The Delta Flyers - Imperfection

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Imperfection. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Imperfection:To save an ailing Seven of Nine, Icheb secretly performs a dangerous procedure on himself and places his own life in jeopardy.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, & Bryan FullerAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Daniel de Rooy, Chris Knapp, Michelle Z, Janet K Harlow, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Adm. Bill "Seoulman" Yu, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Megan Chowning, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Brandon May, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Jeremy Mcgraw, Jason Bonnett, Ali S, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Michael Dismuke, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, & Penny LiuAnd our Producers:James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Chloe E, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Ryan Benoit, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Ryan Tomei, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Shane Pike, Jennifer B, & Dean ChewThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers with Tom and Harry as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Your two hosts along this journey are my fellow Voyager actor who, from 2001 until 2004, also directed seven episodes of the teen drama Dawson's Creek, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil. And myself, your favorite for ever instance, Garrett Wong. Remember, you can get the full version of this podcast by signing up to become a patron at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. You won't regret it. Sign up to be a patron.

All right, Dawson's Creek. Dawson's Creek. Those are fun memories. Those are fun memories. Very fond memories, yes. North Carolina was the location of the shooting of Dawson's Creek. Dawson's Creek. So, yeah, so here's the thing about Dawson's.

I'll make a very long, complicated story, very short. Okay. The producer Greg Prange had produced a show in 1992 I did in Jamaica called Going to Extremes. Yes. And it's the place where I first began to shadow and learn about TV directing. Oh, you've never told me that. That happened on going to extremes. It happened in Jamaica.

Yeah, I was in Jamaica. And I said to Greg Prange, the producer, I said, I want to learn about this whole TV directing thing. Sure. Like if we're here, if this show is a hit and we're running for years here in Jamaica, I'd like to direct some of these episodes. So he was great, super supportive. And the show got canceled after a year. So I never directed. Cut to 10 years later.

We're finishing up Voyager. And I had made, I directed a few episodes of Voyager. I had directed a couple shorts, including a short called The Battery, that Joshua Jackson had done for me. That's right. Josh was now on Dawson's Creek, and I knew Greg Crange was on Dawson's Creek. So I sent my short film. Greg was the showrunner? Greg was the showrunner.

He was like my job, like producing director, executive producer, on location, kind of running the show on location. Yeah. And Greg. You sent your reel to him, right? I sent my short film, just the battery with Josh Jackson. I said, hey, I thought you'd be interested because, you know, Josh is on Dawson's Creek with you and he did my short and I'm directing and you got me started. Thanks so much.

And he wrote me back or call me back and he's like, this is so good. And you would be perfect. Like I can't believe how far you've come since 1992 when I first met you and you've directed some shows. We'd love to have you do an episode. episode. Come to an episode. So it was just, it was like full circle. How did you feel when he told when you read that? That I want you to come in and direct one of our episodes. It just felt like the perfect fit. Like I'm coming full circle back to Greg Prange who got me started. And Josh

Jackson is there. And Josh did my short for free, shot for five days for free. And was such a great guy. And it was in North Carolina where I was born and where my family was. My father lived 45 minutes from Wilmington, everything about it was perfect. So I went, it went great. They invited me to do a bunch more episodes the last two seasons. I guess I did seven. That's what you said, right? Yeah. And I was there a lot. It was great. It was just, it was perfect. My family, you know, my grandmother, could come. My dad could, he was an extra in a few episodes. It was just, it was awesome. I love doing that show. You know how you said you were, you felt more comfortable on sacred ground than on your second episode that you directed?

Yeah. Remember that? Okay. Yeah. So your first episode of Dawson's Creek, were you even more comfortable than where you were directing Sacred Ground? You were even more so. Okay.

So that would probably, that first episode of Dawson's was probably your most relaxed and least nervous of all the new shows that you had directed. It was one of my, yeah, I just, I wasn't, yeah, I wasn't, I was very comfortable around there with Greg and everybody. Greg was there. Josh was there. Yeah. They wanted you there. You didn't really have to do a song and dance to pitch them. They saw your battery and they were like, hey, let's have, let's have them here. So, yeah, gosh, I wish I would have been there to come. It was fun. Yeah. It was a fun. You were in Rowling, Wilmington, excuse me, right on the beach in Wilmington, beautiful beach. Yeah, it was great. Good times. Good times. All right. So let's talk about this episode, Imperfection. Okay. That's the name of it. So let's go watch this episode.

Let's do it. We'll be right back. Yeah, with our recap and discussion of imperfection for all of our Patreon patrons. Please stay tuned for your bonus material. All right. We're back from watching Imperfection. Yes, we are. I was right about the director, but then again, that's the odds on favorite anyway. Yeah, yeah. David Livingston directed. I'm just going to go out on a limb and jump right into this. I don't think this was David's best directing.

I don't think this was Voyager's best episode. This is definitely not one of my favorite episodes. Wow. No, not even close. Like, this is a... I don't know. We'll get into it. Let's get into the body.

Because I'm on the opposite camp now. What? I'm not saying this is one of the best, but I'm definitely not saying this is where you're at. Oh, I'm not there. I was just like... This sounds like your reading is going to be like a sixer or maybe less than six. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see.

Okay. Let's start off with our poetry synopsis. Let's just, you know, let's keep an open mind right now. Yeah. Let's stay creative and artistic and positive. Let's not, yeah, let's not be negative. Okay. Let's start off with a positive thing.

Because they're, you know, you, you will know, or you do agree with me. Yeah. There are going to be fans out there that this is their favorite app. Sure. You know what I'm saying? So right off the bat, I don't want them thinking. I am the one who starred in threshold. Yeah, but threshold is not again.

Everybody makes fun of and says like, it's only the ending that is weird. Nothing else is messed up with that. It's a good episode. So don't, don't, don't knock yourself with that. that people hate it, but I also respectfully disagree. Okay, fine. On this particular episode, Improfection, there probably are people who love it. Yes.

I respectfully disagree. Okay, fine. This is not my favorite. Okay, here we go. Here's my haiku. Art. Here's my haiku for imperfection. Okay.

Seven cannot sleep. Cortical node malfunction. Echib Donates Node. Now, I have an alternate ending. So let me read this one. Seven cannot sleep. Cortical node malfunction. Doctor yells a lot.

That's my... He doesn't yell as much as other episodes. But there's multiple... No, you're right. He doesn't yell as high. The volume is not as great as some of the other ones, but there's multiple scenes where he yells. So that together becomes the doctor yells a lot because he does.

He yells with Janeway. He yells with seven. He yells with each. He yells at everybody. It's almost as if this is the episode where he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Yeah. And to defend him. Yes.

I think this is an episode. If I were not familiar with Star Trek and tuned in to an Echab seven scene, for example. Yeah. Of two Borg emotionless, bland performances. I would flip the change. because I would now if I turned into a scene where the doctor's yelling I'd be like oh there's some drama going on so I appreciate the doctor trying to bring some emotion to this this episode so if I was a person who'd never seen Star Trek before and I turned on this episode

yes I would think the doctor is human and not a program that's my answer to that so I because it's just he's way too emotional in this one and it's just like what is happening yeah but you know you're arguing the other way. I was begging for some emotion because I felt like this was... Well, maybe he adds, maybe it's necessary. Lacking an emotion,

even though this is the episode where Seven creates tears more than once. But I didn't feel it. It didn't do anything for me. Anyway, Robbie, just give me that. Here we go. Come on. Limerick time.

