So the aliens from this episode complained about people calling them thieves and then committed piracy? Are they the Khajiit merchants from Skyrim who complain about being called smugglers and thieves when they deal in stolen good for the Thieves Guild?
What does it say about an alien species where they annoy Chuck so much that he forgoes the Stupid Neelix moment because Neelix said something about them that Chuck totally and emphatically agreed with? My god, it's just crazy to think about.
"Oh no, a core breach is imminent! We have to eject the warp core!" "Won't the antimatter spill out and melt the ship?" "No, no, the ejection automatically trips the emergency cutoff. The antimatter will just get pumped back into the containment chamber." "So... why not just trigger the emergency cutoff... without ejecting the core itself? I mean... it's not like a fission reactor that can go critical. Without new antimatter flowing into it, it's just a big tube with a chunk of dilithium crystal in the middle." "Oh. Yeah, you're right. [beep boop] Here. The core is now offline. Wow. People sure can make weird decisions in a crisis situation, right?" "Hand over your entire supply of thorium." Uh... we don't... have that? How about a working replicator? Just hook it up to a fusion reactor and feed it asteroids. Endless thorium. Also endless food, weapons, medical supplies and... pretty much anything else you might need or want. Oh, you don't have any fusion reactors? No problem, they're in the replicator database too. All you really need is a lot of hydrogen. Yes, literally the most common element in the universe. You'll need more than one replicator. Right. Hey... guess what? Yep. In the replicator database. Where did you think we were getting all these shuttles from?
Species like that should have been the norm for most of the series. Close proximity to borg space should have a lot of desperate speices and cultures on both sides of the territory trying to survive and avoid assimilation, not quiet cultures and thriving communities and empires.
Seriously, Voyager seemed to make absolutely zero effort in the world building department. Writers who gave af would have stopped and plotted out a Delta quadrant equivalent of the Romulan/Federation/Klingon/ect. empires and a basic history/dynamic between the galactic powers that Voyager would be passing through. Instead they just winged it while saying "don't think about it"
@@planescaped They never ran into an alien empire that wasn't a one-off episode thing, did they? except the Krenim...which sort of never happened. I never got the sense the Vidians were an empire. The Hirogen were scattered. Kazon were feuding sects.
@@scockery The Malon showed up for a few episodes, but imitations of Captain Planet-villains don't count anyway. As much as i hate early Voyager, at least the Kazon and Vidiians had reasons why they were not one unified empire.
That "stick to your birthin' " ethos makes me wonder if Scotty really WANTED to be so aggressively Scottish, or if he figured it was his cultural duty to be so.
Scotty was all about presentation and making himself bigger than life. Like the way he always takes the time needed for repairs and multiplies it so he can seem like a miracle worker. So he might have leaned into that to make himself more memorable.
Yay, the first non-reupload of a Star Trek episode in a while. Also, I really wish Voyager had just blasted the Katati with a photon torpedo after getting their warp core back...
When it comes to the Caatati, I think what we're seeing here is the difference between, "Give a man a fish" charity and ""teach a man to fish" charity in action. Solving their real problem, instead of just kicking the can of survival down the road for a few meals, put them in a position to be much more reasonable. It's something that nonprofits struggle with to this day when it comes to uplifting people out of tough conditions. Of course, that doesn't excuse the Caatati's actions, just shows the difference between the two ways to help people.
From what I remember of Chuck's reviews, it seems more like the writers toss a coin, with heads being "perfect boyfriend" and tails being "stereotypical unappreciative sitcom husband." Kind of like how they flip a coin to decide whether he's legitimately cool and highly competent or a Harry-esque butt of jokes from episode to episode.
There is something to be said about desperation driving people to do horrible things like steal, but people who are suffering like remember anyone the helps them. We constantly see stories of homeless people helping others out. The last story I saw had a homeless man giving the little money he had left to a girl the left her wallet in her house and was stuck in the city alone at night. He gave her what was probably the only money he had for food, so the she could return home safe. She ended up repaying him with a go fund me campaign and getting social media to help her find him. this one story out of dozens.
