Star Trek Retro Review: "Worst Case Scenario" (VOY) | Holodeck Episodes
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
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#startrek #review #startrekvoyager #holodeck
"The way Chakotay acts is strange."
SF Debris has a running gag about how you can tell it's an alternate reality, possession or simulation whenever Chakotay actually has life to him and Robert Beltran appears to be giving a shit.
"You're only allowed a single manly tear if you see someone littering."
- SF Debris
Don’t see enough mentions of SFdebris. His work is awesome.
@@troikas3353 I suspect the reasons we don't hear more of SFDebris are threefold: First, his work predates the launch of Discovery, and with it the glut of TrekTubers critiquing every episode as they premiere (and day after hot take reactions have never been his style), second, because he likes to use clips, which Paramount loves to nuke and so his channel keeps getting suppressed by their copyright bots, and third, because he's never shown his face. Not a problem in the old BlipTV/DailyMotion era, but again, RUclips and its almighty algorithm seem to give preference to on camera grandstanders over those who would rather preserve their anonymity.
It's too bad... His Evangelion reviews are three of the funniest videos I've ever watched online, and he is the entire reason I gave Madoka Magica a shot and subsequently got back into fanfic writing. Also, I will never not associate the song 'Harleys & Indians (Riders In The Sky)' with Voyager.
@@troikas3353 he sadly doesn't seem to get the attention he deserves. I guess his reluctance to be on RUclips for so long has limited his spread.
@@dm121984 To be fair, it's less reluctance to be on RUclips and more the fact that RUclips have repeatedly nuked his channels over copyright issues. The very fact he went over to his own site and a different video host was because CBS hit his channel over _Star Trek_ and the BBC hit it over _Doctor Who,_ basically forcing him to re-upload and (in most cases) re-record years worth of work to another host.
I do think there is one unalloyed good thing about this episode: Seska finding the program and altering it as a booby trap long before, rather than "oh no, anomaly time!!" So they at least avoided that holodeck cliche.
It does feel like murder plots using holodeck manipulation/sabotage would be more common in Star Trek.
You know though… now that I think about it, Seska’s potentially great plan is actually dumb. Because since Cardassian spy Seska had no actual reason to feel betrayed on behalf of the Maquis, she had no reason to want to gloat like she used the hologram too. As a murder plot left for Tuvok without said fake agenda, she could have just framed the whole thing as a malfunction where the safeties turned off, and never tipped her hand.
I retract my headcanon that Garek trained her, he’d have never let that level of incompetence as a spy fly.
"Where characters act logically, according to their established traits."
Voyager should've hired a Vulcan for the writers' room.
I think more of the characters would need established traits first.
There was some interesting potential with the Seska program being designed to hate Tuvok for “betraying the Maquis” and not knowing her real world counterpart’s actual identity and agenda, opening the possibility of an existential crisis she could have had if she’d learned the truth. But that would have been too interesting.
Too internally 4th wall breaking. Why would a holographic character have an existential crisis?
@@DamienPalmerthat’s happened in other episodes though
@@DamienPalmer You're joking right?... Please tell me this is sarcasm... 😂
@@kaitlyn__Lthat generally only happens when the program is changed for some reason. That's because holodeck characters are designed to be basically oblivious to anything outside the established program. So in order for a holodeck character to have some sort of existential crisis something has to make it possible. Sure, that could be done with some technobabble, but there has to be a point and it's a pretty big assumption that holo Seska was programmed to only have the personality of her maqui persona. In any case, while this idea may seem a bit more interesting, there's still not much of a point to it and it wouldn't have a longer lasting impact than anything else in the episode.
@@seandobbins2231 Seska’s alteration of the program was already the change. The hologram was as aware she was a hologram as the EMH, Vic, or second appearance Moriarty. I don’t think they needed more justification than that.
And yes I’m not suggesting it’s a more dramatic option than actually reigniting tensions between the Starfleet and Maquis crew in a manner with lasting impact. Obviously that would have been an ideal addressing the inherent flaws of Voyager. But I am suggesting a self-contained Voyaget episode my pitch would have been more interesting.
This Episode actually holds a special place in my heart.
