#the maquis part 2

[garashir]

[respocked]

Is this ship a thing or am I insane?

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller [the maquis, part II, s2ep21]

'Anyone can blow up a ship. But to look your enemy in the eye, knowing you'll remember his face for the rest of your life and still be able to do what's necessary, now, that takes a stronger stomach than you'll ever have.' - gul dukat

[starsspaceandlogic]

this is just so funny

but also, the convo that follows this moment is so good

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 2x21 The Maquis Part 2 thoughts (I'm re-watching, so there may be future spoilers)

"You don't want peace, Cal. You want revenge." Yeah, that seems true enough.

It's interesting to see the Federation hatred of Cardassians so closely; we've seen a lot of Bajorans hating Cardassians, and occasionally Miles too, but while the Stafleet officers on DS9 sure don't trust Cardassians, it's easy to forget they were at war not so long ago too.

"What about Commander Hudson?" "... I'll have to talk to him." Sisko is the most loyal friend.

"Establish a dialogue with the Maquis. They're still Federation citizens. I'm sure they'll listen to reason." Oh you're sure, are you?

The It's easy to be a saint in paradise is SO good, I see it a lot on Tumblr, but it's so much better in context

Kira's stunned expression during Sisko's speech is wonderful :3

Hehe, I'd forgot they'd be interrogating Quark about Sakonna, excellent.

"Do you expect us to believe that a Vulcan would be interested in you for your lobes?" "Vulcans are a species that appreciate good ears." HAH. Also, are you jealous, Odo? :P

"How long do I keep him in here?" "Forever." Gotta love Sisko's deadpan XD 

"I don't see what difference it makes whether we do it [execute Dukat] or they do it." I don't care either, but will someone do it, please? As a favour to me?

"The Central Command wants him dead. That's reason enough for us to want him alive."

Evil mind meld!

Dukat is insufferable, but I do enjoy watching him be a villain

A wild Sisko appears!

Dukat is so completely puzzled by the attempt at dialogue and reconciliation XD

"Tell him I still have his uniform." I love this recurring motif in this episode.

Ugh, I don't like Dukat looking comfortable.

Huh, information setting up for Cardassian trials later on the show

"Cardassians don't make mistakes." "I'll have to remember that"

I am SO looking forward to Dukat being crushed by the news that no, Central Command were not trying to rescue you, they just blamed the whole thing on you and left you for dead.

HAHA YES, that took the wind out of your sails DIDN'T IT.

"I'm sure you would have done the same for me." Love how that has left Dukat speechles.

"Ah, but the Xepolites have never been caught."

"I'm not just any Cardassian." Again, I really love seeing Dukat in action, he's so skin-crawlingly good at what he does, even if it's awful. You can see Kira having bad memories of threatening Cardassians in the background.

Yiss Sakonna and Quark again

"My emotional state is irrlevant." "Well, my emotional state is very relevant."

"Do you propose to lecture me on logic?" "I don't want to, but you leave me no choice." XD

"Then I'll make it so simple that even a Vulcan can understand." HAH. I do love Quark's turns of phrases

"They have weapons. You have weapons. Everyone has weapons!"

I hate that Quark is so good at this, but he sure did just go and outlogic a Vulcan.

"So we'll have three ships and they'll have two. The odds are in our favour, anyway." This made me chuckle a bit just because it's the simplest maths and post-GE-reveal he'll be calculating absolutely ridiculous odds, not just 3 v 2 XD

"That's not going to give us much of an advantage, Julian" And added to that, he was wrong! 😅

Dukat's approving look at Sisko...

Oh no, Dukat is gonna fire isn't he.... Aghhhh don't do this to Ben!

Oh phew, he didn't. Glad I was wrong

I love how Sisko and Dukat play off each other. "I will not kill a good man for trying to defend his home." "You disappoint me." "Don't expect me to lose any sleep over it."

Hmmm, it's interesting to wonder if they hadn't succeeded and a war had begun at this point in time, would the Dominion have ever got involved?

[mylittleredgirl]

buckle up folks, it's deep dive about chakotay hours!

season 2, "initiations"

@isthereintruthnobeauty1968 asked a question about chakotay in this post about the scene above:

for an infamous leader of an anti-federation rebel group he seems to firmly believe in its authority and ideals And to have (at least externally) adjusted to the blended crew seamlessly. what's the deal?

see, i don't think chakotay ever wanted to be a rebel, or even a leader for that matter.

he wanted to be a starfleet officer.

season 2, "tattoo"

chakotay enrolls in the acadamy as a teenager as young as he legally can ("tattoo"). he tells seven ("one small step") that he joined starfleet because of his love of paleontology, and he only turned away from that out of responsibility to the maquis and now to voyager.

