Thoughts on Season Five.

Janeway wrestles with her past choices in Night.

THOUGHTS ON SEASON FIVE:

This is a tricky overview for me to write, given that I burned out on writing reviews and took an extended break about three quarters of the way through Season Five. I rewatched a handful of episodes before moving forward (not all, because life is far, far too short for me to ever rewatch The Disease or The Fight). Even so, some of this is going to be based on memory and on re-reading my years-old reviews from the first part of the season.

That disclaimer out of the way, what follows are my general impressions of Season Five of Star Trek: Voyager.


SEASON FOUR, CONTINUED:

As the season opens, Voyager feels the most confident it has ever been. And why not? Season Four was generally well-received. The addition of Seven of Nine to the cast worked well; and though the odd clunker is baked in with a 26-episode season, overall episode quality was higher than had previously been the case.

For its first two thirds, I'd say that the best description of Season Five is "Season Four, Continued." Seven of Nine remains prominent, with major episodes centered around her backstory. Other episodes follow up on the Borg and Species 8472. Most importantly, up through Dark Frontier, the overall quality remains high. Extreme Risk is pretty bad, and Gravity is rather middling, but most installments are well-made and entertaining. There are even a few standouts, notably Timeless and Latent Image.

Unfortunately, the season doesn't manage to sustain that level to the end...

The Borg Queen tempts Seven in Dark Frontier. It feels like
a season finale - and it probably should have been...

AN UNEVEN FINAL THIRD:

Dark Frontier is to Season Five of Voyager what Q Who? was to Season Two of TNG. It's a strong episode (involving the Borg, no less), and everything about the production indicates that it was the season's big spectacle. But once it's done, there are still several episodes to go - and, as was true of Season Two of TNG, the writers don't seem to know what to do with those episodes.

There are bright spots throughout this final stretch. I enjoyed Course: Oblivion and Think Tank, even if the latter suffers from a weak ending. 11:59 shows off Kate Mulgrew's acting range, and Relativity is a lot of fun.

But this marks the point at which there's a bad (or at least mediocre) episode for every good one. In rapid succession, we get a few dire offerings: In The Disease, Harry Kim has sex... without permission! (From Janeway, I mean. He had permission from his partner). The Fight combines boxing with one of Chakotay's Vision Quests. Juggernaut focuses on a very grumpy B'Elanna Torres...grumpy, I'm assuming, because she read the script first. All we need is a planet of Irish stereotypes and a clip show, and it would basically be late Season Two of TNG!

It's a pity. As of Dark Frontier, I was ready to label this as Voyager's best season thus far. But that last batch of episodes moves it well below Season Four in my rankings (though still above Season Two and Three).

Torres grapples with trauma in Extreme Risk. Believe it
or not, this is the better of her two Season Five episodes.

TWO TIERS OF CHARACTERS:

It's been evident for a while that Voyager has separated its regular cast into two tiers. Janeway, the Doctor, Seven, and Tuvok regularly get the best material. This makes sense, given that Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Jeri Ryan, and Tim Russ are the show's most consistently strong actors. But the remaining characters... mostly get to fight over scraps.

Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres are the oddest characters to have been shunted to the lower tier, given that they actually got a lot of focus early in the series. Despite the characters being interesting on the page, and despite solid performances from Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson, Seasons Four and Five have seen both increasingly relegated to "scraps."

At least Tom gets one good spotlight episode, along with some decent material in other episodes. Bride of Chaotica is a particularly entertaining show, one that I included in my partial season rewatch for no reason other than wanting to see it again. But the writers don't seem to have any clue what to do with B'Elanna - which is strange, since she was one of the better characters in the early seasons.

There were two Torres-centric Season Five episodes, and both were... well, bad. Extreme Risk had an interesting idea, as B'Elanna suffered survivor's guilt after learning about the deaths of her friends in the Maquis. Unfortunately, it dealt with the subject in a painfully superficial manner, with her cured of all problems by having a chat with Chakotay. I'd make a crack about '80s After School Specials, but most of those were frankly better written.