The Borg kids left and Seven made a tear. But there seems to be a problem with her board gear. Seven's life is Steak, plans to savor, end in heartbreak. But Echab saves her life as a donor volunteer. Nice. See, that's a nice, positive, well done. Yes, it is. It's the end of my positivity. Okay. Let's just jump right into this. Let's talk about the writers first. Yes. We've got teleplay by Charlton Eastlake. Charlton Eastlake. That sounds, what? That sounds like. That sounds like Thurston Howell's cousin, Thurston Howe from, you know, Gilligan's Island.

He sounds like a society well-to-do. Yes. Teleplay by Carlton Eastlake and Bob Doherty, Robert Doherty. Yeah, we love Robert Doher. At least I love Robert Doherty. Yes, agreed. Carlton Eastlake, since he's never written on or since on our show, I'm going to tell you his first writing job was on the TV series The Equalizer.

Oh. In the late 1980s, 85 to 89, starring Edward Woodward, the original Equalizer. I remember the show. I remember it too because it was one of back in the 80s, there wasn't much TV in New York City when I lived there. That was Carlton Eastlake's first writing job, Bob Doherty. We've talked about, Andre Bormonis, came up with this story. Andre, that's our science consultant.

And I do remember when I received this script, I saw that, you know, that he was credited with the story. And I thought, whoa, good for him. Yeah. Because really, he's the guy that the writers call up and say, yeah, so, in this line of techno babble, does this make sense? He was the science guy.

Yeah, he just made sure. He's a consultant. Right. So good for him. Good for him. Guest stars. Guestars, we have Manu back. Manu.

Zichab. We have Marley McLean as Mazadi, saying for goodbyes, which was very sad. Very sad. We have Debbie Grattan, who's playing the Wysanti

mom that's taking the twins, Kurt and Cody Wetherill, Azon and Rebbe, taking the twins and Mazadi off the ship. Debbie Gratton, her first job was in 1997, a TV movie called Crown and Dangerous. What? Crown and Dangerous? I think it was some kind of royal family or royal thing. I don't know. I have no idea.

Crowned and Dangerous. We also have one other guest star, Michael McFall, playing The Salvage Alien. who I thought the salvage aliens were like Kazon, but we'll get there. Well, yeah, well, the lead guy is Kazon with a haircut. And then the guy is behind him. One of them didn't look very Kazon. It looked like he was completely bald, like a different alien maybe. I don't know.

Michael McFalls, the actor, playing that alien. It's one scene. He made his acting debut in 1989 in the action film Defector, karate kickboxer. Oh, right on. Nice. Okay. That's our guest stars. Cool.

Let's get into it. All right. Captain's Log. Yeah. 54129.4.4. It's a bittersweet day for the crew of the USS Voyager. We found a home for some of our most precious cargo. Exterior space shot of a very cool looking alien ship.

Yeah. Next to Voyager. Yeah. And then at the end of that, Captain's Log, we are now in the transporter room. Seven Jane Wayne each ever there to say goodbye to the board kids. Why are just those people there to say? goodbye. Why isn't everyone there to say goodbye to these boy kids? I mean, I think all the main players should have been there. And essentially, I was confused right off the bat because

in this goodbye, I thought Mazadi says, on Mazadi, it's customary not to say goodbye, but I think I prefer the human way. I thought that she was referring to the planet that Rezi and Aban was from, Azan was from, was the same name as her first name. But then as He said Waisanti. I had to do the English subtitles to be able to see what the heck was said. I didn't hear Wazanti. I heard Mazadi. I was like, what?

The planet is Mazzati, but no, it's Mazzati. Okay. So it's a goodbye to the kids. It is a goodbye. Mazadi wants to do the human goodbye, which is a hug. And there's a sweet moment. There is. Very sweet moment of a hug that lasts a little extra long.

And then as they beam out, Janeway puts her arm around. seven. So my first thought was like, oh, yeah, in the last episode seven that we saw, by the way, the last episode we saw was not the episode that shot before this. This episode was aired out of order. Oh, I found out, but we'll get to that. Okay. Anyway, the last episode we saw was seven in the virtual world learning that she had romantic feeling for someone. So she's really getting in touch with her humanity, right? That was, correct. That was Unimatrix zero in part two. Yes. So now she is saying goodbye and Janeway's putting her arm around her and I was thinking, oh, she's getting more in touch with her feelings. She's going to have feelings, which we go out

in the hall. Yeah. And she's got a tear. So there's a walk and talk with seven and Echab. Yeah. It starts off with seven saying she wants to break down the extra alcoes. Each step thinks it's a little too quick, you know, it's too soon for that. And she says, well, you know, you're just having an emotional reaction to the fact that they're leaving, blah, blah, blah. And then that's when Echip sees a single tear drop what side of the face was that I think it was her left side of her face it just kind of came down and he's like you're you're crying and seven says oh no no no no no that's just my ocular implant it's malfunctioning and I thought she was covering she was lying because she was having feelings I thought oh is that what she felt I was like yeah well she just came off

of this episode where she had feelings in unit matrix she doesn't even know what feelings feel like yet so she's that was where I went but we go to sick bay I believe we go to sick Bay, doctor's explaining, you know, crying is normal. And he talks about when he saw Pacini's Tosca, he cried for the first time. And, and then he admits, well, yes, Torres enhanced my subroutine. So I could cry and have feelings. And seven says, well, you may have had feelings, but I did not have any feelings. Like, there's a glitch in my cortical implants because I wasn't feeling.

She said, no, she didn't, she didn't say she wasn't feeling anything. She said, I had my emotions under control, is what she said. Yeah, totally control. I was under control. Yeah, I'm fine. So the doctor looks a little deeper, and he does find, yes. You're right, actually. There is a glitch in your cortical implants.

Correct. And I found this scene to be odd. This whole scene was a oneer. Okay, yes. Which required the doctor to sort of move around from the cart and randomly move around behind her. And it looked awkward, didn't it? He was talking to the back of her head for her. half the scene. I'm like, nobody would do this, but obviously, and there's a number of these

shots in this episode where I was like, I didn't know if David was trying to make his days to, you know, to lose his reputation that he takes too long because there were a lot of oneers that I may have could have used some coverage. I agree with you and I may have the answer to that. There was a time and it was very, it was late in our filming schedule. Yeah. So it was, I'm guessing it was season seven when he was directing and he was deathly ill and I remember when I went up to say hi to him

to shake his hand he's oh no no no don't touch me don't touch me I'm so sick I'm really sick Garrett just don't you know don't you know back up back up so I feel like maybe if he was that under the weather yeah he was like look I don't have time to let me just I just want to go home I need to go home right now because he looked like he had yeah like he was on his deathbed but he was still there because he had

to he had to direct you know he couldn't call and sit i will admit that's how this episode felt a little bit okay i i don't know it seemed out of character the direction for what we're used to for what we're used to from him yeah this one seemed different in some significant way and this was one of those scenes where i was like oh we're it's all one shot and the doctor's moving around behind her talking to the back of her head and she's not looking behind her and just seemed strange. Yeah. Seems strange.

