Thoughts on Season Four.

In its fourth season, Star Trek: Voyager undergoes a major cast change, one that shifts the character dynamics considerably. But the show itself remains mostly the same beast as in its first three seasons: A series that exists mostly episode by episode, with few dramatic risks taken.

Still, for the first time in a long time, I come not to bury Voyager but to praise it. Season Four may suffer from all the same faults that have plagued the series from the beginning (a few of them actually worsen!), but the good episodes significantly outweigh the bad ones, the introduction of Seven of Nine works and works well, and the result is the most consistently enjoyable season of the show to date.


ARRIVALS: SEVEN OF NINE

This is the season that introduces Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a Borg drone who unwillingly joins the Voyager crew and has to assimilate to their environment. There is a lot of potential in this concept, making it no surprise that most of the season's episodes feature a significant role for her. She brings in something that has been lacking: conflict with the crew.

Nothing was ever made of the Maquis background of half the crew, so we have spent three seasons with a group that all share the same core values and all basically get along. Seven comes from a very different background, has a very different set of values, and is not even particularly interested in getting along. Her very presence creates conflict. As a Borg, she was a threat to the ship, and the rest of the crew are wary of her. She brings in enormous scientific expertise, but expects her opinions to be accepted as a matter of course, which brings her into conflict with Torres, Janeway, and others.

Particularly interesting is the relationship that evolves between Seven and Janeway, who sometimes seems like a mentor to her, at other times an obstacle or even an adversary. When Seven denounces Janeway for trying to stifle her individuality, she sounds like a rebellious teen daughter - and the pain and disappointment on Janeway's face seems very much like that of a mother. The season finale reinforces that these two strong women have very different values, that Seven is never going to simply conform to Janeway's views. This is also good: They need to accept each other as they are, and find a working relationship despite their differences.


DEPARTURES AND LOITERERS: KES, HARRY KIM, AND THE REST

The other "big thing" that happens in Season Four is the departure of Kes... Something that really shouldn't have happened. Sure, it makes perfect sense that one of the supporting regulars would be let go to make room for Seven. But it makes no sense for it to have been Kes, a character whose role (as the Doctor's assistant and his humanizing influence) has not been replaced by Seven in any way, and a character whose final Season Three spotlight episode doubled as a statement of intent regarding future direction for her.

It's evident that the original plan was to let go of Harry Kim, a character so useless that writers have acknowledged deliberately avoiding giving him large roles in their scripts. Then actor Garrett Wang made a People Magazine list, which for whatever reason was seen as making him untouchable. I don't think it was a particularly good decision - Something made even more visible by how little Harry does over the course of Season Four, with a good showing in The Killing Game being the only time the entire year in which he doesn't seem like a spare part - one whose only real job (spouting Technobabble) has been made redundant by Seven.

Harry isn't the only character turned into a glorified extra by Seven's introduction. By mid-season, she has been set up in her own area of the ship - Astrometrics - and is now given the tasks that in previous seasons would have fallen under B'Elanna's purview. While Roxann Dawson's pregnancy certainly limited her participation in the mid-season, it does feel very much as if her previously prominent role has been pushed far to the back to make more room for Seven. What can be said of a season in which Neelix gets more memorable character material than B'Elanna Torres?


A CHANGE OF ALTITUDE: HINTS OF PROGRESS

But as I said at the top of this overview, I come largely to praise Season Four, which feels more alive and far less stagnant than Seasons Two and Three often did. Despite the overuse of Seven, a large part of the credit does belong to her, and to the way she shakes up the overly-comfortable cast dynamic. But there are other ways in which this season moves the series forward.

For the first three seasons, the relationship of Voyager to Starfleet is constant. Starfleet believes the ship is destroyed, and there is no way for our regulars to contact home and their families to let them know otherwise. Every so often, there would be a chance for the ship to possibly get home or possibly send a message... But this would always end in defeat so that the status-quo would be unchanged.

Message in a Bottle, right around the middle of this season, finally changes that. The discovery of the Hirogen communications relay allows the ship to contact home, and to receive messages. They now know about the Dominion War and the destruction of the Maquis, and their families now know they are alive. The problem is now being worked from two ends, with Starfleet certainly devoting at least some energy to shortening Voyager's journey.

