Workforce, part I

DVD, Voyager S7 (Workforce, part I)

Coming straight after 'The Void', in which the crew is trapped in an area full of diverse aliens from which they must escape, this doesn't appear very original, but the fact that Janeway and her crew don't remember their past lives, are working with these aliens and certainly don't wish to escape makes things a whole lot different. The way many of the crew come together again makes us wonder if their bond of friendship and their subconscious is bringing them together, like some sort of destiny as seen by Tom and B'Elanna's easiness with each other. Tuvok's confused ramblings or his lack of restraint in revealing his emotional state has been done better before, but adds a dash of uneasiness to the crew's situation. Janeway shows what a natural she is with people, and Seven what her true nature is: an officious pencil-pusher!

If anyone was expecting a twist in the second part to reveal why Lieutenant Baxter is posing as the alien foreman, I have to disappoint - it's just the actor playing a different character. They really should have disguised his face better, it's not like they don't expect us to remember characters that only appeared once or twice before, but have been gone for most of the series, because they brought Chell the Bolian back just a few episodes ago and went on to bring Carey in again too! On Bolians there did seem to be rather a lot of them, and assuming they all came from Voyager it's never been apparent that there are that many aboard. I also noticed some aliens that looked very much like pink versions of Benzites... Mr. Westmore having a bad day or simply a chance to use old prosthetics? They looked good anyway. And if old alien designs can be reused why not old ships, if the enemy vessel that attacks Voyager is anything to go by. It looks very much like a Breen warship.

The Emergency Command Hologram has been spoken of previously, and I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the implementation. I used to think it was a silly idea (hologramist?), but it was useful for the ship as the Doc saves it. His conversation with the computer, if you think about it, is actually him talking to himself. They got some humour out of it too, with both Kim and the ECH wanting command, and what may be a joke is a serious question and one it would be fascinating to see addressed should new adventures in the post-'Voyager' timeline ever came to pass onscreen. The episode has some good CGI work, though you can spot the difference when the CGI Voyager is used and when it's the model, but expanding sets was a worthwhile usage and we even got to see Neelix' ship again. Though the episode was state of the art at the time it also had a significant link back to the roots of 'Star Trek' - Iona Morris who plays the bartender was one of the children in the Original Series' first season episode 'Miri'. She's not the first Morris to appear in the series however, as Phil Morris was in 'One Small Step'!

Should this have been a two-parter or a feature length episode like 'Flesh and Blood'? I'm not sure, I'll have to watch part II to see whether it maintains momentum or slips in to second-episode fatigue syndrome. There have been claims that the idea of the characters working blissfully unaware of their true lives was nicked from an episode of 'Stargate SG-1'. I can't confirm or deny it as I haven't seen the episode in question, but such similar sci-fi series are bound to have similar ideas sometimes.

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