Marill Re-Reads Fugitives
Here's the stats so far.
Exclaimed Count: 149
Muttered Count: 437
Motto Count: 12
Sexist Crap Count: 18
Jessie's Sin Points: 11
Morgan the Sue Count: 3
Well well, Reboot Fugitives is finished two weeks after Dark Frontier's release. I have just under a month before my Games Matrix deadline. I still have Caretaker to finish so Conspiracy (and Fugitives "ironically") can be released from backup hell.
I'm going to regret this...
ANYWAY Fugitives was the first episode of the Skipped & Released Later Trilogy #Round 2. If you remember the last one was Once Upon A Time, Timeless and The Fight. I was stuck on them, probably because I didn't know how to get the HILARIOUS writers scenes in and make the trio "funny". Ha! They were later released after The Voyager Conspiracy, delaying the Round 2 trilogy.
It's almost funny. I'm gonna assume Timeless drained my soul, as it certainly did when I reviewed it, as episode 20 Muse was released next, then The Fight. The series then continued on without Fugitives, Dark Frontier and Upendi. The trio didn't rear their heads until after the season finale Thrown Key. Yeah. Season One's release order was worse than its Reboot, so :P
Seriously, look at 2001 in the Release Log and have a good laugh. You probably won't find one here *wink*
Unlike Round 1, Round 2 benefited from their delay. Ten episodes were released in the month they would've appeared, and almost all of them were terrible. April 2001 spawned: Timeless, Muse, World Domination, Prepare For Trouble. Ok I'll be fair, half are headache causing, HAHA WRITER INSERTS ARE SO CLEVA terrible. The other half range from forgettable to harmless.
Fugitives and co escaped the rubbisher than normal writing month. Fugitives though is the weakest of the three even with Upendi's dreadful first half. But IMO comparing these three to the majority of Season One is like comparing Coca Cola and its many flavours to Pepsi's. I just don't, it's not a fair fight. LET'S DO THIS
##############
Morgan, Tani, Jessie, James, Triah & Craig were sitting at a table near the door. They had loads of bottles of Cherry Coke on the table. James and Jessie were in an intense battle of Pokémon Trading Cards.
I'll be the judge of that.
"I choose Scyther," Jessie said and she threw a card onto the table. Everyone shuddered at the name. James grinned and he threw out a Charizard card.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thought so, I've seen more intense writers scenes.
OH SNAP
"No, we just made up rules. It's like a matching game, if I bring out Charizard against a bug type like Scyther then I win the round," James said.
How do you play Pokémon Trading Card game anyway? I doubt it's this.
"This game is so unfair!" Jessie screamed. She threw all her cards onto the table and she crossed her arms.
James picked up her Pikachu card. "Oh, I wanted that," he moaned.
Jessie's the sore loser and OTT about it: in character, hurray!
Jessie's Sin Points: -1
Yes James, of course you did. Only Pokémon newbs like Pikachu. OH I WENT THERE
"Are you seriously telling me that in the 20th century, people knew about Game Slaying," Morgan muttered.
SHHH SHUT UP MORGAN, YOU DAFT GIRL
"No, this game was just based on a third dimension TV show called Pokémon," Craig said.
CRAIG!
That's it, I'm gonna start slapping knuckles
Tom and Harry walked into the room laughing their heads off. "That film was just so funny," Harry laughed.
"Yeah, I'll have to see it again," Tom laughed. They walked up to the table. "You two can come," he said as pointed to James and Jessie.
"Why?" James asked.
"It's a film called Jesse James," Tom sniggered.
Or punching faces
I mean come on, it makes no sense. "HAHA we saw a film about a cowboy who has your names combined." I'm sure by now the reboot of this is online and you're more than likely to agree that the taunting works better there.
PLEASE STOP WITH THE JESSE JAMES BOLLOCKS. WHEN WILL IT END? Clearly not anytime soon, since as mentioned this is the third off last written episode of Season One. Oh lord.
At least this one I can forgive, ONLY SLIGHTLY because of the scenes it causes. They have NOTHING to do with the Fugitives story which I would be ok with since I like them, if it weren't for James & Jessie's part in the story later. One minor change to it would've gave the opening meaning. The reboot fixed this, so feel free to compare the two and I'm willing to bet my Cherry Coke supply that you'll agree with me.
Anyway I was going to compliment, wasn't I? lol
Five minutes later in Sickbay:
"What happened this time Mr Paris?" the Doctor asked as he treated Tom's broken arm and broken nose.
Some will argue that this was an overreaction and worthy of a Jessie Sin Point.
I disagree. Jesse James is infuriating.
I'm not going to minus one though......... yet!
"Holodeck again," Tom muttered. Harry sniggered.
"Beaten up by Jessie again, huh Mr Paris?" the Doctor asked.
"No," Tom said quickly. Harry burst out laughing.
Um, so you don't get all embarrassed and denial-y about a girl beating you up until the 100th time? Men are strange.
"Your big mouth will kill you someday, Mr Paris. I will inform the Captain about this," the Doctor said as he finished treating Tom.
Meh this isn't victim blaming. He was asking for a punch.
"This Jesse James joke is going to far, Mr Paris. I have to put it to a stop before there is a medical emergency," the Doctor said. He walked into his office.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH PREACH!!
I LOVE YOU DOC, ALL OF YOUR SEASON SEVEN ANTICS ARE FORGIVEN
Nah, maybe the weird episode probably based on the American health care system. I doubt I could ever forgive you for the hologram episode. Nosiree.
"Fine, I'll just have to find someone else to annoy, someone less aggressive," Tom said.
Despite his faults, at least he's honest about it????
"Mr Paris, your humour attempts are predictable. You have to speak with the Captain now," Tuvok said.
LEAVE TUVOK ALONE
Oh and OH SNAP
"Please sit down," Kathryn said. Everyone sat down opposite Kathryn. "Does anybody want to tell me what happened?"
"Those two beat me up, end of story," Tom said.
Yep thought so, nailed it. When Harry and the Doc, two men, are around it's "I got hurt on the Holodeck during some Klingon Death Match, that I won of course," macho pissing contest, but when it's only Janeway he's all "mummy, these two are mean to me!"
I'm onto you Paris, grow up you overgrown sexist weenie.
But this whine does bring up an interesting little detail:
"But the Doctor said that you told him it was Jessie," Kathryn said.
"No, that little sissy was the one who broke my arm," Tom muttered.
Hi James, getting prepped for the upcoming Season Two episodes are we? Keep it up.
Oh and foreshadowing
You can tell this was written later, well I can. James has gone from whimpering about being called a baby and hiding from scawy ladies, to breaking Tom's arm "off screen". I'm luving it.
"That is just not true. He used that Jesse James joke again and then he went to the holodeck," Jessie said.
Ahhhhhh even re-telling this story is making my blood boil.
It is a tad interesting that Jessie also mentions the Holodeck, so was him going there after at least true? I know I'd totally switch on my ps3 or plan a typing fest with a crack in my arm. Yep.
"Harry was there, I wasn't going to show myself up by saying that those two beat me up," Tom said.
LOL HARRY WAS THERE DURING THE FIGHT TOO, YOU NINNY
But yeah called it, he was showing off. Despite Jessie beating him up lots of times before, he seems to have the mindset that a woman slapping the s$$$ out of him is humiliating. It's weirder still because James was in on it this time. Wouldn't that be less embarrassing for him since A) two against one, and B) a man was involved in said beating up. B is probably not thought about since Season One has this thing about James' antics means he's a (baby) girl. Groan.