That same episode kicks off an arc of episodes centering around the Hirogen, a predator species that at first seems a little too much like... well, Predator. Early episodes present the Hirogen as so one-dimensional, one could be forgiven for thinking the Kazon had been simply given a new design. Then Prey successfully makes them feel formidable, with Voyager clearly on the losing end of a confrontation with them. The Killing Game lends them even more dimension, as all the arguments viewers might have about how a species like this couldn't sustain itself are actually made part and parcel of the plot.

Though I suspect that two-parter will receive some follow up at some point, it does work as a resolution of the arc, which is an overall highly successful run of episodes. One hopes the series will continue to do occasional arcs of linked episodes in the future.


SEASON FIVE WISHLIST

The changes made to the status quo are a good thing - But instead of simply letting this sit as the "new normal," the show needs to build on these changes. I'd like to see occasional bursts of communication with Starfleet, perhaps seeking intelligence that might help with the Dominion War. Also, as the season finale reminds us, Janeway's actions in Scorpion have actually helped the Borg to expand and grow more powerful. It would be interested to see her forced to deal with the fallout of that - and I don't just mean in the form of some random alien out for revenge.

I also hope the hints at the end of Hope and Fear, of Janeway and Seven accepting that they have different values and working together despite that, are followed through. There's more dramatic potential in Seven working with the crew but holding a different value system than there is in simply transforming her into another Proper Starfleet Officer (ironic that the former member of the Collective has more individuality than most of the rest of the crew).

And while I do think the addition of Seven has been a benefit to the show, and I definitely would like her to remain prominent... It might be OK for there to be just a little less of her, so that she's not succeeding at the expense of the rest of the cast. For all of its problems, Voyager has a genuinely pretty strong ensemble. Pare back on "The Seven of Nine Show," please, and start remembering the rest of the cast for more than one or two episodes at a time.


IN SUMMATION

I have come to accept that Voyager will never be the show I wish it was - the show that can occasionally be glimpsed in jewels like The Thaw, Scorpion, and Living Witness. Save for the occasional story, the series is determined to play it safe inside its action/adventure bubble.

Season Four doesn't change this, but it does manage to push the edges of that bubble, making Voyager much better as the show that it is. I'm still not wildly enthusiastic about it as a series - But for the first time since Season One, I'm looking back on a year of Voyager with a lot more good feelings than bad.

Here's hoping it can further improve on that next season!


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4-2. The Gift.

Kes' psychic powers become too strong to control.

THE PLOT

With her link to the Borg Collective severed, Seven of Nine's humanity is beginning to reassert itself. Her long-suppressed immune system is finally reacting to the Borg implants, leaving Janeway and the Doctor little choice but to remove as much of the Borg technology from her as possible. But Seven is determined to remain who and what she is, and when she sees a chance to contact the Borg using Voyager's technology, she seizes it - with violent results.

Meanwhile, in the wake of her contact with Species 8472, Kes' telepathic abilities are growing exponentially. At first, Kes is delighted at the level of control she has over her new powers. As they grow greater and greater, however, it becomes apparent that Kes may be a greater threat to Voyager than Seven is!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: When she prepares to wake Seven in the teaser, she asks, "How's the newest addition to our family?" She does seem to regard her crew as a kind of extended family, and she deals compassionately with both Seven and Kes. She announces early on that she does not believe Seven is truly competent to make decisions about her life yet, and that she will make them for her. She tells the same to Seven, stating that since she was taken by the Borg at a very young age she doesn't truly have the capacity to choose as an individual. Seven accuses Janeway of hypocrisy for denying the free will she touts as such a virtue - but Janeway actually does behave consistently (in this case, at least), granting Kes a shuttle to leave the ship even though she disagrees with the decision.

Tuvok: Tries to get Kes to control her new powers with more of the meditative exercises he's attempted with her before. His face doesn't get melted this time, so I suppose that's an improvement. His bond with Kes is a major part of the episode, and it's clear that he's disturbed at having to report his student as a potential threat to the ship. One of the strongest images of the episode is the wordless final scene, in which Tuvok places the lit meditation lamp on a ledge at a window, in honor of his friend - as much emotional acknowledgement as the very reserved Vulcan ever shows at anything.

