The Delta Flyers - Parallax

Episode Date: May 11, 2020

This weeks episode is titled Parallax. Garrett and Robbie take you through what they remember about this episode followed by a recap and some fun gamesWe want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with Megan Elise, Rebecca Sims, and Jessey Miller. Additionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co- Executive Producers Ann Marie Segal, Philipp Havrilla, Jason M Okun, Stephanie Baker, Stephen Smith, Sarah A Gubbins, Kelton Rochelle and John Tufarella. And our Producers Breana Harris, NCC-1701, Máia, Steph Dawe Holland, Richard Banaski, Father Andrew Kinstetter, Gregory Kinstetter, Charity Ponton, Josh Johnson, Laura Swanson, Chris Tribuzio, Thomas Melfi, Liz Scott, Chloe E., and Deborah Schander. Thank you for your support!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

Hey guys. Welcome back to the Delta Flyers. We are a weekly podcast where we will be reviewing and talking, discussing, and chatting and reminiscing about Voyager episodes from the pilot episode all the way to the very, very end. Of course, the Delta Flyers is comprised of myself and my co-host, Mr. Robbie Duncan McNeil. Hey, Robbie. Hey, guys. How are you? Obviously, we also offer bonus material and bonus segments on our Patreon feed. So for those of you who would like to check that out, please go to Patreon, the Delta Flyers, and check out all the extra goodies that we have. So on that note, for those of you that are with us on Patreon, we're about to play a little game of what do we remember. And for everyone else, we'll be right back with our recap after this break. All right, so we watched Parallax.

Yes, we did. We just watched it. That was, there was so many things in that. It came back to me. We had a thing on Voyager where a lot of episodes, we'd take away like a funny scene where it was something funny happened when we were filming it or someone made a joke.

And for years after that, as soon as someone would say a line, from that scene, we'd all laugh. And there's some scenes in this episode where I remember we would make that joke for years on the set. Like Beltran would quote the line

from a scene in parallax, but I had lost track of exactly what the scene was. It just became funny. Because he would say it all the time when he said, War Particles! Right.

That's that moment in the briefing room with Bala, I'm getting ahead of myself, but with Bala and Janeway, that warp particles line, Beltran would do for seven straight years, and it would make me laugh, make everybody laugh. You don't remember the other half of it. He and I, it was Beltran and myself, I would play Janeway, he would play Bala, and we would go through that, we would go through the dialogue, and together we would say, warp particles synonymously together. So that was definitely something that went on and on.

I forgot that was episode two, yeah. Episode two, right off the bat. So I was right in that Ensign Kerry did get a bloody nose. That was the very very first scene. And this episode is directed by Kim Friedman, who we talked about in the prior episode was the one that sent us the video,

the package, the FedEx package, telling us that we need to learn how to shake properly. Let me just talk about that for a second. It's way too much in this episode. There's a lot of shaking. Way over that. here's the thing in the in the pilot i think we underachieve we weren't really doing much of anything

and i noticed it in this episode it was like an overcorrection because the camera was going crazy and like can i just say at one point it was shaking and there was a stunt guy who did a backwards roll on the floor like as the camera shook you saw him literally doing a backwards like a roll and then the camera came up to Tuvok and i was like what like no you can't just do backwards rolls and pretend like the ship is no no no so it was too much in my opinion the shaking and the other part of the shaking is if you're going to do that as soon as the shaking stops you've got to recover for a beat you can't just go ah i'm going crazy anyway Now we're back.

Like, it was, it was just disconnected, so I... It needs to be transition. Yeah, I'm not going to give a preview of my winners and losers, but... Okay, all right. Just going to say that this was too much shaking. Okay, go ahead. So if we're going through, the first thing you see in Sick Bay, you see...

Vincent Carey's on the, on the clamshell bed, and Tuvac and Chacote there, and they're talking about how his nose is broken in three places. And one of the things that really bugged me about this scene was that. I felt that the amount of blood that was applied, fake blood on this guy's face, it should have been just all the way down. It looked like it was painted. It was painted on like a Fu Manchu, like mustache.

