Paris is teaching Kes how to fly the shuttle craft and they seem to be bonding very well, good chemistry is evident and when they leave laughing and joking together Neelix observes them from the shadows. Paris opens up to Kim about his feelings for Kes and when the pair go to get some food they avoid Kes but a paranoid Neelix dumps a plate of pasta onto Paris and then the two start fighting. Voyager approaches a borderline world with signs of plant life and thus food and the Captain assigns Paris and Neelix to survey the planet and obtain plant life. Thanks to the turbulent and dangerous energy fields that surround the planet the ship can only use it's transporters during brief windows so they boys will be on their own. Alas the shuttle crashes and they seek shelter in a cave and discover some eggs, one hatches and the reptilian youngling begins to wane until they realise it requires the nourishment of the Trigemic vapors that are abundant on the world. Meanwhile in orbit an alien starship arrives and positions itself in a defensive position over the planet, Voyager is able to sidestep the alien ship and enter the atmosphere to retrieve Paris and Neelix who beam out just as perhaps the parent of the youngling arrives to collect it.
Paris, Kes and Neelix all go to share a meal.
Parturition is a bit of a mixed bag, we see the very sinister and creepy side of Neelix as he spies in Kes and Paris and then the jealousy as he acts a bit like a jerk. Harry and Paris are bros that is firmly established but it seems strange that Tom is opening up in terms of his emotional state to Harry, they are different ages and in very different places in terms of their experiences. The Doctor is bumping up against his restrictions in terms of being limited to the sickbay and the Captain isn't pleased he has been monitoring the ship communications so it didn't help when Tom and Neelix appeared for their assignment covered in pasta. I think they did a great job showing how inexperienced Kes is, when she stated that she and Tom "we're just friends" the Doctor's expression spoke volumes and he had a good fatherly chat with her. He also had the best line in the episode a little earlier with "I'm a Doctor not a voyeur" which was hilarious but in reality he is a ships system and surely should have access to the crew at all times, ok maybe comms could be stretching things but a call for help may not always make itself known. So along with some extreme shaky cam Paris and Neelix crash on "Planet Hell" and discover a handy cave with wait for it three large eggs inside one just in the process of hatching, wow talk about coincidence and poor timing but they do their best and in the time honoured tradition of many a comedy these Two Men and an Alien bond as they care for the child.
Yeah son, you were adopted.
As I said there were some good moments in this episode, the pasta fight and the jealousy of Neelix were not any of them, I also wondered why with 30% food reserves the crew were still eating so well and Neelix laid on a feast to regain favour with Kes. I also didn't approve of how easily Voyager defeated the alien starship which as they said had comparable firepower yet lacked the shielding to protect itself from weapons and scans, the latter which led to its defeat. I also was disappointed that Tom and Neelix were beamed out before they made any significant contact with the adult alien, maybe a simple gesture between the three to acknowledge the child had been cared for would have added to the depth of the episode but they just beam back and go for dinner. Well dinner was what Neelix said but well he is a little strange and maybe Tom got more than he bargained for, a story never told, thankfully:)
Parturition was saved from a really low score by some great one liners and some good bonding moments between Tom and Neelix in the later scenes and I suppose that's all you can say about it because it really doesn't get off to a good start.
The Enterprise is minding it's own business, all is calm and Geordi is handling a new crew member down in engineering, after a minor incident involving hot chocolate the Captain heads back to his quarters but finds himself on a shuttle pod in the middle of nowhere along with Q. Well that was kind of a surprise to Picard who reacts poorly to anything Q has to say but eventually agrees to hear him out if he is returned to the Enterprise. Meanwhile Guinan seems to be uneasy but everything seems fine until Deanna asks where the Captain is and the computer reports he is not on the ship and a shuttle is missing, not long after the Captain and the shuttle reappear, tada.