As a kid in the 90's, whenever I visited my dad on the weekends, we would rent a movie or two. Not long after I got into Star Trek, I picked out a TNG and a VOY tape (Because they both had The Borg on the cover). We were then subjected to the cliffhanger of The Best of both worlds part 1, followed by THIS episode, followed by the cliffhanger of Scorpion part 1. Dad and I went back to video store the next day.
The truly sad thing is that Voyager had two truly outstanding holodeck episodes: "Living Witness" and "Pathfinder". The thing is that both of those episodes take place outside of the usual venue of Voyager and turns the lives of the crew into the object rather than the subject. Subsequently, both of those episodes have actual fantastic storytelling, raw emotional power, and some dramatic consequence surrounding interpretations of Voyager from outsiders. They also both have two of the best final acts of any Voyager ever (and perhaps most Trek episodes in general). Voyager is such a frustrating watch because it could produce outstanding gems like those two episodes, but they are so few and far between in a lot of inconsequential and slight pap.
I actually liked Fairhaven because I think the question of Janeway shagging a hologram perhaps being the most ethical option was actually interestingly handled. It's a damn shame Voyager was allergic to anything long-term, because that was a concept that begged further exploration, especially when a member of her crew was holographic. But since it's Voy, we got a quick look in and that was that.
@@KassFirebornif only they could’ve done it without offensive stereotypes! :(
@@kaitlyn__L I've never understood why "Fairhaven" and DEFINITELY "Spirit Folk" get a pass for what TNG's "Up the Long Ladder" gets continuous flack for.
@@patrickdodds7162 I know, right? At least Colm Meaney gives those episodes the ire they deserve. (He also refused to interact with the stereotypes onscreen in Up The Long Ladder, but honestly that episode engages in those tropes less than half the time compared to these Voyager episodes.)
@@patrickdodds7162 Voyager *was* the least watched series and it's also the one most people consider the weakest in its writing and themeing, so I don't think it gets a "pass" so much as people don't like the show as much and as such don't expect as much from it. TNG is fondly remembered by virtually all Star Trek nerds, so the big stinkers throughout Seasons 1 and 2 get a lot of hate. Also, TNG had a number of weird episodes and ideas that come off as almost racist in the early seasons, so I think it's something people talk about more in general.
As I recall, the only person who was even slightly put out by the program was Neelix complaining that Tuvok wrote him as betraying Janeway
And that when everybody knows Neelix would betray anybody at the drop of a hat.
I was feeling a little depressed today. My chronic pain was flaring up but, then… I heard the words, “Guilty on all 34 counts,” and Steve uploaded.
I like the interplay between Tom and B'Elanna when he catches her in the holodeck after missing their lunch date. He's annoyed but immediately as fascinated by the holodeck program as she is when she explains what she's been up to. Their partnership makes so much sense. I would have loved to see Janeway go through the program and mutiny against herself, though!
Apparently the whole reason Battlestar Galactica was remade is because Ronald D. Moore quit Voyager after it turned out not to be the gritty series of a crew having to survive with the minimum of resources out in unknown space that he had had in mind and instead became the tedious pile of holodeck episodes we all know and hate.
So he quit and got involved with the BSG remake which actually did turn out to be tale of survival he’d originally envisioned.
Yeah, the Maquis crew members should've revolted as a Season 1 finale which could've carried over to the next season (ideally over several episodes...even to sweeps week) so we'd have time to see both ways of doing things (Starfleet way vs. the Maquis way) before the inevitable taking the ship back by Janeway loyalists. Maybe afterward, a compromise, a blending of methods so the ship can get home
The other really big missed opportunity I thought was with the aliens who were sapient dinosaurs from Earth. Would've been nice to make them a series villain instead of the Borg. Hell, it could even tie in the above to give the remaining crew incentive to work together to get home faster to warn Starfleet and Earth about the Voth. Will Earth be able to resist the Voth or will they able to come to an agreement? We could've found out but no, one offs
I think a mid-season finale, before the old mid-season breaks, with Chakotay not being trusted by his own people. Have it orchestrated by the guy he punched in the second episode. If it were the end of season one that would make the long term integration even harder. In the second part you have the maquis crew run into trouble they can't solve because they can't cooperate well enough, but Janeway and her crew break out and are able to handle it thanks to their teamwork.
