Episode starts off on a familiar looking planet with two reptilian looking alien scientists looking at some Human bones they have been searching for. Turns out they have been out in space from millions of years without a home planets and no record of their home world. These scientist believe that the DNA of this species if similar to their own and so must be from the same planet. Oh and the bones are Human!
The bones are from a crewmember of Voyager that died on episode “Basics, Part I & 2” a year earlier. The Aliens, whom we learn are the “Voth”, go to find Voyager to learn more about their species. Once they find Voyager they use clocking technology to go aboard unnoticed and observe the crew. There cloak fails and they are discovered. One of the Voth shoots Chakotay when frighten and is himself shot. The other Voth takes Chakotay to his ship, and the other one is taken to sickbay. This allows Voyager to learn the same similarities that the Voth discovered and confirm their data, while on the Voth ship Chakotay explains the history of Earth to the Voth.
Through expedition on both ships we learn that a species of Dinosaur was able to survive most of the extinction events on earth and evolve enough to been able to leave the Earth allowing the Mammals to thrive and become the dominant species on the planet. The Voth spent millions of years in space and have lost all history of how they became completely space fairing. Over time their history was slowing replaced with a religion like dogma (although it is never referred to as “religion” but just as the Dogma.)
The lead scientist, the one with Chakotay, is now being hunted by his own people for his “heretical” theories as to the origins of the Voth. His theories conflict with the Voth religion, I mean “dogma”. He is put on trial and after a rousing and logical exchange with him, Chakotay and the leader of the Voth. He is found guilty and will be put in prison as will the Voyager crew, who has been captured by the Voth city-ship. Extremely dedicated to the search for the truth he is pained by the position he is placed in, but he agrees to publicly renounce his evidence and theories in order to save Voyager and crew. He is discredited and prohibited from further study in biology.
Voyager is allowed to continue home, and as a going away present Chakotay gives the Voth Scientist a globe of earth, and says one day the truth will come out and the Voth will know earth as home.
My Thoughts: This is by far the best Voyager episode so far! The Story is similar to what happen to Galileo. The take on it and how the leaders are threaten by the truth and try to cover it up even given the evidence and the thoughtful and empowering speech by Chakotay is striking. Also the way the story focuses on the Voth point of view with our usual crew and ship in the background is a refreshing take! Story and all, a great episode. A+
Another “Doctor uses holodeck to learn how to understand real people better” episode. There is at least one of these each season. The doctor creates a family on the holodeck in order to learn more about real people. The issue is the family created is the perfect 1950ish family. The Doctor invites Kes and Torres over for a family dinner and Torres freaks out and tell the doctor that’s not a real family and he allows her to re-program the family to be more real. Torres does so and the hyjinxs ensue! The doctor is taken aback by his new dis-functional family. He tried to cope but is unable to resolve the conflicts in the family.
Seriously, ok Torres creates an overly conflicted family (which is never addressed) but even if she didn’t you cannot plop someone into that kind of environment without any prior knowledge of the situation and how the family developed and expect them to not be overwhelmed.
Anyway, The Doctor’s daughter gets hurt and is dying and the Doctor has to deal with it and it is real touching and sad. He is unable to deal with it so ends the program with no intention of continuing, until a conversation with Tom Paris convinces him to continue and learn from the experience, learn from the good and bad.
The Doctor agrees and proceeds to be by the bedside as his family suffers the trauma of the daughter’s loss. It is a real touching movement and learning experience for the Doctor.
My Thoughts: Episode was a little slow but the character development for the doctor was worth it as were the scenes with his family at the end. B
Episode starts out with Kes and old lady near death. By old I mean just the wrong side of nine. The Doctor is trying all he can to save her and her adult daughter and grandson visited her and freaks her out. Thing go a blurry and she awakes a little less young but her daughter tells her she has been ill for a week and the doctor is trying to help. She freaks out again and awakes again younger and so on and so on. Each time she learns a little more about the future and tried to use that info to help the doctor “cure” her. By “cure” I mean prevent her death of old age cause that is all that is going on here, which is never addressed.
Kes’ species lifespan is just at 7 years so 9 years she is really old and should be happy to live as long as she did. But since the rest of the crew lives so much longer they seem to think everything should be done to prolong her life. It is like if a human were 110 and on a ship of alien that live for 900 year, and they were trying to keep you alive longer. Does not seem worth it.
