VOY - Inside Man

[clearspira]

I completely forgot this episode was a thing. It's just everything bad:

-Retcon the Doctor using the array to visit his creator

-the Doctor is confined to Sickbay and bitching

-the crew just takes everything at the word of the impostor hologram. At least when it was the alien picture plant monster, that made sense. Here, it comes across like they are too stupid to figure out how to get dressed without putting their heads up their pant legs, or the crew is so miserable that they don't care anymore "So either we get home and this comes to an end or we die and this comes to an end? Sweet relief either way."

-the crew taking away the Doctor's freedom of movement and not caring

-the crew has yet another chance to get home that the audience back home doesn't believe is going to work. At least past attempts in the previous few seasons shortened the trip by a few thousand lightyears. Here, it is just like a season one failure. An attempt is made and in the end, nothing is gained from it.

-the goal once again revolves around Seven because of her Borg implants (At least the beta canon novels took away the Borg and Seven's Borg implants for good)

-the growth that Barclay went through was basically out the window. "Things are good, I have a girlfriend now." this is a great thing. "She was a spy out to use her body for information on my project for her Ferengi employers." Man, what a fucking dick punch. And in some ways, there is a second dick punch to Barclay from Deanna Troi of all people. When she's on the beach and notices Reg there, she is in her swimsuit and she STILL covers herself up. "Yep, don't mind showing cleavage for the kids on the beach, the teenaged boys on the beach, the men on the beach, even those teens and men who are here for the sole purpose of checking out the women in their swimsuits, but creepy Reg Barclay? Hell no, cover up that small bit of cleavage."

-that plan to create a gateway between two locations via linking two stars together seems to me, at least, the worst sounding idea in all of Star Trek (worst sounding as in, of all the ideas ever mentioned for transwarp travel, this makes the least amount of sense. Transwarp being a new set of engines makes sense in the same way that supersonic flight required jet engines over propellors. Transwarp being possible as seen in the episode "Threshold" I will take over just tech-teching two random stars. If both stars had to be blown up with weapons similar to what is seen in "Star Trek Generations" at the same time to create a temporary wormhole, that would make SO much more sense, explain why the idea is NEVER mentioned again, because why not find a way to actually protect the crew and make this a viable option?

I never thought of it that way before today and now I can't stop thinking about it. Troi spent six years on the Enterprise with half of her knockers hanging out and yet the first person she ever covers up for is Reg? And here's the million dollar question: was he invited to her nude wedding in ''Nemesis''? Because I see the senior crew, I see Guinan, I see Wesley (who apparently took time off from being a god to attend) but I do not see Reg.

The only half-hearted justification I can think of is that Troi's empathic abilities would allow her to know which of the men around her most have a hard-on for her and Barclay happened to have one for her when he approached her on the beach that day. I say ''half-hearted'' because again, the woman had her cleavage out all day every day for six years, I would have thought that she would have gotten used to that particular human emotion by now.

I don't think Reg was invited to the Riker-Troi wedding. For starters I think that was an Enterprise crew only event, or selected members of the Enterprise crew.

Crewman Jones "Where are we going this week?"

Crewman Johnson "Oh, we're on our way to Betazed for a wedding."

Jones: "Who's getting married?"

Johnson: "Our first officer and the ship's therapist."

Jones: "Sweet. A wedding on Betazed, you know that that means?"

Johnson "We're crewmen, so low on the chain of command that we have to salute the tampon dispensers before refilling them, don't get your hopes up for a naked Commander Troi and a room full of naked female shipmates. Someone has to stay behind and beam these naked assholes back up, and the only worse than a naked klingon is a drunken horny naked klingon being beamed up from his ex-girlfriend's wedding. But look on the bright side, Wesley Crusher is going to be naked at that wedding, sitting next to his naked mom. Any time the Captain will see the Doctor during the ceremony, she will be naked, and he will see her son next to her naked."

Jones: "Wesley is attending? Suddenly staying on board doesn't sound so bad."

There is not enough bleach in the world that would make you feel clean after that.

Although I have to say that is a brilliant explanation as to why Reg isn't there. Given his numerous neuroses there is no way he is handling a naked wedding. I'm not even sure I could.

