5-12. Bride of Chaotica!

Janeway forges an evil alliance with the fiendish Dr. Chaotica!

THE PLOT

Tom and Harry are enjoying another chapter of The Adventures of Captain Proton in the holodeck when the ship jolts and stalls in a layer of subspace. As Voyager struggles to escape, Tom and Harry discover distortions inside the program. They are unable to end the program, and have to rely on transporters to escape the holodeck.

The distortions are actually life-forms that are photonic in nature. They recognize the holodeck characters as real, and consider the humans to be illusory. When Dr. Chaotica (Martin Rayner), the Captain Proton villain, declares war on them, the battle threatens to destroy Voyager - Unless Tom and Janeway can play by Captain Proton's own rules to defeat Chaotica!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: The second half sees her entering the program as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People, the object of Dr. Chaotica's romantic obsession. Kate Mulgrew is obviously having a great time hamming (and vamping) it up, gliding across the screen like a melodramatic silent movie villain. There are a few bits in which she goes overboard, getting a bit too twitchy, but most of her performance is amusing. Fittingly, the single funniest bit is played fairly low-key, when she sits on Chaotica's throne only to remark (entirely as Janeway) that it's "surprisingly comfortable."

Tom Paris: His enthusiasm for the Captain Proton program isn't all fanboy indulgence. There's actually a purpose: He's studying "how past generations viewed the future," which ties in well with previous episodes that have established his interest in Earth history. His familiarity with the Proton universe allows him to act as a guide for the other crew members (and the audience), explaining how and why the various characters act as they do throughout the program.

The Doctor: After the heavy emotional outing of the previous episode, this situation lets Robert Picardo indulge in some amusing, largely low-key comic mugging. He goes into the program to impersonate "The President of Earth," acting as an emissary to the aliens since as a hologram, he's the only member of the ship's crew they will recognize as a life form. He assists Tom (as Proton) at the episode's climax, and his reactions to instructions like, "Activate the Destructo Beam!" are very entertaining.

Harry Kim: Is lured into the holodeck program by Tom's promise that this chapter has slave girls in it... Which doesn't stop him from acidically noting that the planet is identical to that of another chapter. His role is reduced to its usual background one after the 20-minute mark, which is actually a shame - For a change, he is genuinely fun company (watch the sadistic glee he gets in zapping a bad guy multiple times), and I would have enjoyed him playing Tom's sardonic sidekick for the full episode.

Dr. Chaotica: The character is a parody, basically a send-up of Ming the Merciless, and Martin Rayner's over-the-top performance reflects that. But while he is clearly playing for laughs, he also reigns it in enough that we never get the sense that Chaotica is trying to be funny. The villain may be cheesy, but he is formidable. His forces fight the extra-dimensional aliens to a standstill, and he even gets the drop on Janeway at a critical moment, which puts just enough edge into a joke villain to keep the plot turning.


THOUGHTS

Bride of Chaotica! sits on the opposite pole from Latent Image. That episode was about serious ideas involving survivor's guilt and the nature of memory and identity. This one is... Well, really just about having a good time with a pastische of 1930s Flash Gordon serials.

When it sticks to the parody, it's terrifically entertaining. The black-and-white holodeck scenes are wonderfully cheesy, with the hilariously useless "Satan's Robot" a particular highlight. What keeps this from the level fo inspired lunacy is the shipboard scenes. Every time the action leaves the holodeck, the pace dies, and entirely too much time is spent on Technobabble explanations involving the region of space in which Voyager is trapped. Memo the writers: We don't care about the subspace gobbledygook, and every second devoted to that takes away from the addictive fun of Captain Proton.

Still, the bulk of Bride of Chaotica! stays either within or in close proximity to the holodeck adventure, and those scenes are uniformly enjoyable. The episode may not reach the level of inspired lunacy achieved by Deep Space 9's Our Man Bashir, but it remains a good ride.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Latent Image
Next Episode: Gravity


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5-5. Once Upon a Time.

Neelix uses a holo-novel to shield his goddaughter from reality.

THE PLOT

Neelix has been entrusted with the care of his goddaughter, young Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers), while her mother, Samantha (Nancy Hower) is on a mission with Tom and Tuvok in the Delta Flyer. In a transmission to Neelix, Samantha reveals that the ship has been damaged by an ion storm and that another storm is approaching. When that second storm leaves the shuttle limping off course, Voyager prepares a rescue mission.

