"Coda"
Air Date: January 29, 1996
Star Date: 50518.6
2/17/97 Update
2/10/97 Update
2/3/97 Update
(As with "Alter Ego," I am typing this on Thrusday morning. The basketball game once again pushed back the Voyager broadcast two hours so I'm in a time crunch!)
As Janeway and Chakotay travel to a planet in a shuttle, a storm knocks them from the sky. Janeway then begins to have a series of death experiences, usually returning to the moment before the trouble began. Then, she sees herself dying on the planet. Help soon arrives and her body is taken to Sickbay but resuscitation efforts fail. Though Kes initially feels Janeways presence, that small indicator of Janeway's continued existence fades as well. At the same time, an image of Janeway's father appears to beckon her to a place of everlasting joy. But even after the memorial service, Janeway refuses to leave. Her father becomes insistent and as Janeway resists she suddenly flashes back to the planets surface where holodoc is attempting to revive her. Janeway realizes that she isn't dead that her father is some kind of alien come to harvest her consciousness. By force of will and the doctor's ministrations, she returns to life.
Brash Reflections
Lots of input has already arrived but the time I typed this up so I'll just add my comments as we go! That'll save me a bit of time.
Until next time!
Phil
Reflections from the Guild
[Note from Phil: I have not had time to verify these but they sounded good to me!]
Rene Charbonneau: I really enjoyed this week's Voyager, "Coda". It kept me guessing until the end. At first, you think it's a time loop. Then you think that Janeway's really dead, the we finaly learn the identity of Janeway's "father".
Those clever creators. They found a way to use their Vidian makeup even though Voyager has passed Vidian space at this point in the series.
How come Janeway didn't have the same reaction as Geordi did when told that she was dead? When Ensign Ro though that she and Geordi were dead in "The Next Phase", Geordi's reaction was, "But...my clothes...my visor? Are you saying I'm some blind ghost with clothes?" Janeway didn't think of this.
But still, great episode!
Jordan P. Hastey: Admiral Janeway should have been wearing the older, round combadges, but instead he wore the newer squar-shaped one.
Dave Craig from Waterloo, Ontario: There were a few things that bothered me with the shuttle leaving Voyager. Aside from the fact that both the Captain and First officer are part of the away team, is there any reason why they have to take a shuttle? It seems to me like Voyager could just warp over to the planet while the away team went down to collect whatever they needed. It's not like they would leave without them.
And about this item they have to collect; what do they need it for, anyway?
During one of Janeways hallucinations, she tries to activate an emergency beacon. A close-up shows that she has ripped her communicator open, presumably to activate the homing signal. Why can't she just activate it by tapping her combadge, instead of prying it open? (Note from Phil: One wonders why an equipment designer thought it was a good idea to force the user to rip open the communicator to send an emergency signal. Wouldn't an "emergency" be the best time to be able to activate a signal quickly?!)
Johnson Lai: I just don't understand why Paramount doesn't keep at least *some* of the obsolete communicator designs. Admiral Janeway was wearing a uniform that has never been seen with a communicator design that didn't come into service until about 3 years ago.
J. Annelin Cold Lake AB: I just watched Coda and was able to see fully Chakotay doing CPR and he was doing it correctly (see my earlier message about Coda). I guess i have to tape the previews so that i can see exactly what is going on. Anyway the show is pretty weird, with jumping from timeline to timeline and not knowing what really happened so maybe Chakotay never did CPR?
Johnson Lai: During the memorial service, after Kim speaks, he and Tom move into the kitchen. They walk by two officers (one male, one female, both wearing mustard uniforms) who were standing side by side. Then the camera angle changes and the woman is now behind the man.
Evan Lorentz of Littleton, CO: Wow! Time anomalies, hallucinations, alternate subspace dimensions, near-death experiences, alien abductors...you'd think it was a Brannon Braga episode. ;-)
More proof that the Warp Core Ejection System is the most useless piece of technology ever devised. In the second repeat of events, when Janeway and Chakotay try to eject the core, the shuttle blows up first. (Of course, it happens in Janeway's mind only, but she certainly seems knowledgable in this type of thing, so I would assume that is an accurate representation of what would happen.)
I'm amazed that not once during the Daddy-pleading-with-Janeway-to-accept-her-death section of the episode, not once does she raise the argument: "but wait a minute, what about three other times I remember dying?" and surmise that something is amiss? The alien seemed sure he'd get another stab at capturing Janeway in the future -- if so, and these aliens come to collect "dead spirits," then why haven't the skilled Starfleet doctors detected them before? You could subscribe to Janeway's "only in the Delta Quadrant" theory, but they are trying to get OUT of the Delta Quadrant. What is they break out of the alien's range of influence.
And then let's not EVEN get started about the uniform-ripped, sweat-dripping escapades prmoised us next week...I will just say that with the Paris/B'Elanna romance finally coming out in the open, the Vulcan Ponn Farr and the Borg skeleton thing all in one episode, it's probably an over-crowded episode.
Cydney Williams of Chicago Heights, IL: That was a great episode of Voyager. Kathryn Janeway ain't 'fraid of no ghost! She kicks butt! This episode was perfect. The ending wasn't too abrupt and the performances were riveting. That alien-father guy was intensely creepy.
I see that the Janeway/Chakotay romance is still in effect!
The premieres for next week's episode look pretty interesting! And the Borg are coming! Yes!
Now for the nits...
The first time Chakotay revives Janeway, he uses CPR, which is unsuccessful, then he uses the hypospray, which instantly revives her. Why didn't he use the hypo in the first place? (It's really not his fault---the whole thing was a part of the alien's illusions.)
I also don't understand why in the beginning Neelix has to ask Janeway to keep Tuvok away from communal gatherings. In "Alter Ego" Tuvok seems to have no interest in parties. (Note from Phil: I think the point was that he had gotten up and read a bunch of Vulcan poetry and bored everyone to tears. This is probably part of Tuvok's efforts to get to know the crew a little better.)
I don't understand the point of all the time-loop business. Why would the alien cause such a hallucination. What would the advantage be? How would these hallucinations bring Janeway closer to the matrix? (Note from Phil: I was a bit confused by this as well. In the first loop a Vidiians chokes her to death. Why didn't she have her out of body experience then? Or, was she still alive enough to recover and the alien was simply trying to wear her down and confuse her?)
Philip Blaiklock: This was an EXCELLENT episode....probably the best Voyager yet. Introspective, personal and highly moving; I have never been as confounded this much with an episode since TNG's "Frame of Mind."
My favorite line: "Go back to Hell!!!"
Now for the nits....
Janeway was able to make Kes sense her by walking through her. Why did she only do it once? I would have kept on walking through Kes until she was certain about my prescence. Janeway only does this once and soon gives up. No wonder Kes wasn't able to sense her again. (Note from Phil: I kept yelling at the screen, "Stick your hand in her brain, Janeway! Stick your hand in her brain." This was simple cause and effect. Janeways is supposed to be a scientist. She should have been able to recognize the conditions that allow Kes to sense her and reproduce them. The result would have probably been the same but still Janeway should behave like a scientist!)
John Lange of Alexandria, VA: While watching this week's episode, I came upon an interesting thought. Early in the episode, Janeway attempts to get Chakotay to participate in the next talent show. She tells him that he could place an apple on her head and then shoot it off with a phaser. Chakotay says that if he were to miss, he'd become the next captain. Obviously the concept that first officers can get promoted to captain by killing their superior still holds. (See the Original Series Nitpickers Guide for the episode "Amok Time".)
