Further Proof That Expense Does Not Equate To Quality: “The Barge Of The Dead!”

The Good: Decent sets, Well-directed, Decent-enough acting
The Bad: Mediocre CG effects, Banal story, Character elements seem recycled
The Basics: The most expensive episode in the Star Trek franchise at its time of production, “Barge Of The Dead” is unfortunately unremarkable.


When Star Trek: Voyager reached the sixth season in its first run, I had already given up on it. But, when “Barge Of The Dead” aired, I made a point to tune in. At the time of its airing, “Barge Of The Dead” was the most expensive episode in the Star Trek franchise to produce, ostensibly because of the massive prop and the use of water on set. I felt cheated when I went through the effort to watch the expensive episode the first time around. Watching it again for review, I found myself similarly unimpressed.

That said, “Barge Of The Dead” is notable as an episode of Star Trek: Voyager because it finally explores important character aspects without degenerating into yet another ridiculous neurological parasite episode. Like “The Sword Of Kahless” (reviewed here!) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where, for better or worse, there is no spatial anomaly or alien influence that causes the characters to start acting like jerks, “Barge Of The Dead” fortunately looks at remarkably grounded character aspects to engage the viewer. In that way, “Barge Of The Dead” is a nice step up from many prior Star Trek: Voyager episodes. Unfortunately, “Barge Of The Dead” focuses on B’Elanna Torres long after most fans had given up on actually caring about the character; since the appearance of Seven Of Nine, Torres has been progressively deprioritized, serving more and more as an accessory to Tom Paris in his story arc.

“Barge Of The Dead” focuses on Torres and gives her the chance to start embracing her Klingon heritage and the viewer is compelled to buy the premise that after a lifetime of despising her Klingon half, one incident would make Torres have a sudden reversal.

On the way back from recovering a sophisticated probe that had been lost, Torres is wounded, but her mission is successful. The shuttle, it turns out, impacted a piece of debris from a Klingon ship after it lost its shields. Astonished by the find in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager’s crew begins celebrating the discovery with a Klingon heritage gathering. While at the gathering, Torres witnesses her comrades slaughtered and she awakens on the Klingon Barge Of The Dead, headed to the Klingon version of hell.

She resists the belief that the vision she is trapped in is in any way real until her mother, Miral, appears. Rescued by her crew, she realizes that her mother’s place on the Barge means Miral may be dead and headed to an afterdeath with the dishonored dead. She has the Doctor bring her close to death so she may return to the Barge and take her mother’s place long enough for her to ascent. But, the Klingon ferryman sees through her charade and forces her to figure out how she wants to live her life thereafter.

“Barge Of The Dead” is a near-death story, like Jacob’s Ladder (reviewed here!), that does not try to deny what it is, though it does irksome “what is real, what isn’t” reboots throughout the episode (didn’t Bryan Fuller see “Coda?!”). Ultimately, it does not engage the viewer enough to make one want to rewatch for clues as to what elements are real, which are not. The episode feels far too familiar for those who have watched Star Trek: Voyager; Torres parrots lines from Janeway in “Sacred Ground” (reviewed here!).

The essential character struggle for B’Elanna Torres is not a bad one, though. Unfortunately, the sudden “near death, life-changing incident” plotline seems incredibly droll. While Torres makes a good argument for Freedom Of Religion, the fact that she suddenly cares this deeply about the mother she hasn’t spoken with in a decade makes the episode ring false. Torres is a strong character and embracing her Klingon heritage feels like a deathbed conversion and given that it is in service to a character she has never shown a strong affinity for, weakens that character.

Tom Paris’s view in “Barge Of The Dead” makes sense and works far better than Torres.

The acting in “Barge Of The Dead” is fine, though Roxann Dawson is not given a particularly strong character struggle to perform to stretch her abilities.

Ultimately, Torres’s choice to embrace her mother’s dishonor is weakened some by severely lame computer-generated effects and the sense that this episode is not going to have real consequences (and it doesn’t). Sadly, those looking for a great Klingon episode in Star Trek: Voyager will not find it in “Barge Of The Dead.”

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Voyager - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Eric Pierpoint, visit my reviews of:
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
“For The Uniform” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Liaisons” - Star Trek: The Next Generation

4.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |