Star Trek: Voyager

[armyofkittens]

So sometimes I get the urge to watch a random episode of this, that, or the other, triggered by a memory or something I've read or seen or smelled. And given that for much of my disconnected adolescent life my only real way to bond with my dad was through a shared love for TNG-era Star Trek, usually these urges are for Trek shows.

Today's urge, which will shortly be fulfilled as I go to bed and make a feeble attempt at sleep and inevitably fail because our carbon dioxide alarm went off and we had to have a couple of guys from British Gas come out at half past midnight and it was a false alarm so everything's fine but now I'm wired as fuck so won't sleep so I will be watching these two episodes I just encoded and dumped onto my phone, is for the double episode where they go back in time to 1990s Los Angeles chasing a time ship and end up going against that blond guy with the tall head who masterminded the microchip revolution by prising computer chips off the back of a crashed 29th-century spacecraft and made calculators with them.

I can't wait. I half-remember it, so I'm looking forward to seeing if my suspicion that tall-headed guy has named his company after himself (like all companies in fiction and very few companies in real life) is correct. Also that comedian is in it, randomly. And lots of Tom Paris showing off his amazing, contractually-obliged, sorry-dude-you-drew-the-short-straw-and-got-to-be-the-audience-perspective-character-after-Harry-Kim-turned-out-to-be-Harry-Kim knowledge of 20th Century America in various quirky ways. I hope he says radical.

Anyone got any suggestions for best/worst VOY episodes to scratch my itch with in the coming days?

[maqsarian]

I always liked the "Year of Hell" two-parter. It has Kurtwood Smith and time-erasure shenanigans! And I can't really "recommend" it, but the worst episode of Voyager is far and away "Threshold".

Also, Henry Starling's company is named Chronowerx. Sorry.

[artw]

Does Threshold involve aliens creating a hawt dude in the Oirish village that Janeway runs in the holodeck, so she falls in love with him instead of doing her job properly (which would, presumably, involve smacking down said aliens) - because that was the worst episode of ANYTHING, EVER.

[maqsarian]

Threshold is where Tom Paris "hyperevolves", which somehow turns him into a crazy lizard man. Then he kidnaps Janeway, they both turn into giant space salamanders, and they have salamander babies.

[artw]

Oh god. That'd be a close second place.

And it's not like they hadn't already done a stupid TNG devolving episode that's basically the same.

[armyofkittens]

I'm convinced that a lot of the later episodes on TNG were extrapolated from "what we'd like to see Patrick Stewart do next."

Patrick is an amazing actor! Let's have him carry a double episode A plot almost solo, and get tortured.

Patrick is an amazing actor! Let's have him start turning into a monkey.

Patrick is an amazing actor! Let's have him play three versions of himself in different time periods, and watch Picard the person struggle to maintain his sanity.

Patrick is bald! Let's do an episode where he de-ages so he can have hair.

[artw]

The best episodes of Voyager are the ones where Seven of Nine learns to overcome being a mere weak and fleshy hu-man and acts all kickass like a Borg.

[armyofkittens]

I would so go for an episode where Seven and the Doctor just wander around Voyager being incredibly rude and sarcastic to everyone. Especially Harry.