Parallax

VOYAGER REVISITED: Parallax Discussion Thread
Jules -- 20 Jul 2001, 20:11 GMT

"So, on the one side I'm facing a Vulcan who wants to court martial you. And on the other I'm facing all the Maquis who are ready to seize the ship over this. You've turned this into one lousy day for me, Torres." -- Chakotay

Jules

Jules, if I may.
Shadda -- 21 Jul 2001, 00:48 GMT

Julia Huston did great reviews and recaps of the first 4 seasons. If anyone wants to go over there you can find them at

http://startrek.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://members.aol.com/Homespawn/parallax.html

Okay, why is this not working? Well, if you copy the address, then it works.

Anyway, I like Julia's reviews and comments.

Shadda, the html and anything else to do with the computer, challanged.

Re: Things I didn't notice, until I rewatched it this year.
Deb47 -- 21 Jul 2001, 04:45 GMT

That Chakotay's "evil sense of humor" wasn't born during season 4's "Revulsion"... when he left Harry twisting in the wind. It actually predates Voyager... B'Elanna told us during the teaser to this episode.... when he tried to tell her she'd be in the brig for the next 75 years.

"I never did like your twisted sense of humor... Chakotay."

So sue me... I DID like it!

That teaser made me think of the first Indianna Jones movie... So much packed into such a small amount of time... and we hadn't even seen the credits roll yet!

Maquis fighting with Starfleet... Starfleet threatening to courtmartial... Maquis threatening to mutiny... Maquis threatening the mutineers while bumping his own head against the Starfleet ceiling imposed by the Starfleet Captain.

When we rewatched it recently... I loved pointing out Neelix's face, as Janeway calls Chakotay into her readyroom to chew him out. NEELIX knew what was coming... even though it was obvious the Chakotay did NOT.

"I'm trying to help you here... I wish you could see that."

And she needed help.

In fact, the whole ship needed help.

It needed energy, and food, and creative ideas.

It needed to start looking beyond the obvious... like opening up some of its senior staff meeting to the "senior Talaxian and senior Ocampan" on board.

It needed to open itself to the Maquis on board.

"Show me another candidate, and I'll consider them."

"B'Elanna Torres!"

"A woman who ... couldn't even make it through Starfleet academy."

"She could TEACH at Starfleet Academy!"

But to be fair... this ep showed that the Maquis needed to open "itself" to a few unconventional ideas too.

"Believe me Captain... no-one at the academy was sorry to see me go."

"Professor (?) Chapman was... he put a letter in your permanent file, supporting you if you ever decided to return to the academy."

"I FOUGHT with him every day, questioning his assumptions... I'm sorry he didn't help me pack my bags!"

"Some professors LIKE students who question their assumptions, B'Elanna. And so do some Captains."

There is so much in this ep that recommends it.

From the Doctor's "bedside manner" in treating Joe Carey in sickbay...to his "no-one tells me anything" complaints and his longsuffering shrinking man syndrome.

Not to be outdone, we have Tom's humor in the conference room and in the sickbay with the miniature EMH, his bravado in volunteering for the shuttle mission. His admission to temporal mechanics confusion proved he was like the rest of us when we become blinded by technobabble.

Sometimes its best just to close your eyes and go with the flow.

Harry's penchant to gossip with Tuvok over what the Maquis were and were not doing just shows he knows precious little about Vulcans. Gossips and Vulcans are mutually exclusive.

There was so much going on in the ep... with Kes' insightfulness showing itself once again, not just in ideas for growing food, but for seeing and recognizing there was a problem with the incredible shrinking Doctor.

"What's your name?"

"What purpose would it be for a hologram to have one?"

But for all the fighting, for all the gossip, for all the jealousy, it was nice (for me) to see that these people could work through their problems, and could come to some semblance of a truce.

"I hope I can count on you, Mr Carey"

"I promise, you'll have nothing except my best... and Lt? Welcome aboard."

Was "everything" fine by the end of this show?

Well, 2 Fleeters protested her appointment... but the 2 main people in Engineering at least promised to "work together".

And her ability to appoint this woman to this senstive post showed that Janeway and Chakotay "could" work together too...