Anyway, they talk about her cortical implants, this glitch. She says, yes, she has had some headaches. And the doctor says, well, I'll make a report. I'll tell the captain and put that in the report. And she goes, no, no, no, no. Don't tell the captain anything. I want to keep this confidential. And he says, okay, all right, I won't say anything.

Dr. Patient confidentiality. That's what she wants. Yeah. Yeah. We have a flyby. Fly by. A Voyager. You know what?

Are these flybys basically, they're only inserted when they're, they're trying to figure out how much time they need to make the episode exactly it. And they'll throw in like, okay, it's funny, it's funny you bring that up. Is that how it works? Because, well, it's a transition for one thing to go from one place to another. Yeah. But it's funny you say that because when David does all these oneers where there's no coverage, it doesn't allow them editorially to add time or take away time. So if the episode was a little short, they may have added some of these flybys because there's a lot of them in this episode. There's excessive flybys in this episode.

So we are slowly coming to, we're like sleuths right now, you know. Yes, we're figuring out everything, what was going on here. What happened, yes. Okay. Astromatrix Lab. Echab is looking at the screen, and I had to freeze it to see what the heck was on there. And at the very top you can read or you can make out Starfleet Academy. So you see that much.

so he's looking at this we're not sure what it is seven shows up and he quickly hides the screen and he chib makes this announcement he says he wants to work on the bridge and seven's like well you don't have the training for that he's like no that's that's fine i would like to take the entrance exam for starfleet academy and i would like to maybe be trained by tuvok since he was an instructor at the academy so he has this grandiose plan for himself very ambitious and seven even acknowledges that in a pride full way and she's you know she's like wow very ambitious of you and he needs a letter of recommendation from captain janeway so seven says she will speak to janeway about this but right about this time some weird thing happens with her hand where it's bubbles up yeah bubbles it looks

like something's going on like something's skins like the camera again a oneer echeps behind her she's in the foreground yeah it tilts down to her hand for saying it comes up so there's no edits here. There's no cut to her looking at her hand. Correct. Push in on the hand. Yeah. You know, there's none of that coverage. No. But she hides her bubbly hand and has she dismisses herself. Yeah. She gets out of there. Yep. Doesn't tell E-chip. So she's hiding hiding some stuff. Already off the back. Yes. We go to cargo bay and there's a crane shot looking from like the side of cargo bay where the door is. Yes. And she walks in underneath and then the camera sort of follows her as she gets in her alcove and pushes in her face.

I just want to make a comment here that usually when a character is entering a shot, the rule is typically that you want the actor to be coming closer, that you want to see their face and you want them coming toward you, action coming toward you is more typical. Action underneath and chasing or following going away from you is not. as typical. Right. And I noticed a few times in this episode, David was behind the actors as they walked away.

And I just, I don't know why he made that choice because it's unusual. He didn't just make it once. He made it three or four or five times. Right. Again, I think he was deathly ill and he had to go home. Maybe, maybe. Yeah, but that crane shot is unusual. She's walking away from us so we don't see her face.

We don't get any emotion or storytelling on her face. Not a thing. But she goes in and then turns around. and now we see her face, and she tells the computer to activate or to regenerate, activate the regeneration. And the computer says, you're no, you're no longer compatible. Yes, interface is not compatible. She thinks it's malfunctioning, the alcove itself.

So she runs a diagnostic on the alcove and it comes back absolutely fine. There's no issues with the alcove. It is actually her cortical node, which is malfunctioning, which is a huge deal if you're a borg because that's the kind of the end of the line. If your cortical node goes out, you're done. So the next shot is in the mess hall. Seven is alone. And she has what looks like glasses or empty glasses of milk.

And so immediately you're thinking it's a white liquid. So you're thinking it's possibly milk. Yeah. You know, you don't know that until late. Really? I felt like she couldn't sleep. So she was drinking warm milk, you know, the Western way of trying to fall asleep. I thought that's what she was doing.

Yeah. Yeah. And because we don't learn it's a supplement until later when Neelix arrives. And he asked her, what's all that? And she says, oh, nutritional supplements. And he says, you know what? I'll make you a telexian omelet. That's what you need. A talaxian omelet. And right when that happens, she hits the deck. I mean, she's on the ground and she's not moving. He runs over to her. She starts having a seizure. And this is my issue. I feel like, yes, you can pass out and your eyes are closed. But when Once you have the seizure, it would have been more effective if her eyes sprung open and she started having the seizure because they were closed and it kind of pulled me out. It looks strange. Yeah, her seizure was not, I don't know, was weird. Also, when she says, he offers the omelet and she says, no, no, I'm fine. I'm going to go back to cargo bay or something. And she starts walking and I heard these squishy sounds.

Did you hear them? No. It was like as she walked. That's what stopped her. And then she falls down to the ground. Now, I guess the squishy sounds were the nanoprobes breaking through her skin. Oh, I didn't even catch that. But the squishy sounds were so, they were just so gross.

It was like, what are those squishy sounds? I had to go back and re-listen to it. It was just ew. And again, if I am correct to that in my assumption that this was the episode where Livingston was deathly ill, that would also kind of explain why this blocking was. wasn't really refined, you know, in terms of how she's going to have this seizure, because it just looked, it looked ludicrous. It didn't really look, it just bothered me. It pulled me out. But that's on the, that's on the director, though. Am I right? I mean, if you're watching this,

you'd be like, hey, let's try this, you know, let's do this. I didn't buy the convulsions. I didn't buy the squishy sound was gross. I don't know, all of it. But she's, she's in trouble. And the nanopropes break through her skin by her cheek and on her hand. She's got some, Neelix looks at. So he calls sick bay, medical emergency. We go into. sick bay she's got more of these nanoprobes breaking through her skin now yeah her body is rejecting her implants implants they're all starting to shut down and the doctor says there's a glitch in her cortical node it's destabilizing and while he's going through all this doctory stuff i kept watching kate because oh me too hey i would so funny i would give so much money to know everything that she

was thinking about at one point yeah i was thinking she was to me she was thinking, am I supposed to pick up my sons later today? I mean, I had, I was thinking that. She was thinking about errands at one point. She was thinking of, but it was funny. And then she starts fidgeting with her nails. She never does this on the show. She starts doing that.

And it's almost as if it's almost as if she didn't know that the camera was on her. Like, she thought maybe it was a oneer on Bob and not a two shot because you've got to agree with me. I'm not sure what she was thinking, but she had some secret thoughts that were making her behave funny and I thought it was funny. It made me laugh. I had to watch it a couple times. Yeah, I did too. I was glued on her, a transfixed, but it honestly looked like she thought what was waiting for her coverage and that she was there just to give lines for Bob and for Gary. And I don't know if what I didn't like about this episode was the story, the writing, or a combination of performances or the direction.