Guided by his own devastation at the deaths of his family members, Neelix decides not to mention the situation to Naomi - at least, not until they have a clearer picture on how much danger the shuttle crew is in. Janeway initially supports this, and Neelix happily distracts Naomi with a fairy tale-like holo-novel set in an enchanted forest. But as the Delta Flyer's situation grows ever more serious, Janeway starts pushing Neelix to tell the child the truth - finally stating that if Neelix doesn't tell her, then she will!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Clearly does sympathize with Neelix's feelings, both his protectiveness of Naomi and his identification with the girl's situation. That doesn't stop her from insisting Neelix reveal the truth when she decides his actions are less for the child and more for himself - But she does deal with him as gently as possible, while still making it clear that she expects him to follow her instructions.

Neelix: His relationship with the Wildmans is carried forward from last season's Mortal Coil. I give points to the show for remembering and building on that. Neelix dodges Naomi's questions about his family, but his grief is evident in both face and tone even as he pretends to the young girl that they're simply "far away." That same sense of loss, remembering how much it hurt him when his family was killed, leads to him shielding Naomi from the truth about her mother's situation, long past the point at which he should be telling her.

TuvoK: Receives one of the episode's most effective moments. When it looks all but certain that she, Tuvok, and Tom will run out of air before rescue comes, she worries about what will become of Naomi. Tuvok, the other parent in the shuttle, manages to be genuinely reassuring without in any way compromising his Vulcan reserve: "My youngest child has been without a father for four years, yet I am certain of her well-being, that I conveyed my values to her before leaving... You have been an exemplary mother to Naomi, and she is in the hands of people you trust. She will survive and prosper, no matter what becomes of us."


THOUGHTS

Glancing around the Internet, it's clear that Once Upon a Time is a badly-regarded episode. I can't argue with many of the criticisms. The holodeck fairy tale, clearly the basis for the episode's title, all but vanishes in the second half; far more interesting narrative use could have been made of continuing the fairy tale through the episode and intercutting it with the Delta Flyer plot. It also is blatantly emotionally manipulative, to the point that you can almost hear writer Michael Taylor (who penned DS9's far superior The Visitor) urging you to be affected, dammit!

All these complaints are valid, and I can't deny them in the slightest. But I have to admit, I enjoyed this episode in spite of that. The manipulations are blatant and heavy-handed... But enough of it does strike a cord. While watching, I found myself rolling my eyes at an extended recording of a deathbed message, but still being affected by the scene even as a part of me mentally mocked it. And the episode's central dilemma - Neelix's emotional turmoil wrestling with a situation that hits so close to home - is perfectly consistent with his overall characterization and is well-played by Ethan Phillips.

I will say that a big part of me wonders if it mightn't have been more interesting had Samantha Wildman died during the mission. That would leave Neelix having to act as a father to Naomi, perhaps allowing his character to develop under this new responsibility - And would also give real emotional consequences to his refusal to tell Naomi the truth. This being Voyager, however, such does not occur, nor does the viewer ever really believe there's any danger of it.

Overall, I can't argue with the episode's poor reputation, but I also can't condemn an episode that I genuinely enjoyed. For all its faults, the story kept me engrossed enough in the character drama to overlook the heavy-handedness. It's too flawed for me to label it a good episode - But I liked it too much to label it a bad one.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: In the Flesh
Next Episode: Timeless

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4-18, 4-19. The Killing Game.

Janeway as a cafe owner in Nazi-occupied France.

THE PLOT:

The Hirogen have taken control of Voyager. The Hirogen Alpha, Karr (Danny Goldring), is intrigued by the possibilities of the ship's holodeck, has outfitted most of his Starfleet prisoners with neural interfaces, replacing their identities with those of characters within their holodeck programs.  Effectively, the [I]Voyager[/I] crew become different people, within deadly simulations of historical battles, with Karr studying their behavior as the situations unfold.

Janeway has been made into the owner of a cafe in the Nazi occupied French village Sainte Claire. Tuvok is her bartender, Seven a singer. They are all members of the French Resistance, secretly paving the way for American forces to liberate the village. But the Hirogen Beta, Turanj (Mark Deakins), has become impatient with his commander's game. He wants to begin the proper hunt - stalking the members of the Voyager crew and killing them all!


