Voy: Alter Ego

[King of the owls]

This episode honestly feels like the writers were stumped for ideas and discovered one of their old "ideas for Trek episodes" notebooks under a pile of newspapers and well combined several half complete ideas from that notebook

That said the always nice to see find a decent-ish Voyager episode that uses its character well.(Even if it involves Harry Kim being well extra in his Harry Kim-ness TM)

[bronnt]

Harry Kim is so poorly written that you can see Garrett Wang just refusing to give a crap about this episode.

Wasn't this the episode where Wang had flu and was filming with a 102 fever or something?

Either way, I agree the episode stank. Then again, it's a Harry Kim sex episode, which is a bit like trying to put on a serious performance of Shakespeare where every character is wearing a massive pair of fake tits, it just terminally weighs the episode down to the point where I barely remembered that it was a Tuvok episode until I watched the review.

I've never heard that story, so if it's this episode, that might explain why he looks like he doesn't want to be there. I simply assumed he was so annoyed by the writing he was hoping to make it through the scene before he started rolling his eyes.

[bronnt]

That said the always nice to see find a decent-ish Voyager episode that uses its character well.(Even if it involves Harry Kim being well extra in his Harry Kim-ness TM)

When Voyager figures out how to focus on characters and give them a voice, it's actually pretty damned compelling. Most of the time they don't have any real characterization. Other times, they need characters to behave a certain way in order to service the plot, but it doesn't seem to flow from anything and feels really inauthentic. But if you just look at the templates, there's a lot of good stuff to work with. I'll credit this episode for actually using Tuvok as more than a prop.

[The Romulan Republic]

Voyager is perhaps the best example in television of great potential repeatedly squandered. They had everything they needed to make a great show, except competent management.

[Sabre]

Huh. Are there no German speakers to appreciate Chuck's silly gag about the same word in two different languages potentially having wildly divergent meanings? Namely, the throwaway example about a theoretical German sign that in English says a hat is lovely while actually meaning that a hat is poisoned?

Because there is the exact word for that joke. "Gift."

"A present" in English, "a poison" in German.

I'm not sure how it'd tie into the rest of the episode. But man, Chuck, kudos for that.

[Madner Kami]

Huh. Are there no German speakers to appreciate Chuck's silly gag about the same word in two different languages potentially having wildly divergent meanings? Namely, the throwaway example about a theoretical German sign that in English says a hat is lovely while actually meaning that a hat is poisoned?

Because there is the exact word for that joke. "Gift."

"A present" in English, "a poison" in German.

I'm not sure how it'd tie into the rest of the episode. But man, Chuck, kudos for that.

The thing is, "hat" in german doesn't mean hat. A hat in german, is "Hut". "Hat" in german does have a different meaning though. "Hat Gift" in german, would be translated into english as "has poison".

[Sabre]

I completely didn't spot the "Hat" pun. Even better.

[MissKittyFantastico]

See, if he wanted to rid himself of emotions, why didn't he go to Chakotay first?

Because then we would've had to meet Harry's spirit animal, and it's just depressing to have to see a pet rock that's hanged itself.

[PerrySimm]

So should waifuism be added to the list of things Trek predicted?

Well, here's a couple tidbits to chew on:

• William Gibson's Idoru: 4 September 1996
• "Alter Ego" final script draft: 27 September 1996

[Archon_Wing]

So should waifuism be added to the list of things Trek predicted?

https://youtu.be/VBTRp80Q64U?t=40