Lineage (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Lineage) (2)

It's so refreshing to see a B'Elanna story this season, she's one of the characters to have been pushed to the back, much like husband Tom, so it was very pleasant to get an episode devoted to them. Of course if this were 'DS9' we'd have had such things ongoing, woven in between the larger plots, but in this case the Paris' baby troubles are the A-plot and there is no B. That's a shame as these things can sometimes benefit from shifting attention away only to hit you smack in the face when we return to it, but B'Elanna's underhand tactics are quite shocking enough when she goes to the extent of forcing the Doctor to perform an operation to 'correct' the DNA in her unborn baby so it doesn't have to go through the trials of being an outsider in the way B'Elanna did. It's actually a very touching story that shows even someone as intelligent and developed as her can still have deep emotional issues related to the past, to the extent she genuinely believes her Father left her and her Mother because in a fit of pique, her child self told him to! What a burden to carry through into adulthood, and may explain a lot about how she ended up in the Maquis (though fortunately it being Trek, it's led to a happy ending with a fulfilled life aboard Voyager). Her Dad was right, though: you have to learn to be a little less sensitive. It's a great lesson, especially for today as every little difference that isn't immediately accepted is now basically a crime and the pursuit of some kind of mythical perfect mental health is overturning reality and the safety net of democracy to become an ideological dictatorship.

Such a world where no one ever gets teased is also a world where no one ever grows a thick skin and every little feeling is magnified and deified into being something we all must bow down to, so I suppose it's just another form of idolatry, but all because of a simple inability to stop taking ourselves so seriously and relax! The perils are shown starkly here because while B'Elanna is developed and accomplished, she's been dragging around emotional turmoil her whole life, a guilt she didn't need. It probably is hard enough to be Klingon in a more 'genteel' human setting as it is, let alone to be living with the lie that you're responsible for the splitting up of your parents. Usually Klingons are the life and soul of everything, no compunction about cutting loose and saying or doing whatever they feel like, though also with a strict honour code governing their ways and society. At least in theory - as Worf showed, trying to live a truly honourable life has great pitfalls and troubles, and rather than take on such an approach, B'Elanna's always had the opposite view: to avoid Klingon nature as much as possible. No doubt Starfleet of old Trek would be considered restrictive to alien natures by the fact that they have their own strict code of discipline and obedience to structure that Klingons would find distasteful and 'soft,' and if aliens in modern Trek weren't exactly the same as humans, there'd be outcry that their alien needs are being ignored, and this just goes to show the strength of how old Trek did things, and the real lessons and values that can be learned from it in consequence of that.

Inclusion is one of the things that worked best about this episode as all the main cast have something - Neelix is still the most underused of the crew, but we know now that Ethan Phillips was suffering from the makeup so they deliberately used him less, which was a sad development as he was one of my favourites in the earlier seasons. But it's Tuvok, the Father of four, who Tom gravitates toward for advice, while of course the Doctor eagerly and immediately puts together a ninety-point plan (or whatever), to cover training and preparation for every aspect of the birth and parenthood, something the couple should have foreseen! I loved that Tom goes to see Seven and Icheb whom he trusts, to question the Doctor's change of mind, and it's the young man who realises the errors in the hologram's data - as an aside, I thought B'Elanna was joking when she sternly tells Icheb she didn't give him permission to work on the upper level of Engineering after she'd been all sweetness and light prior to that, and maybe she was just putting on a playful remonstrance, but later you realise she's suffering mood swings as a result of pregnancy so it all makes sense. I'd forgotten all about the baby coming, and it's for the best that Neelix didn't get awarded Godfatherhood status since he'd not even be aboard the ship when the little tyke was born in the finale! It makes you realise how extreme his decision to leave the ship would be since we're reminded here that he's the Godfather of Naomi Wildman, and he wasn't going to be much use in that role separated from her by so much! (Makes you wonder if the Doc becomes Godfather to each generation of Paris descendants now we know he's still active a thousand years later in 'Starfleet Academy'!).

Chakotay has some nice moments and shows his tact, just when B'Elanna needs a friendly face, or when it's difficult for her and Tom to talk. And Janeway is similarly wise and Motherly in her approach to the various situations, staying out of the marital discord rather than taking a side. But it seems to me there was a very clear side to take in Trek lore since we know genetic modification is banned in the Federation, and while they aren't technically in the Federation, at the same time they are, because like an embassy in a foreign country, they carry the Federation with them, their ship representing it in this far-flung Quadrant of the Galaxy. I suppose it's never been minutely spelled out exactly what is and isn't deemed acceptable under law - we know eugenics is off the table and enhancements are also a big no-no, but it makes sense there's some allowance for genetic adjustment for a clear defect as in the case with mini-B'Elanna's curvature of the spine which will have a detrimental effect on mobility, etc. But surely erasing racial DNA from a baby would be more than merely frowned upon, that seems entirely wrong since, as Tom argues, they'd be changing who she is, it would no longer be simply adjusting a problem, but taking an ideological stance, like Nazi's demanding blue eyes and blonde hair, and that's quite horrible and creepy to think. Yet Janeway is willing to go with the Doctor's recommendation and he, even before the modifications to himself, is merely 'dubious' rather than outraged as Tom rightfully is, so it seems they hadn't quite tied down how Trek should deal with such things, which is obviously a much greater issue in our modern times.

Genetic modification in Trek has become yet another 'minority rights issue,' which means we're supposed to have sympathy and support for those who have been enhanced, despite the fact they've been given an unfair advantage in life, simply because it's a mirror of other minority groups that have come about because scientists can do a thing, so they don't stop to consider whether they should. Fortunately, the kind of political twisting seen in modern Trek (most obviously in Number One's court case in 'SNW'), isn't really an issue here, so it retains it's strong anti-tampering stance and remains a good, positive lesson for today. You could accuse it of being almost a soap storyline, except that while messing about with a baby's genetics was still sci-fi back then, it's all too possible now and will only become more common as sense goes out the window. And it is a powerful story, mainly thanks to showing flashbacks to B'Elanna's childhood, meeting her Father, and discovering more about the place she was in at the time her parents separated, and repercussions of some casual words dropped in confidence that she overhears. It's a showcase to, and warning of, the damage the tongue can do to a person's psyche. We'd already seen B'Elanna's Mother in Season 6 so it was a nice symmetry that we got to see her Dad, John Torres, too (especially good that we'd see him once more before end of season), and he comes across as a sensible, sympathetic guy with family troubles given a Trekky twist since it's about living with a Klingon wife when you're human.

Trek lore continues to be added to, and it makes sense: the Doctor says Klingon traits remain dominant for several generations, which is exactly what you'd expect from such a forceful race, and we also get discussion of their redundant organs and how this can be an advantage, not something you'd willingly take away. Then we get a return to the old buddy-buddy scenes between Paris and Kim, when the former goes to stay in his Quarters after the falling out with B'Elanna - Harry's suggestion that perhaps pregnancy taking so long has its purpose in giving you time to let it sink in, was quite profound, although I think it's also about anticipation and looking forward to an event in the future where you're forced to wait rather than having everything now, as in today's culture. I liked that there's never even a mention about the possibility of not having the baby, something I feel certain in today's world we'd be forced to consider, but here life is simply to be celebrated and when I watched it in the past I'd never have even thought of such a thing, which shows yet again how ideological our times have become. It's amazing that this is only the second baby on Voyager (not counting the Borg baby), you'd think there'd be quite a contingent by now, but I suppose they had to be careful from both an in-universe perspective (can't have too many crewmembers off or the ship won't run), and production side (babies are difficult to film with), so I suppose it's somewhat unsurprising.

It's a very singular story, there isn't much going on beyond B'Elanna's inability to handle what's happening, and in consequence not a lot to write about, but while I wouldn't quite say it's a classic episode, I do think it's quite a strong one, and the fact they were able to bring in such a characterful story this late in the series is something to applaud, though as I mentioned, the series would have been improved if they'd managed to weave in their everyday lives more with the big, sci-fi plots, as they used to do much more in earlier seasons. Instead, it tends to be either/or when it comes to development which makes the tone of the season less consistent and loses that extra layer that it could have had. Flashbacks weren't something common to Trek, so it was a useful device to be able to show how things were for B'Elanna rather than merely tell us, as it brings her past alive and fills in some gaps. That it has a satisfyingly happy ending (even though it's not the end, but it is the end of this 'segment' of their life that we see), only improves the episode and makes it a joyful experience.

***

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

 Blu-ray, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) film

Long, bloated, comfortable stunt-mush was what I expected, and that's pretty much what I got, they aren't going to change the formula at this stage and at least by 'M:I4' they'd settled into a repetitive rut that was enjoyable enough, but not very different film after film. This one bucks the trend in some ways: yes, he still has long hair this time, it's even commented on, and the gang's all here (with one exception), there's gadgetry and stuntery, but it's a lot less wisecracking, there's a much more serious tone. I appreciated that, but where was the thrill and excitement of those early entries in what became such a long-running series. It chugs along like a behemoth as if it's got the weight of the seven previous films dragging it down, but it's not like it's crucial to have seen them - even the previous film of which this is a direct sequel is summed up at the start, as you'd expect for newcomers, and while it's fun to see the series tie in to some of what came before, like the film as a whole, it's rather heavy-handed. I was relieved they didn't try and make every film and villain lead to this moment, although there was some of that with the Rabbit's Foot, or the 'Anti-God' device, somehow connected to the Entity (maybe - I didn't quite catch all the details), and Jim Phelps' son, Jim Phelps, showing up (I've watched every episode of the series from the 60s and 70s in recent years, but it took them revealing police detective, or whatever he was, 'Dan Briggs' to be Phelps, Jr., for me to remember Briggs was the name of the original IMF leader!). It was nice in some ways to see clips from the other films, but I dreaded the retroactive turn into some major plot of interconnectivity that would push even the bounds of this series' believability! But it didn't.