John Latchem: And so we move to this week's edition of What is Voyager Ripping Off Now? (WIVRON if you want to put that in the glossary)
Contestant Number 1?
"Cause and Effect"
Correct! Contestant Number 2?
"The Next Phase"
Correct! Contestant Number 3?
"The Inner Light"
Also correct. We have an exciting matchup today. Now to determine the winner. Which original series episode did Voyager rip off this week? Contestant number 1?
"The Tholian Web."
Correct! You win! Thanks for playing! If any other nitpickers out there want to add to this little game, please go ahead and send them in. There's got to be more!
Now for some nits:
The doctor killing Janeway is completely out of character, and the surprising thing here is that Janeway imagined he would do it, too. She must not remember the episode "Tuvix" when the Doctor specifically prevented her from taking action to kill a patient against his will.
And what happened to Janeway's faith after the episode "Sacred Ground?"
When they started talking about a temporal loop I was all set to hear another reference to the Enterprise-D. Oh darn.
What uniform was Janeway's father wearing? I guess he's an admiral but that type of uniform has never been used before (it looks like a cross between the old movie uniforms and the TNG uniform). If the uniform is native to 15 years prior to the episode (Which is my guess), then why is he wearing a new communicator, introduced only 3 years ago? If it is a new admiral's uniform, then these aliens have access to the Alpha Quadrant and know what's going on. Since Janeway makes no reference to his uniform, I guess we'll have to wait and see what uniforms pop up on DS9. This uniform question leads to some interesting lines that could be said.
Janeway: Hi dad. Still in your old uniform I see. Where'd you get the new communicator? Does Starfleet have a quartermaster in heaven?
or
Janeway: Where'd you get the uniform?
Admiral: Its new.
Janeway: So you have access to the Alpha Quadrant. Can you take us home?
Admiral: No.
Janeway: Okay. After my officers spout some technobabble and use some
energy beam to save me I'll write this incident in my diary under "GIS."
Thanks for the time. (I know Janeway wasn't saved by technobabble this
time but before you hoardes of nitpickers pounce on me let me say that this
takes place when Janeway doesn't know what's going on and she is still
trapped in her mind).
David D. Porter: Captain and First Officer in the same shuttle? Why, oh WHY? (I know, I know, so the writers can contrive to strand them together.)
Did H-Doc sing at talent night?
Bad showing by the Captain. When Chakotay gets shot, she should RETURN FIRE rather than turn her back on the threat. (Note from Phil: And I reiterate, doesn't a stun setting mean you shoot first and ask questions later?)
Rather ironic that the woman who ripped Tuvix apart finds her own euthanasia so appalling.
"You're dead." "No, no, that's not possible. My contract runs another two seasons."
B. Star of Two Rivers WI: I dont know if any of these were taken, but here goes: Not much for this episode, strange as it was. But at the beginning when Chakotay got the medical case and opened it, a little doo-dat fell out. Wouldn't it be a shame if he had needed that to aide Janeway? Well, it turned out to be just a dream...
Also, I don't know if this is a nit or not because I didn't hear why they had to leave the shuttle, but WHY did they leave the shuttle? When they showed it later, there was just a bunch of gases squirting out, but it didn't seem like anyone would die unless there was flesh eating acid or something in it. (Note from Phil: I believe it was filling with toxic gas. And no comments about Nelix's cooking!)
Someone probably already got this, but towards the end Chakotay seemed to be doing the CPR wrong. He was pressing too low, almost by tip of the breast bone. The breast bone's tip is made up of three bones (someone correct me if I'm wrong b/c I'm doing this half asleep) which can break and puncture a lung or something. And they let Janeway get up after being near death a lot in this ep. Ah, the wonders of technology in the 24th century!
Jeff Germann: Well, this was a good episode, not what I expected at all. But once the ending was here, I saw my first three nits didn't really count, but...here they are anyway.
Let's see.. V-ger's Janeway and Chakota go through a time loop just one time, and wham..they figured it out. Took the Enterprise's entire crew at least 10-12 times to figure it out. I guess as you say, "they're just that good"
And talk about "Kikinazation" of Janeway, Kirk is believed dead, but is floating in another dimension, and it takes the whole episode to figure it out, and now so is Janeway, but they think of it in just a few minutes. as you say, "they're just that good"
As Tuvok and Kes were doing their "seance", I kept wanting to yell out, "Wave your hand through their heads!", But I don't think Janeway wanted to be discovered, while Kes was straining to hear her, she was being awfully quiet, I would've talked nonstop thoughout the whole thing.
The part with Janeway showing signs of "the phage" in sickbay, looked an awful lot like the lesions on the DS9 episode, where Bashir was in the Gamma Quandrant. (Sorry cant remember the episode name) But then again, like you, My screen was a little fuzzy, same low power station.
Janeway's father was wearing a belt with his next generation tunic. Since when did they come with belts? I know this was from part of Janeway's past but we have seen enough of Star Fleet's time line with all the time travel stories, and flashbacks, I don't recall a belt on this century's uniform. (Note from Phil: Well Starfleet had that hokey pastel phase during the time frame of the first movie. I guess they are/were in a "belt" phase.)
AND FINALLY! - as the previews declared in a startled whisper, "THE BORG!" 'course you gotta remember PAL (previews always lie)
Erin Hunt of High Point, NC: Today we officially aknowledge the existence of a new sport - "Spot The References To TNG". "Coda" resembled, by turns, "Cause and Effect", "Tapestry", "Frame of Mind" and "The Inner Light", except that it wasn't nearly as good as any of these episodes. The most blatant borrowings were from "Frame of Mind". I realize that there are only so many plot ideas in the world, and normally it doesn't bother me at all, but this was just so *obvious*.
One thing that puzzled me right from the beginning was what that whole "Cause and Effect"-inspired time loop thing at the beginning was about. For that matter, what was everything before the "Janeway's dead" scenario all about? First she's mortally injured, then she's miraculously OK again, then the Vidiaans (inexplicably, given later events) come into the picture, then the whole time loop thing happens, then they get back to Voyager and Janeway is the only one who can remember the time loop, then Janeway has the phage (a hidden fear?), then Holodoc kills Janeway (a chilling scene, even though I was sure it wasn't real). Only after all that do we get on with the main story. My problem is that this first part doesn't match the second part. The story is that Janeway is on the brink of death and these aliens are trying to convince her that she *is* dead so she'll go into their Matrix and feed them. What does anything that happens in the first part have to do with this? Is it her mind's initial reaction to the invasion, like Riker in "Frame of Mind"? If so, it would have been nice if they'd told us this, and let the scenes have some thematic relavance to the rest of the episode. Voyager has a history of looking like it's going to rip off TNG, then coming up with some clever twist that turns it into something very different, so I was confident that All Would Be Revealed at the end. Instead, it seemed like the whole first part of the episode had been imported intact from another (and more interesting) episode. It was a very confusing, jumbled piece of writing.
Loved that scene where Chakotay was doing CPR on Janeway, going "No! Don't leave me, Kathryn! Fight, d_mnit! Fight! FIIIIIGHT!" (True, it was only happening in Janeway's head, but still.)
Janeway once said that in Starfleet, "weird is part of the job". Apparently this is so true that they can talk about the occurence of time loops, phased space and alternate universes as if they were talking about the weather. (I know this was all happening in Janeway's mind, but it still says something about Janeway's attitudes.)
