Yeah turns out the real terror was Kathryn Janeway all along. Which...tracks. Edit: I posted this while still watching the video so yeah... as Rick said perfectly.
"That which is more terrifying than fear itself. Captain Katheryn Janeway" Very true. This is the woman who taught the Borg what fear is. I am convinced one day we'll find out the reason no Cubes have attempted to attack Earth since Voyager is because Admiral Janeway lives on Earth
I like the idea that in the Delta quadrant, Janeway is considered some sort of eldritch cosmic horror of some kind. Not malevolent, but simply unstoppable.
This is one of the most underrated episodes of Voyager, imo. Trek has almost always done good horror episodes, and never just one genre either. On the one hand, the clown probably would’ve done far worse things far more quickly in a modern show, the setting and the possibility is still scary enough all by itself. You can’t help but think about some of the kinds of things they didn’t get to show which he definitely engaged-in as well.
It really lived up to its identity as fear, almost nothing in Trek got close to the nightmare of this runaway program. And the way the episode ended? Oh. Wow. Incredible. Just that sad "Drat..." as it faded away for good has stuck with me ever since. Extremely underrated episode, genuinely good horror, good shit all around.
Voyager had some dark moments. This being one and the other when Belanna had her Klingon side separated. The actor who plays the meek Star Fleet officer and then the Vidiian who took his face was both horrifying from a ST point of view, but a joy to watch because it was totally unexpected and acted well.
I am so glad I got to see this episode of all things when it first aired back when I was 6 years old. I can still vaguely remember the creepy and wondrous feelings it gave me. Ahh to be 6 again... I also saw the episode where Harry gets beaten by vampire women with sticks when it aired. XD
One of my favourite...well, maybe not 'favourite' episodes, but a nightmarish journey into our deepest fears. There is definitely something disturbing and unnerving using a carnival/circus/burlesque scenario. All praise to the set designers, make up and costumes. I see something new in the background every time I watch this. It completely freaked me out and haunted me first time round and now, years later it still has a disconcerting atmosphere. Thank you Ric!
the 2 lines at the end of the episode were the most spine chilling i ever heard uttered in any story, star trek or otherwise....Fear says, "I must confess, I am afraid.".....Janeway whispers as fear fades from sight, "I know....."
yeah the thaw was a terrifying episode in its own right. the clown was creepy. honestly though it could have survived for longer had it simply accepted the initial offer of being transferred to a holoprogram. i'm reasonably sure it could have been made into a hologram of its own.
There is another level to this: Some day, we humans will be offered an opportunity to "move" and begin living inside the computer systems. I expect the wealthy will have more dlc than the poor :p But the other thing is this: How is it that any one of us can make that transition? We would be deciding on death as a path to eternal life. If time travel does exist, or if we get to come back, the religions that remain after this epoch is settled will be fascinating. Thanx for the vid man. I enjoyed it.
Man I loved Fear. He reminded me of "The Joker". It's always gotta be clowns, right? Though clearly the most terrifying creature in that episode was Janeway at the end. EDIT: As you said perfectly, Rick. I really need to finish videos before I comment.
I loved this episode. More specifcally the fever-dream of a scene where torres and kim first enter the program. The strange, scary, theme park music, the maniachal giggling of the npc characters.
At the time I had no love for _Star Trek_ (I still don’t), but I was doing stuff as a kid whilst the TV was showing this in the background and slowly I was engrossed by Michael McKean’s performance to the extent that I had to throw in a VHS to tape it. So, so memorable!
Somebody should drop this guy off to keep Armus company for the rest of eternity. They'd be perfect for each other. Maybe Moriarty too but, we wouldn't want to leave them with anyone actually smart. We saw where that went with Khan.