Maybe don't just let anyone disable the safety features of something that can kill you on a Starship?
Like regular doors have higher security than the holodeck!
Somebody shouldn't have spread the word about the excess of pot devices stored in cargo bay three.. Just sitting there for anyone to take....
At the very least this episode gives a plausible reason for it. Sabotage is pretty much as good as you can get for having every safety feature fail simultaneously. The other holodeck episodes generally don't have that excuse
Seska > The Borg Queen
Long live the greatest Voyager villainess! (And Martha Hackett as well!)
I also recently realised they could have had an excellent story arc with the Trabe; if Voyager was teamed up with former oppressors turned refugees, who still seem to think that violence is the only way to deal with the Kazon, it could have had a ton of story potential - it could have been BSG before BSGs reboot. Imagine the Federation having to ask the Trabe to make their spare parts and photon torpedoes, knowing that they would have the ability to make their own after Voyager left, the trade offs of not arming potential despots Vs the pragmatic need to get replacement parts and ammo...
Steve suffering through Voyager for us. The sacrifices he makes.
So brave of him lol
So what I'm hearing is, if Tuvok wrote Voyager, it would have been a better series. XD
All this practice has made you very polished at articulating your specific grievances with Voyager, I couldn't agree more. Really enjoying these reviews!
B'Elanna found a hidden, encrypted holodeck program with no author name on it and just ran it anyway? C'mon, we all know she was hoping it was someone's weird porn.
There were two Voyager holodeck episodes I thought were a must, Bride of Chaotica, of course, and season 2 Projections. Glad that you'll be reviewing the former, and looking forward to the review of the later, whenever that may come.
I really liked this episode.
Seska is a brilliant villain and an episode of twists and turns.
A high point in the series for me.
"The Perfectly Acceptable Scenario".
Thank you. I had gotten to “The Most Mediocre Case Scenario,” but yours is better. :)
Just in time i finished voy last night and have been watching all your related content all day
That is the most devastating and completely fair critique of Voyager.
It's like when Bill Murray referred to Chevy Chase as a "medium talent". Or how "idiot" could be an insult thrown out in anger, but "dullard" is just a sad fact.
I see what this is. You think you can just skirt around the Fair Haven episodes and nobody will notice. But whether or not we look at them, they're still there Steve. They're still there.
In fact I can't remember if there even was more than one Fair Haven episode or if my subconscious mind has merely dreamt up more of them like some kind of memetic tumor.
I know Fair Haven got mentioned more than once, but more than one actual Fair Haven episodes? I'm foggier on that.
There are at least 2. One where Janeway keeps changing her holo boyfriend and one where they find out they’re real. I’m 97% sure those are not the same episode.
I generally like Voyager (I attribute it to the fact that those were what was on when I was in HS) but I always skip the Fairhaven episodes when I come across them.
Spirit Folk was the sequel. Because for some reason Star Trek can’t get enough mileage out of cartoonish irish stereotypes.
Genuinely difficult not to grind my teeth thinking about Spirit Folk, bottom five episodes in all of Star Trek.
He should make a series on anti irish racism episodes, there are surprisingly many of them
Lets give a nod to the fact Tuvok says the characters behave logically. In his story Neelix quickly betrays the crew to join the mutiny. Season 1 Neelix was definitely more sneaky and selfish at first.
I don't care for German sausages, and I'm lactose intolerant. So German cheese sausage would be the wurst käse scenario
"If we write another one, we'll choose a subject not so close to home."
How about a tale set in a town full of early 20th century Irish stereotypes?
#killmenow
I really like this episode. It plays with our character expectations and allows the actors to have fun colouring outside the lines in a way I enjoyed much more than the schlocky Bond parody Our Man Bashir. We get a reason to unexpectedly bring back a great villain in Seska - always fun to see a 'dead' character again for one last (or almost last) hurrah. There's a lot of 'knowingness' in the way the crew interact with the program. Altogether, just like the later Relativity, it relies on you enjoying earlier Voyager, so if you weren't a fan then, this rubs salt into the wound rather than delights. The latter for me though.
