Homestead: ah I should have known we weren’t getting out of this without another Neelix episode.

Okay, maybe I’m a little emotional watching Neelix leave the ship. And Tuvok did a little dance for him!

This felt like a really weird time and place for Neelix to leave. If he wanted to stay with Talaxians he didn’t need to come in the first place. Obviously he lost a lot of his species but it wasn’t all of them. Unless I missed something. There were off world Talaxians, military installations, colonies, etc. So why go through the last seven years with Voyager, knowing they weren’t going back, if he didn’t want to go all the way? I guess in their heads this was still supposed to be a much longer mission, and he was looking at the choice of this crazy long journey or settling here in a better place than where he started.

I think we could have done better in one of our last three episodes than a Neelix episode. We haven’t had a Tuvok episode in so long. Every time we see Tuvok he’s doing a mind meld.

Renaissance Man: I took no notes during this episode and have no excuses.

The doctor made some baddd decisions here. I kept waiting for his brilliant plan to come out in the open and prove that he didn’t just completely give into the aliens, but uh... he did. He had no plan.

I did really like that the solution to the episode was that Janeway tried to be kind to the subordinate alien. Sure, we’ll buy all your junk if you let us go! His dream was to sell space junk and it’s adorable. But surely there was something the doctor could have done sooner in the episode to turn things around. I don’t know why he thought they would let him get out of this that easily, he’s a fancy hologram that can sneak into things.

Endgame: I’m already crying and it hasn’t started yet. Is someone going to die? Are we going to pull an Enterprise? Because we’ve gotten so far without killing a main character...

It took you thirty three years to come up with Joe?!

Barclay’s old age makeup is by far the most believable. Those new uniforms are awful.

Awe Tuvok...

Did they all just duck to avoid the big borg ship within their own ship? They all protected their head. Also I’m so glad we’re still talking about how Tom is the best pilot in the quadrant. Awe Tom is home already... my heart! And then Seven and Chakotay! Guys I don’t think I can do this episode, I can’t let this end. I’m crying again. I’m such a crier.

Oh, HEY, HARRY’S a CAPTAIN in this episode.

Awe it’s not Seven or Chakotay that gets her, it’s Tuvok.

No but’s, fly boy!

Seven’s conversation with Chakotay reminds me of an ask reddit thread I saw once. It was before I really posted, and it was somebody asking what nobody tells you about your profession before you started. A chemist responded and talked about the slow burn of your work poisoning you over time. It applies to all scientists, healthcare workers, firefighters, military workers, etc. It’s not just about losing someone suddenly like Seven and Chakotay are afraid of. It reminds me of Yellowshirt Elegy, by Meghan Phillips (which you all should read). It’s the slow catastrophe of all the radiation, the chemical exposures, the long nights and lack of rest. You can put in engineering controls and ppe but at the end of the day... Long story short, I just want to hold Seven and Chakotay in that scene.

TOM go hold your baby! Awe Chakotay, the helm- Harry’s crying, I’m crying. Everyone’s crying. WAIT THAT’S IT?! I want Tom to see his dad and have that moment, I want Harry back with his parents, I want Janeway and the Doctor to talk to Barclay, I want Tom to hold his baby, I want them to exonerate the Maquis crew, I want Seven and Chakotay to get married. I want to see Harry have a career and hear them tell Neelix they made it in those eleven minutes. AHHH.

Wrap up: God I loved this show.

Characters: My favourites were Tom, then Seven, then the Doctor. Tom started out just being interesting. But then he turned into a great husband and his relationship with his father hit me so hard. It was beautiful to watch. He grew so much from episode one. He was so much more than a prisoner along for the ride. Man I hope that he sent that letter he wrote when he was in the brig to his father.

Jeri Ryan is just so incredibly talented. But watching her dream of having a life was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and was such a joy.

The Doctor would have been an easy favourite but he had so many episodes that he had more misses for me than the other characters. He never outgrew his arrogance. I would have liked to see more growth. But he did become very human and that was beautiful.

Janeway, in comparison to other captains, hits somewhere in the middle for me. She was a lil inconsistent, like ya know, Equinox and all. But she was largely optimistic and I loved that. I feed on that kind of energy. And most importantly, she was kind. I also love the structure she maintained, like “Captain on the bridge.” I love structure/discipline. She was also better than most captains about dealing out consequences (except with the Doctor). I’d put Janeway above Sisko (that’s a little bit of a low bar considering I really didn’t like Sisko), maybe on par with Archer who also had consistency issues, and below Picard. I don’t tend to rank Kirk because it’s difficult to compare him to modern series. I also really need to rewatch TOS...

I wish we got to see more Tuvok and Harry. I loved Kes when she was on but when we got Seven I didn’t really need to see Kes again after that. I still didn’t love Neelix and didn’t love his episodes, but I don’t think the show would have been the same without him.

This show felt like family, as I’ve already said in another post. It felt personal. I’ve never wanted to hug characters before but I did on Voyager. With some of the characters, I felt the same connections I felt watching Enterprise (which still remains my favourite because nothing can take away how your first Trek makes you feel). There were so many Voyager moments where I just want to hold onto the feelings and keep them for later.

In the first three seasons they were also really good at doing those moments where the twist is genuinely horrifying and your heart sort of drops out from under you. I wish they had done that more in the later seasons. At first they were really good at changing tone from one episode to the next but by the last three seasons I felt like we either got heartfelt or borg. Not that either of those are a bad thing. The variety that caused us to get some meh episodes in the beginning also produced some really great moments with a feel that was different to most Star Trek.

My favourite episodes were Shattered, Message in a Bottle, and Learning Curve. I felt like Message in a Bottle was peak Doctor. Shattered just made me so happy, to go back through it all. And learning curve still played with some fun ideas, was light hearted and low consequence, which is my kind of episode. I also love seeing characters that aren’t our main characters because their lives are important and interesting too. They were all stuck in this together.

I still fundamentally blame Janeway for this mission, but I also believe she did the right thing in episode one. I don’t believe she always did the right thing after that, but she sure tried and that’s what made her so compelling.

Thank you guys for doing this with me. I’ve loved reading every single comment, and I hope to chat with you on the discussions for the podcast (if I ever catch up again). I don’t even know how to be sappy at this point I’m still sappy over Seven and Chakotay both finally getting to be in love with someone. You have all been such a supportive and informative and friendly group of humans and I’m glad I got to do this.

What next? Well, I’m open to any series. I would love to blog one but I’ll need a place to put it since r/Startrek seems to get annoyed when I post these. I’m all ears for suggestions about places to write and what to write about! I have three more months (ish) before I return to university (for those who are out of the loop- I took a semester to work in a COVID lab, which has given me the time to do this). By the way, y’all are getting me through this. I read comments at work if I ever get breaks and look forward to responding when I get home. Watching Star Trek reminds me that we will have normal again some day. Watching them get home was so triumphant. It’s so sad that it’s over but it’s showing me how much we can get through.

Let me know your show thoughts! I’m not crying, you’re crying.