Season
Three
Episode
Trivia
Note: This page is dedicated to trivia about the original Season Three written in the years 2002 and 2003. There is a separate page for the reboot version that began with The Games Matrix ex-special's change into a five episode saga in 2016.
Before I begin discussing individual episodes, for the most part, there is something I would like to say about the season as a whole.
Despite its insanity and very rarely resolved "plots" (I use the term loosely), Season One was for the most part harmless/innocent and definitely naive. At the time I was a 15 year old (16 for Upendi) kid eagerly awaiting the end of school, the start of my freedom and life, and hopefully the start of a writing career. I did not see what was coming and I definitely was not prepared. Season One feels to me like a representation of all that. Not that I'm saying I was ever innocent haha.
I went into Season Two with a lot of hope. I had figured out what to do with the paradox/Lena/Kiara storyline, James was figured out, I had some whoppers of episodes planned, and I had many more plans for later seasons that I was so looking forward to leaving hints/foreshadowing. I felt like I was finally figuring out what writing was all about. When I finished Season Two I was a very bitter, angry teenager with issues piling up higher than I could handle. Storylines were wasted, episodes ruined, characters were even destroyed by a one off thought (a lot of my examples involve James, which considering what I went into Season Two to do, makes it all the more depressing for me), and I hadn't enjoyed writing S2 as much as S1. The experience left a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm glad now that I was stubborn enough to keep writing FV after that. Me doing so, so soon after finishing Season Two came at a cost though, as you'll see soon enough.
When I got to Season Three I was definitely feeling the hope brewing again, I thought I could fix everything that was wrong in Two. I thought my issues that soured my writing of Season Two were over and I could move on. I was so, so wrong. Season Two was when the behind the scenes went sour sure, but apart from needless violence in some parts it really wasn't all that noticeable. It just looked like a bigger more violent Season One. Season Three however was where the said scenes got worse and it was starting to show in my work. At the time though I was oblivious to the damage. Until Season Four came along I was convinced I was doing my best work, but now I look back and I can't even read a lot of it. I prefer Two over Three, sometimes I like One better. So much was wrong with Season Three, I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to see it.
Well that's a fine start, hmm? Despite my issues with Season Three, it still has some of the biggest plot twists and character development... at least until Season Five anyway. All of the expectations I had for Three, wasted by the want to write despite being in pain. Its reboot is definitely long overdue. It's why I haven't thought too much about it yet. One season at a time.
Fair Chance (Part Two)
Title Meaning: It's an ironic title I believe. Voyager is up against a brainwashed Starfleet in the end, there's nothing fair about it.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Loosely inspired by my other idea for a novel series based on Mercury.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I still have a lot to say about Season Three and its back story/behind the scenes, however I feel that the start of that should be in the following "episode". Fair Chance wasn't as affected by what I need to say, at least no where near as much. Basically Season Three was always supposed to show a gradual change to more serious storylines, as well as have a better storyarc. However Fair Chance was a very old novel idea cast off, and apart from introducing the Enterprise and shoving Voyager backwards, it had nothing to do with the upcoming changes.
Coming Soon
Oasis of Abatua
Title Meaning: The end goal is the oasis with the silly title, which in my head is pronounced "ah-bah-twah". I suppose it's fitting in a purely accidental way.
Alternate Titles - The Reincarnation
Inspiration - Lol. If you haven't seen it I guess it isn't that obvious so I'll say it, The Mummy Returns. Let's be thankful the sequel to that was so damn awful I'd never watch it again let alone parody/steal from it.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I really hate making excuses for this "movie"/special whatever, but I think something's do need to be said now that I'm doing this page. I call them excuses cos I could have just stopped and waited it all out, then wrote it when everything was a little better. I also call them that as the movie/special itself barely does anything to hint at what was going on behind the scenes, except maybe the final part. I'll get to what I mean with the the final part eventually. Now for the excuses, it's story time (run!).
I dunno if I've actually made a reference to it since the comeback, I probably have, but in the old days I would dread doing anything FV related in May. I'd usually make a comment about the "May Curse" if I did. It all started with Oasis of Abatua and I guess Fair Chance Part 2 in May 2002. Ever since that previous September in 2001 I had been having a terrible time (which I still feel awful complaining about), and May is when everything piled on. In a nut shell I was either flunking college or had already left it, mainly due to the stuff I can't talk about anymore, and then to top it all off I was having a lot of family troubles. Said family troubles involved literal fighting, death, divorce, running away, selfharm/suicidal thoughts/attempts etc.... It would have been bad enough if I wasn't dealing with everything else, but I was.
Some people reading this may see all of that as reasonable excuses for Oasis of Abatua and beyond, and Fair Chance 2 to be honest, being what I consider lazy and wasted opportunities. Some people may agree with me that they're just excuses. I dunno really. As I said above, if things were so bad I could have delayed Season Three's premiere until everything had blown over. In hindsight I wish I did. The first few episodes of Three just make me sad when I read them again, for many reasons. The whole season is tainted with it. Jessie's plot for example had to be recently edited during the reboot as I looked back and thought it was horribly out of place in a series like this. It was damaging for a lot of characters, I still cringe at the thought of "Put The Knife In". I'm getting way ahead here, as usual.
The truth is while I was writing Oasis of Abatua I didn't care. Part 1, maybe I did, but I remember that the rest of it kept getting delayed cos things kept happening. The reason it turned into The Mummy Returns with FV characters was because I just couldn't concentrate on it. It was easier to just follow the film and change the names. As I said, I didn't care. At the time though I deluded myself into thinking this "movie" was the best thing ever, all because I probably wanted to make it seem like everything was fine.
The real sad thing is Oasis of Abatua back when it was called The Reincarnation was completely different. I had wrote it not long after Resurrection and despite its problems due to it being a Season Two episode originally, it was far more original and much better than Oasis. I didn't get too far into it, which is probably why I didn't use it. Well that and it had the James/Jessie proposal/pregnancy still a secret stuff of Season Two, heh.
