The Voy Cast
Join TNG fans Audrey & Terri in the Delta Quadrant as they watch Star Trek Voyager for the first time!
The Voy Cast
Resolutions
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Janeway and Chakotay play house on an alien planet after learning they’ve been infected with an incurable alien disease, while Voyager continues its journey under Tuvok’s command. Ordered not to attempt a cure or rescue the captain and first officer, Tuvok must carry on without them while avoiding all contact with the Vidiians.
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Hey listeners, I'm your co-host Audrey, and I'm your co-host Terry, live from Columbia. Indeed, welcome to the Voicast, your home in the Dolce Quadrant for All Things Star Trek Voyager. Today we're watching season two, episode 25, Resolution. Which is kind of fun because there's a character that makes an appearance in this episode that made an appearance in the episode we just released today. For those who don't know, we've released what? We're like five or six episodes ahead. Yeah, so that was fun.
SPEAKER_00I'm trying to figure out what character that is. Is it the monkey?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Oh wait, the the monkey in this episode is the current character.
SPEAKER_00I don't I don't know if the monkey was actually even in the episode. They never interact with it. We'll talk about it later.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we never see them together in the same scene. But there is a monkey, and Janeway does appear to be talking to something. I assume the monkey. In this episode, Janeway and Jakote play house on the frontier, while everyone on Voyager gets progressively more angry with Tuvok.
SPEAKER_00And Tuvok gets progressively more confused.
SPEAKER_03He he gets peer pressured by Harry Kim throughout the episode, which was fascinating to watch. I don't think we've seen Harry this angry before. He was like shaky in that one scene. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But it pays off, so I'm glad they went back. Basically, in this episode, Voyager is forced to abandon Captain Janeway and Jakote when they are infected with a terminal illness. T-Vok leads Voyager's captain on a mission away from them, we assume. And then at the end to find a cure for them. So this episode was written by Jerry Taylor. Directed by Alexander Singer. I don't know, I enjoyed the episode. It was one of those episodes that is an interesting character development episode for several of our main characters and almost nothing else.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it felt surreal, but I really enjoyed some of the material that they got into was like really deep and I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was uh there's some relationship drama, some leadership drama, and monkeys. So we rounded out all three corners, all three points of the triangle that we look for in a good voyager episode. Yep, got them all. So it opens with they're in a field. I can only assume a woodland park somewhere outside of Los Angeles. And you can totally tell it's Los Angeles because like there's like a bunch of scrub oak and other oak and other, like it just it just looks like the hills of Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00But it's it's beautiful, it's like idyllic where they are. There's birds chirping, it's sunny, it's it is pretty like yeah, it's like a nice.
SPEAKER_03They find good locations. It's like watching Stargate. You're like, every planet looks like vaguely Vancouver. Crazy.
SPEAKER_00Hmm.
SPEAKER_03How did that happen? They pan in two cryopods, which I don't have we ever seen a cryopod ever. I mean, we've seen alien cryopods. But like and they looked very similar. Starfleet issue, cryopod. Yeah, I'm not sure that we have. They were in cryostasis, I think, for 17, 18 days.
SPEAKER_0017 days, yeah. Nikada scroll out. They're, I guess, woken up by the doctor who they're talking to via comm badge. And he gives them the bad news. He has not been able to cure the virus that they have.
SPEAKER_03Yes, they they you don't get really any more rap like we're we're thrown in. Yeah. Which is kind of fun sometimes. But yeah, they're strangely, they react very calmly to the fact that they're being marooned on a planet forever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think they ask, or someone asked, like, why can't we just put them in cryo and take them with us or something? But the doctor says something about this planet's environment is like masking the disease somehow. So we don't even know what the symptoms are of this virus. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Later in the episode, actually, we find out that it's the monkeys, but of course.
SPEAKER_00The magical monkeys.
SPEAKER_03I I wish it was a lemur though, because I kept thinking about Zabumafu. Remember that show?
SPEAKER_00I like accidentally saw three episodes of that show, Audrey. That's so wild.