Juggernaut saves time by not even bothering with an interesting idea. Instead, the bad TV writer's trick is employed of regressing B'Elanna into the walking personification of anger. Why is she angry? Don't ask questions that might lead to anything interesting. She's just angry and foul tempered because that way, it feels like progress when she starts behaving like herself again at the end. The episode itself is bad; its treatment of B'Elanna as a character is awful.

Though at least, unlike Harry, she doesn't have an episode that sees her getting into trouble for having sex with another consenting adult...

Neelix argues with Janeway in Once Upon a Time.

THE MOST IMPROVED CHARACTER - NEELIX:

The last few seasons, the writers seem to have made a habit of taking one failed character and putting some real focus on them to prove that the character can work. Chakotay got good material in late Season Three and early Season Four. Harry Kim was made actively compelling in Timeless, my pick as Season Five's best episode (and yes, my favorite episode this season was a Harry Kim episode. Hell has frozen over).

For the bulk of this season, though, the designated "improved" character has been Neelix. Yes, the usually insufferable Talaxian is transformed into someone sympathetic and even likable. I began to consciously notice this while watching the late Season Five episodes. When putting this overview together, I reviewed my Season Five posts in which I used the tag, "Neelix," just to make sure. And yes, in every case, I have remarked that Season Five Neelix has been well-portrayed as a character.

This includes episodes that show his faults. Once Upon a Time carries forward Neelix's friendship with young Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers), first seen in Season Four's Mortal Coil. The plot revolves around Neelix trying to distract Naomi while her mother is in mortal danger. It reaches a point where it's obvious to all that the girl needs to be told that her mother might not come home; but Neelix digs in, desperate to shield Naomi for as long as possible, even shouting at Janeway at one point. He's in the wrong, completely in the wrong... but given the situation and given his backstory, we can fully empathize with him even as we see that he's wrong. And, good writing for Neelix aside, that one's not even that great an episode!

Other episodes use him sparingly, but to good effect. In Drone, he's the one crew member who is open in his interactions with the Borg drone. In Counterpoint, his good cheer helps to keep the telepathic children calm and quiet during the Devore inspections. In 11:59, he provides a sympathetic ear to Janeway's story about her ancestor and spends his free time digging up additional information. These are all good uses of the character, as opposed to the annoying comic relief that's so often been his default mode in the past.

But, if past "improved characters" are any indication, Season Six will likely return Neelix to his previous state of bad comedy relief, just like Chakotay returned to being cardboard and Harry returned to being... well, Harry. It's as if the writers have some sort of cap on how many well-written characters can exist at any one time.

The Doctor uncovers a past decision that he can't live with
in Latent Image, one of the season's best episodes.

SEASON SIX WISHLIST:

A couple of the items from my earlier "Season Five Wishlist" actually came to pass. Seven of Nine has remained one of the show's most prominent characters, but she has been pared back. As good as she was in Season Four, it felt as if other characters suffered for her success. In Season Five, she fits within the ensemble.

That leads me to my primary wish list item for Season Six... and really, for the remainder of the series. I would really like to see the show balance its cast better. I already mentioned that Voyager's regulars are divided into two tiers. And yes, Janeway and Seven and Tuvok and the Doctor are fine characters well-portrayed by fine actors. But the "B" tier characters can also work, as has been proved in past episodes. B'Elanna used to be one of the most interesting members of the cast, and I'm confident that she could be again if anyone bothered to actually write for her.

Past that... Well, I've long since given up on Voyager ever being a show that's consistently interesting to me. That said, Season Four, and at least the first two thirds of Season Five, show that it's capable of being a pretty good version of itself. I'd like to see more of that: more compelling episodes like Latent Image and Timeless, more bonkers fun like Bride of Chaotica! and Relativity, more decent character pieces like Counterpoint... and far, far fewer piles of sludge like Juggernaut that seem to exist solely to burn off an episode slot.

