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sshbpodcast · 9 months

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Top Five Star Trek VOY Episodes

by Ames

We made it back to the Alpha Quadrant, y’all, and it was a pretty good trip! Overall, we’d say Star Trek: Voyager is a pretty decent contender for one of the best series in the franchise. Sure, we here at A Star to Steer Her By are probably still on Team DS9 for the most part, but our plucky friends lost in the Delta Quadrant are at least giving TOS and TNG a run for their money in terms of overall episode quality, character development, and consistency. Hell, TNG’s first season alone brings its average way down, so it might be a pretty close race!

Considering Voyager usually gets overlooked on a good day and unfairly criticized on a bad day, it’s a damn good show with a lot of stunning episodes that leave the audience invested, affected, and ready for more. And now that we’re out of episodes, we’ve assembled our favorites of the series for you to warp through below, and/or listen to on our finale episode of the podcast (series discussion at 1:29:20) which features even more picks from guest star Liz. Bon voyage, Voyager!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“False Profits”: Chris We’d be remiss if we didn’t include some of the fluffy comedy shit Chris loves (I’m just as shocked as you are that it’s not Bride of Chaotica!), so here’s a very funny yet very Star Trek example that brings back the two Ferengi all the way from TNG’s “The Price.” It’s a pretty deep cut for a reference, but they certainly run with it in an ultimately satisfying way, complete with putting Ethan Phillips back in Ferengi makeup, as we saw in TNG’s “Ménage à Troi” and will see again in Enterprise’s “Acquisition.”

“Course: Oblivion”: Ames Just for the whiplash of it all, let’s pivot from a fun romp of an episode to a deeply depressing, tragic episode in “Course: Oblivion.” The inevitable demise of all the Silver Blood Duplicates is like watching a slow-motion car crash: you know what’s going to happen is going to be upsetting but you can’t tear your eyes away. And the nihilist cherry on top of this ice cream cone of sadness is that their message never even gets through! It’s so successful at being so bleak!

“Memorial”: Caitlin Let’s kick off a handful of noteworthy episodes that examine how we connect with and remember history, starting with a space genocide that plays out in the memories of anyone who happens along as both a memorial to its people and a not-so-subtle disparagement of Holocaust deniers. The post-traumatic stress disorder that the crew displays is also expertly done, making their reactions to atrocity something personal and all the more intriguing, like “The Inner Light” on a whole ship’s scale.

“Remember”: Caitlin Before getting saddled with Paris, B’Elanna Torres had some really good character work early on, and her living out the moments in the life of an Enaran woman in her dreams gives Roxann Dawson quite a lot to play with. We also did a lot of comparing this episode to the classic “The Inner Light,” and for good reason! Dawson really shines in this role, and we also get a spellbinding portrayal of the really troubling Enaran culture and their genocide of the Regressives.

“Blink of an Eye”: Jake One of the cleverest episodes of Voyager comes in this fast-paced planet that develops quicker than you can ascertain, and thus allows for us to view the full evolution of a culture’s advancements in perfect little vignettes. And it all culminates with a hopeful and touching moment with one of Jake’s favorite characters, Gotana-Retz, finally connecting with the ship that has shaped his planet’s history and saving their asses.

“Distant Origin”: Ames Here’s another episode that’s almost too clever for its own good. The Galileo allegory is so strong and fascinating that we entirely accept that some sapient dinosaurs left earth at some point, which should be so silly as to utterly distract from the episode, but Forra Gegen is just so earnest and his plight to open the eyes of his people to their forgotten history so reasonable that we just go with it! Plus Chakotay is probably the most in character he ever gets to be all series long and it’s great to watch!

“Death Wish”: Chris While Q is at his best when paired with Jean-Luc, and his other appearances in Voyager may stretch credulity a little bit, this episode shows us a side of the Continuum that is refreshing and new. Quinn’s depiction of life as a Q as a prison is rather fascinating, and he expertly plays a compassionate character whom you root for even though you feel conflicted by it because his winning the trial will result in his death. But that’s the kind of moral conflict that Star Trek plays so well!

“Nothing Human”: Caitlin Speaking of moral conflicts, we’ve got another ethical debate on our hands in this allegory to Nazi medical experiments. While everyone here on the podcast was firmly in the camp that it is okay to use medical knowledge obtained through deplorable means, it’s still a fascinating reminder to see the full context of what it means to use data from someone like the Cardassian Josef Mengele. The science fiction lens of this real-world allegory is just what Star Trek is for.