CHARACTERS:

Capt. Janeway: One of the pleasures of this two-parter is seeing the regulars in different roles, yet still true to their natures. Even stripped of her identity, Janeway is completely in charge. Her interactions with Tuvok and Seven are instantly familiar, with Tuvok the trusted advisor and Seven the person she wants to trust despite strain and tension. The main difference between Janeway with the neural implant and without it is that, with her identity returned, she is able to deal with the larger threat of the Hirogen. I wish there had been more interaction between her and the Hirogen Alpha in Part Two, as I enjoyed the scenes in which the two commanders reasoned with each other, two intelligent officers finding common ground in the midst of chaos.

Seven of Nine: Is the first crew member to regain her identity, thanks to her Borg plot devices, and gets the most prominent supporting role. Again. I'd complain if I actually thought any of the other regulars would be preferable, but Seven's strained interactions with Janeway inject an extra layer of tension into the first part. Within the simulation, Janeway's Resistance leader worries that Seven may be a traitor and is prepared to kill her. This leaves Seven working to return Janeway's identity to her, even as the woman she's trying to save is pulling her gun to shoot her as a traitor. Part Two gives her much less to do, allowing some strong moments for the rest of the cast, though she still gets a memorable bit in which she stands up to Turanj, showing no fear at his threat of execution.

The Doctor: Is forced to collaborate with the Hirogen Alpha. He really has no choice. With the crew thrust into violent holographic simulations with the safeties turned off, the Doctor's options are to patch up the crew so that they can continue to "play the game," or to refuse and watch his shipmates die horribly. He does remain alert for an opportunity to do more, however; and when Seven is brought to him with severe injuries, he is able to neutralize her neural implant so that she can get the rest to start fighting back.

Harry Kim: Gets his best episode of the season - probably his best episode since The Chute. He shows both cleverness and grit in his interactions with the Hirogen, aiding first the Doctor and then Janeway while convincing his captors that he is doing their bidding. Garrett Wang rises to some decent material with a genuinely strong performance. Plus, it's the only episode thus far this season in which Harry couldn't have been seamlessly replaced by a paperclip.

Hirogen: "Species that don't change die! ...We've allowed our predatory instincts to dominate us... We've spread ourselves too thin. We're no longer a culture, we have no identity. In another thousand years, no one will remember the name Hirogen!" Karr recognizes that the inability to think beyond the immediate hunt is leading his species on a slow path to extinction. His motives for subjecting the Voyager crew to a series of holographic horrors lend him a shade of gray that has been absent from previous Hirogen. At the same time, we see that the Hirogen are not just aggressors - They are also victims of their own, inflexible ideology. Appropriately, in Part Two, Turanj is talked back to the traditional Hirogen path by a holographic simulation of a Nazi in the dying days of World War II - one failed ideologue inspiring another to self-destructive aggression.


THOUGHTS:

The Killing Game is written by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky, who partnered for the superb season-bridging Scorpion. This two-parter is not of that quality, nor is it trying to be. This is a large-form example of a tendency both writers share: Playing games with the show's "reality," putting the characters into bizarre situations to see what might happen. This can result in a terrible episode (Braga's Genesis springs to mind, as does Menosky's Masks) - but when these writers are on form, the results can also be a lot of fun.

Happily, I found The Killing Game to be tremendously entertaining... albeit, only for about 70% of its running time. Like a lot of two-parters, there isn't quite enough to really fill two episodes, and the last half of Part Two starts to feel more than a little stretched out. Notably, there are at least two too many cutaways to another holodeck, in which Neelix and the Doctor have "comedy" dealings with some holographic Klingons.

But for at least an episode and a half, it is very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed seeing how the regulars' personalities kept showing through, even without their memories. It might have been more off-the-wall fun to have had them in very different roles - But it feels more "right" to see the characters paralleling their familiar roles even when given different identities and memories.

The use of the Hirogen is clever, too, developing them beyond their previous "Predator meets Star Trek" status. I find myself hoping that the events of this episode are followed up in the next Hirogen episode, and genuinely intrigued to see where they might be taken from here.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Retrospect
Next Episode: Vis a Vis 


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3-14. Alter Ego.

Marayna (Sandra Nelson): More than just a holodeck program.

THE PLOT

Harry Kim is depressed. No, it isn't that he's finally realized that he's Harry Kim - It's that he's fallen utterly in love with Marayna (Sandra Nelson), a character in Neelix's beachside holodeck program. Harry goes to Tuvok for help, asking the Vulcan to help him shut down his emotions.