Kes: Though her departure does feel slightly rushed, with events that would have been better spread over multiple episodes compressed into one, writer Joe Menosky does allow her some good scenes with all of the characters she's had major interactions with. She gets multiple scenes with Tuvok, who gets his own silent farewell at the end. As the Doctor researches her condition, she pushes him to let him stay to help. He smiles and, with clear fondness, agrees she can stay "just for a while." She gets a nice scene opposite Neelix, telling him that she loves him even as she makes clear that she now loves him in a non-romantic way. Finally, she articulates her choice to Janeway in a scene that plays almost like a grown daughter talking to her mother about leaving home. These moments grant a sense of closure to a character who deserved far better use than she received.

Seven of Nine: Her second episode is tasked with taking her from being Borg to being somewhat human. It is not a transition she wants to make. The Borg Collective is all she has ever known, and being out of contact with them leaves her feeling diminished. "This drone is small now, alone. One voice, one mind. The silence is unacceptable. We need the others!" A nice touch is the slow transition of her pronouns. Early in the episode, she refers to herself in the plural, as "we" and "us." By the end, even as she still rails against Janeway taking her away from the Collective, she refers to herself in the singular: "Me" and "I." She begins the process of becoming an individual even as she fights against that happening. Jeri Ryan is excellent, and the scenes between her and Kate Mulgrew have an energy that's been lacking in too much of this series, giving me hope that she will be as strong an addition as she promises to be.


THOUGHTS

For a change, no miracle reset has occurred between episodes: The Gift opens with Voyager still laden with Borg technology and still in Borg space, and at least one plot strand (arguably both) deals with consequences from Scorpion. This type of continuity is most welcome, and something the show really should do more often.

The Gift is an important episode, marking a major transition. Voyager's most visible division is between the first three seasons, with Kes, and the last four seasons, with Seven. Scorpion may have created a bridge between the two phases, but it remained firmly in the first phase: Seven was decidedly an enemy, while Kes was a full member of the crew. The Gift crosses that bridge. By the end, we have begun (but thankfully not completed) the process of integrating Seven into the crew, while at the same time we have left Kes behind.

The Seven of Nine thread is the stronger of the two. Menosky's script makes sure that she is able to state her case for wanting to return to the Borg just as well as Janeway is able to state hers for denying that. This is two episodes in a row in which a character disagrees with Janeway without coming across as imbecilic or evil - A trend the show should definitely continue. The "half-Borg" look is very effective and disturbing, incidentally - much moreso than the "full Borg" look of Scorpion.


KES' DEPARTURE

Per Memory Alpha, Kes' departure was originally planned to occur in the fifth episode of the season. It was moved due to departing actress Jennifer Lien's schedule. A pity - I think having her powers build up slowly over multiple episodes would have felt a lot less rushed, and would have not required her farewell story to share equal time with Seven's integration story. Still, the script does a good job of making these basically unrelated plots work together, and while Kes' departure happens a bit too quickly, it does manage to work dramatically.

One reason for that is that Kes' change, while abrupt, doesn't come out of nowhere. The strength of her latent psychic abilities was a major plot point in both Cold Fire and Warlord. It was an aspect never seriously developed, unfortunately, but at least it existed. With Scorpion's story having relied heavily on Kes' psychic link to Species 8472, it does feel like a natural development for the character - if one that needed more time to breathe than is allowed here.

I still regret the decision to write out Kes. While someone had to go to make room for Seven of Nine, Kes is a character who, despite being underused, has worked well from the series' beginning. She has unique and enjoyable relationships with multiple other characters, notably the Doctor and Tuvok, but also Neelix and Janeway. Before and After even showed possibilities for her character's future, with indications that an expanded role was at least a possibility. Simply put, it's difficult to see how this character could be viewed as the best choice to remove. Not in a show whose character roster includes: Harry Kim, whose absence would barely be noticed; Neelix, whose absence would often be a relief; and Chakotay, who is usually dull and wooden, and who has two ready-made replacements as First Officer in Tuvok and Tom. Any of those would have been better choices for removal than Kes, with Chakotay's removal in particular creating potential for other regulars as well.


OVERALL

Despite feeling vaguely rushed in the Kes plot, The Gift works overall. Kes gets some good scenes opposite all of the characters who have been her main points of interactions. Seven of Nine becomes more a part of the Voyager crew, with it left clear that this process is far from complete. Given that it has two important plots to juggle in one 45-minute piece, I think it's no small praise to say that it does its job, and does it probably about as well as scheduling factors would allow.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Scorpion
Next Episode: Day of Honor

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3-26, 4-1. Scorpion.

Introducing Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).

