held genuine belief that her boss is space jesus who is gonna save her people. and so then you've got. Your Boss, Who Is Jesus, But Also A Fallible Human Man. dying of a brain injury on the floor of your little spaceship. and what can you do! you only talk about work! kira wasn't out there making fun of him for "it's a big step" absoluuuutely not. she's just gotta tell him jack and the beanstalk, space version. and try to keep him from passing out. and then pray even though he thinks that's awkward. what a moment

AND THEYRE GONNA PLAY BASEBALL LATER. it it a TRAVESTY that baseball isn't ds9's thing the way poker was for tng or pool is for voyager. i understand it would be more expensive to shoot but like they got a whole ass set for that pool hall. come on.

side plot of bashir diving back in to save dax...WAH THEY LOVE EACHOTHER. HE'S SUCH A GOOD PERSON!!!!!! GOD

other side plot of quark lowkey being at fault for all of this (by cheating those guys) initially annoyed me but this episode did so much for quark in the me community because then he's like yeah i can deprogram the torpedo. and he can get in but not deprogram it. he just gets lucky. idk. it's so nice to see him do literally anything other than make unfunny jokes AND WHEN HE DOES he does a great job.

my final note is that it was charming kira misunderstood "hot dogs" but that quark will know what they are. how much do you think sisko had to pay him to get him to start making those for the holosuites lol

little green men (ds9):

im so glad i was able to forgive quark before this episode

this one was...fine. i enjoyed rom and nog a lot, and i didn't mind quark very much. he even made me laugh a couple of times!

i enjoyed all the jokes about how stupid were to be smoking and dropping atom bombs. when even QUARK is shocked at your behavior ("they IRRADIATED they OWN PLANET?") you know you've really fucked up

this raises so many questions about the universal translators though. people just...have those? under their skin? in their ears? all the time? then what on earth did they need a big one for in tos? what is this, farscape?

i've just now learned one of the guys in this ep was in tos, but since i never rewatch way to eden i didn't recognize him at all. iirc he famously said he'd love to come back to trek one day but only if they let him wear proper clothes. i am absolutely tickled with this information i love star trek

also, it was funny when nog said "i'm supposed to report you for smuggling but i'm not sworn in yet so i'll keep it under my hat for 10%." i love him so much.

of course, my favorite part of this episode was surprise odo. i remember joking when the dog put its paws on quark's chest "haha it's odo" and then 2 seconds later the dog DID TURN INTO ODO and i lost my fucking mind. my best friend odo...we haven't had any odo-centric content in awhile so this was a nice way to tide me over until "crossover," which ik is going to be a biggie and which BETTER BE FUCKING GOOD.

cold fire (voy):

my absolute favorite thing about this episode was that we get a little outside pov on voyager. this dangerous warship that appeared out of nowhere and leaves destruction in its wake with its advanced technology. <3 like, is that what theyre doing? no, at least not on purpose, but i absolutely LOVE that it's how they look to outsiders.

someone has got to teach kes how to recognize a red fucking flag. that guy was soooo shady from the get-go. girl, run. you know it's dire when even neelix's paranoia is justified.

actually, neelix wasn't in this ep much, but i liked what we had of him. he was willing to go with kes anywhere and just wanted her to be safe and live longer. wah. i really wish he didn't have this jealousy plotline as a black mark on his record because i REALLY like him otherwise

i liked the horror elements in this one at the end! the demonic little blonde girl, the women being pinned to the ceiling dripping blood...you may stop watching s*pernatural but you will never really stop watching s*pernatural. VERY surprising but in a fun way. also, tentacles

on a final note, tuvok is a VERY good sport about almost getting his head boiled by kes. like yes logic blah blah blah she does need instruction but just bc vulcans dont allow emotions to control them doesnt mean they dont FEEL emotions. anyone else would have been through with teaching her forever probably. i love tuvok so much i am so happy every time he is on my screen

sword of kahless (ds9):

RETURN OF THE KING!!!!! i'm so glad if any one of them lived it was going to be kor. i thought he died and that would have been kinder probably but he was the first ever klingon on star trek...he deserved another episode the most. also, if i had had to look at squire of gothos guy again it would've made me unwell

ALSO, KIRK MENTION. i literally had to rewind it and listen again 😭

i LOVED the first half of this episode. i loved dax and worf getting to know each other in a more subtle way, and i REALLY loved kor treating worf really niceys and vice versa. they were such good buddies! we were having a great time!

everybody got really annoying after they found the sword, except of course for dax, who got to be really fucking done in a funny way. dax having a consistent personality now has made her so fun, genuinely

and like, i kept wondering if the sword was cursed, how it made them act this way, why weren't they in their right minds...and then in the end it was Just Them. they quite literally tried to murder each other and it was JUST THEM. which could have been a very sobering realization if it was played that way, if like dax had assumed there was a curse or a psychic something-or-other messing with them, and then they realized in the cold light of day they had no excuses to fall back on...but that's not what they did, so, eh. gets an "either" on the spreadsheet. rip season 4's winning streak

i will say i had to google halfway thru the ep whether kor died and found out he does come back but then dies later. i'd rather know though because i couldn't take the anxiety.