SPEAKER_03That was such a cute show. So yeah, guys, Terry and I have both had a long week. So yeah. We're gonna walk through this one slowly. They have this disease, they've been told they can't leave the planet. Cryo won't save them, and there's absolutely nothing the doctor can do to cure them. So they are left with a supply drop. I'm not sure why Voyager couldn't just fabricate an entire shelter completed for them, but they're left with a shuttle, a type B shuttle, I think, type something. They're left with the pieces of a shelter, and this is actually cool. It's like the coolest set piece, by the way. Someone had to like vacuum, like form and create this, like it looks like uh you know, your shower does before you install it, like the fiberglass shower panels or like bath bathtub panels or whatever, right? But it's this whole shelter, so it's that like computer beige, and I think they actually make fun of it. Like Jane was like, This never was my shade of beige or something, but it's they have to build this shelter home, and that's gonna be their forever home as death of interest ever. No.
SPEAKER_00Well, so the doctor does say that he really he wants to reach out to the Videans because of their advanced medical knowledge. And I said bullshit, right? They can't even cure the fish.
SPEAKER_03They can't, they're like, if you looked at someone that had no arms and no legs and was like, I cut off all my legs accidentally, sword fighting. I've the I am the foremost advanced expert on sword fighting. And what, like, no, no, excuse me. That's this, it's literally the same thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we have gone on at length about how if the Videans were actually that advanced in their medical knowledge, they would have cured themselves instead of just fucking everyone else up. So, of course, Janeway's like, no, absolutely not. You do not contact the Videans. That's a bad idea. And so that's basically that was their last option, and that's why they it's very pretty.
SPEAKER_03It's a very pretty place to live in the woods outside Los Angeles. So, all right. What now? And I'll send a message to the crew and they kind of carry some panels off into the the distance, and then it cuts to dun dun dun dun dun dun credits. So that's not really a dun dun dun moment, but you know, I'll take it, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, it's pretty big. We're losing our captain and Chicote. And it is.
SPEAKER_03It's just they didn't cut to credits when we found that out. They cut to credits when like Chicote made a joke about the color of the panels they were building. Like they could have cut like right when it's like, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do to save you. This is goodbye. And then it zooms in on their faces. We can specifically find out whose fault that was, probably, if we want to. Blame Alexander Singer and Jerry Taylor.
SPEAKER_00The panels were beige on one side and gray on the other. Yes, this was the type of dialogue we got in this episode.
SPEAKER_03A little dry, a little dry, but we're here for it.
SPEAKER_00It was sweet. Chicote and Jane Wave were going through the simple things in life.
SPEAKER_03Honestly, this whole episode, it reminded me of like really like a frontier, like little house on the prairie. Yes. But like before they had kids. Or hell on wheels, but without the hell part and the railroad. I don't know. It's just really cute.
SPEAKER_00Without the hell or the wheel.
SPEAKER_03Try to get all my bad jokes out in this episode so that I can we can have a good episode.
SPEAKER_00So that we can cut to credits.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Anyway, Terry, back on Voyager. Everyone is discussing the captain's final order to leave them behind. Right.
SPEAKER_00And to not contact the Videans. And Tuvok is in charge, and his his order, as always, is to get them home.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Tuvok is in charge. Do we ever find out who is now second in commander? My commander? Like is it Nelix?
SPEAKER_00Is it Kest? I mean, nobody takes that spot on the city. Is it a random register? Is it Insign Johnson? I don't I feel like Harry kind of assumed that role because of the way he was questioning Tuvok's leadership.
SPEAKER_03Kind of a little bit. I mean, in an alternate reality, this is when Harry becomes like goes from Ensign to first in command.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_03Right. He's certainly capable enough.
SPEAKER_00They're all obviously like super upset about this and very distraught. Yeah. Which is fair. Janeway is a hell of a captain, and they all know that she's just gonna be that she would never never be selfish enough to tell them to contact the Videans, essentially.
SPEAKER_03Right. It's it's dangerous. Right? It's dangerous for them. They've killed how many 400 of them so far?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Of the Videans, yes.
SPEAKER_03They deserved it. I mean, fuck the Videans.
SPEAKER_00They stole Neelix's lungs, so obviously in retribution. Literally.
SPEAKER_03And I almost want to say at least they're not the other ones, but those that will not be named, but they they're worse and not worse all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But Janeway is not she's not giving up on finding a cure necessarily. She is saying goodbye to Voyager for good, but she has a whole bunch of medical and scientific supplies sent down to her. So she's gonna continue trying to capture this insect, I guess, that gave them the virus and see if she can figure it out. Because she is, after all, a scientist, which is nice, but I'm not sure. Like, even if she were to cure it, they are still stuck on this planet. And this planet apparently is like masking the virus. So why even, why even try?
