I promised a long post. Here it goes!

11:59: amazon informed me that this episode involves drug use. They do put warnings at the beginning of the episodes but not about things like suicide or sexual assault. Drugs, foul language, and generic violence.

If I recall correctly, the world’s largest ball of string is actually in Kansas. Although it’s technically twine, so maybe we’re making a distinction?

Right of the bat- there is a single episode of Enterprise I didn’t go all the way through on rewatch and it is the episode where they have T’Pol telling a story about the actual first contact between humans and vulcan’s. We see it through T’Pol’s relative’s eyes. I was just bored. I love Enterprise but that format just didn’t work for me. So I have low expectations.

To be totally honest I was shocked when they got out of the car and didn’t put masks on... it’s hard to remember a time when the pandemic wasn’t normal.

Leave it to Paris to shatter Janeway’s illusion of her history.

Okay this was a little cute. I am definitely smiling a lot, even when the doctor had them take a picture. Tom was holding B’Elanna in the background. It was adorable. It reminded me of It’s a Wonderful Life, in a weird way. Which is funny because they referenced that in another episode recently, I forget which one. But the idea that something just holds you here and suddenly you’re not upset about it anymore. I was so prepared to jump ship after undergrad and move down south but I’ve fallen in love with my city and I’m not sure I can leave when I graduate. When you find a community and start falling in love with something, it suddenly becomes difficult to just keep moving. So in a way this episode ended up being beautiful. I’m glad I watched it now I’m all smiley.

Relativity: man they really love not telling us why Tom was in jail. Also I suddenly see why they don’t put Seven in a uniform. It looks boxy and uncomfortable. And I have a headache just looking at Janeway’s hair.

Oh I’m in deep here. Amazon is getting a little too happy with the 47 reference though. They saw 74 and said it was a reference. I just wanted to know what the latin that the time dude said means.

When the ping pong ball starting moving again I shouted “Point!”

This is the kind of time travel episode that I like. It was fast paced and not terribly confusing because they explained as they went. Seven was good and a little bit out of the ordinary, Janeway was interesting. I don’t have a lot to say about it but I did have a lot of fun. I think it was a more than solid Seven episode.

Warhead: Uh I just now saw the episode title after thinking how cute this little robot thing is. I went to write about how awkward Harry in command is.

Harry got better as the episode improved. He handled the situation in the best way possible. Yes, we respond to distress calls. When we get there we bug the commander. We do bring the thing on board but with appropriate precautions. We try to talk to it first, then we consider more aggressive tactics. I think he was good about it.

The doctor was less convincing as the WMD than some of his other characters. He’s an excellent actor but he’s had better characters.

Equinox: something isn’t right here... also how did a ship that get lost later get further faster at a lower speed? I mean I guess they had to get there first and he said they hit a wormhole? But Janeway rattled off info about the ship and didn’t list that they went missing? That’d be pretty big news, wouldn’t it?

In part two, man am I glad Chakotay stepped in when the captain told him not to. What she did to the prisoner was cruel. Oh something is wrong with Janeway and I’m willing to bet it’s the same thing wrong with the other crew.

Okay this was two episodes and I have very little to say about it. I wrote very little while I watched because I was making cards again. But it wasn’t my favourite in general. Let’s just start off with a summary.

Equinox captain starts summoning and killing gargoyle aliens out of nowhere for their warp energy. The gargoyle aliens aren’t thrilled with this arrangement. We switched doctors in there somewhere, Janeway resolved to stop them, they kidnapped Seven, the doctor removed her mental functions and started forcing her to sing Clemintine. Equinox captain had a change of heart, some of his crew didn’t, he followed Janeway’s 2nd rule and went down with the ship. Somewhere in there Janeway tortured a guy and offered the entire Equinox ship and crew to the gargoyle aliens if they would please stop attacking Voyager.

Janeway is not the same captain she was in the first episode and she is not the captain I fell in love with. I still like her as a character but her morals and priorities changed and I don’t like the direction they went. I kept waiting for them to say the aliens had a telepathic effect on her but really she made those choices. She relieved Chakotay of command. What the Equinox crew did was absolutely horrific and they should be charged with war crimes. She tortured that guy and should also be charged with a war crime. Everybody but Chakotay made bad decisions.

I blame Janeway for getting them stuck here. But I also loved who she was in the moment she did that. She was doing it to be kind to an entire species and while it wasn’t the best choice for HER crew, a lot of people were better off for it. And the crew has proven over and over that they stand with her. They agree. If I were on her crew and given the choice, I would have voted for the course of action she took then. I don’t see that captain in this episode and I’m a little disappointed in that. There was no kindness in these two episodes except when they responded to the distress call. Janeway decided she was going to get her crew members back and spite Equinox along the way. I want the optimism and the hope back from her in particular.

Season 5 wrap up thoughts: I think DS9 started a trend in Star Trek where they’re tackling bigger issues and taking a less optimistic approach. Voyager started out more optimistic than Enterprise and is now approaching DS9’s more cynical views. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I think a cynical approach to exploration is a valid one. I mean when you get beaten up over and over again, you’re going to start approaching things more cautiously, make more questionable decisions. I think we also got a lot more of that artistry that we saw in DS9. There’s a lot you can do when your characters are pushed to their absolute limits. Seven shined in this season. She had some actual growth and progress. I actually love her with Naomi even though I don’t like kids. Those scenes just make me so happy. Little Naomi following Seven like a duck reminds me of myself, as a child but also now. I think the EMH was better in previous seasons. They aren’t giving him as much room to be funny. Harry had some screen time which we always love to see. Tom has been sort of moved to the role of B’Elanna’s lover but I can’t complain because I love watching it. And he had the demotion so that was a big moment for him. Tuvok needs more screen time and Chakotay needs episodes that aren’t spirit quests.

Don’t get me wrong guys, this review sounds very negative but I really do enjoy the show a lot. We get a lot of wholesome endings, they’re very focused on family and I get to smile a lot. But I do miss that really upbeat positive tone we had in season one. I liked how silly it was, it didn’t take itself too seriously. I actually love episodes like Threshold because we can all look back and say “Who in the heck greenlit this? And then they all ACTUALLY made it?”

Survival Instinct: there is a 3rd page. We need more Tuvok. He’s just so funny, and also sophisticated and dynamic, especially as a Vulcan. He’s one of few Vulcan’s we’ve seen who is still very much Vulcan but admits to their ability to learn and grow.

Gotta love the scene where Tom and Harry are trying to explain to the captain why they were drunk and bruised. But at least they won! Reminds me of Sisko finding Miles, Worf and Julian in the jail...

I wish the B stories kept going through this, with the silly security issues and the bridge officers getting into bar fights. I get that Star Trek is technically a dramatic show, and I’m supposed to be more invested in the plot here where Seven is trying to disconnect these three ex-Borg from each other. But they’ve invited a really cool, friendly trading society on board and I was drawn into that. We see lots of Borg. We don’t see lots of friendly people (aside from their petty crimes on the ship). So I think we should have gotten to see a little more of that.

That said, Seven’s plot wasn’t uninteresting, I think I was just more wrapped up in the humor. I think it’s good that we addressed how Seven was a child when she was assimilated. She was disconnected and terrified. She was doing the only thing she knew to do and then covered it up because she was afraid she would get in trouble. She couldn’t have known. That doesn’t make it okay, but honestly by Borg standards, which she was at the time, it was. So that was kind of brutal actually.