Working Hard To Remind Viewers Of The Differences, “Repression” Is Unimpressive

The Good: None of the acting is bad.
The Bad: An utter lack of character development, Lack of understanding of the characterizations for the crew, Banal plot
The Basics: “Repression” is a real throwaway episode that might have been interesting had it come very early in the series when the Maquis still mattered and the show had done fewer “possession” episodes.


Every now and then, I encounter an episode of a television show that seems like it was produced in the wrong season, as if the writer was working off initial characterizations and plot developments, without any respect for the character development that has occurred between the original concept and the season in which it aired. In the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager was unfortunately riddled with episodes that stretched to restore the idea that there were divisions between the StarFleet and Maquis crewmembers, long after there was no real distinction between the character groups. This is somewhat ironic in that the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode that introduced the Maquis had Major Kira characterized much like her first season persona, as opposed to the late second season officer she was by the time “The Maquis” (reviewed here!) aired. By the time “Repression” was produced, the Maquis are essentially non-entities. Voyager has learned that the Maquis in the Alpha Quadrant are almost all dead or incarcerated and in “Life Line” (reviewed here!), Janeway and Chakotay are equally troubled by StarFleet’s reminder that the Maquis are still considered criminals.

“Repression” makes a passing effort to acknowledge that resolution to the characters, but the conflict itself, especially post-“Worst Case Scenario” (reviewed here!), seems forced (indeed, the scene where Chakotay and B’Elanna meet with the remaining Maquis crewmembers seems remarkably well-populated).

Tom Paris takes Torres on a date to the Holodeck where he has made a 3-D movie theater and when they delete the rest of the audience, another Voyager crewmember is found in the theater, in a coma. The anomaly soon turns into a pattern when five ex-Maquis members fall into comas. As Paris and Kim work to create a holographic representation of the assailant who comatized the crewmembers, Tuvok investigates the crew, convinced a member of the crew is causing the attacks that result in the comas.

Tuvok is perplexed when Tabor, the first victim, awakens, and soon after, Torres falls into a coma. When Chakotay finds her, the assailant is revealed!

The irony of my complaint that “Repression” is “out of season” is that it is essentially “Cathexis” (reviewed here!) with a motive and an order to it. “Repression” is sloppy in the characterization as the assailant is never questioned . . . and Harry Kim has a pretty obvious moment where he could. Moreover, when Janeway asks Tuvok why he is convinced the assailant is a man, he says he does not know, but the holographic recreation is clearly a male form.

“Repression” is a ridiculously simple concept episode: one of the crew is remotely controlled by a Bajoran with a grudge against the Maquis. But far more than trying to be an intimate (or even interesting) character study, “Repression” belabors the plot, then belabors explaining the plot. There is no character development, nothing at all superlative.

Tim Russ, for example, shows nothing new from his range than he had before. In fact, he has given more compelling performances, though none of the acting in the episode is actually bad. That is all that saves the episode from the very lowest ratings.

[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 Keith Szarabajka, please visit my reviews of:
Argo
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
The Dark Knight
Angel - Season Three

1.5/10

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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Long-Anticipated, Underwhelming Execution, “Drive” Finally Unites Paris And Torres!

The Good: Good character progression, Decent acting, Decent plot development, Fine effects
The Bad: Initially odd premise, Predictable political b-plot.
The Basics: In an episode that could have been a throwaway racing episode, Star Trek: Voyager makes enough of a character-driven episode to make “Drive” worth watching.


The Star Trek franchise has made weddings a standard since Star Trek: The Next Generation, though that series did not do a major wedding in-series (Miles O’Brien and Keiko getting married was a pretty sudden thing and O’Brien was not a major character). Teased in “Course: Oblivion” (reviewed here!), Star Trek: Voyager has slowly moved toward a wedding between Paris and Torres. A year and a half later, the show gets around to it in “Drive.”

“Drive,” unfortunately, follows some of the same conceits as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s wedding episode, “You Are Cordially Invited” (reviewed here!) and a race/espionage episode. One almost has to wonder if “Drive” was Star Trek: Voyager’s attempt to court the NASCAR audience the way that “Tsunkatse” (reviewed here!) was an attempt to court WWE fans. Unfortunately, “Drive” has a few conceptual issues, the main one being that a race in space makes no real sense. Impulse drives, anything that travel under lightspeed, seem to have the same maximum speed. The ships that do not get to that infinite speed shy of lightspeed would have that limitation known before the race began. In other words, a race like the one in “Drive” is only a test of navigation ability, not ship speed (otherwise each and every ship would come in at the same finishing time. Despite that conceit, “Drive” is actually not a bad episode.

After the Delta Flyer, which Paris and Kim are out testing, races an alien vessel through an asteroid cluster, Paris convinces Janeway to let him enter the Delta Flyer in the Antarian Trans-Stellar Rally. The Rally comes at a time when Torres had managed to finagle a whole weekend on the Holodeck by trading with virtually every member of the crew and, after a conversation with Neelix, she comes clean with Paris about how upset his bailing on her has made her. Replacing Kim as his copilot, Torres joins Paris for the race.

Aboard Voyager, Neelix gets the entire crew excited about the race by announcing it better than Seven Of Nine, as the Delta Flyer moves into third place. When one of the competitors is knocked out of the race, the two main species hosting the Antarian Trans-Stellar Rally become tense and potentially explosive.

On the continuity front, “Drive” is pretty wonderful. The conflict between Paris and Torres is a bit forced, but the sudden friendship between Seven Of Nine and Torres that popped up abruptly in “Imperfection” (reviewed here!) is continued in a decent fashion. Neelix has a decent position and Torres has good character growth in that scene. It is refreshing to hear Torres talk about her feelings and be emotionally mature. Unfortunately, the attention to continuity works against the episode when Harry Kim joins Irina as her co-pilot. When Paris lists off the women Kim has gone after (yet again), it sets up the probability that Irina is not the woman Kim thinks.

Fortunately, “Drive” does not take a long time to make obvious the espionage elements of the episode and who the actual political dissident is.

Cyia Batten, who played Gul Dukat’s daughter for two episodes on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, appears as Irina and she has a very different role in this than she has played before. It is a refreshing bit of acting that is decent. Brian George similarly returns to the franchise with a performance that is different from the others he has had.

