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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Star Trek: Voyager Undermines Yet Another One Of Its Villains With “In The Flesh”

The Good: Good idea, Fair execution of idea
The Bad: No character development, No extraordinary performances, Odd use of the alien race, Lack of attention to important details
The Basics: Species 8472 returns “In The Flesh” when the Voyager crew discovers StarFleet Headquarters in the Delta Quadrant.


When Star Trek conventions were big enough that there was one every weekend somewhere in the Eastern Time Zone and I was on the road a lot, one of the discussions I enjoyed getting into with people was on the quality of the Star Trek villains. Whenever Species 8472 was broached, I would wince. Usually, people would notice this and I would have the opportunity to expound on my sense of outrage and offense. The alien, seen in only four episodes, makes its final appearance in the episode “In The Flesh,” and it becomes, in my arguing, the worst of the bunch.

It all has to do with names. “Species 8472” is the Borg designation for the invaders from fluidic space. This alien life form, presented as an entirely computer generated creature, is referred to solely as “Species 8472.” Using the Borg designation, even to the entity’s face, is like referring to a person by their rape case number. While this might initially be respectful (to respect the anonymity of the victim), it becomes offensive when speaking directly to the person, especially as they make the journey from victim to survivor. While there is no direct analogy for the latter part of this concept, it does seem like an alien race that has genocidal plans to cure the galaxy of impure creatures could be more respectfully referred to than by the conquest number by the Borg. The fact that by the end of “In The Flesh” the loyal fans of Star Trek: Voyager do not have something better to call the fluidic space creatures than “Species 8472” is intellectually lazy and, in context, offensive.

Sadly, this is not the only problem stemming from Nick Sagan’s script. The invaders from fluidic space, despite not being the initial aggressors in their war with the Borg, were presented as having a philosophy of their own. “The weak will perish” is what Kes was told (telepathically) by them and Tuvok parrots in “In The Flesh.” But in “In The Flesh,” the aliens are characterized as being entirely on the defensive and with no expansionist wishes or genetic purity ideals of their own. That further weakens the aliens, much the way the Borg were undermined by how they were presented in “Descent, Part 1” (reviewed here!). It seems the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager did not know how to explore the villains they created without significantly weakening them and making them far less interesting.

Chakotay is wandering around StarFleet Academy, taking holographic images, when he is confronted by the groundskeeper, Boothby. While conversing with Commander Valerie Archer, Chakotay witnesses another person in the bar rippling and she refers to “reverting,” making it clear that while she appears human she and her compatriots at the base are not human. Escaping the facility, Chakotay and Tuvok return to Voyager with one of the beings.

When the officer kills himself aboard Voyager, the Doctor reveals him to be from the invaders from fluidic space. While Voyager prepares to stop the aliens, Chakotay returns to the simulation of Earth where he tries to learn what the invaders are up to. Discovered to be truly human, Chakotay tries to convince Archer and Boothby that StarFleet is benevolent.

“In The Flesh” makes a passing attempt to recreate the invaders from fluidic space as having their own philosophy, at least for a moment. When the captured individual kills himself, he refers to the humans as being diseased. That concept is almost completely undermined when “Boothby” starts discussing the training ground with Janeway and he presents himself as a more liberal element, relative to his compatriots.

I like smart science fiction and the idea of the training ground is a good one, even if it seems more often than not like a cheap opportunity to bring back Ray Walston from “The First Duty” (reviewed here!). While the invaders from fluidic space are originally characterized as vicious and fanatical, as well as almost impossible to kill, learning more about them did not need to mean that they would lose all of that. Sadly, though, “In The Flesh” does mortgage that. The Borg nanoprobes are prevalent enough to destroy the aliens, the philosophy is gone and the fact they seem all too willing to be talked out of an invasion. Perhaps because Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was doing episodes with Changeling infiltrators, “In The Flesh” rather quickly abandons the question of how the aliens gained enough information to recreate StarFleet headquarters.

That said, it is refreshing to see an episode where diplomacy prevails and the solution to the problems raised in the episode is reached through communications, not weaponry.

Sadly, “In The Flesh” has no character development and no superlative performances. Robert Beltran, who dominates the episode, shows nothing that he has not before. However, director David Livingston makes some ridiculous mistakes on the details. Beltran, who wanders through the episode as Chakotay without any real passion, is seen wearing his Maquis rank insignia throughout the episode. The Maquis rank insignia is unique to Voyager; no one else in the Federation would wear one, much less have seen one. The moment the invaders from fluidic space saw Chakotay, they should have known something was amiss!

