The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild

Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild (2017) game

Like most games in the 'Zelda' series come review time, it's difficult to know where to start, even more so for this entry since it's the first truly revolutionary game since arguably 'Ocarina of Time,' the first one in 3D. And yet I do feel conflicted about the fact it is at the same time one of the greatest, yet also very different to the traditions of one of the greatest Nintendo dynasties ever made, nor does it come without its issues and problems. It is undeniable in my eyes that this is a great game - it's a new way to play and has so many breaks with those traditions that it could have been unrecognisable, and yet it also stays very true in many ways. A game series has to develop in new directions or it would remain too similar to past experiences, especially when those who love a series have played so many iterations of it, and that creates the danger that you'll merely be redoing the same game or story with updated graphics, something innovator Nintendo is loathe to do, although they've become a lot less stringent over the years. Most of the 3D 'Zelda' titles have aped 'Ocarina' to a great degree, unsurprising since that was such an incredible new direction for the series, bringing its style and adventure into a more realistic approach and displaying a scale that was unprecedented at the time when 3D games were only just becoming the norm, from the tiniest bugs scurrying in the dust, to great mountains you could scale and a world map that truly felt like a world. And yet there were still limitations...

'Breath of The Wild' casts off almost all limitations, that's the first thing you come to realise: from the expertly choreographed first view of the world outside the cave in which you awake, approaching the cave mouth to see the distant image of a volcano rising out of the horizon across a vast landscape stretching away, to the moment you glide off the Plateau into lands unknown with practically all the main abilities thrust upon you, it's an awe-inspiring cornucopia of options staggering in its breadth. For the first time in a game, certainly a fully-3D, immersive environment where you're down at ground level, I felt the true call of adventure and complete freedom to tackle the world as I saw fit. It really is staggering - you have this immense world, so big that it stretches into the distant beyond and you can go in any direction, do whatever you like. The natural rules of progression so ingrained in 'Zelda' where you have a little training, earn your sword and shield, complete a simple first dungeon, are rewarded with another item of some kind and then have a tempered freedom, let out into the wider world to find out where you're meant to head next, are cast aside in favour of giving you all the skills in the training area and then pushing you off a cliff, literally! There's still an advised direction to go, but do you head right off for the stable past the Duelling Peaks, keeping strictly to the paths that are the equivalent of roads in this world, or do you indulge your curiosity and begin to edge out a little, do a little exploring in one direction or another: the choice is yours.

As is traditional with the series you only start with three hearts so you're very weak. This is compounded by the rags of clothing you wear which have next to no defensive value at all, so you soon find your first encounter with monsters in the big, wide world teaches you a healthy sense of respect that would have been almost unheard of in past 'Zelda,' especially for a veteran of the series who instantly recognises the majority of creatures, knows how to defeat them and has no difficulty in doing so. Enemy AI is one of the major overhauls here: they no longer simply rush at you when you come within their sphere of detection, but seemingly have lives of their own, whether it's Moblins chasing after some of the local wildlife, or sleeping round their campfire leaving their weapons open for the cautious thief to pilfer, they are proper denizens of this world that turns a mere mowing through an area as it used to be, into a truly tactical battle, especially in the early part of the game when you have so little health or strength. Even one of these little Bokoblins can be a worthy opponent to your low-level state and that, compounded with the vast freedom and scale of the lands, gives you a much stronger sense of threat and reward than a simple monster fight has any right to! Then we come to the next in a line of discomfiting or strange new ways that litter this game: breakable weapons.

I don't think that's strange on its own, I believe as far back as 'Wind Waker' you could pick up enemy weapons, though I don't recall whether they broke up after use, you just couldn't store them in your inventory. Here, you can pick up just about anything lying around, be it a tree branch, a ladle, pitchfork, broom, or, more sensibly, actual weapons of war! They cause different levels of damage and naturally the better equipment is more hard to find than the average bat or mallet. But there's nothing to stop you from getting some of the best weaponry in the game early on if you're willing to sneak about and explore - nothing except your own extreme puniness. It can be quite irritating early on to find that something you've discovered, whether it was stuck in the ground or hidden in a treasure chest, will only last so long before it shatters, it really takes some getting used to after the old ways of gaining a great sword from the start and occasional other weaponry that marks the notches of progress. It's a real culture shock to find you don't get to keep what you pick up in that regard, be it hand weapons, shields or bows. And to begin with you're hampered by having few storage slots for these things so you're constantly worried about running out of fighting tools at the wrong moment. Eventually you come to see the world is stashed full of weaponry and you don't have to look far for one if you need it, plus you're never without some form of attack as even if you break everything in your armoury you have an inexhaustible supply of Ancient bombs at your disposal in both round and square varieties.

Even the shape of these two explosives is relevant and becomes key to dealing with certain puzzles or situations - at first you're restricted by the time it takes for your bomb stash to reset until you can chuck another, but this delay and level of power is one of many things that can be upgraded so there remain the shadows of 'Zeldas' past and that age-old upgrade path, it's just less of a focus than it used to be, nor is it essential. For example, you could, if wished, head straight to Hyrule Castle, without explanation or learning anything, and make it all the way to the final confrontation with Ganon. It would be punishingly difficult and painstaking to get through the grounds and past all the high-powered enemies surrounding the area, and you wouldn't be a jot of use if you did reach him, either, but the fact you could do that if you chose is another example of the astonishing structure of this new way to play 'Zelda.' You could also do the complete opposite and 'live' in that world, merely enjoying the thrill of exploration and almost boundless lands that are open to you. This true sense of adventure is the greatest I've ever felt in a game: a level of complete freedom insofar as you can survive, there are no physical barriers to progression, indeed there isn't a great deal of progression itself, that 'impediment' to freedom has been removed in favour of an open world mentality that is unparalleled in its freedoms.

At the same time, removing a strong sense of progression is one of the negative marks against it. It's not that it's a bad decision, just a very different mindset, and while it's incredible to be able to simply exist in this fully realised world, bursting with delights, puzzles, flora and fauna of all description, there is something to be said for the satisfaction of seeing somewhere or something you can't yet reach and then earning the right to it, moving the story along. In that sense it's about as far from 'Zeldas' past as can be and I would say is one of the weakest elements, if it can be called weak when in reality it's simply a stylistic choice - would it have been fine for Nintendo to release yet another entry that apes 'Ocarina' with a few new items, maybe the odd new race, and shinier graphics? Yes, but they chose to be daring with one of their most important game series' and I strongly applaud their desire to innovate instead of sitting on past laurels. Open worlds aren't a new thing - perhaps the oldest fully-3D example I played was 'Spider-Man 2' on GameCube in which you had the entirety of New York as your playground, modelled from the ground up to the tallest skyscrapers, and within which you could take on any petty crime or challenge in any order whenever you wanted, or simply enjoy swinging and climbing, being Spider-Man. But the technical limitations of the machine meant as strong a concept as it was, it would become repetitive sooner or later and as in 'BOTW' the story could be progressed any time of choosing which had the disadvantage of making it less integral to the experience as a whole.

The same issue exists here where the narrative drive is severely lessened, relying mostly on little modular sections where you take on a mission to defeat and free a mechanical monstrosity in the form of a giant animal in the four corners of the land. There are forgotten memories to be recovered, of a century ago from whence you came, slumbering in peaceful ignorance until you awake at the start of the game. The sense of being tied to a time period many years before isn't as strong because of this lack of reliance on story to carry the game, you’re very much in the now, unlike the dual time periods of ‘Ocarina,’ so while it has the flavour of 'Zelda' it doesn't have the strength and power story gives. But it's not something to complain about when you're having so much fun simply roaming the land, I just noticed the absence of a strong driving narrative. Also, because the world is so huge, the little bits of story that do exist are largely lost in the overwhelming scale. It's as if they created the environment first and populated it with all kinds of creatures and tasks, then added a story afterwards. But there's always going to be some kind of criticism of a 'Zelda' game simply because they're so accomplished in sound, vision and immersion that any inconsistency will stand out and no game can be perfect. The previous title, 'Skyward Sword' on Wii, garnered much criticism for being shorter than expected, and having too little land mass as you flew from island to island in the sky - again, they were attempting to do something different and it was less successful (in terms of engagement, I don't know about financially), but with 'BOTW' you can tell they listened to the complaints and acted accordingly. In this case it’s less of a story, more of a living, breathing, immersive world.

You couldn't get a much vaster environment to explore, nor a more grounded, physical experience. I suspect you could probably fit every other game in the series within the land mass of this Hyrule, which is to say how truly huge the place is, impressively humongous. It would take literally hours to circumnavigate the entire world, travelling at the very edge and in terms of game hours there's never been a longer 'Zelda.' Simultaneously the biggest in the series, yet also the most bite-sized with 100+ mini dungeons rather than eight full-size ones. I wish it kept track of game time because I'd love to know how long I spent there: it took a good four months to reach a point where I felt I was ready to effectively end it by defeating Ganon, even though, as in past 'Zeldas' you can always go back and finish collecting the collectables. It was meant to be my Christmas game, though 'SSX3' overran through the festive period so I didn't give my full attention to this at first, which is an irony considering I could have started this on day one of my holiday, played it all day, every day, and it still would have lasted for many weeks after. As it was, I spent more time on this than any other pursuit in the months after, racking up many hours a week because it was simply so much fun to explore and there was so much to uncover and achieve. And yet, while being the vastest example of the series by some magnitude, it's also one of the most accessible since there is so little structure it’s easy to pop back in for a few minutes just to explore one little copse or climb this hill, do that mini dungeon, take on this enemy camp... Or you can settle in for the long haul and spend hours in one sitting.

