UNCUT - Learning Curve (VOY S1E16) | Star Trek Journey 367

As a career United States Airman, I loved this episode precisely because of how Tuvok (the former Starfleet Academy instructor) is depicted as a military style drill sergeant. I could always relate to both the students and the instructor and understood the reactions of both parties. Tuvok's uniform inspection for example is something I've had to do countless times. Your question about "religious garb" in uniform as it relates to the real world military is complex. You have to have an official waiver from your CO to wear "unauthorized" attire as part of your uniform. This is usually granted on a case-by-case basis where there is a religious exemption (eg: not having to be clean shaven if you're Muslim; or wearing a head covering if you are a Sikh). Oh, and yes Starfleet is absolutely the military and always has been. From the first season of TOS "Balance of Terror" (a submarine film in space), "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" (where a 21st century US Air Force Captain compares his branch with Starfleet), and "Court Martial" (where Kirk is investigated for negligence in command). These are all heavily military themed shows. The only similarity they have with NASA is the primary mission, but they function more like a military service with rank and tradition stemming from the Navy.

COMMENT NASA does have strict regulations on what the astronauts wear while in flight.

One of the strongest first seasons of Star Trek. Every episode is fine to great with the only exception for me being Heroes and Demons. That's the only one I skip on a rewatch. As for this episode, I loved the Chakotay scene personally and it makes perfect sense to me. The Maquis is a group of random outlaw renegades. The same environment that attract people like Dalby is one where you're going to see a lot of conflicts solved with fists instead of words. If you step out of line against a superior in Star Fleet you get put before a disciplinary board. If you step out of line in the Maquis you probably get a punch in the face.

Another episode with an interesting premise but horrible execution that misses the mark and requires you turn your brain off.

I don't find much to like in this episode. None of the guest actors are particularly good, and it's pretty paint by numbers. Also the gel packs being infected by cheese is fun for a chuckle i guess.

Dude, NASA doesn't have weapons. Star Fleet is NASA, the Navy, and the State Department all rolled into one.

Regarding there only being four troublesome Maquis in Tuvok's Academy training program, while you were under the impression that all the Maquis would be involved: Janeway did ask Chakotay to make a list of the Maquis crew members who would most benefit from the training... So I think they did make it clear that it would not include all Maquis.

I like this one. It's not the most profound episode ever, but it's a good story and I think it flows really well. I like the way the "problem of the week" story is very seamlessly written in between the Maquis training story. It all seems very natural, day in the life sort of thing. No alien of the week. No blue lightening. Just a simple inner-ship conflict along with some good old fashioned technology malfunctions to complicate things. I can buy in to the whole premise. I liked the concept, the humor, the character moments. I just like all the scenes in this one: Janeway, Tuvok, and Chakotay discussing the problem and Janeway's proposed solution; Chell running laps as punishment; Chakotay knocking them back in line after they walk out on Tuvok; the 10K montage; the "war games" scenario; Tuvok and Neelix discussing the real problem; the pool scene with Dalby and Tuvok... And I think it does a good job of showing them make real progress throughout the episode. Reluctant progress, but it is progress. Yes, the resolution was a bit too predictable and convenient. But I like this episode for what it is.

Ship gets infected by bad cheese. Needs to be beaten up. So the only way you heat the ship up is a warp field. Okay... sure.

I never watched the original series, so I always just accepted that Starfleet was like the navy. But now that you mention it, I completely agree that they shouldn't be militaristic at all and should be more like NASA. That fits a lot more with Gene’s vision. Humanity is supposed to have moved beyond the militaristic stuff, and be primarily focused on learning and exploration. To seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before.

