November can be a long month in Vermont. The leaves - for the most part - are gone and the elegance of the first snow still feels a ways off. November is also, on average, Vermont's cloudiest month. After months of glorious color, the palette has been significantly reduced. Less color, as much as colder air and shortened daylight hours, can feel oppressive.
So, you've gotta make the most of color when you find it:
Canada geese are passing through. There was a flock camped out on our neighborhood pond on Sunday. Full disclosure, I accidentally scared them away not long after the photo. Truth be told, we don't really want them hanging around too much but a quick pit stop isn't unreasonable.
Following up on last week's post, my doctor isn't quite as alarmed by my blood sugar numbers as I was so that's good news. We have a check in scheduled in six months. I've also met with my nutritionist since my last post and she gave me loads of stuff to work on, including fitness goals. I'll catch you up on those next week.
Voyager's fourth season opens with our gang putting Janeway's Borg alliance plan (see here) in motion. Among the challenges in such a collaboration is differing communication styles. Janeway requests a single drone to speak on behalf of the collective. A drone, clearly formerly human, is chosen. She identifies herself as Seven of Nine.
The operation is further complicated when Janeway is incapacitated, leaving Chakotay in charge. Before relinquishing she gives clear orders to maintain the new alliance. But we know from the previous episode that the First Officer does not entirely agree with her plan.
Fortunately, in the end, everything comes out right. The Doctor's nanoprobe weapon works splendidly in scaring Species 8472 back to their own dimension (fluidic space: cool idea). Once the shared objective is achieved, Seven of Nine reneges on the agreement (shocker) and tries to assimilate Voyager after all. Thank goodness, our friends have a plan. They manage to disconnect Seven from the collective. Now they own a new problem: how to help a former drone assimilate back into "normal" society.
A moment for the geopolitics before I go into full on gush mode over Seven of Nine...
The two-part "Scorpion" story is an interesting reflection of the world of the mid-to-late '90s. In the immediate post-Cold War period, with American anxiety over Communism (represented in Star Trek by the Borg), a new crisis was emerging: the rise of Nationalism. Turns out, the Communist regimes that had held sway in places like Yugoslavia had managed to tamp down the historically hostile tensions between different ethnic groups within their borders for several decades. With the suddenly weakened centralized power, factional conflict was on the rise. On a good day, Nationalism is problematic. On the worst days, it's genocidal. Species 8472 sees our galaxy as impure and wishes to clean it up, not so different from the ethnic cleansing too prevalent in the real world of the 1990s.
I'm struggling not to overstate what a big deal Seven of Nine's introduction is. In one episode, she establishes herself as Star Trek's strongest and most fascinating female character to this point in the franchise's history. Dax, Kes, Kira and Torres are all great - certainly huge improvements over NextGen's female principals. Captain Janeway is coming into her own. But Seven owns the screen. All credit to Jeri Ryan, too, who was given little to go on in creating the character. The voice booms without shouting and my god, she moves beautifully. And all this without even seeing how stunningly gorgeous she is without the Borg crap all over her.
It's a whole new ballgame, folks. Game on!
A new principal character needs a chair (see here). We still get one more episode with Kes so, at least for the moment, all of the original series chairs are occupied. Fortunately, Seven's narrative progenitor is obvious.
Hugh = Seven of Nine
Through the character Hugh (see here), Star Trek first started exploring the question of what could happen if a Borg drone is separated from the collective. With Seven, we're going to get answers to a lot of questions - and, of course, a bunch of new questions, too.
Best Voyager episode so far. Many prefer the first part of the two-parter. For reasons I expect are obvious, I prefer the second.
Jeri Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmerman in Munich, West Germany, February 22, 1968. Her father was in the US Army so the family moved a lot during her childhood. She graduated from Northwestern as a theatre major. She was Miss Illinois in 1989, ultimately placing third in the Miss America pageant.
Seven of Nine was Ryan's big break and she made the most of it. She's won two Saturns for the role, 23 years apart: one for Voyager in 2001 and one for Picard in 2024. She has had other principal television gigs, including Boston Public, Shark and Body of Proof. She's had recurring roles in The O.C., Two and a Half Men and Leverage (a family favorite of ours). Guest appearances include Who's the Boss, Murder, She Wrote and Psych. Big screen credits are surprisingly modest. I guess television has kept her busy. Among others, Ryan appeared in Disney's The Kid, Dracula 2000 and Down with Love.