It was kind of all of the above. But the whole idea that we'll get to later, where the captain had this emotional investment in seven that is above and beyond any other character, but yet it didn't seem consistent. Like in this scene, she seemed to be trying to avoid this moment. She seemed quite distracted.

Distracted and almost like playing it a little light comedy in some moments. It just, it didn't track for me that the story we're ultimately going to tell is Janeway is willing to, like, fly by herself into a book. It just didn't, none of it made sense. Okay. Okay. But again, I know you, I know your criticisms. You started them from the very first breath that came out of your mouth. But I'm going to say right now, if you're to erase all of those, if everyone was to have acted the best to their best ability, if Janeway was engaged in that scene and she was not distracted,

If everything fell, all the chips fell correctly, I think you would have rated this. You would have felt this was a good episode. I do believe that. You know, I feel like. I think there's a version of this episode that could have gotten a higher rating for me. Thank you. That's all I want. That's all I want.

But still, I wouldn't be a high rating. Okay. Anyway, seven says, you know, that her board implants are being rejected one by one, but she says that her parts will adapt. Like the doctor has, you know, made adaptations before. She'll just adapt. And doctor says, I don't think I can do it. this time not this time yeah this is your cortical node it's it's uh not going to work and and

and so janeway ends up sending the doctor away yeah because she wants to talk to her alone privately yeah she says what would the borg have done if this was happening in the when you were in the collective and she said well they would just replace the note yeah it's too complex to fix to fix the node exactly and that gives janeway an idea you You see a little light bulb pop on in her head. And we're back on the bridge. Janeway asks Harry. Now, here we go.

This is the only scene that Harry Kim is in, I think, in the entire episode. Yeah. So I felt like this was the episode where I got so much time off. I was able to go to Vegas early. So I was happy probably. Did you notice, by the way? Yeah. I noticed.

So this is an early episode in season seven, which meant we were shooting probably in July-ish. Everybody looked tan to me. Like, you can see that it's summer. Bob had color. He had a tan. Jerry had a little more color. Wow.

I did notice people that was summer going on during this. Bobby, you are a super sleuth when it comes to this episode. Look at all these little things you've caught. I did not hear the squishy sounds. I didn't notice some people being more tan. No. Good for you. I also liked in the scene when she comes in.

Yeah, she asked Harry to look for the Borg, Debris Field. they passed six or seven days ago yeah yeah harry says yes ma'am like tom i loved your yes ma'am you i finally finally tom is wearing off on everybody so it had shades of tom paris yes it's delivery didn't it also chukote chukote turns around and says hey uh it's not uh normal that we're looking for the borg he goes what's up and i was like chukote goes what's up like Are we in the 1970s sitcom? I'm fine with it. I wanted more colloquial dialogue.

What's up? I'm okay. I'll do with that. What's up? Catherine, what's up? I don't know. I didn't like it. I didn't like it.

She tells him she wants to find this replacement part for seven. She's going to do this on her own. He's going to do it on her own. Which is hilarious. Tuvok's like the Borg return to salvage damage cubes. Like the Borg could show up there. They'll make a trip back there. They need B.

And she says, Well, I'm going to take the flyer, the Delta Flyer alone. Now, pause. Pause for me. Yes. In Unimatrix Zero, part one, we know. The Delta Flyer is destroyed. I know.

Now, here's where I went, something's up. So I did little research. Yeah. This episode was not filmed until after the next two episodes, but they moved it up in the airing order. Okay. So sometime in the next two episodes, Tom's going to fix the day. Delta Flyer. Right.

It got fixed too quickly, basically, right? They didn't even talk about it because it was supposed to, this episode should have aired after the next two when we do talk about it. Right. But because they move the order up, the other thing I found out that happens, spoiler alert, is that Tom and Balana get married. And you will see later on in an insert in the surgery scene when Tom is helping that Tom has a wedding ring on.

Whoa. So this episode is way out of order. So out of order. But because you jump up and say, well, the Delta Flyer was blown to bits last time you took it, it made sense for the audience. They didn't think twice a month. It didn't for me. It didn't for me.

I was like, what? No, he's got to fix it. That's a whole beat that we skipped, which will happen in the next couple episodes. So will a wedding, I guess. Yes. Because Tom had a wedding ring on. You are Sherlock Holmes today. Here's the other thing that bugged me about this.

I have a feeling, I don't know what the next two episodes are, but I have a feeling that the network or whoever said, okay, we're back in season seven. We had a big Borg episode of the Borg Queen. And 7 of 9 is a big seller for us. Let's move that seven episode up a couple so that we start season 7 with a couple strong Borg episodes in a row. maybe and they just purely did it because it's a seven episode they didn't care that the delta

flyer was destroyed they didn't care that we're skipping a wedding they didn't care they're like put the board up earlier because that's more important than these other character stories and that bugged me that they were willing to throw all that continuity out just to move up some you know thinking thinking that well if it's borg it must be a good episode because this is not a good episode it's not Okay. So do you think there's no possible way that you could have possibly left your own wedding ring on and filmed that way by mistake? For an insert, they would have caught it. Okay, fine. You're like, no. That would never would have happened. No. Wow.

Bono and we have to get married in the next couple episodes. And they just flipped episodes and didn't care. Yeah. Bad, bad, bad choices. This is going to be the lowest rating you've given anything. maybe oh my gosh we're on the uh we're on we're in the hallway so to tom and tuvok and chikote are like you can't go by yourself she goes okay you guys are with me we go out to the hall yes tuvok and tom are heading to the shuttle each up stops her hey captain can i talk to you yeah did you make a decision on my request to join star for the academy yeah and take the exams and she's like you know what clueless she didn't even know she's like i don't even know what you're talking about

but seven is not well and we've got to take care of her and she builds him in. Her porticole node is failing and being rejected. And he knows right off the bat. He's like, she's going to die. He's going to die. He's going to die right off the bat. Yeah. Yeah.

And he says he has expertise with Borg technology. He wants to go with Janeway on this away mission. And Janeway says, no way. Nope. No. Okay. So then they head off. We cut to the hallway.

Each up's walking in to sickbay. Yes. And again, cameras follow. the actor in front of the actor. Yes, yes, yes. He goes into sickbay. Yeah, she's there. She starts getting angry with him.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. She starts having this angry, emotional. Like, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here. Go back to astrometrics. Get out of here. The doctor says, hey, Echib, come on in here with me.

Step in my office. Yeah. So Echip goes in and he says, look, she's angry. It's natural when you've got a diagnosis like this. Of course it is. Well, he thinks she's angry at him. And so he says she's not angry at you. She's just angry.

He's just angry. She's got to deal with this in her own way and give her time. And he says, when she's ready, you'll be the first call I make. I'll call you each of and let you know. Next, we're out in space. The Delta Flyer has a cool shot flying into this Borg debris, which was very cool. I thought it felt very 3D, like the way the camera moved. It was a good shot, but again, the Delta Flyer was destroyed last episode.

How did this happen? It got built so quickly. It was clearly a very fast rebuild. Tuvok has located a section that contains the bodies of 37 drones. They die from an explosion, so most the bodies are not intact, but there's few that are. Tuvok says approximately 37 bodies of drones. Paris goes, well, that doesn't sound approximate to me. You just named 37.