There’s so much to do it can be overwhelming: you're given side quests by the inhabitants of populated areas which you can then tackle when convenient, they're added to a list you can peruse from your options screen, and typically for Nintendo, things are expertly laid out. Never before has it been so easy to keep track of so much: inventory, map, quests, even a compendium of things you've snapped with your Smartph... sorry, Ancient tablet. At first that's yet another overwhelming aspect of the whole experience and appears needlessly complicated: game, herbs, minerals, insects... it's all too much, gone are simpler times when all you needed to pick up were rupees, hearts and ammo. Now you have a whole subset of options with which to make potions and meals. Just the act of cooking often requires fire which you can make from striking a flint with a metal object... Then there's the temperature of your environment, the sound level you're making (that icon foxed me to begin with - it looked like a heart monitor!). Never before has a 'Zelda' game had such a level of complexity and it does take a mentality shift. Nintendo have come up trumps with presentation and key to everything is the world map (or maps now, since the environment is so massive you have to unlock each lengthy swathe separately!), with the great boon of being able to set markers and symbols to denote various things or simply highlight a location you want to visit way off in the distance: maybe you’ve spotted the smoke of a fire, the light of a mini dungeon's entrance, a place of habitation, ruins, who knows until you get there!

Then there's the greatest part of the game which is a true game-changer and which I haven't even mentioned yet: the simple ability to climb just about any surface. It's almost ridiculous to mention it, you wouldn't think rock-climbing would ever be likely to become an integral part of the 'Zelda' experience, yet it is. Right from the moment I first walked out of the cave and found myself sticking to the trunk of a tree or the wall of the cliff and discovered I could climb it was a huge revelation: in the past all you could ascend were vines or certain fences, put there for the intrepid to discover and explore, but now to be able to clamber any surface... It's truly liberating in the implications: 'Zelda' was all about preventing you from reaching certain areas until later on when you'd earned the right, you could come back and exercise this newfound freedom, but this game gives you that right off the bat which means an entirely new way of doing and being came into existence that's hard to grasp. It's not simply the size and scope of the land, it's how you can interact with it that changes everything and is the single greatest part of the game in my eyes. Sensibly, there have to be some restrictions, completely unbridled freedom isn't necessarily as enjoyable as when you want something but can't have it. In this case you're held back by your stamina meter which allows you a limited amount of energy to run or climb and when depleted will mean you drop like a stone or can barely walk. It's a good system because it cleverly allows you so much latitude while also (early on), meaning you have to be cunning and plan out what you want to do and where to climb.

The other impediment is the weather itself which plays a significant part in this world - the rain is the killer and one of the most frustrating things of all because as soon as it starts pattering down you know you'll barely get your own height up before sliding back down. You can see what the weather's going to be for the next few minutes, but I still found it incredibly annoying to have my exploration curtailed by a change in the weather. But it does add to the realism, whether that be snowstorms in the wintry mountains or the oncoming lightning storm where your metallic weapons act like lightning rods. Wooden items can burst into flame if you're in a hot place so even the marshalling of your inventory becomes a tactical exercise, impressively. Back to the climbing: the only limit to this skill are the apparently ultra smooth surfaces of Ancient architecture that don't allow any grip whatsoever, but this niggle is essential to the puzzles encountered in the mini dungeons. What is less acceptable is that when you do end up at the far reaches of the continent, as they say, your way is sometimes barred by an invisible wall and a message that you can't go any further. This was a bit of a clanger as Nintendo are usually so good at ensuring a sense of fairness in their created worlds and this seemed like a technical issue where they couldn't come up with a better solution so simply slapped down an artificial barrier. Some areas are bordered by sheer drops into the void which somehow seems more acceptable and I can understand they needed to have some way of ending the land and don't know what solution would have been best, but it is a bit of a cop-out, more creativity needed.

It is only one little annoyance or discordant note in proceedings, but it's surprisingly not the only one. There are, shock horror, little technical issues that crop up: the worst is slow-down where you're fighting some of the larger enemies such as big Moblins, the game stuttering and juddering occasionally, a real surprise in a first-party title from such a perfectionist company using such a powerful console, if understandable considering what they were able to pull off with it. There's also noticeable pop-up of creatures and items as you get closer. Neither of these really affect enjoyment, but they did stand out as rare examples of problems within such an incredible achievement. Something else very surprising, not so much an issue as another choice that goes against every 'Zelda' ever: there isn't a single proper dungeon! It's almost inconceivable that you don't get a big, brain-busting puzzle and skills challenge, a standard component of the series, but again, can you simply do another forest-themed dungeon, or fire, or water, or whatever? It's the same issue the platform genre suffered from: you can't just keep churning out the same environments and yet it's tough to come up with a new theme that's as enjoyable to play as the well-worn natural ones. So they didn't bother and instead you have tens and tens of mini dungeons (they call Shrines), that either dot the landscape, are hidden away, or can be activated by doing certain things. It's yet another aspect that takes some adjustment to your mindset.

The closest we get to a traditional dungeon are the mechanical beasts that were once protectors of Hyrule but were turned by Ganon's evil machinations. Even these aren't anywhere near the size of proper dungeons of old, though they have those same kind of large environmental puzzles and a boss fight at the end, followed by an additional heart container as reward. No, the closest we get is Hyrule Castle itself, a maze-like collection of rooms and corridors on multiple levels, full of monsters to fight and Ganon waiting at the top. There are treasure chests, but no more maps and compasses to collect, no more finding the essential object of the dungeon, and the boss battles I found rather easy. Even Ganon himself was shockingly easy to defeat as long as you had plenty of food to replenish hearts with, I beat him on my first or second attempt. Weirdly, the actual 'low level' combats with single or groups of monsters in the game world were tougher, specifically the Lynels, half-zebra, half-lion beasts with hulking weaponry which took many attempts to defeat, by far the toughest thing in the game to take on. This only adds to the impression that the world itself was the main focus and the story and it's Big Bad were almost an afterthought, which is another very strange direction for the series. You could almost view it in two ways, as a 'Zelda' game and as a generic adventure game. It has all the lore and traditional trappings the series always had, yet it's almost more of a platformer in the sense that the joy of movement and physical freedom, and collecting, too, is paramount compared to story and character and I do wonder how much replay value it will have, especially with sequel ‘Tears of The Kingdom’ taking place in the same game world.

Yet another weird aspect that stands out compared with previous 'Zelda' is the addition of the Ancient technology, a way of justifying and incorporating something more akin to sci-fi than fantasy. There's no reason why not and it certainly means you can do all kinds of things that would have been out of place before, at the same time it is strange for Link to be carrying around what amounts to an iPad, to face robot machines, yet also allows for a new aesthetic to proceedings. I wouldn't even say it's out of place, it's just very... different. Still, so much is the same or an enhancement of the same you can't be too put out. While it would have been more involving to have a new generation Water Temple that fries the brain, dealing with one or two mini-puzzles is fine. It's an odd juxtaposition to have such a gargantuan and complex world and yet the dungeoneering side of things be so relatively simplistic, but I suppose you can't have everything. It's also unsettling that you're not able to swim underwater (I was anticipating this being the special gift I’d earn defeating the Zora beast rather than a useful, if relatively disappointing, temporary heart recovery and extension upon death), and so frustrating you instantly drown if you fall into water when your stamina meter is empty, but you have to have some restrictions or there'd be no threat. Another missing piece is that there are no caves as 'Zelda' veterans know them: you might have a cleft in a rock or a small enclave hidden by breakable boulders, but there aren't any true underground sections where you venture down into the earth. Perhaps this was another stylistic choice (I know the sequel features the addition of an elaborate underground system), and they preferred players to be above ground taking in the sights and sounds of this living place.

It's hard to describe the sensation of having so much opportunity to interact. For example, ever since 'Ocarina' with its few straggled trees I imagined what it would be like to have actual forests of 3D trees rather than walled areas with texture-mapped faux-trees. 'Majora's Mask' took it a bit further, but only with this game do we have proper forests, woods and copses, trees, bushes, leaves, plants. A real environment you can use to your advantage: climb a tree and you might find a bird's nest with eggs to take, climb the tallest and you can perch at the top and take the time to look around, search the horizon, find your way. For many trees you can swing an axe and chop it down, scattering any bounty to the ground. Use a sword and you'll blunt it, but choose the right tool for the job and it'll last longer, there's a real sense of... sense. Smash the resultant fallen trunk and you'll get bundles of wood with which you can start a fire. A fire allows you to skip to a different time of day which will change the environment or the weather or who's about. It all has its purpose. You can see the giant's shoulders upon which this game is standing, such as the day-night system pioneered in 'Ocarina' or the cycle of daily life the denizens of the world live out as in 'Majora' - every good 'Zelda' has elements from past iterations and this is no different except it's not reliant of standing on those shoulders any more, it's charting its own unique path.