Literally came to this video after watching someone play a video game. I felt called out. Nicely done.
Loved this episode. Lots of fun and a great way to bring Seska back.
I remember liking this episode, but I think Steve is right; this episode is disappointing because of what could have been, although I think Steve's "It passes the time" is a bit harsh, it's a decent holodeck episode, which is the description for 90% of holodeck episodes, it's the memorable few that are exceptionally good or bad. And one thing I've realised from Discovery is these kind of episodes where the show takes a moment to breathe is actually really important. Not everything needs to be existential threat after existential threat and a holodeck-hijinks episode does that really well (I draw the line at "Fairhaven" though!!)
What turned me off to Voyager very early in the show was that they weren't trying to do anything new. DS9 was killing it with innovative storylines and character development, and Voyager just kept churning out episodes that were nothing but recycled TNG plot devices. In fact, if you told me that Voyager only had one writer, and they were a time traveler who generated the scripts by dumping a dozen TNG episode synopses and the text of the TNG Tech Manual into an AI, I'd believe you.
I love that this video is 17:01 long.
I was about to mention that.
until you click on it & then it is only 17:00
I actually always really liked this episode, and I'll explain why. I think one of the reasons this one has always stood out to me is that this is arguably the last time Voyager's "secondary" characters get any kind of interesting story of their own for a while, since right after this we get the Scorpion two-parter, and then Voyager arguably becomes the 7 of 9/Doctor/Captain Janeway show for a while (a few exceptions notwithstanding.) Surely by the time this script was written and approved for shooting they had to have known (or at least suspected) that a new principle character was on the way, and that the next season was going to shift its focus to be more about The Borg. "Worst Case Scenario" then, as the penultimate episode of Season 3, serves as a kind of send-off for everything Voyager had done up to that point even if it wasn't always successful. I can almost hear a writer lobbying for this episode from the standpoint of "you guys we can't just pretend none of these storylines we abandoned didn't ever happen - we need to talk about them at LEAST one more time so when we completely retool the creative direction of the show next season we can at least say we TRIED!" I generally agree with you that on its own it's very serviceable and "ho hum whatever" Star Trek, but when considered in the context of the chronology of Voyager's episodes, it becomes a little more interesting, at least to me.
It amazes me that this episode and Bride of Chaotica are part of the same series. That episode is funny and builds on (a tiny bit) the friendship of Tom and Harry, and lets everyone involved go balls to the walls silly. This episode is just kind of. Here.
It definitely was an episode to that season, ya wouldve been nice if there were some apprehension between the crew over the next 1-3 episodes, perhaps a love conflict between some extras where some remarks are made like you chose her over me because she was an outlaw or some bs. Certainly a renewed friction between Chakota and Tuvok.
I loved that episode, but then again i my favourite Star Trek show is Voyager.
You Steve and most others can dislike Voyager but i will alwasys love it.
Im even rewatching it even now and still love most of the episode.
You might not know why i love Voyager so much, but at the same time i don't understand how you couldn't like Voyager -w-
Well, it's like people can have different opinions of things or something...
Did you watch the last half of the review. He laid out his reasons for not liking Voyager. They're the same reasons I don't like Voyager though I don't dislike it quite as much. Some of the episodes are really good. The problem is that most of them are kind of average. The potential for conflict between Starfleet and the Maquis was immediately dispensed with. The show relies on the reset button way too often and leans on technobabble that becomes less and less plausible the further along the show gets. Those are the broad strokes of why some of us don't like Voyager all that much.
@@uosdwiSrdewoH He's also essentially said "if you like it, good for you" multiple times when he's referenced Voyager.
It should have been a Seska written scenario from the start. Her own training scenario for plotting out ways to take the ship or foment mutiny. Instead of an A>B>C novella, it should have been a sandbox, with all the crew programmed to act based on Tuvok's personnel files and Seska's hopes. Then in the process of trying to 'complete' the scenario or discover the author, Tuvok and Paris trigger fallbacks and booby traps Seska planted in the code.
