“Flesh And Blood, Part 2” Returns Star Trek: Voyager To The Franchise’s Philosophical Roots.

The Good: Great plot development, Philosophy, Decent acting
The Bad: Pacing issues, Nothing superlative on the acting front
The Basics: The Doctor is tempted to leave Voyager with the holographic freedom fighters in “Flesh And Blood, Part 2.”


The Star Trek franchise has an erratic history with two-part episodes. The penultimate two-parter of the series (not counting the double-long series finale) was “Flesh And Blood,” a two-part episode that upped the holographic rights debate on Star Trek: Voyager. Much like the arc for Lieutenant Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation where Data began to fight for his own rights and his existence, the Emergency Medical Hologram on Star Trek: Voyager has become more vital, self-aware and evolved over the course of the six years of the series up until this point.

In a gross bout of melodrama, “Flesh And Blood” (reviewed here!) concluded with the hologram Iden declaring that Janeway and Voyager’s crew was no better than the Hirogen. This seems incredibly hypocritical as “Flesh And Blood, Part 2” essentially begins with the photonic life forms attacking Voyager and abducting Torres. Ironically, when Janeway falls down on the philosophical end, the Hirogen engineer Donik argues passionately in favor of the holograms. Rather refreshingly, “Flesh And Blood, Part 2” opens as an engaging philosophical and action-oriented episode and it manages to live up to the potential of the first part.

With the Emergency Holographic Doctor willingly joining Iden and his freedom-fighting holograms, Voyager is incapacitated. With the main deflector dish destroyed and Torres almost killed, Iden abducts B’Elanna and leaves Voyager adrift. After the Doctor heals B’Elanna, he gives her the choice to stay with the holograms or leave and hearing their plight, she slowly becomes sympathetic to their cause. With Voyager following the Hirogen hunters to try to find the hologram ship with their lost officers, Janeway and Donik work to find a way to end the conflict without further bloodshed.

“Flesh And Blood, Part 2” is notable for being smarter and more contemplative than its predecessor. The fact that Torres is considerate of the holograms plight was established in the first part and that Kejal and the Doctor are able to play off her Maquis tendencies is a nice twist. Torres seems to have grown since “Nothing Human” (reviewed here!) where she did not want a holographic Cardassian working to save her life. She and Kejal slowly come to work together and forge an unlikely friendship. This “reads” in the episode much more like character growth than sloppy or neglectful writing.

The Doctor is given a slightly more problematic arc. He starts babbling about what he wants his role on Adara (the planet of holograms) to be and while it is fitting that he would want to take up an artistic role on the planet, the debate is quickly co-opted. “Flesh And Blood, Part 2” becomes slightly derivative of “Revulsion” (reviewed here!) as Iden devolves into a homicidal megalomaniac. As in that episode, the Doctor and Torres find themselves in the thrall of a demented hologram. That twist in the plot is a bit disappointing as it muddies the argument some.

Even so, human rights – in this case holographic rights – are for everyone; not just the rational members of the culture (or subculture) fighting for their rights. That level of complexity is seldom explored in civil rights arguments (at least on television). So, while Iden goes off the deep end, there is an argument that states that he ought to still have his rights, regardless of his mental health issues.

Iden is played well, with growing insinuations of his deluded nature by Jeff Yagher. His character takes an unfortunate character turn, but Yagher sells it well. His co-stars in “Flesh And Blood, Part 2” are hardly as convincing in their willingness to follow him. Far more convincing are the effects and the character and performance elements pertaining to Torres and Kejal (Roxann Dawson and Cindy Katz).

“Flesh And Blood, Part 2” is sufficiently complex to engage anyone who likes smart science fiction.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Voyager - The Complete Seventh Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the final season here!
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For other works with Jeff Yagher, please visit my reviews of:
Mr. And Mrs. Smith
Six Feet Under - Season Four
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For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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