Moving To The Finale, The “Countdown” Begins!

The Good: Good plot, Decent villain moments, Moments of character development
The Bad: Predictable, Most of the character moments
The Basics: “Countdown” moves the plot of season three along very well and sets up the third season finale of Star Trek: Enterprise!


As the serialized plotline of Star Trek: Enterprise’s third season wound up, the plots became tighter, but the lack of character work was obvious. In the penultimate episode, “Countdown,” there was a strong sense of movement, but the sense that the writers were realizing how unbalanced the cast actually was. With Hoshi Sato captured during the climactic battle in “The Council” (reviewed here!) and a new MacGuffin introduced – the idea that the Xindi weapon requires three of the five codes in order to activate it – the plot is moving fast toward a resolution. Sato had done almost nothing in the season and Reed had been largely neglected (which was why his outburst in “The Council” stood out).

“Countdown” is very much a continuation of the prior plotline, so the fact that Archer’s main ally is not present and there are ever-shifting alliances presented throughout the episode only makes real sense to the people who have been viewing the prior episodes. That said, “Countdown” has a lot that is familiar to fans of the Star Trek franchise – especially Star Trek: The Next Generation. Torture was well-explored in Star Trek: The Next Generation with episodes like “The Mind’s Eye” (reviewed here!) and “Chain Of Command, Part II” (reviewed here!).

Hoshi Sato, captured by Commander Dolim, is told that her brain will essentially be liquefied and she will help the Xindi Reptillians to decode the third launch code needed to arm the Xindi weapon. Jannar and the leader of the Xindi Primates bring Archer before the Xindi Aquatics. The Aquatic leaders are unwilling to help Archer until he suggests that he and the Enterprise can help disable the Spheres, which would make the Expanse livable for all the Xindi again and prove that the Sphere Builders are actually malicious. While Sato tries to resist Dolim’s commands, T’Pol and Tucker butt heads on how best to disable the Spheres. In the process, they work to solidify their relationship.

When Dolim confronts the leader of the Sphere Builders, he is irked to discover they are unwilling (they claim unable) to give him the access codes he needs to activate the weapon Degra designed. As the Xindi Council fractures, Archer forms a new relationship with the leader of the Xindi Primates. When the Xindi Aquatics come forth as allies, the Sphere Builders decide to intervene directly. With the Xindi Reptiles arming the weapon, Archer and his fleet move to confront the Xindi Insectoids and Xindi Reptiles.

“Countdown” illustrates well a fundamental problem with big special effects-driven projects. As the episode moves toward a climactic space battle between the Enterprise and its allied Xindi fleet and the Reptillian/Insectoid fleet, it is hard to genuinely care. The fleets are largely anonymous ships and the nature of the prequel makes for an unfortunate lack of consequence. Regardless of the Enterprise, which seems unlikely to be absolutely destroyed with all hands lost, none of the ships have characters or even species that the viewers are invested in.

On the character front, “Countdown” does a decent job of resolving the conflict between Reed and Major Hayes. Hayes declares that he feels like a member of the crew and his commitment to bring Sato back alive seems very genuine (which is odd because his insistence that Reed needs to be on the bridge seems very forced). The other big character growth comes from T’Pol and Tucker. In “Countdown,” they actually commit to a relationship and it plays well. T’Pol seems like (as contradictory as it would be to the overall continuity) she has foregone logic only and might well be open to a steady, romantic relationship with the human Chief Engineer.

Hoshi Sato is very weakly defined in “Countdown.” She makes a lone passing attempt to prevent the Reptilians from getting the arming sequence by killing herself. Similarly, Archer’s insistence on rescuing Sato shows an unfortunate lack of perspective for the Captain. While Sato blithely notes she is not a cryptologist, she is used as one in a way that makes no sense. After eight months in the Expanse, almost a year after the seven million people on Earth were killed, Archer seems suddenly willing to let his mission fail by rescuing Sato at the risk of the Enterprise and the new alliance.

“Countdown” is notable in that it utilizes the transporter in a very traditional Star Trek way. As Major Hayes and the M.A.C.O.S. fight to rescue Sato, the tension mounts and the use of the transporter helps one feel like they are actually watching something very Star Trek.

Unfortunately, the idea of “Countdown” is a self-defeating one. Because Star Trek: Enterprise is a prequel set in the Star Trek Universe, the question for the entire season has not been “if” the Enterprise will succeed in its mission to save Earth, but rather “how” Archer’s crew would stop the Xindi. The climactic moment of “Countdown,” then, is robbed of much of its suspense and intrigue because there is truly only one way this arc can end.

Despite the plot elements that make “Countdown” feel like familiar Star Trek, the episode is remarkably lacking in thematic resonance that sell it as Trek. While Archer is committed to saving Earth and the Xindi, there is an entirely missing element to the episode: any moralization about the destruction of the Spheres. Because the Sphere Builders are so monolithically presented, their survival is disregarded entirely. Archer never considers how the destruction of the Spheres might be tantamount to genocide on the same order as the one (or two) he is trying to prevent.

Dolim is presented as a decent Star Trek villain, though he lacks a level of empathy the best villains always have. He begins to indicate that he is an absolute evil; betraying those around him in ways that do not justify his blind obedience to the Guardians. Ultimately, “Countdown” is exactly what one expects of a penultimate episode in a season-long serialized arc: it moves the plot forward to the point where one is eager to see the final episode of the season.

The biggest gaffe in “Countdown” is: Spock was the first StarFleet Academy graduate, but the implication was that he was the first Vulcan in StarFleet, so T’Pol’s resolve to “formalize her relationship with StarFleet” seems troubling.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Entirely Derivative, But Exceptionally Entertaining, “Twilight” Is One Of Star Trek: Enterprise’s Best.

The Good: Good acting, Decent effects, Good (temporary) character development
The Bad: Plot is an amalgam of other episodes! The resolution is utterly unsatisfying.
The Basics: Despite having some clever twists on the story told in “Future Imperfect,” “Twilight” is little more than a rewrite of that episode for Star Trek: Enterprise!


One of the advantages of producing heavily-serialized television is that the creative team of the show can do long arcs for a character. The worst serialized television is just plot based, the best uses the continuing storyline to develop the characters and larger themes that the producers are trying to create. Unfortunately, Star Trek: Enterprise, in its serialized third season, went with the plot-based focus and “Twilight” emerges as the critical point where that becomes truly unfortunate. “Twilight” is another episode where Archer is having the crap kicked out of him in the Expanse and if Star Trek: Enterprise was a character-based show, this would be leading to a climax of the season where Captain Archer could commit an act of sacrifice to save humanity and, in the process, find relief from the ass-kicking he has been getting. So far since entering the Expanse, Archer has gotten into a number of physical altercations, was turned into an alien lifeform in “Extinction” (reviewed here!) (which, I swear, I only just now realized was a pathetic rewriting of “Identity Crisis,” reviewed here!), and in “Twilight,” he is infected with the brain worms. At some point, death has to be a relief for a character and the heroic demise of said character becomes more of a relief to the fans than watching them suffer.