Eating well and exercising regularly are, of course, worthy endeavors in and of themselves. However, they are not always intrinsically motivating. Over the past couple years, I've had a specific reason for doing these things, a particular number on my labs that I wish to reduce. I don't want to get too deeply into the details here. Suffice to say, it's all about blood sugar. A couple years ago, one of the numbers came in too high but the doctor said as long as I could manage it with diet and exercise, I wouldn't have to be medicated.
I've done my best to take it seriously.
Had my wellness exam this past week. The number came in a little higher than it was a year ago, but still not as high as it was when we first started worrying about it. So, not terrible but also not quite what I wanted.
Honestly, over the past twelve months, I've been more consistent with the diet than I have been with the exercise, especially in comparison with the twelve months prior to that. I truly believe blogging about it will help keep me honest so, you're all in it with me. Thank you in advance.
I haven't actually gotten my GP's feedback yet. That's probably soon, though. I'll consult with my nutritionist next week.
Dominion convoys are passing through the wormhole on the regular, heading towards Cardassia, newly in the fold. While the ships are there officially to defend the new ally, suspicions are growing that an attack on Deep Space 9 is imminent. Our friends attempt to mine the wormhole in order to stop the supply line but that only gives Gul Dukat the excuse to strike. Most of those aboard the station evacuate. As the episode, and the season, come to a close, Cardassian control over DS9 - now Terok Nor once again - is restored. The Dominion War has begun.
By design, "Call to Arms" leaves a whole bunch of dangling threads for Season 6. There are touching goodbyes-for-now between multiple couples. There's Jake who manages to stay on the station when he really should have left. The Starfleet crew head into battle on the Defiant. Odo, Kira and Quark remain behind to make the best of things on the station. The writers wanted options heading into the next season and now they had plenty.
But the War is definitely for real.
The two most poignant goodbyes...
Dax and Worf, who is off to serve on the Klingon ship Rotarran: Dax agrees to marry Worf once the war is over.
Rom's wonderful Casablanca-esque farewell to Leeta, not long after the two have finally married:
"You've got to go, Leeta. The problems of two newlyweds are but a small thread in the tapestry of galactic events. You might not understand that today, or even tomorrow. But someday you will. So get on that shuttle. And don't look back."
For comparison (for the record, the most famous line, "Here's looking at you, kid," is the lousiest line in the whole movie):
Overall, "Call to Arms" is one of DS9's best. There's meaningful material for everyone and several storylines reach significant junctures. We have a lot to look forward to.
And before my season wrap, I must acknowledge what a brutal week it has been for Star Trek...
Walter Koenig 1936-2026
Patrick Stewart 1940-2026
RIP, Gentlemen.
Thoughts on Season Five
General Impressions
Season 5 is not as seamless as Season 4 but it's still awfully damn good. Six episodes rank in my current running top ten for the series. Even seemingly run-of-the-mill installments sparkle with dependable professionalism.
Deep Space Nine set itself apart from the rest of Star Trek in bold and significant ways. Perhaps most meaningfully, the series sits with the horrors of war in ways other series do not. "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" is the most important episode in this vein. Screenwriter René Echevarria dug deep into classic war literature for inspiration: Crane, Remarch and especially Hemingway. Much as The Clone Wars episode "Rookies" feels like something more than Star Wars, "Nor the Battle..." dares to go beyond Trek. In both cases, they did it by going smaller and more personal.
It took over four seasons, but I finally got to a DS9 episode I just don't like very much. "Let He Who Is Without Sin" is a Risa holiday story, primarily focused on Dax and Worf as they explore their newly romantic relationship. The idea had potential. But when the network told the writers they couldn't have the full-on sleaze fest they wanted, they couldn't pivot to something more meaningful. There are a lot of beautiful women in the episode's cast. That's really it's only redeeming quality.
Favorite Recurring Character: Garak
It's always Garak. Maybe at this point, it's more meaningful to highlight a runner-up. Rom comes into his own in Season 5. He thrives in engineering and, of course, he marries Leeta. Other good recurring characters this season include Grilka, Martok, Ishka, Leeta... As ever, the DS9 bench dazzles.
