#i love his friendships with janeway

[isagrimorie]

"There's fight in Voyager yet. It's still got temporal shields, six photon torpedoes. It'll hold together. Besides, you know the adage. Captain goes down with the ship, right?"

Star Trek Voyager 4x09 - Year of Hell, part 2

Favorite Year of Hell moments

[xchronicles]

I am so tired of seeing arguments against J/C, saying that Kate never wanted them together on Voyager because it would blah blah blah. Guess what? We are in agreement and we understand why it was necessary, especially when you consider the context of the time when the show was made. We fully support why it had to be done that way back then.

But times change; narratives and characters evolve, and views and perceptions shift. If anything, Voyager's inability to ever have two adult characters discuss their feelings ended up falling into another trap - they had Chakotay go after the 'prettier and younger' girl. You know what kind of message that sent to girls and women? You can have the most profound relationship in the universe with someone, yet he will still pick the prettier girl over you, even if they have nothing in common.

Prodigy had the perfect opportunity to subvert expectations by making them canon because, in retrospect, the 'will they, won't they' dynamic was predictable.

It was stated multiple times that they were afraid it would completely take over the show, but I don’t see almost anyone mentioning that this is exactly what happened with Wesley. Every podcast I listen to spends 50% of the time talking about Wesley, while the main Protostar crew is hardly ever discussed. J/C is also mentioned in passing. It all became about Wesley. In trying so hard to avoid falling into the imaginary J/C trap, they ended up in a much worse one, where all any Trek fan wants to talk about isn’t the Protostar kids or J/C, but Wesley and Wil Wheaton.

 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[bumblingbabooshka]

Polycule Moments Guess who got access to recording software

[baylardian-1]

um more janeway and carson pony i literallyyyyyyyyy dont care hahahah little treat for @star-trek-the-musical

theyre both bad at flying

[obstinatecondolement]

[ID: A gifset of a scene from season one where Janeway and Tuvok are sitting together at a table in the mess hall. Dialogue is as follows:

Janeway, looking over at another table furtively: I think it's finally beginning to happen. Both crews getting along. Tuvok: That kind of bonding should improve performance and maximise efficiency. Janeway, with faux seriousness: Yes. I'm sure it will.

Janeway shakes her head at him fondly and is then commed by the bridge and responds, "Go ahead?"

End ID]

Star Trek: Voyager Prime Factors

[startrekprodigyfan]

Spoilers for the end of Prodigy Season 2

I love that Dal’s character growth this season isn’t to give up the dream of commanding a Starship one day, but to humble himself and realize that he works best as the second in command to Gwyn.

Gwyn was always more capable and in charge, and she absolutely deserves that captains chair. And while Dal will likely one day get a command of his own, there’s absolutely no shame in being second in command. And that fits his personality FAR better than being Captain too!

Not only that, but Dal’s growth and learning that he doesn’t have to be in command to make a difference and can still move Heaven and Earth for someone he loves and cares about perfectly mirrors the subplot of Janeway moving Time and Space to get Chakotay back.

Seriously, this is why Janeway and Chakotay were needed for this story. Because their connection, their friendship, their love… it’s exactly what Dal and Gwyn have experienced.

Dal is the Chakotay to Gwyn’s Janeway.

[insanewaykathy]

It's amazing to see that even after years in the friend zone, Chakotay continues to show his affection for Janeway with gifts, even if indirectly. In Shattered, he shares his special cider with her at a casual dinner; it wasn't a special date and this man was giving his best to his girl. I think over time he accepted and resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't have more than her friendship, but he decided that it was enough because love is not just kisses and sex. I WANT A CHAKOTAY IN MY LIFE, IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? 🥹

[lostyesterday]

The most interesting dynamics in Enterprise to me so far (I’m a few episodes into season 2):

Hoshi and T’Pol: Partially because they’re my two favorite characters, but also I’ve found almost every scene they’ve shared compelling. I think they have the capacity to understand each other really well and I wish they interacted more. Also they should hold hands again and maybe kiss.

