Sidenote re: Irathi brother not wanting to go through with the plan. I saw that too, and I thought it was one of the best details in the episode — his face was mainly seen in the background over datak's shoulder, but reluctance was written all over it. It reminded me of Captain Sisko as a bond villain on the holodeck…

It occurs to me: do we have any *proof* that the Irathi are the carriers? I can see the show making this plague a part of something bigger on the mythology side: possibly the Indogene scientists (and or the dead Castathan scientist) created the plague to unleash on humans, and planted the rumour that it came from…

Yeah, definitely getting the impression that the big mythology reveal is going to be that the terraforming effort somehow started way back in the 1800s with the earthquake. Either the aliens were here way earlier, or this is their second attempt, or some sort of Illuminati-like human group brought the aliens here as…

Nicolette's character and role is as basic and obvious as they come in this kind of show, but she has the saving grace of being played by Fionnula Flanagan, who is awesome.

@mem359:disqus yeah, definitely interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of gravitational interaction with other universes — definitely need to read more about that too

@avclub-9b60cf1b2106f886f17cba2b1a0359b9:disqus shhh! don't ruin the fun ;) entropy isn't welcome here

But even if we accept a many-universes model, it's happening at the subatomic level. Every single photon, every electron, every piece of everything in the *universe* creates new universes every nanosecond.

That's interesting, but it sounds to me like that's a probably-unrelated cosmological theory, which means it's likely very different from the many-universes model of quantum mechanics

The problem with the idea of time travel splitting universes is that time is *part* of a universe. There is no such thing as "a universe at a point in time", nor is there any such thing as a "now" that is shared between here and another star or another galaxy. Space and time are not independent of each other — all…

The "many-universes" model is about explaining the behaviour of subatomic particles. It's not about human destiny or conscious choice. And even if it was, there are only two ways to look at it: either other universes are observable and knowable by a human consciousness, at which point they are "real" and true moral…

Got me thinking about the difference between the culture of "honour" for Klingons and Jem'Hadar…

Funny, and apt. China had "political mania" as a recognized severe psychiatric disorder for a long time — symptoms include criticizing the government and participating in rallies — and of course homosexuality was considered a psychiatric condition in most of the world up until very recently (and I assume in many…

honestly I don't think mentioning the six-parter gives much away — there are lots of ways to construct a six-episode story arc.

SPOILERISH, I GUESS, BUT NOT REALLY

I agree with everything you say, and yet for whatever reason, in this new watch-what-you-want world, I occasionally find that what I want is to watch a few episodes of Voyager, and I enjoy it… But I can definitely see why the same is not true for everyone. And of course, unlike TNG & DS9, I've never given Voyager a…

Well said. The AVClub has given me a taste for looking at TV critically, but I know I could never be a pro, because what I really enjoy doing is forgiving a show's flaws and mentally replacing the bits that don't work with an optimistic version of what I decide to believe they *surely* must have *meant*

If you're a Trek fan, then occasional good episodes + the joy of spending some more time in the universe makes it worth watching

Obviously this is getting into overly-critical/fanwank territory, but the idea that he sees with his eyes just doesn't make any sense. The eye is one of the most complicated parts of the body — we're to believe he could make that before he could make the face he wanted? Besides, he doesn't have a brain… does he?…

Thinking more on the question of superpower-sex, and I think the rule is this: "human" superpowers (super strength, super speed) can be *loved*, but inhuman superpowers (shapeshifting, being a god) are at best purely pornographic and at worst repulsive. Which makes sense biologically, I think.

That's true — changelings seem to genuinely enjoy experimenting with shapeshifting. Which would make it a valuable experience to them. But it wouldn't be special or transcendental in the way it is as a core biological drive for humans.