Right now, Voyager is my least favorite Star Trek series. But it has a pretty good cast; and for all the wasted potential, it has a capable team of writers. There's still 51 episodes left, which is longer than full runs of several series. That's more than enough time for Voyager to make me change my opinion of it. I'd love to see that happen... though at the same time, I'm not holding my breath.

Janeway plays an Evil Overlord. It seems to come naturally to her.

IN CONCLUSION:

Voyager is not, and has never been, a bad show on an episode-by-episode basis. The best episodes of Voyager are as good as those of any Trek series, and the worst episodes are no worse than the dregs of TNG and Deep Space 9, both of which I like much better as series.

Its big problem is that, unlike those shows, there doesn't seem to be any real focus. It's set in a new section of space, but it doesn't expand the Trek universe the way TNG did. The crew is confined to one ship and has no support, but there's precious little in the way of developing plot and character arcs like DS9 had.

In the end, it's mostly a collection of episodes: some good, some bad, and a lot that fall in between. More than anything else, I think that's what keeps me at arm's length. There are individual episodes that I love... but even when I watch a great one, I can't summon up any excitement for the next one.


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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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Thoughts on Season Three.

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

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT SEASON THREE

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

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


BACK TO BASICS: THE VERDICT

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

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

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

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

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

CHARACTERS: CHAKOTAY

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

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

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


OTHER CHARACTERS:

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

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

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

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY

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

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

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


THE REDSHIRTS:

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

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

WHY ARE WE STILL IN THE DELTA QUADRANT?

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

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

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

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

SEASON FOUR WISHLIST

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

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

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

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

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


IN SUMMATION

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

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


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Thoughts on Season Two.

Janeway takes the idea of confronting herself literally.

Much to my surprise, Voyager's first season was actually promising. Not brilliant, to be sure - fully half the cast still didn't work very well by the end of the year, and there was a distinct lack of ambition in the storytelling. Still, the best episodes of Season One, notably and Faces showed just how good Voyager could be. At the very least, barring a few bad episodes, Season One was generally fun to watch.

Season Two takes that potential and... squanders it. Most of Season One's flaws are magnified. The first year's storytelling was unadventurous; the second year's is outright hackneye. But though I come largely to bury Voyager and not to praise it, I will be fair enough to first discuss the one area in which the series actually improved.

Episodes like Meld help make Tim Russ's Tuvok
the season's most improved character.

CHARACTERIZATION: THE GOOD

The regular characters were better-served in Season Two than in Season One.  This is particularly evident among the male cast, who except for the holographic doctor seemed fairly weak in the first season.  Robert Duncan McNeill's Tom Paris, intermittently promising last year, is consistently good this year.  Critical to this is that the writers are now tuning their scripts to McNeill's strengths and away from his weaknesses.  Gone are the ill-conceived attempts to turn Tom into an edgy anti-hero.  Instead, he is shown to be flawed but sincere in his desire to do right by his post, his ship, and his captain.

Tim Russ' Tuvok is even better, so much so that I'd rate him as the season's most improved character. In Season One, Russ too often fell on the wrong side of the line between "reserved" and "robot." This year, he nails the characterization, capably showing a man who keeps his emotions in reserve but who still genuinely reacts to situations. It helps that he gets some of the season's best writing.  Meld particularly allows him to show his range, presenting an episode that not only shows Tuvok's darkest side, but also his inherent sense of honor. Even in lesser episodes, such as the enjoyable yet flawed Resolutions or the entirely expendable Innocence, Russ manages to impress.

If they had written Tuvok out after Season One, I don't think I would have cared at all.  After Season Two, his character is one of the ones I'm actively looking forward to seeing more of.

Seska tortures Chakotay. Which is only fair
given how much Chakotay tortures the audience.