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, the it's true. They have a I found it, it's a type 9 shuttlecraft.
SPEAKER_00True. They could, if they were cured, they could take their shuttle off and leave. But as I think it's Harry, yeah, Harry points out that that shuttlecraft is not capable of warp fast enough to catch Voyager at any point.
SPEAKER_03I think it was, I think it was Tom. Seems like a Tom thing to say. Yes. Like that can only go like warp for three or four years. And it would take hundreds of years to really get anywhere. Um and yeah, so I mean they have what they need to survive and have enough of a life to get to like enough of a foundation to build uh a sustainable long-term life. I hope they were left a what is it called? A fabricator.
SPEAKER_00The replicator.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_00I believe they said that they were given one of those.
SPEAKER_03At least they were left that. So I don't know. I wonder how they like feed that thing. Do they just feed it like trees and monkeys? Again, I we didn't really go into any of those things. These are the questions I have. This episode was extremely dry. I'm curious what how else lost over. How much a drier can we make this episode?
SPEAKER_00Well, they're they're both in good spirits, honestly, considering that they're being abandoned here. Janeway just complains that she won't have a bathtub and calls it roughing it because of that. But like they're they're in good enough spirits that I feel like they are fully just avoiding grappling with the fact that they've been abandoned here.
SPEAKER_03Yes. I think they're dealing with it in different ways. Janeway's trying to escape into the work of finding a way to conquer this virus and as a distraction, and Chicote's like building shit as a way to distract him. And that leads to some interesting conflict. Yeah, and they're both like awkwardly trying to settle into this different dynamic, interpersonal relationship dynamic, where they're no longer serving together on the starship, and there's no like hierarchy. And I don't understand Janeway looks really cute in the like many ankle-length dresses she's wearing, like she's literally on the prairie, yes, the west in 1860. Uh, and Chicote is wearing lit lit literally out of the closet for Pioneer Epic on on in in the studio. Like they went into the pioneer part, and Chicote's wearing what Charles wears on Little House in the Prairie. You impressed to remember names from watching that when I was a kid. It's just like low button, like tan brown shirt, rolled up sleeves. He's got like the manly like look. All he needs is like a lot of sweat going down, like a sweat B, you know. This is their look now. I'm like, okay, no way in hell is Janeway wearing a fucking dress. No way in hell. Like maybe she has one, but she's gonna be wearing like like pants, like she's out in the woods, like she's a captain. She's not gonna be wearing a dress. That is so not realistic. And if I'm in a survival situation, I'm gonna be wearing pants, guys. You can tell me I'm wrong and overreacting, but I thought I was dumb.
SPEAKER_00Not wrong, Audrey. But I think that the focus here was more of like getting this vibe of her and Chakote being this relaxed relationship together and it being fully different from her being captain. And honestly, the dress has kind of helped make set that scene, but a hundred percent you're not hiking off into the woods in a fucking dress. That's insane. But she has her hair like down in a low braid, which we've never seen before. Like it's all different. Yeah. How could Chicote resist?
SPEAKER_03I mean, that was definitely the point. They're like, look how pretty and feminine she is, and look how manly Chicote is. And don't you guys just want to bang?
SPEAKER_00But she's also smart and a scientist and throws herself into her work.
SPEAKER_03She is did a lot of like trying to set it, it was an interesting study in her trying to set boundaries with Chicote and Chicote constantly pushing the boundaries, not like an aggressive way and like a natural way. He's like, Oh, I made you a shower or bathtub. She's like, Oh, that's my favorite way of relaxing. And I was like, same. I'm there. I would also want someone to make me a bathtub.
SPEAKER_00100%. He's he's being a real catch, honestly, through this whole thing.
SPEAKER_03He's being a real good guy. He's putting on his he's really trying to attract her, honestly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but at the same time, and this is where we see like the relationship issues come in. Like he isn't fully supportive of her continuing to do research to fix this this virus. He is very much in the camp of like, this is our life now. Let's accept it, let's make the best of it. And she is not ready for that. And I feel like a person with true, true relationship material would be like instead of making her a bathtub, maybe redirect some of that energy towards the thing that she's doing and helping her with that, and that'll help you bond. And, you know, I think you went about it a little yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's also a study, and again, they're escaping in different ways. And he uses like a quote from ancestors about moving on, basically. And I think it's a little I I don't know. He gave up and Jane Wei didn't want to. It's just interesting. Two totally different survival mentalities.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And it and it caused conflict because Jane Way was like, Well, if you're making all this stuff and building this life for us, it means you've given up. And he was just like, You probably should give up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this was interesting. Uh, I don't know how many days they'd been down there so far, but Voyager calls them right as they're going to leave communications range. So it's like, I have no idea how far out they were.