The ending. I wish I could tell you when that came to mind. When I got to this section of the page I stopped to wonder if my real life situation was leaking into it at the time. Did I kill off Jessie because a family member died too? I know that wasn't true as I had the next few episodes already planned, but the fact that I actually had to stop and think about it is a bit worrying. It just shows how coincidental it all was. I know I was already dreading it anyway. By the time I got to that part I imagine I was a wreck, not that I can remember specifically. The final chapter was a huge mess and it's probably because of this. I'm not sure if I made the changes to it I wanted to when I came back, I hope so. If I didn't the final chapter proves that I definitely didn't care and just copied everything from the film. The only change I made was keeping her dead. Pathetic really.
Oasis was only the beginning of what I now call the slit wrist season. Yeah Season Five has had its moments lately, but a lot of careful planning and love has gone into it and IMO it shows. I've worked hard to try and balance all of the sad/horrible stuff in it, and to further the point it's all being done for a good reason. Season Three, with the exception of Jessie's death, stinks of trying to be edgy and failing, basically being something it wasn't. Horrible crap happened in S3 and I guarantee that most of it was never supposed to. I actually feel a little uncomfortable thinking about it. This page is going to be fun.
More Coming Soon
New Earth
Title Meaning: It is one of those vague titles with vague synopsis so anybody looking ahead wouldn't have Oasis of Abatua spoilt. New Earth is just because Voyager returns to it.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Hmm... firstly I'm not sure, secondly how it was eventually written was inspired by how Buffy did it. Miscellaneous should have more.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)As mentioned in Oasis, I haven't a clue how or when I came up with the storyline of Jessie dying/James' evil turn. I do know though that because I wasn't really bothered about anything in my life at that point, I just decided to steal material to help me write it. Why break a habit of a lifetime? I know this episode will be rebooted to oblivion when I get there, it's practically begging for that or a Director's Cut mercy kill.
I know the plot was decided sometime between Disconnected and Fair Chance, due to Interactions ending the way it did (plot hole alert). A few things in Season Two inadvertently lead to this episode, and I guess this storyline was my way of "fixing" the mess of that season. That went well.
This isn't the best trivia entry as the two things that should be mentioned, I don't remember how or when they came to mind and I've already mentioned one of them. James' paternity is the other and I haven't a clue. All I have is hints left in older episodes themselves, hints that may or may not have been on purpose (I'm looking at you original The Fight, gah). I'll come back to this episode someday if I ever have an epiphany, for now all that's here is whining and guess work, yay!
More Coming Soon
Here & Now
Title Meaning: Hello song lyric title. There are plenty in Season Three, so be prepared to get very sick of it. Don't worry, it was originally a lot worse. Anyway I chose Here & Now as like New Earth it was vague, yep it refers to that planet once again. Basically we're in the same spot we were years ago and look what's happened.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Heh, I have no idea
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Death of the Night
Title Meaning: Yes another song lyric as a title, sick yet? The lyric is from Halloween, shocking, or at least it was what I thought was the lyric. To be honest I still don't know if it's "in the death of the night" or "in the depth of the night", the latter makes more sense to me. Never mind. The title is lost on me, but that's only cos I have a very limited memory of the episode itself. Something about ghosts and/or possession, pass! I'll read it someday and edit this, that's assuming I've figured it out then.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - A very old episode of Pokémon, and one of my favourites too. Basically it was about a woman waiting for her love to return from a war, she waited on a hill overlooking the ocean. In the end she turned to stone. The main characters arrive and 2/3 of the male ones become obsessed with the statue. My memory of it is getting a bit loose now (they never released the series on DVD here, sigh, so I can't rewatch it), but I believe the ghost of the woman lures them to the house on the cliff and are mostly paralysed/unable to function really. The guy who falls for anything female stays transfixed until the end, but the other does start to resist eventually. An old woman arrives to tell them the tale and tries to sell them souvenirs, if I remember right. The ghost is actually a Poké shapeshifting, he gets a bit miffed that they're fighting back. The ending does show the woman's ghost does exist and she thanks the imposter for keeping the myth alive. How much of that is in Death of the Night, well I'm not sure anymore. I will re-read someday.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Only In My Dreams
Title Meaning: The alien possesses Faye and tries to control James by giving him dreams of killing. Oh and it's a song lyric, haha did you think it was over?
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Honestly I don't know
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Despite the issues with Season Three so far, I do remember this episode not sucking. That's quite a compliment, believe me. I think my only fault with it was the alien's motives, I don't think it had any. I imagine if I read it again I'd find more.
More Coming Soon
The Chain Reaction
Title Meaning: The title refers to Jessie's resurrection and it triggering quite a bit later on in the season, as well as beyond. Ahem. Yep it's a song title. Mwahahaha.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - It wasn't inspired by anything, however it may seem like it was.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Ah the episode written during one of my many breakdowns and probably the worst one that year mentioned in Oasis. Despite all of its problems caused by this, I still enjoy reading it for the most part.
My biggest issues are the following:
1) The ritual. This is the biggest problem. I wanted something different but I was a little stuck. So what did I do? I did what I always did back then, rip off something else. The entire ritual was nicked from Buffy's resurrection and I hate it. The episode was perfectly original until then.
2) James' attempted suicide. Don't get me wrong, that was always supposed to be there. However it wasn't written well, shocking! Until Only In My Dreams' finale, I wanted to show that despite how much pain James was in, he wanted to continue on. He wanted to fight against the evil, he really didn't want to hurt anyone else. However when it all comes to a head in Dreams' finale, it becomes a little overwhelming for him.