When Tuvok meets Marayna, he finds himself surprisingly intrigued by her. She is far more perceptive than the average holodeck character, providing a concise analysis of Tuvok's own behavior when he reluctantly attends a luau. Harry reacts badly to Tuvok's interest in Marayna, though, prompting the Vulcan to "delete the Marayna subroutine."

Which should be the end of it, but isn't. When Tuvok returns to his quarters, he finds a visitor waiting for him: Marayna, in a Starfleet uniform!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Shows irratation with Harry's inattentiveness on the bridge, though she stops short of actually snapping at him. She does make attendance at Neelix's luau sound mandatory, in a way that seems specifically directed at Tuvok.  This hardly seems like the best way to treat her most loyal officer and most trusted friend when she knows full well how uncomfortable he is with such gatherings. Once Marayna is revealed as more than just a holodeck program, she is grim and straightforward in dealing with her, effectively granting her officers permission to kill Marayna if that's what's needed to end the situation.

Tuvok: Studies Harry's reactions to Marayna and fits them neatly into a basic, simple pattern of responses. His analysis is correct, as far as it goes - but as he later admits, he does not show the respect to Harry's feelings that is due, despite his claim to enjoying his working relationship with the younger man. Tuvok admits that he finds his conversations with Marayna stimulating, but will not even contemplate a relationship. He already has a wife, and has a duty to his colleagues. As far as he's concerned, that is the end of it.

Harry Kim: Though The Thaw and, to a lesser extent, The Chute prove that Harry Kim can work as a character, in this episode he turns out to be the weakest single element. The episode's saving grace is that, about ten minutes in, the story shifts its focus from Harry to Tuvok. The Harry scenes continue to be irritating and/or embarrassing throughout. When he gets into a jealous snit over Tuvok talking with Marayna and snaps that he should have dealt with his feelings himself, I couldn't help but yell out, "Yes, you should have!" Is this an adult professional, or a teenager?

Hot Holographic Space Babe of the Week: Soap opera and TV movie veteran Sandra Nelson plays Marayna, the object of Harry's affections. Nelson is a good choice for the role, bringing enough intelligence to the part to make it convincing when Marayna attracts Tuvok's attention as well, and she has the acting ability needed to make all the character shifts necessary for the episode: an appealing and outgoing siren for Harry, a thoughtful and observant young woman who can intellectually spar with Tuvok, and finally an increasingly menacing foe forVoyager.


THOUGHTS

Alter Ego starts out looking like a truly horrible episode. Its starting point is Harry Kim in love with a holodeck character, going to Tuvok for advice about suppressing his emotions. In short: Cringe and brace for impact!

About ten or so minutes in, however, the episode shifts its focus. What started as a story about Harry dealing with a hopeless (if not outright pathetic) crush pivots into an examination of Tuvok and his self-imposed isolation. Tuvok engages in a genuinely smart and interesting conversation with Marayna about the ways the Vulcan isolates himself even within a crowd. Like Marayna herself, the episode gradually reveals that it is more than it first appeared.

The script is by Joe Menosky, who wrote The Thaw, the standout episode of Voyager's run to date. The show definitely needs to hold onto him. The kind of bait-and-switch he pulls here, presenting us with a dull Harry Kim episode only to reveal that he's actually writing a rather probing Tuvok episode, is exactly the sort of thing Voyager needs to do more often.

Alter Ego isn't on the level of The Thaw, nor is trying to be. However, the story makes good use of Voyager's own internal continuity, something this series often struggles with. It also uses the characters well, throwing in some amusing character bits for Torres, Paris, and the Doctor despite this episode not being about them. Only Chakotay is left with nothing to do - which, frankly, I'm okay by, as he's become a character I actually like less than Harry Kim.  Robert Picardo has only a fleeting appearance, but that's probably to allow for him taking over directing duties for the episode.

The resolution to the story isn't as good as the rest of it, but it works well enough as an explanation for both Marayna and the strange nebula Voyager has been observing, and Tuvok and Marayna's final conversation has much of the same intelligence that made their luau dialogue so interesting. 

On the whole, a solid episode with enough good moments to make this above-average for the series. Definitely worth watching.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Fair Trade
Next Episode: Coda

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2-16. Meld.