Hoshi and Phlox: I love the few indications so far that they’re friends. Their dynamic is so cute, and I love the scene of Hoshi learning Phlox’s language, and the apparent ease and comfort they have talking to each other. Phlox feels a bit distant from the rest of the crew in most episodes so far, which is a shame, but the exception I think would be his scenes with Hoshi. I could be convinced to ship them, I think.

T’Pol and Phlox: Being the only two non-humans on a ship full of humans makes their dynamic really interesting to me, especially given how different they are in basically every other way. So far, their interactions haven’t had much depth to them, but the potential is there.

Hoshi and Travis: Every indication is that they’re close friends even if there haven’t been a huge number of scenes between them. The scene of Hoshi convincing Travis to sit in the captain’s chair was so cute. I like to think they know everything about each other and are best friends who maybe date each other for a little while at some point.

Archer and Travis: This seems like a potentially really interesting mentor/mentee relationship. It could have the potential to be a little bit messed up which I enjoy in these types of relationships. Maybe a bit of a Janeway and Harry thing going on perhaps?

Hoshi and Malcolm: I thought these actors worked really well together in the few scenes they were in together. I love the idea of Malcolm training Hoshi to shoot. I know I’m shipping literally everyone with Hoshi here, but I do think they have chemistry. I’m hoping the show never actually tried to make them a couple at some point because that would probably ruin it for me (I rarely like canon ships in Star Trek).

Trip and Malcolm: I’m grudgingly putting this one on the list because this is one of the dynamics we’re Supposed to care about as the audience, but okay, they got me here, their friendship is fun, so long as you ignore the sexism. Idk if I ship them, really, but I get why people do. There are some definite Julian/Miles vibes here.

[mylittleredgirl]

much more context with an episode list below the poll!

more info below by episode (forgive me in advance if i forgot your favorite doctor-evolution episode) (also forgive me for all the mistakes i will immediately see once i hit post but will be unable to fix because we can't edit poll posts):

season one: "i wasn't programmed for any of this!"

"eye of the needle": after kes starts advocating for him, janeway offers him the power to turn himself off, and he asks for a name.

"heroes and demons": he leaves sickbay for the first time and has his first non-medical mission. he's emotionally affected by freya's death at the end.

season two: "before you, i was just a projection of photons held together by forcefields [...] just a profession, not a life."

"projections": he hallucinates an existential crisis about whether he's a human or a hologram.

"twisted": the doctor spends time recreationally with the crew on the holodeck for the first time (though it's not clear if he enjoys it).

"lifesigns": he falls in love with vidiian doctor danara pel. at first he says his program is malfunctioning, but later believes his programming is adapting instead. he also records his first personal log.

season three: "i'm footloose and fancy-free."

"the swarm": his program starts to degrade because he has been expanding it for hobbies like opera and friendships with the crew. he says his program should be rebooted so he can serve his "primary responsibility," but kes and the others convince him that his memories are important to keep. (factoid: we learn his maximum runtime was supposed to be 1500 hours.)

"future's end": mobile emitter time!!! and his first time off the ship.

"darkling": he starts editing his own program (and it doesn't go well).

"real life": he creates a holo-family for himself.

according to the stardate mentioned in "latent image" (see season five), the flashback part of that episode happens at the very end of season three.

season four: "i believe i've earned the respect of the crew as an equal."

"revulsion": we meet our first delta quadrant hologram (and it doesn't go well). this is the first time we hear about holograms being subjugated by "organics."

"message in a bottle": the doctor meets the EMH-2 and reveals that at some point he programmed himself a dick and had sex.

"living witness": we learn that the doctor has a backup module who seems to have the same emotions and self-awareness as the doctor himself (which i take to mean that whatever sentience is now in his program can be duplicated by copying).

season five: "we gave him a soul. do we have any right to take it away now?"