But such nitpicking is not the real problem with “In The Flesh.” “In The Flesh” gets the broad strokes – save the basic concept and the ultimate resolution – wrong and that makes it far less satisfying, especially upon rewatching.

For the other episodes that feature the invaders from fluidic space, check out my reviews of:
“Scorpion”
“Scorpion, Part 2”
“Prey”

[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!]

5.5/10

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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The Sting Is All Right, But It's Not The Greatest Hustle Film I've Ever Seen!

The Good: Decent plot, Great two-disc DVD presentation, Decent acting
The Bad: Light on character development, Predictable
The Basics: A fun film, The Sting is a surprisingly direct swindle movie with the audience on the inside of an operation to rip off a corrupt gambler.


As I continue to watch every film that won the coveted Best Picture Oscar, I have found myself having a truly mixed reaction to many of the cinematic experiences I have witnessed. I've had to slow the project down a little as I've needed to do some work on my new on-line store, but I have still managed to squeeze in some movie watching (even more problematic when my DVD player died). Yesterday, as I awaited the library opening and I found myself with a couple of hours to kill, I put in The Sting, which has long been hailed to me as one of the greatest American films ever made. Sadly, having seen a whole lot of American cinema, my reaction was more "meh" than "wow."

This is not to say that The Sting is not a good movie; it is. The problem I found was that it was only good. Earlier this year, others were comparing Duplicity to The Sting, so I actually went into the movie excited, hoping I could re-pan Duplicity for being a half-rate rip-off. But the films are two very different films in the "hustle" genre. Whereas most contemporary movies about grifters and hustlers hinge on a reversal at the end, The Sting is remarkably straightforward, with the only real surprises coming to the characters within the film as opposed to the audience. The result is a fun movie, but one that hardly seems timeless by any standard. Of course, it's nice to see a young Robert Redford and a mature Paul Newman working together, but it doesn't make up for the generally mediocre plot and character development of the movie.

In Joliet, Illinois, Johnny Hooker helps scam a gangster's courier with the help of his friend and fellow grifter, Luther Coleman. Luther sees this as an opportunity to retire and he prepares to leave his life of crime behind given he now has enough cash to last him some time. Unfortunately for Coleman, the money belonged to a Chicago crime boss, Lonnegan. Fearing for his own life, Hooker heads to Chicago on a tip from Luther to apprentice from a master grifter, Henry Gondorff. Gondorff, originally reluctant gets on board after ripping Lonnegan off for thousands of dollars in a card game. He sends Hooker to collect his money and Hooker begins playing the long con on Lonnegan.

Gondorff employs a team of people who loathe Lonnegan to create a betting parlor and Hooker gives Lonnegan inside tips on horses that will win in distant races and Lonnegan begins betting at Gondorff's faux parlor. Hooker leads Lonnegan through big tips on long odds, preparing him for a half-million dollar heist that will take a fortune from Lonnegan and pay off the entire ensemble. But as the feds move in on the operation, everyone is put in danger and there is a chance Hooker and Gondorff will both go down for their lives of crime!

The problem is that The Sting is pretty much a straightforward story. Hooker is out for revenge for his friend's death and he wants to scam Lonnegan for that. It is dressed up with Hooker and Gondorff assuming aliases and a bunch of peripheral characters roaming around the three principles, but essentially, Hooker sets a goal and the rest of the movie is about him achieving that goal. This is a strong contrast with contemporary swindler movies as there are no major twists here. For sure, there is a whole subplot involving the FBI, but it is a forgettable subplot and one which does not truly make the viewer feel Hooker or Gondorff are being actually menaced.

Moreover, The Sting is another movie where the acting is arguably better than the actual characters in the movie. Robert Redford is bright-eyed and charming as Hooker, but there's little flair or emotional empathy with the character. For sure, we feel bad that Luther gets killed and I wanted to see him avenged, but this is pretty much the long, slow way around a revenge story. Those looking for something as exciting as Payback (reviewed here!) will be left disappointed.

As well, the romantic subplots seem far more contrived than anything else. Late in the movie, a woman is thrown in at Hooker and while it is nice to see some women in this otherwise masculine cast, they seem like they are padding out the cast and none of them are even remotely interesting characters. While it makes Gondorff a better character to have his relationship, the woman tossed in for Hooker adds nothing except a sense that we did not truly know him given that earlier in the movie, he fancied another woman.

Newman and Redford have great chemistry and their scenes make the film entertaining, if not particularly original or incredible. Instead, they make a fun pair of new buddies that keep the viewer watching, but it is more out of respect for their celebrity than their characters. They play off one another and Newman and Redford have a clear on-camera respect for one another, but they work with what they have and while Hooker has a decent revenge motive, Gondorff tags along with a less inspired line of taking Lonnegan because it is something to do.