This episode carries on in the proud Star Trek tradition of ridiculing religion when Chakotay tries to explain away all near death experiences by saying they might be the result of encounters with similar aliens. Not only does this make no logical sense, because people who have had near death experiences generally speak of being told it wasn't their time, while Janeway had to *fight tooth and nail* to escape, but it flies right in the face of everything that's been established about Chakotay's spiritualism.
On the positive side, I liked seeing Janeway get the chance to turn into a snarling "lioness" at the end.
Next is the much anticipated "Blood Fever", and the creators are playing the skin element to the hilt. This is responsible for a nit about the preview. It looked like they were trying to tell us that *B'Elanna* was going into some pon farr-like tailspin. However, as my sister said after seeing the preview, "I want Vorik to win! Atleast until pon farr is over!"
Travis McCord: First, this one is another one that's tough to nitpick, since most of it is apparently a hallucination. :) There were, however, 2 fairly obvious ones: first, somebody should find the engineer who refused to put seatbelts into the specs of Fed ships and smack him upside the head a few times. (Note from Phil: And what about airbags? What happened to airbags?!)
Second... at the end, when Janeway recovers, the doc finishes what he was doing with her head (and only her head), she says some dialogue, then _immediately_ gets up and walks off. But... she was supposedly seriously injured, enough to put her life in danger... wouldn't that hurt more than just her head? Presumably, she was in the crash, got carried out by CHakotay (_real_ good first aid skills, BTW. Why settle for small injuries when you can flop her around & get big ones?), then he tried to revive her. Presumably, again, the first thing the Doc did was get her _alive_, and worry about the other stuff later. So when did the other injuries she must have sustained get healed?
2/3/97 Update
Rhiannon Battles of Cushing, Oklahoma: Is it just me, or was it just a couple of weeks ago in "Alter Ego" that Tuvok states that he has no friends. This week he has decided
that Janeway is his friend, but only after she dies! (Note from Phil: True but most of this episode happened in Janeway's mind!)
Deborah Solinas: Why doesn't Chakotay use the fireman's carry? I'd probably be easier
and safer than heaving her into his arms.
Lisa Solinas: This is one of the hardest Voyager episodes to nitpick. But I will point
out a few booboos that the alien made.
Janeway, when she's hallucinating that she's dead, shows that she can
pass through doors and people, etc. Yet she leans on a console....
In Janeway's delusion, it sure was lucky that Chakotay, even though
having been shot, had no organs extracted, or he would have died in
about five minutes.... or developed peritonitis. Whatever.
At Janeway's memorial service, I'm startled that Tom didn't say anything.
One hint that this was all some sort of alien-induced nightmare should
have been the doctor's attitude to the phage. Euthanesia contradicts
holodoc's past behavior. He refused to be the one who sentenced Tuvix
to death, and in "The Swarm", he admitted that if a crew member came
down with a debilitating illness, he would "do everything in your power
to make them well again". The phage certainly counts as debilitating.
Well well well.... It see they repaired holodoc's armband that was mashed
in "Macrocosm"....
What does "Coda" mean? (Note from Phil: It's an Italian derivative from the Latin "cauda" which means "tail." In a musical passage it is the end of a movement. In modern music, it's the final bit that's tacked on to end a song. I will let you derive your own correlations between the title and the episode!)
Next week: B'Elanna retransforms into Ms. Lust. (Note from Phil: Can we tell that it's sweeps month boys and girls?)
Michael Marks: I just wanted to take a moment and offer my opinion on last night's episode of
Voyager, "Coda." At first, I liked the episode but after thinking about it,
I've decided I hate it and here's why:
The episode starts off as a pale imitation of TNG's "Cause and Effect."
Janeway and Chakotay instantly know they're in a time loop. Ok. So far so
good. A few loops, very different outcomes. Then suddenly, only Janeway knows
about the loop. Then Chakotay does know. Then Janeway has the Phage. Then
the Doctor kills her. What a mess.
When it finally gets to the part with the alien posing as her father, it
finally takes on some direction. But that's not until half-way through the
episode. What really bothered me, though, was that the entire episode happened
in Janeway's head. Everything: the time loop, the Vidiians, the Phage, her
father, the memorial service, etc. It was as bad as a "it was all a dream"
episode. Plus, there is no explanation whatsover as to why Janeway thought up
the timeloop, the Vidiaans, or the Phage. The memorial part makes sense if she
is on the brink of death, but the whole first half of the episode seems to be a
jumbled mess of filler.
I noticed that Jeri Taylor wrote the episode. She is obviously very dedicated
to the Janeway character, hence her novel Mosiac. I think she was looking for
a way for the viewer to learn more about Janeway, which we did but it is all
suspect since it is the visions of a woman on the brink of death.
Anyway, that's my opinion of the episode.
Kathy McCracken of Ithaca, NY: Chakotay says "I think we took a hit." He thinks? There is smoke pouring through the shuttle cabin, which neither Chakotay nor Janeway seem to
notice. And what is leaking hydrazine? It's used as a rocket fuel and
explosive. I didn't think 24th century shuttles used rockets.
When Janeway tries to sit up, Chakotay pushes her back to the ground
(rather roughly, it seemed) and says to "take it easy." Then he promptly
leaves to retrieve blankets from the shuttle--and tells her to set up the
homing signal. Also, at the end, she is told she was "badly injured" in the
crash, but a couple of minutes later gets up and walks to the shuttle. If
she was badly injured, wouldn't they have taken her on a stretcher?
I guess they've found that thoron pulses are an all-purpose
alien-entity-in-the-brain remover. Isn't that what they used in
"Flashback"?
Of course we all knew that the captain wasn't *really* going to die. As
usual, PAL.
Matthew Chase Maxwell of San Francisco CA: This episode, because of its in-the-mind-of-Janeway perspective, gave us an inside look at the captain's psyche. If there was any doubt that
she has romantic feelings for her first officer, Chakotay continually
calling her "Kathryn" instead of the more formal "captain" should
dispel that notion. I also believe she wants a more tender, human-like
relationship with Tuvok. In the mind-created memorial, he calls her a
close friend, not an associate. Didn't Tuvok maintain in "Alter Ego"
that Vulcan's have associates, not friends (all references to Spock
aside)?
On the production side, I think I noticed a crease on Janeway's
forehead when holodoc removed the cortical stimulator while on the
planet's surface. I don't remember that happening before, but I did
find it a nice touch. Also, when Janeway was being choked by the
Vidiian in her mind, the actor visibly kept his hands too loosely
pressed to her throat (no muscle tension). A little pressure won't do
any damage and it will make the scene much more realistic.
Finally, I was so grateful that Chakotay didn't announce that the warp
core ejectors were off-line before the shuttle blew. I've come to
hate that phrase. Just blow the ship up and be done with it! Bravo!
Matthew Chiappardi of Hamilton, NJ: Finally we have a Star Trek episode named after a Led Zeppelin album (I know, I know 'coda' is a term for 'the end' in music...hence the
'last Zep LP')
This episode was interesting, but ultimately very predictable, I
have a feeling this was a great script that went throught too many
revisions or compromises.
The scene with HoloDoc practicing euthanasia on janeway was really
chilling, in fact it brings up an interesting point about not having a
human as a doctor, the same concerns Lieutenant What'shisface in
"Redemtion" had with an android skipper. Will a machine have the
compassion and wisdom to make such choices.
