Sorry I messed up and skipped posting these two. There may not be a blog tomorrow- I’m working on the season finale/intro but it’s honestly a bit heavy and work is stressful so I’m taking breaks to watch something lighthearted just so I can decompress in the evenings. I’m interested just need to balance out my emotional engagement in life right now.

Edit: would love some fun next gen episode suggestions for something wholesome for when I get home today. Also just want to say how much the Delta Flyers podcast is helping with this. I really freaked out after work yesterday, but listening to the podcast- I was suddenly laughing, mentally engaged. Biking home alone at night, it felt safer, like someone was there to talk me through it. Even if I hadn’t been getting anything out of Voyager, which I definitely am, this podcast has been such a positive thing in my life right now.

The Darkling: while I’m excited about the Borg plotline I always love stand alone episodes.

Ah I didn’t realize that Neelix and Kes had actually broken up completely I thought they were more on the rocks. You go girl! I should stop watching these so late at night and start actually getting what’s going on.

Kes is so young to us, but her lifetime is a third over. That’s like being in her late twenties to us. So I’m trying to get past how creepy it is because it is creepy, and focus on the story here that she’s right. The crew has had time on their home world. Some of them may even be alive when they get back. Kes doesn’t have that privilege. So it makes sense.

This is an excellent episode to show Actor Doctor’s range because he is so amazing. I completely see him as a different character each time. He is so skilled. The character in this is so creepy.

Awe, he said the hippocratic oath and I melted. I really value lines like that in these shows. There was a moment in DS9 where Miles starts reciting Charge of the Light Brigade and Julian joins in. Those moments pull the show into the real world for me. That’s been one of my favourite poems for years. I am not a doctor but I have personally vowed to do no harm because if we all did we would all be living better lives. I believe in those words. The EMH felt he needed to renew that vow and it was beautiful.

This was an EXCELLENT Kes episode. This is much more how I expected her to act in Warlord and it works way better for me. She’s logical and calculating but also scared and playing off of the emotions of the hologram. She cares and listens and understands and uses that as her advantage. She’s stern, but not aggressive. I liked this episode a lot. It was an interesting conversation, beautiful acting by the doctor, and a great episode for Kes.

When I wrote this at first I totally forgot to talk about how protective the doctor is over Kes. That’s so sweet but also a little creepy but mostly sweet. It’s really hard to draw that line between sweet/protective and creepy/overbearing. Obviously trying to kill her boyfriend is too far, but that wasn’t the doctor that was the other holoprograms he took on. The doctor is the part that couldn’t shake the urge to keep her safe. That was fundamental to his core programming, care. I love when characters care! There is definitely a protective that isn’t creepy or Neelix. I had a relationship like that once, a non romantic love that I miss constantly that just felt safe. I think that’s a worthwhile, beautiful thing and would love to see more of it.

Rise: oh God it’s the Borg, isn’t it?

I can’t even imagine watching these one episode at a time as they aired. The suspense must have been incredible!

By land the shuttle manually, Tuvok, do you mean crash?

Well it wasn’t the Borg. This episode was kind of confusing to me, I wasn’t super sure what was going on throughout pretty much the whole thing. I wasn’t sure why that scientist guy wanted to leave by himself. It seemed like there were three factions and not just two. It just wasn’t my favourite. And Tuvok was then proud of Neelix for what was essentially mutiny. Star Trek tends to reward people for being right. Yeah, he was right, but he did essentially say somebody has to risk their lives on the roof or we’re all going to plummet back to the planet.