Did they ever explain why Seven didn't completely revolutionize the tech on the ship? She seems to have all the borg knowledge, or at least a ton of it.
She couldn't because of the quantum disentangled momentum disturbances Borg tech causes when mandrilled into non-phasic branches of polymandated matter. Obviously
I'd assume Borg tech was too advanced. Would be like trying to fit technology from the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the USS Constitution wooden frigate. Of course that ignores all the other times Borg tech worked just fine with Voyager and the fact Borg tech is designed to adapt. The answer is the writers didn't want to upset the status quo too much, too much advanced tech and all the aliens wouldn't be able to kick the crap out of them. In universe....... uhh Seven forgot?
Starfleet tech isn't even compatible with other starfleet tech. Borg stuff is going to be REALLY not compatible. Heck, even on DS9 where its similar technology level and full starfleet support they were running into problems and holding it all together with string all 7 years.
The episode has some subtle parity between B'Lanna and Seven. Both are trying to run from their pasts in their own ways and for their own reasons. Embracing parts of it for each lead to a beneficial solution for those around them, yet they have to modify how they apply what they've learned. Seven is willing to sacrifice herself for the crew, but this is out of cold borg logic. She learns that the crew would refuse to sacrifice her for their own survival because they care about her. So she instead comes up with a solution to show compassion to the ones threatening them by sharing knowledge of their lost technology with them. This knowledge is thanks to her borg experiences, yet the idea to share the technology was antithetical to what the borg would do. They would never share anything with others, only take. Seven's actions show that she can successfully adapt her own experiences to her new Starfleet life. B'Lanna, by comparison, is running from her Klingon heritage due to all the pain it brought her as a child. The problem is that this causes her to run from anything she's afraid might cause her pain, including a relationship with Tom, which we would find out much later would remind her of how her father left because of not understanding how to live with Klingon females. B'Lanna's moment of embracing her heritage comes from having the courage and honor to share her oxygen with Tom to keep them both alive long enough for Voyager to rescue them, and also taking the chance on establishing a real relationship with him. There is also something to be said of Tom in this episode. He starts off being a little too pushy against B'Lanna in encouraging her to embrace her heritage, yet on the other hand comforts Seven by telling her that they all have a past and what matters is now. Seems like Seven's example reminded him that sometimes the past is best left behind you, even while you learn from it. And that plays well into Tom's character, as he made a terrible mistake in the past that he has learned from and moved beyond. Even so, as a fan of Tom I was hoping this episode was marking the beginning of a possible Tom/Seven ship, and it may have been, but then to have Tom and B'Lanna get together in the end pretty much squashed that for the rest of the series. Which is too bad, since I think Tom and Seven would have made a better and more dynamic couple.
@@mikegates8993 Yes, and I always saw Chakotay being more compatible with B'Lanna since they had a history together and he helped her get over her depression after news reached them of the Maquis being wiped out.
What Torres done to the Doc is to give him a dose of real life. Hence the title of the episode: *Real Life* That family that the Doc created in the holodeck was unrealistic PC fantasy.
@@Renegade2786 Unrealistic fantasies are kind of the point of Holodeck entertainment. It's a perversely conformist view that everyone's life has to be as miserable as hers.
@@hypotheticalaxolotl His reason actually makes the family more than a little stupid though. Interacting with a family that you're a part of is very different form interacting with patients. There are many scenarios that would've been more practical for that purpose, such as working on a hospital.
6:10 Unshown in the review, but even Neelix called them out on that passive-aggressive bullshit. EDIT: 13:28 Thank you. lol Look, Neelix gets on my nerves too, but he earns having it waved this time.