[get a snack for this one y'all]

season 6, "one small step"

it doesn't come up often, but whenever chakotay talks about his pre-voyager starfleet career, it's always about first contact or archaeology. in "emanations," he compares their exploration of an alien burial moon to a mission he went on as an ensign, all while demonstrating his anthropology expertise. add that to him nerding out in "blink of an eye," "one small step," the dinosaur episode, and a bunch of other examples, he's a social scientist both by training and by inclination.

in the original star trek, they had an "A&A officer," a specialist in archaeology, anthropology, and ancient civilizations:

tos season 2, "who mourns for adonais?"

we never hear that term again, but that's the role chakotay often fills on voyager, and he's very happy whenever he gets to do it.

now, realistically, i don't know how much time pre-maquis chakotay would have spent in a blue uniform, because those skills would not make him an obvious choice to lead a maquis cell. ro laren sets up his character (unnamed) in tng as a tactical specialist who resigns to join the maquis:

tng season 7, "preemptive strike"

(which is a very polite and noble way to do it, as compared to eddington's defection in ds9.)

if he was in fact ro’s teacher (i think so, despite a stardate conflict in some later dialogue), it seems very in-character to me that chakotay could have started out pursuing a sciences path before showing an aptitude for piloting, strategy, and/or command. given what we know of him, regardless of his own passions or preferences, if a senior officer noticed his skills and encouraged him to change career tracks, he would do it.

teen angst era aside, he respects authority. he argues against dogmatic ideology when it's inflexible to the needs of the moment, but he likes working within a command hierarchy, and for better or worse, he is easily swayed by charismatic leaders.

season 1, "caretaker"

not only does he yield to janeway's authority on voyager before she even asks him to, and then molds himself into the kind of first officer he thinks will help her most, he does the same thing with annorax in "year of hell." tom is the voice of ethical conscience and reason in that episode, and he organizes the rebellion—against chakotay's orders!

there's so much going on here:

season 4, "year of hell part 2"

despite his father's perceptions of him as a contrarian, chakotay only rebels as a last resort. he would genuinely rather not. he clearly talked about the maquis cause with ro and others before he left—and i bet that's why he resigned to a starfleet admiral in person, to make one last appeal. his preference is to try and change systems from within.

not to west wing about it, but chakotay is only The Guy when he has to be—he wants to be the guy the guy counts on.

(hot take: with how he rationalizes the calculated sacrifices annorax is making in "year of hell," i don't think chakotay would have left starfleet for the maquis if it wasn't personal. but it was personal, so here we are!)

maquis chakotay is a disillusioned idealist, but he's never that disillusioned. he believes in the stated ideals of the federation, sometimes more than janeway does.

season 3, "scorpion part 1"

and it's a fundamental character trait that he looks for the best in people and situations, often to his own detriment (tuvok, seska, annorax, that time janeway and tuvok and tom all lie to him for half a season, the list goes on).

and it's easy to see good in starfleet, especially when most of his career was during the height of federation utopia before "the best of both worlds," at which point starfleet remembered it's also a defensive force and started building the defiant—which was the very first starfleet ship ever designed solely for combat.

the cardassian situation in tng is shown as an aberration in a largely peaceful era. the off-screen "border wars" were fought by officers who expected to go their entire careers never firing a phaser.

tng season 4, "the wounded"

for decades since making peace with the klingons, and with the romulans keeping to themselves, starfleet has been mostly goodhearted nerds who are committed to exploring and making friends. even if chakotay was a tactical officer, that was the starfleet he signed up for and served.

and, in fact, the reason why the federation abandoned the colonists in the dmz in the first place and wouldn’t help bajor during the cardassian occupation is because the federation and starfleet are devoted to the ideals of peace and noninterference to a fault.

tng season 5, "ensign ro"

chakotay doesn't object to starfleet's actions, but its inaction.

which, side note, is why janeway's choice in "caretaker" makes it easy for him to rally behind her. by choosing to protect the ocampa, even though it's a huge sacrifice and puts her in a prime directive gray area, janeway specifically addressed the exact trust gap he has with starfleet.

season 1, "caretaker"

that's what he wanted them to do back home!

chakotay defends his starfleet uniform in the kazon scene that inspired this whole essay, and he believes what he's saying, because he's right: that's not what a starfleet uniform represents, either in theory or in practice. especially in the mid-24th century, regardless of the political issues, the federation and starfleet do not conquer planets or enslave alien cultures by force.

(of course, they wouldn't have helped the kazon free themselves either, but that's not the question on the table.)

to op's main question: it's an interesting (or boring?) doylist choice to make chakotay such a platonic ideal of a Starfleet Officer™️ (which, for the record, has always included going off-leash at the expense of one's career whenever ethics overwhelm regulations).

season 1, "prime factors"

star trek went to a lot of trouble to create the maquis for the voyager premise of two crews... and then quickly brady-bunch'd them into one happy family and let deep space nine wrangle the maquis problem instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

chakotay being so willing to put himself and his crew into starfleet uniforms (even though some members of both crews objected to it) cheated us out of some potentially rich drama, but it does hold water with what we see of him as a character on screen, and his relationship with starfleet. it has disappointed him, but he still believes that it's a force for good, and chakotay will always err on the side of seeing the good in something and thinking he can change it for the better from within.

--

tl;dr: chakotay is a starfleet officer by training and at heart, who was temporarily out of uniform because his family and tribe happened to be directly in the middle of starfleet's messiest ethical quagmire.

he made a personal, moral decision to join the maquis, not because he was anti-federation, but because that was the only way to protect federation civilians—which was part of his starfleet oath to begin with. he worked hard when he was younger to earn this uniform and i think, in spite of everything, he feels honestly proud to get to wear it again.

[wilwheaton]

"On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well, it's easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints — just people. Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not!"

Cmdr. Sisko, The Maquis Part 2

[chakotaybodypillow]

Topics for my Chakotay research!! :D

Before I fully dive into everything I have about Chakotay I want to create and share my sort of headers or what I plan to discuss so yall have an idea of what I’ll be discussing the following weeks :D I may or may not follow this to a tee. I have tried over the years to create a document organizing my thoughts. But there is always so much to consider and it's forever changing. Especially now his background region is specified.