And finally, as to why Janeway dodn't walk through Kes again...my
guess is, she really wanted, but kept saying to herself...'how am I going
to walk through Kes when the special effects budget just ran out? No, no
I can't, they might take it out of my salary...oh what to do?'
Todd Felton of Victoria, BC: Well, almost everything's been said. But about Admiral Janeway's uniform: it wasn't just a Next Gen uni with a belt--there was no collar, for instance, more like the
earlier seasons of TNG. There was the belt, which was very similar to Kirk & co's uni's
from the movies. I would surmise that this type of uniform would have been worn between
Picard's academy days (since he wore the movie-type uni in "Tapestry") and the beginning of
Next Gen. Capt. Janeway did say that her father died fifteen years ago, ie 5 years before
Next Gen. This would make sense, but then the communicator pin...? Someone asked 'why
don't they keep some extras of the old ones (TNG) around?'--I'm sure they do!
Riker wore one on Voyager in last season's Q episode "Death Wish".
As for the warp core ejection system not working, I thought they did it well--Chakotay
didn't say "warp ejection system is offline", he proceeded to dump the core, as if
everything was working fine. It just looks like it breached before it ejected.
And Travis McCord wondered about Chakotay's handling of the Captain, by carrying her out of
the shuttle while injured. I thought of this at the time too, but notice he uses a
tricorder to assess her injuries FIRST, then determines that it's okay to move her.
Wow! Most of this is defending the creators! I think some nitpickers are just going out of
their way to find nits now hehehehe! I think the creators are improving :)
Harvey H. Kitzman, Jr.: ASBTD - did they say if they repaired the shuttle that crashed (I
think it was called the Sacajawea).
OK episode despite the fact that it was a rehash of Cause and
Effect, Tapestry, and The Next Phase.
Kathleen Rourke: In reply to a couple of previous nitpicker comments:
1. I presumed that the reason Janeway kept dying was that the entity was trying to
convince her to accept death. If having Chakotay wail over your dead body doesn't
convince Janeway that she is dead then the alien makes it seem like she was blown to
smithereens. When that doesn't work he makes Holodoc become Dr. Kevorkian, etc. I
must admit to thinking that Janeway was pretty slow to pick up on the common
denominator in the time-loops, that they all centered on her dying.
2. I haven't taken CPR in a while but I remember learning that you had to expose the
victims chest (gosh, they missed an excuse to show some flesh!) in order to find the
xiphoid bone at the tip of the breast bone. You want to be careful to start your
compressions above the xiphoid (two finger widths) in order to avoid causing injury by
pressing on the xiphoid itself.
Generally I thought this was a pretty good show. The memorial service is interesting from a
psychological viewpoint when you look back and realize that what happened there was based on
Janeway's mind. I also liked how they played mind games with the audience as well as with
the character. Just when we were thinking, "Vidiians?" Janeway asks the question "I thought
we were past their space?" Then we find out that they weren't really there. Another
time-loop story? No quite. Another alien-in-the-brain story? Well, not quite. Well done.
Jennifer Pope of Longview, WA: There seems to be some confusion over the time loops at the
beginning of the episode. Well, in my humble opinion, they were all attempts by the alien consciousness-parasite to get Janeway's acceptance of her death. Think about it. First were the Vidians(sp?). The alien
probably wanted to get a feel for how Janeway would react to her death. She fought, of course. Same for the firefight in the shuttle, though I admit these two explanations are thin. Then was (I think) the glowing 'temporal anomaly'. The alien took the form of Chakotay, and tried to convince her to go INTO the light, and thus into his nexus. Didn't work. So he took her to Voyager and became the doctor, convinced her she had the phage, and then tried to make her accept her euthanasia. No go. Thus, alien-boy resorted to the dead relative trick. As he said, he's done this before. He probably has many different tactics besides these.
Kevin Osborne: In Voyagers episode "Coda" just after the shuttle crashes you see ni the
left window and it is ether there or totally gone. In the next scene
you see the captain on the floor and first officer in the chair. When the
first officer turns twards the captain you see a lighting flash and on
some of the edges of the shuttle left window you see glass broken but
still in the frame.
Rebecca S. Bare: I found a few nits in the recent Voyager episode "Coda": I don't
think Chakotay was doing CPR correctly, I was taught it was two breaths
and five chest compressions, but he was doing one breath and 10
compressions. Also, Janeway went to sleep in her uniform and woke up in
other clothes. How did she get changed? (Note from Phil: Since it was all in her mind, maybe Janeway has had thoughts of the holodoc undress . . . never mind, forget I mentioned it!)
A few months ago, I read the book "Mosaic", about Janeway's life.
The circumstances surrounding her father's death in this episode was very
close to what was described in the book (in the book, her fiance dies
with him). I liked that.
Christine Henry: Another 'spiritual awareness' episode for Kathy. What's the count now?
In the first crash scene, a lightning bolt supposedly hit 'Sacajewea'
and downed it (although later rounds seem to contradict this). Why would
lightning cause damage to a shuttle? After all, the shields can withstand
several phaser blasts (and I would assume phasers are much more powerfull).
Says a lot about Federation construction, hmmm?
I was surprised that it wasn't raining on the moon. I mean, there's one
whopper of a storm blowing up, right? Remindes me of home...;)
The scene where the doctor killed Janeway was very, very well done. It
really creeped me out when he just talked as if it was a routine procedure -
totally ruthless. But did he have to use such a slow method of killing her?
The real doctor, if he was ever so inclined, probably would have just whipped
up something in a hypo, said 'here's the antidote' and zapped her before she
knew what hit her. Scary to think how easily he could destroy any evidence of
a crime, too, being the only M.O. on board. If he ever held a grudge against
someone...
Since she's "dead", time would have no meaning for Janeway. She could
haunt the ship 'til doomsday (and it will probably take that long for the
crew to get back...) for all that it would matter!
Kudos to John Latchem - he hit next week's plot on the head, two
episodes ahead of time! One question, however - how in the world do the Borg
get tossed into it?! Anyone??
Finally - if Janeway had really died, how much would you want to bet
Voyager would start making a lot better time for the Alpha Quadrent and
home?;)
Jim Ferris: The doctor tells Janeway she has contracted the Phage from the Vidiians,
and he doesn't have a cure. Seems to me they cured Dr. Pulaski by running her
through the transport pattern buffer and restoring her using her last
transporter trace. I assume the same thing would fix our Captain in this
instance. (Note from Phil: Then again, It's Happening In Janeway's Mind Only -- IHIJMO)
2) Janeway reminds the Doctor that he did a lot of studying of the Phage and
the Doctor says that he abandoned the study after they left Vidiian space.
Wait a minute. We restarted the doctor a few episodes ago...he was supposed to
lose all those "memories".
3) Just HOW many Admiral's uniforms do we have? This one's probably the worst
we've seen yet. The belt and high, black cuff just look terrible.
4) Between the scene were Janeway gets her head injury on the planet and the
scene where she's back in sickbay the position and the length of her cute
change.
5) Every time I saw Admiral Janeway appear from the light-thing, I kep
thinking to myself "Carol Ann...Stay away from the light..The light it
Bad...Don't go near the light!"
6) Speaking of "Polgergeist", the scene where Admiral Janeway describes the
after-life you refuse to accept and walking around denying it is a LOT like the
scene in "Poltergeist" where Zelda Rubenstein explains why the spirits have
invaded the house.