I think this was the first episode of Voyager I ever watched (or it was that episode where Chakotay ends up stranded with the former Borg but you already reviewed that one)
I don't disagree with Chuck's sentiment here about the aliens for this episode, I do however blame the writers more than the in-universe characters. They created a race of refugees and then painted them as opportunistic thieves who use desperation as an excuse to justify their crimes and hurt people. It's a trope in fiction that I find rather increasingly unhelpful as it seems to outwardly express the idea that would should be wary, cautious and ever vigilant over refugees. In fact, we shouldn't help them ever for fear they will do us harm. Strangely enough, Marvel recently had an event called Empyre that featured a race of aliens that were victims of a genocide by the Kree and Skrulls. They were refugees settled on Earth's Moon for several years... and the event revealed they were actually plotting to murder all animal life in the galaxy as revenge against the two alien races who harmed them. Then the Avengers helped the Kree and Skrull basically complete their genocide by enslaving them after defeating their cackling obviously evil we-turn-people-into-plant-zombies leaders. That alien race's name? The Cotati. Weird coincidence huh? And strangely enough, Voyager's Cotati are still less a bunch of assholes and also Voyagers still helped them out regardless! Weird old world.
Why is VOY always insisting that you need to obey everything your culture demands, even if you as an individual don't care for it? Torres needs to follow her Klingon heritage (why does everybody always forget she's also half-human?), young Chakotay needed to realize his father is right about their culture (in "Tattoo" and many other times) ... This went full speed against so many other stories in other Trek-shows. Wasn't it a nice moment when Worf told Alexander in "Firstborn" he would always be proud of him, even if he wouldn't become a Klingon warrior? Despite him knowing he could be killed in the future if his son doesn't learn how to fight? If Odo was on Voyager, they all would have told him joining the Founders would be the best thing he could do (and not in the way he did at the end of DS9). Please become one of them and start to believe you are better than a Solid! Hey Rom, Nog and Ishka - don't try to change Ferengi society and/or find your own way to happyness! Don't disapprove your culture!
9:55 I remember watching this episode and the dialogue from that situation with those two is particularly horrible. It was too cringe worthy for me to see the good things in the episode mentioned.
To be fair, just because Janeway believed Seven doesn't mean she could completely rule out foul play. There WERE other people in Engineering, after all. Her statement could've been meant to be a bit broader.
There is an unfortunate tendency in sci-fi when it comes to Alien characters to lump in _what_ a character is, with _who_ a character is. Especially in Star Trek, or an old game of DnD, the character's race and its stereotypes, are considered a default part of their personality. For example, that episode of DS9 were Worf serves aboard a Bird of Prey, the Klingon character's are more nuanced yes, but they're still adhere to the standard Klingon archetype. Its only relatively recently that mainstream sci-fi has made efforts to correct this assumption, like in Mass Effect.
In Star Trek, and a lot of sci-fi, there's tension between aliens representing a different culture and aliens representing some aspect of human nature. Under the former model, their species shouldn't determine their personality anymore than someone's heritage would in real life. Under the latter model, it's not simply that Vulcans are logical and Klingons are warriors; it's that Vulcans embody the concept of being logical, and Klingons the concept of being warriors. Having members of the species who DON'T embody those concepts causes the allegory to break down.
Is it really surprising that the Klingons on a military ship of a militant race live up to the military stereotype? I kind of see the point, but DS9 showed Klingons who acted differently in appropriate situations.
@@paulwalker3758 I know that given they're military they'd likely act like it. But the way the writers had Dax go on, at the start of the episode, about how Klingon crews are just as individualistic and intricate as those on a Federation ship, you'd think there would have been more of an effort to make each of them more distinct?
@@ravenwilder4099 That's fine and all but that's not really an alien culture but a mirror for one of humanity's aspects to be reflected back at them. Y'know that would actually be an interesting -- having an Alien antagonist who resents the "arrogance" of humanity for always gravitating towards whatever is familiar in Alien species rather then viewing them for what they are as a whole, on their terms. It could be a type of meta-critique on how Humancentric most sci-fi is.
