5-8. Nothing Human.

The Doctor consults with a war criminal:
Cardassian scientist Crell Moset (David Clennon)

THE PLOT

A distress signal draws Voyager to a heavily-damaged vessel with a single, injured occupant. Janeway orders the survivor beamed directly to sickbay - but the alien is so different, the Doctor has no idea how to even begin treating it. When Torres walks in, it launches itself at her and fuses its body with hers - using her bodily functions to sustain its own life.

On Janeway's advice, the Doctor has Harry Kim create a new medical hologram, a representation of the best exobiologist in their database. The result is a recreation of Crell Moset (David Clennon), a Cardassian who worked on Bajor during the Occupation. Moset gained fame for curing a viral epidemic on Bajor, saving thousands of Bajoran lives...

But at a cost. His work depended on experiments performed on living Bajorans, people he deliberately infected in order to gather data. When this comes to life, both B'Elanna and the Bajorans on the crew react vehemently against the hologram, demanding that none of Moset's work be used - Even if that means condemning B'Elanna to death!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: It falls to Janeway to make the decision whether or not to use the holographic Crell to save B'Elanna. She makes her decision and gives no apologies. Given the tools to save a member of her crew, she does so, explicitly leaving moral and ethical debates for "later, after B'Elanna is back on her feet."

Doctor: He hasn't had anyone to truly discuss medical matters with since Kes left (and even then, their relationship was never one of equals). Little surprise that he enjoys collaborating with Crell, and makes plans to keep him operational after the crisis. When Tabor (Jad Mager) implicates Crell for the experiments he performed on Bajoran citizens, the Doctor initially tries to deny the charges. Only when he approaches Crell with the truth and the hologram defends those actions as pragmatic does the Doctor realize the lack of any moral sense in his new colleague... Though he continues to argue that he has no chance of saving B'Elanna without him.

Torres: Her reaction to the Crell hologram is instantly negative - Not because she knows about Crell's background, but simply because he's a Cardassian. "As far as I'm concerned, they're all cold-blooded killers." When Crell's past comes to light, she refuses to be treated by him, and she reacts with anger to Janeway overriding her wishes. Roxann Dawson is very good, even though she spends most of the episode latched to an unconvincing giant slug, and the final scene with Janeway is particularly strong.

Crell Moset: In his mind, his actions were justified by circumstance. After all, the real Crell killed hundreds in his experiments, but the results saved thousands. From the perspective of a pure pragmatist, which Crell certainly is, this is a win. What makes him frightening is that he is utterly unconcerned with morality, and completely devoid of compassion. There's no malice or sadism driving him to inflict pain or suffering - But inflicting pain and suffering doesn't bother him, either if it's a means to an end.


THOUGHTS

"You can erase my program... But you can never change the fact that you've already used some of my research. Where was your conscience when B'Elanna was dying on that table? Ethics, morality, conscience: Funny how they all go out the airlock when we need something..."
-Crell Moset (David Clennon), defending his methods.

At Nothing Human's core is a fiery debate about morality vs. pragmatism. The scenes in which Crell Moset and the Doctor argue the two sides of that are the episode's strongest, two very good actors enjoying a debate in which both sides are allowed to make a legitimate case. Crell's research is based on horrific war crimes, more than a little reminiscent of the "work" of Dr. Josef Mengele... but (and very unlike Mengele) Crell's work yielded genuinely life-saving results. The question becomes which is worse: legitimizing his methods by using his research, or refusing to use it and allowing a patient to die who could otherwise be saved.

Guest star David Clennon wisely plays Crell not as a villain, but simply as a pragmatist. From his point of view, the conditions of the Occupation forced him to "improvise," to make use of "what resources (he) had." That he stubbornly refuses to identify the living, feeling people he experimented on as anything more than "resources" condemns him as evil, but Clennon makes it clear that he regards himself simply as a scientist.

If only the entire episode was as good as the Doctor/Crell material, this would be up there with the series' best. But writer Jeri Taylor is so eager to get to the debate that she skimps on creating any convincing logic to the surrounding situation. If the information is easily assimilated into a separate hologram, why couldn't hte Doctor simply upload Crell's basic skill set into himself from the start? No explanation is ever given, and the script practically begs us to ignore this so that we can get straight to the creation of Crell. Had a little more care been taken to set this up more convincingly, then the full episode would rank higher than it does.

Still, those Doctor/Crell scenes are the episode's heart, and they are uniformly excellent. On the strength of those scenes and the performances by the entire cast, I do regard this as a good episode. But given the story weaknesses (and, yes, the unconvincing alien prop), it never threatens to break through into being a great one.