Okay.... Let's see if I am ready..... Comfy chair....... ✅ Cup of Cola..... ✅ Anti-evil clown device..... (Click Click) Check and Mate. Okay, I think I am ready
My favourite part of Better call Saul was when chuck did such a hard nose-turn on his “electric sensitivity” that he became a program in a computer and lost his mind for fun. “A vi-rus, a vi-rus , she thinks I am a vi-rus!”🥴
I really enjoyed this episode and was blown away by Mike McKean's performance. And I'm a huge Janeway fan (although I hated her first hairdo and her name, she needed a sharp "k" sound in her surname, a la Kirk and Spock, and Picard and Sisko and Pike and Riker, and Dax, and Tuvok, and so on, something like "Amanda Drake" or "Janice Kendrick", or "Jennifer Kraft", or "Merideth Rex"). But, what everyone seems to miss about this story is that Janeway was never in any danger. She had all the power (unlike Kim and Torres) and clearly all the control. Fortunately, other episodes show that she does not need such odds to be brave and resilient.
I appreciate this because as a kid, I laughed it off as "haha Janeway is so terrifying!" but it makes sense now, the simulation is afraid of being alone, the program was tricked and when it realized it was alone, is couldn't take the fear anymore.
The only thing missing here is that the "The Thaw" episode - unintentionally or intentionally - almost directly remakes the premise of the "Legion" episode of Red Dwarf from just a few years earlier! The irony of the following Red Dwarf episode being "Gunmen of the Apocalypse". All Red Dwarf shenanigans aside, this is genuinely one of my favourite episodes of Voyager, and it's a gigantic shame people sleep on it so much. It's an absolute gem in its execution.
Hey did you ever do a Gorgan video. The children shall lead episode. Kind of loose with that episode title I barely remember it sorry about that. That alien entity was creepy to say the least.
You know, I wonder what would have happened if the Borg assimilated the stasis chamber and inadvertently set the computer free upon the entire collective's network...
I imagine you can get a way without in the Delta Quadrant by simply saying you know Janeway personally. Some will hate you, but no will hurt a friend of the Janeway.
This would be a great aspect for modern Trek to draw on if they ever have a moment of Janeway in despair: In flashes, we see whatever mission she is on fail in the most catastrophic way possible, and she is left alone on the captain's chair of a dark and basically burnt out bridge. Then out from the shadows behind her steps another version of herself with the Clown's makeup. This being talks to her about how she will never reach the perfect outcome, with Janeway trying to ignore it, but eventually can't help but face it. No matter the overall victory, it claims, she will always fail in other respects - bringing up her biggest losses and even going as far as listing the names of crew members she lost during Voyager's odyssey. Then something explodes off in the distance. We see the bright shock wave approach from behind the figure and the last thing we can bake out in it's silhouette is a sadistic grin - - before Janeway wakes up in her quarters and starts her command shift early again, because she can't sleep anymore. Would be a major callback with thematic implementations (she never truly bested and got rid of fear) while keeping it vague enough to work without that knowledge or making the connection to explicit. Essentially, it's the aspect of herself that represents her greatest fear: Failure, on any level.
great video please can you make a video about the weeping Angels from Doctor Who I i think they are really scary monsters so they would be perfect for Halloween
Imagine the Borg came across those stasis chambers. Either the collective would have been paralyzed into a wake nightmare for billions of drones - or the collective would have become something even more sinister...
Knowing the Borg, if any drones were irreversibly affected, then the collective would have likely terminated those drones and the threat, and then harvested what components they could.
LOL, I would have that clown so pissed off at me!!! I would troll him soooo hard, right up to my beheading!!! But, really, if someone could get their fear under control, while actually being in the simulation, could they cause trouble for the clown? And not Janeway, but someone who fights, instead of freeze, flight, or fawn?
This one took me a VERY long time to fully appreciate. At the time, as a fresh new episode, it bored the hell out of me. And Michael McKean was just "Lenny" to me at that point, and for some (unfair) reason I saw his guest casting as a negative mark of quality against a series I was already down on. Also I didn't enjoy clowns, nor clown-like antics, so... this ep was striking out on a bunch of fronts at the time. That said, this is a very different era. I'd eventually come to like Voyager, despite it's flaws. Janeway and her crew's best qualities have risen to the top, and those positive elements are what I choose to remember and respect. When I finally caught up with _Better Call Saul_, I was (as most folks) blown away by Michael McKean's role in it. I never truly appreciated him, and I'd come to realize what a big mistake that was. He was amazing in the series. So I figured it would be fun to revisit "The Thaw" with this new perspective on him. And... yeah, it's still pretty corny, and clowns can go to hell. But this time I actually _appreciated_ the story. Michael McKean is really quite terrifying as 'Fear'. Even how they resolve the plot is pretty novel. And going out on that "I know" line instead of following up with, say, a captains epilogue or whatever -- GREAT move. Made it quite memorable. So yeah, just a little temporal distance and life experience makes the difference between an episode I hated on the surface level, to one I've come to love and appreciate on a much deeper one. 👌
Im the same way! The first time i watched it I thought it was kind of silly and hackey. After a few viewings i thought "Yeh, theres alot of good things going on in this episode".