And I felt that really, this, he should have had blood all the way down his chin. His entire uniform should have been covered in blood. I mean, it should have like a prosthetic of a swollen nose. Because when you break your nose, it looks. It looks horrible, right? So, you know, and maybe they were trying to, you know, not scare off the kids.

or, you know, they didn't want to be too jarring, but to me, if it's three places broken, let's, let's look, let's make it look realistic. Yeah. And the doc was, did you notice the doc was really, like, I don't know if that was a direction from Kim Friedman to knock, to push Ensign carry down multiple times for comic relief, or if that was more the doctor, Bob Picardo thinking, this is going to be really funny. If I just kind of like forcibly keep pushing him down. Hard to know.

It might have said, you know, he sits up again. It might have said that in the script. and they may have a labbed in that. Because as an EMH, if he's a medical hologram, wouldn't he just, wouldn't he realize like, okay, this guy has major injuries, I'm probably going to be more delicate with him instead of shoving him down every time?

You know, it was kind of like... Comic relief. Yeah, and I felt, well, that was maybe pushing it a little bit too much, you know, I thought... The other thing I noticed right out of the gate was the aspect ratio of what we filmed. And the aspect ratio, I mean, when you watch a cinemascope movie, it's a very widescreen movie, when you watch really old TV, it was in that three by five or four by three, right?

Four by three ratio. I don't know the numbers, but we were shooting on film. We shot film the whole series. So 16 by 9? Is that what we shot the entire? By 9, no, I think we shot four by three. Like the aspect ratio of our show, and I didn't notice it on the pilot so much, but this is. time I did was the was the shorter screen it was really yeah which is funny

because it just looks it makes it look a little more old-fashioned rather than cinematic like now you look at an HBO show or Game of Thrones and it's widescreen and it looks very cinematic but we filmed with film cameras so how do you but they would they could format it for televisions at the time and they weren't they weren't high-deaf TVs oh okay Before HD TVs, everything was squished. And I noticed that right out of the gate. I was like, oh, wow, it feels a little old-fashioned.

Huh. So if someone was to digitally remaster the DVDs to, you know, higher quality, could they change the aspect ratio after the fact? No, because on film cameras, what they call it was a gate. So there's literally a physical thing that the film goes through, gets exposed, and then continues on. Okay. We had a four by three gate or whatever the number was. And then you'd have a wider gate for Cinemascope or five nine or eight, you know.

And that's why they always say checking the gate at the end of every shot because they want to see if there's any hair or anything in there, right? Yeah, it's like the film comes through the gate, holds, takes a picture and goes. 24 times a second. Right. Lots of photographs, right? Yep. So the gate is what gives you that exposure onto the negative, the film negative. Got you.

Okay, good. We got to get into this plot. Let's do this. I was excited to see Saskia there. I forgot. Yeah, and also the tension between Chikote and Tuvok in the hallway, right? Yeah, that was right out of the gate. I mean, I was globally in this episode, to me, there was a lot more conflict than I remember, and a lot more conflict.

I think that in hindsight, we should have found things that really brought us together. instead of amplifying so many things that made us have conflict. Right. And I know conflict is essential to drama. There was too much conflict, I think. Okay. I didn't have a problem with it. And it was nice to see the introduction of CESCA, a character that many people enjoyed.

What is interesting in CESCA, Martha Hackett herself in an interview talked about how they dressed her in the wrong color uniform. Did you notice that? I was wearing a good, she's wearing a good, she's we're medical green right and it's green yes but in reality she's the gold color in every other episode after this so that's so funny because she was sitting on the bridge and she's sitting over there next to me and she had on the green and i'm like what color is that yeah and by the way i never noticed the pips on all the marquee did they stay that way they stayed that way for what i recall yeah i'm i i i think at some point

it changed, because I don't remember the Maki thing the entire. Because there Pips in this. I don't recall that being so different, but a field commission pip, or that's what Rebecca said when we were watching it, like maybe it was a field commission, because I don't know, I don't know the rules of Pips. Right. But it definitely different. Yeah.