SPEAKER_00I think I s I thought it was like, I don't know, it was like several days, I thought, like 13 days or something before they would be out of communications range.
SPEAKER_03Which is crazy. That's wild. They're like at warp something, and right. I'm just curious if we've ever had that kind of metric before in Star Trek where it's like you're talking to someone on a planet through their combat from several days away at warp. Yeah, like that's crazy. I feel like that's a good point.
SPEAKER_01That's far.
SPEAKER_03But we get to hear to Voc at the end of this farewell message from Jane Way say, Live long and prosper. And I think that's the first time that he said that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think so. I was very excited.
SPEAKER_03That was cool. I was like, wow, that's awesome. That's very cool. Day 24 on the planet. Chakote has built me a bathtub in the woods. We have called this planet New Earth. Her modular shelter is beautiful. I can smell the monkey bacon cooking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Jamie is naked out in the woods in this bathtub. Um, when she hears something in the woods and she calls to Jacote, she gets out of the bath and wraps a towel around herself. So now you've got Jakote is standing next to her while she's wearing just a towel.
SPEAKER_03He did a great job of like being extremely uncomfortable. Like, I feel like I felt him as the actor feeling uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, the way the two of them acted this was incredible, honestly. Yeah. They did a really good job. Except for when they see this monkey. They see Zabumafu in the woods. So it cuts it cuts to another clip of the monkey. So neither of them are in it. It's just the monkey. So I'm like, they they may not even even hired a monkey for this. They just found some clip somewhere and put it in here. And Janewei starts like reaching out towards it and talking in this really weird ass deep voice. And it's fucking creepy the way she's trying to talk to this monkey. I'm like, what are you? She's like, hello there. Little friend. She's fucking weird. Should I find the quote? Please. It's like she like hunches her shoulders. It's just so weird. I'm like, that's not how you interact with animals. I don't something's wrong there.
SPEAKER_03All I wrote down was the quote from later on in the episode. Where she's like, Hello again. You certainly cover a lot of territory. You're like, what the fuck? She's like, do you understand what I'm saying to you? It's no, it's a fucking monkey.
SPEAKER_00And it's fine to talk to animals, but when you do it, you don't do it in like serial killer voice.
SPEAKER_03Okay, Jane, I will say Jane We does have a serial killer voice.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yes, sometimes. But it it was even more so with this monkey. I was kind of concerned for the Oh, I'd be terrified.
SPEAKER_03I'd be terrified for the monkey. Having seen my entire family turned into monkey base bacon by Chicote. I mean, you never know.
SPEAKER_00Well, okay, but she also is talking about how uh she kind of wants to maybe capture this monkey because he's a primate and study how if he's gotten the virus, how how it's worked with him. And so, yeah, maybe that does involve like dissecting it. I don't know. That's what sounded like.
SPEAKER_03What did Chicote say? Like it was like weirdly demeaning. Like she's like, I think we could study the primate and get answers about these insects. And he says, uh, you just want a pet or something.
SPEAKER_00See, he's not being supportive. No, not at all. Not at all. You can't just build things, guys. You gotta connect on an emotional level. Take interest in your partner's interests.
SPEAKER_03They're not partners yet, though. I mean, but you you have to know they're both thinking it, or at least we want since Chicote, yeah, like there's definitely some chemistry there. Oh, yeah. And Janeway is like not ready to touch this. And Chicote is like, because he's already decided that this is his forever life, he's like, Well, we're gonna at some point. So that's cool. I mean, let's I'll just be here. Be over here.
SPEAKER_00Meanwhile, everyone on Voyager is just like fucking depression.