Yeah, this always left a really sour taste in my mouth whenever this happened. _Voyager_ often had this weird attitude of "stay in your lane" when it came to racial heritage. I mean, they could have approached it from an angle of "Torres has internalised self-hatred about her Klingon heritage, so we'll gently encourage her into Klingon culture so she may learn to be more accepting of herself", but too often it was just "THIS IS WHO YOU ARE. YOU ARE PART KLINGON SO YOU MUST EMBRACE THEIR WAYS".
@@thecynicaloptimist1884 Considering Chakotay is a mix of every Native American tribe's spiritual views I don't think these writers understand real cultures enough to get their fake cultures right.
"If you were raised catholic and became athiest, no one would complain that you're neglecting who you-" okay, SF? I love ya, man, but clearly you have never met grandparents.
So the aliens from this episode complained about people calling them thieves and then committed piracy? Are they the Khajiit merchants from Skyrim who complain about being called smugglers and thieves when they deal in stolen good for the Thieves Guild?
Sure looks like it.
They call me a skooma dealer just because I sell skooma!
Oh... they should call the Khajiit fences then. That will stop the complaining.
Won't stop the arrests though.
What does it say about an alien species where they annoy Chuck so much that he forgoes the Stupid Neelix moment because Neelix said something about them that Chuck totally and emphatically agreed with?
My god, it's just crazy to think about.
"Oh no, a core breach is imminent! We have to eject the warp core!"
"Won't the antimatter spill out and melt the ship?"
"No, no, the ejection automatically trips the emergency cutoff. The antimatter will just get pumped back into the containment chamber."
"So... why not just trigger the emergency cutoff... without ejecting the core itself? I mean... it's not like a fission reactor that can go critical. Without new antimatter flowing into it, it's just a big tube with a chunk of dilithium crystal in the middle."
"Oh. Yeah, you're right. [beep boop] Here. The core is now offline. Wow. People sure can make weird decisions in a crisis situation, right?"
"Hand over your entire supply of thorium."
Uh... we don't... have that? How about a working replicator? Just hook it up to a fusion reactor and feed it asteroids. Endless thorium. Also endless food, weapons, medical supplies and... pretty much anything else you might need or want. Oh, you don't have any fusion reactors? No problem, they're in the replicator database too. All you really need is a lot of hydrogen. Yes, literally the most common element in the universe.
You'll need more than one replicator. Right. Hey... guess what? Yep. In the replicator database.
Where did you think we were getting all these shuttles from?
Replicators are so, so OP...
@@planescaped Only if they are allowed to be ... that's up to the writer of this weeks episode.
"...and you may ask yourself: How did these traditions get started? I'll tell you!
...
...I don't know."
Species like that should have been the norm for most of the series. Close proximity to borg space should have a lot of desperate speices and cultures on both sides of the territory trying to survive and avoid assimilation, not quiet cultures and thriving communities and empires.
Seriously, Voyager seemed to make absolutely zero effort in the world building department. Writers who gave af would have stopped and plotted out a Delta quadrant equivalent of the Romulan/Federation/Klingon/ect. empires and a basic history/dynamic between the galactic powers that Voyager would be passing through.
Instead they just winged it while saying "don't think about it"
@@planescaped They never ran into an alien empire that wasn't a one-off episode thing, did they? except the Krenim...which sort of never happened. I never got the sense the Vidians were an empire. The Hirogen were scattered. Kazon were feuding sects.
@@scockery The Malon showed up for a few episodes, but imitations of Captain Planet-villains don't count anyway. As much as i hate early Voyager, at least the Kazon and Vidiians had reasons why they were not one unified empire.
That "stick to your birthin' " ethos makes me wonder if Scotty really WANTED to be so aggressively Scottish, or if he figured it was his cultural duty to be so.
Scotty was all about presentation and making himself bigger than life. Like the way he always takes the time needed for repairs and multiplies it so he can seem like a miracle worker. So he might have leaned into that to make himself more memorable.
I'd like Neelix a lot more if he was always willing to be everyone's punching bag.
And I'd like him more if he left instead of Kes.
I'm sure he'd find a way to screw that up.
@@horaciosiKes was boring.
