What Could Have Been A Throwaway Episode Of Star Trek: Voyager Becomes A Decent Character Study Of Torres With “Lineage”

The Good: Good character work, Decent acting
The Bad: Casting issue, Reverts character
The Basics: Torres becomes upset about her impending child in “Lineage” when she realizes the Klingon traits in her daughter will be dominant.


One of the concept characters who was unfortunately neglected for much of Star Trek: Voyager was B’Elanna Torres. Torres was based on the sexy, feisty half-Klingon K’Ehleyr from Star Trek: The Next Generation. K’Ehleyr was exceptionally popular, but lasted only two episodes. Torres had great character potential and for the first few seasons was the resident sex symbol on Star Trek: Voyager. When Seven Of Nine was brought on in the fourth season, Torres was essentially buried, with most of her character being sublimated only to service the evolution of Tom Paris.

Fortunately, as the series wound down, Torres was given her chance to shine in “Lineage.” “Lineage” allowed Torres to explore who she was as well as wrestle with . . . actually, “Lineage” is yet another episode of Star Trek: Voyager that would have been great if it had appeared in an earlier season. Tom Paris has always supported Torres exploring her Klingon culture and Torres herself has made peace with her Klingon heritage in “Barge Of The Dead” (reviewed here!). So, in “Lineage,” where Torres suddenly has the same issues with her childhood that she originally did, it seems more forced than a natural character evolution.

An unusually perky Torres arrives in Engineering, where she stumbles. Icheb scans her and realizes that Torres is pregnant. Word spreads through the ship quickly and soon Paris and Torres are overwhelmed and excited about their impending parenthood. When The Doctor calls Torres and Paris down to Sickbay, they learn they will have a daughter and that she has a minor spinal issue that can be easily fixed with genetic manipulation. After seeing what their daughter will look like, Torres begins to have flashbacks to her troubled youth.

As a result, Torres appeals to the Doctor to have her child genetically altered. Torres wants their daughter to have all of her Klingon traits and physiology eliminated. When The Doctor is unwilling to go through with the procedure and Tom objects, Torres appeals to Janeway, who rejects the idea as well.

“Lineage” undermines the fundamental character aspect of B’Elanna Torres through casting. Torres is half-Klingon, half-Human and her human roots are Hispanic in origin. While John Torres is played by actor Juan Garcia, he is either one of the least Latino-looking/sounding actors working or director Peter Lauritson uses lighting to “whitewash” the actor. This is disappointing and unfortunate.

On the flip side, Jessica Gaona, who plays the young B’Elanna, is very talented and gives good emotional depth to her performance in the episode. Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson perform their parts well and while Dawson telegraphs some of her character’s issues, the two have great on-screen chemistry.

On the continuity front, the manipulation of the Doctor is horrifying, but given the events of episodes like “Equinox, Part 2” (reviewed here!), it seems utterly ridiculous that the Doctor would not have extensive security protocols installed by this point. Torres behaves monstrously and while her motivation is compelling, it is hard to see how Torres and the Doctor are ever in the same room together again! That said, the writing for the episode is clever and compelling and this is one of the richer character-driven episodes of the series!

[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!
Thanks!]

7/10

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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The Search For Vulcan Artifacts Is A Gambit That Pays Off In "Gambit, Part 1!"

The Good: Interesting plot, Good acting, Nice character work
The Bad: In the End, it feels like a setup episode
The Basics: When Captain Picard is killed, the investigation puts Riker in the hands of mercenaries who are hunting for ancient Vulcan artifacts.


As Star Trek The Next Generation came out of a rut in the beginning of its seventh season, it began to take interesting risks. In the first successful episode since the sixth season's finale, the producers succeeded in making the show interesting by opening an episode with Captain Picard's death. It's enough to get the viewers attention. What follows is enough to keep it.

While investigating the apparent death of Captain Picard in a barroom brawl, the Enterprise crew turns up few answers and only one vague lead. As the crew mourns the loss, they ship encounters a raider that engages the ship in battle and the Away Team on a nearby planet in an ambush. In that attack, Riker is abducted by the mercenaries and finds himself in the company of a rogue's gallery of interstellar pirates, including Galen, a loosely disguised Captain Picard. At the earliest opportunity, Picard reveals that the ship is held together by a cruel captain whose control over the "officers" is a pain-inducing device. Picard enlists Riker in helping him discover the nature of the mercenary's mission, which appears to be assembling a device of ancient Vulcan origin.

What makes "Gambit, Part I" work is the shakeup of a pretty tried and true formula. Occasionally, one crew member will go missing and be presumed dead. In this case, both Picard and Riker appear lost and Data is put in temporary command of the Enterprise, with Worf as his first officer. This is a very different command dynamic than the crew is used to and it works quite well at keeping the viewers engaged.

The guest cast works quite well to make the mercenary ship have a very different feel from the Enterprise. Julie Caitlin Brown plays the brash Vekor opposite a cool Robin Curtis as an apparent Romulan mercenary. Curtis is best known to fans of Trek as Saavik from Star Trek III The Search For Spock (reviewed here!) and the opening scenes of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (reviewed here!). Here, Curtis is given the task of playing Tallera, a very different character, a mercenary. Curtis pulls off the role quite well, keeping Tallera different from Saavik using a completely different speech pattern and body language.

The support actors work well as well because they are playing interesting characters. For six full years, the viewers have been captivated by a group of people who solve their problems through long-winded speeches and philosophies. On Baran's mercenary vessel, conflicts are solved through action and torment. It's a different dynamic, yet it keeps the viewer quite interested to make the contrasts between the two ships.

