A Plot: The Doctor (after learning to perform some opera) discovers that he is beginning to lose control of his faculties. This malfunction is a result of running the program for too long, which overloads his program with all the non-medical "irrelevancies" he has picked up over time. As his memory degrades, Kes and Torres work with a hologram of his creator, Lewis Zimmerman, to try to find a solution that won't mean a complete reset of the Doctor to his factory specs, without the memory and growth he had accrued in the last two years. The Zimmerman hologram makes a heroic sacrifice by attempting to blend his matrix with the Doctor's.
The Doctor's condition gives two metaphorical avenues for exploration. The first is that of the unsympathetic caregiver being turned into the patient. They've already touched on that in a B-plot before, and he's made progress with his bedside manner in episodes since then, so it is frustrating the way the writers make him regress in the beginning of the episode just to make this element "work." The other, more blunt use of this plot is as an Alzheimer's allegory. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have had the "what am I doing here and why can't I leave?" conversation with an Alzheimer's patient, so that certainly struck a chord. Additionally, Kes' heartbreak upon watching the Doctor lose the memories that made him the man who was her mentor is well-captured in that regard.
Early in the episode, The Doctor is completely resolute in his early decision to simply wipe his memory in order to stabilize his program, essentially citing "the good of the many" philosophy (though not directly). Instead, it is Kes who can't let go - the Doctor wouldn't have to live with his sacrifice, it'd be those that care about him that suffer the most - and that is true of Alzheimer's as well, in a way. The resolution is sneakily cathartic - the Doctor's memory appears to be wiped, until he begins to hum the operas from the beginning of the episode. This is a thread that deserves more screen time, with a gradual recovery, and it is a grave disappointment to me that it does not resurface in future episodes.
B Plot: Voyager encounters the territory of a reclusive, xenophobic group of aliens (again) that swarm intruders in a interlinked cloud of small ships, disabling and killing them. Janeway decides that the best course of action is to sneak through their territory instead of adding fifteen months to their journey by going around, even though, as Tuvok reminds her, those actions would be a violation of Federation protocol. Not surprisingly, they fail to sneak all the way through a territory so vast that it would take fifteen months at maximum warp to get around, and Voyager is beset upon by the swarm. At first, Voyager's weapons are useless, but then Janeway says some magic words and the weapons work great, and destroying one ship sends a chain reaction of destruction through the swarm. Voyager has successfully bullied its way through swarm space.
As you can probably tell from the tone of that recap, I was considerably frustrated by this part of the show. Janeway's stated rationale for sneaking? "We're a long way from Federation space." Really? Not only is that incredibly inconsistent with the most established parts of her character so far, but as justifications go, that one is very insubstantial. It isn't a "we're going to die if we don't do this" - and last time she used that one, we were treated to her saying "I told ya so" at length afterwards. I'm not even saying that sneaking through is necessarily the wrong choice: space is fraught with peril, there's no guarantee that going around would be any less dangerous - but her complete 180 on this issue is entirely out of the blue, and I need a better explanation. She's operating on the "it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission" principle here, and one of my favorite things about the Federation is that they give even their enemies the chance to be the bigger people. It is perhaps a naive faith in others that drives that approach, but I find it to be quintessentially Roddenberrian. If they'd have tried to go through without sneaking, and maybe even trying to solve the language barrier, they'd still probably have had a fight on their hands, but at least I could feel good about them as the representatives of the Federation in a foreign land.
Gripe number two comes from the solution. It is a common condemnation of Trek that "They just solve problems with technobabble. But in my favorite show, [diaries of teenage angst: the sequel], problems are solved by people." Now, first of all, that's really rarely true. I mean, just look at the A-plot for this episode: technobabble is used in the solution, but that jargon just allows for the heroic sacrifice of the Zimmerman hologram in order to save another being who was made by the same creator. But honestly? I'm okay with science solving problems. Because science solves problems. The thing is, there's just no science here. Janeway just says something like "remodulate the polarity" and everything is fine. Very unsatisfying, and it gives ammunition to people who don't like Trek.
Watchability: 3/5 (A Plot: 4/5, B Plot: 1/5)
Bottom Line: Voyager is starting to deserve the bad reputation that the Kazon have been giving them. The Doctor plot is compelling, but it is most unfortunate that it is never used again (though not the fault of this episode).
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
S3 E03: The Chute
Kim and Paris are falsely accused of a terrorist act while on shore leave, and are sentenced to life imprisonment in a dark, overcrowded hole with chips in their heads that increase their aggressive tendencies. Paris is grievously wounded in a knife fight, and Kim must keep him alive while he fights the effects of his implant, negotiates with a messianic prisoner, and tries to find a way out (only to find that they are stuck on a space station). Meanwhile, Janeway negotiates for their release, only to find that the Akritirians are so serious about their brutal justice system that they won't even release them after Voyager returns with the actual culprits. With no other alternative, Voyager stages a prison-break and slinks off.
The prison parts of this episode are dark, and I don't mean just the lighting. Everything is grimy and dank and full of despair. The half-crazed prisoner who starts talking to Kim about his manifesto on the implants and prison life is surreal. In particular, there's the scene where he's looking slightly up into a white light, preaching to Kim about turning his aggressions into fuel, while the red light surrounding the chute (through which new prisoners and food enters) forms a halo above his head. Kim, finally shorting out the forcefield and climbing to the top of the chute, only to find that there is no escape except into the vacuum of space makes me feel like I'm watching Cube. It is all artfully done, with careful attention to detail.
The rescue elements of the show leave me dissatisfied, though. I don't need Janeway to get all righteous on the Akritirians, and intervening to fix this broken society is (a) against the prime directive and (b) not really a luxury that Voyager has time for. Yet she also, oddly, shows almost no compassion for the captured fugitives. I agree that this is a gray area for the prime directive: non-human societies cannot be expected to function the same way that human ones do. Say, for example, that it turns out that Akritirians are just inherently evil, that Akritirian science has proven beyond a doubt that without constant fear of severe punishment, the populace would instantly devolve into a Lord of the Flies-esque anarchy, from which it would take centuries to recover. Unlikely, perhaps, but that's why the Federation spies on people before making first contacts. In a universe of infinite possibilities, a lot of those possibilities are bad.
Still though, even agreeing with the non-involvement of Voyager, the ending feels hollow. Maybe it should. But the final scene, when Kim approaches Paris, I was expecting him to say something, anything, about the remorse he must feel for leaving all those other prisoners in such a hellhole. Sure, apologizing for almost killing Paris in a rage is something that needs to happen too, but it leaves the Voyager crew feeling a bit too cold-hearted about the suffering of others.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Despite my misgivings, I still liked it overall. Given the scope of Trek's canon, even if you block out the parts you don't like you're still left with plenty to appreciate.
The prison parts of this episode are dark, and I don't mean just the lighting. Everything is grimy and dank and full of despair. The half-crazed prisoner who starts talking to Kim about his manifesto on the implants and prison life is surreal. In particular, there's the scene where he's looking slightly up into a white light, preaching to Kim about turning his aggressions into fuel, while the red light surrounding the chute (through which new prisoners and food enters) forms a halo above his head. Kim, finally shorting out the forcefield and climbing to the top of the chute, only to find that there is no escape except into the vacuum of space makes me feel like I'm watching Cube. It is all artfully done, with careful attention to detail.
The rescue elements of the show leave me dissatisfied, though. I don't need Janeway to get all righteous on the Akritirians, and intervening to fix this broken society is (a) against the prime directive and (b) not really a luxury that Voyager has time for. Yet she also, oddly, shows almost no compassion for the captured fugitives. I agree that this is a gray area for the prime directive: non-human societies cannot be expected to function the same way that human ones do. Say, for example, that it turns out that Akritirians are just inherently evil, that Akritirian science has proven beyond a doubt that without constant fear of severe punishment, the populace would instantly devolve into a Lord of the Flies-esque anarchy, from which it would take centuries to recover. Unlikely, perhaps, but that's why the Federation spies on people before making first contacts. In a universe of infinite possibilities, a lot of those possibilities are bad.
Still though, even agreeing with the non-involvement of Voyager, the ending feels hollow. Maybe it should. But the final scene, when Kim approaches Paris, I was expecting him to say something, anything, about the remorse he must feel for leaving all those other prisoners in such a hellhole. Sure, apologizing for almost killing Paris in a rage is something that needs to happen too, but it leaves the Voyager crew feeling a bit too cold-hearted about the suffering of others.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Despite my misgivings, I still liked it overall. Given the scope of Trek's canon, even if you block out the parts you don't like you're still left with plenty to appreciate.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
S3 E02: Flashback
Tuvok experiences flashes of a memory from his childhood that he cannot fully recall of being unable to prevent a young girl from falling in a chasm. These flashes are quite debilitating, and the Doctor recognizes it as a Vulcan condition that can only be cured by mind-melding with a trusted friend and searching for the full memory. Tuvok melds with Janeway, and they find themselves on the bridge of the USS Excelsior, under the command of captain Sulu. It remains unclear why he has brought them to that memory, until the Doctor discovers that this repressed memory is actually a virus that masquerades as a memory.
Tuvok is old. It's odd that he doesn't also look old, given prior examples of Vulcan aging. There's Spock, who looks quite aged in the most recent movie, where he is still just in his hundreds, but that can be explained by him being half-human. Sarek, on the other hand, is gray-haired and a bit wrinkly even in his 130s (classic trek movies), and downright old when he died at just over 200 in TNG. I guess I'm not really complaining, because I'm happy for Tim Russ to play the part, but he is maybe a bit sprightly for someone in his 110s.
The meditation/building exercise that Tuvok does to try to regain his focus is pretty cool, especially considering that this scene was only added to lengthen a too-short episode. It seems like a very Vulcan way to go about things: take the symbolic elements of rebuilding one's composure and make them physical. It also gives us some more of the Tuvok/Kes relationship, which I believe I just got done asking for.
Tuvok's back-story, about leaving starfleet (which he had joined at the "urging" of his parents) for fifty years is also a great touch. His reason for returning is soundly Vulcan, and only happened because Russ was dissatisfied with the original (unaired) reason as being un-Vulcan and asked for a new one. Older Vulcans are consistently characterized as being less conservative, which I think is a nice contrast with humans. It's probably a factor of both their society and longer life, but younger Vulcans seem to very often be less tolerant of human emotion/distaste for logic, but with time and wisdom come to see how the two species complement each other well.
Sulu is always great to see, and The Undiscovered Country is my favorite of the Trek movies, so it was a treat to get a tribute to it. This was Voyager's contribution to the thirtieth anniversary year of Trek, and it was tastefully done. Trials and Tribble-ations, DS9's contribution, was certainly more fun, but I'm happy with them both.
One thing that this episode has that its counterpart does not is a cool sci-fi hook. The idea of a virus that disguises itself as a memory is interesting, and the idea that is disguises itself as a painful memory in order to avoid detection is fascinating. Not exactly the way things work in there, but it is still a great idea. The author, Brannon Braga, is often (at least partially) blamed for the downfall of Trek; he'll often be the one to take the very flimsiest of a "science" idea and force it into being the reason for a full-length episode (see: Non Sequitur or Threshold, just follow the links in the "Bottom 5" sidebar). But when he takes the time to make his ideas believable, or at least emotionally compelling, he gets good results.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Cool idea, good Tuvok development, and it is fun to see Sulu in action again.
Tuvok is old. It's odd that he doesn't also look old, given prior examples of Vulcan aging. There's Spock, who looks quite aged in the most recent movie, where he is still just in his hundreds, but that can be explained by him being half-human. Sarek, on the other hand, is gray-haired and a bit wrinkly even in his 130s (classic trek movies), and downright old when he died at just over 200 in TNG. I guess I'm not really complaining, because I'm happy for Tim Russ to play the part, but he is maybe a bit sprightly for someone in his 110s.
The meditation/building exercise that Tuvok does to try to regain his focus is pretty cool, especially considering that this scene was only added to lengthen a too-short episode. It seems like a very Vulcan way to go about things: take the symbolic elements of rebuilding one's composure and make them physical. It also gives us some more of the Tuvok/Kes relationship, which I believe I just got done asking for.
Tuvok's back-story, about leaving starfleet (which he had joined at the "urging" of his parents) for fifty years is also a great touch. His reason for returning is soundly Vulcan, and only happened because Russ was dissatisfied with the original (unaired) reason as being un-Vulcan and asked for a new one. Older Vulcans are consistently characterized as being less conservative, which I think is a nice contrast with humans. It's probably a factor of both their society and longer life, but younger Vulcans seem to very often be less tolerant of human emotion/distaste for logic, but with time and wisdom come to see how the two species complement each other well.
Sulu is always great to see, and The Undiscovered Country is my favorite of the Trek movies, so it was a treat to get a tribute to it. This was Voyager's contribution to the thirtieth anniversary year of Trek, and it was tastefully done. Trials and Tribble-ations, DS9's contribution, was certainly more fun, but I'm happy with them both.
One thing that this episode has that its counterpart does not is a cool sci-fi hook. The idea of a virus that disguises itself as a memory is interesting, and the idea that is disguises itself as a painful memory in order to avoid detection is fascinating. Not exactly the way things work in there, but it is still a great idea. The author, Brannon Braga, is often (at least partially) blamed for the downfall of Trek; he'll often be the one to take the very flimsiest of a "science" idea and force it into being the reason for a full-length episode (see: Non Sequitur or Threshold, just follow the links in the "Bottom 5" sidebar). But when he takes the time to make his ideas believable, or at least emotionally compelling, he gets good results.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Cool idea, good Tuvok development, and it is fun to see Sulu in action again.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Season 2 Evaluation
| The 37's | 1 |
| Initiations | 4 |
| Projections | 4 |
| Elogium | 1 |
| Non Sequitur | 1 |
| Twisted | 3 |
| Parturition | 1 |
| Persistence of Vision | 4 |
| Tattoo | 3 |
| Cold Fire | 5 |
| Maneuvers | 4 |
| Resistance | 4 |
| Prototype | 5 |
| Alliances | 4 |
| Threshold | 1 |
| Meld | 4 |
| Dreadnought | 4 |
| Death Wish | 3 |
| Lifesigns | 2 |
| Investigations | 3 |
| Deadlock | 4 |
| Innocence | 4 |
| The Thaw | 5 |
| Tuvix | 1 |
| Resolutions | 3 |
| Basics, Part I | 5 |
| Average Score | 3.2 |
This season sure was a roller-coaster. After not giving any season one episodes a 1/5, season two clocks in with a dismal six of them. Right around the time of Parturition, I wasn't sure I'd have the stamina to keep going, with four of the first eight episodes earning that lowest of watchability scores. Fortunately, the writers finally got some momentum going with Persistence of Vision, and I'm actually looking forward to season three.
The Maquis conflict was dealt with in a more satisfying manner this season in Alliances, but it still just disappears when it would be inconvenient. I don't really understand why the writers even included the Maquis ship in the show's concept if they didn't really want to use the division of the crew much.
This season is the last to feature the Vidiians OR the Kazon as recurring villains. I've gone into my feelings on them in several of the episode reviews, but this seems like a fitting place to recap those reactions. On paper, I like the idea of the Vidiians more. They have the set-up to be a very complex antagonist: the remains of a once-great civilization, worn down by years of disease, now driven by the overwhelming drive to survive. It seems like you could trust them to a point, until their self-interest kicks in and then you'd be out a pair of lungs. A single episode that actually explored that line would have been great. Instead, they're just bunch of thugs who steal organs, or they're completely nice people like Denara Pel. There's so much room for the gray area in between those two extremes, but we never get to see it.
The Kazon, on the other hand, aren't really much more than Klingons with
Several episodes this season shifted a lot of the acting demands onto guest stars. It was a gamble that payed off for Resistance, Meld/Basics, and The Thaw: each of those episodes had very demanding roles for the guest actors, and in each one they carried the show. It didn't always pay off though: I wasn't terribly impressed by Quinn in Death Wish, and Tuvix led his episode to a spectacular failure. However, in a full length season, there's plenty of time for these one-offs while still giving individual characters time to shine.
