STAR TREK:
- The Original Series (TOS)
- The Animated Series
- The Movies
- The Next Generation (TNG)
- Deep Space Nine (DS9)
- Voyager
- Enterprise
STAR TREK VOYAGER:
- Season One
- Season Two
- Season Three
- Season Four
- Season Five
- Season Six
- Season Seven
Season One:
-101/102: "Caretaker"
-103: "Parallax"
-104: "Time and Again"
-107: "Eye of the Needle"
-110: "Prime Factors"
-111: "State of Flux"
-Season 1 rankings
SCIENCE FICTION:
- Doctor Who
- Sliders
- The Matrix
- Main Index
- Site Map
|
Star Trek Voyager Season 1
Caretaker
(Star Trek - Voyager story no. 1)
story by Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor & Rick Berman
teleplay by Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor
|
The UPN television network debuted in the U.S. with Star Trek Voyager
as its flagship, broadcasting this pilot story as its official opening.
Pretty much every angle of popular Star Trek conflict finds a spot in
this double-length story, and though some bits work better than others,
there is enough variety to ensure that everyone can find plenty in it that
they like, and that the plot feels like it is moving quickly enough to
keep up the excitement. At its core, though it starts off as a search/chase,
it quickly morphs into a sci-fi mystery that is intriguing and working well,
while getting some extra mileage from both the increased budget of a pilot and the
atmosphere of a grand beginning akin to some of the Star Trek feature films.
For the most part, the nine regular characters are all introduced gradually
and each have their moments, which is a wise and successful way of doing things,
although the long term fan of this spinoff may find it a bit bizarre in retrospect
seeing so many positions on the ship occupied by one-off unknowns until the
regular characters can step up and fill each position. But of course, that's
part of the fun of launching the show in the first place.
|
Still, some characters fair better than others in getting definitive material here.
Harry Kim succeeds in getting an archetypal "brand new everyman" function in this
script, which is at its most useful during the opening orientation beats. Though it
fades into the background as the story progresses, it has laid some motivational
groundwork that the tale continues to benefit from later on.
Tom Paris becomes the standout in terms of characterization during this pilot story.
He's the only regular with enough screen time to rival our new Captain as the story's
main protagonist, plus he gets a bit more of an edgy emotional arc to work through
than anyone else, complete with dialogue far livelier and more colourful than we've
come to expect from the usual Starfleet crewmembers populating the franchise. Nice.
Additionally, if you remember Robert Duncan McNeill from the role he played opposite
Wesley Crusher at Starfleet Academy during the episode "The First Duty" in
TNG's fifth season, you can almost imagine that this is the same character.
There's enough detail in his backstory to prove it's a different event, but only
cosmetically.
While anchoring the narrative to these two new buddies, Captain Janeway herself
is only seen from their perspective at first, at some considerable distance,
until more scenes of her gradually start to filter through. It's a nice way of
getting to know her, echoing TNG's seventh season "Lower Decks" episode
in some senses to good effect. Though everyone gets their own considerable
contribution with which to affect the outcome of the story, Janeway's decisions
continue to play a larger and larger role, until she emerges as the most
definitive protagonist of the lot. Kate Mulgrew plays the role well,
engendering trust of her leadership ability, and a feeling that her crew
will be in good hands under her command.
Of course, her climactic decision is one we'll want to look at a little more
closely, borrowing Tuvok's microscope, since he thinks the Prime Directive
should have a say. The situation is a little reminiscent of the one from
the original series episode "The Apple",
or to some extent "BEM". But we don't
quite learn enough about the Ocampa prior to this decision to make a judgment
call on whether or not they have warp drive, or are in any way so primitive
or disagreeable that Starfleet should stay at arms length.
Janeway has a thought on what their
best development might be, perhaps a typically Human idea, but perhaps worth
suggesting to the Caretaker anyway since he doesn't seem to have the courage to
think of it on his own. But perhaps this big decision is best viewed from the perspective of
how it might affect the Kazon, and from that of the wishes of the Caretaker himself.