The Chain Reaction was soon after the aftermath, yet it was supposed to show him trying to fight again as evidenced by trying to move everything out of his old home he shared with Jessie. The suicide itself was supposed to be a fleeting decision, he saw something happening and took advantage of it. I hate to say this but I have experienced this myself, and it can be overwhelming. He didn't go to that room with the intention of dying, he went there to put the past behind him. The fire was brief and tempting, and unfortunately he took it. He almost did walk away, but in the end he couldn't resist. His fight with Lena's a bit harsh, but it's the only part of this plot point that I feel was done well*. James can't and won't explain why he did it, Lena's angry with him for being selfish enough to even think about it. *I know it might seem inconsistent what with Lena's attempt in True Q, so you'd think I have a problem with it, but in my perspective she's on the other side of the fence this time, of course it will be different.
My actual issue with this? Well I read it and I think that because of my poor writing that people will not see what I've just written. They'll see a weak selfish guy committed to killing himself, leaving his son and soon to be born daughter as orphans. All just because his fiance's dead. Suicide is a taboo subject and I know people have differing opinions, but I honestly think that anyone who does this aren't being selfish because they're too depressed to see the big picture. It can come on suddenly and the lure of an easy way out is really strong, you're not thinking about consequences, you just want to escape. I'm not sure how to explain myself better than that.
3) Lalala rushed ending, the story of my FV life. To be fair to it, it wasn't rushed. All of it was planned out as such, the ending scenes just didn't feel as long as what went before it. So to sum up, it only looks like a typical rushed ending.
4) Speaking of Buffy influences, the copied ritual meant that the person doing it would be weakened. Also the demon attack during the ritual was ripped off as well, now that I think about it. The ritual and the forest scenes are definitely not my work, almost everything else is feels original. Heh.
More Coming Soon
Friday the Thirteenth
Title Meaning: The episode is unlucky for some, I think that's the only reason it was picked.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Final Destination, though I think that's obvious
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) The episode was a parody of Final Destination 1, which if you've seen it will know started with a plane accident. Unfortunately the episode was due to be released the same week as the first anniversary of 9/11, which was a terrible coincidence. Instead I decided to skip the episode and release instead Secret of Malain on the 8th September, followed by Dark Mirror the next week. This episode appeared two weeks later. The site itself closed down for the day as a mark of respect (I wasn't the only one). I remember an anonymous visitor leaving a rather rude message claiming I was using the tragedy as an excuse to slack off for a week.
Friday the Thirteenth had already been written back in August, Secret and Dark Mirror were finished by early September. As stated I didn't delay an episode release a week, I still released something. Weird.
I was at the time being hounded for other reasons, so I always assumed that's what that the message was really about. Still, I don't think I closed the site down for that again. It is funny though, if Akoonah Matata's writing dates are correct, I did in fact take a "break" around the time I was accused of. A couple of weeks. Two weeks to allow me to concentrate solely on my first weeks back at college. Where same time the previous year I was writing Season Two and battling personal problems, which did lead to me dropping out that first year. Yeah, that poster was right, I'm a calculating monster.
On a more serious note. I'd usually release episodes as soon as they were done. Friday, Malain & Dark Mirror were written early and scheduled in a three week period. By the time Friday was released, Akoonah Matata was ready. I wish I could plan that well again. It must have done a world of good as Akoonah was the best episode of the season IMO.
More Coming Soon
The Secret of Malain
Title Meaning: This is the parody of the classic adventure game Secret of Monkey Island, and the first of the Monkey Island parodies. Don't ask me what the secret is cos I don't know. I know for certain it isn't a stone looking monkey head secretly being a robot *shudder*
Alternate Titles - Secret of the Revenge (Reboot)
Inspiration - Secret of Monkey Island
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Unfortunately this and its three sequels are considered to be not canon at the moment, due to their reboots being moved into Season One. It's a big mess to be honest. The only thing that's truly missing if you skip it besides a slot I suppose, is that Emma returns. I think when the time comes to reboot Season Two, I'll be undoing the death in the first place. Apart from this I'm sure it's never mentioned again. Ah, sometimes you gotta love my laziness.
1) I was quite baffled that this combined with Revenge managed to be bigger than its reboot. In fact both separate parts are bigger than their reboots. A quick read through tells me I probably cut out quite a lot of rubbish before writing smaller "replacement" scenes. Secret had a lot of writers scenes discussing imagined theme animations, which both Revenge and possibly Curse did as well (Escape, I'm not so sure). There was some meanwhile scenes on the ship that weren't needed, and probably were only there because I "had" to have Lena and James in the episode. Sigh.
The new scenes I think were the infiltration of Buck's ship and Harry's puzzle involving the planet's natives. So I guess that makes sense. Revenge makes less though.
More Coming Soon
Dark Mirror
Title Meaning: Jessie turns into a darker version of herself, it's not that clever. But hey at least it isn't another song lyric, that's progress.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Hmm
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Since New Earth didn't steal all of the Evil Willow quotes, Dark Mirror had to fix that immediately and there you have my only problem with this episode. Apart from that it trumps New Earth. I know Evil Jessie is supposed to be worse than Evil James but the difference between the two are staggering. James' eventual turn when he's with Janeway is more laughable than it is tense (I will fix it, even if takes me months!), he only ends up killing his abusive dad, the bit in the brig is too much of a rip off to be anything more than cheesy, and the ending is soured by a parody of the scene, I can't help but see it everytime I read it and laugh (yeah don't ask about that parody, really). Jessie one ups him before she even turns on Voyager, so yeah...
Spoilers for Season Four Closing of the Eyes is definitely how I wanted Evil James to be, and Lullaby was how I wanted him to be if he stayed that way. Poor New Earth was doomed before it was written, and if you've read the whole page so far you know why.