"latent image": we learn the doctor had a holo-breakdown (off-screen in late season 3) after his ethical subroutines could not reconcile his decision to save harry's life over another patient's. at the time, they determined that erasing some of his memories was the only way to repair him. at the end of the episode, after the doctor and seven both argue for his individual rights, janeway decides to let him work through his guilt rather than deleting his memories again. assuming this ultimately works after the episode ends, it means that he was able to overcome a critical programming conflict through introspection and social support instead of altering his programming.

season six: "haven't I earned the right to self-determination?"

"tinker, tenor, doctor, spy": the doctor formally complains that his sentience is not being acknowledged and argues that he should be allowed to grow his abilities beyond his role as doctor. he also wants his potential to be evaluated based on his holographic nature rather than humanoid limits ("my program can be expanded indefinitely. i don't have limits!").

"blink of an eye": he lives for three years on the time dilation planet and even has a son ("it's a long story").

"virtuoso": he tries to leave the ship to become an opera star, choosing his passion (and his ego) over his originally programmed purpose.

side note: "fair haven" and "spirit folk" are both in season six, and that's the first time that anyone (including the doctor) seems to consider the concept that regular holodeck characters might also have some kind of feelings, personhood, or right to continued existence (unlike in season three, when in "alter ego" it's both a joke and a problem that harry falls in love with a hologram, or in "real life" when the doctor is fine with b'elanna reprogramming his family without consulting them).

season seven: "the doctor exhibits many of the traits we associate with a person [...] but are these traits real, or is the doctor merely programmed to simulate them?"

"critical care": the doctor violates the hippocratic oath in his programming by harming a patient to save others, and it does not trigger the ethical subroutine breakdown he experienced in season 5.

"body and soul": delta quadrant holograms are in revolt. the doctor experiences humanoid pleasures and enjoys them.

"flesh and blood": he betrays voyager to save the hirogen-programmed holograms and (temporarily) leaves the ship to join them, "because i'm one of you."

"author, author": a federation arbiter decides that he's not legally a person, but is "no ordinary hologram" and has some limited rights.

[isagrimorie]

You know…. for all of Neelix is the moral officer, and post-Kes he really did try. And I do actually like him if I forget a lot of the things in the earlier seasons.

But honestly, I think the heart of Voyager was Tuvok.

It’s not obvious because he’s very Vulcan about it but he is everyone’s closest friend.

Tuvok is Janeway’s oldest and closest friend, Neelix and Tuvok are friends and when he’s unguarded Tuvok has a fondness for Neelix. He is close to Seven of Nine, and he tries his best to be mentor to Kes even though he knows its not his wheelhouse. He even tries to be a counselor to B’Elenna even though he knows he isn’t trained for it.

Who else was gonna step up, really? Chakotay’s idea of mental health is the spiritual thing which Voyager tried to do less because they uncovered their subject matter expert was a scam artist. Also Chakotay’s other go-to is to subject B’Elenna to some tough love even though she wasn’t ready for it. It only worked because B’Elenna made it work.

He played Kal Toh with Harry and tolerated Harry’s impromptu musical concerts on the Bridge during Night.

About the only one he wasn’t close to was Chakotay because for the most part Tuvok was playing the “I’m her bestfriend.” rivalry thing with Chakotay. Eventually, they did come to respect and work together especially when Janeway seems to run headlong into another death wish scenario.

Tuvok was even great helping Sam Wildman during the time they were all trapped in a shuttlecraft.

And… Tom. In terms of working relationships Tuvok is Ron Swanson and Tom Paris is Tom Haverford. Or they’re the two guys from Mythbusters. They work well enough but they are not really close nor best friends. (I think this is mostly because Paris keeps encouraging him to get together with other women when he is very very clear how he is committed and loved his own wife. And I love Paris, but c’mon, dude, stop doing that. Wingman Chakotay, instead).

Anyway, tldr, Tuvok is the beating heart of Voyager. He is the one with meaningful friendships with most of the main cast.