Q offers to become a member of the crew to aid them in their journey further into the galaxy but the senior staff are not very responsive and Q sees little but arrogance and complacency and so he decides to teach them a lesson and with a snap of his fingers the ship is flung 7000 light years. An immediate scan detects a planet whose civilisation seems to have been destroyed and then they are scanned by an unidentified ship and a huge cubed vessel approaches.
Guinan immediately councils the Captain to flee but he decides to stick around and make contact, no response but the captain seems uneasy and raises his shields and then an alien beams straight into engineering and begins to inspect the systems. Q warns Picard not to let it gather too much information but when they disable the Borg another beams onboard, completes the scan and leaves. The Borg make contact with a simple statement and then begin to slice up the ship, Picard fires on the Borg and eventually they cut the tractor beam holding them in place and take the opportunity to board the cube and gather information. The find the drones most of which are in their alcoves, a nursery full of baby Borg and then they realise the ship is regenerating and will soon be back into full operation, they beam back and jump to warp with the Borg in pursuit.
The cube easily maintains pace with the Enterprise and fires on them not to damage but to disable the shields and soon they fail, Q looks rather smug while watching the last moments of the Enterprise but when Picard admits they are not prepared and need help Q once again snaps his fingers and the Enterprise is back where she started but the 18 crew that died are still dead.
Q Who? is an excellent episode of The Next Generation and really the first that makes the most of the Q character when played by John deLancie which he does with utter pannasch. However despite the episode getting a very good rating (as you will see) there were issues and that's pretty much par for the course especially with early TNG. We kick off with Ensign Gomez (Lycia Naff) a new crewmember who likes her hot chocolate and is casually walking around engineering with an open container, granted 24th century consoles should be safe from liquids (you would have thought) but it seems less than professional. We also get Geordi being very informal with "Sonia" perhaps an early sign of Geordi being less than stellar in his dealings with fellow crewmembers but the way he treats her is in stark contrast to say Barclay in later seasons. I have to say Picard could have easily walked around Gomez who had her back to him so the spilt drink was partially his fault anyway.
So Picard steps off the turbo lift onto the shuttle and while technically Q hasn't messed with the ship the removal of the Captain has consequences or so you would think, no one notices he or the shuttle are gone and even the computer which you would have thought would be aware on of the crew vanishes along with a shuttle would have said something. Guinan has her spidey sense tingling but it's finally Deanna being useful who finally reveals the Captain is gone, a search pattern is engaged and off the go in search of the impulse only shuttle. I actually quite liked some of the back story they were hinting at with Guinan and Q but since they really never followed that up lets forget about it as well and enjoy Q being Q dissing Worf and well everyone and he is right that Picard and the crew are arrogant and full of themselves shown quite clearly when in Borg space Picard ignores Guinan a woman he trusts and sticks around for a bit of sightseeing. I had to laugh when the Captain ordered Worf to deal with the initial Borg incursion, that's it order one of his underlings to throw himself into the fight yet how many times do we see Worf act or attempt to act like a wild dog going for the throat every time and held back by Picard or Riker. I was also pretty appalled how pathetic the ships sensors and targeting systems were, Picard orders the tractor beam disabled and it's not until the hit the emitters that it stops, so sloppy shooting their Tex. Gomez appears in engineering yet again and you would think the experienced crew members would be on duty not a fresh transfer who is still being brought up to speed but we get some emotional dialogue to emphasis the deaths of the 18 crew who got sliced and diced by the Borg. I also wondered if the Borg were playing possum with the Enterprise but I guess with their first appearance a lot of "rules" were still in flux so we can forgive some peculiarities with how they behave, this certainly applies to the Borg nursery.
All in all despite the issues I had with the episode they fail to make any real dent in the overall quality of the episode, Q Who? is a great introduction to the Borg, a really good character building episode for Q and a kick in the guts for how we the viewer may even view Starfleet and the Enterprise.
Oh and some of the cinematography especially involving Q looked fantastic.
