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....Ok how about the Evil Oil Slick that killed Tasha?
Section 31 has shown a remarkable tenancy for doing stupid things what if they thought they could weaponize pure evil?
My guess at the boss is the worm symbiotes from TNG season 1 episode conspiracy.
The blue gills were more beetle like things, the worms were their food.
I seriously doubt it's Armus. Sure he's powerful, but I don't think he's got the brains to pull this off.
something ancient, evil but weak
what is behind the red door
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Brian Bendis?
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Definite flashbacks from the episode to this oots
Ah good call! I knew the story seemed familiar somehow...
There were some great moments of awesome in this episode. Deanna and Raffi--a very brief exchange, but there was something I enjoyed in what brief banter they had. The bits with Data/Lore. The way Seven shouted "Fire!" Great performances all around. Amanda Plummer just... acting. Ice shattering.
But there were a lot of moments where I felt like the narrative wasn't being allowed to flow naturally... I was okay to a point of understanding the reveals about Jack would be slow. This was the first episode for me where I really felt they were now just artificially delaying things because they hadn't figured a better way for the pieces to come together, and the pacing suffered. I felt like in between the good moments was a ton of padding and stretching things too thin. I've crossed the line from being very curious about Jack to starting to not care. I think they could have managed
I wasn't looking at the screen when the episode first came on, and when I heard a certain voice talking, I immediately thought, "Oh, that's the Borg. When did the Borg show up?" And it was Vadic's handpuppetmaster. So I'm wondering if the Borg are behind this all along. They keep mentioning Picard's history, Shaw's trauma, etc. and I remember early on someone saying that there were still Big Bad Borg out there and Jurati's splinter group is just a little one. Also there's been Borg theming throughout the previous two seasons that may well have served as buildup to this. Oh, and Vadic remarked that Seven being there to witness presumably Jack's transformation as "fitting."
So I'm thinking the Borg nanites did something with the Irumodic DNA in Picard's brain to transform it into some kind of psychic potential, but it never fully developed in Picard as they changed him back from Locutus, but the altered Borg-DNA remained. This passed along to Jack and even grew more advanced as he developed. Jack's Irumodic brain now enables him to telepathically assimilate any person he has touched. Right now temporarily. But if the full link is opened, then he might be able to do worse. The Tortured Changelings had made a deal with the Borg because they are severed from the Great Link, their own collective hivemind, and they are desperate for a return to being a part of a meta-organism. Changelings can't be physically assimilated by the ordinary Borg because the Borg stuff doesn't work on their physiology, but if Jack-cutus could telepathically assimilate them then they get drawn into a new hivemind and no longer feel isolated.
The reason this might all be nonsense is Deanna, who I'm pretty sure is not up to anything evil or shenaniganish, seemed to know what the red door was all about (but also why she didn't explain that theory to anyone else before she went into meditation with Jack is weird). While the clip from next episode shown on the Ready Room shows that she didn't get what she expected when the door opens, she obviously knows something about the red door and seems to think it's a good thing.
I also read a fan theory that he's possessed by Redjac, the noncorporeal alien who possessed Jack the Ripper in prior episodes of TOS and TNG, although despite the "Jack" connection seems probably too obscure.
Apropos of nothing, seeing Data's memory of Tasha as represented by the holophoto made me happy.
Welp, called it for the most part. The DNA being in the transporters was an unexpected twist. Still feel like the revelation came two episodes too late, and felt more frustrated than relieved/excited/vindicated when they finally revealed that f&#$ing cube. Everything now happening feels crammed in.
Thought it was cool hearing the Borg Queen's voice go between Beverly, Vadic, and actual Borg Queen Alice Krige! ((Oh, but I miss you Annie Wersching, RIP.))
Wonder if we'll get an assist from the Agnes Collective as a surprise in the final episode.
Convenient how Seven and Raffi get separated from the rest of the main cast so they can go have their nostalgia fest but... ah, all the nostalgia in the ending hit me in the feels anyway, as was intended by the show.