[bumblingbabooshka]

One of the best Voyager scenes to indicate Tuvok & Neelix's dynamic and how I think Tuvok is just as if not more 'annoying'(positive) than Neelix is when Neelix pours Tuvok a fresh squeezed glass of a fruit juice blend and Tuvok's like (paraphrased) "I don't want to drink this." and Neelix is like "Can you please try it?" and Tuvok's like "I don't want to, you're really bad at this sort of thing. It's going to taste bad." and Neelix says that Ensign XYZ said she LOVED it, she even had a second glass! And Tuvok says Ensign XYZ could drink poison without a second thought and Neelix is like "Tuvok could you please just TRY it? Just try a little SIP of it PLEASE??" and Tuvok sighs and rolls his eyes and sniffs it before taking a sip and it turns out he loves it. Turns out it tasted good actually. And then after all that Neelix tries to talk to him over eggs (which he's again cooking fresh for him) and Tuvok tells him he doesn't wanna hear "the life history of his breakfast." Absolutely insufferable this man I would have burned his eggs on PURPOSE!!!!

[ussjellyfish]

Beverly Crusher and Tilly for the character ask?

Beverly Crusher

How I feel about this character

Beverly was a formative part of my youth and my Star Trek watching. She was intimidating when I was a child because she was so pretty and she knew so many things. I don't think she got enough screen time or character development on TNG (no one really did other than Data and Picard). I wish she had more episodes. When she has something to do, she is so interesting. I love how smart she is, how kind she is (it made doctors less intimidating when I was a kid), how she has hobbies in theater and dance, and she's a great mom.

I adore her. She's one of my favorite characters ever because she has flaws and she works through them and Gates plays her so well.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Kathryn Janeway!! They've met now (thanks Prodigy!) and they'd be adorable. They're both so dedicated and also such cute dorks in their free time. They'd love holonovels and dancing together, and also be really adorable power admirals together. I particularly love them getting together in the Prodigy/Picard timeline because there's something really lovely about finding love later in life and that contentment.

Also Jean-Luc Picard, sometimes, he often annoys me (especially in ST: Picard) and then I struggle with my shipper googles. They had this really gorgeous trust in each other and comfort in TNG, where they loved each other, and maybe it wasn't romantic, but they were there for each other. I don't like what ST Picard did to their relationship.

I have a soft spot for Deanna Troi and Beverly too, they're just so lovely together.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Will Riker. I love how they're so supportive of each other. They seem to really get each other, and there's a great trust there. (might be the actors, they're not given much to work with).

My unpopular opinion about this character

I feel like the writers did her a disservice in ST Picard. I don't know if anyone in the writers room had ever been a single parent, but it is very very hard, especially without any support system. I can sort of work with Beverly didn't want to tell Jean-Luc about Jack (I think this name is so bizarre, but okay) but cutting out everyone, Will and Deanna especially doesn't make sense to me. She didn't get to meet their kids, and help with with Thaddeus, or even experience that grief together, and she didn't get to meet Geordi's wife or his kids, and she went through so much alone.

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

Beverly and Kathryn get together and raise Jack together. That sounds fun. They had really great chemistry in their two minutes together.

———————-

Sylvia Tilly

How I feel about this character

She loves math! She's a teacher!! She's so smart and funny and goofy and she's a teacher. I love that for her. I adore her and the journey she's been on and she's just a glorious being.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

No one really? I understand where the Tilly/Michael and Tilly/Rayner shippers are coming from, but I don't really ship either pairing.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Michael! Her relationships with Michael is so lovely and deep and it grows and changes, they're so good for each other. I adore their friendship so much.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I love her being a teacher. (I don't know if that's unpopular). It's such a nice move for her, and when she wanted to be a cpatain, I was all for it, but guiding others is something she's so good at. I love seeing her with the cadets and Adira and I'm so excited to get more of her in the Academy show.

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

I'd like to have someone I ship her with. (Ideally a woman because I love femslash, but anyone would be fun).