[LordFeagans]

I completely forgot this episode was a thing. It's just everything bad:

-Retcon the Doctor using the array to visit his creator

-the Doctor is confined to Sickbay and bitching

-the crew just takes everything at the word of the impostor hologram. At least when it was the alien picture plant monster, that made sense. Here, it comes across like they are too stupid to figure out how to get dressed without putting their heads up their pant legs, or the crew is so miserable that they don't care anymore "So either we get home and this comes to an end or we die and this comes to an end? Sweet relief either way."

-the crew taking away the Doctor's freedom of movement and not caring

-the crew has yet another chance to get home that the audience back home doesn't believe is going to work. At least past attempts in the previous few seasons shortened the trip by a few thousand lightyears. Here, it is just like a season one failure. An attempt is made and in the end, nothing is gained from it.

-the goal once again revolves around Seven because of her Borg implants (At least the beta canon novels took away the Borg and Seven's Borg implants for good)

-the growth that Barclay went through was basically out the window. "Things are good, I have a girlfriend now." this is a great thing. "She was a spy out to use her body for information on my project for her Ferengi employers." Man, what a fucking dick punch. And in some ways, there is a second dick punch to Barclay from Deanna Troi of all people. When she's on the beach and notices Reg there, she is in her swimsuit and she STILL covers herself up. "Yep, don't mind showing cleavage for the kids on the beach, the teenaged boys on the beach, the men on the beach, even those teens and men who are here for the sole purpose of checking out the women in their swimsuits, but creepy Reg Barclay? Hell no, cover up that small bit of cleavage."

-that plan to create a gateway between two locations via linking two stars together seems to me, at least, the worst sounding idea in all of Star Trek (worst sounding as in, of all the ideas ever mentioned for transwarp travel, this makes the least amount of sense. Transwarp being a new set of engines makes sense in the same way that supersonic flight required jet engines over propellors. Transwarp being possible as seen in the episode "Threshold" I will take over just tech-teching two random stars. If both stars had to be blown up with weapons similar to what is seen in "Star Trek Generations" at the same time to create a temporary wormhole, that would make SO much more sense, explain why the idea is NEVER mentioned again, because why not find a way to actually protect the crew and make this a viable option?

I never thought of it that way before today and now I can't stop thinking about it. Troi spent six years on the Enterprise with half of her knockers hanging out and yet the first person she ever covers up for is Reg? And here's the million dollar question: was he invited to her nude wedding in ''Nemesis''? Because I see the senior crew, I see Guinan, I see Wesley (who apparently took time off from being a god to attend) but I do not see Reg.

The only half-hearted justification I can think of is that Troi's empathic abilities would allow her to know which of the men around her most have a hard-on for her and Barclay happened to have one for her when he approached her on the beach that day. I say ''half-hearted'' because again, the woman had her cleavage out all day every day for six years, I would have thought that she would have gotten used to that particular human emotion by now.

I don't think Reg was invited to the Riker-Troi wedding. For starters I think that was an Enterprise crew only event, or selected members of the Enterprise crew.

Crewman Jones "Where are we going this week?"

Crewman Johnson "Oh, we're on our way to Betazed for a wedding."

Jones: "Who's getting married?"

Johnson: "Our first officer and the ship's therapist."

Jones: "Sweet. A wedding on Betazed, you know that that means?"

Johnson "We're crewmen, so low on the chain of command that we have to salute the tampon dispensers before refilling them, don't get your hopes up for a naked Commander Troi and a room full of naked female shipmates. Someone has to stay behind and beam these naked assholes back up, and the only worse than a naked klingon is a drunken horny naked klingon being beamed up from his ex-girlfriend's wedding. But look on the bright side, Wesley Crusher is going to be naked at that wedding, sitting next to his naked mom. Any time the Captain will see the Doctor during the ceremony, she will be naked, and he will see her son next to her naked."

Jones: "Wesley is attending? Suddenly staying on board doesn't sound so bad."

There is not enough bleach in the world that would make you feel clean after that.

Although I have to say that is a brilliant explanation as to why Reg isn't there. Given his numerous neuroses there is no way he is handling a naked wedding. I'm not even sure I could.

I would need to see the guest list first. "Sarah from accounting...nice. Cassandra the receptionist, even better. The bride's great grandmother...I'll have to look away from where ever she's standing. The bride's younger sister, this list is getting better and better. My mom... I am staying home."

