Star Trek: Voyager Episode Reviews
Star Trek: Voyager
Episode review, week of 4-19-00
"Live Fast and Prosper"
Initial response: No one makes a better Tuvok than Tuvok.
We are greeted by the sight of a much altered Janeway addressing an alien in saccharine tones, striking a bargain with a goody-two-shoes air of compassion. Cut to the bridge of a Delta Flyer that is nothing like the one to which we're accustomed. Janeway is removing her hair. Is it just me, or is something wrong here?
Yep, something is wrong. That's what the Janeway we know and love discovers when Voyager is tracked by a very disgruntled alien. It seems that a crew of Delta Quadrant natives, posing as Starfleet officers Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok, have been running quite a scam . . . and making quite a profit. Not to mention some enemies along the way. The real Janeway & Co. promise to get to the bottom of it. They track the psuedo-Delta Flyer, and succeed in capturing one crew member the captain. In Voyager's brig and under pressure (the threat of some very disturbed aliens wth a barbaric society, known to have prisons riddled with several incurable forms of psoriasis), she still refuses to talk, except to assert that she makes a better Janeway than Janeway. Well, we'll see about that.
Voyager's crew pulls a scam of their own, allowing the impostor to escape . . . with Tom Paris stowed away onboard the Delta Flyer and the doctor conveniently in his portable holoemitter. Caught. The doctor is given a makeover and sent to meet with the remainder of the false-front crew in the guise of their captain. And leads the psuedo-Tuvok, in hot pursuit of a fleeing doctor, straight into the line of fire of the real Tuvok. The impostor asserts that neither side has the advantage; Tuvok, however, states calmly that such logic is flawed . . . and spears him with a timely burst of phaser fire. Case closed. It just goes to show you, Vulcans are inimitable.
This was an intriguing episode, all the more so for the sassy con artist Janeway and her motley two-man crew. But she really should have changed the hair.
Star Trek: Voyager
Espisode review week of 4-26-00
"Muse"
Initial response: B'Elanna Torres does Sharon Stone.
Kellas the poet, leading performers of a civilization not yet having reached the steel age, gives us the story of B'Elanna Torres, a member of the Eternals, who travel aboard "shining Voyager, far from home."
If you're confused about the beginning of this story, don't worry; you're not alone. But it gets better. Kellas, it seems, has stumbled upon a gold mine: the crashed shuttlecraft of B'Elanna Torres (with a human-Klignon engineer of our acquaintance within), and, valuble to Kellas, log entries enough to supply him with journalistic poetry extraodinaire.
Torres wakes to find herself trapped in the shuttle, tightly bound. Kellas tells her that when you receive a gift from the heavens, you must be a fool to let it go. However, she proposes a deal: her release in exchange for more information about Voyager and her crew's life. Kellas hesitantly agrees, and, released, Torres siezes a weapon and warns him to leave and not return. Kellas leaves, but reappears later with food, and this time Torres does give him some information in return for her meal.
The relationship continues apace, with Torres providing story material and Kellas helping her to repair the wrecked shuttlecraft. Tensions rise as Kellas's patron makes ready to start a war with a neighboring lord, and Kellas seeks a story that will soften the autarch's heart and prevent the bloodshed. The perfect ending is reached only when Torres, aided by Harry Kim (who has walked 200 kilometers from the escape pod into which she had ordered him), has mended the shuttle's transporter and comes to Kellas' aid . . . being beamed ("ascending to the heavens" in a shaft of light) in full view of the audience, with a message of peace, leaving Kellas to finish the story, proclaiming that the story of the Voyager Eternals will continue as they proceed on their journey to the shining cities of Earth, where peace reigns and hatred has no home.
The beginning of this episode gave me some doubts, but it turned out to be intriguing and the ending was well worth the hour spent watching it.
Episode review, week of 03-08-00
Star Trek: Voyager
"Child's Play"
Initial response: They're casting Seven of Nine as a bereaved mother? What next, flat shoes?
Seven of Nine has probably never struck most viewers as the maternal type, but apparently even ex-Borgs have a capacity for mothering. Jeri Ryan delivers a fairly credible performance in this role, which interacts nicely with the rather winding plot of this episode.