CHARACTERIZATION: THE BAD

Kes was a character who worked. In fact, she was one of two characters (the other being the doctor) who worked right away. In Season One, the writers made good use of her. She was a supporting character, but she was visible and important throughout. This is no longer the case in Season Two.

Kes still gets good episodes here and there. But outside of a handful of shows, she is almost perpetually sidelined. Her relationship with the doctor, one of her defining ones, is diminished in importance, as is her friendship with Tom. Jennifer Lien is still good, and retains her knack for making the most of the scraps she's given. But those scraps have grown a lot leaner, and it seems evident that the writers have lost interest in her.

Lien's spark at least keeps the character engaging during her limited screentime. The same cannot be said of either Harry Kim or Chakotay. These characters (and actors) did not work in Season One, and they still don't work in Season Two.

At least Harry gets The Thaw, an episode which shows that the character could have worked. It's not that there are any traits here that don't exist in other episodes. He's still the technobabble expert, he still has absolute faith in Janeway, and he's still so rigidly moral that it actually becomes a fault. However, he is examined in greater depth, made human by revelations of his greatest fears, and this allows Garrett Wang a thus-far unique opportunity to show that he actually can act... if only the other 25 scripts per season would be kind enough to allow him to.

Chakotay doesn't even get that much. Even in good episodes, nothing is done to make him stand out. We either are reminded that he is Native American and therefore mystical, or we see him responding to the manipulations of others (mostly Seska). As a character unto himself, all that's there is a facial tattoo in a uniform. Making mattes worse, actor Robert Beltran is wooden even in good episodes. He's downright oak-like in bad ones.

And the worst part of this? While Harry at least is only spotlighted occasionally, the Seska arc means that Chakotay gets a lot of screentime this season... almost all of it dull.

Neelix is jealous of Tom's friendship with Kes.
Amazingly, this isn't him at his worst.

CHARACTERIZATION: THE UGLY

Which brings me to Neelix. In my overview of Season One, I stated that I was undecided about him. Well, Season Two has me off the fence. I can now state with some confidence that I do not like him, not one little bit.

Ethan Phillips is a capable actor.  He does well with the few good moments he gets, notably in Alliances and Investigations, two episodes in which Neelix actually gets to be competent and useful.  But he and his character are utterly sabotaged by the scripts. It's as if, upon discovering that many were irritated by Neelix, the writers passive-aggressively decided to show the audience the true meaning of "annoying."

Neelix's jealousy of Tom's friendship with Kes is irritating enough. But I really hate his constant needling of Tuvok. It may be an attempt to create a Spock/McCoy dynamic. But it suffers from the same problem that plagued the early interactions of Dr. Pulaski and Data in Season Two of TNG: Namely, when one party stoically accepts the needling of the other rather than fighting back, it just becomes bullying. Bullying done with cheerfulness and a smile isn't any more endearing than when it's done with a scowl. TNG figured this out quickly and moved to a friendlier Pulaski/Data dynamic. Voyager doesn't even seem to realize that there's a problem.

Threshold really isn't the worst episode of Star Trek
 - but it just might be the strangest.

"WHO CARES WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?"

Despite the continuing weakness of Chakotay and Harry Kim and the aggravation of Neelix, characterization in Season Two is mostly an improvement. The rest of the cast now works, offering several characters who are at least enjoyable to follow.

But one other component is needed for success: I have to be interested in seeing what these characters do and/or what happens to them. This is the area in which Voyager's second season not only stumbles, but most of the time falls smack onto its face.

It's not so much an issue of quality control. There are some bad episodes, sure, including one hilariously bad one.  But most of the individual episodes are at least watchable, and several are quite good. Death Wish and The Thaw provide the series with its first truly great episodes, ones that I think rival the best of other Trek shows.