You can ride a horse, not only that, you can 'store' up to five of them at the stables ready to be recalled from any stable visited, which is useful, although I found my preferred method of travel was on foot since you could root out everything that way and there wasn't so much you could do from the back of a horse. I wanted to traverse the landscape in any direction I chose, so horses, as lovely as it was to hark back to the old days, in this case even naming them, were a little redundant and I mostly stuck to myself since you can quickly warp to any activated dungeon or map tower. This also highlights another very unique aspect of the game: a true sense of being out in a wild landscape, isolated from everything. You can stand on the brow of a hill watching the sunset, bathing the horizon in a golden glow. You can perch serenely on a clifftop and see the sparkling ocean stretch away into the distance as clouds roll over, and the sun or moon crosses the sky. You can hear the wind whistling through the trees or over barren hills giving you goosebumps as you just stop and listen in lonely, far-off places, a genuinely haunting and beautiful experience at times. This is why there isn't much actual music in the game. Music was one of the weaker parts, I'm used to strong themes for each area, but most of the time you are out in the wilds and unless you're riding a horse, you mostly hear natural sounds. This has the advantage of drawing you in even further, absorbing you into the environment, but it's also yet another aspect requiring adjustment from 'Zelda' preconceptions.

Even the title screen is devoid of that triumphal 'Zelda' theme and atmospheric intro sequence, which is a big omission as first impression. As is the lack of an instruction booklet, so often an anticipatory preamble to play, and an essential part of the buildup. There's not even a death counter to keep track of how many times you died. So many of these standard traditions are missing that it does take you out of it, at least at first, but you have a new learning to take on: what 'Zelda' can be. Those old games still exist and you can go back to them, but this is a different experience. My own path was unique as everyone's will be, that's the beauty of the game being so open. For me, once I'd completed the Plateau tasks I did follow the prescribed route up until I got to Kakariko Village, then I broke off and ended up heading round the coast for endless days discovering how to play the game, how I could play it, not needing to follow a specific direction, just relishing the exploration and immersion, never knowing what you’d find over the next hill. Eventually you realise it’s time to do something more constructive and maybe take on the odd side quest which soon mount up the more people you talk to. For me, things didn’t get going properly until I tackled a map tower and realised the ugly black world map with its blue lines wasn’t the finished article: reaching the top of these towers and activating them filled in your map of that area and that became my main impetus for some time giving me a clear focus to unlock every region of the map.

It wasn’t until I finally tackled my first mechanical beast, the Rito’s bird machine, that I really felt I was progressing, winning both my first heart container, increasing my meagre health by a third, along with the extremely useful ability to launch into the air on a column of thermal current which was a great boon for climbing. The reason it took so long for me to get a fourth heart was the fact you had to pray to idols in order to increase hearts or stamina which felt like a line I wasn’t comfortable crossing. It could be asked why I would be okay with killing in games, but not the seemingly innocuous exercise of prayer, but killing in a game isn’t like real life, no one dies, but in real life people do pray to idols which aren’t real, so you’re effectively doing the same in-game. I’m sure it doesn’t really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, and there’s always been elements of the supernatural and magic in the series since these are a staple of the fantasy genre, so you’d always had witches and wizards, generally cartoonish versions of such, or the story of Hyrule’s creation by goddesses, but it turned a corner with ‘Skyward Sword’ where they had a demon living under the main town who’s really just a nice guy which I was also unhappy with, and this game took it the next step where it’s something you’re actually doing yourself, so my real issue is where it leads to - will they eventually have real occult practices involved? I would hope not, but Nintendo’s jealously guarded family image has been diluted in recent decades as they’ve sought wider appeal so I hope this isn’t a sign of the direction of travel, yet I can’t help but feel it is.

I didn’t take a definite stance on the practice of praying to these idols at first, in fact I wasn’t even sure that was how hearts and stamina were enhanced, though I guessed early on since that was the only thing I’d avoided. It did concern me to think this could be the first ‘Zelda’ I’d be denied from completing due to content, but I was enjoying the pleasure of exploration so much that even this didn’t deter me from getting as much as I could from the experience and though it made life tougher this in no way detracted from the experience - if anything it enhanced it for the caution needed to protect myself, increasing my involvement and investment in the game. And there were temporary fixes that could be applied through cooking which enabled more hearts or stamina, so I wasn’t completely devoid of assistance. The other hope came from one of the hints that popped up during the loading screen which told of a being known as the Granter of Boons who lived in the ‘far reaches of the continent’ and traded in just the heart containers and stamina vessels I needed, so I was always on the lookout for this guy, as you can imagine, assuming this meant the Hebra mountainous region as this was as far as you could go. But just the addition of that first new heart gave me a surprising boost having survived for so long on so little - it really did inject new heart! From there I gradually traversed all regions, gaining new clothing and items as I went.

The clothing side of the game was essential, while at first I’d assumed it was more of an aesthetic choice to give players more personal style in their attire (for example, you could go to a dye shop to change the colour), a bit like the tunics in ‘Ocarina,’ but they turned out to be more like the masks of ‘Majora’ which gave you new abilities. By far the most useful to me was the climbing gear, and towards the end of the game when I’d tracked down all three parts of the set which gave a boost to stamina I was given a new level of freedom, springing up sheer rock-faces like a monkey. The barbarian outfit was also useful for its enhanced attack in battle, and there were various other items of clothing or bonus wear that were fun to collect, but had less impact such as the monster masks which allowed you to waltz right by whatever type of monster’s face you were wearing. The glow-in-the-dark suit would have been useful for tackling one of the game’s little missions stumbled upon in my travels: an island of complete darkness in which you need to use fire to light your way (alas I found the glow suit after I’d already done this section!). These mini-adventures were among the best parts of the game, my favourite being the island where all your items are temporarily stripped away from you on alighting and you’re forced to survive like Robinson Crusoe, making do with anything you can scavenge. The time you’re supposed to scale the pinnacle of a hill in order to see a white bird is another memorable moment - I spent quite some time up there before I realised it wasn’t one of actual birds flying around that I was looking for, but a shape in the landscape…

And what about all that hunting? It adds a whole other level to your survival that you need to hunt animals for their meat and becomes like a mini-game in itself as you learn to creep up, improve your aim and accuracy, or try other tricks like swooping down from above, truly making you feel like an apex predator (until you meet a Lynel, of course… though I think the grizzly bear you stumble upon in some woods is quite a shock, too). Some animals will fight back when surprised which throws in a level of realism that impresses, and it’s the animal life that truly helps it feel like a real world. Not all creatures are conventional - sometimes you’ll find something downright weird, such as the blupees, glowing blue rabbity creatures that drop rupees whenever they’re shot (I couldn’t help thinking of Father Bloopy from ‘Maid Marian & Her Merry Men’ even though Prince John didn’t have much in common with a creature that gives money away…), or the Lord of The Mountain, a glowing blue horse that with enough stamina you can mount and tame, though you sadly can’t keep it as one of your horses - same with the Stalhorses that only come out at night. These are all freebies, you don’t buy them, but the money system is more in evidence despite the lack of rupees under every bush: most side quests or tasks earn you these rather than in the old days when it was all about heart pieces or special equipment. With seemingly no limit to how much you can earn (I hit 50,000 towards the end!), and easy money to be made by selling what you forage does mean there’s less care needed about how much you’ve got in the kitty, even if some items are expensive to buy. You guessed it: takes getting used to.

It’s not all perfection, however. Along with the issues already highlighted I found, of all things, the controls had their difficulties. The revolutionary auto-jump pioneered in ‘Ocarina’ is gone (another element that makes it feel much more in the platform genre than ever before), and not since the Game Boy games do I recall having a jump button (Roc’s Feather). I miss rolling into trees to knock things out of them, an example of the physical and environmental developments of the past. There could be real irritation at times, such as in those moments you’re forced to flee from the great Hinox cyclops beasts that will chase after you and bat entire trees away as they come - it’s easy to run into a tree or wall in confusion and you’ll automatically grip it and start to climb. Not helpful. On occasion I’d be trying to escape a monster and in the confusion accidentally press down the analogue stick which makes you crouch and waddle slowly along at the most inopportune moment. Worst of all, it wasn’t possible to use both an inverted view for the third-person camera and standard for your first-person bow view, you had to stick with one or the other whether in third-person or first unless you changed options every time you wanted to fire an arrow, which was criminal. I had to learn to make do with the inverted bow view moving left to turn right and vice versa because I prefer a third-person camera view be inverted as if I’m turning it around Link. It made shooting more of a challenge… I grant that part of it is getting used to a different controller (this being only the second Switch game I’d played), but I was using the Pro Controller, not the Mini-Cons which are really far too small for anyone other than a child! I’m not used to feeling clumsy, extra-specially in a Nintendo game, usually another source of perfection for them, so it was most disconcerting, and there are a lot of controls to remember (too many times I took a screenshot when trying to view the map), not to mention frequently having to jump into the inventory to eat something, select a weapon or change clothing (something that can happen a lot depending on where you are - in the desert you must switch between warm clothes at night and cool ones for the daytime), but you do get used to such constant chopping and changing eventually. Another adjustment.