More Coming Soon
Akoonah Matata
Title Meaning: I guess this counts as a song lyric, or does it? Hakuna Matata, and well Chakotay's device is called an Akoonah (I hope I checked the spelling before committing to that title). That's the only reason for the title.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Nope, although one particular scene is "inspired" by something
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)This is one of my favourite episodes of Season Three, I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that it was to be honest. I only have one minor bad thing to say about it and it doesn't ruin the episode for me.
I had completely forgotten until recently, but the scene where Duncan ends up taking over to tell the flashback was taken from The Simpsons. I always thought everytime I read the scene with the missing head that it wasn't my style, and that's why, it wasn't. It's only a few lines "we're doomed I tell you", the intermission to tell Duncan off, James returning to the flashback but without his head, he's corrected and that's it. It's exactly the same but again it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the episode. I did laugh when I saw that Simpsons episode again, it's not often I forget where I've ripped things off from, but forgetting it was even a rip off happens even less often.
Not trivia I know, but I love writing Tom's version of events. One of my favourite things involving him is that fake flashback where he fights James (with a high kick no less) and Jessie, and B'Elanna swoons over him. It may sound narcissistic/vain etc, but it always makes me laugh a lot. I like to tell myself that this episode proves at this point in time I was on the road to recovery, but there's so much crap to come. I must have just had a good day(s).
More Coming Soon
Future Imperfect
Title Meaning: The future's not perfect.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - See Misc
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)We go from probably my favourite episode of the season to one of my least, and yet again it's another wasted opportunity episode. The ending more than makes up for it, kinda. I usually just read that and move on. I've said it before but I love the Lena and Kiara relationship, even when it got a tad risky (YWF, Bittersweet), and this episode is proof of why. Both girls have been fooled, their world's turned upside down. Lena blames Kiara for her life being fake, and feels like she stole it from her. Kiara resents her in return for the way she handles it. Then Lena is mad at her again for being rude to her. Well you get the idea. Both girls need to make up already, but where's the fun in that ^_^
Moving on to the Inspiration. The overall episode wasn't really inspired but a major part of it was; the Kiara/Bryan/Lilly icky love triangle. This is what makes the episode skippable for me. I wanted Kiara/Bryan to be one sided, as well as nothing happen because for god's sake they're kids. I added Lilly into the mix as I'd been recently getting into Buffy (yeah that again!), and I really liked Willow/Oz. They shared the same "actors" as Lilly and Bryan, so there you go. Never mind the fact that Lilly is actually a few hundred years old thanks to stasis, and the one where she was an adult when he was born. It isn't supposed to be real, it's Kiara's dream after all but it doesn't excuse the squick. This episode is Season Three's Timeless on purpose and by accident it seems.
More Coming Soon
Turn Back Time
Title Meaning: Hello song title. Did you really think that was over? The title meaning is linked to the inspiration.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The film Sliding Doors, which had the song Turn Back Time in its soundtrack.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Voyager Nights
Title Meaning: Voyager loses power, it's dark. Yeah.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The labour scenes were obviously from Friends, sigh
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I wanted to stop the lazy rip offs when I got into Season Three, Season Two was ruined by things like this happening. Have you see any evidence of that? No of course not. S3 started with jokes stolen from The Simpsons Cape Feare, Oasis of Abatua should have been renamed The Mummies Return Again, New Earth quoted Buffy too much, Death of the Night probably is Ghost of Maiden's Peak with FV characters (I can't remember it but I'm confident that I'm right), The Chain Reaction couldn't have its own ritual, Friday the Thirteen was Final Destination only to be cruel to Seven, Secret of Malain was Monkey Island (though that was always the intention), Dark Mirror stole quotes from Buffy again, Akoonah stole that joke from The Simpsons, Turn Back Time was a definitely not memorable Sliding Doors, and now there's this. Only In My Dreams probably ripped something off, if it doesn't it explains why it isn't that bad.
Yeah I was just going to use a few examples, however it creates more of an impact if I list them all. This is why Season Three was actually very weak.
So what did this do? I had a plot where Voyager loses power because of something Seven left behind. The radiation caused by it would cause both Jessie and B'Elanna to go into labour. Also I had to explain why the Enterprise wouldn't/couldn't help them. The Enterprise part was easy, a bad joke can easily sort that issue out. I could have done better, ahem. The rest of the episode though would have been fine, there was no need to do what I did. I thought why not have some other crewmembers go into labour too, oh that plot in Friends was hilarious, DONE. I know you can't see, but my eyes are rolling a lot.
True it worked out in the end. One of the kids to come out of it is used in Season Five, well technically they all are but he's featured heavily. It still annoys me as like with many others there was no need. Surely by Season Three I'd have learned my lesson. Maybe I had, but remember... I wasn't really bothered. I don't remember when I started to care about anything again, hopefully when I reach that episode I'll know.
More Coming Soon
The Games Matrix
Title Meaning: Voyager and Enterprise are tossed into it, Lena and company would frequent it during their trip.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Reboot's third season, for the most part.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Hey in order to make the Softmicron a physical threat, why don't I take Reboot's Game Cube idea and expand on it. That's not enough, why don't I take Reboot's third season as well, people need to know I stole from it.
Sigh, and yeah let's have another episode "inspired" by something too. Can't forget that!
To be a tiny, eensy bit fair (minuscule in fact) this plot was to be ripped off in Kidz Trek first. It was the one I was going to expose the Sid character and his Damien like teammate as evil. I'm rolling my eyes again.
Anyhoo if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll explain. Reboot was that Canadian CGI cartoon series that was based inside a computer. The third season was amazing. They basically got rid of the main character, had the characters in actual peril and when that wasn't bad enough, made it seem like they killed the two kid characters off, not without skewering one of their eyes out. This was a kids show by the way, yeah. The kids ended up surviving, and the next you see them they're grown up. The missing eye one is a violent emo/badass (depends on your opinion I guess, I go back and forth between them), the girl well... she likes short tops and tridents. Her favourite word is luverrrrrrr *teeth grate*.