THE PLOT

One of Voyager's long-range probes has stopped transmitting. Torres is able to retrieve the last few seconds of the probe's transmission, showing a sight Janeway has been dreading: the Borg!

The ship is nearing Borg space, and the recovery of their probe means the enemy knows they are coming. Fortunately, the probe detected a narrow corridor of space the Borg avoid - a passage filled with distortion caused by quantum singularities. It will be a bumpy ride, but there is a decent chance of avoiding the Borg if they can stay within what Chakotay dubs "The Northwest Passage."

There's another threat, however: An alien race the Borg term "Species 8472." These aliens are engaging the Borg and destroying them, seemingly without effort. Harry hopes for allies, but when Kes makes telepathic contact, she realizes they are anything but. Species 8472 is completely malevolent, and bent on destroying all inferior life, which to them means all life.

Janeway sees only one way forward: A deal with the devil. An alliance with the Borg!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Understands that the day may come when the danger in front of Voyager is too great to responsibly continue. When she realizes the ship is approaching Borg space, she fears that day may have come, and she admits to Chakotay that she dreads facing the crew with that decision. That, as much of any of her justifications, prompts her alliance with the Borg. Still, her arguments to Chakotay are sound. Species 8472 is an even bigger threat than the Borg, and if they aren't stopped at an early stage, they may become genuinely unstoppable. Kate Mulgrew is in superb form throughout both parts, her performance clearly rising to the quality of the material. 

Chakotay: Strongly disagrees with Janeway's decision to make an alliance. He invokes the title by reciting the parable of the scorpion who, upon making an agreement with a fox to take it across a river, stings it because its malevolent nature is too strong to resist. When Janeway is temporarily out of action in Part Two, he goes with his own instincts over hers, leading to another argument between them. The best part? Both Chakotay and Janeway have genuinely good reasons for their decisions, and neither's argument is presented as a "straw man" to make the other look good. I'd love to see this Chakotay/Janeway relationship carried forward... though I suspect his characterization will return to "bland Tattoo Face" within one to two episodes.

Kes: Species 8472 is telepathic, which allows Kes a solid supporting role. Before they even know there is such a species, she has premonitions: Visions of dead Borg, including a horror movie tableaux of Borg bodies stacked one on another. She sees the attack on Harry minutes before it actually happens, but her warning is not enough to prevent it. At the climax, she acts as a conduit between Janeway and Species 8472, allowing direct communication during the confrontation. Considered alongside Before and After, this script seems to hint at the potential for a larger role for Kes in the future - if not for a certain People magazine article, at least...

Harry Kim: Before that article named Garrett Wang one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World," Scorpion was envisioned as Harry's swansong. He's Part One's sacrificial lamb, suffering the devastating alien infection that shows just how terrifying a threat Species 8472 really is. This obviously wasn't set in stone, given that Harry is still alive at the end of Part One with the Doctor clearly hoping to be able to cure him... but Part One very deliberately leaves Harry in a state that would have easily allowed him to be written out between episodes. Instead, the Doctor is able to miraculously cure him so completely that he returns to the bridge with no recovery time needed. From this point on, he's just Harry: a glorified extra who occasionally spouts some Technobabble.

Seven of Nine: Part Two introduces Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, the "Borg Babe" (in Brannon Braga's words). One of many smart touches in this script is that, while Seven received plenty of screen time and gets substantial interactions with Janeway and chakotay, she isn't presented as a new crew member. She is the voice of the Borg in this episode, speaking for the Collective during Janeway's alliance. She is a potential threat to our characters from her first appearance, and is very much an adversary when the alliance starts to fray. This allows her a strong introduction while avoiding the pitfalls of ramming a new character down the viewers' throat. It helps that Jeri Ryan is actually a good television actress, who easily holds her own opposite the established regulars.

The Borg: Scorpion almost acts as a mirror image to TNG's The Best of Both Worlds. That episode showed the Borg at their strongest, a single cube being unstoppable by all of Starfleet. This one shows the Borg at their most vulnerable, as devastated by Species 8472 as Starfleet was by the Borg. There's even a bit with Voyager flying through the wreckage of several Borg ships destroyed by the enemy - paralleling the devastation the Enterprise encountered when flying through the wreckage at Wolf 359. Writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky take care not to allow this to make the Borg less dangerous. They are unreliable allies, attempting to assimilate Janeway and Tuvok almost as soon as the agreement is reached and repeatedly trying to alter the terms of the agreement. As much of Part Two centers around attempts by the Voyager crew to contain the Borg as it does around defeating Species 8472. We are never allowed to forget the threat they pose, a threat that is increased by the alliance rather than decreased. 