And then did you notice that Boulana, you know, when Chikote goes to visit Boulana in her quarters and she throws that bowl out there, she called him, she called him Chuck. Chakotay. Yeah, she called him. I wrote it down phonetically, actually. She called Chakotay. Chakotay. It was a very, I don't know, traditional sort of sounding, speaking his name.

And we never continued. We never said that. And it's funny because we, actually, I stand, I have to correct myself on that. We did say that in the episode, Living Witness, a future episode where that was our sort of mirror episode where we We were the evil Voyager crew. And we all said chakotay there. So we pronounced it differently there. Really?

Yeah. And I also remember the other time that it happened off camera was, you know how on the bridge we got really bored? So we would do a lot of funny things. And one of the things I started was we did the river dance on the bridge. So I started doing the Irish dancing. That was when river dance was like the biggest phenomenon. Everybody was talking about river dance.

It was a big deal. Yeah. So then we kind of lined up in line in front of. Kate, because she's Irish, so we thought, hey, let's do this dance for her. So it was Beltran, myself, and you, we were doing this river dance thing in front of her. And then Kate made the joke that Robert's character, you're Irish, Chuck O-Tay. So she separated his name to O-A-Y, that he was an Irishman. So that, to me, was kind of funny.

Opening credits. Did you notice that Janeway, when you see the mission, when she does the captain's log? she has a cold she definitely has a cold you can see her this nasly she's like cap star date blah blah blah blah blah blah and it's very nasal oh i didn't see yeah yeah something you can't correct unfortunately um briefing room uh uh this is a lot of conflict oh yeah so much conflict and even like when neelix came in and and i i don't remember doing this but i guess i was sort of flirty like oh i'll give the girl the lady my seat yes yes looked in and i gave neelix and i gave nilis like a nasty look.

And I was just like, really, why did I do that? What was that? That was weird. It was weird. Well, I think the bit was, oh, there's Paris going to be the ladies man and offer the lady his seat. And then Felix gets jealous and steps in between where Paris is, like steps in front of Paris to kind of.

Did he react that way? Did Neelix react that way in a jealous way here? Yeah, he sort of noticed her sit down and looked at me and then stepped up. but it was like it was just too much it was I don't know I all of that stuff I'm feeling as I look back on it like I wish I had just relaxed Paris a little more it would have been fine for him to be like sure take it yeah I don't know why there's so much conflict there was just a lot of conflict right attitude everybody had attitude yeah and that was the that briefing room we're trying to they're trying to figure out who's going to serve as what position on the ship and and I love that line by Neelix what about that electronic man down in And I thought that was hilarious. You were made a field medic. I know, everybody calls for a nurse on the show. But you're not a nurse.

You're a field medic. I'm a field medic, which is much more complicated. Yes. At the academy, I took two semesters of biochemistry. Yeah, I didn't know that. Look at that. You were pre-med. I was pre-med, basically.

Yeah, you were me. You were me on the show and what I was in real life. And you know, what's crazy is that I didn't, I forgot to mention this in the last, podcast we did episode but like you were made a field medic you got your field promotion to lieutenant in the first episode of Voyager

and incident Kim didn't get Jack for the entire seven years of you the very first episode the prisoner becomes a lieutenant junior jail to lieutenant lieutenant to JG and field medic and what was the other thing okay well let's keep going so

yes let's keep going the first time I heard in this show when Neelik started a story, you know, I once was in a galaxy and he used to always have these stories, you know, that was the first time I remembered in this episode, him, you know, giving us his adventures in the Delta Quadrant with, well, yes, I was once near this planet and right to these people. Right. He's a smooth talker, you know what I'm saying? Because like the first thing that happens when he walks into the briefing room, Janeway, say, this is for senior officers. And he's like, well, I am the senior Talaxian unbord. And Kess is the senior O'Compin on board.