Like any game, once you’re bedded in and understand its mechanics the experience takes off, and those of this game are continually, satisfyingly compelling: unlocking the map, which in turn gives you a better grasp of the landscape and locations, searching out the Korok seeds with which you increase your weapons, bow and shield stashes, solving the mini dungeons, including the optional secondary puzzles of how to get to the treasure chests, and hoovering up all manner of flora and fauna, equipment and clothing, you’re constantly barraged with things to do to the extent you almost don’t know where to turn, and that’s what gives it an addictive quality that stands apart from previous iterations. In a way it’s hard to know when to bring it to a close. For me I did all the side quests and Shrine quests except for the ones that required the Master Sword, the key weapon that would have been a great asset as the only unbreakable weapon in the game (as far as I’m aware - it’s such a huge world there must be many secrets I never even got close to), but which required more hearts than I could garner from defeating mechanical beasts in order to pull it from the stone. Indeed, if I had found myself barred from completing the game due to my stance towards the goddess statues I’d definitely have marked it down a point despite its undeniable qualities as a gaming revolution. As it was, I never could find the Granter of Boons despite a painstaking search all along the boundary cliff edges dropping down into abysses, from East to West, suspecting a cave might be hidden just over the edge, but to no avail and I had to take the chance of facing Ganon without the mythical blade - it turned out to be a fairly comfortable end, so I will give it full marks, for all its problems are by far outweighed with delights and great satisfaction, one of the most absorbing, rewarding and detailed adventures I’ve had in a long while. Yes, Zelda is overly precocious and emotional compared with the regal character we know from past titles, but I suppose she is a teenager… And I did have the nagging impression the game overstays its welcome eventually once you’ve got the measure of it, to the extent I felt almost overly generous in my rating. But ultimately I could imagine going back to find a few more Korok seeds (I finished with 472 and 113 dungeons), or simply to run around in that world since playing almost became a way of life. But I think I’ll leave it a while before I tackle ‘Tears of The Kingdom’…

*****

Author, Author (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Author, Author) (2)

A fun dance across genres, this was one of the last Doctor-centric stories of the series, so it's fitting that it has both comedic and dramatic elements worthy of such a standout character. They were realising at this point the end was nigh and there were certain plot threads to do with this disparate crew's personal circumstances on an individual level that pointed to the ramifications of their eventual destination at journey's end: some, such as the Maquis were no longer going to be an issue or Starfleet would have brought it up in their occasional communications with Voyager, but others had more pressing issues: the Doctor was merely an advanced hologram Starfleet's eyes, Seven's only connection to Earth was a lost childhood, and Neelix wasn't even from that region of space, and to a lesser or greater extent all these are explored here. It's always been difficult not to look at the series in the light of how 'DS9' finished out its run with a huge ten-part story to wrap up the many plots and arcs, and while some parts of that were questionable or didn't quite work (Dukat/Winn, Ezri/Worf, for examples), on the whole it did justice to what was the most complex and satisfying Trek series ever made. With 'Voyager' they tended to react to the shadow of 'DS9' by trying to do the opposite, and while I'm not going to get into the series finale here, it's nice to see they didn't entirely drop the ball on the story-lode of potential, even if perhaps they were introducing solid developments a little too late to be able to capitalise on them.

The major change for Trek's universe is quite clearly the idea that holograms could be classed as people in much the same way as Data drove forward the issue of whether he could be considered life and had personhood (a deep cut reference to 'The Measure of A Man' comes with the Doc's publisher saying he could be the next K'Ratak, a Klingon author first mentioned in that episode!). The situations aren't quite the same because although both androids and holograms were designed to be tools, something humans could use for their benefit, the former was designed with the plan of developing innate desires to become more like his creator, while the latter was a computer program. The line between recreational holograms and their status as sentient life had been blurred for some time thanks to the Doctor, but he was existing in a pocket of the universe and not having any effect on wider society, and though 'DS9' had also played with the issue thanks to Vic Fontaine, who knew his own limitations and had no wish to exceed them, there was no serious attempt to examine what the essence of holographic life was and they'd remained tools perhaps due to the ease of creation - you can make endless numbers of holograms, there isn't actual physical manufacturing involved, it's all much more ethereal and the use were mainly for fictional creations rather than beings that would learn and grow. Of course any hologram could have that potential, just as any mechanical device could be developed further, but the spark of life has to be more than mere data (no offence, Data!). The Doctor was unique because he'd been allowed so much latitude (eventually), had the benefit of technology from the far future, and the necessity to develop rapidly for the survival of the crew more than himself.

All this is just skirting the issue, I don't think holograms would have become generally sentient or why have them at all, there has to be a reason for their existence in the same way animals bred for food would have little purpose without that end goal. At the same time it did throw up all kinds of questions about the future of the 24th Century and what it would be like, one reason why I always hoped for more Trek post-'Voyager,' and had to make do with jumping back in the timeline for 'Enterprise' (as much as it was pleasing to have the 22nd Century fleshed out), and reboots/prequels the only successor until the coming of the questionable 'Picard,' which pretty much ignored any interesting in-universe plot threads and continued on with its galaxy-destroying serial of the year as pioneered by the weak 'Discovery.' I notice even 'Lower Decks,' set only a few years after 'Voyager,' almost never shows any holographic crew, I can't even remember an EMH aboard. Does this mean Starfleet pulled back from developing such useful tools due to the Doctor, or is it simply the case the writers didn't know what to do with the idea and decided to leave it alone? Thanks to 'DS9' and 'Voyager' you'd have expected holographic assistants to have become more prevalent as the technology improved, but there's not really much to be gained by looking for answers in modern Trek, for all its pretty effects it's often largely quite vacuous and the opposite of satisfying intellectual exploration of ideas.

I couldn't help but think of the state of Trek then and now in the Doctor's line about how his holoprogram exploring the life of a hologram aboard a starship was a serious attempt at social commentary, while Paris' parody of his work was an 'insulting farce,' because that really does sum up the situation very well! But enough about Trek as it is (despite the Doctor being the last old-Trek regular to join a modern series in 'Starfleet Academy'), let's enjoy what it was and should have continued being! It is a delight to see the Doc back to his insensitive ways as he always used to be, and it makes another pertinent point that resonates with today: not just the rise of artificial intelligence and what that might mean for humanity, but the victim culture we're all encouraged to subscribe to. In this case the Doctor expresses feelings of being hard done by through his literary outlet, whether it be the limitations of his life or dismissing the great gift that he should never have had for its damage to the timeline in the mobile emitter (think of how much he's done thanks to that - how could he possibly not have altered the timeline since it wasn't supposed to be invented until the 29th Century!), a boon he's presenting as a burden, the constant reminder of being different - it's all a matter of perspective, and in our modern culture where we have so much that we're constantly ungrateful for, as opposed to poorer parts of the world where people appreciate the little they have, it really shows where modern society has gone, the example of the Doctor's ingratitude only increasing.

Rather than celebrating the fact he exists at all, and that he was allowed to progress into sentience when at the start he was merely an emergency addition, he chooses to focus on the negative side of things, and that's not usually the Trek way, perhaps a hint of the darker path it was to tread in the 21st Century productions (I know, technically it's already being made in the 21st Century, but I'll always think of the series as being of the 90s). You can see they're trying to draw parallels with slavery and oppression, but it's not wise to be putting your idealistic futuristic heroes in the shade unless you really are making the point that even 24th Century humans aren't actually the 'evolved' beings Roddenberry wanted them to be, and accepting that even in fiction we can't really paint humanity as being Good. In one sense I'm fine with that, because I believe we're fallen beings, not an ever-improving group of animals that have somehow got to the level of 'civilised' and are only going to get better. Human nature doesn't change. The difference is that I view Trek as escapist drama, not that I believe in its reality as a signpost of our actual future (for the best in some ways: World War III is due this century...), so while I'm open to seeing individuals grow and change, overcoming prejudices or whatever, I wouldn't want the world to be considered inherently wrong in itself, as it would if holograms really were slaves. The stark difference is that humans were there already, while holograms were designed to be an addition.

There might be a case to answer for the humaneness of allowing holograms to develop as Doc and Vic had, but then they were special cases rather than what all holograms were designed to be. The shot at the end with all the Mark I EMHs (Emerging Menial Holograms?), breaking rocks like they're in some kind of penal colony, doesn't seem quite realistic to me - if they'd given it some context, like they're in an important Dilithium mine to keep Starfleet's ships running, then it might have seemed likely, but just using them for the sake of it smacks of writers trying to make a point. There's the impression there could be some kind of holo-revolution brewing as they tell each other of the Doc's holonovel, and that could have been a direction to explore had Trek continued in this era. Otherwise it leaves too much hanging and uncertain, and we already know the Mark I's were meant for short term medical assistance, so what would they be doing as miners? It doesn't make much sense so there is that slight irritation of a thread that was going to go nowhere. The issues at hand are as much about free speech and the value of reputation, and the defamation of such: whether it's fine to write a thinly veiled social commentary on those you work with on a day-to-day basis that will give readers (or viewers, or participators, however you describe a holonovel user!), a skewed idea of reality.