Tuvok mind-melds with a killer (Brad Dourif)

THE PLOT

Tuvok is called to Engineering to look at a rather startling source for a malfunction in an EPS conduit: the remains of Crewman Frank Darwin. The security chief's first theory is that the crewman was performing maintenance in the conduit and fell victim to an accident. But the Doctor's examination leads to a different finding: Darwin was murdered!

DNA on the corpse is linked to Creman Suder (Brad Dourif), a Betazoid and former Maquis who was the only other crew member in Engineering at that time. Suder readily confesses to the crime, but can give no reason for it other than a look from Crewman Darwin that he "didn't like." Tuvok is not satisfied, and pushes for a better answer. When Suder admits that he doesn't know exactly why he killed Darwin, Tuvok proposes a drastic solution to find the answers he seeks - a mind meld with the killer!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: We once again see her closeness with Tuvok. She insists on being the one to go into his quarters to convince him to go to sick bay, rather than simply shutting himself away for the rest of the voyage. Her personal concern for him is clear on her face even as he rants at her. His violence, as he lunges at her only to be stopped by the force field, is as shocking to her as his insults. Kate Mulgrew's nonverbal performance as she absorbs his rage is extremely good, and I enjoyed the quiet scene between Janeway and Tuvok that ends the episode. I'll emphasize yet again: Though I often have problems with the writing for Janeway, Mulgrew's performance is rarely less than good, and often exceptional.

Tuvok: Insists on believing that his own rigid logic must apply to all situations. It is logical that there must be a proper motive for Suder's crimes, both now and in the past, and he simply will not accept that motives and reason don't always apply. His near-religious belief in logic and order is his greatest vulnerability. It is that which pushes him to try the meld in the first place. Even in his violent rage near the end, he falls back on needing a logical reason to let it out. He goes to kill Suder because the crewman must be killed to satisfy justice - the most logical reason he could use to excuse violence.

The Doctor: Gets a terrific scene in the first half, as he tries to explain to Tuvok that sometimes crimes happen with no real motivation. "We are all descended from predators," he tells the Vulcan. "All of us have violent instincts." The Doctor initiates treatment for Tuvok after the complications of the mind meld, but not without some carping that tells us that such complications aren't nearly as uncommon as Vulcans would like everyone to believe.

Tom Paris: A flash of the old Tom, here, as he runs a lottery for replicator rations in the holodeck. Chakotay ends up putting a stop to it, but I'd argue that he shouldn't. The lottery isn't a half-bad idea for crew morale, and it seems quite harmless. Still, Tom is obviously bothered by Chakotay's words about his behavior disappointing the captain, who genuinely has put a lot of trust in him.

Kes: Though her part is quite small, we again see her defined by compassion, even in a stressful situation. Tuvok, who has been instructing her in controlling her telepathic abilities, is in front of her in pain. He tries to use their teacher/student relationship to convince her to let him out. She is quite kind as she expresses her concern for him and tries to reassure him that his pain will be over soon - but she not only refuses his transparent attempt at manipulation, but is a step ahead of his efforts to use his own telepathy. "I had them disable your telepathic abilities," she tells him - again, with a surprising amount of kindness even as she denies his efforts to gain freedom.

Neelix: Gets strangled!  OK, it's a holodeck simulation.  But still, Neelix gets strangled!  It is telling that the behavior of "holo-Neelix" is only marginally less inappropriate and obnoxious than that of the real thing.  That writer/co-executive producer Michael Piller obviously recognizes Neelix's obnoxiousness has me wondering why the show's creative team wasn't trying to do something to address it.  Deep Space 9's Dr. Bashir was insufferable when that series started, and became a very strong character by fairly early in Season Two, thanks to some attention by the writers.  A similar effort would probably work with Neelix, if only such an effort was forthcoming.


THOUGHTS

What's this? A sharp, well-paced script with some complex questions at its core? An episode which addresses the notion of senseless violence without handwaving away all the complexities of the issue by settling on some pat childhood trauma? Could this really be an episode of Voyager?

When asked if he feels any remorse for his basically motiveless murder, Suder replies that he doesn't feel anything at all. "Most Betazoids can sense other people's emotions," he tells Tuvok. "I can't even sense my own." Brad Dourif, an actor who has played many a disturbed individual, is ideal for the role. The script gets the most out of his presence by keeping him subdued. Suder is calm. Resentful, perhaps - both of Starfleet and of his own lack of self control. But he doesn't do any "psycho killer" frothing at the mouth. His quiet reaction to his own violence makes him all the more disturbing.

