Trekipedia

A Look at Stardates

Originally created in order to indicate that Star Trek was set in some undefined future era without actually having to say exactly when the series took place, stardates were little more than largely-random numbers at first. By the time Star Trek: The Next Generation aired, decades later, a more logical, consistent formula was created for stardates: 1000 “star-days” passed per year, which was indicated by the first two digits of the now-five-digit stardate (the better to indicate that nearly a century had passed since the original Star Trek series).
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Thoughts on “From the Ashes”

By Thomas Lee

Throughout its run, and especially in its last seasons, Star Trek: Voyager was plagued by an abundance of poorly-conceived and -executed episodes that earned it a well-deserved reputation as the nadir of the franchise. Among embarrassments such as "The Voyager Conspiracy" and "Fury" was "Ashes to Ashes"—a story that, as with the aforementioned episodes, showed how clumsy the writers could be in writing retroactive continuity. Nonetheless, as with his writing of "Tempus Fugit," Jeffrey took what should have been an unsalvageable episode and not only updated "Ashes to Ashes" to exist within the Version 2.0 timeline, but also incorporated numerous revisions that transformed it into a far better story.

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Thoughts on “A Darker Light”

By Thomas Lee

In a number of ways, "A Darker Light" was "Warhead" and "Nightingale" revisited—only this time, we saw a glimpse of the confident commander-to-be we knew back in Season 1 instead of the linguini-spined green ensign we got after Seven came aboard. It was good to see not only Harry come to hold his own with Seven, but that Harry was clearly the hero of the away mission, with his decisions saving Voyager without needing Seven’s help (just as with "Warhead", his assistance came from the ‘machine intelligence’)—as opposed to "Retrospect" [VVS8], where he primarily served as B’Elanna’s redshirt IMHO. (As for his command stint on the Nightingale, that went wrong because IMHO, contrary to Seven’s assessment, Harry emulated Janeway exactly, right down to her micromanagement—which is also characteristic of Seven’s management style. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the character shields of either of Voyager‘s Mary Sues to protect him from the results of such a command style.)

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Thoughts on “One Perfect Moment”

By Thomas Lee

After the momentous events of the previous stories of Mike’s K/7 saga (and especially HOPE), it’s only natural that Mike’s K/7 saga would produce what could be called an "intermission" story. As one might infer from its title, it’s basically a chance for the readers (and the characters) to relax, catch their breath, and take stock of all that has happened in the momentous 8 months since Janeway first decided to take Voyager into a certain nebula before IOHEFY.

The ‘main attraction’ of OPM—the Paris/Torres wedding—was the anticipated follow-up to the P/T engagement seen at the end of HOPE. More than a few P/T fans were disappointed that "Drive" [VOY] kept the ‘real’ P/T wedding off-screen, and Mike went out of his way to showcase a P/T wedding that was IMHO much more true to who Tom and B’Elanna are than the cookie-cutter Starfleet wedding seen in "Course: Oblivion" [VOY].

Even so, OPM is not merely a sideshow recounting the P/T marriage in Mike’s K/7 saga. As Mike intended, it not only touched upon the immediate aftermath of the harrowing ordeal Voyager‘s crew (especially Harry and Seven) had undergone in HOPE, but it was also an opportunity to see how Voyager‘s crew has changed since we first met them and to tie up the saga’s loose ends—not to mention taking the time for the social satire and commentary Trek is known for—and to witness Harry and Seven begin the final leg of their journey from "I" to "we."

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Thoughts on “When You Wish”

By Thomas Lee

With Lesa’s release of "When You Wish" [WYW], K/7 fans have finally received the sequel to Michael Roy Hollihan’s "I Wish, I Hope" [IWIH]. Back in IWIH, Seven failed to reconcile with Harry after STWOM because she had always acted on two assumptions—that she could afford to dismiss such important aspects of interpersonal interactions like emotions as irrelevant simply because she couldn’t understand the need for them; and that, no matter what she did or said, those who offer friendship to her will always do so. As such, Seven failed to realize that it was Harry’s (emotional) hope of a relationship with her that had sustained his friendship with her for two years in the face of behavior that was not compatible with a friendship. Thus, once she had thoroughly crushed his hopes for a relationship, she had removed the only major incentive Harry had to continue the friendship—from Harry’s perspective, the K/7 ‘friendship’ was revealed to be a black hole into which he was wasting his emotional strength. As a result, Seven ended up destroying through her ignorance and callousness the very friendship she had intended to preserve.

In contrast, WYW was, IMHO, a far less gloomy story whose Seven-angst came with a strong flavor of poetic justice (especially after a rereading of IWIH). As inferred from the title (and the famous Disney song), WYW is strongly based on Seven’s newfound (and long-shot) wish to regain what she had so arrogantly and carelessly wasted (not to mention having proven so unworthy of). As such, there’s another popular phrase regarding wishes that applies to the K & 7 interaction between IWIH and the ‘present day’ of WYW—"Be careful about what you wish for—you just might get it." For two years, Seven has been ridiculing Harry’s attempts to treat her as a fellow human being, and implicitly demanding that he treat her as a Borg drone. Now, Harry has finally taken her statements and put-downs at face-value and put them into practice—and Seven soon comes to realize that the interaction she had demanded of Harry was NOT what she really wanted.