The show was cancelled on a "cliffhanger" for one or probably all of these things in the UK so I didn't get to see the ending for years. Even then I had to be scammed on Ebay and have to rip videos off a faulty fanmade dvd first to see it. When Games Matrix parodied it, I was still in the "how the hell is this resolved" camp.
I thought the plot could work with FV, it would also give me an opportunity to explore the Games Matrix (which was my only original thing, the Softmicron themselves are hit and miss, I just had to make them look like Togepi's didn't I *sigh*) during the bit of Reboot I hadn't seen. What happened instead? Not much, after the part where the series ended for me, GM rushes to the finish line. Voyager and Enterprise are back in normal space with little effort (so little I believed for months they appear with no explanation at all), Lena and co return with new Slayers mere lines after the "cliffhanger". It's a big mess. Nothing really original happened, it was just Reboot up until the prison break out. I should remove it in the reboot, but I wouldn't mind taking another shot at it. Kevin and Sandi would need explaining anyway.
More Coming Soon
The Revenge
Title Meaning: As it's a parody of the game LeChuck's Revenge, the title means the villain wants revenge. Simple
Alternate Titles - Secret of the Revenge (Reboot)
Inspiration - Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I haven't got much to say yet, all I recommend is reading Secret of Malain's entry.
1) Revenge had a little less to delete it seems, though I'm only basing that off a brief skim through. Most if not all of the scenes are writers rubbish. I know I wrote quite a bit extra for the reboot, which I figured would keep it to a similar size. It hasn't. This one's a bigger mystery than Secret, which made sense considering how much filler it had. Revenge though, I've only spotted a couple of scenes that were deleted and they look similar lengths to the new ones. Oh well.
2) The fourth wall/writers scenes strangely predicted the accident I had in 2009. I dunno why it's there at all. All I know is it grossly underestimated how bad it was, probably for "comedic" effect, and the reactions to it in the scene hit a little too close to home. Really, I don't know why I made that the writers joke for the episode. I can't remember having an almost/near miss version of the incident back in 2002 to inspire it. Meh, still creepy to me.
More Coming Soon
Sweet
Title Meaning: Hmm I actually had to stop and think about this one. I think it was named after the original idea for it and never renamed. It probably wasn't renamed as the title works as some sort of ironic one. Heh, I shouldn't give myself any credit here, I just probably couldn't think of a new one.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Pass
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Nope
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)As said in Title Meaning, like a lot of Season Three the episode released was not what was originally planned. This time I can't fully blame it on laziness and theft. I blame it on delaying an idea until later and deciding to make Kiara look like an adult. From what I remember the primary idea was the same, the difference was that Kiara still looked like a kid and she acted accordingly. To be fair she kinda does anyway, but details! The planet she makes would have been made entirely out of chocolate and sweets, a kid's heaven. There's the title for you right there.
The other difference is probably the chat show, inspired by well chat shows... duh. I likely wanted to give them another go after Why oh Why's awful attempt.
More Coming Soon
Mars & Venus
Title Meaning: Men are from Mars and... yeah you get the idea. Some of the guys become/are sexist because the girls dare to be anything other than sweet little girly girls, so they trick them into the pageant. Dear god, I didn't think I could make myself hate this episode anymore than I already did, but there you go. Yikes.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Miss Congeniality. The James OTT reaction at the end was "inspired" by Friends, like Oasis was inspired by The Mummy Returns. Cue eye roll.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Nope
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I dreaded this entry, I really did. After trying to remember the reason for the title I discovered another reason to hate it. This episode right here has made me a hypocrite. I blasted Twilight and a few other things for promoting misogyny, sexism... whatever. I haven't read this episode since the erm... incident which I'll get into, but I'm almost certain that my memory isn't failing me. The men who organise this are sick to death of the girls being "violent" and speaking their mind... so they do this. Why didn't I see this before? The answer is likely far back in Oasis of Abatua's misc trivia. I really hope I'm wrong. The episode was never meant to be that way, it was just an excuse for a joke episode. Haha Jessie wearing a dress, haha Lena being taught to be more polite. Not haha Jessie and Lena aren't real women cos they don't like dresses and aren't pushovers. My god.
I don't know if it's clear but I am a girl myself, so figuring this out right now has made me horrified to say the least. I may have to read it to see if it comes across this way or not. I may be giving it this crap cos I hate it for personal reasons, I dunno. Anyway I'm way off what I really wanted to talk about here, so I'll just leave that and my tiny bit of self respect I had left behind in the gutter.
As mentioned, Mars & Venus started out innocent enough. It was just a joke, a harmless one. I was either too young, too stupid, still not caring enough or a mixture of most/all of these to see what the episode really meant. Ack, I'm getting off topic again! I really did not see this episode being the one that would make me re think everything and eventually cause the long hiatus FV suffered.
Years ago I wanted FV to be noticed. I had people on the forum who read it, I had made a friend from the series, and there were a few fanfiction.net readers who had reviewed/favourited the earlier episodes. Obviously this wasn't enough for me, it's more than I have now (not complaining FYI, despite my neediness back then, I always preferred to be ignorant). I got so tired of FV being the only one on that fanfiction site not getting reviews anymore and having terrible view counts. I didn't consider that the series would have issues as it was a series with many different characters. Closing of the Eyes for example, I had a fit about that but if you went into that one as a new reader, you'd be wondering where Voyager was and who is this Jessie, and why do I care about her mother and two kids? The reasons for that being ignored are clear.
I see this now after many years, not that FV hasn't got any problems, this page is riddled with them. However when I did ask for opinions about what I was doing wrong, I got some and this episode was used as an example. My initial reaction was to freak out, I'll admit it. One; Mars & Venus was not, and I still think so, a good episode to use as an example. It would be like someone watching Fair Haven and swearing off Voyager. Maybe Mars & Venus got his point across better or it was the latest episode on the site at the time, I don't recall/know. The damage was done though. It started a chain reaction that would leak to even Season Five and caused me to stop writing all together. You may know the rest of that story already, I won't bore you about that further.
