Three months. That's about ninety days in normal human standards. For an obsessed fan, however, it is roughly equivalent to fifteen years in solitary confinement. That's how long the summer was... how long it always is when you are awaiting the season premier of your favorite show. That long waiting, wondering, anticipating... You get a burning sensation roughly resembling heartburn after Mexican food and pizza. You can't really do anything to get rid of the feeling, but you can calm it down a little. I recommend a diet of Voyager websites and antacid.
We all remember what happened at the end of the last season. "Equinox I" ended with the traditional cliffhanger and we were all left hanging on and yelling odd phrases at our TV screens, like "You can't do this to me!" and "How could you?", or my personal favorite: "Man! I'm gonna' have to wait all summer to find out what happened!" I think I recall at one point yelling at my Philips-Magnavox "I'll sue!"... however, so far I have yet to get litigious.
Anyway, there we all were, left to our own imaginations as to what had become of Janeway and her crew. We all had ideas, some had theories, some read spoilers despite the fact that deep down we wanted to be surprised at the outcome. I, by the way, am quite frequently guilty of the latter - this time was certainly no exception. Either way, we all had to bide our time in various levels of curiosity. Mine, I'm hesitant to admit, actually kept me up at night... a few times.
Finally we came down to the home stretch. One week and counting till we could see the second part of "Equinox." I'm sure that all of you (or at least most... it's a big web...) will think I'm a bit nuts, but hubby Jason and myself spent every available moment that week watching every Voyager episode we own. That includes seasons 1, 4, and 5 and a bootlegged copy of "Resolutions", "Basics I & II", and "Coda". Throughout the entire self-initiated Voyager marathon I was smiling like the cat that ate the canary and counting down the days until Wednesday, September 22, 1999.
Then we were there. The very day my obsessed mind had been anticipating. Early that morning Jason tried to get UPN to come in somehow clear enough to see. Since we've only lived here in Virginia a little while we have yet to get cable hooked up. I was quite literally in tears trying to squint past the snowstorm that passed for UPN without cable. Before Jason left for work we watched the tape of "Equinox I" together and I knew that Jason was about as eager as I was to see the result of the cliffhanger.
He works nights, so it was up to me to record part two so he could see it. You have no idea of the burden of responsibility that carries. After he left at around two in the afternoon I fussed with various wires, cables, and several yards of aluminum foil trying to get the picture in the best I could. Still it looked like "The Static Channel." Ironic, the fact that I managed to get ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX in clear with very little effort but the three letters I really wanted were, to say the least, fuzzy as hell. I began to suspect a conspiracy afoot.
Once I actually managed to get ch. 27 in clear enough to tell two people apart I left the TV on all day. No matter what I was doing I was always within earshot of the living room. I listened to episodes of "Divorce Court", "Jerry Springer","Judge Joe Brown", and "Judge Judy." I've never actually seen these shows, but even then I only listened in order to hear what I wanted to. Every time a promo for the night's Voyager episode came on I'd sprint to the TV and watch with baited breath.
Around 7:30 I made myself a pot of coffee. It's one of many idiosyncrasies of mine that I feel off if I don't have a cup of coffee in my hand while I'm watching Voyager. You can imagine how much caffeine I took in during "marathon week"... that seven days I slept a total of fifteen hours - none of them consecutive.
Back to Wednesday. At 8:00 "Equinox I" came on. I watched the episode with a stupid grin, knowing full well that the time was near...This was the second time that day that I'd watched that episode... I never mind doing that, sometimes you see things you miss the first time around. They were doing a countdown this year, but I knew how long it was. Still, it came down to the wire and I watched the cliffhanger ending once more. I started recording...
Majel Barret-Rodenberry's voice announced "Last season on "Star Trek: Voyager..." and I was glued to my seat. I watched through the recap of the episode I'd already seen twice that day and then the teaser began. I started to breathe heavy and then to hyperventilate. My phrase of choice was "oh, man.. wow!" in those moments. Bang! The teaser was over - the title sequence began and I went into fits of giggles. The fit lasted through the first commercial break and I nearly forgot to start recording again (heaven forbid!)
I watched the episode with my knees hugged to my chest, hot cup of coffee in easy reach. I hung on every word in full "Holy S__t!" mode. I remember my heart jumping up into my throat when Chakotay and Kathryn got into it... "Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! ... Oh, wow!" I kept saying. Tension was the dominant theme. "This is so cool!!!!" I yelled out loud, nearly waking Erica from her nap.
It was intense, the way the two butted heads through the episode. I knew in my heart that there was love there between them because the fight wouldn't have hurt them so much if they didn't care. Chakotay was the only one close enough to her to say to her face that what she was doing was, well... nuts. Talk about love/hate! And how about at the end when she told him that he was basically within his rights to stage his own mutiny and he said he wouldn't cross that line... he's thoroughly devoted to her but is not afraid to speak up and let his own feelings on the subject be known.
Okay, enough editorial...
At one point during the show, my makeshift antenna decided to tumble off the wall where I'd so meticulously taped it up with masking tape. The picture went haywire and I came as close to pure panic as I'd ever been. It was a delicate maneuver to get the dang thing back up there, but in the end I managed to get the picture back to nearly the same (albeit, still lousy) reception as before.
The episode ended and I stopped recording. My heart was running a thousand beats a minute and I had a light headed, sort of euphoric feeling welling up inside me. I got online and immediately e-mailed my mom, telling her everything I could remember about the episode. I was typing so fast my fingers and brain kept getting out of synch. I think I overloaded her in-box... as far as I know, she's still reading the letter.
At about 11:30 PM Jason came home from work and I joyously rewound the tape so he could see it before we went to bed. He went into his "This is so cool" mode and I bit my tongue the whole time in an effort to keep myself from blurting out any details. It was cool, indeed... Jason is nearly as obsessed as I am.
And so, now we look forward to season six.
If you think this was weird, you should have seen me waiting for part two of "Scorpion"... :-)
----- AJ