It's all fine enough episode by episode. It's only when you string the episodes together that the problem becomes clear: Namely, that there is nothing hooking me into wanting to see what happens next. This isn't specifically an appeal for arc-based television. In fact, there is an arc that runs through the second half of the season, involving the Kazon and Seska, which comes complete with a subsidiary arc involving a turncoat member of the crew. That's more multi-episode storytelling than you'll find within most TNG seasons.

Butthere's no sense that events actually matter. Things happen to the characters, but mostly they don't have any impact. Even Seska shoving a stolen son at Chakotay doesn't change his character (pity), save for in the first half of Basics. The external threats appear and are vanquished, with little sense of any impact on the crew.

Suder (Brad Dourif) goes out in a blaze of glory. Because
keeping him around might be messy, and we can't have that.

BACK TO BASICS

It's fitting that the season cliffhanger is titled Basics, given that the 2-parter's wrap-up basically ejects any elements that might create interesting complications for Season Three. Chakotay's half-Cardassian son? Turns out the other half is Kazon, and Chakotay has no connection with the child at all. Recurring villain Seska, with her personal connection to Chakotay? Unceremoniously killed off... which will hopefully at least reduce Chakotay's screen time, though it deprives the series of its only effective recurring villain in the process.

As for the unstable Suder, so wonderfully played by veteran actor Brad Dourif? He's exactly the kind of character Voyager needs. He's a man who has fierce demons he's trying to control. He's a potential wild card, someone who could help or harm the crew at any given turn. He's not someone you want to see as a regular, which would inevitably lead to toning down the very elements which make him interesting in the first place. But he's a worthy recurring character, someone to check in on maybe 3 - 4 times per season.

So of course, he gets to die in a blaze of glory. The net result is that we are left with only the Starfleet faithful. Well, and the Maquis, but since they all behave exactly like Starfleet faithful (another missed opportunity), that hardly registers as a difference.

The series goes back to basics in the most depressing way possible: By removing anything that might create mess in a situation that by all rights should be extremely, even inherently, messy.


GOODBYE, MR. PILLER

Season Two of Voyager marks the end of Michael Piller's regular association with Star Trek.  Part Two of Basics is his final Voyager script, with his only writing credit for the franchise after this being the movie, Star Trek: Insurrection.

Given how good Piller's work was for TNG and DS9, I wish I could feel sorry that his contribution ends here. But I can't... because his Voyager work isn't of the same standard. The only Piller script of Season Two that has the resonance of his best scripts is Death Wish - a story that is all about Q, with this series' regulars little more than plot devices.

I retain enormous respect for Piller's role in making TNG into a genuinely good series. But I think he had already given Star Trek everything he had, and I doubt that Voyager will be much the poorer for his exit. Honestly, if it gets much poorer, I'm unlikely to still be watching come the end of the journey.

Michael McKean as an evil clown in The Thaw,
one of several episodes showing Voyager's potential.

SEASON THREE WISHLIST

That the show gets better? All right, I'll be more specific...

First and foremost... NO MORE KAZON!!! Seska's an interesting character, well-played by Martha Hackett. But she spends the entire season shackled to this troupe of dullards, who are about as menacing as a group of renegade Smurfs. The latter half of Season Two is heavily occupied with the machinations of the Kazon (a phrase I simply can't type with a straight face), and every episode just reinforces how tediously inept they are.

And why has so much time been spent on the Kazon when the series has already introduced a far more effective recurring villain? The Vidiians are everything the Kazon aren't: Creepy to the point of being genuinely terrifying, multidimensional with a backstory that makes them victims as well as villains, and possessing technology that makes them the equals of our regulars, meaning that they actually pose a threat!  There are very few good Kazon episodes and no great ones. There have been no bad Vidiian episodes to date, and shows such as Faces hint at the potential for greatness.

