Tilde Lowengrimm on Nostr: My new favorite Voyager episode is 3x10: Warlord. I don't think I've ever had as much ...
My new favorite Voyager episode is 3x10: Warlord. I don't think I've ever had as much fun watching an episode of Voyager. This episode is so good that it makes me actually like Kes! Well, almost. It makes me actually like Jennifer Lien! In Warlord, she's actually given something to do for a change, and she goes for it one hundred percent in a performance unlike anything I've seen from her so far.
With his dying breath, the eponymous warlord transfers his consciousness to Kes, and you know it's worked because she immediately breaks up with Neelix. Turns out that this guy is a Game of Thrones / Chronicles of Riddick / Flash Gordon villain hell-bent on regaining his throne after the people of his planet rose up and deposed him. You know, the sort of guy who monologues, puts the hero in an elaborate death trap but doesn't actually watch them die, and wears a cape with a pointy collar up past his ears. But, (surprise!) his mind didn't actually overwrite Kes: she's still in there and the emerging personality is a blended gestalt of her and Necrolord Prime (I cannot remember his name and I will not look it up).
This combo character is a terrifying delight who absolutely munches on that styrofoam scenery. Where Kes is this demure little fey creature, Kestrolord Prime is like a wild thing from the unseelie hunt. They are incredibly energetic, getting right up in people's faces, leaping over the furniture and being unbelievably horny all the time. Tragically, we are interrupted right before Kestrolord Prime has a gay kiss with his ex wife, but they later take a new husband in a political marriage and get within a hair's breadth of stating out loud that they're looking forward to a wedding night threesome. Look, the kingdom ("autarchy") being fought over has a royal choker/gorget instead of a crown, and everyone is wearing Section-31-esque black leather. I assume the original script called for a royal nipple piercing and bondage slaves in vacuum latex, but they toned it down for the final version on screen. A little. I would absolutely love to see the Jonathan Frakes directed remake which doesn't chicken out of the extremely queer premise, and doubles down on how kinky this horny-af planet all are.
This episode is right up there with Strange New Worlds 1x7 The Serene Squall in reminding us that the only thing better than seeing trans rights in Star Trek's utopian future is seeing trans wrongs.
With his dying breath, the eponymous warlord transfers his consciousness to Kes, and you know it's worked because she immediately breaks up with Neelix. Turns out that this guy is a Game of Thrones / Chronicles of Riddick / Flash Gordon villain hell-bent on regaining his throne after the people of his planet rose up and deposed him. You know, the sort of guy who monologues, puts the hero in an elaborate death trap but doesn't actually watch them die, and wears a cape with a pointy collar up past his ears. But, (surprise!) his mind didn't actually overwrite Kes: she's still in there and the emerging personality is a blended gestalt of her and Necrolord Prime (I cannot remember his name and I will not look it up).
This combo character is a terrifying delight who absolutely munches on that styrofoam scenery. Where Kes is this demure little fey creature, Kestrolord Prime is like a wild thing from the unseelie hunt. They are incredibly energetic, getting right up in people's faces, leaping over the furniture and being unbelievably horny all the time. Tragically, we are interrupted right before Kestrolord Prime has a gay kiss with his ex wife, but they later take a new husband in a political marriage and get within a hair's breadth of stating out loud that they're looking forward to a wedding night threesome. Look, the kingdom ("autarchy") being fought over has a royal choker/gorget instead of a crown, and everyone is wearing Section-31-esque black leather. I assume the original script called for a royal nipple piercing and bondage slaves in vacuum latex, but they toned it down for the final version on screen. A little. I would absolutely love to see the Jonathan Frakes directed remake which doesn't chicken out of the extremely queer premise, and doubles down on how kinky this horny-af planet all are.
This episode is right up there with Strange New Worlds 1x7 The Serene Squall in reminding us that the only thing better than seeing trans rights in Star Trek's utopian future is seeing trans wrongs.