Given half a chance.

Although... working together doesn't mean confiding "all" our secrets... just yet.

"There are some questions, a Captain can keep to herself."

Needless to say...I loved this ep.

It's wind filled the sails of the Voyager and sent it well and truely along its way.

D47

It's also the best Janeway-Torres ep. NIM
david g -- 21 Jul 2001, 05:19 GMT

I dunno, david, season two had some good J-T eps.
Terry -- 21 Jul 2001, 08:50 GMT

I loved the talk between Janeway and B'Elanna in the messhall in the epilogue of Prototype. And B'Elanna arguing passionately and persuading Janeway to give Chakotay a break in Maneuvers.

Too bad those two character were so rarely used together after that. I remember Mulgrew saying she wished they would develop their relationship more way back in season three.

And those and BARGE are the other great J-T eps!
david g -- 21 Jul 2001, 09:28 GMT

I too love those scenes you mention...

Plus the "It was real to me!" scene in BARGE...

Plus the glorious little "I just heard!" scene from LINEAGE.

david g

Torres was so wonderful in the first seasons
maggie the cat -- 21 Jul 2001, 12:33 GMT

but like so many Trek aliens and half-aliens, she got "de-fanged" so to speak. I dunno -- perhaps (so as not to bash TPTB yet again )it is inevitable in the course of popular literature.

The first regular episode, but in many ways a continuation of the pilot.
D -- 22 Jul 2001, 00:54 GMT

Looking at this now its really obvious how the characters changed over the years. For B'Elanna the appointment she earns during this episode is the catalyst. The Torres who tells Janeway "I didn't want to have anything to do with Starfleet then and I wish that I didn't have to now" would never have imagined inventing a regulation to back up her volunteering to infiltrate a Borg cube ["Tactical directive 36-A." "There is no directive 36-A!" "There is now."]

The other character whose evolution can be traced to Paralax is the Doctor. Kes, in their brief conversation, is the first to treat him as a "person", giving him a lot to think about. Her attitude is obviously different from the rest of the crew who treat him like a mechanical annoyance, referring to him during the staff meeting as "it" or "the hologram".

I liked that they didn't specifically mention any of the Klingon temperament stuff, just let B'Elanna succeed or fail as is. Though the severity of Carey's injury is obviously related to Torres' Klingon strength, the fact that she hit him is attributed to doing things the Maquis way. And she didn't blame her "Klingon half" for her not fitting in at the Academy. It is rather convenient that the first two Maquis (three if you count Tom) Janeway offers commissions, and the only ones who become senior officers, are also the only ones who have Starfleet backgrounds.

Continuity set ups: B'Elanna, in her first staff meeting, seeming to be only giving half her attention, then coming up with a creative solution. Tom getting lost when the conversation gets too technical. Harry and the problem of using holodeck power for the rest of the ship. The first time we see Seska she's advocating undermining Janeway, and we don't even know her name, let alone who and what she really is.

Nits: Seska's working in engineering and at the engineering station on the bridge but she's wearing a sciences uniform; did the costume department run out of yellow uniforms? Why don't Kes & Neelix have com badges? Tom saying "It's the Voyager", instead of just "Its Voyager" and Harry calling him "Mr. Paris" - both just sound wrong. Like "Caretaker" too much jumpy camera work and exaggerated movement when the ship's jolted.

My favorite moments still are:
Nina -- 22 Jul 2001, 02:13 GMT

- Chakotay dodging when B'Elanna responds to her cabin's entrance chime by flinging something at the door as he's coming through it. Nice footwork, Chak!

- The exchange of smiles between Janeway and Chakotay after B'Elanna performs creatively at the meeting she almost wasn't invited to attend.

- The infamous "Would you have served under me?" question, and the tone KM uses when she answers it.

More tomorrow, maybe. But I did my homework! I rewatched!

Agreed. She got screwed for Seven...
Pixie -- 22 Jul 2001, 04:04 GMT

SEven is a icier, less interesting version of B'Elanna. Her relationships for the most part were stopped so that Seven could step into B'Elanna's role. Even with Tom, until season 7, we saw Tom spend more non-sexual fun time with Seven than B'Elanna. Sadly, Seven far from being unique is a redundant character that hardly a place of her own.