Tom does basically say "those two beating me showed me up." So yeah, I'm gonna do it.
Sexist Crap Count: 2 (1 for Tom bitching about a girl beating him up, and 2 for making it MORE embarrassing because James was involved for once and he referred to him as a sissy)
"But he was their when you insulted us, wasn't he?" James asked. Tom ignored him.
FU TOM
FU MISSPELLING/TYPO
"I find this hard to believe. According to Chakotay, they try their best to stay out of fights and they never get into trouble. I doubt they would hurt you like you said they did," Kathryn said.
I'd post the Tidus video but I know this WTF moment was done on purpose.
"That's unbelievable! These two beat the crap out of me in front of everyone in the Mess Hall!" Tom yelled.
"I've questioned the people in the Mess Hall, they did not see any fight," Kathryn said.
"What! Why would they lie?" Tom asked.
HAHA NOW CAN WE LET THE JESSE JAMES JOKE REST IN PIECES
"Don't mention it. He's been causing a lot of trouble among the crew, he deserves it," Kathryn said. James and Jessie left the room.
NEVER CHANGE JANEWAY
"Tuvok to Janeway. Mr Paris please stop being a prat."
*puts on Tuvok's Biggest Fan t-shirt*
"That doesn't sound like Tuvok," Marill's voice said.
"So! It's only Fifth Voyager," Raichu's voice said as she drank another glass of Cherry Coke.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
Yes Raichu, it's only my fanfic which I put my name to. I doubt in 15 years I'll be regretting all of this stupid writers crap. No way, no doubt.
"Chakotay here Captain, there's a big wiggly wobbly swirly thing right in front of us."
"Seven here, it's actually a TECH anomaly."
"Shut up you boring old Barbie B****!" Jessie's voice snapped.
Wow, it can get worse than tech thingamajig. At least Tani has an excuse
Can I christen this "cloud of p$$$"? No? YOU'RE NO FUN
One last thing(s), STOP STEALING RED DWARF JOKES and YEAH JESSIE
"Where did it come from nameless people at the science console?" Kathryn asked.
I miss Danny.
Morgan and Craig were dancing to their personal CD player unaware about everything that was going on. Chakotay walked up to them and he stole their headphones.
"Er.. is this a good time to ask for my pocket rations?" Morgan asked.
Haha, I have a love/hate relationship with Slacker Morgan. This bit is the former.
"It's not called pocket rations. Anyway you have to earn them by working, not listening to Steps on the Bridge," Chakotay said.
"Says the guy who plays Battleship on his computer," Craig said.
Who doesn't (do both)?
Morgan and Craig snuck into the Ready Room and they came back out with armfuls of Cherry Coke. Nobody noticed.
Why you little scamps! Haha
"Captain something is emerging. Mr Paris, stop that or I'll mind meld you," Tuvok said. Tom backed off and he went back to the helm.
YEY MENTAL ILLNESS MIND MELD TUVOK'S BACK
On the viewscreen the wobbly thing was wobbling a lot more. A large ship emerged from the swirly thing.
YES IT'S WOBBLY AND SWIRLY... WE GET THE PICTURE
"Captain, the ship is Federation," Harry said.
"Indeed Captain, they're hailing," Tuvok said.
"On screen," Kathryn said. The viewscreen flickered on.
Since Future's End happened, I'm gonna give the "oooh a Federation ship we don't recognise has appeared from a weird anomaly, let's hail them" thing a pass. Even if they did know it was from another time, I'd still do it.
"I'm sorry. I'm Captain Jacqueline Sheepdog. I prefer it if you call me Jacqueline," the woman said.
She still hasn't had her surname changed? Oh well, laughs for all.
"Captain, I think this ship is the USS Erona, the Borg ran into it six years ago," Seven said.
And yet the Borg still get their butts kicked by Voyager? GASP, is this how they were able to do First Contact? OMG WHAT A TWIST
I think it's like Mirror Universes' fanfic exposition scene. I guess I wanted to continue the tradition of Seven knowing everything, gotta show why I hate her before I start killing her. It's only polite.
OR they probably only saw it. I know the Erona are dumb but having the 24th century Borg win and Enterprise E the 28th century Erona, that's a step too far.
"Oh is that Jamesy boy!" a girl squealed. She ran into view of the Bridge crew.
"Oh Vicky, get back to Tactical," the posh guy moaned.
Oh yey, Vicky's here. Small mercies, at least she didn't call him Jimmy. Jamesy is funnier to me.
Kathryn turned to James and Jessie. "How do you know a member of my crew?"
"We sort of ran into your clones," Jacqueline replied as she tried to push the girl out of the view of the Bridge crew.
WHAT CLONES? WHO WHICH? WHAT'S DEMON? THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE ONE OF OUR MORE INTERESTING MISSIONS
"Oh not you," the posh guy moaned.
"Sorry but he's the reason why we're here. We're from the 28th century, we travel back in time to prevent time incursions. That tattoo bloke is under arrest," Jacqueline said.
Well you can't say they're not direct.
"Believe me, you do not want to know. The quicker he's in custody the better," Jacqueline said.
"I think we should discuss this in private," Kathryn said.
"Fine, we'll beam you aboard our ship," Jacqueline said.
Wow Jacqueline, my damaged back has more spine than you.
Nah you don't want to know. TELL ME. Ok
"Oooh can I go, there's loads of girls on their bridge," Craig muttered.
"Ohno, not him again," Jacqueline groaned.
"Craig no. Tuvok, James, Jessie, Morgan, Seven you're with me," Kathryn said. They started to head out.
BAD CRAIG, DOWN!
Lol Fugitives and its fellow trilogy'ers were definitely written post C/7 finding out about, or seeing it. I was surprised that episodes before it, barring Voyager Conspiracy of course, treated Seven normally and she was still being invited onto missions even with her replacement Morgan around. BUT it made some sense. I disliked her taking over the show but the hatred didn't truly kick in until she 'ship blocked everyone. So hey, picture my surprise here when Seven and Morgan were invited on this awaymission.
Jessie still called her a Barbie b$$$$ and an Erona crewmember more or less mirrored that. Oh well, Dark Frontier will more than make up for this.
Oh and no gripe about the Erona, you know the crew from the future, choosing their ship to discuss this.
1) They're meant to be stupid.
2) I only moved the meeting place to Voyager in the reboot since it made more sense with the changes. Not because I wanted the Erona to be more competent.
"Aren't we breaking the temporal prime directive here?" Morgan asked.
"Probably," the guy at the front of the Bridge said.
"Cool, more violations," Morgan said happily.
Ha! Like mother like daughter. ohsnap.
That wasn't why I laughed. It's a foreshadowing laugh at her expense in more ways than one. Moving on.
Vicky ran to James. "Hi! You know I missed your cute little face, do you want to go out somewhere?" she asked.
Another girl dragged her away. "Vicky, it was his clone remember?" the girl muttered.
I NEED AN ADULT
"Sorry for my crew's behaviour. The unpassed cadets at the Academy are assigned to ships like these," Jacqueline said.
"That doesn't make any sense, time travel should be for the experts," Kathryn asked.