This season also marks the departure of Michael Piller, a long-time Trek writer, from the writing staff of Voyager. Now, Piller certainly has a couple of flops to his name (Time and Again and Insurrection come to mind), but even in those examples I feel that the problem was more in the execution than in the concept. Certainly, there can be little dispute that his finest hours have enriched the Trek universe greatly. Whenever I have read or heard commentary by him, it is clear that his heart was in the right place when it came to writing Trek, and that even on the episodes that he did not get credit for, I'm sure having his voice on the creative team was a good thing. The Lon Suder arc (he was responsible for both Meld and Basics) is a great note to end on though, so there will always be that at least. I'll close this part with a quote from an interview with him, where he is responding to a question that asks if Trek should be following the lead of other contemporary sci-fi shows, and get darker/grittier:
"...there are some who believe that we have to follow that trend. My feeling is that this franchise has the unique power to make people feel good. And that is one of its greatest secrets of success. I think you make people feel good by showing smart, effective heroes facing moral dilemmas and growing as they triumph."
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Even though this season had more than its share of low points, it picks up a lot of momentum halfway through. I still expect more out of people who have been writing Trek for so long at this point, so despite the great episodes we do get there is plenty of room for improvement.
Character Status: (Edit - I have gone back and ordered this list as I did for the Season 4 evaluation)
9. Neelix: I am so so so so so glad that they dropped the Neelix-Kes-Paris love triangle. It was one of the most obnoxious Trek plots ever, and made an annoying character like Neelix even less tolerable. Since they dropped it, they haven't used Neelix as much, but for the most part, he's been harmless. The "buffoon who unwittingly helps solve the problem" role he takes in Threshold and Prototype is a little tired, but again, harmless. He has no entries as awesome as Jetrel this season, but at least Parturition, Elogium, and Twisted feel like they happened a long time ago.
8. Kathryn Janeway: Everything I said in Cathexis still fits. Unfortunately, her condescending manner has taken another ugly turn in this season: particularly in the first half, she had several opportunities to pontificate to her flock. When you combine the condescension with preaching, it becomes a new, even less tolerable abomination. Her acting also isn't really improving. Sure, she isn't terrible in Resolutions and Resistance, but that's because she's put in different situations. The thing is, with someone like Bashir, who is terrible in season one of DS9, he was at least a pretty new actor, he just needed the experience to grow into the role. Mulgrew is someone who has been acting for a long time. Over the course of her career, she has somehow convinced herself that what she does is in some way "good."
7. Chakotay: I opined in the last season review that I wished he were a little more like Mal Reynolds. After drawing the connection between the two, it has been difficult not to be disappointed in Chakotay. He just doesn't act like he was the captain of a rebel ship. Initiations and Maneuvers are both decent Chakotay vehicles, but they both take his character in different directions.
6. Tom Paris: Right now, Paris is just the "action episode character." He's not a bad actor, but he hasn't had a chance to do much acting. Persistence of Vision and Threshold give some decent, if brief, glances into his character, but most of the time he's just arriving on a shuttle a little too late to be the one to save the ship (see: Investigations, Basics).
5. Harry Kim: Kim has a couple annoying uses this season, particularly in Resolutions and Non Sequitur, but on the whole I'm happy with his direction. He's vulnerable without being useless, and his excitement with exploration is contagious.
4. Kes: Kes was a lot more useful this season, and less of a Deanna Troi clone. Her learning aptitude fits nicely with the Ocampan age limit, and makes her very handy to have around. I'd like to see more of the mentoring relationship between her and Tuvok, and she works very well opposite the Doctor too.
3. The Doctor: I love his competence, his arrogance, his delivery, his timing, his everything. My one concern is that I hope the writers don't take his character in the direction they did in Lifesigns again (or at least, too often). It is possible to do the "The Doctor as a newly sentient being who is exploring what that means" thing without making it a "The Doctor wants to be a human and annoying" thing. More Heroes and Demons, less Lifesigns please.
2. B'Elanna Torres: We got a string of good Torres-centric episodes this season (Particularly Prototype and Dreadnought). I was already surprised by how much I like her, and now she's a highlight of the series for me along with the Doctor and Tuvok.
1. Tuvok: Tuvok remains one of the best utilized characters in the show. Russ has had the opportunity to show even more range this time around. Additionally, in the memory alpha annotations, Russ is often quoted as having very insightful comments on what worked and what didn't. I assume that the writers listen to him a fair amount of the time, which is why his character is working so much better than other ones I could name.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
S2 E26 & S3 E01: Basics, Parts I and II
It's not like I didn't watch these episodes back to back, so it isn't really worth keeping up the pretense of reviewing them one by one.
Voyager receives a Kazon distress signal, suggesting that Seska has fallen out of Cullah's graces upon the birth of "Chakotay's" child. Chakotay doesn't want the ship to run into an obvious trap on his account, but Janeway and his spirit dad give him cause to reconsider. Along the way, they pick up a wounded Kazon soldier who tells them that Seska is dead, and he was injured trying to escape. He grudgingly agrees to help them mount a rescue of the baby. It turns out to be a trap, and the Kazon soldier blows himself up in order to cripple Voyager. Two key things happen: Paris escapes on a shuttle to go get help from the Talaxians, and Lon Suder (the guy who is in confinement for murdering someone, but is trying to mend his ways now) is set free. The rest of the crew are stranded on a barren planet with only primitive humanoids for company.
I didn't get into this during the Meld discussion, since I knew I'd need it here: One of the most powerful scenes from Lord of the Rings, for me, occurs in the first movie, when the fellowship is making its way through Moria, and Frodo suggests just killing the wretched Gollum. Gandalf has this to say on the matter:
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."
The significance of that line didn't sink in when I read the books in my sophomore year of high school. I enjoyed them, but only read them once, and never read that line while knowing the final outcome. Without Gollum's interference, Frodo would have put the ring on in Mount Doom and walked away. Sam could not have bitten off Frodo's finger. It was the pity that stopped Bilbo from killing Gollum in The Hobbit that ultimately saved Middle-Earth. Even better, it isn't truly a redemption for Gollum; it is after all his unrelenting greed that drives him to single-mindedly fight for the ring, at the cost of his own life. I think it is even more powerful and less heavy-handed that way.
We get that here, and this episode's going to coast to a 5/5 on the power of the Lon Suder stuff alone. As much as I still think that putting him off at the nearest uninhabited world would still have been the best course of action, his role here is fantastic. Like Gollum, his reprieve is ultimately what saves the ship. But also like Gollum, he is successful because he is still a brutally capable killer. His scenes in part one, where he's trying to contribute to the ship despite his incarceration, show a man who is trying to atone, but still can't control his anger. It's not clear he'd ever be trusted enough by Janeway to make food for the ship. While he's hiding from the Kazon, and working with the Doctor, he's clearly struggling with himself over the killing he'll have to do. And when, at the end, he arrives in engineering, and slaughters the ten or so Kazon there, his fate is sealed. This character arc is perfect. I'm a bit sad that he dies, but if that prevents the writers from abusing the character later on, it is all worth it.
Anything else that I have to say about the episode is just nitpicking, really. It's a bit annoying that Voyager is lured into yet another trap, but at least it is Seska, who has already established that she's quite capable of crafting excellent Voyager-lures. Also, I like the Kazon, and we get some good action in this episode as a result. The revelation that the child is actually Cardassian/Kazon is awfully convenient, but I sure am glad we aren't going to have to keep the kid around as a result. Seska's death is pretty anti-climactic, but not every villain death needs to be over the top, and I feel that the Seska stuff has pretty much run its course.
It is a shame that the crew-stranded-on-the-planet part is pretty irrelevant to the overall plot, but this episode works better as a season finale/opener than the last ones, so if they needed some filler to make it happen, I'm all for it. Plus, it's not bad, it's nice to see the tech savvy Voyager crew roughing it. Neelix's scene where he is telling Hogan to collect the humanoid bones they find for use as weapons is good: I like that despite his bubbliness, Neelix is ever the pragmatist, and completely unfazed by Hogan's squeamishness. I wish they hadn't just used Hogan as a redshirt in the beginning of part two though, he was really shaping up nicely as a background Maquis crewman who has adjusted enough to get along, but still had his reservations about Janeway's choices. In a way, he could have been the bridge between the two crews that Chakotay hasn't been shaping up to be.
Fun notes: The Doctor is phenomenal in his scheming to retake the ship. He manipulates Seska better than any other member of the crew has managed. Also, it's good to know that pointy ears grant archery ability: on the planet, Tuvok fashions a bow out of materials he has found there, and proves that he has elven accuracy on a couple occasions. Finally, this is the second time that Tom arrives in a shuttle to save the day, only to have his thunder stolen by someone else (this time, Suder).
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: Like I said before, this episode buys the 5 on the strength of the Lon Suder parts. The rest thankfully doesn't get in the way, and is a fitting send-off for the Kazon.
Voyager receives a Kazon distress signal, suggesting that Seska has fallen out of Cullah's graces upon the birth of "Chakotay's" child. Chakotay doesn't want the ship to run into an obvious trap on his account, but Janeway and his spirit dad give him cause to reconsider. Along the way, they pick up a wounded Kazon soldier who tells them that Seska is dead, and he was injured trying to escape. He grudgingly agrees to help them mount a rescue of the baby. It turns out to be a trap, and the Kazon soldier blows himself up in order to cripple Voyager. Two key things happen: Paris escapes on a shuttle to go get help from the Talaxians, and Lon Suder (the guy who is in confinement for murdering someone, but is trying to mend his ways now) is set free. The rest of the crew are stranded on a barren planet with only primitive humanoids for company.
I didn't get into this during the Meld discussion, since I knew I'd need it here: One of the most powerful scenes from Lord of the Rings, for me, occurs in the first movie, when the fellowship is making its way through Moria, and Frodo suggests just killing the wretched Gollum. Gandalf has this to say on the matter:
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."
The significance of that line didn't sink in when I read the books in my sophomore year of high school. I enjoyed them, but only read them once, and never read that line while knowing the final outcome. Without Gollum's interference, Frodo would have put the ring on in Mount Doom and walked away. Sam could not have bitten off Frodo's finger. It was the pity that stopped Bilbo from killing Gollum in The Hobbit that ultimately saved Middle-Earth. Even better, it isn't truly a redemption for Gollum; it is after all his unrelenting greed that drives him to single-mindedly fight for the ring, at the cost of his own life. I think it is even more powerful and less heavy-handed that way.
We get that here, and this episode's going to coast to a 5/5 on the power of the Lon Suder stuff alone. As much as I still think that putting him off at the nearest uninhabited world would still have been the best course of action, his role here is fantastic. Like Gollum, his reprieve is ultimately what saves the ship. But also like Gollum, he is successful because he is still a brutally capable killer. His scenes in part one, where he's trying to contribute to the ship despite his incarceration, show a man who is trying to atone, but still can't control his anger. It's not clear he'd ever be trusted enough by Janeway to make food for the ship. While he's hiding from the Kazon, and working with the Doctor, he's clearly struggling with himself over the killing he'll have to do. And when, at the end, he arrives in engineering, and slaughters the ten or so Kazon there, his fate is sealed. This character arc is perfect. I'm a bit sad that he dies, but if that prevents the writers from abusing the character later on, it is all worth it.
Anything else that I have to say about the episode is just nitpicking, really. It's a bit annoying that Voyager is lured into yet another trap, but at least it is Seska, who has already established that she's quite capable of crafting excellent Voyager-lures. Also, I like the Kazon, and we get some good action in this episode as a result. The revelation that the child is actually Cardassian/Kazon is awfully convenient, but I sure am glad we aren't going to have to keep the kid around as a result. Seska's death is pretty anti-climactic, but not every villain death needs to be over the top, and I feel that the Seska stuff has pretty much run its course.
It is a shame that the crew-stranded-on-the-planet part is pretty irrelevant to the overall plot, but this episode works better as a season finale/opener than the last ones, so if they needed some filler to make it happen, I'm all for it. Plus, it's not bad, it's nice to see the tech savvy Voyager crew roughing it. Neelix's scene where he is telling Hogan to collect the humanoid bones they find for use as weapons is good: I like that despite his bubbliness, Neelix is ever the pragmatist, and completely unfazed by Hogan's squeamishness. I wish they hadn't just used Hogan as a redshirt in the beginning of part two though, he was really shaping up nicely as a background Maquis crewman who has adjusted enough to get along, but still had his reservations about Janeway's choices. In a way, he could have been the bridge between the two crews that Chakotay hasn't been shaping up to be.
Fun notes: The Doctor is phenomenal in his scheming to retake the ship. He manipulates Seska better than any other member of the crew has managed. Also, it's good to know that pointy ears grant archery ability: on the planet, Tuvok fashions a bow out of materials he has found there, and proves that he has elven accuracy on a couple occasions. Finally, this is the second time that Tom arrives in a shuttle to save the day, only to have his thunder stolen by someone else (this time, Suder).
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: Like I said before, this episode buys the 5 on the strength of the Lon Suder parts. The rest thankfully doesn't get in the way, and is a fitting send-off for the Kazon.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
S2 E25: Resolutions
Plot 1: Janeway and Chakotay have contracted an incurable disease, which will only lay dormant if they stay on the planet where they contracted it. Janeway orders Tuvok (who is now in command) to quarantine them there, since the Doctor can't come up with a cure, and continue home without them. She takes enough research equipment to focus on finding a cure day and night, while Chakotay sets about making a life for them there. When a plasma storm destroys all her research, she is forced to come to terms with her new life there, and she and Chakotay discuss what direction their relationship might take. Oh, and she makes friends with a monkey.
It is hard not to look at Janeway and Chakotay in terms of Roslin and Adama (from Battlestar). They're both leaders with difference spheres of influence who followed very different paths to the predicament in which they've found themselves. In both cases, a relationship would be very unprofessional, but they are in situations where standards for professionalism are set by them. I could fill pages (and probably will at some point) about the ways in which Battlestar is "Voyager done right," but now's not the time. Suffice it to say, it takes effort for me to not judge things in Voyager as bad because they did something similar in an awesome way in Battlestar, but as a separate entity.
Janeway and Chakotay, despite being awkward together, show more chemistry than I'd expect they would. Mulgrew gives some of her most natural acting in this episode, aside from the ridiculous pose she keeps taking when approaching the monkey. When she's not being the condescending captain, she's actually kind of likeable. The thing is, if the writers are going to do an episode like this so early on, they've got to have the courage to at least deal with the fallout. While I haven't seen most of the rest of the series directly, I do know that this relationship is simply dropped. It's a shame too, because the start it gets here makes it feel almost normal.
Plot 2: Even though Janeway had ordered Tuvok not to risk the ship and crew by asking the Vidiians for help with their medical problem, many crew members (led by Kim) object to that decision. Kim stops just short of organizing a rebellion against Tuvok, who eventually relents and agrees to meet with the Vidiians. The bad guys act like bad guys, but the Doctor's Vidiian girlfriend sneaks the cure to him, and then escape to go rescue Janeway and Chakotay.
I'm a little disappointed with Kim's behavior here, and also with Tuvok's leadership (he was better with the kids on that planet than he is with the crew), but more so I am disappointed with the Vidiians. This was their last chance. There are no more Vidiian episodes. Here they're just the Romulan stand-ins, springing an obvious trap. I mean, Kim made an excellent point, that Voyager has some very good bargaining chips, and even the gruesome Vidiians from their first appearance would have rather traded for what they want rather than fight for it. Just... disappointing.
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Even though the "resolutions" of this episode aren't built on later, it's still a decent show. Even though they leave the monkey behind.