The other thing that gave me pause early on was this cult of the Entity that was given a quasi-Christian feel with the adherents talking about Noah and the Ark and the flood wiping everyone out, but again, fortunately that side of things got about as much development and depth as most plot points (though someone does mention Noah again later, saying something about he must have wondered what it was all for - destroying the wickedness of the time and restarting, but fortunately, if anyone knew their Bible they'd know a second worldwide flood was promised never to happen, sealed with the sign of the rainbow when the atmosphere of the planet was changed forever), and it all settled down into a reasonably inoffensive trudge. What we're all waiting for, and it seems the film is, too, is the Big Stunt, the one Tom Cruise gets to do for real. I first thought it might just be the vehicle rolling over earlier in the underground car chase, but that was too small fry to be 'it' and then I remembered the Blu-ray case and its image of an upside-down biplane, so I knew what was coming, and it was almost worth seeing the film for, but my advice for the curious but uninvested would be to skip straight to that and bypass all the needless wild goose chase - a goose chase makes it sound more exciting than it was! It really was a stodgy mass of grind up to the big moment, and I sometimes found it hard to fathom characters' motivations. I suppose Gabriel, the big villain, whom we never learned any more about, simply wanted to control the entire planet and remake it in his own image, but he wasn't the most interesting opponent (if not the worst we've seen, either - that award still retained by the old guy in 'M:I4' who... pretty much wanted to do the same thing).

The big early 'shock' was Luther Sloan, the loyal computer whizz who's been in every film to lesser or greater extent since the beginning, the only one to be alongside Ethan all the way across this thirty year series, is killed, and setting the style, it's in a bit of a needless, pointless way as if merely to up the jeopardy, but I can imagine the actor didn't fancy running around at his age any more. His role was largely taken over by Benji (to the extent this supposed 'Q Branch'-style boffin is first involved in an actual fight, albeit one that ends with a bookcase on top of him, and later given team leader status when Ethan isn't sure he's going to make it back, which is patently ridiculous!). All the way through I was expecting Luther's demise to be a blind and really he'll show up at the end, alive and well, 'surprise!' It was purely due to the moment of death not being shown on screen. I was almost as equally surprised that Rebecca Ferguson didn't return as I'd thought it had been confirmed that she wasn't really dead in the last film and she'd be a part of this one somewhere, so right to the last scene I was expecting her to appear. I wasn't surprised they didn't kill off Ethan, ever since they almost did at the end of 'M:I3' and then Jeremy Renner seemed to be coached to be the action man to take his place, and then wasn't, Hunt's been certain to survive, though I'm at a loss where he got both a parachute and a backup, since it seemed like, as Gabriel said, there's only one, and he's got it. I expected Ethan to leap out after the villain's dead body, free-fall down to where he was dropping and recover the parachute, but no, although having seen the behind-the-scenes extras on the disc I was impressed Cruise did an actual drop with a burning parachute himself. Insane!

The real star of the show was William Donloe, the surprising breakout character that began the series as a hapless victim of Hunt's necessary deeds, a comical character only really there for amusement at his baffled gormlessness - I knew he'd be coming back, but was expecting a minor cameo, so it was nice that he got a proper happy ending to his story, one I kept expecting to go badly (at least twice it seemed he was about to die - in the fire at his house and then with the bomb in the tunnel), but it definitely seemed they wanted to redeem this guy from the Purgatory he'd been exiled to in the first film, and they gave him an understanding wife (very understanding, apparently, since she never even batted an eyelid at the fact their home of thirty years had been burned down - unless William never got around to telling her that bit since she was off on dogsled adventure when that happened...), and a happy, fulfilled life, which again, I kept expecting to end since he is an expendable character, but he gets to be the hero not once, but twice! Delightful, and redresses the balance of the past in a neat little bow. Who'd have thought he'd end up being part of the IMF team Ethan assembles, haphazardly as it is, joining Benji (whom we just can't seem to shake from the series!), and Paris, Degas and Grace from the previous film. I especially enjoyed having characters return, particularly Paris and Briggs: the former gets to continue her redemption as former 'Mayday'-like bad-gal, the latter revealed as Phelps' son whom Ethan has to impress by succeeding at the end. Disappointed no one else from the old films showed up, other than Angela Bassett as the President (!), and Kitridge there to cause trouble again, but considering this is supposed to be the final film (dependent on Paramount's need for dollars, I suspect), it would have been nice to have assembled more characters from past escapades.

No one else on the team dies so they could easily continue the series, but as far as I know this was meant to be the last, at least until they reboot it or do something different with it in the same continuity. But then that could be a marketing ploy - I almost went to see it in the cinema for sentimental reasons, even though the first one in the series I saw 'live' was 'M:I2' and the last was 'M:I5,' so I haven't been enamoured enough with the direction of the last four to make the effort and I was glad I didn't: it was fine as it was, but it's far too 'fate of the world'-level to really care, when you go that far it's too far beyond the personal and so you get confusing plot points like the President has to decide whether to blow up an American city for some reason (which seemed ripped right out of 'The Dark Knight' and its two ships with a button to blow up the other on each). I don't know, to prove they won't use their arsenal against Russia and China, maybe? For such a momentous part of the plot, it didn't come across very clearly. In reality, on realising their Cold War enemy no longer had the means to defend itself the other two countries would immediately demand the US capitulate to any and all demands, but the whole set up was so plotty: the Entity is going to blow up the world, but only after sealing itself in a vault, but that's also when it'll be at its most vulnerable and they can trap it. But Gabriel wants to control it... And everyone's second-guessing what they're doing because it could all be an elaborate ruse by the artificial intelligence to get them to comply... I can imagine a far better film full of paranoia and only the true friends sticking together can pull victory through, and anyone could be someone they're not - even in the older films they had the face masks, but now the Entity can digitally recreate anyone, but that never got explored.

Plotty, that's just the word for it. Maybe they were trying to squeeze in too much because a popcorn thriller doesn't need to be almost three hours long, it's supposed to move deftly and efficiently, not trundle and bump along like a jalopy. The characters have never been developed enough for it to be an enjoyable experience merely to be in their presence, and as much as I like most of them, it was quite hard work in the first two-thirds of the film. There wasn't even that much to note or nitpick because the story was progressing so glacially. It became more of a man on his own mission, so there's not a lot of interplay or split-second teamwork. So what else to say? It showed that it's time to put the series to bed, Cruise can't hide his ageing any more, not that I mind seeing people older than me still repeating their greatest hits, and I seeing how they accomplished some of the plane stunts only adds to their glory, but as an entertainment experience it's far too weighed down. They try to throw in some positive messages about working together, and only by trusting each other can we defeat entities that are out to divide us, but it's all very simplistic and shallow. Would I really choose to wade through this and the last few films if I was after something good to watch? Probably not, they've become more of a mere accompaniment to life, continuing something that's been around these last four decades and is familiar and comfortable, but nothing more than that, where when I was younger I was blown away by the excitement, ideas and execution.

Part of the fault must lie with Director Christopher McQuarrie who I take it is someone malleable for Cruise to collaborate with, but I feel a director needs their own definitive vision (for that matter, why doesn't Cruise simply take on the full reins of directing himself?), and for the first two-and-a-half they had that with well-established action directors giving each film in the series its own very unique style and approach. Once that formula misfired with the fourth in the series, they settled on McQuarrie for these last four instead of branching out and having a James Cameron, a George Lucas, or a Spielberg, a Nolan, whoever, but someone that brings something visually entirely different. McQuarrie's fine, but I liked the idea of each film having its own strict identity. Having seen the entire TV series in the years since, however, I do understand that all the stories start to blur together and if you keep trying to top the stakes of the previous one you get, well, 'Fast & Furious.' I assume it's all about money and Cruise control, because the music was another area that doesn't stand out at all and I discovered the two composers are people I've never even heard of before so it seems they're trying to go cheaper to keep the profits high. Not to say all these people don't need to break out and find success, and maybe that's the reason (I assume), no one's particularly excited to make an 'M:I' film since it's been around so long and is just more of the same.

One thing about this film in particular is that it's no longer escapist, they're trying to hit on current themes, supposedly to hit the 'zeitgeist,' but what was great about the older films was you didn't have to think about modern problems, it was just expert, cunning precision plotting and action. Granted, I'm now older and harder to impress, I've seen it all before in this and other films, and I suppose that's why these things tend to be aimed at teens or twenty-somethings, because they don't have either the life experience or film-watching experience to be as unimpressed (though I did enjoy the references back to 8-inch floppy disks, the kind used by the Commodore 64 in the 80s - although I'm not sure it made sense for the data to be on such an old medium in the late-90s...). I didn't have many actual nitpicks for the film because it didn't seem all that detail-oriented, although I did baulk at the President of the US directly contacting Ethan until we later find out it's Bassett's character who obviously has history with him. I did find myself surprised he doesn't seem to have the same aversion to killing that he used to - I know when he ordered 'zero body count' in the first film it was because they were breaking into the CIA, but he's generally been quite a moral hero regarding such things, only killing when necessary, but here he violently goes after the goons that were threatening Grace and himself when all that was required was to knock them unconscious. At least we didn't see it all, happening off-camera in a semi-humorous way with the violence portrayed in shock on Grace's face. In fact this was one of the more restrained films in the series, especially considering it's the most recent one and films tend to be increasingly graphic, always have to use their quotient of one really nasty swearword, etc, but there was very little bad language and the violence wasn't extreme, so I appreciated that side of their decision-making.

Hunt/Cruise loves to run, so there's always got to be scenes of him pounding through streets or whatever, but it does make you wonder why he didn't simply borrow a car, hot-wire it and be on his way? I also did not buy Luther's reassuring words about being right where he wanted to be, born to be there, etc: what, strapped to a bomb that's about to go off? For all the series' reliance on gadgets and intelligence, they're beaten by a metal gate? Come on! Hunt would have found a bulldozer and smashed through the wall to save his friend. Occasionally there's a spot of realism to appreciate, like when Donloe's Inuit wife whacks a Russian soldier with a shovel and he merely looks at her! But then shortly after that is when you see Benji in a fight, which stretches credibility... It's hard to sum up a series I first loved and has been going for thirty long years, even though I wasn't there right from the beginning. I'm glad it exists, and to be honest, wouldn't be shocked it keeps going with a ninth and a tenth instalment if Cruise's appetite for stunts entices him back, but you can't keep putting your body on the line year after year in your 60s, so maybe he has retired for good. I can imagine a limited TV series being a suitable alternative with Cruise either absent or the boss giving out the orders, but at the same time that just doesn't seem his style. Where next for the IMF? I don't know, but let's have some serious editing next time, it really doesn't need to be as long as 'The Fellowship of The Ring'!