But Garak's still #1.
Favorite Blasts from the Past: Kirk and Spock
Without a doubt, 1960s Kirk and Spock casually strolling onto the screen in "Trials and Tribble-ations" is one of the great Wow! moments in all of Star Trek.
Overall, the episode is one of the franchise's most powerful and magical nostalgic tugs.
Hopkins played Kilana, a Vorta in the wonderful early-season episode, "The Ship." She is a narrative descendant of Joanne Linville's Romulan Commander character in the original series episode, "The Enterprise Incident." She doesn't have quite the same sexual tension with Sisko that the Commander had with Spock but nonetheless, she manages to be a lot more appealing than the typical Vorta.
Onward
The end is coming. You can feel it in Season 5. For both Sisko and Odo, in particular, we get a glimpse of narrative paths the audience won't be allowed to follow. I intend to savor the last two seasons. It was decades before Trek was anywhere near this good again.
Burlington, Vermont dependably has the most spectacular sunsets in the northeast. Facing west across Lake Champlain from New York's glorious Adirondacks, you can pretty well count on a stunning show every night. We spent a great deal of our weekend at Main Street Landing as it is the host venue for the annual Vermont International Film Festival. They have an especially nice view of the lake.
Here's a daytime shot from more or less the same spot for comparison:
Great festival. I saw twelve films in all. My wife managed 14. My favorite of the batch was Look Back, a gorgeously filmed Japanese coming of age story about teenage manga artists.
Even with all the movies, I managed to get steps in. 7 out of 7 for fitness goals for the week.
Emotions on the station are at a low ebb. The sense of impending war with the Dominion has everyone feeling down. Even Captain Sisko isn't able to muster his usual optimism. Jake takes it upon himself to cheer up Dad and he enlists Nog's help. Among the treasures in Quark's latest auction is a Willie Mays rookie baseball card. The two young buddies scheme to get it. Obviously, nothing goes quite as planned, yet all falls into place by the end and they manage to make a lot of other people happy along the way.
As soon as we finished, the kid declared this one of their favorite DS9 episodes. I was surprised. I certainly appreciate the comic relief stories as the series can get heavy for long stretches but I rarely think of them as the best ones. In fact, quite a lot of critics are partial to "In the Cards." What do I know?
I do feel a little sad for Leeta, no longer having a teddy bear.
It's a great episode for the recurring cast, though aren't they all? Nog, Kai Winn, Weyoun, Leeta and Morn (we haven't really talked about him, have we?) all get meaningful material, the last two without any spoken lines.
Composer Dennis McCarthy won an Emmy for Deep Space Nine's main theme. His Star Trek credits are extensive with underscore work on 88 NextGen episodes, 77 for DS9, 65 for Voyager and 30 for Enterprise. He is also the score composer for Star Trek Generations. He has ten Emmy nominations in total including nine for Trek.
There's a new bully in town. 15 Borg cubes zoom past Voyager, evidently in too much of a hurry to assimilate our heroes. Not long after, the crew happen upon the same cubes, completely destroyed. What could be so powerful that it could so easily overwhelm the irresistible force of the Borg? Species 8472, that's who. The Doctor invents a nanoprobe that could be used to combat the new enemy. Janeway hatches a bold plan: give the nanoprobe tech to the Borg in exchange for safe passage through their territory.
Yup, "Scorpion" is quite a story. For many, it is Voyager's very best. The Janeway proposal presents a Trek dilemma of the highest order and the resulting tension between the Captain and Chakotay brings extra weight to an already solid season-ending cliffhanger.
Thoughts on Season Three
General Impressions
Voyager found more sure footing in its third season. While quality is still uneven, the disastrous offerings of early Season 2 seem distant memories. The show still feels like DS9's awkward younger sibling but the best episodes are satisfying.
I can understand how one might prefer "Scorpion" if they like lots of action and a fast pace. But if anything, Forra Gegen's trial over his assertion that his people, the Voths, descend from Earth's dinosaurs feels even more poignant now than it would have in 1997. Plus, using the holodeck to extrapolate how that evolution might have occurred is one of the coolest applications of the technology to that point, even if it does feel quite a lot like 2020s AI in hindsight.