Even worse is that Seven interaction with others solely focuses and enhances Seven. Whereas B'Elanna's interactions generally benefit the character she is interacting with.

Re: "There is now." Sigh.
Deb47 -- 22 Jul 2001, 04:28 GMT

Thanks, D... I needed that!

As for one of your nits... perhaps Tom's formality was because he was still "new" to the relationship with this ship?

Or maybe its the writers who were still working on the grammar?

It's The Enterprise.

It's Enterprise.

It's The Voyager.

It's Voyager.

I suspect its just a leftover from another series, and thankfully TPTB figured out how "best" to address "her".

Seska's blue suit always bugged me, but I like your suggestion regarding "wardrobe running out" of the yellow variety.

As for "not even knowing her name" yet... I have to hand it to TPTB on THAT one! They brought her along quite slowly and I for one was QUITE shocked during the Mushroom soup scene... not to mention the betrayal later in the ep.

Sigh.

I'm loving season 1 all over again.

D47

Re: Homework...
Deb47 -- 22 Jul 2001, 04:31 GMT

THIS kind of homework, I can stand, Nina!

Don't worry about being a day late.. our professor in the UK is quite lenient. She has to be, since I heard her mention something about "glass houses", and "scones".

Or was that "stones"?

D47

Explaining Seska's uniform
Jules -- 22 Jul 2001, 10:07 GMT

I always figured that the ship was still shaking down in episode two, and that a lot of the Maquis hadn't yet got permanent assignments. It's only a couple of days later, after all.

And we had at least two people in Engineering applying for transfers after B'Elanna's replacement. Maybe Seska replaced one of them?

(The truth, of course, is probably that TPTB thought it would be useful to give B'Elanna a female confidante, and that it would keep Seska in the public eye prior to her turning traitor, so they transferred her there to make it easier to give them scenes together. But that's no fun.)

Jules

Now that's something I found amusing--the time.
D'Alaire -- 22 Jul 2001, 13:03 GMT

When I was writing something, I actually went back and recorded a bunch of Voyager stardates, and found out that Parallax (SD 48439.7) actually took place almost 6 weeks after the beginning of Caretaker (48315.6). Even if you gave two weeks for the events of the pilot, it would still be a month later that Janeway was getting around to those assignments.

Maybe the hurling effect knocked the ship's clock out of synch? CT, part II, after all, has the same SD as part one.

Ahhh, just beginning to look back on these eps and I'm already rationalizing.

I'm loving reading these threads, BTW. I might not have the lack of distraction to participate the way I would otherwise, but it's a lot of fun and a great idea.

Re: VOYAGER REVISITED: Parallax Discussion Thread
Shadda -- 22 Jul 2001, 15:48 GMT

I don't have this on tape, so I went to both Jim's and Julia's reviews to refresh my memory.

First of all, waaaaaayyyyyy to much technobabble. Sorry, that is something I find mind numbingly boring. It wasn't explained very well, probably because the people doing the explaining didn't know what they were talking about. I am with Tom on this one, and I resent the implication that both he and I aren't that bright because we didn't know what they were talking about. Jim lost a lot of ground with me for his "dumb blonde" comment. I know, been there, done that, have the thread to show for it. My point is that if a neurosurgeon's mechanic explains what's wrong with her car, she is probably not going to know what the heck he is talking about. That does not make the mechanic smarter then the neurosurgeon. They simply have different areas of expertise. I also didn't notice Tuvok or Chakotay being able to keep up, and even Harry didn't last long and that is a field with which he is familiar.

Now that I have that off my chest. This was a nice B'Elanna and Janeway show. I like the way they play off of each other. I would love to see a close relationship develop there. I bond with my female friends, I think it is important. And, I think Janeway needs a close female friend. I like what we learn about B'Elanna here. She has a lot of "issues" but she is doing a great job of trying to work them out herself. She needs friends and I think Janeway would be a great person for her to be friends with. Far better then Seska.

