Monday, February 29, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 148 - Imperfection

"When her cortical implant malfunctions, Seven of Nine needs a life-saving transplant."

I'm sorry, but I still don't care about 7 of 9. All of the Borg children (but Icheb) are sent to live in peace on a planet. 7  finds herself crying and being emotional. She then collapses and it is discovered that her cortical implant is dying and The Doctor can't fix it. She will most likely die. Icheb wants to give her his implant, but it is to risky and no one want him to do it. He operates on himself and takes the implant out and nearly dies. But, he survives and 7 is saved.

148 down 24 to go

Friday, February 26, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 147 - Unimatrix Zero Pt. 2

This is where it really falls apart. The Voyager crew/Borgs start to stop the Queen from destroying Ultramtrix Zero. Tuvoks shot wears off and he goes crazy. Borg Queen confronts Janeway and tries to convince her to stop. Why she doesn't just kill Janeway, I have no idea. Instead she starts to kill thousands of her own drones in an attempt to guilt Janeway into giving in. Janeway is like, "go ahead and destroy the hive, I really don't care." The Borg Queen then decides to unleash a virus in Ultramatrix. Janeway decides to let the matrix be destroyed and just liberate these self-aware Borgs instead. Which she does. Now there are Borgs that are willing to fight against the Borg. Sort of a game changer.

147 down 25 to go

Star Trek VGR Episode 146 - Unimatrix Zero

"Janeway, B'Elanna and Tuvok infiltrate a Borg Cube in an attempt to save Borg drones who are trying to develop individuality."

The plot of this Season 6 series finale and the continuation in Season 7 episode one, had a solid plot idea but the production of it just was not that good. It just never got that engaging.

7 of 9 starts "visiting" this utopia named Unimatrix Zero. You can visit this place in your mind, but it is still very real. This is where some Borgs were able to "go" and be their regular selves. On this plane, 7 had a lover named Axum. The Borg Queen is aware of this "place" and want to destroy it. Janeway travels to Unimatrix Zero with 7 and offers to help save it. The Borg Queen then offers Janeway a deal. She will get Voyager home if she doesn't interfere in the destruction of Unimatrix Zero. Of course Janeway refuses. Chakotay then has a crazy idea. Him, Janeway, Tuvok and Torres will infiltrate the Borg Cube. They will be purposely assimilated and then they can unleash the Borg virus. The Doctor has given them a shot to prevent full assimilation. ...finally season 6 is over.

146 down 26 to go

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 145 - The Haunting of Deck Twelve

"As Voyager travels through a nebula all ship's power is turned off, giving Neelix an opportunity to tell the Borg children a ghost story."

There is really not much else to this one. Neelix tells the Borg children a ghost story. I mean its a pretty good story, but that's the entire episode. The irony is that an actual Borg is 100x scarier than ghost.

145 down 27 to go

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 144 - Life Line

"The Doctor's creator, Lewis Zimmerman, is dying in the Alpha Quadrant from a disease similar to the Vidiian phage. The Doctor's compressed matrix is transferred to Zimmerman's lab on the Jupiter station, to assist Mr. Barclay and Counselor Troi in attempting to treat the illness."

Another good one. Lewis Zimmerman is dying and only The Doctor can save him. Now that Barclay can communicate with Voyager, they are able to transmit The Doctor to the Alpha Quadrant for assistance. Lewis is a giant jerk and seemingly hates The Doctor (which is basically a hologram of himself). They have to convince him that The Doctor is more than just a replication of himself. He has gained much more knowledge during Voyagers explorations. Another great Robert Picardo performance. This episode got me thinking about the Patty Duke show, in which Patty Duke plays both herself and her twin...cousin??? Anyway, I watched an episode just to see if the filming still holds up and it does!

144 down 28 to go

Star Trek VGR Episode 143 - Fury

"A much older and more powerful Kes returns to Voyager, and attempts to travel back in time to change her history."

I very much enjoyed this episode. Kes is old and super bitter. She blames Janeway for ruining her life. She has traveled back in time to change the course of her life by disabling Voyager and rescuing her younger self. She is insanely powerful and difficult to defeat. It takes her younger self, convincing her older self to finally stop the attack. The plot has a million holes, but who really cares. It was still fun.


143 down 29 to go

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 142 - Muse

"Torres is stranded on a bronze-age planet after a crash in the Delta Flyer, where she helps a playwright adapt the story of Voyager to the stage. Also, Kim is missing in an escape pod."

Though not a great plot, I did enjoy the fact that this was a Bronze-Age planet. They are big into the amphitheater on this world. The emperor orders the playwright to keep making these great Voyager plays. We find out that he has Torres captured. Though not in a bad way really, she has crashed on the planet and he has been caring for her. He thinks that she is one of the great Eternals. She promises to give him more stories if he helps her get back to Voyager. They sort of bond and at the end she helps him make his final Voyager play.. one that the crowd will never forget. At the end she dematerializes and beams away.

142 down 30 to go

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 141 - Live Fast and Prosper

"Con artists impersonate Janeway and Tuvok."

This one is good. There are these con artists that have been going around and pretending to be Janeway and Tuvok. They have been scamming people by making bad deals. It's funny because Tuvok looks like Carl Winslow from Family Matters. Neelix and Paris suddenly realize they too had been scammed by these two a few months earlier. They may have stolen info about Voyager from them. Janeway now has to go around and save her reputation while also trying to catch these imposters.

141 down 31 to go

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 140 - Good Shepherd

"Three crew members who are under-performing are taken on a mission by Janeway."