THOUGHTS

Scorpion is almost certainly the best installment of Star Trek: Voyager I've reviewed to date. It is tightly paced, with no sense that either part of it has been padded out to fill air time. Its treatment of the Borg is just about perfect, with the Voyager/Borg alliance creating new tension rather than dissipating it. Species 8472 is presented as formidable, and in their brief snatches of screentime they live up to the demands the story places upon them. 

There's no sense of separation between the two episodes, which flow together beautifully. Part One establishes the situation and builds the atmosphere, with director David Livingston using the dim light and shadows of the Borg cube almost like a painter using colors in creating a portrait. Many of the effects shots are of feature film quality, including the Wolf 359 parallel of the graveyard of destroyed Borg cubes or the shots in which the bio-ships of Species 8472 descend, locust-like, on a Borg-controlled planet. The makeup job on Harry, as he is ravaged by the alien infection, is genuinely unsettling. 

Winrich Kolbe takes over the directorial reigns for Part Two. Kolbe has a long Trek track record, and his confidence with action scenes makes him a good match for the action-heavy second part. There are two attacks by Species 8472, along with a clash with the Borg, and Kolbe keeps all of this both coherent and exciting, making this a rare two-parter in which Part Two is every bit as good as Part One. 

Writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky make sure that in addition to providing an exciting climax, Part Two also pays off everything set up by Part One. In Part One, Chakotay compares the Borg to the scorpion of the fable. In Part Two, he's proved right when the Borg attempt to alter the agreement almost as soon as it's struck, and ultimately do attempt to betray Voyager. Janeway even uses the word, "Scorpion," to good effect in her counter-plan. Even the holodeck subplot involving Leonardo da Vinci (a thoroughly engaging John Rhys-Davies) is tied into the resolution, with Janeway and Chakotay sharing their final scene inside that simulation.

At the end of a season of Voyager that could only very politely be dubbed "uneven," this two-parter is a reminder of how good this series can be when the writers and producers are willing to push the characters outside their safe zones and take chances. Never mind its greatness as a Voyager episode: I'd rank this right alongside The Best of Both Worlds as among the best Borg episodes of the entire franchise.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Worst Case Scenario
Next Episode: The Gift


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3-21. Before and After.

Kes at the end of her life, with husband Tom.

THE PLOT

Six years in the future, Kes has reached the end of her brief Ocampan lifespan. She is elderly, she has lost all her memories, and the Doctor is trying an experimental procedure to extend her life by putting her into a bio-temporal chamber. He activates the device...

...and Kes finds herself in her quarters, surrounded by strangers: Linnis (Jessica Collins), her adult daughter, and Andrew (Christopher Aguilar), her grandson. She has no memories of anything other than the moments in sickbay before the device was activated - a device that she is told has not yet been completed.  There is a flash...

...And it is now ninth birthday party,as Neelix presents her and her husband, Tom Paris, with a cake. At this point, Kes realizes she is travelling back in time. She is able to convince Tom, the Doctor, and Captain Chakotay, and they piece together that she was exposed to chroniton radiation during an attack by the hostile Krenim, the same attack that killed Captain Janeway and started what is known as "The Year of Hell." The Doctor realizes that his bio-temporal device must have triggered the dormant radiation, starting Kes' time jumps.

Now she has to figure out a way to stop the jumps.  Each jump seems to bring her closer to a solution.  But each jump also brings her closer to her own birth - which in this case would be not a beginning for Kes, but a final end!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: The nature of the story means that she is left with only a very small role, but Kate Mulgrew's presence is enough to make the most of her scant screentime. When Kes jumps back to the first Krenim attack, Janeway doesn't stop to ask why Kes knows about the Krenim.  She can see that Kes has knowledge, and immediately makes use of it. Later/earlier, when everything is resolved, Janeway agrees with Kes' decision to not reveal all she saw of "one possible future," but does side with Tuvok in wanting a full report on the Krenim, in case they're unable to avoid them in the future.

Capt. Chakotay: The episode opens in an alternate future, one in which Janeway was killed in a Krenim assault. This means that the first half of the episode sees Chakotay filling her usual role. He does a capable job, showing the ability to prioritize and to be decisive while still showing compassion. 