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Thoughts on “A Bright Shining Thing Called Hope”

By Thomas Lee

When I finished "A Bright, Shining Thing Called Hope," my reaction was, "What a story!"

These days, few rumors strike as much apprehension in the hearts of Star Trek fans as that of an upcoming "Borg Episode" on Voyager. Ever since "Scorpion" first aired three years ago, TPTB at Voyager have repeatedly tried to recapture the lightning of that two-part episode. Unfortunately, their attempts not only kept falling far short of expectations, but they did immeasurable damage to the reputation of the Borg in the process (Braga & co. have apparently failed to grasp the differences between an opponent that is defeatable and one that is merely pathetic—witness the Borg Queen’s behavior in "Unimatrix Zero"). Like a drug addict, TPTB at Voyager kept returning to the Borg in the hopes of reattaining their past success, but with each subsequent attempt only consuming more resources (and the patience of Star Trek fans) with progressively less watchable results. The result of this downward spiral is that, if the newsgroups are any indication, most Star Trek fans now instinctively dread news of a future "Borg Episode" (which has been largely borne out by the airing of "Unimatrix Zero Part 2.")

In contrast, Mike has taken the concept of the "Borg Episode"—and produced a story that, IMHO, has succeeded as much as TPTB’s recent efforts have failed. Not only was HOPE a compelling story about Seven of Nine confronting her past as a Borg, but it also represented the greatest milestone yet in the K/7 relationship since it began back in IOHEFY. One question that has followed Mike’s K/7 saga ever since its beginning in IOHEFY has been "When will Seven tell Harry that she loves him?" Now, in HOPE, this question has finally been answered—and, in the process, Mike has given us a story that IMHO easily puts any of the Bragaverse’s Borg episodes to shame.

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Thoughts on “Tempus Fugit”

By Thomas Lee

If there is any one Season 5 Voyager episode that, in a nutshell, represents what had gone wrong with "Star Trek: Voyager," "Relativity" would be a pretty good candidate. "Relativity" is a story that, ultimately, was done for the express purpose of showing off Jeri Ryan (in this case, often with a Starfleet uniform in place of her usual costume and prosthetics as a ‘special attraction’) and to further glorify the characters of Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway (the message being that Janeway and Seven are so superior that even 29th Century timecops need their help). As is usually the case with such J & 7-glorification stories, the glorification was partly done by inflicting on the rest of the characters a terminal case of the stupids, and the timecops of "Relativity" arguably suffered the most of all this way. Indeed, in regard to the portrayal of the timecops in "Relativity," the story was so bad that Jeffrey singled it out for particular criticism when he remarked about Star Trek’s portrayals of timecops:

"Trials and Tribble-ations" came close to how I see the timecops doing their jobs, but it didn’t go into enough detail about what they DO with the information that they gather. As for "Relativity," I would like to think that it just didn’t happen in this timeline—it’s the worst portrayal of a timecop that I’ve ever seen.

In addition, for temporal science enthusiasts like Jeffrey, further insult was added to injury by the sheer illogic of the story’s grasp of time travel. As more than a few fans have lamented, Voyager’s writers have used time travel as an excuse to throw logic and consistency out the window, and "Relativity" was among "Voyager"’s worst offenders in this regard.

However, as readers of "Tempus Fugit" [TF] now know, Jeffrey couldn’t resist the urge to try to make a good story out of the mess that is "Relativity." Indeed, Jeffrey has taken what was arguably one of Voyager’s weakest episodes—and turned it into the story that "Relativity" could—and should—have been.

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Thoughts on “First Comes Love”

By Thomas Lee

In any major K/7 story or saga, the issue of how the K/7 relationship impacts Seven’s preexisting interactions with certain TPTB-favored characters (and vice versa) inevitably comes up. Back in "I Only Have Eyes For You" [IOHEFY] and its sequel, "The Hierarchy of Needs" [THON], Mike not only addressed the EMH & 7 relationship, but he buried the notion of EMH/7 in his saga once and for all (and Mike, being the classy writer that he is, did it in a way that made the Doctor look far better than the caricature we’ve seen in Season 6). With the specter of EMH/7 exorcised from his saga, Mike has turned his attention to another important individual in Seven’s pre-K/7 life—Naomi Wildman.

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Thoughts on “Causality”

By Thomas Lee

As its summary proclaimed, "Causality" is very much a sequel to "Out of Time," and expands on that story’s look at the Department of Temporal Investigations as well as following the continuing adventures of Dan Phillips and Marla Gilmore. However, "Causality" also serves as a sequel to "Homecoming" with the return of Janeway, who, shall we say, is now tanned, rested, and more than ready to unleash a reality-shaking plan that’s been three years in the making.

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Thoughts on “Out of Time”

By Thomas Lee

With "Out of Time," Parallel Voyage has come full circle. Ever since "Homecoming," new stories of "Parallel Voyage" have been addressing issues raised in prequels to "Getting Home." Now, "Out of Time" elaborates on the events of "Challenger" as well as other stories in the "Parallel Voyage series—and ties "Parallel Voyage" in with Jeffrey’s other series, "Merrimac," as well.

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