I don't want to see 7 seasons of the crew being at each other's throats and divided between Maquis and Starfleet either. But that's also not the point, and not the premise. The whole point of having a mixed Starfleet and Maquis crew is so episodes like Prime Factors can happen where instead of this being a TNG episode where everyone would just follow Picard and the Federation way, now you have the groundwork set for people to have differing opinions on how they should do things, and challenge the Federation way. The whole point of having a mixed crew stranded out in the Delta quadrant was so we would have the high stake of getting home again to force the crew to weigh Idealism (Federation) vs pragmatism (Maquis) with every decision they'd have to make, with the solution not always being "the Federation way is always right.” The different crews are there to show the differing viewpoints of different philosophies, put Federation ideals to the test, and show how neither side is fully right or wrong, and how each has its place. The Maquis crew is there to question, challenge, and even completely go against the Starfleet way sometimes, just like in Prime Factors. But not only that, notice how in Prime Factors, it isn't JUST the Maquis who want to steal the technology. Kerry and Tuvok are in on it too, and they are Starfleet. Plus you have B’Elanna who is Maquis taking accountability for her actions the way a Starfleet officer would, even though this is completely foreign to Maquis Seska. The philosophies here don't have to be strictly Maquis vs Federation. Another point of the mixed crew is that each one's view over time will influence the other, each side learning from each other, and each side questioning their views, and admitting to flaws and mistakes with their way of doing things. This allows everything to grow. If the whole crew is just going to be 100% Starfleet from the get go, then what was the point of killing half of the crew in the first place? Why not just have the whole crew be the original Starfleet crew and ditch the Maquis entirely? Where's the difference between this and TNG then? What's the point of having a character like B’Elanna if she's just going to be Geordi? What's the point of having a character like Chachotay if he's just going to be Riker? What's the point of having a character like Seska at all who's basically pure pragmatism? What was the point of Ro Laren being on TNG if not to point out flaws in our TNG crew’s Idealistic approach? I want to see these crews work together and grow by overcoming and understanding their differences. I want to see both crews learning from each other. A great example was the Kobayashi Maru scenario in this episode where the Maquis learned about retreat, which is something they don't usually consider. Give me more stuff like that, more sharing and exploration of ideas, and less of the Maquis crew being forced into submission to become a Starfleet crew from day one, no questions asked, and pretending that no one has a problem with this, or else they're running 50 laps around the cargo bay. If you're not going to use these people, then what was the point?

For VOY Season 2: Will you be watching the episodes in production order (i.e. starting with what could have been seaon 1 ) or will you watch it in release order?

The Bajoran earring I think has more to do with their traditions than their religion. There is some religious significance because it's worn on the ear, and as we saw with Kai Opaka, the ear is a way to connect with someone’s Pah, or total existence. That's why the Vedeks do the ear grabbing thing. We saw in Homecoming though that the earring can be used as an identifier. That's how they identified Li Nalas. It probably conveys a lot of information about the family name, the personal name, and maybe even the family history since they are so ornate. Ensign Ro wearing it even though she is not religious, but is big on maintaining Bajoran traditions such as being addressed by the family name first, tells us that this is more of a Bajoran cultural heritage thing. It's part of their tradition, it's part of their family, and it's part of both their personal and cultural identity. Honestly I think Starfleet should make an exception for these things for all Bajorans, not just Ensign Ro. Or for any other culture where a small accessory is culturally significant.

So what exactly about Tuvok's hardcore bootcamp was supposed to teach the Maquis about WHY Starfleet does what is does, or earn the Maquis' respect? Forcing them into the Starfleet box without explanation or acceptance is just going to do the opposite. Tuvok's bootcamp works for typical young cadets like Nog who WANT to join Starfleet, and are willing to put themselves through whatever hell is necessary to prove themselves. That's why Tuvok has never had a problem there before. But try that with people who don't even want to show up for their shift, and you're not going to get anything except more resentment. You're basically punishing them just for being their true selves, and are trying to force them into being something they're not because you don't like who they are. The whole thing reminds me of destructive old school ABA therapy that tried to force kids to be "less autistic." As someone who is neurodivergent, who also has a neurodivergent husband, and two non-verbal very special needs kids, I now see this episode from the point if view of the Maquis misfits, because we are "misfits" ourselves. That whole sequence made me very pissed off, just like them. You can't just force people into a box that isn't for them just because you want everything to be harmonious, neat, and tidy. You have to meet people who don't fit into the box where they are, and come up with alternative solutions that they can actually do outside of the box. Find out what their strengths are, and work with those in their own way. That Bolian for instance. There was nothing wrong with him. You don't like how he talks? Have him be Neelix's assistant or something. They seem very similar. Put him in a social position where talking is a good thing. Heck, he might have made a great barber like Mott. Don't take someone who is social like that and force them to shut up. Work with that strength. The others would require a little more digging to find out what suits them best, but as long as you respect what they want to do, I'm sure they could have figured out something creative for them. The point is, you start with the person, not the expectation.