The latter quarter of “Drive” is a refreshing change for Star Trek: Voyager; instead of degenerating into a big special effects-driven or political statement episode, “Drive” spends a significant amount of time with Torres and Paris simply talking with one another. Reminiscent of “Day Of Honor” (reviewed here!) where Torres and Paris actually began their relationship, “Drive” takes an abrupt left turn to focus on the relationship between Torres and Paris and that is refreshing. It makes for one of the least predictable episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and one of the real gems of the show’s final season.

[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 Cyia Batten, please visit my reviews of:
Charlie Wilson’s War
“Return To Grace” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Indiscretion” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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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Of All The Derivative Star Trek: Voyager Episodes, “Good Shepherd” Ranks As One Of The Most Pathetic.

The Good: Moments of performance, Moments where the guest characters are intriguing.
The Bad: Entirely derivative, Poor use of established characters to service a somewhat ridiculous plot.
The Basics: In remaking the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Lower Decks” for Star Trek: Voyager, “Good Shepherd” recharacterizes Janeway as a bully to befriend some neglected crewmembers.


One of the fan-favorites of Star Trek: The Next Generation is “Lower Decks” (reviewed here!), an episode that gave the Star Trek novel readers an episode to fall in love with. While the episodes worked to service the main cast of each show, the Star Trek novel series’ frequently made an effort to incorporate new and completely minor characters into their stories. In the Star Trek novels, there were actually some books that focused completely on original junior officers. In “Lower Decks” on Star Trek: The Next Generation, fans of those style of Star Trek books were given an episode where the focus was a group of junior officers who have a peripheral understanding of an Enterprise mission. “Lower Decks” succeeded, in part, because there was a conspiracy plot that affected the junior officers and presented a story that illustrated just how skewed the work on the Enterprise could be based on matters of perspective.

Unfortunately, “Good Shepherd,” which largely rips off the concept of “Lower Decks” lacks the intrigue or perspective issues that the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode it is derivative of possessed. Instead, “Good Shepherd” is a somewhat bored episode that attempts to replicate the success of the earlier episode, but in order to sell its premise, it has to upend much of what has been established of the main characters.

When Seven Of Nine performs an efficiency report on the crew’s functioning, Janeway learns that there are three crewmembers who have never gone on an Away Mission. She decides that as Voyager passes a Class T stellar cluster phenomenon that is unworthy of diverting course for, she will take the three neglected crewmembers in the Delta Flyer to investigate the phenomenon. Despite Telfer and Harren not wanting to leave the ship and Ensign Tal not being able to qualify for Away Team duty, Janeway takes them in the Delta Flyer to investigate the cluster.

On the Delta Flyer, a bit of plating comes off and leaves the shuttle stranded with only impulse power. As Harren works to repair the Delta Flyer, Janeway and Tal analyze the debris. Tal admits to Janeway that she is not competent and the beneficiary of 24th Century affirmative action that works against the crew. As the shuttle crew labors to find more antimatter to repower the Delta Flyer, the ship comes under attack by a new lifeform that invades Telfer and menaces the crew.

“Good Shepherd” reminds viewers of “Lower Decks,” but also of how Star Trek: Voyager struggled to incorporate Seven Of Nine in the fourth season and often had her doing preposterous activities until they found a use for her with augmenting the Astrometrics Lab. In “Good Shepherd,” the three crew members come to the attention of Janeway through a Seven Of Nine-initiated efficiency report. This is exactly the type of thing that the First Officer is responsible for. In fact, in “Lower Decks,” Troi and Riker spend a portion of the episode going through producing their efficiency reports for Captain Picard. So, why Seven Of Nine is creating, presenting, and getting respect for producing these reports in “Good Shepherd” only serves to diminish the role of Chakotay.

Similarly, writers Dianna Gitto and Joe Menosky seem to have forgotten that Bajoran officers’ second name is their first name. So, while Janeway refers to the men as Mr. Harren, Telfer, and Mitchell, she calls Celes, “Celes,” instead of “Ensign Tal,” which would be her proper designation as a Bajoran. “Good Shepherd” also labors to fill its full running time. An awkward exchange between Janeway and Crewman Mitchell revealed to me that Mitchell was played by Tom Morello, who is part of the band Rage Against The Machine and his cameo stands out in the episode. I don’t blame Morello (hell, it’s cool to get included in a Star Trek episode!), but the cameo was written as filler.

The exchange between Harren and Tom Paris serves to make Harren an interesting character. It’s refreshing to see a character who wanted nothing to do with being in StarFleet and was only using it as a stepping stone to something else. Harren is a jerk to Janeway and he calls Paris on his bluff when Paris tries to b.s. his way through a science conversation. That’s cool and it’s unfortunate he only pops up for this episode.

Despite the derivative nature of the plot and character usage in “Good Shepherd,” the acting is adequate. Guest actors Jay Underwood (Harren), Michael Reisz (Telfer), and Zoe McLellan (Tal) are refreshingly different from the main cast. Reisz bugs his eyes out and looks freaked out exceptionally convincingly and McLellan plays Tal as a kiss-ass very well. Underwood is adept at arrogance and they play off Kate Mulgrew’s professionalism nicely. Even Jeri Ryan uses her brief time in the episode well; when she expresses frustration to Janeway about Tal’s inefficiency, she infuses it with a sense of compassion and concern for Janeway.

Regardless of the performances and the moments of character intrigue, “Good Shepherd” is ultimately mediocre and impossible to recommend.

[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!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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War Perpetual: “Space Seed” Is Rewritten For Star Trek: Voyager In “Dragon’s Teeth!”

The Good: Decent acting, Cool concept, Awesome special effects
The Bad: Minutae, Derivative nature
The Basics: When Voyager inadvertently brings a warlord out of stasis, they find themselves regrettable unleashing a Khan back into the Delta Quadrant.


As I watch Star Trek: Voyager for enjoyment and review, I am at the point where I have been finding episodes that I did not see in the first run. The whole time, I have been waiting to see an episode that I might call a “lost gem.” I finally found that with “Dragon’s Teeth.”

“Dragon’s Teeth” has only two fundamental problems. The first is its derivative nature. “Dragon’s Teeth” is the Star Trek: Voyager reworking of Star Trek’s “Space Seed” (reviewed here!). Like “Space Seed,” the Federation reawakens an army – starting with the leader – who attempt to take their ship to go and conquer the galaxy. The only other issue with “Dragon’s Teeth” is that it is not ambitious enough in its timeframe. When Neelix talks to Gedrin, he notes that in the “old tongue,” Vaadwaur means “foolish.” 982 years is a remarkably short period of time, especially when one is talking about the collapse of a society. Given the scope of the Vaadwaur’s former empire, it seems like the Talaxians would have had better records and more races in the Delta Quadrant should have heard of them. That Seven Of Nine and Neelix both come from races that apparently have terrible historical records for nine hundred years in the past is ridiculous, especially considering that the writers of this episode come from a race – far less technologically advanced – that has solid history for more than three thousand years.