Least Favorite Episode: "Macrocosm"
This choice is actually a reflection of the series's improved quality in Season 3. "Macrocosm" really isn't so bad, just not my cup of tea. Compared to the disastrous lows of Season 2, "Macrocosm" is pretty good.
In an Aliens send up, Janeway prowls the corridors in a tank top with a big gun, hunting the overgrown micro-organisms that have infected the rest of the crew with a debilitating disease. I'm not keen on horror movies so this one didn't do it for me. But it's not terrible.
Because of the nature of Voyager's broader epic, recurring characters are rare compared with other series. This time, I'll take Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman), the scientist caught in the middle of Voyager's cat-and-mouse chase with the evil Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) in the two-part "Future's End." She's also a low-grade love interest for Tom Paris.
Favorite Blast from the Past: Sulu
Overall, I was underwhelmed by "Flashback," the big nostalgia offering to help celebrate Star Trek's 30th anniversary. But I still love Sulu. It's always good to see him in the Captain's chair and who wouldn't be drawn in by that low, resonant voice. You get Janice Rand and Kang in the episode, too, but Sulu's the star.
A fictitious 22nd century opera diva, Pentangelli (Carole Davis) was Mimi to The Doctor's Rodolfo in the latter's La Boheme holodeck program. Davis barely gets any screen time at all but she makes the most of it. The singing voice is her own, too. The character would have been well worth bringing back but alas, "The Swarm" is her only appearance.
Onward
Big changes are coming and right soon. We'll gain a principal character and the narrative impact is seismic. We'll lose one, too - one of my favorites. Stay tuned.
The Catamount Trail, as you can see on the sign, is a cross-country ski trail. It runs 300 miles, the entire length of Vermont from the Massachusetts border to the Quebec one. Maintained since 1984, it was inspired by the much older hiking trail, The Long Trail. In the off-season - and thank goodness we don't have any snow just yet - it is open to hikers.
7 for 7 on fitness goals for the week and I've raised my daily step goal to 10,000. Maintaining that through the winter might be a challenge but at least for the moment, I'm up for it.
In the midst of conduit repairs, Chief O'Brien finds he needs a replacement part. Spare parts for the Cardassian-constructed station aren't exactly easy to come by and, for technobabble reasons, can't be replicated. He travels to Empok Nor, an abandoned station, with a small crew, including both Garak and Nog. Unfortunately, in addition to the usual booby traps, the Cardassians left behind a couple of guards, preserved in stasis.
The heat rises when Garak is exposed to a psychotropic drug that turns him into a killing machine. At first, he targets the "bad guys" but once they're taken care of, he turns on his friends, ultimately killing Crewman Amaro. I'm not sure "Empok Nor" is a good episode, exactly, but it's a good one for Garak development, pressing hard on the question of whether or not he can be trusted. Pairing him with O'Brien, the combat veteran of the Cardassian War, also opens interesting avenues.
Like "The Ship," "Empok Nor" also makes a point of giving names and lines to red shirts...
Tom Hodges played the role of Crewman Pechetti, an engineer on the mission who meets an unfortunate end. Hodges was born in Chicago, July 1, 1965. He is best known for playing Bruno in Lucas and Rich in The Hogan Family. Other films include Revenge of the Nerds II, Steel Magnolias and Heavyweights. Other television appearances include L.A. Law, The Facts of Life and JAG.
Northwest Vermont, where we live, is the warmest part of our state. The Champlain Valley is afforded some protection from nordic winds by the Green Mountains to the east and the Adirondacks to the west. As a result, we also hit peak fall foliage later than the rest of the Vermont. Traveling beyond our region in any direction, we get a preview of what's coming. This weekend, we drove to Calais to the east of us.
I've been thinking a lot about how photography falls short in capturing the magic of autumnal splendor. Mind you, the limits don't stop me from trying but there's no denying the third dimension of depth matters. A single tree is never monochromatic. Its interior leaves are a slightly different shade from the ones that get more sunlight so there's a dappled effect as one moves past. There's the dazzling play of sunlight bringing out varying color notes at different times of day. Walking through a forest can be like strolling past stained-glass windows on all sides, including directly above. So yes, the photos are wonderful but you really have to be here to understand.