He remains a disturbing presence even after the meld. Granted a certain Vulcan reserve, he is able to study his own violence from a distance. As such, he is able to give voice to that which Tuvok resists: That the violence is attractive, that the simple fact of its illogic makes it all the moreso. Though it is probably not Suder's intent to push Tuvok over the edge, his voice is the honeyed voice of a devil, tempting Tuvok to embrace the worst angels of his savage Vulcan heritage.

The episode is a particularly fine showcase for Tim Russ. In the past, Russ has sometimes fallen on the wrong side of "robotic" in his attempts to convey Vulcan reserve. Here, he strikes the balance just right. The character's obsession with understanding Suder's actions gives just the right note of humanity (for lack of a better word) to bring Tuvok to life in the episode's first half. The second half lets him cut loose. The scene in sickbay is particularly good. Tuvok laughs menacingly, threatens the Doctor, and unleashes his rage on Janeway, all within a few minutes. Russ is terrific here, embracing the material without going too far with it.

It's little surprise that Meld is a Michael Piller script. While Piller's Voyager work hasn't quite been at the level of his TNG and DS9 work, he is a writer who has generally embraced the idea of multilayered character work, someone who has the ability to grapple with complex issues without breaking them down into simplistic pap. This script also marks the Trek debut of another writer: Mike Sussman, who would go on to write several more Voyager episodes before becoming (by far) the best writer on Enterprise. Effectively, one of the best writers of 1990's Trek is paired with the best writer of the following decades Trek. When looked at that way, it becomes less surprising that the result is a very good episode.

And depsite a Tom Paris subplot that never fully clicks with the larger episode, this is an extremely fine piece. Easily the best episode of Season Two thus far, and one of the best episodes of Voyager to date. If the writing was at this level more often, I would have a far higher opinion of this show than the one I currently hold.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Threshold
Next Episode: Dreadnought

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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.

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2-03. Projections.

Barclay (Dwight Schultz) urges the doctor to destroy Voyager!

THE PLOT

The holographic doctor is activated, only to find himself apparently alone on the ship. The computer informs him that the ship came under attack by the Kazon. With a warp core breach imminent, Capt. Janeway ordered a complete evacuation.

As the doctor prepares to shut down his program, convinced that with the ship abandoned there is no further need for him, B'Elanna comes into the sickbay. She tells him that the ship's sensors were damaged, which is why the computer isn't detecting any life signs. She, Janeway, and a handful of others remained on board to contain the warp core breach. Now Janeway is injured, and her only hope lies with some experimental technology that will allow the doctor to project himself to other parts of the ship.

The projection technology works. The doctor is able to help Janeway, then is able to project himself to the mess hall to save Neelix from a Kazon warrior. But then something strange happens. The doctor, a hologram... bleeds. And feels pain. Then a stranger appears in the sickbay. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), an engineer formerly attached to Picard's Enterprise, informs the doctor that he is not a hologram at all. He is actually Lewis Zimmerman, running an experiment on a space station's holodeck. Radiation has caused the program to go wrong, and scrambled the doctor's memories in the process. He must shut down the program in order to save his own life. And there's only one way to do that: Destroy Voyager!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Present, but largely inconsequential. Still, Kate Mulgrew's facial and body language when the doctor orders the computer to "Delete Janeway" are hilarious.

The Doctor: Any episode centered around the holographic doctor gets an instant boost from Robert Picardo's effortlessly assured performance. Picardo is terrific, whether he's reacting with smug satisfaction to the newfound ability to deactivate certain annoying programs (Tom Paris, Harry Kim), or whether he's struggling with pain in his head to determine which of two possible realities is the real one. Thankfully, Brannon Braga's script is at least sensible enough to make the doctor very skeptical of Barclay's claims, with it taking a lot of genuinely persuasive evidence for him to even begin to believe in it.

Kes: It's revealing that in the doctor's hallucination, Kes is his wife - the hallucination's last temptation for him, and its strongest. After all, Kes was the first person on Voyager to actually treat him with respect and friendship. He mentions within the hallucination that he has always found Kes very beautiful, though he does not repeat that to the real Kes. In the tag, Kes seems both amused and flattered at her role in the hallucination... though she asks the doctor not to mention it to Neelix, lest it trigger jealousy.