After Voyager is pulled through a subspace corridor, it meets an alien who has the ability to help them out of “underspace.” After Voyager is returned to normal space, the aliens demand Voyager allow them to transport over to remove all records of their space from their computers. Refusing to comply, Voyager travels through a radiogenic field to a planet that was bombarded from orbit. Investigating a city that once housed millions, Janeway, Tuvok and Seven Of Nine find stasis chambers filled with people who tried to leave the war zone 892 years prior.

Soon, though, Gedrin, the leader of the alien Vaadwaur, is eager to get his entire battalion out of stasis and off the planet. With the engineer, Gaul, pushing for weapons from Voyager and Neelix slowly putting together that the Vaadwaur might be more aggressive than they initially let on, Janeway fears she is cornered between the Vaadwaur and the alien Turei, in orbit above waiting to destroy Voyager. Janeway anticipates an attack by the Vaadwaur and when she indicates to Gedrin that she does not trust him, Gaul and his forces move out.

I liked “Dragon’s Teeth.” Outside Janeway being surprisingly cool with Seven Of Nine reanimating the Vaadwaur and Seven Of Nine not instantly recognizing the Vaadwaur as Species Whatever Number They Are, when she has shown that ability at, literally, every other prior encounter, it is incredibly smart. Janeway anticipates the attack by the Vaadwaur and she essentially calls “bullshit” on the Turei when Voyager attempts to leave.

The Vaadwaur are a cool villain and Gaul makes for an interesting adversary. Just as Gedrin is a reasonable evolution of Khan who does not suffer from Khan’s fatal character flaw. The result is a solid action-adventure episode that has amazing special effects and a decent use of the Star Trek: Voyager ensemble cast.

[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!]

For other works with Robert Knepper, check out my reviews of:
Heroes - Season Four
Prison Break - Season 1
Carnivale
“Haven” - Star Trek: The Next Generation

7.5/10

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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Chakotay Is Literally Used As A Tool In “The Fight.”

The Good: Interesting concept
The Bad: No superlative character or acting moments, Plot underwhelms
The Basics: In “The Fight,” Chakotay becomes mildly useful temporarily when Voyager gets stuck in chaotic space.


Believe it or not, I actually have no problem with well-established series’ or franchises trying something absurd or radically different from their norm . . . so long as they manage to pull off the change of style they attempt. Sometimes, that actually works – like the disturbing and heavily dramatic episode of M*A*S*H, “Dreams,” or the puppet episode, “Smile Time” of Angel - and sometimes, it is a complete flop, like “Take Me Out To The Holosuite” (reviewed here!), which interrupted the Dominion War arc on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for a ridiculous baseball game. “The Fight” on Star Trek: Voyager is an episode that combines spatial phenomenon and alien of the week stories in a way that does not entirely work.

To its credit, “The Fight” utilizes elements that feel like they could be fresh, but writers Joe Menosky and Michael Taylor simply do not land it. The concept seems to be remarkably similar to “Twisted” (reviewed here!) or “Shattered,” though this episode ambitiously blends the spatial phenomenon with an alien of the week. That blending is less successful than fans might hope.

Opening with Chakotay in Sickbay, begging the Doctor to help him get the voices to stop, it seems that Voyager has become lodged in “chaotic space,” an area where the normal laws of physics do not apply. Flashing back to Chakotay’s holodeck simulation of training for a boxing match as an Academy cadet, where Boothby coached him against an alien, the ship enters chaotic space, which disrupts the whole simulation.

Trapped in chaotic space, Chakotay begins to suffer visual and auditory hallucinations. Those hallucinations appear to be coming from aliens within chaotic space. As a result of a genetic flaw, Chakotay is able to communicate with the resident aliens and Janeway tries to use Chakotay to communicate with those aliens in order to navigate Voyager out of the spatial anomaly.

“The Fight” is rather ridiculous in the hierarchy on Voyager. Seven Of Nine summons Janeway to Astrometrics to provide the exposition on what chaotic space is and it completely nullifies Janeway’s authority (though it does reinforce the idea that Star Trek: Voyager has become “The Seven Of Nine Show.”). Gone are the days when Janeway even comments on the phenomenon or inappropriate tenor to Seven Of Nine’s requests and that makes “The Fight” feel frustratingly lopsided on the character front, in addition to the numerous other issues.

The latter half of the episode is filled with Chakotay experiencing visions of the fight he trained for, his great-grandfather, and Boothby. While I am all for episodes that effectively blend metaphor and literal data, “The Fight” is not successful in the blending. Instead, it’s a lot of Robert Beltran as Chakotay screaming technobabble and visual images that are not at all compelling or even interesting.

In the end, “The Fight” just seems like a cheap excuse to throw in some boxing imagery and have the performers act manic (Harry Kim claiming – in Chakotay’s vision – that Chakotay is his role model – is utterly ridiculous and has no basis in anything actually established by the characters) for Star Trek: Voyager. And it fails as a result.

[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!]

2/10

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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Tom Paris Defies Orders For A Good Reason, About Three Seasons Too Late In “Thirty Days!”

The Good: Decent acting, Engaging enough plot, Good character work
The Bad: Terrible timing in the series, Imbalance among the characters.
The Basics: When Tom Paris works to save an ocean in space, the viewer is proud of him, but wonders why the episode did not come much, much earlier in the character’s development.


Sometimes, the worst aspect of an episode in the Star Trek franchise is its timing within the series. The prominent example I frequently pick is the characterization of Major Kira Nerys in “The Maquis” (reviewed here!). The writers of that episode put early first season Major Kira into a late second season episode and her role there stands out as something of a non-sequitur. “Thirty Days” is like that in Star Trek: Voyager as it completely misses the past three years of Tom Paris’s character development.

Tom Paris, by the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager has grown to be a responsible, intelligent, reformed convict who has more going for him on Voyager than he would back in the Alpha Quadrant. Like Neelix and Seven Of Nine, Tom Paris is in no particular rush to get home and, as a result, he is quite content on Voyager. When he began the series, though, he was a badass rogue. He, however, quickly rose to the occasion when Janeway offered him the Chief Helm Officer position and made him part of her inner circle. In fact, it was almost a stretch beyond belief in season two when Paris went rogue leading up to “Investigations” (reviewed here!), which put him on the outs with Chakotay.