I keep getting my wires crossed with the Erona's direct inspiration the Excelsior of Kidz Trek. I remember them being incompetent enough to be sent on a mission to find "Voyager", but "Voyager" returns home without their help and they get lost. But then I think they really weren't stupid, but more unlucky and their methods of hunting for the ship was tough for even the best crew.
So yeah, I dunno if they're dumb because the inspiration were and I liked to exaggerate everything, or since they were now time travellers I thought it'd be funny to make them the opposite of the Excelsior crew.
I'll probably never know until I find some Excelsior notes.
"Of course not. We accidentally erased the Enterprise F, G, H, I, J, K, L..."
Ten minutes later:
"Z12, Z13, Z14, Z15, Z16 and the Z17," Jacqueline replied.
Gee, I hope someone fixes this later. What a mess. Cough.
"It does come to your advantage in Season Three but we can't tell you anything else," Jacqueline said.
UNNECESSARY SPOILER PUNISHMENT: FOREHEAD FLICKING
"Oh by the way, you haven't introduced your away team, you can't forget that," Jacqueline said.
"But we already know most of them," the posh guy said. Jacqueline elbowed him hard in the arm.
Listen to Will!!!
DAMN IT JACQUELINE, I HATE INTRODUCTIONS AND JAMES/JESSIE ARE THERE TOO. Seriously, I should think about doing a James and Jessie introduced count.
"Oh are you the girl who was assimilated and brought back in time?" Jacqueline asked. Morgan nodded.
"Ooops, that was us," Vicky muttered.
Ooops?
I do like how the majority of the Morgan paradox remained the same throughout the series. The Erona still get the blame for one part of it.
"We were the ones that put that anomaly there. It was an accident, the Tolg and the Borg decided to take advantage of it," the girl said. The awayteam groaned.
Now that I think about it, were the Erona crew made stupid so this would work? That they create the anomaly Morgan's Borg Sphere slips through by accident. That they're too stupid to understand or know anything about the rest of the paradox? We don't want anyone blabbing something they shouldn't to the Voyager crew. Hmm, something to think about.
"James to Bridge. Can I kill these little twats? If they blow up one more console I'll shoot them!"
"Who was that?" Jessie asked.
"Our Chief Engineer Jessie Anne James," Ashley said.
Oh.
Oh, right yeah. There is something in the main plot that links to the Jesse James crap earlier. My bad. I'm still mad though, as it's only for a few lines long joke. Whereas the reboot change makes it relevant to the story itself.
If you missed Demon's review, "quick" explanation. Jessie was named after Kidz Trek Excelsior's Jessie Rex, seemingly forgetting about the Erona's future appearances. DOH. Erona's Jessie had to be renamed and Jesse James was a running gag probably because making fun of James/Jessie for being opposite sex friends was too YUCKIE COUPLE STUFF. I dunno *shrug*, so yeah the joke name wrote itself. SIGH
Oh and you know what makes this even more depressing/funny (delete one if necessary)? FV Jessie's full name was (later?) decided to be Jessica Rex-Annet, with Annet being her natural mother's surname and Rex being pretty embarrassing for a MC name. It's got nothing on Sheepdog LOLOHSNAP. Oh the originality, it burns.
"If you want to kill them, don't make a mess," Jacqueline said.
"Is a chainsaw okay?"
"As long as you scrub the carpet afterwards," Jacqueline said.
HARRY, PUT DOWN THAT GORRY BODIES MAGAZINE AND GET YOUR MOP OUT
This whole Erona's Engineering staff is stupid gets repeated for the Leda B later on. I must've forgotten all about this. I know I did the Leda thing because at the time the ship's point was that it was a successor to a cursed ship hurrduhlol. A stupid mistake I'll not excuse myself for.
Meanwhile on Voyager's Bridge Tom's ears were twitching when they heard the name Jessie Anne James. Don't ask us how, it's just a joke.
"It's simple. Somebody will be murdered on your ship two days from now. According to our temporal scanners somebody in your crew sneaks onto our ship to steal a temporal weapon. They'll use it to murder the crewmember. Our scanners also say it is your first officer," Jacqueline said.
Sigh
The amount of stupid in this paragraph isn't fully apparent yet. We'll get there. We'll get there.
"But if you weren't here it will never happen right?" Seven said.
"We never thought of that," Will said.
IT'S ALL RIGHT, IT'S NOT LIKE FIXING TEMPORAL PARADOXES IS YOUR JOB OR ANYTHING
"Sorry, you're hearing this. We'll have to put your first officer into custody before he tries to hurt you," Jacqueline said.
"Me?" Kathryn asked.
"I shouldn't tell you this but you are the crewmember he's planning to kill," Jacqueline said. Everyone gasped in shock.
NO WAY! GET OUT!
"I don't believe anything yet, we need more proof. But for now we must place him in the Brig," Tuvok said.
"It'll be safer if we put him in our Brig, it is more secure than yours," Will said.
I'm questioning what the procedure for this would be. When Riker was accused of murder he was allowed to walk freely on the Enterprise while the investigation went on. Innocent until proven guilty. I can't remember any particular examples of crewmembers being chucked into the brig immediately on being accused. I have a feeling there are.
But this murder hasn't happened yet. Hmmmm
"But mum, he must be innocent," Morgan muttered.
"I know," Kathryn said.
"The kid's right," Jessie said.
Ahhhh getting flashforwards to Disconnected here. That thing did nothing original once I was done with it, did it?
Morgan crossed her arms and she put a stroppy face on.
Morgan acting like a teen again. I complain a lot about her appearing in scenes she doesn't need to be and the singing/band crap, but at least she's the only character in this who is as she should be.
"That's the only evidence they've got?" B'Elanna asked angrily.
"Indeed. With the Captain's permission I will begin my own investigation," Tuvok said.
What is this so called evidence? Did I skim past it? Was it only "we're from the future so TOUGH"?
Kathryn grimly nodded. "Have Seven of Nine assist you. I'll send an away team to the Erona to see if they can find a flaw in their evidence. We'll need some people with expertise in internal technology."
HAHAHAHAHA
I gotta check this, I swear I'm going madder:
Human Error US date: 7th March 2001
Natural Law: 2nd May 2001
S$$$game: 23rd May 2001
MAY 2001!!????!!! THE MAY CURSE STRIKES AGAIN, OR RATHER BEFORE! You have a lot to answer for May, go FU!!
Anyway:
Fugitives Written Date: 20th May 2001
I cannot remember how long the UK had to wait for new Voyager episodes. That's not really an issue though. I was obsessed with spoilers, so I would've read about these episodes after their US airdate.
Endgame is debatable, was C/7 spoiled before it aired? Don't remember. BUT Human Error existed and the bad attempt at a C/7 Resolutions was a few weeks old.
Soooo it's a bit odd that Fugitives hasn't yet gone as anti-Seven as I remember. She's had a few Barbie B$$$$ thrown her way but she's still getting invited to help out as if things are normal. Dark Frontier really kicks this off, doesn't it?
Anyway blah blah, Janeway wants someone who knows about "internal technology" to find flaws in the Erona's evidence. Um. Okay????????????????????
Tom grinned and he turned to James who was looking nervous. "Captain, I recommend James."
"Okay, Chakotay's done for," Harry muttered to himself.
I had to read Tom's bit again, during the reboot anyway. I had no idea what Tom was grinning about. Then I remembered Vicky. Haha I volunteer James because sexual harassment is so funneh.
