“Distant Origin”
Written by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Directed by David Livingston
Season 3, Episode 23
Production episode 165
Original air date: April 30, 1997
Stardate: unknown
Captain’s log. Two Voth scientists, Professor Gegen and his assistant Veer, are on the planet the Kazon left the Voyager crew on in the “Basics” two-parter. They find Hogan’s remains and his uniform, and discover 47 genetic markers in common with the Voth themselves. Gegen is thrilled, as this is the best evidence of the “distant origin” theory.
Voth Doctrine is that the Voth are the greatest peoples of the galaxy, and that they originated in the Delta Quadrant, but there’s a theory that they evolved elsewhere. Hogan’s remains are the best evidence to date they have for that.
Gegen gives a presentation to Minster Odala, who is less than impressed. The distant origin theory goes against Doctrine. Odala says she will consider his request to mount an expedition to further investigate these genetic similarities, but Gegen can tell that she’s blowing smoke up his ass. He sends Veer to talk to another group of scientists whom he thinks supports him—but Veer returns with the devastating news that Gegen’s arrest is imminent.
Buy the Book
Remote Control
After offering Veer a way out—which the loyal assistant declines—the pair of them set out on their own. Gegen has found the name of the ship on the back of the rank insignia on Hogan’s uniform. They go to the space station on the edge of the Nekrit Expanse and find out that Voyager was there, and they left behind some warp plasma. The Voth use that sample of warp plasma to track Voyager. (A neat trick, considering that the warp plasma that was used in that episode, and presumably left behind, wasn’t from Voyager, it was only pretending to be.)
The Voth track Voyager down, and use their phasing technology to covertly observe the crew in action. However, Kim is able to detect them through their phasing cloak, and eventually, there is a nasty confrontation in the mess hall. Veer hits Chakotay with a stun needle, and then Tuvok stuns Veer. Gegen transports back to his ship with Chakotay while Veer is taken to sickbay to be treated.
The EMH discovers the same thing Gegen did: that the Voth and humans have 47 genetic markers in common, way too much to be a coincidence. Janeway and the EMH use the holodeck to re-create images of species on Earth that have the most in common with the Voth, and they come up with a hadrosaur. They then have the computer extrapolate how the hadrosaur might have evolved had it survived to the present day, and the extrapolation looks pretty much like the Voth.
Despite being held in a force field, Chakotay opens a dialogue with Gegen, and they soon start to exchange ideas, with Gegen letting Chakotay out of the force field. Chakotay looks at Gegen’s data, and comes to the same conclusion that Gegen (and that Janeway and the EMH) did: the Voth originally came from Earth. They left before the cataclysm that wiped the dinosaurs out, and made their way to the Delta Quadrant, turning into a quite powerful species.
Chakotay wants to go back to Voyager, but Gegen is already en route back home to use Chakotay as the best possible evidence of the distant origin theory being correct.
The Voth track down Voyager and fire on it, capturing it with consummate ease—including beaming the entire ship into a hold and dampening all the power on board.
Gegen is captured and put on trial by Odala. He is accused of violating Doctrine and spreading the horrific notion that the Voth originated on some other planet. Odala finds the entire notion insulting, but Chakotay steps forward and points out that the theory speaks well of the Voth. The braveness of the their ancestors to brave the unknown rather than face extinction, and to form such a great society is inspiring.
However, Chakotay’s words fall on deaf ears, especially since Veer, having been rescued from Voyager‘s sickbay, is now testifying that he and Gegen jumped the gun, and their theory has flaws. Odala herself says that the 47 common genetic markers is just a coincidence.
She urges Gegen to renounce his theory, which he refuses to do. So Odala sentences him to imprisonment—and does the same for Voyager and her crew. The ship will be destroyed, its crew incarcerated.
Rather than see that happen, Gegen agrees to renounce his theory. He’s transferred to a different discipline, and Chakotay is told that Voyager is free to go, and she suggests they set course very far from Voth space.
Before heading out, Chakotay says his goodbyes to Gegen, giving him a globe of the Earth as a keepsake.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The Voth are one of the most technologically advanced species seen in the Delta Quadrant so far—indeed, only the Borg and the Sikarians are even in the conversation. They have transwarp drive, enabling them to travel in days what took Voyager the better part of a year, and personal phase cloaks that do on purpose what the Romulans did to La Forge and Ro by accident. Their transporters can also teleport an entire starship.
There’s coffee in that nebula! Janeway is completely fascinated by the Voth, and she nerds out over their origins gleefully. She also never gives in to the Voth when they’re captured.
Mr. Vulcan. Tuvok takes down Veer, but is unable to stop Gegen from kidnapping Chakotay. He’s also later taken out by a Voth stun needle. Not his best day…
Please state the nature of the medical emergency. The EMH discovers the same thing Gegen did when he examines Veer, though he comes to the conclusion much more quickly—understandably so, since the similarity to humanity is much easier for him to diagnose as a physician who regularly treats humans.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. Paris and Torres are now in full-on flirt mode.
What happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck. Janeway and the EMH use the holodeck as a research tool to determine the Voth’s origin.
Do it.
“We are not immigrants! I will not deny twenty million years of history and Doctrine just because one insignificant Saurian has a theory!”
–Odala showing prejudice toward immigrants and a complete lack of understanding of what the word theory means.
Welcome aboard. The most impressive guest here is the great character actor Concetta Tomei as Odala. Henry Woronicz—last seen as J’Dan on TNG‘s “The Drumhead,” and who will return to Voyager as Quarren in “Living Witness”—shows tremendous passion as Gegen, while Christopher Liam Moore—next to be seen in “The Disease”—shows eagerness followed by crippling fear as Veer.
Trivial matters: This is the only time the Voth are seen on screen, though they will be mentioned again in “Friendship One.” They play a role in the post-finale Voyager fiction, particularly the novels Protectors and Acts of Contrition by Kirsten Beyer. They also appear in two works by regular rewatch commenter Christopher L. Bennett: in the short story “Brief Candle” in Distant Shores, and in the alternate timeline of the short novel Places of Exile in Myriad Universes: Infinity’s Prism. They’re also seen a great deal in Star Trek Online.
Gegen goes to places Voyager has been in the “Basics” two-parter and “Fair Trade,” though there’s no explanation of how the Voth track Voyager through the warp plasma that doesn’t actually belong to Voyager. They also find a combadge and a tricorder, even though Voyager has been very careful not to leave such technology lying around. (Having said that, it’s possible that Wix stole some and sold them.)