Neelix: Though only in the episode briefly, he still manages to annoy. When he duels with a Kazon, he dodges a gun-blast and then smirks, "Missed me." I really wanted a follow-up blast to literally wipe the smirk off his face, before wiping away his face for good. Kes' concern about Neelix's jealousy recalls what we saw in Phage, when he became paranoid about Tom Paris. It would seem that Neelix can add "possessive jealousy" to his long list of bad qualities. In fairness, he's probably self-aware enough to realize that Kes is far, far, far, far, far too good for him. A hologram would frankly be an enormous step up for Kes from her current boyfriend.

Barclay: Dwight Schultz reprises his TNG role as engineer Reg Barclay. His performance gives the episode a considerable boost. Not only does he have terrific screen chemistry with Robert Picardo, he is an actor who has the ability to go from funny to threatening very quickly, with little apparent change in behavior on screen. For most of the episode, Schultz and Picardo essentially make a comedy duo, with re-enactments of some bits from Caretaker particularly amusing. But when Barclay gets serious about convincing the doctor that he must either destroy the ship or die, Schultz is really quite sinister, particularly when he grills the doctor on who he would rather be - Dr. Zimmerman, a real person with a real career and a beautiful wife who loves him; or a hologram confined to sickbay and the holodeck, and nothing more?


THOUGHTS

Coming off the tedious mess that was the last episode, Projections is a bit of a relief. It's not a great episode, or even as good an episode as it honestly should be. But it's solid and enjoyable, with a workmanlike script and typically confident direction from Jonathan Frakes.

It's obvious fairly early on that none of what we're seeing is real, and the script tips its hand too quickly by having the medical tricorder unable to detect B'Elanna's life signs. But as a look into the doctor's character, with his fondest wish to be a real person with a family and a career to call his own, it has merit. Plus, a lot of it is fun to watch, particularly when the episode starts replaying bits from Caretaker, with the doctor and Barclay effectively providing color commentary ("Was Mr. Paris always this annoying?" "This is the work of an entity you will come to know as the Caretaker - or Banjo Man").

It isn't all it could be, however, simply because the episode never makes it seems as though there is any other possible outcome. An obvious comparison would be with Buffy the Vampire Slayer's episode, Normal Again. That saw a similar scenario, with the main character being made to think that her life within the television series was a delusion... but it did it in such a way that the "delusion" had credibility, to the point that it was hotly debated within fandom. Here, there's never any question what the truth is, nor is there anything within the episode to give us even a tug of doubt. Nor are there any real layers to the delusion, an attempted "sting" ending aside. As such, Projections plays well on its surface level, and that's fine. But it doesn't do anything more, leaving it an entertaining but shallow piece.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Initiations
Next Episode: Elogium

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1-12. Heroes and Demons.

THE PLOT

Voyager is attempting to extract photonic energy from a protostar, which could potentially boost their energy efficiency by up to 15%. But after a containment breach, there's a malfunction in the holodeck, causing the off-duty Harry Kim to disappear.

Amazingly, his absence is actually noticed! Chakotay and Tuvok go into the holodeck, which is still running Harry's holo-novel: Beowulf, with Harry playing the mythical warrior. No sooner have they arrived than they are informed that Beowulf - Harry - died in battle with Grendel. There is no body, however, leaving the two insisting on finding Grendel to confirm Harry's death. But when Grendel arrives, it is in a burst of photonic energy - which apparently destroys Chakotay and Tuvok just as it did Harry.

In hopes that the three missing officers' patterns are still within the holodeck, Janeway comes up with a new plan. Another officer will be sent in to study Grendel. But this time, they will send someone who should be impervious to physical harm: The holographic doctor!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Janeway: Prior to this episode, Janeway has mostly regarded the doctor as a "thing," a computer program that's an annoying necessity. Kes may have pushed her to treat the doctor with a modicum of respect, but it's only here that she finally starts to interact with him as a person. Even that only comes after his first trip into the holodeck. Her initial briefing with him is fairly cold and curt. But after he returns and insists that he wants to go back in to "finish what (he) started," Janeway finally shows some warmth to him. In the final scene, she is talking with him in such a way that she seems to finally be regarding him as a proper officer, though future episodes will prove out whether or not this is a permanent bit of progress.