So it was really, okay, you're a sneak talker. Speaking of Kess, so when Kess walked into the sick bay, she opened the doctor program. She said, emergency medical holographic system. She said, computer, please activate the emergency medical holographic system. You heard system? Yeah. she said system and I don't think we ever called it that again or I don't know if that was yeah

usually it was just emergency medical hologram emergency medical hologram period that's it said emergency medical holographic system right and I was like what the character that was going to be the least used already in episode two is getting this character development right where she says like you know doctor you're you seem quite sensitive and he's like oh okay and then she asked his name And I kept thinking, wow, he's getting all this attention already. Well, it's interesting to see when a character has the opportunity to play those highs and lows that you really get a more three-dimensional character. And I think it's one of the things, I'll just say for me, that I wish I had found more

highs and lows. I feel like I was, like I said last week, I was playing Paris with what I thought they wanted, which was a guy with a chip on his shoulder and kind of, you know, swagger. and kind of a jerk. And I think I wish I had found more relaxed moments or lighter moments or, you know. I also feel that you and I, our characters, kind of became victims to the fact that we are the largest ensemble

Star Trek cast. You know what I'm saying? We had more series regulars than TNG did, DS9 did. We really did. So when you have that many characters, ES9 had a lot of recurring characters. They're recurring. That's true. But in terms of the main guys, right, but main dudes, we definitely were more. We had nine. And when you have nine, you can't really pay attention to all of, you know, as a showrunner, you can't pay attention to all your kids equally, right? So some of them are going to get neglected. And I feel that, you know, Kim is definitely victim of that for sure and Paris to some extent too, unfortunately. All right. So, you know, we go on the bridge, the tractor being. hits us. Again, I thought the shaking to that tractor beam was just way over the top. It was

overcorrection. I know we got better at it. I really think our cast, you know, as the years went on, we were, we were solid with all the shaking and all the Star Trek tricks you need to learn. But at that point, we were still finding ourselves. I also felt like Bolana was not very sympathetic. I think she got there by the end of the episode, for sure. Yeah. But I think Bologna suffered from kind of what I would criticize with my own performance or character. Right. She was just coming off very unlikable and unsympathetic, and it wasn't until very deep in the episode that you start to go, oh, I see that captain's hitting a little too close to home when

she, Bala apologizes later on. But I thought it was a little long to go in our story without wanting to cheer for her. She was, you know. Really? I thought that was okay, though. I felt like, yeah, I like the tension for the extent of the episode. I thought that that was necessary. I feel like I wish that I, in rewatching it,

I wish that there had been something with her character early on where you saw softer side or you saw something, even the scene with Chocote where he brings it up and she's like, if there had been something where you kind of went, wow, this means a lot to her. or I really want her to get this because she's a likable person. Something happened there,

then I could have put up with the nastiness for a while. But I felt like I was getting to the point in the episode where I was like, really? I don't know if I want Bala to be the engineer. She doesn't deserve it. No, she's a jerk. But anyway, she got there.

It got there very deep in the episode, but it was a long time to wait for it. I wonder how many times Balana Roxanne hit Beltran with that metal thing when he was coming up. I think went right between his feet. It was amazing. It hit the floor

and went right between. It was crazy. I have a note in the briefing room when we're sitting there. The doctor says 21 crew members are experiencing symptoms and right when that happened, Megan goes like coronavirus is when she killed out.

I was like, okay. I did not like my scene with Tuvok in the corridor when I'm talking and I'm kind of gossiping about, hey, did you hear about the fight that happened? I will say, I can understand why maybe you didn't. Those are always tricky scenes. Those kind of walk and talks and you're up a lot of stuff. I thought when you did your headache, it was a brilliant Shatner headache.

Classic. I am feeling. Megan said the same thing. She goes, nobody touches their head like that if they're really having a headache. You were being hit with like the Shatner, the ghost of Shatner just banged you upside the head. Okay. At this point, I'm going to say right now, like back in the 90s, there used to be, I remember

people used to come up to me and say like, so do you hope to be a film actor? Because there is that definite delineation between television acting and film acting. And film acting being film actors and film acting. being a cut above TV. Now, the difference is this. We have one to three takes and no rehearsal beforehand. We don't have a table read, anything like that. One to three takes to get this done.

