Renaissance Man

DVD, Voyager S7 (Renaissance Man)

A quick-change, fast-paced extravaganza that only makes you wonder why, if they could pull off something that mixes comedy, threat and excellent effects so well, they didn't do it this way more often! Yes, there are holes to be picked in the Doctor's choice of actions, and the potato heads were never one of the greatest adversaries Voyager faced, so how come two miscreants of that species manage to pull off such a heist as stealing the warp core? Why the leader is so quick to give up on a dangerous, expensive and time-consuming plan when faced with one small shuttle and the Delta Flyer is a blatant inconsistency, the Doctor can usually walk right through forcefields, and I question whether the easiest message to leave behind was an altered musical score.

There are arguments to counter all of these points - the Doc often performs in a panicked way when under pressure and outside of his medical expertise, so capitulating to the enemy's demands wasn't out of character with the Captain's life supposedly at stake. The leader was probably a bit unhinged, and a villain, so he would make strange reversals of plan if spooked, and maybe the shuttle attack was just the start: others could be on the way. The forcefield must have been a special variation and he didn't know what hold they had over Janeway who could be killed at any second so even if he could go through it wasn't a good idea, and as for the musical message, this was all the Doc could think of without giving away his intentions.

The episode packs so much in, and being the last proper episode before the finale it excels in finding new things to throw at us and reminding us of the past in flashes of genius. Lieutenant Ayala, a background face from the first episode and often appearing, has some proper dialogue on the bridge; Vorik makes an unexpected (and a little underwhelming if I'm honest), appearance just to show his face before the end; we get to see the hitherto unseen and unknown ship's morgue; a good old shuttle; everything from Targ's to Mutara-class nebulas, and the Daystrom Institute is referenced; and we even get to see a little cupboard in sickbay that I've certainly never noticed before!

That's apart from all the Doctor's rushing around impersonating antics, in which we get to see a non-pregnant B'Elanna, some truly ground-breaking action scenes, including the Doctor leaping through a window, switching between solid and transparent, giving Tuvok the 'Matrix' treatment in terms of both wall-running and multiples, Agent Smith-style (long before 'The Matrix Reloaded'!), and you begin to get a picture of the breadth of what was crammed in, like a farewell to what Voyager was. The Doctor was one of the most popular characters so to give him one last shot, cleverly integrating the whole cast pretty well was a good move.

The Doc's final, over the top death speech was typical, but I wonder if such things as his love for Seven should have remained secret, and not trivialised as his display seems to do thanks to the bemusement of his friends. Should the Mobile Emitter be allowed to be studied in order to replicate it - isn't that going to mess with the timeline since it came from the 29th Century? Okay, so the Doc's done so much with it that he couldn't otherwise have done, that the timeline has been radically altered anyway! Nothing else matters except that this is a tour-de-force that shows what the series could do if it felt like it, and rather than sadly plodding to its conclusion, wiping away a tear, this episode instead injects a lively joie-de-vivre and tumbles excitedly towards the final episode, all creativity blazing.

****