It is hard not to look at Janeway and Chakotay in terms of Roslin and Adama (from Battlestar). They're both leaders with difference spheres of influence who followed very different paths to the predicament in which they've found themselves. In both cases, a relationship would be very unprofessional, but they are in situations where standards for professionalism are set by them. I could fill pages (and probably will at some point) about the ways in which Battlestar is "Voyager done right," but now's not the time. Suffice it to say, it takes effort for me to not judge things in Voyager as bad because they did something similar in an awesome way in Battlestar, but as a separate entity.
Janeway and Chakotay, despite being awkward together, show more chemistry than I'd expect they would. Mulgrew gives some of her most natural acting in this episode, aside from the ridiculous pose she keeps taking when approaching the monkey. When she's not being the condescending captain, she's actually kind of likeable. The thing is, if the writers are going to do an episode like this so early on, they've got to have the courage to at least deal with the fallout. While I haven't seen most of the rest of the series directly, I do know that this relationship is simply dropped. It's a shame too, because the start it gets here makes it feel almost normal.
Plot 2: Even though Janeway had ordered Tuvok not to risk the ship and crew by asking the Vidiians for help with their medical problem, many crew members (led by Kim) object to that decision. Kim stops just short of organizing a rebellion against Tuvok, who eventually relents and agrees to meet with the Vidiians. The bad guys act like bad guys, but the Doctor's Vidiian girlfriend sneaks the cure to him, and then escape to go rescue Janeway and Chakotay.
I'm a little disappointed with Kim's behavior here, and also with Tuvok's leadership (he was better with the kids on that planet than he is with the crew), but more so I am disappointed with the Vidiians. This was their last chance. There are no more Vidiian episodes. Here they're just the Romulan stand-ins, springing an obvious trap. I mean, Kim made an excellent point, that Voyager has some very good bargaining chips, and even the gruesome Vidiians from their first appearance would have rather traded for what they want rather than fight for it. Just... disappointing.
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Even though the "resolutions" of this episode aren't built on later, it's still a decent show. Even though they leave the monkey behind.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
S2 E24: Tuvix
Tuvok and Neelix are on an away mission to collect some special orchids. When they are beamed up, the orchids cause them to fuse into one abomination. The Doctor can't separate them right away, so the crew is stuck with him for about a month. Once the Doctor finds a cure, "Tuvix" (as he chooses to be called) decides he wants to be selfish and not submit to the procedure. Janeway deliberates a bit, then forces him to get split apart again.
The science here is pretty laughable, even in the context of a science fiction universe where people can be converted into energy and transported over long distances on a routine basis. The idea itself of life that reproduces by fusing its genetic material with that of another species on its own is pretty cool, though problematic if this form of reproduction doesn't in some way increase the quantity of that particular species. I guess that normal floral reproductive techniques must also be in use here, or else there wouldn't be an abundance of that flower on the planet, but I'd still expect them to have found more hybrid flowers around on the surface. The real problem I have with the physics here is that not only did the flowers fuse with the people they transported with, but they also somehow got the two separate transporter streams to cross and fuse the two non-flower creatures into a being that can somehow still walk and breathe.
Of course, many episodes have silly premises. This one might have been easier to buy into if the actor playing Tuvix weren't atrocious himself. No, that's not fair. He might be a decent actor; he has been in a million different things (that I haven't seen), so he must do something well. But here he moves like a robot with a five-second delay on all of his motor functions, and talks like he's only read about verbal communication in a book and is just giving it his first shot.
It doesn't help that everyone around him treats him with such disgust - it really feels out of character for them too. In the memory alpha annotations, Tuvix's actor complains that he got just about no help from the director, which certainly goes a long way to explain why he doesn't convincingly act like a fusing of Tuvok and Neelix. But the director is a Trek veteran, with some impressive credits to his name, so that doesn't explain why all the regulars also seem to be adrift. Well, no explanation except as a cheap trick to set up the Moral Dilemma.
The Moral Dilemma feels exceptionally contrived. Tuvix himself admits that Tuvok and Neelix both would be selfless enough to give up their lives for another, but that he is unwilling to give up his one life for two others. This whole part of the episode was just set up to give Janeway a Tough Choice, and her earlier disgust with Tuvix was set up just to allow Tuvix to make a case that she's prejudiced against him (which, oddly, and thankfully, he does not). It is admittedly a tough choice, and I do like Kes' scene where she is asked by Tuvix to speak to the captain on his behalf, but she finds that she cannot. Janeway ultimately decides that she must speak up for Tuvok and Neelix, who cannot speak for themselves, and reverses the accident. But once we have them back, and they have the opportunity to weigh in on the matter themselves, Janeway smiles and just turns and leaves sickbay.
(Big segue alert!) Babylon 5 is just chock full of moments like that, and they drove me crazy. I love B5 and all, with its fascinating universe and powerful story arcs, but realistic character dialogue was not its strength. Characters were always walking in, dropping conversational bombs, things that demand a response, pausing a beat, and then leaving the room (sadly, it has been too long since I watched through it, and the B5 wiki is absolutely barren in comparison with memory alpha, so I can't come up with a good example). Not particularly relevant, just airing a pet peeve of mine.
In terms of exploring a being's desire to cling to its existence, I feel like the previous episode just did it so much more effectively. Fear's desire to exist feels so much more real, so desperate, that Tuvix's dilemma seems like quibbling in comparison. He's not even really dying: if the separation works anything like the merger did (and we have no reason to expect it not to), Neelix and Tuvok will still carry his memories and experiences. That's more than most other mortals can hope for; Fear simply vanished.
Watchability: 1/5
Bottom Line: The whole episode just feels like a tunnel-visioned sprint for the moral dilemma, only instead of a sprint, it is a crawl. If there's one redeeming quality it is that the writers don't have the characters agonize or moralize too much about the choice.
The science here is pretty laughable, even in the context of a science fiction universe where people can be converted into energy and transported over long distances on a routine basis. The idea itself of life that reproduces by fusing its genetic material with that of another species on its own is pretty cool, though problematic if this form of reproduction doesn't in some way increase the quantity of that particular species. I guess that normal floral reproductive techniques must also be in use here, or else there wouldn't be an abundance of that flower on the planet, but I'd still expect them to have found more hybrid flowers around on the surface. The real problem I have with the physics here is that not only did the flowers fuse with the people they transported with, but they also somehow got the two separate transporter streams to cross and fuse the two non-flower creatures into a being that can somehow still walk and breathe.
Of course, many episodes have silly premises. This one might have been easier to buy into if the actor playing Tuvix weren't atrocious himself. No, that's not fair. He might be a decent actor; he has been in a million different things (that I haven't seen), so he must do something well. But here he moves like a robot with a five-second delay on all of his motor functions, and talks like he's only read about verbal communication in a book and is just giving it his first shot.
It doesn't help that everyone around him treats him with such disgust - it really feels out of character for them too. In the memory alpha annotations, Tuvix's actor complains that he got just about no help from the director, which certainly goes a long way to explain why he doesn't convincingly act like a fusing of Tuvok and Neelix. But the director is a Trek veteran, with some impressive credits to his name, so that doesn't explain why all the regulars also seem to be adrift. Well, no explanation except as a cheap trick to set up the Moral Dilemma.
The Moral Dilemma feels exceptionally contrived. Tuvix himself admits that Tuvok and Neelix both would be selfless enough to give up their lives for another, but that he is unwilling to give up his one life for two others. This whole part of the episode was just set up to give Janeway a Tough Choice, and her earlier disgust with Tuvix was set up just to allow Tuvix to make a case that she's prejudiced against him (which, oddly, and thankfully, he does not). It is admittedly a tough choice, and I do like Kes' scene where she is asked by Tuvix to speak to the captain on his behalf, but she finds that she cannot. Janeway ultimately decides that she must speak up for Tuvok and Neelix, who cannot speak for themselves, and reverses the accident. But once we have them back, and they have the opportunity to weigh in on the matter themselves, Janeway smiles and just turns and leaves sickbay.
(Big segue alert!) Babylon 5 is just chock full of moments like that, and they drove me crazy. I love B5 and all, with its fascinating universe and powerful story arcs, but realistic character dialogue was not its strength. Characters were always walking in, dropping conversational bombs, things that demand a response, pausing a beat, and then leaving the room (sadly, it has been too long since I watched through it, and the B5 wiki is absolutely barren in comparison with memory alpha, so I can't come up with a good example). Not particularly relevant, just airing a pet peeve of mine.
In terms of exploring a being's desire to cling to its existence, I feel like the previous episode just did it so much more effectively. Fear's desire to exist feels so much more real, so desperate, that Tuvix's dilemma seems like quibbling in comparison. He's not even really dying: if the separation works anything like the merger did (and we have no reason to expect it not to), Neelix and Tuvok will still carry his memories and experiences. That's more than most other mortals can hope for; Fear simply vanished.
Watchability: 1/5
Bottom Line: The whole episode just feels like a tunnel-visioned sprint for the moral dilemma, only instead of a sprint, it is a crawl. If there's one redeeming quality it is that the writers don't have the characters agonize or moralize too much about the choice.
Monday, January 24, 2011
S2 E23: The Thaw
This episode starts with a nice Paris and Kim scene, where Kim is practicing clarinet and the two get talking about hopes for getting home and women. It really isn't relevant to the rest of the episode, but I'm glad it's here. I wish there were more of these character scenes, where friendships are built gradually and fluidly. This is admittedly DS9's strength, but I'm happy to see some of it rub off here.
Voyager encounters a planet that is recovering from an ice age caused by changes in it's sun. They receive an automated signal informing them that survivors of this planet's catastrophe are planning to return, so please stay away - an optimistic request in this quadrant if ever I heard one. The catch is that, according to the signal, they were supposed to return four years ago. Kim finds evidence of three survivors in stasis pods beneath the planet's surface, and Janeway orders them to be brought aboard.
There are actually five pods, but two of the occupants have died. According to the Doctor's readings, they died from stress-related causes. Since there's no way to safely disconnect the remaining three, they're supposed to be able to let themselves out, and they appear to be linked into a virtual environment through the pods, Kim and Torres are sent in to retrieve them. There are complications. If you have never seen this episode, I recommend watching it instead of reading further, it is worth it.
The computer linking the survivors (henceforth: the Kohl) has used their thoughts and emotions to create characters in the virtual world. Over the years, the manifestation of fear has taken over; amongst all the fears the Kohl must've had when trying to survive their planet's catastrophe, that isn't surprising. Additionally, there's another fear in play: the virtual world's own fear of ceasing to exist should the Kohl's stasis end at the scheduled time. To that end, the personification of terror has kept them trapped in the pods.
It was a pretty campy move to make Fear (henceforth capitalized so that I don't need to keep using "manifestation" or "personification") a clown, leading a bizarre carnival of other circus people. At the same time, it is a very effective move, in terms of making the virtual landscape sufficiently surreal and creepy. Most of the background actors in this episode are from Cirque du Soleil, which grants their actions an extra bit of eerie grace. Fear himself is played by Michael McKean: the manic energy that he brings to the part would be easy to screw up, so I'm very grateful that the producers shelled out for the big name guy. He torments Kim (Kim does play effectively on Fear's fear of dying to allow B'Elanna to escape and warn the others) with a kind of sadistic glee, making all of his personal fears come to life. The Kohl watch in horror, terrified to do anything, but feeling guilty that he must face what is ultimately their creation.
The Doctor's arrival to interrupt the torture is brilliant. Janeway foreshadows his arrival in a previous scene, but with the knowledge that he's going to show up, his dry, calm demeanor is very satisfying as a counterpoint to Fear's behavior. The Doctor doesn't exactly save the day though, he just buys time. Fear still won't release his remaining prisoners, and that's good. I love the Doctor and all, but I don't want him to be the Doctor Ex Machina too often. I don't think it diminishes his role here at all for him not to be the one who saves the day just by being a different type of sentient life.
After trying a couple more technical things that don't work, the crew tries to beat fear by thinking like fear. Janeway makes good points about fear's usefulness as a human response. I mean, fear is very often inconvenient, but ultimately good that we as humans have it around, largely to keep us from repeatedly making bad decisions. Pain is similar: for the most part, we look at pain as a bad thing. But there are people who can't feel pain - and these people don't live terribly long because their body isn't telling them when to stop doing simple things, like standing in one position for too long. Pain and fear both send important signals to humans - but with all of that said, this Fear is still a bad guy.
The crew uses Fear's fear of death again to trick him into taking a risky deal - release the hostages, in exchange for one different hostage (Janeway), and they'll agree not to just pull the plug and take their chances with brain damage. You know there's going to be a catch, and Fear must know it too, but he is too blinded by his fear to thoroughly analyze the situation. When he realizes that the Janeway they sent in was actually a hologram, while fooling him by hooking her actual body up to the machine without putting her under all the way, his world slowly fades to black in a very chilling way.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: This episode, not only in terms of high concept but also in somewhat campy execution and even set design, is very reminiscent of classic Kirk Trek. It is a great idea, executed well, and with an excellent guest actor.
Voyager encounters a planet that is recovering from an ice age caused by changes in it's sun. They receive an automated signal informing them that survivors of this planet's catastrophe are planning to return, so please stay away - an optimistic request in this quadrant if ever I heard one. The catch is that, according to the signal, they were supposed to return four years ago. Kim finds evidence of three survivors in stasis pods beneath the planet's surface, and Janeway orders them to be brought aboard.
There are actually five pods, but two of the occupants have died. According to the Doctor's readings, they died from stress-related causes. Since there's no way to safely disconnect the remaining three, they're supposed to be able to let themselves out, and they appear to be linked into a virtual environment through the pods, Kim and Torres are sent in to retrieve them. There are complications. If you have never seen this episode, I recommend watching it instead of reading further, it is worth it.
The computer linking the survivors (henceforth: the Kohl) has used their thoughts and emotions to create characters in the virtual world. Over the years, the manifestation of fear has taken over; amongst all the fears the Kohl must've had when trying to survive their planet's catastrophe, that isn't surprising. Additionally, there's another fear in play: the virtual world's own fear of ceasing to exist should the Kohl's stasis end at the scheduled time. To that end, the personification of terror has kept them trapped in the pods.
It was a pretty campy move to make Fear (henceforth capitalized so that I don't need to keep using "manifestation" or "personification") a clown, leading a bizarre carnival of other circus people. At the same time, it is a very effective move, in terms of making the virtual landscape sufficiently surreal and creepy. Most of the background actors in this episode are from Cirque du Soleil, which grants their actions an extra bit of eerie grace. Fear himself is played by Michael McKean: the manic energy that he brings to the part would be easy to screw up, so I'm very grateful that the producers shelled out for the big name guy. He torments Kim (Kim does play effectively on Fear's fear of dying to allow B'Elanna to escape and warn the others) with a kind of sadistic glee, making all of his personal fears come to life. The Kohl watch in horror, terrified to do anything, but feeling guilty that he must face what is ultimately their creation.
The Doctor's arrival to interrupt the torture is brilliant. Janeway foreshadows his arrival in a previous scene, but with the knowledge that he's going to show up, his dry, calm demeanor is very satisfying as a counterpoint to Fear's behavior. The Doctor doesn't exactly save the day though, he just buys time. Fear still won't release his remaining prisoners, and that's good. I love the Doctor and all, but I don't want him to be the Doctor Ex Machina too often. I don't think it diminishes his role here at all for him not to be the one who saves the day just by being a different type of sentient life.
After trying a couple more technical things that don't work, the crew tries to beat fear by thinking like fear. Janeway makes good points about fear's usefulness as a human response. I mean, fear is very often inconvenient, but ultimately good that we as humans have it around, largely to keep us from repeatedly making bad decisions. Pain is similar: for the most part, we look at pain as a bad thing. But there are people who can't feel pain - and these people don't live terribly long because their body isn't telling them when to stop doing simple things, like standing in one position for too long. Pain and fear both send important signals to humans - but with all of that said, this Fear is still a bad guy.