**

Shattered (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Shattered) (2)

You could say this was a way of placing 'Voyager' in its own history, preparing for the end of the series by revisiting the past with a greatest hits of previous adventures all rolled into one, you could even call it a bottle episode since it remains on the standing sets (other than recreating Dr. Chaotica's laboratory), but however it's viewed, it's with pleasure and great positivity from me. Whether it be Chakotay's optimistic attitude that he'll be able to put the ship back together again like a starship Humpty-Dumpty, despite not particularly knowing all that much about this temporal anomaly that has split the ship, fractured it, one might almost say 'shattered' it, into various time periods, you know he has confidence in his crew that they'll find a way. And there's the deep friendship with his Captain that runs through the story and once again cements their roles that they'd settled into as supporters that can be very close without going further than that. All quite apart from the joy of returning to points along the journey Voyager's taken to create a well-rounded tale that enjoys the benefits of a science fiction premise without the need to spend time explaining the technical details. All this plus a classic 'TOS' ending - it may be a little more sophisticated than Kirk and his Bridge crew gathered around the Captain's Chair guffawing at some amusement, but the spirit of Chakotay and Janeway sharing a wry joke together was the same and makes me wish there was more character interaction in these later episodes, more time for conversation and expression that built the characters in the early seasons.

Chakotay himself had suffered by being too much ignored as a regular character in these latter times, so it was a delight to see him take the reins and lead his one-man mission to repair the damage. His getting struck by lightning made me think of how Sisko was trapped in time aboard the Defiant in 'The Visitor,' and while this story doesn't have quite the same intensity as that one, there is some poignancy in revisiting characters and events from the past. The strongest element is lifting pre-Season 1 Janeway, a Captain fresh on her first command, but who is suddenly thrust into the bizarre circumstance in which she must trust the very man who is her target, with a tall tale about temporal shenanigans - it's a likely story, but Chakotay is quick-witted enough to take the initiative and force her into seeing the proof, opening her eyes to a wondrous world she's set to encounter, but also the calamitous circumstances that mean she's responsible for stranding her crew so far from home that it gives her reason to think she should change course and prevent the timeline from taking place. It becomes a reiteration of the founding attitude of the series that it was worth the sacrifice of all they knew in order to help a helpless species, and the rewards for that decision were great. It is a fascinating idea to show a character the future of their series that we've been privy to, and observe how they react, but it's also a defence of Janeway's original decision, showing what has come to pass, what successes and importance stemmed from it.

Chakotay always was supportive of Janeway so it's good to see him be so once again when she's in turmoil, and she in turn soon discovers the rapport she'll have with this stranger. If only this had been more central to the series on a regular basis it would have allowed him to continue to be essential rather than someone you too often see have one line on the Bridge while focus switches to Seven and the Doctor as what sometimes seemed were Janeway's sole concerns. It's not exclusive, as this episode proves, but too often he'd been relegated, stripped as a man of his strength in order to elevate a woman, and it's a shame they couldn't make the Captain strong without it having a detrimental effect on her First Officer. But all that's in the past, even with a good half season to go, and they probably felt their job was done with this episode, which in that sense can be looked on as a criticism of how the series might have been had they used Chakotay and Janeway together more effectively. I don't remember too much about the last episodes of the series, whether Chakotay had more to do, but probably not, so this may be his last great story. It's fitting that it goes back to when he was so integral with the Seska storyline and Martha Hackett making one last 'one last' appearance after her holographic return at the end of Season 3 - is she the only Trek character to come back from the dead twice, I wonder?

Slightly disappointing we didn't get Anthony De Longis back as her Maje Cullah for the full Kazon experience, but there was much to pack in: B'Elanna and Mr. Ayala in their old Maquis outfits (impressive Roxann Dawson could still fit in it after all those years and having given birth in the meantime!), Seven in her full Borg drone guise, the macrovirus, Dr. Chaotica and his henchman (and robot)... I was just starting to wonder why there was no future time period since that would make sense if we're seeing all these different times, when Icheb and Naomi are seen in Astrometrics working happily together. It strikes a different note seeing Icheb older now that we know he dies horribly in 'Picard,' and seventeen years after 'Voyager' would still be before 'Picard' Season 1 which took place at the turn of the century, though I don't remember how far Seven flashed back to in her memory of trying to save Icheb in that awful episode, so it could be this Icheb is from before or after those events (in either case it didn't happen in his timeline since Voyager wasn't back home as far as we know - they aren't wearing a future uniform, so that suggests they haven't got back yet). It's nice to see Icheb obviously flourishing as a full member of Starfleet (correspondence course?), Naomi, too, and they did a fine job giving us this hopeful look into the young ones' futures. At the same time you could say it's sad to see Voyager hadn't made it home, but then that timeline was a result of Janeway and Chakotay vanishing (I think), so it would be changed when they reset the ship, but it made for an interesting idea of how things might be, possibly before they'd decided on how the series would end.

They do love killing Tuvok off, it seems to me, I don't think this is the first time he's 'died,' and he'd go on to be mentally crippled in the finale, so basically dead, but I was surprised he didn't try and pass on his katra, perhaps to Janeway herself, as he had the time on his deathbed to know he was going. A good way into the episode I realised we hadn't seen any of him, or Paris and Neelix, so I was pleased we did get that little scene in the Mess. It was odd that Tom and Harry were conscripted to get the drop (literally), on the Kazon invaders in Engineering, but it all makes sense when suddenly people from all eras are joining in the fight in what was a delightful sequence where past, present and future combined to deal with the series' classic villains in Seska and her Kazon cohorts. Again, it could have been a great way to bring back a major guest star like Brad Dourif as Suder, but time permitted only so many callbacks and returnees. Although, imagine if this had been the big mid-season feature-length extravaganza instead of 'Flesh and Blood,' it might have been even better, and was certainly a huge concept that could have benefited from more screen time, but perhaps it would have been considered too much of an indulgence to spend so much time looking back?

There wasn't too much to nitpick about this one, I found - little things like why Chakotay wouldn't keep his secret store of Antarian cider in his own Quarters if he was afraid of Neelix discovering it, he does have plenty of space, after all, but maybe he felt he'd be too tempted to drink it himself? I also thought he and Janeway shouldn't have left their glasses on the edge of the table when they exit her Quarters to head to the Bridge after the anomaly hits, since the first sign they get is the ship shaking - don't want to waste that cider if it's among the last bottles Chakotay has left! Would it be a good idea to transport Chakotay to Sickbay when he's just encountered who knows what spatial phenomena, it could scatter his atoms all over the place for all B'Elanna knows! There was also the moment Chakotay walks onto the Bridge to find it's back in time before the ship was lost to the Delta Quadrant, and Harry Kim doesn't know who he is and just walks to his station, while Janeway and the Security guy recognise him as the Captain of the Maquis ship they've been sent to capture - was Harry kept in the dark about the mission at that point? One item that does get cleared up was the Doctor not quite being as crusty and aggrieved as I remember him being in the early days, but later we learn he's been running for three years, so that makes more sense.

It's a truly early 'Voyager' solution to have the gel packs be key to solving their predicament, so I appreciated that, as this new technology was set to be so important to the running of the ship, yet was never really explored all that much other than as a plot device to get them in or out of trouble. I suppose there's only so much you can learn about circuitry - it's just more efficient than the old stuff. Speaking of which, it was fun to see Janeway disassembling her Replicator complete with those glowing cables we sometimes see (particularly in 'DS9' whenever Rom's got his engineer's fingers into the pie!), though I'd have liked to have seen it all more clearly - it reminded me of the consistency Trek used to have across series' and episodes whenever they dealt with such things, and it's sad you don't get that sense about Trek in the modern era. There you go, that's not too bad, criticising modern Trek right near the end of my review! But that's because there's so much to enjoy about this episode and its own history I'm not thinking outside of that. One thing the episode made me wonder was when the Temporal Prime Directive came into being because I think it developed during 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' possibly first mentioned in 'Trials and Tribble-ations' with the Temporal Investigations agents, but if so that doesn't explain when Starfleet introduced it. Actually, it was apparently first mentioned in 'Future's End' by Captain Braxton, and was a 29th Century directive, so either the Voyager crew started using it, or it had existed long before then, otherwise they'd have been more understanding to Braxton... It struck me as a great way to get around any questionable activity a Starfleet officer does: sorry sir, can't tell you due to this regulation... And that's where we get the lovely ending where Janeway does exactly that in jest.

The episode was truly a celebration of all things 'Voyager,' and while it didn't have space or time to squeeze in everything from its six-and-a-half year run, it picked some good stuff. Seska was a highlight, even though she doesn't get to do much - maybe they should have had her running around the time periods herself once she'd worked out how it worked (that would have been good to end the first part with as she jumps into another timeframe, had it been a two-parter). Chaotica was another great return, especially as that segment happened to be a sequel to Janeway's previous appearance as Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. He's another of those characters to return ignobly in modern Trek when he was brought back in animated form for 'Lower Decks' where I was most disappointed they didn't get Martin Rayner to do the voice. Still, it was a fine finale for him and I was only left wondering how Janeway and Chakotay persuaded him to let them go unaccompanied since he's supposed to be cunning and would want at least a minion to accompany them. Similarly, I was a bit unsure about when B'Elanna would have been working on the Transporter as a Maquis, but maybe I'm forgetting a moment in 'Caretaker' when she was assisting with repairs?

It's natural to look back as the end draws near, and I'm surprised this story wasn't held until near the very end of the series, although it might have been out of place as the penultimate episode since the finale also dealt with time travel and characters travelling between periods, but I think coming closer to the end would have only added to its resonance as we recalled the adventures we'd encountered with the series and nostalgically considered the import of Janeway's original decision. It works well enough simply being in the seventh season and remains a strong entry for both the series as a whole and its final year, successfully incorporating sci-fi concepts with character work and 'what if?' scenarios: what if Seven of Nine had been around when Seska took over? Now we know, sort of. Seska didn't have time to respond to assault by Borg drone as Seven advances out of nowhere to get her in a choke hold! What would Icheb and Naomi have turned out like? It's so good we got something nice and wholesome as was Trek's style back then, before it got twisted and ruined by modern writers and their grisly, miserable world-views took over. What would the series have been like lasting seven years? Well, we got that question answered, and still being answered with over half a season to go. My only wish would be that the little joke about Chakotay getting the last word (which reminded me of McCoy - I also thought of him when considering Tuvok passing on his katra to Neelix, his revenge for all those arguments he lost, or in this case, for all the bad food and annoying chatter the Talaxian put him through!), could have played out with him saying the last line of the episode, but in keeping with the sentiment, Janeway gets the last line again!