Yay, the first non-reupload of a Star Trek episode in a while.
Also, I really wish Voyager had just blasted the Katati with a photon torpedo after getting their warp core back...
Evil Janeway would have done that - you don't steal her shit and get away with it ...
Monkeypox? Oh shit this is New.
That BORG scream got me good. A perfekt facepalm moment.
The Paris and Torres half of this episode carries much of this episode.
The other half is good, but the character work was excellent in this one.
When it comes to the Caatati, I think what we're seeing here is the difference between, "Give a man a fish" charity and ""teach a man to fish" charity in action. Solving their real problem, instead of just kicking the can of survival down the road for a few meals, put them in a position to be much more reasonable.
It's something that nonprofits struggle with to this day when it comes to uplifting people out of tough conditions.
Of course, that doesn't excuse the Caatati's actions, just shows the difference between the two ways to help people.
The last Torres episode! Dang. I wonder what three things she does in this.
I bet it's reading, 'riting, and 'rythmatic
Few things are more scary than Neelix attempting to make Klingon food.
4:26 that's a solid Rich Fulcher impression!
Tom is written as a 'perfect boyfriend/ideal male partner' fantasy throughout his relationship with Belana
From what I remember of Chuck's reviews, it seems more like the writers toss a coin, with heads being "perfect boyfriend" and tails being "stereotypical unappreciative sitcom husband." Kind of like how they flip a coin to decide whether he's legitimately cool and highly competent or a Harry-esque butt of jokes from episode to episode.
There is something to be said about desperation driving people to do horrible things like steal, but people who are suffering like remember anyone the helps them. We constantly see stories of homeless people helping others out. The last story I saw had a homeless man giving the little money he had left to a girl the left her wallet in her house and was stuck in the city alone at night. He gave her what was probably the only money he had for food, so the she could return home safe. She ended up repaying him with a go fund me campaign and getting social media to help her find him. this one story out of dozens.
cool story. Tales from the holocaust ie Auschwitz may surprise you however.
Did they ever explain why Seven didn't completely revolutionize the tech on the ship? She seems to have all the borg knowledge, or at least a ton of it.
Yes. Most of Voyager's systems weren't compatible.
She couldn't because of the quantum disentangled momentum disturbances Borg tech causes when mandrilled into non-phasic branches of polymandated matter.
Obviously
I'd assume Borg tech was too advanced. Would be like trying to fit technology from the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the USS Constitution wooden frigate. Of course that ignores all the other times Borg tech worked just fine with Voyager and the fact Borg tech is designed to adapt. The answer is the writers didn't want to upset the status quo too much, too much advanced tech and all the aliens wouldn't be able to kick the crap out of them. In universe....... uhh Seven forgot?
Like wondering why the Mobile Emitter was incapable of being copied. It would be too easy to have a bunch of holograms running around.
Starfleet tech isn't even compatible with other starfleet tech. Borg stuff is going to be REALLY not compatible.
Heck, even on DS9 where its similar technology level and full starfleet support they were running into problems and holding it all together with string all 7 years.
Janeway in Scorpion Part 2: "We have something the Borg could never offer: Friendship."
* two episodes later *
"EWW, BORG!!!"
This must be Voyager Summer. Begorra, a whole season with Neelix, THE HORROR!
According to tech manuals, Voyager has parts for a spare warp core
The episode has some subtle parity between B'Lanna and Seven. Both are trying to run from their pasts in their own ways and for their own reasons. Embracing parts of it for each lead to a beneficial solution for those around them, yet they have to modify how they apply what they've learned.
Seven is willing to sacrifice herself for the crew, but this is out of cold borg logic. She learns that the crew would refuse to sacrifice her for their own survival because they care about her. So she instead comes up with a solution to show compassion to the ones threatening them by sharing knowledge of their lost technology with them. This knowledge is thanks to her borg experiences, yet the idea to share the technology was antithetical to what the borg would do. They would never share anything with others, only take. Seven's actions show that she can successfully adapt her own experiences to her new Starfleet life.