The crew uses Fear's fear of death again to trick him into taking a risky deal - release the hostages, in exchange for one different hostage (Janeway), and they'll agree not to just pull the plug and take their chances with brain damage. You know there's going to be a catch, and Fear must know it too, but he is too blinded by his fear to thoroughly analyze the situation. When he realizes that the Janeway they sent in was actually a hologram, while fooling him by hooking her actual body up to the machine without putting her under all the way, his world slowly fades to black in a very chilling way.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: This episode, not only in terms of high concept but also in somewhat campy execution and even set design, is very reminiscent of classic Kirk Trek. It is a great idea, executed well, and with an excellent guest actor.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
S2 E22: Innocence
Tuvok has crash-landed a shuttle on an alien world (I guess they're all alien worlds out here), where he finds three children who cling to him. The children are from another crashed ship (all the adults died in the crash), and cling to Tuvok for protection, telling him they've been brought there to die. Unaware that Tuvok has crashed, Voyager is simultaneously making its first contact with that same species (the Drayans), hoping to get some mining rights. When Tuvok gets word to Voyager that these people may be sending their young to die on this planet, a Cultural MisunderstandingTM occurs. Fortunately, once everyone converges on Tuvok and the kids, everything is ironed out and happy.
By all rights, the Tuvok & kids scenes should be terrible. It has all the elements: kids in Trek, unsupervised kids in Trek, kids with a guy with no emotions in Trek - put simply, it has kids. But it is actually very cute. Tuvok seems like a good "stern-but-fair" dad, and while the kids don't always receive his lessons in emotional control well, his Vulcanly even temper is up to the task. There are some great insights into Vulcan parenting, and his responses to questions like "If you aren't emotional, do you not love your own children?" are very well thought out, belying an emotional connection without thepassion volatility that you find in human emotion. There were a lot of opportunities for the writers to do the "Vulcans are bad because emotions are good" thing that I touched on a couple of reviews ago, but they don't, and I approve.
As for the Cultural MisunderstandingTM part of the plot: I know they felt they needed it so that the episode has a central conflict, and so that it doesn't just last ten minutes, but I got plenty of eye-rolling done while waiting for the reveal. I presumed that the kids were taking part in some sort of coming of age ritual that of course Tuvok didn't have enough information to piece together, but I was wrong. Well, yes, it was a still a misunderstanding, but actually these aliens age in reverse, so Tuvok's been down on the planet with alzheimer's patients who go there to evaporate as part of their natural life cycle. Usually they have attendants, but because of the crash, they were on their own and confused.
As annoying as the conflict was, the manner of the resolution was very touching. Tuvok's guardianship of these elders had naturally formed a bond, which the leaders of the Drayans recognize and appreciate. Reoriented by more familiar surroundings (also very accurate to alzheimers), the remaining "child" is able to relate something of her long life to Tuvok, and chooses to die with him by her side.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: I expected to dislike each element that went into this story, and was pleasantly surprised most of the time. Very good Tuvok episode.
By all rights, the Tuvok & kids scenes should be terrible. It has all the elements: kids in Trek, unsupervised kids in Trek, kids with a guy with no emotions in Trek - put simply, it has kids. But it is actually very cute. Tuvok seems like a good "stern-but-fair" dad, and while the kids don't always receive his lessons in emotional control well, his Vulcanly even temper is up to the task. There are some great insights into Vulcan parenting, and his responses to questions like "If you aren't emotional, do you not love your own children?" are very well thought out, belying an emotional connection without the
As for the Cultural MisunderstandingTM part of the plot: I know they felt they needed it so that the episode has a central conflict, and so that it doesn't just last ten minutes, but I got plenty of eye-rolling done while waiting for the reveal. I presumed that the kids were taking part in some sort of coming of age ritual that of course Tuvok didn't have enough information to piece together, but I was wrong. Well, yes, it was a still a misunderstanding, but actually these aliens age in reverse, so Tuvok's been down on the planet with alzheimer's patients who go there to evaporate as part of their natural life cycle. Usually they have attendants, but because of the crash, they were on their own and confused.
As annoying as the conflict was, the manner of the resolution was very touching. Tuvok's guardianship of these elders had naturally formed a bond, which the leaders of the Drayans recognize and appreciate. Reoriented by more familiar surroundings (also very accurate to alzheimers), the remaining "child" is able to relate something of her long life to Tuvok, and chooses to die with him by her side.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: I expected to dislike each element that went into this story, and was pleasantly surprised most of the time. Very good Tuvok episode.
Friday, January 21, 2011
S2 E21: Deadlock
In order to avoid the Vidiians, Voyager takes a side trip through a plasma drift. Upon leaving, its warp engines cut out, and the ship starts being bombarded with energy from an unknown source. Heavy damage is taken, multiple hull breaches, Wildman's new child dies, and Kim is sucked into the vacuum of space. Kes steps through a spatial rift... and wakes up on a bright, shiny, clean Voyager. In the space phenomena, Voyager had been duplicated atom by atom (though slightly out of phase), and now there are two ships draining one source of antimatter. Vidiians board and overwhelm the healthy Voyager, forcing them to self-destruct (after sending Kim & baby to the first copy), destroying the Vidiians, and freeing Voyager from its tether.
The first act of this episode is very high-energy, lots going on, with good attention to detail - particularly in the sickbay scenes. It is all very cool, but as soon as the baby dies (followed shortly by Kim), it's obvious that they're going to slam on the reset button somehow. It really detracts from what could have been more powerful scenes to know that there's no way events will remain that way at the end. Yet, at the same time, I was kept entertained enough not to care. The duplication of the ship presents an interesting puzzle, and the antimatter's failure to duplicate is a clever twist. Even though we start exclusively with the damaged Voyager, we end up spending enough time with both crews to not be sure who exactly to root for.
Best of all, it isn't even really a reset button episode - sure, Kim and the baby still are essentially resurrected, but the crew of damaged Voyager retain all the memories of their hardships: losing the baby (Wildman), being helpless to resuscitate the baby (the Doctor/Kes), watching a friend get sucked into space (Torres). Damaged Janeway even planned on blowing her ship up to save the other ship - it can't be easy to have been so hopeless, and then have a second chance because someone else made the same sacrifice for you. It does feel a little cheap to get Kim and the baby back, but I'd miss Kim, so I'm just glad he didn't die. Of note: his scenes at the end are very reminiscent of O'Brien in Visionary (DS9, season 3), wherein the O'Brien that we focus on for most of the episode dies and is replaced by a functionally identical but slightly temporally displaced copy.
The Vidiians are back to just being a stock villain again. They could easily be replaced with any aggressive and high-technology Trek faction. The way Voyager seems to flip back and forth between Kazon and Vidiian territory (with other planets in between), presuming the ship is going in a relatively straight line, gives the impression that this part of the delta quadrant is quite fractured in terms of ownership. At first glance, it seems sloppy, but thinking about it more, I kinda like it: the Vidiians, due to the nature of their existence, are probably overall a pretty low-population species. To make up for it, they've got the most powerful technology we've seen so far, so presumably they can just go wherever they please, and the other delta natives try to stay out of their way. Kazon, being low-tech but high population raiders (with lots of different sub-factions), are spread out and nomadic, accounting for their sporadic presence that way. Now, I've seen no evidence that the writers thought the set-up out that much (and I've been reading their collected comments on memory alpha religiously), but I think that the above is a pretty reasonable explanation.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Good action, interesting puzzle, solid show. It isn't a good Vidiian episode, but it is a good episode with Vidiians in it.
The first act of this episode is very high-energy, lots going on, with good attention to detail - particularly in the sickbay scenes. It is all very cool, but as soon as the baby dies (followed shortly by Kim), it's obvious that they're going to slam on the reset button somehow. It really detracts from what could have been more powerful scenes to know that there's no way events will remain that way at the end. Yet, at the same time, I was kept entertained enough not to care. The duplication of the ship presents an interesting puzzle, and the antimatter's failure to duplicate is a clever twist. Even though we start exclusively with the damaged Voyager, we end up spending enough time with both crews to not be sure who exactly to root for.
Best of all, it isn't even really a reset button episode - sure, Kim and the baby still are essentially resurrected, but the crew of damaged Voyager retain all the memories of their hardships: losing the baby (Wildman), being helpless to resuscitate the baby (the Doctor/Kes), watching a friend get sucked into space (Torres). Damaged Janeway even planned on blowing her ship up to save the other ship - it can't be easy to have been so hopeless, and then have a second chance because someone else made the same sacrifice for you. It does feel a little cheap to get Kim and the baby back, but I'd miss Kim, so I'm just glad he didn't die. Of note: his scenes at the end are very reminiscent of O'Brien in Visionary (DS9, season 3), wherein the O'Brien that we focus on for most of the episode dies and is replaced by a functionally identical but slightly temporally displaced copy.
The Vidiians are back to just being a stock villain again. They could easily be replaced with any aggressive and high-technology Trek faction. The way Voyager seems to flip back and forth between Kazon and Vidiian territory (with other planets in between), presuming the ship is going in a relatively straight line, gives the impression that this part of the delta quadrant is quite fractured in terms of ownership. At first glance, it seems sloppy, but thinking about it more, I kinda like it: the Vidiians, due to the nature of their existence, are probably overall a pretty low-population species. To make up for it, they've got the most powerful technology we've seen so far, so presumably they can just go wherever they please, and the other delta natives try to stay out of their way. Kazon, being low-tech but high population raiders (with lots of different sub-factions), are spread out and nomadic, accounting for their sporadic presence that way. Now, I've seen no evidence that the writers thought the set-up out that much (and I've been reading their collected comments on memory alpha religiously), but I think that the above is a pretty reasonable explanation.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Good action, interesting puzzle, solid show. It isn't a good Vidiian episode, but it is a good episode with Vidiians in it.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
S2 E20: Investigations
I remember seeing the trailer for this episode originally, and it went something like: "Next time on Voyager: there's a spy on board! It could be any of the characters you've come to trust, who could it be?" And I thought, "Yeah, we know who the spy is. It's that background guy. He's been up to no good for the last five episodes. This is a surprising twist?"
So Neelix has started to do a kind of "morning show" for the crew, which is cheesy but not terrible. He also discovers through a Talaxian colleague that Paris is planning to leave the ship. Paris does leave with the Talaxians, but is almost immediately captured by the Kazon. Neelix then begins to uncover evidence of the subspace communications made by Jonas, and discovers that Janeway and Tuvok had been masterminding a plan for Paris to appear to be disillusioned with Voyager so that he can infiltrate the Kazon and unmask the traitor. Paris escapes with the intelligence, but not in time to save the day: instead, Neelix figures it all out and kills Jonas in a struggle in engineering.
Here's what works: I really like that the writers had the foresight to plan this storyline out, and give it bit by bit rather than all in this one episode. It makes for a cool reveal when Paris is aboard the Kazon ship and whips out his spy tools to try to get to the bottom of the traitor mystery.
Here's what doesn't work: The part of the plan involving Tom's departure is awfully convoluted. It probably would have worked much better for his discontent to have become common knowledge throughout the ship, to the point that he is accepted into Jonas' confidence. During the departure scene, with Kim in the transporter room to see him off, I realized that I was pretty surprised that we hadn't gotten any scenes in this arc where Kim tried to approach Paris and figure out what was up. Really, I'd rather have Kim, Paris' only close friend, be the one to make the discoveries that Neelix does. Also, it's pretty awkward that Janeway and Tuvok kept Chakotay out of the loop on this one; he registers his annoyance with them, but if I were him I'd be furious. And for all the planning, Tom doesn't even get to save the day. Now, I'm happy that Neelix got to be useful, even competent, but Paris also needs some of those moments at this point.
Here's the biggest problem with the whole storyline though: I didn't trust the writers yet on my first time through this part of the series, especially after the whole love triangle debacle. As a result, I didn't see the scenes of Paris' fall from grace as an opportunity for growth, but as more annoying scenes for Tom Paris. He's had such little development so far that I had no reason to believe that he was capable of being more than a whiny navigation officer. On the second time through, knowing what was going to happen, I liked it more, but we still don't really get any more insight into Paris by the end of it. Sure, he wasn't a complete misfit after all, but what is he?
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Entertaining enough, but this episode has a lot of wasted potential.
So Neelix has started to do a kind of "morning show" for the crew, which is cheesy but not terrible. He also discovers through a Talaxian colleague that Paris is planning to leave the ship. Paris does leave with the Talaxians, but is almost immediately captured by the Kazon. Neelix then begins to uncover evidence of the subspace communications made by Jonas, and discovers that Janeway and Tuvok had been masterminding a plan for Paris to appear to be disillusioned with Voyager so that he can infiltrate the Kazon and unmask the traitor. Paris escapes with the intelligence, but not in time to save the day: instead, Neelix figures it all out and kills Jonas in a struggle in engineering.
Here's what works: I really like that the writers had the foresight to plan this storyline out, and give it bit by bit rather than all in this one episode. It makes for a cool reveal when Paris is aboard the Kazon ship and whips out his spy tools to try to get to the bottom of the traitor mystery.
Here's what doesn't work: The part of the plan involving Tom's departure is awfully convoluted. It probably would have worked much better for his discontent to have become common knowledge throughout the ship, to the point that he is accepted into Jonas' confidence. During the departure scene, with Kim in the transporter room to see him off, I realized that I was pretty surprised that we hadn't gotten any scenes in this arc where Kim tried to approach Paris and figure out what was up. Really, I'd rather have Kim, Paris' only close friend, be the one to make the discoveries that Neelix does. Also, it's pretty awkward that Janeway and Tuvok kept Chakotay out of the loop on this one; he registers his annoyance with them, but if I were him I'd be furious. And for all the planning, Tom doesn't even get to save the day. Now, I'm happy that Neelix got to be useful, even competent, but Paris also needs some of those moments at this point.
Here's the biggest problem with the whole storyline though: I didn't trust the writers yet on my first time through this part of the series, especially after the whole love triangle debacle. As a result, I didn't see the scenes of Paris' fall from grace as an opportunity for growth, but as more annoying scenes for Tom Paris. He's had such little development so far that I had no reason to believe that he was capable of being more than a whiny navigation officer. On the second time through, knowing what was going to happen, I liked it more, but we still don't really get any more insight into Paris by the end of it. Sure, he wasn't a complete misfit after all, but what is he?
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Entertaining enough, but this episode has a lot of wasted potential.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
S2 E19: Lifesigns
A lone Vidiian woman (Denara Pel) is rescued by Voyager, but is dying. To buy time, the Doctor downloads her brain (via a neural implant she already had) into the computer and creates a holographic version of her - without the effects of the phage. She is amazed by her new, temporary (the computer can only hold her brain for about a week) life, and she and the Doctor fall in love. At first, Denara doesn't want to go back to her old body, but the Doctor ultimately convinces her that she is being selfish/shortsighted.
For about the first fifteen minutes of this episode, I was very excited. It was shaping up to be the Vidiian episode I was hoping for: the humanizing of a species that, up to this point, had just been used as creepy organ thieves with an interesting back story. In Denara, the writers had an opportunity to show a glimpse into the Vidiian's past, and perhaps give themselves at least a more complex villain. She does offer some insights: from her responses, it seems that not all Vidiians are "sick." I find it unlikely that a civilization whose self-preservation instinct is so violently at the forefront of their motives would allow the sick to mingle with the unaffected, but that they would be quarantined, exiled, or at worst, killed. Instead, I imagine that there are people for whom the infection is dormant for longer, which fits with what Denara tells us here, and allows for some interesting "shun the diseased" stories.
