Best One Yet: Enterprise Illustrates An Ability To Do A Quality Episode When Nothing Happens With “Breaking The Ice!”

The Good: Moments of character, Jolene Blalock’s best performance yet, No huge continuity issues in the Star Trek franchise
The Bad: Vulcans are still presented in this episode as racist xenophobes, Very little actually happens in the episode
The Basics: The Enterprise crew explores a comet and performs a long-distance classroom presentation that serves as a primer for Enterprise in “Breaking The Ice.”


My dislike of Enterprise is not a blind one; the executive producers – Rick Berman and Brannon Braga – showed a firm commitment to writing the series in a way that they saw fit, without any real care for how the show fit into the rest of the Star Trek pantheon. The inclusion of a Vulcan crewmate on Enterprise was a profoundly bad decision; it invited continuity problems simply because so many of the things Spock went through in Star Trek seemed fresh and new to his crew, so it was clear that Vulcans and humans still had a lot they did not know about one another. But even worse than that, the Vulcans in Enterprise have been written as racists and xenophobes, which is not only illogical, but it is contrary to the essential Vulcan philosophy of Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations, which was characterized in Star Trek as an ancient philosophy.

“Breaking The Ice” suffers from yet another Vulcan who is xenophobic and racist against humans, but it also marks the real beginning of the relationship between T’Pol and Trip. Ironically, “Breaking The Ice” is the episode with the least amount of plot development, and yet it packed in more character than most of the prior episodes combined. In fact, this is the first episode where Jolene Blalock masters a completely emotionless performance, with no hint of a smirk or emotion in her eyes.

Enterprise receives a transmission from a fourth grade class on Earth and the crew is excited when it comes out of warp near a giant comet. The comet contains an exceptionally rare element, which Reed and Mayweather decide to mine. While Shuttlepod One lands on the comet and the two officers prepare to mine the element, a Vulcan ship arrives in the same sector. Hailed by the Vulcan Captain Vanik, Archer begins to feel upset by how the Vulcans seem to be looking over the shoulders of the Vulcan crew.

In cleaning out one of the buffers, the command staff discovers a Vulcan transmission that was encrypted for T’Pol. When Hoshi decrypts the transmission, Trip Tucker learns that she is working to delay an arranged marriage on Vulcan. When T’Pol confides in Tucker, he argues in favor of free will, which puts the Vulcan science officer in a moral quandary. Meanwhile, on the comet, Reed and Mayweather begin mining the rare element, but in blowing the crater out to get access to the element, they shift the trajectory of the comet and put themselves in danger.

“Breaking The Ice” has a wonderfully humorous moment when Reed and Mayweather build a snowman on the surface of the comet and are caught by Archer and the Vulcans. There is a wry sense of humor to the episode that is surprisingly delightful. Scott Bakula, Anthony Montgomery and Dominic Keating pull off the comic elements of the episode exceptionally well.

On the character front, the first real implications of a burgeoning relationship between Trip and T’Pol comes when T’Pol confides in Trip because she trusts him and actually values his opinion. Trip is uncomfortable about having the information about T’Pol’s private life is a nice touch (though it seems odd that he could claim only he read her secret transmission from the Vulcans – after all, how could Hoshi know if she properly decrypted the transmission unless she read part of it after decoding it?). But the character elements – which are focused primarily on Trip and T’Pol – are not limited to just the two of them. Mayweather references how he has only seen snow twice and his sense of humor with building a snowman is a nice touch.

Dr. Phlox is fleshed out as a bit of a blowhard or attention whore in the episode and that works. The whole idea of the long-distance classroom is a nice touch and it gives the crew a chance to perform for the folks back home in a way that is entertaining and seems very realistic. Moreover, it allows viewers to get filled in about the technology and abilities of the crew of Enterprise in this time period in the Star Trek franchise. In fact, “Breaking The Ice” is nice for those who want to be able to leap into Enterprise without the early super-awkward, problematic episodes. It is the first episode of Enterprise I would actually recommend to anyone who loved other series’ in the Star Trek franchise.

The three biggest gaffes in “Breaking The Ice:”
3. The episode opens with Enterprise receiving artwork from the classroom they have the telecommunication with in “Breaking The Ice.” While it is later referred to as a “transmission,” characters go through physical paper artwork sent from the kids. If Enterprise is the fastest ship in the fleet, how did they get the package? Or, if they actually received a transmission, why would a ship with such limited resources actually print out pictures on their limited stock of paper as opposed to filesharing with the crew?!
2. The Vulcans have an amazing sensor net in “The Andorian Incident” (reviewed here!) and were just caught spying on a sector near the one where Enterprise is found in this episode . . . and yet, they missed the biggest comet either the Vulcans or humans have ever seen?! Really?!
1. In “Breaking The Ice,” T’Pol tells Trip about her arranged marriage. The likelihood that that cultural conceit then remained a secret for decades after until “Amok Time” (reviewed here!) is utterly ridiculous.

[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!]

7.5/10

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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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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Belief And Babies Are The Subject Of Klingon “Prophecy.”

The Good: Moments of character development, Decent effects
The Bad: No real outstanding performances, Banal plot
The Basics: Star Trek: Voyager once again belabors a Klingon connection by introducing a “Prophecy” for Torres and Paris’s unborn daughter.


When the Star Trek: Voyager episode ”Prophecy” begins, it is easy to feel that the viewer is in for something preposterous. The fact that a Klingon ship has appeared in the Delta Quadrant is not at all unsurprising, however, the moment it is revealed to be an antique D-7 Class Cruiser, viewers might well feel their stomach tightening. After all, haven’t we seen this before? Sure we have, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Emissary” (reviewed here!). The element of ridiculousness, though comes in the idea that Klingon ships could hold together, under cloak, without their suspended animation units failing for the hundred years it would need to reach this point in the Delta Quadrant. It does stretch at the bounds of suspension of disbelief. Fortunately, this particular D-7 does not invest in the use of suspended animation devices; this is a multi-generational Klingon ship.