As for the whole military thing...its divisive. Starfleet is obviously the Federation's military...there's no other Federation military organization that is mentioned. However, they do idealistically have a dual mandate as a military organization and an exploratory one. Rodenberry was combining the pragmatic need for a military...with the idealistic exploratory mission. And Federation ships are built and armed to a degree as to be able to stand toe-to-toe with purpose built warships they might run into from the Klingons and Romulans for example. This would be less of a settled issue if there had been some mention of a Federation Navy or Marine Corps or something. Then Starfleet could be like NOAA and study the space weather and space dolphins or whatever.

Voyager wasn't exploring. They were hunting down the Maquis. Remember...Tuvok was undercover? Voyager is Intrepid class, which is a really good example of a ship that's going to lack the expansive science labs and such of something like the Enterprise. Its a ship built for performance, with a much smaller crew.

This episode features my favorite version of Chakotay.

I thought maybe Jetrel would be a better episode to end the season on, but realize that having a lighter episode would be better. I'm ready to see you guys take on season 2.

Also how about the great consistency in this, i know you mentioned seeing Janeway's holodeck programme again, but also once again another holodeck scene in the French bar Tom created.

I'm glad you guys enjoyed it although you surprised me once again not liking it more due to it's similarity to Lower Decks in some ways. I knew that Dalby telling Tuvok what happened to his girlfriend would make an impact on you, at least i was right about that lol. When a school friend first lent me Season 1 on VHS in 1995 this was my favourite of the Season. It no longer is, 2 or 3 other episodes have surpassed it in my ranking, but i still give it A. Obviously i'll give full rankings when you do your top 5 or 10 next week, but i agree it's a decent season. I give Heroes and Demons E, and one other a D, but all others between S and C. For me the best Season of Star Trek you've watched so far is Season 3 of DS9, i know you obviously had a few issues especially with Past Tense, but that is the only Season so far i've not given less than C to any episode (which includes the final 2 you've no doubt seen by now).

yeah it was pretty ok, but unfortunately thats Voyage in a nutshell, some fantastic episodes but mostly ok. And i hate those Holodeck teasers they suck, as do most of Voyagers Holo adventures and how they can rake on Q-pid and give these a pass, q-pid wasnt great either, but at least it had some humorous character moments, these are like Mulgrew had to have theater moments written into her contract

shows got cancelled all the time back then so it could be over

As I recall Ro's earing was presented as "under one condition" for staying on with Starfleet where as she had an out. Picard saw something in her so for her to stay on board he let it slide.

Wonder what happened to, "as long as it's good." This sudden drama and hatred for an end of season hook, or setup for the next season is beyond bizarre to me. There's nothing wrong with world-building, or teasing what might be coming next. There's also nothing wrong with ending on a standalone episode. What's important is how well it's done.... right guys? Right??? This episode is just... meh. C is about right.

Something I think often gets overlooked in the Starfleet/Maquis discussions: the power dynamic is not 50/50 in there. The combined crew compliment (the total population) of Voyager (a science vessel, btw) is in the neighborhood of 140 people. Chakotay's ship was significantly smaller than Voyager. I would imagine it's roughly 1 Maquis to every 3 or 4 Starfleet personnel. (That'd work out to about 30ish Maquis and about 110 Starfleet). And we've seen that Chakotay tended to draw in people who, like himself, had some alignment to the Starfleet ethos. So, given that, I'm not surprised they haven't staged a coup (because, then what?) and a sampling of 4 of the most squeaky wheels does serve as a good test program for field training. You don't need to put everyone through it -- some are already conforming, some will improve to avoid being enrolled, and some will be encouraged to improve by those who do go through it.