Veer’s scan of Voyager reveals 148 life forms, which is odd, since there are, at this point, 141 biological life forms on board. (Maybe Voth sensors identified the plants in airponics as life forms?)
Around the time this episode came out, theories about dinosaurs all having been cold-blooded were changing, and it soon became clear from further research that some were cold-blooded and others warm-blooded. One of the ones that were warm-blooded were the hadrosaurs, unfortunately.
The original notion writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky had was dinosaurs with big guns invading Voyager. It was executive producer Rick Berman who suggested that one of the dinosaurs should be Galileo, which pulled the whole thing into focus. Just a reminder to folks who knee-jerkily slag Berman…
Set a course for home. “Some day, every Voth will see this as home.” One of the main issues I have with the Star Trek spinoffs is how few of them ever employ people with experience writing science fiction. Where the original series had your Harlan Ellisons and your Norman Spinrads and your Theodore Sturgeons and your Robert Blochs, the spinoffs rarely went out of their way to seek out scripts by people in the SF field (with the notable exception of Enterprise‘s final season, with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens on the writing staff).
This has resulted in a lot of spectacularly unimaginative and unthoughtful science fiction—as recently as the last episode, in which Jeri Taylor’s script was unable to move past the late-20th-century family stereotypes she grew up with to think about what the future would be like.
So it’s really nice to see this story that really feels like a science fiction story, one that embraces an alien point of view—yet still does that thing that SF in general and Star Trek in particular are spectacular at: use a science fictional premise to make a commentary on humanity.
And “Distant Origin” does a brilliant job of that. What I particularly like is that Gegen is our POV character. This episode is about him, and his quest to learn the truth about his people—and his conflict with the hidebound government of his people. In a year in which the disconnect between politics and science is particularly brutally sharp, this episode resonates. Odala isn’t interested in evidence, she’s only interested in maintaining the status quo, and she does so by dismissing the evidence as “just one person’s theory,” as if a theory wasn’t something heavily backed up by evidence. (If it’s not, it’s a hypothesis. Theories have the weight of research behind them.)
This episode also gives Robert Beltran a chance to shine, and he nails it. His quiet plea to Odala, his heartfelt explanation of how awesome the ancestral Voth had to have been, and how proud they all should be of them, is magnificently delivered. Concetta Tomei’s bland refutation of everything Gegen and Chakotay say is equally magnificent, perfectly embodying the hidebound politician who sounds so reasonable when she ignores reality.
The episode isn’t quite perfect. Brannon Braga’s love-hate relationship with evolutionary biology continues, as there’s no way to accurately extrapolate the evolution of the hadrosaur without knowing where the hadrosaurs wound up. Environment is a big part of evolution, something Braga has never understood, and it’s dogged many of his scripts. Also there are minor mistakes (the warp plasma, e.g.) that really shouldn’t be made by guys who are on the writing staff, not to mention the cold-blooded/warm-blooded thing.
Still, this is one of Voyager’s absolute best episodes, a very Star Trek show about the fight for rationality in a universe filled with irrational people, with a good spotlight for a character who doesn’t get enough of them.
Warp factor rating: 9
Keith R.A. DeCandido did a whole mess of programming at the virtual Dragon Con last weekend. Click here for videos of just about everything he did, including a reading and panels on a wide variety of subjects.
I’m very proud of myself for not including a “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” joke in this rewatch entry.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido, feeling virtuous
This is still one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek ever. I remember it just blew my mind the first time I watched it.
The idea of intelligent reptiles living on Earth before humans reminded me of the Silurians in Doctor Who. Of course, that story was quite different because the Silurians never left Earth; they moved underground.
Forgive my ignorance, but shouldn’t that read bravery? Or is this a usage I’m simply unfamiliar with?
And then the dreaded double post… D’oh!
I’ll mark this down as another piece of evidence for the Federation’s teleological understanding of evolutionary processes. I’m sure if they’d run the simulation further, they’d have seen the Voth evolve into cousins to The Great and Glorious Newts To Come.
That said, this rings a lot of bells vis a vis the creationism debate- appeal to an allegedly infallible text, willful misunderstanding of what a ‘theory,’ is, dismissal of evidence that challenges one’s idea of their place in the universe… yeah, I remember having those arguments with both classmates and family members.
@1
“This planet you say we…’escaped’ from-“
“We call it ‘Earth,’ Minister Odala.”
“I CALL IT YOUR GRAVE! ARRR!”
One of my all-time favorite Voyager episodes. A brilliant allegory about the struggle of science to be heard over hidebound ideology. Gegen is a magnificent character, and I agree, it’s wonderful that the story makes him the protagonist. It’s unusual in Trek to tell a story from an alien’s viewpoint instead of the crew’s, and this episode uses the idea marvelously. I love stories where the aliens are the “normal” ones learning about us weird humans.
It’s also a marvelous use of Chakotay, focusing on my favorite side of him — not the stereotyped “Indian” or the ex-Maquis, but the scholar, the anthropologist, the guy with the knack for understanding and respecting other cultures’ points of view.
Aside from the scientific and continuity issues, my main quibble with this episode is that I always felt it should have been revealed at the end that the globe Chakotay gave Gegen was more than just a souvenir — that it had a data chip hidden inside it containing information about Earth from Voyager‘s database, so the knowledge would be preserved and could still be transmitted among the Voth clandestinely. I made a point of establishing this in both my pieces of Voth-related Trek fiction, even though they were set in separate timelines (since the timeline divergence occurred shortly after this, at the start of “Scorpion”).
Incidentally, the idea of a dinosaur civilization existing in Earth’s prehistory is a lot more plausible than you’d think. The fossil record we have captures only a few isolated fragments of the history of life, getting sparser the farther back you go. It only preserves things that happened to get buried in the right way at the right time, aren’t too deeply buried to be found, haven’t been exposed to the elements long enough to erode to dust, and haven’t been destroyed by the subduction of the Earth’s crust dragging it down into the magma. And most of the products of technology wouldn’t be preserved long on a geological scale. I recall reading that maybe the only things that would survive are glass and ceramics, which are chemically similar to fossils. But they’d have to be in the right places to be preserved and uncovered, and the odds of that are low. Other than that, the main evidence would be chemical signatures in sediment layers suggesting a sudden sharp increase in industrial pollutants in the atmosphere, say. Microplastics are ubiquitous and might survive millions of years, but it’s unclear. And those both assume a civilization as reckless about its environment as we are.