James did break his arm but that's a step too far.
"I volunteer to go with him," Jessie said.
"Why?" Kathryn asked.
"He needs protecting from that Vicky lass," Jessie replied.
Yeah he needs someone to hide behind and call him a coward for reacting to a trauma. Very supportive.
Wait, no one comments on this? Did Tom shut down for the day after his volunteering?
"Before you leave, I just wanted to know who still believes in him," Kathryn said. Everyone except Tuvok and Seven looked nervous.
Sigh
Another bit of stupid I intend to talk about when it shows its face. For now I can only sigh.
"Actually Captain, I think the Erona could be right," Tom said quietly.
"That's a surprise," James muttered.
"Shut up you!" Tom snapped.
I think it's time to christen my new pic
Yeah I'm sure James is bricking it right now. Scary stuff.
"I've looked at their findings and I believe they could be correct as well," Seven said calmly.
"That's a surprise," Jessie sniggered. Seven glanced oddly at her.
It is(n't)??
"I found your holodeck program," James whispered. Seven turned bright red which was a novelty for her.
Oh James, you poor thing. Why must I torture you so? This boy already needs buckets of therapy and Season Two and the prequels hasn't even started yet.
It does back me up a tad, I knew about Human Error at least. WHERE'S THE HATE? Barbie B$$$$ is super lame.
"There's nothing wrong with it," Ashley said.
"I think that's why she sent us. We do know a little about internal thingamajigs," James said.
I miss piece of s*** already
Some of this is a joke, I know. James was picked because Tom thought it'd be funny and the plot demanded it, also Janeway lost her backbone during her Cherry Coke binge (what, that only happens to me?!). He doesn't know this stuff and he demonstrates it immediately with that line.
I just don't know what internal technology means and what it has to do with anything.
Since she wanted to pick holes in their investigation, surely "someone who's good at hacking into things" would've worked better?
Jacqueline and Ashley looked worried. "Did you go to the Academy?" Ashley asked.
"No," they both said in unison.
"Well sorta. We went to the prep college in Manchester," Jessie said.
HOLY BACK STORY EXISTS AND THERE'S PROOF OF IT BATMAN
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," James said.
WHAT? Did seeing Chakotay and Seven lick each other's fingers and Seven in that stupid dress fry his brain to shield him from more trauma? Probably.
"Well I did go to the Academy and believe me, I know a lot more about internal thingamajigs than you do," Ashley said.
Yeah I can see that!
"You know, you're much more cuter than your clone," Vicky said.
Ummmmmm
Suddenly she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He backed away in panic.
AAAAAAHHHHHHH
Vicky grinned at him and she turned to face Jessie. "Aren't you his little sister?"
Hell yeah, I forced a cheek kiss and he reacted with horror and/or fear. He's SOOOOO into me. WOOT
FU Vicky
You know I'm glad I don't treat this as a joke at James' expense, at least not yet (I hope not!) or perfectly ok because he's a man, and men are "wusses/gay" etc for not liking any female attention. Both stances piss me off and I'm not even a guy. Unwanted forced attention like this is not ok for anyone!
Even an uggo like me has had that exact thing happen to me. That prick, he's the only person I've ever been violent towards and that was only a kick in the leg to stop him from chasing me. 100% deserved the creep.
"It's only a cheek kiss." No, no it's not "only". She does do/say more later, but that's not the point. A forced cheek kiss is someone saying "I don't give a s$$$ about what you want, what I want takes priority". I'll never understand the mentality. And remember what I said above, it usually doesn't stop there. I kicked him because I was terrified of what he'd do if he caught me. It worked and everyone got a good laugh out of it. Bonus, I didn't get into trouble. Yay!
Also reminder: Vicky is from the 28th century, James is from the 24th. Unless Starfleet find a death cure or a life extension medicine, he is most certainly dead and was so when her parents were born, her grandparents, their parents etc... She knows this, it's not like she's oblivious to the fact. On three. 1, 2, 3... EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
This has earned a nice little point.
Sexist Crap Count: 3
Moving on or I'll try to. Present day me dislikes Vicky (reboot will probably clue you in on that anyway!) and for that matter all of the girls who do things like this to him. Wasn't Jill enough???? NOPE (though I do prefer the Angela story, it has some meat to it that I should get into someday. Not today though)
Past me thought Pokémon 2000 was a great movie worth ripping off, and that's the only reason James got his cheek violated. Because Ash did. Most of this so called love triangle is taken from this.
Anyway the bitch asks Jessie:
"Aren't you his little sister?"
"No!" Jessie snapped.
"Hmm, then that must mean that you're his girlfriend," Vicky said.
"No I'm not," Jessie grumbled.
The mental gymnastics that took place here. Yeah yeah I didn't technically write this. Still, wow.
I'm torn again as this isn't my work, but Jessie's acting like she should; in full denial mode. Well she's not his girlfriend but hey. Should I, should I not? YES
Jessie's Sin Points: -1
"I don't believe you Tom, you know he's innocent," Harry said.
"I doubt it. That scanner of there's cannot be wrong. If it was a recent invention I'd agree with you, but there is no way a device that is over a hundred years old can be wrong," Tom said.
There's no excusing this, this is original dialogue
WHAT?
Recent invention. Over hundred years old device. What are you drinking?
"That is stupid. Chakotay would never hurt the Captain," Harry said angrily.
"That's the bit I don't understand," Tom said.
What, you mean the whole thing? The part that convinced you was a load of garbage. I know time travel's not your strong suit, there's no excusing that twaddle you said earlier.
No it's not a recent invention, it hasn't been invented yet. You don't know if it is a recent invention in the Erona's time. For all you know it is a prototype, like the ship. OR it could be as you put it "a hundred years old". Though I must've missed when Erona told you this.
"You're going to have to face facts, Morgan. That scanner can't be wrong," Tani said.
Hmmmmm, maybe Tom's crap is because of that thing I said I was gonna talk about later but can't yet.
Nah Tom/Marill's an idiot.
"I'm not facing facts until there is some real evidence. I've never believed scanners and I never will," Morgan said.
*snigger*
What, it's not funny. It's deliciously ironic. and (probably unintentionally) foreshadowy.
"I would only believe it all if dad confessed, which will never happen coz he's innocent," Morgan replied.
What if you saw him do it? What then genius?
"I can't believe people are believing that scanner so blindly," Morgan said.
"I don't get it either," Craig said.
Oh oh, what's this? A plot point to be forgotten later? NAH
"And what does this prove?" Kathryn asked as she looked at the viewscreen. It was showing Voyager's journey through the quadrant.
"That wasn't the original route," Seven said. She pressed some commands and a second line appeared. Both lines were in the same place until a certain point where they broke apart.
That's odd, wasn't The Voyager Conspiracy a few months ago? What day is it?
"When did we change course then?" Kathryn asked.
"Not long after your experience on New Earth," Tuvok replied.
"Was it the same course you took before you turned around?" Kathryn asked.
"No, we followed the original course," Tuvok said.
HUH?
This scene is deleted for a reason. WHAT...THE...FUUUUUUUUUU
I'm so confused.
"We've checked the navigational logs. Commander Chakotay programmed a different course without anybody knowing," Seven said.