By the time “Thirty Days” comes along, the viewer has to believe that Paris has suffered a complete relapse of his character to buy the premise. Had this been in the first season of the series, it would have been magnificent. However, in the fifth season, “Thirty Days” stands as a dud from writer Kenneth Biller who, frankly, ought to have known better.

Demoted by Captain Janeway, Tom Paris is sentenced to thirty days in the Voyager brig. There, he begins composing a letter to his father – with exceptionally brief interruptions from Neelix, the Doctor, and Harry Kim. In flashback, he describes how he ended up in the brig. Voyager encountered an ocean floating in space without a planetoid below it. Attacked by submarine spaceships, Voyager makes contact and when Paris, Seven Of Nine, Harry Kim, and Riga (a scientist from the ocean world) discover a structure deep under the surface that is malfunctioning, they work to repair it, but find the planet is on the verge of destruction.

When Tom exhibits frustration with the bureaucrats from the ocean in space, Janeway puts him in his place, evokes the Prime Directive and orders him to prepare to head back for the Alpha Quadrant. But a conversation with Riga clues Paris on how real change could happen. Paris takes Riga and the Delta Flyer into the ocean again to help Riga destroy the oxygen refineries in the hope that the citizens of the planet will build more environmentally responsible refineries when they rebuild. For violating her orders, Paris is sentenced to solitary confinement and demoted to Ensign.

“Thirty Days” is wonderfully focused on Tom Paris, but the other characters are hardly as well-defined or realistically utilized. Chakotay appears exceptionally late in the episode in a token support role. He does not speak up for the good cause and Janeway turns on Paris remarkably quickly.

Ironically, for an episode that is important in the continuity of Star Trek: Voyager, “Thirty Days” illustrates little appreciation for the continuity of Tom Paris’s character. Paris forces Janeway’s hand and is given the solitary confinement and the demotion that lasts more than one season. Tuvok is characteristically efficient in working to thwart Paris and that is about as much character as the episode actually presents. Other than that, the significance of “Thirty Days” is that it marks the appearance of the Delany Twins.

That, sadly, is not enough to make the episode worth watching. As refreshing as it is to see Tom Paris stand for a principle, it seems forced and like Paris picked a particularly lousy time to violate orders. Even so, on its own, the episode is not bad.

[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 Willie Garson, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Zoom: Academy For Super Heroes
Just Like Heaven
Sex And The City - Season 3
Sex And The City - Season 2
Sex And The City - Season 1
NYPD Blue - Season 4
“Sisters” - VR.5
“Episode 20” - Twin Peaks

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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Ending With Consequences From The Premiere, “Hope And Fear” Is Decent Star Trek: Voyager!

The Good: Interesting conflict, Good character development, Decent sense of serialization, Good effects, Decent acting
The Bad: Refusal to commit to the full premise
The Basics: “Hope And Fear” finds Voyager headed back the way it came when an alien translates the message StarFleet sent months ago.


In the commentary tracks for the Babylon 5 spin-off, Crusade (reviewed here!), the creator of the series admits that he had a plan to bamboozle the executives who greenlit the program. J. Michael Straczynski wanted to tell one type of show (the story of the rise of the Rangers in the galaxy and government building with the Interstellar Alliance), but he couldn’t sell the show, even to TNT. So, he came up with a premise they liked: Earth is bombed with a virus that will kill everyone in five years, so a ship goes out into the galaxy to find a cure. On the commentary track to one of the episodes, though, Straczynski admits that his plan for the series was to discover a cure about halfway through the second season (presumably after the network had committed to a few more seasons) then shift the focus to the story he wanted to tell all along. It’s clever and almost enough to make one wish the show had actually survived. “Hope And Fear” makes one wish that the executive producers of Star Trek: Voyager had thought to do something similar. Star Trek: Voyager is the Star Trek franchise’s version of Lost In Space and on the infrequent occasions that the writers and producers remember that the series is supposed to have something to do with a quest to get home, they invariably end up jerking the viewer around with one cockamamie plot or another that dangles the chance to get home in front of the viewer and the crew before yanking it away.

The show might have been better had one of those random attempts actually succeeded and Voyager made it home earlier, allowing for a series of episodes that actually had the crew dealing with the consequences of their voyage home. Instead, episodes like “Hope And Fear” exist that create preposterous plot devices that allow Voyager to make incredible leaps home (or in this case, back in the opposite direction and then back again) before utterly collapsing and leaving the crew once more bereft of hope. Unfortunately for “Hope And Fear,” which otherwise has a decent sense of continuity through its frequent references to the message left coded from “Hunters” (reviewed here!), by this point in the series, it is exceptionally hard for the viewer to take the “conceit of the week” seriously and honestly believe that the show might actually result in a long-term change for the series. Sadly, the mechanism in this episode makes for a reasonable and righteous anger for fans who are asked to suspend their disbelief to swallow it.

Following a phaser game that reveals to Janeway just what a poor sport Seven Of Nine can be, Janeway returns to the task of decoding the message sent from StarFleet. Help comes in the form of a new alien, Arturis, an alien brought aboard by Neelix and Paris following a trade mission. Arturis is a linguistics expert who has a knack for codes and translations.

Arturis is a member of a species that the Borg designated 116. For quite some time, the Borg have struggled to assimilate his people. Arturis’s ability to fix the garbled translation puts Voyager near the Federation starship Dauntless. The Dauntless is outfitted with a superior warp drive that will get the crew of Voyager home in three months. While Janeway is initially cautious, when the Dauntless’s quantum slipstream drive activates, they get a taste of what she little ship can do. But when Janeway and Seven Of Nine investigate further, Arturis reveals an unpleasant truth to them that is horrifying to them.

Arturis arrives on Voyager from a trade mission that helps restock Voyager and amid all of the conceit problems, one of the fundamental ones that has to make serious fans question is “what does Voyager have to trade at this point?!” I mean, outside of personal effects from killed crewmembers, there are no resources aboard Voyager that they should have in excess to trade, especially considering they almost never use the replicators and they have no industrial replicators for larger pieces.

Barring that, “Hope And Fear” has a compelling guest character that forces the crew of Voyager to wrestle with the consequences of their actions. “Scorpion, Part 2” (reviewed here!) had the crew of Voyager making a choice that had very real consequences and “Home And Fear” forces them to deal with those consequences. Arturis is a compelling guest character; his sense of loss is real and when he turns to thoughts of revenge, “Hope And Fear” becomes something more than the usual jerkaround episode that deal with the crew of Voyager getting home.