If there is anything in here that is not addressed that you would like me to cover, please let me know! I'll let you know whether or not its something included deeper in the text or if its something I've not yet considered. If that's the case my dms are open and we can discuss it :)

The Al-lore of Chakotay

1: Self Introduction

-How Chakotay made me consider “self” and “others” in the real world and in media.

2: Prodigy and the Nicarao

-The research and the why -The Greater Nicoya -The petroglyphs -Further thoughts and questions

3: The wrongdoings of Chakotay

-Negative stereotypes -Inaccurate cultural portrayals -intro to fixing this within canon? (statement or kinda thesis idk)

4: My past research for a “tribe”

-The research and the why -The Maya -The Lancandon -Q’eqchi

5: Considering the cards we were dealt

-The issue with Trebus -A realistic look at Trebus -Trebus within the Star Trek realm -Tying together the loose ends (how it works for his story/issues in community)

6: Considering the cards we were dealt part 2

-Chakotay's identity as told (issues with his “identity”/the Ladino) -The issues with the destruction of Trebus -Posing some questions (futurism for poc) -Further and final thoughts on fixing him within canon (chronological issues)

7: Exploring Chakotay 1 (Important themes to potentially explore)

-Chakotay's story and immigration -Chakotay's story and “Nepantla” -Chakotay's story and exploring self identity -Chakotay's story and generational trauma

8: Exploring Chakotay 2

-Chakotay through the eyes of the creators and actor

9: Final thoughts!!

-readings (completed/planned/currently reading)

PART 2: Headcanons for background story!!

1: From canon to beta-canon to headcanon (separating and combining the 3)

-the definitions and the how they work  -personal thoughts on how it works  

2: Character Bible

-super basic info on almost all characters

3: Life on Trebus

-Explanation on why I stay vague -Friends/family -Complications within these circles

4: The Academy

-Deeper intro to characters -1st year -2nd year -3rd year -4th year

5: 1st command (Uss Gettysburg)

-Deeper intro to characters -basic info

6: 2nd command (Uss Vico)

-Deeper intro to characters -basic info (segway to side mission)

7: 2nd command part 2 (the trip back home)

-catching up with characters -basic info 

8: 2nd command part 3

-um.. Kinda fuzzy here but intro to my plans for his return from leave

9: 3rd command (“shore” duty/admin at the academy)

-catching up/intro for characters -basic info

10: 4th/5th duty assignments

-yeah this is a bit fuzzy too but i’ll explain ok  -basic info

11: 6th command (Uss Merrimac)

-don't hate but kinda fuzzy too :( BUT I KNOW THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF ALL OF THESE :(

-basic info

12: The beginning to the maquis

-again…don't hate, but i have important ideas for characters lol

I know this makes me look INSANE but this has been something I’ve thought about for a very long time, maybe like 15 years :/ Its been through a lot in my head and on paper but through my art i’ve been able to generate ideas and a direction i want his character to go. I will state this probably a million times more as I type out my ideas, but the headcanons I include, i dont expect that it will align with everyones ideas and speculations with his story and i dont expect everyone to agree with my opinions. We all view chakotay differently and i'm perfectly ok with that. I do this to give others a different perspective on chakotay and his potential. To show that he is interesting. Also to maybe provide anyone with a more “thorough” background story and development for him. Also for any artist or fanfiction authors out there that want to include any of my work in their own, please feel free!! This is for everyone! Its the reason i do it :D anyways i hope i can share all of these thoughts in full before school starts but idk. Some may come in different formats like videos or art so stay tuned!

I will do my best to link my sources as I post but for now here are just a few videos to watch when considering Chakotay and his ethnicity:

this one is a animated retelling of the Maya creation story from the Popol Vuh : ) this ones a fun watch :D

[fast-moon]

DS9 Season 5 Thoughts

So, last season ended on... pretty much the same note season 3 ended on, which was that the Changelings had infiltrated positions of power across the galaxy. Let's see if this season they actually do anything about that.

1. Apocalypse Rising: Sisko, O'Brien, and Odo get to cosplay Klingons as they infiltrate the Empire in order to expose Gowron as a Changeling. But it turns out they had the right place, wrong guy.

2. The Ship: Sisko finds a downed Jem'Hadar ship and says "finders keepers", but a Vorta shows up and asks for it back. It takes half the crews of both sides dying before they realize that the Vorta just wanted to retrieve a sick Changeling from the ship, making the entire stand-off pointless.

3. Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places: WTF is this title and WTF did I just watch? Worf wants to make the moves on Quark's Klingon ex-wife, so Dax sexually assaults him to take his mind off it. Meanwhile, O'Brien has to keep removing himself from situations where he could cheat on Keiko with Kira because he totally would if he could.

4. Nor the Battle to the Strong: Good lord, this series was even prescient about putting yourself in dangerous situations for social media clout and then quickly getting in way over your head. At least Jake was able to admit he was a dumbass.

5. The Assignment: Keiko trolls the shit out of O'Brien by pretending to be possessed by a wraith in order to finally get some goddamn respect. That's my interpretation of this episode and I'm sticking with it.

6. Trials and Tribble-ations: lol. To be fair, I did see this specific episode back in the 90's because a friend of mine taped it and insisted I see it, but at least now I have context for who all the DS9 characters are, and it made it even funnier.