Kes: Her memories begin as the episode starts. It's a clever conceit, one which allows her to pick up information about the future crew as we do, working backward from the point of her death until she (and the viewer) catches up with the present. Even without memories, her caring nature manifests quickly. Despite the desperate nature of her situation, she takes a moment to spare a word of comfort for her adult daughter. During the Kremin attack, she acknowledges to Chakotay that her situation cannot be a priority for him at this moment. She is also proactive. Having gleaned what piece of information is needed to save herself, she takes action to get that information, crawling through a radiation-soaked tube to reach the Kremin torpedo. Jennifer Lien is given the best material she has ever had on this show, and she is a magnetic presence from start to finish.

Doctor: In the future we glimpse, he picks names for himself - ones based on art, rather than science: "Mozart" and "Van Gogh." When he believes Kes can't hear, he tells her that she is the truest friend he's ever known. His future self seems less prickly in general, showing more patience and warmth to Tom and to Kes' family than "our" Doctor generally shows. Both current and future Doctors retain healthy egos, praising their idea of extending Kes' lifespan with Technobabble technology with words such as "brilliant" and "ingenious." 

Tom Paris: We open with the future Tom facing the prospect of losing Kes, who is his wife in the future and with whom he has had a daughter. As he fills in some of her lost memories, he tells her how much she's meant to him, and by three jumps back in time, Kes has started to count on having him in her life... as shown by the nonverbal reaction she has to Tom being with B'Elanna in an earlier time (a reaction she quickly covers). We are reminded of Tom's early attraction to Kes, something that was completely forgotten in late Season Two and early Season Three, and seeds are planted for a relationship that I would have been interested in seeing pursued. 


THOUGHTS

After the depths plumbed by the three increasingly bad episodes of the "Trilogy of Terror," Before and After is exactly the kick-start Voyager needed to make itself anything other than a bad joke. Kenneth Biller's script is fast-paced and dynamic, the characters are all written to their strengths, and the regulars' performances are outstanding across-the-board. It's even better than Biller's previous script, the excellent Unity, and this episode and that one have raised my previously-dismal opinion of his abilities roughly a hundredfold... though his ability to do episodes such as these two leaves no excuse for his other, lazier scripts.

The story seems heavily inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. Both stories feature main characters jumping back and forward within their own lifespans, though this one largely restricts the time jumps to one direction (backward) until the very end. Unlike weaker literary/film-inspired episodes, however, it expands the series, Star Trek: Voyager. We are given glimpses of future events: relationship between Tom and B'Elanna and Tom and Kes; the possibility of Chakotay as captain; and a genuinely promising new recurring villain in the Krenim, whose appearance in the proper timeline has now become something I'll look forward to.

Unfortunately, some of these hints will never come to pass, thanks to the ill-advised decision to write out Kes in early Season Four. One thing this episode shows is that, as of late Season Three, the writing staff had every intention of keeping her, and even had some ideas as to what to do with her (foreknowledge of the Krenim, evolving relationship with Tom). I'll save serious carping for later. I will say, though, that everything about this episode - from Jennifer Lien's excellent work here to the wealth of hints planted about future directions for her - tells me that dropping her was a mistake. If someone had to go to make room for Seven of Nine, there were at least three better options to choose from.

As it stands, Before and After is a wonderful look at an alternate Voyager future in which Kes stayed. More importantly, as an episode unto itself, it's superb: Fast-paced, energetically directed by Allan Kroeker, and maintaining its energy without sacrificing some of the best character material this series has seen. It's the best Kes episode of the series by a comfortable margin. And while I'll readily acknowledge that Scorpion will probably surpass this, I feel comfortable in saying this will remain the best single-part Season Three episode, as well as being the first episode since The Thaw to earn full marks from me.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Favorite Son
Next Episode: Real Life

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3-18. Darkling.

The Doctor develops a murderous split personality!

THE PLOT

The Voyager crew stops at an outpost belonging to the Mikhal Travelers, a race of explorers whose knowledge of the space ahead may prove invaluable. During the stopover, Kes develops a relationship with Zahir (David Lee Smith), prompting her to consider leaving Voyager. 

Meanwhile, the Doctor is experimenting with his program, integrating traits from notable historical figures into his own personality. He hopes to improve his bedside manner, his "patience with his patients" - but the experiment has unintended consequences. As Torres observes, all of these figures had a dark side, and their darker passions have fused with the Doctor's program to create a new personality: a ruthless figure with all the Doctor's medical knowledge and none of his scruples. And this new, unimproved Doctor is fixated on Kes! 