Arturis could have been a terribly hammy character, especially with the lines he was given to express his loss and anger, with Seven Of Nine bearing the brunt of his frustration and ennui. But Arturis is played by Ray Wise, who is an incredible actor and he makes the transitions from Arturis the altruist to the wounded alien exceptionally well.

But the main characters have equal measures of character expression that work in “Hope And Fear.” Harry Kim is appropriately eager and almost giddy for the thought of home. Seven Of Nine points out to Torres that the Maquis have little to look forward to and her smile to Kim is actually one that makes the viewer believe that the young ensign actually has a shot at romancing the Borg! But giving Torres and Seven Of Nine something in common is a nice bit of development. Only Seven Of Nine squaring off with Janeway in the middle of the episode truly does not fit the sense of character growth for the principle characters.

When Seven Of Nine and Janeway end up on the Dauntless headed back to Borg Space with the quantum slipstream drive, though, the episode takes a stroll into the conceptually preposterous. By that point, though, the viewer is invested enough to complete the episode and while this might not be the best season finale of the Star Trek franchise, it is not a horrible ending to the season. “Hope And Fear,” ultimately, is a jerkaround episode, but it is one that feels comparatively more satisfying than most.

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

For other works with Ray Wise, be sure to check out my reviews of:
X-Men: First Class
The West Wing - Season Seven
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Twin Peaks
"Who Watches The Watcher"

7/10

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 Star Trek: Voyager Shakeup Begins With "Scorpion, Part II!"

The Good: Decent plot, Fair acting.
The Bad: Make-up special effects, Very light on character development, Borg are uncharacteristically pliable.
The Basics: Retooling Star Trek: Voyager, in "Scorpion, Part II," the ship makes an alliance with the Borg that may be disastrous.


Many people debate where the Star Trek franchise went wrong. After all, once it was a powerful, original franchise that was lauded around the world for its peaceful, inventive vision of the future. By Star Trek: Enterprise, it had mortgaged so much of its past and potential in favor of appealing to the action-adventure science fiction crowd and the Baywatch audience. The use of bodysuits to accent breasts and butts of female characters may have begun in the third season of Star Trek: Voyager, but in the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager, the show committed to that type of vision with the introduction of Seven Of Nine.

Seven Of Nine first appears in "Scorpion, Part II." Following up where season three ended with the Voyager entering Borg territory in "Scorpion, Part I" (reviewed here!). The introduction of Species 8472 in "Scorpion, Part I" put the Borg in play in a situation that necessitated an alliance between the Borg and Voyager. With the threat growing following the alien species wiping out an entire planet, the Borg agree to Janeway's dangerous plan. But the main purpose of "Scorpion, Part II" is to write in Seven Of Nine and continue the phase-out of Kes. I, for one, think that the show made a bad trade.

With the decimation of the nearby planet, the Borg ship with Janeway aboard and Voyager escape the swarm of alien ships. As the Doctor tests the nanoprobes on Harry Kim, Kes begins to suffer from telepathic incursions from the aliens. Tuvok joins Janeway on the Borg cube and resisting their efforts to implant communications devices in the two humans, Janeway and Tuvok are introduced to a single drone who will speak for the collective: Seven Of Nine. The alliance continues to be maintained, but when the Borg require a prototype of the weapon to be built, the Cube is destroyed with the Captain, Tuvok and a handful of Borg escaping its destruction.

Janeway is seriously wounded in the escape and with Chakotay in command of Voyager, tensions rise when the Borg want to make a trip backwards. Chakotay resists the idea of going back and plans to leave the Borg on an alien planet. When the war against the alien species takes a further turn for the worse, the Borg seize control of Voyager and take the ship into fluidic space, the realm of the alien species. Balancing the mission's cost with the idea of the Delta Quadrant being overwhelmed by the aliens, Chakotay and Voyager take the war to the alien species!

While the plot dictates the necessity of the alliance, the very idea that the Borg would be so forward-thinking is somewhat uncharacteristic. In Peter David's brilliant Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Vendetta (reviewed here!), David characterized the Borg appropriately as the omnipresent "now." They assimilate, overwhelm, then move on. They do not truly understand the future and that perspective is a clever one. That the Borg are so altered is somewhat troubling.

Similarly bogus is the way Seven Of Nine threatens Janeway and, later, Chakotay. The sense of extortion is uncharacteristic of the Borg and that illustrates an odd lack of understanding of the initial character design. The Borg have assimilated thousands of races; they are not ripe for character growth. So, when Seven Of Nine starts extorting and threatening the crew, the idea of menace seems odd.

As far as Seven Of Nine goes, her character design continues the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Greatest Hits" concept. Just as B'Elanna is a rewrite of K'Ehleyr and The Emergency Medical Hologram is a continuation on the concept of the holographic Moriarty, Seven Of Nine is a reworking of Hugh Borg from "I, Borg" (reviewed here!). In "Scorpion, Part II," the viewer gets the concept of the character before the main character struggle. Instead, we see her as full Borg. That character might have worked better had Seven Of Nine not seemed so initially emotional even as a Borg.

"Scorpion, Part II" is almost entirely devoid of character development. While the EMH has some cute moments of pride over his medical work with Kim and Janeway, the main character moment comes with Janeway and Chakotay. The two continue the bickering they began in "Part I." Chakotay advocates killing the alliance and when they fight, Janeway's dialogue is annoyingly expository. Pointing out the two battles (internal and external) seems remarkably banal.

While Kate Mulgrew pulls off her role well, Jeri Ryan's entrance into the series is surprisingly emotional. Her dialogue is presented in the least-cold fashion of any Borg. She adds far too much subtext to her deliveries which is utterly unlike the Borg.

Kes's subplot is disposed of ridiculously fast and makes very little sense (i.e. how Kes is not pretty much incapacitated the moment the ship enters fluidic space given that in the Delta Quadrant she is tormented seems a real flaw), but Jennifer Lein makes fine use of her time on screen.

The special effects in "Scorpion, Part II" are good, except the CG-enhanced ones for the infection on Harry Kim's face. That effect is, sadly, laughably bad. Either way, the episode does not come down to effects to either save or kill the episode. This is a plot-heavy second part that makes little sense in the overall context of the Star Trek franchise. While behind-the-scenes the idea to not make Star Trek: Voyager heavily serialized may have been the undoing of the franchise, on-screen the turning point for the franchise may well be "Scorpion, Part II." Sure, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would continue to endure in creative and amazing ways, but for the show that would succeed it and help define the franchise, the on-screen turn that shakes it up in a way that stops the show from really working is "Scorpion, Part II."

