Star Trek: Voyager--"Thirty Days"

The character studies certainly have been kicked up a notch this season. “Thiry days” is a Tom-centric episode. It is the best one yet for the character, as it does not involve him being accused of murder, turning into a salamander, or being obsessed with restoring an old Camero. It also brings back the old Tom--the screw up who cannot please his father no matter what he does, and fills the void by engaging in stupid, idealistic adventures. Tom has been “fixed’ a little too well by his time on Voyager. He is a crack pilot, a field medic, an engineer who can design an ubershuttlecraft from scratch, and an author Why did this guy ever have any troubles with screwing up in the past?

Voyager encounters what appears to be an ocean in space. Upon investigation, they are attacked by the Moneans. It is a misunderstanding that gets cleared up quickly. In fact, the Moneans have a problem they would like the crew to tackle for them. The containment field holding the ocean in place is degrading. They do not have any submarines capable of diving deep enough to investigate the center of the ocean, but the Delta flyer can get there easily. Tom, who always wanted to be a sailor, but was forced into Starfleet by his overbearing father, jumps at the chance.

The expedition discovers, after a brief encounter with a very cool looking giant, CGI eel, the Moneans own technology is causing the degradation. If they do not change their ways, the ocean will disappear in five years. Their chief diplomat promises some committee on science within their government will look into the matter. Tom knows nothing is going to come of that. It will be tied up in bureaucracy until it is too late. He decides to take matters into his own hands after a brief pep talk from Torres.

Tom and a sympathetic Monean named Rigar steal the Delta Flyer and plan to destroy the underwater oxygen generators. By doing so, they will have to be rebuilt, and the likelihood is they will be rebuilt with preserving the ocean in mind. Voyager is forced to stop the act of ecoterrorism. Tom is brought back to the ship, demoted to ensign, and sentenced to thirty days solitary confinement in the brig.

I am as shocked as you are there is no preachy environmental lesson to be found. Doubly so because of the running theme of environmental damage the Malon are causing that will play out for the rest of the season. The fact is, the Moneans are willfully killing themselves because they do not feel like spending the resources to prevent further damage, but Janeway--surprise, surprise--invokes the Prime Directive and says if they want to kill themselves, it is their choice. Just to make things a little grayer, the Moneans are revealed to be nomadic squatters. they found this ocean in space centuries ago and moved in. they do not know who built it or why, but it is assumed it was intended to preserve some planet’s ocean from an ecological disaster. But all that is cast aside for a character study.

A character study with some oddities. For one, tom has never expressed any connection to the nautical life before, nor has he ever been an environmentalist. Sure, he has been looking for anything with which to feel emotionally connected, but his newfound concern for the ocean is out of the blue. For another, Janeway is back to her crazy self. She has violated the prime directive a heck of a lot worse than Tom does here, and while I understand she cannot let the matter go without a response, what a response! She dresses tom down, rips a pip off his collar when demoting him, and sentences him to solitary all after she tells him she would have blown up the Delta flyer to stop him. The episode, told in flashback, reveals Janeway forbade torres from visiting at all, while allowing only Neelix to drop off bread and water and medical visits in an emergency. Compare this to when Tuvok violated the prime directive in “Prime Factors” and received a slap on the wrist. Janeway got up on the wrong side of the bad this morning, no? The biggest flaw is Tom is motivated to action by his poor relationship with his father, yet whatever happened between them is still not revealed. A little clarification might have elevated “Thirty Days” beyond pleasantly intriguing. No such luck.

“Thirty Days” is a good episode, however. One cannot help but notice untapped potential in exploring exactly why tom and his father are estranged. Whatever the case, it is enough to compel tom to do some incredibly dumb things in order to give his life meaning. Some elaboration on just how damaged he is is in order. But I will be a lot more forgiving about the omission than usual because I did not have to sit through a hour’s worth of moralizing over how we are destroying the oceans with our careless ways. That is a relief.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

I have to earn my Parrot Head stripes:

Star Trek: Voyager--"Nothing Human"

It is time to tick some people off. “Nothing Human” is not a very popular episode among fans. I can sympathize for reasons I will elaborate on momentarily. I respectfully have to disagree. Maybe it is because I like my Star Trek to be as little like Star Trek as possible, but I am appreciatively of what this episode is trying to do. It is also Jeri Taylor’s final episode and, credit where credit is due, she finally gets Janeway right without fawning all over her innate awesomeness.