Here’s an article addressing some recent scientific thinking on the topic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-earths-only-civilization/557180/
Then again, the Voth’s history only goes back 20 million years, and a single species would be unlikely to survive 65 million years unchanged. That’s long enough for a taxonomic line to produce dozens of “generations” of descendant species, the old ones dying out and being survived by the newer ones. It could be that a technological hadrosaur civilization evolved on Earth and traveled into space, left colonies, lost their civilization, evolved into new species, invented spaceflight all over again, migrated still farther across the galaxy, etc. until the Voth’s ancestors finally settled in the DQ 20 million years ago. There could easily be more offshoots out there.
Or it could be that the Voth’s hadrosaur ancestors were transplanted by a Preserver-like alien race. “Distant Origin” wasn’t Trek’s first visit to this well; that was the TOS novel First Frontier by Diane Carey and paleontologist Dr. James I. Kirkland, which posited that a species of raptor dinosaur from Earth was transplanted and gradually evolved sentience on another planet. Since I count that book as part of my personal continuity (and have alluded to it in my professional Trek Lit), I choose to believe that the Voth’s ancestors were transplanted in the same way.
@3:
As the Matt Smith episode “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” demonstrated, some Silurians did indeed venture into space.
Episodes where we get the POV of those experiencing Voyager’s passage and the effect seem to work well. This is certainly one of the best. And if a minor technical issue (whose warp plasma?) stands in the way of a good story, then why not conveniently ignore the minor technical issue? Not everyone is into 100% rigid continuity.
This episode gave me a strong Dinosaurs (the TV show) vibes, which filled me with a nostalgic joy all by itself. I found it to be a somewhat unique and refreshing episode. I particularly liked the acting from Odala.
I’ve tended to assume that the reason the Borg never assimilated the societies encountered in VGR’s first three seasons is because they were unable to get past Voth territory, since the Voth are 20 million years old and even more advanced than the Borg. Although I also figure the Voth are like Imperial China, content to preserve the prosperity and power that they have in their own territory rather than being motivated to expand further outward, which is why they leave the Borg alone as long as the Borg leave them alone. If they were expansionist, after all, they could’ve easily conquered the whole galaxy long ago.
Although Picard undermined my hypothesis by establishing that the Borg had assimilated Sikarian technology (a trajector). But then, the trajector let the Sikarians rove across a volume 40,000 light years in radius, so the Borg could’ve assimilated one of their colonies elsewhere.
I only saw this one completely through a few weeks ago. I think I had never been particularly excited about it because talking dinosaurs seemed hokey and a ploy to grab ratings since dinosaurs are generally very popular; and then I also was wary of an episode where the POV was not from our regular hero characters. But having now gotten past all of that, I can see that this is indeed a good story and a quintessentially Star Trek episode. The Voth are certainly unique among the alien races seen on Trek, and it’s a nice spin on making “the dinosaurs” the more technologically advanced culture compared to the representation of the Federation: the Voyager. I thought Odala was especially well-acted. Good use of Chakotay here. The CGI on the show continues to be more and more impressive. And finally, the story is important and still very timely and relevant even today: the disavowal of scientific truth as a “hoax” or “fake news” because it doesn’t fit a particular society’s current political, or sociological, or religious viewpoint whether it be about evolution, or climate change, or the effectiveness of vaccines. It seems time and time again scientists and researchers have to come up against skeptics and doubters, often those holding power, and struggle to have scientific truth be accepted by the masses.
@11,
That’s an interesting analogy. I’d never thought about it that way, but yeah, the Voth are akin to Imperial China.
Similarly to the Vaadwaur, I’ve always wished VOY had followed up on the Voth down the road (and I’m glad you and Kirsten Beyer both did so in your own VOY stories).
One thing that bothers me a little is that this reinforces the idea that Earth is the most special planet in the universe – of all the life-bearing planets out there, all the species that evolved over 70 million years, it’s Earth’s dinosaurs that manage to create a vastly advanced civilization halfway across the galaxy? not Vulcan’s dinosaurs or Klingon dinosaurs or Bajoran dinosaurs? Somewhat intermingled with the issue of timescales, that 20 million years is a Long Time for a civlization.
(I suppose one could imagine that the galaxy is full of introsepective-but-advanced 20-million-year-old civilizations but that they are quiet and don’t talk to humans so we don’t see them on the series – we only see this one because they have the connection to Earth and Voyager; the rest just ignore Our Heroes.)
I completely love this episode. A great Trek story with elements that we don’t usually get to see. It’s always fun to see incredibly advanced species that aren’t openly hostile (Borg), omnipotent (Q, Prophets), or beings of pure energy that prefer to reveal themselves as glowing orbs of light (sooo many from TOS).
As for the 148 life signs, I always assumed that some of the human crewmembers had pets and the Voth’s sensors picked up some of those. If we assume they were scanning specifically for life with matching genetic markers, wouldn’t cats or other Earth species also be picked up?
Side note: I always found the “scanning for lifeforms” technology more frustrating to think about than the universal translator. How can they tell from orbit how many people are on a planet? How do they differentiate the sentient life from other animals or humans from other humanoid species? DS9 had an off-screen character that seemed to be some kind of sentient plant; did that guy show up on sensors when they scanned for lifeforms? I know it’s best not to think about, but it always bugs me.
@14/bmac:
Given the degree of phenotypic and (since they can interbreed) genotypic similarity between Vulcan and Klingon and Bajoran humanoids, via “TNG: The Chase” teleo-genetic program, their respective dinosaurs were probably also pretty similar. After megayears and a mere 47 common genetic markers (quite apart from stellar drift over that span), Voyager’s crew shouldn’t be able to pin down the origin closer than the Alpha Quadrant (or the explored portion thereof) — but picking “Earth” specifically is playing to the Earthican audience.
Conversely, does this mean the humanoids of the Delta Quadrant (Ocampa, Trabe, Kazon, Sikarians, Vidiians, Talaxians, etc.), with whom the Voth should be familiar, don’t share genetic markers with the Voth? And transitively, with Earth-humans? Also conversely, a commonality of markers can be interpreted as the Voth *immigrated* from across the galaxy, but also pre-Voth *emigrated* in the opposite direction. There must be more to this “Distant Origins” hypothesis than we’re privy to.