This is one of my favorite episodes of Trek, period. It's interestingly thoughtful, but also clearly very nearly horrifying a few times and when considered just below the surface. This is a good Halloween episode! Thank you! God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)
Can a self aware computer program be considered "a beast?" Did the clown kill some 400,000 inhabitants leaving just those left at the end of the episode?
400,000 people in 19 years would make him a very stupid and very busy boy. If he was killing them to keep the system running that would at least make sense culling them to fit the resources - that way it could be an emergency part of the system that got poluted by a mental construct designed to entertain. On could even say that the system was unable to murder it's charges but needed too cull to keep the whole thing running fear being the means to do it - that would one way to do it- I can see Doctor Who or TOS doing it more like that.
well, its a segregation problem of what is said and what is shown or more that they could only build (or rent?) a prop with 5 capsules and it was beamed up. The typical limitations of a TV Show since only 3 out of 400.000 make it quite the Killerclown from Innerspace and would it really make sense to kill of that many when you want them to experience fear and that for a long time since when you killed them all you would also be gone and Fear is a Sadist, not a Maniac. Sooo ... Headcannon Time: Maybe there where more in Stasis but scattered around the planet and while some made it off Planet, they simpley had not the transport capabilitys to get everyone off in time and the solar flares made other rescue attemps impossible for decades so the unfortunate rest had to sit that out in Bunkers. As the 15 Year mark passed and the Situation was not that good, most of them are rescued, but still in batches. Until that point, Fear was haunting the Survivers but did not need to controll them with such a thight grip as the Final 5 but sensing large chunks of his "playthings" disappear, he transmitted the programs into the special secret bunker with where some of the leaders where hiding and masked their lifeforms and electrical activitys, only that it did not last forever, but long enough to deceive the Rescue Partys so they were left behind, belived to be perrished. But such explanations don't fit into TV-Series Storytelling, only in Headcannon or maybe an STO Story where you could make such an infodumb
@@enisra_bowman But if there were solar flares, couldn't rescuers have safely arrived on the night side of the planet and rescued anyone who was currently on the night side? Even while the planet rotated, they could have just moved locations until they were all saved Forgive me, I'm not an astrophysicist so I don't know how solar flares work. It just seems the most logical step
@@enisra_bowman I think the way to address that is to have a "matt painting" of large communal pods the ones in the show with a physical set being the "command staff". they can tweak the painting to show whole areas being shut down. and they can claim the clown is active in multiple areas at once - and use that to say why it has poor attention management All I was suggesting is that some tweaks suggested themselves to me.
No, not just you. The Thaw, as an episode...overall, it's not exactly _bad,_ but it is decidedly...mediocre. The basic concept it revolves around could've been really impressive, and from time to time you can see hints of it, but the execution (pardon the pun) was a little haphazard, which made the whole thing kinda boring. Mostly I put that down to early installment weirdness. It doesn't actually get "good," compared to the rest of the episode, until the final few minutes, during Janeway's confrontation with the Clown.
The scariest moment in the episode was at the end when Fear is fading away he says "I'm afraid" and Janeway lets out this whispery "I knooooooow...."
followed by the best final words..."Drat."
Yeah turns out the real terror was Kathryn Janeway all along.
Which...tracks.
Edit: I posted this while still watching the video so yeah... as Rick said perfectly.
@@Gangerworld I thought it was the Janeways we'd made along the way. 😋
You need to watch SF Debris.
Janeway stared into the abyss as the abyss has stared into her, and the abyss said, "JESUS!"
“That which is more terrifying than fear itself: Captain Katherine Janeway.”
…yeah, that tracks.