Shane Tourtellotte:
So many of these happen “in Janeway’s mind only”, I’ll only note when a nit is indubitably real.
*REAL*: Janeway comments on ‘ion lightning’ in the atmosphere. Lightning occurs when turbulent air currents ionize water vapor in clouds, necessitating a discharge to restore electric neutrality. Note, ‘ionize water vapor’. Ions. As in, *all* lightning is ion lightning.
*REAL*: Janeway reports hull temperature as 4000 degrees, then a second later we see the falling shuttle, without a friction glow on its hull or a heat trail through the air. And by the way, are we out of shuttles yet?
*SORTA REAL*: Has anyone noticed this show has 4 producers, 1 co-producer, and 2 supervising producers? So say the credits. Can I get in on this? Nitpicking is a kind of supervising, isn’t it? ;-)
The innards of the combadge are different from the specs in the Tech Manual. Then again, it’s several years and one design change later.
Why is Chakotay ordering Janeway to disconnect the homing signal? Yes, you become Captain if she dies, but doesn’t her death have to be permanent?
The Vidiian attack sequence is loaded with nits. Why don’t Janeway and Chakotay fire immediately on this known hostile race? Why are neither of them watching their backs? Why do no Vidiians help the one who attacks Janeway? Why do they kill her, when they should want her organs in top living condition? And how can she wheeze and gasp if her windpipe is choked off?
The shuttle’s approach run to Voyager is from ‘Macrocosm’.
When/How/Why did The Doctor change Janeway into sleepwear?
Absolutely, The Doctor wouldn’t blithely Kevork the captain. Beyond that, when did dementia and insanity become symptoms of the Phage? The Vidiians haven’t shown them. And why tell Janeway you’re going to kill her? Gas her while she’s asleep.
During Chakotay’s second CPR session, he gives Janeway about 30 straight compressions while pleading and demanding that she breathe. Uh, you’re supposed to be doing it for her. And why stop while you wait for the rescue shuttle. (These things, plus his misapplied pressure, lead me to believe he simply panicked.)
And through this, how does the dead Janeway keep her right arm fully bent, and her right fingers clenched?
Old questions from “The Next Phase” recur here. How does an insubstantial Janeway board a shuttle and not get left behind when it launches? We almost must assume that ghosts are subject to the force of gravity, natural or artificial.
The cortical stimulator jerks Janeway’s head around a *lot* more than it did to Tasha in “Skin of Evil”.
Disdain of religion does indeed continue here. When Janeway asks “My Daddy, The Devil” if she’s reduced to being Kathryn’s consciousness, he replies, “Some say ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’.” Some also say ‘soul’, at least in our ‘unenlightened, barbaric, superstitious’ century.
Also, when describing what’s beyond The Light, Daddy Devil calls it “Another state of consciousness, unlike anything we ever could have imagined in life.” Ever? We imagine something like it today: Heaven. (Or considering what it really turns out to be like,...)
Why is everybody standing around at the memorial? Last time we saw one of these, in ‘Alliances’, it was more formal, with rows of chairs for the attendees.
Are those traditional Talaxian/Ocampan mourning clothes on Neelix and Kes? Looks like ordinary, everyday wear to me. Perhaps their cultures don’t dress up for funerals.
Did the ‘Alliances’ memorial have a pod release, to honor whoever that was?
Not really a nit. Daddy Devil dismisses Janeway’s vision of The Doctor treating her as “an hallucination.” *An* hallucination. This is creeping into the language more and more, most notably with ‘an historic/al’ something-or-other. It used to be ‘a’ before a pronounced ‘h’, wasn’t it?
Daddy Devil can’t be a general phenomenon, if Janeway’s the most resistant person he’s met. We only know about near-death experiences because people come back, because they resist death. Or maybe he had some special hunger only she could nourish. Don’t wanna get into that....
Chad Brown from Altadena, Calif.: I loved this weeks show, but I'm a sucker for any story that's weird. I sort of felt like I was watching a epsiode of The Twilight Zone--Trek style. Yes, the
time loop bit was reminicent of "Cause and Effect" but the story dose a
compleat 180 when Janeway sees herself on the ground dying, doing a cross
between "Frame of Mind" and "Tapastry."
Well, I'm going to try to answer all the nits that I know people will have for
this epsiode:
1.) Why were the two Senior officers on a away mission together? Well, no
reason...except to highten the drama quotent and also romance quotent--which
brings to mind a new glossary term BIMR! (Because Its More Romatic.) We
wouldn't have gotten the scene of Chakotay crying over Janeway's dead body if
they hadn't gone on the mission together. Somehow, I really don't think Harry,
Tuvok or Helm-boy's presents would have been as Romatic...(expecially to all us
J/C'ers out there ;) and somehow, I doubt the major sobbing Chakotay was doing
would have been involved if one of the others had gone. :)
2.) OK, the time frame and what was really a halusination and what wasn't. This
is the way I see it. When Chakotay is carring Janeway from the shuttle, that's
really happening. When he starts to give her CPR, that's really hppening. But
when she starts to breath the first time, that's when the halusinations begin.
The Vidiians and Janeway getting the Phage--all a halusination. The
halusinations continue right up until the scene when Janeway sees herself lying
on the planet and Chakotay is again giving her CPR but this time she dosen't
breath. Now, this scene may or may not have
happened. Because of the ending with Tuvok and the Doctor standing over her,
we know that she didn't start breathing until the Doctor showed up. Which means
that Tuvok did infact cantact Chakotay from Voyager just like it shows in the
scene when Chakotay begins to cry over Janeway's body but then jump- cuts to
sickbay. So the scene when Chaktoay picks Janeway up and begins to cry is
arguably real. From the jump-cut to sickbay when Janeway dies on the bio-bed up
until she opens her eyes on the planet is all a halusination. (Except the
scenes shown from the JanewayCam[TM] of Chakotay, Tuvok and the Doctor on the
planet working over her body.)
3.) Janeway herself wasn't halusinating, the alien was *giving* her the
halusinations.
So Janeway isn't going on a ego-trip or anything when she halusinates the
memorial service. The alien probably gave her what he thought would be enough
to give her a sence of closure and force her into the other relm.
Although I loved this epsiode, I still kind-of got the feeling that I was
watching one big episode to promote Jeri Taylor's novel Mosaic. (She wrote
"Coda.") If you read the book, then you know and understand a lot more about
how Janeway's father died and the parallel they made with Janeway "dying" the
way she did and Chakotay being unable to save her, why Janeway became so
depressed after her father died, why he called her "bird" and soforth. How bout
another new term--LPSIS which means "Lets Permote Such-in-Such." It applys to
any epsiode which just feels like it should have a neon sign permantly afixed
in the backgrownd blinking "Read the Book! See The Movie! By The Game!" and
soforth.
Next Week--Klingons and Vulcans and...Borg!? Oh, my! (The Borg are showing up a
week early it looks like.)
J. Annelin Cold Lake AB: Buy up stock of Hydrazine, it is still in use in the future, it's use today
includes the Space Shuttle.
I am wondering what the range of a comm badge is, Janeway was beginning to
set up a homing signal but wouldn't the shuttle comm system be more
effective and have more range?
In the Phage Janeway gives a strong warning to the Vidiians if they attack
her ship and crew again but in Faces, where one crewmember is killed and in
this episode, she does nothing, just uses idle threats.
