Star Trek thoughts in THIS economy?!
We got thru more of Voyager while the internet was out, so we're into s3 now. At least halfway thru s2 they finally started having more stories that are specific to this run. S1 was strangely a lot of stuff that could've easily been TNG considering it was a pilot season. Voyager has a unique situation in that it's the first Trek with a pointed mission - they're lost in deep space. It's not just exploration federation etc. Yet so much of it so far is... exploration federation etc, and so much Earth/AlphaQuadrant coincidence! Is where they are just like, the storm drain of the universe, that's where EVERYTHING that gets yeeted into the unknown ends up? Yeesh. Trek is already so Earth-centric in general, but some of this is just ridiculous. And not even the fun kind. TOS established pretty hard that Earth is the hold-my-beer of the federation, but this ship isn't really getting a good steam going under pressure.
UUUUGGGGHHHH, and I know now that part of the reason we have no Jews or Protestants yet plenty of John Wayne Native American mysticism is bc the 'consultant' they got for Native matters bc of Chakotay was actually an unqualified fraud in every way. (Sidenote: can you imagine if they'd used Jewish mysticism ever? There's literally books and books and books of it, it would've been hella informative to so many. But no. But I'm already carrying this from that ep of TNG where they addressed then-current Native issues, but in space. Wouldn't it actually have been way way better to make them a Jewish community seeking a new world? They've been a people in exile for millennia NOW, not a big stretch to take it to the future.) But STILL, that 'Basics' 2 parter of them trying to rough it and he uses his Noble Wisdom to get them to make a hair fire?! I have a very severe dislike of bad science in my science fiction. It's like seeing mistakes in translation in subtitles - if ~I~ know it's wrong, then the person who was paid MONEY to do this is inexcusable and y'all sloppy. RRgh. Hair doesn't burn well! It actually puts OUT fires! And the reason you couldn't rub two sticks together isn't just about what the sticks were, it's bc you were doing it wrong from the get-go. And this is coming from someone who would sooner lose an eye to those sticks than start a fire.
Honestly, and this is probably the meanest thing you can say about a Star Trek series, but it's coming off as just... unimaginative. They're way off in the middle of nowhere wanting to get home, yet they can't seem to manage much urgency in that search, and they keep running into stuff we kind of know already. I really liked that it picked up the thread of those Ferengi yeeted out there back in TNG, but no ground was gained in the episode either, so while interesting it went nowhere.
The cast is still kind of iffy for being on s3. Harry Kim is having a really terrible wilderness vacation, though I gotta say I find the most believable part of the future being presented here to be the Asian kid whose parents have him practicing an instrument even in their absence. The guy who plays Tuvok is really doing some heavy lifting, tres impressed. And the holographic Doctor is *chef kiss* A Gift. (Aaaaa, that ep where his memory was fading, I was wondering, like, he's literally having to think outside of the box bc he outgrew his box~ As he gains experience and becomes a more full AI, would he take up more and more of the ship's memory? Could he actually grow to become the ship itself???) I know that Neelix stays the whole way thru, but I could feel really early that Kes is gonna drop off somewhere soon, just calling it. Her magical pixie qualities are gonna Wesley her right out of this script sooner or later.
I am getting a better feel for why Voyager just didn't gain the following one would've expected, except for people thirsting for individual characters. I know the Borg come back, which could be complained about as yet more tread ground being retread, but it's actually a good idea to go back to how that's how this all started, literally, in TNG. They've got one kid so far, tho their crew must be down to I dunno, what, 120 at this point? At most? With their numbers dropping, my first thought was that they could save power by shutting down all that unused space, try and consolidate the crew into certain decks. But then again, I also keep thinking that the Doctor should've started a group learning to be nurses/EMTs, not just Kes as an aide, but that'd be too LOGICAL and RELEVANT to the show circumstances so PFFBBBBTTT. These guys just don't impress me as castaways. Maybe I'm coming at it from too far away now, I don't know, but it just seems like for an Emergency!-themed premise they're all really bad at emergencies and don't seem to be troubled by that even though their state of suck is ongoing. I mean, even in worst-case, if they had the crew go generational to get back it'd still be a no-go bc the SHIP wouldn't last. They're in s3 and it's duct-taped to hell and back, and they never seem as very worried about that as they should be seeing as it's their ONE ship with no familiar docks in sight. I mean, even stupid One Piece had the Merry-go fall apart after about a hundred episodes and have to be replaced by the Sunny!
But that's just me. Full of fiction feels. As usual.