Overall Rating: 7/10.


Previous Episode: Infinite Regress
Next Episode: Thirty Days


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4-25. One.

Seven of Nine, alone on Voyager...

THE PLOT

When Voyager enters an enormous nebula, radiation results in burns to the skin of every member of the crew. They reverse course and escape within a few minutes... But even that much exposure is enough to kill at least one person.

Only two members of the crew are unaffected: The Doctor, because he's a hologram; and Seven, who is protected by her Borg implants. The Doctor recommends putting the crew into stasis units, which will protect them as they cross the nebula, while he and Seven run the ship. With no viable options, Janeway agrees - but not before making it clear to Seven that the Doctor is in command.

It's a month-long trip, a long time for a former Borg drone to have no contact save with a hologram. After ten days, Seven becomes irritable. Then the nebula begins affecting ship's systems - Including the neural gel packs that power the ship's computer and, finally, the Doctor's mobile emitter. The Doctor has to confine himself to sick bay to protect his program, leaving Seven entirely alone.

As the ship's systems continue to deteriorate, Seven begins to find it harder and harder to function effectively. And that's when Trajis (Wade Williams), a predatory alien determined to be the first to cross the nebula, comes onto Voyager under the pretense of a friendly exchange of needed parts...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: When Chakotay expresses concerns about Seven being one of only two people in charge of the crew's welfare, Janeway insists that she trusts Seven. She acknowledges that the former Borg has displayed an "insolent attitude" and that she has disobeyed orders in the past, but says that she believes that Seven "wants to do right by us." She does make very clear to Seven that the Doctor is the one in command, however, on the basis of both his rank as Chief Medical Officer and his grounding in Starfleet protocols and procedures.

Seven of Nine: As a former member of a Collective, isolation is something Seven is simply not equipped to deal with. She reveals that when she was with the Borg, she was once cut off from contact and alone. Only for a short period, but it was enough for her to panic - and I suspect the fear of doing so again hangs over her as she comes ever closer to losing control. Jeri Ryan has been good all season, but this episode demands more of her than has been the case - And she delivers in a big way, anchoring the episode and making Seven fully sympathetic even when she's at her most irritable.

The Doctor: After his mobile emitter becomes unreliable, he continues to make himself useful. While isolated in sick bay, he makes repairs so that he can aid Seven when he's needed. He also studies the degradation of the ship's neural gel packs, which gives him insight into why Seven experiences increasing difficulty with her own duties. He continues to try to instruct her on effective interaction with the human crew, and is irritated by her lack of cooperation with that.


THOUGHTS

There have been more than a couple of occasions in which Season Four has felt like "The Seven of Nine Show." One actually is that, an episode centered entirely around Seven. Once the situation has been set up, virtually every moment is seen from her viewpoint. If Seven didn't work as a character, this episode wouldn't work at all.

Fortunately, Seven has been one of the show's consistently strongest elements since her introduction, something that continues to be the case here. Jeri Taylor's script (from a story idea by James Swallow) is tightly-paced, with new complications revealed at just the right pace to raise tension throughout. Kenneth Biller puts down his writer's pen and steps into the director's chair - and does a wonderful job behind the camera.

The episode is all about Seven's increasing feelings of isolation, and the visual element reinforces that constantly. We see Seven drinking a nutrient mix in the Mess Hall. Then the camera cuts to a wide shot of the large room, with Seven far back in frame - emphasizing how small and alone she is in this big, empty space. There are multiple shots like this, starting close on Seven and pulling back to show how alone she is in the ship's rooms, halls, and corridors. By the time she begins to break down, the sense of just how alone she is has become oppressive for us, as well.

I can't come up with any negatives here. The performances of Jeri Ryan and Robert Picardo are superb, the technical elements are brought off wonderfully in service of an extremely well-structured and well-paced script, and the tension increases steadily throughout. I'd rank this among the best episodes of the season.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Demon
Next Episode: Hope and Fear

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4-3. Day of Honor.

B'Elanna and Tom are left stranded in space.

THE PLOT

B'Elanna Torres is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. She overslept; her shower malfunctioned; the plamsa coolant is leaking in Engineering; Chakotay has ordered her to allow Seven of Nine to work in Engineering; and Tom Paris won't stop badgering her about the "Day of Honor," a Klingon ritual in which a warrior reflects on how honorable he or she has been over the past year. B'Elanna has scorned the ritual in the past, as she has all things Klingon, but cut off from home she is doubting her decision to divorce herself so completely from her mother's culture. 

