B4FV
Season One
Episode
Trivia
Caretaker
Title Meaning: Caretaker is what the Ocampans call the alien who drags Voyager and the Marquis ship to the Delta. Simples.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Hmm
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Caretaker
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Note: I'm keeping both versions of FV Caretaker separate as like Reboot Season One, they're completely different entities. Until B4FV1 gets its full season rebooted like One then they'll remain on the same page.
Original Version
To start off this page I think B4FV itself needs a trivia point or two. When I first cooked up FV I had no interest in starting from the very beginning. The point of the series was to show the differences between Original Voyager and Fifth Voyager, and as far as I was concerned then, the first three seasons were exactly the same. Starting with Scorpion was the idea, despite Q and the Grey being the official split off point at the time. I didn't start to properly develop this different dimension/Voyager until I was a good way through Season One. By then I had planned out the next seven seasons after it. Once I got to Season Two it occurred to me; a lot's changed or going to change since Aggressions. The first three seasons no longer were identical to the original series. There were more extra characters, at least one of them was important to the series storyline, Aggressions Part 2 had changed the tone of the series to a bizarre parody instead of how Season Five is now. I could write a FV version of those seasons easily. More importantly I wanted to.
The problem though was that I wanted to continue with Season Two. Writing the first three original seasons would mean re-organising what was already there to fit them in. Season One would have to be Season Four at least, and Season Two would have to wait until I caught up. I couldn't do that, I had to think of a different plan. The idea to make it a different "series" so to speak, a prequel seemed like the only workable idea. Originally titled as Before Fifth Voyager, the first season began to be planned out.
Since it took me from 2001 to 2006 to finish the prequel series, I know I made the right decision. Yeah there was the option of waiting until the main seasons were done but thankfully I never thought of that, I wasn't sure how many of those seasons there would be. I also didn't know that in 2015 I'd still not be finished haha.
Before changed to B4, mainly because it was shorter and IMO looked better. It proved to be a more fitting title once the timeline/paradox stuff got fleshed out not long later. Yeah the Before was used as it is a series based before the paradox stuff truly kicked off, however that stopped being true once it was fleshed out. To avoid too many spoilers, the 4 hints to what was well... before Aggressions. I can't go into it further than that. Not here, not in the first prequel series.
Despite this seemingly being the greatest idea ever, Caretaker got to a very slow and painful start. It didn't help that I decided to start the project right away, at the same time Season Two was being written. The main problem was that I didn't have anything different planned for the first season. Everything that was different started in the second. I'll cover that in later episodes as it's important there but not fully here. All it did here was create an episode too much like the original version. I've mentioned this somewhere else I'm sure but I hate, hate writing exact copies of Voyager episodes. However sometimes it is necessary as if I don't, or didn't back then, I seemed to go off the rails to change it completely. This season's Phage is a very good example of what I mean.
Luckily I don't think I'm as bad as that silly teenager now. I can still write silly stuff, Reboot Season One proves that, but it's not done as a desperate attempt to change an original episode so much that it doesn't exist anymore. Anyhow, I'll talk more of this crap in the rebooted Caretaker.
Since the episode was taking an extremely long time to do, and I was prioritising Season Two, I only released bits and pieces of the episode as I went along. In the end it was eight tiny parts. It took six months to complete. Other episodes "boasting" that big a writing time have something to show for it, Caretaker does not. The only good thing about this was that it gave me time to sort out what I wanted to do with B4FV1 and organise its episode list. Two and Three as well, but I know that those two would look far different when their time came.
Rebooted Version
I'm sure you know the story by now. I've moaned on about it on many pages on this site, so I won't bother too much here. I'll sum it up as it's still relevant to this. It was 2008 and I hadn't released a new episode for a year and a half. Writer's block had gotten to me, and my next episode was a big whopper I needed to be 100% for. I was in no state to even write Hunters again. I needed to write something, but not that. For years I toyed with the idea of fixing my older episodes; Season One and this season in particular. I didn't like the hyper nonsense or the copied word for word stuff in them. Neither of them really suited the more recent stuff of Season Four, B4FV3 and what little there was of Season Five at the time. It was like it was a different series. I thought why the hell not. I need to write and maybe this will keep FV from dying.
As I mentioned in the Original Version, I wasn't happy at all with it. My choice was between Aggressions and this. I thought at least Aggressions and the rest of its season still kinda fit with the later seasons, that weird "quirky" humour still lived on in Season Five, just not to extremes. Caretaker on the other hand looked like I had Caretaker on in the background and I speed typed what I was hearing. It made sense. Caretaker was followed by Parallax, which continued Season One's strange sense of bad humour, so the seriousness and well normality of Caretaker would not have prepared readers for FV. It had to be the first one I tackled.