#14. Chalk it up to Voyager’s audience being 100% on Earth. ;)
I’m happy to see praise for this episode. One of my all-time favorites.
Maybe there were seven iguanas on board… LOL!
@14/bmac: There’s nothing to rule out the possibility that other planets’ ancient life forms spread out across the galaxy and evolved into the species we know today. After all, we don’t know what kind of prehistoric life they might have had.
Besides, TOS established that the natives of Sargon’s planet (called Arret in the script) seeded humanoids on many worlds 5-600,000 years ago, and TNG established that the first humanoid species to evolve in the galaxy seeded life on thousands of worlds, programming its DNA to promote the eventual evolution of humanoids. So what you ask for has already been done in a sense.
One of Voyager’s best. Distant Origin owes a lot to TNG’s First Contact, but I’d say this is the better episode overall. Unlike the Malcorians, who were a young, unprepared race, the Voth are very much experienced and advanced. Far more so than the Federation. That’s why it works, because it shows that even an enlightened, more advanced race is still capable of making mistakes and descending back into intolerance. Gagen is very much a tragic character because of this, much more so than Mirasta Yale.
Connecting it to dinosaur lineage was a very, very smart approach, one that doesn’t feel forced and even makes a surprising amount of sense in a sci-fi context. This is one Delta Quadrant race I would have gladly revisited, if it weren’t for the fact that not only was Voyager racing towards the Alpha Quadrant, but they’d soon make the first major hyperjump thanks to Kes, killing any chance of running into the Voth ever again (unless they were the ones making the effort to locate Voyager).
Like in Unity, it’s a smart choice to frame the action through Chakotay. He still embodies a lot of the better humanist ideals seen in the best Starfleet officers. His Maquis background helps a lot also. He’s the one officer capable of truly understanding other races and knowing when not to step in their culture and ideals.
Kudos to Berman for suggesting the Galileo route, and also to Braga and Menosky for coming up with tight, focused script than never loses sight of its theme. It may be a TNG-esque approach, but it serves Voyager well when the story is this good.
@11/Christopher: The Voth being a hindrance to Borg expansion makes perfect sense. It even justifies their decision to go after fluidic space instead, and try to assimilate Species 8472.
I was actually just thinking about this episode the other day, so I was surprised to see it pop up today.
It’s nice to see so many people like this one, because previously I’d have been a bit embarrassed to say I found it interesting to watch on account of I, like the above poster, feel like the advanced dinosaur plot felt like it seems hokey. But I liked the actual storyline of them exploring the mystery of figuring out who these people are. One scene that always sticks out to me is when they are going around showing pictures of what they think human as look like, and people are telling them to make the arms shorter, etc.
#14. I should add the thought of what a Klingon dinosaur would look like is fascinating. Somebody needs to make that book: an illustrated prehistoric guidebook to the Star Trek universe. I’d buy one!
@11 – We know the Borg assimilated some Talaxians (Seven said they made excellent drones, so that’s all fine then) and that they didn’t bother assimilating the Kazon because they would “detract from perfection” so they encountered at least some species from the first three seasons despite the Voth; though the Talaxians admittedly are weirdly far-ranging (looking at you, Homestead), we never see the Kazon again once we leave their territory as far as I can recall.
Chakotay’s speech to the Voth elders on the bravery of their ancestors to forge their way across the galaxy is definitely in the top 10 Star Trek Speeches of all time. Excellent use of his background and interests as an anthropologist (@8- perfectly said)and something we should have seen more of.
@21: I didn’t really think of the notion of space dinosaurs as necessarily hokey. Science fiction is as much about telling stories with outlandish elements as it is about realistic ones. If it can sell the idea through the writing, I have no problem with it. My worry was that the concept would have felt forced if they hadn’t done the necessary leg work to sell it. But with enough research, analysis, and a lot of rewriting they made it credible. Making it a classic morality play was the best approach.
Finally, an episode that wasn’t embarrassing to watch. Besides Tomei’s excellent acting, I could even enjoy the creature design, which departed from forehead ridges and included thoughtfully painted differences in scale color, and with mouths that somehow still worked in the midst of all that heavy “snakeskin.”
On the subject of “space dinosaurs,” we should keep in mind that one branch of dinosaurs still thrives today, namely the birds. And we have seen a few avian species in Trek — the recycled Outer Limits bird creature in the Talosian zoo in “The Cage,” the Aurelians and Skorr in the animated series, the extinct Xindi-Avians, possibly the ST:TMP Betelgeusians (described in costume notes as having attributes of eagles and leopards), and of course various nonsentient alien birds like Tarkalean hawks, Gunji jackdaws, etc.
Not for the first time, I’m forced to ponder whether we’ve got more cynical since the 90s or whether the world actually has got worse. When this episode was broadcast, it was “about” Galileo. Now? Well, now the idea of those in power ignoring any facts or evidence they don’t like in favour of dogmatically repeating their own worldview doesn’t seem like something we’ve consigned to history anymore.
An interesting opening as we follow a group of aliens in their search for Voyager, and it says a lot for the writing and acting that we don’t find ourselves checking our watches wondering when Janeway and co will show up. Actually, when they do show up they’re rather ineffective. The scenes of Janeway and the Doctor slowly coming to the same conclusion as Gegen do at least demonstrate the crew’s scientific expertise, but ultimately they’re outclassed the moment they run into the Voth, and the sequence of Paris regaining control of the weapons systems only for the Voth to promptly lock him out again is pure padding.
Ultimately, the episode hinges on the friendship between Chakotay and Gegen, who in a sense come to embody the relationship between their two species as they quickly find common ground and a common cause. But they’re fighting against the tide: They both make some nice speeches but find themselves facing closed minds that don’t want to open. The climax is thus very bittersweet. They can all get on with their lives but the Voth remain in wilful ignorance. Only the fact that one man accepts the truth gives them hope for the future.
The Voth refer to the ship as the Voyager on several occasions, to the point that it’s almost ceased to be notable. Note that Hogan’s death is said to be over a year ago, which doesn’t fit the usual pattern of one season equals one calendar year and makes the dating of Kes’ birthday from two episodes ago even more unlikely. (Then again, maybe the Voth have short years.)