At the same time, Voyager encounters a refugee ship belonging to the Caatati. Its captain, Rahmin (Michael A. Krawic), humbly begs for aid, which Janeway is happy to provide... at least, at first. But as Voyager offers more and more supplies, Rahmin oh-so-humbly pushes for even more, observing the "luxury" in which the Starfleet crew live. When an accident in Engineering cripples the ship, the Caatati appear in force, demanding to strip Voyager of everything they can make use of.

The accident has left B'Elanna and Tom outside the ship, adrift in spacesuits. As Janeway prepares to either talk or fight her way through the Caatati, B'Elanna and Tom realize that any rescue will need to come soon: They have only thirty minutes of oxygen, and it's dwindling rapidly!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: After the Engineering accident, she feels bound to investigate the possibility of Sabotage by Seven of Nine (which is what B'Elanna suspects). She admits that she wants to believe Seven, but that she needs to ask her in any case. She does believe the former Borg when she says she is innocent, and eventually enlists her help going through the data to find exactly what did happen. 

Torres: She resents the intrusion of Seven of Nine into Engineering, referring to her as "the Borg," and making it clear that she neither likes nor trusts her. When the Caatati reveal that they became refugees after their homeworld was assimilated by the Borg, B'Elanna challenges Seven - and is appalled when the former Borg calmly states that "guilt is irrelevant." When stuck in space with Tom, B'Elanna admits to him that she does push people away, and is afraid that she'll die alone because of it. As the episode ends, she tells Tom she loves him... Which should lead to some interesting character interaction in the next couple shows.

Tom Paris: Particularly since Tom, for all of his pushing to get closer to her, doesn't actually reply in kind. He makes a remark about how she picked a great time to tell him that, then does pull her in for as much of a hug as the bulky spacesuits will allow... but he doesn't actually say that he feels the same. That could create some character conflict in the short term, should the writers choose not to just gloss over that. With regard to Seven, Tom makes it clear that he will not judge her on her past with the Borg. He has first-hand experience at being judged based on past mistakes, and he refuses to do the same to others. He even makes a point of telling Seven to ask if there is anything he can do to make her transition easier. 

Seven of Nine: She reacts to the hostility of certain crew members without emotion - but when Janeway asks if she had anything to do with the Engineering accident, we see that she is not immune to the feelings of those around her. "You're like the others," she says with clear disappointment, "You see me as a threat." She believes that the Voyager crew is far less efficient than the Borg, but she does appreciate Tom's offer of help and indicates she has been impressed by "surprising acts of compassion." 

I do think that the series is moving Seven's integration along a bit too fast. I would have liked a couple of "Seven-light" episodes between The Gift and this one. It just seems too soon for her to be working in Engineering a mere one episode after trying to send a transmission to the Borg and two episodes after being an active enemy. I'm enjoying her as a character so far - but it might be a good idea to push her to the background for a few episodes now that she's been established, lest this start to feel like "The Seven of Nine Show." 


THOUGHTS

Though a relatively mild episode, Day of Honor is exactly the kind of show Voyager needs more of: a well-made episode focusing on the characters, fueled less by external threat and more by the dynamics of the regulars. 

B'Elanna's bad day is less individual little things that go wrong and more her feeling particularly. She is split between the human heritage she's always insisted on claiming and the Klingon heritage that she's denied; at the same time, she is split between the safety of being alone and the emotional risks of a relationship with Tom. As is true of anyone during a turbulent time, minor mishaps that might otherwise be brushed aside become major problems, as it's clear her bad day is less about oversleeping and her shower malfunctioning than it is about her emotional state. It does actually take being removed from everything else, left only with Tom in the void of space, before she will allow her anger to drop away to talk sincerely with him.

Seven of Nine is definitely looking like a strong addition so far. Her very presence sparks character conflict. B'Elanna doesn't trust her; Tom does want to trust her, which creates potential conflict between Tom and B'Elanna; Janeway also wants to trust her, but as the captain has to maintain a certain caution. She's doing exactly what could have been done with Suder, had the production staff not decided to kill him off in Basics - She's a character who contributes to the ship, but her background makes her someone whose interactions with the crew are less than completely comfortable.

The Caatati plot is not very interesting on its own, but it does its job in supporting the emotional arcs of both B'Elanna and Seven. The Caatati's turn toward aggressiveness serves the plot functions of stranding B'Elanna and Tom in space, while convincingly keeping Voyager occupied long enough to allow the Tom/B'Elanna scenes to play out. As survivors of the Borg, they also push Seven's issues to the fore. The story is substantial enough to provide a framework, but simple enough that it doesn't take screentime away from the more interesting character material.

That said, the Caatati themselves are irritating beyond measure, and the way in which they respond to a ship that has already provided them with significant assistance makes them so unsympathetic that I was actively rooting for Janeway to open fire.

