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Fiction and Excerpts [4]
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Fiction and Excerpts [4]

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Riddles”

Thu May 6, 2021 1:00pm 26 comments 4 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Riddles”
Written by André Bormanis and Robert Doherty
Directed by Roxann Dawson
Season 6, Episode 6
Production episode 227
Original air date: November 3, 1999
Stardate: 53263.2

Captain’s log. Neelix and Tuvok are returning from a diplomatic mission with the Kesat in the Delta Flyer. Neelix’s attempts to engage Tuvok in conversation or games or something fall on uninterested pointy ears. When Tuvok finally agrees to a riddle, Neelix tells a joke with a bad pun for a punchline, at which point Tuvok retreats to the aft section to get away from him.

[I want to be able to have fun!]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Alice”

Mon May 3, 2021 1:00pm 30 comments 2 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Alice”
Written by Juliann deLayne and Bryan Fuller & Michael Taylor
Directed by David Livingston
Season 6, Episode 5
Production episode 226
Original air date: October 20, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. Kim and Paris trying and failing to guess Tuvok’s age is interrupted by sensors picking up a whole mess of ships. Tuvok goes to red alert, but as they approach they realize that it’s a junkyard. A gentleman named Abaddon has a whole bunch of stuff to sell.

[Congratulations, Tuvok, you just saved us from a flotilla of hostile trash…]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy”

Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:00pm 61 comments 7 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy”
Written by Bill Vallely and Joe Menosky
Directed by John Bruno
Season 6, Episode 4
Production episode 224
Original air date: October 13, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. The EMH is giving a concert in the mess hall, singing “La donna è mobile” to a mostly rapt crowd. Tuvok starts crying, and then attacking the other people in the mess hall. The EMH diagnoses him as going through pon farr, and has Paris prepare a hypospray while the EMH continues to sing, albeit with new, Tuvok-focused lyrics. After he gives Tuvok the shot, he gets a standing ovation—

[Warning: last chance to be a hero, Doctor—get going!]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Barge of the Dead”

Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:00pm 36 comments 3 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Barge of the Dead”
Written by Ronald D. Moore & Bryan Fuller
Directed by Mike Vejar
Season 6, Episode 3
Production episode 223
Original air date: October 6, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. Torres is coming in hot in a shuttlecraft that’s been damaged by an ion storm. She went out to retrieve their multispatial probe before it got hit by the storm. She manages to crash land in the shuttlebay and is taken to sickbay with a bad concussion.

[I inherited the forehead and the bad attitude—that’s it…]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Survival Instinct”

Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:00pm 32 comments 3 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Survival Instinct”
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Terry Windell
Season 6, Episode 2
Production episode 222
Original air date: September 29, 1999
Stardate: 53049.2

Captain’s log. Voyager has docked at the Markonian Outpost, a major commercial hub for the sector. Janeway invites several folks on board, and there are many exchanges of gifts—and also some security issues with so many new people on board, to Tuvok’s great annoyance.

[“It’s so quiet.” “I had no idea you were going to say that!”]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Equinox, Part II”

Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:00pm 52 comments 4 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Equinox Part II”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Directed by David Livingston
Season 6, Episode 1
Production episode 221
Original air date: September 22, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. After a summary of Part I, we see Janeway being attacked by one of the aliens, but she dodges it thanks to Chakotay’s warning. Chakotay’s not so lucky—he’s wounded by a creature. Janeway manages to juryrig a shield strengthening, but it’s only temporary.

[We all make our own hell, Mr. Lessing—I hope you enjoy yours.]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

The Calm Before the Storm in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s “Truth”

Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:00pm 81 comments 5 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: Marvel / Disney

When I saw that the title of the fifth episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was going to be “Truth,” I may have fist-pumped a bit. That was the title of the 2003 comic book miniseries by Robert Morales & Kyle Baker that introduced Isaiah Bradley, subtitled Red, White, and Black, and I was hoping that we’d see more of Carl Lumbly’s MCU version of Bradley. I was not disappointed, as the scene with him and Sam Wilson was one of several excellent scenes in this take-a-breath episode that paused from the fight scenes to remind us of some of the themes that were introduced in the first couple of episodes that had fallen a bit by the wayside.

[This is our history—we can’t lose this fight.]