I didn't have a lot of time to do much with it. It was November and I always did something on the 4th December, the site's launch date back in 2000. 2007 only had one episode released that year and it sure as hell wasn't then, it was all the way back in April. So the idea was to release this revival of the series on the site's birthday. During planning something did spark. I was able to start on that big whopper in Season Five after all. It didn't last very long, the episode croaked quite quickly and I was drawn back to the Caretaker reboot.
I ran out of time and both episodes were released as they were with To Be Continued's on the end. Both them and the site stayed that way for four years.
In the end I couldn't write Caretaker. My writer's block was a voice in my head telling me everything was s$$t; Death of the Soul Part 1, which became Queuing Forever, was a boring way to set up an "epic" plot twist episode and the character interaction was forced and awkward. Caretaker took itself too seriously most of the time, James was written like he was supposed to be a perfect Gary Stu but would only piss off every reader for being anything but, Jessie's actions were too much like a certain video game character's. You get the picture. No matter what I wrote, I found fault with it. Caretaker was doomed.
In the end I started on a different episode. Caretaker Original was at least a copy of Voyager's, so I couldn't find too many faults with something that wasn't mine, and I'd certainly find fault with any changes I made to it. Aggressions though was mine and an absolute waste of potential. I figured I couldn't ruin that, I couldn't make that worse. I started on that and the rest is history.
Unfortunately this meant Caretaker would be left "to be continued" for longer than the four years FV was dead. It recently got a second part as I do fancy a few hours in the Caretaker tale every now and then. At least with the fact that it was a tiny eight parter, it seems fitting to do the same thing again. Hopefully this time it'll be readable when it's done.
Who knows when there will be a Caretaker Part 3. Its time will come though. Despite my issues with it, I actually do like it when those voices aren't screaming at me. It was definitely 10x better than Queuing Forever was.
More Coming Soon
Parallax
Title Meaning: Um, look over there!
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original, originally and something else I don't recall. Help.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Parallax
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Here's a "fun" trivia point for you, a one I had forgotten until I wrote the word Parallax in red. Caretaker wasn't written first, this and Eye of Ramn were. I remember it well. I was on holiday, armed with a few notepads as usual. If I was going to write anything it should have been Season Two, primarily Interactions+. Instead I was thinking of the prequel series and a thought came to me. I have nothing in the first season that's different other than the characters. B4FV2 was where it would all kick off. Then I realised that didn't have to be true.
Several things from B4FV2 were pulled forward and chucked into here, and they were the first things I wrote. What exactly, Parallax and Eye of Ramn were pretty lack lustre. It was the James and Jessie stuff. In B4FV2 Tom would begin to pursue Jessie instead of Kes, as he probably would have crushed on her earlier and backed off cos of Neelix. I think Season Two's Resistance mentions it, but that annoys James greatly and the two "fight". When I say fight, I mean how it always goes between James and someone.
Anyway with that brought forward, the story all came together and it was written and finished over the holiday. It would be the third episode. Yeah third. Parallax would happen as it used to in the original series, only Tom would begin provoking the Marquis crew with his bad attitude from the first season (original I mean). I wrote some of it, as a prep for this third episode, and I remember the last one he annoyed was B'Elanna. Bad move.
The episode ended with the Janeway and Chakotay impersonation, nothing too thrilling. The episode covered the tension between the three but little would happen yet. The kiss stuff wouldn't happen until a later episode, I decided. I did originally want to stall their relationship until B4FV2 to be honest, as it was originally planned. I just brought forward the "love" triangle stuff.
I thought B4FV2 was a little late considering how short the season was, and how little episodes there were before Resolutions which was long ago planned to detail. For characters like James and Jessie, it felt too soon (probably a mere four episodes) for the two to be sleeping together. Their get together was moved into B4FV1 after all. The rest of that can be saved till later.
The episode I wrote ended up being ripped apart in the end. After the awful copy of Caretaker I did not want Parallax to do the same thing. I came up with the daft idea that the episode would be based after it to deal with the issues that popped up in it; B'Elanna's promotion, her punching Carey, Tom's "accidental" provoking of people etc... Some of the scenes from that third episode started to show their face here, only because I assumed there wasn't room in what episode three ended up being.
More Coming Soon
The Eye of Ramn
Title Meaning: It's the name of the necklace
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Nope
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Here I was trying my best to conquer the hurdle that was writing romance episodes. The original scenes written months (mentioned in Parallax's entry) before this episode ended up being released were my first attempt, before I ruined Interactions, Disconnected, and mainly Resistance. By the time I got to writing the episode properly, Season Two was over. I still needed to jump over this hurdle, not run into it and fall over. Enter a silly possession story filled with intentional awkwardness, an attempt to retcon main season developments but not really, and rushed resolutions.
The story itself isn't bad, it just could have been handled a bit better. For some reason once I got to the bit with the "love"/like/crush admission, I didn't have a clue what to do next and ran around the hurdle to the finish line. Once again I failed. It is a shame really. The reboot should have a good go at it, especially once I figure out a nicer way to resolve it. I think the issue was that I talked too much about the cube/Slayer stuff and it was too soon. There was no way to nicely resolve the plot without going further. There's plenty of time to figure it out for the rebooted version.