But the more important elements that prey upon the mind of the loyal fans of Star Trek: Voyager has to be how the character arc of B’Elanna Torres is severely sped up to try to make this episode seem plausible. After all, only a few episodes ago, in “Lineage” (reviewed here!), Torres was so distraught over having a quarter-Klingon child that she tried to have the Doctor perform horribly unethical genetic manipulation on the fetus. How she comes through “Prophecy” with any feeling of sanity or Klingon pride is virtually impossible to believe.

Voyager is soaring through space when it is attacked by a decloaking D-7 Klingon warship. Easily crippling the ship, Janeway gets the Klingon captain, Kohlar, to talk and when he beams over, he is astonished to meet B’Elanna Torres and pleased to discover that she is pregnant. Returning to his ship, Kohlar initiates the self-destruct, necessitating a rescue from Voyager’s crew. Kohlar reveals that he destroyed his ship and had his people beamed to Voyager because of his belief that the fetus Torres is carrying is a Klingon child of destiny and the subject of the journey his great grandfather began almost a hundred years prior.

Torres is reluctant to accept this interpretation and troubled when many of the visiting Klingons stage a hunger strike to get her to visit them. When Neelix moves in with Tuvok and Harry Kim finds himself the subject of a Klingon woman’s desires, the situation on Voyager becomes more tense and confused. As Kohlar works to keep his crew in line, a debate rages among his followers as to whether or not the “mongrel” child Torres is carrying can be the chosen one. In the process, Torres begins to have a spiritual awakening.

Unfortunately, when Tom is challenged by one of the Klingons to a fight to the death, “Prophecy” begins to feel a bit like “Looking For Par’Mach In All The Wrong Places” (reviewed here!), without knowing it is supposed to be a comedy. Indeed, writers Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong seem to have a wonderful sense of irony, especially in the critical themes of “Prophecy.” Strong and Sussman create a character who seems to be a man of faith, but is clearly willing to use his faith as a tool. The moment he proposes to Torres that she find ways to make her personal narrative conform to the established prophecy, Kohlar seems like a desperate fanatic or a religious leader very tired of leading his flock. It’s an interesting twist, but hardly one that makes “Prophecy” seem incredible.

Moreover, Kohlar’s second, Morak, challenges Torres and Paris in a way that is inconsistent with how Worf – who has the most time spent delivering exposition on Klingon culture – characterizes Klingons. Morak is stubbornly sexist and that is a trait Worf insists Klingons are not (though several episodes do imply the opposite).

While the medical aspect of “Prophecy” is a surprise, most of the episode is painfully predictable, especially the treachery of the Klingons. More than that, there is nothing surprising on the acting front. There are fun moments of Neelix getting down with a Klingon woman, but this is actually an obvious extension of Neelix’s role in “The Killing Game, Part 2” (reviewed here!). In fact, Philips performs the role virtually identical to his performance in that episode, robbing the moments of comic relief he is supposed to provide in the episode of its necessary surprise.

What is truly underwhelming is B’Elanna Torres’s arc in “Prophecy.” She has a very stunted religious awakening in “Prophecy” and it is not enough to sell the viewer on any lasting change in the character. In fact, coming on the heels of her own doubts about having a partially-Klingon child, it is somewhat surprising that the events of “Prophecy” do not push her to identify less with her Klingon culture. After all, if Kohlar is essentially a cult leader, his desire to use Torres’s baby to guide his people seems like it would stunt the progress Torres has made in identifying with her Klingon culture.

As it is, “Prophecy” is one of the less memorable episodes of the final season of Star Trek: Voyager and it is a lot of set-up for no real pay-off.

[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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A Clever Retrospective Opens A Temporal Nightmare In “Shattered!”

The Good: Interesting and initially engaging concept, Robert Beltran is good in the episode
The Bad: Physics of the problem make absolutely no sense,
The Basics: “Shattered” has Chakotay wandering around Voyager through temporal barriers that put him in different times in the ship’s history.


The danger of doing a time travel episode that allows characters from a television series to encounter different eras in the show’s history is that fans might realize just how much they liked the show in one of its earlier iterations. In Star Trek: Voyager, there seems little danger of that happening and as Chakotay goes around a ship that serves as a convenient window into different eras in Voyager’s history, the viewer is much more likely to simply recall how preposterous the show can be at times. The look ahead in the timeline is unfortunately preposterous.

In fact, much of “Shattered” is ridiculous, though it is an emotionally enjoyable episode. Details in the episode are problematic and when viewed rationally, “Shattered” is actually one of the most ludicrous episodes of the entire series. Take, for example, the teaser which has Chakotay breaking out one of the last of his bottles of cider hidden on the ship. When Chakotay came to Voyager, he was alone, being beamed off his ship as it exploded. It was a desperate gambit. Here, we are made to believe that Chakotay (or the transporter operator at the time) beamed aboard personal possessions, including a case of cider, which he managed to stash before anyone noticed.

After encountering an anomaly, Chakotay is wounded in Engineering. He awakens in Sickbay, where the Doctor brags about having created a chronoton-based cure for him and expresses frustration that he is cut off from the rest of the ship. Chakotay leaves Sickbay, already theorizing the problem involves time travel of some sort when the Doctor is baffled by the idea of a mobile emitter. Chakotay arrives on the Bridge where Janeway arrests him for his activities as a Maquis, but en route to the brig, his guards disappear and Chakotay goes to Engineering. There, he encounters Seska, who is in control with the Kazon. Returning to Sickbay, Chakotay gets a hypospray of the treatment the Doctor gave him before and returns to the Bridge. There, he enlists the aid of Janeway.

