2-06. Twisted.

"One pill makes you larger, and 
one pill makes you small..."

THE PLOT

It's Kes' birthday. The sweet and pretty Ocampan girl has just turned two, and the crew has thrown her a surprise party in the holodeck. Tom gives her a gift that's a little too nice for just friendship, prompting barely-suppressed jealousy from Neelix. Neelix gives her a cake and won't shut up about it. And the writers? Well, this is a Voyager episode, so what else would you expect: A spatial anomaly!

Yes, another one.

Soon, the Voyager crew are wandering the ship's corridors, desperately searching for the bridge and engineering. But the corridors are reshaping themselves around them. Rooms are in the wrong place, and all halls lead straight back to the holodeck. And the distortion is getting worse, threatening to crush the ship in an implosion wave!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Appreciates Harry's enthusiasm for his job, and calls the ensign one of "the bright spots of this mission." I'm going to guess the anomaly is already affecting her brain when she says this, as I can honestly come up with no other explanation - at least, none that doesn't involve the captain hitting on a young crewmember. Janeway displays genuine fondness for Kes, almost maternal as she embraces the Ocampa at her birthday party.

Chakotay: Manages to keep his cool throughout the crisis. When Tuvok attempts to deal with the shifting corridors in a rigidly logical fashion, Chakotay points out the flaw in the Vulcan's plan: Namely, that the "right hand rule" doesn't work too well in a labyrinth that is constantly changing shape. He does show some resentment toward Tuvok, and his calm frays when he cuts off Tuvok's arguing at one point. I'd say he hasn't really forgiven the Vulcan for what he still doubtless sees as a betrayal. But the two acknowledge each other's merits at the episode's end, which presumably means that even this potentially interesting ember of character tension has been firmly stamped out.

Torres: Her Klingon nature shows itself in her determination to fight the anomaly. When Tuvok points out that her plan to counter the implosion with an explosion might destroy them all, her counter is that if she's going to die anyway, she'd rather die fighting. Even when it becomes clear that there is no way to fight off the effect, Torres is the last to surrender. She does show consistent trust and loyalty toward Chakotay, though. Nice to see Kenneth Biller, at least, remembering that these two were part of the same crew long before joining Voyager.

Tuvok: Attempts to approach the inexplicable with rigid logic, which doesn't work very well. He comes as close as he ever could to admitting a sort of resentment at Janeway's choice of Chakotay as first officer, and apologizes for any difficulties he may have created for Chakotay. A nice nonverbal beat shows his closeness for Janeway, when he reaches for her - stopping just short of making physical contact - just as the distortion hits.

Kes: Another good nonverbal beat sees the Doctor pulling Kes into a comforting embrace just before the anomaly hits, taking onto himself a paternal role toward her (not for the first time). Kes clearly loves Tom's gift and tries hard to ignore Neelix's evident jealousy. She comes up with a good solution at the end, accepting the gift but literally integrating Neelix into it.

Neelix: Continues to feel jealousy at Tom Paris' friendliness toward Kes. Honestly, given the gift Tom gives, I'm not sure this bit of jealousy is entirely unreasonable.  It's also clear enough that Neelix feels guilty at his inability to control his jealousy. But he's just so irritating that it's impossible to empathize with him for long. Particularly when he expands his jealousy of Tom to include random crew members, or when he gets smug about Kes' sense of direction. This episode also sees both Chakotay and the doctor express annoyance with him (Chakotay nonverbally, the doctor aloud) - meaning that the writers know that he's irritating. So if they can bring themselves to acknowledge this by having the other characters express it, why don't they do something to address the problem?


THOUGHTS

As a character episode, Twisted has some merit. Kenneth Biller's script does a good job of dividing the regulars into pairs, drawing on the character relationships established in previous episodes. So we see Tom and Harry's friendship, with Tom placing a comforting hand on the younger man's shoulder; Kes and Neelix, made even more firmly a couple as Kes asks for a photo of him to keep with her; Kes and the Doctor, as a sort of surrogate father/daughter; Janeway and Tuvok; and Chakotay and Torres. Several good character beats are sprinkled through the story, particularly Chakotay's talk to Neelix about the risks of love and Torres' refusal to stop fighting until the very end. It really is one of the better attempts at an ensemble piece, with every regular getting a page.

Unfortunately, as a story, it feels utterly pointless.

The corridors are rearranging themselves, meaning that the characters wander around aimlessly for a bit before ending up back at the holodeck. For about half the episode, that's enough. It's an intriguing starting point for a story, and there's something appealingly nutty about the corridors rearranging themselves. But by the 20 minute mark, the novelty value is wearing thin. At that point, the story needs to shift in some way.

But no. Other than kick-starting the Artificial Tension Generator by making it seem that the distortion may destroy the ship (spoiler alert: It doesn't), that turns out to be the entire plot. Wander around some corridors until ending up back in the holodeck. Discuss situation. Wander around some corridors before ending up back in the holodeck. Repeat. Some of the distortion effects are nice - I particularly like an effects shot late in the episode, in which the regulars are reduced to something like a cubist painting. But it's just not enough to sustain a one-hour show, and there really isn't anything else here.

I think Twisted would have been a terrific 22-minute TAS episode. But at 45 minutes, it becomes awfully tiresome. It gets a couple points for the character material, and a couple more for the appealing nuttiness of the setup. Ultimately, however, it just ends up as an exercise in pointlessness.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Non Sequitur
Next Episode: Parturition


Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Voyager




Review Index