All told, Day of Honor manages to maintain Voyager's run of relatively strong episodes. After two very weak seasons, is it ridiculous of me to hope that the series might be finally finding its footing?


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: The Gift
Next Episode: Nemesis

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Thoughts on Season Three.

Janeway and the Doctor fend off a threat to the ship.

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT SEASON THREE

Season One of Voyager surprised me by being generally engaging and by showing potential. Quality was uneven, and only about half the characters worked, but there was promise there, a foundation that could be built upon to craft a genuinely good Star Trek series.

Three seasons down now, and I'm sad to report that the uneven but promising first year remains the best overall season of the series thus far. Season Three has its bright spots, but it never feels like anything more than a string of episodes - and by the end of the season, I mostly just felt numb.


BACK TO BASICS: THE VERDICT

In my Season Two overview, I set aside a section for the season-bridging two-parter, Basics, whose promising first episode was undermined by a resolution that eliminated all interesting elements. With Michael Piller departing, new head writer Jeri Taylor seemed to insist on a Season Three opener that would close off all arc elements and leave the show safely "back to basics."

This was not an inherently wrong-headed approach. As I observed at the time, Piller's attempt at shaping the series around the Kazon arc failed miserably. The Kazon were dull villains, and making them ubiquitous helped to make the show itself dull.  In addition, the arc did little to advance the regulars as characters. By focusing so much on Chakotay (the regular most involved in that arc), I think it may have actually made him even more bland than he was already! Contemporary viewership plunged, and it was clear that a new approach was needed.

Having taken a storytelling risk that failed in Season Two, Season Three goes for the other extreme: avoiding any risks at all. Season Three has no real core to it. Some of the episodes are good; too many of them are not. But there's nothing beneath the surface.  As the season progresses the show feels emptier than ever.

Voyager remains a watchable series, with only the worst episodes actually a chore to sit through. But even there's nothing here that makes me want to watch. If I wasn't writing these reviews, I would have jumped this ship a very long time ago.

Chakotay stages a mutiny! Er, on the holodeck, that is.

CHARACTERS: CHAKOTAY

Chakotay was my least favorite regular in Season Two. He's still well down my personal list, but he shows substantial improvement in this season, particularly the last part. Robert Beltran seems to wake up long enough to actually enjoy some decent material in Displaced and Worst Case Scenario. Both Beltran and the character are wonderfully served by Unity and Scorpion.

Scorpion, in particularly, sees Chakotay at his best. Unlike the block of wood we've usually gotten, this episode's Chakotay considers Janeway a friend, but he will still voice his own opinions when they differ from hers. When circumstances place him in command, he follows his own instincts, even though he knows that he's acting against her wishes. It's dramatic, and the interactions between them during the episode feel authentic and interesting.

If the series keeps going with this, then Chakotay could be rehabilitated in my eyes. I wouldn't bet on it - but Unity and Scorpion show that it's possible for him to work as a character.


OTHER CHARACTERS:

The series introduces a new dynamic between Tom and B'Elanna Torres, who are clearly moving toward a relationship by the season's end. This is enjoyable so far, with the contrast between the feisty B'Elanna and the laid-back Tom creating obvious potential for humor. The two actors seem to be enjoying their scenes together, and they show a decent amount of chemistry.

Meanwhile, the Doctor's new holo-emitter gets him out of sickbay and allows him to be more of a full member of the crew. Robert Picardo continues to delight, though I found this season's Doctor-centric episodes to be of uneven quality: The Swarm suffers from a poorly-realized "B" plot, Darkling has two plot strands that don't fit together at all, and Real Life is so manipulative that what's meant to be emotional mosty just feels manufactured. Still, Picardo is able to partially redeem bad scripts with his pitch-perfect line deliveries, and he brings out the best in good ones. Here's hoping for better Doctor-centric episodes next season.

Harry Kim has better luck surviving in prison than
his characterization does of surviving terrible scripts.

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY

Remember those glimpses of potential I saw in Harry after last season's The Thaw? This season's first Harry-centric episode, The Chute seems to carry that forward, with Garrett Wang delivering his series-best performance to date as a desperate Harry tries to keep both himself and Tom alive in an environment in which morality becomes indistinguishable from weakness.

Well, Harry may not have died in The Chute, but his characterization appears to have. That was the third episode of the season, and it represents the last time he was anything other than wallpaper. His other spotlight episode, Favorite Son, is so comically pathetic that Ed Wood must be looking down in envy, while the remaining episodes keep him in his box as "guy who recites Technobabble."