But that is the premise of well-constructed serialized television. Instead, though, “Twilight” ends up as a rewrite of “Future Imperfect” (reviewed here!) and the fact that it is combined with the plot conceit of 50 First Dates (reviewed here!), does not improve the premise. It’s too bad because if “Twilight” were not a thoroughly derivative episode, it might actually be all right. “Twilight” blends “Future Imperfect” with “Resolutions” (reviewed here!) and 50 First Dates. The net result of the episode, though, for fans of the Star Trek franchise is that this is nothing new.

After having a vision where Archer, no longer the Captain of the Enterprise, bursts onto the bridge during a battle and witnesses the destruction of Earth, Archer awakens on a planet. There, T’Pol tells him that his last memories – walking down a corridor chatting with him – were twelve years old. In that memory, the Enterprise hits the usual anomalies within the Expanse and when part of the corridor collapses, T’Pol is trapped under a beam. When Archer rescues her, another anomaly hits and he is knocked unconscious. He awakens in Sickbay and is told he has brain parasites that prevent him from forming new long-term memories.

T’Pol tells Archer the story of her command of the Enterprise; from Admiral Forrest relieving Archer of duty and T’Pol taking over to a disastrous encounter with two Xindi ships to the failure of Enterprise’s mission after the Xindi wiped out all but six thousand humans. T’Pol tells Archer that they have settled on Ceti Alpha V. Phlox visits to tell Archer that he may have finally found a way to eradicate the parasites and Archer, T’Pol, and Phlox visit Enterprise to remove the parasites.

Writer Mike Sussman deserves a lot of credit, despite how he cobbled together “Twilight” from other Star Trek episodes and concepts. Sussman has a decent sense of irony; he has Archer infected with brain parasites shortly before he reveals that T’Pol and Archer have settled on Ceti Alpha V, where Khan’s people were killed off by brain worms in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (reviewed here!). Sussman has a nice sense of Star Trek history and he can write, but “Twilight” asks far too much of the viewer and sets up an obvious reversal early on.

Like “Future Imperfect,” “Twilight” plays with how the crew of the Enterprise would change over the course of twelve years. In the penultimate act, the viewer is delighted with seeing how the crew has aged and been promoted, much like seeing Ambassador Picard and the scarred Worf in “Future Imperfect.” The obvious ending to “Twilight” forces the timeline to be restored and Sussman has to do so with a temporal anomaly, which becomes obvious the moment the episode features scenes that have nothing to do with Archer in the future. Until that point in “Twilight,” the episode could be a horrible dream of Archer’s that is forcing him to see things like the destruction of Earth (if it were a dream, the destruction of Earth would not need to be undone).

Even knowing that the reversal is coming (because it has to!), the timeline of the resolution is entirely unsatisfying. Given the level of damage to the Enterprise, there should not have been enough time to resolve the episode the way it does.

What saves “Twilight” from damnation is the fact that the acting is wonderful and writer Mike Sussman and director Robert Duncan McNeill use the time to explore the characters, better than almost any other episode of Star Trek: Enterprise! T’Pol and Dr. Phlox both grow in the alternate timeline exceptionally well. T’Pol is subtly emotional and that plays well given how much she would have been “contaminated” by the constant emotionalism of Archer and her feelings of indebtedness to him.

Jolene Blalock gives one of the most subtle performances of her run on Enterprise in “Twilight.” “Twilight” gives her the chance to play emotional without breaking the character of T’Pol. Scott Bakula manages to play Archer without stiffness or a confusion that is offputting. Instead, he seems realistically shaken, but it plays to the character’s problem as opposed to being an issue of acting. Even Connor Trinneer plays Captain Tucker well enough to convince viewers that he has actually been in command for some time.

“Twilight” is a bottle episode within a heavily-serialized season and it uses some of the same conceits as the episode upon which it was based (Ambassador Soval shows up at almost the same time as Ambassador Tomalak in “Future Imperfect!”), but it is enjoyable, entertaining, and has enough (even temporary) character development to satisfy fans.

The three biggest gaffes in “Twilight:”
3. Archer and T’Pol are shot by the same weapons in the episode’s climax. Archer is able to shrug off the effects of the blast while T’Pol is either killed or stunned; this contrary to everything previously established about Vulcan and human endurance levels,
2. The Xindi are wearing uniforms clearly recycled from the Reman costumes from Star Trek: Nemesis (reviewed here!),
1. The Enterprise in Star Trek was on a five year mission exploring out beyond where anyone had ever been when it found Khan’s ship in “Space Seed” (reviewed here!). As a result, the NX-01 Enterprise should have been nowhere near Ceti Alpha V to settle there!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate 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 History Of War Crimes Lives In The Familiarity Of “The Breach.”

The Good: Good themes, Decent make-up, Good character moments
The Bad: Very familiar plot and character elements
The Basics: “The Breach” is a good episode about medical ethics and the power of history . . . which is utterly familiar to fans of the Star Trek franchise.


Critics of movies, television, and literature are frequently known to say “it’s all been done.” That might well be true; virtually every story has probably been told in one form or another and at this point in human history, the magic of great cinema/literature is the way in which a familiar story might be told. In the case of the Enterprise episode “The Breach,” the a-plot is not only far too familiar to fans of the franchise, but it is hardly fresh in that the episodes it most closely resembles were done recently within the franchise. The Star Trek franchise is pretty wonderful about exploring the ramifications of war crimes and history, especially as they pertain to issues of medical ethics. Before “The Breach,” the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Nothing Human” (reviewed here!) presented virtually the same medical ethical dilemma and between that episode and “Jetrel” (reviewed here!), the concepts in the episode have been pretty much done to death.

“The Breach” breaks a long trend of Enterprise episodes that have completely lame teasers. The episode is instantly intriguing, but in perfect support for the idea that the franchise has already shot its wad on this concept, “The Breach” is filled up with a b-plot that is entirely different from the story’s main thrust and is plot-based without truly advancing any of the characters. Given how heavy the a-plot is, the simple cave exploring/survival story gels poorly with the rest of the episode and pulls focus from the more potentially riveting aspect of Dr. Phlox’s character development.

Opening with Dr. Phlox receiving news from the Denobulan Science Ministry, the Enterprise is diverted to the politically unstable planet Xantoras. The Xantorans are xenophobic and are removing all off-worlders from their planet. While Mayweather, Reed, and Tucker go spelunking to try to find a team of Denobulan scientists who are somewhere beneath the surface exploring, the Enterprise comes to the aid of an evacuating ship that has engine problems. Phlox is visibly shaken seeing one of the members of the alien crew and when the alien awakens, he refuses treatment from Phlox.

