70. Clinton-Era Star Trek

Liz and Anika sit down to discuss the Voyager pilot "Caretaker", and end up with a podcast almost as long as the episode itself! We are not good at maths “It’s a good pilot, but not a good episode.” The script has a really complicated relationship with Janeway’s femininity Tom Paris is a truly awful character in the pilot (and for a while after) Chakotay: stereotypes and racism abound Tuvok is magnificent and we love him Harry Kim and the completely unsupported idea that he’s bad with women We love and adore Kes and hate most of the storylines for her (We also love and adore age gap relationships … except Kes/Neelix) “Neelix doesn’t know what a boundary is.” B’Elanna doesn’t play a big role in the pilot, so we make up for it by discussing her whole arc over seven seasons The Doctor is basically just Cranky Siri in the pilot The paternalism in this story Other episodes discussed:  “Initiations” “Alliances” “Basics Part 2” “Journey’s End” (TNG) Notes: At one point, Liz refers to Evan Evagora as “half-Maori”. A better term would have been “of Maori heritage”, rather than a phrase which suggests some sort of division or blood quantum. My apologies.