Living Witness: Well at least it’s not the mirror universe...

Okay this got better after the first 15 minutes. I didn’t like that uncanny valley feeling they were going for there. It was uncomfortable and disingenuous, and not in the way they wanted it to be.

Amazon missed a trivia point- Janeway says at one point that they are in Deck 2, Section 31 which feels like an obvious reference to Section 31. Amazon did not tell me this I actually got it for myself! Weird and unnecessary place to put it but hey.

As always, the doctor is excellent. I don’t even need to say that anymore. He has a few little moments of intense humor but is also an excellent serious character.

The scene where the doctor and the historian dude were talking was beautiful and I sort of think it should have ended there. The doctor speculates on whether or not they made it home. He said it in such a way that he had no stake in making it home at all. His home is on the ship. But all he wants is for everyone else to see their families.

That said I did also really like the scene where they talk about how the wrong history simply isn’t acceptable anymore and they have to find the truth. And then they reveal that the doctor eventually decided that he wanted to go home after all. So while the scene where they speculate would have been a really nice ending, what they actually ended on was really sweet as well. In general, the episode made me very happy.

Demon: I love that Chakotay tried to reason with 7 that her approach was inefficient.

This planet is not nearly as hostile as I expected it to be, ya know, since it’s called “Demon Class.” This whole set up feels very TOS to me. It feels like a very straightforward “strange new world, new life.” It’s kind of refreshing to see the new series do something so classic.

Oooh Tom out of his spacesuit is super creepy. So is Harry. My skin is crawling. They’re trying to lure more people down to the surface.

Oh this was actually really sweet. That was just so unexpectedly wholesome. All of it. They just didn’t want to be alone! I find it fascinating how casually Janeway said, “You want to clone us? Sure.”

But the B story with Neelix having a sleepover in sickbay was also adorable. Annoying, but wholesome. I absolutely loved the moment where Neelix told the doctor that if he ever needed somewhere to stay, his door was always open. The doctor was a jerk about it. Neelix chose not to care. It was beautiful.

One: excuse me, 7. Didn’t you revive Neelix after hours? But one burn victim after a few minutes? Gone.

The opening scene was excellent, of course. I was just thinking about how they copied an Enterprise plot but this came first.

Loved the detail about Tom escaping his stasis chamber. That was funny.

Burn victim Harry is creepy as hell. He does the horror characters super well.

Enterprise spoilers here, I don’t know how to do the hidey thing!

I liked this episode a lot but I think I like the Enterprise version better. It’s really hard not to compare them because they really are the exact same thing. Only 7 actually did have the doctor to help her almost the whole time, and T’Pol was a hallucination from the beginning. I think that twist at the end of the Enterprise episode made it better. Although I did appreciate Seven’s decision to cut her own life support instead of the stasis tubes because it’s one I didn’t necessarily expect her to make. Both of these episodes picked the best characters to do it. The Voyager one included more voices from the crew but for me that took away from the feeling of isolation, even if it was a nightmare. To the audience there were still people there. But rewatching Enterprise a month ago, I had entirely forgotten that T’Pol wasn’t there with him. I also love the letters Phlox wrote to Doctor Lucas. I think we could have gotten a similar effect from 7’s logs but it didn’t come across the same way. Both were still excellent episodes, though!

We also saw real character growth in 7 finally!

I tried to watch the finale but fell asleep because it was late so it will be in tomorrow’s blog!