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

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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Psychic Holocaust Memories Make It Worthwhile To "Remember" Star Trek: Voyager

The Good: Good concept, Decent acting, Good resolution
The Bad: No real character development, Not visually daring enough
The Basics: An episode that should be about memory surviving genocide is hijacked by an emphasis on sexuality and barely saved by Roxann Biggs-Dawson's performance.


Star Trek: Voyager was plagued by many problems, mostly because so much of the initial concept of the show was based on presenting the greatest hits of Star Trek: The Next Generation and because so much of the initial characterization was gutted and the show was made as an episodic (as opposed to serialized) series. As the third season progressed, the show was floundering as far as finding a direction and it seemed like it didn't know where the show (or the ship) was going. Then came "Remember," an episode that stepped up the stakes quite a bit and for forty-three minutes, it almost seemed like Star Trek: Voyager could be saved.

While the U.S.S. Voyager is heading home, it takes the time to transport a group of Enarans back to their homeworld. B'Elanna Torres begins to have increasingly erotic dreams and she soon comes to realize that she is not herself in the dreams. B'Elanna is taking the role of Korenna, an Enaran, and her memories are actual memories whose purpose is to keep alive the history of a people who were victimized by genocide by the dominant Enarans.

First off, a decent B'Elanna Torres episode has been a long time overdue. She hadn't been featured in a decent episode since the first season's "Faces" (reviewed here!) and she hadn't carried an episode since the second season dud "Prototype" (reviewed here!). "Remember" puts B'Elanna Torres back, front and center and it couldn't be more welcome for a change of pace for the show.

Only, it's not B'Elanna that is featured. There's no real character development for the Torres character. She is the object of the episode, a conduit for a story that has nothing to do with Torres. It's unfortunate and a real waste to have Torres used as an appendage for the plot. Torres is sublimated to Korenna and the more vital story here is certainly Korenna's story.

Similarly, for an episode in the Star Trek franchise that actually makes a stab at sexuality, the episode is remarkably non-confrontational on how graphic the genocide aspect of the story is. In other words, in a story where the survival of those victimized by genocide is the issue (i.e. keeping them alive through memories), the producers focus more on making the sexuality of the memories more explicit and important. Indeed, I easily recall the previews for this episode featuring steamy scenes of a lusty B'Elanna and in some ways, the episode strikes a grave imbalance.

The result is a somewhat uneven work that let's down the viewer who is watching hoping for something more meaningful. Instead of a strong story that illustrates the importance of storytelling and memory to allow a heritage to survive, the show leans toward sexuality and sensationalism (and I'm someone who LIKES sex in movies and television!). This waters down the message and the horrors of the genocide the memories are supposed to be surviving are never revealed. It's almost an afterthought that "yeah, these are memories from people who were wiped out."

That said, this is one of Roxann Biggs-Dawson's best performances. Dawson is able to emote in a way when playing the romantic scenes as Korenna in a way that the role of Torres never gives her the opportunity. She is distinctly feminine, physically looser and has no hint of the rigid posture or underlying hostility she is usually forced to play as a function of her character. Dawson plays the love scenes . . . loving and it works. She sells that whole aspect of the episode.

But more than that, Dawson saves an episode that would otherwise be just a collection of good intents, poorly executed, by saving some of the execution. How Torres resolves the encroaching memories is well-played by Dawson and it is her uncanny ability to play the quiet moments that is first revealed in this episode and she rises to the occasion. Dawson works better than the script and this is one of her shining performances.

It's barely enough to recommend the episode and the episode is mostly recommended to fans of science fiction, as opposed to those who only like hard drama. It's one of the episodes the third season of Star Trek: Voyager got right and despite its faults, it's worth at least one viewing.

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

For other works with Bruce Davison, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Passengers
X2: X-Men United
X-Men

6.5/10

Check out how this episode stacks up against others in the franchise by visiting my Star Trek Index Review Page for a listing from Best To Worst!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Witlessness Becomes Pointlessness As Star Trek: Voyager Begins Season Three With "Basics, Part II"

The Good: Finally ends the Kazon storyline, Moments of character
The Bad: Disappointing planetbound story, Generally unimpressive acting, Pacing, Special effects
The Basics: While the Kazon run Voyager (poorly), Janeway's crew tries to survive on a boring planet loaded with problems for them to try to interest the viewers.


Following the climactic events of any season finale, the hope is always to suck the viewer back in to catch the resolution at the beginning of the new season. Many shows hit their stride in their third season and whatever events got them to that point usually put them in good stead for viewer enthusiasm. Enter Star Trek: Voyager, starting a meandering third season with the follow-up to the second season finale, "Basics" (reviewed here!). While my review of the first part worked hard to not explicitly state the cliffhanger, it's impossible to discuss "Part II" without understanding where the first part ended. So, for those who want to watch it and enjoy, now's the time to stop reading.

The U.S.S. Voyager has been abducted by the Kazon, the crew of the ship have been marooned on an inhospitable world with sun and volcanoes, and Tom Paris is MIA, searching for reinforcements to take back the ship. Aboard Voyager, Seska finds the Kazon fairly ineffective at actually taking control of the ship and victims of sabotage from the Doctor and his hidden ally, Lon Suder. On Hanon IV, the crew of Voyager finds themselves suffering from heat stroke, being eaten by a land eel, and in conflict with the neighboring tribe of Neanderthal-type humanoids. Rather than leave Kes and Neelix to their own devices among the savages, Janeway and Chakotay set to rescuing them while protecting the others.

This is one of those episodes that, as it progresses along, the viewer sits to wait just long enough for The Point. The Point in "Basics, Part II" is when one realizes that everything will, in fact be resolved within the course of this episode and will not be drawn out into a third part. Mercifully, that point comes right around the middle of the episode and I encourage those who have suffered through the opening, waiting for the episode to go somewhere interesting, to shut it off at the point where the resolution becomes obvious; it is exactly as obvious as it seems like it might be and the episode plays out without any surprises after a point.

More than that, the episode is barely interesting and not at all engaging for the bulk of the episode. The crew's plight on Hanon IV is dull, so much so there have to be three conflicts instead of just one attempt to survive. The result is a feeling that the writers did not know what they wanted to do with the stranded crew, so they threw a number of things at them including: indigenous life forms, a giant land eel, volcanic disturbances and realistic survival problems (the last one being the only one that seemed necessary and with enough potential to sucker in anyone who was watching the episode for real drama as opposed to science fiction).

