VOY - Survival Instinct

[Al-1701]

I'm an introvert and I can say there's a difference between being by yourself and being alone. Last year, during the first surge of Covid-19, I was frequently the only person in the whole building I worked in. The doctor's office was closed, the law office was closed, my boss and co-worker were working from home (we were supposed to switch off but I was in the office most days). There were almost no cars on the road. The skies were empty with practically no air traffic. I could go the entire day without seeing another human face. It was unsettling.

As for Moore, I think the Moffat comparison is apt. Him in total control was a bad idea for BSG. For all its 70's camp, the original actually held my attention more because the characters had a better range of emotions. There were serious moments as well as the silly moments which hit harder because it was just the latest segment of the bleak road trudging towards Earth was in the reboot. Really, he needed to be partnered with someone who knows sometimes there's value in playing it straight. If all you do is deconstruction, then the deconstruction just becomes the new status quo of the genre (death glares at Modoka).

[SuccubusYuri]

So I know in the past Chuck has shipped Seven with Reg Barklay but off the tail of this review, perhaps it's just the Chuck Music Vid wrapping all the disparate parts together, I now have a fleshed out head-canon that Seven winds up with a Betazoid girlfriend.

Someone who can literally talk to her inside her head, to give Seven that feeling of comfort and developmental security without any of the associated trauma with the Collective. And from the other side, a Betazoid would enjoy being with a human who doesn't have a lot of tolerance for polite lies or privacy shields. Cuz I'd be willing to gamble that in isolation, just that feeling of hearing someone else's thought inside your head in a very controlled way, would trigger that childhood comfort response.

And with a telepath, there's less of a feeling of isolation. If Seven's having a rough day of it, she can literally just show the telepath what's bothering her, probably not even needing to put it into words, just allowing her partner to empathize with the exact emotional state she's in, and respond appropriately and not trivialize it (or overblow it) as we see on Voyager frequently. It just feels like a good fit.

I am of course, presuming a polite Betazoid who would turn it off when asked, if Seven wasn't in a good headspace for it, and not Lwaxana complaining about talking with her mouth constantly. It's hard to separate the impression, I know xD

[Nightbeat74]

this is a great review. i love the music video at the end it was very well edited.also the point about directors for commercials doing tv shows is good, i have seen some commercials that are down right cinematic take Japanese Commercials or the thai doctor commercial for example.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

As the Day of the Triffids novel said, loneliness is not the mere absence of company. It is its own present, active force.

Succubus Yuri, your idea intrigues me greatly. Then again I'm an outlier for liking Lwaxana. Maybe it's the contrast of her extreme vivacity in storylines so full of rigid stuffed suits.

Also those flashbacks make me agree with Chuck that she should have kept most of her borg stuff at first. A borg crew member is a lot more visually engaging when you don't actually have to be reminded they are a borg, and the stark difference in appearance would help you understand, if not excuse, other character's hostile attitudes towards her.

[RobbyB1982]

Also those flashbacks make me agree with Chuck that she should have kept most of her borg stuff at first. A borg crew member is a lot more visually engaging when you don't actually have to be reminded they are a borg, and the stark difference in appearance would help you understand, if not excuse, other character's hostile attitudes towards her.

Sure, that's better from a story perspective but they hired her to be sexy and draw new eyeballs to the show. If they'd just wanted a borg in the crew they probably would have cast a male actor... and then kept them mostly in the getup for a while.

Similarly, the overall show probably would have worked better if the Maquis had kept different outfits rather than Starfleet uniforms. Instead of just seamlessly integrating after like 2 episodes. Even if the scripts didn't change at all, it might have kept the actors and directors (and audience) more keen to the fact that... they were different and had different ideologies and they might have played it just a little bit different... and then later on it could have been a real moment when they converted to actual starfleet uniforms. (Similar to when Troi after six seasons finally dropped the cleavage suits and into something formal.)

You look at the episode where Reg has a holodeck version of the crew and they're in different outfits and it just FEELS right.