However, my hopes for this episode crumbled quickly as it degenerated from the Vidiian episode I always wanted to the Doctor episode I never wanted. I love Data, but In Theory remains one of my least favorite Trek episodes of all time. I can buy that the Doctor can form personal relationships, even that his "programming" would develop over time to allow him to form affections for others - but he's acting downright hormonal here. A discussion, perhaps as a B plot, of the distinctions between passionate love, companionate love, and what the Doctor is ultimately able to experience, could be interesting. Instead, we first have Kes giving the kind of trite talk you'd give a second grader about love being the ultimate joy and happy ending funtime (though I guess, to be fair, she is only two years old). On the other end, we have Paris giving the most by-the-book speech about lost love... it really feels like it is straight out of the "bitter friend of the male protagonist in a romantic comedy" bible. I don't have any interest in watching those movies; I have even less interest in watching them invade my science fiction TV shows.
Perhaps another thing that is at work here is the Generations effect. Very often in Trek, the unemotional/non-human characters are the butt of the joke, the ones who other characters smile condescendingly at while telling them that their logic/programming/whatever can't give them all the answers. But these characters, the Datas, the Spocks, they are far and away the most popular people from their shows (well, at least with me, but fan polls I've seen tend to agree). They are unflappable, they take the abuse, and end up being the more noble beings for it. And then you have Generations, where Data gets his emotion chip, and is reduced to a blubbering, useless pile of cowardry. He finally got what he wanted, what you wanted for him, and now he is just as bad, no, worse than you. The Doctor gets some of that here. He's emotional in the first place (which is nice, since it gives a different potential direction for his character), but he is a professional. He gets the job done, and is quite delightfully arrogant about it. He pretty clearly thinks that he is better than humans (I'm thinking in particular of the flu plot), and you know what? I think he's right. But here, he is diminished, lessened by the writers, and it bothers me.
Um, so, yeah, B-plots. Jonas grows a backbone, and manages to talk directly with Seska. She wants him to sabotage the engines so that the Kazon can ambush the ship, and he is appropriately skeptical. This installment of this plot line makes a little more sense to me than the previous ones (in terms of motivations). Also, Paris is just outright being a jerk, insulting everyone, including Chakotay, and then gets thrown into the brig for assaulting him. Kind of uncomfortable, but I'll get into that more next time.
Watchability: 2/5
Bottom Line: I want to like a Vidiian episode, I do, but this wasn't it.
For about the first fifteen minutes of this episode, I was very excited. It was shaping up to be the Vidiian episode I was hoping for: the humanizing of a species that, up to this point, had just been used as creepy organ thieves with an interesting back story. In Denara, the writers had an opportunity to show a glimpse into the Vidiian's past, and perhaps give themselves at least a more complex villain. She does offer some insights: from her responses, it seems that not all Vidiians are "sick." I find it unlikely that a civilization whose self-preservation instinct is so violently at the forefront of their motives would allow the sick to mingle with the unaffected, but that they would be quarantined, exiled, or at worst, killed. Instead, I imagine that there are people for whom the infection is dormant for longer, which fits with what Denara tells us here, and allows for some interesting "shun the diseased" stories.
However, my hopes for this episode crumbled quickly as it degenerated from the Vidiian episode I always wanted to the Doctor episode I never wanted. I love Data, but In Theory remains one of my least favorite Trek episodes of all time. I can buy that the Doctor can form personal relationships, even that his "programming" would develop over time to allow him to form affections for others - but he's acting downright hormonal here. A discussion, perhaps as a B plot, of the distinctions between passionate love, companionate love, and what the Doctor is ultimately able to experience, could be interesting. Instead, we first have Kes giving the kind of trite talk you'd give a second grader about love being the ultimate joy and happy ending funtime (though I guess, to be fair, she is only two years old). On the other end, we have Paris giving the most by-the-book speech about lost love... it really feels like it is straight out of the "bitter friend of the male protagonist in a romantic comedy" bible. I don't have any interest in watching those movies; I have even less interest in watching them invade my science fiction TV shows.
Perhaps another thing that is at work here is the Generations effect. Very often in Trek, the unemotional/non-human characters are the butt of the joke, the ones who other characters smile condescendingly at while telling them that their logic/programming/whatever can't give them all the answers. But these characters, the Datas, the Spocks, they are far and away the most popular people from their shows (well, at least with me, but fan polls I've seen tend to agree). They are unflappable, they take the abuse, and end up being the more noble beings for it. And then you have Generations, where Data gets his emotion chip, and is reduced to a blubbering, useless pile of cowardry. He finally got what he wanted, what you wanted for him, and now he is just as bad, no, worse than you. The Doctor gets some of that here. He's emotional in the first place (which is nice, since it gives a different potential direction for his character), but he is a professional. He gets the job done, and is quite delightfully arrogant about it. He pretty clearly thinks that he is better than humans (I'm thinking in particular of the flu plot), and you know what? I think he's right. But here, he is diminished, lessened by the writers, and it bothers me.
Um, so, yeah, B-plots. Jonas grows a backbone, and manages to talk directly with Seska. She wants him to sabotage the engines so that the Kazon can ambush the ship, and he is appropriately skeptical. This installment of this plot line makes a little more sense to me than the previous ones (in terms of motivations). Also, Paris is just outright being a jerk, insulting everyone, including Chakotay, and then gets thrown into the brig for assaulting him. Kind of uncomfortable, but I'll get into that more next time.
Watchability: 2/5
Bottom Line: I want to like a Vidiian episode, I do, but this wasn't it.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
S2 E18: Death Wish
The use of Q as a plot device in Star Trek has a long and storied history. Before I start on the review for this episode, accompany me, if you will, on a brief history of the uses of Q.
Encounter at Farpoint, Hide and Q, Deja Q: Star Trek, particularly TOS and TNG, has a thing for extending the "absolute power corrupts absolutely" phrase to gods - and Q is the ultimate example. In these episodes, Q plays the immoral immortal, giving the writers the opportunity to show how much better humanity is than God. Now, I'll go on record as being a strong proponent of the secular humanism of Trek, but these episodes are offensively heavy-handed. I have met young earth creationists who also purport to be big Star Trek fans, but with examples like these in the canon I just cannot see how. Two of these episodes happen to share the "distinction" of being TNG season one episodes, which doesn't help; "Deja Q"'s (season 3) dialogue is very entertaining ("Oh, very clever Worf. Eat any good books lately?"), and a good Data episode on top of that, which completely rescues its watchability for me.
Qpid, Q-less: Q has also been used as an excuse to just do silly stuff. Honestly, It doesn't really matter whether the TNG cast romps around as Robin Hood ("I am not a merry man!") because of Q or because of some other alternate universe anomaly. But John DeLancie is entertaining, so why not? "Q-Less" only kind of fits in this category, largely because it is almost completely irrelevant that Q is there.
Q Who, Tapestry, All Good Things...: Other Q-uses cast him as a much more enigmatic character, still behaving impishly, but using his powers to teach lessons. He is neither the worthless, vapid god of "Hide and Q", nor is he the unfathomable and serene type of god that we see in the Prophets of DS9. These appearances are much more complex and generally interesting to watch. To this date, "Tapestry" is one of my favorite Trek episodes across all series.
True Q: This is a kind of odd-ball episode, where Q brings an internal continuum matter to the Enterprise... which also makes it the best analogue to today's episode!
Q is tricky character to weave into Voyager since he has the power to send the ship home with a snap of his fingers - in the aforementioned "Q Who" he sent the Enterprise to the delta quadrant (where they met the Borg for the first time). The writers, by introducing him to the show, have effectively trapped themselves into keeping him adversarial enough to prevent him from helping in that manner. Any episode that ends the way that "Deja Q" does, with Q being grateful to Voyager, would feel empty if he doesn't send them home. I suppose a different way to approach it would be to use Q as the imp judge of "Tapestry" or "All Good Things...", refusing to send the ship home on the grounds that it would "build character" - but that idea is not explored here.
Voyager finds a Q trapped in a comet (who they free by using the transporter); a Q that wants to ditch this immortality thing and just die. Our good ol' Q shows up on behalf of the Q-continuum, demanding that he (Quinn) stop this nonsense at once and go back to prison. Janeway somehow maneuvers herself into the position of arbitrator of this dispute, and must choose between encouraging euthanasia and sending her ship and crew home. Based on prior actions, I'd expect Janeway to outright reject the mortality-granting option on the grounds that she finds it abhorrent, but to her credit she doesn't do that this time, and we get a series of "trial" scenes wherein Tuvok/Quinn and Q must argue their points.
Quinn takes the trial directly to an abstract manifestation of the continuum to make his point: being immortal is boring. Basically, if you live long enough, you've done everything. I find that to be a rather bleak outlook. There is a lot of stuff out there. Immortal or not, omnipotent or not, you'd have to live an exceptionally long time to have done everything - and that's even assuming that there aren't new things happening every day. That's not an assumption I want to make. Not that I really care one way or the other if this Quinn guy is unimaginative enough to want to die when he can effectively do anything - rather, I just pity him. Heck, in this very episode, he says that Tuvok was able to surprise him (by representing him when personally he does not agree with him - like he's never heard of that before); what's to say that there won't be a new surprise tomorrow. I do like the way they frame Q's past actions though: in the world of boring immortality, Q had, in the past, been acting out (see: early TNG) as a way of rebelling. Not exactly retcon, but it does give a new way to look at the worse of the Q episodes.
Janeway ultimately decides in favor of Quinn, turning down Q's bribe of a free ride home. It feels a bit out of character for her, but largely because she usually wouldn't get involved in the first place. I've spent a bit thinking about what the other Trek captains would do. Picard would likely steadfastly refuse to participate, but if he were to be forced to weigh in, I think he'd probably make the same choice as Janeway. Sisko, on the other hand, I think of more as the pragmatist; he'd take the bribe, on the grounds that getting his ship home safely is his top priority as captain, and easing his conscience by hearing Quinn out would be a luxury. That, and he is on record as being almost violently opposed to euthanasia (Sons of Mogh, DS9 season 4), regardless of cultural sensitivity issues.
Q himself is on the top of his game here, dialogue wise. It is incredibly cathartic to have him needle and pester Janeway throughout the episode, behaving not as an equal, but as a superior. Key line: "You're so angry when you're beautiful" (Q to Janeway, mockingly). Q loves to appear next to you in bed, and it makes Janeway extra uncomfortable. Even better, it is Quinn who teaches Q his lesson at the end of the show, so Janeway is denied her smug condescension moments which she so cherishes.
As a footnote: Riker has a guest appearance here too, and it feels completely contrived.
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Some interesting food for thought, as with any Q episode, and some great one-liners, also common to Q episodes. I generally felt unsatisfied by it, but certainly have mulled over it plenty afterwards.
Encounter at Farpoint, Hide and Q, Deja Q: Star Trek, particularly TOS and TNG, has a thing for extending the "absolute power corrupts absolutely" phrase to gods - and Q is the ultimate example. In these episodes, Q plays the immoral immortal, giving the writers the opportunity to show how much better humanity is than God. Now, I'll go on record as being a strong proponent of the secular humanism of Trek, but these episodes are offensively heavy-handed. I have met young earth creationists who also purport to be big Star Trek fans, but with examples like these in the canon I just cannot see how. Two of these episodes happen to share the "distinction" of being TNG season one episodes, which doesn't help; "Deja Q"'s (season 3) dialogue is very entertaining ("Oh, very clever Worf. Eat any good books lately?"), and a good Data episode on top of that, which completely rescues its watchability for me.
Qpid, Q-less: Q has also been used as an excuse to just do silly stuff. Honestly, It doesn't really matter whether the TNG cast romps around as Robin Hood ("I am not a merry man!") because of Q or because of some other alternate universe anomaly. But John DeLancie is entertaining, so why not? "Q-Less" only kind of fits in this category, largely because it is almost completely irrelevant that Q is there.
Q Who, Tapestry, All Good Things...: Other Q-uses cast him as a much more enigmatic character, still behaving impishly, but using his powers to teach lessons. He is neither the worthless, vapid god of "Hide and Q", nor is he the unfathomable and serene type of god that we see in the Prophets of DS9. These appearances are much more complex and generally interesting to watch. To this date, "Tapestry" is one of my favorite Trek episodes across all series.
True Q: This is a kind of odd-ball episode, where Q brings an internal continuum matter to the Enterprise... which also makes it the best analogue to today's episode!
Q is tricky character to weave into Voyager since he has the power to send the ship home with a snap of his fingers - in the aforementioned "Q Who" he sent the Enterprise to the delta quadrant (where they met the Borg for the first time). The writers, by introducing him to the show, have effectively trapped themselves into keeping him adversarial enough to prevent him from helping in that manner. Any episode that ends the way that "Deja Q" does, with Q being grateful to Voyager, would feel empty if he doesn't send them home. I suppose a different way to approach it would be to use Q as the imp judge of "Tapestry" or "All Good Things...", refusing to send the ship home on the grounds that it would "build character" - but that idea is not explored here.
Voyager finds a Q trapped in a comet (who they free by using the transporter); a Q that wants to ditch this immortality thing and just die. Our good ol' Q shows up on behalf of the Q-continuum, demanding that he (Quinn) stop this nonsense at once and go back to prison. Janeway somehow maneuvers herself into the position of arbitrator of this dispute, and must choose between encouraging euthanasia and sending her ship and crew home. Based on prior actions, I'd expect Janeway to outright reject the mortality-granting option on the grounds that she finds it abhorrent, but to her credit she doesn't do that this time, and we get a series of "trial" scenes wherein Tuvok/Quinn and Q must argue their points.
Quinn takes the trial directly to an abstract manifestation of the continuum to make his point: being immortal is boring. Basically, if you live long enough, you've done everything. I find that to be a rather bleak outlook. There is a lot of stuff out there. Immortal or not, omnipotent or not, you'd have to live an exceptionally long time to have done everything - and that's even assuming that there aren't new things happening every day. That's not an assumption I want to make. Not that I really care one way or the other if this Quinn guy is unimaginative enough to want to die when he can effectively do anything - rather, I just pity him. Heck, in this very episode, he says that Tuvok was able to surprise him (by representing him when personally he does not agree with him - like he's never heard of that before); what's to say that there won't be a new surprise tomorrow. I do like the way they frame Q's past actions though: in the world of boring immortality, Q had, in the past, been acting out (see: early TNG) as a way of rebelling. Not exactly retcon, but it does give a new way to look at the worse of the Q episodes.
Janeway ultimately decides in favor of Quinn, turning down Q's bribe of a free ride home. It feels a bit out of character for her, but largely because she usually wouldn't get involved in the first place. I've spent a bit thinking about what the other Trek captains would do. Picard would likely steadfastly refuse to participate, but if he were to be forced to weigh in, I think he'd probably make the same choice as Janeway. Sisko, on the other hand, I think of more as the pragmatist; he'd take the bribe, on the grounds that getting his ship home safely is his top priority as captain, and easing his conscience by hearing Quinn out would be a luxury. That, and he is on record as being almost violently opposed to euthanasia (Sons of Mogh, DS9 season 4), regardless of cultural sensitivity issues.
Q himself is on the top of his game here, dialogue wise. It is incredibly cathartic to have him needle and pester Janeway throughout the episode, behaving not as an equal, but as a superior. Key line: "You're so angry when you're beautiful" (Q to Janeway, mockingly). Q loves to appear next to you in bed, and it makes Janeway extra uncomfortable. Even better, it is Quinn who teaches Q his lesson at the end of the show, so Janeway is denied her smug condescension moments which she so cherishes.
As a footnote: Riker has a guest appearance here too, and it feels completely contrived.
Watchability: 3/5
Bottom Line: Some interesting food for thought, as with any Q episode, and some great one-liners, also common to Q episodes. I generally felt unsatisfied by it, but certainly have mulled over it plenty afterwards.
Monday, January 17, 2011
S2 E17: Dreadnought
Voyager encounters an unmanned, heavily armed weapons platform/missile -- of Cardassian origin. Torres quickly identifies it as the one that she had commandeered and reprogrammed to go kill Cardassians over a year ago. However, now it seems to have malfunctioned after being summonsed to the delta quadrant by the Caretaker (would that he could have been a little more discriminating), and has now locked onto a peaceful, innocent world that shares properties with its original target. Feeling personally responsible, Torres has to disarm it herself as now it will only respond to her.