In that respect, it is hard to see that the Voyager's extended crew is not already involved.
Another interesting note is that the narrative could easily have resulted in the same
outcome without giving Janeway this climactic choice, but of course there is more
dramatic substance to be gained during the continuing series
by having her more directly responsible for her crew's main predicament.
Ultimately I do like that she embraces her own involvement instead of Tuvok's
Prime Directive stance. That said, perhaps there were more and better options than blowing
up the installation without first ensuring a way home for all concerned, and
the idea of better negotiation with the Kazon seems like one of the avenues worth
exploring most in this regard. Oh well. The end result here
is still good set-up for the series.
Another of the regulars who comes across fairly well in this pilot is Neelix.
Like Tom Paris, he is allowed to be very colourful and lively, and while obviously
functioning as a source of comic relief, he also fuels a number of surprise twists
in the plot. If anything, Starfleet has finally met an alien who is TOO NICE,
instead of the eternal dark and scary and shady characters and races that are
often used to fuel drama. Neelix is a most refreshing contrast, and thankfully
one that will continue regularly with the show.
So now at the end of the pilot, the show has its first major long-term arc to
drive continuing interest in the show.... but how much is the desire to find
a faster way home really going to keep us tuning in? Janeway makes a nice speech
at the end which rattles off about four or five different story ideas we can
obviously look forward to. Even then, there is a limit to what this arc can
produce dramatically. It probably was a good thing at this stage of the game,
meaning that if they resolved it after one or two seasons, they would have met enough
new species and inhabitants from this unexplored part of space that completely
new story arcs could be in play to drive things further. I did hope that
this show would not perpetuate "Gilligan's Island syndrome" in the Delta Quadrant
throughout its ENTIRE run, as that idea would probably get too worn out
if this show went on as long as "The Next Generation"
or longer. I also had the same misgivings about the sci-fi show
"Sliders" which debuted a few months later.
As a minor nit, I do question the inclusion of some of the action beats.
Battle scenes that become all about technobabble on the bridges of various ships
is staple Star Trek, but not interesting enough to sustain the amount of
dialogue we get in some of the scenes here in this one. The optical shots are
what these scenes ultimately become all about, and the bridge babble should be
minimized. Tunnel scenes are also excessive in these shows, with the example here
probably realized as a rearrangement of Deep Space Nine's stock cave sets. But again,
for the sheer variety of types of scenes and actions that this story blasts through,
the odd indulgence in cliché remains fairly palatable.
After first broadcast, I was suitably intrigued about many of the regular characters
and was keen for more of this show. It looked like Berman, Piller, Jeri Taylor, and company
had yet another successful spinoff on their hands, with which to give us solid
sci-fi action-adventure drama. Bring it on...
Parallax
(Star Trek - Voyager story no. 2)
(episode production code 103)
story by Jim Trombetta
teleplay by Brannon Braga
I liked this story as much as, if not more than, Voyager's pilot story.
It feels a little more polished, with fewer extraneous tangents to it. It is
an excellent continuation of the characters' arcs, dealing with the tensions
that the show's creators intentionally thrust together. Although obviously
on a more conservative budget, using only stock sets of the ship's interior
(now adding the conference chamber next to the bridge), it gives many of the
characters much better amounts of screen time to define themselves. Indeed,
I felt I only really began to get to know the real Chakotay, B'Elanna Torres,
and holographic Doctor here, while Kes began to imply a role for herself aboard
ship as both gardener and (in her excellent scene with the Doctor)
unofficial pseudo-counsellor. And all were good characters that I looked forward
to seeing much more of as the series progressed.