7. Let He Who is Without Sin: Dax drags Worf to Pornworld against his will, then calls him "controlling" when she does her own thing without any regard for his feelings. Then she acts all surprised when he sides with the people protesting irresponsible self-indulgence.

8. Things Past: Odo, Sisko, Dax, and Garak get Quantum Leaped into some Bajoran slaves in the past, but it turns out Odo was just having an anxiety attack over a mistake he'd made and dragged everyone else into it.

9. The Ascent: Odo and Quark get jealous of Kira and Dukat having gotten two "mortal enemies go road-tripping" episodes, decide to go on one themselves. Meanwhile, Jake and Nog become roommates, but now ironically it's Jake who's the undisciplined one while Nog is more responsible.

10. Rapture: Everyone gets new uniforms, causing Sisko to see obelisks, make maps out of his mashed potatoes, and go on crazy rants that are enough to deny Bajor entry into the Federation, eventually forcing Bashir to lobotomize him.

11. The Darkness and the Light: Someone who wasn't even part of the Cardassian military manages to covertly murder most of Kira's former resistance members, putting the competence of the actual Cardassian military to shame.

12. The Begotten: Odo's a dad... again, and has to lose the child... again. But at least he got his shapeshifting back from it.

13. For the Uniform: The Maquis start using chemical warfare against Cardassian settlements, so Sisko uses chemical warfare right back at them. And everyone's just... okay with this?

14. In Purgatory's Shadow: The episode opens teasing a Garak/Bashir road-trip, only to bait-and-switch it to a Garak/Worf road trip, only to Uno-reverse-card it back to Garak/Bashir. Also, if Bashir's been replaced by a Changeling since before the uniform switch in episode 10, then which one got frisky on Risa?

15. By Inferno's Light: Dukat gets tired of being the butt-monkey for the past couple seasons and joins the Dominion. Meanwhile, Worf spends the entire episode getting beaten up, as Worf does.

16. Doctor Bashir, I Presume?: One episode after getting the real Bashir back, the Doctor from Voyager shows up to offer to make a new fake Bashir, but then Bashir's parents show up to reveal the real Bashir has been a fake Bashir all along, so they're already all good.

17. A Simple Investigation: Odo gets his cherry popped by a woman who turns out to be a bit of a Changeling herself: in that she's actually a completely different person living under an assumed identity, and also already married.

18. Business as Usual: Quark gets roped in with some weapons dealers and sabotages the deal after learning the weapons would be used for genocide, deciding that financial bankruptcy was better than moral bankruptcy.

19. Ties of Blood and Water: Kira decides to copy Garak from a couple episodes ago and has her Cardassian father figure show up just so he can die in front of her of medical complications.

20. Ferengi Love Songs: Quark goes back to his mother's house to help other Ferengi come out of the closet.

21. Soldiers of the Empire: Worf takes an assignment on a ship with the worst Klingons in the galaxy, and Dax invites herself along because she can't imagine Worf being able to function without her telling him what to do all the time.

22. Children of Time: The crew find a planet inhabited by their descendants, who inform them they they're going to get sent back in time and then have nothing better to do but breed like rabbits. But Future Odo realizes they've already hit their time-travel quota for the season and stops it from happening.

23. Blaze of Glory: Sisko and Eddington go road-tripping to stop some missiles that don't exist, because it was all a ruse to allow Eddington to go down fighting for... basically no reason.

24. Empok Nor: O'Brien and Garak take some gold-shirts with them to go exploring a seemingly abandoned Cardassian station, with predictable results for the gold-shirts. Garak also realizes there hasn't been an outbreak of crazypox for a few seasons and wants to have his go at it.

25. In the Cards: Jake really, really wants a Pokemon card.

26. Call to Arms: The Federation is forced to abandon the station after the Dominion and Cardassians attack, but Sisko swears he'll be back because they're not about to change the title of the series to "Terok Nor".

So, now that we've left on a cliffhanger of the station being abandoned to the Dominion, I'm curious how long into the next season that status is going to remain. Even Picard getting kidnapped by the Borg only lasted until the first episode of the next season. Plus things are going to get pretty cramped if they have too many episodes with only the Defiant set to work with.

Bashir is finally growing on me now that he's abandoned his bravado and womanizing and focusing on being a doctor. He was single-handedly ruining the series for me in the first season due to being such an insufferable creep. But it's also been revealed that he's genetically enhanced, so he's still kind of annoyingly The Special in some way, but at least he doesn't rub it in people's faces.

Dax is also starting to finally develop a personality of her own, which is conceptually a plus, it's just that her newly-developed personality is really annoying. She's basically just a troll and a gossip and doesn't seem to care about how she makes other people feel. She forced herself on Worf, then he entered into a relationship with her out of what seemed like obligation, at which point she's just been incredibly controlling and manipulative of him. Which, maybe that's a Klingon thing and they go for that, but from a human perspective, it's uncomfortable.

Also, I recently learned that Nog's actor was nearly 30 while playing him here. All this time I thought he was, like, 12, but no, he is just the ultimate short king.

Also impressed at Kira's actress being able to fit back into that jumpsuit so soon after having a baby. Hopefully she'll get more episodes next season, since her pregnancy this season limited what the story could do with her.

So with that, onto the next season of Terok Nor Deep Space Nine.

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S2 E21 - The Maquis (Part 2)

Before I destroy this episode, I also enjoyed this one. I'm very dissatisfied with the ending but it was overall a very good episode and there were some fantastic moments. Also I want a Dukat/Sisko team up show where two enemies have to work together to deal with various issues and they still hate each other by the end of the show but it's fun to watch them also be buddies. Frenemies if you will.