Maaaan, RIP Shaw. I knew it was a possibility, but so many people have been saying they want to see a spinoff with him, it sucks that won't happen. But at least we got him calling Seven by her name. As much as I loved TNG as a kid and am looking forward to the continued reunion, I loved Voyager and Seven as a young adult even more*, and I am looking forward to seeing Seven and Raffi kicking ass and taking names next episode.
* VOY without a doubt had its (many) flaws and I do not mean to spark a debate about which one was overall "better"; just noting my own emotional relationship with the shows and characters.
I'm not sure I mentioned this prior, but I've hated Jack this whole season. For me he's been the one dark stain on an otherwise excellent season. I've largely seen him as more a plot device than as a character like the rest. He was, is, and continues to be a selfish f+@% who acts like he has all the answers when he has none of them. He had one good moment the prior episode when facing Vadic and that's about it. Even his "good causes" seemed to stem from self-righteousness and showing off rather than true compassion or empathy, and even before the big reveal he seemed overly self-important (Picard himself can come off as self-important but there's always been a humility and empathy that softens his edges that Jack completely lacks). He seems to have none of either Jean-Luc's or Beverly's good qualities. And the actor seems to prefer to portray him as either snide or over anything else most of the time. Every time I've seen him I've wanted to punch him.
This episode made me hate him even more, especially since it was obvious what he was about to do and that immediately seemed futile. I care about what will happen to everyone else, but the sooner he is disintegrated into subparticles, the better, even though this will devastate Bev and JL. I know it won't happen but I wish they'd just kind of forget about him now and focus on the larger issue at hand. Unfortunately I expect he'll probably be the deus ex machina in the final episode instead.
Old people afraid of gen z, communism, and Wi-fi
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Old people afraid of gen z, communism, and Wi-fi
Lol!!! Spot on!
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*grumbles* Damn kids!! Get off my lawn!!
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Some of the stupidity of the whole "all the fleet in one place for Frontier Day" is somewhat explained by the fact that the Borg/Changeling alliance wanted that to happen and made sure voices of reason against that were overlooked/overruled. I've been gnashing my teeth about that all season, but seems that there's a reason it happened.
I liked one of the Easter eggs in the list of ships on the screen which were at Frontier Day, the USS Okuda, named for Mike Okuda, who pretty much designed all of the look and feel of TNG.
Well that was fun. Nicely wrapped up and particularly liked the way everything went into the credits.
I hated the stinger but I expect I will be in a considerable minority.
Engage!
I have more detailed comments and nitpicks and praises but I'll wait.
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I hated the stinger but I expect I will be in a considerable minority.
Same but for different reasons. I don't particularly dislike Jack (he's just boring, in love with himself and self-important, so basically this generations Tom Paris), but the other character in the stinger, grr, never liked them, still don't!
Otherwise, still unclear why they made a season devoted to ignoring the previous season's plotline entirely. "The Borg are new and different! A brave new frontier! New stories to tell! No wait. Never mind, here's the same old Borg and same old stories!"
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I hated the stinger but I expect I will be in a considerable minority.Same but for different reasons. I don't particularly dislike Jack (he's just boring, in love with himself and self-important, so basically this generations Tom Paris), but the other character in the stinger, grr, never liked them, still don't!
Actually we're completely on the same page there. I don't like the character of Jack but that wasn't my issue in that moment.
Otherwise, still unclear why they made a season devoted to ignoring the previous season's plotline entirely. "The Borg are new and different! A brave new frontier! New stories to tell! No wait. Never mind, here's the same old Borg and same old stories!"