We have now established that B'Elanna is a brilliant engineer. What we need to show is how she will grow as a manager and leader. Being a "brilliant engineer" is only half of the battle. Let's see her grow in her ability to communicate with, and inspire loyalty and dedication in, those engineers who work for her.

It was also, a great Chakotay episode. He was all over the place here and doing a great job. It is going to be a thankless and ever vigilant position he is in. Kind of like the vice principal of a high school.

All and all, not a bad episode. I am not remembering the details. A nice way to define the Chief Engineer and let us know a little more about her.

Still, too much technobabble.

Shadda

Re: VOYAGER REVISITED: Parallax Discussion Thread
Sherry -- 22 Jul 2001, 17:48 GMT

To quote from another review, Tim Burton wrote that this episode "had two real plots: the 'escape from the singularity' plot, and the 'who'll be running Engineering?' plot." (Tim Burton's reviews, for the first two seasons of Voyager, are at http://www.psiphi.org/voy/ep/reviews.html.

I was mainly interested in the second plot--Janeway figuring out between Starfleet and Maquis crew members who would take the most important posts onboard. This is the episode that really established B'Elanna as an intriguing character, not just as Chief Engineer.

I'd forgotten that Tom was assigned to "assist" in the sickbay this early. I've always had doubts about making that plot move. I still tend to think it would have worked better to give Harry that assignment. Tom's "preparation" (or the closest thing to it) of a couple of classes at the Academy could just as easily have been established as Harry's trait, and it might even have fit in better with Harry's recent-graduate background. (Unlike Tom's knowledge of the Badlands, it's not dependent upon his distinctive experience.)

I don't have a tape, so I read reviews to refresh my memories of Parallax. I don't remember the singularity story distinctly, but the character and shipboard factors did stick in my mind, so you can guess which I thought was more important

Sherry

Snorting, Shadda,
Nina -- 22 Jul 2001, 19:09 GMT

about the "vice principal" comparison! Too true. That's how it is to be an XO, no matter where you work.

Since I rewatched and never have read those review sources, I didn't get blessed by the "dumb blonde" remark. So I didn't pick up on, perceive, whatever, any sense that the officers who weren't as knowledgeable in the physical sciences were being treated that way by the ones who were. Glad I didn't; I hate that sort of thing, too!

It really wasn't bad quality technobabble, just a lot of it for one episode. I bumped into the whole "event horizon" business on a science site late last night, doing some research for my current manuscript, and the writers were trying to come up with something theoretically plausible. That goes a long way for me, that they were trying to get it right.

Are you sure that Seska's being a Cardie was pre-planned?
Terry -- 22 Jul 2001, 19:27 GMT

Martha Hackett didn't expect it, IIRC. The key element in SoF was her history with Chakotay, not her friendship to B'Elanna. I don't believe that her being Chak's lover was ever mentioned before SoF.

So I concluded that the idea for State of Flux just came to one of the writers after season one had started. And they picked the one Maquis who was shown to be the most antagonistic to Starfleet and made her Chak's ex-lover.

Killed two birds with one stone. Created an interesting villain and stopped the Starfleet-Maquis conflict cold. (I wish that they stuck to just the first bird. )

That second bird flew *way* too early.
Jules -- 22 Jul 2001, 21:40 GMT

No, I don't think the Seska thing was pre planned; I think it occurred to TPTB as they went along. Not too far along though, since "State Of Flux" occurs only halfway through the first season (actually, episode 10).

And I'm sure that the "B'Elanna's friend" thing came along by much the same means. I doubt if they even rationalised it as such, to be honest. But they needed an antagonistic Maquis in a speaking part, and they couldn't have her talking it out with Chakotay all the time because it would clash with his position as second in command and facilitator of the crew merger, so she got to hang out with B'Elanna instead. And I do suspect that her uniform colour change was part of making that easier to write into the scripts, even if there wasn't any actual need for it. Plotwise, it was necessary for "Prime Factors", where it's primarily an Engineering-driven temptation to ignore the Prime Directive, but the change had already happened by then.

But of course... continuity glitches are nothing new for Voyager. Maybe it's just that and nothing more than that.

Jules

I like the "applying for transfers" idea...
Deb47 -- 23 Jul 2001, 12:18 GMT

Although I thought the two were only "complaining" about her promotion, Not that they were applying for transfers.