Voyager answers the distress call of an alien so exotic, the universal translator has no way of communicating with it. With no Rosetta Stone for Delta Quadrant languages, it ought not translate any alien the crew has encountered, but let us not quibble over that. Right now. This critter looks like a crawdad just to put the image of an animal--a lesser being, so to speak--in our mind. Torres heads down to sick bay for a contrived reason, stands a little too close to the critter’s bed, and it jumps on her to connect with her internal organs. The critter begins using her as life support. It cannot be removed from torres without killing them both.

The doctor is out of his element, so it is suggested another hologram be created to work with him. This hologram needs to be an expert in exobiology. The best exobiologist in the database happens to be a Cardassian named Krell Mercet. Krell’s presence causes problems, particularly when a bajoran crewmember named tabor identifies krell as the Josef Mengele of Cardassia. Krell is most notorious for torturously experimenting on hundreds of Bajorans in order to devise a cure for a plague that was killing tens of thousands. The moral dilemma arises over whether it is justified to use his medical know how even if it means letting torres die if not. For her part, Torres would rather die than allow krell to save her. Ultimately, Janeway forces the medical procedure to go ahead. The critter and torres are safely separated, and it is sent home safely.

So what are the problems fans have with “Nothing Human” and why am I not concerned about them? I will hit on three big points.

One, “Nothing Human” is a dialogue intensive episode about a very heady subject. There is little action to the episode other than when the critter’s buddies show up. They have the same communications problem, so they decide to attack the ship. They are working under Al capone’s axiom that you can get more with a kind word and a crowbar than you can with a kind word alone. This episode is all about the moral dilemma. But unlike most moral dilemmas presented in Star Trek in general and VOY in particular, the argument is not overwhelmingly one sided.

The crew is faced with the problem of how Krell’s victims would react to his research, research under which they died horrible deaths, being used for a positive goal? Would they be happy their sacrifice meant something, or would they feel exploited? The Doctor and tom feel the former. Torres’ life is at stake right now, so what is the point in wrestling with their consciences? Tabor, Torres, and Chakotay agree with the latter. Use Krell’s research, and you are saying the ends justifies the means. Legitimizing Krell’s work says atrocities can be committed in the name of medical science.

Two, Krell did use sound science. Ethically bankrupt for sure, but real. I think less historically astute Trekkies have a problem here because the mengele allegory begins to fall apart even though they do not seem to know it. Mengele is one of those men you hope was demon possessed because you do not want to think another human being could commit the atrocities he did. His Nazi colleagues burned his research notes because they wrre scientifically unsound. Mengele was a man who enjoyed torturing and mutilating helpless people. Krell is not like that. Yes, he did allow people to die in the name of medical research and I am not excusing that. He ought to be hung as a war criminal. but he is not Mengele.

I point that out, not to excuse his actions, but to note that his pleasant, friendly demeanor is not apologizing for Mengele’s atrocities. It is something that fans have asserted. There ought not be a moral dilemma here at all--you just do not use medical knowledge attained in such an evil manner, and it does not matter if he comes across as a nice guy who justified his actions by saying--brace yourself--the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Kill a few hundred to save thousands? Sounds like a bargain.

Sure, Krell has a sadistic streak. He uses an old fashioned scalpel to cut the critter open. His only concern is saving Torres, so he does not mind if the critter dies in the process. Yet when the Doctor devises a method of sparing them both which will still work, krell not only goes along with it, but propses co-authoring a paper on the procedure. Krell is willing to do the right thing when he can. He just believes the ends justifies the means for what he considers the greater good. While this is still a tough moral issue to work through, it is not justifying the atrocities committed by Mengele by any stretch.