More Coming Soon
Time & Again
Title Meaning: I had to look this up. The first example fit perfectly: "a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future". Voyager arrives to devastated planet, accidentally travels back to when the accident happens, while trying to fix it they cause it, which leads to Voyager beaming down to investigate in the first place. They don't cause the accident, the whole thing resets. There's a reason I'm a big fan of this episode, as you should know since FV does it, I love this kind of stuff.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original episode
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Time & Again
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I frequently used to say season two of Voyager was better than one, but I dunno why. I can barely remember episode titles from two, while one which despite its stinkers, has some of my favourite episodes. This is one of them.
Naturally I wanted to change it, so I picked a different character to take part. This happened quite a bit in the prequels, at least more so than Season One, and I imagined it annoying a lot of Voyager readers if they ever found FV, haha. Of course I had to make a joke out of it later but we'll get there.
Since the plot works out well on its own, I couldn't change much in the end. The episode was just there for Janeway and James to hang out together. Honestly.
More Coming Soon
Phage
Title Meaning: The original was about aliens who had a disease called the phage. The FV version revolved around the extra characters getting chucked off the ship so they wouldn't distract from this same story, but the story focused on them and fourth wall antics. So yeah no title meaning here. There is no meaning.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Hahaha
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Phage... sort of.
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Season One, Episode Four I started writing my own version of an episode I enjoyed. I instead couldn't focus on that and thought it was more fun to centre the episode around two new characters I had created, and probably drink spiked Cherry Coke while doing so. The original was long forgotten and the FV version still remains to be a subject of my ridicule.
B4FV Season One, Episode Five I had managed to break the episode four curse by following Time & Again's plot till the end with minimal casualties. My guard was let down. Instead of writing my own version of an episode that was okay (it didn't stand a chance, did it?), I decided to cast away the extra characters, mainly the two "new" ones from above, so the plot could continue. Instead I thought it would be hilarious to centre the plot on them after all. The original was long forgotten and the FV version ... you get the picture.
True Phage isn't as um... infamous as Hunters, but the two are cut from the same insane and pointless branch. As Hunters did, James and Jessie took focus and the episode went to hell. It's weird. These two can produce some good episodes time to time, but when you make them your series Seven of Nine, what do you expect's gonna happen? I'm ashamed that I did this. So, so ashamed. I became the very thing that I hated.
Of course this epiphany didn't occur until much later. B4FV1 suffers from their over exposure and they're not even right most of the time. As mentioned earlier, I do turn it into a joke in this season (and Season Three) but I still didn't attempt to stop it.
My excuse? FV was a way to practice writing, introduce my own ideas to an already established world. Hopefully then I could steer away someday and write what's only mine. I was doing just that but forgetting that this was still Voyager. No wonder nobody was reading.
Coming Soon
Light The Fire
Title Meaning: James and Jessie get together, or at least they're telling themselves they're just pretending to be for practice. That's the fire the title references.
Alternate Titles - The Cloud
Inspiration - The Cloud
Original Voyager Episodes Used - There's coffee... The Cloud.
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Everyone seems to hate it, it seems, but I still love how wacky it is. Shocking right? The Cloud never fails to make me laugh and is probably the first J/C moment of the series. It's harmless enough.
I dunno what made me mix the J/J get together with this, but it happened anyway. How it was done wasn't great, not even close. The Seska story was made up on the fly and now I'm stuck with it. LtF will likely get a full rewrite someday.
Of course the only good parts are Janeway's coffee scenes. I never seem to stop coming up with crap for her to do, so much fun.
To be honest there isn't much trivia here. I've already mentioned that the J/J get together was brought forward because it meant their relationship would be rushed once Resolutions came along. This way let me develop it, however badly.
More Coming Soon
Transfigurations
Title Meaning: I got the meaning wrong. It was meant to mean a change in personality, but the word usually means a more literal change as in a change of form. Oh well. I got it from another Star Trek episode, I was lazy anyway.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Nah
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Rite of Intrusion
Title Meaning: It's been a while since I read it but I think that's the name of the ritual. No it made no sense to me either.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - I think a fanfic. Couldn't tell you which as I'm not sure and it's been what, twelve years.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Ex Post Facto
Title Meaning: Another one I had to look up. Apparently it's Latin. Ex=from, post=afterwards, factus=done. The site said it meant "having retrospective effect: an ex post facto law". I think it basically means if only in hindsight. Meh. I'm not sure if that fits, so I could be wrong. I'm always wrong.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Ex Post Facto
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I loved this one. When I do the reboot I'll be looking to this episode on how to reboot the originals... um you know like Phage, The Cloud etc. It followed the story, changed it enough, had quite a lot of jokes in it. I read it even today and it makes me smile. Usually when I read B4FV1 episodes I cringe more times than I don't, let alone smile.