Together, Janeway and Chakotay visit Astrometrics where they meet an adult Icheb and Naomi Wildman and figure out how to restore the ship. Chakotay and Janeway go throughout the ship injecting bioneural gel packs to restore the ship. In the process, Janeway encounters the macrovirus, the Borg, Chaotica and others Voyager encountered over the seven years of the show!

“Shattered” is basically a retrospective episode that can be best appreciated by those who have seen (and enjoyed):
“Caretaker”
“Basics, Part 2”
“Macrocosm”
“Scorpion, Part 2”
“Bride Of Chaotica”
and “Bliss”

“Shattered” also requires viewers to believe that in seven years, Voyager made it about 35 years worth of the trip home, but seventeen years from now, the ship will still be on its journey. The future Icheb and Samantha Wildman are interesting variations on the characters.

In fact, what doesn’t work is Chakotay, at least on the character front. Chakotay has to advocate in favor of Janeway getting the ship lost in the Delta Quadrant. In that speech, Chakotay neglects to consider just how many people died for Janeway’s vision of the future. When Seska inevitably turns on Chakotay, it shows real insight into her character, whereas Chakotay is illustrated to be a fool . . . yet again.

The physics of “Shattered” are also problematic. The idea of the anomaly is not a bad one and it would make sense on a perfectly stationary target. The idea of the different rooms existing in different times is cool, but it only works if the rooms are in the same places.

“Shattered” almost seems like a self-congratulatory episode, reminding viewers of just how far the show came and all it went through. But, it also is a ballad of missed opportunities, most notably in the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay. Chakotay actually seems like a bit of a douchebag in one respect in “Shattered.” Chakotay has been very, very slowly cultivating a relationship with Seven Of Nine. But, in “Shattered,” he comes close to actually having a real emotional connection with Janeway that borders on the romantic. It is almost like Chakotay is hedging his bets.

Fortunately, it is actually just that the writers of this bottle episode were probably not privy to where the show was going with Chakotay and Seven. As a result, “Shattered” is a well-acted, somewhat nonsensical episode that is fun, but not much more.

[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 works with Vanessa Branch, please visit my reviews of:
Post Grad
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
The Cell

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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Star Trek: Voyager Remembers What Franchise It Is A Part Of For “Critical Care!”

The Good: Great social message, Decent acting
The Bad: Painfully obvious set redressing, No real character development, Very predictable plot progression.
The Basics: “Critical Care” find the Doctor reluctantly treating patients on a planet where medical treatment is based on the patient’s benefit to society.


By the time the seventh season of Star Trek: Voyager came around, the show had gone through a number of phases, but the predominate one was a phase where, desperate to regain the audience that had waned and to get new people watching, the producers had sold out for the lowest common denominator. In other words, unfortunately, Star Trek: Voyager became a series that traded more on sex appeal and special effects than it did on substance. There was about one episode per season after the fourth season began (and the show brought Seven Of Nine on for the gawk factor) that focused on a pressing social or historical issue and sometimes, like the sixth season’s “Memorial” (reviewed here!), it was a simple retread of an earlier Star Trek: Voyager social episode’s theme. For the seventh season of Star Trek: Voyager, the first social commentary episode was “Critical Care.”

“Critical Care” is the health care episode of Star Trek: Voyager and it is a rousing commentary on the social problems of our day, much the way Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “Past Tense, Part 2” (reviewed here!) was a treatise on homelessness and unemployment in the United States. “Critical Care” subtly pokes at privatized health care and less subtly argues that basic health care is an essential human right. Unfortunately, in order to pull off the social message, the crew of Voyager is once more made to look utterly incompetent. Had this episode preceded “Live Fast And Prosper” (reviewed here!), the crew might have seemed less doltish, but it is a problematic conceit now. At least to get to the social message, Voyager did not have to encounter a random spatial anomaly.

The Doctor finds himself activated by an alien on a floating medical ward on a planet he has never heard of. Stuffed in an overcrowded facility with patients who are suffering around him, the Emergency Medical Hologram stops worrying about his own escape and begins treating suffering patients. The understaffed medical facility is managed by Chellick and the computer Allocator. The Allocator assigns each patient a TC (Technical Coefficient) to determine which level they are treated (or die) on. The Doctor is rather abruptly reassigned from Red Level to Blue Level, from the working class of society to the patients who are the richest. Appalled, the Doctor discovers that patients the Allocator and Dr. Dysek determine are of more use to society are being given medicine as vanity treatment when, on the lower levels, the same medicine is desperately needed to save the lives of patients.

Meanwhile Voyager begins to hunt down the Doctor, via a scam artist who visited Voyager days before and made off with the actual holo-emitter and the EMH. As Voyager tries to find the alien, Gar, who stole the emitter, they encounter other aliens who have been ripped off and dead ends, like a device emitting a false warp signature. As Voyager nears the planet where the Doctor is conscripted, the Doctor has a severe ethical quandary about continuing to assist the people in the facility in which he is trapped!

“Critical Care” is an episode focused heavily on The Doctor, but the standout of the episode is Tuvok. Wow, how did Tuvok get so damn stupid?! The Doctor and his program are abducted and Tuvok is none the wiser until the moment Paris and Kim go to Sickbay with injuries and discover that the Doctor has limited capabilities compared to his usual personality. Tuvok recommends a course of action and when it leads the ship to a dead end, he instantly has an alternative way to track down Gar. It begs the question that if Tuvok had a logical way to track Gar, why did he not suggest it initially, as opposed to waiting for the red herring to be exposed?!