Three, janeway is not justifying Krell’s medical research, either, and by doing so, tacitly claiming Mengele’s research is all right to use if good will come of it. Janeway does ultimately decide to force torres to go through with the procedure because she is the chief engineer on a trip that is going to take another fifty years. The crew has lost enough vital people already. While I am not thrilled janeway has forced another crewmember to undergo a life altering medical procedure, at least she recognizes she may be making a mistake. Normally in these cases, she arrogantly strolls in claiming to have absolute moral clarity and anyone else who does not agree is too naïve to pay any attention to, because disagreements with Janeway are a betrayal. Taylor resists the urge to do that again in her swan song script, so Janeway takes ownership of what may be a very bad decision. There should have been more of Janeway like this.

There should also have been more episodes like this. Certainly, there are issues big and small with it. I have already addressed the big ones. For small ones, one has to wonder why it is so easy to create another hologram with specialized medical knowledge when it has been a plot point that creating a new EMH is too difficult. There is also the matter of avoiding all the controversy by not making the hologram Krell. Knowledge is knowledge. It could have been downloaded into a Wayne newton lookalike, which might have been wiser considering a third of the crew were at war with the Cardassians before they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Turns out, they are intimately familiar with old Krell there.

But no matter. “Nothing Human” is thought provoking. It feels so out of place on VOY, with its presentation of both arguments and Janeway acting human for once, that I almost wish it had been a DS9 or TNG episode instead so it could have shined brighter under a better creative staff. As it is, I am going to awrd “nothing Human” four stars. It might have made a perfect score but for a few missteps.

Rating: **** (out of 5)

Star Trek: Voyager--"Infinite Regress"

“Infinite Regress” is another Borg implants gone wrong episode for Seven. More to the point, Seven displays the Borg equivalent of multiple personality disorder when the identities of individuals she has helped assimilate take over her mind. The scenario gives Jeri Ryan a chance to play more colorful characters than she can with Seven, for better and for worse. There is not much to the story beyond Seven experiencing these personalities and a quick fix mind meld--again--to solve the problem, but it is fun to watch Ryan ham it up at times.

Voyager encounters a debris field which they soon learn is the remains of a destroyed Borg cube. At the center of the debris is a vindiculm, a device that suppresses individual thought in drones so they can concentrate only on the needs of the collective. The vindiculum triggers Seven’s MPD, as she starts bouncing between the personalities of different people she has assimilated.

I am going to give Ryan credit here. She is a fine actress, far better than what the character of seven allows her to do. She acts out quite a few of the personalities wonderfully. There is a six year old girl who wants to play with Naomi Wildman, a woman who cannot find her husband/boyfriend 9it is not clear) after a Borg attack, and a newly Starfleet captain among them Ryan plays with a bittersweet sadness over their fate. These personalities do not know they have been assimilated. Only we do. That said, there are personalities like the Klingon who eats raw meat and tries to mate with Torres and a Fereng constantly looking for a new business opportunity which go in the opposite direction. They are stereotypical and played for laughs. I can appreciate the need for comic relief here, but it is too over the top. The human personalities came across as real, but the aliens are caricatures. They could have been presented much better.

The final two acts reveal the vindiculum has been tampered with by an unnamed species--just to show you how unimportant to the story they are--to include a virus that will destroy as many Botg cubes as come into proximity. Over eleven billion of the species have been assimilated by the Borg in the last for years, so those few remaining are out for nothing more than revenge for the loss of their civilization. They repeatedly attack Voyager to retrieve the vindiculum from engineering while Tuvok mind melds with Seven to disconnect her from the thing or something like hat. It is just an excuse for a nightmarish sequence in which Tuvok walks through seven thoughts, looking for for her while all those she has assimilated claw at him. He saves seven, so Janeway beams the vindiculum back to the aliens. Unlike Picard, she does not blink at the idea of using a virus to wipe the Borg out.