Needless to say, Mars & Venus was a terrible episode in more ways than one now.
More Coming Soon
Director's Cut
(The Infamous Cancelled Episode)
Title Meaning: It's a behind the scenes episode, kind of. Director's Cut seemed fitting at the time.
Alternate Titles - The Front & Behind The Camera Series (the episode itself was a separate fanfiction series, made before FV)
Inspiration - ^^
Original Voyager Episodes Used - I don't know, I doubt there were any
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)For many years this episode existed as 3.17, I wish I had deleted it sooner. The episode developed nothing, the characters were not in it, it was Hunters level dire (perhaps worse!), and I can't say this enough: pointless. It was deleted from the site and Season Three was re-numbered. Thankfully the Games Matrix was a special, so that was just demoted to make up for the gap.
While badly trying to come up with a fanfiction series that could keep my interest, I created the Front & Behind The Camera Series. It was supposed to be about the filming on Voyager, but "funny". I couldn't do that with the actual actors as characters so I just made up my own actors to do it. I wish I was kidding. This was long before FV and I was 15 when I wrote all but one of Season One, so maybe I deserve a tiny bit of leniency. Right? *shudder* Nope, I would have if I hadn't have decided to dedicate a Season Three episode to it. Every other previous attempt at fanfiction had one, so it seemed reasonable for Front to as well. No, it wasn't. The others worked as they were still using Voyager and could use the characters. I had to go in from a completely different fourth wall perspective to write this and trash the actual actors, Voyager ones and FV ones alike. Thankfully I deleted this close to my computer crashing, so I don't think I actually have a copy of it anymore. It's not on my laptop at least... I hope 0_0
Something's are better left forgotten.
Unless you're doing a History page and the episode you want to forget actually existed in a series listing for years. I could have pretended harder.
Around the Nebula
Title Meaning: Hahaha, the episode revolves around a nebula. The reason the title had "Around the" though was because of a song. It's still not over, don't let your guard down.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Beats me
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)What started out as a fun episode turned into one of the biggest mistakes I made with FV. I shouldn't talk about it now as it has been removed from canon ever since my comeback in 2012, but I guess this episode has to have something said about it. 2002 and 2003 were crappy years for me, I mean really crappy. If you've read Oasis of Abatua's trivia, you know about that already. It's the only reason I can think of for making Around the Nebula start off such a horrific character development arc. Unfortunately as it is still going on in Season Five (or was at the time I edited it) I couldn't remove it completely. It had to be toned down, a lot. My head was definitely messed up at this point of time, and I know this for a fact that it was not what I had originally planned for the character. At least it wasn't meant to happen that way. I'll go into details later on, but I feel like I should spoiler colour the entire thing, not just because I'm deeply ashamed of what it was, but because it spoils Season Four and Five in the process. For now, I'll talk about lighter things...
It's definitely considered a plothole now, despite it being just a daft joke. The Enterprise's crash and the resulting saucer falling to bits was obviously just me recently seeing Nemesis. Nemesis though is based in 2379 I believe, two years after Voyager's canon homecoming. The Enterprise though joins Voyager in FV in 2378. It's an easy mistake to make, I don't think the film mentions the year, I just knew it was after Endgame. It also makes fun of Generations if you think about it, but hey, it's just a joke. I'm not really that bothered, I just thought it was something to point out here. Mainly so this entire entry wasn't just about the horrible character arc.
Before I move on to that, this is one of the few episodes of Season Three I do mostly enjoy. I like the Enterprise Nemesis jokes (haha warp shield that fails on the first hit, that's still funny to me), the kid (I want to say Duncan, I'm not 100%) flying the Enterprise model which causes it to crash, Phoebe's coffee thieves dream. You get the idea.
All of this was the basic idea of the episode, it was supposed to be harmless fun. Then my issues clogged up my brain and I ruined it with the serious and disturbing plot development.
Here we go. Spoilers for Season Four and Five, and obviously later Season Three. My original idea for this character arc was that Jessie's return from death wouldn't be as easy as it was made out. It was obviously disturbing for her but she doesn't show it. It wouldn't happen in Nebula, but it would happen later where she'd start to show that she didn't come back to life so cleanly. It would probably go into Season Four to create issues and that was that. I didn't plan on it getting to Five, it was an insult to the character to have her dealing so badly with this issue for three seasons. Unfortunately that's how it ended up.
Around the Nebula gave me the opportunity to create an attack, something that would shake her to the core. Something so awful that would threaten her personality and what she thought of herself. To be fair, writers do have to do crap like this. However the way I pursued it was a step too far, the reboot's changes prove that it was definitely not needed. How it is now works the exact same way without having to resort to such ... I can't think of a bad enough word for it.
So Jessie's attack in Nebula was a lot worse. No it wasn't cut, you didn't see a damn thing. What the characters call it has been changed, and basically that was the only change I had to make. Again, this tells me and hopefully you there was no need for the attack to be that brutal in the first place if that was all it took.
Too bad by the time I did this I was already seven/eight episodes into Season Five, so it did last longer than I had hoped. It shouldn't have gotten any further than Burnt out and Falling. Jessie should have rediscovered herself and fought to move on long before S5. When I wrote Dissidia I did have the opportunity to meddle with this development, make it not such a bad thing, and I'm now convinced the character arc was worth it in the end. With the changes of course.
More Coming Soon
Baby Don't Swear & Spread Rumours
Title Meaning: Come on you know what's coming. Song title parody. Swear is obviously referring to Sasha, while spread rumours refers to Johnathan.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Not sure
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Curse of the Ring
Title Meaning: Another Monkey Island parody. Curse of Monkey Island was about a cursed ring, I just made the title a bit more literal/on point.