The novel itself could have been part of her plot, with the program trapping officers on the holodeck and also triggering events and problems throughout Voyager. Just like she locked them out of the holodeck, she could trigger problems with the ship systems or and actually rewrite the Doctor to mutiny. There could even be sleeper agents Seska had worked with, who didn't side with her before, but now that her dead woman's switch is triggering, they decide to try and take advantage.
I remember having fun with this, it felt reminiscent of the Star Trek advenure games/interactive movies from the 90's like Star Trek Borg or even the Starfleet Academy games
I like how at no point did anyone, anywhere in all of Starfleet ever think to have a holodeck killswitch on the panel outside that just cuts power to the holodeck and a command override force open the doors. Just a big red button marked "Holodeck Fucked Up"
The engineering department of starfleet command considered it, but after reviewing logs of holodeck malfunction incidents decided against it. They determined that most often than not the holodeck inexplicably switched into a weird mode where everyone in it gets desintegrated when you turn off the power, even though they couldn't find out how that is even possible given how those things are supposed to work.
Lets be real, star fleet intentionally lets it occasionally freak out because they're thrill seeking nerds. Ditto with the warp core. Star fleet is batchit if you look at how off the wall they often act. Constantly poking bears with sticks.
Lower Decks really runs on that vibe.
This was one of my favorites as a kid- or at least one of the ones I vividly remember watching when it first aired. I was so conflict averse back then, it never even occurred to me how much more interesting the show could have been if they had been willing to follow through more on the premise.
I love this episode, for all the reasons you said here.
There's a few things implicit in it, which I don't know are intentional - `since Seska wrote the changes about a month before leaving the ship, had Tuvok tried to add to it contemporaneous to that, Seska would have exposed herself as a traitor before being in a position to leave.
Also, it makes clear that to their way of thinking, anything holographic just isn't real enough to take seriously, which alludes to how they first regarded The Doctor.
I do really like that Janeway plays coy with how much she knows about the holonovel, and at the end of the scene, reveals details that she would probably only know if she herself had run it, with a wry smile to Tuvok and Paris.
I was shocked when you gave your opinion. This is one of my favorite episodes
Great video. Thanks for sharing. 👍
Thank you for this video! Now I finally can verbalize why I don’t like Voyager, as it is my least favorite Trek series from that era. What you described with it being average, with no moral or lesson at its end, is exactly how I feel! Is it any wonder that DS9 is my favorite?
Yep, Voyager is the show with many, many great ideas that fails at the implementation stage.
Concepts are important for your story, but without the framework to back it up it'll fall down.
I think in the grand scheme of things this was a fun action pack episode to watch. I accepted voyager for the stand alone episodic show it was instead of a gritty show it could had been like battlestar galatica.
Personally, I enjoyed Voyager as a sort of spiritual sequel series to TNG. Tried watching BSG, but just couldn't get into it. I found most of the characters to be pretty annoying and it came across as more soap opera than space opera.
This episode, taking place years in, was never likely to raise the concerns or reawaken the tensions in the drew. Mainly as there never really was much and what there was was sorted by the close of the first few episodes.
Also episodes like "Worst Case Scenario" became an ongoing Voyager subgenre: like "Relativity", "Fury" and "Shattered" in a of "Hey remember the Michael Piller years before the show was 'The Seven of Nine/All-Borg-All-the-Time-Lack-of-Variety Hour?'"
I was gonna ask for a trek actually of how Seska deserved better. But I realise that outside of Seven and The Doctor. All Voy characters deserved better.
I think that Tuvok did successfully delete the peogram, but Seska had set it up so that her version of the peogram was dumped into the redundant memory core in case he did that.
That seems like 3 whole premises crammed together (the 'who dunnit' of the playable novel and its reopening of social wounds, the 'trapped in a story' and their comrade needs to write them out of trouble, and the 'revenge program takes over' story), which would be more interesting to flesh out separately
I love that the solution to so many episodes is “use the shuttlecraft transporter”.
Too bad it’s a three-minute plot when it’s logical :P
I’m not a big Voyager fan but I actually think this is a great episode!