Phlox reveals to Archer that the Denobulans and Antarans have been periodically at war with one another and the alien is willing to die rather than let Phlox treat him. The Antaran reveals to Archer that the Denobulans have killed more than 20 million Antarans and he is willing to die rather than let Phlox treat him. When Mayweather is severely injured spelunking on the planet, Tucker and Reed have to go on alone to try to find the Denobulan scientists, who are reticent to leave.

“The Breach” feels very much like what one expects of Star Trek. The episode has a strong moral issue that is explored, even if it is an incredibly familiar issue. What makes “The Breach” work as well as it does is that the episode hinges upon the performance of John Billingsley as Phlox and he lives up to expectations. Often characterized as goofy, Billingsley is very much like Ethan Philips from Star Trek: Voyager in that he is marginalized so frequently that one usually forgets his talent until the producers and directors actually bother to focus on him. Billingsley provides an exceptional emotional range for the character and he makes the mood swings and character journey seem organic as opposed to erratic.

As well, Billingsley and the guest star who plays the Antaran (sadly, he is not named in the episode and yet the aliens in the cast list are, so it is only my best guess that makes me believe is it actor Henry Stram) play off one another exceptionally well. Billingsley and Stram are able to credibly play the subtle anger between their two characters perfectly. In fact, they play it so well that one almost does not question how a guy knocked unconscious and suffering from severe radiation sickness would recognize instantly an alien not seen by his people for more than three hundred years (or how the Denobulans apparently live for more than two hundred years as Phlox references that his grandmother lived through the last war, which was clearly and repeatedly established as ending more than three hundred years prior).

As for the b-plot, it suffers some from being unremarkable, but also from having acting that is unconvincing and occasionally cheesy. Connor Trinneer plays Trip Tucker as utterly unconvincing when he confronts the Denobulan scientists and he does not adequately rebuff the points they make. In fact, when the Denobulan scientist points out that the government on the planet topples pretty fast and regularly, after seeing how hard it was for the StarFleet personnel to get into the caverns, one has to ask why Tucker didn’t agree and just give the scientists some phase pistols to defend themselves!

Ultimately, “The Breach” is a refreshing change of pace for Enterprise, but it misses several opportunities. For example, of the rescued Denobulan scientists, none of them are Phlox’s children and none of them interact with the Antaran to either prove Phlox’s point that the Denobulans have been trying to repent for their past or illustrate that Phlox is an extraordinary alien by showing how hate sometimes survives. Either way, the resolving scene between Archer and the Antaran is anticlimactic considering the variables the episode puts into play. Even so, “The Breach” is worth watching, even if it distracts occasionally from its own purpose.

The three biggest gaffes in “The Breach:”
3. Yet again, a plethora of new aliens are seen in what should be the heart of Federation space,
2. In talking to T’Pol, T’Pol reveals that Phlox is lucky to have come from a planet that embraces other cultures. In Enterprise, Vulcans have been characterized as xenophobes, in the rest of the franchise, the Vulcans embrace infinite diversity. T’Pol’s attitude in this episode either contradicts her own previously-stated beliefs or the cultural values of the Vulcans of this time,
1. The episode begins with Phlox educating Sato about Tribbles. If Tribbles were well-known by the Denobulans, there would be no reason they would be a novelty in “The Trouble With Tribbles” (reviewed here!) a hundred years later.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

6/10

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 Menace To Enterprise Grows In “Cold Front”

The Good: Good plot development, Sense of tension
The Bad: Low on character development, Scott Bakula’s performance, Costume/effects issues.
The Basics: “Cold Front” puts the Enterprise in a Stellar Nursery and at the mercy of Silik, who may be working for the crew!


For all of my complaints about Brannon Braga and Rick Berman’s decimation of the Star Trek franchise, otherwise known as Star Trek: Enterprise, when the pair followed their own agenda, they actually did some stories that had good internal continuity. In other words, their own stories may have not been a natural precursor to the familiar Star Trek, but the episodes that they used to recreate the Star Trek universe in their own image fit together fairly well. Following “Broken Bow” (reviewed here!), the next Temporal Cold War episode – which illustrated the producer’s willingness to do serialized television – was “Cold Front.”

“Cold Front,” I discovered after very little research, is exceptionally low on continuity problems. I could have sworn that the “stellar nursery” mentioned in the episode was not the first mention of one of those phenomenon, which would have made the study of one in Star Trek: The Next Generation or the detour in Star Trek: Voyager utterly pointless, but to the credit of the writers, this is a new to the franchise stellar phenomenon, so it works conflict-free. In fact, the main issue in “Cold Front” is that the episode is so plot-heavy, it provides little room for genuine character development and Scott Bakula’s performance rather suddenly takes on a Shatner-esque quality that is unsettling.

When Silik, the villainous Suliban who tried to incite a war between the various Klingon houses a few months ago, has the modifications to his eyes removed under the direction of his taskmasters from the future, he is assigned to another mission to thwart the Enterprise. The Enterprise, for its part, is exploring near a stellar nursery when it encounters an alien ship, commanded by the reticent Captain Fraddock. Fraddock is ferrying a group of alien pilgrims to witness a cyclical energy discharge they know as the Great Plume Of Agosoria. Archer invites the pilgrims to visit and tour Enterprise, unwittingly bringing Silik aboard his ship. Silik appears to sabotage the Enterprise, but when a plasma discharge hits the ship, it is only the broken connection Silik created that saves the starship from a warp core breach.

The nearly-averted disaster brings Crewman Daniels out of the woodwork to Archer’s attention. Outing himself as a Temporal Agent, Daniels alerts Archer to some of the principles of the Temporal Cold War. While Daniels, Archer, T’Pol, and Tucker work to find Silik aboard Enterprise, Silik squares off against Archer and tries to enlist him in hunting down the human Temporal Agent. While Archer and his crew wonder whom to trust, Silik makes his move, attempting to take a piece of technology Daniels brought back in order to aid his mysterious benefactors from the future.

“Cold Front” is a decent conspiracy story that forces Archer to ask who is really on his side and it accomplishes that goal in a generally engaging way. As far as the plot development goes, the most severe issue with “Cold Front” is that Silik never truly lands it; he is utterly unconvincing as a potential ally. I thought it would be pretty cool if there was an X-Men-esque reversal where Silik was not after anything to do with Enterprise (i.e. he needed Enterprise to survive the plasma discharge in order to keep one of the pilgrims alive, etc.), but alas, there is nothing quite so clever in the episode. Moreover, from a temporal mechanics perspective, “Cold Front” makes no real sense. Silik’s mission has to do with determining who on board is the Temporal Agent, so the moment that is accomplished, there is no rational reason why his handlers would not simply send another agent back to an earlier point. After all, at any moment when Daniels is bringing Archer his food, the technology in his quarters is vulnerable. Or, better yet, go back to an earlier point and replace Daniels’ roommate. But, alas, the episode is not so clever with that either.