On to the recap though.

I'm kinda pissed Hudson got to live. I really wanted Dukat to reach across the console and just fire on the fucker. Hudson is so far gone that only death is going to stop him.

I'm also kinda pissed the Sisko didn't tell the Admiral about Hudson when she showed up.

I'm also also pissed at the Admiral thinking that ANY terrorist group would just stand down after being talked to.

I 100% agree with everything Sisko said in his Earth is a Paradise speech that he spewed to poor unsuspecting Kira. He hit the nail on the head about how those who are living within any issues just assume that other places live the same way or can change super quickly to do so. None of the folks living on Earth (in the far far future) understand a second of hardship at least not to the extent that half of the species we come across do. They're living in pure Heaven while a majority of the universe is still fighting to live. And in some ways their ignorance is deserved, no one SHOULD have to go through war, have to starve, have endless crime, or other horrible things. But that doesn't mean that the Admiral isn't blind to it.

When the Cardassian Command showed up I knew they were throwing Dukat under the bus because that was the easiest thing to do. They wanted to blame him and let him die so that they could continue their attacks but I'm super happy that Sisko saw right through that. I was afraid he was going to be too optimistic about the whole deal and take them for their word.

The fact that Dukat can resist a mind meld was fascinating to me but honestly should have been expected. The Cardassians are known for their torture methods so of course he'd be able to block his mind.

Dukats discomfort after realizing that his superiors left him to die was fun. Especially since he had just given a whole speech about how Cardassians don't make mistakes and how trails are decided before they begin, so if he had one he'd be on the losing side. What I liked most about this scene, though, was when Sisko left and said that Dukat would have save Sisko if the situations were reversed. In that moment Sisko chuckles because its such a bizarre thing to say but Sisko actually believes it and then the camera pans to Dukat doing the same. I think Dukat, in that moment, realized that he probably would have. Not for sentimentality but rather to hold it over his head, but he'd still do it.

Another thing I liked was the scene where they're trying to find the ship that might be smuggling weapons in for proof and Dukat has to intimidate the Captain into letting them search the ship. In that moment Sisko is pulling ever diplomatic Federation line he can and then Dukat stands up and essentially outs the aliens crimes. During this specific conversation Sisko ends up slowly smirking. The thing that got me though was Kira's admiration. It was so clear that she was uncomfortable every second of it but a part of her was having an internal conflict of how badass Dukat was in that moment. She'd never say the words out loud but they were there lol

And Quark, out logicing the Vulcan? It was a beautiful thing to see. He might have help start all of this and he is certainly not the brightest of bulbs but its rare to see someone change a Vulcans mind, even just a little.

8/10 - this probably would have been a 9 for me if they actually killed Hudson lol

[hyperlexichypatia]

Star Trek Voyager fanwank with queer potentiality reading under the fold.

I've been plowing through Voyager and noticed the most interesting seeming plot discrepancy.

In "Counterpoint," the Voyager is clearly stated to have exactly two (2) Vulcan crew members, Tuvok and Vorik. In that same episode, we see them hiding in the transporter. Through season 7, these are the only two Vulcans we see on board.

Then, in "Repression," in season 7, we see a background character who appears to be a Vulcan woman, who is described on Memory Alpha as an "unidentified Vulcan female." Where did she come from? Has she been here this whole time?

Obviously this is probably just sloppy writing, but I can think of three possible Watsonian explanations.

One: She's a Vulcan crew member who's been here this whole time, we just haven't seen her. She wasn't mentioned or shown in "Counterpoint," because she had some other hiding place, and maybe her personnel record was deleted or something. After all, Janeway was lying about what happened to the Vulcan crew members, so she could have been lying about the number of Vulcans as well.

Arguments in favor: This is the simplest explanation, probably the closest to writer intent, and is consistent with a previous line by Tuvok about "other Vulcans," plural, on the Voyager.

Arguments against: It's kind of sloppy writing that's also boring.

Two: She's a crew member who's been here this whole time, but she's not Vulcan. She's some other species that resembles Vulcans, like a Romulan, or a Romulan-Human hybrid. Alternately, she could be some sort of splinter Vulcan whose species might be Vulcan might not count as a Vulcan citizen of the planet Vulcan.

Arguments in favor: Consistent with "Counterpoint" canon; also, it's implied (but not directly stated) by her presence in that scene that she's a Maquis crew member, and it's not clear that there were Vulcans in the Maquis, or why there would have been, except for Tuvok going undercover (counterargument: Tuvok successfully going undercover implies that he didn't stand out, so there might have been other Vulcans around). A Romulan or part-Romulan Maquis member has narrative potential and could be an interesting parallel with Torres. Also, in the same scene, another character refers derisively to Tuvok as "the Vulcan," which would be astonishingly rude if there were another Vulcan right there.

Arguments against: She's listed in Memory Alpha as Vulcan.

Three: This "new character" is actually Vorik. She transitioned.

Arguments in favor: Consistent with "Counterpoint" canon. Reading Vorik as an egg adds significant character depth and explains a lot about Vorik. Trans representation is always good. Filling a plot hole with a queer explanation is praxis.

Arguments against: This character's uniform is red, while Vorik's is yellow. However, Vorik could have gotten reassigned to a different job. This character is implied (but not directly stated) to be ex-Maquis, which Vorik is not. However, maybe she was in the room for another reason.