It was an odd line from Paris. It was supposed to be, I guess, comedic or sarcastic. I just don't know how you deliver that joke any less awkwardly. It wasn't as funny. It just doesn't sound like something that would have come out of Paris's mouth. It was odd sarcasm. Right? Yeah.

Yes. Okay. Well, Janeway does want Tom Paris to run continuous scans for any board vessels that end up, you know, showing up unannounced to the salvage area. And Tuvac and Janeway beamed to the debris. Yep. They head to the back. We don't see them beam because we see.

That's right. They go to the back, then they beam. On the Borg ship, suddenly they appear. Janeway and Tewluck are searching for these dead drones. It was cool shots, actually. This felt like classic David Livingston, this walked down the hallway. They do find one under some debris, no apparent damage to the cortical note. So Janway starts to do a little autopsy surgery.

I made a note that is not Kate's hands in the inserts. It was someone else's. Yeah. But she extracts this glowing node, which was kind of cool. And then Paris calls and says, hey, you've got company. And they asked to get beamed out. Paris doesn't respond. Hmm.

Scary. Three aliens show up. I wrote Kaysan question mark. Yeah. Three humanoids beam in. Claiming. The debris field belongs to them. But are they Kizons?

The first guy was, I felt like he was. I felt like he was Kazon with a shirt with a haircut. I feel like we've left the Kazon like a few hundred light years back. How are the Kazon still here? Like we've been a long gone. This Kazon traveled far west. Like this is the one that made it out to California. You know, okay?

This is the donor party survivor, basically. It was weird to see Kazon again and not really identify them as Kazon. It was just strange. But anyway, yeah, bad guys show up. Hey, this is our debris field. Yeah. This is our salvage. Yep.

He says this is his. He grabs. She grabs him in a weird way. Well, he shoves her out of the way to go reach for something. And then she grabs him and puts him in a headlock. Yeah, like the laser scalpel to his neck. Yeah. And that's when he kind of throws her back.

We have a little bit quick fight here. A scuffle ensues. A scuffle. I felt like it was all done a little slow motion. Like, not literally slow motion. But like the acting of this, all of these beats were like slowly pulling my rifle up. Nobody was going very fast. No.

I don't know. It was a, it was like a choreographed fight in slow-mo is what it was. It was not great. But they are beamed out. Tuvok is injured, by the way. Yeah, I was going to say they're beamed out, but not before Tuvok is shot. He gets shot. He falls back.

Yeah. But the beam out, it doesn't really include their equipment. But yet they do show up. with one box and one phaser rifle. So it was kind of like, I didn't understand what's happy. It was sloppy. Yes, agreed. We're in the cockpit back at the Delta Flyer.

There's a cool ship of the alien ship firing at the Delta Flyer with Tom Paris in the foreground. The angle is from behind Tom, and we see that nice visual right there. That nice moon roof. Yeah, basically a space chase with Paris looking through the moon roof. Yes. And, you know, I think he did a nice design on the Delta Flyers. This is the episode. Yeah, this is the episode where Elon Musk was watching this episode.

And he thought, you know what? When I designed my Tesla, I'm going to put a glass roof. Like, it's just going to go just like Tom Paris is Delta Flyer. And that's, you know, I think he owes you royalties on that. Well, Tom's, Tom's flying away here. Big space chase going on. Yeah. They beam back in.

And he says to Janeway, I need you a tactical. Oh, yes. And she responds, I, sir. Can I say this? You say, yes. You say, I need you a tactical. When I bring us around, target their engine core. And Jamie goes, aye, sir.

It was almost like she enjoyed it. It was weird. It was like, whoa, look at that. I feel like in this moment, I was like, wait, did I get, I just got promoted to lieutenant last episode. Yeah, and now you're an admiral. I'm an admiral all of a sudden. That's what I take away from this.

Yeah. Or the takeaway is you're the only, you're the only person of lieutenant rank to actually order a captain to do something. Yeah. And she does it. She fires and disables their ship. And you say, good shot. Nice shot.

Yeah. They're breaking off pursuit. So there you go. A little Janeway Paris magic there. Yeah. Connection there. There's a little shipping going on in there. Little, little something.

Maybe. Yeah. PJ. Oh, pajamas. Paris Janeway, pajamas. So, okay. We're now in sick bay. Go to sick bay. The doctor's in his office.

He noticed seven is tinkering at a tons. soul doing some work he walks over he's there he hears the beeping he looks behind him and she's like beep beep beep beep beep beep and he like turned back and rolls his eyes he does an eye roll and a side he's like it's such an advanced program i roll size everything he walks over and he asks what are you doing she says oh i'm implementing a new filing system since the old one it was inefficient so she's actually she's doing spring cleaning is what she's doing and she's dying but I feel like, busy work. Yeah, but she wants to do that so she's not thinking about the death is what it is.

I understand. And he tells her, you know, you should be in bed. Neelik shows up, flowers, caddisc caught bored. Doctor says, you know what? She just wants to be alone. And then were they doing some type of thing where they're trying to get her to get out of her shit? It was. Yes.

Because the doctor goes, oh, yeah, don't, you know, you shouldn't play her now while she's sick because. That's an unfair advantage or whatever. Unfair advantage. You'll just beat her. easily right and of course get that gets to her ego yeah they turn he doctor turns to walk them out and they're walking towards the door and she says green and they stop and they both start walking back together vaudeville style it was a vaudeville act it was hilarious um the the unison walking the vaudeville timing was great um she says green i prefer the green pieces you'll play with red

so yeah it worked and then janeway calls and uh says she's got this quarter cortical note. And another flyby to fill time here. We come back to what looks like sick day surgery table. Sevens on the clamshell bed. The new note is being put into her cortical. And it's like a round hole on her forehead. And I was confused because when we were guessing about the synopsis of this episode in the, you know, the intro for our patron patrons, I didn't realize, because I was saying, well, is he going to give her his liver or is he going to give her one of her his cordial, his implant? But cortical node is not the implant, the ocular or any of the other implants.

It's like the brain. It's, yeah, it's in their head. So I, well, this surgery to me felt like, so Tom is there assisting. They're doing this cortical node replacement. It felt like a heart transplant. Yes. It felt just like a metaphor for a heart transplant. Sure.

sure you know because he talks about when he's doing this you know transfer her cortical functioned you know offline or something when i've directed heart transplant scenes and so i know a little about that when a heart transplant happens you the the patient goes on bypass because they don't have a heart when you take their heart out to put the new heart in yeah you have to keep the blood circulating so you put them on um you know bypass a bypass machine so the blood is is actually being pumped by a machine. Right. This felt like a heart transplant metaphor.

As soon as I thought of that, I was like, well, heart transplants are serious surgeries. Yeah. And Tom's there assisting, not in a smock, not in a... You were in your... I was like... What? I'm in my Starfleet universe. It's like, the doctor saw you walking back.

