Hazari. They're called the Hazari. I only know because I have like 99% of Voyager committed to memory from over a decade of watching reruns since the 90's
The Think Tank was smart, but they over complicated things for this project. Voyager had a built in problem to solve, getting back home, no need to manufacture another. With Voyager back into the Alpha Quadrant, Seven would not have been so motivated to remain aboard, joining the Think Tank would have become much more appealing to her. They pretty much outsmarted themselves straight into failure this time around.
I have long been compelled by this episode, and still am. For a long time I shared your opinion that the Think Tank worked those so-called "charity cases" to do the soft sell, but recently I thought of another possibility. What is it they once asked for? A recipe for soup. A recipe; now, this seems completely trivial on the surface but I don't think it is. So many families and food businesses have closely-guarded recipes which some people take to their graves without revealing. This may be for tactical business reasons or family sentimentality, but I have met several people unwilling to share recipes. I hazard a guess that the recipe mentioned in this episode is one such recipe: irrelevant to most people but considered a major personal vulnerability or loss to the person or group from whom it was demanded.
I thought their soup recipe request was actually subtely very interesting. The whole point was that leeola root was a common type of vegetable in the quadrant. It was nutrient rich, and it tasted like total ass. Because it tasted so awful most sentient being never ate it. We can infer that Neelix was one of the few if only person they had ever encountered who had an actual palatable recipe for it. Can we say cure for starvation anyone? Can we say easy food economy product? This recipe while seemingly innocuous could be huge in their negotiations and problem solving. I also find this interpretation interesting because it gives us some peek into what was supposed to make the Neelix character good. He was so resourceful he was the ONLY person in the quadrant to figure out that leeola root is actually valuable, and he worked on it and worked on it, until he made it palatable because he was the only one who really saw its incalculable value.
I liked this episode and especially Jason Alexander playing an alien. He did a great job on this. The payment part of this episode reminded me of the star trek enterprise episode where they find an automated alien repair station and the payment seems too reasonable to be true but what they really wanted was a crew member.
What an interesting idea - a collective of brilliant minds banded together to operate like bounty hunters. I do remember this when the episode first came out, and at the time seeing Jason Alexander really broke the fourth wall for me - all I could see was Costanza, Costanza, where's the funny bit - so it didn't work so well. Watching it now so many years later and it finally works without the Seinfeld interference. He has such a poise, this calm that comes with an assurance that comes through a sense of superior intelligence. Good to see the Hazari being roped in by Voyager to join forces against the think tank. An enticing idea with that dodecahedronic puzzle being solved through, well, cheating, it reminded me immediately of Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru scenario. It's perfectly fine in this situation because it's not cheating to change the game here with the Think Tank. The level of thinking required to think ahead so that Voyager+Hazari could anticipate the dilemma created for the think tank - stretching it but fits well enough. Should they have revealed their plan to the audience before they carried it out? I think it would have been better for them not to have, and rather give the idea to us that it's a risk. They're smart enough to know how to sell themselves as benevolent to an extent by using the example of soup and rescuing pets. But sooner or later their true nature does come out, well done. Kurros is the sales master. He's the only one that speaks a language that can be translated. One problem I had was why Voyager just left the Hazari to clean up the Think Tank while they jet off on their journey again. A pretty good episode, quite enjoyable.
Because of Voyager the Think Tank weren’t able to be Masters of their Domain. It’s not surprising that Jason Alexander’s character would want a nut soup recipe. 18:13 😅 obviously from Kurros! But seriously folks, it is an entertaining episode. I do agree with one commenter that the 5 member Tank was some inspiration for the Xindi, especially the aquatic. It’s indeed true that, as another commenter said, the plot resembles that of “The Taybor” on Space: 1999.