Lmao true 😂
She taught the Borg the true definition of "Resistance is futile". It tracks
Piss her off at your own peril she will have fun
"That which is more terrifying than fear itself. Captain Katheryn Janeway"
Very true. This is the woman who taught the Borg what fear is. I am convinced one day we'll find out the reason no Cubes have attempted to attack Earth since Voyager is because Admiral Janeway lives on Earth
I like the idea that in the Delta quadrant, Janeway is considered some sort of eldritch cosmic horror of some kind. Not malevolent, but simply unstoppable.
Well, she was a dragon in dragon age
Though, she is probably appeasable. All it takes is to make an offering of coffee.
Michael McKean put on a great performance as Fear. Damn good actor.
Yes! One of my favorite guest stars. Creepy, but good
Apparently chuck mcgill has always been an ass
It was a master class in being a perfect guest star. He nailed his role
This is one of the most underrated episodes of Voyager, imo. Trek has almost always done good horror episodes, and never just one genre either. On the one hand, the clown probably would’ve done far worse things far more quickly in a modern show, the setting and the possibility is still scary enough all by itself. You can’t help but think about some of the kinds of things they didn’t get to show which he definitely engaged-in as well.
I think it's best they didn't go graphic. Like, I don't need to see the heads roll to know he's done it before.
I'd actually love to see an adult rated remake of Voyager.
"I knowwwww" - Captain Janeway's avatar.
It really lived up to its identity as fear, almost nothing in Trek got close to the nightmare of this runaway program. And the way the episode ended? Oh. Wow. Incredible. Just that sad "Drat..." as it faded away for good has stuck with me ever since.
Extremely underrated episode, genuinely good horror, good shit all around.
This is the Star Trek I miss so much. A simple premise expanded greatly without a sledge hammer.
“Drat…”-The Clown
Voyager had some dark moments. This being one and the other when Belanna had her Klingon side separated. The actor who plays the meek Star Fleet officer and then the Vidiian who took his face was both horrifying from a ST point of view, but a joy to watch because it was totally unexpected and acted well.
I am so glad I got to see this episode of all things when it first aired back when I was 6 years old. I can still vaguely remember the creepy and wondrous feelings it gave me.
Ahh to be 6 again... I also saw the episode where Harry gets beaten by vampire women with sticks when it aired. XD
If you think this was cruel of Janeway, imagine her without coffee!
It's cruel when she gennocieded Tuvix 😭
@@NobuxDhuh, he was the only one of his “species” so would it be considered genocide? And would Tuvix’s creation be considered murder of two people?
One of my favourite...well, maybe not 'favourite' episodes, but a nightmarish journey into our deepest fears. There is definitely something disturbing and unnerving using a carnival/circus/burlesque scenario. All praise to the set designers, make up and costumes. I see something new in the background every time I watch this. It completely freaked me out and haunted me first time round and now, years later it still has a disconcerting atmosphere. Thank you Ric!
the 2 lines at the end of the episode were the most spine chilling i ever heard uttered in any story, star trek or otherwise....Fear says, "I must confess, I am afraid.".....Janeway whispers as fear fades from sight, "I know....."
Janeway was the real fear all along
yeah the thaw was a terrifying episode in its own right. the clown was creepy. honestly though it could have survived for longer had it simply accepted the initial offer of being transferred to a holoprogram. i'm reasonably sure it could have been made into a hologram of its own.
Totally. But like they say, patients can deny treatment, even if it kills them.
It wouldn’t have had any power though.
@@kaitlyn__L yeah that is true sadly.
@@jhallam2011 well yeah... but at least it would have been alive at the end. though i suppose it wouldn't have known.
There is another level to this:
Some day, we humans will be offered an opportunity to "move" and begin living inside the computer systems. I expect the wealthy will have more dlc than the poor :p
But the other thing is this:
How is it that any one of us can make that transition? We would be deciding on death as a path to eternal life.
If time travel does exist, or if we get to come back, the religions that remain after this epoch is settled will be fascinating.
Thanx for the vid man. I enjoyed it.
Awesome video and Janeway should be classified as an Omega Level Threat her self lol.
Respect and keep up the epic work.
Man I loved Fear. He reminded me of "The Joker". It's always gotta be clowns, right?
Though clearly the most terrifying creature in that episode was Janeway at the end.