B'Lanna, by comparison, is running from her Klingon heritage due to all the pain it brought her as a child. The problem is that this causes her to run from anything she's afraid might cause her pain, including a relationship with Tom, which we would find out much later would remind her of how her father left because of not understanding how to live with Klingon females. B'Lanna's moment of embracing her heritage comes from having the courage and honor to share her oxygen with Tom to keep them both alive long enough for Voyager to rescue them, and also taking the chance on establishing a real relationship with him.
There is also something to be said of Tom in this episode. He starts off being a little too pushy against B'Lanna in encouraging her to embrace her heritage, yet on the other hand comforts Seven by telling her that they all have a past and what matters is now. Seems like Seven's example reminded him that sometimes the past is best left behind you, even while you learn from it. And that plays well into Tom's character, as he made a terrible mistake in the past that he has learned from and moved beyond.
Even so, as a fan of Tom I was hoping this episode was marking the beginning of a possible Tom/Seven ship, and it may have been, but then to have Tom and B'Lanna get together in the end pretty much squashed that for the rest of the series. Which is too bad, since I think Tom and Seven would have made a better and more dynamic couple.
It certainly would've been more logical then having Seven end up with Groot. I mean Chakotay.
@@mikegates8993 Anything would have. Sh-t, even suddenly proclaimed her love for Neelix, I'd have sooner believed that.
@@mikegates8993 Yes, and I always saw Chakotay being more compatible with B'Lanna since they had a history together and he helped her get over her depression after news reached them of the Maquis being wiped out.
Ever since "Real Life", I've hated Torres as a character. What she did to the Doc in that episode is what CBS did to the Trek Fandom.
What Torres done to the Doc is to give him a dose of real life. Hence the title of the episode: *Real Life* That family that the Doc created in the holodeck was unrealistic PC fantasy.
@@Renegade2786 Unrealistic fantasies are kind of the point of Holodeck entertainment. It's a perversely conformist view that everyone's life has to be as miserable as hers.
@@hypotheticalaxolotl His reason actually makes the family more than a little stupid though. Interacting with a family that you're a part of is very different form interacting with patients. There are many scenarios that would've been more practical for that purpose, such as working on a hospital.
6:10 Unshown in the review, but even Neelix called them out on that passive-aggressive bullshit.
EDIT: 13:28 Thank you. lol Look, Neelix gets on my nerves too, but he earns having it waved this time.
I think this was the first episode of Voyager I ever watched (or it was that episode where Chakotay ends up stranded with the former Borg but you already reviewed that one)
Oh, "Unity", where we learn that the Borg collective actually isn't that bad (better than living in a post-sowjet-state 🤣)
I don't disagree with Chuck's sentiment here about the aliens for this episode, I do however blame the writers more than the in-universe characters. They created a race of refugees and then painted them as opportunistic thieves who use desperation as an excuse to justify their crimes and hurt people. It's a trope in fiction that I find rather increasingly unhelpful as it seems to outwardly express the idea that would should be wary, cautious and ever vigilant over refugees. In fact, we shouldn't help them ever for fear they will do us harm.
Strangely enough, Marvel recently had an event called Empyre that featured a race of aliens that were victims of a genocide by the Kree and Skrulls. They were refugees settled on Earth's Moon for several years... and the event revealed they were actually plotting to murder all animal life in the galaxy as revenge against the two alien races who harmed them. Then the Avengers helped the Kree and Skrull basically complete their genocide by enslaving them after defeating their cackling obviously evil we-turn-people-into-plant-zombies leaders.
That alien race's name? The Cotati. Weird coincidence huh? And strangely enough, Voyager's Cotati are still less a bunch of assholes and also Voyagers still helped them out regardless! Weird old world.
12:22
You know he'd sing a song to it.
Why is VOY always insisting that you need to obey everything your culture demands, even if you as an individual don't care for it? Torres needs to follow her Klingon heritage (why does everybody always forget she's also half-human?), young Chakotay needed to realize his father is right about their culture (in "Tattoo" and many other times) ...