@28/cap-mjb: It wasn’t just about Galileo. It was about the battle between science and creationist/fundamentalist politicians that’s been an ongoing part of American life since the Scopes trial, and which was certainly quite active in the 1990s, with lots of Republican politicians embracing creationism to pander to Evangelical voters, and right-wing legislators and activists pushing for creationist dogma to be given “equal time” in science classes and for evolution to be taught as “just a theory” (which, as Keith said about Odala, totally misunderstands what that word means). The episode was very, very much a commentary on current events at the time. Berman didn’t want to make it “about Galileo” out of abstract historical interest, but because Galileo’s story was deeply relevant to the controversies of the day.
Incidentally, one technical detail that always bugs me is that the Voth’s “translation matrix” is able to figure out how the letters “VOYAGER” on the scraps of Hogan’s uniform are pronounced. How could you possibly extrapolate that from a single sample with no other writing or linguistic information to compare it to? It’s impossible. Even with a complete written text, they’d have no way to know what sounds the symbols corresponded to.
This is an excellent episode for many well-explicated reasons, but I want to point out that this is perhaps the worst example of all Braga’s failures to understand evolution, in a way even worse than “Threshold.” In that one, amidst all the nonsense, you could at least imagine an environment that might cause humans to eventually evolve into fat salamanders. But the scene in the holodeck in this episode is so logically backwards that it’s actually funny.
Obviously just making “projections” about what a dinosaur might evolve into over 70 million years is not just impossible, it’s a total misunderstanding of how evolution works. In 70 million years a dinosaur could evolve into anything, from a toucan to a penguin to (theoretically) a 10-legged flying amphibian. But the kicker in this case is that in order to project what something would evolve into, the computer would have had to pick some kind of environmental parameters to base it on, and in the absence of any knowledge of the Voth’s purported home planet it would have had nothing to go on except Earth itself. So that means that the computer predicted the hadrasaurs would have evolved into the Voth had they stayed in the very environment they were forced to flee in order to avoid extinction! This is so completely bass-ackwards that it doesn’t just make a mess of science it even contradicts itself. That just tickles me.
Otherwise yes, this is a really cool episode. 9-year-old me was hardcore into 2 things: Star Trek and dinosaurs, so I thought this was the best idea ever. And it is a great sci-fi idea, something really far out but not actually ridiculous, and used as a vehicle for a great social commentary that it turns out is pretty timeless. 9/10 is about right.
@30/eric: We can’t assume that Braga didn’t understand evolution, because he was making a work of fiction, not writing a science essay. All we can say for sure is that he didn’t feel an accurate depiction of evolution was necessary for telling the imaginary tales he had in mind. It’s unreasonable to mistake an author’s storytelling choices for genuine beliefs about the real world. The fact that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wrote stories about Thor, Loki, and Odin does not mean they actually worshipped the Norse gods, just that they saw the fantasy concept as worth telling stories about. And X-Files creator Chris Carter is actually a skeptic about UFOs, psychic powers, and the like. He didn’t write the show to express genuine belief in those ideas, merely to make use of them for entertainment.
So for all we know, Braga is perfectly aware of how evolution really works, but chose to posit a more fanciful version in Star Trek because it served the stories better. In this case, it should be easy to understand why having the holodeck “project evolution” helps get the premise across visually in a way that a dry conversation about corresponding DNA markers and compatible biochemistry would not.
The bit where Janeway asks for the evolutionary projection and the computer does it instantly is ridiculous on top of being impossible. It could have at least taken a few minutes.
I must be in the minority here because I thought this episode was stupid. I just couldn’t buy that a race of intelligent dinosaurs lived on Earth and developed warp technology millions of years ago. Even in Star Trek I can only suspend my disbelief only so much. Well acted definitively, but a ridiculous premise.
@29/CLB: Ah, okay. I guess either that didn’t get as much publicity over here or I wasn’t paying attention.
Still, to be a contrarian, among the dictionary definitions of “theory” is “a conjectural view or idea” or, even more bluntly, “an idea or opinion”, even suggesting it can be used interchangeably with hypothesis. So it’s less a case of politicians or evangelicals not knowing what the word means and more a case of them using a different definition to scientists. (Indeed, even the scientific definition leaves room for doubt, being defined as “a system of rules, procedures and assumptions used to produce a result” or “a set of ideas, based on evidence and careful reasoning, which offers an explanation of how something works or why something happens, but has not been completely proven”. It’s a theory, not a law. That’s the problem with theories: One side of the argument has their scientists with their theories, the other has their scientists with their theories, as this episode demonstrates. And no, that’s not me saying evolution doesn’t exist.)
@9/David H. Oliver: “And if a minor technical issue (whose warp plasma?) stands in the way of a good story, then why not conveniently ignore the minor technical issue? Not everyone is into 100% rigid continuity.”
Well, then why have the minor technical issue there in the first place? That seems like a poor excuse for lazy writing. Not only was the canister of warp plasma not from Voyager, but it blew up, and the whole thing could have been solved just by checking the details of an episode from just a few months earlier, realising that doesn’t work and coming up with something else, like Gegen getting Voyager’s signature from the station records.
That dig at Berman detractors is real weird. “See, he had some good story ideas from time to time, that’s worth his shitty treatment of actors and writes”.
@32/noblehunter: “The bit where Janeway asks for the evolutionary projection and the computer does it instantly is ridiculous on top of being impossible. It could have at least taken a few minutes.”
Again, dramatic license. They only had 42 minutes to tell their story; they couldn’t have the characters just standing around waiting for the computer to run an analysis. Think of it as the equivalent of cop shows where the lab gets back the DNA results on a homicide case in a few hours instead of a few weeks.
@33/Christopher Rice: See my link in comment #8. The premise of a technological civilization existing on Earth in prehistoric times and being erased from the geological record is actually a lot more plausible than you’d think. And failing that, there’s always the Trek trope of Earth life being transplanted elsewhere by advanced aliens.
@34/cap-mjb: “Still, to be a contrarian, among the dictionary definitions of “theory” is “a conjectural view or idea” or, even more bluntly, “an idea or opinion”, even suggesting it can be used interchangeably with hypothesis.”
That’s the vernacular usage, which is distinct from the precise usage the term has in a scientific context. That’s the whole problem — people who want to deny science just love to wield that ambiguity as a weapon, claiming that “theory” means the same thing in science that it means in vernacular. But that is a lie.