EDIT: As you said perfectly, Rick. I really need to finish videos before I comment.
In Star Trek Online we meet the Mirror Universe version of Janeway. But I'm pretty sure *our* Janeway is the evil one.
@@daveh7720 in the mirror universe Khan should be a hero.
@@bipolarminddroppings I agree. And Klingons should be pastry chefs, pop stars, and party clowns.
All Humans fear fear.
Fear meanwhile fears Janeway.
I still get goosebumps.
Top ten ST episodes ever
Fear: I'm afraid
Janeway: I know
Fear: Drat
I loved this episode. More specifcally the fever-dream of a scene where torres and kim first enter the program. The strange, scary, theme park music, the maniachal giggling of the npc characters.
At the time I had no love for _Star Trek_ (I still don’t), but I was doing stuff as a kid whilst the TV was showing this in the background and slowly I was engrossed by Michael McKean’s performance to the extent that I had to throw in a VHS to tape it. So, so memorable!
This is likely my favourite VOY episode, The fear, The Janeway, The Kim, and the Ending !!
The Kohl check under their beds for Fear the clown....
Fear the Clown checks under his bed for Captain Janeway.
Somebody should drop this guy off to keep Armus company for the rest of eternity. They'd be perfect for each other. Maybe Moriarty too but, we wouldn't want to leave them with anyone actually smart. We saw where that went with Khan.
This reminds me of a quest in Fallout 3. Maybe this episode inspired it.
Michael McKean was amazingly terrifying
That "I know" that game when he gives to the fear entity is chilling.
Drat…
Freakiest Voyager by far.
Fear: I'm afraid
Janeway from the shadows in a whisper: I know...
Screen to black
One of my all time favorite episodes and all time favorite one-shot villains :)
Fun fact: The Clown is played by the same actor that played Chuck Mcgill
Michael McKean.
I'm used to seeing him as Mr. Green from Clue. 😀
Lenny from Laverne and Shirley. Sigh... I'm old.
Nigel Tufnel.
@@RobKMusic that's the most British name I've ever heard.
Lots of delightful chicanery in this episode.
I love the TOS vibe of the virtual world in this episode.
Surf Wisely.
Truly profound.
Okay.... Let's see if I am ready.....
Comfy chair....... ✅
Cup of Cola..... ✅
Anti-evil clown device..... (Click Click) Check and Mate.
Okay, I think I am ready
Thank you for doing this I know I've requested it a lot
My favourite part of Better call Saul was when chuck did such a hard nose-turn on his “electric sensitivity” that he became a program in a computer and lost his mind for fun.
“A vi-rus, a vi-rus , she thinks I am a vi-rus!”🥴
This was a good homage to the classic series.
I really enjoyed this episode and was blown away by Mike McKean's performance. And I'm a huge Janeway fan (although I hated her first hairdo and her name, she needed a sharp "k" sound in her surname, a la Kirk and Spock, and Picard and Sisko and Pike and Riker, and Dax, and Tuvok, and so on, something like "Amanda Drake" or "Janice Kendrick", or "Jennifer Kraft", or "Merideth Rex"). But, what everyone seems to miss about this story is that Janeway was never in any danger. She had all the power (unlike Kim and Torres) and clearly all the control. Fortunately, other episodes show that she does not need such odds to be brave and resilient.
I appreciate this because as a kid, I laughed it off as "haha Janeway is so terrifying!" but it makes sense now, the simulation is afraid of being alone, the program was tricked and when it realized it was alone, is couldn't take the fear anymore.
The only thing missing here is that the "The Thaw" episode - unintentionally or intentionally - almost directly remakes the premise of the "Legion" episode of Red Dwarf from just a few years earlier!
The irony of the following Red Dwarf episode being "Gunmen of the Apocalypse".
All Red Dwarf shenanigans aside, this is genuinely one of my favourite episodes of Voyager, and it's a gigantic shame people sleep on it so much. It's an absolute gem in its execution.
Differing in their MO; the Clown used fear, while Legion used creature comforts.
@@christopherwall2121 A very justified horror remake. :)
That was a weird episode but VERY Star Trek adventure of the week style
Sadly, there's no way of bringin' 'im back due to its lore
Hey did you ever do a Gorgan video. The children shall lead episode. Kind of loose with that episode title I barely remember it sorry about that. That alien entity was creepy to say the least.