Janeway takes these crew members in the Delta Flyer on an away mission to get them back into shape. All hell breaks loose, as usual, and they find themselves in a bad situation. The crew members all suck and they basically just keep messing everything up. Janeway has to save them all and nearly dies in the process. In the end she does see a glimmer of hope for these three. Seriously though, how did they end up working on a Starship??

This episode is notable for it's guest appearance by Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against the Machine.

140 down 32 to go

Star Trek VGR Episode 139 - Childs Play

"The family of Icheb, one of the Borg children, is found, but he is reluctant to rejoin them. Seven, too, is reluctant for him to leave the ship; and his parents are concealing the real reason for desiring his return."

Not much to say about this episode really. I was bored. evidently Icheb had been purposely planted with a Borg infection as a child. He was to be purposely taken in order to spread the virus and destroy the Borg. I guess that is a neat idea.


139 down 33 to go

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 138 - Ashes to Ashes

"A deceased crew member resurfaces, claiming to have been resurrected by an alien race who have since adopted her."

I enjoyed this episode. Harry Kim's old love interest Lyndsey Ballard suddenly shows up. She had previously thought to have been killed, but in reality she was kidnapped by an alien race and physically transformed into one of them. She no longer looks human, but is still the same in all other matters. Kim and her rekindle their relationship. Soon the alien shows up, her "father". He said that they actually found her dead body and reanimated her as one of them. She is no longer the person she once was. Soon even Lyndsey starts to realize this as she cannot fight off her alien side any longer. Eventually she leaves Voyager.

138 down 34 to go

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 137 - Spirit Folk

"Problems arise from running the holographic Irish village of Fair Haven non-stop, when a malfunction leads the holographic characters to become self-aware."

I thought the Irish Village episode was dumb the first time around, so second time was not really a charm. I mean this hologram program caused problems before so why would they use it again?? In this one the villagers see Paris using his technology and they all think he is a Spirit. The entire village soon gathers up the other crew members and plan to kill them as witches. The thing is, this seems like an 1800s Irish town... it's probably offensive to portray 19th century Irish people like this. But anyway, at least the episode looked nice and had solid acting in it.

137 down 35 to go

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 136 - Collective

"Chakotay, Kim, Paris, and Neelix are taken hostage when the Delta Flyer is captured by Borg children in a derelict Cube."

This episode is similar to the previous, derelict Borg type episode. In that case, The Doctor is unable to de-assimilate the Borg without killing them. Now he has a second chance and is successful in this one. At first these children are out of control and try to assimilate the crew, but they are very bad at it. The Doctor also finds a baby Borg in a jar?? Very odd. Not a bad  episode, but I'm getting tired of the Borg. These Borg kids decide to stay aboard the ship.

136 down 36 to go

Saturday, February 06, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 135 - Tsunkatse

"Seven of Nine and Tuvok are kidnapped while on shore leave, and Seven is forced to fight in a gladiatorial contest to the death."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson! This is a must watch. It is a total TOS plot throwback. A crewmember gets taken and is forced to fight in the arena. In this case Seven has to fight The Rock. They really fight too, no holding back. Dwayne is in his full on Rock persona, complete with raised eyebrow. Earlier in the episode we see another match between to "aliens" and the martial arts are fantastic.

135 down 37 to go

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 134 - Memorial

Voyager is on a role. Another original idea. The ship passes near a planet and the crewmembers start experiencing severe PTSD and flashbacks to a brutal land battle. They soon figure out that they had been involved in this fight, but their memories were erased. Slowly they remember and it soon becomes clear that during this battle they massacred 87 civilians. They are soon drawn to the planets surface were they remember more terrible details. Janeway finally discovers a giant monolith. This is a war memorial, but it also sends messages into space. These messages are what is causing the crew to "relive" the war. They were actually never there at all but are "learning" about this tragedy through the monolith. I think that is a cool plot. I sort of wished that they really did take part in the fight though.

In the beginning, as a present for Paris, Torres replicates a 1950s style TV. I get it that Tom is into 20th century Earth history. But, that would be like someone giving me an astrolabe. Actually that would be cool.

134 down 38 to go

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 133 - Virtuoso

"Visiting aliens who have never before encountered music become fascinated with the Doctor's Opera singing, and ask him to leave Voyager and join their society."

It may sound like a dumb episode, but it really is not. In fact, it's another original idea...a society that never developed music. The Doctor really gets into his role as an Opera Superstar (if such a thing ever existed ever). Robert Picardo was great in this one.

133 down 39 to go

Star Trek VGR Episode 132 - Blink of an Eye

"Voyager is trapped in orbit around a planet with a space-time differential such that, while its inhabitants live through years, Voyager experiences mere minutes."

This was a very interesting episode. Voyager watches this society grow from basically nothing to advanced space capabilities in minutes. The episode flashes between life on Voyager and life down on the planet. I enjoyed this episode because it was a fresh idea that broke up the monotony of always encountering the same type of "alien environments". The other thing that was refreshing was the planet itself (especially in the early years). It seemed like what I can only describe as being very "King Arthur". This is something we really have not seen since TOS, and maybe a bit of TNG.

132 down 40 to go

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Star Trek VGR Episode 131 - Fair Haven

"The crew enjoy a respite inside a holodeck creation designed by Tom Paris, while Voyager faces the threat of an oncoming storm in space."

So Kim and Paris write a holodeck program of an Irish Village. Janeway then falls in love with a hologram barkeeper. Non of it works.

131 down 41 to go