Instead, Archer is put in a pseudo moral quandary with two sides who have unconvincing evidence as to their trustworthiness. Also odd in “Cold Front” are the special effects. One of the pilgrims who visits Enterprise is clearly wearing a Bajoran Vedek’s robes, which is a bit distracting to fans of the overall franchise. And for the great stellar phenomenon that the pilgrims are visiting, director Robert Duncan McNeill cheats the effects and goes for an underwhelming effect with a greater emphasis on the reaction shot, making for something of an anticlimax.

While “Cold Front” tries to play Archer as in a moral quandary, the episode’s primary character elements come from Dr. Phlox. Phlox is once more characterized as an inquisitive, highly intelligent alien who embodies in a very pure way Enterprise’s mission. He embraces a cultural exchange with the aliens and proves himself to be a true explorer. T’Pol, on the other hand, is used as an instrument to discount the concept of the Temporal Cold War, but her bland assertions that time travel is not possible do not even come across as a Scully-esque need for empirical evidence.

But, for a change, it is not Jolene Blalock’s performance that might unsettle the viewer, it is Scott Bakula. It is virtually impossible not to watch the way he, as Archer, invites the alien pilgrims to the mess hall for “. . . something” to not feel like he is simply channeling William Shatner’s over-the-top performances in “Cold Front.” In fact, actor John Fleck seems more grounded and menacing underneath his extensive make-up for Silik than Bakula does without any. Fleck is slowly building Silik into one of the more interesting Star Trek adversaries and in “Cold Front,” he plays Silik as a compelling pawn.

“Cold Front” is necessary to understanding the Temporal Cold War plot of Enterprise, but it does little more than advance that plotline.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the premiere season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with John Fleck, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Weeds - Season 6
Carnivale
"Alice" - Star Trek: Voyager
"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“The Search, Part 1” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“The Homecoming” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Babylon 5 - “The Gathering”
Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Mind’s Eye”

6.5/10

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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“Endings Are Such Sweet Mediocrity” Why “Endgame” Is Not A Great Finale For Star Trek: Voyager!

The Good: Special effects, Moments of plot and character, Most of the performances are fine
The Bad: Conceptually preposterous plot, Inorganic character motivations, Derivative nature
The Basics: “Endgame” brings Star Trek: Voyager to a close in an action-packed episode that falls apart the moment one begins to closely look at it!


Back when I was on the convention circuit, dealing most weekends at various Star Trek conventions around the United States, I took particular delight in posing the question, “Who is the most important character on Voyager?” Almost no one ever got it right. While Janeway is the instrument, the motivation for Star Trek: Voyager is, of all characters, Tuvok. Tuvok is the reason Voyager gets lost in the Delta Quadrant in “Caretaker” (reviewed here!) as Janeway goes searching for the ship he was lost on while undercover and in the series finale, “Endgame,” it is the plight of Tuvok that finally sells Captain Janeway on using a shortcut home.

“Endgame” is a season finale that makes a wink and a nudge to the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation in more than just the costumes (the later 24th Century costumes are seen in that finale and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Visitor,” reviewed here!). Some of the temporal mechanics issues in “Endgame” are disturbingly similar to those in the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as are some of the character motivations. Unfortunately, while “Endgame” similarly ties up loose ends for Voyager, some of the relationship issues that motivate characters in “Endgame” (most notably the Seven Of Nine/Chakotay relationship) seem somewhat contrived or rushed to.

Starting on the tenth anniversary of Voyager’s return to Earth after a twenty-three year journey home, Admiral Janeway is working to tie up loose ends in her life. She has Torres and Paris’s daughter assigned to a secret mission, though StarFleet Command denies she is a part of any classified missions and she seems to be working for Temporal Mechanics and StarFleet Academy. Working with Commander Reginald Barclay and having procured an experimental compound from the holographic doctor (Joe), Admiral Janeway says goodbye to the mentally-fractured Tuvok and disappears in a shuttle to meet with a corrupt Klingon, Korath. Shortly after getting ablative armor technology from Korath, Janeway is picked up by Captain Kim and his ship, the U.S.S. Rhode Island. Admiral Janeway talks Kim into letting her go, on a mission into the past to save Voyager sixteen years of its journey and more than twenty lives in the process.

Interspersed with the future narrative, in the standard timeframe, Voyager passes a red giant where it detects an inordinate amount of Borg activity. While Chakotay and Seven Of Nine have their third date and Torres has her umpteenth false labor, Captain Janeway feels relief that the ship managed to avoid contact with the Borg and counts her blessings. But that changes when a spatial anomaly appears in Voyager’s path and Tuvok detects Klingon weapons fire from the other side of the anomaly. Admiral Janeway’s shuttle emerges from the phenomenon and Admiral Janeway orders her younger self to close the rift. When that is done and Admiral Janeway’s identity is authenticated, Admiral Janeway slowly reveals to her younger self the truth of her mission: she wants Janeway to take Voyager back to the Borg transwarp hub they passed days prior, outfit Voyager with ablative armor technology, and use the transwarp hub to get home. Captain Janeway, however, only wants to use the technology to destroy the Borg’s massive tactical advantage. Working together, the present and future Janeway work out a tactic that may allow them to accomplish both goals.

First, what I liked most about “Endgame:” there is a remarkably clever and subtle element to the episode that I take peculiar delight in. In order to sell Captain Janeway on the importance of going along with her plan, Admiral Janeway reveals elements of the future to her younger self. The fact that gets Captain Janeway to stop with her wholesale objections to her older self’s plan is learning that three years in the future, Seven Of Nine will die. In authenticating Admiral Janeway’s identity, the Doctor discovers a microchip in Admiral Janeway’s brain that the Admiral informs him he developed some twelve years ago. What delights me here is the implication: that after Seven Of Nine died, the EMH began to study her discarded Borg implants and developed Federation-based microtechnology that replicated some of the Borg’s cybernetic technologies!

For all the rushed nature of it, I did like the character relationships in “Endgame” as well. The future ones play off a longer sense of the journey and having Harry Kim advocate in favor of a longer journey, but destroying the Borg Transwarp Hub is pretty cool. Also cute was that Paris takes a moment to note that he will win the betting pool on the birth of his child. The acting is also fine throughout the episode, though the only one given a real performance challenge is Kate Mulgrew, who has to play off herself for several long scenes.

Unfortunately, the novelty aspects and the decent acting do not negate the severe issues with “Endgame.” The first problem is conceptual: “Endgame” acts as if Star Trek: Voyager was a heavily serialized show when it most explicitly was not. In fact, the producers wanted to avoid a second serialized Star Trek as, when Star Trek: Voyager began, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was already doing long arcs. “Endgame” is all about consequences and Star Trek: Voyager has largely lacked that. For sure, there was the occasional episode where the ship was running low on deuterium, but by the beginning of almost every episode, Voyager was back to being perfectly intact, despite years without maintenance at a StarBase. To sell Captain Janeway on the importance of her mission, she has to convince her younger self that the consequences outweigh the temporal prime directive issues. Unfortunately, this is a sophisticated argument in a show that has pointedly avoided developing that very level of detail and continuity.