I'll admit I couldn't see myself subscribing to this publication, the cost overall and given I wasn't interested in some of the issues put me off but I knew eventually I would be picking up one or two and the models would eventually grace my shelves :)
So here they are, the K'T'Inga-Class Battle Cruiser, the Andorian Battle Cruiser and the Species 8472 Bioship.
The Dominion and the Cardassian fleets are wiping out all resistance within the regions surrounding the wormhole, the combined Klingon and Federations fleets are being decimated and the 7th fleet is all but lost after a disastrous engagement. Sisko and the Defiant are recalled for reassignment and he and his crew are given the recently captured Jem'Hadar fighter for a high risk mission deep inside Dominion controlled space to destroy one of the few Ketracel White production facilities.
Reunions Should be Fun
All initially goes well until they are attacked by a Federation starship and lose communications, they are forced to drop from warp and engage the starship in the hopes of deterring a fight to the death but it flees as three Jem'Hadar ships arrive and pursuit. They arrive at the small asteroid which contains the facility, it's protected by a force shield but observing other Jem'Hadar ships and protocols allows them to gain access and they beam down their empty containers (some containing explosives) and await their new supply of the drug and for the force field to be lowered for departure. However as time ticks by with no clearance tensions arise but then a huge explosion rips the asteroid apart and their ship is caught in the blast radius and is badly damaged.
During this two week plus period we are see that life onboard the former DS9 is slowly returning to normal but still Gul Dukat is refusing to turn over security to the Bajorans but Kira has an ace in the hole in Odo who when he requests his own security for the civilian promenade Weyoun instantly agrees albeit with a small request.
A Time To Stand is the season six premiere episode and is set three months after the Dominion and Cardassian assault on Deep Space Nine and the mining of the wormhole. It's certainly not going well for the Klingons and the Federation as the Dominion defeats them in every battle and is winning the hearts and minds by treating Bajor with respect and honouring their deal despite Dukat chaffing at the bit to impose his own desires upon them.
As always it's a delight to have Garak (Andrew Robinson) in an episode and the new more "rougher" Bashir is actually a breath of fresh air, granted the arrogance is still there but since the revelation of his upbringing at least it has some merit. Mind you I couldn't really understand why it was Bashir bringing news of the seventh fleet, surely during a major war protocols would mean sensitive information being passed through the com officer maybe even encoded direct to the commander rather than through the ship's doctor. Oh lets not forget Martok and Worf coming aboard the Defiant (some warning to the Captain would surely be the norm) but we did get the happy reunion with Dax and well tears to the eye, what a great couple Jadzia and Worf made. The episode flips to life aboard DS9 and we see a heavy military presence but Quark is doing good business and alas he kinda sums up how the majority of sentient races would look at the situation, it could be worse. Kira is having issues with Dukat as you would expect but it made an awful lot of sense to make use of Odo and his links to the Founders, Weyoun was only to happy to grant every request but wheels within wheels by getting Odo onto the stations ruling council it legitimises the Dominion presence that little bit more and of course moves Odo slightly further towards the Founders.
Yes I know the questionable piloting of the repurposed Jem'Hadar ship was there for a laugh but come on inertial dampeners would be default, this ship would never be a rockin'. It was an interesting look into the technology of the ship though with no chairs, replicators, infirmary and restricted visuals when from a pure combat vessel with it's intended crew made a lot of sense, amazing any ship could stand up to this type of vessel given it's advantages, power utilisation etc.
I also liked the choice of using a practical model and explosion for the asteroid base, granted it looked out of place but I am old school even though some of the CGI visuals in the episode were spot on especially as the ship rode the shock wave and was battered and bruised with no functioning warp drive and 17 years, 2 months and 3 days away from help.
A Time To Stand was an excellent season opener and kicked things off nicely as things look even more bleak for the Alpha Quadrant with the ongoing attempts to bring down the mine field and flood the quadrant with Dominion reinforcements.