Trans Vorik is my favorite option. I think there needs to be fanfic about this.

[isagrimorie]

Does anyone else have examples of Janeway doing some inventive tactical maneuvers?

I want to do a gifset of Janeway doing them. What I have so far:

Basics, Janeway's tactics against Kazon-Nistrim-- it was a pretty great tactic and would've worked too, if not for the sabotage. (Teamwork plan but the timing was pure Janeway. Nerves of steel.)

Year of Hell, part 1 - Voyager only had 11 torpedoes left and had four deployed like mines.

Critical Care - Has Voyager drop out of warp without warning and then tractor-beam a ship evading them. (Although Chakotay suggested it, teamwork!)

Flesh and Blood, part 2 - Voyager is in no condition to fight against two Hirogen ships and must locate and rescue B'Elanna and the EMH Doctor. Janeway decides instead of wasting resources-- she lets the Hirogen do what they do best and find the rogue holograms, and hide Voyager in the blindspot of one of the Hirogen ships. The moment Hirogen ships drop out of warp Janeway had Voyager attack the Hirogen ships to disable them. And succeeds despite failing shields.

I'm still hunting for times Janeway does unconventional ship-to-ship battles.

But listing these things down and remembering Janeway's amusement at Chakotay's so-called 'innovative' battle strategy. It turned out Janeway already knew what they were, and tells Chakotay that trick wouldn't have worked with her.

She said this in season 1 but after all this, I believe her.

Again makes me wonder how a Science Officer who ranked up to Command got all this tactical experience.

We know she has some experience in brutal ground combat during the Cardassian border conflicts but why was Janeway the one chosen to hunt down for Maquis?

In DS9 we know not just anyone was tasked to hunt down for erstwhile ex-Starfleet officers turned Maquis.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. we have finally watched the voyager pilot! short verdict: nothing will ever be as good as ds9 but i enjoyed it!!

longer verdict: i will go through it character by character, in order of appearance, saving the maquis crew for when they have more than .5 seconds of screentime in the little opening. this feels like a REALLY big cast, by the way?? am i counting right? 11 recurring characters and we don't even have seven yet? tos has 7 with chapel and rand appearing sometimes, tng had 8 with o'brien and guinan sometimes, ds9 has seven with...man, jake nog rom garak AND keiko as recurring extras, and we don't even have worf yet. so i guess ds9's is technically bigger! anyway.

JANEWAY: i was surprised at how janeway sounded...her voice is different than i expected even though i've heard her be flemeth in dragon age. i was also kind of surprised to see her in the bun and her head looked So Big. like dax's in season 1-2 of ds9. i'm used to seeing her with it down in gifs which looks better but personally i also think she could have rocked the kira cut. that said, i like her so SO much. she has a couple of speeches that remind me VERY strongly of kirk - when she's lamenting harry left his clarinet behind and not getting to know him, when she decided she couldn't sacrifice an entire people to get one ship home. she's got the kind of compassion kirk did - when she pulled up a stool to listen to the caretaker's troubles, when she held his horrible little corpse, she was genuinely filled with real sadness for what had happened there. (as a side note, speaking of tos, the ship voyager also reminds me of the original enterprise WAY more than the tng enterprise was - especially their little cafeteria.) i was really surprised she had a boyfriend, because i feel like i've heard she gets with chakotay! sorry to her bf, she is gonna cheat on you (and i support women's wrongs), but the worst part is the dog. if they pull some odyssey shit with the dog i'm gonna be so upset. ALSO, i love that she insists on "ma'am" instead of sir (that always bugged me) and even that will only do in a pinch. YOU WILL ADDRESS HER AS CAPTAIN. even when her hair fell down she fixed it on her way down the hallway. she's such a badass. when she says she's gonna get them home I BELIEVE HER. she's got an iron fucking nerve and balls made of titanium.

TOM PARIS: i hate this man so much it's insane. i googled to see whether he died and found out he was played by one of those cadets wesley got in trouble with...girl, he was in prison, why not just make him the same guy?? anyway, he was kind of shitty to both harry and chakotay (oh boy we are already being racist to chakotay) and i cannot believe THIS is the man janeway is gonna have salamander babies with. he's extremely obnoxious all the time (him harassing that betazoid lady...fuck off lol) and i just KNOW people are writing paris/chakotay slash because of their whole deal which makes him more annoying. the "your life is mine now" thing is racist as hell. i'm not prepared to sympathetically see this man's hidden depths bc i know that as a snarky white man he already has half of whatever voyager fandom happens to exist doing that for him already. sadly, we will have to put up with him for all seven seasons. LUCKILY, aside from the racism, half of which came from this guy anyway, he was my only real sour note.

HARRY KIM: love this dude. i like how he managed to talk sense into b'elanna when she was wigging out and despite my wishing he didn't have to be friends with tom paris him going "i can pick my own friends" was a great way to show that he's not afraid to stand up for himself. i wish i wasn't feeling so anti-quark lately bc otherwise his scene in the bar with quark (and why is it always quark doing these surprise cameos!!) would've been pretty funny. i think it was a nice touch that harry, on his first EVER mission, got to be the one to deliver the news about how far from home they were. i absolutely love his whole deal of being completely green and meeting everything head-on anyway, he is so brave. as i said before, the way he is just charging through despite being out of his depth reminds me a little of chekov, if chekov had brain cells. he's very charming. i think he and b'elanna could get it also.