D47

The coolest climax on VOY?
david g -- 23 Jul 2001, 19:19 GMT

One of them, anyway...I still have to rewatch this one, but I love the climax.

The two Voyagers are an eerie sight...and the decision is very successfully suspenseful...

i also think Brannon Braga's script is full of excellent character moments. I think he handles the B'Elanna episode-arc very well, too.

What's great about the problem of this ep is that it's Voyager fighting against itself, in a way that mirrors the actions/conflicts of the ep.

What happened to THIS Chakotay?

I always liked the way Janeway gets under skin by asking, "Her loyalty--or yours?" (is that right?) before he storms out of ready room.

david g

Whoever kidnapped him -
Nina -- 23 Jul 2001, 21:07 GMT

THAT Chakotay - I WANT HIM BACK! (Perhaps in the books.)

Re: VOYAGER REVISITED: Parallax Discussion Thread
Kathryn -- 23 Jul 2001, 22:55 GMT

I think is a excellent episode concedering it is in the first season. With Janeway still trying to get the two crews to come together as one and on the other hand she has Chakotay bugging her about B'Elanna being Chief Engineer. I liked the way B'Elanna's anger was boiling just under the surface and how she was giving Janeway one heck of a hard time. I wish they could have built on Chakotay being a tougher first officer instead of letting him get so mellow so to speak. Remember when he decked one of his former crew members. The ending was what I really liked where Torres and Janeway began to see each other different. My favorite scene was when they were trying to figure out which ship was the real Voyager and B'Elanna says "well if your wrong we'll have a long time to debate it" I really liked this ep.

Kathryn

Or they kicked it out of the nest!
Sherry -- 24 Jul 2001, 01:21 GMT

If you and Terry are right, as I think you are, it seems very likely that the writers figured they'd put a Maquis character whom they could move in whatever Maquis direction they decided to go. But they took the whole group that way too fast.

Sherry

Ahhh, and the beauty of the Voyager revisted thread is that you WILL have him...
Deb47 -- 24 Jul 2001, 01:26 GMT

for the next few seasons, that is.

D47

Yes, david...That's right.
Deb47 -- 24 Jul 2001, 01:35 GMT

"I strongly suggest you get to know Torres before you make your decision"... and somewhere in that argument,

"I have no intention of becoming your token Maquis officer!"

And... if not in that scene, then somewhere in that episode that great line...

"I'm trying to help you here!"

Sigh.

As for great climaxes... I find it interesting that my "Quotable Star Trek" includes 5 entries on "Parallax", including that "climax" you pine after.

"In command school, they taught us to always remember that maneuvering a starship is a very delicate process. But over the years, I've learned that sometimes... you just have to punch your way through."

This is fun!

D47

Re: Great line, Kathryn.
Deb47 -- 24 Jul 2001, 01:40 GMT

It was the line that told me Torres had finally "signed on" with this Captain.

Right or wrong, she was "going with the Captain's decision"... Something Chakotay showed us at the end of Caretaker.

Two down, just another 30 or so Maquis to go.

D47 (Hey, feel free to add onto the Caretaker thread also.)

Sorry I'm late...
Janey -- 24 Jul 2001, 10:18 GMT

So I'm a procrastinator. I haven't gotten a chance to read the others so I apologize for repetition.

"Parallax." *sigh*

I loved this episode. It is one of the ones that takes me back to what I was doing when I watched it the first time.

I was 16 years old, a Trek watcher for nearly eight years, and I saw two powerful women leave a group of men in their intellectual dust for the first time (that I can remember) on a Trek show. The 'boys' may make fun of the "warp particles" scene, but for me that was one of the best scenes on television.

And the best part is these two women didn't even like each other. Kathryn wasn't ready to trust B'Elanna and B'Elanna blatently hated Kathryn or at least what she stands for. But by the end of the episode they reach an understanding.

B'Elanna needed a little faith and a kick in the pants.

Kathryn gave her that.

Kathryn needed someone give her a bit of a challenge, in more ways than one.

B'Elanna does that, rather well.

