Wall Banger/Live-Action TV/Star Trek: Voyager: Difference between revisions

## It starts right up, despite the fact that [[SF Debris|it's a Ford]].

## Torres can't identify cow manure even with a tricorder. Have cattle gone extinct in the Federation?

** As if that weren't bad enough, it turns out that the owner of this ''brand-spanking-new'' truck was a poor black sharecropper who (along with a bunch of other people) was abducted from Earth... in 1937. Think about it. That was an age when rural areas still used mules.

* In "Memorial", not only did Janeway not destroy a grossly unethical memorial that traumatized countless millions, but she also ordered that memorial ''repaired''. At least she put up a warning beacon.

** It gets stranger. The EMH got into this because he had written a holonovel and wanted to take it back for revision, and his publisher was refusing because he wasn't a person. (The publisher would've deserved the libel suit it would've eventually gotten if it had won.) The Federation did not declare the EMH a ''person,'' but they did say that he is legally an ''artist'' and thus has copyright control over his work. And you thought applying the Fourteenth Amendment to corporations was bad.

** Another form of Wallbanger in this episode was the existence of copyright at all. Star Trek economics works on post-scarcity production, meaning that there is no private ownership. So why does copyright still exist if information is one of the post-scarcity resources we have ''right now''? If anything, a society that prides itself on freedom and the free exchange of information like the Federation should have laws ''against'' trying to restrict the copying of data!

** And the saddest part is, Picard's biggest argument back when he was defending Data was that declaring Data non-sentient would set a bad precedent! (More on this below.)

* In a previous episode, some living deuterium goop replicated Voyager's crew because they wanted sapience. That's all well and good. Then comes followup episode "Course: Oblivion", where the writers only seem to remember the words "shapeshifting goop" from the original script. To elaborate, the same living goop somehow replicates a fully functional, warp capable, EMH-equipped, fifteen deck, 700,000 metric ton ''anti-matter powered'' '''starship'''. And no, they didn't build it, the deuterium goop literally formed itself into a working starship. *BANG* Another point is the replicants themselves. The first two replicants copied didn't know what they were at first, but the Harry Kim replicant caught on. After the entire crew is replicated, they clearly realize what they are since they don't seem pissed Voyager is abandoning them. Then, against all logic, this crew of replicants, including the original Kim replicant, ''forget they're replicants''. Furthermore, it was a point that the original replicants could only breathe the totally inhospitable vapor that passed for atmosphere on their planet, yet these replicants go around breathing human air like it's nothing. Then they go back to breathing an approximation of the death air with no transition. *BANG BANG* The episode didn't even have any point, either. The replicants somehow built a spiffy new warp drive that killed all of them due to radiation harmful to their kind, ended up flying back to find Voyager, and died before they could make it. It amounts to a footnote in Janeway's logs.

** It says his ancestors had ''no culture'' until the aliens gave it to them. Human beings create culture by virtue of being human beings -- we couldn't stop doing it if we wanted to. But, for these people to have a complex and true religion, it has to have come from aliens?! And why is no one on the ship even tempted to go after these beings for what they did to these people? If the Q had tried that on a civilization and gotten caught, then there would be hell to pay...

* "Good Shepherd" (an analogue to TNG's "Lower Decks") involves three minor crew members who are taken by Janeway on a mission in order to become more productive members of Voyager. The first is Mortimer Harren, who has five degrees in theoretical cosmology but slacks off at a sensor station at the bottom of the ship. The second is Tal Celes, a sensor analyst who can't do 24th century math to save her life. The third William Telfer, a hypochondriac who avoids every away mission by complaining to the doctor. Instead of simply switching the first two crew members around, and after blatantly ''ignoring'' the advice given to her by Seven, she elects to take all three people (who have never been on an away mission before) to investigate an anomaly - pretty much the only consistent source of danger in the show. '''Really''', Janeway?

** At one point, an unknown lifeform beams aboard the Delta Flyer and begins interfacing with the ship's systems, which causes massive power fluctuations. Janeway attempts to reason with it (which doesn't have any effect), before Harron pulls out a phaser, killing it and stopping the drain on the ship's systems. Janeway then proceeds to severely admonish him, saying that the creature could have been friendly. At no time does she bother to take into account that the creature ''couldn't understand her'' and was actively threatening their lives. At best, the creature would have sapped all the power out of the Flyer (which would have killed everyone onboard due to a lack of life support), and at worst, it would have destroyed the ship, or at the very least made the atmosphere unbreathable. Yet, the audience is supposed to be on Janeway's side as she chews out an ensign who just saved the ship from certain destruction because she's playing fast and loose with the Prime Directive...why?

** A little bit of extra stupidity: Janeway's rationale in this whole thing is that it will help them become more productive, but this flat out will not work as she planned it. Mortimer Harron was never motivated to change to a more productive job. This isn't going to change his mind. Tal's problem wasn't motivation but skill -- she simply did not have the proper knowledge to do her job, and this would not teach her. Finally, William's problem is psychological, and the only reason he's "cured" is because he's attacked by one of the aliens. In other words, in order for Janeway's plan to work, she had to risk their lives. Scaring someone straight is one thing, but '''damn''' Janeway, that's harsh.