The theme of Voyager's negative PR is explored a bit more here, with the Rakosans being a little bit (understandably) suspicious of Janeway's overtures of peaceful intent while also telling them about this super-deadly alpha-quadrant weapon that is headed their way. Janeway is quick to blame her ship's negative image on Kazon slander, but I find it kind of hard to believe that the Kazon have a whole lot of credibility, even in their own backyard - it feels more like a Romulan tactic anyways. No, I think their bad reputation is probably more the result of Voyager (A) not really trying hard to make friends (while, admittedly, quite constrained in that regard due to the Prime Directive) and (B) actually bringing calamity and misfortune in their wake. Stable (if totalitarian) regimes are toppled, assassination attempts are made, techology is stolen, etc. Even when Voyager isn't responsible, or when the outcomes are probably for the best, it would be hard to argue that things aren't a little more chaotic for the delta quadrant guys when Voyager is around.
I vaguely recalled this episode from the first viewing, but I still had no idea how they were going to fill so much "Torres arguing with the computer" time and keep the episode watchable. The dreadnought's computer is also voiced by Torres, and since she (re)programmed it herself, she is essentially in conflict with herself - but in a different, more subtle/interesting way than in Faces. Instead of coming into conflict with an aspect of her personality, she has to face herself from the past: a more paranoid and vindictive B'Elanna. At first it seemed like she was going to solve the problem by Kirking it (I love that Memory Alpha has a whole page for that), which was amusing, but I was relieved when the actual solution became more complicated.
This episode has several other vignettes - not quite B-plots, but worthy of mention. The Doctor's naming quest surfaces again, in connection with Wildman's own quest for a name for her offspring (which seems to have a six thousand month gestation period). He is able to shoot down most suggestions which are offered to him, because, having made an extensive anthropological database search, he can find an example of a jerk somewhere throughout the histories of the many worlds cataloged by the Federation who shares that name. I do remember that wrinkle in the naming quest clearly, since the problem that the Doctor presents is probably a very real one for any society with century upon century of recorded history.
Kim and Torres have a little scene together, again using the "starfleet" pet name, and it is pretty cute. I know enough about the general events of Voyager to know that nothing comes of this flirting, but I think they'd actually make a really good couple. Kim has a great grounding effect on Torres, and she seems to help bring out his assertive side. Oh well.
Paris is behaving erratically, showing up late and disheveled to staff meetings. Chakotay in particular is on his case, continuing from the gambling ring plot in the last episode. Paris also remarks to Torres that he is jealous of how well she is fitting in, which, while it makes for a nice scene, is a little odd considering that, other than the last two episodes, he really hasn't had much trouble at all. Perhaps it is best though that we're getting this stuff bit by bit in separate episodes, rather than all at once in whatever later episode the writers plan to resolve it in. And hey, if all this leads to some more interesting character direction for Tom, I'm all for it.
Jonas, the Maquis guy who is surreptitiously giving intelligence to the Kazon, is still up to his tricks. I still don't really understand his motivation - and even worse, the Kazon are giving him the runaround. You'd think that they'd be pleased to get any info he could pass along, but instead they're risking losing their mole by not going to any effort to make him feel like he's getting anywhere. If I were him, I'd just stop the flow until they let me talk to my preferred contact... well, if I were him, I wouldn't be a treacherous traitor guy, so maybe trying to ascribe motives that make sense for me to him is just going to be frustrating. Still, glad to see this show up in pieces rather than all at once, as it does give us some sense of build-up and continuity.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Another Torres-centric episode, another good episode. I'm noticing a trend.
The theme of Voyager's negative PR is explored a bit more here, with the Rakosans being a little bit (understandably) suspicious of Janeway's overtures of peaceful intent while also telling them about this super-deadly alpha-quadrant weapon that is headed their way. Janeway is quick to blame her ship's negative image on Kazon slander, but I find it kind of hard to believe that the Kazon have a whole lot of credibility, even in their own backyard - it feels more like a Romulan tactic anyways. No, I think their bad reputation is probably more the result of Voyager (A) not really trying hard to make friends (while, admittedly, quite constrained in that regard due to the Prime Directive) and (B) actually bringing calamity and misfortune in their wake. Stable (if totalitarian) regimes are toppled, assassination attempts are made, techology is stolen, etc. Even when Voyager isn't responsible, or when the outcomes are probably for the best, it would be hard to argue that things aren't a little more chaotic for the delta quadrant guys when Voyager is around.
I vaguely recalled this episode from the first viewing, but I still had no idea how they were going to fill so much "Torres arguing with the computer" time and keep the episode watchable. The dreadnought's computer is also voiced by Torres, and since she (re)programmed it herself, she is essentially in conflict with herself - but in a different, more subtle/interesting way than in Faces. Instead of coming into conflict with an aspect of her personality, she has to face herself from the past: a more paranoid and vindictive B'Elanna. At first it seemed like she was going to solve the problem by Kirking it (I love that Memory Alpha has a whole page for that), which was amusing, but I was relieved when the actual solution became more complicated.
This episode has several other vignettes - not quite B-plots, but worthy of mention. The Doctor's naming quest surfaces again, in connection with Wildman's own quest for a name for her offspring (which seems to have a six thousand month gestation period). He is able to shoot down most suggestions which are offered to him, because, having made an extensive anthropological database search, he can find an example of a jerk somewhere throughout the histories of the many worlds cataloged by the Federation who shares that name. I do remember that wrinkle in the naming quest clearly, since the problem that the Doctor presents is probably a very real one for any society with century upon century of recorded history.
Kim and Torres have a little scene together, again using the "starfleet" pet name, and it is pretty cute. I know enough about the general events of Voyager to know that nothing comes of this flirting, but I think they'd actually make a really good couple. Kim has a great grounding effect on Torres, and she seems to help bring out his assertive side. Oh well.
Paris is behaving erratically, showing up late and disheveled to staff meetings. Chakotay in particular is on his case, continuing from the gambling ring plot in the last episode. Paris also remarks to Torres that he is jealous of how well she is fitting in, which, while it makes for a nice scene, is a little odd considering that, other than the last two episodes, he really hasn't had much trouble at all. Perhaps it is best though that we're getting this stuff bit by bit in separate episodes, rather than all at once in whatever later episode the writers plan to resolve it in. And hey, if all this leads to some more interesting character direction for Tom, I'm all for it.
Jonas, the Maquis guy who is surreptitiously giving intelligence to the Kazon, is still up to his tricks. I still don't really understand his motivation - and even worse, the Kazon are giving him the runaround. You'd think that they'd be pleased to get any info he could pass along, but instead they're risking losing their mole by not going to any effort to make him feel like he's getting anywhere. If I were him, I'd just stop the flow until they let me talk to my preferred contact... well, if I were him, I wouldn't be a treacherous traitor guy, so maybe trying to ascribe motives that make sense for me to him is just going to be frustrating. Still, glad to see this show up in pieces rather than all at once, as it does give us some sense of build-up and continuity.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Another Torres-centric episode, another good episode. I'm noticing a trend.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
S2 E16: Meld
Grima Wormtongue guest stars here as Lon Suder, a non-empathic Betazoid who joined the Maquis because he is a sociopath who just wants to kill. He murders a crewman in cold blood, and when Tuvok confronts him with the evidence, he admits to the crime and (very creepily) details the manner in which he did it. He doesn't give a satisfactory explanation as to why, which haunts Tuvok because he feels that there must be a motive. I don't know why Tuvok hasn't heard of sociopathic serial killers in his "hundred years of studying crime" - but it gives him an excuse to mind-meld with Suder in order to satisfy his curiosity.
The meld imbues Suder with some Vulcan composure, but Tuvok is deeply troubled. In an especially chilling scene, attempting to vent his new violent impulses, Tuvok coldly and brutally strangles Neelix to death for annoying him - in a holodeck simulation of course. What's great about Tuvok is that he has the insight to see when he is out of control and seals himself in his room. The Doctor is just brimming with "I told you so" but everyone else is so upset about Tuvok that they don't give him the chance, which disappoints him to no end. Trek writers love giving the emotionless characters (Spock, Data) a chance to act out, and I'm surprised that it took this long to happen to Tuvok. I'm also pretty surprised that he does it well - not that I don't think Tim Russ does a great job (quite the opposite), but his deliveries are usually so deadpan that I just assumed he was naturally inclined to play the flat-affect part. Tuvok breaks free of his captivity, and goes to kill Suder, citing it as the only logical course of action - but also just wanting to kill. Suder gets to play the calm Vulcan right back at him, and Tuvok tries to work himself up to the act, but ultimately fails and slumps over, spent. He makes his recovery, and apologies, and everything is all right.
It had to happen eventually that we'd really need to explore what Voyager does for people who break the rules. We've had a lot of wrist-slaps so far - but what if someone committed murder? You couldn't very well just keep them in the brig the whole time, that would be akin to a vacation on what is clearly a starship full of hardship. On the other hand, the Federation isn't really part of the death penalty crowd, so I wouldn't see them going that route either. For a crime as sinister as Suder's, I'm personally in favor of dropping him off at the nearest M-class, uninhabited planet with a survival guide (maybe) and saying "good luck!" This episode is a pretty obviously an "issues episode" for the death penalty, and isn't terribly subtle about it. Tuvok, post meld, suggests considering execution to Janeway, and she dismisses him out of hand. Janeway does this a lot; I think it is because she is often the proponent of the answer the writers consider to be obviously correct, and I feel like there's often more middle ground than Janeway is willing to concede.
I think that it is important, if you're going to do an "issues episode," to be as fair as you can to either side, and explore the middle ground too. Don't have one side of the death penalty argument be represented by a guy who is only suggesting it because he is possessed by the pathology of a bloodthirsty murderer, not only will you alienate part of your audience, but you also start to veer off into the after-school-special-territory. Granted, having a captain who talks to everyone, even her hyper-intelligent, 100+ year old security officer and old friend, with grade A condescension will predispose your show to heading that way, but it would certainly make me happier. Anyways, Suder is confined to quarters (even nicer than the brig!) for the rest of the trip home.
B-Plot: Paris starts a betting pool (using replicator rations) about some daily space scan result, and Chakotay shuts him down. Mostly just some throwaway fun, but it ends with Paris having a melancholy moment where it seems like he's actually a little disappointed in himself for continuing to be the irresponsible one - or maybe it's just for getting caught. It isn't explored much, but maybe that's just because we'll see more of it.
Watchability 4/5
Bottom Line: There are a lot of very potent scenes in this episode, but I feel it is dragged down a bit by being such a blatant "issues episode."
The meld imbues Suder with some Vulcan composure, but Tuvok is deeply troubled. In an especially chilling scene, attempting to vent his new violent impulses, Tuvok coldly and brutally strangles Neelix to death for annoying him - in a holodeck simulation of course. What's great about Tuvok is that he has the insight to see when he is out of control and seals himself in his room. The Doctor is just brimming with "I told you so" but everyone else is so upset about Tuvok that they don't give him the chance, which disappoints him to no end. Trek writers love giving the emotionless characters (Spock, Data) a chance to act out, and I'm surprised that it took this long to happen to Tuvok. I'm also pretty surprised that he does it well - not that I don't think Tim Russ does a great job (quite the opposite), but his deliveries are usually so deadpan that I just assumed he was naturally inclined to play the flat-affect part. Tuvok breaks free of his captivity, and goes to kill Suder, citing it as the only logical course of action - but also just wanting to kill. Suder gets to play the calm Vulcan right back at him, and Tuvok tries to work himself up to the act, but ultimately fails and slumps over, spent. He makes his recovery, and apologies, and everything is all right.
It had to happen eventually that we'd really need to explore what Voyager does for people who break the rules. We've had a lot of wrist-slaps so far - but what if someone committed murder? You couldn't very well just keep them in the brig the whole time, that would be akin to a vacation on what is clearly a starship full of hardship. On the other hand, the Federation isn't really part of the death penalty crowd, so I wouldn't see them going that route either. For a crime as sinister as Suder's, I'm personally in favor of dropping him off at the nearest M-class, uninhabited planet with a survival guide (maybe) and saying "good luck!" This episode is a pretty obviously an "issues episode" for the death penalty, and isn't terribly subtle about it. Tuvok, post meld, suggests considering execution to Janeway, and she dismisses him out of hand. Janeway does this a lot; I think it is because she is often the proponent of the answer the writers consider to be obviously correct, and I feel like there's often more middle ground than Janeway is willing to concede.
I think that it is important, if you're going to do an "issues episode," to be as fair as you can to either side, and explore the middle ground too. Don't have one side of the death penalty argument be represented by a guy who is only suggesting it because he is possessed by the pathology of a bloodthirsty murderer, not only will you alienate part of your audience, but you also start to veer off into the after-school-special-territory. Granted, having a captain who talks to everyone, even her hyper-intelligent, 100+ year old security officer and old friend, with grade A condescension will predispose your show to heading that way, but it would certainly make me happier. Anyways, Suder is confined to quarters (even nicer than the brig!) for the rest of the trip home.
B-Plot: Paris starts a betting pool (using replicator rations) about some daily space scan result, and Chakotay shuts him down. Mostly just some throwaway fun, but it ends with Paris having a melancholy moment where it seems like he's actually a little disappointed in himself for continuing to be the irresponsible one - or maybe it's just for getting caught. It isn't explored much, but maybe that's just because we'll see more of it.
Watchability 4/5
Bottom Line: There are a lot of very potent scenes in this episode, but I feel it is dragged down a bit by being such a blatant "issues episode."
Saturday, January 15, 2011
S2 E15: Threshold
This episode has been consistently ranked as the worst Voyager episode ever by numerous fan polls, and for a good reason: it is pretty terrible. Tom Paris, not even the genius engineer of this crew, just the pilot, figures out how to make a shuttle fly at infinite speed (warp ten). He does so, then inexplicably turns into a lizard man, kidnaps Janeway and turns her into a lizard too by taking her to warp ten, and then, after turning into a giant tadpole, makes tadpole babies with her. That's it, that's the whole plot. The indispensible Ex Astris Scientia has a very thorough rundown of all the science errors in this episode, so I'm not going to rehash that. I'm going to try to defend it, fail, and move on.
The reason why Paris, the non-engineer, makes this engineering breakthrough is because they writers felt that he had been underutilized - and they're right. There's some okay stuff here about how Paris wants to do something important in his life - but it's more of a footnote, and reminds me of how poorly they've utilized the Paris character. He should be a goldmine: the ambitious and privileged youth who lost everything due to his arrogance and now gets a second chance, but he's still pretty arrogant as a failure, so he's got a lot of ground to cover. But so far he's either been kind of flaky, or just used as the generic navigation officer. They do get into his driving motivations a bit here, but it is kind of lost in all the noise. Persistence of Vision did Paris' background better with the 10 second illusion segment.
Now, I can take some bad science. I mean, even the laughably bad Parallax got a bye based on the strength of the B'Elanna development. Or even the more direct parallel, Genesis, is completely watchable because it is used to tell a fun adventure story and the makeup is pretty cool. But here there's not much to distract me; just the implausibility of attaining infinite speed, and the ludicrousness of the results. I mean, calling Paris' mutation the natural path of human evolution belies a total lack of understanding of evolution. He even becomes less suited to his environment at times, like when he stops being able to breathe the air. However, I suppose random mutation is part of evolution, so maybe the Doctor was trying to say that this is one of the infinite possibilities for future human evolution. I mean, that isn't what he actually said, but that's a way they could have put a bandaid on this gutshot of an episode.
Overall, I've been pretty displeased with Voyager's science consultants. More often than not, the writing process seems to start with "Wouldn't it be cool if X happened? Let's find some science words to have people say, that way we can do X," rather than "Isn't Y a cool science concept? Let's take it to its theoretical limits and see what cool stuff would happen." Certainly, every Trek has its episodes that are guilty of doing the "science episode writing" backwards, but Voyager seems to do it more often, and have fewer examples of doing it right. All that said, this episode non-withstanding, I'm enjoying the second half of this season a lot more, and am looking forward to the next one despite this hiccup.