Torres discovers a holonovel in the ship's computer based on a Maquis mutiny. The adventure soon becomes the talk of Voyager, with Janeway's encouragement. Tuvok, of all people, had created it as a training module in the early days of the mission. Now he worries it sends the wrong message to the crew. The Captain, on the other hand, sees it as healthy and much needed entertainment. She even encourages the author to finish the story. Unfortunately, our old pal Seska, who appears in holographic form, set a few booby traps in the program before she left the ship.
"Worst Case Scenario" is a lot of fun. Having Seska back, in particular, is great. As I've written before, though, I think it's a shame the series mostly backed off of the Maquis-Starfleet tension. Why plant that seed if you're not going to draw from it more? I feel the same way about the Tom Paris redemption saga. Chakotay punched him the first time he saw him on the bridge! That moment promised more than has been delivered.
But that's no reason not to enjoy "Worst Case Scenario." Once again, Voyager builds on ideas from NextGen's Moriarty arc and I definitely approve of that.
Richard Dale James was the production designer for 151 episodes of The Next Generation and 168 episodes of Voyager, including this one. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, April 7, 1936. He graduated from Texas Tech.
James and set decorator Jim Mees won an Emmy for TNG's "Sins of the Father" and were nominated for three other episodes. Voyager highlights include the bridge and the captain's ready room. Film credits include Getting Even as production designer and Local Hero and The Beast of War as art director.
Vermont is famous for its fall colors. According to the online trackers, we still have a few weeks to go until peak foliage but I will do my best to document the changes. I took the two photos below in the same spot six days apart. As you can see, there's still a lot of green but the progression, once it starts, moves quickly.
General Martok brings an intercepted message to Captain Sisko. The Maquis have launched cloaked, guided missiles at Cardassian targets. Both leaders know the fall out from such an attack could be disastrous. Sisko knows of one man who can help him: the traitor Michael Eddington, currently serving out his sentence in a Federation prison. Meanwhile, Nog, back on DS9 as a security officer, is struggling to win the respect of the Klingons on the station.
The episode feels like exactly what it is: an effort to tie up the Maquis storyline as neatly as possible so the writers could move on from it. Eddington gets a noble death, at least in his own eyes (spoiler). The movement is reduced to single-digit membership, just enough for Voyager if they want to return to the thread, which they never really do. I'm not much of an Eddington fan - "look at me, I'm so smug." Thus, I'm okay with moving on, too. The Nog development is more meaningful, long term.
Gretchen German played the role of Rebecca Sullivan, Eddington's wife. German was born in Austin, Texas, March 18, 1961. Most of her work has been on television. She's had recurring roles on Wings, Almost Perfect and Home Improvement as well as guest appearances on Will & Grace, Family Tree and Pacific Blue among others. Her films include A Man Called Sarge and What Matters Most.
My wife and I spent some time at Balnea Spa in Bromont, Quebec this past weekend. I have written about our love for thermal spas before, most expansively here. For me, there are few things more relaxing than a hot bath. As phones are typically forbidden within the facility, a spa is a wonderful place to unplug, one's only responsibility giving in to calm, pleasurable sensation.
Given the phone prohibition, my photos are not from the spa itself but from the surrounding area:
Crew members are vanishing while strangers, beings calling themselves Nyrians, are just as mysteriously appearing all over the ship. In time, our friends discover this is a complex and effective hijacking scheme on the part of the Nyrians. Voyager is quickly overtaken and the entire crew - including even the EMH - find themselves on a prison colony where they're told they'll spend the rest of their lives. Obviously, that won't do.
"Displaced" is fun with an old school sci-fi feel. The portals our heroes find to other prison habitats are somewhat reminiscent of the original series episode "All Our Yesterdays." I half-expected Mr. Atoz and his librarian clones to pop up. I also enjoy the fact that the leverage Janeway finally finds to hold over the Nyrians is... cold weather (also echoing the TOS story).
Kenneth Tigar played the role of Dammar, the leader of the hijackers. Tigar was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, September 24, 1942. He received both a BA and a PhD in German literature from Harvard where he was also active in theatre. "Displaced" is his second of two Trek appearances.
Tigar's films include two Lethal Weapon movies, Primal Fear and Conspiracy Theory. He has a brief but memorable role in Avengers as German Old Man. When Loki commands a crowd to kneel before him...