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: Fifth Season Overview

Thu Apr 15, 2021 1:00pm 58 comments 3 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

Star Trek: Voyager Fifth Season
Original air dates: October 1998 – May 1999
Executive Producers: Rick Berman, Brannon Braga

Captain’s log. Of all the seasons of Voyager to date, the fifth was the one that had the most literal forward motion. Thanks to a wormhole of sorts (“Night”), experiments with the quantum slipstream drive (“Timeless”), and a stolen Borg transwarp conduit (“Dark Frontier”), they made several jumps ahead, cutting their journey home by tens of thousands of light-years.

[Captain Proton to the rescue!]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Equinox, Part I”

Mon Apr 12, 2021 1:00pm 94 comments 4 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Equinox, Part I”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Directed by David Livingston
Season 5, Episode 26
Production episode 220
Original air date: May 26, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. We open with the U.S.S. Equinox, a Nova-class starship with heavily modified shields, being menaced by creatures that appear in fissures in space. Captain Rudolph Ransom orders their weakened shields to be lowered and reinitialized so they’ll be back at full strength, though that will take forty-five seconds, according to his first officer, Commander Max Burke. They do it, firing phaser rifles at the creatures as they materialize on the bridge, one of which kills one of the crew.

[I thought we were the only humans in the Delta Quadrant!]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Bad Guys and Good Guys in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s “The Whole World is Watching”

Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:00pm 75 comments 6 Favorites [+]
Credit: Marvel Studios

In the comics, Sam Wilson is a social worker, as established in Captain America #134 by Stan Lee & Gene Colan in 1971. When the character first appeared in the MCU in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely’s script militarized him, making him ex-Air Force, but kept the social-work aspect by making him a counselor to military folk.

That aspect of his backstory is front and center in the fourth episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and it gives us one of the best scenes in the series so far.

[You’re either brilliant or just hopelessly optimistic.]

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Warhead”

Thu Apr 8, 2021 1:00pm 27 comments 4 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Warhead”
Written by Brannon Braga and Michael Taylor & Kenneth Biller
Directed by John Kretchmer
Season 5, Episode 25
Production episode 219
Original air date: May 19, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. For the fourth night in a row, Kim is in charge of gamma shift. He and the conn officer, Ensign Jenkins, banter for a bit on the subject of how seriously one should take the overnight shift, when they receive a distress call. Kim orders a course change toward the call to discover that the planet it comes from has no lifesigns.

[I have to complete my mission!]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Relativity”

Mon Apr 5, 2021 1:00pm 71 comments 6 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“Relativity”
Written by Nick Sagan & Bryan Fuller & Michael Taylor
Directed by Allan Eastman
Season 5, Episode 24
Production episode 218
Original air date: May 12, 1999
Stardate: 52861.3

Captain’s log. Utopia Planitia, 2371, and Janeway is beaming onto Voyager for the first time, taken on a tour by Admiral Patterson (who was also one of Janeway’s Academy instructors). One of the many crewmembers milling about whom she encounters is an ensign in the sciences division who looks just like Seven, but fully human…

[“I look forward to it. Or should I say backward?” “Don’t get started!”]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

Flying Down to Madripoor in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s “Power Broker”

Fri Apr 2, 2021 12:00pm 47 comments 5 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: Marvel / Disney

One of the benefits of the Walt Disney Company buying 20th Century Fox, at least from the point of view of the live-action adaptations of Marvel comics, is that we now can have things from the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We were teased with that notion by having Evan Peters play Pietro Maximoff instead of Aaron Taylor-Johnson in WandaVision, and it gets its first more practical workout in the third episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as a big chunk of the episode takes place in Madripoor.

[I like Marvin Gaye!]

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “11:59”

Thu Apr 1, 2021 1:00pm 46 comments 2 Favorites [+]
Screenshot: CBS

“11:59”
Written by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Directed by David Livingston
Season 5, Episode 23
Production episode 217
Original air date: May 5, 1999
Stardate: unknown

Captain’s log. Neelix talks to Janeway about the Great Wall of China—apparently, he and Paris are learning about each others’ homeworlds and challenging each other to trivia on the subject. This leads to Janeway asking him about the Millennium Gate, which one of Janeway’s ancestors worked on.

[Is there a Millennium Gate around here?]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

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