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Posted by Psi'a Meese on :

Purrr...

The Time Trap is the 10th episode of the animated series:

The Enterprise is surveying the Delta Triangle,where starships have disappeared over the years, when Klingon's suddenly attack. In an exchange of fire, the Klothos winks out of sight, and the Enterprise follows it into a space/time warp where a Sargasso Sea of space holds starships from all over the galaxy.
The Klothos attacks, but its torpedo disapates undetonated. Both commanders (Kirk and Kor) face a council of beings who rule this area, called Elysia. Their spokesperson, Xerius (a Romulan), explains that all have failed to find a way out of this space, so their original crews and decendants learned to live peacefully. Violence is not allowed. The time warp is disintegrating the Enterprise's dilithium crystals; they must depart Elysia soon, or have no power to do so. The Klingons agree to cooperate. Although, an attempt at sabotage of the Enterprise fails. The two ships escape safely and Kor claims credit for their success.
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I just finished watching VOY, "The Void":

Voyager is sucked into a strong subspace vacuole and brought into a starless void with other ships that have been there for year's. Voyager is immediately attacked. Several resources are stolen. Even worse, Belanna informs Janeway that the Warp Core is losing energy to the Void. Time for planning an escape is limited. Trapped and fighting the other species for resource's, Janeway offer's an alliance based upon the Federation Charter.

Having pooled energy and technology resources,the alliance prepares to escape the void. Of course, not everyone remains as insightful or as loyal as Janeway to the alliance. A coup is foiled by Janeway-via sabotage. Voyager and 3 other ships succeed in working together to escape the void through another vacuole.

Side note: This episode establishes Voyager to be 30,000 light years from Federation space.

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[This message has been edited by Psi'a Meese (edited February 15, 2001).]

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

There's great symmetry between these episodes. And it's actually a bit frightening to note that in "The Void", it's Janeway who brings the high-faluting ideas of cooperation to the situation, while in "Time Trap", they had to be shoved down Kirk's throat by the natives.

I wonder if the writers of "The Void" had seen "Time Trap" and were paying an homage of sorts?

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

Did you post this in TNO as well?

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Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :

Haven't seen "The Void" yet, but that's an interesting parallel. There are so many similarities, it almost HAS to be an intentional homage, IMO.

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Posted by Vacuum robot lady from Spaceballs (Member # 239) on :

Woof....

I'd say it probably was an intentional similarity, but you can't rule out the possibility that is was simply a coincidence.

Baaa....

Star Trek has shown that there are apparently six different stories they can use, but with switching names and technobabble from one to the next, they can fool us into believing there are more.

Quack...

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"...screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!" - Omega.

Irony ensues.

Free Jeff K

Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :

I was just impressed that they used the Heirarchy CGI ship model, and actually had the Heirarchy aliens flying it! They certainly didn't retain this continuity with the other ships they used. (Hell, they used that damn Starfleet fighter as an alien ship again!)

This is exactly the kind of episode that the whole premise of the series should have been about: A Federation ship stranded in an area of space filled with aliens, but no coherent alliances or organizations. By the end of the series, Voyager would have helped bring these divergent races together to form their own federation in the Delta Quadrant. Instead, we get these choppy stand-alone, week-to-week episodes that don't fit together into a greater whole, which leaves the audience wondering just what the point is of this series.

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Star Trek: Legacy

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

You mean, unlike 99% of everything on television?

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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

The thing with stand alone episodes being 99% of TV is that that is Sit-com television. Sitcoms work with having a different funny episode every week. And even Friends seems to have more carry-over storylines than Voyager these days.

The whole point of a drama, IMHO, is to build a story over the course of a series. Voyager had a prime opportunity to do that. The story had a definate beginning, a middle, and can have a definite end. Good story tellers would find a way to weave a string through it all and bring it together at the end. You can't do that when each episode has virtually nothing to do with any of the other ones.

And I hate to say it (I haven't seen either ep yet), but it was probably an intentional rip off, not an homage...

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Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

What are these other dramas that are nothing but continuing plotlines, because I just don't see them. In fact, I don't think that's the definition of drama at all. It's the definition of soap opera. Now you can have good soap operas. (Or so I assume.) But it isn't a necessary ingredient for dramatical success. One of the greatest SF series of all time was an anthology, for pete's sake.

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I will shout until they know what I mean.
--
Neutral Milk Hotel
****
Read three (three!) chapters of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Then, go insane!

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Well, I didn't say there were a whole lot of them around. I don't really see alot of them either. West Wing IMO has done a fairly nice job of using continuing characters and recurring plot points. ER to an extent does the same thing.

What I meant was, that maybe there should be some more stories like that out there. IMO, Voyager was a prime opportunity to tell a story like that. That's all I'm saying.

Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :

Yes, that's what I was saying too. And you're right, Sol. 99% of television these days is episodic, not arcing. But then again, 99% of television these days is crap.

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Star Trek: Legacy

Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :

Dukhat:

Agreed - formally known as Sturgeon's Law (99% of EVERYTHING is crap).

Although, I have to admit that I believe Star Trek has broken this - only 85% of it is crap. Which puts it in the high quality range (for TV).

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Posted by Austin Powers (Member # 250) on :

What about DS9 everyone?

It had kind of a plotline from start to finish, with plenty of standalone episodes in between, of course. I think it worked rather well.

But I see TNG as a perfect example for a well-made series with almost nothing else than standalone episodes. No one ever complained about that.

It's just that VOY is generally regarded as rather weak in terms of overall quality. Although that might have improved over the course of the last one or two seasons.

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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

DS9 did have something of an underlying plotline. Unfortunately they couldn't always decide on which one it was. They didn't decide that Sisko really was the Emissary until 2/3 of the way through the series. Until then, it was sort of back and forth as to whether there was anything "destined" about him. Then they had to play catch up and fudge a couple of things to make it work.