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Seven of Nine

By Ames

While we definitely miss Kes, her replacement on Star Trek: Voyager definitely succeeds in filling her shoes and then some. Seven of Nine may have been introduced on the show as an obvious thirst trap to boost the show’s sex appeal, but she is so much more than that. The ex-Borg bombshell, with the acting chops of Jeri Ryan and some excellently written story arcs, grows into more than just the sum of her nanobots.

Get assimilated with your hosts from A Star to Steer Her By as we explore the many facets of Seven, whose journey to regain her humanity pairs so beautifully with the Voyager’s journey to make it back to the Alpha Quadrant. Scour through our astrometrics records below for our usual Best and Worst Moments lists and listen to our hivemind discussions over on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:32:36; featuring some bonus moments from guest star drone Carl!). Resistance is futile!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor abyss of space After Seven has [reluctantly] joins the crew, one of the first thing she does is start helping out in the astrometrics lab, and in “Message in a Bottle,” she discovers the relay network that our heroes use to send the EMH over to the Dauntless and pass communication to and from Starfleet. It’s an early glimmer of hope after years of tooling around in the Delta Quadrant.

All by myself. Don’t wanna be all by myself anymore. We get an absolute showcase in acting from Jeri Ryan in the stunning “One,” in which she’s left to guide the ship through some nebula or other while the rest of the organic crew members wait in stasis. Seven’s battles with her own demons of isolation, loneliness, and self doubt play out as hallucinations, but she keeps it together enough to save the whole crew from nebula gas!

A single Borg among billions of individuals When home seems to be in reach because of a starship Arturis brings them to in “Hope and Fear,” Seven initially determines that she doesn’t want to go on this roadtrip because of how daunting she finds returning to Earth. Watching her deal with those feelings until she comes out the other side feels like a win, even if Arturis’s scheme turns out to be too good to be true.

The robot has been neutralized. May I leave now? This is just one of those little moments from the show, but I like it enough to include it. In “Night,” when Tom is trying to pass the time during months of monotony, he’s playing some Captain Proton with an unimpressed Seven, who simply deactivates Satan’s Robot with one of her patented “I am Borg”s and it’s just so charming and funny that I’ve got to hand it to her.

Are you my mother? By the time we hit “Drone,” Seven’s able to help her sort-of son One learn the merits of individuality weighed against the dangers that the Borg exemplify, no matter how tempting they may seem. Her taking this new breed of Borg under her wing shows just how far Seven has come in the season since her introduction, and her heartbreak at losing him is real and lovely.

Part of me not unlike your replicator. Not unlike the Doctor. Like Kes before her, Seven develops a rapport with the EMH that is built on trust and their outsider perspectives (oh, and horniness because the Doc can be a bit of a cretin sometimes). Seven fights for his rights in “Latent Image” when she urges Janeway not to blank his malfunctioning memory again – something you couldn’t do to one of the solid crewmen.

You and I wouldn’t be able to play Kadis-kot anymore Another great friendship we see Seven develop is with Naomi Wildman. The young Ktarian starts out terrified of the ex-Borg drone, but by “Bliss,” the two are teaming up to take on the bioplasmic organism, as the only two people on the ship not affected by its hallucinatory effects. They bond over how they don’t have anyone waiting for them on Earth, but they have each other!

Time is the fire in which Braxton burns You know I’ve got to give some love to one of my favorite time-travel stories! Seven really gets to shine in “Relativity,” jumping through time to prevent some sabotage to the Voyager and brilliantly uncovering Braxton’s madcap plan. She knowingly puts herself in danger with repeated trips through time because she knows the importance of this mind-boggling mission.

No really, are you my mother? If you liked Seven’s friendship with Naomi, you’re gonna love her relationship with the dronelings we meet in “Collective.” We meet the Borg children adrift on their vessel and threatening anyone who comes by like puffed-up stray kittens, but Seven tries to save them from themselves and takes in the four survivors (and the Borg baby!), acting like their foster mother.

