UNCUT - Parturition (VOY S2E7) | Star Trek Journey 377
Comments (63)
Some good Paris and Neelix scenes. Pretty run of the mill episode, but I will give it a solid B for a practical alien puppet if nothing else.
There union rules to everything and it wasn’t Frakes or Westmore
Neelix definitely already served that for dinner
Woulda been hilarious if the bird baby grabbed neelix by the throat
Why the frack would they go down to a planet like that with no space suits
"There are others?!" Neelix's line had me snorting up my Dr. Pepper, ouch lool
DS9 is Community.
Hopefully it doesn’t mirror Community’s massive fall off
Well the Episode sticks the Landing. The last 10 Minutes were great. And amazing Creatures. But the best Part by far: Neelix is finally free for other Themes.
"We're down to 30% food reserves" Meanwhile Nexlix has enough for a private multi course meal with Kes, and last episode enough for a birthday cake. Remember when Chakotay couldn't have a mushroom soup from ingredients his former crew harvested just for him?
Rewatching the first season with Target Audiance. I forgot how good Janeway & Tores’ relationship was in the first season. Janeway is such a good “leader” (other than getting her crew trapped on the Delta Quadrant) in the first season. Knowing exactly how to manage Tores (I feel like Janeway sees a lot of herself in Tores the first season) & when to throw Chakotee a bone. Starting 2nd season… The show sifts from “professional Ladies in space” to everyone wants to fuck the 2 year old. So sad.
I agree with the others here saying that this whole jealousy arc was a net zero return. The only thing we gained by it were a few good scenes between Tom and Neelix here. I would have preferred that the show never did this arc at all, especially considering how over the top Neelix was with it. Then again, as someone who is Anxious Preoccupied myself, who struggled a lot with jealousy and unhealthy relationships back in the day, this arc was exactly what I needed to see and hear back then. I hope it helped others too.
Apparently, when the alien hatchling won't eat, Paris says, "Come on, kid, ya gotta eat," which is a line spoken in Enemy Mine.
Unfortunately, the way that Neelix had to get reassurance from Tom regarding his jealousy is actually legit. Would resolving it through trusting Kes be IDEAL, and HEALTHY? Yes! Absolutely. That's the real root of the issue, and that's the goal. And for people like you, where jealousy isn't an issue, this is easy to understand and obvious. But for people like Neelix, who are an Anxious Preoccupied attachment style, who really struggle with jealousy due to insecurity, and need constant reassurance from their partner that everything is ok because they don't know how to give that reassurance to themselves, it takes a LONG time for them to be able to get there and understand this. That comes at the very end of their journey. Yes, the goal is for Neelix to not need external validation from either Kes or Tom. But we need to do baby steps right now. And at this point in that kind of journey, Tom's reassurance actually carries more weight than Kes's, even though it shouldn't. We all have our own traumas we need to heal from. Anxious Preoccupied just happens to be Neelix's. The lessons we learn surrounding our traumas are deep rooted, and affect our world view. People tend to either get overly attached to their relationships, like Neelix here, or reject all attachments and relationships entirely. To people who don't have the same trauma style, these views seem completely foreign, because ultimately, they aren't true, and aren't healthy. But they are still a strongly rooted way that people learned how to deal with the trust and abandonment issues they experienced growing up. They aren't easily resolved, and I certainly don't expect Neelix's issues to be resolved over the course of an episode. This is a realistic next step in my opinion.
I think it makes sense that the resolution had to come between Tom and Neelix, independent of Kes. Technically Kes and Neelix had that conversation a couple episodes ago, at which time Neelix mentioned that he trusted Kes but it was Tom he didn't trust. And Neelix's comments to Tom here also confirm that Neelix was more worried about Tom as a person based on the things he'd heard other people say about Tom. All of this supports that the root of Neelix's jealousy was with Tom himself and as such, it was something they had to work out, not something that was tied to his level of trust in Kes.