“Relativity”: Ames I have such a soft spot for this episode. I’m a sucker for a really interesting use of time travel in storytelling, and the way this episode is structured: chef’s kiss. The twist that it was a crazed future Braxton the whole time. Yes. The weirdly sexy dynamic between Seven and Ducane. I’m there for it. And the best thing of all is seeing Jeri Ryan in a Starfleet uniform, looking fly as hell! Her character journey is now complete because someone finally dressed her well.

“Eye of the Needle”: Jake Another very soft spot of ours is in this season-one episode featuring another of Jake’s favorite Voyager characters. This is the first time (of many) that the Voyager comes this close to finding a way back home to the Alpha Quadrant only to have those hopes dashed to bits by circumstance. It’s so Voyager-specific a story that it’s actually quite perfect. So many episodes could be TNG in Voyager clothes, but it’s episodes like this one that really gave a particular voice to the show.

“Homestead”: Caitlin The literal journey the Voyager characters go on is a big part of the whole series (even when they dipsy doodle around on sidequests so often), and the most complete and meaningful character journey is Neelix’s. Throughout the show, we’ve seen him grow as he got further and further from his homeworld, became an important fixture on the ship, and developed friendships with the other characters (like Tuvok, as you’ll see in a moment). So the closure his character gets in “Homestead” is too perfect for words.

“Riddles”: Caitlin, Chris The Neelix-Tuvok relationship is on full display here. Where normally they’re paired together for the comedy of an odd-couple dynamic, this episode really shows the love these two have for each other. And Tim Russ acts his butt off as a Tuvok who is struggling to recuperate from a serious injury, trying to find himself again, and being supported by his best friend. It’s so good that it didn’t even make Caitlin’s tops list of that season, but has reemerged in the finals!

“Jetrel”: Chris, Jake One more Neelix episode to round out his character, and this is one of the early ones. We’ve already talked about some good allegories on this list for Galileo and Mengele, and appropriately for this moment, we’ve got another great scifi lens to view Robert Oppenheimer (almost said Barbie, but alas). Jetrel is a fascinating character just like Oppie, but Neelix really steals the show with the remorse he feels for draft dodging and then surviving an atrocity that would have killed him. Damn, those are some deep layers for a usually fun character.

“Year of Hell”: Ames, Jake This may be one of the best two-parters in Star Trek, as it never lost momentum and its conclusion was that jaw-dropping kind of satisfying that marks really good writing. Watching the ship and crew getting more and more wounded over the course of the two-parter was excellent to see, and the character Annorax is one of our favorite Voyager villains. And for good reason! Kirkwood Smith infuses that character with such humanity and resolve you almost root for him. Almost.

“Living Witness”: Ames, Chris, Jake Finally, the episode with the most votes from your SSHB hosts is yet another original way of looking at how people represent history, and how so much of it is told through the biased lens of whoever’s in charge. But the best thing about “Living Witness” is how much the actors get to really ham it up by portraying evil versions of their usual characters. It’s like doing a mirror universe episode, but more thought provoking, less contrived, and less doofy.

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See also: our Bottom Five Star Trek VOY Episodes list. And why not: here’re all the seasonal tops and bottoms from seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7!

Welcome back to Earth! We hope you had as great a time following along with Janeway and crew throughout the series, but we’ve got more Star Trek on the way! Next on the docket is the one you’ve no doubt been waiting for, so make sure you’re following along here as we finally fill out the classic Trek roster with Star Trek: Enterprise in our watchthrough on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also hail us on Facebook and Twitter, and give one final toast: To the Journey!

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data2364 · 2 years

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via Trekcore.com

Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B’Elanna Torres) 1998 in Star Trek: Voyager "Nothing Human“

https://data2364.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/daily-star-trek-27-september-2019/

#Star Trek #Star TrekVoyager #Roxann Biggs-Dawson #Roxann Dawson #B’Elanna Torres #Nothing Human #Inhumane Praktiken

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astraystayyh · 3 months

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this post actually broke my heart.

#i can't believe more than ten thousands children were killed #and yet we are still grappling on whether israel is commiting a genocide #i can't believe how inhumane some people can be #how cargo ships matter more than human life #fuck you if you still support israel #if you still excuse it if you still think of “two sides”#fuck you genuinely i wish you nothing but pain for the rest of your miserable life #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza

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theshadowrealmitself · 6 months

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I like to think that Vulcans who come to understand that Humans just can’t try to process emotions the same way as them, it’s just healthiest to let it out in harmless ways, decide that venting and stuff should be taken just as seriously as Vulcan’s meditation time, and will encourage the Humans around them to complain about what’s upsetting them

People who are used to aloof Vulcans who avoid Humans at all cost running into one comforting a Human

“-and then they said my cheesecake was subpar, and they didn’t even bring a dish!!!”