You do your own homework. You come in and do it. If you're Matt Damon and you're doing a movie, you have 150 takes of the same scene. So you're bound to look like you're a thousand times better. So I took so much offense when people were saying, well, maybe when you're older, you can be a film actor, a better actor. When you're older.

Yeah, when you get bigger, more mature. and it just bugged the crap out of me. But that, you know, that choice to grab my head. The TV is like, I loved it. I thought it's classic Star Trek, dude. It's like... Okay, okay. Also, Robbie, I was still grappling with looping.

That was another looped dialogue where I think when people are watching it, they're going to say like, wow, that was kind of crappy acting. And again, the looping, I'm not used to it. It's just the second episode. You know what else I noticed? You know what else I noticed? I think there was another briefing. room seen not long after that.

I noticed that sculpture on the back wall in the briefing room. What? What sculpture? Which sculpture? There's like this art sculpture on the back wall of the briefing room and it was behind somebody's head and all of a sudden I was like, oh my God, I remember that sculpture. It was just so random and weird

and like why. Oh my God. You'll have to look next time. That is odd. I also noticed that Beltran's salt and pepper hair look great. I don't know why they started coloring that. I have the same note. I have the same damn note.

He looks fabulous with salt and pepper. And then out of the blue, I don't know what episode it happens later on. They just tell him, you know what? You're dying it. And they died it all. It was gone. And it gave him so much more gravity with that. Oh, back on the bridge when we clear up the distorted message by remodulating the EM band

and we realize that it's Janeway's hail. And then we see on the view screen that it's Voyager. This is your scene. when you stand up and go, it's the Voyager. And I remember on set complaining about this saying, I said, why is he saying the? Why doesn't he just get up and say, it's Voyager? And somebody on the set.

I remember how they were so strict about say it exactly as written down, exactly how it was written. We had no leeway. But here's the other thing about that moment I'd forgotten. We never did the shots towards the green screen or the view screen until second unit. I don't know if you remember that, but we would almost never do those shots. So because I sat down front,

whenever I turned around and had lines back to you guys, we wouldn't get it until I'd do it on a second unit on a green screen shot. Really? Yeah, so if you notice, my hair looks different, everything, because I shot that without any of you guys there. Nobody was there. So they just had a shot of me standing up and saying it.

And I remember when we filmed it, I was like, wait, why are we doing this? Like, why can't we just shoot it when? the rest of the scene and they're like, no, it's a Vizifax. It takes too much time. We do it in the second unit. And also, just so the fans know out there, a lot of times, we had a removable, we had a view screen that was, you'd bring it into the bridge and you brought it out, right?

That whole wall had to come in. That wall had to come in. We had to light a green screen and get it balanced just right, and it took time. Yeah. So they often do all those shots looking at the view screen, right? The second unit pick up. Robbie, for the, yeah. For those who don't understand.

what second unit is. Can you just give a brief description and just say what? Usually it's not the main day that you film the scene. So you film all the other stuff and then you go back on a second pass and pick up little things that are usually visual effects or, you know, stuff that might be take time that you don't want to waste the full company's time. Right. And is it with the main crew members? Not always. No, usually it's smaller crew. So. Right. And probably not the director. It's somebody else, an assistant director that's doing this. The visual effects supervisor. That's who it's doing it.

Okay. And it's the same way like we're tapping on our consoles. Like instead of recording, instead of filming our hands, you know, pushing buttons, it's usually second unit that is filming our stand-in's hands. And they actually,

did they do that with you? They brought in people to look to see if their hands looked similar to ours to use them for that. I also have a way, there was something in the briefing room where I said, let me see if I understand this or something. You know, I forget exactly. Yes.

That's what I was saying. And you said, Am I making any sense here? Am I making any sense? Anyway, Jamie goes, no. But that's okay. And I thought that's a flirt. She's flirting with you, right there.

