Guys I am in so deep. I have to be an adult and all that but all I want to do is watch this.

The Gift: let’s talk about this. Guys, I think Janeway made some awful, cruel decisions that she had no right to make. I don’t care at ALL that the Borg are an evil species. I don’t care that they don’t share human values. I don’t care at all was 7/9 did when she was assimilated or what she wanted to do when she got back. This person was a child. They have known nothing else. Janeway removed an organ from them. She has no right to say what seven is or isn’t. She keeps telling her that she is human but that’s not fair. She ISN’T human anymore. She has the right to refuse medical care. She has the right not to be a prisoner on this ship, at least not without fair trial just like anyone else.

I don’t even really care what’s happening to Kes because I’m so angry that the doctor went through with this crap and that Janeway authorized it. Janeway said in the last episode that they did this to 7/9 and that they are responsible for what happens to her. Part of that responsibility is to be kind and understanding.

Okay speaking of what happened to Kes... how many of you are here from my DS9 blog? Because I loved the Bajoran political/religious plotline right up until it became essentially a wizard battle and I think we’ve hit that point again. I’m glad Kes’s big blowout was short, because at the very least, I didn’t lose interest. But oh God what a mess. We got no explanation, we got no reasoning, we just got “Oh yeah I think I’m turning into a God I should probably get off this ship.” She had one more awkward scene with Tuvok and then yeeted off into the void, throwing Voyager ten years closer to home (at which point, why not all the way home?). Also, how many shuttles does Voyager have? We’ve irreparably crashed a whole bunch of them and I’m pretty sure this was not the first one we gave away. These things have warp drive! If they’re so expendable use ‘em for spare parts in main engineering! Also we’re not going to say good bye to Neelix? I mean I don’t like Neelix either but woah. How did we go from grabbing a hypospray quick to destroying the whole ship by accident in less than an episode?

Look, guys, I can reasonably concede that telepathy falls into science fiction, and I don’t mind it. I can justify that the energetic signals in their brain just extend and affect other structures outside of the body. Fine by me. But come on we’re getting a little ridiculous here. The ocampans on female array showed that they had more telepathic ability but they still needed female array to help with stuff. This just really came out of nowhere for no reason.

And then the Doctor, as if he hadn’t been invasive enough already, “Took the liberty of stimulating the hair follicles,” on 7. That part just really through me over to angry. Hadn’t they done enough to this poor girl’s body?

This is going to surprise you at this point but I actually liked/really liked the episode. It was interesting and exciting start to finish. I disagree (hard... HARD) with the decisions that Janeway and the EMH made but they made those decisions with conviction and the willingness to take responsibility for the result. Janeway is nothing if not accountable and I admire that. But I was just very very engaged with this entire episode and I enjoyed that. I’m just fired up.

Day of Honor: “I never thought of you of naive, Chakotay.” Really? Because he had not one, but two spies on his ship for his entire command.

Awe Tom is so sweet. And he’s still talking to her as if she’s a close friend but he’s in love with her.

The species they encountered in this episode makes me uncomfortable in a weird way.

Oh is Tom flirting with 7 now too?

There goes another shuttle.

The space suit scenes were painful to watch. So astoundingly awkward.

This episode was obviously meant to be a commentary on homelessness and “if you give a man a fish,” right? I honestly think that’s what made me so uncomfortable. I live in a big city and I hate the way they handle homelessness. I also, personally, find it difficult to engage and help myself. I was almost pushed in front of a train by someone because I didn’t have money for them just a few days ago. I’m going to be totally honest, and this is not something I’m proud of, but it’s not something I like to think about except when I work in a food pantry. It’s a really tough conversation and very difficult to think about.

Nemesis: there goes another shuttle. What the hell? Where do these keep coming from?

I like that this species seems to speak in poetry. It’s quite clever and interesting to play with. Shit I lost my whole commentary here- I wanted to talk about Heinlein’s use of “Bought a farm,” which is a known phrase, and “discorporated” which I hadn’t heard outside of his books. It creates a sense of disconnection that’s broken when you stop reading about the characters. They’re just suddenly... gone. How do you come to terms with that? Beautiful from a literary perspective.

I love Chakotay’s reverence with guns. It is a powerful tool and he knows what it can do.

I love groundwar episodes in Star Trek. I think it’s so exciting to bring the connection back from the big pew pew space battles to something somehow easier to understand.

I loved this episode. Loved Chakotay, loved the idea. They tried to do one of those heart sink moments when the nemesis appeared on the ship and we realize the Chakotay was fighting the “wrong” side but it wasn’t quite as brutal as some of their other goes at that sort of thing. But I was completely immersed in this episode. I believed that Chakotay was doing the most right thing he could think of (although I was internally screaming “Prime Directive!”). And it was a stand alone episode! It was just a really good idea, great message.