In fact, the internal "B-plot" for the characters is so much more memorable
than the external "A-plot" for the ship, that despite having seen this
several times years ago, I had completely forgotten what that
A-plot was until my recent viewing. Although it appears to have a bit of time-travel
woven into it, (and surprise-surprise involving another "cloud"-like phenomenon
in space in yet another Brannon Braga script), this is actually a warp
primarily just in space - like an Escher painting, and reminiscent of the
Doctor Who tale
"Castrovalva".
Having just completed reviews for
The Matrix Trilogy and its
philosophical commentaries,
I am delighted to find that "Parallax" is a wonderful example of how science-fiction
is so often so much better than the Matrix commentators think it is at
integrating story with philosophy, and rising above Manichean types of
resolutions. "Parallax" follows a great tradition of the modern Star Trek spinoffs
in creating an external "spacey" challenge that actually reflects what one of the
characters is going through internally. It has been said often in new age circles
that anger at other people is often anger at yourself in disguise, and the only way
to truly transform the experience is to recognize it and deal primarily with yourself.
B'Elanna definitely has anger issues to work out here, which are fuelling the
B-plot. And the A-plot is all about discovering a disguised reflection that turns
all expended energy back towards enhancing your problem instead of solving it.
Sweet. Star Trek is excellent at doing these kinds of metaphors, with the example in
the story "The Loss" from TNG's fourth season being particularly articulate. By contrast,
such metaphors were quite obscure and undeveloped in the Matrix 2 and 3.
The one regular character we haven't mentioned yet is Tuvok. Apart from working
as undercover chief security officer instead of
science officer / second-in-command-of-the-ship,
he really hasn't differentiated himself from Mr. Spock yet... and won't for many
more episodes. Though I was prepared to give him significant rope for some time,
it would be many episodes before he really came into his own on this show.
"Parallax" turns out to be one of the stronger episodes in the Star Trek franchise,
and a very important one for helping to launch the "Voyager" series well.
Its actual title seems a bit too vague and has common connotations unrelated to the
concepts explored
(the same might be said of "The Loss", which implies ideas other than what it was
about), but such things are forgivable. This story remains one of the best
from Voyager's first season.
Time and Again
(Star Trek - Voyager story no. 3)
(episode production code 104)
story by David Kemper
teleplay by David Kemper & Michael Piller
|
Star Trek Voyager got off to a great start with an exciting
and rich two-hour pilot. Their second story was a less expensive,
character-focused, logical outcome of the first,
allowing B'Elanna Torres to typify many of the inner
struggles amongst the crew that the pilot story would
have naturally generated. Awesome. I tuned into this third story
keenly anticipating that this new series would keep rolling
full steam ahead through a couple more good adventures before
the inevitable budget-crunching formula-plodding episodes
turned up to pad out
the season. Instead, the show's first rubber chicken hit us
full in the face with this story: essentially a time travel
piece with a magic wand ending that renders the whole thing
into that abomination of sci-fi everywhere:
"The Adventure That Never Happened".
At least this story is not too bad as it starts, featuring
a lot of scenes of the crew that give us real character.
It's also not too bad at exploring new scientific ideas,
instead of just throwing the old familiar technobabble at us,
although unless you're a dedicated fan, you may not notice
the difference. Even I had to rewind Harry Kim's explanations
of shock wave temporal directions and listen a second time
to absorb the concept.
|
Here, Kes seems to want to fill Deanna Troi's shoes as the expert on
psychic phenomena on this crew, and although the scenes of
her crying at the beginning are a questionable move this
early in the episode and in the series, very good use is made of
her presence and insight while investigating the surface.
There's also some very good production value here from the use
of exterior locations, something typically found all too rarely
in any of the Star Trek series. Nice stuff. Perhaps though,
Scott Bakula was quite overblown in his claim that
his insistence to be allowed to show his Captain
character bleeding was a big first for Star Trek.
Janeway takes a great whack on the head in this story,
and beats Bakula to the bleeding by a good seven years in TV time.
The story quickly starts stepping in quicksand. As if time travel
isn't enough, the Prime Directive is thrown in on top.