The Doctor: Nervous when given his mission to the holodeck. As he tells Kes, he knows everything there is to know about treating wounds and about every piece of equipment in the sickbay, but he has "never even seen a sky, let alone Vikings and monsters." Prompted by Kes to pick a name for himself before the mission, he selects "Dr. Schweitzer." He interacts very stiffly with the Viking warriors, unable to truly relate on their level. When prompted to take part in a swordfight, he loses patience, declares the fight "absurd," and simply makes himself non-corporeal so that his opponent's sword passes harmlessly through him. But when "Grendel" attacks, and it becomes clear that the photonic energy can do real harm to him, the doctor reacts with genuine fear. Robert Picardo is a delight from start to finish, and his prominent role is one of the main reasons this bit of silliness is as watchable as it is.

Kes: Her interactions with the doctor continue to be a highlight of the series. She recognizes the doctor's anxiety about the mission, and pushes him to talk to her about it. She points out that this is his chance to prove that he truly is "a Starfleet officer," rather than just a hologram, and points out that no one ever really knows what is going to happen on an Away mission. Though the content of this talk could come across as tough, Jennifer Lien's demeanor keeps Kes sympathetic, giving the doctor support rather than a kick in the backside. Is it sad that the friendship between a hologram and one of the more underused supporting players is the most human relationship on the show?

Harry Kim: It would figure that when it came time for a Voyager regular to vanish into a holodeck malfunction, it would end up being hapless Harry. Though he's barely in the episode (a mercy), I think it says a lot that when there was a need for someone to kick-start the plot by simply not being present, they chose Harry. Even when Harry reappears at the very end to deliver his one line of the episode, there's no follow-up on what happened to him from his perspective. I'm tempted to guess that the writers realized that since it was Harry, nobody really cared.


THOUGHTS

Even in the Delta Quadrant, when there's a need for a quick hazard to pad out the episode count, the writers still have the holodeck to turn to. Naturally, the culprit is Technobabble. The opening seconds of the episode tell us that Voyager is attempting to extract photonic energy from a protostar. But wait! There is a slight breach in the annular confinement beam!

Sigh. If the writers really want to do Beowulf, can't they do it without first slopping waves of gibberish at us?

That gripe aside, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Heroes & Demons. The "holodeck malfunction" episode is a somewhat tired standby. But the twist of having the characters interacting with a very familiar work of literature makes it interesting, even in the First Act when this seems to be a Chakotay and Tuvok episode. Then, having established Chakotay and Tuvok as the leads for this episode, the first commercial fadeout pulls a switch on us. Chakotay and Tuvok are removed from the action. Instead, the hero of this piece is going to be... the doctor?

Thrusting Robert Picardo's balding, arrogantly intellectual, middle aged doctor into the role of action hero in Beowulf is inherently amusing, and the episode isn't afraid to have a bit of fun with that. From him boring the Vikings with a tale of heroism involving a measles outbreak, to being barely able to lift a Viking sword for a duel with the shifty Unferth (Christopher Neame), to reacting with evident discomfort at the romantic overtures of the beautiful Freya (Marjorie Monaghan), Picardo's doctor is a charmingly unlikely action hero. In this version of Beowulf, the hero's first encounter with Grendel ends with him squawking in a panic: "Get me out of here!"

Both episode and actor also recognize when to drop the comedy and let things turn serious. Picardo is effective in showing the doctor's genuine anger against Unferth during their final confrontation. He also does well in dealing with "Grendel" and while reflecting on what happened with Janeway afterward. Really, Picardo doesn't put a foot wrong in his performance, and that's already no surprise - He established himself as the show's standout performer quite early on, and has continued to live up to that.

Though fun, this is no great episode. The entire setup, with the holodeck and the Vikings, is fairly silly. Making the holodeck into the setting for a first contact situation does lend some added resonance, particularly given the parallels in the science fiction story to the story of Beowulf (crew members are taken away from the community by a powerful non-human life form)... but it's still mainly an excuse for the doctor to play fish out water with some Vikings. Finally, I was disappointed that there was no follow-up scene discussing how Harry, Chakotay, and Tuvok had experienced their bizarre captivity. All kidding about "it's Harry so who cares" aside, I'd think Janeway - or even the doctor, for that matter - would be interested in what, if anything, these crew members had experienced. The script doesn't even ask the question.

Still, for a holodeck episode that begins with Harry Kim yet again placed in jeopardy (how long until a pantomime villain ties him to railroad tracks?), this is surprisingly enjoyable.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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