Seriously Seven, this is FUGITIVES. FUGITIVES
"If Voyager had taken the original course we would not have run into that planet where you nearly died," Tuvok said.
"What, the Coda planet?" Kathryn asked.
Oh of course! It explains the... Wait, no it doesn't.
"After the incident on the planet the Doctor discovered that you were preg..." Seven said.
"I know that bit, what's that got to do with anything?" Kathryn asked.
"We believe that he injected you with his DNA during the time on the planet," Tuvok said.
Well why not, his ex did it to him!
Janeway reacts to this as you'd expect
"Even if that were true, why would he change the ships course?" Kathryn asked.
With a "meh, course change is far more scandalous"
"So Voyager would run into that planet. During his time on New Earth he must of planned this whole entire thing. It was a good thing the Erona arrived or we would never have known," Seven replied.
OBJECTION
1) Evidence please
2) Chakotay believed they were trapped on that planet forever, and he kept trying to convince Janeway to accept it.
There is a reason for this. There is. It's sorta coming. The problem is any moron can write up a convincing set of arguments and proof for this accusation. Heck, Voyager Conspiracy's Marquis rebellion "evidence" could've been used against him. I mean the episodes are next to each other. This DNA injecting, New Earth plotting Coda malarkey is ridiculous and no one would fall for it. You know something is wrong with this because the story's not even trying to convince ANYONE and yet the characters still buy it without proof.
I swear, the only thing that may make someone believe Chakotay did anything was that the series had not explained Kiara yet. Even then no one's wondered about it since the pregnancy revelation. I imagine most people would read original One and assume J/C were in denial in that scene, that Kiara was conceived naturally and moved the hell on.
"Can you prove that he injected me with his DNA?" Kathryn asked.
"It can be done. The Doctor will still have the medical logs from that time," Tuvok said.
IT CAN BE DONE. I COULD CHECK BUT I THOUGHT I'D FREAK YOU OUT FIRST, HAHA
"What does Kiara have to do with everything?" Kathryn asked.
"Maybe he was trying to gain your trust," Seven said.
YES I'D TRUST A GUY WHO HAD IMPREGNATED ME WITHOUT US EVER SLEEPING TOGETHER, APPARENTLY WHILE I WAS UNCONSCIOUS AFTER A CRASH. WHO WOULDN'T TRUST HIM WITHOUT QUESTION
"Well, do you trust him more than you did back then?" Tuvok asked.
"Yes, what's your point?" Kathryn asked.
"You've just made it," Seven said.
Aaaw look at Fugitives with the big boy drama boots on. Here, have some flaring up music and a few gasps from a studio audience.
INTERMISSION
Spoilers for very, very late Fifth Voyager episodes (late Season Four to Five):
The time travellers from the future warning the crew that Chakotay is going to do something out of character to Janeway. It'd be easy to read this, get to the cliffhanger of Season Four and beyond, and think WTF, THE ERONA WERE SORTA RIGHT! That's if you remember Fugitives at all by that point.
Like the chip being a good explanation for James' part in The Fight, I've got to burst that bubble. Chakotay's character arc in Season Five was not figured out this far back. Fugitives is not cleverly foreshadowing something he will do. I wish it was. In fact either during the writers block, or whilst still in early S5, I remembered Fugitives randomly and reacted as if I were a reader noticing it.
I dunno, early Season Three was the earliest point that plot could've been figured out. There are signs in it. It was definitely not Season One.
INTERMISSION OVER
"I can't believe it. Me, James' girlfriend. It's totally ridiculous, unbelievable," Jessie muttered to herself. She looked over at James, who was working (that's a big switch), and then she looked over at Vicky. She was staring at James. Jessie stood up. "James, I'm going back to Voyager," she said loudly.
You know what's surprising to me with this bit? That she's not stuffing her face while muttering all this. It's Pokémon 2000 babeh.
Snigger at the "that's a switch" line. Snap!
But CREEP MODE ACTIVATED at Vicky staring.
I wonder if anyone will disagree with me here (lol Marill, no one's here). What Jessie does here isn't a Jessie Sin moment.
Vicky's pushed her trigger button already in the previous scene (note how she didn't call her Jesse James to set her off). Jessie's denial levels are going through the roof. In Holo Q's ending she lost her temper and once calmed down tried to get out of the situation. That's exactly what she's doing here. Yeah it's a bit off she'd leave James alone with Vicky when she knows the cow will grope given half the chance. She'd normally put him first, that's true enough.
I guess you can argue that it's not a sin and a sin at the same time. She reacted without thinking. Notice how quick she goes. Ok convinced myself, she neither gains nor loses a point.
Reboot kept it, with an added twist for a reason I suppose. James had to piss her off too.
And no, the Holo Q cheek kiss DOES NOT COMPARE to Vicky's. I'm not saying what she did was perfectly ok. It's all in his reaction to both. That flinch after Vicky's, followed by her s$$$ eating grin. Nopenope
As soon as she was gone Vicky rushed over to James.
"Hi again," she said. He just groaned.
Yeah, he's totally into her. not.
"I'll save you a little trouble. I fiddled with this thing yesterday and I found a strange code in the system," Vicky said.
"Why didn't you tell us that before?" James asked.
Cos she was too busy planning your paradox inducing wedding.
"I told Jacqueline but she didn't believe me. Just look in the scanner's main systems," Vicky replied. James took off the cover on the scanner, there were lots of complicated buttons underneath. He stared blankly at them. Vicky leaned over and she pressed a few of the buttons. A little display came up. There was this strange code on it.
Yeah any excuse you cow
"This looks familiar," James said.
"It does? What is it?" Vicky asked.
"I think it's Marattan," James replied.
What, who???? Cookies? I like the cookies
"They're an alien species who Voyager had some dealings with a couple of weeks back. They had a grudge against the Captain. She was hyper and she stole all of their coffee supplies. Coffee is sacred to them," James replied.
You know, showing this in the opening would've been more appropriate and 10x more fun than the trading card game and JESSE JAMES LULS.
Yeah why this happened is erm... is probably funnier than the episode release order at the top of the page. The reboot fixes it without even trying to. I'll get to it eventually. For now...
"So how did they put this code into our scanner?" Vicky asked.
"I don't know. They could easily transport aboard Voyager un noticed, but the Erona is four centuries more advanced than Voyager," James replied.
OOOPS I WROTE MYSELF INTO A WALL AGAIN. SHOULD I FIX IT, NAH LOL
"Hmm, that's not the real question I suppose. Why did they trick our crews into thinking Chakotay was going to kill your Captain?" Vicky asked.
FU VICKY
James' was an excellent question. Yours doesn't really need much imagination, if you'd been listening to James instead of ogling him.
"Maybe...they are using him as a safe guard. Janeway will think she's safe when Chakotay's in the brig so..."
This line follows Vicky's so I assume this is James. Is writing "James said" so hard? OMG I MUST'VE REACHED MY MUTTERED LIMIT! WOOHOO
But seriously, you don't need much imagination to come up with "the coffee people hate Janeway so they kill her, frame Chakotay to cover their tracks." Yet James still thinks of this and damn son. Of course Vicky thinks he's only good for being pretty and finishes it for him:
"So those alien guys can attack Voyager and kill her themselves," Vicky said.
GEE THANKS, I'D NEVER FIGURE THAT OUT FROM WHAT JAMES WAS SAYING. IT WAS SO CONFUSING
"Should we tell her what we've found?" James asked.