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Acts as a friend to Kes, listening as she explains her inner conflict about staying or going and giving her time and space to make her own decision. Does relatively little for most of the rest of the episode, at least until she helps Technobabble the transporter beam through the Plot Interference to retrieve the Doctor and Kes at the end.

The Doctor: Does a Dr. Jekyll: In seeking to improve himself, he manages to transform himself into a monster. This allows Robert Picardo to let out his (only very thinly-veiled) inner ham, snarling his way through lines while chewing viciously on the scenery. There is an effort made to connect the Doctor's "Hyde" to his normal personality, with his first violent act being committed against the man who wants to take Kes away from him. Unfortunately, little more is done by either script or performance to suggest that we are truly seeing the Doctor's dark side, which limits most of the episode's second half to effectively watching a completely different character who happens to be played by Robert Picardo.

Kes: Her short Ocampan life span means that at 3 years old, a third of Kes' life has now passed. She has had exactly one lover, and had the misfortune for that to be Neelix. Now she's met somebody attractive to whom she feels drawn, and that's adding onto reflections she's already had about the near-certainty that if she stays on the ship, she will spend her entire life there. All of this is fine material to put Kes "at a crossroads," as Janeway says. Except we are only told that Kes is changing; we never once actually see it. She's the same Kes as in every other episode, save for a rather forced bit at the start in which she snaps at Tuvok and the Doctor.

Torres: Is very concerned when the Doctor describes his experiment. She recognizes that tampering with personality can have unpredictable side-effects, and sets about removing the Doctor's handiwork. Unfortunately for her, she's too late in getting to it, and the "Hyde" personality emerges to knock her out and threaten her for a while. In the midst of a scene that's mostly generic, albeit well-acted, Torres gets one very good bit. Instead of stating that she'll never tell the Doctor what he needs to know, regardless of torture, she tells him that by the time he gets her to talk, it will be too late for him. A nice touch, in an episode that could use a few more such touches. 


THOUGHTS

Darkling is an episode that gets worse in my mind the more distance I get from it. The Voyager version of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, the story's "A" plot/"B" plot structure provides an opportunity to contrast Kes' evolution due to her exposure to a wider universe against the Doctor's changes due to his crude tampering with his own program. This could work well, particularly with a script by Joe Menosky, who often excels at character episodes.

Unfortunately, the script does little to connect the two storylines. Instead, the script all but forgets Kes' subplot once the Doctor's "Mr. Hyde" emerges at the midpoint. This strand is dropped to such an extent that we never even see Kes say goodbye to the man she was seriously considering running away with. The major story element of the episode's first half, Kes' yearning for a life beyond Voyager, is never resolved on-screen... It simply gets forgotten, save for a few throwaway lines in the tag.

This badly damages the episode's overall success. If Menosky, who has shown he is capable of better work, couldn't find a way to balance the two character strands, then he should have rewritten the episode to solely focus on the Doctor's story. As it stands, while the episode is kept watchable by the always-reliable work of Robert Picardo and Jennifer Lien, it ends up feeling as if the first half of one episode got somehow stitched onto the second half of a completely different one. The results are as jagged and uneven as that would imply.

Oh, and the Doctor and Kes are saved by the power of transporter ex machina, rather than anything the show's primary characters do - just to make an already troubled episode that little bit worse.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Unity
Next Episode: Rise

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3-10. Warlord.

Kes is possessed by a ruthless warlord.

THE PLOT

Voyager comes across a badly-damaged alien vessel. The crew barely manage to beam the ship's injured passengers to sickbay before it explodes. Two of the passengers, Nori (Galyn Gorg) and Adin (Anthony Crivello), have only minor wounds. The third is Nori's husband, Tieran (Leigh J. McCoskey), who dies even as Kes attempts treatement.

Janeway expresses her condolences and agrees to divert Voyager's course to drop the survivors off on their home plant, Ilari. During the journey, Kes spends a lot of time with the Ilari, so it's natural that she would come to the transporter room to wish them goodbye.

Then she pulls out a phaser, shoots a Voyager crew member and the Ilari representative who's come to greet them, and beams herself, Nori, and Adin down the planet's surface!