Since I first started watching Star Trek with this series in season 2 this was my first holo deck episode so everything about it was new for me but having seen many more I agree with nearly everything you said here.
This episode contains a wonderful outtake where after being shot, Tim Russ flails around "dying" for a hilariously long time.
Voyager had so much promise in Caretaker. I was actually excited when the show premiered and then...perfectly acceptable Star Trek happened. SMDH
A lot of the aliens felt and looked subpar too, or was borrowed from other series. Could have gone weird but fell flat with designs.
I don't usually like Holodeck episodes, but this has to be one of the better ones. This episode redeems the Seska character a little bit for me. Her scheming and plotting before were all eye-rollingly contrived, but this one is brilliant. She almost killed the entire crew from beyond the grave.
Nope! Voyager is amazing and everybody knows it, but just refuse to admit it! There will never be a Star Trek show that trumps Voyager in my book. While I love TNG and DS9, if someone told me I could only watch episodes from one Star Trek show for the rest of my life, I would pick Voyager every single time. If Voyager didn't exist? Ooooh, that's tough. I would probably have to pick DS9 for two reasons. One, it has such an amazing love story between Odo (my favorite DS9 character) and Kira, and two, because of the insanely talented James Darren as Vic Fontaine. Those episodes are just too good. But as good as they are, nothing will replace my love for Voyager. It was my first Star Trek, the one I grew up with. Nothing can replace it. Nothing.
Hear, hear. I agree.
TBH, I would have preferred to have an episode that starts a brawl in the Mess Hall. Tuvok has to break it up and has to arrange lessons in Starfleet Protocol.
I'm curious to see which is chosen next: chaotica, WW2, Author Author, or a lot of Irish stereotypes
Chaotica
Steve does usually say what the next video in a series is going to be IN the current video. The next one is BoC.
@@The_Real_Kyrros Good to know, I always stop before the end out of habit ^^
Here's a best case scenario Steve, trump just found guilty on all counts in NY hush money case.
Too bad J. Michael Straczynski didn't submit a treatment for a show about a ship stranded in a distant quadrant to Paramount. Just saying.
Hey Steve, have you ever watched Farscape?
My favourite holodeck episode along side Author Author. There's real suspense at the beginning thinking the Maquis are going to take over. Should have been a series final two parter, instead of the Basics two parter or may me later in Voyager.
The plot shift reminds me of Peak Performance from TNG:
Picard and Riker are commissioned to a war games scenario with "nerf" weaponry. Picard will command the Enterprise, Riker an out of commission older ship with a crew of his choosing. Riker cajoles Worf to get on board, let's Wesley join in (who brings anti-matter on board in a kinda cheating way, but whatever). It's engaging, I want to see this play out.
What happens? The Ferengi show up, and turn a potentially cool exhibition between two captains with different strategies into a hostage situation (haven't had enough of those)
My point: If you have a cool plot, stick with it, you don't need a 2nd or 3rd act twist
The thing that I never got about this episode was why Ceska was unhappy about Tuvok betraying the Maquis. She was betraying them to the Cardassians.
This was a great episode!
Steve do you ever have a day off ? as much as I enjoy listening to you I worry about you, but thanks for your devotion.
I always thought that if I played that holodeck program, I would kick Chakotay in the balls while he exits the turbolift, then warn Tuvok about the mutiny.
I definitely agree it’s frustrating when viewed against the wasted potential of the rest of the show.
But as a stand-alone episode I think it’s pretty strong. The malfunction is due to Seska’s hacking, not some random BS. They poke fun at writing, and last-minute rewrites (writers love writing about writers). And I do enjoy actually acknowledging everything about their setup for once (even though after it’s over it becomes frustrating again by its absence). Tom and Tuvok’s banter is fun as heck! As well as the slightly counterintuitive ways they “won” (albeit not as strong as in Our Man Bashir).
I also think it goes a way to showing the way they’ve integrated over time - precisely because no one is really upset about it. But that ties-back into “wish we’d had more plot threads about this in other episodes”. Similarly I wish we’d seen more of Tom and Tuvok’s friendship - that was kind of dropped until season 7 when he asked for fatherly advice. I want to see more of Tuvok criticising Tom’s other holoprograms for narrative reasons!