This leads to the primary, severe, plot and character issue in “Endgame.” “Endgame” is a temporal tampering episode that ultimately makes no rational sense. Admiral Janeway arrives in Captain Janeway’s time to explicitly alter the flow of history. Fine, I can buy the premise. I accept the premise entirely. What does not make sense is the timing. Admiral Janeway is prepared to equip Voyager with the technology and information needed to make it reasonable to erase sixteen years of its voyage and restructure the ten years that followed that. She does this by playing on Captain Janeway’s feelings of loyalty to her crew and in the knowledge that in the sixteen years that will be erased, Captain Janeway will save the lives of twenty of her crew and get Tuvok the medical attention he needs in the Alpha Quadrant before his degenerative disease makes him into a turnip. [Sidebar: We’re asked to believe that in seven years, Janeway can effectively travel 40 years worth of distance, but in the subsequent sixteen years she finds no anomalies that take the other 30 years off the trip significantly faster?!] What about all of the crew that was killed when the Caretaker abducted Voyager and all of the casualties that mounted over the seven years of Star Trek: Voyager?! Armed with the knowledge of Admiral Janeway, Captain Janeway trades millions of lives for . . . twenty and the mental health of another. “What?!” I hear you cry. Walk with me. If Admiral Janeway had simply gone back to the beginning, preventing the Maquis from being abducted by the Caretaker and preventing Voyager from similarly being taken, millions of people survive. First, there are all the people on Voyager who stay alive and could actually be, potentially, an asset to StarFleet during the Dominion War. So, initial Maquis and StarFleet deaths are reduced to zero. But then, there are all the ancillary deaths that occurred as a result of Voyager’s journey through the Delta Quadrant, most notably the millions of Borg killed by the Borg Queen in “Unimatrix Zero, Part 2” (reviewed here!). So, rather selfishly and stupidly, Janeway trades the lives of dozens of StarFleet officers, several Maquis, and millions of Borg for . . . Seven Of Nine. The only character who faces a real life or death change by Voyager returning to Earth after seven years in the Delta Quadrant is Seven Of Nine. Otherwise, she would have remained a Borg. There are a shitton of other temporal problems with “Endgame,” but the ethical argument that is made in the episode ultimately comes down to Janeway trading the last twenty casualties for sixteen years. This makes no sense because if one is going to go ahead and alter decades of time anyway, why not save the greatest number of lives?!

This leads to the biggest character problem in “Endgame,” which (admittedly) is biased for me by actress Kate Mulgrew. I did a convention with Kate Mulgrew the week after “Endgame” aired and I recall Mulgrew very proudly telling a little girl (could not have been more than ten) that she killed the Borg Queen. Admiral Janeway does, in fact, go up against the Borg Queen and here the writers fall down. Admiral Janeway has worked for Temporal Mechanics and, presumably, has access to all of the classified data they have, at least as it pertains to the Borg. So, Janeway should know that the Borg Queen has been killed at least twice by that point. Why does she think that when she kills the Borg Queen it will be any more permanent than when Riker or Data killed the Borg Queen before?!

And so, Star Trek: Voyager ends with the same issues that dominated it for the entire series: it goes out with a big bang of spectacle and style that is pretty immediately recognized as lacking in substance the moment one scratches surface.

[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!]

For other Star Trek finales, please visit my reviews of:
“Turnabout Intruder” - Star Trek
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
“All Good Things . . .” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“What You Leave Behind” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Nemesis

4/10

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 Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager!

| | | The Basics: Star Trek: Voyager may never have had a perfect episode, but these are the ten episodes that were the best the show produced!


As my reviews of Star Trek: Voyager come to an end, I am happy to compile the Best and Worst lists that my readers have, historically, enjoyed. Already, I have compiled the Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager (that’s here!) and I was somewhat surprised that there were more second season episodes in that list than there were episodes from the fourth season and beyond (which is generally where I feel Star Trek: Voyager and the Star Trek franchise went off course). It is now time for the flipside, the ten best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.

It is worth noting that Star Trek: Voyager, in my rating system, never had a perfect episode. These episodes were the highest rated using my objective rating system and it is also worth noting that many fan favorite episodes do not appear on this list for a very simple reason: I am not impressed by special effects. Special effects account for only one point out of ten in my rating system, so the primarily special effects-driven episodes that are very popular with many of the fans may not score as high with me because so many of those episodes lack the distinctive or interesting plots, the genuine character development, or remarkable acting one might hope for. Many episodes of Star Trek: Voyager - even some that I emotionally enjoy – did not score that high because the enjoyable aspect was the dazzle and effect aspect, as opposed to anything genuinely, qualitatively good.

I also wanted to note that “Phage” (reviewed here!) and “Faces” (reviewed here!) were near-misses to make this list. For all of my issues with Star Trek: Voyager and the way the series completely undermined the menace of the Borg and the Q, they created a truly frightening and wonderful villain with the Vidiians. The Vidiians were scary and interesting and consistently well-executed. It is a shame that they can never again be Star Trek villains (or at least, not with the same menace, punch, and desperation). For what it is worth, emotionally, I was somewhat surprised that “Distant Origin” (reviewed here!) also got muscled out of the Top 10!

What might be most surprising about this list of the Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager is how many of the episodes were first and second season episodes. I attribute this to the fact that, for those looking for a series with substance, Star Trek: Voyager was a great example of the law of diminishing returns. The show had so much potential and it mortgaged it with each passing season. Even so, there were some pleasant surprises for me as I considered the series as a whole. So, without much fanfare, here are the best ten episodes of Star Trek: Voyager!

