5. Pathfinder
Lieutenant Barclay is working hard to find a way to bring Voyager home, and with the help of his trusty Voyager holodeck program and the counsel of Troi, he's working through a solution. There's so many things to love about this episode - the appearance of Barclay (who's just so lovable!) and Troi, the altered view of the Voyager crew as seen through Barclay's holodeck program, and the fact that we get more of a glimpse into what it's like being a part of Starfleet, outside of the missions into space. I really like that they included Tom Paris's father as well - so the audience can understand more about Tom. Although it does seem like they are softening the antagonism between Tom and his father - I really can't see why Tom found him so insufferable.
4. The Haunting of Deck Twelve
Voyager needs to turn off power for a little bit, so Neelix tells the children a story around a camp lantern. It's a scary story that incorporates some of the strange things that have been happening on the ship, but the children don't believe it's real. But maybe Neelix is telling the truth? Creepy episodes of Star Trek are always memorable to me, and this was a great one. Already from the title I was excited to watch this, and it did not disappoint. I love that it was framed as a story Neelix was telling, so that there were some aspects that felt like a scary story and some that felt like a fairy tale. It gave the episode a very traditional story feel, while also being science fiction. The standoff at the end with Janeway was another highlight for me, of course. I just love it when she's being her usual bad arse self. :D
3. Memorial
When the crew from an away mission return, they begin having dreams and flashbacks to a horrible incident that they were a part of. They begin to think they were involved in a war on another planet, and had their memories erased, until other members of Voyager start having the same memories and they never left the ship. The premise of this story was very interesting- it had the mystery of not knowing what happened to the crew, and also the suspense of wondering if their flashbacks were real or imagined. And what was the purpose of them. I think the best part of the episode though was in the end, when they realized the truth, and they had a decision to make. I don't want to get too spoilery on what that was, and what was decided, but I will say that I was on the other side of the debate until Janeway chimed in with this wonderful speech that changed my mind. This episode does raise an interesting question on how horrible tragedies should be remembered.
2. Blink of an Eye
Here's another high concept sci-fi story that Voyager does so well. Voyager discovers a planet in a tachyon field that gives it a unique temporal nature. Time passes much more quickly on the planet than it does in 'regular' space. While investigating, Voyager becomes trapped in the field, and through their tests Voyager discovers that they are having an effect on the planet's culture by their presence. UM. This episode is BRILLIANT. (I'm sorry that my love for romance outweighs my love of the technical beauty and the message of this episode so that it's only ranked as #2). What I love so much about the concept of this episode is in how it's a microosm of seeing how our society has progressed. How superstition and fear progresses to scientific thought and advancement. With the people on the planet being able to see Voyager as this never moving star, they begin to build religions based on it, and their curiosity about it spurs on their advancement in math and science. Thousands of years are passing by on the planet, while Voyager is trying to find a way out of the field, and I just can't say enough how perfectly this story was done. The story encompasses a culture that progresses from stone age technology to sending people up to Voyager in a rocket to investigate. Well done, writer(s) of this episode!
1. Fair Haven
Tom and Harry have created the holodeck program of Fair Haven - an idyllic Irish village for crew members of Voyager to relax in. Realism is key and when Janeway tries out the program she's intrigued by the holo-character Michael Sullivan, who's the owner of the village pub. It's hard for Captain Janeway to have a relationship, so it was interesting and believable to me that she would start to enjoy her time with a holo-character a little too much. That fact was a bittersweet thread to this really lovely romance that is built up throughout this episode. Janeway struggles with remembering Sullivan is not real, and the audience sees that Sullivan suffers in the program when he thinks that Janeway does not really care for him. It's a messed up kind of romance, but it still tugged on my heartstrings. It's so sweet with that undercurrent of forbidden love which is just my favorite! And a lot of this has to do with how swoon-worthy I found the character of Michael Sullivan as well. I just loved how Janeway tweaked his program a bit to make him even more perfect. A little more intelligent, a little more complex, and she got rid of his wife. Hilarious. And really Janeway made him more perfect for me too. Yeesh. He is so yummy in this episode! I had to look up more about the actor who played him after this. The actors had such great chemistry together.
0 comments: Comments
Post a Comment