I do enjoy a convoluted time travel tale and Second Paradigm delivered in spades. It was a highly entertaining story and well I'm not even going to try to explain it just start reading and lose yourself in the cause and effect and paradoxes that come with the characters manipulating time with good or bad intentions depending upon circumstance.
Deanna Troi slinks into Ten Forward in a quite suggestive manner and catches the eye of an officer (Lt. Barclay) who is leaning against the bar, Guinan tells him she doesn't want any trouble but when first Geordie then Riker berate the officer they are physically dominated and as he makes his play for Deanna the coms open up and it's revealed he is on the holodeck. Medical samples are being brought aboard the Enterprise but a fault is found in an anti-gravity sled, Lt. Barclay is called in to investigate and in reality he is certainly not the confident Barclay from the holodeck yet he claims to have fixed the sled but when tested it fails spilling more of its contents.
Geordie has a frank discussion with the Captain but is pretty much smacked down with orders to do a better job dealing with an officer in his department so he reaches out and unfortunately the staff meeting doesn't go smoothly but maybe not so bad as expected. The ship soon begins to show signs of further technical issues beyond the gravity sled, the molecular structure of a glass warps, the transporters fail a test sequence then the injectors on the warp core freeze. Barclay attempts to address his issues with the real councillor rather than in the fantasy world of the holodeck but when the pressure is on he returns and unfortunately it's Riker, Geordi and Troi who walk in on him and do not react well to the revelations of Barclays activities.
Mini Me
The Enterprise with it's faulty injectors continues to accelerate with impending structural failure and as the ship begins to shake itself apart the engineering crew with Barclay link the location of the faults to where they have been and thus perhaps they have been carrying the cause of the faults around with them yet invisible to the ships internal standard scans. After some intense library computer use they confirm the existence of the substance and provide a solution, it's implemented and the ship drops from warp, the day is saved and Barclay can take his first step away from his fantasy land and into the real world.
Lets begin with the opening teaser, pretty good and Deanna certainly was uber eye candy but as we learn more about Barclay you can understand how he got through the academy with it's psych and physical evaluations. I would say Barclay was far more suited to a position in a civilian position and consulting for Starfleet. That said at least he didn't go around picked up broken medial containers without gloves or other containment procedures. I wonder how much Starfleet spent on the anti grav sled rather than a wheeled trolley which would do the same job...
I'll admit I said out loud "Shut Up Wesley" when he stepped on Barclay during the staff meeting but at least they did address it and despite some rather petty and cruel name calling (out of place in the era of TNG you would have thought) it seemed everyone eventually got on board with trying to help Barclay. I also have issues with Holodeck use, a thousand crew and it only ever seems to be used when a main episode character requires it after all Barclay was on duty a lot of time he was using it so what were the other two shifts doing during their downtime. As for hijacking the physical and psych profiles to use in an entertainment programme surely would be against regs regardless of what Geordie said. After all that though the episode was just about saved by Picard when he he said "What the hell happened" seemed out of place but loved the slight exasperation from the Captain:)
Note to the designers of the Enterprise, a physical override if you please and since when did the Enterprise in it's early TNG voyagers have issues with speeds up to 9.9 at the very least?
Hollow Pursuits has it's plus points, there is some humour but a lot of it is forced and wanders to much into farce although it was good to see both Picard and Guinan being the enlightened elders of the ship although the points they made are just as relevant today. I like Dwight Schultz and thankfully his performance of Barclay grows significantly, credit to him and the writers but overall this is an average episode of TNG.
I wasn't planning on getting the Enterprise E from Diamond Select / Art Asylum but would you accept that I needed something to bump up the price and get the free delivery ?
No I didn't think so :)
A very well built and slick looking model, a slight edge on the Enterprise A and original models and a much better stand which hasn't always been a bugbear of mine.
Well putting aside my very buoyant kindle library I also picked up a couple of Star Trek original series paperbacks Crisis of Consciousness by Dave Galanter and Savage Trade by Tony Daniel, I also bought the novel The Ables by Jeremy Scott the guy behind Cinema Sins.