"No, I've got a better idea. We can take our shuttle craft, it has sensors that can see cloaked ships. I have a feeling we might need them. All we need is an alibi," Vicky said.
WHAT NO?
SERIOUSLY, WHY DOES NO ONE EVER LISTEN TO JAMES
Tell Janeway and the whole plan falls apart. How are you not getting this? Oh right, you just want to take a shuttle with him so you can force yourself on him. I'd bet everything on that.
"You just have to tell your Captain you're taking the shuttle out," James said.
"Maybe she might believe us if I told we were going out on a date," Vicky said.
"No chance of her believing that," James said.
OH SNAP TIMES INFINITY BILLION
But nooo this conversation continues
"Why's that?" Vicky asked.
BECAUSE YOU THINK YOUR CRUSH ON JAMES MAKES YOU ENTITLED TO HAVE HIM REGARDLESS OF HOW HE FEELS. BUUUUT HE'S A GUY RIGHT, HE SHOULD BE JUMPING AT THE CHANCE EVERYTIME A GIRL FLIRTS WITH HIM. BITCH
"I don't go out on dates," James replied.
Wellllllllllllllllllll
That's true at least. It still reminds me of his eeew cooties type line in Uncomfortable, I mean Unforgettable (that wasn't on purpose, I did go to type uncomfortable first haha)
"Not even with your girlfriend?" Vicky asked.
"I don't have a girlfriend," James said.
"But I thought Jessie was..." Vicky said.
Wait what? Vicky kissed him on the cheek, leered at him, waved probably in a flirty manner, batted her eyes, leaned over him, tried to trick him onto a date by pretending it's an alibi, all while she thought he was in a relationship.
OMG
"No she's not, she's my best friend," James said.
"Oh fine. Have you got a better plan?" Vicky asked.
And when she figures out he's single, she's like "oh fine" and moves on. He did not consent to anything, she thought he had a girlfriend. Does this girl get off on drama and pain? If he were single and interested, she'd probably reject him. TOO BORING
"Maybe I could tell the Captain that you offered the shuttle to me so I could teach a crewmember how to fly a shuttle," James said.
"Er...who in your crew can't fly a simple shuttle?" Vicky asked.
I TOLD YOU, TELL JANEWAY
THAT IS A TERRIBLE PLAN, But I know he's improvising here. He doesn't want to get stuck with Vicky, so I'm fine with this.
"Let me have a go," Morgan moaned.
"Morgan, this is not a piloting lesson," James said.
I'm sure Vicky's got a camera in there, imagining that 15 year old Morgan's his girlfriend now. That s$$$'s hot.
eew I felt dirty writing that.
"Vicky and I found something about that scanner. The Marattan have tampered with it," James said.
"Oh, so this is an alibi," Morgan said.
"Yeah," James replied.
"Cool," Morgan said.
Oh so this is an alibi to keep the title the same because Marill f$$$$ up, give us scenes together and get you away from Vicky the sex pest? Yeah. Cool!
"Our theory was correct, Captain. He did implant his DNA inside you during that time on the planet," Seven said.
Oh really? How would you go about proving that?
Oh god Seven, I bet you have video cameras in Chakotay's room you dirty cow.
Come on, this is laughable.
"Have you told Kiara about this?" Kathryn asked.
HEY KID, YOUR DAD VIOLATED YOUR MUM WITH A NEEDLE TO MAKE YOU SO SHE'D TRUST HIM. YOU'RE A PAWN. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
WHY WOULD YOU THINK FOR ONE SECOND THE DOC OR SEVEN WOULD TELL THE LITTLE KID THIS?
"It would be best if nobody told her that she was born only as an alibi for a murder plot," the Doctor said.
NO S$$$
Forget Fugitives, this episode should be called Alibi or Violations
"Agreed. I can't believe this is happening," Kathryn muttered.
I'm sure this has been said at least once already. If this were a newer episode I'd be thinking this is a clue. Since this is Season One, I'm thinking it's the usual repetition.
"Finding flaws in their evidence," Vicky said as she worked at a console.
"I take it you found something in that scanner after all," Jessie said.
"Yeah, we found an alien code in the system. It belongs to the Marattans," Vicky replied.
"Oh, them. That explains everything then," Jessie muttered. She walked over to the console where Vicky was working.
ARRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It's bad enough FV blatantly ignores episodes it needs to tell its own, to the point of assuming the readers to know them off by heart. But doing this for made up stuff like the Marattans and their precious coffee? FU
"I've found the same code in the navigational logs," Vicky muttered.
"Does that mean they've tampered with them too?" Jessie asked.
And the smoking gun that is Chakotay's DNA impregnating needle he borrowed off Seska
"The Delta Flyer is the best one to take. I'm going with you," Jessie said.
"Why are you coming for?" Vicky asked.
"If you're going to say I'm going because I secretly like him, don't. Because I don't," Jessie muttered.
Oops back to Pokémon 2000.
THE DENIAL IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE
"He's not my boyfriend! He's a boy and he's a friend but he's not a boyfriend!" Jessie yelled.
"Are you talking about me?" a familiar voice asked. The two girls stopped arguing and looked around to find where the voice was coming from. Craig jumped out from behind the console. "Well?" he asked.
Oh hi Trac... er Craig you weirdo.
Why is Craig always hiding in spots where he can't possibly know Jessie will show up to, so he can jump out and hit on her?
That's far more creepy than Vicky "attached men who aren't interested in me are hawt" Roadds.
"You're not even a friend," Jessie muttered.
"Damn, can't blame a guy for trying," he muttered.
OH SNAP
Well done Craig, you've stalked one too many times. Demoted from the so called friend zone.
"Er, James, isn't that a Marattan ship?" Morgan asked as she looked at her console.
He looked over. "Yeah, oh crap."
OHNO THE SHIP WE WERE LOOKING FOR, PANIC
"Federation vessel. We know where your mother ship is and you are no match for us. Surrender now or prepare to fight."
I... I dunno whether to count this.
Motto Count: 1
"Raise shields," James said.
"How do you do that?" Morgan asked.
"Don't ask me," James replied.
lol, told you it was a silly plan
"Captain, there is an unauthorised shuttle launch in progress," Harry said.
"Who is it?" Kathryn asked.
"It's Jessie and that Vicky lass," Harry replied.
OR it's just "Jessie and Vicky". Stop bloating the word count with words you'd never use Harry
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Tom said.
"But they took the Delta Flyer," Harry said.
"Noooooooo!" Tom screamed. Everyone stared at him oddly.
Pfffffffffthaaaaaaaaaaaahahaaaaaaaaaa
Is this the first episode to show his almost Marill like love of the Flyer? Love it.
"I can't Captain. One of those b***** has done something to the shuttle's engines to mask the warp trail," Tom said.
Oh Tom, project much. Jessie and Vicky are bitches now because??? I only half agree. FU Vicky who I keep typing as Vickly. Weird.
"But the shuttle hasn't even gone yet," Seven said. Everyone went bright red.
"Seven, when you're in Fifth Voyager, don't ever state the obvious," Kathryn said.
Because the episode's would be twice as long?
"Three reasons. Number one, the writers hate you. Number two, you don't want to make the writers look dumb or they'll go nuts. And Number three, they hate you. I know I've said number three twice already but it was such a good point it was worth mentioning twice," Kathryn said.