On television, Tigar had a recurring role on L.A. Heat and guest appearances on Cheers, Dallas and ER among others.
There are many ways to track the change in seasons. The days get shorter. The leaves turn. One could also track one's own wardrobe changes. This past Friday was my first day wearing a long-sleeved shirt to work this year and I didn't regret it. I've been wearing warmer clothes to bed recently, too. The extended forecast shows highs in the 70s a few days this week but then all 60s the week after, just in time for the equinox.
The crew of the Defiant discover a planet inhabited by their own descendants! Apparently, our friends will attempt to leave the planet in two days AND encounter a temporal anomaly that sends them back two hundred years AND crash land again on the planet where they'll be forced to remain. The dilemma that unfolds: do Sisko and company circumvent this scenario? In doing so, they could go back to their own "current" lives but it would mean the 8,000 current inhabitants would cease to exist.
The story is awfully contrived but there's a broader narrative reason for all this. Odo's on the planet, too. Our Odo. Evidently, Changelings have a much longer life span than most humanoids. He looks not the same but better. 200 years of shapeshifting practice have paid off nicely. But that's not even the big deal.
This Older Odo admits to Kira that he loves her and always has. Current Odo is incapacitated at this time so he is saved the embarrassment of the admission until the end of the episode. "Children of Time" is a means of hitting fast forward on the Kira/Odo will-they/won't-they romance tale. Of course, they found the most roundabout Star Trek way to do it.
Gary Frank played the role of Yedrin Dax, Jadzia's descendant and host of the Dax symbiont. Frank was born in Spokane, Washington, October 9, 1950. He had a principal role on Family for which he won an Emmy. He had recurring roles on Fantasy Island, Hill Street Blues and Remington Steele and guest roles on Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. Films include Enemy Territory, Deadly Weapon and The Distinguished Gentleman.
Ticonderoga, New York - most famous for the 18th century fort of the same name - is home to an extraordinary museum: the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour. James Cawley, who amassed his "fortune" as an Elvis impersonator (no, seriously), devoted 14 years to rebuilding the set of the classic television show according to original blue prints. There are a few original pieces scattered around but most was built anew from the ground up.
Why does my sister care? She is not remotely interested in Star Trek but she has her own classic television obsessions. I intrigued her when I shared this little nugget: Trek and The Brady Bunch used the same chairs. I don't just mean the same kind of chairs. I mean the same, actual, physical chairs. Trek had them first - the two shows didn't quite overlap. For Trek, they slipped a black covering over the back to make them look future-y. Without the covers, they passed for suburban stylish.
We learned a lot of cool stuff. The original set builders were a resourceful crew. Much of the random technojunk you see on the walls is made from reclaimed packaging materials.
The two boxy things above our tour guide are from electric typewriter packaging. The studio had bought 120 IBM typewriters for office use. The set guys swooped in to grab the styrofoam.
Funny story about the spray bottles here in Dr. McCoy's lab:
Spray bottles were introduced to the public at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City as a futuristic wonder. As they were creating a space age show, the set guys bought a bunch of them. Of course, by the time the first episode aired two years later, spray bottles were ubiquitous in American homes. But they still had the bottles. They had to find a use for them.
Another link to my sister's passions...
The displays includes a Jefferies tube, invented for the series and named after the art director who designed them, Matt Jefferies. Jefferies was also the art director for another of my sister's favorite shows: Little House on the Prairie.
The tour addressed a matter that came up on my blog several years ago. My post about the original series episode "Journey to Babel" inspired a discussion in the comments about the rise of color television. Apparently, NBC, Trek's original network, carried more color programming than its competitors and there was a very good reason why. NBC was owned by RCA, the world's largest producer of color television sets.
I highly recommend the museum. We had a marvelous time. If you're a Trekkie and you're ever in the area, it's a must-see. Even if you're not one of the devoted, I expect if you have any interest in the television medium's early days, you might still find it fascinating.
Right, my fitness goals... I was 7 for 7 this week. I was actually a little worried about meeting the step goal the day we went to Ticonderoga. Generally speaking, sightseeing is great for steps, especially the way we do it. But the museum is small - not exactly Smithsonian scale. Plus it meant a lot of time in the car, there and back. Fortunately, I still managed.
