OVEG: The Swarm

Sonnenburg · Post by **Sonnenburg** » 2008-07-16 05:48pm

A good A-story stuck with a lame B-story. The Doctor is slowly succumbing to dementia thanks to his running for two years straight, and the crew must rescue him. Meanwhile, a completely bland cookie-cutter story about xenophobic aliens with a technobabble problem and technobabble solution. Plus, the lamest technobabble term yet!

Review

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2008-07-16 06:00pm

Wait, were there ANY consequences to the Doctor's brain meltdown? Does the problem ever (as one would expect) recur?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-07-16 06:05pm

I think over the years I've confused the ending of this episode with Tinker, Tenor... - now I know why I kept picturing Kes in a S6 episode.

I'm also surprised I forgot all about the appearance of Zimmerman. A holotech, yes, but I didn't know Picardo played him this early (or was he in Projections too?). It has been a good ten years now...

As for the review, one question:

Man, Orkin's going to have to send a few trucks for this job.

"Orkin"?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2008-07-16 06:32pm

Piccardo only played Zimmerman in 2 episodes of Voyager (one where he's dying) and one episode of DS9.

Junghalli · Post by **Junghalli** » 2008-07-16 07:11pm

OVEG: The Swarm wrote:Turns out that while it would take fifteen months to fly around their space, there's a spot where it'll only take four days to pass through. Erm, okay, that's technically possible but sure seems like an odd shape for their space to be. It makes the coast of Norway look like a straight line.

I know it's thin, but could this possibly be interpreted as canon support of the warp highway hypothesis?

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2008-07-16 07:29pm

Bounty wrote:I think over the years I've confused the ending of this episode with Tinker, Tenor... - now I know why I kept picturing Kes in a S6 episode.

I'm also surprised I forgot all about the appearance of Zimmerman. A holotech, yes, but I didn't know Picardo played him this early (or was he in Projections too?). It has been a good ten years now...

As for the review, one question:

Man, Orkin's going to have to send a few trucks for this job.
"Orkin"?

The Orkin man? A company that does pest extermination. Maybe he should have used Terminex.

Darmalus · Post by **Darmalus** » 2008-07-16 07:38pm

Interferometric appears to be a real word and process, just one that has nothing to do with what they used if for in this episode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric

DarthShady · Post by **DarthShady** » 2008-07-16 07:47pm

Will someone please quantum-sodomize me.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-07-16 09:53pm

No, and you're a sick sick person for asking.

Without offering due recompense.

Chuck, I love the straight talk technobabble. I'd love to see people use terms like that in place of standard technobabble at all times. It'd make the show funnier, at the least.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2008-07-17 12:01am

I could explain one body. But two...?

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2008-07-17 01:37am

I'm sure better stories titled 'The Swarm' have been done in Americomi (Japanese slang for American comics). That says VERY BAD THINGS about the writers for 'Voyager'.

I'm sorry, Captain, but fixing Michael Jackson's face is beyond the skills of the entire Starfleet Medical Corps, to say nothing of the Doctor's not inconsiderable skills.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-07-17 02:03am

Sidewinder wrote:I'm sure better stories titled 'The Swarm' have been done in Americomi (Japanese slang for American comics).

Why not just say "comics"?

Thanatos · Post by **Thanatos** » 2008-07-17 02:30am

Turns out that while it would take fifteen months to fly around their space, there's a spot where it'll only take four days to pass through.

Wait, does their space somehow encompass the entire universe above and below a 2d representation of it?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-07-17 02:46am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Sidewinder wrote:I'm sure better stories titled 'The Swarm' have been done in Americomi (Japanese slang for American comics).
Why not just say "comics"?

Because that would not accentuate how very Japanese his tastes are. He has to do that because you can't see his "It's called ANIME, not cartoons" T-shirt over the Internet.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2008-07-17 10:11am

Sidewinder wrote:I'm sure better stories titled 'The Swarm' have been done in Americomi (Japanese slang for American comics). That says VERY BAD THINGS about the writers for 'Voyager'.

What is so bad about American comics?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2008-07-17 11:46am

DarthShady wrote:Will someone please quantum-sodomize me.

We can actually quantum-sodomize and not-sodomize you at the same time.

Kodiak · Post by **Kodiak** » 2008-07-17 04:07pm

Anguirus wrote:Wait, were there ANY consequences to the Doctor's brain meltdown? Does the problem ever (as one would expect) recur?

No permanent effects whatsoever. By the next episode he's back to his old self, another fine application of the Voyager reset button.