The idea of an alien race being completely assimilated by the Borg in the midst of other civilizations thriving untouched by them brings up one of the biggest questions of the series--how do the Borg decide who to assimilate and when? Half the aliens Voyager encounters have no fear of the Borg, but the other half live in mortal terror of them. The difference in attitude is never explained. The only thing I can recall is a line from Seven once that the borg had encountered a Kazon ship once and decided not to assimilate it because they would bring nothing to the Collective. So the Borgh do not assimilate solely to increase their numbers. A species has to have something new the Collective wants. If true, then those who have no fear of the Borg must recognize themselves as…what? Lesser species who have nothing to offer? Whatever the deal is, reducing the Borg to just another alien race rather than the force of nature they were previously considered to be is a bad move. Necessary to keep VOY an interesting show that can feature lots of different aliens, but still bad for the Borg.

There is not much to “Infinite Regress” beyond watching Ryan act out different personalities. A mind Meld from Tuvok has saved the day on at least four occasions now, with the doctor making the same protests even though it has always worked in the past. The alien menace does not even get a name beyond the borg designation Seven identities, so that shows you how important they are to the story. Still, Ryan is entertaining and this is an episode which deals with seven well rather than tacking on her involvement in a story that is not really about her like VOY normally does, so it gets a weak thumbs up.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

Star Trek: Voyager--"Timeless"

The numbering on the labels is off by two because I have combined a couple two hour episodes into one, but “Timeless” is the one-hundredth episode of VOY. Perhaps because VOY was a prime time series, the powers that be opted to make it an event rather than just another installment like TNG and Ds9 had done. They did a surprisingly good job with it. ’timeless” has some implausible elements beyond its techno babble pseudoscience, but it is quite good.

The story shifts between contemporary times in which Voyager is about to utilize Borg technology to create a quantum slipstream in order to traverse the distance home in a few minutes and fifteen years later, where an aged an embittered Harry and Chakotay are plotting to fix the mistake that killed everyone when the ship fell out of the slipstream and crashed, killing everyone on board. The latter is far more compelling than the former, even though there is a tension over what is about to happen.

Oddly enough, Chakotay is not that different in the future. Perhaps that is a sign he is already emotionally damaged due to his Maquis days. There is even a point here where he turns to his girlfriend, Tessa, and asks if she really wants to go through with the plan to alter history, as their relationahip will be erased if successful. It has suddenly dawned on Chakotay that his own potential happiness is worth more than preserving the lives of 150 people. But remember, chekotay was the guy who did not want to rescue his child from the Kazon because, as he openly admitted, he did not care about his infant son. Tessa lines up his priorities for him now just as Janeway did back then.

Harry, however, has beaten himself up brutally over the years. It was his miscalculation that caused Voyager to fall out of the slipstream, so he blames himself for the crew’s deaths. I have never praised Garrett Wang for his acting prowess, and with good reason. The Chinese Olivier this guy ain’t. but his Future Harry is not just Young harry with grey streaks in his hair. You genuinely believe this is a man who has not had a peaceful moment in fifteen years because of his guilt over one, little mistake that had very tragic consequences. Savor the acting chops on display. Wang will not stretch those thespian muscles quite like this again.

Chakotay and Harry’s plan is to retrieve the Doctor from the ship buried beneath the ice of a frozen Beta Quadrant planet, have him autopsy Seven to discover the precise moment she died, and then transmit a message to her implants in the past with the correct coordinates via some Borg communications technology Starfleet intelligence discovered. The plan works, but not perfectly, so we still get a good CGI shot of Voyager crashing on the ice. I am not kidding about the CGI being good. It is a more exciting effects sequence than the crash of the Enterprise in Star Trek: Generations. If there is one thing I thought was off about Wang’s performance, it is the emotional breakdown he suffers when he realizes history has not changed. It strikes me as more of a childish tantrum, and that is pretty much what the Doctor tells him it is before he straightens up and realizes the problem is that he is trying to get them home rather than save their lives. Future Harry transmits coordinates to Seven through time again. The ship does not crash in the Beta Quadrant, but it does wind up ten years closer to home.

There are significant plot holes. If the crew is using Borg technology devised by Seven to create the slipstream, why are they relying on Harry for calculations? Should seven not know how to calculate them precisely herself? The crew is already having a party over the impending successful trip before they test it to see if the slipstream even works. How did Harry and Chakotay find Voyager buried on a remote planet when Starfleet looked for seven years without success? How did they know intelligence had recovered a borg communications device when neither of them have been in Starfleet for over a decade? How did they manage to steal the device, not to mention the Delta Flyer, once they found out about it? There is not so much as a hint Tessa had anything to do with it--she is not even identified as having any association with Starfleet--but I suppose that is what we are to rationalize. A throwaway line saying as much would have been nice.