HOLOGRAM DOCTOR: he is so funny, i love him. like, i don't really know how he works? is all of medbay a holodeck? but it's kind of hilarious that he's sentient enough to get annoyed when people are randomly beamed away and when people forget to shut him off (he needs a nap!)

CHAKOTAY: oh i am already feeling how rough this is going to be. that "can't you use some magic to turn into a bird and fly away" and also the "your life is mine now" were rrrracist. (that said, "you're too heavy" was a really good comeback.) can we please be normal. that aside: i really like him. i like how quickly he came to grips with the situation and i like how much he hates tom paris (NOT SEXUAL!!! NO!!!!!! i just agree with him) and i especially like that he has a set of titanium balls to match janeway's like did we SEE that doomsday machine-esque suicide run he almost went on? he cut it even closer than kirk did and kirk cut it that close ON ACCIDENT chakotay was yelling at them not to beam his ass back until his ship was already on fucking fire. also, he's very handsome. ALSO, when tom paris asked him "you'd rather die than let me rescue you?" i had to laugh because quite literally 10 seconds prior out of mine own mouth was "if it was death or tom paris i might let go." i really hope there's more to chakotay than "tom paris's antagonistic buddy" because 1. a fate worse than death 2. this is not humans and vulcans this is real life racism you cannot spock and bones this. STOP THAT.

TUVOK: ALSO VERY HANDSOME. very like. he reminds me of spock so much because he's extremely bitchy but also very dialed down about it. i like that leonard nimoy was like yeah im gonna go stupid crazy and all vulcan will be like this from now on, including my funny little eyebrow thing, in which girlies will still see spock long after i'm dead. like what misha collins tried to do with cas but it actually worked. tuvok strikes that perfect balance of dignified and kind of above everyone else without feeling stuck up or prissy (though his scene where he tries so hard not to look at neelix's junk was great, he was justifiably a little prissy there), and with that undercurrent of wryness that nevertheless doesn't truly betray any emotion - you don't get the same sense of repression/unease with the self from him (at least in the pilot, who knows what will happen later) that you do from spock so it doesn't feel like voyager is copying tos's homework, and it feels nice to get to know another vulcan who's gonna be a main character instead of a one-off. i hope they are more normal about a black vulcan than they have been about chakotay so far bc we have got to get out from under all of that. i am a little worried janeway might kill him. i feel like i see people on reddit criticizing her all the time for killing some dude who i am pretty sure is tuvok and like. can someone tell me if he dies if he dies i will be SO mad

B'ELANNA TORRES: she is stupid hot. i'm a little "lol" when she's like yeah my klingon half is HARD TO CONTROL!!! (super saiyan scream of rage) bc like worf does fine (most of the time...) but i will never turn down a chance to watch a beautiful woman be insane with rage. i like how she calls harry kim "starfleet" derisively and then goes out of her way to give him breaks when he needs them and help him up the stairs when he can't make it. big tsundere energy. also like that she was questioning janeway's decisions. not that i disagree with janeway's decisions necessarily i just like that janeway will have to earn her respect from some people the way any male captain would. equality. also, potentially, girlfights.

NEELIX: i forgot to add him to "the things i know about voyager" post because i had only heard him mentioned a couple of times and got the idea he was just a horrible little gremlin there for comic relief. a rygel, if you will. a quark, if you won't. was pleasantly surprised to like him better than rygel and quark combined, though that's a pretty low bar. not only is he clever enough to outsmart the slavers, he was brave and caring enough to go back and rescue his girl. HE RESPECTS WOMEN. also, his water indulgence was pretty hilarious, as was, again, his scene with tuvok. i feel like those two could do straight man funny guy all day long. a dynamic duo. i hope they wind up having screentime together. i don't mind horrible little gremlins so much when they're charming and when they aren't trying to take holosuite videos of kira.

KES: i feel like kes hasn't done much yet except lecture her people on the dangers of having a cult-like mentality. but i like her! she's sweet and compassionate and pretty brave. she does a lot to humanize neelix, at least! maybe it's just me but i feel like she was barely in this. for now i am trusting that they do more with her later. or, idk, maybe they don't. we DO have janeway AND b'elanna AND seven eventually so i can't be too mad about it as long as they're not turning her into a holodeck sex toy like poor deanna

other things of note:

BANJOS? i counted three different southern accents in this section. it would have been offensive if it wasn't so funny. the people holding hands and jumping around in a circle like animated robin hood characters was a great touch. so was the corn on the cob. the emotional whiplash from an otherwise very serious episode was. certainly something.

the empty barn reminded me of this side of paradise <3 i love, in general, how voyager just FEELS a little bit like tos. certainly more than tng did, even more than ds9 does. like this FEELS like it's set in the same universe, it kind of bridges a mental gap between ds9/tng and tos for me, worldbuilding wise.

water thing reminded me of mad max. really good.

slaver aliens.......are these guys really our antagonists?? i thought our antagonists were the borg but maybe we don't do that until seven gets here. i feel like possibly a bunch of semi-primitive people in the desert who enslaved and beat (potentially raped, depending on how you want to interpret that dialogue) a pretty blonde girl is maybe um. not the best idea. maybe they'll get written down into side villains and eventually just guys. like the ferengi. siiigh, the ferengi.