10. “Human Error” (reviewed here!) – The last great surprise episode of the series, “Human Error” is bound to be a surprise to those who read my many reviews because it is a Seven Of Nine episode. Not only is “Human Error” an unabashed Seven Of Nine episode, it is derivative of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Hollow Pursuits.” And yet, when Seven Of Nine creates a second life inside the holodeck, the writers smartly steer away from the novelty of the holodeck-altered characters and keep the episode focused on Seven Of Nine’s character struggle. The result is a silent quest for deeper emotions from a woman who is struggling with what it might mean to be human again and the episode works amazingly well. It comes at a time when Seven Of Nine can reasonably expected to be coming out of her shell and overcoming her Borg programming and it works incredibly well for that! This is, arguably, Jeri Ryan’s best performance of Seven Of Nine as well,

9. “Equinox” (reviewed here!) – It might have an utterly preposterous premise – that the Caretaker abducted a second StarFleet vessel (it is never made explicit what genetically-different crewmembers the Equinox might have had compared to Voyager and that is problematic) that has been taking a different route home through the Delta Quadrant – but once one accepts that, “Equinox” becomes a very dark exploration of what Voyager could have been. Battered, demoralized, and operating on a skeleton crew, Captain Ransom’s U.S.S. Equinox has not stuck to Federation morals and the results are monstrous. This was the best season finale Star Trek: Voyager produced and the only one that made me truly hunger for the season that followed it,

8. “Ashes To Ashes” (reviewed here!) – Not at all a “token Kim” episode, “Ashes To Ashes” is legitimately wonderful. An alien race that reproduces by genetically reprogramming corpses recovered a Voyager crewmember and she starts recalling her initial identity and catches up to Voyager. This intriguing premise leads to Harry Kim having one of his more successful romantic relationships and one of the few that the viewer can really emotionally invest in. However, being that it is Kim . . . Still a wonderful character episode,

7. “Projections” (reviewed here!) – A very typical Brannon Braga plot finds the Doctor having an identity crisis when he is told that he is actually a flesh and blood human being who is having a mental breakdown on the Jupiter Station. It might not be a deep character study, but Robert Picardo’s performance makes it easy to invest in the “what is real and what is not?” episode,

6. “Lifesigns” (reviewed here!) – The only (primarily) Vidiian episode to make the list, “Lifesigns” is not an action or horror episode, instead, it is a quiet character study that gives the Doctor his first romantic encounter . . . with a brilliant Vidiian doctor who is suffering from advanced stages of the Phage and whom the Doctor must make a holographic body for. One of the few episodes that wrestles with the consequences of prior episodes, “Lifesigns” gives B’Elanna Torres a great secondary character conflict when her genetic material might help the Doctor and Dr. Pel, but her past experiences with the Vidiians leaves her unwilling to donate her tissue. Brilliant and fun,

5. “Mortal Coil” (reviewed here!) – Neelix has a crisis of faith after dying and goes to the brink of utter desolation. Enough said,

4. “Jetrel” (reviewed here!) – The first powerhouse performance by Ethan Philips, “Jetrel” fills in the backstory of Neelix and sets up the most-alluded to single event (outside Voyager’s abduction by the Caretaker) in the series. In this episode, we learn that Neelix’s home world was attacked and the planet’s moon was utterly devastated by a terrible weapon. The episode has a compelling build-up to the revelation of Neelix’s part in the war for his planet and it is balanced by the story of a scientist motivated by his own powerful sense of guilt trying desperately to make up for his wrongs. This is one of James Sloyan’s best supporting performances and a knock-‘em-out-of-the-park performance by Ethan Philips,

3. “Heroes And Demons” (reviewed here!) – The first episode to give the Doctor an away mission of his own, “Heroes And Demons” has the EMH in Beowulf and the episode is funny, clever, and filled with menace. Not simply a holodeck adventure story, the episode realistically explores the psychological consequences for what is essentially an agoraphobic being thrown out into a very big world. On screen, Robert Picardo and Marjorie Monahan (Freya) have great chemistry that makes the romantic and tragic aspects of the episode work wonderfully,

2. “Caretaker” (reviewed here!) – The best of the Star Trek franchise pilots, it is telling that the show started high that its pilot made it to #2! The characters are introduced in interesting and compelling ways, the performances are not as clunky as on the other pilot episodes and the production crews were refined enough to shoot a pilot that did not look like a pilot. “Caretaker” has a Maquis vessel disappearing in a dangerous area of space and Captain Kathryn Janeway conscripting an arrogant pilot with a troubled past to help find it. But, the simple recovery mission starts an epic journey when both ships are abducted by a powerful alien 70,000 light years from the Badlands. “Caretaker” is well-plotted and makes one enthusiastic to start the journey of Voyager, which is exactly what a first episode ought to do,


and finally . . .

. . . against all odds or bets . . .

1. “Resolutions” (reviewed here!) – What many people might have seen as a throwaway bottle episode became its finest episode. When the Doctor is unable to treat Chakotay and Janeway of (of all things!) an insect bite, the two senior officers make the difficult decision to stay behind and Voyager, under the command of Tuvok heads for home. “Resolutions” is a tight character episode, exploring both Janeway’s desperate search for a cure on the planet, contrasted with Chakotay’s easy acceptance of life outside a command structure and Tuvok’s rocky command as Harry Kim makes constant appeals for the new captain to negotiate with the Vidiians for a cure for Janeway. The acting is top-notch, the characters are exceptionally explored and the plot is surprisingly engaging. If only it didn’t waste so much time with the damn monkey . . . this is the must-see episode of the series, but best appreciated by those invested in the characters.

For other “Best Of” lists, please check out my lists of:
The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek
The Best Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The Top Ten Episodes Of Frasier

For other television reviews, please visit my Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek: Voyager’s Writers Look Back And Forward With Chakotay In “Natural Law!”

The Good: Moments of plot and character, Concept
The Bad: Some of Jeri Ryan’s performance, Absurd b-plot, Mediocre plot, Very obvious special effects shots (and cheats)
The Basics: “Natural Law” puts Chakotay and Seven Of Nine in a situation where they must rely on a primitive culture to survive.


As a series winds down, especially one that has so many characters to service as Star Trek: Voyager, the show has to essentially “write out” characters if the series finale is going to primarily focus on a single character or one or two of the main characters. While Star Trek: Voyager did not have nearly as many plotlines to tie up as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it had as many characters. While only one of the characters (Neelix) will explicitly be written out of the series, Harry Kim has, by the time “Natural Law” comes up, already had the final episode that would focus exclusively on him. Chakotay and Tom Paris are given their last real hurrahs in “Natural Law,” an episode that focuses on Chakotay and gives Paris a surprisingly weak subplot that seems more intended for comic effect than character development.

In “Natural Law,” the writers seem to recall that the original draw for the characterization of Chakotay – even more than that he was a member of the Maquis – was that he was a Native American Indian. This look back is a decent one and seems entirely plausible given the events of prior episodes, like “Tattoo” (reviewed here!). However, if the purpose of “Natural Law” is truly to give Chakotay one last shining episode, writer James Kahn unfortunately fails. Like so many things since she arrived on the show, “Natural Law’s” story that could have easily focused on Chakotay and his ability to communicate with the alien indigenous people, Seven Of Nine co-opts much of the episode.

Chakotay and Seven Of Nine are en route to a conference when their shuttle encounters a mysterious energy barrier on the planet surface they are flying over. They crash as a result of hitting the energy barrier and the two find themselves stranded on a lush, forested planet. Meanwhile, Tom Paris is reckless in flying the Delta Flyer around the planet Voyager is at and he is sentenced to the spatial equivalent of a defensive driving course. Underneath the energy barrier, Seven Of Nine and Chakotay discover an apparently ancient civilization still preserved in a pre-warp state of evolution. With Chakotay wounded, the pair stays the night with the indigenous people, despite Seven Of Nine’s trepidations and desires to recover debris from the shuttle that might allow them to contact Voyager.