[Marveryn]

As the Day of the Triffids novel said, loneliness is not the mere absence of company. It is its own present, active force.

Succubus Yuri, your idea intrigues me greatly. Then again I'm an outlier for liking Lwaxana. Maybe it's the contrast of her extreme vivacity in storylines so full of rigid stuffed suits.

Also those flashbacks make me agree with Chuck that she should have kept most of her borg stuff at first. A borg crew member is a lot more visually engaging when you don't actually have to be reminded they are a borg, and the stark difference in appearance would help you understand, if not excuse, other character's hostile attitudes towards her.

the only issue with keeping her borg stuff is that you got to explain why hasn't they change her to a more human look giving that Picard was deborg fairly quickly in enterprise. Of course they didn't do that for I borg. (shrugs)

[CMWaters]

As the Day of the Triffids novel said, loneliness is not the mere absence of company. It is its own present, active force.

Succubus Yuri, your idea intrigues me greatly. Then again I'm an outlier for liking Lwaxana. Maybe it's the contrast of her extreme vivacity in storylines so full of rigid stuffed suits.

Also those flashbacks make me agree with Chuck that she should have kept most of her borg stuff at first. A borg crew member is a lot more visually engaging when you don't actually have to be reminded they are a borg, and the stark difference in appearance would help you understand, if not excuse, other character's hostile attitudes towards her.

the only issue with keeping her borg stuff is that you got to explain why hasn't they change her to a more human look giving that Picard was deborg fairly quickly in enterprise. Of course they didn't do that for I borg. (shrugs)

Didn't they explain in Voyager that the remaining Borg parts that she has keep her alive and can't be removed without her dying? I seem to remember that.

And it could be explained that since she was a Borg MUCH longer than Picard was as Locutus, she was more integrated in that respect than Picard was, hence why he could be pretty much fully reverted back with no visible Borg parts (and Gul Madred got a good look to make sure) while she still has bits and pieces here and there.

[SuccubusYuri]

Didn't they explain in Voyager that the remaining Borg parts that she has keep her alive and can't be removed without her dying? I seem to remember that.

And it could be explained that since she was a Borg MUCH longer than Picard was as Locutus, she was more integrated in that respect than Picard was, hence why he could be pretty much fully reverted back with no visible Borg parts (and Gul Madred got a good look to make sure) while she still has bits and pieces here and there.

I do believe that was a plot device, but I wouldn't put it much past "it's what the story demanded".

I believe it's never spoken outright, but since Seven went through a maturation chamber it would make sense a lot of her developmental brain and other anatomy is permanently Borgified. Picard (or Janeway...or Tuvok...or Torres...sigh...) wouldn't have that issue.

[RobbyB1982]

the only issue with keeping her borg stuff is that you got to explain why hasn't they change her to a more human look giving that Picard was deborg fairly quickly in enterprise. Of course they didn't do that for I borg. (shrugs)

Picard only had the day 1 implants. Seven had them fully integrated since childhood and grew into them.

This was obviously before they developed the nano-probe instant zombie capability they had in the movie.

[CharlesPhipps]

Speaking of great directors of commercials, I want to know the director and creative crew behind this one, and hope they went on to great things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSdann3ugww

I think it was good job Moore left, especially seeing the mess he made with the BSG reboot, it leaves him with a more Firefly-esque legacy in VOY. His episodes were successful because he didn't have a chance to fail later on it. I'll admit, I didn't like most of Moore's choices on DS9. I felt he leaned too hard into deconstructive territory and grimdark, and the grimdark milfic fans are just the absolute worst at times. I'll take peppy but bland over dark deconstructions any day of the week when it comes to Star Trek. Except on the anti-Irish and anti-Scottish episodes of Trek, we all know the episodes of TNG and VOY I'm talking about. Those episodes can go fuck themselves. But other than that, upbeat and peppy is my Trek jam.

Eh, BSG: The Reboot was an enormous success. It was only when he realized he had to actually answer all of the questions he'd posed that he dovetailed. It seems like some writers absolutely hate the idea of story bibles.