It also proves the point that I made in Phage's entry. I ruined a lot of this season by forcing James and Jessie into other character's roles or just chucking them in regardless. Their characters suffered as they were wrong in those parts, the characters they stole from suffered, and worst of all they were always the stars. I hated Seven for this reason. Ex Post Facto kept the focus still on Tom and Tuvok and it works. It's a treat to read, at least it is for me.
I mean what's the problem with doing this every time? FV has its own version of the original characters. Janeway's a bigger coffee nut, Tom loves to gossip and constantly puts his foot in it, Harry shifts from green ensign to defiantly snotty in the blink of an eye (my extreme take on the original Harry), Chakotay turns angry warrior a lot, Seven... ho boy, Neelix remains completely ignorant to his awful cooking. You get the idea. That alone should change the original episodes enough. Ex Post Facto is proof that it can be done without making one of my extra male characters take Tom's place.
Though in my offense, not defence, I probably didn't want any of my main male leads (which was just Craig and James at the time) involved in the doctor's floozy wife story. Haha. Tom's the only character who works in this tale.
While we're on the subject of the floozy wife. This episode finally brings Damien and his crew into the mix. Since in Season One nobody saw him as any kind of trouble what so ever, it made little sense to have him be the leader of the ship he was on. Since Voyager's ending was fresh in my mind and Season Two had already taken a shot at them, I brought in Rick Berman and Brannon Braga to be these cunning villains. I dunno why, Year of Hell Original was ruined by this plot development. In that and Thrown Key 2, they hated what FV was doing to their precious Sev... er series and wanted it to stop. Destroying this Voyager with a crew of celebrities and er... terrorists, well why not. It felt like a good idea at the time.
The truth is I wanted an outlet for things that annoyed me. It was cluttering up Season Two (yikes change subject) and I didn't want any newer stuff doing that even further. Rick and Brannon's crew then suddenly became the at the time over hyped band Hearsay. You probably think "who" and that's a good thing. Too bad two of the girls are still famous for different things, so at least the prequels aren't that dated.
In the end only two of the members ended up sticking around for the long haul, so it was worth it in the end. Rick and Brannon on the other hand. They were in charge, but Damien, the point of his role was that he was pulling more strings than they realised. He wanted to be in charge. For some reason he hated Voyager and that was likely enough for them to have him on the team.
Damien's still a big question mark and that's on purpose. Season Two his entire back story, his personality and quirks were changed radically. That's a story I can't tell. I had a silly idea on how and why he was around in the prequels, which I've played around with in the rebooted Caretaker and a certain two Season Five episodes I'll keep nameless for now. I don't think I'll ever explain what his deal is. What's there is probably the most I'll ever do. For now in this episode's case, he's just playing the crewmember yet wannabe leader.
Oh and finally. James' fear of cats... that never gets bloody old. I need to take advantage of that one more time. I would like to forget his tendency to smoke in the early days though. That was always a back story thing I wanted to forget as it was a tad daft for his character. Why? I gave him a reason for it but the truth is I wanted an extra character flaw. He has more than enough.
More Coming Soon
Emanations
Title Meaning: Um... *goes to google*. No, no I got this. I imagine since it's called this as it's an episode revolving around death and the after life. I don't need help with this one.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original episode
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Emanations
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Right after Ex Post Facto gets it right and keeps Tom in his own role, in comes Emanations. Though to be honest the original idea was for Harry's role to be replaced with James, but when it came to writing it I had noticed this re-occurring problem and yet decided to keep it anyway and write it off as a joke.
Whether it comes off like that or not, that's up to you.
I don't have much more to say than that. Only except that it was a little funny that between the episode where I introduce the annoying to me Hearsay as "villains" and this one, the band split up. I did make a remark in the rebooted Sweet Sensation that the FVDA members were no longer an annoyance, dating the episodes horribly. All except bloody Justin Timberlake who should have stayed in movies. They're easier to avoid. If I had included the member of Hearsay that left and was replaced by Johnny, the FVDA wouldn't date the episodes as much. Meh, I'd rather have Johnny. He amuses me more.
Coming Soon
Rules & Regulations
Title Meaning: A lot of rules are broken. That's all.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Sigh... Ace Ventura 2.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Forget Phage, forget even the barely changed State of Flux and Caretaker. Rules & Regulations, as well as its sequel, except it isn't "Obsession" are the episodes of B4FV1 that embarrass me the most. I hate them and I'll explain why.
Both episodes were following and/or parodying a comedy film and its sequel. Comedy films. I was writing parodies of a comedy film. You see the problem so far? I've not even started yet. These two comedies had crude humour, as well as slapstick stuff. The first episode, this one, which parodied the second one (yep not in the right order) may have gotten away with it, if it had used the correct characters. It didn't. The second episode parodied the first film, but was not connected at all to the plot of this episode. So what was the point? Even worse was that the jokes were cut and paste, cos what else can you do with a parody of a comedy? God.