SPEAKER_03It's been very not happy. Yeah. Six weeks. I don't know that Tuvok is the best choice for captain. It's like when you do those like personality tests. You find out how all your coworkers, you're like, oh, that's why you hate me. No, that's why I hate you. You do that. This is the ultimate, the ultimate personality test for Dubach being in the captain seat. And I don't see a lot of it, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, obviously he's very um he has the experience and and the knowledge, but he is missing a human aspect for sure. And I think that part of the reason that Janeway would want him to be captain is because she knows he will follow her order to not try and cure their disease, no matter how sad he or the other crew are, because that's that's it was a logical decision and he respects that. And everyone else on the ship is pretty pissed about it. So when they come close to a Videan ship, Tuvok orders them to avoid it and try and make sure they don't see them. And this is where Harry really starts to kind of act out. And he tries to, he's been talking with other people on the ship. They all want to try and get Jane Wayne Jacote back. And so he's trying to get them on the bridge to to speak up, to let let Tuvok know that's how they feel. And they don't, they don't support poor Harry. And so Tuvok has him taken off duty for the day, which feels really big for Harry. Harry's not a conflict person like that. So this was that was a lot.
SPEAKER_03Kind of a time and a place thing, too. I mean, they all feel similar, but the way he was doing it maybe was not as not something people wanted to touch or engage with. Yeah, it was kind of like he was upset for sure. So later on, like they kind of have a discussion in the mess hall, some of the crew, about it, and like, what can we do? Maybe, you know, what what what do we have to offer? And they come up with this plan. Harry approaches Tuvak in his quarters, and I think it was this person.
SPEAKER_00Tuvak is yes, and Tuvak is wearing like a wizard robe with pointy shoulder pads.
SPEAKER_03I he's wearing his his Vulcan nightgown garb. And it's awesome. Yeah, it's it's very cool looking. The the costume design to that is really cool. And he uh says, You've all been talking, and basically we have an ally with the Vedeans. We can offer them the ally being the love interest from episode 19 that the doctor was with. And we can also maybe offer them some of Balana's DNA to help them with their cure efforts, and we'd like to try to contact them. And TVOX says, you know, well, we also killed like 300 or 400 people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, destroyed one of the kids.
SPEAKER_03On one of their ships, so recently not great. And TVOx says no. And if the next words out of your mouth are not yes, sir, then basically I'm gonna pull you off duty permanently. Like it was pretty rough.
SPEAKER_00Yes, Tuvok went hard. It was it was a lot.
SPEAKER_03Like, I don't know if the it's like captains have to walk a line and Tuvok is way too far on one side.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but he he expresses multiple times that he's just like confused. He's like, I don't know what you guys want me to do. I'm following orders, the orders are logical. Like what yeah.
SPEAKER_03I I guess that sometimes I have an issue with how they write Vulcan characters though, because and even Data's character, there's no way they're that they're not dim. Right. Like they can understand when something is logical, but also potentially not logical in that situation, or like multiple options can be logical. I just there's it it's kind of like a cop-out, I feel like, for the writers, maybe there's there's just there's no way Tuvok has to be one of the smartest people. Vulcans are extremely intelligent. Like, what do you mean you don't understand? Of course he understands.
SPEAKER_00Right. And the just because he has control over his emotions does not mean that he doesn't logically understand that other people have emotions. And emotion isn't the only driving factor here. Like it's it is like he is being purposely bullheaded, probably because he also wants to have Jane Wade back, and he has to push back against that internally to continue following her orders.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I don't know, that kind of frustrates me because it's happened a few times. Like, I don't know. It's a little simple way to approach his character, and I hope that in later seasons they add a little complexity and like I agree. I feel like Spock, it's been a while since I watched the OG series, but I've seen the movies plenty of times, and like even the new movies that I like. The writing of that character is like, and I know it's because like Willie's half humid, but it just feels like he um I don't know, it just feels like they're doing T-Vox character disservice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're definitely simplifying it.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, is this the scene where we have boundaries or not yet?
SPEAKER_00Not yet. I mean, we kind of talked some more about I mean, we do go back to the planet. Shikote's making headboards because he's noticed that Jane We likes to sit up in bed and read. And I'm just like, this is so incredibly thoughtful. But it bothers her because she again is like, this means you're giving up and you're not helping me. And I I thought that this was really insightful, this type of relationship dynamic. Uh, I just thought it was really well written, the the like emotional issues they were having with each other.
SPEAKER_03Super real. They're and they're not communicating yet. Like Janeway hasn't has been talking about how she's like, I'm sorry, like I cannot move past trying to find a cure, but she doesn't tell Chicote that she that it makes her uncomfortable that he's doing all these projects for her yet.