It may be that the very things that make the Vidiians so menacing also doom them to only occasional appearances. They are extremely disturbing. Moments such as the Vidiians casually marching into sickbay and extracting organs from helpless victims, or a Vidiian scientist turning to camera to reveal that he's wearing the face of a dead crewman... These are the stuff of nightmares. It may be that a show like Voyager, a series that plays it safe at every turn, was uncomfortable exploring them too thoroughly. Any serious exploration of the Vidiians would get messy... and Voyager can't abide a mess.

Which brings me to my biggest wish for the future: MAKE IT MESSY!!! The characters are in a desperate situation. They are far from home, with no realistic hope of ever seeing it again. The crew is (theoretically) made up of two groups that were in conflict not long ago, and many of these crew members should have minimal loyalty to Janeway and none at all to Starfleet. They're now taking some casualties, while resources are steadily depleted.

But it never feels like this is the situation. We see no sign of dwindling resources and little sign of emotional strain or tension among the crew. Most episodes might as well be set in the Alpha Quadrant, with a Starbase in hailing distance, for all the difference it would make to the tone or the storytelling.

If the situation could be allowed to seem as desperate as it should be, this would be a far more interesting series. Unfortunately, Voyager doesn't want to do anything other than pay occasional lip-service to that situation.

After all, to do otherwise might be messy.

Previous: Season One
Next: Season Three

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Thoughts on Season One

As I said at the start, the debut of Star Trek: Voyager marked the moment at which televised Star Trek stopped being appointment television for me. Some of this was Trek weariness - after seven seasons of TNG, I (and I suspect many other viewers) had just plain had enough Star Trek for a while, and there were still new episodes every week. I had even stopped watching Deep Space 9, a good show that I recognized as good, simply because of Trek weariness.

This put several strikes against Voyager for me before it even started. I did sit down to watch the pilot, and a few of the Season One episodes that followed. But none of the characters grabbed me.  The storytelling was stale, second-hand TNG plots with a weaker cast. I didn't even make it halfway through the season before I stopped watching altogether. And save for a brief spurt of DS9 viewing after Worf's introduction, and of course catching the movies on DVD, that was pretty much it for Star Trek and me.

Taken out of the context of Trek weariness, Voyager really isn't that bad. But the flaws I saw in the 1990's are still evident, and those flaws could end up being a terminal drag on the series as it goes along. I don't know if I'll find that to be the case or not - I'm already well past the point at which I stopped watching then, so with the exception of the Amelia Earhart episode, every Voyager episode is now all-new to me. Which is one reason why these reviews are coming so much faster than the TNG and DS9 ones, even though the shows are, on average, worse.


Characters

My biggest memory of Voyager when I sat down to watch was of the characters. The biggest single reason I stopped watching so early on was that there wasn't a single human character in the show who interested me. I didn't care what happened to any of them, and so I stopped watching.

On this viewing, that impression was initially reinforced. The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Kes (Jennifer Lien) work immediately, seeming to have a personality range lacking in the other characters. Their scenes together are particularly strong, and their friendship is the most believable character relationship on the show. This would be fine... if the Doctor and Kes were the show's main characters. But in the first season, at least, both characters are decidedly in the supporting cast. They register as strongly as they do because the two actors make the most out of anything they're given. But when (in many episodes) they are given one or two scenes for the whole show, there's only so much impact they can make.

And it takes several episodes before any of the other characters start to work. Kate Mulgrew is very good as Janeway. As I said in my Caretaker review, the series had a lucky escape when it lost Genevieve Bujold - and the Bujold scenes presented on the DVD as extras reinforce that opinion. But for close to half the season, Mulgrew is fighting an uphill battle against character writing that varies between being uneven and being actively hostile to viewers embracing her character. The series' second episode has her stubbornly digging her heels in with regard to the Maquis crew members, effectively making them second class citizens aboard the ship. The third has her all but endorsing genocide because, if she and Tom interfere, they "don't know what the consequences might be." Plus, she blows two perfectly good chances to leave Harry Kim to his death (once with Chakotay as a bonus!), and she keeps insisting on recovering him.