I feel like, if the Vidiian reference wasn't simply a lie, it could have been more of a situation where they visited the Vidiians 50 years ago, collected information and samples about the Phage, arranged for delayed payment, and moved on at normal warp speed, working on this problem among dozens of others, and eventually found a solution which they transmitted back to the Vidiians (via some sort of ansible, possibly something similar to the Pathfinder setup we'd get in the next season), a few years or even just a few months after Voyager encountered them for the final time. Meanwhile, the Vidiians assumed that they were just flim-flammed and forgot about the Think Tank, thusly they said nothing about them and continued to assume that the Phage was incurable, up until they received the Tank's message: "here's you're cure, make sure that you deposit your payment into our account; we'll be back in another 50 years to collect it all, with interest."
I've always believed this episode somehow inspired them in the creation of the odd and cheesy xindi for Enterprise ... especially the Aquatics and the Insectoids.
I generally liked this episode. One gripe that stands out is the stupid box puzzle thing. That's something that annoys me about trek - introducing something for one episode with no before or after whatsoever. I mean if they had introduced the puzzle an episode or two before it wouldn't seem like such a crappy plot insertion. If that makes sense.
sooooo your running a game ? does that mean that we can look forward to the live d&d vids starting back up soon-ish? (crosses fingers and quietly repeats please god over and over)
Honestly I don't understand people who are against cheat codes. I mean, I get their point that it's not how the game is meant to be played, or things like that, but I don't understand why they think it's a bad thing or the worst thing, or how it makes someone inferior for using them. The company or developer, whoever, made a "Cheat code" menu for the player to enter cheat codes, it's not like someone hacked the games' files. Not to mention, the cheat codes WORK, which means they were programmed to work, right? So how is it wrong to use something that was already implemented into the game?
surprised the Think Tank didn't have a contingency plan in case their communication dome was compromised
Jason Alexander is a huge trek fan. He said he had always wanted to be on as a guest star. His passion was what gave his performance that gusto.
Probably my favorite voyager episode
Hazari. They're called the Hazari. I only know because I have like 99% of Voyager committed to memory from over a decade of watching reruns since the 90's
I loved the ending for that exact reason. Janeway was all; "this is your problem now, buh bye"
The Think Tank was smart, but they over complicated things for this project. Voyager had a built in problem to solve, getting back home, no need to manufacture another. With Voyager back into the Alpha Quadrant, Seven would not have been so motivated to remain aboard, joining the Think Tank would have become much more appealing to her. They pretty much outsmarted themselves straight into failure this time around.
I have long been compelled by this episode, and still am. For a long time I shared your opinion that the Think Tank worked those so-called "charity cases" to do the soft sell, but recently I thought of another possibility.
What is it they once asked for? A recipe for soup. A recipe; now, this seems completely trivial on the surface but I don't think it is. So many families and food businesses have closely-guarded recipes which some people take to their graves without revealing. This may be for tactical business reasons or family sentimentality, but I have met several people unwilling to share recipes. I hazard a guess that the recipe mentioned in this episode is one such recipe: irrelevant to most people but considered a major personal vulnerability or loss to the person or group from whom it was demanded.
I thought their soup recipe request was actually subtely very interesting. The whole point was that leeola root was a common type of vegetable in the quadrant. It was nutrient rich, and it tasted like total ass. Because it tasted so awful most sentient being never ate it. We can infer that Neelix was one of the few if only person they had ever encountered who had an actual palatable recipe for it. Can we say cure for starvation anyone? Can we say easy food economy product? This recipe while seemingly innocuous could be huge in their negotiations and problem solving. I also find this interpretation interesting because it gives us some peek into what was supposed to make the Neelix character good. He was so resourceful he was the ONLY person in the quadrant to figure out that leeola root is actually valuable, and he worked on it and worked on it, until he made it palatable because he was the only one who really saw its incalculable value.
I liked this episode and especially Jason Alexander playing an alien. He did a great job on this. The payment part of this episode reminded me of the star trek enterprise episode where they find an automated alien repair station and the payment seems too reasonable to be true but what they really wanted was a crew member.
What an interesting idea - a collective of brilliant minds banded together to operate like bounty hunters.