Far more interesting is the plight of the Doctor and Lon Suder. Aboard Voyager, the two engage in an interesting character struggle. Suder, a psychopath from the second season episode "Meld" (reviewed here!) has reformed into a model citizen and has managed to survive undetected on Voyager following its capture. The Doctor, then, asks something difficult of Suder, for him to revert to his nature to save the ship and stop the Kazon. The Doctor is placed in the unenviable position of asking a mentally ill man who is largely healed to kill Kazon to cripple the ship and allow the ship to be retaken by loyal forces.

It's the only portion of the episode worth watching.

Then there's the Tom Paris plot. It's tacked on just enough to let the viewer know how everything will resolve itself and Paris fills a fairly generic role as liberator here.

Outside the plot involving the Doctor and Lon Suder, the episode is devoid of character work or notable performances. While the crew stranded on the surface works to survive, they do not so much grow or learn anything as they run or die. The characters plod through survival like people who are indifferent to their plight, as if they know they will be rescued by the end of the forty-three minutes.

Aboard Voyager, though, there is a decent character story being told. The Doctor and Lon Suder play off one another well and the ethical dilemma their story explores is interesting and engaging. Robert Picardo gives a performance that is wonderfully infused with subtlety and compassion as opposed to the sarcasm his character usually vocalizes.

It is Brad Dourif who brings an otherwise terrible episode up into territory where it is almost watchable. As Suder, Dourif is able to convey a masterful amount of emotion and expressiveness for a character who is torn apart with a very real conflict. Dourif makes that conflict realistic, vibrant and difficult to watch.

Sadly, Dourif and Picardo are not on screen nearly enough to save this episode. Instead, the viewer is assaulted for the majority of the time with lackluster performances from the rest of the main and guest casts. They are condemned to a dull plot with listless acting, characters who are set into motion and follow the most predictable of tracks and special effects that are astonishingly bad.

At some point, early CG work will be viewed as kitsch the way we now view the special effects of the serialized science fiction movies of the 40s. Those movies have effects that are so terrible and laughable that one has to love them for the entertainment value that comes from mocking the efforts of those who who once so very far out of their league. In a similar sense, the effects department on "Basics, Part II" is out of their league with the effects rendering the Hanonan land eel. This effect is so bad one imagines they can see the binary codes that created it. I'm not to the point where I'm finding it kitsch or amusing, though. The land eel is a great example of a special effect where those creating the effect had no idea how to put it into a real context. As a result the computer-generated monster is lit (poorly) from all angles and looks like it came from a computer, as opposed to a cave.

The poor cg is just the proverbial icing on the cake for an episode so dull and obvious in the way it resolves the conflicts from the first part that it's astonishing I've mustered up enough interest to write as much as I have about it. This episode is only for die-hard fans obsessed with seeing all Trek and who will sit through anything. For those more discriminating, the Suder/Doctor plot is worthwhile but not enough as far as the airtime goes to recommend the episode.

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

5/10

Check out how this episode stacks up against all of the others in the Star Trek franchise by visiting my specialized Index Page!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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How Silly The Kazon No Longer Appear As They Conquer In "Basics!"

The Good: Decent effects, Engaging plot, Good acting
The Bad: Hinges on one ridiculously simply character fault after another.
The Basics: In a special effects rich season finale that sacrifices character for a cliffhanger, Voyager is defeated by the Kazon.


Star Trek Voyager tried hard not to be a serialized television show. This was silly for a series about a starship that was lost in space with two opposing crews living aboard it. Yet, the producers did not want a serialized show and they did not want conflict among the characters. This ridiculous combination of elements made for a surprisingly weak series and was a bit of a disappointment as it progressed. Sure, I may be the only one bummed out that we never saw the StarFleet crew resorting to the desperations of cannibalism, but there could have been lights that burned out that weren't replaced to make the series more believable. I mention this because in the second season of the series, the show attempted a little more in the way of serialization, in the form of a plot with the witless enemies, the Kazon. This culminated in the second season finale, entitled "Basics."

Seska, the villainous Cardassian spy who fled Voyager and joined with the Kazon-Nistrum, sends a distress call to Chakotay informing him that their baby is in danger from the leader of the Kazon-Nistrum, Maje Culluh. Voyager moves to rescue the baby, based on intelligence from a captured Kazon. Soon, the starship comes under repeated attacks that leave the ship crippled and unable to fend off an invasion by the Kazon. And once their tactic becomes obvious enough for the protagonists to realize what the Kazon strategy is, it is too late and Voyager falls to the Kazon.

First off, "Basics" is dependent upon at least two other episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Seska's pregnancy is revealed at the end of "Maneuvers" (reviewed here!) where she robs Chakotay of some of his DNA to create the child in what seems at the time like a weird plot device. In "Basics," it seems even more that way and the obviousness of it is disturbing, even more than how dim the heroes seem for not picking up the Kazon plan sooner. The other episode heavily referenced is "Meld" (reviewed here!).

"Meld" introduced Lon Suder, a psychopathic Betazoid Maquis officer who came to reform under the guidance of Tuvok. In "Basics," Suder returns as a more-or-less healthy individual whose mental problems are well under control. As the Kazon attacks progress, Suder finds his pacifism a liability and his desire to retain his mental health jeopardized.

But the episode works mostly because it remains focused on the characters, like Suder, who are instantly likable and worth caring about. Chakotay ceases his usual moralizing to acknowledge the baby the ship is headed to rescue is barely even his and that admission is smart and worthwhile. Indeed, when the ship's mission becomes rescuing a child from a life of slavery, as opposed to some dimly linked paternity suit gone awry, "Basics" works well. The ethics of the crew are solid and admirable as they seek to keep the baby from a life that will almost certainly be short and painful.

This, of course, makes it difficult to believe that such an ethical and wise crew could be so dumb as to fall so completely into the Kazon trap. That Tuvok does not see the strategy that the Kazon are employing a mile away is disappointing and utterly beneath his character. Where "Basics" fails, then, is servicing a plot through a complete failure of the characters to live up to their potential and abilities. The only way the plot of "Basics" is advanced is because the writers and producers force the characters to sacrifice their individuality and cleverness to bring about the desired cliffhanger.