By the way, I was making the most sense of anybody because all of their techno babble was full of crap. Like, that was made up science. I felt like at least for Paris. Like, that's what I loved about Paris. You kind of go, all right, wait a minute. Are you saying like the bus picks up the people and take some to the bus stop.

Like, I would put it into, like, layman's terms. Layman's terms. All right. They would be saying all these fancy words about, you know, warp particles. So I thought I made total sense, and the captain was wrong.

Okay, did you think that Janeway was a little flirty with you? Rebecca said, while we were watching it, Rebecca goes, yeah, it's all about lady power. And I was like, yeah, they just got to keep Paris in place because it's about Valana and Janeway. getting to the moment where they say at the same time, warp particles.

And then Janeway, when I get up and say, hey, you need the guy to fly the shuttle into this thing, she's like, no, I'm going to need this lady. And so the ladies go and fly the shuttle. So it was all about lady power. Rebecca was right. It's all about power. So do you not think Janeway was flirting with you?

Because literally, when you say, am I making any sense here? And Janeway says, no, but that's okay. I could have easily heard the next part of her speech. Twitter was a that's okay because you're cute because you're you know it's see oh no I didn't think so I thought it was I thought it was very condescending like okay you're not as smart as me and this balana who's but for the story it was great because yeah it does need to impress Janeway and connect her and earn that that position so I get why they did it but it was just funny how

they kept hitting it so hard with them literally like saying the same thing at the same later on when they said, which ship do we pick? Port, Starboard. Like, they say they're speaking at the same time. At the same time, yeah. Referencing what you just talked about when you offered to fly the ship, it's so funny because Megan was like, wow, look at that. Once again, in the second episode, he talks about how great of a pilot he is.

And so let's go ahead and see how many times throughout this series. He says he's the best pilot you could have. exactly um and that's also when she she says balana you're with me and then now both keely and and mcgan are impersonating uh jane way balana yeah with me so that that became the line that they started saying over and over again so uh that was fun yeah and then they go out there and they do their shuttle business and then uh chukote is like sits down in the captain's chair for the first time, as I recall. Yeah.

Sits down. He's got the bridge and he sits down and talking about how there's only a couple meters on either side of the ship. Right. That'd be dangerous. And I loved Janeway coming in there and kind of saying sometimes you just got to punch through. Yeah.

Those kind of things I thought were great for our show. It was just that very swashbuckling sort of, let's go on an adventure. Yeah. It's the do it. Yeah. Do it thing, right? Yeah. Sometimes you just have to punch.

your way through. That's a great line. And also, Chocote had some great lines when he's talking to Torres and in engineering. And she said, instead of breaking some noses, why don't you bend a few, you know? And I thought, oh, there you go. I like that writing. Yeah. Torres and Carrie make up, which was nice. Did you notice Carrie's voice sounded like mine? Yes? I didn't really. Really? Okay. They made that, Megan made that comment once again when we saw this one. I love your ending when you're in sick bay When you're messing with the doctor And you're like, I like you better this way

Yes Tiny little self right there I remember that Shooting that scene because I had to just look at a I think they put like a I don't know what a cup or something down there For an eye line for me to look at But I had come in early

Because I remember the scene When he started drinking with Kess Yeah They were shooting before And I come in early to shadow and that was the first because I was like how are they going to do that with him and so I went in early to go watch because I was shot I already wanted to direct and so I was I was shadowing just to clarify shadowing Robbie's

referring to shadowing the director following the director watching what they're doing training training yes yes learning about directing and so I had gone in and done that so did they put did they put Jennifer Lean on an Apple box when They put her on an apple box and they had him down. I remember going in and watching her do this and having to, you know, she was piecing it together and I was like, oh, that makes sense. You're going to do it on that cut in this line and you've got to decide where you're going to show him shrinking. Yeah, I think that's anything else for that episode.

No, I think that's the end of, you know, our discussion for this episode for this week. So thank you, everyone, for joining us for Parallax. And we'll see you next week for episode three in season. one. See you then. Bye guys.