that said, i kind of loved the story of the caretaker and the ocampa, enough that i almost forgot the caretaker was choosing to appear as a banjo-playing hillbilly. i like to think him and his wife were from andromeda like those guys from tos...and it's very nuanced that even after he fucked their planet forever he still didn't really learn to value life because he's kidnapping people and letting them die or stay stranded in order to attempt to procreate. NONETHELESS he is filled with remorse, and janeway's scene with him, comforting him that children could learn to grow on their own, was really sweet. i also like that when he died his little horrible goop body shrank down until it looked like a hunk of dried snot. do not take that to the ocampa.

i just like the PREMISE of voyager. a 75-year journey that they have to cut down by any means possible...it's like the odyssey, but it space. in tos and tng they wandered from place to place but always over the same stomping grounds in general. we have the same old players, like klingons and romulans and vulcans and andorians etc etc. in ds9 we stay in one single place and it's to our benefit because we get deep character work. but voyager is going in a straight line back to earth, and we've never been out here before, so whether or not it lives up to the potential right now it feels like anything truly could happen. we don't be running into the neutral zone and we can't call the klingons for help or stop by quark's for another cameo. we are just out here. it's VERY neat.

major concerns so far include of course tom paris and potentially him being handcuffed to chakotay as banter buddies. racism in general but also with chakotay in particular. and perhaps a lack of interesting points re: kes. rip girl.

stuff i'm looking forward to is janeway getting to be a person instead of A Woman, seven eventually, getting to know chakotay and tuvok better, and the salamander episode, someday.

okay. this concludes my voyager pilot write-up. TONIGHT: "parallax" and "time and again."

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k d e e p s p a c e n i n e created by rick berman, michael piller [the maquis part i, s2ep20]

'Rule of Acquisition number two fourteen. Never begin a business negotiation on an empty stomach.' - quark

[captainhattersvoyagerstuff]

Caretaker Part 1

Okay, so I just finished Caretaker, the 2 part season premiere of Voyager. It's been a while, so there's stuff I forgot was there. Some of it was good. Some of it was, omg. But let's see if I can post my review, which is a series of notes I made while watching. I hope for more discussion later.

That thingy you're running into means you're screwed, Chakotay

Star Wars Crawl

Okay we start out with words on a screen. There’s this group of federation citizens called the Maquis who didn’t agree with Starfleet’s moronic treaty that are fighting the Cardassians and some say they are heroes and the Federation says they are outlaws.  Yay I saw the Maquis on Ds9!  I can’t wait to see more of them. (cough)

Scene 1: Maqui Ship. Chakotay and Maquis crew trying to outrun Cardassians.  Yay!  Chakotay is a really assertive leader here.  I’m excited. We have a coherent tetryan beam.  I hate those incoherent ones.

Wave hits them and light and we have Voyager credits.  Good theme song. Love the orchestra.

Scene 2: Federation penal colony.  In New Zealand?

That's right, bitches, I'm here.

Janeway shows up at the penal colony to find Tom Paris who could maybe find the Maquis cause he served with them before they kicked him out just like Starfleet did.

I'm really tough. I don't have Daddy issues.

She tells Tom he is an observer and he whines about being a good pilot. Except for the pilot error that got three people killed, oh nevermind. Just wait five minutes, Tom.

Scene 3 Tom is annoying on the shuttle to Voyager

Okay I have a question. Tom is wearing a Starfleet uniform. Why do observers still wear a uniform?  Don’t you need to earn that?

Also: Pretty Betazoid Ensign Stadi (don't get used to her) informs Tom that Voyager has bio-nueral gel packs.  They are so much more efficient.  Unless there is cheese on board.

Scene 4 Harry is nearly conned for first time on space station ds9. Harry's theory: get con artists off your back by buying everything. Tom saves him cause he's as big of a con as Quark.

Oh, hey, is that Quark from Ds9 that other show you should watch?

Scene 5 Tom and Harry meet the Doctor

The Doc is super bitchy to them. I met he's gonna make stuff hard for Tom.

Scene 6 Janeway talks to fiancee

His name is Mark Johnson. Really. Unknown Truth: Tuvok's real last name is Smith. Anyway, the show has a few minutes to tell us who Mark is and why Janeway loves him. So they talk about her dog.

Nice knowin' ya, Mark

Janeway's dog is named Molly. She is expecting puppies. She likes her doggy bed. I am officially more invested in her dog now.

Scene 7 Junior High mess hall

Doctor and First Officer Cavitt, two of the most nondescript white guys ever (doctor isn't even named), gossip with Harry about what Tom did cause it's junior high and oh no these guys don't like Tom what will he do?

Scene 8 Wonder why it's called the Badlands

Plasma storms, more coherent beams, stuff is fine. What could go wrong? What's that bright light?

Scene 9 Voyager go boom

This is going to take FOREVER to fix!

Ship is transported 75,000 light years to the Delta Quadrant and they hit the breaks kinda hard. The ship is all messed up. So is Janeway's hair.

Where is my HAIRSPRAY?

A couple of shots later:

Seriously? It's hair magic!

Turns out that all command officers (including that pesky doctor and first officer) except Janeway and the entire medical staff are dead. What kind of bad karma does Janeway have? They get scanned and beamed off the ship.

Gonna stop here for a break so it's not so long. Stay tuned next time for Farmville and the evil corn on the cob lady.

[pacificsaury]

2.21 The Maquis (Part 2)

i swear dukat is soooo down bad for sisko - tell me why at the end there he sighs wistfully and looks away bashfully like 'tee hee omggg aww siskoooo♡'

his twisted onesided infatuation is so awful yet intriguing tbh but i will save the analysis for another day. you are all spared from my dukatdiscussion (for now)