While Paris muddles through his driver’s education course, Chakotay becomes distressed that the Ventu natives are beginning to recover debris from Voyager’s shuttle and imitating the two survivors by adorning themselves with pieces of the debris. When Seven Of Nine conscripts the Ventu to help move a piece of the debris, she and a Ventu girl work to temporarily bring down the barrier for rescue. But, when the barrier is lowered, the industrialized powers enter the habitat, much to the horror of both Chakotay and Seven Of Nine.

“Natural Law” is essentially the episode where Chakotay teaches Seven Of Nine to respect the sovereignty of the native people. This actually makes a much more sensible bond between the two characters that sets up the role their relationship plays in the series finale. Far more plausible than just throwing together Chakotay and Seven Of Nine, “Natural Law” gives them a common bond, purpose, and experience to make their brief relationship reasonable for the fans.

The subplot with Lieutenant Paris is mediocre and vaguely humorous, though both Robert Duncan McNeill and Neil Vipond (Kleg, the flying instructor) play off one another very well in order to sell their interactions.

The only other acting of note is that of Jeri Ryan’s Seven Of Nine. Throughout much of the episode, Ryan is lax in her portrayal of Seven Of Nine. Her eye motions and physical contact with Robert Beltran’s Chakotay seems much lazier than deliberate. For much of the episode, she seems like Jeri Ryan walking around a set, as opposed to Seven Of Nine on an alien planet. This is brought to a head in the episode’s final scene, where Ryan plays Seven Of Nine exactly like what one expects of her, which further accents the awkwardness of the early performance.

“Natural Law” is also notable in that it has surprisingly bad and noticeably cheated special effects. On the planet, when Seven Of Nine is forced – by her young guide – to take a breather and appreciate the scenery, the viewer is subjected to a painfully obvious green screen shot that does not gel with the characters occupying it. But more significantly, until the last possible moment of the episode when it is absolutely essential, the barrier is not seen. The viewer – who, as a Star Trek fan is likely to be very comfortable with brightly colored energy barriers, like from “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - is told about the all-powerful energy barrier and the phaser discharge that allows the shuttle to survive passage through it, but we don’t see it. It is an invisible barrier (except for a convenient final shot) from space and from the surface, allowing director Terry Windell to gloss over actually showing the effect, especially as an alternate sky for the land shots.

“Natural Law” has a good message, one which Chakotay fortunately never hammers home in a painfully explicit Saturday Morning Cartoon kind of way. Chakotay does not want to use the Ventu natives, not only because he does not want to influence their culture an undo amount, but because of the history Earth has with enslaving its Native Peoples. Robert Beltran insinuates that concern in his performance, without stopping to make it obvious and I liked that.

Unfortunately, “Natural Law” does not nail the episode home in any meaningful way. It is good, but not great and hardly one of the more memorable episodes, which is an unfortunate condition for an episode to be so close to the end 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!]

5/10

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 Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager!

| | | The Basics: What started out with so much potential quickly sank in the saga of Star Trek: Voyager: here are the episodes that can be safely avoided.


As I near completion of my reviews of Star Trek: Voyager, I find myself wistfully looking back at the series. And, as my readers have come to expect, I am now happily able to reveal my list of the Worst 10 Episodes of the series! I was actually surprised, when compiling this list, to discover that while Star Trek: Voyager had more consistently low-rated episodes (all of these episodes have a lower rating than the series rating for Star Trek: The Animated Adventures!), Star Trek: The Next Generation actually had more episodes that hit the lowest possible ratings (and are fairly painful to watch).

It is worth noting that the usually-despised episode “Threshold” (reviewed here!) does not make the list. For all the problems most people had with the special effects, I think it’s a great performance by Robert Duncan McNeill, the concept is good, and the episode actually tries to make a plot-based technology problem into a character episode that explores Paris’s feelings of inadequacy. And it lives up on that front.

So, without fanfare, here are the bottom ten episodes of Star Trek: Voyager!

10. “The Fight” (reviewed here!) – I can’t think of an episode in the Star Trek franchise that, when it was finished, I sat and said to myself, “What the hell was it I just watched?!” like “The Fight.” Chakotay has to train for a fight as a method of communication with an alien race and the idea seems needlessly complicated and ill-executed. Sure, it’s an excuse for Ray Walston to show back up one final time as Boothby, but it pretty much undermines his legacy when the DVD bonus features for the episode have actors talking about how far gone he was when working on the episode (and the episode that preceded it with him). “The Fight” is just a mess and I would not be surprised if Robert Beltran left it off his filmography whenever he had the chance,

9. “Resistance” (reviewed here!) – Honestly, the last time I watched the episode, I liked it a bit better than I ever had before, but this episode is a sad excuse to have Janeway use her feminine wiles (even momentarily) to accomplish a goal. The plotting is obvious and for all of Joel Gray’s wonderful performance abilities, the episode is gutted by obvious direction that telegraphs the ultimate demise of his character. And, oh yeah, because their plight is treated like something of an afterthought, Tuvok is so completely un-Vulcan in the episode and the experience never seems to have any ramifications on either Tuvok or Torres! And I write all that having enjoyed the bulk of books written by the episode’s writer, Michael Jan Friedman,

8. “Repression” (reviewed here!) – It speaks poorly of an episode when, a month after watching it and writing about it, it was so unmemorable that I had to go back and read my own review to even remember what the episode was. “Repression” is terrible, is what it is! Voyager, apparently, has no anti-viral software and a message gets through that reprograms the most obvious person possible, to start incapacitating former Maquis members . . . because of something that once happened long ago and blah de blah blah blah. I couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for writing about it the first time, I’m not wasting more time on it here,

7. “Innocence” (reviewed here!) – The real idiocy of “Innocence,” an episode that tries to make Tuvok dealing with three (apparent) children into an awkward situation for him is that Tuvok is the first Star Trek franchise character who begins the series with adult children. So, of all the characters in the entire Star Trek pantheon, the one best equipped to deal with children effectively and in an unruffled manner is Tuvok. But then, the kids aren’t kids and the “reversal” is something so unclever, it could have been an episode of the Star Trek: Animated Series,

6. “Learning Curve” (reviewed here!) - Star Trek: Voyager apparently did not particularly want a second season, because they left four decent episodes in the can and ended the first season with an episode that had Tuvok, a former Academy instructor, struggling with basic education principles when teaching members of the Maquis how to serve aboard Voyager. And the villain is . . . cheese. Seriously, not “cheesy,” the villain in “Learning Curve” is cheese. That would be fine; I can suspend my disbelief to believe that Voyager and its experimental bio-neural gel packs could get an infection. I fail to believe, though, that Voyager is so poorly designed that the air vent from Neelix’s kitchen would lead to open circuitry where the cheese could ever be exposed to a bio-neural gel pack,