There were 4 episodes held off from S1, sprinkled among the opening 6 episodes of S2.

Re: Uniform regulations. If you're working with heavy machinery, or in areas that contained confined spaces, typically you aren't wearing stuff that might strangle you, rip your ear off or get you caught up in potentially lethal equipment. Hence, baseline regulations.

"Starfleet isn't a military!" Starfleet Academy training being a hellish boot camp. "You sure about that?"

In general I would say this season opened up strong with this TOS structure of beaming down to a planet and finding shit and meeting people, but towards the end someone in that writing room must have been watching TNG repeats because the show changed and it all went south by the end. The bloom is definitely off the rose for me.

Airdate order giveth, and airdate order taketh away.

I think my problem with this episode is that it really should've been the 4th or 5th episode of the season. It woulda got the Maquis conflict addressed and dealt with sooner, rather than seemingly forgetting about it, remembering it and stretching it out to the end of the season.

Well that’s the first time I’ve watched season one of Voyager in broadcast order since it first aired and the one word I’d use to describe the season is - “mediocre.” No super “highs” no super “lows” just pretty straight down the middle. I feel the same way about most of the characters with some exceptions. This re-watch didn’t change any perceptions I initially had about the season, and it’ll be interesting to see if the same thing happens with season 2. And there’s no way in hell that “Learning Curve” is the best Star Trek season ender. That’s just plain crazy talk is what that is.

IT would be funny watching you two react to the TV show "Dallas".

I really liked it. Has some lower Deck Vibes. B+ for me. Some nice Humor in ths Episode with the Bolian running in the background, or the soaked wet shot of Kes in the End. And the Cheese from Neelix as a Villain. lol

The Borg? The Founders? NO... Nelix Cheese

To be honest i never realised that Maquis and Starfleet personal had different pips until these reactions and I watched this show four times

It's just really too bad that they're, it seems like, so checked out on the Dominion storyline that the idea that DS9 season 3 might possibly end with that storyline again is seen as like a negative. Is that storyline just that uninteresting?

Also, why was the angry human guy living on the Bajoran frontier? Especially during the occupation by Carassia?

ive never seen anyone get so triggered by season finale cliffhangers.. lol you two are a different breed of tv watchers. my $5 legacy teir doesnt permit me an official ranking opinion... but you're getting it anyway My personal rankings for the season. I haven't watched most of these since they aired. About half of these I had no memory of at all. these are ranked on the Voyager curve. no other star trek episodes are factored in. if i liked it the best of the others- it got an S. 1. Prime Factors (S) 2. Eye of The Needle (S) 3. Emanations (A) 4. The Phage (A) 5. Jetrel (A) 6. Learning Curve (B) 7. State of Flex (B) 8. Caretaker (B) 9. The Cloud (C) 10. Time And Again (C) 11. Cathexis (C) 12. Faces (C) 13. Parallax (C) 14. Heroes and Demons (D) 15. Ex Post Facto (D)

So, I don't think it was this episode, but maybe 1-2 episodes ago, but I noticed Tuvok was Lt. Commander, and now he's just Lieutenant. I wonder what the IRL reason for that was, because I don't think they addressed it in the story? I suppose in my head canon, it's punishment for him going behind Janeway's back a few episodes ago.

"Best Season Finale since Turnabout Intruder!"

Alex hit the nail on the head with his Maquis idea. See, those who think the Maquis thing is underutilized don’t necessarily think that it should be the driving plot of the whole show week in and week out, just that it should be handled realistically- a survival scenario where a significant portion of the crew left the Federation over a sense of betrayal would not just fall in line immediately. Alex’s idea of “hey maybe in this situation we can’t just be rank and file starfleet and we need to come up with a NEW unique structure/hierarchy” is literally all I personally would ask for just so it doesn’t feel like something swept under the rug or underserved.