The original plan was reportedly to kill him off in Scorpion, and I really think they should have. It wouldn't redeem a character who only ever worked in two episodes... but at least it would have given him a dramatic exit.


THE REDSHIRTS:

I would now like to take a moment to step away from the regulars and focus on the recurring guest cast. That's what I would like to do - but in a major backward step, there is no attempt to maintain recurring crew members. Season One made a decent stab at establishing a crew beyond the command staff. Season Two at least managed to remember they were there. Season Three divides the crew into two categories: Regulars and Extras. The only exception is Vorik, from Blood Fever, and it would be easier to write something interesting about Harry than about him.

A misadventure with Q. Yes, we definitely need to be
in a whole new region of space for fresh stories like this...

WHY ARE WE STILL IN THE DELTA QUADRANT?

The first two seasons of Voyager struggled with the lack of urgency to the crew's dilemma. Season Three doesn't even struggle. The only episode in which being stranded is a major factor is False Profits. You know, the episode in which Janeway and much of her command staff all but actively sabotage an opportunity to get home?

With the possible exception of Scorpion, this season's offerings could have just as easily taken place in the Alpha Quadrant. Given that, what's the point to keeping them stranded? At this point, I genuinely think there are more interesting story possibilities in returning home than in leaving them in the Delta Quadrant. Half of the crew is Maquis, they now have a Borg on board, and they've come from a place no one in the Federation has seriously dreamed of exploring. This seems like fodder for a couple of season's worth of stories!

But no, we will continue trudging through the Delta Quadrant, even though by this point it must be clear to all that there's nothing uniquely interesting about it...

Scorpion introduces a character with obvious potential.
Here's hoping the writers do something with her!

SEASON FOUR WISHLIST

I'll repeat my first one from the last season overview: That the show gets better. There are episodes that show how good Voyager could be. Scorpion, Before and After, Unity... These did not come from the pens of incompetent writers. These were not brought to life by incompetent directors or incompetent actors. Writers, cast, crew - All are capable of making good Star Trek. The main thing holding it back is a lack of... I was about to say ambition, but it's not even that. It's a lack of any direction at all.

I keep mentioning Scorpion, because it stands out so much from Voyager's norm. THis was an outstanding two-parter, and it has left the show with possibilities. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) offers clear dramatic potential. I'd like to see her integration into the crew be slow, with suspicion on all sides. People need to distrust her, and she needs to distrust them - not least because the events of Scorpion should reinforce the prejudices of both sides.

Speaking of the potential for conflict among regulars, I would like to see the Janeway/Chakotay relationship continue to be a little uncomfortable after Scorpion. Chakotay was a leader in his own right before he came to Voyager. He shouldn't just be Janeway's "Yes" man. Let him continue to be supportive of her publicly - but let them argue behind closed doors the way they did in this episode.

Finally, much as I hate seeing Kes written out, at least make her departure mean something. Don't just remove the character and then have everything be exactly the same - Have her leave in such a way that something is changed.

If I get even two of my wishes, I'll be pleasantly surprised. If I get three or more, I'll be ecstatic.


IN SUMMATION

Season Three isn't particularly worse than Season Two, but neither is it particularly better. Chakotay becomes marginally more interesting, while Harry becomes even duller than he was before. A new character is introduced who has potential - but other characters who had potential never got to realize it, which doesn't exactly lead to optimism. Worst of all, there's a lack of anything that feels like direction, or even a unique series identity.

The season-bridging Scorpion ends Season Three with what is easily the best episode to date, and it begins Season Four with possibilities. But the series has had possibilities and potential since it began. We're moving into Season Four now - It's time for to stop simply drifting on the Star Trek name and start actually doing something!


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3-22. Real Life.

The Doctor and his holographic family.

THE PLOT

Voyager is en route to a science station run by the Vostigye, an apparently friendly race eager to rendezvous with them. When Voyager arrives at the coordinates, however, there is no space station - only debris. The station has been destroyed. 

It doesn't take long to discover that this was no attack, but rather a recurring spatial anomaly. Analysis shows that the event leaves behind plasma that could be mined to fuel the ship's systems. Tom goes out to begin extracting it - only for the anomaly to come back midway, sucking him right into the eye of the storm!

Meanwhile, the Doctor has decided to create a holographic family for himself, to allow him to experience family life. When he invites Kes and B'Elanna to meet them, both are left uncomfortable by how artificial and "perfect" this family is. Torres asks for permission to introduce a randomizer into the program to make the family more realistic and less ideal. The Doctor assents - only to find himself confronted with children he cannot control and, ultimately, with a tragedy he cannot bear to face!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Finding the anomaly sparks her enthusiasm. Her response for calls to get away before it recurs is to wonder if they really should: "We've just witnessed a phenomenon none of us has ever heard of before, much less experienced... I think we owe it to ourselves to investigate." Once Tom is sucked in, though, her priority is clearly getting him out safely, with other considerations forgotten.