Oop, there's the Seven hate. Finally. It's a bit crap though.
1) Well duh
2) That's easily done, easy mistake to make. Also already nuts.
3) Worth mentioning twi... OH DAMN IT BEATEN. RED DWARF'S SO QUOTABLE
"Blame Seven Captain, everyone else is," Tom said. Everyone stared angrily at Seven, even Tuvok did.
To quote a Futurama judge: "I'm going to allow this."
"I do. I bribed Seven to embarrass everyone until we got away," Jessie said.
"What did you bribe her with?" Vicky asked.
"To have some screentime in Thrown Key. Believe me, it's nothing good, well it's okay in the first part but the second part she is going to dread," Jessie replied.
IS IT FORESHADOWING/SPOILERS IF THE EPISODE'S ALREADY ONLINE?
Yes, Part 2 wasn't done then.
And haha Jessie, you played her for a fool. Unimatrix Zero/Thrown Key was always Seven's episode. Crafty gal.
"The Erona's shuttle is under attack. It looks like James doesn't know how to switch on the shields. I knew I should have taught him. We'd better increase speed," Vicky replied.
You didn't teach him because you wanted to do this. You don't fool me
CUE MORE POKEMON 2000
"Oh he will be. His girlfriend's coming," Vicky said.
"But I'm not..." Jessie muttered.
"But you're a girl and you are his friend. Isn't that right?" Vicky asked. Jessie looked confused for a second then she nodded in agreement.
PACK IT UP PEOPLE, JAMES/JESSIE'S BEEN CANONISED.
AGAIN
"Morgan, it can't be that hard to figure out how to use the weapons," James said.
"I don't even know where the Tactical Control is," Morgan muttered.
"Wait a sec, here comes the Delta Flyer," James said.
I "love" how these two contribute zero to this. They fly out in this future shuttle ok, but when disaster strikes they act as I would if I was handed a book and told to highlight all the verbs, without Google's help. Which one's that again?
"This is strange. They're firing this strange beam at the Marattans," James said.
"What kind of beam?" Morgan asked.
"No idea but it's just taken out their weapons," James replied.
"What a bunch of wimps, they're retreating," Morgan said.
CONFLICT RESOLVED *SWINGS SWORD OVER HEAD, THEN IMPALES IT IN BACK* DAMN IT
"The Flyer's hailing us," James said. He pressed some commands to activate the viewscreen but instead a replicator appeared out of nowhere. "Want some Cherry Coke?" he asked.
Gripes aside I like this, even if it is a predictable joke. Though I prefer his cup of chicken joke in the prequels.
"Well I hope you're happy. You could of taken me with you but you didn't like putting up with me so you decided to take her. None of you obviously knew how to raise the shields on that thing," Vicky said angrily.
GEE I WONDER WHY THAT IS
"Vicky, don't be so hard on him. He's easily shy, he's probably scared of you," Morgan joked. James just glared angrily at her. She just laughed at his face.
Um... ohsnap or OHSNAP?
Though do find the laughing at his angry face pretty funny.
What haven't we had for a few sentences? Yes more Pokémon 2000
"You know Jessie, that's something you two have to work on when the two of you get married," Vicky said.
"Take that back," Jessie grumbled.
DON'T, YOU'RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO HER HANDS
"Two ships are heading our way. It's Voyager and the Erona," Morgan said.
"Oh well. Whose going to explain all of this to our Captains?" Vicky asked. Everyone pointed at her. She pointed at Jessie.
"Ha! Three against one," Jessie laughed.
Pwned
"Yeah okay," Jessie and James said together.
Oh, they've been assimilated into the Jessmes entity again. Too bad
"Oooh Cherry Coke," Morgan muttered as she stared at the shuttle. There was now possibly thousands of Cherry Coke bottles inside the shuttle.
Like mother like daughter
Though to be fair, since the Marattan saga DIDN'T HAPPEN! GOD! It's like daughter like mother. Morgan did it first.
"Give me some," James moaned. He snatched about eight in his arms.
"You freak! Just one!" Morgan snapped and she smacked him on the head.
These two, my god. I may be wrong, but this is the first scene they've shown any chemistry. Most of their shared scenes in the series so far have been rather stale and/or they've barely interacted.
foreshadowing
"We're on level 36! Isn't that great," Jessie replied.
"Don't tell me you two have been playing a stupid computer game for two whole days," Kathryn moaned.
"We have. It takes two days for the computer to finish it's scandisk. It would only take a day if we weren't playing this game," James replied. Kathryn groaned. The console bleeped.
Yeah Candy Crush is a memory/time hogger, I know this from experience.
"Save the game, James," Jessie said.
"Don't rush me," James muttered.
Danny: Giggity
"Yup, there's the same alien code. Looks like Kiara's existence is still a mystery," Jessie said.
Wait, Tuvok actually did find (planted) evidence like a needle mark? Haha
And double wait, I know Season One's not meant to tackle the Kiara origin story but it hasn't said it was a mystery since the first episode. Right? Don't get me wrong I don't mind the occasional hmmm mention like this, but we're 18 episodes in now and nothing.
"Er.. is Chakotay out of the Brig yet?" James asked.
"No, I wasn't going to let him out until I got results of the scandisk," Kathryn replied.
He's a gamer, he'll understand
"You won't tell him will you?" James asked.
"If you do some proper work for a change I might even think about it," Kathryn replied in a sly tone and she walked out of the room. James and Jessie glanced at each other nervously.
"What does proper work mean?" Jessie asked.
"I dunno, I'm scared," James replied.
"Me too," Jessie muttered.
Snigger
I'm gonna quote the whole following scene. It's (Season One rated) gold.
Somewhere on the Marattan Alien ship:
"We will get revenge for our coffee loss, just wait and see," the alien captain said evilly."Sir, your coffee bath is ready," another alien said. The alien captain turned to face him.
"Very well," he said and he headed for the door.
"Sir?" another alien said. The captain turned to look at him.
"I've got bad news. When our shields disappeared our Cherry Coke supply was beamed over to the larger shuttle," the second alien said. The guy's face turned red with rage.
"How dare they! How will we have our showers!" the guy asked
Anyway back on Voyager:
"Hey, a hundred bottles of my new Cherry Coke is gone," Morgan moaned. Suddenly she heard a hyper giggle coming from the next room. Kathryn walked in with a silly grin on her face.
"Hehe, hi sweetheart! Do you want to play with Kiara's Barbie Dolls, we could put Barbie Girl by Aqua on," Kathryn said in a hyper voice. Morgan screamed and ran out of the room.
Oh look, here's the moment Janeway discovers the awesomeness of Cherry Coke and....................... PZZZTTTTSIZZLE WAIT A MINUTE! She was already drinking it in Voyager Conspiracy.
Fugitives has a heck of a lot of timeline issues. Wow!
Before I get onto the rating side of things, notice anything missing in this story? Also, do you notice a glaring error? A one that James pointed out sometime and it was glossed over as not being a REAL QUESTION. No, it's not just you.