Watchability 1/5
Bottom Line: This is the episode that all other terrible science episodes can point to and say "Hey, at least I'm not Threshold!" At the same time, this episode can say: "At least I'm not Parturition."
The reason why Paris, the non-engineer, makes this engineering breakthrough is because they writers felt that he had been underutilized - and they're right. There's some okay stuff here about how Paris wants to do something important in his life - but it's more of a footnote, and reminds me of how poorly they've utilized the Paris character. He should be a goldmine: the ambitious and privileged youth who lost everything due to his arrogance and now gets a second chance, but he's still pretty arrogant as a failure, so he's got a lot of ground to cover. But so far he's either been kind of flaky, or just used as the generic navigation officer. They do get into his driving motivations a bit here, but it is kind of lost in all the noise. Persistence of Vision did Paris' background better with the 10 second illusion segment.
Now, I can take some bad science. I mean, even the laughably bad Parallax got a bye based on the strength of the B'Elanna development. Or even the more direct parallel, Genesis, is completely watchable because it is used to tell a fun adventure story and the makeup is pretty cool. But here there's not much to distract me; just the implausibility of attaining infinite speed, and the ludicrousness of the results. I mean, calling Paris' mutation the natural path of human evolution belies a total lack of understanding of evolution. He even becomes less suited to his environment at times, like when he stops being able to breathe the air. However, I suppose random mutation is part of evolution, so maybe the Doctor was trying to say that this is one of the infinite possibilities for future human evolution. I mean, that isn't what he actually said, but that's a way they could have put a bandaid on this gutshot of an episode.
Overall, I've been pretty displeased with Voyager's science consultants. More often than not, the writing process seems to start with "Wouldn't it be cool if X happened? Let's find some science words to have people say, that way we can do X," rather than "Isn't Y a cool science concept? Let's take it to its theoretical limits and see what cool stuff would happen." Certainly, every Trek has its episodes that are guilty of doing the "science episode writing" backwards, but Voyager seems to do it more often, and have fewer examples of doing it right. All that said, this episode non-withstanding, I'm enjoying the second half of this season a lot more, and am looking forward to the next one despite this hiccup.
Watchability 1/5
Bottom Line: This is the episode that all other terrible science episodes can point to and say "Hey, at least I'm not Threshold!" At the same time, this episode can say: "At least I'm not Parturition."
Friday, January 14, 2011
S2 E14: Alliances
The Kazon are beginning to wear Voyager down with relentless attacks, and redshirts are being lost at an alarming rate. At the funeral for a former Maquis engineer, Janeway is confronted by some of his shipmates, who are angry that Janeway isn't doing anything to appease the Kazon and make their lives easier. This is really the first time in the series that the Maquis point-of-view isn't just used as a strawman argument for the purpose of making the Starfleet course of action sound better. Janeway is dismissive at first, but Chakotay makes some strong points (like "yeah, there's probably a middle ground between giving the Kazon replicator technology or giving them the finger until they kill us all.") and she consents to putting out some feelers to the Kazon leadership (after consulting with Tuvok).
Now, since there's no way to negotiate with the Kazon as a whole, and any alliance with one faction would pit Voyager against others, this is a clear prime directive issue. Personally, though, it doesn't seem that, given the circumstances, if their priority is to survive, that they have much choice. At this point it is more about minimizing their impact. Initially, Neelix is sent to confer with a connection he has with one faction, while Voyager itself would open negotiations with Seska and Cullah. What?! That seems like a really odd choice. It has been recently made abundantly clear that Seska has a vendetta against you, why turn to her? The reasoning given seems to run along the lines of this being a "devil-you-know" situation, but I think that they just know too much.
Neelix isn't very successful at getting in touch with the Kazon, but he does return to Voyager in an armada of ships that appear to be Kazon. However, they're actually the property of the former slavers of the Kazon: the Trabe. The Trabe are weary of their war with the Kazon, whose subjugation they purport to regret and have turned over a new leaf. On top of that, they'd like Voyager's help to organize a peace conference with the Kazon with the goal of ending the decades of hostilites. It's a bit too tidy: now Janeway doesn't even need to violate the prime directive. It is well within the purview of a Federation captain to act as an intermediary in negotiations, so of course she seizes this opportunity.
In the meantime, the Maquis character who we met at the beginning starts to secretly make contact with the Kazon, hoping to... well, it isn't really clear what he hopes to accomplish, but he's being a shady bad guy. This thread is not resolved in this episode, so there's more to come, and maybe his motives and general plan will become more clear as things progress.
Turns out to not be so tidy afterall, as the Trabe were just using the Voyager to give them the credibility they'd need to bring all the Kazon leaders together and massacre them. Some good old political machinations at work here, I'm happy. Janeway figures out what's going on in the middle of the talks and saves the lives of all the Kazon, and gets furious at the Trabe leader and tells him off quite sternly. The ending is troublesome though. Janeway takes a moment at the end to have a big old "told ya so" moment with the senior staff; "look what happens when we break the prime directive? Now we're just as bad off as before, so let's not do that again." But really they never broke any rules, and did what any Starfleet crew would have in their place - sought peace through diplomatic negotiation. And how much can the Kazon actually be mad at her for saving their lives? This whole end note puts a sour taste in my mouth, like the writers were just using this episode to justify poor decisions in previous episodes - and then made an episode which ended up not proving their point at all.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Ignore the ending, and you've got another great Kazon episode.
Now, since there's no way to negotiate with the Kazon as a whole, and any alliance with one faction would pit Voyager against others, this is a clear prime directive issue. Personally, though, it doesn't seem that, given the circumstances, if their priority is to survive, that they have much choice. At this point it is more about minimizing their impact. Initially, Neelix is sent to confer with a connection he has with one faction, while Voyager itself would open negotiations with Seska and Cullah. What?! That seems like a really odd choice. It has been recently made abundantly clear that Seska has a vendetta against you, why turn to her? The reasoning given seems to run along the lines of this being a "devil-you-know" situation, but I think that they just know too much.
Neelix isn't very successful at getting in touch with the Kazon, but he does return to Voyager in an armada of ships that appear to be Kazon. However, they're actually the property of the former slavers of the Kazon: the Trabe. The Trabe are weary of their war with the Kazon, whose subjugation they purport to regret and have turned over a new leaf. On top of that, they'd like Voyager's help to organize a peace conference with the Kazon with the goal of ending the decades of hostilites. It's a bit too tidy: now Janeway doesn't even need to violate the prime directive. It is well within the purview of a Federation captain to act as an intermediary in negotiations, so of course she seizes this opportunity.
In the meantime, the Maquis character who we met at the beginning starts to secretly make contact with the Kazon, hoping to... well, it isn't really clear what he hopes to accomplish, but he's being a shady bad guy. This thread is not resolved in this episode, so there's more to come, and maybe his motives and general plan will become more clear as things progress.
Turns out to not be so tidy afterall, as the Trabe were just using the Voyager to give them the credibility they'd need to bring all the Kazon leaders together and massacre them. Some good old political machinations at work here, I'm happy. Janeway figures out what's going on in the middle of the talks and saves the lives of all the Kazon, and gets furious at the Trabe leader and tells him off quite sternly. The ending is troublesome though. Janeway takes a moment at the end to have a big old "told ya so" moment with the senior staff; "look what happens when we break the prime directive? Now we're just as bad off as before, so let's not do that again." But really they never broke any rules, and did what any Starfleet crew would have in their place - sought peace through diplomatic negotiation. And how much can the Kazon actually be mad at her for saving their lives? This whole end note puts a sour taste in my mouth, like the writers were just using this episode to justify poor decisions in previous episodes - and then made an episode which ended up not proving their point at all.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Ignore the ending, and you've got another great Kazon episode.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
S2 E13: Prototype
The opening to this episode has an interesting style, black and white and static-y, through the first person of an unknown observer. That observer is revealed to be a malfunctioning robot, and Torres and Kim are trying to restore its power core. It is always nice to see those two interact, and I also like that Torres has kept the epithet "starfleet" as kind of a pet name for Kim. There is also a surprising lack of unpleasantness in the interaction between Torres and Neelix while she's pulling an all-nighter in the mess hall. If they keep using Neelix as the affable and good tempered but still kind of dorky buddy-to-all, then I might actually start liking him. Well, let's not get hasty. I might start to be able to tolerate him. Just keeping the expectations low.
The android's look... the head is basically two plastic cake molds, one shaped like a face, sealed together over an actor's head at a ridge that runs from from ear to ear over the headband zone. It is incredibly cheap-looking, and I love it. It is very evocative of the classic sci-fi robot look. The halting speech pattern (once he's activated) with the jargonization of common speech is also very much stereotypical, and I don't think it would work as well if it didn't have the exterior to match. It speaks reverently of "the builders", and is impressed with Torres' engineering prowess. The robots are incapable of reproducing themselves, and this one asks for her help.
Of course Torres wants to jump right in, but Janeway plays the killjoy, citing the prime directive and saying that it clearly applies here. I don't think she's right; or at least, not right about this being an obvious application of it. The prime directive basically covers two things: (a) don't interfere in the development of primitive (pre-warp) civilizations, and (b) don't get involved in the internal affairs (i.e. civil wars) of other civilizations. Option A certainly isn't the case for a spacefaring android race, so we're left with option B - and we just don't know enough about these androids to make a case one way or the other. I think a much more compelling argument would be: "We don't know these people yet, let us first make contact with them and find out more before coming to any final decisions." I think that would have sat much better with Torres, though she follows the captain's lead anyways.
The robot doesn't take "no" for an answer and kidnaps B'Elanna, transporting her to a massive android-controlled ship - an event that probably could have been avoided if they'd taken my advice. In order to spare the Voyager from certain destruction, Torres agrees to help. While she works, and the crew concocts rescue plans, another, almost identical ship shows up and opens fire on the first robot ship. Fun! These robots, which are gold instead of silver but the same basic appearance otherwise (another classic touch), have been locked in an unending battle with the silver robots for centuries, carrying on a war that their long-gone creators began. So, yeah, this is prime directive territory, but Janeway didn't know that before. After Torres assembles her first prototype, her "buddy" android reveals that they killed off their own creators, when they tried to shut them down to end the war.
This is Trek! This story isn't exactly new, but it is well-told and an excellent homage to robot stories that have come before it. The robots here adhere to strict programming rules which have brought about their predicament, and now Torres has given one side a way to win - and perhaps go on to wipe out more civilizations that try to shut them down. She is forced to destroy her own creation, and escape while the two android ships are fighting each other. When Voyager departs, they leave behind these two factions, continuing to relentlessly wage war for eternity.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: Excellent sci-fi entertainment, as long as you can appreciate the appearance of the robots.
The android's look... the head is basically two plastic cake molds, one shaped like a face, sealed together over an actor's head at a ridge that runs from from ear to ear over the headband zone. It is incredibly cheap-looking, and I love it. It is very evocative of the classic sci-fi robot look. The halting speech pattern (once he's activated) with the jargonization of common speech is also very much stereotypical, and I don't think it would work as well if it didn't have the exterior to match. It speaks reverently of "the builders", and is impressed with Torres' engineering prowess. The robots are incapable of reproducing themselves, and this one asks for her help.
Of course Torres wants to jump right in, but Janeway plays the killjoy, citing the prime directive and saying that it clearly applies here. I don't think she's right; or at least, not right about this being an obvious application of it. The prime directive basically covers two things: (a) don't interfere in the development of primitive (pre-warp) civilizations, and (b) don't get involved in the internal affairs (i.e. civil wars) of other civilizations. Option A certainly isn't the case for a spacefaring android race, so we're left with option B - and we just don't know enough about these androids to make a case one way or the other. I think a much more compelling argument would be: "We don't know these people yet, let us first make contact with them and find out more before coming to any final decisions." I think that would have sat much better with Torres, though she follows the captain's lead anyways.
The robot doesn't take "no" for an answer and kidnaps B'Elanna, transporting her to a massive android-controlled ship - an event that probably could have been avoided if they'd taken my advice. In order to spare the Voyager from certain destruction, Torres agrees to help. While she works, and the crew concocts rescue plans, another, almost identical ship shows up and opens fire on the first robot ship. Fun! These robots, which are gold instead of silver but the same basic appearance otherwise (another classic touch), have been locked in an unending battle with the silver robots for centuries, carrying on a war that their long-gone creators began. So, yeah, this is prime directive territory, but Janeway didn't know that before. After Torres assembles her first prototype, her "buddy" android reveals that they killed off their own creators, when they tried to shut them down to end the war.
This is Trek! This story isn't exactly new, but it is well-told and an excellent homage to robot stories that have come before it. The robots here adhere to strict programming rules which have brought about their predicament, and now Torres has given one side a way to win - and perhaps go on to wipe out more civilizations that try to shut them down. She is forced to destroy her own creation, and escape while the two android ships are fighting each other. When Voyager departs, they leave behind these two factions, continuing to relentlessly wage war for eternity.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: Excellent sci-fi entertainment, as long as you can appreciate the appearance of the robots.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
S2 E12: Resistance
The opening dumps us straight into the action, and half of the bridge crew is in disguise on a planet's surface conducting some shady deals. It is hard to imagine the circumstances that drove the Upright Starship Brigade to stoop to this level, but apparently the yellow power they're buying is a critical substance we've never heard of. The planet they need to get it from is governed by a fascist bureaucracy whose soldiers promptly show up and shoot Janeway, and capture Torres and Tuvok (Neelix is spared).
Aboard the ship, Kim, Neelix, and Chakotay attempt to open negotiations with the planet's government for the captive's release, but meet with no success. The leader, Augris (who has played Romulans twice for TNG), is appropriately smug and stern and cold, giving them the runaround at every opportunity. It's a little frustrating to have a fruitless major plot thread, but it does help to emphasize the obnoxiousness of the antagonists here.
In thread #2, Tuvok and Torres are in prison being interrogated for information that they don't have about the planet's resistance movement. Tuvok is exercising his Vulcan passive resistance well, and it highlights the irony of having a pacifist (well, almost) as a tactical officer. He also contrasts well (again) with Torres, who is simultaneously infuriated by and admiring of Tuvok's composure. Tuvok is significantly disfigured by the torture (he is heard screaming in the background of one of the scenes), and that makes his reserve that much more potent.
Most of the episode focuses on Janeway, who has been rescued by a man who thinks that she is his daughter. Piece by piece, we get this man's sad story; he and his wife had been members of the resistance, and out of (probably) cowardice he had failed to make a rendezvous with her - she was captured and killed in captivity. Since then he'd become Gollumy from living with the guilt, and Janeway's insistence that she needs to free her crew from the prison fits right into his fantasy that he could rescue his wife. Janeway's acting in these scenes is the best she's done in the whole series so far, which may sound like faint praise coming from me, but I was really never displeased with it. There is one very uncomfortable scene in which she pretends to be a prostitute (!) to get past the guards (which apparently was hyped by UPN as being the central theme of the show in the trailer, much to the dismay of the writers), but it is over soon enough.
Her companion, Caylem, also pulls his weight as an actor, behaving convincingly crazy. There's a scene where he knowingly makes a spectacle of himself to allow a resistance member to escape some guards, which nicely adds to the tragedy of his role by showing that he still has enough insight to grasp the gravity of his actions. The prison break is a success, and Caylem comes out as a hero in a very bittersweet way.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: We take a break from the continuity of the last two episodes here, and that's okay.
Aboard the ship, Kim, Neelix, and Chakotay attempt to open negotiations with the planet's government for the captive's release, but meet with no success. The leader, Augris (who has played Romulans twice for TNG), is appropriately smug and stern and cold, giving them the runaround at every opportunity. It's a little frustrating to have a fruitless major plot thread, but it does help to emphasize the obnoxiousness of the antagonists here.
