Chai Hulud.
“Oh, do wipe that childish look of confusion off of your face, Kathryn. Whatever the man’s faults may have been, and many they were, his choice of drink was exceptional. You? You’re but a half-step away from boiling kidney and navy beans!”
“Get the hell off my bridge, Q!”
For the first time ever, I’m interested in watching and episode of Voyager. But just this Q episode.
What’s with the Voyager hate around here?
I think voyager has a lot to like, but there is equally a LOT to hate which I will boil down to talking points lacking any context
- for a show exclusively about how a starfleet crew is trying to survive with no federation support in an uncharted and often hostile quadrant, it constantly forgors basic facts from the show’s premise like how they have FINITE PHOTON TORPEDOS
- captain janeway is a hothead, which would be fine, but like, she’s often a total asshole for no reason and in ways that actively makes things worse for everyone including herself. also she does the thing in briefings where some one else Is about to say something but she interrupts them and says what they were gonna say and acts like it was her idea all along
- some cast members are great, others are dreadful. its not a great look when I can point to roughly half of the crew and think, why are you here? you dont do anything! I hate you, neelix! I HATE YOU!
- voyager is also probably where people like Rick Berman, a guy who somehow worked on Star Trek for a decade and didnt really pick up on why anyone likes it, had a lot of influence. the series has always had a rocky relationship with progressive ideals, especially with women and sexuality, but adding a character whose primary function is to wear skintight clothing, several seasons into the show, is like a tornado alarm broadcasting I DO NOT VIEW WOMEN AS PEOPLE, WOMEN EXIST TO BOOST RATINGS
I’ve never been able to get past the first episode. Half the crew is bland and uninteresting, Mulgrew is better as Flemeth or that crazy prison chef, and that blonde guy should be tossed out an air lock.
My siblings tell me I need to watch it in order to witness the worst captain in Star fleet history, but I can’t make it that far.
lol sorry you had such a bad experience. I really liked Voyager. For me, it’s the closest to TNG. But maybe you hated TNG too?
Love TNG. DS9 is my fave. Love the new stuff too. OS is great as well.
No worries. For me DS9 was hard to get in to, but Voyager was easy to slide into from TNG. I rewatch all of them.
Tom Paris is a lout for the first season-ish, but he becomes one of the most endearing characters over the seven-year run.
Chakotay remains bland and uninteresting the whole time.
I must not Lwaxana.
Lwaxana is the mind-killer.
Lwaxana is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my Lwaxana.
I will permit her to pass over me and through me.
And when she has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see her path.
Where the Lwaxana has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.Lwaxana: “Why there you are, Jean-Luc.”
Picard: “HELP ME!”
You feeling alright, Gurney?
My name is Earl Grey.
This feels like a meme about the East India Company.
The East Ferengi Company
Is it? I always assumed Dune was about the US vs. Soviets wars on the Middle East.
The name Harkonnen (though Finnish) was chosen because it sounds Russian. However, no, it isn’t really a US VS Soviet story. It’s about systems. It’s about ecology, power, and freedom. If you only read Dune then I can see how you could think that, but the other books give you a lot more information.
Arrakis is terraformed, and this disrupts the ecosystem of Shai-hulud, which destroys spice production. It also destroys Fremen culture, with people teaching what the Fremen were like, but not really knowing.
Paul and, to an even further extent, Lato II are aggressive dictators. They destroys people’s freedom, with the end goal to create people who can’t be predicted who rebel, because that’s the only way (that they can see) to guarantee freedom for humanity.
I addition to this, the Harkonnen are really just there as a subversion. Paul’s grandfather, as he learns in Dune, is the Baron Harkonnen, so he is a Harkonnen. This really destroys any message about it being one side VS the other.
It’s about systems. Paul was systematically bread. The Harkonnen and Atreides were used by the emperial system to maintain control and order (although this failed). The system of ecology keeps Arrakis in balance, and the people live in harmony with it. Systems of control prevent people from being free.
That was an interesting analysis, thanks! I feel it also reinforces my original observation. The East India Company was nothing, if not a system of control that ultimately failed.
A delicate native ecosystem is being ravaged to enable mass commerce. Spice = oil.
Yup. At the same time: a messianic hero rises to lead the chosen people.
Probably, but history repeats itself. That conflict was not the first time the line between business and public interests was muddled with the result of large scale warfare and oppression, nor the last, so the same themes are relevant. And the meme has a very explicit focus on tea.
… this implies the existence of a coffee planet with giant worms in the delta quadrant …
It is by Earl Grey Tea that thoughts aquire speed, the lips aquire stains, the stains become a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
Reminder he was in the movie from the 80s, too. What a shock that was for me years ago.
The Earl Grey was better before the production of oil of bergamot was taken out of England.
It just didn’t taste the same after the shift.