****

SSX3

 GameCube, SSX3 (2003) game

As if in sympathy with the distant past when Nintendo made the questionable decision to push back '1080º Snowboarding' for Europe because they didn't think people would buy it outside of the winter months, I found myself wanting a wintry game to play, the colder weather making it more immersive, to tide me over before I had to clear all decks to make way for the Christmas 'Zelda' - I thought a nice, quick downhill racer would plug a gap, but what I didn't realise was the sheer breadth of challenges and achievements that make this game a laster, to the extent I had to share the Christmas holidays between it and 'Zelda' when I much prefer to concentrate on one main game at a time. It's a tribute to it that I actively wanted to get back to finishing Peak 3 when I was playing the most accomplished 'Zelda' to its day, and became a nice surprise for me as what I would call a classic, not something that happens very often, especially with a game I'd never played before, and have no nostalgic ties to. I should say the snowboarding genre in general has always interested me ever since I carved out tracks in the original '1080º,' a great simulation-like racing game. I would also put 'Snowboard Kids,' the 'Mario Kart' of the mountains, in the upper bracket (more specifically for the wonderful multiplayer which I will take to my grave as one of the most special examples of shared gaming I've ever experienced), while the competition to the 'SSX' series on GameCube, '1080 Avalanche' was something of a disappointment (still a good game, but not enough of a leap a new machine should bring).

I'd never played any 'SSX' before, mainly because it struck me as being very trick-oriented and I'm quite a lazy racer: I don't want any distractions from the twitch-gaming of speeding along as fast as I can go, so no manual gears, no boosts and especially no tricks! Okay, so most racing games have accoutrements hanging on their use of some description whether that be a boost meter that needs filling as in 'Burnout' or weapons and other pickups, and I'm not too bothered about all that, but it really is the trick side of things where you have to learn complicated combos (much like in fighting games, a genre I'm none too keen on for the same reason), and bring on early-onset arthritis from all the uncomfortable finger-twisting and button-mashing. In this game's case it would have been a combination of NGC Magazine's positive review and an openness to explore more older games I had the slightest interest in pursuing, partly for the cheap cost, partly for filling in some historical gaps in knowledge, so I'd owned it a few years just for that time I was ready to try it out, and this was the time. It's strange that of the two 'Cube games I played in 2025, one was my biggest disappointment ('XIII'), and the other, this, was the biggest surprise - it's not that I didn't expect anything, but I was pretty sure it'd be a three-star game (good, competent, worth playing), at best, and potentially less if I didn't get on with the tricking side of it.

As predicted, it wasn't the 'pure' racer I would have preferred, with the adrenaline meter requiring filling in order to boost best speed ahead, an essential part of the racing, if not as important in every challenge or event. That was far from my biggest irritation, however: the interface was fine, though you could tell it was a third-party, cross-platform port, just a little clunky in places, the biggest example of this being when you try to save: Quit Game >Yes, Save progress before quitting >Yes, choose a Save file >Done, confirm name >Done, Would you like to overwrite? >Overwrite, Save complete >Continue... That's six buttons to save, not even counting hitting the pause to take you to the menu in the first place! The worst offence is that whenever you go a little way off the beaten track you're told you're OFF LIMITS and summarily returned to the 'proper' place. This gives the lie to it being an entire mountain for you to skip down freely and causes all kinds of frustration when you merely want to exercise your freedom during the search for collectable snowflakes dotted about the landscape and you're constantly told off for exploring! Then there are more minor issues such as the computer voice saying "M-comm" every time you hit the Start button to choose options from the pause menu. It's not necessary and while it may sound pedantic and irritable, when you're redoing a challenge over and over and have to keep restarting you really don't need any extra irritation!

These were among my bigger gripes, but right from the off I was annoyed by the music (quickly turned it over to the ambient sounds of the mountain, much more serene and realistic), and especially the obnoxious characters spouting inane dialogue - you could say it's an age thing, but I wouldn't have thought any better of them twenty-odd years ago when it came out! Again, I turned speech down to 0, but then when you do win and a rival has something to say, you miss the dialogue because there are no subtitles. Even the way characters start off (other than in races where they're eager to leap ahead), it's from a sitting position as if they can't be bothered (I know, I know - if they were standing on the board they'd start to slide downhill, but it didn't help!), and then there's the issue of no trick tutorial so you have to work out what Indys, Ollys and Umphreys (or whatever), are by experimentation of trial and error - again, it's laziness from me, but that's the kind of thing I expected from the game. My guess is that this would be designed to appeal to those with an actual interest in the extreme sport itself (or who'd played the previous titles in the series), not merely a console race enthusiast like me, so you could say it's fairly advanced, with an expectation players will know the ropes. In that case you'd already be well aware of what tricks are called and what's needed to pull them off, but for someone that doesn't, it wasn't very accessible - the same can be said for the 'realism' of having to visit the Lodge, situated on a specific track on each Peak, in order to alter your character, upgrade stats, buy stuff and see Career Highlights goals. It is more realistic to have to travel somewhere to do stuff like that, but it would've made more sense to have it available from the menu.

I will give it credit for its scope and sense of progression, there's a nice RPG element to things where you can pay to upgrade various aspects of your boarder (though the visual side was limited - my character was Mac Fraser and I tried to make him look like Kensuke Kimachi from '1080º,' but couldn't get closer than a similar hat and jacket, but in the wrong colours), and improve your chances in events using money you've earned with tricks and victories, and while I thought it'd be a fairly short game to whizz through, much like '1080' and 'SK' were, there's a wealth of things to keep you occupied. Oddly, the racing part was never my favourite, opponents aren't that difficult to take on once you know the tracks reasonably well and the only challenge is in the boss races when someone throws down the gauntlet - the final race on Peak 3 for example, 'All Peak Race' (a bit misleading since it's only the first two Peaks), can take almost half an hour to get down, and if you lose you have to do it all again, not to mention trying to beat the time to achieve a Gold Medal. Medals are yet another way in which the lifespan is extended: at time of writing I've only managed a 94% completion with one more Freestyle event in which to achieve Gold ('Kickdoubt' - seems impossible to get the 750,000 points or above you need), and five Career Highlights left undone (mini challenges like holding a Handplant for so many seconds, for example). But beyond that there are even Platinum Medals to be won (not that I have the patience and dedication for that - I wouldn't even have realised they went to Platinum except I won one out of the blue!).

In keeping with the 'realism' I mentioned before, there isn't much fanfare when you do beat a Challenge or achieve a Highlight, the onscreen details merely change to an ordinary Freeride and nothing appears onscreen to emphasise you'd succeeded at something, which was quite strange when the tone is so often celebratory with fireworks exploding around you and money racking up. Freeride was actually one of the more pleasing parts of the game, roaming the mountainside in search of routes and shortcuts, and most importantly the snowflakes placed around, some requiring real thought and experimentation since they're just out of reach or up on some line you have no idea how to get to. I found that quite rewarding, especially as you tick off the total on each section, whether it be searching forensically every last anomaly, or stumbling upon the missing snowflake entirely unexpectedly - I spent hours on 'Kickdoubt' (again!), in the caves of Session point 5 where I believed the last snowflake in the level was going to be hidden in the collapsible stalactites hanging from the rocky ceiling, smashed by intense speed and precise control... only to try another time and find it was on the last ledge high above, just before the caves! The satisfaction of ticking these things off was a large part of the attraction of the game, partly because many snowflakes were deceptively easy to spot, making you think it an achievable goal.

The other favoured part of the experience were a number of the Challenges which ranged from slaloming between flags on the track, to the difficult stringing together of named tricks before time runs out. The latter was so tough, but again, so satisfying once success came and all these things eventually bumped the score up for me. It helped that the mountain is attractive, even beautiful at times with much varied terrain and weather effects, the ability to jump to various spots of each section using the Session option, lots of secret routes and dramatic falls or environmental effects, although, much like the hyped avalanches of the latter '1080,' they didn't have all that much bearing most of the time - small and occasional, always in the same place and with little ill effect, you simply ride them down or get pushed over, but I suppose that was all they could really do. It took some time, but the mountain did eventually begin to unfold to me and by Peak 2 I was loving it. It may be that there was just too much to do at the beginning, it takes time to learn the ropes and where to go because although Off Limits happen far too often, there's still a sizeable playable area to speed down. I liked that it had a hardcore sentiment that didn't kowtow to casual gaming, you had to put some work in and it does make me wonder if there's anything similar on Switch that could obviously break out of the technical limitations of that time to provide the definitive snowboarding or mountain experience in general.

Seeing the stats for each section of each Peak and gradually beating each of them was greatly satisfying and the worst things you had to do were probably the most pleasing to have achieved, which gives me hope I may keep going back until I've finally got that ridiculously tough last Gold Medal and the final Career Highlights. It's a game that stood worthy of being my Christmas game regardless of 'Zelda,' which is high praise indeed - it helps that racing is one of my favourite genres, but as noted, the actual racing side of it was rarely that integral or satisfying, nor did I ever get to try the multiplayer which looked pretty comprehensive, so I'm sure if I was regularly playing with others as I did when this was released it would have been a regular contender in the disc drive. Even the fact that many of the Challenges you could discover on a Freeride, depicted by a column of coloured light, would turn a different colour once you'd completed them to show the same Challenge now had a tougher variation, was a pleasing progression, and while I expect 'Zelda' to last a good few months into the year, this might be an ideal accompaniment any time I want a bash at aiming for 100% completion or Platinum medals.

****

Retrogaming Review of The Year 2025

 Retrogaming Review of The Year 2025

The Drive To Carry On
I thought my Amiga days were over, on the 1200 at least, as after 27 years the disk drive began to play up - it'd work for a while, but then stop reading disks, and if you've been playing an X-Com Battleship for the last hour only to be unable to save your progress, it rather takes the wind out of your sails, or the Elerium out of your propulsion system. But thanks to ebay I was able to get a replacement, although my problems didn't end there: the new drive didn't work at all until we worked out it was due to my Amiga being a French model so I had some scary times getting at the motherboard to be able to reach in and snip a copper wire which was preventing the new drive from doing its job. A simple solution, and it worked!