SPEAKER_00I don't think. I think it is right when he's talking, when he's building the those headboards that she is like, this doesn't feel good. So I thought it was later that she says, um Well, because very very quickly after this, she goes looking for one of her traps and s sees this monkey again, which seems like it's the same clip of the same monkey. And he's screeching, and she's like, What are you trying to tell me? And it seems like she has gotten one of one of the insects that she needs, and then this storm blows in so fucking fast.
SPEAKER_03Yes, so this is where she says hello again. And then she like crouches down and holds her hand out, says, Do you understand? And then the primate, the the monkey goes, it's like I don't think it understands.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the monkey just starts.
SPEAKER_03But it literally like starts pointing uh and I it was just kind of goofy. It was kind of campy and funny. A lot of what was on the planet was campy. Ion storm hits and sh- I can it not be a normal fucking storm? Does it have to be like a made-up science fiction storm?
SPEAKER_00Normal constant roll in that terran.
SPEAKER_03Normal Terran world. Like it can't just be, wow, that's a crazy thunderstorm.
SPEAKER_00Better run No, it had to hit right then with no warning other than monkey screeching, of course. And they had to have no, yeah, no warning from their sensors. Chicote says that the tricorders didn't recognize this storm, whatever that means. So Janeway is now running through the woods clutching this case that has the specimen in it, and she's like falling from tree to tree. It's real insane. Of course, Chicote comes out looking for her and finds her.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she's on the ground and he's like, Let me help you. And she says, I could not maintain my balance. No shit. Swind is so powerful. I can't carry this case and my own weight and this wind. And he says, I've got you, let me help you. And then they go back.
SPEAKER_00They go back while the storm is still raging, and they are under a table while while the whole shelter shakes. Like this is this is a crazy insane storm.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But because it's a you know, future shelter, it's fine. Thank God. They are fine. There's like trees and stuff knocked over.
SPEAKER_00All of her all of her insect traps are broken. So is a lot of her scientific gear. And so this is the part where she now has to grapple with, okay, maybe now I need to give up. Maybe I need to embrace this new life because I can't keep researching now. And yes. She's sitting at the table later and she's like, Oh, I'm so sore. And is like rubbing her neck and her back. And Chicota gets up, and I'm like, Oh, is he gonna give her a massage?
SPEAKER_03No, but then he braids her hair or something.
SPEAKER_00I mean, he does give her a massage.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Okay. I might have just been cringing a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah. This this was the moment to cringe. Something had to happen at this point. But of course, Janeway enjoys the massage, but then you can see her get real uncomfortable, and she's like, I have to go to bed. Good night.
SPEAKER_03Yep. And I I mean, we can just skip to it because it happens after the next like Voyager scene. So she sits Chicoti down and basically says, like, I'll just read the quote, like, we have to set some parameters. And so that was a fun, funny Star Trek way of saying it. Like, of course, she would say it that way. Uh, and he says, I'm not sure I can define parameters, but I can tell you a story. And I was like, fuck no, not another story. It's been like three stories, we're three stories deep, Chicote. Just don't tell us a story, just say words. Uh says, I can tell you a story, an ancient legend among my people. It's about an angry warrior who lived his life in conflict with the rest of his tribe, a man who couldn't find peace, even with the help of his spirit guide. Like, I forget what his spirit guide is. Salamander. No, that's that's Jane Ways. No. Or lizard. I remember it was like episode two.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Jane Ways is a lizard, but I remember Chicoti does tell us what it is. I think maybe it's a bird of some kind. I don't know. Bird moments. Janeway wanted it to be a bear, but it was not.
SPEAKER_03This made him a hero among his tribe, but the warrior still longed for peace within himself. One day he and his war party were captured by a neighboring tribe, led by a woman warrior. She called on him to join her because her tribe was too small and weak to defend himself from all his enemies. The woman warrior was brave and beautiful and very wise. The angry warrior swore to himself that he would stay by her side, doing whatever he could to make her burden lighter. Typical man shit. From that point on, her needs would come first. And in that way, the warrior began to know the true meaning of Christmas. I mean, peace. Is that really an ancient legend? No, but it made it easier to say.
SPEAKER_00Yep, obviously, he was talking about himself. Although I take issue with many of the things he said here. That was pretty rude to say that Voyager was too small and weak and needed his help.
SPEAKER_03What are you talking about? But Voyager Strong.
SPEAKER_00Voyager Strong.