I'm afraid…
Janeway: I know…
… drat.
🎶A virus, a virus, she thinks we are a virus 🎶
Thats what happens to entities that threaten Janeway's baby boy Harry and don't offer coffee on arrival.
You know, I wonder what would have happened if the Borg assimilated the stasis chamber and inadvertently set the computer free upon the entire collective's network...
A Nice fan fic idea for someone there.
@@90lancaster honestly, I could use that in my Star Trek Adventures campaign
I imagine you can get a way without in the Delta Quadrant by simply saying you know Janeway personally. Some will hate you, but no will hurt a friend of the Janeway.
It was a good episode, and had a great ending.
Great fan art
This would be a great aspect for modern Trek to draw on if they ever have a moment of Janeway in despair:
In flashes, we see whatever mission she is on fail in the most catastrophic way possible, and she is left alone on the captain's chair of a dark and basically burnt out bridge. Then out from the shadows behind her steps another version of herself with the Clown's makeup. This being talks to her about how she will never reach the perfect outcome, with Janeway trying to ignore it, but eventually can't help but face it. No matter the overall victory, it claims, she will always fail in other respects - bringing up her biggest losses and even going as far as listing the names of crew members she lost during Voyager's odyssey. Then something explodes off in the distance. We see the bright shock wave approach from behind the figure and the last thing we can bake out in it's silhouette is a sadistic grin -
- before Janeway wakes up in her quarters and starts her command shift early again, because she can't sleep anymore.
Would be a major callback with thematic implementations (she never truly bested and got rid of fear) while keeping it vague enough to work without that knowledge or making the connection to explicit. Essentially, it's the aspect of herself that represents her greatest fear: Failure, on any level.
Is that Kefka's boss music playing in the background? If so, excellent choice!
great video please can you make a video about the weeping Angels from Doctor Who I i think they are really scary monsters so they would be perfect for Halloween
Awsome Halloween episode for Star Trek
4:09 this got me laughing.
Imagine the Borg came across those stasis chambers. Either the collective would have been paralyzed into a wake nightmare for billions of drones - or the collective would have become something even more sinister...
Knowing the Borg, if any drones were irreversibly affected, then the collective would have likely terminated those drones and the threat, and then harvested what components they could.
What's the scariest thing you can think of? A combat hardened human playing a video game, apparently.
And then, he kicked over a lantern and burned
Janeway is also the one prophesied.
Have some more chicken, have some more pie. It doesn't matter if it's boiled or fried.
Commenting for that algorithm
Oooopsie Whoopsie Yippee 🎊
I💚Ric
I thought Janeway was really connected and they made him believe she was an avatar
Thought we were doing a Star Trek, Dead By Daylight crossover.
And I don't know if I was excited or not/s
Michael McKean was the bomb in "The Thaw" yo
LOL, I would have that clown so pissed off at me!!! I would troll him soooo hard, right up to my beheading!!! But, really, if someone could get their fear under control, while actually being in the simulation, could they cause trouble for the clown?
And not Janeway, but someone who fights, instead of freeze, flight, or fawn?
This one took me a VERY long time to fully appreciate. At the time, as a fresh new episode, it bored the hell out of me. And Michael McKean was just "Lenny" to me at that point, and for some (unfair) reason I saw his guest casting as a negative mark of quality against a series I was already down on. Also I didn't enjoy clowns, nor clown-like antics, so... this ep was striking out on a bunch of fronts at the time.
That said, this is a very different era. I'd eventually come to like Voyager, despite it's flaws. Janeway and her crew's best qualities have risen to the top, and those positive elements are what I choose to remember and respect.
When I finally caught up with _Better Call Saul_, I was (as most folks) blown away by Michael McKean's role in it. I never truly appreciated him, and I'd come to realize what a big mistake that was. He was amazing in the series.
So I figured it would be fun to revisit "The Thaw" with this new perspective on him. And... yeah, it's still pretty corny, and clowns can go to hell. But this time I actually _appreciated_ the story. Michael McKean is really quite terrifying as 'Fear'. Even how they resolve the plot is pretty novel. And going out on that "I know" line instead of following up with, say, a captains epilogue or whatever -- GREAT move. Made it quite memorable.