Thankfully, the character writing catches up with the actress, at least a little, by the midseason. Prime Factors is the key episode in this - The first episode in which Janeway really works as a character, in a way that complements the actress' performance. It seems to be a turning point, as from that point on, Janeway mostly does work as a character - at least well enough for Mulgrew's performance (which starts out good and gets progressively better) to carry the captain over the bumps.

Chakotay and Harry Kim are lost causes, both dull and charisma-free. Chakotay's characterization pretty much begins and ends with his facial tattoo, while Harry Kim doesn't even have that going for him. Why both characters aren't removed from the series at the earliest opportunity - let alone why both characters are retained while Kes, a character who actually works, is removed - is entirely beyond my comprehension.

Other regulars show promise. Roxann Biggs-Dawson's B'Elanna is a character with a lot of potential. Every time she's put in the spotlight, the results are good. I'm sure it's no accident that Prime Factors and Faces are the two best episodes of the season, and both focus heavily on B'Elanna. Tim Russ' Tuvok is also strong, although his line deliveries occasionally fall on the wrong side of the line between Vulcan and robotic. Tom Paris shows potential early on, even if he lacks the edge that his backstory begs for the character to have. Despite a generally solid performance by Robert Duncan McNeill, however, Tom becomes steadily blander as the season progresses.


Neelix

Neelix was foreseen as the show's breakout character. This is fairly well-known by this time. Neelix wasn't the series' breakout character, and in fact seems to be the personification of Voyager's shortcomings in the eyes of many fans. "The Jar-Jar Binks of Star Trek" sums up the majority view within fandom toward him.

It's easy to see why. Neelix is irritating. He's selfish and self-centered. He's arrogant. He's a ready source of comedy relief, most of which isn't actually funny. He dresses himself in attire that makes the Sixth Doctor's coat look subdued. As an individual, he's loathsome, lacking even that core of charm and dignity that made Quark likable in spite of himself. I think SfDebris probably sums up Neelix best: "He's a ¤¤¤¤head."

On the other hand, there's one thing Neelix isn't: He isn't bland. You hardly notice whether or not Harry Kim or Chakotay is on screen since neither character registers. Neelix definitely registers. He's a flamboyant character, and he's actually fairly consistent in terms of writing and acting. Ethan Phillips invests a lot into Neelix, and on the rare occasions that an episode allows him to play complex emotions (Phage, Jetrel), Phillips proves well up to the task.

The problem is the same problem I tend to have with Lwaxana Troi, only amplified: Neelix is largely a comedy relief character, written to be obnoxious. He's obnoxious so... Success! The problem with such characters is that it's not much fun to spend time with obnoxious people, and most of the writers just aren't good enough to carry off the balance without simply making Neelix's presence as unpleasant for the viewers as for the characters surrounding him.

Jetrel shows that Neelix can work, if the writers pare back on the forced comedy and show some of the complex emotions and character background behind Neelix's aggressive false cheer. But most of the rest of the season leaves me anything but confident that this will happen, at least not with any regularity.


Lack of Ambition

Though the hit-and-miss characterization is certainly the series' biggest problem, its second-biggest is the lack of any real storytelling ambition. This is a show that deliberately removes its characters from the established Trek universe and takes them to an uncharted region of space, an area where anything could exist and anything could happen. And what do we get? The same old stories, told the same old way.

Most of these episodes could be TNG episodes, and would require only the most minor of rewrites to do it. There's no sense of any great political or economic powers within the Delta Quadrant. Just a bunch of isolated planets, all having the same old problems that Picard and his crew dealt with on a weekly basis. There's just no real difference in the way the stories are approached.

Admittedly, Faces sees Janeway recovering her surviving crewmembers and warping out without helping the other captives. But the sense I have is that this is the writers overlooking the other captives, rather than Janeway behaving with brutal pragmatism given the ship's situation. The latter might have been interesting, and I'd be the first to applaud it if a scene was inserted addressing it. But it's not. It's just a plothole. One I would encourage the writers to pick up and run with... But I doubt very much that's going to happen.

