Star Trek: Raumschiff Voyager Initiations (1995–2001) watch online HD

Netflix (yes the now dreaded Netflix) recently added all episodes of Voyager to the streaming line up, so I'm taking advantage. I really, REALLY want to like this show but it so pales in comparison to TNG. Maybe comparing the show to TNG isn't a fair thing to do but I can't help it. After a dozen or so episodes I've seen time and time again how logic defies the writing in this show, and continuity is disregarded though the premise of the show demands it (their new and continuing mission is to get back home; done far better by Battle Star Galactica). It really bugs me how knowing they are stranded ALONE in an unknown part of space where no allies, and no standing treaties exist...they take NO precautions! I think this is just crappy writing (they make Janeway look so incompetent). This episode is an example of that. ***SPOILERS FOLLOW*** Why the heck is Chakotay left alone in a shuttle craft!!? Then at the end of the episode without any discussion as to how it came about, he is seen performing the ritual that seemingly lead him out there to begin with...IN HIS QUARTERS!!!!?

8/18/11 UPDATE

I stuck with it, and am glad I did. I am now well into season 5. The show gets WAAY better if you give it a chance. Here in Season 5 they're still making dumb tactical mistakes but you groan look past them and then get caught up by the stories. Although I still HAVE NO idea why shuttles and ship seats don't have seat belts in the well advanced Star Trek Universe. Countless crew have been injured and lost due to injuries sustained by being knocked around during an attack or rough landing. Just sayin'

While off in a shuttle performing a private ceremony Chakotay is ambushed by a Kazon ship. It isn't a large ship, just a shuttle sized craft that is piloted by Kar, a child who wants to kill or be killed in battle as a right of passage that will earn him his name. When Chakotay defeats him them beams him out of his exploding shuttle Kar is not happy, not because he was defeated but because he wasn't allowed to die as his culture dictates a defeated warrior should be. It isn't long before the main Kazon ship arrives and Chakotay is shocked to learn that Kar is going to be killed as a lesson to other Kazon children. When an opportunity to escape occurs the two of them flee on Chakotay's shuttle they don't get far however and they end up being marooned on a moon which is covered in booby traps as the Kazon use it as a training ground. Voyager searches for Chakotay and traces him to the moon and the captain and Tuvok beam down. While there the Kazon turn up and it looks like there will be trouble until an intervention from Neelix leads to a temporary truce to find their people. As the rescue party approaches Chakotay comes up with a drastic solution to Kar's problem... although as it turns out Kar has an alternative solution.

This was a fairly average episode although it did give us some more insight into Kazon culture and is notable for starring Aron Eisenberg, best known for playing Nog in Deep Space Nine, as Kar. Although only a small part of the episode the best scene was the one where Neelix told the Kazon why they were going to help them rather than attack.

In the last couple months, I have gone nuts with the "Star Trek" shows. I just finished re-watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as well as "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" and now I am working on "Star Trek: Voyager". One huge difference I notice is that unlike the first two shows, "Voyager" does not have interesting or well written enemies other than the Vidiians in the early part of the show. Later, with the inclusion of the Borg, things improved immensely. But the Kazon just seem stupid--like Klingons...really, really, REALLY stupid ones at that. They are hyper-aggressive but never in an intelligent or calculating manner and they seem way too dumb to have ever built starships. And all they know how to do is fight and grumble--even when it makes absolutely no sense at all. Because of this, I was NOT in love with this Kazon episode.

The show begins with Chakotay out on a runabout for no clear reason. He is supposedly there to do some American-Indian mumbo-jumbo and when the Kazon show up, for some inexplicable reason Voyager doesn't notice and Chakotay doesn't alert them. However, instead of just blowing him up, they send a child in another ship to blow up the runabout. But, Chakotay is sneaky in his tactics (possibly because he's NOT a child) and blows up the Kazon attacker's ship. But, being a Federation good guy, he beams his would-be killer onto the runabout. Instead of thanking him, the little guy grumbles and demands he be killed! Later, when Chakotay's runabout is captured by the Kazon mothership, the Kazon are NOT happy that Chakotay spared the boy and give Chakotay a knife---telling him to kill the boy. Not surprisingly, Chakotay won't and...well, you should probably just see the rest yourself.

The only reason you might want to see this one is that Aron Eisenberg plays the boy, Kar. Eisenberg ALSO was playing Nog on "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" at this same time and it's interesting to see him playing a different sort of character--one far dumber and less sympathetic. Overall, this episode is a bit tiresome...as are the Kazon shows in general. The sooner the show focuses on more interesting enemies, the better.

Delta Quadrant's version on the Klingons, the Kazons, return to the line-up from Season One, and they're just as ill tempered and poorly coiffed as always. 70,000 light years away, and it seems the Klingon's sensibilities are intergalactic. But apparently not their barbers.

The episode focuses on Chakotay, ably performed by Robert Beltran, one of the more talented members of the cast. The episode begins to flush out the sensibilities of the Kazon, or attempts to, that which they seem to be. And we begin to see more development of Chakotay, who is one of the more intriguing characters of the series, thanks largely in part to Beltran's talented performance, and Chakotay's Native American spirituality. This is juxtaposed upon the alien beliefs he encounters and interacts with as a potential victim of their manhood rituals.

This episode tries to examine the Kazon deeper thru the tribulations of one of their young warriors attempting to "make a name for himself" (a little heavy handed with THAT plot device!), but it's very difficult to see them as anything original, and simply a regurgitation of Klingons; a 2 dimensional shadow of sacred Klingon honor or the convoluted politics of deception they enjoy playing on themselves as well as other species. Once we've seen it flushed out to the level The Next Generation accomplished through the character of Worf and his development, Kazon culture just seems like a copy cat version, a cheap knock off. Yawn.

Also making a guest appearance is Aron Eisenberg, who portrayed the often irritating young Ferengi Nog in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. "Nog's" annoying staccato delivery isn't as welcome to the Delta Quadrant. While some Trek fans may welcome his guest appearance, I personally found it difficult to see him rise above anything but the annoying Nog.

Every drama needs conflict, and there's plenty of conflicting values and action, which does set the tone early in the episode, as well as some decent a shuttlecraft space battle sequences, but the pace of the episode starts to drag as they examine each other's culture's "values". Yeah, I get it. We're different. Only you're the same as the Klingons....

Vasquez Rocks makes an appearance, which any true Trek fan does admittedly enjoy, if not simply for the amusement of seeing Star Trek's most famous "alien landscape".

The ending brought an unexpected and a welcome twist, and after winding our way to it, left us with a mediocre and at some times entertaining episode, but not an awful one.

In order to fulfill his rite of manhood, a young Cason goes after Chikotay's shuttlecraft, dragging him into all kinds of complications. The kid is a tiresome and hardly mature representative of his people. Failing to overcome Chikotay makes him a pariah to his peers. He can't advance to Eagle Scout and may be executed. Bummer. Chikotay tries to be gentle (at the risk of his life from this little twerp). As is usually the communications devices on the ship shut down. I don't know. The whole flow of this thing and those ding dong aliens isn't much fun. They keep harping on "that darned technology." And, of course, Netflix (I mean Neelix) gets in the face of the Cason. Put up the next one.