Hey, Tom, come over here. You're like, yeah, what? Can you assist? Sure. Yeah. You're right. And I guess the doctor is a hologram. He doesn't need all of that because he's not got organic.

biological, you know, dangers, but Tom should have had it. You should have been in scrubs. Yeah. It just didn't feel as authentic or serious as the heart transplant scene would be. And that's basically what they're doing. But then again, we do realize as the note is being rejected, she goes through anaphylactic shock and the doctor ends simulation. This is when the audience realizes this is not the real deal.

And maybe that's why you're not wearing scrubs because you're in the simulation. And it's just trying to see. Well, spoiler alert. Later on, we're going to do it for real. And that's no different. There's no scrubs. There's nothing. So I felt it in the, yes, in the simulation, I felt it.

And then later on, they don't fix it. Janeway wants to run another simulation. Paris says they've run 12 already. Will the 13th be lucky? Probably not. The doctor says that the salvaged node has been inactive for too long. And Janeway says, guess what? We will find one that hasn't been inactive for too long.

And now they leave Sick Bay and they have this intense scene in the corridor. The doctor says, a note from a dead drone won't work, no matter where you find it from. And she says, okay, well, we have infiltrated cubes before. The doctor immediately understands what's going on. He says, you're suggesting ending one life to save another? And that's when Janeway responds with him, I'm not giving up on her. And then the doctor very aggressively grabs Janeway, spins her around, says, neither are I. And he screams at her, super aggressive.

and yes So this is another They're both really emotional here I didn't understand why the doctor was quite so emotional and I certainly didn't understand at this point

why Janeway was so emotional and no one has grabbed the captain like that ever unless it was Chikote possibly but it was a little crazy I think but again I will defend it by saying

a lot of these scenes in this episode are so emotionally vapid because you've got Borgs talking to Borgs about non-feelings, that I was grateful for some emotion. So this fed your soul. I was like, it makes no sense, but thank you. Even Kate's reaction, she was like, whoa.

She got grabbed. She was a little shock, too. It was all over the map this episode. It was just, it was either flat and lacking emotion or melodramatic and too much. And again, you know, if your director is half, one foot in a sick bed and the other foot, trying to direct this is the yeah maybe that's what i don't remember that i remember him being like that before when he directed but i don't know if this i don't know for certain this was that episode but it feels like it could be yeah yeah um go to sick bay neelix is playing with his whiskers at

the top which i love um we see a reflection shot of seven in the game board they're playing cot is caught i like the reflection shot that was pretty cool i like that too yeah good i'm glad you like something. I did. I did. Not a lot, but yeah. Okay. All right.

Jamie and the doctor arrive with the news that the salvaged node failed in simulations and the doctor is researching alternative treatments. And Harry and Blana are going to try to repair the faulty node using components from Seven's alcove. And I love her response. They'll fail. It's like there's no way. And she asked to return to duties.

Seven wants to work. She doesn't want to stay in sick bay. And Janeway says I have to defer the doctor And the doctor definitely would not allow it No, seven's got to stay on that clamshell bed For as long as it takes But the doctor says I'll ask each of if he can bring your work here Yes, yes, that's right

So this is where we go back to the hall Eachib arrives in sick bay Another shot from behind the character Yes, but before that we have yet another exterior space shot of Voyager So we do then yes And then Egypt enters the empty sickbay. And again, we're behind him. So I just kept seeing the same. Yeah, the same type of shot. Yeah. Over and over again. Seven's gone. There's no doctor around. Each have

reactivates him. And the doctor is in the middle of a sentence comes back, like in the middle of an argument that he was having with seven. And we realized she deactivated him in the middle of them of an argument. With the middle of a sentence. Yeah. I mean, he's, because he, all you hear him say is forced to sedate you is. while you hear him say. But then I started questioning, is that how it works? If you shut off the program, doesn't it,

the next time you turn it on, doesn't it reactivate where he's supposed to say, please state the nature of the medical emergency? Doesn't he just go back to his, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just odd that it just, I felt like it was a forced bit of comedy.

You know, they kind of felt like, oh, we'll just do this, like as if he was cut off in the middle of it. But I just feel like, I feel like that flow chart doesn't really work that way.

Yeah, another deduction for this episode. Echib asked the computer to locate seven, and the computer says that she is in sickbay. Then we have a nice cool shot of a out of focus doctor and out of focus Echib, but a very infocused com badge of seven of nine sitting on top of one of the consulsors. But again, is that how it works?

The computer can only locate you if your com badge is there? Yeah, shouldn't it locate you according to your bio signature? Bios readings, yes, yes. That's a bad computer. That's like, oh, if I turn my cell phone off, you can't find me. Sure, in our world, but in Star Trek world, it should be able to scan the halls and the places and tell what kind of life signs or bio signs are there. It just, it doesn't seem like we're still just tracking cell phones.

Robbie, I don't think you or myself would have ever thought in a million years before filming this podcast that you would ever say that our computer was bad. That was a bad computer. That was a bad computer. I just love that. Bad computer. We go to engineering. We're upstairs. Yes, Torres is what is harboring the fugitive formerly known as Anika Hansen.

Yes. Right? Okay, sorry. That's what I wrote as my descriptive. Yeah. Torres comes up the elevator, finds her, like, there you are. The doctor's looking for you. But Torres basically says, I'm not going to give you up.

I'm a coat. I'm going to cover, you know, I've wanted to escape the doctor from sick bay before myself, so I get it. And by the way, again, Torres is in the foreground pushing some buttons on a panel where seven is standing behind her. We see the angle of that panel. Yeah. But Torres is pushing some buttons standing sideways with her back to seven.

Yeah. Walking and looking up at a monitor as if she's watching a monitor, right? Right. Well, when we cut around to the other angle and she's walking away, there was no monitor there. Oh, no. I felt like David just said, hi, press some buttons and look up over here. Yeah. But which is fine if you want to do that if you never show that there's no monitor.

But when you cut around to the reverse and you realize there's no monitor there, it's just a forced piece of blocking for a shot that, I don't know. And Olympic judge Robert McNeil from Vancouver takes another point one from the point total of this episode, gone. Yes. All right. So, but still, I mean, there's a, there's a question from Seven to Torah as if she believes in Stovacore, the idea of an afterlife for Klingons. And there now ensues this deep existential conversation between Torah's and life after death. Yeah.

And seven. And we learned that, you know, from Seven, that the Borg have no concept of afterlife, that a drone is deactivated. And when that happens, the memories of that drone continue to reside in the collective. Collective consciousness. Yeah. So as long as the hive is in existence, so as long as there are bored, there will be part of that drone that still exists, the memories. Yeah, they will remember the experience of that drone, which plays out later on. Yeah.

She talks about that later on. But here, Torres says, when she's asked about an afterlife, she says, well, that's a big question. But basically, she says, I hope so. Yeah. Didn't Bala go to the barge of the dead and have this existential experience that there is? So why is she saying, I hope so? Why wouldn't she say, yes, I do believe? It just, it doesn't track.