“The purpose of this event was that every participant brings a food item of sorts, correct?”

“Yeah!!”

“And they did not follow this rule while insulting dishes that were brought?”

“Mostly just my dish but yeah >:(“

“How illogical”

“That’s what I’m saying!!!”

#star trek #Vulcans #Humans #not based on a specific thing #but I used to know this annoying couple that were ‘family friends’#who would show up to potluck dinners and the like and would either bring nothing or bring something really just. out of left field?#like a bag of frozen chicken to a bbq #and then proceed to make sure they are first even if it was stated to let kids go first #would take HUGE amounts before anyone else got a chance to get a plate #and then make off with the leftovers again even if they were already claimed for #and it wasn’t a food insecurity thing trust me I would never speak bad about a person getting food if that was even a remote chance #the adults who raised us knew them really well and we’d been to their house a ton of times #they were just dicks #and yeah. they’d occasionally insult the food. while eating the MAJORITY of it.#it was so weird at their home they would go out of their way to get the healthiest options possible #you know the really bland tasteless expensive stuff that apparently was healthier #but then if they were visiting our house they would. eat all our unhealthy snacks.#that always pissed me off so much as a kid because we actually had a food insecurity thing going on #and also a variety of other reasons that are a bit too depressing to bring up on this post #but anyways we’d hardly ever get to have nice snacks #and this couple would just take them all??? even after we’d tell them repeatedly that it was ours and those snacks weren’t gonna be #replaced #hated that couple #if you’re wondering why they were ‘family friends’ it’s because the couple who raised us #(it feels weird to type it out like that but apparently legal guardians doesn’t fit since they never finished petitioning 💀)#liked having them around because it made them look like ‘such great Christian’s’ being nice to the people #that no one else wanted to be friends with #I always thought that was a really weird and fucked up reason to be friends with someone #this got long sorry 😭

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coochiekrab · 10 months

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Self proclaimed animal luvr i hate humans internet warrior logic

#nothing like telling someone that an animal deserves housing more than a human being straight to your face

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troythecatfish · 1 month

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hamletthedane · 11 months

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my brother just called me late at night, barely able to get two words out because he was laughing so hard. Finally, through the wheezing, he told me “go google the new Gollum game. Please”

So I did. And now I just spent half an hour on the phone nearly dying. We just kept sending eachother pictures of Gollum from the game and LOSING IT all over again. I haven’t laughed this hard in YEARS.

#gollum game #lotr #jrrt and Christopher Tolkien are both rolling in their graves while I’m rolling on the floor #WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT #WHY IS IT SO FUNNY #DID A SINGLE OTHER HUMAN BEING REVIEW THIS BEFORE SHIPPING IT OUT #THIS IS GLORIOUS CHANGE NOTHING

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gorgynei · 7 months

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λυκάνθρωπος / Μινώταυρος

#caption is ''lycanthrope / minotaur'' in ancient greek. bc im feeling silly #i know that like really werewolves and the minotaur have nothing in common BUT THEYRE BOTH ANIMAL PEOPLE! u have to #understand. its about the abstraction from humanity while also existing SO close to it.#werewolf #aceart #werewolfisms #minotaur #my art

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stil-lindigo · 9 months

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scorched earth.

a comic about a princess who died in a fire.

(this is a sequel to bite of winter, a comic about Snow and what became of her after her death.)

creative notes:

all my other comics

store

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tinyspectre · 5 months

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He’s just a little guy!!

random DP drawings, proof that keeping a consistent style is uh… hard.

#danny phantom #dp #phanart #phandom #phart #ghost danny #human danny #May be a bit of work vent in here too oops #Nothing like giving the shit life throws at you a glowing middle finger #spectres art

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sshbpodcast · 1 year

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Is season 5 the best season for Voyager? Are all season 5s the best seasons?

by Ames

There’s just something about those middle seasons of any Star Trek series. The characters have all received enough development to feel real. The writers have found their footing. There are enough existing story arcs to draw from to create a really cohesive world. And the show hasn’t been going on long enough for the stories to get stale and the writers to run out of ideas. We saw it in season five of The Next Generation, which tied with season 6 for number of episodes represented in our overall tops from the series. I’d argue that season four is the best season of Deep Space Nine, with some of the best episodes of the series and really very few of the worst. And now that A Star to Steer Her By has finished our watch-through of season five of Voyager, I’m sensing a pattern. Sorry, Enterprise.