Doctor: Despite things going wrong with his last attempt to improve himself, the Doctor has continued to try to make himself relate better to the people on the ship. His holo-family is his latest experiment. He enjoys the first version, drinking in the adulation of his ideal Stepford family, and he is clearly shaken by what he finds after Torres changes the simulation. Still, he sticks with it and it's clear that he is more emotionally engaged with the more troubled variant he is left with. The Doctor tries to control his family the way he does his sickbay, which has predictably poor results - But the way he keeps thinking about the problems when "at work" shows that his failures are having more impact on him than the easy fantasy life he initially created.

Torres: Ever since the Doctor's Jekyll & Hyde incident, she has insisted on checking his program regularly - a sensible precaution. When she and Kes visit the Doctor's holo-family, Kes diplomatically says that they're a little too perfect. Torres is much blunter, laying into the Doctor's Stepford wife and kids as being completely unrepresentative of a real family. "This is a fantasy!" she all but shouts, amusingly dismissing the group as "lollipops." She calms down quickly, however, then volunteers to make the program more lifelike.

Tom Paris: Is quick to volunteer to take a shuttle to mine the plasma left by the anomaly. Even after he gets sucked into the anomaly, he is happy to have seen something so unique and describes it as "worth it... one wild ride!" When his risk-taking tendencies attract the ire of the newly-paternal Doctor, he pushes the Doctor to reveal what's wrong. When the Doctor tells him that he intends to never restart the program so that he won't have to deal with a family tragedy, Tom urges him to reconsider, telling him, "In the long run, you'll miss the whole point of what it means to have a family."


THOUGHTS

Thank God that Before & After came between "The Trilogy of Terror" and this.  Without that reminder of how good this show can be, so many weak entries clustered together might have been enough to make me quit this show.

There are a lot of reasons why this episode doesn't work for me, but the biggest one is how absolutely it represents one of Voyager's biggest faults: Jeri Taylor's script is easy.  It's attempts at comedy and drama alike are obvious.  Its attempts to evoke emotion are the grist of signposted, surface-level, Lifetime drama.  The result: Comedy moments that I don't find particularly funny, and drama that I don't find at all moving.  All further bogged down by a subplot in which the ship encounters yet another spatial anomaly - because we certainly haven't had enough of those yet, have we?

In reviewing Real Life, I'll parrot one of B'Elanna's criticisms of the Doctor's initial family: [I]"There is nothing wrong with your premise... It just needs a little tweaking to bring it closer to real life."[/I] The idea of giving the holographic Doctor a holographic family?  That could be used to develop his character.  But it shouldn't be one episode unto itself.  This family should have been introduced earlier in the season, seen in "B" plots and throwaway scenes across several episodes before this. Then, when it came time for that family to get its own episode ending in tragedy, the emotions would have real weight. 

By cramming all of this into a single episode, the family dynamic has to be introduced and developed within half an episode.  Then, around the subplot, there's only about 10 - 15 minutes left for the Doctor to deal with the tragedy.  Is it any surprise that Jeri Taylor resorts to surface-level tearjerker tactics?  We don't know this family or see them as "real" people - There just hasn't been time - and so all she can do is use heavy-handed manipulation to try to evoke a response.  For some viewers, I'm sure it worked well enough, and that's good for them because they got to enjoy an episode I didn't.  Because for me, I was too conscious of the puppeteer and her strings to feel a thing.

It should be said that Robert Picardo throws himself into this with his usual dedication, his performance possessing a subtety and credibility that the script itself lacks. The scene in which he confronts his son's Klingon friends about the true nature of the knife they are carrying is a strong "hero moment" for him, and he plays the episode's two hospital scenes with the right mix of emotion and suppression to get a lot more out of the material than it deserves. 

Unfortunately, just as the Doctor's holo-family never existed before this episode, I'm certain it will never again exist after. The events of this episode will be irrelevant to his character, and the episode itself will remain a pointless and not-very-entertaining one-off.

Not the worst Voyager I've seen, not even the worst I've seen lately, Real Life is nevertheless another sign of a show that has no clear ideas about what to do with itself from one episode to the next. Another exercise in heavy-handed sludge, from a series that's indulged in that far too often for my tastes.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Before & After
Next Episode: Distant Origin

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3-15. Coda.