They were intellectual equals, strong and strong-minded, fiercely independant, and yet both are more fragile than they let on. (Oh PTB what happend to this potentially galaxy rocking relationship!?)

They bonded not over a lame exercise routine, girly talk or anything like that but a problem that needed to be solved. And they solved it. I think that is pretty dang cool. Not that the girly stuff is bad, heavens knows we all do that, but I thought it was great to see them connect intellectually first, and slowly get to the other stuff. Very slowly. As in still crawling, but that's for another day and another discussion.

What else?

Oh yeah. The other woman, well girl, well adolescent? Sweet Kes. I think she is the best part about reviewing the older stuff. Not that I hate Seven because I actually really did enjoy having Seven around. But Kes was...well Kes.

Kes has Kathryn Janeway wrapped around her little finger. I think I said that in the Caretaker thread. And it is even more obvious in this episode. Neelix and Kes walk into the meeting and Neelix gets an annoyed look. Kes speaks and gets a smile and the responsibility of growing food for the whole crew. I don't know, maybe its just me. Or maybe its Neelix. I like to think its the power of the little elf.

And she is a considerate little thing. "What's you name?" That is one of the sweetest lines. Everyone else tosses the Doc aside but this little imp actually asked his name.

Though I gotta admit I love it when Tom gives the Doc a hard time.

Other thoughts...

Chakotay was wickedly endearing.

Harry was an innocent baby.

Rewatching it makes me wish it was just starting instead of just ended.

Re: Just starting vs just ending...
Deb47 -- 24 Jul 2001, 12:17 GMT

Ahhh, through the the miracle of video tape, it can "just start" all over again.

D47

Nina -- 24 Jul 2001, 12:57 GMT

Janey, I was considerably beyond 16 (!) when I first watched this one - I'd been watching Trek since the TOS premiere (I was 14 then; you do the arithmetic) - and I had the exact same reaction you did, to seeing two strong, intelligent, technically accomplished women bond over solving a problem (and leaving the guys in the dust while they did it). YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!

My 11th grade chemistry teacher began our first class by telling us, "I know you girls are only here because you have to take this course. I'll go easy on you. I realize the world doesn't produce a lot of Marie Curies." I wish I had had the guts to answer, "As many Maries as Pierres, Mr. Sherman." But that goes under another thread, doesn't it? Anyway, it illustrates why my reaction to the Janeway/Torres dynamic was so powerful.

Mmmm ... the hug!!! *contented sigh*!! NIM
Mip -- 24 Jul 2001, 13:14 GMT

damn I have NO TIME!! I will catch up later!

Another episode with good J-T scenes is Worst Case Scenerio
D -- 25 Jul 2001, 18:37 GMT

I've always enjoyed watching the two of them outprograming Seska.

Some aditional thoughts on Torres
D -- 25 Jul 2001, 19:16 GMT

Kathryn's comments in the "Scientific Method" thread made me realise I had something to add to my original "Paralax" post: (additions underlined)

Looking at this now its really obvious how the characters changed over the years. For B'Elanna the appointment she earns during this episode is the catalyst. The Torres who tells Janeway "I didn't want to have anything to do with Starfleet then and I wish that I didn't have to now" would never have imagined inventing a regulation to back up her volunteering to infiltrate a Borg cube ["Tactical directive 36-A." "There is no directive 36-A!" "There is now."]. And its not just the viewers who realize how much she changes, she does too: taking responsibility in "Prime Factors" because she's "a senior officer now"; chewing out Seven in "Scientific Method" - "If you're going to be a member of this crew, get used to it. Procedures exist for a reason. We've got to work together. We follow the same set of rules..." "Lieutenant?" "I was given that lecture once by Captain Janeway when I first joined this crew. If I could adjust to Starfleet life...so can you."

Re: "So can you."
Deb47 -- 26 Jul 2001, 00:14 GMT

Ya just "got to" love that Torres!

Also agree with your other "J/T sighting" in WCS.

I also liked the (small) moment in YOH I when she wished her crew goodbye as they abandoned ship. She also comforted B'Elanna with the assurance (verbal/physical) that they'd keep looking for TOM and Chakotay.

D47