What do y’all think? Season fours versus season fives? We’ll have to wait to see if the pattern holds with any of the currently running series, but so far, I think my theory holds. We’ve constructed our typical season wrap top 5 / bottom 5 listicles, and this past season of Voyager just had too many good episodes to choose from. Check them all out below and listen to our chatter on this week’s podcast episode (discussion starts at 1:27:17) where you can hear some bonus episodes from guest star Carl of the BattleSpace Nine podcast!

Top Three Episodes

There were a lot of contenders for top three this season, which speaks to the strength of the season overall, and our picks were way more spread out than usual. Interestingly (if you like random stats as much as I do), this is the first time we have seen no overlap in a list from Caitlin, a feat achieved before by Chris in both season 5s of TNG and DS9. Season 5s, amirite?

“Drone”: Ames Borg on board! We’re still at the stage in the show when every Borg episode is a highlight in some way or another. And this One’s no different (emphasis on the One!). It may be a retread of “I, Borg,” but is that such a bad thing? Credit to our new friend from the Collective, born when some nanoprobes and a mobile emitter got busy in the transporter, for giving us all the feels.

“Thirty Days”: Caitlin Tom is at his best when he’s a little bit rebellious. It was really good to see that streak of bad boy in him while also seeing how his character development over the seasons has made him a fighter for the little guy. We finally see what Torres finds so attractive in him. Mmm, so ethical. And any time we get to have a big old Prime Directive debate is going to be a good time.

“Bride of Chaotica”: Chris Similar to something like an “Our Man Bashir” or a “Trials and Tribble-ations,” this episode tears out all the stops and just goes for broke. When Star Trek embraces its campy roots but also does something original with tropes, it’s pretty much bound to end up on Chris’s tops list. It was just too delightful watching Kate Mulgrew ham it up. Invaders! Invaders!

“Timeless”: Jake This episode was this close to making our top time travel episodes list, but the phase variance was just slightly off. So I’m glad we get to sing its praises now because it’s another good use of the time travel motif: the premise is smart, Harry’s guilt is emotionally evocative, the crash on the ice planet somehow holds up, and this might be the most attractive we’ve found Garrett Wang yet!

“Counterpoint”: Caitlin What’s better than a good double crossing in an episode? Perhaps a triple crossing? A quadruple crossing? We lost count of just how many crossings there were in “Counterpoint,” but we loved watching Janeway outscheme Kashyk. Devious Janeway is definitely best Janeway, and helping people who are persecuted is definitely a good taste to have in the mouth.

“Latent Image”: Chris As you’ll see in a second with our tippy top pick of the season, we love a brutal ending, and seeing the Doctor have to deal with soul-crushing problems is spell-binding. We can empathize with how the more human emotions and flaws that he’s developed over the years can be considerably detrimental, but it’s that development that has made him such a remarkable character. Take that to the memory bank!

“Nothing Human”: Caitlin One last one just from Caitlin’s list and it’s a good’un. “Nothing Human” is a fine allegory for Nazi experimentation and Crell Moset makes for a very compelling and thought-provoking equivalent to a Nazi doctor whose work could be considered beneficial despite the horrific ways in which it was achieved. It’s also a plus anytime we see Cardassians strutting their stuff on Trek, so there’s that too. Yum.

“Relativity”: Ames, Jake I’m not shy about lauding this episode all over the place, such as in our time travel episodes discussion just last week! What more can I say about this mindfuck of a time travel episode that I haven’t already gushed? The paradoxes make your eyes cross just a little bit, but in a good way because the pacing is just spot on. And Jeri Ryan nails it, of course, and rocks a Starfleet sciences uniform like no one else.

“Course: Oblivion”: Ames, Chris, Jake Get ready to be emotionally manipulated by an episode for a full forty-five minutes, and it feels so good! Once you come to realize the twist of this episode and the ending is inevitable, it’s like slow torture, except that’s our kink. The character doubles are just so compelling to watch because they effectively are our usual characters, with their same traits and motivations, just without the plot armor.

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Bottom Three Episodes

You’ll see a lot more overlap in our bottoms list, kinda like we had last season, mainly because there just weren’t that many bad’uns to go through. So here are just the couple that we mostly agreed should have been scrubbed from this season and from our eyes.

“Infinite Regress”: Ames As fun as it is to watch Jeri Ryan play a whole bunch of personalities from people she’s assimilated (see our character possessions post!), it’s also a fairly thin story that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The actions of all the other personalities aren’t grounded by anything. And the mindmeld scene is just some exhausting sensory overload of chaos.

“Someone to Watch Over Me”: Caitlin This episode may seem a lighter, fluffier story that you can generally enjoy on the whole (and I won’t be hearing anything bad about Scott Thompson!), but when you get down to it you’ve got to admit: it’s just Pygmalion. Almost beat for beat. It’s pretty lazy to just go all My Fair Lady on Seven, especially when she’s already such a good character that doesn’t need whatever fixing the doctor seems to think she needs.

