Gravity: “I’m a doctor, not a battery!” I love this joke so much but honestly they are maybe over using it.

This is not a good episode to watch while I’m making cards for strangers on Random Acts of Cards.

I’m glad they decided to leave the doctor on.

AWE YOU MUST REALLY LOVE HER VERY MUCH! Oh Paris that was mean to tell Tuvok to give up on his wife. OH and then he doubled down.

WOULD TUVOK STOP WITH THE TELEPATHY MIND MELD STUFF? I get that it was supposed to be sweet but MAN. I have never seen a vulcan do mind things so much in my life, and I have seen a LOT of Star Trek.

I would have gotten more into this episode if I hadn’t been making cards but I hope that I made some people happy. I think it was supposed to he more about growth for Tuvok but I feel like he was unchanged by it. He acknowledged that he felt something and reaffirmed his value not to be affected by it and hurt someone else in the process. At least he acknowledged that hurt.

Bliss: Awe they took Naomi.

This whole episode is just a friendly reminder that 7 is totally capable of taking over the ship if she really wanted to. It’s not the first time the ship has been overtaken by some alien presence I don’t understand why they have no safeguards in place for this.

This wasn’t a totally stand out episode to me. I think even Seven and Naomi have had stronger moments. We keep seeing Seven and the Doctor paired and while it obviously works, it’s getting old. I’d like to see seven play off of Harry/B’Elanna more sheerly because we haven’t seen much of that in awhile, or with Chakotay because I think he could teach her more about humanity than the doctor. And I’d like to see the doctor possibly with Tuvok, but just someone that can bring that comedic edge back more aggressively. We’ve seen a lot of the doctor and a lot of it has been very serious and somber lately. That’s not a bad thing, in fact my favourite doctor moment was back when Kes was still on board and he installed too many subroutines, nearly killed some people, then recited the hippocratic oath. But... I hope we’re still going to get some laughs out of him like in Message in a Bottle.

I think the old guy was so sweet for helping them get out. He didn’t try to steal their weapons even though he could have made that effort, because the thing he wanted most was to kill the creature. He made a conscious decision to help them for no reason other than that they asked for it. So that was heartwarming.

The Moby Dick metaphor is overused. In fact, while I don’t remember TNG or TOS super well it wouldn’t surprise me if they both had an episode with a similar theme. I don’t recall anything quite this blatant in DS9 or Enterprise.

I was going to stay up and watch another episode but the next episode is Borg and an hour and a half long so that’s going to be saved until tomorrow.

Dark Frontier: oh if Tom had called them mindless drones on any other ship... but I was a little devastated for Seven.

Seven’s parents were AWFUL. Why would they take their young child on a mission where there was a huge chance they’d be assimilated. Also how did their ship end up in the delta quadrant?

Oh Seven’s mother is a drone on this ship... that explains a lot.

“Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew.” Why would you tell a child being a captain is about going down with the ship?!

Okay if the Borg have Seven’s memories how did they not realize how horrifically traumatic this would be?

Oh the Queen Drone isn’t her mom. It’s just some random queen drone. That would have made this more interesting. Ah but the dad is there. Maybe that’s what drew them back to her.

This episode didn’t need to be an hour and a half. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it or that it was a bad episode. But it was long and very little actually happened. They were trying to steal tech from the Borg, Seven decided she wanted to stay, they found out she was coerced, and they saved her. It follows the Star Trek- our crew mate is captured and we need to rescue them- pattern, which isn’t a bad pattern, but there was no real twist here. I think it was supposed to be when we find her father on the ship (and To be fair, there’s some nuance to that that I missed when I was watching. For example, the dad being on this particular ship is important because that’s the ship he wanted to find and study. So he got what he wished for, which is metaphorical to the whole episode because Seven originally wanted to go back to the collective and she also made it back to find it not so pleasant). But aside from that nuance that plotline went nowhere. I was waiting for them to show the parents and for it to come out that their desire to have Annika back was stronger than the Borg’s call to do what’s best for the collective. That would have been, while a little obvious, a beautiful commentary on humanity and being human and a family.

Unfortunately I think my expectations got in the way of loving this episode. I liked the story I came up with better. I think we could have told this story a lot quicker.

Disease: Excuse me, what happened to staying faithful to Harry’s earth girlfriend? That was so important to him in season one! Don’t get me wrong I think that’s fine, because at some point he has to move on. But it was just surprising.

I like the idea of alien hormones that make someone physically lovesick. That was clever. Seven’s scene at the end, where she says her analogy was flawed and love is not a disease, but she also told him to get well soon, worked really well for me. I loved the contrast there.

Harry’s speech about love to the captain was definitely a little corny, but it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t skin crawlingly awkward which I’m grateful for. I liked that Janeway didn’t change her stance on the reprimand, but did note that Harry was maturing. I think they wrapped up the episode nicely.