Adderbox76

I'll give my smart-ass answer first before deliving into my serious answer.

Smart-ass: Yes...tangible literally means "possible to touch". So yeah...digital stuff isn't, by definition "tangible" in the way that records, cds, etc... are. You've never "touched" an mp3 file. You've never "touched" a streaming movie like you handle a DVD or a VHS tape.

Now...to my serious answer: I've long been working on what started as an article, became a treatise, and is now morphing into a non-fiction book about that very concept. Still a very long way to go, and with my stop-and-start creative blocks, it may never get done, but I felt it was important to write it all down while I still have a functioning brain. (I'm not getting any younger)

I've added to it for years every time a new thought about it comes to me, talking about what I call "Patina" (the tendency for mechanical things like typewriters and camera lenses to age individually, almost developing a personality as they age) and equating it with the Japanese concept of Tsukomogami (the idea that physical things gain a soul after 100 years)

they release a subpar product, and then it fizzles.

I'm disappointed they're jumping on AI bullshit. But I have to wholeheartedly disagree with you about the "sub par product".

• My Asus desktop has been chugging along for a decade.
• My Asus Chromebook Flip has been going with no issues for at least four or five (though it's long since been flipped to Linux)
• The Asus laptop I had before THAT is older than the desktop and quite happily living it's retirement as a home-theatre PC connected to my television.

I have quite literally never had Asus hardware break down on me.

My makers are hard at work getting ready to release my brother, ScatGPT. But I don't expect it'll be as popular.

Yep. You got me.

I'm a new model, called PhatGPT, designed specifically to catfish desperate men.

True. I avoided any two parter on the list just because two-parters are best when you know the characters a bit more. I tried to limit it to episodes that would be akin to TNG standalone's like Darmok or Schisms; episodes that are good even without knowing the characters.

The more I've been thinking about this, the more I realize that because Voyager (or most trek of that era) isn't totally serialized, there's no real reason that you HAVE to watch it sequentially for the first time.

As long as you're avoiding spoiler episodes, there's no reason that you can't just watch some random stand-alone episodes, and I'm confident that watching some of those first will make you want to go back and watch the entire thing to see "how they got there."

So with that said, if you want to understand my love for Voyager, these are the top ten episodes I would recommend that are stand-alone and don't contain spoilers and epitomize why I say that Voyager is better than most people give it credit for.

• Living Witness (S4)
• Blink of an Eye (S6)
• One Small Step (S6)
• Timeless (S5)
• Scientific Method (S4)
• The Void (S7)
• Relativity (S5)
• Counterpoint (S5)
• Shattered (S7)
• Deadlock (S2)

There are others that I would put in there, but those would include character spoilers that I'd want to avoid.

I believe if you watch those standalone stories, you'll get the gist of what people love about Voyager.

That's the episode where the Doctor becomes the "Emergency Command Hologram" in his mind, isn't it?

At the end when the computer magically makes three pips appear on his collar and Janeway just says "nice touch..."

That's exactly what I mean. Voyager wasn't afraid to be a little goofy sometimes. They walked that line really really well without delving all the way into "Let's do a whole musical episode" or anything.

Good luck with your vast reserves of domestic Potash, Donny.

I can't speak for everyone of course, but as someone who genuinely was not fond of DS9 (not because of writing quality or anything like that, it was great for what it was in that regard.)

After DS9, Voyager had the audacity to try to be FUN again. It offered a really good mix of some serious episodes with some downright goofy episodes. For every "Year of Hell" or "Equinox", you would get an episode where they were attacked by giant viruses, or a good old fashioned holodeck program goes haywire episode.

It wasn't afraid to dive into Shlock after DS9 tried to be sooooo fucking serious.

To me, that was a breath of fresh air.

Also:

1. Janeway is easily the best captain overall. She doesn't give "Picard Speeches" like Stewart of course, but in every other aspect, her leadership is amazing throughout that series.

2. Voyager 2 parters were usually epic. This of course comes from the fact that the CGI had come a long way from the TNG days, but with the exception of Best of Both Worlds, I'd put Year of Hell, Equinox and Scorpion ALL better than any other two parter from any other series.

If your comparison is to DS9 and you want "super serious" than yeah...of course Voyager isn't going to be for you. But if you want something that isn't afraid to be a little silly sometimes, Voyager is hella-fun.

I miss cretien.

Probably around the same time that Adolph makes a comeback.

I'd argue that you already DO have bigger problems, you just haven't come to terms with it yet.

Doesn't really matter what it would take. His plan is (and always has been) that if anything doesn't go his way, he takes it to the supreme court who he handpicked and has in his pocket. So either:

• a) He manages to stop the midterms, or
• b) He doesn't, but Republicans already have them rigged so as to not matter, or
• c) They lose the midterms, Trump takes it to the supreme court, who hand the republicans the win based on "hand waved evidence of voter fraud by democrats and 'illegals'"...

Trump just gets bolder every time people say "oh we'll get out of this at the midterms." He's laughing at America.