A far bigger question once again goes to the use of personal image! The crew really don't seem all that bothered about their bodies being co-opted for a holoprogram that anyone can see, it's more about the inconsistencies. On one hand I can understand they're much more relaxed about such things in the future (at least in Starfleet and in reasonable circumstances - Kira was furious to be the object of Quark's nefarious holoprogram back in 'DS9'), because they don't think cynically as a rule, but at the same time your face is yours and it's just always seemed wrong and an invasion of privacy when Holodecks recreate a living person, as far back as Reg Barclay in 'Hollow Pursuits.' They missed a trick here, since Reg is actually in this episode, but never has any scenes with the Doc where he might have reminded him of that time and how it didn't help endear him to his crewmates (although there are plenty of other good references to past Trek, such as the Doc's publisher also doing the Dixon Hill series that goes back to Season 1 'TNG'). In fact, other than the idea that Reg is behind the now regular communication with the ship, he was redundant, which is a waste of Dwight Schultz's talents in his penultimate appearance, as much as I like to see the little gang back home, though this time it's only he and Admiral Paris. I wish they'd developed the Starfleet HQ side of the series more, giving them their own stories that integrated with Voyager - to be fair they usually did that with Barclay, but not so this time.

Forgetting the personal problems the crew have with seeing doubles, it's great fun for us viewers when we get alternative versions of our familiar characters: 'Mr. Marseilles' with his ridiculous moustache (they never look good!), Chakotay as the Bajoran Katanay (which sounds right for the race), sporting a different large facial tattoo, B'Elanna gets to be human Torrey for the first time since Season 1's 'Faces,' I believe, and Harry is 'Kymble,' more like the evil Voyager crew as seen in 'Living Witness,' only this is a reverse of what happened there because the EMH was the one defending his crew's reputation rather than playing with it! Even Seven, in the guise of Three of Eight has blinky Borg lights that are deliberately excessive, and of course Tuvok is Tulak and gets to wear the evil goatee beard of the Mirror Universe, which probably explains why I'm always surprised when the actual Mirror Tuvok was beardless in his one appearance on 'DS9'! At the least, the issue of personal privacy and image is addressed, since the Doc claims the physical parameters were merely a starting point. Perhaps we can accept them as placeholders? The weird thing is that the episode skirts with parodying real life since here both the Doctor and Neelix are interested in writing, and in real life both actors did release a book based on their character, though I don't remember if that was before or after the series for either the Hologram's Handbook or Neelix' cookbook.

Neelix is, as generally the case, one who doesn't have much to do, but what he did made an impact - he's so diplomatic, giving up his precious comms chip where each person is allowed three minutes a day to contact someone on Earth, based on a queue of the higher number being closer to the front. On reflection, Neelix wouldn't have anyone to contact so it makes sense for him to give it up, but at the same time, neither did the Doctor until he got in touch with the Bolian publisher (another episode, another Bolian in a suit!), and it would have been interesting to hear whom he may have got in touch with - someone from Starfleet asking to support him in entering the Academy? Permission to live on Earth? Who knows, he certainly didn't expect to leave the ship, but the dissolution of Voyager's crew would have been one more fascinating aspect of returning home that would have given ample drama to mine. Another generous character is Seven. In her case she's somewhat afraid to make contact with her Aunt Irene, but when Harry graciously refuses to take her chip when offered she boldly takes the Borg by the horns and is delightfully apologetic to this long-lost family member (once again, a far cry from the embittered, hard-drinking misery of 'Picard' - touchingly, Irene calls her by the name Annika, an identity she rejects in the stupid later series, full of its cynical, negative destruction of characters). Torres, too, has a moment of healing with her Father (or at least the promising groundwork for it), a brilliant touch to get him back again after he'd appeared only a few episodes ago in flashback. Not forgetting Kim's parents (his Mum wants to know when he's going to be promoted and he makes a good point that it's a small ship and there's only so many posts aboard), whom we'd heard about from day one - it's all such pure delight that it makes you realise how much the series has been missing by being stranded so far from home.

The live image of Earth Admiral Paris sends Voyager was surprisingly moving since it's the first time they've seen Earth where it's not an alternate timeline or the past, but the genuine, real, contemporary Earth, many of the crew's home planet and the base of operations for the Federation and Starfleet, and it's momentous for them to finally be within 'touching distance,' almost. That's the quality of the episode, that it can jump from poignancy to comedy to commentary and has fun along the way. By the end we've had broad comedy, sensitive drama and finish up with practically a trial episode, so they crammed a lot in and my only complaint would be that it seems to rush by far too quickly. The characters are used well, Tuvok, for example getting his usual role of impeccable legal defence of a crewmate, and quite the gall of the Arbitrator (Joseph Campanella who died in his 90s in 2018), to tell a Vulcan his logic was flawed! But the right result came through in the end, both allowing the Doctor the value of an artist, while also leaving his personhood to be determined in future, a touch of what life would have been like for him had we been afforded time to sit with the characters back in the Alpha Quadrant. A mere taster, you could say, but what was there was very tasty indeed. There are some great links back to other guest roles: Barry Gordon (Broht), had been a Ferengi in 'DS9' (Season 1's 'The Nagus'), and Kim's parents had both appeared before, Robert Ito as another character, again way back in a first season, this time 'TNG' ('Coming of Age'), while Irene Tsu had previously played his Mother in Season 3's 'Favourite Son,' so a very nice touch they had her return. Just a shame they couldn't get the actor who played Dr. Zimmerman to reprise his role!

****

Q2 (2)

 DVD, Voyager (Q2) (2)

That's the answer to the change in Trek's quality and tone in the modern era: it's been taken over by a juvenile Q (although, does that mean Alex Kurtzman is omnipotent...?). It occurred to me when Q2, as the title calls him (even though no one in the actual episode calls him that), expressed disinterest in playing Kadis-kot because there aren't any explosions in it. That on a microscopic level is what Trek is now all about: style without substance. Another key line to my understanding came when Janeway tells Q he needs to make Q2 understand their are consequences to his actions, a valuable lesson for Kurtzman - or is he the Daddy Q and Akiva Goldsman the errant child, glorying in his anarchic manipulation of Trek? If only it were that simple, the Q can at least be appealed to... I jest, but the truth is, the Q are difficult to deal with. Not because they're omnipotent or omniscient, because they clearly aren't all-knowing, nor can they do anything at any time (witness Q2 being stripped of his powers or our Q being subject to the Continuum's decisions), but they're still capable of doing almost anything and that tends to strip away a coherent story or sense of investment or stakes. In other words they make episodes nonsensical! I suppose enough is kept vague about them that we can never really understand what they're about, but it also means they're so beyond the confines of storytelling that they make stories pointless, and that's a problem.

The times when Q worked best was when he was teaching humanity, or more specifically Picard, a lesson, and while it's fun to hear more about their society, if you can call it that, or get developments on such, just being about the Q doesn't get us anywhere because they're beyond us, they're like their own separate dimension or universe, akin to the Mirror Universe, another running history that ended up a little bit pointless from overuse and under-thinking. It's almost like this series itself doesn't quite remember what the Q are, Chakotay claims one of their responsibilities is to maintain order in the Universe. Since when, I don't remember that ever being a likely course of action? Maybe our Q is a bit of a renegade and a rebel, but it all seems rather petty to be getting involved with such 'lower' species at all. A good reason why he never whisked Voyager home - at least Janeway does ask why he won't do that this time and he has a fine excuse that he wouldn't be leading much of an example for his son, plus it would have been a major disappointment that they used this 'god' card, small 'g,' for want of a better analogy, to end the series after all these years - if that were the case why not have Q come in at the end of every Trek series and solve the problem, or even better, be there at the start so nothing went wrong in the first place!

You can see they were really trying to create a worthwhile story that brings development without breaking the bank - they probably didn't want to go down the route of the last Q episode, Season 3's 'The Q and The Grey' with all its expensive location shooting and antique costumes, etc. But if you're going to shoot for developing the Q then maybe they should have delved into the history a bit: bring back some other Q characters we'd seen across their appearances, at the very least Suzie Plakson for one last showing as the Female Q. As it is they're trying to deal with Q's son who has all the same lack of care for other life forms his Father demonstrated, but where Q seemed somehow purposeful in some of those 'TNG' stories, in 'Voyager' he tends to come across as frivolous (not as frivolous as his lone 'DS9' appearance which is more of a curio than a serious entry!). How can you teach an adolescent if you have no power over him? That could have been an angle to head down, somehow outwitting his destructive tendencies and playing on his weaknesses to curb them, but then they'd have had to be really clever in the writing, it would have had to be a much more psychological study and experience, and this late in the season, on this series, and a TV show, you weren't likely to get the depth necessary to make all this worthwhile.

Perhaps what hurts the episode is that it's meant to be a Q story, but it turns out to be more like half a Q story since John De Lancie doesn't appear for many scenes (I enjoyed the shot where he appears at the Turbolift door, Janeway shuts it and walks down the corridor, only for Q to pop in from the other side - De Lancie must've run round the set, and did it without seeming out of breath!). It does take the story on from the baby he had in Season 3, and again, the 'peace child' angle, living up to the weight of expectations for an entire species' survival (and with it the Galaxy at large), could have been explored and deepened rather than merely being one line. It becomes a simple tale of a son acting up, threatened with punishment, rebels even harder, experiences consequences, then sees the error of his ways. I suppose for our puny human minds (and puny human TV series'), to grasp the Q it has to be simplified, but somehow that doesn't make it one of the more satisfying stories. Back when I originally saw it I thought it was great, simply because it had been several years in real time since Q had appeared, and he's one of the few Alpha Quadrant races or established characters that can easily show up, having the run of all space. And for many years this was the last Q episode - he never returned for any of the films or 'Enterprise,' so it was a sort of trivia experience to watch: the last ever Q story. But even that's changed with 'Lower Decks' featuring a cameo, then 'Picard' bringing him back a little more substantially (though to even less effect than this episode!). If the 'Legacy' series happens with Picard's son and Q there to guide/annoy him, De Lancie could be back, but at this stage I feel the character (and maybe Trek itself), has run its course.