First, Morgan comments that the crew are easily misled by this awesome scanner that can't be wrong. Then we see lots of ridiculous proof to "prove it", which all have the Marattan IDIDIT stamp of approval on. Yeah they find this code but do they find the source of this little brainwashing thingie? NO. NOT YET
Second, how did the Marattan's pull this off? The Erona appeared first with this fiddled with data. Let's for the moment forget the fact that this is an advanced ship, and if the Marattans can screw with them, why bother with the charade at all with primitive Voyager? Just when did they do this? Requoting James:
"They're an alien species who Voyager had some dealings with a couple of weeks back. They had a grudge against the Captain. She was hyper and she stole all of their coffee supplies. Coffee is sacred to them," James replied.
So it's not like they did this during Demon. I don't remember them giving Chakotay the skunk eye then, clone or not. No. That'd make too much sense. It's not answered, so the assumption can only be the Erona slipped up again during their time jumps.
Then we go back to HOW DID THEY DO IT? I'll accept the crew being dumb and not noticing intruders. The people who built the ship weren't though. There are no jokes about the ship being awful. So a ship from the 28th century which sole purpose is to scan for temporal anomalies doesn't alert anyone about tampering with its main scanner, or has any security to stop it. LOLNO. Then I'll repeat, if the Marattans were clever enough to do this, they could've gotten onto Voyager too and killed Janeway without breaking a sweat. Which they plan to do anyway. Their plan doesn't lower Voyager's shields. Janeway's guard letting down doesn't involve that.
Third, yeah the plan's OTT. Janeway doesn't think she's in danger anyway, so doing all of this to catch her off guard and kill her is dumb. Though that could've only been James' idea. They were lurking nearby so maybe he was right. Hmm
Fourth, the Marattans themselves. Summed up in a paragraph or two. Wtf happened there? What's the big deal, I did this a lot right? No, well yes I did, but no that wasn't supposed to happen. I think the issue here was that the episodes were skipped, things were forgotten and the order was messed up. I simply forgot the Marattans weren't introduced yet. I also forgot that Janeway had already tried Cherry Coke and had her newbie buzz from it, but hey that's minor, nothing in that last scene tells you this is the first time it's happened.
Fifth, why the hell is the episode called Fugitives? HAHA WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW?
Yeah to sum up the episode isn't very good, has many loose screws and doesn't live up to its plans. BUT I know it would've been so much worse if it was written when it was supposed to be. Imagine Muse's awfulness here. At best, it would be written like the Fight's non Fight scenes.
In answer to "fifth", I don't know entirely. I can tell you that the episode's finale feels rushed because it is. The fugitives were meant to be Morgan and another. I know that much. My theory is the brainwashing affects everyone but Morgan and she steals a shuttle to prove her dad's innocence. She either broke him out of the brig, or had someone else with her. Since all of FV but Prepare For Trouble and Test were planned before Aggressions was written, James wouldn't have been there. BUT if I was wrong about Chakotay, James would've been considered as a replacement for the other guy/gal. Why else is he badly written into the shuttle with her in the finished version? They both are for that matter. There's a reason why the shuttle idea is a load of bollocks. It was probably me panicking that I had gotten off track with love triangle crap.
So yeah you can probably see where this was going. Voyager and Erona pursue, Morgan finds the cloaked ships, viola! Again, this is only a theory. My notes are not available and my memories of Fugitives is shaky at best.
##############
Well let's see how everything tallies up.
Negatives:
1) The title makes zero sense thanks to getting so damn far off track.
2) JESSE JAMES
3) The episode leaves plenty of hints that the crew's judgement is being clouded so they'd believe the lies, but there's no follow through. Not until the next episode that is.
4) I wasn't even trying with the technobabble, was I? Internal technology, TECH anomaly, Red Dwarf descriptions.
5) I've already said my piece on the Erona tampering. It's dumb. End of.
6) Oh lookie, a girl has a crush on James, he's got issues with aggressive flirting and is wigged, Jessie's mad/jealous, people make fun of him LOL SO FUNNY AND ORIGINAL. Vicky, oh Vicky. If he stumbles back in actual fear to your advances it's time to back off. Also, don't do that. Ask him out for coffee first. If he says no, accept it and move on.
7) The Ash/Misty/Melody thievery. Why... why? At least with Ash being a ten year old boy it fits with James' badly written reactions to his admirers so far. Ironic that this episode is the one he reacts with more maturity in. And no that's not because he's acting like Ash. Jessie and Vicky steal Misty and Melody's lines & actions, but I don't remember James saying or doing anything he does.
8) Seven has to point out to the time ship crew that fix paradoxes, that their showing up would cause the events they described. Yeah yeah they're idiots but this is too far, I'm sorry.
9) This whole "there's proof of Chakotay deceiving us in the logs/Astrometrics data," with Seven reporting it, is so so weird and out of place being in the episode directly following The Voyager Conspiracy. I know I didn't write it that way, but that's a flimsy excuse. I would've known, and it was a missed opportunity really. The two being tied together might've been interesting.
10) Hey, Kiara's origins weren't ever explained and you've probably accepted her as being there normally, let's poke that out and make it ultra creepy. Yes the Seska DNA needle thing, PERFECT
11) If James was right about the Marattans plan, what a convoluted piece of crap that was.
12) For an episode involving a time ship crewed by idiots and convoluted murder plots, the lack of time travel in the story is criminal. Thank god I have the reboots.
Positives:
1) James' is once more getting his violent on... with only 3/4 episodes to go. Tuttut
2) The whole scene with Janeway gaslighting Tom, it's delicious.
3) Tuvok's responses to Tom's attempts to annoy him. Best character!
4) Morgan and Craig sneaking into the Ready Room to replicate their stash while everyone's distracted. I like it because it's so random but it works. It shows that previously good guy Craig will do anything to get in good with his crush, and Morgan's so very (FV) Janeway. Think about it.
5) The Erona, being a time ship, does mention Morgan. You'd think FV would ignore it or blatantly spoil. It's never in between.
6) Apart from the perfectly natural recoil to the cheek kiss, James doesn't act as fearful to the point where he's whimpering behind Jessie like a child, like he was in Demon and with other flirts like Tani. I appreciate that I tried to show how his past had left lasting effects on him, but like everything else it's been overexaggerated. Here he's wary, again he recoils from unwanted kisses, yet he can still carry on a conversation/work with her. You know he's uncomfortable, it's not stamped in your face over and over, his character isn't shattered into timid little boy hiding from meanlady pieces. The older episodes should've done this. He's not gotten used to it, or grown into this, he's just better written.
7) Vague spoilers for Season Three+: I have thought for a while that Fugitives was the first episode to hint that a certain plot twist had been decided, and that it would be obvious to any reader who knew and reread it. It's more the latter only for me. Less vague spoilers: James and Morgan's shuttle mission may seem pointless, and yes it was because who cares if the title doesn't work anymore amirite *groan*, but at least their interactions are fun and do hint of things to come as I thought. I didn't want to fall into the trap of the same characters pairing up, gotta divide up the James/Jessie and Morgan/Craig double teams. Not too literally of course 0_0
8) Judge me all you like (you probably already do haha) but I find that Cherry Coke shower and coffee bath exchange funny still. As well as Morgan running away screaming from her hyper mother.
Marill's Rating: 6/10
Exclaimed Count: 0 (149) IKNOWRITE?
Muttered Count: 34 (471)
Motto Count: 1 (13)
Sexist Crap Count: 3 (21)
Jessie's Sin Points: -2 (9)
Morgan the Sue Count: 0 (3) Come on, it was her episode. She doesn't take over it, if anything James, Jessie and Vicky do