Neelix THINKS he trusts Kes, as do all people in this situation. But if he actually did trust her, then Tom being "untrustworthy" wouldn't be an issue at all. If Neelix was secure, then it wouldn't matter if he didn't trust Tom, because nothing that Tom could ever do would matter if he fully trusted Kes. Telling himself "it's Tom I don't trust!" is a cope for the real underlying issue of all jealousy. The perceived "threats" are never the real issue. If your relationship is secure, then nobody can "steal your girl away," and thus, "threats" don't actually exist. If you're worried that somebody might try to make a move on your partner, then what you're REALLY worried about, is that your PARTNER might act on that move in a way that you don't want them to, like leave you for them. This is 100% about him not being able to really trust Kes or himself due to insecurity. The converstation Neelix and Kes had didn't actually resolve anything because Neelix isn't aware of the full truth, and isn't willing to admit the truth.
Hey, I was just thinking about a TA bingo card! I would've put "Trash-talking Star Trek 6" on there.
The thing about "Neelix should just trust Kes and be done with it and not need to talk to the man about it" - yeah, that would be true if Kes was mature, savvy, and experienced in how to handle unwanted attention. The truth is Kes is naive and trusting and totally inexperienced in this stuff, and while it's clear that she wouldn't be tempted to stray, she doesn't necessary know how to deal with someone making a move on her. We can and should give women the respect to trust they can handle their business, but if you take someone who's the equivalent of a 13 year old girl and assume she understands the way the world works and what to do about it, that's overly optimistic. She's been sheltered, and it's understandable that Neelix is convinced she doesn't fully comprehend the complexity of the situation.\
I think we can trust Kes to not just randomly hook up with Tom out of "naivety," which is what Neelix is woried about. Also, despite Neelix always viewing her as inexperienced and naive, Kes has consistantly shown that she's actually far more understanding and mature than Neelix, and possibly the entire crew. Kes is the secure one here. As far as jealousy goes, not knowing how to handle someone making a move on her shouldn't be a problem.
The tone of the dialogue delivered in this episode is really odd. It’s like a sitcom.
I remember when this episode came out I thought the baby looked like a character from the TV show Dinosaurs which finished up in 1994. it was a classic Jim Henson Productions and Disney sitcom, i would not be surprised if that is where the inspiration came from.
Janeway, on why she's sending Tom and Neelix on this mission: "Our food reserves are low, we might not find another M-Class planet in awhile." Janeway, upon Tom and Neelix's return from the mission, after they already WASTED FOOD in a fight in the mess hall: "So that's a 'no' on any new food supply then? Well, so long as you two sorted out your issues then, I guess potential starvation doesn't matter. Wait, what do you mean you left two unhatched eggs down there?!"
Somebody needs to take Tom Paris out behind the warp core and give him an old fashioned fist beating final frontier-style.
Cold-blooded animals do NOT shiver to stay warm. Also @33:14, you're probably seeing the lines from the interlaced video many Star Trek scenes had. Nowadays it looks awful because half the info is missing in each frame, but on old CRT televisions these Voyager episodes looked MUCH sharper. I miss the days when glowing phosphor auto-de-interlaced that stuff.
Yes, it never ceases to annoy me how much bogus science and completely unnecessary technobabble that these writers throw in for no good reason. They either didn't need to mention it was cold-blooded OR they didn't need to make it shiver. Just omitting one of those two things would have been fine - no need to contradict themselves and make us all roll our eyes...again. Gee, I hope their understanding of biology gets better. Might they ever come to be more careful about depicting, say, viruses, organ transplants, tissue regeneration, evolution, or gestation? Sigh.
Janeway decided she wanted a cunty bob too.
Glad to watch this episode in full again: I am sensitive to secondhand embarrassment so I had to watch the mess hall scene through my fingers, but this whole episode is full of great scenes and moments. I support y'all's OT3 agenda 🤣
Another really mediocre/poor episode imo. Voyager was really on a roll here
Deelix = Baby Yoda
I’m pretty sure I missed this episode the first time around.
Janeway is spending her time trying different hairstyles.
Season Two also had four episodes held over until Season Three.