Holy mackerel! Can we needlessly complicate this tale any more?
Perhaps even more bizarre is that the trailers for this episode
broadcast the week before advertise the Prime Directive angle
while ignoring the time travel loop. Was that really what was going to
draw in any audience members who might otherwise not have watched?
Now there are two sides to the Prime Directive question here.
At the very end, the Directive apparently guides the crew
to not initiate contact with the society on this week's planet,
since they are at a pre-warp level of technology, and Neelix
comments on what an "enlightened philosophy" this is.
No doubt he's just buttering up the Starfleet crew. But it's
a fair choice on their part, and the Directive seems wise here.
However, when Janeway first brings up the Directive on the planet,
it's time for a huge groan. She should remember her Heisenberg
principle. She and Tom Paris are stuck with those people and
with no obvious way of getting back to their own normal spheres
of influence. How is it that they think they're not already
involved? And not making choices that could navigate them
into a different version of history than the one they witnessed
and began investigating?
The real bottom line here is to look at what their attempts
to follow the Prime Directive at this stage lead to:
-- secrecy and deception, in a bunch of scenes that mostly fall
flat and go nowhere. Later on, when they try being honest,
no one believes them in large part because it is obvious that
they were lying before. They compromised their integrity,
and there's no wisdom or enlightenment there. What really
would have been so bad about telling the truth in the first place?
Another civilization's growth can only proceed naturally if
you stop manipulating it with lies and deception. Simple really.
But still a bit beyond the grasp of Star Trek writers at this time.
This tale also sports a lot of second guessing, both on
Janeway and Paris's side of things, and also with the
rest of their crew on the "other" side trying to rescue them,
and as usual it does not produce quality scenes.
Tuvok has an irritatingly useless line, shooting down the logic
of the others' suggestions, and then shooting down himself
because he doesn't know what else to suggest doing.
In that position, he may as well have kept his mouth shut,
particularly as time was of the essence.
As the final bits of this temporal mystery are revealed,
one can see how it wants to form a closed loop of causality
within a single version of history.... which is
thought provoking and chilling and quite cool. If it had
ended on this note, it would have made a very satisfying
episode of an anthology series like "The Twilight Zone"
or "The Outer Limits".
But, this is a series with continuing characters, a series
that won't be able to continue with Janeway and Paris
on the ship unless the writers somehow
clean up the mess they have made. So, surprise surprise,
the loop is broken. In fact the loop never really
succeeds because Janeway (no doubt helped by her scientific
background) sees through it and does something different,
and it now becomes hard to believe that there was a version
of events in which she didn't see through it.
Whatever. The real tragedy here is that the writers cop out of
thinking of what the real ramifications of this action are.
In fact, with no proper coda or dialogue, we have to guess
based on special effects alone at
whether Janeway succeeded or failed in saving the planet.
Perhaps she and Paris and the people in shot with them disappear
because they are being vaporized in the polaric explosion.
But then, why wouldn't a fried version of her phaser stick around
and fall to the floor? Too much to ask of the effects crew?
Sadly, I think we're meant to infer that she did save this civilization,
which then magically "changed time", which is the usual Trek guff.
But either way, we end up switching to a "parallel universe" for
the story's post-climax scenes, and it could have wrapped up so much
neater had the writers properly dealt with the resulting complications.
After stopping the explosion (if that's what this was),
Janeway and Paris must move
forward into an alternate version of the planet's history,
one with no explosion, one which is very different from the one
which has the rest of Voyager's crew investigating a disaster site
and hoping for a rescue. That alternate "disaster" reality
continues to co-exist forever after. It is left unresolved if
the Voyager crew from that universe
ever get their Janeway and Paris back by some other method.
Instead, the writers wave Star Trek's usual magic wand
of time travel ignorance, and pretend that the mess they have
just made must disappear in a flash once their minds are at
a loss for how to account for it.