So yeah, just a little temporal distance and life experience makes the difference between an episode I hated on the surface level, to one I've come to love and appreciate on a much deeper one.
👌
Im the same way! The first time i watched it I thought it was kind of silly and hackey. After a few viewings i thought "Yeh, theres alot of good things going on in this episode".
Evil within vibes
echoes of Ubik
Captain Disillusion
Poor fear at the end. Janeway should have still had a synthetic brain on the ready. 😢
Or they could have given Neelix to Fear. I wonder if Fear would choose death over that fate?
I hated this episode as a kid. As an adult, genius.
🖖
🙂👍
This is one of my favorite episodes of Trek, period. It's interestingly thoughtful, but also clearly very nearly horrifying a few times and when considered just below the surface. This is a good Halloween episode! Thank you!
God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)
Can you believe there are people who hate this episode? Tsk tsk.
Can a self aware computer program be considered "a beast?"
Did the clown kill some 400,000 inhabitants leaving just those left at the end of the episode?
400,000 people in 19 years would make him a very stupid and very busy boy.
If he was killing them to keep the system running that would at least make sense culling them to fit the resources - that way it could be an emergency part of the system that got poluted by a mental construct designed to entertain.
On could even say that the system was unable to murder it's charges but needed too cull to keep the whole thing running fear being the means to do it - that would one way to do it- I can see Doctor Who or TOS doing it more like that.
well, its a segregation problem of what is said and what is shown or more that they could only build (or rent?) a prop with 5 capsules and it was beamed up. The typical limitations of a TV Show since only 3 out of 400.000 make it quite the Killerclown from Innerspace and would it really make sense to kill of that many when you want them to experience fear and that for a long time since when you killed them all you would also be gone and Fear is a Sadist, not a Maniac.
Sooo ... Headcannon Time:
Maybe there where more in Stasis but scattered around the planet and while some made it off Planet, they simpley had not the transport capabilitys to get everyone off in time and the solar flares made other rescue attemps impossible for decades so the unfortunate rest had to sit that out in Bunkers. As the 15 Year mark passed and the Situation was not that good, most of them are rescued, but still in batches.
Until that point, Fear was haunting the Survivers but did not need to controll them with such a thight grip as the Final 5 but sensing large chunks of his "playthings" disappear, he transmitted the programs into the special secret bunker with where some of the leaders where hiding and masked their lifeforms and electrical activitys, only that it did not last forever, but long enough to deceive the Rescue Partys so they were left behind, belived to be perrished.
But such explanations don't fit into TV-Series Storytelling, only in Headcannon or maybe an STO Story where you could make such an infodumb
@@enisra_bowman But if there were solar flares, couldn't rescuers have safely arrived on the night side of the planet and rescued anyone who was currently on the night side? Even while the planet rotated, they could have just moved locations until they were all saved
Forgive me, I'm not an astrophysicist so I don't know how solar flares work. It just seems the most logical step
@@enisra_bowman I think the way to address that is to have a "matt painting" of large communal pods the ones in the show with a physical set being the "command staff". they can tweak the painting to show whole areas being shut down. and they can claim the clown is active in multiple areas at once - and use that to say why it has poor attention management
All I was suggesting is that some tweaks suggested themselves to me.
@@90lancaster normaly yes, but i would guess the Budget wasn't there for this Episode for one.
Of course it would be a clown...
I hate this episode (of voy not this video) with a furious passion and i don't know why! Help me!
Seinfeld, a video educating us about nothing
Was not a fan of this episode maybe it was just me
No, not just you. The Thaw, as an episode...overall, it's not exactly _bad,_ but it is decidedly...mediocre. The basic concept it revolves around could've been really impressive, and from time to time you can see hints of it, but the execution (pardon the pun) was a little haphazard, which made the whole thing kinda boring. Mostly I put that down to early installment weirdness. It doesn't actually get "good," compared to the rest of the episode, until the final few minutes, during Janeway's confrontation with the Clown.
The actors playing these characters did a good job. A lot better than the f****** s*** we have now you know what shows I'm talking about
Tim Curry may have sent him a fan letter LOL