This episode is really about Q's son, however, ably played by De Lancie's actual offspring, Keegan, another fun trivia fact. But then that's what the episode is, really, and does remind me a lot of modern Trek with its references and general impression of inconsequential storytelling. It was great fun to see many of the main Alpha Quadrant races sat round Voyager's Briefing Room table (the Nausicaan played by Anthony Holiday who'd already been in this season as Rulat in 'Shattered'), even if it does remind us of the more interesting stories we could be getting if Voyager had got home already. It's even more fun that the Cardassian apologises for the Occupation to the Bajoran (even if we're shortchanged and don't see it actually happen, only the aftermath). There's lore galore with what may be the first time we'd ever seen a Bolian in his own race's uniform rather Starfleet's, representing the species rather than the Federation. The fact we get references to both Kirk and Picard early on, in those days would have been a coup as we weren't living in constant Nostalgia Factor Ten where it's relied on in lieu of great writing or exploration - indeed, those kind of references are par for the course. It's lovely to get actual onscreen confirmation that 2270 was the year Kirk's five-year mission ended, as heard in Icheb's report, the first time it had been said on screen, I believe. Even the old training uniforms Tuvok used to wear when exercising Maquis recruits, are back when he takes Q2 for a jog round the corridors! And what about Janeway's bath, have we seen one in her Quarters before? And of course the rare opportunity for Majel Barrett to inject personality into the Computer voice, probably not since 'TOS' (the Replicator replying to an order with the retort to 'make it yourself').

These are all fun and entertaining parts in their own right, but not enough to sustain such a basic story, and one that relies far too heavily on the guest cast. That mistake was made in 'Q-Less' on 'DS9,' and that put this episode in the same category of not using the Q to the best of their potential (sort of the theme of the episode in a way), while sidelining the people we really want to see interacting. Sure, you get little cameos from various characters, Paris taking Icheb and Q2 out for piloting lessons on the Flyer, B'Elanna aghast at her Engine Room being turned into a rave for barely dressed women (Q2's references to the attractiveness of humanoid women at odds with his low opinion of 'bipedal' species, but it's just one of the many contradictions about the Q, I suppose, and only follows his Dad's interest in procreating with Janeway...), although it certainly put a new spin on 'observing humanity' when he strips Seven of her clothes! Another contradictory statement was Q reminding his son that the Q Continuum's rule is not to provoke the Borg - this once again suggests they aren't omnipotent after all (if there was ever any doubt), but true to the consistency of their being inconsistent, provoking the Borg was exactly what Q did with the Enterprise, unless he's tacitly admitting that was a mistake seeing what it led to between the Borg and humanity over the years (another sign of lack of omniscience!). Was De Lancie actually in the great alien makeup he used as a disguise? Seems not, Michael Kagan's credited, which is a shame, it would have been fun to have De Lancie disguise his voice. And what about the Doctor claiming only Q can restore Neelix' vocal cords, surely a small matter for 24th Century medicine?

Levar Burton was fine as Director, but I don't tend to associate his style with flair, and maybe that would have assisted this episode. I'm not saying it was drab or dull, but it wasn't exactly suited when it should have at least been dynamic and experimental enough to take our minds off the lacking story (think of the boxing match in 'Q-Less' - the episode wasn't up to much, but that moment stands out). Keegan was fine, De Lancie was fine, but it never left me with the regret at how much we'd lost by not having more Q episodes. It really is a case of needing to have a terrific and worthwhile story for Q and then seeing him milk it. The cast need to be fully involved, especially as we're running out of time - Icheb, for all he's a great character, wasn't well suited to the excitable, bad boy exuberance of Q2 (a shame he wasn't used to his best in what was his penultimate appearance), and the episode seems to be mostly Janeway casting her eyes to the heavens in despair. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a bad episode, as I mentioned there are curios and nuggets (though another area where they seemed to forget the history is when the Q judges appear decked out in what were supposed to be 21st Century robes, since in 'Encounter At Farpoint' he was recreating a court from the post-apocalyptic horror period in Earth's 'history'!), but it doesn't gel well and can even be a little tiresome at times. Yet I'd still watch this multiple times rather than sit through 'Picard' Season 2 again!

**

Human Error (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Human Error) (2)

'Hollow Pursuits' by any other name, would smell as sweet... How's that for quotations, Icheb? I believe this episode came about due to a bet Robert Beltran made to Brannon Braga who was attached to Jeri Ryan at the time, that he wouldn't write an episode in which the character his girlfriend played kissed Chakotay, and this was Braga's response. A canny move, it lives up to the challenge while sneakily bypassing it at the same time, and yet it remains unresolved by story's end and allowed for planted seeds to have the potential to sprout and grow, showing Braga's qualities as a writer. Of course he wasn't the only one credited for it, but I think he had a strong hand in its execution. It may all be an apocryphal story, I'm sure I've read interviews, but can't think of a specific quote. Either way it makes a good tale, and the tale it led to itself isn't bad. It marks a firm line in the sand as to the direction of Seven's arc, a natural progression following her experiences in 'Unimatrix Zero' which she refers to as inspiration for her exploration of emotional connection and a greater integration into humanity. It was something the modern writers of 'Picard' entirely rejected, ruining Trek's inspirational, optimistic style and instead turning Seven into a bruised, battered and broken person who'd all but left her Voyager lifetime and learnings behind for the sake of cheap drama, amid other obvious agendas, one of the horrors of that horrible series (minus Season 3 to a large extent).

But it can't take away from the hopefulness of this new direction in Seven's life, that she no longer finds mere duty to be fulfilling enough. Yes, she ends the episode believing her emotions must be put back under lock and key for the sake of her physical survival, a big step backward, but a necessary one for the time being, yet it also hints at a possible future for her where she is able to reduce her reliance on her Borg implants and gradually make the full transition back to the humanity that was ripped away from her as a child, and you'd expect nothing less. Data was content to realise a certain level of aping humanity, but though he was built to resemble his creator, he was still a machine, and his ultimate sacrifice to 'complete' his journey as far as he could go, was unsatisfying, dying in 'Nemesis.' Yet one good thing about 'Picard' (after they reinforced the original death by wiping out the last vestiges of his consciousness!), was finding a way to bring him back and make him more human than ever, the opposite of what they did with Seven, and while there's still hope for her in the 25th Century, of a return in some new series, and getting back on track, in the sense that she's still alive, it's a small and diminishing one, to the extent I'd rather not see her again after what that series did to her - if Ryan had trouble remembering how she played the character in the past she had only to watch such an episode as this to see exactly what the character could have become.

At the same time, and at the time this episode was made, they were naturally wary of tinkering too much with a popular and established character - Spock is the closest analogy to Seven, not least as I've always said she's the closest to a female Vulcan regular we ever got (even T'Pol is more emotional than her!). Both characters were wildly popular and arguably made the series they were on, but Spock had the advantage of developing beyond his series across all those films, in the same way Data's progress was a key part of the 'TNG' films, and I expect if 'Voyager' had been awarded its own continuation in this fashion (as I always imagined at the time), she and her direction towards being fully human would have been a central part of that endeavour. Instead we were denied, but that didn't prevent the series' writers from taking her a little further along the path in these last few episodes, laying down the direction of travel for the future if only Trek hadn't been taken over by those that had their own agendas and a twisted view of Trek, its lore and its characters, not the least its positive style. For that reason I'm glad such an episode as this exists to refute the misguided decisions of later 'creatives' and stands as a testament to Ryan's greatness in the role, even if she did forget it later.

It's funny that someone such as herself could be so identified with Reg Barclay, the man who started this idea of recreating his shipmates in holo-form in order to live out his fantasies. As some people would no doubt say about it, 'it was wrong then and it's wrong now,' and for once, in this case, that attitude seems correct! How can anyone be allowed to recreate the physical form of a real person, not just an abstract person, but someone they work with on a daily basis? Not only that, but take it a stage further towards actual intimacy! It's all quite bizarre, if mostly implied in the episode, but once again I say there must be strict rules governing the use of images in that context, surely they'd have worked all this stuff out when Holodecks were first introduced? As a viewer it's great seeing alternate versions of those we know, but surely the Doctor would be obligated to caution Seven against creating such a holoprogram, simply for ship's morale and the safety of its crew? At the same time I quite liked the fact that, other than him, her 'research' remains private - Janeway may have suspicions about what was going on in all that Holodeck time, but she doesn't pry, doesn't order Seven to show her. Partly that must be because she's come to trust Seven, and rightly so when you see how mature she's grown in only these few years aboard Voyager, going from frightened child, angry, rebellious adolescent, to a functioning member of the crew, and now, as shown, an integral and essential part of the ship's safety - where not being at her post is shown to compromise the running of the ship!