Yeah, still not big on this one. I do like the stuff on the planet, and it IS good for showing Tom demonstrating some real maturity and being honest with Neelix(loved Alex's reaction to "there are others?"), as well as hanging out with Kim. The alien baby storyline isn't amazing in and of itself, but as a conflict resolution tool, it worked well. As for Neelix, is seems as of the end of this episode that his jealousy arc has been put to rest, so that's good. But it's also kinda like if you had investments in the stock market, and they took a big dip and now you're holding on to them to try and recover your losses, and those stocks do bounce back, and you're happy, but then you realize you just got back to baseline, and it's not as exciting anymore. Hopefully they do something much better with Neelix going forward.
“Parturition” both tricky to spell and hard to say. “Planet Hell” was right there, writers.
"Planet Hell" wouldn't be Star Trek. Also, out of all the planets that have been visited so far, having "Planet Hell" be the place where you just need extra lotion and meet cute sock puppets would be weird...for Trek
Voyager does a variation of Enemy Mine, or even older, The Defiant Ones - C rating.
I’m just here to see watch Alex’s face when Neelix is on screen.
The sheer relationship pettiness in this episode gives me life, as does the Tom/Harry bromance. And I'm pretty sure Garrett Wang was actually playing that clarinet.
Nope - Garrett did not play the clarinet. He does a very good job of faking it.
Well my memory was being harsher on this episode than it deserved. It actually wasn’t that bad and had some funny moments and some background info revealed that was interesting for the characters. The doctor eavesdropping, Neelix opting to tell the truth that they were having a problem rather than lying was good, and I liked seeing Kes interact in new ways with the others. Not amazing, but solid.
I remember this episode and its still one I skip. D or a low C at best imo and that is just from the stuff with Kes venting and getting advice from the crew.
LOL You guys are worse than my mom. She used to support "John McClane" for President... and I'd tell her, "I especially supported his attacks on the terrorists in Nakatomi Tower." .... Anyway, yes, this episode is called "Parturition", not "partisions".
Partooshun
This is a good episode, if not a great one. I love seeing the character development here. "Jealous Neelix" gets old fast, and getting some sort of resolution is welcome. Plus - TARGET AUDIENCE BINGO!!! OMG, that is FANTASTIC!!! Great reaction guys!
This was a rough episode to watch amidst a rough stretch of episodes. Would have completely lost interest if not for the cute puppet who carried the entire second half of the episode on its small baby back. There's better episodes around the corner and I'm looking forward to discussing those.
I disagree that the jealousy stuff should only be about Neelix and Kes. It involves all of them. Even though Kes says she's only interested in Neelix, which she very well could be, it isn't that simple. Things can change, and another guy making moves on her may directly help lead to those changes in the future, and I think it's reasonable for Neelix to want to tell that third wheel to back off, even if he does trust her. It's not just about trusting her feelings and sincerity in the moment because feelings and dynamics can change. Leaving Tom to keep falling for her, flirting with her, giving her weird gifts, etc. unopposed is just making that more of a possibility, even if Kes has the purest of intentions. And on another level, it's also just plain rude for a third party to hit on a committed person, and I wouldn't blame their partner for getting irritated (or more than that) by it.
It's fine to tell somebody to back off and stop hitting on your girl if they are being weird and crossing the line. Especially if they are harrassing your partner. But worrying about how "things can change" is exactly the point here of why jealousy is toxic. These people need to realize "So what if it changes?" If the person you are with wants to be with someone else, LET THEM. Don't try to protect them against "potential threats." That's what people who get jealous are actually afraid of, that no matter how great their relationship appears to be right now, something will magically change one day because some Chad swooped in and changed their mind. That's why no matter what their partner tells them, or how devoted they are to them in the moment, they never actually trust or believe them because they know that no matter what, all of that can change in an instant, because in their mind, it's happened to them before. This is why they need constant external reassurance, to make sure that nothing has changed since the last time they were reassured. That is NOT healthy. You should be able to give YOURSELF that validation, and that comes through trust. If jealous people actually LOVED the other person instead of just being terrified of losing them, then they would want what is truely best for that person instead of trying to control the circumstances around them, and the people that they interact with, trying to prevent certain changes and outcomes from happening. When you try to control, you are doing it for YOUR benefit, not you partner's. You should trust not only that your partner actually loves you and wouldn't do anything behind your back, but also trust that if feelings actually did develop between them and someone else, the partner would tell you, and trust the partner's judgement enough to know that they'd actually be better off with this other person. You should want what is best for your partner, even if that means they need to be with someone who isn't you. As you said, sometimes relationships change. The relationship that you have right now might not be the best fit for you both later on. People change, and grow, and learn things that they didn't know about themselves at the beginning of the relationship. People who are jealous need to learn that they can't CONTROL relationship changes, and that's OK. What happens in the relationship ultimately comes down to what choices their partner wants to make. Trying to manipulate their choices so they always choose you, isn't going to help you, and will actually push the other person away because they'll know you don't actually trust them/respect their autonomy. If Kes develops feelings for Tom, let her go. Don't try to keep her away from all people just so feelings never have a chance to develop. If you have to keep your partner away from "threats" in order to prevent feelings from developing, then your relationship was never that secure in the first place. Riker said it best to Ral in The Price, when Ral tried to manipulate Riker by getting him jealous of his relationship with Troi: "You just made your first mistake. If Deanna really did find true love with you, nothing would make me happier."