But, most of the episode is focused on the Doctor and “Critical Care” is very obviously about promoting a social message and reinforcing the idea that there is an inherent value to all life, as opposed to categorizing the value of each life based on one’s job. The Doctor’s sense of rebellion is a nice offshoot of his prior developments and foreshadows well his future character arc as an architect for holographic rights.

Robert Picardo does his usual masterful performance as The Doctor. He plays off a wide array of guest actors – his old friend Larry Drake, the always intriguing Gregory Itzin, etc. – exceptionally well and he makes the plight of the both the Doctor and his patients seem palpable. He has great facial expressions and emotionally distraught deliveries that make the Doctor seem exceptionally human.

“Critical Care” is good, but it is obvious and it hits its mark very fast, leaving the rest of the episode to be resolved through plot contrivances that are more filler than focused.

[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 works with Gregory Itzin, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Ides Of March
The Change-Up
Adaptation.
Original Sin
Evolution
“Who Mourns For Morn?” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Dax” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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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Preposterous Concept, Emotionally Satisfying, That’s “Life Line!”

The Good: Great acting by Robert Picardo, Fun
The Bad: No genuine character development, Plot requires suspension of disbelief beyond reason.
The Basics: “Life Line” returns the Emergency Medical Hologram to the Alpha Quadrant, this time to save the life of the engineer who programmed his template.


There is a lot that I am willing to grant when it comes to television I enjoy, though I am someone who likes things to make sense. It seems like lately, when I contemplate Star Trek: Voyager, I find myself contemplating more and more how preposterous the plots are. I have a sense of fun, an imagination, and a sense of whimsy for the fantastic. Moreover, I am not one of those fans who doesn’t know that Star Trek is not real. I get it; Star Trek is entertainment. But, sadly, many of the episodes as the series goes on, are not particularly smart entertainment.

Take, for example, “Life Line.” “Life Line” is one of those episodes with a fundamental flaw that the episode never quite recovers from, despite the fact that it is an emotionally satisfying episode that has surprisingly good continuity with the rest of the series. A direct follow-up to “Pathfinder” (reviewed here!), “Life Line” finds the Emergency Medical Hologram once more going back to the Alpha Quadrant. The reason this time? His creator is dying. The thing is, the moment the Emergency Medical Hologram gets Dr. Zimmerman’s medical records, the EMH postulates that the reason no one in the Alpha Quadrant can help Zimmerman is because the illness he has resembles something they have not been exposed to in the Alpha Quadrant, namely the Vidiian phage. The EMH then reasons that Borg nanoprobe therapy might be able to treat Zimmerman. The thing is, the Doctor isn’t going to be transporting nanoprobes to the Alpha Quadrant. So . . . why doesn’t the EMH just send Zimmerman and StarFleet Medical his research on the Phage and Borg Nanoprobes? That solution would have allowed the Voyager crew to make no sacrifices, take no risks (of losing the EMH) and given Zimmerman an equal chance of survival. The ONLY reason not to do that is there would be no episode if they took that ridiculously simple, entirely logical, approach.

That, sadly, is not a satisfying answer at all. But, given that incredibly preposterous conceit, “Life Line” actually manages to be enough fun to be watchable, if not at all reasonable.

The Pathfinder Project has figured out how to use a pulsar and the MIDAS Array to get regular messages to Voyager. As a result, every thirty-two days, Voyager will get messages from the Alpha Quadrant and have a few hours to respond via the same wave. In their first upload of information from StarFleet, the Emergency Medical Hologram is surprised to learn that there is actually a letter for him in the batch. The message is from Lieutenant Barclay and it lets the EMH know that Dr. Lewis Zimmerman is dying on Jupiter Station. After an impassioned plea to Janeway, the Doctor is allowed to travel along the carrier wave back to the Alpha Quadrant, as Tom takes over in Sick Bay.

While the Doctor discovers Lewis Zimmerman to be an unwilling patient, Janeway wrestles with a message from Admiral Hayes where she realizes StarFleet still considers her Maquis crewmembers to be criminals. Barclay calls for help from Counselor Troi and Lewis Zimmerman slowly overcomes his prejudice against the EMH (Mark 1) and his attempts to save his human counterpart’s life.

“Life Line” is emotionally enjoyable, if for no other reason than to see Robert Picardo flawlessly performing opposite himself. Picardo, who has incredible emotional range, interacts amazingly with himself, which is impressive considering how flawlessly he gets the pacing and eyelines needed to sell the idea that he is actually two different characters. Picardo steals the show from guest stars Marina Sirtis, Dwight Schultz and (especially) Tamara Craig Thomas (who plays Zimmerman’s assistant, Haley).

“Life Line” does not actually result in any real character development for any of the regular characters; this is another “taking stock” episode where the viewer realizes just how much the Doctor, Janeway and Chakotay have changed and evolved over the years. The episode is interesting, but in no way superlative.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Voyager - The Complete Sixth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the penultimate 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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What If Death Was One Of Us? “Ashes To Ashes” Brings The Dead To Star Trek: Voyager!

The Good: Good acting, Interesting character development, Special effects, Basic plot
The Bad: Many of the details surrounding the plot and character elements in the episode.
The Basics: “Ashes To Ashes” is Star Trek: Voyager’s less-creepy Walking Dead episode that is smart and bold, until one looks closely at it.


As I go through the end of Star Trek: Voyager and find episodes that I either did not see or did not remember, I keep looking for episodes that are hidden gems. “Ashes To Ashes” might be the most compelling argument for an episode that was overlooked for one of the better ones of the series. It is, also, an unfortunate example of yet another episode of Star Trek: Voyager that has a great concept, but is sadly deficient on the details when one looks closely at it. “Ashes To Ashes,” in the larger context of Star Trek: Voyager makes less sense and resonates less than it otherwise should have.