In the other timeline, Chakotay says a Vidiian ship is approaching at high
impulse. Wouldn't the best course of action to take be setting a course for
Voyager and going to warp? Nope they just take some evasive action that's all.
Just where does the pod with Janeway's body come from, the memorial service
is in the messhall which is on the top part of the saucer section but the
pod looked real close, considering the launchers for probes and torpedos
where the pod should have come from are on the secondary hull. It may have
been programed to do a fly-by so that all can wave bye bye.
But since we do not know which real event happened, who can say what is a
nit and what isn't?
Steven Perry of Memphis, TN: Ah, Coda. A bit too tidy an ending to deserve an encore.
What gets me about the crash is not just the lack of seat belts, but the incredible ability
of Mr.Chakotay. A shuttle craft crash lands at a high velocity. He is found with his he
pressed against the console, presumably because it hit there on impact. Still, he comes to
quickly and nearly immediately comes to his captain's rescue. (LUV is such a strange thing)
The Vidiians are approaching. What do they do? Why, there's the convenient cave nearby
for them to hide in! Good thing the writers thought of that! (I know, it was all in Cap'n
Kate's mind, but still! I get tired of the convenient hiding place syndrome.)
If the doc did want to kill her humanely, couldn't he have filled the quarantined zone with
a sedative and then kill her?
The "temporal anomaly" they finally run into looked suspiciously like a pocket of anti-time
found in the Devron system.
Don't you hate it when the writers bring technobabble to the afterlife? Star Trek still
can't quite get the handle of religious subject matter. Those "vivid imaginations" are
still beyond the writers of Trek.
Sorta strange that the only one that seemed broken up by the Captain's death in the minutes
after it was the holodoc.
Ah! The famous "Ghost" nitpick! You can pass through walls, but, naturally, you can walk
all over the floors without ever fearing of falling through.
The first question Janeway should of asked her father is "So, the afterlife's got no
clothes for you besides that ugly mishmash uniform?"
Why didn't Chakotay make a reference to the Enterprise-D incident with Geordi and Ro and
then suggest a anyon beam to bring her back?
I hope they kept the dead body in stasis. If Janeway were to come back, I'd hate to see
her deal with the complications of rigormortis.
No funeral service is complete in my mind without Scotty's bagpipes.
How many predators require the willing consent of their prey to "cross over" into their
mouths? (Did the alien call it a matrix?)
Oh - a nit about next week already. If a Borg dies, isn't it destroyed by the collective?
Why would its bones be left around?
Jim Coyle of Oakwood, Ontario: It never ceases to amaze me the number of variations on the "temporal anomaly".
Anyway, it took our intrepid Captain Janeway a bit too long to realize the
entity from the Matrix was not really her father. If she lost him 15 years
ago Voyager time, she should have noticed that the communicator he was
wearing was of a design from her own time. His uniform seemed to be a
variation on the 1st season ST:TNG admiral tunic, but the communicator did
not have the circular background that it probably would have had at that
time (assuming, of course, that the first season events of ST:TNG took
place almost 10 years before this Voyager incident).
Indulge me: wouldn't it be fun to put Neelix in that bio-force field and
feed him that neural gas whenever he gets too annoying (which is pretty
much every episode!!!)!
And did you see the previews for next week? Since when do Klingon/Humans
experience Pon Farr? Seems like Belona was well into the "blood fever"
with Tommy boy (much to the chagrin of our hot blooded new Vulcan ensign).
Tuvok looked pretty sedate, but I guess it wasn't his cycle! Go figure!
Karen Fischer: Loved this episode. I never knew there were sooo many
different ways to kill a Starship Captain. (Shouldn't there have been
a Corsican ready to plunge a knife through her heart? wink, wink)
Okay, can somebody tell me exactly why Janeway and Chakotay were
heading down to the moon in the first place? And why couldn't some
junior officers like Harry and Tom or B'Elanna gone instead? I know,
plot. Anyway, I noticed in the beginning of the episode that when
Chakotay was performing CPR on Janeway her cheeks puffed out as he was
pushing on her chest. I don't think that's supposed to really happen.
I also noticed when I re-watched the video that her cheeks didn't puff
out when he was blowing (supposed to be blowing) into her mouth.
I think the continuity people need glasses or something because I also
noticed that when Chakotay lay Janeway down her arms were at her side.
Particularly her right. The first time around just before she comes
too I noticed that her hand was up. Now if a person is unconscious and
not breathing I seriously doubt they would be able to move anything.
But hey, I haven't seen that many dead people in my life, and I can't
say that I've ever seen a person revived from CPR.
Alex Smith of Westfield, NJ: Wow, my first real contribution!
Anyway, I thought it was a semi-decent Voyager episode. I kept thinking,
"Yes, Janeway's dead!" But, the nits are the most important things
here...
First off, if it was a REAL timeloop, then they shouldn't remember
anything. That's why it took the TNG crew so long to figure it out in
"Cause and Effect". If time goes back to the same place as before, then
the memories of what happened between the start and end of the loop
should not exist at the beginning of the loop (kinda hard to explain...).
Basically, when at the start of each new cycle, all the memories from
before the loop would be remembered but events that happened in previous
cycles would not. But it was a dream, so I guess they're off the hook.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I was yelling "Possess her!
Possess her!" when the dead Janeway couldn't get Kes's attention. Why
didn't Janeway try to walk through her again?!?! It worked the first
time, and nothing else was working, so WHY NOT?!?!
Afterwards I understood why Janeway didn't have the out-of-body
experience the first few times. I think that the first few times, the
alien wanted her to just give up her life peacefully, w/ no struggle.
When time after time she wouldn't give up, the alien tried the
out-of-body experience tactic.
Marian Perera: 1) "Nitrogenase compounds", or any compounds for
that matter, are not so important that the Captain
and first officer have to get into a shuttlecraft
and be at the edge of Voyager's sensor range.
2) Is this the sequel to `Resolutions'?? When the
Captain's hurt/dying, Chakotay wails "Kathryn!" and
hugs her close. Why is he so upset? If she dies, no
doubt her ghost will give him advice in the grand
tradition of his father.
4) Kim relates a story of how "She put her arm
around my shoulder". Imagine Picard/Sisko draping a
comforting arm around someone's shoulder. Then, at
the end of the episode, Janeway touches Chakotay.
Does she HAVE to be so touchy-feely?
5) If the purpose of the story was to show the
alien trying to take Janeway's consciosness, why
waste time with the temporal loops and the
Janeway-as-vidiian cameo? Did the alien make her
have those hallucinations or did she have them by
herself? Maybe he did it to show her how terrible
life could be....if I had to end my life being
hugged by Chakotay I'd want out fast.
6) The captain's alive! Use the force, Kes!
Aaron Nadler of New Cumberland, PA: In DS9's "The Quickining", you mentioned how Bashir could not have gotten the "Blighted" alien to breath by doing heart massages. ("Breathe, Breathe,Breathe,
Breathe,Breathe, Breathe,Breathe, Breathe, etc.") You're right, it wouldn't work. But in this week's Voyager episode "Coda", Chakotay does the exact same thing to Janeway! (Well, he at least tried respatory resusitation once, but then he spend the next 30 seconds trying to make her breath with heart massages!)
Robert Cook: One quick note- add one to your
"Kirk-knows-it's-the-most-dangerous-planet-in-the-universe-but-takes-the-entire-command-staf
-down-to-the-surface-with-him" list. At the end of the episode, Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok AND
The Doctor are all down on the surface. If they were all killed, who'd take command of the
ship? B'lanna? Helm Boy? Harry? No.. wait.. Kes! She's the most responsible and level-headed
one left..