It's a big development, and it's been a quieter one this season as some of the other characters have been granted a little more of the limelight and Seven has been a touch more in the background throughout, so it's nice that they've generated a new direction, or pushed her further along it, even if what holo-Chakotay said about how she holds herself back is true, preferring the comfort of the 'metronome,' an apt metaphor for her entire existence of rigidity and order, keeping chaotic emotion and risk at bay. One question I do have is about how accurate was her (or the computer's), extrapolation of B'Elanna and Tom's baby shower - did Kim really replicate nappies with the Starfleet logo on them? Actually that should set up a good joke about modern Trek: nappies, poo, their insistence on plastering the Starfleet logo on everything... I just can't think of it right now. Fortunately... If personal privacy in terms of holoprograms was an issue nicely dealt with here, another issue came up regarding all those giant windows surrounding everyone's Quarters - holo-Neelix suggested curtains were needed, you never know when you're going to dock at a busy spaceport, and for that matter, with high-powered telescopes or sensors it could be possible for any old alien to be peering in across the vastness of space and I'm surprised this has never been addressed before. The closest I can think of is in one of the later 'Lower Decks' episodes Boimler moves into Quarters where the glare of the Bussard Collectors sends in a piercing red light, and I think it was dealt with by adjusting the transparency of the window itself, something that makes perfect sense.

The story did make me wish for more scenes between Seven and Barclay - both had emotional and social problems that led to their unorthodox use of the Holodeck, and it's interesting that Barclay had so much to do with the ship, especially that the majority of his appearances on the series were during Seven's tenure aboard. Their similarities should have given them more screen time together, although I'm not sure Seven especially would be in a place where she could confide in him as she's eventually forced to do with the Doctor. I was wondering, as she called for help and I noticed he wasn't wearing his holoemitter, whether he would put it on before going to her, or simply beam her to Sickbay, but of course she was in a Holodeck so he could easily transfer himself there! I must say the teaser itself confused me a bit, even though I knew what the story was about - I didn't see the significance of Seven playing the piano. Yes, she had her hair down in uncharacteristic style, but it wasn't until the episode opened and she's without implants, which is discussed, that I realised that was meant to be the big surprise! She's delightful as ever in the endearing way she has of talking so formally even about everyday niceties, my favourites being her dinner invitation to holo-Chakotay, expressed in the suggestion he could attend a meal to evaluate her work in preparing it. Or when she asks B'Elanna about her 'grooming regimen'! But the absolute best was about making her Quarters more personal (she could replicate some items and disperse them throughout the room!). It's funny, yet so true to the way she thinks, once again in stark contrast to the below-par writing in modern Trek when so much is done so lazily and thoughtlessly as if it doesn't even matter.

Even Seven's look is softer for her time in the Holodeck, she wears her hair in a more relaxed way, the clothes she sports, whether the extreme for her dinner engagement, or the uniform (which always suits her very well), are actually holographic covers over the top of her existing regeneration suit, which was a great touch, as was the ability to cloak her implants to appear more fully human, despite her rarely seeing herself in the programs. That she wishes to be able to sleep instead of regenerate, socialise one-on-one, and be seen without the Borg connection are all natural and believable desires for the character. And this fantasy of hers goes so deep that she even feels the need to return to the holoprogram to tell her version of Chakotay that it must end, when she's already got into trouble for leaving her post to go to the Holodeck, and when she could just as easily switch it off and never go back. But it's so real to her, as is this Chakotay (though I'm somewhat grateful the expected 'His Way' side didn't appear). Icheb didn't have much play in the episode, but he was so enjoyable as the even more inexperienced person coming along that doesn't understand her moods or reactions, saying the wrong thing and giving Seven the chance to express so many minor emotions, from irritation to resignation, switching to masking her feelings, and often leaving the guy baffled. It adds amusement and impresses even more with how subtly Ryan is able to communicate complex thoughts and feelings. I wouldn't say it's one of her best episodes, there have been plenty that have challenged her ability more, but as a late shift in direction or speed up of that goal, it works, and works well, living as an eternal reminder of what should have been done with the character when she was eventually brought back.

***

Workforce, Part II (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Workforce, Part II) (2)

Usually, second parts are slightly inferior, not living up to all the setup of Part I, but in this case I found too much setup in the first episode and this second benefited from the satisfaction of all things being made right again as the net around the corruption ring draws slowly tighter thanks to the various individual parts being played and knowledge gained of both Voyager staff and honest Quarrens. That the conspiracy to capture and alter the memories of aliens in order to use them in the workforce was only a 'select' band is a relief, especially as we see ordinary, good citizens that simply want to do their job well and help others, which really adds a great sense of justice and goodness - the young doctor who questions his twisted superior may have been guileless in his innocence and should've played his cards close to his chest rather than confronting the other on what was going on (almost suffering his own memory adjustment as a result - love that he's offered the temptation to join evil and he clearly chose not to, despite the rewards for compliance and consequences for rejection - inspiring!), but it only serves to emphasise his lack of malevolence and cunning in comparison to the so-called 'superior,' Kadan. His character was best summed up when the other good man of the story, investigator Yerid, tries to get to the bottom of what's going on, has Kadan captive and tells him to get the other medical staff to leave the room: he delicately says to ask them for privacy, and in response the harsh indifference is shown by Kadan simply ordering them dismissed. Simple writing, but so eloquent!

Trek is (was), so great at giving us that strong sense of justice winning out, and this episode has exactly that, with the conspiracy unmasked and everyone happy, all back in order and as it should be - thanks to it being a two-parter we're afforded a little more time for the wrap-up than most individual episodes. Perhaps the cooperation of the Quarren government with Voyager could have been explored a little more, as it is we simply have the investigator and a high-up (I think it's the Ambassador seen in Part I), sitting around the conference table aboard Voyager with the ECH and Harry, but that side of things isn't as important to us as the resuming of the status quo, as Janeway arrives on the Bridge at the very end, Chakotay asking if she regrets losing the life she'd been given to return to her real one. Before that, we see Tom and B'Elanna together again as man and wife, playful banter showing how much this means to B'Elanna in particular. And then of course the tragic goodbye between Janeway and Jaffen after they'd grown so close. I did have a moment when I wondered if he was actually part of the plot, there to keep Janeway from ever guessing the truth, further incentive for her to remain oblivious to her old life: when she looks out at the plant and he's not at the console as the enemies arrive. It would have made it an easier parting if she'd been played, but it's much more dramatic to have an enforced separation as the two are no longer on equal footing thanks to her responsibilities to ship and crew.

I'd go so far as to say it was along the lines of how a 'DS9' episode would have finished: allowing breathing room for the ramifications to the characters, not skipping off merrily to the next adventure. Jaffen's devotion to Janeway stood out as true love since he agrees to go along with helping her and the others even though it looks like it will lead to separation from their newfound idyll - the ability to let go through self-sacrifice for the sake of another must be one of the profound elements of Trek characters, most notably displayed by Spock in saving the Enterprise at the cost of his own life. That isn't the case here, but Jaffen does lose the life he would have had otherwise. Chakotay continually does all that he needs to do to ensure the crew and Captain are saved, really getting to be the heroic First Officer we'd like to see more of, but who is far too often reduced to a 'yes, Captain, no Captain' slumped in his chair on the Bridge in far too many episodes. He was made to be a dynamic character and this story allows him the range he needs. And it's not limited to the characters on the planet - back aboard Voyager who better to rehabilitate the confused and distressed B'Elanna than gentle Neelix, meek and mild. He takes her through the realities of her true life and I was impressed with Roxann Dawson being able to deal with this important part of her character's arc while also having to govern the whole production as Director. Usually an actor will be given a story lighter on their character so they can focus on directing, but she had some key scenes.

I always think actors acting while being Director tend to be more serious than usual in their role as if they can't quite hide the grim determination and heavy responsibility of being in charge of a big budget episode of series' TV, and this was the case again, but it suited the position of the character in this case as she deals with the life she knows turning out to be fake. But there were a lot of moments across the episode when you get this satisfaction of people coming to some kind of realisation that there's more than what they know, always a rich seam to mine, and very sensitively handled much of the time here - a standout for me was the delicate way Chakotay breaks the news to Janeway that she's his Captain, by telling her indirectly while reporting events to Harry on the comm. It still has the force of a snakebite to Janeway who can't cope with the suggestion her ideal life is a mere dream. There are things that were a little too easy, such as Chakotay taking mere seconds to wipe away his alien face (it's unclear if this is supposed to be real skin grown from his own cells so as to avoid detection by medical authorities, or whether it's mere 'makeup,' but the use of a dermal regenerator seems to suggest actual skin manipulation), or the Doctor so quickly finding a way to access the crew's lost memories and fix them up in no time when surely memories being extracted or blocked should be a major issue. But these are minor problems simply solved so we can get on with the story.

The only major story point that I didn't feel had its due was the subplot of the Doctor enjoying command so much (even though he isn't exactly in command - see the review for the previous episode where I discussed this), he wants to remain in that mode once the crisis is over. It didn't make much sense since unless he goes off on his own ship, what can he be in command of, and it wouldn't be fair to other members of the crew that he can simply download these command subroutines to his program and suddenly he's qualified, in the same way that genetic modification gives unfair advantages and why the Federation rightly banned such things. But I still felt there was room for more discussion on the Doctor's ambitions for future career advancement, even if it's largely played as a joke, and is, really, since he is pompous and childish in his wish to do everything. At least the idea of Harry and he competing was nicely settled - while the Doc's idea of dropping a Photon Torpedo between two pursuing ships, then detonating it by shooting it with Phasers wasn't bad, it also seemed more common than they were suggesting, while Harry's solution to dealing with three pursuing vessels by releasing some Escape Pods, masking life signs and then detonating them, really did seem like tactical genius. The important thing is they gained respect for each other through the experience.