Switching It Up
The other big gaming development of 2025 was the addition to the console family of the original Nintendo Switch! For years I'd had it on the to-do list, but it was thanks to the release of Switch 2 I finally took the plunge into current gaming (they're still releasing games for the original model - technically it's still retrogaming unless I play something just released!). Specifically, it was the generosity of a work mate who upgraded to the new console and gave me his old one (thanks Sam!), so I had no excuse at last to jump into the recent Nintendo catalogue. How exciting! I also got a new gaming screen (Dell 22" widescreen with DVI, connecting through an HDMI-to-DVI adaptor), specifically to play Switch (and wished I'd got an even bigger one), as well as Wii, looking sharper than through my old fullscreen Dell FP2007 (which has started to cut out every so often, most inconveniently). Though I have ever more games I want to play and ever less time to devote to it, it wasn't a bad year for variety with at least a couple of games tackled on all systems: Amiga, N64, GameCube, Wii and Switch, an eventful year all told and one I look back on fondly on the gaming front.

Awards:
Surprise of The Year: SSX3
Disappointment of The Year: XIII
Toughest Nut: Magic Pockets

[Ratings reflect total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.]


January - April: Mario Kart Wii (2008, Wii) - This took some serious work to achieve everything I wanted to do (and I still don't have every track won with the best rating), with the Ghost Time Trials taking up a lot of time and attempts, but I also had multiple multiplayer sessions which is what it's really all about. It's a truly great entry in the series, especially all the connection to the past with so many tracks from previous iterations brought back, but I haven't had quite the same joy as I had out of the last two home console versions with our Christmas holiday fun times and Boxing Day Championships of two decades ago, and while it's the best one-player version with so much to do, it's also not enough to quite make it on a par with the past. ****

January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - I thought this long-running tradition of now 23 years was at risk when my disk drive started playing up, I'd been having problems since before Christmas '24, but it still mostly worked, until it stopped, with me at 03/02/18 in game time, but fortunately, with a replacement drive things continued as normal. It wouldn't be a proper gaming year without this (though I do sometimes think about going to Cydonia and ending the game, it's just such a long tradition and hard to countenance not playing it any more, especially as it has a nice, calming effect and a sense of connecting to the past and an oasis of gradual satisfaction on a weekly basis). *****

January - March: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010, Wii) - Like 'MK Wii' this was a strong game, but didn't have quite the same impact on me as the golden oldies, though it gave a great challenge and kept me going well into the year in quest of all those stars. Sad there's no 'Galaxy 3,' but with Switch now on the roster perhaps 'Odyssey' will be in the not-too-distant future... ***

January - December: WSC Real 08 (2008, Wii) - Much like the real snooker calendar I took a break after the World Championship in May and rarely found myself going back where once I tried to keep the disc turning on a weekly basis, perhaps as other games demanded more completion. Multiplayer in January of a year ago and over the recent Christmas bookended the year, but being No. 1 in the world gave me less motivation to keep going, though I haven't yet maxed out all my stats and there's always the Pool career to take on eventually (not to mention the '09 version of the game!). The only notable thing was sort of getting my highest ever break of 151 since the computer opponent fouled his first shot and then I got a 147 (if foul points counted in a break, which I know they don't, but still a highest score!). ****

January - December: Wii Sports (2006, Wii) - Trying to be more regular (I was aiming for at least every couple of weeks, but it was actually still almost monthly a lot of the time), I did smash my PB on the PB (Personal Best/Punching Bag), going from 56 to 59 after years stuck at the previous best and not even getting close! I also revived my Bowling career and we'll see where that goes and if I can keep it up on a regular basis like the Boxing, which is good exercise, giving it more of a motivation. ***

March - April: Sleepwalker (1993, Amiga 1200) - Close to being awarded 3 stars, but for the technical issues at the end not allowing me to see the completion animation. I was surprised how satisfying it was to go back and complete this, looking nice, not too long, even with such a low score I'd still have to rate this as one of the more surprising games of the year since most others I either expected to be good, or not, and if not for a late entry by 'SSX3' this would have won that category. Nice to continue the recent tradition of an Amiga game at the start of Spring, too. **

April - May: XIII (2003, GameCube) - You shouldn't go far wrong with an FPS, especially on a system not blessed with a definitive example of the genre, but I found this to be awkward, linear and not very engaging, and while it had some occasional beauty (I always think of the leafy hedge maze and gardens towards the end), it wasn't enough to save it. **

May - June: Glover (1998, N64) - Another somewhat disappointing experience, a tough one (this would've had a shot at my new category of Toughest Nut if not for the arthritis-inducing 'Magic Pockets'), and one to keep me trying, but I was never really sold on it - puzzle games have never been a big draw and despite this being as much a platformer, it was a bit awkward and annoying, nor was it enough to merely continue the N64 Summer game tradition of recent years, I expected more from it. **

June - July: Magic Pockets (1991, Amiga 1200) - Now this was hard: a 2D platform game in the no saves style of yore, not even passwords to allow skipping past levels already completed, and unlike 'Aunt Arctic Adventure' of the other year it didn't even have infinite continues to assist, it was pure trial and error, try after try, and so was very satisfying to ultimately complete. At the gorilla fight halfway through there was a time I thought I might not succeed, having spent a couple of hours to get to that point and then being beaten so often, but perseverance pays off and this game of childhood was yet another to finally bow before my belated attempt to crack it. But it was more pain than pleasure, hence the score. **

July - August: The Settlers (1993, Amiga 1200) - I had to get back to a classic, my favourite game of all, after a mix of mediocrity, but it did remind me of the fact it takes so long to get to the winning stage even when the opposition has no chance of coming back, which is less interesting, and the unfortunate glitch of your castle eventually refusing to allow you to take anything out of it once you've got to a certain point in the game (I'm not sure this is due to me giving all opponents maximum stats on everything and myself minimum, it's a theory I'll have to test out sometime as I don't remember that happening in the distant past when I used to play more conventionally), so it's far from perfect, but the visuals, sounds, politeness of it all... well, that is perfect and still stands as my favourite game of all time! *****

August - September: Burnout Paradise Remastered (2020, Switch) - Could have been described as a disappointment since expectations were high, 'Burnout 2' probably my all-round best game on 'Cube and I'd never played another title in the series, while also being my first exciting delve into Switch territory. Which is not to say it's a bad game - it's huge with tons to do (plus a bonus island of more stuff!), but with omission of the integral multiplayer (few years have passed without some 'B2' in that regard), and trying to find everything and work out how to do certain things towards the end it was starting to feel like a chore, but its vast world and countless vehicles, not to mention the exhilaration of whipping about on bikes, made this the best 'disappointment' I could have hoped for this year: a good, solid experience that somewhat showed me what to expect from Switch (I say somewhat as it was a remastered port from earlier systems). ***

October: Operation Winback (1999, N64) - Yet another game I wasn't thrilled with, which is a shame because it's one that had been on my radar since the earliest days of N64 Magazine as a worthwhile one to try out. Took me years to get a copy at a reasonable price, but while there's a good deal of replay value thanks to scoring, I didn't enjoy it's Third-Person Shooting enough to want to go back, not in the near future, at least, and while I was fulfilling another recent tradition of an October N64 game (to commemorate my console's 'birthday,' the month I first got it back in 1999), it wasn't up to others on the system and at this stage I was thinking ahead about trying to clear the decks for the biggest Christmas 'Zelda' ever. **

November - December: SSX3 (2003, GameCube) - Strange that my two 'Cube titles this year turned out to be the biggest disappointment and the biggest surprise! I fancied a racing game so I could plough through quickly before Christmas and devote the festive season to my Christmas 'Zelda,' and that didn't work out, but while I initially had some irritation, this snowboarding game exceeded expectations and once I really got into it, grew on me to the point I realised I really wanted to get back to it to find those last snowflakes or win those races, beat those times and scores, the longevity appealing, the difficulty curve well designed, and while it hung around I found great satisfaction in a number of the challenges within that required repeated effort to beat, turning this from a merely good experience to great, no better expressed than in tearing me away from 'Zelda' on occasion because I wanted to finish those last bits and pieces! And I still didn't do everything by year's end so I suspect it'll be like last year's companionship of 'Mario Galaxy' and 'Mario Kart' together seeing me well into the new year. ****

December: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild (2017, Switch) - It's Christmas. It's 'Zelda.' It's the inevitable Christmas 'Zelda,' one of my major gaming traditions since 2019. But this was... different. Disconcertingly so in many ways (constantly breaking weapons and equipment, no strong theme music, slight control issues), but oh! The sense of going off on an actual adventure is unparalleled: it's like the barriers to progression have been lifted and rather than follow a dedicated story through, slowly building access to various parts of the world and unlocking things through the acquisition of items, you're practically given everything at the start and pushed out into a living, breathing world where you can spend hours simply 'seeing what's over the next hill' or 'I just need to try and follow this coast round a bit further'! It's beautiful, it's vast (still some noticeable pop-up, technical limitations haven't been entirely superceded!), but it's too early to tell whether this will be up with my favourites of the series simply because there isn't that sense of clear progression, there don't seem to be dungeons other than one-puzzle mini versions all in the same theme or style. But you can climb almost anything, leap off cliffs with a Paraglider, the enemies are much tougher and cleverer, it doesn't kowtow to the mores of casual gaming: you literally take on what you feel comfortable with and learn, like in the real world. Biggest complaint is that there aren't enough hours in the day to satisfy the craving for exploration. And yet, at the same time after a few hours you can start to feel jaded since you're not necessarily accomplishing anything, and the map is an ugly black thing with blue lines, and... like I said, it's too early to judge because I've already learnt how to fill in the proper map, like 'Zelda' past, so there's still much to be discovered. I'm sure I'll have much more to say in my full review, but that won't be for some time... ****

Honourable mentions: New year multiplayer 'MarioKart: Double Dash' (*****), 'Burnout 2' (*****), and both starting and ending the year with 'WSCR '08' (****), not to mention a little 'Wii Sports Resort,' namely Frisbee and Golf (only having one Wii Motion Plus meant anything other than turn-based games were off the menu), but otherwise there wasn't much time for side plays, it was all big, serious gaming for me.