It doesn't track at all. Yet another deduction. Okay. Reduction. I got it. Deduction. The doctor shows up, and it's so funny, looking at him in the lower level, since they're in the upper level of engineering, he just looks at, to me, it looks like,

he is the same as he was in that one episode where he got shrunk down into like three inches so he just looked tiny yeah um i did like when the doctor appears he goes oh of course it was balana of course it was Torres and i was like yeah that's my girl she's a rebel she's a rebel hiding out the uh the fugitive yeah Torres covers for seven i did like i did like that moment and basically the doctor gives in he says that she can stay for as long as she once, as long as she wears a cortical monitor. Okay, so he tosses it 20 feet through the air because somebody wanted to stage it with the doctor downstairs and them upstairs. I have, it made no sense. You would not toss. No. I wouldn't even throw my cell phone from down below.

Fine. So another point deduction there, but my point deduction, and I've been pretty positive about this episode throughout, my point deduction happens basically when he walks in, because he's holding a case, which has the cortical monitor. He's trying to find her to bring her back to SIG Bay. I guess he's prepared. I guess he thought about, oh, this is all the possible outcomes, and I'm going to go ahead and take it. But to me, I felt like, it's a little forced to me.

So, that bugged me. Cargo Bay, seven arrives to give each of the news that Janeway will administer the entrance exam for Starfleet Academy in that she has compiled a list of people to help him prepare because, sure enough, when she passes on, if she can't. make it, which she thinks she's not going to make it, but there's going to be a void there for people to help Ichab get prepared for this exam. She mentions Torres, Kim, and it ends in a little bit of an argument, you know, because he's, Echab's really emotional, and he's basically saying that she's given up. And he says, you may have given up, but I haven't. And he storms out. He's

just gone. He's angry. A couple of comments on, so she's made this list of people to help. him with the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. Torres is very well versed in warp mechanics, she says. And then she goes, Harry claims to have aced the quantum theory section. Yeah. I was like, well, that's a backhanded compliment. Yeah, it's a big. Yeah, he claims he claims to have aced it.

Yeah, but I don't really believe Harry. And then Egypt says, well, I need you to help me in astrometrics. And she says, oh, Paris will help you. And he goes, I would rather not. I'd rather have you. I was like, what's wrong with Paris helping you? Like, he insulted me. Yeah.

I did not like this scene. I did not. You're right. It's another deduction. Yes. Oh, my God. At the end, he says, he says, well, maybe you've given up, but I haven't. I haven't.

And he storms out towards the door. And I was like, oh, my God, he's going to run into that door. They better open it. And then at the last second, they opened the door. I was very impressed that he had that much trust because he was inches away from running into the door, which we all did at some point. Right. Will Tom's could have been eaten in an outburger at that exact moment.

So he's very lucky. Yeah, it was a close call. Close, close call. Okay, we have a yet another exterior space shot of Voyager after he storms out. And now we're in astrometrics where Echab is analyzing something, which we later learned. Looks like DNA. Yeah, it's just these are seven's medical. records and what's been going on with her. And he has this moment of like, you know,

clarity where he's like, oh my gosh, this is it. I've got it by George. I've got it. And so he runs to sickbay. And he basically barges in telling the doctor he's got the explanation of how to solve the problem of seven of nine. And he says that he will give his no to seven. And the doctor is like, absolutely not. Because the doctor believes you give your note up, you die. is what's happening. And, you know, each of trying to convince him. But he says, I've done all this research. I've researched this.

I can survive. I'm younger. I have the ability to survive without the note. I know I could do this. Yeah, he says, you told me, I didn't, I came out of my maturation chamber early. So I'm not as dependent on these Borgam plants. And I'm younger. Right.

So the genetic resequencing will allow me to adapt. Right. And he does come up with the argument that after doing all the. numbers, it's an 86.9% chance that Seven's implants will adapt to his node. And the doctor's like, what? 86%.0.86.9% is, again, to the doctor, not a good enough percentage. But for Echap, he's fine with it. He's good with it. We go back to astromatrix. And Seven is looking at like a slideshow. She's like Googling. She is. The Grand Canyon. yeah yeah she's looking at the grand canyon janeway comes in calls it a dusty hole in the ground or

something she said i prefer farm country and seven says oh yes you're from bloomington which is not dusty okay anyway you're from bloomington you've talked about it quite a few times she does so she brings up a picture of bloomington too yes and and janeway says she'll take you that you know i'll take you there when we get back to earth seven says i've accepted that i am not going to make it back with you. Janeway says, no, you've still got a chance. And that Janeway says, if I had listened to the odds of us making it after we got lost in the Delta Quadrant, we'd be, you know, living on some M-class planet somewhere. And I didn't settle for that. I didn't accept it. And now we're more than halfway home. And is this one she brings up the list? She brings up a casualty list. She says,

yes, maybe you'll make it home, but there's many who have died. She starts talking about the crew members who've died, rude, rude, rude. Janeway's like, where are you taking this? What is your line of reasoning? What are you trying to, what's your point? What is your point? And it's very, yeah, it comes off as rude. But she's basically trying to say that Janeway will have a more difficult time

accepting her death compared to the deaths of these other crew members because seven has not lived up to Janeway's expectations. And Janeway at that point is like, no, no, no, no. She corrects her. She says, no, you have exceeded the expectations. And she gets cheery-eyed. She starts to just, you know, tears starts to well up and everything. And she says, if I'm upset, it's not because you didn't live up to my expectations.

It's because I'm losing a friend. Yeah. And this is all this writing. I was just like, where did this come from? Are they? I don't know. It's really unearned in my experience. opinion, all of this. Although Kate did a great job at selling the words she was given. The push-in

was nice here from David. It was well done, but I just didn't, I didn't buy this story. I just didn't buy it. Yeah. So at this point, the doctor hails them, and he says he has information, and now everybody's in the briefing room. And now he's filling them in about what Eichab has come up with, and seven turns down the procedure. She says, essentially, if there's any percentage chance that Eichip could be harmed, I'm not down for this plan. And she says, I want to go back to Sick Bay and the doctor escorts her out. Eichib is left there in the briefing room with Janeway. And she says, you're the captain.

You can order her to do this. And Janeway says, no, it's her free will. She has to decide her on her own. I can't order her and do this. But there's a very frustrated Eichab in this scene. We're now in sickbay, and the doctor is helping seven back onto the biobed, the clamshell biob bed. and Echib now hails the doctor to report to the cargo bay.

So now the doctor's thinking, oh my gosh, what's going on? Seven's like, wow, he's persistent. And so the doctor leaves. And as he's leaving and he's walking down the corridor, he bumps into Janeway, who has also been hailed by Eichab separately to head to the cargo bay. They don't know what's happening. They get there, the door's open, and they just have this look of shock on their face. Echab is sort of draped over his alco.

and he's just not in good shape. He has basically disconnected his node. So he's nodless right now, nodeless in Seattle. And, you know, he's not in good shape. But the next shot, it's interesting because we start in sick bay, but we see Icheb, Janeway, and the doctor beam in. Correct?

Isn't that what happens? Yeah. Yep. Yep. So they beam in. And Seven's like, what are you doing here? And this huge argument ensues between Egypt and Seven. and basically at the very end of this argument,

we have Jainway saying that he's not a kid. He's a man now. And his arguments are valid. Yeah, he is adapting, the doctor says. Not totally, not all of his implants are adapting, but he is. And he just says, well, you can do this resequencing thing that I told you about earlier. So he says that. The operation does ensue.