Even so, the basic concept of the a-plot is one of the most original Star Trek: Voyager episodes – the closest in the franchise I could find for comparison was the brilliant “Hard Time” (reviewed here!) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The b-plot threatens to overwhelm the force of the episode in the middle while the a-plot makes a transition between the original concept and the new direction it has to take in order to flesh out the full episode. When the a-plot reasserts itself as the primary focus of the episode, “Ashes To Ashes” follows the same usual “orphan” plot of all Star Trek episodes where the plot resolves with the easiest possible solution that ensures the viewer will never see the orphaned character again. Star Trek: Voyager’s entry into the “orphan” plot is actually the best of the bunch.

An alien woman in a mysterious shuttle works to contact Voyager. She gets through to Mezoti, who is not tall enough to transfer the message to Captain Janeway. She reveals herself to be Ensign Lyndsay Ballard, who died three years prior. Catching up with Voyager, the Doctor scans Ballard and discovers that her DNA has been altered by the Kobali, an alien race Voyager never directly encountered. Ballard explains that her dead body was found by the Kobali, who reanimated her corpse as their form of procreation.

While Seven Of Nine reluctantly adapts to parenting the four ex-Borg orphans, she finds the challenge of promoting their individuality more than she truly wants. Mezoti, especially, begins to push the borders of Seven’s rules. As Ballard struggles with being alive but having Kobali memories, despite increasing alterations that make her appear human, Voyager is pursued by her Kobali father, Q’ret. Q’ret wants his daughter, Jetlaya (Ballard as a Kobali), back and Ballard is torn between her burgeoning relationship with Harry Kim and the pull to return to her new family.

“Ashes To Ashes” is a surprisingly compelling episode and one of the best Harry Kim romance stories in the entire series. Instead of pointless defiance (“The Disease”), the usual pursuit of the unattainable, or just whiny, Harry Kim is characterized in “Ashes To Ashes” as harboring long-held feelings for Ballard and actor Garret Wang portrays that exceptionally well. While the episode completely neglects the whole idea that Harry Kim was in a long-term stable relationship at the outset of the series, as seen in “Non Sequitur” (reviewed here!), and Lyndsay Ballard is unique to this episode.

The main positive continuity element of “Ashes To Ashes” is the inclusion of “Collective” (reviewed here!). Unfortunately, the inclusion of the four ex-Borg children creates a serious character nightmare the moment one steps back and objectively looks at the episode. In fact, writer Robert Doherty seems to have absolutely no understanding or appreciation of the larger story of Star Trek: Voyager or the Voyager crew.

First, on the Borg children front, saddling Seven Of Nine with the Borg children is an easy response to the new characters, but makes no real sense. Seven Of Nine explicitly stated in “Collective” and “Ashes To Ashes” that she did not want to be responsible for them. Instead of promoting any sort of realistic interpretation of the Voyager crew after five and a half years lost in space, the producers stuck Seven Of Nine with the children. Far more interesting and realistic would have been that members of the crew fought amongst themselves to get custody of various children. Instead of Seven Of Nine being forced to care for children that she clearly did not want responsibility over (and whom Janeway cannot actually assert authority or appeal to her humanity or StarFleet training), a far more interesting direction might have been Neelix arguing with Ensign Wildman for custody of the twins while Paris and Torres try to get Mezoti as practice for when they have a child of their own. Right there, ideas that portray realistic character development without making an easy way out that just uses Seven Of Nine yet again and in a way that makes no real sense for her.

In a similar way, “Ashes To Ashes” would have been far more compelling if the audience or the characters had had an attachment to Lyndsay Ballard prior to the episode. An especially compelling twist would have been if the character resurrected was the dead woman from “Latent Image” (reviewed here!). In addition to providing a conflict for Harry Kim, it would have given the Doctor a far more compelling arc in the episode.

“Ashes To Ashes” also makes no explanation for how the Kobali could catch up with Voyager. If they possessed incredible technology that allowed the ship to catch up, despite the jumps Voyager has made in the years since leaving Hirogen space (Ballard was killed by a Hirogen trap), that there is no attempt to alter Voyager or barter for the technology seems incredibly sloppy.

All of those things that could have been done better in the episode pale in comparison to what was done right. Harry Kim complaining that he has never been invited to dinner in the Captain’s quarters is a great detail and Ballard using her moments with Janeway to try to ask why she was sent to her death is especially clever. Janeway acting casual is wonderful, though her replicator burning (not, as she says, “liquefying” her roast) makes no sense. As Ballard asks about the assignment that led to her death, it is a powerful and compelling moment.

Kim Rhodes plays Ensign Ballard exceptionally well and she and Garrett Wang have excellent on-screen chemistry. Wang has great body language in his performance in “Ashes To Ashes,” making this one of Kim’s best episodes from the acting front.

Easily one of the most compelling episodes in the Star Trek franchise to explore death, “Ashes To Ashes” is character-focused enough to make one ignore the many detail-related issues with it. Philosophically smart and wisely character-centered, “Ashes To Ashes” is one of the later-season gems of Star Trek: Voyager.

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

8.5/10

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.
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A Simple Conceit Makes For An Intriguing Episode With “The Voyager Conspiracy!”

The Good: Interesting plot, Decent acting, Moments of what little character there is in the episode, Special effects
The Bad: Almost no character development in the episode.
The Basics: Using nitpicks from prior episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, “The Voyager Conspiracy” finds Seven Of Nine coming to believe that Voyager and the Maquis are part of an elaborate conspiracy.