On their way to Risa for a little shore leave the Enterprise picks up a distress call and they rendezvous with a small one man ship, they retrieve the ship and make repairs and the pilot Zobral offers the Captain and Trip the hospitality of his home in thanks. They are reluctant but agree and take a shuttle to his desert world and they share a meal and take part in a sporting event before getting a call from T'Pol who has been in contact with the Chancellor of a nearby city. It seems these desert dwellers are considered to be terrorists and when confronted Zobral admits they brought Archer and the Enterprise to the planet under false pretenses. He reveals that his people were being repressed and despite political changes the majority are still denying the same rights to his people and thus a strategy of attacks and bombings are under way with the desert providing safety and cover for their groups. Soon after the camp comes under attack from security forces and in the chaos Archer and Trip escape into the desert but with little water and far to travel things do not look good.
Clancy Brown as Zobral
So even in 2152 Risa had a well oiled marketing machine for being the resort spot for space faring species, good to know but it seems Porthos and the crew will have to wait since Archer has put being polite to Zobral (yes Clancy Brown rocks) ahead of the well being of the rest of the his people. It's also reassuring to see a simple welding job I assume fixing the micro fractures in the ship, not exactly 22nd century though and boy was it a tight fit getting through the landing bay doors!
I'm not quite sure I could reconcile the simple desert lifestyle with the ftl capable ships his people used but given Zobral was being a little underhand maybe this camp was more for show although the security forces are pretty ineffective given their access to satellites and associated technologies. A raised eyebrow that the cat fish loving trip had issues with snake or "essence of the male" but I guess that was a little humour injected into the story but surely the lacrosse "playing with the boys" scene provided all the laughs required:)
I liked the discussion between T'Pol and Hoshi which was exploring the idea of a prime directive, it felt forced but certainly the series should be exploring the issues involved with some casual decisions dealing with ongoing relationships and first contact. Desert Crossing did look great so as always credit to the cinematographer and the episode's director, the location shooting looked very good and even the intercut studio scenes worked pretty well with the only negative being the CGI which at times looked a little cartoony.
I'd have to say Desert Crossing was a solid Archer episode but not the most exciting although Clancy Brown never disappoints and as such it was one I wasn't really excited to see come up via the random number generator but hey there are worse:)
Star Trek The Animated Series
More Tribbles, More Troubles
The Enterprise is escorting two grain ships to Shermans Planet bringing the now Federation colony the much prized Quintotriticale when they detect a Klingon cruiser firing on a Federation registered scout ship well within the boundaries of Federation control. Kirk orders warp 6 to intercept and Scotty attempts to beam the pilot of the scout onboard but the Klingons after seemingly toying with the scout destroy the ship and then turn on the Enterprise.
The rumoured new weapon is used to cripple the Enterprise and Koloth the Klingon commander demands the return of the pilot of the scout for Ecological crimes against the Empire and as Scotty finally completes that very tricky transport process we find it's Cyrano Jones and his tribbles.
Kirk learns that he still has control of the "robot" grain ships so uses them as rather large weapons and when the Klingons try to immobilise them the power drain is too great and their new weapon fails, the Klingons flee.
Koloth
Cyrano claims that the tribbles are now safe since they can not breed but alas they still eat everything in their path but he has an artificially created tribble killer called a Glommer which proves less successful as it's prey grows ever larger. The Klingons return and once again capture the Enterprise and demand the return of their Glommer, it turns out Cyrano stole it after selling tribbles on a Klingon world and all they want is their solution returned as it's the first of it's kind. Kirk has Scotty beam a bunch of uber large tribbles onto the Klingon ship then does a deal with Koloth to return the Glommer and for hostilities to cease.
This is the first of the animated series that has turned up on the random rewatch and it is one of the better ones drawing from the original series Trouble with Tribbles and of course written by David Gerrold. The episode is firmly tongue in cheek ramping up the comedic elements we first saw in the original series and for most part paying off especially the final comments from both Kirk and Koloth.
