Chuck Lives Here

[Ahriman238]

Yes, but then it was about how when Voyager has to do a bottle show for budget reasons it gives us Twisted, when DS9 had to do bottle shows for budgetary reasons it made Duet and In the Pale Moonlight.

On a wall I have Vonnegurt's famed rules for writing, which I sometimes tell my students (more for comdeic value than anything) but the DS9 writers really seemed to grasp #4 "every sentence must do one of two things- advance the plot or reveal character." It really says something when they discover they're short and try to add depth instead of simple padding.

[Lord Revan]

Both Voyager and pre-season 4 ENT show that the production team was lazy and very, very unwilling to take chances with the scripts, which lead to the problems with those shows.

[Baffalo]

I've heard it said that it had to do with Rick Berman having more direct control over Voyager and Enterprise's writing staffs, so they were unable to take risks without Berman's approval, whereas the DS9 staff often argued with Berman over changes to their scripts.

[Ahriman238]

Basics 2 rehash is up.

[Zor]

Up the Long Ladder is up, at least in theory, blip is not working for me right now.

Zor

[DaveJB]

I've heard it said that it had to do with Rick Berman having more direct control over Voyager and Enterprise's writing staffs, so they were unable to take risks without Berman's approval, whereas the DS9 staff often argued with Berman over changes to their scripts.

That's true in part, though what really hurt things for the Voyager and Enterprise writers was that they had two big sources of interference - Berman and UPN. On the other hand, TNG and DS9 were both syndicated, so there they only had to deal with interference from Berman (and, when he was alive, Roddenberry).

[Ahriman238]

Aww, you beat me to it, Zor.

I don't think I like the song Chuck replaced 99 luftballoons with.

I also dimply recall this episode from my childhood (mostly as the one with the funny Irish people camping in a cargo hold) and I don't remember thinking of it as bad. I may have to rewatch it.

[Ahriman238]

Last part of the Basics re-up is up.

[Isolder74]

One problem I have with this episode is that not only does Neelix basically get two people killed but he also does it doing things that no one who knows anything about even basic survival would have done.

To make matters worse Hogan gets killed by not only having him pick up something that would have zero actual benefit(barring using the bones as tools ala 2001) but his death happens because Neelix ignores rule number one of the wilderness. No one does anything in the wilderness by themselves. There is a reason why the 'buddy system' exists. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. In twisted when nothing on the ship is acting normally, the first this Neelix does is go and wander off by himself. And shocker, it results in himself ending up missing for the remainder of the episode!

[Ahriman238]

It's almost as though his alleged 'expertise' were a lie and he was, in fact, a shithead.

I don't have a problem with the bones. Considering they have exactly zero weapons or tools I'd have a few people assigned to grab the bones and any sturdy sticks we found. But bones in front of a menacing cave? If you're going to do it at all, have some people who are armed as best you're able keep an eye on the cave mouth while several others grab an arm full and scurry.\

[Isolder74]

The main issue isn't the bones themselves but the fact that commanding a group of at least 20 Neelix has one guy do it, and alone to boot, while the entire group could have picked everything up in no time at all and have been gone before the thing would have a chance to show up.

The big problem I have with Neelix and the bones is that he had Hogan pick them up under the premise of harvesting them for food not as tools........he specifically want to make a soup or something with them. Waste nothing as he put it.

[Zor]

What are little girls made of is up

Zor

[Ahriman238]

I never saw this episode but I read a sort of follow-up story, one of the TOS novels called Double, Double. The idea was that there was an additional android duplicate of Corey or Corman or whatever his name was, who kidnaps Kirk and replaces him with a duplicate (dedicated to destroying the Enterprise) in revenge.

It also had the virtue of spending actual time on Nurse Chapel and how she felt about encountering the androids again.

[Ahriman238]

Second Skin review up!

Also, Chuck redid the 37s.

[Isolder74]

In the case of the 37's. it seems like Voyager has made missed opportunities an fine art!

[Crazedwraith]

The Void Is Up

Now this episode at the time reminded me of nothing so much as the plot for The Elite Force game. Only you know, with out the Elite Force itself and the fan servicey all-star villains.

[Zor]

I remember that episode as being rather good and I was definitely looking forward to Chuck's opinion on that.

That and Void is an awesome word.

Zor

[TimothyC]

There is no stupid Nelix moment mentioned in the review!

[Channel72]

It's hilarious when Voyager does an episode like "The Void" or "Year of Hell", where the characters actually worry about things like lack of resources and supplies, being stranded far from home, and having to make tough ethical decisions for survial... you know, what they should be worried about in every episode.

[Grumman]

There is no stupid Nelix moment mentioned in the review!

Unsurprising, given it had not one but two smart Neelix moments (offering to do something he's actually competent at, and providing a really good supporting voice for Janeway's offer of alliance).

[Isolder74]

Well there was one eventually in the last moments of the episode but Chuck waved the rating I guess because of how unusually helpful he was the rest of the time.

Didn't stop a rage induced episode......however.

[Ahriman238]

Elogium redo is up.

Cue generic rant about the impossibilities of Kes' life cycle.

[Isolder74]

I don't think there is anything about the Ocompa Life Cycle that makes any kind of sense. Even one little bit.

[Ahriman238]

I don't think there is anything about the Ocompa Life Cycle that makes any kind of sense. Even one little bit.

Sense is there, possibly. If you stretch for it.

The Occampa were artificially created as a slave race. The short lifespan and near-total lack of curiosity are controls. The potential for vast psychic powers is there to make them more receptive to the commands of their former telepathic masters. Or just for the lulz, to see if such things could be included in a safe way.

Anyway, long term sustainability is impossible without the masters use of cloning technology, but they didn't want the logistical burden of whipping up every single new Occampan in a test tube, and understand that the mix-and-match of sexual reproduction works out better. So they give their wretched slaves the ability to reproduce but ONLY below replacement.

The Caretaker defeated the Occampans' masters, and provided an enviroment for the Occampans to enjoy their inevitable slide into extinction, since the Caretaker couldn't or wouldn't maintain the cloning. Within 60 years, tops, of the Voyager Pilot the Occampa are gone.

[Isolder74]

The super aliens who kidnapped Amelia Earhart, perhaps?

I guess that makes sense but that means putting more thought into the Ocampa then the creators of Voyager actually put into them themselves. In fact, you have come up in just a few paragraphs something more interesting them what the writers of Voyager seem determined to try and make us believe, that the Ocampa are natural.

It is so sad that fans of the show can come up with better versions of events/characters/races then what the creators of the show give us isn't it?