Apparently, not even Borg children on a Star Fleet vessel on the far side of the galaxy are exempt from study schedules, bedtimes, and . . . science fairs. As this episode begins, we see the children's projects, and Escheb's is especially outstanding: A device to help Voyager locate a wormhole. Seven informs us that he wanted to clone Naomi Wildman, but that she suggested starting small.
With this awareness of Escheb's importance and attachment to the Voyager crew, we should be well prepared for the coming blow: Escheb's Brunali homeworld has been found, and they want him back. Not surprisingly, Seven is devasted by the news. She has grown as fond of Escheb as any crew member who might express it better perhaps even more for her inability to offer such an expression.
Over Seven's objections, Escheb is nonetheless returned to his parents, and Voyager proceeds on its way. But only a short distance into their journey, a discrepancy is uncovered which alarms her. Escheb's father told 7 of 9 that his son was assimilated in a field, after having wandered away; Escheb's story, and the records of the Borg cube on which he was found, disagreed with this, saying that he was assimilated as the sole occupant of a lone, unarmed vessel. Seven goes to Janeway with this information, and the captain gives the order to turn the ship around and head back to the Brunali homeworld.
Once there, they make contact with Escheb's parents . . . and discover the real reason why his parents so urgently demanded his return. The Brunali speciality is genetic engineering, and Escheb has been genetically engineered to carry a pathogen deadly to the Borg the same pathogen that destroyed the cube on which Voyager found him. When Voyager arrives this time, Escheb is being prepared for reassimilation. As Janeway talks to the parents, their son is launched into space, to a place where a Borg cube is scheduled to emerge shortly and assimilate it.
Janeway makes her decision quickly. She orders Ensign Paris to follow Escheb's small ship as the boy, drugged into unconsciousness by his mother, is tractored toward the cube. At the last moment, Escheb is transported to Voyager, but not safety, as voyager's crew is now threatened with assimilation. A brilliant solution is hit upon . . . to explode Escheb's former vessel as soon as it enters the cube. This dangerous maneuver leaves Voyager a skimpy three seconds to make a getaway, but Paris executes the attempt in desperation on Janeway's mark, and they nail it. Another close call for the Federation's sole representation in the Delta Quadrant.
This episode didn't make its way to my list of all-time favorites, but I did enjoy it. The plot was intriguing and the story well-paced, and it gave us some wonderful insights into Seven of Nine's character, showing us a side of her we have rarely, if ever, seen before.
Episode review, week of 3-1-00
Star Trek: Voyager
"Ashes to Ashes"
Initial reaction: Harry Kim falls for the wrong girl . . . again.
It's becoming clichι for Harry to lose his girl, but this was a thoughtful turn to the story, and it gave us some insights into Kim's strengths and weaknesses as a person. He is achingly compassionate in this episode, and his dedication to Lindsey is laudable. We don't often see this side of Harry, and it's one well worth watching.
The story of a crewman brought back from the dead was not new, but the salvaging story hasn't been seen before in Trek and it was a workable plot device. After all, in all his lost loves, falling for a deceased crewmate is a first mark on Kim's record. And this is a very pretty deceased crewmate, even after having been salvaged weeks after death by an alien race and having her DNA restructured. It turns out that Harry has been carrying a torch for Linsey Ballard since his Academy days and never had the nerve, or trusted his "public speaking" abilities enough to tell her about it. When he finally gets a second chance after losing her from death, he makes his move . . . and owns the day, for a while, anyway. Ensign Ballard's surrogate (Kobali) father shows up to demand her return, whether she wants to go or not. Linsey at first refuses adamantly to go with him, and Voyager's crew is prepared to defend her, but ultimately she determines that she no longer belongs on Voyager, and that, no matter how much she misses her old life, she cannot have it back. As a result, she says a last farewell to the crew especially Harry and returns to the Kobali.
This episode was interesting, with many new spins on old concepts, and a lot of bittersweet emotions threaded into it. I liked it. It's one of the stories I won't mind watching unfold again during summer reruns.
Email Sarina at Sarina
Back To Reviews
