Ex Post Facto

Voyager Revisited: Ex Post Facto
Jules -- 7 Oct 2001, 00:01 GMT

"Let the records show that the sentence has been carried out. For the rest of his natural life, once every fourteen hours Thomas Eugene Paris will relive the last moments of his victim's life. May the fates have mercy on you, sir." -- Banean Minister

Jules

Happily repeating myself!
Nina -- 7 Oct 2001, 01:30 GMT

Love Janeway's combination of authority and protectiveness as she first gets her stray lamb to safety, and then fights to not just clear his name - but save his life and his sanity.

Favorite scene: the "prepare to beam up," when she's got unconscious Tom's head on her shoulder. Runner up: the scene where she's giving Tuvok the go-ahead to start the mind meld, knowing how dangerous it may be to her old friend (still, then, the person she's closest to on Voyager) - but letting him do what's necessary just the same.

Second runner up: Tom telling Harry, who during their little decoy ride is waxing judgmental, "Oh, it will be you someday!" He sounds about a thousand years old...and looks like a lost little boy.

RDM can act, yes he can.

Even the yapping little "dog-thing" had it uses, in the end. (I am assuming that, like a Sphinxian tree-cat, that was NOT an Alpha Quadrant, Terran dog. Just a local critter that resembled same, and therefore the translators rendered the word describing it as "dog.")

Some Ex Post Facto pix for the birthday girl! (GI)
Terry -- 7 Oct 2001, 03:13 GMT

Actually, I don't have many for this ep. Jules' pix look better. Sorry, Ginny. Do you mind if I slip in one ringer?

[Two Ex Post Facto pictures of Tom were here]

But I'm most proud of this EPF photo. What color do you think Tom's eyes are?

[Two Ex Post Facto pictures of Tom were here, with eyes colour corrected to extreme blue]

They look gray to me.
Ginny -- 7 Oct 2001, 04:57 GMT

In the third picture, anyway. They're more blue in the bottom photo, but the color tint is more yellowish in that one.

Thanks, Terry and Jules. You're the best.

Most of my Voyager pics are still in transit.
Jules -- 7 Oct 2001, 10:13 GMT

I was trying to copy them over to my laptop yesterday, as a matter of fact. But my crash-happy main PC, uh, crashed halfway through copying them to CD, so right now I'm reformatting the CD before I make a second attempt.

So, more pictures (and slightly larger ones) may be forthcoming soon. But they didn't make it in time for the birthday celebrations.

Jules

Re: "Madonna and Child"
Deb47 -- 7 Oct 2001, 16:57 GMT

And no... I'm NOT talking about the singer!

This was a good ep. Its not one I return to frequently, but it definately has its talking points.

One... Voyager is a ship alone, and in need of alien expertise to keep it in good shape. They are not ashamed to ask for help, and they are cognizant of the danger inherent in approaching cultures at war with each other.

Two... Neelix does his job. He warns Janeway of the Numerii so she keeps Voyager "Offsite" while she sends in her team to infiltrate the area. She calls on him again as she steams into port, asking for "any" information he can supply on her fellow combatants. He stays by her side on the bridge as the first patrol approaches, and quickly gives her the observations that "this friendly" greeting is NOT the norm.

(Was this the first time we see someone sit to her right in this show? I don't think I ever realized at the start of season 1 that those were "jump seats". Seems like we've seen Kes and Neelix in other shows taking these seats to KJ's right and Chak's left.)

Three... Mama Janeway is not just a figment of D47's cockeyed imagination! She starts her close encounters with Harry in the sickbay, as she places her hand on his chest, encouraging him to go on with his story. She places another on Tom's thigh in the Minister's office, to do the same... and then as Nina has "twice" pointed out, she steadies him in her embrace as the two are beamed off the planet. (Sigh. ) She grabs Tuvok as he slumps forward following his Mind Meld with Tom, and reassuringly pats him on the shoulder as she plots their next move. (Others may cringe at this "manhandling" of a touch telepath, but as Nina has pointed out.. we "know" from our "future" association with them, how close they truly are as friends. I never cringed when Kirk touched Spock, just as I never cringed when Janeway touched Tuvok.) And finally, in retrospect... my fav touchyfeely scene (I didn't succumb to this idea till season 2), the one on the bridge with Chakotay after his Maquis trick did... er... the trick.

Four... Friends. Friends still getting to know each other... like Tom and Harry, like Janeway and Neelix, like The Doc and Kes... Friends who've known and worked with each other for a long time like Tuvok & Janeway, like B'Elanna and Chakotay, and friends who've never even considered the possibility like Tom and Tuvok. This ep does them all more justice than my record of rewatching can attest.

"This" was what Voyager was to me, and why I still love to watch it.

That and the chance to see those beautiful blue eyes yet again.

D47

Tuvok as "B Movie" detective.
D -- 8 Oct 2001, 03:09 GMT

This is one of the episodes I like better on re-viewing than I did on the first run, though its still near the bottom of my list. Most of Trek's "whodunits" just don't come off too well and Ex Post Facto's cliched dialogue and film noire atmosphere don't help.

However it was a good character episode. This episode pretty much established the Tom as playboy persona. But I think he actually got into trouble in the first place for probably the same reasons he had at home - he was bored and restless. There was a woman involved here but it could as easily have been gambling, a bar fight, a fast vehicle, anything that would have provided a distraction.

We do learn a lot about Tuvok here - that he is comfortable with and capable in the criminal and investigative aspects of Security and that he is willing to help prove Tom's innocence, if in fact he is innocent, even though at this point he doesn't much care for him. Plus its the first time we see him do a Mind Meld, however limited. After this there was no doubt that Doc definitely has some of McCoy in his program .

As for Chakotay's Maquis trick, the aliens they fooled must never have had submarines.

Blue on my tape (NIM)
CAM -- 8 Oct 2001, 03:35 GMT