The Haunting of Deck 12

DVD, Voyager S6 (The Haunting of Deck 12)

There are some really nice touches in this one, such as a return of Tal Celes, the Bajoran from 'Good Shepherd', more for Majel Barrett's computer voice to do than ever before, and some ambitious new shots, including a turbolift shaft for perhaps the first time on the series, and shots from a replicator's viewpoint. The dramatic lighting with complete darkness, but for a red alert pulse is also impressive, and acts as a perfect frame for Janeway to do a Kirk and try and talk the lifeform out of killing her! But... There had to be a 'but'.

We know what's happening early on, we know what kind of lifeform is aboard, we aren't fooled by Neelix' exaggerations (although in a twist it turns out he wasn't making it up), and the Talaxian's kindly voice doesn't inject enough menace into the tale. You can see and admire the intentions to evoke a classic campfire horror story, but I'm not sure how successful it was. It's nowhere near other 'horror' episodes like 'Macrocosm', 'Darkling', 'Persistence of Vision' or DS9's 'Empok Nor', for making you jump or for raising an atmosphere. It feels very calm and 'safe' for a Voyager episode which undermines the danger level.

It's an admirable attempt to make a Neelix-centric episode, but he's changed so much into a cuddly, less eccentric character that most of his interesting rough edges have been smoothed, to the detriment of the character. Add to that I never liked the Borg kiddies (and where was Naomi?), and it is only the strong direction and rare chance to see the ship pitched into darkness, that saves it from being an average episode. There are so many episodes of the series that are much creepier than this, I'd recommend one of them.

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