As per usual I was chucking my main two Seven wannabe's of B4FV in. Neither of them fitted the part, neither of them had any resemblance to the lead character of the film. What to do to avoid character assassination? Maybe change the lead character's personality to match my characters, hopefully changing the plot? Nah, that would be too hard. It was much easier to get them insanely drunk and copy the character exactly. Thankfully not all the scenes were copied or there would have been that awkward tent scene, and an even more awkward threesome not shown but hinted at. Yikes.
So yeah I hate this and Obsession. In the end Obsession is the better episode until the ending, but Rules could have gotten away with and been the better one by far if I had done some work on it. You know work that writers do. This episode was abysmal and I can't wait to delete it from the rebooted version and introduce this coffee bat in a more original way.
More Coming Soon
Prime Factors
Title Meaning: Um prime directive is the theme of the episode. Factors, ahem. Dunno.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Original episode
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Prime Factors
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Like Ex Post Facto this episode tried to keep everyone involved in the original in the same roles. It did all right, it was no Ex Post, but it did all right. The last ditch attempt to involve the FVDA in the plot was half arsed, it's better than doing nothing though.
I don't know what else to say really. I wasn't a fan of this episode, so I dunno why I had it here at all. Maybe cos there was so much to make fun of.
More Coming Soon
State of Flux
Title Meaning: I imagine it is because of the replicator that Seska gives to the Kazon. It destabilised the hull of the ship, incasing Kazon and computers in rock.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original
Original Voyager Episodes Used - State of Flux
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I had no plans to ever involve Seska and the Kazon in the prequels storyline. In the end Damien and the FVDA just weren't that interesting, yet, to carry the first two prequel seasons. I figured that before Aggression(s), or rather more accurately Broken Wreck, Voyager's journey shouldn't be that different to the original. So why not Seska?
State of Flux though, you can tell it was added just cos it was needed to start her storyline off. I had no new ideas for it. All I had was remembering how snippy Janeway was in it and so I came up with the idea of the coffee patch. Oh and maybe Seska putting the blame on James since he's an expert on hacking and he's not exactly mister Starfleet (lol). Meh it made more sense than bloody Carey. I mean really??? Seska, I thought you were supposed to be smart.
Deception and Betrayal
Title Meaning: There's deception in both plots and an imagined betrayal. It also looks like Tuvok is betraying the crew too.
Alternate Titles - Cathexis
Inspiration - Original episode
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Cathexis
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)This episode is excellent proof that some things should remain the same, as well as I should stay away from my life inspired episodes. I think only Paper Bag did it well. Never again.
Originally this episode was going to be Cathexis and nothing else. It is my favourite of the first season and I wanted it here just for that. Unfortunately the stuff that polluted Season Two's Dimension Jump and others, made me inspired to write about a recent chapter of my terrible life at the time. I really, really regret it. Not because it caused further troubles like other episodes like this (I don't believe it did), but because it was so damn awful. I had wiped it from my memory as well, which meant a lot of the stuff that should have been deleted when I decided to put the trouble that inspired the side story behind me, wasn't. I'll have to go through it all, edit it but I imagine this storyline will go during the reboot completely.
More Coming Soon
Tomorrow's Voyager
Title Meaning: Voyager from the future appears. It's not rocket science.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - In a way Yesterday's Enterprise, hence the title. One part was "inspired" by Friends, sigh.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I dunno what happened near the end. The episode was fine and it didn't need this bit of filth. That's the best word to describe it. I tried to edit it down so it wasn't, but it makes less sense. Yep James and Jessie again. It's a wonder that I like them at all. So many problems involving them, sigh.
This awful plot involved the present James and Jessie's relationship being influenced by what they learn of their future selves one. Naturally there's a little freak out, which is fine, perfectly in character for them at this time. Then it happens. A character tells their future selves that something happened and all hell breaks out. The original edit made sense that things happened afterwards, why there was interference and why there was a silly resolution that's forgotten. The new edit there's fuss over nothing.
I hate it. It ruins the episode. You want to know what I even changed? It's probably bloody obvious since the edit was crap. Yep the present day J/J find out they're still together in the future, properly not practicing, have kids, and their reaction is to, what? Heh it's gonna happen anyway, lets do it. Ahem. That's what the fuss was about. The edit changed it to a mere kiss I believe, something they do already, and hell breaks out like it was more (which it was before I changed it).
Why did I change it? Well it makes no sense does it? I can't even begin to count the reasons why it doesn't make sense. I won't bother. It only happened as I thought a Friends episode was so funny and I wanted the exact scenes in this episode. That's it. Story of my fricking FV life. I'm glad those days are behind me, I truly am.