But I Digress. Anyway this continues and eventually she is an embryo and then it all reverses and seems to stop at her correct age and time. The doctor somehow managed this and it is not explained all that well. The crew rejoices and does a mix of tell us the future/ don’t tell us timeline interference stuff and Kes runs off to write her report on what she experienced’.
My thoughts: None! Not a good episode. You could miss it and not notice. F, worse one so far.
Voyager is once again on it 75 year trip home, and making good time, when out of nowhere an alien ship appears and open a nice dialogue with them. All of the sudden Ensign Kim goes ape shit and starts firing on the ship. He says he just knew they were going to attack even though the evidence shows they were not.
Relieved of duty he goes to sick bay and gets all upset at all the injuries people got due to his actions. In one of those annoying issues with writing these episodes, He tells them he is sorry they were injured but never tells them why he is apologizing, since they have no idea it was his fault in the first place.
Anyway, Tuvok finds evidence that Kim was right that the ship was about to attack, and suddenly three of the Alien ship appear and Kim instinctively feels the need to head to a certain planet in the nearby system and they will be safe, they go and are. FOR A WHILE! DUH DUH DUUUHHHHH!
Sorry. Oh and Kim is starting to have weird spots on his face and his DNA is changing. Anyway they beam to the planet and find that Kim is a member of this species and they planted him on earth when he was a wee embryo. This is supposedly how they learn of other cultures and enhance their own genetic make-up. Kim stays behind to learn of his new culture, while Voyager goes to make up with the other aliens waiting to kill them once they leave the system.
All the ladies on the planet all want to “please” Kim if you get my meaning and it is all too perfect and so must be some kind of trap. Turns out, SURPRISE!, it is all they want him for is all of his genetic material to procreate, leaving him a dried up prune. Lucky he find this out runs away, they attack him but Voyager returns followed by the alien ships and beams him up just in time.
The two aliens are too busy fighting each other in space to bother with Voyager so they steak away un-noticed. Then the doctor finds that Kim is human after all and just contracted a virus from another planet that causes all these shenanigans.
My thoughts: Interesting plot if not done a little too much in Sci-fi. Similar to the Next Generation episode “Identity Crisis” D
Voyager is trying to help a planet that keeps getting hit with meteors, and is unable to vaporize them, like you do. They all find this strange until it is discovered that there is minerals in the meteors put there to inflict the most damage to the planet. They are under attack by an unknown species!
Tuvox and Nelix head to the planet to try and figure out what’s up and of course are stranded on the planet when the shuttle gets damaged. They meet up with some of the planets inhabitants and try to get a space elevator to work so that they can get back to Voyager. Stuff happens and they make it to the top after discovering that one of the inhabitants is a traitor and working with the aliens, and another one somehow found out the aliens plot and how they are doing it. Well that would have been nice to know earlier!
Meanwhile an alien ship approaches and start firing on Voyager, a battle ensues but Voyager win and the aliens leave when Voyager somehow beams Tuvok and team to the ship in the middle of the battle and are able to use the info they found out to harm the alien ship. How the hell did they beam to Voyager in the middle of a battle with the shields up?? Must be through a gap in the shields call the “plot hole”.
My Thoughts: Plot holes aside the episode is ok and there is some good character development between Tuvox and Nelix. B-
Instead of continuing home Voyager stop off at an outpost to get directions (they can do this because the Captains a woman, Kirk and Picard never stopped for directions). The Doctor and Nelix are on the holodeck studying famous philosopher as part of a personality improvement project. Oh and the doctor mentions Kes’ and Nelix’s recent breakup. Oh I am sure they little nugget will not pop up again later seeing how it was wedged in the script like the USS Janolan holding the Dyson sphere doors open!
The doctor begins exhibiting weird behavior while Kes is taking romantic-ish walk around ET’s home world with some alien dude of unknown species. They kiss while someone in the woods watches. I guess the species are called the voyeur-ians. Kes is all lovey dovey and distracted like a 14 year old with a crush. See the next morning she is all tired looking and cannot even manage to brush her hair good, aint puppy love neat-o. As usual no one seems to be concerned with a crew members unusually behavior, even when Kes talks about leaving Voyager to have a less perfect life. What a cry baby!