“The Disease”: Ames, Chris, Jake This is an episode that had too many plotlines to focus on and it bet on the wrong horse. While we were clawing at the television to learn more about the rebels on the generational ship, the writers were force feeding us a fairly bland romance and trying to convince us that there was some kind of conflict when really Kim and Tal were just a normal couple. Who is Janeway to lecture him on banging an alien?

“11:59”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake Now an actually bad romance comes from Janeway’s ancestry in this episode that could have just been about how history isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be except for this meet cute that derailed the whole thing. Not only did Shannon and Henry have absolutely no chemistry, but also the character of Henry Janeway was just plain unlikeable in just about every way. Stop living in the past, episode!

“The Fight”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake But the episode that we all agreed on from this season is one of the most notoriously bad. “The Fight” is the lowest rated Voyager episode on IMDB, and there is good reason why. The structure of flashbacks and dream sequences and random meetings with Chakotay’s insane grandfather is so convoluted it somehow manages to contradict itself constantly. This one was knocked out before it got in the ring.

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Is it all downhill from here? Seasons 6 and 7 have trended weaker in TNG and DS9, so keep listening along with our watch-through of Voyager to find out how the rest of the series fares! Make sure you’re subscribed over on SoundCloud or your favorite podcast app, hail us on Facebook and Twitter, and shine up that plot armor: you’re gonna need it!

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chaos-bringer-13 · 1 month

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I've seen a lot of people writing Danny as a space ancient and Dan and Dani as ghosts with moon and sun cores, being sort of parts, versions of Danny and therefore weaker. Now, consider: Dan and Dani are both powerful ghosts with really cool cores and stuff but Danny is just some guy™

Dan, who came from an alternate timeline and is kind of from the future but also not, is Clockwork's apprentice and will eventually become an ancient of time. He probably only agreed to have some lessons with Clockwork to understand better what happened to him, but he enjoys his apprenticeship now.

Dani, with her love of travelling, loves seeing all the different places the world offers to her, and that includes space and different planets and maybe even parallel universes, and she accidentally ends up being an apprentice of the space ancient. For now she's probably a baby ancient of freedom or something like that, but she might become an ancient of space in the future.

We can also have something like Dan having a core of destruction or Dani being the Speed Force if you want it to be dcxdp, or any headcanon of yours about their cool powers.

And then there's Danny. And yeah, everyone knows that he's super powerful, but also he's just some guy.

It can go different routes. Does everyone know that Danny is just Danny? Or do they think that with siblings (well, technically a clone and an alternate version, but whatever) so powerful, he must be even stronger? Is Danny actually something terrifyingly eldritch and ancient and strong, almost a god, but he just doesn't know himself? Or is he just really some guy?

Now, because it's obvious that I have a dcxdp brainrot, have a regular "JL summons/meets a powerful ghost" but its Dan and Dani, and they keep mentioning their original/brother who won a fight against them at some point. The JL is very concerned about Dan and Dani's godlike powers, and they can't imagine what Danny is like. And then they meet him (in his human form), and it's just a young adult in casual clothes, very friendly and helpful, with no evident powers. Imagine the confusion. Imagine Dan and Dani, radiating power, in their eldritch ghost forms, admitting that fighting Danny for real is the dumbest thing to do and not even they would succeed... And then there's Danny is jeans and silly t-shirt, waving shyly.

#DO YOU SEE MY VISION #please #I'm not getting enough sleep #my brain is obsessed with weird stuff #I want Sam who barely looks human because she's one with nature #I want Tucker who looks regal and dangerous in his pharaoh clothes #I want Dan look like he can destruct the Earth with a wave of his hand #I want Dani who is everything there is in the world and you feel it in your bones #I want Jazz who sees your soul and your mind and you know it and there's nowhere to run #I want JL to meet all of them before meeting Danny #I want all of them to admit in their different ways that Danny is the greatest of them #I want JL to be VERY worried about meeting Danny #and then I want Danny to be as normal and friendly as possible #and I want him to treat all those eldritch creatures (his family and friends) as they're regular humans and nothing is weird about them #just hugs and love and praises #because it would cause so much confusion #this is NOT ghost king Danny #unless it is but he doesn't know (and either no one knows or no one told him because it's funnier this way and he's super oblivious)#dpxdc #dcxdp #dp x dc #dc x dp #DPxDC #DCxDP #danny phantom #isn't a crossover if you don't want it to be #could be any crossover if you do want it to be

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