Coming Soon
Obsession
Title Meaning: The crew are obsessed with Cherry Coke, as am I, and obviously obsessed with unoriginal episodes. Woohoo
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Hmm
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)From one aneurysm to the next, here's Obsession, aka Ace Ventura parody number 2.
Until the ending, the film and episode don't feel as slapstick as Rules & Regulations. Characters are still mostly in character and the plot's just ok. The FVDA are even integrated in some fashion, allowing it to fit in with the rest of the season. - If they were involved with Regulations I have forgotten - Then the ending appears. The reveal didn't have to happen the same way. None of the characters involved would have done this normally, just like none of the characters wouldn't have done any of Rules & Regulations. It just happens as it happens this way in the film. Laziness and embarrassing.
I haven't planned much of the B4FV1 reboot, however I do plan on removing this and Regulations from the series. Rules will still need some tiny part of it there for episodes like Lately and Sweet Sensation to remain canon, but I could easily write a completely new episode to introduce the coffee making bat they try to steal there. Obsession however is not needed and can easily be replaced by a different, more original FVDA story. Or anything for that matter. The episode serves no purpose other than to fill an episode slot.
More Coming Soon
Learning Curve
Title Meaning: The episode is about teaching Marquis crewmembers the Starfleet way.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Learning Curve
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Things start to improve for the most part here, but after Obsession, Deception and those scenes in Tomorrow's that doesn't say very much. Learning Curve has its problems which are minor, niggles that probably only bother me. The episode follows the original plot, does something different with it without going too mad, uses the extra characters properly without changing the original characters (main ones anyway) roles in it. With all that in mind, it's a highlight of the season in comparison.
Minor niggle one is a problem I see in a lot of FV episodes, primarily old fogey ones such as this. The episode doesn't truly start until half way through.
I still have to tell myself while writing this page that the season was not only written at the same time as Season Three, but was intentionally written with Season One in mind as it was based before that happened. Though to be honest, that last one's probably an excuse I told myself enough times to believe. B4FV2 thankfully was the start of the rebellion there, if it's true.
Other issues include the one that bothered me in Ex Post Facto. A character in the 24th century smoking. It's stupid isn't a strong enough comment. I don't like that part of the back story for him. He did it as a teen as he (and I am 99% sure on this) admitted in the series that it was a slow way to kill himself. That's it. Why he does it now ignores that. There, that's my main issue with it. Also a cigarette or three in B4FV1 and suddenly he's so unfit he can't run around a corridor on Voyager without stopping for breath. I imagine that's a bit surreal for even a normal human in the 21st century, let alone a 24th century human with access to advanced medical care, who has already proven to not be a normal human. Sigh. Yeah that's a minor gripe I have, not.
Other than that and the goes on too long writer's plot, the episode does ok for its time. Sure it's no Ex Post Facto but at least it didn't forget its plot or copy it word for word.
Second Chance
Title Meaning: James gets a second chance at something in his life.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Tapestry in TNG
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Planned yonks ago while developing the Nutty Q or whatever the hell he's referred to here (no matter how I write him in episodes, that's what he's called to me), Second Chance should have improved the parody hell that was B4FV1 and started taking anything seriously. Instead I chickened out on a lot of stuff and started rushing through everything.
SC was meant to be quite long for its season, mostly exploring the past as well as the altered future. It's a headache to me now as I knew even then I ruined it. I didn't do anything about it as my mindset then was it was done, it cannot be touched. If this happened now I'd have chucked the file into a backup folder and/or probably renamed it so I could start a new file to write from scratch, possibly using the only good scenes as a template. Heaven Sent did it, Bounds of Illusion did it too, and these episodes were far superior than SC was even in their broken mess states. I sure as hell wouldn't have released it.
The past fulfilled its point, it just got there too soon. The alternate present though completely missed it by miles and just felt like another unintentional attempt to make James look like such a commitment-phobic little wuss who probably doesn't like Jessie, or anyone for that matter. Kinda like a pre-teen boy worried about cooties to be honest. I said another as there are many other oldies like this that do it too. I won't name them, you'll probably know which ones I'm talking about when you see them. There's a reason why Tom's "James is gay" jokes works in the old seasons. Oh my god I'm married to my best friend who I love, the horror... kill me, run away! Seriously what?
This is Season One James. That's who this is. The ninny who was frightened of anything. I mean yeah, some tiny smidge of that characterisation is still there. He's naive, if wasn't interested in Jessie would probably be single and a virgin for life (and be totally fine with it), gets embarrassed when his private life is known and teased about, and can be very defensive about it. I don't regret the denial in later seasons, that's there to protect his and Jessie's privacy ^, that's okay. I don't regret the worried scenes when a future with her is presented, as long as it is written to highlight his father issues (Silent Scream for example). I just can't abide the old episodes that take all of these things to the extreme like the development of Season Two & Three (and even some in B4FV1) never happened, and have him panic for no real reason. It just makes him, again I say, look like a 12 year old boy being told to share a table with a girl. What's sadder about this happening is that 12 year old James never acted like this anyway. He has no reason to act like this, none. Full stop. End of story.