Early episodes establish a lack of ship's power. But other than a throwaway line here and there, and a (bad) running joke involving Janeway's inability to get a decent cup of coffee, nothing is done with this. It's a plot point that rears its head when the writers can't come up with any other basis for a story.

In a 16 episode season, two episodes center around attempts to get back home (and we all know how that's going to turn out). Three episodes center around time/space anomalies. Three more center around incorporeal life forms. Mix in a dull murder mystery, and the lack of storytelling ambition is just staggering. It's not that the stories are bad - quite honestly, Season One of Voyager has a far better hit rate than Season One of TNG. But it's bland. This is fast food Star Trek. It's usually entertaining while watching it, moreso than I had expected. But it doesn't satisfy. Even Season One of TNG had a few episodes that transcended the silliness, whereas this one merely has a few that are above-average.


Season Two Wishlist

So where would I like to see the show go next? Well, mainly I'd like to see some of the ambition that's been absent so far. If Season One has succeeded at anything, it's at least managed to establish the basic situation. Voyager has a long road home, through entirely unfamiliar territory. The ship has made enemies of at least two races so far: The Kazon and the Vidiians. Thus far, Voyager has been conveniently more powerful than either of these other races. It would be interesting to see them facing a force they couldn't simply outshoot, when all other options fail.

The writers could make a virtue of what, to date, have been storytelling failures. We've seen too many episodes involving noncorporeal beings. Maybe there are an unusual number of noncorporeal life forms in the Delta Quadrant. Perhaps Voyager will need to deal with some kind of alliance of these beings in order to get home, or even continue on its journey home.

Also, we've seen two occasions in which Voyager has had hopes of getting home and failed to make any progress. The next time such a hope presents itself, why not let them make some progress? It's obviously not going to take 70 years for the ship to get back to Federation space. Why not let them have a triumph, in which they shave - say - ten years off the journey? This would have the added benefit of bringing them into a region of space that would be as alien to Neelix as it is to them, truly putting them in unfamiliar territory. This has to happen eventually anyway, as they should already be pushing the outer edge of space with which Neelix is familiar.

The other main area the series needs to focus on is characterization. The Doctor and Kes work, particularly when together. B'Elanna works. Janeway works intermittently, and Kate Mulgrew's performance carries the character over the rough patches. Basically, the female cast is very strong. But with the exception of the Doctor, the male cast is quite weak. Tom Paris and Tuvok are adequately characterized, but neither really has much depth at this point. I'd like to see them given more texture, and I'd particularly like to see a bit of a dark side to Tom. His backstory demands such a dark side, but he's been portrayed as practically a boy scout. Let's break away from that a bit.

Harry Kim's a lost cause, but the show could do something with Chakotay if the writers really wanted to. The idea of the two crews having to integrate is an interesting one, and I'd like to see more conflict between the Maquis crew members and the Starfleet ones. Chakotay could be a liaison between the two. Or - more interesting - maybe Chakotay could find resentment toward him by his former crew members, who see him as selling out to Starfleet by taking orders from Janeway? Basically, use Chakotay's Maquis backstory to bring him into conflict: With his former crew members, with Janeway, or - better still - with both. The potential is there, but right now he's almost as empty a character as Harry Kim!


In Conclusion

Voyager has surprised me by being genuinely watchable, even entertaining. But there are a lot of problems evident, even at this early point in the series. All of them are potentially fixable. With a bit of work and some serious revamping, this could be a good series.

Sadly, I have no confidence that any of the work the series desperately needs is going to be done. So my last hope is the forlorn, "Good enough" hope. If it's going to remain a shallow, mediocre television series, I at least hope it remains entertaining. It's been a good enough time filler so far, at least most of the time. If it remains so, then it at least will (barely) exceed my wretched expectations for it.


Next: Season Two

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