Swindle1984 · Post by **Swindle1984** » 2008-07-18 12:44am

CaptainChewbacca wrote:
DarthShady wrote:Will someone please quantum-sodomize me.
We can actually quantum-sodomize and not-sodomize you at the same time.

Hold on, I'll let you borrow my Heisenberg Uncertaintly Compensating dildo.

Unless Mike is willing to loan one; I'm sure he's got at least two floating around somewhere.

The A plot would have done better if it took a couple episodes for the Doctor to get back to normal. Even just a few throwaway scenes where he has trouble remembering something for a moment or does something goofy would have been nice.

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2008-07-18 01:42am

They really should have used that reset button in the Dominion War. Then there wouldn't have been so many casualties. Or was Voyager carrying the only prototype?

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2008-07-18 02:35am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:What is so bad about American comics?

The term "Too many chefs spoil the soup" applies, i.e., the big companies (DC and Marvel) have too many writers working on too many different serials on the same characters (in Spider-Man's example, there's 'The Amazing Spider-Man', 'Astonishing Spider-Man', 'Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man', 'Marvel Adventures Spider-Man', 'Marvel Knights Spider-Man', 'Peter Parker: Spider-Man', 'The Sensational Spider-Man', 'The Spectacular Spider-Man', 'Spider-Man Family', 'Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane', 'Spider-Man Unlimited', 'Web of Spider-Man', AU series 'The Amazing Spider-Girl' and 'Ultimate Spider-Man', and more). The results of so many different POVs on a certain character is many contradictory descriptions and histories, which often requires the writers to hit the Magic Reset Button, i.e., DC making Bruce Wayne Batman again after fans voiced disapproval of his replacement (Jean-Paul Valley), Xorn restoring Charles Xavier's ability to walk and then revealing his true identity (Magneto) before crippling him again, the retcon that an "entity" made Xorn pretend to be Magneto, Superman becoming an energy being (Superman Red/Superman Blue) and then changing back to normal...

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2008-07-18 09:49am

Sidewinder wrote:
Illuminatus Primus wrote:What is so bad about American comics?
The term "Too many chefs spoil the soup" applies, i.e., the big companies (DC and Marvel) have too many writers working on too many different serials on the same characters (in Spider-Man's example, there's 'The Amazing Spider-Man', 'Astonishing Spider-Man', 'Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man', 'Marvel Adventures Spider-Man', 'Marvel Knights Spider-Man', 'Peter Parker: Spider-Man', 'The Sensational Spider-Man', 'The Spectacular Spider-Man', 'Spider-Man Family', 'Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane', 'Spider-Man Unlimited', 'Web of Spider-Man', AU series 'The Amazing Spider-Girl' and 'Ultimate Spider-Man', and more). The results of so many different POVs on a certain character is many contradictory descriptions and histories, which often requires the writers to hit the Magic Reset Button, i.e., DC making Bruce Wayne Batman again after fans voiced disapproval of his replacement (Jean-Paul Valley), Xorn restoring Charles Xavier's ability to walk and then revealing his true identity (Magneto) before crippling him again, the retcon that an "entity" made Xorn pretend to be Magneto, Superman becoming an energy being (Superman Red/Superman Blue) and then changing back to normal...

Those are all complaints directed at the 40 year continuity of Marvel, and the structure in which Marvel and DC run their major franchises. Marvel and DC, believe it or not, are NOT the only companies out there. Independent American comic books do exist, and they're often quite good. Phil Foglio's work, for example.

Plus, long running comics in general tend to pull a lot of 'but wait!'s, not just American ones.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2008-07-18 02:21pm

Right, because I'm sure no manga series have ever been artificially lengthened when they have become popular...

Oh... wait...

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2008-07-19 01:44am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Right, because I'm sure no manga series have ever been artificially lengthened when they have become popular...

Oh... wait...

Manga are usually owned by their creators, who can decide, "Okay, I'm done with this series," when they think they've run out of ideas for one. American comics are usually owned by the publishers, who replace the creators with other people (often talentless hacks) when the creators say, "Okay, I'm done." Or do you really think ten years' worth of 'Dragonball Z' manga contain more contradictions, retcons and outright reboots to correct those contradictions, and fanwhoring than 76 years' worth of 'Superman' comics?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-07-19 01:47am

Do you believe you can somehow argue people into liking your favourite anime shit?

Rhoades · Post by **Rhoades** » 2008-07-19 11:14am

I got a question. The aliens that attacked the shuttle in teaser, were they part of the swarm? Or does Voyager has a random encounter table?