We have a nice little, it's not a montage, but definitely it's just, you know, without dialogue. It's kind of a montage. It's the doctor. Paris is helping again. And we have two beds. This is where we see the insert of Paris's hand with a wedding ring. Did you catch that? I did.

I did. I caught that. Okay. All right. This is where I felt like this definitely should have been like low lights and aprons and masks. Yeah. And he even takes the old cortical or one of the cortical nodes out.

And he sets it like on a tray that looks like it's got a phaser and a tricorder and like tool. I'm like, well, no, he just tosses it. He just drops it onto that tray. Exactly. It's just not medically. No, medically, you're going to have a separate little little bowl, steel, metallic, stainless steel bowl that you drop that damaged one in, right? Because it's also probably going to be toxic or whatever. So you're going to move it aside. But, yes, you're right. The only thing different about this procedure is that there were new blankets. Those blankets, those are, those are, I've never seen those blankets before. I guess those are the surgery blankets to make it look more serious

and more professional. And they did have the two beds that were sort of angled to each other. Yes, where their heads were next to each other. That was a little different. But yeah, yeah, we do this montage. It's a long montage, which again could have used a little more medical legitimacy.

Sure. But we transitioned to cargo bay and seven wakes up. And the doctor in Janeway fill her in that it is working. The surgery went well. It's been six days. And just to quickly pause you there, and right before we go to the cargo bay, we have yet another exterior space shot of Voyager this time flying away from us.

Okay. Go ahead with seven. So many flybys. But yeah, it's working. It's been six days. Six days. Regeneration cycle. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. We go to Sick Bay now and Echav is there, but he's recovering much slower. Yes. Than she is. So seven, it worked pretty well for seven. She's back at it. but each have is going to take a little longer. The doctor does revive him and he looks up and he says he sees seven.

He's very pleased. He says, you've, what was this term? He said, he said, you've, he didn't say you've healed. He said, you've something. Yeah. Anyway, he says, you're better, basically. And she says that she's going to help him prepare for the astrometrics portion of the exam. And he's like, he's moved, which then moves her.

and now tears she's crying again she's now crying again and he says your ocular implant is malfunctioning again and the doctor scans it from behind

yeah he scans her and he's like oh no there's no glitch here she's really crying so there you go seven finds emotion yeah there you go

what's your lesson thank God that episode's over what's your lesson my my lesson and it's a good lesson is let others help you yes like let people help you that was seven's lesson is yeah um yeah she didn't she didn't want help and you know i think egypt talks about it when he's trying to argue

for her to let him help you know he reminds her that everybody on voyager helps each other when they can and that's how this ship works people helping each other and he told her you know you would want to help if you saw other crew members in danger even if there was risks you would want to help so that's my lesson in this episode is um you know is is taking care of each other we should all take care of each other and we should all be open to letting people help us when we need it so what about you um multiple lessons so yes allow other people to help so in align with your lesson. Don't try to do everything on your own. And that was from seven not allowing anyone to help her. But it was also from Janeway in the beginning, trying to go on that away mission in the Delta

flyer on her own. Again, not allowing anyone to help her. And my other lesson, lesson number two, is don't take things personally in that line when the doctor says that each of she's not angry at you. She's just angry. And I think this is something that I struggle with a lot because I'm a people pleaser. I want people to be happy around me. And when someone's angry, I typically think that they're angry or upset because of something that I did. But a lot of times, it's not. It's about something that happened in their day. There's nothing to do with you at all. And I think that's a wonderful lesson for people when they're interacting in public with other individuals. If someone's salty and saucy and sassy with you, you know, or angry or

pissy, just remember something happened in their life that they're dealing with. It's not you. And don't let yourself get all worked up about it. Waste of energy. It really is. You got one person upset. You don't need a second person upset for no reason. Right. And my third lesson is crying is nothing to be ashamed of. And I say that because when I was growing up, a lot of times, if I was, I remember when I was seven, eight or nine years old, I would cry about something. And my mom was like, you know, boys don't cry. And that was something that came out of some parents, you know, they would believe that. Like, boys should be, you know, non-crying human beings. But we're all build with emotions.

These are real emotions and everybody should be encouraged to yeah to feel what you really feel and not be ashamed of it not be ashamed of anything you feel. All right so I'm going to give my rating first because I know that yours is going to be really pooping.

So my rating for this episode is 7.9. Are you insane? I actually lowered it because of how math. you are about this episode. Oh, my gosh. All right, what's yours?

What's yours? I've raised. I've raised mine a little. I know you raise it because you don't want to give it what you really feel. And I know, are you going to, would you have given this a zero? Would you have given this episode a zero? No, I never would give it a zero.

Because there are things to like about it. Now, give me your lowest, give me your lowest reading. I give it a three. Okay, fine, fine. I give this a three. Okay, so three and eight, the average between us is basically around 5. Something.

So let's see what that is. I don't have it written on a piece of paper this time. It is messaged to me. And yes, the average rating for this episode is 7.3. Oh. So I'm way below it. You're so below.

Oh, my goodness. I'm way off. My original rating was 8.0. Wow. Actually. Yeah. 7.3. So most people like this episode pretty well.

They did. They did. But man, you were super sleuthing this one. You caught so many things. I didn't even notice them. And you were just, it's so funny because every single thing that you saw, you became more and more just not happy with this episode. Outraged. Outrage.

It's almost like you felt like that you have just wasted a day watching this episode and making notes on this. Like, why did I even wake up today to do that? not good. Wow. Not good. Okay. And I'm sure, I'm sure part of my frustration is we're starting season seven. We had a big Borg two-parter. And the fact that they, I know they moved this up primarily because it's a Borg story and they think somehow that magically makes a better episode than other episodes. I resent that. You're offended by that. I think, I think Nelix can make a great episode of television as a character. and he doesn't have to do anything borg and harry can do the same and tom or balana or tuvac they can all do the

same so to move this episode up in spite of the continuity errors blatant continuity errors that are exposed and think that if it were a great episode i'd say sure do it but it's not it's not a great episode i don't think so anyway that's part of why i'm fueled with frustration about it because They move this up for no other reason. And it's just a Borg episode. And that doesn't make a good episode just simply because it talks about Borg. So that's my thoughts. Okay.

All right. That's fine. But the world is not fair. No, it's not. And we don't all feel the same about something. Maybe that's another lesson from this episode. Overall, the world is not fair. The world is not fair.

And I don't make the rules. And my ratings don't really mean anything. I just hope you don't get too much hate mail. I know. Or hate emails. That's all right. Okay. All right, everyone.

Thank you for joining our recap and discussion of this episode, imperfection, which was definitely an imperfect episode for Robert Duncan McNeil. And join us next week for hopefully an episode that Robbie will actually smile about. And I think he will, because it is the episode Drive, which, in my opinion, some of the best uniforms in Starfleet. Oh, those are those white uniforms? Yes. Oh, I like those. Oh, I like those. All right. Join us for that episode. Thank you, everyone. See you next week for the Patreon patrons that are tuning in. Please stay tuned for your bonus material. Thanks, everybody. See it.