In Star Trek: Voyager, there are very few episodes that are not derivative of episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation. With “The Voyager Conspiracy,” the writers and producers managed to actually create something that feels fairly fresh. In fact, outside the tiresome re-use of footage from “Caretaker” (reviewed here!) and the almost entire lack of genuine character development, “The Voyager Conspiracy” is one of the more enjoyable episodes of the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager!

In its tone, “The Voyager Conspiracy” mirrors “Clues” (reviewed here!) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. After a meandering opening, the episode manages to incorporate nitpicking gripes viewers might have had with “Caretaker” and several plot points that followed within the context of the show. Restoring the idea that Tuvok is an essential and important character to Star Trek: Voyager, “The Voyager Conspiracy” is a deeply ironic episode that has Seven Of Nine asking reasonable fanboy questions – why DID Voyager have tricobalt devices aboard when no other starship does and it had a full complement of photon torpedoes?! – and drawing appropriately preposterous conclusions as a result.

Tired of how humans have to read information, Seven Of Nine decides to use her Borg circuitry for her own good, namely faster assimilation of information. She decides to upload all of the information Voyager has collected – ships logs, astrometrics data, etc. – from before she came aboard using her Borg ability to essentially upload information to her brain. Around the same time, Voyager encounters Tash, an alien who has been building a device that works like a warp catapult. With Voyager’s help, he believes he can complete work on the catapult and his ship and Voyager can be flung many light years closer to home.

As Janeway slowly comes around to helping him, Seven Of Nine – who has recently gained Torres and Janway’s trust by accurately predicting a nest of photonic fleas birthing in the sensor array – begins to collate the data she has uploaded. Recognizing one of the pieces of technology that Tash is using in his device as being identical to something the Caretaker Array used to drag Voyager into the Delta Quadrant, Seven Of Nine begins to believe Voyager is the center of a vast conspiracy. Approaching Chakotay, she lays out a theory that Voyager has been sent to the Delta Quadrant to establish a Federation presence there. Shortly thereafter, she presents the same information to Janeway, but with the conclusion that Chakotay is using Voyager and the Caretaker’s technology to orchestrate a Maquis attack on the Alpha Quadrant. As Tash prepares to activate his new array, Janeway and Chakotay’s trust in one another is tested.

“The Voyager Conspiracy” is basically a chance, on screen, to posit that Voyager is not lost in the Delta Quadrant by accident. Smartly, writer Joe Menosky, takes the episode from a plot-based evaluation of nitpicks with prior Voyager episodes – calling out how improbable some of the events have been – to a character-focused story that creates a paranoia in Seven Of Nine that, in curing, will allow Janeway to strengthen her bond with the fledgling former-Borg.

The transition of the episode from a series of plot reversals where it appears Janeway is part of a conspiracy to Chakotay being a warlord to Seven of Nine herself being the victim of a Federation plot into a character study is very abrupt. From pretty much the moment Janeway walks in on Chakotay at Seven Of Nine’s regeneration alcove, the episode begins to focus more on the mounting distrust, first between Chakotay and Janeway and then from Seven Of Nine toward Janeway and the whole Federation. Menosky is also smart enough to make the problem obvious enough to Janeway and Chakotay to not keep that tension an unreasonable amount of time. The moment Chakotay mentions a “StarFleet mission,” Janeway smartly responds, “You’ve been talking with Seven Of Nine, haven’t you?” Fundamentally, by this point in Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway and Chakotay trust one another and it is nice to see that Seven Of Nine is not able to shake that for too long.

Ultimately, though, Seven Of Nine’s part in “The Voyager Conspiracy” – outside of acting as a mouthpiece for fanboy complaints dating back to the pilot episode – is to be the victim of, essentially, a mental illness. Jeri Ryan plays this most convincingly and her portrayal of paranoia is compelling. As Seven Of Nine, Ryan plays authoritative frequently and in “The Voyager Conspiracy,” she sounds equally convincing when selling her theories to Janeway as to Chakotay and her character’s ultimate breakdown would be laughable had Ryan not pulled it off. Fortunately, she executed it well.

“The Voyager Conspiracy” tries to illustrate many of Seven’s theories through brief clips from prior episodes, most notably “Caretaker.” The episode also strives retcon the effects dealing with the destruction of the array and continuity buffs will likely find that the biggest issue with the conspiracy theories – that the episode had to invent an element to allow Seven to shop her crazed ideas from. Fortunately, the episode – especially the way Seven implicates Tuvok as being at the heart of almost all of her conspiracy theories – holds up well with the long-established elements at the crux of her delusions. This helps make the potentially self-defeating bottle episode far more plausible and enjoyable.

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

8/10

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.
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Nonsensical Xenobiology: “Survival Instinct” Illustrates How Star Trek: Voyager’s Writers Did Not Know What They Were Doing.

The Good: Moments of concept, Moments of performance, Resolution
The Bad: Much of the acting, Poor understanding of the Borg, Drawn out to fill time
The Basics: “Survival Instinct” illustrates further problems with exploring the Borg.


One of the serious problems with having a television series written by a slew of writers is that the writers sometimes have a very loose grasp on what it is they are writing about and the producers of the series are simply impressed with a script that does not read as familiar. While Ronald D. Moore is by no means an amateur writer, when it came to the Borg, he was woefully out of his league. Prior to “Survival Instinct,” the only Borg-related episode that Moore was involved with writing was “Descent, Part 1” (reviewed here!) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. That episode featured aberrant ex-Borg.

Unfortunately, much of “Survival Instinct” features Borg who have been separated from the Collective and the scenes Moore penned to sell the episode have a poor understanding of what the Borg are and how a hive mind works. The lousy understanding of the Borg, which are interpreted as essentially a democratic collective, sinks the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Survival Instinct.” Between the lack of understanding on how the hive mind would work and how separated Borg would interact, and a very simple idea that is stretched out in order to reach the running time, “Survival Instinct” becomes painful to sit through time and again.