Alternate Titles - Escape From The Curse (Reboot)
Inspiration - The Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3)
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Again, I'd see Secret of Malain.
More Coming Soon
Witchcraft
Title Meaning: It's about a witch, at least it's not a song lyric/title.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Ho boy, that's a long and unfinished due to bad memory story. See Misc.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Excluding Fair Chance Part 2, this should be the oldest episode of the third season. It was developed very early on, Season One time, and I did my best to keep it loyal to the original idea. The basic idea was always a witch going mad with power, goes out of her way to steal the life force from others to sustain her. It did have Kiara as the main victim and the witch did go out of her way to take from the other female characters too. There was also a ritual involving "pure" women too, not that I remember what either the original or the episode's was for.
Also the episode was always pencilled in as a Season Three release (more or less), which was at the time a completely different beast at that stage. Basically all episodes were character development with song title/lyrics in every episode title (instead of just most lol), there was no Mummy Returns episode, no Jessie dies plot, no James turns evil as he was likely still a really bad comic relief coward, no um Jessie attacked plot, no Enterprise yet. The latter is important because Fair Chance wasn't the Season Two cliffhanger then, it was either going to Three's or Four's. Witchcraft was Season Two's cliffhanger at first. I realised it didn't really work as one, so Fair Chance was bumped forward. Any excuse to bring the Enterprise E in sooner. It worked in the long run as I decided to do the prequels instead of eight main seasons, and I badly wanted the current Season Four finale(s) to be a lot sooner than Season Seven or wherever it was based before. Phew.
As for where the idea came from, the details of that are lost in time to be honest. I remember that it was a very basic idea which me and a friend worked on together. It still doesn't tell me where it came from but hey. Oh look that story's not as long as I thought.
More Coming Soon
Hell Break Out
Title Meaning: Hell breaks out, thrilling stuff.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - N/A
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)The episode itself is an after thought. I hadn't explored the Yasmin and Damien plot since Chain Reaction, the future Sasha was still around when she was supposed to go in Chain Reaction... I'm sensing a theme, and the season plot demanded an episode to remove the demon field, which I hadn't done yet (oh look another Chain Reaction related thing). Enter Hell Break Out.
It does none of these well, each plot is rushed. Only the stuff that it wasn't meant to do (yet) it did ok, and that was James' temporary death and Jessie's revival of him. Warning vagueish spoilers incoming. When I say it wasn't meant to be done yet, I still haven't touched on this storyline... not really, Hell Break Out is still an after thought even after its release. Dissidia does reference it vaguely and there's subtle hints all over FV. When the time comes this episode's trivia will grow, for now I'm shutting up about it.
Oh Sasha, I can forgive the demon field being destroyed so absentmindedly and I can forgive Yasmin's sudden changes, as it suits who she is, but I can't forgive the future Sasha's plot. I had many chances to deal with her which I didn't take. Sasha was meant to be able to return to her dimension after disabling the chip, no questions really asked. The implant was meant to be described as keeping her there but not so much that it would undo her actions when she did go. To make matters worse, I use the same sort of chip in Season Four, not that many would remember, right? Instead she was shown to have a damaged chip, then she was gone. Her actions are remembered, but she isn't. James and Jessie do not have a reaction to it, this is their daughter we're talking about. They knew she would be going back to either her own horrible timeline/dimension or would go to her present in the current one, with new memories. It still should have warranted a scene to say goodbye, thank you, or even shed a bloody tear. This isn't because the two characters are awful human beings, I still just didn't care enough at the time to write something like that. Sigh. Poor Adult Sasha, we hardly knew ye.
More Coming Soon
Escape From Hell Itself
Title Meaning: The episode was meant to parody Escape From Monkey Island, which is as the title says. Mine just, I dunno, it's stupid just like the parody. It could have easily been Escape From Malain, it looks better, doesn't make you think that the episode will be interesting, and it fits the rest of the titles. Ah well, despite the awfulness the title means the same thing.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Escape From Monkey Island (Monkey Island 4)
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Holy Matrimony
Title Meaning: There's weddings, yey
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Loosely inspired by a Pokémon episode with the same name. I mean loosely for once, yey again
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Story time, I need to explain the loosely. I'm trying to remember which episode it was, I want to say Mirror Universes, I had a joke where Jessie's twin sister would appear and chase James out of the room as she's um... fond of him. The joke was written because the two still acted like their original namesakes (Team Rocket from Pokémon, just in case you're not aware... ha). In Pokémon, James is from a rich family but he ran away when they made him get engaged to an abusive and very whip happy woman. Jessie cared more about money than him (that's fixed later in the episode anyway, no worries 0_0 It's still funny regardless), so she sent him off to pretend to go along with it. They meet her and it turns out the woman looks just like her and has a very similar name, Jessiebelle (or Jezebel, I think the series spells it as I do). They're not related or at least it's never mentioned, but the resemblance is striking. Anyhow, the point is that joke appeared in Mirror Universes and unfortunately Dannielle the crazy girl obsessed with James remained canon. Test of Time made sure of that by having a similar story as well, James was forcibly engaged to her.
Anyhow, fast forward two years and so much has changed. James isn't the same character, Jessie's calmer at least, and now they're engaged with kids. Enter Dannielle to try and ruin it.
In a nutshell the episode is only loosely inspired because of Dannielle. If I hadn't been inspired, this episode would probably have been the Season Three Something New. That would probably be a bit different, somehow to make up for it.
More Coming Soon
Put The Knife In
Title Meaning: My reasoning for the title was a play on "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours", or more accurately, "I scratch your back, you stick a knife in mine". It was also the name of one of my psychotic song parodies I used to make up for the Lena and co band. Actually to be fair, now that I think about it, Kiara's group took it when Yasmin joined. Oh dear, some memories need to stay buried. Anyhow the title was vaguely hinting to the Paris and Stuart fall out, one side is seen as the traitor who sticks the knife in, but the episode went a bit south so erm... yeah.