Definitely in contention for worst parents in Trek While the SSHB team tends to prefer Mezoti because she’s the best, Seven takes a particular liking to Icheb. Like a mother honey badger, she protects him when she smells the danger that his parents pose to him in “Child’s Play.” She figures out their scheme to sacrifice their child and saves Icheb from getting reassimilated, even if it would help his terribly flawed people.

They’re tryna build a prison for you and me to live in By season seven, Seven’s come so far in her character development that she fights for the rights of Iko, the death-row prisoner in “Repentance.” She determines that he can be rehabilitated and given the chance he deserves because he feels true remorse. If Seven got the chance to regain her humanity after everything she did as a Borg, shouldn’t this guy too?

Their isolation may limit their potential, but if that isolation ends, so will a unique way of life This one may not be a particularly good episode, but it’s always nice to watch Seven learn a life lesson. Though she doesn’t initially understand why she should prevent the Ventu culture from getting corrupted by the Ledosians in “Natural Law,” Seven befriends the primitive people and comes to understand the value of allowing them to develop on their own terms.

—

Worst moments

Scorpions are not to be trusted Speaking of things Seven does as a Borg, when we first meet her in “Scorpion,” Chakotay is reluctant to trust this scorpion in Borg’s clothing, who is certainly going to betray the agreement she made with Janeway. And whaddaya know, Seven immediately betrays the agreement she made with Janeway! Just like the scorpion in that parable that Chakotay totally lifted.

Nevertheless, I am willing to explore my humanity. Take off your clothes. Once Seven gets deborgified, it becomes clear that she’s first and foremost here for her sex appeal. And the show is going to remind you of that. A lot. No one is more aware of that at first than Harry Kim, especially in “Revulsion” when Seven just offers to sleep with him to lessen the tension, having no idea how inappropriate that is. How else are we to notice she’s hot???

Quoth the raven: We are Borg Like Data in “Brothers,” Seven feels compelled by some unnatural force to take over a ship and fly towards her homing beacon in “The Raven.” Unlike Data, she’s not just programmed by some Soong or other, but instead is hallucinating all over the place and would like to be reassimilated by the Collective. She even holds Tuvok hostage until she learns the corvid truth.

Jenny, I got your number: Species 847-2309 A big speed bump to Seven’s reintegration comes in “Prey” when the Hirogen are demanding the crew hand over an injured being from Species 8472. Janeway tries to teach her the value of compassion for a helpless creature, but Seven loses any trust that’s she has built up by deciding on her own to issue them a death sentence and beam them over to the Hirogen vessel to be murdered.

Sometimes your words just hypnotize me While we’ve already thoroughly put most of the blame for this one on the EMH’s shoulders, Seven isn’t entirely innocent when it comes to the episode “Retrospect.” She’s quick to believe his quack psychiatry and accuses Kovin of violating her just because the Doctor tells her to. If anyone was going to view the facts first, even under duress, it should have been Seven.

From Alpha to Omega The Borg strives for perfection, so Seven gets super into the Omega particle in “The Omega Directive” so much so that it becomes an infatuation. She stops considering reason and the danger of the situation that this highly unstable particle poses, which seems entirely unlike Seven most of the time. Like, it’s a cool particle, but don’t get everyone killed just to look at it, lady.

This is a starship, not a nature preserve After living among the crew for close to two seasons, you’d think Seven would have a slightly better handle on tact by the time we get to “Someone to Watch Over Me,” but apparently she’s just as inappropriate as ever just so the writers can make a joke. Frankly, watching her study Tom and B’Elanna’s mating habits makes me roll my eyes at the inanity.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own Oh, and we can’t forget all the assimilating that Seven did as a Borg, even if it’s hard to blame her as a person for it. But she sure does, so we’ll take that pass and run with it. We have a perfect example of it in the flashback story in “Survival Instinct” when she forces the little mini collective who’ve been showing signs of individuality to assimilate, ruining their very lives.

