Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Unimatrix Zero, Part II”

Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres get assimilated by the Borg, which has absolutely no consequences whatsoever. The seventh season starts with quite the whimper as the Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch does “Unimatrix Zero, Part II.”

An excerpt:

Everything that happens in this episode feels like it was done better in a TNG episode, whether it’s a Borg resistance (“I, Borg,” the “Descent” two-parter—the latter was terrible, mind you, but it was better than this), a captain-first officer dynamic among supporting characters (the “Gambit” two-parter, but Data and Worf are a thousand times more interesting and complex than Chakotay and Paris), or facing off against the Borg Queen (First Contact). And the romance between Seven and Axum has absolutely no life to it. It’s telling that the EMH’s “Axum is a lucky man” carries more romantic weight than any of the sodden scenes between Jeri Ryan and Mark Deakins.

readings from Devilish and Divine

eSpec Books has added four new videos to their reading series on YouTube, and they’re all from the upcoming Devilish and Divine anthology of stories about angels and demons.

We’ve got James Chambers reading from “Far from the Knowing Place”:

Russ Colchamiro reading from “Irradia’s Gauntlet”:

Robert E. Waters reading from “A Bluebird from Aspen”:

And, finally, me reading from “Unguarded”:

KRAD COVID reading #97d: Star Trek: S.C.E.: War Stories Book 2, Part 4

For 2021, KRAD COVID readings is covering the only short fiction I didn’t read in 2020: my novellas for the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers series, a monthly series of eBooks that ran from 2000-2007. I’ll have a new reading every #TrekTuesday.

We continue War Stories Book 2, which shows one of the U.S.S. da Vinci‘s missions during the Dominion War, the conflict portrayed on the last two seasons of Deep Space Nine. In the conclusion, the da Vinci is fighting a losing battle against Dominion forces, but the S.C.E. has a few tricks up their sleeves…..

Check it out! And please subscribe to the channel!

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: Sixth Season Overview

It’s a season full of spectacular highs (“Survival Instinct,” “One Small Step,” “Blink of an Eye”) and excruciating lows (“Fair Haven,” “Spirit Folk,” “Fury”), plus an impressive selection of guests ranging from Trek veterans (J.G. Hertzler, Jeffrey Combs, Susanna Thompson, John Schuck) to folks you might know from elsewhere (Zoe McLellan, Tony Amendola, Daniel Dae Kim, Dwayne Johnson). The Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch does the Sixth Season Overview.

An excerpt:

This sixth year is all peaks and valleys, a roller coaster of a season, which really is the perfect metaphor, because it’s at once incredibly thrilling and makes you want to throw up.

Monday music: “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”

I have been to two baseball games in the last week, the Yankees vs. the Phillies at Yankee Stadium last Wednesday and the Durham Bulls vs. the Charlotte Kings in North Carolina last night. In honor of that, here’s an absolutely delightful cover of the iconic song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by the equally iconic Dr. John, one of the fixtures of the New Orleans music scene (and also the basis of the Muppet Dr. Teeth).

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Unimatrix Zero”

The sixth season comes to an end with yet another Borg episode, this one creating an interesting notion for a Borg resistance, but also utterly failing to maintain the concept that the Borg are, y’know, scary. Or menacing. Or even hard to defeat. The Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch travels to “Unimatrix Zero.”

An excerpt:

In much the same way that, over time, the producers of DS9 took everything that was interesting and alien about the beings who lived in the Bajoran wormhole and made them trite and boring, so too with Voyager’s producers and the Borg. The “ultimate user” species that Q described as utterly uninterested in the nuances of human behavior or communication but only was interested in technology they can consume has turned instead into a mustache-twirling villain who taunts her arch-nemesis and gives monologues and isn’t actually dangerous to attack.

There’s no sense of menace here. The Borg Queen, introduced as a haunting, scary ghost in the machine in First Contact, has turned into an ineffectual villain helplessly trying to keep her drones under control and stymied by the machinations of Janeway and her crew. Susanna Thompson does the best she can, but the script does her no favors, stopping just barely short of having her shake her fist and saying, “Curses, foiled again!”

updated GalaxyCon post

I’ve updated my GalaxyCon Raleigh post to include my panel schedule……

I will be at GalaxyCon Raleigh

My second in-person convention of 2021 will be in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I will be attending GalaxyCon Raleigh at the aptly named Raleigh Convention Center at 500 S. Salsbury Street from 29 July – 1 August. I’ll be at the Bard’s Tower booth, which will be Booth #500, alongside fellow word-slingers Jody Lynn Nye, Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jackson Miller, Dan Wells, Guy Hutchinson,Christopher Ruocchio, Rick Heinz, Megan Mackie, and Chris Irving.

I might also be doing programming. No word on that yet, but will update this post if I get a panel schedule. EDITED TO ADD: See schedule below…..

There will also be tons of actors (live-action and voice actors), comics creators, wrestlers, and cosplayers there. So come on by if you’re in NC at the end of the month!

Here’s my panel schedule, all of which will be in the “Creator Cave” (room 304)…..

Thursday

7-8pm: “Star Trek in Prose and Film,” w/Carlos Ferro, Rick Heinz, and Melinda M. Snodgrass

Saturday

12-1pm: “Writing in Comics, Prose, and Games,” w/Rick Heinz, John Jackson Miller, and Jody Lynn Nye

Sunday

12-1pm: “World Building,” w/Brian Anderson, John Jackson Miller, and Jody Lynn Nye

KRAD COVID reading #97c: Star Trek: S.C.E.: War Stories Book 2, Part 3

For 2021, KRAD COVID readings is covering the only short fiction I didn’t read in 2020: my novellas for the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers series, a monthly series of eBooks that ran from 2000-2007. I’ll have a new reading every #TrekTuesday.

We continue War Stories Book 2, which shows one of the U.S.S. da Vinci‘s missions during the Dominion War, the conflict portrayed on the last two seasons of Deep Space Nine. In Part 3, the weird Dominion device nearly kills 110 and 111 while Captain Gold prepares the da Vinci for a battle against Dominion forces.

Check it out! And please subscribe to the channel!

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “The Haunting of Deck Twelve”

Call me a bluff old traditionalist, but if you’re going to title an episode “The Haunting of Deck Twelve,” shouldn’t there, at some point, perhaps be a haunting on deck twelve? The Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch calls title bullshit on “The Haunting of Deck Twelve.”

An excerpt:

There are some good moments in the episode, but most of them come from the Borg kiddos pestering Neelix with questions. My favorite was Icheb correcting Neelix misstating the technobabble.

I will give the episode one piece of credit: the use of the computer’s voice interface, making use of its library of preprogrammed phrases and responses, is an incredibly clever method of communicating.

But that’s pretty much it. The episode itself is completely nowhere, and while the framing sequence tries very hard to cover up how nowhere it is, it mostly fails, too.