Watching Alex's face mirror the alien baby puppet's expressions was the highlight of this reaction!!!
Rough episode. I don't see the point of it, really. Okay maybe I do...maybe. But it's hard for me to care about character growth for characters I didn't really care about. Especially the Hedgehog. Speaking completely subjectively as I always try to do, I honestly cannot give this higher than a D+ because I was just bored by this episode with no emotion on my part. This episode also capped a point when I binged the series that out of TNG, DS9 and...this....well, its when I realized I didn't like this show much, and Voyager was my least favorite by a LOT. Like MASSIVE dip in quality and entertainment. (keep in mind I only got into Trek a few years back, and I didn't watch release order. I watched Voyager after I was done with DS9.)
Voyager sex scoreboard Alex scores SCOREBOARD Paris 2 Neelix 1 Kes 1 Chakotay 1 Harry 1 GUESTS Alex +1 new DETAILS The mention by a character of “Technobabble” is considered giving Alex a handyJ so it counts. Do we count Paris and Neelix as having “Taking a ride on the baloney pony” since they have a kid together….. NO. Also, do we assume a treesome as was suggested? Actually a tougher call than you may think given the sex scoreboard very liberal assumption rules…but No. We will though watch and any future Managatwoizy vibes then maybe yes. Nothing else hot because of…… lots of technobabble
I think I sold this episode short in the patron takes. When I watched with you guys I realized I actually couldn't remember it. Now that I've seen it again I realized it was good. Not amazing but good.
Classic male instincts, Fight over the woman but bond and band together for the totally random baby thing in need. I like this episode, pushes Neelix into a growth of character past the Jealousy phase. Neelix and Tom brothership is a great moment. I don't care what people think this is a good episode. Having Neelix face his issue is a big character moment.
I will add that Tom tells Neelix to look into Kes's eyes for reassurance.
I haven't seen this one since I was a kid, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. An almost nothing plot with 100% excellent character moments. I have to say, I disagree with your points on the directing being flat - the shots may be fairly standard but I feel Frakes did an amazing job getting all the key character moments, it feels like he got a little extra out of all the performances in this one. I love the scene in Janeway's office, Mulgrew looks like she's really trying to hold it together.
Better then I remember it. But on the plus side... the Neelix jealousy arc is over. Surely?
The UT I think it is integrated in their combadges so even if the ship is shut down the UT still works. In terms of Tom's father, Janeway said in Caretaker she served under his commend on the USS Al-Batani.
The UT is also a hearing aid like device that is so small it cannot be seen unless up close
This was one of my first episodes so I learned so much of the history of the characters here, it is a myth that parent animals will abandon their young if they had been handled
Yes! The episode about a parent reuniting with their child after being separated we’ve all been waiting for!
Love this one, great character growth
My recollection is that Voyager season 1 ratings were significantly higher than DS9 season 3. Yeah, this episode is... not great.
Play Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as Tom Paris and Neelix destroy another shuttle, Neelix acts like what Jesse Pinkman would call a "whiny little B---'" and we endure a crappy plot about feeding a hatchling with poison atmospheric protein shake powder....Rom can't save this
Rough stretch