And so, along comes a parallel Voyager in a parallel universe,
looking at a planet that continues to thrive. In actual fact,
this is more likely the version of Voyager that continues
throughout the rest of the series, while we have in fact
been watching their doubles throughout most of the rest
of the episode so far. What would have been sweeter icing
on the cake would have been getting com-badge distress signals
from those doubles of Janeway and Paris on the surface.
And if we lose or shorten some of the poor quality deception
scenes from the middle of the story, perhaps this Voyager
crew can help send the parallel Janeway and Paris back
to their own crew. Either way, the planet lives in one universe,
and dies in the other.
As it stands, we end up throughout the rest of this seven-year series
following a ship and crew that did not have this adventure.
In fact the entire extent of their awareness is a mysterious
feeling that Kes has. Ho hum. Sorry, this is VERY far from
the exciting third notch in Voyager's belt that I was hoping for,
and I think it shows just how far out of step the writers remained
on a continual basis in their understanding of time/choice mechanics.
Eye of the Needle
(Star Trek - Voyager story no. 6)
(episode production code 107)
story by Hilary J. Bader
teleplay by Bill Dial & Jeri Taylor
Although this is the most engaging tale since "Parallax", it turns out to be
a bit full of the ol' technobabble and slow. Then, with only about 10 minutes left to go,
time travel enters into it. Time for a huge groan. Here, we churn through just about every
idiotic take on time theory Starfleet is famous for.... all being used to
justify the inevitable return to Voyager's "Gilligan's Island syndrome".
Predictable ick.
There's the fear that if Voyager's crew went back 20 years, they might
"pollute the timeline"... as if there's just one in existence. You can
actually do whatever you want,
'cause each possibility already co-exists with all the others. Make your choices.
Next, Vaughn Armstrong suggests that, at the appropriate time, he warn Starfleet
not to send Voyager on the mission that stranded it in the Delta Quadrant.
How silly. If that worked, and Starfleet heeded his warning,
it might help our crew's doubles on a new timeline in a branching alternate universe,
while our actual crew would still be stuck here on the timeline we've been watching
all along. What a load of guff. Our crew's solutions will be found in their present,
not in their past. Well, a few years later co-writer Bill Dial will move
over to "Sliders" for its 4th and 5th seasons,
and start to get a nice handle on
"slide-ology".
For now, he's still sporting his learning curve.
In the end the best parts involve Kes's quest to get
the rest of the crew to earn the Doctor's respect - and featuring possibly
Janeway's first real scene with him - most worthwhile. In fact, the arc between
Kes and the Doctor is probably the most rewarding part of Voyager's insufferable
first season "teething" episodes, particularly in retrospect.
It's something that the audience
can actually invest in and follow from episode to episode, something that actually
develops. Nice. Thankfully, better episodes will become more plentiful as the
series progresses....
Prime Factors
(Star Trek - Voyager story no. 9)
(episode production code 110)
story by David R. George III & Eric A. Stillwell
teleplay by Michael Perricone & Greg Elliot
I really enjoyed this episode, as to my surprise it gradually pulled me in
deeper and deeper to its drama.
This is one very nicely put-together episode, undoubtedly one of the very
best of the entire season.
It's a nice continuing odyssey of one interesting moral dilemma after another,
one which puts both the Prime Directive and flip-flopping Vulcan logic
through the ringer and nicely expresses many of my usual grievances with both
on screen, effectively, in nice powerful scenes. I love that.
It also has the refreshing inclusion of a very friendly, agreeable, sociable
race of people, instead of the usual desperate aliens and upstart empires.
Strange how my abiding memory of it was as just a diversion of pecan pie.
Janeway: We have our own set of rules, which includes the Prime Directive.
...but how does that feel to the aliens?
I'm sure many of them think the Prime Directive is a lousy idea.
Paris: Even we think so sometimes.
Chakotay: I know of many times when Starfleet personnel have decided
on strong ethical grounds to ignore it!