OH WAIT YEAH I NEARLY FORGOT.................the return of that random kid from that one tng episode. fucking insane. the DEEP deep lore. i couldn't believe it

maneuvers (voy):

SESKA MY BEST FRIEND SESKA. SHE IS BACK!!! TO CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE

kazon politics in this episode were BOOOORINGGG but seska made up for it

rewinding a little: chakotay and b'elanna flirting at the beginning was hot. i STILL can't believe she ends up with tom paris. that said, chakotay could work with almost any character on this cast. he's just great like that. thats why seska wanted him

also, i liked that janeway took the time to explain to neelix why "one little computer component" had the potential to cause sooo much trouble. it's a clever way to disguise that what she's really doing is explaining it to the audience, but it's also kind to stop and take a second to genuinely hear and respond to his concern, and make him understand, instead of just getting annoyed

b'elanna is really that ride or die friend. chakotay fucked RIGHT off and she still went to bat for him MULTIPLE times to try and get janeway to go easy on him. in the pilot she wouldn't leave without harry kim even though she didn't even really like him because they had been stuck together. she defends tuvok in an episode later too that i'll get into when i get there but i really truly and deeply love that about her. NO one is more loyal than b'elanna

some SERIOUS close encounter shit happening in this episode with seska. i'm thrilled that chakotay finally gets some juicy drama that they don't need to consult their fake racist expert to write. especially because:

BABY? SESKA IS GONNA HAVE CHAKOTAY'S BABY?? god i can't fucking wait. then he'll have just 3 less babies than tuvok. who has 4 babies, if i haven't mentioned that yet today

also, his scene with janeway at the end...AUGH. one thing that differentiates voyager from tng for ME is how much they all love each other on voyager. it comes through SO clearly, even when they're angry with one another, maybe especially then. tng was so. STERILE. every scene janeway and chakotay have together is CRACKLING. voyager has had a lot of duds so far, it's true, but you just don't get that kind of tension on tng - or when you do it's very very VERY rare

our man bashir (ds9):

another ds9 s4 ep i'm "eh" about..i mean, i don't like holodeck episodes in the best of circumstances, but i genuinely believed if anyone could pull it off it'd be ds9. however i am feeling so lukewarm

garak and julian were incredible, of course. i was particularly thrilled by the bit at the end where julian straight-up plagiarized him to stall for time. AND after thinking about it i like that garak was literally willing to leave them to die - it seemed ouit of character at first, because you think of him as a Good Guy Who Is On Our Side Because He Has Breakfast With Odo, but maybe actually it serves as a nice little reminder that he's still quite unknown

AND i love when avery brooks gets to act unhinged. mirror sisko i will miss you forever

i also liked that horny thing o'brien did with the gun. do it again

that said...the set-up for this episode was sooo flimsy. like, why was garak even there, for starters. like it's kind of funny that he's just being nosy but also like. it is flimsy

also, i've never seen any bond movies, which means i didn't get most of the bond jokes

but my major complaint was the women...what is this, tng? jadzia "honey bear" dax was one thing - dax kind of likes being sexy and showing herself off and she's more than down to clown. but putting KIRA in the holosuite and then objectifying her like that (AND making her kiss julian! i know the actors were married but cmon) just feels...so demeaning. kira would never want this. we quite literally had an entire episode devoted to the fact that kira would feel angry and violated for her image to be used in the holodeck for any purpose, let alone sexy ones.

even in that one episode with old bashir in the coma, which may as well have been a holodeck episode, we learned something about him. the episode fucking sucked but we came away from it with some measure of character development. we got nothing here but a fun time (if you have seen bond movies and don't mind objectifying women).

resistance (voy):

THIS ONE MADE ME CRY............

that weird creepy old man...i spent all of the episode going if anything happens to this guy i'll kill everyone in this room and then myself

and by the time we got to the end and he DID die i was almost grateful because then at least he can stop missing his family.

AND LIKE I BELIEVED HIM. i was right there with janeway!!! i was like damn you gotta go find his wife before you leave AND SHE WAS REALLY GONNA GO. she was gonna risk her life for it! BUT SHE'S DEAD

and then at the end when she isn't listening harry kim doesn't look hurt or offended he's just CONCERNED. because they LOVE HER her crew LOVES HER. like what the fuck

anyway i'm glad he killed that guy FUCK that guy no one deserved to kill him more than that old man

the other thing that really got me was tuvok and b'elanna. again, b'elanna is the ride or die friend bc when they tried to take him she was LITERALLY going to fight 3 guys with guns to her certain death to keep it from happening and only didn't because tuvok told her not to.

i am so sad for tuvok always. he is so far from home and they were TORTURING him!!! he hasn't seen his 4 babies or the orchids he breeds in like a year and they're torturing him!!!!! i really loved his and b'elanna's conversation when he got back to the cell...it was a very sweet moment between them

but i MOSTLY loved when tuvok got to vulcan nerve pinch that guy. not NEARLY enough vulcan nerve pinching in this series since spock left if you ask me. i want him to do that many more times

also, absolutely giddy that nobody bothered to explain what it is to either the characters or the audience. we all knew. everybody say thank you leonard nimoy

WHEW. that was so many, may it never pile up like this again, etc etc. TONIGHT: ds9's "homefront" and "paradise lost."

#personal #star trek blogging #ds9 lb #voy lb

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