Janeway is visited by her dead father (Len Cariou)

THE PLOT

Janeway and Chakotay are on a shuttlecraft when apparent elecrical interference forces them onto a nearby planet. Janeway is injured, but Chakotay is able to revive her - just in time for them to find themselves evading a large group of Vidiians. Despite their best efforts, they are quickly overwhelmed by the Vidiians...

...Only to find themselves back in the shuttle, just before the accident. As Janeway scans for temporal anomalies to explain this, Chakotay takes the more practical approach of scanning for Vidiians. He picks up an approaching ship and attempts evasive maneuvers. But it takes no time at all for the Vidiians to catch up with them and obliterate the shuttle.

Leading to them once again in the shuttle, at the same point in space and time, with apparently mere minutes to find a way to avoid dying. Again!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Coda is a completely Janeway-centered episode. As with all Janeway-heavy episodes, it benefits from Mulgrew's fine performance. This is particularly true in one variant of the loop in which Janeway is infected with the Vidiian phage. Mulgrew makes Janeway's confusion and fear very believable, particularly as that loop reaches its endpoint.   The episode also yet again shows her protectiveness of her crew, searching for any way to help them even when she herself appears to be in a hopeless situation.

Chakotay: Has grown close enough to Janeway that, when she is injured, he gasps, "Kathryn!" instead of "Captain!" A nice bit of character continuity. Taken with their comfort together in Future's End, it indicates that the time he and Janeway shared in Resolutions hasn't actually been forgotten. He is also quick to take charge in a survival situation, after the shuttle crash, nor does Janeway argue at him doing so.

Vice Admiral Janeway: Veteran character actor Len Cariou appears as Janeway's father, who drowned long ago when she was very young. Cariou projects a kindly presence as he chats with Janeway about life and death and about the difficulty of moving on. He also does a good job with a very fast (too fast) transition to a very different portrayal at the end. One could only wish that Jeri Taylor's script was less shallow, so that he had something meatier to work with.

Vidiians: The first Season Three episode to use the Vidiians at all, though this isn't a Vidiian episode. They are simply a plot device, an external threat to push Janeway and Chakotay into the repeating time loop. The Vidiian phage is used to good effect, however, with Janeway becoming infected with the disease in one loop.


THOUGHTS

Coda starts out seeming much more intriguing than it ends up being. The multiple variants of the time loop are the focus of the episode's first half, and this portion of the show is enjoyably off-center. By the end of the episode, however, we find out that these loops are entirely irrelevant to the actual plot.  Aside from the teaser, the entire first half of the episode could be considered padding.  At least the set pieces within the loops are fun.  During this phase of the episode, I was all set for a good, nutty ride. 

Actually, I enjoyed the almost irrelevant first half far more than the second half, when writer Jeri Taylor finally gets to the heart of her story.  For about ten minutes or so, it's enjoyable enough: A Voyager ghost story is a novelty, and Len Cariou, who portrays Janeway's dead father, is a welcome presence in any show that features him. But once he appears and begins chatting with her, the end twist becomes incredibly easy to see coming.  Leaving about 15 minutes of us sitting around, waiting for the plot to catch up with what we know is going to happen.

A big problem with Coda is that these two halves simply don't belong together. The talk-heavy second half seems all the slower for coming after the bizarre, endlessly changing loops of the first half. Meanwhile, the ideas a more ambitious script might have explored during Janeway's conversations with her father are given short shrift, because there's only twenty minutes of show (minus the tag) by the time we get through the time loops. 

It's a shame to see this second half, in particular, fail so badly. The actors are good, and both are capable of doing very fine work with good writing. Unfortunately, there is nothing surprising nor insightful here. We don't get to look at Janeway's character in any different a light, and Mulgrew and Cariou are mostly left to exchange platitudes and cliches. They deliver them well, but that doesn't make the words they're speaking any more interesting.

A character episode that fails to advance the character it spotlights and runs out of gas around the midpoint, Coda ends up being all too representative of Voyager at its worst: Recycled ideas competently presented, but with no real spark behind them. It's acceptable enough time filler, but sadly nothing more.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

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2-25. Resolutions.

Janeway lets go of her responsibilities.

THE PLOT

A bug bite on an Earth-like planet has left Janeway and Chakotay with a terminal disease. The Doctor is unable to cure it, but the planet itself has a Plot Filter which eliminates the disease for as long as the two stay on its surface. The Doctor advises contacting the Vidiians, whose medical knowledge could probably cure this, but Janeway refuses to expose the ship to such a risk. Instead, she and Chakotay are left on the planet with supplies and shelter. She puts Tuvok in command, orders him to avoid contact with the Vidiians, and orders Voyager to continue on its journey.