Nice is the double layer, that it's another race's non-involvement law that
causes the major friction of the story, added to the fact that our Starfleet
Prime Directive has Janeway wanting to respect theirs. Then throw in some
Maquis, who have no love of either, and the rich possibilities are explored
and drama abounds.
Janeway: "You can use logic to justify anything.
That's its power. And its flaw.
The characters are also really starting to work in this one.
Tuvok's role as the Captain's chief confidant, emulating not so much Spock from
TOS but rather Dr. McCoy, is a nice touch, and one that was strangely a long time in
being realized and fleshed out. Most of the rest of the crew shine here as well,
and start to gel in their relationships with each other. Nicely, this includes
both Seska and Carey, although sadly the Doctor seems to be left out of this one,
and Kes's one line in her one scene was so minimal I entirely forgot she was even
in this one by the time it ended.
However, in terms of the ending, there is a caveat that leaves a huge possibility
unexplored, in part related to the oft-mentioned valid criticisms in Trek-circles
that planets are so often reduced to being represented by one tiny village
on its surface. Here, Janeway should feel free to negotiate with someone other than
the head of the welcome wagon that came to entertain her. I understand that there are
other magistrates on the planet with equal positions to his.... time to investigate a few
of those. This story perhaps suffers under the false impression that the first guy they
meet is the ruler of the whole planet, and his self-centered approach is the only one
they are officially allowed to negotiate with... I don't know how that works.
Does he have the authority to speak for the whole planet? At the end,
he clearly asks Voyager's crew to leave his territory.... which is maybe one country
or continent. There is such a golden opportunity here to go a good distance of
the way home, that Janeway absolutely owes it to her crew and herself to have
some discussion with other magistrates and explore other possibilities. If there's
a reason why it can't be done or all comes to nothing, we need to have it on screen
for complete closure.
Of course, the REAL reason for the writers is that they're certainly not prepared
to end the initial Gilligan's Island syndrome story arc barely halfway into
the show's short-and-further-truncated first season. It's back to formula,
predictably.
But otherwise this was a fairly well-executed idea, a good drama, and an episode
that can finally rank up there with the show's openers. Nice!
State of Flux
(Star Trek - Voyager story no. 10)
(episode production code 111)
story by Paul Robert Coyle
teleplay by Chris Abbott
I was always surprised that this series would pull the trigger on this episode's
big reveal so early on in the series, instead of saving it up for the season finale,
or possibly the following year. But it certainly makes this the most intriguing
and worthwhile episode yet from the middle of the season. Nice.
Well, Janeway's big Prime-Directive-based decision from the end of the pilot episode
has now become a staple element of her long-term relationship with the Kazon race,
and she gets a good deal of flak for it from a disgruntled crewmember at the end of
this tale. It's probably all the more potent too after the previous episode had
provided such a cerebral examination of similar issues... now this story can deal
with it shorthand in terms of dialogue, while the action and its afterimage continue
to linger in our heads.
And simply put, this is an engaging mystery-based episode,
with exciting action bits in it
as well as appearances from the show's latest enemy empire. A very enjoyable show
and a good episode all around. Nice!
Voyager Season One Rankings:
Beginning here, we are going to quickly rank all the stories of each season,
from our favourite to our least favourite. Quite often this reflects not only
the imagination and artistic quality of the episode but also our personal tastes
and whether or not positive attitudes and philosophies were debated and showcased
to our liking.
- Caretaker
- Parallax
- State of Flux (much better mystery than Ex Post Facto)
- Prime Factors
- Heroes & Demons (Lots of clichés: "It's alive!" & holodeck trouble.
But what a nice set-up for a mythic Doctor hero story! It works.)
- Emanations (finally, a well-put together STORY with a POINT.
Was it a TNG leftover?)