SPEAKER_03So it's like a like a high school theme, Voyager Strong.
SPEAKER_00It makes Chicote feel like he has been domesticated by Janeway somehow. And I'm kind of like trying to figure out when this happened. Was it when she like admonished him for going off on his own on a death mission and a shuttle? Like there, it felt it didn't feel real what he was saying. But it also was confusing because they're obviously having this very tense, maybe romantic moment. And what he's saying of just like this warrior will always be by your side. I was like, does that mean it's not romantic? Is this just some sort of weird, like I've devoted myself to you, even though we won't ever be in a relationship? That doesn't feel like a thing Chicote would do, but maybe it does because he's been in love before and he got so incredibly burned by it. It it seems like a lot of information that I wasn't ready to parse.
SPEAKER_03No one is ready to parse this information. No one. It may be. Well, let me tell you a story.
SPEAKER_00Is it an ancient story from your people, Audrey?
SPEAKER_03Just so much wisdom. So yeah, so back on Voyager. Contact Dr. Pell, who is again that Vedean love interest, and she says, Oh yeah, totally. We we have very specific inoculation, and I'd love to give it to you. Um like, great, okay, so we're gonna try and rendezvous with her ship.
SPEAKER_00And Tuvok wisely wants to do six Videan warships show up. Yeah, yeah. Tuvok, so so Tuvak has taken full responsibility for this. Once he figures out this is what all the crew wants, he's like, okay, I will make this decision, we will reach out to them, but we're doing battle drills up until the moment that we meet with them, which was smart because yes, they meet up and there's a whole bunch of ships. Yeah, they attack a trap.
SPEAKER_03Yep, they're apparently about as effective as they were before, even though they have quote unquote advanced medical technology, they still have shit weapons, and Voyager is able to just casually ward off six Vedean warships. There's still injuries and things, but you know, they're just there taking a beating and having normal conversations. The doctor re gets a call from Dr. Pell. She's like, I had no idea that you guys were gonna frame that that they were planning this attack. I'm gonna how can I get these serums to you as fast as possible? And she's able to transport them over. There was a split second there where I was like, oh my god, is she in on it? Like, is she right?
SPEAKER_00Has she gone back to her Vedean ways? Yeah, in order to beam the cure aboard, they have to drop their shields, apparently. And I was kind of like, well, why don't you just make a hole in the shield? But so they instead had to do this really complicated maneuver that Tuvok sequences and tells everyone how to do. And I really appreciated how he did this and how he communicated. He was like, Here is the sequence of events. We will drop the shields, we will eject an antimatter canister at the same time that you transport the cure, we will detonate the antimatter, we will go to full impulse to keep out of the detonation. I was like, that's great leadership, what he just did. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So finally, I mean he's a super capable captain. There's just interpersonal skills that are lacking. 100%. Uh so they escape with the serum. Oh sorry, I found this in my notes. I forgot that she called him Smolis.
SPEAKER_00I was hoping to hear that name again.
SPEAKER_03That's that's the name. That's that's right. That's the name they came up with. It sounds like uh it sounds like a weird pet name, right? Like smooky poo or something. It's awful. So bad. So he blushes at that. He's like, they make it within communication range where I don't know how long they've been traveling. I don't think they say, and contact Jane Way and Tubok or Jane Way and Chicote with the good news about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they have they have the inoculation, and they are no longer going to be marooned on new earth forever.
SPEAKER_00They they get this information while Jane Way is gardening and she's has like grown some little saplings, and it kind of looks like you know, she has finally accepted this thing, and then she gets this news, and that would be so fucking complicated to just feel and it's it's hard too because like that's a pretty simple, safe ish life.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03And now you're going back to basically we're gonna starve or get blown up or attacked or turned into a salamander or any variety of things on any given day if you're trying to survive on Voyager.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Die in space far from home.
SPEAKER_03Starfleet operates in space.
SPEAKER_00Yep. But yeah, Jane, they obviously go back aboard. And as they're walking onto the bridge, I just noticed that Janeway is like back to business with Chicote. There's no more banter, there's no more like calling her Janeway. It's they're right back to their previous roles.