Alternate Titles - N/A for now
Inspiration - I really don't want to know, probably just my warped brain at the time
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)As hinted, the episode changed direction a lot. I cringe everytime I think about it. If these people were real in some way I'd apologise to Tom for being so s$$ty to him, to B'Elanna for making her put up with all that crap, I'd slap James and Jessie, then run for my life afterwards. It was never meant to be this way. B'Elanna has her entire honeymoon ruined for nothing, Tom gets made fun of for something that's not his fault and made into a bad guy for lashing out to bullies, either James or Jessie become so despicable by making fun of him, while the other does so too but not as extensively (I honestly cannot remember, both are bad in this plot). To top it all off I try to make B'Elanna look bad too by having her try to get back at Jessie, starting a fight, because poor Jessie is so traumatised her behaviour was not her fault.
There, I've said it. Finally! This episode stinks, my two characters are not redeemable here and I obviously knew it then, or I wouldn't have tried to bring sympathy their way. It isn't the first time this has happened, see Why oh Why. Both this and that were not meant to be this way but they are as a result of lazy writing, terrible rash ideas and a teenager that should have had her keyboard taken away until the date Season Four started. The sad thing is, the plot wasn't just made up on the spot. I actually planned it in advance, probably around Nebula time, it's shameful.
The original idea for the storyline, not the episode as I'm not sure if it existed - it may have just been Moving Shadow and Deception, was the cracks in Jessie's psyche were starting to show after her resurrection. Tom and B'Elanna don't really do anything, that's the same, they're just there when it goes wrong. Yes Jessie was meant to behave badly, but it was supposed to be just her and her issues only. James should have been noticing it and trying to help, not making fun of Tom for personal matters, and those two were supposed to just wonder what the hell is going on with her. B'Elanna and Jessie would fall out until B'Elanna figured out something was actually wrong with her, by then Jessie would have turned evil again. It would have ended up exactly like it does, but every character wouldn't be butchered in some way. Jessie would have her reasons and you could argue that she still does but the Nebula plot came about and her memory was wiped. James wouldn't have been an asshole, Tom wouldn't be made to seem bad cos he lost his temper, and B'Elanna's actions would be/is understandable.
Who knows maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it does come off as I intended, but to me there's nothing good here. There's a betrayal in this episode already, I'm the traitor, the characters are the victims. Awful, awful.
More Coming Soon
The Deception
Title Meaning: The deception is just hiding Jessie's attack from her, that is all. I'm not sure if it existed before Around the Nebula's sudden plot "twist", if it did I imagine the deception would have referred to Jessie's messing around with magic before she turns. It works both ways.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Nope
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Following on from Put The Knife In, so I'm not actually sure when Put The Knife In ends and this starts. The trivia for it kinda applies to this too.
Coming Soon
The Moving Shadow
Title Meaning: It's just meant to be a creepy title, hinting to a stalker.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - N/A
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I like Moving Shadow, it's no Akoonah Matata but it definitely is high up there. At the time it was a little daring, despite my misgivings now for the storyline leading up to it. I only had one issue with it, although it was probably more the ending/cliffhanger to Deception to be honest. Jessie's "cure" solves it too soon, even if that is the point. My issue is the reference to the prequels Jessie makes when she's still mad, if you know both you'll know what I mean by that. Meh it's a minor issue I have, the rest of the episode I liked.
Now that I'm as far as I am in Season Five, I can actually say more about this episode. Spoilers within. The scene where Jessie's emotions gets the better of her and her powers set fire to their quarters, may have seem random in some ways, but it was there for a reason. Three's A Paradox showed that Jessie suffered a fire related trauma, twice. Once when her foster family's house burned down and again when the hotel was set alight. Like many things I don't know when I decided this was part of her back story, normally here I'd say it was a coincidence, but re-reading it I see the hints that I had already planned something. James and Jessie's backstory were well developed a long long time ago so it's perfectly reasonable to assume that was planned too (not to such detail, I can't give myself too much credit). However it's going too far to suggest that Three's A Paradox existed then, I know that was something I decided on later.
More Coming Soon
Scary But True (Part One)
Title Meaning: It's not really scary, or true... in the crew's opinion it may be.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Talos the Mummy or whatever the hell it's called. It has two official names. Tales of the Mummy sticks in my head, so it's probably that.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Despite it being yet another film rip off, I actually quite like this episode. I remember seeing this film in the tv guide and deciding to record it, I loved mummy films after all. It's a good thing I didn't decide to base this on the Shroud of the Mummy, I don't remember anything more than the seven foot six butch mummy walking around and a pretty realistic looking one just lying there. Heh it was an old film. Anyway Talos/Tales was modern, it was made around the same time as The Mummy remake in 99, but it didn't look it. It was obviously a low budget film and I keep thinking it was a British film as well, I'm not sure actually (it was based in London, everyone except the lead were/played by English *shrug*). Anyhow, I quite enjoyed the film, although it was ripe for parody. It also had a plot I could use to resolve the Iinan story once and for all, despite his "death" in Oasis. To be more accurate it was a chance to redeem Oasis as I didn't want such a crap rip off to finish the storyline.
The "problem" with Talos/Tales was that the bad guy won. Don't get me wrong, as a film it was a good thing, I liked that they went there. However it created an issue for FV, Iinan couldn't kill off most of the crew and win. The film left it open ended, FV can't do that (anymore). It was perfect for a cliffhanger but I'd have to resolve it myself in Season Four, and I just couldn't resist the challenge.
Without a doubt this is my favourite cliffhanger season finale, not that there's much competition. Kiara had flipped, at the very least James was dead as Iinan appeared to have been revived, and well he was on the loose. It's also my favourite because it had the better second half, but I'll get into that more in the Season Four page.
Coming Soon