On the planet someone attacks Kes’ new lover! It’s the doctor dressed like little red riding hood! Torres warns the doctor on Voyager that something is wrong with his program; I wonder what it could be hummmm? The doc’s personality improvement program seems to be the cause of his new found personality disorder. His program continues to have issues while the crew misses all the signs that something’s up. Got to keep the plot rolling ya know. Disorder doc abuses and tries to get Torres to help him get rid of the real doctor for good. You can tell the doctor is different do to the way he acts but just in case he now has lightened rings around his irises and looks irritable.
Doctor kidnaps Kes after some weird holodeck hyjinxs and takes her to the transport room to beam somewhere to start a new life somewhere. They beam down and Tuvok discovers that the doctor is screwed up and all the ships a flutter and flabbergasted about how this could have happen.
After falling down the ravine with Kes while fleeing, they are transported mid fall and saves. They fix his program and all is happy and well again. Kes decides to stay with Voyager and her perfect life.
My Thoughts: Do not see a point to this episode except for filler; no one grows, no progress for the ship, nothing. D-.
Once again a couple of the crew is, for some reason, out and about in a shuttle in an unknown part of the delta quadrant. Aren’t they supposed to be trying to get home ASAP? While lost the shuttle answers a hail and ends up on a planet with unassimilated Borg captives. Meanwhile Voyager finds an abandoned Borg cube.
After they all shit themselves silly, Janeway decides the best thing to do is to board the Borg ship. Oh yeah I am sure nothing bad will come of that decision. Finding all the Borg dead and the ship offline Janeway suddenly remembers she is missing a couple of crew members and goes to find the shuttle.
Chakotay discovers the people on the planet are former Borg and there is a lot of Borg pro and con exposition. On Voyager the doctor and Torres accidentally activates a “dead” Borg they for some reason decided to bring onto the ship! Yeah I am sure that will not bite them in the ass.
On the planet they want to try to heal Chakotay by connecting him to a limited few Borg survivors to somehow heal him. It seems to have worked after an 80′s montage of battles and beautiful scenery. Then he gets some ex-Borg bootie.
The survivors want to link everyone on the planet together to stop hostilities between the factions, but they need Voyager’s help. Janeway is not to keen on activating part of the Borg ship to link the survivors together. They leave supplies for them (isn’t Voyager short on them too) and ready to leave when Chakotay goes to the Borg cube to activate the linky thing under the control of the Borg on the planet through the supposedly deactivated link the used to heal him.
He is able to activate it and the Borg on ship re-activates, no one saw that coming, except for everyone watching! Borg cube self destructs and everyone sings kum by ya and all are happy.
My thoughts: An ok episode. Foreshadows the soon to be Borg’s increasing presence on the show, but that about it. C+
Here is a tutorial I recorded to show how to use heavens-above to see the International space Station and flares. Make sure you switch to 720p resolution to see the text better!
We first tried to see a Shuttle Launch in 2005. It was the return to flight launch of Discovery STS-114 but it was delayed and we missed it. Then in 2006 we tried to see Atlantis STS-115 but that was scrubbed due to tropical storm Ernesto so no luck there!
We gave it a rest for a couple of years and on May 21, 2008, Misty and I drove down to see our first shuttle launch from Titusville’s Space View Park. It was STS-124 and it was the Shuttle Discovery. I wrote an entry about it on my website and ended that entry with:
“What an exciting event. The drive, the heat, the sunburns, and the wait it was all worth it. I would do it all again in an instant.”
And we have, 6 instants to be precise. It started innocently (if not crazily) enough. I got the idea in my head to try to see each of the remaining shuttles launch. I had just seen Discovery go up, so all that was left was to see Atlantis and Endeavour launch. Endeavour STS-126 launched that November and it was a night launch so that was a bonus, then Atlantis STS-125 launched the following May. Not too bad, one year, goal complete!
Then we got the Shuttle retirement plans and I got a crazy Idea to try to see each shuttle’s final launch, and I somehow convinced Misty to agree to it! After a failed attempt to see Discovery STS-119 go up, it got scrubbed 30mins after we arrived in Florida and would not launch for a few days, we decided to not try again until the last launches.
Fast forward to May 2010 and we went down to see Atlantis STS-132 launch. This was supposed to be Atlantis’ last launch so we checked it off the list and said “two more to go”. It was a nail biter too as there was a ball bearing found on the pad and it almost scrubbed the launch. But it went up and was a beautiful launch. A few weeks later NASA announced plans to Fly Atlantis again as the last Shuttle Launch.