I can overlook a lot of flaws in an episode I otherwise enjoy. There is a lot to like about “Timeless,” such as Future Harry’s demeanor (mostly) and the CGI crash. Also cool is the appearance of Geordi La Forge as the Starfleet captain sent after Future Chakotay, Future Harry, and Tessa. “Timeless” aired less than a month before the premiere of Star Trek: Insurrection, so his inclusion is some cross-promotion. Hey, I will even praise the appearance of Christine Hamos as Tessa. Hamos is best known for playing Dr. Mark Greene’s b8tchy ex-wide on ER. It is totally satisfying to see her erased from the timeline.

“Timeless” is one of the best episodes of VOY, and it is the best Harry-centric episode. I classify as that if for no other reason than Hard Luck Harry gets to redeem himself for once rather than slink off while someone else saves the day. The acting is kicked up a notch. So are the special effects. The writing still leaves something to be desired, considering how obvious it would have been to fill in the plot holes simply by saying Tessa was once in Starfleet, so she was the catalyst for finding Voyager, the Borg communications device, and the Delta Flyer, but the writers let that dangle instead. It goes to show you cannot win them all. But “Timeless” wins more than usual.

Rating: **** (out of 5)

Star Trek: Voyager--"Once Upon a Time"

“Once Upon a Time’ has a lot of strikes against it right off the bat. For one, the story centers around a child. The running theme from TOS on has been that Star Trek does not do children well. Go ahead--name an episode revolving around children that was good. Two, the main character featured is Neelix. That is never a good sign. Finally, the story centers around a child perhaps facing the death of her only parent. Not a new concept for Star Trek, mind you, and such stories have taken some dark turns. But “Once Upon a Time” does not. Its tension never gets off the ground.

I have to express an added disappointment with that. While I think any episode centering around children is already going to be weak, “Once Upon a Time” was written by Michael Taylor in his first script for VOY. Taylor penned ’In the Pale Moonlight,” which is my favorite Star Trek episode of the modern era, if not ever. He also wrote a number of other solid DS9 episodes mostly centering on a Min character dealing with death on his or her heart, so I expected more from this one. It is too…trite.

The Delta Flyer crashes while attempting to avoid an ion storm. It gets buried under tons of rock that shield it from Voyager‘s sensors. Tom, Tuvok, and Samantha Wildman are on board. They only have a limited amount of life support left, so the search for them is frantic. It is neelix’s job to keep Naomi, Samantha’s young daughter, occupied during the search. He decides, because he was traumatized by losing his parents in a war as a child, to not tell naomi what is really going on. She finds out anyway. She is angry with Neelix for deceiving her, but her mother is soon rescued, so it does not have any long term consequences.

There are a lot of elements which are meant to be far more poignant than they come across as being. Naomi and Neelix spend a lot of time in a holodeck program with two storybook characters which are Naomi’s favorites. Their adventures symbolize the innocence of childhood interrupted by some really tragic events. But hey, there are a lot of children’s book and films in which really bad things happy. I am either too old or too cynical to have enjoyed these segments. Neelix remembering the trauma of losing his parents takes up so little time, it is difficult to grasp the emotion behind it. The main drama has a tough time resonating as well. There is never any doubt the Delta Flyer will be safely recovered. It is so assured, the last messages to family recorded by Tom and Samantha are laughably banal. These are your loved ones you are saying goodbbye to, people! Try to go behind television platitudes.

‘Once Upon a Time” has its heart in the right place, but nothing else is. There are too many elements that I am supposed to care about, but the material will not rise to the level to make me do so. How can I sympathize with Naomi when I know her mother is going to live? How can I symphonize with Neelix when he barely reacts to the memory of his parents’ deaths? How can I fear for the trapped shuttle crew when their last messages to family are the equivalent of, “so long, and thanks for the fish?” The answer to all three questions is I cannot. I expect better from Taylor.

