Happy 30 Years to This Bratty LittleStar TrekMenace

Starting any re - watch ofStar Trek : Voyagerwill run you into interchangeable patterns . Every clip , you will chew over if “ Caretaker ” might actually be one of thebestStar Trekpilots , or reflect on the potential of the conflicts surrounding the integrating of Starfleet officers and Maquis operatives , or just how “ The Kazon - Ogla ? Who are the Kazon - Ogla ! ? ” might squirm its elbow room into your learning ability for the rest of your life ( that onemight just be me ) . But soon enough , if you find your idea wandering — or your eyes swan closed after watching a few hour of TV in one go — you will inevitably lead to a sharp , loud noise shocking you back to clearness : the sidesplitter ofthis little SOB .

This is Latika , played by Brady Bluhm — probably better known to multitude without my specific stain ofStar Trekbrain equipment casualty as the one clip voice ofWinnie the Pooh‘s Christopher Robin , or perhaps as Billy in 4C fromDumb and silent — to unbelievably annoying perfection in “ Time and Again , ” the fourth episode ofStar Trek : Voyager , which turn 30 today .

“ Time and Again ” is one of earlyVoyager‘s fascinations with worldly anomalies — a captivation the series had throughout its entire running game , but scarce the finest example of it . It ’s aperfectly average instalment : enquire a dead mankind harry by an blowup of volatile polaric energy , Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Paris find themselves inadvertently shunted back in time through a subspace distortion to the day before the revelatory accident . pressure to try and incorporate into this order of people who seemingly all wear the same kind of horrendous tricolor t - shirt in various stripes of neon orange , Indian mustard , and a leatherlike light brown , the couple have to find a path to break loose or stop the stroke before it occurs . TheVoyagercrew seek to economize them , only for Janeway and Paris to discover that , paradoxically , the rescue attempt is what causes the blowup , they block it , and everything revert back to as it was , with the planet mulct andVoyagergoing along its rattling manner . It ’s okay !

© Paramount

But Latika is the memorable standout in an otherwise forgettable sequence — he ’s hilariously one of the braggart foil Janeway and Paris have from the consequence they find themselves pushed back in time . It ’s his incessantly loud sidesplitter that first alerts everyone to the Starfleet officeholder ’ sudden appearance , and its his dogged insistence in finding out what their sight is that finally exposes them to a group of protestors appear to sabotage a polaric energy facility , seemingly dooming them to forfend spay the world ’s luck . Although Paris eventually take a phaser bolt for the nipper when the protestors ramp up their destructive design , carry throughout is that he mostly did it because he find speculative about the at hand Revelation of Saint John the Divine this whole planet faces , rather than feel peculiarly sorry for this would - be - journalist small fry who has the persnickety position to match .

It’sperfect — there ’s plenty of kids inStar Trek , and plenty of them are plaguey , intentionally or otherwise . The serial has a legacy of a few bratty youths , fromNog ’s early daysbefore he get together up with Starfleet inDS9 , to practically everyone on theEnterprise - 500 bullying the hell on earth out of miserable Wesley Crusher inTNG . But those characters in particular exist across the electric discharge of their several series , they ’re entail to grow and mature and not be quite so as abrasive as when we first meet them . Latika on the other hand ? He ’s a one and done role : he ’s in , he ’s annoying as hell , he ’s out . This is n’t the case of a ungainly child thespian or anything : he is a bratwurst , but he’smeantto be . So bratty that , three decades on from his debut , he stay memorable despite the forgettable episode that border him … even if most of the retentiveness is from that screaky shriekVoyagerintroduces him with .

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