- Jetrel (good powerful Trek)
- Faces (awesome idea, too bad the script has so many off-point and !GROSS Vidian scenes)
- Ex Post Facto (subject matter is off-putting at first,
but it has some of the best twists and turns yet on the series,
while finally developing Tuvok. Good.
But what are Paris and Kim doing on the planet anyway?)
- Learning Curve (Okay, pleasant, & I enjoy actor Derek McGrath!
But there's no real charge of emotional investment in what's going on.)
- Eye of the Needle (good until time travel guff motivates Gilligan's Island syndrome)
- The Cloud (Okay but aimless, too obviously coming from a 3-headed writer.
The "It's alive!" twist is obvious
[Why doesn't Starfleet always assume a new phenomenon is alive first
until proven otherwise?].
Neelix's cooking provides fun material, but
Paris's pool joint always feels way out of place and purposeless.
And what do you know - Brannon Braga pitched a "cloud". Oooooohoohoo!)
- Cathexis (what a cheap bore! J's holonovel starts [why?],
another Braga cloud sucks mind... Kes's abilities are not used well in this script.
The Doctor had potential... but he was not used well either.
No emotional draw anywhere in this one! Cloud motivation unclear also.)
- Phage (GROSS! and depressing. But at least there's some development.)
- Time and Again (Nothing can develop. Stagnant! And silly.)
These Star Trek Voyager Season One stories
are available on DVD.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the desired disc format
and location nearest you for pricing and availability:
But wait, there's more...
In actuality,
four more episodes were shot and given their stardates as part of the first season,
before someone decided to hold them over for the second season instead. I've no problem
with that. What I didn't like was that they scrambled the order of them and mixed them
in with new season two episodes. Personally, I tend to watch those four
in stardate/production order (Projections, Elogium, Twisted, The 37's) then get into
the season two episodes that they were interpolated with (Initiations & Non Sequitur).
Practically speaking, only "The 37's" has the large canvas required to function as
either season one's finale or season's two's opener, and in some ways it has to
perform double duty as both. Officially, "The 37's" and the rest of these four episodes
are included on the season two DVD set and marketed with season two, but I've prepared
a special listing of where I would rank them if they were part of season 1, and we will come
back to them again when season two is ranked.
Voyager Season One Plus Rankings:
- Caretaker
- Parallax
- State of Flux (much better mystery than Ex Post Facto)
- The 37's (Wonderful ideas. Rich production value. Nice emotional scenes.
But at the end of the day, it's a one-off of little development.)
- Prime Factors
- Heroes & Demons (Lots of clichés: It's alive! & holodeck trouble.
But what a nice set-up for a mythic Doctor hero story! It works.)
- Emanations (finally, a well-put together STORY with a POINT.
Was it a TNG leftover?)
- Jetrel (good powerful Trek)
- Elogium (good character material, & advancements)
- Faces (awesome idea, too bad the script has so many off-point and !GROSS Vidian scenes)
- Ex Post Facto (inexplicable and off-putting subject matter,
but it has intriguing twists and turns, while finally developing Tuvok.)
- Learning Curve (Okay, pleasant, & I enjoy actor Derek McGrath!
But there's no real charge of emotional investment in what's going on.)
- Projections (starts off well, ends with too many bland reveals)
- Eye of the Needle (good until time travel guff motivates Gilligan's Island syndrome)
- Twisted (aimless bottle story... nice end, but you know they'll ignore
all the new data in the computer bank in future eps.
Kes's 2nd birthday is the highlight.)
- The Cloud (okay but aimless)
- Cathexis (What a cheap bore! No emotional draw anywhere in this one!)
- Phage (GROSS! and depressing. But at least there's some development.)
- Time and Again (Nothing can develop. Stagnant! And silly.)
Article written by Martin Izsak.
Comments on this article are welcome. You may contact
the author from this page:
Contact page
|
Region 1, NTSC, U.S.
Region 1, NTSC, Canada
Region 2, PAL, U.K. (Slimline Edition)