A scientific theory is a model that is formulated to explain an existing set of data and make testable predictions that can allow it to be supported or refuted by further data. The myth is that a theory is something less than a “fact,” but it’s actually the other way around. A “fact” is a data point, an observation or result. A theory is something that takes a body of “facts” and offers an explanation of why they exist, what larger set of principles makes them happen. If you know the why and how, then you can predict what new facts might be found, and as long as the predictions are correct, that means the theory is reliable. If they’re incorrect, the theory is revised or replaced with a new theory. But even the most thoroughly, consistently verified theory in science is still a theory, because the word does not mean that it’s unproven or untested. It means that it’s a systematic, predictive model explaining a set of observed phenomena. It never stops being a theory no matter how reliably verified it’s been.
“It’s a theory, not a law.”
Same answer. A theory is bigger than a law. It’s more than a single fact or a single law. A scientific law is merely a description of an observed phenomenon: condition X will produce result Y, factor P is in this proportion to factor Q. A theory is the deeper explanation of why that law exists. A theory can encompass multiple laws and explain how they’re interconnected. More importantly, a theory predicts. It doesn’t just codify past results, it points toward new ones. It helps you find new laws.
Scientific theory is the most powerful tool for finding truth that humanity has ever invented. So it’s infuriating that so many people are blinded by the completely different vernacular definition of the word and mistake this profoundly powerful tool of discovery for “just a guess.” Especially when people with political and ideological agendas weaponize that misunderstanding to propagate science denialism.
I remember loving this episode when I first saw it, and kept looking forward to seeing the Voth again. With the entire Voyager crew’s goal of getting home, I always thought it would have added an extra layer if a Voth had joined the crew so that they were going home for the first time.
Sadly we never see the Voth again during the course of the series, and I can’t help but call that a wasted opportunity given how good this episode is.
@36-ChristopherLBennett: Regarding the discussion on theory, hear! hear! I could not agree more.
Of course, we’re applying the concept of a scientific theory vs opinion to an alien species, whose speech is presumably being translated into English for us. So it’s an odd nit to pick.
@39- Only if you view this episode in a vacuum, I suppose. I mean, if we look at the episode’s parallels to real life, wherein exactly that conflict over the meaning of the word has cropped up repeatedly in the discourse of scientific education…
@40 – I’m referring to the original nitpick of Odala using the word theory instead of opinion. We’re not hearing the conversation in their native tongue, so it can be chalked up to a translation quirk.
@41/Austin: These are not real aliens, though. The story only exists as an allegory about human society. So the human use of the words is what’s relevant.
@35: I don’t think anyone made any correlation between Berman’s issues as a person and his work. They are two separate things. I don’t condone his on-set behavior towards actors, directors and writers at all. But I’m also capable of recognizing his professional contributions to the franchise, his ability to pilot multiple shows (upwards of 52 episodes per year) plus feature films and still somehow maintain continuity and respect to Roddenberry’s original vision. Suffice to say, DS9 wouldn’t exist without him.
And in regards to personal foibles, the same can be said of Roddenberry’s antics back in the day, especially his treatment of women. That has nothing to do with the fact that he created the thing in the first place, making a colossal effort to sell it to the network (which took two full pilots, I might add). Berg and Harberts and their abusive treatment of the Discovery writers are well documented, but it doesn’t invalidate their work in making the show a reality. Separating the person from their work is essential, otherwise we might as well quit reading books, or watching movies and television.
@43/Eduardo: Yes. Nobody is monolithic. Nobody is as bad as their worst act or as good as their best act. There have been many horrible human beings who have created great things. The work is not the person. It’s more of an offspring. Do we damn children for the sins of their parents?
Heck, there’s a lot about me that I don’t like — a lot of ways in which I fall short of my ideals or fail to be as good to others as I ought to be. But I still try to achieve something positive with my life, something that will hopefully balance or outweigh my failings. So I’m not going to look at another person who’s also screwed up and pretend I’m some perfect being entitled to damn their entire existence and all their creations just because they aren’t perfect. And even if someone is so awful that they can’t be redeemed as a person, like Bill Cosby, say, I can still see their work as something to celebrate as long as it doesn’t actively support their awful attributes, as long as it can stand apart from it or even cancel it out in some way (like how Ender’s Game and Harry Potter can both be read as powerful indictments of the very kind of intolerant thinking that their authors have subsequently been revealed to endorse).
@30/erictheread:
Well, probably not ten legs: bauplans are evidently highly conserved, and our lineage of tetrapods has been tetrapodal for over 300 million years, since our earliest fishy forebears; no vertebrate has more than four limbs (some have fewer, like cetaceans or snakes). To change the number of limbs would require artificial genetic intervention, which might reasonably transpire in a civilization (more likely, sequence of multiple species and civilizations) over that decamegayear span. –But at this point we’re getting into speculative notions that a 42-minute teleplay can’t adequately explore, although a novel might. (CLB’s own TNG: The Buried Age goes in some of those directions.)
(Now, when the revived Doctor Who traveled five gigayears into the future in “The End of the World” (2005) and encountered humanoids who had evolved from trees — over that span, technic life could re-evolve from bacteria repeatedly. We apes would have as much biological commonality with those far-future characters as we do with fungi or the outcome of panspermia on a distant planet.)
@44 – (like how Ender’s Game…)
Which is why I didn’t see the movie. OSC made his money off the novel bit I didn’t want him making even more off of a successful movie franchise. He got my money once for the novel. Not one penny more/
Also pertains to people like Mel Gibson.
I would never advocate removing the books from bookstores or libraries or banning the showing of the movies. I just don’t feel like giving awful people more money that they will use to become more awful.
@36/CLB: I can understand the frustration but that does work both ways. Just as scientists shouldn’t be dismissed as not knowing what they’re talking about because they call it a theory, laymen shouldn’t be mocked for using the everyday definition of theory rather than the one that only a subsection of the population seem to know about. The problem only arises when you’ve got two people in a conversation using the same word to mean different things.
@47/cap-mjb: It’s not about “mocking.” It’s about context. If the subject is a scientific theory, such as evolution or climate change, then the scientific definition of the word “theory” is the one that should be used, and applying a different definition is an error, not a valid choice. It’s like the old Honeymooners joke where Ralph is teaching Ed how to golf and says “Now address the ball” and Ed says “Hello, ball!” The word “address” does have that meaning, but it’s incorrect to use it in that context. There’s no ambiguity there. The fact that the word has valid meanings in other contexts doesn’t matter, because only the golf definition is valid to use when you’re playing golf. And so only the scientific definition of “theory” is valid to use when you’re talking specifically about a scientific theory.