I'd completely forgotten Voyager hard-lands in this episode, hiding in the crater of a moon, but that's probably because we didn't see them go down and there wasn't the usual fuss and procedure with Blue Alert sounding and all that - they may have, but we weren't shown it. Just a couple of other notes: I found it interesting Seven had no trouble reading Quarren text which was clearly alien, so I wondered if her memories (and presumably everyone else's since they can all operate the consoles), were altered not just with a new life, but the ability to read the language so as to integrate more efficiently. As we know, language is key in forming the mind, if you control that then you control people's thoughts, as we see in the battle for ever more subtle use of words and wording in today's world to subvert our thinking. And how did Chakotay get wounded so badly his shoulder was bleeding? It could be the Quarren hand weapons, which appeared to emit a Phaser beam, like most energy weapons in Trek, were actually spitting out a Disruptor beam (like Klingons use), but there didn't seem much rupturing at the time in any of the bursts - the alternative would be that Chakotay fell against something during his fight, but either way it was quite dramatic to see blood in Trek! I should also mention this was Tom Virtue's final of four appearances on the series (the crooked supervisor at the plant), and Joseph Will (one of the security officers, though he's not very recognisable), had been in 'Muse' and would go on to be in three episodes of 'Enterprise' as a recurring character, so they must've liked him. It's funny that my previous viewing of this story gave me the opposite impression: that Part I was superior, so it's surprising what difference a few years makes.

***

Workforce (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Workforce) (2)

Was this the best idea for a mid-season event two-parter? I know we'd already had 'Flesh and Blood' as the feature-length event, but this one seems more like a way to amortise the cost of the large sets they built by spreading the story across two episodes. In fairness it's not a bad first part, but I had the impression of not particularly liking it on previous viewings and despite the low expectations I didn't think it was amazing, though pretty good, the opposite of a recent 'TNG' rewatch when I saw 'The Dauphin' thinking it was going to be very average, but was highly impressed. I don't know if the knowledge this was a ripoff of a 'Stargate SG-1' episode, which I wouldn't have caught before as I wasn't as familiar with that series as I am now, may have coloured my perception - it's only fair if so since 'SG-1' was 'inspired' by so much Trek over the years, although in reality I'm not sure if this was a case of the sincerest form of flattery since I believe both series' stories came out the same year, the 2000-2001 TV season, and who knows which was actually written first, both roughly being in the middle of their respective seasons. It's more likely to be a case of two creative groups coming up with the same idea, and it's not a bad one. 'Workforce' comes off the better of the two, perhaps because it made it a big budget extravaganza, presumably so they could create these relatively large sets and significant amounts of CGI establishing shots - CGI was never really one of the series' strong points, it was early days for TV in that regard, but I would say it worked pretty well here.

Did it need to be a two-part story, now that's a different question? There are some interesting elements played with, some of which I found more appealing than others. No doubt the female audience were drawn to Janeway getting the chance to let her hair down (literally - she's really grown it out and it suits!), with a male colleague, something she can't ordinarily do since she outranks everyone on her ship, though of course they tried it occasionally with a guest character ('Counterpoint'), or a hologram (in the Irish village holoprogram). More successful from my point of view was the use of the more obscured characters of this season: Chakotay, Neelix, B'Elanna and Harry, allowing them to get a greater share of the spotlight than they had been getting, while Janeway, the Doctor, and especially Seven are bumped 'down' to more equal status, and in Seven's case she's reduced to very few scenes, so there is a much greater sense of the ensemble, even if a lot of them aren't ensembling together! Paris naturally gravitates to a bar, but his concern for the pregnant loner, B'Elanna, is touching and you can see the automatic impulses of reality in action, even while he's shown to be a bit of a womaniser - it's like he can't deny the subconscious urge to help and protect his real life wife and unborn child even if neither of them remember.

Not a lot really happens, it is after all about our characters having jobs on an alien world, mainly at a dull, smoky power plant, with the occasional social period - what's more interesting is when reality breaks through, as with Tuvok, who gets to the stage where he mind melds with Seven to bring her memories to the fore, or events on Voyager itself where the Doctor's changed into the Emergency Command Hologram when the Captain and crew were forced to abandon ship. I thought that was supposed to be a joke, not a real feature of his program, but it's nice to see him doing something different. Especially interesting to me was the command hierarchy in that situation: Janeway transfers command to him, with all her command codes, but then Chakotay, the First Officer, returns. I was wondering if Janeway empowering the Doctor to be ECH meant he outranked anyone other than her, but whether that's true or not, it's not what occurs in the practical situation of Chakotay's return. The Doc even complains about having to do menial repair work when he should be on the Bridge, but it's clear Chakotay is the one in charge - even Kim doesn't exactly recognise the Doctor's status when the pair of them are left for Chakotay to infiltrate Quarren society to find out what's happened to their missing crew - rather than state the hierarchy Chakotay leaves it to them to sort it out amongst themselves, which is an interesting command style! It'll be interesting to see if this ECH rank is further explained in part two, and how Janeway sees it, though I imagine she, too, would see it only as temporary command in an emergency, and once that's over with Chakotay, Neelix and Harry returning to Voyager, that effectively ends the need for it.

When it was just the Doctor, the episode this reminded me of was 'Remember Me' when Dr. Crusher found herself slowly becoming the only occupant of the vast Enterprise-D in 'TNG.' In this case it made a little more sense that a hologram could control a starship usually designed to be operated by an entire crew since he could interface directly with the ship's computer (always nice when Majel Barrett gets a little more to say as the Computer, especially when she's the only company for whoever's talking to her!), but in that case why would he bother with verbal interaction (other than for the benefit of the audience)? There was something quite pleasant about the idea of the four of them, Harry, Neelix, the Doctor and Chakotay all off in different parts of the ship working to get Voyager up to full strength again, or at least working strength. It was a bit of an anomaly that Voyager hadn't been taken by the Quarren until the story makes clear the crew left in escape pods and they tried to find it, but were unable to do so thanks to the actions of the Doctor, earning his keep as he always does, so there weren't any logic holes in the story that I could see. At the same time there isn't all that much to write about because it's mostly setup and the enjoyment of seeing our characters in other lives, the 'what if?' scenario usually reserved for Mirror Universe or other parallel universe stories.

In some ways the trivia of the episode is more interesting than the story, which is mysterious enough the first you come to it (even the first time I watched it I'd have known the twist that they're captives on an alien world with their minds brainwashed to think their jobs are what they should be doing, since I was reading Star Trek Monthly and getting episode synopses well in advance of viewing), since you don't know if Janeway is undercover or what from the teaser. But we not only hear of Neelix' ship, we get to see it again, a rare occurrence for the series, as he and Chakotay use it to go down to Quarra - I had the feeling it didn't exist any more, but maybe it's fate is still coming, or perhaps Neelix leaves with it at the end of the series, I don't recall. The casting is especially of interest - we get good old Tom Virtue back for both parts of the story. He'd been a human crewmember way back in two episodes of the first two seasons. It was a little incongruous seeing him since we know crewmembers have been altered mentally so you might expect Baxter to be seen (assuming he'd survived all the other adventures in the intervening years!), and other than some slight prosthetics to show he's alien, he looked very similar, to the extent it used to take me out of it a bit. The big name is Iona Morris, following her brother, Phil Morris' Trek career with her own entry, though she's also one of the few actors and actresses to have been in both 'TOS' and the later spinoffs, which is quite an exclusive club to be part of (she plays the bar owner where Paris wheedles his way into a job, but she'd been one of the uncredited children in 'Miri' back in the 60s when they simply got the offspring of 'TOS' and 'Mission: Impossible' stars in to play the roles!).

Apparently one of the Security Officers (#1, to be precise!), presumably the one who speaks to Janeway and Jaffen about curfew, would go on to have another small role as an Engineer in 'Enterprise.' Another Security Officer (#2, if you must know), was played by Matt Williamson who'd go on to be a Klingon in the 'Enterprise' pilot. And that's about it, really, it's a perfectly satisfactory story that introduces the situation and characters well, is nicely shot, all smoke and dark tones, so maybe Part II is the disappointment and doesn't live up to the setup, which can often be the case in Trek where it was almost like they couldn't quite stretch out a story beyond an hour, perhaps due to them being so used to condensing things tightly into the forty-five minute structure that worked so well for Trek. My only question is why there are purple Benzites there? Obviously they aren't really Benzites since they'd be blue (the blues are covered by Bolians who clearly must be from Voyager's crew), and it's just a case of the production reusing old masks, which are very good, but I think needed a little more modification than a simple colour change to get past the eagle eyes of Trekkers everywhere! In my previous review, back in 2010, I speculated that the issue of holograms in command would be addressed in any post-'Voyager' timeline production, but it never was, which says a lot about how much the modern writers care about Trek history and internal reality (what, you thought I could go a whole review without at least one dig about modern Trek?).

***