In other terms, the measure of great heroes is relative to the level of evil they are able to thwart. Janeway and crew are defeated by one of the lamest group of villains in the Star Trek pantheon and they do it by acting like complete morons. Arguably, this is the death knell of the series.

If one is able to suspend one's disbelief through all of that, "Basics" is exciting with its big explosions and special effects shots that dazzle successfully.

The only other worthwhile aspect of "Basics" comes in the form of the acting. The characters may have been transformed quietly into idiots who are not able to anticipate the next move of the Kazon, but the actors perform some of their best work in "Basics." Robert Beltran speaks passionately about the need to protect Voyager, Kate Mulgrew takes a hardline ethical stance and sells it as completely plausible, and Robert Duncan McNeill does an excellent job of providing an out for the second part in a believable way.

But even on the acting front, "Basics" does not live up to everything it could be because of the writing. Guest actor Brad Douriff steals every scene he is in as Lon Suder. Robert Picardo - the Doctor - is underused in the episode and guest star Martha Hackett (Seska) does not seem as menacing within her role as she once did.

All of that said, "Basics" squeaks by as entertaining, even if not all that sensible. But it's virtually the last of Star Trek Voyager worth watching.

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

8/10

For other Star Trek reviews, be sure to check out my Star Trek Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Oh, Michael Jan Friedman, How Did You Go So Far Wrong With "Resistance?"

The Good: Guest acting . . . I wish there was more.
The Bad: Principle acting, Character, Plot, Predictability
The Basics: Michael Jan Friedman pens a Star Trek: Voyager episode that finds Janeway in the company of a crazy guy we don't care about.


For those not familiar with my reviews, the Star Trek franchise is something I care a great deal about. At its best, Star Trek has been an embodiment of a dream, a vision of a positive future and a compelling quest for human understanding. Not everyone is able to write in that universe and growing up, my mother fostered my love of reading by providing me with all the Star Trek books on the market (strange that she begrudges me becoming a novelist as opposed to a marine biologist, considering). If I had a wish list of authors from the books who I would want to write episodes of Star Trek, at the top of the list would be Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, authors of Federation (reviewed here!) - who got their chance in the fourth season of Enterprise - and Michael Jan Friedman. The Reeves-Stevens's are experts in Trek and Michael Jan Friedman is easily one of the best writers to be wooed by the franchise. (For those wondering, Peter David, the master who wrote Imzadi - reviewed here! - did not make this list because so much of the quality of his writing and storytelling is in the asides he interjects, much like Douglas Adams.) Michael Jan Friedman managed to get a script made into an episode as Star Trek Voyager's outing "Resistance." To this day, I wish it had been better and Friedman had been given the opportunity to write more.

While the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager is making a deal with a corrupt world government for a supply necessary to the warp engines, Janeway, Tuvok and Torres are attacked. Janeway is rescued by a crazy old man named Caylem, who believes that Janeway is his daughter. While she works to locate Tuvok and Torres and keep herself safe, Chakotay launches rescue attempts with mixed results. While Tuvok is tortured, Janeway is occupied by the crazy old man . . .

. . . and the viewer waits it out.

This might well be one of the worst episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and, despite other poor episodes, it is definitely the low point of the second season. Michael Jan Friedman managed to write an episode that lacks any real sense of character, populate it with an archetypal oppressive government and a generic crazy old man ally for Janeway. Moreover, he somehow managed to write a story that was so canned that the plot feels stale from some of the opening moments.

In order to discuss this episode well, the comparison ought to be drawn to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Second Skin" (reviewed here!). In "Second Skin," there is the Cardassian Tehkeny Ghemor, a Legate and dissident who believes beyond all reason that Kira - surgically altered to appear as a Cardassian - is his long-lost daughter. What makes "Second Skin" work is that the political machinations involved serve the character brilliantly and the struggle to reconcile the reality of the situation with the risks Ghemor is willing to take become quite compelling.

In "Resistance," the viewer has nothing so compelling. Caylem is not interesting, he has no real larger agenda he is advancing. He feels like "Generic Crazy Guy #5" and his interactions with Janeway are dull and kill any sense of pacing this episode might have had. The viewer does not care that Caylem thinks Janeway might be his daughter and we are in no way invested in his desire to see his daughter again.

But more importantly, the plot struggle to retrieve the lost officers is tied down with a meaningless character interaction that does not challenge or change our protagonist. Janeway does not need Caylem so much after her initial rescue and her actions at the climax of the episode do not so much add to her character as they simply reinforce the idea that at the end of the day, Janeway is a nice person with a great deal of humanity and compassion. That's not new to us.

What is is what happens to Tuvok. Michael Jan Friedman is a wonderful writer and he has a strong sense of character. Tuvok is beaten and takes the torture with Vulcan stoicism. Until he does not. The idea of Tuvok breaking is troubling because he is a Vulcan. The big character stretch many viewers had to make with the character of Tuvok was not that he was a black Vulcan, but rather that he was a Vulcan security chief. The combination ought to have made his resistance to torment significantly higher than what is revealed in this episode.

So, in addition to nothing stellar on the character front, and some to be disappointed about (though this might be the birth of the Paris rescue), "Resistance" is lacking in anything remotely resembling a decent acting performance. This is a poor outing for the actors, as if they all know they've been given a bum script and are acting accordingly.

Roxanne Biggs-Dawson is unusually stiff as Torres, never truly convincing the viewer of her character's sense of peril. Tim Russ is similarly out of sorts as Tuvok, though many of his problems might be what was asked of his character. None of the guest actors shine with anything convincing for their performances. However, Joel Grey does well-enough as Caylem, but not quite well-enough to make the viewer truly care about his fate. Similarly, Alan Scarfe presents a different type of villain from his usual Trek villain (he has played several Romulans before this), but unfortunately, he is given less to do in the role and the role of Augris does not give him much to do.

But Kate Mulgrew, who has the ability to perform along a wide range of the emotive spectrum is awkward, stiff and bland in "Resistance." Mulgrew does not seem to care what happens to Caylem and she brings her indifference to Janeway. There is no chemistry on screen between the two that makes the viewer feel like he is anything but an annoying distraction.

In short, there is nothing to offer fans of Star Trek in "Resistance." It's a lemon. Fans of hostage dramas will be able to call this episode well before its resolution and fans of Michael Jan Friedman are likely to just shake their head, finish the episode and never turn it back on again. Sorry, Michael!

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

For other works with Alan Scarfe, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
“The Birthright, Part II”
“Data’s Day”

1.5/10

Check out my reviews of other Star Trek episodes by visiting my Index Page on the subject!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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