In the weeks that follow, Janeway and Chakotay adjust to life on the planet. Chakotay does so fairly quickly, while Janeway's acceptance of this new life is more gradual. But as time passes, the two become increasingly comfortable with the idea of living the rest of their lives on this single world.

Until Voyager accidentally comes into the proximity of a Vidiian ship, leading to pressure from the crew for Tuvok to violate orders and ask for help finding a cure...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Another good performance by Kate Mulgrew. Her Janeway gradually softens through the course of the episode. It happens at a steady enough pace that it's not always noticeable, but by the time she and Chakotay are "rescued," she has stopped being "The Captain." Which makes the contrast of the final scene all the more striking and even poignant, as the brittle captain returns. Enough time passes for Janeway to accept and even begin to embrace the change in her life, which makes the ending not an entirely happy one for her.

Chakotay: For Janeway, he becomes quite literally the only man left on Earth. No wonder a tear runs down her face as the seemingly inevitable asserts itself - She's stuck with a man who can't have anything approximating a serious discussion without telling (or inventing) an "ancient legend of my people." I do think Robert Beltran's trying here, but he still comes across like an animated block of wood. More unfortunate still, he just doesn't have the chemistry with Kate Mulgrew that he had with Martha Hackett's Seska.

Tuvok: His version of The Galileo Seven, as he's put in command and can't quite bridge the gap between his logic and the crew's emotion. Unlike in the classic TOS episode, Tuvok is largely proved right in his initial refusal to contact the Vidiians.  It's largely a matter of luck that they escape the trap with anything positive to show for it. Tim Russ, who is probably Season Two's most improved regular, does well with the role, and a nicely-written scene with Kes takes a moment to remember that Tuvok is not truly emotionless, and that Janeway is his friend.

Harry Kim: When Tuvok refuses to violate Janeway's orders and hail the Vidiians, Harry basically throws a tantrum in the middle of the bridge. This would be the same Harry who comes from the version of Voyager that was destroyed while under attack from the Vidiians, the same Harry who witnessed the Vidiians stalking through the ship's corridors zapping and extracting the organs of everyone in their path. I know character continuity isn't this show's strong suit - but this happened all of four episodes ago, and the events (minus any impact on Harry) are even referenced in the script! At least Harry's emotional reactions to Tuvok make him seem human this episode, and make a nice follow-through on the loyalty to Janeway that defined him in The Thaw.

Kes: Unlike Harry, she knows how to approach Tuvok in a way that will at least make him think about his decisions. By approaching him as a sort of daughter figure, she softens him up. When she does address the issue of the Vidiians, she doesn't try to argue with his decison-making. Instead, she points out the need for him to think about the morale of the crew. She gets him to see that the feelings of the crew are important and lets him know that people are waiting for him to speak, but she does not try to tell him what he should say.


THOUGHTS

Resolutions has a lot going for it. Kate Mulgrew is in wonderful form, and seeing Janeway gradually relax away from her command responsibilities is refreshing. I enjoyed the way the ending was played, with Janeway and Chakotay clearly less than enthusiastic to be returned to a world they had already emotionally let go of.

I also have hopes that the Janeway/Chakotay relationship of this episode will be remembered in Season Three. I have no desire to see a relationship subplot between the two (the actors have no romantic chemistry) - but I think there could be some interesting changes to the character dynamic, and would love to see the show explore that at least.

It is also another episode in which things happen because the plot needs them to. For all of Harry's loyalty to Janeway, he is literally the only member of the crew who has seen the ship devastated by the Vidiians. It would be more convincing, and more dramatically interesting, if he was arguing passionately against contacting them. Let B'Elanna or Tom - both of whom also have strong loyalty to Janeway - be the first to push Tuvok, and this would be a more interesting story.

That's not even mentioning the planet's never-explained Disease Immunity. Or the mysterious plasma storm, which hits exactly once in order to force Janeway to let go of her experiments and is barely referenced thereafter. If the plasma storms are a feature of the planet, let there be two or three such storms making life less idyllic and more unpredictable.

Still, this is a Voyager episode, a Jeri Taylor-scripted one at that. One could wish for more nuanced conflict, with some of the crew siding with Tuvok instead of everyone being against him. One could wish for the planet to be less "Garden of Eden" like. But within the confines of what's there, it does work. Performances are good, and there are some strong character scenes involving Janeway, Tuvok, and Kes. We even get a few welcome continuity nods.

It's another episode that could easily have been better and more interesting than it is. But it's still a pretty good show, and continues the improved quality of the last part of the season. It may be just "popcorn entertainment," but at least it is entertaining and absorbing.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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