[Captain Crimson]

And we suddenly switch gears into a discussion on Mr. Roddenberry's stroke fantasy that is naked weddings.

Heaven bless messageboards. I salute you, Internet gods!

[AllanO]

I kind of liked this episode when I saw it, but it clearly has some serious flaws. After watching a lot of Chuck's videos I tend to think of Barclay as the most competent and beloved Voyager crew member even if I have failed to be converted to the Voyager of ship of fools and madmen thing. Certainly his status among Voyager's crew contrasts with how he was originally on the Enterprise D.

At the time I thought of Troi threatening the honeypot with being institutionalized as having the subtext "You made me spend an afternoon with Reg Barclay! You will comply or else!" Shades of the time she posed as a member of the brutal Tal'Shiar Technically this sort of threat is ferociously unethical and probably violates any number of standards for a professional councilor.

Human character with a mercenary bent such that they act like 20th century criminals appear all the time in Star Trek (Harvey Mudd to Vash to half the cast of Picard) even if it makes little sense given the relative material abundance. I was not at all worried about what the Ferengi might have been offering their spy.

[Link8909]

I'm with a lot of people on this episode, I like it when I first watched it back when it aired, but It definitely doesn't hold up after all these years, and the more interesting parts were when it was focused on Barclay on Earth, which were the parts that I liked back then, but the Voyager stuff brought the episode down.

And this episode once again proves that only Deep Space Nine can make good Ferengi episodes.

Also that end bit with Tom and B'Elanna teasing Harry about the Iconian Gateway plan by calling him gullible was definitely the pot calling the kettle black.

[Riedquat]

Amongst all the stuff about Troi on the beach, is it only me that finds it a bit creepy that you can find anyone that easily even when they're on holiday?

Of course she might've just mentioned where she was going.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Or he knows that she likes that spot. He is Barclay.

[Madner Kami]

I completely forgot this episode was a thing. It's just everything bad:

-Retcon the Doctor using the array to visit his creator

Didn't they use the Hirogen communication network, to transmit the Doctor?

-the goal once again revolves around Seven because of her Borg implants (At least the beta canon novels took away the Borg and Seven's Borg implants for good)

I don't mind Seven's Borg implants. I like to see them.

I never thought of it that way before today and now I can't stop thinking about it. Troi spent six years on the Enterprise with half of her knockers hanging out and yet the first person she ever covers up for is Reg? And here's the million dollar question: was he invited to her nude wedding in ''Nemesis''? Because I see the senior crew, I see Guinan, I see Wesley (who apparently took time off from being a god to attend) but I do not see Reg.

Do I need to point out the problematic relationship Reg has with Deanna? Remember how he objectified and fetishized her in his holo-suite sessions (which is fine in my book, it's his fantasy after all and nobody gets hurt or involved against their will)? She was clearly uncomfortable with the thought and the according type of attention back then. I get her reaction at him unexpectedly appearing in her vacation-spot, as he's shown problematically obsessive behaviour in the past.

I mean, if they'd known about this potential avenue home all along, then why didn't they, I dunno, steal the metaphasic shields from the S2 episode, Resistance? I know that's obviously a writer using the term without understanding what it means, but that is literally your way home! And being a dictatorship, there should be no ethical issues here or Prime Directive pontificating at all. I know it aired years before this episode and I actually like that story for what it was, but... it just illustrates the inherent issues in having no long-term story arcs.

"Steal" metaphasic shield technology? Starfleet has that technology themselves, since TNG's time. Besides that is it explicitly stated that the star's radiation is the problem in the transfer? Wasn't it the radiation from the "tunnel" (for lack of a better word) between both stars that was the problem?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I think I like the episode where they're all mind controlled over the same false circumstance better. I think though that's just because I like the cerebral horror element of that episode. Not unlike the spore colony on NX-01 that took over Archer, despite that being a worn concept for a premise.

Oddly enough, I find more memorable also the episode where the Firangis from TNG are devising the same scheme but for an unwitting colony in the delta quadrant.

[Percysowner]

Amongst all the stuff about Troi on the beach, is it only me that finds it a bit creepy that you can find anyone that easily even when they're on holiday?

Of course she might've just mentioned where she was going.

Or posted to the Star Trek version of Facebook/Instagram. LOL