Voyager's initial mission was not exploratory. It was to retrieve Tuvok and capture the Maquis ship so it was a military mission.

Voyager's mission in the pilot was a military mission: they were extracting an undercover officer and rounding up a terrorist cell. Starfleet is the military even if it isn't their primary function.

You have never seen a "To Be Continued" or "Part 1" Season Finale on Deep Space Nine. They were self-contained episodes. There was time jumps between seasons. Not sure why this one was such a surprise. Since you were spoiled about the 4 episodes being held over. UPN wanted to start Voyager Season 2 a month before any other shows were airing new episodes.

The Maquis don't have their own pips. They are "crewmen" (which is what Tuvok called Dolby (or however you spell it). O'Brien has the same one on DS9 because he's also technically a "crewman". He's an officer but he's not actually commissioned. He entered Starfleet as a civilian and I don't believe he went through Starfleet Academy but trained by other means. That's what the Maquis crew are as well in this context. I can't remember if Seska had pips or not...I feel like she did? If so I'm sure Janeway made concessions for certain people based on their skills and recommendations from Chakotay? Both he and Torres DID go through the Academy though so they have been given full field commissions and ranks. But the unique pips ARE Starfleet pips. Not Maquis. Just specifically for non-commissioned officers/civilians and not ranking enlisted commissioned officers. Or something.

I agree with most that this episode is just fine. C or C+. I'm going to say I think for the brief amount he was used, I think Neelix had a pretty decent showing here. Sure, he nearly killed the ship, but he also showed he was fairly good at reading Tuvok's state of mind and provided him with some legitimately helpful advice. I do find it unlikely though that the gel packs would be so vulnerable to a virus. You'd expect them to be hermetically sealed and transmit data through whatever futuristic USB connector they have in the 24th century. The 4 maquis crewmen are relatively forgettable. Dalby stands out the most as the "leader of the pack", and his backstory is horrific enough to catch you off guard. Still, I think this episode ultimately ends up being more about what Tuvok learns than what they learn. It's clear from the first interaction that his approach needs work. Dalby was showing initiative and felt like he was being chewed out for it. All Tuvok had to say was that with their supply situation being so critical, the captain wants all decisions regarding replacement parts going through Torres, and ask him to contact her before proceeding next time. I used to do 10km about 5 times a week. It's not that bad. But then again that's a brisk walk, and I didn't have to crawl through a bunch of Jefferies' tubes or carry around a 100lb backpack while doing it. It is good conditioning though. When I was a kid, I used to think Chakotay punching Dalby was a cool scene. Alpha dude asserting dominance or something. Now it's just a bad look. Chakotay was a starfleet officer, and has been nothing but professional since we first saw him. Are there probably some members of the maquis that get into brawls with each other? Sure, but I doubt defectors from starfleet would tend to resort to that, and moreover these are people who generally have some shared trauma from encounters with the cardassians. It just makes Chakotay look like a bully, and to do that in front of a good chunk of both starfleet and maquis crew is not something you want to see from a first officer. One more example of the writers screwing over the character. I maintain though, I would have swapped this episode around with State of Flux. Swap Henley with Seska so we have at least one established character, and we can have a finale in the vein of S1 and 2 of DS9, where it carries some implications going forward, but isn't a part 1. Plus State of Flux was just a better episode to end off on.

Took me a while to actually watch the reaction - but I will point out that DS9's season one finale wasn't a cliffhanger either (though it was a story arc end in a way, with the crew all realising they liked how things were between each other). Though it is very typically true seasons tend to end on a cliffhanger. Especially post season one (TNG is guilty as charged with the difference between it was season two without the cliffhanger - but it was Shades of Grey so is that really a positive?).

Before pressing play I couldn't remember much, if anything, of this episode. Have to say I quite enjoyed it. Very much gave me a kind of Lower Decks vibe. No real tension or drama, spend some time with Tuvok, meet some more Marquis, and all's well that ends well. Solid C.