Stephen Mendenhall: The ending is predictable and cliched. Yawn.
So when the alien admits he isn't her dad why didn't she ask why her
real dad didn't show up?
Take heart--it would be a highly unlikely coincidence if what happens
when we die just happens to be the same as what this episode suggests.
Does it seem like the producers aren't terribly interested in any
really new and controversial ideas? This is about the 400th nasty
space alien we've seen.
Eva Schultz: This episode was just... bad! I don't like to pick on the
writers, because I know it's gotta be hard to keep both
DS9 and Voyager furnished with scripts, but they've been
doing such an excellent job that this one was just laughably bad. We've all
commented on the fact that it was a blend of TNG episodes, but didn't anyone
besides me find Janeway really annoying in this one? "I just cheated death!
Let's celebrate!" Wow. I guess she recovers from near-death trauma pretty fast,
and with her ego in tact! The reason Picard was so likable is that he didn't
just give a cocky grin and bounce back from trauma, like Kathryn Kirkway.
And what's with this Chakotay-Janeway romance? Wasn't there an inference that
B'Elanna has/had designs on the first officer? (Do I see a catfight in a future
episode?) I wish they would either make it a swoony romance or no romance- this
romance/buddies thing just isn't working.
Matthew & Theo McLauchlin: Evasive maneuver sequence theta seems to involve letting the threat vessel fly over your ship and strafe you. For heavens' sake, at least
turn so they miss you!
What was Admiral Janeway doing under the icecap of Tau Ceti VI? Pretty
stupid place to send an admiral...
Chakotay seems to have a remarkable lack of medical training. While *moving* her, he fails to support her head. And, He doesn't stanch her head wound, even though she could lose tons of blood there.
Before encountering the lone Vidiian ship, Janeway (I think) says she's
not going to land on the planet but she never gives the order to change
course.
How many shuttles does Voyager have, again? Maybe three? Four? Fivesix
seveneight? And Neelix's shuttle still fits in their docking bay?
Why don't they ever tractor shuttles up and repair them?
If the shuttles have antimatter on them, why don't they blow up when they crash?
When the Vidiians were attacking Janeway and Chakotay on the planet,
was anybody else yelling SHOOT!!!?
Why does Chakotay have to get Janeway out of the shuttle anyway? Why
can't he just open the rear hatch and allow the hydrazine gas to escape
that way?
Amy T. Flowers: First off, let me say that I absolutely loved this episode, for two very
important, and private reasons that I am more than willing to share. (1) Being an adamant J/Cer, it was a gold mine (I don't care if it was only a dream, he carried her!!!) and (2) It aired on one of my favorite days: my birthday. I took it as Jeri Tayler's gift to me ;)
But there is one thing that struck me as a way to get J/C alone: the fact
that they were they only ones on an away mission. Isn't that a bit
odd????
But, in reference to Chakotay's wrong CPR -hey I don't even know the
difference between a ventrical and a atrium and I noticed it- that
everyone keeps mentioning... I have very strong feelings that Kate Mulgrew
was indeed, alive and well when the scene was shot. Now, correct me if
I'm wrong, but isn't it dangerous to do REAL CPR on someone who doesn't
need it. I would like to think that the producers would rather have us
noticing this than to have Robert Beltran hurt his costar :) (Note from Phil: On the other hand, you can give someone mouth-to-mouth all day long and not hurt them if you do it right and Chakotay didn't!)
Also, this episode was nothing like TNG episode in which Geordi and Ro die
(forgive me, but I forget the name). Because in that episode, they really
were dead!!!!!!! Janeway only imagined she was. Although it was a good
point about her with kes and not questioning the fact that she was wearing
clothing...
Cydney Williams of Chicago Heights, Il: Upon Viewing "Coda" for the second time, I now understand why the
alien tried to trick Janeway with the time-loop. During the last
time loop, Chakotay tries to get Janway to fly into the temporal
anomaly, which we find out later is actually the alien's matrix.
Once the alien realizes that Kathryn wasn't falling for the whole
time-loop bit, he changes tactics. That's when he made her think she
was a ghost, so he could convince her to go into it's matrix. It
would have been nice if the alien had explained all this in the end.
You know, in the way villians always explain their mistakes just
before the hero wins.
Rob Levandowski of Rochester, New York: Pretend that you're Janeway. You've been through an inexplicable
temporal loop, you're coming down with the Phage, you're being
continually reincarnated, your father shows up out of a bright light...
what is the MOST LIKELY explanation for all of this?
The answer: Q. Janeway should have considered that all of this could
have been Q's meddling. It seems like the sort of thing he has been
known to do.
Why does the Bridge crew act as if Janeway is a lunatic for claiming that
there was a temporal loop? After all they've been through, and given the
history of temporal problems in the Trek universe, the possibility
shouldn't seem farfetched. Again, it's all in her mind... which makes me
think that Janeway has some paranoia issues to work out!
Say, don't those caves look familiar? Didn't we see the same crevice and
weeds in this season's cliffhanger episode?
Too bad Starfleet doesn't equip their shuttles with oxygen bottles. If
they had, Chakotay could have put one on and gone back to the shuttle to
activate its emergency transponder. I'm assuming that even if it was all
in Janeway's mind, if there were in fact oxygen bottles on the shuttle
she would have known it, and the scenario would have played out
accordingly, real or not.
Is it me, or is Chakotay's behavior at the end of the episode really
improper conduct toward a superior officer? Then again, who is Janeway
going to file sexual harassment charges with, out in the middle of
nowhere? :) Voyager seems to be doing a good job of dispelling the myth
of "Starfleet discipline."
Sean Corcoran of Clifton, VA: We can still add to the list of other
stories ripped off by this episode. Let's see, aliens which we can't
normally see wanting to harvest our consciousness to sustain themselves?
That could describe not only "Coda" but "Time's Arrow" as well.
Richard Steenbergen: Just say "Coda" (in the background why working on other things, didn't
pay much attention), and I only have a couple thing to say.
How do you have a shuttlecraft hit the ground going forward and half
a passenger go flying BACKWARD (OVER the seat???)
You're being attacked, you're surrounded, you & your partner are
aiming your weapons at them, they're aiming theirs at you. Your partner
gets shot by a weapon that you know isn't fatal. What do you do? You do
NOT turn your back to your enemy while lowering your weapon and running
to your partner screaming "Chakotay". Thats something a 10 year old
civilian would do, not a trained military officer.
"Wait a minute, we have been here before". And Janeway's strangle
scene. Ouch what bad acting!
Tachyons again, POTW. They detect cloaked ships, the propel Bajorn
spacecraft, they disrupt time loops, they slice, they dice, they even
make curly fries. Is there anything these magic particles can't do?
They're even starting to give "Optronic Pathways" a run for the "most
mentioned technobabble" award.
Who named that shuttlecraft?!?!?!
If that was a fast acting neurotoxin she should have been dead
instantanously.
Janeway's dead and they're having a memorial service. Shame Data
wasn't there, because I can't think of a better time for someone to
throw a party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where exactly did they shoot that torpedo? Couldn't find a planet
or a nebula so they just decided to launch it into empty space?