What makes The Sting well worth watching and buying is the bonus disc. The two-disc Anniversary edition comes with a huge behind-the-scenes featurette that investigates the entire process of creating the film. The level of detail and participation from actors in the featurette makes for almost a completely different work and it is impressive how much work went into making this film. The Sting has a distinct style with a 1930s sense of storytelling and cinematography and that retro sensibility was painstakingly created and my appreciation for it only grew by watching the bonus materials.

That said, The Sting is still pretty average and while it is good, it is hard to believe this was considered great ever.

For other movies involving swindles and subterfuge, please check out my reviews of:
Salt
The Southland Tales
Unknown

[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, available here! Please check it out!]

6/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

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


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Your Average Episode About The Importance Of Not Telling A Lie: "The First Duty"

The Good: Decent acting, Interesting - if unrealistic - character development
The Bad: Certain aspects of the plot
The Basics: When Wesley Crusher is injured and another cadet is killed, the facts of the investigation do not match with the cadets' story and Wesley must choose where his loyalties lie in "The First Duty."


Every now and then, Star Trek The Next Generation did an episode so obvious it was almost insulting to the viewers intelligence. Sometimes, the message was so obvious it was insulting, but the execution of it is classy enough. "The First Duty" is the latter type; it is rather straightforward in its message about not lying, but it gets there in an interesting enough way to keep us interested.

The Enterprise is recalled to Earth when Wesley Crusher is wounded in a flight accident. As Picard and the Enterprise staff lend a hand to the investigation, it becomes clear that the cadet flight squadron, led by the charismatic Nick Locarno, is not being entirely forthcoming with the reason one of the cadets lost his life in the accident. Picard quickly learns Wesley is part of a cover-up and works to impress upon the youth the importance of not lying.

What is nice is that Wesley Crusher appears, for the first time, as a less than perfect individual. He suddenly seems very realistic and his moral dilemma about sticking with his friends or telling the truth is a worthwhile one. It's presented well and Crusher, who always had so much potential, seems to be knocked down a few notches here in a way that makes his character instantly more empathetic. Add to that that Crusher and his moralistic sense makes a great deal of sense to be the one to come forward.

The way that it fails to be believable is in the time element. Wesley Crusher spent three and a half years on the Enterprise where he was given the most responsibility and trust he had ever had in his life. Since then, he has been back once where he restrengthened the bonds to those people by saving all of their lives. Now, less than a year and a half since he first left, he has fallen in with a group that asks him to lie to the people he has loved and trusted for a significantly longer time. That makes less sense than one would like to admit.

Beyond that, it's easy to see how strong Picard comes on and Locarno seems savvy enough to be at least possible as a leader. So, in the end it becomes a battle of wills between Picard, who reasons the truth, and Locarno, who wants to conceal it, via Wesley Crusher. And in the end, it makes sense that Picard ought to be victorious.

But in the process, there's another awkward aspect and that is how long it takes for all of the facts in the case to come to light. Given the amount of time it takes for the Enterprise to arrive at Earth, it seems inconceivable that the video images of the flight squadron was not already available. In short, it makes little sense that the cadets would even have the chance to lie by the time the Enterprise arrives.

Given that is not the case, the plausibility of the episode falls squarely on the acting and it is what eventually throws the episode over. Robert Duncan McNeil plays Locarno and in the process creates one of the more memorable guest characters. McNeil has a rogue quality to him and a natural charm that easily comes through. Perhaps this was the reason he was later tapped to play Lieutenant Tom Paris on Star Trek Voyager. He makes a great foil to the stern demeanor of Patrick Stewart in the role of Captain Picard. Stewart manages to tone down his performance, hone his range to simply fill the gaps between his character and McNeil's. In the end, Stewart refines Picard to simply be all of the things that Locarno is not and as a result, he makes the message that much more poignant and clear.

In the end, the episode hinges on Wil Wheaton's performance and he lives up to the responsibility. Here he makes Wesley Crusher visibly conflicted in a way that has not been well presented before. He's a conflicted character now and it works with where he is and where he is going. Wheaton makes him feel like a character in transition and his place in the episode is secure.

In the end, "The First Duty" is a piece that can be appreciated by anyone as it is a bottle episode more about the morality of telling the truth than anything even remotely science fiction oriented. As a testament to the strength of the episode, on the DVD bonuses for Season 5, one of the behind the scenes facts mentioned about this episode is that it has been shown in military classes to promote the importance of telling the truth. Well, if that's not enough to give you hope, what is?

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

6/10

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

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


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