Dirty Laundry...

Greetings...

I was a Sci-Fi day here at the House of Kahless with lots of activity.

The day started pretty early this morning.  We had started decorating the house for Christmas last Saturday, but after all the Thanksgiving revelry and Black Friday activity (by Mrs Kahless, not me though), we ran out of decorative enthusiasm pretty quickly.  So we did finally finish today and I thought I would share what makes Christmas decorating fun for me.  I have a small collection of Star Trek, Star Wars and other Hallmark collectibles and I thought I would post a few pictures here for you...

These are all hanging on the tree.  This year's featured collectible was the one in the bottom right corner of Dr. McCoy.  It's funny that when it is time to take down the tree, the Death Star and the Star Destroyer are so small that I probably will not be able to find them.

The Shuttle Craft in the upper left corner is the first ornament I got.  That one and the Enterprise-D at the bottom both have to be plugged into a string of lights.  If they ever quit making the miniature incandescent lights, I'll be in trouble putting these up.

So, the Kahless household is ready for Christmas.

It was also "Star Trek and Laundry Day."  It is just what it sounds like.  While I do the laundry, there are episodes of Star Trek on the TV.  I am currently going through Voyager.  

Intrepid Class USS Voyager

 It always seems that when I listen to others talk, there isn't a lot of love for Voyager.  That's too bad because I really like that series.  I even like Chakotay.  Yes, I saw the YouTube video where he talks about how stupid he thinks all Trekkies are, but so what, he did his job on the series and that's what really counts.  I especially like the Native American spirituality that permeates the character in the first couple of seasons, and was very sad when they got away from that aspect of his character.

Robert Beltran as Chakotay

 One episode that I have always really liked is the season five episode, Counterpoint.  For me, it is one of the best of Voyager.  While passing through a region of the Delta Quadrant being controlled by a race of people known as the Devore, the Voyager crew finds itself being compelled to stop at irregular intervals so the ship can be inspected for any passangers or crew with telepathic abilities.  So a team of inspectors led by Kashyk goes through the ship scanning for telepaths.  As we know, Tuvok, as a Vulcan, is a telepath, and we learn a little later in the show that Voyager is indeed transporting a group of telepathic refugees out of Devore space. Kashyk's crew never finds any telepaths to arrest because they are being hidden in the transporter's buffer during the inspections.

Kashyk is played by Mark Harelyk who also appeared in Jurasic Park III, and Big Band Theory.

 When the Dvorans leave Voyager, the telepaths are beamed out of the transporter and Voyager continues on its way.

 Not long after an inspection, Kashyk arrives at Voyager in a shuttle and explains to Captain Janeway that he is tired of being a bully and wants to start a new life by joining the Voyager crew and helping them get through Devore space with a minimum of hassle.  He further tells Janeway that he knows all about the telepaths that are on board and that he is also aware of her plan to get the refugees to a wormhole in a nebula to help them escape, but Kashyk also tells her that there will be an ambush when they reach the wormhole resulting in the capture of the tlelpaths and internment for Voyager's crew.  Janeway cautiously takes Kashyk in and listens to his advice.  She also seemingly falls in love with him.

Kashyk thinks he has gained Janeway's confidence, but to the contrairy, while he thinks he is playing her for a fool, it is actually he who is getting a game ran on him.  Anyway, the refugees escape, Kashyk figures out that he is the one who is the fool, and cannot take any action against Voyager because then he would have to admit to his superiors that he let the refugees get away.

I like this episode because Kashyk comes across as very convincing, and all the while it seems that he is going to actually pull the wool over Janeway's eyes.  Great plot twist there.  I also like the music that accompanies the inspections.  Kashyk has the computer play the second movement of Mahler's First Symphony to help keep the crew calm while his minions scan for telepaths. (By the way, Memory Alpha lists that what is played is Tschaikowski's Fourth Symphony.  If you are familiar with music, you would know that one could NEVER mistake Tschaikowski for Mahler for many reasons I will not go into here.)

I streamed two episodes of Fringe from Amazon last night and am still liking this show.  The Sci-Fi quote for this week is something I have been laughing about all day.  I haven't quite figured out what the story arc is in this series, but I did catch a few clues as Peter has been accepted as an official consultant and can now enter the Federal Building without an escort.  It took getting some nasty electrodes shoved up his nose and a realization that there is more going on in the world than meets the eye.

At some point tomorrow, when the house is quiet, I will be recording comments for the SciFi Diner Conversations show, which I think will be #71 and also for the Christmas show.  Scott has called for listeners to send in their top five geek Christmas wish list.  I think I came up with a pretty good one.  If you want to know what I have chosen, you'll have to tune in to the Diner to find out.

Well, there it is...

Q'aplah!