Years ago, a Borg sphere crashed on a planet and the unimatrix that included Seven Of Nine was disconnected from the Collective. Now, Voyager is docked at an alien station and, against Tuvok’s better judgment, Janeway has allowed visitors to overrun the ship. Three of the visitors are people who have scars on their face and one of them, Lansor, brings Seven Of Nine some Borg equipment. When the three agree to attempt to extract information from Seven Of Nine, she incapacitates them and learns that they were the three survivors who were with her on the alien world.

The Doctor reveals that there is a neurological link between the three people who want nothing more than to escape the Collective. Working with Seven Of Nine, they try to learn what happened on the alien world and have the link between them broken. But in the process, Seven discovers the link cannot be broken and she is faced with the choice of cutting short their lives or returning them to the Borg Collective.

Moore’s best-written scene in the episode has nothing to do with the rest of the episode’s conflict. Tom Paris and Harry Kim, having been in a bar fight, get chewed out by Janeway and have to explain their actions. The scene is funny, well-acted and well-directed. It also kills time in “Survival Instinct” in order to get the episode up to its proper duration.

The problem with “Survival Instinct” is that it shows a lack of understanding of the Borg and what has been established in the Star Trek franchise. In “I, Borg” (reviewed here!), viewers are told that lost Borg simply wait to be rescued. In fact, in that episode, Hugh does not suddenly become an individual; he is cut off from the Collective by a shield the Enterprise crew erects. There is no such conceit in “Survival Instinct.” The Borg, despite their ship being destroyed, should have no reason to be cut out of the collective consciousness of the Borg. After all, it would be a pretty lousy mind to lose the connection when a simple mechanical failure on one ship occurred.

So, the basic conceit of the episode, which occupies several flashback scenes, is a real flop. In fact, Peter David got the idea of the Borg right and best in his novel Vendetta (reviewed here!). In that, his freed Borg could not even speak. That makes sense; the Borg would have no reason for personal vocalizations. If they want to communicate, they do it mechanically (effectively telepathically). So, the freeing of these Borg and Seven Of Nine’s repressed memory of being an individual seems far more preposterous than compelling.

The acting in “Survival Instinct” is mediocre. Scarlett Pomers reminds viewers of the old adage of not working with children in Hollywood as she presents Naomi Wildman with childlike stiffness in several of her scenes. Jeri Ryan’s performance is fine, but she is servicing a character that is poorly written. And while Vaughn Armstrong (Lansor) and Bertila Damas (Marika) manage to straddle their character’s complex emotions, Tim Kelleher’s P’Chan is poorly presented. Half the time, Kelleher looks like he is trying to remember his lines and the other half, he seems to be struggling to figure out what emotion to apply to those words he speaks.

Ultimately, the character conflict, the moral dilemma Seven Of Nine eventually faces, comes far too late in the episode for the viewer to care. That said, it is an interesting conflict and the resolution to it is smart and well-conceived. It offers one of the more memorable exchanges between The Doctor and Seven Of Nine (and for moments, the ultimate relationship between Chakotay and Seven Of Nine is hinted at) and it is all that brings this episode out of the lowest of the possible ratings.

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

4/10

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.
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The Push And Pull Relationship Seven Of Nine Has With The Borg Is Realized In “Dark Frontier, Part 2”

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of performance
The Bad: Premise is very difficult to buy, Details.
The Basics: When Seven Of Nine is reunited with the Borg, she mounts a resistance while Janeway searches for her in “Dark Frontier, Part 2.”


The awkward aspect of a two-parter is that if the first part has a rocky premise or execution, the second part bears a heavy burden to engage the viewer. Such is the way with Star Trek: Voyager’s “Dark Frontier, Part 2.” Picking up exactly where “Dark Frontier, Part 1” (reviewed here!) ended, the second part of the episode pits Seven Of Nine against the Borg Queen while Voyager works to adapt Borg technology. The episode reinforces Janeway’s loyalty to her crew and the progress that Seven Of Nine has made over the prior two years.

Ignoring the first half of the episode and the problematic assumption that opens the episode – i.e. that the Borg Queen put Seven on Voyager as part of an experiment to create a new, unique, Borg to learn more about reassimilating old drones – “Dark Frontier, Part 2” actually works exceptionally well . . . except that it makes no sense that the Borg would want a unique individual.

With Seven Of Nine captured by the Borg Queen, Voyager begins to integrate Borg technology to attempt to get the transwarp coil they stole active. Janeway becomes determined to find out why Seven Of Nine stayed behind on the Borg ship and quickly discovers the carrier wave the Borg used to communicate with Seven Of Nine while she was still aboard the ship. Impressed by a plan from Naomi Wildman, Janeway begins to formulate a rescue plan to go after Seven Of Nine.

Meanwhile, the Borg Queen takes Seven Of Nine to a planet with under four hundred thousand people to assimilate. With the Delta Flyer equipped with the transwarp coil, the Borg ship with Seven Of Nine comes under attack and the Borg Queen uses Seven Of Nine to help assimilate the alien species.

“Dark Frontier, Part 2” is filled with so many conceptual issues that it is almost hard to overlook how much it gets right where the acting and characters are concerned. The problems with “Dark Frontier, Part 2” are all at the writing level. Sure, a Borg Queen’s vessel makes for a very cool special effect, but for a group of creatures that do not use individuals and have a collective mind, it makes no sense to have different ships.

Moreover, the fact that the Borg Queen admits to coming from Species 125 further weakens the Borg and makes no rational sense. After all, the Borg should not need a Queen with their hive mind, but because the Queen is not Species 1, she cannot be the original Queen. This means that the Borg have replaced their Queen at least once and that means at some point there had to be a replacement and it is inconceivable that there would be a replacement process that makes sense for the hive mind.