In thread #2, Tuvok and Torres are in prison being interrogated for information that they don't have about the planet's resistance movement. Tuvok is exercising his Vulcan passive resistance well, and it highlights the irony of having a pacifist (well, almost) as a tactical officer. He also contrasts well (again) with Torres, who is simultaneously infuriated by and admiring of Tuvok's composure. Tuvok is significantly disfigured by the torture (he is heard screaming in the background of one of the scenes), and that makes his reserve that much more potent.
Most of the episode focuses on Janeway, who has been rescued by a man who thinks that she is his daughter. Piece by piece, we get this man's sad story; he and his wife had been members of the resistance, and out of (probably) cowardice he had failed to make a rendezvous with her - she was captured and killed in captivity. Since then he'd become Gollumy from living with the guilt, and Janeway's insistence that she needs to free her crew from the prison fits right into his fantasy that he could rescue his wife. Janeway's acting in these scenes is the best she's done in the whole series so far, which may sound like faint praise coming from me, but I was really never displeased with it. There is one very uncomfortable scene in which she pretends to be a prostitute (!) to get past the guards (which apparently was hyped by UPN as being the central theme of the show in the trailer, much to the dismay of the writers), but it is over soon enough.
Her companion, Caylem, also pulls his weight as an actor, behaving convincingly crazy. There's a scene where he knowingly makes a spectacle of himself to allow a resistance member to escape some guards, which nicely adds to the tragedy of his role by showing that he still has enough insight to grasp the gravity of his actions. The prison break is a success, and Caylem comes out as a hero in a very bittersweet way.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: We take a break from the continuity of the last two episodes here, and that's okay.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
S2 E11: Maneuvers
Seska is back! She has taken up the mantle of "recurring villain" and sided on a more permanent basis with the Kazon, and lured Voyager into a trap in order to steal transporter technology. Sounds about right; if I were to rank the importance of Trek tech, transporters would be right up there with replicators and warp drive. Kazon, being about as science-minded as Klingons, make a lot of sense as technology thieves, without it totally defining them (and being too much like the equipment-minded eqivalent of the Vidiians). As a bad guy, it works pretty well to have them be less advanced than the Federation, but still threatening in this show because they outnumber the one Starfleet ship around.
Seska tips the odds a bit more than I'd like; I feel that the Kazon could be perfectly threatening (without being given the upper hand by her) by constantly wearing Voyager down over time. It's okay though, because she's used to good effect here, taunting the crew quite effectively, which Chakotay (understandably) takes quite personally. So personally, that when the Kazon successfully steal a transporter core (with a cool hull-piercing boarding ship), he runs off on his own in a shuttle to get it back. His rationale - which is explored a bit more at the end of the show - is that he could save lives by only risking his own. It just seems pretty reckless/foolhardy, especially for a character who has been so calm and rational in other episodes, but the show does a decent job of showing how much Seska's taunting has affected him.
The Kazon balance of power is explored some more in this episode; the tribe that Seska has aligned herself with (likely due to them being in the "right" place at the "right" time) seems to be a middle-strength one, and with the new transporter core they are hoping to tip the scales in their favor. Seska herself is clearly a huge asset to them too, but that is tempered by her obvious power-hunger, which Culluh (the guy in charge) is well-advised to be appropriately threatened by.
Chakotay succeeds in his mission (but is captured in the process), giving the Kazon the perfect bait with which to lure Voyager into another trap. This time, with the help of other sects, they hope to capture the whole ship this time - a plan that might have been better executed if it were part of the first plan. Seska attempts to seduce/torture Chakotay into giving up the command codes, but he hates her so much at this point that neither tactic could possibly be successful. What's great is when Culluh tries to torture Chakotay, but all he gets in response are snarky barbs about Seska's manipulations. Chakotay is usually pretty passive, so the guy we see in this episode seems a little out of character, but I think I like this one better.
Voyager waltzes into trap #2, planning to just beam Chakotay off the Kazon ship (their ships have no shields), but Seska has some field set up to stop them. The solution is pretty fun (beam the Kazon leaders off instead and hold them hostage) but will lead to the writers to need to explain why they can't just do that again in later Kazon episodes. Also mildly problematic is that the Voyager was able to transport through their own shields, which is also prohibited, but I suppose the technology may have advanced some since TNG - though I recall the same restriction being present in DS9 (a post-Voyager-departure example).
The episode ends with the soap opera-y ending wherein Seska reveals that she has stolen Chakotay's DNA and impregnated herself with his baby. Now, I like having a recurring villain and all, but Seska's motivation feels... odd. Why does she seem to have this vendetta against Voyager? You'd think that she'd just take off and take her chances with finding her way home herself - or even just satisfy her power-hunger by taking on easier targets. I hope that when we see her again that she will have at least manipulated her way into another Kazon sect (a more powerful one), so that as long as she's going to be crazy, she'll be good at it. It is nice to see her being very competent at treachery and deceit, because that makes it a little more realistic that she would have been able to fool so many people for so long.
On the matter of Chakotay's punishment: the writers put themselves in a real tough spot here. Chakotay really should be put through the ringer for running off on his own and stealing a shuttle without authorization, but given Voyager's predicament it would be really hard to come up with a suitable reprimand without taking a very useful person out of the action for a while. Even putting him in the brig would just waste resources that they can't spare, but the solution of putting him "on report" is very unsatisfying. I would have liked to at least had the threat of making Tuvok acting first officer be mentioned (if not actually enacted for the next episode or two) as that would have mentioned a real possibility for punishment that could be carried out.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Once again the Kazon come out with a strong showing. I might be a bit happier if the Seska and Kazon threads weren't woven together so tightly (I doubt at this point I'll get another Seska-less Kazon episode), but better than having neither one.
Seska tips the odds a bit more than I'd like; I feel that the Kazon could be perfectly threatening (without being given the upper hand by her) by constantly wearing Voyager down over time. It's okay though, because she's used to good effect here, taunting the crew quite effectively, which Chakotay (understandably) takes quite personally. So personally, that when the Kazon successfully steal a transporter core (with a cool hull-piercing boarding ship), he runs off on his own in a shuttle to get it back. His rationale - which is explored a bit more at the end of the show - is that he could save lives by only risking his own. It just seems pretty reckless/foolhardy, especially for a character who has been so calm and rational in other episodes, but the show does a decent job of showing how much Seska's taunting has affected him.
The Kazon balance of power is explored some more in this episode; the tribe that Seska has aligned herself with (likely due to them being in the "right" place at the "right" time) seems to be a middle-strength one, and with the new transporter core they are hoping to tip the scales in their favor. Seska herself is clearly a huge asset to them too, but that is tempered by her obvious power-hunger, which Culluh (the guy in charge) is well-advised to be appropriately threatened by.
Chakotay succeeds in his mission (but is captured in the process), giving the Kazon the perfect bait with which to lure Voyager into another trap. This time, with the help of other sects, they hope to capture the whole ship this time - a plan that might have been better executed if it were part of the first plan. Seska attempts to seduce/torture Chakotay into giving up the command codes, but he hates her so much at this point that neither tactic could possibly be successful. What's great is when Culluh tries to torture Chakotay, but all he gets in response are snarky barbs about Seska's manipulations. Chakotay is usually pretty passive, so the guy we see in this episode seems a little out of character, but I think I like this one better.
Voyager waltzes into trap #2, planning to just beam Chakotay off the Kazon ship (their ships have no shields), but Seska has some field set up to stop them. The solution is pretty fun (beam the Kazon leaders off instead and hold them hostage) but will lead to the writers to need to explain why they can't just do that again in later Kazon episodes. Also mildly problematic is that the Voyager was able to transport through their own shields, which is also prohibited, but I suppose the technology may have advanced some since TNG - though I recall the same restriction being present in DS9 (a post-Voyager-departure example).
The episode ends with the soap opera-y ending wherein Seska reveals that she has stolen Chakotay's DNA and impregnated herself with his baby. Now, I like having a recurring villain and all, but Seska's motivation feels... odd. Why does she seem to have this vendetta against Voyager? You'd think that she'd just take off and take her chances with finding her way home herself - or even just satisfy her power-hunger by taking on easier targets. I hope that when we see her again that she will have at least manipulated her way into another Kazon sect (a more powerful one), so that as long as she's going to be crazy, she'll be good at it. It is nice to see her being very competent at treachery and deceit, because that makes it a little more realistic that she would have been able to fool so many people for so long.
On the matter of Chakotay's punishment: the writers put themselves in a real tough spot here. Chakotay really should be put through the ringer for running off on his own and stealing a shuttle without authorization, but given Voyager's predicament it would be really hard to come up with a suitable reprimand without taking a very useful person out of the action for a while. Even putting him in the brig would just waste resources that they can't spare, but the solution of putting him "on report" is very unsatisfying. I would have liked to at least had the threat of making Tuvok acting first officer be mentioned (if not actually enacted for the next episode or two) as that would have mentioned a real possibility for punishment that could be carried out.
Watchability: 4/5
Bottom Line: Once again the Kazon come out with a strong showing. I might be a bit happier if the Seska and Kazon threads weren't woven together so tightly (I doubt at this point I'll get another Seska-less Kazon episode), but better than having neither one.
Monday, January 10, 2011
S2 E10: Cold Fire
I like the idea of Tuvok mentoring Kes in telepathic control. They're certainly an odd couple - Tuvok (really Vulcans in general) placing a premium on control and focus, and Kes being the more free-spirited type, prone to flights of fancy. It probably has something to do with the average ages of their respective species. When you can live for multiple hundreds of years, you've really got all the time in the world to do what you want - passions can wait. On the other hand, Ocampa, with their nine-year lifespan, must feel like they've got to experience everything at once. Both of these characters have been developed well with these things in mind, and I appreciate it.
And as it happens, we get to meet some different Ocampa in this episode. Voyager has been carrying around the corpse of the Caretaker this whole time, and sparks of life in it have led them to a new Caretaker-style array - inhabited by somewhat aggressive Ocampa. Under the tutelage of a more aggressive Caretaker (Suspiria), these Ocampa have extended their lifespans (up to 20 years) and their telepathic abilities. Extending the idea of Ocampans being more passionate as a result of their shorter lifespan, it is not the least bit surprising that you'd find some who are more hostile.
Their leader, Tanis, comes aboard and informs the crew that they've got a bad public image. Calamity follows in the wake of Voyager and word has gotten around. That's an interesting theme that is only touched on here, and I know it'll come back later, but I do want to say this: a lot of sci-fi series (both Battlestar and Babylon 5 come to mind here) have some very heavy-handed episodes about shady journalism and how it is bad, and I like that it is more subtle here. The themes are there, but we're not confronted directly with the sleazy reporters who turn innocents into villains, rather we see the end result of the "poor press" and dealing with the consequences.
Tanis takes over for Tuvok and shows Kes how to do some very powerful things with her abilities. He himself is pretty mustache-twirling, but that's par for the course with sci-fi telepaths. The Betazoids of Trek are pretty unique as a major telepathic race that doesn't go around abusing their power - and while I appreciate that, it's also a natural extension from the ability to see private thoughts to getting a smug sense of superiority. Kes later goes to practice her new skills with Tuvok, and he gets his face melted and practically dies as a result. The following scene in sickbay is perfect - Kes is mortified, Tuvok is stern but of course forgiving, and the Doctor is exasperated. I love the Doctor's disdain for Vulcans and what he views as their reckless use of their telepathic abilities. The idea that anyone could find a Vulcan to be reckless in any way is hilarious.
Voyager finds Suspiria with Tanis' help, but she's actually pretty bitter about the death of her mate. Earlier in the epsiode, when they are about to follow the energy that was activating the Caretaker's course, Tuvok suggests that they should devise a defense against the Caretaker's powerful abilites, so that they won't be as easily overpowered as they were before. It seemed a bit alarmist at the time (and even more surprising that Janeway gave it the go-ahead), but it turns out to be quite useful, as otherwise Suspiria would have just killed everyone. Janeway does give me a bit of the eye-rollery when she puts the crew back at the mercy of a grief-stricken, crazed, very powerful entity in order to earn its trust (after subduing it with a weapon specifically designed to fight its species), but at least the result is not a new friendship - instead, Suspiria flees.
Not surprisingly, Kes goes back to not having any control over her powers, restoring the status quo - much like River in several of the earlier Firefly episodes (prompting many "We know she can do [X], why doesn't she do that now??" exhortations over the series' short life). But she's still training with Tuvok, which I like, and I have hope we'll see more of it. Neelix also behaved well this episode - he did his over-protective thing, but to a reasonable extent, and seems to have packed away the jealousy thing for now.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: A welcome bit of continuity, some more good character growth from Kes, very solid episode. This kind of "really very good" episode teeters on the edge between 4 and 5 as a score, but it is such an upswing in quality I feel I have to reward it.
And as it happens, we get to meet some different Ocampa in this episode. Voyager has been carrying around the corpse of the Caretaker this whole time, and sparks of life in it have led them to a new Caretaker-style array - inhabited by somewhat aggressive Ocampa. Under the tutelage of a more aggressive Caretaker (Suspiria), these Ocampa have extended their lifespans (up to 20 years) and their telepathic abilities. Extending the idea of Ocampans being more passionate as a result of their shorter lifespan, it is not the least bit surprising that you'd find some who are more hostile.
Their leader, Tanis, comes aboard and informs the crew that they've got a bad public image. Calamity follows in the wake of Voyager and word has gotten around. That's an interesting theme that is only touched on here, and I know it'll come back later, but I do want to say this: a lot of sci-fi series (both Battlestar and Babylon 5 come to mind here) have some very heavy-handed episodes about shady journalism and how it is bad, and I like that it is more subtle here. The themes are there, but we're not confronted directly with the sleazy reporters who turn innocents into villains, rather we see the end result of the "poor press" and dealing with the consequences.
Tanis takes over for Tuvok and shows Kes how to do some very powerful things with her abilities. He himself is pretty mustache-twirling, but that's par for the course with sci-fi telepaths. The Betazoids of Trek are pretty unique as a major telepathic race that doesn't go around abusing their power - and while I appreciate that, it's also a natural extension from the ability to see private thoughts to getting a smug sense of superiority. Kes later goes to practice her new skills with Tuvok, and he gets his face melted and practically dies as a result. The following scene in sickbay is perfect - Kes is mortified, Tuvok is stern but of course forgiving, and the Doctor is exasperated. I love the Doctor's disdain for Vulcans and what he views as their reckless use of their telepathic abilities. The idea that anyone could find a Vulcan to be reckless in any way is hilarious.
Voyager finds Suspiria with Tanis' help, but she's actually pretty bitter about the death of her mate. Earlier in the epsiode, when they are about to follow the energy that was activating the Caretaker's course, Tuvok suggests that they should devise a defense against the Caretaker's powerful abilites, so that they won't be as easily overpowered as they were before. It seemed a bit alarmist at the time (and even more surprising that Janeway gave it the go-ahead), but it turns out to be quite useful, as otherwise Suspiria would have just killed everyone. Janeway does give me a bit of the eye-rollery when she puts the crew back at the mercy of a grief-stricken, crazed, very powerful entity in order to earn its trust (after subduing it with a weapon specifically designed to fight its species), but at least the result is not a new friendship - instead, Suspiria flees.
Not surprisingly, Kes goes back to not having any control over her powers, restoring the status quo - much like River in several of the earlier Firefly episodes (prompting many "We know she can do [X], why doesn't she do that now??" exhortations over the series' short life). But she's still training with Tuvok, which I like, and I have hope we'll see more of it. Neelix also behaved well this episode - he did his over-protective thing, but to a reasonable extent, and seems to have packed away the jealousy thing for now.
Watchability: 5/5
Bottom Line: A welcome bit of continuity, some more good character growth from Kes, very solid episode. This kind of "really very good" episode teeters on the edge between 4 and 5 as a score, but it is such an upswing in quality I feel I have to reward it.
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