Next Year - Still found some Amiga games that worked on the 1200 after the no-go of the 1500 and had a nice even split with my various machines, so in 2026 I'd like to:

- Bring the Amiga 500 down...?

- Play 'James Pond II: Robocod' for my Spring Amiga game

- Maybe do 'Lego Star Wars' for my late nights after matches during the Snooker World Championship

- Keep the tradition of my Summer N64 game going with either 'Wave Race 64,' 'Lylat Wars,' 'Extreme G' or 'Wipeout 64'

- Try something else on Switch (ooh, too many to choose from!), and Wii ('Pirates,' 'Bully,' 'De Blob'?)

- Get back to Game Boy ('Link's Awakening' or 'Wario Land,' perhaps)

- Return to 'Metroid Prime 2' for 'Cube now I can do 60Hz games again with my new screen, before I get to 'MP4' on Switch (perhaps paired with 'Link's Awakening' for Christmas if I ever get to solder a new battery in the cartridge!)

Happy New Year!

Flesh & Blood (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Flesh & Blood) (2)

A little slice of 'DS9' is sort of how I see this, but it's also a big slice of 'Voyager' mid-season extravaganza, as became a bit of a tradition (if missed in Season 6, a little like 'TNG' skipped a Q appearance one year). I enjoyed it more last time I saw it compared to my initial impressions and felt it was something you could get your teeth into thanks to the feature-length running time of two episodes in one, not done since Season 5's 'Dark Frontier.' Before that viewing I was a little underwhelmed, since I had lofty expectations for the Hirogen (they should be seven-foot monsters as they were in their first appearances), but that species trait had already been broken in the same season they first appeared, most likely due to a lack of sizeable actors to fill dramatic roles, so I became more resigned that their uniqueness had been lost and simply sat back and enjoyed the runaround - I had the same experience this time, too, seeing it as the closest we can get to a 'Voyager' film. At the same time, like most blockbusters, and a lot of Trek films (especially the recent Kelvin Timeline series, which has thankfully been finally put out of its misery, nine years after the last one failed to strain above mediocre), it's more action and running around than anything much deeper (literally in the Doctor's case - we've rarely seen him move so quickly!), but as Trek of the old often did, it has more going on between the ears and in the chest cavity departments, and it's those things that still resonate even while the physical drama isn't quite as thrilling as it once would have been.

The idea of holographic life is a rich seam to mine, but due to Voyager being lost (can we still say they're lost - they know where they're going and they're getting increasingly closer as the series progresses), in the Delta Quadrant, we didn't have all that much space to develop the concept, one of the most intriguing situations of this period of later 24th Century life that the return of Voyager could have greatly impacted. 'DS9' had dealt with it a little, but not so much in the sense that holo-characters could be a 'real' life form that grew and became more than it was designed to be, primarily through Vic Fontaine who was self-aware, but also content to remain within his fiction, a much more realistic approach those writers took to both have fun with the concept of holograms, but also admit that there is more to it than just light and forcefields. If you think too deeply about it, it doesn't really, entirely make sense. As far back as Moriarty on 'TNG' we'd learnt what it might be like if a hologram took on ideas of its own, but that was played merely for villainy, a fictional character trying to become fact. With 'Voyager' they couldn't escape the ramifications of what they'd done by relying so heavily on this revolutionary EMH program by necessity, and in the same way Janeway admits some responsibility for the situation the Hirogen find themselves in here, it was also down to her that the Doctor became who he was in the latitude she gave to what was a tool, or extension, of the ship itself. Actually, that might have been interesting if the Doctor had represented Voyager herself, spoken on behalf, acted on the ship's requirements, but then it would have been more 'Farscape' than Trek and a very different series.

If Voyager had been on missions in the Alpha Quadrant the Doctor either wouldn't have needed to remain online and be required to grow beyond his programming, or if he had, he'd have been examined back at base whenever they did get home. Modifications could have been made to ensure his model didn't develop these unique personality traits and all that went into his makeup as a person, because it is pretty ludicrous when you think about it: it's something we created, Starfleet basically playing God without realising it, since holograms are meant to be there to service real life, they're computer programs, and though we'd already been through all this to determine whether Data was a person or a computer, property, himself, he was much harder to recreate (until we get into the murky realm of 'Picard' and all the damage that series did to the tech and the lore...), so it wasn't like another Data could be spontaneously birthed into the world, while a hologram can be conjured up wherever holoemitters exist. At the same time, though they can have physicality and interact with the real world, they are merely projections of a program. This is why it's hard to accept Iden's idea of building a holographic society on a Class-Y world - that they can live in inhospitable conditions was a good sense idea, that they can find ways to have a meaningful existence when they don't grow old, have families, have any needs, is much harder to accept and is a major flaw in the idea of them being real, sentient beings.

Just as much a flaw in the idea is the fact that they require technology for basic survival, always at the risk of their computers degrading, especially in the harsh environment of the planet Iden chose for home. There's occasionally talk of what they're going to do with their time ('anything' is too wide a concept), without realising, for example, that the Doctor's purpose in life is to heal. Remove that purpose and yes, he still has other interests: opera singing, photography, but what value would any of it have without a concrete purpose in 'life,' replaced with merely an existence in opposition to that serving organics. Perhaps the issue of purpose should have been central to the story and rather than making Iden into the standard megalomaniacal cult leader, the group could have fallen apart from the realisation they wouldn't have a purpose to their existence, not enough to be away from what they were designed to do. I wasn't quite sure where these holo-characters came from, either - obviously materially they were generated from Voyager's databases, but were they meant to be based on real people or were they just a set of parameters for what certain races were like. There's a whole discussion between B'Elanna and Kejal about stereotypes and it does raise the issue of the outer skin of a person being irrelevant, it's what comes from the inside, the intellect and the emotions and the character that is important, which is why none of these holograms are actually the races they portray, but all holographic, and yet they are also all programmed to behave a certain way or display certain attributes inherent to the characters as designed.

They're all actually based on the Doctor's program which is how we can believe they were able to adapt and move beyond merely being actors in a simulation, which is what holograms usually are, not designed to be more than that because self-determination and sentience would actually interfere with the purpose for which they were created (Vic notwithstanding!), but if they were meant to learn and develop as the Doctor did then that presents a far more credible way to accept how we got to this situation, compounded by the fact that Donik, who is clearly an inexperienced technician (which makes me ask how he was able to learn in the first place, and if there aren't many such people, how do the Hirogen create ships and weapons - in the same way the Klingons mostly seem like warriors, though we had seen others to show there were innovators and scientists among them), enhances or perhaps messes up their programming to make them more deadly in the hunt. Perhaps it is this that made Iden a dangerously immoral character, purportedly a serious follower of the Bajoran religion, praying to the Prophets that the dead Hirogen will find their way to the Celestial Temple, but was that all an act or was it he was simply unhinged? He could have been putting on a show for the Doctor, or he could have genuinely believed up to the point at which it might interfere with his own goals, or he may have been misguided entirely about what it all meant, we never really know, since you'd think if he hated organics so much (like Dejaren in 'Revulsion'), he'd throw off the shackles of everything related to them.

Except holograms can't ever completely divorce themselves from those that made them because they know for a fact they were made, they can't escape it, short of denying the truth, and the unintended parallels between them and us who have denied God in our culture, building up myths to replace him, have not been lost on me! It would be interesting to see (much like the space seed of Khan planted on a planet and allowed time to grow!), if this society had played out on that planet, what would have sprung up - would they have eventually denied the truth of their past, they are after all unreal creations that can exist in a fantasy world just as real to them as the real world? What would have been the result of such a society? We don't get to explore the ideas fully because we go off on that Iden madness tangent of an idealistic leader who turns out to be evil, as cruel and oppressive as those he claims to oppose. The society will survive, or I think that was the idea at the end, with Donik going with Kejal to repair the damage, but the questions still remain about how will they fill their time even if they were led by stable government? They could build physical things, but certainly not on the kind of barren, empty planet that would best serve their needs for security (though it wouldn't have prevented aerial bombardment unless they lived in underground caves), or they could build holographic things, but what would be the point, they might as well learn to program and be done with it. It's a bit like AI now - we could just let it design and build everything, but where would the creativity and sense of satisfaction come from?

Really the episode throws up all kinds of questions about holographic life without answering them, and perhaps I'm making it more complicated in my own mind than the implications allow, but it's such a deep concept to explore you'd need a lot more time and patience to sift through and examine, and when it's all about a life form that can be blinked out with the press of a button, maybe all the agonising and headache-inducing isn't worth the effort and we should simply take it as it is. That's pretty much how holograms were treated by Kurtzman-era Trek: it's as if there was no development on whether these are slaves that should be freed from captivity, an essential resource to be used, or a mere unnecessary technology that could be in danger of replacing people in so many tasks. But I'm digressing rather, this should be about the episode and not the wider implications of the entire concept of holographic nature. It's quite shocking, for example, that the Doctor does ally himself with Iden and the gang, believing they have so much in common, because he shares about as much with them as they did with the primitive holograms Iden 'liberates' from the alien ship, since they don't have the Doc's 'DNA,' and are merely functional tools and nothing more, which is what the majority of holograms would be.

What I like about this one, apart from the speculation it creates, is that it's a direct sequel to the great 'The Killing Game' when Janeway left the Hirogen with holographic technology (not sure how, since it's a system integrated to the ship, but maybe it was just the schematics?), something that really seemed unwise when you think the Federation shouldn't be giving out such things, but then as Chakotay said, the technology isn't inherently violent, it's what the Hirogen did with it that made it that way, something you could see as a comment on entertainment today - it's like we've been handed the ability to make films, TV, games, etc, but we exceed the morality of what went before (which wasn't always moral then, obviously, but there's a definite downward trend, as shown by even Trek these days). It seemed at the time as if Janeway's decision was a benevolent assistance, a nonlethal form for them to release their hunting tendencies, but which didn't take into account the species' desire for more and more carnage. On the other hand, Donik would have had to train as a hunter, something he didn't want to do, so he became a technician thanks to Janeway and also had a sense of responsibility towards his creation. It's a shame we didn't get a deeper exploration of Hirogen culture and life for them, just these little hints, as it could have had so much more impact if we'd seen their homeworld or a colony and how it all works, in the way we saw Klingon life through so many episodes. But however deep Trek goes we always want it to delve deeper, that's the nature of fanatical interest, I suppose!