Then we drove down to see Discovery’s last launch in February of 2011. I had spent a week in September down in Florida for the rollout of Discovery to the pad on 9/20/2011, and Nasa Family day the following weekend. I was bummed because I had to travel for work and would miss the planned launch on November 1st. However, due to issue with the external tank it was continuously scrubbed and eventually moved to Feb 2011. We were able to drive down again and this time we were in front of the VAB to see it launch after almost being scrubbed by a computer error in range control (two more seconds and it would not have gone up!). WHEW!
Discovery behind us we once again had two more to see. Endeavour was planned to launch on April 29th 2011, and after I drove down (arriving at 4am the morning before the 5pm launch) we got what sleep we could, woke and got to the busses and half way to the launch viewing area it was scrubbed due to problems with heaters for the auxiliary power units. We headed home after we found out it would be a few days and after a week or so the launch was moved to May 16. We headed down once again to see Endeavour’s final launch from the Saturn V VIP viewing area and she launched on time on May 16. It was cloudy and she disappeared into the cloud deck 30 seconds after launch, but it was still a sight to see!
That leaves only one more. Atlantis STS-135 is currently scheduled for Launch on July 8+. We do plan to go see her go up and wish her crew GODSPEED.
So what tips do I have for anyone heading down for the final shuttle launch?
Plan ahead and know where you will be viewing it from. If you are not able to get on site at Kennedy Space center then Titusville’s Space View Park is the best offsite viewing area and there is no charge to go or park. Regardless of where you are viewing from get there as early as possible, people campout at the offsite areas and the parks fill up early. Also be prepared to deal with heavy traffic after the launch. Decide to either be stuck in traffic for hours (YES HOURS) or stay put and chill until the traffic dies down. For Discovery’s STS-133 Launch we heard it took 6 hours to get from Titusville to Orlando after the launch. For Atlantis’ STS-132 Launch it took us 3 Hours to get back to where we caught the bus (a 30 min drive) and 2 hours to get to where we were staying from there (a 15 min drive).
Get a hotel early and maybe look in Jacksonville or Daytona for rooms. Be prepared to be there a few days past the launch in case it gets scrubbed. Have a backup plan (beach, Disney parks, etc; to alleviate the frustration in case of a scrub). The first launch we went to we stayed in Jacksonville. You will pay a premium to stay in Titusville and the surrounding areas and they have weird cancellation policies (which you might have to do). We left the launch viewing area in Titusville and headed north on US-1 (everyone else was heading west to I95) for a few miles and then turned west to I95. We had little or no traffic getting to dinner in Daytona before heading to our room in Jacksonville. Avoid staying in Orlando if you can, there are only two good roads (528 and 50) that lead to Orlando and one is a toll road (528).
Take plenty of food, drinks, sunscreen, chairs, umbrellas, etc; with you. You may be sitting a long time and you may not have shade nearby, it could rain, etc. Also nearby businesses may run out of provisions or raise prices. Stay hydrated and take it easy. Also games or other forms of entertainment are nice to pass the time (movies on IPAD!).
Even though I will not follow my own advice here I suggest you just watch the launch. Most of the launches I have seen through my cameras lens and each time I wished that I had just watched the launch and enjoyed it. The next Launch I may set my remote up to just snap shots of Atlantis leaving the pad so I can just watch the last one go up. We will see.
It will all be over in two and a half minutes after ignition so get ready beforehand. Two minutes before launch have your camera on and all set to take the shots you want. Take a few test shots and see how they turn out, and leave it on and set. That last minute goes by fast and it is not the time to be messing with stuff. Also manually focus your camera if you can, nothing would be worse than auto focus deciding to focus on a bird in the foreground instead of the shuttle and if you are rapid firing the camera it will take shots faster. Also do not use any filters (UV or Polarizing, etc) that extra layer of flat glass can reflect stuff into your pictures (two shuttle plumes for instance).
Stay up to date of Launch news at SpaceFlightnow.com, use twitter and Facebook to follow NASA tweets (@NASA#NASATweetup#STS135, etc) and feeds to keep up with launch changes. Setup Google alerts to catch interesting articles on the launches, NASA, Shuttles.
Trying to view a launch can be one of the most tiresome, frustrating, heart stopping, exciting and amazing things you can do and seeing the last one will just add to that. What a bittersweet moment it will be. Hope to see you down there!
