Voyager makes a stop at a planet to trade medical supplies for knowledge about the journey ahead with the local travelers. Kes, now separated from Neelix, begins a relationship with one of the natives, and starts questioning whether she should stay on Voyager. Meanwhile, the Doctor, experimenting with adding to his personality by incorporating traits from various notable historical characters, malfunctions and starts by trying to kill Kes' new friend. He moves on to torturing Torres, dissecting the holograms of the historical figures, abducting Kes, and trying to buy passage off the planet. Kes appeals to him to stop, but instead he throws them both off a cliff. Miraculously, the transporter beam that saves them also cures the Doctor.
I approve of the trading post, the insights we get into the culture of the travelers, and Voyager's mission here in general. These activities are what Voyager should be up to all the time, given their circumstances. Not that they need to show this kind of stop any more frequently than they are (or, at least, have done so this season), but it is a nice reinforcement of the life that a crew which is stranded in strange lands must be like.
I've often thought that, as a character with only nine years to live, Kes should be significantly more flighty. Her learning aptitude and thirst for discovery and novelty have satisfied that desire to an extent, but it seemed strange for her to want to be tied down with Neelix. That said, after the first two and a half seasons, the Neelix/Kes relationship deserved a bit more closure than the off-hand line here. Sure, I'm thrilled to avoid a four episode arc of Neelix going through a goth phase and moping around listening to Evanescence on his iPod, but those weren't the only two options out there. Yes, writers, I'm sure the focus groups told you how much they hated Parturition, but just dropping the couple is not the only way to solve the problem. This isn't just about character growth, it's about writer growth. If the writers don't learn how to write their way out of a bad relationship, I still won't trust them to make a new one.
Still, this direction is a better one for Kes, so I'm happy with that. I'd even have been happy for the whole episode to be based on that, instead of the Doctor-goes-psycho plot that we got instead. I love the Doctor, he's great at playing the Doctor, but I'm starting to realize that he doesn't have a whole lot of acting range. Sure, the new contacts make him look creepy, but instead of coming across as sadistic and amoral, he just looks like the Doctor acting goofy. The text-book Jekyll and Hyde madman stuff doesn't help by being really stale. I just rolled my eyes for the whole second half of the episode.
Watchability: 2/5
Bottom Line: It's actually pretty rare for the ending to be the worst part of the episode: usually, I struggle through the first 25 minutes for a chance to be rewarded for making it to the end. No luck here.
Gandhi's spinning head? Scared the crap out of me as a kid. I'm not sure why, but that scene really disturbed me and I wasn't expect it. The only other scene in all of Star Trek that just suddenly scared me was the giant needles from "Up the Long Ladder," the music and the stabbing of people, and I was really little. I mean, Genesis was really scary for me, but I realized it was going to be scary, I wasn't caught off guard.
ReplyDeleteI never watched this episode as a kid, but for my money, the creepiest Trek episode ever was The Game. Zombies in general freak me out disproportionately to other monsters, and that was the most chilling version of zombies in space that I've seen. When it turns out that they've even gotten to Picard... *shudder*
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