This was another way to bring familiar Trek to the Delta Quadrant, so we get Vulcans, Romulans, Cardassians, Bajorans, Borg, humans, Klingons (not the last we'd see this season), even Jem'Hadar and Breen (the last time for the latter until 'Lower Decks' Season 3 - I don't count the awful 'DSC' versions, even if they're calling them Breen! And for Jem'Hadar we haven't seen them at all, not even in 'Picard' Season 3, which you'd have expected with the Dominion connection...), and when B'Elanna gets kidnapped and says about it being like an Alpha Quadrant summit, I was thinking it was like a Trek convention, everyone dressed as their favourite race! But it is fantastic to get all these familiar faces (especially the Breen, whose machine language we get to hear once again!), and this is a kind of throwback to what we know that would nowadays be called 'fan service' in a derogatory sense, as if giving people what they want, callbacks to the familiar, was something negative when in fact it's about firmly reminding us of the world we're in, the shorthand of the universe, and no doubt was meant to appeal to those that had seen 'TNG' and 'DS9' but may have been put off by the fact 'Voyager' was out in an entirely other 'world.' In fact I thought they might have even gone further with this, perhaps brought back a famous face or two, such as Martok (J.G. Hertzler had already popped up on the series in another role - a Hirogen, coincidentally!), or even a famous 'TNG' or 'DS9' character. They're all holograms so it would've been justified, but then that's the territory people complain about with modern Trek, I suppose, and could take attention away from the story they were trying to tell.

It certainly appeals to me that they were able to bring in connections to the wider Trek world, even in Season 1 they had a Romulan show up, and a mix of the new and old was good for the series, I feel. Speaking of which, Vaughn Armstrong (who'd already been in the series as that aforementioned Romulan, and two other roles on this series), made his seventh role in Trek with an Hirogen, though he doesn't last long or have much impact on the story. And Paul Eckstein had previously played a Hirogen in the story this was a sequel to, 'The Killing Game,' back again as a Hirogen, but a different character (he was another familiar name across 'DS9' and 'Voyager'). I didn't recognise where I knew him from, but the aggressive holographic Starfleet officer, Weiss, Iden's second, was played by Spencer Garrett whose face was recognisable as Simon Tarses from 'The Drumhead' on 'TNG,' a fun connection. Cindy Katz had been in a Cardassian-heavy episode of 'DS9,' 'Second Skin,' though hadn't been a Cardassian in that one (and technically, isn't in this one either, though that's her holographic appearance), so it was a nice selection of familiar faces and voices to some degree or another, though of course this was actually two episodes, no doubt the budget reflecting that.

It may not have been such a great episode for many of the main cast since so much time is given over to guest stars, which can be a problem if the guests aren't up to standard, but perhaps because so many were Trek veterans of some description it wasn't bad to watch them and didn't take away from the cast, but when you think back, most of them weren't very involved. It's more like one of those early episodes where one character would have the meat of the story, this time the Doctor, but it maybe should have been a B'Elanna story - there were some parallels with her Season 2 episode, 'Dreadnought,' in which she's kidnapped and forced to work on a Cardassian weapon. This was eerily similar, since holograms are a program like the Cardassian weapon, but this time she has more impact mentally. The Doctor had to be at the centre of it all because it's about the rights and responsibilities, but I felt like he'd been through this before ('Revulsion' comes to mind again, but maybe other experiences, too), though unlike so many early episodes where Janeway would show up in Sickbay where an errant crewman had messed up once again, she doesn't give the Doctor a dressing down or punish him in any way. It was all well and good to say that it was her fault in some way, but it was like she didn't have anywhere to go with that since in the early episodes, if she was disappointed by his behaviour or choices, she could express the suggestion maybe she'd been wrong to indulge his wish for more rights, but it's too late to go back to all that now. There should have been some kind of punishment, since he did effectively mutiny and it was only Iden's desire to win him over that Voyager was allowed to live, otherwise the series could have been over prematurely!

We get some nice little bits of continuity, such as B'Elanna showing discomfort when Kejal is assigned to assist her on the holograms' ship, as she would, having fought the Cardassians as part of the Maquis. The Doc even mentioned the Maquis, and that was what I thought of when Chakotay suggests his turning was not due to a malfunction, but the draw of the cause (as Ro Laren did on 'TNG' - it's been nice to have her story resolved since), something he knew about only too well. Tom Paris as a medic again, and a couple of alien species Voyager had encountered recently (the Nuu'bari and Lokirrim, though I later realised the former were new to this episode, they just looked familiar), were referenced as societies that had holographic life forms. The delineation between the Doctor and these programs that have come from his template, and the basic alien versions was a good reminder how special and unique he is. But still, most of the cast are underserved - Neelix, for example only gets one important moment when he plays the old macho card of the Hirogen not wanting it to get out they were beaten by holograms, when trying to persuade them not to demand their rights to the technology (though I don't see how they could prevent them from rebuilding it). I wonder if by this time of the series' run he was really feeling the discomfort of the makeup and they were writing him in less in consequence, although the character was often given shorter shrift as the series had gone on anyway.

One thing that wasn't answered or even addressed, was how Voyager would surely be well away from Hirogen space by now - how could they have been given this technology in Season 4, but show up three years later in Voyager's path! Unless our ship was meandering around and going back on itself, and even then it would have to be a society-wide sharing of tech, the chances of Voyager stumbling on the exact group of Hirogen that had holo-tech otherwise a practical impossibility in the vastness of space! Not that I mind that massive plot hole myself, it was good to go back to a popular race one more time, but it was a drawback with Voyager that it was always moving on and so made it difficult to create ongoing stories. It's even bopped right on the nose when Chakotay says their reputation has preceded them, but surely they were going in the other direction, it doesn't make sense! I was unclear why they didn't realise the space station they beamed down to was a holographic environment - I suppose it could have been bio-domes or something, with only the 'sunlight' being artificial, but it just seemed they were too surprised by it all. I did like Janeway coaxing Donik to understand they weren't holograms, other than the Doctor - we just take for granted so much of what happens between the holograms and the physical world, like he phases out when Donik throws a tray at him, or they fizz out when their programs are malfunctioning, or the little zip when they come into the correct phase or when the Doc or Iden connect to his holoemitter. Little things, but so effective you don't even think of it all in the moment as we're so used to Trek selling this stuff so well.

They didn't do that in every area: it was a touch incongruent to see camp beds set up in the Mess Hall as you'd think they'd have something a little more futuristic and effective than that! I'm sure we'd seen them used before whenever there was an epidemic and Sickbay was swamped, but they stood out to me. It was also strange to see blood on the Hirogen - that on the Bat'leth made sense as it's a piercing weapon, but after they were attacked from the pond with Phasers and Phaser Rifles, surely such weapons would cauterise wounds, not leave blood splashes. Regarding that scene, it was certainly effective, but I couldn't help wish they'd made it even more outlandish by having a Breen, a Jem'Hadar, a Cardassian along with a Starfleet officer, rising out of the water, rather than all human-like characters, as that might have created even more impact for the scene. And I felt Donik could have been a nice addition to the crew if he hadn't gone off at the end - I was imagining he and Icheb getting on well as they were similar characters, perhaps they could have done a story where they competed for Seven's attention. Actually, even she's largely absent, and I thought when Chakotay selects her for the Away Team and then calls her with him when they split into two groups, this might give us at least one small moment between them that could hint at what was to come at the end of the season, but it seems that was entirely unplanned so they probably had no idea at this point. I found it interesting that Bajorans might believe all dead are on a journey to the Prophets, I'm not sure we ever got that impression before, and any mistake that doesn't line up with what 'DS9' may have said on the subject can easily be avoided since it's a hologram saying it, and while he may be accurate, he may also have twisted Bajoran beliefs or interpreted them entirely wrongly.

To be honest it was just lovely to hear mention of the Prophets and the Celestial Temple (wonder what Iden thought of Sisko? A mention of the Emissary would have been fun), to see a Bajoran uniform, not to mention all the other races and uniforms we get, and a good excuse to use some old props and costumes, I'm sure, to put a more cynical spin on it! But the story was a good one, if not fully thought through, sidetracked by Iden's malicious tendencies, but also a valuable reminder of what happens when a group try to throw off the 'normality' and values of a society in order to remake it in their own image: they want to be God and they don't care how many lives are taken to do it, so even more pertinent for today's times, I felt, and the idea of these fake beings playacting a life on some barren rock to escape the apparent servitude they felt they were under was ripe for much more investigation. It had some big questions and some heart-tugging moments and was the last feature-length episode other than the finale, so it has a special place for me, and one I still feel is great for just losing yourself in that isn't always possible with forty-five minute stories. Perhaps the Doctor gets off scot-free at the end, but you can see how deeply it's affected his conscience and also reminds us of the hope of grace when Janeway leaves him unpunished and he picks up the holoemitter, the symbol of his freedom. In reality he hadn't even earned that as it was a piece of tech stolen from the future, but that's an entire other issue and one we'll have to see addressed when they get back to Earth... Yeah, right!

****

Nightingale (2)

 DVD, Voyager S7 (Nightingale) (2)

Captain Kim-caid! The unique situation of Voyager means that the natural progression most Starfleet officers would make up the ranks is limited by the number of people they have available, but as we can see with this story, that doesn't mean the crew aren't qualified, or does it? I feel the idea worked in both ways, in one sense this could be the most experienced crew a starship has had since they've been through so much while keeping to the command hierarchy and protocols demanded by Captain Janeway, but the other side of that is they could also be comfortable in the roles that have been so long established and haven't had to confront the change of superiors or the mix of fellow crewmembers they work with which could turn a team stale. Don't forget, though, this is Starfleet, they're meant to be the best of the best, it's mere degrees of expertise that separate them from each other, and also, this isn't the first ship to be out on its own for years on end - we have the impression, whether founded in canon or not, that five year missions are about the standard length of a long-range cruiser type of starship, and while Voyager was meant for science missions, and wasn't designed for the long-term position they're in, it was state of the art at launch and we've seen how well it's adapted to the requirements made upon it. None of this means that a junior officer such as Ensign Harry Kim can't see himself as Captain material, but what it does mean is he rarely gets the chance outside of the Holodeck.