SPEAKER_03There's like a a little pause there though, to like accent the change, right, and rapport. Yes. Uh, I think one of my favorite scenes of the whole episode happens right here at the end where they're leaving and the monkey comes out of the woods. It's like, you know, and she's just like, hey, I'll I guess this is goodbye. And as they're walking away, she kind of like half-heartedly is like, you can have a shelter. Just kind of like a waves towards the shelter, and the monkey is just like Which I'm surprised they weren't gonna just beam that stuff back aboard.
SPEAKER_00Why would they leave it there? Right.
SPEAKER_03They need the materials, they need the materials plus that stuff. Also, like, did you notice they beamed, they beamed up? They didn't like, did they leave the like type 9 shuttle sitting there? Right. I would by the way, I don't think we see it all in this episode. I'm not even sure if we have a set for type 9. What is the type 9?
SPEAKER_00Well, it's a better question that I wrote at the end of my notes is Did this crew ever get to interact with that trained monkey? I'm gonna look that up right now.
SPEAKER_03I don't, that's that's a not even sure how to approach that Google search. Let's see.
SPEAKER_00The animal is a Jeffree spider monkey.
SPEAKER_03Jeffrey.
SPEAKER_00I would like to know more about the monkey.
SPEAKER_03Here we go. Property master Alan Sims was responsible for casting the monkey that appears in the installment. When the script called for an alien primate, Sims found a spider monkey, which on command could walk on its hind legs with its tail erect. At first, Rick Berman just laughed. He couldn't believe that a spider monkey, which you could find in any zoo, would look convincingly alien.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, agreed, it's a monkey.
SPEAKER_03When I showed him photographs of what the monkey could do, he said that looks alien enough for me. What? No, it's a monkey. It looks like any other spider monkey. Uh some scenes in this episode were filmed on location in the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains drumroll not far from Los Angeles. This location shooting included some nighttime filming, which at least at the time was far more expensive than normal location filming. Fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it seems like they did the monkey was on scene or on site and was filmed. I'm just trying to figure out why it never appeared in the same frame as Janeway. I don't know if you're gonna be able to I know. No, the internet doesn't understand what I want. As usual.
SPEAKER_03Here's another fun fact.
SPEAKER_00Oh, from a pract- well, okay, from a practical standpoint, the scenes with a monkey were shot on an outdoor location set. But so were Janeway and maybe not at the same time.
SPEAKER_03They just couldn't coordinate. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many moving pieces. It says the duration of the events in this episode take place over a period of approximately four months, making it one of the longest longest episode like in episode time spans in Star Trek. Interesting. Okay. Like we said, it was a fun episode. Enjoyed it. It was a background episode for me.
SPEAKER_00It was definitely geared while I did my laundry. That's a good time to do it. I don't think it wasn't too complicated. It was really made to focus on Jane Wayne and Chicote's relationship and then on Tuvox leadership skills. And that was kind of the point. We is it is it the last episode next?
SPEAKER_03Yes. So the next episode is a part one of two, and it is the season finale for season two. So this is the last episode in season two. Crazy. We made it. We are actually almost exactly a year, basically a year from when we started our first episode of Voyager. Hey. This week. Might have been like the end of May, technically. I think our first episode released the beginning of July, but we started recording around now. So that's fun. Yeah, it's full circle. We've been doing it a whole year. Can you believe that? That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00I actually thought it had been longer.
SPEAKER_03So in like a good way. It's crazy. So yeah, this. I'm trying to find a little bit more information. Basically, this is episode six of nine of the Susca arc. There's like three other arcs involved. And again, this is part one. Part two is the first episode of season three. On a mission to rescue Chicote's son from Maj Cola. Voyager is captured by the Kaizon Neistrum. Yes. I know I was confused too. I was like, huh?
SPEAKER_00Did he have another son yet?
SPEAKER_03Where does the other sun come from? Voyager is captured by the Kaizon Needstrom in a sneak attack. Um I I just hate the Kazon so much. And I could not be more excited for them to act. I don't think they're going to.
SPEAKER_00But also, if they're doing a sneak attack, that had to, but that's gonna do it.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, um, I'm uh pulling up a few pictures. I see some K Zon. I see some dramatic laser fire. And I think we might have a gas on as well. Alright, all thanks for joining. Thanks for listening to me attack the writing in this episode. Also, I enjoyed other parts of it. Thank you. I wish the monkey had a name, but he was really great. And we'll see you next week for the season finale of season two. And then we'll have an episode after that to like talk about the whole season. Just like a season wrap episode.
SPEAKER_00Yay, I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_03See you next week. Bye.