This went full speed against so many other stories in other Trek-shows. Wasn't it a nice moment when Worf told Alexander in "Firstborn" he would always be proud of him, even if he wouldn't become a Klingon warrior? Despite him knowing he could be killed in the future if his son doesn't learn how to fight?
If Odo was on Voyager, they all would have told him joining the Founders would be the best thing he could do (and not in the way he did at the end of DS9). Please become one of them and start to believe you are better than a Solid!
Hey Rom, Nog and Ishka - don't try to change Ferengi society and/or find your own way to happyness! Don't disapprove your culture!
9:55 I remember watching this episode and the dialogue from that situation with those two is particularly horrible.
It was too cringe worthy for me to see the good things in the episode mentioned.
To be fair, just because Janeway believed Seven doesn't mean she could completely rule out foul play. There WERE other people in Engineering, after all. Her statement could've been meant to be a bit broader.
There is an unfortunate tendency in sci-fi when it comes to Alien characters to lump in _what_ a character is, with _who_ a character is.
Especially in Star Trek, or an old game of DnD, the character's race and its stereotypes, are considered a default part of their personality. For example, that episode of DS9 were Worf serves aboard a Bird of Prey, the Klingon character's are more nuanced yes, but they're still adhere to the standard Klingon archetype.
Its only relatively recently that mainstream sci-fi has made efforts to correct this assumption, like in Mass Effect.
In Star Trek, and a lot of sci-fi, there's tension between aliens representing a different culture and aliens representing some aspect of human nature.
Under the former model, their species shouldn't determine their personality anymore than someone's heritage would in real life. Under the latter model, it's not simply that Vulcans are logical and Klingons are warriors; it's that Vulcans embody the concept of being logical, and Klingons the concept of being warriors.
Having members of the species who DON'T embody those concepts causes the allegory to break down.
Is it really surprising that the Klingons on a military ship of a militant race live up to the military stereotype?
I kind of see the point, but DS9 showed Klingons who acted differently in appropriate situations.
@@paulwalker3758 I know that given they're military they'd likely act like it. But the way the writers had Dax go on, at the start of the episode, about how Klingon crews are just as individualistic and intricate as those on a Federation ship, you'd think there would have been more of an effort to make each of them more distinct?
@@ravenwilder4099 That's fine and all but that's not really an alien culture but a mirror for one of humanity's aspects to be reflected back at them.
Y'know that would actually be an interesting -- having an Alien antagonist who resents the "arrogance" of humanity for always gravitating towards whatever is familiar in Alien species rather then viewing them for what they are as a whole, on their terms.
It could be a type of meta-critique on how Humancentric most sci-fi is.
babylon 5 did good with this.
Each species of alien had their own hat, but there was a lot of variance in each alien species.
I had honestly forgotten that this episode existed.
I hope those aliens go extinct.
Holy shit. Stupid Neelix Moment waived.
Chuck's getting softer in the final episodes.
I thought that saying someone is required to think and behave a certain way because of their race is horribly racist! Silly me. :V
Yeah, this always left a really sour taste in my mouth whenever this happened. _Voyager_ often had this weird attitude of "stay in your lane" when it came to racial heritage.
I mean, they could have approached it from an angle of "Torres has internalised self-hatred about her Klingon heritage, so we'll gently encourage her into Klingon culture so she may learn to be more accepting of herself", but too often it was just "THIS IS WHO YOU ARE. YOU ARE PART KLINGON SO YOU MUST EMBRACE THEIR WAYS".
@@thecynicaloptimist1884 Considering Chakotay is a mix of every Native American tribe's spiritual views I don't think these writers understand real cultures enough to get their fake cultures right.
"If you were raised catholic and became athiest, no one would complain that you're neglecting who you-" okay, SF? I love ya, man, but clearly you have never met grandparents.
A fairly solid outing for Voyager, though the actual Day of Honor elements do feel a bit superfluous overall.