I do remember this when the episode first came out, and at the time seeing Jason Alexander really broke the fourth wall for me - all I could see was Costanza, Costanza, where's the funny bit - so it didn't work so well. Watching it now so many years later and it finally works without the Seinfeld interference. He has such a poise, this calm that comes with an assurance that comes through a sense of superior intelligence.
Good to see the Hazari being roped in by Voyager to join forces against the think tank. An enticing idea with that dodecahedronic puzzle being solved through, well, cheating, it reminded me immediately of Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru scenario. It's perfectly fine in this situation because it's not cheating to change the game here with the Think Tank. The level of thinking required to think ahead so that Voyager+Hazari could anticipate the dilemma created for the think tank - stretching it but fits well enough. Should they have revealed their plan to the audience before they carried it out? I think it would have been better for them not to have, and rather give the idea to us that it's a risk.
They're smart enough to know how to sell themselves as benevolent to an extent by using the example of soup and rescuing pets. But sooner or later their true nature does come out, well done. Kurros is the sales master. He's the only one that speaks a language that can be translated.
One problem I had was why Voyager just left the Hazari to clean up the Think Tank while they jet off on their journey again.
A pretty good episode, quite enjoyable.
I miss these old intros! I wish fair use was actually accessible to regular people.
Because of Voyager the Think Tank weren’t able to be Masters of their Domain. It’s not surprising that Jason Alexander’s character would want a nut soup recipe. 18:13 😅 obviously from Kurros!
But seriously folks, it is an entertaining episode.
I do agree with one commenter that the 5 member Tank was some inspiration for the Xindi, especially the aquatic.
It’s indeed true that, as another commenter said, the plot resembles that of “The Taybor” on Space: 1999.
I really hope Kuros returns in the new Star Trek TV series maybe he followed Voyager back from the Delta Quadrant.
I feel like, if the Vidiian reference wasn't simply a lie, it could have been more of a situation where they visited the Vidiians 50 years ago, collected information and samples about the Phage, arranged for delayed payment, and moved on at normal warp speed, working on this problem among dozens of others, and eventually found a solution which they transmitted back to the Vidiians (via some sort of ansible, possibly something similar to the Pathfinder setup we'd get in the next season), a few years or even just a few months after Voyager encountered them for the final time. Meanwhile, the Vidiians assumed that they were just flim-flammed and forgot about the Think Tank, thusly they said nothing about them and continued to assume that the Phage was incurable, up until they received the Tank's message: "here's you're cure, make sure that you deposit your payment into our account; we'll be back in another 50 years to collect it all, with interest."
Good episode. Guess they targeted Voyager because they wanted Seven.
It puzzled me that Kuros had such a shabby appearance, especially for a diplomat.
This episode was essentially a ripoff of the Space: 1999 episode “The Tabor.”
Check it out...
I've always believed this episode somehow inspired them in the creation of the odd and cheesy xindi for Enterprise ... especially the Aquatics and the Insectoids.
Ensign Tabor?
I generally liked this episode. One gripe that stands out is the stupid box puzzle thing. That's something that annoys me about trek - introducing something for one episode with no before or after whatsoever. I mean if they had introduced the puzzle an episode or two before it wouldn't seem like such a crappy plot insertion. If that makes sense.
+1987jock That is something that is good but also bad. Having it happen too much and you get the major problems that B5 have.
I think that is called a McGuffin: something new that only serves to continue the plot and will never mentioned again :-)
Kurros is a snake oil salesman
sooooo your running a game ? does that mean that we can look forward to the live d&d vids starting back up soon-ish? (crosses fingers and quietly repeats please god over and over)
Honestly I don't understand people who are against cheat codes. I mean, I get their point that it's not how the game is meant to be played, or things like that, but I don't understand why they think it's a bad thing or the worst thing, or how it makes someone inferior for using them. The company or developer, whoever, made a "Cheat code" menu for the player to enter cheat codes, it's not like someone hacked the games' files. Not to mention, the cheat codes WORK, which means they were programmed to work, right? So how is it wrong to use something that was already implemented into the game?
Kurros is gettin' upset!
I’d rather watch the episode than listen to this guy