C-tier safe and fun Sitcom style episode. I like it. B-tier actually, for almost cursing me with death by choking, took a sip of Dr. Pepper when that "cheese to sickbay line" hit. Completely forgot how absurdly funny that is to me lmao. Also, random fact but I HATE CHEESE in real life. It's vile stinky evil.

Its not on the same level, but this episode reminds me a lot of Lower Decks in that we get to see the regular crew (well, not really 'regular' since they are explicitly sub-par) doing stuff.

I do appreciate the staging of the laps around the carbo bay bit. The set is obviously not large, but the timing of the lap implies there's a lot more to the carbo bay that we aren't seeing.

Not the best this season has to offer, but not bad either. I honestly do not have much to say about it. I was leaning on B-, but in all honesty....I don't think I can go higher than C+

I always assumed the stinky cheese villian was meant to be slightly silly comedy, and the episode as a whole kind of sitcom-y on purpose. The cheesy dialogue at the end felt very TOS to me. Voyager has a subtle self aware tongue-in-cheek quality that I think goes over a lot of people's heads (mine included, as it improves on my rewatches.)

Edit: Tuvok’s approach in “Learning Curve” really bothered me more than I expected. The core problem is that he’s treating the Maquis like Starfleet cadets—people who chose that structure and bought into it. But these are conscripts who didn’t sign up for this life, and that difference matters more than the episode seems willing to admit. Starfleet protocol works in the Federation because it’s supported by infrastructure, shared values, and a chain of command people agreed to. Voyager has none of that. It’s a mixed crew in a survival situation, and that calls for some flexibility. What frustrates me is the assumption that the failure lies entirely with the Maquis not adapting, instead of recognizing that Tuvok’s method might not fit the situation. To the episode’s credit, he does start to adjust—but it takes longer than it should. I’m not saying discipline doesn’t matter—it clearly does—but treating Starfleet procedure as unassailable wisdom feels especially questionable when DS9 was airing at the same time and constantly showing its limits. Also… if a headband is the hill we’re dying on in the Delta Quadrant, we might need to reassess priorities.

Why people always hating on the Kazon? They were conceived as the west coast Klingons.. but I like the Lenny Kravitz from hair I hate the “hair metal” Klingons TMP they were more like wolverine hair.. Dulby is kinda just a one note performance “Grr I’m angry guy!”

Once again we see how much Picard let his crew screw around. How do you get from "forced 10K run" to "come to Mr. Data's poetry reading"? No wonder Jellico had to kick so much ass when he got to the Enterprise. (I say this in jest. I love Picard. I love that the Enterprise-D feels like a floating arts center that sometimes also does missions. But seriously, it's a big gap.) Otherwise, The Students Teach The Teacher was a pretty worn trope even in the '90s, but Tim Russ and the guest stars do some nice things with it. The writers handed them the cheese and they took that shit to sickbay.

maybe they would have featured the Kazon more if they were good

Personally, I would have left the part about more episodes being produced out of my take, as it pertains to future episodes. For the record, there are 4 of them, not 6. But I don't mind you guys learning this wasn't the intended finale, if only for how much OTT smugness there was thinking this was a low-key stakes finale on purpose lol. We all need humbling sometimes.

Before you guys get too excited - this episode was never intended to be the season finale. They had originally filmed 4 more episodes, but then for whatever behind the scenes reason; they decided to save those episodes and make them part of season 2.

It might be me or living in the UK but summarizing the Patreon Take at 1:06:41 saying Season 1 finale was meant to be S2 Ep6 might be based on Amazon Prime wrongly listing S2 Ep1 - 6. Check out IMDB for the right episode list guys.

The episode is cheesey huh? Josh is so clever he didn't even realize what he did there :)

Season finale, what could it be? Will there be a catastrophe? A cliffhanger? Are the Kazon coming back? Nope. Neelix almost kills the entire crew with cheese while Tuvok runs a boot camp. Ta-da!

