From the final two part episode of Star Trek Voyager, originally broadcast in May of 2001. Star Trek Voyager was first broadcast on January 16, 1995. The two parter began with a somewhat wistful reflection on the passage of time. We can do a lot with the time allotted to us in this Vale of Tears, but we can never make it stop.
Bonus:
Ah, if it had not been merely a holographic Neelix, the most annoying character in all Trek.
“Ah, if it had not been merely a holographic Neelix, the most annoying character in all Trek.”
You are forgetting Wesley Crusher.
According to Memory Alpha, in the episode Yesterday’s Enterprise the script had an ending battle scene where Wesley was decapitated by the Klingons, but apparently Rick Berman thought it’d be too violent (although that apparently didn’t stop him from decapitating Data in Time’s Arrow). Stephen Behr says he recalls that they actually shot the death scenes for Wesley and Data. I wonder if that footage exists anywhere?
I always thought Voyager got a bad rap. While like all Star Trek series the first season takes some nose-holding to get through, I thought the characters were really great, especially the Doctor. Granted, DS9 is certainly the best of the Berman series (which are the best of all the series), but Voyager has some really creative and memorable episodes.
The biggest flaw in the series was waiting so long to get rid of Kes. She was, IMO, way more annoying, although Ezri Dax from DS9 is a close second in my mind. While Neelix is annoying, I think not having him would have left a big hole. He brings out aspects of the rest of the crew that might otherwise not reveal themselves. Watching Tuvok desperately fight his evident annoyance is delightful and probably justification enough.
Wesley Crusher? Oh he was bad, but I count Neelix as marginally more annoying. Kes was also annoying, and her storylines tended to be inane and the infatuation of Neelix with her struck me as creepy. I wish they had dropped Neelix with Kes. I liked Star Trek Voyager with the exception of Neelix who was a completely superfluous fifth wheel. I had a similiar reaction to Seven of Nine, although her role was better acted and she occasionally did more than to be a body for fanboys to drool over.
I always thought Voyager got a bad rap. While like all Star Trek series the first season takes some nose-holding to get through, I thought the characters were really great, especially the Doctor. Granted, DS9 is certainly the best of the Berman series (which are the best of all the series), but Voyager has some really creative and memorable episodes.The biggest flaw in the series was waiting so long to get rid of Kes. She was, IMO,
There’s a scene in the movie Diner when two of the protagonists get lost in Maryland horse country. One says to the other “do you have a feeling there’s a lot of stuff going on we don’t know about?”
There’s a scene in the movie Diner when two of the protagonists get lost in Maryland horse country. One says to the other “do you have a feeling there’s a lot of stuff going on we don’t know about?”
That scene has occurred to me Art on numerous occasions.
More on time’s passing: a live performance of The Circle Game, my favorite song by Joni Mitchell. The older I get, the more sentimental I become while listening to this. It seems to incorporate the pagan error of viewing time as a wheel (or carousel, as here), with no beginning or end, but the metaphor makes a little more sense when applied to our experience of the passing seasons and years here on Earth. In any case, it’s a haunting and beautiful song, IMO.
https://youtu.be/DGHjHU_Z8d8
Little House on the Nebula. Never was a good idea.
It was only years after the show ended that I discovered that the cast themselves had had problems with the inconsistent character writing.
I consider Neelix to be worse than Wesley because Wesley was only an overextension of the ideas of early TNG, but Neelix was actively opposed to the themes of his show, and not in a beneficial way. He didn’t cast greater light on the themes, or balance them. He was opposed to bravery, cooperation, compromise, et cetera.
Ah Voyager… Star Trek’s greatest disappointment.
It really is a shame because the acting talent on that show was substantial. Everyone rightly praises Robert Picardo (the Doctor) and Jeri Ryan (Seven) but then they were the ones to be most often given material worth their skill. Tim Russ (who has the distinction of having acted with all 4 original eras) is superb as Tuvok, the best Vulcan actor after Leonard Nimoy set the standard. Criminally underrated. Kate Mulgrew is also quite talented herself and the inconsistencies of Janeway were far more due to writing than performance. Heck having seen him in other work, Ethan Phillips has a natural charm to him as well. Neelix could have been a fun character, if the writers hadn’t tried so hard with him and let the performer do more on his own. It’s extremely rare, but once in awhile you’d get an episode where he was allowed to shine.
But then Don and I could probably fill this blog up talking about Star Trek…
“But then Don and I could probably fill this blog up talking about Star Trek…”
I do limit my number of Geek posts a month or the title of the blog would be The American Science Fiction!
An amazing amount of scifi is “Hey, how can I make a story out of this neat bit of Catholic theology?”….
I don’t see the problem. 😉
Foxfier, you rock!