I wasn't overly keen on the grain ship design, didn't seem sensible for a large bulk transport and until I realised the Klingons wanted to capture the scout ship I had to say they were awful shots but later they have pinpoint accuracy, much better. While the new weapon certainly proved useful in damping modern power systems you wonder if simple ballistic chemical powered missiles and reaction firearms would still work providing a ship with a partial defence.
I also wondered what the hell they were doing when they demonstrated the Glommer killing a tribble, that's like bringing a snake and then letting it eat a hamster just for the show, thankfully it was off screen. I was also a little concerned over the Klingon sidearms which you would assume could easily vaporise a tribble especially a big one but nope the damn things break apart into hundreds of smaller ones, fun but not realistic (yeah I know).
Still it gave us Koloth saying "Don't do that again" and then Kirk recreating his tribble avalanche with "Someday I'll learn", both had me smiling.
Overall More Tribbles, More Troubles was a good example of the animated series, lots of flaws but made for a young audience and die hard fans:)
Quark is having issues with retaining customers in his bar thanks to ongoing maintenance by the Chief and Nog, unable to totally fix the problem and with no replicator sourced replacement parts they decide to visit the sister station to DS9 "Empok Nor" which was recently abandoned by the Cardassians. Garak is invited along since it's common practice to booby trap a resource and that is proven to be a good idea as Garak is able to gain entry and power up the station without incident or so they think. It turns out that there were three soldiers in statis left to deal with any intruders, two survive and are revived and begin to hunt down the Starfleet personnel.
It's not all plain sailing though as Garak becomes infected by a compound they find smeared on a railing, it's the same drug that is driving the even more determined Cardassians to hunt down intruders and as time passes Garak himself becomes more of a threat to the remaining Starfleet crew.
Empok Nor is an entertaining episode, its slow pace works to perfection to enhance the suspense and danger involved with being on this moth balled space station. Garak and Miles are great fun as the initial friendly banter which supports the first half of the episode and as the situation evolves into a life and death struggle their dialogue remains the most important aspect. There were some issues most of which exist to make the plot work beginning with the rather suspect inability to repair DS9 in the first place, a conduit shouldn't rely on a like for like original replacement rather than a replicated part. It was rather amusing to see that Health and Safety in terms of noisy working conditions and the environment weren't an issue for Starfleet or Quark missing the opportunity for compensation for loss of business. I also wondered why Empok Nor seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, the design after all seemed to be intended for ore processing but it wasn't in orbit or close to an asteroid belt and while yes Cardassians would bobby trap a resource you would think it would make more sense to destroy it or move it. There was also evidence the station was abandoned quickly which goes against the more organised security measures so when we see a girder has smashed into one of the pods you wonder why, these stations are built strong.
Got to have an audience
Empok Nor is a very good example of what DS9 was created to provide, a much darker and gritty episode of Star Trek with many shades of grey and who else but Garak (Andrew Robinson) could maximise that potential. It was great to see Garak even more dry and cutting as the drug began to take effect and when he gutted the security officer and pointed out he had fetched the wrong tool you had to smile despite the loss of another "red shirt". Speaking of which I was not impressed with the Starfleet personnel both in terms of attitude, tactics and awareness when they knew they were in danger but they were there to set the scene for Garak and Miles with Nog (Aron Eisenberg) thrown in as a pawn in the spirit of the game which was a constant in the story.
I know what I've said about steelbooks basically repackaging and reselling the same thing over and over but I think I really want to own this :) Trekcore
Commander Riker visits DS9 and makes a play for Kira, as the flirting continues she takes him on a tour of the Defiant and even unlocks the bridge with her own command codes, he then shoots her.
Surprise, it's not Will but his own self Tom who is now part of the Marquis and with a little help he steals the Defiant and takes it into the badlands and onward to the DMZ to raid Cardassian space with one particular objective in mind.