Reboot will sort this out, mark my words. Hopefully then I'll read SC and find it wasn't as bad as I made out above. I don't see it happening though.
Edit: I looked at it. It's one bloody line. Jessie strolls in randomly mentioning a wedding, and James just goes "wtf wedding, Q change it now". He didn't want to change it when he found out Ian and Danny weren't on Voyager, but THIS is the line. Yep. It's not as bad as I thought it was and here I thought it would be a long shot that this would be my reaction to reading it again. It still proves my point though. James isn't a fan of marriage, just cos of his parents really. It's silly and he's over it come B4FV3. It was just badly written and as such looked like an OTT reaction. Kinda like the two paragraphs above haha.
Danny's story was quite obviously ripped off, just thought I'd mention it. It's only fair, I usually do.
Lastly the episode does have one of my favourite moments of the season, the one that pointed out a funny thing I noticed in Voyager itself. Janeway always seemed to be in people's nightmares, no matter what they were about. Well 90% of them anyway. It's just a line about her referencing it but it still makes me giggle.
More Coming Soon
Elogium
Title Meaning: It's the name of the condition Kes is in.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Originally a cross between Elogium and Twisted, but then became a cross between Elogium and the game series Worms.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Elogium
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Yeah you read that right. I was going to mesh two Kes episodes together into one as I had a nice little idea on how to do it. For some reason before I tackled it I thought having a Worms joke would be easier and/or funnier. I haven't read it in years but I don't think Twisted made it in at all. Shame, I prefer that out of the two. Maybe after Deception and others, I didn't want to ruin another episode I enjoyed.
There's not much else to say really. I can barely remember the episode enough, let alone think of any trivia.
Paris Camera
Title Meaning: I think it's the name of the show Tom comes up with. At the very least the episode is about a camera that's placed on Tom. See Inspiration for the other.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Long ago I liked to read Pokemon fanfiction, mainly Team Rocket ones, and there was one called Meowth Cam. I don't remember why but the Meowth character hid a camera in a hat or something else ridiculous he wouldn't wear (he is a cat after all), which was obvious to anyone but the dimwitted cast. It was pretty funny so I wanted to have a go.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Despite its unoriginal premise it wasn't actually that bad, IMO. I had a go at writing a different perspective and some of the jokes, maybe all, weren't ripped off from what I was "inspired" by. I don't think I had anything in mind for how the plot was going to go, I just had the premise and went from there.
More Coming Soon
The 2003's
Title Meaning: Instead of an episode about people kidnapped from 1937, this is an episode about people kidnapped from 2003. The title naturally had to change. Although the 37's were the name of the people in stasis adopted by the descendants, 2003's did nothing like this.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original
Original Voyager Episodes Used - The 37's, sort of
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Once upon a time I had a daft re-occurring joke about Voyager's deflector being the colour of rust. No it wasn't any good and I think I did use it at some point in the series, but anyway. I then saw the 37's for the first time and was floored by the opening line. I think if it wasn't for the absolutely ridiculous opening that seems closer to FV style than Star Trek's, this episode wouldn't have happened.
The FVDA crew being kidnapped from 2003, put into stasis, and selectively picked on their annoying-ness doesn't work, especially when later Rihanna joins the mix in rebooted B4FV2. It was supposed to be the first episode to show Damien being behind it all, despite Rick and Brannon acting as the leaders. They're from that time as well. They didn't kidnap themselves with an advanced space ship, did they? It might have worked better if Damien hadn't just randomly took over at a point I don't recall without any joke or comment about it, and then made Rick & Brannon do a disappearing act.
The thing is the FVDA is supposed to be just a joke villain, something for Damien to do before the main season starts. No thought truly went into its creation. Damien himself makes little sense for most of the series, so why would his first crew?
Knowing me now though I'll probably try to tidy it up in the reboot, especially since Three's A Paradox took a stab at it.
I think the episode's only flaw, at least from what I remember of it, is that even without the title the episode dates itself horribly. That's the biggest issue with the FVDA as a whole and something I joked about in a reboot episode.
In 2003 there was:
Hearsay absolutely everywhere
Awful awful songs getting popular while my favourite artists had their albums canned
The Tatu girls had that video, if you remember them you'll know what video I mean.
Gareth Gates was the Bieber/One Direction of his time
R Kelly had that ignition remix about a pressure hot in kitchen *shrug* bluergh, on every channel at the same time.
Dilemma was basically the Happy of 2003, so played 10x more often than Ignition could ever manage.
Even though I liked Steps, I'll mention this as for the episode it is relevant. Two members were on Saturday morning TV every week, and I was not a fan of one of them.
The Beckhams. Now I wasn't personally annoyed with their overexposure, I just thought it added to the annoying overexposed celebrity theme of the ep.