[And reponding to the person who thought the lesions on Janeway looked an awful lot like the lesions on the DS9 episode, where Bashir was in the Gamma Quandrant,] As one of the lucky ones with cable and a crystal clear picture, I'd like to confirm the lesions. I knew they looked famialer but I didn't
realize what they were until I saw that comment.
2/10/97 Update
Dustin Westfall: Since this was all in Janeway's head, these might be nits or not.
How come they didn't see the Vidians the first time? During the
subsequent loops, there was a beep from the computer signalling the
contact. Were the sensors turned off? They are in unknown space, soon
approaching Borg space, and they don't have the sensors turned on?
After the second loop, when Chakotay walks back to the chair on the
shuttle, he's not talking about the talent show, anymore. And, just in
case you are wondering, he shows no signs of being aware of the time
loop until he sits down.
Why is the tachyon burst 2 dimensional?
Why does Janeway's ghost while on the planet, in Sickbay and the
subsequent hallway scene have a phaser and a tricorder?(If we put
Geordi's words from "The Next Phase" in Janeway's mouth, it becomes,
"I'm a ghost, wearing clothes, ready to scan and fight any other ghost I
find" :) In the briefing room and later shots, the phaser and tricorder
are missing(maybe she decided she didn't need it after all, though I
wonder what the phaser could have done to the alien, since it was all in
her head.)
Chakotay is really fast. During Janeway's second flash of reality,
Chakotay says, "Her eyes are open!" Apparently he wasn't paying too
close of attention, because she SAW them during her first flash,
requiring her eyes to be OPEN already.
Yet another reference to the dreaded "cordrazine", that infamous drug
that made McCoy go insane for awhile, jump back to the 1930's, and save
Edith Keeler(Okay he wasn't insane when he saved her, but it's because
of his insanity that he was there.). I'm wondering if they didn't find a
way to use it without the side effects(though you'd think they'd be nice
enough to mention it. (Note from Phil: If I recall the problem with McCoy was an overdose of the drug. Even in Classic Trek it was a viable medication when used correctly.)
Becky Kagan: The captain must have taken the same self-defense course as B'Elanna.
When she was being strangled by the vidian I kept yelling "Knee him,
knee him!"
Richard Steenbergen: In response to many people's comments about the "Step into the light"
entity, I think its possible that this is simply an entity living on that
planet that feeds on the neural energy of someone dying, and if they're
really desperate for a plot in future episodes, its some kind of parasite
which is lodged in her brain hiding from the Doc and waiting for her to die
at a later time.
[Concerning the fact that Janeway can pass through walls but has to problem with the floor,] I have no explination for 'The Next Phase' but in this episode, since this
was all in her mind, maybe its because Janeway has certain culturally-based
ideas on how a ghost is suppost to behave (walk through walls when they're
stationary and she wants to go through, walk through people when the ghost
is stationary and the person is walking through them, and have no other
problems with what they used to take for granted in the past life, ex:
floors, leaning on things).
During the first "Chakotay saves Janeway" CPR experience, Chakotay seems to
spent a great deal of time doing CPR with absolutily no result. Then he
realizes there's a medkit next to him, grabs some magic 24th century cure-
all hypo-spray, sticks Janeway, and instantaniously she's cured. Maybe he
should have tried the hypo to begin with.
Karen L. Fischer: I forgot to mention in my list of nits that:
(Everybody sing along now) "And another shuttle bites the dust. And
another shuttle bites the dust." How many shuttles does that make now
that they've crashed or blown up? I keep wondering if they replicate
them and let various members of the crew name them. Sakajewea(sp)
sounds like something Chakotay would have named it.
Jill Vaden of Hampton, VA: Janeway seems to be literaly breathing down Tuvok and Kes' necks as they meditate to find Janeway. Kes leaves and Tuvok is momentarily reflective. As Tuvok gets up to make a log entry, he must pass Janeway. She moves her knees to make way. Is morphing good only for the "dead?"
Joe Griffin: Someone asked, "who named that shuttle?" The shuttle's name,
"Sacagawea," comes from the Native American (Shoshone) woman who served
as a guide/interpreter on the Lewis-Clark Expedition of 1805.
Kevin Spenst of Moscow, Idaho: In the preview of the next episode, it is obvius that Janeway is
alive. This isn't BAD, considering we all knew she wasn't gonna die, but its still a little disapointing to learn during the high point of the episode that the person on the verge of dying is going to be
alive in the next episode. Bad timing on when they showed the preview. I like it better when they put it right before or after the credits. Its less disturbing that way... =^) (Note from Phil: I agree! For a while the station that shows Voyager here in Springfield was playing the previews in the middle of the show but they have since switched it back to the end of the show.)
Ari Rosner from Palo Alto, California: The reason why the Holodoc didn't euthanize Janeway when she was asleep was that his ethics program wouldn't allow him to kill anyone without
telling them first.
Did that last scene with Janeway waking up in sickbay remind anyone of
'The Wizard of Oz'? "I had a dream, and you were in it, and you, and
you..." :-)
Erin Hunt of High Point, NC: In the TNG episode "The Next Phase", where Geordi and Ro think they're dead, they're NOT really dead, as Amy T. Flowers claimed. (Can't get
away with anything around here, can you?)
Why have we never seen any Vidiaans suffering from "dementia and
insanity" because of the Phage before? Well, maybe because those
Vidiaans wouldn't be working on starships and in science stations. They
would be hidden away somewhere. Or maybe their advanced medical
technology stays this symptom.
Why is Harry Kim the only one who seems really broken up by Janeway's
death at the memorial service? Because of his Youth and Inexperience? (Note from Phil: And remember, this is Janeway imagining what everyone would be like so what does it say about her true evaluation of Kim?)
It's just amazing, the nerves of steel Captain Janeway posseses. In the
previous episode, "Alter Ego", the ship had stalled in a mysterious
phenomenon and Janeway's reaction was "Let's luau!" Now she almost dies
and her reaction is, "I came *this close* to death. Let's party!"
Doug Bruzzone: In Coda, was all the stuff in the memorial service fake or what? (Note from Phil: I think it was all fake!)
Brad Higgins: I used to think that Voyager had three types of shuttlecraft: the next
generation style, which had warp nacelles that hug the fuselage, the
upgraded version of this, which has pylons holding the nacelles (this
one first appeared in "Maneuvers"), and the new sleek Voyager-only
shuttlecraft. Thanks to "Coda" I now realize that the first two are one
and the same. In the openning sequence, the shuttle has no pylons as
approaches the planet. Then during the stor the pylons appear. Then,
just before the shuttle crashes, they disappear again.
Lisa Solinas: I may need to brush up on mi first aid, but when Chakotay carries
Janeway out, her head is hanging across his elbow. Her head is
bleeding. When he lays her down [to sleep?] she's completely vertical.
Shouldn't he prop her head up? Get it above heart level? Otherwise
she could bleed t'death.
Matthew Chase Maxwell of San Francisco CA: Many folks have commented on the obviously incorrect communicator design worn by Adm. Janeway in the Voyager episode "Coda." I was sure
you had previously spoken about the communicator design of this era.
I found the reference over the weekend. The answer to the second
trivia question for the TNG episode "Family" (1st guide page 212)
makes it clear that the oval-shaped communicator would have been in
use at the time of Adm. Janeway's death.
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com. Please put the name of the episode in
the Subject line and include your real name, city and state (or province
and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you
credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember
the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right
to use yourname in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give
you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make
no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker
Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged but that entry will make you a part of the Nitpickers Guide is you aren't one already!)
Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.