It’ll be like a simple night's sleep I can’t help but harp on this moment in “Dragon’s Teeth” when Seven opens up all the crypods and releases the Vaad’waur from stasis… for absolutely no reason. Scratch that: the reason was to move the plot forward. But really. Seven of all people should know better than to release swarms of randos without investigating the circumstances first. They could be assholes!

The caretaker array is turning the frogs gay! Okay, while I’d admit that this one might inadvertently (or maybe advertently?) be the funniest episode of Voyager, you’ve got to admit that Seven downloading all the logs into her Borg brain in “The Voyager Conspiracy” is hare-brained. Like when the Doc turns himself into Mr. Hyde in “Darkling,” Seven tampers with her mind and ends up turning into a conspiracy nutjob.

Fun will now commence On the flipside, some of the moments that are meant to be comedic fall flat in “Ashes to Ashes” when Seven teaches the dronelings a basic educational curriculum. She has no idea what she’s doing in providing the basic education of the kiddos… and it’s not her job! It’s clear the writers have only stuffed her in these circumstances for some chuckles, but I see through it!

We aren’t far from the boner of your people While I’ll be the first to stand up for the Chakotay-Seven relationship (rushed though it was), any time there’s weird romantic and/or sexual bullshit in the holodeck, I admit the red flags go up. So when Seven makes herself a holo-Chakotay in “Human Error,” that’s a no no. We’ve chewed out La Forge and Janeway for this before, and just wait until our surprise spotlight next week!

—

Turns out resistance wasn’t futile! We’ve just got one more bonus Voyager character spotlight before our Enterprise series wrap – and it’s a doozy! So make sure you’ve got this holoprogram running, follow the page for future spotlights and blogtivities, celebrate with us as we get through the rest of Enterprise on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, chat with our hivemind over on Facebook and Twitter, and we are Borg!

[insanewaykathy]

A heartbreaking headcanon 💔 In Admiral Janeway's timeline, when Kathryn found out about Chakotay's relationship with Seven, she felt her heart harden a little, because she knew she was losing the love of her life once and for all. She could never demand that he wait for her, but she never expected him to have a relationship with Seven, so to protect her heart, and accepting that they would continue together, she gradually distanced herself from him, inviting him less and less to dinners, until those dinners turned into monthly dates, with no candles, no food, no flirting… just facing each other talking about work. Janeway closed herself off for a long time, and Chakotay realized that he had lost not only his love, but also his best friend. After some time, in which she was able to process her feelings, she began to feel okay with it and they returned to having a distant friendship. She didn't get as close to him as before, because she knew it wasn't good form for that old and inevitable taste of flirting to reappear, but she didn't isolate herself anymore either. When Sete died, however, noticing his sadness, she gave him support, but when she realized that it would be dangerous to return to a terrain that had previously been fertile and wanting to avoid suffering for both of them, she decided to keep their friendship distant. Sorry, I didn't want to suffer alone today…

[lodessa]

21, 22 and 23 for Janeway, weevil and inara for the character meme

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Janeway: I love to write Janeway finding a way to have it all, to decide that duty and personal fulfillment don't have to be at odds, that she doesn't have to white knuckle her way through life denying herself her full humanity in the service of some perfect ideal of a leader that she constantly tries to squeeze herself into. But man is her point of view strangling to write from a lot of the time, especially if I'm writing during the canon time frame and timeline of Voyager.

Weevil: I honestly just love getting inside his head. People underestimate my boy (in canon and in fandom), the show sidelines him, but I love to walk around inside and explore all the things he sees, the ones he keeps locked away even from himself as well as the ones he just can't. And from the outside, I like to show him being pivotal to the characters that everyone else cares more about. Sometimes it is hard for me to write the things he actually knows or doesn't know about realistically though, because our spheres of expertise are so different.