Was Justin in this? *checks* Nope. I'll mention him anyway. Justin Michael Jackson Wannabe Timberlake. I hate men singing high pitched so it sounds like he's been kicked in the nuts. I also find him immensely creepy looking, so you can imagine my reaction to that Rock Your Body video. Nightmare inducing. The song was an added bonus too. Cry Me A River and that song can rot in hell with Dilemma and Umbrella.
Let's skip 12 years to 2015:
I doubt anyone remembers Hearsay but Myleene Klass and Kym Marsh are still well known. At least Myleene was one of the main members of the FVDA in the end, but Kym Marsh probably fits her FV persona far better. I'll not say more about that. Nobody ever knew who Johnny Shentall was even when he was in Hearsay.
Awful songs still top the charts, that will never change. However the only artist I did like that still released music hasn't released anything in the UK since their single didn't chart, and the GH album flopped. So to sum up, I'm not as bothered as I used to be. Rihanna still pisses me off though. At one point she was in the Top 10 three times in one week (two singles, one old and one new, and a collab). I remember tossing that newspaper across the room when I read that.
Who's Tatu?
Who's Gareth Gates? Seriously, unless you watch that Big Reunion show (I did in S1 for Liberty X) you probably won't remember this brat. Ironically if it wasn't for FV, I would have forgotten him too.
Lol R Kelly. I don't even know if he's released anything since Ignition. He's still famous for his erm... pervy hobbies though. That's the nicest I can put it.
I still hear Dilemma once in a while, so I'm sure this song is still known. However it's not played all the time so any jokes are still dated.
Oh Claire. I think she's the most famous out of the five Steps, so that's fine. She still has a huge mouth, that's all the episode needs. I still don't like her. That reunion show did nothing to help that.
The Beckhams are still famous.
Justin Timberlake went away to do films, I celebrated. He came back to torture me one more time. Asshole. I know I'm ahead of myself here, but if my prediction in Starships Cannot Run comes true, I'm cutting my ears off in anticipation.
Outside of Time (Part One)
Title Meaning: The Leda was an experimental vessel that allowed its crew to live long enough for the ship to fulfill its mission. Sort of like a stasis vessel. Simply the Leda isn't affected by passing time, or its crew weren't anyway.
Alternate Titles - I think there was one but for the life of me I don't remember it.
Inspiration - I think originally I was inspired by my first ever in the right order watch of Next Generation (with home recorded tapes, using an episode list from TVtome.com. Fun), and discovering that a lot of episodes had the Enterprise finding or looking for another starship, which then passed on their problem to the Enterprise too. Eventually a recently released "horror"/slasher film gave me the "inspiration" for the rest.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)B4FV1 was two years younger so it should have been the nicer alternative to reading the main Season One first. To this day I still can't decide what's worse. They're equally bad for shared reasons and some of their own.
B4FV1 had its good moments; Ex Post, Transfigurations, Learning Curve, even Prime Factors, Paris Camera. All of that is meaningless with Hunters the next generation Phage, Deception, State of Flux, the Obsession & Rules duo cluttering up the same season. FV1 remained mostly consistent so I can't fault it for that as well as "classics" such as Voyager Conspiracy, Upendi Part 2, Worse Case, Timeline, but it still had Hunters, Aggressions, Muse, Upendi Part 1, Timeless... I could go on.
I know, no season of any series is perfect. Season Four is my favourite completed season but for years it had Flesh Eaters sitting there in its ranks. One of my favourite episodes sits in the hole known as Season Three. My complaint is that despite two "first seasons", FV didn't have a good start. I think Season One probably wins in the end as I did talk to people on the forums back when that was new, I even befriended someone because of it. B4FV1 didn't do anything like this.
So rant (about this) over, the short version is B4FV1 blew. Thankfully I got it together for the final episode. Originally something else would have ended the season, and that was an episode titled In The Flesh. No, it wasn't the episode with the same title sitting in B4FV2. All they have in common now is the name, and I'll tell that story in the appropriate page. In a nut shell the episode was far too complicated to work into the prequel series so I had to think of something else. Unlike B4FV1, B4FV2 had an arc, so to speak, that needed starting and I thought may as well start here.
For an episode developed in a short space of time it turned out pretty good. For a B4FV1 episode though I think it's great. My only complaint at the time was the poorly written opening scene as I suck(ed) at writing gore - or action of any kind haha. The reboot fixed it since so no one will ever know, unless they're here. Damn. It is a tad ironic that despite B4FV1 being rushed and a bit crap (I'm being nice there and to think I used to like the season *gasp*), Outside of Time's second half in B4FV2 was the one that was rushed and a bit crap.
The plot and back story all revolving around the Leda, I still like it today. The episode hasn't aged badly like most of the season. I'm also rather fond of the James side of the story. I really regret how much I tried to force him and Jessie into everything in this season, and that will be fixed some day, so it was nice to have a rare good one with him in a starring role here.
More Coming Soon