Kes has been possessed by Tieran, who was once the leader of the Ilari, ousted after a long and oppressive reign. Tieran had been obsessed with his own mortality, and had perfected a means of transferring his consciousness into host bodies. Now he has control of Kes - and a stronger mastery of her mental powers than she has yet approached. Advantages he intends to use to reclaim control of his planet - with the still-aware Kes fighting him from inside her mind every step of the way!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Largely just the usual from her here. She refuses to give up on Kes, and insists on exhausting any approach that might recover her lost crew member before she will join in a direct assault.

Tuvok: Volunteers to infiltrate Tieran's stronghold to attempt to rescue Kes. The warlord's control of Kes' telepathic powers results in his rapid capture, resulting in a genuinely interesting scene between Tuvok and Teiran/Kes. Tieran uses Kes' telepathy to try to break through the Vulcan's mental control. She is able to sense the anger just below the surface, observing that - as we saw in Meld - it is the emotion most likely to cost him his self-control. Tuvok manages to resist the warlord's baiting, and briefly breaks through to Kes to urge her to "make (Tieran's) strengths your strengths."

Neelix: She may be possessed by the Villain of the Week, but there is not a thing Kes says to Neelix in the "break-up scene" that isn't true. From almost the very beginning, Neelix has been possessive of Kes and jealous of any time she spends with others. Just a season ago, he was attacking Tom in the mess hall for being overfriendly with Kes, and here he throws a passive-aggressive snit over Kes spending time with the Ilari instead of with him. Tieran might be in control, but the sentiment rings true.

Kes: Jennifer Lien pulls double-duty as both Kes and Tieran. Her Tieran performance can be diplomatically described as, ah, enthusiastic. She shouts and spits her way through her line deliveries, wheeling around in circles and launching herself from one side of the set to another with abandon. She snaps at her allies, threatens to kill them (one memorable scene sees her making good on the threat). Then she gets kittenish and attempts to seduce Nori and the former ruler's son into a threesome... adding in a thinly-veiled death threat when Nori seems hesitant. I'm honestly not sure whether Lien's performance is brilliant in matching the episode's campy tone or awful in its hammy silliness. Whichever side you may pick, one thing it isn't: It isn't boring.


THOUGHTS

What is it with the crappy teasers? Future's End opened with a teaser that was basically about nothing. Warlord's precredit scene is about even less, offering up a bland holodeck sketch that does nothing at all to set a tone or to grab your attention to make you watch. Perhaps these opening sketches are meant to make the crew feel more like people by showing them in moments of down time, but bland boredom is the only real result. 

On the plus side, the teaser is about the only thing in Warlord that could be considered bland. This isn't actually agood episode, with its tired body snatcher plot and generic alien society consisting of six people in one set. It is a lot of fun, though, dressing up its silly story with a campy energy that Lien's performance taps into with giddy insanity. Director David Livingston deserves special praise for keeping that energy at a sustained peak through the run of the episode, which has a dynamic look and pace that I wish more Voyager episodes would emulate.

In the midst of this ridiculousness, three moments stand out as genuinely interesting. The Kes/Neelix break up is notable both for its quiet tone, which makes it convincing, and for just how dead-on Kes' complaints seem. Given that we know Tieran has access to Kes' thoughts and feelings, I wouldn't be surprised if he was simply voicing doubts she already had about her relationship. I do hope this is followed up on, and that we don't just simply see Kes and Neelix being the happy couple in the next episode.

The second interesting scene is the one between Tieran/Kes and Tuvok, which I've already covered. The last of the three scenes is the episode's best, however: Kes' direct confrontation with Tieran. As he (back in his original form for this scene) attempts to growl, threaten, cajole, and dismiss her, we see that she is the strong one here. She circles him, predatory, brushing aside his threats and bravado. She sees him for the monster he is, telling him, "I have no compassion for you." Given that compassion is probably Kes' signature quality, that's a very meaningful statement in itself.

The exchange climaxes with Kes hammering home just how hard she intends to fight for her mind, will, and body:

"I won't stop until you're broken and helpless. There's nowhere you can go to get away from me. I'll be relentless and merciless just like you!"

A great scene, almost certainly the best Lien or Kes has had since the series began.


In the end, Warlord is silly but fun. It's a little too campy and goofy for me to actually call it "good," but it is extremely entertaining, and it manages to fit a few genuinely interesting moments into the "B" movie silliness.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Future's End
Next Episode: The Q and the Grey

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