Inara: I actually haven't written Inara, but I'm actually suddenly realizing that one of the things all the characters you chose have in common in my mind is their serious tendency to compartmentalize and repress because that's a survival tactic they bought into long before we met them. Because they are all these incredibly insightful individuals who somehow think the wisdom they have when it comes to others doesn't apply for them.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

Janeway: I just want to see her having it all, even if there's some suffering thrown in there as well. What I don't like to see is her drive, intellect, ideals, and strength being sacrificed as a tradeoff for romantic fulfillment or her being characterized with a really patriarchal / "traditionalist" mindset, which feels both sad and OOC for me.

Weevil: I love seeing him being clever and capable, but with a vulnerable side. I love seeing his complexity. I don't like seeing him turned into a caricature or reduced down to one trait.

Inara: I love seeing her friendship with Kaylee uplifted, how just because she's classy doesn't mean she's snobby, how she's truly a kind person. I don't like seeing her genuine pride and satisfaction in her work retconned away.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

This part actually took me so long (partly because google image search is useless now and partly because at one point i lost all the pictures i had saved to my laptop and partly because I am indecisive) and then I just picked some somewhat random ones after all that time waffling and searching.

I know I am in the minority for the fandom, but I love the bun of steel.

Remember that one time that Weevil actually had fun for a moment?

Literallly every picture of Inara is perfection.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s1 ep6: Eye of the Needle

Another episode I'd almost entirely forgotten about, and so basically got to experience for the first time again. It was very good, and a bit heartbreaking, but in a good way.

Being early in the show still, when the crew were still kind of in the denial stage of grief, this 'almost getting home' story hits particularly hard. The cast all do a marvelous job of portraying the characters bouncing around from excitement, to desperation, to disappointment as the plot twists and turns. I really truly didn't remember where any of it was going, and it was quite the emotional roller coaster. Kate Mulgrew in particular puts her whole heart into it, and I got a little misty eyed at Janeway's pleas at more than one point. We get treated to more fabulous Janeway hair down moments in this one, but the scene is so heart tugging you forget how pretty she is and just want to give her a hug because she tries so hard to make this random incredulous Romulan understand how desperately they want and need to make some contact with home. (And while I've always been critical of putting Starfleet women in pink nighties, since it's a very obvious attempt to 'soften' them and reassure the male audience that they have 'a feminine side', regardless of whether their characters woud actually be the type of person to wear something like that- and I don't feel like Janeway would- however, I'll let it slide this time because there's literally no outfit they could put her in that could take away from how commanding and compelling she is. Goddamn I love her.)

The subplot of Kes advocating for the Doctor was also nicely done in this episode. Obviously the Doctor being treated poorly by crew members because he's a hologram is a metaphor for all the people society treats as lesser for one reason or another, and it was an important moment when Janeway realizes that whether he's a hologram or not, letting her crew treat someone with disrespect just because they can get away with it is not okay, in and of itself. When she decides to stop thinking of him as another computer program and start treating him like a member of the crew, it's a crucial turning point for his character to start thinking of himself that way too, and makes the scene where he tells Kes he'll have to be left behind if the crew goes back to the Alpha Quadrant all the more of a gut punch.

I also liked getting more of B'Elanna and Harry science-ing together. There really was a lot more of it in the beginning than I remembered. It was great, and I wish they'd kept it up. It was cute as hell when she called him 'Starfleet' again, and I wish they'd kept the nickname as a running thing through the show. Harry's the first Starfleet person she tells about her estranged parents to, and I think that's a mark of trust in their friendship that really should have been something the writers went further with instead of abandoning.

The ending was generally a downer, but left them with a tiny sliver of hope, which I don't think was ever followed up on, as far as I can remember, so I guess we can assume their messages didn't get through, unless I'm forgetting a later reference somewhere. But I really appreciate stories that remind us that even if goverments may be enemies, most average people are good people who are willing to help others in distress. That's the spirit of Star Trek, to me.

Tl;dr: a well written, bittersweet episode.