@31 Christopher
Okay maybe I shouldn’t say Braga doesn’t understand evolution in a basic sense, but the fact that he took the very same dramatic licence with the concept in at least 2 episodes makes me wonder. It’s not exactly an uncommon misconception that evolution is some kind of ladder that has levels of development that every species occupies, and that some animals are “more evolved” than others. Or that evolution is some kind of force that can be measured and predicted, instead of a concept to simply explain why species change over time. And if he does get what evolution actually describes then he should have been more careful in his manipulation of its principles to write his stories. The fact that his scientific principles being ridiculous and wrong in many of his Trek scripts, on a level far beyond what most of the franchise allows itself, is probably the most common criticism of his work and the main reason some fans can’t stand him says to me that he would have been a better writer if he tried to hew more closely to established science, or at least not let the needs of the plot run away with the science and take it to flat out silly places.
In this episode for example, I don’t know how necessary it was for Janeway and the Doctor to make the direct connection between hadrosaurs and the Voth. We already know that Gegen believed his people came from the same place as Voyager, i.e., Earth, and we just had the computer tell us that the genetic markers they found had the most in common with hadrosaurus. That’s enough for us to make the connection ourselves, without even needing to use the idea that evolution can be predicted over millions of years in an unknown environment. Maybe I’m giving the general audience too much credit, but I think Janeway just saying “these saurian-looking aliens we’ve been following all episode are related to dinosaurs, we have the genetic markers to show it” is plenty to give the viewer that “oh wow” moment.
And I’m not a science purist at all, it is science fiction (and in Star Trek’s case, the science has always been secondary to the fiction), and I don’t have a problem with Brannon Braga either. He’s written some of my favorite episodes of Star Trek. I just find it to be a sometimes frustrating, and sometimes amusing, quirk of his style that so many of his ideas went to such absurd places, when with a bit more thought they probably didn’t need to.
@5/CLB:
Ironically, I actually read this article the night before this rewatch had been posted as a sort of preview to help formulate any comments I might wish to make. Small world……
wide web
But on the subject of an advanced civilization existing on earth before us, I didn’t need The Atlantic to believe in the possibility. I personally don’t see how anyone can definitively say: “Nope, didn’t happen!” We’re talking an incomprehensibly long time that the earth has been here. There’s no way today that we can say one way or the other. Hopefully someday we can.
@49/erictheread: “And if he does get what evolution actually describes then he should have been more careful in his manipulation of its principles to write his stories.”
“Should?” What an ugly and dangerous concept — that creators of fiction must be forced to conform to a single way of doing things. I find that unconscionable. I prefer writing plausible, hard science fiction myself, but I will fiercely defend the right of any creator to write completely fanciful, nonsensical sci-fi if that is what they prefer to do. There is no “should” here. These aren’t textbooks, they’re works of imagination and entertainment. So there is no obligation to meet any standard of realism. If realism is used in fiction, that is an individual artistic choice, not an authoritarian mandate.
Would I prefer it if Trek writers used more plausible science? Hell, yes. But that’s a matter of taste, not a matter of “should.” And it’s ridiculous to single out Braga on that point, because that ship sailed long before he ever joined the franchise. There’s a ton of nonsensical science in TOS and TAS and the movies, and a fair amount in TNG before Braga came along. And there’s a ton of nonsensical science in post-Braga productions like Nemesis, the Kelvinverse, and Discovery.
Hey, Star Trek Discovery or Picard or Lower Decks, if you folks wanna bring back the Voth in some way, I would be very happy.
Signed,
a dino fan
I loved this episode. But man did it leave me pissed off. Of all the villains in Star Trek, there are few I personally revile as much as Odala and the Voth Doctrine. Genuinely despicable to me. Almost cowardly. That ending produced a visceral emotional reaction in me. Gegen is conversely, one of the great heroes in the franchise. For me this episode hit on every conceivable level. And much better than the Dinos with Guns concept. Though as a Star Trek Online player, I’m not gonna ignore the basic coolness of “DINOSAURS WITH FRIKKIN LASER BEAMS!!!!”. And for those who know very little of STO rest assured that Voth Doctrine and ego is still causing plenty of trouble still in the early 25th century…and in fact has become much more dangerous. And Voth space being a Great Wall between Borg Space and the far end of the Quadrant works nicely.
I was going to comment on Voyager’s earlier encounters with the Borg…and then I suddenly realised we have no idea where Voth space is, because they take a transwarp journey to catch up with Voyager. Possibly not too far away from Kazon space, if Gegen was poking around on Hanon? In which case, I hope they didn’t take Voyager back to their home planet and then turn them loose there, otherwise they’ve just added about a year onto their journey…
@52 Christopher
You have a real knack for picking one word or phrase from a comment and expanding it into an entire set of values that you can then argue with. I’m pointing out an issue I have with a writer’s work. I’m not some thought policeman trying to limit free expression. If Mr. Braga were someone I knew personally, I would make the same suggestion to his face that I did in my comment. It’s my opinion that flimsy and absurd science is a particular weakness of his sci-fi scripts, to a degree beyond his contemporaries. He wouldn’t have to agree with me. You don’t have to agree with me. But please don’t attribute a villainous motive to me when I use a word you wouldn’t use.
As always, we ask that you keep the tone of conversation civil and constructive and avoid making disagreements personal. Our moderation policy can be found here.
While I agree with @56 that Braga’s awful take on science and evolution in particular does weigh this episode down, overall, the story and characters are well-crafted enough that it’s an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise great story, rather than a horribly flawed foundation that cripples the episode, a la “Threshold.” Having it start as a Voyager-lite story works out really well, and I’m quite impressed with how much worldbuilding they accomplish for what is basically a one-off alien species of the week. I’ll also add my voice to the chorus: Chakotay’s speech is a particular highlight, and a great showcase for a character who, quite frankly, doesn’t get much to do most days. Overall, just a very well-written and engaging episode.
This totally ripped off Chrono Trigger.
I did remember this as one of the episodes I liked but looking back they do hit the Galileo allegory about as subtle as they did the Oppenheimer one in Jetrel. But I suppose Subtlety isn’t one of Braga’s traits. That been said this is a good concept and I enjoyed Gegen and Veer observing the crew, and could actually have watched those interactions through most of the episode.