The show made clear in both S2 and S3 during dialogue that Jurati's Borg from S2 and the Original Flavor Borg are separate collectives. The reason being that JuratiBorg are the result of Q-caused wibbly wobbly timey wimeyness that do not negate the existence of the original Borg---the Borg Queen that partially assimilated Agnes came from the Confederacy universe, and her existence had no impact on the separate existence of the Borg in the Prime universe. When the team fixed the timeline and went back to their own time, QueenJurati stayed in the 21st century and got back to the 24th century the long way around, and so her and her team's evolution is completely separate from the OG Borg's evolution which began millennia ago in the Delta Quadrant, and everything the OG Borg ever were or did is unaffected by the new Borg's presence (otherwise Locutus never would have existed and the entire season's plot never would have happened).
Jurati's Borg are currently guarding the universe from some nebulous threat at the edge of the galaxy, IIRC.
Meanwhile the OG Borg had been nearly destroyed with a virus during an event I can't clearly remember (either one of the TNG movies or the series finale of Voyager) and this was OG Borg Queen's (voiced by OG Borg Queen Alice Krige!) effort to return. It doesn't undo what happened in Season 2, it just is a separate, Borg-related incident, with the connection being Picard's longtime effort to overcome what happened to him as Locutus. The further connections from S2 to S3 are that now that Picard had been able to confront the demons of his past, he was better equipped to handle gaining a family and building a future.
I do think it's weird given the story that we couldn't have the JuratiBorg turn up to help, but time/budget/etc. probably made that difficult. I expect if they greenlight a new series, we might see that version of the Borg again as allies.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I doubt it was a budget reason, since they apparently spent a ton re-doing the Enterprise D's bridge set. If I were to guess it's that Jurati Borg may have wanted to not make a Borg civil war/fight their cousins. either it made them uncomfortable, or they didn't want to be perceived as aggressors to Borg which might make being open to accepting other Borg refugees harder if there could be the underlying fear that Jurati borg kill borg they don't agree with or like. Or maybe they're just pacifist now, who knows. Their absence didn't bother me at all.
As for the episode itself, it was good, hit all the feels, and wasn't too out of left field how they succeeded with everything. If anything it was the least exciting of the episodes since too much was predictable - there weren't any unexpected curveballs to reveal to fans really. But it was fun, satisfying conclusion, and definitely set up the next Star Trek series I want them to make - keep advancing the timeline, no more prequels please!
As for the stinger, I liked it, but have always liked them.
Personally, my favorite bit was Worf falling asleep and snoring as soon as he sat down at the end - mainly because that's something my dad does frequently (not the badass Klingon warrior part, just the sit down and sleep as soon as there's nothing actively engaging him, no matter where he might be). :)
DQ,
To clarify your query, it was the series finale of Voyager that showcased a virus that caused the Borg to lose cohesion with their organic/inorganic parts. Thus that's why Alice's Krige's Borg Queen looked so...not together.
...You know, between the Changelings and the Borg one thing this story did kind of shine a light on
The Federation has a nasty tendency to resort to Bio-Weapons when pushed
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But...but...Laris! Is she still waiting in that bar for him? I need closure!
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Personally, my favorite bit was Worf falling asleep and snoring as soon as he sat down at the end - mainly because that's something my dad does frequently (not the badass Klingon warrior part, just the sit down and sleep as soon as there's nothing actively engaging him, no matter where he might be). :)
My absolute favorite line in the whole episode was after Ryker chided Worf for using his sword through all that fighting, when he had a phaser in the hilt the entire time.
"Swords are fun."
No wordy rebuttal, no Klingon warrior philosophy b#+&@!@#, just 'swords are fun.' I love it!
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Worf: "And I shall make it a threesome."
Riker: "Do you ever listen to yourself?" (or some iteration of that line, I'm pulling it from memory).
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Ok...sometimes I'm a little slow where the cog(nition) wheels are concerned now, but I realized the other day that they had a device they referred to as "Genesis II". In the 1970s, Gene Roddenberry produced a pilot for a series called "Genesis II", where a band of plucky humans and mutants have adventures trying to repair the damage done to Earth by decades of nuclear war. If some of y'all already realized that, please accept the apology of someone looking down the barrel of senior citizenship this year.