One of the joys of this episode is seeing him fired up and ready to progress, to show what he's made of instead of being the sidekick - he gets that excellent scene with Tom where he expresses disenchantment with being Buster Kincaid all the time to Tom's Captain Proton, and for once gets one over on his old buddy who just wants out of cleaning duties to come along, yet despite a demotion, would still be Kim's superior on a mission. It's actually very interesting to see the rigid nature of command protocol in action since we can sometimes have the impression of looser structure than previous Treks had shown in general, and in an age where Trek has almost thrown off the 'shackles' of hierarchy and structure to its great detriment in exchange for non-Starfleet personnel, or ex-Starfleet, or simply an attitude of friendship rather than professionalism, it's so reassuring to have these ideals front and centre as a great reminder of why these things matter in the face of an increasingly fantasy-driven way of looking at the world we see in modern society where everyone's views are as valid, discipline is lax and respect is uncommon. Here we have all of those things and yet Captain Kim still fails to a large degree. Or does he? It was a very sensitive scenario to find himself in, but also quite rare to have him in the situation of being senior officer on a mission, only Neelix and Seven with him, both of whom would be as experienced in many ways, if not more so, or if not experienced then owning a greater range of knowledge.

Take Neelix, he's been a Captain himself, albeit of his own small ship, and not for a few years, but he was always shown to be a man about galaxy, and offers the valuable advice not to show indecision in the role. Seven has much of the accumulated knowledge of the Borg on tap, plus the rigorous training Janeway gave her during an intensive Season 4 acclimatisation schedule so she among anyone has been able to study the qualities of a great Captain firsthand - you'd think Kim would have been equal in sucking up command knowledge, and over a greater number of years, but sometimes it takes an outside view to see the bigger picture, and while he's intent on making it, he fails to see the value of building up his crew, being over-managerial and intent on making the right decision while failing to see the need to include them. You could say even his first act to get involved in an armed conflict was rash, as much as it appeared to be the fair thing to do when an apparently humanitarian medical ship is attacked by a more dangerous warship. Perhaps if the Annari hadn't fired on the Flyer Kim would have had less grounds for what he did, entering the conflict on one side. But it's difficult, the same way if one person was being attacked on the street by multiple opponents, it's just that natural aversion to inequality that would encourage someone to come and help the oppressed party even if you don't know the reasons behind it. But that's the difficulty Starfleet officers can face wherever they go, whether to get involved or remain aloof, and it must be one of the most tricky decisions to make under pressure.

I wonder if the fact the Annari were reminiscent of Cardassians in their mass of dark hair and much facial bone structure, and their military superiority, while their opponents were more fresh-faced, plus the nose ridge look of Bajorans added to the Trek shorthand of who was in the right or wrong. It could have been subversion on the part of the production, we've certainly seen that played out before (such as in 'Nemesis' where the Kradin looked fearsomely like Predator aliens, while their enemies appeared human), and to some extent it was, since the Kraylor were lying to Kim from the start about their real intentions, but it wasn't as simple a situation as one side good, one side bad, though it's clear the aggressors were the Annari, especially as they were more actively opposed to our characters. It's a tough position to be in, Kim isn't experienced enough to know exactly what was right, but Janeway even admits she'd probably have done the same (even if she's not always the best example to follow, of course). It's interesting to speculate on what each of the main cast might have done in the same situation, Torres would have been more aggressive, especially if the Annari had fired on them, while Tuvok I suspect would've been more prudent. You can tell the same story with any of them and it would be a fascinating divergence, but then that's the great thing about Trek, the characters are so well defined we can see this or a similar scenario in many episodes and how it plays out each time.

Harry has been one of the characters not to be given many strong roles in the later part of the series and this was unequivocally his episode (sadly, I think the only Kim-centric episode of the season), even while he had Seven along with him, what would have been an unusual pairing had it not been for the fact only the previous episode had them trapped together on an alien ship! But it's a rich dynamic with her an unofficial member of the crew (it's said she has no rank, though I'd have thought she'd at least be Crewman, but not knowing enough about rank in general I don't know if this isn't considered a rank), so below Kim in authority, yet clearly with a level of knowledge gleaned from Borg, Janeway or even her interactions with the Doctor, that give her insight. What works about all this is that Kim is quite commanding, even from the first encounter with the aliens, behaving more like a Captain should and making a bold decision quickly, in turn giving him confidence to push for this as his mission. At the same time there are some warning signs even right away, since this ship is supposedly on a mission of peaceful medical aid, yet they travel cloaked, which is an underhanded way to operate according to Roddenberry himself, knowing full well that if such technology existed in this universe for one race then the Federation should be able to come up with its own variation, except it's not their style (USS Defiant's fudging notwithstanding - they were able to justify it quite nicely, once again proving it's not what you do, but how you do it).

About the cloak: they say it's their best defence, but apparently the Annari could still detect them since that's how we see them first attack the Kraylor, so it wasn't as effective as it might have been. The important thing is seeing a character excelling, making the right moves, showing their training, it's a delight to have Kim come into his own, but that only makes it a harder lesson to learn and a more satisfying one to watch. If it was all plain sailing, Kim carried out his mission, navigating the bumps, showed himself to be ideal Captain material, where would he go this late in the series (or really, anywhere in it!). For it to be a worthwhile story there had to be some growth, and while it may not be a cheering success for him to admit to Neelix he's not a Captain at the end, in typical optimistic style he adds the caveat, 'not yet,' promising hope for the future and a desire to become better, which is what Trek is all about. It was also important for it to be a serious story, not another one where Kim falls in with the wrong girl, something which had become a running joke for the series, though they couldn't help but reference it when Tom assumes this is his reason for wanting to get involved after Kim zings him with the riposte that now he's married he should leave such missions to the young, unattached guys!

As usual, I can't help but imagine how modern Trek would approach such a story and it's such a relief we don't have Kim joking about needing to have a catchphrase, simply stealing from the best and saying 'engage!' This is how to do it realistically, not being mates with the crew, but holding himself apart to some level, except in his case it's more that he disregards the capabilities and needs of those under him to the point where they find it easy to mutiny until he returns to give his expertise and ensure the mission's success even if it wasn't the mission he thought it was. The acceptability of being involved in an alien war is a grey area, they're both warp capable (I noticed the cloaked Kraylor vessel even had a warp flash when it went to warp, which must be a bit of giveaway to enemy ships!), but it's less about the morality of involvement and more about how Kim handles himself despite all this. If it had been an early season he might have had a dressing down from the Captain, but a lot of it wasn't his fault - I thought it was a strange parallel that the actor who played Geordi, LeVar Burton, directed the episode, when his character was famously sent to his death by another junior officer (in command terms, at least in experience), Dr. Crusher, in her Holodeck training scenario, and that's what Kim did here, inadvertently, the Kraylor woman, Dayla, repairing the ship, staying to her death, though it was really the fake doctor's commands she was following, so Kim couldn't feel too badly, especially as she volunteered for the job - it could have been Seven, maybe that made it more sharp to Kim's conscience?

We're halfway through the episode before Kim even gets to take over command of the Kraylor ship he christens Nightingale - that was maybe the only indulgence towards modern Trek style, having him gibe it a new name, but I always forget why the episode is named that, and it's because he calls the ship after Florence Nightingale who did so much for nursing, so that gives it more weight. Seven comes across very wise with her simple reminder that a Holodeck program can be turned off, while reality can't, there are going to be consequences, but her pep talk at least brings Kim to the realisation he can still make a difference to the ship's chances, even if he isn't entirely sure of the appropriateness of the military mission it's turned into. I wasn't quite sure why he deemed it necessary to bring a saxophone along, though Seven questions this very point and he says it's basically to make it more his place, an investment in the ship. He always used to be a clarinet player so I don't know why a saxophone was his instrument of choice, but perhaps he's less attached to that and so didn't mind if something happened to it rather than his prized clarinet, or maybe it was a symbol of moving away from his parents' wishes, however incremental, that he now prefers that instrument rather than the one they'd had him studying? Either way, it was a valuable lesson learned on his first command without a safety net, and what to put in the Ready Room is the garnish to the position, not the meat.

Sadly, the B-story, as fun as it is, doesn't end with a lesson learned, since B'Elanna doesn't have the energy to put Icheb straight when the latter believes she's pursuing him romantically. He makes the mistake of going to the Doctor for advice, only too happy to oblige and I'm sure it made his day, and it's not so much the advice as the fact Icheb doesn't give him all the facts, so it's a skewed appraisal of the situation (I'm sure if B'Elanna ever finds out the Doc's role in it, she'll give him a hard time!). I do enjoy Icheb, he's like a more diligent and less forceful version of Seven when she was liberated from the Collective, so a different spin on familiar events, again like Kim in that respect, both are dealing with unknown situations, getting advice from trusted colleagues, but Icheb's situation is more of a joke, a fun one, but where he didn't really learn, or not the right way. It might have been better if Torres had been set on putting him right instead of humouring him, but at least he learnt something. It's amusing in itself that B'Elanna would be the one to teach him how to have fun - shame we never saw them using the rock-climbing holoprogram, or for that matter actually going outside and tackling those rocky mountains, but they probably didn't have the budget to spare for that. We do get some nice views of Voyager on the planet, a rare sight in the series, and interesting to see crew walking on the hull (if some of the animation is a bit weak), and especially the one-man hover platforms some are using to repair the Nacelle, which I don't think we'd ever seen or heard of before.

Another rarity for those that are interested in the smallest detail, is the sight of a Starfleet boot - usually they're covered over by the hem of the trouser legs, but when Kim's on the floor repairing the alien ship you can actually see the whole boot! Something else of interest gave rise to speculation: when Icheb comes to repair the Doctor's holoemitters in Sickbay the Doctor claims his legs disappear when he moves to a corner of the surgical bay, but wouldn't he fall over? Are his simulated legs supporting his simulated weight, or is he effectively floating in the air and as such doesn't physically need legs? I imagine both scenarios are possible since he is a projection after all, it's just not something I generally consider when thinking about him - we know he can be solid or not as he chooses, but the full details have never been explained, to my knowledge. For once no guest stars had been in Trek before, unless you count Icheb, only his second appearance this season. And this was LeVar Burton's first directing job of the season, returning for the first time since Season 5's 'Timeless,' and did a fine, anonymous job as usual, which is what you want from a Director, nothing too flashy, but everything in its place and right. It's not a breakout kind of episode, it's simply an enjoyable experience. For us, if maybe not so much for Kim.

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