I remember this episode quite fondly, for the reasons you mention, krad.
@8 – Chris: Good point about Chakotay the anthropologist.
@60 – chadefallstar: Subtlety has never been Star Trek’s forte.
Seems to me that at the episode’s end, Gegen might as well join the Voyager crew for the trip to earth. His scientific studies have been halted, and he’s being forced to turn his work to a field he doesn’t have much interest in. He can take his ship with its trans warp capability and load it up with a chunk of Voyager crew, if he can’t take the entire Voyager ship aboard, and get to Earth in a fraction of the time it’d take Voyager to do it on its own. I’m sure the Voth wouldn’t really care what he did as long as he wasn’t countermanding their doctrine, and if he left, he certainly wouldn’t be. And he could actually continue his original scientific pursuit, even more so since Earth is apparently where they originally came from, and he could find all sorts of evidence there to support his scientific theory.
@62/Quasarmodo: If Gegen left the Voth, though, he wouldn’t be there to keep fighting for his cause. Just because he’s barred from advancing it openly doesn’t mean there aren’t alternative ways to resist authority. I always presumed he would go on to support or lead an underground movement to bring about change.
So yes, Gegen personally would’ve been better off if he’d left with Voyager, but it would’ve been very selfish if he had and would have detracted from his courage as a character.
He could still have given Voyager a ride. :)
#63. Plenty of outcasts, exiles, and defectors have worked outside their societies for change as well. That’s not inherently selfish. Sometimes it’s the sensible thing to do. Victor Lazlo wasn’t going to America to open a casino, you know.
@65/Cheerio: Sure, if Gegen had taken up residence in a neighboring state (say, with the Vostigye) and stuck around the quadrant to influence Voth society from without, that analogy would work. But that’s not what was suggested. What was suggested was that “Gegen might as well join the Voyager crew for the trip to earth.” That’s not like Victor Lazslo going to America, that’s like Victor Lazslo hopping on a passing flying saucer and migrating to a distant planet for the rest of his life.
#66. Well, that’s true, but I was thinking Gegen might lend some assistance in the development of transwarp on Voyager. Even though engineering wasn’t his field, one might assume he had some working knowledge of how his own ship’s systems worked.
In any event, I think Gegen would’ve been a nice addition to the cast as a regular or semi-regular.
@67/Cheerio: “I think Gegen would’ve been a nice addition to the cast as a regular or semi-regular.”
That would have been so cool. And plausible too, after adding an Ocampa, a Talaxian, and a Borg. They could have added new crewmembers along the way, and those could have founded a Delta Quadrant club after the end of the journey… I usually don’t get complaints about “the reset button”, but this I would have loved to see.
I think we do see the Voth again in subsequent episodes like Survival Instinct and Tsunkatse and since transwarp allows them to travel all across the quadrant, it’s certainly plausible. Why does the number of Voyager crew members vary from week to week? I always think Robert Beltran does better in episodes like Distant Origin where it doesn’t require him to do all of the heavy lifting. When ST runs out of real science it just makes it up and Braga is a particularly guilty offender (Threshold anyone?).
9: The canister of warp plasma looks like it’s being held by a member of the Tak Tak from Macrocosm. Could that be where Gegen and Veer acquired it and not Fair Trade? 11: The Borg did assimilate most of the Sakari from Blood Fever. What strikes me as unusual is that all the races Voyager encountered between Blood Fever to Displaced must live in constant fear of assimilation what with they’re proximity to Borg space, but it never ever comes up. And despite their dislike of non-saurians, the Voth don’t appear to be a race of conquerors like the Founders.
12: “Talking dinosaurs seemed hokey”. Does that include Dinosaurs? Odala is the Inquisition to Gegen’s Galileo. 15: DS9 has a plant that’s sentient? Who? 20: Transwarp allows the Voth to travel all across the quadrant so Voyager could definitely run into them again. 42: Since the Voth evolved from Earth, could they have developed an English language all they’re own? 49: “All episode”? Voyager doesn’t appear until 17 minutes in.
@59 – Anytime you see anything that can even remotely look like “Chrono Trigger”, it’s a good thing. :)
And yes, Odala would make for a perfect descendent of Azala.
This was a fantastic episode. Truly one of the best Voyager came up with.
@28
Why is it notable? “the Enterprise”, “the Defiant”, and in real life “the Titanic”, “the Mary Celeste”, and so on…
I agree for some reason “the Voyager” does sound odd, put I can’t put my finger on why?
@71/lessthanideal: It’s notable because the characters usually just called the ship Voyager, no “the.”
Besides the totally ridiculous idea about evolution, I have one more major concern with this episode. I don’t believe that any civilization that fights back science with religous beliefs so strongly, would ever develop or get as advanced as the one we see here. I think history has taught this lesson already pretty well…
How does this idea about the dino ancestors fit TNG’s Chase episode? :)
Belated reply, since I seem to have missed the comment…
“I don’t believe that any civilization that fights back science with religous beliefs so strongly, would ever develop or get as advanced as the one we see here.”
No civilization is unchanging over time, and the Voth are a really old civilization. They could’ve achieved this level of advancement when they were more open-minded, then become more dogmatic later on. If they reached a plateau of technological progress, they might have come to value stability and conservatism over experimentation and innovation.
“How does this idea about the dino ancestors fit TNG’s Chase episode? :)”
No problem there. “The Chase” established that the primordial seas of worlds with no life, or only single-celled life, were seeded 4 billion years ago with DNA programmed to encourage the gradual evolution of humanoid species. That means that all life on Earth, and indeed on every world with native humanoids, is descended from that common origin — which is implicitly also why other species such as dogs, horses, birds, trees, grass, grapes (implied by all the alien wines and brandies), etc. have evolved so similarly on other worlds.
Indeed, since the Voth’s hadrosaur ancestors ended up evolving into a humanoid form, that proves that the genetic program is part of them as well as us, since we both descended from it.
Great thread. my husband and I recently started a Voyager rewatch. (Enjoying it immensely; it’s like watching most episodes for the first time..) prompted to comment here because I realized that I was shocked when the episode ended. It was that good. I often find myself distracted through many episodes. checking rewatch comments etc. almost 4 yrs since the USA shut down and things are worse.
It’s also bittersweet. Almost up to losing Kes. And the big change in focus.