That said, Janeway’s desire to go after Seven Of Nine is compelling and it plays out well. Jeri Ryan plays the horror of seeing her character’s father alive again exceptionally well. Susanna Thompson plays the Borg Queen perfectly, making the character cold and menacing once again.

Ultimately, there is very little to say about “Dark Frontier, Part 2;” it is a character study that involves Janeway, Seven Of Nine, and the Borg Queen and the “chess match” is well-executed, despite its conceptual flaws. The episode is straightforward in both the “temptation of Seven Of Nine” storyline and the rescue attempt portion of the episode.

[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!]

6/10

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.
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Tuvok Succumbs To “Hunnicut Syndrome” In “Gravity.”

The Good: Works to develop Tuvok, Decent acting, Interesting enough plot
The Bad: Makes little sense for the character, Huge plot hole, Fundamentally goes nowhere.
The Basics: When all hope seems lost, Tuvok honestly considers a new romantic relationship in “Gravity.”


I like shows where the characters grow and develop. That is, of course, essential for keeping a series viable and worth watching. So, it is hard for me to gripe when a character develops, just in direction different from how I see reasonable. Then again, sometimes a show takes a risk that makes less sense for the character being “developed.” Tuvok, and other Vulcan characters in the Star Trek universe are tough characters to develop. After all, most of the Vulcans we see come to the series as fully-realized adults who are examples of their alien culture.

“Gravity” is one of the few episodes that focuses on Tuvok after the appearance of Seven Of Nine and loss of Kes. As much as I want to be thrilled by that and like that aspect of it, it has a fundamental character premise that is too difficult for me to buy into.

Opening in the past, a passionate young Tuvok visits a Vulcan elder who admits to having emotions, but not being controlled by them. Challenged by the elder, Tuvok begins his journey toward emotional control. Now, in the present, on a desert planet where a well-protected individual scavenges for food, a shuttle from Voyager crashes. Paris encounters the stranger, a woman, who takes his bag before she is attacked by two aliens. Tuvok rescues Noss and has Paris heal her wounds. They evade capture by the other aliens by traveling back to Noss’s ship and they manage to bring the EMH back online.

Able to communicate through the Doctor, Paris and Tuvok learn that Noss has been on the planet for fourteen seasons, surviving on spiders. Noss begins to develop an obvious attraction to Tuvok and Paris declares that he sees Tuvok reciprocates some of those feelings. Voyager, outside the anomaly, where the three crewmembers are stranded, encounters Supervisor Yost and his people who are working to close the anomaly. With time moving much faster on the planet inside the anomaly, Tuvok and Paris spend months on the planet, with Tuvok working hard to keep Noss from feeling love for him. As Voyager mounts a rescue effort, the Away Team finds themselves under siege by aliens on the planet.

On M*A*S*H, Captain B.J. Hunnicut was a married surgeon who, as the Korean War wore on, had his marriage challenged multiple times. In the early episodes, he kept the lines very clear. But, in the later seasons, there were virtually identical episodes where Hunnicut was tempted and did not give in and then another where he was tempted and quietly succumbed to the woman he was attracted to. “Gravity” is a similar concept for Star Trek: Voyager and with Tuvok, it is a significantly harder “sell.”

The story of Star Trek: Voyager so far has had Voyager lost, so far from home that it should take them seventy years to get home. Tuvok, as a full Vulcan, is one of the few officers who has a reasonable chance of still being alive when (if) Voyager makes it home. He, therefore, has every reason to believe he will see his wife again and remain faithful to her, especially as a Vulcan is trained not to express emotions. In the four years prior to “Gravity,” Voyager has lopped at least thirty years off its journey home, so Tuvok has a reasonable expectation that he will see his wife and sooner than he initially believed. In other words, it would take exceptional circumstances for Tuvok to stray.

“Gravity” makes the attempt to create those extraordinary circumstances. Tuvok and Paris quickly come to believe that Voyager has moved on and they stay on the planet. Paris slowly gets Tuvok to admit what the viewer sees in the interstitial scenes; that as a young man, he fell in love and had to study under a Vulcan elder to keep the emotions from destroying him. The circumstances seem only dire on the surface. The emotional attachment Noss develops is not made clear or developed enough and Tuvok’s willingness to sacrifice near the end of their stay does not seem as realistic as it ought to.

But “Gravity” suffers a fundamental plot flaw that is not satisfactorily explained. Yost is sealing the rift because his people have lost several ships in the area over the years. But the moment Voyager uses a probe and gets telemetry from it, it detects Vulcan and human life signs. Those scans should have also shown Yost’s people; the probe would have sent back telemetry on all life signs it detected. The “ticking clock” element of the episode where Voyager has to get the Away Team back before Yost closes the rift is entirely artificial as a result and it feels completely cheap when all Janeway has to do is tell Yost that his people are still alive and they will help him by beaming them out, too. (Even if the latter promise was not true, she could easily show him the telemetry that shows Yost his people are alive.)

Noss is played ably by Lori Petty. She is decent at presenting the character as an emotional being, though she and Tim Russ have no real on screen chemistry to play off the level of passion that both are supposedly feeling.

Ultimately, “Gravity” is a tease, another near-miss Tuvok emotional episode that continues to progress the idea that Vulcans have emotions, but suppress them (which is something we’ve known all along) and that Tuvok, for no particular reason, is slowly starting to let his control slip.

[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 Joseph Ruskin, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Smokin’ Aces
Star Trek: Insurrection
“Looking For Par’mach In All The Wrong Places” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Improbable Cause” – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“The House Of Quark” – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“The Gamesters Of Triskelion” - Star Trek

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.
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