Hmmm, I would think that there would be some sort of mutiny scenario training program invented for every ship in Starfleet since it's always a real possibility & definitely happened several times in TOS (even if everyone was possessed or under alien influence or drugged or whatever)BTW-- Did Star Trek inadvertantly invent LARPing vis its holodek eps? Always wondered.
I'm sure you loved Bride of Chaotica, which was pure camp.
I missed most of the clues steve brought up as the hints it was a holodeck. Lol 😆
Ngl if my senior management made a video game General Practice Learning module featuring me in it I'd be raging
Wait until the doctor gives it a go and everyone on the ship is pissed with him!
Best Star Trek episode ever. There, I said it.
Obviously Voyager pales in comparison to DS9, but I wonder how it actually stacks up against TNG. It could be that TNG just had higher highs, but they had soooo many disposable episodes at the start and end of the show, and more than a few along the way. I suspect it's probably a closer race than we assume.
I thought this episode was a lot of fun, if a bit unfocused with the sudden shift from writers' meta comedy to "the evil sentient game character is trying to kill us". But I think this is overall a fair critique, although I disagree on two points, one of which feeds into the other.
First, I think it's fine that this episode near the end of S3 treats the Starfleet/Maquis tensions as a resolved issue. On reflection I do agree that the show did a lot less than it could have with that subject, but for this episode specifically I feel like treating it as far enough behind them that (almost) everyone can have a good laugh about it even if earlier episodes had leaned more on that theme.
The other point is that I didn't read Tuvok's unease with the whole situation as contradicting the idea that those tensions had been resolved, rather that he was hiding some low-key embarassment at being seen as the piece's author with those comments even as they were falling flat against everyone else's read on the situation. Although I have to say that I'm not always sure when the writers want us to take his emotionless Vulcan schtick at face value and when they're intentionally presenting it as a mask over behavior that's clearly informed by emotional thinking, so that's just how I'm reading him in this episode.
Anyway, fun to hear your take and get some more insight in what irks you about Voyager overall. I just finished watching it for the first time and thought it often far exceeded the expectations I'd set from its' bad reputation, but on a whole it definitely fell short of the heights DS9 could reach. But then again, DS9 was some of the best TV I've ever seen.
You're spot on saying this episode epitomizes why Voyager just isn't a good show. Voyager had a great premise and wasted all of it. This episodes reminds us all of that waste.
Seska sure was crazy, even been dead did not stop her..... Cardi bas
This episode was a lot of fun.
So, which companions are romanceable?
Yeah, “interesting enough” is the best way to describe how Voyager is more broadly speaking a disappointing show. It’s kinda vaguely interesting enough most of the time.
I find it helps tremendously if I’m always watching something else at the same time on another channel between commercials, like it was originally intended to be watched 😂 there are a few streaming apps that recreate the experience of channel surfing quite well, and I’m always kinda really impressed by the quality of Voyager for the 5-10-20mins I see of it while I flip past looking for other things.
This episode started strong and petered out. The whole Seska think came out of left field and was a much less interesting story. I just wish they had stuck with the first half story. There was an episode of M*A*S*H where BJ got a novel from home and the whole camp is so bored they want to read it too (starting with Hawkeye) and in the process of tearing the book apart so they can pass it around *before* BJ finishes, the last page is lost. Similar concept but much much better done.
Still better than Disco
I wonder if the "Voyager problem" was caused by DS9: I always loved DS9 the most, but back in the day, it wasn't popular - and I think it was because, in many ways, DS9 tried new things, it wasn't "classic Trek" and often quite artistic and philosophical. I wonder if the Voyager creators were discouraged by the audience seemingly not wanting "sophisticated" Trek and therefore made a lot of "mediocre Trek" episodes on Voyager? (nonetheless, always loved Voyager, too 🙃)
Who would follow Chakotay in a mutiny? His main notable accomplishment is dating Seven for some reason, who turned out later to be gay, for some reason.
I usually agree with most of your points. Calling out bad episodes and such. But, damn man! Voyager is what got me into Star Trek. This is one of the best "I'm going to sit down and watch a fun episode".