Rating: ** (out of 5)

Star Trek: Voyager--"In the Flesh"

“In the Flesh” in a cold War brinkmanship allegory done in 1998. As such, it feels more like a history lesson than a ripped from the headlines type story. As a history buff with a penchant for Cold War era paranoia done well, I can dig it to a certain extent, but it is difficult to appreciate the tension at a time when I have to be more concerned with acts of terrorism from religious fanatics instead of bloc of totalitarian ideological regimes.

The episode maintains a air of mystery up until the final act when the largely implausible resolution nearly kills it. We hit the ground running with Chakotay at what appears to be Starfleet Academy taking photos of the grounds. He encounters various people, including a woman named Valerie Archer. Retroactively speaking, ENT fans are contorting themselves in order to connect her to the NX-01 captain. Chakotay hooks up with Tuvok, but the two are cornered as they attempt an escape and must beam away with another Starfleet officer. He is played by Zach Galligan, but no Gremlins are in sight.

The Starfleet Academy simulation has been created by aliens in order to train agents to infiltrate the real deal. By studying the captured alien, the crew learns it is Species 8472. Species 8472 fears Starfleet plans to annihilate them after their huge defeat last season, so they want to gather all the intelligence they can while undermining the command structure. Tensions boil over when Chakotay is captured on a second recon mission and Janeway plans to use an even more powerful Borg nanotech weapon to get him back.

But she blinks. Instead, she offers to meet with the leadership. As an offer of good faith, she disarms Voyager’s weapons. During the negotiations, we learn of Species 8472’s misconceptions, such as they are. They think the Federation is allied with the Borg and share the desire to annihilate Species 8472. Not a terrible assumption, really. Janeway did use a biological weapon against them while fighting alongside the Borg and just now threatened them with a larger one. Species 8472’s fear seems even more misguided considering how weak the Federation is compared to the Borg. Of course, that brings up the question of why the Borg have never invaded Earth en masses as opposed to one cube at a time, but it is probably best not to dwell on that.

The two sides clarify matters in the hopes the leadership of Species 8472 will accept the Federation is not it enemy. The strangest aspect of the plan is Janeway’s agreement to show Species 8472 the Wmd they were going to use to kill them all. That sounds more like it could backfire. You know, Species 8472 might look at this genocidal weapon and decide those Federation folks are even sicker than we thought. Invade now before they come up with something worse! But I do not have the peacenik mindset of a Star Trek writer, so perhaps I draw the wrong conclusion.

I will gran them this--Janeway being the one to make a peace overture calls to mind Spock;s line that, ’Only Nixon can go to China.” Nixon was a fierce opponent of communism. If he could show that someone like him was willing to make peace with communists, it meant more than someone who already willing to accept peace with them. Since Janeway is responsible for ending the war between Species 8472 and the Borg by use of a genocidal weapon against the former, it does make sense for her to be the one to give up the weapon and seek peace. It means more because, as we have established many times over, Janeway is crazy with bloodlust.

It is also worth noting that species 8472 sends Boothby the gardener, a commander who would rather be a librarian, and an admiral to negotiate. Boothby, the least of them, takes the lead in negotiating, backed by the commander, while the admiral remains a hard line. So the civilian and the wannabe civilian are on board, with Janeway giving up the farm, but the toughest military guy is not going for it. Translation: the military is going to get us all killed. Like I said, peacenik writers and their misconceptions. It is the military that is less likely to take the position leading to war. They have seen too many friends die for that to be the first option.

“In the Flesh” feels out of time and with an ending that is not very well thought through, but it is not a decent effort. Species 8472 rides off into the sunset as a less than stellar villain, but their exit does give the Borg a chance to come front and center. They never resonated with me, truth be told, so am not sorry to see them go, even if it is in a less than satisfying manner. As a Babylon 5 fan, I cannot help but draw parallels to the Shadows using humans for most of their exposition in order to save an CGI, but I have avoided the obvious comparisons between the Shadows and Species 8472 thus far, so I will stop there. Otherwise, ‘In the Flesh” is very well worth watching, but not great.

Rating: *** (out of 5)