So after I managed to buy the proper battery and reinstall batteries into my smoke detector (which woke me up very early this morning), I sat down and resumed my pursuit of Star Trek:Voyager.

Now, I watch a lot of Star Trek. Marissa likes to watch it with me also. Something about the constant hum of star ships. We're Next Generation folk. Grew up on that shit, as they say.

And when I got the work-at-home job last year, every day while I was busy writing Partywirks I was watching (and re-watching) Star Trek: The Next Generation. Which I consider a show within the same framework as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, etc. X-Files was also frequently that kind of show. You figure out the design patterns of a few possible story lines, rely on the characters to bump against each other a little bit to cause some friction, one hour and its all over.

When I finished TNG I moved on to Enterprise. I had my doubts originally. But that show was fantastic on a few levels. Then when we finished Enterprise we needed more. I never liked Deep Space 9. Couldn't get into it. Still can't.

But there was Voyager… which we already had strikes against. Jane Mulgrew, who plays the Captain -- she was in one of my favorite movies, Throw Momma From The Train (really! it's great..) -- but her role was one of constant mimicing and ridicule. "Hot Fire" indeed.

Anyway. I just wanted to say, now two seasons into it, Voyager rocks. The framework the show is in allows for the pattern based episodes (that Enterprise frequently lacked) as well this constant linear curve. Sure they can skip ahead. Go into the past. Sideways to other realms. But always there's this trajectory that they're aiming for home. There's something really comforting about it, and while I don't like the characters on Voyager as much as Enterprise, Next Generation… something about the situation they are in makes you more compassionate towards them than you necessarily thought you'd be.