Much of the episode ultimately hinges on the performances of Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes, who play Picard and Riker. For the first time in several seasons, Stewart and Frakes play the captain and first officer with a bond that is evident and based on mutual trust and support. It's refreshing to see it return and both actors make it appear easy, despite its absence for so many years.

Further kudos must go to Stewart, who makes the task of Picard pretending to be Galen look easy. Playing a character playing someone else is a difficult task; many actors end up playing themselves by the second separation. Stewart, instead, pushes his range with making a character who is abrasive and unlikable.

While clearly the first part of a larger story, "Gambit" works well as the story of two ships in contrast: an orderly somewhat militaristic, yet enlightened crew, and a crew of ruffians out for profit. The cliffhanger has the feeling of being somewhat added, as if the writers got to the forty-three minute mark, were still writing and had plenty more to write, but wanted something of note to come before "To Be Continued . . ." That works to the episode's detriment, but it is not enough to not recommend it.

"Gambit, Part I" may be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good mystery or a good action/adventure story with some intelligence to it. The viewer ought to be prepared to watch the resolution soon after, however.

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

7/10

For other Star Trek episode, movie or DVD set reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Star Trek The Next Generation's Perfect - And Best - Episode Ever: "The Inner Light"

The Good: Acting, Character, Plot, Everything
The Bad: Nothing, save a single bad bluescreen shot
The Basics: Star Trek The Next Generation creates an hour of television worthy of any audience and attention when Picard awakens as another man on a distant planet.


Every now and then, there comes an hour of television that is perfect and wonderful and ought to be viewed by everyone. While the best I have ever encountered is Star Trek Deep Space Nine's episode "Duet," "The Inner Light" from the fifth season of Star Trek The Next Generation gives it a run for its money. It's a perfect hour of television and while there are several hours of television that achieve perfection, "The Inner Light" has a way of garnering universal praise and rightly so.

"The Inner Light" opens with the Starship Enterprise encountering a probe of alien origin and design. The device scans Captain Picard and he is struck down by an energy beam. Picard wakes up on a distant planet, where he is called Kamen and he has a wife and he is an iron weaver. Instantly suspicious, Picard rejects the idea and strikes out for a way back to the Enterprise. As the years go by, Kamen becomes convinced the dream was just that and he settles down to enjoying his family, his music and studying the soil samples of the dying planet. He lives an entire life on Katan and it's a decent life, far away from the delusions of someone called Picard.

This is a brilliantly written and executed episode. The idea of Kamen is an intriguing one and it works especially well with the character of Picard. Here, Picard is seriously challenged and the time frame involved in the episode makes it completely sensible. That is, in some prior episodes, the idea that Picard does or does not do something related to how much he trusts members of his crew seems incongruent with how long he spent with his previous crew as captain of the Stargazer. That is, out of all the characters, Picard has had the most time and experience to forge lifelong bonds with other officers in StarFleet and how much he trusts Riker, for example, after only one or two years seems odd. In "The Inner Light," Kamen's suspicion does not dissipate right away. Instead, the idea that he was once Picard lingers for almost a decade. And that seems very realistic. We all know how certain dreams may linger.

The Picard character here has an extraordinary chance to grow and the writers take full advantage of that. Instead of simply turning a steadfast principle of the character on end, they explore the full ramifications of Picard's life being a dream. As a result, Kamen develops into an individual who is a scientist, not a leader (not even a politician), he's musically extroverted by learning the Ressikan flute and he is a man deeply, publicly in love with his family. So "The Inner Light" never feels like an episode where the writers just said, "Hey, why don't we do something where Picard has a family?" Instead, it feels like a compelling journey that is so well developed that the viewer comes to believe in Kamen, despite the interludes aboard the Enterprise where the crew attempts to revive Captain Picard.

More than a great character episode, this is an acting triumph for Patrick Stewart and the entire support cast. Stewart completely redefines his character, inventing Kamen with convincing ability to make someone who is distinctly different from Captain Picard. Indeed, Stewart endures a change in posture and prosthetics to create Kamen as he ages and he is not buried in the make-up. Instead, the acting shines through in a way that the special effects serve only to enhance the performance, not smother or define it.

The support cast is in "The Inner Light" is a great collection of talented individuals who illustrate their abilities quite well here. Richard Riele gives a nice, subtle performance as Batai, a contrast to his later roles on Grounded For Life and Star Trek Voyager. Jennifer Nash gives a decent performance as Meribor, Kamen's daughter. Like Stewart, Nash is responsible for acting through several phases of life and dealing with extensive make-up and she bears is as well as Stewart did. Daniel Stewart, Patrick's son, makes an auspicious outing as Kamen's son.

Margot Rose, however, is the scene stealer of "The Inner Light." Playing Kamen's wife, Eileen, Rose has the daunting task of pairing up with Patrick Stewart and creating a character that is plausible as the wife of Kamen. Rose is up to the task and she matches Stewart line for line, movement by movement for the attention of the viewer. She does a magnificent job aging and becoming an empathetic character we believe in and want to see more of.

This episode of Star Trek The Next Generation won a Hugo Award in 1993 and it deserved it. It's a shame that it did not garner more praise in the entertainment industry, but science fiction shows so seldom do. This is an amazing hour of television for anyone and everyone who loves great drama. There is nothing you need to know coming into it. Everything is explained and the depth of the story is powerful.

This is television doing what the medium may do best; using great actors to create amazing, empathetic characters while telling a compelling story.

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

10/10

Check out how this episode stacks up against others by visiting my Star Trek review index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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