I get it, you're in the business of pointing out bad writing and such, but the whole point of Star Trek is to enjoy the absolute epitome that all series' are.
Maybe point out some good Voyager episodes that you enjoy, instead of dogging on them. If it wasn't for Voyager, renting out VHS's every week when they got released here in Australia in the 90's, I never would have found TNG, and then the masterpiece DS9
It's perfectly acceptable Star Trek.
I definitely enjoyed this episode as a kid as a slice of life episode about all the ways you could play and mess with a video game with sci-fi tech. I 100% see how this is the absolute wrong take for a show with the premise of Voyager and how it actively dismisses that premise and makes all the characters less interesting. My question though is: "gosh is there really no space in fiction to have a story like that?"
Where the heck would it be allowed to write a slice of life story on dream tech and exploring characters engaging in the creative process when they can make anything they want, questioning themselves and growing as they recognize their biases shaping the fiction?
I think I would rather have had the holodeck be something that you can do while your body (and most of your mind) are asleep. The risk of 'dying when the safety interlocks are disabled' could still be a potential danger, but a survivable one (you only think that you died, very convincingly you think that....but most people can handle it when they 'wake up normally'....although some are 'changed'....). Also, Tuvok was an idiot to be using 'real people' as the models for his characters. It would have been a far better training tool if all the characters were identifiably not-the-Voyager-crew. Also, also, they should do a holodeck episode in which the safety interlocks are working perfectly and we get to see what the bleep the safety interlocks actually do. Are bullets always missing, are they bouncing off? Do you fall slower and slower as you approach the ground when you fall out of a plane without a parachute? or does someone thrown out of a plane without a parachute always find that they have a functioning parachute after all? and so on.
Don’t they just have some sort of big breaker switch? Just literally cut the power and turn it off! Of course, no story then, but still! 😂😂
I hated how the whole Maqui / Starfleet tension was dropped immediately in the series. It had so much potential with an actual Maqui mutiny making a potentially fantastic season finale cliffhanger. Then again, that was the whole series, Voyager was centuries away from the Federation but always had everything they needed whenever they needed it. They never worried about food, water, or power. No one ever stressed "Oh, we only have 50 photon torpedoes left and can only use them in a real crisis."
Voyager should have tested everyone's ideals and convictions about the Federation when suddenly a re-supply from a nearby starbase was out of the question and there was no "We just need to hold out for backup from Starfleet." Suddenly, it is "We are all alone here. Can we truly afford to help these people with our limited resources?" Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Universe were much superior implementations of what Star Trek Voyager should have been.
The first two seasons (the first especially) did have limitations in resources. In The Cloud they say they have 38 photon torpedoes, and Janeway responds that they have no way to replace them (though they use a minimum of 93 in the series by the end)
I love Voyager.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely see the flaws. The awkward writing choices, the lack of a consistency, even the simple fact that they went back to a fully episodic format instead of building on what worked for DS9.
They could still have had wacky misadventures like this happen (again, like DS9 did) but tell a single coherent narrative across each season.
I'm in the middle of a voyager watch through, and I don't remember this episode AT ALL. My brain decided this episode contained 100% irrelevant information.
The most unrealistic part of this episode's take on game modding is that no one gave all the female characters Seven of Nine's body.
You forget, this is still Roddenberrys future utopia. Nobody lusts without consent anymore unless you are Barclay.
I concur, it's...mildly amusing.
I quite like Worst Case Scenario. Martha Hackett carries it. It suffers from just not really mattering.
I do really like Voyager as comfort viewing, but I also get why people are frustrated with Perfectly Acceptable Star Trek. The premise absolutely should have been leaned into much harder. This episode reminds me that rather than Voyager dealing with the Kazon for far too long (one of the lamest adversaries ever), the Maqui tension should have been at the forefront and figure out how to make Seska be the bad guy in that context.
Voyager would have really been a better fit for modern Trek where going dark and dire would have been a much more likely approach to the series.
Voyager had such potential for great stories. The premise was promising. Too bad the show didn’t live up to the premise.