You guys are so over the top with the cliffhanger concept! 🤣 It was never about them being afraid we weren't coming back to watch. It was just about making t an event to give you something to think about for three months.

I prefere high Highs and low Lows above average. All the time. In any show.

This episode is another 'fine' one to me. Nice little story, nothing offensively bad, just cosy. I never really agreed with all the Voyager criticism about not doing more with the Maquis. I like it the way it has been in this season. A few episodes like this where it's mentioned quite a bit, but mostly just used as background character information.

Tuvok could have taught Worf or Miles or Tasha or Jadzia maybe Geordi. (Because my take worried you, I was responding more to others criticizing it as a finale but I will do better in the future)

They only chose 4 people because it was the 4 Maquis who werent integrating well. If they did the "teach all the Maquis" idea then you'd have Chakotay and B'Elanna in Tuvok Boot Camp too. The conversation in the ready room between Tuvok, Chakotay, and Janeway is where this was discussed early in the episode. As for the pips thing I'm surprised the bridge crew haven't explained it but the Maquis are not in starfleet. They are using provisional rank pips. Lore-wise they aren't made just for this situation as we see this pip style for other characters in similar situations in other Star Trek shows. It's not a segregation thing. They technically aren't Starfleet but they do hold rank and that is communicated with the provisional rank pips. I feel like such a nerd typing all of that but :)))

Look Dalby the Maqui was 7 months old when Caretaker happened so there is no true Maquis way. Keiko was more Starfleet than these four, so was Ro

Being from the UK we had four more episodes to watch after this (especially on VHS) - I never saw it as a “season finale” so I struggle to view it that way but I’ve always enjoyed it. DVD and streaming follow US releases so I then got confused - where’s my missing episodes?! 🤪

Looking forward to watching this after work. I'm really hoping to see "between season filler" .... specially, more STAR TREK CONTINUES. And the documentaries. The anniversary special and TREKKIES have released by this point in your viewing order. And I've mentioned before.... ST CONTINUES has such great episodes, many Trekkies consider it canon... myself included.

I know it is cheesy but I like this one

Sure it seems completely ridiculous to suggest an advanced starship capable of traveling the galaxy could be brought low by cheese until you find out that the US Navy spent $5 billion developing the Ford-class carriers, another $12 billion building the USS Gerald R. Ford making her easily the single most expensive warship in human history… and the toilets don’t work.

This episode amounts to one thing - Mac and Cheese almost destroyed the ship.

On their first day of Starfleet training, Tuvok brought his cadets to the cargo bay filled with the Blue Barrels of Death. Bold power move, Mr. Vulcan. Nicely done!

You guys may have forgotten, but DS9 season 1 also did not end on a 2 part episode.

The little boy from the holodeck story is another cast member who also appeared in Generations, as one of Picard’s kids in the Nexus. He’s had a long career, you may have also seen him in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

Overall I think this is a B- kind of episode, but I always found the idea that the Maquis solved in-house issues with fighting to be insulting. In fact, Chakotay seems the least likely person to be holding onto his command and authority by attacking people who disagree with him. No, the Maquis on Voyager weren't all former-starfleet like Cal Hudson, but they weren't some roving gang of fantasy orcs either. It's some real lazy writing IMO, compared to how the Maquis have been previously portrayed.

Literally just Cozy Trek at it's peak as a season finale, what can you really hate about it? The Cheese twist is funny, and everything is worth it to get Torres saying "Get the cheese to sickbay" is honestly just golden and the actress glides over that line flawlessly

I literally had no idea this was the finale for a few weeks, since I only watched this on UPN at this point so I never saw ads. When I realized it was I was pissed. By this point I really liked that most shows were pretty guaranteed to take big swings in the finale so you had something to talk about for 3 months. Luckily we had a shorter wait since UPN held some voyager episodes to air in the summer so season 2 would premiere before every other series on tv that Fall.

Some shows have Season 2 be the ones that are a$$.

Can I go to star fleet academy? Mom: We have star fleet academy at home.