5. “Fair Haven” (reviewed here!) – Filled with terrible Irish stereotypes and the most underwhelming sense of menace for any Holodeck episode in the Star Trek franchise, what really sinks “Fair Haven” is the casting. Janeway (and Kate Mulgrew) had more sexual chemistry with the guy from her governess holonovel in the second season than she did with Michael the bartender (Fintan McKeown),

4. “Nemesis” (reviewed here!) – Apparently, nothing good comes from naming something “Nemesis” in the Star Trek franchise. When Chakotay is brainwashed to be a soldier for an alien race, the only thing more annoying than the pretense that he might get killed on the planet is how the word “nemesis” is used almost every other line. The episode is a great example of how a good theme can be presented in an absolutely terrible way. And the make-up in the episode is just painfully lazy. The villains are clearly redressed Naussicans. Or Predators,

3. “Prototype” (reviewed here!) - Star Trek: Voyager went through something of a lull in its second season. When it came back from its hiatus, it was with an episode where Torres is abducted by robots. Things did not look good for the series. “Prototype” is one of those episodes that might have worked if it was ever put in context. B’Elanna Torres might be the most-abducted character on Voyager. “Prototype” was at least her fourth time she was abducted (she had been abducted and tortured in the prior episode, “Resistance!”) and she never developed a complex about leaving the ship. How Torres ever ended up trusting anyone or wanting to leave Engineering is a mystery to me. “Prototype” hinges on a false sense of emotional attachment that Torres has for a robot she helps repair and because that bond is not plausibly sold, the episode falls apart,

2. “Twisted” (reviewed here!) – Arguably the worst-conceived spatial anomaly-of-the-week episode, Voyager enters a distortion ring where everything gets stretched and skewed. The best part of the episode is the end; not that the episode ends, but rather that the solution to the problem is surprisingly original for the franchise. Beyond that, “Twisted” makes no sense unless the ship and crew are made of gummy candy. Metal snaps, plastic cracks and tears, nothing in the episode satisfactorily explains why Voyager does not hit the anomaly and get torn apart, as opposed to ridiculously warped around,

And . . .

. . . the worst of the bunch is . . .

1.“Spirit Folk” (reviewed here!)! Star Trek Voyager revisits the pathetic setting of “Fair Haven.” And, if that episode’s romantic subplot was poorly executed, its follow-up is even worse. Why? Michael’s faith hinges on the virtually gutted relationship he has with Janeway. But long, long before it gets to that point, “Spirit Folk” is an ugly mess of an episode with a double-helping of the Irish stereotyping that made “Fair Haven” so bad in the first place. The doctor is hypnotized, another hologram takes the mobile emitter, and the Holodeck safeties fail yet again. This episode features the bulk of the actors looking bored or walking around in a daze, like they realized while making the episode that they were involved with creating something preposterous.

For other “Worst Of” lists, please check out my lists of:
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Awkward Condition Of Having Your Character Return . . . Only To Be Killed! “Friendship One”

The Good: Decent concept
The Bad: Weak, unoriginal, plot, No real character development, No extraordinary acting.
The Basics: “Friendship One” serves largely to remind viewers of the existence of Joe Carey by putting him in an awkward hostage situation that lacks emotional resonance for the viewers and the crew.


It always surprises me when shows in the Star Trek franchise remake lesser episodes. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (reviewed here!) is essentially “The Changeling” (reviewed here!) remade on a larger scale. In a similar vein, “Friendship One” is basically “Thine Own Self” (reviewed here!) from Star Trek: The Next Generation blended with “The Quickening” (reviewed here!) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Actually, while “Friendship One” is largely “Thine Own Self” in Star Trek: Voyager, it is mostly just an excuse to remind viewers that Joe Carey, Janeway’s original choice for Chief Engineer, managed to survive on Voyager until this point.

Unfortunately, the excuse to bring Josh Clark as Carey back is thinly veiled and “Friendship One” is a surprisingly unmemorable episode of Star Trek: Voyager, despite feeling very much like Star Trek. Despite its early dark moments, “Friendship One” has a very classic feel to it; there is an almost formulaic sense of optimism to it.

The reason “Friendship One” lacks punch – outside its ironic title that seems less clever with each viewing and how obviously it rewrites the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode – is that Joe Carey has been quietly below decks for the past several seasons. As a result of him disappearing from the narrative for so long, “Friendship One” strains to create character traits (married with a child, building a ship in a bottle, etc.) for the engineer in order to make him seem relevant and like he has been an active member of the crew all along. However, he has been absent . . . and hardly missed.

Shortly after Zephram Cochrane made his historic warp flight, Earth launched the Friendship One probe into deep space. StarFleet Command, now that Voyager is in regular contact with them, has determined that the probe ought to be in the area of space near where Voyager currently is and the ship is tasked with finding and recovering the probe. Harry Kim helps locate the probe on a nearby planet and Chakotay, Neelix, Joe Carey, Kim, and Paris take the Delta Flyer to what appears to be an abandoned planet in nuclear winter. They discover that the planet is not devoid of life and when part of the Away Team is kidnapped, Chakotay and Kim return to Voyager with an ailing inhabitant of the planet.

From Otrin, Voyager’s crew learns that Friendship One was recovered by the planet’s inhabitants, who learned about the antimatter technology the probe possessed to make warheads which devastated their planet. With generations suffering from radiation burns, the planet’s population has been almost entirely wiped out. While Janeway wants to be sympathetic, it is hard when Verin is holding three of her crew . . . and proves his resolve by killing Joe Carey. With time running out for the hostages, Janeway struggles to keep them safe while the Doctor, Otrin, and Seven Of Nine try to undo the damage to the planet and restore the faith of the people on the planet.

Thrown in, there is a subplot involving a pregnant woman whom Paris is able to empathize with and leads him to the rather obvious position of questioning Janeway. “Friendship One” is not bad, but it is Star Trek strictly by the numbers; Joe Carey is basically just a “red shirt” (though “gold shirt” never caught on as a saying for the Next Generation era of security guard, possibly because they were not killed each episode).

There is no real character advancement in “Friendship One.” Neelix, as he frequently does, advocates on behalf of the Voyager crew, Janeway looks exasperated when trying to be a diplomat, and Seven Of Nine and the Doctor go a long way to saving the day. One of the few chances to make a mark is missed by Harry Kim when Paris makes a crack about how the eager young ensign might be trying to curry favor with StarFleet by doing his job exceptionally well on this first assignment from home and Kim does not point out (again) how he has not been promoted.

“Friendship One” is very much a plot and theme-based episode and it serves its purpose, but it is hardly distinctive or memorable while it does.

[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!]

4/10

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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