Smug Git!
So DS9 are making use of Thomas Riker who we first met in the TNG episode Second Chances and back then he had a chip on his shoulder and it seems the last few years have made him more intent to make his own mark on the Federation. I guess following a successful older brother into the same profession is tricky so when you are pretty much competing with yourself you would have to go to extremes. Of course this Riker lacks the hands on experience both in command and it seems the political big picture yet it's amusing when Kira points out he ain't no terrorist either, Starfleet and the civilisation imprinted on him by his family and culture remain.
I wasn't overly happy to see how poorly Kira was handling the pressure of running DS9 but not a bad idea to piss off the Doctor if it's gets you a couple of days off work, result. Thomas was clever to be very aggressive with Miles, put all the pressure on the guy you want to avoid, less likely to approach you knowing you were only going to be around for a while. It was a little too easy to get access and control of the Defiant, you would have thought Starfleet would have done something to differentiate the two Rikers given their relative security clearances and yes the Defiant is a "little ship" but even automated it seemed a stretch how few untrained Marquis it took to fly her. Of course when in combat the ship was at a disadvantage, immediate repairs and compensation normally provided by a full crew would have made the mission far easier. I did laugh myself silly how easy Riker seemed to defeat the anti-proton scanning but maybe in reality his countermeasures didn't work which is more reasonable to me anyway.
Dukat played by Marc Alaimo was excellent as usual, his story of his son may have been pure manipulation or a very simple lesson in how a Cardassian would view things, either way we again see Cardassia as being far more complex than you would think as the Obsidian Order are operating far outside their mandate.
Overall Defiant wasn't a bad episode and it was a good use of Thomas Riker but I wasn't totally sold on how they wrote Kira for this episode from her initial attitude with her work and Riker and then her speech about terrorism and the state. When she stated "I was a terrorist" it was accurate from the perspective of the Cardassians but not of her own people and certainly not in her own mind, maybe it was to offer a simply black and white argument to Thomas but it still felt out of place.
An early Voyager episode and a basic story plot that we've seen before in the franchise so it doesn't bode well. The mixed crew with alien additions is starting to settle down but energy requirements means less use of the replicator so when a nebula is discovered which could aid in that respect they set course for as Janeway says " there's coffee in that nebula". An organic based substance within the nebula reacts to the ship's thrusters and to evade it's clutches they use a torpedo to break loose which leaves the ship damaged and the nebula nebula which they discover is a life form. The Doctor realises the nebula can self heal but it can not bridge the huge gap caused by the torpedo and a solution is presented to use the Voyager as a partial suture and by emitting nucleonic radiation aid in the healing process. After a few hiccups they use the nebulas inherent circulatory system to get them close to the wound without using the ships power and they use the nucleonic radiation to knit the wound together escaping moments before it closes.
The Doctor The Outsider
I have to admit I fell asleep during this episode, yes it was late and a workday following but it still says a lot about the episode and the reworking of a old Trek storyline. That side it was a good base for some character development although that was pretty hit and miss as well mind you they underlined how freaking annoying Neelix was as well the alienation of the Doctor and the beliefs of Chakotay in particular. It was amusing to see the bun of steel and how nervous B'Elanna was in her new position and right from the go we get Harry being slapped down, some things change and some don't. Again how bloody annoying was Neelix from his alternative coffee option to the belief he had a right to jump enter the bridge and demand to leave the ship, even Kes (not my favourite character) was more than willing to slap some sense into him. Oh "Chez Sandrine" the holodeck get away from it all, how fortunate the Intrepid class starship has independent secondary power for such a luxury.
No liquid should gloop
The Cloud is not a good episode even allowing for the missteps many shows make in their first seasons but even though Voyager isn't my first choice in Trek viewing there are far stronger episodes to come and as always you put up with the weaker ones because even The Cloud has some decent bits of dialogue.
